Trishs Conflicting Viewpoints On Simpson And Jessica

Trish’s conflicting viewpoints on Simpson and Jessica

Jessica and Simpson near the end of the series are working toward a common goal, killing Kilgrave. It’s Trish’s reaction to them and their goal that shows us what type of people they are and their differing viewpoint on the job they “have” to do. For Jessica this job is essential and the whole reason Kilgrave is doing any of it is to get to Jessica. For Simpson It’s because he wants to be the knight in shining armor, the hero.

When Simpson tells Trish that Kilgrave isn’t someone you can capture and that he must be removed Trish responds by saying that he can’t be the one who decides that, that he is being judge, jury, and executioner. There are other people that need him alive like Hope. To her his crusade isn’t in alignment with her moral code because he isn’t seeing the entire picture, like the casualties of Kilgrave’s antics, he has laser focus on killing kilgrave no matter the sacrifices. This was perfectly displayed when he told Trish about his marines saving the barbies. They all burned, but the barbies were saved. He doesn’t really register the losses that come about due to his quest. When his war buddies get killed he is initially upset, but immediately brushes it off and agrees to be a test subject for the super soldier pills so he can go back to his quest as soon as possible. He even tries to remove Jessica so she can’t hinder his mission any more. He also places blame of everything, but himself when things go wrong or he does something deemed wrong by Trish. To him the ends justify the means. By the end he can’t even tell that he’s doing something immoral to achieve his goal.

When Jessica comes to the conclusion she has to kill Kilgrave it it under worse circumstances. Hope has just died in her arms and any illusion she had that she could stop him without becoming what Kilgrave made her, a murderer. Trish supports Jessica’s conclusion and does everything she can to support her. This is because Jessica understands the casualties that Kilgrave has cause and realized that there is no other way. When Jessica Kills Kilgrave he has become so powerful he cannot be contained. Throughout the season Jessica constantly puts the blame on herself for everything kilgrave does. She constantly tries to put just herself in harms way to reduce the casualties. The ends don’t justify the means. Jessica knows this and Trish knows this. Jessica believes the deaths that Kilgrave caused should have been avoided and due to her he has only grown more powerful and that is what eventually drives her to permanently stop him, not the illusions of heroism that drive Simpson. 

Annabeth Chase - Character Growth at its Finest

I’m writing this because recently I have seen many people say that they really dislike or hate Annabeth and don’t know why people like her. I want to explain why people like Annabeth and why I personally find Annabeth a compelling character who I can relate to. 

 Annabeth starts out the series as a jaded young girl who has lead a rough life. She has been experiencing monster attacks since she was five or six. She ran away from home at the age of seven because of the emotional abuse her stepmother put her through due to the near constant monster attacks. She had terrible nightmares and her father neglected her. She would have died from either monsters or starvation if she wasn’t found by Thalia and Luke. They quickly became her new family. Annabeth loses this newfound family Thalia through sacrifice and Luke through betrayal. Due to these events she doesn’t trust others easily and avoids attachment because anyone she does get attached to leaves by either their own free will or force. Annabeth tries to solve her own problems and doesn’t trust others to solve her problems. This is partially due to her hubris, her fatal flaw, and her negative experiences with her father and step mother in her early life. All of these flaws come from an understandable place and they grow and change as the series goes on. 

 Annabeth’s inability to easily trust others and fear of being left by her loved ones is a large part of her character in the Percy Jackson series and even affects her in the heroes of olympus series. She initially treats Percy with indifference and even uses him as a distraction, so she can capture the opposing team’s flag. It’s only when she goes on a life threatening quest with him that he gains her trust fully. In the sea of monsters she is wary of Tyson because he is a cyclops one of the monsters that almost killed her and her makeshift family. She grows to realize that he isn’t like most cyclopes. Then later there is Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Annabeth feels that Rachel threatens her place in her new “family”. Rachel can see through the mist and likes Percy. This essentially makes Annabeth useless in her own eyes. Rachel can lead them through the labyrinth and all of Annabeth’s research was for naught. Rachel also has the guts to admit to Percy that she likes him, something that Annabeth herself hasn’t been able to do. She feels as though she is losing her place in the group as well as Percy. Annabeth later comes to terms with Rachel and they become good friends. Later Annabeth is put into a similar situation with Reyna. Reyna developed feelings for Percy and made a move on him. She doesn’t dote on that fact and has grown enough to where she knows that Percy won’t leave her like others in her life. She also comes around to trusting Reyna much quicker than Rachel. Annabeth trusts her enough to ask her to take the Athena Parthenos to camp half blood and solidify the bond between the greek and roman demigods. This is also why she desperately wants to prevent losing Percy in Tartarus. She has already lost her family twice and she doesn’t want it to happen a third time. Percy is the only person who hasn’t left her at any point and been with her through both her highest highs and lowest lows and vice versa. 

