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caitie-likes-talking · 11 months

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Part 4 Rewrite Concepts

Ok I've officially decided in my head that I'm going to at least plan out a part 4 rewrite, which is why now im going to give u all an extremely messy and poorly organized list of ideas I have just to like..help myself think them through more!

Ok so I'm having trouble deciding how I want to start the story off. Mainly because I don't want to include the Anjelo arc. I've always thought of part 4 being messily divided into 3 parts (Anjelo, Akira, Kira), which is something I know I want to change and have the whole plot just focus on Kira. I was thinking maybe just have it start in a slice of life style like some of the filler eps but the main problem is that I need to figure out what exactly sparks the whole 'we need to catch the killer' thing. Maybe Josuke and Koichi find Reimi instead of Koichi and Rohan? Idk!

And yknow mentioning Akira, I think this is the hardest arc to write out of the story. I don't want to include it very much, but it was really important for Okuyasu's character arc imo. I also just need to reread part 4 i literally own all of the p4 manga why haven't I done that yet..

I'm thinking of changing stuff w Reimi. I kind of want to make her be born a bit later, therefore killed later. Mainly so that she could be connected to Josukes past and this would better set up the framing of Jotaro that I want, as it would make him 17~ when Kira first kills her (I’d also make kira 5 yrs younger ofc)

For josukes past I’m still a little iffy. I think I might have Reimi just be there w the boy to help pull Tomokos car out of the pothole but idk. Is that cheesy? Just bc I still want Josuke to have his hair and everything..

I want to give Keicho Surface. Ik he alr has a stand, and I love Bad Company, but I wanna make Surface plot relevant and give it to someone who I also want to be plot relevant soo..yeah. In my rewrite I imagine Keicho teams up w Kira bc Kira promises to find a way to kill Keicho’s father.

Also yeah I want to have Jotaro be framed for all of the murders bc again that’s fun idk. And this way there can be a subplot abt clearing his name. Also I want to add holly and possibly baby Jolyne (is that too self indulgent?)

I’m still going to keep the plot w Cinderella (as in kira changing his face) bc I love hayato and shinobu. Plus that whole arc is when we got into p4 being rlly good

For yukako I’m thinking of making her josukes cousin, mainly so that they can have a pre established relationship since yukako probably isn’t getting her stand in this (bc she got it from the arrow right? I don’t want to include that arc. It drove me crazy how everyone kept getting a stand)

I’m thinking Joseph gets introduced after Jotaro is arrested and Jotaro is all like “u need ur dad to help solve this!!”

I wanna focus on the conflicts between Josuke and Joseph. I especially think this could be fun bc ryohei would still be alive, so it’s like a case of “u might be my biological dad, but my REAL dad is right here.”

I also want to let Tomoko actually do something but I haven’t decided what yet.

I’m keeping mikitaka in somehow bc believe it or not I do enjoy fun and whimsy

I’m probably cutting out Rohan entirely tho. He was honestly a good antagonist and I love his stand so I might use that somewhere but I just can’t stand him. (lmfao stand)

Also like at the end of the day this is my au and I do what I want!!

I think I might make one of yukakos parents be a police officer. Bc 1. whether I make her and Josuke related or not, they’re still connected by their relatives on the force and 2. I feel like this could possibly help set her up to help in the kira investigation? Like maybe she’s planning to become a cop or detective in the future so she alr has some skills. Or maybe she could help find files or something. No matter what, I want her to get to actually help w the plot instead of just kidnapping koichi then being sidelined like in canon

For okuyasu I’m thinking his arc is going to be changed a wee bit. Like his brother works w kira, but he befriends Josuke and realizes that what his brothers doing is wrong and like..learns to stand up for the right thing regardless of what his brother says. And a bump in this road could be keichos death. Like imagine ur finally branching off from ur brother and then he DIES? I’d be crawling back to his grave too lmfao

I’m going to work on stand profiles and giving them actual limits and rules. Bc a LOT of them just don’t have that.

I think some stands I’ll still include just bc I like them. Like highway star (even tho that arc was so boring the stand is cool).

Also I still want to focus on the affects of Dio for part of it. I think I might mainly do this w Jotaro and his ptsd tho..

Overall I’m excited and I hope I can flesh this out more !!!

#jjba #jojos bizarre adventure #jjba diu #jjba part 4 #Jojo’s Bizarre adventure diamond is unbreakable #diamond is unbreakable #canon rewrite #rewrite #au #alternate universe #ideas #I’m just spitballing #concept #josuke higashitaka

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starlightbelle · 7 months

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7, 12

Oooh, yay! Thanks for asking; I’m gonna have fun with this one! 😃

7. One DC death you’d like to make permanent — or alternatively, one you’d erase so it never happened?

Hmmm…tough one. I’m not usually a fan of permanent character deaths tbh. Especially with my faves. But even with other characters like…they’re someone’s fave, y’know?

I guess maybe I’d say Solomon Grundy?? Granted my only exposure to him has been in JLU but I was so…bored?? I’m not a fan of the “giant hulking characters who no speak good” trope. So I guess I’d write him out 🤷‍♀️ Sorry that’s the only thing that comes to mind rn

It’s definitely not Jason. That’s who it’s not

Although the “death by fan-vote” is kinda a crummy thing, at this point in the narrative it is kinda fascinating having him brought back. It has evolved to be synonymous with his character so I don’t know whether or not I’d erase his death from comics canon. The storytelling potential is too immense 😅

Last-minute addition:

Oh! I’d make it so that Aquababy (Artur) never dies. Killing him off is dumb and I hate it, so I’m reversing it.

12. Pick up to 7 characters to star in a Teen Titans ongoing (any era or generation you like). What tone do you envision for this series?

Okay I pondered this and I think I found a lineup I’m comfortable with:

Dick Grayson/Nightwing

Koriand’r/Starfire

Wally West/ Kid Flash

Donna Troy/ Troia

Artemis Crock/ Artemis

Jaime Reyes/ Blue Beetle

Jason Todd/ (??)😉

Dick, Kori, and Wally I knew immediately. My dream team is not complete without these three. Donna has been left out of so much for far too long, and she’s Dick’s other best friend, and I just like her character.

After that it becomes a bit dicey because I have to narrow it down to seven…

I elected to have Artemis (Crock) with her YJ-characterization. I like her in the show and she’d fill the archer role since (sorry, don’t hate me) I’m not making Roy a draft pick, lol. Plus she and Wally are great together and I like her friendship with Dick.

I’m putting Cyborg on the Justice League, so he won’t be a member of the Titans. Having Garfield without Vic feels off somehow, and having Raven without BB also feels off. I like Jaime so that could be fun, plus I liked the idea of him and Kori being on a Team together (since she showed up in his comics run recently).

My last pick…might be unexpected?

I feel like most of the run would center mostly on these six. With a side-plot-turned-main-plot tying in another antagonistic figure (Red X/Red Hood) who ends up being Jason Todd. In the end of the first arc, Jason ends up joining the Team (he maintains that he works alone, yadda yadda…but he definitely joined the team 😅)

I’ll ramble a little more under the cut. I have more thoughts but don’t want this post to be too long so I’ll abbreviate it here 😁

The tone would probably be somewhere between the Young Justice and Teen Titans cartoons. I’m a big fan of YJ’s first season especially. I also like the anime influences TT had.

Maybe something similar in tone to My Hero Academia? It can be lighthearted at times but isn’t pulling its punches when it comes to the action/storytelling aspects.

I’m giving this run the “Titans” title since I don’t envision this being a teenagers story. They’re probably mostly young adults.

Dick has been friends with Wally and Donna for a long while already. Maybe Kori at the point has been on Earth for a couple years? Artemis has been close with Dick and Wally especially for several years. Jaime is the last to join the Team (until Jason) which feeds his insecurities at times. Kori is more than eager to help him through those feelings (which is how their friendship blooms)

All-in-all, I want this to be a very close knit group. I’ve always liked the idea of Kori and Wally being friends too, and Donna is canonically one of her best friends, too.

It would probably be a largely urban setting, as only one (arguably, two?) of these characters is not native to that landscape.

I think other settings could be possible at some point, teaming up with someone from Atlantis, for example. (Part of the reason why I didn’t choose an Atlantean to begin with was I was torn between classic Garth or YJ Kaldur)

Anyway this was fun!! Thanks for asking! 😅

#my post #ramblings #dc #titans #teen titans #asks #ask

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fruitless-nonsense · 2 years

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Hello…it’s me.

I know it’s been a VERY long time, and I don’t even know if I’m gonna get back into a regular schedule.

I remember using this as a vector to talk about the originals since I’ve never really done it before.

The Originals is not only my favorite tv show. It’s a comfort show for me. The acting and the story itself are so mesmerizing it makes me forget how sad my life is.

But then my life wasn’t sad anymore and I kinda forgot about it. The blog, not the show. I still binge it cause it’s a good show.

I think I’ll return from time to time, but don’t expect anything.

With that out of the way, I wanna talk about the reason I love this show so much. And that reason is incredibly simple: the characters.

Characters are pinochle to my interest in a show. I don’t care how interesting the world is or how complex the story is, if the main protagonists are boring or downright unlikeable I cannot watch it.

I watch a story to be invested and immersed, and the way that happens for me is caring about how the story affects the people inside, and this was a problem for the vampire diaries.

The protagonists sucked. Just straight up sucked. Don’t believe me? Tell me one time you’ve had a conversation about the show and casually brought one of them (besides Damon and Stefan) up without straight up asking about them. The only time Bonnie is naturally brought up in conversation is when there’s discussion on the show’s racism problem. But when you talk about the story (if anyone talks about the story) I never seen any of the other protagonists other than the problematic vampire leads being naturally brought up with it. But that isn’t a big issue because very little people talk about the story or main protagonists. They’re background noise. So what is talked about the most when discussing the vampire diaries? Two things: the ships and the villains.

The discussion of tvd villains is easy for me. A lot of them are pretty good and even the boring ones at least have some element that’s interesting, but I feel at some point probably after Klaus and the Mikaelson’s a season was graded on how good the villain was. Prove me wrong, how many people say season five is the worst and who were the villains then (seriously off the top of your head give me the name of at least one of the travelers)? Meanwhile tell me what you thought of season six without mentioning Kai. And let me set the record straight, I actually liked a fair bit of the villains, but I will never rewatch tvd for fun because I can’t root for them. Furthermore, we get to a point where the villains are less antagonists and more fun evil guys to watch.

What I mean by that is they lack the purpose of an actual antagonist. I remember learning the rules of storytelling in high school theatre class. An antagonist is meant to be a foil or source of conflict for the protagonist. That is not the case for most of them post-Klaus. Silas has a goal to end the world, which can be a conflict for the main cast, but it’s an incredibly weak one when considering personal stakes. Kai was a conflict for Bonnie and Damon when they were stuck with him, but when that was over and Kai was still a villain, what connected him to the protagonists? A moral value to stop a madman? Kai had a connection to his family, a new cast of characters that barely fell into the supporting role. I didn’t care about them, the most I felt was for Jo, but she wasn’t enough to get me invested in the question, “what do we do if Kai succeeds in his plan?” The heretics and Mary (was her name Mary? I don’t care enough to check) Salvatore had a connection to Damon and Stefan through past trauma, but there was nothing in the present that justified them needing to stop her. Finally we have Sybil, the first villain since Klaus to provide actual stakes. This is one of the reason I hold season eight up higher than the trash that came before it. I know everyone was tired at this point and wrote her off, but Sybil played the role of antagonist perfectly because she finally gave us a real answer to the question “why should we care about stopping them?” Because she has control over Damon and Enzo and we need to save them.

