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avengerscompound · 3 years

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Small Gods: Lost Objects - 5

Lost Objects: A Thor Fanfic

Lost Objects Masterlist | More Small Gods PREVIOUS //

Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing: Thor x F!Reader

Rating: E

Word Count: 1722

Warnings: Mentions of sex, oh umm... hey there’s a little bit of talk about things in the trailers for the loki series some people who don’t know anything about the comics might not have picked up. Should have warned on the series for that. I wouldn’t personally call them spoilers, because ... i haven’t seen the series to spoil it, but if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like to know anything...

Synopsis: Thor has lost a lot in a very short period of time and he’s worried about losing himself too. He goes to the one person who understands loss.

Chapter 5

Barnaby the fat ginger cat sat down and began grooming himself as the black one seemed to stare at you and Thor. In what really was only a few seconds, Thor seemed to have a whole thought journey. It started with how close the green of that cat’s eyes was to Loki’s and ended with the conclusion that the cat must be Loki. The journey took him through a lot of stops, including Loki’s ability to shapeshift, the fact he had faked his death twice in the past, and the fact you could draw lost things to you, but once he landed on it, his eyes went wide.

The cat mimicked Thor’s expression as the man jumped to his feet. “Loki!” Thor shouted, sending the black cat running. Barnaby seemed to watch him go with a look of contempt like he was above such things. “Loki!” Thor shouted again, chasing after him.

“Thor?” You asked, following on, though with much less urgency than Thor. “It won’t be Loki.”

“It has to be,” Thor said, looking around. The cat had vanished, but two rows over there was a bang and the smell of sulfur followed by a cat yowling. Thor charged in the direction of the sound and when he came around the corner and came to a screeching halt as he reached his brother who was lying up against a partially knocked over shelf, his legs in the air, rubbing his head as various pieces of cutlery, jewelry and stuffed animals clattered down around him.

He looked up at Thor with an expression of resignation. “Hello, brother.”

“Loki!” Thor roared, pulling his brother to his feet and drawing him into a tight embrace. “I knew you must not be dead. You are always the trickster.”

Loki did not hug back but did not resist the affection either. Just allowing it to happen. “What are you talking about?” He asked, dryly.

You appeared behind both the men and looked between them blinking. “What? How? How are you here?”

“That is a very good question,” Loki said, pulling back from Thor. “As is, why I can’t seem to leave.”

“Come,” you said, gesturing to both men. “I think this is a tea conversation.”

“Yes,” Thor said, clapping Loki on the shoulder. He hadn’t felt so light and genuinely happy for years. He had resigned himself to be the last of Odin’s lineage and yet here was his brother, returned to him again. “Come. Let us celebrate!”

Loki allowed himself to be dragged down to your kitchen, where you began to potter around. You brewed tea and coffee and tried to find some kind of sweet to be served with it. Eventually finding a packet of slightly stale cookies behind a teapot with a mismatched lid.

“Tell us, how did you escape Thanos? And how is it you are here?” Thor asked as you moved around the kitchen.

Loki picked up one of the cookies and sniffed it before taking a hesitant bite. When he appeared to deem it satisfactory he shoved the whole thing into his mouth and grabbed a handful of others. It was very un-Loki-like and reminded Thor more of his old friend Volstagg than his much more dignified brother. “How do you even know of Thanos?” Loki said through a mouthful of cookies. “Besides, I don’t know what he has to do with anything. After I escaped from Midgard with the tesseract, I used it to travel around. I worked out a way to move through time, which was fun…”

“Wait? What?” Thor asked. “When you were on Midgard with the tesseract? The last I saw you we were in space. And how did you get the tesseract after Thanos destroyed it?”

“You are speaking nonsense,” Loki snarked. “Thanos never obtained the tesseract, and he certainly didn’t break it. The Time Variance Authority confiscated it.”

You put a sandwich down in front of Loki, and Thor wasn’t sure if you’d made it or just found it like that. It was on a large crusty roll, filled with various meats and salad, and wrapped in thin white paper. Loki picked it up and sniffed it before taking a large bite.

“Why don’t you tell us when you last saw Thor and what has happened to you since,” you said, taking a seat at the table.

Loki rolled his eyes. “After the battle that I brought to Midgard, you shackled me and were going to let the Midgardians lock me up. There was some kerfuffle in Stark’s building and the tesseract fell from its case. I took it and used it to leave. I went to some friends who removed the restraints you put on me and I was traveling around, entertaining myself. Then the TVA took offense and locked me up, confiscating the Tesseract. I was just breaking out to go get it when suddenly I was here and you and this lesser god were fornicating.”

Loki spat the words lesser god the same way he used the word mortal or Midgardian. Like even the words themselves were beneath him. Thor considered addressing it, but he was more distracted by the tale Loki had just spun. It didn’t make sense and he was having trouble getting his head around it. “You were taken back to Asgard and locked up. Mother was killed when there was a prison breakout,” he said.

Loki started at Thor mid-bite and slowly lowered the sandwich to the table. “Mother was killed?”

“You know this!” Thor roared, slamming his hands on the table. “You were there! Why are you saying these things?”

“I know not of what you speak, brother,” Loki said. “When I last saw mother she was alive and well. Certainly, I have not returned home since I fell from the Rainbow Bridge, but if she passed…”

Thor looked at you like you might have some answers to what was happening right now. You took a sip of your tea and seemed to think. “The time variance authority exists outside of time, correct? I don’t know much about them, but it is generally accepted that they are not of this universe exactly?”

“That’s what they say,” Loki said in a bored voice.

“And when you were escaping, had they realized you were gone? Were they looking for you?” You asked.

“Yes,” Loki said. “Which was why I was in the form of a cat. I was moving through the vents.”

You nodded and looked at Thor. “This is just a hypothesis, because… this isn’t how my powers work, Thor, but-” you glanced at Loki and shook your head. “I don’t think this is your Loki. At least… not the one you knew more recently. After the battle there was a divergence, this Loki got away and yours did not. And just now - I think there is power in you worshipping me, Thor. What I am… Loki said it himself, I’m small-time. People don’t actually worship me, they pray and they beg the universe for the return of their missing keys or cell phones. It’s never to me directly, and it’s never very hard. Yet here you are, one of the Norse gods, and you were on your knees for me.”

Loki scoffed and took a long drink of his tea. Thor ignored him. “You think you brought him here?”

“Yes,” you said. “I can’t be sure. I’ve never brought a person here before. Small pets are the limit of the living creatures with free will. But maybe if Loki was in cat form, and maybe if they were wishing for him back, while we were… doing what we were doing… it was enough to bring him here.”

“Well, I’d like to go, if it is all the same to you,” Loki said, sounding bored.

“Brother, I haven’t seen you for a long time. I saw the life choked from you. Surely you can stay for a little while. We have much to catch up on,” Thor said.

“The last time I saw you, you had planned to lock me up for eternity,” Loki said. “What has changed?”

Thor frowned and shook his head. This was not the Loki he had worked with to save Jane and stop the dark elves, nor the Loki who had helped him escape Sakaar and stop Ragnarok. This was the angry Loki who had attacked a city at the behest of a titan and whose pain of finding his father had lied to him about his past for over a millennium was fresh and raw. “You are my brother.”

“And what else?” Loki asked.

“And I have lost everyone,” Thor said. “Mother and father are dead. Jane left me. Fandral, Volstagg, Hogun, Heimdall, even Stark and Rogers. They are all gone. Loki, Asgard is gone.”

“And that is why I find you hiding with this lesser god?” Loki scoffed. “Why would I want to stay in such a world anyway brother? Where I am from, everyone is alive and well - as far as I know.”

Thor lowered his eyes. “Why must you be so cruel?”

Loki started laughing and patted Thor’s shoulder. “Oh brother, I’m sorry. You are in a bad way, aren’t you?”

“It might be a moot point,” you said with a shrug. “You’re mine now Loki. I can return you to the ones looking for you, and perhaps you could leave with Thor because he was also looking for you, but otherwise, you are stuck with me. That’s why you didn’t go anywhere when you tried to teleport out. Would you like me to return you to the people of the TVA?”

“I obviously do not,” Loki deadpanned.

“Then you might as well make yourself comfortable,” you said, pouring him more tea. “You clearly haven’t eaten properly for a long time. Why not rest and recharge and we can work out what to do?”

“Fabulous,” Loki snarked. “Just what I’ve always wanted - to be stuck with some hoarder deity.”

“Cheer up brother, it isn’t so bad here,” Thor said, grinning and clapping Loki on his back. He had his brother back, even if it wasn’t quite the Loki he knew, it was still one he was familiar with. Soon he’d have Mjolnir too. Coming to see you had been the best decision he’d made in a long time.

// NEXT

#thor #thor odinson #thor x reader #reader insert #thor fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction #small gods #lost objects

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lizacstuff · 3 years

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Your thoughts on the epi? And the trailers? I'm loving the in love Edser! We've waited so long for this!!!

This episode was so fun and fluffy! I don't know about you, but I am enjoying the tone during this second season. A lot. I don't care how stupid the audition process was for the spot in the school, it gave us some very good comedy and a lot of USTy, sexy, flirty goodness.

And like you, I also love in love Edser!

Thankfully this episode was dominated by Edser, and with Kiraz at Granny's house we even got some alone time. The supporting characters were used to good effect this episode, Engin and Piril were the funniest they've ever been, Kerem and Pina served to poke Serkan about his mentoring style, and it was actually nice to have an excuse for Ayfer and Aydan to share a storyline again.

(more under the cut)

However, we'll start with Burak and Melo. UGH. I mean I love Melo and Elcin has done a really good job of showing Melo's heartbreak and trying to hide her melancholy behind her usual bubbly personality, but I really can't stand that it's over such a dud of a character. I know I'm a broken record here but Melo deserves better than this fool. Honestly, he's such a bland sad sack I don't really get why Melo loves him, Eda wants to be friends with him and Ayfer thinks he's so great she wants him for a nephew-in-law. Well, for Ayfer the only qualification is that he's not Serkan, so never mind that question.

However, maybe there's some hope? Before this episode it seemed certain they were heading in a romance direction, but the way he told her she was like a sister to him? Is there really any coming back from him saying that after he remembered kissing her? On the other hand we're barreling towards the end here and there's not really enough time to introduce anyone new for Melo (and no indication from spoilers that they have) and I'm pretty sure Ayse and the writers want to give her a romantic happy ending (although I'd be fine if they didn't and instead had her go off and do something entirely for herself like go back to school or travel or open a shop). So we'll see, because even with the sister line they left some room open because Kerem was the one who suggested he say that (it wasn't necessarily his own idea) and with Melo he seemed to be coming from a place where he assumed he had forced himself on her and she was angry because she didn't want it. Which we know is not true, so might be a misunderstanding that leads to something more. Anyway, I guess we'll just have to endure whichever way they go.

Personally, I like the Serkan-Kemal father storyline. I think it's a good way to add a bit of drama in the waning episodes, gives Serkan a bit of an identity crisis, interestingly mirrors his own situation with Kiraz, and it just makes sense with everything we know of the characters. Because were we seriously supposed to believe that someone as sniveling as Alptelkin sired Serkan? I mean Serkan is the epitome of BDE, he has an inherent charismatic and commanding presence. Sorry to the actor who played Alptekin, but he didn't really have any kind of presence, however Sinan who plays Kemal, does. They've done a great job of casting, because it just feels true. I believe Kemal and Serkan share genetics.

However, even before that storyline starts in earnest, it's interesting that Serkan was being a big baby, not wanting his mom with a man she clearly loves. I wish Eda would have pushed back at him a little more when he was going off that Aydan shouldn't pursue love at her age! Does he think he'll be out of love with Eda by the time he's in his 50s and 60s? Of course not! I'm guessing Eda, though, is just letting him blow off some steam and come to accept the relationship on his own terms. Don't get me wrong, though, after all the meddling Aydan's done with Edser, she more than deserves to have Serkan's opinion of Kemal negatively impact her!

Loved that Kiraz and Can found out first that Kemal is Serkan's father! Cat is out of the bag, Aydan, you can't make a deal with a 5 year old, lmao. It put a nice ticking clock on the whole thing and gave us some good comedic moments where Kiraz is speaking the truth and everyone thinks she's just really fond of the dude. Hee.

Also I enjoyed the Aydan and Ayfer moments. To be honest, I also used to enjoy their true friendship moments when we got them, like when Kemal first appeared and Aydan was freaking out and needed Ayfer and Seyfi around her, and when they were trying to hunt down Deniz after the fake wedding turned real. After so much animosity, it was nice that Ayfer recognized that Aydan was truly in distress and needed a friend and they were able to actually talk. Also we got some (mildly) funny comedy with the two of them and the school lady. Speaking of Ayfer, thankfully she finally realized some consequences to her actions in pushing Burak at Eda. She hurt Melo! Glad she finally opened her eyes to see what should have been obvious to her (Eda never saw him that way, and Melo obviously did) and apologized to Melo. I'd like it if she would apologize to Eda as well, (and Burak deserves an apology as well because she most definitely gave him false hope) but since Eda wasn't influenced by her we probably won't see that.

Switching to Eda and Serkan this episode gave us lots of good stuff. This was a great episode for showing us where each of them stood. Eda is terrified of getting hurt and trying to hold him at arm's length even while he clearly is inching back into her heart, and Serkan is dreaming of their future together, and taking every opportunity to tie them together. How much did I love Serkan admitting he was poking at Eda, and doig things to make her angry, just so she would talk to him? Interesting that he's doing it and love that he's being honest and admitting it to her. One of my favorite relationship dynamics between them is around "talking." In the very beginning Serkan did a lot of complaining about how much Eda talked and how she never shut up, but starting around episode 18 all he wanted was for Eda to talk to him. And this is just more of that. The thing he wants most is to talk to her.

Plus watching domestic Edser is just so much fun, I could watch their full grocery shopping trip in real time and be perfectly happy, lol. At the age of 35 it's time that Serkan learn how to do a few things for himself, I don't care how rich he is, so it's nice that we see him evolving a bit as he embraces the dad role.

The jealousy gambits, even as mild as they are, are getting pretty eye roll worthy since Eda and Serkan are living together, care so much, and obviously are still so hot for one another. It's a bit more understandable from Serkan since Eda is the one creating the barrier between them, but are we really supposed to believe that Eda is jealous of Deniz when Serkan is so obviously in love with Eda and planning their future together? Especially when he clearly can't stand Deniz and tries so hard to avoid her? I suppose it's to show us that Eda is in a jumbled state, her head is trying to keep space with Serkan, while her heart wants him badly and is scared he's going to take her rejections seriously. Even so it was quite irrational for her to get angry at Serkan for having lunch with Deniz when she ordered him to leave with her. Poor Eda is in emotional turmoil.

It was hard to tell with shaky translations, but I guess Serkan claimed to have been injured while rescuing Eda and that's how he talked his way into her bed? Impressively done, Serkan. Love it because it meant we all got to wake up to snuggly family, snuggling together. This gave us another glimpse into Eda's psyche, she wakes up first, and is clearly enjoying it and feeling at home in his arms, until the sleep clears enough and her head realizes she's not supposed to be enjoying it. But once again Kiraz knows how to handle her parents and their complicated relationship beautifully and fixes everything with a pillow fight. That is one smart cookie.

One of my favorite moments of the episode is when Eda is trying to convince Serkan to go to Aydan about the school. Eda knows that her big eyes still work on him, and they did. He still can't say no to her, another one of my favorite relationship dynamics of theirs. I'm super glad some things never change. Speaking of their visit to Aydan's, how great that they went to meet the horse without a name as a family, and then Serkan finally came up with the perfect name. Definitely a star.

Love, love, love that Serkan and Eda beat Engin and Piril when it came to the 'how well do you know your spouse' game. They may have been separated for 5 years, but they both have a genuine interest in the other, so they remember things, and they always made a much more compatible couple than Engin/Piril who have absolutely nothing in common. Of course I adored all the fake married hijinx this gave us, not to mention all the opportunities for Serkan to touch, kiss, and hold her. SO MUCH UST!

