#Characters are so freakin likable | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

annymation · 1 month

Note

What things annoyed and infuriated you the most in Wish 2023 (or Canon!Wish)?

OOOOH BOY! You just gave me permission to open a whole can of worms! Let's gooo!

Okay so here's a list:

I don't like how weak the reveal of what Magnifico actually does is. Asha finds out that he doesn't grant all the wishes, awesome, that would be a cool reveal, except, it's not a reveal, she freakin KNEW THIS! Asha herself said to a kid "It could be you someday" COULD! Asha, you said COULD, as in, there's the POSSIBILITY he'll grant that kid's wish, not a certainty! Not to mention if he only grants ONE wish per month then OF FREAKING COURSE not all wishes are granted. Okay, case in point, there's no grand reveal that the king is doing something no one knew, Asha apparently just forgot how their kingdom works.

Now hear me out, I am NOT one of those people that says Magnifico is a hero and Asha is a villain, I wanna make this clear, because although I find people who legit think like that kinda funny and I reblog their takes from time to time, I also find it frustrating that Disney managed to make a STRAIGHT, WHITE, MAN, IN A POSITION OF POWER, MORE LIKABLE THAN THEIR SECOND BLACK PROTAGONIST! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? IT'S SO EASY TO MAKE US HATE HIM!!!-ahem- But, although Magnifico is the most likable character in the movie, I do not see him as a hero, no no no, keeping the wishes away from the people of Rosas is bad, pretending that he'd grant Sabino's wish only to say SIKE was bad, saying he'd never grant Asha family's wishes was bad. So, am I saying Magnifico is a villain?... No. That's topic number 2, Magnifico wasn't a villain, he was a jerk. A jerk does not a villain make. I didn't feel threatened by that man for not a single minute, and that's including when he was possessed by the evil book, speaking of which.

That dang book both ruined and saved the movie honestly, because yeah, although it's a stupid way to make Magnifico an actual villain, but in a way that makes us sympathize with him since he's not in his right mind, and the last thing you want is for the audience to feel bad for your villain... Well, there's exceptions of course, but that's a whole other subject. But even though the book caused all this damage, it also gave us King unhinged, campy, straight up evil, fruity, voiced by Chris Pine having the time of his life Magnifico, and I loved every second of it, I ate possessed Magnifico up, I was living for every cringe cliche evil dialogue that came out of him, like hell yeah, that's what I've been waiting for, that's what it's all about WOOOOOO!!! I loved him so much I just copy pasted his personality into the Magnifico in my rewrite, although, my version is actually willing to kill teens, while Canon Mag seemed more hesitant for some reason, my headcanon is that Magnifico was fighting the curse deep down, and that's why his magic actually didn't hurt anyone, so... That's sad, hope he breaks out of the mirror and kills them all Idk

We're on topic 4 and this is not even half of my problems oh my... Anyway, Asha is boring. And I mean like, in a way that feels intentional, how did they do it? It's fascinating how she has nothing going for her, she doesn't stand out, doesn't have any internal conflicts at the start of the movie, something ALL Disney princesses have: Belle doesn't fit in with her village, Mulan struggles to make her family proud, Mirabel struggles to make her family proud x10.000, Moana wants to explore the sea but can't, Ariel wants to explore the land but can't, Jasmine wants to get out of the castle but can't, Cinderella is a victim of domestic abuse, ya'll get the idea, all these girls get their struggles that make them compelling, what's Asha's struggle that has been with her for most of her life?... Uh... Her grandpa, this dude we just met and seems pretty happy... Doesn't have his wish granted yet... Ok, what else? Oh yeah everyone in town seems to love her and dance along with her to show tourists how cool the kingdom is... Uhum... So yeah she has no compelling struggles that hook us with her from the start, and the conflict she DOES get, as I explained before, feels underwhelming.

The setting, oh the setting. Like, don't get me wrong, the architecture is pretty, but nothing about it screams SPAIN to me, where is the cultural food? Where are the bulls? Where's the stuff we associate with the Iberian Peninsula? They did such a good job in Encanto, what the heck happened? Oh and did I mention that most of the animals that appear in the forest are not even native to the Iberian Peninsula, there would be no racoons in a medieval setting there, considering they're an invasive species that was brought there from North America, something that, I assume, wouldn't be possible back then, as I don't think the americas were even discovered yet, but anyway, there they are, racoons hanging upside down from their tails, something they can't even do. Sorry for expecting biology accuracy from my disney movie guys, but you can't just make Encanto, that was freaking amazing with it's inclusion of so many gorgeous latin American animals, and then do whatever Wish is, like bruh where were the Lynxes??? They're an endangered species there, Disney could've raised awareness!!!

The music...

Valentino was absurdly annoying, and it would be SO EASY to make a baby goat cute! Baby. Goats. Are. Cute. SO WHY DID YOU MAKE HIM UNFUNNY GOAT THAT MAKES BUTT JOKES???

Characters were unmemorable, Asha's mom didn't do anything, Sabino, whose supposed to be the backbone of the story, is barely a character, and again, it's not like Disney hasn't made likable elderly people before, Moana's grandma, Mama Coco, but my guy Sabino was just... There.

Aaaand I probably could go on and on but I can't think of anything else, feel free to share your own problems with the movie yall.

#wish star #wish disney #wish movie #wish #disney #wish 2023 #disney wish

51 notes · View notes

thecomfywriter · 28 days

Text

Writing Likable Characters

Hey y’all! How is everyone? It’s your girl, @thecomfywriter, back after… a long time. Let’s not talk about it lol I have no excuses and you’re not here for life updates. Anyhow, I’m back! And today’s topic is a doozy, not because it’s complicated, but because for some reason, it’s unnecessarily difficult to actually make a character likeable and worth rooting for. Considering most stories want readers to emotionally invest themselves into their characters and like them— well, we see the issue, don’t we?

In this post, we’ll explore the fundamentals of character development, why it's important to create likeable characters, and how to create characters readers can emotionally invest in. There’s a great benefit to creating characters readers actually care about, whether they’re protagonists, side characters, or even (shh….) the antagonists. So without further ado, let’s get into it.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Topic Overview:

1.0 Why Have Likeable Characters?

2.0 The Common Characteristics

NEXT POST: Is it possible to create an unlikable character worth emotionally investing in?

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.0 Why Have Likeable Characters?

It seems obvious, but once you break down the purpose of a likeable character, it becomes easier to identify the fundamental characteristics and traits that most likeable characters possess.

Suppose you go to a dinner party with your friends one night. There, you meet a variety of new people. ‘A’ is a tall brunette, with wide eyes and an even wider mouth. ‘B’ is a short and plump woman, with curly blonde hair and the occasional grey streak in between. ‘C’ is a scrawny man with a long face, a crooked nose, and a bow-legged stance. And ‘D’ is a blue eyed man with spiky green hair, tattoos all up his arms, and a silver septum piercing in his nose. Now, I’m going to ask you: ‘Who of these four people do you like ?’

Pretty freakin’ hard to answer, huh?

Now suppose I gave you the same scenario, but I tweaked it just a smidge. You go to a dinner party where you meet a variety of people. ‘A’ is a talkative woman who only stops to take a deep breath and inhale a gulp of her red wine. She is loose and flamboyant while she talks endlessly about the various adventures she’s been on during her time off as a travel nurse. But while her extravagant storytelling is more than entertaining, you find it difficult to get a single word in when talking to her because somehow, the conversation always steers back to herself.

