#whole drama was silly and contrived and she deserved better

[mistwraiths]

3 stars

The Last Hours has to be the most dramatic, messiest, frustrating trilogy CC has written so far. It's funny to me particularly since I didn't like TID much nor do I like Will Herondale or Tessa, but I don't remember being particularly so frustrated. Chain of Thorns is a better book than Chain of Iron in my opinion, it doesn't feel as long and boring as COI did. But there is still FAR too much unnecessary drama and miscommunication to this series.

For me there was only three characters I loved very dearly and were rooting for the entire time. Grace Blackthorn, Alistair Carstairs, and Christopher Lightwood. I loved Grace from the beginning and I will defend her with my dying breath, I loved every part she had in this book. Alistair has come a long way and I loved his character arc. And then, tragedy struck.

I KNEW someone was going to die. There's always a death of the main group, I knew it was coming. My money was on Matthew. It honestly made sense to me that he, being one of the unconnected to another character except for James, along with him suffering through withdrawals and going to Edom where he was not expected to go. It would have been a bit poetic since James' father Will had experienced something similar. But instead, CC kills off Christopher Lightwood.

I was shocked and furious, and I could have possibly accepted it better if it felt like any of the characters grieved or felt something for more than a page or two and then a half-hearted mention later. You're telling me that someone they've known their ENTIRE LIVES, someone who was so kind and genius, that you can't spare more than a mention here or there or GIVE GRIEF FOR HIM ON ACTUAL PAGES?? Instead, I have to read a whole intermission chapter on someone grieving TWO CHARACTERS WHO ARE ALIVE AND MADE A CHOICE (one they didn't have much choice but still) TO GO TO EDOM??? It felt like a slap to the face, an insult to the character. Grace and Christopher deserved to be a science nerds together. Of course the magic sword conveniently couldn't help heal and Lucie's powers to talk and raise the dead conveniently only worked on specific circumstances.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's discuss other things. The whole Belial plot felt super weak to me. He wants to possess James to walk on earth and become King of England?? Sir aren't you a fallen angel?? A Prince of Hell? Shouldn't your goal be more I WILL KILL SHADOWHUNTERS AND BURN THE EARTH or something?? Belial was also just all talk. He hardly ever really felt like a THREAT. Like oh shit this guy is going to SLAUGHTER people. I did like the part of him burning through the hosts because that felt horrific and violent and proper Prince of Hell stuff. Also the whole traveling to Edom's capital was very boring.

The whole Cortana sword having some paladin bond to heal the wounds it creates felt so ridiculously contrived and stupid to me. I can get behind a healing sword. I can get behind the sword only healing its paladin. But only healing the wounds it creates is so silly and only felt necessary to have this plot finished with the HEA intact. I knew James wouldn't die since we learned that he's alive to see Will pass away from old age. But honestly??? I think it would have been a very good ending if he had died. It would have had an impact.

Cordelia was overall a very average heroine for me, I don't think she's particularly my favorite mostly because of the drama and lies and miscommunication and pride/fear of being pitied. For the life of me, I don't understand why Lucie and her became parabatai. What deep friendship do they have because we certainly see no evidence of it. I did like James and Cordelia a little better when all that nonsense was finished, but again they don't have chemistry to me and their bond seems only physical to me.

I think I was a bit irritated that I'm being told after the bracelet is broken and done having been a plot device for two books, that it has had all these effects that we don't particularly get to see. Most everyone didn't understand James being in love with Grace but like... Grace was also secluded from everyone and they knew he spent summers with her. That to me personally isn't enough evidence to say "the bracelet kept you from considering it". Like I would have liked to see some examples of them thinking about it and becoming fuzzy or distracted or something. Also, we don't really get a chance to see James BEFORE the bracelet so telling me it utterly changed how he was/acted gives me nothing if I never knew him in the first place??

My heart goes out to Matthew it does but again, it very much felt like he didn't have much of an importance to the whole story. Which again, begs the question why wasn't he killed. It just blows my mind that Belial just allowed him to stay.

I actually really loved Jesse in the first two books but not only was he kind of boring and pushed to the side in this one, his attitude towards Grace really pissed me off. Jesse more than anyone should know how awful his mother could be and Grace was a CHILD and had to live with her. When she tells him everything, he reacts so poorly. Like, of course he can be upset, but GRACE IS YOUR SISTER AND A VICTIM. Like??? It made me so angry. Even Cordelia had better grace than her own brother.

