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welostutopia · 1 year

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so here’s the thing. rebooting the original 1980s teen wolf film as a series worked because they weren’t trying to be the the 1980s film. the film was a silly comedy, the series was darker (both thematically and aesthetically and seriously the lighting needed serious work but i digress) and the only real connections was a teen called scott turning into a werewolf and his friend stiles, everything else about the show established it as an thing in its own right, unconnected to the film.

this teen wolf the movie as a follow up to the series didn’t work and that’s for a number of reasons.

1. it relies way to heavily on nostalgia, the amount of throw backs and hints to the series would have worked, been endearing even, if we weren’t in the age of streaming when people could go back and rewatch the series whenever the want, and if there had been a longer gap between the series and the film. season 6 ended in 2017, my first year of university, it is now 2023, i graduated in 2020. september 2017-january 2023 isn’t even 6 years, the show is still fresh for so many people, and so many people are still discovering the series that it makes the nostalgia grabs feel cheap

2. the nogitsune is an iconic teen wolf villain, season 3 is many peoples favourite season for a reason, and while a large part of that is because of dylan and his impeccable acting as void stiles, another huge part of that is the nogitsune itself, this film does not do the nogitsune justice in the slightest. it’s another nostalgia grab, the writers basically went ‘remember your favourite season and favourite villain? well we bought the villain back’ and it sucks. flip side of that, the heavy reliability on nostalgia requires fans to remember every single detail of the series to piece things together, i spent part of the film confused until i remembered something from the series and then everything made sense.

3. none of the characters seemed to mature, every single character was making mistakes they made as teenagers, and should have learnt from, while they are now in their 30s, it felt like character development wasn’t even something the writers considered and i was so annoyed

4. fan favourites were missing. sure we’ve known for a while that dylan, arden, daniel and cody weren’t returning, but stiles is the reason that so many people got into teen wolf, isaac was a fan favourite and his exit from the show, and everyone seemingly forgetting about him, was something that the fandom never excepted. kira had the fandom divided on opinions, but that was down to the writers, kira deserved a better ending, and arden deserved better than how she was treated (100% support her decision not to come back). theo again had people divided, but by the end a lot of people had warmed to him, i think having him back would have helped at least a little bit, his snark and overall attitude contrasted perfectly with the righteousness of so many of the characters

5. the writing sucked, i’m sorry but so many of the lines felt like they were written by middle ages writers for a gen z teen show and y’all know exactly what i mean by that. teen show dialogue is so uncomfortable for people in their teens and just out of their teens to hear because it’s so unrepresentative and this had the same feel. the plot also felt simultaneously rushed and also drawn out, which is a talent in its own right, but not a good one.

6. eli. listen, eli as a character is fine but his existence creates a multitude of plot holes. he’s been alive the same amount of time that allison has been dead, who is his mother? who was derek romantically involved with in season 2/3, they discuss eli as a young child, toddler age really, but it was never seen in the show, when exactly did derek find out about his son, when did this happen?

7. stydia. 6 seasons it took for them to develop stydia. 6b was weird enough with lydia being more excited over seeing jackson than her own boyfriend and then the film we find out they broke up over a potential premonition. i get that dylan not coming back probably changed things, but to have a 6 season long slow burn to end like that, it’s disappointing and honestly lazy writing.

8. bringing characters back from the dead, at this point it’s boring. teen wolf had already done that in the series, if you’re a fan of supernatural you saw it happen basically every season. bringing dead characters back to life no longer has the affect it once had on audiences

9. derek’s death. listen, the idea of derek dying isn’t a bad plot device, and at this point not enough main or key characters have died when you think about how high stakes the plot was, however the way it was done annoyed me. having him die the same way his family did, and having is son watch it happen, it was unnecessary trauma porn.

10. off the back of point 9, the allusion to sterek with the jeep analogy. i’m a sterek shipper, always been a fan of that pairing (also a stydia shipper so frankly either way the plot went i would have been happy but no one ends happily here so fuck your jeff) it’s become a thing with long running shows that have a popular queer ship among fans to allude to a one sided love in the finale/film special and then kill the character with the one sided love. this sucks on multiple levels. it’s the worst kind of fan service, if you’re going to give me queer characters then give them to me openly, i don’t want allusions or subtext, it also plays off as writers and producers realising they weren’t inclusive enough and trying to remedy it in the worst possible way.

11. allison. listen, we love allison, she’s great. she didn’t need to be resurrected but we move on. my biggest issue is, she died when she was 17, she was then resurrected 15 years later, surely that suggests that she is still 17 while everyone around her has aged by 15 years, to then bring back scallison made me slightly uncomfortable (might just be me though)

12. harris. not only do they bring someone back from the dead. but it’s a basically forgettable character, he was only around for a few episodes and it’s frustrating that there’s zero explanation as to how he’s alive, nor is there any reason for his knowledge of the nogitsune, let alone his desire to release him despite some flimsy revenge plot

13. hikari. i get that with bringing back the nogitsune they felt that they needed a kitsune and with arden (rightfully) not coming back they needed a new kitsune, but they ruined her character basically immediately. there wasn’t time in a film to introduce or get to know her, she was a plot device necessary only for the fact they were bringing the nogitsune back, and keeping scott alive.

