#also as much as i hate calling female characters mary sues... this girl certainly was. like... you could only get into the queen's guard

[soap-brain]

oh boy i forgot to make the post yesterday but i read the WORST book ever. i thought it was gonna be about dragons, and technically it was, but oh BOY it was bad.

like, the protag was Not Like Other Girls, of course, but this time because she couldn’t have children bc in this world you gotta fuck from the time you’re 16 or something bc her village is isolated in an Evil Magic Fog so people gotta procreate. also you’re not worth anything as a human if you can’t have children. so after her grandma dies she and her crush (we’ll call him Manly ManTM for good reason) and their best friend leave through the fog, and the grandma’s Magic Owl helps the protag see through the fog. they get out but the best friend is injured and after a quick side trip to a brothel (??) the best friend ends up murdered by the evil queen who rules the land behind the fog. 

now luckily since the best friend is gone and Manly ManTM’s wife ofc stayed inside the village in the fog, the protag and Manly ManTM can fuck again, since the best friend is somehow not in their way anymore (even tho protag and Manly Man barely talked unless the best friend was there before, but whatever), and obviously they do fuck, bc fucking is very important.

but then protag’s lost dad shows up! and he takes them to where he lives. protag then, after some more fucking, decides to go and kill the evil queen. Manly Man thinks she left to go back through the fog to their village and that’s where he goes.

so now protag finds employment as a barmaid and also learns to fight so she can join the evil queen’s guard; Manly ManTM gets horny when killing and also his wife (who was abusive. seriously, all the women except for protag in this fic are evil. smh) dies, and he makes it back through the village where he trains all of them to fight so they can go through the fog and fuck up the evil queen. ofc he’s constantly mourning the loss of protag.

protag pretends to be a guy to get into the evil queen’s guard, and she makes it, and she befriends this guy who managed to sneak this kid in, except he’s not a kid, he’s a prince, and he’s not human, he’s a dragon, and they want to kill the evil queen too.

Manly Man makes it to the evil queen’s castle eventually and together with protag, the actually-not-dead-just-turned-dragon best friend, and the other guy who protected the dragon-prince (who dies), they fight the evil queen and kill her.

and like. throughout the whole plot, fucking is mentioned all the time. oh, and boobs. so many boobs. pulsating boobs. boobs straining to bounce out of shirts. 

also the protag can talk to animals, but only in one scene, and her friends are just like “yup ok that’s just how it be sometimes”. and they meet the first dragon early on and nobody has ever seen a dragon and everyone is just like “yup, that’s just how it be sometimes”

and if you can’t have children as a woman, you’re a waste of resources and they’d kill you

yep.

oh, and not only was this whole mess of misogyny written by a woman, no, she also ends the postface with “xoxo” akjhsdkjhfakjsdf

and like... if the plot and the worldbuilding and the characters weren’t bad enough, the writing is also just. horrendous. it’s mostly simple clauses, mostly dialogue, there’s no development ever, all the characters’ emotions are just. completely flat. like... their best friend dies horribly in front of their eyes, and protag and Manly Man are just like “... well, that sucks. let’s go fuck now that he’s gone, ok?”

also the ultimate resolving fight scene where they kill the evil queen after she transformed into a dragon was just... so boring, over so quickly, and there are about five legitimate ways the queen could’ve been killed earlier. literally the only reason she wasn’t killed earlier was due to MASSIVE gaping plot holes

oh, and did i mention all the pulsating boobs? and the fucking? don’t forget, it’s very important that women are only worth something when they can have children

extremely bad, please don’t read it

#shroom-stories #the book is called 'hidden' by megg jensen and apparently it's the first part of a series????? yikes!!!!!! #also as much as i hate calling female characters mary sues... this girl certainly was. like... you could only get into the queen's guard #by being one of the best of the best of the best. and this girl who'd never before seen a sword just trained for a month and then #she got in. like... seriously the oc i made for my attempt at a fantasy novel when i was 10 was less of a mary sue #and this is allegedly a bestselling author. now idk what kind of newspaper the usa today is but it can't be a good one if they rec this #y'all should've seen the messages maddy and eddu had to endure yesterday. y'all should've seen the quotes i could pull from that book #like... i've read a LOT of books. and i've also read a lot of fanfiction. and HO BOI if that book gets to be published then so does (most) #of the fanfic that's out there. like JESUS it was so bad. sunrises is already a billion times better and sunrises sucks and isn't even done #(yet). i've legitimately never read a book as bad as this one. good thing i got it for free from book bub bc i would be SO pissed if i'd #spent actual money on that garbage. #anyways it sucked please don't read it kshdljksdf

[maneaterwithtail]

