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mobumi · 2 months

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I have to admit that I'm kinda disappointed in Bucchigiri so far, but at the same time I want to see more 'cause the setting and the designs are really cool. Even the story could be interesting if it's done right. I've seen all the discourse with Arajin and as much as I love my boy Matakara I've realized something.

Matakara and Arajin are actually very similar but Matakara is just done better. Let me explain.

Arajin's goal: lose his virginity

Matakara's goal: become a Honkibito

Arajin's obsession: Mahoro/ girls

Matakara's obsession: Arajin/ become Honki people with him

Mahoro shows no interest in Arajin, broke his love stone but Arajin still believes he has a chance. Meanwhile, Arajin avoids Marakara, rejects him and still Matakara believes in him and holds on to his stone.

They both don't let go and pursue the person they like in some ways.

Matakara is as obsessive as Arajin, but his character is more fleshed out. He has a social circle with good friends. We have a backstory with his brother, so there's someone important to him other than Arajin.

He doesn't only use his strength for selfish reasons like Arajin but to protect his friends or the Minato Kai gang.

There's mystery surrounding the shadow in his room, we don't know what will happen to him. That gives the audience some anticipation and keeps its interest in the character and his potential.

I don't think people don't like Arajin because he's flawed. Matakara as sweet as he is has flaws too and other characters on the show as well. Sen'ya for example is shady af and doesn't tell Arajin everything and keeps stuff from him, so not everyone is a saint. And it's not because of bad writing or anything, it's just the way it was intended to be.

The intent here is to subvert expectations. I was surprised at first that it didn't go the way I thought. First, the harem trope is completely different from what we're used to.

- The mc pursues a girl but mostly men are after him, every gang leader wants him on their team because they think he's really strong. So they completely change what people expect of the harem genre.

- Mahoro is not the typical cute and innocent girl the mc usually falls for. She's ruthless, a brocon and doesn't hesitate to manipulate people to get what she wants. That makes her interesting because she's really not what she seems and is similar to Arajin and Matakara (her obsession with her brother)

- Arajin is not the typical shonen prota with big morals or big dreams (the "I want to become xx" type of hero), he doesn't want to be strong or anything significant other than losing his virginity like a normal teenager, and that's the joke. You expected something else? No, we get a pathetic mc who's most likely going to surprise us again just to break our expectations.

We're not supposed to root for Arajin, I think he is a tool to tell a delinquent story in a new kind of way. His character is annoying but I think it's on purpose and he's going to be useful somehow. How? Idk time will tell.

The process is not enjoyable right now and that's fine that people feel that way, but I think it's going to make sense at one point or another as to why Arajin acts like that.

I've seen some people not understanding all the criticism he gets, but I think it's fair criticism, judging that Arajin is not the type of character you would root for. While we know he's going to change it still seems like a long way, especially when you just don't care about the mc or you don't find him interesting in any way. That got me thinking that this is exactly how we're supposed to feel about him, at least for now. Arajin's not supposed to be a likable character so I'd say it's working. it's all fine because for once it's different, this is not what we expect of a shonen protagonist, so it's interesting.

I've also seen people say that Arajin has some development and I'm not sure about that. Sure, as the story progresses and he's getting more and more in a mess, Arajin's reactions have more range, there are some elements here and there that show us he cares about some things. But his attitude remains the same. And I think something bigger has to happen for him to actually break out of his character.

We've seen how he reacted to Akutaro's speech about Mahoro. It demonstrates that he can get mad for someone else, but he left Matakara tied up in a basement and doesn't get mad for him at all. We have a whole flashback with him feeling guilty for leaving Matakara and he has no remorse doing it again because he's not his priority. Something bad is going to happen so Arajin will finally snap out of it and pay attention to Matakara and realize his behavior was not okay. I hope that's the course of action at least or I'll be really disappointed. Arajin is not a good mc and that's cool, it's not groundbreaking but different. That being said, it has to mean something in the story and I haven't seen that yet.

So yeah, I'm not giving up on this anime and I'm looking forward to see how the story will unfold!

#bucchigiri?!#all of this to say that i think that's something is cooking for us and i hope it's good #episode 6 don't let me down pls #sorry for the rambling #but i had some thoughts after ep 5

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artbyblastweave · 2 years

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Something interesting about Coil is that he at least nominally checks a lot of the boxes on the “evil overlord with standards who looks after their minions and offers dental yadda yadda yadda” tumblr discourse gestalt. He makes deals, holds up his end in almost all situations bar the Dinah one, provides nearly unlimited material support to the villains under his control up to and including decorating their lairs for them. He accepts feedback and criticism graciously, and when Imp tries to haggle herself a territory in a crisis situation he goes along with it without even gesturing in the direction of making an example out of her for her insolence.

None of this is because he has actual standards or ethics or emotional attachments, which is what a lot of those posts (the bogleech one, etc.) imply is going on under the hood. It’s just that he’s identified supporting, providing for and being lenient with his minions as the fastest path to continuing to have minions. Also, his power lets him simulate brutalizing his minions for their annoying fuckups without having to deal with the consequences of such. The “unconditional” support also folds the exact second playing nice with his underlings gets in the way of what he wants- he’s cordial with Lisa, sure, but there’s no illusion he’d ever let her leave his employ alive, she’s too useful.

And, of course, the same pragmatic approach that makes him so great to work for also leads him to kidnap and drug children when that’s the fastest way to get what he wants, and the fact his “loyal” quirky likable minions are willing to go along with this is a shorthand for how awful they’ve been the whole time without Taylor (or the audience) noticing. And this underlying moral rot leads to the protagonists turning against him by inches and eventually killing him once they’ve rallied under a leader (Skitter) who genuinely is the kind of “great-boss, bad-guy-but-not-a-bad-guy” supervillain on personal principle that Coil presented himself as.

And despite how he presents himself- his proximity to the “good boss supervillain archetype” just... never registered in the fandom, because the protagonist is laser-focused on the atrocious shit he does and her own complicity in it. I have never seen anyone argue on his behalf because of the “nice-coded” things he does! Everyone hates him! They hate him so, so much! It’s such an interesting treatment of the archetype!

#parahumans #worm #wildbow #worm meta #thoughts #worm thoughts #worm web serial #worm spoilers #worm coil #thomas calvert

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cryptid-intraining · 2 years

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People who discredit fanon interpretations of characters can suck my dick. just because something is fanon doesn't make it bad, say you don't like fandom and fanfic culture and move on.

I know of people who've only ever read Batfam fanfiction and fanon content and never once touched a comic, but then gone in to write their own Batfam fics purely from their understanding of them from fanon and I think that's incredible. good for them, honestly. the fact that fandoms and writers and artists can create a whole separate world that you can consume and explore without ever getting into the canon material is so cool and such a unique element of fandom that I could honestly talk about for hours and shouldn't be discredited.

If people are talking about why they think Jason is redeemable and why they think he's misunderstood and you bring up how he's actually really unrepentant and violent in the comics, fine, that's a great argument if we're talking canon, but if they're talking about fanon and their own headcanons? that doesn't make what they're saying any less valid and shouldn't be dismissed as unimportant.

Saying "oh but pit madness isn't canon" in response to people bringing it up in discussion of what Jason did to Tim and why they think the characters could reconcile if the work was put in and they actually address their issues when they're talking about fanon and headcanons is asinine.

We know. We're not talking about canon. Not everyone values characters based on their canon representations.