The heart-to-heart on the bench was well done and it finally gave us Eda opening up and telling him what's been holding her back. She's scared. Of course she is, the poor thing. Serkan might have thought he was doing it for her own good both times, but he ripped her heart out twice (not even counting all the heart ripping he did during amnesia) how could she not have fears? Of course she's afraid! Whenever she lets herself love him and be loved by him, it's ripped away horribly, and often in ways that feels like it's him doing the ripping. She can take into consideration the circumstances, which she has or else he wouldn't be anywhere near her, and still need time to be sure she's not just setting herself up to get emotionally demolished again.

For Serkan's part all he can do is keep being there, being honest with her, and showing he's in it for the long haul, which I think he's doing and which is why they are where they are at the end of this episode.

Engin and Piril's dance practice is probably the first Engin/Piril alone scene that I thought was genuinely funny and fully enjoyable. I can't think of another... message me if you think there is one, lol. Elsewhere, I saw some folks saying that Engin and Piril should have won the dance competition, because they actually danced, and Eda and Serkan didn't. LOL, you think? I'm pretty sure that was the point. That Eda and Serkan didn't really dance, all they did was get up there and turn their sexual tension and intense smoldering towards one another up to eleventy and won because it's that powerful.

It's sort of a metaphor for this whole series. Sen Cal Kapimi is 100% powered by their chemistry. Of course they can win any competition by just pressing their bodies against one another! They can turn a ditzy Turkish summer romcom that probably should have gone 13 eps into an international hit that's going on 50 episodes, just by looking at one another.

I'm glad that the school officials overheard their conversations and dismissed them, any organization that requires this of the parents, is going to be a lifelong pain-in-the ass, lmao. Also it was good to see Edser and EnPir make up by the end.

Now, on to that ending. I'm glad the subject of the tatoos was brought up, interesting that Eda kept hers until a few months ago. Also interesting that she moved it... can't blame Serkan for wanting to see it. Was that one great seduction line, or what?

I join with everyone who thinks it was a slightly awkward place to leave the episode. We only have 13 (probably) episodes this season, and we've only had one kiss so far. That was definitely a moment for a kiss. Part of me thinks they were going for the cliffhanger, what will Eda do? Will she kiss him or slam the door in his face? Tune in next week to find out! Except that audiences have to wait no time at all for the fragman and that makes any such cliffhanger moot. So what's the point? Have her pull him in, kiss him, and the show can end with them passionately making out and the door slamming with the camera outside the house.

Oh well, it is what it is, and we can only hope they pick up next week right where they left off. As for the fragman, obviously they are fully back together for this episode which means she lets him in to hunt for her tattoo. (please oh please give us that internet ozel because I don't think I can stand being online in this fandom if they don't. Thankfully I'm traveling next week and will be too busy to spend much time on twitter.)

As I said in another ask, I'm not surprised Serkan is barreling them straight towards marriage. When you know, you know, so why wait? Once they emotionally commit to one another, they need to just get married. No waiting for psychos to interfere, family to meddle, or tragedy to strike!

Seriously can't wait for a full episode of them together and Serkan figuring out how to propose. I'm also looking forward to the Kemal/Serkan stuff, it will be interesting to see how he reacts once the news sets in... should be a great episode!

#Sen Çal Kapımı #Sen Cal kapimi #edser #sckask #sck episode discussion #edser discussion #sck 2x46 #serkan bolat #asklizac #architecture

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nergigante-beans · 3 years

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new monster hunter dedicated ramble blog! hello! do my posts show up in the tag yet omfg. Tumblr truly is hell. I promise I’m not a pornbot or a spammer, just let me interact with people...

current hyperfixation? monster hunter stories 2 >O> I just think nergigante is neat...

idek if anyone interacts on tumblr anymore since it’s been a while since I’ve done any sort of dedicated fanblog of any sort, but I’ll be sure to tag spoilers and keep em under a read more if I end up rambling about them.

I am not sure what people consider spoilers though. Plot, obviously, but what about the monstiepedia/postgame monsties? Companions? I’ll err on the side of caution, anyways.

Post-game has been pretty relaxing and going slowly. I’ve got 5 achievements left to get including finishing out the kinship gallery, completing my monsterpedia, completing the gene compendium, and getting the last catavan stands.

Gene compendium and monsterpedia seem to be the biggest nightmares of the bunch, as I can’t seem to find certain HR monsters for the life of me (rarest monster in the game being HR aptonoth??? please???) I’m missing maybe 30 entries in the monsterpedia and I don’t remember where I am on the gene compendium...

Kinship gallery is gonna be a bit of work, but I had been trying to keep at least 1 copy of every monster in my stables so it hasn’t been too awful so far. Just a lot of monster petting and bullying the same yian kut ku right outside mahana with my army of level 1 babies. I somehow must’ve dumped or sacrificed my only great baggi and congalala so far, so I’m gonna have to go grab eggs for those guys soon, but I think I have everyone else?

I think after I fill out my kinship gallery and grab the rest of the achievements, I’m just gonna spend all my postgame time hunting nergie eggs... :) my little elder eater... what a baby!!!! I’m sorry in advance to my poor stable paw for whatever stress this causes LOL.

Did anyone else not realize that the double kinship gallery only counts if you used Ratha with those companions? Because I was pretty bummed that I had to go through and get those again, even though I had definitely seen them before :/ smh.

I see a lot of nergigantes in online play and I feel a little basic, but I just really like this guy... it just really became my favorite monster after mhw and iceborne, and the ruiner nerg fight at MR100 had so much character. Absolutely the monster I was most hyped about from the trailers, and did not disappoint. 1000000/10.

shout out to that one person I played an SR expedition with who had an absolute unit of a popo. You’re also living your best life and I respect that immensely.

If anyone plays on PC/Steam and wants to do some SR expeditions together, hmu! I’ve got a few extra gold tickets/gold palamute tickets lying around :). I’ve already gotten copies of all the monsters in them, so I’m happy to host for anyone who needs em.

Warning in advance that I do kind of go through expeditions at my own pace and get all the chests, and if I see a monster i need for my monsterpedia/gear I most likely will pick a fight with it ahah. I genuinely don’t mind superfluous fights in expeditions, so feel free to do the same as well in my expeditions. If all you want to do is max efficiency bum-rush to the end, I am truly not the partner for you haha. That said, I’m decently high level and I think I’m able to carry people through most SR expedition fights barring the occasional disaster of rng, so if you haven’t done them before don’t worry :).

wow I’m really incapable of shutting up haha hello congrats on making it to the end.

#mhs2 #monster hunter stories 2 #text #no spoilers

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0poole · 3 years

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Soul

Breaking news, everyone: Pixar made another slapper.

I’m gonna get it out of the way first, but the only (and yes, only. Not like someone trying to say “only” even though they have many more nitpicks that they just don’t want to talk about) problem I had at all was that the super high realism of the settings of Earth kind of made the more cartoony faces of the people look a little more off. But, it’s kinda like the same thing people were talking about with that cat in Toy Story 4. It looks super real, which is impressive, but I feel like it was almost too real compared to the faces. Obviously it was too real compared to the supernatural settings because that was intentional, but yeah. It’s not even a big problem, it’s just the only one I can think of. I do think the realistic renderings of hair, light, water, etc at least work with cartoony stuff, but apart from that it looked almost like it could’ve been a photograph, with no exaggeration in the buildings or anything else.

I mean, I love the faces, so I definitely wish they went the extra mile showing extra personality and character in the buildings, as faces do with characters. Considering the faces matter like a bazillion times more, I still think they knocked it out of the park on the visuals. People with more investment and knowledge into the topic already said that the faces of any of the people of color felt cartoony and unique while also being true to life and respectful (My family recently stumbled onto some old animations from the 30s and lemme tell ya... We’ve come a long way), but seriously the characters that sold me on the visuals were the Picasso-esque beings who may or may not be the Gods of the universe maybe?

Spoiler boundary of course. It’s definitely worth a watch.

And that’s honestly what made the realistic world so much better. When the accountant guy went into the real world to set the count right, it was one of the most fun I’ve had just watching something. The sheer contrast between him and the world was so much fun, and it even solidified that those beings weren’t even acting in a different dimension or anything. They’re literally just beings that exist, meaning that all the other parts with the unborn souls and such are just as real as Earth. Or, even better, they’re the ones who can just casually rip a hole in dimensions. As far as depictions of Gods go, if they are even Gods at all, I think they’re one of the best I’ve ever seen. They feel like they could actually be how Gods actually exist, since all the commonalities of Gods involve supernatural power, which would suggest they’re supernatural themselves. I mean, I have a story with Gods in it too and they’re basically just that although admittedly a lot less imaginative.

With those guys being my favorite design, second place definitely goes to the lost souls, although obviously for more subjective reasons. 1) They’re purple, 2) They have one eye, 3) That eye is yellow which I always think is the best compliment to purple, 4) Tentacles, 5) Creepy in a kid’s movie. Franky, I would’ve made them a lot creepier, but even then they’re super creepy, if not visually then in their behavior. They’d just be kind of sad if they were just mumbling around, but since the first introduction to them starts charging at the main characters like a deranged monster. Considering how weird everything in that dimension is, finding something that isn’t nearly as innocent as everything else instantly invokes fear, since you have no idea what that thing can and wants to do to you. Sort of similar, I would’ve also made the “In the Zone” moments a bit more crazy and colorful, like when Joe fell through the void between the road to the Great Beyond and the You-seminar (is that how it’s spelled?), but these “I would do it differently”s might just be a fault of my design ideas or just subjective interests. I would’ve watched 2 hours of pure, nonsensical abstract worlds like the You-seminar with no explanation to how they work.

I definitely have a relief with the story, mostly entirely revolving around 22′s character. I was kind of worried she’d be too childish to really enjoy, but I feel like she was done really well. All the major historical figures’ remarks on how hopeless she were both funny and also really tied into her character “flaw” at the end as she was a lost soul. It might not be the most unique character archetype of all time, but it definitely makes sense, with all the people bringing her down implanting in her mind that she was an anomaly, and after a while was just sort of following it. Plus, she seemed genuinely interested in Joe’s weirdness, instead of being super mindlessly irreverent. And her being able to expand Joe’s understanding about his own world, like with the barber and his student, brings her up as more than a whiny, bratty child in the scope of the story. She didn’t JUST learn.

Even though I kind of expected it from the get-go, I’m also relieved that the movie didn’t shy away as much with the dark elements of death. It was kind of suggested that this wasn’t going to be a perfectly casual romp through a magical afterlife like Inside Out was with the mind because of the unborn souls unabashedly saying “Hell” in the TRAILER of the movie. I feel like that alone made the story super interesting, because it shows they’re actually going to be a bit more serious with things instead of just simplifying the unknowable complexities of the before & afterlife. Even with the dead souls going into the Great Beyond, it was a mix of being weirdly peaceful for some and super scary for others. My family thought it was peaceful for the most part, but my mom specifically though it was terrifying, and even though it’s a lot more peaceful than almost all other depictions of death, I can’t blame her. The souls were just kinda accepting it, like they’d been brainwashed or something, but still acknowledged that they were dead and were going into the afterlife. Plus, Joe, being the main character who we are supposed to sort of reflect in a way, was super freaked out by it, so that could easily suggest it’s to be afraid of and the other people are the weird ones.

I think the true message of the story being so strange was better too, because it would’ve been so boring if it fell into a super basic message we’ve heard millions of times. I feel like it has a similar sentiment to the basic messages, but is at least a more interesting way of saying it, if it is even like that in the first place, because it’s also somewhat vague in a good way. I think my brother/mother misinterpreted and simplified things a bit too much, where they thought it was sort of like a happier way of saying “accept your lot in life and don’t change it.” I could probably go on a full other rant about why I think this is wrong, but part of it is I don’t really know how they came to this conclusion in the first place, considering with that scene with that guy who threw the computers off his desk as his lost soul was cured (I guess you could call it that?), who obviously realized he wasn’t okay with his lot in life and was destined to change it. I think they sort of misinterpreted “the spark” and other things it as a 100% for-real, this-is-how-the-real-world-works sort of way, and not as much as a fictional way of saying things. Not necessarily symbolic, but I guess symbolic also? It has some of the same weird logical problems as the Cutie Marks from My Little Pony, except they’re obviously better since Cutie Marks determine your life down to your very job some of the time, while “sparks” are more vague and seemingly up to you. They’re more like when an unborn soul realizes there’s something on Earth they want to figure out, not necessarily their hobbies or jobs. For example, they kind of cited the barber character as the one who supported their point, but I think he does the complete opposite. He wanted to be a vet, but he ended up being a barber. But, they sort of assumed his “spark” was to be a barber, and that his personal interests didn’t matter because the “spark” forced him into a less favorable job. But, in reality, I feel like his “spark” is more his interest in love for the people around him, which is why he decided to get a more practical job to support his daughter (wife? one of the two) when he really needed to. Plus, he still enjoys being a barber because his devotion to love lets him connect to people as he cuts their hair. After all, he seems to be succeeding in his goal, since Joe was just like “Hey, let’s go see this guy he’s the exact guy we need!” People who don’t show love and interest for others don’t make that kind of impression in people’s minds. I feel like if we knew each story of everyone’s life down to the last detail we could fully determine what the mechanics of the world and its people are meant to say from a fictional context, but with such a limited selection I don’t think you can say something so sure. Sure, every choice in a movie is made specifically for a purpose, but I feel like if a movie tries to hard to be like “Oh but don’t worry here’s an exception” a million times it gets bogged down by its own attempt to make the message as obvious as possible.

Anyway...

There are also a lot of neat little details I loved, like how even though they did this for basically no other point in the movie, they made sure to include people from all around the world in that mess of dead souls, firmly sort of putting in the idea that the entire globe is in a sense one single entity that leads to the same place. They could’ve so easily just made everyone speak English for that throwaway scene, but I feel like including people from all around the world was very beneficial. Even the EXTRA little things, like the path to the Great Beyond looking like the neck portion of a guitar with the metal bits that separate the notes, or the facial features of the Gods blurring when they turned their heads in the other direction.

But yeah, who would’ve guessed Pixar made another good movie, right? Even then, Soul’s in the upper echelon of Pixar films. I really hope they (and Disney) realize they can go bonkers with a movie and still benefit/survive from it, since they’re so damn rich and inherently profitable. I think AAA animated movies like this that are the perfect amount of artsy are few and far between, and we need more of them. If anything, I hope they get more artsy, but I guess I’ll still never say no to a fun fantastical romp either. Basically, Pixar has looped me into watching any and everything they produce because it’s never “bad” I think. In the grand scheme of quality, even their worst work (Cars 2) is still not “terrible,” per se, even if it feels like it exists more as a cash grab than a genuine tale.

#soul #pixar #christmas #disney plus #disney+#poole #opinions #rant #rambling #review #thoughts

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captaincoffeegirl515 · 4 years

Text

6 Underground Thoughts!

I'm literally gonna talk about pretty much the entire movie so lots and lots of spoilers under the read more.

If you've already seen the movie, I would love to talk and debate and scream excitedly about the movie with you!

P.S. This got way longer than I expected.

I gotta say I really enjoyed the movie. Of course, there's some problems and continuity errors, etc. but I'll get to them after.

First of all, I love all the interactions between them. Found-family trope is my jam.

One and Four

Four looks up to One and seems like he tries to impress him.

He also calls One a likeable asshole.

"See that? That's called skill." Show off.

One was the one Four called to for help even though they all knew his way of leaving you behind if you can't keep up. And he stepped up and saved Four! That whole scene was so good!

I will admit though that how they first met is messed up. One basically kidnapped him, tied him down, and made Four think he was gonna shoot and kill him. Seven got it down when he called them a "family more screwed up than mine"

Two and Three

Badass lady and himbo (does Three count as a himbo?). Enough said.

I love every interaction they had together. I enjoyed their bickering and how they showed how they cared in their own way.

Tiny touches! The part near the end when Three lightly touches Two’s arm and she takes her hand out of her pocket so they could hold hands?! Nice.