Why I do not think I will ever be a friend to pearl-stans

Crossposted from spacebattles

Think of this as a companion or follow up to my reaction to the Lea C video

I suppose if there is a main character that I dislike in Steven Universe it's Pearl. In no small part there's her fans because chances are there were 'pressed or budding lesbians who view any attack on her as an attack on the entire concept of their identity. The fact that she's painstakingly tied into said Rebel lesbian identity while often referencing revolutionary girl utena which in my opinion did a much better job handling that as an identity / phenomena

But I don't have any real rational reasons. There's this one moment in this one episode that permanently pissed me off about ttheshow, months later it was still pissing me off. Okay this isn't the first time this had happened with the sshow. at one point you would receive extra canonical material or the charafters be characterized one way and then when it was necessary for the plot characterized another way. A popular one is when Pearl said she can't stand eating so that that way she doesn't become present at a parent get together which causes some really annoying hijinks. But that's just one episode. no, what really collapsed my suspension of disbelief for her as a character and required me to desperately not think she was a real character but just a series of events that did whatever the episode wanted her to?

"What is a sch-ool?"

To be clear this is an alien being who comes from another planet where they have temples. They understand the purpose of Arenas in which to fight for displaying to martial prowess. And she has a 14 year old human son. She's been on Earth for thousands of years. Also she doesn't just know how to operate a motor vehicle and repair one she talks explicitly about traffic laws these cannot be any older than 200 plus years. Despite all of this she does not know what a school is a human practice that has been practiced for thousands of years

That moment, right there, completely destroyed all credibility as a character. She'll have emotional moments that she evokes very well. Because they give her some pretty solid writing and her actress does a damn fine job. But that does not matter because they've basically toled me in certain terms that she is made of stupid. Whenever they want to make her alien they will make her inexplicably alien and Incredibly dumb to make a plot go forward. Whenever they want to make her too traumatized they will make her too traumatized to justify some bullshit. It's everything I Hate About Mary Sue writing ( even though she is most certainly not a Mary Sue.) Arbitrary in order to evoke audience sympathy rather than earn it and ignore consistency with either setting or character. I don't even hate her that much it's just when they say care about her that I can't do it. I'm always at an enormous divide whenever they try to center on the character.

again this would be okay if she weren't front-and-center on several plots. And hating her basically didn't come with an immediate Repulsor field of saying anything bad or evil or mean about her basically brings out every lesbian, girl who's not like other girls, animation aspirant, or Shoujo Manga fan who's had to deal with any harassment at any point in their lives and assumes that you're part of another chain of evil man figures. Cuz seriously Pearl is really really bothersome. And it gets more so when it feels like her bother some parts get put aside to make her more sympathetic or to make sympathetic allusions. 

The big one for me was when they implied she was going to date a human woman. Despite the fact almost every other word out of her mouth about humans is utter contempt and disgust along with the aapprehensive fact she knows so little about their culture she can't pick up on 2000 year plus old practices. This would imply a level of bigotry that I honestly appreciate the entire fandom accepting in dis course

But much like a popular web novel series apparently her victimhood due to status and how she's crafted in terms of appealing identity matters more than the actual actions and character she displays. This is made even worse due to recent Revelations where I'm supposed to care even more

What's weird about it is that Pearl is in my opinion an incredibly well-written bigoted character. But she's not appreciated as such she's appreciated as basically a Justified bitch. And if any male character dares to show a similar level of fault unless yyou are stanning or shipping them they will be hated the fuck out oof or just dismissed. As far as I'm concerned Uncle Andy is Pearl with Aviation as opposed to space flight and spear use. He's effectively the straight older guy version of pearl. But no one will see that because all they can see is 

oh she's autistic just like me 

she's post-traumatic stress disorder just like me 

oh she's a lesbian or atypical about feminism in some sort of way just like me. 

And this got very explicit with one Tumblr poster who out and out said this then privately contacted me when I reblogged that moment to have me delete it and then close down her entire blog. This gets particularly bad due to the greater critical Steven Universe sentiment. Which honestly I want to enjoy but I can't help but feel that they're more pissed off that the lesbian Revolution was not what was being televised and not frustration with various storytelling beats because almost all the common storytelling criticism get apologized for by every fan and blamed on Cartoon Network

There is a fractal wrongness with the "what is a school" line coming from Pearl. To be fair it actually comes from Steven but she's basically repeats it a scene later and reveals her ignorance. Ignoring the fact that it's unrealistic for her to be ignorant or to not have looked it up in a fucking dictionary. There's the fact that that's "what is this thing you humans called love and or kissing?" level writing.

