#literally the cap trilogy | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rillils · 3 months

Text

STEVE & BUCKY'S LOVE STORY, UNABRIDGED SOMEWHAT ABRIDGED, part 3/4 (here are part 1 and part 2)

i just want to preface this by saying: as much as they tried to make this movie all about tony, and as much as they tried to no-homo the steve/bucky situation, they still somehow ended up making CACW the gayest movie in the whole cap trilogy, and that's saying something *throws confetti*

now, picking up where we left off:

aided by his friends sam and natasha, steve spends the following two years or so chasing after bucky, looking for clues as to where he could be hiding, until he eventually finds him.

their reunion scene is like. i honestly don't know if i can convey the sheer, ridiculous, absolute beauty that is this scene.

the thing is, steve isn't the only one who discovered bucky's location: the bad guys did too, and they're coming. like they're coming RIGHT NOW, as sam keeps trying to warn steve. which means that he and bucky have about 20 seconds to do this, and that might sound like too short of a time, right? but honey, the amount of repressed emotions and homoerotic subtext these two manage to stuff into those 20 seconds, my god--

no because like, there's a whole-ass SWAT team outside, waiting to crash through their door and blow up the place, yeah? and instead of getting the fuck out of there PRONTO, steve, mr romeo fucking rogers, decides to spend those precious few seconds trying to get bucky to admit that he loves him, making this much yearned-for, long-awaited reunion the most high-stakes game of gay chicken in the whole of history. you might think i'm kidding, but i'm not!!!!

INTRODUCING:

in the red corner, we've got steve basically telling bucky: "i know that you remember me, i know that you saved me because you still love me, please will you just say it out loud babe"

and in the blue corner there's bucky, extremely conflicted because YES, of course he loves steve, but he also knows he's putting steve in danger just by standing in the same room as him, and steve shouldn't even be here in the first place, and anyways STEVE NOW'S NOT THE TIME PLS FUCK

so he's just (unsuccessfully) trying to deny everything, you know?? "fuck no i don't know you, just know your name from a museum, what do you mEAN i saved your ass because i love you more than life itself and that's literally the first thing i remembered when i got my memory back"

(a quick reenactment:)

but really, you'll see the love in bucky's eyes if you just look hard enough.

n- no, look harder

a bit harder?

see, i told you

so here they are, just about to slam each other into the nearest wall and make out like it's brokeback mountain and they're just two guys coming from a time where their love had to be kept a secret and they miss what little privacy they used to have in their own little bubble when they were younger and living together and then life tore them apart and they haven't seen each other in ages and they've been yearning all the while and now that they're finally standing before each other again the air feels electric between them and they just can't help but- wait. uh. that, uh. that sounds familiar. uh.

OKAY so they're totally about to snog the living daylights out of each other, but time is running out. the bad guys are here!! and- and also a bunch of other people! because apparently everybody wants bucky either dead or locked up for one reason or another!! MY BOY CAN'T CATCH A FUCKING BREAK!!

so bucky is apprehended. but before anyone can do much about it, this other guy - this movie's Official Antagonist™ - gets bucky alone and triggers bucky's brainwashed assassin persona into taking over.

no longer conscious of his own actions, bucky wreaks havoc in the building, knocking people down in his wake like a sexy buff steamroller, and tries to escape; but steve, desperate not to lose him again, goes after him and stops him.

by grabbing onto a fucking helicopter, as one does

one extremely romantic, freaking insane stunt later, steve manages to get bucky to safety. next thing you know, bucky's waking up and back to himself, and they finally have a bit longer than 20 seconds to talk. you think they're gonna be normal about this? you think they're gonna share a standard heart to heart conversation? oh hell no, babes. WHIP OUT THE BEDROOM EYES, TURN THAT SOFTNESS UP TO ELEVEN, WE'RE UNLOCKING A BRAND NEW LEVEL OF EMOTIONS HERE

seriously. you don't know what true tenderness is, until you've heard james buchanan barnes softly say, in his sweet, gruff, velvety drawl, barely holding back a smile, "your mom's name was sarah. you used to wear newspapers in your shoes."

also the two of them just. spend half the scene making INTENSE heart eyes at each other, gazing deeply and intimately in each other's eyes, just bypassing the flirting zone to move straight to eye-lovemaking lane, while sam is in the room, because they've got no chill whatsoever.

unfortunately, sam cockblocks reminds them that they don't have time for this shit (dammit, sam) as they kinda have more pressing matters at hand, being on the run from like every government in the world (and then some). also they must neutralize The Antagonist™ before he can act on his Evil Plan™, so, you know. put the eyesex on hold, guys!

(to be continued in part 4)

#stucky #stevebucky #the silly stucky recap you didn't ask for #part 3 :D #so this got too long and i thought it'd be best to split it in two parts #hence the change from 3/3 to 3/4 #rillers scribbles #i'm still not 100% sure how to tag it in the first place tbh xD #but here #have some silliness in your day #cacw

114 notes · View notes

look-how-they-massacred-them · 7 months

Text

Submission reason:

So, they establish Steve Rogers as this scrappy punk with a problem with authority and an unkillable bond with his best friend Bucky, right? And then they spend the next several movies developing him. He brings down a significant portion of the government, in part to save his best friend. He starts a war, also to save his best friend. He was willing to let his best friend beat him to death, and the last thing he would have said was to tell him to do it, because he was with him ""'til the end of the line."" He dropped the shield, the symbol of who he was and who he had become, the one that had been with him since 1943, because he was choosing loyalty to his best friend instead. He would kill god himself if it meant saving Bucky. He would pick a fight with someone four times his size if it meant protecting people and their rights. He has a big, long character arc about how he adjusts to living in a new century, and how, despite being a man out of time, he finds a new sort of space for himself in the century he's in. And then what do they do? When it comes time to write him out, they have him choose to go back in time, abandoning his friends and the life he had made for himself, in order to go back in time to the 1950's of all times, to marry a woman he kissed ONCE and is STRONGLY implied to have nazi sympathies to put it nicely. And the Google form is bugging out so I can't add any more

Spent a long time getting over time warp trauma only to abandon all his friends to run to the past for a woman who already lived her own full life (which he then erased/replaced/negated) and whom he already had closure with. NEVER NOT MAD ABOUT THIS

