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dragonsballsz · 3 years

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cannot stop thinking about whis having undetermined (not malicious) motives for wanting goku and vegeta to work together. if dbs 2 happens i would love them to have whis revisit this in the story. "thought it was about time to have you two train together" like. What Is He Planning

the only thing i can think of is that he wanted to get rid of beerus. having the last two saiyans kill the guy who ordered their extinction is pretty karmically satisfying, and it doesn’t hurt that they’re both op as hell (so it beerus tho).

it kind of looked like that was a potential twist later on, but i think the creators got too attached to beerus (which is just. why? why tho?). or it’s just bad writing.

not that dragon ball has ever been known for its in-depth examinations of the psyche (which isn’t a problem; the point is friendship and punching things), but super is a lot more cavalier about certain things (read: genocide) than any of its predecessors.

it’s possible that there was an idea to have goku become the new god of destruction, but (hopefully) that idea would’ve been shattered pretty quickly, since it’s not the first time goku has been offered godhood, and the last offer was a lot better. it’s also possible that they planned to have vegeta do that but then realized that that would kinda fuck over his whole character arc of becoming marginally less homicidal.

the issue i have with whis is that while he’s got a fun and genuinely likeable personality, his function in the story is a lot closer to a plot device than an actual character. this isn’t inherently a bad thing, but it doesn’t work quite as well in this case bc the beginning of super really did appear to be setting him up as a full-fledged active character - a dragon with an agenda, if you will, to beerus’s big bad of the first arc. that also wouldn’t be a problem, except that beeurs no longer appears to be acting as an antagonist.

i’ve gone into why i don’t like beerus (as an antagonist or as a character in general) on my personal blog a few times, but the issues with beerus also directly impact whis, and whis’ lack of any real importance outside of his job (i.e., his connection with beerus and the rest of the dragon ball pantheon) means that he’s pretty badly hurt by said issues.

dbs also has the issue of setting up some genuinely new and interesting ideas, but being afraid to deviate from the show’s status quo to properly execute them. this is becoming more and more common in anime, from what i’ve seen, and it ends up sacrificing character development, usually for comedic value. and not good comedic value either, just running gags that enough of the fans find amusing for the writers to just stick with that instead of having the characters grow and potentially lose the ability to keep the gag around.

think about fullmetal alchemist (the manga). one of the most famous running gags is ed’s height, but as the story progresses and gets more serious, those jokes begin to peter off and eventually stop more or less completely. this is in part bc ed himself has physically grown, but it’s also illustrative of how the story has progressed and the characters have progressed with it. it was a fun gag while it lasted, but it wasn’t permanent. it’s also important to note that ed’s lack of height was in part due to the weight of his prosthetic limbs, so the gag would have to be left behind eventually bc it wasn’t worth sacrificing so much of the story for. dbs and other newer shōnen don’t seem able to put the story before the jokes. and in light-hearted moments that can sometimes be okay, but when it’s consistent throughout the story (or worse, part of the story), it kind of ruins the feeling.

bouncing back to dbs, there are two examples of jokes illustrate this: mr. popo and goku. plenty of people know that the scene where popo warns vegeta not to break the hypertonic lion tamer (sorry) is a reference to tfs’s running gag of popo being absolutely terrifying. this works without knowledge of the abridged series bc it looks like an otherwise nice guy getting fed up with these assholes who keep breaking his shit, and it works with the reference bc pecking order. does it properly mesh with his kind, gentle, and extremely patient nature? no, not really. but it’s a little side joke that doesn’t really hurt anything.

compare that with goku. goku was never characterized as an intellectual genius, but the original incarnation of him in db and later in dbz wasn’t so much stupid as thoughtless, naive, and occasionally just uninformed (which makes perfect sense - he’s an amnesiac alien kid who spent the last few years alone with no one to teach him things). but he had a good heart and generally tried to do the right thing. if the world was in danger, making sure it was safe was his top priority. he was a smart and clever fighter who learned from his errors, and he frequently showed his own form of intelligence outside of battle by thinking ahead in ways that no one else had - such as realizing that the earth would still need protecting after he died for good, and choosing to stay dead after bulma pointed out that many of the recent threats to earth’s safety were there because of him. he doesn’t think the way most people do, but he certainly wasn’t a brainless idiot who didn’t care about anyone but himself. not perfect, but still.

