#Maybe I need to address the criticism by adding a character with a prosthetic to THIS arc even earlier | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bonefall · 28 days

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I personally like Thunder's prosthetic. Explained it to my friend (who does use a mobility device, a cane and wheelchair, and listens to me rant and infodump about BB) and they agreed, it's important to know that not every person needs what someone wants to give them. It's another example of "bad ableist person does a thing that hurts a disabled person because they are bad and ableist".

Clear Sky got Jagged Peak killed and would have killed Sunlit Frost! He would absolutely force his disabled son to be "normal" and present it like a privilege. "I wouldn't do this for anyone else, it's special, why don't you want to be helped?"

Thunder Storm should toss it in Clear Sky's face. (I would say toss it into the river but we do not pollute waterways in this house)

Thank you for telling me this, and tell your friend I'm thanking them too! If they have anything else to add please forward what they have to say

Since BB!DOTC tackles some of the heaviest topics in the entire series because its canon equivalent is so dark, I think very carefully about what I do here and how I show it. I take feedback on its sensitive aspects very seriously. If I'm understanding the criticism properly, it's that I should avoid stigmatizing prosthetics by making sure Thunder Storm's not the only one with it-- which he's not! And I'll add even more.

I don't want to avoid something only because it's uncomfortable if the topic is important, and my portrayal is respectful. Ableism IS uncomfortable! There are some situations where a prosthetic is not wanted! I think the rejection of this particular one is both a good opportunity to show a type of ableism and ALSO is very fitting for the characters.

In BB!Clear Sky's mind, the villain, he's fixing an old mistake. He can't admit that he got Jagged Peak killed or take REAL accountability for it (though he will, occasionally, apologize insincerely), but deep in his bones, he knows what he did was cruel. He'll never tell anyone this because he doesn't really cognate it himself, but Thunder Storm NEEDS to take his gift.

If Thunder doesn't take it, it blows a hole in his newest story. You see, throwing Jagged Peak out was All That Could Have Been Done back then. It was a Tragedy and he simply Made A Hard Choice. He regrets it very much, But You Have To Understand.

But now? Now? Well, behold. Look at what he's accomplished since the tragic death of his little brother. His cats are well-fed, cared for, and stable enough to make such incredible advancements. If only Jagged Peak had been able to hold on longer, if only he could be here now, I could fix him.

Just like I can (MAKE YOU JUST LIKE ME) fix you.

"Everything I've ever done is for Jagged Peak. For Fluttering Wing. For you." Thunder Sky is SPECIAL, but if he rejects any gift, tries to turn down the "privileges" offered to him, in an instant that becomes ungratefulness and arrogance. He both forces him to be special, and then leverages it against him if it's rejected. "Spoiled brat, doesn't appreciate what I've worked so hard to give him."

It all goes back to him and his own guilt. He can NEVER be wrong. He can't accept his family doesn't have to be "normal" or reflect his own ability. He won't see himself as a bully, let alone a murderer. It was never about his son's comfort or finding out what Thunder Storm wants or needs, it was about his own ego.

...All that said I'm still taking feedback if there's anything else I should keep in mind, or if anyone has a counter point, especially if you also have experience here.

(In the interest of having a link trail for posterity, here's the critique/call for feedback this is in response to)

#ALSO also I will take suggestions on other characters who should have prosthetics #Sunlit makes sense and it will make a really nice character moment later for him to have one built #There's also an amputee in RiverClan few people talk about called Stonestream #I can give him one and bump him up into a bigger character. In BB he is the sibling of Willowshine #BB!DOTC #better bones au #Also just as a side note... I love writing BB!Skystar. My ire for the character comes from his redemption arc so I feel like I get to--#--write the character I WANTED to see #Same with Bramble in other BB arcs #cw ableism #tw ableism #ableism #They're fascinating in that they always have to see themselves as the victim or the hero #They believe every lie they tell.#If you ever catch them in a contradiction they will still try to find some way to turn it on you and YOUR lack of understanding.#Interestingly both of them are ableist. Sky's is just more obvious because he's LOUDLY bigoted.#But BB!Bramble is *notably* less close to Jay for a very sad and very subtle reason.#Jay just doesn't serve his ego like the others do until much later in his life.#unfortunately most bigotry is like that.#the type you have a hard time calling out because it's a deniable bias. the constant gaslighting of being part of a marginalized group #Maybe I need to address the criticism by adding a character with a prosthetic to THIS arc even earlier #Problem is that like... Thunder's small merc group is already full of disabled characters and their THING is forming in response to ableism #OH maybe I'll put someone in the Forest Cat group which is lead by Slash?#I need to finish that last book and then gather up all the cats for sorting into allegiances

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christinethethunnus · 5 years

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So..back from watching HTTYD 3...