Meanwhile, ‘B’ is a preppy and bubbly woman who works as an elementary school teacher, but you never really discovered that until the end of the conversation, when your mutual friend asks her how ‘the kids’ are, and the origin behind her soft-spoken tone and expressive eyes clicks in place. Your conversations together mainly center around your mutual love for animals— her with her dogs and you with your cats. Though she overapologizes and tends to be a bit more passive with all other topics of parley, the conversation is otherwise lighthearted. She is the first person to leave, however, cutting your time together short when she realizes the time and suddenly her dark circles seem to get darker. She is the one to redirect you to ‘C’, who is a professor at a prestigious university in a neighboring town. He looks quite formal and acts even moreso when he offers to shake your hand and requests the full length of your name and background.

As a complete contrast to ‘B’, ‘C’ is entirely reclusive and apathetic— outwardly, that is. There is an aire of stiffness around him, with his tall posture and unintentionally impressive vocabulary. Your conversations deviate from topic to topic, never dwelling too long on one discussion but always exploring it to a level of depth that surprises you. Whatever point you make, ‘C’ presents a counterargument, and what could have started as a regularly subjective opinion transforms into an interesting delve into the nature of peaceful arguments. While the conversation is more than cordial and definitely leaves you feeling a bit more intelligent and curious than before you met him, you can’t help but notice the lack of impression or reaction from ‘C’ whenever you spoke. It is only when ‘D’ swings around and introduces himself to you that you feel more assured, as he informs you that everyone who talks to ‘C’ leaves the conversation feeling a bit judged.

‘D’, you discover, is a freelance photographer who asks you if you would like a photo of you and your friends. You end up talking about his photography career, looking through his portfolio with awe— he is remarkably skilled and filled with a plethora of experience. Like your conversation with ‘B’, the tone is lighthearted, but this time, a banter is exchanged between yourself and the extremely witty ‘D’. His little quips are sassy, occasionally sarcastic but the follow-up laugh and pat of the shoulder relieves you from taking anything too seriously. While ‘A’ was entertaining, ‘D’ has a sense of humour that wonderfully matches your own. He is touchy, with every joke he makes being paired with some form of physical contact, but you discover he is like that with everyone as he expands the conversation to the entire dinner party circle. Occasionally, when his joke doesn’t land, he’ll do an awkward chuckle and make a self-deprecating comment to release the tension. But the tension never really dissipates when he makes jokes about his ex. Nevertheless, his smile is bright and his body language is always oriented towards the person he is talking to. You can’t help but feel properly heard when talking to him. The eye contact is unwavering and his every response is a testament that he was genuinely listening.

Now, if I asked you— who of the four do you like? Is it a bit easier to respond?

The difference between the two is a bit obvious (intentionally, to make things a bit clearer). The amount of substance allotted to each character increased with the second scenario. While the descriptions of the characters in the first example were confined to their appearance, the second scenario offered interactive exchanges with each character that allows you as the reader to fully imagine this person, even without the physical descriptors, and visualize the interaction with them beyond a surface level. In short, the first scenario gave you caricatures; the second scenario gave you people.

Why do I give you this very obvious statement? Because the more you think of your characters as characters to be liked or disliked, as opposed to the actions and interactions they have with their peers (in story) and their audience (the readers), the more shallow they will seem and the harder it will be for readers to connect to them, much less emotionally invest in them.

If you want to create profound characters, expose your characters to scenarios that showcase their interactions with that environment and the people in that environment. Allow the readers to feel like the character is someone they know in their life, someone they can relate to or envision, whether it be themselves, their mother, or their chatterbox coworker from HR.

Real characters evoke real emotions.

—-

2.0 The Common Characteristics

Before we get into a general list of likeable characteristics, let's highlight two terms and define them to differentiate them. Introducing… charm and charisma! Similar, but not the same.

Charm: this is your golden ticket, and also the hardest to nail. Charm is essentially the presence a person carries, and how attractive it is to outsiders. Not attractive in the sense of romantic interest. Attractive in the sense that this person has a draw to them. Their personality is inviting, unique, and confident. They have an ability to put other people in ease in their presence and are welcoming and inviting while also keeping people engaged. Charming people are attractive because their personalities and presence in a room makes you want to stay near them.

Charisma: the way I define charisma is magnetism. Its one of the components to charm that acts as the hook, line, and sinker. Charisma is a person’s humour, their body language, their tone, the way they look at you when they speak, whereas charm is the agglomeration of charisma, style, confidence, and personality.

Okay, now for the list. You can pick and choose characteristics from the following list to create your own unique combination for your characters, but its not enough to have characters “have” these characters. Remember part one of this post. How your characters demonstrate these characteristics is fundamental to how charming and charismatic they are. Also, the influence these traits have and relationship they have with other characters.

Likeable traits:

Intelligence: people generally respect intelligence in a person. There are different types of intelligence though

Wit: how quick-thinking a person is. Think of someone who is witty— they’re quick with their responses and multifaceted. IMPORTANT: multifaceted. If you’re just quick with your responses, you’re quippy. But to be witty, your responses have to display intelligence through introspection or observance in a humorous tone. It’s a hard thing to master, which is why witty people are usually highly respected and considered inexplicably charming.

Shrewdness: think of this through the example of schemers. Shrewdness is a meticulous, detailed type of intelligence that is sometimes used in negative connotations to describe people who are cunning and use their intelligence for malevolent intentions. But in general, shrewdness is about being practical, decisive, and considerate of multiple factors before coming to a decision. It displays thoroughness and patience in deliberating one’s thoughts and actions. Personal opinion that is not at all unpopular: shrewd villains >>>> MWAH!

Cleverness: I like to think of these people as atypical with their intelligence. They find out-of-the-box solutions to problems and are able to apply creativity to problem-solving.

Knowledgeable: this is what people think of when they think of trying to make an intelligent character. The typical approach to writing a genius is making them know everything. And while many intelligent/smart people are knowledgeable, it's typically because of the underlying traits they have that drive them to pursue knowledge (i.e. curiosity, focus, passion, wonder, skepticism, objectivity). Focusing on those aspects of your character rather than what they know itself is what will sell your character as intelligent rather than a human encyclopedia.

Introspection//Observation: this is emotional intelligence. Being able to assess people’s intentions, their emotional states, predict their reactions, and also being able to understand and connect to their own emotions. Emotionally intelligent characters are honestly so lovely, so refreshing, and such an underrated type of intelligence. To be able to read and predict human behaviour is so extremely impressive and also allows your character to alter their behaviour depending on their audience, which can add to their charisma and charm

Kindness: no one likes an asshole. It’s really as simple as that. People enjoy the company of people who are tender, caring, compassionate, empathetic, and not mean. It’s safe company, and company that makes others feel better about themselves. Entirely welcoming, which is why its so charming to be kind and gentle.

Humour: I could do a whole separate post on different types of humor. But to summarize it lightly, to write a character, it’s more important to try to humor the reader than the other characters. Humor is subjective, but adding genuine comedy rather than ingenuine reactions from other characters and telling the readers that ‘Character A is funny’ doesn’t have the same effect as inciting genuine laughter from the reader. Different types of humor include:

Witty humor: as I mentioned earlier, it carries an added advantage of intelligence to the mix. These can include light jabs between friends, but if done incorrectly, can make the character seem mean. So good luck lmao

Dark humour: hard to pull off tastefully. General rule with attempting dark humour though? It's all about boundaries. It's dark humour if you're joking about your own experiences, traumas, or something personal to you/your character. Doing it on the expense of someone else's experience is called being an asshole.