 Annabeth’s fatal flaw causes her a lot of problems throughout the Percy Jackson and heroes of olympus series, but in the Magnus Chase series she understands she can’t solve every problem by herself and sometimes she needs to let others sort out their own problems. In the Percy Jackson series her hubris causes her problems when it comes to Luke Castellan. She believes that Luke’s betrayal is her problem and that she should be the one to solve it. This backfires for her until the final book. In the last olympian she talks to Luke and tries to convince him to see the error of his ways, but she ultimately lets Percy and Luke make their own choices. In the mark of Athena she realizes there is a time and place to rely on others and do things herself. While it may not seem that significant, but this is a turning point where she realizes that just like how she needed to follow the mark of Athena on her own others have things they need to do on their own separate from her.  

 This is an overview of her growth as a character and her reasoning behind her actions. It is because of these changes and actions that she is one of my favorite characters throughout Rick Riordan’s mythological world.  

My Thoughts on Rose Quartz and Pearl in a Single Pale Rose

Spoilers for the new episodes below.

A single pale rose confirmed many of my suspicions about rose quartz as a person. In every previous episode centered on rose quarts she always seemed more curious and fascinated with humans and life on earth in a way that seemed more like she was more entertained by them than truly seeing “inner beauty”. The way she saw people seemed less than natural. Rose quartz/pink diamond created the human zoo which confirms her perception of humans. In this episode it all but confirms her warped perception.

 In the scene where pearl and rose are talking about staging her shattering it didn’t seem like rose had thought the plan through, like she was doing it on a whim because she wanted to. She also emotionally manipulated Pearl. She lead pearl on and let her believe that she had a future with rose. This really bothered me because while I had suspected this for a while, but having confirmation made it worse. Rose clearly knew that Pearl loved her and used that love to get pearl to do her bidding. And because of the actions taken in this scene pearl probably believes it is her fault for the diamonds turning their focus on earth and shattering all but a select few of Rose’s followers. She believes she caused the death of so many gems. Rose has caused many problems for pearl that I can’t help, but empathize with because I have watched Pearl’s struggles to move on from them. We have seen Pearl’s absolute devastation with Rose’s choice to be with Greg, have Steven, keep secrets from her, etc. Rose had long lasting mental scars on pearl. I hope that the issue of Rose’s emotional manipulation of pearl is addressed and Pearl eventually accepts and moves on. 

I never believed Rose was as great as the gems seemed to believe she was. She always seemed like a figure looked back upon riddled with nostalgia and rose tinted glasses. I never thought she would be this morally ambiguous. She lead a war from both sides until getting pearl to “shatter’ her which only made the situation worse. Then she goes on like nothing happened and has a kid and passes all of her problems onto him. She also bubbled bismuth without telling anyone and hid her away. She is incredibly childish and doesn’t think her actions and how they will effect others through. In the episode jungle moon when we see pink diamond complaining about not having her own colony and when she gets one she doesn’t want to tell them she doesn’t want that colony she tries to sidestep and make up excuses. Her shattering plan didn’t take into account the fallout. She didn’t consider the diamonds getting revenge for her, how it would hurt the other diamonds (blue diamond has depression and yellow is sad but tries to repress it), how her emotional manipulation of pearl causes pearl so many problems down the line, her manipulation of her followers on both sides of the war, etc. All of these show a sense of entitlement and immaturity. Rose quartz never existed just a pink diamond who had a fascination with humans because they entertained her like humans who go the the zoo to see the lions, tigers, monkey, and elephants. 

Princes Lotor and Zuko

The parallels between Lotor and Zuko are numerous. They were both inherently more peaceful then their fathers and seen as failures and outcast by those same fathers for their empathy and standing up for what they thought was right. Zuko when he was against purposefully sacrificing young soldiers and sending them to a fruitless fight and Lotor for not subjugating and destroying a race of people and instead learning about them and working with them. Due to their banishment they developed a facade that hid their empathy from those around them that slipped at moments. They both work tirelessly toward a goal they think is noble that is warped because of their parents views. Zuko his honor and Lotor the quintessence. I think like preince Zuko Lotor truly believes that the quintessence is the solution to his and his people’s problems. Lotor may end up betraying the Palladins, but it won’t be because he is evil or wanted to betray them. It will be because of a source of conflict and his obsession towards his goal. If he does betray the palladins he will eventually get his redemption arc where he realizes what he strove for wasn’t the solution to his answers. The source of conflict was set up this season in Honerva. I believe it will play out similar to Azula with Zuko in the crossroads of destiny. It is made clear throughout the season that both of Lotor’s parents were neglectful and one was abusive, so if he accepts that Haggar is his mother and discovers she has been helping him with the palladins and indirectly saved him from Zarkon through Kuron he may be manipulated. He admits to Allura in the finale that he envies her because she had Alfor as a father and he travelled the world with her and it was implied that he also envied that she got to have that childhood with happy family memories. If his mother is revealed to have loved him and “love” him his emotions can be manipulated in her favor. There is also the parallel between Honerva and Zarkon and Lotor and Allura. Both sets have a fixation on quintessence and believe that it can bring prosperity to the people, but while Zarkon and Honerva slowly become corrupted in their initially honorable quest Lotor and Allura have the ability to change their projected outcome. I think that while Honerva slowly edges Lotor to corruption Allura, because she is pure at heart, can prevent his downward spiral. The reason the relationship between Lotor and Allura was expanded upon so much this season could be for this reason, to prevent Lotor from becoming his Father and Mother and truly use quintessence to help the people and bring about a new age of prosperity instead of destruction and death. Lotor’s redemption arc has just begun. 