When Two said "I would love to meet your mother." awwww! The way Three just brightens up!

Four and Seven

OTP! I never expected to come out with one, but here we are.

Look, I just love the concept of the free-spirited parkour expert being with the disciplined military operator.

Seven just immediately seemed to take Four under his wing and genuinely care about his well-being.

The others also expressed how they didn't want to leave Four behind but only Seven fought for them to stop.

Saved Four's life not once, but twice! It was almost instinctual and he didn't hesitate to do it.

"You're calling me Mister Seven from now on" Seven's inner dom coming out lol.

The names scene! "I'm Blaine. I just saved your life. What's your name?" and instead of listening to One’s order, he answers.

"Yeah, you look like a Billy."

Seven and One

One always kept his distance from everyone, used numbers instead of names so he wouldn't get attached, and had that horrid "can't keep up, get left behind" rule. So glad that Seven pushed back, from making the shot to save Four from both drowning and from falling to his death, questioning his rules about leaving people behind, and getting them all (except One, sadly) to say their real names.

Seven brought out One's heart and finally made him start to actually care for his team aka family. Like I'm certain that if it wasn't for him, One would have definitely left Four to die in Hong Kong and on the boat during the coup.

"You've got a soul, man. You should let it out."

Movie highlights and thoughts:

I called it! Like based on the screen time and focus on them from the trailers, I already knew Six was the most likely one to die and Four would probably be injured at worst.

The fucking dialogue in the opening! I can't even. Like “I’m gonna put this inside you, really deep.” and "ahhh! She's squirting!"

"So many fucking Vias in Italy." I love how it's canon that Four isn't that good with maps and would definitely get lost in Italy. Actually he's bad with directions period. "Where are you?" "Here." "Specifics!" "Right here." Four pls

Three trying to learn the language of each new place they go to. The best!

Did I already say Two is badass? Because she is. She really is. And they're all right when they said she'd be the most likely to survive.

Four and Six worked so well together in the car chase scenes and Four looked so sad when he saw Six's body in that car. Honestly if Six hadn't died so early in the movie and they got more interactions together, him and Four probably would've been my OTP.

I did enjoy how One had like momentary vulnerability like when Six died or when Four told them to leave him followed by the gunshots, etc. Those little moments where you can see that he did have feelings before he shoves them deep down and focuses back on the mission.

Best outfit is Four in that big white sweater with the red stripes. He looked so good.

I found the scene where Four asks One if he was a pig then spits at him weirdly hilarious. The spitting just felt so random and came out of nowhere.

Four sleeping is! So! Cute! And when Three starts loudly complaining, he just slowly opens one eye like he's going "are you fucking kidding me right now?!"

Another funny scene was when Four easy runs across the top of the crane and then it pans to the guards chasing him and they have both arms and legs on the crane and just slowly inching their way across.

Guy jokes about Noor. "Noor is dead. Say he's dead." "No, he's dead. He died." "Wait no. Wrong guy. He's alive!" jfc that was funny!

The coup song is so fire! I love it! Nice choice, Four.

Four's scream when that guy broke his arm just kills me. I kinda wish One made that guy's death a bit more painful and drawn out but I get that they were under some serious time constraints.

Actually any part where Four gets hurt... noooo bb

Now that I think about it, the fact that they have comms throughout the mission, like they can hear everything the others say, they can hear each other when they're fighting, when they get hit, everything. They heard when Three got shot in the face and Seven panicked, thinking that he just killed him. They heard Four screaming in pain when his arm broke and they couldn't do anything since they weren't there.

Seriously though, Ben's acting is so good! He's easily the best part of the movie. And his eyes! So green and so expressive!

“Fuck you!” “Fuck you!” “No you, fuck you!” jfc One and Three are hilarious together.

It was such a great scene when One told them he wouldn't go after Rovach bc he's going to save Four. Just. My heart. And "You’re breaking your own rules. I thought you didn't have a family". And Five's soft smile.

Four and Five are rock climbing buddies! Both their smiles can outshine the sun. They're so cute! (even though in the close-ups you can tell the rock is very obviously fake)

Ben and Adria are both so hot my little bi heart is ready to burst!

Also, how is Micheal Bay saying this movie isn't political? They had the US gov’t staging coups in third world countries and putting dictators into power, Russia arming Rovach and his military, chemical warfare, Rovach's whole speech to his generals about hitting where he is weakest like hospitals and schools, the "our president doesn't know how to spell Turgistan" line, revolution, overthrowing dictators, throwing Rovach down to the people for them to deal their own brand of justice, etc. There were so many things that just screamed politics!

Issues:

Holy hell the kill count of this movie is just insane. It becomes over the top so fast. Same with all the gratuitous gore.

Shaky af camera work.

Literally every explosion looked like those sparky fireworks. What.

Lots of continuity errors. Six having a disappearing and reappearing hat throughout the chase scene. Basically any scene involving water. Like Four and Two get completely soaked at one point, but in the next scene, they're completely dry. Or the part where Four is hanging upside down on the net and big dude is trying to untangle him so he’d fall but when it cuts back to them when Seven makes the shot, it's back to the part where the guy was choking Four.

Did anyone else notice all the skid marks on the roads even though they haven't officially driven on it yet? Didn't have enough budget left to remove or edit out the marks from all the rehearsals they did?

And why is One hanging the eyeball right over the phone screen? That's not where the camera is dude!

Did Two and Three seriously have sex with all those dead people around?! Shouldn't they be running since they killed the 4 generals and guards would likely be on their way??

Also, Ben's stunt double was obvious in almost every parkour stunt. Wow.

Why no Five backstory! I wanna know how she ended up joining the team!

They did Five dirty! She barely has lines or scenes, they took out her backstory, and gave her little to no character growth.

I know they're hinting at Four and Five getting together, but I just don't see it. They have barely any romantic chemistry together. Eye contact and smiling is not chemistry. It just isn’t.

#6 underground #6 underground spoilers #ryan reynolds #melanie laurent #manuel garcia rulfo #ben hardy #adria arjona #dave franco #corey hawkins

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lightsandlostbells · 5 years

Note

so, overall, what did you think of season 3 of stranger things?

It took me a while to answer this question because I had to sort out how I felt about this season! I guess if I had to narrow it down to an overall opinion: enjoyable, but very messy. Had some of the series’ best moments but also, while I was watching, I had far more grumbles and gripes than the previous two seasons.

I’ve never really been hung up on whether this show is derivative or plays too into nostalgia or w/e. Plenty of media does that. And despite all the time I’ve spent dissecting micro-expressions and weighty silences in European teen dramas that are filmed for the cost of a candy bar … I am way into genre films and TV shows. I love monsters and superheroes and spectacle! I watched Stranger Things the weekend it premiered because I love ‘80s movies about kids on bikes having adventures, I eat that shit up. So I don’t expect this show to be a hardcore deconstruction and re-imagining of those tropes (though that sounds like a pretty great show), I’m fine with it being what it is: a solid, spooky sci-fi/horror throwback series. What matters most is whether the story and characters work. Personally, I would say whatever criticisms you can make of S1 and S2, they had heart, and unfortunately I think some of that heart was missing from S3. Much of that, IMO, comes from sidelining some of the familial relationships that were at the center of the narrative in S1 and S2, like the Byers family and Hopper & Eleven, and to some degree the important friendships like the party, although there were other friendships introduced in this season so that wasn’t as glaring. It’s not a surprise that one of the best-received parts about this season, Steve and Robin’s friendship, is also responsible for one of the most heartfelt scenes Stranger Things has ever done.

There was also a way larger emphasis on comedy in S3. Comedy is probably my favorite genre, and I did laugh at a lot of humorous moments in this season. But I also felt like there was more comedy for comedy’s sake, like long sequences created intentionally to make the audience laugh. Whereas in S1 and S2, I can’t remember any scenes like that? The comedy was more understated and came from character personalities and relationship moments rather than joke set pieces. That’s perhaps another reason why S3 felt like it had less heart.

My hope for season 4 - and I am assuming there is a season 4, because apparently this show did mega ratings for S3 - is that they don’t add more major new characters (except love interests for the gay characters, go ahead with those, lol) and instead focus on the existing cast, which is already a very strong ensemble, yet many of the characters have gotten pushed to the sides. I would love if they added to the episode count: a lot of Netflix series drag out their seasons, like they have enough story for 10 episodes but have to stretch it out to 13, but Stranger Things has the opposite problem. I feel like if they had 10 (or 11, ha) episodes they could have more time for breather moments and more space for character arcs. This season was really fast-paced in my opinion, and although that’s a positive in many respects, I missed a lot of the down time.

Also, I think every season has taken place over like a week maximum, not including the epilogues, and like … you can make the story last longer than a week! Not everything has to go to hell in like a day or two.

Some more specific opinions underneath, obviously lots of spoilers.

First of all, I gotta say, I feel like a weirdo, because so many of the reviews for this season are like A RETURN TO FORM AFTER A DISAPPOINTING SECOND SEASON and UP THERE WITH SEASON 1 NOT THAT CRAPPY SEASON 2 THAT NO ONE LIKED and uhhhh … I liked season 2 just fine? It’s probably my favorite. There are things I don’t like about it, but the stuff I love is stuff I really, really love. Hopper and Eleven’s relationship, for instance. Steve and Dustin teaming up and Steve Harrington becoming a guardian to four children. Those are not just great elements to the series, but directions that I think only a second season could have taken - Hopper and Eleven’s bond wouldn’t have had half the weight if they weren’t established as traumatized, broken people in S1. Steve Harrington becoming a babysitter would not be nearly so delightful if we had not known him as the popular douchebag stereotype from S1 - if he were just a cool dude hanging out with kids from the get-go, the impact wouldn’t be as great. After S1 used Will Byers as a MacGuffin in S1, S2 gave Will a much larger role and that little actor acted his ass off. His performance generated a lot of genuine suspense and chills. There was Sean Astin being lovable! Paul Reiser’s character being a surprisingly good guy! Yeah, there are big flaws in the season, and you can argue it’s too much of a repeat of S1, but to me it was a version of S1 that made the characters more specific and interesting. I’m just … genuinely baffled by how it’s supposed to be demonstrably worse than the others. Because of the Kali episode? I didn’t think that one was terrible, either. I think it broke up the momentum of the chaos at Hawkins Lab, and Kali’s friends were obnoxious, it’s certainly not the greatest writing of the series, but as a whole the episode is like. Fine. It’s fine. It’s mediocre, not atrocious. It’s not the worst thing ever. It doesn’t ruin anything about the story or direction or the series. Most importantly it’s easy to ignore or skip on a rewatch if you don’t like it. The backlash was way overblown.

My biggest disappointment with season 3 was Hopper. Whaaaaaaat. Whaaaat did they dooooo.

Hopper in previous seasons is a flawed, messed-up human being, but I always knew where he was coming from. When he yelled at Eleven in S2, I still got why he did it. In this season he felt cartoonish. The overprotective paternalistic dad trope is annoying BUT I might have been less bothered had they connected it more to Eleven’s lack of experience with the world, less RAWRRRR KEEP BOYS AWAY FROM MY GIRL. Or if Hopper had not demonstrated like, actual rage toward Mike and we just saw him fuming about it to himself or venting to Joyce, if he was trying to keep that shit under control. (I did laugh at him singing “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” in the car, I gotta admit.)

But his attitude toward Joyce was what really bummed me out. I’m not into this show for shipping reasons, but I low-key enjoyed the possibility of Joyce and Hopper hooking up based on previous seasons. This season felt like they were writing a completely different dynamic for them, one that was much more aggressively obnoxious. I think their intentions were clear - they were going for a Sam-and-Diane relationship, something that was referenced early on in the Bob flashback - but the problem is that their relationship was not like that at all in S1 and S2. When I think of Joyce and Hopper from those seasons, I think about him supporting her after Bob died, or listening to her concerns about her son, or working together to find Will. They didn’t have this combative dynamic! Frankly watching giant-ass Hopper yell at tiny Joyce was viscerally unpleasant. (Side note but in the first trailer there was a shot of Hopper running at the Fun Fair with someone else who I assumed was Eleven, but no, turned out to be Joyce, Winona Ryder is just that tiny next to David Harbour.)

Also, considering this season ended with his death (and we all know he’s not really dead but OK) it’s such a waste that there were few Hopper&Eleven moments! Only the finale brought some quality content on that front. But otherwise their relationship was out of sight, out of mind for almost the whole season, which wasn’t a great choice, both to maximize the emotional impact of the ending, and to expand upon their situation post-S2. I mean, it’s been months since then, how has their relationship changed now? Hopper’s letter talked about the stuff he enjoyed doing with his daughter - why didn’t we see any of that on screen this season? It could’ve helped with the Mike angle, too, like show Hopper and Eleven watching TV together and laughing and having a good time, and then the phone rings and it’s Mike and suddenly Hopper’s watching TV alone as Eleven’s now focused on her boyfriend, we see his disappointment, etc.

Scoops Troop - Now they were a delight. They had such a ludicrous story but for the most part it worked due to the characters playing off each other and because the writing/acting/directing embraced the silliness.

Steve Harrington is easily one of the best characters on this show. I fucking love that guy. He’s consistently entertaining, he’s had possibly the best character growth out of anyone in the series, he’s evolved from a stock ‘80s asshole stereotype into someone who’s funny and sympathetic and likable. He’s this amazing blend of the ridiculous with the heroic. Steve and Dustin were great together, as they were last season, and I’m cackling that Steve acquired YET ANOTHER CHILD under his supervision without even trying. But the MVP of the season was the Steve & Robin friendship. Holy shit do I love that relationship. Holy SHIT.

Robin herself is a terrific new character, smart and funny and once you know she’s half-Uma, you can’t unsee it. I was loving her already and then the bathroom scene happened and I YELLED. I was so utterly overjoyed. If they had made Steve and Robin hook up, honestly … I would’ve been fine with it, like this show doesn’t need more heterosexual romance but at least they had a fun dynamic, but man, the friendship angle was so so superior. It’s a type of relationship that media is lacking, and the specific circumstances of this friendship made it genuinely moving to me. I keep wanting to write like a meta post devoted to just this relationship because I just have so many emotions about it! But they play well off each other as a comedic duo and as an odd couple friendship, and they’re really what each other needs, IMO. Steve needed this close friendship more than he needed a girlfriend; in this season he’s clearly adrift and we’ve seen the kind of shitty friends he had in like season one, is Dustin the best pal he had at this point? And I love Steve & Dustin but Steve needed a good friend his own age. Robin is a lesbian in small-town Indiana in the ‘80s, and she was clearly full of fear that Steve would hate her if he knew, and for him to accept her so easily, not even making a big deal about it? That’s kind of life-saving, really. I can’t wait to see more of them, if Netflix wants to make the half-hour Clerks-esque spinoff about them working in a video store and shooting the shit, I would be 100% down for that.

I have some mixed feelings about Erica because I think she could have benefited from getting the same humanization as the other kids (and I’m going to leave the discussion of racial tropes gently by the side at the moment but … yeah). The other child characters are played more like actual people with vulnerabilities, which has been part of the show’s appeal since the first season, and Erica was more like the sitcom kid who always has a snarky quip ready; however, she did make me laugh and I like that they tapped into her being a nerd, I wish they’d explore that in future seasons with the character. “I’m ten, you bald bastard” was one of my favorite lines of the season, I lost my goddamn mind.

Billy - Lmao, so Billy in S2 was the woooorst. This dude had ZERO redeeming qualities. His abusive dad creates a smidgen of sympathy, I guess, but Billy goes so far beyond normal teenage assholery that it didn’t make a dent in my opinion of him. You can redeem someone like Steve Harrington, first of all because Steve actually feels regret and works to correct his mistakes, but Steve also didn’t go to a point of no return in the first place. Billy did, for me. Physically and verbally abusing his younger sister? Attacking a black middle-schooler for the crime of being in the same room as his white sister? What a piece of shit.