(I respect everyone who loved it and cried during watching it, so if you loved it a lot, I recommend on not reading this post.)

(Contains entire plot of movie including personal criticism.)

And I didn’t really like it. I thought the visuals were good, but the plot and motivations were really weak compared to the previous movies and there was a lot of weird stuff in there that was just unnecessary or actually relevant.

My main problem with is it’s just too predictable. Movies can be predictable, and maybe because this is the last movie of a trilogy I might have gotten too hyped up. But if you’re going to make it be predictable, then add actually good conflict or good dialogue. But the dialogue is so cliched like, How are your plans on conquering the world going? You’re the one who changed me, I will destroy everything and everyone you love MUHAHAHAHHA Our home is not only this place we live on, it’s us and something like that.

And am I the only one who thought the writers were gonna go with Tuffnut is actually gay for Hiccup route? I know he’s an annoying character, but the way he’s always bringing up

is Hiccup’s getting married to Astrid, is he not gonna get married to her, he’s gonna help out with him, talks about a lot about Hiccup, overly agreeing with everything he does and the weird smashing Hiccup into his ‘beard’

was really disturbing in my opinion. I don’t get why Tuffnut’s there.

Snotlout likes Valka now. Yeah, wasn’t okay at all with that. And he still has inferiority issues, now with Eret. Which was resolved in the end with Hiccup’s mom going like hey, I think you have better brains than Eret, which means we have possible chemistry and this is NOT OKAY TO ME. Snotlout never had any scene which would make her say that, and why would she even show any interest to someone at a similar age to her son?

I have no idea how Snotlout’s character development is like in the tv series, but writers, if you’re gonna use that as a character trait, can’t you just have it actually be relevant to the story and build up the guy to be an actual character than a stereotypical stupid bully jerk who now likes the MAIN CHARACTER’S MOM???

And the villain.

This guy. I forgot what his name was after I came out watching it, so I just found it’s Grimmel, Grimmel the Grisly. Okay. You claim to have killed all of the Night Furies. How did you know you killed all of them? Did you like count all of the N.Fs and then started killing them off one by one? Did you do the same with the Light Furies? Does NightLight Furies live outside of the Hidden world and that’s why you could count all of them?

How does Valka know the Night Furies were all killed too? If He’s a dragon ‘hunter’ why didn’t Valka, who were protecting the dragons like Hiccup, not know who he is and have methods to defend against him? Was she just protecting dragons who lived in a certain range of land?

I really thought Grimmel was going to turn out as the ‘Anti-Hiccup’, someone who Hiccup could have been, challenging Hiccup physically and psychologically. He could have threatened to destroy Berk with the help of his conqueror friends, he says he’s a hunter but Hiccup and his friends and viking guys just chill on the island.

At that scene when Grimmel’s like ‘can’t you guess where they must have gone’(evil guy face), I was thinking that this guy knows EVERY PLAN THAT’S GOING ON IN HICCUP’S BRAIN OMG DON’T CAMP IN THAT ISLAND YOU GUYS ARE DOOMED but no, they have to tail Ruffnut, who was accidentally left behind, to find the actual location wayyyyyy later on. Great tracking skills, I’m so impressed.

I can’t help but think the writers went the easy route because they didn’t want to take risks and disappoint or shock the kids that would watch the movies, but you’ve already taken risks in the first and second movies with Hiccup’s leg and Stoick’s death, the viewers have grown up with the movies, so why are you going backwards all of a sudden? Not to mention this being the end of the trilogy so I can’t expect that the next one will be better than this one.