in dbza, he becomes said brainless idiot bc it’s a parody series and that’s what’s funny (sort of like tenshinhan and chiaotzu randomly being jewish, or turles trying to steal christmas). but that characterization got popular, and super’s goku frequently leaned a lot more towards the abridged incarnation rather than the original goku. again, that would be fine if it was a one-off joke, but it often feels like the audience is getting bounced back and forth between canon!goku and abridged!goku all the time, which is.... frustrating. to say the least.

beerus and whis suffer from something similar, only instead of being related to comedy, it’s related to their roles in the story and how they affect the plot.

tldr: writing is hard, status quo is NOT the end all be all, and i apparently have a lot of unresolved feelings about this that i should probably bring up with my therapist bc wow

#long post #dragon ball #dragon ball z #dragon ball super #crystalklk #son goku #kakarot #beerus #whis #bills #fma #me @ me: calm down u dramatic gay bastard

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dreamsfromain · 5 years

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1 January, 2019

How interesting that on the first day of the new year I have a dream where I speak with Death. It was rather fun, actually. I'll give some context. Hopefully it doesn't get flagged :^D (you'll see in a bit). Sorry again for the long post but I just have so much to talk about!

So, there's this interesting portal, where you punch in coordinates and get transported to alternate realities. Sort of like Rick Sanchez's portal gun, but it's not portable - it's always in the same place, in this hidden little room in a house that looks like the beach house I lived in between 7-11 years-old. I knew it could transport me to places I'd visited before in dreams, but most of them were dangerous and I wasn't interested in revisiting.

The portal was also stationed at a place I was studying. Even though it was a university course the classroom looked like one of my high school's. I was studying a computer science course, just an elective I had mild interest in. I remember there would be times I'd leave one reality in particular to come out and resume class, feeling giggly like a small child with a secret.

This one particular reality. It was like a huge treasure trove. A tiny little pocket, full of the riches this famous old thief stole and carved out a little safe haven for himself using some kind of old cosmic power he barely understood. You could feel it was slightly unstable, but it had held for hundreds of years, bordering on thousands.

It was also home to porn. Like... a lot of porn. Gee wiz.

I wasn't the only one who knew about this place. There were a bunch of people who'd found it either by accident or word of mouth on the dark web. They usually would come here for the massive porn stash :^) But you did have the occasional would-be treasure hunter. Every now and then I'd see if it had a ridiculously specific kind of porn out of morbid curiosity.

Anyway. To finally get to my original point.

I can't remember how. But one time, as I was going through the motions, I met Death.

I think he he may have knew someone who knew me. It was likely Simon. He and my larger friend group did make small appearances in this dream. I spoke with him/them? like I'd maybe had small chats with him before. We were going to the treasure trove portal. I just wanted to see if I could find something, some kind of rare collectible I'd talked about with my classmates from the computer science course. I think Death was there for something slightly different, but for whatever reason I stuck by them.

They felt strangely comforting. Not like a dementor or anything, how Death is sometimes portrayed. They did wear a black robe, but they felt like an old friend, like I was safe with them. This treasure trove was in a dark pocket. If you got lost or stuck or attacked, you were here forever.

Who'd attack me while Death was there?

I was a bit drunk at the time, I admit. I had a piece of paper with me with directions I'd written down, and was just rambling. I felt like Death was used to this, and was staying with me out of politeness. Eventually I found what I was looking for and returned to class.

A day or two went past and I received a letter, or saw it on a blog, I can't remember if it was one or the other or if it was a weird dream mixture of the two. Death had written me something. They had drawn me several pictures, of them talking and myself. They were really well done. They were a sequence actually, of the conversation we'd had earlier. Around them were words. He was talking about how nice it was to have someone talking with him as if it was any old conversation, rather than a constant feeling of them trying to one-up him or interrogate him or impress him. He wrote about how I'd giggle when I thought of something funny to say, or go "ooooooooh" when I found something interesting.

The sequence ended with him giving me a hug, in a form he could sense I would have found the most comfortable, which was what he wanted to do at the time, but didn't, and he regretted it. The form still wore black, but no longer a robe. Just a jumper. He had a shock of black hair, and a gaunt face, but he looked familiar.

