#its inconsistent tonal shifts

[hezuart]

Regarding Utena, I wouldn't use the phrase "sleeping with each other" when most of the sex is outright abuse.

For example, Utena and Anthy are 14 years old, and cannot consent to having sex with Akio, so saying they're just "sleeping with" him frames the issue as if it was consensual and an active choice on their part.

Ah I wasn't just talking about Utena and Anthy. Akio also slept with Kanae (and Touga... I think) Shiori slept with Touga. Touga actually slept with everyone in school. Our main three sibling groups in the show, Akio & Anthy, Touga & Nanami, Kozue & Miki were all incestuous. So that statement was just an overall. Pretty much every relationship in this anime is heavily messed up in some way

Forgive me, I haven't watched Utena in a very long while, so there are some things I totally forgot about, but from my memory, the love square was insane. Utena started dating(?????) Akio, and then found out he was sleeping with Anthy, and then the two of them seem to passive-aggressively fight over him briefly?? This show is absolutely beautiful and started off with a somewhat clear story. A tomboyish girl named Utena joins a strange magical fight club at school for the hand of Anthy. Anthy is maybe under some kind of spell to serve whoever she is betrothed to. Utena doesn't seem to get it, and really only wants to fight for Anthy's freedom and happiness. After living together, the two become good friends and maybe even start to fall in love. Utena loses at one point and falls into a depression, dressing up like a girl again, doubtful and insecure about herself, only to make a comeback. There's a mysterious prince who descends from the heavens to grant her power through the sword she pulls from Anthy's heart. That castle could be real magic, from another realm, or just from her imagination from the prince who saved her as a child- (sike!!! its a projection in the sky?????? guess what, everything is fake!! ??? ....except for the swords pulled out of peoples hearts. Those are real, somehow.)

But yeah once Akio is introduced the show quickly devolves from "Magical LGBTQ+ highschool girl challenges gender roles and relationship norms, saving a princess in the process and falls in love with her," to backtracking, incest, sex, sexual abuse, weird comic relief, manipulations, illusions where everything isn't real yet at the same time it is, shirtless men, driving cars, dead people, etc. The bitter-sweet confusing ending where Anthy is finally free but at the expense of Utena, who in the end realized she could never be a prince, apologizing in despair at her failure, pierced with thousands of swords in Anthy's place...

It still has an interesting aspect parallel of Anthy, a princess, sacrificing herself for a prince who in the end becomes a corrupt shadow of himself. Vs. Utena, a princess acting as a prince, sacrifices herself for the princess who was a shadow of herself to free her. The fact that the thing that saved her all those years ago was her want to save Anthy was really poetic.

Like there's a lot of metaphors to be found here, really beautiful, surreal amazing ones, but in my head I can only see it as a horrific confusing tragedy. But the cliffhanger is like "Utena is out there somewhere in another universe! I'm gonna go travel to find her : ) " how and why did that happen and where on earth did she go-

(I don't know how to associate the movie with the anime because those feel like two completely different universes and probably are.) The show mid to 3 quarters of the way went absolutely bonkers. I feel like it kinda lost sight of where it was trying to go for a while. The ending was truly beautiful, but it was so odd due to prior inconsistencies in the story. You couldn't tell what was actually real or not, or how things came to be or why. And things that happened before, like all the sexual abuse is never addressed or brought up again. And it acts like the ending is happy, like there's hope for Utena and Anthy, but it just feels like nothing was really resolved. Anthy leaves the school, which, you know, good for her, her freedom was the point of the anime, it was what Utena was working towards her whole life, even if she didn't remember. But I don't know if she was well and truly saved if Utena was now in her place. Feels like they're just gonna go in a loop. Doomed by the narrative when the narrative itself doesn't really acknowledge that. I just got a "Don't try to be something you're not because you'll succeed but at your own demise" kind of moral from it, which felt like a loss rather than a win when it came to the gender role commentary.

#with a surrealist metaphorical show unless stated otherwise by the creator #its left up to interpretation- and with this show there are many #just everyone in this show is just so messed up #Nanami killed a cat #Akio slept with kids #Touga slept around #green haired guy abused #Utena and Anthy themselves fight over Akio #everyone is manipulating each other in some way #and then we turn around and have nanami becoming a cow- laying eggs- anthy collects bugs like a quirky school girl- #anthy and akio gaslighting some guy into being in love with their cousin who set the school on fire #its inconsistent tonal shifts #like what on earth was going on #utena #revolutionary girl utena #utena critical #ask #text post

[butteronpancakes]

Thoughts on Blade's recent characterisation

(Crossposting from reddit because I love my tumblrinas)

Does anyone else feel Blade, and by extension Yingxing, had inconsistent writing 1.4? I'm wondering if I had just read his character wrong to begin with due to my personal biases and was hoping someone could clarify some aspects of Jing Liu's companion quest that confused me such as:

1) Mara 

Blade's mara feels like some convenient plot device. I was under the impression it flared up when confronting anything that conjures up painful memories such as his meetings with Dan Heng. Kafka even specifically told him in her companion quest to avoid seeing familiar faces again. Yet, he was somehow keeping himself together up until the peak of the battle with JL? Which leads me onto my next point.

2) Blade and Jing Liu

There is a huge tonal disparity between his voice line about JL and how he interacted with her in the CQ. The 1.4 trailer gave me the impression he was going to throw hands but he just kinda asked her to try killing him again. Which is fair, it reinforces his ultimate goal of wanting to die and feeds into JL being a harbinger of karmatic debt that shaped his identity as a vengeful weapon. I have nothing against this but it makes the previous voice line about her feel needlessly aggressive and out of place. 

3) Yingxing and Baiheng 

This is admittedly more of a personal gripe but I feel they should have established his relationship with Baiheng a lot more. It's obvious BH was extremely dear to him given that, according to JL, the entire sedition (which is a subject with its own share of differing narratives) was an attempt to resurrect her. 

I actually really like how this reinforces that Baiheng was the glue of the HCQ and that it makes sense as it was her that gave YX the confidence boost he needed as a child. 

However, at the same time I feel conflicted because it completely destroys the entire point of Yingxing's character? YX took pride in being a short-life species that was able to surpass the XZ natives through his hard work and passion, forgetting to even sleep or eat. He was so driven on avenging the family the abundance took from him at such a young age despite facing prejudice from the other craftsmen. He literally never shuts up about it, 

"In fact... I also have lots of work to do, and won't live very long unlike the celestials on the Xianzhou. "

"I'm a short-life species, you think two hours isn't enough? It will be done"

This line in particular speaks for itself,

"I'd rather leave this world in a blaze than live until the end of time. I will let all of the Xianzhou know that a brief moment of my life is worth more than their long meaningless live."

The reason why Blade's story is so tragic is because he was robbed of this and thereby, everything that made him Yingxing. 

Now I get it, that must have meant that he loved Baiheng so much to completely turn around all his values on living one's limited existence to the fullest and being against the abundance to use the flesh of an emanator on her. Grief changes you, one's personal philosophies may not necessarily apply to other people, BH was already notorious for escaping near death situations, he probably had it in his head he will die first out of the Quintet, and he and DF were proud, arrogant jackasses who thought they could actually pull their Full Metal Alchemist arc off.

But you see how there are some fairly subjective assumptions needed to be made here in order to justify such a drastic shift in YX's characterisation that was consistently built up since the beginning? It also doesn't help that this quote can either come across as him respecting the situation or sounding bitter about it. 

"Yes, none of us are special! Each of us has only one life, sacrificing for this, dying for that... it's all our own choices. Just like how she chose to save you and Jing Liu... just like how she chose to let more people live on!"

I understand it on paper but I feel there was loss potential and not much concrete in-game content to drive home the emotional impact. Blade barely mentions Baiheng in his character stories aside from the vague "beloved", there are no voice lines, mirage echoes or any other readings aside from the Zhuming one prior to 1.4. Heck, that one closed beta content about her was removed and they only kept the lore about DF (at the risk of sounding like some annoying shipper, they established DF and YX being partners-in-crime so much to the point it is more convincing that he assisted mostly out of loyalty to DF) . I get it that Baiheng isn't explicitly stated to have any present counterparts (even though BH = Bailu theory is super implied at this point) but that didn't stop JL from having her dead centre on her phone case.

Also for those entertaining the possibility that YX mostly did it to go along with DF's ulterior motive of creating a new HE and/or uprooting the Ambrosial Arbor, the bracer lore implies that YX was the one who originally brought up the idea of supposedly resurrecting BH.

"This person (DF) who stubbornly adhered to their plans with the unnamed (YX)"

I'm not saying at all this approach was bad or any logic leaps had to be made (it's honestly pretty straightforward) but it felt like the rug was pulled from underneath for those who were invested in YX/Blade as a character. I've also seen the argument that YX's arrogance was repeatedly mentioned, so it's no surprise he had a wack moral compass, but didn't that conceited behaviour also stem from his virgin XZ natives vs chad short-lived outlander mentality?

I've said this before but the narrative told in JL's CQ is good in a vacuum but it made some of the previously established lore come across as contradictory, hence all these theories about JL being a unreliable narrator and conspiracies about writers intentionally messing up the HCQ lore.

I'm not sure, is what I'm saying making sense or did I just make up an oc in my head?

TDLR; It felt like they were changing around previously established aspects of his character for JL's companion quest and the parts that did make sense lacked context that it being the sole reason to throw away all the foundation themes YX embodies just rubs the wrong way.

