u/ThatCollegeBoy06

"But realistically, none of Marley's supporters are understandable. It's pretty much just mindless racism, blaming people for the sins of their ancestors."

I don't mean to bully in any way, but that's exactly one of my main points. The fact that people treat this so casually or like it's not a big deal is a giant part of the show's fault. This isn't our modern equivalent to the Roman Empire, to Vikings, to Ghengis Khan campaigns that we reminisce like old stories. This is 2000 years of constant and relentless oppression by a "singular group of people." That is not even close to mindless racism. If anything, I feel like it's expected for the world to hate them. Additionally, this isn't "ancestors" like 200 or 300 years removed. The Great Titan War ended 80 years ago. So people from that era are still alive. It's basically like how we treat the holocaust.

Lastly, I'm not saying Eren and them did have that many options, but they were actively putting themselves in a horrible position. First, everyone in Paradis is way too ignorant; these people had their memories stolen, so I get it, but their citizens actively hate the world because they hate them for completely justified reasons. They don't really know the history that the people of the world had gone through. Grisha is their only source through his journals, and he is the definition of a biased narrator; he hated the world, so his writing would very much reflect that. And he preached a nationalistic uprising by Eldians, which they have no right to demand of anyone on the outside, considering their history.

For example, some Nazis survived WW2 and went off to an island. They have kids and spread their beliefs, but leave out all the horrible atrocities they committed. 80 years pass, then people from the outside world find them. These people start spouting all the hateful things that were taught to them, not knowing of the context that they come from. The rest of the world is rightfully horrified. These people know nothing else, so to them the world hates them for their "just" beliefs. So naturally they become hostile. As the rest of the world, you have an option: let these people continue to exist and have their disgusting beliefs, or do something to stop them.

It's not a perfect analogy, but you get the idea.

This is all under the assumption that Erwin supports the Rumbling; I personally don't believe that. I think the story has made it clear that he wouldn't. If anything, he would be the person most opposed to it. Since if Eren kills everyone, what the government had been saying about humanity being dead outside the walls would be true, thus making his father's death meaningless. And his entire purpose in life was proving his dad right. Feel free to disagree; this could be a fun conversation. But it's not the main topic of discussion.

This also brings an important question about Levi. Would he be willing to betray Erwin for the rest of the world? Throughout the series, Levi has made it abundantly clear that he trusts Erwin's judgment and is even willing to follow him, even when he believes Erwin is being irrational. That being said, the story didn't make Levi this dog that listens to everything that Erwin says, like when he threatened to break his legs if he tried to come on that mission.

When it comes to unorthodox methods of Titan combat, I think Armin has a big advantage over Erwin since he actually would have had experience using the power by now. And in general, his outside-the-box thinking when it comes to titans would help him in his alliance of mostly titan shifters.

Honestly I lean a bit more towards Erwin beating them simply because their would be to many unknowns and advantages that he has.

I'm talking about Gajeel having a whole death speech that made me cry, then being brought back later that passed me off. Rick Grimes in his entirety. Reiner Braun.

I'm talking about Gajeel having a whole death speech that made me cry, then being brought back later that passed me off. Rick Grimes in his entirety. Reiner Braun.

From all I've heard, it seems that Isayama's message was that in war, no one is truly good; everyone has their own reasons for fighting, and there is often more complexity and nuance than we could imagine. That being said, if his intention was to leave us at a standstill in who was right in the conflict, then I think it could have been done better. For clarification, I separate his message that war is bad from whether the Rumbling is justified. For the latter, I think he executes it really well. My argument is for the former.

By showing only Eren's side of this conflict for 3 seasons, you made us emotionally attached to the character and naturally have an extreme bias against those who would wish them harm. That's proven by the fact that when season 4 came out, everybody, and I mean everybody, was hating on the Marleyan side. Especially when Gaby killed Sasha, which is sad, don't get me wrong, but I feel like for the message's sake, we should have been able to relate to Gaby and be in turmoil about this, but no one was on Gaby's side or even tried to look at things from her perspective; it was just "she killed one of my favorite characters."

Additionally, by spending so much time of the story in Eldia, it makes it really easy for the viewer to ignore the new information that contradicts their idea of Eldia. When you go from these people who were driven to extinction and are doing the best they can to survive and restore humanity to these people where savage war mongers that basically did to the rest of the word what the titans are currently doing to them, it can be really easy as someone with that bias for the Eldians to overlook that fact and just focus on "well that was so long ago, what the world is doing to them is far worse."

Also, the exposition of Eldian atrocities vs the actual showing of Marlyen brutality. A lot of the time in the story, when we are told about the past crimes of the Eldians upon the rest of the word its always told as a side fact or just an anecdote in the grand scheme, while for most, if not all, of the Marleyan atrocities we see in very graphic detail of what they do. This absolutely creates a bias, at least to the viewer, in who's actually worse.