14. continuity? season 6 ended with the pack basically running for their lives as the existence of supernatural creatures became widely known and helping other supernatural creatures find safety. the film didn’t address that, the film made out that the existence of supernatural creatures was once again not widely known. what happened in that time? the continuity issues led to so many plot holes it’ll take multiple rewatches for me to find them all and i am not putting myself through that again.

basically this film was unnecessary, it was a badly executed cash grab banking on nostalgia to bring people back. i’m a firm believer that when it’s time you should let things go, teen wolf should have ended with 6a, 6b was the worst instalment in the series and then less than 6 years later they followed with an even worse film. it honestly felt like fanfiction and not in a good way, but what’s worse is it worked, teen wolf fans (including myself) tuned in, sure mine was from morbid curiosity but i am now still a viewer, sure reviews are bad and fans are annoyed, but they’re getting views and in the entertainment industry that’s all that matters.

anyway, can streaming services and hollywood stop remaking/rebooting/making follow ups and sequels stop. so few are done well, and frankly it’s unnecessary.

#teen wolf #teen wolf the movie #teen wolf the movie spoilers #god this film sucked #when it comes to entertainment nostalgia is the enemy

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aliensabductmepls · 9 months

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RESIDENT EVIL: DEATH ISLAND SPOILERS

my opinion nobody asked for under the cut

First of all, I am disappointed. Maybe it’s because I had really high expectations and I’m the one to blame for this, but the movie turned out to be pretty much underwhelming. Like, yeah, the whole gang is here, The Redfields are finally working together again, we got some character development for Jill, but otherwise there was nothing. I mean, the plot is clear, it’s understandable, the writing was okay, the villain had a okay motivation, but when the credits rolled I didn’t feel like the movie ended properly. It was only and hour something long and I feel like it needed more time. There weren’t any moments that would make me gasp or be surprised. The soundtrack? I don’t remember it being here at all. Cinematography was pretty good, though. I also hated Rebecca’s new hairstyle. My girl deserves so much better. And Claire’s and Jill’s outfits? No, just no, 0/10, low effort. In concept art they gave Jill such cool outfits, but for some reason decided to make her wear the outfit she was wearing in RE 3 Remake? Why??

Anyways-

The plot itself was pretty generic, much like any other RE storyline. The dialogues, on the other hand, were severely LACKING. The one wherein Chris told Jill about Piers and the one when Dylan straight up slandered Chris for loosing his teammates on every OP were good, but otherwise? Mostly boring. Leon’s one-liners were there and that’s all I can say about it. Although, a few sweet interactions between characters here and there were nice.

Idk, I just expected a bit more. There wasn’t even a close up of a bullet in slow motion at the end?? What????

In comparison to Vendetta, Death Island actually sucks. At least I wanted to rewatch it, unlike DI.

Overall, 6/10, could be so much better. Xoxo 💋

#resident evil #death island #spoiler warning #i’m serious #m

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honestmrdual · 2 years

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VLAD YOU WATCHED THE QUARRY PLAYTHROUGHS????

(What did you think??)

I DID! and i am OFFENDED that you didn't told me it has WEREWOLVES!

(i'm joking, we are cool :D thanks to your hornyposting about Nick i have watched LPs at all)

First of all, i gotta say that Russian dub doesn't suck completely, which is surprising, but it doesn't matter, because i watched everything in English anyway

Overall, i liked it! Back in a day me and my friends were obsessed with Until Dawn, so i was glad to found out that they released another similiar game, but with werewolves this time.

(I also have a disease called “i watch any interactive movie and than imagine Gotham as an interactive movie”. Can you imagine? Gotham? Interactive? WITH WEREWOLVES?)

My opinion on werewolves - i like the lore, i got really excited with all the references (THEY REFERENCED WOLFMAN). I think design is super neat and scary, tho i admit that this creature barely resembles the actual wolf. Pretty sure that animating transformation would be too expensive for the devs, but i really missed some good old bone-cracking and skin-stretching (this probably sounds creepy but i don't care, there is so few werewolf transformations in the media and i aggresivily cherish every single one of them)

My opinion on characters - i like all playable characters, except Laura, simply for suddenly appearing in the middle of the plot and making everyone else non-relevant. I know that it’s hard to make nine playable characters to have an equal amount of relevence, but c’mon. Too unbalanced and too overpowered, IMHO.

Ryan is cool, interesting choice for the protagonist, but i wish he wasn’t shoehorned by Laura. I also disappointed that there’s no way for him to survive the night without being infected - and if he’s infected he can’t be transformed anyway! There goes my “all characters are raging werewolves” dream run.

Kaitlyn is cool, but she doesn’t have a lot playable chapters, which surprised me.

Dylan is fun, and i think he has the most variety as a character in a alive/infected/transformed/dead ratio and being relevant to the plot.

Aby is cute. For some reason there’s no option for her transforming, or even being infected for too long, since Kaylee is killed in any playthrough - which is a shame, i thought her reaction to lycanthropy would be the most interesting. I guess it’s compensated by her interaction with infected Nick. I do think it’s ironic that she killed either by her love interest (Nick) or her best friend (Emma).

Nick... oh boy. Am i the only one who thinks he’s done extremely dirty? Nick is barely in the game, and half of his screen time he spends being asshole to Aby, and then later as a least relevant werewolf. He has only two options - alive as a werewolf or killed by Laura. Because of this i am not even sure what his character supposed to be. Such a waste. (I also think that Nick is the most pretty of them all. I also (x2) have to admit at this point that i am definitely attracted to tall Australians....)

Emma is okay. In my opinion she’s the most balanced character in the terms of personality - fairly grounded and knows exactly what she wants. She also has a pretty good variety as a playable character.