Sass//sarcasm: use this sparingly. Sass is fun with banter, but imagine hanging out with someone who answers everything with sass or sarcasm. Sounds exhausting? That’s because it is. Also, quick differentiation: sass has personality and a bit of zest to it; sarcasm is deadpan and mocking. Compare the following dialogues:

Sass: “Hey Jocelyn! Jeez… Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” “And clearly someone else woke up on the right side.”

Sarcasm: “Hey Jocelyn! Jeez… Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” “You don’t say.”

Trustworthiness: the most inviting thing about a person is knowing they’re not a backstabbing, shit-talking, macking asshole. Someone you can trust your secrets with is someone you can be vulnerable around, which is one of the foundations of creating intimate relationships. Having a character who blabbles off other character’s secrets, or even just petty gossip, is not a demonstration of trustworthiness. Valuing a person and truly listening to them while they speak, and then asking them about how private they want to keep that information— oof that’s a keeper right there.

Good listener: just to bounce off the last point, being attentive and showing your character cares about the people around them, their interests, and what they have to say is such a likeable quality because it appeals to the part of everyone (including your reader) of wanting to be sincerely heard. Your character doesn’t have to be devotional. But it’s about being respectful.

Okay, a bit more of a condensed list now so I can wrap things up:

Empathy: understand others’ emotions and being considerate towards other perspectives

Humility: no one likes an arrogant prick. Don’t make them Mr. Humble either (Mr. Humble in the sense of being humble to the point of being rather pretentious or being a doormat. Like, a person can acknowledge their achievements, be proud of themselves, have confidence, and ALSO be humble by not being braggy and arrogant about it)

Honesty: telling the truth, yes, but also being sincere in how they conduct themselves.

Reliability: no one likes mr. flakey lol. Being able to depend on someone strengthens relationships, and the moment a character exhibits this quality for the reader to view, the reader is able to attach themselves to this character

Optimism: optimism is fun! Optimism makes people feel hopeful. Yeah, pessimism used for comedy with sarcastic characters is a whole trope. But it’s only likeable if executed correctly. Otherwise, pessimism can be a drag. Think of pessimism as the risky route vs optimism as the safe route.

Resilience: showing a person’s willpower and their will to live by enduring hardship is one of the most respectable qualities, because its a quality we all wish to emulate in our real lives and understand takes a great deal of effort to actually be successful in.

Generosity

Patience

Authenticity

Open-mindedness

Courage

Gratitude

Adaptability

Selflessness

Fairness

Integrity: what are your character’s values? How true do they stay to their values? How strong is the needle of their moral compass? This one is massive to creating a character who reader’s respect, because efining a person’s value system allows them to become intimately familiar with the character’s perspective of the world, their ethics code, and their morality. Even if they cannot agree with all of the values of the character, a character who stays true to their values and has integrity is commendable, and therefore in most cases, respectable (hint hint, this is a huge transition to my next post lol)

Essentially, creating likeable characters is about trying to charm your readers with your characters' personality and presence, to the point where the reader would genuinely want to be friends with this person in real life. Having their actions match their narrative description and their in-story reputation also adds to your reliability as a writer. If you’re trying so hard to convince me as the reader than Jonathan is a real stand-up, charming guy who is a huge womanizer; smooth-talker all around to the point where he is able to get positions and extort favours from people because he has such a way with words… but then all of Jonathan’s dialogue sounds like a piece of wet cardboard was brought to life, I’m going to start thinking you as the author are rather delusional, think I’m dense, or have no idea how smooth-talkers actually sound. But what I’m not going to believe is that Jonathan is what you say he is.

—

Okay! That’s all for today, folks! Stay tuned for my next post on writing unlikable characters that readers still want to root for. Also! I’m thinking of short story prompts for you guys to practise your writing with on this account, now that I have the chance to be a bit more active.

Why do I have more opportunities to be more active?

I FINISHED MY BOOK, BABYYYY!!! LETS GOOOOOO :D

Yeah, so I might post some excerpts of my own wip here. Currently though, I’m in the editing phases, and then querying!!!

Okay, anyways, toodles! Have a great rest of your day or evening! <3

#writers #writing #wip #writing community #writerblr #fiction #writers tips #writing tip #tips and tricks #writing tips #character development #charming #character #characters #ocs

22 notes · View notes

arainmorn-art · 1 year

Photo

Lots and lots and lots of thoughts. Also have some earlier sketches of Pheen, exactly from the period when I’ve decided to make his stupid face features even sharper. You know, English is not my native language, it’s actually Russian. But for some reason, even though I’m not at all fluent in English, it’s easier for me to talk about some weird stuff in it. Of course Deciphering is a big project, I’m working on it for 9 month since I’ve started it, as I made myself not to draw the comic before I’d be fully confident in my script, which led to rewriting it 4 times. And even now it’s the 5th version as before there were no magical adventure in Edgey’s mind, no swords and flowers, the way to know how he feels inside, as outside he is quite reserved.

And it’s also a therapeutic journey for me. Yeah, duh, who am I trying to surprise with it? Anything we create is a projection of our own self. And through Phoenix, whom I love very much in canon games, I also deal with my own stuff.

For some reasons I relate to this character a lot. He seems to me like a person, who sincerely doesn’t see a big value in himself. He is not just being humble, nothing besides his job of saving people is a big deal.

And he thinks he is not worthy of being loved.

Yes, his friends like him, his daughter loves him, but those are other forms of love. Being caring and likable is not a big deal, bringing home a lost child and rearing her is what any decent person and parent must do. Being selfless is a norm.

And looking at Edgeworth, a brilliant famous professional, a gorgeous smart man and a dear friend, Nick might believe a very sad thing: “I am not worthy”. Of course, through the rose-tinted glasses of being in love there are tendencies to feel blue and self-conscious of yourself, but it’s not the case. It’s about feeling weak and broken. It’s about looking at yourself and thinking: “No way a person I deeply value will think highly of the wreck like me”, as it’s also about being very, very harsh with yourself. It’s about believing that unless you are a harmonious strong-willed collected person with everything put together you do not deserve being loved.

But the thing is through the story I wrote about him, Nick is constantly fighting this numbing blob of insecurities, sitting like a nasty tumor inside his mind. He wants to try, he wants to check, what if, what if he is the only one who stops himself of being romantically loved. What if he actually has something to be loved. Both of them will have their character arcs through the comic, but Miles’s core struggle is the center of the story and will be fully described closer to the end, while Nick is in the outer circle constantly and expressively getting and loosing hope.

I don’t understand my feelings. I’m so confused and conflicted. It’s the first time I am actually insecure about my protagonist’s appearance. I like the way I’m drawing him. I can see him in my head like that, tired, sleepless, sharp yet with the kindest smile, with big nose, messy hair, small sparkly blue eyes, nervous, emotional and deeply caring, being through so much yet thinking about himself so little – a person I really like. And at the same time my own mind make strange things to me: I’m looking at him and can’t believe he can be liked and loved by readers. I wrote him feeling about himself as “somewhere not enough, somewhere too much”, but I also look at my own drawing and think about exactly the same, “not enough and too much”. And even think a fictional Edgeworth might not love him back, what is there to love? Not enough courage, too much emotional turmoil. Not strong enough core, too much self-doubt. Not pretty enough, he is so far from his original anime look, just look at this face, it’s the face only mother will love. Not stoic enough. Not manly enough. Not assertive enough. Not collected enough. Not mature enough. Not enough. So strongly not enough…

And I must remind myself – that’s the point. I freakin’ made this point several month ago in the script, why am I so distressed writing about it now?

