Media Side Blog

I apparently talk a lot about shows and other media I like here. Enjoy, I suppose.

[rowens-review-corner]

Main blog: @rgthegothlord

This is really just a blog about films/shows/miscellaneous media, aesthetically pleasing things, and stuffs like that. For random check out the main blog.

I'm also super in love with my s/o here too.

[genericpuff]

i can't even come up with an adequate enough comparison to describe the second-hand embarrassment i'm feeling at this moment, all that's coming to mind is that time i threw up in the school hallway in 5th grade and that was still easier to cope with than this

[genericpuff]

here's the thing, i deadass do not care if it's actually a good film, objectively or subjectively or otherwise.

a lot of people are praising it and probably for good reason! i'm not gonna pretend like Nolan isn't an amazing director / screenwriter when Inception is one of my favorite movies of all time.

but whether or not it's a well-made film is beside the point.

the point is that it was funded by Greece taxpayer dollars and yet couldn't even be bothered to hire Greek actors/actresses. or give a damn about researching and portraying Ancient Greek dialects and clothing and weaponry with any respect or effort.

it's not my responsibility to get angry on behalf of Greek peoples because I am not Greek and so you could argue this is not my circus, not my monkeys. and the last thing I wanna do is speak over Greek voices, of which there are MANY who are sharing their justified disdain for this film.

but I'd like to think I know a little thing or two about cultural appropriation and the harm that Hollywood has done in tokenizing and fetishizing and profiting off other culture's media without ever giving back to the culture that is still alive. Greece is not Atlantis, it's not like it's some long-forgotten city of myth that we can only make assumptions or best guesses about, its land and its people are still here and we're ignoring them in favor of taking the easy way out and hiring Tom Holland and Zendaya and putting them in Spirit Halloween clothing so they can recite a 2026 script that cuts out major elements of the original story and uses modern language, not because it's actually set in modern day, but because clearly the scriptwriters were too lazy or weren't confident that 2026 audiences would be able to appreciate antiquity-stylized language.

and when this movie makes hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, there's zero guarantee any of it will go back into the Greek economy. at best maybe they'll get a tourism boom from American consumers who only perceive Greece as a movie set akin to Disney World and not an actual country.

I don't give a fuck about the movie's objective quality. I don't care if people love the movie or hate it. I give a fuck about what it represents as yet another bastardized Hollywood spectacle of cultural tourism and appropriation.

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

[ivy-michaels]

if you've never engaged with a creative art on a regular basis you need to understand that it requires concerted effort to get into "the groove" to make something and every second that it takes to get into that groove causes physical pain, but the only thing worse than doing it is not doing it.

[purlty23]

[formerlyluckymanticore]

Writing is so easy! I says with joys. I was then shot 57 times

[appayummytummy]

zukka are bi4bi. i feel like i never see anyone talk about bi4bi homosexual relationships. whatever it is, zukka have it.

[ankle-beez]

me and my army of six to seven trans and gay furries on our way to defend the digital circus finale (we're the only ones who seemingly had enough media literacy skills left to understand what it was saying)

[rowens-review-corner]

Please don't forget the nonbinary writers!! I swear I understood everything.

[homunculus-argument]

The Odyssey but retold as a low-stakes modern adventure of one guy out with his girlfriend leaving the bar with his buddies to do just one (1) simple thing real quick, it'll take like 15 minutes tops, he'll be right back, but then some bullshit happens and the trip keeps getting more complicated as more bullshit keeps happening while he just tries to get back to the bar because he promised his girlfriend that he'd get back and he knows that she's still there because she told him she'd wait there.

