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#is it because some of the source material is edgy???
quonit37 · 1 year
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why tf ppl complain about FNF community so much. Idk I was big on it in its peak and I basically ran into like, substantially less "bad" than I've had in other fandoms? Like not that I interacted with many fans but like as someone who consumed tons of tumblr fanart and youtube videos I saw
HUNDREDS of song writers
Passionate game coders just makin' cool stuff or stories
Inoffensive funny meme videos
Really cool animations
Tons of queer fanartists making FNF really really gay
Just nice comics in general
Like if ppl were mean then like. Yeah it was a large community, like, REALLY large, but I like...... never ran into negativity from it? Why do I only see ppl talking about how annoying fans are. Did I miss something?
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coraniaid · 11 days
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It’s always very odd to me when I read criticism of A Song Of Ice And Fire online (by which I mainly mean: on Tumblr) which takes for granted that this is some sort of obsessively dark and edgy and mean-spirited fantasy, because ... that's not what the series is actually like at all?  
I mean, yes, some awful (and graphically described) stuff happens in these books, but this is at heart a deeply optimistic and almost embarrassingly romantic story, full of a very obvious sympathy and tenderness for the unhappy and the hurt and the powerless.  The weird gritty-for-the-sake-of-it books that the series's detractors describe wouldn't have recurring POV characters like Sansa Stark or Tyrion Lannister or Davos Seaworth or Samwell Tarly or Brienne of Tarth.  They certainly wouldn't obviously empathize with and respect these characters to the extent the actual books do.  They wouldn't be so obsessive about the importance of hope and kindness and understanding in an otherwise uncaring world.  Whenever the text suggests the world isn't fair or kind there's always an unspoken "but it should be,and I wish it was". You are clearly not meant to think that characters like Roose Bolton or Twyin Lannister are being held up as role models to emulate!
I mean, maybe the TV show is more like that -- I gave up on the show after only a couple of seasons, it was a terrible adaptation of the source material, even before the final season that everyone apparently hated -- but so much of the open disdain for ASOIAF I come across on here reads like the people writing the posts haven't even read a single one of the books. Yes, the popularity of ASOIAF inspired a lot of "dark" fantasy novels that actually are bleakly nihilistic and seem to revel in their characters meeting pointlessly sad and violent ends, but Martin's books are just not like that.
Yes, lots of the world-building for ASOIAF is patently ridiculous, and yes, key parts of the plot are just cribbed from the War of the Roses (or, rather, from historical novels like Sharon Penman's The Sunne in Splendour)  and yes, Martin has said some very stupid things in interviews while busy not writing the series.  And no, I'm not sure I could actually bring myself to recommend the books to anyone who's not read them before (especially when it's so unlikely that the series will ever be finished, let alone in a satisfying way).  I haven’t reread them myself in years.
But honestly, back when I was a quietly miserable teenager these books really meant a lot to me, in part because they are the opposite of the caricature often discussed online.  Yes, they acknowledged that sometimes the world was awful and unbearable.  It is!  But they also suggested that it was still important to try to be fair and kind and to appreciate the moments when things were better.  They are books about trying to do the right thing even when it’s so hard as to seem impossible and nobody else will even know that you tried, written in a way that takes for granted that “the right thing” is also the just and the optimistic and the quietly heroic thing; that doing the right thing when you afraid is more praiseworthy than never being afraid at all. And it is baffling to me how often I see people talking about them now who don't actually seem to have ever even skimmed them but are still vocally passionate in their hatred of something that, as they describe it, simply doesn't exist.
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centrally-unplanned · 2 years
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Today is the 20th Anniversary of the release of Haibane Renmei, which is a great time to post art. Good art, you ask? Oh the best - early 2000′s wallpapers from the dregs of the internet, of course! 
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Nothing says “graphic design is my passion” like throwing black font on a black background because, like, its the Black Parade? It has to be black???
Another genre of Wallpaper at the time was the ‘anime + poetry’ blend, which Haibane was a poster child for:
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Posted by “Knight Of Lain” in 2005 as their first wallpaper, King tier shit. This genre really died out by ~2010, but I think early internet had a lot of quasi-spiritual, “Christian-ish but I don’t like, read the bible ya know?” teens for whom Haibane’s ennui & iconography really hit home. Those people are either practicing capital-W Witches or Gwyneth Paltrow now.
Something I did discover when browsing DeviantArt was the people who uploaded “wallpapers” that were just screenshots? Of their desktops? So like their UI was still there, so you couldn’t really download it as a wallpaper:
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At the time that would be frustrating, now its perfect Y2K-core vibes. “Posted in 2006″ yeah I gathered that, show me the Warcraft 3 mods don’t tease me like this!!
To diversify a bit, I did find this Winamp skin in the Museum, fully ‘flipped image’ and everything like how it was done at the time:
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I find this particularly amusing because I know why it exists - Serial Experiments Lain was hugely popular with the techno scene for obvious reasons, so there are tons of winamp skins for that show, and Haibane is related to Lain, so even though Haibane shares like none of Lain’s aesthetic in that regard...why not right?
On the more professional side, Megatokyo Author Fred Gallagher absolutely did a Haibane-inspired sidestory in his webcomic in 2007! He loved the anime and I think its ‘genre’ was something he was trying hard to emulate in the late 2000′s:
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Link if you want to read it, though the Haibane elements are more aesthetics than plot.
To end this a little meta, Haibane wallpapers, like everything back then, were built out of “constituent parts”, official art from scanned artbooks and promotional material, cut & recoloured in photoshop. One of the big source ones at the time came from this image, if I recall correctly:
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Which is funny, because it kindof isn't from Haibane Renmei? That isn’t Rakka. Its from Yoshitoshi Abe, in a doujin he published in 1998 *called* Haibane Renmei, but it was extremely different from the show. Its just a collection of standalone art jumping between cute and gothic-creepy, and these angels live in modern Japan:
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The latter creepy stuff is actually kindof funny, as you can tell this guy is definitely designing for Serial Experiments Lain at the time - which shares that sensibility deeply - but its an aesthetic that would barely survive in the actual product by the time the *true* predecessor doujin of the anime, Haibane of Old Home, would be released in 2001. But since so many Haibane fans *were* alt-edgy goth loving freaks due to how Haibane was situated & transmitted in western anime cultural spaces at the time (and its inherent themes, not taking that away), pulling from the extant creepy art out there was a natural instinct. So that og image just...became Rakka.
You can check out the 1998 doujin here in full if you want - if you are a fan of NieA under 7, the other anime based on one of ABe’s doujin, you will definitely notice some proto-characters for that story in this.
