#made him into the villain of this story. theres so much he has in common with the pines when you look at it but the way he deals with

[eldragon-x]

thinking about that wretched triangle again

#*clenches fist* bill really is just. such a character. #like I think it actually matters a lot that hes not just a force of evil that drives conflict but a Person whose circumstances and choices #made him into the villain of this story. theres so much he has in common with the pines when you look at it but the way he deals with #things and interacts with people around him in ways that go against the themes and virtues of the show is why hes the main antagonist #at the core of it he really is a dark mirror to mabel and ford and stan #and it Makes Sense for him to be more than just an evil for the sake of evil because he is an embodiment of weirdness in a show about #accepting and embracing weirdness #and at the end of the day despite all the horrible shit hes done there is the axolotl willing to reach out a hand to him and give him the #chance to finally grow and leave behind his terrible methods #because at the end of the day hes not done himself any favours. he only isolated himself like ford did and chose to live in idealized #denial like mabel did but unlike them he has not grown and gotten out of it. but he may yet. #im so so normal abt him

[orpheusilver]

I am asking about your spiderverse dimension 🎤

yippeeeee okay id better explain what exactly im trying to write here lmao so like. this whole au was originally just an experiment in mapping the spider-person story onto a morbius variant as a joke bc i liked the idea of him being like "i was straight up bitten by a radioactive animal and started doing vigilante crime fighting can you please let me into the multiverse" and miguel going "NO youre literally a villain How did you get this number" but then it kinda spiralled and now theres like themes n shit

so long story short morgan michaels gets bitten by a radioactive vampire bat on a uni trip and wakes up with some weird mutations but doesnt really take much notice, he just goes about his day as normally as he can until he Fucking exsanguinates someone to Death. and takes it Badly. so then while hes trying to cope with that and adjust to the whole "vampire(?) thing" like. finding a non-homicidal way to get blood. he encounters spider-man and goes Hey! You know what would make me feel less shit about that whole murder thing? Doing that!

so he pisses off to try become a superhero and accidentally gets stuck with the name morbius, fucks around w/ doc ock and almost finds out until spidey saves his ass and morbius goes Hey. Im bad at this. Youre good at this. Can i be your sidekick until i figure out what the fuck im doing? and peter goes Hhhhhmmmmm bc He knows morbius is a villain. hes wearing one of them watches hes all caught up on how his canon works. but maybe this one is different..maybe he can fix him.....as in hes literally floating there in front of him asking to be fixed. so he says Yeah okay ill make sure you dont get yourself killed probably

so theyre doing the whole superhero mentor thing for a while, morgan learns and grows amd theres some cool contrasting moments where he handles shit completely differently than spider-man would and changes the trajectory of some established arcs, until eventually hes off doing basic superhero stuff all on his own and goes Hey that guy doesnt have a pulse. Thats kinda weird. so he tracks the guy to this weird secret rave in a factory basement with all these other dead people and at one point they turn on the sprinkler and its full of human blood? which hes so normal about ofc (<- the lying liar) and then this COOL GUY with a COOL JACKET and a COOL SWORD shows up and starts annihilating everyone and morbius goes Whoa cool! and then this guy tries to kill Him and he goes HEY WAIT IM LITERALLY ALIVE and blade goes Thats fucking weird cause youre definitely a vampire so whats your deal. Come with me so i can figure out what your deal is. so then morbius meets blades cool hematologist friend and cool butch biker mom and finds out abt Actual vampires which, it turns out, he definitely isnt hes something else which just seems similar bc [INSERT COMIC-TYPICAL MUTATION BULLSHIT]

they both get tied up in plot stuff and even though it takes a loooong moment for blade to trust him theyre actually a pretty good team, morbius is used to spider-man treating him like a student and, implicitly, a child so its neat that blade treats him like an Equal (albeit an annoying inexperienced equal w/ bad jokes and a worse costume but still) and turns out they actually have a lot in common? and kinda bond really easily? and maybe this whole "edgy-hero-who-kills-things" deal is working wayyyy better for him than the spandexed paragon thing spider-man has going on and that guy is super out of his depth in these circumstances and needs to stop pushing in assuming he knows best just bc hes a """hero""" and actually hes maybe being a total uptight prick about the no murder thing and who died and made him king of new york anyway?? fuck off spider-man i have a cool new friend who Gets Me and will absolutely definitely never judge me for killing someone or succumbing to bloodlust which is definitely totally 100% true and Not a fundamental misinterpretation that will come back to bite me in the ass.

#thanks for the ask!! sorry it took so long to write all this shit out lmao #morgan ''morbius'' michaels the freak that you are #ahau tag

[kats-random-writing]

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!! we made it! its been one hell of a year, but we did it, I gotta say I’m so proud of everyone! ❤️

also! looks who’s back writing agin? ME, i hope you like this fic, its a little longer then a drabble cuz I’m a wordy bitch apparently, but i like it and hope you guys do to, all art in this fic was by me too.

Happy New Year

Shigaraki X Reader

 1475 words

16+ please, theres swearing and stuff, also mention of unwanted touching. 

_______________________________________________________________________

The league was your home, you were surprised how easily you fit in, but I guess when you put a bunch of “misfits” together they all know how it feels to be an outcast.  

You joined shortly after Toga and Dabi, but not for the same reasons, see they followed stain, you not so much, you believed in Shigaraki.  You’d been following his exploits as best you could, and had seen his growth from inexperienced leader to now, a terrifying force to be reckoned with.  You believed in him.  And it had nothing to do with the fact that you kind of thought he was attractive. Nope! Definitely not! He was a good leader for a cause you believed in, that’s it, totally!

Moving in the league, was…..not what you expected, it was chaotic, loud, and perfect.  Everyone took care of each other, they also loved to annoy one another. Like you said, it’s  your home, and the rest of the “villains”, your family.

You had all been ordered to lay low over the holidays, expecting more hero movement on the surface, it was the safest thing to do. So all of you were piled in the common space before the bar, it had shitty decorations courtesy of Toga and Yourself. Nobody really argued so they stayed up, even though Christmas was over and it was New Year’s Eve. 

“So then I punched him, and his nose started to bleed!” Togas excited tone pulled you from your thoughts, “IT WAS SO CUTE! ALL THAT BLOOD, ALL OVER HIS FACE!.....he ran away though” she puzzled. 

“Yeah cuz you punched him, crazy!” Dabi threw back his head  laughing.  Toga pouted and reached out to smack him

 “HEY! Don’t be rude! He looked better with the blood, besides at least he wanted to kiss me!” She said triumphantly, “it’s not like you have people lining up to kiss you!” She threw back at him.

He rolled his eyes, and smirked, pulling his stapes in a way you thought must hurt

 “You’d be surprised” 

“NO WAY”

 Laughter erupted around the room, as you watched Dabi just sip his drink, the smirk never leaving his face. 

“Why are you all so fucking loud?” A new voice joins the conversation as your leader Shigaraki trudges into the room, “it’s almost midnight, I’m trying to sleep” 

He makes his way across the room to his empty armchair.  

“I’m sorry! ~BUT ITS NEW YEARS~”  twice manages to interrupt himself to answer Shigaraki. 

“We’re staying in tonight like you ordered”  Dabi glares “Since it’s “too dangerous”” the patchwork villain air quoted around dangerous.  

“Yeah! New Years should be out! Having fun, meeting cute people to kiss!” Toga chimed in! 

“Whatever” is the only response you get.

“Your turn y/n!” Twice near shouts, reviving the conversation, “best~OR WORST~ New Years ~ KISS~” 

Your cheeks redden at the thought of going into detail of some of your New Years of the past, 

“Um, well…...OH OKAY! Got one, so this one time a few years ago I was at the bar, right. And I’m talking with this guy all night and we’re hitting it off~” you realize you now have ALL eyes on you, and your cheeks fade back to that deep crimson. “~ and um, yeah so we do the count down and at midnight we kiss and, ok he was shit at kissing anyways so my plans for the evening are shot already, THEN! IN. THE. BAR. this motherfucker tries to feel me up! So I’m like “no let’s just kiss, Kay?” Rolling your eyes you continue 

“He’s like sure thing babe” you here a few chuckles your deepened “dude bro” voice.

“Then this asshole immediately starts groping me again” 

“Fucker” 

“No way”

“Ew~WHAT A HORRIBLE MAN”

As you could’ve predicted all your friends exclaimed in disgust.  But there’s voice you didn’t expect 

“What did you do?” 

His red eyes seem to stare into your very soul, as his left hand reaches up to start scratching his neck.  Your cheeks darken again, you swear you're probably as red as his eyes, not that you’ve taken much time thinking about his eyes, or him, totally.

“Um well….I..I...I” you stutter under his gaze, “I uh, hehe, I pulled his hand off me, and  broke his wrist, Then left” you shrug and try to sound nonchalant, a hard thing to do when Shigaraki is staring you down, like he can’t decide whether to hug you or kill you.  You don’t even hear the rest of your friends' responses to your story, not until Shigaraki nods and turns his stunning eyes from yours.

“TWO MINUTES UNTIL MIDNIGHT!! Kurogiri! Turn on the tv!” 

The shadowy man behind the bar simply nods before picking up the remote and turning on the New Years count down

“Oh great leader” Dabi begins sarcastically “what about you?  Best, worst…..or any, New Year’s Eve kisses to date.” 

The hush that fell over the small room was deafening....and if you thought your blush was bad going into your own kissing stories - you must look like a  lobster thinking about hearing Shigaraki’s.

All eyes shift between the two men, until finally 

“fuck off you burnt chicken nugget” 

“I guess that answers that question” Dabi laughs as he rises from his seat, reaching for his jacket. “ I’m gonna go to the roof for a smoke” 

“But you're gonna miss the countdown!” Toga wines.

“And? Not like I’m gonna kiss any of you.” He states as he walks down the hall and out of sight. 

While toga drags on about Dabi abandoning the group, a realization dawns on you, as though someone striped away all the clouds and the sun was shining on you for the first time, Shigaraki, you long time -totally not crush- has never had a New Years kiss.  This revelation also gives you an idea.  And whether it’s a good or bad idea you're still not sure but for now? You’ve made up your mind.  It’s the perfect time to make your move.  You look at the tv one last time, less than a minute. Your heart feels like it’s gonna beat out of your chest.  

You rise from your seat and go stand next to Toga, and try to turn your attention back to the screen.

Ten

Nine

Eight

~holy shit~

Seven

~you’re actually about to do it~

Six

Five 

Four

~shitshitshitshitshit~

Three

Two

~here goes nothing~

One

HAPPY NEW YEAR 

As Twice and Toga cheer you reach and grab Togas face to quickly press a kiss to her cheek, she quickly grabs your face to kiss your cheek as well.  She also lightly bites your cheek before releasing you, both giggling. 

You quickly cross the room to Twice, holding your hands out, letting him close the distance he places his masked face into your waiting hands.  You lean down to kiss his forehead. “happy new year~I LOVE YOU!”

                                          You swear you float across the room, your pounding heart is all you can hear, the heat in your cheeks, all you can feel and as you look up again you are standing before Shigaraki Tomura. 

He’s of course looking down at his phone.

You take a breath, then another.  Then reach down placing one hand on the chair behind his head, bringing his attention to you, your right hand you reach under to hold his chin, and guide his head up so your eyes meet.

Looking deeply for any sign he might be truly uncomfortable, but you only see shock, confusion and maybe even a hint of excitement. You gaze down to his lips, while licking your own whisper “happy new year Tomura” and bringing your head down, to finally touch your lips to his.

He’s stiff, frozen and for a moment your terrified you’ve made a mistake, you hold steady and continue the kiss, and after a few seconds he melts into your touch, tilting his head to match you and opening himself up to you, quickly you step closer to him, making him arch his back to continue the contact, you move your hands sending one  to cup his face and the other to run through his hair, his hands alternate between the chair arms and space between your bodies. 

Your both breathing heavy, when you hear “Y/N…..Holy shit” 

Snapping back to reality to realize all eyes are locked onto the two of you, Twices head snapping between you and Tomura, and Toga.  It was Toga who spoke, she’s still standing wide eyed and mouth hanging open. 

“Happy new year??” You shrug as you sit down on Shigaraki’s lap, his arms protectively wrap around you, careful not to actually touch you with his gloved fingers. You smile and think to yourself, it’s gonna be a good year!

#happynewyear #bnhharem #shigaraki x reader #newyearskiss #bnha #fanfic

[tonya-the-chicken]

Also Hori seems to constantly go back and forth in tell about if Endeavor was already gone case from before marriage due to his power hunger or after with no show. Theres no story Endy has either so the constant push of its only power(a justification he gave Muscular as being too far gone as a person) is shallow because if murder is from abuse and mental problems, theres no way you can say someone with inferiority complex or being irrational about wanting power didn't have something go wrong

2. Also this'll sound bad but it falls back to he couldn't handle the pressure of being No 2 is what conclusion can be reached from everything as it stands. Endeavor contrasts to Takami as not very normal. With Takami even with minimum of show and tell, its enough to immediately grasp everything wrong in that family becuase its genuinely so common. With both Kotaro and Enji theres a missing link somewhere to their irrationality and at least with Kotaro we have two reasons- mom and foster care.

3. Horis pretty inconsitent is true. All he wanted were shock value shadowy scenes to say absolute abuse. But theres so many question Whyis Enji home so much? Was Natsu's comment what he really said? Theres also how theres lot of things in the light novel we cant take seriously despite them being some great happy moments milking their abuse because it brings up more questions- Rei made New Years food and everyone ate togteher? How was that possible on the same dinner table if Endeavor was crazy?

