#punchie rants

[imthepunchlord]

Ok, another quick ML rant cause I've been listening to Zoe talk about the new eps when she gives them a watch.

And I am just having another big head scratcher for the choices they decided to take things, like, in hindsight, they had a really solid set up on how to progress the story villain wise.

Nobody has mentioned once that, with this set up of Lila as the new Butterfly villain, it is a downgrade from going to imposing adult to teenage villain (unless we do get confirmation that Lila is some immortal or/and magical entity as how she works is just so bonkers).

I agree with Nobody that it would've been better to start with a teenage villain and then upgrade to an adult. Like, it doesn't even have to be Lila as the starting villain. Chloe easily can fill that role of villain, and so could've done Felix. You also could've done Adrien if you wanted to work off him being unhappy and wanting to lash out, target his father's image, be petty. And publicly, he's so nice and well meaning, could've had a nice set up mystery of who the Butterfly was. And for those who like the LS, could've had an enemies to lover scenario.

But the the icing on the cake, which prompted this whole rant, was learning there's a secret organization that Nathalie is working with. And I hear Gabriel was apart of it too, so presumably Tomoe is also apart of it.

And I just stare at this and I think just how fitting would it have been if this group of (presumably) rich assholes came around about the same time Marinette meets Fu and learns that there was an Order of Guardians of the Miraculous.

And it's at this time we get confirmation that there are more Miraculous out there. We get confirmation of the Zodiac and there's even 12 of these guys. The potential connection is RIGHT THERE. I haven't even heard what these guys want to do yet, but one idea could've been that they want to be the New Order of the Guardians, and it would've added to Fu's own involvement in the story.

And potentially, they get revealed not long after the Butterfly gets stolen. And with it, they really get to show how far this Miraculous can go in terms of power. And for the previous misuser, you now have the fun scenario that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and that could open the road to redemption and becoming an actual hero. Or you could've had the fun of them playing the long game and just wanting to go back to villainy.

Additionally, this whole thing just screams to me that THIS could've been the means to back the need for more heroes, from full time to part time. For Gabriel alone in canon, for how much he loses and how well the lead duo do most of the time, it didn't really validate the need for more heroes. But if you have a dozen villains misusing Miraculous or aiming to get Miraculous to misuse, then you have a good reason to bring in more heroes.

In hindsight of it all, it's such an obvious and sensible route. The writing and choices of this show just drives me bonkers as the potential is right there and often it's so obvious.

[imthepunchlord]

So, even being flexible with genetics, it is so weird to me that they gave Marinette blue eyes but they don't give her a relative that has blue eyes.

All the Dupains (that we know of so far) have different shades of green eyes. Though Gina is hard to see with her eyes so dark, but they are green.

I don't know if genetically if blue and green eyes are close and that could be a reason; but it is just baffling to me that Marinette clearly wasn't really factored in when designing her extended family and offering where the eye color could've come from.

I really do wish that they stuck to Marinette having dark gray eyes as she did initially in some of her concepts.

And that when she was Ladybug, her eyes would turn blue cause Tikki has blue eyes, and we do see that a human's eye color can change to match the kwami's.

And it could've been a good way to hide her identity without needing to change herself up too much as blue eyes would suggested she's a full European instead of French Chinese.

[imthepunchlord]

Ok random thing but I tried to make my own magic system loosely based on colors, and wanted to get your opinion on what to possibly expand on or change.

Purple – Realm of Magic (going for a dc comics Sphere of the Gods thing where the source of the world's magic comes from a special dimensional realm that bleeds into our realm)

Creation

Constructs

Energy

Summoning

Mythical Creatures (I'm going with the idea that mythical creatures were once regular animals that got mutated/turned into mythical creature after they were exposed to wellsprings of pure realm magic)

Conjunction

Illusions

Pink – Nature

Plants

Earth

Crystals

Environments

Water

Ice

Air

Weather

Green – Protection and Luck

Charms

Talismans

Totems

Luck Spells

Abjuration (protection magic)

Blue – Mind

Foresight

Clairvoyance

Divination

Tarot

Psychic

Dreams

Influence

Emotions

Yellow – Celestial Bodies

Sun

Moon

Stars

Silver – Spirits/Death

Necromancy

Spirit Communication

Spirit Summoning

Corpse Control

Bones

Skeleton Control

Red – Blood/Life

Healing

Blood Magic

Animals

Orange – Fire (needed one for orange and I felt fire could be its own thing since it's pretty different from other elements, since it's not naturally occurring and a lot of culture given fore it's own magical/mythological origin)

Fire Magic

Cleansing

So I want to make clear, despite what I say, you do what you want. If you like what you have, you stick with it.

