Gonna rant about Anakin’s lightsaber in the rise of Skywalker here for a bit:

Anakin skywalker’s lightsaber is not only one of the most iconic things in the franchise, but it’s original loss was CRUCIAL to Luke’s character arc and the story’s progression in the OT. It was the symbol of everything Luke knew about his father, everything Luke thought his father was. And Luke lost it mere moments before Vader revealed his identity.

Lost isn’t even the right word. It was taken from him the moment the truth was staring him in the face.

It is arguably the perfect symbol to represent the OT’s story. Luke believed in this idealized past, fought for it, and that vision is shattered once he came into contact with reality. And so rather than continue to fight for the past, he now fights for the future, and decides for himself what is right and wrong.

I do not care for the sequels in general, but episode 8 understood this perfectly, which is why the saber was first thrown away by Luke, and then later destroyed by Rey and Kylo as Rey fought him to restore an idealized past version of him, while Kylo wanted to discard it and press on.

Rey rebuilding it completely ignores this, and instead has her looking back to old mentors to tell her what to do vs following her judgement. She just keeps running to the past she knew was false anyway.

Misunderstandings like this litter the whole movie and I’d talk about them but others already have so I wanted to vent why the lightsaber bit irked me.

One of my favorite Star Wars fanfic tropes is Leia absolutely refusing to acknowledge that she’s Vader’s daughter. Luke is all “he’s my dad and I love him despite everything,” meanwhile Leia would absolutely blast Vader out of existence if given the chance.

I read one official Star Wars book, which might even still be canon as it was a Clone Wars one, that said Padme and Bail Organa had crushes on each other... my eyes rolled so far instead my head

this is just the kind of mental gymnastics Leia pulls at 3am to justify calling Padmé & the Naberries her family but not Anakin

I think Tron should have been allowed to ablsootly fucking murder Dyson. As a treat

Just wrek him.

No I don't care that this was a kids show.

Can’t wait for every new Mickey Mouse thing that isn’t made by Disney to start with this,

Actually wait let me update this

I better be seeing HUNDREDS of 1928s Mickey Mouse based writing, crafting and art published, released and Etsy-listed today, folks. And tag. Disney. Everywhere.

HOWEVER

Lawful chaotic time, folks. Don't get sued. Use your power wisely.

This was my mood for like all of s1 and most of s2 until he sold out the witch baby that the demons had.

Then he got recast and that jealous sibling energy just died I’m sorry new guy is doing his best but I can’t with it.

watching A Discovery Of Witches be like:

I think I’ve figured out the secret sauce that makes the Eminence in Shadow so fun to watch in spite of the female objectification. (for me specifically I’m not speaking for anyone else) It’s that the main character is this overconfident, narcissist, power fantasy,

that loses.

Oh sure, everything works out in the end for everyone else, but Cid doesn’t always get what he wants. Especially in s2. Twice now he’s had these get rich quick schemes that leave him with substantially less than what he wanted, or straight up nothing cuz in episode 7 he walks away right before Delta found the basket.

Now granted he doesn’t always lose, a lot of the fun of s1 was seeing him pull off this crazy shit, but it’s nice that it’s possible. Also his personality in general has a lot more to it than 90% of these guys. But I like that even tho it all works out in the end, he’s too much of a dumbass to notice and also, doesn’t get what he wants how he wanted it.

I was a massive neo fan for years because I liked her personality, I thought her fighting style was cool, and I thought if she ever came back she would give rwby a run for their money. And while all that was true, the execution left much to be desired. Because the writers have admitted neo was never meant to come back, the plot hole of “why didn’t she just go after Ruby on her own during v4 and 5?” Was of course, never addressed. And I remember the fun it was theorizing that she was just following Roman’s guidance by going after Cinder, cuz it was her fault Roman was in a position to get eaten by a grim in the first place. (Roman gave that big speech in v2 about going after the people in control and that they’re to blame for faunus’ lot in life could’ve easily been applied to Neo going after Cinder)

And the smirk after she shook Cinder’s hand made me and so many others think Neo was planning a double cross.

But alas, nope.

She really did just want Ruby dead.

All the intrigue just fizzled away. And she literally lost all of her character when Ruby “died.”

My girl was turned into a plot device.

Oh well. At least now that she’s dead and the show is all but confirmed cancelled they can’t ruin her further.

Follow up to my twau theory that it was legit Faith at the start of the game, we need to talk about the magic mirror.

When you learn Faith’s name, you can’t see Faith in the magic mirror, with the mirror repeating the “these lips are sealed,” and saying that powerful magic hides her.

