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st4rrth0ughts · 2 months

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Aventurine character study that I spewed at my friend posted here bc I despise whoever portrays him as a useless blonde 24/7 horny twink as his canon self (i will throttle you through the fuckin screen)

A/n: I think the 2.1 trailer is helping me regain my writing motivation, expect inbox asks from Jan- Feb to be coming out soon :)

WRITTEN BEFORE 2.1 This post will contain leaks, 2.0 Trailblaze quest spoilers, world quest spoilers, Aven's slave life in canon, disgusting people saying Aven's a sex slave, under the cut! Please proceed with caution if any of these trigger you. Thank you, and enjoy my yap session on one of the best characters in this game.

Aventurine's story is much more than just looking and acting like the typical rich blonde playboy, as much as he gives off those vibes. Looking at his child self in the 2.1 trailer compared to all of his current models, its very obvious that many, many things happened that caused all the light to poof from his eyes.

First, his homeland, Sigonia. Aventurine's home planet's is uninhabited, and perhaps even destroyed completely. Aventurine is the last of his kind left. His parents, his sister, his possible friends and relatives, hell, even all the people he doesn't know have all perished. The IPC took him in, I presume, but most definitely not out of kindness. In fact, it may not matter that Aventurine is one of the Ten Stonehearts, he is not a person to the company. He is just a asset, a piece for them to dispose if he fucks up.

In the 1.4? Belobog quest where Topaz goes to Bronya about Belobog's massive debt to the IPC, and at the end, we get our first crumbs of Aventurine's character. A important thing to note in this dialogue between the two of them is that he asks Topaz to the project manager on his project in Penacony, because if he knows better than everyone that if he fails to get Penacony back into the IPC's grasp, he'll die. There's no way around it, unless he gets someone he has a somewhat close bond with, Topaz, to lighten his fall.

The tattoo on his neck, is a symbol of his slavery to the IPC. How he's bound to them. How no matter how hard he runs or hides, he will never escape their grasp. In fact, he knows damn well, if anyone gets wind of this alongside his Sigonian history (Sigonians are notorious for being wolves in sheep's clothing, bad people in most eyes'), it is very well possible that his rivals and enemies will use his past to their advantage. Thats why he freely shows it to the world. So that no one can dig it up and use it against him, because how do you use something that he so freely proclaims to everyone he meets?

Aventurine is a man who gambles as well. Not just simply gambling for the thrill of it or his earnings. He says it himself, he sees the world, life itself, as a gamble. High reward, high stakes. Even going back to his conversation with Topaz, its only shown on how he tells her he warned her about taking Belobog as her project because it was high risk, but low return. Aventurine wants the best outcome not just for himself, but because if he doesn't get a good outcome, the IPC has no use for him.

Aventurine is a man who knows how to get what he wants. he knows how to take risks, get out of high stake scenarios with him being the winner. Its obvious in his lightcone, 'Final Victor', his conversation with Dr. ratio in the Penacony 2.0 Trailblaze quest, and his conversation with Himeko and Welt about giving up his room for the Trailblazer. He's confident, cocky, if you will. But for good reason.

In the lightcone, its implied it doesn't matter for Aventurine dies or lives. He will always be the winner. Every move is calculated, precise, carried out with clockwork precision and most importantly, planned so well that whether you like it or not, you're letting him win. He manages to get the Nameless, the widely regarded faction, in his debt. He knows damn well how to play his cards. It is extremely impressive. But he is the Aventurine of Stratagems. He knows what he wants and needs, and he will go any length to get it.

The lightcone, again, also shows just how far Aventurine risks, just for him to gain Dr. Ratio as a asset for him to benefit from. He could have gone any route, but what does he go for? Thats right, Russian goddamn roulette. Just for the (I assume) slim chance of Dr. Ratio's trust, or at the very least, cooperation. "I will always be the final victor." I am repeating, but just bear with me here, this just solidifies the fact he is confident in his skills. He doesn't flinch at all when he shoots 3 blank rounds right into his heart, even though there's the 1/6 chance he'll die. He takes risks. Its his character. He doesn't have anything or anyone, much less his own life, left to loose.

The lightcone is also not 'haha funny gay story', as much as it is funny, i wont lie, the memes are fun to look at, but it is not that. Its a story where Aventurine's suicidal tendency shows through, perhaps not so clearly, but its very much there if you look past the story and read into it. Again, Russian roulette, he could have gone for anything else, like a contract or smth, but he knows he has to go through extremes, and this just solidifies the fact of how Aventurine will do anything for assets and trust in him, so his plans can come to fruition.

Aventurine's personality is complicated, like a intricate, deceiving web of lies and emotional barriers to keep him safe. He hides behind the facade of smiles and is unreadable, and his past is all but cheery. A slave, (not a sex slave, twitter+Tiktok users need their brain fucking reworked i will cry) a man branded by the IPC, bound to the till his death is what Aventurine is. The IPC is ruthless, evident from multiple world quests, such as the Aurum Street Alley quest, Belobog's debt quest, Chadwick's quest in Penacony, paints them as bad people, a bad organization in general. Hell, even though Topaz isnt like the assholes we've seen, she's far from an angel herself.

Aventurine has gone through many things to have lost the sparkle in his eyes. Take Childe/Tartaglia from Genshin Impact for example, whom fell into the abyss for months, seen all the horrors of it, had to learn to fend for himself because I'm very sure Skirk did not care for him in a healthy sense. We can either assume Aventurine been through something on the same level during his younger days or perhaps, worse.

And no, he is not Dr. Ratio or Sunday's sex slave, I'm looking at a certain artist on Twitter (fuck off I'm not calling it X), its disgusting. Whoever genuinely enjoys sex slave Aventurine is sick in the damn head, no he would not enjoy that kind of Roleplay, as much as i am downbad and indeed filthy with some of my fics with him.

Aventurine doesn't have anyone he can truly call a friend, ship him with Dr. ratio, Sunday, Boothill (yes, its a thing), Caelus/ Stelle, whoever, but in the end, you cannot say he (as of 2.0, this may change) has any true friends he can trust, not even just a bit. Bonds he forms are transactional, maybe not too much on Dr. Ratio (as evidenced by his dejected his looks after Ratio leaves, either from the insult or bc he truly though Ratio cared) and perhaps on the Astral Express's part, but his bond with Sunday? Yeah, its transactional, 101% unless it changes in 2.1.

All in all, Aventurine is my favourite character, i have never wanted to read, write, understand, watch, hell, I've never wanted to farm and pull for a character as much as him. He is a complex, heavy and deep character that I do not believe many can grasp upon properly when writing stories, headcannons or even smut/nsfw works with him in it (shoutout to those who does tho, I love y'all <3).

Draw or write his fanon self, make him a himbo, tsundere, a rich man who's just a playboy, or a blonde with a pretty face, but you cannot say that is him in canon. I may despise some fanon interpretations, but fuck those who merge fanon and canon. He will never be any of the fanon interpretations i mentioned above, and he never will be in canon. Hoyoverse put their whole soul into this man, i can see it, and its brain damaging on how so many people fetishize his past and water him down.

In speculation of 2.1 and 2.2, if Aventurine does live (he prob will, its unlikely he'll be killed before release, Tingyun is a exception because she released before her death), maybe he'll learn how to start to open himself up again, start to fully trust, starting with Trailblazer as his first true friend. Its cliche, typical protag power bullshit, but it will no doubt, be a huge step in shaping Aventurine back into the man he could have been if his planet wasn't enslaved.

Conclusion: He deserves better, both in- game and how the fandom treats him. I love him, he's my adorable pookie wookie shmookie <33

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gibbearish · 7 months

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it is with a heavy heart that i must announce. the five nights at freddy's movie was really good

sorry for how much of a behemoth this post is im fnaf autism just bear with me also i can't keep my thoughts straight for the life of me so this will be a bumpy ride. as an additional note i got very lucky and had literally 0 spoilers whatsoever for this movie, i haven't even seen the trailer

so first of all: i thought all the changes they made to the plot to make it work for a movie were good decisions, altho some of them did take a minute to actually feel like good changes lmao. once i thought about em a bit more though they made sense.

one of the things i really liked was that they also did include a lot of the things i wanted them to, or more specifically things that you're like "you literally can't have a fnaf movie without these, it just wouldn't be right", like we got mike schmidt, we got fucking VANESSA??? altho she might be in the trailer so that might not be the same reveal for yall as it was for me but still. they heavily alluded to vanny? (altho that's a part i'm kinda sad abt is they didn't /actually/ include vanny, vanessa just makes an offhand comment about how she "wouldn't be much help" if she was around afton and then. comes to help anyways and doesnt have any issues? lame they shouldve had him hypnotise her and then she fought her way out to help mike and abby. or alternatively they couldve used the family restructuring to make vanny be a result of afton giving vanessa osdd-2, like thats kinda functionally what he does with the mask anyways but this would make it more obvious).

also swinging back to changes they made that i liked!! VANESSA AFTON?? like this is the one that took me a while to get used to bc it feels like such a cliche from an outside perspective but it also kind of Super Isn't considering what the original plot is? like all the family restructuring they did makes pretty good sense to me, i do think it loses a bit of the weight having michael be Just Some Guy Whose Brother Happened To Be Kidnapped By Afton Forever Ago and now coincidentally has this weird guy offering him a job as a night guard, but also the og lore. absolutely would not fit into a movie lmao. so i like that they kept the characters everyone wanted around while also rearranging it to keep the spirit of "learning about all of this for the first time through the eyes of a security guard" you get from playing the games. it's fun for people who don't know the lore because it's easy to follow and it's fun for people who /do/ know the lore because they can pull apart all the differences.