Edgeworth actually loves him for what he is. Nick is worthy. And he doesn’t have only several single traits to be loved. He can be loved as he is. Just like that. For being cheerful and bringing smiles. For being caring and emotional. Being funny looking and clumsy. Being a soft gentle selfless loser, helping people, nurturing the best in them. It has a value. It has a big value for people who care about us.

I like the thought that I wrote Nick as a very nervous lesbian trying to win a girl’s heart while fighting her own deeply low self-esteem x)

Too relatable. Too much projection x)

But looks like I really need it. I need this comic to be completed. I need to prove myself I am worthy of being loved.

#my post #arainmorn's art #my art #ace attorney #deciphering ace attorney #phoenix wright #Thoughts #so deeply in the thoughts and wasting people's time to read them #I don't need therapist you need therapist #jk I actually had therapy 2 times in my life and it helped me a lot #but the core problems are still inside #like a nasty tumor #pencil #pencil sketch

130 notes · View notes

firstkanaphans · 8 months

Note

Can I ask what happened with the Earth/Stud subplot of Friendzone? I haven't seen it.

Apologies if this is a little rude, I won't mind if you don't answer. :)

This isn’t rude at all, Anon! I’d be happy to tell you. But let me start this off by saying that I do not like Friendzone. At all. In fact, my biggest worry going into Only Friends was that it was going to be like Friendzone. Every single character in Friendzone is the worst person you’ve ever met in your life and yet it’s written as if you’re supposed to root for them. Luckily, it seems that P’Jojo has pivoted a bit in Only Friends because even super toxic characters like Boston are still likable. You understand their motivations even if they suck. Friendzone is just a mess.

But onto Earth and Stud.

Full disclaimer: It has been a while since I watched Friendzone and I have no plans to watch it again, so this is just my recollection of what happened. It’s also a wild ride, so strap in.

So Earth (played by Singto Prachaya) and Stud (played by Plustor Pronpiphat) have been friends since college. Stud is a, well, stud. He sleeps with any boy that will have him (mostly AJ Chayapol who I’m pretty sure was only 17 at the time). Earth is in a long-term committed relationship with a much older doctor named Sam (played by Nat Sakdatorn, the ultimate zaddy).

One day, Stud decides it would be super fun to sleep with Earth’s boyfriend Sam. In my recollection of this, Sam put up no fight whatsoever. Stud flirted with him like twice and Sam was just like, “Earth who?” Earth, meanwhile, is just a precious little cinnamon roll who has never done anything wrong in his life: great friend, great boyfriend, plant dad. Does not deserve this shit.

I think Stud and Sam only sleep together once? Maybe? But eventually Earth finds out and is super mad at Stud and not nearly mad enough at Sam, but whatever. It was 2018. Back then it was still okay to blame the mistress.

Anyway, as all of this is happening, Stud starts to realize that he hadn’t slept with Sam because he wanted Sam. He had slept with him because he wanted Earth and was only trying to break them up.

Season 1 ends with Earth still dating Sam (🤮) and I want to pull my hair out at how stupid everyone is being.

But it’s not over yet because there’s (unfortunately) a season 2.

In season 2, Earth struggles with still not trusting Sam since he is, you know, a dirty fucking cheater, but luckily him and Stud are able mend their broken relationship. I think the impetus for this is Stud’s mother dying? Maybe? It’s actually very sweet. The power of friendship and all that.

They start hanging out more and somewhere along the way, Earth decides that a great way to get back at Sam for sleeping with Stud is by sleeping with Stud himself. So that’s what he does. Stud is, at this point, madly in love with him and Earth is well-aware of those feelings, but does not feel the same. It’s deliciously angsty. My favorite scene in the whole series. You can watch it here around the 3:15 mark. (It’s fade-to-black because this was 2018 and we all know that gay sex wasn’t invented in Thailand until Tharntype in 2019.)

Sam finds out—I’m pretty sure Earth just straight up tells him in an act of pettiness I can only aspire to—and rather than ending what has at this point become a very toxic relationship, he suggests an open relationship instead so that Earth can sow his wild oats or whatever. And then the series somehow still ends with Earth and Sam together. Jesus effing Christ, I can’t.

Now that I’ve typed all of this out, I’m realizing it’s basically Only Friends if the reason Boston hooked up with Top was because he was secretly in love with Mew and now I want that so freakin’ badly. Mew is the beer-flavored nipples girl in this show and it’s what he deserves.

I think that’s all? I know it probably sounds super intriguing when laid out in a concise list like this but I cannot stress enough that you should not watch this show. It’s not good. And it’s so freakin’ long. Each season is like 16 episodes and most of it is just a het dumpster fire of trash. I spend every day praying Only Friends stays on the path it’s currently on and doesn’t veer into Friendzone territory. But even if it does, at least it’s gay.

#wow I have a lot of pent up feelings about friendzone apparently #friendzone #earthstud #asks #this is in reference to me comparing the raymew relationship to earthstud yesterday btw #it’s a trope jojo likes

8 notes · View notes

eirikrjs · 1 year

Note

Forgive me if this has been asked before but I was hoping to get some elaboration to why you think Desu2 characters are flat. I understand some are, but I feel as though most have quality, or maybe I'm confusing likability with quality. I feel like most of my issues of the game come from lack of intersection with the fate links and main story rather than the characters themselves, but I'd appreciate to hear your thoughts

So, to answer this generally, when I was writing up the character section for the Fan Myths last year, I drew upon what I was taught in school about flat vs. round characters. But one source I found said something that really left me shook, in a way:

It says in its discussion of flat characters (those that are "superficial" and "predictable") versus round characters (those that are "complex" and more like actual people) that Luke Skywalker is a flat character. I weighed it for a bit, contrasting with how Luke makes choices and changes even in the first film, but in the end I couldn't disagree. Luke is styled after mythic heroes who, while they may suffer and grow over the course of their stories, are symbols of human ideals, not realistic human behavior. Luke is likable because we can vicariously live the adventure through him and his relatable and archetypal flaws and quirks, in spite of never being allowed too closely into his headspace and emotional spectrum.

Another Star Wars character that contrasts well with Luke is honestly one of my favorites of the Disney era or anytime before really, because he's so atypical for the franchise. He's not a hero, not worthy of admiration. In fact, he's pathetic and contemptible. And, as we learned last week, he's a creepo stalker guy. Of course, he's Syril Karn from Andor.

His story is far from over, but so far he's all flaws and I've found him fascinating. His might be the narrative developments I look forward to the most every week. And while there are no internal monologues in the show, Andor's effective writing gives Syril more complexity than you would expect for a (seemingly) tertiary Star Wars character. He gets his clothing specially tailored to stand out. He desperately seeks recognition and oversteps boundaries and his own ability to earn it (it so far has always backfired). He's committed to the fascist ideals of the Empire but can only land a faceless and monotonous data processing job and only through his uncle's connections. There are more angles to Syril than these, yet Luke has just one.

I won't say Syril is a round character yet, but he has that potential. Unlike Luke, he's layered and his future is unpredictable. His story may have some logical end points but he's not a hero or protagonist, so there's no guaranteed outcomes. It is odd to think that there may be more depth to Syril than Luke freakin' Skywalker, but Andor also has a far different approach an aims than the main Star Wars movies, so it may be apples and oranges.

But as the above article states, flat characters can still be likeable. I mean, I own maybe three dozen Luke Skywalker action figures so it's fair to say I like that character. The problem with flat characters from pop culture avenues like movies and games is that their superficialities often result in overuse of archetypes. I will say I don't care for a lot of characters in games like Devil Survivor, Persona, or even SMT because I've seen their archetypes before. There often is no attempt at additional complexity because it wouldn't fit the genre and expectations of an established game series or sequel. Hence, these characters become predictable and rote, which affects enjoyment of the work.