1. I think Enji was "predisposed" but at the same time the way the "hero world" is organised facilitated those "predispositions" and turn him into the man he became. But that feels like an interpretation, I wish we had more than guesses. It's, like, we know he felt pressured being No 2 but was the pressure only in his head? Hawks don't feel any pressure to become No 1 at all, in comparison and other heroes aren't shown to be as competitive as Endeavor. Does it mean everything he did is just because his brain is all messed up? But then, why is it so messed up and how did it stop being all messed up? If his thought process and priorities changed then we must be shown how and not only externally but internally too. Otherwise, the change feels shallow and deep at the same time which leaves me confused

2. Kotarou is a bit more clear. He was hurt because his Mom was a hero → he must do everything to prevent his children from becoming like that. His family played along with this idea instead of disputing it until it got too messed up. I think they felt pity for him so they just wouldn't address the fact his trauma makes him act in all the wrong ways. Until he slapped Tenko, that is. And, like, if Tenko's quirk didn't manifest, they could've fixed everything, I think...

It is kind of weird that we see a lot of depth in murderers and terrorists but not family abusers. If Horikoshi is making a point that people have reasons for why they are evil then showcasing those reasons in some crimes but not the others is a questionable approach. Other power-hungry people don't get any backstory either, btw, not High-End, not Muscular. It's just there

Takami family is showcased very nicely, yes. It's obviously clear what is fucked up and their actions are messed up but logical

Not only Hawks, but no one in the Top 10 appears to be overly concerned about the rankings which again makes you think the fuck is wrong with Endeavor

3. Enji is so well organized he got time to stop the record number of villains and to abuse his son every day (and crash any confidence Natsuo had in his cooking)

I didn't read light novels so I can't comment on them but they appear to just be fluffy pieces

Another thing I've been thinking about is how did they have a maid and a private chauffeur and none of them ever noticed their family is fucked up? And if we assume Untenmaru was just purely for work and rarely interacted with the family, he still could've noticed something is wrong with Enji, no? And maid literally was in the same house when Enji screamed at Rei and trained Shouto, how could she not notice? Did Enji gave her a task to keep the kids separated?

Anyway, Enji is obviously rich, couldn't he get a new maid instead of making Fuyumi do the cooking? This has such an "I don't give a shit" vibe, that it's hard to believe Enji didn't intend to neglect them

We are supposed to believe Enji cared for his kids but couldn't express it and ran away but we are never shown him caring for anyone but Touya before his change. Eeee

#asks #bnha #todoroki family #bnha manga spoilers #todoroki enji

[autumn-foxfire]

1. Nostalgia for Yakuza arc- the first student open to villains is Kiri. Fatgum is *not* an acab- Fatgum clearly teaches Kiri that the best way to deal with violent offenders is to subdue them quickly so to avoid the situation Kiri faces. In bnha unlike One Piece theres no certified equipment like seastone which nullifies superpowers and law enforcement can easily use. In fact Overhaul would have made a fortune with law enforcemnet instead if the old HPSC President caught wind of his operation.

Anyway, Kirishima was the first of UA students to be casually open to the villains even one who shot his senpai and actually did listen. He even starts talking about himself while saying he gets it when it turns out to be a ruse to buy time. Suneater faces three villains who have had more depth to their backstory than the usual big sad ones coz they pretty much are the staple of those whose lives and quirks and choices led them in their situation- its societys fault in a inevitable way. Kirishima's general nature is a bit like Koichi's in how they are affable and genial. Whatever else may be wrong with Vigilantes it did do some good in its original story elements. But way the collab screws up is by having too many Vigs proheros who believe that they are a door that comes before police arrests and so they ar grey zone with compassion- Ingenium, Midnight, Compass Kid. Eraser nd O'Clock also protected criminals(Koichi/Rappa). The hero world Nagant was locked out of is different That hero world is too different than the one we know. So its quite confusing. Throw in how when Kirishima was distracted listening to the villain and how Deku struggled against Gentle because of empathy, the logic of the old gen's long experiences with doing things coldly is grey. Police Chief was also no fool, even when heros like AM called Shigarki a child, he saw him as maturing. And All Might has no excuse he was always in the loop from GT even when Hawks had to grapevine to find news. Need reform in society-join the heros and police into an non-central transparent orgnz, and raise awareness on importance of doctors, social workers, lawyers, teachers etc as 'other hero' Its common sense, especially when Mei too says it everyone tries to be a hero by doing some good in their own capacity and those boundaries need to be reset post AM world. Or thats the too ideal world one would have expected. I, more coz of Vigs mouthing all that philosphical crap about society being a sock.

It's interesting to see that as far back as the Overhaul arc we were having heroes (or heroes in training) be empathetic towards the villains they were facing. It's never been as black and white as the fandom likes to make it out to be.

I agree that society reforms need to be in the form of uplifting the services that would help the society beyond just heroism. There also needs to be better safety nets for those who might fall through the cracks so that they don't, however that isn't just the job of the heroes like the fandom likes to preach, it should be the job of educaters, of the health care professionals, of the police, the politicians, anyone who can notice the red flags and be in a position to do something about it.

#bnha #thanks for the ask!!

[kironimus-blog]

WARNING! SPOILER ALERT! LOKI EP4 + AGENT OF ASGARD COMICS!

About (Self)Love and Narration

So, a lot of things happened in Ep. 4 and it got me thinking about the topics of narration and (self) acceptance/love in this show. After a healthy amount of deliberation I‘ll even dare to theorize about how this season will progress. Just hear me out.

First of all I think we have to view the events of the sacred timeline as a literal narration. Loki as a character in this narration has a single (not so glorious, heh XD) purpose. He‘s a mere plot device, the villain, designed to move the plot forward and help build and develop others characters. Mobius, who takes on the role of the observer, says so himself in Ep. 1!

„You weren‘t born to be king Loki. You were born to cause pain, and suffering and death. That‘s how it was, that‘s how it will be. All so that others can achieve their best version of themselves.“-Mobius Ep.1

It‘s important that this comes from Mobius, someone who has not only studied the life of „our“ Loki but has seen the stories of many other Loki variants pan out. And the common denominator seems to be Loki‘s repeated failure which leads to him becoming the villain of the story.

And of course, once "our" Loki quite literally leaves the narration (as he escapes via Tesseract and is brought to the TVA, a place seperate from the normal flow of time) and becomes an observer of his own story (in the time theater, Episode 1), he begrudgingly realizes this as well. As the God of Mischief, he of all people, despises the idea of a single establishment (the TVA) holding so much power over the universe and his own path in life. But at the same time his views on choice and personal freedom at the beginning of Episode 1 aren‘t much different from the TVA‘s… in fact they're eerily similar.

„For nearly every living thing, choice breeds shame, and uncertainty, and regret. Theres a fork in every road, yet the wrong path always taken.“-Loki, Ep.1

He even uses the same exact phrasing when criticizing the TVA‘s motives and later on explaining his own actions:

„It's an illusion. Ist a cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear. A desperate attempt at control.“ -Loki, Ep.1

Fast forward to Episode 4, where we find out that the time keepers are nothing but an illusion. Another interesting parallel, don't you think? So now the big question is of course, who‘s the mastermind behind all this? That‘s where my theory comes into play.

I think the ‚big bad' is none other than Loki himself. And I mean not just any of the many variants we know exist, but a future, alternative version of „our“ Loki. The Loki who still holds onto the believes „our“ Loki exhibited in Ep.1. Someone who lost over and over again, which led him to believe that no matter what choice he made, he was destined to fail. So what did he do to break the vicious circle of choosing and failing in an attempt to regain control? Easy, he simply took away the choice and took the narration of the story into his own hands. And this carefully controlled story is the ‚sacred timeline'. He created the TVA and the time keepers as a guise, so he could remove every Loki variant that didn‘t act according to his script. (This may explain the flock of variant Lokis in the post credit scene of Ep 4)

Another reason why I believe this theory to be true are the parallels between this show and the ‚Agent of Asgard‘ Comics by Al Ewing. In fact Al Ewing and Lee Garbett are even mentioned in the Credits! (Caution! Spoilers for AoA incoming!) The storyline of the comic series is that of a future, „evil“ („“ because, as we know „no one bad is ever truly bad") version of Loki, who, frustrated by his lack of control over his own life, tries to manipulate his younger self into becoming this evil version of himself sooner (and isn't that ironic…and a bit hard to grasp as well). In the end Loki has to reinvent himself by letting go of past grudges in order to free himself from his destiny to turn into the villain of the story once more. By actively changing his present self and becoming the god of stories he is able to change his seemingly set path. In the end it is a story about self love and growth and the understanding that nobody has power over your future but your present self.

And I think what we learn in Episode 4 about self acceptance and self love is massively important in order to predict and understand what comes next in the series. At the beginning of the episode we see Sylvie and Loki on Lamentis, sharing a moment of mutual admiration in the face of seemingly certain death. Three things about this scene I find very interesting.

1. The composition of the scene with Loki and Sylvie sitting next to each other in a mirrored position. This emphasizes that while they may be variants, they still are reflections of one another.

2. The fact that this shared moment creates a massive branch in the sacred timeline. Why does this happen? I think it‘s because Loki shows actual love/ acceptance towards himself (even though it may be through his variant). And that‘s not „supposed to happen“, because the key ingredient for „our“ Loki to turn into the „evil narrator Loki", is a whole lot of self-loathing.

3. Loki‘s quote about surviving no matter how bad the loss. Which is an important bit of character development in itself but it’s what he said next („But we don‘t die“) that got me thinking. And I consider this to be one of the most important clues regarding my speculation. Loki has „died“ dozens of times during MCU history but he never stayed dead. Why is that, if he‘s merely a plot device, you ask? Well, I think it‘s because „evil Narrator Loki“, while not allowing „our" Loki to make his own choices, still doesn‘t want to kill himself off. So he simply deus ex machinas his escapes from death time and time again.

Considering all these details from Episode 4 I‘d like to theorize a little bit further about the ending of the show. I think the ‚big bad‘ they will face is future, „evil“ Loki himself. But by then our Loki will have learned to be at ease with himself with the help of the support system he built during the last episodes (Mobius and Sylvie). He no longer needs to keep up the illusion in order to trick himself and others in a desperate struggle for control. Because now he truly values himself enough to have confidence in himself and his choices. Because of this advancement in character his „future“ version will simply cease to exist because the foundation of self-loathing and perceived helplessness are no more. (Yeah it sounds a bit cheesy. I will admit. But it's a nice ending, OK?)

That‘s it. Hope this made any sense at all and if not…oh well 😂

#marvel loki #loki #loki episode 4 #loki spoilers #loki theories #loki tv series #loki tv show #loki tv spoilers #fan theories

[dahniwitchoflight]

fucking, god, he called his ship Theseus. Oh god im not ready to face this epilogue stuff in actual visual form oh jeesus

Dirk, Dirk pls. no one can take you seriously now that we can actually SEE your Villain-Sona. 

oh god, the second hand embarassment is real.

Alright so there seems to be like, a tinge of Rose existing as her own person, doing things that Dirk dislikes, but its in conversation only, so it seems facetious.

The other true thing though is the narrative is entirely Dirk’s perspective, and Dirk is exactly the kind of person who would absolutely love and believe he was capable of subsuming another person’s soul and idealogy entirely, but we went through this deceit in the epilogues with John and Roxy as well, with John’s unquetionaing hold on reality and what is canon also seeming to have an unconcious warping effect to whatever John thought was important, but Roxy gave a good point of how do you even know you did this and i didn’t choose it or wouldnt have chose it? you dont

So we could see that being repeated here, either as a parallel of that or a subversion, remains to be seen

“ Speaking of which, I think it's time I started undoing some of the more egregious mistakes this story has been subjected to over the years. Yes, I'm talking about that guy. The other orange one. Remember him? Vriska got stalked by him a bit and it was uncomfortable for everyone concerned. Anyway, the point is that he fucked up big time, and I'm here to clean up the horseshit. It's time to get this story back on the rails, back to what it was always supposed to be. I know it, and you've somehow always known it too. There was something else, some other route that Homestuck was meant to take but then didn't, a way that wouldn't've spent so much time dicking around with stuff nobody cares about. Like seriously, why did we all have to sit through talking about everyone's most intimate and private feelings for two hundred thousand fucking words. That would never have happened in Act 1. Where did it all go wrong? “

lol the andrew hussie is peeking through a bit here, so Homestuck2 is gonna be the exact thing I figured a sequel would be, its going to be a sort of retelling of the story, but its gonna flip the importance for certain things in the opposite directions, so right here its saying Homestuck is a story with a layer of importance on the characters themselves and their mindsets and how they lived in the environment they found themselves in, with the lore and the conceit of the story being a huge creation story more of a backdrop than the focus

so Homestuck2 is going to be a more "creation story” focused more on the sburb lore, buts its going to have less of a focus on the characters (perhaps even to the detrimnet? maybe characters will seem strange and out of character? but he kinda already made that feeling i the audience with the epilogues, thats what that intended effect was)

and neither one i think will turn out to better or worse than the others, theres definitely going to be benefit and downsides for both, but its not hard to see that Homestuck1 is the story that Hussie wanted to Tell, and Homestuck2 is how he’s changing it and telling a different story than he originally would have in the first place

not that hes changing Homestucks orignal story at all, but now hes telling a decidedly different one

Thus far, even though I understand Dirk’s basic mindset being “Hussie’s story sucks im gonna tell a BETTER one” and deciding that he alones gets to decide others will is unquestionably villainous train of thought, like why cant we let the characters just decide for themselves what kind of story they wanted to have and be genuine..

I AM dying of curiosity to see what sort of lore and information were going to get out of this, especially with the twist of that sort of focus being brought more into view, it’s a tantalizing glimpse of something very sexy that im into...

