[waeirfaahl]

Parentage of the seven sisters = mystery

This huge contradiction in 5 season of “Samurai Jack” bothered and buffled me pretty long time. Genndy Tartakovsky in all interviews stated that the seven sisters are humans, and one of the main points in 5 season was exactly the fact that Jack kills exactly humans. But for some reason in 9 episode the sudden cliche happens, where the author and his team try to make Aku to be their father. Simple question — if Aku is allegedly their biological father (not even just a creator at best), then how they can be humans, if they are demonic mutants then? Might I remind you, that Aku is a supernatural, genderless, asexual and always lonely creature, who despises humans, other mortals and needs no one. Moreover, although I can easily debunk the perception of Aku as “irredeemable pure evil”, but if to consider this one-dimensional and absolutistic worldview of 5 season, it’s easy to not notice pretty hypocritical narrative “Aku is the evil and must be destroyed, because he was born from a part of the Absolute Darkness (then Aku was born that way and didn’t asked for this, he has no choice from the beginning, from the start of his existence, but nobody cares about this tragic aspect of the character — might I remind you that Jack’s father accidentally created Aku and rejected him, causing his aggressiveness; and Aku must be destroyed only because of his origin and nature/past, great — i.e. nobody cares about Aku’s tragedy), while the seven sisters are poor and innocent, they are not like their bad daddy, who even didn’t know about their existence, they are good even though they are born from a part of the evil (if Aku is the evil, then how he can beget/create a life? Moreover, the life, which can choose a path and be good-natured?)”. Another huge contradiction is the behavior of their fanatical mother. If to assume that her seven daughters are Aku’s, then why she was incredibly cruel to them instead of mad adoring and boasting? Why she never told to them, who their father is, and how he is awesome and hence they are awesome? Why she never claimed for Aku’s throne as a mother of his heirs? She sadistically abused her children psychologically and physically. She always referred to Aku as “OUR lord and master”, she told to her girls that they are (she, the cult and her kids) are just servants. Her daughters also referred to Aku only as to a deity. And they had no superpowers and no supernatural traits (they look like regular humans, they have red blood, they don’t feel pain during death of their other sisters, Aku’s blood doesn’t leave their corpses to return to Aku, Aku’s blood doesn’t transform their corpses into some necromorphs also, animals don’t show fear or aggressiveness toward them, while they did it toward Aku and infected Jack). Then what a hell is going on?! The funniest thing is that this “twist” is absolutely impossible, if you remember the canon of the classic four seasons. Aku’s blood is deadly and poisonous, it easily melts a metal and iron, it absorbs a living being from inside and kills. Shortly saying, Aku’s blood would kill this fanatical mother and her daughters, i.e. absolutely no “hybridization” or giving superpowers or whatever. This guy worked with Tartakovsky and gave some answers about it, and... it is unstated, whether Aku’s blood, drunk by the fanatical mother, created the seven sisters or just infected them during their mother’s already existed pregnancy. Hence it is unstated, who their father is. More plausible some unknown human.

[waeirfaahl]

Minor moments of Wings of Change

Some sort of a logical addition and a sequel to this, this, this and this posts, where I debunked various things about Balto-3 some fans misinterpreted or made some misconceptions about.

At the start, let's find the chronology of the events in the trilogy about Balto. The original film happens in between January and early-February of 1925 (IRL the first victim of diphtheria died in 28 December of 1924, while the epidemy came into active and official/noticed state in middle-January, especially since 21 January of 1925, Balto's sled team arrived with the medicine to Nome 2 February of 1925).

The beginning of Balto-2 happens in late-April of 1925, while the finale of Balto-2 happens in somewhere between September-October of 1926 (orcas or killer whales live in Alaska since April until September or at best mid-October and then migrate through Bering Strait, and since Balto points out the winter will be way earlier at this time, it is September for sure).

Balto-3 happens in somewhere between middle-March and early-May of 1928 (snow geese appear on Alaska in May to make nests and lay eggs exactly in late-May).

Now about minor visual bloopers: 1. In the original film Rosie's dad had brown hair, while Rosie's mom had black hair.

In Balto-3 Rosie's mom suddenly has red hair instead of black.

From another side, technically, such color change is possible, if Rosie's mother had genes of red hair in her family, but I still think it is a blooper. Or this woman from Balto-3 is Rosie's paternal aunt, I don't know. 2. I remind, Balto-3 happens 3,3 years after the original film. During these 3+ years Rosie and the bear cubs should become older and look older.

Polar bears leave their mothers, when they become 3+ years old.

In the original film Rosie was 8 y/o, according to the official novel,

hence in Balto-3 she's 11-12 y/o.

Now let's talk about few moments, which can be seen as a missed opportunity, as if these characters were forgotten and lacked a potential etc, when they actually aren't. 1. Rosie should have more screentime in the story, it would be great, if she had more cute scenes with Balto and Jenna, not only small opening sequence. But let's not forget that now Rosie is healthy and goes to school (remember Dixie's line to Steele after the race that her young owner girl is still in school?), so she is older now and hence spends more time in school for understandable reasons.

2. I heard how some people complained that Nikki, Kaltag and Star and their teammates don't participate in the race against Duke's plane and just were small easter eggs in few scenes. However, logically it can be explained in fact.

(among easter eggs you also can notice Morse and Doc, Sylvie and even Scotty dog from Balto-2)

First of all, they are now way older than in the original movie. Balto-3 happens nearly 3,5 years after the events of the original movie. When in the original film before 1925 aka since 1921-1922 they already won 4 years, i.e. they were 5,5-6+ y/o in the original film already.

Second, after the deadly Nome-Nenana-Nome relay they're most likely severely exhausted in cold and run (compare Nome-Nenana-Nome from the original film to Nome-WhiteMountain-Nome, which is 1/5 of Nome-Nenana path or even smaller and shorter, some maps even show White Mountain much closer to Nome than the map in Balto-3),

it affected their health, so they experience it all these years and hence can't run that fast and in long distances anymore (IRL relay as an example). I.e. they are veterans in some senses.

Ralph and Kirby after fast run from Nome to White Mountain and back were exhausted and felt pain in paws and back.

3. Some people, apparently Balto-2 fans, were curious, why Balto-3 totally ignores Aleu, as if she never existed, since nobody mentions her, nobody worries about her fate etc. Well, better to kick Aleu and her film into full oblivion, so Wings of Change did the right thing... At least, Aleu was briefly remembered in 2-3 small scenes of You Don't Have To Be A Hero song, that's enough.

But let's try to look at it a bit more open-minded. Balto-3 happens 1,5-1,8 years after Balto-2, i.e. the characters reflected it all already. And if there's no surrealistic nightmares and ancient creepy totem spirits with vague riddles and dark messages, everything is fine with Aleu and the wolf pack.

Not to mention that the characters have own personal life and stuff, so they don't need and don't have to think about Aleu 24/7 and always bring her up, there's no point in it and in remembering Balto-2 at all.

So, here are my thoughts on it.

[waeirfaahl]

Mirror of the "one side of the family"

Once I made the theory about Balto's wolf song, now I want to discuss another element. Treat it like a theory or interpretation, if you want. Let's return to the wolf pack, which was ready to accept Balto as a part of their family, and once I even told about a possibility of them being Balto's family, and that the leader could be Balto's father. Too bad Simon Wells gave no commentaries about them, because this particular small scene tells a lot, and it would be very interesting to see the early versions of this scene in storyboards and scripts, maybe some extended and deleted scenes. The only weird thing about them is this pup, which couldn't be born during winter, and it is unlikely the pup would survive such winter. Maybe the pup didn't exist in early versions, so there were three or four adult wolves instead, and they had bigger role. Because in the final version it is pretty hard to identify them. Like, the leader is obviously a male, and he is pretty different in fur color and the largest in the pack, the other three wolves... maybe all three grey ones are his offspring, maybe the light-grey wolf is the leader's mate, so the grey-wolf and the cub are their pups, maybe the grey wolf and light-grey she-wolf are a couple, and the pup is their, not the leader's. I once saw the workprint of this scene from the Amblimation crew video, but it was in pretty low quality, so it was really hard to tell, whether it had the pup or not, although I personally didn't notice it, I noticed only three adult wolves.

Previously I mentioned (here and here) the interesting parallel and symbolism. Balto wants to be a dog, denies his wolf nature and refuses to join the friendly wolf pack, whose male leader offers Balto to become a member of their family. Boris is Balto's father figure, who supports Balto and helps him to find and to accept his true (wolf), and Boris is white. And later Balto encounters the White Wolf, who is a male, white and the symbol of Balto's true (wolf) nature and self-acceptance, and in the scene with the White Wolf Balto recalls the crucial words of Boris. Simply saying, Balto's adoptive father helps him to accept his wolf half, Balto's wolf side is portrayed as the large magnificent male white wolf, previously rejected by Balto in during the interaction with the wolf pack, who has similar movements the White Wolf had.

And let's go a bit further with it. Whole Balto's adoptive family, his father (Boris) and two brothers (Muk and Luk), is white and of different species — the goose and the polar bears. This moment is pretty interesting subtle hint that Balto's mother was a sled dog, while Balto's father was a wolf. And together they are four, and the wolf pack has exactly four members.

And even if this particular wolf pack isn't Balto's family, but just the mirror for Balto's family (and Balto's adoptive family), what if Balto had one or two siblings? Then what happened to them? They could die at the very young age, or they were adopted, because they looked more like dogs, while Balto wasn't adopted due to looking like a wolf.

If to assume initially the wolf pack was conceived to be Balto's family, there could be another idea — the siblings were more wolves than even Balto, who was a runt in his litter, the smallest and the weakest in the father's eyes (although, I still think he would survive), and they went with their wolf father instead (or they left Nome themselves), while Balto stayed with the husky mother (and/or with Boris) in Nome. The family separated, after the husky-mother's death Balto didn't want to have anything with the wolf-father and the siblings, they nearly forgot about him, but still were ready to accept him into their pack, although thinking he won't survive in wilderness. And during Balto's darkest time they helped Balto, seeing and admitting he isn't a weak link, he is worthy and strong, he is brave and noble, he is still a wolf. But in the context of the final film I personally prefer the idea of Balto being the only pup (and really in some senses a runt) in his litter, who was born in Nome and never lived among wolves, hence never had a father (wolf parent), but had only the husky mother as his only parental figure and later Boris the goose as his adoptive father figure. It is the only logical and reasonable version.

[waeirfaahl]

Waiting hero together

Small addition to this post. We all know the mesmerizing moment under the hospital, where Balto comforts Jenna with the Northern Lights trick, made from the light and broken color bottles.

Whether Balto discovered this trick himself or Boris (and/or Balto's husky mom) taught him this and used to cheer him up in his puppyhood, it doesn't matter.

Later Jenna uses this trick for Balto as the act of hope that never dies, the hope he is alive and Rosie and the kids will survive.

Personally, I think, this scene would be much better, if Boris and the bear cubs participated with Jenna in bringing the broken bottles and the lantern for creating the Northern Lights and stayed together in this scene.

Such moment would work perfectly both for nailing this symbol of love and hope, for growing bond between Jenna and Balto's three friends and for demonstrating Boris's paternal love toward Balto.

Because, in my opinion, it is the wasted opportunity, the movie gave impression as if it forgot that Boris and the bear cubs watched and heard all those bad news along with Jenna, and that Jenna could need help with her wound. They should be with her in this scene, and we'd feel they find and learn more about each other.

In one of the early versions of the script there was a deleted scene, where Jenna finds Balto with hurted paw and helps him to move most likely to his ship, and they discussed Boris and the cubs, and this moment kinda explained, how Jenna can know the names of the bear cubs near the lake scene.

In the final movie it was unclear, whether she knew Balto, Boris and the bear cubs very well and told with them or not before the events of the movie.

[waeirfaahl]

No doubts, no questions, no grief

In some senses a small addition to this post. I recently realized a weird moment in the dredger scene. Like, as we know, Jenna got injury and was seriously weakened, so Boris and the bear cubs transported her to Nome. Most likely, they arrived at evening and to the dredger, so other sled dogs (especially Doc) saw it and helped her to move to the dredger, where she can relax and get warmer and stuff.

So... these dogs saw how this wild goose and the polar bear cubs, the friends of the stray half-wolf they bully and reject, helped and basically rescued the wounded domestic purebred dog from wilderness,

but apparently didn't allow them to join her and them in the dredger as an act of gratitude and honor

and then mock on Jenna and Balto instead...

What the disgusting hypocrites. Looking at this moment, Boris and the bear cubs sat near the dredger's window all these minutes, they probably saw Steele, running and moving into the dredger, but the most importantly, they saw all his fake actor parodying and heard Steele's tale about Balto's death...

and Boris, who has the critical thinking and knows Balto well and treats Balto as his beloved son, shows no bright emotions after these dark news about the death of his son and doesn't call Steele out for both his fake "sorrow" acting, for his cruelty toward Balto (both the alley scene, the boiler room with the butcher scene and the finish line scene with putting Balto in grave danger) and especially for tons of contradictions in Steele's story and in lack of details.

Like, really, Steele says "I went on, dragging the medicine alone, all alone. And then suddenly that wolfdog appeared. Balto... He demanded I let him take the medicine. You know, he just wanted so much to be a hero in your eyes... And then he grabbed the crate, but he couldn't handle it. He couldn't see that patch of ice, and the snow, the wind, and the log, and the cliff... He didn't have a chance, I'm sorry... and then... He made me promise to take care of you, Jenna." — even before this final line to Jenna Boris should call Steele out.

Something like "Hey, Balto isn't that stupid or blind to not notice vulnerable and thin ice, to stay on the edge of a cliff and to irresponsibly grab "allegedly very heavy box for him" during powerful winds and near the abyss! What actually happened there?! And how the hell you both happened to be near a cliff or the edge of a cliff?! Why you was near the edge of a cliff?! Why did Balto go to the edge of a cliff, if his goal was to bring the medicine safe?! You forced him to do this or what?! How Balto with the box happened to be on a far distance from Steele?! Why Steele didn't help Balto, if he is so noble and strong?! How and why Steele has Jenna's bandana, if Balto had it in the first place?! Jenna gave Balto her bandana! You really want to tell me Steele wouldn't fall with both Balto and the box, if he grabbed Balto in attempt to rescue him and the crate?! What actually happened to Balto?! He fell from a mountain?! How and why?! He slipped away from it due to ice and winds or what?! Or he was buried under these logs or was thrown by them away from this cliff into abyss or what?! If it was an avalance, why to not say that in the first place and directly instead of these vague words and playing comedy?! And Balto would ask to care about Rosie! About Jenna's little girl!". That would be awesome roasting in fact.

