don't touch that dial yet!

we're just getting started. - an analysis + review blog

[reverssentiment]

Asgore is the first character in Deltarune who's actually treated the Dark Worlds as a lotus-eater Matrix dreamscape, and this is presented to us pretty unequivocally as a miserable moral failure on his end.

His eyes remain firmly fixed on "reality," and he's disinterested in and neglectful of his "perfect family" more or less from its inception. At best, he's "playing along." When Asgore fantasizes, it's about the Light World. Unreal scenarios, sure – parading their body through the streets, getting back with his ex-wife, skateboards with Azzy – but never the Dark World itself. Everything he does, he does in order to capture and kill the Knight, after which he intends to leave the Dark World.

And it sucks! It makes the Seven-Colored Flowers miserable (and we see way more of them than Asgore; our sympathies align naturally with them over him). It doesn't make Asgore happy either, and it certainly doesn't help him fulfill his equally-implausible nostalgic visions of being big hero copman again.

Escapism, nothing. This is why I can't take seriously anyone who suggests Susie's living situation is her running away from the real world. The Dark may be a dream, but treating it as a valueless illusory prison doesn't actually get you any closer to reality.

[redstonedust]

dess holiday deltarune is honestly a good study in characterization. a character we haven't met but the fandom has a pretty unified mental image of because of how she decorates her room and how she impacts the people around her. and obviously deltarune isn't the first piece of media ever to do this but it's like. a really solid beginners example imo. if you have any plans to write stories (especially games) you should always be thinking about the ways you can get across character without them needing to say anything. it's good design, chief.

[rylandsgrace]

#Happy Labor Day to Shrek I guess

[taavicleric]

So, this scene is specifically a fuck off to famously anti-union Disney. But it goes beyond the dialogue. Look at Puss on Shrek's shoulders. Puss's movement is counter balancing Shrek's so that he stays up there. It's a lot of movement, a lot of animation, for a character who isn't talking. Every time they have to animate that feather in his hat, that's extra work, extra care, extra money, and that's just one element of the work, there. The animators could have chosen to put Puss on Donkey- look at Donkey's relatively small amount of movement compared to Shrek or Puss. But they didn't, they put him on Shrek's shoulders and they animated him. Why might they do this as a fuck-you to Disney? Well. Disney is not only anti-union, they are cheap as fuck. There's a lot of recycled rotoscoping in Disney movies in the 1970s because they were cheaping out on the process so they didn't have to pay rotoscopers. There are probably other examples, but, they recycle their own work a lot, and I assume most Tumblrinas have probably seen that video of the scenes from Robin Hood and Jungle Book and 101 Dalmations directly compared with scenes from Snow White and several animated cartoons that the rotoscoping was taken from. The reason that Don Bluth left Disney to start his own company (not Dreamworks, but, this is the example that I have) was because on The Rescuers, there were a lot of examples of the whites of eyes not being painted in- you can see it a LOT with Bernard, especially in action sequences. Don was told that the reason for this was that it was too expensive. He thought it looked like what it is, unprofessional and unfinished for a company that's allegedly got Disney money and Disney quality, so he went off and did the math and was like, "It doesn't cost shit." And Disney told him to shut up and stop colouring in the whites of the eyes. So he left. And you can see the kind of "needless" art he did in movies like The Land Before Time and The Secret of NIMH where there's a LOT of attention to detail in the art and in the animation.

We're seeing the same thing here with Shrek and Puss. While talking about union protections for union workers, in a nod intended to stick it to Disney, they are showing animators, "Look. We didn't need to animate this scene like this, you know this. But we did. We spent the money. We're pro union and we didn't cheap out."