WORLDBUILDING :p

The World of Homestuck to me, HAS always been more infinitely exciting and interesting to me than the characters themselves, even though i liked them fine, they werent the reason why i kept reading the story for sure

Anything little thing we get about sburb or the world system out of this im happy with, regardless of what happens to the characters

(Would that be considered a villainous mindset if I was in canon? maybe ^^; good thing im not lol it does give off very “evil mad scientist morally corrupt experiments” kind of vibe lolol)

“ Look, I know what you're all really craving. I've been studying canon—or rather, what's left of it—and I think I've found it. The critical moment, in the wake of which everything started to take a nosedive into the protracted, endless slog of sheer insufferability we got saddled with near the end. This was the single most crucial error in the process that led to the present situation. The day when the story was wrested screaming from the arms of its readers like a bawling infant and carried helplessly away, from then on to be raised according to the whims of a masochistic menace with no thought for you, the common fan. “

I do have to laugh at this though, because your not wrong??? but also, it was inevitable that a story that started out like homestuck and was written like homestuck and ended like homestuck would inevitably turn out the way it did

it was a communal product of the screaming masses that turned into a singular mans story, it was unfortunately going to lose something to everyone, because everyones ideas couldnt all coexist in one canon at the same time (thats what outside of canon is for)

and then Dirk does something I DIDNT expect him to do

“Channelling my full potential as an ascended player of Heart, I expand my consciousness to commune with the boundless force of collective willpower that is the internet. My mind floods with its divine potency, a million formless cries coalescing into a sequence of discrete, formal instructions. It is a maelstrom as chaotic as it is deafening. And yet from this formless, uninterrupted spate of hard, unembellished data, a single suggestion takes form, as if bubbling up from a vast, infinite ocean of possibility. It is a whispered prayer to a compassionate god whose ear attends faithfully the will of his believers.Ok, let's see what you chucklefucks came up with.“

instead of entirely subsuming other’s will like a villain would, he has instead opened up his heart and conciousness to absorb the ideas, suggestions and wills of the masses, he is literally trying to bring back the act1 flavor of homestuck by taking suggestions, be he is ironically doing something no different than hussie did by curating and choosing which one to respond to

hah! he really does think he is the hero of this universe with Hussie as some sort of villain. 

So Hussie has probably intentionally curated this idea of himself as “Author Villain” who drives the story seemingly into mud by seeming to reject and upend the audiences expectation rather than curate them and bringing forth the best out, 

this happens with the epilogues undoubtedly, 

and this environment has gown a character from inside the story to step out and try to “oust” him from this position and instead tell a “good” story one that “everyone” wants, but is in fact detrimental to the story and world that the characters inside it themselves wants, which is was Hussie curated the whims to in the epilogues instead of the audience

So maybe this will be a “good” story, and hit all the marks for what the audience wanted originally, but there is no benevolent force to make sure a happy ending exists for any of the characters inside of it, because what the characters want doesnt matter anymore, only the lore does

#Homestuck 2 #Homestuck #Homesquared

[galactichoneybee92]

Thoughts on Isaac and Representation

I don’t have a point- let me just say that now. This also stands to be perhaps my most controversial post, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take in order to get my thoughts out. This will be long and rambling. You have been warned. 

With the release of Sex Education Season 2, fans have been introduced to a character named Isaac, to mixed response. He is Maeve’s new neighbor, a barrier to her relationship with Otis and potentially a new love interest. 

It’s not unusual to introduce a new love interest into a show to prolong the drama and keep the tension will-they-won’t-they romance alive. In season one we Otis in love with Maeve, thwarted by the fact that Maeve was dating Jackson, and that Otis never really believed that Maeve could like him anyway. Resigned with this fact, Otis attempted to move on with Ola who had appeared conviniently around the time that Maeve had realized her feelings for Otis and ended her own relationship. It was all very ships in the night. 

In season two we get a sort of role reversal: This time it’s Otis in the relationship and Maeve left pining, thinking that he could never love her. It makes sense that this would be the time to introduce a new love interest for Maeve, sort of HER Ola, if you will. The difference here is that Ola is sweet and wonderful and Isaac is sketchy AF. 

I hate him, and I’ve made no secret of hating him, because personally I find him sketchy and manipulative.  There are other fans who like them though and ship the two of them. That’s fine; it’s a perfectly valid opinion, and shipping wars have been around as long as fandom. That’s nothing new. There is another issue though...

Isaac is in a wheelchair. 

While that isn’t necessarily a problem in GENERAL, it is something that effects the way his character is handeled, as well as viewer interpretation. It’s my experience that in media, certain characters are usually gifted a sort of “plot armor.” While that term is most commonly directed towards characters who play too pivotal a role in the story to be written off, I find it often also applies to characters who fit into the role of “representation.”

But wait, you might say, that doesn’t sound right. POC and queer characters get killed off all the time. It’s practically a horror movie trope, and “Kill your gays” didn’t come from nowhere. To which I would reply: Exactly. We have all seen it a million times, have raised it as an issue, and I would like to think that as a society we are attempting to move past it. That gay characters are less likely to die because of the attention brought to the “kill your gays” trope.  

It’s my understanding that these common minority tropes originally stem from their initial introduction into media. At first they didn’t have any representation at all, and then gradually they were allowed to be incorporated in media in small ways that didn’t offend anyone’s delicate sensibilities. A very famous example would be the inclusion of African Americans: At first they weren’t in movies at all. Then they were(sort of?) but they were represented by white actors in blackface. Then when black actors were allowed to play their own roles, those roles were harmful stereotypes; You wouldn’t get a black actor playing a heroic lead, but he would be the brutish savage, or the “mammy” character. They were either relegated to minor side charactes, comic relief, or the villain- roles that didn’t challange the views of society. 

There was a similar experience in regards to homosexuality in films, where once gay characters started appearing they were portrayed as sexless comic relief or villinous. The general idea behind it seemed to be that there could be homosexuality in films, but it had to be shows as wrong and corrupt, or destined to end in tragedy. After all, how could anybody in such a relationship possibly be happy? Ridiculous. 

While media  (and society) are still making strides towards diversity and inclusivity, you can’t say that media isn’t in a better place now than it was even ten or twenty years ago. I was born in the 90′s and the amount of difference I see even in the twenty-seven years I’ve been alive is actually a little astounding. I can’t even imagine the difference for people who are older than I. Even just since I graduated highschool (2010) I’ve seen such a huge difference in regards to representation across the board and while we still have a ways to go we are certainly far from where we started. 

But what does any of this have to do with Isaac? He isn’t a POC, he isn’t in any way queer. No, but he is disabled which is another sort of representation and one that doesn’t get as much publicity. As such it is admittedly one that I don’t know as much about, but If I had to guess it’s probably because theres never (to my knowledge) been a big court case about whether or not disabled people deserve rights. It’s never been a hot button issue in a political debate the way that race politics or gay rights have and so I feel like it hasn’t gotten as much attention. Still disability representation is still a topic that comes up in conversation when discussing media.

So what does that have to do with anything? Why was I talking about plot armor? I had a reason, I promise. I’ve found that due to the problematic history of representation, shows (at least the socially aware ones) have been taking strides to try to avoid falling into the same harmful patterns as their predecessors. Since there was a long history of POC characters being cast as villains, evil characters to be defeated by the white protagonists, there was a stretch of time there where you wouldn’t see a single POC villain at all. It wasn’t quite true equality, but it was an effort to combat the harmful stereotypes that the media had perpetuated for so long.

Eventually we got to a place where it was generally acknowledged that you could have a POC villain as long as they weren’t the ONLY POC in your entire movie. The same goes for people of various gender and sexual identies. You can have a gay antagonist, but it’s impportant to include other gay people who ARENT evil to show that it’s the character that is evil, indepent of his sexuality. This isn’t seen as often however, probably due to the relative novelty of the inclusion of queer characters, which is why my examples for these points are POC characters who have a comparitively longer history of inclusion. That’s not to say that the history has always been positive, just that queer inclusion is a newer development and active disability rep seems even more recent. 

I apologize if I’m phrsasing any of this poorly, but I’m hoping that you’re tracking the main points. Now. I repeat: What does ANY of this have to do with Isaac? 

Isaac is, as of now, the only disabled character in Sex Education. As such, I feel like it’s kind of expected for him to be given “plot armor”, not in regards to being killed off but in his depiction. As the show’s only example of disabled representation, as well as his introduction as a love interest for Maeve, I feel like the expectation is that he would be a protagonist. At the very least he would be a good guy.  And maybe some people think he is? I don’t know, he has his fans, but I’m not one of them. 

This is the part of my post where I stop having a point and just start listing my thoughts.

When I met Isaac I expected to like him and I wonder how much of that stemmed from the fact that he was in a wheelchair and as such I expected that the show wouldn’t possibly portray him in a negative light. Even when he was rude to Maeve in the beginning I was willing to forgive it- I don’t mind my characters being prickly and Lord knows no other character on this show is perfect. And he was handsome, and snarky, which are usually traits that I love and I really REALLY expected to love him. However as the show progressed he just gave me bad vibes. I find him manipulative and untrustworthy.

I’m not going to go into my feelings about Isaac because I’ve already made one very long post duscussing his character, but instead I’d like to discuss his role in the show and how his disability factors into that role.

As I said before, it makes sense that this season would introduce a new love interest for Maeve. It’s not a terribly uncommon formula in shows like these. Considering that Maeve is considered the “bad girl” (even though we all know she’s a cinnamon role that just deserves ALL the love) who has self esteem issues and an inaccurate view of herself, I was honestly surprised that the show gave her such a cute, healthy relationship with Jackson. Were they perfect for each other? I don’t personally think so, but there wasn’t anything inherently problematic in their relationship. Jackson is a legitimately nice guy, I wish him the best and he was a pretty good boyfriend. 

It wouldn’t be unheard of though to see her fall into a more toxic relationship, and while that’s a very strong term that even I am hesitant to use toward Isaac at this point, it does look as if the groundwork might be there for that kind of subplot. It could really go either way at this point- maybe Isaac’s actions are influenced by his own personal insecurity and he would be much nicer once they were in a relationship. Or maybe he would be scared of losing her and things would get worse. It’s not just the fact that he deleted her message in the last episode, but that he’s seemed very manipulative throughout the entire season. 

It seems to me that Isaac fits the stereotype of the abusive boyfriend- He’s handsome and charming, but also very skilled at manipulation. If you watch their relationship, it also falls into a lot of the same patterns as romantic comedies. That’s not meant as a compliment however, a lot of romantic comedy relationships are built on very questionable foundations. The leading men do a variety of unethical things, but are forgiven on behalf of being handsome and funny and those actions are forgiven and even romanticized for the sake of the love story. This also reminds me of Maeve and Isaac. How often does he push himself uninvited into her life? How often does he managed to get out of facing the consequences of his actions?

It’s a fairly common trope tbh, and the only thing that isn’t common is that he’s also physically disabled. Which honestly lead me to doubt whether or not he was being sketchy or not. Like, could I be wrong? I eventually concluded that I don’t think I was, but it leads me to consider the fact of his disability on viewer perception. 

Are viewers more likely to forgive his behavior because his wheelchair paints him in a more sympathetic light? That isn’t to say that everyone who likes him only does so because of the wheelchair - I’m sure some people just legitimately like him- but I wonder how many do? And why? Is it because you feel bad for the character? Or is it because, as our only disabled character, we are programmed to view him as a protagonist? Is his disability part of an effort to be more inclusive, or to subtly subvert our expectations regarding his character? Neither? Both?

If he is indeed going to be an antagonist then that raises further questions in regards to Isaac as disability representation. On the one hand, it’s not like being in a wheelchair automatically makes someone a good person- as with any other demographic of people there are going to be nice guys and assholes.

Is it better that they’re treating him like they would anyone else? Like, he’s just a regular guy who happens to be in a wheelchair, and the guy that he is, is prone to questionable behavior. Is it better that they’re treating him the same as they would any other able bodied character in this role? Or, as their only depiction of a disabled character, should they be portraying him in a more positive light? I personally find him to be very manipulative, and often he uses his disability as a part of his manipulation. Is that just an example of Isaac being opportunistic and using the resources available to him, or is it indicitive of a larger problem with his depiction? 

Have physically disabled people faced the same issues in media as other groups, in that their depictions were historically negative? I’m going to be honest with you here, that’s not a question I know the answer to. I haven’t seen them largely portrayed as villains, but that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t happened. 

I don’t know the answer to any of these questions, and I won’t until I see where season 3 plans on taking this, but these are the thoughts that have been circling my mind since I finished season 2. Do you agree? Disagree? Did any of this even make sense? 