oh right back to things they included that i wanted them to. we gotttt chica's cupcake murdering people, we got FUCKING MATPAT? SAYING THE ITS JUST A THEORY LINE? SOUNDING THRILLED OFF HIS ASS TO BE THERE??? i dont like the man and his opinions vis a vis addressing nonbinary characters but. goddamn was that a funny cameo. why couldnt you include markiplier too you fucking cowards. who said that. anyways. oh we kind of tangentially have a canon name for crying child? aka garrett? like idk this one could go either way because like. yeah he's mike's younger brother that died tragically and scarred him for life, makes sense that theyd be the same character in function but also it is technically a different family so who knows.

umm what else. oh this doesnt rlly fall into either category i just really liked it, the intro sequence for all the animatronics? showing what they can /really/ do with the breaking and entering dudes?? that was such a cool sequence i really liked the whole thing honestly. chica being introduced in the kitchen and the dude finding the cupcake then looking back and it's gone? bonnie in the supply closet? foxysprint??? AND FREDDY!! THE BITE!!! in case anyones reading this before watching the movie so they know what to expect: youll know when this moment is coming and if youre watching it at home with friends i HIGHLY recommend having the "was that the bite of 87" clip ready to play right after, they WILL lose their shit. i had it queued up from the very beginning of the movie cause i was like. they can't not include it /somehow/, it's the fnaf movie there has to be A Bite. and sure enough. oh also it's not at the same time but the golden freddy reveal is really good too, they did a good job of setting it up so even if youre already aware of golden freddy conceptually you still go "oh freddy's here? i mean i guess that makes sense he's the leader and all. or wait what happened to his eye why's he only got one? oh. oh i see. ohohohohohohohoho" 100/10. also very funny that they just straight up. MURDER THE AUNT? AND SHE NEVER GETS MENTIONED AGAIN SHE JUST IS DEAD??? the kid isnt like. hey what happened to aunt jane?? i get none of them liked her and with good reason but youd think at least one of em would be like "damn she sucked but she didnt deserve that, rip jane"

oh and the springlocks of course the springlocks. like as soon as we saw aftons name in the cast list we all knew he was gonna get springlocked, it's such a cherished memory for so many of us and there's no way in hell The Fnaf Movie™ wouldnt include afton getting springlocked, they just legally can't leave that out. and they do it pretty well too like yeah if you know what's gonna happen you can see it coming way ahead of time and it's kind of a slow crawl to get there but like. idk i think it still works pretty well. i don't personally like how long the actual springlocking itself took, i think they couldve milked that a little bit less cause i was under the impression that if one springlock failed they All Would Instantaneously And Your Flesh Body Will Become Occupied By A Full Endoskeleton. but no we just get very slow rib beartrap. w/e though still cool and again the leadup to it was really good even knowing exactly how it would end, like just the really slow shuffling of the animatronics towards him? like yeah it's slow and kinda tedious but its also like. theres literally nothing you can do, youre surrounded and defenseless and theyre infinitely faster and stronger than you and now they remember that you killed them. and you just have to sit there and watch them slowly slowly get closer all while trying to talk your way out of it knowing youre fucked. 10/10 they did that part well

oh and that also falls under changes i liked, i liked that instead of "afton tries to escape intangible ghosts by getting into old decrepit suit which then fails and kills him" it was "afton was already in the suit to do murders in and has brainwashed the bots to follow him" wait omg point postponed i just realized that part is from security breach. i thought vanessa was the only thing they brought over from that i didnt even notice that they werent doing the theyre-attacking-all-adults-indiscriminately thing goddamn. omg wait and the fact that the restaurants already closed in this one, it really is just a blend of all the games huh. scott do you see how much more coherent your plot couldve been if there wasnt So much going on. anyways. back to what i was saying. instead of "afton tries to escape intangible ghosts by getting into old decrepit suit which then fails and kills him" it was "afton was already in the suit to do murders in and brainwashed the ghosts into thinking he was their friend so they would help him do murders while possessing the robots. then they get their memories back and the robots turn on him and.. i think deliberately? set off the springlocks, or were just aiming to regular kill him and the springlocks failing was a happy accident? then the robots drag him away as they keep slowly one by one collapsing into him", like the first one made a lot of sense for the game and the timeline and the second one just feels right for this too. it's still his hubris that kills him, still his springlocks, it's just in one version the hubris is "trusting his springlock design to still work after however many years" and in the other its "thinking he has conplete control over the ghosts he killed", plus the ghosts finally get a bit more direct participation in his death than in the other version lol.

one change i did not like. forced het romance. like i dunno i guess im happy for them, both of those characters have certainly earned happy endings by this point so its nice they can get something cutesy. but also. like cmon man it's vanessa and mike do we have to do this she just got stabbed stop holding her hand

oh also this change wasnt really good or bad i just thought it was funny, vanessas a full on cop now? like i get they prolly just dont wanna have two security guards or something but i mean. it wouldve been really easy to just say she was the day shift guard? thatd explain why she had more information on the bots and the place's history than him, why she's always Around, it wouldve even flowed into the vanessa afton reveal pretty well too because like. yeah obviously a guy doing murders would want his main security guard to be someone he trusts and who better than his theoretically brainwashed daughter yknow? as it was she just kinda Showed Up Knowing Stuff And Ignoring Questions and later afton's like "you were supposed to be keeping an eye on him" but like of course Mike was getting dodgy about the weirdo cop loitering nearby for no reason, thats sus as hell lmao. vs "experienced security guard here to show you the ropes" he would have a much easier time trusting that she actually did have his best interests at heart. idk it just seemed like a weird change to me lmao

ummm oh my roommate pointed out the fact that when they tried to springlock abby the suit they were aiming for looked suspiciously like circus baby and abby and baby are anagrams so thats fun. it's hard to tell though if shes intended to be a rework of elizabeth or if vanessa's filling that role now. cause like on the one hand, michael's younger sister whose name is v close to baby, on the other hand, vanessa is afton's daughter. so idk i feel like it could go either way. if abby's elizabeth i guess that negates the thing about garret maybe being crying child's name bc then theyd prolly just be keeping mike's name the same. w/e

oh my god i completely forgot when i was talking about changes to the afton springlock thing, they had him deliberately put his mask on after the other springlocks started releasing and say the "i always come back" line, i thought that was an excellent touch. like he's actively dying a horrific death and is like. no no. im not leaving this bot. this shit is going to suck ass no matter what so i might as well do all i can to ENSURE my soul gets locked in this fuckin thing, go on stab me in the brain lets do this. i will however also say that having him say "i always come back"... before he's even come back the first time? is a little bit weird, i know thats another one of the "we have to include this in the fnaf movie" things so im not mad but just in the moment it def flows a bit weird. like mf you don't even have one example of that yet much less several to be saying "always" about

OH AND THE BIGGEST ONE. THE ANIMATRONICS. theyre so good. like im so glad they went all in on that, i think they probably knew that if there was one single thing they had to get absolutely 100% right to avoid a fan uprising it was those and by god did they deliver, theyre so big and so unsettling and so fun. chica's wink at abby was the best part of the movie no questions asked. or alternatively bonnie falling over after they built the fort. like theyre all just so good. OH MY GOD OR IN CHICA'S INTRODUCTION SEQUENCE WHERE YOU CAN SEE HER JUST. SCOOTING BY THROUGH THE VENT?? THAT WAS THE FUNNIEST THING OF ALL TIME HELLO???

god. but yeah i was honestly expecting it to be a lot worse than it was. also this mike is a bad brother/dad figure. but i guess in the games he also kind of is the pinnacle of bad brother so i mean it couldve been a lot worse. theres definitely some rough parts, i mightve mentioned this already but i felt like a few of the dramatic pause things were a bit too drawn out, like i said the springlocks locking is one good example of that but another that i REALLY found slow was like. in the opening we watch a guy get turbomurdered by the swirly blade mask and it takes. way longer than i feel like was necessary. also unnecessary: a jumpcut a second from scared eyes to swirly blades to hands fumbling and repeating during that. oh another thing that was weird to me, why was mike so insistent on sleeping specifically at night? to the point of deliberately sleeping on the job? like i get he wanted to revisit the kidnapping dream but like. presumably he could dream just as well during the day, no? done his night shift then once it was up rolled out a sleeping bag for a quick powernap before heading home? idk that just felt. forced to me

more random things, i am sad we didnt get a whiff of henry emily (my fringe theory was that their twist to change it from the games was they were gonna make henry be evil, rip to that idea) or the puppet/charlie, and kinda sad they changed the kid possessing golden freddy to be a boy like. we love cassidy and her Undying Rage Towards Afton's Soul smh why would you get rid of her. also loved balloon boy, kinda wish mangle had gotten like a similar level appearance but thats w/e. oh also while i did appreciate the low gore level there were also a few times where it was a bit weird how minor the injuries the dead people had were. like this man just had his face put in a blender mask and he just has like. some forehead gashes or whatever? he should look like someone stirred up jello

anyways with that gross thought i think i am out of things to say about the movie for now. if anyone else watched it already and somehow read all of this blease tell me your thoughts