You need stakes to get invested in a villain, but that didn’t matter to people. All that mattered was that they were fun and charismatic and full of life, something the other characters weren’t giving us. We used the villains as placeholders for the protagonists, so we didn’t care that they never really filled the role of antagonist.

So where am I going with this? Well The Originals had real villains who rarely get talked about. People talk about them, but not as much as the main and supporting characters or the story for better or worse. Because the characters in this show can stand on their own. They’re really good characters (and when I say good, I don’t just mean morally). Each of them are so three dimensional and complex and discussing just one can take hours of deep diving. We love watching them, we get invested in their stories, and as a result the show is much more fun and less of a chore.

That being said, the villains are also super compelling (pun intended) to watch and discuss with how they affect the story. Remember when I said characters could not be brought into a discussion of the story naturally? You can’t do that in the originals because the characters are so interwoven with the story it would be impossible, and the villains are the same way not only with the story but with the protagonists.

The stakes in this show are much more personal, which makes sense. The Original family are the most powerful creatures in the world, so conflicts and antagonists have to be a lot more creative. The crutch allowed for the writers to actually think through motivation when making a villain. Made very easy with the fact that everyone hates them. Villain motivation? It’s Klaus! What didn’t he do to screw over others. Season one’s villain roster consists of people just trying to get back at him, which could get boring but doesn’t cause they each have a different reason. So for fun, I’m gonna shine a spotlight on all of the originals villains, the good and the meh, the personal connection to the protagonists, and what I rate them. Let’s go! (FYI no, Marcel is not on this list bc he’s not a villain. Shut up!)

Agnes/early season one witches: you notice how Agnes didn’t become an active antagonist until she started threatening Hayley? That is what we call personal stakes. Her motivation wasn’t as deep as others, a fanatic who believed in the natural order of things and so had issue with the miracle baby. 5/10 not bad, just average

Papa Tunde: CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED! His story and motivation with Klaus could have stretched longer. For what we got he was so much fun and his connection to Klaus and Marcel pushed investment into their relationship. 8/10.

Celeste: finally! An antagonist for Elijah! Backstory was used only to explain motivation in the present. She was able to destroy the Mikaelson family for a time. Kind of had a point, but went about it in the wrong way. 7/10.

Monique and the harvest girls: not much connection to protagonists, but made up with being a threat to Hope in the end. Also became hated after bullying Davina (almost like we were emotionally invested in the main and supporting characters?). Motivation similar to Agnes, but with the add on of being tied to more characters. 6/10

Genevieve: personal connection to Rebekah which tied in her motivation? Check! Going toe to toe with Klaus causing conflict for the family? Check. Killer scene deconstructing Klaus up to that point? Check check check! 9/10. The scene in 1x21 bumped her way up.

If season one had personal villains, season two broke down the door and never left! The family drama in this season was so compelling it made me forgive the weaker elements. The story tied into them beautifully and I could go on paragraphs for each of them.

Francesca and her brothers: putting her here cause she was more a plot twist than actual antagonist for season one. Was more a boss fight than antagonist, but she made for one hell of a boss fight. 2x01 is so good! 7/10

Finn: did he mention he was daggered for 900 years? Jokes aside, Finn started out a lackey for his mother and was pretty boring. Then 2x10 happened and I’m scared of Finn Miaelson everybody. 2x11 was good development for both Klaus and Elijah, but let’s not forget the catalyst. Though his ending was pretty underwhelming, I will bask in the three episodes that elicited genuine fear. I mostly have Yusuf Gatewood to thank for his incredible performance. Also what he did to Kol/Kaleb gave him some impact to his antagonist role. 8/10.

Esther: underrated and should be talked about more. There is so much to say on her ideology and beliefs mixed in on the warped sense of love she feels for her children that makes a truly psychotic and dangerous foe for our mains. Her connection is easy to see and the way she tries to manipulate her children into falling in line makes for gripping storytelling. And her end is truly poetic and satisfying at the same time. 10/10.

Mikael: while Esther got a whole revamping and exploration of her character, Mikael ultimately remained the same for the majority of the time he was on screen, and then in pops Freya. To discuss the warped sense of familial love this man had to his children is sick but makes for good tv, and his ending scene always brings me to tears at the mourning of Klaus’ childhood. 8/10.

Dahlia: I normally have a hard time getting invested in brute force villains cause tvd had a track record of how to do it right (Klaus) and how to screw it up (Silas), but Dahlia is not just an unbeatable foe. Her connection to Freya, Esther, and surprisingly Klaus give us a tragedy of a character on the list of people Esther ruined. This show made me feel pity for a character advertised as pure evil. Phenomenal. 9/10.

Shorter list of villains, but that just shows how powerful they were in carrying the season antagonist role for several episodes, and they’re not even the best of the show. Season three is tied with season two for my favorite season (season two had a better overall story and more episode that were amazing rank, but the best episodes of season three are the best things I’ve seen out of the whole cw. It’s a toss up) and the villains have a range to them.

The Nguyen family: never reached their potential cause Davina got snubbed. Interesting direction that tied to Davina’s fall from grace that were used as a plot device in the end. Such a shame. 4/10.

Tristan: aka Triscuit cracker cause this dude was DRY. One third of the trinity and as a character meant to mirror Elijah, he succeed in emulating the worst character aspect of him. Unfortunately that aspect was his selfishness and occasional apathy. These do not make an interesting character when it’s all they are! There is no time given to explore him more. He gets some points for having personal stakes with Jackson and Hayley and his end was both cruel and cathartic coming from someone who hated Jackson. Weakest of the trinity. 5/10.

Aya: my beloved. When you think switching to the strix is gonna be a snore, in pops this sexy badass to mesmerize. Once Triscuit’s gone she takes over his position and plays such a good foil to Marcel and Elijah. Knowing how to play both men until they swallow their pride and band together. While I wanted to see more cause of how much fun she was, she served her purpose perfectly and completed what she needed. 9/10.

Aurora: started off annoying, but can’t deny her influence over the already tense relationship between Klaus and Elijah. Her dynamic with Klaus was kinda interesting, but it’s when the mask comes off that she truly becomes a good antagonist. Kidnapping Cami and stealing the white oak? Good. While I had my issue with Cami becoming a vampire from a story writing perspective, Aurora changed a piece of the narrative forever, and her final scene with Klaus in 3x14 was gripping to the last minute. And then the writers brought her back and left her story ambiguous until legacies decided to do something about that. 3x18 aside, she was an active threat that started rocky, but ‘ended’ strong. 7/10.

The ancestors: for an antagonist that is separate and indirect yet plays a big part in influencing the story, it was alright. It only played a threat to Kol and Vincent to the point no other character saw it necessary to defeat them and were left unchecked until the penultimate episode. I suppose what they did to Davina was story changing enough to justify their existence, but not by much considering her ultimate end. 3/10.

Lucien: saved the best for last! Legitimately the best villain of the tvdu. Yes, even better than Klaus! I could honestly go on about how amazing he is. From his setup, to his backstory and the connections to the ultimate theme of the show (highlighted by Marcel in 3x21) to his connection with the entire Mikaelson family and ideology (basically syndrome if the incredibles acknowledged the messed up truth) his motivation is gold, his misdirect while predictable is still brilliant and shocked me due to how likable he was. 3x04 is my favorite episode of 3A and he’s a reason why. While Triscuit and Aurora took the worst elements of Elijah and Rebekah, Lucien took the best element of Klaus: his charisma. That’s why he works, even after he shifts from a manipulative and scheming antagonist to a brute force one, cause we watched him earn it in real time. Honestly, I’m scratching the surface cause I could make a whole post about him. And it’s what he deserves. 100000000000/10

After that we get the hollow in season four, who’s stakes are tied with Hope’s life and later freedom, which resulted in such a massive change in the status quo for the characters. Not to mention the connection with Hayley’s past. That being said, wasn’t as fun as they could’ve been. 6/10.

Lastly season five gave us Greta. I stand by that season five had enough story passed over from season four to not need a villain, but here we are. Her connection to Klaus was solid and her motivation was she was a nazi. Can’t get more evil than nazis. And her beliefs were a threat to Hayley, Hope, and by extension Klaus. Three of the biggest main protagonists. Her shortcomings come in that she really wasn’t necessary and again wasn’t very fun of an antagonist, but for what she was she served a purpose. 4/10.

And that’s a wrap! While not all of them were as amusing as Kai or the heretics, they still played the role of antagonist better than tvd villains could ever hope to be. I stand by my theory that this was intentional due to how disinteresting the main and supporting characters were for tvd.

In the end, it’s the protagonists that make a story memorable, and in that regard the originals succeeded in spades. The villains were garnish for the main meal, added more flavor but weren’t the reason why the meal was great. And that’s one of the reasons why the originals is a better show. And not the only reason either.

#the originals #the vampire diaries #main and supporting characters #villains #antagonists #protagonists

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jasonsutekh · 9 months

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No Country for Old Men (2007)

After a hunter discovers a failed drug deal and a lot of money, he’s hunted by a psychopath.

There were a few good aspects to the cinematography, mainly when shadows or silhouettes were used. The main killing method was fairly niche but at least made it more interesting and added a basic level of shock value at times which was better variety than just having guns and money be the focus.

Despite the suggested social criticisms, the main antagonist was a fanciful idea of a psychopath rather than a realistic culprit like the more common psychopaths in positions of power. This somewhat undermines the psycho-social criticisms and even the characters opposing him leave little for the audience to invest in or identify with.

The acting isn’t terrible but the performers get little opportunity for emotional expression. The protagonists are stoic and the main villain doesn’t even show pain. There are some bleak little stories scattered throughout the film and they’re probably the best parts as they at least have a structure and implied point to them.

It’s arguably closer to an art film than entertainment, not because of substance, but because it deliberately makes itself difficult and unenjoyable to watch. There’s basic action but nothing gets resolved and the motivations of the characters are fickle at best. The whole narrative is saturated with a general sense of despair with no direct blame shown, which feels ridiculous as there are very real people who dictate and enforce the systems that keep society as they are.

2/10 -It’s not THE worst, that’s something else. But…-

-The film is set in 1980 (although doesn’t feel specific to the time).

#Film #Review #No Country for Old Men #2007 #Action #Crime #JasonSutekh

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evco-productions · 1 year

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The Best Sequel of All Time Is Actually...

We all know the usual contestants for the title of Best Sequel of All Time. The Empire Strikes Back, The Godfather Part II, Terminator 2, The Dark Knight, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The Bride of Frankenstein, Toy Story 2, Aliens, Spider-Man 2, Dawn of the Dead, Wrath of Khan, and so on, and so on, and so on.

But the truth is, it’s none of those movies. The best sequel of all time is actually…

…insert drum roll…

…Wayne’s World 2.