Initially I thought this meant that if you were under the ribbon spell you were hidden, however on the replay I found out if you ask the magic mirror where Lily is before you go look at the body, it says the same thing. “These lips are sealed.” It’s not the ribbon spell, it’s the Glamour. It doesn’t just change your appearance, depending on the spell it can actually hide you from others until it’s broken. Even if you’re dead.

Meaning if the magic mirror was saying that in chapter 1, then the head Snow found on the steps wasn’t Faith’s.

Period.

The real Faith was glamoured.

So I put it to you all,

Faith was alive the entire game, just disguised as Narissa.

Faith caused the fight with the Woodsman to eventually get Bigby to free her.

Watches Haunted Mansion 2023 with friends: Yeah that was alright. Product placement was insane though, took away from the serious scenes. Also it was too dark. Like literally could not see much.

Immediately watches the 2003 version with the same friends: omg that was way better, you can actually see what’s happening, the mansion set is amazing, it’s funny, and it was weirdly wholesome. The jumpscares got us good too.

My big takeaway from the experience is that the new movie suffered from fragmentation, being way too dark (likely to hide bad cgi but still), the weird Hollywood thing now where jokes and plot scenes have to be harshly separated instead of allowed to organically happen as the story progresses, and no real emotional investment. It’s hard to care when the main person with an actually tragic backstory interrupts said backstory with a Baskin Robbins ad. It doesn’t come across like the guy is telling the story and that was one of the details, it’s like it was crammed into the script. But that criticism aside, the Eddie Murphy movie was about a dad learning to put family first. What it meant to truly love them. Especially his wife, who he’d especially taken for granted.

There’s a small detail in the script that probably should’ve gotten fleshed out more, where the dad tells his daughter he works so much so he can give her and the family a better life than what he had. And the daughter is like, “wow dad, I didn’t know you had a bad childhood,” and he immediately gets defensive, saying his childhood wasn’t bad. It shows that it’s not that his life was ever hard, he’s just obsessed with prestige. Just like the main villain. Ultimately the dad is able to recognize he can’t give up so easily like he’d done before with working right before the family trip, even if it means losing something he thought he really valued, and without hesitation ruins his BMW to save his family, but the butler can’t get on that level and gets dragged to hell.

It’s not groundbreaking by any stretch but it’s something. Like, there’s an emotional through line there. A character arc.

Compare that to the 2023 version where there’s more this overall theme of, moving on and overcoming grief. And finding strength with others. Again, not groundbreaking but the difference is emotional investment. The movie takes itself more seriously but loses the connection because we only find out what happened to the guy’s wife like well over an hour into it and the bloated cast puts other reveals on the back burner too. Like the priest being a fraud or the fortuneteller’s self worth bit. The priest thing doesn’t get introduced until right before the final confrontation and no one really cares, meanwhile the fortuneteller finds her confidence, OFFSCREEN!

Instead of developing our cast or having them actually interact with the GHOSTS in a HAUNTED MANSION (beyond asking for plot details), we go on a detour to find out who the bad guy is, what his backstory was, and where his hat is. And on this detour we find out he was a horrible no good very bad man so don’t feel bad when he’s dragged down to green hell at the end.

Last note, interesting how both films ended on the saints go marching in and during the day vs at night.

Last last note, Haunted mansion 2023 just didn’t click with me for a variety of reasons. While haunted mansion 2003 isn’t a perfect movie. It’s got issues, I think the mom should’ve figured out the home owner was off way sooner and why didn’t the butler burn the letter, but I like it’s heart.

I know I’m 10 years late to twau BUT after that ending and seeing the debates about it I need to throw out my theory.

I think Bigby did meet the real Faith at the start of the game, and that it was Faith, glamoured as Narissa, who ratted out her friends to Georgi to save herself. And then still disguised, used Narissa and Lily’s dead bodies to get Bigby to eventually free her.

When Faith met Bigby at the start of the game, regardless of if you give her the money she says, “I have to drop off… what I have.” She just threw the coins on the ground. What else could she possibly have to give Georgi? In my opinion she was going to either buy a glamour or she already had one and was going to get disguised before she headed over to the Woodlands drop off Narissa’s head.

Also, she already knows where Bigby lives. While this can be written off as something everyone in fabletown knows, to me, it points towards premeditation. She knows exactly where he lives, even that it’s the smallest apartment, despite the registry in the Woodlands having his room name be just written on a piece of paper.

People will say that this is all just an example of telltale not actually having player choice, but the player’s choices allow for Faith’s manipulation to be more easily exposed.