#the stuff under the cut contains major spoilers so reader beweader #this post is also gonna be rambley as hell so like. strap in #update after finishing it: it is indeed very rambley and also long as hell so see again: reader beweader #fnaf movie spoilers #five nights at freddy's movie spoilers #fnaf spoilers #five nights at freddy's spoilers #fnaf #fnaf movie #my roommate said they heard they were aiming to make 3 moves total and if i had to guess #i would say the other movies will probably hit fnaf 3 and then pizzaria simulator #obviously with some massive changes to the plot regarding timelines and just resolving general world changes #but i do feel like those encapsulate the main big points of afton's arc #aka 1) getting springlocked‚ 2) being springtrap (potentially in fazbear frights and i think that would be a really cool movie #but really the location doesnt really matter so much as the He's Been Woken Up And Is Hunting Someone #and then 3) getting his ass sent to ghost hell by henry. frankly i would be happy if they just ripped his final monologue #straight from the game and didnt even rerecord it it's just so iconic #like id want them to include security breach too somehow but. the timelines gonna get real condensed real fast then #it already would be if they include 3 isnt there like 30 years between aftons death and that one? so the part thats #originally set in 2050????? yeah thatd take some serious rearranging #hmm although i am now in my head thinking of something. abt the location not mattering as long as #springtrap wakes up and hunts someone. what if they did that /in the pizzaplex/ instead of in a horror attraction #or maybe for a horror installation there #idk im just rambling more now but i think thatd be a cool way to combine those parts #oh sorry technically that thing abt afton getting springlocked is technically a spoiler #but i mean come on we all knew that was gonna happen

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sapphire-weapon · 9 months

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current state of mind:

no fever, yes covid, no breathing out my nose, head pounding, high as fuk

observation:

the separate ways trailer showed us so very little that it makes me suspicious

like think about what it ACTUALLY showed us

i'mma go through it scene by scene (someone put me to bed pls)

first of all what in the fresh square enix ff7remake marketing tactic is this

these two need to stop huffing each other's farts before capcom does something stupid like make the remake timeline and the OG timeline converge and suddenly there's two chris redfields

bc one is enough

ok it shows

+ the opening cutscene

+ a single hookshot traversal across the valley (which is in CHAPTER 2 of the main game)

+ obvious gameplay of ada walking through the castle with the hud turned off

+ ada fighting zealots in the very first room where leon meets salazar

+ her jumping out the window after her first encounter with leon

+ whatever the fuck this is

though if i had to guess, that's the belltower -- so literally saving leon from the village, that's how early this is

+ wesker dramatically walking towards the camera

+ ada on a jet ski with no context

+ ada creepin on the "for luis" scene

+ el gigante

+ more obvious gameplay with the hud turned off of ada descending the elevator at the construction yard

+ ada pointing a gun at luis, who cowers like a bitch

+ iron maiden

+ ada holding the amber in ???? location

+ random hookshot traversal across the battlements

+ ada's gross fucking eye

THAT'S IT

THAT'S THE WHOLE TRAILER

do u guys fucking realize that the ONLY bits of actual story content they showed in this entire trailer was ada holding up luis, ada creepin on leon and ashley, and ada's infection?

that tells us fucking NOTHING

HOWEVER

ALL THREE OF THOSE THINGS

WERE NOT IN THE ORIGINAL SEPARATE WAYS

that's just what very little they showed us, and it's already a MASSIVE divergence from the original SW

what did they hold back?

because i don't know if you remember (pepperidge farm remembers) but when they marketed the base game, they showed huge fucking story scenes from aaaaaall over the game, because they went full "THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS SPOILERS FOR AN 18 YEAR OLD GAME IDGAF YOU HAD 18 FUCKING YEARS TO PLAY THE ORIGINAL AND IT'S ON MORE SYSTEMS THAN GODDAMN SKYRIM YOU HAVE LITERALLY NO EXCUSE IF YOU GET SPOILED IT'S YOUR FAULT."

like capcom's marketing specifically went out of its way to be like LOOK AT HOW FAITHFUL IT IS PLEASE DON'T KILL US

but they're taking the opposite approach here

dude remake separate ways is gonna be fucked up

#resident evil 4 #separate ways

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absent-o-minded · 2 years

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YR S2 Trailer Analysis - Part 1

Ahh....it's that time again. We have been truly fed with a brilliant trailer, and so, what better time to roll up those sleeves and give my silly little thoughts on it?

Please keep in mind that this, and the subsequent second part, will contain **SPOILERS**.

The Opening with Kristina, Ludwig and Wille:

And so we start, really, with the opening that sets up the premise, or rather the cause, for dysfunction throughout Season 2 - Wille's parents. The placement of this scene at the start of the trailer employs a sense of constant overshadowing, whereby everything can be linked back to the direct cause of Kristina (and Ludwigs eventhough I don't actually know what he does) shoddy parenting.

But that's just on a placement level, I want to look at the emotional standing here, because to us, and although we see it as artificial, it almost looks like Kristina and Ludwig are genuinely proud? Which is sad both in the sense of it being pitted against Wille's obvious misery to being the Crown Prince as well as in the sense of seeing an instance of his parents pride only being derived from when he's 'looking the part'. It's as if the only way for Wille to receive any parental affection is to fulfill the role that was thrust upon him, and even in this scene, Wille's discomfort is evident - You can see it in how Kristina adjusts his tie before, not even a second later, Wille is already loosening it, wanting to breathe.

Through this tiny secondary action, or reflexive response, we're already starting to see this 'back and forth' between Wille and the Monarchy, like the old arcade video games with the two characters fighting eachother. But also; This scene employs the idea that a lot (I won't say all bc that would be false) of Wille's issues can be directly linked back to his family, and so a premise of dysfunction is created as a backdrop for S2.

The Colourful Party Stare:

No, because this shit is beautiful. I want to eat this image. I just want to grab it with my hand and unhinged my jaw and-

I'm both an enjoyer and a critic of certain tropes in media, as everyone is, but one that I'm always a sucker for is what I call 'The Art of the Stare'. We see it in so many films/tv shows, and usually it's an addition to the 'Love at First Sight' trope, but the key difference here is that the trope has already been employed in S1, and so parallelism is drawn (both in positioning and lighting terms) to distort this trope into 'Love at First Reconciliation'.

In the first 'Stare' scene at the party in S1, the lighting fanned their faces and was represented by a slow rotation, mixing the colour compositions and facilitating the state of anticipation, curiosity and innocence that framed that scene. Here however, the LED (?) lights are coming out in distinct strings, framing the back of both Wille and Simon's heads, as if externalising their mental/repressed physical reactions. You have to recognise that these are beams. Elongated and narrow strings of light filtered through a tiny scope, unlike the lighting in S1 which was an open and small rotating ball. Beams have a distinct direction, and they puncture the air. They hold intent, and from the visual composition of those images, they're shooting from behind both boys as if to the other, beginning from their heads.

And that look. What is it about that look? How do I articulate that look? Maybe I can't articulate it, maybe I just need to let it exist in its own right, whatever that may be. But, the contextual aspects behind it, are everything. How do you look at a person with whom you want and need them, but those feelings are obscured by what you represent and what you have done? How are you to explain yourself, to find your voice, when your surroundings are already doing that for you? Because we're back at the start here, this cyclical structure cannot be denied nor delayed, and they recognise that - The presence of this scene is all too familiar a parallel for both us as an audience and the lads as a moment, but we have to ask, is it a moment to redefine or reconcile?

Felice and Wille Friendship:

Oh,,,ha,,,I'm already crying.

What a clever ploy on behalf of the crew to play on the audiences heartstrings more than giving the touch starved character physical comfort from the emotionally starved character? The alliance between Felice and Wille, or rather, the friendship, is something that I genuinely cannot wait to see. Look at how fucking tender and comforting this hug looks? One of Felice's hands cupping Wille's jaw and the other holding his arm? Wille with one hand absent-mindedly twirling a strand of Felice's hair and the other against her knee? Are YOu jOKiNg?

On a more emotionally stable note, I really hope that this season, Felice is not just a source of comfort for Wille, but also that it works in the reverse, and Wille becomes a source of comfort for Felice. Friendships blossom from trials and tribulations as well as miraculous times, and we already saw their fledgling friendship towards the end of S1, but I would love the idea of their friendship blossoming this season, particularly in the sense that both of their arcs may require bravery, and I really think that they could help eachother. Whilst I love how Felice is comforting a clearly miserable Wille and how he fins solace in this, it should be mutual, in that Wille encourages Felice to embrace herself and to go against the alleged 'status-quo' of the elitist environment she was born into.

H A N D S:

You could genuinely write essays on the phenomenon of hands in Film & TV, but how it's intrinsically tied to Queer Cinema.

There's just something so thrilling and nerve-wracking about hand touches, and how they signal the first sign of interest, whether it's an accidental brush or incidental hold. How it's the most acceptable form of affection in the eyes of a begrudged public, and even more so, a judgemental society. How it's daring and innocent in the same note.

What's interesting is how these touches differ from Season 1. We're aware that Wille struggles to articulate himself, and so physical touch is usually his best vehicle for communication, but Simon's reaction in the way he pulls his hand away and how it could be interpreted is interesting: Is he scared? Is he showing self-restraint? Is is insecurity? Is it reflexive? Personally, I think that Simon is aware, maybe even hyper-aware of Wille's presence, as there are maybe two or three seconds that pass before Simme actually pulls his hand away. This rift of 'push-and-pull' that is provoked by Kristina and Ludwig extends to Simon as well, and seems to underpin the entire trailer - But in this case, Simon is the one pulling away. Initially anyway. Maybe that changes the trajectory of the story? Maybe that little act plants a seed, and we see Simon (who I'm so glad admitted that he 'enjoyed the space') recognise that it's not all on him. That he also deserves to choose, just as much as Wille does.

Even later on in the trailer, we see Wille actively reach out and take Simon's hand, which shows a contrast, as eventhough we don't get to see Simon's reaction, this touch ^^ was accidental, implying that Simon is very much aware of Wille, but in that scene, it is intentional, and from what it looks like, Simon doesn't pull away. Has he let his feelings for Wille come to the forefront? Has he chosen to stay?

Who knew that hands could say so much, hm?