1) The third movie of the Captain America movie was altered to give Robert Downey Jr more screentime so he would get a bigger check. Thus, huge chunks of Steve (Captain America's) last movie are dedicated to a character that is unrelated to the plot of the preceding Cap film. This takes time away from all the Cap trilogy protagonists, including Steve. 2) Endgame, the final movie featuring Steve as Captain America, centers Steve's emotional journey on Peggy Carter. The end of Cap 1 and the beginning of Cap 2 emphasize how losing Peggy hurt Steve. However, Marvel pretty much fucked up by having Steve abandon the present day in order to have a life with Peggy. It rejects the investment in Steve's friendships with Sam & Bucky. It places a heterosexual marriage in mid-1900s as markedly more valuable than having multiple friendships in the present, which seems to cater to the Make America Great Again fanaticism that was surging in the US at the time of the film. It also takes the subplot of Steve's PTSD in Cap 2 and concludes his character by having him return to the past & unwriting much of the loss he experienced. This invalidates the Cap 2 + Cap 3 healing narrative of Steve making a life for himself despite trauma & loss. 3) Cap 2: The Winter Soldier shows Steve struggling with loneliness & loss of purpose. Sam & Natasha, minor protagonists, have their own emotional journeys. The movie is named after Bucky, Steve's best friend who has secretly been tortured and used by HYDRA. Steve is devasted about Bucky, and the emotional climax of the film features them fighting and conversing. This is a lot of investment in these two characters!! Cap 3 diverting screentime away from these 4 characters is bullshit, and Endgame barely showing the two interact -- and then having Steve leave Bucky without showing any internal struggle relating to that decision -- is an illogical waste of an interesting relationship that was built over the course of three movies. 4) Steve's character is inconsistent as fuck across the non-Cap-Trilogy films. It's because Marvel's staff/director choices were a mess. Whack af imo.

In Age of Ultron, Steve literally says ""Family, stability... The guy who wanted all that went in the ice 75 years ago. I think someone else came out."" And then he stays in the past with Peggy?? Abandons Bucky and the life he's built for someone he already saw die? The Steve I know has moved on from his past. And then he becomes an old man despite the fact that Bucky has barely aged in that same amount of time and they both have the same super serum in them. One of the worst ways I've ever seen a character written out of a franchise

Entire arc for 5+ movies was about learning how to adapt to living in the future, finding a team/friends/family he trusted and loved, and doing the right thing despite all of the baggage he had about his past; Avengers Endgame ignored ALL of that in favor of him choosing to return to the 1940's to be with a woman he had finally let go of, ignoring all development he'd had over nearly a decade of movies.

Sent back into the past to live an ‘ideal’ life in the 1950s, marry a woman who had canonically married someone else, and who, incidentally enabled a fascist death cult to take over SHIELD.

They spent many films building up Steve's relationship with his best friend Bucky, the only other person in the world who understood what he was going through who he constantly promised to stay with ""till the end of the line"" only to have Steve go back in time to live a life with Peggy Carter, a woman who told him to move on, leaving his friend all alone with no warning. He abandoned not only the person he had more of a bond with and more emotional scenes with than the woman he went back in time for, he also essentially abandoned his team and just his ability to help people in general despite the fact that helping others is the core of his character and the reason why he got his powers in the first place. (There's also the muddled implications involved with the fact that in going back in time he would have prevented the man Peggy was supposed to end up with from being with her but I won't go into all that mess).

Despite the whole ‘frozen for 70 years’ thing, he still got used to a new life. He had a girlfriend, multiple best friends, just an entire life. But no~ he had to pine after the dead girlfriend he knew for maybe a year and moved on from out of Nowhere and decide to rewrite her history for her to stay with her. Granted. I, as an aroace btw, would also love Peggy Carter. But it just came out of nowhere?! They both deserve better tbh

Propaganda:

He could've been so much cooler/tougher/"more punk" if the MCU wasn't scared of any sign of alternative culture from their cookie cutter All-American Boy fantasy.

ENDGAME destroyed Steve’s character.

I understand a lot of people have mixed or negative feelings about the MCU but I don't think that should be a reason to overlook how much they destroyed his character just to give him an ending and get him out of the MCU.

(I copied the wrong photo and it won’t let me fix it. Sorry. I can send in another if you can’t crop that one. I follow you so…) They thought it was a great idea for him to help raise his niece that he slept with in present day. Just saying why make it awkward man Also! This clearly had a v bad impact on said niece bc she went from SHIELD AGENT (good guy for the most part) to a leader of a criminal/gun smuggling operation. Good job Steve/writers what a sound decision

See above

we never saw Steve's mom, Sarah Rogers, but Tony Stark's mom appears in TWO scenes in the third (read: FINAL) Cap film???!!!?? In STEVE'S movie?!!?? WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!

#look how they massacred them poll #look how they massacred my boy #steve rogers #marvel cinematic universe #mcu #captain america #mcu steve rogers #propaganda post

121 notes · View notes

elsweetheart · 1 year

Note

hi kittie!!

i literally love the way u write ellie, and i have some questions abt for u abt her.. just outta curiosity 👐🫶

what do u think her phone case would look like? if it’s clear, what would be in it 🧐

what kinda bathing suite would she wear?? like shorts and a tee?? 🤤

what do u think her closet would look like? 👕

what do you think her top 5 favorite movies would be? 🎥

thank you so much !!

1. she’s a clear phone case warrior for sure. but, she’s a sentimental lil sap so wedged in the phone case would be a photo booth column you guys took together on one of your first dates !!

2. i feel like she is a shorts and a tee kinda gal. and if you guys are at a beach, she’ll go to the gift shop and buy the wackiest hat she can find to protect her head. either a cheap cowboy hat or a truckers cap that says something like “women love me fish fear me” on it, sometimes she’ll even buy a dumb tshirt too that says something obnoxious like “ I ❤️ BAD BITCHES” on it and just wear it around 😭

3. i feel like a lot of neutrals, muted colours, foresty tones. majority of her clothes are black and grey, especially if it’s just basics, sweatpants, hoodies etc. she has a couple of khaki items, like jackets and pants, and some dark reds maybe in the shoe department with her converse and t-shirts, and probably some faded dark blues too — sweatshirts, sweatpants, waterproof jackets, sneakers. she thinks her wardrobe is pretty boring but you love it bc it’s so her.