My final rant is a plot I wrote right after I came back from watching it yesterday, contains the entire plot of the movie, I didn’t change the final half completely because I had to rest after all that 3D and moving chairs, just added ideas which I thought could have been in some scenes. It’s not great, some scenes could be cliche too, but it’s what I wished could have been. I haven’t watched the entire TV series, so please put that into consideration.

(I didn’t write Grimmel’s name because I forgot what it was at the time when I was writing this down, but I think bad guy’s enough for his current characterization and you could add any name in it if you wanted, I also forgot how you call the people of Berk and just wrote vikings instead. There’s no full dialogue scenes either, just some gibberish lines.)

Hiccup and gang saves the dragons, and returns to Berk.

Berk is overpopulated by dragons and humans, and while managing to co-exist with them, are having problems like the dragons consuming too many fish, serious arson, and some of the vikings (including Gobber) are interested in plundering other villages with their dragons, because that’s what VIKINGS DO.

The giant dragon knocks down the towers which served as houses for the dragons, and they need a place to stay, and the newcomer dragons end up barging into the Vikings’ houses, being not accustomed to the rules. The alpha, Toothless, tries to control them, but the damage is done.

So, Hiccup is forced to look for a haven for some of the dragons to stay beyond Berk, which he recalls the memory of his dad, and the stories of the ‘Hidden World of Dragons.’ And while he wants to work on looking for that, Hiccup is chief, and can’t leave the village like he used to while Stoick was around. Hiccup also addresses that they’ll have to do something about the dragon hunters and their plans to use the dragons as weapons, and same scene with Gobber, him saying that one day Hiccup will meet his match.

(Scene with the Conquerors, showing them training dragons to be brutal killers and detailed plans of weaponizing them) appearance of the bad guy, he doesn’t look menacing, thin and has the appearance of a weasel. Is irked at the mentioning of ‘dragon riders’, and follows similarly to movie scene. (shows his power of DARTS by immobilizing a big dragon)

Snotlout, claiming to be second in charge, leaves with Astrid, (and the dragons) and he brags about how dismayed she must be to lose such a guy like him (Astrid ignores him), and continues to fantasize about Hiccup’s mom.

Astrid: (disgusted, scoffs) she’s like the same age as your mom

Snotlout: and more awesome, thinner and beautiful...... (A:ugh)

Snotlout mumbles about her probably preferring Eret, and they talk over Snotlout feeling inferior and wanting to get compensation from being adored by stronger women. (like Valka or Astrid) Astrid points out he can’t fill in that gap by getting married to the previous chief’s wife, he has to prove himself actually being courageous (S:Which I am!) They go through clouds, and is astonished.

(black screen, transitions to Berk)

Toothless tries to play with Hiccup, but he’s burdened by his chief duties and can’t spend time with his bud. Pouting, Toothless leaves the hut and catches the scent of the Light Fury and searches for her, meeting in the forest. They have a moment, but she flies away, and Toothless looks at his prosthetic tail with resent, and looks back to the sky with longing.

(Transition to hidden island in the clouds)

Snotlout and Astrid arrive on the island, and finds it good enough to hide the dragons in it, and the dragons find refuge in the woods. Snotlout announces all is done and they should leave, but Astrid decides to explore the island, and draws it on pieces of paper. Snotlout questions what she’s doing, and Astrid answers it’s for Hiccup’s map. S comments on when she’s so become like Hiccup, and she comments,

Yeah, I never saw it coming. (Astrid smiles as she continues to draw, when suddenly she spots the Light Fury in the sky, and hurriedly draws it on another paper.)

Done with work, Hiccup sighs as he finally comes out, and sees Toothless, and asks whether his bud wants to get some flying with him. Toothless looks depressed, and trips Hiccup with his prosthetic tail.

