CriticalCorvids

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[criticalcorvids-blog]

Crow’s Thoughts: BoJack Horseman Season 5 (2018)

Quick thoughts on the BoJack Horseman season 5. Spoilers below!

The plot:

Season 5 takes place in 2018. As with the rest of BoJack, the characters get up to all kinds of antics. BoJack himself continues working on his current project, Philbert, alongside Princess Carolyn, later joined by Mr. Peanutbutter and Diane. Todd gets a new job at What Time Is It Right Now.com and also builds a sex robot. After their divorce, Diane moves into a small studio and takes a vacation to Hanoi, while Mr. Peanutbutter finds himself in a new relationship with a waitress named Pickles. Quite a bit of chaos and humorous moments ensue, while there are also the more heavy times featured.

Crow: Another awesome season of my favourite cartoon aimed at adults. BoJack keeps impressing me with its clever writing, hilarious sense of humor, and serious moments and issues it tackles. Episode 3 of this season brought me close to tears. I don’t have a lot to say about this season other than how awesome it is and how much I recommend it. This may just be another one of my favourite seasons of this show that keeps on surprising me and breaking the boundaries. Who would’ve thought that an entire episode that’s “just” BoJack’s eulogy to his mother could’ve constantly kept my attention? But they keep going with this out-of-the-box thinking and writing, and I commend the staff on BoJack for their amazing writing skills.

The characters:

I’ll just briefly talk about the characters here!

BoJack Horseman: Our main lead, the alcoholic, drug-addicted, self-loathing horse himself. His character continues to develop this season as he starts seeing himself in the character Philbert in the show of the same name, which has quite a few similarities to his own life. BoJack messes up a lot again this season, with the most notable mistake being him strangling one of his co-stars on Philbert while high as a kite. The season ends on a slightly positive note, though, as he voluntarily goes into rehab. I think BoJack is one of the most developed characters in any adult cartoon I’ve ever seen. I keep being surprised at the twists and turns he takes, and how he keeps messing up even if it seems he’s slowly becoming better.

Princess Carolyn: The overworked manager and (as of the end of this season) finally a parent of a child. I just wish the best for this character. I keep feeling so sad when things go wrong for her. She just wants to have a child, and everything keeps going wrong. I am glad about the uplifting ending she got this season.

Mr. Peanutbutter: Everyone’s favourite energetic Labrador Retriever gets a new girlfriend this season, and things generally go well, until BoJack’s annual Halloween party. He still keeps a positive outlook despite the doubts, though, eventually popping the question rather than telling his current girlfriend that he slept with Diane after their divorce. Mr. Peanutbutter is just a character I’m neutral on. I’m still curious to see where his storyline goes, though.

Todd Chavez: Todd tries to get a job this season and ends up getting a high position at What Time Is It Right Now.com, a time that, besides also telling the time, happens to have a streaming service, on which Philbert is set to be the first project to air. Todd gets to meet Yolanda’s family this season and builds a sex-robot (which eventually ends up becoming his boss) for Emily. Todd is still my favourite character on the show, and I really like where his story is going.

Diane Nguyen: Mr. Peanutsbutter ex-wife and later a writer on Philbert. This season she divorces Mr. Peanutbutter, tries to discover herself by traveling to Vietnam, gets a haircut, and moves into a small studio. Diane is an interesting character to me, but I’m neutral on her just like I am with Mr. Peanutbutter. Still curious to see where her storyline is going, though!.

Crow: BoJack keeps presenting us with excellently-written characters that range from believable to humourous to both. I’m really into most of them, with me rooting for Princess Carolyn and Todd the most for all of these. I just want them all to be happy.

Other thoughts:

Crow: From the characters and the humor to the writing, bizarre scenarios and of course the feels, Bojack Horseman keeps surprising me positively. I am astounded by how these writers keep doing it again and again, but they do. See you after season 6, folks!

-Crow

[criticalcorvids-blog]

Crow’s Thoughts: The Twilight Saga (2008-2012)

Quick thoughts on the movie series! I’m judging these as movies only, as I have limited knowledge of the books! Let’s head in! Spoilers ahead, obviously.

The plot:

The plot of these movies varies per movie, but the general gist is this: bland teenage human girl meets guy who turns out to be vampire. A romance as bland as the protagonist spawns, and she is introduced to his family, who are all vampires (who don’t drink human blood) as well. At one point some evil vampires want to eat her, which is where the climax for the first movie happens. They manage to kill Eaty the evil vampire, though.

