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ewingstan · 1 year

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Sylvester, for the character ask game?

First Impression: Took me a bit to fall into Sy's groove. At first it seemed like wildbow was going "alright, I've written a conflicted morally grey antihero protagonist, I've written a largely heroic but outwardly monstrous antihero, now I'm gonna write a proper bastard of an antihero." His initial defining traits were "misogynistic", "manipulative", "willing to play the fool" and "desperately desiring to be respected." It was an interesting sketch of a character, but also described the psychological profile of the average adolescent boy on the internet circa 2014, so I wasn't sure how much mileage wildbow would be able to get out of him. But that opinion started to change once Sy's relationship with the rest of the lambs got fleshed out.

Impression Now: I still think Sy might be wildbow's best character, and its entirely because of his relationship with the lambs. Having a manipulative protagonist is interesting, having a manipulative protagonist who is all-too-aware of his tendencies and actively struggles against it when dealing with his loved ones (because when you have a full psychological profile of someone, how can you have any non-manipulative interactions with them?) is enthralling. I talked before about how I expected Sy manipulating Mary onto the team to be a time-bomb. But Sy eventually revealing the truth because he felt guilty, and Mary deciding to stay because she was already too enmeshed with the lambs for leaving to be a plausible option, felt honestly like a much bleaker result. Sy at times feels almost haunted by his own ability to avoid consequences; his relationships with Mary and Lillian especially feel like bones with old breaks that were never properly set. They function, with intense feelings on all parties, but it would probably have been healthier for everyone if there were clean breaks with the chance of reconciliation. But Sy can only be forgiven, and so clean breaks like that are impossible, even when he physically breaks away from the group (or, during the Evette debacle, psychologically breaks away).

Favorite Moment: The whole of 13.11. Even though his mental decline only just started and would get much worse, this still felt like Sy's nadir. He thought he'd found a way to make things work with the Lambs and still be the type of person he is: just be Robin Hood by way of Snidely Whiplash! Be the villain setting up the plot-to-be-foiled-of-the-week, ride by the seat of your pants in setting up zany plots for your friends to navigate. You can steer them towards adversaries so you can have an excuse to fight together, you can kidnap Lillian so you can both continue your relationship while she has plausible deniability! And you get to do it all with your best friend and life partner helping to steer the ship and keep you stable. Finally, you can be as wild and manipulative as you like, you can fight the good fight against the academy, and you can keep your friends while doing it!

But then, just when it seems like things with Lillian are going perfect, like he’d really managed to pull it off—it falls apart. And you see despite how much of a psychological profile he has on Lillian, how much he knows what she wants, he is completely unprepared by how much she hates herself for wanting it. He suddenly comes to terms with the difference between giving people the ability to refuse something and stringing them along with what they can’t deny themselves, and realizes how horribly concieved everything’s been from the start. And he has no way to deal with it, he has to call for Jessie’s help. After so many arcs where Sy’s mad genius and mature bravado are on full display, where it seemed like there was no situation Sy couldn’t get on top of, it suddenly feels like we’ve been watching a kid play with his fathers gun and its just gone off. We’re sorry, we didn’t know what we were doing, we don’t know what to do, oh god, we don’t know what to do.

And then the kick in the teeth with Jessie. The charming back-and-forth we’ve fallen in love with getting recontextualized as a refusal for one party to seriously emotionally engage with the other. Both parties suddenly feeling like the last few months were spent under false pretenses. It all comes crashing down for all the reasons you’d expect, but so late into it that you thought they could get away from the consequences, and now they’d run so far up without it happening that they have an impossible height to plummet from.

Idea for a Story: Let Evette out for a spin! Have Evette take control of Sy again while he and Jessie are handling their army. Let full chaos ensue as Jessie tries to get Sy back in the drivers seat.

Unpopular Opinion: Still unsure on how I feel about where he ended up, but that goes more towards my feelings on the odd place Twig ended as a whole.

Favorite Relationship: Gotta be with Jessie. Deeply touching while also allowed to be a little fucked up.

Favorite Headcanon: Simon still finds ways to “sneak” Lady Helena cakes even when they’re both two of the most powerful people on the planet and can just ask for desserts like normal adults.

[ask game]

#circletofcircles #sorry for the very late answer #leo says #leo reads twig #wildbow #sylvester lambsbridge #ask game

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0poole · 1 year

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I’ve never hated a movie this much in a long time

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 made me so mad that I'm breaking this random rambling blog out of retirement

I'm seriously the "enjoy everything" guy. I'm not really interested in Marvel much at all anymore, but I do honestly expect to go to a Marvel movie and have a good, simple time. But like… for some reason this one feels like a special kind of bad. I guess that's because the solution to all my genuine problems was so close.

The ONE thing I genuinely, honestly believe is an issue is that this movie isn't about Rocket enough. Everything else is stylistic junk I should've expected to have an issue with, cuz of course modern Marvel art style is just, like, awful (because it's not fully animated). But I swear

Here's the pitch: Keep all of Rocket's flashbacks as is, and keep the overall current time throughline of the crew trying to save him, but SERIOUSLY cut them down. Like, a lot a lot.Pretty much any time any form of Rocket (near-dead or young) was genuinely good content. Obviously super grim and intense for a Marvel movie, but I feel like something like that was basically guaranteed to be his backstory anyway, so I was actually hoping to see it through. Also, Floor (spider bunny) was so utterly perfect that I honestly might buy a plush of her (him? them?) and thus end up fuelling the very thing I'm criticizing in this post but I can't help it, they were a seriously amazing design. And I even have a disagreement with some of the criticism, I'm hearing from multiple (2) places that people (two people) didn't like how the main villain was so utterly despicable that they didn't like it, while I actually like him. Maybe it's my character designer brain both liking purple and also his tacked-on skinface. His weird eccentricness was really fitting for someone who believed he was god. I think the only reason he felt so despicable was because he was abusing animals, while I think if he was just your average planet-conqueror he would either be a little fun or boring. I also really liked the line someone (I think Quill) said where his crew were basically responsible for certain whole civilizations across the universe, and that they would actually call them gods.

The problem was everything in between these scenes. They tried to make this a Guardians movie when it really should've been a Rocket Raccoon movie. And yeah, I get that they wanted to call it a Guardians movie, but they still made it so much of Rocket's movie that every random interpersonal conflict not involving Rocket just felt like filler junk. I guess the fact that I knew these conflicts would be resolved by the end of the movie made them feel like petty squabbling in the moment. It's even worse with Quill and Gamora, because I honestly thought Gamora was straight-up dead from the Infinity War junk, but I guess she's just back now, minus her memories? I used to think I understood what was going on with the whole Marvel Cinematic Multiverse but I guess now I have to admit I'm out of the loop. Was there some series that established what happened to her that I heard nothing about? I don't remember one but there also have been like dozens coming out and being announced a month so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Same goes with the Soviet space dog, although that was clearly meant to be a much less deep character so I could excuse it then. I do like the prospect of the Guardians as characters being more like a rotating cast instead of a set group.