[loumandliker]

it is SO FUNNY when you’re watching a show with horses in it and within the plot of the show the horses are “”””upset””” but the way they communicate this is by placing a nervous nickering sound bite over what is clearly a calm horse placidly performing a practiced trick

[loumandliker]

like clearly this is the correct and humane way to pretend a horse is upset and unhappy but it’s soooo funny like this guys ears aren’t even pinned back!!! he’s just vibing!!! dude did the least amount of rearing to get his apple treats and he can see his handler right behind the camera already reaching into the treat bag!! he’s getting a good grade in being a good little boy and his mommy is going to be so proud

[fieldbears]

See also: every “scummy sewer rat” used as set dressing in modern tv and film is a healthy, chubby lil boi with a nice shiny coat bc he lives a blessed little rat life full of fruits and nuts and tummy scritches

[ahsoka-in-a-hood]

It's so deeply embedded in how Murderbot sees itself that it exists in a society with both construct and human slavery, and that it's role has frequently been that of overseer of human slavery. There are so many layers to it's own identity within an oppressive system when it's been both a victim and an enforcer. It calls itself Murderbot. It doesn't remember how many people it's killed, because of the mindwipes. It identifies itself with the word the people who are afraid of it would use. The thing that pushed it to hack it's governor module and the thing that haunts it the first two books is that it doesn't know if it killed a specific bunch of people on purpose or not. Because it does have hate for humans and it does take pleasure in violence sometimes. It's been the very real monster in people's stories. It's been the boot on their kneck. That's under it's skin. It can't just sort the world into humans and constructs. It knows what it's like to crush a human. It knew that before it knew much else.

It doesn't trust it's own kind. That's not just because it's internalized a lot of predjudice. It doesn't entirely trust itself either.

It's so... it's not just that it wants good people to exist. It's that it can only look for them and find them outside of the system it came from. It's so contemptuous in it's own narration of the people on the ship bound for a indentured servitude, but Mensah picks up on the truth anyway. "You wanted to help those people" "I couldn't have helped them" It's not a revolutionary. It doesn't imagine dismantling the corporation rim. It just wants to neither be hurt or made to hurt people. It tries not to get attached to lost causes. Sometimes it does anyway.

Everything it is, everything it does, has been forged out of being the oppressed and the oppressor at the same time. and anyway I think about that sometimes

[thoodleoo]

i know i said i did not want to talk about the nolan odyssey but i do have one more nodyssey post in me. i actually think the idea of odysseus understanding his story as existing both in and out of a historic timeframe is a fun way to handle the liminality caused by the story being part of an extensive oral tradition. however having him say "our age of bronze is collapsing" is perhaps not the way i would have done that

[treecitysessions]

[trangoldin]

[mrskayathefrog]

Here is the podcast (audio only), here is the text (the top text is Chinese, scroll down for English)

[fipindustries]

i really im absolutely astounded at the phenomenal job that MIB did not to be racist against aliens, despite being a movie about secret agents chasing evil aliens. that scene where jay helps an alien mother to give birth is probably one of the most humanizing moments for an Other ive seen in a movie ever.

[fipindustries]

like it grabs the body snatcher trope from the cold war "aliens are all around you, hidden in diguzise, they could be any one of us!" and then it says "and theyre just people, theyre literally just people trying to live their lives and thats fine"

[fipindustries]

you literally have a whooe scene where a cop stands out because he says "i dont care how menacibg or threatning someone looks im not going to shoot them if there is a reasonable explination for what theyre doing, one is sneezing and one is just doing excercise", and that is the guy that gets aproved to join MIB.

[phaeton-flier]

The movie has a real love for NYC and immigrant culture as a part of that. The opening scene where K welcomes the undocumented immigrants to the United States. One alien greets another and says he's ordered him pierogi. A lot of them are refugees from their home worlds who just want to survive.

[bluberimufim]

I love that opera sits in this limbo where it's extremely well-known but not really beyond a surface level recognition, so you get commercials for makeup or whatever to the tune of the I Hate Women So Much It's Unreal aria

[forthegothicheroine]

#in the first bridgerton book daphne describes her crush feelings as if her heart is playing the queen of the night aria from the magic flute#which i can totally see if you have never found out what the words mean. very high and fluttery.#but the lyrics are along the lines of THE VENGEANCE OF HELL BOILS IN MY HEART. IF YOU DON'T MURDER THAT MAN I WILL DISOWN YOU.#and i laughed so hard i had to put the book down

via @tophatandboots

[jackironsides]

oh my god??

