u/Poweredkingbear

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Yeah I think we're getting The Lion Turtle since the show has been hinting on the Lion Turtle and one of the alleged leaked titles for episode 6 in season 3 is named "The Tale of two islands". The Lion Turtle shouldn’t necessarily be removed ,but it needs alot of tweaking in order to make the problem less distracting like in the original. 

I really do think one of the best ways to fix the issue with the deus ex machina issue from the original is by having Aang go through a challenge that was set up by the Lion Turtle before being rewarded with the energy bending ability after passing the tests. Remember that part in the final fight when the Lion turtle told Aang that using the energy bending comes at a cost where using it on someone will have a high chance of corrupting the user and destroying them? How about we move that around and reuse that moment to instead challenge Aang if he's worthy of getting the energy bending

Imagine Aang in Ember Island panicking because he discovered that the Gaang was missing and there was a fire nation trail around him. Then he saw that the trail was leading to a different island so Aang decided to swim over in that place to investigate further. When he's finally on the island, that's when he discovers that Ozai and his soldiers have rounded up the Gaang and killed them all. At this moment Aang is finally at his lowest. Ozai mocks and belittles Aang. Rage and sorrow was building up on Aang. When Ozai was finally done with his speech that’s when he decided to tell Aang that the time of the Avatar is over and decided to shoot Aang with his lightning before Aang was able to capture it and that moment basically recreates that scene from the original when Aang redirected the lighting and hesitated for a bit to shoot Ozai before shooting the lightning out to the sky to avoid killing him. That moment on Ozai and his soldiers basically froze up before vanishing into thin air. That’s when The Lion Turtle revealed themselves to Aang and told Aang that whatever that happened on this island was all a test by The Lion Turtle. They congratulated Aang and they told him that his refusal to give in to his worst impulses even at his worst will be rewarded with an energy bending ability that would allow Aang to take away Ozai’s powers. After receiving the ability Aang woke up in a beach surrounded by the Gaang because it turned out that he sleep walked and laid on the beach at the middle of the night.

Like if the season 3 writers did something similar to what I wrote then the issue with the Lion Turtle will be fixed and the finale will be perfect.

I think episode 7 is one of the best examples that I can think of where the writers didn’t go all the way in with changing things ,but decided to keep things 1:1 as much as possible. The main Crystal Cave fight is one of the best examples where instead of adding anything new to the fight the writers decided to recreate the original 1:1 as much as possible.

One of my main issues is that yes they stuck pretty closely to how the characters fought in the Crystal Cave ,but the issue is that it felt redundant. There’s alot of great callbacks to the original like when Katara did her octopus waterbend and Zuko’s fire whip ,but the issue is that the show is trying to be its own thing and then trying to be a 1:1 felt kinda contradictory. Katara doing her octo water bend is cool and all just like in the original ,but wanna know what would be cooler? Having Katara recreate the ice projectile technique in the very first minutes of episode 1 in season 2. That technique represents the best of both worlds because it's both fantastical and grounded. I don’t want to say “realistic” because nothing about the world of Avatar is realistic ,but what I’m trying to say is that the technique better represents NATLA’s more grounded and fantastical approach to retelling ATLA. Not only that ,but it’s way faster and more effective than the octo waterbend. Like if the writers doubled  down on being different then we would have gotten a much more unique fight scenes between the characters in the main crystal cave fight instead of copying the original as much as possible. The addition of the fight scene between Zuko and Azula including the fight scene between Aang and Azula in the crystal cave has got to be one of the best additions in the finale because they’re actually new scenes that everyone can enjoy.

Also the scene between Katara and Zuko in their crystal cave prison is also another issue where the writers tried to recreate the original scene as much as possible ,but they can’t seem to decide if they wanted to make it different or not. The added dialogue to Katara and Zuko is incredibly amazing and we need more of that ,but what I find to be annoying is when the writers decided to obscure Kiawentiio’s face when she was crying by not showing her face because they were trying to replicate the scene from the original when Katara turned away from Zuko and we only saw her back. Like first of all you’re trying to make a live action adaptation where the main selling point is see the genuine human reaction from the actors so I’m not sure why would you obscure the actor’s face in the first placed. Like you can still have Katara turn away from Zuko and have the camera in front of Kiawentiio to see her reaction. Kiawentiio is fully capable of crying and being sad. If you watched her act in other shows you would understand what I'm talking about.

I seriusly hope season 3 capture the right balance.

Wanna know why I love this season so much? It actually felt like a great retelling of the same story that we have seen before. Which is funny because people are acting like this hasn't been done before even thou superhero movies have been doing that for decades pretty successfully (Ex: Raimi's Spiderman, Nolan's Batman,etc).