With that in mind - I have no problem focusing on him as a villain this season, I really don’t. It justifies his inclusion in S2 other than as a human antagonist who’s ultimately not really connected to the main plot, as it retrospectively establishes him as an even greater threat in this season. I also think the actor did a good job with the material he was given. However, ultimately this dude’s arc was underwhelming. The thing is … I can tell they were trying to show Billy struggling with the Mind Flayer, but Billy is so lacking in any positive qualities that it’s kind of like, where does that struggle even come from? Yeah, even the worst people aren’t going to be wild about having a monster from another dimension hijack your body and use it to collect people for spare parts, but this is the same dude who was about to run over Mike, Lucas, and Dustin on their bikes last season for absolutely no reason. He beat Steve to point of unconsciousness and could’ve put him in the hospital. He assaulted Lucas. So I really need some evidence of Billy’s moral compass because it is not inherent and there’s in fact plenty of evidence that it doesn’t exist. I’m not very enthusiastic about redeeming a racist, abusive creep, but I also think if you’re going to go for him helping Eleven at the end … you have to show some current potential for goodness, not just “used to be a nice kid.”

A really glaring omission: the lack of any family/home scenes with him, Max, and their parents this season. We left off last season with Max telling him to leave her and her friends alone. How is their relationship since then? Is there still a lot of friction? Is there a tense peace? Has their relationship improved in any way? We really needed to see that follow-up. I get that Max crying over Billy this season makes sense in that he’s still her family and we can still have love for those who hurt us … but I also feel that we needed something between them to justify her pain, like even just the potential of their relationship being a fraction better, or the suggestion that Billy used to be OK to Max before he went full asshole. And I think we really needed to see Billy’s dad being currently abusive in this season - tbh, missed opportunity that the dad didn’t get flayed like, out of revenge (which would have been both satisfying and horrifying), missed opportunities for suspense when we think Billy might serve up Max and her mom to the Mind Flayer, etc.

Another missed opportunity: drawing parallels between Billy and Will. Both are possessed by the Mind Flayer. Both had shitty dads calling them homophobic slurs. Both could be read as gay (I’m not hungry to claim Billy as LGBT representation or invested in this interpretation but his scenes with Steve in S2 admittedly have that sweaty homoerotic dick-measuring vibe, if you want to take it there). Their names are both William, FFS. The difference is that Will is a sweet and gentle kid surrounded by loving family and friends who fought to save him, and Billy is a violent, cruel dude who probably doesn’t have any real friends, just shallow connections. You could show how the Mind Flayer could more easily possess and manipulate someone like Billy, but that wasn’t really explored.

Also, is anyone going to dwell on the fact that like … Max is living with an abusive man as her stepfather? He’s shown hurting Billy’s mom. Does that not concern anyone that he is very likely to attack either Max or her mom?

Oh, and thank God they didn’t take the Billy/Karen thing all the way. In retrospect, even weirder considering Billy’s mommy issues.

Joyce - I get that it’s a big leap downward in emotional investment to go from “must save my son” to “fucking magnets, how do they work” but I liked that she had her own investigation that wasn’t full of emotional turmoil. Winona forever.

Mike - Everyone is ragging on him but I think he was less terrible than people are making him out to be. He was bratty in a teenage way, but he wasn’t the worst kid ever. I didn’t take his now notorious line to Will (“It’s not my fault you don’t like girls”) as something intentionally cruel or homophobic, just something that came out wrong and that he instantly regretted, and he and Lucas did seem genuinely apologetic over the D&D game and went over to Will’s in the rain out of concern. And the reason he lied to Eleven was because SCARY ASS HOPPER threatened him??? Also, his concern over Eleven overexerting herself was not misplaced, lmao! It really took that long for anyone to go, “Hey, should we be worried about the amount of blood coming out of her nose? Should we be concerned about the effects on her brain?” Sure, Eleven has the final say in whether or not she uses her powers, but tbh… she didn’t have a normal upbringing and her view of her powers is probably skewed. Like, would Eleven have enough basic medical knowledge to be worried about brain damage or nosebleeds, or would that just be the norm to her? Is she making these decisions with a full grasp of the potential consequences? Anyway, I don’t have a more negative opinion of Mike after this season.

Eleven - I loved Eleven a lot in this season. I don’t know if it did a ton for her character arc, but it’s nice to see her slowly develop into more of a normal girl. And the season was rough for her in terms of getting her ass kicked, she goes through so much mental and physical pain! In the end she loses her dad and her powers!

Of course one of the bright spots was her and Max becoming friends! Not gonna lie, there was something a little … simplistic about some of that depiction of friendship for me - just that so much of it was SHOPPING and GIGGLING and BOY TALK, girls being GIRLS, when Max has been portrayed as a tomboy and Eleven is a telekinetic kid raised in a lab, that maybe their interactions shouldn’t have fit the mold quite so much - but it doesn’t truly bother me because they were so sweet and fun. I loved them tracking down Billy together and I appreciate that their friendship carried throughout the season, that Max was the person shown carrying an injured Eleven along with Mike, Eleven comforted Max after Billy died, etc. That was a definite sore spot of S2, the girl-on-girl jealousy and Eleven flat-out rejecting Max’s friendly introduction, and I do think they took that feedback into account for the better here. I also like that Eleven was clearly taking cues from Max, the more “worldly” of the two about boys and clothes and teenage attitudes in general - it gave their friendship a more specific shape.

I cannot WAIT to see her living with the Byers family next season. Like if they don’t spend significant time on that dynamic, it will be the biggest disappointment. There could be 8 episodes of just boring mundane Byers domestic scenes and I would love it, please inject it into my eyeballs, Duffer bros. I want to see her bonding with all of them, trying to fit in at school, attempting the most normal life she’s ever had. Also lmao, she and Will can finally have a goddamn conversation??? I hope they’ve been withholding that relationship because they were planning to go all out with those new sibling vibes in S4. They are the two characters who have been most traumatized by the Upside Down, we deserve to see them connect.

On that note, I have a lot of thoughts about Will in this season! Mainly - underused as FUCK. After all that trauma of being possessed by the Mind Flayer last season, they barely utilize this connection in the second half of S3. Even his Spidey sense hardly came in handy??? Now that was really weird, IMO, because the least they could do was have that feeling alert the others or be useful, but lmao it was practically pointless.

It’s weird because I’m not sure if they just don’t know what to do with Will if he’s not being a victim (which is stupid because there’s plenty you could do with him), but at the same time, he has one of the most poignant subplots of the season. From the reactions I’ve seen, Will feeling rejected and left out as his friends move on really resonated with a lot of viewers. But then this thread is abandoned after episode 3, for the most part. Will cries and destroys the place that represents his childhood, a place that was created specifically in response to trauma (mentioned in S2 that he and Jonathan built it after their dad left), this is very rich emotional territory … and then the show’s just like ehhhhhh moving on. He’s just hanging out in the background and touching his neck for the rest of the season.

And now I gotta talk about that other thing with Will.

I am so confused by what the Duffer brothers are trying to accomplish with Will’s sexuality, because on the one hand it seems like they have a really clear idea about it and on the other hand they’re just like¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The thing is … it seems very obvious they have always thought of Will as gay. This is blatant from the original pitch from the show as well as one of the S2 scripts (the only one that’s available publicly, so who knows what else they’ve written). I accept that people have different interpretations, but The Line this season is far from the only textual support for Will being gay, and I think it makes for a much, much stronger narrative if you read Will as gay in addition to not wanting to grow up as fast as his friends and being stunted from trauma - that is an entire meta post in itself, though.

What gets me about the ~ambiguity is that the Duffer brothers planted the gay hints in the first place! They are absolutely not there by accident! Like I’m not speaking for the teenage actors but lmao, the adults involved in the writing and directing of this series absolutely fucking knew how that “not my fault you don’t like girls” scene would be interpreted, especially considering fans were debating Will’s sexuality from the beginning, based off the many homophobic comments leveled at him in S1. There have been TV shows where fans latched onto gay “subtext” that was likely unintentional, but this isn’t one of them.

IDK, man, it’d just be nice to have some confidence in where this is going. I loved Robin and the bathroom scene made me think that yeah, they might do a decent job with Will’s sexuality, something I might have doubted before. Under no circumstances do I expect a Skam S3-style coming out arc for Will, but I’m also uncertain if I should expect anything from the show on this front at all or if they’ll play it coy to the bitter end. Though I guess I’d still take the ambiguity over giving him a female love interest after everything. Lol, that would be a giant oh-fuck-no.

Real talk, though, let’s discuss what an utter waste it would be to not write a scene where Joyce tenderly accepts her son when he comes out to her. You really aren’t going to bring that instantly iconic moment to life, assholes? You’re not going to provide that for Winona Ryder’s and Noah Schnapp’s Emmy reels? MAKE IT HAPPEN, BASTARDS.

Nancy and Jonathan have a reputation for the most boring plots but they’re fine, w/e. I’m not deeply invested in their romance but I don’t want to fast forward their scenes or anything. Nancy is an underrated character; she’s extremely proactive and always has been, and I enjoy watching her shoot things. I think the best thing they could do for both characters, though, is to separate them next season, not just physically but storyline-wise. Jonathan would be best in a subplot involving his family, because he’s at his most likable as a son and brother, and Nancy should either go off with Mike (a sibling relationship that is VASTLY undeveloped), or she should team up with Robin. I mean it, Nancy and Robin would be a power pairing, let me show you my manifesto. Both are smart young women who are good at solving mysteries. Would Robin think Nancy is a priss after Nancy unloads several rounds into the latest demogorgon chasing them? Would Nancy find Robin a refreshing alternative to the crushing suburban conformity that she claims to want to avoid? Oh, the possibilities. Meanwhile, Steve tags along in the background, all like OH SHIT, my lesbian BFF and my ex-girlfriend are in cahoots!

Lucas and Max were playing relationship counselors to Mike and Eleven through much of the season. Max still had a fair amount to do, but Lucas needs a meatier subplot next time. I feel like they’re not sure what to do with him? I would like to see him and Erica interact more since their dynamic so far is one-note.

There is one hell of a conversation to be had about the Evil Russians of this season, but I’m really not the person to do it.

Also about the depiction of capitalism this season. That’s more thinkpiece-y than I am equipped to do right now.

The product placement is something that should bother me more but I’m just like … shrug. Except that New Coke bit because that was an actual mood-breaker.

Could have done without Russian Terminator guy. That was a blatant ‘80s homage so I get why he was there, he just wasn’t all that interesting. And was that guy supposed to be superpowered or something? Was he getting jacked on Upside Down steroids??? What was his deal???

Alexei/Murray was the true OTP of the season, let’s be real.

The trend of lovable, doomed minor characters continued with Alexei. Props to that actor for making you root for the guy. He even made me kind of love Murray? I was very WTF over that guy encouraging two teenagers to fuck in S2, and I’m still not into his habit of telling people to bang even when they’re adults, but I guess he just needed a sympathetic Russian buddy to win me over.

There were a ton of moments where I felt like the characters made stupid choices as opposed to earlier seasons. Will getting dragged into the Upside Down in the first 10 minutes of the series is an impressive example of a horror movie character doing everything right and making good decisions - a 12-year-old, no less. And he was still overpowered by the demogorgon so it’s not like making good decisions will always save you! Whereas this season I was like LORD some of these characters are drinking dumbass juice.

There was also so much silly stuff happening, like things that are even more far-fetched than previous seasons, but I just kind of went with it. Yeah, of course there’s a secret Russian base under a shopping mall. Sure.

This season is objectively disgusting in terms of gore and yet I was fine with it? And I’m someone who was repulsed by Barb’s corpse in S1. The Mind Flayer being made of people was some nasty shit but effective horror. I felt bad for the poor little rats :( Oh, and the flayed humans, too. Some of them. Was sad to see Mrs. Driscoll bite it but FUCK those cartoon misogynists from the newspaper.

Visually beautiful! Starcourt Mall is an amazing set and I’m rather sad that the mall was destroyed, although that was basically a foregone conclusion. Some great cinematography, too. On a purely aesthetic level I had a great time just blasting this season into my retinas.

I have had the motherfucking NeverEnding Story theme song in my head for almost two weeks and I’m suffering.

#lillypedalsxx #replies #stranger things #also they referenced my university this season so i dug that thx 4 the shoutout

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travllingbunny · 5 years

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The 100 rewatch: 3x01/3x02 – Wanheda Part One and Two

My rewatch will have to be sped up so I could finish it before the season 6 premiere. I’ve seen up to 3x08, but from now on I have to watch more than one episode a day. I hope to be able to finish season 3 by the end of this week. Which means I’ll have to try to make my next posts shorter than this one, which I’m pretty sure is my longest rewatch review so far. Maybe I could try covering several episodes in one post to try not to repeat myself in the following reviews?

Season 3 is definitely my least favorite season of The 100, and so far, having rewatched half a season, I haven’t changed my mind on its quality. But, except for one instance of really lazy writing (which will, sadly, turn out to be something the writers like to do, since they did the same but in an even worse way in season 5), this two-parter was a solid opening to the season, which, unfortunately, started going downhill right after it.

Also, I only realized this on rewatch…. Clarke is Rapunzel?! Or anti-Rapunzel.

*These rewatch posts have spoilers for everything up to the end of season 5, and I may also mention stuff from the season 6 trailer. No spoilers for 6x01, and please don’t mention any if you reply or reblog with comments, I’m trying to avoid them (good luck to me on that).

3x01 Wanheda, Part One

Timeline: This is one of few episode reviews where it makes sense to start with this, because it’s the show’s first time-jump – it starts almost 3 months after the season 2 finale, or specifically 86 days,. In most other shows, this wouldn’t be considered a time jump, but most of The 100 episodes take place just a day or a few hours later (which was the case with the time that passed between the season 1 finale and the season 2 premiere), sometimes just a few minutes later (season 3 finale/season 4 premiere). It’s even notable and relatively rare when there is a week, or just two days between episodes. Although this is obviously nothing compared to the time jump in the season 4 finale (and, to an extent, season 5 finale – which was technically much bigger,, but only really counted for three characters), this time jump is still twice as long as the entirety of seasons 1 and 2, which lasted less than a month and a half.

The starting sequence is great, with Murphy with long shaggy hair and a beard, in a state of desperation after being locked up in the bunker for 86 days, to the point that he almost decides to shoot himself in the head. Similar to how Clarke almost shot herself in the head in the flashbacks in 5x01. Even the greatest of survivors come to the point when it’s just too much for a human being to bear. Clarke reached that point after a month of being not just all alone on a desert, radiation soaked planet, but likely to be all alone for at least 5 years, and even more likely to die of hunger, thirst or exposure. Murphy took 3 months, but was in situation where he didn’t lack food or drink or comfort – but isolation, without any human contact or entertainment, other than videos of a guy committing suicide because he felt responsible of the end of the world, has to be unbearable.

Introduction of Becca In one of the videos is good as we get more crucial info practically at the beginning of the season (and at the same time, not so good, because I can’t stand Becca and I’m really not fond of the entire storyline about the chip/Flame/Commanders).

Scenes in the mansion with Jaha and ALIE are really creepy, as we see just how much Jaha has become removed from reality and immersed in the City of Light. When Jaha explains the concept of COL, the prospect of getting rid of pain, hate and envy, Murphy has maybe his best ever line, and pretty much his defining quote: “Pain, hate, envy… those are the ABCs of me. Take that and there’s nothing left.”

Getting thrown right into Camp Jaha, now called Arkadia, after 3 months, to see how much everyone’s lives have changed, works well for the most part (with one exception – see below). Jasper’s new look and attitude are shocking, but make sense. I don’t know if this is an unpopular opinion, but I think Jasper’s storyline was one of the best things in season 3 and even season 4, and I think it’s great that the show, for once, didn’t shy away from showing the consequences of emotional trauma (these people are teenagers who have been through terrible things in an extremely short time, it’s hard to believe everyone would soldier on and no one would break), and that they didn’t try to make a depressed person be more “likable” by being nice, even if it resulted in so many fans calling Jasper “annoying” and now showing any understanding for his mental health issues just because he wasn’t depressed in a nicer, more palatable way.