Okay, in all seriousness, I don’t believe in the word “best” because it is impossible to objectively determine anything when it comes to deciding the quality of movies and the word “best” implies objectivity. I much prefer to use the word “favorite.” Wayne’s World 2 is possibly my favorite sequel of all time. I think it’s just as good as the original. Probably not better, but definitely even with it, which I like because then we don’t have to debate whether the first or second movie is better like we do with Star Wars and Terminator.

Here's a few things Wayne’s World 2 does that I really like to see in a sequel, especially a sequel to a goofy comedy.

For one, the romance from the first movie isn’t ignored or tossed away. Have you ever noticed how many sequels actually do this? The first movie will dedicate the majority of its runtime to a romance that is then rendered pointless by the sequel (or sequels). Often it is because the actor who played opposite the main character is not asked back for the sequel or their schedule doesn’t allow them time to film anything but a short breakup sequence to be shoved into the sequel’s opening exposition, or maybe the writers just don’t have the imagination to develop that love interest character any further and so they write them out.

Movies of all genres and varying quality can be faulted for this: the James Bond series, the original Indiana Jones trilogy, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2. Why should we care about the love story in one movie if the next movie is just going to be a different love story?

Wayne’s World 2 doesn’t do that even though it’s exactly the kind of movie that could have easily gotten away with it. There’s a longtime trend in comedy that forces exceptionally attractive female characters into relationships with slacker men who are mostly if not entirely unappealing, and while someone like Tia Carrere is definitely out of Mike Myers’s league, the whole situation would be made much worse if, in the sequel, Wayne and Cassandra had split up only for Wayne to stumble into a new relationship with another equally attractive woman, which of course he would have.

Another great strength of Wayne’s World 2 is its handling of supporting characters and cameos, which the first movie definitely had but the sequel builds upon. A lot of my favorite moments in this movie are not coming from Wayne or Garth but from the other characters. The British roadie Del Preston is a hilarious character with a great monologue I quote constantly. Chris Farley, Kevin Pollak, James Hong, Kim Basinger, they’re all good in this movie. They don’t phone in their performances even though, again, this is exactly the kind of movie where they could get away with doing that.

But the most interesting appearance here is Christopher Walken. Walken is an acting legend—watch his scene with Dennis Hopper in True Romance if you’re not convinced of that—and he treats his role as Bobby the sleazy record producer as seriously as I’ve seen him treat any other role. Not only that, but as strong as his presence in this movie is, he seems to have known just where to stop so that Mike Myers and Dana Carvey are still allowed to be the stars. He doesn’t overshadow them in their scenes together. I don’t know if that’s all on Walken, or on the director, or if Myers and Carvey are more talented actors than I understand and were able to match Walken’s presence with their own… Whatever the reason, it works beautifully, and I think Bobby makes for a better antagonist than Rob Lowe’s Benjamin from the first movie.

But I think that Wayne’s World 2’s greatest strength is its flow. Back when it was a regular skit on Saturday Night Live, Wayne’s World only needed to entertain you for several minutes at a time. The skits in most individual SNL episodes never relate to each other, so there was no need to worry about continuity or flow because there was only going to be one Wayne’s World “scene” per episode. That concern only arrived when it was decided to make Wayne’s World into a movie, and then another movie after that. Suddenly, the writers had to worry about making this into something more than a bunch of individual gags shoved together until they had enough to equal the length of a feature film. They needed to ensure that they had a story and characters which would accommodate those individual gags while also maintaining a solid flow throughout the movie. I think both Wayne’s World movies pull this off, but for some reason Wayne’s World 2 stands out especially well to my eyes. It reminds me of Monty Python at their best (The Holy Grail and Life of Brian). Each new scene is able to present a unique joke or banter without ever feeling forced. The plot is always moving forward in Wayne’s World 2, even if you don’t realize it. Also, very few of the jokes are recycled, but when they are (sometimes from an earlier scene and sometimes from the earlier movie), there’s always a slightly different spin on it, which means that the comedy isn’t weakened by the repetition but actually strengthened by it.

So there you have it, three major reasons why I think we ought to rank Wayne’s World 2 much higher in the realm of movie sequels. It’s a ton of fun, it’s very quotable and very rewatchable, and obviously, I rate it a “W” and if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

#evco #evco productions #film #film blog #film discussion #movie #movies #sequel #best sequel #wayne's world #wayne's world 2 #sequelitis

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moki-dokie · 3 years

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Netflix Cowboy Bebop Review (From Someone Who Loved the Anime and Watched it an Unhealthy Amount of Times)

Kinda tired of seeing these reviews from the people who either A) haven’t actually ever watched the anime yet still want to compare the two or B) saw the anime once 20 years ago and think they’re an expert based on that alone or C) binged the whole show all at once and didn’t actually take the time to truly watch everything and digest the story. I watched this show every. single. day. for fucking YEARS. until Toonami finally took it off the air. And then I bought the DVD set and watched that constantly. I thoroughly love this series and very few animes have ever been able to be close to as good.

People are allowed their opinions, of course. Even true diehard fans aren’t always going to like adaptations of the original. But they can respect it, which makes a huge difference. Anyway, lets get into this shall we?

Obviously, there will be spoilers.

I’ll start with the Cons just to get them out of the way. There aren’t many.

Vicious: This is probably everyone’s biggest gripe and for good reason. He is the main antagonist of Spike (And kind of by proxy, to all the main characters) and even though in the original series he wasn’t actually on screen much, his presence was always very much there and very important to the plotline. Vicious is his name incarnate. He is cold, calculating, ruthless, smart as a whip, a man of few words, deadly in combat, and extremely level-headed to the point it may seem like he’s emotionless and unbothered by anything ever. Netflix’s version absolutely was not this. In any way at all. This version of Vicious was almost... comical. A parody of what a villain ought to be and it’s honestly a damn shame. The casting was so very wrong for him that it kind of blows my mind. They got it so very right with 99% of everyone else. Not only is his look completely off but it seemed like the hair/makeup department kind of gave up after dying his hair. The dark eyebrows and chest hair (also, why tf did he need to be shirtless so much. ugh.) were just a very weird contrast to the ratty silver hair. His personality is utterly wrong. This Vicious is hot-tempered, has anger issues, blatantly abusive (both physically and emotionally and like more in a wife beater kind of way rather than just a cold heartless killer kind of way), talks way too much, and is easily and frequently bothered. By like, everything. I would have much rather of had casting similar to Hugh Laurie, Jeremy Irons, Rhys Meyers, or Alexander Skarsgard. Rhys, with the right hair/makeup crew, could have been stunning as Vicious. But alas. Netflix’s version does not have the same lingering threat in the background. Nothing about him invokes fear. I’m so very disappointed with how hard they failed on such a hugely important character.

Ed: I only have a few issues with Netflix’s Ed. 1. She isn’t POC. Ed is brown in the anime, full stop. Ed’s father is HELLA brown. Ed is Brazillian-coded and this has been known pretty much since she made her first appearance. Sure, its always been ambiguous... but it’s ambiguously brown. And there is a big difference when erasing a POC vs adding one. 2. The actress tries a little too hard with the over-the-top Edness. It felt really... weird. Inorganic. 3. She’s older, or at least bigger, than Ed should be, which makes the forced wild-child behavior even more out of place. Idk, just feels like the casting for this one was a bit off? doesn’t ruin the character by any means, just feels a little clunky.

Gren: Idk what to say about this one. Gren has always been my favorite non-main character. I loved how tragic his story was. I loved how smooth and suave he was. I loved how he came to accept who he was forced to become. And Gren was the first time I had ever seen someone who could be considered intersex in any form of entertainment media. He was a very profound character at the time and very unique. I always wished he could have lived and joined the Bebop family - he would have fit right in. I understand that the trope of his character hasn’t exactly aged well, but that doesn’t take away from the fact it was a tremendous step forward in the 90s and I wish at least part of that could have been preserved. Netflix’s Gren... don’t get me wrong, I love that character as well! But it isn’t the Gren we know in the slightest. It’s just some dude with Gren’s name. I fucking adore him, but I’d rather he be a different character.

Fighting Choreography/Stunts: They could have spent a little more time on the fighting scenes. Some of them are a little clunky and obviously taken step-by-step. Not terrible, not fantastic. Really could have done a better job with flying stunts especially. I know it’s supposed to be campy to a degree but jfc they might as well have just left the wire in for some of those shots.

Camera focus: Not sure wtf was going on with the focus in most of the shots, but it was like, strangely blurry outside of the main focal point. Like if the camera was focused on Jet, but Spike was beside him and talking, Spike would be just sliiiiightly blurred/out of focus. Just annoying more than anything.

And thats it, really. Julia/Vicious bugs me just a bit, but not enough to really be a con. Just kind of like, ehhhh they could have gotten to the same ending place without that, yknow?

Now, onto the Pros.

Respecting the Source Material: I have never seen an adaptation done with so much care, diligence, research, and all out respect as this was. Say what you will, but everyone tried their damn best to not only recreate some of the most iconic scenes, but to do the series justice with the new twists and fresh stories. From framing the shots, to costuming, to set design, and of course to the music. This is how you honor the source material you’re adapting. I think, best of all, the campyness of everything remained. Bebop is a fucking cool anime, but you absolutely cannot deny how stupidly silly it can be as well. I enjoy they kept that alive. It’s hard for it to translate into live action without getting cringey (and certainly, in some parts it is) and I’d say on the grand scale they acheived just the right amount of camp.

Music: Bruh. What the fuck else can I say other than, as expected from Yoko and the Seatbelts... THIS FUCKS. I am 1000000% going to own this very lengthy soundtrack that I hope is going to be multi-disc like the original.

CGI: I’m actually very extremely pleased with the graphics. Yes, many times you can blatantly tell they’re greenscreening something but the level of detail that went into this shit is stunning. The ships are fucking spot on. The planets each feel unique and look realistic while honoring the original designs. The space shit like billboards and whatnot are badass. The astral gates look even cooler than the anime’s. Honestly, big fuckin kudos to the VFX team. My one and ONLY complaint is that they didn’t edit out Cho’s contacts in post production. Very small complaint, and most people don’t even know to look for them. But when you’ve worked in eye care before they stand out like a sore thumb.

Set Design: It baffles me how they made the interior of the bebop look EXACTLY like it does in the anime. like holy fucking shiiiiiit. I adore the mixing of real, actual, authentic 80s/90s technology into so many things. I can’t express how much I love how so much tech is still analog in some way. Every room we’re taken into feels like a place you could walk into today, or went to 20 years ago. It feels so familiar. And hell, even the outside scenes look cool as fuck. and as I’ve mentioned before, all the places we’re taken to feel very unique. Considering a huge portion of these sets were likely built in studios with only a handful of scenes being on location somewhere, I really gotta hand it to them.

Diverse Casting: Aside from our main characters, I love just how many side, minor, and background characters are so very diverse. Not just ehtnicities, but body types, age, all spectrums of gender, accents, ect. It really cements how intermingled humanity has become since leaving Earth.

