This is where I write about stuff I watched, read, played
or consumed otherwise!

This was so fucking awesome. I loved it. You need to watch this anime, it has it all: Great soundtrack, great and witty jokes, fun refrences and most importantly the coolest 2D animated action scenes I've seen in recent memory if not ever. Just one thing: To fully appreciate this anime adaptation you should have read the comic or at the very least seen the live action movie. Both would be best of course. And with that I will send you off, because this is my blog and I will dive so deep into spoilers for literally everything that's on my mind and you'll be very sorry if you don't take my advice and leave NOW.


And with that taken care off... WHAT WAS THIS SHOW???
I went into it expecting a retelling of the story that was closer to the comic than the movie. A nice little thing but nothing I would need if not for the reason that animation seemed so fucking good from the trailer. But then what I get is a full on alternative story/sequel that just gives me so much more fun, iconic and great moments with these characters I love? Sign me up!
I didn't even get it at first. I just watched the first episode on launch day and misremembered Scott dying as a thing that happened in the comic but he just respawned at the stage and kicked Matthews ass.
Then I go back to the show one day later to watch it with my girlfriend, and we get to the second episode and I was like... "wait, Scott didn't get a funeral in the fucking comic?!"
So that's when it dawned on us. This is something else. And we binged it in one day. It was so great to see all the evil exes reformed and in a more likable way compared to how they were "just" incredibly funny before. Stuff like Edgar Wrong also really cracked me up, and of course, it was super interesting to speculate about the mystery behind Scotts "death" and Young Neils script. And man, the revelation just felt so right. Scott was always a flawed protagonist, and in the comic he was meant to be. He got shit on for being such an asshole with Knives (and also dating a high schooler in the first place) and for leeching on everyone and whatnot. But yeah, one might still say he came of easy. And when we talk about the movie, he absolutely did, no argument there. So it's great to see that it really wasn't enough. He didn't quite grow enough, and now we find out what he got for it and it feels right. Scott also isn't redeemed at the end of the anime, but it's easier to think that he'll get there. And well, if he didn't... we know what he'll get for it. Even though Pop 'n TwinBee is fucking awesome and I hope they get together even if Scott doesn't end up like that and even if Sex Bob-Omb stays active.

Also, I have no way to proof it, but IN MY HEAD I totally called that the VR machine would be a Virtual Boy while older Scott input the fucking Hadouken as a code. And I was like "OMG he's just like me except pathetic!" because I have a Virtual Boy! This really is the future I wanna live in. But yeah. Safe to say, this anime was a blast and you should totally watch it, which of course you already did because otherwise you wouldn't be reading this now, right?
...Right?

It happened. It finally happened. After being sick for over a week and unable to go to the theatre, I was finally able to watch the new Spider-Verse movie, and it was everything I hoped it would be, if not more.

And now I'm gonna make you read my thoughts and ramblings about it! I'll try my best to structure it, but it will probably be just as incoherent as everything else I write on here. Also spoiler warning! I wanna talk about this movie as much as I want and I also want you to watch it with as little prior knowledge, so please watch it if you're able.
So, let's do this one more time: This movie makes you feel seen. It's incredible. Obviously I can't speak for everyone, but for me and a lot of people I talked to it really was like this. If you have some relationship with being a discriminated minority, there is probably something in here that speaks to you, and it is absolutely great.
For me it was obviously mostly the trans allegory in the relationship between Spider-People and their parents. I could really relate to everything that both Miles and Gwen felt in that regard. Especially with Gwen running away because she just cannot face the rejection of her father, even though all she ever did was to make him proud. And her proper outing after that was protrayed so beautifully, everyone is talking about them using the colors of the trans pride flag, but it was also the color pallete of her costume! And it's just... so perfect! And so realistic! Of course her dad is not gonna arrest her after all that, but obviously he is still struggling, and she is still struggling, and that might not ever change, but also it's so great to see both of them genuinely try.
With Miles it was really similar. Now, he didn't have his real outing yet, but even just seeing him try multiple times, but then chickening out, is an experience that I myself had at multiple points in my life and I can really get. Seeing his parents struggle with knowing that he is hiding something is also so heartening. Obviously it's sad, but it speaks volumes about how understanding they already are. I don't think my own parents, or at least one of them, ever really knew or suspected that I might be struggling through something I am not telling them. They always acted like they knew me better than I know myself, as if their memory of me that one time in a scenario they were able to observe has to dictate how I will feel and act now. They still do that sometimes. I haven't been living with them for 5 years at this point, and yet sometimes we will talk and they will be like: "Oh, you think you are like this? Well I think you can't be like this because over 10 years ago I percieved you like this instead!" And I'm like... so what, you think I'm delusional now? What makes you think I wasn't delusional back then? Oh right, because you have this made up fake kid in your head that you want to see me as and that earlier thing serves your narrative better.
But I'm getting of track. Or rather I have been, for quite some time. But this is my site, I can do what I want!