. Pearl is very deliberately kind of the anti girl written for guys sort of character. She's very much a girl written for girls sort of character. And I don't mean aimed at a female audience. I mean she's like the anti Starfire. this extends to hur character design which is all sharp edges along with the very deliberate I'm a lesbian fuck off codifiers that I keep mentioning. And the way they often and continuously show her as complicated is to do stupid shit like this. Make her have a breakdown and or make her ignorant about a human subject but only in a convenient way for a narrative. And when the consequences come they will be softened considerably because we need to be recognizing that she is a mentally ill lesbian who was oppressed and abused

#anti-pearl #su critical #negativity

[misterrockett]

Sally Acorn Should Have Gotten Kidnapped More

Whenever there is a polarizing opinion in a particular fanbase I like to try and analyze why because a lot of times the reasons can be a lot more complex than most people think.

This leads me to thinking about Sally Acorn a lot because she’s really one of the characters the Sonic fanbase are most split on. One of the oldest arguments against her is that she’s a Mary Sue and the retort is that the concept of a Mary Sue in and of itself is pretty sexist. I do think there’s an underlying theme of sexism as the term got more popular and got thrown around more often but I think there’s something to unpack here.

A Mary Sue is an idealized seemingly perfect character able to perform tasks better than most with less amount of practice or training. While the narrative problem with this type of character seems obvious, we DO have popular Mary Sue’s in fiction, the most well known one being Superman. An idealized symbol of American ideals able to do fantastic feats of strength and power. Despite the various “darker” takes on the character the one everyone adores is the boyscout who can do no wrong and does no wrong and always saves the day.

The accusation that the Mary Sue title can be sexist is because, despite the gendered variant “Gary Sue” it’s an often times negative label put on overachieving female characters.

And that’s certainly the truth and may be one of the reasons it’s attached to many female characters. But here’s my challenge for that when it comes to Sally. Superman exist in a world that’s able to support his actions without making them look like they’re narratively undercutting those of his supporting cast, from the residents of Metropolis to the Justice League.

I believe the reason why we call them “Mary Sues” and not “Supermans” (ignore times when we do pls) is because the Mary Sue character existed in a Star Trek fan fiction. Star Trek is a series all about complex ideas that might not always have a single right answer, or at least one that’s incredibly hard to obtain. Kirk and Picard were, in their own unique ways, male ideals faced with complicated problems that they often struggled to solve. At times it might have even challenged the very ideals that made them who they were. It’s not a series about being able to complete simple but hard tasks with little effort.

Often times people say the difference between Marvel and DC is that Marvel’s heroes are heroes you can relate to while DC’s are heroes you aspire to be. There’s some overlap on both sides but that’s more or less the philosophy of each company’s characters. If Superman was just plopped into the X-Men or Fantastic Four the way he is as a member of the team people would likely hate him in those instances as well and label him a Mary Sue. Because he doesn’t need other people to solve any issue he faces and being a hero doesn’t encroach on his personal life. His ability to keep the two seperate almost perfectly is one of the staples of his story. Superman doesn’t have as big a problem keeping dates as Spiderman does.

So how does this come back on Sally?

Well I think one of the reasons the character is popular is because she bucks trends. It’s actually the main reason I hear most often in support of her. But it also might be the thing that hurts her the most. She’s a princess but she does stuff, she’s active and isn’t just a damsel in distress. She has a lot of positive traits and very few to no negative ones. She’s a positive role model for girls for sure.

But the issue is that most people, most Sonic fans, see the Sonic franchise as a series that might be closer to Marvel’s philosophy than DC’s. And I think it’s an issue that a lot of the narrative of the franchise as a whole might not be sure which direction to go.

See, most of the Sonic cast members are flawed in some way. Sonic is brash, Amy is overbearing and obnoxious, Knuckles is thick headed, Rouge is greedy, Blaze has a temper and lacks confidence, Cream is naive and young. I could go on but you get the picture.

The characters set themselves up for more personal stories because they themselves aren’t perfect people. But then you have Princess Sally, who is basically this idealized wife character. She’s not only a natural born leader and tactician, but also humble and maternal and can kick ass if and when she needs to and is smart enough to get herself out of most situations without help. But this also swings back in on herself, as the only flaw she has is that she is incredibly underpowered compared to the rest of the cast. One of the only obvious and consistent flaws she has is that she has no powers and is unable to defend herself against a lot of the series villains.

See, the very reason people like her, because she bucks the damsel in distress trope, is the very reason a lot of people dislike her. She’s the exact TYPE of character that needs to be a damsel in distress.

Let’s go back to my Superman example. Lois Lane is a character that gets kidnapped/thrust into danger a LOT. People have pointed it out and make fun of it. But why does she get kidnapped? In the animated series alone the main reason seems to be her own fault. She’s a go getting reporter always willing to walk into the seediest back allies for her next story no matter the danger it might bring her. Sure on the one hand, Superman NEEDS to have the people in his life thrust into danger just as often if not more than random people so the threats feel real when you know your main character can’t be killed. But whenever Louis was in danger it was because of her own volition to thrust herself into dangerous situations. She wasn’t Superman’s girlfriend, object to get his goat. Most people weren’t even aware she had any sort of personal relationship with him outside of newspaper interviews.