I'm happy that Grace, Alistair, Thomas, Anna, and Ari get to be happy. Justice for Malcolm Fade in this book. I understand the whole interrogation thing with Tessa and Will and the others keeping such huge secrets. We know the truth that they are well-meaning but no one else does. There is a huge favoritism and lying doesn't give anyone a reason to trust. Would it have caused tension to be truthful? Yes. But it would have allowed trust and good faith. But of course obviously it all happened very conveniently to get everyone authoritative and Jem out of London and The Silent City so no one could stop the kids.

Overall, this book at least felt like everything was moving forward at a better pace and it was an okay ending.

#chain of thorns #cassandra clare #steph's book review #book review #steph reads #2023 reads

[opalsiren]

evie is so fucking cool. she owns and operates the little boutique at the café, pulls near perfect grades to keep her scholarship, is a diving expert, the editor of the school magazine, and one of the only people suspicious enough about principal's santos's mysterious nieces and their carry on to actually ask questions. she's friendly and bubbly and smart and confident, but she will fuck your shit up if you test her. best character on mako mermaids methinks

#she sort of reminds me of cleo but cooler. and also a little bit like charlotte #she also really helps to humanize zac during his earlier antics. also zac really should have told her he was a merman way earlier. that #whole drama was silly and contrived and she deserved better #mako mermaids #evie mclaren #queue #.txt

[miraculouscontent]

All the thoughts:

First off, the plan.

I don’t get Shadow Moth’s plan or Optigami in general. Like, it was already weird that we had the phone that picked up on a kwami’s voice (I’ll hold my tongue on that one until we have all the episodes that take place before this, though my hopes aren’t high), but both Optigami and the phone happening in the same episode when it’s been resaid in this season that kwami can’t be seen/heard by technology is just silly. I get that Optigami is a sentimonster so it’s “magic technology,” but I dunno, something feels weird about it.

The reason I bring it up is because what’s shown contradicts what happens later in the episode. The footage shown by Optigami shows Carapace de-transforming and Wayzz popping out of the miraculous right afterwards, but when Senti!Carapace and Rena Rouge detransform at the end of the episode, the kwami don’t pop out. The former is also consistent with most detransformations; the kwami usually pops out (for the easiest reference, the beginning of “Miraculer” does this with both Alya and Nino, and Alya detransforming in “Gang of Secrets” also does this).

I presume this was done to force Ladybug to use her Lucky Charm in order to figure out that Senti!Nino was Shadow Moth’s sentimonster, because otherwise I just imagine Wayzz popping out to complain that there’s something in his miraculous and how it isn’t even paying rent.

Gabriel also non-subtly invites “everyone” to the event, yet “everyone” apparently only means conveniently the people who Shadow Moth knows as heroes, plus Marinette for no explained reason whatsoever. Chat Noir could’ve even noted after the fact that everyone invited were past heroes (because he knows Multimouse and probably wouldn’t think “wait, that doesn’t make sense--”), or the characters themselves could’ve noticed it, but that would’ve meant the show pointing out the blatant plothole that Marinette is lobbed in there. This could’ve also been a chance for the characters to all establish, “hey, we were heroes!” and have a cool camaraderie between them (presuming they know that they were outed), but instead they serve no purpose beyond being essentially background characters for Style Queen to tick off like a checklist. They had the perfect moment to do something to give everyone more character and they wasted it to do an unneeded scene of Alya trying to shove Marinette towards Adrien (I’ll get there).

It also puzzles me that Gabriel’s plan was to cause an akuma that would force Ladybug to bring another miraculous when...

Style Queen didn’t cause her to do that?? Now, if one isn’t really thinking (like it seems the writers didn’t) and/or only vaguely remembers the episode (i.e: that Chloe got a miraculous and Queen Bee/Wasp is the immediate follow-up), then they’ll recall that Ladybug did indeed go to Master Fu’s to get a miraculous, but only did she not need it in the end, the reason the Lucky Charm sent her there in the first place was to get Plagg, i.e: the cat.

And yes, Shadow Moth does have Style Queen glitter the building so that no one can get in, which ends up blocking Chat Noir off, but that only works if he knows that Ladybug is in the building but not Chat.

Speaking of Ladybug, and this one is more of a nitpick, but she delays using Miraculous Ladybug and I feel like it could’ve been done better, like if she went to use it but stopped herself because something didn’t feel right, but instead she points out the weirdness of not using her Lucky Charm while not thinking further on it until she sees the handshake. Regardless of the comments she makes towards the Lucky Charm, the episode leaves a weird feeling of, “Why haven’t you used Miraculous Ladybug yet? The akuma is gone.” Marinette even saw the sentimonster, which clearly isn’t Style Queen, yet the episode forgets about it because--oh wait, it was just there to build up to an attempted identity reveal that went nowhere.