I felt rather shocked, but in a good way. I had no idea Death felt this fondly of me.

Later, I got into some trouble with someone who I had known for a little bit but he found something in the trove that drove him mad with power, and there are several vivid scenes where I remember trying to stop him... cowering in a corner as I waited for him to emerge, and only realising then that his "powerful army" was like 3 clones of himself with guns he could barely operate and giant chicken legs. :^) And then Death came in, found what was going on and made short work of it.

Death and I were walking down a street, resembling a block I used to pass on my way back and forth from school. A steep hill, no path, long grass. I said to Death I was visiting my friend Simon's house before heading off to home, as I was feeling thirsty and just wanted to stop for a rest and a drink. Death said, "I miss those days. When you were younger and you'd spend time with me, and then off to go see Simon."

I joked. "Yeah, for a 13-year-old I certainly knew a lot of immortal death-related beings!"

I should specify that I only met Simon when I was 18. He started his experiment when I was 13, but I had no clue he existed until five years later. I also definitely don't visit his house.

Time jump to later, I'm at my house that I mentioned before, and Death is with me. He brought a woman who I assumed was his love. My guardian had disappeared, at the same time as that guy who tried to build an army. I had a nasty feeling they were involved. So, Death was watching over me until I was stable enough to handle things by myself.

I was just struggling with a metric ton of bubbles while washing the dishes and Death was looking amusedly at me, when I woke up.

#dream #dream journal #death #grim reaper #sfw #bc fuck the algorithm >:'D

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dramaqueeenamby · 6 years

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In Da’ Club

A/N: This is loosely inspired by the TV show Sister Sister. The episode where Tia and Tamera....welll, I’m sure you’ll pick up on it! ;)

In which you, T’Challa, Erik, Erik’s girlfriend, Shuri, and someone else all set out for a night at the club.

Words: 2432

Visuals of the ladies as follows:

In Da’ Club

“Absolutely not!”

“Y/N!”

“No, Erik!” Y/N said more forcefully. “That is a terrible idea.”

“That’s what you say about everything that I suggest!” He threw his hands up to show his frustration.

“Well then perhaps you should stop making suggestions altogether.” She shook her head and noticed a group of boys surrounding a smaller boy. “If you wanna do something, you can go help him.”

Erik dragged his eyes over to the scene and rolled them before sauntering over.

“Ya know, I for one am not always Team Erik, but he might be onto something, girl,” Deja commented innocently from her position on Y/N’s side.

“Deja…”

“Come on, Y/N.�� Deja practically whined. “You were the captain of your school’s dance team in high school and led your team to nationals while in college.”

She paused. “I fail to see the relevance.”

Deja sucked her teeth. “You mean to tell me that you and your girls never went out to celebrate?” Silence. “Mmmhmmm.”

“That was different, Deja. I was younger and a co-ed. We were all trying to have a good time.”

“You make it sound like you’re an old woman. You’re 26 girl. What 26-year-old doesn’t wanna hit up the club?”

“I’m not opposed to going to the club.” She sighed. “I’m opposed to taking T’Challa with me.”

“So, we’ll leave him behind at the hotel.” Deja shrugged.

Y/N cut her eyes. “You know damn well he is not about to let me go anywhere without him at least 10 feet away, especially with you and Erik.”

Deja pouted. “What are you trying to say? That we don’t know how to act in public.”

“You don’t, Deja!”

“That is not true!”

“I have one word for you.” Y/N deadpanned. “Paris.”

“Th-those charges were dropped!”

“I rest my case.” She shook her head.

“Okay.” Deja took on a solemn expression. “I suppose we’ll just have to go by ourselves….unattended….without supervision.”

Y/N’s eyes started to widen. The last time Erik and his girlfriend had gone out, her poor fiancé had to intervene to even get them out of the damn country.

She didn’t want that kind of stress on this trip.

“Okay, fine!” She finally relented as Deja squealed loudly and grabbed her to pull her into a side hug. “But I mean it, the second you two start acting out, we are out of there!”

Deja blew out a breath. “You are no fu-what the hell is that boy doing?”

Y/N turned to look at Erik, her eyes maximizing almost immediately. “Erik! Release his ankles now!”

As Y/N ran over to stop the prince from potentially harming a minor, Deja stood there and started to think about what she would wear.

