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i-heart-hxh · 4 months

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Hi! I have a question, between the two versions of the anime, which one do you think was more faithful to the manga when it comes to the personalities of Gon and Killua? I've recently finished watching the 99 anime and I really enjoyed it, but idk if this is an unpopular opinion, but sometimes i felt like some of the characters were a little bit ooc, people usually talk about how the Killua of the 99 anime is so different to the Killua from 2011, but I also felt that Gon was really different in both animes, in the 99 version sometimes he was kinda shy or doubtful, like he was too passive, where as in the 2011 anime he seems overall more confident except for the times where he doubts about his self-worth, like after Hisoka didn't take the tag back during the hunter exam, in the 2011 version it also feels like when they are doing something even if the plan wasn't his, like going to Heaven's Arena, Gon is the one taking the lead and deciding how he is going to do things, idk if I'm making sense lol, the point is that he is a little bit more assertive while still being a sweet boy in the 2011 version while in the 99 version he is mostly just a sweet boy at least to me, I'm really interested in getting your thoughts about this topic, sorry for the long post 😅.

Thank you for sending this, it's definitely an interesting thing to discuss and something I've thought about quite a bit myself! Going to go on for a bit right back at you, haha.

Gon and Killua's characterization is actually a major reason for why I have mixed feelings about the 1999 anime. It has some wonderful strengths--like the beautiful cel animation, creative visual direction, more realistic character designs, unique (and darker) atmosphere, some great OPs/EDs, and a lovely soundtrack, among other things. But there are a few different aspects that I'm not a big fan of, and the changes to Gon and Killua's characters are at the top of my list.

First off, I want to say that to an extent I understand why Gon and Killua are characterized differently. Not much of the manga was out when 1999 was made, so the staff could only work with (essentially) the first impressions of the characters, and the anime had to expand into filler/anime-only material to prevent it from catching up with the manga and running out of things to adapt, so to a degree the staff had no choice but to get creative. The artistic liberties they took aren't always a bad thing. I even like some of the additions they made. But I do think some of the choices they made to deviate from the source material--and some of them were definitely not necessary--lead to them being much flatter characters in 1999 than in the manga itself.

This whole paragraph requires some oversimplification so bear with me, but I feel like in 1999, Gon is characterized as too much of a "good boy," while with Killua they lean too much into his "bad boy" side. Leaning into these stereotypes runs counter to what I love about these two, which is that they're both complex and have mixed lighter/darker attributes that feel somewhat "balanced" between them ultimately, and by the end of CAA they have essentially switched positions with regards to their respective light and darkness. They both have strong light sides and strong dark sides contained within them, which is part of why they get along so well even when they're as different as they are. To make Gon more passive and sweet (as you said, which I agree with) and Killua more edgy and bratty makes the relationship feel much more unequal and, to me, uninteresting.

I love Gon's assertiveness, strong-willed nature, and feral and scary sides, and Killua's softer, more vulnerable, and more childish sides, as well as other sides to them we see in canon, so having those toned down makes me sad.

One small example of a change that has always bothered me in 1999 is that they had Gon introduce himself to Killua when they first meet, and Killua even ignores him initially when he tries to introduce himself. While the scene isn't drastically different, I think it's incredibly important in establishing Killua's character that he introduces himself first and is so eager to get to know Gon. He desperately wants a friend! This is a vital basis for his character and motivations! There are a number of decisions in 1999 like this, where some deviation is made to make the characters more straightforward/fitting an archetype, and it would just be a small thing if not for how carefully constructed and extremely intentional Togashi's writing is, and how delicate the balance is with their characterization in the original series.

I'm personally not a fan of how much bigger and older Killua seems in 1999 compared to Gon as well--at times it feels like there must be an age gap of 3-4 years, which is weird to me with two characters where an important aspect of their relationship is that they're the same age. In the early parts of the manga, there was a bigger height gap between them as well (though it gets less and less with time), but even taking that into consideration, the strongly emphasized size difference is odd to me. (I know some people find it cute and that's fine, this is just my own preference!)

That said, I still do enjoy a lot of their scenes in 1999, even some of the added ones! I just don't think the way their characters are portrayed comes off nearly as layered/fascinating/well-balanced as in the manga and therefore in 2011 (which more-or-less closely follows the manga, with some exceptions). I consider 1999 its own alternate canon and any changes/additions only canon within that universe. (Though some of the additions I like can go under "Headcanon accepted!" status for me, LOL.)

2011 does have some small deviations from the manga too, and I do think there are subtle differences in the characterization vs the manga, but 2011 and the manga are much closer to each other overall and the characters are essentially the same at least, with only small exceptions.

So anyway, I definitely agree with what you said about their respective characterizations, and it's something that bugs me, too. There are a lot of aspects I appreciate about 1999, but I'm actually glad I didn't start with it for multiple reasons, and it's a pretty mixed bag for me overall.

#hunter x hunter #hxh #gon #killua #killugon #gonkillu #asks #my posts #anonymous #hxh 1999 #hxh 2011

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thatscarletflycatcher · 2 months

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Sense and Sensibility (2024, Hallmark) a review

I had expectations for this movie. They were not surpassed. It didn't perform below them either.

Spoilers under the cut.

So, this is a short movie (1.24hr long) a tv movie, a hallmark movie. You must keep that in mind as a frame of reference for what I'm about to say. You cannot really compare this with theatrical movies on equal footing.

Where to start. Costumes and sets. It is Bridgerton's world and we live in it. Everything is VERY colorful and shiny and not very real looking; that was to be expected. I think that sort of semi-fantasy aspect didn't hurt at all, and it was consistent. If you are not going to stick to the time period, at least go ham and show me something really interesting. I'm looking at you, Netflix Persuasion. There are some dresses that are pretty, and some others that... aren't. Considering that apparently the costume designer had to make something like 60 pieces in a month, it's kind of impressive that it came out as it did.

One funny bit, though, in this respect, is that they complain about how small the cottage is like some actual estate houses aren't the same size IRL XD Allenham we only get to see from afar, and it is rather disappointing.

Music: nothing to write home about, to be expected. Yes, we got one of those Vitamin String Quartet modern-song-played-by-strings. IDK. They were a bit dorky in their heyday, I don't know why they are so sought after in these pieces lately. I digress.

The acting. Deborah Ayorinde was a really good Elinor. She definitely deserved better writing and direction. The rest of the cast was good enough; I feel some roles really benefited from their characters being a bit hammy already in the source material (Lucy, Mrs Jennings, Anne, Fanny, Robert), others were really struggling because of being given very poor dialogue (Mrs Dashwood), and others were just... not good (Willoughby and Brandon, sadly). Edward was... a very special case. I can only describe it as the actor having two expressions: one, an attempt at reaching Hugh Grant's adorkableness AND Dan Stevens' ease at the same time, and two [SCREAMING INTERNALLY], but I guess those two were indeed enough to make it work just fine!

Which leads me to the writing. We all knew this adaptation was going to live or die in the writing, and most likely die.

The thing is that most of it is written around repeating 95' and 08's greatest hits, while attempting to compress the narrative into an hour and a half. And that goes as well as you can expect it to. Some scenes are painfully rushed -Brandon's backstory was extremely awkward to get through- some things are over before you have any time to assess their real weight -Marianne's illness, and many others end up being... incongruous.

Let me stop a little on those. The movie keeps Margaret, and gives her the whole play acting as a pirate with Edward from 95', but then removes the only real plot relevant thing she does in the book. So why keep the character at all? (Willoughby asks for Marianne's handkerchief in exchange for Queen Maab, instead of cutting a lock of her hair).