“Aw, come on, what you’d do that for?” (Toothless:growls) and Hiccup is slightly worried about him. Astrid arrives with Snotlout, their mission accomplished, and Snotlout announces that HE’S seen a NEW NIGHT FURY, ONLY WHITE BUT NEW AND IT WAS HE WHO FOUND IT SO HE’LL NAME IT- Astrid comes over to Hiccup, and hands over the drawing, and that it disappeared while being chased by other dragons she’s never seen before.(the bad guy’s dragons.) She comments on them being very hostile, and that they were trying to force the L.Fury to come with them. Toothless listens to them talking, and makes enthusiastic motions at the mentioning of the Light Fury (also named by Astrid)

(transition to Valka) she talks about how the Night furies went extinct (memory scene) she was looking for other dragons which were going extinct, and comes across the bad guy’s lair which had skull upon skull of all kinds of dragons, and mostly Night and Light furies. And since she could communicate with dragons she never heard of them recalling on seeing another Night Fury, so assumed they had gone extinct. (Fishlegs adding that the last records of N,Furies were made of patches of writings from decades ago, so it was unclear whether they went extinct or not)

After listening to Valka, Hiccup is delighted at the idea of finding a new dragon, and wants to go and find it. Some of the Vikings are interested in having another Night fury to protect them, which they could use in their pillaging villages.(Viking stuff) Hiccup is still against using dragons as weapons, (H: They are our family) and Gobber counters, We are already using them to make weapons, you, are doing it as well, Hiccup. (H:But not to harm other humans-) But you are no Dragon. It’s high time you chose the side where you want to rule over.

And Hiccup notices most of the things he did was to assist in humans living a better life with dragons than actually trying to solve the problems the villagers had. He wonders whether he just took the place of chief just to not disappoint his father. Hiccup turns to talk with Toothless to collect his thoughts, but he’s not there, and Hiccup feels more alone and burdened than ever.

Toothless is absent during the previous scene, as he hears distress calls from afar and looks for the Light Fury. He can’t fly, but can glides down and climbs trees to look for her, and finds her hurt and afraid, injured by the bad guy’s dragons. (same scene like the movie, tries to court her, but fails, tries again, but fails, and then succeeds with the drawing.) and when she tries to get more close, she’s shot by the evil guy’s dart, and Toothless is captured in a trap. He calls a distress call, which orders all of the dragons on Berk, who goes to save him, and the Vikings including Hiccup notice this. Before Toothless is taken, Hiccup arrives on the back of another dragon, and Hiccup encounters his enemy for the first time, but the guy flies away with his dragons.

(transition to dart scene) Eret explains who the bad guy is, calls him ‘The Dragonslayer’ who was rumored to have killed all of the Night Furies. which connects to Valka’s story of the dragon skeleton heap. Eret adds, that if the conquerors have called upon the bad guy, then they must be ready for another attack. The Vikings call on war with the conquerors and the Dragonslayer, and they’ll use their dragons to crush them. Against the idea, Hiccup tries to say they could work things out without fighting, but he is reminded by Snotlout (Valka winces) how that turned out a year ago. He looks for Astrid to support, but she agrees with Snotlout, saying that she can’t lose him too. Not a second time. And she glances at his prosthetic leg. [which H notices, and understands]

The crowd over agreeing or disagreeing on war, and Hiccup bellows Enough!

He asks to give him some time, he’ll work something out, and goes into his hut. (opens his map and Stoick’s book about the Hidden world.

(same scene with the bad guy)(the bad guy’s dragons circle around Hiccup, threatening him, drooling venom)they have a talk about how the guy became a hero by killing a night Fury, (Hiccup is reminded of himself

in the first movie) Hiccup claims the dragons are harmless, and can live along with humans, as he has proven with Berk,

But the bad guy retorts, then why can’t the other Vikings exist with the dragons, if they are so harmless? Why didn’t the people of Berk co-exist with dragons before Hiccup, although they must have had so many chances to?

Hiccup: Because they went the easy way of trying to kill them off.

B.G: Exactly. And how wrong is that? You don’t seriously think dragons to be equal to you? Just because they are big lizards that breathe fire and can fly? You wouldn’t befriend flies even if they had grown to the size of a horse, you kill them. same with dragons.

Hiccup tries to ignore the bad guy’s words, claiming he’s nothing but a cold blooded murderer, and the bad guy says he killed dragons for humans, and was therefore hailed a hero among men. Just like Stoick.

“And whose chief were you again? Hiccup, Savior of Dragons?”