(Also since it has happened before, every art featured here is unironically great, their creators are great for making them. Cringe is dead, I love all of this) 
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nihilnovisubsole · 21 days
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sometimes when work is busy or you have a lot going on in your life, your brain goes to weird places in search of a way to relax. you find some niche book genre and have to read everything in it, or you throw yourself into a hobby you haven't thought about for years. me, i tend to reminisce about the story concepts i came up with when i was much younger, like middle and high school. they're not good. the characters are personality sketches and art designs, and there's never much plot meat. they're beat sheets, or a few thousand words and vibes. the adults behave in confusing, edgy, melodramatic ways that make perfect sense when you're thirteen and think you're being deep. but they're nostalgic, and some of them have potential if i squint, so it's easy to go, "hmm. is there anything i could do with this now?"
and some of these concepts are fanfic, which has a particular allure, because you're tired, and it saves you sooo much worldbuilding legwork. remember that show or game you loved? you could reconnect with it! you could rotate blorbos you haven't rotated in twenty years! you could resurrect old ships! give OCs a new coat of paint and realize a story you couldn't do justice decades ago!
which is beguiling until the minute you go to ao3 and find the source material's fan presence is a barren wasteland. i'm no stranger to small fandoms, and i'll be the first to say you shouldn't make art for engagement alone, but i'm talking dozens of fics. ancient harry potter crossovers. hit counts in the low three digits. fics that share a word with the title, so they turn up in the search results. with stats like those, you wonder whether, if you posted about it, most of your followers would even know what you were talking about.
this is the point where i take myself by the shoulders and go, "AK, this is your gremlin brain talking. don't feed your gremlin brain." of course, at this point in my career, i should probably ask myself whether all fanfic is the gremlin brain talking, which is kind of a shame. time spent writing fanfic is lost opportunity cost that i should be using to build a body of original work. so i eat my vegetables and i work on the original outlines. but i wash the dishes, and i still think, wouldn't that be cool? man. man!!
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rockybloo · 4 months
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As I’m doing this ask, I’m just watching Jack the Giant Slayer and making me SEVERELY wanna read Beanstalked, I’d love a passion fueled essay/reason from you why I should read it! (I’m gonna ready it anyways)
OH BOY I GET TO DROP MY LIMITERS
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For starters, Beanstalked is a fantasy slice-of-life with a sprinkle of adventure and action. It does feature swearing, violence and gore as well as some body horror and existentialism. So just a heads up.
The main plot is basically that Lore, the planet that Beanstalked takes place on which exists directly parallel to Earth, has an event every 100 years where individuals are selected to become Bookmarked. This is where they are assigned roles from fables and legends from our world and gain secret weapons known as Märchen for self defense. This event has gone on practically forever under the watchful eyes of the Sun and Moon, the gods of this world.
But that all gets disrupted by an evil fairy called Nevermore who is bored of witnessing the same fairy tales happening over and over again. She has rounded up Bookmarked villains and the occasional misled protagonist to assist her and her army of ink stains as she aims to rewrite the world and rid it of happy endings.
The newest generation of Bookmarked are very unlucky as it is their turns to live out their assigned tales due to their stories all having been screwed up due to Nevermore's interference. Jack is one of these unlucky Bookmarked, who has just recently come to learn he has been assigned the same Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk. Much of Beanstalked follows hm as he learns about the magical side of the world he lives in, how to use his own Märchen, his own family history, and what exactly a "Happy Ending" is.
Beanstalked is meant to somewhat explore fairy tales and how suddenly becoming a figure in one can affect one's life-whether it be good or bad. It's also, at its center, a story about learning more about one's self and figuring out what truly makes you happy.
If you are a fan of fairy tale retellings then Beanstalked is a good pick for you. Especially if you are a fan of retellings that:
Aren't just mean spirited spins about the original tale
Aren't completely dark and gritty retellings of the source material for the sake of being edgy
Aren't just rip offs of Disney designs and characters
Or if you are petty like me, don't want to read another story about a protagonist having fallen into the land of fairy tales
Every Beanstalked character is meant to be based off either a direct character from a fable or a stock character. And for each fable, I try to bounce off the original story if there is an author (Like Pinocchio novel) or the oldest retellings as many fables don't have direct authors and simply have collectors that put their own spin on things.
So if you are worried about another fairy tale retelling story where each fable is just based off Disney's spins-DON'T WORRY BECAUSE ROCKY GOT YA' COVERED!
Beanstalked also contains a lot of found family elements, such as the entire village of Briar Patch being a community of Bookmarked who watch out for one another.
There are also cool af battle scenes due to the existence of Märchen (because Rocky grew up watching too many shounen anime and now has to put battles in everything), a ton of world building (I've had this story for nearly a decade now), a lotta characters with melanin (many being black), and a cast comprised of bi and pan characters.
ALSO ALSO...if you are a fan of pretty black girl love interests that kick ass (and may also be a monster girl with sharp teeth and claws and whole big monster form) then you will enjoy Beanstalked as Jack's love interest, Nana, is all of said above mentioned things.
SO if any of this happened to catch your attention-GO READ BEANSTALKED! As of right now I've rebooted it from the original 2010s version I had so it currently only has chapters 1 and 2. Which means you don't have a lotta catch up to do!
I have also handcuffed myself to this story which means I will be working on it till I finish it. I am on a mission. So if you want a webcomic and don't wanna worry about it suddenly being cancelled or disappearing one day-DO NOT CONCERN YOURSELF CITIZEN as I am unhinged about my fairy tale babies and am in for the long haul.
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a-mere-dream · 1 year
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For the prompts thing: Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu are the same person and Yue Qingyuan is aware of this, so he has no idea what to make of Shen Qingqiu telling him about the transmigration and that he’s not Shen Jiu
Anon, this AU has existed in a dusty corner of my notes app for far too long. Thanks for giving me an excuse to write it.
So Shen Qingqiu has some questions. First of all, is this even Proud Immortal Demon Way? It must be, right? Because the larger strokes all mesh, even if the details... don't.
It's hard to explain. Have you ever read one of those exaggerated whump fanfics? The ones where the Protagonist suffers left and right, and teachers and parents and basically Every Adult Ever is an abusive piece of shit? Shit's dark and people die.
And then, eventually, you return to the source material. And sure, things suck, but definitely not to that degree.
That is what Shen Qingqiu is feeling right now. It's like Proud Immortal Demon Way is an edgy teenager's fanfic of some nicer, kinder world, and that world is where Shen Qingqiu ended up. Somehow.
Because he asks Yue Qingyuan where Binghe is, and he is told that the boy is in the dorms, since it's late and he needs to get a good night's sleep in order to properly participate in tomorrow's lessons. And when he meets Liu Qingge, it is not in some kind of battle to the death, but because the man kicked in the door and told him he lost his fan again. He smiles, and doesn't get an OOC warning--once, he even gets told to lighten up a little or it'd be suspicious!
Don't get him wrong, he's not complaining. It's very nice to be able to meet the Protagonist when he's looking happy and healthy! But... No, there's not even a but. It's nice, period.