And speaking of action figures, pop culture characters reflect them in that they are manufactured to be appealing to their audiences. Even if they are flat and superficial, they still appeal because they are designed to be, from character design to familiar archetype. And that's okay! We might lose our minds if we rejected all but the most complex characters. So if you can buy merch of them, there's a real chance the character isn't all that deep.

#smt #devil survivor #megaten #star wars #luke skywalker #syril karn #andor #i want syril in the vintage collection #don't like those odds though

29 notes · View notes

nikibogwater · 1 year

Text

Niki Blethers: Daniel Spellbound season 2 First Impressions:

Okay, Netflix, you guys seriously need to get your advertising act together because I was completely unaware that this show had been confirmed for a season 2, let alone that it was already out.

Uuuuuuggggghhh, the character/monster design is still SO FREAKIN’ GOOD.

I love how Daniel just throws Hoagie at every gross/dangerous thing they encounter. The little snot has had it coming for way too long.

So it looks like it’s been a little while since the ending of the first season, which I wasn’t expecting. Considering the last episode of season 1 ended with Daniel booking it for his life from the Tracker’s Guild, I assumed we’d pick up right where we left off. But I actually kind of like the timeskip here. Daniel is no longer panicked and confused, he is just downright desperate, and quickly losing hope.

Aww, I’m really loving Lucy here. She’s very driven and passionate, and really wants to change the magical world for the better. And I love that Daniel and Hoagie are the only ones she trusts enough to tell about her ambitions.

Aaaaaand there’s the forced character conflict. -_-

Hey kids, you ever heard of this new-fangled thing called communication? You should try it some time. Really makes things a lot easier.

What--HOAGIE DON’T STOP HER. SHE WAS TRYING TO APOLOGIZE!

Okay, fine, I will give Hoagie a tiny bit of credit, he and Daniel do finally get a moment to just talk to each other, and Hoagie reassuring Daniel that he’ll stick with him no matter what was sweet (if a little bit unearned...)

Kind of undermined by the fact that he just prevented Daniel and Lucy from clearing up a misunderstanding that is clearly causing Daniel even more grief than he already has to deal with but OKAY MOVING ON TO MORE POSITIVITY!

I adore Shak. She just radiates Chaotic Youngest Child energy. An overeager, inexperienced, sassy little spitfire. She must be protected at all costs.

Oh, she’s looking for her long-lost big brother... 🥺💔

OH??? OH WHAT’S THIS???? IS THAT A FOUND FAMILY BROTHER-SISTER DYNAMIC I SEE FORMING BETWEEN DANIEL AND SHAK?????? 👀

Wow, okay, I forgot that sometimes this show can be surprisingly brutal. Daniel getting impaled by those magical spears caught me totally off-guard (but in a good way).

Also I would like to re-iterate a point I made in a past Blethers post: Daniel is a Whump-magnet. I haven’t checked the fanfic community for this show yet, but I’d bet a nickel that it’s mostly Daniel Whump fics.

As critical as I get with this show, I do genuinely enjoy it, and finding out there was already a second season out was a really nice surprise. I feel like some of my criticisms of season 1 are already being addressed, and that makes me hopeful that Daniel Spellbound will keep improving throughout its runtime. Again, I do recommend this show for anyone who enjoys animation. Even with its flaws, it’s still a very fun and creative romp with really likable characters (sans Hoagie) and a fascinating world.

#niki blethers #daniel spellbound #daniel spellbound spoilers

14 notes · View notes

robbyrobinson · 2 years

Text

Episode 4 of Komi Can't Communicate (Review)

This just goes to show how toxic simping can get. So, I love Komi Can't Communicate and would even go so far as to call it a "masterpiece" from its beautiful animation; likable characters with some depths; its wholesomeness, etc. But episode 4 is something else. Somehow we went from wholesome humor to DDLC in terms of disturb factor.

The first segment of the episode was good just being about Yadano's daily attempts to beat her "archrival" Komi with the latter having no idea that she was even in a challenge. Yadano's probably my favorite side character due to her over-the-top competitive drive.

The second half...oh boy. So, we have Tadano basically talking about how he was friends with the most beautiful girl in the school...and then, oh shit, he gets jumped. I legitimately thought that he probably died at that moment.

Yamai Ren...sigh...this character. While I still love the show and admire it for its take on social anxiety and offers some ways on how to deal with it, Yamai is the one thing that almost keeps the show from being a "masterpiece" in my eyes. How my thought process was when watching the episode.

During episode: Oh, she has a crush on Komi? Oh, puppy love, that's cute.

Few minutes into the episode: She...she's really obsessive. Alright, well...Wait, is she licking Komi's strand of hair? I feel like I'm going to be sick...The show has such good animation! Why'd they have to visualize that...?

Middle of the episode: She kidnapped Tadano. Are those pictures of herself and Komi all over the room? Oh...oh no.

I am serious; I was legitimately concerned for Komi in this episode. That if it was within her power, Yamai would pull some Silence of the Lambs shit on Komi and have her in a hole for a few days before making a skin suit from her and dancing in it. Someone get Keanu Reeves and Dominic Toretto to keep her under watch.

So, yes, Yamai freakin' kidnapped Tadano if there was ever any more reason to believe that Yamai is insane.

Just...Yamai. I am legitimately terrified of her. Never since Shion Sonozaki from Higurashi had I had these feelings of unease. If you were to tell me that she was an escaped mental patient who jabbed a plastic fork into one of her handlers' arms, I would believe you.

So, she gets to spend a lot of time with her beloved Komi, having "conversations" with her...completely ignorant that Komi never spoke once, and asked her if she wanted to come over for hamburgers. After a cute moment of Komi imagining Tadano was there to give her support, she appears to agree...which leads to Yamai overreacting. Najimi suggests that they go to Yamai's house, and the yandere has a "perverted image of Komi lying in her bed." But before she can make that happen, she had to get rid of Tadano.

And then the episode becomes even darker with Yamai asking Tadano whether he liked the sea or the mountains. Okay, so she doesn't gut him and wears his skin to get closer to Komi, but this girl is so beyond messed up, that if you rewrote the scenes, you can make a genuine creepypasta based on it. She not only kidnapped the Chadano, but she was going to dispose of him too.

Najimi and Komi arrive and Yamai goes to make some tea telling them to not open the closet door. To which Najimi, being the MVP they are, opening it anyway, but misunderstood it as being some kind of foreplay. Yamai arrives with two sharpened chopsticks (a knife in the manga) and brutally vivisects him by calling him an average piece of shit among other sharp criticisms.

She intimidates Komi with the chopsticks, but the Queen simply shakes her head and unties Tadano. Yamai tries to keep her from leaving by claiming that she did all of this for Komi's sake, but she could fuck off with that claim because she does not know Komi as much as she thought she did. Without even having to verbally chew her out, Komi writes on some paper and says she would decide her own friends for herself.

The worst part about this abominable character is the fact that she is not punished for her actions because she did commit two legitimate crimes: kidnapping and attempted murder. So she gets depressed over Komi rejecting her. Is that it? Not being friends with Komi is a greater punishment than being tossed into jail or whatsoever the law found appropriate? Not being friends is enough to make Yamai realize she had been a terrible character? Okay.

But it does lead to some more great scenes with Komi and Tadano: Komi, having remembered everything from yesterday down to the letter, asks Tadano if he truly wanted to remain friends with her due to the events fearing that more could happen to Tadano that she may be unable to stop. Tadano rejects the notion and reaffirms their friendship by quoting what she said yesterday.

