#for University stuff not about the live action adaptation

[salamander-does-art]

Christening the new tablet with old reliable 🙌✨

#I am SO excited for this year you have no idea #for University stuff not about the live action adaptation #I’m actually really pissed off about that #like fuck off why is that necessary #also the last live action dreamworks production was 2011s Hop 👀 #I don’t have high hopes #how to train your dragon #httyd toothless #httyd

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

The Current event makes me smile since it kind of confirms a headcanon I had that the Great Seven have animated movies based on them. Makes me wonder about the plot of the movies

Disney should get on the Twisted Wonderland AU Animated Remakes. What is Ursula was a good witch, what if Scar was right to take the throne and did he take it from Mufasa? (Or whoever is the stand in for him)

The Evil/Beautiful Queen...actually GOOD?

Yeah, it makes sense! Since the Great Seven are historical figures and the stuff of legends, surely there would be popular media made in their image. It’s like how the Disney fairy tales borrow from stories in the public domain or how there are historical retellings and reinventions (Hamilton, anyone?).

I believe TWST has mentioned films based on their own stories and history before too, but purely in the animated sense rather than live action. In book 3, Ace and one of the Atlantica Museum guards talk about an animated movie based on the tale of the mermaid princess and her prince; this movie is said to have come out ~30 years ago, which corresponds with Disney’s animated The Little Mermaid. Ace compliments the movie’s soundtrack too way to stroke your own ego, Disney/j.

Later on in Tapis Rouge, the characters discuss other films based on the Great Seven, including one Queen of Hearts movie. A Sea Witch movie is also mentioned; in it, she “goes gigantic” and also sings as she brews potions. The Octatrio quite enjoy this particular film.

(Side note: Another anon once suggested to me that people probably also write fanfics of Neige and Vil since they’re celebrities… Think like “My mom sold me to One Direction?!” Wattpad kinds of fics, but replace One Direction with Vil or something. You can read those post here!)

It’s… interesting this event specifically has Vil promoting a live action adaption of an in-universe animated film about the Beautiful Queen—an animated film which was the first full-color animated movie AND it originally released close to 90 years ago. They also reference the funding issues that Disney suffered while producing Snow White + inviting bank employees in to preview the movie to acquire more investments, stating that the studio that made the animated Beautiful Queen experienced the same. The in-game live action is even slated to come out “NEXT YEAR”. They’re not being subtle here with TWST’s references to their own version of the irl Disney Snow White (the live action is coming out in 2025, the OG is also almost 90 years old, etc.). I wonder if the EN server will actually get Tapis Rouge around the time of the irl release of Disney’s live action Snow White as part of a promotional campaign? 😂

UPDATE: There are even more not-so-subtle references to Disney animations in part 4 of the event, including discussion of cel animation, rotoscoping, adding blush to the characters, and how Disney brought in real animals/observed the “real thing” to help with animating similar scenes or subjects. They also cheekily say that most animation nowadays is CG 💀

I know some books under Disney publishing try to show alternate tellings or show the villains in a more sympathetic light, but I don’t know that they would ever commit to fully animating a film like that. It definitely would not happen in the style of traditional animation, Disney no longer seems well-equipped to handle that task 😔 I feel like it would also be pretty niche or might not get overwhelming positive reception with recent audience calls for “true bad guys” instead of twist or sympathetic villains (though I’m not sure what percentage of people watching Disney actually have this opinion).

I do wonder how those “AU” films would work though…? It wouldn’t be as simple as suddenly turning the G7 into “good guys”. The scenario and other characters would also have to drastically change. TWST doesn’t necessarily make the original “good guys” “bad” in a world where the villains are historical figures; we still hear plenty of positive or neutral stories about the achievements of the mermaid princess and other Disney heroes.

There are also times when the same story diverges into multiple separate stories that seemingly have no connection to one another. For example, there is a story where a princess marries a street rat (clearly referencing Aladdin) and they live happily ever after in spite of the difference in their social statuses. However, there simultaneously exists a story in which the Sorcerer of the Sands saves a princess from being deceived by a fake prince (also referencing Aladdin). The same goes for the mermaid princess (Ariel)—there is both a story referring to a “mermaid princess” who married a human prince and also a different story (clearly still pulled from the same film) about a mermaid who made a deal with the Sea Witch to find true love but broke her contract in the end.

Very cool idea, just not sure where it would lead or it it’s feasible or worth it monetarily for Disney.

#twisted wonderland #twst #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst #Vil Schoenheit #Evil Queen #Snow White #notes from the writing raven #fapis rouge in the shaftlands spoilers #Hamilton #Neige LeBlanche #twst en #twisted wonderland en #The Little Mermaid #Ariel #Ursula #Jafar #Aladdin #book 3 spoilers #Ace Trappola #Azul Ashengrotto #Tweels #Octavinelle #Jade Leech #Floyd Leech

[snapscube]

So you mentioned the Amazing Spider-man movies, what are your thoughts on them? For me; I was pleasantly surprised by 1 AND 2. Like 2 is bad, real bad, but the jokes were legit, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are just...an amazing on screen couple and until the transformation Harry is a really fun villain....just sucks that most of the movie is exposition about peoples relationships to one another or experiments done mostly off screen.

TASM1 is perfectly serviceable as a standalone project and was definitely not the worst jumping off point, but it struggles to really properly understand Spider-Man/Peter as a personality. Peter absolutely doesn't have to be a goody two-shoes loser, all of the best adaptations of Peter imo can have some serious attitude and grit to their persona, but TASM1 kinda over-corrects on the Tobey Maguire "shy nerd" angle by making Spidey a bit too much of a dick. I remember the movie getting a lot of praise for finally making Spider-Man funny and quippy, praise I similarly gave at the time, but it really... doesn't do that nearly as much as ppl gave it credit for??? There's like ONE scene where Spider-Man is kinda jokey with someone he suspects to be Ben's killer, but that scene kinda stinks because he's not quipping as much as he's like actively cruel lmao. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone had great chemistry though and you can tell Marc Webb knew his stuff when it came to directing that kind of romantic tension, seeing as how his previous project was 500 Days of Summer. All-in-all, it's a Fine movie but it's not a fantastic adaptation of the things I personally like about Spider-Man.

TASM2 is so much more intriguing to me to watch and to talk about. It's genuinely baffling how that movie ended up like it did, but in a way that almost anyone could have predicted. That movie STINKS. It's really really bad. But it also has kind of the opposite problem to TASM1 in that... TASM1 is a good movie that doesn't properly showcase the character of Spider-Man, whereas TASM2 is a garbage movie that features some of the best live action Spider-Man scenes/setpieces we had seen and would ever see to this day. It's sincerely tragic how many great INDIVIDUAL MOMENTS are in that movie, and how loosely connected they are by some monumentally stupid studio meddling. That movie has everything going in its favor with Andrew Garfield in the lead, the best live action Spider-Man suit to this day, the most thrilling and well rendered swinging sequences put to film, and the occasional glimpse of a true Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man that is down on the ground connecting with and watching over not just the city itself but the people within it. There's a montage in the middle of the movie that features Spider-Man on his daily patrol and he comes across as just so PRESENT and on the same level as the people he protects, meanwhile in the audio track you hear newscasters and interviews fiercely debating whether or not what he does is actually worthwhile. And that shit HITS. But unfortunately that kind of stuff is still too rare and it far overshadowed by Sony desperately trying to make a Spidey Cinematic Universe without earning it. Ultimately they had all of the pieces to make a truly definitive adaptation of Spidey that I feel like almost anyone could get behind, but they just... couldn't. Even Spider-Man PS4, commonly lauded as one of the most definitive Spidey stories of all time, uses SO MUCH of the same DNA of the Amazing Spider-Man films, but the difference is that it had the space to be only exactly what it needed to be. Nothing more, nothing less. Anyway I could talk more about this for sure but I'm looking at the length of this write-up and wincing already LOL.

[infriga]

I convinced my mom to try the live action One Piece, because she's the type to like this style of show even though she isn't into animation and would never read manga, but I didn't think I'd be able to convince my dad because he's usually a stickler for more grounded and realistic stories (his favourite genre is war movies, his favourite movie is Saving Private Ryan, for reference). But, when I brought up with him how I figured it probably wouldn't be his thing because it was fantasy, he mentioned to me that he does enjoy some fantastical stuff if it has like an internal universe logic, like Star Wars, and the more I thought about it, the more I remembered that he also enjoys campy fun action adventure stuff that doesn't take itself too seriously like Indiana Jones or Pirates of the Carribean.

And One Piece has both that internal logic for why people can perform crazy feats (even if it isn't explained right away) which I mentioned to him (just that there is a reason why people can do crazy things in this world), as well as the campy fun action adventure thing going for it, especially in the Live Action (the fight against Morgan's base even has a major Indiana Jones vibes ngl). So I explained that to him and asked if he wanted to try it, and he agreed to watching the first episode with me to decide if he'd watch it with my mom and me.