And by the time he finally gets back it's almost 3 am and the bar is about to close while she's sitting there stone cold sober, surrounded by 5 drunk guys unsuccessfully trying to convince her to give up on waiting for him and go home with one of them instead. And the guy shows up to proceed to beat the shit out of them before explaining himself to her like hey sorry bullshit kept happening, my phone fell into a storm drain and my wallet got stolen when I was trying to find someone who'd borrow me a phone so I could call and

[thekijs]

His girlfriend had been fending off the 5 drunk guys for most of the evening by explaining that even if she was going to ditch her boyfriend, she can't possibly leave without finishing her beer, which she is keeping perpetually full via careful sleight of hand where she's just pouring it back and forth into and out of the pitcher.

However the drunk guys are also drinking, and eventually she can't afford to buy another pitcher for the table so she can't keep up the ever-full beer glass trick. At this point she has to resort to setting up the pool trick shot that she's never seen anyone but her boyfriend pull off, and says she'll leave with whoever manages the shot first.

That buys her another hour or so and then, finally, her boyfriend makes it back. He looks like shit, hair down and just a mess, he's wearing an entirely different jacket that he got from an alley, and barely recognizable—especially to 5 guys who've been drunk for hours now. He lurks for a minute, finds out what's going on, and proceeds to pull off the trick shot first try. Throws the jacket off, fixes his hair with a hair tie his girlfriend lends him, finally looks like himself again, and THEN beats the shit out of them with the pool cue.

[weaselle]

yuh i was there, that's how it happened

[rowens-review-corner]

Lowkenuinely might adapt this

[jakebakingbaconpancakes]

I love you, Alex

[rowens-review-corner]

I would just like to say that the @gooseworx hate that is spreading across the internet is so forced and pretty irriational. The ending to The Amazing Digital Circus is supposed to he bittersweet and open ended. There was never gonna be a concrete answer and a single villain for you all to hate. The problem was too complex for a neat bow to be slapped on it.

(I don't think the ending was perfect either but it's a lot better than y'all are making it out to be.)

[rowens-review-corner]

Film Critique: Shang -Chi

The film starts with a flashback and has subsequent ones that end up filling in the blanks in the story. It feels like the awkward retelling of your cool adventure with your friends. Which is what the movie turned out to be in the end. This story spans centuries but connects well to the broader focus of the MCU. You can see the Emil Blonsky & Wong story, which ends up in She-Hulk (2022), being shown slightly in this movie. Along with an insight into Iron Man 3 and the “Mandarin”.  The effective plot and storyline have made this movie well-rounded both on its own and within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The editing works seamlessly with the story and theme. This story is centered in the modern era, but also has attachments to ancient China and you can hear it within the score and soundtrack. Comedic timing is utilized as well. The theme is about living up to your potential and at pivotal points in the story, the score comes in to fill the emotional spot in the scenes. With the help of the editing team all over the moving parts in this film come together into a cohesive work of art. 

Is the cinematography effective? I would say it is. While writing this section I paused on what could be the master shot. It is a wide-angle shot, a pretty good distance from the characters. There is a bright light in the area where the characters are standing but just outside that area, where the camera is positioned, it is dark. Leaving us to focus on what is happening in the center of the scene. The special effects on the water freeze it there for a split second before we cut to the camera positioned in the middle of where the characters are standing. I think that using the master shot between takes was an important move to make, showcasing the area. It allows us a chance to breathe what is about to happen. The scenes before were all back-and-forth shots between characters talking, not taking in the rooms and spaces the characters are in. This shot, however, shows a shift in the story as the plot fills in the holes. 

I have mentioned earlier how the score and soundtrack are indicative of the story and period. Scenes that include the mother are often accompanied by a soft instrumental that is reminiscent of the wind, which was used heavily in her culture's fighting style. The film utilizes a modern EDM style of music when presenting new locations, like San Francisco, Macau, and the Ten Rings Fortress. A recurring theme throughout the music is the difference between what is perceived to be soft (the mother’s side) and rough (the father’s side). The score and soundtrack are cohesive and function effectively with the rest of the movie, whether it is more in the background or foreground.