#blade hsr #yingxing #fuck it I'll tag rnhng #Renheng #baiheng

[helluvabossrewrite45]

Hey. I've seen some of your rewrite of Helluva Boss scenes and I really like them. I enjoy how you fixed the issues with the writing and how incredibly spectacular your writing of the improved dialogue within the scenes are.

Honestly, I feel inspired by your work. I have an idea for my own Helluva Boss rewrite where I not only fix issues the show has (ex. tonal shifts, inconsistencies & plot holes, worldbuilding issues, etc), but also integrate my HB OCs into my rewrite (ex. my main HB OC Alice Lola (Ally for short), who is an assassin at I.M.P. and an aspiring writer).

I was wondering if I could ask you this: do you have any advice & tips you could give for who have an idea for starting an HB rewrite, or a rewrite in general? I ask out of curiosity as an aspiring writer myself.

Feel free to respond back when you get the chance. Thank you and have a wonderful day/afternoon/night. Keep up the great work! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 🤗💕❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💖💕🤗

Thank you, im glad you enjoy my rewrites and of course, I can offer up some advice for rewrites;

I think one of the best things in writing a rewrite is that you can use these minor details the piece your rewriting has and use them to you advantage. For example, I noticed that Octavia listens to music whenever she hears her parents arguing or at the dinner table where her parents would be and probably would have at least some awkward tension so from rewriting seeing stars, I use that minor detail to highlight her character and her arc of using music or the moon festival to ignore her problems even though it clearly doesn't help. It also contrast with Loona in my rewrite ignoring her problems that she later acknowledges and the two would open up, closing the character arcs in a nice neat bow. Another would be that Millie is often depicted as either moxxie's wife or a murder machine and from the little time we see with her and her family, I rewrote millie growing up having to be in her sisters shadow and just wanting to be her own person instead as inferior or someone's tool. This would establish why she has a rivalry with her sister while also giving her more character for her to be explored (which we should've gotten from harvest moon tbh), Any details you find in helluva can be a tool for you to explore whether it be for the characters, world etc...

Something that even I learned is that when rewriting, you gotta plan what your gonna do with the characters, with the worldbuilding you establish, with all of these plots/ideas your rewriting. Most of the problems helluva has is because vivziepop didnt plan the show out until season 2 rolled around and if we wanna rewrite the show to be better, we ourselves cant make the same mistakes. If you already started the rewrite however, i suggest you look back on the rewrite your already doing for as much as you can to remember in order to not fall into the same mistake the show itself has

When planning an oc into rewrites, I think the main thing is to ask what are they doing here, what purpose do they serve to the plot and what is their character overall (their motive, personality, character arc, likes, dislikes, relationship with the characters, how they bounce off to the other characters etc...)

As another aspiring writer who has a lot of original stories in the works (there's even an original story inspired by helluva boss and some of my rewrite ideas for it), I think its important to approach criticism as a helpful tool rather than an insult. Especially when its rewrites. I always want whatever I'm writing to at least be of decent quality and is regularly curious of how people would react to my original stories still in the works so receiving it and even given criticism for it can help, you know? Since you have an established audience and them offering criticism can be your tool that you can use to improve. It should be noted though that their is a difference between criticism and personal bias/subjectivity. For example, if someone wanted to point out a plot hole or a mistake in your work, that's criticism you can use. But if someone just tells you to go touch grass for your rewrite or something like that, then its not criticism, that's personal bias/opinion they have of rewrites in general so it offers nothing you can use to improve it.

That's all I got so far, I hope this helps!

#helluva boss critical #helluva boss critique #helluva boss criticism #helluva critical #helluva critique #helluva criticism #helluva boss rewrite #ask #anon

[brielarsonist]

Why do you dislike the marvels?

ok so I talked about this already kinda in this ask and this ask and I know I'm going to repeat some of what I've said in those in my response to this. but also there are actually many many things I dislike about this movie, and I don't think it's even possible for me to sum it all up in any one ask, and there will definitely be things I'm forgetting, but I will do my best...

but first!! I know a lot of fans enjoyed the movie and had fun with it, and I'm glad they liked it! I didn't want to talk about how I disliked it at first, because I just didn't want to put my negative thoughts out there about a movie that was going to receive so much criticism even if it had been perfect. but I personally just feel like I did not experience the same movie as everyone who enjoyed it so much, and I really wish I felt the same way as them, but I don't think I will ever fully enjoy this movie.

so continuing on to the rest of my thoughts under the cut...

like I talked about in that first ask I linked, this just did not feel like an actual sequel to the first captain marvel movie. to me it felt more like a movie that should have come after at least two captain marvel solo movies, so that more of what was set up in the first movie had time to be addressed. and, personally, I just don't think there was ever any way that this movie could possibly have time to balance all three leads in a way that was fulfilling for any of their storylines.

but focusing on it just as a sequel to the first captain marvel, I personally think it failed. tonally, it completely shifted. like the anon pointed out in the first ask I linked, it became much more family friendly, taking away from the seriousness of everything carol went through in the first movie. when they did address any of carol's trauma or past experiences, it was incredibly brief. and everything that had been set up in the first movie was merely glossed over, or just ignored completely. carol's story has decades of blank space in the mcu, and this movie refused to do anything but scratch the surface of what she's been up to. the conflict of the movie revolved around solving an issue that should have been its own movie entirely, not something summed up in a few sentences before moving on.

it was also disappointing that instead of getting to see carol finally at the height of her powers for more than a few minutes, this movie chose to once again hinder her. the swapping was, in my opinion, very annoying. it served as a tool to make sure carol, monica, and kamala all had to interact, but it felt more like uninspired writing to me. and there were inconsistencies in how the swapping worked (sometimes it swapped just the two women using their powers, sometimes one would use their powers and swap with both of them, sometimes they swapped in their own clothes but then conveniently kamala swapped into a space suit) which just made some of the sequences painful to watch, in my opinion. I think there could have been more compelling ways to get the three of them to work together, rather than a contrived swap that didn't really make any sense or even have much pay off in the fight scenes.

and forcing the idea that carol was "finally working with a team" just did not land with me, since we have only seen her working with other people in her mcu appearances so far. if they wanted this idea to make any sense, they could have done so by actually taking the time to show her working alone in a proper sequel.

and I also personally just did not like any of the scenes on the space station with nick fury's crew and the flerkittens. I think they did nothing for the story. the flerkittens were very gimmicky and seemed like a ploy to sell merch, except there was hardly any merch of them available. so it was a waste of screen time in a movie that was already lacking on adequate screen time for its characters.

basically I generally just thought the movie was poorly edited, poorly written, incredibly choppy and way too fast-paced (I felt like I had whiplash from how fast some of the scenes transitioned), and tried to take on too many things in the runtime it had. I think the actors all did great, but in general I think it's one of the mcu's worst movies and another victim of their decline in storytelling quality.

and also I didn't like how it this movie was generally handled by the studio??

when it was announced that this movie would be a team up, I thought it was sus of the mcu/disney to not make the captain marvel sequel a solo film before doing a team up, because how often have they done that in the sequels for their male superheroes (not including avengers team up movies)? I think the only other one was ant-man and the wasp, but most of the main male avengers had plenty of their own sequels. so why does the first sequel to a female-led movie have three leads in the shortest mcu movie so far?

I think this particularly goes along with how the mcu has been introducing as many heroes as possible in as little time as possible, and this movie felt like another way for them to do as much as possible without taking the necessary time to prioritize character or plot. the mcu is certainly consistent in choosing quantity over quality whenever it can. but with the marvels in particular, it seemed like marvel/disney wanted to impress people with the cover of a girl power team up, when they're just cramming as many female leads into one film to more or less avoid having to make actual sequels for each of the characters, essentially killing two (in this case, three) birds with one stone.

and speaking of killing!! the fact that they did actually film a death scene for carol danvers I think could say a lot about what they might have wanted to achieve with this film. from the way carol has been handled in the mcu so far, it feels like the executive powers that be either wanted to get rid of brie larson as carol danvers by killing her character off, or by having the movie flop, essentially doing their dirty work for them. this may be me being a crazy conspiracy theorist fan, but I'm not convinced the studio actually wanted this movie to succeed.

first of all, the marketing felt lacking. remember when the marvels happy meal toys were at mcdonald's? it was over the summer, when the movie wasn't coming out until november. what good was that as a marketing tactic when you can't even go see the movie that's being advertised right in front of you? if you have to wait literal months to go see the movie being advertised to you, chances are that most people are simply not going to remember. I know the movie was originally slated to come out in july, but I don't entirely believe disney doesn't have the ability to push the release of something like happy meal toys if they really wanted to properly promote the movie.

and also in general, there was so little merchandise for this movie. the first captain marvel movie had so many toys for little kids and cool merch for adults to collect. but this movie had basically zero presence in toy aisles or in more high-end collectibles, like hot toys sixth scale figures and such. there's so much merchandise for marvel/disney movies, but not for this movie? why make this movie much more family oriented than the first one and not make any toys? no dolls for carol or monica or kamala? no flerkitten plushies? for a franchise that pushes so much merch, I don't get why there was so little for this movie.

and also they decided to release the movie in the middle of a strike that would not allow the actors to promote the movie. movies like dune: part two, which had been originally set to release around the same time as the marvels, had its release pushed back due to the strike, and the movie then got to be properly promoted by the cast in the last few months, which helped create buzz. but disney, despite having already pushed the release of the marvels multiple times, chose not to follow suite in the wake of the strike. so there was mandatory radio silence from the actors during the crucial time of promoting the movie.