Jacob is okay. I just know that he was supposed to be the most unlikable of them all, but i can’t bring myself to dislike him, Jacob appears to be very insecure and self-aware for me - even if he is stupidly foiled all the chances to move from the camp in time. I saw a scene in which, if he’s infected closer to the end, right before transforming he will swallowed by his self-loathing, which i think is chilling enough.

Max is a good boyfriend, i guess. Besides that can’t say anything else. Does he even counts as a playable character, if he has exactly one scene, in which the only real choice is to kill or not kill him? And even that may not appear at all?

I was actually convinced that Hackett’s family are true villains of this game, but every guide says that it’s Elisa. I don’t care, i think the best ending is where they all are dead. I don’t hate Hacketts, but i don’t like them either. They have good intentions, but they are the one who fucked it up in the first place, releasing werewolf curse in the world, and they keep fucking up more and more by trying to fix their own mistakes. Travis is the only one who stands out as an actually interesting character. Bobby is okay because he’s not as malicious as the rest of the family. Chris is way too irresponsible for someone who’s supposed to be running a children’s camp and not letting his werewolf form maul everyone. The rest of the family are there, i guess.

Elisa, for me, is the most interesting character. The way she tries to influence both characters and the player to kill Hacketts is unnerving, and the fact that she is not neutral and has an agenda is really cool. For someone who is a vengeful ghost and, possibly, abused her little werewolf son to perform in her own freakshow... i still feel sorry for Elisa. In the end i guess Silas is the most tragic character, being mistreated by literally everyone.

#''im gonna write a short response'' - said me and than spent 3 hours typing this #thanks for asking :D #b-rainlet #vlad.text

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tessatechaitea · 4 years

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The Invisibles #4

Is this how idiotic social beliefs are purged from assholes?

I don't understand the people who want less politics in comic books. We need more politics in comic books! Except what I don't really understand is using the word "politics" when they're actually angry about discussing social ills. Except I really do understand what they mean when they refer to social issues as politics. Certain people refer to being compassionate and kind and inclusive as "political correctness" because they can't imagine being compassionate or kind or inclusive until the cost of not being those things adversely affects them. So they think people only believe in being that way if it confers some kind of selfish advantage, usually in the political arena. And thus actually being a compassionate human being becomes political to them. Also, can we just stop arguing about how comic books used to be when they've always been about making the world a better place and there have always been comic book fans who found that political because they were terrible people? A terrible person reading a comic book where Batman stops some bank robbers can feel good about the story because they know they'll never rob a bank. But when Batman deals with some social ill, the terrible reader might see themselves reflected back at them in the villain of the story. Suddenly, to them, the story has become political. How dare the comic book company choose the other side which is just a political difference and not a basic human decency issue! And they never think, "Maybe, like Batman, I should also try to do better?" No, instead they send a letter to the publisher demanding that the publisher change the stories they tell so that they don't have to take a long, hard look at themselves. Ideas are political. If you think a story about Batman breaking the bones of The Joker's henchmen because The Joker is robbing banks isn't political, you're kidding yourself. You're just not looking deeply enough into the story and the systemic problems in Gotham that creates a demand for henchmen that are desperate enough to work for a maniac who could murder them at any moment while also having to worry about a man in a bat suit nearly killing them for working for the maniac. How is a billionaire going out at night dressed as a flying rodent to beat up poor and mentally ill people not political? How is any Superman story not political when it's about an immigrant to America embracing his new country and trying to make it a better place for everybody? If you actually think you want comic books to not be political, you're telling on yourself. You're just saying that you're the type of person who doesn't want to read criticism's about our world that might make you feel guilty about your selfish attitude. The Invisibles is an old comic book which came out 26 years ago and it couldn't be more political. But then it's dealing with magic and the irreality of reality, so if you're dumb enough, you can probably pretend it's not political at all.

This issue begins with a Books of Magic trading card.

At the end of the last issue, Tom told Dane they were going to climb to the top of the skyscraper with the magic pyramid on top and leap off. It was going to teach Dane about the finality of life and not really kill him. But when this issue begins, they seem to have put that off for the moment. Instead, they've stolen a sports car, driven it out to some sleepy little UK pasture, and begun a game of catch with a Frisbee. Tom starts rambling on about how his time is up and he's going to die because he's a warrior sorcerer and his time is up and he can see the shape of his life and it's super small and everything sucks but it also doesn't, you know? Dane barely listens to him because he's now full of life again and he just wants to do the things people who feel alive do. I don't know what those things are because I just sit in barely lit rooms reading terrible books from my youth and finding reasons not to begin writing my second module for my role playing game, Places & Predators. I should take a break and call my mother! I'm back! I also ate and watched an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and an episode of Community and lay on the couch with Gravy.

Gravy's head is behind mine and not inside mine because we don't own a teleportation device and, if we did, we wouldn't be so careless with it.

The next day, Tom and Dane head off to jump off of a skyscraper. Tom will presumably be doing it for real because he's tired and he's done his part and he thinks Dylan Thomas is a fucking asshole who can't just let a person die in peace when they're ready to go. I mean, lay off me, Dylan! I'm fucking dying here! This isn't about you and your fear of death (which, ironically, is probably why you drink so much and why you'll be dead at 39). Dane smokes some blue mold which will probably allow him to fly or bounce or something. Sometimes I think about the angst of youth and then I think about how optimistic and embracing Quiet Riot was of the youth and youth culture and it just makes me fucking smile, man. That wasn't supposed to be a non sequitur. That was just a reaction I had to Tom telling some bystanders witnessing Dane's drug induced realizations, "It's drugs. Dope. They're all on it nowadays. With their computer games and violent videos and swear words. We had The Bible and a nice apple when I was his age." Tom is being smarmy and telling the adults what they want to hear. And, especially with reference to their video games, it made me think of Quiet Riot who didn't care what adults wanted to hear. They knew what the kids needed to hear. And it wasn't just "Being a teenager sucks and we get it and the world is garbage!" Their message was often "We see how things are different for you and how you cope differently than we did and we fucking get it man and we approve and you're going to be all right. Your doing good, kids." Most of you probably only know "Metal Health" and "Cum on Feel the Noize" so you're thinking, "What the fuck are you talking about?" But some of you also know "Winners Take All" and "The Wild and the Young" so you fucking know what I'm talking about.