Suddenly, Astrid hacks into the hut with Stormfly, which smelled the dragons’ venom. She saves Hiccup (and asleep Toothless or fake Fishlegs, but then Toothless comes to save Hiccup with Astrid)

and the bad guy retreats on his dragons, shouting that he will kill off the last Night fury alive, and he will wear their skin as his coat to honor Stoick, the greatest of dragonkillers. If Hiccup dares to stop him, he will destroy Berk. (The hut is burnt down)

Everyone hurridly arrives to see Stoick’s hut burn down, and Astrid pulling Hiccup out, them coughing from the smoke.

Hiccup says they’re in danger, the bad guy’s going to come for them unless he gives up Toothless and the dragons. The Vikings and Snotlout claim this a proclamation of war, and they leave to prepare for it, and Hiccup tries to stop them, but they don’t listen, and leave off without him. Agitated, he sighs, and leans on a post to think. Astrid comes up to Hiccup, and asks him if he’s okay.

Hiccup: Yeah, probably, on a second…I don’t think so.

She smiles as she gives him the map of the island she (and Snotlout)found.

“I don’t think this is the place you were looking for.. but it’s not half bad. And it’s a new add to your map. “ Hiccup ponders on this information, large, not on the map, and hidden from plain sight.

He calls on the Vikings that they could move on to this Island to hide themselves, and the dragons to hide from the ships that are coming for Berk. Hiccup declares that he cannot lose the soul of Berk which is both this island and the lives of people of it.) Including the dragons.

(same scene with the bad guy and the conquerors) – B.G says he has a plan to find them (Moves off to the island with the dragons.)

(scene with Snotlout and Valka talking about inferiority issues (she says she only loves Stoick, and gives him motherly advice on being warrior like by talking about Stoick)

---(Below are summaries of the scene from the movie, and the ideas I wished it could have been)

*The L.F arrives on the island, Toothless is given the good new tail and goes after her

Hiccup tries to capture the bad guy, falls into obvious trap (Ruffnut captured and annoys the bad guy, he follows her back with the armada)

- Ruffnut talks about everything about the Hiccup Gang, the bad guy could have like used that to harm Astrid and force Hiccup to do his shit or if they’re only eating fish, use some dragon to poison the water and fish so they’ll starve to death. Ever heard of Siege tactics?

*Hiccup tries to find Toothless, finds the hidden world. (Toothless hailed king, Hiccup is saved by Toothless and remembers his dad talking about his mom and getting not married and how love is powerful)

- This could have gone like this, Hiccup and Astrid is attacked by the dragons, and as Hiccup is the intruder, (or he or Astrid accidentally injures a dragon) Toothless shows hostility towards him, (mirrors hostility from first movie), until he recognizes it’s his best friend. Hiccup, who looks upon him with some fear. Toothless tries to look menacing to save face, and ‘kidnaps Hiccup and Astrid’, flying out to the outside world to save his friends.

- and Hiccup has a flashback of his dad, being this dragon killing warrior, and how he too wanted to be like his dad. But despite his fearsome front, he still believed in love and loved his mother.

*Goes back to Berk, only to find that the L.Fury returned with them, she is captured by the bad guy, and Toothless is captured, and the other dragons have to follow their ‘Alpha’ and are caged. Hiccup is distressed, Astrid cheers him up, the gang suit up and glide down to the so conveniently barked enemy ships ALONE and tries to save Toothless (with no plan, just kamikazes into it) - After the bad guy leaves, the Vikings panic on having no ships and stuff and they’re stuck on the island(All of their dragons are gone and nobody notices or panics?? Did the dragons mean nothing to them?)

- Hiccup talks with Astrid about how similar he could have been to the bad guy, whether if the bad guy is actually the true successor of his dad, the dragon slaying warrior. Astrid reminds Hiccup of how he’s changed the lives of Berk for the better by saving and looking for ways to live with dragons, that he’s always been looking for ways for both dragons and humans, and just because everyone doesn’t get Hiccup’s methods deem his work useless. Hiccup being an exception has changed so many lives and destinies, including his dad. And don’t forget it’s him who made Astrid who she is now. Now determined, Hiccup stands.