In movie two vampire boy (going by the name of Edward) decides to distance himself from human girl (Bella Swan), which causes her to go into depression. She eventually sparks a close friendship with her Native American friend Jacob, who later turns out to be either a shapeshifter or a werewolf (and, with that, an enemy of the vampires). When Edward presumes Bella to be dead, he becomes heartbroken and plans on exposing himself to the humans, which might end up getting him killed by the Volturi (some kind of vampire government cult). Bella manages to save him and reunite with him at the last moment, and their romance continues, though the Volturi isn’t happy with a vampire-human romance at all.

Eclipse is where Victoria, the lover of Eaty from movie one, seeks revenge by raising an army of freshly turned aggressive vampires with an appetite for human blood. The werewolves and vegetarian Cullen family work together to protect Bella against this threat.

The fourth and fifth movies I’m just going to tackle together, as they are together a two-parter. After marrying Edward, Bella and he do the dirty and she ends up getting pregnant with a vampire-human hybrid. This causes all kinds of problems, and, when Bella finally has to give birth, the only way to save both her and the child is to to turn her into a vampire as well. This happens, but now the Volturi want to kill the child, who grows hyper fast. More vampire and wolf allies are recruited by the Cullens to protect their hybrid child, and it looks like this will be the final standoff between the nice supernatural beings, and the Volturi.

Crow: To be honest, while not being too difficult to think up in my opinion, I still liked the plot of each movie except the third. My main problem with movie one is that the plot doesn’t really happen until the final third of the movie or something. As someone who doesn’t care much for the romance between Edward and Bella, movie two was a nice change of pace, but Jacob did become an annoyance after a while. The movie I liked the least was the third, though I did like the climax there. The final two were all right in my opinion, except for the final climax in movie five.

Why? At first, I thought it was one of the better climaxes in movies I’d actually seen. Characters on both the heroic and evil side die left and right, and it’s a really epic standoff. However, in the end, it turns out to be one big vision of what could be, rather than what’s actually happening. I think of the entire crowds that gathered only one person died in the climax, and there was hardly any fighting. I know that these aren’t totally action-movies, but movie 1-4 actually had epic climaxes that involved a (big) fight. To have this totally averted just feels lazy and anticlimactic.

The villains withdraw without any losses on their side. The heroes lose nothing (except for the one shady treacherous lady who is the reason for the conflict in the first place).

Overall, I did like the movies. I was pleasantly surprised after hearing so much Twilighthate. The biggest problems I had with the movie series were the final "climax", the creepy vibes Jacob gave off (more on that later),the dull romance (I just felt 0 chemistry between our two leads) and our protagonists themselves....speaking of which....

The characters:

Let's get into some of these and let me give my opinions, okay?

Bella Swan: Our main lead, a clumsy human girl with no personality or interests other than Edward Cullen. I presume she’s somewhat supposed to be a blank slate for other girls to relate to, because she doesn’t really have much going for her other than her looks and her stale romance with Edward.

Edward Cullen: A mysterious non-human-blood-consuming vampire attending Bella’s school. He barely has a reaction to anything. He’s just here to be edgy, I take it. Will do anything for Bellabae, though.

Jacob Black: Native American boy and a friend of Bella, who first is rather cool after she loses Edward, but later becomes pushy and won’t let the thought that says “Bella is so in luv wit meh” go for quite a while. I liked him in movie one and two, and he was my favourite out of the main three in these moments, but then he got annoying and eventually really creepy. After Bella’s and Edward’s child is born, he “imprints” on her, which is basically werewolfspeak for saying that you’re soulmates or something. So yes, this guy who is in his late teens is assigned a soulmate that is a baby. Yes, there is the excuse that the baby grows much faster than an actual human being and will stop aging after she’s reached her from of adulthood, but it’s still just...really unfortunate in my opinion.

The Cullens: Edward’s family, consisting of Carlisle (a rich doctor and the father figure), Esme (the mother figure), Emmett, (Edward), Jasper, Rosalie and Alice (the children, each of which have a (somewhat) defined personality and ability). They’re a family of “vegetarian” vampires who refuse to drink human blood. I personally found these characters to be the most enjoyable. They all seemed like people I’d like to hang out with (minus Carlisle maybe). My favourite out of all of them was Alice, who also acted like somewhat of a close friend/sister to Bella.