Because 2008 makes Brandon suspicious of Willoughby from the get go, this one makes it so that they know each other and implies that Brandon knows dirt on Willoughby, but then plays the rest of the story straight, which makes it... pretty inconsistent.

Speaking of Brandon, we have reached adaptation #5 that cuts out the fact that he tried to elope with Eliza sr. This time the backstory is that his father promised to let him marry Eliza if he proved himself as a soldier, but when he came back, he found his father has kicked her out of the house. Yeah, that was utter nonsense.

The adaptation makes a clumsy attempt at including the dinner at Mrs Ferrars... but Brandon isn't there to see Marianne defend Elinor.

We needed to have a "Brandon rescues Marianne in the rain" scene, but in this case, she's not faint or anything, he just grabs her because she's sad XD

And the list goes on and on and on. It was to be expected that the shadow of both 95 and 08 would be large over this one, but it truly is to the point that the references and contrivances are almost constant. Which is a pity because I think most of the original choices were interesting.

For example, Marianne twists her ankle running after Margaret, to try and stop her from asking something embarrassing, which is a good choice in terms of showing that Marianne is passionate, but she has more sense than Margaret.

On his deathbed, Mr Dashwood makes Elinor promise that she will take care of her mom and sisters and keep the family together. That added pressure on Elinor works really well in the context of the adaptation, and ads a new layer of interest.

John Dashwood is written mostly as a hapless but not malicious idiot. This is similar to what From Prada to Nada did (though there it made more sense because of the father having two families simultaneously), but I'm not sure where was that going. They did cut the Palmers, so I suppose the choice was so that they could go to Norland instead on their way to Barton (it is never established that Norland is so far away as it is in the book, so I guess one could give it a pass), but in that case, I feel the most cost effective shortcut is... have them go to Barton? Because we do get to see Barton (Marianne goes alone with Brandon to see it close to the end, and they get engaged before Edward returns, don't think much about it, manners and such are... for this movie... loose guidelines. But it isn't super offensive most of the time).

Anne Steele is decent fun as she's supposed to be, but Lucy really suffers the flattening. The mastermind has been flanderized into just a mean girl, and that's a pity.

Oh, Edward is sassy at times! And the sassy jokes land! I have to say it is not my preferred way of doing the character, but he does show some sass at the end of the novel, so, you know, I'll allow it I suppose XD

Edward's return and proposal started pretty good, but it overstayed its welcome. I cannot emphasize enough that, when writing this kind of proposal, you must avoid the word love if you can, and if you must use it, use it once, and with great reluctance.

The movie chooses to dedicate quite a time to the reveal of Edward and Lucy's relationship, and it's honestly... decent? For a scene made out of whole cloth it stands on its own feet reasonably well. But there's no Fanny freakout. This is probably the most shocking plot twist in the adaptation. This very on-the-nose Hallmark adaptation decided to cut the Fanny freakout of all things. Impressive restraint.

One thing, however, that was sadly cut out was Elinor and Marianne's conversation about Willoughby at Barton. It is instead replaced by an unsubtle comparison between Willoughby and Edward, and an exchange between Brandon and Marianne. It is one of the several points where the storytelling relies on previous knowledge of the work.

These are my main, disordered thoughts. I leave you with this choice from the ending, that I cannot form a thought about:

At Elinor and Edward's wedding, on the first pew are in attendance, from center to side: Mrs Dashwood, Margaret, Marianne, colonel Brandon... and Eliza Williams with her baby in her arms.

As a summary, I'd say Elinor and Edward's story was good enough, the relationship between the sisters was sweet, there were some odd choices, some interesting choices, and overall the writing was severely downgraded by attempting so much to stick to the choices of previous famous adaptations.

#Jane Austen #Sense and Sensibility #Sense and Sensibility Hallmark #Sense and Sensibility 2024

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rontra · 5 days

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your failteacher yuri AU is so so good. what's so frustrating about persona is that it has plenty of good ideas and characters that get absolutely wasted or mishandled by the actual narrative… like these two teachers. you write them with so much more respect than the games ever did. keep it up!

so as a general rule i don't tend to respond to this Genre of comment or really even enjoy it--as far as my own personal feelings r concerned, "you do [x] better than [source]" (in whatever ways it's phrased) is Not a compliment--but in this instance i gotta say it. they fucked up so bad and it makes me so madJDBHJJNSDB

so... just this once... i'll salute you... im at least glad people like my work and r enjoying a whiff of my beloved women without atlus sabotage ✊

i've said before that p3 hermit and p5 temperance are my favorite links--p5 temperance especially i think is really tight and has an interesting foundation. the actual narrative glue holding that thing together is strong. like the THING is that i don't have to go out of my way to find interesting and compelling material here (and i certainly don't have to make it up from whole cloth or anything)

i would hate for people to have the impression that i'm spinning this all out of nothing or that i hold the source In Contempt or whatever. obviously my concept/inciting incident is zany (haha) and i've added or tweaked a lot of smaller things to better facilitate this specific AU, but this story wouldn't have nearly the legs it does without the genuinely good material they put in those links, and i wouldn't bother making it at all if i didn't seriously love those characters...

...which i guess is kinda what makes it doubly frustrating... that in both cases they've just kind of stapled on some gross stuff that adds nothing (aside from ick factor of course) and doesn't fit with the rest... when "the rest" is genuinely compelling. not only is it a bad move on its own but also it drags down the otherwise good material around itself which is always annoying, yknow... like if it was Just All Bad i would at least be FREE 😭

anyway it's whatever it's whatever . i want to draw a chapter where they talk about their Deep Baggage sooo bad. and i can be like Look. Normal Hermit. Welcome To My Twisted Mind. Or Whatever

#WE DREAM OF THE “NORMAL HERMIT” LORE CHAPTER WHERE I EXORCISE MY PERSONAL DEMONS #my only solace is p5 temperance has the platonic route as per the New Rules. so at least theres that....would recommend doing that one....#my personal demon on the other hand is that bc p3 hermit doesn't have a “dating resolution” anyway they didnt touch it in reload. GET ME OU #i guess—to look on the positive side—that makes it easy to excise huh. one's an inferior optional route and one's utterly inconsequential #like they just did that for NO reason. unrelated to EVERYTHING else in ANY part of the link. IT MAKES ME SO... [audio fades out]#i gotta keep this project going until Normal Hermit Explained at LEAST... so i can pass away peacefully #sorry . i promise one day i will stop bitching about persona. but nobody bitches about persona more than persona fans i guess HBRBHDJK

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eruscreaminginthedistance · 2 months

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Ugh it's taken me like a week to post this because reformatting PF posts on my phone is a bitch so I'm gonna throw this out here so that i don't put it off any longer; my Dune Part 2 review.

Basically, I feel like I'm living through a Category 5 LOTR event in real time. I was worried going into the second film that I was overhyped and that I should temper my expectations; speculative fiction adaptations 9 times out of 10 are usually dead on arrival and Dune Part 1 already defied the odds for being as good as it was for an almost 1-to-1 recreation.

I feel like after this I could confidently trust Denis Villeneuve with my life. The man's not really making a product. He clearly LOVES sci fi. Respect for the source material oozes out of every scene of Dune, and his little tweaks and changes are done with care and with a sense of critically engaging with the story that shows real thought.

Praying to the gods that once Denis finishes the trilogy he brings out a boxset DVDs with at least three behind the scenes DVDs MINIMUM. I need to see every single aspect of production on this leviathan of a project and then ritualistically watch all three movies back to back as I would with LOTR.

Spoilers under the cut

In terms of what I liked:

I've only read the first two books in full - Children and God Emperor are next on my list to finish this year - so I can't speak as an uber knowledgeable Dune nerd who knows the books back to front, but I'm very confident when I say that Denis's changes to the source material didn't take away from the experience of the story at all.

