To get to know me better, here is my strawpage showcasing expansive info, socials, spotlight of my work, and my DNI list. But for my Tumblr blog specifically, welcome to the place where I rant about shit. Some stuff to know
My pronouns are he/him
I am multifandom
I do NOT take art requests or do commissions. Sorry!
My main fixation is Wild Kratts (hence the pfp) but I'll [again] discuss other fandoms like Lion Guard, Wordgirl, Elena of Avalor, Miraculous Ladybug, ect. (just to name a few).
The two socials I will often link to on this blog will be my YouTube Channel and my Ao3 account;
Proshippers, DNI. This especially includes (but is definitely not limited to) Krattcest and Cedfia.
Also, zionists, abusers, bigots, general pieces of shit are not welcome here.
Here is a masterdoc of Gofundmelinks to help Gazans in a great time of need.
As well as a Dailyclick to help Palestinians!
Additionally, for anyone struggling with suicidal thoughts, actions, or ideation, here is a link to an international suicide hotline.
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Possibly my spiciest take is that it's actually good to have people you respect and like that have some dogshit takes.
I think part of what is making young people lonelier, in discussing why they're increasingly isolated, is that they're so afraid of meeting someone who doesn't hold their same beliefs, and instead of being just core beliefs it is kinda ancillary shit.
It's actually okay to disagree even on social topics! Even on some political ones! But I mean, online you can start with "i love this mutual but they have a really bad/uninformed opinion about x media"
I know this is IMMEDIATELY going to be taken in bad faith, and yes babygirl, you are so right, I DO want you to go make best friends with both the KKK grand wizard AND your nearest nazi leader.
But seriously, as someone who has spent two decades doing community organization: finding ways to connect with different people is so so so important. There are people i follow here who ate 80% smart and their brain falls out of their head 20% of the time and that is GOOD FOR MY MENTAL ECOSYSTEM AND GOOD FOR LEARNING HOW TO BE A PERSON
/There’s a post going around about which Lion Guard episodes are most essential/important to the plot, which I think is all well and good if you only want the bare-bones of the show and are only in it for the TLK2 characters/Tree of Life lions or whatever, but I think honestly does the show a disservice. There’s a lot of really good episodes in the first two-seasons that, while not ‘essential’ to the plot, really enhance the viewing experience as a whole, and these incidental guest-character driven episodes are usually a lot better than most of the ‘plot-driven’ ones. If you watch only the ‘plot relevant’ episodes of the Lion Guard you’re probably not going to like it very much
So rather than making a list of episodes I would recommend for first-time viewers, here’s a list of episodes I would recommend skipping, which I think makes for a much shorter list:
Season 1:
1x3 “Bunga the Wise”: ESPECIALLY if you’re not a Bunga/Timon and Pumbaa fan
1x8 “The Search for Utama”: It’s a Fuli character development episode right after another Fuli character development episode, and in this one the song is much worse and it’s also pretty Bunga-heavy
1x11 “Paintings and Predictions”: Not terrible, but very skippable
1x22 “The Lost Gorillas”: If you care about cool world-building things then only watch the last two minutes of this one, otherwise Dan and Phil are in it and are pretty intolerable
Season 2:
2x1 “Babysitter Bunga”: The jackals are back and this is (weirdly) Dogo’s last speaking appearance, and the baby animals are cute, but I would say this is the episode of The Lion Guard that feels the most like a preschool show
2x3 “The Travelling Baboon Show”: The Lion Guard does ‘selfish character learns to put the needs of others before their own’ plot three separate times, and this is the worst execution of it
2x12 “Timon and Pumbaa’s Christmas”: Season 2 is The Lion Guard at its best once the Scar plotline gets going, but this is a major roadblock. Listen to ‘Christmas in the Pridelands’ because its a bop and should be on every Christmas playlist, but other than that I might call this the worst episode of the show (at least in terms of standalones)
2x18 “The Wisdom of Kongwe”: This episode centres on a lot of good characters; Makini, Makucha, Fuli, and newcomer Kongwe, but none of them really have anything interesting to do. And the mission ends up not amounting to much.