(Also the whole concept of the Yondu-tech with the whistling and the arrow and such is still one of the coolest character design traits ever. I still will keep that much true to my heart)

But yeah anyway, not only did I really not care about most of the "important" stuff happening with the current-time shenanigans, the fact that they had the usual Marvel jokiness about it half of the time really caused some serious tonal whiplash at some points. Like, in the flashback where Purple Guy (I don't remember his name if he had one) shoots all Rocket's buddies to death and as Lila utters her last dying wish to see the sky it still cuts back to the random group banter of the other characters just being goofballs amidst the chaos. Seriously? We just witnessed the most traumatizing event in a cartoon animal's life, where his friends were murdered right before his eyes by his captor, and we still go back to that? Can't we just have some kind of emotional parachute? Maybe like a cutaway to some little trinket Rocket kept around that reminded him of them? Or at least Groot watching over the holograms they had in that meatball they stole so we can share the emotions with one of the characters?

And really, the thing that really capped it all off with the worst possible ending was the fact that Rocket didn't fucking murder the Purple Guy. What kind of catharsis is that? He literally could've just held the gun to his head and shot him dead, but I guess for some reason the Guardians have this bullshit pathos to bad guys, even though they just DON'T. They murdered dozens of random soldiers to get to where they were, BUT FOR SOME REASON THE SOLE CAUSE OF IT ALL DESERVES TO LIVE (or die ambiguously in a ship explosion, still is bullshit). Purple Guy deserved all the pain and suffering he inflicted on not only Rocket but literally all of his creations, even his lackeys, and yet for some reason they couldn't just shoot him. And not even that, but they (Nebula) clearly didn't have an issue stabbing that Sovereign guy in the heart. Was somehow terrorizing their town more bad than destroying an entire planet of your own creation? And the worst part is that Rocket was kind of defeatist about it too, like he sounded like he wanted to shoot him, but thought his buddies would be mad at him, even though his buddies were the ones killing everyone to save him. Quill literally said verbatim to Groot "Okay you can kill them all now" and then jumped off a ship to drive one of the scientist guys into the ground to scoop out his fucking brains. And even Groot, the guy who seems like he should be the most pacifistic of them all, fucking launched his arm into one of the experiments' throats to gore him from the inside with his spiky branches. Are you fucking kidding me? Even I was like "This is the shit they would rather show kids instead of a naked boob?"

Seriously. A boob on screen would send this up to like an R rating nowadays, but apparently that, or multiple situations where one of the experiments' heads gets torn off, or their body gets sliced in half, or idk maybe a guy shooting fucking innocent little animals keeps it at a safe family film rating. Shit's like a normalized Liveleak video.

And one last thing before I get to the less important stuff, Quill had the audacity to be the fake out death at the end when Rocket was clearly the only emotional core of the movie. It would've been so much more impactful if Rocket was the one who nearly died there. We saw his trauma all over screen, he saved his (other) animal buddies, and if doing so nearly cost him his life that would've been so much more impactful. Plus, the fact that he's not the mainest of the main characters also means there's a small chance he might actually fully die there. AND let's not forget the fact that in like the first or second movies, the exact same thing happened to Quill before and literally all they had to do to save him was to put a helmet on him. How could no one on their whole spacefaring colony have some sort of helmet to just throw out to him? Like this is turbonerd-critic-who-cares-way-too-much-about-plot-holes territory but I'm genuinely annoyed at that scene. I think it pisses me off because it wasn't just some throwaway detail in the past movies, it was the biggest deal because I think it was like Gamora or Yondu or someone who passed over their only helmet to save him, so the fact that that's how you help someone dying in the vacuum of space being so present in this series and they just completely ignored it just shows serious lack of care on whoever chose that to be the case's part.

I feel like I should leave it at that for the serious stuff, but I obviously have a lot of random stylistic annoyances that are obviously just par for the course and I really shouldn't be angry about but I still am so

The simplest one is the music, and I feel like this annoys me more because my dad specifically actually really likes music choices like this. I realized this about him when we watched Lightyear and he was explicitly disappointed that Starman wasn't directly in the movie even though it was in all the trailers. He said something like "Movies need to have good music in them" which in principle I agree with, but the fact that he basically meant it as "Movies need to insert more classic songs into their movies" kind of annoys me honestly. I can actually like it in the first Guardians movie since back then it was a unique vibe for superhero stuff to have, but now it's so beaten down that I am really just over it. Really here specifically I have no right to be annoyed since it is truly a part of the Guardians brand, but yeah it is annoying. I do want movies to have good music, but good ORIGINAL music. Like either songs made for the movie (Sunflower and What's Up Danger, again Spiderverse does it right) or actually, somehow, make a score that actually has any degree of staying power at all. Between the "Oh I remember that song haha!" moments was still the most generic "I'm a movie" drivel. It almost made the emotional climaxes for anything besides Rocket's backstory feel really overblown because of how hard they tried to make the music carry the very shallow emotional weight of all of it. And the funny thing is that I do actually know an example, and it's Unicorn Warriors Eternal. Only 3 episodes so far and it's already one of the best cartoons I've seen, and it manages to have a completely original score that doesn't sound like it's trying to be a standalone track you buy the single for, and still matches the tone of the scene its all used for too. There have been multiple points where I've been taken aback at the score being both catchy in its own right but being really good and fun for the goofy scenes its used in. Modern cartoons are still the pinnacle of stories honestly I swear

And I guess I'm basically just going to be saying that all again because this has officially been the worst of both CGI and Practical Effects at the same time. Neither are good. Both suck. Both were terrible in this movie. Every fantastical property ever should be fully animated (or at least have impressive artistry on display like Dark Crystal or something, even though I still don't really like Dark Crystal).

The most hilariously bad part was unfortunately a part of Rocket's backstory, in the weird evolution chambers the purple guy made, where he puts in a completely normal, real animal, presses a button, and the animal turns into a crazy CGI fest transformation sequence, then literally a guy in an animal mascot costume. I can't believe it. Did no one in the editing bay look at that and think "That's what we're going with? Really?" And here's the solution: Just do it with CGI. This is where practical effects completely suck ass. Shit looked like one of the classic TMNT movies. Even if the CGI wouldn't nearly be animated correctly to truly mimic real life, it would've at least not looked pathetic. Stupid is better than pathetic. And Rocket and all the cyborg experiments are CGI anyway, as is everything else in the movie, so like… was it to save money? Do they not have money anymore? What's the point of me buying a Floor plush if they're just gonna pull trash like this?