But since you asked for my opinions:

Purple I think really works very nicely. It is a color known for power, luxury, and leadership, but it's also tied to fantasy and imagination.

Pink to me feels random. Typically colors that reflect nature are green, blue, or brown. They can be the most prominent colors of nature.

Pink in contrast relates to love, femininity, gentleness, and tranquility. These days, there is the additional trope of it having a hidden power to them, especially in small feminine character wielding a hammer and is surprisingly dangerous.

Otherwise pink I would vote be a color tied to emotions or connections with others, empathy sensing, something that calms and influences emotions. There's also love related powers.

Green I will say does work, it a color of luck (at least in the west, China regards red as lucky), it's also a color of tranquility and security.

Blue also works, it is a color of truth, confidence, trust, and security, which a power for psychics works well. Additionally, many psychics always look skywards for answers, which blue if a prominent color of the sky.

Yellow also works, as it is a color tied to the sun, warmth, positivity, it's also a color of intellect and creativity; why, celestial bodies are typically tied to psychics, so if you wanted, a lot of the blue powers could also fit here.

Silver is another random one. Silver is a color of intuition, reflection, calmness and sophistication. Additionally, as a shade of gray, it's a color of neutrality and compromise. If you want a color to reflect death and death related powers, you go with black. It's a color of fear and misfortune, often symbolizing death and mourning. You could also make a stretch and apply white to it, while it's often tied to divinity and cleanness, it is also a cold and controlling color. It's also a trope to swap the themes of black and white, as the latter is often seen as "good".

Red works fine, it's a color most defining of "love and war", as it is a color of love and passion (which can lead to life), but it's also a color of danger, strength, and power.

And lastly orange, fire works fine for it, in terms of color, fire is tied to red and orange, sometimes yellow, but those are the prominent two. Which I will say, viewing fire as "special" is more western in view, as through Greek mythology, it's tied to knowledge and power; but in the east, that's actually tied to water instead. It's probably why we have two very contrasting iconic types of dragons.

I'm of the stance that it's not more special than any of the other elements. That all are special and spiritual just in their own ways.

Fire is often tied to creation and destruction, warmth and leadership.

Water is tied to life and death, as well as emotion and introspection.

Air it tied to freedom and imagination, also communication and fun.

Earth is tied to stability and connection of all life, to be supporting and evolving.

But that's just my own personal nitpick that Legend of Korra started, I am not a fan of the idea that one element is more special/spiritual than the others. It feels like it just puts down the others for not being as "special" and not realizing they all have their uniqueness to bring to the table. Thankfully AtLA understood that.

If you need some ideas for orange, orange is tied to creativity and being spontaneous. It's also tied to emotions, to be warm, to be uplifting, and to communication. It can also be tied to deception and being superficial. Which I wonder if the red fox led to that association as the most common fox is the red fox, and every culture looks as a fox and goes, yeah that's a trickster.

So you could do trickery and illusion for orange.

Again though, you can do whatever you want. The nice thing about colors is that they are incredibly flexible in what you do with them. Colors will evoke certain assumptions and views, and you can make use of that do a different spin, or use that to your advantage to help viewers/readers get a sense of a power.

Have fun with it.

[imthepunchlord]

Did the magic butterfly that give powers to others have a different name with each other(hawk moth calls them akumas,tho hesperia(good!gabbe)calls them kamikos)?

Man, little tangent, but I was always a little thrown on why they went with akuma for the corrupted butterflies and corrupted super powered beings. And are just using Japanese terms in general. It's always so odd as Butterfly isn't exclusively Japanese, especially with all Miraculous coming from China, and you have Gabriell who is French using it.