4. she’s a star wars girl til she dies i know that for sure, probably favouring the original trilogy bc she’s nerdy like that. i’d say that’s number 1, then of course not to be cliche but the jurassic park / world series at number 2. i think number 3 would be something more niche, gritty and gory like Nightcrawler. at number 4, i’d say it would have to be her sexual awakening movie which she watched on a tape she found at her uncle Tommys when she was younger, Wild Things (1999) — probably rewinding the pool scene one hundred times. at number 5 i think she’s a spiderman fan for sure — most likely toby maguires spiderman specifically. i think she’d like spiderman 3 the most !!

#anon #ellie williams x reader #modern!ellie

189 notes · View notes

call-me-rucy · 1 year

Text

My theories on The New World of Steam

Everyone is already in the loop, right?

New Layton game for Switch, name is “Professor Layton and the New World of Steam”, we know basically nothing and all we have for context is this wallpaper:

Okay, let’s go!

I have two theories about possible settings.

The less likely one: AU. That’s the quickest way to explain all the changes in the designs: they aren’t the Layton and Luke from our universe, but some kind of alternative universe even more steam punk than the original. This also would explain any possible change in mechanics that the Switch required and it would give them absolute freedom over the timeline. No need of wrap heads around any convoluted timeline: Layton and Luke would just be Layton and Luke exactly as Holmes and Watson are always Holmes and Watson regardless of the setting. This one would also explain why Luke is blonder than usual (Im not the only one seeing it, right?), and why the game is called “New World”.

The most likely one: The America Mystery. The Unwound Future cliffhanger, solved at last. “But why not literally any other point of the Layton timeline, Rucy?”. Here’s the evidence that supports this train of thought:

Luke’s design: Our blue boy is missing the cheek blush! And he’s gotten tall! Compare these two shots. NWOS Luke looks way more like 15yo Anime Luke than he does to 13yoish Original Trilogy Luke. (Layton for scale)

Given the facts that NWOS Luke is still in posession of his cap and that I will punch Hino if he makes Layton leave Kat alone as a baby, I’d say we have a 14ish yo Luke Triton in our hands! So this would put us 1 year-ish after UF and 1 year-ish before Kat is born. The year Lucy is born, I guess.

The title of the game. You might have already read me saying this, but, so far, if it’s japanese and starts with “Professor Layton and”, the only English word allowed is “Layton”. Ocarina is not allowed, hence “flute”. Azran is not allowed, hence “super civilization”. Thus, the word “America” isn’t allowed in the title. But check out what the dictionary says on its entry about the term used “shinsekai”: 1. New World (esp. the Americas , but also Australasia). This might be another instance of “we prefer to use a roundabout japanese word”!

So far both theories have pros and cons and questions like “why would America be running on steam if the Laytonmobile, widely regarded as an old car, runs on gas??”. But, hey, we’ll find out! I can’t wait!

#professor layton #professor layton and the new world of steam #nwos #hershel layton #luke triton #layton

180 notes · View notes

charaznablespeteevee · 27 days

Note

Would you share your thoughts on the Gundam you've seen? I added the first one to my list based on your posting about it (mostly the transition Char posting, he sounds like a fascinating character) and am not on Twitter to see your liveposting

Good question!! It seems like you want to know if I'd rec them so I'll answer based on that.

The original Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) absolutely I would rec to literally any anime fan. Both because it is a genuinely good anime, but equally because it's like. You know how people say you have to read the Bible to get all the references to the Bible in literature? It's like that. Gundam is one of the Bibles for anime. It's in everything. And you won't realize this until you watch it.

It's also a very good science fiction show just in general. The major characters are all great, the drama is compelling, and while some of the animation has not aged well, the newtype stuff has some super neat effects that are gorgeous to see on a big screen to this day.

It's also super accessible, the full show is available on Crunchyroll or if you don't want to commit watching a 43 episode show the three compilation movies are on Netflix and are a very solid alternative.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985) - they got a big budget upgrade so everything is Bigger and More. More robots, more character drama, more romance, better music, and some bizarre segues into how men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Absolutely worth a watch if you liked the original Gundam because it continues to follow a lot of the original characters.

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (1986) - technically "skippable" if you consider 0079, Zeta, and Char's Counterattack a trilogy, which it kind of is. ZZ focuses on an almost entirely new cast of characters and the first half of the show is VERY heavy on the comedy before jumping directly into some of the best anime I've ever seen for the second half. The mood whiplash is kind of divisive among fans. Personally I like it and the characters are great. Worth a watch if you like what you've seen so far.

Char's Counterattack (1988) - caps off the gayass Amuro/Char rivalry and is just an amazing movie in general. Gorgeous visuals, and the final 15 minutes or so are a series of emotional gut-punches the likes of which I've rarely experienced in media. Must watch IMO.

War in the Pocket (1989) - six episode OVA featuring entirely new characters. This is a truly fantastic little series that lets you into the lives of a small handful of likeable characters and how their lives are affected by war. It's Gundam so guess how that goes. I liked it a LOT and recommend it. BONUS: This is a GREAT "starter" Gundam. It's short, it's very good, and you don't need to know anything about Gundam going in. There's a few references to prior lore, but they aren't anything major and a newcomer could easily figure it all out from context.

Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (1991) - this is a movie that was originally going to be made into a TV show and it shows, they stuffed far too much into too little time and it suffers for it. So unfortunately this is the first thing on this list I probably wouldn't rec. That said the characters are pretty fun and the ending is very good, so you can do a lot worse if you're bored or a completionist.

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (1993) - this is what I'm watching right now! I'm a little over halfway done with it. This is all new characters and there are some interesting new concepts. For example the first twenty or so episodes were set on Earth so you got some really gorgeous scenery during mobile suit battles that made those scenes really visually distinctive compared to say, a battle in space. That said it's yet to really "pull me in" the way most other Gundam series did. For now I'm still waiting to see if it will do that or not.