Ein: I know it’s a little silly to sing the praises of a canine actor but listen. The fact they used a real dog instead of doing some bullshit cgi dog is worthy of praise. Not only that but that was a VERY well trained dog. You know how a lot of times you can very obviously tell there’s a handler directly behind the camera coaxing the dog into doing whatever it should be doing? Yeah, I very rarely got that from this pup. Very good job from a very good boi.

Spike, Jet, and Faye: Honestly there’s not much to say about them because they all fuckin kicked ass. They all felt so much like the actual characters. They had such chemistry and charisma. Loved everything about them. I know a lot of people got butthurt that Faye wasn’t the half naked femme fatale trope of the 90s, and they can die mad. I LOVED this Faye. She was every bit as sexy, fiery, witty, and cunning as the original. Plus she has the added bonus of having the mouth of a sailor. All of them being aged up feels... right, too. I mean lets be honest here. Even if Spike was in the syndicate from like age 15 to 25 and then goes 3 years on his own, I still cannot fathom him having the set of skills that he does. That kind of stuff takes decadeS to master. Or Vicious being 27 and somehow a katana master, top assassin, fought in a war for a while, ect. Shit don’t make sense. I don’t know if they actually aged any of them up but considering the actors they got, I’d assume yes. It would make way more sense for Spike to be late 30s and Jet somewhere in his 40s. Faye still looks and feels like a mid-20s something. idk man. It feels way more grounded and real this way. I could NOT imagine this same plot playing out by a bunch of baby-faced actual 20-somethings who are barely even legal adults, yknow?

Plot/Storyline: There wouldn’t be much point in simply remaking the exact same thing 1:1 throughout the entirety of the series. So, understandably, the story has some differences. I thoroughly enjoy being able to identify each episode and know which one of the anime it’s based on, yet still not quite knowing what’s going down. The overarching plot, however, takes a pretty drastic turn from the original and frankly I’m very curious to see where it goes. Julia becoming a villain (maybe??) isn’t something I expected at all, and yet it makes perfect sense after all she’s been through. And hell, maybe this is her way of eventually getting rid of the entire syndicate once and for all. No clue! Thats the wonderful thing about it! I don’t know what will happen next and I am interested in that! Furthermore, this series feels way more seamlessly connected than the original ever did. That was kind of the thing back in the 90s so that episodes could be watched independently without needing to know what was going on, but they tried doing both at the same time and admittedly it didn’t always work out. Netflix’s version does a fantastic job of making each episode have a unique thing they have to overcome while still dealing with the main plot. It seems like Season 2 is going to incorporate the Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door movie, which feels like a good move since that is about where it comes in on the timeline And dear god I hope they release it around Halloween. If we’re lucky enough to get a season 3, that will be the grand finale build up. They’ve done a great job with pacing, almost matching the anime’s. I can’t say it enough how much respect the showrunners have given to the original. You can honestly tell the writing is done to remain faithful yet give us something new. I really hope they can take the backlash with a grain of salt. Those of us who truly and honestly love this series can seriously appreciate the dedication that went into this. The story certainly feels like it was made for us, the original fans who are grown up now. I’ve been dying for more sci-fi that can be both dark/gritty AND fun/silly. Reminds me a lot of Firefly (which, lets be honest, took heavy inspiration from Cowboy Bebop) with the mixture of serious story and things that’ll make you laugh. If you can love Firefly, you can love this series.

Overall, this was a VERY enjoyable show to watch and I’ll probably watch it a few more times to try and pick up anything I may have missed in the background. I’d really recommend ignoring the folks out there whining that they butchered the show - most of them are literally basing it on clips and stills rather than, you know, actually watching it. And obviously it shouldn’t need to be pointed out that this is an adaptation and things will be different. Don’t go into it expecting everything to be exactly the same across the board.

I’d probably give this 8.5/10. There are definitely areas of improvement that I sincerely hope they work on in season 2, but this was really damn good. Mad respect to everyone who worked on the show!

#cowboy bebop #netflix cowboy bebop

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weareallstardustfallen · 3 years

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hello empiresblr i have watched pix's video and i am, once again, back with analysis, because this is just my life now. today's thesis:

pixl and fwhip are narrative foils.

there's a lot of similarities between them, both as characters in the narrative and their role with that and just in general. pixl even pointed out some of them today: they've got similar philosophies when it comes to making use of the corruption, and they're both the kind of extra that it takes to put elder guardians under sausage's base. they play off of each other really well, and it's very fun to see, but i'm getting off topic bc a good dynamic does not a narrative foil make.

their role in the narrative is really mirrored, especially in their character development. towards the beginning of the story, fwhip was one of the main antagonists, alongside sausage; that's obvious from all of their interactions during basically everything preceding the peace ravine. pixl, on the other hand, was quite firmly on the protagonist's (jimmy's) side, and that was also abundantly clear. it was fairly unambiguous that fwhip was an antagonist who was doing bad things, and pixl was a character who was unconditionally on the protagonist's side.

and then the story got complicated, and their dynamic got interesting; specifically, when it came to the dragon fight.

fwhip was, for what's basically the first time (iirc) acting as a heroic figure. he messed up by sending jimmy into the end, sure, but as soon as he realized that he started thinking about what he could do to make sure that the dragon didn't die, and immediately gave back the cod head and apologized, sincerely, to jimmy. it may have been somewhat caused by his own fear of xornoth, but regardless of his motives, he did everything right. if we look at who the protagonists seem to be for this arc; it's less clear than before, but i would say scott and shubble, and of course the anti-xornoth side of things more generally; he was aligned with the protagonists.

pixl, on the other hand, was working against the protagonists. he was trying to kill the dragon, and though he wasn't villainous in the way that Sausage and Joey were in that interaction, he was definitely acting in the interests of the main big bad. unintentionally, perhaps, but he was told that he was doing something that was wrong and he chose to ignore that. it's sort of similar to how fwhip was acting as an antagonist, except for their intent; pixl didn't know the consequences of what he was doing, and he was just trying to get home, but regardless the similarities are there.

like fwhip, pix had a moment of realization that killing the dragon was wrong, but his came after the dragon was already dead. he didn't have the chance to immediately backtrack and mitigate the mistakes he'd made, because it was a bit of a pandora's box situation; you can't shut that once it's open.

(also, unrelated to the thesis- i think it's very interesting how fwhip, of all people, is the one he called out for during his vision. mr riffs explain)

his reaction is different to fwhip's, though, in what i find to be a very interesting way! both of them share the fact that they are so protective of their citizens, and care a lot about keeping them safe- it's obvious with just about everything pixl's done since the dragon fight and how every action seems to somehow lead back to the good of pixandria, and fwhip is often worrying over and checking in on his villagers, like after he returns from the dragon fight, and after the test subject dream (thank you birch for the reminder on that one!) and both of their reactions lead back to that same protectiveness. but where fwhip's reaction is action- building up the empire to keep them safe- pixl's is overwhelming guilt. he acts, with the ghast farm and solidifying his alliances and working towards taking down sausage, but the core emotion that is driving him right now is guilt.

another point- their major mistakes in the dragon fight come down to what they know really well, and how in that moment, their knowledge fails them.

pixl is really, really good at knowing how the world works. in every interaction, he always seems to be the one who knows the specifics of the mechanics they need, and the one who is teaching the person he's talking to- he's very confident in his knowledge of what makes the world tick, and exactly how to utilize that. of course, this could come down to pixl as a player having a lot of knowledge of the game's mechanics, but i'd also point towards things like the vigil- pix is a very experienced character, as well as minecraft player.

and in the dragon fight? he knows he needs to get home, and get his allies home. he knows that to avoid dying in the void, the dragon needs to be killed. he knows how to kill the dragon. his logic leads him to a very clear conclusion, and one he's absolutely certain of- but he doesn't quite account for all the factors. he doesn't realize that xornoth is another concern, and he pays for it.

fwhip, on the other hand, seems to really get people. this is actually most clear in his first act interactions with jimmy- he's fantastic at knowing exactly what buttons to push, how to needle at him until he gets the reaction he wants. it carries over to his interactions with others, too, which is what makes him such a good manipulator. he knows what makes people tick, and how, if he so chooses, to exploit that.

and his fatal flaw in the dragon battle, just like pix's, is the fact that this knowledge isn't quite enough, or he's too certain of himself without knowing the consequences. he knew exactly what to do to send jimmy into the end- he was dead certain, and right, that jimmy would walk into a trap if he thought he could get the cod head back as a result. the problem was, well... he didn't think that jimmy would be dedicated enough to kill the dragon once he was there. he knew jimmy would take the bait; he didn't know he'd follow it that far.

a final note, which i think is probably less intentional (although you never know, they're very clever writers) but is a pretty bit of poetry- the vigil and the deepslate redstone sort of mimic each other. they're both something with a power that hasn't been or can't be quite explained, but is incredibly central to their empire and their character, and they both consider themselves sort of protectors or shepherds of it, in a sense. there is also a nice visual mirror there- a dark stone and a light stone, each full of lights.

conclusion: this story is so much fun to analyze and also gunpowder boys my beloved

#WHOOO that was a long one #pixlriffs #fwhip #empires smp #empiressmp #empiresmp #esmp #empiresblr #empires smp analysis #mcyt #rain chatter

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quibbs126 · 1 year

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You know, I might as well throw my hat in the ring when it comes to what Ovenbreak Dragons I think will appear/be playable in Kingdom

First off, I don’t think all of them will be put into Kingdom, Longan especially. From the way I understand things, the good guys are going to the dragons to recruit them into helping against Dark Enchantress. Longan is an antagonist by themselves, and they’re very clearly shown to have no love for Cookies. Bringing them in is just guaranteeing another big antagonist when we should be dealing with DE. Even if by some miracle Longan chooses to help against Dark Enchantress, you know as soon as she’s dealt with, Longan would enact their plan, and I assume they’d want to end their main story with you know, an ending. As in we have time to bask in the fact that it’s over and there can be peace. You wouldn’t really get that with Longan, so I think they’re just gonna stay in Ovenbreak, at least for a good long while

And on a similar note, Lychee I think also has low chances, because again, they can be seen as an antagonist with little care for Cookies. Yes possibly by the end of whatever story they begrudgingly agree to help, but we see that so far, Lychee has basically enthusiastically sided with Longan instead, so it feels unnecessary to even bother

Ananas I think has the best chance of being added (especially as I doubt they’ll only have one Ovenbreak Dragon join). The Tropical Soda Islands have already been established in Kingdom, and we see they have some level of compassion for Cookies, particularly the ones of their island, even if only because they praise and worship them. If Ananas sees Dark Enchantress as a threat to their islands, they probably would help out the Ancients. Not to mention, of the other dragons, they’re the only other one to precede Kingdom’s release, meaning they have the most likely chance of already being part of the planned story. While sure, that doesn’t necessarily mean the others aren’t planned parts of the lore and story, there’s a chance the writers of Kingdom didn’t have the knowledge to properly work them in (granted they could always have added them in to later drafts of the story, not everything has to have been planned out in advance. Am I making sense here? I dunno)