#sex education #isaac #maeve #sex education season 2 #sex education spoilers

[rogueshipagogo]

ppl have been asking me my opinions on space channel 5 vr... and i guess since i bought a vr headset off craigslist just so i could play it and speedrun it before work the day it came out... i should talk abt it now... i dont rly think i’ll be able to separate it into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ things i think i’m just going to do a rambly stream of consciousness bc i have a headache... but i DO have good things to say abt this game... so st.... sta stay t tune  d

right off the bat, the thing i appreciate most abt this game- i like that space channel 5 vr doesnt have cash grab vibes. i Do genuinely believe that they Wanted to make this game For the people who are still obsessed with it, and that they ultimately did what they set out to do when they intended to scale certain aspects of the series up conceptually to match the way the fandom perceives it nowadays. but like i’ve said before... i’m not going to Disagree with the very common conclusion that it Needed to be longer, or at Least more intricate plot-wise. one of my fun and fresh excuses for sc5vr being as short as it is is because you arent really supposed to be playing vr games for too long anyways, its really disorienting and kinda painful, but even that doesn’t account for why so much of the game that we got is a rehash of old settings, concepts, songs, and characters. [i dont even have a problem with reusing old songs, i just think the ones they chose ended up being misleading]

for example i think it makes sense that the first report is a remake of the first games first report on the surface, it’s meant to take you back to the way the first game felt and give you an idea of what it means that the games classic scenery can be rendered in actual high quality detail now [same with the recurrence of events like encountering the space pirates in the asteroid belt/the last battle against a villain being singing to it about what it’s done wrong], but i really thought, like, report 1 was going to end up being a simulated scenario for the benefit of lou and kee’s training... which i dont think ended up being the case??? i think they really did write ‘ok here you are in the first game’s setting again, fighting the old enemies again, because... :^) ok have fun playing report 2!’

and then whats report 2... you fight another old boss from the first game... but theres Still no clear villain or motivation for anything thats happening... and there wont be until like... basically the end of the game...

like, glitter is a really cute character, but its kind of underwhelming that shes just a random citizen who was kidnapped by an entity that we NEVER LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT... like part 1 was extremely notable for being about corporate greed and corruption, part 2 honestly wasnt that political in comparison but at least made you do a think wrt purge’s motivation and his methods, and this game just has a plot device that feels like it’ll do smth but then ends up not doing anything beyond what we already learned about it from the information on its character bio before the game was out. if it turns out that cell x is actually relevant again in a future entry in the franchise and they do have a more developed concept for what cell x Is in mind, i’ll do an entire backflip, but for now its just chalked up to being the result of More Space Hijinks that dont need to be explained

ESPECIALLY WITH ALL OF THE ALLUSIONS TO CELL X BEING AN ENTITY THAT FEEDS OFF OF DANCE ENERGY... it had me thinking that there would have to be some New Method of fighting it off that didn’t just lend it more power in the process, but nah apparently just tacking on the disclaimer ‘*this dance energy is not for glitter’ is enough to turn it from smth it can consume for power into big attacks you can use to kill it... like honestly it sounds like im asking for a lot from a game that has Never made too much sense, but considering that in part 2 they could add details like ‘oh didnt you know purge can open pocket dimensions? ulala is capable of manifesting tangible dance energy and the only other person who can do that is purge???’, its not like they havent come up with weird new shit for dance energy to do within the plot before. they just didnt do it in this game fsr

like did anyone else think that cell x/glitter was going to be the result of tossing purge out into deep space and him encountering the sc5 universe’s equivalent of an eldritch alien creature, smth more bestial than morolians?? even if purge wasnt part of it, when you say ‘uh oh, this guy Eats this society’s only source of energy!!!’ i expect the stakes to get HIGH, and i want the ramifications of it to be kinda STARTLING, because blank wanted money and purge wanted to ritualistically end the world but something this near to an ecological disaster that would force an entire paradigm shift hasn’t occurred yet in the series?? its totally new!!! there’s a lot they could do with this but OH DONT WORRY ABOUT IT EVERYONE ulala knows how to make dance energy kill cell x instead of feed it she’s got this we’re good no need to investigate more into all that

i can’t explain why the game is like this. and i dont expect grounding to address it in any meaningful way either. i’m sure they’re Aware of these complaints by now- the game reviewing community has Not been kind to sc5vr specifically due to all of these shortcomings [i didnt even touch on the issues with motion sensing and how many of the games mechanics were removed in favor of smth presumably easier to program yet much less satisfying, like Secret Moves just being mini quicktime events and Turning Your Ratings Into Stars just being replaced with the standard Three Strikes You’re Out method of scoring], but the pr team still seems very enthusiastic abt the game and is still promising dlc and potentially even more games in the series after this one- heres hoping that they’ll at least take these grievances to heart and consider making the experience not only more accessible [aka it will... go back to being a rhythm game with controller input.... and not... an exclusive vr experience...], but also as immersive and detailed as the old games, with less reused plot beats. i can let some of it off the hook in this game simply because i’m aware that it began its life as a tech demo that was only supposed to be that initial first report from the first game But Happening All Around You!, but i Really dont think they could get away with doing this little to expand upon the groundwork set by the first two games again. not with the way people remember part 2 being such a vast upgrade from part 1... the bar had been set so high that this just felt like a huge backslide into something even sillier and harder to take seriously than part 1 before we had any idea what kind of staying power the franchise would have as a hallmark of sega’s quirky antics. like... this game is what i think space channel 5 looks like to people who don’t understand the appeal of the first two games. and that scares me

but i guess for the most part, aside from wishing they had done more to revitalize the setting and the lore of the sc5 universe itself, im kind of glad it didnt do a lot to change the existing storylines the characters have kinda forged for themselves- here i was stressing out that they would pull out some plot development that would utterly and drastically change the way we talked abt the series for the rest of time, but so little happened and so little was added to the bank of sc5 lore that we can kind of all just carry on as usual and keep having the same headcanons we always had.

BUT!!! there ARE a lot of cute little details here and there that make the experience feel wholesome and like i said not an utter cashgrab- like so many of the character profiles referencing previous games [all of the references to npcs in this game being relatives of the npcs of the last games made me lose it] and how often ulala changes her expressions up and looks right at you and talks to you. the new music they wrote for the game also all slaps and everyones redesigns [if they got a redesign... rip pudding] are stunning

one of the most important things they did in this game was give a nice sort of Update to every character.... for example explaining that ulala isn’t a rookie reporter any more like she was in the first 2 games, that she’s moved up to being in charge of training new channel 5 reporters, and that while pudding is still somewhat stuck on her rivalry with ulala her career isn’t stagnant either, she was just cast in a romcom series as the lead... which is really nice considering how in the past she was portrayed as somewhat of a loser with almost no remaining fans left from her idol years

and you knew i was going to bring up jaguar at some point HES ALL OVER THIS GAME AND IT LITERALLY MADE ME FEEL LIKE MY LIFE WAS WORTH POWERING THROUGH THESE LAST FEW YEARS AND ALSO LIKE IM A GENIUS FOR SPENDING SO LONG POSTING EVERY SINGLE DAY ‘NO REALLY, HE’S THE SECONDARY PROTAGONIST OF THE STORY, ITS ABOUT CHANNEL 5 AS A COMPANY AND THEIR IMPACT ON EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER ENCOUNTERED THEM AND THAT INCLUDES JAGUAR AS WELL AS ULALA HES INTEGRAL TO THE PLOT BC SHE WOULDNT BE ALIVE IF IT WEREN’T FOR HIM’ i feel like it’s really incredible how in this game he has genuinely nice energy and doesnt withhold praise from ulala just to be helpful in a mysterious way later and he like HAS FRIENDS now. like consider how he went from disgraced former ch5 employee who got mad every time he saw them, to kidnapped robot henchman kinda humbled by the fact that now the turns tabled and ulala had to rescue Him, and now 3 years later his bio is all about how he has a new tv show thats super popular and he has a new entourage of ladies who he considers his '’’’’’comrades’’’’’’’ within the station he founded??? AND AFTER 20 YEARS THEY WERE FINALLY ABLE TO GIVE HIS MODEL JUICY ASS CHEEKS??????????????? NO MORE PANCAKE BOOTY???? THE BOY HAD A GLOWUP AND NO I WONT STOP TALKING ABOUT IT

WHEN I SAY MEOW MATCH THE POSE MOTHERFUCKERS THIS BLONDE BASTARD GETS TO BE IN CHARGE OF THE HUNDRED STAGE BATTLE NOW TOO THIS IS THE YEAR OF THE SPACE PIRATES BAYBEE

#its almost 4 am. idk i will probably have more to say tomorrow. my head still hurts #the galaxy depends on my funky moves

[zanyanimalstechnologytaco]

My Hero Academia, the series, the fan media, the community all was a mistake of our time

I hate this show. More than Naruto and more than Fairy Tail. I hate Izuku, I hate Kstsuki, I hate how everyone and everything is just being forced to like everything about them, I hate All Might, I hate the Hero Association, I hate how light hearted and shallow arcs end. And I hate how things ended up with my once favorite character, his ship and everything I ever expected to be better became much worse and theres no male based fan media to or communities that allow my project myself in shouto anymore, seriously hes manly than "Cant stop Sparkling" guy now adays based on all the fan stuff he has about being with deku.

Todomomo was a mistake and Todoroki is a mistake. All bnha ships are unholy and wrong. Bnha is all shallowness and impure GARBAGE. I used to love bnha and was a big todoroki fan. But the more I invested through time in this character, the more i felt alone and isolated from the fandoms intention on shouto being bland fangirl fuel, the more I felt more distant from the character and not even the manga supports my reasons to invest in todoroki whom hori treats like the most shoehorned false hype emo in the show. And that offends me deeply, you got all these characters and the ones that you are expected to take seriously (and live through vicariously) are the most important characters in the show. Deku, Bakugou, All Might, Mineta, Kirishima and even Endeavor are these character and he obviously builds up there hidden character development in abilities and progression, shouto still struggles with his own personal development and is basically the same as he started with the added bonus of jobbing.

Oh and all the hype about him being cool and attractive, just irrelevant blanket statement extra tidbit filler, nothing meaningful but to make shouto explained why hes special, I prefer it if the story elaborates this by "showing" it, which the author just skims through with him and hand waves consistancy with contradiction in other following scenes making him seem like a weaker/dumber from before(ex. Fighting Festival(shouto a top tier student in every respect according to deku) to Stain Fight(Shouto is nothing but quirk reliant) according to Stain). Strongest quirk wise, this is all he has for him but even hes not even the most talented or intelligently trained with it, which makes me wonder of all shouto is just a blanket statement based character that just meant to exist to explore how insignificant he is with all his power and advantages compared to the main duo and other coming of age based events involving the cast. Even his father represents this more than his son.

Todomomo seems to relate to this, but its meaningless, just like everything else shouto has been portrayed by fans, based on how much the author puts his narrative into play which is also meaningless in the grander context of the story. Why make momo and shouto work together in the first place only to not build that relationship in future developments.

That pairing I hate(todomomo), I didnt hate in the beginning only to me because it was the only humanizing aspect todoroki had not related to his family and later the forced shoehorned dynamic with deku and bakugou, it made sense because the two are socially awkward people despite their supreme standing in the class and as first years and yet they both encourage each other by standing firm to overcome their own lack of socialization skills to grow as ideal people and improve socially, which seems to be working for momo now not shouto who's still the brooding loner elitist type(only has friends with elitist characters like friends too) . Now it's a husk and a relic of a potential investment in shoutos own story, I dont give a damn anymore, shoutos has no real anticipating developments to compel him to me, his quirk is boring as fuck since it's just a shooting targeting spammer, he isnt a good character to entertain me from a personal way, he really is a broken record of the same issues with a new idea, his family outside of endeavor and overcooked guy is more boring than him, and god I hate him with deku and bakugou which gives me more a reason to not bother with anything about him specifically since they will always overshadow him as story narrative and progress development narrative types, and I hate those two more. They are really just stand ins as horikoshi escapist fantasies, and both of them get more attention than any character as narratives who pretty much get the most attention in doing the most awesome feats and accomplishments as main roles. The new movie was about that. Shoutos accomplishments center around how he plays second fiddle to that basically instead of exploring the potential of being a pure equal to deku and bakugou, he gets the second in command villains or does something less than them in battles they already excell at in quirk control.

It's all worthless, shouto should not be this popular anything, and eventually this reflects in the popularity polls recently, which I noticed in the west from the previous one, shouto was less recieved by a significant margin compared to the main leads as a third place holder, maybe it shows me that todoroki is losing favor slowly, it makes sense, the author is not doing anything with him that makes people catch interest with the plot about strong heroes and villains getting more relevant as major players, while hes stronger than most the class but not plot relevant with his strength like deku has. Bakugou is like just like deku since the plot focuses on his strength to and is naturally stronger than Shouto via being the more badass and more aggressively driven he gets and thus gets as strong if not stronger and more skilled than shouto out of sheer plot armor. Shouto is just getting hotter and cold, bigger and more raw and unrefined in his power, so he has to control it which is still not as grand as bakugous perfect skills and genius and deku grander scaling in brains and brawn. If I were to make a guess, shouto is just going to to be behind them both as a stronger quirk user eventually and more about being a defensively capable than battle capable like kirishima and ochako, fitting for a major yet minor character, which disappoints me even more since shouto can be more battle creative than both of them if the author didnt have a bias in making deku and bakugou better than him despite having a stronger quirk.

God I hate this series. Theres no likable characters that are relatable or even human, there all shallow power and fanservice fantasies, the only character in class 1s that acts less cartoonish and serves as a stand in audience Surrogate is jirou and tail guy, but they are all about being generic looking compared to the unrealistically attractive guys and girls, the looney toon designed comic relief, and the recycled shonen trope cast. But if anything shouto represents all these shallow functions the most, and it's made him a less than a character too, it made him a sellout fan appeal type with no credibility as a character, which is why men dont like him due to not showing much concern to connect to him as a human narrative, at least the characters compared to him are showing why they(despite acting like shallow cliches) are interesting characters to care about, shoutos thing is telling about how tragically sympathetic his character needs to be as the only important thing about him, not as a part of him as a character to endear towards while he grows and helps build up a leading narrative with his development. His story doesnt help any part of the main lead or rivals growth, or his class, or his own personal objectives for his goals as a hero(being like all might and surpassing all might is a all purpose blanket statement to keep him near deku and bakugou as a power hype, not a individual self defined person). Dragging out objectives(season 1: being anti endeavor on surpassing all might which in the end pledges to learn not to do that and become better, season 2.Learning from the festival and from then on to being able to take endeavors legacy and take his training seriously which compared to deku and bakugou isnt enough to show much, Season 3. Promises to make people depend on him, doesnt happen since hes still the unapproachable person people in his class know him for. Season 4. Still makes promises hes gonna be a dependable hero, still accept his fire side, still be his own hero, things he repeats and fails to attempt because hori is lazy or just doesnt care about showing how much hes changed compared to his mary sue duo. etc) that dont happen and are inconsistent with new story details is why shouto is dead to me. High expectations about him are problematic since the author has agendas that don't involve story relevancy about him compared to the actual leading roles, plus the fan reception helps effect how I feel about shouto to, hes not even popular enough to have drawn pornagraphy with most all the girls and high quality momo hentai fanservice artists and circles, fucking mineta and your average joe otaku faceless male is more likely than shouto instead. That's how much the value shouto means to anyone than just a fangirl targeted audience which is just gay or bishi equivalent to sasuke fanworks and the feminine answer to male targeted audiences of characters like deku, bakugou and mineta, the worst and most common types of shonen stock characters in the series.