Witch From Mercury - I'm assuming everyone knows what this is. It's gay as fuck, what can I say, and it's the entire reason I fell down into this Hell to begin with. 10/10

#ask box

20 notes · View notes

terra-drone · 8 days

Text

My gripes with Rift Apart

Consider this a review of Rift Apart (PC ver). After playing this game twice on Renegade Legend, I have... opinions. Being a fan of the franchise since Going Command/Locked & Loaded, I admittedly have some strong biases for both the PS2 saga and the Future Trilogy for various reasons. But before I go lambasting this entry into the franchise, a TLDR summary;

Pros:

The game is pretty and well executed on a technical level (for the most part).

The platforming and movement is refined and a step up from previous titles.

Cons:

Quite literally almost everything else.

Also has a propensity for crashing (both freezing and blue screen of death).

Movement & Platforming

One of the core aspects of RaC that I am happy RA got right. The movement is buttery smooth and chain daisying from one platform to the next using wall runs, dashes and rift pulls is excellently designed. The addition of the dash function adds an extra dodge ability that was absent in previous entries although granted we can still use the age-old side jumping while aiming/shooting.

I do wish however that the hoverboots were more integrated into the platforming since most of the time you only ever need it for super long leaps or the timed step puzzles. Something like the jump pads from ACIT would be nice to see paired with the new wall run and dash mechanic. You hardly need to use it outside of Savali and Torren IV and the last part of the Nef Mech fight.

What I wished they truncated however was the glide mechanic the hoverboots had. Given that the hoverboots could both glide and make you go fast, it makes this better than whatever Clank could possibly offer. @erablisme has done a wonderful breakdown on this matter (see here), but essentially having the hoverboots be an upgrade of both the charge boots and fulfilling Clank’s contribution to Ratchet’s mobility (gliding) renders Clank, from a gameplay standpoint, moot. It renders Clank into nothing more than a glorified backpack/exposition device, which beats the entire purpose of the franchise’s own title.

Gameplay

Weapons

The arsenal, while fun to use, is too bloated. A lot of the guns overlap in functionality:

Shotguns: Enforcer, Pixelizer, Void Repulser

Seeker/Turret weapons: Agents of Doom, Bombardier, Mr Fungi

Crowd Control: Topiary Sprinkler, Cold Snap

Grenades: Shatterbomb, Bouncer

Rapid fire: Burst Pistol, Blackhole Storm

Lock-on weapons: Drillhound, Richochet, Buzzsaw, Lightning Rod

Heavy hitter: RYNO, Negatron Collider, Warmonger

Do we really need multiple weapons that do the same thing just with different particle effects?

The level up mechanic, while a staple of RaC games, is frankly outdated by this point and actively hinders the game. If anything, it punishes players for sticking to guns they enjoy once they hit max level. It makes the motivator for using weapons not be its function but rather to chase that arbitrary level cap. Plus, there’s no telling what the level up actually did for a weapon aside from damage buffs.

It’s not like they couldn’t do away with this feature, Deadlocked made the guns increase so many levels it frankly deemphasises them in favour of choosing the best weapon for any given scenario, ItN decreased the max level to 3 (6 on challenge) in favour of more meaningful weapon upgrades, and ACiT had the Constructo weapons and mods (which Deadlocked also had called Omega Mods) that incentivises experimentation on what combos worked best while allowing you to spice things up post max level. Why not tie weapon upgrades to collectibles? They already had the Raritanium collection, sprinkling effect mods for weapons throughout the locations shouldn’t be too difficult. They already did this for the armour system, so why not do it for the weapons too? Heck, why not make all the weapons customisable like the Constructo weapons? It would solve the bloated arsenal problem.

Enemy Design

The enemy design in this game just isn’t great. While it makes sense considering you’re fighting an army so it’s obvious they’re gonna have standardised units, you would think they would spice up their combat stratagem when they know they couldn’t beat our protagonists by throwing the same old shtick over and over. Instead, we keep having to fight the same miniboss Juggernaut over and over and over again. Sometimes there’s two of them! Make it three during the Juice fight!

It’s not a problem with just the Nefarious troopers, it’s an issue across multiple factions too. Across all three factions (Space Pirates, Goons & Nef’s army), they all follow the same formula;

the one with the gun: Pirate Corsair, Goon, Nef Lasertrooper

the one that does melee: Space Pirate & Shield Pirate, Goon Rusher & Undead Goon, Nef Slugger

the tiny short range/melee swarmer: Cutlassies, Robomutt, Nef Trooper

the vehicle one: Goon Dropship, Nef Dropship

the flying one: Zoom Goon, Nef Sniperbot & Blitztrooper & Sniperbot

the heavy flying one: Vroom Goon, Nef Peacekeeper

the rinse repeat miniboss: Pirate Marauder, Nef Juggernaut

While stylistically different, they don’t differ much from how they shoot/do damage at you. It would have been great if they did some things different from one another. Some really simple fixes;

While I think giving shields to pirates makes little sense, it is some variety at least. Expand on that. Maybe make the Goon Rusher actually rush towards you faster than the others, or make the Nefarious Slugger can do 360 attacks or have more range since it’s a) a robot, and b) basically has the Scorpion Flail for arms.

Make the Vroom Goons try to ram you instead of just having to avoid the taser things it shoots cuz that’s the exact same thing that the Nefarious Sniperbot does since all you need to do to avoid both attacks is sidestepping it.

Make the Pirate Corsair shoot high damage while the standard Goon does horizontal strafing rapid fire compared to the Nef Trooper’s vertical one

Make the Zoom Goons dodge your attacks, maybe give it a ground pound that opens it up to attack so it's at least somewhat different from the Nef Peacekeeper other than being a slightly squishier variant.

For a game so pretty it is bizarre they couldn’t put more effort into gameplay itself. The repeating minibosses get stale very quickly since once you’ve figured out a tactic that worked, it is rinse and repeat across the whole game.

Two Protagonists, Same Shtick

The gameplay doesn’t differentiate itself between Ratchet and Rivet. They play the exact same way, with the exact same arsenal, and the exact same progression. What is the point of having separate playable protagonists if they’re just gonna end up the same? You could replace Rivet with Ratchet and vice versa for 90% of the game and nothing would change. It would be something if they had separate weapons or separate movement gimmicks that make them distinct, but we didn’t get that for some reason.

