obsidianwolf

I need to take a breather in my animorphs reread. I love the series warts and all but reading straight through is a bit too much for me.

So I’ll read another couple of books from my two read pile and get back to Anirmophs in a few days.

I will say one thing bout the oatmeal book and that is there were one or two random scenes that could have provided some really nifty future nuggets even in a book where instant maple ginger oatmeal turned out to be a super addictive very bad for you drug for parasitic body hijacking space slugs.

But like most of the weaker books in the animorphs story line any good was promptly dumped with the bad and left to never be used again.

And it just reminds me of how frustrating I find the character. The first time I ever read the message I absolutely loved Cassie and the book sets up what should be an awesome journey for her. A young character with a very black and white world view having to face the realities of war and the challenges to her ideas about right and wrong.

And then it never happens the character never changes Cassie of the later books is in some ways even IMO a regression of the Cassie in the first book she narrates. It is incredibly frustrating because she goes from a character who could have had a truly great arc into a static hypocritical character that the narrative contorts itself to make always right.

What makes it even more frustrating is that all the other characters do change in ways that are both positive and negative and yet she doesn't. She just gets preachier and more hypocritical while being the author's mouth peice on issues which means the narrative always rewards her and works out for her.

Which is why every time I reread Animorphs especially the message I just feel sad that a character that was initially vying for the spot of my favorite animorph (when I started she was #2 with the potential to hit number one) ended up my least favorite and the weakest part of the books.

It was pretty much what I expected it to be about the same inconsistent quality as the show itself.

I always was indifferent to Star/Marco but expected it to be endgame so no surprise.

I was surprised at the writing choice to have the heroes commit genocide and force their view of how live should be on the entire multiverse so it kind of takes away the happy ending feeling.

However the biggest problem is that the show was so uneven over it's run and it's quality tended to vary between good bad and so so that instead of being super upsetting all in all it just feels kind of Blah.

It especially falls flat in comparison to other series finale's it isn't as infuriating as the shit show that was Voltron but it pales in comparison to stronger finales like Adventure time or Gravity Falls.

Okay Endgame was exactly what I expected it to be a flashy "epic" end to the infinity saga that has it's moments but over all was disappointing as the MCU has been for the last few years.

I have a few major complaints.

1. The Ending for Steve. I mean I have no problem with him ending up with Peggy but the writers clearly didn't think things through because the idea that Steve as presented in the MCU could ignore all the shit between then and now that he'd know about and not interfere is incredibly bad writing and insanely OOC. Not just for Steve but for Peggy too. You cannot tell me that Steve and Peggy would not be doing their damnedest to stop so many horrible things from happening.

Which means either you accept that Steve didn't warn Peggy about Hydra in sheild among other things or that Steve and Peggy together decided let's let the nazi's take over the thing she built because we have to preserve the time line.

Of course there's the possibility that they did try to change things and learned they couldn't which changes the happy ending into kind of a horror show as the two have to watch the years going by knowing every shitty thing that happens but being completely impotent to change even the smallest detail. I mean sure they could still be happy together but it definitely changes things from an actual happy ending into a well life sucks but at least they are together ending at best.

2. Related to the above the way time travel was handled in this film irritates me they try to set down rules to limit and explain why things don't change and why the folks snapped have to stay gone for five years but then promptly break them or ignore them for cool moments.

3. They gave Steve's iconic "no you move" speech to Carol Danvers which continues a trend of attempting to increase Carol's statue at the expense of other characters. I mean we saw it in her movie with how they demoted Monica to kid inspired by Carol and now she's saying other characters iconic speeches.

4. Thor continues his post Ragnarok joke character status.

So those are my major complaints but I wasn't expecting the end of this section of the MCU to not have it's shitty moments so that isn't why I won't be saying anything else about Endgame after this post.

No that honor belongs once again to the shit filled cesspool that is fandom. I just cannot deal with all that shit that is being flung around by folks over things. I mean as I said I have major issues with the Steve ending but I am sick of seeing it boiled down to just Bucky or the constant repeated calling of Steve Sharon incest or reducing every one who disliked the ending to a disgruntled shipper.

I've been fed up with the mcu fandom for years this same old crap repeating just makes it abundantly clear to me that I have no patience for it at all any more.

It is simple you respect writers wishes and you do what is best for you if they are incompatible find someone else to read.

If you really enjoy giving long detailed critiques you find the writers who want that and have fun.

If your only able to leave little short comments then go to town and ignore the folks who don't want feedback or only want more detailed reviews.

Not like to leave comments at all then find the folks who don't seem that concerned or don't want comments and read guilt free.

I am so sick of LM and JDS still giving interviews because every time they prove even more how incompetent they were (not to mention contradicting their own earlier interviews) and seeing the constant conspiracy theories their supporters keep dreaming up only makes it worse.