This reminds me of The Last Temptation of Christ.

The problem with books that revolve around Jesus is that I truly can't tell if they're making a statement about secular life or if they're truly reinforcing the opinion that Jesus was the son of God and the only truth you need to know about Jesus is that he was resurrected. Was Jesus preaching about being good on Earth because it was the salvation of your soul and your way into heaven? Or was Jesus literally trying to tell everybody to give unto Caesar what is Caesar's because this shit don't matter, bro. Fuck Earth and Earthly conceits. Should every action taken on Earth be concerned with your spiritual self and your relationship with God and getting into heaven? Because I'm tempted to see The Last Temptation of Christ as a parable for secular life. Are we all Christ in the desert being tempted by the devil away from our true calling? But if all the regular trappings of society are illusions and lures away from whatever it is we should do, what is there really? What would a person do if they didn't have a career? Or a spouse? Or a mortgage? Or a child? Not falling for those temptations isn't enough, right? So what's the next step? Sacrificing your own desires for the common good of the world? But what common good would that be if people aren't supposed to fall for any material temptations?! What are we striving for if we aren't striving for everybody to equally fall for the same societal illusions?! What is the magic asking of us?! To just burn it all down to prove that we weren't fooled by any of it?! How is waking up outside of The Matrix better than living within it?! Show me my fucking cards before you ask me to jump off the top of a skyscraper is what I'm saying! You know what? I think that's what Jesus asked God the night of the Last Supper! Jumping off of a skyscraper to get Dane to pierce the illusion of reality and see what lies beneath is way better than giving him a red or blue pill. The Matrix pussed out, even though it had this scene from The Invisibles as a perfect example of what it was doing. Dane survives the leap and finds himself in a four color comic sci-fi pulp novel cover. The world has changed and he's not sure what to do. So he goes to the address of the Invisible College that Tom gave him. He's finally ready to report for duty. Dane meets the other Invisibles: King Mob, Ragged Robin, Boy, and Lord Fanny (which would have gone right over my head in 1994 and possibly only made it into the comic book because the editors didn't know quite enough British slang). As far as drag names go, Lord Fanny is proper good. Meanwhile, some shadowy guy answers a phone call from Orlando (probably exactly the Orlando you're thinking of because why not? He/she was good enough for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). They discuss raiding an Invisibles safe house they've discovered. But the non-Orlando guy on the phone can't direct it because he's got British politics to do.

Back in 1994, I also wouldn't have understood what this door with the 10 on it was telling me about the person on the phone.

Dane decides to stick with The Invisibles as Jack Frost and they make their getaway before Orlando and the Prime Minister's Myrmidons break into the safe house. All they find is a chalkboard that reads, "Big Brother is watching you. Learn to become invisible," and a pink grenade with the word "smile" printed on it in ransom letter letters. And that's the end of the first story arc. The Invisibles #4 Rating: A. I'm seriously getting angry at my 23 year old self for not continuing to purchase this series. It's hard to remember exactly where I was at that time in my life that caused me to stop reading it. I'm sure I liked it. Maybe I just had trouble remembering it from month to month. Or maybe I just missed Issue #6 at the comic book store (I never had anything put on hold. I'd just show up on Wednesdays (unless it was Thursday back then? I can't even remember that!) and pick up my books (I didn't even ask the store to hold a copy of the Death of Superman for me. The clerk, Jeff, just happened to hold one for me anyway. He probably thought I was super cool or something)) and so just forgot about the series. Maybe I'll pick up the collected edition whenever my local comic book store reopens. Although if I show my face in there, they may try to get me to buy comics that were placed in my pull box after I cancelled my pull box. See, they weren't getting comics from Diamond for over a month and I just decided it was as good a time as any to stop buying new comics. So I cancelled my pull box. But what if, in their mind, I was still on the hook to buy all the comics for the weeks that Diamond didn't ship?! That would be fucked up and, knowing me, I'd instantly cave and say, "Oh yeah! Okay! Sorry! Sorry! I'll purchase all of this shit I don't want anymore just so we don't continue this awkward conversation!"

#The Invisibles #DC Comics #DC #Vertigo #Grant Morrison #Steve Yeowell

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notyourmamasoc · 4 years

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Maximum Ride Was a Book Series That Should Have Been a Trilogy, in this essay I will...

...justify my anger with the later books, along with discuss topics and personal gripes/what I would have done to make it better.

First things first. I will be bringing up my general gripes with the books appear in the first book. Specifically, the way situations were handled. For example, TAE, there is, in all honesty, not much to do with the name. The first half of the book, includes them trying to rescue Angel, but very little focuses on Angel, so much as every one around her. The second half has pretty much jack shit to do with the title.