AND HE ACTUALLY SAID IT WAS INTERESTING SO FAR!! Like, he is NOT the kinda guy to enjoy anime or manga or even western cartoons, always refuses to watch anything anime and doesn't show any interest when I talk about it (I've managed to convince him to watch a few movies like Sword of the Stranger but it's obvious that even when he's not bored or doesn't hate it, it still doesn't catch or keep his interest), and he's really picky about anything fantasy or SciFi, if it like sets off his bullshit meter too much he starts nitpicking the logic behind certain abilities, or decisions, or explanations, etc. I once tried to get him to try Gravity Falls and he wanted to stop after the first episode. He's THAT picky.

So the fact that he actually laughed several times while watching the first episode of OPLA with me, commented about Luffy's character positively several times (he seems to think Luffy is really funny which surprised me cause I thought he'd be the most entertained by Zoro but I mean I can't blame him it is Luffy after all), never cringed or criticised or said anything about how ridiculous it was, means a lot coming from him cause he's always really blunt and honest about his opinion on this sort of stuff (which is fine I don't want him to pretend to enjoy stuff when he doesn't). He actually watched the whole first episode without it losing his attention, and seemed to have fun! And he agreed to watch the rest with my mom and me!

This sort of thing is one of the reasons why I dislike when people just dismiss the idea of live action adaptations entirely. I get that people are jaded with past failures, and don't like when live action is treated like a replacement for or improvement from animation when it isn't. But it is a valid medium just as much as animation or comics or writing are, and can be used to produce some amazing things. And the fact is, there are people who have a hard time connecting with other mediums who will otherwise never engage with this media in its original forms. Live Action, when done well and done right, can reach new audiences and welcome them into the fold in ways the original formats never can.

One Piece didn't need the live action to be popular, obviously, and the live action cannot and will not replace the original, nor should it. But I love that we get to have it alongside the manga and anime. It's just more of what we love, it's the cherry on top of an already stellar multi-layered cake. It complements the original rather than taking anything away from it. And for the first time in over a decade I might be able to share One Piece with my parents, who would only ever have a chance of experiencing it and enjoying it in live action. There's just something so awesome about that for me personally. I just wish more live action adaptations would understand what the One Piece live action understood about the adaptation process, and that's how to keep the heart of the story in-tact, so more people from more fandoms could have a chance to share something they love with more people who it would otherwise not reach.

Anyway, thank you Oda and the OPLA cast and crew for doing live action right for once!

#one piece #one piece live action #OPLA #When Luffy was talking about breaking into the marine base my dad was like #'he seems like he's got a lot of confidence going for him' with a grinnand a chuckle #And then when Luffy was talking to Nami in the base my dad said something like 'other people seem to have a hard time saying no to him' #Also with a grin and a laugh #And bro if my dad becomes a Luffy fan too I will explode #Like he did laugh at Zoro and Nami a few times but he had the most to say about Luffy and none were complains #He didn't even seem to blink an eye at Luffy calling out attack names lmao #Long post #Just your regularly scheduled post where I gush about OPLA for too long #Tv show thoughts #It's not even that my parents have anything against animation they just for some reason have a really hard time getting immersed in it #Or connecting to what's happening #Even when they try something for my sake they just can't really get enthusiastic about it the way they can for live action stuff #Which I mean some people just don't vibe with certain mediums and that's okay

[cineflections]

You know, if there was one manga that would be adapted to live action and succeed, I never would have guessed it to be this one.

I'm ofc talking about the One Piece Live Action on Netflix

A whole day binge right after release, I was READY, and thankfully, I was not disappointed. There are cuts and streamlining of the story, characters coming in earlier than in the manga/anime, and some of the emotional bits don't hit as hard as in the original. Still, I can feel the love the production team has of One Piece. The characters are goofy and lovable, but they are also serious and straight-faced.

One thing that I noticed throughout was the constant close up to faces and sometimes straight on, as if almost breaking the 4th wall. The very first scene with Luffy is like this, but there he DOES look into the camera directly, but the pov of the camera is revealed to be a newsbird. It's like a statement that they know this is a silly pirate romp, they know that some people will not take this seriously, but they will not do 4th wall breaks silly, but in-universe silly. Does that make sense?

I laughed at several points in the show, big and wide smile on my face and pointing at the screen several times...

But I do wonder how much of my laugh was on the show's on merit or if I was only calling back on the the source material. At times I did feel the straw hat crew not being as iconic as in the manga/anime. The extreme reactions, the over the top noises and actions, at the same time I realize that real people generally don't act like that.

I appreciate the show runners attention to details. Putting stuff in to tease future arcs, adapting some cover stories, some of the complete unhinged behaviors of characters (Garp I'm looking at you!).

This show adapted Romance Dawn, orange town, syrup village, baratie, and arlong park.

There are so many moments that are almost scene by scene taken from the manga. Luffy in the barrel and meeting Koby. Alvida with her giant spike club. We got to see some pre-captured Zoro moments (particularly him killing a baroque works agent!), Nami being a sneak.

Then we meet the one and only clown Buggy! They hammed him up, they made him a showman and a real clown (with a real bulgy nose as well, props!). I loved Buggy. Goddamn what a show stealer. Excellent casting, his devil fruit was show cased so well and it looked good!

Usopp's introduction is the most changed. The kids are gone and the Black Cat pirates never call in the entire crew or Jango. Instead of the fight on the slope by the beach it's instead in Kaya's house from which they cannot escape. The actor for Kuro nailing the mannerism and hand movements, altho his "teleporting" looks a bit wonky.

With Baratie we are finally introduced to Sanji! Who's British now 😆. And Mihawk's introduction tho! Badass and just so over the top and goofy. I love him so much! This is where we got the biggest change where we instead get Arlong and crew coming in smashing the place up (a tiny bit). Arlong may not be as tall as he should be but I love the practical approach instead of CGI, which means he actually feels present! All the fishmen we see are guys in costume and prosthetics!

Arlong Park felt a bit more rushed than the earlier parts, but I do think they nailed *that* scene tho.

If the bar for live action adaptation was below the ground, I would say now there's a new bar, which is on the ground 😅. I think it's a solid show but it might be my bias talking. I do have some gripes tho.

One thing that was constant in East Blue Saga was how much village people hate or are scared of pirates. I think they got the marines right, and the pirates, but they failed to really have the village people be a character in their own right. In the manga and anime the villagers are mostly a monolith who will think and act alike in situations and be part of the happenings either by watching or fighting. We got just about none of it here, except a mention in Arlong Park. They did some really good and cool world building with lots of people populating the sets in the background - but that's it, they're just extras to fill out the screen. There are ofc a few exceptions but I felt it was not enough.

I wish they had Luffy be more agile when using his gum-gum powers. Whenever he springs a pistol or a whip is stands in place, which I found boring (and they did so well with Zoro's fights!). I do think the explanation is that they decided for Luffy to be coming into his powers as we go. That we will learn with him all the things he can do (him not knowing he can blow himself up like a balloon proves this). I hope that in season 2 (please netflix!) they show the growth in his fighting!

But to end this long post. I just wanna say how much I fucking love the dude playing Mihawk. Goddamn he's so fun. MVP.

For the straw hats, I would say that Usopp feels the closest to manga version, and Luffy feels the most distant from it. But I don't dislike this, and I think the actor for Luffy has so much potential to really make the role his own.

It will never be "just like" the manga and anime, but that's ok! It's a new adaptation (in live action) made by people you can tell loves the source material and really really tried to make it work! I respect that, and I respect this show. Please watch it on Netflix! It's a fun and silly time, just like it should be!

#series #one piece #one piece live action #op #opla #monkey d luffy #roronoa zoro #nami #usopp #sanji #dracule mihawk #monkey d garp #buggy the clown #netflix

[championoftheoppressed]

DC Recs?

After being a Superman fan for quite some time due to various TV shows and films, I've been getting more into some of his roots, as well as the wider DC Universe -- primarily comics and animated media, as well as some of the live-action adaptations. I'd love to hear about some more good stuff!

Characters and dynamics I'm most interested in:

Superman and the Superfam

Brainiac 5, and by extension the rest of the Legion of Superheroes

Batman, specifically with the Batfam

Superman and Batman together (can include Wonder Woman)

Other notes:

I prefer watching things over reading comics, but I understand that comics are where the bulk of the good stories are.

I do not care about comics accuracy if the story is good.

Help a gal out?

#dc #dc comics #superman #batman #brainiac 5

[metalandmagi]

I need everyone to understand that the best stuff in the live action ATLA series is the stuff that wasn't in the original cartoon, but expands on it in a memorable way that feels true to the characters.

The most universally beloved scene of the Netflix show is Zuko sharing a memory of Lu Ten with Iroh at the funeral. It wasn't in the cartoon, but it completely makes sense for these characters. I also loved the conversation between Iroh and the Earth Kingdom soldier while he was captured about the siege of Ba Sing Se. Yes there was a scene in the cartoon where he was captured, but it was mostly played for comedy (which was good too). But this conversation brought a uniquely human element to that part of Iroh's past that added to the worldbuilding.