She was her own character with a personality just as progressive as Sally’s, but thrust into danger because the type of story she was in needed to be.

But with Sally it’s a lot less fluid. All of Sally’s best traits are social based while everyone else’ are based on physical prowlice. They have good personality traits too but they’re balanced with bad ones while Sally’s isn’t. By itself this isn’t terrible but it means Sally can’t have abilities just to keep her balanced. Even fans of the character agree that her getting a super power would be a poor move. But she also bucks the damsel in distress trope. So her one weakness isn’t capitalized often or is made irrelevant because any trouble she gets into she is capable of freeing herself from. It also creates this strange meta narrative where, in order to keep up with everyone else power level wise she HAS to always be right, know what to do, and have her instructions followed to the letter. And yet her skills are downplayed in the broader narrative because the villains of the series don’t find her important enough to take out.

She’s a character that can’t be looked at too closely. And for many, they don’t! The tropes and trends Sally bucks are enough for find enjoyment and i know what it’s like. Sometimes something is so much your jam that your lizard brain is firing off in all cylinders going “Yeah that’s the thing I wanted!”

I can totally understand that someone might not care about narrative dissonance when what they’ve always wanted is being validated right in front of them and it’s so easy to see. But I see SO much potential in this character if she were tweaked a bit. Going back to the title of this essay, having more stories involving her getting kidnapped is really just one small thing that would have helped her original characterization find balance. But if more people were receptive to a far more extreme twist on her character. A personality that was more balanced like the rest of the cast with abilities that brought her closer to the level of her peers it could be interesting. And it’s something the rebooted Archie comics played with a little bit but didn’t go full cowl on.

Maybe we’ll see something closer to what I’m talking about one day.

If I can get this damn project off the ground.

#Sally Acorn #Princess Sally Acorn #Rockett Essay #If you read this all the way through I really want to thank you

[the-desolated-quill]

The Name Of The Doctor - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

I remember at the time there was a lot of panic within the fandom. The Name Of The Doctor? Oh God! He wouldn’t! Is Moffat actually going to reveal the Doctor’s real name?! Heresy! Sacrilege! The end of Who is nigh!

Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, I recognise that was just silly. Of course Moffat isn’t brave enough to reveal the Doctor’s real name. He’s stupid enough, but he’s not brave enough. And in some ways that provides a small comfort. While The Name Of The Doctor is without a shadow of a doubt the worst series finale in the whole of New Who, at least the Doctor’s name has been left untouched.

So the Paternoster Gang, Clara and River Song (yes she’s back again. Sigh) meet up via a hallucinogenic trance to discuss the Doctor. Because it’s always about the Doctor isn’t it? And I want you to bear this in mind as we continue.

So some gibbering serial killer has revealed that ‘the Doctor has a secret that he will take to his grave, and it has been discovered.’ This is soon revealed to be yet more of Moffat’s pretentious bollocks because it turns out the grave has been discovered, not the secret. So why didn’t the serial killer just say ‘the Doctor’s grave has been discovered’? And how the fuck does he even know about it anyway? Did the Great Intelligence tell him? Why didn’t the Great Intelligence talk to the Paternoster Gang directly if he wanted to lure the Doctor to Trenzalore?

This leads me to quite possibly the only thing about this episode I actually liked. The Whisper Men. They never give an explanation for where they came from, but I like them. They’re very creepy. At least at first. Unfortunately as the episode goes along, their threat is diminished dramatically because all they ever seem to do is just stand around hissing at people and spouting stupid nursery rhymes. Also they kill off Jenny, which made me sit bolt upright in my seat as I realised that the characters are actually in danger for once, only for Strax to magically bring her back to life with his remote control. So what was the point of that?

So off we go to Trenzalore to visit the tomb of the Doctor. I have several problems with this. For starters, I really don’t want to see the Doctor’s grave. I think in Moffat’s zeal to massage his own ego and pull the rug out from under our feet, he’s now at serious risk of stripping too much of the Doctor’s mystery away. Also I get why the Doctor would be reluctant to find out where he dies, but how can he possibly avoid information like that? He’s travelled to so many places and helped so many people to the point where he’s become one of the most well known people in the universe. He’s in recorded history. Surely he’s bound to come across the date and circumstances of his own death at some point whether he wants to or not. Besides, haven’t we done this already in Series 6? Why are we doing this again? And if the Doctor was always destined to die at Trenzalore, why bother killing him at Lake Silencio? And if him dying at Lake Silencio is a fixed point, how could he possibly die at Trenzalore? This makes no sense.