Time passes, and Shen Qingqiu learns to relax.
Shen Qingqiu--the old Shen Qingqiu, the Original Goods--still seems to have been a strict teacher. If you ask around, you'll hear he rarely talks to people, that he's always cold and distant and has the nerves of a spooked deer.
But you'll also hear that he is an innovative genius at teaching, and that his punishments are fair and educative. No beatings. Ever. He doesn't believe in them, apparently.
Shen Qingqiu isn't sure what to do about that, really. He lies awake at night and thinks up ways to make this world a better place, a kinder one, and then in the morning he is told that actually, he has already introduced that change a decade or so ago.
(He feels like a fool, like people are judging him for not being aware what is going on on his own Peak. But even when his hands twitch with repressed violence, none of his people ever look scared.)
And then there's Yue Qingyuan.
Yue Qingyuan is...
He's a warm, gentle man for one, but that should be obvious. He was that even in a far crueller world. He's also deeply, terribly weird.
Whenever Shen Qingqiu does something that conflicts with what he is supposed to know--a metaphor without context, a language from halfway across the world--Yue Qingyuan does not even bother to look confused. He simply accepts his lack of understanding, and moves on. Maybe he bothers to check if he has missed an important layer of meaning from Shen Qingqiu instructions, but even that is rare.
Even so, when Shen Qingqiu finally decides that he should reveal his identity, fueled by a Yue Qingyuan who expects him to be his friend instead of a distant coworker... it doesn't quite go the way he had expected it would.
"My name is Shen Yuan," he says, and waits for the inevitable questions and distrust and violence.
Yue Qingyuan only nods with an understanding expression. "A-Yuan is feeling weird about names again, then?"
"... I suppose?" Shen Qingqiu says slowly. "You aren't--you're not upset?"
"It's alright," Yue Qingyuan says, and shrugs. "Tell me when it changes again." And that seems to be that.
"I am not from this world," Shen Qingqiu says two days later, half a room and a wide Sect Leader's desk between them, and having decided the point obviously hadn't gotten across.
"You are now," Yue Qingyuan says, and it sounds like something he has said often. "What are you struggling with today? Has anyone made you feel unwelcome?"
"No, I don't mean in a class sense. I mean I am literally not from this world."
Yue Qingyuan looks unperturbed. "And the same goes on that front. Really, did anyone bother A-Yuan?"
Shen Qingqiu throws his hands in the air and gives up for the day.
"I don't remember our childhood together."
"Yes, I am aware of A-Yuan's memory issues. Mu-shidi says it should all work out. Is there anything specific you need to know?"
Shen Qingqiu takes a deep breath and calms himself. "Because that wasn't me," he says slowly, staring Yue Qingyuan in the eyes and begging him to understand. "My name is Shen Yuan. I transmigrated into Shen Jiu."
"... And?"
"And?" Shen Qingqiu sputters. "And what? Shen Jiu's dead and he's not coming back, are you not mad?"
Yue Qingyuan blinks. "I'm missing something. Is that a pop-culture reference?"
"How do you know what pop-culture is?!" Shen Qingqiu screeches.
"A-Yuan has told me?" Yue Qingyuan looks politely confused, like he isn't quite sure if it is him or Shen Qingqiu that is not following the script for the conversation, but he's apologetic about it either way.
"When?!" Shen Qingqiu waves his arms around. "When would I have done that?" He freezes. "Oh god," he says. "Do I really have memory issues?" He doesn't think he's missing any time, but...
"I don't quite remember." Yue Qingyuan's thick eyebrows pull together. "I was somewhere between six and eight? It was winter, if that helps?"
"Ahaha," Shen Qingqiu says. "Repeat that, please."
"I was probably eight," Yue Qingyuan says, deep in thought. "It was after the thing with the dogs, but before that time with the hay... but right, you don't remember that."
Shen Qingqiu is not ashamed to admit he bluescreens a little.
"So tell me again," he says two hours later, a steaming cup of tea clasped between his hands and a thick black robe laid over his shoulders. "I have always...?"
"A-Yuan is Xiao Jiu is Shen Qingqiu, yes," Yue Qingyuan says patiently. Ever perceptive, he follows it up with, "Are you having a name-thing again?"
"No." Shen Qingqiu scowls. "Yes. Maybe."
It really does explain an awful lot about this world.
"And Mu-shidi says my memories will return?" he asks, not quite sure what he's feeling about that. He knows that the past itself won't turn him into a monster; he knows that he has always been far better equiped to survive this world with his heart intact than the blank-page version of his soul would have been.
"There is a large chance, yes." Yue Qingyuan hides a smile, instantly making Shen Qingqiu suspicious. "Of course I hope they will, but I won't mind much if they don't. A-Yuan reminds me a lot of how he was as a child. It's endearing."
"I am twenty!" Shen Qingqiu sputters. "Hardly a child."
"I recall you saying the same thing when you were, ah," he holds his hand a meter or so from the floor, "about this tall. You were very insistent you were the more mature one, and should thus be listened to."
"If I were an adult, of course you should have listened," Shen Qingqiu says, the argument feeling oddly wellworn on his tongue.
"Perhaps," Yue Qingyuan admits easily. "But I had had a growth spurt, and you had not, so you could never have convinced child-me of that." He tips his head forward. "Of course, right now I am the older one. Listen to big brother and drink your tea, everything will be fine."
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xenonmoon · 10 months
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I accidentally stumbled upon some Spider-man 2099 comics and since I can't watch across the spiderverse in theatres (photosensitivity sucks) and Miguel O'Hara has become a constant presence on my dash/home in almost literally every social I have I decided to give it a go and see who this guy is and why is the internet so obsessed with him all of a sudden I wrote down some notes while I was reading so here we go. Xenon reacts to Spider-man 2099
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It's giving me a loooot of cyberpunk and blade runner vibes from here and ngl I dig it
I already notice the suit is a little different but not too much? The spikes in the forearms here are less noticeable at least. And I didn't remember ever seeing the webbing
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I love this pose
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Oh my god this is so me fr fr
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PFFTDHFS I MADE A LOUD SNORT ok I like this guy
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He seems like that type of 90s savage-edgy-I-hate-everyone guy, so far considering the context he's kinda funny
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I don't know how much they've changed about his backstory in atsv so I'm writing it all down as it's told in the comics
So his father was a scientist working for this Alchemax and the corporation kinda groomed both since they were children to become their top tier geneticists and work for them. They've invested a lot on Miguel and they use it to have a hold on him, since he's the only guy not addicted to the Rapture which is a very nasty and genetically bound (?) drug only Alchemax is allowed to distribute.
The corporations is running genetic experiments to enhance human abilities and all of that using animals as source, the latest project was an attempt to replicate what happened to Spider-Man in ma marketable way
Except they've become pretty savage with it and started doing experiments on humans (starting with criminals) BEFORE it's confirmed to be safe. And the last one miserably failed (or grandiosely succeeded, depending on the point of view - the guy actually came back with super strength and all of that but he was a heavily disfigured mutant who tired to strangle O'Hara and died short after).
