#but peter flat out loses for the first time against a villain and has to flee | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sunnymusingsao3 · 2 years

Text

i studied code because i wanted to do something great like you

Words: 2425 Ratings/Warnings: General Audiences, No Archive Warnings Apply There are mentions of grief, though, so proceed with caution Relationships: Otto Octavius & Peter Parker Summary: Otto Octavius has too many thoughts to hold them in, even if it ruins his reputation with this new spider boy. He's fairly sure that it went out the window when the kid laughed at his name, though, and since it's this or death, what does he have to lose by unburdening them to a copy of someone he once mentored...?

Preview:

Even without his spider-sense (he refuses to call it his “Peter Tingle” with supervillains in the room, even if he’s only thinking it—because he has no idea if one of them is secretly a telepath, and he refuses to take that risk), Peter could have known without turning that Dr. Otto Octavius was staring at him.

Even when he’d had his sunglasses on earlier, the doctor’s gaze had felt like it could drill down to his bones, and now that he wasn’t wearing them anymore, there was no barrier between those chilling eyes and the hairs on the back of Peter’s neck.

And since leaving The Sanctuary, they’d been on end.

The other villains had made themselves comfortable about the apartment upon arrival, and even Otto had briefly spoken to his aunt in the kitchen, but apparently that hadn’t held his attention long, since the doctor had then walked himself into Peter’s makeshift laboratory—and he didn’t seem intent on leaving of his own volition.

Which would have been fine, except—he had yet to speak. It was like he’d walked in just to stare at Peter, who tried not to imagine that the doctor was searching for some kind of weakness he could exploit. It made Peter hypervigilant of every move he made; was he favoring his right leg or his left in which one carried the brunt of his weight? Was the twinge his left wrist made when he curved it a certain way visible? Could Otto see scars peaking above the collar of his suit, ready to be re-opened if he felt threatened?

His spider-sense was… odd, sometimes. It wasn’t always on an all-or-nothing setting, because sometimes it went off differently for different levels of urgency. Otto Octavius staring at him as he worked was registering at a solid two-point-oh out of five, but it could very well climb up to a two-point-five, or a two-point-seven-five, depending on how long the villain sat in silence.

Peter continued to code anyway, though, his fingers flying over the keys at an unnatural pace, as his eyes flicked meticulously through the program he was writing. If Tony was still—er, if Tony had been there, Peter would have thanked him endlessly for the A.I. programs he’d already made, because figuring out how to create one for Otto was ridiculously easy when he used F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s old software as a base code.

He was just typing in a string of commands that would allow Otto’s cerebellum to more rapidly transmit commands to the tentacles, when the doctor cleared his throat, causing Peter to flinch so hard that his knee came up and banged against the underside of his desk.

“Dude!” was the first word out of Peter’s mouth (that wasn’t a curse for which May would have crucified him had she heard, anyhow).

As he whirled in his chair to face Otto, Peter just barely caught the tail end of the doctor’s amused smirk, and he was tempted to make the guy’s own arms wrap tighter around him for that, but since the remote was in the other room, he settled for a flat glare instead.

“Apologies, boy,” bullshit, “I simply wanted your attention for a moment.”

Peter folded his arms on the back of his chair. “And you couldn’t have asked for it the moment you walked in? You had to stare at me for five minutes first?”

“I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“You just did—”

“Quit whining. I’ve been watching you,” Peter tried not to look dumbfounded at the man’s audacity, “And you clearly know that code like the back of your tarsus, so I thought that now might be a good a time as any—seeing as how you’re not giving me much room to breathe here, anyway.”

Peter wasn’t sure if Otto meant the restraints or the speed at which he was working to get him home—safely—but he decided not to ask questions he didn’t want the answers to, and instead rolled his eyes. “Clever.”

“What? You’re a spider, are you not?”

“And you’re an octopus. Should I start calling your arms—” Peter stopped short when he realized that octopus arms were indeed called just that.

“Whatever,” he changed the subject, once more shooting Otto a chagrined look when he smirked, “What was your very important interruption for? Because if it’s to tell me I’m wasting my time again, then I’m just gonna put headphones on and ignore you.”

Otto, surprisingly, snorted, almost good-natured, despite his general disposition about Peter’s endeavors, and shook his head. “It’s not that. Although—”

“Don’t—”

“I just don’t think you should rule out the possibility—”

“I will drown you out with ABBA, don’t even try me.”

[Read the rest on AO3]

#marvel #mcu #marvel fic #mcu fic #spider-man fic #spider-man: no way home #spider-man: no way home spoilers #smnwh #smnwh spoilers #spider-man #peter parker #tom holland peter parker #doctor otto octavius #otto octavius #doc ock #doctor octopus #my fic

29 notes · View notes

drshebloggo · 3 years

Text

how to make WW84 a stronger movie

As sort of requested, here’s a beefed-up version of the list of notes I made watching WW84 because I was getting cranky with the execution of this movie and couldn’t help but jot down ideas. I WANTED to love this thing but the script was not selling its ideas to best effect.

For me, I think there were a few challenges inherent in the movie they wanted to make. BUT with a few different choices here and there in the way the story was told, it would’ve improved its impact without sacrificing what they were going for with tone and characters.

CHALLENGE #1: this movie is set SO far in the future from the events of the first film. 65 years have passed, and Diana is still just gliding somberly through her life and that makes me SAD. All her friends are dead! She’s on her own and cursed with immortality!! She lives in an ‘80s decor sadness chamber surrounded by photos and memories of people she’ll never see again!!!

And yet the film gave us no real textual information about that. They did the laziest thing possible, which was pan the camera around a million photos on mantles and told us NOTHING. Literally WHAT has Diana done for the past, say, THIRTY YEARS since her Earth Friends all died without her??? Has she literally made NO OTHER friends? She’s still sad about Steve 65 years later and nothing else has progressed?

This lack of specificity leaves Diana fading in the lead role of her own movie despite the fact that there’s TONS of material there that they just... ignored. For me, she read flat, which bummed me out majorly. Her best stuff was with Steve because that actually MEANS something. But it’s all she’s got in this film. They didn’t bother filling in any other information about her life.

FIX IT: literally just make Barbara already friends with Diana at the beginning. Not only does it make Diana more interesting, it reduces the sheer amount of exposition that the film piles on in the first 45 minutes. This also means you can bring Steve back sooner than the 45 minute mark, which would help grease the wheels in the first third of the movie. And it also means that Diana losing Barbara to inhumanity would actually have a greater impact on Diana beyond “oh my kooky new friend turned into an evil cat; this is vexing.”

CHALLENGE #2: the tone is WILDLY different than the tone of the first. They went from WWI trench warfare to shopping malls and fanny packs. It’s a HUGE tone shift, and it takes some getting used to. But there are good things to it; namely it provides great comedy for Steve, who is a definite bright spot in the movie.

Overall I’m on board with doing a superhero movie that pivots away from grit and darkness and toward camp and comedy, and it’s cool to do something new rather than reiterate the same tone from the first film. But I think they could’ve done more to sell the tone shift.

There are HIJINKS inherent in the premise that I’m guessing were fairly unilaterally unexpected. There’s a vaguely historical magic WISHING STONE and three buffoons each made a wish and turned shit upside down. I myself wish that Maxwell and Barbara and Diana were rendered in triplicate, as equal collaborators in this batshittery. I don’t think you’re watering down Diana’s role as lead (no more than giving her no other emotions to play than sadness) by doing so, and it even works nicely to own the idea that Max and Barbara are on equal narrative ground as Diana.

As far as the villainy goes, Max is more recognizably a Bad Guy, but Barbara is NOT, and it’s fascinating to show at least Diana and Barbara working together but slowly falling apart as shit goes SIDEWAYS. Hijinks can be zany and also meaningful! What if a villain is just a friend who wants something different than you and you have to come to terms with that and stop them from doing dumb shit? There’s an element of screwball to this premise and I wanted them to lean in more. This would also give Diana more to do than cry and fight.

FIX IT: show Barbara getting her powers using the same tropes of other superheroes getting their powers and figuring them out. Play it like she’s Peter Parker finding out she’s Spider-man. Hell, do a montage with all three of them using/abusing their powers: Barbara beating the shit out of things, Maxwell manipulating people, Steve and Diana making the fuck out and enjoying the shit out of it. These are the joys of wish fulfillment!

AND, if they had set up the rules of the artifact beforehand (see Challenge #3), then the audience would know they were watching very happy people who are going to have their LIVES RUINED SOON. And that is good storytelling. (Maybe this is oversimplified, but honestly half of good storytelling is just making the audience feel two opposite emotions at the same time. The other half is dramatic irony, which would also apply to this trio montage.)

CHALLENGE #3: What the hell are the rules of this magic wishing artifact anyways??? The audience should know them before the characters do. The way this movie doled out information was bananas. They waited right before they were going to the tell the audience something to show us what they were about to tell us. Just show us earlier and tell the characters later!!! That way WE’LL already know because we’ve seen it, and THEY’RE not saddled with expositional dialogue to make sure the audience follows the idea.

FIX IT: For the love of humanity, nix the opening sequence with the horse race and make it about the damn stone!! Rip off Lord of the Rings and tell the history of the innocent but dangerous thing. Rip off Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and animate something about how it gives wishes at a cost. Hell, let Connie Nielsen and Robin Wright(’s unbelievably ripped arms) tell young Diana the story so they can still hang out and be a part of the film! Throw in some lore about the gods, just to remind us where Diana comes from and her belief system, and we’re good to go.

While you’re at it, toss in the whole point of the film into the moral that Diana’s moms impart to her at a young age. It’s not a spoiler. We don’t wonder if 1984 Diana will do the right thing. She does not need to LEARN this moral. She already knows the moral, but she still has to make the hard choice to let Steve go and of course it doesn’t come easy.

In summary: that horse race had little to do with the rest of the movie and it’s wasted story space, especially for setting up the entire magical premise that the movie hinges on, let alone the actual message of the film.

CHALLENGE #4: Do we care about Maxwell and his kiddo enough to rest the entire movie’s resolution on it? Ehhhh. The glimpses into young Max’s abuse is another example of showing information RIGHTBEFORE it’s important, rather than setting it up earlier to pay off later. It’s a far weaker choice.

FIX IT: Age up Alistair. If he’s a teen or preeteen, then the stakes feel higher because it seems more monumental to undo the trauma of neglect at that age. Much like in his business pursuits, the clock is ticking and Max is running out of opportunities for success in all realms of his life.

Maybe show Maxwell trying to reason with Alistair earlier in the movie, saying that he’s a good dad because he’s not as bad a dad as his own father. It shows us how he justifies his behavior, gives us the information that he had an abusive dad, and gives an actual interaction between father and son other than “daddy you’re not here” and “shhh son here’s a pony.”

Possible other fix-it which connects to other fixes: what if Barbara actually renounces her wish before Max does? It should be more painful to the audience to lose Barbara to her wish because we’ve technically LIKED her at one point. She means something to Diana, and so she means something to us. Honestly, the audience has rooted for her independent of Diana! The scene where she realizes she’s not powerless against her harasser but then completely loses herself in violence against him? One of the movie’s best. It’s pretty dissatisfying that she just goes completely off the deep end and then nothing with her is resolved after the wishes are broken.

But, with the way the movie is set up, the big emotional climax is the scene of Diana getting through to Max/the entire planet, so it’s hard to undo that and give it to Barbara instead, considering that it won’t wrap up the plot. But geez, do SOMETHING with Barbara that’s based in actual emotions. Don’t hinge your entire movie’s emotional resolve on a father-son relationship that’s two-dimensional and doesn’t have anything to do with the main character! You had emotional investment in Barbara; use it!!

At the very least, have Diana get through to Barbara in some way, either before Maxwell renounces or after, and maybe even intercut it with Max and his kid.

CHALLENGE #5: I experience great existential malaise at watching a mylar balloon drift off into the ether. Was there no better visual for the final moments of the film? Asking for myself, and also the planet. (This one is mostly a joke... but seriously, you guys, the PLANET.)

#ask box #spoilers #uhhhh I should probably keep this out of the tags #I wanted to like this movie a lot #but it came up short for me and it hampered my enjoyment a little bit #so I tried to take note of how it could've been improved with a stronger script #instead of complaining vaguely and dunking on it #WW84 #Wonder Woman

22 notes · View notes

helpinghanikan · 4 years

Text

Peter Parker A-Z

Peter Parker A-Z NSFW head-cannons

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

“Thank you,” He’ll usually say, lightly panting while laying on his back. Staring at the ceiling while one hand remains on you. Either cupping your breast or just happening to lay against your equally sweaty skin.

You are usually the one to take care of the other. Taking a drink of water before offering him the same glass.

B = Body part (Their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

On you: As a young man it’s assumed his favorite part of you would be your breasts, or ass. Nope, it was instead your hands, for all the sweetest reasons. He loves that he can grab and hold them anywhere he wants. He loves the little secrets that go along with it, like how he can feel your pulse by sliding down a bit. A fact he would never have thought about if Mr. Stark didn’t give him some help.

On himself: He likes his arms. His biceps and muscles are usually hidden by the graphic tees and hoodies. It would draw too much attention if he were to show them off so much. So the only people he can show them off to are Ned, other Avengers, and yourself. And the others weren’t as appreciative as you have proven to be.

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

It was only after sleeping together a few times that you became more open with each other. After getting past the awkward ‘what goes where’ and ‘what feels good’ you are talking a little deeper with each other.

“So, the webs don’t actually come from you.” You said, laying side by side with your sweaty man.

“I use the swingers and a web like substance. I make it. I just don’t, like, you know, make it.”

“Oh, okay…”

“Did you think that was coming out of me?” he asks.

“Maybe I thought it would cum out of you?” You said this but he didn’t give you the satisfaction of seeing your ‘do you get it?’ face. Instead he kept looking upwards, her confusion face now in place.

“Is that how spiders work?” he asks, probably himself.

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

As you explored with each other Peter has thought about adding a third. Obviously only if you were okay with it; bringing in another guy or a girl, maybe even another hero? Or, maybe anti-hero?

It’s all up to you, though. Too embarrassed to outright ask you, but not enough to stop fantasizing.

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

At his age Peter is as inexperienced as one can get. Every move and touch was followed by either a question or a look asking the same thing. It was cute at first, but after a bit it gets a little annoying. Not to the point that you had snapped at him, but enough that you wouldn’t answer and just give a look.

If you are more experienced there’s a bit of training that happens during your love making. It’s not that you were treating him like a dog, you were just giving suggestions and directions.

F = Favorite Position (This goes without saying. Will probably include a visual)

He likes it when you’re on top. Both for the view, the feeling and just the overall confidence that comes with handing over most of the reins.

With his hands on your hips, and his feet flat on the floor or bed, he can focus on the smaller details against you. Sometimes becoming confident enough to lean forward, kissing your stomach or maybe taking a bite.

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

It almost always starts with jokes or tickling when left alone together. Only when a hand is placed somewhere and not removed was when hands would begin to wonder further. The mood peaking when you’d make fun of his expression when seeing your breasts, it was the same look every time.

H = Hair (How well-groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

It’s something that he secretly obsesses over; some men shaves it down, so it looks bigger. While others leave it because they don’t care or see a difference. With advice coming from every direction Peter has learned to only barely alter his hair.

The nightmare scenario of cutting himself and needing to call for help. Or worse, that Aunt May could be the one who sees like that. Is better than any other argument could give.

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…)

Any bit of intimacy Peter had learned from movies and books (all borrowed from Aunt May, of course). So candles and flowers are expected when he tries to go above and beyond. It’s only when you directly explain that want anything different that things change.

The first time you had a discussion of romance was when the candle fell over and there goes your comforter. The entire room might have been in flames if Peter’s radar wasn’t always on.

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

Well, he’s young, what do you expect?

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

He’s submissive, that’s a simple fact. It’s something that can help him forget about all the stress and tension he has to go through. It’s where he doesn’t have to be in charge, doesn’t have to be the hero and can let the world fade out behind him.

He gets this look when he gets into it. A kind of soft smile from soft lips that can you can only stare at for so long. His eyes demanding you look into them. And, when you do, it’s like love was just discovered by Peter Parker.

L = Location (Favorite places to do the do)

He prefers your place over his. Even when you’re old enough and in college or your apartment, nothing near him feels safe. At his place there’s a symbolic warning light on the door, like, at any moment Aunt May was going to come in and ruin the moment.

It’s only predictable that the one time you convinced him to ‘not worry about it,’ BOOM Hi, Aunt May, how are you?

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

At first it was just holding his hand could get his thoughts racing. After a while things began to get more specific. Coming back to his inner nerdiness and how a pencil or pen to your lips was better than nude.

It was mean, maybe a little patronizing, but your eyebrows coming together in confusion. Trying to figure what it was out with the pen or fingers toying with your face? Yeah, studying can happen later.

