alexander

My thoughts after watching the movie:

And in the end, Batmna vs Superman earns from me a 4/10

A movie that screams wasted potential and could have been genuinelly amazing if it was directed by someone with more talent

The endings will aways leave a taint that will never truly wash off... It's no wonder the next game is set on an entirely different galaxy. But aside of the terrible writing of that last half an hour, what do I have to say?

It's probally one of my favourite game series of all time. Perfect mix of third person shooting, roleplaying and sci fi. ME2 will forever be the high point in the series. Miranda is my main romance. She is probally my favourite Bioware romance ever, even more then Morrigan or Solas. I can't really say who are my favourite characters, all of them are memorable in their own way. I guess I could say Kasumi holds an special spot for me, she can steal all your money and still wil conquer your heart. That flawless sassy thief.

My favourite moments in the series were: The battle against the geth in Therum, Kasumi loyalty mission, the thresher maw boss during Grunt loyalty mission, the suicide mission, the Citadel DLC as a whole and the space battle at the ending of ME3. 

My Shepard was an paragade, mostly polite and diplomatic with friends and civilians, but wouldn't exitate to execute thugs and criminals in cold blood if the offense was good enough. God I love those renegade interrupts...

I choose destroy ending. I despise the reapers. They are a mistake created by an stupid computer stuck in a circular logic. They brought too much pain to the universe and need to be wiped out. And with this finale the galaxy will be the closest of an "back to normal" ending. Shepard living was only a nice plus to me.

If bvs has the same story quality with mos, then we should just enjoy the Snyder "fire work".

Well, if it haves all that "in your face" chosen one mumbo jumbo, then BvS is likely going to be flashy action with no brains. As of now, I have low expectations for BvS, while at the same time I'm on board the hype train for Civil war.

Yep, Zack was probaly drunk when he thought this Lex would be a good idea. And honestly, I don't like Gadot as wonder woman neither. A skinny supermodel sure doesn't give a "amazon warrior goddess" vibe for me. I'm going with low expectations for this movie.

Will they fix the crap that Whedon did?

Hopefully. I don't know if Steve and Nat will become an item, the Russos had been elusive about their relationship. I'm setting my expectations low. But they sure won't make Civil war an mischaracterization fest like age of Ultron with an poorly written romance on top of it.

I'm not certain myself. But I know that the NS relationship would be better as a subplot to the bigger story. Naruto's downfall was the heavy blind focus on the romantic storyline.

 

In general, no. compared to what we GOT? H.E.L.L. Yes!!!

Pretty much my feeling on the subject. I would be disappointed, but only because I would be unaware of the other possible atrocity of an ending. Still, a pairing neutral ending wouldn't fix all issues. The writing would still be abysmal, the plotline would be lazily concluded and thus leaving many underwhelmed either way.

Yes, this is exactly what I was talking about. I didn't notice before, but since the ending (the hate of a self-reliant type like Sakura and the worship of a weak, submissive girl like Hinata) I've seen the stereotype more and more in Japanese culture/media/manga/anime. I originally thought that the switch of Hinata to heroine of Sakura was just for cash, but now I think it's deeper.

 

And you're right about Kishimoto having traditional Japanese ideals, meaning conservative towards women. I don't think he was like that at the beginning of the manga — Look at Naruto in the pilot! He's about as far from conservative as you can get! — but Kishi's grown that way of the course of the series. And sexism in Japan in a serious thing: Women who dare to return back to work after having a child are called 'devil wives'!!! Crazy! And combine that with social attitudes towards dating now (the Japanese youth are shunning it), taking the traditional salary-man jobs and working 70 hours a week (again, Japanese youth are shunning it), and the future numbers that show a decrease in population from lack of procreating couples...you can see how there's a social tug-of-war between the old ways and the new.

 

I just wonder if it was an issue Kishimoto didn't care about back in 1999 when he was in his early 20s and creating the manga, versus now, in his early 40s, with kids of his own, at the end of the manga. Because the end pairing doesn't fit the beginning. 

 

And it's not a hard leap to make that the marketing teams would be happy pitching a docile, easy-on-the-eyes heroine such as Hinata over one like Sakura, who doesn't have a real-life counterpart in current Japanese culture. 

