Hector Klein

I yap on my notes and then on tumblr

[mino-the-suneater]

I saw Spider-Man Brand New Day on the 29th and there's a part of the film that I keep thinking about and I know if I don't talk about it, I'll explode, so here's the (frantically put together and unedited) yap:

*Spoilers for Brand New Day*

Throughout this movie, Jean doesn't really seem to have much empathy for people, as she says "People are monsters, you should not trust them more than they trust you". Her mother abandoned her, and other than her sister, nobody every showed her any empathy, especially damage control who were trying to weaponise her. Her behaviour is a reaction to the way shes been treated.

When she sees Aunt May in Peter's head, it shows her a visual of a mother figure who had a child that had powers and she still chose to love him. Knowing people are capable of love isn't the same as being loved though, if anything, it could've made her feel more alone.

"I have no one"

"You have me"

Peter doesn't pause before that statement. Him being there for her isn't something he considers, its simply a factual statement for him. She does have him, because thats who Spider-Man is, and thats who Peter Parker is, someone who is there for people when they need it because that is what he was taught. He has great powers, and this is him executing the responsbility that comes with those powers. He understands what its like to be alone, so he wants to help her not be alone.

When Peter saves her from Frank's bullet and he tells her to go before she gets caught, she uses her powers for the first time to save someone's life. Not for fun, not to hurt someone, not for selfish purposes, but to keep somebody alive, her first heroic act is to keep him breathing so he doesn't die, something she does for the first person who showed her unconditional faith and empathy, despite all that she had done.

Anyway yeah I love this movie❤️

[mino-the-suneater]

I made a video analysing the first chapter of Haikyuu, if you like Haikyuu I think its an okay watch so try it out if you wanna.

It goes into the structure of Haikyuu's first chapter and how its able to convince the audience to stay+ How it shows the aspects of storytelling that Furudate uses in his writing.

Its nice, I hope.

I wanna make more stuff, especially about comics and manga.

[mino-the-suneater]

Spoilers for Fantastic Four: First Steps

Fantastic Four: First Steps was spectacular, amazing, one might even say...terrific.

What this movie does best is characterisation, all 4 of Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben feel so full of life and their dynamics feel just as alive, as if they've truly known each other for years before this.

Going character by character, I wanna first talk about Reed Richards. I adore the way he's written, he's someone who's pragmatic and logical but its not something he likes, rather an instinct borne simply from the way his brain is wired. I love this take on his "Smartest on the room" vibe because, just as he can figure out solutions, he's also the person who can recognise what the problem is before anyone else and also fully recognise how screwed they truly are. When he says "I don't know" in regards to solving the crisis, it truly means something because he's supposed to be the one with all the answers.

I also wanna talk about that little conversation he has with Franklin where he talks about not knowing what he is, and being willing to give the kid time to tell him himself at his own pace. It very much seems like a parent worried that their child could be suffering from the same physical or mental illness as them but being willing to wait it out and figure it out as the child does rather than trying to decipher it beforehand.

Then there's Sue Storm, who is and always has been the heart of this team. For once in a live action adaptation, we actually got to see how strong she is both emotionally and in-terms of her powers, and the movie was all the better for it. I love that she effectively functions as the team's diplomat as it showcases a strength that the others on the team don't have, the ability to resonate with people emotionally.

Sue's scene where she brings Franklin to the people and helps them understand her stance on WHY she will not give up her child is one of the best scenes in the movie and shows why she is this team's heart. It contrasts Reed's cold delivery on not knowing how he'll be able to save the world, as while she still says "I don't know what we're gonna do" she's still able to he reassuring and give people the hope they need to continue believing in the Fantastic Four.

Johnny Storm is my favourite character in this movie, and this adaptation of him is my personal favourite version of Johnny I've seen across film, animated series' and comics. The comedic aspects of his character are often showcased as him being somewhat mean or being a joker, however this movie instead directs that energy into him being someone who tries to lighten the mood or to help the room settle a bit. He's not mean, he's just the little brother you find a bit annoying sometimes but can't help adoring.

He's also not shown as incompetent and for once fully portrays the fact that he is a qualified astronaut and is in fact very knowledgeable. He is able to decipher an entire language from just one recorded statement, something everyone else undermined him too much to even assume he was capable of. Johnny also seems to possess a bit of Sue's natural empathy as, while being unable to properly describe it, he is able to read the Silver Surfer's expression and comprehend that she was being warm and empathetic and didn't come to Earth with complete apathy or hatred for its people.