The Uley wolf pack: A pack of werewolves/shapeshifters that gain their wolf forms after the vampires are near (if memory serves me correct). Various members include Sam (the leader), Leah, Seth and of course Jacob. The pack serves as both allies and antagonists at some points.

The Volturi: A weird and probably nefarious cult/government-eque group of people with names I honestly couldn’t bother remembering. They disapprove of the human-vampire relationship that is Bella and Edward and of course later want to kill Renesmee (the baby). They weren’t too memorable in my opinion, but had a decent villainous presence nonetheless.

Renesmee: The human-vampire hybrid child of Bella and Edward. She grows much faster than your average child and has special powers. She is presented to be the definition of wholesomeness, I suppose.

Crow: I don’t like too many of these characters, and there are a lot I had to glance over, otherwise we’d be here all day, but there were a few that I hold very dear. The Cullens, for being such an amazing family even though not related, most notably Alice because of how supportive she is of Bella. I thought Victoria was a decent villain, probably my favourite of the bunch looking back. I just think it’s a shame that the main two are just...bland, while Jacob went from okay to HMMM IS THIS REALLY THE DIRECTION YOU’RE GOING WITH HIM???!!!

Other thoughts:

Crow: Some quick thoughts: I didn’t care for the romances, but I thought otherwise it was all right. The movies are filmed well enough in my opinion. The animation on the CGI shapeshifter wolves looks amazing. The soundtrack (which was sometimes Muse) was nice, and it kept my attention.

I came out surprisingly positive of these movies. Are they fantastic? No, but I wasn’t expecting that. I was just expecting some edgy vampire-human romance and also some werewolves and that’s what we got. It kept me entertained. I won’t say this is for everyone, but if you feel like checking out some fantasy romance or something like that and don’t have standards that are too high, you might find something you like.

-Crow

[a1-b2c3-deactivated20230114]

why are star wars planets more boring than earth and our solar system like sure we’ve seen desert, snow, diff types of forest, beach, lava, rain, but like… 

rainbow mountains (peru)

red soil (canada/PEI)

rings (saturn’s if they were on earth) 

bioluminescent waves

northern lights (canada)

salt flats (bolivia, where they filmed crait but did NOTHING COOL WITH IT except red dust?? like??? come ON)

and cool fauna like the touch me not or like, you know, the venus flytrap.. and don’t get me started on BUGS like… we have bugs cooler than sw aliens

BASICALLY like???? come on star wars you had one (1) job where are the cool alien species

[wearethesparkk]

I KNOW!! I did a report on filming locations in Star Wars last year and just made a list of places that looked so surreal they could make a convincing other planet. You covered some on my list but if I could just add a couple more:

Tsingy di Bemaraha, Madagascar

Zhangye Danxia, China (similar to the Rainbow Mountains in terms of appearance)

Chocolate Hills, Philippines

Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland

So many missed opportunities with cool ass things on Earth, Lucasfilms smh…

[memcjo]

Earth is effing amazing!

[isnerdy-deactivated20190101]

Quebrada de Humahuaca, Argentina

Lake Retba, Senegal

Tepui, Venezuela

Tianzi Mountains, China

[bunjywunjy]

these would make amazing Star Wars planets OR fantasy material:

Tsingy du Bemaraha, Madagascar again (but a different part)

(those are razor-sharp, if you were wondering. very little of this area has been explored because YIKES)

Lake Natron, Tanzania

(looks cool, but is alkaline enough to Kill Your Shit)

Lake Baikal, Russia

(the deepest lake in the world, seriously)

and I’ll wrap it up with Son Doong Cave, Vietnam, the largest cave in the entire world.

it puts anything Dagobah has to offer to absolute shame:

(seriously, the largest chamber is 660 feet high. you could jam a fucking skyscraper in there and still lose it) 

anyway I really like caves thanks for coming to my ted talk

[clementive-deactivated20150318]

In Which Diversity Isn't a Myth

Ok. I’m tired of the typical vampire, werewolf and fairy.I’m also tired of the occidental-centrism in mythology. Hence, this list. 