anyway, with the lack of proper merchandising and promo, it didn't seem like the studio cared about letting this movie actually succeed. and that, coupled with the fact that carol's story was basically sidelined in this movie and that they literally filmed her death scene, I think just sums up what they really wanted this movie to achieve: no more captain marvel movies.

and now that the movie flopped, there are rumors that another captain marvel movie will not be pursued. after the lack of adequate promotion and plans to kill off captain marvel, it doesn't shock me that the studios would smother any potential captain marvel sequels and blame it on a box office flop, despite her first movie making a billion US dollars.

to me, it felt like the studios are giving in to all the meaningless, sexist hate that brie larson and captain marvel get from the incel "fans" that constantly hate her for no reason other than their own bigotry. in reality, carol danvers as a character truly resonated with so many people, but the studios seem content with sidelining and/or killing her off. it seems like too much of a coincidence that she gets so much unwarranted hate online and now the studios are treating her character this way. disney thinks they can formulate a movie that will please everyone, but who are they actually trying to please by minimizing captain marvel in the mcu?

hopefully I'm wrong about how the studio feels about captain marvel's future in the mcu, but I just do not feel optimistic at all about it after this movie.

so after all of my complaints, I realize I might be asking too much from a fucking marvel superhero movie, since they're not generally known for their excellent treatment of plot and characters. if you pay too much attention to a marvel movie, you will most certainly not be rewarded in its sequels, as they seem to like to punish the fans who care about consistency. but all the same, I still love carol danvers as a character, and despite everything, I hope she gets better treatment in the future.

#ask #anonymous #sorry if this was a lot more than you were expecting my dear anon #I just have a lot of Thoughts

[jonfucius]

Great Star Trek Rewatch - The Animated Series S1

Originally posted on Twitter 8 January 2021 - 11 January 2021

Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 1 is up next in my Great Star Trek Rewatch. As with ENT, DSC, STX, and TOS, mini-reviews will document my progress.

Beyond the Farthest Star: Immediately establishing the creative possibilities the animation format affords, this is a solid re-introduction to our live-action heroes. The alien's pleas at the end are truly pitiful and sad. 7/10

Yesteryear: The single best episode of TAS, bar none. Tightly scripted and well acted, it shows how TAS could be more mature and complex than its other cartoon contemporaries. 10/10

One of Our Planets is Missing: A nice callback to TOS with Bob Wesley, this episode is otherwise reminiscent of “The Immunity Syndrome.” Again, the animated format allows for expanded vistas and areas of the Enterprise we never got to see on TOS. 7/10

The Lorelei Signal: Uhura and Chapel get their moment in the proverbial center seat, but this episode is let down by the sexist reinterpretation of the Sirens from Homer’s epic. 5/10

More Tribbles, More Trouble: A direct sequel to a TOS classic, featuring the original Cyrano Jones himself, and the return of Koloth (sadly, not voiced by William Campbell), written by David Gerrold, this is a solid TAS entry with classic TOS energy. 8/10

The Survivor: A poignant love story crossed with Romulan intrigue outweighs the abrupt tonal shift of the tag, and the cliché of having Carter Winston’s fiancée coincidentally aboard the Enterprise. A great vocal performance by Ted Knight adds to the score. 7/10

The Infinite Vulcan: Walter Koenig’s script really takes advantage of the animated format: giant clones, plant-based life forms, etc. I’ve always had a soft spot for this one, from childhood. 7/10

The Magicks of Megas-tu: Besides providing Swear Trek with nigh-limitless material, this episode has a fairly provocative denouement. No other mid-70s animated show would tackle God, the Devil, and Salem in 25 minutes. Magic being real is inconsistent with TOS, however. 6/10

Once Upon a Planet: A sequel to TOS “Shore Leave,” we learn more about the mysterious planet, and Uhura gets some things to do besides operating the communication console. Kirk talks down yet another computer. I’m not a fan of “Shore Leave,” so I’m not high on this outing. 5/10

Mudd’s Passion: Harry Mudd on TOS is a mixed bag: expertly performed (here, once again by the late Roger C. Carmel), but gross and misogynistic. While I applaud bringing Carmel and writer Stephen Kandel back, I don’t like this one, except for its camp value. 5/10

The Terratin Incident: Only in animated format could our heroes be convincingly shrunk. This episode establishes that the transporter can reverse or cure most maladies, something seen again in TAS, and then several more times in the Berman era. 6/10

The Time Trap: Shades of “Day of the Dove,” wherein our heroes must work with the Klingons to get back to our reality. Wisely, the Bonaventure is more or less retconned out in First Contact. The starship graveyard and Elysian Council are great concepts. 7/10

The Ambergris Element: Another planetary disaster story so soon on the heels of “The Terratin Incident” feels repetitive. While it’s fun to see the aquashuttle and the scouter gig, I’m not sure what the point of this one was. At least it embraces the animation format. 4/10

The Slaver Weapon: The only official crossover with another franchise (Larry Niven’s Known Space) in Trek’s long history. A solid script and interesting backstory is only held back by the half-hour runtime. 8/10

The Eye of the Beholder: Shades of “The Cage,” though the unaired pilot did more with the criticism of incarceration than this TAS installment. It’s ultimately forgettable, which is an even worse fate than being memorably awful. 3/10

The Jihad: A problematic title for an episode that most closely resembles the excellent late TNG two-parter “Gambit.” Again, excellent use of the animated format, but constrained by the brief runtime. 5/10

And with that, Season 1 of TAS comes to an end in my Great Star Trek Rewatch. Final score: 6.25/10. Highest score(s): “Yesteryear.” Lowest score(s): “The Eye of the Beholder.”

#great star trek rewatch #star trek #star trek tas

[heretherebedork]

you uhhhhh might not want to tag this one but do you get what i mean when i say i almost want kinnporsche not to get a happy ever after? like, not a tragic ending. no death or mutilation or forever irrevocable separation. maybe a bittersweet happy-for-now or a temporary breakup. just something that reflects the focus back onto all the destruction their relationship has left in its wake. destruction of not only those around them, but each other, and even themselves. i am irrationally soft about kimchay and want them to get their fairytale finale, and my morbid fascination with vegaspete is reaching perhaps unhealthy levels, but i'm still mad about big and ken and chay and pete and all the people whose lives have been or are being fucked up because the boss and his pet bodyguard are having what i for some reason think of as a great gatsby moment and can't be bothered to think about how their actions affect anyone else. i sound meaner than i intend to, i think, but i'm just so heartsick for the all those side characters who deserved better. does it make sense to you? i feel like you're one of the only people I follow who would get what i'm trying to say.

I absolutely understand!

This is one of my biggest issues as the show has gone on.

There's emotional pathos for everyone... except Porsche and Kinn.

Their last real emotional pathos moment for me was in the bathroom.

And since then, it feels like everything is just... Kinn being right, Porsche being wrong, Kinn rolling his eyes at Porsche and Porsche just realizing that he's sunk all his energy into Kinn so he better forgive him and love him.

Nothing lasts. No upset lasts. Everything turns into these super, sickly sweet moments that stick out in the show like a sore thumb and don't fit in at all and undermine the emotional drama that keeps almost peeking to the surface.

Kinn and Porsche have left many dead in their wake and Porsche has completely reshaped himself into a new person and forgotten about the rest of his life and the rest of the people in his life to make way for Kinn and the show is just going to pain this as Kinn being more and more right and I am just gonna... I am... oof.

The ending of the last episode really sealed how disinterested I am in their happy ending, honestly. Because their happy ending has come from forgetting Pete, from pushing aside Chay, from ignoring death, from breaking the tone of the show... and I just don't care about them anymore, I really don't.

Please, just give me more KimChay and VegasPete and leave KP to do whatever they're gonna do off-screen.

(You are right, this isn't getting tagged!)

The problem is that I do like this show when it's being a serious mafia show. I could see loving it, even. But the tonal shifts that come in those lovey-dovey scenes ruin them for me because they don't feel right and they don't make sense and they take me out and send me here, to where I stop caring about their relationship.

Honestly, if this episode had ended more seriously... I would probably still be considering their relationship. But after the fart joke and the complete dismissal of Porsche's worries in order to reassure Kinn while I'm still mourning Big, Ken and even Pete? Like... no thanks. Nope.

That's my biggest issue, more than anything else. It's the show's tonal inconsistencies that are pushing me out of this relationship and the story, like shock of cold water.

#no tags here #spoilers #spoiler

[lunapaper]

Album Review: 'SOS' - SZA

SZA is making up for lost time. 

After an exhausting five-year tug-of-war with her record label, Top Dawg Entertainment, the singer’s long-awaited second album, SOS is a sprawling 23 tracks, clocking in at just over an hour.  

As expected, there’s a lot for Solana Rowe to process, all delivered in her usual rambling stream of consciousness. 

‘I might kill my ex, not the best idea/His new girlfriend's next, how'd I get here?’ she sings on the woozy, twilit psychedelia of ‘Kill Bill,’ preferring jail time over loneliness. She revels in self-destruction on ‘Seek and Destroy,’ setting the mood with a nervous rattle of synths. On ‘Blind,’ she craves violence and dysfunction, boldly proclaiming ‘My pussy precedes me/My, my, how the times change.’ OG track ‘Shirt,’ meanwhile, is all dusky agitation, Rowe turning her anger into full sensory overload. It also serves up what I consider to be one of the best, most cutting lines on a pop song in recent years (‘Bloodstain on my shirt/New bitch on my nerves’). 