Yes, there are many examples of special effects throughout the film. At the beginning of the film when the mother and father meet, they’re fighting with ancient god magic and alien technology so the fight needed to feel supernatural. The way it was handled was phenomenal. I felt as though I was there witnessing this scene firsthand. Every other use of the special effects is handled similarly and ultimately lends itself to grounding the story in the universe it was created in. 

The characters in this film are believable. I mentioned earlier how they were able to connect this film to other films in the series. One of those films was Iron Man 3, where the villain of the story hired an actor to portray a terrorist who wanted to destroy America. The actor’s character, The Mandarin, was based on the father of Shang-Chi, Wenwu, and his legendary Ten Rings. What made Wenwu believable as a character was that despite learning to be a better person through his courtship with Sang-Chi’s mother, Ying Li, he ultimately regressed into the warlord he was for centuries after her death. His guilt and grief on not being able to save her lead him to be convincingly coerced by the Ten Rings to attack the mother’s ancestral home, Tao Lo, to “save her” from them. He had forced his children to learn to kill, taking away their childhood, attacked the home of his late wife under false pretenses, and set free the Dweller-in-the-Darkness. Shang-Chi was almost forced to kill him to stop the death of many innocents. However, the climax of the movie is when Wenwu finally sees the wrong his choices led to. He then aids Shang-Chi and Tao Lo in fighting the monster and Wenwu dies to protect his son. I believe this is an appropriate end to his character. After thousands of years of living, killing, loving, and making mistakes, Wenwu finally has the chance to rest. He isn’t a good person by any means but at least he has the right idea by letting go of the power for the benefit of his family. 

The base of this movie is a martial arts film and the addition of Michelle Yeoh is a big win in my book. She is easily the most famous female martial artist and actress out there. Her character was Shang-Chi’s aunt and his mother’s older sister, Ying Nan. When Shang-Chi arrives, she helps him learn to fight the way his mother taught him years ago and bolsters the confidence of his sister, Xialing, and best friend, Katy.

San Francisco is a different locale for an MCU movie, where they stay either on the East Coast or Los Angeles when in The United States of America. The city happens to also have a high Chinese population. The next location is Macau, China, which has a similar atmosphere to Las Vegas. This setting makes sense when we meet Xialing and her fight ring gambling business. After that is the Ten Rings Compound, where Shang-Chi and Xialing grew up, an obvious location because their father still operates there. The Tao Lo village is also an obvious location where the main conflict and climax of the movie happen. It was hinted at throughout the entire movie. Ultimately, all the locations work with the story or the personality of the characters. 

There are a lot of motifs for Chinese dragons, from the postcard sent to Shang-Chi at the beginning to the fluid motion of Tao Lo martial arts. The Chinese dragon symbolizes many things however the “Great Protector” is a blue/green color. They symbolize healing, peace, and growth. All of which are themes for the main characters. Shang-Chi and his family need healing. Wenwu needed to come to terms with his wife’s death and when that happened he was at peace. Xialing was neglected and abandoned by her brother and father, she has since properly healed from those wounds. Shang-Chi was meant to grow to his full potential and the third act of this movie shows this growth.

I believe that the main theme of the film is “growing into your potential”. There are definitely smaller themes with Wenwu and the Ten Rings, but for the most part, Shang-Chi and Katy are incredible people that put up with a dead-end job because they are too afraid to jump out to a less comfortable area. Katy’s arc ends with her Tao Lo experience and helping in the battle. They taught her to believe in herself and her abilities. Shang-Chi ran away from his potential and his arc ends with accepting his powers and responsibilities. Both needed to grow to get to the next stage in their life. The chemistry between Simu Liu (Shang-Chi) and Awkwafina (Katy) with the rest of the cast works in favor of this theme. Everyone that they interact with is either more qualified or infinitely stronger or wiser than them. Allowing them to learn and confront what was holding them back. 

