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shikai-the-storyteller · 4 years

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I changed my mind, and decided I want to share some thoughts and initial impressions while I still have this show fresh on my mind, so here we go:

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Transformers War for Cybertron - Siege

The Good:

The transformation sequences, particularly the first ones we see, are so reminiscent of the stop-motion videos people do of their Transformer toys transforming, and I think that’s rather charming! I wonder if that was intentional or a coincidental side-effect of the animation style they went for.

Character traits aren’t set in stone. Although we, as a fandom, prefer certain portrayals (Starscream being a terrible gremlin, Skyfire/Jetfire being sweet, Bumblebee being a charming young lad, etc.) sometimes it’s nice to see something new! Both Cyberverse and WFC: Siege took a different direction with Jetfire’s character. Although it’s disappointing that we don’t get to see the Jetfire / Starscream friendship most of us expected, I think Jetfire’s growth throughout the season was interesting.

I also like that the colonies (Velocitron and Caminus, anyways) were confirmed to exist in this continuity. It was nice to see Chromia, Moonracer, Elita, and Arcee together in the same show too. That being said, Moonracer’s model looked exactly like Chromia’s so I was a little confused at first. The narrative also didn’t really endear her to me, so despite loving her in the comics, my thoughts were “Oh. That sucks but whatever I guess” when she died, which leads me to my next point:

The Bad:

The writing.

This is particularly evident in the first three episodes; in fact, I almost stopped watching after Episode One. Siege lacks the soul and personality I’ve come to expect from the Transformers series as a whole.

The script, particularly in the first few episodes, felt like it was written by people who aren’t familiar with these characters, so they’re writing Optimus, Elita, and everyone else how they EXPECT them to sound, not writing them as they actually are.

I don’t like to judge fellow writers too harshly because I know that often times, they don’t get a final say in a lot of things, but there were unfortunately a lot of things that could’ve been done better.

As a Transformers fan, I’m already inclined to like the characters, but the show didn’t do much to make me really care about them or their problems* (with one exception, which I’ll circle back to). As much as I’d like to blame the 6 episode time-crunch, there was a lot of wasted dialogue time that could’ve been used to charm the audience.

TLDR: There’s a lot of talking in the show but the dialogue doesn’t actually say a lot. It doesn’t reveal much about the characters, or tell me who they are, or why I should care about them.

* The one area where Siege actually did put in the footwork to make me care was in regards to Impactor and Ratchet (one of the few characters whose personality we really get a sense for despite not having too much screen-time). Immediately, we’re shown how Ratchet earned Impactor’s trust, and we see why Impactor is loyal to him. They built up that relationship, so when Impactor dies protecting Ratchet, we get to feel that payoff and actually feel bad about his death! (Unlike some of the other deaths in the show, which I just shrugged at.). Because of that scene, I’m hopeful that Siege will start focusing on building relationships between their characters more. The series got better as time went on, so I’m inclined to keep giving it the benefit of the doubt despite my initial misgivings.

I try not to compare different series too much because there are a lot of outside forces that determine what a show winds up being, but re: writing with a time crunch, I think it’s important to talk about a show that did use their time well: Transformers Cyberverse.

Cyberverse got me invested in its characters within the first episode. They only had 10 minutes to tell a story, yet they made good use of their time and wove a tight narrative while also giving their characters the opportunity to charm the audience.

Although we can argue Cyberverse had more time to do this since they had more seasons, even one-off characters, such as Media Fire or Wild Wheel, had more of a personality by the end of the episode than some Siege characters did by the end of the season.

The stakes aren’t really clear. Why should we care about one side losing or winning? We’re given some reasons why it would be “bad” if the Autobots lose since Shockwave convinced Megatron to use something that will change their base programming (or whatever, even that was a little bit vague) but ultimately we don’t have clear motivation for Megatron OR Optimus, the two faction leaders! Although they imply that Megatron / the Decepticon’s roots were based in a civil rights revolution (a-la IDW1) even that is inconsistent. As a friend put it, “Megatron and Optimus are both huge idiots, why root for either of them?”

