Oreos & Peanut Butter

Video Games: ‘Animal Crossing’ Species Ranked

Various villagers and visitors surrounding K.K. Slider from ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’. Copyright goes to Nintendo.

Hey! Hallie here!

Bunny day is just a day away for Animal Crossing fans, fortunately. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to farm for some much needed resources only to end up with your pockets full of eggs. But while this egg hell that comes every Spring is coming to a close, it isn’t over yet. So to cheer the masses of ‘Animal Crossing’ fans that are going slightly insane, here’s a little post to get your mind off of Bunny day and the insanely disturbing Zipper. Animal Crossing has far to many villagers for me to rank. Most of them are too cute to even attempt to try. But there are a limited amount of animal species you can encounter in the game and some contain much more likable traits than others. So let’s look at what types of villagers are the most adorable, and which species you should be more choosy about when picking villagers for your island. As a disclaimer, this is just my personal opinion.

35. Monkeys. There aren’t very many monkeys to encounter in Animal Crossing, but somehow the majority of them are insanely creepy. They’re strangely lanky compared to the other villagers and most of their individual designs are nothing short of ugly compared to the other villagers. Don’t believe me? Look up Elise. Why did they do that to her lips? I’d argue that the most normal looking monkey in Animal Crossing is Shari, but unfortunately, myself and many others turned against Shari when she started a rivalry with Jacksepticeye. We’re watching you Shari.

34. Hippos. There are even less hippos than monkeys in Animal Crossing, which is saying something. The issue with hippos is that the designers very clearly couldn’t figure out how to make them cute. None of them have particularly pleasing features and the protruding teeth only serve to make their appearance odder rather than adorable. There’s also Harry, who’s creepy beard drags down this category by quite a lot.

33. Mice. There’s some adorable mice in Animal Crossing, but they are just about equaled by the not-so-cute mice. What makes this worse is that the creepy looking mice are some of the most disturbing looking characters in the game. From Limberg who suffers from a creepy beard, to Moose who is infamous for looking like he doesn’t take no for an answer, to Rizzo who was one of the first villagers I had as a kid that creeped me out. I may be a bit biased, but you see my point.

32. Hamsters. This might be controversial, but I’m not a huge fan of the hamsters. Some of them are kind of cute, but I find their proportions more strange than adorable. Then there are hamsters that look plain awful. Like Rodney. Kill it with fire.

31. Rabbits. Another possibly controversial opinion. I think these animals would be much cuter if they weren’t designed to look so much like humans. Out of all of the animals in Animal Crossing, rabbits seem to be the most humanoid or stylized, just with bunny ears. There are some exceptions, like the adorable Gabi. But let’s be honest, Carmen doesn’t look like a rabbit at all. Most of them don’t even have noses.

30. Gorillas. I don’t dislike gorillas nearly as much as some other fans seem to. They’re pretty cute, in my opinion, and some are downright awesome. Just look at Hans, a snowy white gorilla and Boone, the extremely large baboon. Those two have some of my favorite designs in the entire game. But they still aren’t by a long shot some of the cutest characters. Unfortunately, for Animal Crossing, I gravitate towards cuter animals.

29. Chickens. I’m not a huge fan of chickens, but there are honestly some pretty cute ones in Animal Crossing. Ava is a good example, and who doesn’t love Knox’s knight attire? But I still don’t find them as a whole very adorable. So they’re down here.

28. Kangaroos. Kangaroos aren’t the worst Animal Crossing animals, but there is something I find creepy about them. Namely, that the women characters all have a Joey in their pouch. I have no problem with some of these characters being mothers! I do have a problem with the fact that these children are never mentioned. Or that a sisterly character like Sylvia can talk about how she likes kids but isn’t sure she wants any with her child sitting right there. Or that said child has her same exact haircut. So yeah. Not my cup of tea.

27. Bulls. The bulls are some of the larger male mammals that are more mediocre but by no means bad. Angus is a cutie who I loved as a child when he stayed in my village, and Rodeo has a very cool black and red-eyed design. But there are some really bland designs here as well.

26. Cows. Cows are quite a bit cuter than the bulls, but the same rules apply here. While Patty is definitely adorable, Tipper is quite bland. She’s a normal black-and-white-spotted cow And I say that knowing that Tipper was one of my favorite characters as a kid (She wasn’t snooty then).

25. Anteaters. Anteaters as a whole are pretty cute! Olaf and Annalisa make up the list of interesting designed offerings, and their long noses make them stand out from the other animals overall. Otherwise, the small number of anteaters don’t really stand out compared to some of the other animals.

24. Alligators. There are some ADORABLE alligators. Just look at the perfectly pink Gayle. But like the other species that I’ve put around this point on the list, there are very few of them and most are pretty plain compared to some of the other animals. The alligators do have some surprisingly cute designs, though.

23. Bears. This is already getting extremely difficult. I love the look of the bears and there are a specific few that really steal my heart. Nate, Pinky, and Tutu have been bear characters that I have loved for quite a long time. I love how tall they are but still fluffy and huggable. But there are some really awful bears out there. Like Chow with his creepy smile. Or Paula with her singular tooth. Because of these designs, bears fall down here.

22. Ducks. I’ve seen ducks near the bottom of a few fan favorite lists. But there are definitely ducks worth noting. Molly and Pate come to mind as fan favorites. Ducks have pretty adorable proportions and I wouldn’t say there’s any one of them that drags the group down a whole lot. I’ve seen some hate for Derwin, but personality aside, I think his cute glasses and derpy haircut aren’t all that bad. Still, there are better animals ahead.

21. Frogs. Another group of animals that I see ignored by many fans. Among the frogs is Prince, who suffers from the weird beard design. But there are some genuinely cool designs here. I love the robot design of Ribbot, and Lilly is a classically cute character. Plus, who doesn’t love the mustache on Cousteau? But they don’t quite match to the appeal of other animals.

20. Birds. The big head and little body proportions here aren’t too different from ducks, and it works in their favor. Plus, most of the bird characters are quite pretty. Their major issue is the fact that they aren’t as conventionally cute as other animal characters. No pinchable cheeks here. So while I may love the colors on Twiggy and Midge, the birds stay here.

19. Pigs. Pigs have round faces, fun designs, and easily noticeable cuteness. Most of the credit goes to the female characters, who are amongst the best female characters in all of Animal Crossing. Lucy and Agnes have been headliners amongst the villagers, Lucy with her appealing white and pink color palette and Agnes with her quirky spots. There are some dark points here, like Truffles and his horrible haircut, or Sporky who’s smile looks straight out of ‘Bendy and the Ink Machine’. But overall pigs are a pretty solid group.

18. Rhinos. There aren’t many rhinos, but they stand out. Rhonda’s gothy look and Merangue, who actually has a strawberry and cream on her snout, are some of the best designs in the game. Overall, Rhinos have a pretty nice design amongst the bigger creatures. The main issue is when they stick their snout in your face when you try to talk to them. But I don’t mind it enough for me to like them any less.

17. Lions. The flat face that most of the lions dawn are bewildering, especially because of how nice the snouts look on the tigers. But they’re quite interesting overall. Most of them have fun beards or mustaches, which actually works on them because of their manes. The lions also have fun personalities. Like Mott, the jock with charming glasses. Or Bud, the hippie. A few of these characters are even regal, matching their regality of their species. I like them quite a bit.

16. Penguins. These animals were made for Animal Crossing. Their proportions are perfect for the series, and their naturally cute appearance really works. Unfortunately, a few of them have quite plain color schemes. And then there’s Cube, who’s crossed out eyes give off a dead look. But there are definitely some fun designs to draw your attention. Like Sprinkle and her wintery color scheme.

15. Koalas. Koalas suffer from the flat-face problem that lions do. But they are also much cuter than the lions. Alice and Melba have cute cream and brown designs with such compelling expressions that I’ve loved them since I was a kid, even without either ever showing up in my villages. Eugene has a cool Greaser design that I’ve seen many praise. My main critique here is similar to the penguins. Some of these characters have the same exact color scheme. I’m being nitpicky at this point, but some variety might be nice.

14. Ostriches. Ostriches have the most fun designs of any bird characters in the entire game. Some of these characters aren’t even strictly ostriches! Like Flora, the flamingo character amongst this group. In this species you’ll find beautiful colors like the reds and yellows on Pheobe. But you’ll also find complementary whites and grays like those on Blanche or fan favorite Gladys. Once again, no pinchable cheeks here. But still pretty.