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

He doesn’t like pain above a certain level. That level is maybe a few swats on the bare backside but that’s it. Pain is something that’s not fun; it’s connected to villains and failure and crushing and death. It’s not something that belongs with you or anyone he loves.

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

He prefers to giver rather than receive. His eyes looking up at you throughout the entire event, silently asking if what he was doing was correct. Maybe adding a finger or moving a certain way? Looking up after doing so, getting a sound of confirmation and continuing on.

It’s when he’s receiving that he gets loud. His hands almost always flying to his mouth, gasping when being taken in and groaning into those same hands. When his hands are to his mouth he’s grabbing at your hair, groaning while leaning forward, almost bent over when he cums.

P = Pace (Are they fats and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

At first he moved like a rabbit. As if going as quickly as possible was the key to an orgasm from both parties. Placing a hand on his chest, almost pushing him off, was the only way to let him know that he needs to tone it down a bit.

After that he learned to listen to both of your bodies. Now, starting slow before getting faster. It’s only when he’s on the edge that he starts to lose control. When that happens his hair is sweaty, and his mouth is slightly open with moans and little words of thanks. There’s no way you can ask him to slow down then.

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

It’s actually one of your things to meet up on your roof. Where you’d hang around for a few minutes before being swept off your feet and into the air. Screaming from the excitement rather than anything else.

Other than that it’s really only when at parties that he cares about it. Whether it’s a party party with each other’s friends or something he was invited to because of his connections. Other than that it wasn’t something he really preferred over regular sex.

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

The closest to risks he takes is the little meetups while on patrol. Even those are only done while on solid ground (or roof, whichever), it’s more of the suit aspect then the risk aspect.

As far as experimenting goes he usually game, so long as it’s not too intense. Not really interested in the kind of stuff that hurts too much. Rather a tie down and tease kind of guy rather then tie up and smack around.

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

It’s a combination of his youth and powers that he has much more stamina then most. It’s one of the reasons that he prefers regular, take your time, sex over quickies.

It’s also how he likes to have his own control over you, even while being the more submissive partner. Even with his hands pushed to the bed and you on top, he can take you over the edge again and again. Watch your face and body change from the pleasure from a position where he’s nothing more than a tool. A tool that gets to see your eyes roll back and keep it in memory.

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

You have shared toys of light restraints. There was also a strap you two had gotten on a whim. Truth be told, they’re barely used. Either completely forgotten about when you get together or you bring it up and just aren’t in the mood for that tonight.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He unintentionally throughout the day. How he holds your hand or leans against you. And his face, his stupid face that smiles at you or looks at you that way. It’s almost frustrating how you can’t grab him right there and then.

He’s mentioned before, trying to be casual while doing so, that he actually likes being the one teased. It preferable that way as he’s still learning the ins and outs.

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

It’s almost another kink that your hands have to cover his mouth sometimes. Even in the privacy of your own apartment or dorm room. Moaning and groaning like a good little boy that wants to be sure you know how great you are.

It’s only when its outside your room that he becomes aware of just how loud he is. Pressing his mouth into your shoulder or putting both hands to his mouth. That extra level of awareness makes his face blush pink from his cheeks to the ears. When you move his hands away you better be quick with a kiss or someone just might hear.

W = Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

Although not sexual his favorite part of being with you was the cuddling. Be it clothed or naked, he loves to almost be on your lap, to be the small spoon, and just to be held.

His heart is near bursting when you raise your arm while on the couch or bed. Giving a perfect invitation for him to slide right into. Pressing under your neck and letting the world vanish from the affection he was getting.

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

Another thing he obsesses over in combination with his grooming. Constantly worrying if he was smaller than average or if something was wrong. It’s not like a doctor can tell him if the spider bite had any effect down there. In reality he was average, maybe thinner then expected but still enjoyable.

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

He likes to have you before going on patrol or when there is nothing planned for that night. With clashing schedules he can’t exactly track you don’t after classes. Even if he was fantasizing all throughout the day.

On the rare times that you were together, watching a show and cuddling, he’ll get ideas. One of you sliding over the other’s clothes and starting to kiss. Starting to go deeper because, hey, you were alone.

Z = ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Even after going through the ringer Peter is still pretty squirrelly, either wanting to go again or getting dressed and going about getting food or homework. All the while you try to keep your eyes open, reassuring him that he’s fine. Go and finish whatever, just bring you back a sandwich from wherever

#reader insert #peter parker x reader #peter parker #spiderman x reader #A-Z headcannons #spiderman imagine #peter parker imagine

58 notes · View notes

cagestark · 4 years

Text

Better Late Than Never//1

And Merry Christmas to YOU

Aka I started another project that I will take twenty years to finish. But @starkerflowers prompts were just too fucking good.

About: With interest in his work waning, famous writer Tony Stark (under the pseudonym AE Potts) changes his entire public relations platform, which includes hosting a meet-and-greet contest where one lucky fan will get to spend the day with him. That one lucky fan is Peter Parker. Peter is 21. Will contain nff, alcoholism, suicide attempts, character death (not major), drug mentions, anxiety, anxiety attacks.

Read here on AO3.

Tony is awakened from a drunken, dreamless sleep by a tub of envelopes and small packages being upended over his head. He jerks upright with a shout from where he was slumped over his writing desk, upending the (empty) bottle of whiskey that had lulled him to sleep. Pepper stands over him, impeccable in every way he is not.

“Jesus Christ,” he says, pushing envelopes off of where they have pooled on his lap. “You could have taken my eye out, Peppercorn. What are you trying to do, perform Lingchi on me? What is all this?”

“Fan mail,” she says. Her voice is stern and unsympathetic. The first time she’d found him passed out drunk over his desk, she had panicked and nearly called for an ambulance. The next handful of times she had just covered him with a blanket and regarded him with sad eyes the next morning when she brought him coffee. But those were ten years ago. Not to mention, all in her first few weeks on the job— “Social media is revolting. You never answer fan mail, you never do Q&A’s, you haven’t done an interview in almost a decade.”

“Fuck this,” Tony mutters, opening one drawer. “Where’s my whiskey?”

“In your bloodstream, I’d imagine. Don’t brush this off, Tony. Sales are waning. We need to make some serious changes in our PR or I’ll be putting in my two-weeks’ notice.”

That gets Tony’s attention. Pepper hadn’t threatened to quit after his last book when he’d killed off one of the most popular characters (one of his personal favorites, may she rest in fictional peace) and the public had flipped their shit. She hadn’t threatened to quit years before that when she walked in on him hunched over his desk with a straw to his nose, three sheets to the wind on far more than just whiskey. She has the disposition of a mountain: unflinching and ever-enduring.

“You mean it,” says Tony.

“I mean it.”

His shoulders sag. He glances around the room: the mess, the junk, the empty alcohol bottles, the half-finished manuscripts. There’s a strange feeling in the back of his throat, acidic, like he might throw up. Or cry. When his mouth opens to say something sarcastic, something about not letting the door hit her on the way out if she expects him to play nice with the media, all that comes out is a broken: “I can’t lose you, Pep.”

She puts a hand on his shoulder. “You will. If you don’t make some changes. Okay?”

Maybe this is what it means to be balanced on a knife’s edge, where one way ends in pain and the other ends in terminal inconvenience. But he knows which one he has to pick. His whole life is just a big inconvenience, but pain? Tony has spent enough time with his hand flat against the stove’s burner to know that he’d rather die than feel it again, rather die than lose one of the only people left who can stand him.

He picks up the closest letter and tears it open, blinking heavily to clear his eyes. Pepper leans down to press a kiss to the crown of his head and then gags. “Take a shower, when you get the chance,” she mutters, smiling.

The letters start off by being good for one thing: his ego. Adoring fans have been writing to his penname and business address for decades since he put out his first super-hero novel, titled IRON-MAN. Pepper has chosen to give him recent fan-mail, considering he’s spent so long ignoring it that if he were to answer them in order of reception, he might encounter fans who didn’t even remember the letters once sent. Or ones who were dead.

They are all variations of the same thing. The handwriting changes, gentle feminine cursive to childish scrawling to neat block lettering, but the message is usually the same. DEAR MR. POTTS. I’VE READ EVERY BOOK YOU’VE EVER WRITTEN. I GOT YOUR NAME TATTOOED ON MY ASS. IRON-MAN IS MY HERO. I’VE NEVER READ PROSE AS LOVELY AS YOURS. WHAT IS YOUR SECRET?

At Pepper’s request, Tony drafts a generic letter to send in response, something about how he can’t respond personally to every letter but he wants them to know that he’s read what they’ve written and ‘holds it close to his heart’.

“It’s good,” Pepper approves. “Sign them yourself.”

“Good?” Tony says. “I was joking—this letter is trash. Anyone who knows me would see this for the sarcasm it is—”

“Then thank God none of the fans know you,” Pepper responds coolly.

She has a point. Tony has existed in relative seclusion since he first began publishing his works at 24. After twenty years, he’d managed to remain mostly anonymous. A pseudonym does most of the work, including non-disclosure agreements for his employees. Any time a presence is required, he sends Rhodey or Happy or Pepper even. Theory pages abound on the internet, sites devoted to finding out who the real AE POTTS is. Even though one picture leaked of him during the early 2000’s (a grainy godforsaken thing that didn’t even show his best angle), there were still some disbelievers. One popular conspiracy theory is that AE is Pepper, considering Tony stole her last name to use as his own.

Maybe that’s why his declining image in the media bothers her so much.

A week later, Tony’s hand has a cramp the way it hasn’t since he was a little boy learning to write his letters. Freehand has never been his specialty—it’s far too slow for the way his mind works, bounding a sentence, a scene, a chapter ahead. Signing so many letters is going to freeze his hand in a claw like position. He’s sure of it.

Then Pepper drops the next bombshell on him: the contest.

“It goes against everything I’ve been working so hard to do for the last twenty years,” Tony shouts at the zenith of their argument. “I do not want to be known! I don’t want the fame; I just wanted the goddamn fortune, is that too much to ask for?”

“Times have changed,” Pepper says through her teeth. She holds her own, spine straight. She hasn’t shirked away from his angry outbursts ever, not even when they were children growing up together in Manhattan. “I’m not asking you to do a 20/20 Special. I’m not asking for an interview on Ellen. I’m asking for you to meet with one fan. Have a goddamn lunch with them. If you can’t handle that, then you can kiss your fortune goodbye. Mark my words.”

Tony marks them. He fucking marks them, okay? When he’s drinking himself blind, locked in his office (good luck getting in now, Pep), they ring around his skull like a dime in the dryer. Sometime around dawn, she picks the lock on the door and mops his brow while he vomits in the tiny trashcan beside his desk.

“I’m not doing this to torture you,” she says with uncharacteristic tenderness. Her hand on his forehead occasionally rifling through his greasy hair is not what’s making his eyes prickle with tears—it’s the vomiting. Honest. He’s not that touch-starved. “You know that, right? I hate seeing you like this.”

“I know,” he chokes miserably, gagging again. So he agrees to the Willy Wonka Initiative. Pepper puts out the word that the infamous AE POTTS will be selecting a single fan to meet face to face. Anyone eighteen or older is eligible to participate, as long as they write a letter explaining why they should get it blah blah blah. A golden ticket might have been funner. At least then Tony might have had an excuse to wear the tacky purple suit and tophat.

In the meantime, Pepper reveals that she’s been having Happy screen his mail to only show him the happy letters—figures. His hate mail isn’t extensive, but it certainly exists, having increased exponentially since he killed off Natasha in the last novel.

FUCKING MYSOGINISTIC ASSHOLE, Cheryl from Newport tenderly writes. YOU HAD ONE GOOD FEMALE CHARACTER, AND YOU KILLED HER OFF. I HOPE ANOTHER WOMAN NEVER LETS YOU BETWEEN THEIR LEGS AGAIN AND YOUR DICK SHRIVELS OFF.

Tony thinks that’s pretty succinct. He posts it up on his desk propped up against the last picture ever taken of him and his mother. Killing off Natasha had been an idea he’d personally revolted against for months. Sure, it made sense that sensitive, strong Natasha would be the one to sacrifice herself in order to stop the villain from succeeding in wiping out half the universe. It made sense for a woman to be the one to give her life to protect others.

After all, hadn’t his own mother died trying to protect Tony?

The weekend after the contest drops on their social media platforms, Pepper texts to tell him that it’s being received far, far better than they might have ever hoped for. Already dozens of letters had been received, letters which must have been penned and mailed just hours after the news had spread.

Joy, Tony texts back.

I haven’t told you the best news, she says. That’s how Tony knows that the next news will be the worst news, absolutely the worst news of all. You get to pick the fan.

“Any letter catching your eye?” Pepper asks him over lunch in his office.

“They’re all the same,” Tony laments. Even his own ego can only take so much stroking. After a while, the fan mail has become mostly routine and lackluster, though he keeps opening it, keeps signing the response letters, keeps sending them out. “I’m going to end up picking one at random, Pep.”

“I don’t care how you pick,” Pepper says. “As long as you do—and as long as you’re ready to suffer with the consequences of your choice.”

“Suffer? God, I love the light you bring into my life. The unending optimism. The unparalleled faith and trust in me.”

Her eyes glitter even as they roll. “If you like me so much, you can buy lunch next time.”

Tony snorts, taking a large bite from his burger. “Gold digger.”

“I’ve seen your taxes, Tony. These days, there isn’t much gold to dig for.”

“Ouch, kill shot.”

The letter arrives only one week before the contest deadline. In the top drawer of his desk are three other letters from potential winners, mostly picked at random, sometimes because Tony likes their handwriting, sometimes because they say something funny that actually makes him laugh. When he opens up the letter from Peter B. Parker, he scans the first lines not intending to be impressed.

Dear Mr. Potts, Peter writes.

I’ve written you so many letters that it should be easy by now. I don’t know why my hands are shaking. Maybe I’m nervous because I know for certain that this one, someone will actually read.

I received my first copy of IRON-MAN when I was eight years old—yes, a little bit heavy for a kid that age, but my parents had just died unexpectedly in a car accident. My aunt and uncle took me in, and my uncle gave me his first edition. Iron-man’s story was one of the only things that got through to me as a kid. His struggle to come to terms with losing his own parents, his loneliness, his fear. The way he overcomes all of that and still goes on to do good…yeah. It meant a lot to a grief-stricken kid. Obviously.

Pretty much every birthday and Christmas, I end up receiving one of your books as a gift. My family and friends know me so well, I have nearly a half-dozen copies of AVENGERS (it’s one of my favorites). The things you write about are so close to my heart, so close to some of the experiences I’ve had in real life. My struggle with mental illness. My abuse and neglect. And the way you write these things makes me think…fear, I guess…that maybe you know something about them too.

I would love to get to meet you and talk about your incredible books. I’d love to get to know you. Not going to lie, as a fanboy, I’d probably be happy to just sit at the same table with you and have a meal. I’ll buy. We don’t even have to talk (okay I swear I’m not as desperate as I sound!). I’m sure you’ve received so many awesome letters, and I know that the fan you pick will be so, so lucky.

(Every letter I write to you, I ask if you could please return my book. It’s been five years since I sent it. I’m sure you don’t even have it anymore, maybe you threw it away from the start. But if you do have it, even if you don’t pick me to win the contest, it would mean so much if you sent it back. When I mailed it to you in Jan. 2014, my uncle was still alive. He’s gone now…anyway it’s one of the only things of his that I have left.)

Your fan always,

PETER.

PS: please disregard the last letter I sent…obviously.

Tony rereads the letter twice. He feels a swirl of emotion in his stomach, not dissimilar to the queasiness after a long night of drinking. This—this is what he sacrificed by being so closed-off from his fans. While he’d known that his fans were real and obviously human, a part of him had never felt the magnitude of it before. These are people with feelings and experiences. This Parker kid (a self-proclaimed fanboy) lost his parents too, and far younger than Tony had. In a car accident.

Maybe Peter hadn’t been there, hadn’t been in the car, hadn’t watched his mother parents go up in flames, but it’s still a tragedy all in its own right. And all at eight years old. Jesus Christ. This kid has been looking up to him for ten years and more, and he had no fucking idea that kind of dysfunctional altar he’d been worshiping at.

Tony goes into the private bathroom connected to his office and gags up—nothing. Drool. But it still leaves his mouth slimy, so he brushes his teeth until he’s spitting pink into the sink, and when he catches sight of the haphazard reflection in the mirror, he pities it. He leans forward to touch foreheads with it, auto-intimacy. Do better, some voice in the back of his head says, but it’s not his voice.

Happy picks up his cellphone on the first ring. Of the ninth call.

“What do you fucking want, Tony?” he hisses into the receiver. “I’m at the movie theater seeing that new Star Wars. You made me go out into the lobby—”

“Then I’m doing you a favor,” Tony says, cracking open the cap on a sparkling water. “Look, I have important questions, I wouldn’t have called otherwise. My fan mail—how much of it has Pepper kept?”