Also honestly, as far as I’m aware, it’d be easiest to recruit Ananas, because other than wanting the inhabitants of the Tropical Soda Islands to worship and praise them, and give them offerings, they don’t seem too villainous. And I mean, the inhabitants seem perfectly fine and happy doing so, and are in no way starving or destitute (writing this I realize Ananas and Golden Cheese sound very similar. Hm). I mean sure, Lotus doesn’t seem too far behind, but Ananas seems a bit higher on the moral scale, even if they are a bit of an ass

Anyways speaking of Lotus, honestly I’m genuinely not sure. I don’t know if the Lotus Paradise exists in Earthbread, since we don’t see it on the World Map like Dragon’s Valley. Granted that map could easily be outdated; after all the Creme Republic isn’t there and we know it exists. There’s also the fact that Lotus came after Kingdom’s release, which could mean that they weren’t planned to be in it, but that’s a potentially negligible point, since again, they don’t have to have everything planned out right at the beginning. But another reason I think they might not is that they have a lot of prominence now in the Ovenbreak story, leading the charge against Longan, and so that may mean they want to keep Lotus to just Ovenbreak, I’m not sure. But also it’s not ludicrous to include Lotus in Kingdom, with them having a similar plot line of trying to keep DE away from their domain, plus then you could have a trio with them, Pitaya and Ananas. But then again, it could run the risk of sounding to similar to the Ananas plot line, I’m not sure. In conclusion, I don’t know

But with that being said, I’m sure that they’ll add Kingdom original dragons to the game. If there were only 2-3, you could just make them Legendary, but given they’re their own Rarity, I’d imagine they’d make more. Plus they’ve made their own Legendaries, why not have their own Dragons? I mean I’m almost convinced the North and South Dragons will in some way be playable, and it’d be an interesting way to expand in the lore we know

#cookie run #cookie run kingdom #cookie run ovenbreak #dragon cookies #longan dragon cookie #lychee dragon cookie #ananas dragon cookie #lotus dragon cookie #speculation #theory

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indecisive-behaviors · 3 years

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Originally I was just going to add this as a reblog to my previous post about the parking lot scene in KK2 but it’s almost 2k words so now it’s getting it’s own post. Be forewarned- this is fucking long.

TW for discussion of PTSD, child abuse, neglect, injury, and death, in relation to topics surrounding the show, under the cut-

Obviously, Cobra Kai is a show based around the premise of “what happened to that Lawrence kid after he got kicked in the face?”, which is honestly a pretty cool idea for a show. Johnny’s story is never explained past sitting on the sidewalk with his head in his hands at the tournament, and there are no real context clue’s to figure out what may or may not have happened.

In the show we get to learn early on that Johnny’s life spiraled after the tournament, going from bad to worse to “holy shit how are you still alive”-dropping out/never going to college, working jobs he seems to hate, becoming an alcoholic, presumably many dead end relationships, and not being there for his kid. And yeah, obviously, this would be a hard pill to swallow for anyone watching the show if Johnny had just lost the tournament. If we never got the scene in KK2, he would have just been some kid who lost a tournament- we see at the end of the first movie that(through tears holy shit Billy) that Johnny is the one who gives the trophy to Daniel with his famous line, “You’re alright, LaRusso.” There’s a level of grudging respect in that moment that isn’t lost on anyone who sees that movie- that Johnny, who throughout the movie only sees Daniel as some whimpy kid, gets proven wrong and respects that. If we didn’t have that scene, there’s reason to believe Johnny would have apologized, tried to make amends, Something, even if it was just being less of a dick at school.

But then, we get the parking lot. We get a far off shot, intended to distance you from the scene, framed over Daniel’s shoulder. This makes sense, Daniel is the main character, the protagonist, the underdog hero- why wouldn’t it be framed in his perspective? But the scene is about Johnny. We get the shouting match, the back and forth- “No, you’re the loser man.”- and again it’s fairly obvious how Johnny sees this situation. This is a man who we assume(and is later confirmed) to be a surrogate father figure, who set his friend up for failure, and then basically forced him to do the same by targeting an injured opponent, and forcing him to fight without honor. This same man presumably follows a teenager out to the parking lot, to harass him, to tell him he’s off the team, to tell him he’s a loser, that he’s nothing.

But at that point, Johnny knows the truth, even if subconsciously. At the end of the day Johnny knows that Daniel LaRusso was a worthy opponent, and that regardless of the cheating and manipulation, Daniel could have won anyway, and did win, despite of it.

And then Kreese grabs him, too fast to react to, Johnny too surprised even knowing that Kreese is the bad guy here, not believing that he would ever willingly hurt him- and Johnny isn’t strong enough to fight him off, none of the boys are, so Johnny is forced to suffocate for almost a full 30 seconds(which I double checked for the record- also as a reference, 30 seconds is about the average time it takes for a person voluntarily holding their breath to pass out- this does not account for the oxygen lost during a struggle, and the lack of preparation from both surprise and panic. The only silver lining here is the fact that Kreese was most likely compressing his windpipe, not his jugular, which would have made him pass out in about 5-10 seconds, and would have caused permanent brain damage or death in about 15).

Now, PTSD is a complex thing. I’m not a psychiatrist, and what small amount of information we have is all we have to work off of, but I feel fairly comfortable in saying Johnny mostly likely developed it after the incident. This not an uncommon take in the fandom as far as I’m aware either. But, if we assume this, we also have to assume that after the fact nothing would have been done about this. Not just in the sense that we still don’t really know everything that happened right after the tournament, but that in the early 80s, PTSD wasn’t really a thing yet.

Sure it was absolutely a condition that existed, but Post Traumatic Stress Disorder wasn’t even added to the DSM-III until 1980- and for a long time afterward, was only seen as a condition that affected primarily war vets. Even after an event as traumatic as having a man you considered a father trying to kill you, in public, without remorse, would not have been seen as something to warrant the diagnoses, let alone treatment.

Johnny Lawrence was 17 when Kreese tried to kill him, and this boy would have been offered no resources beyond filing charges with the police. And as we see in KK3, either this didn’t happen either, or someone(presumably Silver) got the charges dropped. So on top of almost being murdered, Johnny had to live with the fact that the man who did that to him was still out there, and to top it off, still ran a dojo at least for a few months after the event. The only relief he could have gotten is after Kreese faked his death.

And sure, Mr Miyagi may have gotten Kreese to let go eventually, but as several people have pointed out in comments and tags, left him and the other boys alone with Kreese still standing there in the parking lot and just... drove off. Kreese has already been established to be a psycho with no problem hurting children, a little bit of glass might not have prevented him from trying again.

So why did I talk about all of that? Because it all contributes to why Daniel LaRusso works as a credible antagonist in season 1 of Cobra Kai.

Think about this- Johnny blames losing everything on Daniel in season 1, but we specifically get a shot in KK1 and later KK2(”You’re alright, LaRusso” and “I did my best” come to mind) where he seems to be at least mostly accepting of the fact that he lost(with what was actually an illegal kick but that’s a rant for another time). So why does he blame him for everything 30 years later?

Because 30 years later, Johnny is forced to go outside, go to work, and pretend like he doesn’t see what feels like every street corner(including right outside his apartment mind you), a literal billboard sized reminder of what happened to him.

The rest of this is mostly speculation but it makes sense in my head so bear with me.

When we get introduced to Robby, it’s made pretty clear that Johnny has not been in his life for a bit. In season 2 we get Johnny’s heart to heart with Miguel, where he divulges that he missed the birth, because he spiraled after his mom’s death. This however doesn’t suggest that he stayed gone, especially knowing that it wasn’t long enough for Robby to not consider seeking out his dad. Because tacked up to the fridge, is a picture of Robby in his soccer uniform as a kid. It’s an early detail you can see in previous episodes, and says a lot about how Robby grew up. To be fair, this could have been given to him by Shannon, and not taken himself, but it’s the sport Robby’s playing that makes me question this. KK1 dedicates an entire scene to Johnny being on the soccer team in high school. Soccer, while maybe not as important to him as karate, is still part of his character. Robby does not know karate in season 1, Johnny obviously didn’t share it with him, but that doesn’t mean Johnny didn’t share anything with him.

So Johnny’s back in his kids life, maybe doing better for himself, maybe cutting back on the drinking. LaRusso Auto is already established to exist at this point but it’s in Encino, a place Johnny has no reason to go to, and probably doesn’t want to. He’s trying again and things are okay. But Robby knows enough about Daniel to know that going to him will piss off his dad. So Johnny had to have talked about him at some point. The billboards here are what’s important- they’re in the first episode, the first scene montage, Johnny draws a dick on one of them as some petty revenge.

The first billboard goes up in the late 2000s to mid 2010s. Johnny sees it, maybe he has Robby with him at the time, maybe he goes home and says something there, but he says something in a way that sticks with even a child as being important. More billboards go up. Dealerships starting popping up more and more. Daniel’s face, and by extension, the memories, the flashbacks, become inescapable. Johnny, for a third time, spirals again. Before he even knows what’s happening, he’s lost his relationship with his son. And it’s all Daniel’s fault. Of course Daniel doesn’t do it deliberately, but the constant reminders are enough to send him back into a tailspin and Johnny blames him for it.

Because it’s Daniel who is a constant reminder of his failures- it’s Daniel who caused him to lose the tournament and almost get killed, Daniel who put up the billboards that trigger his flashbacks, it’s always Daniel Daniel Daniel.

And then Johnny gets it in his head that he wants to be better. He opens a dojo, teaches Miguel and the other kids, wants to try again- and he almost succeeds.

Johnny up to this point has not deliberately antagonized Daniel in any way. Sure he named the dojo Cobra Kai, but Cobra Kai is all he knows. Besides Johnny doesn’t blame karate for his failures, his best memories are Cobra Kai and he’s trying to be better than Kreese. So what’s the harm in this really? His building is in Reseda, there’s no reason for Daniel to ever be there, he doesn’t do it out of spite, it’s because he lives there and rent is cheap. He doesn’t know about KK3, doesn’t know about Daniel’s own trauma. This isn’t an attack. Johnny sincerely just doesn’t know.

Enter Daniel, stage left. Daniel makes no attempt to talk to him- he simply makes demands and accusations, before he starts making active attempts to put him out of business.

Sure, we as the audience know Daniel has good reasons to not want Cobra Kai back. But Johnny doesn’t. All Johnny knows is that the kid he picked on in high school- who won, who got everything Johnny wanted, who grew up to be successful, has a wonderful wife, two kids who love him, a thriving business- is doing everything he can to make his life hell 30 years after the fact.

And this could only have happened because in 1986 John G. Avildsen decided to add in a scene meant for the original movie into the sequel, for absolutely no fucking reason.

#meta analysis #ranting about cobra kai cuz I can #johnny lawrence #daniel larusso #cobra kai #karate kid #I will never get over the fact that that was an actual scene that they filmed #and then got no resolution #FOR 30 YEARS #I apologize to everyone for this post #obviously I have a lot of feelings about this

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lucemferto · 3 years

Note

I'm actually so curious. Which things would you specifically change about the Doomsday event? What do you think would've made it much better/more impactful for the overall narrative? /gen

This is a lot to ask of a man who just woke up. But I’ll try my best.

Now, the problems with Doomsday are mostly deeply structural. They’re problems with Tommy’s story and Techno’s story and Philza’s story and the Butcher Army’s story. So, if we really wanted it to be this morally grey issue that the narrative is convinced (?) it is, then we would have to rewrite a large part of S2 - basically everything that’s not the exile.