Sara on the Floor:

Just a little addition here to say that I'm so intrigued to see more of Sara's story this season, and how she fares with knowing what August did, but still somehow has a questionable (Idek what it is at this rate) relationship with him. Not just this, but the teaser of the first 4 minutes let's us know that she's received acceptance for what I'm guessing is residency at Hillerska, so I'm also excited to see how that whole shabang plays out.

August in his Emo Arc:

There is something fucking wrong with you, babes. I'm not gonna lie.

August definitely falls into one of those character archetypes where 'You love to hate them'. My fan mind and my critical mind are at war right now because one is shouting "FUCK HIM, I SWEAR TO GOD-" and the other is going "Wait, let's unpack this". I call it the cursed duality of being a Film student, an ever present burden on my moral agenda.

I am still as unforgiving of August as the next person. His actions can't be justified, they can be traced and understood, but that doesn't make them justified, so to know that S2 follows the lens where August's mental health deteriorates as a consequence of his guilt and regret over his actions is a very interesting take. It's clear from S1 that his coping mechanisms are dysfunctional, but the S2 trailer really solidifies this idea of peril, or turmoil, and how despite being framed as one of the antagonists in the YR Universe, he shows remorse, which is more than we can say for Kristina. To watch extent we analyse his remorse, or choose to listen to it is entirely subjective to the spectator, but I do think it's part of YR tendency to go for the unconventional 'twists' in traditionalist narrative archetypes by making the antagonist/villainous character remorseful - In most TV, the Antagonist is simply there to serve fulfill the plot implications of their role, they show up, they cause some shit to go wrong, the protagonist restores it, antagonist gets booted...

NOT HERE KIDDOS. Here we have a more nuanced portrayal of equilibrium, August being regretful further distorts Wille's pursuit of anarchy as he is trying to restore things, and it's clearly mentally affecting him to a detrimental point. What do you do when you have a regretful antagonist because - *flips through Guide to Stories: 101* - that's not in the book? How do you handle that opposition to the balance of things? How valid is regret when what you did caused so much suffering and pain?

Wille gets dragged:

"I'm staying" "That's not up to you" I'm literally going to go insane, how about that?

Wille has no agency. Nor does he have any autonomy. No decision is truly his, and that's why his decisions this season (like going after August, like trying to reconcile with Simon, like burning down the Monarchy) become so critical. How do you live as yourself when even your body and your mind belong to an institution? How do you even cope?

The answer? YOU DON'T.

Kristina has resorted to absolute isolation for Wille, practically ostracising him from everything and in doing so abandoning all fucking rationality (because that's a great call for your child). This presents yet another barrier, as in S1 Kristina took a relatively passive role; Sure, she made remarks and gave some harsh words over the phone, but this is an entirely new state of low for Kristina, as it implies that she's starting to become an active participant in deepening Wille's misery.

Now this contradicts the first four minutes of the S2 Teaser that were released as it gave the impression that there might be an inkling of genuine, authentic motherly care in her, and how she might actually be working to bridge the divide between herself and her son, but if we're assuming (bc everything is speculative) that Kristina plucks Wille out of school, then surely that paints a disappointing image of what a quick turn around she has when the state of the royal family comes under jeopardy.

Wille is entirely reduced to a moveable, inanimate commodity of the Monarchy, and this scene reinforces how even trusted people (Malin. My, my, Malin, what are they asking you to do?) are under the imposing presence of the Monarchy. It's inescapable. Even writing this, I can feel how suffocating that must be.

And more importantly "That's not up to you". That's not up to you, that's not up to you, that'snot up to you, that'snotuptoyou. No, because nothing is up to Wille, is it?

The Backup Plan:

Nah, but what the fuck is she doing?

There's a weird sense of foreboding or dread that she's already taking measures in case Wille subjects the Monarchy to scrutiny, almost as if she's pre-empting it? Maybe she is - In a lot of scenes it seems to follow a trend of abdication, but even still, she's this complicated character that seems to be omnipresent whilst also never really being there? Saying 'one feels the need' is so formal that it comes across as detached from any motherly emotion whatsoever, the 'one feels' reinforces the idea that she's hiding behind the guise of a 'Royal Voice', and so things are justified professionally.

But it begs the question, does she feel any remorse? How do we, as an audience, attempt to understand her, even if we want to? And more so, what's this 'backup plan' that's she's speaking of? It's likely a plan put in place just in case shit hits the fan and Wille does decide to abdicate, but who does that involve? Wille is the end of the direct bloodline, so who else could there be?

This could be viewed in a lot of ways - The backup plan if Wille abdicates is to appoint a cousin to reign, or alternatively, what is this backup plan is made swiftly before Wille can even confirm his decision to abdicate and involves using manipulation and brunt force? What if she's trying to think two steps ahead and the alleged 'backup plan' involves taking Wille out of school, baiting him, guiltripping him and isolating him in the hopes that he'll feel obligated to say 'Yes' just to stop the mental torture?

From the trailer, it looks like that meetings are happening behind Wille's back that are likely about him, and given the Monarchy's history of wanting quick cover ups/resolutions to things...I don't think we should take this as a good sign.

______________________

That's where I'm going to stop for Part 1, but I'm hoping for Part 2 to be up shortly (in the next day or so). Let me know what you think ! <3

#young royals #yr s2 spoilers #young royals spoilers #young royals season 2 #young royals netflix #lisa ambjörn #tw swearing #tw mental deterioration #tw mental health #i really hope that this makes sense #credit to my Uni for making my voice for academic #Kristina thinks she's slick but she's not #i'm losing my marbles guys #i've gone too far down the rabbit hole #tv analysis #meta

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monstersinthecosmos · 2 years

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I'm new to Iwtv. I want to read the book and watch the new show. I've just been reading stuff about it online book/show and I'm confused about romantic life of these vampires. Who loves who. Show seems to being going with Louis/Lestat but are Louis/Armand, Lestat/Armand also canon and do you think the show will do those ships if they are canon. Was this love triangle in the books? I'm confused.

hello, welcome! :D The short answer is that vampires in this universe are all pansexual & mostly polyamorous so it's common for them to come in and out of each other's lives. When wandering around fandom you're going to see lots of ships and the honest truth is that most of them are probably canon LOL. The lore & thesis of the novels is that they are creatures outside of humanity and when they become vampires they are no longer bound by social constructs. IE: traditional social boundaries do not matter to them, monogamy doesn't always matter to them, and they have all the time in the world to heal from devastating moral wounds and are able to forgive each other and continue to hook up even if they've been through a heinous atrocity. They also fall in love very easily (especially Lestat) and will often just fall in love with randos that they meet even if they're in love with someone else. They are immortal, have infinite time, and infinite capacity for love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Louis/Lestat is the juggernaut ship of the books, the author wrote about them getting married on Facebook LOL, and they tend to be the most recognizable ship because they were in the movie. Lestat also narrates most of the books and even when he's off doing something else, he always still talks about Louis and always manages to mention him. Lestat's love for Louis dictates a lot of his behavior.

Since they ARE so recognizable I think the show is really pushing for them and marketing them heavily, but tbh the show is so different from the books already that I don't think any of us can predict if other ships are going to happen down the line. I could see them investing in Sam & Jacob's chemistry and just focusing on them for the long term bc everyone is going feral for them!!!!!!!!! Adding Armand into the mix could make some DRAMATIC television hahaha and it depends if they want to take a crack at polyam relationships. But legit I don't think any of us can make that prediction right now because, from the trailers that we've seen, the show is its own story that doesn't really resemble canon outside of the very basic Loustat beats.

By the end of the series it's sort of implied that Loustat are endgame, although they're immortal so we can extrapolate what all else they'll be into for the rest of eternity. Louis is sort of the Persephone of VC and goes back and forth between Lestat and Armand so like, that could just continue to happen forever and ever I guess LOL.

If that's enough information for you, very good! Otherwise I'm gonna drop a little more info beneath the cut, and there will be spoilers if you want to stop here!

Louis/Lestat is the obvious main ship. It starts in IWTV (Book 1), STARTS VERY BADLY LOL, is pretty abusive and fucked up and they break up and Louis leaves the country to escape from him. (He leaves for other reasons too but it helps him escape all the same lol.) They run into each other a couple times in the next 100 years and it doesn't go well, Louis maintains his boundaries and doesn't go back to him even though Lestat is begging, and that's that. Louis does the interview and that's how IWTV happens. Book 2 is The Vampire Lestat, in which Lestat wakes up in the 1980s after a long hibernation, finds a copy of IWTV in a bookstore, loses his mind, and decides he needs to write HIS OWN book to set the record straight. He also becomes a rockstar lmfao. He tells all the ancient vampire secrets in his rock songs and pisses off the entire vampire world. They're all gonna show up at his concert and kill him, but Louis shows up too and is finally ready to forgive him and be his boyfriend.

Book 3 mostly deals with the chaos of Lestat's concert and the big vampire war it causes and it rotates POVs about how everyone is dealing with Lestat's Bullshit and I wouldn't say it focuses on Loustat as like ship content but Louis is there supporting him through this hard time lol.

Book 4 is Tale of the Body Thief and also does not focus on Loustat, but Louis is there to give Lestat some advice about his Bad Decision of the Day. There's a point where Louis maintains some boundaries and it upsets Lestat so much that he burns Louis's house down. By the end of the book, Louis has forgiven him and moves in with him bc he doesn't have a house anymore lmfao.

We don't really hear from them again until Merrick (Book 7), and at this point in time Lestat is traumatized by something that happened in Book 5 and he's nonverbal and Louis kinda just takes care of him. Louis winds up trying to kill himself and the book ends with Lestat rising out of his stupor to save him.

The last 3 books are the Prince Lestat trilogy and they're all over those ones. They go on dates and stuff. They dance together at the ball. Lestat at this point is in love with 15 other people but we get the sense that he sorta always comes home to Louis. Aww!