Raven’s story in seasons 3-4, which is also pretty good, also gets set up with a conversation with Abby about her pain, where Raven refuses an operation and they end up saying bad things to each other, as those two sometimes do. Raven calls out Abby on trying to hide from her own pain, too (over losing Clarke), which is a major theme this season. She also tells her she’s bad as both doctor and Chancellor, and much as I used to love Abby in S1 (and still like her) I’m afraid that this is least half-true since she’s sucked at politics most of season 2and 3. As a doctor, she’s good at healing people, but her bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired.

The show gets rid of the Raven/Wick romance plot (which had to be jettisoned due to Steve Talley being a terrible person IRL and tweeting racist “jokes”) in the best way it could, by referring to it in one line (according to Abby, Raven pushed Wick away) and never having him appear again.

They used “Add It Up” by Violent Femmes! And even Shawn Mendes’ cover worked well – his was a sad and plaintive ballad, as a contrast to the original, which is an energetic rock song. (I had no idea who Mendes was when I first watched this, but his cameo didn’t feel weird or out of place).

A huge plus because Emori makes a return. Also, Otan is introduced, who actually is her brother (it’s not just a classic thief/swindler thing where partners in crime are like “I’m an innocent damsel in distress and this dude is totally my brother…” thing).

There are several character introductions of characters that are varying degrees of interesting or not so interesting. Roan’s is especially intriguing right from the start, and there’s also Niylah, Becca and Gideon, and Gina. Speaking of…

My biggest problem with this episode is how weird and jarring it always felt that we just get introduced to Bellamy’s new girlfriend, a random character we’ve never met before and who doesn’t get developed at all. We know she’s nice and really into him, and he likes her fine enough, but there’s very little about their relationship that goes beyond very basic relationship-establishing stuff. This was all the more jarring because Bellamy had never previously been shown to have an actual girlfriend (rather than friends with benefits/fu*k buddies, which he had quite a few in season 1), and by what we know of his backstory and what we was like in season 1, I had always assumed he had never had a serious relationship or even a serious friendship, because he could never allow himself to trust people on the Ark, and he was too focused on protecting Octavia and keeping that huge secret. So for him to be a real relationship was a new development that I would have loved to actually see. And in general, how weird is it that the show seems to treat the love life of a major character – second protagonist as an afterthought, to the point that his relationships get developed completely off-screen and just get a few perfunctory scenes to establish “there was a time jump, it happened, this is a thing now, that’s all you need to know” (which was all the more jarring when Gina then got fridged just 3 episodes into the season). Hey, and just how weird would it be if the show did this TWICE? I have an idea why this happens – because neither of his relationships with Gina nor with Echo was ever treated by the show, as genuinely important or something we need to be invested in, but If I ever believed that Clarke and Bellamy were really totally platonic BFFs (because one major platonic relationship is not enough for Bellamy, who is one of the very few characters on the show who actually has a sibling, and his relationship with Octavia is also a major one the show focuses a lot..) and that the show wasn’t doing something else, I’d be really puzzled by such weird narrative choices.

·Raven teases Bellamy that Gina is “too good” for him. That may be because she is aware that he was “never as devoted to Gina” (compared to Clarke), as she taunts him as ALIE!Raven in 3x11.

Gina gives Bellamy Iliad as a gift, because his mother used to read it to him… an epic whose main theme is a warrior hero’s rage and all the mess it causes?

The Ice Nation aka Azgeda, after being referenced before, finally gets introduced (though Echo will get retconed revealed to be one of them), and I have very mixed feelings about this, because the oversimplified way the show tried to suddenly establish “Trikru=good Grounders, Azgeda=bad Grounders” in season 3 was kind of grating.

·Everyone is still bad at dealing with people with PTSD and mental health issues in general – as seen in the fact that they made the mistake to bring Jasper with them on a mission. This time, Bellamy had an inkling it was not a good idea, but Monty thought it would do Jasper good… and again, it didn’t end well.

Indra has changed her views a lot and is now the liaison between Trikru and the Arkers and o very friendly terms with Kane.

The relationship between Trikru and Arkadia is at this point kind of a mixed bag – they have a truce and cooperate, but there’s a problem of limited trade routes and ability for Arkers to get food, the Grounders are not happy with the prospect of them using Mount Weather, and Lexa has issued a kill order on Lincoln (which is why he has had to stay in Arkadia even if he didn’t want to – though it seems he does want to) just because he went back to help Arkers against Mount Weather (any disobedience of Commander’s orders, no matter how justified, is apparently punishable by death).

Something that’s annoying, but expected and in character: Octavia complaining about Lincoln wearing an Arkadia uniform and trying to integrate into the Arkadia society. It’s like she was so happy to be rebellious and have a cool Grouder boyfriend, and now she’s disappointed. She tells him he will never be one of them (oh, the irony of this coming from Octavia, who says “I’m a Grounder” every second episode – which I don’t get, does she think being a Grounder is a lifestyle you can choose?) and even lectures him about the culture he grew up in: “At least you still speak our language” (meaning Grounder speech). LMAO

Octavia suggests they go off on their own and find Luna and her people – one of the many, many references to Luna going all the way back to season 1. No character has been set up so much long before they appeared.

It takes quite a long time for Clarke to actually appear in the episode, right after the revelation that she’s the titular Wanheda everyone is looking for.

About the nickname itself: Clarke herself hates it, of course (though she will kind of ‘reclaim’ it in 5x12) – because she feels deeply guilty and hates herself, but I’m sure that, for Grounders, “Commander of Death” an expression of awe and fear, not any kind of judgment, which wouldn’t make sense – we’ve seen multiple times that Grounders take the “kill them all If we can’t kill their leader” approach to their enemies, so I can’t see them being bothered by her killing all the Mountain Men. It’s the fact that she was able to destroy their old, powerful enemy that gives her a mythical aura. If you can kill the Mountain Men, you must be able to command death itself. They would also assign it all to Clarke, because, for starters, they weren’t there to know about Bellamy’s or Monty’s role, and secondly, Grounders tend to give all credit or blame to the leader, and they perceived Clarke as the sole leader of Skaikru during season 2.

This mythical status, however, merely makes Clarke a symbol and prize, due to the belief that killing someone means taking their power. (Which should also mean that she took the enormous power of Mount Weather in the eyes of the Grounders?) Does Queen Nia actually believe that she would literally take Clarke’s power if she killed her? I don’t know, but she probably just knows that people would perceive her as more powerful if she managed to do it.

Indra also explains that another reason the Ice Nation feels bold enough to make another move against Lexa/Trikru is that Clarke made Lexa look weak – which makes perfect sense, of course that’s what people would think after Lexa walked away from the battle and Clarke went in and killed the Mountain Men.

Seeing Clarke’s new look and persona was weird as hell the first time, but I don’t know how to feel about it as a plot point. I like it when characters’ traumas are not ignored, and it makes sense that, in her state, she wants to be anonymous and leave all she was behind. But Clarke as a great hunter after 3 months, making a living out of killing large animals? That’s a bit hard to believe. It’s not the first time the show is giving her unrealistic or, rapidly learned skills (overpowering an experienced warrior like Anya in a fight, apparently learning to ride a horse off-screen in a day, being such a good shooter to kill the MW sniper through Lincoln’s shoulder – after the short training she got from Bellamy in S1..) I complain about that with Octavia, so I should about Clarke, too (though it bothers me a lot more with Octavia since her being a great warrior – with her few months of training - is such a big part of her arc, while these skills are never supposed to be Clarke’s main strengths and don’t get much focus. But I like that she tells the panther “Your fight is over” while killing it.

Niylah, looking at Clarke’s back: “No kill marks”. Clarke: “My back is not big enough.”

Clarke sees Niylah has a wristband from one of the Delinquents, which is going to be a plot point in 3x11.

It’s nice to see someone expressing gratitude to Clarke for defeating the Mountain Men – Niylah says she appreciates it because her mother was a victim taken by Mount Weather. It would make sense if many more Grounders actually felt like that, but we don’t ever see many ordinary Grounders say anything about it. Usually it’s just Grounder leaders trying to make Clarke feel guilty over Mount Weather to manipulate her or excuse their own actions.

Clarke’s one night stand with Niylah is the first f/f sex scene in the show. It’s also, as far as we know, only the second time Clarke has had sex with anyone (the first one was way back in 1x04). At this point, Clarke can only bear to have physical intimacy, or any kind of human contact, if it’s not with anyone she has any stronger feelings for (and asks Niylah to stop talking before initiating sex, because she doesn’t want to risk any real intimacy). But at least Niylah is really nice and helpful, doesn’t cause drama and treats her better than any of her romantic partners have.

The first time I watched this, I found it funny that Clarke’s f*ck buddy got more screentime and development than Bellamy’s supposedly serious girlfriend. But I didn’t know that the latter would die in two episodes, while the former will remain on the show into season 6 and get to have a role beyond that of Clarke’s occasional friend with benefit.

This turned out to be much longer than I wanted it to, but that’s because this episode juggles so many storylines and characters (and a bit of nice blatant fanservice, too – like the scene of Bellamy and Lincoln sparring shirtless, or a celebrity cameo).

But how about the one plot point that was completely ignored in this episode and the rest of season 3 (and 4, and 5, and we can assume will be ignored forever)? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE REAPERS?? Did they get cured, as the plan was originally? Abby was supposed to cure them when the alliance was still on. Did they get killed – and how, and by whom? Were they still roaming around in season 3 and 4? Why is there not a single word about any of that after season 2? Indra even recognized one of the Reapers in 2x15, it was obviously someone close to her, maybe a family member, maybe her husband/Gaia’s father? The show dropped that plot like a hot potato as soon as season 2 finished.

Body count:

3 Ice Nation scouts killed during the confrontation (2 shot by Raven and Miller, one shot by Bellamy in the arm and then killed by Octavia)

Rating: 7/10

3x02 Wanheda, Part Two

This episode benefits from focusing on just a few storylines and characters and not featuring any of the poorer storylines.

Most of it is an exciting and intense action-adventure episode that revolves around Roan kidnapping Clarke ad trying to bring her to Lexa, as it turns out in the twist ending (after both Clarke and first time audience thought he was taking her to the Ice Nation Queen Nia), while a group from Arkadia including Bellamy, Kane and Monty are trying to rescue her.

More new characters are introduced, including one with a huge role this season: our group (including Bellamy, Monty, Kane and Indra) has a surprise encounter with a group of survivors from the Farm Station, including Charles Pike and Monty’s mother Hannah. It was a weird meeting as it started as an ambush, before they recognized each other. Who did Pike’s group think they were ambushing and capturing? Some Grounders who stole clothes and weapons from dead Arkers? It doesn’t seem they were aware that there were any other survivors from the Ark, or else, they’d have tried to reunite with them. But it also can be seen as a sign that their terrible experiences on the ground and almost 4 months spent in the woods as guerrilla fighters have made them inclined to see enemies everywhere and mistake friends or allies for enemies.

We get the immediate “trouble ahead” warning moments when Pike calls his people “Grounder killers, all!” and they cheer, and our group looks uncomfortable because Indra is there, and then when Pike looks at Indra with animosity as soon as he hears she’s a Grounder and expresses distrust when hearing that they’re allies. But really, there’s nothing surprising about his attitude, at all, and I’ll never understand fans who are like “but why is Pike such a dick”? The show told you why, right from the start. Most of our protagonists had a similar attitude to Grounders in season 1 and early season 2, when their experiences with people on the ground consisted mostly of those people attacking them and trying to kill them. And Indra (just like many other Grounders) had the exact same attitude towards Sky people in early-to-mid season 2, as Pike has to Grounders now – when we first met her, she was constantly asking for all Sky people to be killed and trying to dissuade Lexa from an alliance, especially after Finn killed 18 unarmed people, mostly civilians, in a Grounder village. But these characters all got to have different kinds of interactions with each other and have character development since. Well, Pike and the rest of the Farm Station people have had only terrible experiences – being attacked by the people on the ground right after they landed, seeing over a hundred of their people killed in front of them, including 15 children, and they’ve spent all the time since fighting in the woods, with zero positive interactions with any Grounders. It’s really not surprising that they’re the ones with most extreme views.

Kane, however, tries to convince them that it’s all Ice Nation, they’re the bad ones, Trikru are their allies. When Pike asks for details about how that alliance happened, Bellamy gave him the shortest and nicest-sounding possible version: “We had a common enemy” – “What happened?” “We won”. Bellamy obviously doesn’t want to talk about any of it, since he’s tormented over Mount Weather even though he may not be showing it the way Clarke does. But we see that Monty later told Pike about everything that has happened, though we only see the end of that story, how they got out of Mount Weather. We can assume, however, that he did tell him all including Lexa’s betrayal, because Pike later references both that and Finn’s death in 3x08. Somehow I don’t think that hearing “well, Trikru tried to kill the kids in our camp, so we burned 300 of their warriors, then we made an alliance with them to fight the people from Mount Weather who were trying to kill us all, but they betrayed us and left us to die and we had to save ourselves on our own” helped change Pike’s opinion on the Grounders in general.

Having Zach McGowan on the show is always a good thing, and his screen presence helps make Roan an intriguing character. At this point he’s a mysterious kidnapper with a backstory about his banishment from Ice Nation which I really wanted to learn BUT THAT WE NEVER LEARNED (what the hell was up with that?) and (twist!) we learn in the last scene that he’s the Prince of Azgeda. Clarke and Roan had quite an interesting dynamic throughout the show – thank god for once that the show didn’t try to do an “Enemies to lovers” storyline (though I bet that’s just because the show already had two popular Clarke ships to juggle) but rather “Enemies to allies who are not exactly friends, definitely not romantic at all, who kind of bond and respect each other but are constantly trying to politically manipulate each other”.

Bellamy wanting to immediately run to save Clarke, the moment he saw that she had been kidnapped, and then dressing himself as an Azgeda warrior and going into enemy territory to rescue her, is a far cry from his behavior in 1x12 when he was able to be calm and rational about Clarke (and Finn and Monty) being kidnapped and presumed dead. It shows how much his feelings for her had become stronger since. In season 1, only the concern for his sister’s safety could make him have such a reaction. But he typically doesn’t make his best decision when he lets his emotions completely rule him and acts that impulsively, and in this case, his unsuccessful rescue attempt only made things worse, as it alerted Roan he was being followed, and made Clarke stop fighting and let Roan take her to his destination.

But it’s not just Bellamy who would “do anything for her, to protect her”, Clarke is equally determined to protect him at any cost, and we’ve seen evidence of that many times, including this time – when she begs Roan to spare Bellamy’s life and promises to do anything and stop fighting if he does. At the time, she believed Roan was taking her to Queen Nia to be executed, so she was basically ready to offer her life for his.

When I first saw that scene, I thought “Oh wow, show, you are really doing this? This must be the most romantically-coded scene in anything ever.” Before even starting to binge the show, I was always spoiled on the fact that Clarke and Bellamy are not a romantic couple to date and that people debate whether they’re just friends or not, and I always knew people shipped them, but that didn’t mean much since fans will ship anything (Broadchurch fans even ship the leads from that show, and they are genuinely nothing but platonic partners). So one of the bigger surprises of my initial binge was that the show is so blatant about this romantic subtext (which is more like text, a lot of the time), and has been since season 1, but they were relatively subtle with it at first and then more and more obvious as seasons went by. Maybe it jumps at you more when you’re binging it. In any case, this scene – the soft music, Bellamy touching Clarke’s hair, the way they look at each other after meeting for the first time after 3 months, Clarke begging for his life – it all looked like it was straight from some epic medieval-themed romance. I later heard people compare it to Tangled, but I’ve never seen that movie (it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen any Disney cartoons). But I’ve recently happened upon gifsets that compare that scene to a scene from Tangled:

` Woah, they really did this. They modelled that scene after the scene where Rapunzel’s love interest tries to rescue her. And it’s not the last time they keep doing that and have used every goddamn romantic trope for the Bellamy/Clarke relationship. Is Jason Rothenberg for real? How do you do stuff like this, over and over, and then go in interviews: “Weeell, it’s Rorschah test, you can see this or you can see that, I mean maybe, but maybe they are just best buddies, ya know?” LMAO

Knowing about the Tangled reference suddenly makes me realize, they’re kind of doing this whole story as Rapunzel in reverse. We have our golden haired heroine who’s a target for her supposed special powers, and. Clarke finds herself as a literal Princess in the Tower at the end of this episode, and remains that for half of season 3. But while Rapunzel was trapped in the tower to begin with and wanted to escape and be free to see the world, Clarke was running away from the world, then got kidnapped and brought to the tower, and then decided to stay there.