Reed is this team's brain, without whom they wouldn't be able to produce the ideas and safety measures they create. Sue is its heart, who helps them stay steady and helps them communicate. Johnny is the team's soul that helps them stay lively and calm. So what does that make Ben?

I think Ben Grimm is this team's rock. While I do believe he gets the least to do this movie, I also believe that if helps portray him as the guy who's consistently there for his family while everyone is a bit chaotic. We do see hints of that self-resentment that he tends to have as seen in that monent where he stares at his reflection in the window of a store, but thats not the most definitive moment of his from the movie for me. The standout scene for his character was when he recognised from Reed's expression that Sue is pregnant. He very much acts like the older sibling that knows everyone inside out and who everyone relies on as the guy who'll be there for you no matter what. I do hope that in a possible sequel or maybe even in Avengers Doomsday, we get to see more of him shine as I did really like this version of the character.

Before I talk about the antagonists, there's an aspect of them that I really liked that I wanted to point out. I love the way that both the Surfer and Galactus sound. Shalla-Bal has this very metallic sounding voice that sounds like something you'd here from the inside of a cave, almost as if her voice is being echoing inside her body. Galactus booming voice on the other hand really does feel like it belongs to someone of his stature, like how a giant really would talk.

Now to the characters, I didn't care nor mind the fact that the Surfer was switched from Norrin-Rad to Shalla-Bal, my assumption always was that they're saving Norrin for use in the main MCU and that Shalla was a one-and-done for this alternate universe movie, however after experiencing this version of the character, I do genuinely hope that she sticks and is the main version that we end up with because I found the performance really captivating.

In her flashback we see her with a child, and while we don't know for sure, the assumption is that she sacrificed herself to save her world and that that is her own child whom she left in doing so. This contrasts well with Sue as she does the same thing in the end, giving up her own life to save the world and her child with it. This fact also adds to Shalla's eventual sacrifice as, in giving her own life up to push away Galactus, she prevents a situation where another child would he separated from its mother.

Galactus has been the villain I've been most excited to see ever since Thanos met his end in Endgame, so finally seeing him here, in all his purple, extremely tall glory, genuinely put a smile on my face. I like that he isn't portrayed as evil, rather as a simple function of nature, he is a predator who's pray just so happens to be planets that meet a certain requirement. He doesn't want to be doing this, it is simply a curse that he lives with, so when he sees an out in Franklin Richards, he wants to take it, whether it can be done by bartering for a planet, or by destroying the planet and taking the child otherwise.

I did really hope to see Doom proper in this film not just as a post-credit teaser for Doomsday. Every time we saw the empty Latveria seat in one of those UN gatherings I silently hoped that he'd walk in and we'd get to see him interact with the characters, even if it was just for a money as a throaway, however I'm also happy that he isn't here and this movie really can stand entirely on its own without a "This may not make sense here but it will in the future, trust" moment outside of the post-credits. This world feels complete even without him and this movie feels like something that I might even come back to watch at some point in the future, even when all the big events are over.

I watched this movie on release day but out of laziness its taken a while to post this, I may have forgotten some stuff I wanted to mention so I am sorry about that, but I might mention it if I recall it later.

For now all I can say is that this was in fact, a fantastic movie.

[mino-the-suneater]

SPOILERS FOR SUPERMAN(2025)

Kindness is the new Punk Rock

James Gunn's Superman movie is something that I've been excited for since it first got announced, and now that I've seen it I have a lot to say.

When Superman was created, the initial idea behind him was that of "The Champion of the Oppressed". A protector who saves everyone, especially those who society excludes. This is why I loved the fact that he was so insistent on the fact that he did nothing wrong in Jahanpur by saving those people. Remaining impartial is one thing, but Superman can't remain impartial when he sees an Injustice. If anyone is suffering he must help them, that is the core point of Superman.

I also loved Lois Lane. The emphasis on her journalistic capabilities and showing how much shes willing to do despite being only human. Her and the Daily Planet's abilities really shine and it shows how, especially in this world with how misinformation travels, journalism is really important because we need people who are willing to showcase the truth.

Growing up, I used to brush off Jimmy Olsen's character as being unimportant and didn't paticularly care about him, but between MAWS and now this movie, I've begun to truly appreciate the fun that comes with a character who gets himself into situations that can only be described as "Cool Uncle lore".

Then of course, there's Lex Luthor. While the core theme of this movie is kindness, I am truly impressed by Luthor's generational degree of hatred, committing straight up war crimes as long as it meant he could get to kill Superman. This guy analysed Superman's fighting style, made a clone of him, and came up with full on fighting game combos to beat him up.