There’s a lot of humour and pathos throughout SOS. ‘Ghost in the Machine’ (featuring Phoebe Bridgers) has a jewellery box tenderness about it, backed by an ethereal choir as Rowe pleads for a little humanity, just wanting to ‘fuck, eat, sleep, love happy.’ On ‘Conceited,’ she’s betting on herself, no longer seeking validation and upfront about her past cosmetic procedures. But Rowe’s finds herself back in the chokehold of insecurity not one track later, thanks to her loser ex, owing quite a bit to TLC’s own empowerment anthem, ‘Unpretty.’  

There’s a ton of throwback appeal on the album. ‘Gone Girl’ is late night 70s soul complete with soft-focus vignette. Both the title track and the home-spun acoustic of ‘Open Arms’ channel the aching, full-throated emotion of Lauryn Hill. ‘Good Days,’ much like Beabadoobee’s ‘Sunny Day,’ is Furtado-style folk pop that sees Rowe on her ‘empty mind shit,’ while ‘Nobody Gets Me’ is on that massive Avril ‘I’m With You’ shit, big time.  

‘F2F,’ however, manages to jump on the pop punk bandwagon without the need for a Travis Barker cameo, and it’s all the better for it. You can tell Rowe’s been listening to a lot of Pink here, specifically ‘Just Like a Pill’ and ‘Don’t Let Me Get Me’ (from her 2001 masterpiece, M!ssunderztood).  

SOS crosses a lot of sonic terrain, which, unfortunately, results in a rather uneven record. The sequencing is so damn poor, with lush, atmospheric stretches disrupted by cheap filler, creating jarring tonal shifts: ‘Conceited’ immediately contradicts ‘Special’s message of empowerment; ‘F2F’ is plonked between two emotional ballads; ‘Good Days’ sees Rowe find peace, making for a solid closing track… until it’s upended by the ODB-sampling ‘Forgiveless,’ with the singer promising to remain a bad bitch. And why the hell would you not open the record with ‘Smoking On My Ex Pack’?? 

Some tracks feel unfinished, while others already sound dated (namely ‘Low,’ ‘Notice Me,’ ‘Conceited,’ ‘Snooze’ – exactly that). SOS, at times, seems to be produced more with virality and streaming in mind, probably at the behest of TDE and RCA, hoping for another ‘Shirt’-style blowup on TikTok. 

Inside a good album like SOS is an even better album just waiting to come out. Throughout, SZA’s raw emotion is often overshadowed by weak hooks, repetitive themes and an inconsistent tone. Stripping away the emotional depth and complexity that made CTRL so compelling in order to make the album more TikTok-worthy in the short term is also rather frustrating. 

SZA herself didn’t seem to hold as much confidence in SOS in the lead-up to its release, telling Rolling Stone: 

‘[M]aybe up until the last week, when I texted [my label] and was like, ‘we don’t have to put this out. We could just pull out and move it to January. We can just let this go. And she’s like, ‘you can’t, you’re like, crowning... You can’t push the baby back in.’ I was like, ‘we can push the baby back in. We can!’ Even when I was [doing the] track listing, I was like, ‘Ugh, this shit is so boring’ or ‘it sucks,’ or when I couldn’t get some of the things I wanted for the initial cover idea or things weren’t working out, I’m like, ‘let’s just put it out with no cover and just leave everything blank.’ And then part of me was just like, I just wanna get it over with. I wanna meet my own fate.’  

In her quest for control that started all the way back in 2017, SZA only seems to end up further sacrificing herself to the whims of others, as SOS sadly proves: to TDE/RCA, to her loser exes, to social media demand, to her insecurities. The singer has more than once referred to this as her 'final' album, and I really wouldn't blame her if it was after all the shit she’s put up with these past few years (See also: Sky Ferreira, still trapped in the cavernous depths of record label hell after almost a decade). 

But I really hope it’s not: When given the chance, SZA has proven herself to be a more interesting artist than she’s usually given credit for, and you do see glimmers of that on SOS. Instead of wasting her time with pointless one-off singles and petty label politics, she might actually have the chance to put together a more cohesive body of work. Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait another five years for it... 

– Bianca B. 

#music #sza #sos #new #reviews #albums #Bianca B

[themovieblogonline]

Knuckles Review: A Middling Entry in the Sonic Franchise

The Paramount+ television miniseries Knuckles, a spin-off of the Sonic the Hedgehog film series, aims to bridge the gap between Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 with a unique narrative focus on the titular echidna. Starring Idris Elba as Knuckles and Adam Pally as Wade Whipple, the series shifts gears from the high-octane, globetrotting adventures of Sonic to explore more personal themes of mentorship, redemption, and family ties. While Knuckles showcases promising elements, it ultimately struggles to find its footing, culminating in a final product that's as inconsistent as it is occasionally delightful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kETt59yn6A The premise of Knuckles initially offers an intriguing expansion of the franchise's lore. Placed between the events of the second and forthcoming third Sonic films, it provides a character-driven narrative focusing on Knuckles' attempts to adjust to life on Earth. This storyline is given weight by Knuckles' undertaking to mentor deputy sheriff Wade Whipple, played with an affable charm by Adam Pally. The miniseries tries to layer its action-adventure skeleton with emotional flesh by incorporating themes of self-discovery, familial reconciliation, and the mastering of one's potential. Unfortunately, these lofty ambitions are often undercut by a disjointed narrative and tonal inconsistencies that plague the series throughout its run. The Good: One of the show's strengths is its character work, particularly with the leads. Idris Elba reprises his role as Knuckles, imbuing the character with the same gravitas and intensity that made his portrayal a standout in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. His mentorship of Wade introduces a dynamic that allows for moments of humor and heart. Adam Pally's Wade Whipple provides a commendable balance of comic relief and emotional sincerity, although the character sometimes veers too heavily into caricature. The interaction between Knuckles and Wade is, without doubt, the heartbeat of the series, driving home themes of growth and the importance of forging one's path. The Bad: However, the show often falters in its broader narrative and pacing. The storyline, while novel in its focus on lesser-seen aspects of the Sonic universe, meanders through subplots that feel tangentially connected at best. The central plot – training for a bowling tournament in Reno, Nevada, while being pursued by a vengeful former agent of Dr. Robotnik – oscillates between being engagingly absurd and bewilderingly so. The juxtaposition of such a mundane human activity with the high stakes of interdimensional conflict creates a tonal dissonance that the series never fully reconciles. Moreover, the show's integration into the broader Sonic universe feels uneven. While it serves as a bridge between the second and third films, Knuckles sometimes seems adrift from the main storyline, with references to established characters and events feeling shoehorned in rather than organically woven into the narrative. This disjointedness extends to the series' action sequences and visual effects, which, although competently executed, lack the kinetic energy and coherence of its cinematic counterparts. The series' thematic explorations, particularly concerning family and redemption, are commendable but inconsistently executed. The reuniting of Wade with his estranged family members and Knuckles' confrontation with his own legacy and responsibilities offer emotional high points. Yet, these moments often come across as underdeveloped, with resolutions that feel too convenient or inadequately set up. Overall: Knuckles does offer some innovations, most notably in its expansion of the series' mythos. The introduction of new locations, characters, and lore tied to the echidnas enriches the universe in compelling ways. However, these elements are sometimes at odds with the series' more grounded, character-driven aspirations, resulting in a narrative that feels caught between two worlds. Knuckles' ambition to deepen the lore of the Sonic universe while offering a focused character study of its titular echidna is laudable. Idris Elba and Adam Pally deliver performances that highlight their characters' complexities and charms. Nonetheless, the series struggles with pacing, narrative coherence, and tonal inconsistencies, failing to fully leverage its unique premise. While Knuckles provides moments of genuine entertainment and insight, it ultimately falls short of its potential, rendering it a middling entry in the expanding Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.

[roachleakage]

In celebration of the successful conclusion of the SAG-AFTRA strike, I found a place I could watch the FNAF movie without giving Scott Cawthon any money. And I have to say... I was pleasantly surprised.

Just to be clear, everything the critics say about it is correct. It is not a terribly good movie; it's a toned-down version of the kind of silliness you get in the FNAF books, made safer for both general audiences and its PG-13 rating. But to leave it there is to ignore what works in the movie, and that's the stuff I was surprised by.

The protagonist is, despite Cawthon's usual brand of "let's make the guy an asshole and hope people connect with him anyway", genuinely entertaining for how much of a human disaster he is. There's also a lot of comedy in the way the animatronics are depicted, and in the tonal dissonance that haunts them like a bad smell in an enclosed bathroom. Like, I understand why people criticized that aspect, but to me, they did a great job capturing the way people's - especially kids' - attitudes toward the animatronics have dramatically shifted away from their original intent, while maintaining the fact that they are able and willing to perform murder.

The cop character is written very much like an actual cop. Any time she gets close to not getting her way on something, the mask comes off and she goes straight to bullying her way into making it happen, all the while treating the protagonist like he's just being pointlessly noncompliant when he asks her for more information. It's interesting that they went with this tack, given the inconsistency with her otherwise pleasant and compassionate personality, but I find it a good reminder that even "nice" cops cannot be trusted.

...ok, I can't keep a straight face on that one. Cawthon is terrible at writing people, doubly so when it comes to women. I'm not joking when I say it worked for the protagonist, but the cop is an unbelievable asshole and an utter mess of a character. It is surprisingly realistic though.

Anyway, the last thing that really worked for me was the big reveal in the climax. There's two or potentially three twists revealed at once; one is in-universe and kinda naff, while the other two are meta-twists, and while they both require some background knowledge to appreciate, if you have that they are fantastic. So this is very much a YMMV situation, one that worked for me because I know a lot about the FNAF games and have a strong love of horror movies.