I guess I'll role with the headcanon that Gabriel lived in Japan for a while and loves the language. Plus could be how he knows Tomoe, and can be a good way to throw off your scent if people think HM is Japanese.

Still, it's an odd choice that feels like it was done cause exotic = magical and whatever could've been used in European culture just isn't unique enough I guess. And you can tell they didn't do in depth research, probably just looked up Japanese terms for demon, cause akuma I found means fire demon, and there's not fiery about those butterflies. Looking up kamiko I see beautiful, well scented, child, and ocean.

Little random but ok.

Either way, based on what we see in canon, there doesn't seem to be an official term for Nooroo's butterflies, so I'd say how they are referred to is just up to the user. Like, given location, I would've gone having them referred to as fairies, which could've nicely worked benevolent and malevolent use. While media associates fairies with goodness and assistance and empower, in old folklore, they are known to be mischievous to malicious.

So for me, that would've been the best western term for Nooroo's butterflies, and then just call the chosen heroes champions or knights.

[imthepunchlord]

Hey, I'm sorry. I know you're not part of the miraculous fandom anymore, but I've wanted to ask this question for a really long time. Were there ever moments when designing your own miracle box, kwamis, or powers did you ever feel the urge to just throw out the idea of the miraculous being tied to a specific culture and just having them be generic fantasy? Or just throw out the idea of the guardians and miracle boxes in general and just have the kwamis be free roamers that pick their own holders based on their personalities? (There is also the idea of just throwing out the idea of the kwamis embodying concept and just being beings of magic)

Oh plenty of times.

In hindsight, and in the grand scheme of things, that's honestly how they should've handled the Miraculous, not tie them to any one specific culture or region. Just let them be open to the world. Let them be magical.

It would've opened them up to work with a variety of myths and cultures or pick what they want to work with power wise instead of just tying it to one specific region. It would've allowed them to be flexible with what animals could appear and they didn't have to limit themselves to iconic groups of animals of that region or bring in a huge number like the freak Chinese Zodiac that they clearly couldn't handle or scale evenly.

I can't say for others cause it just may be me, but I definitely wouldn't be raising a brow or be put off at some of the choices made with powers and some of the clear inspirations for the Miraculous and kwamis. Like, Rabbit I would've only be bothered by the time traveling power and not just it also being tied to a European novel when it's supposed to be tied to China (and the Moon Rabbit IS RIGHT THERE but I guess we can't have a 2nd healing Miraculous to help shoulder the burden for LB but we can have multiple that generate items).

I also wouldn't be so bothered about how Tikki and Plagg are portrayed and their very European/Christian inspirations (especially them becoming those over designed biblical angels, if anyone knows for sure please do correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think those have a place in Taoism and to me just screams they should've been Europe based, especially as Thomas still works off the European good and bad luck themes more than creation and destruction (like there was a whole series of tweets from Thomas insisting that Cataclysm doesn't DESTROY but causes bad things to happen), even though this is a power from what should be Destruction... and they're the most iconic animal symbols for good and bad luck in Europe specifically).

Honestly, the only issue that could've arose if they let them loose in origins is the two that's very European/Christian based being established as "most powerful", and you don't really want that, but if you just remove the idea of tiers and just roll with that some have an edge over others (like Ladybug always has an edge over Butterfly), then that fixes that.

But, in doing so, that does lead down a path of changes and questions to consider: Miraculous wise what should exist, what should be cut, how do Miraculous work off each other, what's the system of control in the face of misuse, should Ladybug and Cat be the ONLY wish granting duo, should there be others, if so how is Ladybug and Cat more desirable than any other wish granting duo, could it be that every pair can grant a unique sort of wish, or could it be that by a specific year a specific duo grants the wish and it's the year of LB and Cat, ect..