Still, at least Trenzalore is nice to look at. There’s some gravestones and a giant TARDIS. Then it gets ruined by yet more Moffat idiocy. Who put the River Song grave secret entrance there? They never explain that. And if this is post Library River Song, I’m not 100% sure how she can be taking part in the Paternoster Gang’s ‘conference call.’ Nor how she and Clara can be communicating with each other when it’s been firmly established you need to be unconscious to make the conference call. I certainly don’t get how in God’s name the Doctor is able to talk to her at the end when he hasn’t even had a whiff of hallucinogen. Truth be told, I haven’t the faintest idea why River Song is even in this. She’s basically there to open the tomb because she’s the only person who knows the Doctor’s real name. Moffat’s ego working overtime yet again. It’s funny how Moffat likes to make fun of RTD’s obsession with Rose when his obsession with River is infinitely worse. I mean I wasn’t too fond of Rose neither, but credit where it’s due, at least Rose was a three dimensional character. River is nothing but a Mary Sue who always has to be better than the Doctor at everything and yet displays no actual character or agency of her own. The fact she apparently made the Doctor tell her his name should tell you everything you need to know about Moffat’s mindset as a writer. The Doctor didn’t tell her because he trusted her. She made him. She’s always the one who has to have an advantage over the Doctor, the title character, because she’s Moffat’s special creation and he wants her to be oh so important without putting in the effort to properly justify it. Plus she’s not really that strong or independent because, like every other female character Moffat has ever written, her life still utterly revolves around the male protagonist. At least one silver lining we can draw from this episode is that it looks like River Song might finally be gone for good at last. Thank God.

Then the Great Intelligence shows up, played by Richard E. Grant, to give us his bullshit evil plot. Apparently when the Doctor died, he left a wound in time that stretches right back to when he was on Gallifrey (I don’t get it either. Just go with it), and now the Great Intelligence wants to use this wound to kill the Doctor because of... reasons.

Now if you’re not familiar with the Great Intelligence, I imagine you must have been pretty confused as to why he hates the Doctor so much. And do you know something? As a die hard Whovian who has seen both the new and classic series multiple times, I’m pretty confused too. Seriously Moffat, out of all the villains you could have picked, why the Great Intelligence? For one thing, his prime motivation has always been to try and find a body. He clearly has a body now, so that’s his motivation gone. And second, why does he hate the Doctor so much that he’d be prepared to kill himself in order to unwrite the Doctor’s entire life? I’m not saying the Great Intelligence and the Doctor don’t have history, but compared to the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Master or even the Sontarans, the Great Intelligence seems like a really odd choice. Outside of ‘it’s the 50th anniversary’ I honestly don’t get why the Great Intelligence is the baddie. They don’t even give a good reason for what he’s doing. He’s basically doing it just because he’s evil and killing the Doctor would be an evil thing to do, so he’s going to do it I guess. I don’t even understand how the Great Intelligence is able to unwrite the Doctor’s life. He steps through the wound and then just stands there scowling. And how does Clara manage to stop him in the end? She steps through the wound, multiple versions of her appear throughout the Doctor’s life and then... what? It’s all so vague and utterly moronic.

Sigh. I suppose I can’t put this off any longer. I know @prettycanarynoir and @thealmightytwittytwat have been really looking forward to me tearing Clara’s story arc a new arsehole, so here goes. 

Clara, the impossible girl, was born to save the Doctor. Now the funny thing is I could see this arc actually working (you know? In an alternate universe where Steven Moffat was a long distance lorry driver rather than a showrunner and someone with an actual brain was writing this episode instead). The problems is, like with a lot of Moffat’s idiotic series arcs, the buildup has been so poor. Outside of the Doctor constantly bellowing how impossible she is, there’s no effort to actually explore this or get Clara involved in her own arc. She never finds out about her alternate selves until the very end and she doesn’t so much choose to sacrifice herself for the Doctor rather than be forced into it by circumstance. Clara has the same problem as River. Moffat is determined to make her better and more important than the Doctor, but he never gives her any real character or agency of her own. Just look at the scene where she makes the decision to jump into the wound. Flinging yourself to your death isn’t exactly something you take lightly, is it? But the way Jenna Coleman performs it, you’d think she was just popping off for half an hour to do a spot of bungie jumping. You don’t feel the emotional weight of her sacrifice whatsoever because there is none. Clara isn’t scared or apprehensive or anything. She’s just her usual smug self. She doesn’t behave like an actual person would, and that’s because Clara isn’t a person at all. She’s a plot device. And to make things even worse, despite establishing that once you jump through the wound, there’s no way back and you’ll be lost forever, Moffat once again changes his own rules so that the Doctor can rescue her, thus making her sacrifice completely meaningless. it’s just utterly dreadful writing.