So, yeah--the elevator...

Say it with me: it’s stupid, it’s pointless, it makes no sense, it serves no meaning to the plot, its only roles in the episode is for love square fuel and to embarrass Marinette.

And on that last note, I know I said I’d keep quiet on the phone, but I swear, if it’s not explained in any form why the kwami can communicate with her, then it was literally just invented so that it could startle/embarrass her.

Also, to the surprise of no one, the kwami who live with her still don’t understand how to deal with her. :|

Not only does the scene draaaaag and the chances of Adrien and Marinette not only thinking of the same hiding place (an elevator, something that both makes no sense because Style Queen can easily pop up if she hears the elevator, but also that they rarely ever choose as a transforming spot; in fact, I can’t think of a time they’ve chosen an elevator??), but also happening to pick the same elevator.

As for it making no sense, the identity reveal was completely unnecessary. Either of them telling the other their identity would’ve done nothing, and even if they planned to tell the other to block the eyes watching them so they could transform, it wouldn’t matter, because that just makes it obvious what they’re doing. Plus, if the concern was needing to tell the other so they could get out of the elevator somehow, then there would’ve been no reason not to tell them after the eyes were gone. Marinette could’ve texted Alya at any time when they were being quiet.

And as if the setup wasn’t already contrived enough, Nathalie takes far too long to leave Adrien and Marinette alone. Optigami goes into the elevator on Nathalie’s orders (which is the whole thing that makes the two go quiet and consider doing a reveal in the first place), and it takes fourty seconds before Nathalie finally notes that it’s just Adrien and Marinette. Like, unless she got up to make a sandwich before she analyzed the footage, I just--???

Anyway, the last thing to really talk about is Alya and oh my gosh, the sheer amount of double standards here...

Like, just starting with the scene where Alya physically shoves Marinette towards the elevator, despite Marinette’s protests, it just makes me shake my head all the more, especially after “Mr. Pigeon 72.” I already knew the show wasn’t going to follow up on the whole “when you’re ready” stuff in “Gang of Secrets,” and “Mr. Pigeon 72″ just forwarded that with Alya immediately pressing for Adrien, but I didn’t expect Alya to try and force things this hard.

Just gonna add as well that both Luka and Kagami saw Alya do this, which would’ve been a great opportunity for it to trigger alarm bells for both of them (Luka going, “oh, it’s no wonder Marinette struggles with Adrien when--” and Kagami like, “hey this is familiar, almost like Marinette thought it was okay because it happens to her all the time and maybe I should step in to say something”; by the way, for those who want another fix-it, yeah, that’d what it’d be), because Marinette was literally totally fine until Alya tried to force the matter.

But again, blatant show of “fine if it’s for the love square, not fine if it’s not.”

And after “Mr. Pigeon 72″ and now this, do the writers really think that I wasn’t going to notice the fact that Marinette is only getting the “damsel in distress” role now that the kwami and Alya are conveniently there to save her? It’s like they knew the backlash that would happen from Marinette telling Alya her identity (the rightfully deserved backlash, not even because of the identity thing - I understand narratively that Marinette was at her breaking point, though the timing is awful - but because Alya was like--one of the worst choices), so they decided to justify it by having Marinette be put into peril multiple times this season to the degree where Alya would have to swoop in and save her. Essentially, they’re nerfing their protagonist and forcing her into these situations to lift Alya up and make Alya look like a better/more intelligent friend.

Marinette didn’t need a confidant because she was constantly one step away from danger, she needed one emotionally, yet now the show has been continuously letting Alya figure out important guardian matters and saving Marinette’s backside because apparently, “Marinette is more emotionally stable now that she has someone who knows her secret,” wasn’t enough. Handing Alya the win on Lila and either ignoring or excusing all of her past actions to make her look good wasn’t enough.

Trying to make everything about Adrien instead of Marinette wasn’t enough. Now they’re throwing in Alya and giving her stuff to do while Marinette sits idly and just waits to be saved. Yes, Marinette ultimately does the most in the end and Alya screws up, but what happens?

Alya gets rewarded for it. She gets to have the fox miraculous given to her permanently, which the narrative lowkey chided Marinette for not doing (with Trixx’s snippy comments and Alya pulling a “Gang of Secrets” where she’s suddenly 100% “on Marinette’s side” so that it makes it feel like she deserves whatever she’s going to be given). The show is both setting Marinette up to fail so they can continue having their drama (regardless of how well permanent Rena Rouge goes, they wanted to leave the episode on a cliffhanger) and getting on her case for breathing while rewarding other characters after they’ve failed.