“Jesus, how should I know? Totes and totes full, at least—”

“Brilliant—”

“Why don’t you ask her yourself? I’m missing the movie!”

“Didn’t I say you’re not missing much? I’m asking you because Pepper will make me do it myself: I need you to find specific letters from one fan: Peter B. Parker. Address is Queens, but he could be from anywhere. I’m also especially interested in acquiring a package he sent me in January 2014.”

“Christ, could you be any more mysterious?” Happy mutters. “Text me the details you bastard, I’m not missing another moment of Mark Hamill.”

It turns out that Pepper is not only a saint in all ways previously mentioned, but she is a saint in this as well: his fan mail from the last ten years has been saved and meticulously organized by month and year of reception. Happy comes to Tony’s office in the city the next day with a package, the outside brittle but address clear.

The writing is the same script as the letter newly received from Peter, though the handwriting has become more mature over time. Neater. Confined. No more hasty slant from an enthusiastic hand. The kid’s contest entry is in the top drawer of Tony’s desk—the previous potential winners are now the cherries on top of the reject pile. His stomach is heavy as a stone while he tears open the five-year-old package.

Out tumbles a pre-addressed package that was meant to carry the book back to its owner, back to Peter. Then, one first edition of IRON-MAN, the cover a little tattered, the spine creaky. Also included is another letter, torn from a spiral notebook. He opens it with shaking hands.

DEAR MISTER POTTS

I KNOW THAT GETTING A RESPONSE FROM MY LETTERS IS A LONG SHOT, BUT I’M REALLY HOPING THAT YOU’LL AUTOGRAPH THIS COPY OF IRON-MAN AND RETURN IT TO ME. IT IS MY UNCLE BEN’S…

It goes on to describe how his Uncle’s birthday is coming up and Peter hopes to give the autographed book to his Uncle. Tony reads with a heavy heart, knowing now that Tony hadn’t bothered even opening the package, hadn’t tried to sign it—and even if he had, Ben hadn’t lived long enough to celebrate his next birthday. What a son of a bitch Tony is.

For the first time in three months, Tony goes home.

Most days he stays at the space he rents in the fancy Manhattan building, the one that holds his office and Pepper’s own workspace as well as the other people who work for him (Happy, Beck, Rhodey). The mansion outside Manhattan belonged to Tony’s father and his mother. When his mother had still been alive, it had been a cold place that he had endured staying at for her sake. After his mother had died, it had been a torture chamber, or worse—a stale, suffocating tomb.

Then Howard had died and somehow left it to Tony (probably out of some misguided duty to ‘keep it in the family’). Tony made a personal habit to visit it infrequently and stay there even less often; but Pepper maintains it for him, has it cleaned, keeps it safe. Uses it as storage, Tony knows. For his fan mail.

It takes up three entire rooms, floor to ceiling clear totes labeled with months and years. Just looking at it makes Tony feel small, ashamed of how little he cared about interacting with his fans. It’s no wonder sales were down. Searching for Peter’s letters would be like looking for a needle in a haystack—but he has to do it, and he can’t let Happy bear the brunt of the weight anymore either. This is on Tony.

So he begins pulling totes from the room and scattering their contents on the oaken table and floors of the dining room. Five hours and seven totes later, and Tony still has no letter from Peter.

Pepper finds him at midnight. She comes bursting in through the front door—Tony can hear the sound of the door colliding with the wall from the force she’s used—shouting his name. The hysteria in her voice chills him to the bone. It’s worse than the tone she uses when Tony fucks up; this is the tone she uses when there’s a Tragedy, when something is Wrong.

She finds him in the dining room surrounded by letters, kneeling up from where he was slumped on the floor. He must be a sight, but she is one too, her hair a mess, her eyes red. When she sees him, all the breath goes out of her, one hand clutching at her breast as the other grabs the back of a chair for support.

“Jesus, Pep, what’s happened? Is it your father, another heart attack—?”

“Why don’t you ever answer your goddamn phone, you bastard!” She says through heaving breaths. “You don’t leave the office for weeks and suddenly no one can find you, you won’t pick up your phone—”

It takes a long moment for the pieces to connect.

“Oh Christ,” Tony says, chidingly. “What, you were scared for me?”

She slumps into one chair and puts her face into her well-manicured hands. Tony drops back onto his ass. He’s not a good man, not a sensitive man. The last woman who had cried in front of him was his mother, and look at all the ways he had failed her. But the longer he sits letting Pepper cry, the more it feels like bamboo shoots growing under his tender fingernails. Fuck it. He gets up, knees creaking, and goes to her.

They sit side by side at the dining table no one has eaten at in twelve years. Pepper leans into him, her thin shoulders shaking. Shame makes his own eyes burn, because he thought what did she have to be afraid of? But maybe she saw his car in the driveway of the unhappy home he avoids and assumed that he’d come here to Hemingway himself. Maybe she sat in the drive steeling herself to come into the sight of his body.

“I’m going through the fan mail,” Tony says at last.

“I can see that,” she says. Her scathing tone drips with tears.

“I’m okay, Pep,” he says. He’s not sure if it’s true. He’s not sure if he’s been okay ever since he blinked awake upside down and suspended by the seatbelt in the back seat of his mother’s Cadillac, glass littering the roof (and the roof had become the floor, then, see? Because they were upside down), the smell of gas and smoke in his nose). Maybe he’s not okay. Maybe it’s all a fucking lie, but he’s not going to off himself. Not when there’s a mystery afoot. “I promise.”

She nods, one damp hand reaching out blindly for his. It’s an awkward angle to hold hands at, but he doesn’t complain. And awkward or not, it feels nice to be touched in a kind, even platonic way.

“What are you looking for?” Pepper asks at last, wiping at the wet, swollen skin beneath her eyes.

“Why? You want to help?” Tony asks.

“Might as well,” she says. “I always do your heavy lifting, don’t I?”

With Pepper’s help, they find the first letter. Somehow the Willy Wonka Initiative has reversed until Tony feels like a kid, ripping open chocolate bars, desperate for a glimpse of gold. At dawn, a cry echoes in the dining room startling Tony from where he was slumping against a tote, dozing.

“I’ve got one, Tony!” Pepper shouts. She’s barefoot, her panty hose taken off and folded on the table, her sensible jacket removed and slung over the back of a chair. Her rumpled shirt and tendrils coming free from her ponytail reveal how much energy she’s been putting into this with him—maybe to make up for her emotional outburst earlier, maybe like a mother humoring a child’s singular beneficial interest. “From Peter B. Parker, address is Queens, same as before.”

“What’s the date?” Tony asks. He slips in a pile of letters from last August and nearly breaks his neck. Wishful fucking thinking.

“Last May. Here—”

Tony takes the letter and collapses in a chair, his lower back grateful for the support. He recognizes Peter’s handwriting as he tears the letter open, and he can feel Pepper’s presence over his shoulder, reading along with him.

This letter is different from the others. Tony knows it right away. The first indication should have been the date; Tony’s most recent novel dropped early May of last year. His most controversial work to date, with praise glorious and venomous in kind. Which way did the scales tip when it came to Peter, Tony wonders.

I know that you won’t read this. I’ve written you twice a year since I was ten years old, and you’ve never written back. I don’t blame you. I’m sure you’re busy—I guess I just needed to get these words down somewhere, so that they exist, so that somewhere there is a record of me after I’m dead.

Tony reads the rest in a dazed blur. At one point, Pepper’s hand lifts to press against her mouth, but still they read on, huddled together for convenience and then for comfort.

In the letter, Peter describes the tragedy of his uncle’s death and how he felt personally responsible, and how after months of guilt, when he’d read about Natasha’s sacrifice, he’d decided to take action. Against himself.

If someone’s death can do so much good in the world, Peter wrote with shaky script. Then maybe mine could too. I’m not deluded or anything. I know that I’m not a superhero and that I’m not fighting against some sanctimonious super villain. But I feel like if my death could make May’s life easier, then I have to do it.

“Jesus. Tony, don’t read this—” Pepper reaches out for the letter but Tony nearly rips it in half trying to keep it away from her.

It’s not just for May, Peter admits. I’m ready to stop hurting, too.

Peter signs off, for good. Only it hadn’t been for good—Peter’s most recent letter had obviously proven that, and hadn’t he written it himself? Ignore my last letter, obviously, he’d said. Something must have changed Peter’s mind, but one thing was clear: it hadn’t been Tony. Because Tony had been so self-absorbed, so tangled in his own grief and ego and addictions he hadn’t even read the letter. If Pepper hadn’t saved it, then it might have been destroyed, no record left of Peter’s words at all.

“Tony,” Pepper says. She takes the letter from his fingers and he lets it go. His hands are numb. “This isn’t your fault. Peter obviously was unstable—he’d just watched his uncle being murdered in front of him. No one in their right mind would read Natasha’s death and think that you were encouraging them to take their own life.”

“I know that,” Tony snaps. Lying. Then: “I’m not an idiot, Pep.”

Maybe the biggest lie of all.

#starker #writer!tony #fan!peter #tw: alcoholism #tw: drugs #tw: suicide attempt #cagewrites

148 notes · View notes

cblgblog · 5 years

Text

I have just…so many problems with Irondad, some of which I’ve seen expressed already, some not, and I need to say this at least once.

I don’t believe the common anti-Irondad thing that says Tony never cared about Peter. He did, in his very Tony, very problematic way. He loves Peter, I think, very much the way Howard loved him. We only got glimpses of Howard as a dad, mostly from Tony’s perspective, but we can make assumptions here. Howard probably thought Tony was the greatest thing in the world, and a blast to hang out with. Whenever Howard wanted to be a dad. He would’ve loved teaching Tony things, showing him off, having fun with him. But when Howard didn’t want to hang out? When Howard was working on something important? No, sorry, dad mode off, go away, Maria come get him. We see that with Peter and Tony. All Peter wants is acceptance, another mission with Tony. He wants validation. But he can’t even reach Tony because Tony’s put Happy in charge of him, and Happy doesn’t want to deal with some stupid kid in Queens, at least during Homecoming. It’s a very Howard move, parenting/mentoring when it’s convenient.

Which, you know what? Not in and of itself horrible. Tony would learn what he lived, and follow it. It makes sense, generational patterns and all that. It could’ve led to an interesting story, about Peter or someone else in Tony’s life pointing out the parallels, and then Tony has a moment of realization and tries to correct. I wouldn’t have loved that story, because Peter’s storyline being so connected with Tony’s at the expense of his own has always bothered me, but it could’ve been done decently.

What do we get instead? We get Tony paying lip service in Homecoming to wanting to break the cycle, and then totally failing at that 5 minutes later. He was mad, he was scared, that’s legit. People say unfair things when they’re reacting out of fear. But he tears Peter down for what happened on the ferry, and makes him feel like shit. Why? Because Tony had the FBI involved, Peter was meant to stay away, and he didn’t. Well how the hell was Peter supposed to know that? He can’t talk to Tony at all. Happy’s been ghosting him for months. The last time he thought Tony was there for him, it was one of the suits, Tony was still off in Tony’s world. How would Peter ever think that Tony had heard him this time, and was taking action? Tony didn’t tell him as much. Happy didn’t. All either of them would need to do is send a text saying hey, I hear you, I’m on this, I have people on this. But Tony is Tony, he can’t tie his shoes without Pepper, and he has either a hyperfixated attention span, or none at all, depending on the day. He either forgot to tell Peter, or worse, didn’t think it necessary. And if he was a proper mentor, if he knew Peter at all, he would know that Peter’s sense of responsibility was going to kick in there, unless he had reason to believe things were going to be okay without him.

Tony doesn’t know Peter. He puts an instant kill function on a 15-year-old kid’s suit because he thinks it’s a cool feature, and he enjoys building cool things. If he knew Peter at all, Tony would know that Peter’s a no kill hero. You can argue that those advanced features weren’t meant to be hacked into, so it’s not Tony’s fault. Except it is. Tony admits in CW that he hacked the Pentagon in high school on a dare. He knows that genius boys do stupid things. He knows teenagers don’t follow rules. He knows that if you tell a kid not to do a thing, you’re just guaranteeing he’ll want to do it more now. Tony may not know exactly how smart Peter is (I’m sure he doesn’t), but he has enough of an idea that safety measures, actual measures, should’ve been in place. Instead of a hackable training wheels protocol? Just keep those features off his first suit, save them for the next model, when the kid’s ready. We know Tony doesn’t mind building new models of suits. But Tony doesn’t do that, because Tony.

Yeah, the instant kill came in handy in Endgame against Thanos’s army. Still doesn’t make it okay.

Again, it reeks of Howard style parenting. You didn’t use this awesome thing I gave you right? Here then, I’m taking it away. No talks, no explanations or compromise or Tony training Peter to avoid the mistakes he so wants Peter to avoid, just, we’re done. Which is exactly how Howard probably would’ve handled it. I let you in my lab once and you broke something you didn’t know how to use? Okay, well, never doing that again.

To be clear, I don’t blame Tony for yanking the suit, exactly. It was a very human, kneejerk reaction. And more importantly, it allowed Peter to show that he did not need Tony’s toys to be a hero. The problem is that Tony, as usual, never gets to realize his mistakes. Peter yells at him a little right before the suit gets taken about not being listened to, but Tony doesn’t retain any of it. It doesn’t matter. He never has a moment of, what I did here was not okay and this is why. What do we get instead? Him telling Peter at the end of Homecoming how Peter screwed up, but hey, you fixed it. You were dumb, but you fixed it. No acknowledgement that Tony screwed up anything. Because, of course not. The lesson for Tony isn’t hey, I went too fast with this kid, he wasn’t ready, I didn’t prepare him. There is no lesson. Tony, as in basically every appearance since Iron Man 3, learns nothing.

Oh, and the Homecoming ending. Yeah. Tony sees no problem with having a 15-year-old move into the mansion and go full-time Avenger. His aunt, his guardian? Nah, why would she mind that, it’s fine.

I’ve talked elsewhere about my problems with Infinity War Irondad, but basically, most of Tony’s interaction with Peter there involves telling him to shut up, the grownups are talking, you’re not supposed to be here, you’re too young and dumb. Even when Peter absolutely helps the team. Also, too young and dumb? He wasn’t 5 minutes ago, when you were going to make him an Avenger, and he was the one smart enough to realize this was a bad idea. Tony’s so mad Peter didn’t listen to him and go home. If he’d truly listened, he’d have been an Avenger at the start of the film, so he’d be there anyway.

The dusting scene with him and Peter? It hurt. It was brutal and beautiful. That’s because Tom Holland, and yes, RDJ, can act, not because it was earned by the narrative of the last three movies.

As for Endgame. That photo Tony has of him and Peter goofing off. So cute, right? Probably taken at some point before May knew the truth, as a hey, we need a cover story for your aunt, but, you know, it’s fine. I don’t doubt Tony loved Peter. That he grieved Peter and felt his loss for 5 years, and maybe that’s part of why he’s such a good dad to Morgan. But he didn’t love Peter the right way. He did it selectively. He missed him when he was gone, but didn’t pay enough attention when he was alive. The hug near the end was beautiful, but unearned.

And then there’s May and Ben. May does not deserve to be villainized, killed off, or flat-out ignored the way she is in so many fanon interpretations just so Irondad can be a thing. May helped Peter prepare for his homecoming dance last minute. She got him dressed, taught him how to tie a tie, taught him to dance. All while Tony was back to ignoring him. But assume for a second that this had happened earlier, when Peter was still technically in Tony’s good books. Assume for a second that he’d been able to reach Tony and ask for advice, because he’s scared and excited and needs help. Tony would’ve made a few jokes about spiked punch, a few more crude, sexist jokes about Peter’s date, and signed off. May dropped everything and spent hours helping this kid, reassuring him. May is so unappreciated and flat-out abused by some of the fanbase, and it’s gross.

And Ben. Who’s Ben? Have we even heard his name in any of the movies Peter’s appeared in yet? Oh, we got his initials on a suitcase in FFH, not even a verbal acknowledgement. Great. I am not advocating an origin story. We’ve seen it, we know the basics, it’s fine. But Ben has been shown, for almost 60 years, to be the most influential person in Peter’s life. Losing Ben the way he did shaped Peter’s whole life afterward. And we have yet to see a photo? An old video? A 30 second flashback scene? We don’t know any of the MCU’s version of how Ben was killed. At all. Are they for some reason going with a rewrite where Peter had nothing to do with it? Don’t know, because it’s been 5 movies so far and they’ve given us nothing. Ben’s death regularly tops lists of the most influential deaths in comics, and we have nothing. Instead we get scene after scene of Tony perpetuating a dysfunctional relationship with Peter, and never facing consequences, or even realizing it.