- Chani's probably the biggest change of all in the sequel and oh my god does it revitalise her character. I was quite shocked scrolling through tags to see book readers complain about how much the movie changed her and her arc. What are they mad about? That they gave Chani something to do other than sucking Paul's dick? In the book, literally everyone is 100% behind Paul uncritically accepting every single thing he does and Chani is just one of a swarm of characters that do that. I say this with much love because I like her book counterpart but I struggle to understand the people who claim to be so invested in book Paul and Chani's dynamic as opposed to the film's when book Chani's whole character is "Wife", until Dune Messiah when she gets the "Nagging Wife" upgrade. Denis's version effectively makes her co-protagonist with Paul and it was so exciting to see that play out on screen. She became the moral litmus test and the last vestige of uncorrupted ideals in the movie; Paul's descent into fascism and betrayal of the Fremen would not have hit nearly as hard if everyone went along with it like in the book.. I really felt for Chani having to watch everyone she knows get swept up in this insane fervour. She's too dedicated to the concept of freedom to fall for the bullshit and that was such a relief ti witness. Film Chani is her own character, not just another limb of Paul's, so her story is going in a slightly different direction and I'm really excited to see that. Would not have been nearly as hyped if her whole arc was just going to be "be pregnant. die" again.

- Jessica being an absolute FREAK. She was probably my favourite character from the book and I was so pissed she wasn't in Dune Messiah. I needed to get inside her head and wiggle around in there while I was reading, and Denis fed me. In the book, I got the impression she was quite a passive participant in the prophecy, so getting to see her go full wicked witch in the film was a massive highlight. Speaking to Alia in the womb, her sinister use of The Voice (such a horrific departure from her only using it for self defence in Part 1), her FASHION. Denis needs to adapt her into Dune Messiah I refuse to watch a version of Messiah without Jessica in it.

- Stilgar came out of nowhere with the steel chair for me. The first book is filled back to back with noble fatherly leader figures so he got very lost in the shuffle and I didn't really pay attention to him that much beyond being one of Paul's many mentors. I read a tiny bit of Children before watching Part 2 and Stilgar seriously considering murdering Paul's children made me do a double take. Then seeing him in this movie blew me away. Guys I think I've slept on Stilgar all this time xD. Not gonna lie though, the film beefs up his character quite a lot from the books. I think it was a good decision to make him comedic relief, because it offsets that "religious fundamentalist" element that could put people off. It makes him much softer and more likeable. He's just a guy with big hopes and big dreams and a big heart who's a bit silly sometimes, and that makes him the ultimate prey for Paul and Jessica. It's absolutely sickening to see them exploit his sincere faith and beliefs and I'm getting upset now just thinking about all the horrific things he'll be lead to do. Denis did a fantastic job of making him a more sympathetic and softer character for people to compare with his post-timeskip Space Hitler's Right Hand Man role.

- Introducing Princess Irulan early hell yeah!! Huge improvement on the book imo; she was very much a dark horse character for this film and Florence Pugh nailed it. I loved her being the narrator much like in the book, and it was interesting to see her contribute to putting the pieces in place for the endgame, rather than just turn up at the end. More of her please, Denis!

- One of my complaints about the first film was that there wasn't enough Harkonnen action, specifically the Harkonnen-Atreides rivalry, which was talked about a bit but not really shown. Denis made all those Harkonnen scenes specifically for me. I adored the balls to the wall aesthetics and the incredibly villainous acting. This film isn't afraid of moustache twirls and villainous laughter and I LOVE that. It felt fresh. Villains who just love doing bad shit and aren't even trying to justify themselves they just LOVE being horrible creatures in their black stone murder palaces.

- What can I say about the look of the film. You've all seen it. If you haven't then go fix that. It's one of the most visually cohesive and stunning films I've seen in a long time. I don't know how a world can feel so real and yet unreal (/pos) at the same time.

- Hans Zimmer showed the fuck UP for this score. I've been listening to it nonstop all weekend. I kinda miss the Atreides bagpipes but the new horns drive me insane so it's a good tradeoff.

Things I'm on the fence about:

- I think it was a good call to remove the whole thing with Paul uh, inheriting Harah from Jamis. It gave more screentime to Chani and I think would have really put viewers off Paul when really you wanna keep people going in blind rooting for him until the third act. BUT I was surprised she wasn't in the film at all? I was convinced that the lady we see Chani talking with was supposed to be an adapted Harah, but I'm seeing everywhere online that that's not supposed to be her and Harah wasn't in the film? Why not? It just felt a bit weird that she's just some nameless Fremen.

- I'm not gonna lie I forgot Thufir existed on my first watch. I think me not missing him overall is a good sign. I didn't rewatch part 1 so I guess I assumed they'd killed him off in the Arrakeen attack, and didn't realise his part had been cut until I saw an article about it later. That was kind of disappointing. While I think the film is perfectly fine without him, I think the inclusion of his plot as kind-of prisoner kind-of strategist for the Harkonnens would have really solidified the Harkonnen-Atreides rivalry. Again because we almost never see an Atreides and Harkonnen onscreen together, so having him there to exemplify it in practice I think could have just polished things up for me personally. But also I want all films to be 5 hours long so what do I know.

- Jessica and Chani didn't interact nearly as much as I wanted them to tbh. I'm hoping that Dune Messiah beefs up their relationship.

- Timothee Chalamet

Things I didn't like:

- Not Paul btw, just Timothee

- Been saying this since the first movie but him and Zendaya were really only cast cos they're hot ticket items right now, not because they have the look and feel of the characters or the world; they just wanted to cast some hot supermodels in the roles

- Zendaya justifies her casting though by being the better actor though; I was sceptical but I came to buy her as Chani and she did a good job resonating with me

- Timothee's just a guy though, wasn't impressed

- Which is a huge problem because the emotional throughline of the movie is their romance and I just. Did not buy it. Timothee could not have paid me to believe that he was in love with Chani. They were like the definition of everybody's beautiful but nobody's horny. Just saying words with their blank hot faces. At least Zendaya put some effort in.

Anyway 10/10. This is going in my top 5 movies of all time and is one of the best book to screen adaptations I have ever seen.

#dune #dune part 2 #crossposting #pillowfort

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separatist-apologist · 1 year

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Adding to the discord of how sjm handles deaths, another factor that make them “dumb” is that sjm always kills someone major at the ending of the book only to bring them back again with magic. Feyre dies TWICE, both in acotar and acosf. Rhysand dies and comes back. Amren dies and comes back. Like girl, why waste time killing them then?

And to me her worldbuilding ends up inconsistent because you have a way to bring people from the death, proven FOUR times already, but you don’t have a safe C sections for winged babies? (This one makes me mad ngl)

I have to just pretend the baby plot does not exist in order to keep going. I have kids, and I sometimes wonder if people truly appreciate the literal nightmare scenario that was presented.

I think for me, it's the constant brutalization of Feyre that feels uncomfortable. There was no reason Feyre had to go through it, and across every book, the consistent theme is Feyre's suffering, often caused by the men in her life who are never truly held accountable for their actions (both in narrative AND by the fandom).

I have long wondered SJM's personal beliefs because I think they do heavily influence the way she writes and the messages she imparts. The High Lords can resurrect people through the power of their combined friendship rings. And Amren tells us in ACOSF that the fae will fuck anything.