On extension of that, the of whole second book, Schools Out-Forever, very little had to do with school or Anne Walker’s house. Not only that, but what we have is poorly handled. Max and Fang are the oldest and, thus, parents to the others. Everyone should be both much more hesitant with Anne and far more nervous about school

My third thing is lack of focus on appearances. These are kids who should have multitudes of physical and emotional scars. Show that. Shit, man, they’re not human. Show me kids who are scared of tight spaces, and nervous around dogs, and have all sorts of weird scars on their faces and hands and feathers decorating the tops of their shoulders and their necks. They’re a new thing. Don’t let me forget that.

My next gripe is an extension of that. Please give me something of a defined character description, so as to not surprise me when Iggy’s redhead.

Another complaint is the abilities. In general, leave it at flight, the strength needed for that, and senses (because they were built to be weaponry). It’s less complicated.

Finally, before we get into the point of this, Gazzy’s name. I don’t care who you are, or how bad that kid’s farts smell, “Gasman” is a horrible and dehumanizing name. You suck.

Alright. Now all my preamble bullshit is out of the way, lets get down to business.

TFW. It sucks. It’s unnecessary. When I first read the series the only book I read after was MRF. I was fine. To say anything on it, all of the kids, aside from Max, develop abilities that are never spoken of again. Aside from Total growing wings, almost none of TFW is in anyway talked about again. What was the point, aside from promoting an environmental message (not a bad thing)?

Max. Oh, good Lord, the airshows, Dr. M, gets kidnapped, the Navy, the weirdo creatures in the sea... If I had been introduced to the book series now through this book rather than when I was nine, I would have lost interest. What a load of bullshit. Dr. Brigid Dwyer being evil and presumably dropping off the face of the Earth. Fuck off. By the way, did you notice how silly Nudge is painted for wanting something totally reasonable?

Fang. They start off doing charity. Fine. But there are so many things that are just never explained. Like the little girl being evil, or the people disappearing. Or Angel being prophetic. Also we meet the final villain here. Also I think this is the book where we find out Dr. Chew is a lizard boy. Named Robert. Who never gets brought up again. But, hey, forced love triangle. And splitting up twice, despite having previously agreed not to do that. Twice.

Angel. I’ve read this one the least, but Dylan is uncharacteristically an ass. And I love Kate, Star, Holden, Maya, and Ratchet, but Fang’s Gang is bullshit. Fact. And there’s something to do with Paris, yadda yadda, Angel’s dead but not really. Honestly it’s hard to keep track of who’s died and who hasn’t. And there is some more forced love triangle going on.

Nevermore. Ari’s not dead and no one’s surprised. Maya dies. Fang rejoins the Flock. They get Angel back. Dylan’s dead but not really. And they have an island now. And we end with them sorta drowning. And Angel’s the Voice.

Maximum Ride-Forever. There is no timeframe. Every death involved is either shock value and, aside from two cases, repaired, or to tie up loose ends. We get no context for how Angel can do anything (telepathy, reading the future). They split up again.

The Phoenix plotline gets a paragraph to itself. It’s not hard to imagine Max and Fang having kids together, especially if their relationship is handled right. It’s also not hard to guess that those to have little enough sex ed to get pregnant, after people who are far more experienced also have slippups like that, that result is pregnancy. Give me more fear. She’s fifteen and pregnant and thinks the father of her baby is dead. In an apocalypse, no less. Give me that. There was no emotion attached, beyond brief snippets. I call bullshit. The current way it is written doesn’t read really emotional enough, and you have to handle things right. Also beyond Max and Angel talking briefly, Max expresses no real doubt. I’m around Max’s age and I babysit plenty, I would be fucking terrified if I got pregnant. There needs to be so much more fear and worry.

I’ll write up a post later about my opinions on the way Fax should have been handled to make it not creepy.

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thebestplltheories · 5 years

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One of my favourite episodes of PLL I think ever.

I wondered who wrote it and I just checked... wow, that was amazing Marlene! I really was on the edge of my seat the whole entire time. Whilst I’ve loved the entire first season so far, episode 9 felt the closest to an original PLL episode. I’m going to try pinpoint what it is exactly that I’m loving so much about this episode and the show in general.

Taylor shooting Jeremy genuinely had me shook! And you guys know me, I’m hard to shock. But that really got me. Like mouth wide open.

I think one reason I keep coming back to PLL is because they play with one particular story extremely well: people who started off really innocent and still are innocent are unfairly going through hell. Caitlin’s mum put it best and I loved that scene so much: Caitlin got hit by a car, her boyfriend is dead, she’s friends with a criminal’s daughter and she has a stash of money. Caitlin isn’t a bad person but look at the trouble that’s following her. I think THAT is what sucks me in to PLL. It’s rarely as simple as ‘you did X and you deserve X punishment’. It’s much deeper than that and I appreciate that extra layer. It’s just entertaining watching the lives of innocent characters I love go downhill real quick.

Building on that last point: seeing how innocent people are moulded into twisted people is so entertaining to watch. They all came up with an alibi for Taylor shooting Jeremy so damn quickly! I mean, Ava even began setting up a crime scene by placing a weapon in Jeremy’s hand to make it look like self-defence! They started off innocent and look at how twisted they’re thinking 9 episodes later. I love watching that.

Again building on this point - this episode maintained intensity by someone getting threatened to get kicked out of Beacon Heights. Such innocent people 8 episodes ago and by the end of episode 9nearly everyone is getting booted out. It’s like Claire was going around swatting everyone like flies. This episode established what a bad bitch Claire really is and I’m living for it. One scene in particular really stood out to me, where Dylan was trying to beg to stay and Claire replied that getting kicked out of BHU will be the least of his worries if Dana is right.