By the way? Ben, if he’s anything like any canon version ever, would hate Tony. Ben is consistently shown before his death to be a very hands-on parent. He doesn’t understand most of Peter’s science stuff, but he encourages it, and stays involved as much as he can. He, barring a truly monumental canon rewrite that we know nothing about if it happened, taught Peter that great power means great responsibility. Contrast this with Tony, who as stated, pays more attention to building Peter cool suits than he does Peter. Who, on being confronted by a mother about the death of her son, caused by him, does what? Immediately wants to shift all responsibility to the government, so that the next time he screws up, he can say he was just following the law. Who was confronted by a grieving mother, and then 5 minutes later came into May Parker’s home and lied to her face. Something he continued to do, and would’ve continued, if May hadn’t found the truth on her own. He lies to her, takes her underage son (yes I’m saying son because she and Ben raised that boy, not Tony) out of the country without her knowledge. He threatened to reveal Peter’s identity to get him there. He does not tell Peter that the Accords would’ve done that anyway. He doesn’t tell Peter much of anything about why he’s there or what he’s fighting for. Either because he knows that telling the truth means not having Peter on his side, or because he simply doesn’t care to. Either way is gross, manipulative, disgusting, and would have Ben Parker rolling in his grave.

Yeah, it was fun having Peter in CW. Some of his scenes with Tony are genuinely fun. The above points though? Still stand.

So yeah, Irondad. in theory, okay. It makes sense that Peter would want guidance, a mentor after Ben died. It makes sense he’d look up to Tony. They could have addressed Howard’s shitty parenting via Tony’s shitty parenting, and maybe told an interesting story with it by contrasting Tony’s parenting style to Ben’s. Irondad in actual canon? There’s no parenting. There’s child endangerment, verbal abuse, and no payoff to any of it. The most we get is Happy admitting in FFH that Tony was a mess, but not for all the right reasons. He gets called out for other things, if you can even say he’s called out. Not for his awful treatment of an impressionable minor who’d lost his real father (Ben, assuming they stick with comics and have Peter lose his parents at a very young age).

I will never stop saying that Peter deserved better. I hope he gets it now that Tony’s gone.

#anti irondad #anti tony stark #at least tony's individual story started out good #Peter and Tony had a bad relationship to begin with #peter parker

160 notes · View notes

ablogcalledrevenge · 4 years

Note

I’m so intrigued as to why you hated Peter Rabbit so much omg. Please tell!!

I’m putting this under a read more because it got really long and complicated. Sorry, but I have a lot of feelings and thoughts about this and Peter Rabbit is the vessel.

That being said, if you like the movie, that’s okay! You’re allowed to like it and you shouldn’t let me make you feel bad. I love tons of bad movies! Spice World always makes me smile!

Also I want to say that I am not blaming or mad at the actors, crew, the CGI people. Like they did the best with what they had and I don’t fault them. I mostly blame the writers, director, and producers. Especially the producers.

BUT we can’t forget that, at the end of the day, this movie was a cashgrab, merchandise factory of a movie. This is, as my old roommate coined, a parking ticket movie. Basically the only reason half of the people worked on this movie was because they got a bad parking ticket and needed some quick cash. I do not believe for a second that Margot Robbie or Domhnall Gleeson looked at this script and went “yes, this seems like exactly the kind of children’s movie I’ve always dreamed of doing.” Everyone involved with this film did it for the money or because they were contractually obligated. And honestly, that’s okay. I could live with that. These are their jobs and they’re allowed to make money. But when you do a project because you’re forced to, or for the payout, it shows in the work. We can tell when your heart’s not in it. But the movie had bigger issues than the motivations behind it.

1. The movie didn’t have a good villain. Perhaps this is because I’m older and have more sympathy but Thomas McGregor is a very ineffectual villain. We start the movie, meeting him, as if he were the main character! We see that he’s a bit of a control freak and that he can be a little rude to people and then we see him lose his job and have a mental breakdown. He gets this house in the country and all he wants to do is sell it and move on. The rabbits are actively (and against their own desires, but we’ll get into that later) working against him to make selling the house harder. This guy’s supposed to be the villain? This guy who basically lost everything in his life and just wants to go home and spends half the movie getting electrocuted because he doesn’t want animals in the house when he’s trying to sell it? Maybe it’s because Domhnall can make anyone charming, or maybe it’s poor writing, but I watched the movie asking why I was supposed to hate McGregor. He hadn’t done anything wrong! To be honest, as you go through the movie it seems like the rabbits are the antagonists! If the movie was hoping to make him a Cruella DeVil figure, they failed. Thomas is a sad, broken man and I just felt bad for him. Also I don’t enjoy seeing my husband getting beat up by CGI rabbits, it’s embarrassing, but that’s beside the point.

2. The romance between Bea and Thomas is forced, unnecessary, and unlikely to last. Considering they’re supposed to get married and have a baby in the sequel, I think it’s even more ridiculous. The third movie will have them getting a much needed divorce. Like this is a kid’s movie, I don’t know why it needed a romance?? But basically Bea and Thomas have absolutely nothing in common. This isn’t a cute ‘opposites attract’ thing, this is that their values and morals and desires don’t match up at all. They’re completely different people! The fact that Thomas spends the whole movie basically lying to get Bea to like him should be proof enough that whoever wrote the characters never intended them to be a legitimate couple. They’re pushed together because, idk it’s a movie and we have to have a happy ending which means a wedding because apparently we’re in Shakespeare’s time?? People are allowed to be friends and they work better as friends! Also do you think Bea knows anything about shibari? That’s what Thomas needs and you expect this little granola painter to be able to tie him up and rough him around? Oh please.

3. The movie is just bad. The humor and plot are very weak and the characters are mostly one dimensional. I think I laughed once during the entire time I watched it. I must admit, in an effort for transparency, that I didn’t finish the movie. I had to stop watching after 45 minutes because I couldn’t take anymore. What does it say about your movie that 45 minutes in and the plot hadn’t really even started yet? It was ALL exposition and that’s bad! This is a kid’s movie, the action needs to start sooner! The humor was oddly topical and unoriginal; the whole movie was. It was clear this was a rip off of Home Alone, Alvin and the Chipmunks, 101 Dalmatians, The Minions. If not through plot than through style. Playing a Top 40 song during an opening scene doesn’t make your movie better, it just makes it lazy. It’s clear you didn’t pick “Feel it Still” by Portugal the Man because it added something to Peter’s character. You added it because people know the song and it will make them sing along and smile. The plot is weak too, it doesn’t make sense. The whole point is that the rabbits want McGregor to leave... he does too! They actively sabotage themselves by pulling all these stunts on him. If they had just left him alone for 2 weeks, he could’ve sold the house and left. He probably would’ve sold it to some rich family that wouldn’t care about a garden full of animals! But instead they realize Thomas doesn’t like them and decide to electrocute him and humiliate him because he doesn’t want them in his garden for a specific amount of time that has an end date. Until the rabbits bothered him, Thomas didn’t care about them! If they had left him alone, he wouldn’t have ‘fallen in love’ with Bea and their other problems wouldn’t have happened too! They caused their own misery! What is this plot?!

4. Bea is just an idiot and I can’t stand her. No shade to Rose Byrne because she is literally so pretty but the character is very dumb and annoying. She’s supposed to be Beatrix Potter which is also a very strange inclusion considering Beatrix was a real person and had her own life, just saying. But anyway, we can see early on in the film that Bea can communicate with the rabbits. They respect her and listen to her. So why does she let them, and at times, instigate them towards McGregor’s garden! She knows how dangerous it is and that Peter’s dad died there. They literally have the whole forest and her property and they can’t stay out of a 10 square foot garden? If she cares about those rabbits so much why doesn’t she grow some vegetables? Why doesn’t she stop them from bothering the guy who clearly wants nothing to do with them? She’s so caught up in ‘respecting nature’ and ‘being an artist’ that she’s so oblivious to everything else in her life and completely useless in every other way. Thomas deserves a better partner and Beatrix Potter deserved a better interpretation.

5. The characters are mean. Peter Rabbit is supposed to be a bit of a rascal and a scamp. He’s a troublemaker compared to his goody-two shoes siblings. We know this, it’s in the books. But everyone in this movie, especially Peter, is just so mean! Every other comment he makes is something disparaging against Benjamin or one of the other animals. He spends the whole movie being rude and dismissive and cocky. We’re supposed to root for this character? At times, considering his dialogue, Peter seems like more of an antagonist than Thomas. At least Thomas is nice to Bea, at least Thomas, in the beginning, only tries to keep the rabbits out and not hurt them. Peter’s a jerk and I don’t like his character. I don’t like any of the animal characters, they’re all so sarcastic and unsympathetic. So much of the ‘humor’ comes from one of the characters making fun of another and the jokes fall flat because of it. Beatrix Potter’s characters have such a softness to them, they invoke warm and cozy feelings. This movie was such an insult to her work.

Right before Peter Rabbit came out, I saw the Mr. Rogers documentary. Seeing him be so passionate about children’s media really made me think about the stories we give our kids. They deserve better than this recycled garbage! They deserve better characters and better stories. They deserve to be treated like human beings with brains and feelings and talents, instead of just mindless meat bags we plop in front of a screen to keep them out of our hair. I’m not saying that we can’t have entertainment that’s silly or stupid but when every kid’s movie is exactly the same, I start to feel bad. Children deserve quality!

So here’s my pitch for a Peter Rabbit movie: Up until Thomas goes to drop the rabbits in the river, everything is the same. I would make Peter and his siblings nicer and more inclined to work together as a team but otherwise everything is the same. Then, right before Thomas drops the bag, he stops. What is he doing? What has his life become? He’s about to kill innocent animals because he lost his job? He sinks down on the bridge and starts to cry. He starts telling the rabbits, because he has no one else, how terrible he feels. His job was the most important thing to him. He has no friends, no hobbies, no direction. He doesn’t know what to do with his life now. Maybe Peter pokes his head out and snuggles up to Thomas, showing empathy. Thomas goes on to say that while he enjoyed his job, he realizes now that he wasn’t truly happy and that getting revenge won’t make him happy. He looks down and sees the binoculars, the first gift he’s gotten in years. He looks and sees the rabbits curling up against him and he thinks maybe he doesn’t have to sell the house. Maybe he doesn’t have to go back to his life. So, with the help of his friend Bea and the rabbits, Thomas learns how to calm down and enjoy life. He learns to appreciate the small things and respect the beauty of nature. Maybe there’s a funny montage of Thomas trying to mow the lawn or garden. Maybe he makes everyone dinner with his vegetables and it’s really bad and everyone makes a funny face. It ends (a little like the original ending) with Thomas realizing that he may have lost his successful glamorous job in the city, but now he has friends. Now he has people who care about him and good food on his table. So the movie ends on a toy shop. Thomas is showing a little boy how to fly a remote control plane. Benjamin and Cottontail are in the middle of a tea party with a little girl. Bea is wrapping a gift for customer and Flopsy gets her paw stuck in the bow. Everything seems perfect and wonderful when we hear a huge crash offscreen. PETER! End Credits

#that is why i don't like the movie #domhnall deserved a better movie #everyone did #it's an insult to Beatrix Potter's characters #movies #peter rabbit #sorry for rambling but i really care about this #it's more about the quality of children's media than this specific movie #ah-callie #the tree talks #answered

5 notes · View notes

daz4i · 5 years

Text

yknow i’m gonna keep rantin abt this bc i have juice in me

i don’t think skinny people realize how much it sucks to be fat

i spoke abt fashion earlier and well. the fashion industry is rigged against us. because we’re not meant to be seen! people don’t want to remember we exist!

buying clothes is a pain! there’s literally only one chain store in my entire country that sells clothes in my size, and they’re all really fucking ugly and meant for old ladies, mostly

that’s one of the reasons i can only wear graphic tees tbh. they’re the only thing i can find (usually in special stores for that or ordered online) that can fit me, will be comfortable, and also not look too bad

hoodies and other outwear and stuff? i have to buy online, usually about a few sizes more than might fit “just in case” because here they’re just not sold in my size at all! clothes that can look good in general just don’t ever get to my size tbh, even online

yknow, even if nice clothes were sold in my size, i’d probably not wear them bc like i said - we’re not meant to be seen. i’m not meant to draw looks. dressing nicely isn’t a thing i’m supposed to to. and if i did do that, i’d get mean comment, yknow? if i went in public with an outfit that draws attention, i guarantee you i’d get nasty comments about my weight.

not that i don’t get them already even when wearing bland shit, but that’s another topic lmao.

plus sized models are almost never truly fat. they’re curvy. plus sized men models are usually a bit chubby but even then, relatively flat stomaches (in comparison to their chests for example), nothing too extreme. fat girls who upload pics of them in nice outfits and get lots of love on social media? they’re all aesthetically pleasing girls, perfect fat girls. they still have the curvy body type that people like seeing, just a bit bigger. most fat people aren’t like that. you can barely see pictures of our bodies, because no one wants to see us, and that’s why we never show it.

and as i started saying earlier - going outside in general! that’s fucking terrifying to me as a fat person! i can vividly remember more than a few times people just told me gross shit over my weight - people i didn’t know, who just decided to tell me i’m fat/i should go on a diet when they saw me in public (or at school, and no, it wasn’t another student). i can’t go outside without thinking “someone is going to laugh at me because i’m fat. someone will call me out for that. someone is going to say a nasty comment”. i can’t afford to wear eye grabbing clothes, not money wise, but emotionall - because if i get people’s attention, i’ll also get bad people’s attention. but really, i don’t even need to wear unique stuff for that - it’s enough that i just exist and fatphobes will be sure to mention how gross my body is to them, whether i asked or not (spoiler alert, i never ask).

you may say “just lose weight” but it’s not easy!!!! i’ve always been fat! and i probably always will be! it’s genes, i’m guessing. really, even when i went on diets before, even when i was watching what i eat and did sports, nothing’s changed - it’s just my body. you know, when i did lose weight - about 20kg/44 lbs - nothing changed either? i went down one pants size. i still looked p much still very fat. so even if i go to a healthy weight, there’s a very good chance i’ll still look fat. also, just to be clear, i lost that weight because i couldn’t eat for about 2 months. not a very healthy way to diet, if you ask me, and yes i already gained them all back, p quickly actually, bc i wasn’t supposed to lose that weight in the first place, bc that’s my body! that’s how it looks and that’s how it is!

honestly the whole matter of losing weight is kinda fucked up too. you hear abt celebrities mention it recently, how they managed to get thin quickly by going on extreme diets that were super unhealthy and they also had personal trainers and were actually almost always hungry. and they usually don’t even start that fat either. imagine if the average fat person could even get access and afford the whole thing these celebrities have, it’d still take us months of this hell to actually be thin, which i imagine is.... not very healthy. honestly, usually when you see people lose a lot of weight in a few months, they usually only became fat in the first place p quickly too and didn’t start out as fat. if a person who has always been fat tried it, i don’t even think it’ll work. like i said about my own weight loss: my body gained this weight back super quickly, because that’s its natural form and what it’s supposed to be. maybe with an intense and strict diet for a few years i could manage to lose this much weight again. but why would i want to? especially since i have a good feeling that if i break this diet i’ll just gain it back too. and yeah, i probably would only go down by a size or two at best.

and!!! i’m not even THAT fat!!!! when i go to that chain store i mentioned earlier, i’m actually along the lower sizes they sell! if i wear the right clothes and hold myself properly and don’t try to do things like jump or w/e, i’m still fat but it’s not a thing people really notice unless they look for it, really. i can go up in sizes when shopping in online plus size shops if i want things to fit loosely. i have it easy. THAT’S easy. i can’t even imagine what it’s like to be fatter than i am, or have less ~aesthetically pleasing~ (in the eyes of skinny people) fat destribution than i do, but i’m guessing it’s even rougher tbh.

it sucks man! it fucking sucks ass! we’re not allowed to exist! we’re not allowed to be physically seen! we’re here to be a laughing stock or to be used as a bad example or to be a villain in a kids movie, and that’s it! skinny people don’t wanna see us unless it’s in a bad context! they hate us for existing! fat = bad is such a normalized idea that even when someone points out to anyone that they gained weight, not even in a malicious way, my blood literally runs cold. scenes in movies where to show how a character is doing bad they get fat (peter b parker in spiderverse, thor in endgame are just 2 examples i have in mind rn)? that’s another way to normalize this idea. skinny people can say they don’t mind fat, that they love ~girls with a little meat on the bone~, they can go years without saying anything directly fatshaming, but they still see stuff like that - heck, even create stuff like that - and don’t realize how damaging it is and how much it makes me and probably other fat people too not want to go outside even more. fatphobia is poison you don’t even notice is in you unless you’re fat too.