And no one has ever had to deal with a winged baby coming out of a narrow pelvis. I just- that plot line makes me feel sick. It turns me into an anti. Feyre didn't deserve it and between you and me, I am literally so fucking tired of the "ancient man who acts like a 17 year old high school drop out knows whats best for his child bride and therefore gets to make all the decisions for her regardless of her own autonomy/reasonable requests/wishes to not see him."

They ALL do it. Rhys is endlessly lying to Feyre (in order to keep secrets from the readers, but it gives the impression he does not respect her). Cassian gets to take Nesta on a nightmare hike because he knows what's best. Azriel gets to go around Elain and veto her decision to help find the trove even after she says she wants to do it/spare Nesta having to do it again.

And the fandom will do absolute backflips on why these men get to act like this. Why it's actually okay, that its mate behavior (kill me actually?), that they aren't invalidating their choices (they absolutely are, across the board) and its so deeply problematic to me. People will talk about the absolute girl power/boss bitch feminism of these books and then refuse to engage critically with the source material and ask "oh shit actually what are these books actually saying?"

These books are mid, full stop. It's absolutely fine to enjoy them, lord knows I do. But I do wish when we were having conversations about like, why Feyre couldn't have a safe pregnancy, it didn't devolve into "stans are fucking stupid" as if these books weren't intentionally written/edited/marketed and then produced. Like choices weren't made narratively, and what those choices are saying. In a society where a good portion of the US was stripped of their right to bodily autonomy, things like a man deciding his wife doesn't need to know the baby living inside her is going to kill her is too close to home for a lot of people.

I can't stay on topic today and I'm sorry. But that pregnancy plotline and the abuse of the women in the books bothers me a lot.

#sjm critical #haters book review technically?#feyre defense squad #actually archeron sister defense squad #its been a while since i tagged that #free these women from the men in the story #send those men to THERAPY

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theuntitledblog · 1 year

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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) - REVIEW

SYNOPSIS

A Bard, a Barbarian, a Sorceror and a Druid must team up and find a way to break into a castle to save the Bard's daughter from a treacherous Rogue and a powerful Wizard.

youtube

It can be a great thing to be completely wrong about something and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is one of those very rare surprises that you just didn't expect at all. The first trailers did nothing to win me over; sure the visual effects looked impressive enough but everything else about it just screamed generic, throwaway fantasy of the likes of say Eragon. While Eragon remains a truly terrible cash-in, Dungeons & Dragons couldn't be far from that if it tried. Contrary to the special effects, huge Lord of the Rings-esque landscapes, magical creatures etc; Dungeons & Dragons greatest asset isn't the spectacle but rather its heart. This is a film that is very earnest and the writers (Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley and Michael Gilio) have put a lot thought and effort into characters who you are more than happy to just hang around with while on this adventure.

It's an eclectic group of characters who all have different personalities and abilities that they bring to the table (much like in the game) but all are grounded by their respective personal and somewhat relatable demons. Justice Smith's Simon is a sorceror with self-esteem, confidence and performance issues, Michelle Rodriguez's Holga struggles with being outcast for marrying someone her family disapproved of while Chris Pine's Edgin grieves the loss of his wife and trying to manage with fatherhood. Yes there's a fantasy adventure for them all to go on and challenges for them to overcome but it is the amount of depth that they are given as characters that is the biggest surprise. A scene where Holga visits her ex-husband (Bradley Cooper) could've been played for just laughs but it's an incredibly tender scene and the subsequent exchange with Pine's Edgin afterwards that is memorable. Each character has a moment like that of sorts with perhaps Sophia Lillis's Doric receiving slightly less from a character perspective but even then she is no simply bystander. The main take away from this is that this is a film whose foundations are firmly rooted on characters that you are actually given a reason to care about and makes you invested.

But of course what also helps the film is that it is just incredibly good fun and you get that sense from the opening and hilarious escape attempt from a barren and icy prison. Effortlessly blending the standard exposition with the type of humour that Chris Pine does so well, you know very early on you're in for a fun ride. The humour is neither mean spirited or seeks to mock but is playful and endearing with respect to the source material and those who play it with a graveyard interrogation scene a particular stand out for me. Pine and Rodriguez enjoy great chemistry in a platonic relationship but perhaps no-one appears to be enjoying themselves more on screen than Hugh Grant's treacherous Rogue; Forge Fitzwilliam. But it's Regé-Jean Page's Paladin Xenk Yendar who gracefully wanders into the film and steals it from everyone in the roughly 20 minutes he's in the film for. I could go and say more but sufficed to say, the greatest compliment I can pay Dungeons & Dragons is that it is the type of film you could watch over and again no matter what mood you're in.

VERDICT

An unexpected triumph but a delightfully entertaining one at that. With a strong cast, likeable characters with plenty of depth and a genuine earnestness, Dungeons & Dragons is a blockbuster you will want to revisit again and again.

5/5

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bettsfic · 2 years

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betts your obiwan posting makes me want to watch it, as a prequel fan. i havent looked at star wars in ages and dont have disney+ is this worth pursuing??????

i was certain, CERTAIN, i would be immune to Obi-Wan Kenobi (dir. Deborah Chow, 2022). for 17 miserable years i've been adamant that should disney exhume hayden christensen's acting career for the sake of new darth vader content, i would not be among its audience.

i've been angry most of my life about the prequels--not just that i loved them while recognizing they didn't live up to their potential and that the success of the franchise was largely because a mediocre dude had the right idea at the right time 45 years ago. but also what i loved about the prequels went totally unseen by many fans and made me feel very alone and like i was just making things up (i've since found a lot of people who love the prequels in the same way i do).

what made me angriest though was the unfair and wildly offbase criticism of hayden's acting. i can agree the dialogue is weak. the direction is weak. but hayden christiensen chews the scenery and spits it out. he's phenomenal. so i just couldn't bear the thought of even more of that in the year of our porg 2022, after the hatred for the prequels had finally died down in the wake of rise of skywalker which i think many of us can agree sunk star wars to a new low. not to mention the disneyfication of the franchise which pushes out new shiny happy content nonstop so that star wars is no longer an eagerly anticipated event, just another show on tv, fighting for attention against all the other content out there.

i can't tell you what exactly changed my mind. it wasn't like i saw any positive reviews or a ton of gifsets or anything. in fact it might have been the total absence of hype that sparked my interest. four of six episodes had aired and my feeds were still mostly ofmd and tgcf. so i gave the first episode a shot.

as expected, i was not wholly impressed. the first episode is a lot of plot setup. a little boring. i didn't end up watching the second episode that night. but for days after i kept thinking--isn't this what i've always wanted from star wars? a well-crafted character study that takes its time? a thoughtful story about the aftermath of revenge of the sith, the more intricate economic and social consequences of the clone war and the rise of the empire? ewan mcgregor being a dilf???

i guess until now i didn't believe i'd ever see live action prequel-related star wars content made by someone with more respect for the source material than shock value or high tech explosions. and that was silly of me--i loved rogue one and solo. i wasn't super into the mandalorian but i watched it and recognized it was trying to do something new. those were all different to me though. i wasn't emotionally attached to the original trilogy and its adjacent stories the way i'm attached to the prequels.

[some spoilers after this but nothing you couldn't piece together from the fact hayden has been on the press tour]

i finally watched the second episode. darth vader was there. i thought, did they really bring hayden back just to be the dude in the suit? and they did. they did bring hayden back just to be the dude in the suit. and the bacta tank. and a heartbreaking mirage in the desert. i was expecting just random high-stakes plot content until the very end of the series when we'd finally get an ominous peek at vader. but no. he's like. a main character. obi-wan's love for him and his regret at the events of RotS is overt. his love for padme is there too. like Deborah Chow really said "padobikin is canon lol." it's emotionally devastating in a way i didn't think any new live action prequel content could be.