I think it's even comparable to The Jungle Book movie from 2016 where instead of doing a 1:1 recreation of the original movie like what The Lion King or How to Train Your Dragon did with their live action adaptation they instead took the premise of the story and made their own retelling that's completely distinct from the original movie and it actually felt fresh. The original still exists so making a fresh new retelling doesn’t erase that at all. 

The best example from season 2 that I actually loved is how the scene in the crystal cave was retold. Instead of Aang abandoning cosmic energy to save Katara he instead was willing to go to the Avatar state to save the person he loves the most at the cost of abandoning the values that he holds unto dearly. Aang literally talked to Sokka about how painful and distressing it was to have the water spirit control him to kill and destroy those fire nation invaders because it goes against everything that Aang and the Air nomads stood for about not killing anyone. Many of the fans are so damn blinded by nostalgia that they couldn’t even see that the context is practically the same even when the reasoning is different. Even then having Aang in his Avatar state actually fight back before being shot by Azula is a great change on its own way. Aang resisted his Avatar state when they almost killed Azula and that decision ended up risking not only his  own life ,but the faith of the world.  Like that's still Aang the pacifists through and through and that context will obviously become important in season 3.

To be honest there are some parts from the show that felt kind of distracting. The show isn't perfect and there are some things that they really need to improve on.

Like the Loser's Club and their dynamic with each other for example because the show really wanted you to believe that the main group are really close friends ,but the main problem is that the vast majority of them are just bickering with each other. Veronica literally spent the entire show just bickering and chastising Lilly and Marge. Even then they basically have their separate friend group. Rich and Will are really close with each other, so does Lilly and Marge with each other. Veronica and Will are a couple so of course they have chemistry. Rich and Marge are also a couple so they're also closed. The issue is that I never get a sense that the main group actually had an actual chemistry. So what's the relationship and dynamic Veronica has with Marge, Rich and Lilly? Like remotely nothing all because she spent the entire show just bickering with Lilly and Marge. Was Lilly even close with Rich and Will at all? Not remotely at all because she barely interacted with them. The main issue is that they never felt like a true friend group at all compared to the original Loser's Club. My advice to Andy Muschietti is to rewatch Stand by Me. Like I know he did an amazing job with the dynamic between the original Loser's Club ,but I want him to get back to the basics. He needs to switch up the character interactions so that the group will actually feel like an actual friend group instead of a 3 separate friend group within a larger friend group.

I also think Andy also needs to moderate the use of CGI and use more practical because the cemetery scene was just awful to look at. I think one of the best sequence from the entire show has to be the Veronica's Momster sequence because combination between the use of practical sets and CGI was smooth as fuck. Everything about it was just damn amazing to look at. They used CGI for some things that practical sets can't be replicated with physical sets and they used practical sets for things that they can easily do without relying on CGI. If they did the same thing for the Pickle Monster like using CGI for his transformation sequence ,but used practical sets and makeup when he's fully formed then the criticism about the Pickle Monster won’t be as common. Like cmon there was no reason at all to use CGI for the Pickle Monster face inside the Pickle Jar. They could have used a prosthetic head inside a hollow jar and just have the glass  around it to be hollow enough to fill it with pickle juice to create an illusion that a human head is indeed inside a filled Pickle Jar. There are so many creative ways to combine practical sets and CGI ,but Andy never seemed to utilize it and was completely dependent on the CGI for the vast majority of the time. Like the ghost kids had no reason at all to be CGI and funny enough they actually filmed the actor who played Teddy doing the stunt on that exact same scene while he was being filmed ,but Andy decided to just replace him with CGI completely. Also they were on the actual cemetary too ,but he decided to replace it with a CGI landscape for some reason. Like if he doesn't have the budget to create that sequence then just rewrite the entire damn scene to be more compatible with the budget.

If Andy improves on those two things then season 2 will be alot better. Probably way better than season 1 even thou I actually loved season 1 despite its flaws.

I know that people complain about the artstyle for Empulse being way too simple and clean. It's not as detailed compared to Titanfall or other FPS shooters out there ,but here's the thing the developers are aiming for a different reason other than prettier graphics. They're obviously aiming for a game where the maps are actually readable and easier to pick up on or to remember because this game is all about speed and how quickly the player is able to manuever the map . Like based on the gameplay footage I can easily reach my "flow state" and maximized the most speed without getting a headache after the first few matches of playing and needing to diffentiate all the important stuff from all the clutters that we won't even bother looking at in a few seconds. I think the artstyle design just makes perfect sense.