The fight scene in Omashu with Zuko and Aang (and the woman hitting Zuko with the brush). Amazing. Also wasn't in the original series, but it's something that easily could have been because it captured the spirit of season 1 perfectly.

The "goat hair" conversation between Aang and Zuko during the Blue Spirit episode that expands on the scene from the cartoon. Loved that. More please.

The best parts of the show are things that they weren't trying to copy or re-write to fit a season's worth of story into 8 episodes. I still resent the show for existing in the first place, but there are good things that can come out of re-adapting something. They just need to figure it out.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #natla #avatar live action

[aangarchy]

I have enjoyed your thoughts on the Netflix adaption so far and I have to say we're basically on the same page. But I have found so far that episode 6 was my favourite episode by far. And I put that mainly down to the Aang and Zuko stuff. The fact they left it mostly untouched and just added to it felt really good to me. I also might hold a controversial opinion here but I feel like the chemistry between them in this episode is the strongest of any dynamic in this live action so far.

Oh no you are absolutely correct. I love the chemistry between Dallas and Gordon both on and off screen. It really feels like they're long lost brothers, Dallas really took Gordon in like family (especially seeing the clips of them at the tudum event where Dallas and Gordon did all the red carpet interviews together)

I loved the Blue Spirit chapter in this live action, and i am repeating myself but YES it absolutely is because they barely changed it. I loved Ken Leung's performance in this episode and honestly i kind of wished the fight to get out of the fortress lasted longer. Both Gordon and Dallas are really good at martial arts, so this fight felt the most like an Avatar fight out of all of the ones i had seen thus far. Even the change they did make, which is the conversation Zuko and Aang have while Zuko recovers, it was so good! I loved the way they played off of each other and it felt so naturally awkward bc these two are supposed to be enemies and they're just chatting.

My reviews of this LA are a lot of negative, and i understand that may not be fun to read for everyone, so please know that i do have some positive things to say about the live action.

I get a lot of people saying "you couldn't have possibly expected everything would be the same? Stop comparing to the original!" And to that all i have to say is: no, i obviously did not expect everything to be the same and i did expect things to be left out. BUT i was rooting for the changes they'd add to make sense and they mostly don't. If it were changes that didn't flip the whole dynamic between characters or disregard the point the original was trying to make i'd be happy, but that's not the case here. Also i will not stop comparing to the original bc this show is based on the original atla. Why in the hell would i not compare?? It's not like this is a completely different show with no relation to the original, and neither is it a spinoff within the same universe? It doesn't make sense not to compare!

Anyway review for 7 & 8 is underway but i'm still struggling with the format of the post and getting my incoherent messy notes into, y'know, english

#atla #natla #netflix atla #ask dori #anon

[tinyozlion]

The Char Aznable Problem 

Here’s a take for the MS Gundam fans in the audience: Using the Zechs-as-Char analogy will actually hinder you in understanding the finale of Gundam Wing.

I know there are unavoidable reasons for the comparison! Zechs is a deliberate homage, that's not in question. But I’d like to argue that taking Zechs’s actions on their own terms is the only reasonable way to evaluate them. Understanding Char’s Counterattack will certainly make Zechs’s performance more nuanced and recognizable, but expecting him to be the same person with the same copy-pasted goals is to miss the purpose of his character. 

Neither of their goals make sense outside of their respective settings and character arcs, in the same way that MS Gundam and Gundam Wing are related thematically but are both telling very different kinds of stories in different ways.

Zechs doesn’t do a heel-turn and become a Char just because the hand of the franchise swooped in and forced him to; he does a heel turn and puts on a Char Costume (…mask?) because he is playing the villain, and the villain he is playing is Char. 

Why? Because Char from Char’s Counterattack has no place in the universe of Gundam Wing. Standing up and saying Char Stuff™ in After Colony 195 makes you sound like you got the space madness. 

White Fang Milliardo shows up out of nowhere with this new kind of racism he just invented and delivers a treatise about how humans from Space have become biologically superior to humans from Earth within a couple generations... in a setting where Newtypes aren’t a thing. There is no established precedent in AC 195 for declaring that space colonists are a super-evolved utopian master race OTHER than to blatantly manufacture conflict.

 And like... ding ding ding, that’s the point. 

Char from Char’s Counterattack is a complex, disillusioned, flawed man who is trying to make the earth uninhabitable for complex, flawed reasons that he genuinely plans on carrying out.  

Milliardo is a complex, disillusioned, flawed man pretending very hard to want to make the earth uninhabitable because it’s an Ozymandias Gambit intended to galvanize all remaining forces to take part in a war that will ultimately burn through all of their military resources.

 Char from Char’s Counterattack exists in a timeline where the earth is a polluted wasteland, and the space colonies are pristine, self-sustaining eutopias with ten billion people living in them. 

Gundam Wing is a timeline where the earth is pristine, and the space colonies are oppressed dystopian slums with marginal populations still largely dependent on earth’s resources. Staging the KPG 2.0 in this context would be a death sentence for the colonies as well as the people on earth.

Char believes it’s his destiny to punish the people of earth for their selfishness and their inability to change or allow future generations to evolve. Milliardo believes the only thing he’s good for is to rid the world of people like himself, SO that the future generation has a chance to change for the better.

I’ve found that the more I know about MS Gundam, the deeper an appreciation I have for what Wing chose to adapt and where it diverged; I think that some of Wing’s greatest achievements are born from the moments it purposefully broke from its predecessor, and some of its greatest flaws come from when it chose to adapt things that just don't make sense outside of their original context-- I don't necessarily think that Milliardo pretending to be Char is one of those moments.

On the whole, what Wing feels like to me is a poignant echo of the Universal Century, as if we are seeing the reflections, the shared rhythms, of people and struggles across time and reality. Zechs is like a variation of the Char leitmotif transposed into a new composition.

…And anyway, Zechs isn’t even the Char Clone of Gundam Wing. Zechs AND Treize are the Char Clone of Gundam Wing. 

The Red Comet is an ace pilot simultaneously admired and hated for his abilities and the respect he commands as a soldier. He has the luxury of being chivalrous on the battlefield because no one can compete with him, and because his ultimate goals differ from those of the ruthless organization that holds his reigns. He has the burden of a spotless reputation hiding a dark, secret purpose. He eventually turns coat and becomes Quattro, a mentor figure to the talented pilots who idolize him and walk the same path he does. The complexities of war erode his confidence and understanding of what is right, of what is actually worth fighting for in a world where the grind of battle never stops, and the same points have to be made over, and over, and over again, paid for in the blood of young people– people just like him, who he encouraged to fight, who had bright futures ahead of them– each and every time.

The glorious Neo Zeon leader is a wheeling and dealing homme-fatale who can play the game of politics, who knows how to put on an inspiring show for the adoring masses, all while getting what he wants through deceit, charm, treachery, abuse of his charisma, even his sensuality. He is willing to do anything for what he views as the best future for humanity– particularly for the humans he thinks are worthy of that better future, all while knowing he is not one of the chosen ones. He will always carry a seed of self-loathing and insecurity with him. He knows that the version of him that people idolize is only a mirage, but he is willing to use that mirage to steer the future where he believes it should go, sacrificing whoever he needs to for an end that justifies any means.

Zechs is the ace pilot. Treize is the glorious leader. They’re both variations on theme of Char.

Char’s story takes place over the course of his lifetime, spanning multiple series-- Zechs/Milliardo simply doesn’t have time to be everything Char was in the time frame of Wing. Instead his influence is played by two people, representing different eras of his life, existing simultaneously and in coordinated opposition to each other.

Nobody can really be Char except Char, and Char can't really be substituted for Zechs or Treize within their own universe. Even clones grow up differently when they're raised in different environments.

#gundam wing #milliardo peacecraft #zechs merquise #char aznable #treize khushrenada #gundam wing meta #gundam meta #parsing post #tinyozlion pgw

[mikasas-biggestwhore]

Aot headcanons (Last part)

a/n: I got hella busy and had to heavily slowdown on my requests so this is a headcanon post to make up for it. I’ll be back to posting regularly posting soon just hang in there ‼️

Okay now that that’s over, most of these hcs are modern ones. Enjoy :)

Includes: Erwin, Levi, Hanji,

Erwin

This is probably a common headcanon and Erwin definitely makes dad jokes. You can’t do anything around him or else he is definitely going to make a joke out of it some how in someway.

I know a lot of people see Erwin as more as a history teacher guy and don’t get me wrong I do too but I feel like he would need more action. I can see him being a firefighter that rescues cats out of trees or a police officer that has a trained dog by his side

Erwin was definitely right handed and losing his right arm was a very big L. Of course he adapted and in the end he actually is a better lefty then righty. Like his hand writing before was good but now??? Shit looks elegant.

I see him as a romantic. Not like a stereotypical romantic though. Sure he would kiss your knuckles and walk you like the gentleman he is but at the same time he’ll declare to race somewhere out of nowhere and then shove you so he can get a head start.

Going off of that Erwin is a cheater bruh. Not relationship wise but if y’all ever play a game he’s def cheating. I mean he did use his soldiers as pawn for personal gain so it makes sense. NO NOT PLAY BOARD GAMES WITH HIM. He’s either stealing money from the bank while your not looking or either he’s distracting you so you forget it’s your turn. 