The iffy part was with the humanoid animals in the suburb on Counter-Earth, because I truly got the joke (weird animal people in a super generic American landscape), but it still was almost too ridiculous to even get the joke good enough. I was so close to enjoying it, but I still think it would've been better if they all were extra weird in the way only CGI could provide. Think about it, a weird blob monster with like 5 malformed legs, 3 arms, a melted face, but in a polo t-shirt and khakis mowing a well-pruned lawn would've been so much better. Not just someone who's clearly just a human with a lot of makeup and plastic on their face. Or, in this case I feel like they were adapting an exact moment from the comics, and I can only imagine that moment was so much better then because of the stylistic way you can represent these people. This is a big case where my catchphrase of "animate everything" Actually makes so much more sense

And the last case is of course with everyone else. I'm still making it a mission statement of my own sci-fi universe-sprawling world to have plenty of body types that aren't just "human but with weird face parts." And I'm extra mad here because there was ONE background character that was exactly what I wanted, in between all the random humans with face paint. It was when the Ravagers first boarded the ship and Gamora came out, one of them was this weird mouthless serpent guy with Dr Strange powers who speaks in visualizing emoticons with magic. First of all, the fact that he uses normal ass emojis was actually funny and I liked it, but aside from that when he first came on screen I was seriously like "WHO IS HE????" because I'm so not used to any character being that cool looking. Again, this is what CGI can do right. It can show you weird monsters that actually look interesting and show diversity in this world which is supposed to take into account every single species that exists across every planet ever. Man, if only there were a show that took place exclusively in space that was expertly animated and character-designed to actually represent all the weirdness that can happen across the univer--Oh wait it exists it's Wander Over Yonder my favorite show of all time funny how that works anyway

The last bit was all the suits and stuff all the guard people were wearing, especially on that fleshy starbase thing. My mom put it perfectly, where it feels like the era of sci fi in things like Sharkboy and Lavagirl or Spy Kids 3D where they just look so stupid and goofy. Back then, it's charming because it was a product of the time. Now, it just looks dumb. The whole location was made to show like how flesh can be bent to their whim or whatever, right? Why not make it so their armor is much more obviously fleshy, and also directly attached to their skin instead of being an obvious suit they just put on? That would be much more fitting.

And I'll make this the last thing, I actually loved that fleshy place. I am a BIG proponent of meatbending, or whatever term you want to use, both in general but especially in a more normal, nonhorrific light. When they were sawing into the walls of that place and lifted up the removed core I was disgusted, but in an intrigued kind of way. And I was blown out of the water when they walked around inside, and not only were the nonorganic parts still cool looking and unique, but the sheer design potential of decorative flesh was extremely cool to see. I was especially interested in the fact that they shaped plants out of flesh, which was hilarious, but even things like one of the spy cameras being a giant eye, and a floating flesh blob thing leaking plasma-like goop. I LOVE that. I want more of it. Make that one yelling Spongebob meme in your head but with flesh tech or whatever, it's seriously cool and rarely done.

Anyway that's it whatever time to get back to the stuff I actually like, like damn that new Pokemon series is kinda aiming to be pretty good ngl

#guardians of the galaxy #3 #volume 3 #marvel #rant #rambling #rocket raccoon #poole #etc #who cares

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miraculouscontent · 3 years

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Always.

“Truth” is just... I mean, I want to say “garbage” but that doesn’t even do how bad it is justice? Like, okay, I take four major issues with it (my followers be like: just four? :P):

First is the writing in general and the continuity of it all. This episode looks like it’s been through multiple drafts and the final product is an amalgamation of a bunch of them with no coherency between any of them. I already could kind of guess it from the Adrimi kiss that the finale removed, but it’s obvious that there were going to be Adrimi/Lukanette arcs in Season 4 but then stuff happened (i.e: the staff being cowards) and they got cut. It’s totally possible that the plot with Jagged Stone being the father and Marinette having to keep secrets from Luka were still the same episode even in the original draft, but I imagine it at least wasn’t episode one.

There are other, more subtle hints as well, like the episode giving no time to Luka learning that Jagged is his father (making the fandom wonder if Luka remembered when he was Truth) and Ladybug being shocked when she realizes that the akuma is Luka as if she didn’t already see him be akumatized. Juleka also gets weirdly sidelined in the episode despite being Luka’s twin (Astruc has stated that both Luka and Juleka are older and Juleka got held back, which is why she’s in Marinette’s grade but Luka isn’t), so she’s Jagged’s offspring as well. One might presume that Juleka just never cared at all but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be allowed to interact directly with the guy or have any involvement at all. All it would’ve taken is for Luka to mention that Juleka never cared about who their father was but he did, thereby implying that Juleka’s reaction to Jagged would probably be more like, “oh okay.”

You know, if they didn’t reduce her to incoherent mumbling.

Second is the timing of this episode. We had the New York special with Paris being destroyed, but it’s clearly fine here (so I guess it isn’t canon now; thank God honestly), and while it’s technically possible that enough time has passed (supported by the vague implication that Marinette having to miss out on dates with Luka has gone on for a while, given Tom and Sabine’s lack of reaction to them dating), it’s not supported by Marinette examining the Miracle Box as if she’s only just gotten it.

There’s also Shadow Moth, where we’re shown an extended version of the scene from the end of “Miracle Queen” where Gabriel repairs the peacock miraculous, giving the episode a “Volpina”->”The Collector” vibe but then why are the events lining up the way they do???

The narrative also does a really bad job at showing us why Marinette is so strapped for time. She has guardian duties now but you’d think it’d balance out with her not having to go to Fu anymore for guardian training (you know, that thing we never saw but was said to be happening or at least that it was Fu’s intent to have it happen). You could argue that maybe Shadow Moth is more active, but then Chat Noir should be affected by this too; Ladybug states outright that she’s been busy and Chat Noir responds with something akin to, “oh I know, because you’re guardian,” which implies that it’s her guardian duties keeping her busy and Shadow Moth is just interrupting her dates specifically.

But we don’t even see what responsibilities she has added on as guardian. I knew the writers would make it so her being guardian was a hassle, but it’s the first episode of the series and we’ve gotten next to no answers for what being guardian actually adds.

It’s almost like this was a rushed first episode to break up the only thing that unambiguously made Marinette happy for the sake of bringing the love square back and needlessly making her suffer because the writers think it’s hilarious.

Speaking of which, the third thing thing is the comedy because--just--I hate the comedy in this show.

Like, just to start, there’s the kwami, who clearly begin with their mob mentality from the later episode of “Furious Fu” and all proceed to act like children. No, I didn’t expect them to all be wise (I mean, Xuppu exists and is very much not that, having been implied to be a fit for Kim who is known for being a total himbo), but I don’t expect them to all scatter like they do. Kaalki in particular, who was shown to be more poised and refined, blatantly reveals herself to a bunch of civilians just for the sake of Marinette freaking out and needing to make up an excuse.

Same with Alya and her friends. Marinette is panicking because of the kwami and Alya “deduces” (while shading Marinette so blatantly that it’s insulting) that Adrien must be there in her house which--maybe don’t SAY THAT OUT LOUD in case Adrien is literally in her room???). Then Marinette gets a call from Luka, shouts his name, and the girls do a complete 180 in support of Lukentte. It’s not like I’m not for them supporting whatever Marinette wants to do, but the shift is so sudden (and contradicts “Frozer”) that it gave me whiplash and the entire scene ends up being pointless since the girls still go with the “Marinette is in love with Adrien” thing when Truth asks them what Marinette’s secret is. Like, we could’ve gotten small, stupid secrets that everyone thought only they knew about Marinette, but instead it’s just the same thing over and over again (which makes no sense since, by the time Alya blabs the secret - which Alya has already told Nino before anyway - it’s no longer a secret therefore making the answer invalid).