“This is gonna be fun.”

* * * * *

“Don’t leave this room, don’t leave the hotel, don’t leave the state, don’t be having nobody up in this bitch while we gone, especially no goddamn lil’ burning ass niggas-“

“What can I do?” Shuri asked with a voice full of irritation.

“Breathe,” Erik replied with 100% honesty. “But don’t be doing too much of that shit either. American air is full of pollutants and shit.”

T’Challa shook his head as he looked over at his sister. “You are free to order room service, a movie, anything to keep you occupied until we return.”

“I just can’t leave the hotel.” The teenager sassed.

“It is for your protection, sister.”

“Ya’ damn straight.”

Y/N sent the young girl a sympathetic expression. “We’ll be back-“

“I am ready to depart.” M’Baku walked into the room, his traditional attire swapped out for modern clothes.

The four adults froze, none aware that the leader of the Jabari tribe planned on tagging along.

“M’Baku, I did not realize you were coming with us.” Deja laughed nervously.

“Aw hell no, this nigga finna be barking the whole damn night,” Erik muttered as his girlfriend elbowed him in his side.

“Why would I not?” He smiled broadly. “Is the purpose of this trip not to introduce me to American culture?”

“It is,” Y/N replied. “It’s just that the club is…well…it’s a bit much to take in if you’re unfamiliar with the customs.”

“Ha. Even more reason for me to attend,” he affirmed as T’Challa sent his fiancé a way to go look.

“Alright, listen Clifford the Big Jabari Dog, ain’t gon be none of that Que whooping and hollering shit.”

Shuri snickered from her spot on the sofa. “Perhaps being stuck here won’t be so bad after all.”

* * * * *

“But why do the young woman dress so provocatively?”

“Because they all hoes!”

“The gardening tool?”

“Somebody get this nigga away from me.” Erik referred to M’Baku who had been pestering the group with questions the whole night.

“M’Baku, wouldn’t you like to go dance?”

“Sure, when will it commence?”

Y/N clenched her eyes. “It has, M’Baku. That is what they are doing.”

This time, T’Challa’s interest was piqued as he looked over to the crowd. “How? They are simply gyrating with one another.”

“That’s the point!” Y/N snapped before leaning back against the plush seat. “I need a drink.” Y/N moaned as she threw her head backward.

“Of course, my love. Would you like some water, apple cider, or maybe a carbonated beverage?”

Had the music not been so loud, the group would have heard her whimpering.

Erik looked over at Deja who was taking a picture for Snapchat before he snatched the phone out her hands.

“What the fuck?” She hit him on his arm. “Give me back my phone, Erik!”

“You best not be talking to no niggas.” He warned while going through her friend list.

“And if I am?” She sucked her teeth, grabbing her iPhone out his hands.

“Ask one of them to get your ass back to Wakanda.” He shot easily. “We’ll see how far that gets you.”

“Man, whatever Erik.” She blew off his threat and stood up. “Come on, Y/N. Let’s go dance.”

The queen to be froze momentarily. “I don’t know….”

“You should dance, little one.” M’Baku encouraged. “Go join the rest of the hoes in their merriment!”

“Deja, wait up.”

* * * * *

Y/N did not realize how much she had missed her electric nights out at the club from her college years. No, it wasn’t the club itself that gave her a buzz but rather the idea of letting loose and having fun that gave her a high.

She’d only been on the floor for two minutes when the DJ decided to transition into throwbacks, the sound of “Bring it Back” taking her to a time where she used to dominate the dance floor.

She and Deja danced with each other, twerking and all, not caring about the stares and occasional phones she saw that were recording the interaction.

She knew she’d probably be on the blogs the following morning but honestly did not care. She truly was having a good time.

“Sex on the beach, please.”

“Make that two,” Deja added on as they took a break and sat by the bar. “Girl, I knew you still had it in you.”

Y/N cheeks tinted red. “I suppose I did not realize just how…closeted I've become compared to my college days.”

“See what happens when you party with Deja.” She teased. “Ya’ bitch wanna party with Deja.”

“Cartier Bardi in a 'Rari,” Y/N finished the line while running her hands over her sequined dress. “Diamonds all over my body.”

