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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Scottrospective: Scott Pilgrim Vs the Universe or So Sad So Very Very Sad

Hello all you happy Scottaholics! And welcome back to Scottrospective, my 8 part look at Scott Pilgrim: all 6 volumes of the comic as well as the game and movie just in time for their respective 10th Anniversaries. If your just joining us or needa quick refresher, here are links to the other four parts, in order: Precious Little Life, Vs The World (Comic), Infinite Sadness, and last month’s look at my favorite volume Gets It Together. And if that’s not enough to fill your belly with Scotty Goodness, hop over to my patreon, patreon.com/popculturebuffet. There you’ll find reviews of all the content I didn’t have time for in the retrospective proper: Free Scott Pilgrim, The Wonderful World of Kim Pine, Monica Beetle, Style, and the bonus comic strips. It’s only a dollar to get access to the bonus reviews, and every bit you can give not only helps me make these reviews int he first place, but gets me closer to my stretch goals, the 25 and 30 dollar ones including looks at O’Malley’s Other Works: Lost At Sea and Seconds for the former and Snotgirl for the latter.

But more than plugging my past and paid works, there’s something else far more important I need to get to before I get into this one: Thank You. No Seriously thank all of you who have been reading these, liking them. My Precious Little Life Review is easily one of the most liked things i’ve ever had on this blog, getting more viewers every day, and last month’s look at Gets it Together is STILL racking up likes. Given most of my non-duck reviews, paid for and on my own time, tend to be ignored half the time, this just warms my heart. It shows me two great things: that even after a decade Scott Pilgrim still has a huge following and given how young this platform tends to skew that it’s gaining more fans every day, and that people care about what I have to say about htis wonderful comic. It really touches me to both know my voice matters and that something I truly loved as a teen and still do now is STILL picking up more and more fans. What i’m saying is you guys are the best and I wouldn’t be doing these reviews without your support of my very hard work. These are some of the hardest reviews i’ve done at times, but seeing you all enjoy them makes it all worth it.

As for the Volume itself there’s something I just gotta get off my chest right away: I HATED this volume when it came out. To understand why you have to consider my mental state: I was a teenager at the time, in my junior year of high school. Scott Pilgrim was my goddamn world: while I was picking up comics monthly at the time this was honestly the first north american comic I loved and obessed over and Scott and friends were like family to me. To an awkward teen who couldn’t talk to girls, struggled to keep the video game club a friend founded together in a way that in hindsight was wholly unecessary, and getting messed with due to my anger issues by friend, foe and frenemy alike, Scott was my port in the storm. A sunny version of Tornoto where I could retreat to to feel at peace.

So yeah this shattered the fuck out of that peace and was essentially one long slow motion kick to the balls to a younger me: Hollie gets derailed and horribly betrays Kim, runing my faviorite characters life and leading to her LEAVING, Scott and Ramona’s relationship crumbles, the band breaks up , and the volume ends with Gideon still gunning for our hero because life hadn’t punched him in the face enough for one month. I was livid, not stopping the series, obviously, but upset that everything i’d grown to care about was basically gone in a flash and couldn’t understand WHY O’Malley would fucking do this to me. This volume was also what kept me from re-reading the books for as long as I did as while the rest had fond memories all the ones I had of this one were pure misery.

But by the time i re-read it in december of last year I had two important things in my hands that helped me truly enjoy this one: The first was Volume 6 itself: knowing things would work out, that most of the bad stuff would be undone and in a truly awesome and satisfying way helped.

The other thing was the perspective that came with growing older: For one as an adult while I still like Scott as a character and find him intresting I no longer look up to him, nor put stock in his hapiness for his own. Sure I still care about characters and relate to some, but Bojack Horseman taught me the hard way you CAN’T put all your hopes in a character’s fate or them getting better for you to get better.

The other is that while this volume again is pretty bleak after a while.. it’s also NECESSARY. Part of the series charm is i’ts realisim and a sad part of real life is people can drift apart from you, and things can change seemingly all at once. And things moving the way they do is necessary for the ending: every step and move here puts things where they need to be for the final chapter. The pain our heroes go through is necessary so they can all grow.. except Stephen and Wallace. Stephen sucks and Wallace dosen’t need to change. He does need his own spinoff. But for Scott, Ramona and Kim the trials to come are necessary to make them into their best selves by series end.

So join me under the cut as we get sad so very very sad, this is Scott Pilgrim vs the Universe.

Precious Little Life: We open with Scott’s Birthday! Hit it MC Chris!

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But yes it’s septmeber and Scott is now 24 years old. Also Julie is there because presumibly Stephen dredged her out of her swamp for the evening despite Julie likely not wanting to be there and Scott sure a shell not wanting her there. He vows that he will be the best 24 year old ever...... yeah let’s take a brief look into the future to see how that pans out

But we have a full volume and more metaphorical rakes to whack Scott in the face before that paticular one.

A MONTH AND A FEW DAYS LATER

It’s the day of the dead, whoa ho way down in Tornoto. It’s hosted by Satan Herself, who dosen’t realize the holiday for hags was yesterday. This is for remembering the dead and rising out of the grave to go resuce your young wards by ramming a bunch of guys in butterfly costumes with your car or stealing your children’s kidneys. This is Rat Girl’s new place, a fancy loft she and 3 other girls went on to throw the best parties beaause of course. She’s also a bitch to our hero and heroine because of course.

But Scott soon has more important things to worry about: Ramona spots his next two opponents.. the twins hinted at last time, Kyle and Ken Kataynagi, Perfect Jerk and Handsome Asshat respectively.

Kyle and Ken are easily the least intresting of the 7 exes. With the other 4 so far having been a loveable ham, a stoic movie star whose suprisingly nice and dies via skateboard, a gloriously douchey and dumb psychic evil version of our much more loverable dumb douche with personal connections to both him and Ramona, and Roxy who was genuinely sympathetic, held back by her own selfishness and anger.. we get.. two smug assholes who use robots. Their not UNINTRESTING, the robots have cool designs and the fight with them is genuinely exciting.. but they just don’t have the charisma or personal factor. Their jsut two assholes ramona dated at the same time who happen to know more about her well guarded past than the other exes and are more liable to bring it up.. and even then it’s not anything new as Envy pulled similar tactics far more intrestingly in volume 3. THey don’t ruin the volume or anything, thier fine, but I just wish O’Malley had done more. Especially since he clealry had more intresting ideas with them: the sound battle we saw in the movie was an early draft of this and one early draft had Scott’s previously unseen brother Laurence working with them. I don’t knowWHY he scrapped that as it raises the stakes and makes this far more personal for Scott. Which at this point is what the exes SHOULD be: Todd and Roxy BOTH were more personal threats, Todd being his ex’s boyfriend and first love and Roxy being a genuine competior for Ramona. These guys again are just two douchers who show up because we need 7 douchers to complete the doucher circle.

So the twins declare their not going to fight scott.. and instead send a tiny robot to fight him. Awww. But for this fight O”Malley does something really intresting and creative.. he dosen’t focus on it. No really Ken and Kyle are dicks to Ramona so Kim wisely gets her out of there, and the two have a casual talk on the balcony while Ramona smokes. It’s some fun banter between the two that both shows why their shipped to all hell. The two just play off each other really damn well. Though we also get Craphole asking people if they want to come watch Scott get beat up because the worst.

Something important character stuff comes up though: As was shown last time at her rightful rage that Stephen HAD an opportunity to book a gig and kept refusing it for his fecking album, Kim is still fairly salty about the whole recording an album bullshit. The biggest part of it..

It’s something you really DON’T expect to here coming out of kim: that she really LIKED the band. But beneath the pillar of salt she puts out daily... these were her friends, this was getting to do something creative and passionate, and it was a break from the daily grind. Even if her job isn’t TERRIBLE, getting to watch movies and hang out with her best friend Clerks style.. it’s still a retail job and those still weigh on you.. though frankly i’d take one of those over food service but sadly tha’ts what i get most of the time. This was fun.. and Stephen ripped that away from her for his own selfish reasons. No one else in the band really cared about making an album.. if Stephen REALLY wanted to find a more professional band.. then he should’ve just told them so Scott and Kim could find someone else to do guitars for them. Instead he forced them into doing something they don’t want to do and refuses to actually play shows, which COULD help both perfect songs for the album version and get them new fans for said upcoming album and provide them recurring venues to SELL said album, because he really just wants to be with Joseph and fuck anyone else. Stephen is really just an inhernetly selfish git and i’ll get more into that in a bit. But first Wallace has a text for Scott.

Now I COULD have just skipped over this.. but I didn’t want to. Plus we dont’ se Wallace for a while in this story so i’m taking what I can get.

So back to Stephen being a repugnant ass. I’ve been waiting for this scene for the entire retrospective. I”ve hinted at it, and largely blamed it for why I hate him so damn much. The time is nigh to explain WHY.

Stephen is with Knives, as the two are close friends and such. Stephen expalins Sex Bomb-Omb isn’t playing because he and the personfication of bitchiness broke up. Which knives points out is for...

But it’s clear from context this was the LAST time. Why he still got invited I dunno, plot convience. So far so normal.. until Stephen picks up that Knives is STILL hung up on Scott. Which is understandable crushes can last a while but i’ts equally understandable that Stephen is utterly baffled by it. Which I get, I didn’t make an entire tom lucitor retropsecitve because I liked that his relationship with Star ended with him stepping aside due to what the show thought was “true wuv” but what comes off instead as his self loathing casuing him to blame himself for a realtionship that’s crumbling for reasons that aren’t his fault.