Heck, the whole “secret” thing could’ve even been the people Truth shoots finding ways of answering his questions in a way that is technically telling the truth but also not really, such as if Anarka had answered the, “Who’s my father?” question with, “someone you know/someone famous,” so as to avoid saying that it’s Jagged Stone. It’s just boring seeing characters answer with whatever the asker wants to hear instead of being able to find a way around it.

And then there’s Chat Noir, who’s just--ugh.

Like--okay, I’m going to be extremely petty for a moment and just go off because I hate Chat Noir’s role in this entire episode. The Season 3 finale went out of its way to have Chat Noir be all like, “I have a girlfriend,” when it was a lie, and then Season 4 just parkours around Ladybug telling him that she’s dating (Ladybug clearly took no issue with Chat Noir telling her he’s dating so it’s not like she’s worried about issues there; she’s gotten on his case before in episodes like “Startrain” so there are exceptions) because they want to keep having him flirt and not be sAd because this is Marinette’s episode of suffering and Chat Noir actually having to face the reality that Ladybug is dating (not just in love with someone else) would’ve actually been interesting. Chat Noir gets tons of unnecessary screentime in the episode - mostly for the show to shove in LadyNoir shipping fuel - and then actively avoids telling him the obvious thing because he would’ve actually been forced to grow/develop/stop flirting.

It would’ve been so cute and sweet to see him awkwardly trying to flirt without overstepping boundaries (so more like banter than flirt) or - you know - actually try to support Ladybug and want her to be able to finish her dates by him offering to keep akuma/sentimonsters busy, but no, he’s just left in the dark.

The finale had Chat Noir supporting her (terribly but I digress) and then doesn’t do anything with it at the start of Season 4, meaning his support of her was completely meaningless and just there.

His first appearance is him pranking Ladybug when she’s already overstressed and busy, which comes off as super poor taste and I’m both glad he got splatted into that window for it but also upset because it’s screentime completely gone to waste, and of course it’s just a lead up to him guilting her by being like, “nooo the only thing that hurts me is when you leave me alone during patrol!”

I know he’s teasing (...probably) but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth because we know (well, I knew because I know how this show works) that Luka and Marinette were going to break up because of Marinette’s hectic schedule, so it just comes off as insensitive to joke about it, especially when Ladybug’s busy guardian status just serves as a reminder that Fu is gone.

Even when he’s protecting Ladybug from Truth’s questions by cutting in and asking a question of his own, of course he asks about himself to forcibly fish compliments out of Ladybug because she can’t lie to him, and of course they have Ladybug compliment his humor most of all as if that trait hasn’t nearly gotten them in danger multiple times and she’s been repeatedly annoyed when he decides to joke during the worst possible times. It’s as if the writers wanted to pat themselves on the back for their own comedy, so they had Ladybug be a mouthpiece to stroke Chat Noir’s ego.

He claims he won’t force a truth out of her and then literally forces her to say what her favorite things about him are. I acknowledge that this can be seen as me nitpicking but we went from the finale where Chat Noir actually stepped up and took charge (because Ladybug was stressed but I guess him doing anything useful is just whenever it serves the plot) to this where he’s back to flirting constantly and jamming in as much LadyNoir shipping fuel as physically possible. It’s not that he’s useless but he’s annoying and takes up space in an episode that’s supposed to be about Luka and Marinette.

And that leads us into the fourth thing, which is the break-up and just the treatment of Luka and Marinette in general. I could go on and on about how the Season 3 finale built up their relationship just to tear it down in the first episode of Season 4, but that’s not the main issue here.

Luka brought Marinette comfort. He made her happy. He never judged her. He was happy to just date her regardless of any conflicted feelings she might have because hey, who is he to complain if she wants to give him a try and who knows what’ll happen?

And the season couldn’t even give one moment of them being unambiguously happy without ruining or interrupting it. I was ready for the break-up and I was even ready for it to be the first episode but I wasn’t ready for it to be so bad.

Marinette’s Adrien pictures appear out of nowhere (again, makes no sense for the timeline) when they’ve been gone for basically all of Season 3 and even “The Puppeteer 2″ specifically which makes a direct reference to “Troublemaker,” the episode that purposefully overdid it with her pictures (”Truth” has more hanging up and clearly used “Troublemaker” as a reference, by the way). They’re just there for force the love square and Adrien into the episode as much as possible to remind the audience that Adrien breathes. There is literally no purpose to any mention of Adrien and bringing him up isn’t even relevant to Marinette and Luka’s break-up.

It’s just upsetting to know that the umbrella scene from “Origins” (which is already flawed in and of itself) kickstarts this whole thing. Adrien did basically nothing there except for clear up a misunderstanding and give Marinette an umbrella when his ride was a few meters away and Marinette’s house was just across the street, but that actives Marinette’s absolutely crippling crush on him that lasts for 3-4 seasons. Marinette is in this eternal struggle of not being allowed to grow and change because the writers think her stammering/crushing on Adrien is funny while actively punishing her for having this crush in the first place (again, like in the scene with Alya, which insults Marinette for her crush when she wasn’t even panicking over her crush).

It’s the same with Luka, and I can’t believe that it took me until this episode to realize that he and Marinette are both treated the same way: tormented by episodes for having a crush on someone. Episodes will go out of their way to forcibly insert Adrien into the plot to both humiliate Marinette and make Luka feel awkward when the episode isn’t supposed to be about Adrien at all. “Truth” is just “Desperada 2.0″ except Adrien is barely on screen at all and they still felt the need to name drop him constantly. The writers are so sensitive to the idea of people jumping onto another ship or forgetting that Adrien exists that they’ll find any possible way to include him.

“Silencer” knew better. “Silencer” knew that Marinette’s life didn’t have to revolve around the mere mention of Adrien’s name and that she had other interests/desires/traits outside of him. Adrien isn’t brought up once and it was great because the show didn’t feel the need (for once) to throw Adrien into an episode that he had nothing to do with.

Even if I was a love square shipper, I would feel insulted by “Truth” because one half of my ship kept getting name dropped and used as a tool to humiliate the other half, which makes it all the more eyeroll-worthy when the love square stans of the fandom praise this episode for breaking Lukanette up when--oh, wait, they didn’t even break up “because Adrien.”

And that ends up being the real thing here. The writers had to invent a reason for Marinette and Luka to break up. We already know that Jagged Stone being Luka’s dad is a retcon (not technically in the show’s canon but in information we heard about outside of it), so they shoved in Luka having issues about not knowing his father specifically so that he would be pushed over the edge when Marinette couldn’t tell him about her being Ladybug.

When Luka and Marinette were just together and hanging out, Adrien wasn’t mentioned once. Say whatever about the Adrien pictures being on the wall and Marinette’s stammering (she always says stupid stuff when she panics - especially stuff she doesn’t mean - so I’m not upset with her so much as the writing for having her mess up in that specific way), but the only time Marinette talks about Adrien at all in the episode is when someone else brings him up.