So Miguel said fuck this shit I'm out
(cw: drugs from there on)
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... Except they poisoned his drink with a dose of Rapture and how he's screwed. "oh no worries Miguel we're not forcing you to stay" my ass.
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fucking bastardssssssssss
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FUCKING BASTARDSSSS
honestly though "rapture" as a name choice is sooooo 90s. I remember reading Infinity Crusade (1993) a few months ago and there too they made a big deal about something they called "the rapture". And goddess and holiness and penitence and sinners and REPENTTTT and other overly Christian stuff like demons that was littering everything I've read from that time (which is just all the Moon Knight stuff that got out in that period but-)
the satanic panic hit hard huh
So anyway if Miguel doesn't do anything to fight this rapture thing he's royally screwed and forced to keep working on them
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So he remembers that for lab tests he was using his own genetic material so he's got a full backup of it pre-rapture and he's planning to use the machines at the lab to overwrite the changes the drug made
sound good to me, quite a solid plan
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Except this guy, who Miguel insults regularly on daily basis, decides to take his petty vengeance switching the "clean" O'Hara backup with the one they're experimenting with for the spider project.
Well this is fine
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AND ON TOP OF THAT HE'S TRYING TO SHIFT THE BLAME ON HIM
also naked Miguel O'Hara gents, you're welcome
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Uh-oh
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IT'S MORBING TIME
honestly I know vampires were massively popular in the 90s and it's kinda obvious they wanted to ride that wave and use the aesthetics to appeal to vampire fans and-
works for me
also how do those claws work? It feels a bit weird to see both nails AND claws, sort of like when you realise centaurs have 2 ribcages. Bit more redundant though, would've made more sense if he'd lost his original nails. Oh well.
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He's me when I'm at my parents' house and my mother throws me out of my bed on Sunday morning at 8ish because THE EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE WORM DON'T YOU THINK YOU'VE SLEPT ENOUGH and I'm just left there confused af trying to figure out where I am, when I am, what day and year this is and what's exactly happening in my life
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MOOD
big eh for the sexualised hologram house assistant, ok it's the 90s and it's a thing of the genre and all of that but I've read too many papers about sociological consequences of female-coded robots or assistants (in short: encourages closely associating the slave/servant role to women and it ends up affecting real women too. it's bad bad) to not be judging this very hard
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His first thoughts about them claws was going to the bathroom and picking his nose, so valid of him
honest to god if I had claws I'd be constantly fidgeting with them pressing the fingertip to make them come out like you do with cats.
That's it for part 1, I will probably make a part 2 when I continue reading them
Honestly they suffer a bit from being born in the 90s but I'm enjoying them so far and I like the character. If he hasn't changed too much in the movie then ok I get it now
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we need to talk about common comic opinion for the boys
so i read the comics.
was curious for a while, buddies wanted to do it, finally bit the bullet and MAN OH MAN~<3
there's common opinion that swirls around from people who *have not read the comics* need i remind, an opinion that they are merely *meaningless edgelord drivel* or the like.
i'm here to bust that misconception, smack it upside the head and drag it around the fuckin' town and kick it till it's caved in because it couldn't be more *wrong* if it tried.
first thing i'll say is that the comics *don't* compare in what you'd call 'gratuitous edginess' to the show. while they have their 'bit on the nose moments', they're drawings that go panel by panel. even what they *could* show wouldn't compare, and it honestly doesn't. (coming from someone who's also watched the show too many times over now and got a nice fresh read in)
robin's death is more brutal *in the show*. there is more blood and gore. *in the show*. the arguably edgiest thing between both of them is a guy exploding another guy from inside his urethra, which *only happens in the show*
and for those that have no clue about the big twist or comics homie and try to make blocks of analysis for a character they have zero actual information or decent research on.
homelander is worse. *in the SHOW*.
granted, both have similar enough structure with reversed character development/reveal, but i digress
butcher is just THE biggest fucking bottom by the way, lord satan i CAN NOT with that boi--
anywho~<3
the 'meaningless' part? well that's just a big fat lie and i'll say it up front. that shit needs to stop. this thing was definitely an emotional rollercoaster, and while it may be true that it's not for everyone, it was far from meaningless and actually brilliantly written and even researched.
it's raw, it feels real half the time, it teaches valuable lessons, and even when you're in the notion of 'okay, where is this going, it's sus', when you stick with it? you get rewarded fucking beautifully.
there are moments you'd disagree with the characters actions in a way that makes them feel humanly flawed. of course they might do the wrong thing or say the wrong thing, so do real life humans?? there are cross cultural miscommunication references and conversations that show ennis knew what he was doing and why he did it a certain way. and yeah, it can be too much to handle for some,
*but if you honestly feel that way you shouldn't be watching the show either*
and here's what it's not.
meaningless, ill-thought, pointless, edgelord drivel.
it *is* an intricate and well done, brutally *honest* creative critique of the *military industrial complex*, *corporate capitalism*, and a couple other things expertly squeezed in. even touching on *abuse* and hitting all the right spots for how it can psychologically fuck with people. the ending punches you in the fucking feels as you could appropriately expect it to with a hard side of begrudged satisfaction.
good fucking satan these things were an excellent read that compelled me to want moar from start to finish, and yeah, if you have watched the show then i *highly* recommend them because the important topics and themes touched on are presented much better in the comic, even with the sometimes wonky ass art in place of hawt actors to distract you, lmao
but seriously? the lot of you that keep spouting nonsense from your clenched up assholes without actually bothering to look at the source material need to stop. all you're doin' is actin' damn fools and showing off high and mighty opinions based on complete mis-education if not un-education.
and f.y.i.... also being the damn fools both the comics AND show make fun of.
so remember that line billy says?