The two laughed and thanked the bartender as he brought them their drinks. They continued to joke around until the glasses were finished, prompting the young women to revisit their significant others in the VIP section.

“Come dance with me,” Y/N pouted while plopping down on top of her fiancé.

T’Challa chuckled, smelling the alcohol on her breath. “Did you enjoy your drink?”

“If I say no, will you dance with me?” She proposed, wrapping her arms around his neck and speaking against his temple.

“This is your element, not mine.”

She started to glare when another thought crossed her mine.

“These hoes ain’t loyal,” M’Baku spoke with uncertainty at first before finishing the statement with confidence.

“You got it!” Erik clapped and nodded his head with glee. “Maybe there’s hope for your M’Baku the giant looking ass yet.”

“You ain’t right.” Deja shook her head and grabbed Erik’s hand. “Let’s go.”

He raised his brow. “Now you wanna dance with a nigga?” A beat. “Naw ma’. Better go call Whitney.”

“She’s dead.”

“Not my problem.”

Deja groaned and pulled on him. “Come on, Erik.”

“What’s in it for me?”

She smirked and leaned down to whisper in his ear. “If you dance with me now, I’ll dance on you tonight when we get back to the room.”

The prince grew smug, slowly standing up as he allowed her to lead the way. “This why I keep your fine ass around.”

Similar to Deja, Y/N also promised her lover a night of intimate trysts, effectively getting him on the floor.

She smiled as T’Challa correctly gained a firm grasp on her hips, pulling her ass against his crotch. She looked over her shoulders to give him a bit of advice. “Just stay with me.”

As if on cue, “Walk It Like I Talk It” by Migos started playing. Erik, of course, knew exactly what do do, guiding Deja as she moved against him, the two sneaking in sloppy, drunk kisses.

T’Challa took a moment longer to catch on, but even his fiancé was shocked when he started reciprocating her actions, adequately matching her sensual movements.

Several songs played that had the whole club hype. Even M’Baku had attracted a dance partner, the monolithic warrior in pure bliss as a gorgeous woman with flawless chocolate skin and a plump ass twerked on him.

However, the crowd went completely ballistics at the sound of one iconic line:

Cash Money Records taking over for the '99 & the 2000

Everybody started piling in on the dance floor, even the ones who were readying to head out turned around when Back That Azz Up filled the room.

Deja and Y/N held nothing back as they danced with Erik and T’Challa, the future queen of Wakanda moaning when her man started to whisper all of the things he planned to do to her when they got back to the hotel.

“Maybe we should go out more often.” She whispered as he started sucking on her neck, her head bobbing to the side. She was about to shut her eyes when something, or rather, someone caught her attention. “Shuri?!”

“Shuri?”

Fuck

T’Challa immediately stopped his assault on her neck, his head snapping around to look for signs of his little sister.

Y/N returned her eyes to where the scientist was and sure enough, there was Shuri, laughing, dancing with….her boyfriend?

What the hell was he doing there?

“You saw Shuri?” T’Challa demanded of her as Y/N struggled with a response.

“I-uh-“

“Shuri?” Erik chimed in as Y/N realized shit was about to get real. “I know lil’ bit don’t have her fast ass up in here.” He growled. “Where she at? Imma kill that girl!”

“Perhaps it was someone who just looks like her?” Deja suggested.

Y/N said nothing because she knew that was not the case, especially since she also saw D’Kar.

“Where did you see her?” T’Challa pressed, his voice alluding that he was not about to accept anything other than the truth.

“She-it was-“

“Y/N!”

“Fuck that,” Erik grunted before making his way through the crowd, not that anyone was trying to stay in his path.

“What the hell is he doing?”

Deja, T’Challa, and Y/N watched in horror as he hopped up on stage and grabbed the mic from the DJ.

“Fuck you looking at me like that for?” He hissed as the disc jockey dropped his judgmental gaze in less than a second. “It’s not like you all that good anyway. Got the nerve to play some goddman Boom Boom Pow after the legendary Juvenile. Man, get your anorexic, Mr. Brown looking ass up off this stage before I Uncle Phil you off.”

The man wasted no time in running off the stage as he Erik beat on the mic.