13. Cubs. As you can see, the Cubs are far above the Bears. There’s more of a variety here, and while they look less huggable, there are some far cuter designs here. Maple has been a dream villager of mine simply for her beautiful brown design, and Bluebear is one of the most recognizable characters in all of Animal Crossing. What drags this group down is the simple existence of Barold. Barold is a creep. He looks like a middle-aged man with an awful beard, and his house looks like a mix of a boring office and a creepy lair used to spy on the rest of the village. No.

12. Dogs. By nature they’re some of the cutest animals in Animal Crossing. And with the additional of villagers like Shep, the sheep dog with a tuft of fur falling in his face, the dog characters only keep getting more adorable. But they aren’t the most uniquely designed villagers. For that, they stay off the top ten list.

11. Sheep. Sheep are extraordinarily fluffy and each is adorned with a charming scarf. They are so cute it’s almost unbearable. The issue here is how controversial a makeup look is on a sheep. Timbra looks far less adorable than the others, and while the gothic appearance of Muffy is appreciated, it is sometimes also mocked. I don’t necessarily dislike these looks, but I do acknowledge that some animals look far better with makeup. Also, the clown makeup on Pietro is terrifying. End of story.

I’m going to end it here. This has been a pretty long post and I want to leave a different post for my top ten picks so I can spend more time talking about the villagers from those species. I love seeing how different everyone’s opinions on Animal Crossing species are based on who they’ve had in their villages and I love discovering a villager with a new take on the species design. There are so many, it’s worth playing the game over and over just to see them all.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Marvel: The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 3

Falcon/Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), Sharon Carter/Agent 13 (Emily Van Camp) and Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) in Marvel Studios’ ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. Copyright of Disney+ and Marvel Studios.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Today was another episode of this series and…I’m really not quite sure what to make of this episode. There was a lot packed into it that only made me more confused than I was before and I can’t say this show is confusing me in a pleasant way. Once again, as always, there will be SPOILERS, below. So if you want to watch the episode and then come back, by all means go ahead! But despite the presence of some long awaited characters, many are already calling this the weakest episode so far.

Sam:

Sam had very little presence in this entire episode. It almost seemed like he barely had any plot relevance here anyways. Bucky broke Zemo out of jail without telling Sam until after he did it, and Sam’s only purpose there was to have an incredulous response that he could quickly get over so that the plot could move on. When the new group was undercover in Madripoor (a fictional South-Asian city that was mysteriously devoid of Asians), we knew that Sam was there disguised as somebody. They referred to him by a different name and there was a fairly funny gag involving him having to drink something disgusting that was the real person’s regular at a bar. But we were also given virtually no knowledge of who that person even was. Sam almost felt out of place in this episode, which I found really sad. Zemo and Bucky both had reputations that preceded them that worked well for the episode, whereas Sam didn’t have that luxury. The only character moment we really got from Sam in this episode was him making the bold statement that he should have destroyed Cap’s shield. Obviously, Bucky wasn’t too happy with that statement. Why would he be? Just like giving the shield over to the government, Sam also would have no right to destroy it. I feel like he just keeps missing the point of the shield no matter how many characters explain to him that he shouldn’t have given it to the government but he didn’t have to wield it either. Even Sharon said it in this episode! I’m just consistently disappointed by the character writing for Sam.

Bucky:

Once again, Bucky is proving to be the best part of this series. Towards the beginning he released Zemo, which was the worst we’ve seen writing wise for Bucky so far. Honestly, it probably would have made more sense to have Sam release Zemo and it would have given him something to do this episode. After everything Zemo put Bucky through, it just didn’t really make sense for Bucky. Obviously they needed Zemo, but we all know this is a decision that’s going to come back to haunt them. The rest of the episode, Bucky was extremely interesting. In order to blend in with the criminals in Madripoor, Bucky was forced to pretend he was still the mind-controlled Winter Soldier. This ended up requiring him to beat up some people in the merciless way he used to; something that very obviously haunted him throughout the episode. If Sam had one thing going for him in this episode, it was that this was the first one where it actually felt like he cared about Bucky. He was constantly checking up on Bucky to make sure that he was ok. It was really interesting to see how the Winter Soldier effects Bucky constantly and how disturbed he is by his own powers because of what they were used for in the past. We also saw Bucky vow to pull the shield from the hands of John Walker himself this episode. At the very end Bucky found a mysterious piece of technology that belonged to one of the head warriors of the Dora Milaje (No, it wasn’t Okoye!) who is now after Zemo. I have no idea what her presence will mean to the series, but it was so nice to see her here! I really want them to go more into Bucky’s connection with Wakanda because that’s the place where he was healed. And really, I just want to see more of Wakanda and the Dora Milaje anyways.

Zemo:

The third member of the main group for this episode was Zemo, and it actually looks like he’ll be sticking around for a while longer. Considering how good the chemistry between these three characters were, I’m not entirely apposed to that. But that is with the asterisk that we need to actually have some character development for Zemo. We really didn’t see much character development for Zemo in Civil War and he really felt like an unneeded presence in that movie as a whole. He was a completely forgettable character who had a very bland and unexplored motive for what he did. And we didn’t really need the added motive for seeing the two teams fight each other. Zemo’s motives here are just as muddled as the plot and there’s a lot that I otherwise don’t understand about his character either. Such as why Zemo seemed to have just as big of a reputation as Bucky considering Civil War was the first time we saw him commit major crimes and he’s been in jail ever since. Though Zemo confuses me, he actually fits well with Sam and Bucky. I want to see more of him not because of his character, but because of how much fun the actors seem to be having together.

Sharon Carter:

Guess who showed up! Finally! Though I can’t say I was at all impressed with her introduction into the series. It is revealed that Sharon has been hiding away in Madripoor because, while Steve, Sam, and Bucky were pardoned for their actions in Civil War, Sharon received no such luck. I have no idea why this was the case and the fact that this was a plot point really confused me. But they find a hardened and not-as-nice Sharon who drops insults at them every chance she gets because she was abandoned and is actually a badass. Sharon’s fighting skills in this were insane and pretty much on par with Black Widow. She took down several groups of armed thugs, while she was unarmed, by herself. I loved seeing that, but we got virtually no character development for her in this episode outside of her being angry. At the end of the episode she even refused to go back with Sam and Bucky and join their team, which really makes me wonder how much we’ll even see of her in the little time this series has left. But we did see her get into a car to visit someone while saying there was a problem, making it seem like her loyalties are not necessarily with Sam and Bucky. One thing that I will give this show is that her character is no longer revolving around a man.

John Walker:

The false Captain America was, oddly, barely in this episode. It really made me question what his role in the show even is considering how little the plot developing in this episode had to do with him. We saw him a couple times losing his temper and doing immoral things, but they weren’t necessarily surprising. It wasn’t like we were being made to like him before this. He’s one of the elements of the plot I’m most confused about now. Is his presence even needed here?

The Villains:

I have absolutely no idea what the villains are even supposed to be doing in this series. The only threat we know of is that some of them have taken the super soldier serum. We still have no idea what they’re actually planning to with that. We were also given a potential new villain in this episode whose identity remains a complete mystery. We have a name I guess. One of the main villains talked about wanting to be a teacher after all of this is over for a little bit, but it really felt like forced exposition. Considering how little we still know about her, this moment that was supposed to be emotional barely made the audience sympathize with her character. The fact that I’m confused about who the villain is supposed to be or what the threat even is and we’re already half way through the show is not encouraging. I don’t think we’re going to have much villain development. I’m not sure the villain will even make sense at all at this point.

Steve Roger’s Legacy:

As each episode passes it feels like the writers are painting Steve in more and more of a negative light without really noticing that they’re doing it. I will admit, part of it is their fault but part of it is also the fault of the writers of ‘Avengers Endgame’. Steve leaving Bucky the way we see him in this series is nothing short of morally wrong. And in this episode we get the added bonus of seeing that he left Sharon in a precarious state since ‘Civil War’ and never helped her out even though there seemed to be a budding relationship between them that now feels really gross and creepy. The show also seems to keep forgetting how much Steve was anti government. Steve Rogers is definitely punched in the face by this show a lot.

Every time I leave this show I wonder what happened to the plot. Because I often find myself feeling that I knew just as much about the plot in the first episode as I do now. I know this is supposed to be a character driven show, but the plot should at least make some sense. I wish I had better things to say. I do have an update on the bisexual Bucky thing though, and it’s not looking good. It seems as though they referenced it by having Bucky be listed as searching for both men and women on the dating app he’s using. If that’s seriously all we get from what was promised, I’m going to be so angry. But honestly, it wouldn’t be too different from the type of character writing we’ve been seeing from this show so far. Even if Bucky does have some good character moments, it seems that he’s the only one at the moment. At least it’s somewhat entertaining because the actors seem to be having fun.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

K-Pop and K-Dramas: BTS News

Kim Taehyung, Park Jimin, Min Yoongi, Kim Seokjin, Jung Hoseok, Kim Namjoon, and Jeon Jungkook from a Variety photoshoot. Copyright goes to the HYBE Corporation and BTS.