The Dark Tournament-My Favorite Shonen Tournament Arc

I recently rewatched Yu Yu Hakusho and upon seeing the dark tournament for the second time I was struck by just how well done Yoshihiro Togashi made this classic shonen arc. He uses all the traditional shonen tropes to their greatest strength and he creates his own twist on them. This arc used background elements to accentuate elements that play into the story and tournament itself. All of these elements create my favorite shonen tournament arc.

The setting of the tournament is fascinating in that it is used to increase your emotions inn regards to each fight. The entire arena, except for Botan, Keiko, and Shizuru, is against Yusuke and his friends as well as the tournament committee. This makes each win seem so much more hard fought and each loss even more crushing. When the crowd finally cheers for Yusuke it is out of self preservation and creates an atmosphere of desperation for the final battle with Toguro. I’ve never really seen this done in a shonen quite like it is here. Most series I’ve read just focus on the reactions of a select few characters the protagonist knows and everyone else is mostly irrelevant. When you think about sporting event or competitions in real life part of the intensity of it all is the crowd cheering when a goal is scored for their team or being frustrated when they think the referee made a bad call. When sitting in the stands if fans for your team are in the minority you’re usually more excited when the score and win the game because they overcame the odds and won in “enemy” territory. The fact that it utilized this aspect of competition when it could have been thrown away like it so often is was really refreshing.

This tournament firmly established the personalities of all of the major players within this arc and the series moving forward. This tournament is what made me love Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, and Yusuke. Whether it be Kuwabara’s big heart and empathy for others, Kurama’s calm calculation, Hiei’s confidence and quiet fury, or Yusuke’s confidence and determination I enjoyed how these characteristics played into each fight and their interactions between the fights. It wasn’t just the heroes either, but also the villains. Toguro is a deceivingly complex villain with a sadness underlying his cold and brutal facade. His final conversation with Genkai was cathartic and managed to incorporate themes of desire, love, and loss in a single two sentence exchange “Don’t ever regret what happened between us.” “No, but it would have been a beautiful life.” Toguro, when all was said and done, truly was a “man with a wounded heart and a broken dream.” The fact that after seeing all the awful things this character has done the story manages to make me empathize with this character is a testament to the character writing put into it.

All of the fights were well animated and had something that kept my watching. In Kurama’s fights it was his intellect and seeing how he gets out of the situation at hand even with handicaps. Yoko Kurama’s first appearance was incredibly memorable and had me in awe of his overwhelming power and control of plants. In Hiei’s fights it was his ingenious uses of the dragon of the darkness flame. In Kuwabara’s fights I was interested in seeing how his empathy interacted with his actions and how he competes against the odds. In Yusuke’s fights it was interesting to see him grow through the obstacles until he couldn’t grow through just physical means and had to accept and grow emotionally through learning how to be outwardly genuine by embracing his emotions.

This is why I found this to be my favorite tournament arc in anime. I understand if others have a different opinion. I know of many anime that have a great tournament that uses conventional and unconventional methods to create a compelling arc.

The Incredibles 2 Review

Very minor spoilers ahead

I just saw the Incredibles 2 and loved it. It doesn’t cover as many mature themes as the initial movie, but it still brings the heart and Parr family that we know and love. Bob and Helen continue to be one of the most realistic animated couples and the family is still relatable despite all the new developments within the film. The characters are the reason for watching both this film and the original. The family still fights, but at the end of the day they care about each other and wouldn’t give it up for the world

The family is taken in a new direction from the original; Helen gets a job trying to legalize supers again, Bob is staying at home taking care of the kids, Violet goes through boy troubles, Dash doesn’t understand his homework, and Jack-Jack develops a whole slew of powers. Their problems are things everyday people struggle with and Violet, Dash, and Jack-jack’s problems helped move Bob’s storyline forward. He is now the hands-on parent who isn’t gone all day for work. He’s trying his best to be there for the kids and gets frustrated when he has trouble. He works to understand Dash’s homework so he can teach Dash, He tries to help Violet’s boy problems, and he brings Jack-Jack to Edna for help with all of his burgeoning powers. Unlike most cartoon fathers he is competent at being a stay at home parent. Helen’s new job is a fun part of the film that shows just how good she was at being a superhero before having to retire. The villain she has to face is interesting and brings up a different viewpoint on superheroes as a whole. The screenslaver believes that superheroes made the people complacent and neglect protecting themselves which leads to tragedy.

All in all this was a great addition to the Incredibles franchise and I’m glad we got it even if it is fourteen years later. This is the type of movie I would go to see in the theaters twice. I appreciate all the hard work Brad Bird, the animators, and voice actors put into this film and encourage everyone to go see it with their own eyes.