Most of my favourite characters wouldn't be my favourite if it weren't for fanon. They're just more interesting through the lense of fandom. The fans always have better ideas, more interesting theories, and far more complex interpretations.

Plus they're fucking good writers. Far better than the ones that write the canon. The same goes for the artists.

And while we're on the topic, just because people like Jason as a character in canon doesn't mean they're saying he's a good person. we can like bad people in fiction and also acknowledge that they're bad people.

But then we go to fanon and fanfic to explore the idea of them being better and changing. Because the canon material leaves us wanting, we see these characters with such interesting potential and want to develop it.

Bad person =/= likable character. Saying we shouldn't like a character because they've done bad things is genuinely ridiculous.

I've seen so many people say that Jason is being fucked up by DC writers (I agree) but then have an issue with fanon without acknowledging that people go to fanon and fanmade content to get better portrayals of their favourite characters. just because you don't like how fanon views a character or that fans write them to be redeemable where you don't see redemption doesn't mean it's wrong or bad or stupid.

You just don't like it.

I don't understand this mindset that fanfic needs to reflect canon. obviously you can do whatever you want with fanfiction, that's the glory of it and I would never want to take that away, but why write what is already found in canon? Jason doesn't need to be written like a violent, unrepentant guy in fanfic just because that's how he's written in canon.

If you don't like a character, cool. We all have characters we don't like but you don't have to list reasons why you're right and why the character is actually shit. Just because you dislike a character doesn't mean fans of that character are wrong or misguided or misinterpreting the character. You just don't like them. That's it.

Fandom is such an important space and there is genuinely so much to be gained from having conversations that take into account both sides of a character (like there are so many issues with how some people talk about Jason that go beyond personal taste and just become super problematic but that would be a whole other post) but it is just so hard to hold a civil discourse about these things, irl or online, and especially on this hellsite.

If you want to discuss in the replies and reblogs, fine by me, but don't be assholes and just respect other people's likes and views.

#batfam #jason todd #red hood #batfamily #batman #dc comics #bruce wayne #tim drake #stephanie brown #batfam headcanons #jason todd headcanon #my rants #fanon #fandom #batfam fanfiction #batfam fandom #batfam fanfic #rant

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terminatorbuns · 1 year

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Understanding Puss in Boot: The Last Wish through its villains (but mostly just Jack Horner)

By @terminatorbuns, with special thanks to my wife @da-manta-ray

We don't talk enough about the villains of Puss in Boots, the Last Wish. I mean we do, I just want to talk about it MORE.

It's been a while since this movie was released and I'm glad to see all the discussion and discourse around all the ways that this movie has excelled in all technical and writing aspects. I love discourse and analysis and I've been dying to share some of my own thoughts about this movie since release. There's so much to talk about, but for now let's talk a little bit about the very impressive way this movie handles villains.

To be clear, I use "villain" to mean antagonist, people who oppose the main characters. In this movie, the villains are Goldilocks (plus bears), Death, and Jack Horner respectively. I'm not particular about semantics, villain is a cooler word to say, and they all commit crimes anyways, so whatever. Having said that, Puss in Boots has one of the most impressive uses of villains I've ever seen in a movie, delivering three extremely compelling villains in a two hour window when many longer films struggle to even deliver a single good villain. Not only that, but each villain in Puss in Boots represents a completely different villain archetype, each with a different role to play in the story, and each one executed to perfection for their respective roles. I think everyone who has watched the movie has come away with a favorite villain, and so the intention of this essay is to explore in depth the archetypes that each villain represents, their implementation, and the significance of each fairy tale chosen (yeah, it's important). As an analysis nerd, maybe I can bring to your attention some things about your favorite villain that you had not considered, maybe give you something to think about the next time you get into a friendly debate about who is the best Puss in Boots villain.

Because it's JACK HORNER. HOLY SHIT is it Jack Horner. This is THE Jack Horner essay, I need people to understand how big brained the execution on this narrative behemoth is, this is the ONLY reason this essay exists. Jack Horner is on an entirely different level of writing to the other two, LET ME SELL YOU ON THIS. The team at DreamWorks poured liquid narrative gold into this titan of a villain and this essay does not stop until I fully explain how much narrative genius is on display here, they have worked TOO hard for their work to go unappreciated. You can actually just skip to the Jack Horner section that's where the hot, hot analysis is. We have to talk about 18th century political discourse, galaxy brained narrative framing devices, and Jack's significance to the core themes of the Shrek franchise. I have lost sleep researching Jack Horner, this rabbit hole is DEEP. I'll talk about each villain in depth, but we stan Jack Horner in this house.

1. Goldilocks, the sympathetic villain

Goldilocks and her supporting bear family is the sympathetic villain archetype, villains who oppose the hero's goals but who otherwise have understandable, likable motivations that make an audience want to see them win. The strength of this style of villain is to serve as secondary protagonists: when the audience likes a villain, the audience wants to see them complete an emotional journey just as much as the main hero characters. Sympathetic villains are exceptionally strong when they are working towards the same goals as the heroes, because their motivations are inherently relatable. It's the same motivation that the good guys have, after all.

Goldilocks is one of the more well known fairy tale properties of the three villains and that lends itself well to her villain archetype. The fact that audiences are already familiar with the Goldilocks story, combined with the fact that she gets the most screen time of the three villains, gives the audience a lot of context and backstory to understand Goldilocks as a character, and relate to her more easily. Her supporting bear family is written to be lovably goofy and it's easy to get attached to this lovable family. They fulfill the sympathetic villain archetype by being as lovable as they are.

The recontextualization of the original Goldilocks fairy tale as a found family story is also a very clever choice. The repeated line "too big, too small, just right" is used in the original fairy tale to describe Goldilocks trying beds until she finds one that fits her, but is cleverly reframed in this movie as a metaphor for Goldilocks trying to find a FAMILY that fits her. The bear family that adopted her is "just right" as a permanent family for Goldilocks, yet she must struggle with different ideas of family before she is able to settle on her "just right".

The Goldilocks subplot easily parallels the journey of Puss, Kitty, and Perrito. Goldilocks and our main heroes are all in conflict over the wishing star, but ultimately both parties end up discovering that their needs are met by embracing their respective found families, no wish required. Puss, Kitty, and Perrito all suffer from loneliness and require each other's company to be truly happy, just like Goldilocks needs the company of the bears to be happy. And so, Goldilocks ends the movie not as enemies to Puss' party, but as allies, sitting next to Puss' party, celebrating their similar victories together. A classic and clean execution of a sympathetic villain.

2. Death, the symbolic villain

Death is an example of a symbolic villain, which is a villain designed specifically to symbolically challenge specific traits or beliefs held by the protagonists. Symbolic villains may have personal motivations but their primary narrative significance is the effect they have on the hero, and their job is to highlight the fears and anxieties of the hero and to force the hero to face their fears. To this end, symbolic villains can often have little or no personal motivations, at which point they are also known as force-of-nature villains, villains that function more as a threatening force than as a person with needs and wants. Force of nature villains don't even have to be people, a tornado can fill the role of a force of nature antagonist.

Death is a very obvious choice for this role, one of Puss' primary anxieties is his fear of death, and there's no better symbolic villain to challenge this than "Death, straight up". He qualifies as a force of nature villain in a very direct way by being a literal embodiment of a concept, threatening and unavoidable. The choice of depicting Death as an incarnation of the big bad wolf also has some significance. He doesn't have any narrative ties to the original incarnation of the big bad wolf (or the wolf from Shrek), but the big bad wolf is a well understood cultural shorthand for "fairy tale bad guy". Indeed, that's what Death represents for this movie, he plays the role of a fairy tale bad guy, and his depiction as the big bad wolf hides his true identity until later into the story.