Hey! Hallie here!

There has been quite a bit of BTS news circulating this past week and a lot of it is REALLY important. I’m not just talking about their music here. Some of this is fun and some of this is a bit more serious, so I’ll start out with the heavier stuff and move on to the lighter news. And Because this isn’t exactly BTS related but still includes them, I’ll mention here that Big Hit has changed their name to the HYBE Corporation. So from now on we’ll be using HYBE to refer to the company BTS is under. With that out of the way, and the promise that none of these are April fools jokes, let’s get into this!

Stop Asian Hate:

This is the most important news of today so I’m putting it first. Hate crimes against the Asian community have gone up exponentially since the beginning of COVID-19 and the disgusting comments our last president made. The Stop Asian Hate movement has been growing since then, but the first time it gained proper media coverage was after a mass shooting a few weeks ago. Many people were speaking out, but it took a few more attacks to make the news before BTS spoke out as well. They left a long letter on their twitter, which I recommend you check out after this post. In it, they spoke about the pain of being discriminated against because of their race and they voiced their support for the Asian community. Some ARMYs were angry that this letter wasn’t released sooner. I have two things to say about this. I would first like to point out that there are possible reasons for the delay. Including the fact that HYBE would have had to screen and clear their letter first, or that BTS may have wanted to be extremely careful with writing the letter. Secondly, I am not saying it isn’t understandable that some of those in the Asian community are frustrated. As someone who is not part of the Asian community, it is not my place to tell those who are how to react to the lateness of the letter. In the very least, I’ll leave a page of resources below for those who want to help.

Anti-Asian Violence Resources: https://anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co/

J-Hope and E-News:

We’ve talked many times about how American media likes to disrespect the members of BTS. Apparently E-News has a specific vendetta against J-Hope. They have cropped him out of every BTS picture they have used for several articles now. There isn’t any clear reason for it, but it’s obviously intentional given the fact that they used images that originally had him in it and cut him out. They apologized for the latest incident, but they did so as a reply to a tweet demanding an official apology. Naturally, ARMY still isn’t satisfied and are still demanding an official apology. There’s nothing much I can say here. J-Hope deserves just as much respect as the other members and it sickens me that so many are willing to ignore him. He has especially faced hate over being “less attractive” than the other members. I don’t know why anyone would think J-Hope isn’t attractive, let alone hate on him because of a personal opinion. This might not be the reason that J-Hope was cropped, but either way BTS is seven members. If you’re hating on one member, it’s clear you don’t truly respect BTS. Enough said.

J-Hope April Fools Day Joke:

I said I wouldn’t trick you guys with an April Fools joke but I never said I wouldn’t write about one! J-Hope posted on Weverse a picture of the top of his head with his hair dyed a vibrant red, implying that he had dyed his hair. ARMYs fell for this for all of two seconds before remembering he had dyed his hair red a few years ago and went searching for images. Sure enough, the picture was an old one. ARMYs exposed the joke on Twitter before Hobi could even reveal it was a joke himself. Poor guy. It was funny at least.

“Film Out”:

BTS announced a few weeks back that they would be releasing a new Japanese album. The major draw of this news was the new song “Film Out” along with its dramatic-looking music video. The singular song and the music video were released this morning and they didn’t disappoint. The song was evidently written in collaboration with Iyori Shimizu as the ending theme for a Japanese film. The gorgeous, heart-wrenching melody definitely feels like a piece of a movie soundtrack. The song itself seems to be about the pain of separation and the sadness that comes with memories. The music video centers Jin, which is something we don’t see often enough. In the video we see a house in the sky where all the members of BTS reside. Except Jin is also in an alternate version of the house, separated from the members but able to look at them. The houses also share an hourglass, but when the sand in the hourglass runs out the members fade away and it triggers an explosion on Jin’s side. Jin attempts to escape but, when opening the door, finds himself in the sky amongst a sea of floating doors. Once he closes the door again he’s alone, save for Tae who remains separated from Jin. This is a beautiful song and a beautiful music video, but I’d like to remind the ARMYs currently freaking out that none of it implies that Jin is leaving for military service soon. Not only has HYBE heavily implied they would rather send all the members to military service together, but Jin is allowed to have center time without it meaning that his departure is imminent. Allow him to enjoy his time in the center, please.

And that’s it! I hope this post was, in the very least, informative. Hopefully we’ll get more from BTS soon! Enjoy your April everyone!

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Theme Parks: The Problem with Aulani

Photo of Disney’s Aulani resort in Hawaii. Copyright goes to Disney Resorts.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I know that most of us haven’t been to this resort for many reasons. Namely that it just makes an expensive trip to Hawaii even more expensive if you can even afford to go to Hawaii in the first place. But this resort absolutely reeks of mistakes that Disney still seems to be suffering from. And these mistakes actually do have an effect on Hawaii that I really want to get into. On this blog we’ve talked about some of Disney’s troubles with immersive parks as well as some of the best features in their parks, like my entire post on Epcot. But though this isn’t exactly a theme park, Disney would really like you to believe that it is. They almost advertised it as a half theme park, half peaceful resort getaway. But there is absolutely no reason to ever visit here. Let’s go over why!

The Motive:

Disney jumped on Hawaii for the same reason that they do anything as a company; money. But Hawaii specifically seemed to make more sense for Disney because of a couple of key factors. The major one being ‘Lilo and Stitch’. I think it’s very safe to say that when that movie came out, Disney was not expecting the reaction they received. They were not expecting Stitch to become one of the most well known and well loved Disney characters and they weren’t expecting him to blow up even more overseas. Both the movie itself and the character of Stitch have become one of Disney’s biggest merchandise sellers. If this movie hadn’t done well years ago, I highly doubt we would have ever gotten ‘Moana’ despite how inclusive Disney is trying to make themselves seem. A while ago in California, Disneyland opened the ‘Paradise Pier’ hotel. A hotel highly based off of surf culture in California and connected to California Adventure when, you know, it was a park that was still based off of California and not a miscellaneous Disney-owned property park like it is now. One of the main draws of this hotel was the way they used ‘Lilo and Stitch’ in character dining as well as decor. So it only makes sense that Disney used this franchise to also market their actual Hawaiian resort after all of those successes. You might have seen the recent video they posted for Valentine’s Day of Angel and Stitch going on an adorable “date” in Aulani. There’s probably a reason why they keep marketing the characters rather than the resort itself.

The Placement:

Have you ever talked to someone who’s been to Aulani? I actually have, weirdly. They basically said what I’m going to tell you, which is that if you ever want to go to Hawaii, don’t stay at Aulani. Aulani is in the middle of nowhere with no shuttles that go far enough to get you to places on the island that you might actually want to see (and you’ll need extra money to buy a plane ticket if you want to visit any of the big islands). At this point you might as well just stay at a hotel anywhere. You’re basically stranded in a resort that is much smaller than you think it will be with no access to the rest of Hawaii. Why go if you aren’t going to see the sights? You’ve already spent so much money on the resort that it’s likely out of budget for you to be able to afford how much it would cost to get out of the middle of nowhere. This also means that there’s barely anything to do other than what you would usually do on a beach or in a hotel. So I guess if you want to go to Hawaii but don’t want to actually feel like you’re in Hawaii, this is the place for you!

Disney Greed:

We all know that Disney’s greedy and none of us know it so well as now, after the Disney Parks (a multi-billion dollar company) layed off all of their employees during quarantine. So nice. But Disney isn’t the only one to point fingers at here. Hawaii is a popular tourist destination and has been thoroughly messed up by the US. All of the land where people are building their large lavish resorts, is land that was taken away from native Hawaiians. For those of you that read our blog for K-pop related posts, you might recall the backlash that the group Cherry Bullet got for releasing a song called ‘Aloha Oe’ and using the tune in the background of the song as a fun summer theme. Culturally, this song is a song of mourning from when the US took over Hawaii and forced many Hawaiians into servitude. About half of native Hawaiians are homeless currently as tourists move in without providing any essential services to the islands or as resorts take over even more land. The cost of living in Hawaii continues to grow exponentially for everyone. The best work that native Hawaiians can get right now is in the tourism industry; doing things like those Luau shows that everyone either feels is too touristy or a must do while visiting. What’s funny is that this exact topic was actually addressed in ‘Lilo and Stitch’! If you recall, both Nani and David begin the movie working at a Luau for tourists. And I should point out that these tourist traps often don’t accurately depict the culture of native Hawaiians. For the most part, these are stereotyped characterizations that are marketed towards tourists because that’s what tourists expect to see. Tourism has so overtaken Hawaii that the native Hawaiian language is considered in danger of extinction. Every resort placed in Hawaii, no matter if it’s in the middle of nowhere or not, is making more native Hawaiians homeless while simultaneously damaging their culture.