#rant #fatphobia //#this is..... long #i'm angry crying yeehaw !#if you actually read the whole thing please like? i wanna know heh #anyways i hate having a physical form. how's everyone doin tonight #long post #i hope the keep reading thing works :(

4 notes · View notes

bieddiediaz · 5 years

Text

endgame thoughts (spoilers!!)

the good

this movie was perfect fanservice. it was the most beautiful way to end the past 11 years of the mcu. it paid homage to the fans who had stuck by it through iron man (the clanging of tony’s hammer after the credits!!! the start of the mcu and the end of an era) to the snap, through twenty two movies. the entire sequence of everyone going back in time was for us, for the fans who had kept it going - the first avengers (i’ll have that drink now), hail hydra (that was so clever, honestly), frigga!!!, gamora and nebula as sisters!

clint and natasha again! this was the first time they showed their relationship properly since avengers 1, and by god did they do it justice. also! nat choosing to sacrifice herself! the agency!! this movie was honestly peak natasha and i t b r o k e m e.

tony calling everyone out on not listening to him! honestly, i was satisfied with thanos has been inside my head for six years because i never thought we’d get better. but! this was. ultimate. validation. purely c a t h a r t i c

nebula. nebula my love. nebula telling her past self that she can and does get better! the torture stops! nebula telling gamora that they become sisters! i died. i honestly wanted nebula to kill thanos (because i maintain that she deserved it most) but i’m okay with how it turned out. because nebula healed. before the snap, she found a family with the guardians. with gamora. after the snap - nebula and tony! tony showing her the gentleness that thanos never did. tony teaching her games like a father should his daughter! having nicknames for her! her dressing him and putting him into the seat when she though he was about to die k i l l e d me. also - nebula and rhodey! nebula being comfortable enough with him to call him rhodey. them bonding over being broken!!! perfect victim survival story. i love nebula okay

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE. i have been waiting for this line since aou. steve getting ready to face thanos alone! with a broken shield! the avengers - all the avengers - as a team. against thanos. what they should have been the first time. such 616 feels

i know people are upset carol didn’t have more screentime, but i wasn’t that bothered by it honestly. this wasn’t her moment to shine. her story is just starting. this movie is homage to the heroes we’ve known for ten years, to tony and steve and natasha and clint and bruce and thor, whose stories are closing. they deserved to be the ones who saved the universe. this movie was theirs.

special mention for carol’s comics-esque lesbian haircut.

scott and cassie single-handedly broke my heart and healed it back together again.

sam being the new cap! it’s everything he deserves! (i do what he does, only slower)

and

of course

tony

tony stark

tony my love. tony my boy. i love you 3000 okay. you were the shining star of this movie. you are the shining star of my life.

how do i even begin to describe this. tony’s arc was perfect. (i once though cacw was peak tony, and then i thought iw was peak tony, but this movie outdid them all)

of course i’m mad that he died. i don’t think there’s a universe where tony stark deserves to die. tony stark, the futurist, the heart and soul of the mcu, deserves to live. with pepper and peter and morgan and rhodey. he deserves all the happiness in the world.

but

if they had to kill him, if i had to pick one way for tony to die, i couldn’t have picked a better one. he died saving the entire fucking universe. they were losing. thanos had the gauntlet. tony is the reason they won. tony wielded the fucking gauntlet. tony killing thanos and his army (tony dusting thanos!) the same way thanos killed trillions of people - also extreme catharsis. tony stark couldn’t protect the universe, but he damn well avenged it. (tony stans, we got ultimate validation. anyone who dares say tony is selfish or tHe reAl vILLaIn oF tHe mCu now is completely invalid.)

tony being bitter about being right! all this time (a suit of armour around the world), and no one listening to him when he tried to warn them. tony realising they lost because they were split apart (i needed you and you weren’t here. liar.). he found his second chance with morgan and pepper. he didn’t jump back into the fray because his ~teammates asked him to, but because he had a chance to save everyone. to save peter. peak. selfless. tony. stark. tony forgiving steve (giving him the shield that he! made!!) because he knew they had to do this together. i was afraid it would happen too quickly, or the stevetony conflict would be brushed under the rug for ~universe reasons, but they handled it really well. it took five years of moving on and healing for them to reconcile. steve trusting tony (since steve not trusting tony was the thing that started the entire shitshow in the first place) and tony forgiving steve (steve left. steve abandoned everything the avengers stood for). i loved it okay.

tony’s funeral absolutely ended me. i burst into sobs at proof that tony stark has a heart. everyone was there. proof that tony stark was fucking loved and respected by literally everyone. (also, that funeral seemed like a private thing. people who had known tony stark. which means - either friday or pepper let harley in. which means - tony told pepper about harley and how important he was and/or they kept in touch!! excuse me while i go cry even more)

okay

now

the bad

i honestly didn’t have many complaints with this movie, it was such a perfect ending. just two major things -

team as family. they really tried to lean into this trope, but it fell flat after not establishing it over the past avengers movies. i could have bought it if they showed some bonding moments when they were preparing for their missions, but they tried to tell us instead of show us. jokes and quips are fine, but emotional bonding moments/conversations needed to happen more. nat was the only one who seemed like she really considered the avengers as her family. (tony did at one point, but i think that illusion was shattered for him after cacw.)

i… don’t even want to talk about this. this is exactly what i was dreading. i can’t believe the same directors who gave us catws gave us this. steve’s ending was disrespectful to peggy. to sharon. to steve himself. peggy made a life for herself. it’s super disrespectful to suggest that peggy motherfucking carter would settle for anything other than the very best, whether it be her job or her life or her husband. why retcon all that to make her dance with this guy she knew for a few months. it’s super unhealthy for steve. for all the preaching about moving on he did, he himself admits that he hasn’t. a logical, healthy conclusion to his story would be to have him finally do it. instead, apparently he hasn’t moved on from something that happend thirteen years ago, let alone the snap. ugh. what do i even say. (and there’s the tiny little matter that this implies steve made out with his niece. unless he created an alternate timeline. which he clearly didn’t. since he’s there. in the same universe.) of course steve deserves to be happy!! but his arc - which began in catws - should be him moving on. finding a new family. not regressing back to things that should be done and gone.

also, it doesn’t make sense plot wise. did steve hide from the rest of the world? did he live in secret? if no, why would howard keep looking for him in the ocean? he wouldn’t. he wouldn’t have found the tesseract. or dethawed steve’s body in the future. did he hide his name from his family? no, right? then sharon knew?? that she was kissing her uncle? idek man

#marvel #isha talks #so i have a lot of thoughts apparently #avengers endgame #endgame spoilers #notmysteverogers

5 notes · View notes

recentanimenews · 5 years

Text

THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH Unleashes Sakura With Episodes 29-35

Welcome to THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH! I'm Daniel Dockery aka That Dude That Won't Shut Up About One Piece, and I'll be your host this week as we make our way through all 220 episodes of the original Naruto. Last week, we covered episodes 22-28, and we continue this week with episodes 29-35.

This week, the theme is Naruto Minus Naruto, as we lose our title character pretty early on. But despite missing someone shouting about how they're gonna be Hokage one day, this actually seemed to work out pretty well, as it gave our favorite boy Rock Lee and the consistently underrated Sakura a time to shine. Sasuke did some stuff, too, I guess. We also got some bad guy reveals and Gaara being as Gaara as possible. So let's dive right in and let the Crunchyroll Features team give you their thoughts on a batch of episodes that didn't have an ounce of quit in them.

So, not a lot of Naruto in this set of episodes, huh? I mean, we've already gotten to know Sasuke, Sakura, Rock Lee, etc. pretty well so far, so it's not like they can't carry the story, but how do you like the show when the title character spends most of it unconscious?

Paul: I'm fine with it as long as the supporting characters have plenty of interesting things to do. Naruto's personal blend of lunk-headed enthusiasm hasn't really clicked with me yet, so I'm happy to see other characters take center stage now and then, and I like that Sakura finally got a moment to prove her mettle in these episodes.

Peter: This was probably Sakura's biggest moment in Naruto... possibly including Shippuden. I forgot they combined her special haircut scene with the Ino flashback. The whole situation with the sound ninja was kind of a cluster but I felt like that sequence was particularly well-done. Episode 30 is easily the best in the series so far, I forgot how well directed the moment where Sakura realizes she's alone is.

Danni: I've joked in my livetweets that I can't tell whether the main character of this show is Naruto or Sasuke yet, but that kind of became not a joke at all this time around, didn't it? That was kind of a shame, given that his material at the very beginning of this batch where he's chiding Sasuke is great. Luckily, the rest of the cast was great all around in this batch.

Noelle: It is pretty funny to have the protagonist absent, but it's clearly not just wasting time. A lot of stuff happens while Naruto is out cold, especially the big fight where Sakura shines, and she needed to shine! A protagonist doesn't have to be there all the time, even if they are carrying the story, and these segments are proof of that.

Jared: Having Naruto out for most of the episodes really made some other characters step up and gave them a time to shine like Sakura (finally) and Ino's group. You couldn't get away with having him be gone or KO'd all the time, but especially when the show just brought forth all these new characters, it worked.

Kevin: It actually helped to up the stakes a bit and create space for more character development. Sakura hasn't needed to do much until now, since Sasuke and Naruto could fight instead. In this set of episodes, the boys were unconscious the majority of the time, so not only did she need to push herself to look after them, but she also needed to fight opponents that even seasoned Genin like Lee couldn't stand up against. Running or hiding weren't options.

Carolyn: THIS is the Sakura I remembered and have been missing this whole time. I am fine with Naruto sitting out a spell so Sakura can rise.

David: While I like that the other characters are getting the spotlight, I'm also not a huge fan of how they're getting it. Lee? He's allowed to be cool for a little bit, but still has to be undermined by his limitations that also define his character. Sakura? We have to square getting her development with her entire character revolving around Sasuke. Oh, and Sasuke? Got cool powers from the new bad guy, so the whole thing feels a little artificial by the end.

Joseph: It kind of makes it seem like they just didn't know what to do with Naruto while other people have the spotlight, because knowing his character he would have to butt in no matter what, dattebayo! If it paves the way for more episodes like 30, which features out of this world choreography and animation, I'm all for it, dattebayo.

Kara: I'm a Doctor Who fan - having the lead unconscious or straight-up missing for major portions of story is familiar territory. That said, I'm glad it was used to good effect here. I was hesitant coming into the Chunin Exam arc because there are Just So Many Characters, and a lot of them are completely new but clearly important. Giving Nart some down time while we get to know how they work (and how characters we've seen before are growing) was a good idea.

These episodes are sort of bookended by two horrific reveals:

1) IT WAS ME, OROCHIMARU, THE WHOLE TIME

2)WTF, GAARA

How do you feel about these two? I've been playing a lot of Gaara in Jump Force, but I forgot that he pretty much opens his character arc in the show through intense murder.

Paul: I mentioned this on Twitter before, but although Orochimaru is clearly coded to be this big, scary, impressive villain, he strikes me as the ninja equivalent of that bad friend whom everybody kinda knows but nobody particularly likes. Orochimaru's the kind of guy who would get a little too drunk at the holiday ninja party, and then he'd awkwardly hit on your ninja girlfriend, and then he'd puke on your ninja couch cushion and then flip it over to hide the ninja vomit rather than tell you about it. Damn it, Orochimaru!

Gaara is just a comical murder-baby so far. Again, I know he's supposed to be frightening, but I just think he's a precious little sandy cinnamon roll.

Peter: Given what Orochimaru's done so far, I'm actually curious if Kishimoto had a plan for him at this point. One of this lines in particular speaking with Anko is hilarious in retrospect. I have a new appreciation for Temari and Kankuro. The scene where they were trying to get Gaara to calm down was particularly good. You got a sense of how desperate and afraid they are of Gaara. Also I don't remember Orochimaru using so many... wind ki blasts? I think Kishimoto wasn't sure what powers he had yet.

Danni: I'm a little disappointed that my perfect snake wife was just a creepy old snake man in disguise. I'm honestly more terrified of Gaara right now. Orochimaru seems like he actually has a plan. Gaara just seems a bit...unhinged...

Noelle: I definitely agree with Peter, where Orochimaru in his introduction definitely wasn't as cohesive power-wise, as opposed to the snakes and more snakes that he becomes later. He is set up to be extremely threatening, but at this point, it's definitely more potential than it is factual. As for Gaara, Gaara is one of my faves, even if he starts out as a murder machine. The murder does not stop my appreciation for him. You go, Gaara.

Jared: Now I want a redub of those scenes with Orochimaru except with the Higher Power reveal audio. They certainly make him seem to be a big deal, although it's still relatively shrouded in mystery. Gaara's showing fell incredibly flat for me. Unlike when we first saw him where he had this mysterious aura about him, this just felt like he was made to be the ultimate edgelord. Which if the folks above me are indicating, he gets better, so hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.

Kevin: For both of them, I feel like their introductions worked well to establish them as serious threats. Orochimaru as a somewhat unknown quantity that even the adults are scared of, while Gaara is a coldblooded Genin that doesn't bat an eye at killing people, to the point that even his teammates fear for their lives when around him. For Orochimaru though, I can't remember any actual reason why he's actually in the Chunin Exam. We'll get to future events in later installments, but why bother actually joining the Genin?

Carolyn: I remember loving Orochimaru the first time I watched the show and thinking he was a major villain. They certainly set him to seem that way. I'm interested to see if my thoughts on that change as we progress. I also remember thinking Gaara was quite impressive and mysterious, though he was never a favorite character of mine. Rewatching the show, they definitely hype up his skills.

David: Gaara having a team that is scared of him is significantly more scary than Orochimaru's clear long-term threat foundation going on here. It's kind of cheating but I think this matters a lot for how impactful this ends up being very soon, whereas Orochimaru's threat is much more broad and lore-spanning in the grand scheme of things.

Joseph: Between Orochimaru, cursed Sasuke, and Gaara, there's so much DANGER in these eps. I love it!

Kara: Holy crow, things got dark. I'm not saying that as a negative, either. I'll be curious to see what happens with Orochimaru, because that's some high-stakes stuff that got thrown into the mix. I had a feeling Gaara was gonna make Sasuke look like a ray of sunshine by comparison, but I'm with Akamaru on that whole situation.

If you had to get into intense anime battles in your actual, half-anime life, and you had to copy a Naruto character's techniques, whose style would you use?

Paul: I will continue to stan for my main man, Choji Akimichi, and his ability to transform into the boulder from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Also, they never kill the chubby comic relief characters, so my plot armor would keep me safe from harm but not from embarrassment.

Peter: I feel like the correct answer is Gaara since you can just stand in place writing poems while sand kills people. Practically I think it's hard to argue that Sasuke doesn't have the most "ninja-like" style incorporating the three "jutsus" and leaning heavily on misdirection and outmaneuvering. Each requires having a pretty particular thing though, so it's kind of a lottery by birth.

Danni: Probably Orochimaru. Less for his actual fighting techniques and more because his Mr. Fantastic powers could come in handy when lounging around the house.

Noelle: Gaara's, having sand do my bidding would be pretty neat, and it's not like I sleep much anyway.

Jared: Rock Lee's techniques are what basically what I imagined myself when I was younger when thinking of having anime type fights.

Kevin: I would probably go for the Sharingan, largely due to how versatile it is. It gives amazing kinetic vision, allowing the user to dodge more and land more hits, lets them copy any ninjutsu the enemy uses, can make [REDACTED], or [REDACTED] or even summon [REDACTED], and that's without even getting into the unique abilities from [REDACTED]! Basically, it allows for a lot of flexible techniques, and just with the slight drawback of [REDACTED].

Carolyn: Ooh, can I redact stuff, too? My favorite hasn't happened yet. Have I mentioned how much I love Shikamaru?

David: Is it wrong to want to be Sasuke just because he gets the most well-animated fight scenes? I want to be as cool as he is in those.

Joseph: I've always been a fan of the Shadow Imitation Technique of the Nara clan. I think this is the first time we've seen it in the anime, but throughout the manga I always found it awesome whenever, BAM, someone found themselves ensared out of nowhere.

Kara: Gonna have to say Ino and the body-hopping. I'm so clumsy, the only way I'll ever effectively beat someone up is if I project into them and beat myself up.

So, Sakura gets a few cool minutes in Episode 32. I especially like the reveal that it wasn't a substitution and that she was actually dropping on Zaku and gutting through those Kunai. However, it's kind of mired in a lot of flashback and a weird "How does my face look?" backstory. How did you feel about it? I will say, for a little bit, I got hyped. Bleeding Sakura descending like Batman on this goon is a dope visual.

Paul: I'm glad Sakura finally got a chance to shine, and I didn't feel that the drama of the scene was terribly undercut by her childhood anxieties about having such an enormous forehead. It contextualizes some of her earlier, snappish behavior, and I was impressed with her growth as a character when she expressed a genuine desire to protect Naruto and when she offered Rock Lee her heartfelt thanks.