 

Also, that's not to say there aren't modern girls/women who like Sakura and NS in Japan. Just that they clearly weren't allowed in the room when the decision to switch heroines was being made. If there are even any women in positions of authority in that industry at all!

 

I agree, the combination of the hardcore shipping of NH from the West, the prevalence of a feminine beauty ideal and the conservative views of women's behavior and roles in society were just too much to fight against. And who pays for it in the end? Sakura who winds up a single parent, doomed to clean Sasuke's house for the rest of her days!! Because to go to work now would make her one of those 'devil wives' in Japanese culture.

 

Hinata looks plump and happy in her role, but Sakura's homemaker role rings hollow. It's not a happy ending. It's uncomfortable. I think Kishimoto unwittingly made a statement about the problem of gender equality and stereotypes in Japanese society right now. 

The thing is that Japan right now is living in an giant double standard. In one side, their liberal and modern society allowed many personal freedoms. Now young adults can do as they please, and many shun dating and marriege for being too troublesome or frightening. While at the same time they hold tightly to the conservative ideals that a man must provide for the family, and that a woman must become a housewife once she gets pregnant. This ideal causes most men to have no confidence in themselves and cowering away from social life. And both of these situations combined caused a massive drop in birthrate in Japan. By 2060, it's expected the population to be reduced 33%. So because of that, I'm starting to think that the Japanese leadership in politics and media is desperately trying to convince people to start holding more tradionalist and simplistic values in order to increase the number of families. Such as "find yourself a nice and kindhearted wife that is supportive" or "stay away from the aggressive types, they're no good for relationships".

Maybe it's an shot in the dark here, but it does seem that the delicate social situation in japan is starting to affect everything, from day to day life to things such as entertaiment.

Naruto part 1 - 7.5/10 I wasn't that hot about part 1 to be honest, the story was good, but I usually don't like stories with protagonists this young.

Naruto part 2 (up to the pain arc) - 9/10 Now that was the good ****. Good story, protagonists greatly improved personality and character wise and great battles.

Naruto war arc - 4/10 The story got a lot weaker and the protagonists got stupidly sidelined for the sake of screentime and battles of characters we couldn't care less about.

Naruto epilogue - Is divided by zero an acceptable score? This one should speak for itself.

What is there to expect of tumblr anyway? Apart from an obscure minority, tumblr is nothing but a hen of crazed and immature brats. And I suppose shipping fandoms are extra worse.

All I could think when I watched the movie was that Kylo reminded me of Zuko from ATLA. Not sure which side is for him, and struggling with a bit of an identity crisis.

 

Itachi, however, knows what he's doing and who's side he's on. His own. He never seems to be having an identity crisis or a struggle with what he's doing. Early on, he makes the decision about how he's going to be, and he sticks to that unwaveringly. No matter who gets killed or injured. 

 

It will be interesting to see how the history of the movie plays out, and just what Kylo is like. But my money is on a conflicted immature son who's been gifted with middling power (like Zuko not being as proficient as Azula as a nice parallel to Kylo and Rey), who has to fight an inner battle of conscience as well as an outer battle to eventually resist being used by the dark side.

I did saw the Zuko parallels too, but Zuko went throught an redemption arc I'm not sure Kylo can have. He did took part in the destruction of an planet and the murder of millions if not billions of people. And to have insult added to injury he murders *bleep* in cold blood, of all people. Can he really change for the better after all this? And more importantly, will any atempt of redemption be accepted by others? At this point Rey hates his guts and want him dead. She will never forgive him. This is quite an different contrast from Luke who wanted to save his father from the dark side.

@alexander
She's special because she's the heroine who have big destiny await for her.
Kylo ren is wannabe darth vader and Incompetent, but imo it create a contrast that would be interesting to show.
Kylo ren is not the only light saber user so we'll see more sith in action.

I agree with sushi that she's not really a marry sue(perfect character), but more a competent character if not op.

Well, I don't like these types of storyline. I prefer protagonists who are average people with no special background who only succeed because they work hard or know how to work as a team. Having everything conveniently falling in their lap because they are the chosen one does not appeal to me in the slightest.

