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theredhairedmonkey · 4 years

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Claudia—Just what’s so bad about Dark Magic anyway?

Ah, Claudia. Everyone’s favorite dorky Dark Mage. Even as she continues her journey to villainy, we can’t help but find her at least a little adorable.

She’s undoubtedly likable, which makes a lot of what she does even more unsettling. We’re used to villains like Viren, who are so obviously villains even if they have somewhat good intentions.

But Claudia? She seems to have a good heart and cares about people outside of simply what they can do for her. Even if she may not reciprocate Callum’s feelings, she’s still clearly fond of him.

In S2, she’s genuinely supportive of her brother, telling him that them being alive matters more than succeeding in their missions. She also comforts Ezran and even helps mend his relationship with Callum, reminding him just how lucky they are to have each other.

As I lay out here, Claudia very much resembles Callum in the earlier chapters; both are bookish nerds, adorably awkward, and with an affinity towards magic. And while Callum starts to move away from this resemblance, we can see why Claudia is so likable.

Claudia can be caring and sweet. That’s why it’s so tragic and painful to watch her continue to cross moral lines, to the point that she is now thoroughly antagonistic to Team Zym, with any hope of total redemption being slim at best.

Now, I can’t talk about Claudia without first talking about Dark Magic. You see, while Dark Magic is terrible, the show doesn’t explicitly lay out exactly why it’s terrible. It merely illustrates how it works, portrays people using it for a variety of reasons, and then lets the audience decide how it feels about it. This is all intentional—Aaron and Justin have expressly stated they didn’t want to push too hard on the point that Dark Magic is wrong, instead leaving it for fans to make up their own minds. As a result, some fans sincerely believe there’s nothing wrong with it.

And that’s why we have Claudia. Someone who is sweet and sincere, relatable enough that you picture being friends with.

Someone who also sees nothing wrong with Dark Magic, defends using it, and even tries to use it for supposedly good reasons.

Because there’s no explicit reason given for why Dark Magic is so uniquely evil, the onus is on us, the viewers, to figure this out on our own.

There have been several fan attempts at explaining why Dark Magic is so bad, but for me, at least, I always felt we were missing something.

It might be wrong because it requires Dark Mages to sacrifice innocent creatures. But then again, humans in the real world consume animals all the time.

The logical response to this is that unlike, for instance, eating, Dark Magic is not natural nor necessary. However, we do all sorts of unnatural things with animals as well. For instance, we’ve created animal glue, whale oil for lamps, and leather from cattle. We’ve used creatures as working animals as well as for their cells to develop cures and vaccines. Without arguing that Dark Magic is defensible, this just helps illustrate the larger point that there must be something else that makes Dark Magic worse than any of this.

Another argument I’ve heard is that it permanently destroys magical habitats. The reason why the Human Kingdoms are much less magical than Xadia is that Dark Mages have poached and pillaged all the creatures they could. This could all very well be true, but it’s also what human beings do on the regular in the real world; as a rule, wherever industrial civilization lays down its roots, animal extinctions follow, intentionally or not. If Dark Magic is supposed to be an indictment of the way our society works today and the ecological problems we’ve caused, then we deserve it.

But many of us (hopefully) are working to change that, even if it means making life harder for us. The solution to climate change ultimately comes in the form of learning to live sustainably and in harmony with the world around us. One day, we’ll find a balance to our way of life, but if we can, why can’t Dark Mages? Why can’t Dark Magic users learn to moderate and regulate their behavior the way we could, and sustainably find ways to use the same magic that elves and dragons take for granted?

It also doesn’t help that characters who hate Dark Magic the most are also hypocritical about it. Sol Regem argues that Dark Magic causes the death of innocent creatures…while threatening to burn down a city filled with innocent people. Perhaps he opposes Dark Magic, not for ethical or benevolent reasons, but because it shifts the balance of power too much in favor of these so-called “lesser beings.” So, we can’t take his assessment of Dark Magic with anything more than a grain of salt.

But, at the end of the day, Dark Magic is a bad thing. Even if we can’t place our finger on exactly why, we know there’s just something wrong with it.

And that’s where Claudia comes in.

She too doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with Dark Magic— Why should she? It’s no different than anything else humans do, it helps keep people alive, and keeps us from starving and being helpless. Whether you eat them or take their magic, they’re just a resource.

But over time, as she relies more on Dark Magic as her universal problem-solver, we see her cross more and more ethical boundaries.

In most of the first two seasons, Claudia’s uses of Dark Magic come entirely from whatever she happens to carry in her bag or little critters she finds here or there.

And, for the most part, she tries to do the right thing. Claudia understands how powerful Zym could one day become, and from her perspective, there is a risk that he could, in her words, reign “death and destruction down on all of us.”

Claudia honestly believes that finding the Dragon Prince and bringing the princes home is what’s best for Katolis. Initially, she believes that Rayla had kidnapped the boys, and later she still insists her actions are for the greater good.

She’s willing to cross certain lines, such as manipulating and betraying Callum and Ezran, but shows signs that she regrets doing so.

But she starts off at crossing these relatively smaller moral lines, before working her way to more reprehensible behaviors. By the end of S2, she crosses a line when she uses a living creature to cure Soren’s paralysis.

After this moment, we see that she’s willing to justify an ever-growing list of horrible actions without any regrets. Whether it’s overthrowing and imprisoning Ezran, wiping out Lux Aurea, or turning the entire army into mindless rage-fueled minions, and even possibly letting Viren’s illusion strike down Ezran.

By the time she resurrects Viren, most likely by using a poor unfortunate elf who stumbled upon her, she’s past the point of feeling remorse for what she feels she has to do.

And why?

She places all of her faith in Viren because he’s family. She values her family above all else, and finds that Dark Magic is an easy, reliable way to keep it all together.

As a result, her character’s arc helps show what’s fundamentally wrong with Dark Magic—because it’s such an easy fix to all her problems, Claudia is tempted to lean on Dark Magic in more unethical ways.

In Lord Acton’s famous maxim, power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

And Dark Magic is power incarnate.

Dark Magic is far more versatile than Primal Magic. Whereas Primal Magic lets a mage use spells by harmonizing with nature, Dark Magic is simply about harnessing power in its raw form.

It’s not merely a shortcut that lets you bypass having an Arcanum or a Primal Stone. Certain practices within Dark Magic are not possible elsewhere.

If Callum had mastered Sky Magic by the time Rayla goes to save Pyrrah, he could have made short work of Soren and his forces with his winged form, but actually freeing the dragon from its chains would have still been no easy task.

But with Dark Magic, all Callum needed was a spell. A single spell and the chains are turned into snakes. The soldiers are driven away, and the dragon is free.

You can’t do that with Primal Magic.

We haven’t seen a limit to what Dark Magic can do for you, provided you have the materials. It can swap souls.

Or take them.

It can provide safe passage across the Breach.

It could taint or even destroy sources of Primal Magic.

Dark Magic isn’t bad just because it relies on sacrificing creatures. It’s bad because it tempts users with the power to redesign and reorganize the fabric of the world around them, potentially at the expense of Primal Sources themselves.

Dark!Callum sums up this temptation perfectly:

“You can have unlimited power. And you can choose what to do with that power. You can make a real difference in the world!”

And sadly, it’s a temptation that Claudia falls for time and time again. Once Claudia wields this power, she’s tempted to abuse it, even if it just begins as an attempt to protect her loved ones. And the more she abuses it, the harder it is to stop.

She shows that the temptation to use Dark Magic and how it distorts the world is what makes the practice so terrible and so terrifying that it shouldn’t be used in any circumstance.

@batfamfan1(who gave me permission to bring up our conversation here) had argued that Claudia’s use of Dark Magic was different from Viren and Aaravos, because she at least uses Dark Magic for good (or what she sees as good). That is, she cures or protects her family.

However, I’d argue that it’s not as simple as that. Claudia indeed sacrifices a deer because she wanted to cure Soren, but had she ever considered what Soren wanted? There’s a reason why, for instance, doctors disclose all relevant facts and treatments to a patient and let them make an informed decision, even if the doctor believes only one of those treatments is the best option. It’s not just about a cure, it’s about the agency of the patient. This becomes even more important when it’s not a professional responsibility to a patient, but a duty to respect the free will of someone you love.

Claudia never respects Soren’s agency. Even when he’s come to terms with his condition, she has not. She wants to keep trying to find a cure even while he’s beginning to move on. And, when she does find a cure, she never tells him about it beforehand, never tells him what it would cost, and never tries to get his approval.

This is different from Rayla in 2x08 who, in spite of knowing it’s a bad idea to let Ezran leave on his own, lets him go. Or Callum, who, in spite of thinking that Rayla staying on the Spire is a bad idea, simply lays out all the relevant information to Rayla and lets her make the decision for herself.

This is because, when you love or care about someone, that has to include letting them make their own choices, even if you don’t agree.

Claudia never does this with Soren because, again, it’s not about him, but about her. She has a personal need, however tragic, to keep her family together and healthy.

She’ll do what she can to fill that need, even if she has to play goddess to do so.

For that reason, she isn’t using Dark Magic for someone else’s benefit but her own. Much like Viren, whose stated goal to defend humanity was really just a cover for his desire to be powerful, Claudia’s goal to protect her family is really about protecting her state of mind. To do that, she needs to become powerful as well.

Her inability to see just what’s wrong with Dark Magic, combined with her need to maintain this portrait of a healthy family alive, means she will always be tempted to try another Dark Magic spell that will simply cure everything and will never look back once she tries it.

This is different than, for instance, Callum. As I describe here, he’s seen the world that Rayla shows him and begins to see magic the way she does. It’s not a tool; it’s a phenomenon, a vibrance or a spirit to things.

He understands, at least in an unstated way, that there’s something fundamentally wrong about Dark Magic, because it threatens that vibrancy.

Interestingly, unlike Claudia, who sees it as an easy solution to everything, Callum is suspicious because it’s too easy:

“But that’s just it! Too easy! Even though I know it’s wrong.”

Because of this, Claudia’s character arc helps illuminate what’s wrong with Dark Magic, even if the show doesn’t go out of its way to tell us. It’s a temptation for people who want to be powerful, and it makes them just powerful enough to abuse it.

And before you know it, you’ve lost your way.

#claudia #tdp #the dragon prince #tdp claudia #claudia tdp #callum x claudia #callum #rayla #ezran #soren #viren #dark magic #primal magic

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razberryyum · 5 years

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With the past arc coming to an end this week, resulting in most of our collective hearts being ripped out of our chests, I wanted to take this opportunity to pay tribute to our two dear big sisters of The Untamed/MDZS, Jiang Yanli and Wen Qing.

(novel and ep 32 spoilers below the cut)

Jiang Yanli (Shijie)

I took an immediate liking to Shijie the first moment we met her on the show since with her sweet smile and gentle eyes, she was so obviously a loving person and a caring big sister to her two unruly little brothers, there was almost no way I wouldn’t like her. She felt like the gentle type who would not harm a fly, and as we got to know her even more, I only loved her more. I’ve already talked about her kick-ass moment on Phoenix Mountain which perfectly encapsulated her greatness as a person, so I will look at other aspects of her life instead. Considering the fact that she grew up with parents who loved her in a well-respected cultivation sect, she really could have easily been a spoiled princess type of character since I doubt she was ever left wanting. And then, when her father brought home Wei Wuxian, she also could have easily either ignored the kid or worse yet treat him like crap, especially with the rumors about Wei Wuxian being her dad’s bastard son, which I’m sure she would have gotten a whiff of. Even if she had mistreated WWX, she probably would have gotten the full backing of her mom in doing so. But instead, because she is really just the most generous soul on earth, she instantly accepted him as part of the family and loved him as she did her own brother, even making sure that Jiang Cheng would accept him and treat him right as well. In fact, it is abundantly clear that Shijie had to act as more of a mother to WWX since Madame Yu most definitely had no intention of filling that role. Her attitude actually reminded me of Catelyn Stark and Jon Snow in Game of Thrones: like Catelyn Stark, she simply couldn’t forgive her husband’s infidelity and therefore could never like the child her husband brought back since she saw the boy as a daily reminder of his unfaithfulness. As much as I love Madame Yu, because she is awesome and fierce AF, it could NOT have been easy growing up in her household when one’s mere existence and presence triggered her ire. So really, thank God for Shijie, for being there and providing WWX with the motherly love and warmth that he probably sorely needed since Jiang Fengmian probably couldn’t always be around to take care of him.

As a result, I totally understand why WWX would have such bitter feelings towards someone like Jin Zixuan, since I felt the same way for a long time. Actually it wasn’t until JZX’s last moments did I finally like him as a person. Despite the fact that the live action has given us more time with him to redeem his character and make him more likable, I still held out all the way until the bitter end because, honestly, how can I ever forgive someone who had made Shijie cry like this:

But since he was also the one to make her smile and enjoy the happiest moments of her life, I could also never really hate JZX either. Mostly I’m just Shijie got to be with the man she obviously was in love with and I really appreciated the fact that the live action made him earn her forgiveness a little more. Even though she had to sneak out to let WWX see her in her beautiful bridal gown, I do believe that she had JZX’s blessing to do so because he knew how important WWX was to her, and how sad she probably already felt that he wasn’t allowed to attend her wedding. I wish the siblings’ reunion in Yiling was the last moment they could have shared together, instead of the gut-wrenching one in Nightless City.

When JZX was killed, my heart hurt so much because I instantly thought of how much his death would hurt Shijie, especially when she learned of it and more importantly, who killed him...they didn’t even have to show us her reaction since my imagination had already conjured up the worse scenario possible. I am certain WWX was thinking the same exact thoughts and conjuring up the same image, hence the pain on his face was so understandable and completely heart-wrenching.

Yet, despite being told her beloved A-Xian was the one who killed her beloved husband, that moment when she saw him at her home, she didn’t even hesitate to call out to him, using the same affectionate nickname she has always used. There was not an ounce of hatred or anger or blame on her face, only something akin to joy that she could see her brother again. Knowing he was in trouble as a result of visiting her, she then actually rushed right into the midst of battle to reunite with him again. I mean, just think about that for a second. Here she was, still in mourning for her husband, the love of her life, holding her only one month old child, but upon realizing her little brother was nearby, she dropped everything to rush after him, to see him, probably because she just could not believe he would ever do anything to hurt her like that. All the nasty things people have been saying about WWX, including how he commanded Wen Ning to murder her husband, she probably couldn’t believe because that was simply not the Xian Xian she knew and loved. In the past, every time Jiang Cheng would talk smack about WWX misbehaving or up to no good, she would always come to his defense. And even though in this particular case she had full reason to not defend him for once, she still believed in the good of WWX to go after him. Her love and faith in her A-Xian was so strong that when great danger was to befall him and she saw the sword strike heading for him, she completely forgot that she was a mother now with a child that still needed her, and just took that fatal hit for him because she just loved her brother so damn much that the only thing she was probably thinking about was A-Xian's in danger, must protect!. One might say she acted purely on instinct, without really thinking about the negative consequences of taking such a hit would have on her, but I believe that even if Shijie had one more minute to think about the situation, she would still make the same decision. Because that’s the type of selfless person she was: the caring big sister she was, the loving mother figure to WWX she will always be, the amazing mother she would have been to Jin Ling.

Even though Jin Ling grew up to be the spoiled princess instead, at least his basic nature is still good, and I’d like to think that that is what he got from his mom (while the spoiled part from his flowery peacock of a dad, lol) since God knows grumpy uncle JC and “doting” uncle Jin Guangyao probably weren’t much help in nurturing that sweet side of him, and not to mention we know he’s mostly friendless because of his disposition. Regardless of the sincerity behind JGY’s gestures when it came to his nephew, I am still utterly grateful that he gave him Fairy the floofiest doggo in the entire universe so that at least Jin Ling didn’t feel so alone when his peers mostly ignored him (even if it was kinda his own doing). I hope that wherever Shijie is, she can smile and be happy that her son grew up healthy and well and somewhat loved, and now, having finally reunited with the uncle he never knew but whom she probably would have always wanted him to meet, he could become an even better person who would make her even more proud.

Wen Qing

I owe Wen Qing a big apology. Before I started watching The Untamed, I had read rumors that they were going to change the love story between WWX and Lan Wangji to a love story between WWX and most likely Wen Qing, and therefore, I started the show with a lot of misgivings about her character. Personally, I hate when perfectly good love stories are altered due to no other reason than bigotry, so even though the character of Wen Qing is really the innocent bystander caught in the line of fire in this case (it’s not her fault if the writers had changed her character in that way), every time she shared a scene with WWX in those beginning episodes, I would actually grimace a little because I thought I knew where things were heading. Suffice it to say, I’m glad things worked out in favor of WangXian and I’m sorry I had any negative feelings towards her at all, because after WWX, she really is the most tragic character in The Untamed/MDZS.

Here's the thing, even though she didn’t turn out to be the love interest that would come between WWX and LWJ, I DO firmly believe that Wen Qing was in love with WWX, based on the way the actress played her and some of the moments we’ve seen (her reaction to having her wrist held by WWX, the way she asks about him when Jiang Chang rescues her from the Wen dungeon, the way she looks at WWX sometimes). Some might say she’s just being a big sister to him, which I would wholeheartedly agree with in terms of her novel counterpart, but on the show, that wasn’t my read of her character at all. However, I actually find it utterly reasonable that she would be in love with WWX because...hell, who wouldn’t be in that situation? Putting aside the fact that he’s her age, charming, smart, handsome, funny, kind-hearted, and talented, he’s also the savior of her treasured little brother and her clan. I would actually find it more shocking if she wasn’t in love with him. I know Wen Qing in the novel was not written that way at all, but she also didn’t appear much either despite having a pretty significant impact on certain key plot elements. Here’s the thing though, I actually think her feelings for WWX is what makes her character even more sympathetic because it’s a love unfulfilled, could never be fulfilled, not just because of her shortened lifespan, but also because during their time at the Burial Mound, it was made abundantly clear that WWX’s heart was elsewhere the entire time. Her disappointment at seeing the invitation from LWJ to his sister’s baby shower perfectly captured her understanding of that fact.

She believes WWX is staying with them only out of a sense of obligation, and one can imagine how guilt-ridden she felt since she believes her family is what has been keeping him from the people he actually loves. Even though her time at the Burial Mound is probably the happiest she‘s ever been in her short life, especially after Wen Ning woke up, she was still not afforded complete happiness because of her own sense of guilt in addition to her ever-present fear that their simple, happy days would eventually come to an end at the hands of the unforgiving world surrounding them.

Just thinking about Wen Qing’s life in general is enough to make my heart ache on her behalf. It could not have been easy growing up as basically a hostage of the Wen Sect, constantly living in fear of what Wen Ruohan would do to her little brother or her family if she didn’t do as she was told. Thank God she was blessed with the gift of being a talented physician and therefore useful to WRH, but it is also because of her talent that she acquired the unsavory reputation of being a ruthless, vicious medicine woman of the Wen sect, according to WWX when they first spoke to each other in the back hills of the Cloud Recesses. Nie Minghue’s words about her not being guiltless because she never once tried stopping WRH from doing his horrible deeds actually got to me since there is some truth to them: I mean, isn’t someone who is a part of the Nazis guilty by association, regardless of why they had to join in the first place? When she wasn’t worried about what the Wens would do to Wen Qing, Wen Qing was probably plagued with guilt since she undoubtedly witnessed the horrible things the Wens did and yet could do nothing to stop them. As someone who saved lives as a profession, seeing the Wens carelessly take lives could not have been easy on her conscience. But there was little she could have done since she had her own people to protect. It had to have been a stifling existence. And then, when the Wens were defeated, instead of being granted the freedom she probably wished for her whole life, the good guys turned around and basically imprisoned/tortured her people and even killed her beloved A-Ning whom she had lived her life for all this time. Her life went from bad to worse in a blink of an eye.