If we want to go for the “least fixes necessary”-route - the easiest way to fix up Doomsday - then there’s one giant glaring thing: Have Technoblade feel bad.

Now, any stray Technoblade-fans reading this, hear me out! I have my reasons!

One of the most egregious problems that Doomsday has is its horridly confused mood. This comes mostly from the completely different tones of the Technoblade-side and the L’Manburg-side. Techno is elated, happy, giddy even – the L’Manburg-side is downtrodden, they have lost all hope, they’re at the end of their rope.

Narratively speaking – looking at the Three-Act-Structure, which is highly applicable here – this is L’Manburg’s lowest point. And looking at the larger narrative of S2 – beginning to end – this also coincides with the Lowest Point of the larger narrative. Because of this we, the viewers, come to understand the L’Manburg-crew as the protagonists of S2, because the dramatic structure of the season mirrors the dramatic structure of their personal stories.

Now, there are characters that are happy during the Lowest Point – but they’re usually the villains. And we don’t want Technoblade to be the villain, because prior to that – through the Butcher Army event – he’s been framed as righteous in his anger.

The solution here is to also have Techno experience his Lowest Point during the Lowest Point of the larger narrative. He looks at the destruction; he hears Dream – autocratic villain extraordinaire – gloating about how he has won, how no one will be able to stand against him anymore, he sees people like Ghostbur, Tubbo and Tommy grieving and begins to realize that he hasn’t just hurt a government he has hurt people.

(Combined with that, drop Quackity from Doomsday – he doesn’t need to be here and he would muddy the waters as the most overt antagonistic presence besides of Dream. Also, it doesn’t contribute to his story-arc in the slightest)

(Also, have Niki and Fundy delay their villain arc – again, muddies the waters).

A lot of Techno-fans have been telling me in the comments under my YouTube-video, that the main conflict for Techno in S2 is pacifism vs violence. And I see where they come from, but the problem is that it really isn’t a conflict or an arc.

How it goes is: Technoblade is pacifistic – he gets the most convenient excuse to be as violent as possible – he is as violent as possible – his S2-story ends.

There is no sense of any thematic conflict or even character development. It’s very A, B, C with barely any connective tissue or a “dramatic discussion” aka scenes where either the characters or the narrative or both try to formulate a thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

Again, the easiest fix here – though you lose a lot of potential nuance, but again, we’re going for the least necessary changes – is to have Technoblade look at the destruction he wrought and think back to when he was committed to pacifism. He realises that he has become the person he wanted to leave behind, that he has become his worst self. It’s very similar to Tommy’s arc in S2, but that’s because stuff like this works – it’s basic rules of character arcs and storytelling.

(Combined with that, you could also have a story beat, where he tries to talk with the people he saved from the government – you know, Niki or HBomb – and have them be afraid of him, treat him like a monster and a weapon, because of what he has done. Oh, look! Now the incredibly sloppy dehumanization-conflict for Techno is an actual conflict – also good set-up for the syndicate. Techno realizes that you catch more flies with honey and formulates the idea to polish up the image of anarchy).

So, this is my most basic rewrite of Doomsday – again, this loses a lot of the moral ambiguity that S2 goes for and fails to do successfully. But if we wanted to achieve that, we would have to do some major rewrites for the entire S2-storyline and that’s a bit much for me right now.

Of course, even this simple rewrite for Doomsday would have ramifications for the story events that come after. We can’t just leave Technoblade in his Lowest Point – so ideally, he would take part in the S2-Finale. Probably help Tommy to take out Dream – maybe he and Tubbo have a heart-to-heart where they discuss their differences, who knows?

But you only asked for a Doomsday-fix and that’s all you’re gonna get.

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itsnothingofinterest · 3 years

Text

So with the end supposedly approaching (relatively speaking), people have started giving some thought as to who the final threat is really going to be; Tomura Shigaraki or All For One. It’ll definitely be one of them, they’re the strongest and most established villains by a mile; but both have their own reasons for people to think they’ll be the “final boss” of the series. And far be it from me to keep my opinion to myself; I really think it’s going to be Tomura.

I’m not sure if that’s some level of controversial among the fans hoping for Shigaraki’s redemption, as I do believe the alternative’s gotten a lot of traction lately. Because understand that I’m still expecting his redemption too, and don’t expect his hypothetical final boss status to really prevent that. (Practically nothing can, it’s as much a guaranteed outcome at this point as Deku getting his sixth bonus quirk.) Realistically, the only difference would be if he & Deku then team up to fight the evil potato head, or to...just start fixing stuff I guess.

On that note, the eventual redemption is actually one of the reasons I think he’s the better choice. Almost every point of comparison between the two villain I can think of makes Tomura seem like the better choice, actually...with maybe one or two exceptions. So I wanted to go over all those points of comparison & everything they’ve got going for them as endgame villains and why the comperrisons overall seem to favour Tomura as the final boss.

1. Someone who was defeated to the power of just one man

For one, just looking at pure power levels, AFO’s just not as threatening as Tomura; and there’s not really a way to bridge that gap.

Like, Tomura’s obviously more of a threat personally; he’s got the stronger body that was scientifically enhanced, and only he has Decay on top of the AFO quirk and the collection that came with it. It is just a fact that right now, Tomura is far more powerful. And before anyone thinks that AFO could become an equal threat by just taking over & fighting in his body; that’s not true because, along with just more combat experience that doesn’t rely on an arsenal of quirks, Tomura also has that Shimura trick where you remember your origin and become super bad ass. You know, the trick that All Might used to beat AFO in Kamino. In other words, the most dangerous individual in the series right now is the AFO!Tomura body with specifically Tomura in control.

And as long as the slight edge in mentality in Tomura’s favour exists, there’s not really a way to bridge that gap and have AFO take Tomura’s place as the biggest potential threat. Restore or enhance AFO’s original body? That’s just catching it up with AFO in Tomura’s body, which is still behind Tomura in Tomura’s body. Have AFO boost Tomura’s body with him in control? It would still be better with Tomura in control. There’s no scenario where Tomura isn’t the most powerful character in BNHA.

(Well, except maybe AFO weakening him by, say, stripping him of his quirks; but if he has to make things easier for the heroes to become the most powerful, I think that kind of proves my point anyway.)

But one person can only be so dangerous, so lets talk followers. Tomura has a close knit group of friends & allies on top of a vast army super loyal to him specifically that reaches a six digit figure, and AFO...just doesn’t. And I’ll get back to this later; but I don’t think he wants one either. He sticks to just a handful of people useful to him and what’s left of his Nomu. And while maybe that is the better way for him to accomplish his own personal goals, it’s simply not as threatening as the force which Hawks thought could’ve conquered the country if the heroes hadn’t struck first.

Tomura is a country ending threat, who in the right circumstances could fight literally all of the heroes with a chance of winning, and AFO simply isn’t.

2. His own little world

And to return to what I was talking about earlier, I’m not sure he really cares to be either. Like, people say he wants to conquer everything, and I imagine he’d think regaining lots of money & power would be great down the line; but evidence seems to suggest he doesn’t really care much for the country as a whole or any of the major themes being discussed by the actual main characters at the moment.

I mean if he did, he’d probably have rescued the PLF, that army capable of competing with all of hero society. And he probably wouldn’t have told ~10,000 dangerous and powerful villains indebted to him for their freedom to just run amok while he keeps contact with only the ones useful for his personal goals. And he definitively wouldn’t be laying low & sleeping through his enemies lowest moment & giving them a month to recover, also in service to those personal goals. That activity seems to imply those personal goals matter a whole lot more to him than societal conquest.

And what are those goals? Seemingly, taking over Tomura’s body so he can finally steal One For All. To what end, we’re not 100% sure of, but I believe it’s either a) a weird pride thing where he finally has control over his brother who’s rebelled against him for decades upon decades or b) an attempt at immortality as a sentient & transferable body-controlling quirk. Either way it’s some selfish personal thing he just gets others wrapped up in.

He’s incredibly disconnected from the greater themes and conflicts of the story. He seems to have no opinions on heroics besides how people are stupid for attempting them, and no opinion on society besides that it just naturally sucks. He’s mainly just a nuisance for the actual main characters. This self-important old man stuck in his own little world is supposed to be Deku’s final opponent?

Oh, and on that note-

3. Deku who?

We’re also talking about who’s going to be the final obstacle for Deku to face; and the problem with the being AFO is that...they don’t really have much to bounce off of with each other. You might be able to argue slight foil-ment, but they don’t really know each other, nor do they have any kind of connection to each other besides Deku having OFA so he’s AFO’s enemy by default.

(In fact their latest & 2nd convo, which came out as I was drafting this post out, kind of proves that with how AFO basically just shallowly made fun of him for trying to be a hero. That’s basically the extent of their antagonism.)

In fact, I’m like 80% sure this is a major reason for the Dad For One theory existing; just to give them some connection, something to talk about. Because otherwise AFO is just an evil guy known by people Deku knows/wants to save. He’s basically just another, more dangerous Overhaul; who Deku's already fought. And to AFO, Deku’s just another OFA holder acting all high & mighty; which we also already saw him face in the Kamino fight. So what little they do offer each other has already been done for both of them. And there’s nothing wrong with that for carrying a fight, I just wonder if that can really carry the final fight.

Compare that to Shigaraki, who foils Deku in ways so numerous & obvious it’s almost hard to talk about, such as: their position as successors, strategic thinkers, very similar origins, very similar core characters, team players, red shoes, they looked really similar as kids...just to name a few parallels. Contrasting AFO, there is a lot to work with here that would contributed to a good fight that’d double as a battle of ideologies. And admittedly, we know this because it already has, this is also something we’ve seen before; but there’s a lot more unexplored with their conflict, a lot left unsaid that we could see from them arguing their viewpoints. A lot more than from Deku & AFO anyway.

I mean for Pete’s sake; All Might & Shigaraki have more in common and more to talk about than Deku & AFO. That’s a major problem if those two are meant to carry the final battle; which is why I don’t think they are.

4. Just punch him

There’s also the fact that AFO doesn’t really challenge Deku in any real way; and I’m not just talking about how All Might solo-ing him (twice) should logically mean endgame Deku should also be able to solo him. I’m more talking about how...that’s kind of all he’d need to do. If you can just beat AFO up enough then...that’s it, threat over. Wrapped up in a neat little bow.

To compare, Shigaraki is the greatest threat the heroes have ever faced, the victim most in need of saving, and to top it off, he’s got the gall to be both of those things at once. What’s a hero supposed to do with that? That’s a serious question characters are going to have to think about when deciding how to deal with Shigaraki. His position is that of, not just the greatest challenge, but a set of the greatest challenges a hero could face. And that’s before you get into his side representing those oppressed by serious systemic issues that need to be addressed as well; quite possibly simultaneously.

No one needs to address systemic corruption or prejudice to beat AFO though. They just need to punch him real hard. The biggest challenge AFO presents the heroes is “how do we make sure this guy stops being a problem for good when neither our most secure prison, nor removing his head, did the job?”