It should be noted that the personal motivations of a symbolic villain barely matters, and that's very true of Death. He has minimal screen time to explain his motivations, because it's not particularly important. More interestingly, what little we know about his motivations are not particularly likable or relatable. Many have made the mistake of understanding Death as a neutral, noble party just doing his job as death, but that's not true of this movie. It's NOT Death's job to kill Puss in Boots, his job is to take Puss' life when Puss dies of normal causes. Death isn't supposed to stab people personally with a knife, he just wanted to kill Puss for fun. It's fine because Death isn't meant to be sympathetic, Death is a dick in this movie, straight up.

Since symbolic villains have everything to do with the hero, they are most effective when they force the hero into action. Death's presence forces Puss into retirement, then it forces him on the journey to find the wishing star, and shows up along the way to pressure him further. He forces Puss into a very sincerely depicted panic attack scene, and that's what symbolic villains do, they push our heroes to reveal things about themselves, their needs and wants and anxieties, so our heroes can then confront those things. The visual execution on his threatening presence also must be commended, since everyone knows how dangerous DreamWorks made him look. I have no notes, he's just cool as fuck.

3. Jack Horner is the unsympathetic villain

Alright we're starting to wade into the Jack Horner waters here, but we'll start with the baby surface level analysis of Jack's villain archetype. Jack is the unsympathetic villain, a particularly monstrous one, who no one likes because he's a dick. His motivations are surprisingly fleshed out more than that of Death since Jack at least explains his backstory, but his motivations are trash because he's trash. The heroes barely interact with him and his motivations add very little to the journey of the heroes. Unsympathetic villains are often like this because their role in the story is to simply be unlikeable, to be such a shitty person that their eventual failure delights the audience with a sense of catharsis. That in and of itself has its own kind of narrative strength, entertainment is still the ultimate goal of any piece of media, after all.

He's reminiscent of classic Disney villains such as Jafar and Scar in a number of ways: he's petty and power hungry despite having minimal backstory reasons to be so, and his depiction is not conventionally attractive (although those are some BROAD shoulders). He's also partially queer-coded in the same way as the classic Disney villains through his very unconventional masculinity: he's temperamentally flamboyant, and he's even got the pink hair to boot. Queer coding in villains is a complicated discussion I'm not qualified to discuss in depth, but it can be surprisingly enjoyable to see joyful unconventional masculinity on screen even if the context is an evil villain. We want to see him scheme, and we want to see him fail; The audience just wants to see him do stuff because he's so fun.

Jack embodies the unsympathetic villain well in his simplicity, all his actions are motivated by petty greed and he approaches every situation with uncomplicated evil. I would ask you, is this really all there is to this incarnation of Jack Horner though? YUP, turns out that's it. However, like the other two villains, Jack Horner is inspired by an existing cultural text that influences the development of his narrative. I have explained the motivations behind the other two, I will do the same for Jack.

THIS is where the fun starts.

4. Welcome to 18th century political discourse

Jack Horner's original text is the least well known property out of the three villain origins. "Little Jack Horner" is an 18th century nursery rhyme that's short enough to be read word for word in the film, and short enough to be included in this essay:

Little Jack Horner

Sat in the corner,

Eating his Christmas pie;

He put in his thumb,

And pulled out a plum,

And said, "What a good boy am I!"

That's the whole thing, some kid eats a plum out of a pie. However, even in its early days the Jack Horner rhyme became (somehow) associated with the themes of greed and opportunism. Let's try to follow the logic: we have some kid, CLEARLY financially privileged enough to receive a pie for Christmas, decides to steal a plum out of the center of the pie, ruining it with his dirty kid fingers before anyone could cut the pie to share, then he has the gall to declare "what a good boy am I"! THIS FUCKER. The pie is the wealth of the common man, or something, and the plum is, like, the fruits of their labor, and this BOURGEOIS child is reveling in his destruction of the economy with his hunger for profit (and plums).

It sounds stupid because it IS stupid, but the association stuck and found use in a surprising amount of historical literature and political writings. I can just rattle off examples from the Wikipedia article: English poet Samuel Bishop uses Jack Horner as a critique of the Civil service bureaucracy, the satirical novel Melincourt (1817) has 5 people sing a song describing how they misuse their trades to fleece the public that compares themselves to Jack Horner, etc, etc, there's like 6 more examples. Also fun is the fact that educators in the 1800's have made attempts to sanitize the Jack Horner rhyme by adding verses that describe Jack Horner totally sharing his pie afterwards because it's the good ethical thing for little boys to do. Jack Horner shows up in war propaganda, it's absolutely wild.

This is the historical context behind the little Jack Horner rhyme, the reason why Jack Horner represents capitalistic greed and cruelty in the movie. I had to look this stuff up after the movie, who even knows about this stuff, but the writers have seriously done their homework to find a nursery rhyme with a historyc this interesting, and it's fascinating to see how they worked to recontextualize this rhyme into a movie villain for Puss in Boots. I say this, because the next layer of Jack Horner's narrative construction is even more interesting.

5. Jack the Anti-Pinocchio

Drew like a dark, fucked up version of Pinocchio, haha. Just a glimpse into my dark reality. A full stare into my twisted perspective would make most go simply insane, lmao.

Jack Horner's screen time is punctuated with references to the story of Pinocchio, who I'm sure we are all familiar with. Jack's intro flashback features Pinocchio and he spends a lot of time with "ethical bug", the very shameless clone of Pinocchio's cricket. On one hand, this is a very clever way to contextualize Jack Horner using a better known media property, but on the other hand, the choice of Pinocchio is very deliberate because Jack Horner is used in this movie specifically as a dark, villainous reflection of Pinocchio. 2022 is truly the year of Pinocchio for bringing us three Pinocchio movies and ending the year on the Anti-Pinnochio: Jack Horner.

Pinocchio is the story of a little puppet boy, naive to the ways of the world, learning how to be a "good boy" through trials and tribulations. He fails to listen to his father and his companion cricket sometimes but he ultimately learns a sense of morality and kindness. Compare and contrast this to the use of "good boy" in the Jack Horner rhyme, where Jack ruins a pie then ironically declares himself a good boy. This is where the parallels start: Jack Horner at multiple points calls himself a "good boy", but he has done nothing good to earn such a title. Everytime he says "good boy" it is not only a reference to his own rhyme, but as an ironic allusion to the story of Pinocchio as well.

Consider the appearance of Pinocchio early on in Jack's introduction scene, where Jack is upstaged by Pinocchio's magic puppet show and becomes jealously possessive of magic. The significance of that scene comes from the fact that Pinocchio's magic body is NOT a net positive advantage for Pinocchio: as a puppet Pinocchio struggles to fit in with human children, but the only advantage to his magic body is his ability to entertain crowds for stage shows, if he offers his only asset up for commercial exploitation. Not only that, but Pinocchio's magic forces his nose to grow when he lies, so it's as much a liability as it is an asset. Jack is jealous of a socially underprivileged child for the ONLY advantage Pinocchio has, planting the seeds of Jack's characterization mere moments after his introduction.