BUT THEN LOUIS/ARMAND!!! (one of my favs I gotta say lol)

When Louis escapes Lestat in IWTV to leave the country, he meets Armand. Louis has been searching the world for information about vampires because he doesn't understand what he is, because Lestat wouldn't tell him. Louis is immediately into Armand bc Armand will share information with him and Louis respects him a lot.

Some shit goes down like, Armand lets his friends murder Louis's daughter/lover lmao that's yikes. There's a lot of debate in fandom about why Louis forgives Armand or stays with him and I have a lot of thoughts about it and I've written about it 200 times so don't let me get into it now. But Louis winds up staying with Armand and they're together for like 70 (?) years or something.

They break up very amicably and Louis finally has sometime to just be single and get his head sorted out lol.

We don't really hear about them very much until later in the series. We know that they're both around for the whole Lestat Concert Drama and for a while Armand allows everyone to live on his ISLAND LOL. They're also both around when Lestat is having this trauma nap.

In the later books, we learn that Armand has a home in New York City that's called Trinity Gate and it's sort of a safe haven for his friends. Louis lives there sometimes. In the new books when Lestat is in trouble, Louis goes to Lestat, but I get the impression that he can come and go between the two of them as needed.

There's also an incident in the last book when Louis gets KIDNAPPED and because everyone responds to emergencies differently, Lestat kinda mentally checks out but Armand absolutely LOSES IT and it's *devastating*

This is one of my fav ships in VC and I've talked about it to death and will talk about it to death every day of my life if you allow me to LOL

AND FINALLY LMAO ARMAND/LESTAT!!!!!!!!!!!

This ship was never canon but there's tons of fanworks about it because it's delicious rivalry hatefucking. If you're into enemies to lovers this is the ship for you!!!!!!!!

Lestat and Armand meet in TVL, which takes place before the events of IWTV, before Lestat meets Louis. Armand is like, running this cult in Paris and Lestat shows up and RUINS IT LOL and Armand is mega upset that Lestat just destroyed everything he knows. Lestat is planning to leave Paris and Armand begs to come with him but Lestat is like, "lmao you're a bad vibe, no thanks!"

After that it seems like they meet every hundred years and Armand always offers himself to Lestat and Lestat never accepts. IN THE MEANTIME, ARMAND HOOKS UP WITH 2/3 OF LESTAT'S EXES LMAO. Inch resting.

Throughout the series they always kinda act like they hate each other, and they talk shit about each other, but they always have each other's backs when it's important. Lestat creates a ton of global crises and Armand does always show up and support him. When Lestat is checked out and hibernating (twice!) Armand kinda hovers around and protects him. Lestat at one point says he hopes Armand is always around.

(I double checked with Armand/Lestat expert @hekateinhell for this quote and it was provided instantly -

IF I'M LUCKY LOL OKAY)

ALSO THAT TIME WHEN LOUIS GETS KIDNAPPED AND ARMAND IS LOSING IT this all comes out and it's glorious lmfao like, Armand saying, yknow what you've never treated Louis right, and I have thrown myself at you 100 times and you're always a dick about it! And now Louis is gone! 😾

I JUST, THINK, THEY SHOULD PROBABLY JUST FUCK AND GET IT OVER WITH LMFAO

But there's a ton of baggage between them, they both very clearly care deeply for each other (for TONS of complicated reasons omg) but there's also a lot of resentment that makes it difficult to communicate with each other. Armand is also SORT OF A WEIRD LIL GUY and I don't think he's the best communicator, and Lestat tends to egg people on and bring out the worst in people, so I think they just clash because they cannot be around each other without being catty.

SO LISTEN I HAVEN'T HAD COFFEE YET AND IT'S 9AM but off the top of my head that's the basic breakdown. Louis = Persephone

Lestat & Armand = metamours I do think like the books aren't necessarily """shippy"""; the ships all tend to exist but the books are mainly about Lestat having adventures and being a complete nuisance, so you won't go in and get like tons of content of these people just enjoying each other's company or anything. A lot of it is off page or mentioned in passing. But I think fandom has harvested all of this in a really beautiful way and there's tons of art and fics to consume when you're ready and need more. :D

#vampire chronicles #loustat #louis/armand #armand/lestat #interview with the vampire

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islandsaoirse · 2 years

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There are no spoilers for Scarlet/Violet in the following beyond what’s been shown in the first trailer and mention of bugs

I was thinking Pokémon today and sadly I haven’t been able to get to into the new games because the bugs early on really took me out of it. My partner is really loving it but I’m just gonna give it a few days and try to go into it, cause when I tried last time my game straight up crashed multiple times. But I’ve heard great things, from my partner and the exploration, from other mutuals about the story, others talking about how there’s those little town stories Johto type stories that I fucking ADORE and how despite how the game has obvious signs of crunch, creativity being rushed, there where little glamours of “oh hey remember that amazing ending in X and Y, yeah we can still do that” just a shine that as my partner says reminded them of the best of X and Y (I’ve heard more comparing it to Black And White? But afaik the game story is more similar to X and Y and it’s being compared to BnW bc of it being *good*)

But like I see all this praise, very fair criticism of how much crunch there is, the usual discourse where people call the devs lazy and then others put the blame rightly on corporate all tinged with a weird Japanese fetiishization, that Japanese game studios simply can’t exploit their workers because we don’t hear about it like we do Acti or Ubi (mostly because resources that translate those horrible issues arent as widespread atleast in my circles as they should be)

But maybe not to the same degree as idk what BnW and X and Y where to me, but this Pokémon generation feels *big* yknow? Like it feels chunky it feels like all my friends are raving about a different aspect about the game good or bad. The story, competitive and when I get to play. I I’ll probably rave about the region and cultural representation and history. Galar nor Alola felt *big* like Paldea, Paldea feels like it has stories that it wants to tell in its environment about the history of the region, the culture. Unlike Galar and Alola which felt very obvious “haha get it it’s a reference to London get it” which to be fair all the Pokémon games do, Kalos certainly does this. But there’s imho a difference between the city of Paris being contextualzied as the big city of a region, it’s little quirks translated into Pokémon with so much care to hightlight what makes a Parisian cafe special, what makes being a guy with a house in rural france special. Where as Galar imo was like “hey look that’s Big Ben, oh look the stadiums are like football the English love football”

To me Kanto all the way to Kalos felt like respectful tributes and inspirations that where obvious in a way I loved where as Alola and Galar felt like stereotypes in Pokémon form (previous regions had stereotypes but afaik they where less…prevalent?) Paldea seems to take a step back in the right direction, albeit the prevalence of wild areas kinda scares me but hey I’m excited to try it out

This is all to say that Paldea is seeming like a really solid region to explore, that it has modern Pokémon issues but there’s something there, there’s a charm there that I want so bad. And game freak really dropped all that to talk about JUST when Temtem got it’s full release huh.

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grudgby · 3 years

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The first time we see ryan (besides when he is a baby) he is wearing makeup thats clearly inspired by david bowie.

Infinity train is an exceptional show, with so many good characters and storylines. However, even the best pieces of media can have problems - nothing is perfect. And a problem exists with the latest season of infinity train. That problem is queerbaiting (it’s especially apparent in 4x01). A lot of people dont seem to get why it is queerbaiting so I want to break down some stuff that happened in just the first 11 minute episode of the show and the trailer so I wont spoil the entire show for people who havent seen it yet besides the obvious spoiler that rymin is not endgame. The first episode is supposed to get the viewers invested in the show and give us a reason to keep watching. Clearly the creators wanted the shows lgbt+ viewers to continue watching to see if rymin would get together in the end from the first episode.

Queercoding and queerbaiting are not the same thing but queerbaiting almost always involves queercoding. Queercoding can be a totally positive thing when its done to more minor characters and there is canon LGBT rep. She-ra is a good example of a show with a LOT of queercoded characters where it is never confirmed. But she-ra still did not queerbait bc the two leads end up in a lesbian relationship as well as some other wlw and mlm side pairings. Also she-ra had double trouble as textually explicit nonbinary rep while having another trans coded character (jewelstar) that was less significant to the plot.

[id: 6 year ryan in red lightning facepaint covering most of his face. He his biting his lip and holding a rocker hand signal in the air with his eyes squeezed tight.]

David bowie was one of the first openly lgbt celebrities and probably is one of the most influential lgbt people of all time. I’d call him an icon if he wasn’t deeply racist and antisemitic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Against_Racism Us meeting ryan for the first time dressed up as a man who identified as gay is CLEAR queercoding.

[id: ryan is hugging min backstage. Min is blushing]

This was after min gave ryan the shirt ryan is wearing. He is blushing. Do yall blush when your friend youre not into at all hugs you after getting a gift from you? They blush when they hug multiple times throughout the season.

[id: a screenshot of min and ryan are laying on their back unconscious with their right palms held upward by a robot. Their hands are glowing green. The subtitle, spoken by Amelia, read “two in one?”]

[id: a screenshot of a younger amelia with one eyebrow down saying “What is this, some sort of destiny rubbish?]

Using the word destiny to talk about their relationship is clearly coding the relationship to be romantic. They had the same number, “202”. They were practically in couples counseling. When there are two people in a relationship that has been pre-established and they are in the same age group it seems like the logical conclusion that there would be a romantic undertone to their relationship.

In animation, there is hardly any mlm rep. There is far more rep of nontoxic male friendships. Bow and Sea Hawk from she-ra, sokka and aang in atla, benson and dave from kipo and the age of wonderbeasts. There is far more representation for nontoxic guy friends than there is for mlm so mlm rep is far more important.