Komi, while I understand you want friends, please maybe consider putting a restraining order on this girl because what makes you think she doesn't do anything that drastic again? But, of course, she does forgive Yamai and makes her a part of her entourage.

Looking into the manga, Yamai only gets worse the more she appeared with one instance happening sometime after the school became aware of Tadano and Komi dating. She overreacts to the fact that she was not holding hands with her Goddess and skips a week of school. She vents her frustrations to her clique of friends, only to throw them the hell out when she got a message from Komi that she was coming over to talk. Worse, she spots some Sleepy Sleepy Time pills and contemplates putting them into Komi's cup of tea. God only knows what she intended to do with Komi once she was unconscious.

I understand that she is supposed to be an intentionally hateable character with few redeeming traits, but there is a certain craft when it comes to making unlikeable characters that I feel Yamai fails at. Like the drug thing was the tipping point with how far they were willing to make her as hated as she is now. It was not funny in the least and only cements that Yamai exists to be that annoying perv of a character even when she does have some decent moments where she can be charitable when it has nothing to do with the center of her obsession.

Really, it is because of her presence in the episode that I didn't see virtually anything in it that was funny aside from Najimi freaking out about being alone with Komi since they could not translate whatever Komi was trying to say. Yamai's face turning into a kabuki mask for a moment was also slightly humorous.

While the episode is not my favorite, at the least, there are some good moments. It progresses Komi's development as a character by her putting her foot down to basically give a "fuck you" to Yamai for her attempts at trying to control who she was friends with. And really, if anything, this furthers her bond with Tadano because Tadano insists on remaining her friends regardless of what that would entail. So...in a way, Yamai helped strengthen their relationship. Which is something that she would not want to accept.

On a lesser note, I do recommend reading the dark fic "The Sea or the Mountains" by andreabandrea: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15217121. It takes a more serious look where Tadano is diagnosed with PTSD from his encounter with Yamai to the point of practically becoming sick whenever he was around her, and Yamai receives a more prompt punishment than in the episode along with additionally expanding on her character.

Rating

#komi can't communicate #komi san wa komyushou desu #yamai ren #tadano hitohito #shoko komi #episode review

37 notes · View notes

hezuart · 2 years

Note

....I miss the days when we had good cartoons and good stories or actual role models on TV, like Last Airbender and Teen Titans. Miraculous Ladybug. No. It's not that good, and the role model part, hell no. Like, You have Marinette, who is supposed to be the main protagonist, and she has friends AND her parent's approval of stalking him! Only one episode did someone find this weird and who may that person be? Alix in the episode where the baby is super tall and a giant, and then Rose said it was romantic. Like no! No! That is not okay! Stalking someone and calling it romantic! It's freakin Twilight all over again. A stalker vampire who is manipulative and a***ive, and then there is the werewolf who doesn't know boundaries. I liked Marinette in the episode Origins, where we got to know the character, OUTSIDE of her stalking. That was when she was likable and actually had some character outside of Adrien and stalking.

Adrien, he was a bit interesting, back in that episode, he wanted to go to school and make friends, while his dad was locking him up, unable to make friends after the death of his wife. But then...now we have stalking Maricreep and a cardboard cutout.

Oh! Oh! The icing on this crap cake of a show is the creator. I won't tell everything, but...I'll list a few things he's done - Claimed he and his team make better designs than Pixar( Way to insult the studio that pioneered the very form of animation Miraculous Ladybug uses today, Astruc, and he makes a huge risk, considering Disney is airing his show) -Deemed Chloe irredeemable, even though there is PLENTY of time to redeem her!

-He criticized Wonder Woman 1984, for having things that happened in the show, End of the movie, was exactly the same thing that happened at the end of Season 3.

There is much more, but their sensitive things involve horrible things, and I don't want to list them all. I can't watch this show, without getting mad. I'll laugh a bit because it's so stupid and their stories are laughable. Like nothing in the show matters, and the plot is so inconsistent. The things that made it interesting and had unique premises, like you said. But now...ugh. This show is leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth, I wanna rant about Kingdom Hearts again, and how it doesn't make sense lol

I don't know about Marinette being a role model, but the writing of her character is certainly... not great.

I've heard some things about the creator of the series myself, none of which were very good.

Honestly though, aside from writing, there's several other reasons why ML is a mess. It all involves the production of it.

It has like... three animation studios behind it which explains the inconsistent animation and jumbled airdates. It's a "joint effort by France's Zagtoon and Method Animation Studios with Toei Animation of Japan and SAMG Animation of South Korea."

So right off the bat there's going to be translation issues and inconsistency.

Miraculous Ladybug was originally pitched in 2D

The main characters were "Bridgette" and "Felix". The creators realized that Felix is too cold hearted / uninterested in Bridgette which doesn't make sense why she would crush on him. His Chat Noir personality was fine though. As to why Felix was cold hearted is most likely because of how he grew up with his father, isolated and unwanted. While I agree Felix needs more spark to him for Bridgette's crush to be believable, instead, the creators completely erased him and replaced him with a cardboard cut-out of a boy named Adrien who just lets his dad abuse him and doesn't see anything wrong with it and still loves him. While the Felix in the pilot already realizes his relationship with his dad is a lost cause.

The pilot was a completely different, but balanced dynamic.

Bridgette was actually super open about her feelings. Felix found her constant stalking/crushing annoying and did his best to ignore her, just like Ladybug does to his Chat Noir personality.

So it wasn't like Felix was the bad guy here, their level of interest was the same! Their dynamics were the same!

Instead, in the 3D version, Adrien, instead of not being interested in Marinette, he is indifferent to her / ignorant of her crush / thinks of her as just a friend / does not realize she has feelings for him. It is so obvious to everyone except for him that she likes him, and he doesn't find her annoying in the slightest, meanwhile, Ladybug gets to think Chat Noir Is annoying all she wants. It's unbalanced.

So Felix was completely replaced.

OR SO I THOUGHT.

THE CREATORS ARE LIKE??? YEAH NO ACTUALLY FELIX STILL EXISTS AND HE MIGHT BE ADRIEN'S COUSIN OR BROTHER OR SOMETHING ???

that's not weird or confusing at all!! The hell?? Why is this even necessary? He's even more of a jerk in the canon series!

On top of that, the early versions of ML renders were superior.

Marinette initially had black hair for her 3D render but the show runners were like "no make it a weird blue" and we got this

On top of that, allegedly there's a cinematic movie in the works with a DOZEN leaks

Meanwhile there's another project the studio has been working on called "Pixie Girl" (which may or may not have been considered an ML spin off or gotten a crossover at some point) that was set to release in 2019, but three years later there's been no news.

Also I'm in love with this Witch boy and if they change his design I will die

Yeah so in conclusion the entire production of ML has been hell and it certainly doesn't help that the initial superior ideas and concept art are overwritten by bad writers

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug spoilers #pixie girl #text post #long post #ask #if it werent for hawkmoth there wouldnt even be a show #hes the only villain #and his miraculous isnt meant to be used for evi l #literally any kwami can be used for evil why is it only ever nooroo #Chat Noirs power can literally kill people like what is going on

22 notes · View notes

iwasbored777 · 2 years

Note

I am loving all of the MLP posts your reblogging! I grew up on the show and legit cried when it ended.

I gotta ask who your favorite character(s) are?