I hope this series and all the fans get tired of this shit when it gets eventually cancled. Or maybe it has. I dont really keep up with it anymore.

#shouto todoroki #rant #thisseriessucks #yamamotodoujinisthereason #my hero academia #peoplestopsupportingthisseries #boku no hero academia

[ilovetuds]

So I'd like to write my opinion towards the so waited last movie of the loved franchise How to Train your Dragon, the post will contain Spoilers so if you didn't watch it yet I recommend not reading this post. I was quite disappointed with the movie but there were also parts I really enjoyed, like I said at the beginning its my opinion and I just want to share the cons and pros of that animated movie (AGAIN IN MY PERSPECTIVE), I just felt like it had more potential than what we got and it left a lot of unsweared things about the plot of the whole dragon universe created by them and felt a little lazy.

CONS:

1- This one made me feel uncomfortable, the whole snoutloud and valka ( Hiccup's mother) kinda romance, he was clearly into her and fighting to get her attention. Common if that's not at least a little bit disturbing? It's like one of your friends start to hit on your mom, its just weird. In the end of the movie we are not sure if they will have something or not, she praises him and he gets all lovey dovey. (FOR THOR NO, PLEASE NO) 2- OKAY THIS ONE IS THE THING THAT I WAS PASEKAEOSAKOEA (really annoyed), for me the last villain, the so called 'Night Fury' killer, the one who everyone was afraid of and said he was some master of the hunt, he was pretty shallow and dumb. His character was not really detailed and his reason to kill all Night Furys was even worse. He tells Hiccup when he killed his first Night Fury his whole tribe cheered because of that, so he just decided he wanted to kill all of them, I mean that's a good reason for a villain, pride or whatever you want to call it but not for the "ultimate villain", it's just really weak and lazy plot. Maybe I should put topics here about him, I watched the whole series and read the books so I might get a little into them now:

a. He doesn't look scary at all! I mean common when we had villains like Drago who had a really cool concept, a tough looking guy who called himself Dragon God or Dargo Bloody Fist, and the guy is 50 old! The guy enslaved dragons, controlled na Alpha dragon and he even rode Toothless. He was a hell of a villain he was really a madman. Now let's talk about Krogan, if you watched the netflix series you know him. The man is fucking awesome and you can actually fear him, he has a hell of a dragon as a 'partner', has a cool scar and a tough face, he's brave and fiercefoul, you don't want to mess with that dude. He ran to every fight with his dragon or without, let's not forget he captured a titan dragon! And his plans were smart too, it was a character that had knowledge and was a really amazing. We shall not forget about Viggo Grimborn, for me one of the best character in the series, you never know if you can trust him or not, he is the Crime Lord his whole appearence on the series was amazing, you saw him grow as a character and he had a lot of good plans and traps agaisnt the raiders. And we shall not forget about Johann, the man used the vikings for years and never revealed his true intentions, he was a master mind really good villain and a big plot twist in the whole universe. I could mention some other small villains here and there but my point is, all of them were really smart and were challanging for the gang to beat, with the so called "Night Fury Killer" was really dumb and he felt not so special, he had no good plan or a good reason for you to like, hate or fear him, he was just there because they needed to show the guy almost wiped all the little toothless off the earth. His character was really dissapointing to me.

b. We wanted to see new dragons, and especially new 'bad dragons' and we got some cool scorpion like dragons, nothing super creative and new, because we had the Triple Stryke already, (which is na awesome dragon). He had to drug those dragons to obbey him, which doesnt explain how they would listen to just him it made no sense at all. They were strong yea, but they were also dumb. Toothless got rid of 5 or 6 of them so easily it felt stupid. Like no challange whatsoever. 

c. His poison darts were na idea we seen in the whole franchise a lot, so nothing new, I know it is a movie for kids but his darts could be deadly, like when he shot the dragon who charged after him, it would add a lot more to his character as evil and na asshole if he killed the dragon instead of putting it to sleep, just looked really overused to me. d. Overrall it was a really wasted character, the movie felt way too rushed and we didn't have time to see and develop anything for him. It was just a waste of animation and plot. 3- The light fury, I know a lot of people must be loving her concept, desing and etc etc, after all she is Toothless's mate, but her character at least for me wasn't much likeable. It seemed like she was just put there to end the story and to show the whole thing about growing up, because you will start to get distant of a lot of your friends and things change, because it is real life, that's true and we get it, but she as a character, she has no story, no explanation and we don't even get to know more about her. Again it felt really rushed. Don't get me wrong, I know it would be a lot of things to cover in a movie, but the whole franchise was always about giving and learning about dragons and how they react and their characteristics, so when we get nothing explained or the whole let's study this dragon or Fishleg's thirst for knowledge ( I do know he tried to draw her but he gave up too easily and didn't really seemed that interested) is dissapointing... It was finally someone Toothless could relate to and not be the end of his species, the way they should've dealt with it should've been different. There was more promo than plot. FISHLEGS DIDN’T EVEN CARE TO NAME HER, THATS HOW SPECIAL SHE WAS.

4- Hiccup's friends, his friends weren't really that important and funny, I get this whole movie is supposed to be more grown up, but we grew up with them, it felt like they were more like background characters than secondary. I think there were less dialogs and interactions between all of them, kinda sad.

5- Again the movie felt really rushed I don't think they covered things that were important for the end of the plot and focused on shallow and stupid things.

6- The hidden world, I wanted to learn and to see more of the hidden world, how it worked, the new species there, something, anything. Instead we just got a grumpy toothless going back to the new Berk with Hiccup and a stupid chase. I found something really strange too, with that many dragons, there should've been an Alpha, another dragon other than Toothless, but it's too convenient that we learn that Toothless is also Alpha in the Hidden World, and not just that suddenly all the dragons see him as a superior. AGAIN RUSHED and lazy, IT WAS THE FUCKING HIDDEN WORLD OF THE LEGENDS....

7- If you watched the trailer you watched the movie. I dont know whats going on with some trailers nowadays, but they are showing too much and basically you can tell everything that it's going to happen. I think it's really dumb and disrespectful to the watchers. 

8- I know maybe you guys don't care but I really wanted to buy a new Toothless toy to put as a display on my computer, but the toys that were created for this movie, were really terrible looking and bad quality. And the new toothless (The huge one) is just the same as the other one from 2014, disapointing. 

9- They said all the dragons disappeared and bla bla, but we seen that there were dragons in the sea, in some islands really far far away and hidden caves all around the world. Maybe the dragons near Berk were gone, near the vikings but not all the dragons in the world. 

10- Where in the hell is Heather? Just that lol Where is Heather. Her dragon is sound and safe and didn't go to the hidden world. Neither did her brother's. Again a big flaw in the plot.

PROS 1- Okay I really liked the cinematography of this movie, you can tell how much they invested in it and how much they evolved, the animations, landscapes the dragons, the reflection on Toothless eyes were breathtaking. Amazing.

2- Toothless and Hiccup friendship, it is beautiful till the end, we love their friendship and how they interact with each other, theres no complain. Maybe we hate to see them getting apart because we realize that its what we are going to experience in some point of our lives, I thought I'd always see my friends from school and my friends that I had for more than 19 years, but time and life get in the way, friends will still be friends but you will likely see them less, which somehow make us sad. 

3- Astrid and Hiccup marriage, it was touching and cute, I did feel like it was more for fan service but it's alright, it was cute and they deserved each other. 4- Astrid Growth, she had na amazing develop as a character and being always there to help Hiccup was really a big plus for her. 

5- 'Mini meatlug' IT WAS ADORABLE ENOUGH SAID.

6- Hiccup realizing he had potential and with or without Toothless he would be a great leader, that is a really special moment in the movie and it's touching too, learning to believe in yourself and being independent.

7- Hiccup mother's appeared a lot during the movie, she had no super special scene but it was nice to see her and her adorable dragon. 

8- The new 'elk dragon' I'm sorry I don't know his name in english yet and I just wanted to write this fast cuz I mainly don't really have anyone who's a fan to talk about and I'm excited! Anyways, he is just so cuteee! 

9- The riders armors, it was a really cool idea and cool looking I approve that.

10- Toothless Babies, I really thought they would look cuter lol but I guess that's alright and we can't complain we got to see a nightlight fury babies for the first time so cuteee! Okaaaay if you guys want to add more points to my list or disccus about some feeel free! I want to talk about the moviee lol

#how to train your dragon #toothless #dragon #lightfury #night #nightfury #httyd #httyd 3 #how to train your dragon 2 #how to train your dragon 3 #netflix #dreamworks #franchise #movie #spoilers #cute #meatlug #fishlegs #hic #astrid

[tumblunni]

Directator episode dub vs sub comparison! For no particular reason! Except i lov he!

First off we have the big obvious fact that his movie is clearly based on Journey To The West and the dub episode title still says that and their costumes are all clearly that, yet they still try and remove all references to it. Wtf! So yeah just a big overall change is that in the sub everyone is directly saying the name of the thing and Directator doesnt give everyone weird bootleg names. (And leaves nate as nate for some reason???)

There's also a bit of a voice change with all the new characters. Dub Directator has kind of a deep husky stereotypical western 'intellectual savant director' voice, while in japanese its not really anything special and just a similar goofy mildly nasally voice as most dorky villains get in the series. Think sub maddiman but younger and more hyperactive than cutesy, i guess? Or to picture it in dub form imagine a sort of coke bottle glasses cliche librarian stereotype + Screaming Very Loudly. So yeah both his voices are cute but i like the dub one better for how its a bit more specific to a hollywood character, and also a voice you dont tend to hear that often in a villainous role. And then the assistant yokai trio had a surprisingly big change! In the dub they have adorable squeaky komasan-esque mascot voices which fits their :3 faces but contrasts hilariously with how humanoid they are. In the sub they have the exact opposite and have very deep ordinary human voices that are hilarious being delivered while looking so cutesy! Theres also a bit more variation between them in the sub, one of them is just a norml deep voiced dude, one sounds shrill and screechy and one sounds ullllltra deep and perpetually grumpy. Yknow despite always smiling and all. The identical looking yokai in a dress during one of the later scenes also has a different voice here, so it seems she was meant to be a fourth assistant rather than one of them in costume.

Directator says a lot of Gratuitous English Words, all the bits of him yelling ACTIONNN and CUT CUT CUT were still there in japanese. So i suppose maybe he would be categorized as a Merican Yokai if he ever became playable?

Theres some dumb weird sexism in the Sudden Son Goku High School Au section in the sub. The various annoying students are all the same except the girls. In japanese their lines were "ohhhh nooo we cant carry all this stuff because we're girls, blablabla we have internalized sexism and think you boys are soooo much stronger" And then nate and whisper whine about how 'girls are always like that', always shirking work and being spoilt and lazy and reliant on men to do everything. Its dumb.

The bit where one of the annoying students embarasses nate by saying there's a hole in the back of his shorts is actually identical i.e there still is not any hole in the shorts and everyone acts like there is. Thats so odd! A similar continuity error in an earlier episode was actually the dub editing out a shot of underwear but nope they didnt do it again. The only dub edits at all in this episode seem to be translating text on the signs and stuff.

The inexplicable badass grandpa who is always everywhere being badass is surprisingly different in japanese! In the dub he's called the producer of Directator's compny, which is awesome and hilarious cos it seems totally in character for him to be off having random adventures with yokai offscreen and constantly defeating them at their own game. In the sub it doesnt have that element of accidental continuity with his first appearance defeating sproink, because instead he is...the journey to the west historical consultant!! Apparantly Directator hired a human to fact check this human story and he just ended up picking the worst possible candidate who enjoys trolling the fuck out of everyone. This gramps going 'yeah looks fine' to all this nonsense has a whole new context, and it also seems to imply Directator is more incompetant rather than intentionally changing the story. Either way though its still hilarious and this grandpa is the goddamn best!

And thats all the major changes, most of the rest is just a stray funny line being only in the dub or only in the sub. I'll try and screencap those later when i rewatch them on a bigger screen

Personally my opinion is that the voice changes in the dub ended up making the characters even more endearing, and most of the added jokes gave me a great laugh cos they referenced specific american filmmakers and stuff. But the japanese version has the advantage of not being this confusing inconsistant dumb attempt to censor the mythology it was based on. And their version of the grandpa gag made slightly more sense because of it. Though him being inexplicably the even more directory director bossman in the dub adds even more to his legend of badassery!

Also Directator as a name is a good pun but it feels like a bit of a bad change cos it doesnt have anything in common with his japanese name except also being related to movies. His sub name is Mister Movien which was like..its already english yo...?? And i just feel like 'hey he is mister something, this is his actual name' is a different vibe to 'The Directator With A Capital The'. Also its easier to search tags on tumblr for mister movien, for some reason directator gets you results for everything individually containing director and dictator also. Like wtf tumblr did you implement an anti punning filter??

