i had a choice between sleep and being furious on the internet
WARNING FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S FUCKING TERRIBLE PACIFIC RIM OPINIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
So this happened:
how is it that the characters who barely speak at all in this movie are ten thousand times more compelling than Chuck and Raleigh put together like geez guys
SHORT REACTION: AND THAT'S THE STORY OF HOW I UNFOLLOWED GINGERHAZE!
LONG VERSION:
-I don't...understand...what is happening there? That's just going out of your way to shit on Raleigh. THE TRIPLETS PLAY BASKETBALL AND THEN THEY DIE. THAT'S LITERALLY IT. THE RUSSIANS STRUT AND THEN THEY DIE. THAT'S ALSO IT. Thinking that integral and fleshed out versions of those characters would be more compelling than Raleigh (who is actually integral and fleshed out) is not the same thing as the existing versions of those characters (which, for better or worse, are such nonentities that even the people who love them legit can't figure out who is who) actually being more compelling.
-LET ME REITERATE THE WORD "INTEGRAL" BECAUSE WHAT FUCKING MOVIE DID YOU SEE / WHAT MOVIE ARE YOU A FAN OF IF YOU THINK RALEIGH IS THAT USELESS? Liiiiiike even approaching this movie from an "ALL I CARE ABOUT IS MAKO" perspective, he is literally exactly what she needed to achieve EVERYTHING SHE WANTED TO ACHIEVE. You could think of him as a fucking PIECE OF EQUIPMENT if you wanted to be an asshole about it and make sure MAKO'S NOT BEING DENIED FULL AGENCY OVER HER WEAPONIZED LADY BADASSERY or what the fuck ever, even from that perspective this is still a story about the universe doing Mako Mori a solid by delivering a perfect-match copilot to her in a goddamn helicopter, special order from Alaska, so that she can fulfill all of her personal goals and avenge her family and make Pentecost proud and become the all-star Jaeger pilot she's fought tooth and nail to be. EVEN IF YOU PICK THAT INTERPRETATION WHERE YOU GIVE ZERO FUCKS ABOUT RALEIGH AS A CHARACTER, THERE'S STILL NO MOVIE WITHOUT HIM?
-But seriously enough of that fucking terrifying AU where you don't give a fuck about Raleigh as a character, BECAUSE RALEIGH AS A CHARACTER IS GREAT? THIS IS A MOVIE ABOUT TWO GREAT PEOPLE WHO ARE GREAT FOR EACH OTHER AND GREAT TOGETHER AND MAKE EACH OTHER EVEN GREATER LITERALLY JUST BY SMILING AND ALSO BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF THINGS/EACH OTHER? What the hell kind of mental gymnastics do you have to do to come out of that movie thinking nothing about Raleigh was compelling, and WHAT WAS LEFT OF THE MOVIE IF YOU DID? HOW DO YOU LOVE MAKO DEEPLY AND TRULY WITH ALL YOUR HEART IN THE WAY SHE DESERVES TO BE LOVED IF YOU DON'T ALSO LOVE HER SUN AND STARS? IF YOU WANNA BE HER LOVER YOU GOTTA GET WITH HER COPILOT. GOD HELP THE MISTER THAT COMES BETWEEN HER AND HER DRIFTER. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?
-"HE WAS CRYING, BUT THEY WERE MAKO'S TEARS"
-And all of that CLEAR AND BLATANT BULLSHIT AND GRATUITOUS RALEIGH DOWNPLAYING aside, LOL AT THE TRIPLETS OR THE RUSSIANS NOT EVEN BEING MORE COMPELLING THAN CHUCK. Chuck's the worst and he actually could lift right out of the movie and he's still more compelling than five characters with maybe five lines between them simply by virtue of having an arc and a personality and distinct relationships with other human beings.