[spoilers for episode 5 here but i've also reblogged about a thousand gifsets of what i'm talking about so if you've seen those you've already been spoiled]

then in episode five we get a flashback. pre-AotC. and i don't know why this was the thing that really sealed the deal for me but it just meant a lot to me that they didn't fully de-age hayden back to 19. maybe they couldn't or maybe it was a Choice. they might have done a little polishing but but for the most part you look at him and know you're looking at a 41 year old man. it's a flashback, yeah, but i can't help but think "this is what he would have looked like."

and so there i was imprinting onto darth vader again the way i did when i was 15. but whereas back then i related to his eternal struggle to have agency in a society that only wanted to exploit his gifts while denying him any real personhood, now i relate to the abysmal feeling of regret, the long-term consequences of a million wrong choices. and i guess i'm just impressed that despite the disney backing, the show leans into the real tragedy of the whole thing and doesn't let up. it assumes that the thing we care about most isn't the fate of the galaxy but the fate of one man in it, and we already know how his story ends.

the finale airs tomorrow and i'm not nervous. it follows the canon so closely that you can easily deduce where the story is going, and even though many dudebros would have you believe predictability is bad, personally i find it exciting to see the cause and effect sequence of a story told over many generations totally out of chronological order.

and what's more, i've been watching interviews with ewan and hayden and getting the sense that they enjoyed filming the show, and that it wasn't filmed on green screen but on something called The Volume and that seemed to make a big difference. i think it was moses (reva) who said, "you get on set and you're in star wars."

on a personal note though, what i'm most excited about is that after nearly a year struggling with the motivation to write and a total lack of inspiration, somehow i managed to pound out 12k words in 3 days of a longform RotS fix-it fic i've been wanting to write for 17 years.

tl;dr Kenobi isn't a perfect show and it does fall prey to the overbloated nature of the undying big budget franchise disease, but it's thoughtfully made, entertaining for casual fans, and cathartic for diehard prequels fans.

ps i can't stop thinking about middle-aged wifeguy anakin skywalker and that will be my undoing.

#owk #meta #spoilers

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vote-gaara · 1 year

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I came across your oc x Gaara and was mildly impressed that you didn't immediately ship her with him.

I'm all for self inserting with shipping and oc x canon but one of my biggest pet peeves in fan writing is when a character is immediately all over the oc even though it would never happen in canon u.

People do this especially with Gaara. They write their ocs to be friends with him when they are kids or they have him see something special in the oc or something. I hate is when Gaara develops an immediate crush on them too cause it's just not the way his character is.

I just respect your story more for writing that Gaara hated your oc before they became friends cause it just seems more reasonable to me.

I do notice that's a thing that does happen in fics with OCs, but my general rule is that we're all here to have fun.

Personally, I would never point out to an author that they're writing out of character unless they are genuinely asking for honest criticism on how to improve. Again...we're all here to have fun.

I think most people when writing pairings for Gaara tend to lean on tropes to make it easier to get the ball rolling, so that's where you get variations of "they were friends as kids" or "there was something about her that made him feel things."

No trope is bad when executed well, or even used for the sake of just enjoying writing.

Gaara is an extremely difficult character to write for just on his own without adding romance - something he's really bad at - into the mix. It took me years as a fan fic writer to actually come to terms with the idea that, hey, my characters should actually be irritating, annoying, stupid and unreasonable at times. My OCs - who are extensions of me - should have things they're really, really, really bad at.

I find enjoyment out of exploring flaws through characters and having them grow, while some people self insert themselves into canon material in order to build themselves up, feel better about themselves and to write their ideal world to escape from this one (which can be very unkind). I have written both, read both, and enjoy both.

I support everyone in their fic writing, but I'm gonna be honest here and say that I aggressively support women especially, or those who identify as female, self inserting themselves as rock solid, flawless female characters who have naturally amazing and god bending powers because I feel most media allows male characters to be that way without too much gripe. Yet when a woman is naturally talented, then suddenly it's "unrealistic" because she hasn't "suffered for it", or when she is flawed in the beginning and grows to be powerful, suddenly people can't look passed "but she used to be annoying!" (Looking at you Sakura haters out there.)

I am, by quite a huge margin, a lot more accepting of fan works having unrealistic characters than I am from professional media sources, but because people should be able to explore themselves through their interests and to have fun.

They used to use the term Mary Sue for these types of characters, I don't know if they still do because of how misogynistic it is, but honestly I don't have problems with Mary Sues.

A writer didn't write something for me. They wrote it for themselves, and again, unless they're asking for honest criticism, I'm not gonna say anything. Stopping reading something you don't like is completely free, but someone saying something nasty to a fic writer may cost them their happiness and their hobby.

I think it's fine to discuss these things on a neutral blog like mine, but I ask that you please, please PLEASE not post hate on someone's fic.

And in the spirit of OC positivity....Anyone have an OC? Come into my inbox and tell me why they're amazing.

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navree · 1 month

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is it just me who thinks aemond "loving" alicent was only a facade? now he is smug; looks at his mother not with respect or reverence but as if she is someone lower than him because he murdered someone so he can feel better about himself and fuck the others including alicent who was always there for him. like wtf?

So I haven't actually seen the Team Black trailer so maybe there's more interaction in there, but I haven't seen any interaction between Aemond and Alicent? In the promo materials thus far Aemond's on his own or with Criston, and Alicent's with Aegon, Otto, and the funeral scene with Helaena, as well as on her own near various water sources (Ophelia-core, hell yeah). So unless I'm missing something, we haven't really seen any of how their season 2 dynamic is going to be from promotional material yet.

But as to any expressions he's making, I think we need to remember a few things. One, that Aemond isn't actually very expressive visually. He keeps his face pretty neutral at all times, even with people he's close to like Criston and like Alicent. The only time we really see Aemond as portrayed by Ewan openly show emotion is that scene when he realizes Viserys is dead, when he loses his shit at Luke, and during the chase above Storm's End. So it's entirely possible that, whatever he's feeling, he's not showing it on his face (and Ewan has a mouth that appears to curl naturally, so neutrality doesn't necessarily entirely come off that way just based on how he looks). Two, Aemond also doesn't express what he's feeling, period. Storm's End has always been notable to me, from a character perspective for Aemond, because of the fact that it's the only time we see him as an adult actually show how he's feeling. He doesn't show how he's feeling during his training session, during the throne room, during the dinner (seriously, even when threatening Jace or doing the Strong boys speech, his face stays the same, it's just the fact that he's acting at all that appears impressive), during Aegon's coronation, even during something as high emotion as Aegon begging for freedom (while also tenderly cradling his face, the Aegond agenda is alive and well here people never forget that). So I think unless it's a scene where there's a lot going on (like, immediate aftermath of Blood and Cheese levels), he's gonna just not openly express a whole lot.

Lastly, again I never like to knock on people's interpretations of things, but I think it's important to remember what actually happened last time we saw Aemond and what we've seen so far. He didn't murder anyone. He had intent to maim, yeah, at least during his outburst, and he clearly wanted to fuck with Luke, I'm assuming to try and instill a similar feeling of fear and helplessness he must have felt as he dealt with a gruesome, debilitating, and very painful injury at a younger age than Luke due to something Luke did. But the second shit started going wrong and there was clear intent to cause serious bodily injury that could result in death, he's not on board. Remember, Vhagar and Arrax broke control and started acting on their own volition, Arrax by attacking clearly despite Luke trying to stop it, and Vhagar by retaliating to a threat against her. We verbally hear Aemond try to rein it in, and we hear how clearly not on board and horrified he is when it doesn't work and Vhagar chomps Arrax and Luke (earned, honestly, he was super boring and if you can't even bring yourself to apologize for nearly killing another human being for no reason you deserve what you get). And when we see his face, he's very much not happy, and is clearly aware of just how big a fuck up this is and what the potential repercussions could be. Would Aemond be found guilty of, like, dragoncular manslaughter in court for what happened to Luke? Yeah. But did he murder someone and feel good about it? No.