Peter: I'm kind of two minds on this watching it for the second time. If anything I feel like her dramatic move was undercut by the fact that there were two more Leaf squads that could have stepped in acting as a sort of safety net rather than anything actually relying on her. That said, I think the balance between her efforts in the moment and Ino remembering the extremely dumb stupid kid reason they stopped being friends was great.

Danni: I adored it. A woman's body in media is often portrayed as a priceless work of art. It's an object whose fragile beauty is meant to be fawned over and protected. The slightest mark of imperfection is detrimental to the whole piece. This either leads to strong women whose bodies remain unscathed or weak women whose bodies exist to be tragically violated. Seeing Sakura use her own body as both a weapon and a shield in this fight was nothing less than refreshing. She cast aside the beauty of her long hair, took three kunai to the body in order to get closer than her target, straight up sunk her teeth into him like a wild animal, and took a beating without flinching or letting go. It was so incredibly refreshing to see a woman actually fight with her whole body rather than an objectified version of one.

Noelle: This is Sakura's big awesome moment, and she nailed it. She doesn't have signature jutsu like Naruto's clones or Sasuke's fire - all she really has are perfected versions of the basics. That she's able to use her intellect to her advantage; setting traps, tricking her opponents, it works for her character. The fact that she is unyielding is fantastic, considering that in a lot of anime fight scenes featuring women it it's rarely conveyed just how brutal they can get. Sakura's desperately fighting, and she will take kunai and even bite her opponents if it means she can help her friends. It's rough, messy, and great. Let girls have brawls too!

Jared: I'm a huge fan of the "cutting your hair to signify a big change" trope, so I was incredibly excited to see it here. This moment for Sakura was essentially what I'd been waiting for this entire time with her and it delivered. I was kind of surprised how much backstory we got here, but I think it fit well with everything that was happening around them with Sakura and Ino. Everything about how she attacks Zaku felt like she was desperately doing anything she could to survive, which included things like biting and not letting go. Plus, I'm surprised they showed her bloodied up.

Kevin: To put it this way, Sakura faking out Zaku is both my highest and lowest point of the week. I love that we finally got to see her fight and even out think her opponent, and I was even okay with seeing Ino struggle with their history when deciding how to act, seeing her friend-turned-rival in trouble. They probably could have cut one or two of the flashbacks and lost nothing from the storytelling though.

Carolyn: I actually loved the flashbacks explaining her desire for long hair to impress Sasuke and her rivalry for his heart mixed in with Sakura being an awesome fighter. We saw where she came from and we see where she's headed. Her cutting off her hair (epic) was not just a clever tactic, it was her moving past her fickle, shallow priorities and stepping up. (And incidentally, finally winning Sasuke's respect.) I liked that contrast and I thought it made her powerful moments more meaningful.

David: I don't like how being feminine was presented so constantly as a negative thing in the lead up to her 'level up', especially because it got immediately followed up by a line from Shikamaru to Choji about how they need to be the 'men' of the situation. I also don't like how it didn't end up even really helping the situation, but Sasuke's unintentional powerup did. I do like how the story clearly realized how drastically it was underutilizing its main female characters and tried to rectify that as well as it could within the characterization it had already established for them. So, basically, I like that it ended up where it was, but I wish it didn't have to do that in the first place.

Joseph: Sakura's moment makes up for a lot of her inaction in previous episodes. It made it feel like a much more significant turn, and I think it's another great argument for the power of anime adaptations in taking certain aspects of the source material to the next level. I would also be remiss not to mention how major of a role she played in stopping Sasuke after he awakened to some straight-up Final Fantasy IV midi cover music.

Kara: Sakura's characterization grew three sizes this week! Normally I have nothing against romance or a crush being a motivator (people in the real world act that way sometimes), but I was getting second-hand embarrassment whenever everyone and their mother used her emotions against her because she was that much of an open book. She was seriously dope in episode 32, and I do like that she didn't drop her feelings so much as compartmentalize them. Was it perfect? No. Was it better than what we've seen for the last few weeks? Very much. Plus we've spent so much time being told she knows her stuff, it was nice to see it in action.

If you've read the manga, how do you feel about the pacing of the anime at this point?

Peter: I appreciate they're not trying to draw things out, past a few recap episodes. The only real filler we've gotten was a few more social scenes that ultimately helped build up the individual Team 7 members more so I'm good with them. Visually the series uses the manga as a direct roadmap the majority of the time but the departures, like in Naruto's fight against Haku, were extremely good.

Noelle: It's definitely a little slower, especially since you can read the same amount content much faster than you can watch it. Different mediums lend to different speeds. At the same time, it's not significantly slower - not like One Piece - so it's pretty tolerable. I can't say I have much complaints with the pacing.

David: It's gotten slower recently, but it's still MUCH better than I expect from long-running shonen adaptations even today. I never feel like a half hour isn't used effectively, which is impressive.

Joseph: They've chopped a few minutes off the absurdly long flashbacks at the start of each episode, so it's much punchier now than when it was covering the Zabuza fight. The adaptation nails some of the big moments, so I think they do a fantastic job of making the most out of Kishimoto's story and characters.

Last but not least, what was everyone's high and low points for this week, along with anything else you want to shout out?

Paul: My high point was the fight between Sasuke and Orochimaru in Episode 30. Pierrot's animation team really pulled out all the stops for that one, and I was frankly blown away by how well-staged it was, especially since the previous episode was so janky, to the point where it gave us the "Naruto, you look kind of cool" silly face meme. My low point was the reveal that Rock Lee's ultimate technique is just a glorified Izuna Drop. I was disappointed by that, because I was expecting something really far out there.

Peter: I'd have to say everyone involved had a low moment against the sound ninja. Rock Lee could have actually just kicked the guys head off so I'm not sure why he pulled out his ultimate technique. The master strategist Shikamaru really handled the InoShikaCho combo poorly (why not just have Ino knock the paralyzed guy out then 3v1 the last guy?). Feels like there were too many cooks in the kitchen while Kishimoto was trying to let Sakura stand on her own. High point was Sasuke's epic fight against Orichimaru... or maybe Gaara being Goth Prime?

Danni: If you can't guess already, the high point of this batch for me is Sakura's battle. Naruto snapping Sasuke out of his daze and the whole fight between Sasuke and Orochimaru are close runner-ups. I can't say there were any real low, low points for me in this batch, but I could have done without the whole prolonged tension of them debating whether or not to open the scroll simply for them to move on without opening it. I really feel like that could have been a lot more condensed.

Noelle: It has to be Sakura's battle. She's the last member of the team who hasn't really had a moment of growth, as she's mostly been stuck fawning over Sasuke. Now she has a moment of her own, to show that she really can be one of their peers in combat, not just because she's assigned to be alongside them. Sasuke vs Orochimaru was also fantastic to watch. Low points would probably be the Sound Ninja fight when Sakura wasn't the highlight, it felt a little too long.

Jared: The true answer here is Sakura finally getting her moment as the high point. The flow of these episodes just kept moving until the end where things really slowed down, but that makes sense. Sasuke pulling out a Canadian Destroyer (front flip piledriver) was something I absolutely wasn't expecting. Maybe my low points would be Gaara's fight and then Naruto wanting to open up the scroll since it felt way too obvious that he'd do that.

Kevin: Sakura's fight somehow managed to be both the best and worst moments. The best moment was when she uses Substitution multiple times to trick her opponent into giving her an opening, even though she needed to take multiple kunai wounds in the process. It was awesome to see her thinking, and there might've even been a bit of Naruto rubbing off on her, given how brazen the plan was. Unfortunately, it led to the end of her plan... biting Zaku's arm and just holding on as he kept punching her head. Great plan, Sakura.

Carolyn: The squirrel and the hair cut were high points for me. Also, just seeing everyone have respect for each other. Sakura thanks Rock Lee, Rock Lee acknowledges Sasuke's ability. Good stuff.

David: It might not sound like it so far, but Sakura's fight is my high point for not just this bit, but the entirety of the show - it's one of the defining moments of the series to me, something that has stuck with me for decades at this point. So, criticisms aside, that matters a lot to me. Low point is how even when the show is trying to make Lee cool is still undermines him just as quickly, making it hard to believe it really appreciates his struggle.

Joseph: Episode 30 is an all-timer, so that's gotta be my high point. The low point was probably the Sound Ninja. Their powers are cool, and I understand jutsu is a term encompassing techniques in a wide swath, but to me they just had prosthetics and weapons. Hey, check out my jutsu *pulls out a gun*.

Kara: Can't decide between Sasuka vs. Orochimaru or Sakura finally Doing Things as my high point. Really liked both. Low point was probably every time I had to see Naruto squiggling around in snake guts.

COUNTERS:

"I'm gonna be Hokage!" count: 14

Bowls of ramen consumed: 2 bowls, 3 cups

Shadow Clones: 115

And that's everything for this week! Remember that you're always welcome to join us for this rewatch, especially if you haven't watched the original Naruto!

Here's our upcoming schedule!

-Next week, on FEBRUARY 22ND, we’re looking at EPISODES 36-42 as I, DANIEL DOCKERY, IN MY TRUE BEAST FORM, hosts as the Forest of Death continues to torment! THIS IS THE ONLY INSTALLMENT WE'RE ACCEPTING QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS FOR THIS WEEK!

-Then on MARCH 1ST, we’ll talk about EPISODES 43-49 as NATE MING returns as we enter into one-on-one competition including a showdown between Rock Lee and Gaara!

-On MARCH 8th, we move on to the final stage of the Chunin Exam with EPISODES 50-56, hosted by CAROLYN BURKE!

Thank you for joining us for the Great Crunchyroll Naruto Rewatch! Have a great weekend, and we'll see you all next time!

Have any comments or questions about episodes 22-28? What about our upcoming installment, featuring episodes 29-35?

-------------------------

Daniel Dockery is a writer and editor for Crunchyroll. He has a Twitter that he uses.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

1 note · View note

baddyxangel · 4 years

Text

Scott is the flattest series regular in Teen Wolf. Teen Wolf dropped the ball with Scott. He’s surrounded by characters with amazing depth and character growth. He is the main character of the show and yet he’s the one everybody dislikes. I don’t dislike Scott. I don’t mind Scott, actually. He’s a good character, just like most characters in the show. But, I don’t love him. Same goes for a lot of people, as well. For a character we’re supposed to like, he’s not really that likable. In the beginning of the show, Scott started off as a bit of a naive, not the sharpest tool in the shed kid. But, I liked him anyways. His stupidity was funny to me and that gave him a bit of charm, weirdly enough. Then, seasons later, he becomes super mature. He develops a hero complex and has this thing against killing no matter what. He definitely took a turn for the worse throughout what you’d call character development. Scott became a flat character.

There was this old trend in literature about making the protagonist what you call an, ‘Epic Hero’. Basically, it’s a perfect hero. And Scott is by no means a perfect hero, but the show-writers gave a half-assed attempt to make him this God-like figure who could do no evil, who’s never selfish and always selfless, and who saves everyone because he loves everyone and tries to protect his friends no matter who’s bad or good. The thing is, we don’t like perfect heroes. Do you think an average person will look at Scott McCallHimPerfect and say, “he wants to save everyone. My god he’s just like me. He believes in good and evil. Damn I love him, just like me.” Nobody says that because Scott is not relatable in the slightest. He doesn’t have a personality other than, girls. Save people. Allison pretty wanna marry. Must not kill kill equal bad.

Do we even know anything about Scott? It might be just me, because I haven’t seen the show in a while. But what interests does Scott have? Because I don’t think we know the slightest about his hobbies and interests other than he plays lacrosse and likes to save people I guess. Do we ever see why he went to UC Davis? What does he want to be when he’s older? So yeah. Not only do we know next to nothing about what his personality and life is like outside of the supernatural, but he also acts all high and mighty. Bad combo.

One of the most annoying Scott moments—for many people—was when he yelled at Stiles for ‘killing’ Donovan without even listening to him. He took the word of Theo, some dude he barely knew, over his best friend. So, he was flipping his shit about Stiles killing someone because as he says it, “we don’t kill.” Despite the fact that almost all of the pack members and their allies have killed before. Scott develops this viewpoint on life throughout the series. He takes on this black and white view on life, thinking that if there’s someone against the pack, they’re a villain. They’re bad. But, if they’re an ally, they’re good. He doesn’t take into consideration that people are morally grey. He doesn’t recognize that the world isn’t black and white. There’s no such thing as good and evil. We’re all just...people. Scott never gets this fixed. He doesn’t make room for the thought that people who kill aren’t always evil. I feel bad for Stiles, because yeah, maybe Stiles could’ve explained what happened better, but the fact that his best friend wouldn’t give him a pass for self-defense is sad. Malia killed when she was eight and he never seemed to care. Kira killed that one guy when she revealed herself as a Kitsune and he she got a pass. Derek has killed many people and he doesn’t care. But the second Stiles kills someone, it’s suddenly an issue to Scott. Hypocritical, much?

In addition to all this, Scott’s also not the selfless hero everyone makes him out to be. He’s actually rather selfish and he’s proven this time and time again. Scott ditched Stiles time and time again to save Allison or someone else who never needed his help. He was also more than willing to throw Derek under the bus and blame him for some murders. I can’t remember any more times he’s done this, but let me know if you remember other examples.

I wish that he was more like his season one self. He went from 0-100 real fast in terms of ‘maturity’ and I found that annoying. His stupider self was more charming and was more interesting. Scott was struggling with dealing with his transformation and I wish this lasted for more than one season. It would’ve made him a much better character. And I do like Scott. I know it doesn’t sound like it, but I like Scott and most of the other characters. He has his moments. Some good moments, some times I really do like Scott. But I wish he wasn’t so flat. I wish we knew a little more about him. The hero complex is an old, overused cliché and I was Scott was....y’know....more relatable.

Here seems as good a place as any to say it, so...the true alpha thing is BULLSHIT and it completely ruined Scott's character. One of my all-time favorite Scott moments was in 3a when he threatened Gerard, saying that if Gerard lied about Deucalion and people got hurt because of it, he'd come back and kill him. And almost immediately after that Scott becomes a true alpha and is like "Oh, wait... nevermind, then." Stiles should have at least said something like "Dude, Donovan was trying to kill ME," but all he ever says is "He was gonna kill my dad," which is not at all the reason why he killed Donovan. Not to mention that he didn’t even deliberately kill Donovan, it was a complete accident. The writers did that whole, ‘he was gonna kill my dad’ thing on purpose. If I was Stiles, I’d say, “seriously, Scott? That psycho was literally trying to kill me! And I didn’t even kill him! He fell and impaled himself!” The thing about his dad was to create more of a divide. But leaving out that Donovan was legitimately trying to kill Stiles is even more annoying to me because it leaves them room for Scott to be like "I know the difference between murder and self-defense," later on when they reconcile. If Stiles says it outright then Scott looks like too much of a dick for not taking that into account. But all of that only still makes sense if you've forgotten that Theo specifically said that Donovan went after Stiles when he lies to Scott about how it happened. So, it's already been (at the very least) implied to Scott that it was a self-defense situation (that got out of hand, according to Theo), but because Stiles doesn't specify that it leaves some (less than plausible, but okay) room for Scott to backtrack and be all "Well, I didn't know THAT. THAT changes everything." That's why that "lie of omission" bugs me so much. Stiles was not obligated to share his trauma with Scott if he didn’t want to. And Scott’s neither Stiles’ alpha, father, nor authority figure, so he doesn’t get to judge/condemn Stiles or demand an explanation from him. Not to mention that Scott is the very same hypocritical scumbag who threw a temper tantrum when Derek didn’t let him assassinate Peter like Scott WANTED and DEMANDED in Season 1, tried but failed to assassinate Gerard because ”He threatened to hurt my mom! I had no choice!” in Season 2, and conspired with the likes of Deucalion to assassinate Josh and Tracy in Season 5. Scott committing premeditated attempted murder for his own benefit and using Derek as his own personal murder weapon is good, but Stiles accidentally killing Donovan in self-defense to protect himself and his father is wrong and Stiles is a monster?! Lmfao sure, Scott! Scott McCall is a true something alright. A true hypocrite Stiles didn't because he was in a self destructive spiral. He didn't think he deserved to be forgiven and he thought he should lose Scott. The Dread doctors were constantly reinforcing his negative thoughts about himself through Theo and his own hallucinations because that was his greatest fault and source of his trauma

in the beginning scott was more than willing to kill to get what he wanted (for example when he was gonna kill peter since he thought that would cure him), which was always funny to me idk. i do love scott though especially the first 2 seasons scott since he changes after that, but he’s not the strongest character in the series and they should’ve done the whole ‘true alpha’ stuff differently imo

Scott McCall is literally the blandest, flattest, weakest, most useless fictional character ever. He’s just a badly written and portrayed Gary Stu and a judgmental bigot with abusive tendencies and no character development. Scott became a “True Alpha” due to his canonically nonexistent strength of character, virtue, moral superiority, and force of will, he’s never held accountable for his abusive actions and behavior, and the only time people dump his toxic ass it’s either not his fault or they are being wrong, psychotic, and unreasonable. Scott is such a Gary Stu it’s like a 12 year old on an ego trip wrote him. Scott yelled at Stiles, played judge, jury and executioner with Stiles, and accused Stiles of being a violent, unstable, dangerous, inhuman monster and a serial killer for choosing not to share his own trauma with Scott and for daring to accidentally kill Donovan in self-defense in Season 5; and yet Scott’s the one who threw a temper tantrum when Derek Hale didn’t let him assassinate Peter Hale in Season 1, conspired with Gerard Argent behind everyone’s back and used Derek as his murder weapon because “He threatened to hurt my mom! I had no choice!” in Season 2, lied to Kira about her fox to control her in Season 5A, plotted/conspired with Deucalion to assassinate innocent chimera victims Josh and Tracy in Season 5B, played up an injury that had long healed just to convince his friends to help him and not abandon him again in Season 5B, and wanted to sacrifice Tierney and Jiang to a mob boss to save his own ass in Season 6. There are 100 episodes suggesting that Scott is more than comfortable with killing someone, with lying, and with engaging in violent actions (premeditated murder) to protect himself and his mom despite all his big “killing is bad and wrong” speeches. Scott McCall is a true something alright. A True Hypocritical Asshole and Toxic Friend I remember this one time where Isaac told Scott he liked Allison and wanted to kiss her and Scott just threw him against the wall for having the internal thought to kiss her. He didn’t even do anything!! Plus, when your friend, who’s a survivor of abuse, advises you to hit him, you don’t actually do it!