But the worst thing of all is what this whole Impossible Girl arc ends up doing to the Doctor. I completely resent the implication that the Doctor is utterly ineffectual without a companion to help him. What? Did you think the Doctor got out of those situations using his wits and his brains? Nope. Turns out Clara was the one responsible all along. (And as for the scene where Clara tells the First Doctor which TARDIS to steal, I would like to take this opportunity to tell Moffat to grab something long and spiky and to shove it firmly up his own rancid, self indulgent arse). 

Finally I’d like to go back to something I touched upon at the beginning of this review. It’s all about the Doctor. Remember the good old days when the Doctor was just some guy who went on adventures across time and space and helped people out? Now he’s become this ultimate puzzle piece that completes the universe. Whole star systems blink out of existence just because he dies. He’s that special and important now. There have been quite a few times during the Moffat era and indeed this very series where the action has ground to halt in order to talk about just how special the Doctor is. To a certain extent I can understand why Moffat is doing this. It’s the 50th anniversary. Things were bound to get a little nostalgic and no doubt Moffat sees this as a fitting tribute, but the problem is the show is starting to become too insular. Doctor Who was never just about the Doctor. It was about the worlds, cultures and people he met, and we learnt about his character through his interactions with them. By making the Doctor the centre of the fucking universe that everything revolves around, it actually constricts and restrains the rest of the show. That’s what Moffat really can’t seem to understand and it’s this reason, among others, why I have such a low opinion of his work on Doctor Who.

The Name Of The Doctor doesn’t make any sense on any conceivable level. A lot of it just comes across like really bad Doctor Who fanfiction. In fact the majority of Series 7 felt like that. Most of the episodes were badly written, under-developed and/or poorly thought out, and at this point Moffat had become so pretentious and so ego driven that he was actually starting to put a serious dent into the franchise. I honestly can’t think of a worse candidate to write a 50th anniversary special than him. I mean the insulting way he introduced the War Doctor alone was... No. I’ll save that for next time.

#the name of the doctor #steven moffat #doctor who #eleventh doctor #matt smith #clara oswald #jenna coleman #river song #alex kingston #the great intelligence #bbc #review #spoilers

[lovetheangelshadow]

N’Pressions: Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker

So a small bit of fair warning before going forward. I am a casual normie consumer of Star Wars and most of my interaction with the franchise is the nine core films and a handful of the Clone Wars episodes (notably the Tartakovsky run). Also I will being mentioning a few minor spoilers mostly to help with certain issues I have had with the sequel trilogy. Personally the Star Wars franchise has always been just fun popcorn flicks for me and that is honestly mostly what I wanted from the sequel trilogy. Would I have been happy if they tried to take the series forward and tried new things even at risk? Sure. It is one of the reasons why the Digimon anime series has that much value to me. Do I hate Disney not really pushing as much as they were certainly capable of? Not really. In all fairness the sequels have given me mixed feelings. Not exactly a love or hate relationship, but something just above okay. You really gotta do something to make me hate it.

So moving on to the final film of the trilogy. It did feel a bit rushed. Like they were trying to cram so much stuff in to get this thing completed. It was not exactly like say, Endgame or Deathly Hollows where you could split the films in half to get more of a complete story. Even still, it is not the worst rushed final I have seen before. The basic idea is that the First Order has been granted a super powerful fleet by the Emperor that could decimate the resistance and they only have a limited time before they are sent out. Thus the mission is to locate the fleet and strike them before they have a chance to launch. Meanwhile the Emperor is sending Kylo to hunt down Rey and since the two are still Force-linked it becomes a game of cat and mouse between the two. And thank you for actually giving us some more lightsaber fights, sequel trilogy! Seriously, there has been a real lack of it in the first two films. That being said I do kinda feel like the battles between Ray and Kylo were a tad drawn out, but at least we almost saw Rey nearly get her ass kicked to the curb for once.