Not to mention, the only in depth thing we've really seen from Aemond (at least in the Greens trailer) is him saying that he has no problem meeting Daemon in the field, which I think is taking place after Blood and Cheese since Criston's hair is shorter and they're clearly putting Fabien in a wig at least for episode one, based on some stills I saw on Variety. And just as I have no issue with Aegon jovially discussing going to war with Team Black after his mother is brutalized and his sister is tortured and his children are threatened with death and rape and his son is beheaded, I don't have much of an issue with Aemond being gung-ho and happy to go after Daemon after he sent men to terrorize innocent civilian members of his family who had jack shit to do with what happened at Storm's End. I'd be skipping and dancing to the opportunity to fuck him over if he did something like that to my sister and her hypothetical family.

TL;DR, I don't think Aemond is "smug" personally, I think he's got resting bitch face and a tendency towards looking neutral, and we also just haven't seen anything of substance from him yet, along with a) not jiving with what we saw last time we saw him and b) a certain cheeriness to violence being a reasonable response to members of his family being grievously wronged.

#personal #answered #anonymous #you bet your ass i'm committing all sorts of war crimes on anyone who does something like what the blacks did with blood and cheese #that's abominable that's beyond the pale and completely disproportionate and i have no sympathy for anyone involved #in the planning of something like that #but yeah sorry anon i don't really agree with that interpretation

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thevindicativevordan · 3 years

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On Livewire

You know Leslie is probably the most popular and well known female Superman Rogue mainly because they use her so heavily in outside media.

Which makes sense given her debut in Superman: The Animated Series, but it still kind of fascinates me. They didn't bring her into comics continuity until 2006 apparently, with Gail Simone and John Byrne (Byrne of all the creators!) being the ones to finally fold her in. Even after they brought her in, they still have never given her that much attention or focus which is a disappointment for me frankly, because Livewire is honestly fantastic in Scott McCloud and later Mark Millar's Superman Adventures runs, and I would say with complete sincerity that those two are probably her best writers. "Millar writing a female character well?" you scoff at in disbelief. I know, I was shocked too! But she's funny, clever, and a huge pain in the ass for Supes. Reading how she was used there, and rewatching her STAS incarnation recently, really made a big realization for the character hit me like a lightning bolt (couldn't resist):

She's basically an evil superpowered Lois Lane! I know I can't have been the first one to realize that, although I haven't seen anyone else actually outright state it anywhere, but c'mon it's so obvious! She's a reporter of a sorts as well thanks to being a disc jockey, her debut in STAS even has her interviewing Lois and Clark! She's got strong opinions on Superman that conflict with the general opinion about him (Lois being pro-Superman when everyone else is more hostile towards him at first, Livewire being anti-Superman when everyone else has embraced him as their hero). She's rude and abrasive, and doesn't care if her opinions offend people, which sure does remind me of Lois at her meanest.

Livewire to me is an examination of what Lois would be like if she abandoned her morals or never really had them in the first place. Leslie doesn't care about the "truth" which is the big difference between her and Lois. Lois can be headstrong, willful, and outright rude, but it's all in service of her pursuit of higher ideals. Livewire doesn't care about that, she carries about getting people to pay attention to her, and getting the recognition and wealth she believes she's owed.

What I'd Do With Livewire

It wasn't until I had that big realization about Leslie that I figured out what role she should play with regards to Clark: She should be Clark's old college ex who was the one who got him into journalism in the first place.

Clark's college years are unexplored territory narratively, typically we jump from his childhood in Smallville right into his debut in Metropolis. Now I know Clark dated Lori that mermaid back in Pre-Crisis during his college years, and while that's a fun bit of trivia, it doesn't really add anything meaningful in the same way that I think Leslie and Clark dating could. So I'd rather go with Leslie because I think she makes for a better foil for Clark and because the two of them would benefit from having a deeper connection established, plus Leslie could get fleshed out as a character more.

I like the explanation that Clark chose journalism in part because it challenges him in ways his powers can't, but in the comics they've rarely bothered to explain how he chose that field in the first place. I would have meeting Leslie at college be that big moment where he starts to figure himself out. She's assertive and confident, and Clark is attracted to that for similar reasons he's attracted to Lois. Leslie would start out as an optimist and idealist in the same way Clark is, and the two would bond and go into journalism together, with Leslie being the one who really believes in the field initially. They'd both be big believers in the duty of the press to inform and the presses ability to shape public opinion, with Clark attracted to investigative journalism and Leslie attracted more to broadcast and digital journalism. They start to date and for a moment, Clark seriously wonders if this is the one.

The big break between them comes when Clark and Leslie go on a trip around the world during their senior year of college. That trip would be where both of them learn how crappy the world is. Clark always had some idea of how bad things were because of his powers, but the trip is where he really starts to realize that there is a real need for someone of his powers to step up, and that there are hard limits to just how much he can accomplish as a member of the press. That same realization is what shatters Leslie's idealism and optimism. She loses faith in the ability to make a difference, to punch through the wall of public indifference, and as a result she gives up that dream. Instead she decides that if you can't beat them, join them: she switches instead to telling the masses what the powers that be want them to hear in exchange for money, to saying whatever the masses will give her attention and prestige for, embracing tabloid journalism that prioritizes clicks and engagement over information. Ultimately it destroys the relationship between Leslie and Clark with her viewing him as a sap and him viewing her as a sellout.

I think that origin really would help flesh out her worldview and motivation a lot more. She's a former idealist who has been broken by the world in a similar way to Poison Ivy. Leslie thus acts as a foil to Clark and Lois in that she's someone who let the world rob her of her idealism and sold out on the truth in exchange for material success. She's what Clark or Lois could've been if they took Lex's offer to work for him, and they should recognize that to some degree. Clark should have conflicting feelings for her, not romantically that relationship is dead, but in terms of sometimes he wonders if he's just wasting his life trying to fight for truth and justice. So few people seem to care about those principles, why hold on so tight to them? Why not just look out for his own self-interest the way everyone else seems to? It's the refusal to give up even when it looks pointless that makes the two of them different, and makes Clark a hero and Livewire a villain.

How I'd Like Livewire To Operate

There's a lack of imagination in how Livewire is used on the comic side as I see it.

Like most Superman Rogues the typical Superman writer doesn't seem to have a clue what to do with her beyond generic "villain" stuff, but that does a disservice to what Livewire brings to the table. Livewire does want to fry Superman to a crisp, but that's not what her daily goal is to accomplish. More importantly, she wants respect and she wants money, and the way she gets both is not by trying to rob banks, it's by leaning into her background as a media personality combined with her new powers. Unleashing electric bolts is honestly the least impressive part of her powerset in terms of her ability to manipulate anything and everything technology.

The Internet? Livewire can crash the entire thing with ease, or restrict access to portions of it. She can do the reverse and smash through firewalls and encryption like it's made of paper. Imagine Livewire shutting off the power grid or causing it to explode, secretly using your "smart" tech to record your every move, uploading ransomware to every piece of technology in Metropolis, emptying the bank accounts of anyone who annoys her, or bringing Metropolis to it's knees thanks to the "City of Tomorrow" being a test ground for the Internet of Things, so everything is connected and thus easily manipulated. Smart cars crash into each other, elevators randomly drop, trains are unable to stop and simply accelerate onward unceasingly, plans attempting to land find their instruments on the fritz, anything and everything is Livewire's to control. But terrorism, while entertaining and occasionally profitable, isn't Livewire's main focus either.