(Personally, my answer is to have Tomura do it. Because unlike Deku, Tomura actually does have a proper antagonistic relationship with AFO, so he has reason to be the one to end him besides just being the protagonist. Plus he’s under no obligation not to kill, so there’s that.)

And like yeah, that does make AFO the easier guy to deal with, and thus write an ending around (to say nothing of how he's also the most satisfying person to see punched in the face); but does that really mean Horikoshi would want to use him instead of the more interesting option of Tomura? I mean I guess we can’t be sure, there is merit in writing the easy resolution; but I’d prefer the complex finale if I were in his shoes.

5. Horikoshi’s favourite

And lastly there’s just the issue of which of the two Horikoshi’s put more work into. Spoiler alert: it’s not the guy that spent like 200 chapters in jail being menacing every one in a while.

Tomura is by far the more developed between the two, having constantly evolved over the course of the series. And more than just as a character, as described above he’s been developed as the more threatening and challenging conflict for Deku while also reflecting him in a lot of important ways. We’ve seen the growth of his power & influence, we’ve gotten to know & understand his motives, we’ve seen how he’s been failed by heroes before. Everything about him has built him up as the ultimate villain, the most desperate victim, and overall greatest challenge for Deku and the story as a whole to face.

And AFO is...nearly one of those things. Which is pretty much what he was from his first appearance. He has not developed at all over the series, and from what we can tell from his flashbacks, he hasn’t developed at all over the past ~200 years either. (I’m half tempted to call him more inciting incident then character.) What we have with AFO, as far as a character and a villain goes, is pretty much what we’re getting until he’s done. And, well; if Tomura is a better villain & a better pick for final boss than he was then, that gap’s just going to keep growing.

Like, I doubt it really needs stating how Shigaraki is probably the character Horikoshi has put the most work into in the entire series. And a lot of that work, a lot of his development, has gone to the idea of him surpassing AFO or being a villain foil to Deku, who himself is mean to surpass All Might. For his roll to be usurped by the guy he’s meant to surpass just feels like it’s going against that. Like, it’d feel almost as wrong for his character and the story around him than it would for Deku is All Might got his powers back and took over for him as main protagonist. It just doesn’t feel right for Tomura not to be the final villain, is what I’m getting at.

6. ...One saving grace

Okay, but I will admit one thing AFO has going for him that I would be remiss not to bring up. Besides being the most hated character in a series that also has Endeavor in it, I mean. He’s got this one trait that makes him an effective antagonist to anyone in the series; his complete disregard to pretty much every major theme in the series.

I mean think about it; the major themes of Shigaraki’s circle all revolve around trying to fix the society that rejected them; but AFO believes Society just naturally sucks that way as part of human nature, so their cause is doomed. And the heroes’ major themes all revolve around how to become/what it means to be a hero; but AFO believes trying to do good in that society can’t really be done & also it’s ridiculous to believe comic books are real, so their cause is also doomed and they look stupid doing it. So despite not really interacting with anyone’s core conflict or goals in favour of wrapping them up in his own, he still manages a one-sided ideological opposition with nearly every major player in the series; and that’s not nothing.

But, and I completely understand that this is just a matter of opinion, that kind of just leaves him feeling to me like a good antagonist, not a good final antagonist. I’d still prefer it be Tomura even from this perspective, because he’s able to oppose the ideologies of his opponents on purpose & with proper ideologies of his own.

To summarize:

Shigaraki feels the better choice for final boss because he’s more threatening, more interesting, both as a person and as an opponent for Deku specifically, he’s far more directly tied into the themes of the story and their resolution, & he’s had far more set up. AFO is more hated, and his callous disregard for everything everyone else holds important is something I guess, but that’s pretty much all he’s got going for him in compression. I don’t know about you, but I know who I think would carry the conclusion to the series better.

But I also know this isn’t the most popular take among my villain fan colleagues right now. So if anyone disagrees, I welcome any civil discussion about these two & their viability as final boss.

#bnha #bnha manga spoilers #all for one #shigaraki tomura #midoriya izuku #league of villains #lov #paranormal liberation front #PLF #all might #my stupid long term predictions

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bakujho · 4 years

Text

A rant about some shady eels...

Let’s talk about Floyd and Jade… like really talk about them. I see a lot of things that paint them in a very different light than they’re presented in canon and I’m not sure if their character is just being missed all together, or it’s been collectively decided by the fandom that they’re too shady so lets all pretend they’re cute, kind, and cuddly… or something.

Cause reading and rereading the cards really drives home the disconnect between the majority of fandom eels vs canon eels and it drives me fucking nuts. So where do I start with this? I guess we can start at the ‘please actually read the stories that have the eels in them’. Pretty low bar, but here we are. Read the main story. Then the event stories. Then every card story they’re present in. Twstarchives has a list of who appears in what story and that makes it REAL easy. If y’all have read the stories and still wanna disagree with what I’ve got to say, I’m happy to discuss. Also, If you’re cool with OOC eels, feel free to continue on and enjoy the content how you will.

I think imma have to start with Jade cause I see SO much of him being the perfect butler and gentleman, which of course he is, but it’s always missing the underlying cunning. Jade isn’t a docile little slave following orders because he enjoys it. He likes people watching, and doesn’t like when people pay attention to him. How better to go about unnoticed than to stand beside someone like Floyd or Azul who draw attention to themselves simply by existing? He’s almost always planning *something* it’s just not always clear what, and has made it clear that people are easier to manipulate if they trust you.

Jade likes chaos just as much as Floyd does, he’s just better at maintaining his composure about it, which makes him a better architect for it. The poise and grace is an act in order to completely charm and manipulate. That’s why him and Floyd are a team, they’re like the good cop bad cop, both out to get you, but have very different parts to play. His voice lines make it really obvious that he’s got a running interest in causing problems too, “...I would never say that. Yes, ‘I’ wouldn’t”, “Whenever I see someone heavily concentrating on something, I get the urge to start talking to them...”, “...I simply enjoy anything that entertains me” etc etc Him and Floyd both enjoy playing with people, and watching them struggle.

Let’s talk some Jade facts:

Observant as fuck

Manages to pull one over on Vil, who KNOWS Jade is up to something, but still isn’t able to figure out what.

Tells off Floyd for threatening the students too early...and reminds him that they’re much easier to manipulate if they trust you first.

Has dirt on LITERALLY every student in the school

Has ZERO problems exploiting Floyd for Azul to fulfil his contract (contrary to the ‘they are inseparable and never fight’ line of thought)

Blackmail is an eels best friend.

Happily dishes out backhanded compliments

Utterly willing (and probably very ready) to completely destroy someone if he felt the need to.

Now, Floyd is a bit harder to get a read on because his moods flip so easily, but I always feel like he’s portrayed as too childish, too stupid, and too passive. One of our first introductions to Floyd in his SSR is him telling Jade threatening people with words takes too long and it’s SO MUCH EASIER TO JUST BREAK THEIR BONES. Gentle reminder, that literally every single instance Floyd has said he’s going to squeeze someone it has been a THREAT. It’s been shown MULTIPLE times that the other students are terrified of getting on his bad side, he picks fights with people constantly, and he literally harasses people for fun . Floyd is “the muscle” of Octavinelle, and doesn’t bother with all the planning and scheming like Jade, he’s much quicker to violence and clearly loves the thrill of the chase. He’s going to have fun, and it’s very likely at your expense.

Floyd says on multiple occasions that he does whatever he thinks is fun, and no one can control his moods. Azul and Jade both get annoyed when he starts being a brat, but still can’t control him to do anything that he doesn’t want to do when he’s in said mood. He’s shown multiple times to simply do what he thinks is fun, fuck everyone else and what they’re trying to do. Who cares if basketball club doesn’t mean dodgeball club, he wants to play dodgeball, so get out of the way or you’re getting hit with a ball. The end. There’s no controlling what he does, and he’s not likely to sit and play nice with anyone for hours on end because that’s BORING. All he does he does because it’s fun, and the second he gets bored of something he’s off to do the next thing. He doesn’t like following orders and has been shown getting hostile after being told what to do by “humans”, and doesn’t even follow directions in classes because it’s boring. I can literally not stress enough that Floyd does what Floyd wants, fuck everyone else.

So here’s some quick floyd facts:

will do what he wants, every single time.If it’s boring, he’s done with it.

is brilliant… if he feels like putting in the work

can be kind...if he’s in the right mood

enjoys playing with people and watching them struggle

doles out threats like they’re candy

has said Azul looks delicious in Octopus form twice (reminder both him and Jades favourite food is octopus)

Okay, so we’ve determined that both the twins like to play with people in their own ways, but what about their relationship with each other and Azul? They’re obviously very close, but not without issues. Floyds mood swings still frustrate Jade and Jade’s compliments often come off as antagonistic to Floyd to the point he picks fights with him. It says that they chose to live together, and are both glad of it cause they each keep things interesting...Which is where their relationship with Azul comes in. They say they knew OF him as children, but didn’t really take an interest in him until middle school and decided to stick with him because he was interesting. Floyd says a lot of things to do with the Coral Sea is boring, so I suspect an ambitious octopus was intriguing enough for the both of them to force their friendship on him.

...That being said, Jade doesn’t 100% trust Azul. He says he’d never be willing to give him his unique magic for any reason, cause Azul could make up any excuse to get his hands on it (Floyd of course, is much more casual with his magic and has said he could live without it so doesn’t care as much). The twins mention that they continue to stick around with him because he’s entertaining, and the second he’s no longer interesting they’ll challenge him/drop him, whichever is more beneficial to them at the time. So while the three of them seem inseparable, it really is the duo+Azul on the side, and while I personally can’t see them dropping him anytime soon, the threat is still there. (Of course, all of this could be taken as jest as well, so this is just my interpretation here)

To tie it up, I’ll leave you with the voice lines from their duo magic, in case you still thought they weren’t shady murder eels.

Floyd: “Ahahaha! We’re gonna do ‘em in, Jade~!”

Jade: “As long as you’re having fun, Floyd.”

And

Jade: May I ask that you entrust me with this today, Floyd?

Floyd: ‘Kay~ Jade. What’re you going to do~?

#twisted wonderland #twst #discourse?#octavinelle #jade leech #floyd leech #fandom out here leaving out literally half their character in stuff

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antiloreolympus · 3 years

Note

May I ask why you dislike LO? I enjoy reading the series, and there are faults in the writing (as no series is perfect) and I have my own gripes with it, but overall I just really like the myth of Hades and Persephone.

I'll admit there were things that made me uncomfortable when I first started reading it (and they still kinda do) like Persephone being a teenager while Hades is, what - 40-60ish? The timeline (of the story taking place over the course of only a few weeks, when a Lot of stuff is going on), Hera the goddess of marriage having an affair, Demeter being an overbearing mother who financially takes advantage of her daughter, some of the flashbacks (like specifically the one where a much younger Kore meets a drunken Hades and falls on top of him while naked? And its played off as a meet cute)

But thats besides the point - I'm curious as to why you don't like LO and/or the creator of it I guess?