Okay, I do not necessarily hate Rey. She is not the worst Mary Sue character I have had to tolerate. I think what irks me the most is that she had honest to gods potential of being a really good character on par with Luke. A scavenger who desires above all anything else a sense of belonging, of purpose. Someone who is constantly looking to the past for answers for that feeling but always coming up blank, even when the call keeps telling her to look forward. Her finally finding a family and place among the resistance. But because of her lineage of Palpetine, the dark side keeps coming around to tempt her; to offer her greater purpose than these ragtag team she’s come to care about. Every time she thinks she finally has a family the dark side rips it away from her (Han and Luke) until she falls into despair and loss of control and towards the dark side-but her new family being that single thread of light that will guide her and eventually to the new future. Showing that while the past may be a part of you, it does not define you. Except, we never get that. From the onset she automatically capable of flying the Millennium Falcon, force mind control, etc. We never really see her honestly struggle with the dark side. She rushes into dangerous situations and doesn’t suffer consequences for her recklessness or pride. She doesn’t really lose anything. Sure she occasionally feels doubt and fear but it’s glossed over and isn’t emphasized. Oh and the whole “I am all the Jedi” thing did feel a bit forced for me. Girl, Tony Stark you aint. Plus she should have said her family name was Palpatine showing that she has made peace with her past and is now looking to the future. For all the whole “strong female character thing” and all that-what is hilariously ironic is that it’s the other protagonist MALES that are most interesting. Even from Force Awakens I cared more about Finn, Poe, and Kylo than I ever did for Rey. And they actually had honest genuine arcs and were just overall far more compelling characters to me. Also Kylo is best character in the series, fight me.

So what was my thoughts on the final film itself? Honestly it’s a mixed bag. Like I said, the last film does feel a bit rushed and there are certainly notable plot holes-but it’s not the worst I have seen. It does actually feel like an end. One of the biggest issues I had was the pacing. I feel some of it could be trimmed back a bit-not that it did not serve a purpose or anything but sometimes the wait for the payoff feels…dragging. Also, hey we make these super big sacrifices, aka Chewie’s supposed death and C3P-O’s memory wipe, and boom “hey they okay now”. Like why? You put this big dramatic emphasis on how important these things are and you just flick them off as if they were nothing. I get people were mad how Han and Luke died, but come on! If you’re going to commit to this big dramatic cost-stick with it! Have Chewie’s death by Rey’s force lighting question herself and give her a real reason to be terrified and tempted by the Dark Side. Have C3P-0’s memory wipe be a reminder that there are hard costs in the fight for freedom. Also when did Rey get force healing powers? Was that even an actual thing? Okay I don’t have that much of a gripe about that because it at least pays off where Kylo Ren/Ben is concerned. That is the most hilarious thing about the trilogy, all the pieces were there to really make something and for whatever reason they don’t go full forward with it. I get it, there is this constant push and pull with fandoms and I rarely ever want anything to do with them because I know how toxic they can get (looking at YOU Ninjago fandom). But much like the Force, there has to be a balance. I think some minor fan input would have helped here and yes I know fandom reactions and the way Disney has been handling things has not been looking for either side and social media has not helped things.

That is not to say that the film doesn’t have its awesome moments as well in particular the final half of the movie-where Finn and Poe are planning the final assault on the Sith Fleet. Like Poe does from this hotshot flier who does reckless maneuvers to actually thinking and using strategy. Or Finn who once only wanted to run away from the First Order is now using his knowledge of them to work out a viable plan of attack like using the horse things instead of speeders because he knows they can disable them. Or the huge appearance of various ships all around the galaxy coming in to the fight. The Kylo vs Rey fights are pretty interesting as well-using the idea they are fighting each other but are physically in two places and the cinematography takes advantage of that-switching between the two environments and their strikes affecting the surroundings. Also the conclusion of Kylo’s arc was pretty satisfying and his death, in a way, felt a bit more impactful than Vader’s because we do actually see him struggle between the two sides thought the trilogy as opposed to Vader that in retrospect kinda felt more like a last minute heel turn to me. Plus the symbolism between the Skywalker and Palpetine aka Light Side and Dark Sides were a real nice touch such as Luke’s X Wing and Vader’s tie fighter landing together (Kylo’s star fighter’s design still kicks ass though). Oh and Palpetine really chews the scenery out and it is glorious. That being said, despite my hang ups I still enjoyed myself and thank gods it was not Digimon Tri. I’m Noctina Noir, and I’m one Nox of a Nobody.

#star wars #star wars rise of skywalker #noctina noir #n'pressions

[maneaterwithtail]

Why I likely will not love, just like Pearl and her series

I tend to like the characters people hate. Asoka made perfect sense for me from the beginning. I even like jar jar and love midi-chlorians. Overall when I dislike someone it's usually when righteousness is afforded to them as opposed to them just being annoying especially if theire annoying this is treated as if it's annoying. As an example I don't actually hate Korra from Legend of Korra I'm just frustrated with its writing and her fan base. 