Lastly, the story itself, writing Marleyian characters into admitting that they were completely wrong and unjustified in their actions, makes a lot of war complexity disappear. I really like the episode where the Alliance was talking about their issues and problems with each other's perspectives, especially between Jean and Magrath because nothing either of them said was wrong. Jean was right that they are being treated unfairly because of ancestors and atrocities they don't even remember, while Magrath was right that just because you can't remember doesn't mean that it didn't happen; you have the luxury of being in ignorance, but everyone else had to endure 2000 years of exactly what you and your island have been dealing with, if not worse. But his apologizing makes his side of the conflict seem unserious and makes the Eldians seem more like victims. Additionally, Gaby feeling bad for killing Sasha also does this; from Gaby's perspective, she killed someone who murdered her friends and comrades. Her feeling any type of guilt, especially in the way it was displayed, makes her killing Sasha also feel unjustified and that her side is ridiculous.

One fix I could see for this is showing both sides of the conflict right at the beginning. Obviously somethings need to be changed to make the story work.

I'm not hating on AOT as a story; it's actually one of my favorites of all time. Isayama is a brilliant author, but there are some things in his story that I feel could have been executed better for the impact that he wanted.

I recently went to see Hadestown. It was great; the actors were phenomenal, and their range while singing blew me away. The musical does everything it’s supposed to do; it kept me engaged throughout, and they did an amazing job with the writing of Hades, Persephone, Orpheus, and Euridice. They really thought this musical felt like the main characters, and the actors really did a good job showcasing their personalities. Additionally it’s did a great job at telling the story without it feeling like exposition most of the time, which is a skill in itself.

For the negatives, it has the same issue as I think the Avatar movie has; there wasn’t necessarily anything bad, it just wasn’t very memorable. Wicked and Little Shop of Horrors (Ellen Greene) are really my standard for Musicals (I know it’s not fair). In both, they had a standout song, if not multiple. Suddenly Seymour, for example, was captivating; it not only narratively moved the plot but was beautiful, emotional and powerful, which I just didn't see in any songs in Hadestown. When Orpheus and Eurydice reunite, I was really hoping it would be a beautiful moment like that song. Their song was good, but they really didn't seem to have the passion that was needed to pull it off. Both actors' chemistry throughout most of the play seemed not convincing. These are supposed to be two young, madly in love newlyweds, yet they felt like friends, if anything. I don’t think this is a problem exclusive to these two actors. This Musical entirely was missing that atmosphere of strong emotion. I think this might have been a somewhat intentional sacrifice to promote the main themes of this play, which are Hades' capitalistic aspirations(which was executed really well). Even so, still a very enjoyable experience, and I would absolutely go again if given the opportunity.

Quick question- I was really confused with Eurydice's story. I interpreted it as she’s some runaway who fell in love and married Orpheus. Orpheus ignored her to work on his song, and in her hunger, she traded her soul to Hades. Someone, please educate me if I made a mistake in my gist of her storyline.

Clarification. I saw the play Hadestown at the Walter Kerr Theatre.

Cast

John-Michael Lyles(Orpheus)

Jordan Tyson(Eurydice)

J. Harrison Ghee(Hermes)

Gary Dourdan(Hades)

Gaby Moreno(Persephone)

Spoilers for Dexter Season 1

Just finished Dexter Season 1; this was one of the most well-done seasons of any TV show I have ever seen. Everything came together and interconnected so spectacularly.

Highlights:

In a short time, the show had everyone's character arcs flow so naturally. Rita has been my favorite character this whole show; seeing how far she has come has been really heartwarming.

Every character is so complex and so interesting. The fact that they actually have me sometimes feeling bad for a crackhead rapist and almost shed a tear when Dexter killed Rudy is wild and honestly really impressive.

Rudy is one of the best antagonists I've seen in a really long time. The slow build-up to his identity mixed with the theme of Dexter starting to gain genuine emotions makes this relationship hit so much harder.

The ending was amazing; it actually wrapped everything up beautifully. My one worry is they haven’t really set anything up for the future. They showed their whole hand with Dexter’s Backstory and killing Rudy, which was a really bold choice to do this early, and I massively respect them for it.

Sidenotes:

Fuck Doakes; he has almost no reason to be as much of a piece of shit as he is. It’s one thing to suspect Dexter, but to constantly belittle him and put your hands on him with actually “0” evidence as a police officer is inexcusable.

Fuck some of ya’ll. I've had so many messages just spoiling the show. I have gaslit myself into not believing some, but damn, some of ya’ll suck.

I don't hate the show; I'm actually loving it. It's just that I'm halfway through season 1, and every time Dexter does something "nice" to or with Rita, I get so mad and sad. Rita's been through so much already, and Dexter being the only good man in her life and "understanding" of her situation is just heartbreaking, because I know that when Dexter eventually gets caught (assuming he does), it's going to hurt her so badly. I get her role is to show that Dexter's not this emotionless monster and has layers and is uncovering new emotions he never thought he could. But knowing that, at least for current moment he cant feel love and every moment that they have is either to maintain this happy family facade or just him doing what he thinks is expected, just makes him so hateable, though I know hes not doing it intentionally. I dont know if Im ready for the heartbreak when or if Rita finds out, if it happens in the last season I might actually cry.