You can argue Boris was afraid for own life, and Steele could later attack and kill him and the polar bear cubs outside of Nome, but I am pretty sure Doc and Jenna would protect Boris and join him as well in opposing to Steele. I mean, Doc was the only one, who asked questions twice, and Steele clearly disliked that,

and among dogs Jenna was the only one, who realized that Steele's a liar — she knows how Steele hates Balto and how he previously ruined all Balto's chances to reach of a happy life and acceptance by humans and dogs, she knows how gloryhound, sadistic and manipulative Steele is, maybe his teeth and body still had Balto's scent, what would hint Steele attacked him, while Balto did nothing and stuff.

Maybe finally the lead dog of the rival team also told that Steele hurted them and kicked out from the race for the sake of own victory, since there were several witnesses, including their musher.

Like, yes, they don't have enough proofs that Steele killed them or whatever, but at least his anger reaction at all this could be great hint that he is the attempted murderer, who planned to kill Balto and the team and he is the main reason of the kids' deaths.

By the way, the moment and the fact that later Steele shows no PTSD, depression, apathy, grief and sadness anymore about the mass deaths of his team and the death of the children in Nome, but instead with blatant flirt, happiness and boasting he tells to others how he gloriously overcame all obstacles for returning to Nome, catching and eating a bone, are both the brightest hint of "There's something wrong, he lies, and he did something horrible to Balto and the team with the box"

and also the demonstration of what's wrong with all these dogs, why they aren't any better than Steele — they ignore how he praises himself instead of honoring his tragically died team and the dark fate of the sick children that won't get the medicine and will die, and these dogs themselves are more interested in worshipping Steele instead of thinking about the kids, which potentially could be owners of at least few of these dogs (I don't know, Sylvie and Dixie, for example). They are rotten and disgusting just like Steele.

And Balto isn't smart, if he wants to be loved and accepted by them, if he wants them as friends.

[waeirfaahl]

No Steele — no problems

Some sort of addition and logical continuation of this, this and this posts. It is something I wanted to discuss in details, so maybe there are people, who think the same, but whose voices weren't heard. There's the one very weird angle about the original film and its fans — for some reason everyone is totally okay with Balto's idiotic pacifism-passiveness to death, hits and attempts of murder and with Steele's lame, undeserved and anti-climatic "defeat", as if everythnig is fine, and there's nothing morbid. And if you dare even to doubt in it, they will look at you like at some cruel traitor and heretic and attack you like some religious fanatics, over-confidently and blindly (dogmatically) saying you're wrong and immature and stuff, and that Balto is "too good and kind to hurt someone, he is saint or whatever" (excuse me, but from what Care Bears creche these people went?! seriously, they all mourn on how "poor Balto gets beaten by horrible Steele", but once you point out that the protagonist should dodge attacks and kick his ass, they are like "Whaaat?! No way! You are bad for saying so!"). I don't know, it is some form of gaslighting or some similar crap for sure. Am I only one, who sees that there's something wrong?!

Seriously, what's wrong with people, who fanatically defend the antitoxine fight scene (and Balto's stupid behavior beyond comprehension) and Steele, and what's wrong with Balto here, so he allows Steele to harm and to kill him and wants to befriend with this psychopath?! Every excuse I heard from such people doesn't stand up to any criticism or logic. I can easily debunk this nonsense in order the most loud ones: 1. "Balto wanted to keep his strength and to not be exhausted" — nonsense. Balto would keep it, if he at least dodged the attacks, exhausting Steele. With all Steele's attacks and hits he was more exhausted and weakened. 2. "Balto didn't want to get wounds, he wanted to survive just like wild animals do, avoiding fights and making peace in a pack." — nonsense. Balto got wounds and hits, when Steele bit him, and it happened exactly because Balto allowed him to do this. Even animals, if there's no other way to resolve the conflict and avoid a fight, brutally put their aggressive pack member in his place and either banish or kill. 3. "Balto didn't want to slow down the rescue operation, so if he fought, he'd make things worse" — nonsense with shade of victimblaming. Exactly Steele already severely slowed it down way before Balto's arrival and now continues to do this, also killing his owner and teammates with cold and hunger. 4. "Balto wanted to prove to the dogs he is kind and good and can be trusted" — nonsense. These idiots were betting and sadistically giggled, when Steele kicked him. And Balto saw and knew what they did, earlier they participated in bullying and bullied him as well. 5. "Balto wanted to remind them about the serious duty aka saving lifes of sick children" — nonsense. Balto stated clearly that he needs exactly the medicine for saving Rosie and others, to help the team is a secondary thing in fact — it was their wish to go with him or to stay. 6. "Balto wanted to awake the dogs' nobility, so they will see his goodness and Steele's badness" — for f*ck's sake, they all knew Steele's monstrous nature all along! These hypocrites knew Steele's a monster way before Balto and before the beginning of the movie! They hated him all along! Both Steele's own team and the rival team he kicked from the race and harmed earlier! And looking at the boiler room near the finale of the film, they easily kicked him! All this time they could put Steele on his place, but tolerated and swallowed his crap, participating in bullying, until they found out he's a liar *applausing*, and none of them begged Balto for forgiveness!

No wonder, why his mother chose to love a wolf... And Balto isn't smart, if he craved to be accepted by these scumbags... 7. "Balto wasn't brave and confident enough to fight Steele, he was afraid of Steele" — nonsense. Balto was ready to fight Steele in the boiler room and near the finish line, he wasn't afraid of Steele.

8. "Balto didn't want to escalate the conflict, because Steele could order to the dogs to attack Balto, so Balto had no chances against several dogs" — nonsense. First of all, the movie gives no visual or verbal hints of Steele's potential order for attack or any desire from the dogs' side to tear Balto apart at the first bark of Steele. Second, at best only Nikki and Kaltag would participate in the fight. Third, in the alley scene Balto demonstrated he was ready to fight four dogs, implying, he would easily defeat Steele and his three lackeys, he was fearless, and he's faster than all of them. And he is f*cking half-wolf, so he is obviously stronger than all of them.

9. "But the main thing is to save the children, not to defeat some villains! They're just obstacles on the hero's path! Balto wanted only to save Rosie and the kids, the ending is great in that! That's the victory of Balto, not over Steele!" — so what?! For saving lifes you are not allowed to defend yourself, your own life, and to defeat and punish those, who try to take away those lifes?! If Balto wants to save Rosie and the kids, he himself has to be alive and healthy, hence he should never allow Steele to attack and to hurt him, he should never allow Steele to attack the medicine box. If Balto died and the box was destroyed, then everything would be lost. And why to add a villain in the first place?! Wild animals, deadly epidemy and hazardous cold weather are enough for this, there's no need in a villain, a villain (especially such type like Steele) has no reason to exist by this logic. 10. "But keeping the villain alive and abandoned by others makes the movie less cliched and more family-friendly and warming especially near the end! And it makes the protagonist kind and good, since he didn't hurt anyone! This scene shows Balto's true kind nature and selfless care for others and Steele's bad nature and egocentrism!" — extremely stupid argument. First of all, the movie is already the drama about kids deaths in epidemy and xenophoby/speciecism. Second, the antagonist commits atrocities through entire movie. Third, a main character doesn't become worse or "less good/kind/nice", if he/she defends own life and health and fights evil for protecting others and punishing this evil. Fourth, by this logic let's change the TLK 1994 ending for more "family-friendly vibe in the end", let's not allow Simba to fight Scar and keep him "saint pacifist" in the same way Balto was, let's not kill Scar, but just collectively leave him in his cave to sit and think on his bad behavior like planning and then murdering his brother, attempt of murdering his nephew, usurping power and also using lies, propaganda and revanchism for using hyenas as his weapons for keeping this power, tyranny etc. WTF?! Do you understand how stupid this is?! Seems to me, such Steele defenders are either "I can fix him, I am for all good against of all evil, we don't have to stop evil by evil, or there will be more evil" thinkers or bullies themselves, who don't want for their kind to get some punishment for their atrocities, or just "high ground moral" hypocrites, which always ignore pain and suffering of victims, but start to yell and punish these victims, when they finally brutally punish their tormentors and bullies (and for a victim it is totally justified — horrible people absolutely deserve this, I see nothing wrong with brutal beating, mental and physical breaking and smashing various abusers, tormentors, bullies etc, because these critters understand only own language), saying "But you are a good boy/girl! You mustn't be like them! You have to overgrow and forgive them! You are higher than them! They are just playing! It is the problem in you, they rightfully call out your sins! How dare you to defend yourself! How dare you to show negative emotions! Or else you are bad just like them or even worse! To be nice is not a being weak!" and all other disgusting crap, full of double standards.

The only more or less interesting argument is that "It is cooler that the villain becomes the reason of own demise or defeat, and it is funny how Steele digs grave for himself without even realizing that". In some aspects it kinda makes sense, because if he accepted Balto's help, either running with him in pair like two lead dogs or just following him, humans still would consider exactly Steele as the main hero simply because he is the older and more experienced lead dog that ran in many races before in contrast to younger and inexperienced Balto. Plus, well, his musher would praise exactly him, because he didn't see, who actually led the team. Same for the version, if Balto ran in the team since the beginning, i.e. if he was allowed to run after he won the run in Nome. But everything else makes zero sense. it is a bad writing, when a protagonist does nothing for self-defense or fight or opposing to evil, and where every obstacle disappears by itself, without any effort from a main character, as if he is under insulting divine plot armor. Like, then why should I relate to him, if everyone solves a problem for him, and if he swallows all crap?! And if the villain does everything for own undoing, then why the movie isn't called Steele, which by this logic is the main character with arc of falling into madness and lack of morality?!

But I tell that again. There should be no suicidal empathy, there should be no tolerance to evil. If someone hurts you or tries to take away your life, if someone torments and hurts others physically and with really serious verbal insultings, you are fully allowed to defend yourself and punish such person, smash their faces etc. Simply saying — goodness has to be with fists. Not everyone deserves your kindness, and not everyone can change and admit own mistakes. And Steele is exactly this irredeemable abomination, which deserves the most brutal beating and even death. He always was this abomination. And he should be killed without any mercy. But we'll talk about it in details later. Speaking about the interviews with the director. One of his depictions of Steele was "Never having had to try very hard, he is not ready for adversity when it confronts him, and his grip on right and wrong goes away as soon as he is rattled." Actually, even before the infamous antitoxine scene Steele already demonstrated the behavior of a very dangerous and unhinged sadist and psychopath with tendencies to hurt with risk of death, and certain his acts toward Balto can be considered as an attempt of murder, not just verbal and physical bullying or abuse. 1. The opening scene with sled races fully demonstrates and even cements already in the beginning Steele's evil nature, confirming, he was always evil — for getting all glory and victory, for staying the adored champion and hero to his death, Steele will hurt and even kill every potential rival. Seriously, although at first glance it looks like just an attempt to frighten and intimidate, but it is pretty clear that Steele was ready to bite and hence to injury the dog from the rival team, the dog dodged by luck, but still was scared.

Really, look at this. He was aiming specifically to bite his paw. The dog dodged it just by a miracle.

And, well, due to this bite trick the rival team, the dogs and their musher, they stumble, get tangled in the harness, fall at high speed, crash and knock each other down, including overturning the sled with the musher, which could cause them all to get fractures and injuries even from the runners of the sled.

And the rival musher saw it, and looking at his reaction, Steele does it not the first time, he did that before. 2. Later Steele uses the same bite trick near Balto in the Rosie's hat scene.

Balto's fast reaction saved Balto's life and health, so he perfectly dodged Steele's attack, jumping toward Rosie's head (where this friggin reaction was in the grizzly bear scene and in the antitoxine fight scene, I ask?!), or else Steele would bite him and hence made serious wound on Balto's paw, Balto would fall and possibly crash into something (humans or boxes), getting serious wounds.

Wow, at this time Steele was aiming to bite in neck or head/face...

In fact, if Steele bit him, Balto could fall under paws of Steele and his dogs and also under the sled itself, so Balto really had the risk to die.

As well as Steele's team could be injured as well. 3. In the alley scene Steele throws a rock into Balto's head, so Balto also gets thrown away to those planks and beams.

It could cause a serious wound of especially head for sure. 4. And then the smashing paw scene. By doing that, Steele literally puts Balto in grave danger, because after Balto's unintentional growl (well, for some reason, the moron musher heard a growl instead of a whine and didn't notice Steele's aggressiveness and malice) at the human all townfolks of Nome would decide to shoot Balto.

"He can't be trusted! He is half-wolf! You saw his teeth! He could turn on me!" = "Let's shoot this dangerous wild animal for showing aggression toward not only a dog, but to a human!" 5. Then this jump. If Balto didn't dodge, Steele would jump on him and hurt him, not just break the tree.

So, yes, Steele made attempts of murder even before the infamous antitoxine scene. 6. Then this infamous antitoxine fight scene I so hate. These two hits and one bite (I remind, before this Balto got powerful hits from the bear with risk of deep and fatal wounds from big and sharp claws and then the bear almost crushed his chest = risk for broken bones and ribs etc, and he wasn't afraid of it, and now Steele hits him into these same body places the bear hit him previously).

And here we go! At first the attacking the medicine box

and then the two confident, clear and blatant attempts of murder he doesn't even hide anymore! Both the throwing Balto to the ice rock, so he gets head injury and gets knocked out for a while, and then pulling Balto to the edge of the cliff for throwing him away to his death (and only Jenna's friggin bandana like deus ex machina saves the day and Balto). And when Balto lied moveless, Steele sadistically laughed, thinking Balto is dead. I repeat it again, already two open attempts of murder!

What was in the heads of the filmmakers, if they forbid Balto to fight or at least to dodge these attacks in such conditions?! What was in their heads, so they force Balto to act like a holy idiot, who would be ready not only to turn his other cheek for another punch, but even to open his own butt for Steele by this logic, so he apparently has a crush on Steele, not Jenna?! And what's in heads of those fans, which defend Steele and this scene, as if everything is right?! Am I only one, who sees how morbid and f*cked up this is?! What's in heads of those, who find Steele not being brutally punished and killed as a good story decision?! No one living soul will give even a glimpse of normal explanation! Inhale and exhale... 7. After the antitoxine scene Steele literally attempts to murder Balto again and also tries to murder own sled team and owner and to destroy the medicine box only for preventing Balto to "steal" Steele's glory and the status of a hero. Yupp, he ruins Balto's trails to path and lures the team to the edge of the mountain, so they all will fall and die and stuff, the medicine won't arrive to Nome, the kids will die. And all this only for keeping own status of the hero and "If I don't bring the medicine, then no one will".

And the cherry on the top of the cake — Steele was there and hid near, Steele watched, how the sled team struggles to not fall, how Balto and the box fall from the mountain, so the team (the musher and the dogs) will freeze to death in snow storm.

Or else why Steele in details told in his "tragic story", how desperate for love and glory Balto grabs the medicine box and falls from the mountain and dies?! Steele planned it and watched it for being sure Balto is dead, the medicine box is destroyed, and the team is lost to cold death with no chances for anything else. Third blatant and nearly successful attempt of murder of already several characters. And all for own and sole and personal glory.