And I love how Scott gave absolutely no sign of being gay, he’s even said numerous times he likes girls. Take those numerous denies over Stiles’ silence when asked about liking boys. Sceo is the worst ship I’ve ever come across of. The only ships regarding Theo that make sense to me are Thiam (Liam x Theo) and Steo (Stiles x Theo). The others, however, are total crackships. The fact that Theo didn’t show any care or remorse after he killed Scott proves it. And, they barely have any interactions after season five and the times they do, Scott is advocating Theo being sent back to prison. How is that shippable material?

”I’ve heard a lot of the defense of Scott McCall SWAT team, and I’ve heard a lot of them are hypocritical and mean. You can’t pull the race card because we don’t like a character. Scott is just bland, it’s got nothing to do with racism” You took the words right out of my mouth. Scott Stans pull out the “Scott McCall is a poor oppressed Mexican brown boy leader protagonist” every time Teen Wolf fans criticize Scott’s canonical abusive actions and behavior. They also claim that pointing out that Scott was unhealthily obsessed with Allison is racist, even though anyone who watched the actual show knows that Scott is canonically unhealthily obsessed with Allison – so much that he abuses Isaac out of sheer jealousy and hallucinates Allison making out with Jackson TWICE Exactly! Especially because he shoved Isaac into a wall just for thinking about Allison, AND SCOTT AND HER WERE BROKEN UP. He is super possessive of her to the point where he is interfering in Allison’s love life when they weren’t even together. I know there’s a bro-code, but Isaac didn’t even do anything. All he did was think about kissing her and he got thrown into a wall. And yeah, the Tumblr post said Stiles was obsessed with Lydia and nobody calls it out. Stiles was obsessed, but at least he didn’t react poorly when Lydia moved onto another boy. Scott McCall being a toxic friend and an even shittier character is not a Latino thing. It’s a Scott McCall thing

1 note · View note

flukeoffate · 7 years

Text

Governor Pryce Appreciation

(Contains spoilers for the Thrawn Novel)

There has been a few anti-Pryce posts on my dash this week and My thoughts on her spiraled out of control. I just wanted to throw my two cents in without making a mess of those posts. This is in no way meant to attack other people’s opinions, just studying what I like and dislike and considering reasons for the various reactions she gets.

(Extremely long character examination essay that I may have spent the better part of three or four hours on under the cut.)

I like Pryce. And I admit, the more I thought about her story and personality while writing this, I have maybe even grown to love her.

Is she a likeable person? Well, by the time of Rebels: no. Definitely not. But how many villains are likeable within the time of their introductory story? Few, I think. What I believe makes a villain likeable is their backstory, and also how charismatic they are during their screentime.

I want to examine some famous Star Wars villains. IMO there are very few Star Wars villains that are interesting until you dig deeper into their characters.

Unpopular opinion time: Vader and Tarkin are stupidly boring characters in A New Hope. They show up, kill some people, then lose a battle. We don’t know about Vader being Anakin Skywalker. He just looks cool. And Tarkin-well, I frankly think his interest came more from Peter Cushing’s acting more than the character itself. It is no secret that I’m a huge Hux fan, but the thing that drew me to him initially was his screaming speech. Other than being the ‘Tarkin’ of TFA, (and I use this description begrudgingly for the comparison) Hux doesn’t do much more than Tarkin ever did. All three of these guys are boring cardboard villains until you delve into their histories. Vader=Anakin? Holy shit, tell me more! Tarkin is classy AF and came from Space Australia? Sign me the fuck up! Hux has an abusive father and the weight of the First Order’s future on his shoulders? Damn, that is something to examine!

Pryce has the same problem as the above three: when they are introduced, they are already fully formed villains. You don’t see their developement. It’s done. Their story is pretty much over. No development is expected within their initial debut, their sob stories are not the focus of the plot. Like the aforementioned three, Pryce is 2D boring until you read her backstory. Why is she singled out as terrible compared to the others?

Well, without playing the gender card, I want to say it’s because she doesn’t display the charisma of the others. She is cold, doesn’t look flashy, and lacks charisma in Rebels. She just has one thing going for her: a generally evil and contemptuous thirst for authority and control. It’s standard and boring. I will grant that.

Where I differ from a lot of readers: I think she is a fantastic villain after reading the Thrawn book.

The most popular villains are either someone who has characteristics that you either identify with, or you aspire to have. And the more I think about Pryce, the more I realize that her story is actually very relatable, at least to me.

Pryce starts out as a member of a prominent family with a profitable mining company. She has aspirations of getting away from her backwater planet. Fuck, a lot of people have that urge. It’s not an evil trait in itself. When it the mine is forcibly taken from her family (more specifically her parents are threatened) she vows revenge, and it catipults her into motion. She gets out of there and to Coruscant. Ok, pretty basic. A lot of people hold grudges, it’s not super villain stuff yet. It’s a pretty simple vendetta focused on destroying one obviously corrupt and dislikable government official. (Which, seeing as the entirety of Star Wars is based on fighting evil and corruption, I find it ironic that her initial motive has come under scrutiny.)

All things considered, Pryce is pretty crafty in her plans. Sure, she can be devious. She has the makings of a good spy if she were properly trained. But for the most part, her plan revolves around using the established system against her enemies. THAT is a direct parallel to Thrawn himself. He makes his plans work through ingenuity and finding loopholes. But where Thrawn lacks the ability to manipulate the politics of the system, she can. But more importantly, she grows: she isn’t perfect at navigating the political system to start. It takes a fall from grace to lead her there.

And here we come to the crux of her relatability: her biggest downfall was betrayal from those she trusted the most. People she worked with, people who claimed she was their friend, people who claimed the friendship was genuine even after their schemes had been revealed.

I have had ‘friends’ betray me. Let me tell you it is a mind-blowing and traumatic experience. My therapist actively made me recognize my ex-friend drama as a real traumatic event that should not be trivialized.

And Pryce faces trauma. She was betrayed in the worst of ways, systematically and over a period of years. Pryce was physically, emotionally, and professionally assaulted. When she was drugged during ascension week and threatened? Holy shit, that is the kind of scenario associated with kidnapping and rape. And it was used as blackmail. You don’t shrug something like that off. I felt genuine disgust and fear for her in that scene. Then later, her ‘friends’ involve her in a plot that mixes her up with SAME PERSON who attacked her? Holy shit, wonderful way to reinforce that trauma. And then her friends bring her deeper into their plot by actually endangering her in order to manufacture more trust. And that same plot was made to FRAME Pryce in the event of a take down. She could have been imprisoned or worse, all because of her ‘friends’.

But you know what? Pryce overcame all of this. She fought any fear and pushed it down. She took control of the situation with grace and dignity. She knew what she wanted and how to get it. She manipulated her attackers, destroyed them with cleverly obtained evidence, and took them down with the law at her side. And she never forgives them.

I think that is something people don’t like. That she doesn’t forgive.

Frankly, she doesn’t owe her ‘friends’ a goddamn thing. They are as brutal and manipulative as Pryce becomes. They don’t get a free pass on this for being on the “right” side of things. They are horrible people. Good on Pryce for letting them rot. They fucking deserve it.

I often find myself wishing I could do the same to the people who hurt me. I’m glad she got the opportunity and took it. I would not have the same courage. Fuck all that nonsense about forgiveness being the brave thing to do. In my experience, forgiveness is a lip service phrase followed by a societal pressure to ‘be nice’. Fuck that. I want to be angry. I want them to suffer. But I don’t follow through—because revenge is seen as a negative trait, especially for a woman. There is a reason women resort to sneaky tactics for revenge: it is unbecoming to outwardly express our rage.

Pryce is never shown to have more than a few friends. All of them betrayed her trust.

I relate to that. Viscerally.

You know who has not betrayed her?

Her parents.

We don’t have the full scope of their relationship, but from the getgo we see that Pryce is ready to pounce on anyone threatening her parents. That is a constant through the book. And her parents obviously love her at least as much as any parent should be expected. They are concerned for her wellbeing, and are generally in touch with her. And by the end of the book, she isn’t the same person who vowed to ruin a corrupt official. She has taken up her mantle of anger and distrust. She discovers that she is ready, willing, and able to kill for her family and damn the casualties. She doesn’t care about other people. Other people never cared about her. Her life has proven to her one truth: trust no one. Beyond her parents, she has no love for anyone. The times she tried were a disaster.

There is a tragedy in that. I have experienced betrayal. But I have also had true friendship. We have no indication she ever had the good with the bad. I’m pretty sure that if I can pity Hux for having a shitty childhood, I can pity her for the events that left her so jaded.

So, yes. I like Pryce. I think she has damn good reasons for being the way she is. Do I condone her actions at Batonn? Hell no. Do I hate how she affects Thrawn? Yes. But Batonn is her Anakin to Darth Vader moment, the point where she truly goes to ‘the dark side’. I’m glad to have been given the opportunity to see it unfold. She can continue to be the frigid flat villain in Rebels, because now we know where she comes from. Rewatching Rebels shows her in a new light just as much as it changes how we see Thrawn. And we might see her comments now and think: you evil bitch! But damn, if that doesn’t make me like her more. Before the book, she was a generic Imperial baddie. Now I actually have an emotional response to back it up, and that is WAYYYYY more interesting.

I think the one big thing that prevents her from getting more love is that she doesn’t have the traits that fans typically like to explore in fanfic. She is closed off, and has no real big candidate for shipping purposes. And she doesn’t have any meaningful commonality with the heroes in Rebels beyond being the Governor of Lothal and therefore the enemy. She doesn’t have a specific vendetta driving her actions, she is just doing her job. By the time Rebels takes place, Pryce is not making impressive plans of destruction and she is done with any self reflection that might garner sympathy. But I don’t think she needs it. The book is enough.

With characters like Kallus, you could see than he had a sort of joy for the hunt in the first seasons. Then you learned more about his personality and he grew. Pryce doesn’t get the same treatment. Some people love Phasma for being an absolutely cold monster with no emotion. But Pryce isn’t cold or monsterous enough to have the same level of ‘wtf?’ that makes Phasma interesting (again, adding to the list of boring characters that are only great with their backstory considered...) Most of us can’t relate to the sheer heartlessness of Phasma and are compelled by it. Both Pryce and Phasma are self centered and power hungry individuals. But where Phasma has no conscience or hint or moral code, Pryce does have the capacity for such things, and that make readers see her selfishness as a negative trait to be hated instead of studied.

Maybe people find Pryce’s motivations too easy—a lot of us have friends who aren’t friends, and love our parents. Maybe her relatability is so common that we forget that these still qualify as three dimensional traits. Maybe we are afraid to admit that we have anything in common with her.

Pryce is a good character. I liked her parts in Thrawn. I was scared for her when she was drugged. I felt her loneliness when she couldn’t confide in her friends. I laughed my ass off at the unemployment office scene. I felt her shock and sorrow when she realized no one could be trusted. I envy her tenacity and bold resolve. I don’t have half her courage.

I like Pryce.

#arihnda pryce #governor pryce #pryce appreciation #anti-pryce #pryce love #tw: rape #a strong comparison but I felt it needed to be addressed in this so the R word stayed in.

61 notes · View notes

asagimeta · 7 years

Note

To add: Scott's first impression of werewolves is getting bitten and forcibly turned, so he's already cemented werewolves as "the bad guy" in his mind, and since hunters hunt "the bad guy", then that makes them "the good guy" (with Gerard and Kate being the exception in his mind, instead of the standard).

Agreed, even though his first encounter with both was negative and violent, werewolves came first, wich makes them worse to some degree (in his mindset) and actually, come to think of it, does Scott even have any good relationships with born wolves? The born wolves he knew were:

-Peter: The guy who bit him in the first place (and who, you know, murdered some people)

-Derek: Who he never fully redeemed and never even really tolerated until Derek started losing his powers

-Deucalion: An enemy and murderer (and any of the Alpha pack who were born wolves, it was never quite clear who were and weren’t but I would lump them all together probably, and they were all enemies, even the twins were only barely considered allies at the end)

-Brett and Lori: Neither of who he knew hardly at all

-Satomi: Who he also didn’t know, he maybe met her once, if that

-The blue-eyed kids from 5x16: Who he wrote off as villains the second he saw their eyes turn blue

I don’t think he ever met any other born wolves, the others were all bitten, and as we saw, Scott had a hard time understanding that Derek’s betas were bitten by choice, not by force, and he had a hard time reconciling with the idea of biting Hayden, Liam was an accident, if he veiws bitten wolves as victims like him then they would also be the “exception” to the general rule because they’re like him- bitten by the evil born wolves against their will, and every wolf he has a good relationship with is, in fact, bitten*

*This is noting, ofcourse, that he never exactly treats them with compassion either, he flat out kidnapped Liam and treated him HORRIBLY during most of season four, he was never very close to Erica or Boyd and although he had a fair relationship with Isaac (you know, except for that time when he asked if he could date Allison, then all bets were off) a large part of that developed after Isaac started to defer to Scott as his Alpha instead of Derek, we see that Scott treats Liam better after Liam starts considering him his Alpha as well, we never saw much of how he acted around Hayden

All of this said, he never met a born wolf he really liked- or liked at all-…. but he DID meet a born HUNTER who he fell in love with….

Werewolfism, to Scott, is probably alot like a disease, something born wolves inflict upon bitten wolves and thus born wolves in particular are the worst of the worst (wich is nodding towards the AIDs allegory brought up with the dirty scalpal in 6x16) The only exception to the “Werewolves are bad” rule seems to be bitten wolves, and even then it’s a coin toss

#Teen Wolf

5 notes · View notes

believeinwinxofficial · 7 years

Text

World of Winx 2 Review

After spending my time watching World of Winx 2 yesterday, I have to say that I have quite enjoyed my time watching this season. The series begins by showcasing the Winx in silver outfits (love them by the way!) playing their gig at Gardenia with Annabelle and Louise before heading on a worldwide tour as a musical group.

I will divide my review in several parts. Feel free to read the entire review for the full experience or whichever section that catches your eye:

~The Nemeses~

As the season progresses, each Winx will have to fight and defeat her own nemesis created by Tinkerbell in order for the Winx girl to overcome her fears. Bloom was facing Vertigo, who was infesting Bloom’s head so only she can see her. Vertigo played Bloom’s weakness - her friends - in an attempt to hurt the Winx.

Stella’s nemesis, Obscura, went on to manipulate Stella with illusions and mimicry of her friends and children from Stella’s past. It was revealed how Stella’s gravely hurt when everyone mocks her. This really hits Stella deep, as she’s always optimistic and Obscura managed to tap into Stella’s childhood when she used to be bullied by others.

On the other hand, Aisha’s nemesis, Sinka, takes advantage of Aisha’s impulsive and hasty nature in order to charge up her energy using Aisha’s attacks to to overpower her.

Flora’s nemesis Stoney, Tecna’s nemesis Virus, and Musa’s nemesis Banshee, take on a much different approach; especially Banshee. Those nemeses rather exploit the Winx’s physical weaknesses as a battle tactic. Banshee shot energy blasts that seem to be wind-based while Stoney destroyed all the nature around Flora, leaving her helpless for a while. Virus was able to take control over the Winx’s brains (except Tecna’s) and played with the girls as puppets in the sake of destroying Tecna.