And what a freaking huge tower it is – I didn’t know the full significance of it (that it’s the former Polaris space station) when that reveal was the last moment of the episode. This thing must have been a great strategic asset, you’d have seen any army approaching from miles away.

I love the last scene, which is the first meeting Clarke and Lexa after season 2, because Clarke’s rage – spitting into Lexa’s face and yelling that she’s going to kill her, while she’s dragged away – is such a fitting and relatable reaction to the betrayal at Mount Weather, and, maybe even more, to the way Lexa starts talking to her without apologizing or even mentioning their history, being all business instead and talking about the current political situation and how Clarke can help her in that department. I didn’t even notice this before, but while Clarke just glares at Lexa at first and stays silent, it was when Lexa said “I need you” that Clarke spat in her face and went ballistic. It’s interesting to compare that to 3x05, when Bellamy had a bad reaction to Clarke telling him “I need you” in a similar context. It’s not the same thing, of course, because Clarke had not betrayed Bellamy (even if he may have kind of felt otherwise), but it’s a similar “I’ll just ignore our history – there’s nothing personal and painful to talk about here, la la la – let’s instead just talk about how you can help me stop the war” approach.

I now love that scene even more because it’s the last time Clarke shows anger for the next two seasons. Or rather, she shows the same anger early on in the next episode in her conversation with Lexa and then when she was planning to kill her before changing her mind, but from that point on, there’s a shift in Clarke’s characterization that I’ve never liked. She was always smart, pragmatic, caring, vulnerable and good at using her words to convince people, but she also used to be vibrant, edgy, held grudges before finding a way to forgive people, and could be very impulsive. But in season 3, after the first couple of episodes, she kind of became a lot mellower and blander, and remained that way throughout season 3 and in season 4 (even though there’s otherwise a lot I like about her arc in season 4), where she would do ruthless things and feel sad about it and say “Sorry” a lot while other people told her she sucks, she would cry and look sad, but never ever show any anger herself. I really found myself wishing for her to finally show some anger at some point, at anyone, for any reasons, or go off and stop repressing her feelings and scream about her pain, break things, do something. I finally did get some of that – in 5x01 when she screamed at fate for taking everything away from her, and then, boy, did I get what I was wishing for in 5x09 – her slapping Bellamy and her silent but deadly rage/heartbreak at what she perceived as his betrayal, was the first time she had that kind of reaction to a person since her rage at Lexa in 3x02/3x03. (Unpopular opinion: I prefer season 5 Clarke to season 3 Clarke. Sure, season 5 Clarke was a total mess and reached rock bottom in many ways, but she was a more interesting and edgier mess. )

The B storylines were good, too. This is the first time we actually get to see what “the City of Light” looks like and learn about how it works. After Gideon, the big dude with a facial disfigurement, is killed by Emori in self-defense, we see him again in the “City of Light”, where he’s removed his disfigurement and can be a “normal” person rather than a “freak”. In later episodes, we see that Otan has done the same, but only Emori will not change herself physically, because she doesn’t have a problem with her body, just with the way others react to it, making her an outcast over it.

Nice to see Nyko again, one of my favorite minor characters. Unlike so many other people in this show, he’s always both nice and rational. When Abby, Jackson, Lincoln and Octavia took him to Mount Weather to find resources to cure him, and Lincoln was concerned because Grounders could have a problem with Arkers moving into Mount Weather because of their history with the place, Nyko pointed out “Places are not evil, people are.” The whole idea of the Arkers not being allowed to move into Mount Weather is stupid, knowing that the place had all those resources.

The show tried to give us bad vibes about Arkers moving into Mount Weather (which they absolutely had right to – they conquered it, so by the very rules of a warrior culture like the Grounder one, they could lay claim to it) with the talk from Octavia and Lincoln about how Grounders would have a problem with it because of bad memories. But that was just a red herring. Moving into Mount Weather turned out to be bad for a very different reason. We now know that at least the leaders of Ice Nation didn’t give a damn about their bad history with the Mountain Men, since they were working with Emerson.

What the heck was Abby thinking when she took Jasper to Mount Weather? She’s not a psychiatrist (did they even have psychiatrists on the Ark?) but I don’t think taking him back to the place of his greatest trauma is a good way to help his mental health. At least we get a nice scene for the Octavia/Jasper friendship, where she is comforting him while he remembers Maya, looking at her favorite painting, Second Circle of Hell by Dante. (The second circle of hell is for those guilty of lust... Is that why Jasper said it was ironic? Because he and Maya just kissed once and never got the chance to have sex?

Timeline: It seems that Parts One and Two lasted a little less than two days – Part One started during the day, Clarke spent a night with Niylah and immediately left in the morning, and Part Two took place during the following day.

Body count:

Three Ice Nation warriors killed by Roan

A bounty hunter killed by Bellamy to save Niylah

Gideon, killed by Emori– but still “alive” in the City of Light

I don’t know if this counts for this episode, since it actually happened after the Farm Station landed on the ground, so somewhere around the season 1 finale and early season 2, but we only learn it now: about 120-130 people from the Farm station were killed since they landed (there are 63 Farm Station survivors, but Kane said the station initially had three times that number). A lot of them, including 15 children, were killed by the Ice Nation right after they landed, and Monty’s father, who saved four children, was killed when trying to save another one. I assume that some of the Farm Station people died fighting the Ice Nation in the woods, and that they also killed an unknown number of Azgeda people during that time. (Technically, this all happened during the timeline of season 2 and between the seasons.)

Rating: 8.5/10

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trinkets-and-spirits · 5 years

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Spoilers Ahead for GoT S4 ~

I’m friends with someone who managed to dodge the Game of Thrones hype for a long ass time—she watched all of the trailers, and saw the odd Daenerys clip here and there, but she never found the energy nor the time to sit down and flip through each and every single episode of the show. She also felt like it wouldn’t be her sort of show, since she’s more into things like Friends and Pretty Little Liars, and not...an incestuous family yeeting their way to the top of the kingdom. Am I talking about the Lannister’s or the Targaryen’s? Both, you fuckin nerds.

Anyway! My friend recently started season four, and I was super psyched ‘cause S4 is legitimately one of my favourite seasons; because it introduced my fuckin’ favourite villain from the novels—Ramsay Snow. Disclaimer: I don’t condone all of the things that the lil’ fucker did, but Iwan did a mighty fine job at bringing the character to life. He’s a brilliant villain...not a brilliant person. Ramsay is a jerk. Moving on~ I’ve rewatched S4 a handful of times, to the point where I’ve straight up stopped looking at Ramsay’s little stunt with ‘freeing’ Theon, as less of some rEsCUe MIsSioN, and more...oh look it’s Ramsay being a jerk, a g a i n.

Does my dearest friend, who has avoided GoT-related stuff like the plague, know that this attractive man saving the scum that was Theon-at-the-time...is w o r s e than Theon-at-the-time? Nope. Seemingly out of nowhere; my phone starts to blow up, and my friend is celebrating ‘cause Theon is being rescued by some ‘cute guy with a northern accent’ — and I’m just sitting there like...t h e f u c k ?

I was legitimately confused. I’ve watched S4 more times than I can count, ‘cause the introduction to the Mad Dog is one of my favourite arcs; because I genuinely think the writing for that specific arc was done well. Plus, Iwan is hot as all hell. But there I was, questioning if I had actually missed something so important; and my friend was trying to describe this mysterious hero, before I told her to send a screenie of him. Hark! It was Ramsay Snow. Again; I was sitting there, but this time with an evil little grin on my face, because I know how much she’ll kick off; when the lord & saviour Ramsay is revealed to be the definition of seven hells. :)

neither of us will forget that the writers denied us this northern bromance.

TL — DR: Game of Thrones, but my friend fell into the same Ramsay Snow trap as the majority of innocent people, tbh.

// I’m still fucking cackling at this gif. If it weren’t for the fact that I’ve watched GoT countless times, and am strongly against Theon x Ramsay ‘cause of...legit everything that ship implies — I would 100% think that they were gay as frickle.

#game of thrones #got spoilers #ramsay snow #theon greyjoy #story time #longish post #txt #gif

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crispsevans · 5 years

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Films in 2019

Woah, it’s been a while since I actually wrote some reviews to my seen movies. My current count is at 21/150 for 2019, 12 out of 21 seen in theatre.

filmpage - filmlist - suggest a film

CAN CONTAIN SPOILERS.

Vice (2018)

seen in theatre production country: USA OV: english seen version: german Starring: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Sam Rockwell, Steve Carrell Director: Adam McKay Plot summary: The story of Dick Cheney (Bale), an unassuming bureaucratic Washington insider, who quietly wielded immense power as Vice President to George W. Bush (Rockwell), reshaping the country and the globe in ways that we still feel today.

Review: I went to see this one before Oscar night, so I actually have seen most of the nominated movies of the year.

I don’t know how much of this movie is actually true, but I left the theatre quiet shocked, because somehow most of those things just passed me. It may be, because I was a child when Bush and Cheney ran the US politics, but looking back a lot of it made sense to me.

Now however much of it is true, it was a very ... entertaining movie. I really love McKay’s style of directing and story telling, also the cinematography and the final cut of the movie were really good. Bale’s performance is outstanding, as always, and I am still mad he didn’t win that Oscar.

If you’re into political movies this is a Must-See. Rating: 4,5/5

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

seen in theatre production country: USA OV: english seen version: OV Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant Director: Marielle Heller Plot summary: When Lee Israel (McCarthy) falls out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception.

Review: This was part of the Oscar night double feature that I attended.

SUCH A POSTITIVE SURPRISE!!!!

Never heard of Lee Israel before, since this movie is based on her own book. I was so curious to see which role it was that brought McCarthy to her Oscar nomination and I was pleasantly surprised by her performance and also by Richard E. Grants performance in this movie. It was so serious but had so many funny moments - it’s a very authentic piece of film. I loved it a lot and is such an underdog movie. Very entertaining and well played. I also loved the color grading of this film. Rating: 5/5

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

seen in theatre production country: USA OV: english seen version: OV Starring: KiKi Jayne, Stephan James, Regina King Director: Barry Jenkins Plot summary: A woman in Harlem (Jayne) embraces her pregnancy while she and her family struggle to prove her fiancé (James) innocent of a crime.

Review: Also part of the Oscar night double feature.

Very good and very important movie, though I had the feeling it could’ve been a little shorter. I have not read the book this film is based on so I cannot judge how good the adaption actually is, but I enjoyed watching it. Some serious issues are talked about in this movie, but at the same time it has so much love in it. Also a lot of naivety, but that’s probably because of the age of the protagonists. Rating: 4/5

Anon (2018)

streamed on Amazon Prime Germany production country: USA / Canada / Germany OV: english seen version: OV Starring: Clive Owen, Amanda Seyfried Director: Andrew Niccol Plot summary: In a world without anonymity or crime, a detective (Owen) meets a woman (Seyfried) who threatens their security.

Review: I still don’t really know what to think about this one to be honest. It was part of the 99ct-Prime Deals over here in Germany and I’m usually really into futuristic movies like this, e.g. I loved “In Time”, which was also directed by Niccol and the reason I really wanted to see this one.

The entire atmosphere of this film was very dark and mysterious. I don’t really know if I understood the movie right, to be honest, not because I don’t know what they’re saying in the movie but some scenes were kind of a mystery to me. Rating: 3/5

Isn’t It Romantic? (2019)

streamed on Netflix Germany production country: USA OV: english seen version: OV Starring: Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam Devine Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson Plot summary: A young woman (Wilson) disenchanted with love mysteriously finds herself trapped inside a romantic comedy.

Review: I had high hopes for this one (I love romcoms), but I was let down completely. It was over the top, tried to be super funny when it actually wasn’t and I just sincerely didn’t like it very well. Poorly written, I’m sorry.

I loved the fashion of the movie though and another plus for Rebel Wilson and Liam Hemsworth, because I love them anyway.

Rating: 2,5/5

Captain Marvel (2019)

seen in theatre (twice, soon thrice) production country: USA / Australia OV: english seen version: german Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck Plot summary: Carol Danvers (Larson) becomes one of the universe's most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races.

Review: SALTY AF AND I FREAKING LOVED IT.

I can see why so many men dislike this movie, but I loved it so much, because it’s so salty and Carol is the hero we deserve. Here we go, new strongest avenger. Who’s Thor and who’s Hulk? HAVE YOU SEEN CAROL FLYING THROUGH SPACEEEEEE????

Loved the message of this film so much, probably my most favourite Marvel movie with Black Panther. Higher, Further, Faster BABY. Carol as a character is a very strong woman, not giving up ever since her childhood. Very inspiring character and character development.

I had literally zero expectations, because I really disliked the trailers. They don’t do this film justice. If I wasn’t into the MCU already, I wouldn’t have joined after seeing those trailers. But what a shame it would’ve been, if I hadn’t seen it. Shoutout to my friend to paid my ticket the first time and went to see it with me again like two days later lol. Yes, I saw it two times already and I plan to see it a third time in OV - can’t wait for that one.

Also Goose is the best thing about this movie.

Midway through the film I saw the twist coming, though, but I really liked it. Would I see it again? A billion times yes. Rating: 5/5

The Imitation Game (2014)

streamed on Amazon Prime Germany production country: USA / UK OV: english seen version: OV Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Mark Strong Director: Morten Tyldum Plot summary: During World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing (Cumberbatch) tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians.

Review: I missed seeing this one back in 2014 when it hit theatres. So I was very happy when it was part of the 99ct Prime Deals and I got it immediately. I wasn’t let down, what a great movie. I did a little research and even though the movie is different to Turing’s actual biography written by Andrew Hodges, I really liked it a lot and Cumberbatch’s performance is really amazing. His portrayal of Turing came across as very authentic and believable.

Cracking a code is really a thing of impossibility for me so it was very interesting to see the process of cracking Enigma. Turing’s legacy still lives on ‘til this day with every new computer that is build - we really owe him a lot. It makes me sad to have found out he most likely committed suicide after his hormonal ‘therapy’ that he had to go through.

Very touching.

Rating: 4/5

Monsieur Claude 2 (2019)

seen in theatre production country: France OV: french seen version: german Starring: Christian Clavier, Chantal Lauby Director: Philippe de Chauveron Plot summary: Claude (Clavier) and Marie Verneuil (Lauby) face a new crisis. The four spouses of their daughters, David, Rachid, Chao and Charles decided to leave France for various reasons. Here they are imagining their lives elsewhere.

Review: Sneak monday, luckily we only paid 2,50€ this time.

This film is a disaster, building up on ‘humor’ that is based on homophobia, sexism, racism and many other bad things. I did laugh, but not because I thought it was funny, but because there was so much reality in it that I used the laughing as a way to cover up my disbelief in this.

If people seriously think this is funny then I don’t know what’s wrong with them, I’m sorry. I don’t know if the intention of the movie was to actually show people how stupid it is to be THIS political incorrect or if they were actually thinking this is genuinely funny. However, just don’t watch it - it’s a waste of time.

Half of a point for the beautiful french countryside shots and the whole location setting plus the fashion in this movie.

Rating: 0,5/5

#films2019 #reviews

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doux-amer · 6 years

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Finally watched Infinity War today (I didn’t want to see it in a full house and I wanted to see it in a genuine IMAX theater because it was filmed entirely in IMAX so I had to wait). Spoilers ahead so if you don’t want to see them, scroll past this post!

SCROLL PAST.

RIGHT NOW.

NOW.