Disney?:

While many people would look to go to Aulani because of the fact that it’s in Hawaii, that’s often combined with the want to go there because it is a Disney property. Despite this, there isn’t actually a lot of Disney theming in the resort. Disney focused on making the entire property a prestigious looking luxury resort. While some people may like that, that’s not why people go to Disney parks or choose to stay on Disney property. Other than the occasional nods in decor and a couple of characters walking around; this looks like any other Hawaiian resort. The person who I mentioned before who stayed here with their family said that they were extremely disappointed by the lack of Disney. Because why would you stay at an exclusively Disney property if it just looks like everywhere else? Even the Paradise Pier hotel in California that I mentioned earlier is more Disney themed than this resort.

So in the end you really have to ask yourself why anyone would want to go to Aulani. Between its massive negative footprint on the islands and the fact that it isn’t close to anything you would remotely want to do while visiting, it seems like a pretty useless thing to spend money on. And that also seems to be reflected in how Aulani is doing right now for Disney. Aulani hasn’t delivered nearly half the profits that Disney was expecting and quarantine made the endeavor look even worse. If I could choose for anything to happen here, it would be for Disney to move off of this land and give it back to the natives. But considering the track record of Disney and resort business in Hawaii, I won’t be holding my breath.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Superheroes: ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Review

Screenshot of Gal Gadot as Diana Prince in ‘Wonder Woman 1984’. Copyright goes to DC Films, Atlas Entertainment, The Stone Quarry, and Warner Bros. Pictures.

Hey! Hallie here!

This review comes several months after this movie hit streaming services. In my defense, I didn’t have HBO Max and didn’t initially have the time to purchase and watch the film. But I FINALLY bought it and sat down to watch it a couple nights ago. I had heard a mix of mostly negative reviews, and reviews that were a little more positive, but were quick to point out that this movie pales in comparison to the first Wonder Woman. As someone who considers the first film my favorite superhero film, I was very excited when this one was first announced. After reading reviews, I decided to lower my expectations a bit. Having watched the movie I can say that I’m very glad I lowered my expectations. I enjoyed the movie more as a result. Overall I liked the movie. It was fun and it kept me entertained. I didn’t feel that there was anything particularly offensive about it. But it does pale in comparison to the first movie. I’m going to go into more detail about my thoughts, so SPOILERS ahead if you’re like me and you still haven’t seen ‘Wonder Woman 1984’.

What I Liked:

Diana: Diana is always a joy to watch, regardless of what movie she’s in. This movie does her character justice. The first time we see Gal Gadot’s Diana is a fight scene in a mall where she stops a robbery. This scene was so much fun. I’d argue it’s the only scene that gave me the fun 80s feel I was hoping to see for the majority of the film, but more on that later. Seeing her kick ass and interact with the only sensible people in that situation, little girls, was so much fun. There were even some snarky remarks about guns that completely endeared you to her character. In this movie you can see how Diana’s grown over the amount of time she’s lived on earth, but she isn’t completely hardened. She’s kind to most people, and even becomes fast friends with Barbara, but she also prioritizes professionalism. Which leads her to be instantly suspicious of Maxwell Lord’s overly friendly personality. Despite her sternness, her optimism and determination to see the good in people is very much intact. She refuses to kill anyone she comes up against and she, somewhat successfully, attempts to remind Barbara and Lord that they are good people rather than trying to destroy them. A major argument some seem to have is that Diana’s wish for Steve Trevor to come back is out of character or focuses too much on their relationship, but I didn’t think this was an issue at all. She clearly missed Steve, but she wasn’t mentioning him every two seconds like she did in ‘Justice League’. It’s nice to have a plot that shows her definitively moving on, especially because most fans hadn’t moved on from Steve Trevor’s death after the first film, either.

Steve Trevor: I love Steve, but I was skeptical about his return. His death in Wonder Woman was heartbreaking, but was also very final. I didn’t know how they would manage to bring him back and still make it satisfying. But they did. He comes back in the body of another guy, which doesn’t make sense but, once again, I’ll get back to that later. He has a lot of fun seeing how the world is decades after he died. His excitement parallels Diana’s in the first film, which gives us several sequences of Diana showing him around that match up well with what we saw in the first film. This includes a makeover scene where we get to see how much Steve likes fanny packs, a scene where Steve becomes frightened by breakdancing, and an adorable sequence where Steve reacts to the National Air and Space Museum. Despite how adorable he is, Steve is still capable. He lets Diana do most of the work in action sequences, but he isn’t afraid to pick up a serving tray to help defend her and bash in a few heads. At one point he even takes control of a tank. It’s nice to see Steve in action again, but as always, he’s a smart guy. He knows he doesn’t belong in 1984, and when it’s discovered that Diana’s powers will deplete if she doesn’t renounce her wish, he is the first person to encourage her to do so. He convinces her to move on and tells her he will always love her when she finally renounces her wish. A noble end for a noble man.

The Villains: Both Maxwell Lord and Barbara Minerva are pretty solid villains. Lord is definitely the weakest of the two. His devotion to his son is set as his motivation, and while his insecurities can make him infuriatingly egotistical, there’s never something he does that feels like it’s being done for the sake of being evil. His final scene, a talk with his son where he confesses that he isn’t a good person and wants to make his son proud of him, is where the character shines. He knows what he’s doing is wrong, but he’s so determined to make himself a worthy father that he feels the power he’s receiving is more important. Still, we spend much more of the movie with Barbara. She falls into a very stereotypical villain trope at the beginning of the movie. The ignored nerd who is only treated kindly by the hero. But there are several other aspects of the character that make her great. When we first see her wish that she was like Diana, she’s still a very obviously kind and awkward character. But slowly she becomes more insecure about who she was before. Then she has a run in with a man who attempted to sexually assault her and nearly kills him. She loves the control Diana’s powers give her, and it’s hard to blame her. But she’s never truly evil. She doesn’t even hate Diana. She’s simply been through too much in her life to want to go back to who she was before her wish.

The music: Hans Zimmer. Enough said. The piece that goes specifically through the opening sequence, which is a gorgeous sequence of a tournament in Themyscira, is one of the best pieces we’ve heard in any DC film.

Linda Carter: Late in the movie Diana dons the armor of Asteria, an Amazon warrior who fought back thousands for the safety of her sisters. In the sequence where this is explained, we only see her eyes. But in an end credits scene we get to see her in person. At first it looks like Gal Gadot once more, but when she turns around we get to see Lynda Carter. I cried.

What I Didn’t Like:

The Final Solution: We learn earlier in the movie that, in order to stop all the bad effects that come with making a wish on the stone, now Maxwell Lord, the stone either has to be destroyed or everyone has to renounce their wish. Since Wonder Woman has a no-kill policy, the movie goes for the latter. Which is very unrealistic. The fact that everyone, from the cold hearted to those that made selfless wishes, successfully renounced their wish at the end of the movie is ridiculous.

The Lack of 80s: I was excited to see what this movie would do with the time period. The answer was almost nothing. The opening fight scene had some good 80s imagery, but aside from that all we got was an abundance of fanny packs. It was kind of disappointing.

Steve Trevor’s Body Double: There is nothing in the wish system in the movie that implies that Steve Trevor couldn’t just come back the way he was. People were creating nuclear bombs or cows out of thin air, so why should Steve Trevor be any different? I couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty that Steve basically hijacked a random man’s life. Yet no one in the movie seemed to notice that this was a problem.

Cheating/Lying=Wishes?: In the opening sequence of the film we see young Diana compete in a tournament. In the tournament she finds a shortcut that puts her ahead of the other contestants, but Antiope catches her before she can win the tournament and reprimands her for cheating. This sequence is supposed to connect to Diana’s wish for Steve Trevor to return. Diana even makes a large speech at the end of the film to attempt to convince everyone that those who make wishes are taking the easy path, or cheating, and all the wishes are lies. It’s quite a bit of a reach, though. I don’t think wishing can be so easily linked to cheating, especially in the act of wishing for a loved one back which doesn’t seem to have any sort of goal or motive tied to it. And the wishes aren’t lies so much as they are curses. The better lesson would be, as all tales like this are, “be careful what you wish for”. It was simply an odd connection.