Side: im getting the vibe this show will end up being like snowfall, where literally no one is a good person, and the only character that you "like" is the one who's done the least.

Please dont spoil

Just watched episode one of Dexter and it’s amazing; it might actually be one of my favorite pilots for a show. Throughout the whole episode, I felt so uncomfortable and uneasy; it was heart-racing the whole time. I don’t know if it was intentional, but the script makes all the actors feel off, if you know what I mean, like they're awkward, unconfident, and give off a stage vibe. If it is intentional and this is how Dexter views everyone in the world, that is amazing writing and tells us so much about him without saying anything.

Sidenote: Poor Rita, to go from a crackhead rapist abuser to a serial killer. Her luck with men is horrible!

Please No spoiler

"Flesh out" has become a really common phrase that I can't avoid. Whenever I hear it, I get physically uncomfortable for no apparent reason. Does this happen to anyone else?

I miss all the Hollow stuff from Bleach, especially those times when the narrator just takes 5 minutes to explain a power a Hollow has or how they come into being. In the Hollow World, every Hollow that wasn't connected to an Espada was ass; they were being used as the equivalent of npc’s you kill for EXP, plus the disrespect for not showing Quilge vs Halibel makes them feel like such a non-threat. They're always going to have to be Hollows existing to keep balance among the 3 worlds, but at this point I feel like you could just have Rengie or any Lieutenant stationed in the Hollow World and the Hollow overpopulation problem disappears. Or at very least make a treaty with Holibel, considering she dislikes killing if its not necassary. TYBW is supposed to be the Quincies' revenge against the Soul Reapers and a clash of their differing ideologies about Hollow overpopulation. Hollows don't at all seem to matter to these Quincies. Yeah, Quilge Opie is slaughtering them, but he doesn't seem to be hurting the Hollows out of hate or anything; he just seems to be a sadist. They even recruit Hollows to work for them, which just goes against everything they stand for, by the way. So, I just want to know the future of the Hollows, since they're not really a threat to the Soul Society at all anymore and the only thing I can see is them just going to be henchmen for stronger people after being given power-ups like Aizen and Yuhabaha.

I'm on Season 1, episode 10, everyone playing that Secrets and Sins game. Veronica basically said that Cheryl had a weird relationship with Jason. Cheryl just stood there like she had been exposed for having an affair, so I can only assume it's true. How the hell could people possibly say that these two were not in a weird relationship, when the shows going of of it's way to tell you?!!!

No Spoilers

I'm on Season 1 episode 10. Jughead just keeps getting sadder and sadder. He is so damaged from his childhood and everything his dad did. The insecurities that he’s just been repressing are so sad. He never thought his relationship with Betty was going to last and that Archie would eventually betray him. Poor Jughead, I hope he gets over these before he ruins all his friendships.

My girlfriend and I have been debating for 6 months over which Disney theme song is the best.

I say Liv and Maddie's theme is without question the best. While she says Austin and Ally's is the undisputed champion. I know that there are many Disney songs out there, but to keep things simple, let's keep it between these two.

So, which one do you think is better?

I don’t know what genre this would be classified under, so I need help. I watched a movie that showed someone from childhood all the way to their deathbed, and the movies about everything that happens in between. It starts off as a childhood story, then they meet their love, then they have kids, and their kids leave, then retirement. So basically, like different aspects of life all in one movie instead of just a romance or a coming of age by itself. Also, if anyone knows any movies, series, or anime like that, please hook me up.

For my whole life, I have had a guilty pleasure for romance movies, especially ones that really make me feel emotion and make me cry. I'm talking about Your Name, Clannad, Your Lie in April, and Flipped. Now I'm asking a favor: anyone to give me a 10/10 romance movie, like the best one you’ve ever seen in any format; it doesn't even have to be a movie, a series, even. And it doesn't have to have a happy ending; I actually prefer the ones with a sad ending. Call me a sadist, but those are my favorite genres.

I'm not Cheryl's biggest fan, but can we all agree that Veronica winning that dance battle is bullshit? I'm on season 1, episode 10, and I'm really liking it so far. In this dance battle, neither was bad, but I feel like Cheryl was way smoother in her moves and choreography; she seemed way more polished than Veronica(my favorite character). I could accept that the vote is 50/50 and Betty gets the last vote to Veronica, but the idea that Veronica sweeps Cheryl is insane.

Cherly looks like a combination of Ariana Grande and someone else I can't put my finger on.

Edit: I figured it out she looks like a combination of Debbie Ryan and Ariana Grande, tell me im wrong.