She goes on a date with Luka to the cinema and they were having a great time without Adrien involved at all. I know I already stressed this point in a previous post, but one of the reasons that I find Lukanette to be so amazing is because the show actually focuses on Marinette’s interests and doesn’t force her to be the writer’s mouthpiece for gushing about their sunshine boy a punching bag for comedy. In every Lukanette scene that doesn’t bring up Adrien/before Adrien shows up, Marinette is either praised, able to be happy, or is showing one of her interests that isn’t aDrIeN, and whereas Adrien being on-screen around Marinette usually just means that she’s gushing about/stammering around him with no development, Lukanette features us actually learning more about Luka or other characters.

“Captain Hardrock” - lets her bond with Luka over a shared interest in Jagged Stone, and Luka is established as a sort of empath who uses music as a way to speak for himself

“Frozer” - gets to practice ice skating with Luka, who is actually good at ice skating and also can tie laces despite not tying his own because he’s a rebel

“Desperada” - gets to try out guitar with Luka and we learn that Luka has been playing guitar for as long as he can remember

“Silencer” - showcases Marinette’s interest in fashion and properly introduces Kitty Section; has a plot featuring all of them together doing something not even remotely love-related and we get actual confirmation of Luka’s crush on Marinette, along with Marinette’s reaction (blushy+happy; just saying, idk how anyone could watch “Silencer” and not think that Marinette was crushing on Luka)

“Heart Hunter” - Marinette gets a song written for/about her and Luka is established to have a job

“Truth” - brings up Lukanette’s shared interest in Jagged Stone, features Marinette’s interest in fashion when she gives him a gift she made + had Jagged Stone sign, and shows her raising her voice but not being judged by Luka for it, who’s happy with her just the way he is

When the show focuses on Lukanette, it’s all about lifting Marinette up, praising her, and making her feel good. When Adrien is involved or it’s hyper-fixating on Marinette’s crush on him, it’s about bringing her down and making her feel bad for a crush they keep forcing her to hold onto and humiliating her for.

Point being, the writers had to force their way into getting Lukanette broken up because of their precious love square and the fact that Marinette and Luka being happy is the opposite of what they want.

It’s embarrassing to watch a team full of old white guys (I’m convinced at this point that they just hang their female writer on a coat hanger so they can point to her whenever someone says that their staff is too male-dominated) treat their female biracial lead with such disrespect, and I can only presume that the mistreatment of Luka is because he’s supportive of her and they don’t like that, meaning that the way she’s treated ends up rubbing off on him.

It doesn’t come off as a fun or interesting plot; it comes off as cruel. When Adrien is sad, he usually gets people rushing to comfort him (”Party Crasher,” “Gamer”), but “Truth” has Marinette in tears over the fact that she can’t have a boyfriend due to being Ladybug and the writing has the gall to crack jokes about Kaalki not knowing what tears are, and then Marinette has to ask for the kwami to hug her for comfort.

When Luka gets akumatized into Truth, the episode doesn’t even hesitate at bashing away at him, from everyone saying that Marinette’s secret is that she “loves Adrien” (which, as Truth points out, isn’t a secret, and they could’ve had this somehow lead up to a twist ending where Marinette actually isn’t into Adrien anymore and the Adrien pictures were genuinely for reference, but she stammered about it because it was embarrassing that her boyfriend got sent it with no context) to one of Luka’s favorite songs actually being about how Jagged abandoned him to go on tour. Luka has to deal with Marinette ditching him constantly (not that I blame her) and not knowing who his father is despite wanting to know, and the episode treats him like trash for... what? Having a crush on a girl who’s secretly Ladybug? Because that’s all it seems to come down to in the end.

I also have serious gripes with the fact that Marinette has this huge schedule established in “Gamer 2.0″ and they don’t even try to explain why she can’t use it to keep track of her obligations. The episode has her say (in a roundabout way but still) that she’s forgetting stuff constantly because of all of her emergencies (the emergencies of which are not stated and I hate the subtle implication that forgetting something means you don’t care about it when that’s clearly not how things work and also not what Marinette comes off as because - again - they establish that she’s overworked) but fails to properly explain it. The episode hammers away at Marinette having all these issues and even has Tikki chide Marinette by asking her about leaving Luka alone while apparently neglecting the fact that Marinette HAS to go be Ladybug right now and what else is there to even do??

Both Luka and Marinette are punished for just having a crush and wanting to be together and I hate that the episode forces a break-up instead of coming up with a solution to the problem. Instead of “Marinette isn’t ready for a romantic relationship,” it feels more like she’s just not allowed to be happy.

Long-distance relationships are a thing. Relationships where people don’t get to go on dates frequently are a thing. Instead of forcing a break-up, the episode could’ve had a lesson/development where Marinette is told that she’s allowed to pursue a relationship and just needs to plan accordingly. but they just didn’t want to.

For example: instead of planning dates, Marinette could wait until an akuma/sentimonster is defeated to call Luka and ask him out, because Hawk Moth usually doesn’t strike immediately after one is dealt with. I’m positive that Luka would happily take impromptu/sudden dates over planned-but-inconsclusive ones. Heck, they don’t even have to date specifically and can just stick to phone calls (kwami can’t be picked up on technology) or hanging out in Marinette’s room/on Marinette’s balcony while they do their thing.

Relationships are a commitment, but that doesn’t mean they have to be a burden, and the episode absolutely drags Marinette over it. The whole thing with the kwami being released and stressing her out when they’re not supposed to be able to just come out normally is explained away by, “oh, the new box must be like you, Marinette; full of surprises!” when the reality is just that the show wants to take away everything that’s sacred to Marinette. The Season 3 finale had Fu’s letter telling Marinette that “life doesn’t always give you what you want, but the real gift is life itself,” then proceeds to turn Marinette’s life into a living hell.

Her room? She has to say good-bye to her privacy because now the kwami are always going to be around. The first thing one of them (Trixx) did was start reading her diary, showing that they have absolutely no shame or regard for Marinette’s feelings.

Her schedule? Conveniently pops away into the realm of non-existence so she can look bad for ditching Chat Noir on patrol and neglecting dates with Luka due to her responsibilities/stress.

Her boyfriend, the one person in the entire show who loved her, respected her agency, never judged her, actually apologized when he made her sad, and who she was genuinely in love with rather than just having the equivalent of a celebrity crush for? She had to break up with him because plot and needing to force her to go back to fawning over the guy who has only made her life worse by her crushing on him.

When I say the universe hates Marinette, this is what I mean. It created random akuma to attack Paris all for the sake of forcing Marinette away from Luka, and apparently didn’t realize what they were doing in the scene where Marinette hurries back to the Liberty when Kitty Section and Adrien are playing together when Adrien is Chat Noir so he should’ve been late too.

(Oh, and Marinette completely ignores Adrien in favor of waving at Luka and even tells Luka outright that Adrien isn’t even a factor in their relationship issues, further proving the “multiple drafts smashed together” and “the Adrien name drops are pointless” points.)