And people still defend him?! Just because he is a dog?! He deserves to be beaten like Spitz in Call of the Wild (either the book or 2020 film) at minimum. I also never understood, why Steele's death was deleted, and why his "defeat" in the final film was so childish, safe, family-friendly and anti-climatic. I always thought it is due to budget limits or whatever. Not to mention that the scene itself still had this stupidity with Balto's over-compassion toward Steele, when dogs order him to give his collar to Balto, and when Steele tries to murder Balto again and then dies, as well as the stupidity that Steele dies due to own stupidity in the comedy style of those students from Tucker and Dale VS Evil movie (for real, Steele just missed during the attack and got caught by the collar). But the answer actually exists. According to Simon Wells, it was the order of Steven Spielberg to keep Steele alive for "symbolism, how Balto and Steele switch roles in the end without very cruel and dark finale". And with all respect to the legends of animation and cinematography, but it is one of the insultingly dumbest story decisions and explanations I ever heard. The aspect I recently realized — in contrast to the deleted scene from the early script with Steele's death, in the final movie nobody among dogs knows that Steele is an attempted murderer. In the end they just conclude "Oh no, you lied to us that everyone tragically died, but you just left them, they are alive!", but that's it, nobody knows what he has done. Do you get it now? Do you finally understand now the full scale of the problem?!

I remind, he tried to murder Balto, his teammates and owner (well, I wouldn't mind, if Steele ate this d*ckhead actually) and also destroy the medicine box for sabotaging the rescue operation, killing the sick kids and getting all glory for himself. As I always told, Steele deserved brutal punishment and beating, not this childish and harmless "leaving alone" crap. And looking at how dangerous and unhinged he is, he should be killed, because even although he is "ignored and left" by all, he can escape to some other town (I mean, travelling alone many miles of wilderness to Nome, he even wasn't eaten by bears, wolves or lynxes somehow), and through lies and manipulation he can become a "king of a village" again, where he'll have followers, who really consider him as the true hero, who ran "the longest and the most hazardous part" of the relay, but was overshadowed, forgotten, robbed, betrayed and wronged, as well as he still is able to do something horrible to Balto and his friends, because, most importantly, humans don't know that Steele is the attempted murderer. Funny, but even his musher doesn't know this. That's why forbidding Balto to beat Steele and keeping Steele alive are the most idiotic decisions in the story. Basically keeping extremely dangerous criminal with sadistic and homicidal tendencies without punishment and alive, so he can again put the characters in grave danger and return to throne.

I really don't understand bonkers, who defend Steele, the stupid antitoxine fight scene in movie version and hates the idea of his death etc. The reason, why in many Disney movies various villains die, is because they are extremely unhinged and dangerous, and they will never stop until they gain what they want, so to kill them is the only reasonable resolution. Steele is the villain of exactly this extremely dangerous type.

[waeirfaahl]

Pointless waste of time

For sure, in the original Balto movie the comedy sequences (excluding Boris) and humor were very clunky, forced and awkward, and along with fight scenes it was always the weakest part of the movie. But what's about dramatic moments? Well, unfortunately, not everything is perfect in drama and story aspects, because the 70-minutes film wastes its time for absolutely pointless comedic scenes (the three dogs, whose whole scenes are mix of hypocrisy and verbal and physical abusing Star, and 99% of Muk and Luk scenes) and plot scenes, which are just plot devices with lazy ways for one or another event of the story to move and to happen, and if you remove them or replace with something else, it will change nothing and even make the story stronger and better. The brightest moment is the ruining tree marks scene (I'd even argue that Steele watched at how the sled team and especially the box and Balto fall into abyss — because that's what he tells to other dogs in his "heroic tragedy" story), but I discussed earlier about this scene and its holes in the movie version, and how the novel made it better. So, let's dive into the others. The first scene that comes to my mind is the grizzly bear scene. For what this scene was made?!

It lacks normal and epic action and fight (while the novel version made the grizzly bear scene and the antitoxine fight scene great), in the movie Balto sucks in this scene (just like in the movie version of the antitoxine scene), the grizzly bear is just one big-lipped alligator moment, which comes out of nowhere and that's it, he desintegrates by himself, not because of the protagonist's effort, bravery or sharp mind.

So, why this scene exists? To show that Alaska is deadly dangerous? Well, then the protagonists should encounter wolverines, wolves, lynxes, moose, boars and polar bears etc, but they encounter only this one bear. Then for what?

What makes this scene so pointless and stupid is that its whole purpose was to force Balto to go alone for searching the sled team,

because if either Boris and the bear cubs or Jenna went with him, there'd be no troubles with Steele at all (or on the contrary, there could be more intense and interesting dynamics with how Steele attempts to murder not only Balto and the team, but also Jenna).

In the early script the grizzly bear survived the lake and later confronted Balto near the medicine box after the White Wolf scene, but for now it is unknown, what core and resolution were there, so in the final version of the film the grizzly bear exists only for lazy plot device for forcing Balto to go alone in his life-changing journey. The problem here is that Balto initially actually went alone,

he was confident in going alone into frozen wilderness since the beginning,

other characters joined him by own wish in the very last moment.

In fact, I would even argue that if Boris and the bear cubs stayed in Nome, the grizzly bear most likely wouldn't attack Balto and/or Jenna, because they aren't his prey and food or rivals in fighting for food. So, there'd be no confrontation, wounds and swimming in ice water.

From what I know, Simon Wells felt regret that he "kicked Jenna from the story too early, since she was a strong female character and deserved more role, screentime and impact", but it is actually doesn't change things, 'cause through her friggin bandana she again (already third time) saves the day and Balto and depraves Balto from character-growth and awesome scene of how he kicks Steele's butt finally. Not to mention that exactly Balto is the main character of the story, hence he has to solve problems by himself, there should be no all-mighty girl bosses, which save the day and stuff. And, well, Jenna wouldn't be good in running in sled.

In conclusion, the grizzly bear scene is bad from all sides. It is totally pointless, forced and unneeded. If they so wanted the deadly and scary grizzly bear, they should give him more screentime and make him the one, who attacks the sled team and also beats Steele and maybe even kills and eats him (or falls with him into abyss from mountain), since the ending with the golden collar was cut. Balto would have two enemies he had to fight for self-defense and protecting the medicine box, the sled team and potentially Jenna or whatever. The second scene, which absolutely makes no sense, is the picking the fastest dogs into the team for bringing the medicine.

Why to spend this run in the first place?! First of all, it affects nothing, it changes nothing, because the main villain runs, while the protagonist stays humilated and rejected loser in shadows again. So, this scene is a waste of time and in fact another forced way for demonstrating Balto's pain and tragedy.

Second, it makes no sense, because there's only two teams, and only Steele's team wins all these 4 years, hence everyone knows, which team has the fastest dogs, which musher will run, and this musher would never allow Balto to run just like Steele, or else they won't be these adored and worshipped champions anymore.

The funniest thing is that they spent this run in early morning, but they moved from Nome only at night. That means, if they didn't spend this stupid run, but moved to Nenana exactly at very early morning, Steele's team wouldn't be lost in blizzard and successfully arrive to Nome with antitoxine.

[waeirfaahl]

My little thoughts on Oreale and the true creator of the prophecy

"Argai" was one of my favourite childhood shows, I enjoyed to watch it on TV back in very early 2000s, and it had memorable characters and interesting setting and story, mixing fantasy, distopia, futurism, technologies and magic. Plus, it had interesting concept about time-travelling — there's no paradoxes and parallel timelines, and you can die only in your timeline (example: if you're from the future, but die in the past, you'll just teleport into the future, i.e. into your time), i.e. after defeating the antagonist both from the future and the past, the future wasn't changed or destroyed, it just was free from the tyranny, the characters kept their lifes and memories etc (the show also hints the principle of self-consistency). Some elements raised questions, and I could go deeper into these moments (mostly it is the antagonist's imbalance and too powerful abilities, the past version of the antagonist and also the fact that she for whatever reason didn't keep her victims and hence sources of immortality in her kingdom, her secret tower in enchanted forest, in spaceship or prison-planet — like, if one of victims dies or awakens, Oreale herself will die), but not in this post. The story was finished and good, and I hope, the show won't get some revival or new seasons. I don't want to see, how my childood shows get destroyed. Here I kinda want to look at the main antagonist, the Dark Queen aka Oreale, the white king cobra with rubine eyes and purple mantle.

Although she has this trope of an"arrogant, sadistic and powerful dark lord that laughs at everyone", she still has interesting and pretty unique (at least, for the time the show was released) traits in personality and arc. The show gives no information about her past, she only once tells that in her country/kingdom every fight is only to death, i.e. only one has to survive, no mercy, no diplomacy etc, pure victory or death, what kinda implies she is the product of her culture and traditions of her ancestors (probably her people and ancestors shared similarity with vikings). She is ancient and immortal sorceress from pre-12 century (already in 1183 she was experienced queen and witch with army, i.e. way before her confrontation with the protagonist prince in 1250), the warrior queen, who not only rules and leads army, but also fights, using horse and weapons, not only spells. In Middle Ages she defeated all her enemies and rivals (in fact, it's interesting moment — through the entire show exactly she destroys and kills various dictators and tyrants or becomes the reason of their death both in the past and in the present/future) and continued her expansion on the continent, hence she ruled these centuries. However, for whatever reason at some point she hid in shadows, apparently getting new knowledges and building her robot army and main space ship, and near the end of 20 century (I don't know, why, I always thought she ruled all these 825 years, and, well, if not, then more sense to attack the exhausted countries after WWI or WWII) she attacked the most powerful county and conquered it, killing rulers, usurping and creating own totalitarian dictatorship with eternal prison-planet for all who are against her to their deaths and with technologies for torturing and reading thoughts and memories, then she starts the global bloody war, using chemical weapons and lasers, so only 1/10 of Earth survives, people live only in her city, all other continents and countries are destroyed, i.e. only ruines in jungle, swamps, lakes and forest etc, only in few on these places savage tribes of cannibalistic mutants live. Not to mention the Dark Queen attacked other planets, either conquering them or destroying, so only one planet still has guts to oppose her and keeps own authonomy. So, after late-1990s she rules like 80-90 years or whatever. And, yeah, Oreale is very cruel dictator, she's that type of dictator — if Oreale fails, she will destroy everything she ruled, i.e. she was ready to destroy Earth to ashes, if she dies. And she was okay with drying rivers and burning forest etc.

What I find interesting about her — she was never afraid of death. Not in terms of immortality, she indeed wasn't afraid of death. The source of her fear was the other thing — if someone will deprive her of her free will and right of choice, if someone will take away her right and freedom to choose life or death and stuff i nfavor of some prophecy (or divine fanfiction, if you well). She tried to do everything to be this free and invincible ruler of the world, so her fear to lose it to some vague prophecy and hence for preventing it to play with the enemy from the past, who also followed the prophecy, became her demise. Her lines "If I must die, I'll decide myself, when and how! Only I decide my path and destiny!". When there's no predetermined events, she herself started these events, creating the enemy — actually, the funniest and ironic trick was exactly in the fact that one of her victims (young beautiful girls) had beloved, others didn't have. And, well, all these thousand years Oreale was alone, no mate or sibling or dinasty or heir, what confirms her being asexual, she wanted only immortality and ruling the world. The only two male characters she had some feelings to — her devoted servant Geko and Lucifer, her mentor. And here's my question — who is the creator of the prophecy? The show vaguelly mentioned it was some unknown ancient monk, but I doubt it is true. Logically, it could be Merlin, because he had the "foreseeing" ability in the lore, and in the last episode he also tells to the main characters about how every tale ends — you know, how brave and noble prince saves his beloved and the world, how light defeats darkness, how good defeats evil etc. But I have another answer — it could be Lucifer, who was also Oreale's mentor in the show. Like, he knew about the prophecy all these centuries, he is beyond time and universe, but for whatever reason he didn't tell about it to Oreale like "Hey, there's some mortal idiot made vague prophecy. It can become real, so don't take it too seriously, don't allow it to manipulate you, and better just destroy the book, or else someone else can make it real, don't underestimate your enemies and don't play with them", she discovered it only in 2075 after the protagonist's arrival to the future, and exactly Lucifer fed to her this idea about the battle of fates, the battle for her future and her path, he fed to her this idea, as well as he stated clearly that if she wins, she will rule Hell with him like his equal and beloved queen, but if she fails, she will die and be erased to nothing, she will in oblivion, in the void of nothing. And when she is defeated and lost everything, he just abandons her to die and cease to exist. And what's interesting, when the protagonist sneaked into Oreale's space ship for saving his beloved, Lucifer did nothing, he literally allowed to the prince to do this and hence to win. Personally, I think, this "prophecy" simply was his last test for Oreale, for showing her skills and inner strength, how loyal and stoic she is to her worldview, how much she controls her path and future, her life, how easily to fall into this fear of some destiny or whatever. She wanted everything, she reached for this, she succeeded in it, but in the end she lost everything and was lost in the void and oblivon.

Perhaps there was some kind of a bet here, you know, what is stronger — eternal, immortal and lonely perfection with complete freedom from morality and powers to corrupt and destroy, or a love and friendship through space and time in the name of saving a loved one and a world, and how characters actually create the events themselves and bring them to life, not because someone predicted/foresaw it. It could be interesting detail and shade in the story.

[waeirfaahl]

Double (triple) hero

The comedic scene with the butcher served only for demonstrating Balto's skills, talents and kindness, but in certain aspect it was quite confusing. From one side, this scene kinda states humans don't know Balto chills with a goose, hence being very kind and peaceful animal. From another side, the butcher's behavior toward Boris makes no sense.

For the butcher to yell toward Balto for "stealing the goose" makes no sense, because Boris is not even the butcher's goose, hence Balto isn't a thief.

Boris is just some random wild goose that surprised even the butcher himself that this goose is alive. And the butcher actually had already dead geese that were his indeed and prepared for cooking etc, i.e. most likely domestic geese with certain medical examination and special treatment, making them safe for eating by humans without risks to their health and life.

So, it is very irresponsible from the butcher's side to decide to slaughter and to cook a wild goose that appeared on his window from literally nowhere — he would poison or infect citizens and stuff, creating another epidemy.

Balto not only saved the life of his adoptive dad, but also prevented another (although in theory only potential) epidemy in Nome.

Already hero for sure.

[waeirfaahl]

He will survive

Thematical addition to especially this and this posts (for whole picture with the summary and compilation on the topic with all links to interviews and posts on the topic and analyzing all elements here). Since Balto-2 made huge and the worst mistake, making Balto's mother as his wolf side and stating that young Balto accidentally got lost, it birthed tons of contradictions and questions. One of them — if Balto's mother was a wolf, Balto would never deny his wolf nature, instead Balto would leave Nome and crave to find his lost mother, joining a friendly wolf pack, he'd never crave to run in sled and to sacrifice own life for humans and dogs, which rejected him all his life.