“Now I’m only gonna say this shit once cause you know who you are,” he started. “And you know damn well you ain’t got no business being up in here with grown folks.” The crowd was clearly mumbling amongst themselves, no one brave enough to try to interrupt the livid man up on the stage. “And I should out your sneaky ass, but I won’t cause a nigga nice like that.” A beat. “But I swear to Bast, you got till the count of three to get the hell up out of here before I turn this bitch inside out.” He held up one finger. “One-“

He didn’t even get a chance to count any further because a surprisingly large group of people started heading for the exit.

“Sthandwa sam-“

Y/N sighed loudly. “I’m on it.” She shut her eyes opening them back up to reveal that they were completely white. Thick, dense, and barely visible fog filled the club as partiers struggled to see, unable to make their speedy retreat.

Of course, there was one person who could still see. In fact, Shuri happened to be one of the first people that he located.

He politely marched over to her as she looked over at him with nothing but nerves.

“Sister.”

Shuri gulped. “Brother, fancy seeing you here.”

“Is that the nigga?” Erik shouted from atop the stage noticing the young man standing beside Shuri was surprisingly managing a brave face.

Y/N groaned and thought of something. “Wait a minute….where’s M’Baku?”

The leader of the Jabari tribe was nowhere in sight, absent from the spot they had last seen him.

“That nigga like eight feet tall, he can take care of himself.” Erik scoffed while hopping off the stage. “You, however, done fucked up.” He spoke while marching toward

“Erik no-“ Shuri tried to stop him from charging at D'Kar by standing in front of him. “It’s not his fault. It was my idea to come here.”

“Well, you are leaving. Now.” T’Challa demanded, the ire radiating off his solid build. “And as far as you,” he turned to D’Kar. “This matter will be resolved.”

“Damn straight it will,” Erik spoke once again. “Soon as I kick your motherfucking ass.”

“Erik, no!”

Perhaps the club wasn’t such a good idea after all.

#black panther imagine #black panther fanfiction #T'Challa x reader #Shuri #M'Baku #Erik Killmonger #Erik Killmonger x reader #oneshot #drabble #Black Panther

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daleisgreat · 7 years

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The Fast and the Furious

Yesterday I caught the latest film in the worldwide hit Fast & Furious franchise, The Fate of the Furious. To get a little a little bit it in the right mindset for it, I went and watched the original 2001 film, The Fast and the Furious (trailer) a couple days prior. I own all of the films, but the second installment which I detest, and as luck would have it all but the last couple were still in my backlog. I may as well cover them all(minus 2Fast) for the blog, and I think I will try and knock out a couple of the earlier movies right away before revisiting the later films down the line. Additionally, since I always kind of embraced these films in a lighthearted ridiculous kind of way, I will be a little looser with my entries for these films and will run down my highlights from each film in a bulleted list kind of way. -Quick plot synopsis for those unfamiliar with the first film: The late Paul Walker portrays undercover cop Brian Connor. There is a street car gang stealing hot ticket Apex DVD players from trucks, so Connor goes undercover and joins Dominic Torreto’s (Vin Diesel) gang that also consists of his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), his tough-as-nails girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) computer hacker whiz Jesse (Chad Lindberg) and lifetime meathead bro Vince (Matt Shulze).

-I vividly recall my sister treating me to this film at the theater for a graduation present since it hit theaters a Friday or two after I graduated way back in 2001! Initial memories of the film were that it seemed like the coolest thing ever with all the crazy special engine closeup/NOS turbo special effects and all the bedazzling of the street cars with neon and underglow. -I also specifically remember thinking coming out of this thinking that Vin Diesel was the coolest dude ever with him having the silent, deadly charisma and perfect chilling delivery of classic lines such as “It doesn’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile, winnings’s winning!” and the quintessential “quarter mile at a time” speech of the film which transpired in my favorite scene in the picture. Those thoughts quickly changed when Diesel skipped out on the sequel in favor of duds like The Pacifier. I also recall Paul Walker’s BS wavy hair and as the ultimate cornball with his epic so-bad-its-good delivery of classic lines such as “I need two cans of NOS…tonight!” He gets much better in later films thankfully. This is also the only film series I can tolerate Michelle Rodriguez in since she goes on to play the same badass stereotype in all the other films she is in and is insufferable as a result. This was the first time I was exposed to her here however and she is the perfect complement to Vin Diesel’s character.