The whole thing in “Backwarder” where it was basically outright stated that Marianne could’ve been Fu’s confidant had Marianne not been outed by Ladybug’s mistake? Completely forgotten and left to the wayside. Marinette could’ve told Luka that she was watching the Miracle Box in Ladybug’s place (for any number of reasons, really: either Ladybug thinks it’s too dangerous to keep with her, or if the public doesn’t know that Ladybug is guardian, then Marinette can just say that she’s guardian) and that she has to run off to keep guard of the Miracle Box when an akuma/sentimonster happens in case Ladybug needs a miraculous.

Boom, done, episode solved. Luka gets to help Marinette with the kwami, Marinette is less stressed because someone knows half of her secret, and Luka and Marinette continue to date but are able to plan around akuma attacks.

But no. That whole thing in “Backwarder” where guardians (or at least Fu) can have a confidant was just there so Marinette could feel guilty about screwing it all up, because she’s not able to take advantage of that perk herself.

How convenient.

#category: salt #category: critique #episode: Truth #other: ml spoilers #other: ask and answer #((This is mostly incoherent because I am very tired.))#((''In general or at the episode--'' Yes.))

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seekingseven · 4 years

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1, 6, 8, and 14 for Tarshish?

Someone asked a question about Tarshish? I’m always shocked when people bring that fic up, haha! It’s one of my quieter, lower-attention WIPS (and honestly I’m okay with that, it’s nice to have a small story that only a few people read) and I get whiplash whenever someone mentions it. But I’m so glad you liked it enough to ask me about it! Now, to your questions! I will put this under a read-more cut as soon as I can get to a laptop ;_;

Based off of the fic ask meme

++++++++++++++++++

(1) What inspired you to write the fic this way?

Tarshish is a weird story. Each chapter takes place months apart, conflicts aren’t properly resolved, there’s more imagery than dialogue or action, and it’s very Wind-centric. The reason that this story is written so differently than a lot of my other stories (in my opinion, at least) is because it’s a character study of Wind. There isn’t really a plot to the story, it’s more of me exploring Wind’s role in the group and how he responds to the emotional exhaustion he must carry around at times, being the designated group optimist.

(6) What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

The reason why it’s written. I began writing it at a rather tough time, and the story became an almost fictional diary for me. It gave me a place to explore those emotions in a way that was sincere and constructive but still forced me to ask myself why I was feeling the way I did and if I needed an adjustment in my perspective. It’s one of the most raw stories I have ever written, and I hear my own voice when I read it. It’s almost an extension of myself, far more than my other works, I mean, and I have a peculiar affinity for this little story because of it.

(8) Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

Absolutely. I had just finished rereading the book of Jonah when I started writing the story (as you could tell, if you picked up on the allusion in the title), and I couldn’t stop thinking how much I related to him -- Jonah, I mean. Even though Jonah was a terrible prophet in all respects, and a pretty bad guy all things considered, I knew I would have made the same mistake as him if I was in his position; running away from redemption because I was vengeful and afraid of things I didn’t understand. I began writing the story at a time of great emotional exhaustion for me, and I woke up every day feeling like I needed to pretend to be happy and sincere and sure-footed in where I was going. I projected those feelings of fear, loss of identity, and having to keep up the facade straight onto Wind, and used the framework of the book of Jonah to guide its trajectory.

(14) Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

Yes yes yes and yes.

Please, it’s okay to be tired. It’s okay to not know where you want to go, or who you want to be, or what you’re going to do with your life.

Optimism isn’t a character trait, it’s an attitude. It’s a choice, and there are times where there isn’t a silver lining to the clouds. Sometimes you’ll just have to wait for the storm to pass. But in times like that, it’s incredibly important that you know who you are.

Who are you? There are a lot of faucets of that question that I can’t answer, because I haven’t met the vast majority of you all. But I can say for sure that you are loved. Loved by the people who have supported you, by the people who have watched over, and, most importantly, the God who made you. Doesn’t matter what mistakes you’ve made. You are loved more than you can imagine. Please remember that.

Alright, the sermon’s over, haha! Sorry that I got a little intense there. Tarshish is just very close to my heart and I’m so glad to have the chance to gush about it.

Here is a link to the story, if you’re interested!

#fanfiction #stuff i write #i had a tag for that but i forgot what it was #hm #fic ask meme

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eggoreviews · 6 years

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MCU Villains RANKED

I finished watching all the MCU films a few days ago (I have too much time on my hands) and, as a first Marvel list, I thought I’d rank all of the main villains in terms of how cool/powerful/how generally good I think they are. Come and see where your faves have placed in this messy, ill-informed list!

This list includes all of the main villains for every film up to Infinity War (Ant-Man and the Wasp isn’t out yet so it’d be difficult to include Ghost in here) with a couple of side villains that I felt needed a spot in the list. Enjoy! (Also, possible spoilers ahead for basically any MCU film)

Disclaimer: My opinion will probably, definitely not be yours

23. Whiplash (Iron Man 2)

Oh God.

I’m pretty vocal about how much I’m really not a fan of Iron Man 2 in general, but one of its worst aspects is a totally forgettable and laughable villain. I mean, I think at some point he has a subplot about his dad or something but most of the time he’s whining about his ‘bord’ and building shitty whips with his tech rather than something useful.

22. King Laufey (Thor)

I mean, sure. I guess this guy wasn’t supposed to act as much more than suitably evil looking blue person for Thor to fight. What puts Laufey ahead of Whiplash is pure cool factor, like I wouldn’t mess with this guy. He’d freeze me or somethin’.

21. Abomination (The Incredible Hulk)

Honestly, this is probably a higher ranking for Abomination than any other list I’ve seen. My only issue with this guy is that he’s a bit eh. Despite being played by Tim Roth, a brilliant actor who appears in multiple of my favourite films, his character is just one dimensional, sweaty soldier until the end when he turns into one dimensional, sweaty green monster. Again, his minor redeeming quality comes with his raw strength (say what you like about the Hulk film, that Harlem fight at the end is well worth watching the other hour and a half), but he’s very much let down by an underdeveloped character and a completely absent motive for anything.

20. Aldrich Killian (Iron Man 3)

Okay, now we’re getting into the villains that sort have a motive at some point. Personally, I didn’t hate the whole ‘Ben Kingsley isn’t the Mandarin’ twist, so that’s not why he’s placed so low. I’ll agree that that Guy Pearce plays a decent villain here, but the film itself is so messy and full of subplots that Killian sort of gets lost in it and never really develops beyond angry rooftop guy who can set himself on fire.

19. Malekith (Thor: The Dark World)

I thought Thor 2 was pretty damn okay and not the horrendous mess people make it out to be and I’ll defend Christopher Eccleston’s Malekith just as tentatively. Malekith’s only downfall is a non-existent character beyond cool looking menacing elf dude. We know that he wants to make everything all dark again for reasons that aren’t quite clear, but that’s kind of it. Again, his slightly higher ranking is more the cool factor.

18. Darren Cross (Ant-Man)

Cool suit by the way my dude.

Corey Stoll’s Yellowjacket is a pretty by-the-numbers MCU villain. He has his moments, particularly the Mexican standoff during the presentation of his suit, but he’s a pretty okay aspect of an otherwise great film. He holds his own as a decent villain, but his backstory and motives borrow a little too heavily from Iron Man’s Obadiah Stane. And he doesn’t quite pull off the disgraced CEO as well as Jeff Bridges.