As well as the idea of Balto's mother being a wolf (for now for a second excluding the morbid nature of divine Aniu and whole Balto-2 thing, but partially including stupid fan theories like "wolf-mother died due to humans and dogs") just makes Balto hypocritical and disgusting character in first and then second films. However, in attempt to defend this "wolf-momma" concept and the sequel some people kinda tried to excuse, why Balto didn't leave Nome all this time — allegedly he stayed in Nome and tolerated abuse, bullying and cruelty, because "there is much warmer in Nome, in Nome he has better feeding, there's no threats, there's much safer, there's no dangerous animals"... Really?! Let's debunk, I guess: 1. Warmer? Until the finale of the original film Balto lived in outskirts of Nome since deep puppyhood. Balto lived on a heavily ventilated, leaky old ship, in this brown old rag and near the ocean in the open air.

Interesting, these ones are warmer or not? Hmmm... probably, Rosie's family gave him this blue blanket as a better replacement (the beginning of Balto-2 happens 3-4 months after the original film)...

...While Balto-3 happens 3 years after the original film, so the blue one could be not suitable anymore, so they gave to Balto this new one, the red blanket, knowing, he often likes to chill here. (or it is still the one from the original film, just... washed, sewn up, fixed and improved?)

And near the water it is always colder, especially during the northern winter with severely cold and powerful blizzards.

Not that different from a den in woods, probably even colder. 2. In Nome there's not much safer for Balto. All along Balto could be killed by dogs and/or humans as a pup, he had tons of chances to be shot by humans all this time, especially due to Steele's malice and many attempts of murder.

Not to mention that some wild animal like a hungry polar bear or a moose or a hungry wolf/wolves could go near the town (interesting to watch, how Balto would fight them, if they decided to attack and eat Boris and the polar bear cubs). 3. The case with food is actually pretty complicated and raises lots of questions. Shortly, no. Balto is not well fed in contrast to dogs, in Nome Balto was in much worse conditions than domestic dogs in this case, so this aspect is also already debunked, but I want to dive a bit deeper. In the first and the third films we once see Balto drinking water.

Interesting, what happened to the previous (metal) dish during these 3+ years? Or maybe there are two dishes, one for water, one for food, but both dishes can be used for both?

If during late autumn, entire winter and early spring there's no problems with water (Balto can eat snow, or Boris could put snow into his dish, so it melts into a water), in spring, summer and autumn there're problems with getting water, when there's no rain — like, Balto lives near ocean, hence he needs to visit Nome and drink normal water from, I guess, barrels and buckets, because it is much closer than woods with rivers.

With food the things are even more bizarre. I can assume Rosie fed him sometimes, but it is not enough. Logically, Balto would eat scraps from garbage dumps, but with such poor food he wouldn't become such enduring, fast and strong, with normal senses, bones, fur, body etc, he wouldn't be healthy. Or Balto could even steal some meat from the butcher's storage, but it seems unlikely due to his personality. Another version (the most plausible, since we briefly see a big bone) is

that Balto ate various beached sea animals like seals and cetaceans and also Balto hunted, catched and ate coastal fish, crustaceans, rodents and wild birds (interesting, what did Boris think about it?) — it makes a lot of sense, but it means that Balto fought and took away someone's life (not just ate carrion/corpses), hence he shouldn't and wouldn't allow Steele to attack him, Balto would prevent it immediately, Balto wouldn't behave like a pacifistic idiot near the grizzly bear and Steele, Balto would never care about their feelings and lifes (if it was ever the case).

Anyway, there's zero reasons for Balto to stay in Nome, if he is from wilderness, and if exactly the maternal side of his family was the wolf one. Especially in the context of the story in the original film and the sequel with fond memories about the wolf parent and the wolf parent being the only parent Balto ever had.

[waeirfaahl]

Small random thoughts on creatures of Upside Down

I want to make it clear — I am not a fan of these series, mostly I payed attention to these series, because my friend watched them, and because I find certain aspects of the creatures interesting. Hence treat this post just like some sort of a headcanon or fan theory, since the show gives no answers, as well as some sort of "What-If" thing, if 5 season was different, 'cause I think it could make the show and its final season more interesting. Maybe someone covered it already, I don't know, I just write what I personally notice and think.

Okay, in the first like three seasons the creatures are mostly like some deadly primal animalistic force, driven by instinct, only their leader, the Mind Flayer, which controls whole ecosystem and creatures of Upside Down, has higher intelligence and is the most powerful creature of Upside Down, it/he even has no typical physical body, just a dust, particles, through which this entity can control everyone physically and mentally, the hive mind, where everyone knows everything. The spider-like form gave me thoughts about ubiquitous puppetmaster, who is everywhere and knows everything through all creatures, this whole organic network can know all, if one member of this organic network knows. And in fact the whole appearance and nature of Mind Flayer actually gave impression that he/it is from some other place and got mental and physical control over habitants of Upside Down, he is very different from creatures of Upside Down, and without him Demogorgons and other creatures of Upside Down would be less aggressive and hostile toward humans. Maybe he/it forced them or maybe there was some sort of pact like "You are under my will, while I give you ability to regenerate, to returm to life and even be immortal, and even someone from our hive knows something, you know it as well" (the moment with dead demogorgon-dogs, for example), while Mind Flayer gets also various information and knowledge through this symbiosis, adapting and becoming better and keeping (in his view) more peaceful existence, natural order that is terrifying and unknown for humankind, where the entity is very hostile, ruthless and dark, but not something evil.

It seems to me the profit for this formless entity is not only in bodies as shelters/vessels (and tools for attacking, defending, and extracting information), but also as sources of various knowledge that are interesting and useful for him, in which he also adapts better, for example, in new worlds. Well, maybe this hive mind under his control is also, in his understanding and view, an ideal and conflict-free way of safe existence and, in his opinion, the only effective one. If he sees in this symbiosis such a conflict-free method of coexistence, then it turns out that in the eyes of the entity that many viewers accused of sadism and wickedness, humans are really inadequate aggressors, clinging to an unnatural order with the tenacity of stubborn sheep. I won't be surprised that Mind Flayer discovered Demogorgons on their start of moving to first step of becoming some sort of civilization and intentionally prevented them from this way of evolution, because in evolution and higher intelligence he didn't see a positive side (creative nature, empathy, support, tendency to make world better and care about each other), only a negative (destruction, corruption, hunger for power and egotistical oppressing and brutal submission of others), so he kept this animalistic way of life with symbiotic hive ecosystem.

As for Vecna... Before how his backstory was revealed he was pretty decent, dangerous, really brutal, cruel and calculating sadist, especially looking at how he captures in illusions, crushes mentally and physically his victims and kills them, I thought he is some more sentient habitant of Upside Down, maybe some spawn of Mind Flayer or his more human-like form, I don't know. There was great potential. And then we see the backstory of Vecna... And I didn't like many aspects, especially how he somehow survived in Upside Down and didn't die, mutating into this humanoid, how he gave the spider form to Mind Flayer (as if he also took control over Mind Flayer and uses the entity and habitants of Upside Down for own goals), and also this retcon "Oh this new villain was actually here all along since beginning, he designed this all! He is the first human kid with these special abilities!". At first he gives impression of some sort of Magneto with this "Humans were horrible toward me all my life, their kind and way of life are inferior, corrupted and wrong, so I will erase all humankind!" thing, so he kinda sees some sort of beauty in spiders, animalistic world and in Upside Down, but later you see he is simply egotistical, power-hungry megalomaniac psychopath, not that different from humans he so despises. Like, he doesn't kill those, who know about Upside Down and its creatures, he doesn't destroy some ways for humans to arrive into Upside Down, the place he so likes and lives with these creatures he feels with like kindred spirits and wants to protect or whatever, he simply wants power and control over others. He has no morals, no attachments, only his ambitions and ego, his view of himself as someone superior and special, where others are tools and weapons. So, there could be really interesting line and dynamics, how Vecna himself is trying to manipulate the Mind Flayer, playing precisely on shared views on the world and natural order, consciously or unintentionally hiding his egocentrism, thirst for revenge and power and psychopathic tendencies under mutual help. At first he found a like-minded person aka the Mind Flayer and found the Upside Down the better world, but later he spat on the animalistic utopian world and the way of the Mind Flayer. On the other hand, Vecna would have wanted to become radicalized, thus desecrating the life way of the Mind Flayer. I.e. ironically, Vecna would have ended up behaving like the humans he hated, against whose way of life he had initially trampled, and whom the Mind Flayer viewed as threat and aggressors. No matter how you look at it, Vecna himself has already been defiled and corrupted by the human society in which he grew up, and whose patterns he embraced anyway, and therefore no matter how much he refused it, preferring an animalistic world and hence a world under the will of the Mind Flayer, sooner or later and consciously or not, but he would have been captured by human ambitions, so as a result, he would have carried the negative sides of human nature into Upside Down, rather than the positive ones (which, in theory, could probably have been carried by Eleven, who did not become embittered).

So, that's my thoughts on it, maybe quite rushed, but I think, if 3 and 4 seasons were polished, while 5 season took this particular angle, the show would become better, so who knows.

[waeirfaahl]

Random thoughts on Ga'Hoole spinoff books

There was a moment, when me and my friend have read the books of Kathryn Lasky. He has read Ga'Hoole series, I have read Wolves of the Beyond series and Bears of Ice series, so later we told to each other the plot, it was interesting game and discussion with funny commentaries. Maybe I'll add something later in this post.

So, what I liked about these books — animals are sentient and have own myths, beliefs, laws, traditions and own language, and the book easily informs you, what word what means and stuff. Landscapes and some nature events are beautiful. Since animals are sentient, no wonder their society doesn't match all traits their IRL counterparts had.

In Wolves of the Beyond I liked Faolan, the main character, he was pretty smart and talented, but thanks he wasn't a Mary Sue, the books gave explanation and the context to his certain abilities and knowledges, how his adoptive bear-mom taught him to various tricks, which later helped him to survive, and how he helps and changes the world and others around him. The first three books were the best, they had detective and survival elements, they had creepy moments (rabid wolf, which hypnotizes through name, for example)

and some sort of stakes, because wolves wouldn't win battle against bear armies, which won't listen and care only about their young prince,

as well as wolf society are incredibly fanatical, hypocritical and ignorant (worse version of penguins from Happy Feet), they hate Faolan for his free, rebellious, brave and strong spirit, for challenging them and their idiotic rules, so they literally viewed Faolan as a demon or a witch literally (just like Sark, because she lived alone in swamps and was in friends with owls and could create cool things), as well his jealous and sadistic rival Heep committed murder for sentencing Faolan to death, but thanks Sark and Faolan's owl friend saved his life and revealed the true murderer aka Heep.

Yet I hated that Faolan didn't kill him but just allowed to run away to the land of cannibalistic barbarian wolves (same for McHits in 3rd book). I mean, I always hate such stuff with "We kill all army or servants, which mostly were forced to do order, but keep the main villain alive, because we have moral highground" crap.

Plus, I had issues with some fight scenes. If I made adaptation, I'd make adaptations and fight scenes closer to Felidae 1994 and Watership Down 1978. The 4th book had good and intriguing moments, yet I coudn't understand, how the she-wolf Sark (the best and most based girl and my favourite character in Wovles of the Beyond books) with her great nose didn't smell the scent of the thief since the beginning (when they found his secret place), and how this wolf thief was able to wear a helmet of a barn owl — either the owl was really big or the wolf was so small or he damaged the helmet.

But overall I liked this detective part, the despair from severe cold and hunger, how the son of a died leader masked himself like some sort of messiah and "helped" them to die in exhausing dance of hunger. The 5th book was mostly one long and boring prologue to the final book, yet the line with total mass death, and how our survivors go to new unknown and dangerous lands, struggling the nature forces, is interesting.

The element with how Faolan and other young wolves get cured from some congenital deformities is a little bit rushed, they should struggle and learn to live with healed bodies quite longer (claims like "The writer shouldn't add this magical healing, because disabled kids will be sad and cry! It's disrespectufl to disabled children! Booo!" are stupid for many reasons — first of all, not all characters were healed, Edme still stayed one-eyed, and the books heavily implied that exactly now, i.e. during destruction of volcanos or decision of owl king to keep the jewel in his own, born and living malkads are healed, i.e. pups which will be born much later still can be malkads, second, in the lore it was some sort of pact regarding exactly cubs with specifically inborn deformities, not acquired injuries, yet we'll discuss it a bit later, third, surprise, but through time and progress some deformities, diseases or injuries, which were forever in the past, now can be cured, fourth, Faolan and others struggled a bit after this, but due to certain events they should adapt as fast as possible, and IRL people after getting cure or prosthetics have hard time of long adaptation and rehabilitation, and fifth, normal people are happy, when someone gets a chance of getting cured, only idiots think like "I am forever with this injury, so everyone has to stay the same, or else it hurts my feelings!" — seriously, then let's forbid to write fantasy about resurrection, because "it will hurt feelings of those, whose family members or pets or friends died, and IRL they can't bring back to life someone with magic". Do you get it now?! Do you finally understand, how stupid this is?!).

The 6th book had own great moments like the ancient ice bridge to new northern lands (now inviting and warm with food), powerful deadly winds, travelling on water animals, the line with how Faolan and his beloved Edme return memories about their past lifes from ancient times, yet I'd want something more mind-blowing with Faolan's true nature rather than just some wind spirit with many lifes and rebirths, and what plays big role actually, not just mirrors some ancient event and cycle.

But the sixth book had many flaws, which quite ruined for me the experience — unneeded new characters (the wolf mother and her pup she unwillingly had with the antagonist from 2nd book), because their abilities could be given to the characters from previous books,

the survived antagonist Heep from 2nd book and his anticlimatic, lame and unsatisfying death (yes, exactly the crap "Some new character from nowhere kills the villain instead of main characters") — seriously, Heep should die from fangs of those he caused so much pain in the past (Faolan, Edme, Whistler) or Heep should be killed by young Rags, the orphaned wolf from clan of abandoned barbarian wolves, so he would prove to Faolan and friends that barbarian wolves can change and be noble and stuff.

So, after this I don't understand, why the writer returned Heep in the first place instead of killing him in the finale of 2nd book, so he'd be eaten by cannibalistic barbarian wolves, while in 6th book she could return survived wolves from McHit clan from 3rd book, since they were banished to the lands of barbarian wolves, but 5th and 6th books don't mention them, what implies they were either eaten by cannibals or died in cold and hunger in 4th book or died in cataclysm in 5th book, i.e. the writer could make certain barbarian wolves this threat and antagonists in 6th book, and nothing would change at all. Now about certain moments that bothered me a bit: For the context. Malkads aka pups with some congenital deformities, i.e. even if they are born slightly deformed (different eye colors, for example) or because they were born too early or too late than they should generally, their parents are shamed and separated and banished from pack, their normal pups go into adopted families, the deformed pups get thrown away to their death, but if they survive, they should return into their pack, so they are in lowest caste in a pack, so their life is a literal hell with hunger and constant bullying, both physical (hits, bites) and mental, they can't even hunt, they eat remains and scraps and they always should thank their tormentors for humilation and various "poses of obedience with bowing, groveling and fawning" they always should make near wolves of higher rank, and they believe they torture and bully malkads for some greater good according to their beliefs they kinda clean themselves from curse and shame through torturing malkad FACEPALM).

