I Don't Have A Brand Yet

Tira and Seong-Mina in Soul Calibur. Anyone look cold here? The conversation surrounding misogyny in video games and gaming circles has been a large talking point for the better part of a decade at the very least. When choosing who to market video games to back in the very gendered 1970s when they began to be produced for commercial use, marketing executives chose boys, excluding entire markets from a medium, and a product, that anyone can enjoy. It's a choice that has haunted the industry to this day, as more and more men show their disdain for women who play these games, whether these women play in competitive circles or for pure entertainment, gatekeeping is common in the industry and community. Women are not only discouraged from engaging with these products, but from making them as well, as development teams, from writers to programmers to directors show a clear lack of diversity on all fronts. Nowhere is this gap more felt than in the fighting game genre, as straight cis

Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation Disclaimer: This article is not meant to defame or denounce any of the people mentioned in it. It is simply for discussion purposes only, to lead to healthy debate rather than rude insults. This article was not written with malicious intent. When the casting of the American-made live-action version of Ghost in the Shell was announced, it was met with a general disdain from the world of social media, particularly because of the casting of the main character, Major Motoko Kusanagi whose name was changed to Major Mila Killian so Johansson can fit in more, I assume. Major, a character who I'm sure you can tell is likely a Japanese character from a piece of Japanese media, was to be played by Scarlett Johansson, an actress who is, technically, white. As you can imagine, this upset and angered many people, not only Asian and Japanese communities but also fans of the original source material, as the film had taken the labor

Bruce Wayne visiting his parents' grave Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is a 1993 movie (which just recently celebrated its twenty fifth anniversary) in the universe of the critically-acclaimed show  Batman: The Animated Series . The film focuses on Bruce Wayne having to deal with a woman from his past, Andrea Beaumont, while his alter ego has to clear his name after a mysterious new vigilante appears in Gotham and begins killing members from a crime syndicate.  This is going to contain spoilers for the film, so let me get the big twist out of the way: the new vigilante, the Phantasm, is Andrea Beaumont (cue gasps from the crowd).  Now that we have that out of the way, let me ask: why can't we let Batman be happy? Throughout the film, we see flashbacks that Bruce is experiencing, each of them a fantastic insight into his character that is rarely seen.  While Batman is typically cold, aggressive, or even emotionless in comics, his animated counterpart seems to have the de

Kiernan Shipka in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina  On October 26th, the Netflix title Chilling Adventures of Sabrina premiered, just in time for Halloween, in all of its satanic and bewitching glory. While I have not finished the series, I have opted instead to review the show in three episode chunks, and man are these three episodes a wild broom ride from start to finish. One of the biggest themes that is supposed to be present throughout the series is questioning and challenging religious traditions, and I’ve never felt more at home with this idea. Many pieces of media have characters questioning religion, their place in the world, the meaning of life, and everything that churches and organizations say any deity can answer. Over the weekend I read (well, listened to) The Stranger by Albert Camus, which has a consistent theme of questioning religion and worship in general, culminating in a speech with the main character narrating "... what did his God or the lives peop

Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born Last Wednesday (the 10th, to be exact) I saw Bradley Cooper's A Star Is Born .  The film stars Bradley Cooper as Jackson Maine, an alcoholic drug addict who also just so happens to be one of the biggest names in music, and Lady Gaga as Ally, a feisty, hardworking, and incredibly talented waitress who somehow hasn't become famous yet (she says record companies hate her nose).  To review the movie first: it's fantastic. Both leads provide entrancing performances despite the obstacles to overcome to be in this film, that Cooper is not a singer and Lady Gaga is not an actress. Every song, even ones meant to be unappealing ("Why Did You Do That?") are at the very least earworms, and at the very most instant classics ("Shallow," "Music to My Eyes," and "Look What I Found").  It’s at its core a tragic love story, one where in order for one to fly, the other must fall, and it completely delivers in th

Hi everyone! Just a quick announcement and test for posts coming your way. Anyway, I'm here to announce the schedule for October (aka this month). October 15th: A piece about A Star Is Born (2018) After October 12th: Weekly reviews of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend  October 30th: Something Halloween related (thinking a spooky episode of Black Mirror or a piece about the recent BoJack Horseman episode about Halloween, who knows? I don't.) And that will probably be it for the month. By the way, I have a Patreon! By joining the tiers of my Patreon you will get special benefits! Link below: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=13928783