17. Ronan (Guardians of the Galaxy)

I loved Lee Pace in the Hobbit films, so the fact that Pace plays Ronan well isn’t in question. The thing about Ronan is that it seems like putting the heartless genocidal racist at the centre of a comedic superhero film about a group of misfits acts as a pretty jarring tone shift. It sort of feels like Ronan was stuffed into the wrong film here (But maybe that’s why he’s having his second round in Captain Marvel next year). Ronan isn’t exactly forgettable, but when surrounded by such rich and interesting characters, his destructive plans and endless angry monologues just sort of melt into the background.

16. The Black Order (Avengers: Infinity War)

I sort of lumped these guys all together purely because I don’t think any one of them shines out as more developed than another. They act as cool, menacing underlings to the purple fucklord that is Thanos and I’m almost kind of mad they didn’t make it to Avengers 4. As little development as there is, you can tell each one of them plays a specific role (Cull Obsidian is obviously massive brawn thing, Ebony Maw is the clever one, Proxima and Corvus enjoy stabbing things etc), which means the only thing that’s really stopping these guys from appearing higher is lack of screen time.

15. Ultron (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

Age of Ultron, like Thor 2, is often crapped on just as heavily for reasons I don’t think are hugely valid. And, like Thor 2, its villain is often the centre of the crapping. Ultron’s motives are relatively clear throughout the film and he feels central enough to be a genuine threat. I also like the plot arc that Ultron is the Avenger’s (particularly Tony and Bruce’s) fault, so that gives a whole new dynamic to his character. My only issue with Ultron is how odd his humour seems at times, as if he can’t quite decide whether he wants to be the serious villain or the funny villain. I’m all for villains showcasing both of these traits but, in Ultron’s case, he seems conflicted on which he’s trying to be.

14. Alexander Pierce (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

Robert Redford plays the creepy Hydra dude very well and there’s something genuinely sinister about Pierce that especially comes through with his willingness to kill twenty million people. Pierce’s only downfall is that he’s a non-enhanced villain among many super-powered heroes and villains. So for all his sinister acting, Pierce just comes off as a little bit powerless. Not that this at all negates Redford’s performance or the strings Pierce pulls within SHIELD, it’s just that his lack of genuine power is something you can’t help but think about.

13. Justin Hammer (Iron Man 2)

I maintain that the only saving grace of Iron Man 2, aside from the newly cast Don Cheadle as Rhodey, is Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer. He brings genuine humour to an otherwise joyless film and acts as a worthy adversary to Tony Stark. Also, his dancing during the Stark Expo? Worth watching the film for. I’d be very happy to see him return, although it might be a little late due to the fact that Iron Man may be about to make his exit in Avengers 4. RIP Justin, maybe another time my dude.

12. Obadiah Stane (Iron Man)

Here he is, the villain that started it all. Jeff Bridges’ Iron Monger makes for a genuinely chilling, unsettling villain whose calmness is probably his most terrifying trait. At the centre of any good film, especially a Marvel film, is a good, compelling villain and Bridges manages this with ease. Unlike the two Iron Man sequels, this is an Iron Man villain who genuinely feels like he’s up to taking down Stark.

11. Kaecilius (Doctor Strange)

Kaecilius is yet another chilling villain played by the brilliant Mads Mikkelson who, much like Stane, feels like a match to the protagonist. But what put Kaecilius ahead of him for me is the fact that he believes what he’s doing is completely right; he thinks he’s granting everyone eternal life, rather than enslaving them to Dormammu (who won’t be included because of his lack of screen time/only redeeming quality being his massive face). This alongside some kickarse magical abilities just puts him up a bit more. Time for the top ten!

10. Helmut Zemo (Captain America: Civil War)

Daniel Bruhl goes full Bond villain for this one. Civil War in itself is a movie packed full of conflict at its core, so it takes a pretty memorable villain to make a mark on a film like this. Bruhl’s Helmut Zemo pulls all the strings behind the Avengers’ downfall and does so with a lot of sinister energy. But at the same time, we’re compelled to feel sorry for the fact that he lost his family in Sokovia during Age of Ultron. I think we’re probably going to see this guy making a return in future.

9. The Grandmaster (Thor: Ragnarok)

I love Jeff Goldblum. Everyone loves Jeff Goldblum. And while he plays more of a minor villain role in Ragnarok, I think he made much more of a mark and delivered a more compelling, genuinely funny performance than any other Thor villain. So it’d be pretty amazing to see him come back for a future film. Especially if Taika Waititi has something to do with it.

8. Ulysses Klaue (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Panther)

It’s pretty rare to see Andy Serkis in the flesh in a film rather than behind a lot of CGI and this character couldn’t have been played by anyone else. With Klaue being the second of two minor villains in this list alongside the Grandmaster, Klaue most makes his presence felt in Black Panther where he more than holds his own alongside Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger (who we’ll get to later). Andy Serkis brings a hell of a lot of humour and genuine manic energy to this role and this is near enough his best performance. It’s just a shame that Ulysses Klaue is unlikely to return, considering the fact he was a shot multiple times during Black Panther.

7. Red Skull (Captain America: The First Avenger)

Here is a villain that more than deserves his spot in the top ten. Arguably one of the most memorable villains of Marvel’s first phase, Hugo Weaving plays the angry clever Nazi scarily well. What makes him so great is the fact that he’s the complete antithesis to Captain America, which just makes the conflict between them seem more interesting. Plus, come on, it’s Hugo Weaving. He’s in every good film ever. What a guy.

6. Ego (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)

Kurt Russell’s Ego places this high for many reasons, mainly the fact that he doesn’t present himself as the villain until towards the end of the film and yet the film functions perfectly without a central antagonist (I love Guardians 2 a lot. This will become obvious probably). Ego even retains the parts of his character that you originally related to before he goes full bad guy and tries to cover all the planets in blue marshmallow fluff. Other than a couple of misplaced jokes (’I’m gonna go take a whiz’), Ego is a near-perfect Marvel villain.

5. Vulture (Spider-Man Homecoming)

I struggle to call this guy a villain, even though he undoubtedly is. Everything he does is out of a place of concern for his family and the only murder he commits in the whole of the film was an accident. Okay, so this doesn’t necessarily make him a good person, but what makes him any better than the Netflix Punisher? Or Deadpool? Anyway, kind of irrelevant, Michael Keaton plays his second bird super-character in the same way he plays all of his roles; amazingly. One of the main elements of Homecoming that made it such a genuinely good reboot was an interesting, relatable villain that you struggle to hate (apart from maybe when he’s pummeling Spidey into the ground at the end, that hurt my feelings).

4. Loki (Thor, The Avengers)

You can’t really call Loki a villain anymore, similarly to Bucky, M’Baku and Nebula (her especially, if she isn’t a full time guardian by the third one I’m not gonna be happy), he’s undergone a redemption arc that hasn’t negated his mischievous behaviour, but just makes sure the good parts of his character shine through a little more (that’s why I’ve only listed the two films in which I would class Loki as a villain). Tom Hiddleston plays Loki in a very sinister way, but more importantly with an overriding sense of fun. He perfectly strikes a balance between being a funny villain whilst still maintaining his sense of power.