Which, spoiler alert for the next episode, ends up working out, thus making it the “”“right”““ decision. Apparently Marinette is meant to suffer and be given all these consequences/embarrassment when she screws up, but people like Adrien Alya get rewarded and given a free pass to do whatever they want with no consequences (Marinette doesn’t even remotely get on Alya’s case or be upset that Alya made decisions without her; even Fu gave Marinette, Tikki, and Plagg a look in “Sandboy” and made them explain/apologize; but of course, that’s because Marinette was involved, I guess).

And... look, it’d be one thing for Marinette to want an understudy, or to want someone to have a permanent miraculous as a form of protection in case she needs it, but Alya wasn’t even suspicious when Senti!Nino didn’t give her their usual high-five. Alya claims to be this great reporter and tries to imply in “Gang of Secrets” that she suddenly knows all things about Marinette, yet doesn’t change her expression at all when the person she thinks is her boyfriend gives her a regular high-five instead of the one they made up? I guess the show wanted to give Ladybug something more after Alya and Kaalki did a chunk of the work, but if they wanted to present Alya as a worthy guardian, then that should’ve set off red flags, especially after the whole Ladybug reveal and Alya realizing that Lila’s full of it (which I know still hasn’t been shown but if she’s gonna be Ladybug’s confidant then she has to step up her suspicion game).

Like, I don’t know if they’re just trying to have Alya work off any bad things that the fandom might have on her, but with this episode and the next episode, it just feels like they want Alya to stay in the role that she had with Marinette: the “Alya knows best, is presented as a supportive friend, and has a leg up on Marinette in terms of mental/power dynamic.”

Because, despite knowing that she’s Ladybug now, Alya’s relationship with Marinette really hasn’t changed. She’s still forcing Marinette into situations with Adrien, she’s still got the doubtful eyebrow raise whenever Marinette does “Marinette things,” and Alya still has the, “I got you, girl!” attitude about everything, even if she really doesn’t have Marinette’s back in the right way. Heck, even the kwami (or at least Trixx) seems to go to Alya over Marinette, the kwami themselves just whining and behaving like children around Marinette herself.

At this point, why not just hand Alya the ladybug earrings and call it a day? If Alya’s not only an understudy for being guardian but is also apparently going to keep saving Marinette, she’s clearly “better,” and that moment with Senti!Nino ended up getting her rewarded, why not just let Marinette hand over the metaphorical mantle and be officially stress-free? Then Paris would have a “““non-clumsy, less emotional, less anxious”““ Ladybug.

Well, because that would mean lessening Marinette’s suffering and the show would be over without that. *sigh*

I don’t know, it’s just upsetting. It’s the "Malediktator”/”Gang of Secrets” thing where Marinette tries to follow something she’s been taught by other characters (who are presented as wiser than her) and it ends up blowing up in her face. “No permanent miraculouses” wasn’t her rule - it was Fu’s - and then the show immediately chides her for it.

Basically, Marinette tries to make her own decisions and it blows up in her face. Marinette tries to follow her own rules and it blows up in her face. It’s the love square all over again: she can’t confess to Adrien, but she can’t move on either.

That’s why “Optigami” is so insulting. It puts its double standards on display for the world to see and sets things up to go exactly the way it wants with no regard to making sense or working to an interesting story.

#category: salt #episode: Optigami #other: ask and answer #((Wanted to wait for ''Sentibubbler'' because ohhhh boy.)) #((*sigh*))

[kayskasmoviereviews]

Late Summer Catch-up

Quick reviews of a number of films I saw in the last month or so.

Little Women (1994) - Surprisingly, my first time encountering the narrative of Little Women in any form. I can’t compare this version to any other or to the book, but it seemed pretty great in its own right. Charming work by a large, excellent cast, including Winona Ryder, Christian Bale, Kirsten Dunst, Gabriel Byrne, Susan Sarandon, and others. I admired the film’s reverent but lively approach to its story.

March of the Penguins - Man, those poor little penguins. This is an amazing document of one of the absolute harshest things in nature. I’m glad I’m not a penguin - it seems like far too much work.

Their Finest - A thoroughly enjoyable film about a young woman’s particular contribution to the British war effort in World War II: she helps to write the screenplay for a film meant to help the nation’s morale. The film is a funny, smart, and sometimes quite moving look at the ways in which people have to work together and believe in certain ideals in order to win a war.

Thelma - An excellent, original, utterly hypnotic drama/thriller from Norwegian director Joachim Trier. I don’t want to give anything way, but I highly recommend this movie, which blends genre elements into a metaphorical take on sexuality. Eili Harboe is great in the title role. The movie has echoes of certain classics, including Carrie, but it’s still very much its own thing.

