shireenbamfatheon

Yeah, I guess I'm an unfeeling jerk, but personally, "she only mentally tortured people for a week or so, and then kept staying in denial whenever something reminded her of reality, because she was grieving" feels like a terrible excuse for, you know, mentally torturing the citizens of a whole town. Like, cool motive still torture. Maybe if the show hadn't spent so much time emphasizing how absolutely horrible Wanda's torture of those people were, I wouldn't have come out of the show feeling like it was a cop-out to introduce another basic cartoon MCU villain so the "hero" can appear morally pure, even though their actions contradict them. "They will never know what you sacrificed." Give me a break. If she was Tony Stark, the next ten MCU movies would focus on the villains born from her actions.

There really is zero accountability for MCU protagonists.

The writing isn't good but the acting does wonders for the script. I'm surprised by how good everyone actually is. I hope season two dials down on the love plot because it detracted from the rest of the plot, including this epic friendship the core four is supposed to have, which is just JJ, Kiara and Pope running after John and recklessly following his plans. I also think both characters started losing their individual personalities once they got together. Sarah seemed like a pretty interesting character until she got with the main lead, at which point she just became another "rich girl in love with poor boy from the wrong side of the tracks" trope. Also, zero romantic chemistry between any of the characters except, ironically, Sarah and Topper.

As someone who usually dislikes Harley Quinn, I want to say that I wish I had watched that movie in the cinema. It's that good. She's a completely different character than the one in Suicide Squad, and the movie as a whole is entertaining all the way through, with Harley and Huntress being the best parts of it.

Unless one of the main pair's a POC, typically if it's the male character, in which case it's typically "they're platonic soulmates" no matter how much sexual chemistry they have.

About Game of Thrones, I actually found Dany's treatment of Jon to be infuriating. She spent eight seasons complaining about how her family was wronged, yet when she found out Jon was her nephew her reaction was to... tell him to lie about his parentage, let the world believe his real father, her own brother, was a rapist who kidnapped a young girl and raped her to death, pretend to be a bastard with all the stigma it carried in their world, and let his siblings (cousins) believe their father was unfaithful to their mother. All so she could recreate a dynasty that would die with her given that she was barren. I've seen a lot of complaints about Jon's treatment of Dany but rarely the other way around. There's a part in episode four where Dany enters Jon's room when he's alone, asks him if he's drunk, starts kissing him when he confirms he is, complains about him telling her the truth when he breaks it off because he's uncomfortable, starts talking about how everyone loves him and not her (they don't know you), grabs his face when he's literally on his knees and pledging his loyalty, and tells him not to tell anyone so she can sit on the throne. When he tells her he can't lie to his family but that they "can all live together", her face immediately goes cold and she goes "we can, I just told you how" before walking off. All I could think while watching this scene was that the dynamic would have been so obviously manipulative and abusive to anyone if the genders were reversed. Jon basically spent every episode trying to assuage Dany's worries and calm her temper because she kept holding his parentage over his head. He forced his own exhausted army to march on King's Landing following the battle at Winterfell to please Dany and reaffirm his loyalty to her. He consistently told her that he had her back, even when she threatened his own family to his face. Yet according to many, he's still to blame for Dany turning dark because he didn't continue to sleep with someone he didn't want to? And for telling the truth which has consistently been the one thing people have loved about him? Imagine blaming a woman for her former lover becoming psychotic because she stopped sleeping with him, and expecting her to do everyone she was told to keep the man in line.

I'm not that far into Altered Carbon, so things might change, but man, Mackie is not a particularly impressive actor and I have no faith in him as the new Captain America. The role demands gravitas and charisma, which Evans had, but Mackie is just... Mackie in everything.

I loved T'Challa in Civil War but BP wrote him as a partly passive and subdued character who reacted to events more than anything, whereas Nakia, Okoye and Shuri (and Killmonger) all had much more proactive and charismatic personalities. That doesn't make T'Challa a bad character, but it's kinda like when the main character plays the straight man to more eccentric and interesting characters.

It was mentioned in one of the earlier episodes that the oldest is 14 and the youngest 7.

I'm really glad the show didn't take the easy out and make Andy unlikable just because of the will they/won't they thing David and Kristen have going on. He's not perfect but he's a very well-rounded character. Also liked that he was able to put aside his jealousy regarding Ben to prioritize his daughter. Showed great character on his part. Speaking of David and Kristen, I really like that both characters are given their own storylines that don't hinge on the other person. So often with these types of pairings, the writers force the pairing on viewers before we even get a sense of who they are as individuals. Not here, though. I honestly wouldn't even mind if Kristen and Andy stayed together just because of how secondary the romance aspect is, though I still dig the thought of Ben and Kristen. I'll confess that I really like all four girls and don't even mind them speaking over each other. They're very believable as regular kids who aren't written either too cutesy or precocious.