Unfortunately, though, while I really enjoyed the movie, it can be summed up in one sentence: "For people who like this sort of thing, it's exactly the sort of thing that they would like." If you enjoy the absurdity of the FNAF extended universe, unintended comedy produced by tonal dissonance and goofy character designs, and toothless horror movies that are heavier on plot than scares, this will be right up your alley. Otherwise, the combination of those issues with the atrociously written plot and Cawthon's low-simmering misogyny (he's a conservative Christian who romanticizes the 50s, to give you an idea of what you're in for) will probably make it a pretty unpleasant experience.

OH YEAH, one last note: You might have heard from somewhere that the movie "relies on" jump scares for its horror. This is horseshit. There is one good jump scare in the movie, period. That was one of the biggest letdowns for me.

#fnaf #fnaf movie #fnaf 2023 #five nights at freddy's #review #no spoilers

[edmturnmeon]

Vivid Obscura - 90s Vintage Film Recipe For Fujifilm Cameras

90s Vintage & Cinematic Tonal Balance For Day & Night Street Photography

Mood: Vintage, Dark, Vivid Color, Cinematic Intended Use: Suitable for day and night photography, creating a cinematic look Inspired by: 35mm Film Roll in the 90s Introducing "Vivid Obscura" - one of the Obscura film recipes meticulously crafted to recreate the timeless aesthetic of 35mm film rolls from the 90s. This recipe is designed to evoke a cinematic look with rich colors and a slight vintage vibe, reminiscent of the classic film era. Vivid Obscura is specifically tailored for urban street photography, making it an ideal choice for capturing the vibrant energy and character of cities both during the day and at night.This film recipe particularly excels in urban environments where diverse lighting conditions and the interplay of natural and artificial light create a captivating atmosphere. When shooting in bustling city streets, Vivid Obscura brings out the best in your photographs, preserving the essence of the moment with its distinctive visual appeal.The recipe is optimized to perform exceptionally well in urban environments with tungsten lighting. Tungsten lights, commonly found in cityscapes, emit a warm, yellowish glow that adds an extra layer of charm and nostalgia to your images. With Vivid Obscura, the colors come to life, providing a cinematic treatment to your urban street scenes, whether it's the neon signs illuminating a nighttime alley or the sunlight casting intriguing shadows on bustling city streets during the day.

What Vivid Obscura Vintage Film Recipe Is All About?

Based on the Classic Negative film simulation, the Vivid Obscura film recipe is enhanced with the Color Chrome Effect set to Strong, resulting in vibrant and punchy colors that make your images pop. Custom white balance is used for more accurate color representation. The custom white balance is set to 4300K, providing a slightly warmer temperature for a nostalgic and cinematic look.A white balance shift is applied with a +3 shift in the red and no shift in the blue, enhancing the warm tones and creating a vintage atmosphere in your images. What makes this recipe special is that it introduces a red and blue hue, which can enhance the overall feel of your image. The best part is that you can use this recipe when taking photos in the sunlight or shade - it's versatile and an excellent option for any photography enthusiast.True to its name, Vivid Obscura is designed to bring your images to life with vibrant and captivating colors. By increasing the color setting by 2, this recipe enhances the richness and vibrancy of every hue, adding an extra pop to your photographs. From vivid reds to luscious greens and brilliant blues, Vivid Obscura infuses your images with a dynamic palette, making them visually striking and full of energy. Whether you're capturing urban landscapes, portraits, or everyday moments, expect your subjects to radiate with intensified colors, creating a captivating visual experience.Last but not least, both sharpness and noise reduction are set to 0 to maintain a natural film-like appearance, avoiding excessive digital processing.

Recommended Shooting Modes

When using the Vivid Obscura film recipe, it is advisable to avoid using spot metering, as it may result in exposure inconsistencies, especially in scenes with high contrast or complex lighting. Spot metering measures the exposure based on a small area of the frame, which may not accurately represent the overall scene. Instead, rely on the camera's multi or evaluative metering mode to achieve reliable and consistent exposures, preserving details in both highlights and shadows.Multi-mode (also known as a matrix or evaluative metering) takes into account various areas of the frame to determine the exposure settings, ensuring a well-balanced exposure across the scene. Aperture Priority mode allows you to set the desired aperture value while the camera automatically adjusts the shutter speed for proper exposure. These modes are particularly effective for street photography, where lighting conditions may vary from one frame to another.For optimal results, we recommend using multi or Aperture Priority mode in your Fujifilm X Series camera, while avoiding spot metering. These shooting techniques, combined with the Vivid Obscura recipe, allow you to focus on composition and capturing the essence of urban street scenes while ensuring consistent and well-balanced exposures.

Fully Harness The Capabilities of This Film Recipe With Fujifilm Cameras

In conclusion, the Vivid Obscura Fujifilm Vintage Film Recipe offers a captivating and nostalgic cinematic look, inspired by the 35mm film rolls from the 90s. With its vibrant colors, tonal range, and vintage aesthetic, this recipe elevates your urban street photography to new heights. Whether you're capturing the energy of bustling city streets during the day or the alluring cinematic glow of tungsten lighting at night using a diffusion filter, Vivid Obscura brings out the best in your images, preserving the essence of the moment with its distinctive visual appeal.If you are looking for similar Fujifilm recipes that thrive for day & night shooting, I would recommend the Nomadic Mood recipe.This film recipe is compatible with a wide range of Fujifilm cameras featuring the newer X-Trans IV and X-Trans V sensors. Cameras such as the X-T5, X-H2S, X-H2, X-S10, X-S20, X-T30II, X-T4, X-E4, and X100V are all well-suited to fully harness the capabilities of this film recipe.Whether you're exploring the vibrant colors of street art, capturing the juxtaposition of lights in a city skyline, or documenting the candid moments of urban life, the Vivid Obscura film recipe empowers you to tell compelling visual stories with a touch of nostalgia and cinematic flair.

Vivid Obscura Vintage Film Recipe Custom Settings

Film Simulation Classic Negative Highlight 0 Shadow 0 Color +2 WB / Color Temperature 4300K, Red +3, Blue 0 Exposure Compensation Up to +1 ISO Auto up to ISO 6400 Clarity 0 Sharpness 0 Noise Reduction 0 Grain Effect / Grain Size Strong / Large Color Chrome Effect / FX Blue Strong / Strong Dynamic Range DR400

Sample Photos

Fujifilm X-T4 // Fujinon XF35mm F2 R WR

Fujifilm X-T4 // Fujinon XF35mm F2 R WR

Fujifilm X-T4 // Fujinon XF35mm F2 R WR

Fujifilm X-T4 // Fujinon XF35mm F2 R WR

Fujifilm X-T4 // Fujinon XF35mm F2 R WR

Fujifilm X-T4 // Fujinon XF35mm F2 R WR

Fujifilm X-T4 // Fujinon XF35mm F2 R WR

Fujifilm X-T4 // Fujinon XF35mm F2 R WR

Fujifilm X-T4 // Fujinon XF35mm F2 R WR

Fujifilm X-T4 // Fujinon XF35mm F2 R WR

Looking for more Fujifilm SOOC Recipes?

Select a Fujifilm recipe Boudoir Chrome Carbon Obscura Cine Obscura Classy Glow Cine 2046 Cine Matte Cira 800 Film Dark Diary Dark Matter Downtown Bloom Ethereal Street Fujicolor Pro 400H Film ( Street Version) Fujicolor Pro 400H Film ( Portrait Version) Fujicolor Superia X-Tra 400 Film Fujicolor C200 Expired Film Fusion Obscura High Fashion Hue Obscure Kodachrome 64 Kodak Portra 400 Film LomoChrome Metropolis Film Natura Classic Noir Bloom Nomadic Mood Nordic Bliss One for the Road papurudorimu Reverie Noir RetroVision 2049 Summer Wanderer Timeless Provia Tokyo Dream True Chroma Urban Dream Vision Obscura Yashica Golden 80s Share This:

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#ClassicNegativeFilmRecipes #ObscuraRecipes #StreetFilmSimulationRecipes

[normalpen]

Unveiling the Secrets: The Shocking Truth Behind Marvel's ''Secret Invasion'' Revealed!

The provided article from USA Today titled "Secret Invasion Review: Marvel Wants to be Taken Seriously. Too Bad" discusses the television series "Secret Invasion" produced by Marvel Studios. The series is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and stars Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn. The author presents a critical analysis of the show, expressing disappointment in Marvel's attempt to be taken seriously as a drama.

The article highlights the premise of "Secret Invasion," which revolves around a shape-shifting alien race infiltrating Earth. It comments on the strong performances by the lead actors and praises their chemistry on screen. However, the author argues that the show fails to live up to its potential as a serious drama, suggesting that it suffers from tonal inconsistencies and an overreliance on humor...read more

#marvel #marvel studios #nickfury #spiderman

[clownsnake]

centaurworlds tone is kind of all over the place and you have to just be down for the chaos if you want to enjoy it, and I love that

#going insane trying to figure out HOW they made the violent tone shifts feels so normal #because it feels so intentional that any criticism I’ve seen calling it tonally inconsistent falls flat #its like yeah. It’s consistent. that is very fucking obvious for every second of this show #*inconsistent #so obvious that while watching it you just gotta kind of vibe with it because clearly the writers have set their feet down about this #& they’re not gonna STOP writing it all over the place so u gotta just kind of ease intoit to enjoy it #like u gotta keep watching just to see where they’re going with it #& I think that helps it pull it off #its like it crosses the line over being tonally inconsistent then keeps running and running past the line where it eventually loops back to #being acceptable because it went so far away from the line. If that makes sense #i don’t think any of this makes sense I’m just gonna post these thoughts anyway. Centaurworld good #going post #centaurworld

[cannibalistic-suggestions]

How does one comfort oneself when you're killed by a loved one, rather than the other way around?