Those were my thoughts! I did enjoy the film, and I really loved seeing Wonder Woman back in action, but I wish this film had been a bit cleaner. Overall I would recommend it! Just lower your expectations a bit.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

K-Pop and K-Dramas: BTS in the Soop

Screenshot from ‘BTS in the Soop’ starring (from left) Jung Hoseok (JHope), Kim Namjoon (RM), Jeon Jungkook (Jungkook), Park Jimin (Jimin), Min Yoongi (Suga), Kim Seokjin (Jin), and Kim Taehyung (V). Copyright goes to BigHit Entertainment.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I finally just finished watching all of ‘Bon Voyage’ as well as the equivalent this year because of quarantine; the COVID safe ‘BTS in the Soop’. Obviously, the year of 2020 made it difficult if not impossible for anyone to travel anywhere and it wasn’t safe to do so either, so the producers of ‘Bon Voyage’ came up with this safe alternative. They rented BTS a house in the middle of scenic trees and by a lake for them to just hang out in for a week. This show feels like it’s the most unfiltered we’ve ever seen BTS. Because there is nowhere to go and it isn’t safe to film them with a giant staff, they film most of it themselves and are pretty much alone together in this one space. This means that rather than seeing how each member travels, we got to see more of how each member spends their down time and sometimes even who the members prefer to spend their down time with. So I’m going to go through each member and talk about how they spend their time in this gorgeous house of isolation.

Kim Namjoon (RM):

Namjoon was one of the people who requested the most things to do from the staff. He really wanted to try out wood working, tie-dyeing, painting, building legos, and a bunch of other stuff on the trip. The reality was that he really only got around to two of those things. He spent some of the time building a ‘Stranger Things’ lego house with Hobi, but ended up spending most of his time painting. Seriously, he probably spent more than half the show painting. This was probably because Namjoon decided that he wanted to paint the view from his room using a dotting technique, which would of course take a really long time. It ended up coming out gorgeously though. It seriously looked like a real artist had created it. I guess his frequent visits to art museums are really paying off. Namjoon frequently spent time with all of the members in a group, but spent most of his one on one time with Hobi. Hobi and Namjoon went hiking together one morning and often talked (or sometimes sang) to each other while Hobi kept building legos and Namjoon painted. Namjoon also spent a fair bit of time with Jungkook because Kookie was often painting as well. But I think my favorite side to Namjoon here, was his plant dad side. The boys left briefly to do some work and then came back to the house. Namjoon decided this was a good time to bring his plant with him and lovingly water it every day. We even got to see him talking to it. It was adorable!

Kim Seokjin (Jin):

Unsurprisingly, Jin spent most of his time on this trip cooking or fishing. Jin requested that a large fish tank full of fish be provided for them so that he could try his hand at making sashimi. Jin and Yoongi cooked most of the meals and Jimin often joked that the show was more like a cooking show than anything else because of how often they were filmed cooking. Jin’s fishing did not go as successfully as his cooking, however, because instead of fish his line kept getting caught in the bottom of the lake. I don’t think he caught anything but weeds for the entirety of the show. But he made up for this by being spontaneous (such as hitting the punching bag every morning with various objects) and sometimes this also had an effect on the other members. For example, one morning after they had all gotten drunk and everyone was trying to sleep off a hangover, Jin decided to set off fireworks. The members were, understandably, not too happy with him. In that short amount of time he also choked on a mango. Jin spent most of his time that we saw with Yoongi, either cooking with him, attempting to fish, or trying to instruct him on how to play a game. He even gave Yoongi some advice about not working himself too hard. He also spent a fair amount of time messing with Jungkook.

Min Yoongi (Suga):

Yoongi early on in the trip chose to sleep away from the other guys in the camper van. At first glance it seemed as though Yoongi was just trying to give the rest of them the bedrooms, but privacy probably also had something to do with it. Yoongi spent quite a bit of time on his own working or reading. There was even one time that he decided to go out and read and ended up reading in the rain. Yoongi rushed to get his equipment when the rest of the boys began to create the theme tune for the show and actually worked on that alone in the camper van for a bit of the series. But that didn’t mean we saw any less of Yoongi. As Jimin said, the show filmed a lot of them cooking. As Yoongi is one of the main chefs, that meant we saw a lot of him. But that wasn’t the only thing we saw from Yoongi either. He tried woodworking (which he hated), fished with Jin for a bit to no avail, and gamed for a bit of the show while taking turns listening to Jin’s advice and not listening to Jin’s advice. He was a little annoyed by it sometimes, but he he also didn’t want Jin to feel left out. Because of this Yoongi definitely also spent most of his time with Jin. Yoongi requested the painting stuff because painting is his hobby, but he only spent a little time painting. There was one interesting moment where Namjoon at dinner expressed his idea that it’s dangerous for them to see each other as brothers, which Yoongi quickly refuted by saying he felt Jin was like a brother to him these days. It really made me wonder about their professional lives and how Namjoon being a leader might put more pressure on him than we think. But I honestly can’t say.

Jung Hoseok (JHope):

Hobi absolutely hopped around everywhere during this show. If there was something to do, Hobi probably did it. He built the lego ‘Stranger Things’ house with a little help from Namjoon, he painted a picture with Namjoon and Kookie, he flew a kite with Jin, he set off fireworks with the maknae line, he went on a drive with Tae, he went on a hike with Namjoon, he frequently helped out with cooking dinners, he frequently woke the other members up in the morning, he had a water gun and balloon fight with Tae and Jimin, he painted shoes with Jimin; seriously is there anything this man can’t do? It was especially cute to see Hobi go out on a drive with Tae because Tae really didn’t want to go alone and that’s what made Hobi decide to go with him. He’s seriously so sweet it’s almost unbelievable. Hobi was definitely the hyung that spent the most time with the maknae line. Though Namjoon and Jin were more likely to play ping pong with the maknaes, Hobi did almost everything else. He only really stayed away from going out on the water, which is understandable considering he easily becomes sea sick. Hobi probably spent most of his time with Namjoon as he spent a considerable amount of time building the legos while Namjoon was painting just outside and they went on a hike together; but a very close second was Tae who Hobi was constantly making sure was happy as well. Really, Hobi was constantly making sure that everyone was happy.

Park Jimin (Jimin):

Jimin was another go with the flow personality here. Jimin was really up for doing what anyone else was doing, so he spent time doing a lot of different things. Jimin set off fireworks with the rest of the maknae line and Hobi, tried out woodworking, gamed quite a bit with Yoongi and Jin, helped out with cooking or did dishes, went out on the canoe with Jin and Namjoon, painted shoes with Hobi, had a water fight with Tae and Hobi, played the piano and made up songs, sung karaoke with Tae and Kookie, and played quite a lot of ping pong. He and Yoongi also managed to fix the screen door when Namjoon broke it (which isn’t very surprising). One of the major stand out things about Jimin though, didn’t necessarily have to do with all the activities he did. Jimin did several small things that were both hilarious and loveable. Jimin was always the latest to wake up and slept until far into the afternoon. Many episodes included downright adorable scenes of Jimin waking up (including one where Jin made him hold a spoon for no reason at all). Jimin also wore a hanbok to the house in the first episode so that he could act cute for the other members and helped Tae trick Jungkook out of the house so that those two could have a serious conversation. Jimin spent a lot of time with everyone, but he seemed to spend the most time with Jungkook. There was even a piece that we didn’t see where Jimin and Jungkook stayed up very late basically running around the yard while drunk and Jimin ended up breaking the mosquito net for Jungkook’s bed.

Kim Taehyung (V):

Tae was just adorable throughout the show. He seemed to be absolutely happy the entire time he was there. He couldn’t stop smiling. Tae was another person who jumped around a lot and completed various activities, but not as much as some of the others. He loved making up songs and doing karaoke with Jimin and he did spend some time in the yard with everyone else. Tae really shined when he was doing the things it looked like he had wanted to for a while though. He went on a drive with Hobi where they walked around a little bit, picked up burgers, and danced behind the car for a bit. This was an adorable trip that felt so personal to him. He liked going out on the water and just sitting in the canoe, listening to songs like “Blue and Grey’ or loudly serenading Namjoon who beamed at him from his painting station. Tae also felt it was important to talk to Jungkook. The purpose behind this is widely disputed. Some people think that it’s because fans noticed that they were distant while others felt that the constant shipping might have put a damper on their relationship. Maybe it was all of that or something entirely different, but Jimin tricked Jungkook into going out and then they had a really deep conversation. They talked about things like how close they used to be and how Tae was getting a bit more reserved as he was maturing. But they both seemed to be happy to talk things out. Tae definitely spent most of his time with Jimin and Hobi on this trip, but his talk with Jungkook really stood out to me.