- (Orders the Vikings to fight for their once friends, and regain the victory of vikings (and Snotlout agrees with him, (maybe he’s finally learned some humiliation and acceptance by then, idk)

- Leads the Vikings all to fly, and they all attack the fleet (surely he has more flying suits...)

*they don’t save Toothless until the last part, saves the other dragons first and destroys ships, and then has fight with bad guy, who flies off with L.Fury and Hiccup follows with Toothless, Toothless zaps the other evil dragons into oblivion, bad guy injures Toothless and Hiccup holds onto the guy and tells L.F to go save Toothless, and he lets go and falls with the bad guy.

Bad guy rips off Hiccup’s wings, and L.F catches Hiccup, Hiccup takes off his prosthetic leg and the guy (holding on to the leg) falls to the ocean and dies(probably) - There could be dialogue in this scene, cliché but cool like if your father could see you now something. Maybe he takes both Astrid and the Light Fury and makes Hiccup choose between the two,

and Hiccup frees the Light Fury, tells her to save Toothless, hands himself over to the bad guy, and chooses to fall to the sea to save Astrid .

“If your father could see you now. Sacrificing the love of your life... and your life for a dragon.”

“He’d be proud.”

[insert Astrid grinning back at Hiccup]

- Astrid attacks the bad guy, who falls from his dragon(or falls with dragon until the dragon gets to his senses and abandons him) and Astrid leaps down to save Hiccup, (she tries to glide but the fall is too great) and they hold onto each other before falling……and then the Light fury catches them. (Give me more Hiccstrid dammit)

(Hiccup chooses to let the dragons go, away from the humans so that they’ll never be used as weapons again)

(I kind of expected the dragons to shut the door to their world and that’s why they can’t meet again, and can’t they just go back to the isle of Berk by making ships? I see no reason for them to not go back home)

*Hiccup lets go of Toothless and the dragons, and gets married with Astrid (best scene with the final fight scene, where they both look at each other and the soundtrack from the first movie oh SO GREAT ) Years pass, Berk has no dragons, and Hiccup and Astrid and their kids go to the end of the world and sees Toothless again, Toothless remembers Hiccup and they ride him and Stormfly and goes off (monologue going on like the dragons are waiting for humans to accept them)

- monologue about Berk, establishing shot with clouds, the first person view being a flying figure, and the viewer sees faint figures which look like dragons flying through the sky. The camera moves through clouds and dives down, showing the new island of Berk, the sea and Viking fleet. - Hiccup leading a fleet with Astrid, they come across a great mist and hear sounds of dragons, but cannot see them. Astrid stands on the front deck with her children, they try to touch the mist as if she’s trying to touch the clouds (homage to first movie) The new generation of vikings are worried of the sounds being a threat, but Hiccup calms them down, and silently waits looking up to the clouds.

Suddenly a black great figure lands on the ship, the children scramble behind Astrid’s back, and she assures them, saying it’s okay.

- Hiccup slowly movies towards the figure, and same scene as in movie, they recognize each other, and the camera shows their expressions (as if they realize something forgotten) and ends with title.

(End)

The bad guy’s plot for my plot (the first half I wrote) , First, make his dragons force the Light Fury to land on Berk to hide herself, and she’ll meet Toothless, and the N.L furies mate for life so they’ll fall for each other. The Light Fury’ll want to find a safe place to not get captured again, so she’ll look for a place to hide with her possible future mate in or out of Berk, but he orders his dragons to injure her, and get her calling for help, forcing Toothless to be more concerned about her. (Making them inseparable) And then it returns back to the movie with him capturing her and then forcing Toothless to be captured and then taking all the dragons in Berk.......................................................................................................................but why doesn’t he force them to lead him to the Hidden world, where he could kill all dragons by blocking the hole and Atlantising them? Why would he let her go in the first place, without any dragon following where she is?? Can he SMELL DRAGON? IS THAT HOW HE CAN TRACK THEM DOWN?? How was he sure that they’d come back after the Light Fury took Toothless back to the H.Word??? This is so confusing and ugh your plans are the worst GRIMMEL THE GRISLY YOUR NAME IS FORGETFUL AND SO IS YOUR TITLE OF DRAGON KILLER GO FOR SOMETHING THAT PEOPLE CAN REMEMBER AFTER HOLDING ONTO MOVING CHAIRS FOR OVER AN HOUR in fact, you are NEVER SHOWN ACTUALLY KILLING A DRAGON, YOU ALWAYS JUST PUT THEM TO SLEEP YOU ARE NOT A DRAGON SLEEP FAIRY