I could have seen it coming. I should have seen it coming. Nobody pays attention that attentively unless they're going to benefit from it. Nobody is truly that generous, right? He was going to snap sooner or later.

More kisses than hugs, and the way they got deeper so many times, tongue snaking further to taste more of me. I could tell he wanted something from me from the start. What was I not giving him enough of in our loving relationship?

He couldn't resist the temptation. Should I blame him? I lay here as my heart gives out, severed toes squirm, and guts spill into a pudding-like, pasty mess.

In a morbid way, maybe by dying like this, I will never be alone again. I'll be a part of someone forever. I need some thought to comfort me. Surely, he did this because he loved me too much. Loved me enough to want me inside him and never to be parted or let out again. Why else?

My vision fades in and out as we wear matching smiles. I knew he still loved me. He's loving every bite of my decaying body. That has to count for something, right?

#suggestion #cannibalism #blood #gore #murder #death #love #lust #appetite #hunger #dismemberment #disembowelment #and now: a complete tonal shift from the last one! #can you believe its still just 1 crackhead running this account? #welcome to inconsistency; population: me

[bicth-and-in-that-order]

Genuine review of high guardian spice

Unfortunately due to the admittedly poor marketing, most of the reviews for HGS are gonna be in bad faith, just the typical “woke bad” nonsense arguments, but this one will be my attempt at a mostly balanced review. Might be a bit all over the place but I’ll try and cover everything.

Characters

One thing about HGS is that it’s very by the numbers. If you’ve watched little witch academia you’ve already watched this. HGS didn’t do anything new frl, at least with the main characters, which is fine as long as the writing is strong but the writing was pretty so-so. The mc is Rosemary, or Rose and she’s the typical happy go lucky protagonist, the most interesting thing about her was that her mom was a famous magical girl warrior named lavender who disappeared years before the story begins. Her mom also has supreme character design, she looks like a cross between spop she ra and utena

Anyways there’s not much to say about Rose or any of her friends. They all fulfill a pretty standard role, Sage is the insecure childhood bsf, Parsley is the brash, forward one, and Thyme is the stoic, quiet one, she’s also best girl. Your enjoyment of these characters will largely depend on if you enjoy the character writing and their interactions bc you’ve probably seen these archetypes before and they go through the same character arc.

So yeah the mcs were run of the mill, but the side characters were honestly really fun. Some of them were archetypical, you got the snobbish bully girl but she ends up calling her mom a thot and that was hilarious, but you also got underused archetypes. There’s a character who’s trans and one who’s in the closet and you don’t ever see those types of characters in these types of shows so it was nice seeing a positive storyline develop about gender identity that kept me far more intrigued than whatever parsley was going through.

Story

HGS is a magical school story not a magical girl story despite what the name suggests. The girls learn more about themselves through a setting of a school rather than have a monster of the week to fight. There’s an overarching plot about the mysterious disappearance of lavender, the rot, and some evil Organization that’s in the background but it’s mostly about the interpersonal relationship and drama between the characters. Which is fair game, it’s the first season so they’re establishing all the characters and their arcs. The plot doesn’t really start until a little more than halfway through the season and it’s not bad. The tonal shift, which I will get into later, is kind of jarring bc it goes from 0 to 100 very suddenly and a more even tone would’ve helped the shift from lighthearted to serious but a lot of western cartoons do the exact same thing these days. It’s hard not to compare this to little witch academia but it takes so many cues and plot points from that show it’s kind of crazy. It’s not a bad thing ig I just wish I didn’t have to see almost the exact same story play out when there’s so much more you can do with the magical school story.

Tone

Aside what I mentioned prior , I think one of the biggest things holding the show back is its tonal inconsistency and I honestly think if it was upfront about the type of show it was from the jump it would’ve been much better for it. I wouldn’t say the show is dark but it’s also not for kids bc of the occasional swearing and light gore moments. The show tries very hard to appeal to children and then a character will randomly say shit or asshole and it’s like huh? If this show is supposed to be for teenagers then a more evenly dark/edgy tone would’ve suited it far better. Be up front that this is the type of show where the characters will swear and bleed from episode one bc it felt super jarring and out of place to hear them swear, even if it was occasionally.

Aesthetics

Not really equipped to talk about the animation so correct me if I’m wrong but from a viewers stand point it was alright. You can obviously tell where they took short cuts, especially in certain action scenes but other action scenes looked pretty good. Ig that’s typical anime budget. The ost was actually really good, I loved the background theme they used, I thought it was super charming and fit with the theme of the show. The opening and ending themes were awful tho and I skipped them everytime 😅 The art style was also decent, some of the characters looked good like lavender, Thyme, the demon teacher, and that trans masc teacher I forgot the name of. Some of them looked like extras from spop, and others looked like they were from how to draw anime books. It was kind of generic looking save for a few stand out characters. Forgot to mention the voice acting and dialogue so I’ll just put it here, it’s the definition of hit or miss. Sometimes the dialogue is good but the VA sucks, sometimes the dialogue is awful but the VAs carry it, usually it’s just okay so I’d say it’s like early RWBY quality. It doesn’t touch the funi dubs in any capacity.

Diversity

HGS has a so-so diverse cast of characters but the actual quality of representation was lacking. Way too many white characters and way too little lgbt+ characters for what is supposed to be “diverse”. Give me more than ONE black mc and lgbt+ characters that aren’t in the supporting cast, kipo and the owl house have set the bar high, anything below that isn’t good enough if you want to claim diversity brownie points. Trans rep was amazing tho I’ll give them that.

Overall

Most of the hate surrounding HGS is an overreaction from maladjusted weebs. It was not a dumpster fire nor was it the next madoka magica it was just average. Worst sin it committed was being boring and dialogue heavy. Otherwise an even tone and less generic characters would’ve worked wonders and probably could’ve reached a decent fanbase if it were marketed probably. If you plan to watch it, go in expecting something average and you might be surprised here or there.

Score: 6/10

#high guardian spice #hgs #anime #crunchyroll

[dyed-red]

I have the same feelings regarding Lucifer characterization post-s5. Both him and Michael, actually, they were so captivating, so detached - you could feel their status, their untouchableness, how much of a threat they were; and how insignificant they deemed everybody else. I think Hallucifer took a turn because it was stylistically in line with Sera’s broader approach to dialogue and storytelling, and it matched the rest of s7 (which i am still 50/50 on). Why they made him like that in s11 - I can’t even begin to imagine, it felt very inconsistent to me and was pretty meh.

I wish Sera's approach worked better for me. I really really want to like her showrunning and I appreciate how much she appreciates Sam. But I haven't enjoyed a single project she's been at the helm of (I've tried!! so genuinely!!), and that includes S6-S7 unfortunately.

(They're better than the Dabb era on every objective metric and much tighter stories and yet as much as I enjoy some episodes and think those season have interesting things to say, I can't bring myself to actually like the overall story they tell or the interpersonal dynamics for the most part? Minus the natural chemistry J2 bring forth and some good little moments we get in dabb and edlund’s eps, and that one scene between Sam and Cas with the threats? that sends chills up my spine)

I disliked hallucifer for a handful of reasons. I've seen someone (you? someone else? my memory for where I read things is truly atrocious) point out that there is a casual intimacy with hallucifer that makes sense -- that after eons inside the cage together, Lucifer and Sam would have a sort of dynamic that would include a petulance and annoyance because that's what gets under people's skin.

And like - I sort of get that and I think it's a great way to interpret the tonal shift, but I can't buy it myself. Hallucifer, and late seasons Lucifer, literally always takes me out of the narrative and breaks my suspension of disbelief. It's part of why I really don't enjoy almost any episode he's in.

The Vince Vincente version of Lucifer is genuinely my favorite late-seasons version of him, with whatever that actor was bringing to the table that managed to blend the Pellegrino over-the-top version with something that seemed more real at its core. 

I thought Misha Collins did something interesting when Casifer was pretending to be Cas, but when he wasn’t pretending and was just being Lucifer, I found him off-putting and not in a good way. The concept of the smarm was interesting, but neither fit his previous characterization of cold controlled arrogance, nor felt chilling enough for someone as sinister and powerful as Lucifer.

President-ifer was dull, and him discovering sex was ??? 

But late-seasons Pellegrino is absolutely my least favorite of all, hands down and a million times into infinity and beyond. It's not like he can't act; he's interesting as Nick, he was great in S5, and that scene with Sam in the cave blows my mind and almost redeems the rest of it. But it’s clear that he was getting direction and writing to keep playing this persona, to more or less continue in the vein of hallucifer, and that was a huge neon-flashing wtf-are-you-writing mistake.

Anyway - more detailed explanation of why the characterization of hallucifer and late-seasons lucifer genuinely breaks my suspension of disbelief under the cut.

1. It undermines the horror.

We have Sam who has spent an eternity in the cage with Lucifer, and Jared P who is bringing his absolute a-game giving us terrified, traumatized Sam. We have Lucifer whispering in his ear about this not being real. We have this incredible capacity for horror and it is genuinely intensely horrifying to think about.

And then we have this -

And it's just embarrassing.