I admit that it's all probably over complicating things, but it's questions like those that come to mind when I think of tossing away Miraculous tied to a specific region and culture, and it's just apart of the ongoing issue of trying to think of how to fix the show cause it's just endless possibilities and potential to pick from and consider. Like, take Adrien as an example, his character could have roughly 10 possible paths to take as a character. If they wanted to do something with him, the options are there. Could done him as a starting hero who starts it for freedom and fun and then becomes serious later. Could do him learning friendship lessons. Could do him learning that he can find happiness outside the need for romantic love. If not as a starting hero, could've given the Ladyblog to him to run and he wants to expose his crush and just not consider what that could mean for her and not everyone likes that public attention that he's used to (and for angst, Gabriel is supportive of Adrien doing this), heck, if you wanted sentiAdrien, could do him growing into his own, becoming his own person and breaking free of Gabriel's control.

Another big factor is that you change so much of ML's set up and the little lore that's given, well, it becomes less ML and more your take on the concept, and at that point, maybe it's best just to do your own thing cause it's not ML anymore.

Either way, for Guardians, the Order, and the Miracle Box, I honestly don't mind them existing, but they were mishandled. If Miraculous popped up enough, then there will be a good number of people who will know about them, and there will be people who will think it's a good idea to make an organization designed to work with them, secure they don't fall into wrong hands, and handle any big crisis that arises. And I like the idea that the Miracle Box was designed to house the jewelry, but also offered kwamis their own safe pocket dimension, which could open up to more so they can have their own rooms but also a core space for all to hang out in. The big issue of the Order is that what we get is just incredibly incompetent that they shouldn't have bothered. And the big shame is that they could've been an antagonistic force or the next villains to face post HM, cause hey, it is human nature to be controlling and have a say in how things should be and it could it started with good intentions and turned south, could've done humans could look down on kwamis and their views and think they know better, or it could be that kwamis can't be fully trusted in their views. It just could've been complex and interesting.

And lastly concepts, I go back and forth on that, cause on one hand, that can be limiting in terms of powers, cause animals can be so much more than one theme. Like, time does work well for snakes, but they're also tied to dragons, water, healing, death, duality, cunning/intelligence, ect.. But if you're doing a single power or a few, that can give you some idea on what to work with, especially if you can have a single power that is just right. If Dog was the Miraculous of Recollection, and you expanded upon what Fetch could Fetch, it's a perfect match, you could recollect a lost object or person (can work off search and rescue dogs), you could recollect a recently passed soul and revive someone who recently passed (works off hellhounds and guarding the underworld), it could even be done to bring forth a memory or be used as a means to bring forth the truth when it's denied (which is another term of recollection).

Gosh this became such a long rant, but yeah, I have thought of those things when I was trying to figure out how to rework stuff. I do think in the grand scheme of it all, it'd be better if Miraculous weren't tied to China and just allowed to dabble in a variety of cultures and be very traveled, especially as they clearly didn't want to really represent that culture and just used it because foreign = exotic and magical. Not to say there wouldn't be any issues but there'd be less to raise a brow at, and it would've given them more flexibility in powers and what Miraculous could appear. Now the Order and concepts, that's a give or take depending on how they're handled and what's done, but I'd say with the current show they're not worth the inclusion.

[imthepunchlord]

Do you think X and Y need to get a remake already?

Well, technically BW should be next but I'm also dreading it thanks to BDSP, and as Gen 5 was the peak of Pokemon's pixel art and thinking that it'll go 3D and it's up in the air how good it'll look... yeah I'm not that excited to see it.

But a remake of XY, I wouldn't quite want what they'd probably do, cause most likely it'll be a match for match remake but I want changes to XY.

The biggest thing I want for XY is for the story to be reworked up cause I wasn't satisfied with XY's story. Most enjoyment I got out of XY was enjoying traveling through Kalos, and it's frustrating cause I think if they had more time they could've had something better. Well, story for all of pokemon.

But like, I wanted to see Malva in Team Flare then get surprised to learn that this tough admin is ONE OF THE ELITE FOUR MEMBERS which like, bruh, you realize she's been holding back this whole time. Essentially toying with you and could've knocked out any time she wanted.

I wanted Team Flare to be funny. Like, how can they be designed to be so flamboyant and fashion oriented but nothing comedic was done with them. Thankfully Skull came next.

I wish Lysandre's reasoning was better or they did something to work off of it, cause he talks about how ugly the world is so it needs to be destroyed and remade to what he thinks is better and I'm just like

Kalos is beautiful and everybody is nice. Where is this coming from Lysandre? Maybe a good chunk of the League should've been made to be assholes in some shape or form. That could offer why Lysandre thinks Kalos sucks.