So, I thought IW was really underwhelming and predictable. I assumed it would be generic and bloated based on the trailers so I was unexcited, but with the way people were so psyched by it, my expectations went up. I walked in, afraid of what would happen....and spent 99% of the time not feeling like I was on the edge of my seat at all. I predicted everything that was going to happen, which was severely disappointing. I can count maybe one or two things that I didn’t expect. And because of that and because the plot was so insubstantial (funnily enough, I thought its issue would be that it would be too unwieldy and bloated, not that it would be superficial and would feel as though it skimmed over everything), IW barely had any emotional impact on me, and at the very least, if that’s going to be the case, then at least have some juicy plot that I can sink my teeth into, you know? I know part of the reason why I’m so uninvested in most of these deaths is because this is a two-parter, but the other part is because the way the movie was set up meant that I could barely connect with most of the characters on a deep level especially when each of them were given like...two lines lol.

Anyway, I’m tired of writing normally so here’s Part 1 (sorry, you know I talk at length about these things) featuring overall movie stuff, which basically consists of general criticism lol, with Part 2 about characters (not entirely critical):

Violence - I thought Loki’s grim death set the tone for the movie, but the violence was so subpar in this. I don’t want gratuitous violence, but this is THANOS. Where’s the bloodshed? Nothing felt visceral enough. Even his stupid tricks with the Reality Stone weren’t gruesome. Soap bubbles? Really? Even what happened to Mantis and Drax looked so dumb. This is the Mad Titan. COME ONNNN.

Dumb plot holes(?) - Okay, there were big questions that undermined the movie like.....if Thanos and the Black Order can locate the Stones, what kept them from going after the Stones earlier? How do they know the exact location of the Stones and how to track their movements?

Location captions - I still hate them. STOP WITH THESE OMFG. It’s so distracting, and we don’t need it if you’re good with dialogue and exposition.

Relationships - Too many undercooked relationships that were important (and too many that went to 100 realllll fast and in terms of romantic ones, it felt kind of dumb to show three pairings going “ILU” and kissing in a row lol), especially Gamora and Nebula’s with Thanos. I don’t blame the Russos and M&M for this though because it’s not like they could’ve spent 3/4 of the movie building their relationship up, and this REALLY should have been a thing that was explored in GotG1. I’ve been saying since that movie came out that it should’ve been Gamora’s story, not Quill’s.

Dialogue - Almost no memorable dialogue and lots of corny one-liners instead which made it a struggle to feel for the characters had it not been for affection stemming from previous movies transferring over (and sometimes even that wasn’t enough). TOO MANY QUIPS especially for characters who aren't necessarily quippy and a movie that shouldn't be. I know the MCU's known for this, and I HATE it because everyone's humor code sounds and is the same and BP and IM1, the two most significant films in the MCU, show that you don't have to resort to it to make a movie fun while tacking a serious and/or heavy plot.

Timeline - This all happened way too fast. I don’t think Thanos should have gotten all of the Stones that quickly and easily especially since apparently this all happened within a day (or two?) which begs the question: what tf were Thanos and the Black Order doing all this time? If it’s that easy to get everything, why didn’t other people try? He just seems so overpowered that there doesn’t seem to be anything to this story besides the characters reacting and uh......that doesn’t make for a solid foundation for a story. You need characters being more active than reactive. And I feel like one day is just too quick and the Stones are too powerful that it really felt meh.

Strategy - It’s hard to scramble together a strategy when things happen so quickly that you’re put on your back foot and all you can do is focus on surviving, but uh...aside from me yelling about how Tony is right and I feel vindicated, I was a little disappointed because Tony was preparing for this for six years so I thought that we’d see more of his plan even though lbr there’s no way he could’ve planned for the way that things went down. Some other stuff were stupid like going to Titan which I guess makes sense because 1) they wanted the fight away from Earth to minimize human casualties, 2) they didn't know the Guardians and Thor were out there or where they were, 3) I think the ship was set to Titan anyway, 4) they lost all contact with Earth, but...that’s kind of contrived and idk, couldn’t Strange contact someone on Earth? Or use portals? If not, I feel like we should have seen limits to his magic because it just seems ridiculous that none of them would think of that.

Set-up to Avengers 4 - Going back to the timeline thing, because everything happened too fast and at such a gigantic scale, everything lost its impact because the action was relentless and because you know there’s another film coming so this ended up feeling like a set-up to Avengers 4, the way that AoU felt like a filler movie there to plant some seeds for CW. Why should we care when we know we really need to care in A4? I guess we should worry about what things are reversible or not, but I was underwhelmed. Obviously this is unavoidable just because it’s a two-part saga, but at the same time there should be a few things that we really feel devastated and panicky about.

It’s just...you had ten years to work on this, six years of buildup from The Avengers, so much room to be inventive like never before, and a lot of comics to draw inspiration from, and.....this is it? That's it? That's all? Considering how it was so hyped up, I went from thinking it looked like a bland, generic mess in the trailer to hoping that I would be emotionally eviscerated and then being nervous over the past 24 hours that I would be, but nope. I WANTED TO BE A DESTROYED, MESSY WRECK AND I WASN'T. ://///

#iw spoilers

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wonderbat1216 · 7 years

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Justice League Review

2017 has been a great year for superhero films with “Logan,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2”, “Wonder Woman,” “Spiderman: Homecoming,” and “Thor: Ragnarok.” Now in mid-November, it’s time for the cherry on top, DC Comics’ “Justice League.”“Justice League” has opened to mixed reviews from critics but adoration from DC fans, reminding me of another DC film directed by Zack Snyder. (You can read our review of that movie here.)

Here is where I start talking about the specifics of the movie. MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT.

Much like my BvS review, I’m going to go pros and cons. Let’s start with the relationships in the film. A fundamental dynamic in the movie is the connection between Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Diana Prince (Wonder Woman). They work perfectly together in this film with their relationship shown as friendship and admiration, possibly blossoming into something more.

The romantic subtext is subtle and reminiscent of the character’s relationship in the “Justice League” cartoon of the early 2000’s. Bruce and Diana genuinely respect one another, and in the one time that the respect lapses and Bruce says something out of line, Cyborg calls him out, and Bruce apologizes a couple of scenes later.

Another critical couple is Clark Kent (Superman) and Lois Lane. The dynamics of this relationship are proudly on display long before Clark is resurrected. Early in the film, we see Lois mourning the loss of Clark and sharing a thoughtful scene with Clark’s adoptive mother, Martha.

About halfway through the film, When Clark is resurrected, he is confused and attacks the other heroes. Lois is the one who snaps him out of it. This leads to a beautiful reunion scene at Clark’s home in Smallville and a heartbreaking reunion with his mother. Bruce knows how deep Lois and Clark’s connection is and uses it as his contingency plan for when things go south during the resurrection, calling Lois “The big gun.”

Sadly, two crucial relationships are almost entirely cut from the movie. Actress Kiersey Clemons shot scenes as Iris West, who DC fans know as Barry Allen’s girlfriend or wife, depending on the continuity. Unfortunately, her scenes were cut entirely.

Mera of Atlantis, known as Aquaman’s romantic interest was only in one scene, and her character isn’t named. If you didn’t know better, you would just think she’s a random Atlantean.

Now let’s move on to the big bad of this movie, an alien named Steppenwolf, who comes to earth looking for three ‘Mother Boxes,' sources of almost infinite power, hidden away on earth long ago after Steppenwolf’s first attempt to use them thousands of years ago.

I have a few issues here.First, unless you are a DC fan, you have no clue who this guy is, what the mother boxes are, or why Steppenwolf wants them. Since the movie fails to explain, I will.

Steppenwolf is the uncle of Darkseid, a primary villain in DC Comics (comparable to Marvel’s Thanos) and is the leader of Darkseid's elite forces. Steppenwolf and Darkseid are members of a race of ‘New Gods’ from Apokolips, a hell-like alien planet. The mother boxes are Apokoliptian technology that can be used to destroy and remake planets and used as tools of conquest. Steppenwolf’s objective is to find and use the boxes to conquer earth for Darkseid

.Second, we’ve seen this type of villain before in the DCEU. We have a big guy with horns, bent on either the destruction or conquest of earth. Am I talking about Steppenwolf, Ares, or Enchantress’ unnamed brother? They’re all the same.

I will say, I liked how the villain plot tied in Cyborg. Usually, when Cyborg is included with the league instead of the Teen Titans, he’s treated as less because he’s younger. In this film, he’s integral to the league’s success.

Without Cyborg and his mother box tech, our heroes would not have been able to resurrect Superman, or find Steppenwolf and the boxes, or separate the boxes to end the threat. Basically, without Cyborg everybody would’ve died and we would have no movie.

(This paragraph contains a “Wonder Woman” spoiler.) I appreciated the interactions between the members of the league. The mentor relationship Bruce had with Barry, was like the relationship between Iron Man in Spiderman in “Spiderman: Homecoming.” Jason Momoa was brilliant as Aquaman, transforming him into a valued member of the group instead of the underrated character that no one cared about before. Barry freaking out about Clark’s speed was hilarious, and a nice echo of both the 1967 race in the comics and the Flash/Supergirl tv crossover last year. Diana was a treat as always, trying to be the voice of reason, and taking on the leadership role with Bruce. The boys respect her authority. I also appreciated the film showing that even a century later, Diana is still struggling with the loss of Steve Trevor.

Bruce’s butler and confidant, Alfred, played a more significant role in this film than he did in BvS, bringing with him the sass and one-liners of his comic and cartoon counterparts. While not members of the league, the early scenes with the Amazons were excellent and showed that even though Hippolyta exiled her daughter, she still deeply cares about her.

My last positive note is the setups. Early in the film, during the flashback fight during Steppenwolf’s first invasion, we see a Green Lantern fight alongside the Amazons, Atlanteans, and Man. When he falls, we see his ring fly off, presumably to find a new host. While this scene is too early in history to point to Hal Jordan or any other modern lanterns, it confirms that we will eventually see a Green Lantern from earth.

The second setup is in the end credit scene that many people missed the scene involves Lex Luthor recruiting infamous DC villain, Deathstroke. (Fans who watched the Teen Titans cartoon will know him as Slade.) Lex wants to form a league of his own to combat the heroes, possibly setting up a version of the Injustice League or Legion of Doom. Very Exciting.

To wrap up, I’m going to go in the style of “The A.V. Club” and list some stray observations, thoughts that don’t fit into my neat little categories.

For most of the resurrection scene, Superman is shirtless. You can take that as good or bad.Near the very end of the film,

Cyborg utters his famous catchphrase from the “Teen Titans” cartoon, “Booyah.” The entire theater erupted in applause.

Barry is never once called “The Flash.” For the third movie in a row, Diana is never called “Wonder Woman.”

Danny Elfman’s score was alright, but I wish he would’ve used more of Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL’s music from Man of Steel and BvS. I don’t think he should have used John William’s Superman theme, and I don’t think he should have recycled the theme he wrote for Michael Keaton’s 1989 Batman. A big part of interconnecting franchises in the musical motifs and I think Elfman wrecked it.

When Zack Snyder had to leave due to personal tragedy, Joss Whedon replaced him and ordered vast reshoots. This extended the production schedule forcing Henry Cavill (Clark/Superman) to switch back and forth between shooting “Justice League” and “Mission Impossible: 6.” For MI:6 Cavill is contractually obligated to have a mustache. He couldn’t shave to be Superman, so they had to CGI it out. If Clark’s face looks weird at any point, that's why. I blame Whedon.

I counted at least seven times where Diana and other Amazons were needlessly sexualized. This included wearing more revealing armor than in “Wonder Woman,” camera angles that went up skirts and lingered on backsides, and the scene where Barry trips and face plants into Diana’s chest. Again, I blame Whedon (This type of sexualization is also present in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” which Whedon also directed.

This might not be anyone’s fault specifically, but the 3D is not worth it. I watched the standard version and 3D back to back. It was barely noticeable. The only part that was made better by 3D was the “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” trailer

Overall Justice league was a great film for DC fans. It follows “Batman vs. Superman” and “Wonder Woman” well, and it sets up future DC films nicely.

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sav-wites-everything · 7 years

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Science Partners (Peter Parker x Reader) - Part 5

A/N: Here by popular demand is Part 5!!!! So, I have already seen Spider-Man: Homecoming (AND IT WAS AMAZING!!) but I will keep this series as spoiler free as possible!!! (partially because the timeline of events I created are different than the movie so it would mess things up anyway!) I will kind of allude to the events with Vulture but won’t go any further than what the trailers have shown!! Anyway, Enjoy!! xx

Warnings: hurt Peter, tension, sad :(

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 6

“So,” Ned began, scooting closer to Peter at the lunch table so he could whisper, “When you got like, buff and stuff from the spider bite, did uh... anything else change?” At this point, Ned was nodding down towards Peter’s lap.

Peter nearly choked on his cold burrito. “Dude!” he shouted through a mouthful of beans and cheese.

Ned threw his hands up in defense. “I’m just curious!”

Peter shook his head and checked his phone. He was growing impatient as he waited for Mr. Stark to get back to him with details on their next mission. Ever since Berlin, Peter had been itching to see some more action than the petty crimes around Queens.

Interrupting Peter’s thoughts, you dropped your bag on the table and sat down in a huff. Your face was flushed from running down the hall. “Sorry I’m late, guys. Mr. Namara called a last minute Mathlete meeting.” Neither of them responded. Ned was looking at Peter strangely and you were sure his eyes kept trailing to his... Couldn’t be. Peter was engrossed in his phone. “Earth to Dorksville,” you chimed, waving your hand in front of Peter’s face.

Peter shook his head as if coming out of a trance and looked up at you in surprise. “(Y/N)! When did you get here? Where have you been?” he said rapidly. You just shook your head and chuckled. Although you kept a pretty neutral facade, his response ticked you off. This had been happening for awhile now but after the two of you started dating, it seemed to get worse. He seemed to be constantly distracted. The pair of you hadn’t been together long (the dance was only two weeks ago), but it still annoyed you.

“Are we still on for dinner tonight? I’m super excited to try that new...”

“Can’t. I’ve got some stuff to do for the Tony Stark Internship.” Peter went back to scrolling through his phone and vigorously texting.

You pursed your lips, grabbed your bag and stood up. “Ned, still need help studying for the math test?”

Ned looked between you and Peter, cocking a worried eyebrow. You just shrugged your shoulders and rolled your eyes. He gave you an apologetic smile before saying, “Yeah, that’d be awesome. Come over after school?”

You nodded an affirmative and gave one last glance at Peter who was completely oblivious to the exchange you just had with Ned. Your shoulders drooped as you turned to walk away. “I’m gonna go eat lunch in the library,” you mumbled, “See you later.” With that you walked away, your head low and anger chewing at your belly.

Peter looked up nonchalantly from his phone and a frown creased his face. “Where’d she go?” he said, genuinely confused.

Ned shook his head and groaned at his distracted friend. “She went to go find a new boyfriend,” he said, hoping to make Peter realize what he’s been doing.

He snapped his gaze to Ned, suddenly alert. “What?!”

“Good, now I have your attention. She went to the library to eat but if I were her, I’d be looking for a new boyfriend.” Ned took a bite of his pizza, staring at Peter sternly.

“What are you even talking about, dude?”

Ned let out a laugh at how clueless Peter was. “You know, Pete, you’re right. I’m sure she loves having all of her plans with you cancelled so you can go catch bike thieves and mope over Tony Stark.”

“I catch more than just bike thieves and I don’t mope!” Peter lowered his voice to a whisper, “I’m the Spider-Man, Ned. I have a responsibility to the people.”

“Well, why don’t you tell her that?” Ned whispered back, irritation in his voice.

“I.. I can’t.” Peter swallowed hard, averting his gaze.

“Why not? She’s your best friend too. Not only that, she actually agreed to be your girlfriend. Do you think you’re ever going to get a girl like her again? She deserves to know and if you won’t tell her...”

“Ned! You cannot tell (Y/N)! You promised me you wouldn’t tell anyone and she counts in that promise.”