The discussion around The Boys being way too on the nose about Trump and Trumpism is just obnoxious. It’s either way too political or pandering for the sake of pandering. Like first of all the original comic book that the show is based on clearly had Homelander as an obvious political allegory for George Bush. Everyone thought of George Bush as a massive dumbass so the writer also made Homelander also a massive dumbass who’s equally as dumb as a piece of rock. 

Then there’s also comic book superhero characters such as Captain America punching Hitler in the face in his first ever comic book appearance. Some people would argue “Well it’s old history and Hitler wasn’t as relevant when the comic was written”. Like for some reason the vast majority of people seem to have a collective psyche that the first ever comic book appearance of Captain America punching Hitler in the face happened 100 years after World War 2 happened.  Yeah, here's the thing is that World War 2 was literally still heating up when Captain America was first published in 1941. D-DAY hasn’t even happened yet in 1944. Adolf Hitler was still alive and kicking before offing himself in 1945 which meant that the first ever publication of the Captain America comic happened 4 years before his death. In other words Captain America was super political for its time and had a clear message against Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. They weren’t doing that shit when they had to make a fictional organization loosely based on the Nazis like Cobra or Hydra to be more suitable for the kids and the general public. It was just Captain America fighting Hitler and his Nazi regime. 

I really do hate this talking point that every fictional media out there are only justified with their political allegories if they’re only basing it off “old history” and not new or recent history. Like every fictional media out there, they always had to talk about the current political events that was happening during their time. Back then it was World War 2 before moving on to the Vietnam War. After the Vietnam war the vast majority of people then moved on to the Bush era and the Iraq War. What was relevant for their time is obviously going to be given the most attention than the ones from the past. So in our current era Trump and Trumpism is the number one issue of the day because it’s literally happening right now. 

I think the main criticisms towards the monster designs for Welcome to Derry just showcase how much people don’t give a shit about the source material. One of the most common complaints outside of some bad CGI in some scenes for example is that the monster designs for the show such as the Pickle monsters and the giant mutant baby are too over the top and too corny where they’re almost like Goosebumps monsters.

Alot of people seem to argue that they want the monsters to be subtle and ambiguous to make them scary. They felt like showing the monsters too much made the show less grounded and less serious than it should be. Like do people realize that the source material that the show is based on literally had Pennywise turning into a damn werewolf wearing a Letterman’s jacket, a talking moon, a giant eagle and a Lepper offering a blowjob to one of the main characters right? None of the monster forms from the book are even remotely “subtle” or "ambiguous" because Pennywise as a character was never supposed to be a grounded and realistic character. Pennywise was always supposed to be a fantastical, campy, zanny and horrifying character which Welcome to Derry perfectly captured. If you remove any of those premise then Pennywise ends up being a completely different character all together. His pickle dad form and the mutant baby form literally captures the overall vibe of Pennywise in the novel.

When some people brought up the Goosebumps comparison just pissed me off because I’m pretty sure IT as a story has alot more commonality with Goosebumps than it does for more grounded horror such as Hereditary or the Jordan Peele movies. Let alone the fact that IT chapter 1 and 2 completely left out the fantastical and sci fi elements of the original novel in favour of a more grounded approach. Like IT as a novel wasn't just a coming of age horror story ,but it had a much larger emphasis on the fantastical elements of the Stephen King's universe which is why the idea of a shining in the show comes off as a surprise to non book readers. IT was always supposed to be fantastical and I hope the next season leans on that even further. Improve the CGI and do more practical sets next time. Pennywise turning into a goofy aah monsters while being scary is something they should double down on regardless of what some critics think.

I just seen the recent penultimate episode of The Boys and for fuck sake they literally made the same mistakes the Stranger Things writers made when they made that penultimate episode for the last season where they decided to do even more setup instead of resolving the majority of the major plot beats to set up the conclusion of the story.

The whole point of a penultimate episode isn't to keep adding in more major sub plots for the finale. It's whole purpose is to raise the stakes and be the climax for the finale. The penultimate episode for WTD is perfect because it was literally the climax of the story. The major sub plot of setting up Pennywise's last rampage before his sleep was resolved in the penultimate episode. The episode was intensed and gave a conclusion to many of the major characters like Rich, Ingrid and Pennywise before we go to the finale. The penultimate episode then ends with the major stakes being raised way higher than before when Pennywise became even more of a major threat after he was finally set loosed by the US military. The Boys kind of did a similar thing to one of their main characters ,but the showrunners decided to add even more characters from one of their spin off shows which ends up becoming alot more distracting and probably made the finale even more convoluted than it should be. Stranger Things literally the dropped the ball on their penultimate episode because nothing major happened at all ,but they decided to do even more boring set ups.

I seriously hope season 2 doesn't repeat the same mistakes that the other shows have made and continue what they have been doing from season 1 of the show.