Jack's journey with off brand cricket completes his characterization. We see him abuse his men against the advice of cricket, but we also see that he perfectly understands cricket's advice, he just has no interest in being good. Contrast this with Pinocchio, who also fails to heed cricket's advice, but only because he is naive and fails to understand the nuances of the advice. We also learn how he was overwhelmingly privileged in life but still wishes for magic, the only privilege he's ever been denied, and his intention to hoard it from everyone else. Jack is written with the intention of filling the role of the monstrous, unsympathetic villain, and so it was a very deliberate and intelligent decision to frame him as the moral antithesis of a "good boy", the moral antithesis of Pinocchio. What morality Pinocchio has to learn, Jack disregards completely and declares himself a "good boy" anyways. Each of the three villains in this movie is designed around their respective archetypes, but Jack Horner takes his design prompt and fucking SOARS.

6. The Shrek Cinematic Universe

Let's take a brief detour through the history of the Shrek franchise.

In 1994, Jeffrey Katsenberg was ousted from a chairman role from Walt Disney and went on to co found DreamWorks Studios. The original Shrek movie started development the year after in 1995, as a very loose adaptation of a now very obscure children's picture book of the same name. It is often said that Shrek was written as a cynical parody of the fairy tale films of Disney as a form of revenge from Katsenberg. Disney films at the time were known for being family friendly and moralistically pure and full of beautiful, wholesome heroes on noble quests, and Shrek sought to subvert those expectations deliberately. At release Shrek had become an amalgamation of various fairy tale stories, featuring many parodies of Disney properties such as Pinocchio and Snow White. The humor was crass and irreverent to contrast with the properties of Disney, with a story focused on the uglier, dirtier ogre Shrek learning to become an unconventional hero to a fairytale kingdom.

It turns out the market was indeed craving the kind of off beat fairy tale that Shrek had become, as an alternative to Disney's clean, beautiful properties. Shrek's celebration of unconventional beauty and its clever parodies of classic fairy tales both struck a chord with audiences, and the Shrek franchise has been a DreamWorks classic ever since. The two Puss in boots movies are spin-offs of the Shrek franchise. Both Puss in Boots movies differ from Shrek in the way that they use fairy tales: the fairy tales are still different from their original contexts, but they are much closer to their original meanings rather than fully comedic comedies. The first Puss in Boots was a moderate success while the second Puss in Boots is critically acclaimed and seems to be on track to revive the entire Shrek franchise.

I want to highlight the strategy Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has found for handling its fairy tale properties, and how it contributed to this film's current success. Puss in Boots has figured out the storytelling potential of becoming a sort of cross over film for multiple fairy tale stories, recontextualized for a modern audience, but with more faithfulness and sincerity to the original text than the Shrek franchise before it. It's reminiscent of the very popular Marvel Cinematic Universe, but for even older public domain stories. In a way this is still within the spirit of Shrek, it still makes use of an ensemble cast of reimagined public domain fairy tale stories to construct a new, modern narrative. It even has some parallels to the original Disney properties that led to the creation of Shrek, as Disney also built its brand off the adaptation of the same public domain fairy tales that make guest appearances in Shrek.

This style of storytelling has the unique power of reviving older, forgotten media properties into fresh new narratives, made even more complex by blending multiple stories into a single movie and forcing them to develop new meaning through interacting with one another. This approach does an incredible job of capturing the essence of Shrek: Shrek himself is a lesser known property elevated to the status of a cultural icon through his interactions with an exciting ensemble cast of comedic fairy tale imaginings, and the Shrek franchise is responsible for bringing attention and meaning to even more fairy tales and nursery rhymes, some well known, some not. Might I remind you, Puss in Boots himself was not amongst the most popular fairy tales such as Pinocchio and Cinderella, the properties that were themselves brought to fame by being associated with the Disney brand. Shrek is often praised for its celebration of unconventional beauty, and while this is true for its celebration of literal unconventional beauty features, it's also a celebration of the revival of the unconventional, forgotten stories of the past that have the potential for new life.

I say to you that Jack Horner is the perfect encapsulation of this, the spirit of the Shrek franchise. This excruciatingly simple 6 line nursery rhyme, kept alive throughout centuries through artists extracting a comical amount of political meaning from it, now revived once more by the talented team at DreamWorks. Jack Horner had the least well known origins of the three villains, many people didn't even know the nursery rhyme going into the theater, but the amount of care put into his narrative construction is a monumental testament to the power of narrative reinvention. All this, at a time when the Shrek franchise itself was in decline and required its own reinvention to survive. This, when Puss in Boots 2 required bold new changes after the lukewarm reception to the first Puss in Boots. A daunting task, but if a property as obscure as Jack Horner can be revitalized with such vigor, then so can the Shrek franchise.

I'm tearing up about Jack Horner why the fuck is this happening.

#puss in boots #jack horner #goldilocks #death #long post

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paragonrobits · 1 year

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tbh i think the whole ‘Midna’s true form doesn’t look enough like a gremlin so her imp form is better’ is kind of a ground zero for a particular type of discourse in character design that ultimately boils down to a single question:

should a character’s design be a visual summary of their personality?

there are pros and cons to this thing. on the one hand, i always appreciate a design where a single look at it goes ‘oh yeah you know EVERYTHING about this person’. a lot of the most iconic villains really lean into this (though a lot of heroes don’t, for a particular reason), and these designs are a very effective way to instantly communicate character.

The flipside issue of this, though, is that while it doesn’t INHIBIT nuance, it does make it harder to convey it, or at least if you assume that a design should always communicate the fundamental facet of this character, it also means that by default those facets will have greater significance to an audience than more subtle or less obvious traits revealed through characterization and plot. For example, if your character is a huge and brutish monster with a soft side, and the former is what their character design communicates (because the soft side is a subversion), than this approach to character design can be more of a hurdle.

Character design as character thesis also creates a problem with audience response; if the audience overwhelmingly makes assumptions about a character because of the way they look, even if that’s not at all what you intended, they can and probably will warp that character to fit their preconceptions. (For instance, all the male characters who happen to be attractive by the standards of the audience and get reimagined as brooding bad boys whose pragmatism and ruthlessness is them being dark and mature, even if the actual character is an explosive dumbass with zero maturity and too selfish to consider that other people have goals independent of what they want.)

This is where you run into another big issue with this whole idea: remember when i said that heroes and protagonists often tend to have less interesting designs, or at least that their characters are not often communicated as well? This largely boils down to a desire to have characters that you WANT people to like to be broadly inoffensive; if you’ve ever created OCs and you shied away from a particularly unpalatable character trait or design feature because you thought it would turn more people away, than you know EXACTLY what i mean. Heroes are often compelled to be more broadly likable, but this also means flattening out their potential concepts in favor of something more... marketable. Which sucks. It fucking sucks. Its why so many heroes come off as boring compared to villains, and while you can get some fun ideas by making your heroes just as extreme as villains, its very easy to screw it up and create unlikable characters. (You can honestly study a lot of discourse this way.)

Going back to Midna, she’s actually a prime example of a heroic character that does this right, but the thing about her is that while being a gremlin is a big part of her character, it isn’t what defines her. She is, after all, the protagonist (though not the playable one) of this game, she is THE titular Twilight Princess, and this role is ultimately what defines her, and her growing into her responsibility. She may be a gremlin, but its not the sole aspect of her personality.