If you are a dick to her at the start, she still promises to swing by Bigby’s apartment before she walks away and says, “you’re not as bad as people say you are.” Faith was giving Bigby a reason to be intrigued. To latch onto her face despite not even knowing her name. So when the head that looks like her is literally dropped on his doorstep, he HAS to solve the case no matter what. The guilt would eat him alive if he did otherwise.

The real Narissa and Lily were already dead before the start of the game. Faith used her friends’ murders to destroy the crooked man and get back her freedom.

That also why I think Faith, glamoured as Narissa, chose to wear the ribbon even after she’s freed from the spell. Tragically, her lips are sealed.

Anyway good game. Glad I played it now, vs 10 years ago. The wait for s2 would’ve killed me.

So I’m assuming, based on no evidence just my own speculation, the real reason the wolf among us s2 keeps getting “pushed back,” is that when it was first announced telltale was trying to shore up some cash from investors, and then after the company closed the people who took over also needed/wanted to do the same thing. So they announce these early release dates and then once development actually gets going hits people with the disappointment that is the reality of how long it takes to make a game like this.

I haven’t looked into this much mind you. Hell I haven’t even finished the first game. Just speculation.

Both were also born on empire day

Both are 29 years old and live in remote planets, but one is a hermit who spends most of his time alone and the other lives with a small comunity. Who is who?

Me watching The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: hm… this guy yelling about a sick, dying, girl named Maria sure does sound familiar.

*looks up voice actor

Ah it’s Kōji Yusa,

Japanese Shadow the hedgehog

Someone should’ve warned me the demon slayer movie was ass.

I’m in the same boat with s1’s ending shifting my perspective on writing. It was hard for me to believe any series would do that even one as dark as black butler.

So I’ve been a black butler fan since middle school when some girls at a summer camp were reading one of the curry arc volumes and then I decided to look up the show. I loved it. Season 1 anyway. And I still do. It’s got problems, I wish the angels were integrated into the story better, the Queen’s motives are kinda weird and I don’t completely get it, there’s a wasted opportunity with a certain cult leader that dies before we can get a reaction out of Ciel which sucks ass, and I think Aberline, while he was made into a great tragic character, I wish he would’ve gotten more development before the episode he died. You sorta get hints in prior episodes but when the one he dies in happens it’s basically like a giant neon sign over his head saying, “I’m gonna die in 10 minutes.” But I do love how delightfully tragic his final moments are.

“You do have a chance Ciel. Don’t ever forget that.”

“But I don’t… because I gave it all away.”

But overall season 1 was unlike anything I’d ever seen as a tween and it’s ending was incredibly satisfying.

Which is why it annoys the hell out of me when I see people trash it for the crime of not following the manga. Not even the “I didn’t like what they did with the plot.” No. The issue I see most often is it specifically wasn’t accurate to the source material and therefore it’s bad.

It was 2008. The circus arc wasn’t even done yet. To fill the episode quota they were gonna have to do filler. And unlike other filler arcs in anime the writers bothered to end the story instead of leaving us on a cliffhanger. I applaud them for that.

Granted it contributed to s2 being such a clusterfuck but still. Ciel had a decent character arc. It wasn’t popular just because the manga was amazing. It was popular because it was one of like 5 anime where the anime original material wasn’t ass and it’s ending was good. Also in stories like this you expect the protag to weasel their way out of the tragic but inevitable conclusion. But the final episodes of the series are specifically about Ciel coming to grips with his impending death. And then it actually happened.

I get it, it’s annoying to have to explain to fans that you only need to watch half of s1 in order to follow the book of circus-book of Atlantic adaptations but ffs that’s on the producers of those anime for not starting from the beginning and just hoping whoever watches will still be surprised when the undertaker’s grim reaper reveal happens. Not on the first anime for only adapting what existed and telling their own story based on what info they had.

Only in anime would you be expected to watch part of but not all of a different tv show or read a manga in order to understand the plot.

Anyway just had to defend one of my favorite shows here.

Feel free to argue with me.

Thanks for the reblog! And I 100% agree on Pluto and the doll episode cop out.

I think Pluto is there specifically so the servants have some conflict in the final episodes as the fire in London is happening and to justify how the manner would get destroyed under their watch after the reveal that they’re all actually badasses. Personally I think it might’ve worked better if Angela manipulated/mind controlled Finny (It looked like they were planting that with his crush on her that got dropped) but I can understand that giving him Pluto’s role would come across as extra cruel given Finny’s backstory.

And yeah I haven’t seen the doll arc in a hot minute but it was weird how she was somehow fixed.