Levi

I’m pretty sure it’s canon but Levi is amazing with animals. He’s the type of person that could just be minding his own business and suddenly he finds a kitten that is in desperate need of help and clings to him immediately.

Another thing a lot of people probably agree on is that he’s more of a cat person. I can’t see him ever liking dogs because of how ‘messy’ they can be and how much work and training they require. I have both and can agree cats are less work then dogs 💀

He has a soft spot for little kids. As cold and clinical Levi is I genuinely don’t think he has it in him to be upset with like a 5 year old. Sure annoyed because who wouldn’t be but mad? Nah never. There’s an age limit though if your 12 and up your feeling his wrath regardless.

This is another common headcanon and it’s that Levi runs a tea shop. Okay cool but Imma put my own twist. He runs a tea shop and bakery that connect. Like let’s be fr I know this man knows how to cook. He’s literally so good at anything else why would he not be able to cook? So if he ever opened a tea shop just know there would be a bakery right beside it.

If there was a line of work I could see Levi in it would be the FBI or federal government type of stuff. That or he would be a private investigator. All his skills work out for either and I feel like he would be on of the best in the business. No question about it at all.

Hanji

Hanji has broken several pairs of their glasses. They never break them like a normal person either- What do you mean you dropped them in a enclosure at the zoo? You shattered them from one of your experiments? Do I even wanna know why they are split in two? Yea they constantly break them.

Hanji is an animal person and literally has the most outrageous pets. They have a wolf dog just because they have the space and time for one. The have caracals that live in their house with their own space. They totally have capybaras and prairie dogs too. It’s practically a zoo at their house.

I feel like Hanji is one of those people that just had bad luck. They have no clue what they did to upset the universe but things only happen to them. Say they’re having a nice outing with Levi and Erwin and it starts to rain. They all pull out their umbrellas. Why is Hanji’s the only that breaks.

Hanji is 100% an adrenaline junky. Like they would go skydiving and swim with sharks for fun. It’s something about the rush that makes them so excited and they love having that feeling. It’s not odd at all for Hanji to come back and tell everyone a wild and crazy story

It sounds plain to say if Hanji had a job they would be a scientist. So instead I think they would be a biomedical engineer. Imagine them making fake organs to save people. Or they would go into the field of prosthetics. I just think that they would want to be in a field that includes medicine and helps people. 

Wooo we are finished with aot hcs unless yall make requests 🤭

Part 1

Part 2

#aot headcanons #attack on titan #anime #writing #animals #aot erwin #aot levi #aot hanji #aot hange #erwin smith #levi ackerman #hanji zoe #snk levi #snk hanji #snk hange #snk erwin #headcanons #levi headcanons #erwin headcanons #hange headcanons #levi attack on titan #attack on titan erwin #captain levi #commander erwin #levi aot #shinzou wo sasageyo #shingeki no kyojin #hange zoe #erwin snk #levi snk

[teacupballerina]

I would love to read your stories, can you please tell me what they are about and where to find them.

Okie dokie! Here are the four main projects that I shuffle through.

World of Light is a "sequel" comic to Super Secret Crisis War, an official CN crossover. It's about Aku, pretty much. Most of my stuff is about Aku. Anyway this is the main one. An all-ages attempt at creating something that could pass for official. Aku shows up to take over the Powerpuffs' world, loses their fight, and is convinced to "join" them in a power-restricting suit to escape the training-room prison they imprisoned him in. Along the way we learn that Aku is Chemical X. I recommend reading it on @cnwol if you use a desktop browser, or deviantart. We are on chapter 4 of 10 and I PROMISE I WILL FINISH IT

Sorrow's Daughter is a storyboard style comic. It is my take on a "Modern Human Reincarnation AU" Samurai Jack while also being a parody of really bad live action adaptations like Riverdale or CW Powerpuff where the characters are vaguely inspired by the source and plot is a mess. It's like one season of a show where every season is a cartoon network adaption set in the same universe... like American Horror Story but not as edgy. Also a WIP. It is about Ashi and Aku, and how their story here differs from the show while still retaining the manipulative aspect. It is best read on Instagram of all places and most of my content for it is there, but it can be read on desktop @sorrowsdaughter or on deviantart. IT IS PG-13. Contains Jack/Ashi, Aku/everyone

OTTO TIME CAFE: RED is a fanfiction based on an idea I toyed with over ten years ago about Him turning the Otto Time Diner into a Maid Café and hiring Aku as his manager. It is written as an anime and I make fake screenshots for it. There is a legitimate, story-relevant reason for this which will be understood when I fucking FINISH IT!!! It is almost all silliness and fanservice for me and my friend @ladykeane with a few sprinkles of violence and a lot of ick. I can only recommend it to fellow weebs. It can be found on ao3 alongside my drabble fics. NOT RATED, contains Him/Professor, Him/Aku, Aku/Blossom, and others

Sins of the Father is my original story. It is still being developed but it'll come to me when it comes to me, basically. I sometimes post art and info under the #sotf tag, but everything is subject to change. I have already made several major changes I haven't posted about anywhere. If you see me posting about it I'm probably just drawing my characters.

#ask teacup #samurai jack #ppg #powerpuff girls #cartoon network #magic-storyteller03 #omg when i saved as draft to check all the images were blurred like they're sus OMGGGGG

[idkaguyorsomething]

Why Greta Gerwig should adapt The Magician’s Nephew instead of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

I had some thoughts. They are below the cut in list form

Something we Haven’t Been Shown Before- to put it bluntly, we already have a perfectly good adaptation of TLTWATW, and it’s probably as good and accurate an adaptation as you could ask for. There are a few minor details that got cut and added, but honestly, as far as book-to-movie adaptations go, it’s extremely faithful to the plot, themes, characters, the whole shebang of the original book. Even if you don’t count the live action movie, there’s still the animated movie, the BBC production, and several play adaptations out there. It’s had its time to shine and by adapting The Magician’s Nephew, we’d be getting something fresh from the franchise.

Equally Accessible Starting Point- while TLTWATW was the first Narnia book to be written and published, chronologically The Magician’s Nephew takes place before it, serving as both a prequel and standalone story so that newcomers to Narnia could get into the series with either book. C S Lewis himself said that it didn’t matter which one people chose to start with, so it would serve as a great entry point for anyone looking to get into the Chronicles of Narnia as well as provide an interesting prequel for people familiar with the movies that already came out, leading me to my next point:

Worldbuilding- this book has so much cool stuff you guys. The pool world, Charn, the apple grove, the rings, Frank. ¡Actual literal worldbuilding! Also Sherlock Holmes and Atlantis for some reason. There’s just a lot of really interesting concepts and locations in this story that have the potential to be a true spectacle while also serving as a rewarding expansion of the universe that Narnia fans know that newcomers will still be able to appreciate.

Our Heroes- Digory and Polly are incredibly adorable and likable protagonists. They feel a good deal more fleshed out and realistic than the Pevensie kids in the books, and even though the movies went out of their way to give them some more depths, our dynamic duo from The Magician’s Nephew still feel quite distinctive in their own right. Their interpersonal conflict never grows as deep as something like, say, Edmund’s betrayal, but they both have different perspectives and things they bring to the table as individuals while also having a very fun, genuine friendship. Bonus points for being a rare boy/girl relationship that is never so much as hinted to be anything beyond platonic.

The Villains- The Magician’s Nephew has a pretty perfect combination of antagonists who manage to be memorable and legitimately menacing as well as pathetic little meow meows. This book gives us Jadis’ backstory as well as her getting to wreak unhinged havoc in downtown 18XX London as well as Uncle Andrew, a conspiracy theorist incel Redditor before Reddit was ever a thing. They’re delightfully entertaining in completely different ways, and seeing them onscreen would be an absolute treat.

Thematic Resonance- lots of things that happen in this book carry a lot of similar motifs to other films that Greta Gerwig has worked on, and since she hasn’t really created any epic fantasy style films yet, they could provide a strong emotional core to center any experimentation she tries out in the genre. You’ve got Digory’s loving but complicated relationship with his mother due to her illness displacing them from home, the coming-of-age aspects as the children encounter various adult figures they feel powerless to oppose, and learning the consequences of one’s actions. It’s even mentioned in the book that Polly is working on a little writing project that she’s sensitive about, like Jo March. A lot of people have complained that they feel Greta Gerwig will neuter the story by toning down the religious elements (which there is A LOT to dissect about concerning how C S Lewis’ beliefs led to things like the Problem of Susan, but there just isn’t enough information about the actual movie out yet to draw any actual conclusions) yet I’d argue that these emotional arcs, which play into Gerwig’s strengths as a director, could easily hold up a movie on their own if handled well. Combine that with the potential for unique visuals, the book’s surprisingly good sense of humor, and the many concepts that could be brought onscreen in a truly unique way, and you’ve practically got a recipe for a great addition to the Chronicles of Narnia unlike anything the movie fans have gotten before.