I cried too! But the saddest episode has to be The Perfect Pear. Man I cry like a baby every time but it's so beautiful! It's one of my favourite shows ever!❤️❤️❤️❤️

I like all characters honestly. The Main Six, Shining Armour, Princess Cadance and their baby Flurry Heart, Starlight Glimmer, Discord, Spike, Maud Pie... Oh too many! I enjoy episodes with Flurry Heart the most cuz she's freakin adorable but characters in ML are really likable. How about you?

#Mlp #my little pony #friendship is magic #mlp fim #ask and answer

16 notes · View notes

fishing-for-blood · 3 years

Note

Ok now that I know you watched Invincible too, I need to know what you thought of Red Rush, the Immortal, MachineHead and Doc Seismic, I HAVE to know.

ARI asdfghjkl yaknow it’s 50% your fault I put it on my watch list in the first place, (the other 50% being those ‘look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power’ memes) but YEAH

HONESTLY Doc Seismic is my fave out of everyone you just listed like???? Dude I cracked up SO MUCH at his dialog wtf?? Also the way he ‘flew’ looked so freakin stupid I love it, I’m so glad he’s not dead but is actually raising the lava monster army he honestly deserves 😌I will say it DID rub me the wrong way a smidge how he, very correctly, called out Mt Rushmore as a racist monument to colonizers and stuff (plus the major in genderstudies bit) but was, ya know, ooo bad guy needs to be defeated lets shrug off this legitimate criticism because evil violence. Immensely cringe. Like, I’m glad I guess the likable campy semi-joke villain had that bit cause it slightly lightens what would otherwise be the implication that the people who care about these issues are violent bad and are a threat to peace and society, but ehhhhh. Considering the show does try to play the progressive social justice issues straight otherwise throughout the show (if not awkwardly at times) I’m giving it a pass and waiting hopefully for him to make another appearance. Cause I mean how you gonna keep him alive when you otherwise are killing characters left and right but NOT bring him back??? Invincible pls

MachineHead would honestly be very boring and forgettable were it not for the voice. The stupid auto tune shit completely makes the character. I really wish they pushed the autotune a little bit further, or even went all the way with making it sing-songish just ONCE. I kept waiting for it but it never came and I felt cheated a tad. Still hilarious though.

Red Rush!! Hard to say since we didn’t get that much time with him but his death was fucked. I have a REALLY BAD eye squick so I covered the screen with my hand when Omniman had his head but, damn, yeah. Sacrificial tone-setting death😔Honestly the picnic date scene did nothing for me with his character than just him being the first to react to Omniman showing up and pushing Immortal out of the way. That got me man. I wish we got a little more of him😭

Speaking of, I kinda just don’t care about Immortal yet. It was cool actually getting to see his fighting ability when he was revived, but the entire time he was just berserk mode so??? I mean it was really funny just IMMEDIATE FERAL RAGE WHERES OMNIMAN GRAA. Like dude I feel that but also I need to see him interact with the world more before making a judgement otherwise lol. I DO see potential for him to be an interesting kind of stand-in mentor figure for Mark as the new only surviving member of the Guardians (I presume they’ll successfully bring him back to life again). Could be some bitterness laced in the relationship, could be genuine concern, pity, kinship in the feeling of betrayal by Omniman- so many possibilities so I REALLY hope that’s where his character goes.

I know that the comic the series is based on probably answers the hypotheticals I threw around here but I actually don’t wanna be spoiled for once so pls no one reading this spoil anything for me I beg

#long post #ARI TY FOR THE ASK #MAN this show had really good highs but really cringe lows for me #invincible #invincible spoilers #yo the fucking eye squick got me a few times when I wasnt ready like i straight closed the browser and died #freakin drhdr was HARD to watch for the same reason but I digress #Im looking forward to season two but also not #idk #my favorite character to watch was omniman #and my favorite plot line was Debbies followed by Robots #both of which are resolved #so tangibly I dont have a lot to look forward to knowingly #but I HATED all the school and relationship drama. actually skipped every single scene with or about Amber #No hate to her character I hope she has stuff OUTSIDE of the gf role soon cause otherwise shes nonexistent to me #like I love atom eve #she had other stuff going on BESIDES the cheating stuf #so even when I skipper HER relationship issues I still got to enjoy her character otherwise #so i guess it depends what the new balance of all that jazz in s2 is gonna be #why must american media always be so heavy handed with romance drama it repulses me whyyyyyyyyy #bleh #also #FUCK balancing personal and superhero shit I CANNOT watch any spiderman anything for that exact reason #ANYWAY #red rush #immortal #doc seismic #MachineHead #mine #ari

4 notes · View notes

elfdragon12 · 2 years

Text

Okay, so my brain is pretty exhausted, but I've been thinking about this since I came across a Transformers movie forum thread asking "which do you like better of Ironhide: red or black?" (As it was a part of a movie thread, you can guess the bias of the answers.)

There were folks riffing on "geewunners". Like Pokemon "genwunners", these are folks who complain about anything that doesn't strictly hold to the original cartoon. While I'm sure that there are plenty of "geewunners" who are absolutely obnoxious...

If Michael Bay wasn't making the movies for the fans of the original cartoons... Who was he making them for?

The first movie was released in 2007. It was PG-13. For American audiences, the Transformers TV content they would have consumed and been 'of age' to watch the movie would be the original cartoon, Beast Wars, and Beast Machines. TFA only started that year, so any new fans wouldn't have been old enough to watch the movie (at least, if they had parents who weren't lax about ratings).

Trying to attract new eyes to the franchise? I mean, I suppose... But, ultimately, the movies fail as adaptations because the movie version of the characters aren't particularly compatible with any other TF media.

Hound is a particularly good example of this. When I first saw Hound, I went "oh, a green truck! That must be Kup!" And then I saw the body type of his root form and went "oh, big fella, that must be Bulkhead... Smoking a cigar even though that's Kup's thing"... And then they called him Hound. I went through two completely different characters before they had to tell me who he was supposed to be. And he wasn't Hound in the slightest. Not in alt mode. Not in body. Definitely not in personality. I'm all for tweaking characters and adding details to cater to the story you're trying to tell... But then there's completely changing them to be unrecognizable.

And then Frenzy... I mean, he could turn into a musical device... And was kind of a gremlin boy... But... If you put bayverse Frenzy next to actual Frenzy (blue or red), calling them the same character would take a leap even an Olympian would be jealous of.

So, imagine being a fan of the movies trying to get into other TF media, but then it turns out nothing is the same.

(I mean, that and it never really seemed like the Bay movies were particularly interested in making a Transformers movie anyway, considering how much of his movies were focused on the, in my personal opinion, largely unlikable human cast. The female characters were the most likable, but Bay was more focused on objectifying them than capitalizing on them being actually compelling... And he apparently told Peter freakin' Cullen that he was doing the Optimus voice wrong.)

#Transformers #personal opinion

1 note · View note

calliecat93 · 3 years

Text

ST: TNG S4 Watchthrough Episodes 6-9

Legacy: We have ended up on the home planet of Tasha Yar… and wow it’s not a nice place. We also find out that she has a sister, welp. So… it was alright. Ishara is very similar to Tasha in demeanor, but also very different. I tilt my head at the crew being so willing to trust and accept Ishara into their midst when they know nothing about this woman. I could see the ‘she’s using them’ plot a mile away. But to be fair, the episode addresses it. They wanted to see Tasha. They wanted to see the brave, loyal, strong-willed Security Chief that they lost so callously in her sister… and in the end, that took over. While I can see why Ishara acted as she did, she didn’t know these people and hasn’t seen Tasha in years so she’s under no obligation to care about them, it really has to hurt that she used them and almost committed mass murder and make them take the lame. Her world is a hellhole so her actions make sense, but that doens’t change the betrayal. Especially for Data. Riker sums it up well, with trust comes betrayal… but without trust, there is no friendship. That’s just the cruel truth. Anyways, it was a fine episode. I like that we have a pot-mortem for Tasha even if late… but it just makes me wish that tasha herself didn’t get killed sos he could have had her own plot and feeligns focused on. It still pisse sme off and is just a reminder of so much wasted potential. But ah well, for what they had to work with, they did it welll. 3/5.

