Speaking of Tyrest. A lot of people forget that he treated Pharma with absolute disdain, not only using him as a test subject for a clearly painful mass murder machine, but talking to Pharma like he saw him as nothing but some henchman to order around that was nothing more than a 'diseased cripple' if Tyrest hadn't come to rescue him.
Like it really is an interesting background dynamic with some curious implications, but when you look at fandom posts from around that issue/the years after, for some reason people just saw "Pharma worked with Tyrest" and concluded Pharma is a card carrying bigot ksjfnskxkd. Like yeah Pharma didn't do anything to stop Tyrest but it seems his main beef with the Autobots was with Ratchet in particular and maybe a general disdain for his ex-comrades. As well as continuing to hate Decepticons which like, not even the "good Autobots" are immune to (even in Pharma's introduction, First Aid says in his journal something like "yeah we all hate Decepticons, but Pharma REALLY hates them"). And despite what fandom likes to construe there's really no evidence in IDW1 that Autobots and Decepticons are different "races" or "types" of Cybertronians, so Pharma hating Decepticons really isn't a bigotry/robot racism thing. And instead probably has something to do with, idk, the 4 million year long galaxy-spanning blood feud war, or maybe being blackmailed and tortured into insanity by the Biggest and Most Decepticon-y of Decepticons.
Tyrest treated Pharma like trash, the other Decepticons working for Tyrest (how come no one ever brings that up btw) also hated him, so if anything it seems that Pharma was more of a rogue element only staying with Tyrest bc he was his best option and probably had no way to even escape.
I'm glad that at least in recent years the fandom has acquired a keen reading eye and good taste to finally recognize Pharma as the (accidentally) complex character he is instead of making him some posh, racist Starscream clone SHSJDGSGDH
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started watching the new live action avatar
it’s. It’s pretty ok I guess? But there’s a lot of things I’m not altogether happy about. It feels very. Generic. Which is kind of sad.
I’m only two episodes in though, so I won’t be too harsh. But there are a few things that I really don’t like, and number one was Aang going into the Avatar State in front of Sokka and Katara for the first time when seeing Monk Gyatso instead of when escaping Zuko, and that moment being isolated instead of the moment everyone in the world knew the Avatar had returned
in the original series, Aang goes into the Avatar State when confronted by irrefutable proof in the form of the skeleton of his best friend and mentor - the airbenders really were massacred and he can no longer deny it.
every statue of the Avatar around the globe lights up in a single moment. the legendary figure’s destined return is announced to the world by an overwhelming outpouring of grief and rage from a young child who just discovered that everyone he ever knew and loved is gone. it’s poignant. the Avatar’s return in that moment is not a triumph. that terrifying show of strength and power, enough to light up the world in its glow, is pure emotional anguish from a small twelve year old, who just saw the dead body of his mentor and now believes he is all alone
and Katara and Sokka having seen the Avatar State before means that there is less of the shock and “what is happening” in this pivotal scene (which was the main focus in the live action). of course Sokka is still concerned about them potentially getting flung off the mountain. but both of them know this reaction for what it is - mysterious power, sure, but primarily, they see and recognize his grief.
I just. what happened to “we’re your family now” and “neither of us are gonna let anything happen to you”??? :(
on a side note, I do feel like Katara and Sokka themselves have been heavily (heh) watered down. it’s a shame. Sokka’s my favourite, and I just think that I. Don’t trust writers with Katara now. (Why is her waterbending a secret? The whole reason she didn’t learn was because there was no one to teach her and she couldn’t leave… also where is her instant connection with Aang… where is their silliness… where did it go…)
however! I did like a couple things that were done and I want to be a bit positive so here
love Zuko and Suki’s actors. they did a great job
Sokka and Suki’s training together was cute ☺️ (though I wish he had worn the uniform of the Kyoshi Warriors…)
Aang himself is adorable :) (wish he got to be a little more silly but Netflix adaptations always are more serious for some reason)
I actually kind of enjoyed getting to see some of the scenes from the war’s outbreak. I prefer the way the original show portrays it, with a lot of info being learned reverse chronologically, but it was cool to see Sozin, and some of the airbenders, and a little more of Gyatso (who I also really enjoyed :’) )
Katara bending water at Aang and it reducing to them splashing each other without even trying to bend. Rare sillies!
I thought Kyoshi herself coming to defend her island was pretty sweet!!!
Katara getting flashbacks to her mother’s death on seeing firebending. Well I don’t like this, obviously, but it clearly shows how her mother’s death haunts her, and if they have Katara face off against Zuko again at the North Pole, it’ll be all the more triumphant.
Suki’s mom!!! Damn she was so cool!!!!!!
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I am once again losing my mind.
This time: I went to look up references of Varric, and just typed "Varric Tethras" into the search bar. I was going to just tab over immediately to the images section, eyes barely glancing over the obvious top-result fandom wiki, then (more entertainingly, but still expected) Wikipedia link-
but. but the next one.
GOODREADS??
.... There's absolutely no tongue-in-cheek in the entry either.
(of course I immediately clicked on it who do you think I am)
There are 3 quotes from him relating to storytelling, both from 2 and Inquisition, as well as a book attribution:
The Dragon Age Novel Edition of Hard in Hightown.
ATTRIBUTED TO VARRIC TETHRAS.
with Mary Kirby*~
Absolutely unblinkingly written summary/bio.
I love this with my whole heart. Varric you beautiful bastard -- and DA writers/editors (Mary Kirby very much most importantly included) you even more beautiful, dorky, wonderful bastards.
---
*if you're not in the know, Mary Kirby is a cornerstone of the DA writing team, including being the one who was in charge of Varric (and Merrill!). To say she's his "trusted human confidante" is certainly putting it one (delightful) way.
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Ok so I only have one real genuine gripe about The Mummy 1999
I think Beni should have lived and joined the main characters at the end. Like I realize that's self-indulgent and not necessarily good writing but idc he's just a little guy your honor
Like yeah, he sucks, but kind of in the same ways that one of those shaky hypoglycemic lap dogs does that knows nothing in its heart but mortal terror and a deep-seated avarice for table scraps and will piss itself if you look at it wrong.
I think they could have kept him, maybe if he got just a *little* bit of redemption at the end. Rick or Jonathan could have pulled his treasure seeking ass out at the very last split second and bitched about how stupid he was to be in there looking for more trinkets when the place was about to come down to show us that he's still very much going to be a work in progress.
Like is he still obsessed with treasure? Yes. Does he manage to get his ass into dangerous and improbable situations? Hell yes. Is he still a coward? A *tiny* bit better than he was, but yeah. Why do they keep him around? Idk they just do. He's creative, he's good at finding stuff, he knows a lot of obscure knowledge relating to ancient treasures and myths.
Idk maybe you could weave some sort of thing where he actually does grow really attached to them because he's not used to people simultaneously keeping him safe and treating him well, so his loyalty could start out as just trying to keep a good situation going, but becoming something more genuine than that as things progress and it could be really nice actually
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