Personally, I’ve always liked her true form more (though to be honest, she would probably have more facial elements from Imp Midna if she appeared in more games especially now, since the highly mature and regal look of her true form is kind of a stylistic element exclusive to Twilight Princess, while she’d probably look more like Imp Midna but Gerudo-sized and proportioned if she appeared in Tears of The Kingdom), not least in part BECAUSE its such a contrast to her actual personality. It’s very fun to get a character whose design expects you to think one way of them, but they turn out to have a radically different personaltiy, while it does seem limiting for a character’s design to indicate who they are. It might communicate things easier, but it also leans towards a much flatter character; if you convey everything that way, what’s left to tell?

for Midna, when we see her true form’s contrast against the gremlin cursed form we associated with her, its essentially the story of her character development and the depths of who she really is told in reverse.

#character design #midna #legend of zelda

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thatone-churro · 5 months

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i was gonna make this addition to someone else’s post but it got longer than expected and i really didn’t wanna do that to them after they said they were done talking about it in regards to their own work.

i don’t know if “bugs” or “irks” are quite the right words for how i feel, but this take certainly does something of the sort to me.

i hate that the concept of “bury your gays” and its related discourses are so quickly applied to ALL queer media. it’s completely stripped of its original context/meaning and i know THAT irks me to no end.

personally, i’m of a mind that queers deserve media about them, about queers, and also about tragedy, death, murder, action and suspense, or whatever the occasion is. it can be about the queer cast while not having a happy ending, or without the cast being perfect.

“casually queer” is how i used to describe my personal project. yes, it’s blatantly and unapologetically queer, and that queerness is important, but it’s not the focus of the story. it’s not the point of the story. there’s still action, still adventure, still death, still tragedy. the cast isn’t perfect, some die, some are awful, some are “problematic,” even the queer cast. most things happen to the queer cast, because most of the major cast is queer.

i don’t understand the idea of condemning a work for “problematic queer characters” if it’s just a primarily queer work. you can’t have a queer story with no conflict or have realistic characters that are perfect. you want a queer story, but no, no, the queer characters can’t be problematic. and the problematic trait they describe is simply just. a character flaw exploited for the sake of the narrative. i don’t get it.

a queer story written for queers shouldn’t be perfect and pure. there should be “problematic” things. there should be tragedy. they shouldn’t have to be pure. they shouldn’t have to be perfect. they shouldn’t be shunned by the community they were created for because they told an otherwise typical story, except now it’s queer. queer stories, or any story, should be allowed to be complex. there should be nuance. not everything in it should be likable. that’s how a story works.

using my story as an example, again, my all-time favorite character and one of my main protagonists for a good chunk of it is a nonbinary lesbian on ace-spectrum. okay. cool. lots of rep there. but they’re heavily flawed. they kill. they have regrets. they make stupid decisions. they’re self-righteous. they’re terrified of being the bad guy yet end up the bad guy in many people’s views. they have one very violent motive. they love their family to such an extent that they’ll destroy anyone who lays a hand on them. they’re complex. they’re nuanced. they’re not always the good guy. that’s how a story is. if they were a perfect, pure, “perfect” character, there would be no story. no enjoyable story, at least.

what baffles me the most is when queer creators make these queer stories and suddenly they’re a bad queer because they killed one of their many queer characters, for instance. i’ll use my project once more for an example. say, remember that nonbinary ace lesbian from less than a paragraph ago? yeah, i ended up killing them at one point. their story was over and while it hurt me, too, it was a necessary step for the story. their story was over and i needed them to start the next chapter of the next protagonists’ story. but as a nonbinary ace lesbian myself, does that make me a “bad queer?” am i suddenly evil if i killed off my sapphic couple that got marrie in the first part because their story was over and there was no other way to move on their daughter’s story with them there? am i the asshole for killing one of my ace characters for a narrative purpose? am i not allowed to do certain things to my queer characters anymore if i don’t want to be a “bad queer?”

i guess these feelings boil down more to how strictly puritan culture and/or cancel culture and/or “problematic” culture has invaded the literary scene and how that impacts me, a queer writer. how are we supposed to tell these stories that people beg for if they are torn down and torn apart for the exact nuances they want? how are we supposed to create anything without relentless scorn or fear of being “cancelled” for thematic complexities? i don’t understand it.

in conclusion:

i realize my opinion on the subject is probably HEAVILY swayed by my own tastes and preferences and i have no idea where i’m going with this anymore and there’s not really an argument here anymore so really this whole thing can be taken with a grain of salt.

anyway, that’s my angry rant for the day. please don’t witch hunt me for it, thanks 🤞

#do you people understand how exhausting this gets for queer creators. do you.#when you’re so quick to get up in arms with pitchforks and torches how are we supposed to create?#‘i want more complex queer stories! no wait not like that.’ what are we supposed to do.#how can we create when those creations are shunned and when we (as queer creators) get ‘cancelled’ for it #do you understand. do you get what this does to your own community.#you can’t want more from us when you openly reject what we put out.#i’m so fucking tired of this as a queer writer. i’m so tired.#someone can probably explain this in a nicer/more formal way but i’ve already written two essays this week i’m not writing another for this #grace being kinda serious for once #text post #lgbtq #lgbtqia #lgbtq community #literature #what do i tag this??#lgbtq creators #discourse #< i guess #long post

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frozenwolftemplar · 8 months

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Writer's Month Day 20: Different First Meeting

Fandom: Tangled: the Series

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,287

I had something longer planned, but quite honestly didn't feel up to editing something long. Then @twotangledsisters mentioned a favorite Eugene & Cassandra fic, which got me thinking about their dynamic. Somehow, that evolved into this, an AU where Eugene and Lance's orphanage was located in Corona and they meet Cass as kids.

Hope you enjoy!

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“Gotta say, Arnie:” Eugene Fitzherbert drew in a deep breath of air as he strode up Queen’s Avenue, sighing with satisfaction at the scents of baking bread, the thin wisps of smoke from morning fires, and various other aromatic hallmarks of a mildly-nice Corona city street. “The world just feels different when you’re ten.”

“Really?” Arnwaldo blinked over at him, eyes agog with nine-year-old wonder. “How?”

Eugene stopped to draw another breath, this time more thoughtful, chin high and arms akimbo. “Manlier.”

“Wow...” Arnwaldo gazed awestruck up at his friend, cutting an unprecedentedly mature figure against the backdrop of Walton’s Butchery. “And what’s *that* like?”

Eugene looked down at Arnwaldo with a patronizing grin, the kind he saw grown-ups directing at kids who were likable despite knowing nothing about the world. “Can’t really describe it, buddy, but you’ll understand when you’re older. Now come on.” He flipped a half-copper into the air, the consolation awarded to every orphanage kid when another year of their lives passed by at that dismal little building. “Hope the markets are ready for Eugene and Arnwaldo, the big spenders of the day!”

*************************

After much deliberation, the newly-minted ‘man’ and his year-younger buddy decided to spend their untold riches on the splendor that was a caramel apple (discounted, with a wink, down from the usual three coppers after Uncle Monty learned of then expressed his admiration for “Corona’s newest gentleman”). Sitting on a crate overlooking the square, the boys took turns savoring bites of the delicacy that was Eve’s temptation coated in sticky-sweet ambrosia until all that remained was the stick, which Eugene handed over to Arnwaldo without fuss (because men didn’t argue over who got to lick the stick. Plus Arnwaldo really liked doing that).

“Ah.” Eugene leaned back comfortably, sun-warmed brick against his back. “Manhood’s great.”

“I’ll say,” Arnwaldo concurred, licking the stick (because what could be better than having a generous ‘big spender’ man as you best buddy?).