You can't imagine, how I sweared during reading this in 2nd book, I wanted to shoot all these arrogant aristocrats in wolf skin. Among all packs only McNamara pack is normal. And the funniest thing — regular wolves are jealous toward survived malkads, because such malkads have a chance to become a volcano guardians of the jewel of current owl king. 1. How malkads survive in the first place? Like, Faolan was lucky to be rescued and adopted by a female bear, so she becomes the mom for him until her death. But what's about Sark, Whistler, Heep? Who raised them? Other animals? Then why they have no knowledge in surviving and various tricks? Like, they are literally newborn pups, when a pack abandons them to die in cold, water, claws of owls or other predators etc. They are blind and can drink only milk, they are weak and can't normally move.

HOW?!

2. Why exactly females are blamed for absense of pups? Like, her mate can be infertile, not she. 3. Why to separate and banish either infertile couple or a couple, which birthed even only one malkad? It would fair and logical, if it was constant, when a couple is healthy and has no problems with hunger and thirst. 4. Why to kill malkads, which just have different eye color or absent tail or slightly turned out leg or simply were born too early or too late? They are sentient animals, so body language isn't that important thing in their world, there's tons of other ways of communication. One thing deformities, which literally mark such puppy as weak, sick and dead soon without any doubts, another thing such innocent elements. Heep is fully healthy, he just doesn't have a tail, later he himself (for getting rid of Faolan he saw as threat to his chance of becoming a volcano guardian and hence not experiencing bullying of pack members anymore) devoured another malkad, which just was born too early and had no deformities. If it's not a genocide, I don't know what it is. 5. Why to bully and to banish an infertile she-wolf, if she still can be a great hunter and warrior in a pack or a nanny and a teacher for puppies? And why to bully a pregnant she-wolf and mark her unborn yet puppies as malkads, if she just gives birth a bit later or earlier? 6. If malkads survived, why to forbid them to show their knowledge and abilities, which can be useful for a pack in hunt? Faolan literally was punished for hunt despite he already in young age was twice bigger than adult wolf and also Faolan was able alone to fight and kill a cougar and barbarian wolves and Faolan alone successfully hunts and kills a deer, so WTF?!

Such fighter and hunter would be the great gift for any pack! But no, he is not allowed to hunt and eat normal food, he is not allowed to howl, he is not allowed to defend himself verbally and physically, he is not allowed to have a name, he has to suffer from hunger, cold, rejection, bullying and abuse, he has to walk hunched over, with his tail tucked between his legs and with his belly crouched to the ground and his muzzle in the mud, and not dare to look at a high-ranking wolf, which harms him. 7. Why Faolan and other outcasts and malkads couldn't just create own pack (or join McNamara, which accept banished wolves)? Why couldn't he live alone like a bear (or like Sark) or with a potential mate (Edme)? Why to return to those disgusting scumbags, which abandoned him to die and now torment him? Why to tolerate their stupid rules?

I always hated this cliche, when a main character gets constantly bullied, abused and rejected by everyone literally for nothing, but for whatever reason he/she still has to save them and care about them, when some crap happens with them (Balto, Rudolph the reindeer etc). They don't deserve you, you owe nothing to them, you don't have to "prove and show your value", so let them die or struggle and suffer with their problems. Help only to those who respects, loves and values you like a living being, like a person. 8. What if Faolan refused to join the pack? Would they kill him for justified refuse to be a scapegoat without any rights? 9. What if a pup had no physical deformities, but tons of mental ones (psychopathy, sadism, deviations and disorders; males in McHeet clan can be partially the result of such inborn mental pathologies with upbridging), which became visible much later? Is this pup still a malkad or not? 10. What's about pups, teens or adult wolves, which lost their eye, paw, ear or tail or got some crazy wound, which left ugly scar with absent part of flesh and visible bone, during fight, for example? Will they become considered malkads or not? 11. Survived malkads gnaw and hence carve drawings, stories and events into bones of other killed animals. Why can't they be chroniclers and keepers of the chronicles and history of this family and pack? After all, this is an important role in the pack, they should be respected for this, not humiliated and offended. And they should be respected also for helping dead souls to ascend on stars into their version of heavens to other spirits and deities. These clans literally have singers, who sing legends and past old stories. 12. About any punishments and penalties for thwarted hunts. In a normal and adequate pack, instead of these moronic reprimands, humiliations and walking around with a painted bone, they would simply say, for example, you failed to catch a deer, so you have to feed the pack with food commensurate with this deer — that is, either catch the same one, or several smaller animals, more or less equal in weight to the lost prey, you will feed a pack, and then you can find food for yourself and eat. At the same time, the offender's abilities would be revealed, shall we say, suddenly the hunter is both a fighter and a good strategist, and even able not to lose concentration alone or in the case of a scattered pack. The laws in this pack need huge reformation. 13. Why McHeets had no malkads, so they literally mutilated own newborn pups (healthy pups, Edme was one of these mutilated ones) for marking them as fake "malkads" with chance of getting own power over volcano guards?

I ask this, because it gives weird implication that malkads in general exist because of this magical oath between the ancient revered first wolf leader-guardian Fengo and the ancient and first owl king Grank, i.e. all suffering of malkads is their fault and, ironically, the fault of Faolan's past incarnation-life aka Fengo. Especially with this detail that McHeets never had malkads, because they aren't noble in contrast to other clans... Yeah... actually the best clan is McNamara, whose creators are mostly she-wolves from McHeet clan, and this clan accepts banished wolves. Not to mention that other clans aren't noble exactly because of how they treat malkads, how hypocritical, fanatical, ignorant, stupid they are. Like, they have laws to not kill their worst ones (especially high-ranked), but are totally okay with killing cannibalistic barbarians wolves (because they don't know their stupid traditions and don't live through these stupid traditions), which are mostly just orphaned pups, abandoned and lonely, and which live in severe area, where almost no food, so they do what they do only out of survival, but at least these barbarians don't have these stupid traditions, rituals and bullying and humilation of malkads and low-rank wolves, so ironically in most aspects the barbarians are much better than all these "noble clans". And, yes, I'm on Sark's side, she was right — fuck all these monstrous rules, traditions and beliefs and castes. She was the best girl, she created dishes, paint, medicinal decoctions and infusions, various traps, cool. And I liked that with the destruction of Beyond Lands with all mass deaths of all these packs, all owl and eagle kingdoms, all these old traditions and beliefs died, so Faolan with Edme and friends (and several other survived owls, eagles and wolves) went to new lands, making the better world, where no malkad will suffer, where all his friends will live happily etc. So, what's about Bears of Ice series?

Overall I enjoyed the first two books, they were great and intriguing, with these dark themes of propaganda and fanaticism and had creepy moments (the floating and bleeding ghostly parts of the kidnapped and sacrificed bear cubs, mutilated in the ice tower clock), relatable characters (young polar bear siblings Stellan and Jutte, which try to rescue their mom and find their dad, who is the leader of rebellion against fanatics),

again cool areas and landscapes with dangers, where wild animals are friends or enemies. I liked that spiders and snow leopard were positive characters.

But the 3rd and apparently final book was a huge disappointment for me, it even pissed me off. Not only because it is basically a story without finale, where the entire battle with the Grand Patak (The Great Inqisitor aka the main antagonist, which is left without any backstory and normally explained motivation and goal except "I am true god, I'll destroy all who is against me and my word and will!") is off-screen, but because the way how the writer depicted wolves. And it seems Kathryn Lasky didn't write 4th book, because she realized she created large contradiction. And she literally devalued and erased the entire Wolves of The Beyond series and Faolan's and Edme's journey and arcs, their effort and path, but also created the plot holes. Before how I started to read 3rd book about Stellan and Jutte, I genuinely thought that their adventures happen between the owl saga (Ga'Hoole) and the wolf saga (Wolves of the Beyond), i.e. the ancient giant glacier, which destroyed their land and killed inhabitants of this land and forced Faolan and his friends to go to the new land (Distant Blue) in 5th book — it is what the Grand Patak did, i.e. he caused a flood and destruction by turning on the ice clock etc, that's why the coldest areas became warmer, while warm areas colder and stuff. It all made sense. But no, Bears of Ice series happen after the saga about Faolan, 10-20 years after Wolves of Beyond series. And 3rd book about Stellan and Jutte created tons of problems. The entire 3rd book gives impression that it is one big forced fanservice. I.e. instead of, for example, making plan and preparing for epic battle against The Grand Patak and his followers the protagonists simply travel in one area to another area and encounter familliar characters from previous series. And villains lack the threat and are just idiots in this book.

About the huge problems and contradictions. The 6th book about Faolan blatantly stated that nobody (except our main characters, their friends and also eagle couple) survived, they forever went away from their devastated, destroyed and dead motherland to the new area, and the ice bridge melted as well (the last part of the journey they travelled on narvals), hence no other wolves and other animals survived and no other potentially survived wolves could reach on their territory, this Blue Distant land. The books about Faolan and Edme were about changes and abandoning these cruel and barbarian traditions, they even themselves (and one of the pups) said that nobody will abuse and kill malkads anymore, no stupid and cruel traditions anymore, only new happy life with respect, support and equality in the new world, the blue land (or how it was named in eng version). The 6th book even mentioned that not only all wolf clans and packs died, but also Ambala (eagle kingdom) and Ga'Hool (owl kingdom) as well were destroyed and all inhabitants died.

What we see in 3rd book about Stellan and Jutte? In 3rd book about Stellan and Jutte we somehow get the same wolf clans (how the fuck they survived?!), they again abuse malkads, they are still in their savage uber-traditionalist (fundamentalist, fanatical) state they had in the books about Faolan. I hated that part. As well as another contradiction and character assasination of Faolan — that Faolan somehow led wolf packs (how he returned and led them, if he and survived friends left the Beyond forever, and even the ice bridge was destroyed?!) and they crossed the ice bridge and now just returned, and during these 10-20 years somehow the destroyed in 5th book volcanos were restored... FACEPALM... We also see Ga'Hool, owl king Soren, his daughters... I can't... we see the same friggin wolf clans with the same cruel traditions they had in the beginning of the series about Faolan! Seriously, it is the first time, when I noticed the contradiction to the canon in her books! Why not to make another new packs, arrived from other lands? Why not to make those survived barbarian wolves, who were in Heep's pack, to live here? Not to mention, how Lasky ruined Sark! This strict, lonely, wise, grumpy but kind and supportive mentor-like friend. She turned Sark, absolute childfree in the books about Faolan, into sudden mother and grandma of a random secondary character, which was killed after few minuts she was introduced. My question was "Why do you introduce this random character as Sark's child, if it is the contradiction to Sark's personality, and if you kill this character immediately as soon as you introduced her?". Better would be, if this Alasdar, having normally written important and bigger role, was either Sark's nephew or simply her reborn version. I have no idea, why Kathryn Lasky did that. But I really feel she didn't write 4th book exactly because she realized she created these contradictions and plot holes.

[waeirfaahl]

Weird rules of ADGTH-1989

Yes, I'm talking about exactly the original movie, because since deep childhood I knew only the original, I saw the sequel few times and never saw the series (maybe once few moments), but I can tell for sure they contradict to each other and to the original movie, especially in terms of who habits and rules in Hell (in the original film there are dragon-like monster, the skeleton reptile with wings and small rodent-like critters; in the sequel for whatever reason there's already the red cat, and there's no hints that he rules specifically feline Hell, not general or canine one, and it raises the question, why Carface teams up with exactly feline devil, not canine one; in the series, I guess, there's the angel-dog's sister-demon-dog from nowhere). And, yes, the Hell sequence, both in the nightmare and in the end of the film, was the best in the entire movie. Creepy, eerie and threatening.

But since childhood I felt there's something wrong in the original movie, and when I became adult, I finally found the answer. So, here're my (probably subjective) thoughts in order. 1. Charlie's death has always seemed and felt unfair to me. And the reason for this was found decades later.

Why? Because he wasn't even two years old in the original movie! He's literally a teenager! If you pay close enough attention, you will notice that Charlie was born in September of 1937, and the events of the movie take place in early-1939.

It would be more logical and fairer if the angel-dog ordered Charlie to guard Anne-Marie until she comes of age, and her life will be safe and happy, either as a mortal dog or a guardian with whom she can communicate and see.

2. The rules work very weird, what also ruins and spoils the ending very much and makes it seem forced for the sake of drama and pessimistic gloominess. Anyway, I'm not taking the sequel and the series, because there are tons of contradictions to the original. There's another moment, and it's in the original film. The question is — why do all dogs go to Heaven regardless of their actions and deeds committed during their lifetime, and why they are sent to Hell not for their sins and crimes, committed during their lifetime, but for running away/refusing to stay in Heaven? Why is it supposedly impossible to go back?

Why was Charlie proposed to go to Hell for eternal torment just because he escaped from Heaven into the world of the living, so he had to sacrifice himself for someone in order to earn a chance to go to Heaven again, but at the same time Carface, i.e. a liar, a murderer, a sadist, a racketeer, a gangster, who many times already betrayed and even killed Charlie, was still sent to Heaven?!

It makes all of Charlie's sacrifices and death look even more forced in the finale. Yes, Charlie also committed terrible things (in the heaven journal there was no mentions of murders from his side, although, if I remember correctly), especially manipulation and betrayal of Itchy and Anne-Marie, but he still had a moral compass (yet even in the beginning of the movie, i.e. before he met Anne-Marie, he demonstrated good qualities), his actions are still incommensurable with what Carface was doing.

Carface should go to Hell in the end of the original film (not to mention, how stupid the dog angel is to reveal to Carface about the watch that can return him into real world, and the sequel continued her stupidity). 3. Charlie's insulting irresponsibility and stupidity, because of which he led himself to the second and final death. Anyway, it was already unclear how the watch even got into the real world from Heaven and on Charlie's body, if they were on his ephemeral soul, and they can be physically damaged for whatever reason (and the angel-dog revealed to Charlie this aspect for whatever reason instead of keeping in secret, because there should be tons of souls, who would crave to escape and become alive again), but okay.

There are more weird moments here. Charlie knows, who killed him, but instead of lying low, hiding, and suddenly and stealthily killing Carface, when he is most vulnerable, using cunning and surprise, Charlie and Itchy literally build a casino and reveal themselves to everyone, including their worst and most dangerous enemy.