So I’ve been a black butler fan since middle school when some girls at a summer camp were reading one of the curry arc volumes and then I decided to look up the show. I loved it. Season 1 anyway. And I still do. It’s got problems, I wish the angels were integrated into the story better, the Queen’s motives are kinda weird and I don’t completely get it, there’s a wasted opportunity with a certain cult leader that dies before we can get a reaction out of Ciel which sucks ass, and I think Aberline, while he was made into a great tragic character, I wish he would’ve gotten more development before the episode he died. You sorta get hints in prior episodes but when the one he dies in happens it’s basically like a giant neon sign over his head saying, “I’m gonna die in 10 minutes.” But I do love how delightfully tragic his final moments are.

“You do have a chance Ciel. Don’t ever forget that.”

“But I don’t… because I gave it all away.”

But overall season 1 was unlike anything I’d ever seen as a tween and it’s ending was incredibly satisfying.

Which is why it annoys the hell out of me when I see people trash it for the crime of not following the manga. Not even the “I didn’t like what they did with the plot.” No. The issue I see most often is it specifically wasn’t accurate to the source material and therefore it’s bad.

It was 2008. The circus arc wasn’t even done yet. To fill the episode quota they were gonna have to do filler. And unlike other filler arcs in anime the writers bothered to end the story instead of leaving us on a cliffhanger. I applaud them for that.

Granted it contributed to s2 being such a clusterfuck but still. Ciel had a decent character arc. It wasn’t popular just because the manga was amazing. It was popular because it was one of like 5 anime where the anime original material wasn’t ass and it’s ending was good. Also in stories like this you expect the protag to weasel their way out of the tragic but inevitable conclusion. But the final episodes of the series are specifically about Ciel coming to grips with his impending death. And then it actually happened.

I get it, it’s annoying to have to explain to fans that you only need to watch half of s1 in order to follow the book of circus-book of Atlantic adaptations but ffs that’s on the producers of those anime for not starting from the beginning and just hoping whoever watches will still be surprised when the undertaker’s grim reaper reveal happens. Not on the first anime for only adapting what existed and telling their own story based on what info they had.

Only in anime would you be expected to watch part of but not all of a different tv show or read a manga in order to understand the plot.

Anyway just had to defend one of my favorite shows here.

Feel free to argue with me.

So I’ve been a black butler fan since middle school when some girls at a summer camp were reading one of the curry arc volumes and then I decided to look up the show. I loved it. Season 1 anyway. And I still do. It’s got problems, I wish the angels were integrated into the story better, the Queen’s motives are kinda weird and I don’t completely get it, there’s a wasted opportunity with a certain cult leader that dies before we can get a reaction out of Ciel which sucks ass, and I think Aberline, while he was made into a great tragic character, I wish he would’ve gotten more development before the episode he died. You sorta get hints in prior episodes but when the one he dies in happens it’s basically like a giant neon sign over his head saying, “I’m gonna die in 10 minutes.” But I do love how delightfully tragic his final moments are.

“You do have a chance Ciel. Don’t ever forget that.”

“But I don’t… because I gave it all away.”

But overall season 1 was unlike anything I’d ever seen as a tween and it’s ending was incredibly satisfying.

Which is why it annoys the hell out of me when I see people trash it for the crime of not following the manga. Not even the “I didn’t like what they did with the plot.” No. The issue I see most often is it specifically wasn’t accurate to the source material and therefore it’s bad.

It was 2008. The circus arc wasn’t even done yet. To fill the episode quota they were gonna have to do filler. And unlike other filler arcs in anime the writers bothered to end the story instead of leaving us on a cliffhanger. I applaud them for that.

Granted it contributed to s2 being such a clusterfuck but still. Ciel had a decent character arc. It wasn’t popular just because the manga was amazing. It was popular because it was one of like 5 anime where the anime original material wasn’t ass and it’s ending was good. Also in stories like this you expect the protag to weasel their way out of the tragic but inevitable conclusion. But the final episodes of the series are specifically about Ciel coming to grips with his impending death. And then it actually happened.

I get it, it’s annoying to have to explain to fans that you only need to watch half of s1 in order to follow the book of circus-book of Atlantic adaptations but ffs that’s on the producers of those anime for not starting from the beginning and just hoping whoever watches will still be surprised when the undertaker’s grim reaper reveal happens. Not on the first anime for only adapting what existed and telling their own story based on what info they had.

Only in anime would you be expected to watch part of but not all of a different tv show or read a manga in order to understand the plot.

Anyway just had to defend one of my favorite shows here.

Feel free to argue with me.