u/Fanimation2508

One thing I wondered about when I watched Violet Evergarden (the anime), was Violet’s origins.

We know she’s a war maiden of sorts, is capable of being a deadly soldier, and was a child that Deitfried got ahold of for Gilbert.

But the show and the movies never really answer this kinda important question or anything around it.

What was Violet’s life before she was given to Gilbert? How did she learn her military skills? How is she so capable at a young age? Are there more “war maidens” like her? And if there were, then why is she the only one, did they die out or something?

I really thought the movies would answer these questions or at least give us a glimpse at Violet’s origins but it didn’t. I’m not complaining, I still love the show, but it is weird how we never get answers about Violet’s origins. I guess if we did it might make Violet less unique if there’s a ton of children soldiers like her or something.

Maybe she does have origins in other stuff like the light novels or something, since I’ve only seen the anime, OVA, and movies and I might be missing information.

Maybe the flashback material with Gilbert is her origin, or maybe the whole story is just one big origin for her. Maybe the whole point is that she’s a blank state that the horrors of war were written onto, anything else might be less impactful and take away the war trauma.

Overall, Violet’s origins are something the story didn’t really need, but it would make for an interesting movie/return ngl.

Apparently a lot of People think Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story series isn’t that smart, or that important to the series after his completed arc in the first movie.

I however, would like to go over why, in my opinion, I think Buzz is very important to the series, and one of the smartest characters.

In the first movie, he was of course, a delusional toy thinking he was a space ranger. But don’t get it twisted, he still is pretty intelligent throughout the movie despite his initial lunacy.

Examples include- 1: Buzz sits in the front of the pizza planet truck because he’d rather be safe than knocked around like Woody.

2: Buzz is the one who comes up with the idea to enter Pizza Planet being disguised with food containers to not get caught.

3: In Sid’s house, after seeing Sid’s mutant toys, he immediately dives for cover, tries calling for backup, and sets his laser from stun to kill. He’s not doing much, but at least he’s trying more, unlike Woody who just cowered in fear.

4: When Woody thinks he finds an exit, he tries leaving, while Buzz is more reserved and tries telling him they don’t know what’s out there, because Sid’s house is dangerous.
And when they do escape the room, he’s the one to quietly guide Woody out, and tells Woody to split up once Scud goes after them because he knows he couldn’t catch them both.

And 5: In the climax, Buzz is the one to push his buttons, freeing him and Woody from certain death by the big one, and uses the height to get to Andy’s Mom’s car, all because he remembered what his buttons did and all the mockery Woody said about them.

So yes, Buzz may be a bit ignorant and stubborn throughout the first movie, but he’s actually pretty smart and does smart things.

Now for the second movie, which is the greatest showcase of Buzz’s intelligence in my opinion.

After he fails to save Woody, Buzz finds out Al kidnapped Woody with a feather, a license plate number, and wordplay, which then leads him to coming up with the rescue mission. He had very few clues yet figured out what he needed to do.

He comes up with the plan to cross the road using cones, not only because he remembered how he and Woody almost were ran over in the end of the first movie’s climax, and traffic cones are indicative to any driver that they should stop or swerve away.
You could say he’s still endangering the other toys by putting them in roadway traffic, but the plan worked out so whatever.

Once they get to Al’s toy barn, he tells the others to jump at the same time to emulate a human’s presence; and once they get in, he tells everyone to split up to cover more ground.

When he’s replaced by Utility Belt Buzz, he thinks on the fly, using his surroundings and quick thinking to try to catch up to Al, and when that doesn’t work, he remembers to emulate a human’s presence from earlier just using weight.

He crosses the street once again using the cone method, and stealthily gets on the elevator to follow the others.

When he meets the others and Utility Belt Buzz tries proving he’s an imposter, Buzz opens his helmet just like Woody did to him in the first movie, and seals his case by showing his boot with Andy’s name written on it.

Buzz thinks Woody is wrong for trying to ditch Andy, because he remembers how much of a deal being a toy is, so he argues and tells Woody he is a child’s plaything, a toy, similarly to their argument at the gas station in the first movie.