Ned grimaced at Peter, angry at him. “Fine,” he said flatly, “but don’t come crying to me when she leaves you.” Just then the bell rang. Ned got up quickly from the table, leaving Peter behind.

Peter’s shoulders drooped and he slowly got up from the table. He checked his phone one last time before dropping it into his pocket. Ned had to be wrong. Ned was protective of their friend from the beginning. That’s all this is. Peter cancels a few dates and Ned overreacted. That’s all. You wouldn’t leave Peter... Right?

During gym, you ignored Peter like it was your job. He noticed this. It was fitness test day so that meant people broke off into their own groups to talk. You were with some of your other friends, leaving Ned and Peter by themselves. They watched you the entire class period. You definitely seemed to be venting to your friends because every now and then, one of them would shoot Peter a dirty look.

Peter did everything in his power to look inconspicuous as he got closer to you, trying to listen in on the conversation. “So, are you going to break up with him?” your friend, Liz, asked.

Peter put all of his attention on you, not caring if anyone noticed. You shrugged your shoulders and mumbled, “I don’t know..” Peter’s heart sank. “Probably not.” His stomach tightened and color came back to his cheeks. “If I had something like a Tony Stark Internship, I’d probably be the same way.”

Your friends nodded in a hushed agreement before Liz broke into a smirk, “But if that Spider-Man ever showed up, you’d definitely leave Peter, right?”

You giggled at this and Peter noticed an adorable blush rise to your cheeks. “Well, of course,” you giggled. The softness that was overtaking Peter was suddenly replaced by anger. “A guy with that much bravery and heart must know how to treat a girl right.” Peter didn’t even stop to consider the fact that you were talking about him. To him, you were talking about a different person. You were crushing on a different guy.

Peter stormed back over to Ned, not wanting to hear anymore of the conversation. “She likes Spider-Man more than she likes me!” he whispered angrily.

Ned shrugged his shoulders and sympathized with you, saying, “Well, with the way you’ve been treating on of my best friends, I’m starting to like Spider-Man more too.” Peter dropped his shoulders and hung his head. He let out a heavy sigh before getting on the floor and angrily doing sit-ups.

That night, you sat on Ned’s bedroom floor, monotonously drilling Ned with equations. You barely touched the Chinese food that Ned’s mom had ordered for the two of you. Frustrated, you threw your notes to the floor and put your head in your hands. Ned, who was sitting across from you, put a warm hand on your shoulder. “Did I do something wrong, Ned?” you mumbled into your hands.

Ned looked bewildered at your question. “(Y/N), no!”

“Then what’s going on with him? Is... Is he just not interested anymore?”

Ned took your hands away from your face so he could look at you. Silent tears had began sliding down your cheeks. “(Y/N), before you two actually started dating, you were all he talked about. I’m sure that now that he has you, he couldn’t be happier.”

“Then why does he cancel plans? He barely pays attention in chemistry. Hell, he doesn’t even hang out with both of us. He should be here studying with us!” Your voice cracked with a sob. The tears began to flow harder. You knew Ned was the one you would break down to about this.

Ned got up on his knees and enveloped you in a hug. He didn’t know what to say. He wanted to tell you the truth about Peter but he couldn’t. Why couldn’t he? Just because Peter told him not to? You had the right to know and he didn’t care how angry Peter got at him.

As Ned opened his mouth to tell you the truth, there was a knock at the bedroom door. Ned released you and you hurriedly tried to wipe away your tears. Ned’s mom poked her head around the door and said with a wide smile, “Peter’s here, dear. (Y/N), honey, are you okay?”

You nodded and forced a smile. “Just a really spicy bit of the chicken.” Ned’s mom nodded understandably and left her position at the door. Peter walked in, a grin on his face.

“Chinese food? Why didn’t one of you call me?” he said, as if he hadn’t noticed that your eyes were puffy from crying.

“Did you really get into another lab accident?” you said, concerned laced in your voice. You stood up and grabbed Peter’s face, any thoughts of animosity gone. He had a cut above his eyebrow and a bruise was forming on his cheek bone.

“Oh, it’s nothing. It’s Tony Stark. Shit happens, ya know?” He brushed your hands away and sat down next to Ned, leaving you standing. He leaned in and whispered to Ned something you couldn’t hear, “There was this huge metal bird guy..” Your fists clenched with anger.

“No, I don’t know!” you shouted. Peter looked up at you, shocked and confused. “I don’t know how you let Mr. Stark do this! Can’t you ever just tell him no? He works you like an adult but you’re still in high school! You just let him use you whenever he deems it necessary, which is all of the time! Why don’t..”

“Why can’t you understand that this is important to me?” Peter shouted back, standing now. He towered over you and his eyes were dark. “I’m making something of myself and you can’t seem to support that anymore! I would have never asked you to be my girlfriend if I knew that you wanted all of the attention in the world!” Peter stopped in his tracks. His face went pale and his mouth stood open. His hands began to tremble as he realized what he said. “(Y/N),” his voice wavered, “I didn’t..”

You held up a hand to stop him and shook your head. All of your anger was gone. You just felt... empty. “You’re right, Peter,” you began flatly, “I should be more understanding. I see now just how important this internship is to you. It’s more important than your girlfriend. It’s more important than your two best friends. It’s more important than school.” Peter tried to cut in, reaching a hand out to you. You took a step back and continued. “I get it, Peter. I don’t want to get in the way.” You bent down and scooped up your notes and backpack. You looked Peter square in the eye. The pain you saw swimming in his eyes almost made you bite your tongue but it came out anyway, “I’m sure you and Mr. Stark will make a lovely couple.” You walked out of Ned’s room without giving Peter time to reply and slipped out the front door into the chilly, night air.

You gave a harsh sob when the cold air hit your lungs and you let the tears fall freely. You started walking home, hugging your jacket tightly around you, tonight’s events eating at you.

Peter sank to the floor in defeat. His hands shook and he clenched his jaw. He lost you. He really lost you. All because he felt the need to keep his stupid secret. Why would he say those things to you? He didn’t mean it. You didn’t ask to hang out any more than you did before he started dating you.

“Well, you did it. I’m sure the bike thieves will be happy to hear that you can devote all of your time to them,” Ned said with malice. He looked hard at his friend.

“I’m gonna go home,” Peter mumbled.

“Good idea.”

The next morning, Peter lay in bed, staring blankly ahead of him. Maybe he’d pretend he was sick. He couldn’t see you today. He wouldn’t be able to bear seeing you in the pain he had caused. Peter was so engrossed with his self-pity that he didn’t hear the phone ring or notice his Aunt May walk into his room. “Peter?” she asked, her voice shaking.

Her voice piqued his attention. He sat up in bed and looked at her with concern. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Do you know where (Y/N) is? Her mom called and said she didn’t come home last night.”

A/N: Oooooooooooo cliffhanger!!!!! I’m sorry this one is such a downer but you need a little raw emotion and heart ache every now and then. Keep an eye out for Part 6 and send in your requests!! xx

Tags: @notawarriorjustyet @scottsxmmxrs @glupijelen @conboyrachael @mylameinternethome @woah-broah @libby822 @basket-of-dragons @miraisnotavailable @purebabysethwright @fae-tus @gerardwayisapotato @thebookisbtr

Let me know if you want to be tagged in upcoming chapters!!!

#peter parker x reader #peter parker #spiderman x reader #spiderman #spider-man: homecoming #tom holland

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typegripe-blog · 7 years

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Movie Rant #1 - Star Wars Thoughts, Part 1

With the release of the trailer for Episode 8, I thought I’d share some thoughts about the sequel trilogy so far.

Now this might be an unpopular opinion but I’ll open this right away and say that I prefer the Prequels to Episode 7. Now it could be argued that I first saw the Prequels when I was young and I am just bitter about Disney owning Star Wars now and that I am going to just hate anything different. But I don’t believe this is true. I watched The Clone Wars series for the first time months before Episode 7 came out and I loved it. And on top of this while I did not enjoy Episode 7 very much, I thought Rogue One was one of the greatest Star Wars movies that has ever been released. I would go so far as to say it’s tied with A New Hope as my second favourite. (Empire obviously being the best.)

And don’t mistake it, as a movie by itself Episode 7 is way better than the prequels. Acting, shots, editing and dialogue were way better. When considered with the rest of the series, I think it just doesn’t fit in properly. That being said, I do believe all the movies are worth watching.

But why did I love Rogue One beyond belief but only felt an empty hole for The Force Awakens? Well here is my main reason:

SPOILER WARNINGS FOR EPISODES 1-7, THE CLONE WARS AND ROGUE ONE

It Builds On Instead of Taking Away:

In the prequels (and especially in the Clone Wars) you get a sense that the Jedi have become complacent. They are weak because it had been over a thousand years since the Sith disappeared into the shadows and they did not believe the Sith could ever return. Mace Windu dismisses Maul as a Sith when Qui-Gon suggests the possibility. And Obi-Wan and Yoda flat out refuse to believe that a member of the Sith is controlling the senate when Count Dooku flat out says so. If you get passed some of the poor dialogue choices and cringey romance, we see that the fall of the Republic and Anakin’s belief that the Jedi are corrupt actually comes together quite nice.

In the Clone Wars it just goes even further. We see Anakin discuss with Tarkin how the Jedi aren't willing to take the steps necessary to end the war and that the war only highlights their incompetence and failures as a group and so called ‘keepers of the peace.’ As well we get how much affected Anakin is when Ahsoka is abandoned by the Jedi and how willing they are to let her get executed for a crime she didn’t commit.

So why is all of that important? Because it gives us motivation and insight into characters we didn’t actually know that much about. We see how shamed Yoda is by his failure to prevent the atrocities that occur to the Jedi and we see how Obi-Wan feels he failed Anakin so completely. And most importantly we see the human that is behind Darth Vader, and we see how broken and twisted he’s become.

On top of this we see where being all ‘high and mighty’ got the Jedi. The pompous Jedi were destroyed because they didn’t believe anything could ever touch them. The characters we sympathise with are the Grey Jedi. Qui-Gon Jinn is caring, willing to use tricks, gamble, disobey the council and in the end he’s the only one who truly sees Anakin’s potential and actually believes that Maul could be a Sith. And to an extent Obi-Wan follows in his footsteps. We are led to understand that true power in the force should come from balance.

When Obi-Wan and Yoda train Luke, they teach him the Jedi ways but try to teach him to be more mindful. They don’t want him to make the mistakes they made. By Return of the Jedi, we see Luke use force choke, force manipulation, intimidation and is walking this fine line of good and evil. In the end he chooses good, but his good isn’t the 'good’ of the old republic. He has family and friends, he doesn’t believe in the cold blooded approach of the Republic era Jedi, his is much more of a Grey Path.

So we assume that he is going to be the best Jedi ever. That he learned to be one with the force and really walk that middle road of balance. He won’t make the same mistakes the Republic Era Jedi made….

……Except he does. According to Episode 7, he trains some people to use the force but instead of being the awesome Jedi we believed he was at the end of Episode 6, it turns out he’s just as bad as the Republic Jedi. Kylo Ren pulls an Anakin and kills all the other Jedi and turns evil.

And this is where the problem lies. Where the prequels gave us a universe that was designed to strengthen and give more meaning to the original trilogy, Episode 7 throws anything learned aside in order to ensure that the story continues.

Anything accomplished in Episode 6 means nothing from the start of Episode 7. The Empire is not defeated, the good guys are still a tiny rebellion. The only good government is conveniently destroyed so that it’s still the story of a small group of ragtag rebels fighting the big scary Empire. Sure, the empire would not be completely destroyed at the end Return of the Jedi. But their leader is gone, he had no real contingent, no heir. Most groups seemed to support that the Rebellion won. So why is the First Order more powerful than the original Empire? Why was there no one to try to wipe out the empire remnants in over 30 years? It felt like they wanted to have a story to reflect A New Hope so in order to do so they had to dismiss any progress at the end of the original trilogy. It makes it feel as if the original trilogy just shouldn't have happened because it turns out nothing was accomplished.

Say what you will about the old Expanded Universe bit at least the Thrawn Trilogy was only a few years after Endor, and even then Thrawn is only barely keeping together a shattered force. As well, the villain wasn’t even a force user. He didn’t compete with Vader like Kylo Ren, he was so different and yet just as intimidating a foe. If anything Thrawn only strengthened what Darth Vader was and contrasted with him in a lot of ways. But I digress, my love of Thrawn aside I’ll go back to Episode 7.

On top of Luke turning out to be the exact same as Yoda, we get the fact that Han and Leia aren’t even happy together after all this time. That’s not really a big deal and doesn’t actually take away from the story, it’s just that it’s another thing that was just destroyed for the sake of making Episode 7 more interesting. Nothing from Episode 6 is shown to have made any lasting effect on the universe.

We get to the biggest culprits now: the fact that everything had to be taken up a notch from the original trilogy.

The Death Star was a monumental thing that shook the universe and took the funds of an entire empire to build. It could blow up worlds and it seemed like an impossible task for the rebels to take it down. But that’s nothing now, who cares about the Death Star? It has to move to a world to blow it up. No, now we have the Star Killer Base. It can shoot across the universe and eats suns. The Death Star was the size of a small moon? So what? The Star Killer Base is a literal planet!

How did the first order afford this? Where did it come from? Why did they have to 'outdo’ the original trilogy just for the sake of having bigger and better? It makes anything that happened before seem silly because the empire is just bigger and badder, so why did the death of the emperor even matter? Why did blowing up the Death Star matter? It all ended up being pointless after a few years anyways.

And then there is Rey. Ugh. I’ll get to her in a second.

I may not be overly thrilled by Kylo Ren but there are some things I genuinely thought were great about his character. The fact that he wore that helmet to mimic Darth Vader, the fact that he obsesses over Vader are great. They show how important and long lasting the terror of Vader was and that after more than 30 years, Vader is the epitome of villains. On top of that, I love that he loses his temper in a more childlike fashion just smashing stuff at random instead of the cool hatred Vader has when he chokes those who fail him. As well the fact that his lightsaber is imperfect and shows that he is obviously somewhat self taught and not a real Sith or even fully trained Jedi. He shows a Dark Jedi that did not have a mentor like Darth Sidious and never completed his training like Anakin and I actually enjoyed that.

But then there’s Rey. I think she was the worst part of Episode 7. Out of everything they did, she is what ruined the movie for me. She feels more like a fanfiction character than someone that should actually exist in the movies. In A New Hope, Luke doesn’t use force powers, he doesn’t even really use a lightsaber despite him holding it on the poster. He proves his connection to the force by making a 1 in a million shot to blow up the Death Star. Anakin Skywalker, the most powerful Jedi in the universe, is able to Pod Race and is a pretty good pilot but he doesn’t use force powers until after years of training.

Rey does all of this in one movie. She’s just better than every character that’s been in a Star Wars movie for no reason other than to make her cool. She is an exceptional pilot, despite being relatively segregated from most of her home planet. When did she learn? How did she have the time? Who’s ship did she practice on?

She uses force pull more powerfully than Kylo Ren despite never having any training and Kylo Ren actually having training from Luke. She uses force manipulation despite only masters being shown to use this power (even Luke only uses it in Jedi after a few years of practice). How did she even know this was a power? Why was she able to use it so effectively? Why didn’t she have to move her hand like every other Jedi that uses it?

They make every other Jedi look like an idiot because she could figure everything out in a matter of days while it took others years. The Prequels show how powerful Luke is because he is learning to use the force at an older age in a matter of days. He can lift stones and jump around all because of Yoda’s training and his innate abilities. But even he has nothing on Rey because she just instantly knows how to use every force power the plot needs her to learn.

What’s wrong is that Episode 7 doesn’t follow the same rules that the other movies have established. It was like they wanted to have a bunch of nostalgia moments but didn’t care that putting them in made no sense or just made Rey feel way to overpowered.

This went a lot longer than I expected to go, so I’m going to talk about Rogue One (and why I fanboyed so hard the first time I watched it) in a second part.

If you have any comments, agree or disagree let me know why! I would love to hear it! Thanks!

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