I also wish I got to see Lysandre getting the legendary, and that there was better build up of them cause it feels they're included last minute. And I wish poor Zygarde got included and more present and did something. Like, I enjoyed Rayquaza coming in to tell Groudon and Kyogre to calm the f down. I enjoyed Giratina arising and kidnapping Cyrus mid speech. Given the lore, Zygarde should've appeared.

I wish the "friends" were done better if they were a must to be included, they all seemed kinda pointless and a little annoying. I'm also annoyed that the rival gets pokemon but they don't show up on their team, like, what was the point of that if they're not used? They get one of the fossil mons, not on the team though. They and Shuana get a Kanto starter, not on their team though, so what's the point? Also RIP those 2 other boys, no starters for you!

...actually yeah, they didn't even get the Kalos starters. I guess Sycamore just has favorites, sorry guys.

I also question why the Kanto starters are even there, outside nostalgia. Like, if there were to be starters to be gifts to you, for sure Snivy and Piplup would've made sense given they're based on French royalty. That's why Serperior was one those gates.

I'd also want to see the Swords of Justice to appear in Kalos in some way given they're based on the famous French musketeers. Maybe they should've been the big legendaries here since Yveltal, Xerneas, and Zygarde don't really feel that tied to Kalos. Maybe them being hostile to humans could confirm Lysandre's views, and oh man, just imagine if you were dealing with Team Flare AND the Swords of Justice and you befriend Keldeo and through that friendship, Keldeo unlocked that power or evolved or whatever, and it shows the big three that oh, maybe there is something for human-pokemon relations and for things to be improved but Lysandre stays stubborn and things escalate, and the Swords of Justice work with you to stop Lysandre and save everyone.

I'd also hope to see Galar and Paldea a little incorporated into Kalos, either in pokemon, culture influence, and lore. Especially Paldea as it seems that was the region that Kalos went to war with a long time ago.

I also would love more mega evolution, but for it to be tweaked. Keep it for pokemon that need a boost of power and not popular mons who are already solid, with only exception being starters; which I am surprised that the Kalos starters didn't get megas. Uh, let mega evolving be more common and not restricted to late game and post game. Also really work off you get the ability through the bond, so you need your pokemon at a certain friendship point to mega evolve and can't just do it right away. And just call them mega stones. I always found the "insert pokemon name-ite" to be kinda silly.

But I also get why it's not being continued. It is a little bit of a shame cause that was my favorite of all the new gimmicks.

I'd also love to see regional variants for Kalos. Like, the dragon Torchic line I drew out, Kalos was the region I had in mind, with the Gallic Rooster as unofficial symbol of France (which might be why Torchic appears in XY), and I believe the cockatrice I tied it to is of French mythology. And in general, for every remake, I think it'd be a lot of fun if they updated the dex to include regional variants that could plausible exist there or make sense to.

Anyway, I'm not sure XY needs a remake now, but I do think it needs an overhaul, which I've heard that we were supposed to either get Z or XY2, but they got cut because there was no time to make it. Which, I do wish we did get Z because that third version is always the superior one, able to have more time and add more stuff in and make tweaks so it goes better, and XY I think needed those tweaks. It's a beautiful region and I like the dex a lot, but I didn't enjoy it for the story or characters. Most of them didn't even stick with me, nor could I remember their names.

Unfortuantely though, remake wise, Pokemon just likes to copy and paste typically, and if BDSP is going to be the new norm for pokemon remakes, it's a remake I don't want for XY, or BW.

[imthepunchlord]

What's your opinion on Jurassic Park? I'm at a dinosaur Park and is... disappointing. I liked th lego series though, never saw the movies, but planning to.

I like Jurassic Park. I agree with the many that it's the best of the Jurassic franchise. A lot of the characters are likable, you care enough that you want to see them survive, and it's a really good suspenseful horror.