Feel free to disagree about any of that, though. Hearing where other people think the netflix movies should pick up would be really interesting, so leave any thoughts on the subject in the notes if you want. I just wanna see Fledge the pony accidentally get yanked into another dimension.

#narnia #chronicles of narnia #the chronicles of narnia #the lion the witch and the wardrobe #the magician’s nephew #greta gerwig #digory kirke #polly uhhhh #fuck i can’t remember if polly even has a last name #to be perfectly honest i think netflix will just adapt tltwatw because that’s the most famous one #but this was my favorite book and dammit more people need to know about polly and digory

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Have you heard? Disney is making another Lion king, but this time, it's a prequel, and it's going to be about Mufasa's backstory. Which i think it's very interesting. i'm open to seeing how they're going to show/represent the movie. Even though it's coming out of nowhere? A prequel after all these years?

I've also seen a lot of criticism about the movie, even though it's not even out yet. A lot of fans are disappointed that Mufasa and Scar/Taka (interesting how they're using "Taka" instead of "Scar") are no longer blood related brothers, but instead, both are orphans which doesn't make much sense since in the original Lion king Mufasa comes from a lineage of royalty and gives Simba a speech talking about “great kings” and “let me tell you what my father told me” I'm open to new ideas and stuff but i don't know how to feel about it. Maybe it’s the nostalgia? This honestly feels like a cheap cash grab, and seeing how Disney has had quality control issues lately, it's either going to be a flop or not.

I'm just HOPING that they're NOT going down the "misunderstood villain arc" because I've had enough of it. if they’re going for the "Mufasa was adopted and usurper who took Scar's rightful place at the throne! Showing that Scar was right all along."

What do you think?

Oh, I’ve heard of it! I’m not that interested in watching though. I’ll probably just wait for it to come out while praying that TWST gives us free stuff in a promotional campaign and listen to some commentary or review channels give their takes.

According to Wikipedia, Mufasa: The Lion King is supposed to be a sequel to the 2019 live action adaptation, not the original 1994 animated film. The prequel film was confirmed in September of 2020, which isn’t that long after The Lion King live action movie came out. They’ve been steadily releasing new information about Mufasa, such as voice cast reveals in 2021, 2022, and April 2024. It was officially announced and title dropped in 2022 during the D23 Expo. It’s possible that the film took longer to make due to the pandemic and worker’s strikes that occurred between 2020 and now.

On the Scar/Taka thing, I believe “Taka” (I’ve also seen “Askari” in some sources) is Scar’s given name and “Scar” is a nickname Mufasa gave him following an incident in which Taka was as tricked and attacked by other animals, which was the origin of his scar. This information comes from The Lion Guard (a series I haven’t watched myself; this is what I was told by a friend who has). If Scar is being called “Taka” in Mufasa (and assuming The Lion Guard is canon), then that means Mufasa must take place prior to the brothers’ relationship souring and him getting his signature scar.

I watched the trailer and… the phrasing is quite odd??? Now Mufasa is “a lion born without a drop of nobility in his blood”. That implies he and Scar aren’t blood-related. In real life, that makes sense since it’s usually the strongest lion that leads the pack rather than the eldest. Scar has a line where he says Mufasa got the brawn whereas he got the brains, so it sort of supports this idea. However, making it so that Mufasa and Scar are unrelated orphans within the Lion King universe doesn’t make sense if you hold that up next to the already established lore. They imply multiple times that Scar lost his claim to the throne when Simba, Mufasa’s blood-related son, was born to succeed him. So royal blood of the king is important??? The only way Scar could take over was to eliminate those in Mufasa’s lineage. It’s possible that Mufasa’s speech to Simba about the “great kings” and his own father could be in reverence or to show love for his adopted dad or pack…? But that makes those scenes a lot less impactful. Additionally, part of the reason why Scar’s actions are so evil is because he committed fratricide. He turned against his own blood brother, then manipulated his nephew, whom he also shares blood with, into taking the blame. There’s something very visceral and cold-blooded about that—plus it adds to the Hamlet parallels.

Seeing as Mufasa is the titular character, I don’t think they’ll go down the route of intentionally making him the bad guy to Scar. Disney’s so shy about making its main characters morally grey or just bad people… though like you said, they might do it unintentionally because by writing Mufasa as an orphan, that means he’s an illegitimate ruler… meaning Simba is an illegitimate heir… meaning Scar killed/deceived those with no claim to the throne, so actually Scar was not in the wrong at all 💀 But technically it wouldn’t be Scar’s right to rule anyway because he’s not of royal blood either (since you said he's apparently also an orphan? I did not see this mentioned in the trailer though)??? Unless Scar is the one from a royal lineage and everyone else is just dead???

I think it’s still possible that we get something tragic between the two; blood does not determine everything. Mufasa and Taka could form a genuine brotherly bond that later falls apart. It doesn’t really make up for the retconning of current lore, but who knows 😂 maybe they’ll pull some of their old magic out and actually write a story that makes sense to lead into The Lion King. I’m not going to hold my breath though, the live action movies have never been that good to me 💦 I’m going to let the movie come out and speak for itself before I make any real judgments on its quality, as I don’t believe in jumping the gun (even given previous track records).

I wonder what this new movie’s lore would mean for TWST… Since Tamashina Mina was very inspired by The Lion Guard, that means (depending on how the film goes) Mufasa’s events could be retroactively integrated into TWST history?? It’s not a guarantee, but just something to consider.

#notes from the writing raven #twisted wonderland #twst #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst #The Lion King #The Lion Guard #Mufasa: The Lion King #Simba #Scar #Mufasa #question #Hamlet

[duckielover151]

Some OPLA Thoughts: Episode 5

Wow.

My post about the last episode started off with how Zoro's backstory (the portrayal of Kuina particularly) was the first thing in this adaptation to seriously disappoint me... Only to immediately follow that up with the best episode so far. I don't think I have anything negative to say about this one.

We've finally started to see that other side to Garp that I was worried had been edited out of the live action completely. That wilder, goofier side when confronted with his grandson as a pirate for the first time. That grayer portrayal of morality in this universe, when he and Koby talk about the Warlords.

I found it really interesting that Koby was so betrayed by the concept of the Warlords. I mean, I also think that's the right response, but it really hasn't been made clear yet in the live action that the World Government is super corrupt. Honestly-- I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in my post about the first or second episode-- they even toned down how much of a tyrant Morgan was. The anime made it really clear that the people of the town were just as scared of Morgan as they were of any potential pirates his unit was supposed to be protecting them from. In the live action, it could be read that Helmeppo was just an errant bad apple.

And speaking of! He's finally starting to come around. It's a prickly sort of friendship that he's building with Koby... but they are noticeably talking more-- and saying more. Those conversations aren't all insults and then stalking away in a huff like they have been up to this point. I didn't mention it in my last post, but Helmeppo had a line that really stuck out to me in episode four. It's still all argument about how they should be handling their duties in Syrup Village, but he's let his guard down enough to admit that he is jealous of the shine Garp's taken to Koby.

What stood out in this episode was his line about how Koby doesn't know shit about how the world works-- in reference to his disbelief about how the Government handles the Warlords. I was kind of ridiculing that... and kind of not. My immediate, knee-jerk reaction was along the lines of, "Really? Pampered, spoiled Helmeppo is going to lecture the boy who spent his childhood enslaved on a pirate ship about the harsh realities of the world?" But you know... That is a really interesting angle to take. That being the son of a high-ranking Navy captain, maybe Helmeppo has seen some of the injustices of how the World Government runs first-hand, and it would be great if that's what these two bond over in the live action.

Sanji's introduction has been great so far-- his fight scene looked fantastic-- and we haven't even gotten into the really hard-hitting stuff with his backstory with Zeff yet.

There were some interesting changes... but nothing that left me feeling uneasy about how it might impact the story as whole. I really hope they leave the whole issue with Don Krieg as the abridged version that it is right now. Honestly, that whole ordeal was really tedious to me in the original. I love that Nami was around for Zoro's duel in this version. (Though maybe a little disappointed that Sanji wasn't. I felt like witnessing that was a pretty major moment in him starting to understand what this insane crew is really all about.)

And Mihawk... Steven John Ward's portrayal of Mihawk is everything I was promised it would be. Really stole the show this episode.

The fight with Zoro was amazing. But also just his overall demeanor... and they gave him the best lines! Like, obviously the "I don't hunt rabbits with a cannon" one comes to mind-- in regards to only using that tiny knife against Zoro. But also, I loved his interaction with Luffy. The little, "Though I do like your hat" was such a great nod to his friendship(?) with Shanks... All of his moments were just so good.

I saw an interview with his actor where he talked about the secrecy behind the audition process-- how he didn't even know what role he was auditioning for until he got it. And how his response was to immediately call up his friends who are anime fans and ask them just how bad it would be if he fucked this up. XD

Which is exactly the response I would want. Any time I've had concerns about this show, it's always been about the writing. (And nothing too major has been messed up yet.) I've got no complaints about the acting. Everyone has killed their roles so far and brought exactly the energy to the table necessary to make this something special.