2x22 “The Zebra Mastermind”: The zebra in question is maybe the worst character on the show, and a lot of this episode focuses on him and the ‘sidekick’ villains, who are usually well-meaning and dumb enough that you feel bad watching them get beat up. And this episode is a lot of The Lion Guard beating them up
2x24 “The Underground Adventure”: If you like Zuri and/or Tiifu, watch this one, but skip it if you don’t. The only plot-heavy thing that happens here is that Scar tries to kill Kion and Kiara, but they escape through tunnels
2x27 “The Queen’s Visit”: Unless you really liked Dhahabu and wanted her to be more than a one-episode character, skip this one as well. There’s not a lot new that it has to offer other than fleshing out her zebra side-characters a bit
Season 3:
(Honestly, I would recommend stopping after Battle for the Pridelands. It’s a nice ambiguous book-end to the series, and IMO is better than the actual finale. But if you really want to know what happens and how it all links up to TLK2, watch on)
3x3 “The Accidental Avalanche”: Doesn’t add new recurring characters, and doesn’t do much other than act as the beginning of Kion’s ‘dark-turn’. I was almost going to recommend skipping the one that comes after it, but it does introduce one of the main villains
3x5 “The Marsh of Mystery”: Kind of generic characters-go-on-a-journey filler. The only positive is it gives Makini and Ono some screentime, development, and a good song
3x7 “Journey of Memories”: I almost wasn’t going to put this one on here, but I would only recommend watching it if you really like Makini. Her flashbacks to her parents and their song are what make this episode worth it
3x10 “Friends to the End”: …I guess this one is kind of plot relevant, I just don’t think it’s done very well. It comes almost out of nowhere, feels out of character and low-stakes for everyone involved, and is a complete character assassination of Bunga (yeah, he gets worse). It does feature a cute Clouded Leopard though which is cool
3x13 “Little Old Ginterbong”: Only thing plot-relevant in this episode is Ono getting his eyesight back. Otherwise it features Bunga meeting a skinny pink female honey badger who is meant to be his love interest and is 10x worse than he is. AVOID.
3x14 “Poa the Destroyer”: Beshte is the best character don’t @ me, and this is nice for his last spotlight episode. But other than a good song this episode is major filler, and the penguin might just be worse than the zebra.
Thoughts on Descendants 5: Wicked Wonderland [Spoilers]
As of this weekend, Descendants 5: Wicked Wonderland is finally on Disney Channel and Disney +. The 5th installment of the Descendants franchise was confirmed ahead of time prior to the release of Descendants 4: The Rise of Red and has now premiered on Disney Channel last night and on Disney + this morning.
The Rise of Red, despite its flaws, had pleasantly surprised me with its ability to stand on its own two legs without riding the coattails of the original trilogy, as well as its neat expansion of the world that said trilogy established, I found the aspect of a fifth movie to be more digestible, despite the valleys amongst the 4th film’s peaks.
I went into Rise of Red expecting a D- and walked out of it being pleasantly surprised at a B-. As such, I walked into this film expecting a B+.
I came out with a resounding A- and just gonna lay it out to y'all. This is not only much better than Rise of Red, this is the best movie of the entire franchise.
Oh I'm sorry, I'll say that louder for y'all in the back.
Descendants 5: Wicked Wonderland is the best movie in the Descendants franchise!!!
I think it’ll be easier to start off with the movie’s flaws that since that makes for a more concise description, and because I want to justify the minus I gave.
Major spoilers ahead!
Cons:
I did NOT like how Robbie and Felix were constantly sidelined. Any time they were involved in the main group, something would always happen that would separate them, usually for the sake of a cheap gag. Granted, the tea joke was actually funny and didn’t overstay its welcome, but by the time the chess game rolled in and they got booted off out of the plot again, I rolled my eyes. Even worse, it was very hard to notice that they were gone because they contributed so little to the actual plot. Even when they came back in the climax, it just felt hollow. The movie does such a good job at character building that it felt really lazy to just have these characters be off-screen for most of the movie. I really hope the next film does more with them because they could've been really great additions to the main cast, but they just... weren't.
Also,I can stomach a lot of Descendants’ deviation from the franchise’s parent films but Robbie, the son of Robin Hood being a human is where I cross the line. They could’ve used anyone else.
For some reason, the marketing of this film had a rendition of the titular song “Mad: Wicked Wonderland” sung by Red. This was featured in the soundtrack as well and yet the song is sung by Maddox instead. For so long I was expecting there to be some reprise of the song sung by Red to Maddox, in which she “turns the tables on him now,” and yet that never comes. In an inverse to my relief at the godawful Red remix of “What’s my Name” not being in Rise of Red, I feel cheated that the Red remix of “Wicked Wonderland” wasn’t at all in this damn film because it would’ve been so earned.
The Smees also were just there, I guess. It was a nice play on Hook’s dynamic with Smee himself buuut I feel there could’ve been more done, at the very least make the jokes surrounding it funnier to justify it.