This is a minor thing, but as a writer it really bugged me so I’m making a note of it anyways: it was really annoying when characters kept pausing while talking. (Ex: “I………*long pause* [the rest of their sentence]”). Characters also kept saying things, only to let their sentences trail off. The cadence of their voices felt unnaturally slow and scripted, so it was a little difficult not to zone out while they were speaking. Perhaps this wasn’t a problem for other people, but it really took me out of the moment. That being said, this wasn’t as much of an issue in later episodes, which I greatly appreciated.

Another minor detail: this show felt like a barren wasteland of comedy. There were one or two moments I chuckled at (and one I really laughed at---Shockwave and Soundwave’s reaction to Megatron telling Starscream “You’ve proven your worth to the Decepticon cause”) but for the most part, I would’ve appreciated a little bit more humor. I mean, I know this series is aimed at an older audience, but it’s a show about robots that can transform into cars. The entire premise is goofy if you think too hard about it, so a joke here or there isn’t going to ruin your vibe.

The Ugly

Decepticons and Autobots are two different races.

Even within the first few episodes, we know the foundation of the war started because of issues of oppression and slavery. This isn’t subtle---Megatron clearly spells this out for us on several occasions. This topic isn’t new, we’ve seen most other Transformers continuities parrot the same thing. So why is it different here? It’s a bit of a complex issue, but as a gal of color, it really rubbed me the wrong way, and I feel like it’s important to talk about.

The show implies many times that Autobots and Decepticons are inherently different. It’s not a matter of your allegiance or your beliefs---it’s what you’re born as. (Functionism, anyone?)

Functionism itself was a very interesting Transformers-specific way to discuss prejudice and oppression, but to suddenly make it race-based feels a little...Hmm. More than a little uncomfortable.

It felt a little bit like they were saying: "Yes, we're tackling the topic of oppression! Yes, we're saying these two groups are inherently different, and therefore that excuses prejudice and supremacy arguments both the good guys AND the bad guys are making!"

Big Yikes

The subject of genocide and eugenics-adjacent arguments came up several times, and while we saw aspects of that in IDW’s run, making it race-based puts it in a different light. An ugly light.

One final thing on that note: the entire thing with Prowl. "Prisoners outnumbered law enforcement so the council created core override implants as a deterrent. [...] It means we can remotely trigger brain detonation."

I’m sorry, what?

The entire concept of “Core override” was INCREDIBLE fricked up. Yes, they had the decency to make Prowl sound ashamed of it, and the rest of the Autobots sounded appalled, but the fact that they proceed to install it on Jetfire despite their initial repulsion was frankly disturbing, especially because Optimus (Optimus PRIME) agreed to it. It felt incredibly out of character for him, and it went against the Autobot code as a whole. Everything about that, and the race-division, made me really uncomfortable, and I’m not sure how well Siege is going to handle this moving forward.

As a whole, I feel like War for Cybertron: Siege has a lot of work to do. Although the last few episodes were definitely an improvement, there’s still significant room to grow and they need to work harder to create a compelling narrative with lovable characters.

In the meantime, what were your thoughts on the series? I’d love to know how other people reacted, particularly regarding the last bit.

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magnusthemes · 5 years

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Why do you like Gong Yoo so much?

I had to put this under a read more bc it got so long I’M SORRY

You mean beyond his perfectly handsome never-aging face?

(He’s 40 and this photo was from a commercial that he did THIS YEAR - source: SOOP Management Naver)

and the fact that he can sing? [1] [2] [3]

A lot of actors in this day and age get away with bad acting just on the basis of their good looks, but not him. His acting is really good. He’s been nominated for two Baeksangs (Korea equivalent of Academy Awards) for Best Actor (and won one) and also nominated for one Baeksang Daesang (grand prize) plus a whole other list of acting awards. He even turns down roles if he feels like he can’t give a good performance in them (mentioned in multiple interviews as being the reason why he didn’t do dramas for 3+ years after Big). But beyond winning all the awards, his performances in literally every show of his that I’ve watched just manages to evoke emotion and capture the tone of the character so well. He’s also done a variety of roles other than just romcoms so it’s not like he isn’t versatile af either, this article shares how he likes to choose “new and different” roleswatch the Baeksang video guys I watch it every day

Gong Yoo has incredible professionalism. See this article for an example when he shot a commercial for Iloom, and this article for another example on how he was casted in Train to Busan. I think it says something that his relationships with the CF companies are so good to the point that he can be promoting the same brand for 9 years and running (yes, Kanu coffee, I’m looking at you and my empty wallet).