When the clock is ticking, Buzz and the other toys try to save Woody in the elevator, but when that doesn’t work he realizes they have to hit the road to catch up.

He coordinates everyone on how to drive- He gets the wheel, Rex navigates, Slinky gets the pedals, Mr Potato Head and Hamm get the gears. Everyone pulls their weight all because of Buzz’s great job as a leader. Yes, their driving was erratic, but they still caught up to Al so the plan worked. It’s just crazy to think a toy realized a way to drive a car.

Buzz then splits up the other toys again at the airport to find Woody quicker, because at this point their time is almost up.

And finally, he and the others use the cameras to blind The Prospector, allowing them to save Woody once and for all. Oh, he also participated in the airplane chase in the climax on Bullseye.

Now for the third movie, because he’s still pretty capable here too.

When they’re all about to get thrown out, Buzz commands everyone to use Rex’s tail to get out before they’re crushed to their doom.

Buzz stops the other toys from arguing more once they get in the garage, as he understands they don’t have time for bickering.

He comes up with the plan to escape the caterpillar room and tries his best to be stealthy.

He talks respectfully to Lotso for a transfer request, but deals out remembering he’s a part of the family and can’t be selfish to join Lotso.

Even when he’s returned to Space Ranger Demo mode, he still acts pretty authoritative as a prison guard to the toys and another one of Lotso’s minions.

When he’s trapped by Hamm and Rex, he tries using his laser to escape, then uses their idiocy to his advantage to break out.

In Spanish mode, he is a bit flamboyant and ignorant to his situation at first, but he quickly gets adjusted and comes up with a way to getting to the dumpsters with his acrobatics.

When he’s back in normal mode again, during the magnet sequence, he tells everyone to grab something metal on the spot before they’re shredded. The toys would’ve died then and there if Buzz wasn’t a quick thinker.

Even in the Toy Story Toons and Tv Specials he’s still smart!

In Toy Story of Terror, he comes up with the plan to split up in teams to find Mr Potato Head after investigating, uses Mr Potato Head’s hand to construct a makeshift zip line, and tries coming up with a plan to save Woody with the other toys locked up in Ron’s cabinet.

In the Small Fry short, he tricks the happy meal toys to escape and gets Mini Buzz back where he belongs.

And in Toy Story That Time Forgot, Buzz is the one to deduce The Cleric’s plan on his own.

Toy Story 4 is the only real threat to my argument here.
Buzz is a blithering idiot who can’t think for himself and listens to his buttons even if that means doing stupid things like abandoning Woody twice.
He’s overwhelmed by all the other toys asking him what to do. He needs his buttons to tell him to simply look up or defend himself from Ducky and Bunny. He even has to tell himself to go to help Woody. He didn’t need his buttons to tell him how to be smart AT ALL, yet now I guess he has brain damage. He also tells Woody to leave, and I guess they both forgot how they went through this in the second movie but choose radically different paths.

And if you wanna count Lightyear, he’s just a big jerk who doesn’t really think things through and is the one who causes everyone to get stranded on the remote planet, but at least he tries fixing things and saves the day in the end.

Buzz is a smart character who keeps a cool head when situations get tough, and is always loyal to those he values, with Woody and Jessie being the most specific examples.

Without him, I don’t think Woody and the others would’ve survived the series, or everything turns worse. The series literally can’t happen without Buzz arriving in Andy’s room in the first movie, Woody isn’t forced to change his selfish ways and come to terms with his insecurities as the favorite. Buzz is the inciting incident that changed everything. Without him, nothing happens.

I know this was long, but I’m really tired of people saying Buzz is stupid when there’s an astounding amount of evidence from over 30 years proving otherwise.

Remember, all of these are my personal opinions and observations, you don’t have to agree with them and that’s fine, but hopefully you understand why I think Buzz is smart and important to the series.

ok, that sounds dumb but let me explain.

People tend to love Toy Story 2 and 3 more, and even prefer pixar’s other originals over ts1, while saying 1 is fine, or outright bad/insignificant in comparison to the sequels and following Pixar movies.