Yes, Lupita was phenomenal in US and gave a performance not many could have emulated. Every time actors of color lose out during awards season, people point the finger at a systemic problem in Hollywood and argue that POC just aren't given that many award-worthy roles unless it's some slave drama, which is absolutely true. But at the same time, whenever they do give brilliant performances they're still overlooked. Oscar Isaac for Inside Llewyn Davis and Ex Machina, Idris Elba and Abraham Attah for Beasts of no Nation (no aspirational slave movie with white ally), Ashton Sanders for Moonlight. This year: Awkwafina and Shuzhen Zao (and Lulu Wang) for The Farewell, Kang-ho Song and Jeong eun-Lee for Parasite, Eddie Murphy for Dolemite is my Name, Lupita for US etc. Each and every one of these people this year gave better performances than ScarJo who got two nominations lmao. But yeah, there just aren't enough roles to nominate them for 🙄

Sorry, but ridiculous that Brad Pitt won an SAG for his performance in OUaTiH. It was a good performance but it doesn't hold a candle to the many snubs and even some of the other nominations. POC can crank out some of the best performances in the last decades without a nom, and a white guy wins the SAG for smiling 90% of the time in this movie and being charismatic. Not Pitt's fault but it really says a lot about how fucking hard some people have to fight to get ahead when others have to do the bare minimum. I don't know why I'm ever surprised. It happens every year. Next year, the Academy (which isn't the SAGs, I know, will probably nominate two people of color instead of one to "make up" for this year. If we're lucky we'll get a female director nom as well.

I get that, but since Brad Pitt got an award for playing "calm, cool and charismatic" in Once Upon by smiling 90% of the time in the movie, then I think JLo definitely deserved it more than him for playing the same type of role with many more layers and gravitas.

I think people in general have grown to have this strange obsession with redemption arcs for any remotely grey character to the point that even villains have their actions whitewashed by fans so they can fit them into the "morally complex" bubble, and thus make them redeemable, as long as said villain manages to look sad enough (and is usually white, male and straight). I know it was a thing before Game of Thrones, but it certainly helped popularize it with Jaime Lannister. Kylo Ren was a heinous character and a perfectly fine villain in TFA where him choosing the dark side should have been concluded. But then TLJ primarily centered the movie around its female heroine trying to help redeem the mass murderer who tortured her, tried to kill her, tried to kill her friend, gunned down an entire village, killed his own dad, and oh, help blow up entire planets, instead of focusing on her as a character as well as Finn and Poe. This is something I complained about when TLJ came out. TFA was my introduction to Star Wars and I fell in love with the potential the new trio had; I'm a sucker for the found family trope. I watched the movie four times in the cinema despite having no previous investment in the SW Universe otherwise. Then the next movie came out and they not only split the trio apart but also made other characters the focus of their arcs (and I say that despite really liking Rose). There was so much they could have done, and I read dozen of fan fics that did a much better job at characterization and development. I wanted to see Finn adapting to no longer being a storm trooper and finding his place among the resistance. I wanted to see more of Poe and who he was outside of just his role in the war. And I wanted Rey to discover her own path and destiny without having to share screen time with Kylo every other minute. Instead they just turned the new trilogy into another Skywalker Saga and sidelines everyone to focus on the sad, white manbaby.

Parasite deserves every nomination (and more). I went into it with major expectations after all the hype, and I still came out of it completely in love with the movie. It's one of the movies that stay with you for a long time and one that will still be remembered in many years to come. And it really is so different from so many other Oscar movies. I'm just disappointed that the actors who played the father and housewife (ed. initial female help, not houswife, though she was great as well) weren't nominated. The latter especially gave such a memorable performance. Shame that SJ got two noms because the Academy forgot POC exist (except when they play slaves).

Monkey's paw.

Didn't he help his side blow up entire planets in that movie?

UO: Cersei in Game of Thrones was never as evil as fans made her out to be, and the Mad Queen moniker (which fans applied to her) never fit her as pretty much all her actions were calculated, however ruthless and cruel.

Bucky is such a non-entity character that I've never understood the support he's garnered. He really has no personality or arc outside of being Steve's friend from the past. Other sidekicks have 10x more personality than him. Even Groot is a better established character than him. Steve's absence is probably the greatest thing that could happen to Bucky from a characterization standpoint because it means he'll finally get a storyline of his own independent of Steve. In that way he's a lot luckier than pretty much any other sidekick to a superhero since he's getting his own show alongside Sam. Exactly. At the very least Bucky has the support of Sam, Shuri and T'Challa. Not to mention others like Rhodey and Wanda (depending on how her show goes). I'm sure he'll get Sharon on his side too in the tv show. Bucky's starting out with a lot more friendly support than Steve did after getting out of the ice. And now he can finally gain some personality.