-Johnny Tran (Rick Yune) is the stereotypical Asian gangster for the film. He has history with the Toretto gang and it all comes to a head in the film’s last act after some deadly fallout after a race that transpires at the Race Wars event. He is actually a pretty compelling villain and one of my favorite antagonists from the series. Speaking of races, if you have not seen the earlier Fast films, than I have to be the one to break it to you that the earlier films primarily revolved around the underground street race scene and it was not until Fast Five when the films fully evolved into “best drivers in the world pulling off insanely unbelievable heists.” -The truck heists were only a small backdrop to the street racing in the film, but the final truck heist scene features a lot of great stunt work and practical effects. Watching the extra feature interviews it was cool to see that a lot of the street racing and truck scenes were primarily shot with practical effects and very little CG work. Obviously that would flip with the latter films in the series.

-I got a good feeling the younger crowds are going to scoff at the soundtrack for this film, but for me this film hit during my coming of age years and thus a lot of it resonates with me still today. Reliving it does have a really good blend of (then) modern rap, hip/hop and metal. Fans of Ja Rule, Saliva and Limp Bizkit will not be disappointed! The SWAT montage scene being accompanied by Dope’s “Debonaire” is another favorite scene in the film of mine, which has a great culmination of Tran’s father giving the ever-dreaded “disappointed parent hand-slap of doom!” -I forgot to mention I am reliving these films with a special commentary track. Giant Bomb is my favorite videogame website and they occasionally do movie commentaries. Longtime readers here may recall that is how I re-watched Rocky IV. Experiencing this film again with the Giant Bomb crew was an ideal experience for me, since they re-watched all seven films over the past few months leading up to F8. Host Alex Navarro is the well-versed lore-master of the Fast franchise and provides plenty of wisdom for casual Fast fan Vinny Carravella Fast-newbie Dan Ryckert. Dan bombards Alex with too many questions, but Alex wisely knows what to clue him into as the movie progresses. Also experiencing Dan state why he avoided the movies all these years only to make a complete 180 and end up loving this film about an hour in was very entertaining to listen in on. As always the GB guys are a riot and have plenty of wise cracks along the way that made rewatching this a lot of fun. If you want to give their commentary a listen then head here to download the track. -The BluRay is jacked with a ton of extras. Most of them are carried over from the DVD release but there are a couple new HD extras too. Dom’s Charger is a quick four minute look at Dom’s ride and how they found that model for the film. Quarter Mile at a Time is a 10 minute-eye opener on the origins of drag/street racing and how it lead to NASCAR/F1 and modern street racing. That is all for new extras. There is a little over an hour worth of assorted extra features carried over. Of them I would suggest checking out the deleted scenes, as there are a few good ones that director Rob Cohen justified why they did not make the final cut. Making of Fast and Furious is a thorough breakdown of the cars, races and cast for the film and provides a lot of detail on what I referenced earlier on how the stunts were done. Make sure to check out the six minute short film, Turbo Charged Prelude which has no dialogue and is essentially Connor going rogue from the cops and travelling across the country to Miami to setup for the sequel, 2Fast, 2Furious. Finally, Rob Cohen is on hand for a solo director’s commentary, but as I previously mentioned I opted for the Giant Bomb commentary instead.

-I highly recommend watching the original film whether you have seen it or not. It was awesome experiencing it again and seeing how far the series has evolved over the past 16(!) years. Even if you prefer sticking with the newer films, if you are one to pay attention to all the nitty gritty details you will likely pick up on a few references and characters that stay dormant until the later movies that will give you a new look into their origins with the franchise. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, check out this incredible guide from The Ringer that ranks the Fast films along with several supplemental rankings of vital elements of the films such as “Best rapper cameos” and “Best Dom one-liners.” Very thorough, but is well worth your time to take in. Now if you pardon me, I am going to go off to a corner in my room and jam out to Saliva and Limp Bizkit. Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Creed Dirty Work Faster Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Hercules: Reborn Hitman Ink Interstellar Jobs Man of Steel Marine 3 & 4 Mortal Kombat The Replacements Rocky I-VII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Wild The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Days of Future Past

#random movie #fast and furious #paul walker #vin diesel #michelle rodriguez #rob cohen #ja rule #matt shulze #jordana brewster #chad lindberg

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