The Founder - This is a slick, entertaining bio-pic about Ray Kroc, the man who, starting in the 1950s, turned McDonald’s into the global fast-food franchise we all know today. Michael Keaton gives one of his best recent performances as the fast-talking and unscrupulous Kroc. Kroc was clearly not always an honest or decent businessman, but his impact on the way we live now is undeniably huge.

Early Man - Another delightful, earnest, visually amazing, and incredibly silly movie from Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park. The film is even goofier and broader than any of his earlier films, but that basic silliness is part of its charm.  Aardman Studio’s lovingly-crafted stop-motion animation never, ever gets old.

Lucky - An utterly perfect career capstone for the late character actor Harry Dean Stanton. You’ve probably seen Stanton in films and shows like Alien, The Straight Story, and Twin Peaks: The Return, but he almost never got leading roles, and certainly never one as tailor-made for him as this one. He plays a cantankerous old man in a small Western town, going about his life with stubborn independence. Stanton should’ve gotten an Oscar nomination for this role. Plus, the movie has an appearance by David Lynch in which he delivers a very passionate monologue about a tortoise. What else could you want?

Gifted - This melodrama with McKenna Grace as a little girl who happens to be a math genius and Chris Evans as her regular-guy uncle is a textbook example of a pretty good, but not great, film. The plot takes turns that are clearly outrageous in a realistic sense and that are obviously contrived for maximum dramatic impact, but the performances are so good and so likable that the movie kind of works anyway.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard - This movie should have been good, but alas really isn’t. It has two wonderful actors, Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds, who are both given lesser versions of shtick from previous movies to do in a generic plot. Jackson is just doing a broader, dumber version of Jules from Pulp Fiction, while Reynolds is doing Diet Deadpool. There’s a pretty good and intense chase sequence towards the end, but that’s not enough to recommend the movie as a whole.

Happy Death Day - I enjoyed every minute of this knowingly goofy slasher twist on Groundhog Day. The premise - a sorority girl keeps re-living the same day, which always ends in her getting murdered by a masked maniac - is clever, and the movie wrings a lot of dark humor and thrills out of the idea. The old slasher tropes lost their power to be truly scary a long time ago, but they can still be a lot of fun in the hands of smart filmmakers.

Land Ho! - Eh, this small-scale character study about two older ex-brothers-in-law going on vacation in Iceland is agreeable, but it’s neither hilarious nor particularly profound. It’s a quiet and decent-enough movie, but doesn’t make too much of a lasting impression.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle - Okay, so I do have to admit that this movie turned out better than I expected it to, but I do still have some criticisms. This film goes for more of a straight comedy tone than the Robin Williams original did, and it’s fairly successful at doing so. Jack Black in particular gives his best purely comedic performance in years, but Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan all do solid work too. My biggest complaint is that, for a movie with the Jumanji name, it doesn’t actually have as much animal action as it should. One of the big challenges they have to face is just a bunch of faceless henchmen on motorcycles. Really? Motorcycles? Where are the lions?!

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints - I finally got around to seeing David Lowery’s first film, after really liking his Pete’s Dragon and thinking his A Ghost Story was one of the best films of 2017. This debut film isn’t quite as cohesive as Pete’s Dragon or as memorable and profound as A Ghost Story, but it’s still clearly the work of a talented and sensitive filmmaker with a real poetic sensibility. Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara both do solid work here, as does the always-underappreciated Keith Carradine. 

Hidden Figures - This is, for better and worse, pretty much exactly the movie I expected it to be. It tells the genuinely interesting and worthy story of three African American women who worked at NASA in the 1950s and early 1960s and had to deal with entrenched racism and sexism as they worked to help America win the space race. It’s a handsomely made movie with genuinely fantastic performances by Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monae. On the other hand, it’s also utterly conventional in its style, and the ways in which it manipulates the true story for dramatic convenience and panders to the modern audience are pretty obvious. It’s a nice, accessible movie about people who definitely deserved to have a movie made about them, but it’s not artistically ground-breaking.

Battle of the Sexes - Similar to Hidden Figures in some ways, this is a nice, appealing, conventional movie about historically significant people. The movie focuses on the much-hyped 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell). The movie clearly emphasizes the patronizing sexism that King had to face, and gives a surprising amount of attention to her secret same-sex relationship with Marilyn Barnett. It’s actually one of the more sustained depictions of a lesbian relationship I’ve seen in a big Hollywood movie, and the film deserves some credit for that. Steve Carell is pretty funny as Riggs, though he is understandably more of a supporting character here.