Reunion: K’Ehleyr is back… and with a child. Worf’s child, to be exact. Huh. have been waiting very patiently for a follow-up to Sins of the Father and this was an excellent one! Back in K’Ehleyr’s first episode, she was unwilling to take the Oath and Worf wanted to so much and follow the Klingon traditions. Here? K’Ehleyr is ready and doens’t care that he was discommendated… but now Worf can’t. he’s been dishonored and even if it means nothing to K’Ehleyr, it means a great deal to him. He can’t let her or his son bear that shame. It’s so hard to watch him here. How anguished he feels, the way the other Klingons treat him despite it being their damn fault that he accepted it, to begin with, just knowing that he did nothing wrong… but for the greater good, he has to bear it. He doesn’t even want Alexander to be known as his son not because he’s unwilling to accept parental responsibility but to spare him of the dishonor. Just… freakin’ ouch. I was so happy to see K’Ehleyr back and her character is just so freakin’ good and her wanting to allow Alexander to find his life path? Excellent parenting. So… needless to say, her being killed off pisses me off. They at least allowed her character to shine, but… it feels like they only did it to make Worf suffer more. It was well-executed, I was about ready to tear up and Worf being driven to kill Duras for all the suffering that he put him through and now killing the woman he loved (which btw the romantic chemistry was MUCH better here than last time)? I can’t blame him at all. I get why he got reprimanded since Duras was a political figure and this can cause a whole host of problems and clearly Picard was sympathetic… but I just felt so bad for Worf. At least he admitted that he was Aexander’s father and hopefully the poor kid will have a good life with Worf’s parents, bu… yeah. K’Ehleyr’s death stops me form giving this a perfect score, very least I wish we had gotten to see her fight instead of goign to commerical and them walking in on her bloody corpse… but at least they got the tone down. I just hope that one day, Worf and his brother can truly expose the conspiracy because Worf deserves a Hell of a lot better. 4.5/5.

Future Imperfect: Let’s perform a thought experiment, shall we? Imagine going on assignment on your birthday, business as usual… then some kind of mishap happens. You wake up… and discover that you have lost sixteen years' worth of your memory. You can’t remember significant life changes, special moments for yourself and your loved ones, or even your spouse and child. Then just as you begin getting used to things and accepting this new life… you find out that it was all a lie and you were in an illusion all along. You were captured and tricked… and then you find out that was also a lie and it was all due to a lonely alien child left on a barren planet/within a highly advanced Holodeck system that can give him anything that he wants, everyone he knew had died and he did all of this just to have a friend. Congratulations folks, you have now experienced what Riker went through this episode! Yeah, this episode was crazy. I feel bad for the poor kid, while he shouldn’t have done what he did we’re talking about a lonely child essentially forced to live in a Holodeck and just wanted to interact with someone real. Also, I loved how Riker got clued in on how the future word was fake, excellent call-back to Season One! Not much else to say, but good episode! It was wild, that’s for sure~ 3.5/5.

Final Mission: Well folks, this is the curtain call for Wesley Crusher. I know that he pops back up once or twice, but this will be his final episode as a main character as he finally enters the Academy. We’ll get to my final thoughts on Wesley here in a bit, but l focus on the episode itself first. And… it was fine. We have Picard, Wesley, and some third guy crash land on a desert planet, the Enterprise unaware of if they’re alive or not. Thus the three struggle to survive which not only is the third guy essentially a paranoid asshole… but a cave-in seriosuly injures Picard. Thus Wesley is more or less on his own and has to keep Picard alive. Thankfully we avoid killing him off, and thus they make sure to give Wesley a proper send-off. They let him showcase his strengths with his intellegence, fast thinking, and compared to in the beginning he’s much more mature and capable of handling an Away Mission. This convinced me that yes, Wesley is ready for the Academy and that he will be a great Starfleet Officer someday. Meanwhile the Enterprise are dealing with their own issues because of course they are. Nothing can ever just go easy for these people. can it? It’s fine. The Enterprise plot didn’t have me invested aside form worrying about Dr. Crusher. The poor woman just burris herself in her work to deal with her worry about Wesley and evades Troi when she tries to assure her Otherwise the plot is there sot hat it can be a solo Picard and Wesley adventure without hem interfering. Which while I havn’t been the biggest fan of their dynamic, it’s clear how much Welsey admires Picard such as recounting their Samaritan Snare adventure, and Picard admititng that he brought him along because he was going to miss the kid. It’s a nice moment between the characters and allows Wesley to truly open up… though I wish it focused more on him and his mother since that’s been seriously lacking, but ah well. It was still a good send-off episode for Wesley and that’s how you want to treat your characters, whether they stay ont he show or not. 3/5.

As for Wesley himself… it’s been a bumpy road. Do I agree with the consensus that Wesley is an annoying child character that even his actor agrees with (albeit I think jokingly but still)? No. Wesley isn't a bad character. He’s a smart young kid, tries his best, makes mistakes but tries to do his best, and he grew. He’s a perfectly likable kid and this episode especially shows the best of him. Do I agree that the character's role and execution were annoying and contributed to his reputation? Yes. That is ultimately what it boils down to decent character, poor execution. In S1 Wesley was elevated far more than he needed to be. He was given privileges that no other character his age would have been granted no matter the competency level that borders on blatant favoritism. Whenever he made a serious error, he got praise for fixing it, never scolded for his actions with The Naked Now being the worst example. He still had good episodes like Coming of Age, but alas. I think having a kid character who aspires to be in Starfleet, has a parent who is a prominent crew member, and being able to use his skills to help was a perfectly fine idea… but there were just issues with how they did it. S2 and 3 were. While I disliked him at the end of The Dauphin and he still got showed some blatant favoritism, it was better balanced. I didn't feel he earned to be an Ensign until this episode… y’know, the one that shipped him off to The Academy. Crusher being written out in S2 and then brought back in S3 also really killed any and all potential that their dynamic could have truly brought which also hurt. It really feels like by S3 they just didn’t know what to do with the character anymore, limiting him to mainly Helmsman duty. He wasn't being elevated anymore… but he wasn't adding anything anymore either. Maybe promoting him was to help give him something… but Wil Wheaton decided to go, and that ended that. I can’t say I’m sad to see Wesley go because his potential just got squandered to the point that keeping him just felt pointless, and having him go to the Academy feels like the best natural end-point for him, so might as well be now. Nevertheless, Wesley was still part of the crew and for all that I criticized, he certainly didn’t deserve the hate that he got. If people like or even relate to the character, that’s great! He just didn’t work for me unfortunateley. Wil Wheaton obviously moved on to bigger, better things and is well-liked in the fandom, so that’s good cause he certainly did the best that he could. He just wasn’t given a lot of good material. Hopefully Welsey’s later guest appearances will give him somethingg ood and heck maybe they’ll convince Wheaton to come back in Picard one day, but for now… farewell Wesley. Can’t say I’ll miss you, but it wasn’t the worst ride either.

#st watchthrough

3 notes · View notes