Jeon Jungkook (Jungkook):

Jungkook also did a little bit of everything. He was another one of the cooking party (which often included everyone but Namjoon and Tae who were clean-up crew because they don’t cook), he played ping pong, and he painted often. Jungkook is insane though because everything he does he seems to do well, and this really came across here. Jungkook’s paintings looked like they had been painted by Bob Ross himself. They were that good. I could just stare at his paintings forever because they were all so beautiful. Jungkook was another one who kept to himself a little bit, though not as much as Yoongi. I would say it was probably as much as Namjoon, who often secluded himself to read as well. Though Jungkook was more often in the lake house attempting to learn guitar or sleeping in. Jungkook was Jin’s main helper when it came to the sashimi and after that both Jin and Yoongi seemed to rely on Jungkook’s skill with helping them cook. As the series went on it seemed like he was spending more and more time cooking with the others. He could seriously become one of the main chefs of the group if he keeps this up. I’m sure Jin and Yoongi would appreciate a little help. Jungkook spent a lot of time with both Jin and Jimin, though considering how often he seemed to stay up with Jimin, I would say that he spent most of his time with Jimin. It seriously looked like it was very difficult to get those two up in the morning after they had stayed up so late.

There you have it! That was everything we got from ‘In the Soop’ which was definitely the most unfiltered we’ve ever seen the boys. So much so that they often didn’t put on makeup, which is pretty unusual for them. If you want to see the boys just being themselves, this is for you. It’s such a peaceful series and it really does feel like you’re hanging out with them. Just be prepared to be bias wrecked by pretty much all of them and maybe even change your bias list. This is the realest we’ve ever seen them, so that’s definitely a possibility here.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Book Adaptations: How the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Series Destroyed Queenie

Screenshot of Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein in ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’. Copyright goes to Warner Bros. Pictures and Heyday Films.

Hey! Hallie here!

I recently re-watched the first ‘Fantastic Beasts’ film and was immediately reminded of how much I loved Queenie in the first film. She’s feminine without being made fun of for being “too girly”. Her Legilimens powers were incredibly interesting and they promised an interesting future for the character once her powers became more necessary. She was just as strong as her Auror sister and her quick wit was apparent. And then the second movie undid all of this. I didn’t hate the second movie, which sets me apart from most other viewers, but I certainly didn’t like it. The way it turned Queenie into a dislikeable lunatic is one of the movie’s major offenses. In order to see just how awful and frankly sexist Queenie’s writing is, let’s look at the way each movie portrayed Queenie.

‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’:

Queenie is introduced in the first film in a somewhat sultry way. She’s drying the laundry in her apartment, and when she realizes that men are present, she is only in an underdress. This leads to a scene where Jacob gapes at her as she puts a more appropriate dress over it. But this scene isn’t dominated by the male gaze, as most scenes like this are. There’s no focus on her chest or curves, but rather on how beautiful she is in general. The scene focuses on her face and her shoulders, and the most striking part about it is how gorgeous her smile is. It’s also very clear with the way she flirts with Jacob for the rest of the scene, that she is purposefully attempting to draw his attention. She’s never shamed for embracing her femininity throughout the scene, though Tina does warn her not to get attached. But this isn’t all there is to her character. She shows genuine kindness towards both Newt and Jacob. She makes both of them a meal upon first meeting them, attempts to comfort Newt when she accidently reads his thoughts, and never cares that Jacob is a No-Maj. Later on she uses quick thinking to get all of her friends out of MACUSA, including unashamedly lying that Newt’s case is full of “ladies things”, which she knows will definitely keep men from searching it. She also bravely runs into danger alongside her sister regardless of her fighting experience. It isn’t often that you see a character praised for her femininity as much as Queenie is while still remaining one of the strongest characters in the film. I wish she stayed that way.

‘Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindlewald’:

At the end of the first movie Queenie reunited with Jacob in an end credit scene, implying that Jacob remembers her and may want to continue their relationship. It’s revealed at the beginning of the second movie that he did recognize her, but he’s tentative to continue their relationship because he doesn’t want her to be punished for being with a No-Maj. Queenie uses a love potion to force him to accept her marriage proposal. This strong woman is reduced to a crazy stalker who kidnaps her boyfriend because he’s afraid for her safety. Nothing about her behavior is excusable, especially because of the obviously immoral nature of a love potion, and even Newt scolds her for her use of it. After Jacob explains the situation, Queenie freaks out and runs away. On her own, she’s comforted by Grindlewald, the mass murderer, and she quickly warms to him. So much so that she makes the decision to join him at the end of the movie. When she tried to persuade Jacob to join her and he understandably refuses, her reaction is frightening. It’s as if there’s no semblance of sense left in her. Even Jacob becomes frightened of who she’s become. And none of it makes sense. She’s portrayed as dumb, both for using a love potion and for trusting Grindlewald so easily. In the first movie she showed both emotional and general intelligence in almost every scene. Also, the second movie makes all of her motivation entirely revolve around an unhealthy obsession with a boyfriend she once valued and loved. Her celebrated femininity turns into the stereotype of the insane wife and her kindness is instead portrayed as an obsession with romance.

I will always be upset with the way Queenie, one of the most amazing female characters in recent years, was reduced to nothing. She was strong without relying on male tropes. This is actually quite amazing because movies have recently been mistakenly calling female characters with mainly male traits, “strong”. Strength in women does not come separate from femininity, and Queenie proved that. Up until the woman-who-must-not-be-named decided to undo it all. I suppose this should be added to the list of reasons why you shouldn’t give the next ‘Fantastic Beasts’ movies your money.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Marvel: The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 2

Screenshot from ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ episode two featuring Anthony Mackie and the back of Sebastian Stan’s head. Copyright goes to Marvel Entertainment and Disney.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Yesterday the second episode of ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ premiered and I have a lot of thoughts again. I think everybody agreed that this episode had some annoying plot points, but some of it was meant to be annoying. However, there were several things that I’m not sure were meant to be annoying that I found to be so, so really there’s a lot to unpack here. I think I’ve talked enough so I’m going to dive right into it. This will be very SPOILER heavy, so please be warned and go watch the episode first if you want to get into this series. Because this story is said by the writer to be so character driven, I am going to continue to review the story by discussing it character by character.

Sam:

We saw this episode start very early on with Sam and Bucky meeting up completely out of the blue. In the first episode we were not even aware that either of the knew about each other’s whereabouts and then Bucky suddenly appeared conveniently before Sam was about to go on a mission to track down the so called “freedom fighters”. Sam tells Bucky that there’s no way that Bucky’s coming with him, and then of course in the next shot they’re both on the plane. This goes into an action sequence where Sam makes fun of Bucky for being beat up by a girl. Ok guys, it’s 2021. We’ve already established that women kick ass. Why is this joke still around? At least by now we’ve started to get the Sam and Bucky banter. Sam and Bucky are met by the fake Star Spangled Man with a plan (what is your plan today?) and they reluctantly take a ride from him. Bucky is having none of it, but Sam is willing to hear him out up until the new guy says that he wants Cap’s wingman, referring to Sam, and Sam declares “It’s always the last line” and leaves. We then go on a weird tangent where Bucky and Sam travel to a Black neighborhood to see an old super soldier Bucky has said nothing about played by the absolute legend Carl Lumbly; and then Sam is almost arrested because of the color of his skin until Bucky reminds the cops who Sam is. I actually really liked this tackling of racial profiling. Sam spends the rest of the episode being really angry at Bucky for being mad at him for giving up the shield and declares that he never wants to see Bucky again after this. Real nice considering everything Bucky has been through without Steve. Sam is continuing to act really selfishly and remains unempathetic. I understand where they’re going with Sam not wanting to represent the US, because, really, who would? But that doesn’t give him the right to treat both Steve and Bucky horribly. There’s even a part where Bucky asks Sam how he could have not known that the government would do that with Cap’s shield and Sam just comments that he couldn’t have known. Even though Sam was by Steve’s side every step of the way when Steve was fighting against the government and eventually on the run from them. How could Sam have not known? Why on earth would Sam ever trust the government with anything ever? It almost feels like the writers of this willfully decided to pretend Civil War didn’t happen. Yes, Sam would be conflicted over the shield, but Sam is not and has never been stupid.