'but the main reason you don't hear about it is cause the public don't want to know about it.'
that's y'all. legit, at this point. more specifically, y'all would be the 'public' that wants to live with rose tinted glasses instead of acknowledging that reality is more brutal than we often want to see or admit.
why else would you keep denouncing and dismissing the comics and source material of something you allegedly love?
because some other schmuck on the internet said a lie, gave you hearsay, or a rumor they heard through a grapevine on a game of telephone that said it wasn't worth looking into yourself?
well i'll call bullshit on that straight up but what are y'all so afraid of??
couple other things i will say, if you hate butcher for being the biggest worldclass cunt, you will absolutely feel vindicated and have your feelings or possibly lovehate boner (like mine~) completely validated with what happens in these comics (and if i'm being honest about the direction of the show, weeeeelllll...~<3 lemme not tho lmao<3 still def the biggest bottom, out bottoms hughie by far, i wanna see him get railed by vas/love sausage)
i will also say, billy is 100% wrong in the comic and the show is slowly but surely unraveling that truth there as well, if it's not clear enough by now. what he does isn't for becky/becca, and definitely not for ryan either. it never was.
it's for his father, no i will not elaborate cause read the damn comics. (but also, people need to stop fucking forgetting that HUGHIE is the *actual* good guy here, not billy... billy is a bad guy... billy is objectively worse than homelander in many MANY canon ways and remember that reverse character development i mentioned--.)
contrast, if you *love* butcher, you will likely be disappointed in the show, but the comics will help prepare you for it (they also make too many things CLEAR)
unfortunately, you do not get sweetheart noir in this and while i love his show counterpart, bearing with cunt 9000 noir is worth it. (it also sparked fic ideas for me cause why not both~<3)
LOVE SAUSAGE IS UNREAL AND PERFECT~<3<3<3 if nothing else, comics love sausage at least deserves your full attention.
homelander's as always is a fun boi, show homelander by comparison is basically *final stage* comics homie (full throttle evil berserk type shit/just before it hits) take everything you thought you knew about (comics) him, and throw it out the fuckin' window.
boi does some fucked up shit... and ALSO has fucking mental breakdowns and visceral reactions like throwing up to doing evil shit because he literally can't stomach it and is trying to convince himself that he is the bad guy because he's been gaslit--.
and i'ma stop there. read the fuckin' comic if you actually wanna know just how deep that homie rabbit hole goes.
and i will absolutely use the idea of him having legit *adverse reactions to doing evil shit* in a fic because FUCK. YES. that was a sad but lovely detail and would make for a perfect fuckin'a alibi<3
anywho~<3, if you recognize he's a victim in the show? the comics. read them cause OOOOOHHHH--.
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beevean · 3 months
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I miss when the whole saying "Screw canon! I'm gonna do what I want" meant more about exploring darker elements or scenarios that wouldn't never be possible due to things like censorship or being targeted at a young demographic, or wanting to see your crack ship to come fruition in some form. Now it's become more of a way of fans to say they basically have a complete disdain towards the source material and how their interpretation is not like all of the others, and want to appropriate it more than anything.
I will never forgive how the fandom here treated the author of that Cage AU, implying that they'd harm real teens just because they wanted to explore the possibilities of Sonic being "tortured" in the Forces time skip. Insane behavior to me. It's been years and I'm still not over it, because that to me symbolized the shift in culture from "yay edgy shit! we can do whatever we want even if it's cringe!" to "I will judge you as a person depending on your fictional tastes".
It doesn't even have to be dark! AUs by themselves are fine! It's the arrogant "I can do better, canon is less relevant than my own projection, everything has to cater to me" attitude I can't stand.
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haveyoureadthisfanfic · 3 months
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Summary: Set years before the main show, an orphaned little boy, enslaved among thousands in a dust mine, and a mother, tarnished by the very world around her, are unknowingly bound together by the rage brought upon by a single day of inconceivable misery; and when the two finally meet eyes, ten years later— that single instance will go on to change the world as they know it. 
Author: @uncaught-coolfish
Propaganda:
I’m going to be fully honest. This fanfiction might be one of the best I’ve ever read in general and it’s only at chapter 5 as of writing this. It is written phenomenally, first of all. While this fic is SEVERELY more mature than the source material it’s based from, it never feels too edgy or overdone to me, while also never trying to sugarcoat what these characters do go through. Speaking of the characters… wow. I don’t want to ramble too much because I highly recommend this fic but let me tell you this fic writes these characters amazingly too. Like? The author took a character from the main show who had maybe 5~ish minutes of screen time, made her one of the main characters in this fic, and WROTE ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING CHARACTERS IVE SEEN IN YEARS. Yeah. I mean that too.  Everyone else is good as well, though I don’t want to spoil anything for y’all. Read. This. Fic. Though do be warned, it does go into some extremely “dark” and possibly triggering territories.  (Also, small thing: the worldbuilding is fire)
Also this scene
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essentiallyleaf · 6 months
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UNBELEAFABLE! EDGY BOYS WRITE USING CAPS LOCK AND LOTS OF EXCLAMATION MARKS JUST LIKE GREAT JOURNALISTS DO! [META!] [TEMPORARY TITLE!] [PIC FOR ATTENTION!]
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HELLO AND WELCOME TO 'UNBELEAFABLE!'! THE ONLY NEWS OUTLET WHERE THE PLAUSIBLE AND THE FACTUAL ARE TREATED FAIRLY AND EQUALLY! TODAY WE ARE ONCE AGAIN SPREADING INFORMATION* AND FACTS* IN THE ANNOYING AND UNCURATED FASHION THAT SETS US APART! STARTING OFF WITH!
. LEAF! HITS PUBERTY AND WANTS TO TURN THE PAGE AND THEN BURN THE WHOLE BOOK! COINCIDENTALLY! KEVIN ABSTRACT COMPLETELY REVAMPS HIS STYLE IN 4TH SOLO ALBUM BLANKET! NOW! IS THIS ALL PART OF THE GREATER EVEREVOLVING STATE OF NATURE?! DOES FATE HAVE ANY REGARD FOR OUR DESIRES AND CONCERNS AT ALL?! AND DOES THE MOVIE MOTHER! JUST KINDA SUCK?! [HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE JAVIER BARDEM IS A POET WHEN EVERY LINE OF HIS SOUNDS LIKE IT CAME OUT OF AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLER'S TINY SKULL?!]
. LEAF! ANNOUNCES HE'S LOOKING FORWARD TO WRITING MORE NARRATIVE FICS IN THE FUTURE! SURELY HE'S NOT COMPLETELY SACRIFICING THE SMUT FOR THAT?! THAT'S NOT WHAT WE'RE SAYING BUT IS IT ACTUALLY?!
. #NOTSPONSORED! #SERIOUSLY! #NOTANAD! AND NOW! A SEGMENT TOTALLY LIKE THE OTHERS! NOT ANY DIFFERENCE WITH ANYTHING WE USUALLY DO! JUST NEWS! NOTHING ELSE!
QUIT WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING AND GO LISTEN TO THIS ABSOLUTE MOOD OF AN ALBUM! NOW! #WESWEARWEARENOTGETTINGPAIDFORTHIS!
. LEAF!'S REMAINING KINKTOBER FICS FOUND DEAD IN THE DRAFT DUNGEON! WILL THEY COME BACK FROM THE DEAD WHENEVER LEAF! FEELS LIKE WRITING A PWP FIC OR REMAIN FORGOTTEN FOR GOOD?!