#one piece #opla #episode 5 #dracule mihawk #steven john ward

[popculturebuffet]

Supermay!: Superman Vs the Elite: Chunky Greatness (Comissioned by Brotoman.exe)

Hello all you happy last sons, daughters and that beautiful rainbow inbetween of krypton and welcome back to SuperMay! Last time I took a look at a true classic in superman's long history What's So Funny About Truth Justice and the American Way? You can find that review here

What's So Funny... was a rousing sucess, not only leading to Manchester Black coming back a few times, but the elite getting their own justice league spinoff i've never read. Black would also show up quite a bit post-rebirth, before his recent death so Lex Luthor could make everyone forget Superman's secret identity.. or else. Note that this is lex trying to HELP superman. Lex can't even try to do good without doing a murder, suprising no one.

Despite his promience though so far Black has only shown up thrice in other media: In the arrowverse for Supergirl, in the lego batman games, and in today's subject. While it was likely hard to put black in kid shows because his job, hobby and what gets him off at night are all murder, DC had another way to animate this wanker and adapt this story: The DC Universe Animated Movies

Yeah while many a nerd know of them and i'm sure most nerds reading this post know, a refresher: the DC Universe Animated Movies are direct to video movies put out by dc multiple times a year. They've been doing this since 2007 Superman Doomsday with July's Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 3 being the 55th film overall. They've adapted tons of stories from the comics: The Death of Superman (Twice!), Justice League the New Frontier (A personal faviorite), JLA Earth 2, JLA Tower of Babel, Batman: Hush, Batman: The Long Halloween, The Dark Knight Returns, Under the Hood, the first two arcs of Batman/Superman, several tales of the green lantern corps stories, Superman: Braniac, Justice League Origin, Flashpoint, Throne of Atlantis, Batman and Son, The Killing Joke, The New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, Superman: Red Son,Batman Year One and the doom that came to gotham, cumilating in their soon to be completed three part adaptation of Crisis on Infinite Earths. The adaptations vary from fairly loyal, to loose as a goose and ready to gander, but i'ts nice to see so many stories get direct adaptations. Some are better than others sure, but it's nice to see DC's finest on the screen since some wouldn't work for live action, either due to budget or the simple mechanics of running a film shared universe.

So that brings us back around to today's film: Superman Vs The Elite. SVE, and god is it nice to have a story that I can reduce to a simple acronym, is the sixth superman film made for these, fifth if you only count full length ones but Superman/Shazam: the return of black adam is too good not to even at only half an hour. DC tends to focus on it's big cash cows, hence the early films mostly being superman, batman, superman and batman or the justice league, with green lantern being the notable exception as they wanted to cash in on his hit movie with first flight.. then greenlit first flight despite that hit being directly to the face because it made me personally happy. I have to assume. We also got the very first wonder woman film and weirdly DESPITE diana's spike in sucess post her solo film only that one and the godawful bloodlines. The films WOULD loosen up in terms of scope in the late 2010's and 2020's, with films for the Teen Titans, Justice Society, Suicide Squad, Justice League Dark, Harley Quinn and Constantine, but it's still very bat and league heavy.

Out of the 55 films so far (counting the soon to be released Crisis Part 3), 15 star batman (including the Batman/Sueprman Duology) and a whopping FORTY OUT OF 55 FILMS, 43 out of 58 if we count stuff they weridly left out like the RWBY crossover and the choose your own adventure adaptation of batman. I love batman but my god give him a fucking break dc.

Anywayas point is they love their man of tommorow too, and it's telling out of a collection of his more recent and influentual stories this one got called up for adaptation, others before this being his death and return (which , once again, got adapted AGAIN for a fuller adaptation later on.. and yes I own both adaptations), the two big opening arcs of Batman/Superman, the all-time classic and goat All-Star Superman which I plan to cover next supermay (And would gladly cover earlier on comission or if I had the time), and after this one Braniac, the Geoff Johns classic redefining the character.

This film's also notable is out of the MANY adaptations present it's one of only TWO films to be written by the same writer as the story it's adapting, the other being Judd Winnick on Under the Red Hood. Darwyn Cooke likewise seemed to at least consult on new frontier, which is good as that story is that man's heart and soul and one I'm kicking myself for not thinking to review sooner. Seriously check it or the film out. True masterpiece.

This isn't a knock against the other adaptations, there's a lot of good ones in there, it's just remakrable. it also makes sense why tap Kelly: At this point Kelly had been running Man of Action stuidos for 7 years having co-created Ben 10 and Generator Rex, both shows I highly love, along with Ben 10 spinoff Alien Force which I also dearly loved and was showrun by the late great dwayne mcduffie, who also wrote a lot of direct to video films including what i'm told is a truly excellent adaptation of All-Star Superman I still need to check out.

So Kelly was an experinced hand at animation, and Winnick likewise was, having created and written a decent chunk of the Life and Times of Juniper Lee. So it does make a bit more sense to tap these guys when they know how to screenwrite for animation already.

Kelly does a phenominal job here, expanding the story and making the elitie more fleshed out characters. Their still assholes, but you understand them a bit more and the ones who don't wear a union jack get to actually talk. Also Coldcast is no longer wearing the most unintentionally racist outfit i've seen in an american comic, for the love of god don't send me competitors. The result is a film that's also awesome. Yeah like the story it's based on I won't hide that I loved this film on watch. It's not perfect, what is, but it is still an exellent film that wonderfully expands on an already great story to make it better. So join me under the cut as the world's saved.. but humanity is lost.

SVE is intresting as an adaptation in that it has the same core, a new group of up and coming superheros shows a darker way of doing things superman disapproves of and they come into conflict over it, but takes an entirely diffrent approach to pacing and the elitie themselves. The Original Story hits you lik ea train, starting with a dead gorilla, piling up the bodies nad having the elitie be pretty one note assholes.. they raise valid points, but Manchster is also portrayed as a racist asshole, constantly saying racist shit and then saying "I can say that because i'm one 45th something", something I forgot to bring up in the original review. I mean he's dead on for Mark Millar's version of the Authority, props to that, but otherwise as they are in the original story, the Elitie are just assholes who think they know better and we only get hints of WHY their like this.

The film .. still only gives hints for the non Manchester members, Minager's backstory with the men in black is removed as their absent from the film, but treats them more as people. Not good people by the end, but more as indivduals and it makes the story stronger. We meet the elitie not as swaggering gods, but as swaggering newbies. Their powerful, but at first have no idea what their doing or the true limits of their powers.

So it also gives us a nice dynamic that helps deepens things wholly unique to this film: Superman.. mentors the elite. When he first meets them stopping an attack from warring nations Bialya and Polkistan, which naturally are both very real nations from superman comics. Biyala was a longtime hive of criminals first showing up in one of my all time faviorite comics, Justice League International as a stand in for middle eastern countries, being a small one itself, and picking up traction afterwords while Polkistan was ran by a version of General Zod that wasn't kryptonian. It was a weird time.

This war between the two is a new addition, replacing both the attack on japan and the men in black from the original.. and it's one I like. It fits the Elite better that the thing their interfering in is two warring dictators who don't care who gets hurt in the crossfire and puts more of a face to the ones their caving in. It's easy to say superman could've dealt with super samurai metal men or the worse version of men and black, harder to have him deal with two nations who refuse to just sit down and talk instead of killing civilians to send a message. They still use fantastical means, the Elite first meet clark when he's trying to take down some bioweapons and are key in helping him stop them.

It's also neat to see how both sides greet each other: Superman.. acts how clark always does with a new hero: he's encouraging, kind, and the only negative he has is some gentle cricisim on collteral damage, a nice bit of foreshadowing to the team becoming what it later is. Likewise the eliite are all happy to meet him, with Manchester dropping the swaggering ego he puts up to be genuinely excited like a little kid. Unlike his comics counterpart Manchester still looks up to superman when this starts and it's adorable and humanizes the asshole really well. The others are also mostly starstruck.. except minagre. She's just super horned up. But like in the comics at the time of the original story, Clark's married so, nope.

The rest of the Elitie are fleshed out more here. Manchester's still the focus character and thus the most fleshed out, getting more depth, but the rest of his crew have actual personalities. The Hat is playful and likes to drink a LOT (the last part was in the comic but is more emphasiesed here), Menagire is flirtatious to a creepy and predatory degree (something to the film's credit seems intentioanl) and Coldcast is sarcastic. Their not super deep, but they make the eliite feel like characters and not hired goons.

Superman seeks the elitie out not because their a danger this time.. but because he geninely wants to know them better and help mentor them. We don't get to see Clark mentor often when it's not Kara, so it's another nice addition to the story.

They end up meeting again in London as .. well Manchester Black, while a mystery to the world, wears a flag on his chest and speaks in a cockney accent. Even Black can't help but poke fun at how fucking obvious a step this was, but in another nice touch instead of being touchy welcomes superman into his past, happy to give out his secret origin.