#infinity train #infinity train spoilers #infinity train book 4 #queerbaiting #rymin

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intelligent-trash · 3 years

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ok so I've read so much of ppl being like “Kate is written v out of character this series” and is it just me who thinks like its v clear she has some sort of feelings for jo? like come on, in the earlier series she would have had no problem with investigating someone who clearly is up to something fishy (sorry jo I loves ya tho!) like she’s not STUPID, and she most certainly wouldn’t have passed on ac-12 info to the suspect when they have SPECIFICALLY warned her not to, and to me it seems like it was made v apparent by the first two episodes that Kate has developed some kind of feelings for her and that is why she is acting differently to how she would normally approach these things, and why she is so willing to defend jo despite the mounting evidence against her??

I would like to add that I do think it is likely it will backfire on Kate and she will end up returning one way or another to ac-12, but her appearing ‘OOC’ or ‘wooden’ I don't think is bad writing but a very conscious choice to show someone who has always been so driven by logic and coming to conclusions wrestling for the first time with an emotional connection that compromises her ability to view things objectively, which is a really interesting foil to Steve who is usually the far more emotionally attached one (sleeping with pretty much anyone involved with the investigation OOP-) who in this series is looking at her like what is going on.

especially when u consider *potential spoiler? like not confirmed but from the trailers* the scenes of Kate and Jo looking like they’re basically on the run, like come on, why on EARTH would Kate be getting involved with something as sus as that if there wasn’t something deeper going on in terms of emotional connection? idk, I just see it as a situ where somehow, jo tells Kate the situation (or like they kill Ryan oops) and then end up on the run - but like, Kate has clearly been shown to be the most sensible of the main trio throughout the series, why would she get involved with something like that if there wasn’t a seriously strong personal attachment to the person involved, which has been already suggested in the initial episodes to have some sort of romantic connotations? idk, it could be queerbaiting all along (which wouldn’t surprise me), but equally I don’t think they would have dropped that in there with no purpose you know? sure, there’s red herrings, but it seems to be a driving motivation for Kate this series, so I think there is going to be some conclusion where that is made explicitly obvious. idk.

idk, I just think its really interesting characterisation that isn’t necessarily a sign of Kate being fishy but Kate actually developing feelings, but the overwhelming heteronormativity in the larger LOD fanbase (obvs not counting for the LOD gays on twitter, who are excellent btw and I love reading ur tweets and I apologise for not engaging really but I would literally never get anything done if I joined in and my dissertation is due in 2 weeks lol) means that a lot of ppl seem to brush over it, plus I don't entirely know what jo’s game is as we haven’t had as much time with her to recognise her characterisation beyond fuckin terrified (and justifiably so, someone give this poor woman another hug, preferably Kate)

anyway, that is me rambling, I would love to hear any thoughts u may have! bc ngl Kate and jo live in my mind rent free atm. which is honestly not that convenient given I have to write this dissertation (on lesbians loooool) but this was partially therapeutic for me to get it all out. see ya xx

#line of duty #bbc line of duty #kate fleming #joanne davidson #flemson #sorry this is so long lol #im not really even that sure what im getting at I just have a lot of thoughts in my headand I really needed to get them out #flemson nation rise up

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jellyfishstarthings · 3 years

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Stella from Winx Club

ok, i’m back on my bullshit. time for stella, who was honestly one of my favorite characters from the original cartoon.

again, if anyone’s interested in me rambling, below the cut are some of my thoughts about the live-action version of stella and who i would have cast instead (warning: it’s a long read, also spoilers if anyone cares):

hannah van der westhuysen just doesn’t really give me stella vibes (but i guess you can’t go wrong with a pretty blonde white girl). in my opinion, her wardrobe looks like a mix of a pta mom and a rich white girl. she gives me very strong “i would like to speak to your manager”, “i have to pick up braelynn and braxton from soccer practice” suburban white mom vibes. i remember watching the netflix trailer for the first time thinking “why does stella look like a 30 year old mom”; my opinion has not changed since i’ve watched the entire show. sorry not sorry.

ok now personality-wise…, they fucked her character up (just like everyone in this show, surprise surprise). oh god where do i even start with this one? the original stella was fun and sassy and playful and while she was a diva and a bit bratty at times, she was also a genuinely kind person who would do anything for the ones she loved; she was beautiful inside and out. netflix stella…is a bitch (i’m not gonna sugarcoat it). and she’s not even a loveable one. she’s the quintessential mean girl - snobby, condescending, and antagonistic towards the other girls for no reason. she has literally no good qualities which infuriates me. she’s more like diaspro than the original stella.

it’s obvious that the reason for her terrible behavior is mostly because of her strained relationship with her mom and the expectations she has to live up to (y’know, your privileged lonely “i’m mean bc no one loves me” rich kid starter pack) which is such a cop-out in my opinion. i understand that in a lot of cases, unkind people tend to be a result of the world being unkind to them but under no circumstances do you get a pass to be an asshole to people who have done nothing to you simply because you’re life was/is hard. and i mean sure you have a right to be angry at the world or whatever/whomever has caused you trauma but you don’t have the right to take it out on innocent people. the writers just couldn’t get me to sympathize with her and i couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

which brings me to my next case: why is her mom suddenly a villian? in the original cartoon, we know that stella’s parents are divorced but they’re still shown to be good parents who love and support stella. but in this version, king radius doesn’t exist and luna (now queen luna) is borderline abusive towards stella and is all about appearances (i mean she would rather have everyone believe that her daughter blinded her own best friend on purpose because she was flirting with her boyfriend, rather than have people know that stella couldn’t control her powers). and i’m not even gonna get into her covering up rosalind’s attack on aster dell. it just seems like they made her so unnecessarily cruel just to have an excuse as to why stella acts the way she does.

now speaking of boyfriends, we’re going to move onto the final thing that i’ll be going over in this rant: her relationship with sky. dear GOD, this show might actually kill me. so for some fucking reason, in this version, stella and sky used to date even though in the cartoon version, they don’t have any romantic feelings for each other whatsoever. in the cartoon, stella only shows interest in “prince sky” because she believes brandon is sky. after she finds out the truth, she still falls in love with brandon anyway and shows no romantic interest in the real sky at all. in this live action version, brandon’s character doesn’t exist so they don’t have the sky-brandon switch plot (and sky isn’t even a prince) so instead we get… sky and stella. sadly. and it’s pretty clear that the only reason they’re established as having been a couple is so the writers can throw in some bloom-sky-stella love triangle drama and have stella be the catty ex-girlfriend.

now as for who i would have cast instead, i chose natalie alyn lind

i could also see dove cameron or peyton list in this role (but i feel like picking them is really cliche)

— anyway that’s the end of this post. this one was longer than the last one so again thank you to anyone who read its entirety and made it to the end ♡

#winx #winx club #fate: the winx saga #seriously though i wanna know who's genius idea it was to have people who DIDN'T EVEN WATCH THE ORIGINAL CARTOON write the script #how the hell are you gonna have the same writers who wrote for the vampire diaries write for this show?#no wonder it's dark edgy and terrible #mary's rambles

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calocera · 4 years

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SPOILERS FOR CATS 2019, here’s my hot takes and opinions

be warned, THIS IS LOOOONG

First off my overall opinion, i LITERALLY cannot say whether it was good or bad, like lots of critics say it just...is beyond that. It’s VERY fun and that’s all I can bring myself to say, I have LOTS of problems with it but I can’t even say that they make the movie bad. It is definitely worth watching

OPINIONS ON CHARACTERS:

Victoria: she’s good! I appreciate that they kinda left her personality blank other than her innocence since that’s pretty much how she always was, still not super thrilled with her as a main character but franchesca did the best she could

Munkustrap: I loved him! he was more of a main character than I would have expected, but they STILL cut all the charm from his lines... why do I love him then? Robbie fairchild did AMAZING background acting, whenever he was in frame he was always doing something SUPER munkustrap-y and making cute dad faces. he was dealt bad lines but he worked around it best he could. Also his legs were normal so...epic fail

Mistoffelees: 😒😒😒😒😒🤢🤢🤮 disappointed but not at all surprised...he was just a Woobie, a softboy uwu nice guy. I felt like I was seeing fanon 2013 loki in cat form. THEY MADE HIS SONG A SADBOY PITY PARTY SONG...WHY WOULD YOU MAKE THE 11 O’CLOCK NUMBER SLOW AND SAD???? Where is the smug little shit who’s vague and aloof yet confident and joyous? He was murdered by his evil homophobic shadow clone. I’m not even gunna indulge the fact that him and Victoria were a thing, I’ll go over that later. He also just constantly looked like the crying cat meme his eyes were so red and watery it was horrifying, yet somehow he wasn’t the worst character , that leads us too.....

tugger: what.the.fuck.did.you.do.to.this.boy. HE GOT THE TREATMENT I EXPECTED FOR MUNKUSTRAP! HE WAS DEMOTED TO BACKGROUND CHARACTER! not only did he not sing mr. mistoffelees, he literally did nothing other than his song, he never interacted with ANY characters besides jenny in 1 scene. I know cats has no set main characters but he’s undoubtedly one of the most important characters and he’s like...the least important named character in the movie. ALSO Jason Derulo was not sexy at all. There was NO hip thrusting NO sexy meowing NO glamrock, he was just an asshole and if I hadn’t already seen the original I would have either completely forgotten about his character or though he was the worst character. I’m so fucking angy I cannot express.

Girzzabella: ngl I expected better. Her acting was great but with the horrible effects I couldnt get invested but I’ll touch on the effects later. Her singing was good, but I expected it to carry the movie and it wasn’t at all the best song in the movie, I’d say she’s about as good as I expected she’d be but the movie itself was more enjoyable than I expected so she was less significant

Old d: she was fine, she LOOKED the part definitely, she didn’t have as large a presence as ken page but I wouldnt expect that of her. Her singing wasn’t the greatest though, her voice is fine by it’s just NOT suited to old d’s songs. I would have preferred she play a female gus bc her voice is very sweet and frail, not at all built for belting like her songs required.