Character Issues

The character writing is just abysmal, even when compared to the Future trilogy. While the Future trilogy (and by extension A4O, FFA and ItN) had plenty, and I mean plenty, of plotholes from a worldbuilding standpoint, the character writing was solid and fairly consistent. I cannot say the same for RA. Some examples;

Ratchet(?) & Clank(?)

I can hardly recognise Ratchet as the same character we had over the PS2 and PS3 instalments. He feels more like the 2016 reboot version just haphazardly retconned as the ItN version that RA was supposedly a continuation of. Being afraid of being a washed-up hero was Qwark’s thing, not Ratchet’s. Why would he even care? The man was downright tired of being a hero come ItN. And why is he even worried about meeting the Lombaxes? He saved Polaris multiple times and beat Tachyon, y’know, the reason why they left in the first place? The reason he gave up searching for the Lombaxes was because he had more going on with Talwyn and was assured the Lombaxes would do just fine without him. Why the sudden change of reason? What, is acknowledging Talwyn one too many female characters for Insomniac?

And why would Clank, despite knowing Ratchet not wanting to pursue the Lombaxes, go out of his way to make a whole ass parade about the Dimensionator? If he was just trying to cheer Ratchet up from his fear of being a washed-up hero (which, again, made no sense for his character) he would have just done the parade and given him the Dimensionator in private. The entire premise of Rift Apart hinges on the fact that Clank decides to give Ratchet what can be considered as a WMD since the Lombaxes used the Dimensionator to get rid of the Cragmites in an open public setting. Had he not done this, had he not told Qwark he wanted to surprise Ratchet, Nefarious probably wouldn’t have found out about the new Dimensionator, and the entire game wouldn’t have happened.

Another gripe I have with how Clank was handled was that his Zoni heritage was conveniently forgotten about. They could have tied the Zoni more deeply into the mysticism of the RaC universe and be the reason why he was able to fix the dimensional anomalies, but instead it was tied to Gary and... the Lombaxes. Huh.

Rivet, or as I like to call her, “Furbait”

There is so much missed potential with Rivet. Where to start? Instead of a grizzled, closed-off survivor of a robot dystopia, we just get miss middle-of-the-road, clearly made for pandering, furbait. Design wise, she would have been perfectly serviceable had this NOT been a robot dystopia. The only physical giveaway to show that she was a survivor/rebel fighter was her arm. It is the only thing that shows she’s a rebel fighter survivor. Her suit is well made, her eyelashes are on fleek, her hair is silky smooth, her tail is all fluffy and clean. Nothing about her says she was a survivor. No scars, no dirt, nothing other than the obvious robot arm. It is lazy. Lazy and stupid.

Her personality doesn’t make sense for the universe she supposedly inhabits either. Heck, no one in this franchise fits well in this robot dystopia, tbh. She distrusts robots due to past experience, yet is chummy with both Clank and Kit (and by some extension, the Zurkons & Pierre) relatively quickly. For someone who should have gone through a lot of adversity, she hardly acts like it. She’s confident, has a lot of friends, and whatever negative aspect she does have (which is just distrust instead of the obvious robot racist she should have been) that would have given her an opportunity to grow as a character is watered down and conveniently forgotten, so she hardly grows as a character, if any.

Ultimately, Rivet boils down to being “What if Ratchet, but a girl?”. There’s work put into trying to make her her own thing, but there’s also the narrative yanking her by the collar to be Ratchet’s other self. She’s the last Lombax in her dimension, she also wonders where the Lombaxes went, and she’s trying to be a hero. At that point, how is she any different than Ratchet? They don’t even differ much personality wise for a version of Ratchet who never met her Clank, so to speak. One would think she would be the spunky RaC1 Ratchet since it was meeting Clank that got Ratchet to grow as a person. Instead she’s just your lovely neighbourhood Rivet, friend to all except robots except the ones she meets I guess. What is the point of having two main characters if they are just gonna end up the same?

Kit

While arguably the better other of the new duo, she has issues as well in the writing department. She had the most growth out of our titular cast, however how she got there is ramshackled at best.

In comparison to Clank, he was a defective warbot, which made sense why he was small. Kit on the other hand was tailor made by the supposedly competent Emperor Nefarious, so why does she have a cutesy mode? Why does she even have a character crisis from hurting Rivet, for that matter? Stopping rebels was what she was designed to do, and she suddenly gained a conscience from doing her job? If Kit is so effective at what she did, why did Emp Nef stop at making just one of her? Shouldn’t there be multiple Kit models roaming about? She could mow down hordes of newer Nefarious Troopers and Juggernauts, so why didn’t Emp Nef expand on that?

These inconsistencies make Kit as a character start falling apart as soon as you give it more scrutiny than a surface level glance. The writers could have easily solved these issues by just alluding that she might have been an outdated model, or was damaged and abandoned on Savali where Gary and the monks fixed her up and gave her a new purpose — protecting the Archives. Instead of an exterminator, she became a guardian. They could have taught her how to be more “human” as it were, too, which would tie up nicely to why she regrets her actions in her previous line of work. Instead, they went with the “Oh no, what have I done, I did my job and injured a trespasser, now I’m gonna be a recluse on Savali” route.

She doesn’t gel well with Rivet either because the only one actively having something to overcome was Kit. Had Rivet been written better (having to overcome her prejudices, letting go of her past trauma, solving her trust issues) it could work with Kit growing out of her self doubt and regrets, but it just isn’t there. Plus, there weren't enough scenes of them together to build towards that conflict resolution that would make their friendship more believable. She has more of a relationship with Ratchet than Rivet.

“EmPeRoR” Nefarious

He is boring. Simple as. There is no driving motivation to him other than “conquer everything”. We could have gotten an Ultron (which would make a perfectly sensible callback to the Biobliterator shtick our Nef pulled from UYA) but we just end up with a sassy English bastard with the personality of wet bread. There was no fun interplay between him and our Neffy, anything to make both their personalities shine as they work together or grind against each other, it just sucks.

The Plot(holes)

Imma just list it down.

How does a helmet clearly designed to fit a Lombax head is supposedly “one size fits all”?