While we got Chester's origin in the comics, this one is more involved and likely what Kelly flehsed out when he wrote the character more later: here he was a tween whose dad was an abusive alchollic rather than a soldier who died in war, the fourth of five kids, his sister the fifth, and none really loved or wanted. He eventually leaves, taking his sister with him for her own saftey and the two scrape by stealing wallets. Unfortunatlaly a constable is lead to them by one of the couples they stole from and the ensuing confrontation, predictably for police, ends with her nearly getting ran over by a train.. till Chester's powers kicked in. Then a bunch of stuff happened he dosen't get into and boom. He HEAVILY implies she died.. but the fact he dosren't say it outright naturally means sh'es alive.

The film wisely plays with this later, revealing that the story is true.. black just sanded off the rougher edges: he KILLED his dad and the train he stopped injured a lot of people. What I like about this though is the lie dosen't come off as Black simply being a manipulative wank phesant. Partially yes, the way he phrases Vera's death is bad.. but it could simply be knowing Superman may not take the news as well, that his hero may abandon him and his friends. Both acts are also gray: he did kill his dad sure.. but we never see the actual act and Chester WAS still a young teenager at the time. He coul'dve easily ratonalized that it was the only way to save his sister. Or simply could've given in to his darker impulses. I'm a lot easier on a scared child whose being acvtively abused than a grown ass man who could've gotten therapy. Same with the train: he knew he could influnce minds from the papa murder but didn't know his telekenisis coudl stretch that far. That one Clark probably would've understood more as growing pains. Finally with Vera it could just be annoyance she didn't join him in quitting the agency or manipulation. I like that the film leaves it vauge instead of making Chester out to just be this massive dick crater. He grows INTO that but i'ts more itnresting to have some ambiguity into how manipulative he was being.

Superman has the elitie help with a nearbye tunnel collapse with a train from terroists.. something their not sure they CAN do as they've only used their powers in combat. Superman however is an excellent leader, it's hinted at the league exists here but wisely they arne't fully mentioned. For all we know he was chairman of the legion at one point and still superboy here. But he's a natural leader and helps the elitie stretch their powers.

The problem is that as much as Superman WANTS to help these new younger hereos learn to be the best they can be... they have diffrent ideas. The divide here is summed up best with this quote from another franchise, from Grant Morrison's incredible run on New X-Men

It's the simple but painful divide that happens as Manchester brutally interrogates a terroist: Superman has his dream of a better world, of inspiring hope to make it so.. and Chester has one of remaking it in his image. Of taking it away from the hands of those he deems to be children playing dangerous war games that end with real bodies strewn across continents. As much as Clark WANTED to guide them.. it was already too late. The world had already made Chester decide what he wanted to be long before he met supes and while he respects the man.. the two ultimately can't coexist. That respect makes Chester more intresting as rather than be just an edgelord who wanted to show up superman, he's simply a 20 something who sees a broken world and has the power to change it and wonders "Why don't we?" instead of seeing it's more complicated than that. By making Chester more of an actual human instead of a mark millar character, it makes the story hit harder and the darker roads he goes down hit harder. IN anotehr world the elitie would've been having teamups with the tians or the justice society, helping make the world better best they can even if they hit harder. Here though... they choose another way.. a way Superman simply can't follow and that puts them at odds. To use x-men again...

Things escalate after two events: Black's message to the world which this time.. we actually get to see which I feel makes it more effective. Having him broadcast to the world "You asked for us world, now you have us". It both instantly puts superman off his game and shows what the Elitie's real plan is.

They also make a welcome change to the attack in japan, now in Biayla: besides the setting being more plot relevant... superman's disabling is unintentional. They still slaughter a bunch of people horrifying clark, but it feels like less of an intentional dick move and fits the change in tone: in the original they were trying to piss superman off. Here it was friendly fire.. but it's clear they've now crossed a line he can't let them keep crossing by slaughting soldiers.

The film is good in asking the question: Should heroes be super proactive and make the world better by force.. or do everything they can within reason? Not buckle to the system.. but not break it over their knees either.

This all brilliantly comes to a head with atomic skull, a plot point i"ve been keeping on the sidelines so let's move it on up front: Before the elitie arrive we get two important events. The first is a dig at superman's cheesiness as Clark lisenses out a very goofy cartoon. I also like when lois presses him on this he points out his procedes ARE going to charity and he has someone looking at it. And he's just so happy to

The more important one is a fight with Atomic Skull. Atomic Skull is a recurring superman villian i'm not super familiar with whose had a dozen iterations... with this version choosing none of them, instead being a remorsless killer with radioactive powers.

He's a good choice though: a villian superman can't depower like certain other parties, who kills and will again and thus brings front and center the biggest part of a debate on the effectivness of normal costumed heroes, a piece somewhat missing from the original with it's faceless goons and men in black: Should a hero kill so a villian dosen't kill again?

The answer Superman gives, and I support is.. no. Gratned i'll add the asterix of "Unless there's no other option". Sometimes your only option is to kill a being or let it kill untold others. Shockingly NOT using x-men for this example, even though I have one ready, let's instead look at Man of Steel. Yes. We're going to THAT scene. And honestly while I have major issues with Man of Steel and most of them involve one man who thankfully chucked himself into a tornado but unthankfully came back as a ghost because god hates me, the idea of the climax isn't one of them.

For those less familiar in the climax Zod, on the verge of defeat, starts letting loose with his eye beams. He's preapred to kill EVERY PERSON he can just to spite clark.. so Clark begs and begs him not to.. and then snaps his neck when it's clear he has no other option. Now do I think having superman kill in his first film was a good idea? no, not at all. But for all Zack Snyder dosen't get Supes... he gets he'd only kill with no other option. If it's this one person or millions in that moment and no where else. No one else could stop zod and he didn't have time or knowledge to incapacitate him. He made the ahrd call and it tore him up. .until it didn't but this is a film where Clark's dad thinks throwing himself into a tornado is more important than clark doing the right thing with his powers sooooo

My point is, unless the situation is that dire.. you shoudln't. If your skilled enough, you can find another way. There's a fine line between doing so because your backed into a corner with no way out.. and diong so because "let's make the bastard pay". It's easier to kill when you have a choice, when you can justify it in your head... and thus it becomes easier. and easier. Until it stops being "because their a genuine threat" and because "They disagree with me". "because it's all I know" or worst of all "because it's fun".

And that all comes together... for the death of the Atomic Skull. The Elitie try to handle it while superman' son the way, get their asses kicked, and are forced to accept his help, despite having humilated him. Our heroes win.. but then comes the breaking point. In the original the killing was just..t here.. but here.. it's been built to slowly, a nicely slow boil over the whole run time: Superman treid his best.. but Manchester Black was a powderkeg waiting to go off.. .and he asks someone to give him a light.

Now remember how I mentioned a UN member was helping superman? Same guy clearly belivied in him and was even shown defending him against Rush Limbaugh. A few more years and it would've been tucker carlson, a good load more and it would'v ebeen.. uh... that other generic white guy they got to replace hm after he got thrown under a bus.

So naturally.. the poor man dies, his son having rushe dout to see his heroes the elitie.. only to instead see his father dies. The following scene is just.. pure pain, it's well done. The kid BEGS superman to kill Atomic Skull.. but he dosen't. It's not what his father would've wanted and would be a stain on his memory. But grief.. grief dosen't care what the person who died wanted... pain dosen't care.. and vengance... dosen't wait. Black, taking advantage of the poor teen, says to "Say the word kid"... and with one do it... Clark can only gape in horror as Atomic Skull dies.. and the crowd ERRUPTS. Only Lois and Jimmy are horrified as a man dies. Did the atomic skull deserve to die? Probably.

He killed a lot of people and you can understand where UN Guy JR was coming from.. yet it dosen't bring his dad back. It dosen't undo all the lives lost. It stops more from being killed.. but also outlines the probelm. People CHEERING for their heroes to kill someone, egging them on, telling them to kill kill. Turning normal people into a bloodthirsty mob who preys fo rthier heroes to kill their enemies. It's the other reason why don't kill: Because it gives the people you inspire the wrong message: that we will solve your problems for you and we will spill blood for you our masses. Pray to your new gods and we will deliver unto you blood.

Now i'm not saying superheroes should never intervene, fuck no, and like I said there are times to kill.. bu tyou see the problem with letting them solve every problem of the world: not only would humanity stagnate, relying on their saviors to do everything for thema nd tell them what to think... but they cease becoming seen as men and become gods. Vengeful gods who can do whatever the fuck they want. It's waht the Manga Death Note and i'ts anime adaptation got at: you let someone be ultimate judge, and they will develop a god complex and what morals they have slip. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, and tha'ts why heroes don't give themselves absolute power even if they can move suns.

And it's what the elitie have become: four 20 somethings with a god complex who decide they make the rules and anyone else can die slow die fast now.

This is where the movie dovetails more into the comic as the last act or so adapts it pretty closely, iwth a few bits rearranged: the public starts to cheer the elitie and the scene with the kid saying "superman is so beat"

And clark's talk with ihs dad are in tact, simply done a touch later. Superman's also not AS afraid of the elitie here.