Further, Charlie knows that he is alive precisely because of the heaven watch, and if necessary, he can be resurrected again by simply winding them again. Simply saying, when the watch sank, it could have been found (along with Charlie's body), cleaned of water and wound up again, i.e. Charlie would most likely have been alive again, which is why the ending with the so-called drama and going to Heaven seem even more forced.

But the most outrageous thing is that Charlie, instead of hiding the heaven watch in a secluded place, where no one will find it, and no one will know (except of maybe Itchy, who would have protected them then, keeping the secret of resurrection and winding it up on occasion; although the question remains whether they will help in the case of severe body injuries such as bullet wounds to the head or vital organs, an explosion with limbs torn off, burns from acid or fire, etc),

for some reason, Charlie walks with the heaven watch into dangerous places, literally putting the heaven watch and, consequently, himself into grave danger.

The peak of idiocy happens in the final battle, when Charlie chooses to save Anne-Marie in the water and ignores the watch, only after saving her he descends after them into the depths of the water, where he meets his second and final death.

That is, instead of just taking this watch in his teeth and fixing it between his teeth, hence the saliva won't damage them, or he can hide the heaven watch behind his cheek and squeeze the strap with his jaws, Charlie leaves them again, where they will easily fall off and drown, what eventually happens...

Just take the f*cking watch in your teeth (or on your neck or paw like a bracelet!), the girl in your paws and swim up, you moron mutt! WTF?!

That is the brightest moment of the forced "hard choices" and "drama just for drama's sake", when, in the name of the desired plot result, the author erases the logical behavior of the characters and stupefies them. It could be avoided easily, if Don Bluth so wanted this sacrifice theme with the tragic death of the protagonist for saving the girl's life and hence cleaning own soul and stuff.

[waeirfaahl]

My small thoughts about The Beldam (The Other Mother)

"Coraline" is one my all-time favourite animated films, in fact, exactly this movie made me love stop-motion and Laika projects. Plus, Coraline 2009 I can confidently describe as the perfect dark fantasy or dark fairy tale, as well as it is the case, when an adaptation is 1000 times better than a book aka a source material. Yes, the book had own cool, interesting and creepy elements (the ancient corridor between worlds, the creepy moments with the alternate actresses and the dad), but for me the adaptation literally improved the story, made it both intriguing, convincing and mysterious, and where you understand the characters (in fact, I can praise the cartoon for making both the parents and the child relatable, i.e. there's no absolutely black or white, you understand the struggle of Coraline's parents and you understand Coraline herself in this situation). And the best example of such huge improvement in the movie is the Witch (The Beldam, The Other Mother).

By far, she is one of the best antagonists, and she is a character of the type I enjoy — some unknown, mysterious, ancient, animalistic yet sentient creature, a predatoric entity, which mimicks a human and is driven by primitive goal aka feeding and survival (you can remember her yelling "Don't leave me! I'll die without you!"). And I am talking about exactly the movie version. I love her design, this creepy yet elegant, eerie beautiful amalgamation of a human skeleton with metal needles and spider traits. And, yes, like another creature of such type (I'd also recall the lady-spider from Gravity Falls, she deserves more credit), she is an ambush predator, which waits, lures and then devours, when a pray (children) is in the most vulnerable state. But I'd describe the Witch as a way more evolved, adapted, calculating, cunning and modern type (I don't know, if IT/Pennywise from the book is a java man, It/Pennywise from the dilogy 2017-2019 is a neanderthal, the Witch from 2009 movie is a cro-magnon), since she uses kids' craving for attention, care, love and happiness instead of their fears or negative emotions or traumas.

And, yes, if the book mostly focuses (quite on a nose and makes it clear there's the grave danger from the beginning) on the dark, cruel, twisted and sick side of motherhood and also on the nature of abusive and manipulative parent, who sees their kids (in this case, Coraline and the altered dad, in the movie both the altered dad and Wybie) as just own toys, property and tools, very rarely referencing to the primal animalistic nature, the movie adds and explores the animalistic side, making the character more nuanced and ambiguous and even more scary and unpredictable. Like, in the movie, if to look at how she treats Coraline, her own creations (alternate people) and her previous victims (the ghost kids), it works both from animalistic side and from psychological, symbolical and metaphorical sides of neglect, possessiveness, ruthless abuse and clever manipulation (and you feel bad for the alternate dad and the alternate Wybie in the movie). I mean, the opening scene of the movie shows not only how the Witch creates the new spy-doll for the chosen prey, but also it shows the walls with how a hawk torments and devours a smaller bird, i.e. it already states and cements her nature as a predatoric animal,

later the way into her den looks like an enchanting amethyst silk tunnel,

as well as her den, where there's nothing to hide anymore, is literally a spider web, a spider lair literally with also traps and various prey (bugs and kid toys and clothes).

And since the Witch was hugely improved and written better in the movie, the story structure became much better and more intriguing and convincing. Like, in contrast to the book, in the movie she spies on her prey through a doll that looks like a chosen prey (a child), finding weak spots, what is wrong and bad and sad in a kid's life. And in contrast to the book, in the movie she turns into a kid's mother, and it again works perfectly for getting the trust from a child and creting safe and happy vibe (in the book she is in her creepy tall pale woman form since beginning, so I never understood, why Coraline didn't run away immediately). Like, in the book the painting with a boy looked scary and violent in the lair, while the movie made clever decision — in the real world, boring, sad, indifferent, gray and cold the boy looks sad and disappointed, in the Witch's lair everything is in warm, kind, friendly and caring colors, and the painting boy looks happy. It looks and works great for luring, manipulating and seducing Coraline to stay in this world, where everyone loves her, plays with her, cares about her, gives normal food and is happy to see her, and to allow the Witch to replace her eyes with buttons. It is the perfect metaphor of both the deadly trap for Coraline and the food for the Witch — she needs a happy child she can feed on.

Also, about this. In the movie, Coraline enters the world of the Witch three times, and the first two times are exposed as if it were a dream, not reality. In the movie, the Witch gracefully, smoothly, consistently and methodically pulled the strings and ingratiated herself into Coraline's trust, patiently and artfully "putting her on the needle happiness and love" and luring gifts, delicious food, attention, care, games, fascinating shows (the big mantis, the show of cute jumping mice etc) and love into her world, the first two times exposing everything to dreams, the only thing that bestows Coraline is happy in this new place, which is why she reacts with doubt to warnings about the danger beside the small door from Mr. Bobo and the two old actress ladies, because in a dream it is not scary, it's safe, especially in such a pleasant place with friendly and caring inhabitants, in contrast to the irritable parents who are mired in work. And at the very catharsis, when Coraline quarrels with her mother, and she leaves in sadness, exactly at this moment the third time happens, the Witch opens the passage to her world as in a real one, not a dream, demonstrates the most colorful performance and then gently offers buttons in exchange for eyes, soul and freedom. Therefore, she was sure that Coraline would agree, so she underestimated Coraline. (in the book there's nothing of it). It is the behavior of a predator who lures prey into a trap in order to feast, and it is the behavior of a predator who has a keen sense of psychology and processes the child so that the child has no alternative and goes only to this predator, and the fact that the Witch doesn't use fears, trauma or negative emotions to process the victim, but she uses loneliness and a child's thirst for a friend, support, companion, someone who will understand him and love him/her, adds to the horror and makes the Witch even more cruel, ruthless, sadistic and calculating. After all, if Coraline was just having a temporary conflict with mom and dad due to moving to new home and problems at their job, then imagine how many child victims of real abuse and cruelty, or even orphans, went into this dream world and gave themselves to the button-eyed cute-looking monster for the sake of a grain of love, in the sincerity of which they blindly believed. I think, that is the scariest part.

And in the movie it was hard to trick her, to escape from her and to destroy her hand, which chased the girl and attacked immediately after it escaped the small door, it nearly choked Coraline and nearly killed Wybie. The Witch was dangerous enemy indeed. In the movie, it can be said unequivocally that not only all the ghost children have found freedom and peace and were avenged, but the Witch is doomed to die — not only because she screamed "Don't leave me! I will die without you!", but also because all souls are liberated, and she has nothing to draw strength from, she is completely blinded and deprived of a hand, as well as her whole world eventually turned into empty nothingness. There will be a slow, agonizing death from starvation, nothing more.

[waeirfaahl]

My little thoughts about IT

Being a kid, once I watched a South Korean horror film about a man-eating fish-like mutant, and the one scene stuck with me — how humans chase this creature, throwing Molotov cocktails and burning the creature, and the scene makes you feel bad for in fact an animal, which simply tries to survive. And exactly these same feelings I had during watching IT the dilogy, especially the scenes, where the creature is defeated, both soundtracks "Welcome to The Losers Club" and "You're all grown up" always get me especially in 1:50-2:07, which is the most heartbreaking part. In the movie dilogy the creature was pretty nuanced, interesting and even relatable and tragic character (I felt bad for him in both first and second movies). Watching the 2017-2019 dilogy (well, back then only 2017 film) pretty much open-minded, I saw the creature as a supernatural predatoric mimicking animal with mind of a child (maybe even a cub, i.e. it is ancient only for us specifically in terms of lifespan), driven by survival and finding food. It needs to eat fears in order to survive (back in 2017-2019 I joked about adrenaline and cortisole that attract the creature in human body), so it consumes fears through human flesh (well, flesh of children). It/he is hostile and fierce, but not evil or bad, just a carnivore beast and a lonely survivor. To call this creature as some "pure evil" is the same level of double standards as when a mongoose, being a carnivore, accused a cobra of eating meat and other animals, and then killed this cobra with its mate and brood. Maybe if the creature was able to get fears without devouring a prey, I don't know, to consume it like a dementor consumes positive memories and feelings, maybe everything would be different, and the creature and the kids protagonists would befriend, I don't know. I also liked how its blood and parts of flesh float and show middle finger to gravity, and I liked that the creature took forms of psychological fears, based on real traumas the characters experienced, so through defeating their tormentors they overcame their fears and also demonstrated confidence to the creature, hence the creature became vulnerable, because scary masks don't protect anymore, even its favourite clown form that earlier worked perfectly both as a fear and a lure, and the dilogy gave impression the creature created this form itself, simply being inspired in tiny aspects by some real human performers of 17-18 century, yet the clown form was fully its/his creation, what also explains the creature's reaction and panic and despair in the second film. I liked the animalistic traits and elements in design and behavior of the creature, in its/his movements and sounds and partially biology (honestly, I noticed elements of various animals — markings on his face remind the markings of a cheetah, its mouth with lots of fangs reminds mouth of lamprey, leatherback sea turtle, catfish and snake, and its behavior reminds hyenas, bears and felines especially (it/he even stocks meat in his lair), cat eyes, a spider in few aspects — hiding in a dark, patient waiting and/or luring a prey and catching to eat, while these three glowing spheres, which create the flesh body for hunt, attack, self-defense and eating, remind me of Physalia physalis). It was something unusual and unique. And, well, thanks, the dilogy didn't make the creature the reason of all bad things in the town, so the creature just lived on this territory and knew how horrible humans are to each other and own children, what is also another aspect that makes scared kids the perfect and easiest prey. I would even argue that exactly this new ruthless world made the creature so fierce and indifferent to problems of others, it is alone in the new hostile world, where cruel humans live, so the creature accepted its rules, because for him it was the only way to survive here, not to mention it/he needs fears, so it consumes fears through devouring human flesh (I adore his line "As I'll feast on your fleshes I'll feed on your fear!").

In fact, back in 2017-2019 (especially in 2019 film with revealing the creature is an alien, since the 2017 film left the creature mysterious and more like a metaphor of trauma) I imagined that the creature is the last of its kind/population, some cataclysm destroyed his/its world, so the creature left own home in search for food and, travelling and sleeping in handmade cocoon aka the meteorite, arrived on Earth, where it slept, but was accidentally awakened by humans (whether primal humans or in 1700s by settlers). And fears are the closest to the creature's initial food. The loss of own world and the life in this new world very hardened the creature, and back in 2017 I imagined that young Beverly, being in Deadlights, actually walked in the creature's mind and saw its world, at first inviting, surrealistic and fantasmagoric, but then dead, empty, bleak, cold and destroyed, and how floating children are the only thing that keeps the creature alive in this world. The creature wants and tries to seem this "Big, scary Eater of Worlds" only for hiding own vulnerable nature and desire to survive, just an animal. I imagine its world as some mix of, I guess, Neverending Story (book and movie), Scavengers' Reign and Antediluvian (animated short), i.e. something what has cute and creepy traits. And I found such concept interesting and such backstory as the most plausible and fitting to the creature, looking at his behavior and way of life. and I liked to imagine how, in his free time from hunting, the creature either plays in his lair with some kind of children's toys, or lies on top of a slide of these toys and basks in the sun, catching heat from the sun's rays through his mouth, chest and stomach like lizards on rocks. Plus, in the dilogy there was this interesting shade especially in the interaction with the kids protagonists that the creature shows some sort of respect to those, who try to overcome own fears and risk own life for rescuing someone else. He kinda tests them and their friendship, and the creature was some sort of a therapist for the protagonists, helping them in own way to face and defeat own fears. His arc in the dilogy also was interesting — in the first movie near the end after the fight and serious wounds he feels fear and gets psychological trauma for the first time in his life, in the second movie he hides this fear and wants to overcome this fear through confronting and defeating the protagonists, but doesn’t succeed, so his lack of inner confidence, self-esteem and the fact that the protagonists overcame their fears again and demonstrated their bravery and confidence to him literally crushed him morally, because his ways of attack and self-defense (scary masks aka their fears, attempt to intimidate through calling himself Eater of Worlds — really, it is just a desperate attempt to scare and to hide own fear) don’t work anymore, so he revealed his true self — small, crying, vulnerable, weak and scared baby-like creature, yet even now before his death he shows to them admiration and respect through the line about how they’ve finally grown up, as if he is proud of them (I had this impression since my first watching in 2019). Too bad the protagonists didn’t think about his last words, although you could notice they feel some sort of hesitation and pity toward the wounded creature in both first and second films for a moment. I think, the scene would be better, if they hesitated to destroy its heart, while the creature after these words of respect itself asked them to end this all, freeing him and themselves. The creature worked well both as a manifestation of their childhood trauma and as an animal, which possibly had similar path they had, but didn't succeed, because it/he was lonely and indifferent, while they were friends and standed for each other, i.e. they weren't indifferent.