. WE JUST NOTICED AFTER AN ENTIRE MONTH OF POSTING THAT ALL OF LEAF!'S FICS HAVE THEIR TITLE IN BOLDED BECAUSE THAT'S HOW HE WRITES IT IN GOOGLE DOCS AND THEN HIS LAZY ASS JUST CTRL+C-CTRL+V'S THE ENTIRE THING WITH NO SECOND THOUGHT! WILL HE CHANGE THAT FOR AESTHETIC PURPOSES?! WILL HE LEAVE THEM LIKE THIS BECAUSE IT'S TOO MUCH OF A HASSLE?! IS THE REVIVAL OF Y2K FASHION AND VISUALS ALREADY A DEAD TREND?!
. LEAF! ANNOUNCES HE'S THINKING OF UPLOADING ALL HIS WORKS ON AO3 DESPITE THE TAGGING PROCESS BEING INCREDIBLY AND NEEDLESSLY TEDIOUS ON THAT SITE! WOULD THAT BE ANY HELPFUL FOR ANYONE?! AT ALL?! IS HE JUST GOING TO DO IT ANYWAY?!
. AND FINALLY! RUMORS OF WHAT WOULD BE A SHOCKING BREAKUP BETWEEN ADVERBS AND LEAF! WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN?!
LEAVE YOUR VERY NECESSARY AND APPRECIATED THOUGHTS DOWN IN THE COMMENTS FOR ENGAGEMENT! WE'LL MAKE SURE TO READ ALL OF THEM! THE EFFECT OF YOUR OPINIONS ON THE COURSE OF HISTORY IS WITHIN THE REALMS OF POSSIBILITY! BUT NOT GUARANTEED! UNBELEAFABLE! MORE NEWS! AT SOME POINT DOWN THE LINE!
*the claims can only be found in unreliable sources or cannot be found in any sources at all. as of 2023, UNBELEAFABLE! does not require, and has never required, an inline citation for all material. uncited does not mean unverifiable.
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altocat · 9 months
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There are people who say Genesis is the worst character in the entire FF franchise I mean wtf
Sometimes, I think people just like to be dramatic, much like Genesis himself! Obviously Gen isn't the best written character and is basically wasted potential. But people who claim that he's OFFENSIVELY bad are legit overreacting. I've seen way worse characters.
Genesis would be fine with a bit of polishing. Seeing livestreamers and gamer channels acting like he's the antichrist is pretty cringe tbh. He's just an edgy asshole. His monologues are corny and occasionally irritating, but there's a distinct personality there. He goes through a legitimate arc. There's his childhood journal, which adds some much needed pathos. There's all the right ingredients, just sloppy execution.
I'm really tired about people whining about his Nibelheim cameo. It doesn't break the OG. It doesn't break Sephiroth's agency. It adds context and a reasonable flow of events beyond Sephiroth seeing some random tanks and going apeshit. Could it have had better writing? Definitely. Should Genesis have been so on the nose? Probably not. But it fits into a wider narrative in a way that adds to both Sephiroth as well as the game's themes of broken bonds. Genesis is direct and blunt with his reveal, but it gives Sephiroth an incentive to make him want to explore the information firsthand, leading him to go on his reading binge and thus kick-starting his madness. Sephiroth spends more time wallowing in the Shinra library than in the five minutes of talking to Genesis and blowing him off. It changes nothing in a way that goes against the original source material, beyond presenting the information to Sephiroth at a different location. And even then, Sephiroth is skeptical until he goes to see for himself. Nothing's really lost. If anything, his meltdown feels less abrupt because now he's had multiple sources, his former best friend AND old Shinra data, to confirm his suspicions. It just further tightens his convictions and secures his descent into insanity because there are even LESS assurances otherwise.
I think Sephiroth jumping in The Last Order is worse than the entire inclusion of Genesis in Nibelheim. I also think the entirety of Dirge of Cerberus is infinitely worse than all of Genesis' scenes combined. If we're going to trash retcons and new additions, there's worse targets.
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cosmicatta · 8 months
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One Piece Live Action: a very brief, very personal review (spoiler-free)
So I've just finished watching all 8 episodes of the One Piece Live Action.
And I loved every single second of it.
I don't even know how to express how much I enjoyed OPLA, I'm—! I just feel very strongly about this, I'm so emotional right now that I can't even type properly. I was screaming and giggling about so many little details the whole time, I can't even begin to count them.
The show is super charming and lively and fun, the characters are great, the essence of One Piece is there, it has the soul of the original series. The characters were also all full of personality, and I really liked the interpretations of each one of them.
One of the things I appreciated the most about OPLA is how colorful it is. Most live action adaptations of animated shows try too hard to appear "edgy" or serious, and they end up taking a lot from the spirit of the source material by darkening everything (both visually and plot-wise). This was not the case with OPLA.
It's full of life and color, the world feels very alive and it mantains the "weird-core," bright and vivid aesthetics of the anime. Similarly, the goofy and whimsical vibes of One Piece didn't get lost in translation, and I think that's one of its biggest wins. It's very hard to navigate the thin line between "too cartoony for a live action" and "not silly enough for One Piece," but I think they did it very well. I was worried that some visuals and specific bits of humor that make One Piece what it is would feel awkward in live action, but everything was very well executed. Some things feel or look ridiculous because they are ridiculous, and I think that's always been part of One Piece's spirit.
And, while there are quite a few changes in the storyline, I'd say I only slightly disagreed with one or two of them. I think everything flowed very nicely the way it was written, and for the most part the differences do make a better narrative for a more cinematic medium. The changes also made it feel new and exciting for us old fans while still mantaining the essence of the story; I often found myself thinking "well, I know what's going to happen, obviously, but I'm intrigued about how it's going to unfold with these new additions!"
And still, the emblematic core moments that we all remember and cheer for are there. Not only that, but they're brought to life very faithfully, to the point that even some gestures and camera angles are made to resemble the source material.
Overall it's been an amazing experience, and I'm dying to know if we'll get a season 2, because I can't even begin to imagine what more we will be gifted with if it happens!
TL;DR,
I'm not saying it's perfect (it's not), but it is definitely so much more than what I ever thought we would get, and so much more than I ever asked for. I'm happy that I trusted OPLA, because it is a love letter to One Piece. You can tell it was made by fans for fans, with care and passion and respect.
I'm grateful for this wonderful experience that let me become an 8-year-old little girl again, meeting her favorite characters for the first time, the characters that would stay by her side and watch her grow for about 17 years (and still counting).
Thank you, One Piece. And thank you, One Piece Live Action.
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nono-bunny · 6 months
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Heya! Just wondering, since Netflix Geeked Week will probably show a trailer for the live-action Avatar on Thursday, I want to ask a few things:
Are you excited for it?
What do you think they'll keep, cut, and expand in this live-action of ATLA - Book One: Water (Season 1)?
Since Bryke are not on the project now, do you have a good feeling that this live-action could be a lot better than what they come up with at Avatar Studios?
(By the way, were these "Braving the Elements" episodes recent from your last posts? And were Bryke really acting like complete stooges in them? :O )
Hi, thank you for the lovely ask!