So we payoff the Bialya Polkistan war runner: Superman stops a conlfict with zero loss of life, knowing the elitie are watching.... only this time rather than threaten to kill someone... Manchester did it 20 minutes ago.. or more like two. He just went and killed the heads of state. And the thing was Clark WASN'T sitting it out or planning to let the war go on: he was going to force the two to sit down, an option I badly wish we had in the real world. Instead.. all Chester's done is create a massive power vaccum in two countries already teeming iwth bioweapons and regular weapons. He's removed a diseased lung but taken both countires kidnies, heart and spleen and mugged the patient whlie he was at it. It's the problem with the Elitie's move fast, break things approach: they solve an issue for NOW.. but leave a giant clusterfuck to solve later. And "I'm going to kill you if you don't do better" only works as long as your alive or someone doesn't find a way to kill you for being a tyranical wank phesant.

Superman stews in his fortress.. and the elitie visit and offer him an ultimatium: stay in his lane or else. Clark responds by clocking chester... and Chester decides if your not part of the problem.. etc etc. Tommorow. Noon. Be there.

It's here I want to give some props to Manchester Black's voice actor, Robin Atkin Downes, a vetran voice actor i'd heard of vaugely but didn't really know what parts he played, I haven't gotten around to playing the no more heroes trilogy yet after all. He's done a LOT of dc work including for these films and absolutely kills it as black, bringing that nice combo of arrogance and genuine fire that black has. When you have a character that makes a LOT of grandoise speeches, you need someone who can deliver them with pure power and fire and Downes does so beautifully. Downes gets that right combo of snotty kid and broken man that we need.

We get the lois and clark scene again and i'll say in this film.. Lois is done dirty. She's played by Pauley Perette of NCIS fame, part of DC"s weird obssession with hiring actors from random prime time shows to do the big parts. This film mostly dodges that but she sticks out in a sea of voice actors. At any rate she does her best.. but Lois is just underwritten here. Her needling clark at the start is about th ebest we get: she spends most of the film looking into black's history a good idea.. but her method is just "Scream at mi 6 and hav eblack's sister hand her the goods, then the british government somehow blocks the story despite Metropolis being in america and the US usually not giving that much of a shit." I'd suggest sex blackmail but then the idea of perry white having sex nearly imploded my brain so I won't be going down that rabbit hole. Unless he was fucking bugs bunny, then i'ts impressive. Bugs is a fuck machine.

The climax.. plays out almost exactly as in the comic. While this adaptation changes a lot to make a more compelling story, the end point.. really didn't need to be fucked with. It's remarkable just how much they straight up adapt it. They tone down the violence SLIGHTLY, but only as much as needed to not get this rated R.. if DTV movies get rated r. It' sprobably why bisected Gorilla was left out. RIP Bisected Gorilla

It's chillingly well done. The beat down, superman's hoplesness.. and then... "Thank you". And it's all perfectly delivered by our superman for the evening, George Newbern. Newbern is probably my faviorite superman with close seconds being Tim Daly in Superman the Animated Series (Who Newbern replaced) and Jack Quaid from My Adventures WIth Superman, though Quaid is getting close. I grew up with Newbern's take on justice league, where he evolved Timy Daly's portryal and went on to portray superman a lot when DC neede dhim including in the injustice games.

Newburn nails it here, being the kind, hopeful man we all know.. and then giving us this nightmarish pivot. He makes the wise choice to make superman a soft spoken sadist... to have him not scream at his foes but calmly talk to the elitie as he picks them off one by one. The direction plays this scene like a horror flim and perfectly so, the terror on the Elitei's faces as they each go down, as the killer picks each one off leading it down to blacka nd down to metropolis as the world gazes in horror at what superman has become. It shows what sinking to this level does to you, how EASY it is, and how horrifying it'd be if superman actually did this. We've gotten plenty of "evil superman" takes from Invincible with Nolan to the boys tv show with homelander, that show what an indocirinated good solider or utter bastard with a god complex would do.. but this example still stands out despite all those deconstructions.. because it's clark. Because it's THE superman. It's not someone who wears a similar costume.. it's clark doing it, one of his most recognizable and best performers doing the performance, and it is fucking chilling. The performance was great in the comic.. but it's ASTONISHING here with all the extra florish.

And as before.. it was an act. The film does act like superman actually depowered them all, but I don't think he gave black a lobotomy as the pop is still present and he still zeroes in on the growth his powers come from. So at worst he simply removed a benign growth and at best it was temporary. Some, including tv tropes, think this kinda underminds thing that superman isn't judge and jury.. but I disagree. He didn't kill them, he just took their power away after they'd killed dozens of people and tried to kill him. It's like I said earlier with the superheroes killing thing: if ther'es no other way sure. It's insurance if the elitie hasn't learned there lesson and like the comics he probably coudln't strip them of power permenatnly. It's also why Atomic Skull was a good choice: there's no real way to remove his powers without potetntially killing clark himself, creating a wave of radaition etc. Here.. superman was in a controlled environment for 3/4 and for the last one knew exactly what to do to remove his powers. Superman give shis iconic ending speech about hope and flies off and the movie ends.

This movie.. is a standout, a true classic worth seeking out and most copies aren't super expensive. It takes a great if hard to find story and punches it up considerably, keeping the key points and refining them while making the opposing side less caracatures to make the point stick better. As i've said, Black is accurate to mark millar's writing.. but as a result he's still a strawman. Here he's more a character and the point at large is more fleshed out and naunced: we see the consequences of superman's style of justice.. but then see what would happen if he decided to play it the elitie's way. This film is a true classic and I highly recommend it.

Next Time: Superman fights the Klan as we tackle an old radio serial!

#superman #lois lane #manchester black #the elite #dc comics #dc animated movies #direct to video #animation #george newbern #robin atkin downes #joe kelly

[avatar-news]

Exclusive: Avatar Studios and Netflix are collaborating on the live-action series, which will include new canon material contributed by Avatar Studios!

World peace?!

I’ve been sitting on bits of pieces of this news for literally months now and today I got explicit confirmation of the final puzzle piece that puts everything together.

Paramount and Avatar Studios on one hand, and Netflix and Rideback on the other, are collaborating to make the live-action Avatar series we’ve all been hearing (but not seeing 😂) so much about.

Avatar Studios and Nickelodeon have been listed as one or both of the production companies of the live-action show in multiple authoritative places, including production listings, IMDb, and one of the VFX studios’ websites, and we’ve never known what exactly that relationship entails. Well...

I can tell you the live-action show is on Paramount’s Avatar slate internally, just not their animated Avatar slate (obviously).

The live-action show has the rights to adapt not just the animated ATLA (2005-2008) but also Avatar Studios’ expanded universe, which the live-action show is incorporating in a lot of cool ways (you guys know specifically I’ve been really excited about how they’re incorporating Avatar Kuruk’s backstory from the novels). We’ve known that the cast and crew are knowledgeable about the expanded universe, but I can confirm it’s actually in-script and on-screen in the show too.

The live-action show is using Avatar Studios’ new four elements symbols.

Now, all of these things are cool, but could just be technicalities on their own. But here’s the big one that changes everything:

The live-action show includes new Avatar Studios canon that, at the time of writing and filming, wasn’t released yet.

For example specifically, I have confirmation that a certain new piece of canon info was already in the live-action script at the start of filming in November/December 2021, that was then revealed to be Avatar Studios canon in an Avatar Studios release the next year in 2022.

This means that Avatar Studios is contributing new material to the live-action show before they release it publicly. So theoretically, any new additions in the live-action show could also be canon in upcoming animation/books/etc.

Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean everything added in the live-action will also be canon in animation-- and there’s nothing wrong with the live-action having its own stuff that differs from other mediums. BUT, we do now know that at least some of it is also upcoming Avatar Studios canon, we just won’t know until it’s confirmed or contradicted!

I’m wording this all in terms of “canon” because I know people are obsessed with the concept, but if anything I hope this makes people focus on it less and more on just how well-made something is. If we know that anything new added in the live-action show could be from Avatar Studios or could be exclusive to the live-action, why not just focus on how good it is-- especially knowing that both “canons” just did whatever was best for the show. Think of it kind of like House of the Dragon, where there’s no way to know if changes/new additions are show-only or “what really happened” from George R. R. Martin. Ultimately, it didn’t matter, and it didn’t stop the show from being hugely popular among critics, fans, and general audiences, and winning Best Drama Series at the Golden Globes this week.

This info comes from both my Netflix and Paramount sources, and I have to say that it was really nice to write something that brings both “sides” together. Because there really aren’t sides-- I’ve only ever heard good things about Avatar Studios from Netflix and good things about Netflix from Avatar Studios. They each only have to gain from the other doing well, and now we know they’re collaborating together to make the live-action show, the first new big Avatar franchise release since Korra ended in 2014, as good as it can be. Make no mistake, it’s still Netflix’s own show, created by Albert Kim, and necessarily its own thing because it’s an adaptation. But I think the takeaway is that at the end of the day it’s all Avatar. :)

#news #live action atla #season 1 #adaptation #avatar news exclusive