3. Thanos (Avengers: Infinity War)

Speaking of sense of power, it crushed my heart a little to see Loki get so easily offed at the beginning of Infinity War, making Loki’s usually undeniably effective plots seem like cheap parlor tricks (to be fair, all he did was pretend he wasn’t going to stab him, but I guess if Loki’s desperate, you know everyone’s fucked at that point). Aside from all that, Thanos easily is the most terrifying character in the MCU, purely because of sheer power. Josh Brolin plays him (and Cable too) with overflowing gravitas and a threatening aura that seems to be present in everything he does. Even if he is inevitably defeated in Avengers 4, the mark he’s left on the MCU is gonna sting the survivors for some time (Sidenote: if any Guardian turns out to be permanently dead, I will officially never get over that. Yondu was bad enough).

2. Hela (Thor: Ragnarok)

Cate Blanchett as the first central female MCU villain (as well as the goddess of death) is iconic. Hela presents the same threatening, overly powerful aura that Thanos has and does every despicable act with a sense of sadistic humour. If I had the choice to bring back one villain, it would be Hela, because I very much doubt she died when Surtur squished Asgard, so her lasting mark may end up being equal to Thanos’. Or maybe she’ll turn out to be Lady Death? So many possibilites but to be honest, as long as they bring her back, I’m up for anything.

1. Killmonger (Black Panther)

Who else was it going to be? Black Panther in itself was an iconic film, not just for its cultural significance, but also for breaking the usual Marvel mold with its narrative. And at the centre of all this is Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger, who perfectly strikes the balance between someone you love to hate and hate to love. But most of all, Killmonger’s death holds the most emotion of any villain-centric moment for me, as the ever brilliant T’Challa takes him up to see Wakanda’s sunset before he dies. But overall, what puts Killmonger ahead of all the others is the fact that everything he’s doing could easily be seen as morally correct, just not in its execution. All Killmonger wanted in the end was to arm and support his oppressed brothers and sisters, which highlights the film’s political message. Among irrelevant whip-wielding Russian scientists and endless business people in metal suits, Killmonger stands out as a villain you can side with as easily as the hero and is a villain I find it the most difficult to show any dislike for. (Totally not relevant, but Michael B. Jordan plays a good character in a cool indie film called Chronicle that came out a few years ago. If you're planning on watching a film anytime this week, I highly recommend you watch it, it will blow you away)

Phew. That took a while. Thanks for reading if you made it this far and feel free to let me know your top picks for MCU villains! If I do another Marvel list, will probably be the actual films next.

Have a good day/night my dudes

#films #marvel #mcu #avengers #infinity war #avengers infinity war #captain america #iron man #tony stark #steve rogers #eggoreviews #black panther #killmonger

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idontneedasymbol · 6 years

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Sympathy for the devil?

I doubt I’m the first to observe this, but...having just watched FOX’s Lucifer, I am becoming convinced that one of the (many) problems with SPN in the last couple seasons is that some of the writers would really rather be writing that Lucifer instead. Which, on the one hand -- I can’t blame them; Lucifer seems like a blast to write. But it is so, so wrong for SPN.

We know the SPN writers watch Lucifer -- in SPN, Lucifer’s line from 11x10 about moving to LA to solve crimes was a reference right when the show began. And Lucifer likewise has had nods to SPN. The overlap only makes sense; the shows both deal with a lot of the same religious mythology.

But many traits of SPN’s later-season Lucifer -- the fluctuating power levels and physical vulnerability, the desperate need for validation from his father God (even more than his conflict with Michael), the heightened sex drive, the whining -- are all more representative of the Lucifer of the titular show. (As is the idea of Lucifer having a “true face” that terrifies people on a primal level -- I can’t remember if that had come up on SPN before, but it’s a major aspect of Lucifer’s Lucifer.)

The problem is that this doesn’t work. SPN’s Lucifer is first and foremost a bad guy -- the bad guy, for much of the show -- while Lucifer’s Lucifer is the protagonist. He oscillates between assholish hero and textbook antihero, but he’s never the villain. The Lucifer show is, largely, lightweight supernatural procedural fun, and while it’s got its fair share of problematic and regressive elements, the characters don’t deal with the level of moral conflict that’s in SPN. Lucifer’s Lucifer doesn’t possess a vessel; as far as we know, his body is his own (in fact its violation by God is an ongoing theme). (There are possible consent issues with his supernatural sex appeal, especially in s1, but the show stays vague on that point and wisely phases it out in later seasons.) He’s never wanted or tried to destroy or rule the world, and he has no particular grudge against humanity; his anger is with his divine family. He works with and befriends humans, some of whom he also ends up in conflict with and has hurt, but more by being a narcissistic jerk than by years or centuries of deliberate physical and mental torture.

Without that backstory, the character’s rough road to redemption is far less steep and more generally (ymmv) sympathetic, and his dickish acting out is more funny than not; he’s way more akin to Crowley (mother issues and all). Trying such an arc with SPN’s Lucifer, with his wholly different backstory and relationship with the show’s protagonists, is a lot more disturbing and off-putting in ways the SPN writers don’t seem to be aware of, or not enough to compensate for. Lucifer’s Lucifer loves playing the bad boy but fears being a monster, and a lot of the tension of the show is exploring whether that’s what or all he is, and whether he can grow beyond it -- which he’s actively trying to do, more often than not. While SPN’s Lucifer has proven himself to be the monster of all monsters time and again, and playing him like he’s just a bad boy, expecting sympathy for him because his circumstances have changed even though he hasn’t, causes massive cognitive dissonance.

Interestingly enough, both Lucifers probably share a common ancestor, and closer than Milton. The Lucifer TV show is loosely based on the DC comics character Lucifer Morningstar, originating in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. And The Sandman, along with other Gaiman works, is a major influence on SPN (Kripke once described SPN as “Sandman meets American Gods”) and SPN’s Lucifer probably owes quite a bit to the comic version. (In fact, Pellegrino looks more like the blond comics character than the Lucifer TV show’s star.) But both TV versions of the character have diverged so much, in different directions, that calling on one to write the other is almost worse than if they had no connection.

(The one thing the Lucifer show has done is reassured me that my extreme antipathy to Pellegrino’s Lucifer is restricted to just that version, and not the archetypal character, who has always been one of my mythological favorites. I was a little worried SPN had spoiled the Lightbringer for me, but as it turns out, no fears on that front...though now when I see “Lucifer” the switch from fannish D: to :D depending on the show in question is a bit whiplash-inducing...)

#lucifer #my post #meta #my meta #wank for ts #or at least negativity about the ep/season #really i wish Bucklemming would just go write for the Lucifer show #like okay I wouldn't wish them on any show really #and I’m sure they’d still screw it up #but less obviously #there's less to screw up #plus #the snarky comedy and casual sex is way more in their wheelhouse

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