Perhaps at some point Luthor will clone Superman again, this time a clone with its own consciousness or "Brain", with DNA taken from the smartest person he knows(Himself). Perhaps some sort of...Superboy?

What I liked about Luthor was that despite the money, despite the investments, despite starting a war and trying to gain  ownership of his own state that hes helping colonise, his main goal was wanting Superman dead. His detest for Metahumans and especially aliens like Superman feels very similar to how so many rich people and politicians detest minorities and immigrants, blaming everything on them and never acknowledging how their own willingness to bleed the world out for profit is the true root cause of everything.

The Boravia-Jahanpur conflict can be used as an analogy for many real-world situations, but I found the countries themselves very interesting too. A lot of the nomenclature surrounding Boravia is reminiscent of Russia ofcourse, but Jahanpur is intriguing because I've seen people say that its a middle-east equivelent, and while that can seem true in the sense that Boravia's treatment of it is akin to Israel towards Palestine, the name Jahanpur itself is more South Asian, with 'Pur' being a suffix literally meaning something like Town or Village. (This doesn't have any significance it was just a cool thing I wanted to point out)

Now to talk about the DC characters who were in this movie from OUTSIDE the Superman mythos.

Mr Terrific was...well..Terrific. He was a standout character and every scene with him made me wanna cheer outloud. Getting the scene of him beating up the guards at Luthor's teleporter base with the moving camera as we experience it how Lois would was so much fun.

Hawkgirl was fun, I enjoyed her character even though we got to see her less than the others, I think she'll get more to do in Peacemaker so I hope she shines well there.

Guy Gardner has never particularly been my favourite Green Lantern, and he wasn't here either...but thats what made him so fun, hes a prick and thats exactly what makes him entertaining and I love that.

Metamorpho didn't have the role I expected from him but seeing him show up at that final fight in Jahanpur because Superman asked made me really happy, because Superman's good actions inspiring other heroes is just what I love to see (Also the fake sun was so cool).

And of course theres the Engineer. Her personality isn't really what I expected having read the comics, but regardless, I loved the way way her powers worked and am very intrigued to see where this version of the character goes especially with how loyal she seems to Lex. I'm excited to see what this might mean for the adaptation of The Authority that we might get.

Back to Superman-lore related characters, I saw a lot of adversity online towards how Ma and Pa Kent were written and I really didn't get it because their more southern accents actually made everything they did feel a lot more kindly and innocent. I genuinely believe that these 2 raised a kid who believes in kindness above all else and says "Oh Golly" when things go wrong.

The El family's characterisation was...interesting. its certainly not what I expected and the idea of Superman's parents wanting him to conquer Earth seems less like them and more akin to Viltrumites from Invincible. What keeps me from seeing this as a negative is the fact that ALL we have about them is this one message, and I'm assuming the upcoming Supergirl movie is gonna give us more context and information about them that helps us better characterise this version of Kal-El's family and their ideals.

I liked the way this plot point was used though, using this quote from his parents to change Superman's public image and make him seem like a villain reminds me very much of people refusing to see other people as individuals and seeing them only through the prejudices they hold for their culture. This happens often with immigrants and it works well here because Superman is in fact an immigrant story.

I also love how it affects Clark, how in the end, he's still soothed by images of his parents, but instead of his biological parents its moreso the people who raised him, a point about how blood isn't always what defines us and nurture is often more significant than nature in terms of our personalities.

James Gunn's ability to bring a world to life really shines in this movie with every pocket of this world from Metropolis, to the Daily Planet, to the Kent's farm to even Luthorcorp all feel full of life in varying ways whether its due to things in passing or things we see happen. I'm really excited for what's to come after this with Peacemaker, Lanterns, Supergirl, and beyond.

In a world where people seem more distant and radicalised in prejudiced ways, Superman goes back to the characters roots and shows us the Man of Steel doing what he does best, fighting for the oppressed, doing good, saving lives, and inspiring others to do good as well.

If this is what James Gunn has to offer with his Superman, then I'm very much ready for what he'll do with other characters.

[mino-the-suneater]

Superman releases today and I'm really excited, I was never really a Superman fan growing up, only enjoying the character in shows, games and comics when he existed in proportion to other characters or stories where his role was inversed like in Injustice. The idea of Superman existing and everyone's relation to him in a story was more fascinating than his actual characterisation, this is why I enjoyed stuff like Injustice more as a kid compared to stuff where Supes was the main character.