But then thanks to WWX, her little bro was miraculously brought back to life and even more miraculously retained all the sweet qualities that made him lovable so that she could at least enjoy one short year with him. Unfortunately, the semi-joyous days came to an abrupt end in the worst way possible. I can only imagine how heartbroken she was when she made the decision with Wen Ning to surrender themselves to the Jins, but I also believe that in knowing what fate would befall her brother as a result, there was no way she would be able to live with herself after that, so that’s why she chose to go to her death with him.

And honestly, her death is what haunts me and will continue to haunt me, because if memory serves, we were never really given details of how she died in the novel, nor did we get much in the show. We know she was just reduced to dust, so she was never even afforded a proper burial, but that still pales in comparison to the notion of what torture probably awaited her in the hands of that particular Jin father and son duo. There is no way Wen Qing’s death could have been pleasant. The only consolation I have is that at least she died quickly, relatively speaking, at least compared to poor Wen Ning, whom they kept around for a much, much longer period of time to experiment on. Seriously, just thinking about it now is making me sick to my stomach. For someone who probably never hurt anyone in her life, Wen Qing didn’t deserve that kind of ending. I’m glad she got to meet Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian and through them, experience friendship and maybe love like any normal girl would, but it was still too small and quick an interlude in her otherwise difficult life. Personally I wish they developed her relationship with JC a little more since I actually thought the two of them had a lot of chemistry, but I doubt that would have afforded her a happy ending either since, as she pointed out, JC wouldn’t have been able to let go of his responsibilities and status as sect leader to save her and her family as WWX was willing to do. It would have still been a doomed romance in a sadly doomed life.

Before I end this tribute, I wanted to also applaud the two actresses who so wonderfully brought our two beautiful big sisters to life: Xuan Lu as Shijie and Meng Zi Yi as Wen Qing. Their performances greatly contributed to the affection I feel for these two characters and I am so glad they were chosen to embody them.

So to our dear Shijie and Wen Qing, the two fine, brave ladies of The Untamed/MDZS, I salute you, and I hope that wherever you are, you are finally at peace and happy.

#The Untamed #陈情令 #CQL #Mo Dao Zu Shi #MDZS #Jiang Yanli #Shijie #Wen Qing #novel spoilers #episode 32 spoilers #Jin Ling #Wen Ning #Wei Wuxian #Jin Zixuan #Jiang Cheng #Madame Yu

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mediaeval-muse · 4 years

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Book Review

Bride By Mistake. By Anne Gracie. New York: Berkley Sensation, 2012.

Rating: 2/5 stars

Genre: historical romance

Part of a Series? Yes, Devil Riders #5

Summary: Eight years ago, Lieutenant Luke Ripton made a hasty wartime marriage-in-name-only to protect a young girl from a forced union and left her protected in a remote mountain convent. Now, Luke is Lord Ripton, but he has been unable to obtain an annulment. Which leaves him no choice but to claim a wife he doesn't want. For nearly a decade, Isabella has waited like a princess locked in a tower, dreaming of her handsome, dark-haired prince. Her dreams are shattered when Luke reveals himself not as a prince, but an autocratic soldier, expecting her unquestioning obedience, which is something Isabella's fiercely independent nature will not tolerate. And while Luke and Isabella's fiery personalities clash at every turn, they remain bound to their vows, never expecting that the passionate fury they share could become passion of a different kind...

***Full review under the cut.***

Content/Trigger Warnings: attempted sexual assault, violence, sexual content, torture

Overview: When I started reading this book, I had the strangest feeling that I had read it before, but I didn’t remember how the plot went, nor could I find any record of a review, so here it is now. Bride By Mistake had the potential for a great story: a fiercely independent heroine, a journey to rescue an abandoned half-sister, love growing between two people who married to prevent one of them from suffering a worse fate, etc. I think I would have been on board if not for the hero, who I found hard to like. I didn’t feel like he respected our heroine at all, even after he opened up about his past, which made it hard for me to root for the relationship. As a result, this book only gets 2 stars from me.

Writing: Gracie’s writing seems to change between the first thirty or so pages and the rest of the book. The first couple chapters seem to rush through the narrative quickly, dumping a bunch of dialogue and a rushed flashback on the reader to set up the situation before getting to the main plot. Once we get to that point, the writing seems to flow a bit better, giving insight into what characters are thinking and feeling. Granted, it’s not a high literary style - Gracie’s prose is simple, and sometimes has a tendency to be repetitive (there’s a lot of observations of what the heroine’s legs and backside look like in her riding pants, for example, and we’re repeatedly told how Isabella isn’t pretty/not conventionally attractive), but I was able to immerse myself in the story, so I feel like it did the job.

Plot: Aside from the romance, the main plot of this novel takes place a number of years following a war. Our heroine, Isabella, and our hero, Luke, married as strangers during the conflict in order to protect Isabella (an heiress) from being forcibly married to her cousin, Ramon, who was after the family fortune. Because Luke was still a soldier, he left Isabella in a monastery for her own protection. Now, eight years later, Luke has been denied an annulment, and so he has come to Spain to collect his wife and return to England. However, before she leaves, Isabella insists on travelling to her family estate to retrieve her abandoned half-sister, who she fears might have been forced into becoming Ramon’s mistress. Meanwhile, Luke’s PTSD makes him anxious, and he constantly fights with her about returning to England so he can arrive in time for his youngest sister’s first come-out.

In terms of setting up a conflict, I feel like this book had potential. I liked the idea of Isabella doing the right thing by her sister, despite having mixed feelings about the favoritism that her father showed towards his illegitimate daughter. It nicely mirrored the family feelings Luke had towards his own sister, and the two protagonists had some good conversations based on those parallels. However, a lot of the middle of the book felt like an uneventful journey. Sure, the protagonists had personal conflicts, but nothing really built the anticipation for their arrival at the family estate. Instead, we get some silly things, like an inn having fleas and causing a whole debacle. I’m not against light, fluffy things like this, but I would have liked to see Isabella and Luke working together more to come up with a plan in anticipation of their showdown with Ramon.

When they finally do encounter Ramon and Isabella’s sister, Perlita, I found the character interactions to be both interesting and silly. I liked how Perlita and Isabella talked about their childhoods and came to respect one another, as well as how Perlita’s desires were quite different from what Isabella expected. It’s complicated and messy and utterly unsatisfying, but in a way that challenges the reader to think about accepting what other people want, even if it’s not “proper.” That being said, Ramon and Luke’s interactions completely transcended the bounds of reality for me. In one scene, Ramon and Luke threaten to kill one another over Isabella, yet once it’s made clear that Ramon would gain nothing by marrying her, everyone settles down and has lunch. Ramon and Perlita then invite the two to stay overnight, which seems preposterous given that the men almost came to blows and, as far as I could tell, still hated one another.

After they leave the estate, Isabella and Luke visit a family friend, and there, they encounter someone from Luke’s traumatic past. I found this part of the plot rather rushed and somewhat sloppy. Despite the trauma supposedly affecting Luke from the beginning, it felt like the details were dumped on the reader with barely 1/3 of the novel left, and so it felt hollow and inserted for a final bit of action. I wish this part of the plot has been more integral to the story, rather than having it all condensed into a few pages near the end.

I will caution readers that early in the book, we are shown a flashback that details how Luke and Isabella meet, and it involves attempted sexual assault. Luke, who is a soldier returning from an errand, happens to hear a girl screaming, so he goes to investigate. He finds a nameless Spanish soldier attempting to rape Isabella, who is 13 and has been stripped naked. While the soldier isn’t successful and his violence against Isabella isn’t overly graphic, we are subject to some descriptions of Isabella’s body, which, in my opinion, had a tendency to be uncomfortable. Descriptions of how she barely has breasts and no hips just shows me that Luke is taking note of these things, which feels icky. Thus, I wouldn’t recommend this book if you’re sensitive to plots involving attempted sexual assault.

I will also say that this book doesn’t do a very good job regarding representing Spanish and Roma culture. Every description of Spain and Spanish life seemed to be banal, from randomly eating churros to taking a siesta. The richness and complexity of Spanish culture isn’t really explored, which is a shame since Isabella’s Spanish heritage mainly seemed to enhance the idea that Isabella = Spanish = passion, contrasting with the frivolousness of English women and society. On top of that, there is a scene where Isabella and Luke are at a market, and they happen to witness some Roma people singing and dancing. Gracie uses the g-slur, though I don’t think it was used in malice. However, the dance is sensual and erotic, which causes Luke and Isabella to become aroused. It further lent credence to the implication that Spain is a land of passion for Luke, and though Spain is not overly exoticized, I do think implying that it is a world where passion can flourish is rather stereotypical.

Characters: Isabella, our heroine, is fairly likable in that she doesn’t let Luke push her around. She’s headstrong and confident, and on top of that, she has a strong sense of duty to her sister. I admired that about her, and loved seeing moments when she would defy expectations and show that she really is capable of handling things herself. The only things I found mildly irritating was her ridiculous innocence regarding sex and her tendency to be overly emotional. Regarding the former, Isabella has cringey moments such as thinking that sex with a man might be like sex between horses or other animals. I dislike it when virgin heroines are that naive because it’s not very realistic. Regarding her emotion, emotion itself isn’t a bad thing, but it didn’t endear me to her when these moods seemed to be connected to her childishness rather than anything substantive. For example, Isabella dramatically flees the scene and cries when she learns Luke requested an annulment, in part because she had been entertaining childish fantasies that he would sweep her away from the monastery like a knight in shining armor. She also gets extremely upset and yells at Luke for not being happy that she is a virgin, which would have been ok if it were mostly about honor, but the scene also involves a discussion about Isabella’s ignorance about sex and what it entails. It just felt like all her passionate moods were in some way framed as juvenile, and I wasn’t really into it.

Luke, our hero, is hard to like because at best, he’s a gruff ex-soldier who expects obedience from his wife, and at worst, a misogynist. I could have been on board with an ex-soldier who approaches marriage as a commanding officer would, but then learns that the two are very different and a partnership is more fulfilling. Luke, however, doesn’t seem to be open to the idea. At least early on, whenever Isabella would do something, he would think things like “He was going to show her tonight who wore the pants in this marriage.” While he never hit or raped her, the idea that he would “show her who is boss” left a bad taste in my mouth. On top of that, Luke would also think about how he despises certain traits in women. He thinks of Isabella’s friends at the convent as mindless and frivolous, he rejects London women because they are shallow, and says a few times that he can’t stand dishonesty in women because of the one time in his past that a woman hurt him. It was honestly tiring and because it takes so long for him to even begin to reexamine himself, I wasn’t convinced that he had any admirable qualities other than being physically attractive.

Like Luke, our main antagonist, Ramon, is also fairly misogynistic. Though he had more complex motivations than we are initially led to believe (which I appreciated), he did use words like “bitch” and “slut,” which killed much of the interest I had in seeing him as a multifaceted character.

Perlita is much more interesting in that she harbors little malice towards her sister and refuses to be rescued. She emphasizes that her living situation is enough for her and does not want others making decisions on her behalf, even if they would raise her to enjoy a more “proper” life. I liked the relationship that she had with Isabella - the two talk at length about how their father treated them differently and how they feel about each other, and I loved that they came to feel real affection for each others’ well-being.

Romance: I’m just going to say it - I wasn’t a fan of Luke and Isabella’s romance. Luke was way too dominating and didn’t seem to value Isabella at all, and it only seemed like he came to value her once he opened up about his past (and even then, he seemed to value her for what she was able to do to comfort him and keep him on his toes, not as a partner in her own right). Some may chalk it up to his anxiety about being in Spain again, where his worst memories took place, but just because a character has trauma, that doesn’t mean he can be a jerk without consequences. The point where this particularly became a big “nope” for me was when the two first had sex. Isabella and Luke are staying the night at an inn, and they start to get it on, as couples in a romance novel will do. However, when he penetrates her, she screams in pain. Instead of stopping to see what’s wrong, Luke keeps going until he is sated, and then they make a big deal about Isabella’s virginity. This lack of caring for her physical and emotional well-being put me off completely, and I gave up hope of Luke ever truly learning how to see his wife as a partner (rather than a subordinate).

Overall, this book suffers from a lack of suspense and an insufferable hero, and while I did like the heroine and enjoyed the interaction between the sisters, it wasn’t enough to overcome the lackluster narrative progression and rapey vibes from Luke’s POV.

#book reviews

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thattimdrakeguy · 5 years

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I don't like damian, it's a little cocky shit, I think he's too rough with his team and I understand that because he was raised as a prince by Talia and his grandfather. I think most writers didn't handle it properly, they make it seem like Damian is not a jerk for like two pages and then he's a little shit again in the next issue. Maybe I think so because the only thing I read with him has been supersons and teen titans when he is the leader. sorry for the rant

I go back and forth on rather or not I like Damian quite a bit, because I feel like his character has a lot of potential to be really good, and has his moments were its seems like he is going to be at least somewhat good, but then a mix of fans and DC writers drop the ball with him and it ends up with me not liking him that much.

They let him mostly get away with a lot of stuff he does besides occasional things, they try to give him sympathetic moments that don’t really feel sympathetic, they��ve done small retcons to make him more sympathetic, try and turn other characters into jerks to make him look more likable in comparison, and ignore a lot of behavior stuff he does, all while trying to force him to be cute and quirky in all these contrived moments that are actually kind of messed up, because to fans who are more casual and either don’t care or pay attention to details they’ll suck it up regardless of how he’s supposed to be.

Like a big example of what I’m talking about is in an issue of Red Robin, and I’ve brought the issue up before, so I feel like to some people that read this it might be annoying if they’ve already seen me talk about it before, but it encapsulates a lot of what I said there.

Damian breaks into Tim’s base, and hacks Tim’s computers, were he finds out he’s on a hit-list of Tim’s (not a hit-list where to kill him, but to keep track of them, I’m decently sure Superman was even on the list), and later on Damian assaults Tim, with the potential chance that he wanted to kill him because he doesn’t think it’s fair Tim doesn’t trust him.

but

He broke into Tim’s base, hacked into his things, and assaulted him all in the course of a day.

He’s showing Tim why he shouldn’t trust him, plus the last time Tim met him and actually interacted with him was when Damian was mocking Tim as he was having a mental breakdown and was on the brink of losing his sanity.

Tim doesn’t have any reason to trust him besides Dick saying he’s gotten better, but it’s never shown to him that he has gotten better.

However Damian is clearly being portrayed in a sympathetic light as if we should feel bad for him since Tim doesn’t trust him, but the logic shows that he does a ton of bad things, and Dick even when tries to punish him, it’s barely anything, I believe he says he’ll talk to him, and he seems to give Tim more crap for it, or at least it seems that way because that’s what we see, giving more boost to the idea we’re only supposed to focus on how sympathetic Damian it is.

and it’s moments like that where I find Damian to be an annoying character, because writers keep dropping the ball with any kind of realistic character dynamics, they just ignore so much stuff to put Damian in a light without earning him being put into that light.

They ignore the obvious things Damian has and continues to do that made Tim not trust him in the first place, they water down Tim and Dick’s brotherly bond for the sake of Damian and Dick’s relationship, and after the fire they only focus on Damian saying it’s not fair and Tim getting talked too about how it’s not fair more than anything else.

For another example of what I said, in an issue of New 52 Batman and Robin (another issue I’ve brought up before, so I’m sorry for anyone that’s already seen me talk about these issues and I’m seeming repetitive, they’re always just the best example of what I’m talking about),

they force Tim’s character to play the role of the jackass, he mocks Damian for no good reason, something Tim never done before, because before Tim’s thoughts on Damian was that he had a hard time trusting him because of his connections to the Al Ghul family, and his history of belittling him and assaulting him. He never just made fun of Damian, he mostly just kept bringing up why he couldn’t ever trust him, but because Tomasi (the writer) wished to make Damian more likable, he made Tim act out of character for it, and later on in that same issue

Damian pledges to beat the shit out of the other Robin’s to prove he’s superior, and even tries to gaslight Tim into believing he’s as bad himself.

Meaning, Tim doesn’t like Damian because he’s formerly killed people, assaulted Tim himself, and overall treated him like crap.

and Damian tried to make the argument that, because Tim was furious at the people that killed someone around him, that he’s just as bad as him.

It makes no sense, and it sounds like Damian should clearly be the bad guy just off of those actions, but they give him a “it’s not fair” moment to try and turn the wheel to make Tim look bad instead, it’s conflicting and confusing, but that’s how they do it to make him sympathetic in these genuinely forced ways. They tried to ruin characters in these moments for his benefit.

–

The tragedy of Damian’s character history that’s sympathetic is how they showed that he was brainwashed since birth to kill that he always was desensitized to it, and so when he goes to meet his dad he decapitates people who did wrong and tried to murder Tim because that’s what he thought would bring him honor in his mind and heart and he was shocked and heartbroken when he realized that’s what wouldn’t bring him his father’s love.

It’s tragic to think about something like that happening to a person, to be desensitized from such actions since their literal birth is tragic, but to me, later on, they ruined the point.

They later on showed flashbacks of Damian crying because the Al Ghul’s asked him to kill an animal, it’s a moment shared a lot to bring sympathetic tears to Damian but it never worked for me,

because it’s inconsistent to what they’ve shown before.

Before they’ve shown Damian to be desensitized to violence before he could walk, completely unaware that being violent is the sort of behavior that isn’t normal and should be shunned from normal society. He’s full blooded confused that Bruce doesn’t think that should be something that’s honored. He’s not at all used to something like that.

Thinking killing is wrong was alien to him.

So to show him knowing it’s wrong already ruins the whole point of his origin story and character growth.

It tries to make it seem like he’s always known it wrong, instead of how he actually learned it was wrong.

I genuinely feel it took a lot away from his character to do that to him. It chopped away his character growth only to make him seem more sympathetic in flashbacks they didn’t even have to do. It was unnecessary, because being brainwashed in a cult since literal birth is a genuinely tragic tale, and to see them move past that and learn that the cult was wrong is what his satisfying growth was.

To give Damian that flashback only took away from his story and character growth.

–

There’s even some points where they can’t make up their mind on what he’s like. Sometimes he’s genuinely so arrogant that he genuinely thinks he’s above people, and deserves grand treatment instantly, and tsks at people who don’t.

Which is how he was introduced and continued to be under his original writer, and still others since that’s how he was introduced.

But then sometimes writers seem to misunderstand him wanting his father’s honor into him being insecure.

Causing disconnect even that way, even the basics of his character some writers can’t keep clean and understandable.

So it’ll go back and forth between him and his inner monologues talking about how he doesn’t deserve it because of all he’s done with a arrogant expression.

To him being sad because he doesn’t deserve it in a more insecure light like it hurts him more. Making it go back and forth between the two with no reason as to why.

Some say it’s an act, but they have him get sad in front of people when they do that, like it’s not an act.

He can still get sad, he was sad when he couldn’t get his father’s honor, and how he was treated in his past by his mother, but they couldn’t recognize his behavior in other moments to get a fuller picture of it. They made him messy to follow with writing like that.

They couldn’t keep it clean and consistent so he could manage to be a stronger character that people could recognize and understand his behavior from. They kept changing it between writers. It’s very clumsy character work in that way.