The book version is incredibly, infuriatingly and insultingly inconsistent and stupid creature, which contradicts to herself through entire book in terms of behavior, goals and motivation. In the book this shapeshifting creature is a female spider, who arrived on Earth in ancient times and for unexplained reasons (although she once said "I am the last of my dying race from the dying planet!", it leads to nowhere), she has tons of mental disorders, she's extremely arrogant and boastful and kills mostly for joy rather than for food (why to make the creature the one to blame in tragedies of the town in the book? why to make her the reason of why humans are horrible? it just erases any mature message and drama), and although she had those very interesting POV-chapters, which marked her as an animal with mind of a child, driven by survival, these chapters are very out of place and just make her entire behavior meaningless. If you want only to eat and sleep, why just to kill and then just leave a corpse instead of eating or bringing a body into your lair, where you'll eat it later? Or another example — she is afraid of even a tiny assumption that she isn't one, isn't alone, that there can be some another creature, and that this creature intentionally could use the kids against her and to kill her (and this her fear was depicted in her mind and called as Other or Final Other) and she was always alone, all these millions of years, so... why to become pregnant and to birth spiderlings, which will devour you? Or have the Losers unintentionally impregnated her with their power of belief and imagination? Not to mention her decision to call adult Losers for revenge, being pregnant, i.e. putting herself and her offspring in grave danger... And tons of other questions. She calls her eyes as Deadlights and her mind as Macroverse, her mind is visualized as empty space, where she is this powerful orange deadly light sphere, and she had an imaginary friend in her sick mind — the giant Turtle that vomits universes/galaxies (I hate this character, honestly — thanks, he doesn't exist in the dilogy), and he really gives impression of an imaginary friend rather than a memory of dead father/brother of IT/Spider, since she hinted he has this shapeshifting ability and hibernation trait too. And it is morbid, how Bill interprets IT's imaginary friends and mind — for whatever reason during floating in her mind and fighting her, using his power of belief and imagination (I hated this aspect of the book as well — thanks, the dilogy removed the idea with the power of belief and imagination), Bill thinks it is some other dimension, and that someone "benevolent created multiverse" and the "good turtle" and the "evil hungry spider"... well, then this someone is a hypocrtitical piece of crap, since he doomed both these creatures to suffer, and exactly he created the she-spider to be this eternally hungry, lonely, sadistic and destructive "ultimate evil", but instead of fixing her into something more friendly (well, with power of belief and imagination the Losers could do it too) and with ability to eat normal food this "creator" decided to brutally murder her and her offspring by the hands of the seven religiously fanatical kids. As for the backstory of IT in the book, in 2019 I had my personal interpretation — IT herself was once this benevolent creator of all universes/worlds, but something devastating happened to her and all her prime world, what killed all her kind, so it affected her so much she degradated into this eternally sadistic, hungry and mad beast, which only devours and kills, she nearly forgot her past and true self, that's why her mind is a dark empty space, while the Turtle was a symbol of her distorted memories of who she really was in the past she never will return to, so the Turtle was a part of her sub-conciousness, a part of her, so he (aka she aka IT) called the Losers for fight to finally end her eternal suffering, to free her from that painful stagnation and also to stop tragic deaths of children.

I don't know, whether I'll write in eng some parts from my "Welcome to Derry" analysis roasting (in fact, back in 2019-2020 I wrote 115-page detailed analysis of the creature in the dilogy, the book and now I added chapters about the series), because, unfortunately, many story aspects ruined for me the series and the creature already in 1 season, so, if to tell shortly, the only two versions of explanation to the madness that happens in these series I have — the series is either the nightmares the seriously wounded creature experiences during its hibernation between the first and the second movies, firstly regretting the encounter and the confrontation with the kids and then deciding to encounter them again for overcoming own fear and trauma, or the series happen after the dilogy, i.e. the creature actually didn't die in the second film, but it/he was reborn and now lives in adult Bill's books aka in his stories, partially inspired by some scary events in the town, Mike's discoverings about folklore of Natives (honestly, Natives should think IT/Pewnnywise is some sort of amalgamation of Iktomi and Iya, as well as maybe the creature is one of many children/descendants of an old she-spider deity, who created universe and helped to other spirits with creating, teaching them or whatever — like, Natives are fictional in these movies and series, so I personally see nothing wrong in creating for them their own myths, inspired by some details of real mythologies) and also what Beverly saw in the illusions, being in Deadlights and in the house, so they interpreted that in own way and made into new books (and Beverly should be the one, who would tell to her friends about what the creature is and where it came from, since she was in Deadlights, and I thought about that even before the second film came out). That could explain the creature's line "Lively crowd!" and words about "My death was my birth" and its behavior, why it does nothing, fears nothing and just makes "a fascinating show", why the series contradict to the dilogy and the creature's arc etc (if the creature allegedly was imprisoned here all along, it would easily escape thousand times already, as well as it could ask for help either young Losers in the first movie or already adult Losers in the second movie or that suddenly crazy lady from the series). It is the only reasonable explanation I have now, and it explains things better than the stupid idea with a time loop (and after 8 episode it gives impression of exactly a time loop, which pretends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy or whatever) or even foreseeing and time-travelling or whatever. Not to mention the wasted potential of this really cool bird form and hillarious dark humour scenes with The Pied Piper of Hamelin (like a charismatic trickster from a dark fairy tale I'd enjoy to watch as a kid, and I watched tons of such animation, series and films), but also the wasted potential to make this snowstorm to be a real event (not some, I guess, illusions) and a hommage to the real snowstorm that happened in 1962 (Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 aka Great March Storm of 1962) and also snowstorm in spring of 1958, winter of 1960 and 1961, what would mark the creature as a stormy petrel, which sees and eats wounded and nearly dead prey that suffered from powerful and destructive storms, and exactly that feeling of changes in wild nature and moving cyclone were the reason, why the creature decided to not sleep, but hunt a bit more, take more prey and stuff, and that would also explain, why nearly nobody cared about the snowstorm — because they are used to, and because in several other towns near were also snowstorms and floods. If the creators of the series ignored this event, they clearly won't use bloody snow and Dust Bowls in 2 season that takes place in 1930s.

The dilogy was simple and small, but pretty personal, emotional, simple and psychological story, and it worked perfectly like a drama with elements of horror and fantasy (or dark fairy tale), where the characters and the creature fought themselves, they overcame their fears, finally became free and adult, yet still accept and remember good moments from their childhood and the past. There was no “divine and higher force helper” crap, it was pretty much metaphorical and down-to-earth at the same time. I enjoyed and praised the dilogy also because the dilogy threw away and removed all aspects of the book that I hated — there’s no chosen ones, no “benevolent” (but in fact hypocritical) forces that firstly allow to someone they see as "bad or evil" to do something they think is bad or evil and also act like the ones who literally order a murder of a rival they don't like by hands of the kids (some Narnia morbid crap right there), there's no stupid power of belief and imagination, there’s no battle in IT’s mind where she is defeated so easily for whatever reason, there’s no the Turtle (there are tons of reasons, why this character is horrible and severely ruins the story, also erasing any effort of the protagonists and stealing their accomplishments, making them just tools and puppets in his hands, and again great thanks he doesn't exist in the dilogy, I hated him in the book), there’s no “evil monster makes humans bad, causes brutal events in the town and also sees a future in details”, there’s no this primitive and one-dimensional “good vs evil” nonsense, no stupid amnesia and no stupid "divine childhood sacrifice". In the dilogy you could relate to both the kids and the creature aka IT/Pennywise. And the series tried to show it especially through the Black Spot, which was the best scene in the whole series, and through the power-hungry general, which wanted to use the creature as a weapon. But the series ruined it, unfortunately, making every nonsense true (and also devaluing the Deadlights — in the dilogy they made the creature both powerful and vulnerable at the same time, for overcoming their hypnotic "spell" and freeing someone you should make step for overcoming own fear or bravely rescue your friend, what we saw on examples with Ben, Bev, Eddie and Richie, the creature was careful, in small or human-size form it opens mouth near only one prey and carefully, in giant form it could open it a bit faster and hypnotise on far distance, and it understood that they have no weapons and will do nothing to him as this large creature — the series just ignore these nuances, so in the series the creature, being in human-size form quickly opens mouth, hypnotises on far distance many children and adults, and for whatever reason they get rescued and are free, when they should stay in catatonic state, because they float already long time, the creature wasn't seriously wounded especially in throat and chest, where its heart and Deadlights were, wasn't wounded exactly during hypnosis, i.e. Leroy, Will, Ingrid and other kids should stay catatonic, so WTF?! not to mention that in the dilogy this catatonic trance from Deadlights seemed to me personally both fascinating and scary especially in the first film, because for me it felt as if these children were still alive, and the creature was eating them alive, they could not be saved, it's as if you woke up during surgery or, conversely, were asleep, but you experienced all the pain during the surgery, i.e.e Beverly was lucky to survive, so she saw vague images of possible future, especially bad variants about deaths — but the series destroyed this all again)

Unfortunately, it seems the series try to bring back this insulting nonsense from the book (like, along with the imprisoning (if the meteorite was allegedly the cage, the creature would make lair in other place, and after destruction the meteorite wouldn't work anymore, so again no nonsense with imprisoning in Derry and stuff and no stupid magical knife the creature would throw away and shouldn't fear of, and until 8 episode it gave impression that the creature just pretends that this legend about "evil imprisoned deity with magical cage and knife" is true, while in fact it isn't, so the creature would brutally pranked them all how it did with naive Natives in 2019 movie, devouring them all — honestly, in the second film I thought they wanted to capture the creature into their box and use against white conquers, since in 1719 the 91 settlers disappeared, and Natives were assumed to be the reason of it, i.e. they awakened the creature, so it was in rage mode and stuff) and "bloodline" stuff, which makes the kids characters in the series horrible parents, who do nothing for protecting their kids from the creature they encountered themselves, also in the series I hated the "backstory" with Bob Grey and the clown form, they literally destroyed IT/Pennywise as a character and the dilogy and its logic, not to mention the stupidity of this entire segment with Bob Gray and his daughter — ironically, such backstory would fit to the book version, because the book had details for it, while the dilogy never had, and I don't understand, why the creature's mind was visualized like Bob's circus and family, why the creature stopped and didn't feel immediately the impostor, and how Dick made this all, if he knew nothing). The dilogy was already different from the book in many aspects, in the fears and traumas of the protagonists, in events, in mood, in behavior and personality of the creature etc, the book concepts mostly won’t work anymore in adaptation due to being different. To bring them back is the dumbest idea. And I already know they ruin the creature, forcing to him the cliche about "evil deity" and what and how pop-culture views the creatures from dilogy and the book, I guess. I mean, by adding this crap with "Evil deity that was punished and imprisoned on Earth" (ah... the dilogy version of the creature demonstrated no evil... it is just a predatoric animal, I remind) they already destroyed the dilogy and the creature's arc — because the creature already should fear, hate and crave for revenge all these centuries toward exactly those alien gods, who defeated him, imprisoned and threw away on Earth, i.e. not toward random seven kids, which are just food, i.e. the creature would know what fear is way before the confrontation with young Losers in 2017 movie (or the creature should hate the Losers from the beginning, because it knew their parents, which ruined for him the show in 8 episode — ah, the kids in the series should be separated characters, not relatives of Losers, the series just ruined the logic, the dilogy and its lore and the creature and own characters on fundamental level, making it impossilbe). For the same reasons I don't want the "7-hours-long" special edition of the dilogy as the one film to exist — 100% they'll add the idiocy from the book I mentioned above/ also adding fan-theories and crossover Dark Tower books crap. No, please, no. Live the IT dilogy as stand alone movies and universe without crap from IT book, Dark Tower and other books.

Also, what's this form is? Some feline-like humanoid with the mascarade mask with lines that look like human teeth. Looks cool and interesting, but probably they'll forget about it.

P.S. I always wondered, why there's exactly three Deadlights spheres in the dilogy. And I always assumed they either symbolize Birth, Life and Death or Actual Self, Ideal Self and Perceived Self, or maybe it is also connected to actual age of the creature. Looking at the series, I guess, it is also Past, Present and Future. P.S.S. As for the book version, the funniest thing will be, if some eggs with spiderlings survived, i.e. they gestated in IT's dead and mutilated body (stomach/belly that wasn't damaged that much) and then came out and hence grew up and started to live and feed in the town. Like, the Losers killed the eggs and hatchlings specifically.

[waeirfaahl]

One body, one soul, but thousand faces

Although I made tons of posts with analyzing how morbid the canon of Balto's parents in Balto-2 is (here is the link to them with interviews as well — honestly, it is funny, how your assumptions get a confirmation after decades), I want to tell another thought I had in mind since 2017. Note: it is only about Balto-2 and its canon (ancient white wolf goddess and unknown stray mutt), since in the original Balto 1995 movie the canon was different (you know, wolf-father and working husky-mother). Since there's the ancient Great Spirit, and all other totem animal spirits are his parts, and in ancient times they were mortals, which did some noble deed, so the Great Spirit chose them to become these spirit guardians with certain roles, and in the murals we saw lots of these ancient animal spirits, including the Great Aniu... could it be that not only ancient she-wolf, but also ancient inuit dog was among these totem spirits? And could these parts of the Great Spirit have a cub with each other, being one creature all along? Like, we saw the three wolverine spirits, and they are Aniu's forms and hence the parts of the Great Spirit, so... I guess, no obstacles.

Simply saying, the idea that Balto had the one parent, which is both the mother and the father, both is a wolf and a husky.

Although, would be funny, if Balto was a wolfdog because his mother is a shapeshifter, so his half-breed nature is an accidental side-effect. Not to mention the funny idea that this "unknown father" was himself a wolfdog, but looked like a pure dog and had no idea about being part wolf, since his mother was a dog.

[waeirfaahl]

About 3 season of Primal

1 season of Primal, especially its first nine episodes, was truly the masterpiece and perfect show, very close to me and hence one of my favourites. And I hated 2 season for ruining this masterpiece. Not because of bittersweet ending, but because of bad writing, lack of maturity, lack of gorgeous landscapes, lack of interesting and dangerous enemies, lack of shades, lack of well-written and good story, which would lead us to bittersweet ending with emotional and psychological side and without disgusting fetishes and morbid implications, without any hypocritical crap and without unexplained supernatural plot devices, which happen or do something not because they have logic, personality, motivation and goal, but because the author wants exactly such plot direction, but can't normally and naturally lead characters to this, hence making some pretentious idiocy. Tartakovsky again fails to understand that the thing isn't in sad or happy ending, but in how well-written story is and how well-written and presented an ending and ideas and themes behind it are. You can't tell one story and characters and then suddenly cut it, throw some idiocy in faces and say "Life is always pain! I am genius! Eat this and enjoy, or else you are snowflakes, who accept only happy endings!".