And his actions here are incredibly well meant: He bluntly gives Knives the wake up call she DOES need: Scott cheated on her, he dated her because she was easy to date, strung her along for a bit while seeing someone else, then dumped her with not one care for her well being. That is stuff she NEEDS to get into her head so she can move on. She needs to see him for what he IS and not for what she’s built him up as in her head. And while yeah his rant DOSNE’T take into account the fact Scott geninely tried to make up for his actions in volume 3, Stephen wasn’t there for that and Knives probbably didn’t tell him about it. So from his point of view scott broke her heart and did nothing.. and evne IF he knew that, Scott still hasn’t tried to do anything since despite Knives still being obessed with him nor come clean to her or Ramona at any point. Scott deserves this call out and the consequences that come with it.

So your probably wondering WHY I hate Stephen because of this scene when he’s you know, RIGHT. Well it’s simple: being right dosen’t save you from being a MASSIVE hypcorite. He’s railing on Scott for cheating and hurting someone.. when he cheated on Julie and would’ve hurt her if she had the capacity for human emotion, empathy, or self awarness. The ending of the last volume and how bad, even for them, their relationship was implied the hell out of it, with him nervous when she brings up being paranoid over knives.. as if he WAS cheating. on One Face just not with a teenage girl but a grown ass man who hates everyone as much as BLARARARGAGAG does.

Not only that.. but he was with Julie for the SAME DAMN reasons Scott was with Knives: it was easy. Now I WILL grant Stephen some sympathy: he’s a queer man and as one myself, bi for the record, I GET how fucking hard it is to come to terms with that, that what you thought you were isn’t ENITRELY true or, if Stephen is gay and not bi or pan, ENIRELY FALSE. So I do have some care that it was hard for him to sort all this out. I do and that Jospeh could’ve seduced him or what not. We don’t have all the context here. But he STILL cheated at the end of the day instead of telling her he was queer until MONTHS later. And why yes the fact I have to feel bad for JULIE does make it that much worse. And yes their relationsihp COULD simply be that toxic or she could’ve gaslit him, but it seemed more like their relationship was messy breakups and getting back together over and over. While Julie IS vile, she’s not a domestic abuser mental or physical as far as I can tell. She’s a bitch and their relatioship is unehlathy but there was no indication their relationship involved gaslighting or evne phsyical violence: it was just fucked from minute one. So yeah he stayed in an awful relationship beacuse it was easier than coming out, when he should’ve broken it off as soon as it was clear he and Joseph were actually going somewhere. Waiting while he figured out who he was is one thing, tha’ts fiar, but cheating on someone just because you don’t have the nerve to break it off with them when their genuinely awful to you and your only hurting them as much as they can be hurt by dragging this out... yeah that just makes you an ass.

Another point of contention is that he NEVER called Scott out on this. Never. Not even after this scene. Never encouraged him to tell Ramona or apologize to Knives, again he didn’t know Scott already had tried that. Never gets on him.. he just ignores Scott’s shitty behavior like eveyrone else and unlike Kim, whose still got unresolved feelings and is at the very least clearly bothered by his shitty behavior, and Neil, whose young and thus like me likely looked up to Scott at the time, he dosen’t have an excuse other than “Well I don’t want to ruin our friendship by actually calling him out when he does something objectivionally awful.” Especially since Wallace DID actually take action: he didn’t break up the relationship or say anythign to Ramona, which is wrong... but he did tell scott flat out after his first date with Ramona to break up with Knives. And when Scott chickned out of that, Wallace gave him the ultimatium, may it live in empathy, to do so or he WOULD tell Ramona. And at least Wallace has a motive for not telling Ramona other than “I don’t want to risk my friendship with a guy I really don’t care about and think is shitty”. He wanted to see Scott recover from Envy, something Stephen never gave ONE. SHIT. ABOUT. He saw Ramona was good for him and knew telling her, while the RIGHT thing to do, would severely harm Scott, and by volume 4 leave him homeless. Plus Wallace frankly enabled him for some time anyway, letting him live at their place rent free and paying for all his food and frequently letting Scott steal his credit card. WIth Wallace at least while it’s not the RIGHT move, it’s understandable and complicated vs Stephen who really dosen’t seem to like or get along with Scott after volume 1, suddenly cares what happens to his relationship.

And what proves this... is this little exchange that ends the conversation.

Knives despite her issues, despite blinding herself to how Scott treated her, despite everything... thinks Ramona should know. And she’s right. And Stephen KNOWS THIS. He knows it was the right thing to do and just.. takes a swig instead of admitting he’s a fucking hypocrite or explaining himself in any way. He NEVER cared about Ramona’s feelings or how this would effect her or saw her as important in any way shape or form. Kim at least clearly feels guilty. Wallace clearly is only doing so because it’s better for both her and Scott that their together and is a flawed human being. Stephen.. just dosen’t do so out of some masculine bullshit code of not ratting out your friend and his own cowardace. He clearly COULD go walk up to Ramona right now and tell her, but he won’t. And again I don’t buy he honeslty cares enough about Scott for their friendship to TRULY be enough of a factor to stop that. Fuck. Stephen. Stills.

So Scott wins naturally, but is bummed there’s no reward.. but Stephen points out there’s tons of free food over yonder so he noms before he and Ramona leave.

We get some cute domestic bits with Scott and ramona: Scott playing games on her phone all day, the two cooking dinner, and Scott admititng he hasn’t thought of envy at all. “I have you now”. Though through it there are some signs of unease: Scott finds a letter to Gideon, and Ramona asks about her hair and stares out into the window. Nice little hints that even before the big bomb abotu to drop she’s not at ease.. she loves Scott.. but it’s hard for her to let herself BE happy. It’s easy to wager she wasn’t for most of her life.

Can’t Face Up

So next we find Sex Bomb-Omb working on the album. Or rather Stephen and Joseph are. Scott and Kim are praying for death but death won’t come and Kim wonders why the fuck this isn’t finished. Joseph wants her out of his house... forgetting that Kim lives in said house.

Still his expressoin implies he’s going to do a murder on her if she stays in the room and since Drummers are hard to come by Stephen spirits them to kim’s room for a band meeting. Turns out they do have a gig but naturally Rosemary’s Baby booked it... and they haven’t practiced in months because Stephen’s a moron. He theorizes it’s Freddy’s Revenge, which is admitely probably valid though Kim can TELL something worse happened Stephen won’t cop to because he’s a piece of shit. I spent several paragraph’s establishing that. They try blaying and two sucktacular minutes i’ts clear their fucked sunday.

So after a scene of Knives trying HARD to justify Scott’s actions and blame htem on Ramona, to no success, we get one of my faviorite parts of this book: Scott rambling on for god knows how long about the x-men while Ramona gets dressed and is presumibly barely listneing.

I relate so hard to this it hurts. While not this era I wll GLADLY go on and on about X-Men and anything X-Adjacent at any goddamn opportunity and anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis and you know this. I need to tlak more x-men outside of my slowly failing New X-Men retrospective (Which is on the back burner because no one seeems to genuinely care after chapter one). If I did have a signifgant other, they would probably end up in a situation like this quite a lot and i’d have no shame about it.

I also love this scene even more as while I DID love x-men at the time, I wasn’t quite the mega fan I was, nor as familiar with Claremont’s long, epic and often fucking weird in the special wonderful way only comics can run. Given I OWN over half his run at this point, that has changed. Though oddly not this part. So not only do I get Scott’s talking about x-men I Know what SPECIFICALLY.

And for the unitatied, a quick explination of what the fuck Scott’s going on and on about: In the late 80′s, the x-men fought a reality warping malevolent trickster god named the Adversary. IN order to beat him their friend forget had to perform a cermony to lock his ass away that required willingly given life forces. The X-Men did REALLY fucking die.. but the Goddess Roma, daughter of Merlin and enemy of the advesary brought them back to life. With their deaths having been broadcast on live tv, and with tons of dangerous enemies at their heels, the X-Men choose to let the world continue to think they were dead so they could hit said enemies where it hurt.

SO this is where Scott’s story comes in:The X-Men’s first mission was clearing out the reavers, a bunch of racist cyborgs, from a ghost town which they took over as their base. As Scotty said they traveled all over the world, fought aliens, more racists, and then went to New York as it literally went ot hell. it’s a LOT and I haven’t read most of that era. I just know about it. I have read that last part though: the x-men were ambushed while wolveirne was away by said racist cyborgs so Psylocke shoved them through the siege perilous, a gate thingy romana gave them that would give them a new life and amnesia and such, leaving wolveirne to get crucified till Jubilee, who’d been hiding in their base gary busey style, freed him. The two would travel the world, find psylocke body swapped which is why she was asian for several decades, and get into general stuff for a few years real time till the X-Men slowly reunited. And you probbaly dind’t need to hear all of that but your life is better for knowing it.

As you can tell Ramona’s discontent is mounting. And probably not because of Scott rambling about x-men. Last night he told her about the time Magneto beat them all because they stupidly rushed him one at a time then forced them into high tech chairs while a robotic nanny babbied them and then esecaped because shut up before fighting magneto, getting surrounded by lava and having beast ASSUME they were dead because fuck actually coming back and searching just in case like a rational human being because magma or no the x-men have surivived worse, including the depths of space, and restoring all of reality from scratch. I may of just read those issues tonight.

She procedes to make things worse for our hero as when he asks fo rher advice.. she reveals she dosen’t like his band.. and while she means nothing BY that, she’s nice about it, telling him his band sucks days before a sudden show where you guys eat a lot isn’t something you do. Wallace is naturally even less helpful and maybe his not liking the band is why we barely see him interact. Maybe he just figured Stepheen was on the fence sexuality wise but wasn’t willing to put up with Julie to test that. I dunno.

So at the restraunt Stephen’s a dick, refusing to help Scott with his problems. WHich for once are legitamte as he worries abotu Ramona keeping secrets. He just wants to talk about hte band.. but 48 or something hours after this he has no real plan.

Scott mopes to Kim about Ramona and she has some sage advice for him...

Also thing one and thing two are at the bar with a remote. This cannot end well... granted givne our heroes are not at all prepared and are playing two diffrent songs, this was never going to end well.

And things only get worse for Scott in the bathroom.. he’s not there.. but his girlfriend and his ex are. Knives tries to work it out.. but Ramona being a bit short with her, which is fair given Knives tried to stab her a bunch a few months back and never apologized, leading to a quick fight.. but with Knives heart not in it this time and Ramona pissed and this time NOT confsued as to what the hell ihs going on, it ends with Ramona slamming knives into a wall... and Knives sadly revealing the truth to Ramona...

The scene hits like a truck with both devistated.. Ramona not having realized Scott with this shitty.. and Knives FINALLY accepting that he is. Finally letting her obession with him drop and realize what he was and what he did and let the full impact hit. The last part also hits hard “No One Else Would’ve Told You’. It’s a sad hard truth and it’s CLEARLY something that hits both women hard. For Knives it’s realizing Kim and Stephen, who she’s increidbly close to at this point, both don’t have the stomach to do the right thing, and thus hid this from her and Ramona. Stephen DID tell her.. but he still didn’t have the guts to tell RAMONA nor the actual care. It’s the realization the people she looked up to truly let her down and that she had to do what they couldn’t, even if it tore her apart to do it. For Ramona it’s realizing her closest friends outside of Scott could’ve told her and never did. No matter how close she’s gotten to Kim and Wallace, neither gave a fuck about her rights or her need to know.

So Ramona is rattled and barely speaks while Scott has been fighting anothe rrobot and ends the gig accidnetly smashing his bass. Stephen is pissy with him and blames hi mfor runing the gig, which turned out to be a trap anyway complete with fliers.

Ramona decides to gently throw him out as he forgot his keys while his other friends won’t house him leaving him with the one friend he has who dosen’t hate him right now. WALLACE!

The Glow:

So at Casa De Welles, Wallace has some buddy time, not making any bones about the fact Ramona clearly threw Scott out for the night and wearing a neat robe. Scott mopes about the fact he hasn’t met mobile whose apparenlty on the astral plane. I wonder if he has any buisness with Emma.. I mean the x-men did live in san fran sicsio but given decimation didn’t have many psychics. Might’ve been tryign to get another one. THey didn’t have a whole island that walks like a man yet. And while Wallace wasn’t in much of a coaching mood last time he is willing to help. He couldn’t get bupkiss on the twins since Scott can’t even remember their names, but he did pull off a miracle. Despite their being a million Gideons in New York.. Wallace found THE Gideon. Granted all he got was his full name, Gideon Gordon Graves, and a few burry photos, one with Ramona confirming this is our douche, but given he had only a first name and an ex to work with this is some damn fine work. Wallace asks scott about his future with Ramona but he just.. has no earthly idea because of course he dosen’t. He hasn’t REALLY thought about what comes after beating the exes because he never thinks anything through. Interesting stuff The next day Scott meets up with Kim at No Account Video and we get our first, and I mean literally first, indiciation things are falling apart with her and Hollie. Scott wants to say hi, Kim refuses him and gives a smart ass comment when he asks if them being roomates isn’t working out. He wasn’t even being a dick it’s just clear SOMETHING bad’s going on she won’t talk about because she puts up walls around hrself on a GOOD day and this clearly isn’t one.

It gets worse when they stop by Stephen’s place only to find Neil whose both taken up a combination of smoking and moping in a dark room. Never a good sign. Nor is Stephen apparenlty being at band practice.. meaning either he lied to Neil about where he went.. or he already started the band we’ll see him with next volume and is already stabbing his friends in the back. There wasn’t much to like about the guy to BEGIN with, but his behavior just gets worse with every volume and it’s reached it’s apex here. The speech was shitty enough, I spent several paragraphs explaning why, but the rest of his behavior isn’t much better. He abandoned two people who were, for god knows what reason loyal to him and abandoned the band because of some bearded asshole probably encouraging him to.

We also get some telling behavior on Kim’s part. Whlie she’s usually morose around Scott in the face of this both just hang out, it’s plesant. She even smiles when she asks if it’s going to be a regular occurance when he stays with her that night. Granted she brings back her frown soon after, but as has been clear her feelings for him never really went away entirely, and this is the closest the two have been in volumes, just enjoying each others company. It’s also telling that Scott trusts kim with a favor.

We see the favor the next page: Kim hangs out with Ramona.. and Scott marchs in completely on purpose soon after. Granted Kim probably didn’t know THIS was part of the plan, and it’s mildly stupid.. but it DOES show progress for Scott. Keep in mind his usual tactic is “avoid the fuck out of it and hope it goes away’ So ACTUALLY wanting to talk about things and find her again, and not doing it in a creepy way but simply drawing her out with a friend, shows SOME maturlity. It’s still not the most mature.. but with Ramona clearly not wanting him at their place, her work not having a set location as she just picks stuff up and drops it off (And even if she’s picking up packages at the post office we don’t know which one or if there’s multiple and even if we did scott sure as hel l does not), he was out of options. It also WORKS, with Ramona breaking her mopeynesss to laugh and Kim stunned it didn’t just piss her off further.

So we find out what happened with Hollie when Scott brings up jason. She points out they were dating but... welllllllll

Yeah... as you could probably tell I do not like this plot point at all. For one thing we never really got to KNOW Jason, and with him and Hollie getting a little too cozy at the end of the last volume...

It’s clear his ONLY roll in the story was to be there so Hollie could betray Kim in some way. And look I get a LOT in this series happens while we’re not looking, ti’s part of it’s charm. Things not pausing for the side cast is a trope I enjoy: it allows some things to progress faster and allows for some intresting stories when the main cast catches up. Steven Unvierse and Ducktales both used this well as does Scott Pilgrim but all three weren’t immune to someitnes goofing up and taking it too far.

This whole situation is that: Hollie is a character I got attached to: She had a great report with kim, they were really close and she offered her a place to stay when it was clear she was miserable with the four horseman of the bitchpocalypse she lived with. So while having her suddenly heel turn is realistic... it just feels thorughly unsatisfying. We do not see Hollie again after she’s sudeenly derailed, so we never get to see what she’s apparenlty REALLY like or get any explination why this happened. Suddenly Kim’s best friend is a douchebag even though it makes no sense for her character. Just because in real life people can turn out to be really shitty on a dime dosen’t mean it’s a neat thing to READ in a story and it feels like a waste of what was one of the series best side characters. And granted i’ve been through FAR worse treatment of side characters, trust me but this one still blows to this day and if there is a netflix adaptation this either needs to not happen or have actual depth. Seriously Netflix your adapting everything else, get on the bus already.

Scott is GENUINELY apologetic, we’ve rarely seen him this nice but he genuinely feels bad for her.. and unlike Stephen’s thing it’s okay to feel shitty someone got cheated on even if you were a cheater in the past. As I said Stephen wasn’t wrong about how Scott treeted knives.. he just also was trying to take moral high ground which Knives proved he absolutely did not have in seconds.

This triggers Ramona’s glow, the squggly line thing that shows up over her head ocasoinally.. and while Ramona grills Scott... Kim just finally asks what the hells up with her head. Scott’s reaction is “OH good you guys see it too”. Kim does try to show it to ramona but it’s gone by then and she drops it for now and outside encourages her to come to Julie’s latest shitty party.. I mean their miserable but at least it gives thems omething to do

So we get another instalment of “Scott rambles about the X-Men” or New Mutants in this case as we’re talking about Magik, Aka Illyana Rasputin

So for the long version: The X-Men were staying at a creepy temple that Magneto had been working out of beause the mansion was being repaired. Colossus, everyone’s favorite Russian and Deadpool co-star, had his kid sister Illyana with him as Arcade, a ginger maniac assasian whose gimmick is creating elaborate murder theme parks, kidnapped her in a plot to get the x-men to fight Dr. Doom for him. Given this was during the Cold War they coudln’t exactly take her back, so she stayed with the X-Men and her beloved big brother.

So naturlaly the spooky temple decorated in Cthulu’s had a portal to hell in it and an evil and genirc looking fucker named Belasco kidnapped her to a hell dimension known as Limbo> the X-Men went after her as you’d expect and things got WEIRD as due to some complicated and weird time dialition stuff I sitll don’t quite understand there ended up being two copies of the x-men: ours who came in right after, and a second batch who stayed there for about 7-8 years and got warped by Bellsaco’s magic as he killed or changed most of them. As a result Storm became a sorcerer to fight back, Kitty Pryde became some sort of cat creature and Kurt became a creepy evil version of himself. Illyana stayed htere, learned magics from both storm and asshole, learned to fight from cat kitty, and eventually escaped after a lot of horrible bullshit, hardnered and with her soul scarred from it, now a teenager. She joined the New Mutants, the training class of x-men in the comics, soon after. She’s a member agian in present day, one of the great captains of Krakoa, and one of the two co-leaders of Krakoa’s younger mutants, i.e. 20 something to teens and kids.

This is the best of the two scenes as the narrative , or at least Scott’s versions parallels Ramona’s own; Getting taken in by an evil man and feeling tainted by that.

So at the party Ramona runs into Neil whose a dick about it and with some girl. She WAS going to be fleshed out more in the original draft but Brian ended up scrapping it for time, but does regret it. It’s here we get Neil’s face punchingly dickish comment that’s also a massive hint as to Stephen’s sexuality.

Yeah even if Stephen’s been an UTTERLY shitty friend to him.. this was uncalled for even for the late 2000′s. What a prick. I do like the arc of Neil slowly falling apart though getting more and more bitter as his old friends abandoned him casually, especailly Stephen. While his comment was still HORRIBLY unwarranted even with Stephen being a dipshit.

Speaking of assholes we get our last major with Julie who berates Scott for grabbing some booze and brings in the twist. I’m.. i’m not even bothering to give her an insluting and weird nickname. She’s still a HORRIBLE piece of shit, as she brought Scott’s enemies there to try and beat him to death for her own amusment and berated him for getting booze at a party she CLEARLY expected him to come to, but she’s ALMOST gone. Seriously after this she’s GONE for the volume and barely in the rest of the series. So i’d rather celebrate FINALLY having earned my freedom over worrying about her any more than i have to. Cue the music!

youtube

So with that Kyle.. or is it Ken.

But the blonde one needles ramona, giving her her faviorite booze and telling her “this is all just temproary”

So Ramona gets all glowy.. and Kim gets her phone out....

The Universe Fights Back So in a random bedroom Ramona gives up the ghost: SHe DOES know what that is she just can’t tell Kim. Kim accepts it and they share some drinks. Scott, after beheading the douche bros latest science project, joins them and we get a lovely scene of the three drinking and bonding and geneuinely just having a good time. Though Kim DOES mention that she wants to go back to school.. This will naturally be very important.

What’s more important is this scene is ENITRELY while I poly ship these three dum dums. I mean while part of thier hapiness here is their blasted out of hteir heads, it’s also just Kim’s wall sbeing down. She tells the two she loves them, and I think MEANS IT. Not to mention this...

Okay maybe it’s just the two of them but they also love Scott. And again I get htier VERY obviously drunk.. but given Kim and Ramona are clearly actively supressing any bi parts of themselves most of hte time this is telling. The fact Ramona asks kim to sleep in THIER bed, likely with them, is ALSO very telling and Kim only dosen’t because their using sub space. No really that’s the only reason this volume didn’t end VERY diffrently with the three of htem having a three way before the argument coming up.. and possibly fixing said argument by having kim to mediate. I mean I get Scott’s not a big part of this so if you don’t want to ship him with them and just leave them alone that’s fine, ut I like the idea of them as a throuple: they ballance each other out.. and frakly with Scott’s irresponsblity and Ramona’s emotoinal issues they need someone to call them b oth out in the relationship, while these two are two of the only three people in the work i’ve seen Kim take her walls down for. Not even Jason got that, but Jason was also a carboard cutout.

Things take a turn from Kim.. from an almost threesome where she CLEARLY would be getting most of the attention... to two assholes kidnapping her. Now while I don’t like the twins that much their plan for the final act IS actually clever: their the first ones to think to actually use the people Scott cares about.. or anything resembling strategy really. Matt just charged int here, Lucas coudln’t give less of a fuck, Todd just used brute strength like a teletkentic juggernaught, and Roxy DID use some but it was less to actually fight scott and more to get into ramona’s pants again. The twins see Kim clearly still loves Scott, and that while he acts aloff to her sometimes she really is one of his best friends. No really, think about it. Wallace is his BEST friend.. but Kim sticks by him even when he’s shitty, calls him out when needed, and despite her grumpiness is the one who has the most faith in him out of ANYONE. It’s a large point of the volume: she dosen’t bother watching the fights.. because she belivies he’ll win simply because he’s Scott. That’s love right there. The kind of love that gets you kidnapped as part of an elaborate scheme but love nonetheless.

So we then get the scene that’s been coming for five volumes... after having sex, Ramona confronts Scott. While Scott admits he didn’t cheat on her with knvies, the other way around, that’s not better. He admits he’s been trying to forget about it.. and she calls him a bad person. And that. .hits him hard. While he DESERVES scorn for what he did... as he puts it next he’s been trying to change for her. To BE better. And all she sees, and outright confirms is another evil ex in waiting with Scott DESPERATE to prove her wrong and wrongly thinking beating the next three exes will fix this. It’s a VERY hard sceen to watch as while Scott does deserve this.. it’s also hard not to feel bad for him too. It really sums up the character: He is a dick.. but he’s TRYING to be better. He WANTS to be, he just dosen’t know how. And MAN can I relate to that. It dosen’t help that Ramona is clearly projecting her own insecurties about this lasting, about actually being happy and about this really being her life onto him, using this as an easy out after having a month of doubt. Yes Scott did something unbelivibely shitty.. but both are trying to take the easy way out of it instead of genuinely discussing why it’s shitty, what he did was wrong and geniuinely unpacking if this is the end. Ramona clearly wants to bail, and Scott clearly just wants to punch a few guys to make it better. Neither thing will work. They need to work thorugh their issues to work... but neither is capable of that right now. They both want to run from the problem.

This volume is in part about Ramona herself.. and showcasing her OWN flaws.. and like Scott her biggest is that she runs. She wants to escape her past too and both assumed the other would be an easy fix, that by having a good partner they’d be better.. when really their both mildly shitty people who need to make peace with their past and repair the bridges they’ve burnt and flip off the ones not worht reparing instead of running from it all the time. But sadly before both can.. their just gonna run again. Because sometimes fixing yourself is just not that easy.

So the next morning Scott’s heart stops fo ra second when Ramona is seemingly gone.. only for her to instead be in teh shower. But Scott gets a text telling him the twins have Kim and TRIES to tell Ramona.. but she’s in the shower. As a result she’s worried he just ran off... and makes a decision , her hair cut back down after growing it out this volume, a sign of her hapiness.. now gone.

The Glow Part 2 So at an abandoned wherehouse the fight is on. The twins have the advantage in part because Scott is hung over.. something they take offense to.. even though they were THERE last night. He was at a party. They don’t know he teatotles. What state did they THINK he’d be in this morning?

We also find out their origin: as Scott correctly guessed at the end of last volume, Ramona dated them both at the same time and pit them against each other. They found out and vowed to always fight as one.. which means Scott is not only fighting two equally powerful opponents at once, but two who work as a perfct team and double hurricane kick him. They also mentally break him down, pointing out her previous job and how she’s a runner and she’s here to run from her past working for Gideon.

They aren’t but I already went into that so let’s get onto more pressing issues: Scott is not only hung over but now doubting himself and his dumbass plan to beat gideon and magically fix things, while Kim is naturally not happy about being stuck in a cage all night. And while at first she’s genuinely just grumpy as always as it becomes clear Scott has lost hope and the twins are going to win this one her expression is heartbreaking...

After EVERYTHING she still loves him and can’t bear to see him in so much pain... and can’t loose him.. so she gets desperate and claims Ramona texted him to give him hope.

This is one of Kim’s definting moments, the other coming next month. When faced with the person she loves possibly dying.. she lies to him.. so he can surivive. So he can have hope and make it through this.. despite how much it’s CLEARLY KILLING HER to not only tell him someone else loves him but to clealry lie that person loves him, knowing it’ll hurt him more.. but knowing if she DOSEN’T he’ll die. It’s one of the most painful, heartbreaking and beautiful moments in the entire series. It’s why I said earlier while I don’t like the brothers their climactic fight his excellent.. because it is. Their verbal breaking down of Scott is hearbreaking and Kim’s sacrifice equally so.

And before stomping them into coins SCott shows further growth.. by showing he CAN give off a good one liner now...

So Scott beats them and gets Kim out of the cage, worried about her.. but despite having a chance, Kim lets him get on his way to ramona and morsoely wlaks off... while ominously the sign points out this will soon be the Chaos Theater. There’s still one left to go.

But.. it’s sadly not enough. While Scott gives her a heartfelt speech... even if he quotes the song as long as you love me... he dosen’t care who she is.. but Ramona does.. calling herself a bad person.. as she vanishes.... and I cry my eyes out again. God two really heartbreaking scenes in a row sweet jesus this volume will be the death of me.. and not just because i’ts taken so damn long to write this review. And on top of tha the looses the cat and ends up locked out.

World of Ruin:

So yeah if you thought those bits weren’t easy.. it only gets roughter as we see Scott in the aftermath of the breakup. His dream world is now desolate and he’s alone. Now to his creidt as much shit as i’ve given him Stephen didn’t ENTIRELY abandon Scott: he put him up fo rth enight (though he kicks him out after work) and offers to take him to after work drinks. We also see a nice side of Scott’s intimdating boss as she offers her symaptheties at him crying... while he says it’s the onions... he’s transparenlty lying.

Next up is Kim. Though she dosen’t have a couch because Hollie sold it.. which as dickish as she suddenly is it IS her couch as Kim points out.. so yeah Kim and Scott end up sleeping awkardly in the same bed facing away from each other.. and to add another emotional guttpunch at the worst possible time: She’s going back home.

Stacey is even lesss helpful as SCott continues to ask about cats and is unsypantethic about her leaving despite you know, him REALLY not being at the shit talking her stage yet bud. At least we do get to see Stacey in this one I genuinely forgot she was in it.

So at Wallace’s he’s no help either pointing out she might be with someone else because he’s wallace and we meet a guy with Glases.. and in his bad state Scott assumes i’ts gideon. it’s not though. WE finally meet Mobile!

He’s exactly what wallace needs.. a fellow sarcastic asshole.

So next up is Kim’s goodbye.. which once again is really emotinal..a nd not just because my faviorite character is leaving and again, younger me didn’t know this wasn’t forever.. or that she’d be back for a rather huge role next time. But still it’s a damn good scene that shows how far Scott’s come...