Well, certainly not Daenerys lmao.

Excited for this since it looks like the main trio will spend a lot of time together (which they should have done in the sequel as well imo), but I'm disappointed that Finn seems to have been reduced to the WOOO guy throughout these movies. There was so much they could have done with him. A Stormtrooper breaking his conditioning and joining the Resistance? He could have served as anti-First Order propaganda, inspired other Stormtroopers, learn to adjust to his new life, be force resistance, worked his way up the ladder in the resistance etc. So many paths they could have taken with him, and they just reduced him to mostly comic relief.

The discourse surrounding Skyler and the hate she gets reminds me of how much hate Sally from Barry gets despite being the least terrible character on that show. Yeah, she's selfish and self-involved and a little bit narsissistic at times, but she's an angel compared to the mass murderers and gangsters on that show, all of whom are even more self-absorbed. That includes the titular character who gets so much sympathy from the audience because he's awkward and vulnerable. Meanwhile, Sally's branded the biggest monster on the show because she's a self-involved wannabe actor, just like Barry. Sally is a wonderful character in that she's unlikable half the time but is still a fleshed out, three-dimensional character with relateable strengths and vulnerabilities and an arc + development independent of her love interest, the main character. But it seems sympathy for morally grey characters is only afforded when they're male.

A few years ago she was my favorite actress, but her recent filmography has me convinced that she doesn't have much range. She's very good at playing a specific type of character e.g. cold, commanding, detached etc., but when she diverges from that type of characterization, it's hard to buy into her acting. The Help is the only exception I can think of.

Assuming the major character beats would stay the same: I'd never have Bran lose his humanity if he was to become king. If they worried that making him omniscient would interfere with the rest of the plot, I'd have limited his ability to see things through the weirwood trees only like his book counterpart. The problem with the show is that they did away with so much of the magical aspects of the series that they ended up completely removing Bran's importance as The Last Hero 2.0. in favor of using Bran to confirm Jon's parentage. I'd have highlighted his importance as one of the several saviors of humanity as well as stressed how much he'd sacrificed at age 10 to do the right thing. Bran's one of the most caring, empathetic and selfess characters in the books, and I think there's groundwork for him being a good king. I'd have Dany abandon Slaver's Bay in favor of Westeros without the implication that she magically eradicated slavery and stabilized the region by putting Daario and his sellswords in charge of overseeing change (lol). SB as a whole would be doomed with the threat of complete destruction on the horizon in the form of starvation, disease, war, and insurgency, just like in the books. She also wouldn't gain the loyalty of a superstitious people who already hated her for getting the most powerful khal killed because of her getting a witch involved by burning their leaders alive in their most holy temple in their most holy city. She'd conquer them by burning them alive with her dragon. I'd also have Dany's invasion be a lot more destructive. 50.000 Dothraki and their 50.000+ horses can't be confined on a barren island like Dragonstone for months. They'd have to pillage the countryside to keep themselves alive, especially as winter would deplete Westeros' resources. Jon would be a darker character following his resurrection and missing a chunk of his humanity without being evil. But I'd want tangible proof of the effect death had on his soul. The Northerners wouldn't elect Ned Stark's bastard who ditched the Night's Watch over his legitimate daughter who brought the Vale to the North and whose connection to her cousin saved the North from the Boltons. That's just BS. No Sansa vs. Arya. The Long Night would last a whole season. Most importantly, since the introduction of fAegon complicated the plot so much, I'd instead have Margaery and Tommen on the throne when Dany invaded, with Cersei being confined to Casterly Rock and secretly plotting. Tommen was a caring and sensitive boy and Margaery a competent and cunning, yet sweet woman. Dany's opposition to them would have brought so much ambiguity to the story because it would rob Dany of her supposed moral high ground. It'd also explain Tyrion's reluctance to harm KL with his nephew there, especially since his niece died because of his decision to send her to Dorne.

Assuming the major character beats would stay the same: I'd never have Bran lose his humanity if he was to become king. If they worried that making him omniscient would interfere with the rest of the plot, I'd have limited his ability to see things through the weirwood trees only like his book counterpart. The problem with the show is that they did away with so much of the magical aspect of the series that they ended up completely removing Bran's importance as The Last Hero 2.0. in favor of using Bran to confirm Jon's parentage. I'd have highlighted his importance as one of the several saviors of humanity as well as stressed how much he'd sacrificed at age 10 to do the right thing. Bran's one of the most caring, empathetic and selfess characters in the books, and I think there's groundwork for him being a good king in the books.