I disagree, because Toy Story 1 is my favorite film in the series, and my personal favorite pixar movie. Disclaimer: all of this are my personal opinions, they’re not gospel and you don’t need to agree with them if you don’t want to.

1: This is by far the most creepy movie in the series by far. The stuff in sid’s room and that iconic play nice scene is nightmare fuel, and it’s somehow really funny, scary, and serious all at the same time, unlike the sequels which mostly ignore the horror elements for other things. Toy mutilation is legitimately scary, and this movie just doesn’t feel like anything Pixar has ever made; it’s a really raw film in my opinion.

2: This is by far the funniest one. Ts1 somehow has joke after joke and they all consistently land for me, and they still make room for the more serious/emotional moments too. Toy Story 2 is really close in the comedy department, and Toy Story 3 has funny moments, but Toy Story 1 has the best comedy and sense of edgy humor that works for me the most. Sid is also funny as a creatively impulsive kid, who also serves a decent role as the film’s antagonist.

3: Woody and Buzz are together for most of the film. In the sequels they’re usually separated for a while, but here they share the screen together for most of the film and it works because we really get to see their friendship form through their initial dislike for one another. Woody himself is a jerk for most of the film and it’s really funny and interesting seeing how he became the good person he was in the sequels.

4: The presentation largely holds up well. The animation has aged (specifically the humans and some of the backgrounds) but the fluidity of it is really good. Woody constantly makes hyper-expressive looks and it’s just really funny, and most of the other characters including Buzz are really expressive as well. And most of the dated animation is disguised through the Toy’s plasticky/floppy movements since that’s how they’re supposed to move, it’s really smart. The soundtrack by Randy Newman is incredible; the score often sounds perilous and manic, and the individual songs (You’ve got a friend in me both og and the duet in the credits, Strange Things, and I will go sailing no more) are all fantastic as well. I personally think Strange Things is an underrated song in the series.

And 5: The messages are still profoundly important despite not being as deep as the sequels. Buzz’s arc of learning to be a toy, and Woody’s arc of overcoming his insecurities and jealousy of being replaced are very thematically rich and powerful because we can relate and understand them at a basic level, more so than the messages/themes of the sequels if you really think about it. We’ve all been jealous and insecure about our values as people and our purposes in life, and I think this film represents those themes excellently and isn’t insignificant in the slightest.

I personally think Toy Story 1 is genuinely unique and underrated when in comparison to many of Pixar’s other great films and the following Toy Story sequels because it’s the first one and apparently everything that comes after improves on it. But I still love Toy Story 1 and think it’s genuinely great despite its age and the arguably better sequels because of the rawness and revolutionary nature that this film represents to me personally.

I recently rewatched Atlantis: The Lost Empire, out of curiosity since I disliked it for a while and was wondering if I was too harsh on it in the past, and I actually ended up clicking with the movie this time, for one big reason: because it tried. It tried to be a pulpy adventure film with themes about anti imperialism and history, a lot of cool action and compelling drama, and a cast of likable or interesting characters. I was too demanding on the movie previously, so this time I judged it on its own terms and it worked, after most of my life dismissing it unfairly.

But that got me thinking, why have modern Disney and Pixar kinda lost their edge? It’s like their newer movies try to fit children and families specifically, rather than trying to appeal to everyone with clear cut morals about family and believing yourself and mostly generic stories, with Wish and Moana 2 being the major culprits, those feel like they were made for babies.

Their older movies were just more interesting and layered, and most importantly: DARING. They never tried to play down to kids, they instead tried to actually give them something to think about, truly dark and complex things, and they consistently did this for around 100 years.

You remember how dark the opening of Tarzan was, where Tarzan’s parents were mauled to death by an animal, and the ending where Clayton got hung after falling to his doom?

You remember how epic and beautifully dark the hunchback was? How that movie had a literal devil in Frollo as the villain, the themes of lust and sin, and how the film literally starts out with Frollo trying to drown a deformed baby?