I tried to included as many cultural variants as I could find and think of. (Unfortunately, I was restricted by language. Some Russian creatures looked very interesting but I don’t speak Russian…) Please, add creatures from your culture when reblogguing (if not already present). It took me a while to gather all those sites but I know it could be more expansive. I intend on periodically editing this list. 

Of note: I did not include specific legendary creatures (Merlin, Pegasus, ect), gods/goddesses/deities and heroes.

Dragons

The Chinese Dragon

The Japanese Dragon

The Korean Dragon

The Vietnamese Dragon

The Greek Dragon

The Indian Dragon

The Polish Dragon

The Austrian Dragon

The British Dragon

The Ancient Dragon (Egypt, Babylon and Sumer)

The Spanish Basque Dragon

Of the Cockatrice (creature with the body of a dragon)

Alphabetical List of Dragons Across Myths (Great way to start)

Little creatures (without wings)

The Legend of the Leprechauns, The Leprechaun

Chanaque /Alux (the equivalent of leprechauns in Aztec/Mayan folklore)

Elves

Elves in Mythology and Fantasy

Elves in Germanic Mythology

Kabeiroi or Cabeiri (Dwarf-like minor gods in Greek mythology)

Norse Dwarves

The Myth of Loki and the Dwarves

Ten Types of Goblins

Goblins

Tengu: Japanese Goblins

Gnomes 

More on Gnomes

Pooka: an Irish phantom

Creatures with wings (except dragons)

Fairies

All sorts of Cultural Fairies

Fairies in Old French Mythology 

A Fairy List

Bendith Y Mamau (Welsh fairies)

Welsh Fairies

Peri (Persian fairies)

Yü Nü (Chinese fairies)

The Celtic Pixie

Angels in Judaism

Angels in Christianity

Hierarchy of Angels

Angels in Islam

Irish Sylph

Garuda (Bird-like creature in Hindu and Buddhist myths)

Bean Nighe (a Scottish fairy; the equivalent of a banshee in Celtic mythology)

Harpies

Spirited Creatures

Druids

Jinn (Genies in Arabic folklore)

Types of Djinns

Aisha Qandisha and Djinn in Moroccan Folklore

Oni (demons in Japanese folklore)

Nymphs

Spirits in Asturian Mythology

Valkyries

Lesovik

Boggarts: The British Poltergeist

Phantom black dogs (the Grim)

Demons in Babylonian and Assyrian Mythology (list)

Demons in the Americas (list)

European Demons (list)

Middle-East and Asia Demons (list)

Judeo-Christian Demons (list)

Nephilim, more on Nephilim

Mahaha (a demon in Inuit mythology)

Flying Head (a demon in Iroquois mythology)

Ghosts

Toyol (a dead baby ghost in Malay folklore)

Malay Ghosts

Yuki-onna (a ghost in Japanese folklore)

The Pontianak (a ghost in Malay mythology)

Funayurei (a ghost in Japanese folklore)

Zagaz (ghosts in Moroccan folklore)

Japanese Ghosts

Mexican Ghosts

Horse-like mythical creatures

Chinese Unicorns

Unicorns

The Kelpie (Could have also fitted in the sea creatures category)

The Centaur

The Female Centaur

Hippocamps (sea horses in Greek mythology)

Horse-like creatures (a list)

Karkadann, more on the Karkadann (a persian unicorn)

Ceffyl Dwfr (fairy-like water horse creatures in Cymric mythology)

Undead creatures

The Melanesian Vampire 

The Ewe Myth : Vampires

The Germanic Alp

The Indonesian Vampire

Asanbosam and Sasabonsam (Vampires from West Africa)

The Aswang: The Filipino Vampire

Folklore Vampires Versus Literary Vampires

Callicantzaros: The Greek Vampire

Vampires in Malaysia

Loogaroo/Socouyant: The Haitian Vampire

Incubi and Sucubi Across Cultures

Varacolaci: The Romanian Vampire

Brahmaparusha: The Indian Vampire

Genesis of the Word “Vampire”

The Ghoul in Middle East Mythology

Slavic Vampires

Vampires A-Z

The Medical Truth Behind the Vampire Myths

Zombies in Haitian Culture

Shape-shifters and half-human creatures (except mermaids) 

Satyrs (half-man, half-goat)

Sirens in Greek Mythology (half-woman and half-bird creatures)

The Original Werewolf in Greek Mythology

Werewolves Across Cultures

Werewolf Syndrome: A Medical Explanation to the Myth

Nagas Across Cultures

The Kumiho (half fox and half woman creatures)