Bucky:

Bucky was really interesting this episode which is not something I was expecting. I went into this show thinking that I would like Sam much more than Bucky, because honestly I always have liked Sam much more. But I have a feeling that will change considering how well they’re writing Bucky’s motivations and how poorly Sam’s are being written. We first see Bucky in what I can only describe as absolute anguish as he’s watching John Walker take Steve’s shield on television. This is what causes him to track down Sam and Bucky spends every second of the rest of the episode trying to connect with Sam on some level. Sam constantly dismisses Bucky and even treats him like a stranger whereas Bucky seems to see Sam as one of the few connections to this new time that he has left. Bucky understandably becomes angry at Sam for giving up the shield. If he didn’t what to carry the shield, fine, but that doesn’t mean giving it over to the government is ok. That’s not what Steve would have wanted. This only sours Sam’s attitude towards Bucky. Bucky does not talk with John Walker (he stares at him instead) and refuses to listen to anything he’s saying. The episode leads up to an intense therapy session where Bucky yells at Sam that if Steve was wrong about Sam being a good fit for Captain America then Steve could have been wrong about Bucky’s capacity for good as well. The emotion was just coming off of Bucky in droves in this episode and it was difficult to see him paired with Sam. Though they were funny together, it really just seemed like Sam didn’t at all care about Bucky where as this wasn’t the case with how Bucky viewed Sam. It was frankly heartbreaking. Bucky was also hit with the realization that there are more super soldiers out there, which I thought was weird considering the entire plot of Civil War, but I digress. This show seriously operates like Civil War doesn’t exist sometimes.

Sharon Carter:

This one really pissed me off. She isn’t in this episode either! The main female lead of this show is officially not in a third of it. How is this good use of her character? I’m not sure how they’ll even be able to give her a full arc and character development in four episodes that aren’t even focused around her. I feel like it’s safe to just call it now; so much for the female representation in this show. Once again, I would love to be proved wrong, but there’s no getting past that she’s only in two thirds of the entire show. And that’s if she even shows up next week.

John Walker:

The new “Captain America”. Though not really because Bucky points out that it takes much more than a shield to carry Steve’s title. Welcome to the most annoying character to grace your screens in a while. A snobby jock in high school and a total douchebag, there is no liking this character. Though this by no means implies that you should go after the actor who is just doing his job and doing it well if we all find the character to be this annoying. John Walker is not a super soldier, but apparently the action sequences were not told this. John Walker is slammed into the windshield of a car and gets up. This is a feat that Steve could achieve, but that’s because he’s a super soldier. There is absolutely no way that John Walker would have been able to get up from that. At the end of the episode he has the bright idea to try to threaten Sam and, you know, an actual super soldier. To make matters with this character worse, they actually had that stupid idea to give him a black side kick. What the hell was with that decision? I thought pulling Sam up to a main character position was Marvel getting past that. I guess it was the episodic reminder that the main writer for this show is a white man.

Zemo:

At the end of this episode we see Sam and Bucky go off to see someone and a shot of Zemo in prison implies that maybe it’s him. I’m not sure, I’m hoping that they actually go to see Sharon, but I’m really confused. This episode set up a little more plot, but I thought Zemo was going to be the main villain of this show. It doesn’t bode well that there’s only four episodes left and I’m still kind of confused about the plot.

The Freedom Fighters:

If I had to pinpoint the thing that this show is having the most trouble with, it would absolutely have to be motivation. We know that this group wants things to go back to the way they were before the blip, but everything about their motivation seems odd. It’s probably because of the same reason that Thanos wanted the blip in the first place, but we’ve already explored this line of thinking in two movies if that is the case. It feels kind of tired to be going over it again after such a short period of time. The group also uses the catchphrase “one world, one people” which is baffling. How does that catchphrase make sense for a a group that wants half of the world dead? These characters are barely being built up at all anyways so this entire group is just really confusing to me. And not in a good way.

I’m sorry that I’m going after this show so hard, but it’s difficult not to. Malcolm Spellman, the main writer, said that the main focus of this show would be characters and it feels like the motivations for most of the characters don’t make sense, which is a big thing for character development. Not to mention we are getting absolutely zero female characters to focus on so far. Recently Spellman also addressed fan rumors that Bucky might be bisexual and had feelings for Steve and simply said that we should keep watching the show and see. I can’t help but be really worried about that statement considering how the show is going so far. I’m just saying now, he better not queer-bait all of us on top of all of this. Hopefully the show gets better, but I’m not too optimistic on that front.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Superheroes: ‘The Suicide Squad’ Trailer is Out!

Screenshot of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in ‘The Suicide Squad’ trailer. Copyright goes to DC Films, Atlas Entertainment, The Safran Company, and Warner Bros. Pictures.

Hey! Hallie here!

This morning ‘The Suicide Squad’ trailer dropped and it would be an understatement to say that many people are looking forward to it. James Gunn has been very successful with his ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movies, and his work there has proven him to be one of the best choices to tackle this franchise. Especially after the first ‘Suicide Squad’ fell flat in several very important ways. This movie has thus far promised an excellent cast, a much stronger role for Harley Quinn, and a fun premise. And with an R rating it’s sure to include all the fun gore and jokes the first movie could only dream of including. But I’m still concerned about it. There are several questions that I have about this release and, even though I can’t imagine it could fall apart in the way the first movie did, I can see how some things could go wrong. So here’s what I liked and what I’m cautious about.

What I Liked:

Harley Quinn: The first ‘Suicide Squad’ oversexualized Harley every chance it got. From her introduction showing her playfully seducing the guards protecting her cell, to the carefully ripped crop top and what could only be described as underwear that she wore for most of the movie, to the multiple comments male characters made about her appearance. Harley did get her moments to kick ass and show off her amazing personality, but there were certainly some frustrating things that could only be remedied once the superior ‘Birds of Prey’ was released. Not only that, but her relationship with Joker was portrayed so poorly it was offensive. Her character revolved around the Joker given the jacket, collar, and tattoos that declared his ownership of her. Her motivation towards the end of the movie was also a mix between thinking he died and having a dream about living a domestic life with him. All of this failed to mention that he was extremely toxic and their relationship was mostly abusive. This new film doesn’t have any of this at all. For one, no Joker and no clothing that declares his ownership of Harley. For another, outfits that suit Harley without oversexualizing her! She wears a gorgeous dress for one of her fight scenes that flows with every movement, and we see a full, functional superhero outfit complete with goggles in another scene. We also get to see some of the characters set to lead the Suicide Squad attempt to go save Harley, only for them to meet up with Harley outside of the location having already handled the situation herself. She’s very touched they tried to rescue her, though. She’s funny, witty, and even seems to be standing alongside the leaders rather than the criminals. I can’t wait to see her kick ass here.

Bloodsport- Played by the amazing Idris Elba, Bloodsport was introduced to us in this trailer. I don’t know much about the character, but I do know I already love Idris Elba in this role. His sarcasm and apparent exasperation play against the chaos happening around him very well. He’s also clearly a better leader than Rick Flag was in the first movie. He’s intimidating and he clearly knows what he’s doing. It doesn’t feel like some random guy was just thrown into a leadership position in front of a bunch of deadly criminals. Bloodsport has earned his position and those who dare cross him should be pitied. But with a few cute scenes with Ratcatcher 2, it seems he’s somewhat of a softie behind it all.

The Humor: From this first trailer you can already tell how well the dialogue flows between the characters. The banter is fun and funny without feeling too awkward (most of the time). But some of the best humor comes from the other characters they introduce for this movie. There’s Polka-Dot Man who is exhausted to the point of hoping for his own death. With that ridiculous outfit, who can blame him? But there’s also plenty of other situations you see him in, such as partying in a night club, that promises a fully dynamic, funny character. There’s also King Shark who isn’t too bright, but is endearing despite the vicious way in which he kills people. And finally we get to see Starro, a bizarre starfish villain that fought the Justice League in the comics. Only James Gunn would be able to find a way to bring this character into the DCEU.

Other Characters: Most of the characters in this trailer didn’t get enough screen time, but I’m still very excited for them. Ratcatcher 2 seems like an adorable badass and having more female representation, such as her and SolSoria, is a welcome sight. As someone who enjoys Peter Capaldi’s acting, I’m excited to see him as the Thinker. and I did enjoy Jai Courtney’s Captain Boomerang in the first ‘Suicide Squad’, so I’m pleased to see his return. I am also pleased to see Viola Davis return as the perfect Amanda Waller. This movie has an incredible cast that all look like they’re having a blast, even just in the trailer.

What I Don’t Like:

The Amount of Characters: There’s too many characters in this movie. There’s no way this movie could do justice to them all, even if it was four hours long. Many people are pointing out that the amount of characters likely means we’ll see many deaths, but there isn’t a way to make the audience care about all of these deaths with the sheer amount of characters in this film. It’s hardly new news that movies that focus on a multitude of characters always suffer. Some Marvel movies have avoided this by giving characters singular movies before a group movie so the audience knows about most of the characters already. But Harley Quinn is the only character who was given this treatment. I will say that ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ managed to balance its cast well. But that movie was focused on five main characters in total, and one of them only says ‘I am Groot’ for the entire movie. ‘The Suicide Squad’ has way more than five major characters in the trailer alone. Some of these characters are going to be pushed to the background and that could be damaging.