[softieskywalker]

i think the key difference between george lucas’s star wars and disney’s star wars is that lucas is a man with an ideology. someone with a point of view, and all that entails. which comes with ideas of revolution, anti-imperialism, challenging the status quo, cultural appropriation and racist stereotypes. complex and contradictory ideas because that’s how artists are: complex and complicated people. disney is not. disney is a corporation. a corporation can’t have ideology, because ideology defeats the purpose of profit. and when the only thing you do is to turn on the movie manufacturing machine before you sit down and plan what ideas are you trying to convey to the audience, then your results are going to be washed out corporate garbage. and because when you’re a giant corporation who only cares about selling to the widest audience possible, you can’t take sides. you can’t decide on an idea. because you want to sell your product to people who are on the entire political spectrum. which results in movies without ideology, without purpose, without soul.

[david-talks-sw]

I have been looking for this post for years after I came across it and it’s finally here and I need to reblog this because it is absolutely and entirely accurate.

[comebackali]

#as I always say: lucas was making a samurai film and a ww2 flying ace film and a western film and adding laser swords#because he fundamentally LIKED samurai films and dambusters films and westerns and 40’s adventure serials#but disney are making a ‘star wars film’ and adding nothing because it already had laser swords and they have nothing else to say#xerox of a xerox baybeeeee (via harrietvane)

[mainblag]

WHY DO YOU PEOPLE TORMENT ME ? !

[3hkowalski]

Just leaving a little star right here ⭐

you can claim it after ep8…

UPDATE: THIS AGED BADLY

[rowens-review-corner]

@heyitss1n

[cari-the-kirby]

why aren't we paying attention to this

There's a lot more information packed into this screenshot then just 'wow ragatha joined in 2008 and we were right about when the circus was created'

It raises a lot of questions, the screenshot I mean.

First things first, who is paraphernalia? They are marked as an engine. And I have no idea what an LISP is, I know the DAT is data but I don't have the programming knowledge to understand most of the rest, Caine and bubble are the only ones marked as lisp, so maybe it has something to do with AI?

Another question how come it goes from scratch to ragatha? We know there were multiple other developers put into the circus, who all abstracted and then it was just Kinger before ragatha showed up

Also bubble joined in 1996, when the circus was first booted up. So unless a virus showed up on the first day of running bubble was coded into the circus. As well as the wacky watch.

Another question I have is how exactly did Kinger delete caine? At first I accepted it as it was but now I'm genuinely wondering. In the other screenshots people have taken from Kinger trying to get into Caine's code you can see that he doesn't have admin access to even adjust the code much less delete it.

At first he tried the password admin1234 and then after being told it wasn't 'wacky' enough he tried the word paraphernalia, which I already mentioned, was the second thing to be added into the circus, right after Caine on the first day.

Meaning the word paraphernalia isn't some random thing, it's relevant to the code of the circus itself. Like the screenshot says, it's an engine so maybe it's just what the entire circus is run through? Either way it's more important than people are treating it to be (that is, not addressing it at all as far as I've seen)

One other thing that I don't understand is why did everything join on October 15th. All in different years but still on October 15th. Did something relevant happen then? Maybe the server only opens on the 15th? But I'm very confused.

I thought maybe it was a gimmicky thing there's some kind of holiday or anniversary then? But that seems too simple. Why would they have everyone join on October 15th just cuz it's some kind of holiday, unless it was something that was foreshadowed beforehand.

I've done some research and all I've been able to find is that oktober 15th is America's national mushroom day but other than that I've got zilch

[imstillalive22]

ive genuinely never been happier to leave a recently released, post-finale, cliffhanger-ass episode of a show traumatized instead of angry. stranger things has genuinely ruined me, and it is SUCH a gift to lowkirkenuinely be blessed with a writer who isnt afraid to commit to her own story and actually answer questions. shoutout to gooseworx for making me want to rewatch the entire show tonight with the context of episode 8 in mind instead of dreading ever having to consume such media again in my life (cough cough cough COUGH stranger things cough cough) because fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on the duffer brothers or whatever the saying is.

[brigamia]

Yo what the FUCK—