Then during some of this and especially currently, Damian’s basic personality gets shredded, just to make him a contrived cute character.

–

They give him short jokes that don’t work, because originally he was actually quite tall for his age, but they ignore that because the casual fan is rarely ever going to know that fact.

They even try to portray his heinous behavior as quirks.

In the build up to Super Sons, Damian Wayne kidnapped Jon Kent and looked like he was going to begin to conduct an experiment on him because Damian thought Jon was going to become hazardous, and it appeared as if he was going to murder him.

Despite having super powers, Jon Kent was raised as a practically normal kid, went to school like a normal kid, and his behavior is a normal kid. He wasn’t a superhero yet besides moments where he had to be.

He was a practically normal kid who thinks like a normal kid, and got kidnapped to some mysterious place to be threatened by a stranger.

Superman came busting in to save his own child from the horrendous position Damian put Jon in.

and then the next step in the story treats all of this as if it was cute and quirky, because Clark and Bruce set their kids up on a play-date to learn to get along, and treat Jon’s potential trauma that he realistically would have as nothing and ignore what he would most likely have, because that wouldn’t be cute to anyone, and that’s all they wanted. For Damian to seem quirky and cute.

Even in the very first issues of Super Sons, Damian stalks Jon Kent for the whole day while he’s at school using disguises and even breaks into his home at night while Jon’s vulnerable sleeping.

Horrifying behavior

and stuff that was previously taken very seriously and presented as horrifying behavior before, but by this time they treat it like it’s a cutesy quirk, and have Jon shrug it off like it wouldn’t be terrifying having a stalker. They treat it like “aw Damian wants a friend”.

I’ve even seen people try to force a romance between them into it.

Characters don’t even question the behavior that much besides a few moments that feel ignored in their own right because the writer’s don’t want Damian to be viewed as unlikable for it, and waste every opportunity to craft a story that’s worth Damian’s character.

Sometimes some writers even add in nonsensically cutesy moments for him like riding his dog out of no where for him to seem more quirky,

ignoring the history with his animals and how he treats them with the upmost respect because they helped him gain an understanding of empathy after being brainwashed since birth.

Something full of depth and good moments simplified to make him cute.

He isn’t cute.

He shouldn’t ever be cute as a character trait.

He does horrible things. To simplify him and change him for lazy writing is a disservice to his character.

Genuinely allow Damian to be Damian in stories that are worth his character instead of forcing him into crap that he doesn’t belong in because you have to change him for it to work.

If you have to change a character to fit them in you shouldn’t use that character.

He’s a character that’s been wasted several times only to woobify him, and I’m desperate for him to be in a comic that can actually use his character well instead of continuing the trend.

For me it’s again and again and again they waste Damian’s character, ignore his previous history, force him into boxes he doesn’t fit into, and not too many people ever call it out-

-because when I see people do it (respectably may I add, I’m not counting the jerks) they typically just get insulted for it aggressively even when it’s purely just for critical thought.

For me I can’t help but go back and forth on my opinion of him because while I find aspects of his character interesting, and very possible for good stories, the longer his character continues the more bad writing no one acknowledges continues. It’s frustrating for me.

Damian was one of the characters that helped me get back into DC comics, I was another person who came into the fandom because as a kid I enjoyed the Batman and Teen Titans cartoons, and then later on as a teenager I found “Batman vs Robin” I thought it sounded cool and watched it, found it interesting, and after a while I got into the comics the characters spawned from.

When I started, it could be argued Damian and Jason were my favorites, but after reading an absolute crap ton of comics, Tim was the one I was able to read 200 comics in a row for, while Damian’s writing annoyed me more and more because I just kept seeing more flaws that ruined the connotation of his character for me.

It still frustrates me because they dropped the ball with him repeatedly like he bounces.

So if it helps you feel better, as a person who has a heckuva lotta thoughts on the character, and has read crap tons of comics with him in it, I have a love hate relationship with him.

He had good potential, but the writers ruined him for me. They had no idea how to use him right, so I think it’s a-okay if you don’t like him.

It’s nothing to worry about, at least to me, because there is continuous problems with his writing that are valid, in my eyes at the very least.

Even though I still believe he deserves a better writer to actually get stories befitting of his character.

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makeste · 5 years

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BnHA Chapter 220: My Villain Academia

Previously on BnHA: Shouto and Kacchan took on a purse-snatching gang led by a dude who could manipulate and control carbonated water. Katsuki blew a bunch of them up (but, you know... gently), but then Soda Sam knocked over a metal pole that almost killed some stupid lady. Thankfully All Might knocked her out of the way and Katsuki deflected the pole with another explosion. Meanwhile Shouto one-hit KOed the Soda Sam guy to wrap things up. Afterwards the two were praised for their quick and professional action, and All Might proudly headpatted them and it made my fucking day. We then cut to the Brotherhood of Destro, where the Detnerat CEO’s thugs brought in a “guest” they had just apprehended -- none other than the League of Villains’ favorite broker, Giran, looking somewhat worse for wear. DetCEO politely asked him for info on the League, and Giran told him to go fuck himself. So it looks like DetCEO’s gonna try to get this info from him via some unpleasant means. We then flashed back to a month and a half prior and cut to some cliffside where Gigantomachia was decimating the League of Villains (sans Dabi) and complaining about how weak they all are. Seems like AFO’s underlings have some issues to work out amongst themselves.

Today on BnHA: The series continues its streak of excellent chapters with a flashback showing what the League of Villains has been up to for the past however long. We open with Tomura and the gang crashing the secret meeting of some racist anti-mutant cultists to rob and murder them (which, can’t really condemn that tbh). Unfortunately they don’t wind up with much to show for their efforts aside from a sense of satisfaction. The thing is, they’re broke, and currently holed up in some condemned trash house in the countryside while Tomura sits around waiting for the plot to come find him. Specifically he’s on the lookout for a “great power” that AFO supposedly left behind for him, and also trying to track down AFO’s personal doctor -- the guy who developed the Noumu. Anyway, he seems pretty content to sit and wait, but the other members of the League aren’t quite so patient, particularly Spinner who only joined them in the first place because he was inspired by Stain. Fortunately for everyone, the plot finally does choose this moment to barge in on them all in the form of everyone’s favorite Goron, Gigantomachia. He literally rips the house apart, and then demands that Tomura prove he’s worthy of succeeding All for One. Fast forward to where we left off last chapter, and as Giganto laments that the League is too weak, Tomura suddenly hears the doctor’s staticky voice coming from the dude’s radio.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 226, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

so we’re starting with Tomura, who’s doing this

and then this

which I guess is only to be expected

oh shit hold up

feeling artistic today, were we Horikoshi? having some fun with that there fourth wall

“before we continue from where we left off, let’s see how we got to our present situation.” lol okay

so this appears to be a very nice house out in the woods somewhere. if I had to describe it, I’d say it’s the kind of house Detective Conan characters would get invited to only to find themselves caught up in a sudden murder spree (which they would eventually solve, but only after like three people were killed in a row)

but seriously, doesn’t it look like the power and phone lines are just waiting to be suddenly cut off at the same time that the only bridge back into town is conveniently blocked or destroyed, leaving them with no immediate way out and no way to contact anyone (because of course there’s no cell service either)?

by the way this is the best title Horikoshi has ever come up with, full stop

straight up thing of beauty, this

so anyways, apparently this is some weird cult meeting or something? and Tomura’s gone and crashed it

the examples he decided on, though. Horikoshi have you had some strange encounters with chocolate-hating cockroach fans lately or what

I see Spinner’s making do with just a regular dumb old sword nowadays. no more over-the-top Game of Thrones-inspired swordmalgamations. hey Spinner what is your quirk

holy shit

so basically they’re racist against people with mutant quirks. we had quirk supremacists, and now we have very nearly the opposite. this arc continues to be fascinating and Horikoshi’s worldbuilding continues to get deeper and deeper. this is so far beyond what I imagined we might one day get when I first started reading this series, and it’s amazing

also the Tomura-led LoV continues to somehow be inherently likable in spite of all the murders and whatnot. don’t know how they do it, but damned if they don’t pull it off

now all in favor of them killing off this entire gathering of racist shitbags and taking their mansion, say “aye.” I mean, why not. unless these people were all open with their family and friends about their secret Racist Society Gatherings, no one’s gonna have any clue where to start looking if they all suddenly disappear

anyway, so next page. is this Spinner’s narration, then?

holy shit does Spinner have an extra pair of eyes that I’ve only now just noticed or what. this is freaking me out

(ETA: it’s just his usual ninja turtles mask, but it seriously does look like there’s a second pair of slit pupils in this one panel and it had me second-guessing everything I ever knew for a moment.)

lol meanwhile Compress and Toga are digging through the CRC’s cabinets looking for shit to steal and sell

how are you guys so badass and so fail at the same time

wow and apparently these racists aren’t just racist, they’re fucking stupid as hell too

yes, a candelabra against the guy who can disintegrate people with a mere touch. you really pose one hell of a threat there

so Tomura’s dodging and he’s grabbing the back of the guy’s head!

show of hands, who thinks they’ll actually be smart enough to listen to him. ...yeah that’s what I thought

so now there’s some glorious carnage, and since we’ve thoroughly established that these assholes are The Worst, of course no one actually minds watching them all die horribly

and no one’s gonna mind when they finish off DetCEO at the end of this arc, either. because of what he did to that poor mouse. so apparently all you need to do to keep your audience rooting for the villains is to keep pitting them against Even Worse Villains for the rest of the series lol. plot twist, the League never actually faces off against Deku & Co. for the rest of the manga

I’m only half-joking, too. for me, it really all hinges on whether or not they’re actually responsible for the Noumus (because kidnapping and experimenting on children and turning them into your helpless minions and then getting them killed = Not Cool), and/or how much involvement they actually have in that. but if their hands are clean of that, I will gladly be Team LoV for as long as possible. it’s very easy to do just so long as they keep playing in a separate conference from my 1-A kids. not sure what I’m gonna do once playoff season arrives, though, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it

(ETA: and well, we now know that they have no idea where the Noumus come from! and that Tomura himself is a confirmed victim of Ujiko and AFO’s child abduction and manipulation games as well. so for now I’m perfectly happy to root for them. villains who are just doing their best.)

anyways, I guess it’s bad that I pretty thoroughly enjoyed that, huh

well you can always take the mansion as mentioned. you guys could use a more swanky hideout now that the Ol’ Villain Bar is out of commish

lol oh shit these guys really are broke

if only there was a company out there who recently branched out into the black market villain goods business and was looking to get in contact with you. but I guess we’re still a month and a half away from that. oh and also it’s a trap and they want to kill you (but you guys seem pretty capable of handling yourselves though, so)

also, this is easily the most attractive/least creepy Tomura has ever looked and it’s very strange. did you grow out your hair dude

lol what are you guys even doing

you had a sweet new mansion all to yourselves! just slightly bloodstained and possibly now haunted! but still a real steal considering you would have gotten it for free!

and now Spinner’s headband seems like a normal headband again. where did the eyes go. Spinner you’re starting to freak me out here

anyway, so Kurogiri was clearly the breadwinner around here. without him these guys have no clue how to go on. though Tomura seems to be perfectly content as long as he’s got a couch and a table to put his feet up on

!!! well LOOK WHO IT IS

hello Touya

so he says he’s the only one who’s been trying to gather allies, and Twice is pointing out that he’s yet to bring a single person back with him

and Tou -- I mean Dabi, says “that’s because they’re all trash”

is this how you talk about your good friend Hawks behind your back. for shame

ah okay, so now we’re getting a better idea of the timing here, as Tomura says it’s been approximately one month since Kurogiri’s capture. as you recall, that happened on the same day of the Overhaul raid, which was back in late September if memory serves. so this is now late October, which means that it won’t be long before the encounter with Giganto

(ETA: lol for real. in five... four...)

anyway so we’re flashing back to what I guess is the last conversation Kuro had with Tomura before his capture. I’m interested to see if we learn more about who he was planning to meet up with. probably was Giganto but we never confirmed!

“a great power.” interesting! well, Giganto certainly would seem to fit the bill

and now Tomura is staring at the Quirk-Be-Gone in his hand, and saying that Kurogiri failed in the end, and thanks to that “we’re having a real hard time searching for the doctor”

so now WHO IS THIS DOCTOR, THEN. I THOUGHT KUROGIRI WAS YOUR DOCTOR. WHY WOULD YOU SHATTER MY ILLUSIONS LIKE THIS YOU RAISINY SOB. CLIP YOUR FUCKING NAILS

also you expect me to believe that Giganto is a doctor? that Giganto? that one??

-- OH SHIT HOLD UP!!!

AHHHHHHHHH OKAY HOLD UP LET’S HAVE OURSELVES A QUICK BLAST FROM THE PAST HERE AS I GO AND SEARCH FOR THE PANEL FROM CHAPTER 59

okay, first of all!

I didn’t notice this my first time through, but it’s implied that this is the building where AFO is holed up and watching Tomura from afar. please note how this is not the Ol’ Noumu Warehouse. not even close

(ETA: hey guys is it just me or does Ujiko live in the fucking Chrysler building)

second, here are the two panels with The Doctor

and third...

okay, so this is something I’ve seen mentioned in Dad for One posts, and now that I look at these panels again... yeah. definitely a resemblance there. this is either the same guy, or his evil twin

and now add to that that Tomura just confirmed that this dude is the one who was in charge of the Noumu project. a project which we know most likely involves kidnapping children. and this doppelganger who may or may not be the same person is a fucking pediatrician. and not just anyone’s pediatrician -- Izuku’s pediatrician

which makes one consider two things. one, is it really a coincidence that AFO’s personal physician just happens to be baby Izuku’s as well? (although he might also be a quirk specialist that Inko took him to see.) and two -- presumably this means he would have treated other children in the Musatafu area as well, right? possibly including this boy here?

I mean, we all agree that this means this little guy was fated to be turned into this thing and subsequently get murdered by Stain, yes?

lol yeah so friendly reminder that this series has been pretty fucked up since long before we started dealing with kidnapped little girls and strangled mice and mansion cult murders

(ETA: okay so as of the Ujiko reveal I’ve gotten to read up a lot more about the good doctor here, and there’s one more thing which I feel should be added to this post:

this is from page 174 of the BnHA character book, and basically confirms that our lil winged buddy Tsubasa-kun here is the doctor’s fucking grandson. you know, because this whole Noumu plot wasn’t horrifying enough yet. let’s just see how fucking dark we can make it. holy shit.)

anyway! now that we’ve enjoyed that refresher, let’s continue and see where this all leads

lol Toga is poking fun that Tomura didn’t even deny the “you’ve been lonely without Kurogiri” part. and indeed, he still isn’t

and now Spinner is addressing Tomura directly and asking him “what the hell are we even doing?”

he says he’s here because he was inspired by Stain

apparently he was discriminated against as a child growing up in a bad area. people called him a dumb lizard man and he was used to things just being like that and he just accepted it as the way of the world

watch out kids, we may or may not be getting some fucking Spinner feels here oh shit

anyway, so that lasted until he saw Stain’s last moments on TV and was inspired by how he was trying to change the world all on his own

he says he realized for the first time how suffocating the world is, and he couldn’t sit still after that and that’s why he joined the League

wow Dabi

that’s all you’ve got to say dude?? don’t sleep on other people’s angst just because you obviously have your own horrific secret backstory that you have yet to share

so now Spinner is getting really bold and grabbing Tomura by the collar and shouting in his face that he doesn’t understand his lazy attitude

well Tomura? do you have a good answer?

the others are all watching, and Twice is the only one who seems anxious lol. Toga’s actually yawning and Dabi just seems mildly interested in where this leads. and Compress’s face is unreadable cuz of his mask

eh what’s this now

OH SHIT

ALREADY?? SO THEN WHERE WAS DABI IN THAT TWO-PAGE SPREAD FROM THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER

also wtf at Tomura diving to grab all his spare hands and (I presume) frantically scramble to put them all on before the wall comes busting down

oh, he looks very excited though

and not at all concerned at the fact that this dude just ripped his house apart. I guess because he naturally expects that AFO will be loyal to him if he’s someone that AFO left behind. remember how entitled he used to be about things like the Noumus? “I’m allowed to have whatever I want, right?” or something along those lines? no doubt he feels similarly about Giganto here and is probably in for a rude awakening in three... two...

anyway, so Tomura is explaining to the others that this is one of the “battle assets” that AFO left behind

oh boy here we go

“brat”? can the radio communicate his thoughts or something?? seriously, what’s up with that thing?

anyways lol

his face omgggggggg

that’s right Tomura, if you were waiting for shit to just be handed to you like how it always used to be, you got another thing coming boyo

anyway so now we’re finally back to the present! (which is still a month and a half in the past though lulz)

nah he ain’t weak he just needs to get up off his ass

so now Giganto is clutching his head and falling to his knees in despair as the others look on in confusion

!!!

DON’T TELL ME

WELL SHIT, O-FUCKING-KAY THEN

aggghhh you guys. so today is March 26 2019. as of my writing this, there is exactly one more chapter to go. and then that’s it. I’ll be all caught up. I am simultaneously excited and dreading that shit

but. here I go

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imagitory · 5 years

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Tory Ranks the HP Films! [review]

Hi everybody! So I was chatting with a good friend of mine the other day about our favorite films in the Harry Potter series, and...well, the whole discussion got me thinking, so I decided to jot down my personal rankings!

I’ll just discuss the eight films based on the original books for this, but if you want my thoughts on the Fantastic Beasts series so far, you can read this FB-centric response and this review for CoG! These rankings are unique to me, but will be affected both by how much I personally enjoy the movie as well as how well it adapted its respective book. Hope you enjoy -- if you want, feel free to like and reblog, and of course reply/reblog with your own thoughts about the HP films!

8) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I’ll be honest, I was torn between this film and the one just before it as my personal worst, but in the end, I had to acknowledge that this one, out of all of the films, was just the least interesting of the lot, not just from a story perspective but also in the visuals and music. Everything was so gray and murky and dark: the only faintly creative visuals I really remember from this film were the inky effects in the Pensieve scenes (which didn’t match up with the established continuity of previous Pensive scenes) and the juxtaposition of a bird’s cage in the corner of a shot where Draco is walking down the hallway, and the only music track I remember liking at all was the choral piece In Noctem. Plus the plot itself was pretty tedious, as the filmmakers apparently decided that the book’s romantic side-stories were more worthy of focus than the main villain’s entire backstory. I mean, come on -- Harry making goo-goo eyes at Ginny and Ron being a complete idiot when it comes to the girls in his life is somehow more interesting than Dumbledore and Harry learning about the Gaunt family, Tom Riddle’s past as a neglected, but vindictive bully, and Riddle turning objects that meant something to him into Horcruxes, which sets up the Golden Trio’s quest to find them in the next book/movie? Good call on that one. Speaking of Riddle, the two new actors that were cast to portray him in this movie are also easily the worst performers in the entire series, and the completely unsubtle, black-and-white characterization of Riddle in the script didn’t do them any favors. After how much Voldemort was built up in the films, Riddle being so ridiculously obvious in how evil he is makes everyone around him (like Dumbledore and Slughorn) look like an idiot for not seeing he was bad news from the start. This film makes me a lot less angry than the #7 slot, partly because HBP is my least favorite of the books, but it also prompts just about no positive feelings either, and if there’s anything Harry Potter has never been, it’s “boring.”

7) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

*dodges knives* LOOK. I know this is a lot of people’s favorite HP film, and I understand why. From a cinematography perspective, it’s easily one of the best. It’s very pretty to look at. The shot composition is excellent. The visuals are creative and striking. But all of that beauty is at the cost of the story and characters. Not only does Hermione become even more of an idealized Action Girl, losing even more of her wonderful, three-dimensional book characterization and flaws -- not only does the film break away from every bit of continuity established from the previous installments or even within its own film, from changing the layout of Hogwarts and the students’ uniforms to having Harry constantly light up his wand with magic no problem only ONE SCENE before getting punished for using magic outside of school -- not only does it make no sense unless you’ve read the book, given that the script just assumes that you’ll remember details like Lupin and Snape having seen the Marauder’s Map, which explains how they knew Sirius and the Golden Trio were in the Shrieking Shack -- not only does it add things that I don’t like and really don’t think fit in the established Wizarding World like the shrunken heads and a slide projector being used in Snape’s DADA class -- not only did this film depict its characters blatantly showing off their supposedly “secret” magical artifacts with no repercussions, such as Harry under his Invisibility Cloak stealing a lollypop from Neville and whamming through a crowd of people and Hermione not even trying to hide the Time Turner around her neck -- not only did Ron lose one of his best scenes in the entire series, where he stands on his broken leg yelling at Sirius that he’d have to kill him and Hermione to get to Harry, and was downgraded to the point that he pretty much became dead weight -- not only did Lupin’s werewolf form look more like a half-bald monkey than the hulking, terrifying mass I’d wanted to see -- not only did Lupin and Sirius talk to Harry about Lily almost exclusively and barely mention their best friend James -- not only was everything Crookshanks did except him chasing Scabbers left out -- not only did the script never explain that Lupin, Pettigrew, Sirius, and James were the Marauders and the reason behind the pen-names -- not only did the film originally MISSPELL “MOONY” WHEN IT WAS WRITTEN DOWN IN THE FRIGGIN’ BOOK -- but this film ruined the best part of the entire story. The descent into the Shrieking Shack and the revelation of who really betrayed the Potters took three whole chapters to unravel because of how much information was revealed and how many emotions were packed into it...yet the film decided to spend less than TEN MINUTES on that three-chapter-long plot twist. TEN. And most of the exposition dialogue was shouted haphazardly across the room in about five minutes of that time. It’s honestly little wonder to me that director Alfonso Cuaron originally hadn’t wanted to read the book before making the film and had to be convinced to do so -- he clearly was more interested in putting his own stamp on the story than respecting what was already there in the books or even in the previous films, and although yes, the darker tone and more unique visual style did help the series in the long run, I just wish that it hadn’t been done in the adaptation of my favorite book in the series. Azkaban deserved a more faithful adaptation than this.

6) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

In a way I almost feel bad for the filmmakers trying to adapt this book. GoF is the longest in the entire series and arguably has the most subplots and tiny important details casually slipped into the text out of all of them, which would be difficult to adapt in a three-act feature film. I can’t help but feel it should’ve gotten the halfsies treatment the way Hallows did, given that it would’ve been difficult to fit every little important thing into one movie, even a long one. That being said, though...yeah, this film really is incoherent unless you’ve read the books. How do you even try to tell Goblet’s story if you’re going to cut out all of the Crouch family’s backstory? Answer: by revealing the twist ending in the first ten minutes by showing Crouch, Jr. is alive and turning him into an uninteresting, one-dimensional character, I guess. David Tenant is a wonderful actor and he could’ve been a wonderful Crouch, Jr., but in this adaptation he had just about nothing to work with. Then of course they also cut out Winky, Dobby, Hermione’s SPEW movement, the Quidditch World Cup game, Bertha Jorkins, Ludo Bagman, Percy Weasley joining the Ministry, the Weasley twins and Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes, Rita Skeeter getting her comeuppance, and Crouch, Jr. getting Kissed by dementors before Fudge could hear his testimony about Voldemort’s return. I also wish they hadn’t turned Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur into such one-note, one-dimensional characters either -- Robert Pattinson got the most to work with out of the three actors, but the characters still seem very shallow compared to their book-originals, and considering Viktor and Fleur get no further development in later films, their characters pretty much start and end with the little material their actors get in this movie. Even Voldemort’s depiction I’m somewhat torn about: I like Ralph Fiennes as an actor, but I had sort of hoped he’d look a little scarier and that he’d have red eyes the way he had when he was attached to Quirrel’s head in Sorcerer/Philosopher and as described in the book. As much as I sympathize with how difficult the task was to adapt this story, Warner Bros. still could’ve made a longer movie and kept in more of the stuff needed to understand what was going on. Still, there are some good visuals in this film and I like a lot of the new music tracks, too.

5) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

The Hallows films overall I sort of just see as “okay,” mainly because they and Prince’s adaptation are so dark that at some points I think they forget what made the stories so likable in the first place -- namely, the characters. Sure, we can’t have as much humor here, but where’s the love? Where are the distinct personalities, where’s the friendship? And really, one of the few answers this film gave was in that OOC Harmione dance scene, which...yeah, not only did it have no romantic chemistry (which I suppose I should be glad of, as that would be even more OOC than the scene already is), but it also had very little friendship chemistry too. It was just awkward and stilted to watch. Even Ron’s return wasn’t as strong because the film adaptations went so far out of their way to marginalize Ron and not make him an important part of the trio...so yeah, contrasted to the book where Harry and Hermione mourned Ron’s absence, the awkward dance scene attempting joy and failing miserably just falls even more flat. There are some good moments, like Luna and Harry interacting at the wedding and the break-in at the Ministry, and there’s a lot less stuff cut from this film than in others, but there’s also a lot less that I can say I loved in this film than in others.

4) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Part 2 is pretty even with Part 1 for me, as it doesn’t cut as much out but also left a lot to be desired. Because of the lack of explanation about what things Voldemort would turn his Horcruxes into, Harry has to rely solely on deux-ex-machina visions to tell him what to do next, Harry breaking the Elder Wand felt like such a cop-out, and the Battle of Hogwarts, although not bad exactly, really never showed off the scale of the damage and loss the way it could’ve. Fred’s death isn’t even given its proper screen time! But at the same time, I found more memorable scenes in this movie -- the Room of Requirement confrontation, McGonagall taking charge before the Battle of Hogwarts, the ending at Platform 9 3/4 that actually used the Leaving Hogwarts track from the first movie the way I’d dreamed that they would when I first read the book -- and of course every moment of Alan Rickman as Severus Snape. Yes, Rickman portrayed Snape as a much more likable, much less gray character than he was in the books, but he was still wonderful to watch every second he was on screen.

3) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone

I acknowledge nostalgia might play more of a role in my judgement of the first two films, given that I was a young teenager when they first came out...but I’m sorry, aesthetically, Columbus’s films were the most true to their source material. The darkness didn’t really start in the books until GoF, and since Cuaron jumped the gun on the darkness in Azkaban, we lost that gradual fading of the light from the original novels. And really, the Wizarding World was charming! It still is! And with the departure of Columbus, we kind of lost that charm in future films, even during the parts that were supposed to be less dark and gritty. We never got it back, and yes, one could see that as somewhat reminiscent of childhood innocence -- but I disagree, charm can be appreciated at any age. Even in my darkest days, I still could appreciate it. If anything, charm in the midst of despair and gloom became all the more precious. But regardless...Sorcerer/Philosopher is one of the most true to its subject matter -- it really does depict things almost exactly the way I’d imagined them while reading the book. The score John Williams wrote for the first two films in particular made everything feel just as magical as when I was first reading the first two books, and as the films went on, we lost that recurring score that favored the reuse of certain themes to instill various emotions: instead we just got individual themes for each film that were rarely used outside of that particular film. But I acknowledge Sorcerer/Philosopher doesn’t take nearly enough risks, the details cut so as to compress scenes sometimes create plot holes (like Snape protecting the Stone and supposedly bullying Quirrell to find out how to get past his defense, even though both their challenges were not included in the film), the CGI is pretty outdated, and a lot of the child actors were at the beginning of their learning curve. Really, the only stand-out performances among the child actors in my opinion were Tom Felton and Rupert Grint -- Dan had his moments, but Emma and a lot of the more minor actors like Devon Murray as Seamus at points sounded like they were acting in a school play. And when you placed those kids alongside great adult actors like Robbie Coltrane and Richard Harris, it could be a bit jarring. Still, I’d be lying if I said I don’t really enjoy watching this movie, almost as much as I did when I watched it as a kid so many times that after a while I could recite the entire script from memory.

2) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

I was fortunate enough to see this film opening night with my mum and best friend at the time, and really, Chamber just built on Sorcerer/Philosopher’s cheesy yet charming, book-loyal formula. Like the previous film, there are some important details cut and not that many risks taken from a visual or film-making perspective and the CGI often doesn’t look that great (Dobby in particular hasn’t aged that well), plus some of the scenes aren’t that well-directed (i.e. the fight between the Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch teams lacked any real anger or energy, and even the Dueling Club scene was oddly slow and lacked excitement)...but even so, I think the child performances are better here, and we got a lot more scenes with excellent adult actors like Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy, Julie Walters as Molly Weasley, and Kenneth Branagh as Lockhart. I also laugh a lot watching this one! Lockhart gets a lot of his great, funny lines from the book, but young Rupert Grint also shows a great talent for comedy that, I must be honest, is kind of lost after Chamber, as he becomes less of a distinct character who happens to say funny things and more of just a wimpy, tag-along sidekick who’s often made the butt of a joke. Even now, my mum and I smile at the memory of watching the film in theaters and laughing and cheering with the rest of the audience when Lockhart cries, “Amazing! This is just like MAGIC!”

1) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This film adaptation is based off my second favorite book in the series, and as much as it cut from that book, I think it overall captured the spirit of the book the best out of the series while also making a visually distinctive film. Yes, it cut out Marietta Edgecombe and the moral grayness her inclusion represented, Sirius’s passive-aggressiveness, pettiness, and cruelty toward Kreacher and the depth that it gave him as a flawed father figure, Harry’s lashing out at Dumbledore and how real it made both Sirius’s loss and Harry’s grief, Percy’s alienation of his family and the exploration of the cost of standing by one’s ideals, Neville and his family at St. Mungo’s and the pathos and complexity it gave his character, Umbridge running Hagrid out of Hogwarts and McGonagall being injured and how much that cut Harry off from the Order, and Umbridge’s revelation that she’d sent the dementors after Harry and how neatly it tied up all the loose ends. But at the same time, I hated Umbridge in this film just as much as I did in the books. I felt the sorrow of Sirius’s loss just as much as I did in the books. I felt the satisfaction at seeing Neville grow through joining the D.A. and becoming a more three-dimensional, heroic character despite his shortcomings just as I did in the books. I felt for Trelawney when she was being forcibly evicted from Hogwarts just as much as I had in the books. I felt the triumph of the Weasley twins’ rebellion against Umbridge just as much as I did in the books. I felt the camaraderie of Dumbledore’s Army just as much as I did in the books. I felt the love that Harry had for his friends and believed in both his hopelessness and his desire to fight for them just as much as I did in the books. And yet there were also film-only additions that I really liked -- the emphasis on Harry’s friends being the reason he resists Voldemort’s control, the montage of Umbridge sinking her Inquisitorial claws into Hogwarts, the music written to accompany the scenes at the Ministry and featuring Umbridge, Sirius punching Lucius Malfoy in the face and calling Harry “James” by accident. Even in a visual sense, it wasn’t too dark and gritty, but not too rosy and colorful either. Yes, this film had dark moments, but it never lost sight of what the original book series was about -- not the doom and gloom, not the action and thrills, not the drama and intrigue, not even the flights of fancy, but the love. What even are our heroes fighting for, if not the ones and things they love? Why do we even care? Why would we even watch any of these films at all, if not because of the love? In Order, I never forgot what Harry was fighting for. It balanced out the doubt and fear with kinship and nobility, just as I felt the books always had and the films often didn’t. So as many important details are shaved off, it at least still felt like Harry Potter. Not perfect, but hey, what adaptation is?

#oh boy here i go #analysis #reviews #opinion #harry potter #harry potter and the sorcerer's stone #harry potter and the philosopher's stone #harry potter and the chamber of secrets #harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban #harry potter and the goblet of fire #harry potter and the order of the phoenix #harry potter and the half-blood prince #harry potter and the deathly hallows #harry potter and the deathly hallows part 1 #harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2

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eb-the-gamer · 6 years

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BEFORE YOU READ, KNOW THIS REVIEW POST HAS SPOILERS FOR BENDY AND THE INK MACHINE!!!!

@bendysstudio @themeatly--official

I have played Bendy and the Ink Machine in full now. What do I think?

Well...

The game was good, for sure, you can tell they put a ton of love, especially now with the polish added by updates, the incorporation of fan music, and the attempts at keeping everything engaging throughout the chapters.

However, It could be really improved upon...

STORY - By far the strongest of Bendy’s points is its narrative, old cartoons are Organically creepy in a lot of ways because of a few factors, among these are the contrasting aspects of the imperfections of movement and the oftentimes unnoticed details in things like wrinkles and textures (as examples, Pete chewing Tobacco from Steamboat Willie, and the infamous cab colloway dancing ghost from Betty Boop.), so it makes a ton of sense to utilize that as a horror concept. The game throws us a steady stream of questions from almost the start of the first chapter, but while a lot is answered, there is a lot unanswered or not followed through on and it can be hard to ignore when you think about it ESPECIALLY by the end. Were the employees really all corrupted by the ink, what is Henry’s purpose, why did henry not know about his own messages if he’s written them while looping everything over and over, and how could he see or write them without the glass tool (and what with?), what is up with the animatronics and cages you set up. the game kind of shrugs at a lot; its by no means a dealbreaker because of what the story does explore about the studio, but it is noticeable.

9/10 - Amazing - The game’s big draw, though some questions are not all answered in a meaningful way, what the story does cover is still really interesting and worth playing through.

DESIGN - Bringing actual life to something like a cartoon but failing so hard is a really great idea, and a lot of the time the game shows us the hubris in the want vs. the reality of the consequence; the monsters and places the game creates reflect it well. Everything looks like its made from the sunbleached, aged paper artists used and everything is a wonderfully messed up reflection of life at the studio and the cartoons within, particularly with the projectionist, butcher gang and the unnamed giant hand (I’ll call him Lil’ Handful). the world of Joey Drew productions is a really cool, realized one. simple but slightly barren and “off” work offices giving way for the bigger, detailed and mysterious places in the lower levels. I will however knock some of the update decisions, particularly with Sammy and Bendy himself. they originally looked blobby, as the updates came, they both got more defined in shape - respectively looking more muscular and emaciated looking, which took away from the toonish aspect of the it. Where once were feet that looked like strange melted stubs going into the floor, are just...solid feet and where once was something that looked like a melting candle trying to retain a shape is what is more or less a thin ink zombie (complete with limp). Bendy’s final form is also lackluster for me, I love the Muggshot (Sly Cooper series) tiny dangle-legs and walking around on hands thing; but its threatening, not as scary or horrifying as something that's stopped trying to be likable could’ve been taken. Everyone else is pretty good though especially the butcher gang and boris, who stayed pretty much the same and kept design elements in all forms through the production. Text for audio logs could have been bigger at times too. all in all, design is solid, but something was definitely lost as more polygons and detail were added for certain characters.

9/10 - amazing!- a great use of elements from animations of the past used in a 3d space, just the right amount of cartoon goofiness and uncanny details, though some designs were fixed when they weren’t broken.

CHARACTERS - Not much to say, I like em all, (Henry is delightfully levelheaded to the extreme, Boris is a cutie, Bendy is a threatening silent presence...) except maybe that one obnoxious guy in recordings, Wally Franks, and even then, he’s not AWFUL (I’d compare him to Fleem from Smallfoot, intentionally made to get on a nerve at least a little), the most interesting character for me Bertrum, the architect who calls Joey out on his bullcrap, and Alice Angel, both versions of her - but the manic first variant you meet first is interesting to listen to and learn about in particular. Boris is kind of lackluster, while he is nice and the reveal of him and other toons being made en masse is awesome, it also means we don’t get much time with them. Sammy sort of just comes and goes twice, and Tom!Boris and Allison I felt got the shaft and should have been established earlier for a connection. Joey is a jerk who suddenly becomes somewhat good in the last acts, which confuses me - since there was no in between those two points that's explained...

7/10 - Good - characters are great to listen to and watch, and if the game had had more time to focus on a lot of them, that might have made them feel more complete.

SOUND - sound, music and voiceacting is well done, lots to appreciate from the creepy gurgles, to the odd stuttery sound of a projector. though there are occasionally some bad bits of soundmixing and audio. some recordings that you can find in the game stand out, there’s one that's really hard to listen to in chapter 5 because the character speaks in a really gravelly voice, in addition to the fuzzy audio effect and the ambient noise surrounding it.

8/10 - Great! - I only wish there was more! aside from one or two recordings, everything and one sounded nice, and the unease of silence is used equally well.

CONTROLS AN’ GAMEPLAY - They’re standard first person fair, responsive for sure, though sometimes the sensitivity of the controls can raise by themselves (I don’t know if that's by design, since it was at the same point as markiplier, right before a section involving being stealthy is taken on, which might actually be really clever if its true. Combat can also be wonky, but Its passable since its not a main focus, except for one REALLY obnoxious enemy gauntlet in the last chapter, if there were defined checkpoints between each wave, I’d be more inclined to let it go. Puzzles are pretty standard as well, lots of fetching, but other stuff such as playing minigames and stealth crop up to shake it up. Stuff is unlocked after everything is said and done in the story, and while it is cool narratively (messages written by henry on previous loops) and as a view of the progress the game (though, the Archives are missing a lot of info on characters like Alice and Bertrum), it just feels like its not enough for a repeat playthrough, difficulty settings and maybe achievements for unconventional but creative actions in-game, working towards something big at the end might’ve helped in that regard (here’s hoping that's the case for the console releases next month)

7/10 - Good! - its standard stuff with an occasional misshap, but there is variety to it and its simply fun for me to play.

OVERALL - The gameplay is serviceable, and aside from the main story there’s not too much reason to play the game again, but its still a solid experience the whole way through, and the time and effort of the people who made the game really shines and makes it worth playing. maybe wait for the console release, in case they add anything to that, but theres not one excuse not to play it.

#bendy and the ink machine #bendy #batim bendy #review #themeatly #the #meatly #video game #horror

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meny-sempai · 6 years

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Arthur hates Ash… Or does he?

I never write character analysis, but I just love Banana Fish, I loved it for years and after seeing some posts I started thinking a lot about Arthur and Ash and I decided to share some of my thoughts.

Does Arthur hate Ash? Yes, but let me elaborate. I’ll be mostly using manga material for it (maybe small spoilers ahead).

Am I trying to justify Arthur’s actions and make him a likable person? No. If I met someone like him in real life I’d run, but Arthur as a fictional character is very interesting to me and I do like him for what he does and represents in the story. It’s like with Papa Dino. I DESPISE HIM. But I LIKE to despise him.

Final disclaimer: Do I ship Arthur and Ash? HELL NO

Now that we got that out of the way let me elaborate:

1. Arthur sees through the act

Once upon a time Arthur Frederick was a gang leader which means at one point he was strong and respected enough to lead a group of street kids and that isn’t easy. Papa Dino was a mafia boss for a long time and when Ash took over Arthur’s gang the gang was in Papa’s territory and under Papa’s paw. We can assume the gang was under Papa even in Arthur’s time which means Arthur was under his influence for a long time too. Directly or not Arthur and his boys had to deal with Dino and that’s not pretty at all.