Rick Flag: Sorry Joel Kinnaman, but I don’t like Rick Flag. He was completely unnecessary in the first movie and his morals changed from scene-to-scene. One scene he shamed Deadshot for being a serial killer, the next he watched Amanda Waller kill a roomful of people in cold blood and supported her decision. I expect him to be written better in this movie, but I still don’t see why he’s needed. He feels like a wet blanket amongst an otherwise colorful cast of characters.

The Dick Joke: I’m not sure I’m completely sold on Peacemaker in general, though he’s a much more fitting moral compass for the team than Rick Flag. But the dick joke in the trailer went for far too long. The banter was awkward and it was clear it was just there to be an R rated joke. It made Peacemaker seem annoying. I hope it flows better in the movie.

Is This a Sequel?: This is less a dislike and more an aspect I’m cautious about. This trailer seemed to echo scenes from the first movie but still makes it abundantly clear it will be nothing like it at the same time. So is this basically a reboot? Or is the first movie still cannon? This trailer, plus the naming being ‘The Suicide Squad’ rather than putting a 2 anywhere or making the title clearly different from the first movie, makes it seem like this is a reboot. Which I support, but they have to be careful with this decision. The DCEU is already scatterbrained as it is and redoing everything they’ve done so far may only lead to more confusion.

So those were my thoughts! I enjoyed the trailer, and I like it more every time I watch it, but I’m still skeptical. I’m not sure how they’ll be able to pull this off, especially with such a big cast. But this trailer did make me more interested in ‘The Suicide Squad’! I suppose we’ll have to see what they were really able to do with all these characters when it comes out later this year.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

K-Pop and K-Dramas: ITZY as a Rookie Group

Photoshoot shot of (from left) Choi Ji Su (Lia), Shin Ryu Jin (Ryujin), Hwang Ye Ji (Yeji), Lee Chae Ryeong (Chaeryeong), and Shin Yu Na (Yuna). Copyright goes to JYP Entertainment.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I’ve already done a post like this about Everglow, who is probably my favorite girl group right now. But it’s always difficult to look at rookie groups and not hear the name ITZY. Rookie groups are constantly compared to each other, and I feel like ITZY and Everglow have been pitted the most against each other than any other groups I’ve seen right now. These competitions always happen between fans of rookie groups, but the one between Everglow and ITZY has been pretty fierce. ITZY has been called the leader of the fourth generation by many. They’ve received invitations to award shows and other events, things that Everglow haven’t gotten. Many say that it’s because they are better than Everglow while others say that it’s because JYP is a big company and YeHua isn’t really. Obviously, I prefer the music of Everglow but I don’t think that inherently makes them better than ITZY or that ITZY doesn’t deserve the recognition they’ve been getting. I don’t really like pitting groups against each other anyways. But I do think it’s interesting to see what the rookie groups are already great at now and what I look forward to seeing more of in the future. But mostly, I want to treat both Everglow and ITZY equally in this instance in a way that doesn’t actually pit them against each other. Some of this is just my personal opinions, so please take them with a grain of salt.

Vocals:

ITZY performs with a track and often lip syncs, but I find that most rookie groups do that as well as a few performances where they go without it. ITZY tends to go without the track a bit more than I’ve seen from other rookie groups, which is great! The main vocalist for ITZY is Lia who definitely receives some of the most vocally demanding parts. Let me just say, Lia is a great vocalist. If you listen to her singing on her own just to sing, it’s simply amazing. She really is one of the standout vocalists of the current rookie groups. My only concern here is that sometimes the songs don’t really highlight her full vocal range. Also, fans have pointed out that there are sometimes issues with Lia dancing and singing at the same time. I don’t think she should be shamed at all for that, people really don’t realize how both physically and vocally demanding their performances are. Lia’s voice is beautiful and I think this group really has that going for them.

Rap:

The lead rapper in this group is Ryujin and every time I’ve heard her rap I’ve thought that she’s already pretty good and has great potential. Right now their songs haven’t been focusing on rap as much, but I really look forward to Ryujin being centered more often for her rap in the future.

Dance:

There’s a lot to say about this. Firstly, ITZY’s choreography is absolutely insane. It is fast paced and complex. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people recommending their songs for working out. This team is also equipped with Chaeryeong, who is one of the best dancers I have ever seen. You watch her fancams and everything just looks so effortless. But it’s also important to point out that a lot of hate has been directed towards Lia for what people call “lazy dancing”. I don’t really understand where all of this hate is coming from. Yes, Lia is probably the weakest dancer, but in no way do I think she’s doing it on purpose. And even though she may be the weakest dancer, she is by no means a weak dancer. You try to do what she does. Those dances are insane and she keeps up with them really well. She’s also a rookie so we shouldn’t expect everything she does to be absolutely perfect. In fact, we shouldn’t expect that from any idol at all. So give her a break and let her grow, ok?

Music:

ITZY is not considered to be very consistent with their music and I can see why. I have listened to their entire discography and I didn’t hate anything that they came out with. People love their title songs, but they are criticized for their B-sides being a little lackluster. I personally thought their B-sides weren’t all bad, but I did think they were a little hit or miss. For example, I really love songs like ‘That’s a No No’ and ‘SURF’, but ‘Want It?” and ‘I Don’t Wanna Dance’ really missed the mark for me. It can be tough for me to listen to some of their stuff for long periods of time because I’m prone to headaches and many of their songs have higher pitched repeated beats in the background. That’s a personal issue though and I try not to let it effect how much I like the songs that I do like. But I do agree that they could be a bit more consistent.

Visuals:

Just as I said with Everglow, all of these women are gorgeous. People have been really toxic towards these girls. Many people have praised Yeji for her looks while others have said that she looks like an alien. Chaeryeong gets constant backlash from people who believe that she’s ugly (HOW???). And then you get to the youngest Yuna, a visual who people have accused JYP over oversexualizing even though she’s underaged. I personally don’t think that Yuna’s outfits are all that different from what most girl groups wear; but JYP has been accused of a lot in the past and I’m not sure it would really surprise me if that were true. Once again I want to say that there is not one member of this group that is not absolutely heart-stoppingly beautiful. Chaeryeong is actually my bias if I had to choose one in this group and I have no idea how people could think that she’s not pretty.

Theming:

ITZY hasn’t really followed the regular brand of theming for girl groups, which I find really interesting. They already seem to have a style that’s completely their own and really appeals to the youth of this generation. I also think it fits very well with their lyrics that they aren’t ascribing to anything in particular other than being themselves. They already seem to have created a brand for themselves which has only been made clearer with the new release of their Line Friends merchandise. It’s insane to see a group who already seems to have their identity hammered out so early on.

Performance:

They are known for performing pretty well live between their interesting stages, complex dances, and empowering songs. Performance is something that all of them seem to thrive at. Though they still need to become better at balancing the vocals and the dancing at some parts, the fact that they are already at such an amazing state of performance is insane. They even rival ATEEZ, which is really saying something considering the fact that ATEEZ is no longer a rookie group and is a group known for their high energy. ITZY can go toe to toe with anyone with their performances.

Leader:

The leader of this group is Yeji, which is a decision that has also faced controversy. Seriously these girls are going through so much. It’s probably just the public being confused with how they got popular so fast (though I’m not sure why they would be confused considering the talent of these girls). Yeji is one of the more quiet members of ITZY and doesn’t talk as much in interviews. This is especially apparent to international fans because, though all of the girls speak English very well, Lia is extremely fluent (even though this shouldn’t matter). But even in regular interviews, Lia is known to take point and make sure that every member gets to speak. I would like to point out that being a leader involves much more than just taking point in interviewing. A leader also does a lot behind the scenes. The majority of their tasks are things that we wouldn’t even see. Each member of ITZY seems to be really happy with Yeji as their leader, and that’s all we need to know to know that she’s a good leader.

ITZY is definitely a monster rookie group. I am conflicted though because most people are hoping for JYP to die out. I can see why people wish for this because it’s the company of the big three that is considered to be the most corrupt. It would be nice if one of the big companies died out and made room for more smaller companies. But I don’t think that we should determine whether or not we like ITZY based off of that. These women are human beings and we shouldn’t wish for their downfall. I think that they’re actually pretty good and I wish them the best, no matter what happens to JYP.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie