Under 'read more', I have my full (unsolicited) thoughts on the fourth film - warning, I don't have much good to say about it 〔´∇｀〕;;
SPOILERS! + LONG ASS POST!
So... I'll start with the positives, because honestly, I do love aspects of this movie.
Any scenes featuring Li and Mr. Ping are the absolute highlights of this film. Love them, ship them, hilarious chemistry between them. I'd watch a whole film dedicated to just them.
Though not as funny as the previous films, it’s genuinely funny, like, some jokes are deadass hilarious. (See above for example lol)
Genuinely, the main villainess, the chameleon, has such a cool design and Viola Davis provides such a good voice for her. The animation whenever she transforms is so cool.
Jack Black as Po is just so charming, you can't help but find Po so likeable.
For what little we saw of Tai Lung, he was a treat to see.
Great animation, lovely scenery, love the little animation flairs during the action scenes
Alright, now time for the negatives... Which unfortunately there is a lot of. I’ll go step by step and build up to the bigger picture I’m trying to visualise here.
The Kung Fu Panda
Po’s character arc was pretty much complete at the end of KFP3, when he has his epiphany and finds that his true self lies in not restricting himself to one label, but by embracing everything that makes him Po. His identity by this point is very well realised. Unfortunately in KFP4, the tacked on conflict of him needing to retire the Dragon Warrior title and choose a successor just… Doesn’t make sense for his character at this point. Not to mention, the movie repeats a joke ad nauseam where no one knows who Po is, or of his adventures, jokingly chalking it down to a ‘regional’ tale. You’d think the literal saviour of China would be well known. The world-building feels so much smaller for it. Unfortunately, this movie is very determined to undermine the impact of the last three movies, all to prop up the wisecracking and super cool shitass Awkafina character. Sorry, not sorry, but Zhen is a terrible character just for that reason alone. If Kung Fu Panda wanted to pass the torch down, Tigress or even Tai Lung would have been a much more compelling option, seeing as both were telegraphed to be potential Dragon Warriors in the past. Speaking of…
Tai Lung
Man… The trailers got my hopes up that KFP4 would feature a long awaited redemption arc for the OG villain of the KFP films. Instead, he’s delegated to a cage for half his scenes, and received the barest minimum of character arcs in the finale. Granted, he was still entertaining to watch, but he was totally under-utilised.
To continue the topic of identity, the film missed the chance to ask this: “Who is Tai Lung without his kung fu?” All his life he’d been raised with huge aspirations to become the best kung fu master, and to eventually gain the dragon scroll (which he was denied.) In KFP4, the chameleon summons him from the spirit realm, and drains him of all his kung fu skill. Therein lies the missed opportunity for a compelling character arc, now that he’s been cast out as a supposedly useless body into the real world. And who better to help him figure out his identity other than Po himself?
I could go on forever about the various fanficy rewrites and plot ideas, but I don’t want to let this get any longer. So I’ll talk about one more topic.
The Chameleon
I love her design, I love her voice acting, but compared to Tai Lung, Lord Shen and even General Kai… She’s simply a weak villain. (Too small to learn kung fu… Really?? With characters like Mantis and Viper who deadass exist in the same franchise???)
‘I’m the Chameleon! I do nothing but change!’ holds such potential for a far more interesting backstory. Instead of being rejected for her size, suppose that it was seen by many king fu masters that she simply didn’t possess a true spirit of a kung fu warrior. As explained in this film, their abilities are harnessed in the spirit/soul, not just the physical body. Perhaps she didn’t want to work for those abilities properly. She wanted the easy way forwards. She didn’t want to put in the proper time and effort to become a master of the craft. Spurred on by what she sees as rejection, she learns sorcery to take on any number of identities of kung fu masters. So many identities she could use to fool herself into believing she was someone talented and gifted in the art of kung fu. But it’s only a lie she tells herself. And so, she takes the drastic action, and decides to start summoning these masters from the spirit realm. But even as she slowly grows in power through the course of this film, maybe a strong sense of imposter syndrome starts to set in. These powers aren’t truly hers - what value does a carbon copy of something original have? Nothing. She never properly worked for them and made them her own.
Anyways. I’m almost done writing.
Quick fire round of criticism;
Akwafina’s shitass character
Furious five just tossed aside except for a non speaking cameo. Tigress got done so dirty - if there are gonna be like three more films, they should have been about her
WHAT DID THEY DO TO LORD SHEN’S CHARACTER MODEL
The goofy-ass way he was attacked and then thrown into the cage, the disrespect lol
Li (the victim) and Lord Shen (the genocidal maniac who destroyed his village and killed his wife) somehow existed in the same space and did not get into a conflict.
Why does Kai still exist in the spirit realm? I thought he was literally skadooshed to be extra double dead lol. Like spirit literally eradicated
Akwafina’s shitass character
The villains bowing to Po feels super unearned given how under-utilised they were. I can see it working, just not in the plot we got in the end
Po’s character feels weirdly dumbed down, it’s hard to put my finger on it
Fart joke :(
The innocent and cute but secretly psycho baby bunnies are the definition of anti humour. They’re so fucking obnoxious and cringey
For some reason, the character designs of new characters feels super incongruous and out of place.
The Dragon Warrior isn’t an inherited title, it was given during a time where China needed a hero. Why does it need to be passed down?
That’s all I have really. Sorry for straying so much into fanfiction territory, but it’s an integral part of my criticisms. I could honestly write forever, but I mainly wanted to share this silly redraw of the Tai Lung meme using Lobster and I’s silly Kung Fu Panda Hetalia gijinka crossover AU nonsense lol
If you read this all the way to the end, congrats! And sorry - I never do long text posts like this lol
After a successful launch into space, three astronauts experience what very few humans have experienced before; the glory of the cosmos. Of course... The fourth passenger is having a slightly different experience. This is the Laika Project.
. . .
I am finally publishing it after months actually, I think years of procrastinating. The game itself is buggy, but since I had so much trouble during the game jam when making this game I guess it's not a good idea to base a game off of a short dream you had, I've resolved to never touch the game again so that means I won't bother fixing bugs :D.
. . .
Estimated play time: ~30 minutes.
RATING: Teen
WARNING: Contains swearing, mentions of death, vague mentions of geopolitcal events
The Protectors of Happiness are Macross City's biggest defenders, mainly against the Super Brit Bros! Fight crime and save the city in this Hetagame demo!
Made for the Heroes and Villains Hetagame Jam by MsEirtaku and @resoyani 🤍
Download link here for the demo HERE! (Google Drive)
Instead of making posts about what people halfway across the world should do on a dying website, I'm going to link to organizations that you can donate to that can actually help.
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) works for the health and dignity of Palestinians living under occupation and as refugees. They provide immediate medical aid to those in great need, while also developing local capacity and skills to ensure the long-term development of the Palestinian healthcare system.
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association is a Palestinian non-governmental civil institution that works to support Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian prisons.
Samidoun is an international network of organizers and activists working to build solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in their struggle for freedom.
Refuser Solidarity Network provides crucial support to Israel's military refusers in the toughest of political circumstances. They provide funds for for demonstrations outside prison, for legal fees, for media campaigns that tell conscientious objector’s stories to the general public, for education programs for Israeli and American audiences about their important resistance to the occupation.
Feel free to reblog with links to other groups and other places people can donate to.
Palestinians made a document that contains templates for letters to US, UK, & Canadian politicians, media outlets, and companies in relation to current events in Palestine as well as petitions & other resources. If you live in any of these countries then please select a template, edit it to your preference and send according to the instructions on the relevant page.
Here is a link to it (please share it): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-RUOHHiEtr7uoclQgWN-tCWOihnHIp5hym89aNePi_E/mobilebasic
Aside from that, please protest, support the BDS boycott and spread awareness as much as possible.
Hey guys! So I'm currently writing a series of video essays meant to be a retrospective on Hetalia and its fandom, and the first video is about Hetagames. I intend on playing and reviewing 10+ popular Hetagames, and I want a general consensus on what you guys think the most popular/influential hetagames are! Thanks in advance!
I'm sure you'll get a fair few Hetagame developers chiming in with some of the same hetagames I'll be suggesting, but I figure I'd put down as much as I can think of off the top of my head!
[ 'The Classics' ]
HetaOni by Tomoyoshi
RomaHeta by Tomoyoshi
Dreamtalia by Kyokoon64
Escape from Siberia by Miryuha
HetaHospital by Atomic-Crayon
Imaginary Nightmare by KingDespair
Hetalia Islands by Jezzica95
Hetapocalypse by Schwer-von-Begriff
These next Hetagames aren't as old as The Classics, but they're still pretty iconic within the Hetagame community.
[ 'The Well-Known' ]
England's Disappearance by Maggy-Neworld
Lincantropo by Itou Itsuki
HetaFire by LeanneVlogzFilmz
Home by angel-of-britannia
HetaGeist by Atomic-Crayon
Hetalia Floral Orchestra by Dream-thunder
HetaFear by Atomic-Crayon
Project Espanya by Quasi-Harkness
HetaOrigin: Redraw the World
Now, these games are more recent, but these are what I would consider to be the modern classics. Hetagames has come a long way since then!
[ 'Modern Classics' ]
48 Hours by BlueLobsters
HetaIpseity by Lilica
Mnemophobia by Asahi
My Friends Invited Me To Go Camping But My Only Experience Is Reading Guidebooks by DeathSquadOfficial
Shadowtalia by Rvi (Russia-Vi)
And because I love promoting my friends' stuff, a list of recommendations:
[ Eir's Favourite Games ]
The Lion's Path by Hebigami-Okami
Child's Garden by DeathSquadOfficial
Monochromes by Resoyani
Freedom by MapleSweater
Hungary? Like, I'm Hungry? by Resoyani
Judge, Jury and Executioner by BlueLobsters
Late For A Very Important Date by FandomDrowning
Hetà by Acquazzone (Tbh, I like ironically lol)
Naturally... I can't possibly list every Hetagame in existence, nor do you have to play all of them. I wish I could give exposure to every single Hetagame dev out there! But yeah, these are my 2 cents to this post, and I hope it was helpful enough~
Would anyone be interested in playing The Laika Project (the game from the Bobbing for Apples Jam last winter)? I never released it and didn’t feel confident in it and was considering deleting it from my Google Drive because I need to free up space, but I wanted to see if it was worth it to post the download link to it in case anybody was interested.
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