-Once again/finally, WHAT IS APPEALING TO YOU ABOUT THIS MOVIE, IF THE CORE CONCEPT OF "IF WE STICK TOGETHER AND LOVE EACH OTHER, THE TWO OF US TOGETHER CAN SAVE THE WORLD" IS NOT SOMETHING YOU FIND COMPELLING? That's it. That's the movie. Mako and Raleigh are a package deal? If she hears you saying this shit she's going to return the favor from when he beat Chuck up, and she's going to physically fight you for disrespecting her doofier half, and he's going to stand there grinning doofily while she does it! Like...everything I've seen and read about the movie keeps coming back to the co-pilot system, that for a long time after Travis Beacham decided he wanted to do a JAEGERS VS KAIJU movie he still didn't know what would drive it and make it worthwhile, that the story didn't start to come together until it had co-pilots in it. AND EVERYTHING ALWAYS COMES BACK TO THAT. IT'S SO BLINDINGLY, OBVIOUSLY IMPORTANT, WHAT ARE YOU CRYING YOURSELF TO SLEEP ABOUT IF IT'S NOT THAT? OR ARE YOU JUST NOT CRYING YOURSELF TO SLEEP AT ALL? HOW DO YOU SLEEP, THEN? I DON'T GET IT. PLEASE TELL ME YOU'RE SLEEPING.
IDK, guys. It's like the price we pay the universe for Pacific Rim's LIFE RUINING PERFECTION is that it exists smack in the middle of two incredibly shitty fandom trends, the first being that because Mako's not a white dude, the fic quantity is barely even a percentage point of what it would be if she were. [Sidebar, I say QUANTITY because quality has already been locked down and guaranteed forever.] And then, because Raleigh IS a white dude, I HAVE TO DEAL WITH ALL THESE FUCKING INSUFFERABLE OPINIONS ABOUT HOW HE'S NOT COMPELLING AND HOW BULLSHIT AND SEXIST IT IS THAT HE SAVES MAKO AND WHATEVER THE FUCK ELSE? Give me a BREAK, this is literally the worst of both fandom worlds. I'M NOT CRYING ON RALEIGH BECKET'S WHITE DUDE BEHALF [I'm crying on his behalf on like forty other counts, though], I'M CRYING ON MY BEHALF BECAUSE ALL I WANT IS FOR PEOPLE NOT TO BE THE WORST, AND ALL PEOPLE ARE IS THE WORST.
This entry was originally posted at http://dudski.dreamwidth.org/1458540.html because FUCK LIVEJOURNAL, FOR SERIOUS. You can comment over there or over here, I really don't care, but eventually you're all going to join me on DW, let's be real.
So this happened:
how is it that the characters who barely speak at all in this movie are ten thousand times more compelling than Chuck and Raleigh put together like geez guys
SHORT REACTION: AND THAT'S THE STORY OF HOW I UNFOLLOWED GINGERHAZE!
LONG VERSION:
-I don't...understand...what is happening there? That's just going out of your way to shit on Raleigh. THE TRIPLETS PLAY BASKETBALL AND THEN THEY DIE. THAT'S LITERALLY IT. THE RUSSIANS STRUT AND THEN THEY DIE. THAT'S ALSO IT. Thinking that integral and fleshed out versions of those characters would be more compelling than Raleigh (who is actually integral and fleshed out) is not the same thing as the existing versions of those characters (which, for better or worse, are such nonentities that even the people who love them legit can't figure out who is who) actually being more compelling.
-LET ME REITERATE THE WORD "INTEGRAL" BECAUSE WHAT FUCKING MOVIE DID YOU SEE / WHAT MOVIE ARE YOU A FAN OF IF YOU THINK RALEIGH IS THAT USELESS? Liiiiiike even approaching this movie from an "ALL I CARE ABOUT IS MAKO" perspective, he is literally exactly what she needed to achieve EVERYTHING SHE WANTED TO ACHIEVE. You could think of him as a fucking PIECE OF EQUIPMENT if you wanted to be an asshole about it and make sure MAKO'S NOT BEING DENIED FULL AGENCY OVER HER WEAPONIZED LADY BADASSERY or what the fuck ever, even from that perspective this is still a story about the universe doing Mako Mori a solid by delivering a perfect-match copilot to her in a goddamn helicopter, special order from Alaska, so that she can fulfill all of her personal goals and avenge her family and make Pentecost proud and become the all-star Jaeger pilot she's fought tooth and nail to be. EVEN IF YOU PICK THAT INTERPRETATION WHERE YOU GIVE ZERO FUCKS ABOUT RALEIGH AS A CHARACTER, THERE'S STILL NO MOVIE WITHOUT HIM?