Castlecoming is not once referenced here. The very thing that kicked off the previous film’s events was the entire main conflict of said film, and it not once gets referenced. This film, which shows the consequences of fucking up the timeline for that very event, just ignores it. I do like that they don’t solve the conflict via time travel, (major pro) which I guess justifies us not seeing this, but the movie could’ve at least COMMENTED on this.
The film could've been a bit more overt in Red's confession at the end where she admits to using time travel. Although this is a nitpick.
Not a single person does anything about those goddamn robot dodo birds and it's driving me MAD (oh wait, now I get it!)
Now for the pros that justifies the A.
Pros:
The film does a good job at connecting us to the 4th film. the narration definitely helped fill in some gaps for the audience. I was at first, DREADING Akwafina's cameo in this film since in a lot of other films, she tries wayyy too hard to be funny and/or is given really shitty direction. In this film however, I was actually digging it here. She plays into the whole "villain" role pretty well and gives off a really cool perfomance that matches her character's "trickster" type. I was also expecting Chessy to join the protagonists at some point, but no, she remains a villain even after Maddox is dealt with. The cliffhanger scene at the end (and yes, we'll get to that) implies that she'll be the villain of the next movie and I'm honestly all for it.
Save for Robbie, Felix, and the Smees, the new characters are really damn good. Luis Madrigal was honestly hilarious but also someone to relate to and take seriously, and his story connects to Encanto's pretty well thematically (continuity wise, not as much, but those two things even out). Hazel Hook is unique in her own way and not juse an expy of Harry, and Max actually surprised me with his arc. His shift into a full on villain and his redemption both felt pretty earned. Pink definitely stole the show here. When I first heard of the character, I assumed they would have her become a villain, or make her the annoying comic relief, but they actually subverted my expectations by surprising me with how her bubbly personality ties into her internal conflict. In a way, she's very much like Bridget from the last film, only she becomes much better than who the OG version of her mom turned into, and I found her and Red's relationship to be very believeable.
Most of the good things I already mentioned and will mention are because of this film's pacing. This film is much longer since it's a Disney Channel Original Movie and not a Disney + original. There's much more time for things to take into effect in the story, for character and plot progression. Everything has its enough time to connect like a bow.
The songs are fucking amazing. Even though I was PISSED that the Wicked Wonderland song was diferent than it would be, it was still good, and the others were awesome. Perfect Princess is by far and away the best song because it sums up this film's premise entirely, directly showing us the events following RoR, whilst setting up Red and Chloe's respective characters. Yes, even with the "perfect princess nepo babies" bit (which I'm not gonna lie, was fucking hilarious), this song ROCKS. I can understand why the marketing milked the hell out of this song.
Unlike The Rise of Red, THIS film actually lives up to its title by having a majority of its plot take place in the titular Wicked Wonderland. I remember there being mentions of a Kingdoms' Cup or some tournament the characters would play that was reflected by the original title "For the Win." After seeing this film I'm very glad they changed that plot and its title because the one they went for works SO much better.
Although, now, it just makes the previous movie's title, even worse. There is no Rise of Red! Ever! Why was it even titled that? I know this is a problem with the 4th movie and not this one, but this movie is so good, it now makes me angrier at that one for this really stupid reason!
Luis and Red's romance was... okay. When D4 came out I was a die-hard GlassHearts shipper but when Luis was confirmed to be Red's love-interest I decided to grin and bear it. Plus, I was interested in seeing where this went. And it went well, the characters had enough time to bond and it was cute. It works. And bonus points for giving us the first couple in this franchise to have a duet. Another bonus this film has over the trilogy.
Red and Chloe's dynamic is the strongest part of the film. Because the last film took such great pains to establish a connection, it allowed this film to explore that connection more. You can really feel that they are friends and you can believe the challenges that come to their friendship and the flaws both of them have to overcome. Red using her friend as live-bait honestly shocked me, I had to rewind that shit just to catch it. Chloe's turn was also really unexpected. I saw clips/screenshots of "Evil Chloe" before the movie came out and I assumed that it was another result of the timeline, but no, it was actually real. And, if I may test the waters, Chloe's corruption arc felt way more believeable and engaging than Audrey's because there's actually some real history and connection amongst the characters that makes the two-sided "betrayal" feel very real. That and she wasn't surrounded by other characters that fit the role of villain much better.