Stomach comfortably filled with sugar, Eugene relaxed and let his gaze drift over the square, taking in the friendly bustle of before him.. Every inch of the square fluttered with activity, noise, and color, a thousand smaller stories playing out within that one larger one of Corona on Market Day. Housewives with baskets over their arms inspected turnips and pumpkins and other harvested goods, pressing their thumbs into them to check for the warning bell that was ‘give;’ men in country garb swapped stories and worked out barters as they sipped ale under a cafe awning (pity he didn’t have a second copper; he’d like to try that aspect of manhood); off to a side, Old Man Olson had set up his usual queek stand and was jovially taking bets from the crowd of onlookers that always assembled there; off to another, a fat woman with a basket over her arm (probably someone’s cook, judging by her garb and mien) inspected a pen full of milling, honking geese, trying to discern the unlucky plumpest of their lot. Sounds of industry and snippets of conversation flew like flushed birds from every which way, crashing into one another and forming an amalgam of voices and discourses that swelled to fill the space with a wonderful din. It wasn’t loud enough to be deafening, by far; just loud enough to make you feel not so alone in the world, and Eugene sighed.

Being an orphan sucked, but being an orphan in Corona, he was sure, sucked less than it would in other places, because life in Corona, he could admit was pretty sweet.

“Cut it out!”

...At least, he thought it was.

Eyes he hadn’t realized were drifting shut flew open, and Eugene searched for the source of the indignant voice. Off to a side, not terribly far from his crate, a girl with short black hair (short? Weird. Girls could have short hair?) and a brown dress peeled away from a knot of kids laughing uproariously and pelted down the alley the girl had disappeared down.

He frowned. He knew that kind of laughter.

“Where you going, Eugene?” Arnwaldo asked as Eugene leapt, deft and catlike, from the crate. He clambered down after him, tossing the licked-clean stick over his shoulder to make the leatherworker’s dog’s day.

Eugene didn’t answer, simply striding over to the knot of kids. “Hey!” He waited until he had the group’s attention, then tilted his head towards the girl’s alley in an indicating way. “What was that all about?”

One boy, tall with too-short sleeves and trouser legs, the obvious ringleader, stepped to the front with a vulpine grin. “Aw, nothing much. Just having a little fun.”

“That girl didn’t look like she was having fun,” Eugene tossed back with set expression.

“Pfft, Cassandra?” The boy waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t worry ‘bout her. She’s always that way about things. Can’t take a joke. Besides,” he leaned in closer, as if they were the only two kids in the world who were in on a mature-boys-only secret, and said with a waggish wink: “Cast-offs like her don’t really count for anything, you know?”

Oh, Eugene knew.

And he also knew that certain duties came with manhood.

The boy was taller than him and wiry to boot, the kind who would win fights if he chose to pick them, but Eugene didn’t think about that; you *didn’t* think when the world turned red before your eyes. Without a word, he stepped forward and shoved the boy, hard

A gasp, peppered with squeals, ripped through the assembled kids as their leader stumbled backwards, caught his heel on a rebelliously eleven cobblestone, failed to recapture his balance and- “OOF!” -landed hard on his rear in a murky, questionable-looking puddle.

Eugene smirked as a silence fell over the group. Judging by the stench of that puddle, a horse had as much a hand in it as as last night’s rain. Good. Served the turd right. Cast-offs had it hard enough without morons like whatever-his-name-was teasing them for no good reason. Satisfied at the comeuppance he’d dealt, he turned on his heel and marched, head high and self-assured, down the alley the girl- Cassandra- had disappeared down.

“Hey!” The boy shouted after dealing out his own shove at a boy who’d dared to snigger at his state. “Where do you think you’re going?” (No one made a fool of him and got away with it).

“What’s it to you?” Eugene spat over his shoulder. “Cast-offs don’t count, remember?”

There was a silent beat as Eugene’s words sunk in, then a scoff. “Suit yourself, bonehead!” The boy shouted back, unrepentant. “It’s your funeral!”

“Eugene?” Arnwaldo, conquering his awe at Eugene’s boldness in the face of kids with parents who could complain to the Sisters and earn you a whipping (gosh, he couldn’t wait until he was ten and a Man), whispered as he fell in step beside Eugene. “Are you sure ‘bout this? Going to see that girl? I mean, what if there’s a reason those kids don’t like her?” He didn’t mention ‘funeral’ lingering in the air after them.

Eugene’s eyes darkened int he dim light of the alley. Arnwaldo’s ma died after having him, and his pa got kicked in the head by a mad cow not long after. He didn’t know what it was to be burdened with that especial sort of pain, deep and aching, that being abandoned by your own parents left behind; could never understand the scar it left across your soul, so cold it burned, and that continued to pulse raw and angry *years* after it first bled. But Eugene...did.

And he wasn’t about to let this girl, this Cassandra, suffer through it alone like he did.

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Author's Note: Part two coming soon! 😊

#writersmonth2023 #writersmonth #tangled the series #in which i write #my writing #tts fanfic #cassandra #tts cassandra #eugene fitzherbert #lance strongbow

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panelshowsource · 6 months

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random thoughts dump of the week bc none of this deserves its own post

coming down from a smol john kearns kick and really enjoyed it, guy has a ridiculously sweet presence and i really like his voice. it also brings me great joy his previous career was working in museums and as a tour guide. i would like that life, i think (i worked at universal orlando for a little bit in 2013 and was always super jealous of the vip tour guides lol). he mentioned on one of his rhlstps that despite winning arguably the biggest (british) comedy awards there are, he never released a standup special or dvd, and he kinda wants to keep it that way so he has something special between him and his live audience — and that really made me sad face. like, my guy, what about those of us who can't see you bc won't leave that damn island. (also ed gamble's new tour having no nyc date felt personal...) in another episode, he talked a little about, in great part due to social media, people want comedians they can know everything about, get the whole look of; comedians who are the same people onstage as off. he's not like that and doesn't really like the idea of that. i think there's a lot to say about that subject but i'll just leave it for now...

speaking of touring ed byrne next week!!! and jimmy and alan carr coming up!! what a fun time :')

speaking of rhlstp and ed, one thing that occurred to me and i thought was quite funny upon listening to his recent episode is that both richard and ed have that self-aware side of them that admits to bitterness, professional jealousy, annoyance with critics/haters, believing they're not as successful as they deserve to be, etc. while it can come off whiney here and there, it's not too obnoxious or anything, i just found it amusing they had this (often concealed or private) quality in common. i might even put jenny eclair in that camp (others too but that's a discourse i don't really wanna start lmao)

if another youtuber, following amelia dimoldenberg (and munya? does he count?), had to go on taskmaster i would probably vote for ollie kendal off of jolly. in my mind he and alex would be genuinely good friends outside of the show

man i miss the horne section podcast so bad

honestly, i'm a little surprised david mitchell doesn't have a podcast. he loves radio, it's not too demanding of a gig, and he's got tons of interests that could make engaging premises for podcasts... i'm sure someone has floated this to him before, so i need the reason why he said no. maybe he was busy with his book. would love a history pod fr

does anyone else ever remember when david mitchell was in rick and morty and just sit back and go O_O also when he was on graham norton with hillary clinton like lmaooo i just love the idea of the booking agents for that show being like "we're having fucking hillary clinton on who can we bring for comic relief who is a household name but not problematic but intelligent but actually funny" i mean they hit the jackpot of course but it cracks me up that that's his brand

did david ever watch succession? rob def did but i need more about it from both of them

sometimes i think about when david accepted his bafta for peep show and the music that was playing while he walked to the stage was "sex on fire" by kings of leon hahahahaha like what who was djing that night fr