While I agree that Kylo is just a Vader wannabe, he was show to have some level of competence, at least he was trained by both Luke and that cartoon guy. His talent come from somewere. Being beaten by an complete amateur, even while wounded was pretty ridiculous in my view.

I don't think any of us thought it's original, but they summed it up nicely in the end. Honestly, last year feels like a trend of hate on what's big. You may say "it's always like that," but this one is getting noticeable that you can't express your joy without thinking "on second thought..." Nothing wrong with changing opinion, but the hate always have that vibe of "You're in or you're out," more so than the likes vibe with "Internet sure needs life." Both are negative and neither I think of them but sure kills my mood.

I don't hate the movie myself. It's just that it baffles me how so many people sing praise to it... when it haves no merits. I mean, sure it's fun, it's flashy and it feels sober all at the same time, wich is a difficult combination to achieve. But never the movie makes itself deserving of it. I mean, how would people feel if they finally made a matrix 4 and the movie is great but at the cost of the plot being an obvious carbon copy of the first one? Wouldn't that feel cheap?

The Hinata worship was created by the anime. It's the only reason Hinata is popular, because they elevated her to a near-goddess status, with extra animation of her manga moments and lengthy fillers of her background/side stories. If the anime hadn't happened, Hinata would not have been so popular. She's not featured in the manga, and she's not a presence in the movies. It's just the anime.

 

I've said this many times, but Kishimoto was not in a place to 'stand up for his own work,' because he was no longer working alone. He did what was in the best interests of the franchise, and those best interests (furthering the franchise and making money) were to switch the ending to Hinata. 

 

Kishimoto's statements are those of someone who no longer cares for his own work. His words reflect some contempt for the fans of the female characters, because those ships were used to take over the franchise. His whole focus has been on Naruto and Sasuke, with an unfair flattery of Sasuke through his storyline of 'coolness' and through Naruto's unfailing hero worship. I could easily see Kishimoto being resentful that in the end the ones driving the storyline to the bank were the girls. Not the 'bonds' between Sasuke and Naruto like he kept shoving to the front.

 

It's a glaring omission that he doesn't talk about Naruto and Sasuke's choices...because then it would be apparent that the two didn't have choices in the story. They were just given an ending. (And an ending that both characters said they never wanted.) He can't talk about Naruto and Sasuke without admitting how wrong the whole thing is. So he doesn't bring them up. Ever.

 

In the end, it wasn't the fans or the story that made Kishimoto write the way he did...but the franchise. Kishimoto did it all for that. If he feels sour grapes about that now, well it's too little too late. No matter what he says, no matter how much crap he spouts about the characters and the pairings, no matter how much noise he makes in interviews, he can't shout down the fact that we have an entire story that tells us how it should have ended.

 

Naruto loved Sakura. And he never stopped. Kishimoto just tacked on a different ending to extend the life of the franchise. These facts will never change. Screw Kishimoto's interviews. 

It's particularly glaring how Kishimoto allowed his work to be stomped. This is Japan. An country were honor and honesty is their cultural trademark. Even the freaking yakuza must have more integrity then this. And here we have Kishi quietly sitting on the corner as Pierrot and SJ butcher his work into something unrecognizable. When an politician in Japan screws up, they bow down to the public and step down their office over their failure, while Kishi close his eyes and pretends nothing ever happened. I can say this as an amateur writer myself, I would literally slice off one of my toes before I allowed some publisher to ruin my lifework like that.

Laxus has more reason and has earned it more than Erza has. He already redeemed himself, and has proven he can be a leader. Natsu has been stronger than Erza for a long time coming, and Mira knows way more about being a guild master than Erza. Erza is the worst choice possible. Desperately hoping that she is just a stand in, because her as the guild master is awful.

That's just like your opinion man. Right now there is no way to tell who is stronger. But Natsu could never lead. All the others are too imature or incompetent to be leaders. Mira knows how the wheel get's spin, but she doesn't have the grip to keep order and put the guild member in their place when she needs to. Erza has experience, she has the respect of the others, she is an veteran fighter, and has proven she can lead others when she needs to. I think she is an better choice then Laxus.