ALSO more evidence for my theory that Directator is related to Hoaxy Coaxy: everyone wakes up at home after the film is over and thinks it was a dream, so that totally seems like Directator's powers work the same as Hoaxy Coaxy's. Also both of their sub names are two words both beginning with M. (Moso monmon and mister movien)

Anyway in summaary i am weirdly addicted to this random goofy hollywood dude who only had 1 and a half episodes and never returned. When u get so little screentime youre damn right im gonna keep rewatching it til i die!! HES JUST SO CUTE DAMMIT

#let me barf words at you about all my yokai faves dammit

[everydayanth]

The Liam Neeson Thing...

Okay guys, this is gonna get complex and personal right quick. But it’s been bothering me and I’m working on posting more without thinking about it for two weeks until nobody cares anymore.

So here goes.

Context matters. Context is important and it can be complicated, but it freakin’ matters. 

In my opinion, Liam Neeson’s flaw was that he thought a rapist would be the kind of person to also attack him. 

Here’s the thing guys, if you’ve never heard someone you love confess to you that they have been irrevocably hurt by a person, you need to take a step back for a minute. 

That moment, talking about it, it’s extremely vulnerable, so this is a bit hard for me, but in a moment of chaos and torment, a person you love and care deeply for is breaking apart in front of you and there isn’t a damned thing you can do about it. There’s not a damn thing you can do but hold them and cry with them and hurt for them and try to help and figure out the right thing to say. 

And when they’re tucked safe in bed and you’re researching what you can do for them or laying awake thinking about what you could possibly say, the amount of guilt and hurt and anger hits you in the chest, it fills you so wholly that you just need to find a way to let it out. It’s a dangerous rage, it’s immature and unhealthy and so so so painful. 

We don’t talk about emotions in America. We just don’t. So of course we want to put this emotion into a context we discuss, and idea we understand. 

But it’s not an -ism, it’s an emotion. 

If you don’t think when my sister told me about our cousin assaulting her that I didn’t wander around my ghetto ass neighborhood waiting for some big white guy to try to hurt me, well, you’d be wrong. Our brain makes patterns, my cousin didn’t live in our city, but I knew he was a big white guy with a shitty pencil beard, my brain classified that as a pattern. Every time I talked to a big white guy, I had to check myself, yeah. But when my brain registered a human who looked like my cousin, my heart rate ran up and I would will them to attack me. I wanted to fight because I didn’t know what else to do with all that pain, all that helpless emotion. But I could wander around places where someone was bound to get hurt anyway and invite the fight to me. 

Neeson was wandering around areas inviting a fight. INVITING, not instigating. It is a common reaction of revenge and feeling hurt, and we’re shoving this idea into something familiar - outrage, racism, etc., anything so we don’t have to actually talk about emotions. 

He was looking for a “black bastard,” poor choice of words, I agree, but he was hoping that guy, the one who hurt his friend, would challenge him, and it would just happen to be the same guy and he could get his anger out. It’s not healthy, but if they man who hurt his friend had been white and he’d wandered around lower class white neighborhoods inviting a fight, would it have been racism? 

This had an opportunity to be a conversation about what the fuck you do around a friend who confesses they were raped and hurt to you. After all the #MeToo (or in the midst of it), how do you be a friend to your loved ones who feel ready to confess to you? What do you do to manage that amount of disgust you feel at the world, that rage and hate and hurt and horror that there’s not a single damn thing you can do? 

This could have been a conversation about grief and friendship and growth and complex emotions. But we made it about the race of a rapist instead. 

That’s how much we don’t want to talk about feelings. 

We would focus on a man talking for the first time about the anger of helplessness in the face of a friend’s pain and come out in outrage. 

Here’s the reality guys, racism is forming a series of patterns based on skin color that aren’t true. They can be based off stereotypes or influenced by false representation in sensational news. Racism is NOT fighting your brain’s reality in order to form a more balanced understanding of the world. I was assaulted by a bunch of black kids at a playground when I was 14, it was terrifying and it’s a long and complex story but the short of it is very simple: I lived in a black neighborhood and this was not my only experience with black kids. I went to school with middle class black kids and I hung out with other black kids, this was NOT my only experience, and therefore, my brain was capable of nixing the pattern before it was created. Black kids weren’t dangerous, those kids were just assholes. 

Racism is if Neeson went to those places and started fights. I can’t know whether he did or not, but it’s if he went around and accused every black man of being a rapist, in his head or otherwise. I didn’t have a lot of experience with big white guys, so it took me much longer not to feel nervous around them than it did to write off my brain’s pattern about the black kids. Emotions and how our brains work are important details for us to know, and it’s the real reason diversity matters, it keeps our patterns in context. Neeson coming out of the situation horrified at himself shows growth of emotion, the dismissal of the pattern, recognizing that it is false without acting on it, understanding the power of agency is an illusion because he would never find that particular man. 

Comparing this to the policing issues isn’t the same, because of their place in society, their home culture society, and the results of their opinions. A police officer has a responsibility to the public to understand their emotions and their racial biases, an actor is responsible for displaying emotion. We can’t hold these people to the same accountability, that would be ridiculous, for a police officer, emotions need to be stable and understood and should involve a LOT more psychology training. For an actor... they entertain us with their emotions. They need to be self aware and reflective in order to project our experiences in stories. We still expect race car drivers to follow the speed limits and we understand that doctors have to call in sick sometimes, the world isn’t fair and occupation doesn’t dismiss personal biases or professional demeanor, but context matters. A doctor calling in sick after handling small pox in a lab requires observation and questions, an actor talking about rage and looking for a fight when he was younger and confessing horror at that version of himself while promoting a film about revenge kind of seems like part of the job, of doing the job well.  

And it’s not racist because it was not instigated by the color of skin as perceived by an individual to be less or more - he was inviting a fight with a black man on the word of his friend. That was wrong, and so was me doing it with large white men (also because I am not that large of a white woman, so that wasn’t going to end well for me), but he even said in a follow up interview that they could have killed him. The interviewer says she thinks of the innocent black man that could have been killed and Neeson responds “Or he could have killed me.” BUT HE WASN’T INSTIGATING FIGHTS, he was INVITING them! He wasn’t looking for an innocent man, he was waiting for someone to try to hurt him so he could release the extreme emotions. These are different. These are SO different. 

This conversation can go back to what it could have been. Race of the rapist aside, what do you do when a person you love confides in you that they have been hurt and scared and they are breaking apart in front of you? How do you process your emotions and heartbreak? What can you do or say? How can you feel like you’re helping? Is that selfish? Why do we need to feel like we’re helping? How do you manage your own trauma so you don’t loop theirs in with yours? How do you self reflect so that you stop your brain forming false patterns when you’re filled with so much hurt and pain? How do you not become a villain of the world, hating everyone for always telling you you are helpless? How do you find control in yourself when you’re imploding and be responsible and mature with emotions? How do you talk about it in a society that wants to be angry? How do you not hate them for focusing on your reaction to a rapist rather than being angry with an individual for being an asshole and RAPING your friend?

How do we return to a conversation about emotions and how, unchecked, they can lead to pain and anger and rage, and eventually, if we don’t have a moment of clarity and rationality, if we are not balanced in the world, they can become biases that develop into ignorance and racism? How do we focus on context so that we don’t become arrogant and disconnected, classists by nature because we interact with such a small and similar world? How do we connect and talk about the human experience when society turns away from us in favor of what is familiar? How do we have a logical discussion about emotion when we can’t even talk about meaning and intent? How do we accuse someone of racism when, had the rapist been white, the conversation might have focused on the context of emotion and pain and hurt and the process of healing - it was the outraged audience that pointed at the race as important, as the meaningful factor, how do we look at that hypocrisy and not feel utterly defeated?

How do we scream at the world that we need help, we all need help, without crucifying ourselves? I have no idea, this post is terrifying and I have no idea what to expect. Maybe nothing would be good? To return to not a single note or like or comment, to be unheard and dismissed and navigated around might be good because I want to talk about this reality but it. Is. Terrifying. 

And maybe it’s all a projection. Maybe I’m the racist and I want to defend someone I relate to. But it feels more right that we as a society don’t talk about emotions, we lock them up like these secret things we’re terrified other people will discover. I’m working on vulnerability lately, and what better place to talk about all the shit that’s ever happened to me than the freakin’ internet! I’m just a person and from my experiences, I think I understand what Neeson meant. But that could equally be a self-aggrandizing reality that doesn’t exist. Perhaps he’s just a racist, a professional actor with a successful career who took this exact moment to reveal his true colors, what a sneaky man! 

But more probably, the logic says, he’s a professional actor with a successful career who took this moment to discuss the emotions he’s had to reflect on and relive for the past year or so in order to play a role in a film that he hopes will entertain and reflect something of the human experience. He more probably took the moment to discuss a human experience and we did not listen because it’s more popular not to listen or because we could not relate or because we just want to be angry and sometimes pulling weeds is so exhausting we raze the whole garden instead. We did not talk about the moment he was horrified with himself because we don’t want to talk about growth or greys, we want the world to stabilize so we can see the bad guys clearly. 

We really ought to know by now that there are no clear bad guys. 

And we know Neeson likes to play in those lines. What is good? What is bad? They aren’t a duality, they are a false dichotomy, created by whatever world you grew up in, whatever experiences you had, whatever your society or culture told you, whatever education you discovered, and whatever philosophy you’ve come to believe. But in a moment of vulnerable confession, in all that grey reality, your friend tells you about a bad guy and they become singularly bad. They don’t exist beyond that. And that’s what is horrifying. That you stop seeing humanity as grey and suddenly it becomes good or bad, that’s the scary part about revenge and inviting fights, it encourages a black-and-white view of the world that says the rapist is ONLY bad and your friend is ONLY good. 

A bit ironic that, in trying to talk about that tunnel-vision-rage, Neeson found himself the target of it.

It’s raw, that anger. It’s part of all the hurt that has happened to you and then you couldn’t even protect your friend or family. Why did you go through all that pain if you couldn’t grow enough to save them? That guilt is a liar, you didn’t hurt them, the asshole did, and you need that to be true or else you were also the cause of all your own pain as well. So you look for the assholes because then at least you could be useful, you could protect them from one asshole by taking the hit. We need to talk about that kind of hurt, about sacrificing the self for revenge because you can’t find worth anymore. We need to talk about existential nihilism that hides inside outrage because you can’t find meaning anymore. We need to talk about emotions and how to talk about them so we can be better friends, better people, so when we look for guidance on talking to friends about their hurt, we find advice on how to not be overwhelmed by rage and guilt and disgust and anger and violence. 

That’s the conversation we could have had. That’s the world we could have started to create. But outrage culture is racist and racism gets attention and we all just want to be heard because we don’t know how to talk about our emotions. Interesting how it keeps going around like that. 

#anthropology #psychology #racism #emotion #outrage #friendship #discussion #rage #rape #culture #society #loneliness #growth #discovery #Liam neeson

[edh-a-to-z]

Dominaria Predictions & Hopes

84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS 84 DAYS

So...Rivals of Ixalan is here. The analysis done. 9 creatures added to my to-do list. (I’m never gonna get them all, sweet heavens, theres still 700+ left).

ONTO THE FUTURE!!!

Future sight will be where I try to guess at what’s coming. Kinda new to this, so let’s try it out!

(1) A return of the Three cycle.

The “3″ cycle was one of the most iconic parts of Old Magic. I believe that we’ll get a reprinting of some of the old cards, with cards reminiscent (in name and function) to older cards.

Healing Salve. Weak enough to see as a common reprint. But it sucks. A lot.

Healing Salve 2.0 - have the option (choose one or both) to do both for W

Ancestral Recall - Okay, this one is actually OP as heck. And reserved

Ancestral Recall 2.0 - Maybe Draw 3, discard 2-3?, or reprint Ancestral Vision

Dark Ritual - Probably too powerful for standard. But if Bolt can come back, so can this. But really no.

Dark Ritual 2.0 - Sac a permanent, add BBB. Basically Culling the Weak changed for Standard and Limited

Lightning Bolt. The Red player’s favorite card. Powerful and fun. And if I see another Shock reprint, or a godforsaken Open Fire, I’m gonna cry. Kick it to uncommon and it’ll work in limited.

Giant Growth - a classic, way better than the 20 other variations of Instant G buff cards

An alternative is they make a completely new cycle that references them, as IMO only Bolt and Growth could be possible reprints. Or maybe they’ll save it for the Core Set that’s in the work.

Probability: Average.

Dominaria should be a powerful set, to shake off the dust that is Kaladesh’s energy. Every new set should start off new decks, not just offer “strictly better” cards for extant Standard decks.

However, given the sheer power on most of these (except the salve), It’d be hard to sell for 

(2) Surviving Characters

Amazingly, for a place known for being destroyed a dozen times, there are people living in Dominaria.

Key art from Dominaria, Unknown 

Shown here we have the fan favorites Jhoira, Teferi, and Karn. 

Of them Jhoira has a card (Jhoira of the Ghitu) and IS NOT a planeswalker whence last we saw her. Teferi has a creature card and a Planeswalker card, and was depowered (from being a ‘walker) whence we saw him last. WOTC could do a reprint of Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, but I’m hoping for something new.

And Karn.

We last saw him on New Phyrexia after being saved by Venser, and it looks like he’s back home. Hopefully we can have a Karn walker that’s not broken as all heck.

Jaya Ballard Art, Yongjae Choi

But let’s not forget everyone’s favorite Red Mage (bite me Chandra), Jaya.