Ella and Bridget's subplot was also beautiful. During their song I almost wanted to roll my eyes at how much padding they had, until it made me realize something: Ella and Bridget are direct foils to Red and Chloe. In the previous film, we see the consequences of their fall-out, which is a catalyst for their daughters to grow closer together and learn from their moms. In THIS film, Red and Chloe's journey to Wonderland together is a catalyst for Ella and Bridget to get trapped together, and ultimately grow a much stronger bond whilst learning from their daughters. Again, the story is kinda hurt by not referencing Castlecoming, but apart from that, this is a GENIUSLY written narrrative that makes perfect use of these characters. Their duet reminds me of "Space Between" only y'know... it DOESN'T suck because it actually has a point!
Red's arc was genuinely fire. You could understand every action she took, whilst not agreeing with them, whilst wanting her to succeed AND wanting her to grow. A perfect example of a flawed protagonist. Red's character is frankly a good enough reason to keep watching the movies after 3, because she is an amazing protagonist all around. My biggest fear for D4 is that they'd take the Bunk'd route of having the new protagonist be an expy of the previous one, but they make her stand out in every single way that you are just loving her on screen. Dare I say, she's a better protagonist than the Core 4 combined.
So, here is the very controversial part that justifies the A part. This film manages to stand out beautifully from the first three films, but at the same time, manages to reheat the trilogy's nachos, but BETTER. For example, this film's third-act breakup and "liar revealed" trope is handled much better in D3 because it feels way more earned with how there was more of an apparent set-up and the pacing surround it was much better. Having the two people Red "betrayed" become the secondary antagonists of the film was also a very interesting twist on the cliche, because it once again, has a point instead of wasting time like in other movies. Maddox's "second chance" works than D3 letting all of the villains off the Isle because the movie actually takes its time and is smart enough to work around this decision to give off the idea that it's not gonna immediately backfire upon them later. Red herself making so many mistakes, and Chloe herself becoming magically evil, and both of them developing from that also makes the message of "Hero and villain are not always appropriate constructs" much stronger. In general, this movie was way more experimental with its concepts, characters, and ideas than the first 3. I always found myself being pleasantly surprised with the unique decisions they made that both fit this franchise, but also wouldn't be found in any other movie in said franchise.
I'm glad that they DIDN'T reverse the actions of the 4th movie. Since they took great pains to establish "NO, time travel is wrong!" it made so much sense for them to actually take that to heart and throw the damn pocketwatch away. It felt way more challenging for the characters and less of a cop-out. Especially since, again, there were so many great ideas, characters, and development that all connected together into a giant step forwards. Reversing everything would've taken away from that, but the movie is mature enough to take a third option. That's REAL development, that's REAL complexity, nuance, and maturity in writing. And it's in a fucking Descendants film.
This movie was really visually interesting. I never really noticed nor care for Chloe's inconsistent wigs (the discourse around that felt incredibly Cinemasins-esque to me, like, damn lmao), but this film's colors, choreography, and affects were so cool. Really immersed the feel of the world that this story was in.
Fairy Godmother's "What the fluff" was fucking hilarious. I have never loved my rewind button so much.
The climax actually feels earned. Sure, there's no big final battle, but in terms of characters (Robbie and Felix NOT included), everything just comes together full circle. It's poetic how this film lacks a big final fight sequence, but has a good climax, whilst the previous one had a big final fight sequence, but lacked a good climax.
The CLIFFHANGER! I've made it known that RoR's biggest problem is the Cliffhanger. It breaks the rule of "show, don't tell," in that it only tells us that messing with the timeline had consequences, but does nothing to hint at those consequences, whilst showing us everyone dancing and having fun. This film actually manages to give us a damn cliffhanger, in which Chessy causes more mischief; Either she rescues the Pocketwatch and plants it near Pink, or she finds an entirely different magical object that could cause some more trouble for our heroes in the future. It's strongly implied that Pink may actually become a villain, or that what she found will be a source of conflict. I don't know, but the movie went out of its way to SHOW us that there is more to the story, and it did that perfectly. Another movie is guarenteed and this movie sets that up perfectly. If the next film winds up being the end of the Pocketwatch trilogy, and if the franchise will end at the second trilogy, then this film has beautifully laid the groundwork out for the final chapter, and has now raised my expectations for the future higher than ever after succeeding my expectations here.
Overall, much like The Rise of Red, Wicked Wonderland succeeded my expectations, but so much better, succeeding in areas where that film, and even the original trilogy missed (and this is coming from someone who loves every film with my heart). It jumps the shark in really amazing ways and makes use of the material that it's been given, in so many ways that really make it stand out above the rest.