I've been completely ignoring the huge Geeked Week banner so I have no idea what's up with that or that it's possible we're getting a trailer soon, so that's cool information to have lol
1. I honestly can't say I'm excited for the live action. The last Netflix live action for a beloved childhood franchise of mine was such a dumpster fire because they focused on being edgy and dark and abandoned the source material for the worse, so like? Past experience has made me extremely cautious in regards to live action adaptions coming from them. In general I am not a fan of this trend- the Disney ones are shit, and I only really find myself watching and enjoying the (sometimes shitty, but like, in a fun way) J-drama adaptions of old shoujo manga as I don't really fuck with any other genre nowadays. Anime has a long history with shitty adaptions for action shows, and as action is inherent to ATLA after all, even if it's not technically an anime, I know that's gonna be a hurdle they'll have to clear- just having good effects and fight scenes. It's not MY personal focus as I do find charm in shitty effects (I do like J-dramas after all!) but honestly that is probably what's gonna make or break the initial hype for the show imo. Rn I'm honestly just... So neutral about it to the point where it surprises me (I'm. Very much not a neutral person usually lol) and I think it's just a matter of like.... Being burned AND pleasantly surprised by ATLA stuff before so I'm kinda hedging my bets until I know which way it's gonna go for me. Honestly I can very realistically see me LOVING it, but the other option is that it's bad and that's kinda what I'm preparing for rn ig? I can't imagine I'll be too upset if it's just... Bad or unsatisfactory given that I already spend way too much energy on the shit the OG did wrong lol, if the LA follows suit with those I think I'll just kinda... Ignore it lol. Idk, A LOT of mixed feelings
2. I... Really can't even begin to imagine what they choose to do with the reduced time frame, but I know I for sure have my own thoughts on what I WISH they would! Mainly I want NO Kataang, if there's Kataang I'm not gonna even bother with it tbh unless it's completely one sided (which it was in the original, yet we still know how THAT turned out)... I obviously want endgame Zutara, but I'm not hard pressed on it tbh- it would be funny as fuck for it to happen after Bryke left over creative differences though! I REALLY want the Blue Spirit to stay, I really DON'T want The Great Divide (no way it's staying in though so we're probably safe on that front), and overall I kinda just? Want Aang to be more sympathetic- him being irresponsible in the original show only makes sense until a certain point, and I want an Aang that shows an ability to grow from early on. Aang's an awful, awful Avatar, and I truly want him NOT to be one here- honestly, a good way to get around some of his early issues would be to borrow a bit from Korra and twist his love for slacking off into an enthusiasm for all four cultures (rather than just their rideable animals), which I feel like he was CLOSE to having... But as usual with him it was all tell and no show- I wanna see him having friends in all four nations, I wanna see him being multi cultural even before he gets freezed, I wanna see him embrace all four bendings and cultures rather than fixating on air, I wanna see him fail and take responsibility... But I also still want to see him being a kid, because that's crucial, and while the original show never allowed him to grow up, I also don't want him to be immediately seen as and treated as wise and powerful- I want him to struggle with what it means being an Avatar who knows about it at such a young age, I want to see him meaningfully interact with his past incarnations, I want him to ACTUALLY find a balance! I think I maybe just... Want a whole new main character still named Aang tbh, because I DON'T like who he is in the original show, but I do like who he could've been! I REALLY don't want the show to be intentionally edgy- if it goes into any dark topics, they should be ones already raised in the original. I want some more light shed on how the North Pole and Pakku's sexism never went away, I want the show to acknowledge that the monks didn't go down without putting up a hell of a fight, I want to know what the fuck Zhao was doing to get promoted like that despite his constant failures on screen, I want to really dive deep into Aang and Bumi's relationship and maybe how Aang failed him on a personal level (he's literally the only one who would've missed Aang, not the Avatar for all this time) and how he mourned him for years, I want Aang to contend with and realize that he's in a war and how he's FOR SURE killed people and will have to again even before Koizilla (he kills so many people in The Northern Air Temple!!)... I could honestly kinda do with an abridged version of some of the Gaang's travels, like, a lot of them are neat but only matter tangentially or from a world/character building perspective and can be dropped/merged/replaced pretty safely tbh. For example, Haru doesn't really need to exist tbh, what Imprisoned does for Katara can and maybe even SHOULD change gears to focus more on her rather than this random guy who only ever shows up once more to get laughed at because he has a lame mustache. The Fortuneteller should be dropped or altered severely because its message doesn't hold up under scrutiny. Yue should be a bigger presence and be more of an established character. Jet should maybe get his role expanded. Suki should be more of a presence throughout. There are a lot of ways to make the first season better tbh, and also it NEEDS to change to fit with the new timeframe so? Yeah I hope they do a good job at separating the wheat from the chaff because god knows the original show did not know how to do that.
3. I'm honestly pretty confident in saying that Avatar Studios will never ever make anything good, or at the very least, anything that I'll like, but as to what the lack of Bryke means for the LA? Honestly, it's all up to the people working on it- Bryke being bullheaded and bad writers isn't exclusive to them, and if the staff is made up of writers that lean too heavily on the source material or drift too far from it that could honestly sink the whole show. Of course I'm happy they're not on board given their awful track record, but like... I know nothing about any of the people working on it in their stead, so a lack of Bryke doesn't necessarily equate to good writing (it certainly does leave out THEIR bad writing though!!)
Braving the Elements is soon gonna start reviewing the third season of ATLA, and it started in 2021 so everything there is very recent! And yeah, every time Bryke are on they prove themselves to be assholes all over again, they keep topping themselves somehow istg!
I feel that this isn't my most eloquent post but tbh I'm quite sick rn so this is the best I can do atm, hopefully I managed to answer properly anyway?
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buriedalienfma · 8 months
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This week saw the release of the season finale of 'My Adventures with Superman', and instead of talking about just the one episode, I'm going to talk about the entire season, and what I felt about the series as a whole. Obviously there will be spoilers here for the entire season, so take that into consideration.
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Let's get this out of the way : Is this show perfect ? No. It has glaring flaws in the writing, the pacing and how it handles some of its characters. I consider this show to be a spiritual successor to the some of the more experimental superhero cartoons of the early 2000s such as the 2004 Batman cartoon or the MTV Spider-Man series, both of which took some extreme liberties with the source material and had some obvious flaws in how they were written. And yet I love those cartoons dearly, since they were, and still are, such fresh and unique takes on the two superheroes with the MTV Spider-Man being a gloriously edgy 2000s Spider-Man cartoon and The Batman being an anime inspired action show.
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I remember those cartoons being criticized when they came out for how non-traditional they were compared to the comics and previous adaptations, but now they're considered cult classics, and I think the same is going to happen to 'My Adventures with Superman'. For the most part, I think the show is still quite good despite some of its flaws.