I do think the sub-title ‘The Hidden World’ doesn’t suit this plot, but it doesn’t matter probably. I’m really sad to see it go, but am still joyous to see that wedding scene. I’m happy to have grown up with you, How to Train your Dragon, good bye and farewell.

#rant #httyd3 #whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

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kalico-to-the-letter · 6 years

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REVIEW: RWBY – Vol. 5, Ch. 7: “REST AND RESOLUTION”

I love that the ending credits of this episode showed a breakdown of the very Japanese meal being eaten at the beginning of it.

Welcome to my review of the 7th Chapter of the 5th Volume, entitled, “Rest and Resolution”. This week gave us: War stories, the student finessing the master, and gatecrashing.

If you want to read this but are triggered by spoilers:

In “Rest and Resolution”, RWBY shows us what it has tended to show us for most of this season – some of the answers. It’s very rarely “all”, and it hasn’t been “none” for a few years, but “some”. Think anywhere between 60 and 80 out of 100, and that is generally RWBY’s output. In fact, if you include the B that I’m giving to this episode, the average grade for my reviews this season is between B and B+, and when you contextualise it, Volume 5 is following (maybe unintentionally) an on/off pattern of quality. Last week’s episode was brilliant; this week’s just decent, and such has been the case all season long. Going on this pattern, I expect next week’s to be brilliant too (and to be honest, the stories that might be featured have the opportunity to make it so).

So how do we make sense of an episode like this one? I didn’t know how long the episode would be going into it, so when it ended after a standoff between Cinder’s crew and Raven’s goons, it felt incomplete. It would have been a good time to see Blake’s story, especially when she had no other presence in the episode, but alas she’s being kept wrapped up for another week.

There was certainly a lot to like. Because of the format of the show, I’m critical of RWBY whenever it foists a lot of humor or light scenes on us. This is because they’re ultimately not adding a whole lot to the narrative, and RWBY tends to use humor to capitalize on character, rather than using it build character. It tends not to do much, other than providing some nice vibes for the moment. But it was different here.

But I was all for it in this episode, because the moments felt earned. I felt a connection to the kids telling their war stories over dinner, cringing about their times at Beacon, and reflecting on their journeys as individuals. I like seeing Yang be so cavalier about her prosthetic arm, and Weiss smiling and rolling her eyes at the old “Ice Queen” nickname. Because all of this good feeling was the culmination of the conflicts these characters have faced to this point. It probably would have felt even better if we hadn’t already seen so much of RJNR goofing around this season, but you can take it for what it is, and it’s very nice.

It’s also contrasted quite well with the following scene, with Qrow and Ozpin/Oscar showing up to catch Weiss and Yang up on everything they’ve missed for a season and a half. No bouncy light music, just silence and a ticking clock to perfectly indicate that we’ve now moved on to talking business. The first scene is one of those “hours feel like minutes when you’re having fun” types, and the second is the sobering kind, where you feel the weight of each passing second. When they came to summarizing, I just envied whoever might one day get the task of catching Blake up on everything.

This episode was mostly a vehicle for Yang (much like last week) and as there was a lot of her in the opening scene, the exposition scene also revolved around her and her interrogation of Ozpin’s power, the doubts that Raven planted in her mind last week. Her performance isn’t as strong as it was then, but it’s still good and understandable; one must contend with the presence of Ozpin, who tends to dominate his scenes when he gets going, and she still gets to have the last word. I’ve said it before, but Volume 5 Yang has been a refreshing character – someone who acknowledges her impetuous past, and who now is mature enough to recognize and speak the real.

There are problems, though. Believe me.