While the first part is standard... the second is Scott realizing that she still had feelings for him, clearly given her actions during the fight, and he’d been a right dick this whole time never dealing with it or apolgoizing for his past. Granted he still has a way to go to REALLY apologize for it... but he’s trying and means it. And with her possibly never seeing again.. she needed that. Also her coat is damn cool. I’d say I want one like that btu i’d really prefer one like Scotts complete with x-men patch. Pax Krakoa bitches.

We get a really nice scene after where we meet Scott’s parents! Their also really kind helping him get a new place and move on... and runs into another glasses guy. But this time it’s Laurence! Who he drop kicks.. and then gives a broken bass back to. Eh... i’ve seen worse relationship with siblings honestly. He didn’t murder scott’s friend or plunge a whole galaxy into war or try and murder his daughter. Other Scott’s weren’t so lucky.

So after that awkardness SCott finds the note to gideon which is a break up letter... she never sent. However there’s something more pressing as he gets a call... and you can probably guess given his luck lately who that’s from.

Eh it’s not that murderoius creep but another one.

The end.. is in a few weeks.

Final Thoughts:

As I said I hated Vs the Universe on first read but re-reading it with hindsight and maturity.. it’s damn good. It’s depressing as hell.. but the things it does need to happen to push scott into a bad enough place for the next volume to work, and are natural: Ramona and Kim leaving, The band breaking up, Scott kicking his brother in the face.. all natural things. It hurts, this was a HARD one to write and I only feel the next one will be harder because it’s way longer with less slice of lifey stuff to skim through in my recapping.

But it’s a damn good one, with fantastic art, really gripping scenes, x-men refrenes and a spotlight shone on my girl kim. Even it’s weak spots dont’ hurt it: the twins are only weak by comparison, and still work well enough for the story, pushing ramona into the bad mental place she needs to be for the story to work. Hollie’s thing DID Need to be written way fucking better... but it does push kim into leaving which is CRITICAL for next time. So they aren’t GREAT elements, but they work. The only real other problem I have is knives just.. vanishes after her scene outside of one bit with Stephen, but that I can understand as the book is pretty tightly packed and she gets a fitting sendoff next time anyway. All in all another amazing entry and the perfect warm up for one of the best endings in comics history

Next Time: I said it and I meant it: one of the best endings in comics history as Scott hits on some exes, fights himself and betters himself as he prepares for his finest hour! Will Ramona Come back? Will Kim? Will Julie?... to answer your questions yes yes, and god dammit. Thank you all for reading, see you at the next rainbow.

#scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim vs the world #scott pilgrim vs the unvierse #kim pine #ramona flowers #julie powers #julie power #steven stills #stephen stills #joseph #wallace wells #kyle kyatanagi #ken kyatanagi #gideon gordon graves #gideon graves #stacey pilgrim #mobile #laurence pilgrim #knives chau

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life-rewritten · 4 years

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The Relationship of Tul and Tin- A Chance To Love episode 5 vs The Heirs (a comparison) Part 1/2

Warning!! Massive essay ahead about A chance to love. I know people hate to read long essays but try give this a go. Breaking down Tul and Tin’s heartbreaking dynamic is just so insane and I want people to see the layer of depth Mame writes her characters, Took me 4 hours to write and edit. So please if you can read it and let me know your opinon.

I find it fascinating that the works of two of my favourite authors' work have a lot of connections though they write for two different genres. One is Kim Eun Sook a Korean drama writer with the work known as Heirs (This wasn't her best work, but it's what I will be analysing today) and Two is Mame, a Thai writer with the work A Chance To Love (ACTL). At first, I thought the similarities don't add anything when analysing the show. Still, after episode 5 of ACTL, I ended up running back to the Heirs and realising the amount of analysis derived from putting the two together. We're going to focus on Tin and Tul, two brothers that are placed in the spotlight in episode 5 of ACTL and we're going to try and understand the characterisation of Tul. Is he really evil cold-hearted and cruel for no reason, or is there a part of humanity still with this character. Let's find out.

Let's first summarise the two shows; why they are similar in terms of character breakdown and arc?

THE HEIRS

In Heirs, we're introduced to Tan and Won two brothers who conflict with each other. The first episode starts with Tan tricked into being exiled abroad by his older brother, he realises the reason as he stays abroad, his brother sees him as a competition for the 'throne,' i.e. their father's heritage to the company. Won sees Tan as a dangerous rival, now that he's managed to secure being the president of the company. Story short Tan and Won are half brothers, Won's mum is no longer living in the household. Tan's mum has moved in as the mistress; the father is waiting for Tan to grow and also be involved with the company, Won who loves the company and wants to keep running it does not wish Tan to steal it from him. So even when Tan returns to Korea later and tries to convince his brother, he does not care about the company affairs, Won refuses to speak to him, moves out and keeps Tan at a distance.

Meanwhile, Tan falls in love with his servant's daughter, and Won realises he has to sacrifice his own relationship with also a girl from different status to him for an arranged marriage with one of his father's partners if he wants to keep the company afloat. As the story goes on though Won starts to bond with Tan again and later takes place as his father figure, protecting his brother's new relationship, taking over the company but at the cost of his own true love. He ends up choosing to get engaged to protect both the company and prevent Tan from having to lose his own lover. His ending is bittersweet, but we're happy he and Tan are together again, a team and dedicated brothers.

ACTL (1-5)

A chance to love follows Tin who is in university and has just started to fall for someone not of his status Can. His brother Tul is also a workaholic, with an unknown wife and a five-year-old child and we can tell he also had an exciting relationship with one of his servants who's no longer with him. Tul has a mask on, he smiles and acts on the surface but when he's with Tin although he pretends, he leaves snide marks and triggers Tin who now detests his brother. Tin used to look up to Tul when they were young (again he took his pseudo father figure position) but Tin later realises Tul was out to get rid of him and also send him abroad with a ruined reputation. Because of this Tin is now cold-hearted and does not trust people anymore, and is determined to tear off his brother's mask. Meanwhile, Tul laments about his choices that made him this way, and we see that he also is suffering in the environment he was forced to be in.

See the similarities? Two brothers with two similar type of lovers, who are forced to hate each other because of the environment somebody nurtured them in. I want to go deeper into each of the dynamics and why it's easy to connect it to Tul's arc and answer the question posed in this post,

THE PERCIEVED FIGHT FOR THE ‘THRONE’

The similarities between Tul and Won is the need to succeed to prove they are essential to their family. The family dynamics between the two is simple; they've been tossed aside by the family because of a new arrival by Tin and Tan. For Won he loves to work for the company of his father, his goal is to own it one day, he enjoys the work he does for the family. For Tul, whilst it's not yet clear, he seems to hate the path he's on, he resents himself and feels alone but believes he deserves it. For both to take over and reach their goals, a sacrifice was made. Won gets married to a woman who he doesn't want to be with, and Tul also ends up in a relationship he was forced into to provide an heir, also sacrificed himself and happiness in the process.

Both believe that their brothers are in their way, will betray them someday if they're not careful, their younger sibling needs to grow up and actually realise the reality of their oppressive environment. Unfortunately, Tul is more vengeful for this, he's put Tin as a proxy for anger at all that he's had to lose, and he ends up betraying Tin more than the way Won betrays Tan. Another difference is how Won is deadly honest to Tan; he tells him never to return and stay abroad messing around, he warns Tan that he sees him as a rival. Tul pretends to have a mask with Tin, and makes snide comments alluding to their past but doesn't even bother to tell Tin the truth; he continues to hide behind an act which he believes is needed, as Tin needs more evidence that his brother is actually as evil as he found out and show this to the world. Tul has decided to keep that mask and never to let it fall to stay and control family assets and manipulate situations. Won did not have that much anger or energy towards Tan.

THE MOTHER AND STEP MOTHER

Another important thing about these two's differences and similarities is the abandonment of both's mum by the family. Won's mum and himself are not the father's priority (she’s dead), and Tan and his mum (who is the mistress) replace their place. Tan's mum wants Tan to try and fight for his assets and not let anyone steal his home, and she goes through the consequences of being seen as a mistress in the show.

Meanwhile, Tul's foreign mum was hated by his grandmother (They'll reveal this later) and she abused both Tul and his mum before convincing the father to marry a Thai woman (Tin's mum) and give birth to another son. Tin's mum, on the other hand, is selfish and vain and only uses what benefits her, she's actually not as caring as Tan's mum hence why Tin becomes more pressured to be better than his brother. The latter is faking being the family's number one son (in terms of talent, work and reputation). It's revealed, and I will get into this even more later that Tul damaged Tin's standing in the family and Tin's mum didn't care as long as she was still looked favourably by Tul ( more likely to take over the 'throne')

Again ACTL has a harsher dynamic with Tul, his own mum isn't available to help him with his trauma, and he ends up being in a very abusive environment once she is kicked out and abandoned. Tin, on the other hand, has no love from his mum, or father and also becomes colder than Tan because of his own trauma from his brother and environment. Tan's mum is actually naïve, gentle and just wants love from the father, her son is her number one treasure. She spoils him despite the stifling environment he's in because of his brother and stepmother and father who fuels that.

The Love Interest

Both brothers also have a similar arc with their love interests, one is darker, but let's focus overall on the meaning. Won is in love with Hyun Ju a tutor for the rich kids similar to the kind of girl Tan falls in love with, she is not of the same status as him, and he and her fight to stay together at first, break up and makeup. Once it seems like everything is right, his father falls into a coma and to save the business, he sacrifices their relationship for the company and his family. Tan, on the other hand, goes through the show always choosing Eun over his money, or society opinions, and chases after her. He gets her to fall for him despite her desperation not to and with the help of his brother later he manages to be with her at the end after having to fight against society, his father, arranged fiancee etc. Eun is his servant's daughter, and they met when they didn't know what the other was, she hates being bought or feeling like she owes a debt, so she tries to avoid Tan as much as possible each time a confession is made. Tul's story has not yet been revealed; however, we can tell he also was in a secret 'taboo' relationship with his servant. Actually, he and Hin have known each other since they were kids, Hin saw the abuse and pain Tul went through and chose to become Tul's 'light/help', they both were traumatised when little by the grandma

. However, we see Tul feel resentful for whatever choice he made (marrying someone or getting someone pregnant) because he also agrees Hin left him because of these decisions, Hin like Hyun Jo is still in love with Tul and can't forget him. Hyun Jo was a victim at the end of Heirs, but from what can be derived from dialogue, Tul and his wife aren't close anymore, might be divorced once he got his heir, but Hin is no longer with him by his side. The love interest for both Won and Tul actually mirrors the relationship both their brothers later have with people who are similar to their lovers. The difference is Tin, and Tan's relationships are more happier, lighter and linked to idealistic love stories whilst Tul and Won's focus on the reality and truth of the sacrifices they had to make. Tul is going to have more reasons to be jealous of Tin when he discovers he's found himself someone like Hin in his life who is just as loyal and bright. This means because of this jealousy he could be the villain and try ruin TinCan or he could only try to prevent Tin from entering a situation where he'll be unhappy (if he's not actually evil). Either way, Tul will try and stand in the way of TinCan.

Storyline

Both Tul and Won sacrifice their happiness and actual self for the partaking of their family customs, both to protect the reputation their family has, and to accept the role that they have to be as the oldest son. Won at first is scared of Tan and tries to push him away. Just like Tin, Tan keeps going to Won to try and uncover his mask (however he doesn't resent his brother, he's trying to get his brother to accept him as his brother and be his pseudo father figure).

Tul uses Tin as a proxy for the abuse he suffered, and wants to get revenge on both Tin and Tin's mum for causing his circumstances, Tul's mindset is warped, he's been emotionally, physically and mentally abused and so vengeance and anger is what he clings onto to keep him going, (this even shows up in his consensual sadomasochism relationship with Hin which I'm not sure is going to be similar in the show).

Either way, Tul only chooses to be number one, and take back 'the throne' by ensuring Tin's reputation is ruined, and he's not seen as a threat. He also later gives in when he's forced to marry and get someone pregnant for the sake of his reputation and also ends up hurting Hin. Tul's story is like a continuation of what happened to Won at the end of Heirs (Won however as I said before has more humanity and less trauma so even though he's heartbroken he's mended the relationship with his family, and friends and so is still happy), Tul's chosen to sacrifice and now has the child, but he believes he doesn't have the right ever to be happy and doesn't have the emotional, psychological capacity to believe in trust, love or hope. He's broken and damaged, and the only person who knows his most authentic self is Hin. Tul might not be like Won in terms of not actually wanting to hurt or ruin Tan, he's determined to ensure Tin doesn't get in his way but shows some conflicting emotions each time Tin comes to him to stand up to him.

So is Tul as evil as we think he is or is he just someone who's layers need to be uncovered to sympathise and understand? I’ll continue this in part 2. Here

#a chance to love #tincan #love by chance #meanplan #the heirs #analysis #cwg #fvete #thai bl #october

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oncerpotter2018 · 5 years

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Dark Phoenix: Mutants Are Humans Too

If I become the only person to appreciate this film and saw it for what it was meant to be, then let me be that person. If I am called out for my love for this then let it be so. I have been so loved and deeply emotionally attached to human beings, knowing how it feels to feel alone, to be afraid and to be different, I knew that since watching the first three X-Men movies, I never knew how much these movies will change my life. I never doubted these films and never seemed to try to compare them to others because I already do that with myself.

If I were to agree with those who loathe it then I would be lying to myself. I would be dishonest and so here is an account of an analysis of the movie, the ideas and thoughts that raised through my mind. investigating the ways which it was a human film, focusing on the human more than the super in “superhuman”. So if being called out for what is deemed the worst then let me called it the best thing I have ever seen. Still going to defend it until only a few of us are left, still holding on to that hope that had been thought of us for so long ago.

I am going to be as honest and as truthful in my views because it is the most human thing to do...

(Warning for spoilers and mild blood/violence)

Director:

Simon Kinberg

Cast:

Sophie Turner, Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters

Rating: 5 Stars

“I’m not afraid of you, Jean. Look at me. Focus on my voice. We’re going to get through this together. I’m not giving up on you, Jean. This is what family does. We take care of each other. You’re my family, Jean”

From its traumatic beginning to its heartbreaking climax and to its bittersweet ending, Dark Phoenix played with human emotions, mixing in real-life situations with the fantasy that is the superheroes that they are. Like in the many films that came before it, it begins with a family. The music is playing, the sun is out, and eight-year-old Jean Grey is in the back seat as her parents drive to their destination. However, for Elaine Grey, she would never reach her destination for she was the mother who dies with her eyes open. Jean now alone, is visited by Charles Xavier and from this moment on, the life of Jean Grey would never be the same again and with this scene, where man and child discuss this over, each of the characters are closely framed together, it offers a bound, a relationship that would later be shattered. Jean’s facial expressions and body language are suited for a young child who is afraid, alone and is isolated from her parents. Without parental guidance, without that love and embrace from her family, she shies away, eyes drawn towards the ground. Charles later gives Jean a home, a place where she can roam free with others like herself. But she declines the offer, saying she breaks things and to that Charles promised her on the year of 1975 that she is not broken, and he’ll help her, guide her and make her believe she can do anything. Anything she sets her mind to.

Soon after the events of Apocalypse, its been ten years and things have changed and not just physically. What I adored and admired from this movie was exploring a side of Charles we haven’t seen before. The side of pride and an excess of having too much. Charles desired to be praised, to be accepted and play a bigger role in society. James McAvoy magnificently captures Charles’s moments of glory, the way he smiles and plays along with this fame and success with such egotism. His ego was later tested when the direct line to the President is cut off, metaphorically cutting himself off from the fame and glory he tried to hold. What I respected from Simon Kinberg, was the way he understood about our attachment to our pride, our successes and our wants in life and by the end of this film, Simon created a sense of what it means to be human, to make mistakes and learn to evolve from them. For Charles, this meant to learn to forgive and admit he was wrong. In the end, he was reminded of his wrong decisions, the way he pushed away what was more important for a life he wanted so bad.

Dark Phoenix showed me not just superheroes but humans too, humans who are different but can still be subdued by their emotions. During what seems to be the film’s most heartbreaking climax, the death of Raven was a scene that made me cry the most. The truth comes out from her father, about his abandonment, his lack of love and care for Jean, that after her mother’s death, his world died. To him, Jean died with it. This was the moment of a girl lost, looking for her home, for her past only to come home to nothing, except for a father who lost hope, a father who was a coward. A father who failed to bring his own child home. I understood then why Jean cried, got angry and what made it convincing was Sophie Tuner’s ability to express herself, to express Jean’s mixed emotions. To turn herself into the Dark Phoenix. Jean soon confronts her other family, her friends and lies are unravelled and the truth comes out as Charles’s lie begins to break and crumble and he could no longer convince her to stay. In many failed attempts to get to Jean, by Charles’s command, Raven was up next. Jean and Raven’s conversation illustrates the ideas of the caring mother trying to understand what is happening to her child, to her family. The two-shot, going back and forth from Jean to Raven generates a sense of disillusionment and sustains this relationship between the two women. As Raven inches closer to Jean, the distortion effect created by this editing technique relates back to Jean’s disillusionment, her mind unable to differ from her reality and an illusion causing Jean to lose control killing Raven in the process.

Jennifer Lawrance and Nicolas Hoult’s performances during the moment when Raven slowly died cried out to me, it spoke to me. It made me cry. The way that they were framed in a close-up, the camera right in their faces was emotional. Hoult, having played Hank McCoy for four films has outdone himself on this one; how Hank rushes forward, his eyes never leaving Raven’s own. The camera lingers on Hank’s face and his reaction was the piece of what proves of Dark Phoenix’s most human qualities. Raven’s death was also the turning point to a chain reaction of frustration, grief and anger amongst Raven’s closest family and friends. Raven was the person that connected them all and having seen Raven grow in previous films, she had become a sister, a mother, a friend and a hero. The relationships she had obtained over the years especially to Charles, Hank and Erik was so deep so that when she died it was reasonable for their emotions of anger to explode, they had the right to feel angry, frustrated and to cry. To let out their emotions, to be just a human being. As well as this, like that of Elaine Grey, Raven was another mother who died with her eyes wide open.