Can we take a moment to appreciate the beautiful scenery? That final scene by the lake was beautifully shot and the overall imagery is just a massive upgrade from the Warner Brothers backlot.

There was one scene at the end that I think I’m the only one who appreciated lol it only lasted a split second but it was iconic to me. There was a point where Taylor was about to go, Dylan wanted to stay to hear his music being played and maybe speak with the guy, Caitlin needs to go to Jeremy but she can’t find anyone, etc. It was like an all hands on deck moment. Everyone has their own issues and their own storylines going on but everyone needs to come together to help Caitlin get this confession from Jeremy. I love that element of everyone having their own storylines going on in the background but there’s one overarching story that unites them all and takes priority. All that is going on and then Dana pops in “can I be of assistance Claire?” - that’s the icing on the cake! Everyone is stressing out with their million things to do and the two ‘villains’ are sipping on cocktails. I literally LOL’d when Booker said that.

I could go on and on but I think I’ll leave it there. That episode is definitely one of the better PLL episodes. It was intense from the beginning to the end. There was a big moment for the trio in terms of their friendship. Mona looked HOT (well everyone did but Janel in particular had the better wardrobe in my opinion). There were lighter moments (like Ava and Zach, Alison and Mona trying to pronounce gala, etc) which I loved too as it was a refreshing break from the non stop storylines of getting kicked out of BHU. Anyway. Can’t believe the finale is already here. It’s gonna be intense!

EDIT: oh and before someone starts criticising me saying that the episode was shit and I’m just easily impressed by anything. Ummm. I agree that Jeremy’s motive to kill Nolan was weak. But hang on, isn’t it just universally agreed that Jeremy didn’t do it? Whatever he means by “I did it to protect you”... it’s not killing Nolan. That’s too obvious. This whole time he’s talking about protecting Caitlin and her family... no, I’m not sitting there saying OMG YAY WE KNOW WHO KILLED NOLAN! The whole time my mind is saying OMG WHATS HE TALKING ABOUT WHAT DID HE DO? So no, I’m not easily impressed by everything. I’ve actually already gone one step further and I’m anticipating the next plot twist even now. So if you’re calling the episode shit because Jeremy’s motive is lame... relax, he didn’t do it. There’s a better reveal coming later. Heck, Janel and Sasha said in an interview last week that they don’t even know who killed Nolan. So I doubt it’s coming in the finale but it’s coming at some point. And it’ll be better than the temporary story we’re getting now.

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rayofspades · 6 years

Text

Thoughts on Bates Motel: Season 3 (Mistakes Were Made)

Just a warning, this post is gonna contain a lot of content about sexual abuse.

This season had the best and most prominent A plot so far: the other seasons had very overblown B plots, and this one seemed more focused on the most interesting parts of the show (the relationships of the Bates family and Norman’s worsening mental illness as his mother continues to deny him treatment). There were a lot of stand out performances; the one that impressed me the most was Max Theiriot and his portrayal of Dylan, most notably in the episode after Norma leaves and he has to watch Norman lose his mind.

Some of the best and most creative horror happened in this season: I love the scene where Norman’s cutting up a pigeon and then hallucinates that it’s coming back to life, and the later scene where Dylan is freaking out watching Norman make french toast at 2 am. The death and ambiguity in the finale was top notch and brutal.

Unfortunately, I have to go back to considering this show a “guilty pleasure” because of one very unfortunate element:

The B plot is poorly thought out and should not have been a part of this show.

Spoilers.

This show, from the very first episode, contains content about rape and sexual abuse. One problem I had with the first season was that it immediately introduces a very lazily written antagonist who just...is a rapist and later revealed to be involved with sex trafficking. At least Zack and the man from room 9 had more personality, even if they were still pure evil.

This season has the exact opposite problem. Season 2 introduced Norma’s brother, who raped her multiple times when they were teenagers. His existence in season 2 was fine; he feels remorse that he was driven to such things, and honest to god wants to be a better person and genuinely apologize. His motivation is strengthened when he realizes he has a son.

Season 2 was fine when handling this plot. In my opinion, season 3 is far too sympathetic towards Caleb.

But you might say that that’s the point; life is complicated and this family has been destroyed by the cycle of abuse and mental illness. You could say that it’s thematically relevant to Norman’s struggle with morality, since he does horrible things, but is still sympathetic because he has no control over it due to the severity of his illness. This point even seems to be driven home when Caleb emphasizes that his mother wasn’t just crazy, she was “literally crazy.” I agree that having sympathetic villains is important and interesting, and so are themes about the psychological effects of abuse.

Here’s the issue:

the directors and/or writers had absolutely no idea how to frame this.

Early on it feels uncomfortable; like Norma’s rape is somehow almost excused or not that big of a deal. Bad.

But then it jumps into the other side, where Norma is so distraught in all 3 seasons that her distrust of her brother feels 100% justified. Also, his situation is very different from Norman’s, since Caleb was totally aware of what he was doing. “He’s a twisted monster,” is what the show is saying in some scenes.

“No he’s not, he was wrong and wants to improve,” says the show in other scenes.

This is confusing, and not in a good way where the situation is just morally complicated. It’s confusing because the audience can’t actually gage the severity of the situation and therefore can’t properly reconcile it with Caleb’s current behaviour. It sucks and I hate it.

Tackling the topic of sexual abuse is one thing, but tackling the topic of forgiveness in regards to abuse is a whole different and ugly animal, so if you’re gonna talk about it you better do it right.