Also your posts are showing up in the lore Olympus tag - (and I know there's probably a seperate "anti-lo" tag but I also wouldn't be surprised if angry anons came into your inbox for spamming the tag of the webcomic they like with criticism, because apparently thats what people do on this hellsite instead of just blocking). And, of course your entitled to critique the series, but I'm sure some people are not going to be happy about that. (I say this as a person who enjoys critiquing media, like netflix's spop reboot, and have had angry anons come at me before, so stay safe out there).

Also, sorry this is so long.

Heyo! And I understand

I'll take this time to get into why I don't like each character as it's one of the reasons I don't like LO as a whole:

(Some I removed because there isn't much to say about them)

Main Characters:

• Hades - Man in his Late 30s to Early 40s actively pursuing a 'teenaged girl'.... He acknowledged that this was wrong at yet pursues her anyway? Plus, he's perfectly fine with slave labor and using his power/status to get his way. His character is also inconsistent when it comes to Minthe because one minute he can stand up for himself and the next he's terrified?

• Persephone - An overly sexualized teen who acts like a child. She also killed people but it was because of a 'feeling'. She still committed murder and yet it's framed as a "well, it's not her fault" but I'm also supposed to believe this 19-20 yr old would make a great and feared queen.

• Hera - Not only does she treat the lower class like garbage but she's also a hypocrite (the affair). Plus, she just randomly goes back on her word about Hades being a creep for no reason.

• Eros - Put a girl in some random dude's car and gave her "apology donuts" as a sorry gift 😒

Antagonists:

• Minthe - She was coded with bpd which wouldn't be a bad thing if she wasn't so demonized by the story.

• Apollo - How come this dude is one of the most prevalent people in the story and we don't get a strong motive for him until season 2? Even then, we barely know anything else about him. I get the whole "well, he did this so I don't want a backstory for him" but at least give him a solid motive. One that comes from him directly.

• Thetis - One of the sweetest people gets turned into a homewrecker for no reason. Even then, people gloss over her being verbally manipulative to Minthe.

• Leto - Also verbally manipulative to her daughter. How comes RS decided to demonize the goddess of motherhood, too? There's really no justifiable reason for that.

Others:

• Hecate - Also switched up about Hades and Persephone. Let's not forget her hitting Hades 3 times and him having to tell her to stop.

• Artemis - I get letting her brother in the house but Eros and Hermes? That's just inconsistency right there.

• Demeter - Got demonized for the 5973th time 😔🤚

• Aphrodite - Also rude to the lower class but it makes more sense as she's Aphrodite. Still rude af though.

• Hermes - Man got mad at Thanatos for "messing with his money" as if he didn't cover the whole thing up with Demeter

• Hestia + Athena - Just hypocrites and the fact that they're supposed to be (aro)ace goddesses.

• Ares - He and Persephone also made out when she was 18 and I assume he was way, way older. Plus, him simping for Persephone in front of Aphrodite was an odd move.

• Hephaestus - This issue has more to do with RS's writing because how the hell did he hack Apollo's phone from Persephone's sim card alone and why is that just never explained?

• Daphne - Excusing nepotism as if Thanatos doesn't work in the same place as Persephone

Now, onto the story:

Its pacing is slow but also extremely fast for what it is. Everything (excluding flashbacks) has taken place over the course of 2-3 weeks. Persephone literally gets SA'd the day after the party. But then you have to think about how Persephone and Hades are probably going to get married like a month after their second meeting. We haven't even gotten to the trial yet and it feels like we never will with how slow everything is. LO honestly isn't made to be like a regular webtoon, it's made to be binged like a Netflix show or something. That would be fine but I can tell from interviews that it wasn't RS's intentions.

Also, RS herself? Yeah, don't really vibe with what she says a good portion of the time

I'll show some examples:

Not all of them are bad, just very weird

Besides the wonky art, she does have potential but LO doesn't really show her skill. Hopefully, she does learn from this comic though.

About the hate, I honestly don't care that much anymore as it really doesn't change much. I respond but only because I find it funny/entertaining when someone tries to tells me what to do with my own freetime.

#anti lo #anti lore olympus #lo critical #lore olympus critical

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rataltouille · 3 years

Text

GEOMETRY OF THE HOLY MOON (1 AM): A SHORT STORY

GENRE: surrealism, literary fiction.

POV & TENSE: this little space is not enough for how wild the form is so i talk about this later!!

SETTING: a small desi village, 1924-25.

TONE: dreamy, unsettling, melancholic.

THEMES: faith vs reality, how people perceive others and how they perceive themselves, grief dealt the wrong way.

AESTHETICS: the splash of water on a quiet night, thick clouds obscuring the sky, rippling the moon’s reflection on the water. the intensity of a garden in spring, the emptiness of a dying town, the suffocation from being singled out. hands grazing lightly but never fully held. a lingering sadness behind your laugh. believing in things you shouldn't believe in. putting faith on a starless sky.

STAGE: completed first draft, 4085 words.

LOGLINE: a young boy, surrounded by loss, claims to talk to god. the story follows him and his conversations with this god, all while his village spies on him as he weaves his way around the two most crucial and lonely years of his life.

LITERAL LOGLINE: on today’s news let’s talk about a small backward town that hates sad little boys who worship god, even though the place is lowkey a cult!!

CHARACTERS:

THE SUMMER BOY: he’s around thirteen, and he’s very emotionally attached to his past. he lost his family at a young age to an unstable force, so he spends his time talking to himself. he’s a quiet, demure and sweet person, always willing to help others. he’s outwardly oblivious and sees only the good in people to a point where he doesn't understand when they’re trying to do him wrong. but! considering how the story [like a lot of my others] has themes of perception vs reality, it needs to be said that he isn't all that innocent. he’s rather impulsive and rash, never afraid of hurting himself [and thus accidentally harming others].

A GOD: is he real? do we even know if he’s an actual god? a very elusive figure despite having a lot of screentime. he’s a surprisingly humanised character and arguably the one with the most empathy. he has a soft spot for the boy and the two have a deep bond which is not common for a human and a god to have. you don’t get insight to what the other gods are like, but they’re implied to exist. this story has a very messy and hazy view towards religion and godhood and their nature towards humanity, and this vague figure, a dreamlike character, is proof enough of that.

THE VILLAGE: okay so in general these people suck. the village consists of, well, the village, but they’re very fluid in the way they appear in the story? as in for the most part they appear as a collective, a unit. one character, the summer boy’s “friend”, is somewhat separate considering he’s a pretty important character. it’s very hard describing this unit of a character but essentially they’re the main antagonistic force and they hate the protagonist for seemingly no reason.

WHAT GOES DOWN:

sometime around this time, the boy chances upon meeting his “god”, this being who lives up in the clouds and whom he talks with often, except you don't know if this god is real or not. that’s one of the recurring themes of this story: what’s real and what isn’t. it’s :) a fun time :) for sure :)

essentially Things Happen And It Only Gets Weirder. i cannot even try describing what happens because it’s all very spoilery but let’s just say that this is a very sad story but not even in a “this makes me cry” manner, but rather in a “this is so fucked up wtf why”. the prose of this is very, very hazy and thick, in a manner that’s both smooth and suffocating. there’s also a lot of moon and water imagery which we love. i love the atmosphere + the setting—colonial india— as it’s a subtle but key element to the plot.

FORM:

OKAY YES be prepared for the true colours of how unhinged i am. i apologize for the form brainrot.

POV: so in this story i really said “what if it had all three of the main povs... jk jk... unless 😳😳” and then proceeded to use all three povs. you’re probably wondering, how did i do that? WHY did i do that? and my answer to that is: 🙂

the first-person pov: the summer boy narrates in first person. his pov takes up about 40% of the story, and this is where we unlock family backstory + how he feels about the various forces playing into his life. he’s an extremely unreliable narrator and he knows it; his narration oscillates between very naive and very self-aware, and this effect is pretty disconcerting. the summer boy is kind of a walking contradiction and we love that conflict.

the second-person pov: a god narrates in second person. his pov takes around 20% of the story, and his scenes all involve his conversations with the boy. his pov is extremely detached, and suspends belief because he seems awfully made up. there’s an edge to the prose in his narration, where you know that something's off, but you can’t exactly pinpoint what.

the third-person pov: the villagers narrate, either as a collective, or as an individual figure, in third person. they take up the other 40% of the story, and there are so many different people and differing opinions with this, and every time we read a third person excerpt it’s a different person, and this is mostly used to add onto the different ways in which the boy is perceived. this is also where the structural part of the form gets really wacky.

STRUCTURE: if my story isn't told in vignettes is it my story though /j. gothm is told in vignettes, each one between 50 to 500 words. the first and second person bits are normal-ish vignettes, with straightforward narration. the third person vignettes, on the other hand, are super assorted. we have a lot of epistolaric sections— there’s a letter, a folk song [which was found around the summer boy], and most of the conversation is told as just plain dialogue without tags. there’s also a phone call transcript, and finally some normal chunks of prose. what am i doing wtf.

also to add onto this the story is told non-linearly. 😀 the only thing that keeps me from going insane is the fact that there are chronological tags before most vignettes [also the manner in which they're tagged differs from pov to pov. for example a few of the third person conversations are marked just as “sunday” or “thursday”, while the summer boy’s narration is marked with the full date and year]

in all this clownery i completely forgot to mention what the tense was [the way everything else was so complicated that i forgot tense was a thing lmao] and good news!! it’s the only sane thing about this story!! it’s told fully in present tense. thank everything.

AN EXCERPT:

okay i’m once again not sharing much because this will be submitted to litmags 🧞

[The boy is scrawny as always. He carries an air of diswant— even death had rejected him when the plague killed only his grandmother— but walks like he doesn’t notice. He smiles at them, jitters, and wipes his hand across his knees. Blood comes away in thin, translucent lines. He saves it on the kerchief he keeps tucked in his shirt, careful to dirty the cloth even more. The villagers scrunch their noses in disgust; who knew how old and rotten the kerchief was, or how long it had carried blood like the unwashed sword of a warrior?]

also by the way this excerpt is in square brackets because it is a third-person interjection in a vignette that is otherwise first-person [at this point...]

SPARE THOUGHTS:

this was inspired by a conversation i had with my grandfather, where he was telling me about how people used to sing songs to the skies, as a way of devotion to a specific god. he used the [loose translation of] the english word “yearning” to refer to the emotion the singers would invoke, and that sparked the concept of a disillusioned young boy who talks to the moon as a way to please the god he’s in love with. it’s a very softly disconcerting story and once again deals with the theme of “perception vs reality” which if you know me and my work, is the theme i’m forever obsessed with.

i really like how this turned out? the atmosphere is exactly how i wanted it to be, and there’s so much i have to add on as i edit and i’m really looking forward to that. this is also the only short story i’ve written where i knew which litmag i’d love for it to be published in? like i never write things with publishing in mind, but for some reason while writing this story it occurred to me that it would be a perfect fit for this specific magazine and i love that. anyway if you’ve made it through the post till here,,,, bless you and your braincells. and that’s all for today!!

#am writing #writeblr #wtwcommunity #atlastracking #ofcolourtracking #crabappletracking #tw death #tw plague #tw blood #the way this post gets increasingly incomprehensible...#love how my blog has just descended into pure chaos post-hiatus #geometry of the holy moon (1 am)#god complex #god complex intro

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