Simon Kinberg called the movie a ‘family drama’ and he wasn’t wrong, From start to end, the movie delivered the promise of an emotional drama between family. It had begun with the loss of a family only to end with a family who is just beginning to heal. Jean lost her mother to the accident and loss her father to his emotional wounds. Jean found a new home with the X-Men but as dramas go, it idealises on the tragedies of life, the cruelness of fate and the reality in which we live in. None of these characters knew what life had for them, they went blindly through their lives not expecting anything. For Raven, she wanted to move on and so the universe heard her, and gave her what she wanted, a way out: in dearth. Raven never expected to die that day, she never thought of that moment, but what was tragic was she never knew what had become of Jean, what may her future become. The family drama heats up in the kitchen as Hank and Charles voice their emotional opinions, an argument only seen by my eyes like a brother vs brother in law unsettlement in its own soap opera. In a dark and cold tone colour, the kitchen that once was a place of life when Charles first met Raven, now feels empty, isolating and missing any forms of life. Hank increases his temper, demanding Charles, almost begging him to admit he was wrong, to see what he had become. In the end, in a tired and restless Hank, the truth come together and getting the last words the camera focuses on Hank’s face, Hoult’s facial expression filled with convincing anger and grief told Charles what he wanted to say:

“This whole time, we’ve been trying to protect these kids from the world, when really, we should’ve been protecting them from you”

This cold hard confession leads the friendship turning south as the last frame is Charles’s reaction where McAvoy produces a stunning pained expression for realizing what his friend really thought. In the same scene what I loved about it and a moment that made me also tear up was Hank’s own self-confession. The tragic loss of his lover, a memory he can’t forget had led him to blame himself for Raven’s untimely demise, and his language used in the dialogue reflects his emotional wounds, a feeling that had been echoed from John Grey’s own self sorrow. However, what sets him apart from Charles or Mr Grey was his courage to admit he was wrong, to face Charles and say he blames himself for Raven’s death, realizing him from this pain, not completely, but just enough to get Charles thinking, to help him realize that if he can do it then Charles may follow, except he didn’t leaving Hank displeased resulting to his own abandonment of the school, of Charles and abandoning what he stood for. A man of hope.

Dark Phoenix also holds up for its other antagonist, Vuk. An alien with her race searching for the power inside Jean and restart their lives here on earth. Jessica Chastain, a new member of this world of X-Men films, steps in nicely to the heels of Vuk. We first see Margret Smith, a bubbly and full of life women at the dinner party. What is striking is her dress. This costume choice made by the costume department is truly symbolic as from her platinum blonde hair and dress symbolises purity and innocence. This is later changed to a black dress covered with a black coat, symbolising evil and power which contrasts with her hair, remaining her trust and good intentions towards Jean. Speaking of costume changes, Jean too has a drastic costume change, going from grey tones to deep reds and dark purples; this too signifying change and in both physical and metaphoric sense Jean had risen from the ashes to become the Dark Phoenix. The relationship between Vuk and Jean is appealing and sends out an inside look at the means of manipulation. In her vulnerable state with no one to trust Vuk sweeps in to rescue Jean. Having seen Jean’s trust in the men in her life lose their purpose and with Raven dead, it seems that Vux is the one person who Jean can trust. Both being women and a person of understanding, trust and a person who listens, Jean is blinded from the signs of manipulation. The bar scene was intimidating and fills the void in Jean’s heart, the now empty space that is being filled by the words of this stranger. Chastain confidently speaks in a voice of reassurance as the words contrast between “scared little girl” to “the most powerful creature on the planet” making Jean believe she can help her, to understand her, unlike her X-Men. The scene ends with a malicious grin, a sign of deviance in the eyes of the stranger that Jean barely knows.

Living in Genosha, serving as a leader in protecting mutants is Erik Lehnsherr. He cares for those he can help and defines their purpose by living in harmony and peace. His scenes with Jean are an emotional moment and touching and serious moment between Michael Fassbender and Sophie Tuner only increases the tension higher as both actors come face to face trying to understand each other. Fassbender’s tone of voice is strong and determined, asking questions and demanding them on point while Tuner’s body language and emotional facial expressions echo the fragile and broken state that Jean is placed upon; Tuner continues to present a vulnerable Jean, a Jean that on the brink of disaster as Erik pesters her with questions, pressuring her in a moment of anger and unrest. With such intensity and visible interaction between the two mutants, the turning point was made clear as the distressed Jean Grey releases the Dark Phoenix. Genosha is now under threat by Phoenix and after seeing the destruction caused by Jean, Erik begins to express anger and loss of trust. He banishes Jean and it’s the expression that Sophie gave that projected on the screen so well; her confounded and pain faced quickly turned to a face of anger and rage. This scene alone quickly adds to the stress and frustration of Jean’s mental state. Abandoned by her father, by Charles, by Hank, by Scott and now Erik. Its no wonder why Jean chose Vuk, to trust the only who cares. Who doesn’t question but to only understand.

Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tye Sheridan and Evan Peters co-star next to their fellow X-Men showing off their characters abilities. Shipp and McPhee’s characters Storm and Nightcrawler engages with their powers and offer a fantastic display of true strength and human assets. Storm is unique here and produces more than just a storm. Demonstrating the role of a moral compass to Scott and a friend when he is in need and a companion for her friends and family. For McPhee, what is exciting to me was his innocence and maturity, the way he can be both funny and still grew as an adult. What made me cry during his part was something I least expected, a moment of reality hitting this young mutant and the moment when witnessing the death of a stranger whose kid will be left fatherless and a wife who is left widowed, he could not let his death be a left forgotten. This turns him to aggressively kill the aliens, unleashing a warpath between anyone who got in his way which presents a courageous act of heroism especially to avenge the man he barely knew. McPhee understands his character and acts with determination, the way he scrunches up his face with anger and fights back showing character development; going from an innocent, bewildered young mutant still discovering his true potential, to be able to defend himself and others in a selfish act of bravery as he returns the favour to the man who couldn’t save. For Scott Summers, death was already something he was used to; after his brother’s death, the loss of Raven and Jean was beyond what he can handle. His attitude had changed all those years ago now becoming part of something much bigger. A part of a team, a family. Tye Sheridan gets romantically involved with Sophie Tuner as Jean and Scott’s relationship develops love the ten years, seeing them caught up their love affairs.

Evan Peters, the man who plays the quick and quirky speedster, QuickSliver, had his role cut short. His role lacked in appearance and not enough of him shown however whether it is due to the pressure of the Fox-Disney deal and extensive reshoots deeming the editing team to cut and leave things out from what had been originally in the trailers to meet their deadline, yet for me, I believe the real answer lies in the moments of his rescue attempt in trying to save Jean. His injuries leaving him bloodied and bruised, deeming him unsuitable to service the X-Men in their further mission; for me, this was the ideal situation of any kind of reality from which people get injured, get hurt especially after such tragic events. Even Peters still manages to pull off Maximoff’s funny quirks, as for instance his line:

“I basically did everything. I mean, Jean did a little, like, towards the end. But it was mostly all me”

Peter’s actually improvised this and luckily it made it to the final cut. Furthermore, while people bicker about his nonappearance and lack of the big reveal of father and son but despite this all, I still cried. The uncertainty of his injury leaves questions in our minds on whether he is okay or whether it had left him permanently injured for good. To this effect, I was beginning to recognise a matter of human suffering, situations where life is cruel and unbearable, and by the end of the film, his fate is revealed and say how much he had rested over time. To allow time to heal his wounds. And for me, I never noticed his disappearance, I was probably still crying over past events, where the death of Raven and Jean’s distress state consumed my mind leaving me crying. My eyes sore by the end of the movie.

As the story continues, the fight for Jean is amongst them as they encounter each other face to face in 5th Avenue for their final battle. Both sides offer explanations, trying to counter each other as they reach for Jean. Soon the epic battle for survival and for Jean insures as friends turned to enemies and the world as the know it had fallen behind them. Every shot was intense, the lives of civilians in danger of rampaging mutants but what was hard not to notice was the battle going on with Hank and Scott, two mutants who just several years ago, fought together to save the world from Apocalypse. Now they are in ahead to head battle to either save Jean or kill her. The fight between McCoy and Summers is a moment of struggle between friends, of two men who had lost to much and now is on the brink of trying to do what is right. Hoult and Sheridan’s performances are spectacular showcasing the strained friendship that these two had once held. Hoult provides his Beast rage as his rough movements indicate power and speed to get to Jean. While this was going on, the night time scenery and low lighting create a murky mood, reflecting the mindset of the character and how they are feeling. Magneto’s costume, like Vuk, is black and never too complicated. This simple and slick design helps to camouflage Erik into the darkness, allowing him to easily get to Jean. What was also most engaging with this scene was the moments of the strength of Magento’s powers as he lifts the subway cart from the ground and brings it up the surface. The crew behind the visual effects had brought a high standing finish to Magento’s ultimate power. The cart emerging to the top of the street, keeping our eyes on the destruction down beyond as the crane shot view captures our attention slowly as the cart explodes from the ground. From this, a display of true strength shows Magento pulling the train through the entrance and having heard in interviews, that the train and wall were built and were real, the most worrying of all was that having one shot at this moment it appeared and it clearly showed in the scene how the train came six inches close to hitting actor Michael Fassbender. With such confidence and a heart of steel, he had never even flinched or blink as those bricks fell down, and now that is through perfect as Erik would say.

Jean and Erik's reencounter comes to an eye to eye contact between family once again. Both of them unleashes their gifts, with Magento making the first move. In a shocking turn when Erik couldn’t kill Jean, the Dark Phoenix within her sets free all hell on him. with a move of her hand, the most spine-chilling scene occurred as Phoenix crashes Erik’s helmet and it doesn’t help either with Fassbender’s straining eyes in a close-up, the pained and gritting way he clenches his teeth adds to the growing pain he is feeling. In suspended in motion, the helmet breaks and with one last gleam of rest Phoenix quickly finishes the job and throws Erik out of the window in a what would have been a back-breaking fall. In a rush to get to Jean, in another moment of family and hope, Charles reaches Jean. In a not so expected moment, Phoenix increases her power, lifting Charles towards her. This scene captives the agony of Charles where McAvoy does with such detail as he needs to be in pain. Beyond this scene, Charles tries to help Jean remember, to bring Jean back to her senses, to just remember who she truly is. Like all the memories, the sense of a dream-like blur and distortion effect offers a unique idea of what was true, what was Charles trying to protect her from. This for me enchants the human side of a family ready to heal, ready to accept forgiveness. Jean begins to understand as Charles becomes the better man in front of her father. It now all comes together as the scene between Charles and John becomes clear:

“Will you take her?” - Mr Grey

“Yes, I can help her in ways that you can’t”- Charles Xavier

“She can’t be helped. She’s a lost cause”- Mr Grey

“No, she’s not. As long as there’s someone who cares for her who believes, then there’s still hope”- Charles Xavier

The message of hope still rings throughout the X-Men films and it seems as though Dark Phoenix wasn’t going to let it side as well. It still continues to bring the message of hope to its audience especially in this case of giving hope to children, to children who need hope for life, a home and a family; just someone who cares, who believes in them. Someone who loves them for who they are. Switching to back to Jean, Vuk took an opportunity to take what was hers, she approaches Jean, carefully touching her and spoke about her future. Down with her vulnerable state, Jean shakes her head, tears beginning to fall from her strained eyes.