Under Ash boys didn’t do Dino’s dirty work, they didn’t kill. They refused Dino just like Ash did. Ash was someone strong enough to rebel and do things his way. He was not afraid of Dino and the mob (this isn’t really true, but that’s how he appears and wants to be). It’s easy to see why the street kids liked Ash. It’s also mentioned that Ash didn’t care about race and welcomed anyone in his gang. While that could be something completely new that only he did, we can also assume that there were kids of all race in Arthur’s gang too. Ash took over Arthur’s gang so it’s fair to assume that some of the non-white kids were in there too (we do see in the manga that some of his followers later on are of colour). So in that sense Arthur was pretty open-minded too.

But, unlike Ash, Arthur did not rebel against Dino. Now, we don’t know Arthur’s background, we don’t know how old he was when he first became the leader, we don’t know how the gang worked under him, but we do know that Arthur primarily cares about himself. It would be easy to say that he didn’t have a choice and had to listen to Dino’s requests even if it meant putting his boys in danger. It is the truth in the end (obviously, you shouldn’t mess with Dino).

Not even Ash has full control over his boys. He wants to rebel (he needs to) but he knows that in reality he can’t do anything. Instead of dealing with Dino he can only punish and banish his boys who in reality HAD to do what Dino asked of them. So thinking that Arthur could go against Dino and just didn’t because he’s an asshole is not true.

For Arthur though, letting Dino do what he wants was also a guarantee that nothing too bad will happen to him personally. Hell, Dino didn’t even know the boy by his name right away. Arthur was either living so under the radar, mutely following every order, or Dino just didn’t give a damn about someone he planned to replace with Ash from the beginning. I believe it’s both. Only later when Dino realized he could use Arthur did he pay attention to him.

We don’t know how the gang was when Arthur was the leader, we can only assume the kids were nothing but Dino’s dogs. That’s why I believe Ash said the following:

Ash knows Arthur is not particularly happy following him. He thinks Arthur is Dino’s dog who would/did rat the gang to Dino. Here, he also thinks Arthur may had something to do with the two boys he had to punish, but for me that’s not the main reason why he said this. He knows Arthur wants to lead again and he doesn’t really care if he does but he states loud and clear that whoever leaves will not have Ash’s protection from Dino. Ash is way better with dealing with Dino and he actually cares for his boys, but he is not equal with Dino as he appears to be. I believe Arthur knows this, he knows about the act, and that’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t like Ash.

Ash acts as if he’s better than Arthur which is true, but from Arthur’s perspective it’s unacceptable. It’s a lie. Especially if you take into the account that the only reason why Ash can deal better with Dino is because Dino has a soft spot for him.

2. Nobody likes to be compared

Ash deserved the “soft spot” because he endured his whole life and fought for the better future. He stayed strong and didn’t break. He’s an admirable person. But what about first impressions and circumstances?

Almost everybody in this manga thinks of Ash as a beautiful, weak, harmless little animal when they first see him. That’s also how Ash usually wants it. And if they know about his past they either think of him as a free-for-all-whore or a broken child. And when Ash came to take charge I’m certain everyone knew he was a Dino’s pet. The gang most certainly didn’t like Dino. I bet most of the gang first thought something like this: So you think you're someone just because Papa said so? Just because you were someone's bitch? Why would we ever follow you? Why would we ever want you in the gang at all?

But then Ash proved himself. I do believe it took some time, but I bet that Arthur realised real fast Ash was someone better than anyone had thought. Better than he himself had thought. He started to compare. The gang started to compare too. Little by little the kids got to know Ash and it was clear that he was a better person than Arthur. Arthur figured it out too.

Ash cared about the kids which earned him respect, something Arthur never had. Arthur never managed to protect his boys from Dino so his boys didn’t trust him and in turn didn’t respect him. It’s said they feared him, which is possible since they knew Arthur cared more about himself and wouldn’t mind sacrificing others (this is a perfectly normal mentality of a street kid, survival of the fittest and all that jazz, but it’s a lousy character trait).

Arthur was compared and he knew he lost because he KNEW Ash was better in everything. And when you and everyone (even the other gang leaders) knows you’ll never be good enough you feel useless and pathetic. I truly believe Arthur was also amazed by Ash like all the other kids, maybe even sooner than the others, but because of all of this, that feeling was quickly replaced by others.

We don’t know if it happened but we can guess that in the end Arthur and Ash had a duel and Ash won (could be the reason behind Arthur’s ruined hand). Ash took over the turf. Arthur as everyone doesn’t like defeat. Especially if its cause is his own incompetence.

In the end Arthur still has some of the boys under control. They follow him either because they fear him or there could be some who genuinely like him. Arthur had to have done something right, he had to have been better than anyone at one point but now suddenly he isn’t anymore. A younger kid, an ex whore outdid him. It would hurt anyone’s pride and Arthur has too much of it. Having a lot of pride could be understandable. We have no idea what he had to go through on the street just to survive. Being a leader must have been somewhat of a prize to him. A proof he was SOMEONE. A proof that he rose from the gutter and succeeded in the world. And know he was back to being a no one and he’s smart enough to know he will never be what he wants while Ash is here. He tried beating him fair – it didn’t work. His only option is doing it dirty and he’s desperate enough to think that’s a good idea.

But is it all pride? It’s understandable for any street kid to want to be more than trash. Any kid would want to be respected and acknowledged. But Arthur never truly had that despite trying so hard to be on top and with Ash here he won’t be even able to pretend to be acknowledged. He has to come to terms that a boy toy has more chance of success than him.

In desperation he’s ready to turn to Dino knowing exactly what an asshole the man is. Knowing well the man will never see him as Ash’s equal let alone as someone better. But he tries everything to be seen and soon he’ll try to take Ash’s place (he even starts wearing suits and going to the parties etc).

3. Same as Ash but not really – when admiration turns toxic

Ash is perfect in Dino’s eyes. Arthur wants to be perfect, wants to be more than just a street bum, wants to be acknowledged for what he can do. When you want to take someone’s place you have to at least admire him in some capacity because you see something worthy in him that you want to take/have. When you admire someone you can easily make him your ideal goal. Arthur wants to BE Ash. Because of the circumstances and his personality it turns into envy. Subconsciously Arthur is JEALOUS of Ash.

We don't know much about Arthur growing up on the streets but we can assume he was never used as a sex toy. He was never humiliated in that way, he was never a bitch so he thinks he's a better/a more worthy person than Ash can ever be (if anything he thinks this way as a defence mechanism, I don't believe he had a nice and easy life, I don’t believe he had anyone who honestly cared about him and saw potential in him and there WAS potential). Yet despite not technically (as far as we know) being one EVERYONE thinks of HIM as a bitch. It’s insulting, it makes him angry and honestly, I can understand why.

He was never as smart as Ash, never as skilful, never as charismatic, never as pretty. He's smart but not enough, he only has some street smarts and nothing else (in his eyes he was never groomed like Ash, he had to learn all by himself which should be a virtue but it turns out to be a flaw). He was good with a gun and then he wasn't BECAUSE of Ash. He's good with the knife, but not confident enough to try to win with just his skill. He's not charismatic because he thinks more about himself than about the others (he probably thinks that’s why he’s still alive, he thinks that there’s nothing wrong with it).

He's blonde, has blue eyes, he's white, yet he is not as beautiful as Ash. In a twisted way, he could be jealous of all the attention Ash is getting. And also, no one calls him by his name, but they all call Ash by his (at least the name Ash uses more).

He's always comparing himself to Ash in his mind. He's never good enough and no one ever thought he could be. The rivalry between him and Ash is just a product of Arthur’s jealousy and anger because Ash took his opportunity to BE someone. All these feelings culminate in want for revenge (for his fingers, for Ash making a fool out of him and for everyone who ever doubted him). He doesn’t want to just kill Ash – he wants to torture him, humiliate him.

Why? Because he wants to show everyone what he saw from the beginning – that Ash is under full control of Dino, that he is a whore (It’s true, in the manga it’s clearly stated that Ash resists Dino so much because he knows Dino is the only man who can control him).

Why make Ash kill Shorter? To prove he had no control over anything and that people die when he pretends to be something he isn’t. That he is ready to kill/sacrifice his friends just like Arthur did. That Ash is a dog too. Why make Eiji Dino’s pet? To remind Ash of his past and how much it ruined him. How much he IS ruined. How little his value is.

Hearing Ash begging him to make it all stop must have done wonders for Arthur’s pride.

Finally. He is better than Ash. In something. He’s useful, supported and acknowledged.

But in the end, he is constantly doubted whether he can take down Ash or not. And through the course of the story he will constantly be reminded that despite all of his efforts Ash is always one step ahead. No matter what he does Ash always wins.

Not facing Ash alone again (if there was a first time at all) is his way of sustaining an image that even if Ash always wins it’s not because of Arthur but because of other people and things involved. He doesn’t want to face Ash alone because then he faces himself and his defeat. When he ultimately loses he’ll have to admit that he’s a failure.

4. Was there more?

As I said, I believe Arthur was among the first who actually liked Ash. But was there more to it? If you look really hard and overthink it there could be some hints of sexual tension between the two in the manga. Could Arthur had one-sidedly liked Ash?

Is someone projecting? Probably not, but let’s say it’s plausible.

We know a drunk person tried to TAKE Ash's gun and Ash sliced his hand. We know Arthur suffered such an injury from Ash. Could it be that Arthur tried to take Ash’s gun too? The injury happened a year ago and we don’t really know why.

We know Eiji ASKED for the gun and Ash gave it to him. And we know he doesn't do that. Probably because no one ever ASKED for it with no hidden agenda (I'm totally using the gun as sex/love metaphor). With no expectations, with no judgement, Eiji asked innocently. Ash gave him the gun, the barrel pointing at Ash and Eiji still did nothing suspicious. Then he returned the gun by his own accord saying thanks. He was thanking Ash for trusting him.

Now, like so many others, Arthur could be really attracted to Ash. He is beautiful, strong and a great leader, a great man who tries to defy Papa. But that attraction turned twisted because of the both boys’ upbringing. Arthur, like everybody else in his environment, tried to TAKE. And Ash didn’t react well to it.

Arthur could have even thought: Ash gave himself to everybody but he refused me? Why? Am I worse than Papa and the other bastards? I'm not WORTHY of Ash?

And Ash thinks like this in the manga: They look at me and like me and when I refuse them they get angry because I somehow ruined their fantasy. They don't care what I think.

It’s very difficult for Ash to be open to a relationship. You have to be Eiji to be with him and Arthur is nowhere near even if his feelings were once healthy. Ash doesn’t like being touched, he doesn’t like to be approached from behind. He doesn’t even like being woken up by his trusted gang members. That could be all for laughs, but I’m not so sure. There’s a reason why Eiji still has his teeth and the other boy doesn’t. We’ve seen him plenty of times being over aggressive when triggered. Knocking someone’s teeth out and cutting someone’s fingers out of fear seems plausible. You can’t TAKE from him. Especially when the thing you want to take is needed for him to feel safe. Gun equals protection.

If Arthur was smarter and thought of others more he would have known that he should have talked and asked first. But he was not raised that way. There is no proper adult around to teach normal interaction and because they are in this environment, Arthur knew only how to make it into a twisted rivalry and even thought of it as fine.

If Ash was not traumatized he wouldn't have lashed out. And Ash, because he's Ash, probably is aware of this and perhaps regrets what he did to Arthur to some extent. It always felt to me he knew there was no other way to end the feud with Arthur than to kill him, but that he didn’t necessarily wanted to do it.

As for the hints of sexual tension, there are some suggestive panels in the manga. The way Arthur plays with his knife while Ash is trapped in chains etc.

And then there’s a page where Ash calls him by his name.

Maybe Ash didn’t want to really kill him but until that moment (and not even then perhaps because of everything that happened) Ash probably didn't even acknowledge him as an equal/as a person/as a someone. And if someone you like doesn't even bother to call you by your name you will be hurt. It will add to the hate.

And unfortunately Ash has plenty of good reasons to not think of him as a human being.

And that’s all I have to say about their relationship. It’s an interesting one for sure, but a very unhealthy one be it “romantic” or not (it’s not, but still). Feel free to share your thoughts with me.

#banana fish #ash lynx #arthur frederick #eiji okumura #character analysis #akimi yoshida

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kkglinka · 6 years

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I see many writers characterizing Blake Belladonna as fundamentally timid, receding, someone “who has always run” etc, and I think that's wrong, for a number of reasons. I strongly suspect that pre-Adam Blake was anything but those things — that they aren't character traits at all, but outward coping mechanisms. Before I explain, I want to establish that we're on the same page:

Abuse is a pattern of manipulative or controlling behavior. The majority of abuse is emotional and psychological, followed by sexual, then physical violence, with financial aspects mixed throughout. The vast majority of abuse is non-violent and hinges on things like gas-lighting, causing financial dependence, isolating their victim from potential support networks, entrapment and coercion. The only uniting factors among abusers are relatively high intelligence and narcissism. They typically appear like nice, likable, often charming and admirable folks to anyone who is not their victim — enabling their abuse through social disbelief. Above all else, they want their victim's attention and energy, no matter what form it takes. Even constant, focused hostility is a desirable response because the abuser feeds off the emotional attention.

The majority of their victims are not weak-willed or stupid. That is a social myth, one often fostered by abusers themselves, because it leave their real targets unguarded. Beginners will start this way, but for most experienced abusers, a weak person is boring. They don't provide much fight, much effort, much resulting attention. Instead, they often target “strong” people that they can manipulate, whittle down, force into emotional attendance, take all that energy for themselves, then bask in the achievement of gaining and maintaining control over such a challenge.

Adam Taurus fits the Sensitive/Passionate Man model of abuser. He's suave, handsome, a charismatic leader, persuasive enough to both gain numerous followers and manipulate them into achieving his goals. Oh, but he's so sensitive, able to cry in very artful restraint in front of certain followers, gaining sympathy, evoking empathy because surely he must be in pain; he must be the true victim. And suddenly everyone is coddling, reassuring — even the victim themselves — showering the abuser with attention and support.

Blake's aggressive avoidance (preemptively fleeing) of emotional confrontations in which she believes she will be blamed by someone she cares about, even for actions over which she had little or no agency, is consistent with severe emotional abuse and gas-lighting. In this scenario, the abuser holds their victim responsible for any displeasure they experience. Even in cases where their victim is clearly not at fault, they are guilty of insufficient compassion and sympathy, especially if the victim themselves is in any way demanding emotional comfort. For instance, an abuser might attack their victim until they cry, then condemn them for “trying to get attention.”

Contrast this avoidance with what we know of her formative years:

Given that no one suggested Chief Ghira Belladonna be removed or replaced in office during the attempted coup, I believe that his office is hereditary, which is in line with other aspects of the Remnant universe. I'm guessing that he stepped down from the previous White Fang political party, and became Chief, when an older relative died. I'm inclined to believe any formal royalty the faunus might have had were executed by the victorious human forces prior to the establishment of Menagerie, but that's the cynical historian in me. Regardless, the Belladonna's clearly have a high social status, which also explains a puzzle: Blake's obvious lady-like behavior, which didn't fit with the peasant orphan narrative.

If she comes from a political line of succession — if her family is the equivalent of old money — then she would have been groomed for her role as a political leader her entire childhood. Even if she's not a formal heir, her family name carries enormous prestige, a valuable asset. She would have been well-educated, any leadership abilities she naturally possessed would have been bolstered. Her political and social engagement with a wider community would have been encouraged, and she would have studied strategy, public speaking, crowd control, along with the more subtle “good manners” that are used to guide small groups.

Yet we also know she participated in front line, violent protests. In many noble families, civil or military service is a tacit expectation. It might be considered a civic duty to experience the full range of human/faunus conflicts, to witness front and center what problems exists and the effects they have on their people Given their own pasts, it makes sense that Blake's parents would train their only child — and possible heir — to be equally engaged.

We know she was passionate enough about her beliefs to fight tooth and nail over it with what seems to be a very loving, supportive, and respectful family. A runner doesn't draw that sort of line in the sand to the point of rejecting their own family. What she did, as a naive but highly principled teen, wasn't run away; it was run toward and to hell with anyone who wasn't brave enough to stand with her on the front lines. Altogether, this suggests a pattern of confrontational behavior — an angry idealist.

She would have been the perfect target for a charismatic man with political ambitions — and I'm sure her parents knew it. If she was trained to have all the skills I described, she would have been a very useful lieutenant. Given her age when she joined RWBY, she was at best sixteen when this, at least somewhat, older man charmed her away — young enough to groom. Fortunately, she had a strong enough formative period that she was able to overcome the gas-lighting and escape on her own. This is a very difficult achievement for any abuse victim, but next to impossible for someone already inclined toward passivity and avoidance.

Next we have Blake's initial conflict with Weiss during Season 1. Background narrative tells us that the two were engaged in repeated verbal debates before Blake finally loses her temper, accidentally revealing her race to someone she knows is a key (future) political rival. Only after she reaches that level of confrontation does Blake's abuse-related coping mechanism come into play, triggering immediate and irrational avoidance. That level of pnaic is an excessive and abnormal learned behavior — not a mere personality trait.

Back up, rewind, abusers isolate their victims. They lie and manipulate friends and family into abandoning the victim. They disrupt outings, invent excuses to cancel events, fabricate evidence and lie about their victim to that individual's friends and family. They make the victim look bad, irrational, hysterical, unreliable, cowardly...You name it, until the friends leave in frustration. A particularly vicious abuser might even arrange harmful events that the victim learns about but is unable to stop. I can easily imagine Adam sending Blake's budding friends on suicide missions or otherwise putting them at risk, to sever their emotional support. Consequently, Blake expects to be rejected by potential friends; expected to be rejected by her own family.

In real life, an abusive ex will often violently target a new lover or partner, sometimes attempt murder, because it's only when their victim's emotional attention shifts away that the abuser feels threatened. So running in response to her former abuser enacting demonstrable harm to a new loved one was completely rational.

Adam is strong, intelligent and calculating. You'll notice that he didn't “lose his temper” (abusers always remain in emotional control of themselves), but made a strategic choice to demonstrate his continued power and control. Given that he successfully disabled RWBY's strongest member, given that abusers will use almost any tactic to separate their victim from supportive networks, leaving was the most logical choice. Abusers don't stop until they're appeased or their entire system of control is destroyed.

Blake's actions really did protect the rest of her team by "giving Adam what he wanted", but you'll notice that she headed straight toward another support network. Good on her; that was a sound, strategic choice and in contrast to another maladaptive coping strategy: the urge toward self-isolation.

Another thing in abuse survivors is overcompensation. Yes, she felt irrationally guilty over Adam's malevolent actions and Yang Xiao Long's conscious choice — neither of which are within Blake's agency — but her entire relationship with Adam probably centered on his feelings, needs and desires. Survivors need time to attend themselves, and Blake never really did that. She went straight from putting all her energy into Adam and the White Fang into serving RWBY. She was bound to be overwhelmed by a need for self-care sooner or later...but abuse victims learn early on that no one will do emotional labor on their behalf. So again, we've got a learned coping mechanism rather than inherent trait, and one that was repeatedly challenged by Sun Wukong and both her parents.