It's actually something I wish Jurassic as a franchise stuck with, I think it better performed when it was a suspenseful, surviving horror story, cause by set up, it should be. These are revived ancient creatures that we have limited understanding of, and because there are modifications that don't have them matching up with the true dinosaurs, there's even less understood and more unpredictability cause what we know now may not even fit with these chimeras. And Jurassic Park was a forewarning to humanity being proud and zealous enough to play God and that's part of the appeal of horror, some of it is a forewarning to what could come or choices, like, Alien is a forewarning to letting in disease without real caution for it. There's also some forewarning the dangers of climate change.

Either way, nowadays Jurassic franchise is more suspenseful action. Which, some of that action is good, like, World's climatic fight was amazing to watch. But many of it doesn't have that same hit that JP has, and I think a big part of that is a loss of the horror aspect. Like, much of World, you don't fear for people's safety, and some of the choices made are... kinda dumb. Like Dominion, you got dinosaurs loose on the world, no fences, they can be amongst the people, walking into cities, disrupt livelihoods, sets up dino apocalypse is happening! But no, the locust are the BIGGEST threat and it's... what? I was so ready to see civilization uprooted, what would be done, the chaos of it all and it's like no, let's focus on the big bugs. The dinos are good, they're not a threat or the major focus.

I was so mad.

I think the only ones that got close to old JP level of quality was Camp Cretaceous s1 and s3, and the short film, Battle at Big Rock; all three were suspenseful and nerve wracking. Especially BaBR, that was scary to watch the first time, and it made me so pumped of what Dominion might've been bringing in.

Anyway! Jurassic Park, amazing. It still holds up great, I also think it was better than the book, more with the characters being more likable and more rooting for their survival. The book I was rooting for the dinosaurs more cause I didn't like most of the characters or root for their survival. Though I'll give the book was more terrifying and had some really gory gruesome deaths, some of which I'm ok with the movie not including.

And I wish the rest of the franchise kept in that horror aspect of old JP; I do think the only ones that came close where those 2 specific seasons of Camp Cretaceous and Battle at Big Rock.

[imthepunchlord]

The dreaded romantic plot tumour.

I am officially becoming the Shrek 2 meme watching this season: Can we not have any romance FOR FIVE MINUTES?!

And I'm only on ep 3. I got 8 more to go...

Like, as forced romances go, this is becoming way too much. It's getting even more attention than the actual plot! Which has a mystery going on and it's driving me up the wall cause I want to see more of that mystery! Not this!

And characters are feeling OOC for the sake of this ship. Like, wingman Yaz is a thing now. Yaz who struggles to connect with others. Who doesn't always know how to approach Sammy despite them being tight. She's apparently good enough at romance to wingman and get into this??? It feels so unorthodox. And it feels like Kenji and Brooklyn are now the leaders and not Darius anymore to push this ship as an iconic lead duo to get behind and I hate it.

This is literal writing torture for me. You got a mystery that you want to see more of, but the show is going to focus on romance cause that matters now! So you get more of that romance than the mystery! And it's not a ship I even like! Which makes this doubly unpleasant to sit through as this gets brought up over and over again. And I'm not even done with ep 3! This romance is getting too much focus. I have yet to get that proper break from it. And as I'm not into it, with how much they come back to it, I am literally derailed from enjoying this season. Actually, this is the first season I can say I'm not enjoying. I'm on ep 3 and I'm not all that set to continue, and this is a show that's duper easy to binge. But not this season.

This is easily the one season I won't be rewatching.

And it's one of those writing choices I scratch my head at. 3 seasons that had sprinkles of romance (specifically with Yasammy) but s4 with Brookenji, we're going to turn this romance up to 11. Never mind they felt more like siblings for 3 seasons, at least to me. Apparently not to them.

Like, if they were going to push for a hetero ship to focus on and match Brooklyn with someone, I was expecting it to be her and Darius. They worked off each other most and felt the most like a unit together. And if there was a couple to make official, I expected Yasammy as they got the most build up and focus in the past 3 seasons.

But no.

Brookenji all the way. Take up half an ep run time if not more (like ep 1, 14 minutes dedicated to Brookenji, only last 10 minutes aren't).

This is more exhausting than enjoyable.

Only comfort I have is that majority seems to agree that Brooklyn and Kenji feels like it's out of left field and no one is enjoying this in your face romance. I have yet to see anyone really happy about this.