How did the fish kid Rivet saved in the intro made it around Nef City in the first place if this was supposedly a robot dystopia that eradicated all squishies? What, was he just having a stroll, taking some fresh dystopian air? Could have made it that this was a fellow rebel she was tasked to save cuz he had some intel that he swiped and Rivet decided to use herself as bait to draw attention away from him so he could get the intel out of there, but no.

On that matter, why do planets like Savali and Torren IV still have organic inhabitants?

What was Skidd trying to achieve by hacking the propaganda blimp? This served no purpose at all narratively since it didn't even turn any robots against the Neffies.

Why was Skidd even in Nef City, for that matter? What was his original mission that he was going undercover for? Busting Rivet out of prison? Couldn’t be, since he made no mention of it.

Why did none of Emp Nef's cronies question our Nef just popping in despite looking clearly different? He’s a whole head shorter and the wrong colour. What, do they not have colour vision?

How did Emp Nef know about the existence of the dimensional map? He barely knew about the Dimensionator so how does that make sense?

If Ratchet already has hoverboots, why couldn’t he dash/sprint with it until he gets to Savali?

Where and when did Rivet get a rift tether?

Where and when did Rivet get a pair of hoverboots?

Wasn’t the Space Pirates/Decadroids designed by Tachyon? Why do they exist in this dimension? Why aren’t they allied with Emp Nef since they too are robots? None of this is explained.

Where did the Lombaxes of Rivet’s dimension disappear to? Did they have a Tachyon-like threat in this dimension too? Did Emp Nef wipe them out? Don’t know, and the game doesn’t bother explaining it cuz Rivet is supposed to be girl Ratchet and nothing beyond that.

Why would Emperor Nefarious announce for the whole galaxy to see where he was going during the finale? Did he lose that much intelligence in the short timeframe we’ve known him? This is the guy who conquered the galaxy?

Why would he leave a portal for our protagonists to conveniently follow him through?

Where did that telekinetic abilities of him suddenly disappear to?

Where was this dimension’s Lawrence counterpart? That stupid little secretary is so dumb as to not recognise her own boss she couldn’t possibly be the Lawrence replacement.

Environmental Storytelling & Worldbuilding

Environmental storytelling & worldbuilding has never really been Insomniac’s strong suit. RA is pretty and all, but aside from Blizar Prime, none of the other locales did anything different from Ratchet’s dimension. If this was supposed to be a galaxy where Emp Nef has conquered it all, you would think that there’d be more neon, more cyberpunk, more Emp Nef aesthetic, more robots flying about. Instead, we just got the same thing we had from Ratchet’s dimension, just in prettier graphics. It is set dressing with no story to tell. It's a puddle pretending it was an ocean. While I appreciate seeing the graphical glow up the locations got, it’s a missed opportunity to actually show the impact Emp Nef had.

Take Nefarious City for example;

How was Ratchet able to move around Nef City without raising alarms? This negates the entire point of Rivet needing a robot disguise in the first place.

Why does a static statue in the middle of a city have a terminal that activates a platform that leads to Emp Nef's office in the first place?

On that note, why is an EMPEROR working from an office? Where’s the throne? The grand palace and palisades? The royal guards? If he’s an authoritarian that likes to take control, where’s the giant screen with a hundred monitors that watch every inch of Nef City?

Why does Emp Nef have a tiny four seater shuttle? If he needed to commute planet-side, wouldn’t he have something more posh? More grand? A Rolls Royce of shuttles instead of what can be considered a slightly pricier but still shitty Tesla model? They could have made Ratchet or Rivet have to steal a fighter jet and that would make infinitely more sense than what we got.

The same can be said with the inhabitants of this universe. They only exist to serve as plot devices or to point the protagonists to the next goal rather than actual people. There is no culture, no differing beliefs, nothing to tell you about what they are about or what they do. If all they exist to do is to be exposition devices/mission pointers, what was the point of even making distinct characters? Then again, the Future trilogy suffered the same problem with environmental characters being practically stand-in cardboards so points for consistency, I guess.

Verdict

Essentially, Rift Apart is a creatively bankrupt, designed-by-committee tech demo for Sony Playstation. What used to be a franchise that does satirical commentary on capitalism that later tried to delve into narrative/character driven sci-fi story, has ended up being the most capitalistic-designed entry imaginable. Which is unfortunate because I want to like this game. God, do I want to like it.

Did I enjoy playing it? When it works and doesn't crash on me, sure.

Do I like it enough as an entry to the franchise though? No, no I don't. The gameplay hardly expanded on the RaC formula, and the narrative just killed it for me.

But of course, that's just me. If you enjoyed RA, more power to ya. If you told me to play it again, I'll probably do it. It's just not for me for the long run.

#terra rambles #ratchet and clank #rift apart

8 notes · View notes

clockworkbee · 2 years

Text

Let's talk more about Madoc respecting Jude as a Queen.

That's literally one of the best parts in the trilogy. See these lines from chapter 5 of tcp,

“I want to make my own way at the Court,” I say.

“You’re no killer,” he tells me. I flinch, my gaze coming up to his. He looks back at me steadily with his golden cat eyes.

“I could be,” I insist. “I’ve been training for a decade.”

Besides being a redcap who lived for war and dipped his cap in the blood of those he killed, Madoc expected a ruler to not be afraid of getting their hands dirty if they want to run a court, or make their own way at the court, that is.

Although we know Madoc kept taking Jude for granted, he appreciated the things he saw she was good at in twk,

“As I thought. I didn’t appreciate you properly. I dismissed your desire for knighthood. I dismissed your capacity for strategy, for strength—and for cruelty. That was my mistake, and one I will not make again.”

He did, indeed, underestimate his daughter but he saw those things necessary (presumably for someone running the court, even from behind the throne i.e. what Madoc aimed to do himself through Oak) And in qon,

“Enough blustering,” he says. “You’ve already won. Look.”

He takes me by the shoulders and turns me so that I can see where the great body of the serpent lies. A jolt of horror goes through me, and I try to wrench out of his grip. And then I notice the fighting has ebbed, the Folk are staring. From within the body of the creature emanates a glow.

And then, through that, Cardan steps out. Cardan, naked and covered in blood.

Alive.

Only out of his spilled blood can a great ruler rise.