Around last year, though, I needed more comics to read and went through Philip Kennedy Johnson's Warworld Saga, and for once, I actually got what made Superman interesting as a character in his own right as well.

Looking at stuff retroactively, I think I always thought of Superman as "Too basic" because I'd seen a version of the Superhero concept that had branched out so much since his creation that Superman himself felt kind of boring, but recently in the past year I've gained new appreciation for it, especially in the hype for this movie as the trailers and hype train genuinely got a reaction out of me that nothing has in a while.

As for the movie, while I'm excited about Superman himself and the main characters from his own mythos, I'm very interested to see what they do with The Engineer. I read Ellis and Millar's stuff on The Authority last year and am intrigued to see a character from it be utilised.

Beyond that, I'm also hyped for Mr Terrific, Hawkgirl, Guy Gardner, etc. I like the involvement of characters not particularly from the Superman mythos who let us know that the wider DC world also exists here because, even when I wasn't particularly a Superman enjoyer, I did enjoy his position in regards to this universe, who he is compared to everyone else, and how this existance affects them. I hope to see this explored well.

My original plan was to watch the Reeves films and then Man of Steel before watching this in order to Supermanmaxx before the film, but then, partially out of laziness and partially out of wanting a completely new unaffected experience, I decided to not do that. I want to see what this movie is in its own right and what it does wrong and right in its own way, not JUST in proportion to everything that came before.

I read the original 1938 Siegal and Shuster Action Comics stories of Superman and the (at the time) entirety of Absolute Superman, (among many other Superman comics), for an essay I was doing for a university assignment a few months back, so I have a pretty decent picture of the oldest and newest Superman stories, and I hope that this movie utilises this character in the ways that ends up in the leagues of the best of them and nowhere lower.

Anyway yeah, I hope the movie is good and I hope I have a lot to say about it so I can have a lot to say that I can throw up onto my notes and post it here.

[mino-the-suneater]

I played all of Pokemon Sun and Moon recently going through this story for the first time since like 2017 I think and I had some thoughts.

Throughout the game, there's this emphasis on community and culture with how the Island challenge isn't just some optional thing but rather a societal thing that all children go through as a right of passage.

Team Skull are the children who FAILED the island challenge and were unable to meet societal expectations, a home for those rejected by their people. I like how even the grunts show personality at times like the two girls talking about their tank tops or the guy who just goes "Yeah I ain't fighting you, I know my place."

Guzma is their leader and unlike other team leaders, the respect he commands isn't out of fear but rather out of a genuine affection that this community he formed has for him because he gave them a place when no one else did. He has this need to be seen as strong which is also interesting because he specialises in Bug-types which are usually the weakest type, and his ace is Golisopod, a Pokemon with the ability to run away if it takes too much damage.

Despite this Guzma wants to be respected, an ideal which causes him to follow Lusamine, the first person to ever see him as "Strong" in any way, into a completely unknown dimension. Its the affects of a sort-of-parental figure treating him in a positive way and that deeply moves him.

Speaking of Lusamine, she's my personal favourite Pokemon antagonist because of the several layers that her character has.

A woman who lost her husband in a wormhole accident causing her to go insane and obsess over ways to get him back even if it means torturing a Pokemon. Then her two kids steal both said Pokemon and another one designed specifically to destroy the alien-like Pokemon that came from the wormhole

My favourite detail is that Nihilego, the Ultra Beast that Lusamine is so obsessed with, looks very similar in design to Lillie. Meaning either Lusamine, even after disowning her daughter, became obsessed with a creature that looked exactly like her, OR she made sure that Lillie always resembled Nihilego (I believe the 2nd one because it adds to how Lusamine's controlling nature towards her children resembles Nihilego's described ability to mind-control people.)

Also I like how the name "Nihilego" consists of "Nihil" meaning "Nothing" and ego which when combined makes it sound like a being with no personality or "Ego" to get in the way of Lusamine's control unlike how her own children chose to not listen and instead run away.

Of Lusamine's children I've always really liked Gladion. His tough-guy persona isn't him trying to hide any emotions, rather its him taking everything dead-seriously and showing a need to get stronger to make sure he never has to run away again and can protect those he cares about.

I've seen a lot of people complain over the years about how unlike the earlier games, modern games don't give us proper full-blown evil rivals like Blue or Silver, but these games contrast that by giving the protagonist a proper friend-group. In Sun and Moon, Hau as a rival may seem too upbeat and annoying at times to some people (Not me) but he also perfectly balances out Gladion's "I need to take everything seriously" persona by being more relaxed and optimistic.