That brings me on to my next point of Gong Yoo being an absolute angel of a human being in general. He’s humble and nice and treats all his co-stars with respect and kindness. See this video for some examples and this one and also his Guerrilla Date episode + Running Man episode 175 is a case study on how Gong Yoo is totally sweet and pure (described by his costars and narrator) also more costar descriptions of him here and here and watch Goblin specials for more. Bonus: the coffee truck bromance between him and LDW + he misses Goblin cast im so asldkfjalskdfjalksdf

Linking on with my previous point, not sure if you guys know the entire backstory behind the movie Silenced and its aftermath but for those that don’t… basically he read Gong Jiyoung’s book The Crucible during his military service (it’s a book about events where hearing-impaired students at Gwangju Inhwa School being abused sexually and physically by the staff there) and so from there he pushed production of the film because he wanted to bring more awareness to these events. The director asked him to star in the movie so he did that even though he didn’t think himself capable of pulling off the depth required for the lead bc he wanted to use his fame to bring more awareness to the whole series of events but the main point is that he was the one to initiate and push production of the film which then became a huge thing in Korea and made them change the law and reopen the criminal investigations for the abusers. I’m horrible at summary so I’ll just direct to the Wikipedia article here

Which leads me onto how he’s been so honest and open about having to deal with depression, lack of confidence and self-doubt during his acting career. It’s not something common in Korea for men and especially celebrities to show any signs of “weakness” and there’s a stigma in Asian societies in general against it, so what he did was in my opinion super brave and forthcoming. In 2016 he mentioned about the life of an actor being lonely/tiring and even after Goblin he had mentioned that he was exhausted and tired (see this article and this one). This post is a good summary of the two points I’ve just mentioned

In that same line of thought, he’s an actor that sees the platform of acting as something important in media and is generally a very erudite guy. You can see this not only from the Silenced example but also from these two interviews in particular that he did (warning: very long videos and the English dubbing in the first one is very bad. Second one contains depression/self-harm tw)

Related to point 5, he also did the lead for Coffee Prince in which he played Han Kyul, a character who loved someone perceived to be a guy and who continued to love the someone regardless of their gender. Note that this was in 2007 in Korea, which is a totally different society from today.

On a lighter note, he’s a total GOOF. The Best Personality. See here, here, here, here, here, here and all the Gong Yoo videos on SOOP’s Youtube for examples

TLDR: Absolute angel of a human being, thank you Gong Yoo for coming into my life

#lmao guys i'm a theme blog not a gong yoo fanblog #at this point i've watched almost every single one of his CFs to the point that i can just become a saleswoman already #but yeah point is that this man is a literal angel and i love him so much #answered #anonymous #bev talks #feels like i'm really an engineer thru and thru eh... can't write a coherent paragraph to save my life

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missq10 · 5 years

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#girlswithtattoos #tldr

*** DISCLAIMER**** This is my a personal and imperfect response to the things I've been through.

I am not making light of anyone's struggles with depression, self mutilation, battle with suicidal thoughts or anything of that ilk. Nor am I saying that getting tattoos will solve any issues you may be having.

If you find yourself in a low point please reach out to someone!! National Suicide Prevention Hotline: Call 1-800-273-8255 Available 24 hours everyday

***************

Now let's jump in Interwebs, it's been a while!

For the first time I was able to articulate to my mother why I get tattoos, and it was profoundly enlightening for my self journey. So why not share it with strangers??! Especially because in the last 4 years, I went from ZERO to 6 tattoos, including two very large ones, and I have plans of getting a few more.