What we really have is two people, Blake and Yang, who have spent most of their lives doing emotional labor for other people — for different reasons — and won't ask for any in return. One has been taught harsh lessons about how risky it is to expect any. The other convinced herself she was too strong to need any. But in this latest seasons we see both of them begin trying. In Blake's case, she needed to regain confidence in her own judgment enough that she was able to command her community (which achieved what she wanted). Her confrontation with Adam demonstrated how much having support makes a difference.

In Yang's case, she better start bloody well asking for what she wants instead of cavalierly dismissing her own emotional needs. Yeah, that's on her; it's not Blake's job to play guessing and appeasement games. That's unhealthy. You don't hold a partner responsible for your own feelings, especially if you've made no direct, honest attempt to communicate them — which is called emotional avoidance. So I was relieved to see her break down in front of Weiss, confessing that need, but even moreso when she finally allowed herself to get past that machismo and cry. Baby steps, y'know?

In conclusion, Blake is a passionate, confrontational firebrand who acquired maladaptive coping strategies consistent with gas-lighting and emotional abuse, and those should not be conflated with core personality traits. Also, she doesn't have psychic powers and I look forward to seeing Yang use her words instead of brooding.

#fandom #rwby #blake belladonna #tw: abuse #bumbleby #rwby meta

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neni-has-ascended · 6 years

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Aside from obvious stuff like specifics regarding lore or operating over a long period of time versus a short period of time, what do you think are the major differences in writing style between Tadashi and Hashino? What do you think they could have learned from each other, and considering we're getting a new director for the eventual Persona 6, what would you like to see them attempt, considering they've studied and understood what the previous writers have done with the series?

Satomi Tadashi (whose a writer, not a director, but pretty much wrote P1 and P2 on his own) is more interested in intertwining the weird, implausible with everyday life and very human issues, mixing them until they blend it becomes difficult to tell where the seems are anyone. He’s very cruel to his characters, very suddenly thrusting them into situations that test their loyalties and tempt them to act in despicable ways for their own safety. He likes painting complex situations, where while the villains tend to be very, very cruel, unlikable and deeply villainous, the heroes still tend to at least be somewhat morally grey themselves, as seen with the assholisms of Kei Nanjo or the terrible past actions of Lisa and Eikichi as kids. He puts a lot of focus on how people need to fight hard to earn even as much as just a bittersweet ending, since not only is life not fair, we also have a lot of bad Karma bogging us down to begin with.

Hashino Katsura keeps the fantastical and the realistic more separated. His stories often feature two levels, one on which the characters are just people living their everyday lives, struggling with their own psyches as they do so, and one in which all these internal struggles become manifest in a fantastic setting. Only occasionally do these two layers cross over into one another, often during important, climactic situations. As a result there’s a lot less outright weirdness going on in his games, but the realistic situations seem even more realistic. Hashino has a more structured approach to driving home the point that humanity is its own biggest enemy: NPCs are consistently written as being apathetic or very unlikable, representing a very bleak view of Japan’s broad population and its mindsets. Main characters, by contrast, are written more complexly, having all of their flaws balanced out by likable, realatable traits. From the get go, we are supposed to know that *these* kids are who we should strive to be, while the NPCs are consistently setting bad examples. Also, rather than personifying humanity’s vices in super-powered human villains, he tends to use human’s Shadows or deities born from human collectives to represent that point instead.

All in all, I think Satomi’s style could have benefited from Hashino’s more clear structure, it would have helped making the real life situations ring more true and added building a more rigid suspension of disbelief for the player, which would have made it easier to see the characters as real life humans, rather than characters in a fantasy story.

Conversely, Satomi’s love for the weird, out-there and some of his uncompromising cruelty could often have helped Hashino’s writing when the guy was treating on too safe, too overly tested ground. Especially later on in the games, Hashino tended to repeat himself a lot, steer clear of more controversial topics or run into cliches and stereotypes that he applied without a twist and without questioning them. A good dose of Satomi-style skepticism could really have helped there.

All in all, I love both these guys’ styles, but for very different reasons.

#Megami Ibunroku Persona #Persona 2 #Persona 3 #Persona 4 #Persona 5 #Neni Replies #Persona Series #writers-blahg

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briangroth27 · 6 years

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Black Panther Review

I absolutely loved Black Panther! The film felt like it belonged in the MCU while successfully carving out its own corner of the universe, making it feel like a world unto itself. Even with its fantastical technological wonders, Wakanda felt real and the incorporation of various African cultures gave the fictional nation a history and texture that made it feel fully-formed and granted a powerful sense of depth to the proceedings. The cast was excellent across the board, supported by writing (from Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole) that gave everyone moments to shine and stellar direction from Coogler to match.

Full Spoilers...

I didn’t know much about Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) going in, having only seen him in Civil War, Fantastic Four and Avengers cartoons, and an appearance here and there in the comics. Civil War got me interested in the character and Black Panther cemented me as a fan; he’s hands down one of the most engaging characters in the Marvel Universe! Chadwick Boseman is effortlessly cool as T’Challa, a down-to-Earth king, badass superhero, and charming romantic lead. In an unexpected and very welcome twist, none of T’Challa’s inner circle are afraid to call him out or have a bit of fun at his expense (depending on the character), which made them feel like a family and gave him a much more grounded sensibility than I was expecting. I liked seeing T’Challa as a more measured and mature man here, growing nicely from the vengeance-obsessed version we saw previously; his first steps toward ruling Wakanda and deciding what kind of king he wanted to be—and what sort of country he’d like to rule—were great to see. That T’Challa was willing to listen to wisdom from all sides—including his enemies—made him an even more compelling and unique hero. T’Challa is bar none the most likable and relatable royal the MCU has given us, with none of the pompous, somewhat bloodthirsty bravado of Thor or the labor camp-minded royal family on Inhumans. That went a long way to making me sympathize with a monarchy instead of yearning to see it overthrown; T’Challa actually does care about the people under his rule. I do wish we’d gotten to see how T’Challa interacted with and was seen by the common people of Wakanda instead of just his inner circle and the other tribal leaders, but this was a very small nitpick that can easily be remedied in the inevitable Black Panther 2 or even Infinity War.

It was awesome to see such a diverse cast in this film and I’m equally pleased we got to see so many strong women showcased here (I can’t imagine how much more important this film must be for African American and female audiences who are finally getting representation like this onscreen). Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) was awesome from the get-go as a Wakandan spy living in the outside world, working to help those in need. I loved her insistence that she couldn’t settle down as a queen knowing there were people outside Wakanda who could benefit from her skills and Wakanda’s influence. It was refreshing to see a hero’s love interest not only have an important life of her own completely separate from the lead’s arc, but to see her unwilling to sacrifice that life to please her guy. Nyong’O brought an engaging, likable, and determined energy to Nakia and I hope we get to see much more of her as the MCU evolves in a post-Infinity Wars universe. Letitia Wright’s Shuri was another standout, stealing every scene she’s in with an infectious, upbeat energy, and I loved her sister/brother relationship with T’Challa. They felt totally natural as siblings, with her needling him from time to time but still clearly sharing a relaxed, loving bond with him. Shuri is very likely the smartest person we’ve met in the MCU so far, and that’s awesome! Like others have suggested online, I cannot wait to see her become best friends with Peter Parker and outsmart Tony Stark at every turn. I loved that she loved showing off and trying out all the gadgets she made, and it was so cool that this princess got to be the Q to T’Challa’s James Bond. At first I thought it would’ve been better had Shuri remote-piloted the aircraft to shoot down Killmonger’s (Michael B. Jordan) forces instead of Ross (Martin Freeman)—she had the experience with the tech to do it, after all—but my friend pointed out that putting her on the front lines instead was a chance for her to directly stand up and fight for what she believed in instead of repeating what she’d done earlier in the movie, which gave her a bit more range. Plus, her panther blaster gauntlets were cool! I’m really interested to see how running the outreach center in Oakland with Nakia changes Shuri.

Danai Gurira gave an excellent performance as Okoye, leader of Wakanda’s elite Dora Milaje, who became torn between duty to Wakanda—and whatever king ruled it—and loyalty to T’Challa. I went in expecting a stoic warrior, but while Okoye was definitely effortlessly badass, I loved that she was able to have a sense of humor about T’Challa freezing when he saw Nakia (and able to jovially inform Shuri of this fact); it was clear they were more than just king and royal guard, they felt like old friends. Okoye and her Dora Milaje were an awesome facet of Wakandan society and I can’t wait to learn more about them in the future. I think Okoye’s relationship with W’Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya) was perhaps a little too vague—amounting to the two of them referring to each other as “my love” without an explanation of what exactly that entailed—but it didn’t hurt the movie or either character for me. Instead, it added a bit more drama to W’Kabi’s decision to follow Killmonger while Okoye ultimately sided with T’Challa. I still would’ve liked to know more about the details of that relationship, though. Also regarding her relationships, it’s a shame a scene hinting at her being attracted to women was cut, but hopefully that will be fixed in a sequel.

W’Kabi’s insistence that the Wakandans take action to capture Klaue (Andy Serkis) and forcibly help the oppressed around the world was a great contrast to both Nakia’s stealthy attempts at helping outsiders and T’Challa’s initial belief that they should keep Wakanda separate. I loved that he was able to convince T’Challa to hunt down Klaue instead of leaving him to the CIA and that he spoke for a contingent of Wakandans who wanted to take action but not go totally public (at least at first). The fact that someone had to argue for capturing a criminal who’d attacked Wakanda was a great display of how intensely isolated the nation was and W’Kabi’s opinions added to the complexity of Wakandan views on the outside world. It was brilliant (and much more realistic) of the writers not to limit Wakandans to two clearly defined viewpoints. Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) was perfect as T’Challa’s regal mother and I loved what we saw of her relationship with him and Shuri. I also liked that she was genuinely willing to make peace with M’Baku (Winston Duke) to stop Killmonger despite him having earlier challenged T’Challa for leadership of Wakanda. It would’ve been easy to make her stuck in her ways and refuse to go to someone like M’Baku, but while it was a concern that he could become a problem, I liked that she had the faith to offer him the heart-shaped herb to give him the power of the Black Panther. I’m definitely interested in how Ramonda will react to the new era T’Challa is ushering in.

M’Baku was another great character I’m excited to know more about in future sequels. Like I’ve seen pointed out elsewhere, the idea that he and the Jabari tribe could peacefully exist separately from the rest of Wakanda—despite worshipping a different god and speaking a different language—was a refreshing surprise. I was definitely fooled into thinking that M’Baku would want power if Ramonda gave him the heart-shaped herb, so giving her the injured T’Challa instead was a great twist. M’Baku screwing with Ross’ expectations of what “tribal” behaviors were was funny and I’m glad the film smartly didn’t refer to M’Baku by his comics alter-ego, “Man-Ape.” How M’Baku and King T’Challa interact going forward is absolutely something I’m eager to see. Will M’Baku’s help in taking Wakanda back from Killmonger bring them closer together or show him that even with supernatural powers, T’Challa needs help holding his country and is potentially weaker than he seems? Forrest Whitaker’s Zuri was a perfect connection to the history of Wakanda, its treasured ceremonies, and its supernatural aspects, balancing Shuri’s high-tech modernity excellently. It’s impressive how easily the film weaved together supernatural and sci-fi aspects, and the extrapolation of those things into the characters was masterful.

N’Jobu was only in the movie briefly, but I enjoyed his reaction to the world outside Wakanda. Sterling K. Brown’s performance absolutely sold me on his passion and the impact he’d have on his son, despite his short screentime. John Kani’s T’Chaka was very welcome and it was cool that he got to converse with T’Challa in the afterlife, another supernatural flourish that served to broaden the Black Panther mythos rather than muddle them with too many different sources of weirdness. I liked that T’Chaka’s past sins not only made T’Challa realize he was not perfect, but tied into T’Challa’s decision about whether to reveal Wakanda or not and gave Killmonger another reason to hate Wakanda. I was especially surprised and pleased that this hatred complimented Killmonger’s bigger goal of helping people rise up against their oppressors: his argument with Wakanda was that it stood by while people were enslaved, not solely that T’Challa’s dad killed his. That gave him so much more dimension than just being a revenge-minded villain.

As pointed out elsewhere, the film expertly weaves the mystical, science fiction, space, and superhero aspects of the Marvel Universe together. It also includes an added layer of social relevance in Killmonger’s concern about the state of African-Americans and others whose ancestors were sold as slaves around the world and are still oppressed today. All of this is tied into the film’s MacGuffin, vibranium, but Coogler wisely doesn’t frame the plot around some cliché MCU villain like an evil businessman or government agent seeking to plunder Wakanda’s vibranium (which probably would’ve been the most obvious place to go). Instead, Erik “Killmonger” Stevens has a legitimate point and that makes him the best MCU villain yet. Enemies who are out to burn everything down for no reason can be threatening—at least in terms of power—and corrupt businessmen and governments often make for obvious real-world villain parallels, but I would definitely like the MCU to start putting more effort into giving their villains honorable impulses taken to horrible, destructive extremes. That’s far more interesting and complex: it gives the heroes something to fight beyond a set of cool powers (and gives the audience something to reckon with in the real world and within ourselves). Killmonger being suspiciously watched while viewing a display of his own stolen culture is a perfect example of the simultaneous scrutiny and dismissal of African-American youth in present-day America, instantly giving him a relatable, realistic connection to the audience. Not only does that scene touch on this problem with our society, but it also masterfully ties into the plot. That Erik was able to so thoroughly affect T’Challa, essentially pushing him toward revealing Wakanda to the world so that it could do the most good, was a great twist. While the film does play into the MCU’s formula of a hero and villain with identical powers facing off, Erik’s position as king of Wakanda (a development I didn’t see coming at all; I was sure T’Challa would beat him in the challenge and he’d start an uprising) made the “mirror image” plot point feel much more natural. Their opposing views on how to best run Wakanda also gave them a great argument to fuel their physical battle, and that’s something every superhero movie needs to aim for (I’m more than a little wary about Thanos’ goal of killing half of everything resonating with the Avengers anywhere near as closely as Killmonger and Vulture related to their heroes). Killmonger’s final lines, about wanting to die a free man instead of going back into a cage, were absolutely powerful and affecting.

Ulysses S. Klaue was fun as an entirely different sort of villain. Serkis was clearly having a blast playing the cartoonish supervillain archetype and I loved it. I’m always up for some classic villainy and this script gave us just the right amount. I didn’t expect Klaue to die, given his status as one of Black Panther’s greatest villains, but I don’t think they were going to do much more with him than what we got. A solid chase/fight with T’Challa with an argument about the Wakandans being hypocritical, an introduction for Killmonger, and a connection to Ross were all we needed from him, and we got just that. I definitely don’t want Everett K. Ross to become the new Agent Coulson, uniting the next generation of Avengers or something; I think the heroes should unite themselves (as a king, T’Challa could certainly lead that charge if Steve Rogers is no longer around). That said, I liked what the movie gave us of Ross and he was played with just the right amount of wonder at Wakandan technology. While I’ve seen criticisms online about him playing such a big role in the climax, like a claim that they still needed a middle-aged white guy to stop the bad guy, I disagree. He had piloting skills and needed Shuri’s tech to get the job done (she even configured the holographic projection to mimic a plane he was familiar with), so it’s not like he was successful just because he was a white guy. This also isn’t a Batman Begins situation, where Batman’s actions on the train with Ras Al Ghul were irrelevant to the finale because Gordon blew up the train tracks. Had T’Challa not defeated Killmonger, Eric still could’ve rallied his supporters and Wakanda would likely be in a civil war. I think Ross helped as much as was needed to be useful, but I don’t think he overshadowed anyone.

The complexities that must arise from five tribes living in such close proximity to each other, coupled with fun aspects like war rhinos, the mystical veldt afterlife, Shuri’s technological wonders, made this a world I want to visit many, many more times! Wakandan society seems like it’s brimming with interesting social structures, so I hope the sequel really digs into how T’Challa and his people relate to one another. I doubt everyone will be happy he revealed their paradise to the world and I wonder how quickly the needs of the international community will start to weigh on the Wakandans. How they balance their own needs with those of the world will be very interesting to see. I also absolutely love that African society here is portrayed as advanced, rather than what we often see in Hollywood films, and I was impressed by how easily a place as fantastical as Wakanda was rendered as a real, breathing community. I think it’s cool how much of Africa was represented here without Wakanda feeling like a generic and homogenous “Africa” (at least to my eyes; someone with African heritage might see that aspect very differently). While pulling aspects of several different African cultures to create the fictional Wakandan culture may be problematic for some (as I’ve seen online), I think the script has enough leeway to say people from those cultures were the ones who founded Wakanda in the first place.

Bucky’s (Sebastian Stan) brief cameo was cool and I would much rather see him find peace and purpose as a figure with the Wakandan War Dogs—if the White Wolf title is a hint he’s supposed to be the MCU version of Hunter, comics’ T’Challa’s adopted brother—than see him take over the Captain America mantle. If he took over as Cap, I have a hard time seeing how he’d be different from Rogers in the role besides being less upstanding and more angsty, neither of which I want to see (if the mantle must be passed, Sam Wilson seems like a chance to explore what today’s Captain needs to be/represent and adding flight to the shield would make for entirely new fight dynamics). In Wakanda, it feels like Bucky can forge an identity for himself.

At this point, I’m far more excited for Black Panther 2 than I am for Infinity War. I want much more of this world and these characters, and I’m excited to see how they interact with the rest of the world now that Wakanda’s no longer a secret. It would be a huge misstep if Wakanda is destroyed in Infinity War, so I hope that film doesn’t go that direction, since it feels like it would derail everything that’s been set up here. Instead, I’m hoping Wakanda is at the forefront of rebuilding the world after Thanos is dealt with.

Black Panther is still in theaters, commanding the box office for an astonishing fifth weekend in a row and it certainly deserves it. If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for? A trip to Wakanda is definitely worth a trip to the theater!

Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!

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mesaprotector · 7 years

Text

Completed NDRV3/Danganronpa V3! Going to ramble on for a few many paragraphs under the cut (spoilers for the whole franchise, obviously).

Overall I really, really liked this game. It made me really mad at times, some of which was the controls (first time playing the game myself vs. watching a no-commentary subbed playthrough - side note, I think the second is just as immersive). The ending, as for the last two main-line games, blew my mind. The only thing that makes me sad is that there most likely won’t be another.

Characters

Going to have to think about it, but I think I like the cast as much as I did that of DR1 and SDR2. Going to go in death order on my feelings (it’s easiest to remember).

Rantaro: Will have to watch his free-time events to decide more, since the past two games each had characters dying in the first chapter (Mukuro, the Imposter) who were really cool once you learned more about them. Despite being the SHSL Survivor he felt a bit bland. Moving on.

Kaede: Oh god where do I start. I’ve written two whole posts (one last week, one way back in April) about how much I fucking love this girl. How goddamn brave, charismatic, and honorable she was. I’ve heard that some people wish Shuichi had been the one to sacrifice himself instead of her, or that her case had come later, and while I with all my heart would have loved having more Kaede, the way things happened was the only way that would have made narrative sense. Monokuma’s always had the hardest time, in every single killing game, getting someone to commit the first murder. Hell, even Korekiyo and Kokichi didn’t try to kill anyone though they could have escaped scot-free; that’s a testament to Kaede’s leadership ability. Rest in fucking peace, girl.

Hoshi: Really like him. Thankful that the little dwarf guy was a really cool, stoic character and a good person, and man was his motive video sad. I know what it’s like to have nobody you really care about (not now, thankfully, but in the past).