It works as a sequel, as a standalone, as part of a soft reboot, as part of an extended franchise, and as a solid beginning of the end. For years I was praying for this film not to suck. And low and behold, it did not suck. It is the BEST Descendants film ever! Madd Hats off to this film.
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The Wild Kratts really should be encouraging kids to get a rabies shot if they find a bat in their house IN ADDITION to telling kids bats aren't harmful or scary.
Rabies is no joke.
Bats are our friends, and they do a ton of great things for the ecosystem, but if there's a bat in your house, they can scratch you while you sleep and you might not even notice. Always get a rabies shot after being bitten or scratched by any wild mammal!
You know, this is an excellent point. My boyfriend is a medic/EMT and he and I just had a conversation about the need of further education on this matter. It’s not only scratches that can be lethal, according to T even the saliva of an infected bat could enter someone’s mouth, nose, etc., and the rabies could be passed that way.
As someone who’s had bats in my house multiple times, as someone who genuinely fears bats because of the rabies threat, and as someone who’s planning to start a family in the future, I fully agree that this needs to be addressed to children to educate them and keep them safe. And what a better way than to have the Kratt Brothers pass along this information?
The bros don’t need to get into the morbid details, but they can present the message in a way that conveys the importance of such precautions with bats. They would know exactly how to phrase it to emphasize the importance of this matter, and children and parents/guardians alike will be receptive to this message.
So yes, fantastic point OP, this is a topic the bros could bring such good attention to for the education of and welfare of anyone affected by bats.
What helped me write trauma better is remembering that the nervous system learns predictions. If danger used to come after quiet, calm can feel threatening. If kindness used to come with a price, kindness can feel suspicious. So healing is not just “they know they’re safe now.” Healing is the slow, annoying, deeply unfair process of teaching the body that the old prediction is not always the present truth.
The new seasons of the show are not "too childish." Or rather, being "too childish" is not one of the problems with the new seasons. There are genuine things you can point at such as characters, writing, and yes, even tone, but we often forget that this show's primary target demographic consists of young children. Even though the first season was on the GO! block which consisted of older kids, it was always meant to be for kids. And that is not a bad thing considering the kind of lessons this show is meant to teach. That doesn't excuse the genuine flaws in say, Season 6, but those flaws are not mutually exclusive with that fact.
2. Koki being recast to be voiced by a black woman was a good decision. You can judge Rock's performance of the character on her own merits, but so much of the broader discourse surrounding the recast (mainly back in 2021 when the finale first aired and in 2023 when the hiatus was ending) was rooted in thinly veiled misogynoir and nostalgia-bias. The fact that Bambrick willingly stepped down to allow her successor on board should've logically been a reality check for most people, but here we are.
3. I agree with both sides of the debate in regards to depicting the 2D Kratts in fanworks (to an extent:) Yes, they are characters in a fictional setting, and thus have a clear defined distinction from their voice actors, so headcanons, ships, and stuff are fine. However, at the end of the day, these are still self-inserts of real-people; People with their own families. So there IS a line to draw in the sand in terms of how far you can go in terms of sensitivity and decency (and no, Kcest is not acceptable in any context, this is not a hot take but this kind of discussion is one that necessitates this clarification).
4. The show has a lot of episodes that are incredibly dated. This is because science is changing constantly and what is common knowledge at one point can be debunked later on in the future: Combined with the fact that animation takes a very long time, and can't always keep up with what is relevant. I do not find this a fault of the show, in a vacuum. But for a show that is supposed to be educational, the bare minimum they can do is at least, comment on this after the fact.
5. It's okay to find the characters "attractive" or even "hot" (like I said, they're adults in a cartoon, it's a dime a dozen), but please realize that there is such a thing as too far when it comes to certain talking points, especially given the implications they have: I'll leave it at this: I have seen MORE than enough posts calling the IRL Kratts "catfishes" as well as people reducing Aviva to "the baddie Latina" for a fucking lifetime (and if I see that one fucking Christmas artwork that too many of y'all seem to forget was made by a Kcest shipper one more time I am going to take a bat to something)
The new AI Alvin and the Chipmunks reboot infuriates me not just because it exists and because it's AI, but because much like the Disney live action remakes and sequels, it's probably gonna make a lot of money by cashing in on nostalgia, and executives will have the absolute WORST takeaway you can imagine from something like that happening.
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it's always interesting to me when fans of certain characters say "god forbid a character is flawed and does bad things!" but very notably avoids using words like "abuser" or "dictator/war criminal" or "sex offender" even if said character fits those labels.
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