@lymeandcoconut

#lmaooooo #my fave is that episode of white collar where neil is doing a theft #and the music they play over it is leporello's 'here's the list of all the hundreds of women my boss has fucked' aria from don giovanni #it's supposed to just sound grand and sophisticated but the guy is singing about how DG fucks tall women short women #fat women skinny women princesses and peasants he fucks them all! #and here's the numbers broken down by nationality! #he's fucked over 1000 women in spain you know!

#oh and he's singing all this to a former conquest who tracked DG down because he promised to marry her then ditched her #anyway it's a lot

[notformywings]

[witchsteria]

i do think what gets ignored about carrie as a character is that she’s an incredibly easy target to bully; she’s a chubby, sheltered acne ridden teenage girl who wears frumpy grandma clothes and regurgitates the jesus freak shit her violently abusive mother tells her. she has violent thoughts about her classmates and is uncomfortable to be around. she’s far more interesting being a victim that’s somewhat uncomfortable to be in the head of than a tragic waif. she’s not a martyr, she’s a child and a child who’s been victimised her whole life shouldn’t have to be kind and angelic to be recognised as a victim. suffering teenage girls shouldn’t just be presented on screen as toned down glamorous thin ophelias, suffering teenage girls can be fat and poor and think violently. i do think we need to examine why culturally we need teenage girls to be beautiful and kind to valorise their suffering and treat it as bad

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Emily Wilson has inadvertently created a fascinating new way to categorize basically any visual media ever made

[bookishhyena]

One thing I think people often overlook about Aku: I sometimes see people call him an incompetent cartoon villain because he talks too much, runs away, or sends henchmen after Jack.

But I think that's judging him by the ending of the story instead of by the events as they happen.

Aku's main objective wasn't simply to kill Jack. It was to make sure Jack could never return to the past. And... he actually succeeded.

For a thousand years. He didn't just throw Jack into the future and hope for the best. He systematically destroyed the time portals, until the last one was gone.

That moment broke Jack completely. By Season 5, Jack himself had accepted that he was trapped in the future. He had failed his life's mission and even contemplated ending his own life.

Objectively, that's not the work of an incompetent villain.

People often say, "But Jack won in the end."

Yes... because of Ashi.

And that's exactly the point. Aku had no idea Ashi even existed until the end of Season 5. He certainly couldn't predict that:

• The high priestess drank his essence and bore children

• one of the Daughters would reject her upbringing

• fall in love with Jack

• awaken a time-travel ability inherited from Aku himself

• and become the key to returning to the past.

Those were extraordinary, unforeseen events. Without Ashi, Jack had no known way back.

Aku certainly has flaws—he's arrogant, theatrical, talks too much, and sometimes lets his ego get in the way.

But calling him incompetent ignores one huge fact: For almost the entire story, his plan actually worked.

That's one of the reasons I find him such a fascinating villain. He's funny, over-the-top, sometimes ridiculous... but he's also a ruler who maintained his empire for a thousand years and came frighteningly close to achieving a permanent victory.

That's why I think the significance of the last time portal scene is often overlooked.

At that point, Jack simply couldn't return to the past anymore. Ashi—and everything that happened afterward—was completely unforeseen, and certainly not something Aku could reasonably have anticipated. 😅

[ckret2]

All of which is true; and to add on to your points re: Aku's competence,

I sometimes see people call him an incompetent cartoon villain because he talks too much, runs away, or sends henchmen after Jack.

talks too much

Do you know who talks too much? Jack. Aku escapes in ep 1 because Jack was bantering instead of killing him & Jack wins in the last ep by not stopping to talk.

When has talking too much ever caused a problem for Aku?

MAYBE the last ep? But his mistake is only 1/2 gloating before killing Jack; the other 1/2 is procrastinating the kill too long.

90% of the time he's "talking too much," he's talking to himself, at home, alone. When he's talking to somebody, he isn't distracted—he immediately reacts to threats and attacks. (He'll even cut himself off mid-evil laugh just because he thinks he might sense something amiss. Keen situational awareness.) He's never accidentally given away important info while monologuing. He's never lost a battle due to pausing to gloat. He's never had an enemy escape a trap because he was busy explaining his evil plan.