Though I suppose if there is a main character that I dislike in Steven Universe it's Pearl. In no small part there's her fans because chances are there were 'pressed or budding queerfolk who view any attack on her as an attack on the entire concept of their identity. The fact that she's painstakingly tied into said Rebel lesbian identity while often referencing revolutionary girl utena which in my opinion did a much better job handling that as an identity / phenomena

But I don't have any real rational reasons. There's this one moment in this one episode that permanently pissed me off about ttheshow, months later it was still pissing me off. Okay this wasn't the first time this had happened with the sshow. at one point you would receive extra canonical material or the characters be characterized one way and then when it was necessary for the plot characterized another way. A popular one is when Pearl said she can't stand eating so that that way she doesn't become present at a parent get together which causes some really annoying hijinks. But that's just one episode. no, what really collapsed my suspension of disbelief for her as a character and required me to desperately not think she was a real character but just a series of events that did whatever the episode wanted her to?

"What is a sch-ool?"

To be clear this is an alien being who comes from another planet where they have temples. They understand the purpose of Arenas in which to fight for displaying to martial prowess. And she has a 14 year old human son. She's been on Earth for thousands of years. Also she doesn't just know how to operate a motor vehicle and repair one she talks explicitly about traffic laws these cannot be any older than 200 plus years. Despite all of this she does not know what a school is a human practice that has been practiced for thousands of years

That moment, right there, completely destroyed all credibility as a character. She'll have emotional moments that she evokes very well. Because they give her some pretty solid writing and her actress does a damn fine job. But that does not matter because they've basically told me in certain terms that she is made of stupid writing trying to be witty. Whenever they want to make her alien they will make her inexplicably alien and Incredibly dumb to make a plot go forward. Whenever they want to make her too traumatized they will make her too traumatized to justify some bullshit. It's everything I Hate About Mary Sue writing ( even though she is most certainly not a Mary Sue.) Arbitrary in order to evoke audience sympathy rather than earn it and ignore consistency with either setting or character. I don't even hate her that much it's just when they say care about her that I can't do it. I'm always at an enormous divide whenever they try to center on the character.

again this would be okay if she weren't front-and-center on several plots. And hating her basically didn't come with an immediate Repulsor field of saying anything bad or evil or mean about her basically brings out every lesbian, girl who's not like other girls, animation aspirant, or Shoujo Manga fan who's had to deal with any harassment at any point in their lives and assumes that you're part of another chain of evil man figures. Cuz seriously Pearl is really really bothersome. And it gets more so when it feels like her bother some parts get put aside to make her more sympathetic or to make sympathetic allusions. 

The big one for me was when they implied she was going to date a human woman. Despite the fact almost every other word out of her mouth about humans is utter contempt and disgust along with the aapprehensive fact she knows so little about their culture she can't pick up on 2000 year plus old practices. This would imply a level of bigotry that I honestly appreciate the entire fandom accepting in dis course

But much like a popular web novel series apparently her victimhood due to status and how she's crafted in terms of appealing identity matters more than the actual actions and character she displays. This is made even worse due to recent Revelations where I'm supposed to care even more

What's weird about it is that Pearl is in my opinion an incredibly well-written bigoted character. But she's not appreciated as such she's appreciated as basically a Justified bitch. And if any male character dares to show a similar level of fault unless yyou are stanning or shipping them they will be hated the fuck out oof or just dismissed. As far as I'm concerned Uncle Andy is Pearl with Aviation as opposed to space flight and spear use. He's effectively the straight older guy version of pearl. But no one will see that because all they can see is 

oh she's autistic just like me 

she's post-traumatic stress disorder just like me 

oh she's a lesbian or atypical about feminism in some sort of way just like me. 

And this got very explicit with one Tumblr poster who out and out said this then privately contacted me when I reblogged that moment to have me delete it and then close down her entire blog. This gets particularly bad due to the greater critical Steven Universe sentiment. Which honestly I want to enjoy but I can't help but feel that they're more pissed off that the lesbian Revolution was not what was being televised and not frustration with various storytelling beats because almost all the common storytelling criticism get apologized for by every fan and blamed on Cartoon Network

This is not helps with the plausible deniability especially combined with stuff that's happened above.

There is a fractal wrongness with the "what is a school" line coming from Pearl. To be fair it actually comes from Steven but she's basically repeats it a scene later and reveals her ignorance. Ignoring the fact that it's unrealistic for her to be ignorant or to not have looked it up in a fucking dictionary. There's the fact that that's "what is this thing you humans called love and or kissing?" level writing.

. Pearl is very deliberately kind of the anti girl written for guys sort of character. She's very much a girl written for girls sort of character. And I don't mean aimed at a female audience. I mean she's like the anti Starfire. this extends to hur character design which is all sharp edges along with the very deliberate I'm a lesbian fuck off codifiers that I keep mentioning. And the way they often and continuously show her as complicated is to do stupid shit like this. Make her have a breakdown and or make her ignorant about a human subject but only in a convenient way for a narrative. And when the consequences come they will be softened considerably because we need to be recognizing that she is a mentally ill lesbian who was oppressed and abused.

#rant #anti-character #pearl