The Sphinx

Criosphinx

Scorpion Men (warriors from Babylonian mythology)

Pooka: an Irish changelings

Domovoi (a shape-shifter in Russian folklore)

Aatxe (Basque mythology; red bull that can shift in a human)

Yech (Native American folklore)

Ijiraat (shapeshifters in Inuit mythology)

Sea creatures

Selkies (Norse mermaids)

Mermaids in many cultures

More about mermaids

Mermen

The Kraken (a sea monster)

Nuckelavee (a Scottish elf who mainly lives in the sea)

Lamiak (sea nymphs in Basque mythology)

Bunyip (sea monster in Aboriginal mythology)

Apkallu/abgal (Sumerian mermen)

An assemblage of myths and legends on water and water creatures

Slavic Water Creatures

The Encantado (water spirits in Ancient Amazon River mythology)

Zin (water spirit in Nigerian folklore)

Qallupilluk (sea creatures in Inuit mythology)

Monsters That Don’t Fit in Any Other Category

Aigamuxa, more details on Aigamuxa

Amphisabaena

Abere

Bonnacon

Myrmidons (ant warriors)

Troll, More on Trolls

Golems 

Golems in Judaism

Giants: The Mystery and the Myth (50 min long documentary)

Inupasugjuk (giants in Inuit mythology)

Fomorians (an Irish divine race of giants)

The Minotaur

The Manticore, The Manticore and The Leucrouta

The Ogre

The Orthus (two-headed serpent-tailed dog)

The Windigo

The Windigo Psychosis

Rakshasa (humanoids in Hindu and Buddhist mythology)

Yakshas (warriors in Hindu mythology)

Taqriaqsuit (“Shadow people” in Inuit mythology)

References on Folklore and Mythology Across the Globe

Creatures of Irish Folklore 

Folklore and Fairytales

An Overview of Persian Folklore

Filipino Folklore

Myths, Creatures and Folklore

Alaska Folklore

Spanish (Spain) Mythology

Mythical Archive

Mythology Dictionary

List of Medieval and Ancient Monsters

Native American Animals of Myth and Legends

Native American Myths

Bestiary of Ancient Greek Mythology

Mythology, Legend, Folklore and Ghosts

Angels and Demons

List of Sea Creatures

Yoruba Mythology

Ghosts Around the World, Ghosts From A to Z

Strange (Fantastic) Animals of Ancient Egypt

Egyptian Mythology

Creatures from West Africa

On the Legendary Creatures of Africa

Myths, Creatures and Folklore

References on writing a myth or mythical creatures

Writing a MYTHology in your novel?

How to Write a Myth

10 Steps to Creating Realistic Fantasy Creatures

Creating Fantasy Creatures or Alien Species

Legendary Creature Generator

Book Recommendations With Underrated Mythical Creatures

(I have stumbled upon web sites that believed some of these mythical creatures exist today… Especially dragons, in fact. I just had to share the love and scepticism.)

[girl-with-sandshoes-deactivated]

This is perfect for my latest project ^~^

[headraline]

Idk if it’s stupid or what, but felt like contributing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaciello

the Munaciello, a little trickster spirit from my hometown, can be benevolent or malevolent. The article in English isn’t quite accurate on wikipedia, but here’s a link tomost Neapolitan legends from the city website http://www.comune.napoli.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/EN/IDPagina/5654

[infiniteeight8]

OP, Thank you so much for putting this reference together. I’ve been working on an original novel that involves dragons from all over the world, and I’ve been having a hell of a time finding good information on non-European dragons.

All the other information is sure to be helpful for the future, as well, I am sure!

[termytheantisocialbutterfly]

May I contribute: la ciguapa (one of my personal favs)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciguapa

[criticalcorvids-blog]

Here we are!

This marks the beginning of this blog! This is currently run by two people, Crow and Jackdaw. This page is very much under construction and will likely change over time, and we may add more corvid admins in time!

As of now, we started this blog to be a place where we can state how we feel about movies, animated series, comics, whatever. Anything, really! We might get salty at times when it comes to a topic we happen to dislike greatly, but we also hope to be fairly light-hearted with our critique. None of what we say is intended to be hurtful or rude in any way; it is merely our opinion of the things we’ll be reviewing.