Overall, the nemesis were solid enemies. Their only problem is, despite all of the power they’ve got, the key to defeat each one of them was simple. Bloom and Stella had to believe in themselves and their friends, Musa had to play some soothing music, Aisha had to patiently wait for her nemesis’s power to wear off, Flora simply tapped into her powers to counterattack Stoney, while Tecna had a little help from Matt (who would’ve thought!) as he telepathically spoke to her, telling her to let go of logic and to follow her instinct; in which she did, and was able to defeat Virus using Peter Pan’s sword as a weapon.

I guess the logic behind the slogan of “the bigger they are, the harder the fall” applies in this case. I wasn’t really impressed by how the nemesis were defeated, but at least the girls put up a decent fight. The appearance of each nemesis was striking and scary to say the least. They were fit for such ruthless enemies. The designs were well thought-out and they really highlight what Rainbow’s animation department is capable of. But enough talking about the nemeses, I’ll move onto the next part of my review.

~The Plot~

The season revolves around the Winx trying to find Peter Pan’s son, Matt to make Tinkerbell good again all while trying to perform their concerts around the world and helping troubled allies in Neverland. It was fun to watch the Winx travel to London to meet Wendy Darling (Surprising to see her an old lady, isn’t it?) in hopes of finding a clue about Peter Pan. It felt refreshing to see the Winx take guidance from someone older than them once again. One thing I disliked in the early parts of the season, however, is that in one of the episodes, Smee tries to kidnap Matt based on Jim’s order, although it was later revealed that Jim betrayed Smee and pretended he had nothing to do with the kidnapping. In fact, almost an entire episode was spent chasing after Smee! It felt like this was never utilized very well, leaving me daunted.

Once Matt was safe, Aisha had no issues being verbal about her disliking of him. She was tasked into training Matt to be a real warrior in order to help him face the queen, but soon finds out that she lacks the patience and faith in Matt to complete the training. The Winx ask Jim for his help in training Matt, but he also wasn’t able to assist Matt in his disconcerting task . As a final spark of hope, Jim suggested taking Matt to Tiger Lily; the best fighter in Neverland. Jim mentions that Tiger Lily will be able to help him train to be a true warrior, but once the Winx were able to locate her, even she admits she cannot help him.

However, one surprising twist of events takes its toll to reveal that Tiger Lily is in contact with the spirit of the World of Dreams, disclosing a prophecy that Matt will save the realm with his father’s (Peter Pan) sword. I did not expect Matt, the blabber mouth and braggart, to be prophesied into saving Neverland. I found this to be a clever twist, as we never really saw the Winx relying on someone else in order to defeat a villain in the finale.

To be blunt, I am unfortunately not a big fan of the plot. I expected to see more of Neverland and its wondrous areas, but we ended up discovering it’s all deserted and barren of all life and colors to the point it was not an interesting element anymore. Matt had fallen in love with Tinkerbell by simply staring into a constellation that aligns as her face, and Tinkerbell shared the feelings after meeting him for three minutes. The Winx never transform to aid themselves even when nobody’s around. I was also annoyed by how the Winx wanted to give Tinkerbell a second chance even though she destroyed Neverland, kidnapped talents, banished Jim, and other heinous acts after she simply apologized.

Matt ends up saving Tinkerbell from the hands of Jim, who banished the Winx and ordered the mermaids living in Neverland’s lagoon to keep an eye on Tinkerbell. Once she was freed, she turned good again and helped the Winx in the final battle against Jim. Jim basically turned Neverland’s own version of the Tree of Life into a giant flying battleship, opening a portal to the World of Nightmares in an attempt to cross it to rule both worlds. He was eventually trapped inside the WoN as Smee had previously stowed away and pushed Jim off of the ship.

As I said earlier, I am not very pleased with the plot. Although it was entertaining and original as it took surprising turns, I feel it could have been a lot better. There were no brilliant magical tricks, not enough transformations, and certainly no glamour. The season felt it lacks the magical element and sense compared to the other seasons of Winx, as the girls have never showcased their abilities in a way that left me feeling astonished or at least visually impressed.

~The Transformation~

There isn’t much to say about Onyrix, as its requirements were ... none. The spirit of the World of Dreams simply gave the Winx the power of Onyrix to help defend the realm from danger, and its transformation sequence made me chuckle at times. It still doesn’t beat Butterflix’s cheesiness, but it sure felt like it was another fashion show cough Tynix cough. The Winx were dressed in what resembles jumpsuits that look elegant at the top, to hilariously end with what resembles 70′s disco pants’ bottom.

Aisha’s wings were resampled from her Harmonix, while Bloom’s hair and wings were taken from her Butterflix. Not to mention that Tecna’s Onyrix feels no different from her Dreamix. If no one has noticed yet, every girl is wearing her secondary color as her main one, except for Musa and Stella. There has been some frequent pink, dark lime, purple, and green in Bloom’s, Tecna’s, Aisha’s, and Flora’s clothing colors respectively. Those colors weren’t exactly always present in the Winx’s transformations, but they did play a theme of their own as secondary colors. In Aisha’s case, it was mostly a mix of blue and green, but we’ve seen Aisha with some purple as a complementary color at times.

~The Secondary Characters~

I have to say, the show really conveyed the side characters very well this time. They didn’t feel useless or out of place like we’re used to, and they all played important roles to help the plot further evolve. The pirates were ill-mannered yet loyal, Tiger Lily was harsh yet supportive, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that the Crocodile and Alligator Men were actually on the same side as the Winx!

I quite enjoyed how the secondary characters had a spunk to them; they all had an aura of fight and zeal I couldn’t help but to love all of them! On a final note, the fact that each character remained an indispensable part throughout the show throughout felt like a huge improvement from Rainbow’s part. It was just like Flora said in the sixth episode: “A single snowflake looks so fragile, but we all know what they can do when you put them all together!”

...Though one thing was left unexplained. How did the pirates lose their magic in the first place?

~The Plot-Twisted Ending~

Okay, so Venomya is actually a witch whose name is Baba Yaga, inspired from the Slavic folklore of so many stories. I have no idea why did the witch wait until the end to reveal her identity, and in the midst of a concert as well. Baba Yaga flat out chased the Winx from a country to country to write bad reviews about them, until eventually revealing she wants to summon a coven of witches.

Though I guess it was an anticipation mechanic by Rainbow to further raise the anticipation (although it seems to make little sense to me.)

I’m not sure what to make of the end. Will there be a third season of WoW? Will the live action movie be based on Baba Yaga? Will the eighth season be based off of her even? So many questions aroused in my mind, and the cliffhanger ending of the season left me hooked and definitely hyped for what’s more to come!

Overall, I am impressed by this season.

However, I can’t help but feel disappointed that the Winx did not use any spectacular magical spells. The show obviously was a great entertainment for me with its diverse characters and engaging story, and the plot certainly feels darker than ever (even more than season 7.) You have the mermaids manipulating Tinkerbell to commit suicide, a deep yet naive concept of love at first sight, creepy-looking villains, and ruthlessness showcased by Tinkerbell’s actions in the past and Jim’s sadistic future vision.

In spite of all of this, the experience felt less magical than ever before. Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of action, just not enough magic and sparkles to give me my daily dose of Winx fantasy. WoW2 was great if you want to watch Martin Mystery or Totally Spies with a twist of magic, just not enough to give me the usual fairy tale vibes.

#winx #winx club #world of winx 2 #world of winx #worldofwinx #winxclub

33 notes · View notes

game84cube · 5 years

Text

My Opinions on the Sonic Movie Trailer

Okay, I guess I better say something about this movie before I lose my credibility in the Sonic community. I saw the trailer at school and everyone was talking about how weird it was on campus. I loved it at first sight, since I thought Sonic was gonna look WAY worse. Anyway, let's go over the pros and cons.

Pros:

- The speed. They knew what they were doing with Sonic and his speed effects. I mean it makes sense, what with the people from Fast and Furious.

- That Spin Dash! Sonic's iconic move was displayed amazingly in that trailer and his strength was on full display. Also when he just plopped into his little hideout in the forest and he was that fuzzball, it looked great!

- Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik. I get what they're doing. This is an origin story. Robotnik is gonna deteriorate into the classic crazy villain we all know him as. That ending shot proved it. But yeah. He was clearly not fat enough, but he isn't quite...egged out yet. Sort of a Kintobor thing before Robotnik/Eggman. My dad has issues with it, but I think it's fine. Plus he's got good material as well. Sassy and smart. That's how I like my Eggs.

- The acting. Marsala is giving it his all, and he sure has experience in this. I imagine he's gonna be a good focal point of the movie since title characters in these movies are NEVER the focus but are there to say that it is indeed a titled character's movie. I think Tim will be fine. A little snarky to play off of Sonic as well. Honestly I loved that bit with the "That's not your child in that bag?" This was also a good reminder that Sonic is a teenager. Good move. I forget who's playing Ann, but she seems fine. No comment yet. And then we have the Hedgehog himself. Ben Schwartz, I tip my blue spiky hat to you! You know just how to make Sonic sound like...well... SONIC! That cockiness is perfect. The voice is natural, and I want MORE! I'm sure they got some good lines for him (and some bad ones but that's inevitable sadly)

- The animation in general. Say what you will about the design, but in motion, everything looks awesome! It flows, it doesn't look cheap, and the mech designs look incredible. The effects are well integrated and seem like they're unintrusive on reality. I like it. And really, Sonic looks good in some shots, especially doing what he does best. I'm so happy they got Sonic looking cool when on the move. If they failed at that, the whole thing would be a complete failure.

-The Easter Eggs and nods! Listen to the voice of the Commander of the military again. Now imagine that voice saying something like... "Sonic Adventure 2, Hero Side Story: Farewell Sonic, Forever." Tell me that isnt the same guy! That's an amazing Easter Egg. Also I hear one of the guys in the meeting voiced Grounder in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Also cool! The pike of shoes in Sonic's hideout was a neat touch. He was looking for some good new shoes. Something tells me those Nikes ain't gonna last through the movie since they ain't frictionless. I also noticed something really cute they pulled off. When Sonic did that Fitbit joke? Looking at his wrist condescendingly? Sound familiar? Almost idle? Sonic 2 idle animation perhaps? All that's missing is him tapping his t- WAIT! Yep, that's another thing I think when I think Sonic. The classic impatient toe tap. They got his attitude DOWN and I love it! And! They remember something I'm so happy about! HE'S 90'S AS FUCK!!! Sonic listened to Gangsta's Paradise on a cassette tape! That song is from the 90's! They got it! Sonic is not a modern boi. He is so lost in the last decades and that's why I love him. That old fashioned nature? That's what makes him more timeless to me.

- Check that hair. They got his hair right. Good. That's it. Sonic is also very defined by the classic shape of his hair.

- The Ring. Okay, hear me out. Yes, we're more familiar with Rings being used as a shield to prevent Sonic from dying from a hit. Um, did y'all forget the Giant Ring at the end of the level in Sonic 1? Or the Flicky's Ring in 3D Blast/Flickies Island? It's just a portable version of that. I like the spin on it, okay? I'm sure it also protects Sonic like in the SatAM cartoon. Im just glad Rings are in the movie at all.

Cons:

- Elephant in the room, Sonic's overall design philosophy. I feel like there were two butting heads at the studio trying to decide how realistic to make Sonic look. They apparently compromised at "Make him anthropomorphic and give him human facial features including human teeth." Yeah, the teeth and eyes are my issue, and some coloring issues as well (I get that hedgehogs usually have white bellies, but Sonic has always had a tan belly, since he doesnt walk on all fours. Plus he needs to be a darker shade of blue.) The features all too human just kind of take away from what was meant to be more real. If they gave him sharper canine teeth, that would be an improvement, because that would be more animalistic. Also, I like how some people design Movie Sonic with a white tuft of fur between his eyes to make that classic illusion that his eyes are connected like the old days. (Actually looking back, I think Sonic's eyes were connected on accident before but they stuck with the design. Sort of an artist's idea of eye design in the old days. If he was to be created today, his eyes might be separated) I also need something to really come out of Sonic with his face. EXPRESSIONS AND PERSONALITY! You know, that thing Sonic was known for aside from his speed? That face is not very expressive and it leaves the emotions behind the delivery of the lines feeling flat. Perhaps a more defined brow for that redo, thanks. Otherwise, I have no complaints. The lack of gloves is odd, but again, this is most likely an origin story, so he doesnt have the gloves YET. I am glad that he has proper paws with the pads on his palms instead of creepy human hands. Also claws that he probably cuts/files/chews off himself so they're more like fingernails. Solid enough I guess. And the furriness of it all as well as the dropping quills? Eh, it makes sense. Plus it almost makes the rest of his body seem cuddly. I'm just not down with the rest of it.

-The music choice. Okay, I never heard Gangsta's Paradise in my life. From what I hear it makes no sense to have it have anything to do with Sonic. Now, maybe it was the only cassette he could find, since that boombox looks secondhand and so is the tape, obviously. However, if I were to choose a song for the trailer? I have one option. All I Want by Offspring! Think about it. The dates line up. It's a fast paced rock song. It's rebellious and against the system, like Sonic is in the movie apparently (yeah I didnt get that whole "delinquent" bullshit from the trailer, did you? He just seems like Sonic to me in terms of his actions,) and it was used in a SEGA game! It's from Crazy Taxi! Come on, that's PERFECT!

- the Flash lightning. Seriously? Is that the only thing Hollywood can think of when it comes to showing someone is fast? Come on, get your heads out of your asses. It's so easy. Modern Sonic has been more compared to the element of WIND! Tornadoes, Mach Cones, Sonic Wind, all that stuff. Sonic never really messed with electricity, so bleh.

- This isn't a pro or a con, but I really wanna know this. Will we see the Tornado? Don't forget that the Tornado is Sonic's plane. He just has Tails fly it when he wants to ride the wings. I feel like they could have had Sonic use the Tornado in a cool air battle scene but get shot down (because the Tornado kinda sucks since it always gets shot down, but it's iconic to me) since Sonic isn't exactly "a hell of a pilot" and THEN finds the Warp Ring inside. I dunno, thought it'd be cool. Look, Tim just met a 3 foot, blue, talking hedgehog that runs really fast and eats chili dogs. (please remember the chili dogs) Hedgehogs on planes wouldn't be that farfetched that day, would it?

- Some writing just felt off, but some can be explained. Let's start with everyone's FAVORITE scene...to wreck. The infamous "Uhhh...meow?" Here's my take. Yes, stupid, but what if he had no idea what to do? What if Sonic was just in his head going "What sounds do hedgehogs make? What sounds do hedgehogs make? Quick, say something, stupid!" And when he said it, probably something in his head was screaming "Dont say something stupid, stupid!" Also, I just didn't laugh at the "Smells like body spray and an old ham sandwich" line. I was like, Sonic, shut up. The joke was sold. Don't ruin it.

- Why is it the law where every live action movie with a CGI talking animal (that they didn't know about before you bring up Detective Pikachu, Christopher Robin, or even Peter Rabbit) must have the main character and the CGI character scream at each other? Sonic wouldn't freak out (unless he was more afraid of the gun and was kind of unsure how to react. Also great job dodging the tranq dart, oh Fastest Thing Alive)more than likely he'd be trying to talk his way out of this or just run away with a face like 😐😳 "I'm SO busted!" Just saying there was a better way to do that aside from the cliche.

- Robotnik, why did you try to taste the quill? You dont know where he's been. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Cool and Lickable. Lol. Pretty sure typos shouldn't be legitimized.

- Quicksilver? Not in my series he ain't. Oh... wait. Yeah. The whole stopping time thing. Eh, it's been done. Cool all the same, but again, done before. I appreciate Sonic's spin on it though, playing around like a teenager would. I dig it.

-Save your planet? Like...as in you're just an alien? I dunno, plus how do you know you have to save the planet? I'm chalking THAT up to "this is a trailer and probably wont appear in the final movie the same way."

- Did they REALLY have to make him say "Gotta go fast"? Again, probably just for the trailer, but really?

In conclusion, I have no hope for the movie. Can't be disappointed if you dont expect anything. Sort of my take on his design at first. I thought he was gonna look like COMPLETE garbage, but some shots look great, like when he was explaining that he had to save the planet? The lighting and such looked good for his face when the camera was on him. And again, the movie looks much better in motion. Yeah, I still have issues, but that's because I love Sonic. I love the characters and I want the best for the series. I care about the games that have been with me since my near infancy. They have fan service but it feels like you gotta be a crazy fan like myself to get the references, so it's lackluster because of it.

Sonic deserves a great movie! I just hope they impress me with something HUGE!

0 notes