“I never asked for this. Any of it.” - Jean Grey

“I travelled the stars for a gift that you don’t want?”- Vuk

“Then take it. Please. Free me”- Jean Grey

Being fueled by fear and confusion of what she had become, she realizes the truth, how she never wanted this for anyone, not even for herself. She begs Vuk for release, for her freedom. With a nod, Vuk couldn’t agree more. The next few scenes empower Scott and begin to have the others dragged rather inhumanly by guards. The train scene keeps them locked together, trapped in the same place having no place to run or hide. Having this opportunity, being in this confined space gives Charles an opportunity finally admit he was wrong. He was ready to face Hank and Erik, to prove that Jean was not the villain, but he was, how he had failed Jean and everyone else all because of his ego, for wanting something he only wanted. The back and forth moment towards Hank and Erik’s faces shows at first the lack of interest, not willing to forgive just yet, but what was the turning point was what Scott had said, about Raven and what she would have wanted. For Hank, it had registered a spark of truth, for he never thought of what Raven would have wanted, to have wanted from him. it was time to step up, to save Jean. Moving from this, the battle begins to increase, both sides raging war against the other and it wasn’t long until Vuk joined the fight taking down their first defence. Soon she wrecks a trail of bodies as each one of Jean’s family drops down hurt and broken.

As Charles tries to wake Jean up, to learn to forgive her, Charles, in a heaven-like place, confronts eight-year-old Jean played by the wonderful Summer Fontana. While they talked, the scene that unfolds is arranged in a battle of protecting Jean, and the approaches of emotional connections made towards these characters as Jean and Charles talks. Fontana plays an innocent young girl, a girl who had finally found peace and has already forgive Charles. The light flares that bounces off and on the screen symbolizes the reflection of this being all inside Charles’s mind, a place of peace and serenity can flourish. For once in Charles’s mind, he speaks with reassurance and feels the guilt he had been feeling for so long, and they're staring right in front of him is the same eight-year-old girl he had talked to and promised to keep safe all those years ago. Charles understands what he had to do, he had to protect Jean, to keep her away from the trauma, the pain and give her what she deserves, what every child deserves…

“A family” Jean replies, nodding both with Charles. This conversation between chid and a father figure, both characters are freeing themselves from the pain they had to suffer as Jean recognises what she must do and understand that the lie that Charles told was done from the act of love, how he had loved her more than her own father that he was willing to lie. To save her from having to grow up being afraid of the world. with having the last say, Jean now knows what she must do. That is to:

“Protect My Family”

Just this simply three words had made such an impact, it had sealed the movie with its theme of family and what the family stands for. A family protects and cares for their loved ones, to love each other through hard times and that is what Jean will do. And shortly after this, Jean had woken, her mind ready to fight and what I had noticed was the moment when Charles held Jean’s hand, the sign of prayer and hope which I must confess made me tear up. As her promise to protect her family, they are soon encased in a bubble as the train carts disperse and fall back with devastating results. Soon, the final battle begins as Jean tries to protect her family. A family she couldn’t save before. As the battle insures, Jean, now being able to take control over her own fate sets loose on the remaining aliens, banishing them from the face of the earth. With warm and hot tones of red, orange and yellow adding to the flames around them, the exterior designs help to establish power and control as Jean as Phoenix fights to protect and serve. While thinking Vuk is gone for good, we would think wrong as Vuk returns but this time to truly take it by force. Now free from the chains that held her down for so long, she uses this force for her own advantage. In a spectacular display of face to face encounter with Vuk and Jean, the power to obtain the force becomes too much for Vuk. In her last attempts to achieve what she wanted, she uses Jean’s emotions to bring her down.

“Your emotions make you weak”

And with one last look at her family, the people that got angry because they care so much, she gives them one last nod and ends Vuk, sacrificing herself in the process. And with last one look, there was nothing that her family could do but watch as Jean takes the battle in her own hands, protecting them as she promised. In space, both women circle around, the camera spinning with them as Jean closes in on Vuk finishing with:

“You’re wrong, my emotions make me strong”

With this approval of both her mind and heart, Vuk finally is finally vanquished, leaving Jean to disappear among the stars, leaving on being the trace of a phoenix burning in the sky. From down below, its Erik’s sadden expression that is caught first, the way his face drops down to show a feeling of sorrow and mournful, thinking probably what he and said before to Jean. Soon Scott thinks of Jean, that she is now gone, like Raven. And yet it was Charles who spoke the truth, how she is now free, that she is no longer his little girl anymore and must set her free, like the phoenix she was meant to be. To make her own decisions, to control her own fate. In the end, it fades to black and the world seems at peace once again. The next scene leads to the epilogue, a bittersweet ending to what had been a long and severe battle over Jean whose sacrifice had led to their protection and survival. Her sacrifice wasn’t as much of heroic sacrifice as those like Tony or Natasha from Endgame, but it was that nod of her head as she looked at Charles one last time that showed how much she was loved, how she can trust them to be okay without her. Her sacrifice was never a heroic one a way to protect those she loves, to do it for them for she couldn’t those she loved the first time. what seems to be a couple of years later, in a scene of innocence and peace, the flowers by the gate that once was lined with red lilies are now white, a symbol of hope, innocence and purity as Scott reassembles the new sign for the school now under a new name: Jean Grey School for Gifted Youngsters. This change in the name is a good decision, a decision probably made by Charles as in the end its not only the family that has changed but the home does too and the school was the home that Charles gave to Raven and to Jean, a place both grew up and a place where they last stayed. To enable the school to continue without the past haunting him, the scene of Hank walking to his office says a lot of the changes that had been placed.

It is now another school year, a new term as the tracking shot moves around the school showing Strom teaching science, Kurt and Peter leading more mature leads and now Hank, the new Professor and Dean of the school now named after a friend he wouldn’t save. What was touching about this scene in the epilogue as well as the photo of Raven at this desk, the way Hank had it framed and this wasn’t only a touching moment but a prop that is a reminder that Hank had moved on, how everyone has and how they have learnt to find acceptance in this world of cruelty. Of course, they still feel grief and pain on the inside but as they say, time will heal all wounds and that’s what Simon had reflected here. But what was so intriguing and so beautiful in any shape of form was the concluding moment between Charles and Erik. An ending to where it had all begun. Now in Paris, Charles and Erik meet up in a nearby café with Erik wanting to place chess. Chess has been a sign of their everlasting war between their beliefs is now just a casual game between two long friends. For me, this wasn’t just a heart-warming and symbolic end to the relationship between friends but also, if I say so myself, a beautiful and romantic grand gesture of love and passion as Erik reminds Charles of how he saved him from the waters back in the year of ’62, how he had given him a home and now he wants to do the same for Charles. And if that wasn’t enough, Kinberg happily implies the words:

“I’ll go easy on you”

And Charles’s replies:

“No, you won’t”

With them ending the scene in laughter and quirky smiles. If this wasn’t Cherik enough them I don’t know what will. But Dark Phoenix had just become the moment when Cherik became canon. So, if Cuba was their Beach Divorce, then Paris would be their Chess Proposal. But as they start their game, the camera slowly tilts up, getting a glimpse of the Paris street and a hint of the Eiffel Tower and there off in the distance is a trail of a phoenix, a reminder that this isn’t the end of Jean, this is only the beginning.

Overall, Dark Phoenix was more drama and human then about superheroes. It was more than trying to save the world and more like trying to save a person from it. To save a family member from the pain and hurt of a childhood trauma. Dark Phoenix details what happens when a lie to protect becomes a lie that kills. How the ego kills relationships and how the death of a loved one allows grief and pain to spiral someone out of control, seeking revenge at the person who killed their close relation. Dark Phoenix was the movie that had made me feel like this journey had ended but will not be forgotten. To me, with its music score done by the very talented composer Hans Zimmer, and the brilliant minds of both Simon Kinberg and Hutch Paker, every detail and every piece of dialogue matter and had created a while and an emotional roller coaster filled with pain and heartbreak. It didn’t just tell a story about superheroes but a story about a family and about how a little girl had to grow up and face the truth of a lied that protected her all these years. What Simon had done was to explore human emotions and show the ideas of psychological and philosophical ideas of our mind and how we treat others as human beings.

By the end of the film, there is acceptance and the power of hope remains at the heart of the school and to the people around them, as well as to what the X-Men represent. And soon enough the film itself had taught valuable life lessons to take back home, to shape our minds about family and about ourselves. So in the end, I can say that I’m proud of this movie and deserves my full attention and receives five stars as a reward for its display of human beings, about family and about never losing hope especially to a child in need.

#xmen dark phoenix #dark phoenix #anaylsis #review #xmen #Best thing ever

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