This show does not do it right.

Oddly enough, I felt better after Norma and Caleb actually did talk, largely because the audience can finally gage Caleb’s current level of genuine remorse, and in the next episode Norma says the perfect line about how just because they had one operatic meeting doesn’t mean he can come back into her life.

Boom. Perfectly fine resolution. It should have ended there, with the added scene of Caleb showing up just to tell Norma about the night Norman came into his hotel room, since that narratively needed to be addressed.

But it fucking didn’t. It didn’t end there. Because that fucking dinner scene happened.

Now we’re back to not understanding how severe this situation is in the eyes of both Norma and the directors/writers. It’s uncomfortable. Too much sympathy for the devil.

Caleb bails at the end of the season, but I’ve read some spoilers and I know at the very least he’s going to be mentioned again. I want this plot to be over.

Not only was the framing of the whole situation a total clusterfuck of discomfort, but I’m tempted to say that this plot doesn’t belong in this show. The show can be very smart, very dark, and deal with the themes of abuse and mental illness, but it’s still an overdramatic horror show. Like I said earlier, the topic of forgiving abusers is it’s own animal, especially in the case of sexual abuse.

It reminds me of the time Twilight tried to discuss the concept of abortion. Granted, Bates Motel is of a higher quality, but this whole plot just felt out of its depth and like it belonged in a different show. One that’s more grounded.

Which really sucks, because if it weren’t for this, season 3 would probably be my favourite so far.

On to season 4.

#bates motel #tv #thoughts on bm

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pitchlag · 7 years

Photo

Joe noticed my tweet :D

Maybe I should have rewatched the season in one go before writing this, but I'm me so it's better to get it all down when I feel like writing it and it's still fresh in my mind.

General s15 opinions below, finale spoilers included, criticism but perhaps not overly so? I prefer being optimistic when possible. Also this ended up kinda long sooo

Let's get over the negatives first

So as I mentioned in my episode 21 commentary that ending was in my opinion the weakest arc finale. In a waay you could say it still follows the pattern every other arc had, the villain of the season goes down, the future of the BGC is pretty open and some died. Except that in this case it was VIC so the impact was hardly as great as that of the former fallen ones.

A lot of what contributed to the season finale being pretty dang lackluster was the pacing, which is a fairly constant issue trough the season. The finale felt like there was two episodes worth of material that were fitted into one. Many things, that could produce an episode's worth of material were pretty much sidelined (Wash's injury was given like 5 whole minutes to wrap up, there could have been more about Grif's time alone, what Locus had been doing and what was the aftermath on Chorus) and things that could have been scattered throughout to keep the thing established were smushed together in few, far between and way too long scenes (Dylan's boss and husband ended up serving very little to no purpose).

The plot was also fairly unpredictable, both in good and bad ways. The payoff to Dylan reaching the BGC was amazing, Church seemed to be alive but he really wasn't, Loco's machine was theorized to be a time machine, but it wasn't, then it was. On the other hand there was our Unicorn Guy who was hyped in the trailer and ended up being nothing more than a punchier to a one-off gag.

Speaking of, there's the issue of Tucker's story particularly this season. In many ways it went a couple steps forward, several steps back, some in more justifiable ways than others. It's great to see he's more confident in his abilities and for a good reason, he is the most competent fighter aside from Wash and Carolina and it shows. However, things got out of hand with him falling for Temple's flattery and later him charging into a battle that almost got Wash killed. Not to mention the thing with the Tower of Procreation which is very much controversial for a reason.

Negative character development is very much a thing and there are issues that can't be solved in a satisfying manner in one season. It's true that a good amount of Tucker's - and Sarge's - recklessness can be attributed to confirmation about Church's death and simple lack of meaningful things to do, respectively (also Grif's departure). In my opinion, however, much of the negative developments or blunders seemingly happened because the plot called for a catalyst, not because the character would naturally be susceptible to fucking up. That sucks.

See Grif leaving the Reds and Blues vs Tucker falling for Temple's lies. Grif's frustration with his situation has been building up this whole time throughout the seasons and so when things finally blew, it felt like a drastic but ultimately a natural development. Tucker however, had just been fooled by Felix just two main season's ago so it felt really off for him to fall for flattery now.

Same goes for, say, Wash and Carolina just walking into Temple's trap without their usual suspicion.

Same goes for folks just kinda letting Wash walk into the middle of a firefight without supervision.

There's been quite a bit of discussion about the animation usage this season. Personally I don't mind the small animated scenes, although I can definitely see why there are folks against it.

In general, the earlier arcs used the animations differently and rather sparingly (aside from Freelancer flashbacks obviously). S8 and present time-moments of s10 used it for Monty's pretty amazing battle scenes only, and thus basically every one of those moments is pretty dang memorable. From s12 onward however, casual/non-combat motion capture was included in some scenes, so s15 doing it isn't all that new. However, the big difference here seems to be that a lot of the animations were used for jokes more than anything.

The big thing about Blood Gulch Chronicles was that using non-game animation was not an option, so they relied on other, mostly verbal methods to deliver the jokes, leaving most of the action to the viewers imagination (Getting on another's shoulders to reach a window and Kaikana's health inspection for example). Now that these jokes were made visual, they had a bad tendency to go on a bit too long (Sarge going rock, paper, scissors against Locus for example?)