where did charlie brooker go

speaking of back in the day — and i do mean back, like 15+ years ago — and my main panel show obsession was buzzcocks, there were a few non-comedians who would come on panel shows who were properly fucking funny, like martin freeman and josh groban, and i'd always pray they'd eventually come on again. and i think at the time the person at the top of my list was professor green. how random is that TT he was just always up for laugh and just so likable. i also LOVED the song "just good to be green" with lily allen in like 2010 lmaooo this really ages me :)

been really enjoying some old angus deayton-hosted stuff, like old hignfy and wilty. i got into panel shows after he'd stepped out of the spotlight, but i remember being crushed when i found out about his scandal. i also remember stephen fry standing up for him and chastising paul & ian publicly after That Episode of hignfy — which absolutely blew my mind, even though stephen has always said what he thinks — and i agreed with him and am not sure even today if i fully forgave paul & ian for how they treated angus. ik he's still here and there, but i wonder if we'll ever see him in any properly notable capacity again

just watched the latest hignfy actually and jack dee pheww he's ageing very nicely let me just say it and pheww emmanuel sonubi please and thank you. also, paul's outfit was quite nice. an enjoyment of the eyes indeed

i've been making a lot of typos in my gifs lately for literally no reason other than not proofreading my rushing and it's embarrazzing i'm gonna do better

speaking of gifs i have NOTHING!!! in my drafts folder. nothing. no content. nothing is made. nothing in the queue. [sigh] sounds like tonight we be bustin it out huh. idk about other gifmakers (i actually don't follow any other panel show blogs, but this isn't necessarily a panel show blog thing, just a regular original content thing) but i don't usually make gifs throughout the week — instead, like, marathon gif like two times a week and build up 10–20 drafts to post throughout the week. if you gif every single day or to keep up with all of the new content, it starts to become a chore, which is never fun :(

speaking of which i probably won't gif outsiders too much because people don't seem to care too much about it + the webrips are just...so ugly in gif form, even at 1080p! it's a dave thing fr, taskmaster used to be the same way -_-

okay here we go into gif mode btw i got some of your requests and will def make them!!

#p #long post

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leastdatablebracket · 8 months

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ROUND 3, MATCH 5

Propaganda under the cut!

Drake Walker

Propaganda

Jobless complainer with a codependent relationship with his best friend (Liam) who bitches about monarchy and nobility constantly, even though he benefits from staying at the royal castle for free. I think it might be mentioned once... in book 3 or the sequels that he actually does some work around the place... seems like something that the writers threw in to make Drake seem less like a useless freeloader. Rude as fuck for literal no reason, obsessed with being a man, he's chock full of toxic masculinity. Won't ice skate, hates the opera, won't drink wine or "girly" drinks, sees fancy food and I feel like he complains just for the hell of it. Just a general pill of a human to be around. Grown ass man (mid to late 20s) who hates the royal life so much, he can just leave! Get a job! Move out! He doesn't have to 24/7 be on call to emotionally support Liam! He can move into the city and call or visit his BFF whenever Liam is having a crisis or needs support or advice or whatever. Utterly ridiculous situation to have Drake there constantly hating on everything. Obsessed with manly stuff only like whiskey and eating BBQ or sloppy joes or some shit like that. Complained in the third book about a pink wedding cake (or decorations?), which caused Drake Walker stans to actually get angry (although he would literally do this, he 100% would bitch about pink) and the writers took out that line. I guess dissing on pink things was just Too Much finally for Drake Walker fans. You have to pay diamonds (the premium currency) to see the soft side of this RO, which is so hilarious to me... why would I ever pay diamonds to spend MORE time with this guy??? I don't need to see Drake's "soft for only one person" scenes, I need to punt him into the sun. Drake Walker fans used to be or still are insane so god help you if you put this horrible man in the bracket. Choices has really fallen though, they lost 90% of their tumblrinas when they introduced their subscription model, so you might avoid the DW discourse.

His vibes are rancid

The propaganda here is perfect, but to add a bit for Drake, at one point they rewrote some of the original game, and do you know how they tried to make Drake more likable? They made the main LI of the game, normally a sweetie, a jerk fuck boi. Like the only way the creators of Drake could think to make him more likable was to just make the other characters worse.

Vace

Propaganda

well you (the pollrunner) already know cause hes ur icon but i will say that at least he is meant to suck as a romantic partner with only one ending (two if you include astronaut) having him and sol (the player character) staying together on the other end tho there's three ways to start dating him one is to make him go to therapy n then start dating after he is no longer abusing his girlfriend (either breaking them up by convincing him to dump nemmie or convincing nemmie that hes the scumbag he is n she deserves better) another is to be his side piece and the third way is getting him so mad he drags sol off by the neck to beat the shit out of them with this event ending with either him n sol sleeping together (also causing him and nemmie to break up) sol getting the living daylights beat out of them (to the point they got knocked out n needed medical care) with the implicit threat of vace will do this again if they dont stay out of his way and sol avoiding both of those things but being so shaken by the experience that theyre struggling to breath until theyre outside and fully away from him which gives a very different undertone to hooking up with him in this event

#round 3

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turboacek-blog · 6 months

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I do like XY #xy10thanniversary

Saw it was the 10th anniversary today (or yesterday by the time I posted this) and saw people decided to talk nicely about it so figured I should as well lol

I do genuinely like the series despite the discourse online about it being one of the most annoying things to me

XY I think unlike a majority of the series as I think about it had one of the strongest openings in the anime, as the whole Lumiose City-Garchomp-Froakie stuff was genuinely captivating and I feel that you will always have people hooked on XY just because of that as it’s to me on par with the first episode of the whole series with Ash and Pikachu which is also generally seen as one of the best episodes

And on a similar note, as I have issues with the team flare finale it also has one of the stronger ends to a series as well

So you have a series with a strong opening and, relatively strong ending, then you sprinkle in other generally accepted great moments in between like Ash vs Clemont it’s no surprise people love this series

And I think that’s the success of the XY, when it hits those highs it’s some of the best the anime ever has given us

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Other thoughts

I think of the six formulaic series (OS-XY) I think I like XY’s pacing the best, and that’s part of the reduced number of episodes compared to earlier series but also didn’t have the random side island adventure like BW, for the most part, the gap between gym badges and princess keys were not bad at all and I think we did spend a decent amount of time with characters that would end up recurring such as the rivals, the family members, mentors, etc

I already made a post about it but I think Clemont is my favorite male companion of Ash’s as I think he fills that sweet spot of being a smarter intelligent member of the group to explain things not only for the audience but the rest of the group but he’s also not so smart that Ash Serena and Bonnie can’t give their intelligence about subjects, and also the balance of since Clemont is close in age to Ash we get to see a Psuedo brotherly bond, rivalry and friendship between them where other companions lack at least one of those aspects, and I think he’s also a nice balance between each two members as he’s not as fit and adventurous as Serena which plays off of Ash and Bonnie, but he’s also more battle-ready like Ash contrasting Serena and Bonnie, yet has the sibling dynamic with Bonnie that Ash and Serena don’t relate to

Serena is this weird mix of I definitely see why people like her and she’s not my fav girl companion but I’m not going to say that her story wasn’t handled well at all, as any non super positive feelings about her is my personal feelings and nothing with her, I think tiring her and Ash together via camp was a That brilliant move without it being too soul-cross lovers, the crush added a unique aspect to the show that hasn’t really been touched on since maybe OS, I enjoyed each of her three Pokémon, and the sister's bond with Bonnie was adorable as we never really got something like that excluding maybe the SM girls