Also another detail I like is that when Type:Null evolves, Gladion names it "Silvally" with the "Ally" part showing that Gladion doesn't see this creature as some robotic killer designed for a purpose but rather his partner that he wants to fight alongside

Then there's Lillie, who in her own way, is just as much the protagonist of Sun and Moon as you the player. She starts the story as this scared runaway living with her adopted parents while trying to harbor a being with godlike potential in her bag. She's your very first friend and goes through a very powerful journey of her own, learning to express in her own ways and getting over her fear of Pokemon battles.

The story of Sun and Moon doesn't end when you beat the Champion like gens1-4, and it doesn't end when you beat the evil team like in gen 5, rather it keeps going as you are thrown a festival in Melemele Island with all the characters present. You and Lillie return to the bridge where you to met and finally go past it, catching Tapu Koko in the process.

The last proper scene is a goodbye to Lillie, with her heading to Kanto, the same region that its implied the protagonist from, and the same region that Professor Kukui once went to. The same way you truly started your journey in Alola, her's will start in Kanto.

I found it interesting that when Nebby evolves into Solgaleo/Lunala and doesn't want to go away, she doesn't say that "Oh you want to stay with me?" rather she says "Us" as she believes you, the protagonist, to be just as important to Nebby as she is. Her story isn't one of someone learning to be kind, but rather someone choosing to be kind in SPITE of everything she's endured. Despite the abuse, and despite the rejection from her mother, she still chooses to walk alongside you into Ultra Space just to scold her, and when Lusamine is weak and beaten after being separated from Nihilego, she still chooses to be kind, wanted to get stronger not only so she can fight her own battles, but also so she can help her mother.

Anyway yeah thats a lot of the thoughts I had, not all of them I'll prolly eventually think of stuff to say about other characters like Kukui and stuff like Z-Crystals and what they might mean but for now I wanna think about other stuff.

I'll prolly yap about Alola more when I play Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon and finish out all of the 3DS games, having played XY, ORAS, and SM in the past year.

[mino-the-suneater]

*SPOILERS FOR HAIKYUU FOR AFTER THE DUMPSTER BATTLE MOVIE*

There's this part of the Hinata Beach Volleyball saga in Haikyuu where at the end, Hinata's teammate gets married right before Hinata returns to Japan.

When I read that I thought "Awww it finally paid off" as if we'd known this character for like a hundred or so chapters, but that made me realise that we'd only been introduced to this guy like a few chapters ago, so why does this hit so hard.

Haikyuu is really good at making you care about its characters because it makes an effort to get u to spend a lot of time inside their headspace and learn small details about them that, while insignificant, are often the things you only learn about people when you've known them for a long time

This story has an unbelievably large cast, yet every character matters regardless of how their team got beaten or what their role was.

The main point of Haikyuu is about human connection. Not connection in the sense that if u have good teamwork, you'll always win, but in the sense that the connections we form with people are often what makes any activity (including volleyball) so worthwhile.

Some connections are formed with teammates, but many are often people on the other side of the net. One of my favourite scenes is when Hinata denounces the idea of wanting to be "A Little Giant" and tells Hoshiumi he can keep it. He gets annoyed at first and then laughs. Two people who have never met before and have no prior relation other than filling the same niche in their teams, and here they are having this deeply profound moment

Everyone matters, maybe we won't end up in the same place, but we're all affected by everyone we meet, and the influence they have on us is carried across our lives.

The last point of this yap is about the MSBY Jaguars v Schweiden Adlers match.

Throughout Haikyuu, because these characters were in High School and not yet all that experienced, they made a lot of mistakes and we were very forgiving of it as the audience cuz that is the scale that we understood this sport at.

However, once we get to the actual professional match, the training wheels are completely off, and everyone is playing at full throttle.

My favourite aspect of this match is that its only the first game in a full season, its the end of the story yes but as far as the in-universe fans are concerned theres an entire season of volleyball to go, but because of the players that are here, and the fact that the audience consists of so many of the characters who we've been with throughout this story, it feels like the biggest possible game we can comprehend.

We get to learn a lot abt Hoshiumi, Atsumu, Kageyama, Ushiwaka, and even Sakusa, who up until this point, was just a named character who we didn't even know much about other than the fact that he hates germs and is a good player.

The story ends with Hinata and Kageyama on a team together, up against Oikawa, a situation this story is all too familiar with, and it's the best possible way we could've ended it.

[mino-the-suneater]

Had this account for 5-ish years and done absolutely nothing on it, so now I'm gonna use it to yap about stories I read and whatever patterns or details I find in them.