-But seriously enough of that fucking terrifying AU where you don't give a fuck about Raleigh as a character, BECAUSE RALEIGH AS A CHARACTER IS GREAT? THIS IS A MOVIE ABOUT TWO GREAT PEOPLE WHO ARE GREAT FOR EACH OTHER AND GREAT TOGETHER AND MAKE EACH OTHER EVEN GREATER LITERALLY JUST BY SMILING AND ALSO BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF THINGS/EACH OTHER? What the hell kind of mental gymnastics do you have to do to come out of that movie thinking nothing about Raleigh was compelling, and WHAT WAS LEFT OF THE MOVIE IF YOU DID? HOW DO YOU LOVE MAKO DEEPLY AND TRULY WITH ALL YOUR HEART IN THE WAY SHE DESERVES TO BE LOVED IF YOU DON'T ALSO LOVE HER SUN AND STARS? IF YOU WANNA BE HER LOVER YOU GOTTA GET WITH HER COPILOT. GOD HELP THE MISTER THAT COMES BETWEEN HER AND HER DRIFTER. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?
-"HE WAS CRYING, BUT THEY WERE MAKO'S TEARS"
-And all of that CLEAR AND BLATANT BULLSHIT AND GRATUITOUS RALEIGH DOWNPLAYING aside, LOL AT THE TRIPLETS OR THE RUSSIANS NOT EVEN BEING MORE COMPELLING THAN CHUCK. Chuck's the worst and he actually could lift right out of the movie and he's still more compelling than five characters with maybe five lines between them simply by virtue of having an arc and a personality and distinct relationships with other human beings.
-Once again/finally, WHAT IS APPEALING TO YOU ABOUT THIS MOVIE, IF THE CORE CONCEPT OF "IF WE STICK TOGETHER AND LOVE EACH OTHER, THE TWO OF US TOGETHER CAN SAVE THE WORLD" IS NOT SOMETHING YOU FIND COMPELLING? That's it. That's the movie. Mako and Raleigh are a package deal? If she hears you saying this shit she's going to return the favor from when he beat Chuck up, and she's going to physically fight you for disrespecting her doofier half, and he's going to stand there grinning doofily while she does it! Like...everything I've seen and read about the movie keeps coming back to the co-pilot system, that for a long time after Travis Beacham decided he wanted to do a JAEGERS VS KAIJU movie he still didn't know what would drive it and make it worthwhile, that the story didn't start to come together until it had co-pilots in it. AND EVERYTHING ALWAYS COMES BACK TO THAT. IT'S SO BLINDINGLY, OBVIOUSLY IMPORTANT, WHAT ARE YOU CRYING YOURSELF TO SLEEP ABOUT IF IT'S NOT THAT? OR ARE YOU JUST NOT CRYING YOURSELF TO SLEEP AT ALL? HOW DO YOU SLEEP, THEN? I DON'T GET IT. PLEASE TELL ME YOU'RE SLEEPING.
IDK, guys. It's like the price we pay the universe for Pacific Rim's LIFE RUINING PERFECTION is that it exists smack in the middle of two incredibly shitty fandom trends, the first being that because Mako's not a white dude, the fic quantity is barely even a percentage point of what it would be if she were. [Sidebar, I say QUANTITY because quality has already been locked down and guaranteed forever.] And then, because Raleigh IS a white dude, I HAVE TO DEAL WITH ALL THESE FUCKING INSUFFERABLE OPINIONS ABOUT HOW HE'S NOT COMPELLING AND HOW BULLSHIT AND SEXIST IT IS THAT HE SAVES MAKO AND WHATEVER THE FUCK ELSE? Give me a BREAK, this is literally the worst of both fandom worlds. I'M NOT CRYING ON RALEIGH BECKET'S WHITE DUDE BEHALF [I'm crying on his behalf on like forty other counts, though], I'M CRYING ON MY BEHALF BECAUSE ALL I WANT IS FOR PEOPLE NOT TO BE THE WORST, AND ALL PEOPLE ARE IS THE WORST.
This entry was originally posted at http://dudski.dreamwidth.org/1458540.html because FUCK LIVEJOURNAL, FOR SERIOUS. You can comment over there or over here, I really don't care, but eventually you're all going to join me on DW, let's be real.