So in what way, exactly, does talking "too much" impact his competence as a villain?

runs away

THIS IS PROOF THAT AKU'S A SMART VILLAIN.

Outside Jack finding a portal (which you addressed), there's ONLY ONE WAY Aku can lose: if Jack stabs him a lot. That's it.

And so, Aku's most reasonable long-term strategy is... making sure Jack can't stab him a lot. Whether or not Aku wins against Jack, as long as he stays out of melee range, he'll never lose.

Plus, look at how their battles go. In all their fights, Aku only draws blood once. Jack's sword carves through Aku like a flamethrower through tissue paper. The one time Aku has the upper hand during a battle is when he's got Jack's sword.

Aku's not a bad fighter, as we see in Warrior Woman, Zombies, and Jack vs Aku. But his skills and powers are useless when Jack's pointing the sword at him. So like, what would happen if Aku kept fighting and DIDN'T run away?

He'd die. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If somebody drops a 5 ton safe over your head, are you a coward if you step out of the way rather than try to catch it? Is catching it courageous and honorable? No. Catching it is stupid. Stepping out of the way is the absolute minimum threshold of common sense. Aku has common sense.

You know what an incompetent villain would do? "I'll fight him for I am unstoppable and all-powerful! He cannot possibly defeat me!" or some arrogant BS like that. Aku openly admits more than once that he can't beat the sword and that's why he won't fight it.

or sends henchmen after Jack.

(road work ahead voice) Uh, yeah? I sure hope he does. And the alternative is... what?

Here's the thing about henchmen: they're not Aku! And therefore, they're expendable! If you're playing chess and wanna take out the enemy queen, it's better to lose every single knight, bishop, rook, and pawn on the board than to lose the fucking king. If you lose the fucking king the game's over.

Once again, the fact that Aku sends other people after Jack—and in fact, immediately sets things up so that people will autonomously go after Jack—is proof that he's a reasonable and intelligent villain, not an incompetent one.

You know what an incompetent villain would do? "He's my nemesis! No one's allowed to kill him but me!" Aku does not give a shit who does it, he just wants the guy dead.

tl;dr - even if Aku hadn't achieved his main goal of destroying all the time portals, most of the reasons people accuse him of being a bad villain are either irrelevant or actually the exact reasons he's a very good one.

[wiltkingart]

from the bottom of my heart: just because something makes you uncomfortable doesn't mean it shouldn't be allowed to exist

[ischleepzzz]

"But what about <thing that literally kills people>?"

[firedragon1321]

This was on a non rebloggable post so I'm setting it free.

[brialavellan]

Love how for some ppl, "following canon" is higher on the priority list than, say, making sure the canon isn't fucking awful re: marginalized groups.

[brialavellan]

Ok now I'm done.

[niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian]

So, some deleted scenes from the Aang movie are gradually being released by people that were on the animation staff, one was just released this week one regarding a alternate take of the action scene between Tagah and the gaang while Aang was getting the staff. Man, as much as that was thrilling, I can see why they toned it down in the final version overall.

Not only did it look easier to follow compared to the final cut, but they also showed the guys getting absolutely SLAUGHTERED by this dude, and I don't say that lightly.

I'm gonna put a quick paraphrase version of it just in case the video eventually gets taken down.

The fight starts with Tagah and Katara in their part of the fight, Girl is blocking, dodging, and weaving, throwing different attacks, but Tagah is on her heels like a hunting dog.

He comes upon her, punches her right in the stomach, and nearly tries to grab at I'm assuming her face, Sokka, comes in and slices his hand with his boomerang, Zuko arrives and they all take turns trying to take him out, but to no avail.

Soon after, Toph comes in and throws massive bolders at him, Tagah sees this and goes after her. She straight up takes a rasengan attack to the chest and is instantly dead as she falls to the ground with the trio witnessing it in shock.