About such problems of 2 season I told here, while here I told about how it could be easily fixed into really good and epic story with nuances and memorable characters. I don't know, whether I'll write some fix-it of certain aspects of 3 season or not, I kinda have some thoughts and ideas, I need time to figure it out. So, as soon as the trailer of 3 season appeared, I started to think Tartakovsky simply made some sort of apologies to fans, because as soon I saw zombie Spear, as soon I realized that 3 season clearly takes place before the epilogue of 10 episode of 2 season and will give Spear a happy ending, or else it makes zero sense to resurrect the protagonist. Because the same thing happened earlier with Samurai Jack, where he firstly made horrible and disgusting 5 season and made "bittersweet ending with loss of a love-interest", so shippers hated it, and Tartakovsky with the crew made the canonical game, which takes place near the end of the final episode of 5 season and gives full happy-ending for this love interest. The difference between the SJ game and 3 season of Primal is that in contrast to SJ 5 season and SJ the game and their endings the happy-ending in 3 season of Primal isn't insulting and isn't disgusting. Spear overcame all obstacles and tests, overcame even death and returned to his friends and family. Plus, 3 season got rid from the morbid implication of 2 season about "half-breed girl is better version of the protagonist and is cool because of his genes in her". In 3 season in the finale it is clear that Spear, Mira and Fang will teach the kids something cool, and their kids will learn something new and maybe even help their parents with this and stuff. Good note.

I hope it is the end, so the daughter and Fang's offspring won't become Mary Sue, and it won't turn into Ice Age 4 and 5, because already in 3 season you can see that Tartakovsky can't write story with several main characters well and with important roles, so they become a crowd with hive mind, a mass, unfortunately. In fact, I want this show to be cancelled. All those stories with new characters in different settings Tartakovsky wants to tell as new anthology seasons, should be a separated animated projects. He can simply made Primal and these shows in one thematic subject (like Dollar Trilogy or whatever) and name them as Tales of Savagery or whatever, i.e. separated animated series, but united into one thematic thing. I liked 3 season slightly more than 2 season. Like, if in 2 season I enjoyed only 1 episode and few elements of later episodes, in 3 season I can tell that 2, 3 and 5 episodes are the best. The colors, the landscapres and the wild nature, the scene presentation, the direction, intimidating creatures, it's really immersive and great. In fact, I liked that 3 season tried to return to the roots and easthetics of 1 season with prehistoric semi-fantasy world, animals, driven by survival and primitive animalistic tribes and shred of magic.

I liked the touching interaction of Spear with grosshopper and pteranodon (by the way, what happened to him? I hope he is fine),

I liked the warm interaction of Spear with Mira and Fang's kids in 5 episode, how they accept him even through he is undead, as well as nice and cute moment in 10 episode, how they sleep together like a true family, how Fang's kids act toward Spear's and Mira's daughter like older and caring brother and sister. That was neat, that was great.

As well as another two great things about 3 season — 3 season has no hypocritical thing like "Feel sorry for these enslavers, murderers and kidnappers, because they are humans and have kids!" and all episodes in 3 season are important and affect something, because in 2 season you literally could remove like four episodes (5, 7, 8 and 9 episodes) out of ten, and all will stay the same. However, unfortunately, 3 season also added own problems, which ruin initially promising idea and easily could be avoided. Just like in 2 season (and also in 5 season of Samurai Jack and Unicorn Warriors Eternal) again the beginning with tons of questions and zero explanation, again forced conflicts, again emptiness instead of important events, again mostly enemies with zero aura and zero intimidation and lack of "Learn their strong and weak sides and use own brain to defeat them", again huge problems since 4 episode to the end. And I am not even talking yet about ruining personalities of main characters and forcing them to do something what they wouldn't do, especially when there's no reasons for it. So, about everything in order, what I didn't like and why: 1. Tartakovsky again shows us his fetishes toward childbirth, pregnancy and even lactation in all details. Okay, since childhood with great interest I watched various documentaries about animals and also various educational programms about anatomy and biology, so I don't have problem with seeing such body parts and stuff. The problem is that such delicate details should have reason and meaning to exist in the story. In Primal there's no reason to show it in such details from writing and story perspective at all. If there was something about psychology and character interaction and emotional bond through this, the logical explanation, then no problem, but in Primal it is just again weird thing from the author.

Like, I doubt he wanted to show "Oh look how scary and nasty these swines and their big mother are!", because, well, it isn't what makes or should make them scary or nasty/ugly, it is just animals, which feed and nurse their offspring. 2. About these swines and their mother, which reminded me Okkoto from "Princess Mononoke" due to white fur and big size. The darker colored swines bring prey to feed their mother, so she will nurse them with her milk after this... Ah, what?! Are they teens, which only recently started to eat meat? Because both in 4 and 6 episodes they are very big, they fight, they hunt, they have sharp teeth and eat meat. They act already like independent adults, so I don't understand that aspect with nursing. And why these swines don't guard properly their den? Plus, there are another questions — if they need lots of humans or living organisms even for one feeding time for their mother, how they didn't devour all animals, and how they didn't devour Mira's entire village even before how Spear and Fang arrived to their lands? Why these swines and their cave den aren't on the maps in Mira's village? Why don't they guard their village from these swines? Why not to take lots of warriors with also bow and arrows and poison and combustible things for shooting the swines to death, hence getting rid of the threat? Why to leave Spear and Fang and go alone, if Fang killed the mother swine with one bite in her throat? 3. Enemies, which should have properly written and bigger role and explanation in motivation and goal for doing something, are just another empty plot devices. The Arabic riders, which attacked the village of lepers in desert. Like, for what they attacked the lepers? Why to kill them all? They don't rob them, they don't take away their some jewels and stuff, they don't try to burn them and their colony as the source of infection. So, for what they arrived?!

Or the skull-headed apes, which attacked the village for whatever reason or at least arrived for feeding on wounded or dead ones. If they burned the village, how were they able to do it? Why and how Fang and her kids didn't kill them immediately?! By this logic these savages are stronger and more dangerous than friggin Egyptians or the vikings with armor, war experience and advanced weapons, since they are cowards, which can kidnap only half-naked girls, killing their friends, or weak young or old people with no weapons, but ran away from naked warriors with simple spears, and which were defeated by one caveman and one dinosaur.

But the most disappointing and infuriating thing happens with the panther-like humanoid creature with glowing eyes in 9 and 10 episodes (by the way, is it just me, or Tartakovsky hates cats?).

I legitimately had goosebumps, when the trailer showed this beast for few seconds, it was something supernatural and dangerous, it gave impression of some god or demon or spirit, maybe the creature was one of servants or "hunting dogs" of the fire god from 2 season, or maybe Spear himself will become this creature due to some magical things and events...

NOPE! NOTHING! This beast is a regular mortal animal with flesh and blood, a random obstacle, which appears for few seconds and quickly gets killed off-screen for these same few seconds! Zero background, zero intimidation, zero threat and aura, zero explanation! WTF?! Why to make supernatural traits then and create such creature in the first place, if they could use the survived skullheads again on this territory?!

Plus, this creature also was on the maps, i.e. someone from Mira's village for whatever reason travelled on its territory, somehow survived and returned, and the fire-eyed panther didn't kill him/them, didn't follow them, and these travellers didn't kill the panther-humanoid... WHY?! And why didn't Mira prepare for encounter with this beast?!

The dumbest thing about it is that Fang could immediately kill the creature with just one bite, but instead she just throws the panther away, allowing it to wound her. I remind, Fang killed with one bite tons of enemies in 1 season and even in 2 season, and she had the perfect chance to kill the panther with one bite. This panther is of the same size the red bats had in 4 episode of 1 season! FACEPALM.

And for whatever reason their maps don't have vikings, mesopotamians, egyptians etc... Or they are extremely irresponsible as guards and protectors of their tribe... Tartakovsky never thinks through. And never learns to think through. 4. Speaking about the fire entity from 2 season, which was literally a plot device, because the authors didn't know how to kill Spear properly. He is totally forgotten in 3 season! There's nothing about him! He ignores that Spear is alive again! Then why the heck he wanted souls of Spear and Fang, so he used the father-viking for this in 2 season?! Or you want to tell me that the fire entity wanted the soul of exactly the father-viking?! Why to give him these "revenge and sin" tests for falling into darkness through fights against Spear and Fang and hurting them, if even before Spear and Fang he already was this hypocritical enslaver, conquer and murderer?! 5. Spear's resurrection is full of questions and is random. Like, Spear is the hero, who rescued the princess (Mira) and helped her to return home, who later also saved lifes of Fang, Mira and her village, sacrificing own life for that. But what we see? Some shaman/priest we see for the first time and know nothing about him, who thinks all tribe is dead, so he wants revenge and resurrects Spear's dead body aka the revered hero with his magic and uses as a weapon against those skullheads... And he dies immediately, while Spear is a zombie with blocked memories, but still alive and kind and attacks only out of self-defense.

So, basically Spear's return is just a random accident, made by hands of random unknown character, it isn't something logical with reason, motivation and goal, not something important or global, it isn't some deities or that Spear is so badass, so he was able to earn respect in deadworld and either escape or make deities to allow him to return into world of lived ones, how strong his spirit is, how awesome survivor and warrior he is. No, it is just a random accident. Then why couldn't they resurrect or heal Spear earlier?! And if they had maps of the volcano, they could know about the "river of life", so it could be interesting details of the story, how they travel for this to heal Spear.

6. In the first three episodes 3 season gave impression that the majority of Mira's tribe died, that there was some really deadly threat, so Mira with Fang and her kids and the survived members of the village left this place and travel in search for new home, so Spear will travel, return his memories and find Fang and Mira. BUT NOPE! 4 episode reveals that Mira's tribe and village are fine, they live in this same village all together happily, yet they miss Spear.

So... Spear just made circle? And then WTF was in the beginning of 1 episode?! Where Mira and Fang were?! Why they don't recall the big fire in their village?! Why they ignored Spear's disappeared body?! Why they ignored the disappeared shaman and found his body only several days/weeks later?!

And they met with Spear also accidentally and at random. 7. I'm sorry, but Mira is extremely irresponsible and horrible mother here. Being pregnant and preparing soon to give birth and waiting for a such wanted child, without any understandable reason she always puts herself and the baby in grave danger, when there's no need to do so. In the first moment she could stay until she gives birth, leaves the baby with her dad and nannies, who will care about the child, and only few days after join the warriors on the search for the abducted ones by the swines. Same for her journey with Fang in searching for Spear — leave the baby and Fang's kids in the village with nannies and servants, go with Fang and several warriors.

That is what responsible mother and princess would do, also keeping the memory of her dead (and now returned) beloved. 8. What the heck with Fang in 3 season?! Why she is so hostile and aggressive toward Spear, so she rejects him and makes everything to force him to go away forever?!

Like, Mira and Fang's kids accepted Spear, they didn't care about his zombie form.

Spear himself shows nothing dangerous, he proved several times that they can trust him. Spear is still Spear, there's no malevolent spirits in him and stuff.

So, what the heck with Fang?! 9. People from Mira's village are ignorant hypocrites, which forgot that Spear is the legendary hero, who rescued their princess and sacrificed himself for saving their lifes from the fire demon, and now also helped to rescue the abducted people. They literally attack him and try to kill and banish him just because he is undead. WTF?!

And later Mira for some reason doesn't try to reason with them and to explain them why they are wrong and should help her to return Spear. 10. Spear happens to be in volcano area and encounters with dust tribe. In 3 season after the lepers they are the second interesting culture for sure, and they deserved better, they had great potential.

First of all, I can not for the life of me understand, what's benefit and profit for them to do what they do. Like, some warriors from other cultures/lands/tribes/species arrive (often even with members of own tribes), they fight with other rivals, a champion gets the crown from the leader/priest of the dust people and also the black essense, which heals the wounds and makes stronger, and the champion lives with them as revered member of tribe and gets the best, so Spear wins every time, seeing in this healing elixir the chance to restore his body and reunite with the family. But it is the benefit for him, not them. So, for what they do that? Do they want a great protector for their clan? What if some unhinged champion with own followers will get their power and secrets and enslave or even kill them all? I watched the episodes, and for me it is still not clear. There should be more details for good communication and explanation.

Second, in 9 episode Spear suddenly behaves very ungrateful and rude toward them, especially to the priest and the concubine. Like, Spear previously in both 3 seasons acted politely and calmly, when it needs, so he could calmly with respect make clear for them "Thanks, it is all okay, I already have a family." and also give some clothes to the concubine.

Like, in contrast to the villagers from Mira's tribe the dust guys accepted him even as a stinky zombie, they gave him the crown, food, the status, home and respect, he is fierce warrior and at the same time he is pretty peaceful toward them, they treat him like a king, like a god. So, Spear shouldn't act such bad toward them. 11. Unfortunately, the dust tribe turns out to be final villains, which want Spear's transformed family to kill each other in the fight and also to kill Spear, I guess, as an act of punishment for him for betraying their dust tribe... and for whatever reason they keep Spear's daughter for... what? For raising her as their new leader? For making her to be a sacrifice?

And they (or most part of the clan, including the priest) die in volcano, which decided to awaken now, I guess. Like, yes, Spear and Fang roared and stuff, but it still looks like deus ex machina, where antagonists die themselves without any real effort from the side of protagonists. Very rushed and very undeserved. I don't think the story would become worse, if they didn't turn into villains, but stayed as interesting tribe with specific own culture traits, i.e. closer to 1 season. 12. The black liquid for some reason transforms Mira, Fang and her kids into monsters with lacking their true self... WHY? The dark-green elixir from 5 episode of 1 season made you bigger, stronger and more fierce, but you didn't lose you self and mind, how we could see on Spear's example. In 3 season the liquid made you stronger and healed your wounds, what we again saw on Spear's example. So, why Fang, her kids and Mira lost their selves and minds?! And if Fang or one of her kids survived the fight, what the dust tribe did with them? Made them already these "kings"? Or if Spear survived? He'd decimate all dust dudes for the murder of his family. Not to mention that visually their monster versions look more like a fanservice toward 5 and 7 episodes of 1 season. Fang and her kids literally look like the rabid sauropod.

Spear frees Fang's kids, using the trick with burning them like in Indiana Jones 2 with cursed blood of Kali the goddess, Mira returns her own self for the sake of the daughter (although it was very risky from Spear's side to show the baby to monstrous and aggressive Mira after the baby was recently near death in lava), while Fang... I wanted more logical and emotional resolution. Like, all 3 season Fang either ignored Spear or was very negative toward him, there were no long scenes with their positive interaction before this moment, she ignores his attempts to free her (she ignores his roars, she ignores pain from burns), but immediately becomes free, when Spear almost fell into the lava. Like, in 8 episode of 1 season Fang had more power to rebell the witch's mental control due to the strong bond with Spear, and it affected the witch as well. The bond and friendship of Spear and Fang were the core of the entire story, the entire series, so the moment of how Spear frees Fang should be the best and the most emotional and well-written part of this segment.

I could also mention those weird dreams Spear and/or Mira had, which looked like hommages for Heavy Metal 1982 and Fire and Ice 1983, but I won't. And I don't want to wonder, whether Spear is immortal now or not, and how he fully restored his body fully during these 10-12 years, if he should drink the liquid, which clearly was hidden under the lava after the eruption. So, that's what I wanted to tell on it. For me only 1 season exists as a canon, for me only the first nine episodes of 1 season always were and always will be the true masterpiece and the true Primal.