Kirumi: Not sure how I really feel about her. The whole “prime minister of Japan” thing felt contrived (yes, I know I’m not questioning the whole “robot teddy murder bear” and all the other crazy shit that this franchise pulls, but still). She’s supposed to be sympathetic but I don’t find myself having a lot of sympathy for her. Out of all the characters I’m probably least interested in playing her free time events. Mind, I don’t hate her.

Angie: It’s hard to tell with her if she’s just a selfish, manipulative person who used the circumstances of the killing game to give herself more power, or if she genuinely cared about her friends’ lives in her own ditzy, overly pious way. Her behavior in the second trial and trying to throw Himiko under the bus would point to the first one, but I’ll watch her free-time events to decide more. Not one of my favorite characters though.

Tenko: I ended up really, really liking her after the demo made me think she’d only be annoying, and spent more time with her than anyone else in the first two chapters. Her (initially) one-sided obsession with Himiko is better for me than Touko’s fixation on Byakuya, or Kazuichi’s on Sonia, because she actually goes out of her way to genuinely help her friend! And she dies because of it. One of my favorite characters despite her early death (man, is this getting to be a theme in this game).

Korekiyo: Okay, so... I’ll get this out of the way: I like Korekiyo. Yes, he’s a delusionally evil, twisted person who killed one of my favorite characters in Tenko. He has a really neat design though, and a really neat specialty that makes him one of the coolest characters to talk with in the series. He’s un-self-consciously a romantic (in the literary meaning of the word) which is rare in fiction and something I really appreciate. I wish he’d had a slightly different motive for his murder scheme - even something on the level of Celes’s banal evil would have been preferable - in part because part of the fun of the killing game is that the participants aren’t used to killing. Anyway, awful person, really cool character. Moving on.

Miu: This human disaster was one of my favorite characters early on, though she drifted down the list when she never ended up showing much depth. In the fourth trial I found myself wishing they’d touched on her reason for specifically targeting Kokichi in her plan, since she should have known he wouldn’t be an easy target - maybe I just want her to have had some altruistic reason, what with him seeming so evil? Anyway. Might watch her free-time events but I’m guessing they’re mostly her trying to get Kaede or Shuichi into BDSM.

Gonta: Sweet, naive, adorable relationship with Himiko that ended way too soon, surprisingly sharp at times but again, naive. Not much else to say about him.

Kokichi: I wrote a long paragraph about him in a post a few days ago - a very interesting villain and character, even if he’s not necessarily completely evil. He made me so damn mad from the end of the fourth trial until he’s cleared in the fifth one - laughing at Gonta’s death is a good way to do that though I guess. I see him as a foil to Nagito - Nagito cared a lot about his fellow students and that motivation led him to throw them all under the bus. Kokichi is only self-interested (at least in the simplest possible interpretation) but that motivation led him to nearly save them all. I don’t like him quite as much in part because I relate to Nagito’s morality in a very strange personal way - but he’s still really interesting, especially as a wannabe mastermind who feels safer being hated than being real.

Kaito: I goddamn love the guy. After Kaede’s gone he’s the heart of this group - charismatic, stubborn, illogical, and trusting unconditionally in his friends even after it screws him over. He’s also hilarious in the lengths he goes to just to be lazier. You’ve got Maki doing sit-ups at mach speed, Shuichi struggling just to get to ten, and Kaito staring up at the stars rambling about how great space is. I regret not finishing his free-time events, even it was in favor of Maki’s.

Tsugumi: I don’t even know what to say. Pre-sixth trial she was a somewhat bland but very likable character with a funny habit of calling the others out on their more ridiculous quirks. Afterwards she’s just the mastermind who I can’t even really pin down as having a personality (like the real Junko or Monaca had). Then again, the nature of this game makes her role less important. Like with Korekiyo, I think I have to evaluate her as two separate things for it to make sense.

K1-B0: I can’t say I was that crazy about our morally upright, easily-offended robot, but I definitely didn’t dislike him. (Her? They?) A little bland and the scene with him and Miu in the lab weirded me out. Maybe that’s just what happens when you spend too much time around Miu.

Maki: Now to the survivors. Yeah, she’s something of a Kyouko expy (there are worse characters to resemble), and her plot line and character development isn’t as subtle as it could be, but I still like her. She gets unfairly criticized for being overly violent and impetuous when the only person she was trying to kill was the mastermind (like Kaede); as much as I love Kaito’s optimism, her “less talk, more action” realism very much has its place. I’d want someone like her around in any killing game I got involved in.

Himiko: I’m fairly sure that if there’s anything absolutely every Danganronpa fan agrees on it’s that Himiko is fucking adorable. I honestly didn’t like her very much early on when she’s just being lazy, insisting magic is real, and ignoring Tenko. Then she loses the two people who she was closest to, decides to become a more energetic, honest person, loses another good friend in Gonta, and somehow, at the end of it all, is the most positive person to survive. I was one free-time period short of finishing her events, but she’s an amazing friend. Her dialogue in the second half of the game makes it clear how many funny observations she makes that she’s just not used to sharing with anybody. I wish her so, so much luck in her post-fiction life.

Shuichi: So... Shuichi is pretty bland. He’s the “worst” protagonist in the series, though that’s with only Kaede (amazing), Komaru (great), Naegi (good), and Hajime (good) to compare to. It’s because he’s bland that I ended up thinking more about the group and the overall outcome of the game, than just about my favorite characters surviving (had Kaede been alive near the end I probably wouldn’t have slept for days). So maybe that was intentional. Still, I wish he’d changed a bit more, and had figured out earlier on that solving trials wasn’t always a good thing. I’m not sure he even really learned that lesson. Despite all this, he would have been an okay side character and is okay as a protagonist - just no more than that.

The Ending

I don’t know what overall feeling is towards the ending, but I think nobody can say they expected it. I’ve played a couple of other games that focus on the player or audience forcing the characters to participate against their will (Save the Date! is amazing if you have a couple of hours), though there’s some weirdness in this version since the way I understood it... they had real people who voluntarily chose to have their memories erased to participate in a killing game in which people actually die. Which would be less about the moral responsibility of the player and more about what the self is. Do you have any right to choose what a person in your body, but with different memories and personality - will do? Danganronpa V3 takes the side of “no - this person is not you” and Tsumugi doesn’t even try to argue against that point.

The series always had a lot of social commentary (more in the first game than in the second, especially if you watch Monokuma Theatre over again), and that becomes even more true in this installment. So... did I “like” the ending? You can interpret the ending as saying you aren’t supposed to like it. It met my expectations in being mind-blowing and pretty coherent, but I wouldn’t say it made me as happy as with the endings to the first two games. Still, the epilogue with Maki, Himiko and Shuichi staring out at clearest blue as a beautiful track plays - that came pretty close.

Aesthetics

Speaking of which, the soundtrack. I really liked... what is it, “Living in a Lazy Parallel World” that comes up often when plot twists are starting to happen? (Kinda like the memetic “New World Order” though that track is mostly for positive developments rather than negative ones.)

There was also a cool track with a voiceover in English that came up whenever the Monokubs showed up. (To go on a tangent, I ended up actually liking them for the most part. Helped that the most annoying one got killed off first.) YOU’RE ON THE THRESHOLD OF AN AMAZING ADVENTURE -

Now, the art. I appreciated the game returning to a more claustrophobic closed environment like that of the first game (though nothing beats DR1 in atmosphere), and the design of many of the rooms, like Korekiyo’s, made me want to actually visit. I felt there were far more drawn cutscene panels than in previous games, which I definitely didn’t mind.

Gameplay

I lied; I won’t talk that much about gameplay except to say the last Mass Panic debate with Keebo was actually impossible until I figured out you could access the casino from the menu. Also, the A and S keys switched around a lot but I dealt with it.

I didn’t figure out how to use the Love Key, but maybe it’s for some bonus mode after the game. In one save I tried giving it to Maki (the only person I had five fragments with) and she really liked it but nothing happened.

Tl;dr

I’ll have to think about how I end up feeling about the ending, but for now I’m putting this game a few notches below DR1, and a smidge above SDR2. At the very least it’s the main reason I’ve gotten four hours of sleep per night this whole WEEK. I have no idea how I’m still standing up. Maybe it’s the power of rejecting both hope and despair~

#ndrv3 review #well not really review i just talk a lot #danganronpa v3 #danganronpa #ndrv3 #dangit grandpa

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whatwillbe-blog · 7 years

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Chapter 56

“How this look? What it make my ass look like?”

Leandra has been asking this same damn question for over an hour in every damn store we go into. I don’t know how or why I even got roped into going shopping with her. Melissa and Sonita flat out refused her request so that left me to deal with a pouting Leandra. If a foul mouth sarcastic say whatever the hell she wants Leandra was bad a pouting one was worse. No one wanted to deal with that monstrosity so I gave in and went with her and if I could go back her ass would still be pouting at home cause I wouldn’t be here. I needed a new swimsuit to pose in and take instagram pictures in so I tried to make the best out of this shopping trip but after hearing that same damn question one time too many I’m over her and shopping.

Maybe it’s best I’m not laying out with time and opportunity to think because my last thinking moments I pretty much questioned everything in front of me and I don’t much like the answers I’m got back. When I first decided to come here I thought rushing to Barbados was the best option for me at the time. Puerto Rico was amazing and awe inspiring and honestly something we all needed and deserved. And for the most part it was everything we thought and wanted it to be. Mijo reunited and strengthened his relationship with his sister and brother in law… me and Chris finally stopped running away from what we’ve always wanted and gave into it and officially became us… Melissa announced that she was moving to LA and Mijo immediately got down on one knee asking her something to make her moved to LA permanent and of course she said yes… everything was perfect and then Kellen happened. He opened his mouth and destroyed everything… our friendship, my thoughts of him, Mel and Mijo’s impromptu engagement party, and most important Chris, me, and the relationship we thought we found.

His words hurt like hell. There is no way around that truth. After everything I’ve given, loved, and put up with for him to fix his raggedy ass mouth to say any of that nonsense to me hurt. Honestly Kellen’s words brought an end to something I thought was becoming important in my life but I was obviously wrong. Even though it wasn’t going to where and what he wanted I thought we could and would be friends for life but he opened his mouth and ended that. I should have known something was up when his funky ass attitude met me at my door. He was speaking it circles giving me hint after hint that he was about to destroy shit but I wasn’t paying attention. After learning of the lies he was trying to spread and hearing his words I was done. I wished I could have popped him in the mouth again only harder but Chris swooped in and took that moment from me. And then his dumb ass opened his mouth…

I love him but if Chris was in front of me right now with the thoughts that’s been damn near drowning me he might be getting a pop in the mouth too. His words honestly and truly hurt me. I don’t think I could ever dream up enough words to give him back the same feeling he gave me. I think what made them hurt even more is the nonsense he was saying back to me was just that… nonsense. His words dripped selfishness and he had no issues or problems with that. I’ve damn near given this man my heart, my body, my soul and he stood in my room pissed because I dared let some other dude spend a few minutes with me while his dumb ass had a whole damn girlfriend he himself was sleeping and spending all his time with. Even when he caught a clue and came back around I didn’t hold his past actions against him but it seemed like he was practically waiting for the moment he could say I was wrong for letting Kellen stay around. When Mel and Lee came to my room I decided them and there I needed time away from Chris and while that may have been true I’m suffering.

I’ve been trying everything in me to ignore and hide it but every damn night… every damn time I even attempt to close my eyes I hop my ass right the back up cause I can’t even begin to deal. He called me complaining about my itty bitty swimsuits and how they were killing him but little do he know I’m the one dying. I close my eyes and I damn near break out in hives and sweat is pouring off of me and I have to sit up or I might damn drown. It’s to the point I don’t even attempt to go to sleep on my own anymore. I just busy myself until I fall the hell out and pray no dreams or thoughts come. It’s his fault… every damn pain and shake and sweat I suffer though is because of him and while he’s complaining about itty bitty bikini pics I’m thisdamnclose to asking him to send me a dick pic.

Truth be told though… I don’t even need the picture. Every single time I close my eyes I see him long and think and hard and I’m fucking done. I’m salivating and moaning at every thought of him and I know my friends are looking at me funny but I can’t help it. I’m dicktamized and the damn dick I want ain’t nowhere near. I’m convinced that there is no more cold water left in all of BIM cause there’s no way I haven’t used it all up. It’s not like I haven’t gone long months… hell years… without sex before but I’m so goddamn horny right now I almost fear when we finally see each other again. I’m wearing his ass out and riding him until I fall off, get back on, and fall off again. We not stopping until his ass waddles out of our room pregnant or damn near close to it.

“I know what store we have to hit before we head back home…”

“Leandra we been to every damn store on this island…”

Slowly shaking her head, “Not this one…”

“I ain't been gone that long where I don’t know what stores are on the island. What other damn store you cackling about?”

“A store where you can buy yourself a big ass dildo since you feening and ain't getting none from Light Bright no time soon…”

Shaking my head, “Fuck you Leandra…”

Smirking as she continued to try on too small clothes, “That’s what the dildo is for cunt…”

“Since you know so much about them I’ll just borrow yours…”

“I don’t share dick… plastic or otherwise… I’m not you…”

“I hate you Leandra…”

Smirking as she continued to look through the racks of clothes, “No you don’t…”

“Why do you always say shit like that? That shit hurts and you know it…”

Slowly shrugging, “Then stop sharing it…”

“Do you really think I want to do that shit? You think I get off on the thought that he wasn’t just mine and mine alone?”

“No…”

“Then stop fucking saying it…”

Softly whispering, “I’m sorry…”

I love Leandra but I swear there are sometimes that I hate her ass too. I don’t know what she be trying to do with her rude and unneeded comments but they cut to the bone sometimes and that shit hurts. I know I’ve taken less than what I deserve when it comes to Chris but I love him and what we have isn’t so cut and dry like every other relationship. Even trying to explain it in my own mind makes me sound so damn pathetic when it comes to him but when everything else is pushed to the side and it’s just me and him it’s incredible. The way he loves me… the way he makes me feel… that’s what’s most important right? That’s more important than how we look and appear to the folks on the outside looking in. I might not be able to explain it correctly but how I feel when he loves me how only he can is all I cling to.

I still remember the hurt I was dealt when he first whispered to me about Sydney. That pain… that hurt is something I can never forget and I can’t help but wonder after Leandra goes on and on about what she think she knows if I will ever have to feel it again. He told me that he loved me and the us we’ve created is all that he wants but still I fully push away my fear. For the most part I believe him and readily scream out the same words to him over and over but there’s also a part of me that’s almost waiting for everything to be snatched away from me again. In some ways that’s probably why I kept the dual dating crap to go on as long as it did. That was me hedging my bet and chances of a happily ever after. In my mind if I couldn’t get it with Chris at least I could pretend that I found it with someone somewhat likable.

Even if there’s never another Sydney I think I’m still in some ways holding my breath waiting for the next hiccup and obstacle to block out way. We’ve waited so long for this and the thought of it all ending before we can truly bask in it and fucking terrifying. I’m quick to say something was close to breaking me but to have Chris and us only to have either snatched away from me would finally and truly do me in. I would be no good for anyone and that is too scary a thought for me to even attempt or fully examine.

Shaking those thoughts from my head I couldn’t stop my eye roll when Leandra started rambling about the other place she wanted to stop before we headed back home. This island ain't even that damn big so there is no legitimate reason for us to be out here for as long as we have been and yet her ass has other places she wants to hit. I guess she could sense my attitude because half way into the store she changed her mind and suggested we go eat instead. I’m not really in the mood to eat either but it could be worse and we could still be in the middle of a store buying shit we don’t need. Hearing her soft whispered words I stare back at her ready for this conversation it’s obvious we need to have.

Softly whispering, “I’m sorry…”

“You always go too far for no reason…”

“I know…”

“Why?”

Slowly shrugging, “I let you down once so now I do too much because…”

“You never let me down…”

Softly questioning me as she stared back at me, “Why you never tell us about Yohan?”

“There was nothing to tell…”

“I remember when you first met him. Here he was… the dude every girl wanted to be with he and he was running up behind you… bringing you flowers and buying you little gifts without you even asking for them. You were so damn gone before y’all came close to making it official. You was smiling so damn much that you had me, Mel, and everybody else smiling with you. I remember when the smiles went away too…”

Softly whispering as I shook my head, “Lee…”

“I remember watching as all the smiles and happiness was sucked out of you and replaced with cheating, isolation, and make up that really didn’t cover anything…”

Softly whispering as I looked down, “I was so damn dumb…”

“Don’t you dare put it on yourself…”

“I knew there were other girls but I didn’t say anything because he was telling me that he loved me…”

“And everything else?”

“I can’t remember how it started… I just remember hoping the make up would cover everything up…”

Slowly shaking her head, “It didn’t…”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“I was waiting for you to say something first…”

“He was my first everything… I thought if I put up with whatever he gave me things would get better but they never did…”

“Rob…”

“I do… I did the same thing with Chris… all them other girls… I looked the other way cause he was still loving me and I knew eventually he would only want me…”

“Stop that shit right now…”

“What?”

“I get on Chris and talk about his ho ways but I’m not about to let you compare my brother with that piece of shit. I won’t excuse away Chris’ behavior but he’s nothing like Yohan…”

“But…”

“There are no damn buts… the only thing Yohan ever gave you was hurt and pain… Chris loves you… hell his light bright ass loved you from the start but y’all dumb asses just kept running from it… don’t put him the same category as that other mistake…”

“Then explain why I let him…”

“Has Chris ever put his hands on you?”

“No…”

“Have you ever once thought about covering up the bruises and marks he left on you?”

Slowly shaking my head, “Chris would never…”

“Exactly… Chris has done some dumb ass things but he would never treat you like Yohan… he will never hurt you like Yohan cause he is nothing like him…”

Slowly nodding my head I fall back to the thoughts in my head. Truthfully Chris is nothing like Yohan and yet for so long I’ve tried to combine them in my head to justify me allowing Chris to bring girls between us. When I started with Yohan I thought I had found the love of my life… the one who would love and protect and keep me happy for life and for a while I was given exactly that. I had never been with anyone sexually before Yohan and he was understanding and never pressured me into anything I wasn’t ready for. Me not being ready was his excuse for bringing extras in our relationship. When I dared to bring up how the extras made me feel he turned it back on me and how I wasn’t ready.

I knew his excuse was bullshit but I started looking the other way while he did whatever he wanted to do. In between the extras he still told me over and over that he loved me and again for a while that was enough. After I finally gave myself to him I thought all the extras would stop but of course they didn’t. When I brought up the change in our relationship and how the extras were no longer needed instead of excuses he gave me pushes, and the backs of his hands, and holds that required make up and covering up. The last time he put his hands on me I lost something I didn’t know I had but would have tied me to him for a lifetime. I was in so much pain but after pulling myself together I threw everything I thought was of importance and jumped on the first plane that would take me away from here. I fed my family and friends some bs story and fled to LA to start over.

With Chris everything just seemed to be how it should be. We weren’t trying to be in a relationship so the thought of sleeping together and what it all meant never really crossed my mind. When it happened my whole damn mind blew up because it was like nothing I had ever experienced before. After our first time together Chris started that nonsense of calling me his future baby mama and rocking chair partner so I had no complaints. He never did anything to physically hurt me and every time we came together it got better and better. There were other girls that I looked the other way over but he always came back to me and loved me that much harder after he was done with them. I didn’t look the other way because I was afraid he would hurt me for commenting but because looking the other way was a way to protect my heart that was changing and only wanting to be his. He was the first one to say “I love you” and as crazy as it was that was enough to keep me looking the other way when another girl was pulled in between us until Sydney came. Sydney was the catalyst that forced us to change and own up to what we really wanted. Him bringing her in changed everything and as much as her presence hurt it finally gave me what I wanted.