Other Dominarian Characters I hope are around:

Sisay - STILL ALIVE!!! Orim - b/c every Star Trek style crew needs a doctor Cho-Manno - an unfortunate reminder of Mercadian Masques Oriss - Possible descendant of theirs who may be alive Squee - Basically immortal Tahngrath - Probably chilling with Sisay and Squee on the Victory

Other Dominarian Characters I hope aren’t around:

Liliana Vess - So much screentime elsewhere Nicol Bolas - As above

Probability: Basically Guaranteed. It’s in the art

(3) The Hive

Slivers

Slivers Slivers Slivers

SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS

So yea, we’re back on Dominaria. 

GIVE US THE QUEEN

Sliver Queen, by Ron Spencer

SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS SLIVERS

I’m guessing it’s not a return to the 1.0 slivers that say “All Slivers get X”, but more like the M14 & M15 slivers. A mix of new slivers and reprints.

Probability: Like 1 to 20 odds. Slivers and standard feels like a pipe dream for me, and a nightmare for everyone else.

(4) Classic Tribes

Not a big part, but will be nominally mentioned. Maybe (good ol’ Cabal), Soliders, Elves, classic looking Goblins, Zombies, and Wizards. Less printed tribe like Clerics, Kavu/Beast,  Tribal representation and some weak tribal support.

Tribal support can link up with other sets in standard, like Zombies or Merfolk, so there’s already some groundwork for potential tribal decks in standard.

Probability: Like 1 to 2 for weak mechanics, and 1 to 20 for some serious tribal support.

(5) Story Connections

How did we get here?

Well, after the Gatewatch was scattered to the wind, and we saw Jace on Ixalan (plus that Ugin had planted the location in his mind to check out), why do we -the audience -  end up on Dominaria?

Liliana, Heretical Healer, by Karla Ortiz

We know Liliana Vess hails from here, so perhaps this is where she ended up post-Amonkhet.

I also hope that the Gatewatch will take a backseat this round. I love ‘em, but for heck’s sake I can’t take 9 blocks of them being in the spotlight. Keep ‘em in the background. Those Story Spotlights should not be about the new characters, but instead reach back for more nostalgic characters.

I’m hoping we don’t get the view of locals. I like the Vamps, Merfolk and Pirates of Ixalan, but I don’t have to really care about them - only the Planeswalkers are important long term.

Probability: like 50/50. We need the story somehow. I’m just hoping the way we tell the story is with characters we know (unlike Ixalan’s non-Jace/Vraska character) but haven’t heard from in a while (the Gatewatch).

(6) Old Artists

Bitterblossom, by Rebecca Guay

Rebecca Guay. Phil Foglio. Melissa Benson, Ron Spencer. And so many more.

Bringing back artists famed for their work in older sets would be a great treat. We got to see John Avon and Rebecca Guay back for Commander 2017, maybe this is the start of bringing them back for more art.

Probability: 1 in a 100. While nice, it’s a lot harder to get older artists back than it is to do all of this stuff on Creative’s side.

 (7) Phyrexia

Slay, by Ben Thompson

So, after the Legacy was fired off, Urza, Gerrard, and Yawgmoth bit it. The Phyrexians on Dominaria folded after that. 

BUT!!! We can still have Phyrexian holdouts, lurking around Dominaria! Sure, most of them were killed after Yawgmoth died, but what if some survived? And are working with maybe the Cabal. You know, being villains and all.

Probability: 1 in a 100.

I don’t think that’ll Phyrexians will be a plot focus, as it seems we’re going to Dominaria to pick up the rest of the cast and fight Nicol Bolas on Ravnica.

(8) Masterpieces

Picture this, but with a fancy frame

Now that they’ve become “lets make the set special” after the thrashing of Amonkhet, I think Dominaria can have some really great masterpieces.

Masterpieces of stuff we associate with Masters sets, like Alpha powerhouses of Birds of Paradise, Sinkhole, Swords to Plowshares, all would be great choices to get as masterpieces. With new art or old art, new frames or old frames, I’d love me some masterwork of 

Probability: 1 in a 10. I don’t know when WOTC will bring the Masterpieces back, and they may consider Dominaria good enough on it’s own

Easy bets:

No Vehicles (for the love of god please no)

No artifact/equipment/enchantment block focus

No Bird of Paradise, or any Masters power-level reprints ( we don’t get to have nice things in Standard).

Reprint of old Painlands like Caves of Koilos as the set’s dual lands. Apocalypse had the first batch and we haven’t seen them since Origins. They made Blood Sun for a reason. Maybe reprint time?

Artwork that references older cards. Maybe showing updated locations, like Academy Ruins did for Tolarian Academy.

Well, that’s all I got campers.

What do y’all think? What are you hoping to see? Let me know what you think.

Wonder how accurate these’ll be. 

#mtg #mtg predictions #edhatoz #dominaria #future sight

[noquirk-a]

ok anyway as i mentioned ... heres me talkin about deck’s relationships with other muses/charas bc im one big dickhead who never shuts up XD

   i’ll ... talk abt the most obvious one first. katsuki. specifically turtle’s katsuki bc i believe his is what i’ve talked with the most. it’s clear and obvious that deck despises him to the point he has a death wish against him, and most likely an EXTREMELY unhealthy obsession with him. but like, the obsession to do anything to put him down ... not even put him down like ‘ kill him ‘ but. at least crush his dreams. if anything, deck would rather cut off his hands or make him lose his quirk entirely just so he could feel what was it like to be it’s shoes. he wants ... to be above him. he wants him to experience karma and feel what he’s done to him. that’s a pretty common trope, i know, but considering what he’s ... done to him that’s all he actually wants. be it in a verse that he’s the hero or the villain, he doesn’t care. he’s going to find a way to fuck him up so bad that’ll have him end up underneath his foot as he crushes his hands with his foot, grinning like the damn cheshire cat, laughing softly as he goes ‘ who’s powerless now, kacchan? ‘

    even if ... katsuki would like. want deck to go back to heroism bc it feels so fucking wrong to have someone so determined to become a hero suddenly change his point of view. deck was literally one who would NEVER give up on his dreams and then suddenly he just. fell down. would he come to his senses and realize this? nah. if anything, he belives that he’s in the right mindset of having a perspective that it was society that was wrong. ( and ok, not being biased but somehow it is wrong 4 them to discriminate the quirkless like that. ) or maybe it’s just his pettiness not wanting to be in a side where he is right now. he’s no longer going to tolerate all the bullshit he’s thrown onto him, even if he asks penitence for that.

   another one is all might or toshinori. this is honestly where he ( all might ) has the biggest disadvantage and will realize he’s done the most foolish mistake. that being both underestimating deku and telling him the wrong mindset at first, AND telling him his weakness. deck, entering the league and getting in touch with afo, would definitely ask for like ... a stronger noumo similar to shi/garaki’s and fight him himself. i mean, not his bare hands ofc, but like through manipulating the noumo. the thing is he KNOWS his ultimate weakness and would often approach that. and at his exact downfall he’d be the one smiling, asking him if he remembers him, and like.. the ‘ i told you so ‘ or w/e attitude that shows that he was wrong on telling him that he couldn’t be a hero. he was strong as a villain ... so what more of him becoming an actual hero? he completely wasted it and crushed that dream of his. his confidence / hope is a deck of cards and his words are but a mere blow and he just. wants him to feel that that was one of his biggest mistakes tbh.

    herE’S ONE THAT IM SOOOOOOOOOOOO in love with bc it gives him a speck of humanity / little hope .. uraraka. there’s a seperate post for her find it in the tags but she... she’s literally the only star in deck’s empty night sky. almost. kind of. she’s supposed to be a hero and she IS a hero but the difference is she saw him as an equal at first and that’s something .. deck’s really thankful for. it’s plotted that she does a lot just to make him turn back / ‘ SAVE ‘ him to the point she could like .. die and still hope for him. that literally just puts him in a plethora of twist and turn of emotions bc like .. it’s. so. so fucking foreign to him, everything she’s doing. i can put this in a longer post but im JKSLFMSKJLFSKJFLM to him, she’s his hero for making him realize this. he may not give in that quickly or w/e, but she makes him realize something.

   then there’s ... deku. like, canon deku, not deck, bc like tbh i always llive for crossover universes / canon meeting au. it’s fascinating to me. anyway deck sees himself as like ... the BETTER version 4 some reason bc he sees it that he’s not ‘’blind’’ to society’s truth. he sees deku as someone who just ... gave in to that lie.i mean even in his verse where he DOES achieve all might’s quirk he realizes soon enough that this was all wrong ... why couldn’t he become a hero without a quirk? he sees him as like .. literally believing and accepting the fact that you should have a quirk before becoming a hero and tbh? he hates him for that, and envies him so much at the same time bc as most people say, ignorance is bliss, and he wishes he could’ve went through the same thing and be ignorant, too. but nah. he had to be the one ( or at least in his pov ) with ‘’eyes open’’ to how cruel / ugly society is. 

   ok then ... tooru aka @/vanishedstar. call it a coping thing or w/e but he projects himself to tooru bc they have similar background stories, difference is tooru was BORN with a quirk but taken from him and he’s full of love, whilst deck was born without and is just ... full of anger and wrath. he, like most people, sees him as nothing else but a stepping stone. bc like he can’t accomplish EVERYTHING alone, like alone in the literal sense so ofc he gets people as ‘ puppeteers ‘ them to follow his plan just so he could achieve his goal. since he’s already quirkless like him he trains him and teaches him how to fight physically and tells him w/e he knows. basically he molds him into someone like him, but like, the weaker version, bc he doesn’t want someone to outsmart him or run higher than him. think like ... a little student. or a little brother that he teaches idk XDD he’s always another proof / verification to his belief that people look on quirks, not the actual person. the fact that most ppl left him after he’s gone quirkless just seconds it tbh.

    ahmya. ... aka @/eyepsyche. this relationship is INCREDIBLY toxic and pure stockholm not going to lie. her quirk is EXTREMELY useful to him bc she can gather a lot of info and see a lot of things abt a person, and though deck can do that himself, she can gather so much more info for him and that just adds up to his knowledge. useful, right? she’s reluctant sometimes or at least at first, but deck REFUSES to let her go. and it’s not because he ... loves her or anything. he does’t have any feelings for her he just finds her very, very useful. think like an expensive knife or w/e that you’re not willing to lose. that expensive tech pen you keep in your case that other ppl might not see as much. ahmya, prior to meeting deck, was just a regular girl w/ no ‘purpose’ and deck gives her that .... the purpose being a huge stepping stone so he can accomplish what he must ^_^ SMSLGLS it’s incredibly disgusting of him tbh but he’s that desperate to finish what he wants to anyway and he has little to no care about others so what gives, right? he treats her like a pet, gives her constant validation that’s fake just so she could depend on him and all that. it’s pure ... nasty.but that honestly just shows his true nature of being a manipulative, toxic, selfish bastard.

   then there’s nooni aka @/creepquirk! much like ahmya and tooru, deck first saw nooni as the same thing : a pawn. a stepping stone. a little doll in his play that’ll help him reach what he wants. but there was just something about nooni that just ... opened somthing in him tbh. bc nooni was like, similar to deck in some ways, wanting to be a hero but society pushing you away. he stripped her off of that dream while she could still live it and dragged her to his own hell. but the thing was, somehow in the league, nooni ... still had that bit of hope of becoming a hero despite everything and tbh?? tbh?????????????? deck .. adores that. ofc he doesn’t show it on the outside bc hes a XDD tsundere bitch. no im kidding deck isn’t one to like be vulnerable or w/e but nooni was just so different to him bc she handles everything way better than him and this and that that just made him care deeply about her...n honestly? he regrets pulling/dragging her down and sometimes wish she couldve lived her dream instead and become that part he wish he could’ve become, but he finds himself unable to turn back despite being knee deep into everything while she still has a chance. tbh i cant put it all into words bc not even deck could, he’s that much of a mess that sometimes i can’t even decipher him bc he’s a complex chara tbh, but basically he just sees her as some kind of inspiration.

   then theres XDD villain todo who’s dead but idc i love their relationship. tbh they’re your typical little shits in love but like it’s not shown. todo and deck are similar in the way that they’re both wanting to get revenge on a particular someone ( his dad and for him katsu/all might ) so he can.. emphasize with him on that. maybe sometimes he even uses him bc lbr, todo is EXTREMELY powerful and clever for his age, but ofc that’s a hassle bc like i said, he’s intelligent, but not enough to the point he has to look down on deck due to being quirkless. he does at first but realizes he’s an excellent strageist so XDDDDDDDDD ok but anyway 2 the gay stuff bc todo is the most confusing person 2 deck ... he acts so kind to him and w/ the aforementioned 2 ura’s, kindness is so fucking foreign to him. maybe not his mom’s, but towards others he ... doesnt know how to handle it???????????????? and sometimes its just so soft and comforting that when it’s given to him he cant help but be addicted??????????????? is it love?? maybe?? maybe not????? love or is this just me desperately wanting affection from someone else?????????????????????? hm! who knwos ^_^ their rs is complicataed n? same.

    ok ( wheeze ) last one ... is mo. mortimer...morty.........or @/noricks........ maybe it’s bc they belong in different universes but like what rick wrote deck just ... sees himself as him. like they’re almost so painfully similar in terms of EVERYTHING except for some few parts. YA their backstories are different but it just ... leads them to the person who ends up sitting on the throne and acting like a god bc ‘’’ God was cruel to them ‘’’ . i went 2 recollection once and the speaker once said if you hate someone, it’s probably bc they remind you of yourself n i think? that just explains why he’ so aggressive towards him sometimes JSMGJS TMHSIMGHSLGKMSKLGM he . hates himself actually. deck i mean. he doesn’t .. he isn’t outwardly proud of what he’s become n bc mo reminds him of THAT it just irks him tbh. but at the same time he respects him bc???????????????? seriously who accomplishes all of this at the age of 14. he’s one of the or maybe the only person he actually respects other than all of the ppl he actually knows now. 

   i might edit this i jus wanna eat Fuck.