Anywho, here goes:

I have, in a relatively short time, lived a lot of life. I'm not saying I'm old or that I'm an "old soul". I've just been through some shit. I've experienced a ridiculous amount of tragedy, hardship, sorrow and more. I've been physically hurt, homeless, taken advantage of, financially wrecked, sexually assaulted, abused, fetishized instead of loved, and loved with conditions.

Through everything, I can now see that I've also healed, been truly loved, found joy, helped others with their sorrow, found and re-found peace, truth and understanding for myself and others.

But when I look back and prepare for my future, I've identified that my biggest battles, like many's, have been and will continue to be mental battles. The mind is a scary interesting place and with that, like most functioning adults, I find the need to be presentable and keep going.

To that I say, "well damn" because on my lowest days, I've struggled with depression, considered cutting or hurting myself, had suicidal thoughts that became full blown plans. And in the end, I find tears and feel weak, and at times, feel like I'm being held together with shitty glue, paperclips and gum. While on my high days, things feel simple. The right hair-do, new glasses or a nice lipstick can have me high steppin' and smiling my way through the rest.

Though, as a private person, I don't tell anyone anything about the low lows or the highs, and it would be hard to not feel like a fraud because nobody knew or knows how low the lows really can be or what my good days cost me.

It was about 4 years ago when I found, that one of my hang ups was that I have no "battle scars", no visible wounds. Even the scars I do have from any incidents have healed and aren't visible or recognizable. I mean shouldn't I have something to show for all of the struggle I've been through? There's no certificate for surviving homelessness; there's no trophy for surviving a rape and honestly, who would really want that and not be triggered??? What's wrong with you Karen??

I wrestled with the thoughts that my feelings about "proof of struggle" were just vanity and pride. Then realized, that's not entirely a fault nor is it wrong; it's how we've been raised. It's the "keeping up with the Joneses", "live the American dream" society we've inherited. The last several American generations have been conditioned (especially by social media) to live a "pics or it didn't happen" type of existence. Much of it is based on pride and vanity, but in a world where we show off the "happiness" we've deemed presentable [sidenote: will post full social media rant later], why shouldn't I be proud that I've survived some traumatic and heinous shit, and come through other people's fuckery as a strong woman?!

I thought, Karen, how can you show what you've gone through in a socially acceptable way, and not be obligated to explain it every time?

And thus started my love of tattoos! I mean what better way to do just that! Sure, globally tattoos have many different meanings and have different cultural characteristics; they ward off evil and offer protection; they are an initiation for coming of age; they can be tribal identifiers, and more. BUT in all of this, the simple truth is that tattoos are indeed worn proudly!

Though my first tattoo was small, and it was an impulse decision (what an oxymoron lol). As I walked out with my little wrist tattoo, it clicked: that's what I had needed.

For me, in all my tattoos there after, all of the parts of getting a tattoo hit the note of catharsis and healing.

- Deciding what I want to get is a journey in facing my demons, how they've impacted me, and how they can be made beautiful.

- Choosing an artist is always the toughest, I mean there's the basic, can this person do what I'd like and do they have the skill to pull it off; however in a way it's like choosing a therapist, who is this person that is going to become a part of my life, and am I willing to share this part of myself with this person. In my head, that has to be important to the artist as well. I typically need my artist to express that they "get it" and I'm not just a one and done-walk in client or at the very least make it seem like that...aside from the aforementioned impulse first tattoo.

- The consultations and pricing are like building that trust and commitment to, "let's do this" and "I will keep my word" from both parties. It's like the safety of having a contract with an non-disclosure clause.

- Choosing placement gives me control of sharing or not sharing whatever battle, demon or truth of me is being displayed.

- The physical pain is never very bad, but somehow always feels like the appropriate payment- for lack of a better word- owed for spending time battling myself.

- The Aftercare and healing is a tangible representation of the self-care and healing I've gone through to be the woman I am now.

When people talk about getting wrinkles or going gray as they age, many will say "I earned these" or in some way reference how those are normal signs of life and wisdom. Welp, it's the same with tattoos.

As Maui of Moana so aptly sang in reference to his own skin art, ".... the tapestry here on my skin/Is a map of the victories I win/Look where I've been..."

#girlswithtattoos #healing #self care #self love #truth

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