Raya follows the cue of Disney Channel series Elena Of Avalor by taking inspiration from multiple countries

In the AV Club, an F is usually reserved for ambitious failures and historically bad films. A bad film that’s bad in a boring way won’t get it.

I had no idea how much I missed a classic AA Dowd scathing review.

Pop culture isn’t synonym with ‘highly successful’, you know. If anything, Dickens was closer to middlebrow than anything else.

What I’m arguing is that the ‘hybridisation’ isn’t... that deep. The storybeats are similar, the themes are similar, the type of worldbuilding is similar, even the humor is similar with some exceptions. They’re still very firmly in the realm of the ‘superhero’ movies, even if you have different types of superhero…

Yes, which is exactly why I called it a classic formula and not a Marvel or a superhero formula. They follow the traditional beats of the Hollywood blockbuster.

Their scripts are pretty samey on a structural level, following predictable beats. I like them! But for example, WS uses the look of the 70s conspiracy thriller but still ends in a huge fight with an emotional moment, like most Marvel movies. This is okay! It also means it’s not a conspiracy thriller and if I were to…

So for the record: people like Dickens or Cervantes, who were successful and their works of art have endured and became part of the canon, weren’t actually the equivalent of blockbusters. They were writing, knowingly, in a slightly more art-than-content milieu. We know this. We know how their works were received. We…

Look, I love a lot of Marvel movies. But their experiments with genre are often on a very surface level, with scripts that follow a classic formula. We can love Marvel movies without treating them as... things they aren’t. They’re blockbusters. They’re by nature focus-grouped to death.

I think it’s interesting that old article about Christine Love’s overrated pretentious games was brought up, because her missteps with the marketing copy of Ladykiller in a Bind shows how thorny the subject of in-game romances and sex scenes can be.

... lol those names. That’s no pressure at aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall.

Well, the Avvar seem to be as peaceful and intermixed as Rivain (and they have one of the clearest, most accurate views of spirits in the setting) but yes, it’s a very interesting change of pace of the rest of the setting. That said, we have very little information on Rivain and I wouldn’t be surprised if when they…

I hate that Dorian is a gay character written for a straight audience

Fanfiction would disagree with you here (about Hornblower, Star Trek AND Master & Commander).

Not only that, the voiceover goes ‘sometimes it looks like connection is impossible’. Cut to Stamets glaring.

It’s not that it’s implausible that he would’ve calmed down; it’s that we’re supposed to just assume he did. Maybe this will get picked up next season. Maybe not. But in not dealing with it now, in just trying to get drama out of conflict without bothering to consider consequences, the show renders those scenes…

That’s a very simplistic way of looking at sexism and Who that dismisses the real issues in RTD’s era because you like Ten better. Two out of three companions during the RTD’s years are in love with the Doctor. Two out of three companions during the RTD’s years end their tenures with the Doctor overriding their agency…

The hero-worship was there from the beginning of RTD’s tenure.

I don’t care whether or not he hates the show. I’d like a different review doing these reviews.

She helps Saru and the Kelpiens evolve, for example. It’s a move that won’t benefit and won’t benefit the Empire, but it’s the right thing to do. If you took the episode to say ‘and now she’s 100% good’, yes, it’s not there. But for me it was closer to ‘she can change, so eventually she can be a better person’.