Bonnie grew on me a lot, when I was first watching it it’s hard to relate to the kid character but over time I appreciate the nice story work they did for her while also not shoving her to the front until kinda the Team Flare finale stuff, I think while I did like Max Bonnie was able to be a lot more likable as a character and it’s interesting because I think in a lot of ways she’s like the little girl Ash

Ash is the controversial one I noticed and while I see where both sides are coming from I am neutral on this Ash but he’s not the boring Ash but he’s also not the badass Ash I think he’s the Ash that was finally able to relax, early on we see that fire in him to get stronger and go things head first and through XY we see him slow down and be more at peace with what’s going on around him which is why I think people say he’s the most mature Ash, which he’s definitely more mature than OS Ash for sure but I think the maturity gets confused with lack of childishness, Ash while having his moments wasn’t as goofy here which I think is what I missed here as I think a “core” part of Ash is his fun side which was nonexistent was less here it felt like which obviously has the pros of viewers getting what seems to be a more grown-up Ash also I think loses a crucial part of him

Side characters

While not my favorite batch of side characters I think to say they were bad would be a disservice as they all played their role well, I think the standouts are Tierno Shauna and Korinna

Battles

I know there’s discourse about the animation and art style and just general battle decisions but I do think that the battles looked great and I think visually wise they peaked gym battle-wise here, each battle felt like each person had some experience to them as even the more rookie trainers were using moves that you never see from a previous series early on or even later in that journey

As I can (I’m not) be in the camp that thinks Pikachu losing to Surskit was stupid but I think the battle did show that Surskit was a problem and to be taken seriously despite it being a Surskit

Pokémon

Despite some personal feelings, I do think this was maybe the most solid cast of Pokémon (as in Ash and companions) only behind a few like maybe an OS and SM

I think despite some losses that you can argue about this is one of the most consistent Pikachu’s as no electric “reset”, I think Ash’s other five had distinct personalities and traits, same with Serena’s and Clemont's and Dedenne

And should point out that you can’t convince me Ash-Greninja isn’t the most fanfiction thing the show has done, but it is admittedly very cool, I even used one for my Pokémon Moon play-through as I just thought it would be cool to use

Mega Evolution Specials

I never got the same attachment to these specials as I watched them much later but they were very good specials and I’m glad they did the thing of making them in the same universe and tiring them into Ash and the gang's storylines

As I’m not an Alain fan I do like him as a second protagonist and of the few that probably think that him being the one to beat Ash in the league was acceptable (more thoughts on that in a separate post maybe lol)

Marron and Chespy were cute, Steven was cool, Team Flare was a big upgrade over their game counterparts, etc

Overall not my favorite series definitely one of the series where I can just put a gym battle on or see certain things over without it feeling dated

#xy10thanniversary #pokemon #pokemon anime #anipoke #pokeani #pokemon xy #pokemon xyz #XY10周年

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citrus-cactus · 15 days

Note

for the character ask game: any assortment of 7, 14, 15 for Eri and 13, 13 and 30 for Dokamon? (appmon)

ERI AND DOKA-CHAN! Oooh, interesting! For reference, the ask game is here.

Eri:

7. A quote of them that you remember

HMMM, not so much a quote, but imo the most memorable Eri moment of the series was her giving a righteous, impassioned speech to YJ-14 on Haru's behalf and then proceeding to fight him with explosive... kicks. AFTER AN ENTIRE SERIES, when the chips are down... it turns out she's a kicker, not a puncher. Amazing XD Say hello to my little friends: Common Sense and Reasonable Discourse!

14. Best storyline they had

I will always love that they stopped the show for two whole episodes to give us the Appliyama election and results, and I will never shut up about Eri being such a badass on Knight's yacht. It was all just really fun. Even though the show never addresses the unhealthy ways in which Eri pushes herself, I do like how this arc gave us probably the most it ever has of Eri's authentic, non-idol self: her code of honor, her grace after falling just short of her goal, her trust in her friends, her unwavering dedication and strength, both in body and spirit.

15. Worst storyline they had

It would be easy to pick her showdown with Beautymon, but I'm not going to do that. I think it had the makings of something interesting; if the focus hadn't been solely on physical appearance, but more about losing yourself to popularity, manipulating the masses, or the impossible standards of influencer/idol culture. No, instead I'm going to pick her intro episode, because it felt like such a baffling way to introduce us to her. She just... does not come off as sympathetic or likable in the slightest to me. Episode 6 is a much more enjoyable episode and gives us a bit more interesting character material to work with, but my first time through the series as I was still trying to decide if Appmon was worth watching, neither Eri or Astora made the best first impression. I really do love her though!

Dokamon:

13. Your favorite friendship they have

This is such an interesting question, because I'm struggling to recall if he even has meaningful relationships with most characters, besides Eri, Mariperi, and Gatchmon (and even then, those relationships are all pretty unbalanced). He'll do anything for Eri (or to get Eri to notice him). He certainly developed feelings for Mariperi, and Gatchmon is his "aniki"... but most of the time, Eri exists firmly in the center of her own universe, Mariperi appreciated the time he spent with her but basically rejects him, and I seem to recall instances where Gatchmon enjoys Dokamon looking up to him and agreeing with him, but is any of that what you could call a mutual friendship?

His relationships outside of those three, to my recollection, are almost non-existent. Regardless of whether Eri and Astora are in "bite each others head off" or "we're more similar than different" mode, does Dokamon ever have much to say to Musimon? I'm not sure he's even that close with Eri's other Appmon, even the ones he fuses with... iirc, they make a pretty dysfunctional team in the Appmon Games. The situations where he does interact with other characters, I think it's almost exclusively on behalf of Eri (i.e. doing whatever he thinks she wants), and it's often antagonistic in nature. "Don't get in Eri's way!", "Listen to Eri!", etc. I think Offmon looks up to him and he certainly worries about Offmon, but that feels more like a sibling relationship than a friendship.

Off the top of my head, I do think the only 'mons he would acknowledge as friends might be Gatchmon and Musimon. I do like the episode where they all run away together and end up helping that kid. I think that's the closest we see of Dokamon hanging out with those he considers his equals, and it did result in some great moments with the three "main" partner Appmon. But it's also possible I'm overlooking some more obvious friendship moments, and if so, I apologize Doka-chan! T^T

30. The funniest scene they had?

All that said (and it might sound like I'm negging on Dokamon through all of this, but I'm not!), my favorite Dokamon moments are when he's comedy relief... specifically, the instances where the joke is that he's too... well... stubborn and/or oblivious to care about whatever the MotW's silly shenanigans are. I'm thinking about Episode 14 (Puzzlemon), where his solution to being trapped in a room with giant heavy marbles is just to start punching them indiscriminately, physics-based repercussions be damned (Dokamon, NO!). And when Calcmon is depowering everyone using the power of math, Dokamon gets so angry that it just doesn't matter what numbers are coming up on Calcmon's screen; Dokamon's gonna punch that creepy nerd, and it's gonna hurt, full stop. Is it that he's not, strictly speaking, the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree? Is he so blindly optimistic in his own abilities? Or is he 100% loyal and willing to throw down for Eri to such a fault that it turns around and becomes an asset again? Maybe all of the above, and I kind of love him for that.

These were all interesting questions to think about, thank you!

#asks #randomidiosyncrazies #appmon #appli monsters #eri karan #dokamon #the cactus speaks

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