One of my favorite Superman Adventures stories with her had Livewire manipulating TV broadcast signals so that any time there was a male news reporter on screen, the signal wouldn't come through. Stuff like that, where Livewire is making life hell for people in a way that isn't immediately life-threatening is what I envision as her day to day operations, but her bread and butter is fake news. What Livewire is REALLY good at doing is manipulating the public due to her journalism background plus her powers. She can make fake videos that look totally authentic, fake articles that seem to come from credible sources, fake voice recordings, she can make anyone appear to do or say anything through the Internet, and then she can upload that to the devices of every single person in Metropolis.

You can get stories about the mayor being framed for taking bribes, local activists cast as grifters, and supposed upstanding citizens such as Lois Lane and Clark Kent appearing to take orders from criminals like Intergang on what stories to run. Basically you lean into the journalism aspect for Livewire stories where Clark and Lois have to investigate to see whether what Livewire is putting out there is fake or legit, with peoples lives and reputations at stake (including frequently their own).

And when Superman and Livewire actually do clash physically? I don't care how it gets justified, Livewire simply being that powerful, her lightning being "special", she has the ability to manipulate Superman's bioelectric field, whatever: she can hurt him. When she hits Supes with lightning, it burns. It's painful as all hell. Livewire needs to be a threat and I'd like her to be treated as a powerhouse since I don't see a reason why that shouldn't be the case. Livewire is a really cool Rogue, there's a reason she's managed to keep getting used long after the DCAU ended. I hope the comics creators start utilizing her to her full potential.

#superman #livewire #lois lane #dc comics

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marlinspirkhall · 3 years

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I literally just heard about Red Dwarf yesterday. Is it good?

Uh oh, looks like you asked Marlin about one of their hyper fixations! What happens next is your own responsibility.

It's pretty good; it falls into a weird place of being progressive for its time, but it's also pretty dated because of some of the sexist jokes & Doug Naylor's general inability to write women. He is excellent at accidentally writing gay characters, though, and it's a great comedy. The show has a lot of internal retconning and inside jokes about how much they ignore their own plot continuity. Here's a good Youtube Video by Council Of Geeks on her love for Red Dwarf which explains that further.

My favourite episodes are s1e2: Future Echoes, s2e5: Queeg, S3e3: Polymorph, s4e3: Justice and s4e5: Dimension Jump. My favourite season from the initial run is probably season 5, every episode is excellent, and season 6 has a certain bittersweetness to it because Rimmer leaves forever. (/j He comes back. Chris Barrie was just filming The Brittas Empire).

The show went on hiatus for a while after s8 before returning for "Red Dwarf X: Back To Earth", where they make reference to "season 9" being "the best run of the show", the joke being that it doesn't actually exist.

Trivia

After season 6, Doug Naylor had a huge fight with then-friend and co-creator Rob Grant, who then left the show. As a result the writing style changes a little, with cast member Robert Llewellyn, who plays Kryten, writing his character out of an episode so he could get a break from all the time in the makeup chair. (Another robot appears in the episode who's identical to Kryten, who Llewellyn plays. When he complained about having to spend double the time in the makeup chair, the other cast members told him it was his own fault, as he was the episode's cowriter.)

The cast are all good friends now, though Craig Charles and Chris Barrie, who play Lister and Rimmer respectively, both say they didn't like each other much at first (until about season 5, iirc?), which was part of the reason they were both cast for season 1. The creators were also apparently resistant to casting a scouser for the role of Lister, but he really wanted to play the role and pushed for it.

He also said in an interview that he was insecure during the filming of s1 because he thought Barrie was a better actor than him (which is true, to a point- Barrie was an impressionist on Spitting Image and gets plenty of opportunity to show this off in s1 episode "Better Than Life", and various other episode moments which rely on physical comedy. He also voices Red Dwarf audio books and does eerily accurate vocal impressions of the rest of the cast). The cast hold their own and balance each other well (and the American Pilot for Red Dwarf reveals how much this show depends on its casting and chemistry to make it work), and Danny John Jules, a trained dancer, brings a lot of energy to the character of The Cat.

Craig Charles was initially asked to read over the script to "make sure the character of cat wasn't racist", which is a surprisingly common theme when it comes to BBC script-editing, because it's also how the rapper and actor Doc Brown got his first acting job.

I typed all that from memory on tumblr mobile, so there may be some inaccuracies & I couldn't include as many links as I would like, but my sources are: The collectors editions of the red dwarf s1-8 DVD's, various interviews & all the blooper reels. Most of this material should be available online.

#infodump #sorry i didn't mean for it to get that long it just sort of happened #Red Dwarf

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peachships · 2 years

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All the flowers for Eda >:3

Yeah! I'm gonna skip the playlist ask bc I can't make playlists to save my life kashaksh

rose - how many brain cells would you estimate there are between you and your f/o?

At least 7, but two are fully dedicated to annoying songs that just play on repeat and one is fart jokes

anemone - in ten words or less, describe the dynamic between you and your f/o.

Two cursed dumbasses who are found family but chaotic [lovingly]

dahlia - what song and/or song lyric do you most associate with your f/o?

10,000 Stones by Adrianne, especially the verse "Who knows what you think of me now / Knowing sooner or later / The truth would come out / But I don't want to look back / Don't want to look back to" because she hid the curse as much as she could but also didn't want to look back and just focus on taking care of herself

tulip - go to your f/o's wiki page and quote your favorite part of it.

"E.da is described as the sort of teacher that would not only throw someone into the deep end, but also set the entire body of water on fire."

buttercup - give an incorrect quote of you and your f/o.

Probably this post by @incorrectselfshipquotes, but I'm gonna type it here too since I'm tweaking it *just* a tiny bit (just wanted to link credit!)

------

Me: You really put everything aside and came all this way for me? How did you even get here so fast?

E.da: Several traffic violations.

E.da: Three counts of resisting arrest.

E.da: And roughly thirteen cans of apple blood.

E.da: Also, that's not my staff.

marigold - what is your favorite picture, video, and/or moment of your f/o?

Probably those moments when she saw any image of herself and was impressed, like when the twins made a giant illusion of her and her first reaction was "Dang I look great", or when she saw the photo of her owl beast form and went "That look is fierce", or her reaction to seeing her harpy form. Confidence icon

orchid - is your f/o also your favorite character from their respective media, or is it someone else?

I actually love them all equally! I can't choose a favourite because I adore all of them and every one is so unique

sunflower - do you make fun of or tease your f/o a lot, or can you not bring yourself to be lovingly mean to them?

Oh we're lovingly mean to each other all the time. "How's it going old lady" "Wouldn't you like to know" and other fun stuff like that :3 it's never with mean intent and never about sensitive topics. We do poke fun at each other's cursed beast forms and she calls me "pup" and I call her "bird"

zinnia - how often do you think about your f/o? do they live in your head rent free or do you not think about them for months on end before suddenly hyperfixating on them nonstop for a week?

She's been on my mind more recently for some reason? (Mainly my familials have been and idk why) but she lives rent free with all of my f/os but it's a big house and they all just vibe. Sometimes I do hyperfixate on O.wl H.ouse and rewatch it a lot

lily - what would you say is the color scheme of you and your f/o?

Crimson, gold, silver, and sapphire! Complimentary colours with just enough of a difference

iris - does your self insert for your f/os source material have a detailed and complex story and character arc, or are they just kinda vibing?