I made a little breakdown about the issues with the Tex vs Carolina fight earlier here* (tl:dr; pacing is extra faulty, moves are too floaty, the character's actual fighting styles are nowhere to be found.) . I also added extra commentary about the usage of blood and timeline stuff/BGC vs BaR here. (I can say I did like the animation usage in episodes 19 and 20 though)

...btw at this point, can we say the Carolina vs Reds/Tex battle was ridiculous not just because of Temple but also Jax being an unreliable narrator? (I know it was stated what we saw was what happened but I'm taking that with a grain of salt. Basis of the events? Yes. Details, like fighting styles and stunts? Fuck no, that can't be how it went.)

*Also includes my thoughts on how canon handles hypothetical Carwash. Btw that's another thing that surprisingly didn't go anywhere yet???? Would have liked some continuation to it actually

Now then the positives

While there are the very obvious and somewhat detrimental pacing and plot thread issues, I think most of that is because this is Nicolosi's first season. That's something time should eventually fix if he continues writing more, which I'd be more than happy to see.

It's a good thing for him that RvB is a very character driven show (although bigger plotlines have been done fantastically earlier which I ranted about here almost a year ago) because he nailed it in the character interactions department.

Aside from constantly writing off Wash and Donut that is. One thing that makes me thirst for more is to see Nicolosi get better with writing these two. Goddammit he did so well with the rest I know he can manage these two with some more practice and I swear I will be there to see that day.

BUT LIKE

THE GRIMMONS INTERACTIONS queerbaiting aside Joe why The way Simmons dealt with Grif's departure, the way Grif reacted to being alone, the "Why are we here?" scene MMMMM That's the Good stuff

But wait, there's a lot more: Carolina's affection towards all her boys, Wash having caught the BGC's silliness, the trust between Wash and Tucker, Tucker defending his friends, TUCKER AND CABOOSE and how they deal with the loss of Church, SIMMONS AND CABOOSE WHAT, GRIF AND TUCKER, LOCUS AND GRIF

JUST. YES. YES TO ALL.

Also hugs.

Personal high points for this season include episodes 1,5, 6, 10, 15, 16,17, 19 and 20, 5 and 20 in particular. Very strong and fascinating start, I loved Dylan and actually wanted to see more from her, and again, when pre-established characters interact on screen it was pure beauty.

Aside from a little low in the middle and a pretty flat finale, the whole season kept me engrossed with ease. I couldn't wait to see what would happen, even though a good amount of plot threads were dropped.

I have no idea what's next, if anything, but I would very much be willing to see more. I'm, cautiously optimistic about possible improvement in writing plotlines and there's still some stuff to expand on.

How did the crew's reunion with Wash go? Where did Locus go? What did he do after Chorus? What's going to happen on Chorus now? Did Kaikana rejoin the BGC roster? What did Grif do when he was alone? What the fuck was that thing with Donut and the time machine? Has there been any talk about a future season? Main story or another anthology? I wanna knoooooooowwww

.... Boy if you had told me of three years ago that I'd be invested enough to write basically essay length things about a Halo related thing I would have considered you insane. If you actually read this whole thing then congrats, come blabber about this series with meeeee

#red vs blue #rvb #rvb15 #rvb15 spoilers #rvb critical #Looking forward to s16?#Is that a thing?#It's a thing right???

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maarlathvhenan · 7 years

Note

5, 8, 12, 15, 20, 21, 23, 29, 30

Thanks! ♥

(sorry it took me so long to do these I am a horrible person who has no real concept of time)

5) In your opinion, what is the most disturbing method of death?

Hmm, I’m not really sure. Being properly skinned alive is a lil twisted. Like how Buffalo Bill did in Silence of the Lambs. Like, starving your victim out so their skin is nice and loose so you can skin them easier. I think that’s cool.

8) Are you pro-suicide?

I’ve never been a fan of suicide, but I pity those who felt it was the only way. Like Dylan or Eric or even Pekka. I hate suicide. Always have, probably always will. I hate the romanticisation behind it as well.

12) Describe your three worst character traits

Apathetic about most things

Kind of a tease apparently

As mentioned earlier, I have no real concept of time. Lots of things melt together for me and I don’t know how it happens/ed

15) How do you hope to die?

This sounds horrible but I’ve always pictured myself dying in prison. It’s weird. Idk how I would but I always figured it would be in some sort of penitentiary or detention facility. Or I would like to die of natural causes. Die with my family or something, ya know?

20) What do you think of the gun laws in your country?

I don’t really pay much attention to anything political or laws or anything. But, in my state, concealed carry is illegal now so I don’t really know what to do or how to feel about that information. I just recently started liking guns so I don’t really know anything surrounding them. Oops

21) Ever had a physical fight with someone?

No one outside of family. Me and my brothers used to wrestle or play fight all the time and every now and then we would really hurt each other. I’ve accidentally given two of my brothers bloody noses and hurt their legs p bad back in the day. One time, one of my brothers punched me in the jaw but I guess that was my bad because I “leaned into it” but whatever it was years ago I’m not salty about it anymore

23) Who is your favourite movie villain?

Ya know, I suck at answering these questions because all of my “favourite” anythings always go out the window when I try to really think about them. But uhh, I liked the guy in Hush. I usually take the side of the bad guy in most movies because I’m sick and tired of “happily ever after” movies.

29) If you could save one victim from the Columbine massacre, who would it be?

(Can I choose the Eric and Dylan?) This is a hard question because I wish I could save all the innocent victims. But, just one? Probably Dave Sanders. Or honestly Eric and Dylan.

30) What’s your favourite horror movie?

Hush is the first one that comes to mind. Or Human Centipede even. Or The Strangers.

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