Remember how bold the Lion King was, with the iconic treasonous death of Mufasa, and the final battle where Scar gets eaten and burned alive simultaneously?

Remember how cool movies like Atlantis and Treasure Planet were, how they had more serious topics and things they wanted to get across?

Remember how insane Pinocchio was, with children turning into enslaved donkeys after drinking beer and smoking and saying mild swears, along with a giant whale fight for the climax???!!! And that was one of their first movies.

In Walt’s own words: I don’t make children’s movies. I make movies you can enjoy whether you’re 6 or 60, your inner child.”
I don’t know if that’s the real quote, but I know Walt and a lot of Disney people respected their audience’s intelligence and wasn’t afraid to make them think about things or be scared.

Heck, Pixar counts too, since they are owned by the mouse house and are similar to them.

Toy Story 1 was a horror comedy, the play nice scene where the toys come to life, scarring Sid for life, and basically the whole second half of the film is genuinely creepy and morbid.

Monsters Inc had a villain, Mr waternoose, who said he’d kidnap a thousand children before he’d let his company die, all because he cared too much about financial stability and didn’t have a heart like Sully.

Finding Nemo opened with a merciless massacre of all a father’s unhatched eggs and wife, all happening in the first few minutes of the film.

The Incredibles had so much action violence and explosions, a massive casualty count in the Kronos revealed sequence, and is one of the most adult stories Pixar has ever told with Bob’s midlife crisis.

Up was a movie all about adventure, so of course it had peril and dogs flying planes and flying houses and elder brawls and tons of other insane stuff, along with Carl’s arc of letting go of the past.

The only modern exceptions are some of the newer movies (Encanto, Zootopia 2, Soul, Inside Out 2, Toy Story 5, and Hoppers), that are crazy, and some Disney channel cartoons (owl house, amphibia, gravity falls), which is weird that the tv shows tried to do more than the movies and had more interesting ideas that were actually layered.

I think the last time they were both trying to be weird or more edgy were in the 2010s, until the middle point where they seemed to not want to disturb audiences much anymore. I think the last films that tried to be more disturbing were Zootopia with its racial allegory and genuine buddy cop peril, and Coco, with the whole chorizo thing with Delacruz as the twist villain.

I hate to say it, but I think Moana was the turning point, as it appealed to everyone, but wasn’t creepy or disturbing in any way, which seemed like Disney has only tried to recapture that thing only to constantly fail or look lame.

Disney seems like they’re too complacent, so we’ll see how much their thirst for sequels and generic ideas will cost them in the long run, as this is probably a worse era than the 2000s, because at least you had a buncha cult classics and hidden gems in there, and every film stuck with you, even Chicken Little.

Disney probably needs another period of creative self-reflection rather than continuing to rely on familiar tropes. They really need Another Chicken Little. A creative reset, a movie so embarrassing and tryhard that they go back to the drawing board and find something good to make, something with heart and soul, like what Tangled, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid, it’s happened before all the time in previous eras and Disney’s many reinventions.

It’s only going to get worse before it gets better. And hey, Disney has had cycles of mediocrity before, it’ll blow over at some point. They’re just too fine with their comfortable mediocrity.

It may seem weird that I want Disney and Pixar to try to scare kids, but me and a lot of other Gen Z Kids are tired of their squeaky clean nature, we want more daring things to show to our own children in a similar vein to the stuff we used to watch, otherwise we’ll just show them the older movies.

Disney is known for magic, but their classics balanced wonder with genuine danger. Their happiest moments felt earned because the stories weren’t afraid to become frightening, tragic, or emotionally challenging.

I’m only talking about this because it’s just weird seeing 2 film studios that specialized balancing the bright stuff and dark stuff for so long just drop that, and it’s extra weird that the Disney channel shows are the ones trying harder, as they’re usually on ticking time bombs before cancellation or corporate meddling.

Point is, I kinda miss when Disney and Pixar would try to scare the crap out of kids and adults alike. And it’s weird how they don’t want to do that anymore even though they did it for so long. These are all just my opinions, they’re subjective, but it’s just how I feel.