I get maybe it's death by a thousand cuts, it's the horror of an unending annoyance, but it's not horror. It's not presented as horror, not how Pellegrino is acting it and I have to assume not how it was written. Certainly not how it’s being framed and blocked and edited.

How can I be in the narrative and immersed when the literal cosmic horror of the devil is literally doing his best impression of a whining 3-year old? This beloved character (Sam) has suffered for hundreds if not thousands of years, is desperate and holding on by a thread, and still this is presented less like authentic torture for Sam than for my remaining braincells as an audience member.

This is not meant to undermine the difficulty or distress that anyone who experiences irl hallucinations experiences. The distress of not knowing what is real and what is not is itself its own fundamental struggle, regardless of the content of the hallucination. That’s part of what makes the setup to hallucifer in the season premier work. My complaints though are about narrative, and about the narrative role and tone these hallucinations take, and what they accomplish for the audience and character.

On that note, undermining the horror does a massive disservice to Sam's character because as no point should the audience be looking at this and wondering if this is how Lucifer acted in hell and what Sam was experiencing as torture, not when Sam is suffering so damn much and so traumatized by what he experienced.

There are ways to clarify that Lucifer is, at the end of the day, really an errant child craving his father's approval, craving attention and adoration from all around him, without making him act like a literal human child. He never was a human child; the comparison and tonality and banality makes no sense. Maybe - maybe if they went with a child actor, it would dial the creep factor up by a thousand and be interesting. There's no reason for Lucifer to look like the Nick vessel at all so ? Actually let's make that #2.

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2. The hallucination’s form itself makes little to no sense.

I get that Sam met Lucifer first in Nick's body but wait - no he didn't. Lucifer first appeared to him as Jessica. Lucifer's main canon trait throughout literally all of the seasons is mindgames. He'll appear as a loved one -- lover, father, friend -- to manipulate you. He'll point out all the demons who manipulated you growing up on his orders (even if it was via Azazel) and then kill them 'for you' because how dare they do exactly what he wanted them to do. He'll promise you the world and take literally everything you've ever loved. It's what he does.

So for Lucifer to appear in the least personalized visage of all makes no sense whatsoever, either to his S5 characterization or to how Sam would experience a hallucination of him. 

My best headcanon to make sense of it is is that Nick would be 'safe' in comparison to any other face that hallucifer could take on, so that’s what Sam’s mind manages to force him to appear as in these hallucinations. But ... that’s a stretch.

Realistically I understand there are constraints with getting actors. Maintaining this hallucination plot, having Sam’s hallucinations take on Jessica’s, Dean’s visage, or John’s visage (especially JDM!John) might be a challenge. Going some type of full-CGI monstrous face is expensive and runs the risk of failing to impress. I personally think it would be super interesting though if they’d branched out a bit and gone with Mary, maybe? Or Ruby (I wonder if Gen would have been free or if this coincides with having kids), or a rotating set of any of the above. Also, Sam’s face. Again, I know that adding more work for Jared or Jensen would be a lot and have its own complexities, but if it was sparing, if it wasn’t always the same visage, if we as the audience were never sure if Sam was talking to real!Dean or if it’s a hallucination.

They do that a bit with 7x02, with Sam going to that warehouse with a gun and believing he was with Dean the whole time. That was horror. If they’d kept up little tricks like that off and on, not overused, it would have been neat. Hell, even if it was strangers! How fucked up would it be if we see Sam interviewing a witness on a case and then Dean comes up and gently informs him there’s no one there and the witness’s face morphs into a grin and Sam is slammed into a flashback? We wouldn’t even need to see the flashback, just Sam’s reaction -- panic, responding to things we (and Dean) can’t see, begging Dean for it to stop? The sheer distress?

And I get they didn’t want to go that hard, too. Kripke fought hard with the network about the tone of the show, about the dark and de-saturated colouring, about some of the narrative choices. I’m sure Gamble had similar fights at times. But regardless of how else they played it, going with Nick’s face as default just doesn’t make sense to me, and it takes me out of the narrative because it makes me go “Why Nick’s face? Why Pellegrino? Because they couldn’t get someone else? Or was he the first choice and they’re just never going to explain that?” and that’s just... not what I want to sit there thinking about when I’m watching a show.

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3. The personality is literally out of character.

This is more damning for late seasons than hallucifer, but it still bothers me about hallucifer.

Because we met Lucifer. He is old, and he is powerful. He'd been God's favorite, been the rebel, been cast down, been in the cage for eons, had snuck his voice through and whispered to Azazel and manipulated so much despite for so long being off screen. He haunted the show, haunted Sam. He was and is a primordial menace -- a Being of esteemed and incredible power, so much so that he's almost impossible to actually kill -- that their best hope was to re-cage at great peril and sacrifice because there is literally nothing in their arsenal that can come even close to destroying him.

This power makes Lucifer confident and callous. He's removed and alien, detached like you said in your ask. He’s untouchable and he knows it.

If he was like that for all the time we've seen him, for The End as Samifer, if he is an entity that has existed basically from before time and is an unkillable all-powerful unknowable force of nature -- why the hell is he so different in Sam's mind and in later seasons?

With hallucifer, we can give some leeway, because it’s an interpretation of Lucifer being challenged through Sam’s brain. Despite that, it doesn’t work for me because there's nothing we know of Sam before or after this point that makes it clear why he'd reinterpret his eons of time in the cage with Lucifer, Michael, and Adam into the overgrown Nick-faced manchild of his hallucinations. His brain maybe doing its best to reinterpret that trauma into the most pitiable form of Lucifer, the pathetic little brother who whines for attention? Maybe, okay. But how did that come about in the first place, and why didn’t the narrative provide us with any insight into that thought process or experiential reasoning?

Is it because of Sam’s clown phobia? I bet it’s the clown phobia

But this is especially damning for late-seasons Lucifer. There is no convenient excuse as to why he acts in the way hallucifer does. What reason does he have for playing with Crowley and making him grovel like he does, when Lucifer as we know him (as he states and acts himself even late seasons) is more than happy to wipe anyone and anything off the map if they so much as inconvenience him. I know he eventually goes to kill Crowley, but I can’t find any basis in the text for why he’d enjoy treating Crowley like this...

And it’s inconsistent, which doesn’t help. He’s by turns churlish and childish like an extension of his childlike hallucination self...

And by other turns almost personable, in a way that doesn’t make sense given, again, how alien Lucifer is and should be, how removed. Here the way he’s being glib comes across so much more naturally, as if from a place of genuine emotion:

And it personalizes him for that moment, for all that he gesticulates more than his Season 5 presentation did with all those controlled and precise movements. But it’s like -- which is it? Is Lucifer more human than we give him credit for? Is he controlled and alien? is it just a humanlike act he’s decided to put on for the ease of manipulating others?

And if so, if he recognizes how powerful that act is, why does he by turns instead act like...

Whatever the hell this is? 

It’s as if they took every feature Lucifer had in S5 and exaggerated it. Because not all of this is from nowhere. Season 5 Lucifer was by turns also amorphous in how he presented himself, depending on what the situation called for. He took on different visages with variable degrees of acting human in order to manipulate. 

Even outside of that, he was not always or inherently without humour. His arrogance came out in a certain cocky casual humour, not without some pop-culture knowledge he’s managed to glean, either from his vessel’s mind or through the years listening through the bars of his cage or else since coming to earth...

So it’s not that there’s no basis for the late-seasons personality. But in late seasons it doesn’t come across as controlled or sinister. He loses the intensity of what we see in season 5, the control and confidence that we still get glimpses of when he’s serious, to (for example) his use of pop culture looking like...

That. Yeah.

And I’ll allow the reading that:

He’s doing all this deliberately and with intent, even the childish churlishness and even the exaggerated gestures. But if so like... why. Again, questions I would like the narrative to explore rather than being taken out of the narrative instead.

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4. It undermines the mythos.

Lucifer is cold. They establish that in such an interesting way at the end of Season 5, with Nick-ifer blowing on the glass and drawing out a pitchfork in the frost. He literally tells it to the audience, that they always get it wrong, thinking that the devil burns hot. And it's always stuck with me.

And then even when they go full horror with Sam's hallucinations - this is what we get.

It's impactful, I'll grant you. Sam having memories of being burned alive as part of what he experienced, and having to relive those sitting on a motel bed and trying to keep himself together? It's better than every Pellegrino hallucifer scene combined because it's a crystal clear view of what Sam is experiencing that evokes an actual fight/flight reaction in the audience, a real tension. It’s horror.

But it still pisses me off because Lucifer is cold. I know i’m being nit-picky and pedantic but that’s what this salt post is for so hear me out.

I'm sure Lucifer could and would and (presuming he felt like it) did use fire to torture Sam, so maybe I'd forgive them for this if the rest of hallucifer was better, but like - this is not Lucifer’s actual Go-To. This is The Thing he derides as being 'not him'. That's what demons use in Hell, and he hates demons, like that is established. This is specifically what people get wrong, and he's arrogant enough that I honestly think he'd think himself above using fire to torture. So simple, so pedestrian. Holy oil fire is one of the few things that can injure an Archangel, can trap them in place. The Lucifer that exists in my head would turn up his nose at the stuff.

Let's detour to Robert Frost for a second:

Some say the world will end in fire / some say in ice / From what I've tasted of desire / I hold with those who favor fire / But if I had to perish twice / I think I know enough of hate / to say that for destruction ice / is also great and would suffice.