Macavity: he’s just...eh. He’s basically a comic relief villain which sucks. He does practically nothing besides kidnap people, say a cheesy line, and act like a caricature of a 90s cartoon villain (and not one of the fun ones) like theres a scene where he poofs away and when he does it he goes, MACAvityyyyyyy and fades away its so unintentionally funny but it just makes him so lame as a villain. not to mention he doesnt even die at the end or get any satisfying conclusion he just gets stuck on top of a statue and his powers suddenly stop working (for some reason??)

Bombalurina: fuck that, I am simultaneously glad she only was in the macavity number bc fuck off Taylor Swift but also disappointed bc she deserved so much better.

Bustopher: 😟 never in my darkest nightmares did I think I’d see bustopher Jones deepthroat multiple crayfish but here we are. Somehow THIS was the most sexual song, I cannot begin to name the fetishes checked off by this performance bc itd hit word limit. Let me just say that I said multiple times out loud, “damn bustopher kinda a freak with it 😏😏” like I CANNOT stress how weirdly sexual it gets. And ofc its all otherwise just haha funney fat guy eat food and burp and fall down. He also breaks the fourth wall a few times which like, fuck you

Jenny: exactly what was shown in the trailer. Unfunny fat jokes and slapstick humor. Also they focused WAY too many shots on her cat pussy and I wish I was making that up. Also of note is that the cgi on the rats and cockroaches are drastically worse than the rest of the movie, like not just bad designs the effects are BAD. also they translated they whole gumbie cat fur-shedding as her wearing fake skin over her outfit which would be fine but UHH the fake fur is skin tight??? so it literally looks like shes ripping off her skin and she does it multiple times its fucking terrifying

Mungojerrie and rumpelteazer: meh, they are fine as characters, not quite as energetic as I would have liked but they didn’t massively fuck anything up? The song was horrible, they went against the beat for...some reason? Like it’s a song with a very distinct rhythm and they split up the lyrics so weirdly. I liked that they followed through with the lore of them working for macavity

Skimbleshanks: YES YESSSSSSSSSS HOLY FUCKING SHIT 💗💕💖💞💜😳😳😳😳😳😳😳💜💛🧡💚💖❤️💗 i absolutely CANNOT express how good skimbleshanks made me feel. He looks like a leather daddy with his chains and suspenders and hat and stache, I hate that I’m saying this but uh...mr skimbleshanks sir😳 we were actually screaming it was so fucking good. Watching this movie was worth it just for skimble. Unironically. I’m listening to the song as we speak. It was kinda weird that they moved the tap dancing to this song but that’s more of a detractor from Jennie’s and a plus side to skimbles since it’s good tap

Gus: good! Ian did a good job of course, no one doubted that he would.

Growltiger and griddlebone: not racist but still absolutely horrifying. One of the worst parts of the movie, I actually got squeamish looking at griddlebone a few times that’s how bad she looks

Everyone else: not that good. I couldn’t tell who was who, all their personalities were annoying, I’m on imdb as we speak trying to figure out who even was supposed to be who. Demeter is completely butchered and jemima just isn’t there, doesn’t sing her part, it all sucked man.

Tech talk:

CGI: okay so here’s the thing, the effects are good. GREAT even, the issue is how fucking horrible the designs are. The lack of cat nose, mouth, and hairy cheeks makes them all look disgusting. Also the feet. Holy fuck why do they have feet. THERES A FUCKING SCENE WHERE TUGGER GRABS VICTORIAS FOOT AND SNIFFS IT. IT LASTS LIKE 5 SECONDS. Old Deuteronomy, Gus, and Cassandra (bc she was already bald) are the only characters I’d say look anywhere close to decent, grizabella looks okay in profile but head on it’s all horrible again. its really such a shame bc the sets are gorgeous! i really hope this movie gets some form of recognition for its sets.

the editing and directing was DOGSHITTTTTTT there are SO many scenes where characters just teleport or parts where people are singing and no ones mouths are moving its really distracting

Other things:

it’s OBVIOUS that the critics calling this movie horny have never seen the original. I’d definitely say the movie is LESS HORNY than the play. It IS however waaaaaaay more uncomfortable with its hornieness, so I’d say in that regard YES, the horny stuff is much more gratuitous and off putting despite there being an overall smaller amount than the play. ie everything bustopher jones does

They changed a BUNCH of lyrics for some reason?? Like they cut verses which I understand but there are like a handful of lyrics in almost every song they just...change. like...okay? All changing lyrics is gunna do is make people who knew the songs frustrated when they can’t sing along

the dancing was incredible! shame the cg just fucking invalidates all of it bc your mind doesnt register it as real people doing real moves

OKAY THE FUCKING CATNIP SCENE so when taylor swift showers everyone in catnip they all just fucking start moaning and go FULL HORNY its TOO MUCH like misto full on does an o face like eyes rolled back mouth open and munkustrap is like ass up panting i still havent processed it im fucking terrified to encounter it again. they cut the orgy? yet added THIS??? k

WHY did they take 2 of the most iconic characters who FREQUENTLY interact and just

a. Never even have them make eye contact

b. Make 1 a background character

c. Completely change the personality of the other one

On the topic of Victoria/misto: I am just still at a loss as to why they thought it’d be a good idea? They completely removed Plato and for what? This? Pathetic. It’s worth noting the weirdly munkustrap has WAYYY more chemistry with both Victoria AND mistoffelees then they did with each other (there’s a part where it looks like misto and munk are about to kiss for some reason?? munk ALSO gets all touchy feely with skimbleshanks???) anyways munkustrap king moments

tldr; its worth watching, the best parts were the sets, the dancing, skimbleshanks, and munkustrp fucking CARRIES the weight of the world with his face acting. the worst things were a big fat tie between bustopher, tugger,misto,jenny,growltiger and griddlebone, and the godawful design choices

#cats the musical #cats movie #cats spoilers #my post

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blazichu · 4 years

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Brain in a Jar trailer spoilers under the cut

So right off the bat, this is... loaded.

Fun fact, I didn’t process what the left figure was when i first watched, so when I was looking at this shot for the first time, based on the way Raz’s hand and the silhouette’s match up, I thought it was some kind of cool reverse-shadow thing.

I’m not gonna take a screenshot of the memory vault, because I feel like that’s less ambiguous/more spoilery than the above, but I cackled at the inversion of the usual memory vault animation. OH SHIT, WAIT, I JUST REALIZED THAT THE INTRO WAS WHAT WAS IN THE VAULT. HOW COOL.

Also, after the above two (plus one, not pictured) shots, Raz doesn’t seem to be wearing his goggles anymore? Not like, he’s taken them off entirely, but they’re back on his helmet. Obviously I can’t speak to 2, but I don’t think he ever took them off in a mental world in 1, save for the gag where he lifted one lens to make sure he was seeing something right in... I feel like that was the Milkman Conspiracy.

Speaking of interesting wardrobe facts, he’s got his original outfit here, which means this level is before the ~top secret plot point~.

I don’t have any fascinating commentary for this one, he’s just too cute:

Assuming the pose isn’t just for this trailer (and I am assuming it’s not) I’m really glad they kept the same format for badge-acquisition mini-scenes

I don’t know if it’s just the way this particular power works, or if the ball of light is a character in this mind, but it has a very OoT/MM fairy vibe going.

Actually, speaking of OoT, my gut reaction to the guitar thing the first time I watched (again, not picturing it here bc that feels too spoilery) was ‘ah yes, the Master Guitar being pulled from its pedestal’

I’m guessing the badges we saw earlier were psi-blasts (confirmed via tutorial), telekinesis (likewise), pyrokinesis (idr if it was shown, but the badge makes it pretty obvious), levitation (also very clearly shown), and then what I was assuming was shielding, but looking at this, I think it’s actually clairvoyance. That would make sense given the weight it had in RoR, and the whole ‘characters you wouldn’t see once you got clairvoyance have unique visions’ thing; they might have wanted to include it earlier on to have more (legit) fun with it this time around.

Oh hell yeah. I mean, I’m not a fan of the buff censors, beyond the dumb noises they make and their brass NOckles, but I’m still pumped they’re back.

Aaand that’s about all I’ve got for now. If anyone needs me, I’ll be staring at this for the next few hours.

#blazy blathers pn edition #pn2 spoilers

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rxcusant · 4 years

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Its so nice to see my favorite rp blog being active lol. What were your opinions on both the good and bad ending? Yozora?