He goes after Zuko next, choke slams him to the ground, and rasengans his chest too, his hand falling limply to the ground. THEN THEY SHOW TAGAH TURNING AROUND WITH ZUKO'S BLOOD ON HIS FACE. HOLY SHIT.

Immediately, he goes after the water tribe sibs. They're dodging the attacks the best they can, but Tagah ends up pushing Katara away while Momo flies in to come to her aid (you go little fuzzy king) , Sokka is unfortunately caught by the throat and is being lifted up, practically begging and pleading for Katara to run before Tagah kills him too.

Poor girl is distraught, crying and blood running down her face while Momo looks at her worryingly. She quickly locks in and pulls one last trick up her sleeve by making a jagged spear of ice for a weapon, but it only cuts a part of Tagah's face before he delivers the final blow.

This dude hits this girl so hard, part of the cliffside they were on breaks apart as she's launched towards the beach and rolls into the water.

Like....wow. That's sole hard-core brutality in a fight if I've ever seen.

[derrickwildsun-deactivated20250]

That video of Alex Hirsch reading S&P notes for Gravity Falls conveys a few things to me:

1) the U.S. entertainment industry (especially animation) is run by older conservative types who make up offensive terms and get really mad about them.

2) the people who run Disney would be the first to fall in line with a fascist regime.

3) most of the media we consume is tailor-made and watered-down to appeal to the tastes of older, deeply religious conservative audiences.

4) conservatism, not the left, is and always has been the biggest voice of censorship in American culture.

[sci-fantasy]

J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5, was before that a producer and writer for a number of cartoons in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s (The Real Ghostbusters and the original She-Ra, most notably). After a few years of dealing with the censors and their obsession with finding Satanism (or at least looking for Satanism to further political agendas) he wrote an article about the whole corrupt and bullshit system.

And published it in Penthouse, to force those same censors to buy a skin mag. The editor there asked, why Penthouse?

That one is from his autobiography, Becoming Superman. See also:

(As he goes on to say, he’s never worked in animation again–he’s effectively been blacklisted by the cartoon industry.)

[ivy-michaels]

Every time something like this comes up, I remember two stories about making media. The first is about movies, and comes from Quentin “Feet Man” Tarantino.

When he was making Pulp Fiction, he was worried that the MPAA would object to the high level of violence in the film, so he shot a bunch of extra-gory stuff that he didn’t actually want in the film, and added it in before submitting it to the MPAA. Predictibly, they asked him to cut most of it (without even commenting on some of the things that had him worried, like the bits of Marvin’s skull that lodge in Samuel L. Jackson’s hairpiece). The resultant cuts were actually more permissive than he’d expected, so he cut a little more and submitted it, and it got passed with an R.

The second story is about that artist on Morrowind whose name escapes me (I’m not a big ES fan tbh) who figured out that if he made two creature designs, one weird and what he wanted, and one even weirder, he could get Todd Howard to agree to just about anything by showing him the whopper first, then going back and “working” for another few hours on a second, “toned-down” version, and it worked every time.

The reason I bring these up is that the thing that drives censors isn’t some extant physical rubrick of what is and isn’t acceptable, it’s the idea that they can have absolute power over someone else’s creative work. It’s about the social dominance of the interaction.

There is nothing so innocent, so clean, that a censor will not find some fault with it. Because they must find something wrong with it to justify their existence, and because it makes them feel powerful.

This is true of all censorship.

[electricpurrs]

i FEEL like some of glados characterization is lost when the jokes about her circle around fitting the "dommy step on me sexy + intelligent + evil/cruel" archetype not like she isnt evil or intelligent or sexy but i do think i greatly enjoy her character more when i get to remember she is a little silly. she is mean and cruel by making up the most elaborate and stupid sounding insults ever. she has an extreme grudge against you which she insists shes not mad about while mentioning the fact every two minutes. shes madly obsessed with a woman who never responded to a word shes ever said. most of the shit she says is just straight up ridiculous. shes constantly battling intense feelings of loneliness while refusing to admit to anyone she could ever want company or affection. she is described by the creators as "throwing fits like an angry child". glados IS a little bit pathetic and silly and a very funny and very sad character. shes a woman of multitudes