So aside from loving that poem, I've sort of wrapped it into my headcanons about Michael, Lucifer, and the Apocalypse. Michael is destruction by fire, and Lucifer is destruction by ice. If both Michael and Lucifer are in their true vessels and duking it out on a cosmic scale, the world burns (and the meek inherit the earth, if Michael doesn't throw a temper tantrum and continue to burn it to ash after God doesn't return). If Lucifer wins though, if only Lucifer has his vessel and Michael gets taken out at any point - the world freezes slowly, like a nuclear winter, choking out life slowly and carefully so as not to miss anything in its haste, leaving nothing left in its path.

That's what Lucifer means to me within the mythos of Supernatural - a slow and steady destruction. A patient force that has been in existence since Before and anticipates he will exist until After, with only a single real threat in the form of his brother -- and thus only a single real thing which evokes genuine emotion from him. Sam evokes emotion because of Michael, because without Sam then he cannot defeat Michael. But Sam is secondary to Michael, is a means to that end, even if Lucifer has some degree of obsession with him, it's about his body and his role in Lucifer and Michael's story, not with Sam as a person.

Sam is in every meaningful way impersonal to him, right up until he takes back control anyway. Right until he becomes a threat in his own right, and destroys Lucifer and Michael both in one fell human swoop.

Which would and does account for some of the personalization we see in hallucifer, with the casual and close intimacy, with Lucifer knowing what's in Sam's mind and keeping tabs on what he's up to even later, with appearing to him as his father in S11 and pulling Sam directly to the cage rather than working through proxies like Azazel and Lilith. He knows Sam intimately, extraordinarily, and it is personal. 

And Jared plays that to a tee, with Sam’s knowledge of Lucifer, his flinching fear, his never letting Lucifer out of his line of sight -- his shame and devastation when Lucifer returns, when Lucifer resurrects him, when telling Jack who Lucifer really is and especially when talking to Rowena about Lucifer’s true face, his empathy.

Because that side of Lucifer is sinister, so deeply sinister on that fundamental level of what’s in your bones, cosmic and inevitable. And again, this -

is Not.

#this is mostly me complaining sorry guys #i just am forever disappointed at everything they did with lucifer after s5 #i'm getting all of my salt posts out in a single day #so that we can return to regularly scheduled blogging after this #i'm done now for real it's more fun to focus on the parts i like #rather than get caught up in the parts i prefer to ignore lol #okay tagging #anti hallucifer #anti lucifer #wank for ts #canon crit #negativity #ask to tag

[lucemferto]

Niki Nihachu & Barbara Kean

Gonna drop something controversial real quick.

Niki Nihachu is the most tragic character on the Dream SMP – and I don’t mean in the sense of her having a tragic story (though she is up there), but in the sense that she is tragically mishandled.

I want to start out by saying that this essay is by no means an attack on the content creator Niki Nihachu or her abilities as a performer. She is frequently one of the strongest actors on the SMP and I have no idea how much of her character writing was within her power. How much of it was improv, how much pre-planned, how much something she genuinely wanted to do and how much stuff she just stumbled into or – in the worst-case scenario – was forced upon her. I don’t know.

The Dream SMP is not very transparent when it comes to their creative process. As such I can only judge it as a discerning viewer and English major dropout, who retained some half-remembered stuff about narratology.

So, a few weeks ago, I tumbled on here that Niki’s character journey reminded me a lot of the character Barbara Kean from the hit TV-show Gotham. Then I got an ask asking me to elaborate. This is the elaboration.

Barbara Kean

So, a quick crash course for people who haven’t seen Gotham (the greatest comic book show on Television, seriously, what are you doing with your life?!): Barbara Kean was a major female character throughout all five seasons of Gotham – and not once during those five seasons did the writers ever figure out what they wanted to do with her.

Every 10-12 episodes or so, Barbara’s role shifted completely. She started out as cop-protagonist Jim Gordon’s girlfriend at home and moral compass, then became part of a bisexual love triangle, then a hard-drinking jealous party girl with a backstory as repressed, lonely rich kid, before being kidnapped by a serial killer and ultimately making her perfect metamorphosis into the psychotic ex-girlfriend trope.

And that was Season 1.

Since then, she became the pseudo-Harley Quinn to the pseudo-Joker, a whip-wielding dominatrix, the obligatory female member in a supervillain squad, some sort of information broker, a mafia kingpin, the leader of a girl-power posse and – my favourite – the reincarnated wife of an ancient immortal who also controls all of Gotham and transferred that control over to her before that plot-point was dropped harder than a half-dead Oswald Cobblepot of the Gotham piers.

Also, she’s Batgirl’s mom.

In short, it’s a mess – but that’s what makes Gotham kinda fun.

Character Cohesion

Now, obviously, Niki’s character journey has not been quite as extreme. But it falls into the same traps, I find. Namely, that there’s just a distinct lack of character cohesion or character continuity.

Now, character cohesion or character continuity doesn’t mean that the arcs these characters undertake can’t be explained in a logical way. Barbara’s character journey is logical in the sense that you can explain it all with in-universe logic – but it’s not logical from a narratological sense now, is it?

Character Cohesion basically means that a character’s journey is reflected in their personal conflict – their Want vs. Need. Their arc is the natural continuation of what was set-up in previous sequences. Everything falls into a whole with Set-up, Confrontation, Resolution – we set up the character’s Want, their Want and Need are conflicting, the Want vs. Need is resolved. Ideally this coincides with the plot beats of the large conflict surrounding the cast.

When you look at Barbara in Season 1 of Gotham, you’re not thinking “This one right here – she’s the reincarnated wife of Ra’s Al Ghul”. Because why would you? There was no set-up; it’s not part of what her character was about in this moment – or any moment before that concept was introduced. It’s not needed for her character conflict (or any thematic conflicts for that matter).

It’s quite transparently just something that is affixed to her so that she has something until the writers come up with the next at which that first thing will dropped, underdeveloped.

Niki in Season 1

Niki follows the same route, unfortunately. She’s set-up as the resistance in L’Manburg, allies herself with Eret and HBomb until – oops – it doesn’t end mattering, because that entire side of the “plot” is completely underdeveloped. Just be a damsel until Wilbur can swoop in and save you, Niki.

Okay, but now she has a big moment with Tommy and Tubbo just after the pit-scene. “We’ll figure something out”, she says. “We need L’Manburg back”. This is all before the backdrop of Wilbur completely giving in to his role as a villain and Techno’s apparent “betrayal”.

So, now, surely, Niki is gonna affect change in Pogtopia and will have some influence on either Tommy or Wilbur, the two people she’s closest to. What’s this? Her biggest contribution is holding a birthday party where Quackity convinces Wilbur to hold off on his TNT-plan? And after that … she’s just gonna be part of the Pogtopia-masses?

Now, I like Wilbur’s writing and Season 1 generally, but when it comes to Niki (and Eret) something went terribly wrong. Both of them provided many a set-up – none of which were taken advantage of, unfortunately.

And, just to be clear, I’m not putting the blame on Niki here (or at least not most of it). Season 1 was pretty firmly in Wilbur’s hand … and Season 2 was a train wreck.

Niki in Season 2

Niki is – for the most part of Season 2 – a nothing character. She has no real conflict, no character beats, no arc. This is because through some unfortunate writing decisions, Season 2 is pretty squarely focused on a specific set of characters – and even fewer of those characters are granted a fully explored, completed character arc.

It all culminates in her Doomsday villain arc – a moment that can be logically explained from both an in-character perspective and a meta-perspective, but unfortunately, it’s not justified from a technical writing point of view.

Niki burning down the L’Mantree is her “Ra’s Al Ghul’s reincarnated wife”-moment. It’s a big statement that put her character on the map for a large part of the audience again. It was a striking visual. It could not be ignored.

Most of that was because it was a stark departure from her characterization in Season 1. Now, such a departure doesn’t necessarily have to be bad. The problem comes in when

a.) The full potential of the character in their previous narrative role had not yet been fully or even partly exhausted

b.) It cuts into an on-going character arc and drastically changes its course

c.) It’s not foreshadowed or developed properly.

And most of those are true for Niki’s character. She was not necessarily underdeveloped but underexplored in Season 1 and had no consistent storyline going on in Season 2. She was a witness to Tommy’s trial, but that was never worked into an on-going storyline for her. No matter how much we retroactively pretend like this turn to villainy, this breakdown, was brewing deep inside of her – there was no foreshadowing.

The reason, why I said it’s understandable from a meta-perspective, is that the content creator Niki Nihachu had a self-admittedly hard time getting her foot in in Season 2 – because Season 2, for as much love as I will heap upon Tommy’s and Dream’s storyline, was a pretty messy.

So, the villain arc was not well foreshadowed and Niki’s turn was developed, but what happened after she was in it?

Niki in Season 3

Well, unfortunately that problem of an inconsistent storyline never really went away for her. In the beginning of Season 3, she hatched her wagons with Jack Manifold, which was a pretty big tonal shift – from darkly tragic to cartoonish villainy.

But as Jack kept developing his character in that lane and following up on big plot development with corresponding character moments, Niki again just … vanished. She then changed gears again, joining the Syndicate – a great idea if only the Syndicate actually streamed together and developed a storyline and group cohesion.

As it stands right now, Niki’s character exists in the negative space of the fandom imaginations. We are given some scraps and good character moments – her sleeping in a jail cell, “I started baking again”, her secret city – but those moments never coalesce into a full-fledged storyline.

Her character’s journey is still as fragmented and underexplored as it ever was. I really hope that – with Wilbur’s revival and the new character conflict that seems to arise from that for her – she manages to finally get the foot in and get the storyline and dynamic arc she deserves.

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