AW THANK YOU IM GLAD IM YOURE FAVORITE!! im happy you like my content despite my sporadic posting jgfhdkdf

ah................... yes............................ the endings................................. im putting it under a read more bc obvious spoilers

first off FUNNY STORY watched bad end first, DID NOT KNOW it was the bad end, and for a few hours thought they were really just gonna entrap sora in crystal until whatever title drops next OR MAYBE EVEN LONGER. but its a bad end and i was relieved to learn he wasnt trapped for reals! got that out of the way.

im gonna acknowledge the elephant in the room first and thats versus xiii. did not enjoy that. i felt immense dread as soon as i recognized it as that old trailer. I dont want kingdom hearts to become nomuras new versus xiii, i want this series to be its own thing. the jokes about verum rex being versus xiii were kinda fun at first but now im just apprehensive with the future of this series and the next saga. It feels like either way nomura WILL make versus xiii. i dont wanna play versus xiii i want to play kingdom hearts.

having said that, i have no idea what to think about yozora! hes shrouded in mystery that i cant really form a solid opinion. Hell, he plainly says something like ‘this isnt what i really look like’ so i ??? dont know what thats about. None of this makes sense to me! said the secret ending and all the players nodded in agreement. (altho i like verumking’s yozora, thats a good noodle right there)

as for the good and bad ending im kinda //gestures vaguely; like im not happy about sora being turned to crystal and its probably based off that whole thing in ff13 like ‘completing your focus’ (i never finished playing ff13 so do correct me if im wrong LMAO) but it added a bit more urgency than the good end which was just sora chilling in the final world.

and then theres all the dialogue like our classic ‘is any of this for real or not’ and ‘if youre here then this cant be the real world’ ‘no this isnt the real world and i am here’ lines make me feel like nomura might try to pull some ‘HOHO NONE OF KINGDOM HEARTS WAS REAL, IT WAS ALL A LIE AND THE REAL GAME WAS VERSUS XIII’ in which case i will personally give him back every copy of my game. All the dialogue theyve said in this episode sets you up for distrust and i dont know whats what.

i know this series is designed to leave you with questions but like.................. i kinda wish they had done something with the lost masters instead and shown us the foretellers. or hell theyve couldve expanded on shibuya more, just anything other than ‘LOOK AT VERSUS XIII GUYS!!’

so uhhhhhhhhh ultimately, i dont know what to think and im just a tired bitter soul who wants her boy to come home safe and sound

#outofxiii #kh re:mind spoilers//#kh remind spoilers//#kh spoilers//#my opinions dont really matter tho bc in the end i am a 23yo dumbass whos shaking her fist at square enix #BRING HOME MY BOY YOUVE ABANDONED HIM #Anonymous #!questions

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ialreadyreadthatfanfic · 4 years

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So I saw the new Star Wars movie

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT PEOPLE

First off: I went to a marathon of the whole sequel trilogy with my friends, and I’m glad that I did, because I forgot A LOT.

Mostly how many good memes there were born out of those films.

The Force Awakens evoked pretty much the same feeling it did during the first watching: it’s a good, enjoyable beginning, with a lot of hooks, not a lot of risks, a bit too much resemblance to the original trilogy, but on the whole a promising start.

The Last Jedi, on the other hand. I forgot how effectively this movie killed my interest in Star Wars for a long, long while. The plot is a mess. Most of the characters are unlikeable, because the idiot balls they’re holding are too big to get past them. Main offenders are: Poe, Hondo, Finn and Rose. The unfortunate Casino subplot, which is tiring. The fact that whoever wrote Rose’s character arc (or rather didn’t bother to write it) did the actress massive disservice, because the way Rose “saves” Finn at the last minute is, frankly, rage inducing and makes her character devoid of any shred of consistency. I have a lot of other complaints about this movie, but the storylines not making sense are a common theme, so let’s not rehash the familiar arguments.

Now, onto the main event.

The Rise of the Skywalker was… mostly okay.

For me personally, it would be hard to match the disappointment of TLJ, so this worked to lift the sequel ROTS up. I went in pretty much unspoiled, actually! I heard the “oh they plan to bring Palpatine back” thing back when the first teaser/trailer was released. But after that nothing more.

Number one: Leia.

It’s such a shame that Carrie Fisher didn’t get to act in this movie. There are several scenes with Leia mentoring Rey, but it is obvious the filmmakers went as far as they could with the footage they had available, but could go no further. Some scenes with Luke and Han (Han especially) are obviously done with Mark and Harrison standing in for Carrie.

Number two: Palpatine and the theme of Rey’s legacy.

This is where the lack of overall plan for the sequel trilogy, and subsequent lack of proper foreshadowing in TFA and TLJ hurts the most, probably. So Rey is revealed to be Palpatine’s granddaughter. Her parents chose to abandon her for her own safety and were killed when they refused to give up her location. Okay, that’s interesting backstory. Sadly, after the WHO ARE REY PARENTS… PERHAPS SOMEONE WE KNOW and the OMG PLOT TWIST SHE’S NO ONE AND HE PARENTS DIDN’T CARE FOR HER AT ALL, the third plot twist gets me merely to roll my eyes and sigh heavily. I wish dearly there was more time to develop this storyline. It’s wasn’t ENTIRELY bad, but the whole thing has this feel of “uhhh people were really pissed off after the last one… what can we do to fix it?? Oh shit we kinda killed Snoke too and there is Big Bad Villain missing bc we want to redeem Kylo… you know what?? Palpatine was the big bad in prequels AND in the original… let’s have a dramatic reveal how it was him all along. It will nicely bring the story back full circle, you know” and so they did just that.

Nr two subsection A: the whole Sith legacy/Final Order thing was interesting, but again: too little time to develop it. It should have been tied into First Order and Snoke in previous movies… and the less said about Deus Ex Machina Sith Fleet in which every ship has a planet-killing weapon on board the better. Just don’t thing about it too much PLEASE.

Conclusion: Snoke was Palpatine’s test tube baby experiment? That actually explains a lot…

Number three: redemption of Ben Solo.

Honestly, this one? Is actually a net positive for me! I had so little patience for Kylo Ren as a villain that redemption storyline actually made me like Ben Solo in the last part of the movie (AT LAST). And while two first movies had me uninterested in Reylo to the point of irritation at its prevalence, the last movie actually made me ship it a little! Maybe I’m a sucker for redemption. Maybe I don’t have patience for characters who themselves have no idea why are they doing what are they doing and they kinda maybe might not want to do it but continue to do it because it’s easier than giving it up aaand you get the picture how I saw Kylo Ren. And how glad I’m that Ben Solo at the end got to move past this stage of his character.

Also, the Reylo Force Skype was strong in this one. And how!

Number four: Finn and the Stormtroopers deserters.

Again, this should have been in TLJ. They should have taken this whole storyline about Finn meeting other deserters from First Order out of sequel ROTS and replaced the goddamn casino thing with it in TLJ. Sadly, they only thought of putting it in the script once the fanbase got pissed off about lack of Finn’s character development/his BACKWARDS character development in TLJ.

Consequently, Rose was sidelined. On one hand, it’s a shame. On the other, I’m a bit relieved; after the mess they made of her arc in TLJ, there was no salvaging it. It’s better to let the actress have a few scenes to note that she didn’t just disappear from the plot, but don’t try to aggressively resurrect her plot and make an even bigger mess.

The unintentionally hilarious thing about this point: Finn suddenly comes across as such Casanova. Here’s Rose! Here’s Stormtrooper deserter lady! (sorry, I forgot her name). Here’s a sly hint that he might have feelings for Rey!! Pick a girl, for god’s sake!!!

Nr four subsection A: Poe also got an old flame lady Who Happens To Help Our Heroes. Just so you know that he’s definitely into ladies, you know, just a heterosexual dude… The relationship in the movie is handled actually pretty well – they’re old flames and while Poe wants to rekindle the relationship, the lady is ultimately like “nope” and the Poe does “aw” face and moves on, so pretty classy overall. Just in the context of Finnpoe and great chemistry they had in the first movie? This is such a shame.

Number five: Poe in charge and the Resistance thing.

Poe’s storyline in The Last Jedi totally ruined this for me, sorry. I couldn’t even get all that invested.

Also, it feels at times like the movie wants to have Poe taking up Leia’s legacy, Rey taking up Leia’s legacy, Ben taking up his mother’s legacy and you know what? Leia’s legacy is big. There’s definitely enough to go around! TOO BAD THERE’S NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE MOVIE TO SHOW ALL THIS PROPERLY YOU KNOW GOD I WISH THERE WAS MORE ABOUT LEIA’S JEDI TRAINING

Number six: the ending.

Rey and Ben fighting together – I was actually finally sold on Reylo at this point. Their fight together in TLJ against Snoke’s guards was pretty cool (one of few good things in THAT movie), and here their shared fight against Palpatine/Knights of Ren (?) was also great.

Palpatine shooting the force lighting into the sky to disable the whole Rebel fleet and friends apparently got someone in the cinema to go “seriously?!” out loud, as my friends report. Enough said.

Rey dying and Ben trying to bring her back to life: this part actually got me really excited. For a moment there I thought that Ben would fail, and the force ghost Anakin would show up to Deliver Some Hard Earned Wisdom About Bringing People Back To Life And How You Can’t Do It and this would be a very satisfying ending to the whole “Ben/Kylo tries to be Just Like Grandpa Vader” storyline. Well, that didn’t happen.

The fact that Ben brough Rey back, then kissed her passionately, and then IMMEDIATELY KEELED OVER DEAD got the whole theatre laughing (me included). Again, enough said.

The “Galaxy Shows Up To Help Out BC The Resistance Asked Twice And They Felt Bad After Ignoring The First Call”: I got it. You want your feel good moment here. Look how happy ending is when the people of galaxy unite together, aww. Sadly, when you think about it for a two seconds more, this is such a bullshit and disservice to Leia, because the implication is that they didn’t pick up when LEIA was calling, but decided to help after all when LANDO asked… What??? Go fuck yourselves.

The ending-ending was ok. Rey, Finn and Poe hugged (aww!). Two ladies kissing in that 0.5 sec long shot are all Disney needs to show how open-minded they are*. That one kiss with Ben was apparently enough to marry Rey into the family, she’s a Skywalker now. Leia and Luke look approvingly on as they force ghost along, that’s nice.

At least people who wanted Rey to have a double blade got what they wanted in the end.

*So it’s actually genuinely good that scenes like these ARE put into cashcow franchises like Star Wars, but I’m hesitant to give Disney too much credit. Knowing them, they’ll just shove one blink-and-miss-it scene in all their movie and claim that’s comprehensive proof of their supportive approach to alternate lifestyles.

#star wars #the rise of the skywalker #sw #spoilers #sequel trilogy #nebra original #also on my dreamwidth #TROS #the rise of skywalker

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