I prefer not to judge things based on my expectations, and I did say last week that I expected two things from this inevitable group chat to be addressed; Raven and Blake. But let me say that those expectations were based on nothing more than logic. As in “these things should happen, based on what the show is providing us”. It would have felt strange for Qrow to not ask Yang and Weiss about Raven, because he saw them come through the damn portal. And it would have felt strange for no-one to mention Blake, because she was kinda important to them back in the Beacon days.

These topics weren’t addressed, and guess what? It felt strange. The Raven thing I feel less strongly about – though that is a problem of its own that I will address further on – it was mainly just strange that Qrow had no curiosity about the issue.

I understand why Yang didn’t talk about Blake at all; being the person to whom Blake was closest, Yang was also the one most stung by her flight – this has been established in the past, but of course those issues have never had the chance to be resolved, and one can easily see Yang burying those feelings deep within herself to the point she might flinch at the mention of Blake’s name.

But for nobody else to ask? I’ve got a problem with that. Whenever these characters refer to themselves in the collective, at no point does anybody mention Blake, or just the fact that not all of them are there. The only reason I can think of for the writers doing things this way is that they just forgot – that is what makes the most sense, and that is a shame. How do you assemble six of the show’s Magnificent Seven and not mention the one person that’s missing?

Another thing I thought might happen was some antagonist movement, either towards Raven’s camp or Blake’s family, but this now marks two weeks since we’ve been to Menagerie, which undermines the good work that the show did for it back then. But I digress. We get Cinder’s crew showing up at the gates of Raven’s camp, and the episode ends with negotiations breaking down. I like the scene for that reason. It is about the right time to stage a narrative-shaking battle like this one, and this movement throws a wrench in the mission of Qrow and RNJR. But by running this setup so quickly, and ignoring Raven and Vernal entirely, the show misses a big opportunity that would have paid dividends in the skirmish and its aftermath.

And I’ll explain why. If you want someone to really care about these characters, and I’m talking about Raven and Vernal specifically, you have to tell little stories with them to build their characters and relationships. Right now, we have no genuine reason to care about this skirmish and its outcome beyond narrative stakes which haven’t been addressed in-depth since the second episode and the mere fact that Raven is Yang’s mom, given how little else we’ve learned about her. Vernal may be the Spring Maiden, but we have no reason to care about what happens to her – all we know about her is that she joined the bandits because she wasn’t about that Maiden life, and that she’s very loyal to Raven. We don’t have any idea about their relationship and their history, and we don’t have any idea how they might react to being split apart. We can guess, but that’s not good enough if you want people to care about what happens to these characters. The skirmish is probably going to be wonderful on a technical level, but unless the show is able to build Raven and Vernal’s personal stakes in the heat of the battle (which is much more difficult), then it’s not likely to be anything more than an exciting spectacle with a shake-up ending. But we’ll see, I suppose.

Additional observations:

- We need an official ruling on who won that arm wrestle between Nora and Yang, if only so fanfiction writers can write something fluffy about it.

- If anyone else said the deep stuff that Ren does, it would be Cringe City. But for him, it just tends to work.

- Seriously, what is this show doing to Blake?

- Again, the bandit camp fight could be quite special. I just wish we had enough of an insight into the participants that would make us naturally support the side that the show wants us to support. Without the underlying meaning, there is much intrigue just lacking.

- I was tempted to give this episode a B-. I gave the third episode, for instance, a C+, because parts of it just failed on a foundation which was only good at best. But I must say that while this episode was bit empty, nothing here actually missed the mark. If you look at everything we were given, nothing failed. This episode is just good, no more and no less, and it deserves to be acknowledged as such.

Grade: B

Final thoughts: “Rest and Resolution” sees RWBY following its peak with something just average, but it’s a good thing that the average for this show still makes for a decent episode. The frivolity is perfectly appropriate, while Yang being the only one of her friends to step up to Ozpin’s problematic power just further pushes her as one of the season’s best performers, if not the best so far. But ultimately, illogical writing dampens the aftermath of the latest reunion, while the importance of a pivotal upcoming battle is diminished by a lack of natural connection to the characters involved. This could have been a strong episode despite its short length, but it ends up being a bit hollow. – Kallie

#rwby spoilers #rwby reviews #rwby5 #rwby volume 5 #rwby

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