And all around, people go to their knees. Grima Mog kneels. Lord Roiben kneels. Even those who moments before were intent on murder seem overcome. Nicasia looks on from the sea as all of Elfhame bows to the High King, restored and reborn.

“I will bend my head to you,” Madoc says to me under his breath. “And only you.”

It might seem that Madoc surrendered here because he's no fool and could see he'd lost but that's not all. Here, Madoc saw his daughter for who she really was, a Queen. A queen who made difficult decisions like beheading the love of her life because he's cursed instead of a child who tried to keep him in any way she could. Jude was everything Madoc thought a ruler should be, for instance, these lines he said to Cardan in qon,

Have you earned one single thing that you have? I have fought with those who follow me and bled with them. I have given my life to Elfhame.

That's something Madoc saw Jude do. She earned the loyalty of those she worked with. She fought with her people in the battle against Madoc and gave her life to Elfhame because it was her home.

He presses his mouth into a thin line. Then he bows his head. “Yes, my queen.”

No wonder he finally bowed to her. He didn't only accept his defeat, he accepted her as his Queen and respected her for it.

You’re the High Queen of Faerie. Whatever you did to get there, I can only applaud it.

ps: this post isn't necessarily to say that Madoc isn't planning getting back at Jude but only that by the end of Queen of Nothing, he accepted and respected her as the Queen.

#madoc redcap #jude and madoc #madoc #jude duarte #the cruel prince #the wicked king #queen of nothing #the folk of the air #tfota #holly black #tfota analysis

147 notes · View notes

karaloza · 1 year

Text

Handmade set of tree ornaments based on the Four Links/Four Elements from the Capcom trilogy of Legend of Zelda games (Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures, and The Minish Cap), but more particularly based on the Hero of the Four Sword (AKA Four AKA Smithy) from the outstanding @linkeduniverse webcomic!

Each ornament is divided in quarters, with the in-game symbol of the Element on the "front," a single triangle representing the Light Force and a trail of stars on the "back," and a more literal depiction of the Element on the two "sides."

Media: Foamcore ornament bases, gimp braid, sequins, glass seed beads, satin ribbon with metallic edging.

Photos by @rrdcooc

Presented as a gift to @ahrva in honor of our WIP (with @4our-5word), "We Shall Rise Again." Read it here!

#legend of zelda #loz #four swords #four swords adventure #the minish cap #linked universe #fancraft

114 notes · View notes

eiremauve · 6 months

Text

The biggest mistake Kevin Feige ever made was letting Captain America stans direct and write Avenger movies. They have shall we say issues with the other two members of the big two (and they cannot write women worth a damn-that is why they sacrificed Natasha and Gamora to the soul stones.) Not sure why they have issues with the other two superheros who have a trilogy but they do-they give Thor humiliating writing and Tony cruel writing.

Thor's depression is turned into a punch line (because he eats his feelings haha so funny-not). The only time it is not used as a punch line is when Tony wants Bruce rather than Thor to use the stones to bring everyone back and it is fairly clear he is concerned that Thor wants to use them because Thor is suicidal. Stans of characters who are not Thor love having their fav wield Thor's hammer but usually they come up with a narrative reason why it is necessary but these writers and directors are such big Steve stans they could not be bothered to do even that.

The treatment of poor Tony ties with the bad writing for Natasha because death is the worst. Poor characterization is annoying, dying a horrible painful death is traumatizing and not something you can come back from. Of course they could have made him alive again with bullshit timetravel etc etc but they chose not to. Instead they chose to have Steve get to have a redo of his alleged sacrifice right after the funeral. That was an absolute slap in the face-Steve gets happiness, Tony gets to die. And not only could they have brought him back easily, again they almost won in Infinity War. They clearly explicitly would have beaten Thanos if Thor had aimed for the head. They clearly explicitly would have beaten Thanos if Peter Quill had kept his cool as well though this is not mentioned in Endgame and the directors and writers blame Thor rather than Peter for the loss anyway. There was no need for Tony to die, except that the writers and directors wanted him and his stans to be in pain and the only way was to have him use the stones. (There were many ways to beat Thanos! The "only way" Strange was referring to was the only way Tony could potentially actually die.)

Cap stans may whine that Steve is selfish-and he is-but he gets rewarded for it. He is "worthy" enough to wield Thor's hammer and "worthy" of a long, happy life with Peggy. He gets to make speeches about sacrifice and moving on without sacrificing or moving on.

And another thing! Thanos gets a big scene full of pathos at the end of Infinity War with a traumatized young Gamora where he gets to be emo about murdering his daughter in order to mass murder the universe whereas Tony's daughter gets a scene where she is chipper (?) when Happy tells her what food her dad likes as if she has already forgotten even though he literally just died. (I know that there was a scene where Tony and Morgan talk but it was cut so it doesn't count. Funny how all the fat jokes made the cut but an actually important scene didn't.)

#anti endgame #anti mcu #mcu ranting #ranting

6 notes · View notes

lesbiradshaw · 2 years

Text

#if i write a fic where buddie and/or thiam watch the cap trilogy and start comparing each other to steve and bucky .#mind your business #im a self indulgent person #and maybe the crossover would be corny but also IT WOULD FIT!#eddie and theo truly are just like bucky and buck and liam truly are just like steve #like. sorry but i need it #buddie watching them w christopher and staying up to finish the last one even after he falls asleep …#we already know eddie likes wolverine sooooooo him liking bucky makes sense idc #and liam is literally a canon steve stan so!#buck saying he cant be like steve because steve is a hero and theo thinking he cant be like bucky bc bucky deserves redemption YEAH #yeah ….#☹️ my babies

9 notes · View notes

quietbluejay · 4 days

Text

A Thousand Sons 1

Hello! I had to read this so you do too!