I feel almost embarrassed that everyone knew what I was going through with Yohan. I thought I was doing enough… covering enough with right foundation and concealer. I saw embarrassed and ashamed and I never wanted anyone to know what I was allowing him to do to me. After the first time he apologized and promised never to put his hands on me again but that promise lasted up until I made the mistake of telling him what I thought about him and the other chicks he liked to entertain. His hands pretty much told me what he thought about my opinion so I learned to keep them quiet but that didn’t stop his hands on me. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if he knew I was carrying his baby because he hit me so damn hard in my stomach that he all but guaranteed that I would lose it. That was it for me and when I went to my family telling them I wanted to leave I was surprised they didn’t put up much protest but knowing now that they knew what he was doing to me they knew too that it was best for me to leave.

Since our run in at the club every time I turn around… no matter where I’m at… he’s there. Whether it’s lurking in the back or just staring he’s there and I leave that place immediately. The last thing I want to do is deal with him or whatever else he’s trying to bring to me. That’s what’s best for me and I pray nightly for Jah to keep him far away from me. In some ways I wonder if his constant pop ups is Jah’s way of making me confront him and take back whatever power he thinks he has over me but the way I’m feeling right now I’m not ready to face or take back anything from him. I don’t want to be anywhere near him and until I’m ready I will continue to go the other direction whenever he comes around.

“I promise this will be the last store…”

“Leandra we been out here all damn day… my feet hurt, I’m fucking broke, and I want to go call my man and hear him talk nasty to me…”

“He can talk nasty to you while you play with yourself after we leave this last store…”

“Bitch…”

“I know your fingers tired as hell by now… we can still stop and get that plastic dick for you if you want…”

“I’m about to leave you Leandra…”

Softly laughing, “They got long, think, black ones… ain't none the same color of Light Bright but…”

“Leandra…”

“Just let me run in and out of here and we can go…”

Looking quickly at my watch, “You got fifteen minutes and then I’m leaving yo ass…”

Fanning me off Leandra ran into the last store in a rush to buy something she didn’t need or could afford. She’s hemming and hawing but both me and Melissa thinks she will be making that move to Los Angeles as well. No way in hell does she stay here and miss out on all that she thinks will be going on with me and Mel in Los Angeles together. I check my phone and quickly bite my bottom lip after looking at the last picture Chris sent me. There should be a law or something to stop him from taking pictures like this at his mother’s home. If I was the petty type I would call Mama Joyce and tell her about her nasty ass son but then again me telling would def stop my pics and I’m not about to even attempt to mess that up. If there’s any cold water left on the island I’m going to use it all up when I get home. These naked pics of body parts I have no possibility of touching, caressing, or tasting is driving me crazy and I’m thisdamnclose to breaking down and buying that plastic version Leandra keep talking about. My every nasty thought instantly leaves me as I feel a presence beside me and before he could even say a word I wanted whatever this encounter was to be over before it even started.

“Me see you can’t stay away from me gyal…”

I heard the sound of his voice and was instantly over whatever this meet up was going to be. For whatever reason since seeing him in the club Yohan continued to almost always pop up wherever I was. I never responded or spoke back to him but just the fact that he was even anywhere near or around me was enough to make me scream.

“You no speak this time again huh? Eventually you speak to me whether you want to or not…”

Whatever the hell Leandra was doing I needed her to hurry the hell up so my time around this nutcase could end as fast as possible. I went years without seeing or being tortured by his presence and I’m in no rush to make up for lost time.

“I buy you something… will you talk to me then?” continuing with his one sided conversation as I responded with only silence, “I remember you used to get so happy when I came in with a gift for you…”

“Yeah after every time you hurt me…”

“Is that the lie you pushing now?”

Slowly shaking my head, “I have no reason to lie…”

“You sure about that? I have marks and bruises you left on me….”

“I was protecting myself…”

“If you do what you were supposed to do you have no reason to protect nothing…”

“Why are you talking to me Yohan?”

Slowly smiling as he stared back at me, “I’m trying to talk to old friend…”

Slightly yelling as I shook my head, “I’m not your damn friend and you know the hell why…”

“You might want to quiet that down…”

“I don’t have to do shit…”

Roughly grabbing me by my wrist as I tried to move away from him Yohan pulled me back to him as he quietly whispered to me, “First off lower yo damn voice and second you forget who you talking to…”

“Let me go Yohan…”

Tightening his hold on my wrist keeping me in place in front of him, “This mouth and attitude of yours… I never like… you know that and yet you continue to raise your voice at me. I don’t know what type of man you have back in the states but he no do his job right if you talking to men like this…”

“Let go…”

“I decide it’s time you end that foolishness and come back here…”

Shaking my head, “You out your damn mind if you think…”

“You have one more time to raise your voice at me…”

Angrily as I tried to pull my wrist from his grasp, “Let me go…”

“I never say we over… I never say it was ok for you to go and tell some other man what you should only say to me…”

I bite back my cry as his hold on my wrist continued to tighten with every word he said. I’m looking around hoping against hope that someone could sense my distress and step in and end whatever the hell this was. But of course everyone seemed to be looking in every direction but mine and I’m forced to handle and deal with his bullshit on my own.

“How many times you give him what belongs to me?”

“Nothing I have belongs to you…”

Smirking as he looked me up and down, “It belong to me until I say it don’t… I never ended us… I never said it was over so as far as I’m concerned you still mine until I decide you ain’t no more…”

He’s on some straight bullshit I’m not even about to deal with or understand. It feels like he’s thisdamnclose to snapping my wrist in two while he is spouting out crap even he can’t honestly believe in. Using my free hand I attempted to push him off of me and yet before I could put any distance between us he knocked my hand away as he roughly grabbed my face with his other hand. Staring back at me he tried to pull my face to his in an attempt to cover my mouth with an unwanted kiss. Turning my head stopping his attempt his kiss landed on my cheek which instantly angered him. And instead of a kiss he sank his teeth into my cheek slightly biting down on my flesh. Before I could fully comprehend what just happened he softly whispered to me jacking up my thinking even more,

“Until I say you aren’t you and mine. You talk like that to me again and I give you what you deserve and we both know I can. I let you get away with it before but won’t anymore. Come see me when you done here with your loud ass friend…”

He tried to kiss me but once again I turned my face causing his kiss to go to my cheek. Biting down even harder than the first time Yohan finally released me before turning and walking away. Of course all the folks I was hoping for earlier stood staring back at me still with no help or hand when I needed them most.

Without even attempting to look at my throbbing wrist I know there will be bruises and evidence of this encounter with him. He used to get so damn pleased with himself when he would see markings and the purplish blue tell tale sign that he put his hands on me. I ran from him and that life and there was no way in hell I am every going to go back to that. When I ran from Barbados the first time I ran from him and that and regardless to what or why I’m back in Bridgetown to do I’m not about to put up with that again.

Feeling the wetness from his bite still on my cheek I wiped the disgusting remains of him off of me staring back at those stared back at me. I want to lash out every last person with a fake ass sympathetic look on their faces. Where they hell was their sympathy and concern when he had me hemmed up claiming shit that wasn’t his? Where were these damn people when I was damn near begging for anyone to step up and get him the hell off of me? I think I’m even angrier because I see and know some of these faces staring back at me and they know that’s not my damn life anyone. I know them and they know I have a life and a love in Los Angeles and nothing Yohan could even attempt to say or do would change that. I know some of these faces and as sad and pathetic as it is I know that some of these faces can’t wait to run off somewhere and spin stories and lies like it’s the truth and my anger grows that much more faster.

“What the hell was that?

Shaking my head as Leandra was suddenly beside me the last thing I wanted to do was talk about what just happened. Sensing I was close to losing it Leandra quickly gathered up our bags before grabbing at my hand to leave. Instantly reacting as she touched my tender wrist I stared back at her honestly not having the words to even begin to explain what just went on. Slowly nodding her head Leandra took my other hand in hers as she led me from our last store. Silence our only conversation Leandra sped towards home somehow knowing and understanding my quiet. Wiping quickly at my sudden tears I stared down at my already purpling skin wondering if I remembered enough to cover this go round.

Softly whispering, “Don’t tell anybody…”

“Rob…”

Slowly shaking my head, “Not even Melissa… I don’t want nobody else to know…”

“All them people was out there… rumor and talk will get out soon…”

“By the time folks find out I’ll be gone…”

“Robyn…”

Shaking my head once again, “I’m not about to deal with that again Leandra…”

“You don’t have to…”

“I let him hurt me before because I was young and dumb… I’m not that anymore and I’m not about to stick around to give him another chance to touch or hurt me…”

Softly sighing, “If you really want to leave I’ll speed Melissa up so we can leave with you…”

“You don’t have to…”

“If I stay here my ass will be arrested as soon as I see his ass and so will she…”

“I hate him…”

“I hate him more…”

“I wish Chris was here…”

“So he can be arrested too…”

Softly whispering, “I never told him about Yohan or what he did to me…”

“Why not?”

“I didn’t want him to think less of me…”

“Sweetie…”

“I see how he looks at me and what he thinks… I can’t destroy that image that is so far from what I am by telling him what I allowed some do nothing man to do to me…”

“If you told him he wouldn’t look at you any different…”

“He will…”

“You don’t know that…”

“He will because I do…”

Silence filled the car as we lost ourselves in our own thoughts. I want to run and go back home and get as far away from Yohan and whatever bullshit he’s trying to bring to me and yet I don’t want to give him that much power over me. His actions made me run from the only place I knew as home and he don’t deserve that power again. I came here to help pack up my sister so she could come and move closer to me and I don’t want to run because of him and yet I don’t want to have to look over my shoulder to see if he’s lurking in the background waiting to attack.

Listening as Leandra told Melissa about my run in with Yohan I had to go to her and somehow calm her down. To see how much my hurt at the hands of him affected my sisters did something inside of me. Whatever fear and sadness I thought I had instantly turned and became something else. If I run now I’ll be running for the rest of my life when it comes to him and his treatment of me. That’s not to say I will readily be in his presence but I’m not about to let him run me away from what should always be my home.

In the blink of an eye the house was filled with the rest of my sisters all plotting and one upping each other as they discussed how to completely handle Yohan. Me myself… I’m bordering on anger and destruction. I’m so angry because I let it happen again. When I left Bridgetown the first time I made a promise to myself that I would never allow that kind of hurt or pain to come to me again and yet the only animal who ever put his hands on me before is the one who did it again. As for my other emotion… it’s taking everything in me not to go wherever he is and fuck up everything that means anything to him in his life regardless to what happens to me.

I want him to feel hurt and pain with every breath and in the back of my mind I know that that destruction I’m dreaming of is festering and growing and will come to be. As Sonita bandaged my wrist I downed the first of many shots forgetting momentarily about him, his coming destruction, and everything else that had to do with him. I don’t know when or how but soon Yohan will get what’s most deserving of him and I pray I’m there to see it… I pray I’m a part of it… but even if I’m not I still look forward to it. Shaking my head as Leandra’s talk turned to dildos and what color each of us should purchase I downed another shot knowing she’s going to turn her talk in my direction. Of course she did and yet before I said a single word Melissa got on her cobweb filled puss which sent the conversation and the rest of the night in a completely different direction.

Drunkenly smiling through another nasty message from Chris I drowned in the love and protection my girls gave me and let all thought of anything else go. He wanted a message equally nasty in return and for the rest of the night and with my drunk thoughts I tried to think up ways I could get the pic I want taken.

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its-just-like-the-movies · 7 years

Text

June 2017 Viewing Log

Same number as last month! Steady stream, though I hope to at least pass 42 next month. Especially since I only got July before school starts. But ah! Film Studies classes. Lordy, what a good month I had, if Barefoot in the Park was the worst thing I’ve seen. Enjoy!

The Crazies (10, B): Tight as a drum, dialing every set piece perfectly, utterly thrilling & scary even if we’ve seen this blueprint before. - 06/01/17

The Help (11, C+): Engaging for its length, but baggy. Structure alone speaks to iffy politics. But Viola Davis holds up like a steel tower. - 06/01/17 (rewatch) (review)

Enough Said (13, B-): Lovely ideas and dynamics somewhat hampered once the full conceit reveals itself. Thank God Gandolfini saves Albert. - 06/03/17 (review)

The Godfather Pt. II (74, B+): So many glories, such powerful, epic ambitions on all fronts, but stumbles a bit for all its glories. - 06/03/17

The Godfather (72, A): No real tweet.

My Dad and I saw The Godfather in the front row in easy chairs and seeing something so epic only two feet from the screen was so perfect - 06/04/17

I’m Not There (07, A): I understand prismatic as a term now. So virtuosic! To paraphrase many great men: “Look at all these Dylans!” - 06/05/17

I learned so much more about Dylan that Thatcher, Belfort, Liz II. And you know where he says he was?

(talking to someone else) I can’t wait to rewatch it. Now that I’ve spent two hours in awe I’ll spend the next two studying it more.

Carnival of Souls (62, B): Low budget, bare-bones plot feels like it could collapse at any moment but this is bizarre, spooky, interesting work. - 06/06/17

The Mourning Forest (07, B): Maybe too into its photography, none too exciting. But it’s tough at its center. I look forward to a rewatch. - 06/06/17

The Edge of Heaven (08, B+): Exciting, unpredictable trajectory with rich rewards. So finely attuned to the emotions of its characters. - 06/07/17

Wonder Woman (17, C): A lot of ways as a film it could’ve been better made. But as an experience it was exciting, and so goddamn important. - 06/08/17

Definitely has some problems in the moment. But my sister cried three times, and its connecting with so many people in a way that matters.

Zodiac (07, B): Triumph of structure and theme, abetted and inhibited by Fincher’s direction. Sets, photography, Lynch pretty swell too. - 06/09/17

Sophie’s Choice (82, D+): So brazen in its appropriation of the Holocaust, and of Sophie, in some Southern babe’s coming-of-age story. - 06/10/17

Streep’s miraculous, but she can’t escape how nasty the film’s structure is to her, and there’s no picture to support this character.

This should have been told from Sophie’s POV, not Stingo’s. That alone would’ve done wonders for this film.

Zootopia (16, B): No tweet.

Jane Eyre (11, B): Again, no tweet.

Capote (05, A-): Cold yet deeply personal, like a gunshot to the head. Evokes real crises of character. Performed, directed to a T. - 6/11/17

It Comes At Night (17, B): Weak jump scares give way to a truly paranoid, scary chamber set-up. Between this and Alien who wastes Ejogo more? - 6/11/17 (review)

The Hurt Locker (09, A): Terrifying, textures every scene and every character so adroitly. So technically prodigious. Bigelow a genius. - 06/12/17

The Grapes of Wrath (40, A-): Filmmaking as sturdy as the Joads. Genuienly timely tale of the working class that honors a doozy of a novel. - 06/13/17

The Bridges of Madison County (95, A): Maturely observes its characters, how they experience their loves, how they judge their lives. - 06/14/17

Two romantic triumphs for Eastwood that seem so outside his usual oeuvre. With every new Streep performance I’m almost crying. She’s perfect.

Magic Mike XXL (15, B): The Odyssey, but with strippers, and a more lackadaisical tone. Cast, changing rhythms hold it together. - 06/15/17

Dark Victory (39, A-): Richly full of feeling, somehow dodging easy sentimentality towards a supremely likable lead, fully realized by Davis. - 06/16/17

Walk the Line (05, C): Baseline quality to high to call rote, but never is it very special. Amazingly, unhelpfully slow and stodgy. - 06/16/17 (review)

Lake Placid: The Final Chapter (12, --): No real tweet, but guys. This was great to watch at 1AM. - 06/18/17

I’ve been thinking a lot about Elisabeth Röhm’s killer work in Joy but that doesn’t explain why I’m semi-enamored with her Lake Placid perf rn

Double Indemnity (44, A-): Crackerjack plotting, slickly realized by Wilder, gorgeously photographed. Inimitable cast. Richly scored. -06/19/17

Red Hook Summer (12, B-): Thematically and emotionally complicated. Filmmaking, story, kids falter frequently. Peters never strays. - 06/19/17

Hyenas (92, A): As absurd & darkly hilarious as many tragedies can be. Magnificently adapted in itself, to West Africa, to African cinema. - 06/20/17

Julieta (16, B): Definite case of not walking in with the right mood, but I still appreciate plenty. Just one I know’ll do better on rewatch. - 06/20/17

The core feels more elusive here than in other Almodóvars, and of course I appreciated it visually. Leads felt like they weren’t adding much.

Female Perversions (97, B+/A-): Characters and concepts come to startling life. Deliciously specific, neurotically and visually captivating. - 06/20/17

The Letter (40, A): Never slows down from the first six shots. Davis and Wyler do psychologically, emotionally rich justice to a lurid tale. - 06/21/17 (review)

Young Adult (11, C): Prickly ideas. Cody barely has consistent characters. Reitman barely shapes it. Theron, Oswalt still get somewhere. 06/22/17

Hope Springs (12, B): Filmmaking ain’t much, but who cares when the result is so earnest invested in its characters, and at their age. - 06/22/17

How lovely to watch for Meryl’s birthday, but equally fitting for Tommy and Steve. How lovely in general.

Blue Valentine (10, A): What would Dean and Cindy have to say to Kay and Arnold? What do they have left to say to each other? - 06/22/17

So adroitly textured, in the past and the present, for the couple and each partner. Wedding bells cross-cut with marital funeral rites.

127 Hours (10, C): Like Steve Jobs, stylistically out of sync with its lead and their story. Compelling, but I took a while to start caring. - 06/23/17

The Omen (76, B): Not all its tricks survive without a laugh, but for the most part this doomed lurch towards biblical tragedy holds up. - 06/24/17

I’m taking back the number of the beast/cuz six is not a pretty number/eight or three are definitely better

Barefoot in the Park (67, C-): So underdone most lines DOA. Useless camera. Redford, Natwick too droll. Fonda too serious. Least Boyer’s fun. - 06/25/17

I canme about 20 minutes late to the broadcast. But lord even when the film was playing I felt I wasn’t missing much.

Metropolis (27, A): Endlessly fascinating realization of revolutionary acts, cinematically and politically. Relevant in best and worst ways. - 06/25/17

Macbeth (15, B): Haunted by actions its character have and have yet to take. Smart choices, vividly realized, by Lord and Lady especially. - 06/26/17

Could Atlas (12, C): Ambitious, fine, and accomplished in many ways. Yet why am I so underwhelmed? Six stories end in three places. - 06/26/17

Maybe because every take I find online is so one way or the other I can’t get much out of them. I can’t grasp it and no one’s helping.

Maps to the Stars (15, C+): Not sure how well Cronenberg’s style fits Wagner’s scripts. Not sure about much beyond Moore(!!), honestly. 06/27/17

Damsels in Distress (12, B+): I know people like this. Delightfully absurd, kind to the characters it skewers. Sambolas across a tightrope. - 06/28/17

Night of the Iguana (64, C): Coulda used more guts, especially in coloring its sexualities. Gardner a blast. Burton, Hall, camera intrigue. - 06/30/17

Okja (17, B+): Poignantly zany, doing that societal satire thing way better than Snowpiercer. Almost feels child-friendly. Hug the pig. - 06/30/17

Additional Review: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (16, yuck) (review)

#month logs #my posts #my reviews

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