#here‚ i’ll tell the tale on how your wings burnt. #long post / #XD anyway. #this is a mess im hurrying up i wanna cook some egg

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND February 22, 2019  - HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY

February comes to an end with the Oscars on Sunday and another family sequel hoping to escape the fate of the disappointing The LEGO Movie 2, plus Fighting with My Family becomes the widest WWE Films release since John Cena’s The Marine back in 2006.

Just a reminder that you can read my box office analysis and predictions over at The Beat, as well as my thoughts on Black Panther’s chances at winning a few Oscars this Sunday.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD (DreamWorks Animation/Universal)

Written and directed by Dean DeBlois (How To Train Your Dragon,How to Train Your Dragon 2) Voice Cast: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrara, F. Murray Abraham, Cate Blanchett, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig, Kit Harrington MPAA Rating: PG

A mere three weeks after the animated sequel The LEGO Movie 2disappointed at the box office, DreamWorks Animation returns with its first movie since 2017’s Captain Underpants, as well as the first movie under its new distribution deal with Universal. It’s also the first movie from DreamWorks Animation sans CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg who left after Comcast bought the company after building it up into quite a brand.

It’s pretty amazing that DreamWorks Animation has gone ahead with this threequel after it’s been delayed seemingly for years, but clearly, Universal/Comcast wanted to get its dragons in a row before bringing them back for an epic finale, especially with the company’s mixed success with their last few offerings. (DWA’s 2017 release The Boss Babyactually did quite well, just slightly less than How to Train Your Dragon 2’s domestic gross.)

The good thing going for the latest How to Train Your Dragonis that DreamWorks Animation has been keeping the franchise alive with a number of animated series that have streamed on Netflix, and kids definitely know these characters well. They’ve also been able to bring back almost all of the cast, including Cate Blanchett, Kit Harrington (from “Game of Thrones”) and introducing F. Murray Abraham as a new villain named Grimmel and a new lady “Light Fury” to match with Hiccup’s dragon pal Toothless. This generally should help revive the animated company who has made such an impact in the early ‘00s. So far, reviews have been far better than anyone expected, and Universal wisely gave the movie a Fandango-only screening a few weeks back where it grossed $2.5 million.

Mini-Review: I’ve seen both the previous How to Train Your Dragon movies, and I liked them just fine, but not enough to warrant a rewatch before the third movie is released five years after the previous one. Fortunately, it doesn’t take long to get up to speed at least in terms of figuring out who everyone is, though it does take some time before it gets into gear as far as storytelling.

Things have settled down at Berk, as Hiccup and his pals continue to save dragons from trappers and being them back to their safe haven, but new villain Grimmel (voiced by F. Murray Abraham) who wants to kill the last of the Night Furies aka Hiccup’s own dragon pal Toothless. In order to do so, he uses a white female “Light Fury” as a honey badger to capture the lovelorn dragon, as well as all the other dragons in Berk.

The problem is that there are way too many unfunny human characters and even more dragons that are hard to keep track of. The film begins by throwing so much at the viewer, but not in a good way, and it took a long time for me to be even vaguely interested in what was happening.  Surprisingly, Abraham makes for an equally bland villain, especially considering how great he’s been in such a role in movies like Amadeus, but the storytelling is obvious and even corny at times that it begins as a disappointing finale to the epic trilogy.

Granted, this is still an amazing technical achievement with all of the colorful environments and creatures, yet the dragons are generally more interesting than the humans, other than maybe Hiccup and his girlfriend Astrid. The dialogue-free moments between Toothless and his paramour tend to work far better than the attempt at getting laughs using the annoying humans.

Where the film really starts picking up steam is in the last act where the action starts to build to a peak, and we’re finally reminded what made the earlier films so special. In some ways, it’s hard to believe a movie that starts off so grueling and boring manages to deliver enough of a third-act payoff to win the viewer over, and it’s quite an amazing recovery to end the series on a high note.

Rating: 6.5/10

FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY (MGM)

Written and Directed by Stephen Merchant (co-creator of “The Office” and “Hey, Ladies!”) Cast: Florence Pugh, Jack Lowden, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Vince Vaughn, Dwayne Johnson MPAA Rating: PG-13

I’ve already written quite a bit about this comedic biopic already between my reviewand my interview with WWE superstar Paige, so I’m not sure how much more I have to say about this film which tells the story of how Paige came to the WWE. Produced by Dwayne Johnson, who also makes a couple appearances in the movie, this is a wonderful film that will definitely appeal to WWE fans, especially those who have been following the Women’s Revolution, but I think it will appeal to others as a fun inspirational story about an outsider making good. The movie opened in New York and L.A. this past weekend, but it will expand nationwide on Friday, and I hope that audience will give it a look, especially with so few strong movies in theaters right now and the box office being so dismal.

LIMITED RELEASES

One of the standouts this weekend is Suzannah Herbert’s doc WRESTLE (Oscilloscope), co-directed by Lauren Belfer, which just won two Hoka Award at the Oxford Film Festival last week, and that’s after winning awards at a number of other festivals. It follows five varsity wrestlers at a small-town Alabama high school who are competing to help take their school to the State Championships, but there’s a lot more at stake than a trophy. Each of the wrestlers has had domestic issues that has made going to college a struggle, and placing in the Championships would give them a chance for scholarships that would make a huge difference in their lives. The movie will open at the Village East Cinemas in New York on Friday with Herbert and Belfer in attendance to discuss this inspirational film. It will then open in L.A. on March 1.

I don’t know much (or actually anything) about the faith-based film RUN THE RACE (Roadside Attractions), hitting select theaters this weekend, but apparently it’s exec. produced by NFL star Tim Tebow and directed by Chris Dowling (Priceless). It involves two brothers dealing with the death of their mother and abandonment by their father as All-State athlete Zach’s hopes of earning a college scholarship are sidelined by an injury. With that, his younger brother David steps up to help get him and his brother out of town to a better future. (Actually, this movie seems to have quite a bit in common with the doc Wrestle.)

Metrograph Pictures makes its debut with its initial release, the French doc The Competition (Le Concours) from filmmaker Claire Simon, marking her first film to get a U.S. theatrical release. It takes a look at the entrance process for the prestigious French film school La Fémis, where hundreds of ambitious filmmakers in all aspects of the craft seek to be taught how to perfect said craft. I have to be honest that as I watched the movie, I didn’t realize it was a doc, because it reminded me of 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute) or The Class, where there was just so much talking and most of it just seemed like pretentious showboating by students trying to impress the entrance panel. In fact, the educators and filmmakers’ reactions to the students is far more interesting, but this only had a few moments that captivated me in its 2-hour running time.  You can find out where else it will play after its Metrograph debut Friday on the Official Site.

Opening at the Cinema Village in New York Friday and in L.A. on March 1 is Barry Avrich’s doc Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz, which takes a look at the last surviving prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trial who continues to fight for the law and peace.

Opening in Texas Friday (and expanding to other markets over the coming weeks including even MORE Texas theaters on March 1) is Ty Roberts’ adaptation of Tom Pendleton’s 1966 novel The Iron Orchard (Santa Rita Film Co.), starring Lane Garrison as Jim McNeely, a young man thrown into the brutal world of the West Texas oilfields in 1939, shortly after the Great Depression.

Lastly, there’s Stuart McKenzie and Miranda Harcourt’s adaptation of Margaret Mahy’s novel The Changeover (Vertical), starring Erana James as 16-year-old Laura Chant who lives with her mother (the always wonderful Melanie Lynskey) and four-year-old brother Jacko in a poor suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand and ends up in a supernatural battle with a spirit draining the life out of Jacko. Also starring Tim Spall, it opens in select theaters and On Demand Friday.

LOCAL FESTIVALS

A couple festivals and film series worth nothing is the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Neighboring Scenes: New Latin American Cinema, presented with Cinema Tropical, which will include Belmonte   from Uruguay, Carlos Reygadas’ Our Time, and many other films, none of which I’ve seen.

Also, the 22nd New York International Children’s Film Festivalbegins on Friday, running through March 17, opening with the East Coast Premiere of Chiwetel Ejiofor’s directorial debut The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which will also premiere on Netflix on March 1. The festival will be spread out across the city from the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyin to the IFC Center to the Cinepolis Chelsea, Quad Cinema, SVA Theater and even the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria. You can find out more about the films and schedule on the Official Site.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Fresh from its Sundance premiere, Mark Duplass continues his relationship with Netflix, appearing with Ray Romano in Alex (Blue Jay) Lehmann’s PADDLETON, in which Duplass plays a man diagnosed with terminal cancer who asks his neighbor (Romano) to end his life before he dies from cancer.

This week’s foreign Netflix offering is Elizabeth Vogler’s French film Paris is Us, which involves a woman named Anna who misses her flight to Barcelona, which she misses, which starts her questioning reality and her relationships.

Because HBO is picking up so many great films out of festivals, I’m going to include them here whenever I can. Who knows? Maybe someone at HBO will see this and hook-up with a free HBO Now account. (And I’ll accept free Hulu, Amazon and Showtime accounts and any others while we’re at it, if those companies want to be included.)

One of my favorite films from last year’s Tribeca Film Festival was Madeleine Sackler’s O.G. starring Jeffrey Wright (who won an award for his acting) as former gangleader and lifelong inmate Louis, who is coming to the end of his 24-year sentence, when he takes the younger Beecher (Theothus Carter) under his wing, trying to keep him from him following the same downwards path he took. You can read more about my thoughts on the movie in my Tribeca Film Festival diary. O.G. will premiere on HBO this Saturday.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Produced by David O. Selznick concludes this week with screenings of The Third Man, Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound and one last screening of Rebecca, plus the Metrograph’s Valentine’s Day offerings continue, including Casablanca  (1942) and Heaven Can Wait (1943). Late Nites at Metrograph is the Anime Ghost in the Shell (1995) and the Playtime: Family Matinees  is Disney-Pixar’s Oscar-winning Inside Out (2015)

QUAD CINEMA  (NYC):

The Goldblum Variations concludes with screenings of The Life Aquatic of Steven Zissou (Thurs.), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Fri.) and Earth Girls are Easy, but there’s also the week-long New York premiere of the 2k restoration of Joan (Hester Street) Silver’s 1977 movie Between the Lines  (Cohen Film Collection), also starring Goldblum, along with John Heard, Lindsay Crouse and more.

THE NEW BEVERLY  (L.A.):

Another busy weekend at Tarantino’s repertory theater with a number of Burt Reynolds double features, Hooper (1978)and Physical Evidence (1989) on Weds. and Thurs, plus his 1977 movies Smokey and the Bandit and Semi-Tough on Friday and Saturday. This weekend’s midnight movies are Tarantino’s Oscar-winning Pulp Fiction on Friday and the 1972 concert film Fillmore on Saturday.  The Kiddee Matinee of the weekend is Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis’ 3-Ring Circus (1954), and then Sunday and Monday, there’s a double feature of Sandra Dee’s Gidget  (1959) and Dick Clark’s Because they’re Young (1960). The Monday Matinee is Bill Duke’s 1992 thriller Deep Cover, starring Laurence Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum, and Tuesday night’s Grindhouse offering is Burt Reynolds’ 1987 movie Malone and his 1986 film Heat. (All that Burt Reynodls movies makes me want to live in L.A.!)

FILM FORUM (NYC):

The downtown rep theater presents the 5 ½-hour version of Bernardo Bertolluci’s 1976 drama 1900, which will be shown in two parts, and this weekend’s Film Forum Jr. is the 1953 sci-fi thriller The War of the Worlds in a new 4k restoration.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

The Egyptian screens Death in Venice (1971) on Thursday, as part of the Luchino Visconti: Cinematic Nobility series.

AERO  (LA):

On Saturday night, the Aero is screening a triple feature of Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm (1979) – with Coscarelli and producer Paul Pepperman in attendance -- along with Three O’Clock High (1987) and 10 to Midnight  (1983), as part of its Cinematic Void 2019 series. Otherwise, the theater seems to be playing Jean-Luc Godard’s The Image Bookaround the clock.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Waverly Midnights: The Feds continues with John Woo’s Face/Off (1997), starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, Weekend Classics: Early Godard will screen the classic Band of Outsiders  (1964) Friday through Sunday, while Late Night Favorites will once again show Ridley Scott’s Alien. (It really IS a Late Night Favorite!)

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

On Friday at Midnight, the Nuart will show Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy, starring Nicolas Cage.

FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER(NYC):

Sergey Bondarchuk’s epic 1968 film War and Peace continues to run (in four installments) through Thursday.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

Starting Friday, BAM starts its ten-day Living with the Dead: The Films of George Romero, commemorating the life and career of one of the greatest horror filmmakers of all time, the late George Romero. It will be held together by a new 2K restoration of his 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, which will screen Friday night, Saturday afternoon and on Feb. 28. Other movies in the series include Dawn of the Dead  (1978), Day of the Dead  (1985), The Crazies  (1973), Monkey Shinesand some of Romero’s newer films. The series will also have special guests like Romero’s daughter Tina Romero and producer Richard Rubenstein over the course of the series.

MOMA (NYC):

Modern Matinees: Sir Sidney Poitier offers Norman Jewison’s In the Heat of the Night  (1967) on Weds, Blackboard Jungle  (1955) on Thurs and Stanley Kramer’s The Defiant Ones (1958) on Friday.

That’s it for this week… next week, Tyler Perry’s Madea is back in Tyler Perry’s A Madea Family Funeral, presumably the last Madea movie ever… be afraid and glad at the same time! Also, Neil Jordan returns with the psychological thriller Greta.

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