-why was it necessary to be gross about the female characters. I'm not gonna lie this was what made me drop it when I read the sample, and I didn't come back to it until AFTER I'd read the Ahriman trilogy. This was a mistake. -I'll leave commenting on the oily sweaty muscles for later. -Magnus' appearance making people vomit was probably not meant to be as funny as it was -there is something deeply wrong with the Thousand Sons I swear most of them would fit in with fanon Slytherin also is it literally any wonder they went Tzeenzch (sp??) when you have stuff like THIS

A warrior’s standing was not simply measured by his proximity to the centre of the spiral, but by myriad other indicators: the position of the warrior next to him, behind him and across from him. Who was obscured, who was visible, the arc of distance between his position and the sun disc, all played their part in the dance of supremacy. Each member’s position interacted subtly with the other, creating a web of hierarchy that only Magnus could fathom.

just stand in line like normal people i beg you

I'm drowning in an ocean of purple prose

Such perfect geometry, such pleasing aesthetics… who could ever wish harm to so perfect a refuge? Soaring silver towers sagged in the heat of the fires, broken glass falling from their high windows and pyramidion-capped summits like shimmering tears. Firelight danced in the glass, each reflecting a great, golden eye that wept tears of red.

it went on in this vein for more than 3 paragraphs. Actually you know what I should make a separate post for the Magnus description at some point.

Magnus would be a Magneto fan

The Emperor spoke of how these men had brought ruin upon themselves and their people by trafficking with powers beyond their comprehension. Seeing Magnus’s interest, his father warned him against flying too long and too high in the aether for selfish gain. Magnus listened attentively, but in his secret heart he had dreamed of controlling the powers these mortals could not. He was a being of light so far removed from humanity that he barely considered himself related to his primordial ancestors. He was far above them, yes, but he did not allow himself to forget the legacy of evolution and sacrifice that had elevated him. It was his duty and his honour to speed the ascension of those

Ahriman has a secret box in his library with "provocative tomes". I'm choosing to believe this is where he keeps his 26 volume collector's edition of Twilight.

I will say this for McNeill he is doing a good job of building up the atmosphere of doom

though I hope he doesn't draw it out as much as Abnett did in Know No Fear

This was not simply an honour guard to welcome a brother Legion: this was a show of force, a warning, and a declaration of purpose all in one. The primarch stood beneath a glorious canopy of white silk held aloft by sixty bronze-skinned Legion eunuchs and attended by eighty-one Terminators of the Scarab Occult.

why Magnus Magnus look at me why do you have Legion eunuchs okay i know that even the GC-era astartes have thralls and servitors but for what purpose eunuchs??? is this a magic thing? except they're just holding up a fancy sunshade

you know what if i was Leman Russ I'd judge Magnus too

Also, if I was doing the drinking game I was thinking about (take a drink every time the word "flesh" is used), i would fear for my liver

it definitely is kind of weird giving the guy who shapeshifts to look hot the name of two female goddesses (Hathor Maat)

And I'll end this post here it's probably long enough

#bluejay reads warhammer #warhammer 40k

4 notes · View notes

nimuetheseawitch · 5 days

Note

who is/are your comfort character(s)?

which cryptyd being do you believe in?

how many water bottles are in your room right now?

what hair products do you use?

who is/are your comfort character(s)?

Elliot Schafer (In Other Lands) - I reread this book so often

Hawkeye Pierce (MASH)

Johnny Jaqobis (Killjoys)

Vala Mal Doran (SG-1)

Rodney McKay (SGA)

Eleanor Shellstrop (The Good Place)

Anne Shirley (Anne With An E - I did love the books as a kid, but this adaptation grabbed my heart)

Sabriel and Lireal (Abhorsen/Old Kingdom Trilogy)

Various others depending on what I'm into at the moment - fiction has always been my comfort and escape

which cryptid being do you believe in?

I answered this question here, but in summary, I'm generally pretty skeptical. In a slightly different answer, I love the idea of cryptids being wholly real, just the kinds of animals we haven't seen often enough to ever believe are real enough. There are so many "new" species "discovered" all the time, and we've barely scratched the surface of so many things. We've catalogued only a small portion of the species of fungus in the world, we keep on learning really weird new things about lichen, and every time we send down a new submersible to the deep ocean we find something new. We've only seen a handful of giant squid specimens, but they're real. The world is still full of mystery.

how many water bottles are in your room right now?

In the room I'm currently in? Only one. But I went and counted the ones in the kitchen, and I own at least 8 more (I think I have some in storage in my camping gear, and this isn't counting the bladder-style ones for backpacking) and my partner owns a similar number. And this is after we've moved several times and gotten rid of water bottles each time. I used to work as a camp counselor and then backpacking instructor, so....I have a lot of hydration options.

what hair products do you use?

Oh man, this is a question. Right now I'm at a weird place with hair products because I'm trying to find some new ones.

I'm using the end of one type of dandruff shampoo because I don't want to throw it out, but then I'm switching to Vanicream's dandruff shampoo (I'm switching a lot of products to allergen-free and unscented because I've been having issues).

And I just switched to Vanicream conditioner.

I currently use a styling cream from Curl Smith but am just using that until it's gone and then switching back to SheaMoisture's Coconut and Hibiscus Style Milk and hoping it does what I want it to do (it's been like 3 years since I used it, and it was the last leave-in conditioner-type thing I really liked).

I also am currently using a Ouidad gel, but it mostly is just a very expensive product that doesn't do it's job nearly as well as the very cheap gel I used to use. Gonna switch to Vanicream's hair gel once I run out of that because one of my big issues with my old gel was scent, and Vanicream is supposedly scent-free.

I also have SheaMoisture's Coconut and Hibiscus Mousse, which I've been using along with water to refresh my curls on days 3-5 of my wash.

It seems like a lot, but I literally only wash my hair at most once a week, so whatever. I also occasionally try out some deep conditioners and masks, and I use a baby shampoo as a clarifying shampoo about once a month. And there's the Manic Panic Enchanted Forest dye that I'm using until I finish growing out the dyed bits (I'm sad to see the green hair go after this many years, but I'm just so tired of dying it). I also am a big fan of my Denman brush, which I only use in the shower, and my satin cap that I sleep in - it has done more for reducing frizz than any single product I have ever used.

I have been on a hair journey recently, but I'm nearing the goal because I was able to leave my hair down every single day this week instead of throwing it in a messy bun or braid because my curl pattern frizzed out. That was probably way more info than you needed, but it's kinda cool to see it all written out. I have spent about two decades trying to figure out my curly/wavy hair ever since I chopped it all off in high school and discovered I had curls.

weirder asks

#weird asks #hero-in-waiting

3 notes · View notes