In any case, lets get those flaws out of the way, so that I can talk about what the show does right. The biggest point of contention is the pacing which is quite rushed in certain areas. I think the romance between Lois and Clark is extremely rushed since they fall in love and start dating a little too quickly for my tastes. The early episodes very much made it seem like the characters were just beginning to get to know each other, only for them to start dating in the next two of three episodes. I suspect that's why people complained about the dramatic cliffhanger in episode 5, since it feels like the characters aren't quite as close as they should be for them to have a falling out that works with how the characters have been written. Still, I think one can overlook that because the two characters are cute together and have excellent chemistry. The show transitions from the episodic narrative of the first few episodes to a more serialized structure in the second half, and I don't think it's as seamless as it should be, particularly since the show is still throwing a lot of new concepts at the audience in the second half and it doesn't land the way it should.
Some characters seem to be introduced and then quickly forgotten when the show has no need for them. In Episode three, the trio of Cat Grant, Steve Lombard and Ronnie Troupe are introduced only to be forgotten within the episode itself and the rest of the show. At least Steve Lombard gets one spotlight episode, but even that feels weird since he fades away into the background in subsequent episodes. Wouldn't it make more sense for Cat Grant to be the one who goes around interviewing the people of Metropolis in Episode eight instead of introducing a whole new character in Vicki Vale ? That would have given the show a stronger sense of continuity. 
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And as a lot of people have already pointed out, the villains are underwhelming. There are some standouts like the General, Amanda Waller, Mxyzptlk and to a certain extent, Parasite. But the rest of the villains are pretty bland. I'm not going to complain about how the villains are different compared to the source material. As I've stated before, the cartoon is allowed to change things for the sake of the story. And yet, I still feel like the villains are the weakest part of the show since they mostly serve as obstacles for Superman. 
Some episodes are weaker than others. I was not fan of Episode 6 since I feel like the characters and concepts in that episode belong in a different show. And I also have some gripes about how the show handles the multiverse aspect in episode 7. 
Despite it's flaws, the show does have a lot of positive aspects, and one of them is how it handles the main character itself. I've said this before and I'll say it again. This show totally gets Superman. It's not just that he's a kind and compassionate man who wants to help everyone, including his enemies. This show understands that Superman is an alienated character. He has some deep seated anxieties about not being a 'normal' person, something that's set up in the very first episode. He's given a character arc where he has to slowly come to terms with the fact that he isn't normal and that doesn't have to be a bad thing.
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Clark is also not a perfect person, as he does hide his true identity from his friends, which does drive a wedge between them, but stuff like that only makes him more relatable. I absolutely love that Clark has no real idea of where he comes from, and is even led to believe that he is part of an alien species that will invade Earth. Not only does that fuel his anxieties even more, as we see in the series finale, but it's just another part of his ongoing character arc, where he has to face his worst fears about himself and eventually conquer them. One thing that I liked about this show is that Superman seems to be subconsciously holding his powers back, which unfortunately gets him beaten up a lot in the fight scenes. I know a lot of Superman fans like to see a more powerful Superman, but the various fight scenes feel so much more visceral and tense when it feels like Superman is at risk of actually dying. Jack Quaid, the voice actor for Superman, absolutely nails the performance especially in the more emotional scenes.
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The other characters are also great. I like that Jimmy is given more of a spotlight in this show, and gets his fair share of moments where he gets to save the day. I also like that he helps to ground both Clark and Lois as the voice of reason. Certainly hope that he gets a lot more spotlight and that the show adapts the Matt Fraction Jimmy Olsen comics, especially with how the season ends with Jimmy apparently becoming rich which is one of the major plot points in the Fraction comics. Lois is also quite excellent. She's a little different from traditional portrayals of the character, as she seems to lack the cynical and snarky edge that some versions of Lois have. This version of Lois is much more perky and emotional, but it works for what the show is going for. Both Lois and Jimmy have excellent voice actors in Alice Lee and Ishmel Sahid. If the show were to go on for longer, they, along with Jack Quaid, could very well become the definitive voice actors for these characters.
The romance between Lois and Clark is extremely well done, even if it is a little rushed. You totally buy the two as a couple since there's plenty of heartwarming and wholesome moments between the two. 
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Speaking of that, I was a little worried that the show might just be nothing but a toothless wholesome and fluffy Superman show. I know a lot of people certainly expected the show to go in that direction, but we were definitely wrong about that. This show has its fair share of dramatic and even dark moments, and that's not a bad thing. Tension and conflict are at the heart of the best stories, and this show has plenty of that. I love the action scenes in this show. They get significantly more ambitious and exciting starting with the fight in episode five and it only gets better from there. 
So that's the first season of 'My Adventures with Superman'. It is by no means a perfect show, but its positive aspects outweigh the negative. If I may speculate on the upcoming plot points for the next season, I hope that the show subverts the idea that the Kryptonians are evil. I've said it before, but that would miss the point of Superman's story. That idea works for characters like Goku, but not for Superman. It does seem like the show is leaning in that direction considering how it ends with the Jor-El hologram saving Clark. On the whole I love this show and would recommend it to anyone who's still on the fence. It's quite different from traditional Superman shows and movies, but that only makes it feel more fresh and exciting. 
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class1akids · 1 year
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So apparently Horikoshi said he didnt took inspiration from avatar the last airbender for bnha but cmon like shotos scar and history being similar to zuko,touyas blue fire like azula,the multiple ofa users just like the different avatars that helped aang. It looks kinda obvious lol
I find it kind of rude how people keep questioning Horikoshi's word on this. To me, it also appears to be a very Western entitlement kind of take, where some people believe that every idea ever originates in the US and everyone else is copying it - completely disregarding that often famous American movies are remakes of foreign films (just read up on the link between Japanese samurai movies and Westerns but I could cite many other examples).
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I love AtLA - but it did not invent things like facial scars, traumatized siblings fighting each other or communicating with ancestors in some spirit realm. If anything, AtLA's visual world stands out for an American cartoon, because it "borrowed" very heavily from Asian culture, Japanese anime and Ghibli movies:
Tropes like "sunshine" chosen MC + edgy, brooding, traumatized foil character are really the bread and butter of this genre.
On the other side, you have Horikoshi, whose manga is rooted deeply in shonen tradition - famously called a "shonen about shonen", while at the same time, it is peppered with Western references that show HK's love of American superhero comics, Star Wars, etc.
AtLA was not particularly popular in Japan (for obvious reasons), so it is just as likely that the two works pull from the same / similar source materials, tropes, visual and narrative influences, right on the nexus of Japanese manga and anime and Western comics.
Like imagine a Western song-writer taking a famous folk song from your home country and stealing some motifs and chords turns it into a popular song. And then when you, a composer of that country, turn to your own folk traditions and come up with a song get accused of stealing from that Western musician. That’s how I feel about this particular accusation that I unfortunately see a lot. 
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