Kinda detailed! I'm in the process of working on it right now and I'll post it when I'm done :D I love having detailed character arcs and background stories

peony - how many images, gifs, and videos of your f/o do you have saved to your gallery?

Honestly maybe two memes and a wallpaper? If you find any awesome art of her send it my way!

#peachy asks #peachy fam #blueberry smoothie #familial selfship #okay to reblog!#okay to interact!

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skyhopedango · 3 years

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State of the Season pt 1

So, so many shows! :O I don't remember the last time I watched so many ongoing shows. Alas, quantity doesn't translate into quality, but still, there are some pretty nice shows that I enjoy a lot.

Not these, though.

Dragon, ie wo kau

Yeah, this was crap. I expected something fun and fantasy-spoofy, I got a badly animated, badly produced, badly acted (from the main character) video-game-referencing show that takes one joke that is already not incredibly funny, and runs it into the ground until there's nothing left but dust. Pity.

Mars Red

Oh, this show. The first episode was stilted and vaguely pretentious*, but I thought eh, let's see a bit more of it. So I watched episode two and three, and bam, the usual vampire-hunter-vampires shenanigans with some half-hearted attempts at ~Historical Relevance~ but still pretentious. Perhaps it could've been better with more interesting/charming characters, but they weren't interesting at all... OK, that's not quite true, I liked that young vampire (supposedly the most powerful one?) who was always doing the "hey enemy vampire, you can join us or you can die" speech, that was cute.

*I mean... yes, you've read Salome. Yay. So how is it related to what happens in the episode? Does she kill the one she loved to possess him or something? No. Does she do anything even vaguely related to the story of Salome? No. So... what's the significance of the references? And from episode 2 it was downhill. EP 2 has Romeo and Juliet for "tragic lovers" which is about the most clichéd thing ever and the lovers' story had nothing in common with Romeo and Juliet other than them dying in the end. And in episode 3 the characters are literally standing around reciting Relevant Poetry. I suppose this works for people who are satisfied with understanding a reference and who want to feel smart for knowing some classical literature, but other than that...

I've been putting off watching episode 4 since Monday, and frankly at this rate likely I'll never watch it.

Fumetsu no anata he

3 episodes in, and oh yes, I remember why I didn't keep up with the manga. Look, I'm not saying it's a bad show. As most people I was very impressed with the first episode. Good stuff, emotionally powerful. But what happens after that is just totally not my cup of tea. Nonhuman entity learning to understand humans and gaining sympathy for humanity would be totally up my street - but not really when it happens via a generic adventure story, tryhard epicness tipping into unintentional hilarity every now and then, overwrought music, precocious kids mugging for the camera, and the threat of misery porn looming just over the horizon... and that's not even mentioning the obvious production issues apparent from episode 2 that further undermine the epic tone the show is going for.

I think I'll give it one more episode, although I have a feeling I'm not going to last longer. I'm sure the story will eventually have some profound things to say, but I'm also sure it'll be nothing I haven't heard before in ways that resonated better with me.

86 -Eighty-Six-

aka "Liberal Circlejerk - The Anime". (And while it can't be "white liberal" for obvious reasons, it has the attitude down pat.)

This show. This is what you get from a LN for horny teen boys fantasizing about being badass soldiers and naive girls in sexy uniforms, that also wants to say Serious Important Woke Stuff. You get a show about Super Special Teenagers that is hilariously dumbed down, preachy, self-congratulatory, and also cynical about how it treats its female characters. (And that's not even saying how stupid the setting is... I'm sure there'll be some twist but seriously, it still wants us to just handwave away stuff like "even if the enemy's weapons will expire in 2 years, how come nobody asks 'what if they built new ones' or 'what if they have other stuff up their sleeve'" etc...)

Really, I'd like to say that at least the show has its heart in the right place, but I can't, because for every preachy and dumbed down but decent message it delivers it does shit like ogling the main female character (whose uniform has a garterbelt apparently because the LN writer is into that), having her make cute pouty or blushing faces, pointing out how she's a virgin, having a "boys ogle bathing girls" scene* where the girls of course talk about boys and romance because girls, eh? etc. Hell, in episode 4 it even manages to undermine the single best thing that happened in the show so far by basically tone policing the oppressed character who told the MC to fuck off and not treat them as her morality pets. Clearly even if your friend was just killed in action and this random person who is also your oppressor and is wallowing in privilege, is crying in your ear making it all about her, you shouldn't be rude to her because aw shucks she meant well. And of course all it takes is a "sorry, I'll treat you like humans from now on, I swear" for everyone to start respecting her. Like, wow, she's committed to the bare minimum, where's the champagne?!

*Yes, the girls were dressed, but you just know that at one point in production (or perhaps in the source material) they were were naked. The entire scene is set up as a usual ogling-bathing-girls scene, so I'd bet money that what happened was someone in production vetoed it in the very last moment so they didn't have time to rewrite everything, only to give the girls clothes.

I'm still getting some entertainment value out of 86 (those spider tanks are pretty nice...) but oh boy, the cringe.

#86 #86 eighty six #mars red #fumetsu no anata e #to your eternity #dragon goes house hunting #anime review

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outfitandtrend · 2 years

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[ad_1] When I was starting out as a furniture maker, one of the people I went to for advice and mentoring was a furniture maker called Alan Peters. Alan had a wonderful workshop in Kentisbeare not an hour away from where I now live and work. When I first met Alan I was in London trying to work out how to do this, and he had what I wanted. He had a workshop in the countryside he had two exceptional makers, he had a market for his work and had a reputation as a furniture maker of contemporary furniture of quality and integrity. And all of this I wanted. When I first met Alan I went there on a one-week course that he was running during the summer. He invited about four or five of us into his workshop during the summer months when his staff were on vacation. He prepared materials for us and we made a small cabinet doors and a drawer. Firstly I was stunned at how much we achieved in such a relatively short time. That was later I think explained by the fact that this was a professional workshop not really a teaching workshop. Allan was used to speed and efficiency in his making, he did it himself, and he expected it of others. I remember being a royal pain in the backside during that week. I was the first one in the morning scratching on Alan's workshop door at seven o'clock and the last one out at locking up time. I saw the tiredness in his eyes but I still kept on pumping. I had someone in front of me who knew everything I didn't and I wanted to get at every syllable of that knowledge. I could say that Alan was patient and kind which he was especially with someone he felt was worth the effort. But to be honest he could be abrasive and short tempered. He had little time for incompetence and more than once told me "to stop faffing about, cut it once then leave it". But his speed and competence with hand tools left a major impression upon me. This man knew how to make things and make them fast. He didn't need machines to cut a straight line, as I did, and he could work in the silence of the bench shop without screaming machines and dust laden air to ruin his day. He hated the scream of a router in the bench shop, it visibly upset him. Alan Peters taught me during that week and subsequent times that I worked with him most of the really important things I now know about woodworking. But the one thing I didn't really listen to was his advice on timber. Alan Peters had stacks and stacks of different species of hardwood. He poured money and time and energy into that resource because, like me, he didn't know whether he would be making a cathedral door or a jewelery box next. I saw this investment of time and money and thought I won't do that. I will be smart and buy in kiln dried material as and when I need it. When I know I needed 12 foot ash boards for the cathedral door I will go and buy them. Big mistake Alan. Because of his resource of stacks of air dried material, you always had hand Oak that cuts like hard cheese and Ash that would plane to finish from the blade. My mistake has been to condemn my makers to work with material that has been killed in the drying process. Kiln dried stuff you have to fight with, you get there in the end but it's a fight. It doesn't give you the results like air dried stuff will if you just approach it properly with a sharp edge knowledge and a respectful manner. [ad_2] Source by David Savage

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