The fact that these are the idiots who are going to be handling the sequels to Into to the Spiderverse fills me with dread every time their open their mouths.

so like the title says not going to be on super alot but more likely to be on and say things.

first I'm rather indifferent to the movie and the rest of the MCU. I also haven't really cared for Carol much in the last few years since in their drive to make her Marvel's Premiere Female Hero they've pretty much stripped away all the things that made her an interesting character in favor of a rather generic Soldier with super powers. So as the title says I really wasn't going to comment I was just going to ignore the film while hoping that unlike every other time it will actually lead to a more diverse MCU but knowing it probably won't.

However, thanks to all the back and fourth about Monica I'm annoyed enough to do so.

I am getting real sick of the patently false excuses folks are trotting out to excuse Monica's demotion to little kid who looks up to Carol.

The first excuse I've seen repeatedly is that if Monica was an adult in the 90's it would mean she would be too old in the modern movies. Ignoring the fact she'd still probably be younger than Tony they could easily hand wave her aging because of her powers since that's obviously what they are going to do with Carol. I mean none of these folks are complaining that Carol will be too old or suddenly be against the un-aging woman trope for Carol but the possibility of an Older Monica or a Monica who doesn't age normally is just too much for them.

Second the excuse that Monica is too obscure a character so they need to introduce her in a movie with a bigger character. First Carol is not that much bigger a character despite Marvel spending the last few decades trying to make her their wonder woman this movie is the first real exposure the general public has had to her and don't get me started on Doc Strange, Ant man or the guardians of the Galaxy. They were never house hold names so why is it only the black woman needs an introduction but all these other obscure folks can be launched right into a movie.

Third way to many folks are patting the MCU on the back as if we are guaranteed more Monica because she was in this film. There have been no statements about seeing Monica again only vague comments like they'd love to do more with her. I would still think the decisions around Monica for this movie were shitty but I'd be a lot more likely to consider tolerating them if we'd been given some real guarantees that Monica will show up again and get to actually show her stuff but instead all we have is a few vague comments about them wanting to do more.

I'm sorry but I'm so annoyed at the ep's of VLD Right now that I absolutely cackled when I saw that the audience score for season 8 has dropped again.

It is at a freaking 6% now I know rotten tomatoes is meaningless but seeing how reviled that season is feels me with a bit of petty glee.

It is especially telling that unlike Season 7 that had a massive pro LM & JDS fanbase push to raise the score (outright telling folks to score it 5 stars to cancel out the negatives) no one has shown up to push for raising Season 8's score instead the fans in denial that Season 8 is the season the EP's wanted to make are convinced there's some better pure version of the show out there.

Note I like the x-men films for what they are nonsensical adaptations of a property that even marvel hasn't known what to do with for years.

But I am sick to death of the Dark Phoenix saga getting adapted for a couple of reasons.

1. First the story was written decades ago and the tropes in it have not aged well and have been done to death to the point where any adaptation is going to just come off as regurgitating the old women can't handle power and goes bad trope that has been to death and needs to be shelved permenantly.

2. It is pretty much the only really iconic Jean Grey story so it is the one that writers constantly go back to either in adaptations or yet more retcons/sequels to the original in the comic verse. None of the adaptations or retcons/sequels have really helped too much and many of them have hurt it. Let it go and tell some new stories with Jean.

3. Another big problem is they only want to adapt the end of the story and even then not that accurately the whole good girl goes bad because of two much cosmic power which ignores the real tragedy of the full story.

For those who've never read it the full story is Jean gains phenomenal cosmic power and stays a Hero the power doesn't corrupt her at all at first. She rises to the occasion and ends up saving the entire universe. Only to do it she has to touch every facet of creation more power than any mortal should ever have but she does it and she lets that power go but it creates a craving to feel that again but even still she didn't falter until a bunch of arrogant rich jackasses tried to make her a weapon for their own use.

She fought against them constantly and even after theyd' made her into their ideal she still with help started to fight her way back and it took them psychicly killing the man she loved in front of her causing her to feel his death through a psychic link to finally break her. And even still she held on long enough to help save her friends and team mates before she lost herself and committed a terrible crime out in space trying desperately to feel what she felt when she saved the universe again. Then when she attacked the x-men to try to be free of them they helped her fight her back again. Then an alien empire ordered her death and a trial by combat was invoked to decide her fate and seeing her friends and family hurt she tapped into that power again and realized sooner or later some crisis would convince her to use it and she would lose herself again. She then made the choice to end her own life to die as a human being instead of becoming a goddess. She took the action when no one else would none of this begging folks to end it for her like adaptations constantly do. When they couldn't because they loved her to much she did it for the good of everyone and to die as herself not something else.

If your going to do the story you need to include it all the wonderful triumph and the horrible tragedy but no they want to jump straight to the tragedy and milk it. While often making someone else the central figure in what should be Jean's story.