I still wanna get back to the movie. It's funny. The jokes are clever, the refrences are cool and not in your face. The casts diversity is like, so great. I just find it incredibly funny that Oscar Isaac now portrays five Marvel characters, in a cinematic multiverse where basically all of them are still canon.
The jokes also really landed for me. Some of the classic Spider-Man quips were just "okay", but to be honest I wouldn't wanna miss those. The Spot? Great villian. I love how he started out as basically his pathetic comic book self, but then got redeemed through his character growth, in a negative direction of course, that made him more bitter and more menacing and also just much more evil. Also he was a little chubby. But I didn't feel like that was part of the joke, at least not to me. They did make fun of his appearance but not for that. He just wasn't much of an athletic guy, but a scientist, and I think as a desk dweller who isn't into sports its more common to look like that than anything else.
Pavitr Prabhakar? Very likable guy. He was fun, wholesome and a little bit too cocky, but that is only natural for a Spider-Man who can have it all... for now at least. To be honest I think he might be one of the most likable Spider-People who haven't realized that with great power comes great responsibility.
Spider-Punk? Spider-Punk. Fucking Spider-Punk, man! How can a dude be so cool??? How can a dude who is this cool be allowed in a movie like this? If you think about it, it becomes a little scary to realize how capitalism is so comfortable to sell us anti-capitalism as a product like this. But I don't want to hold it against the movie too much either, because I am very convinced that the people who actually made the movie aren't capitalists. But seriously. He looks so cool. He is animated so cool. It's cool how he is so honest about being a proper fash-bashing punk rocker, and how he is basically planting the seeds that make Miles and Gwen rebel against the established system canon.

And then there's this. The movie really makes me think. Of course I'm anti-establishment. Of course I want Miles and Gwen to be able to save their fathers. Of course I want Miguel O'Hara to realize that he is wrong.
But I would be lying if I told you that I wouldn't want my Spider-People to be struggling. One of the things that made Spider-Man: No Way Home so great was that Tom Hollands Peter ended in a more traditional Spider-Man role, right? It's what makes them relatable, it's what makes them human. If Spider-Man can have it all... then how am I supposed to feel this strong bond between me and him? I certainly can't have it all, and seeing all of these cool and powerful characters going through similar struggles is absolutely the point.
However, in the end I don't think it's the canon events that make Spider-Man appealing. It doesn't have to be a police captain close to him dying specifically. While the concept of Spider-Man being this guy, always struggling to keep up with both his lifes, is near and dear to me, I don't think it's the police captain or even uncle Ben dying specifically. Canon events don't matter that much in the grand scheme of things, they aren't what makes Spider-Man Spider-Man. They are symptoms of the ongoing struggle of him. Mere examples of the things a Spider-Man has to go through. And Miles earning the ability to defy canon won't mean that he will stop facing problems. Him having this won't let him balance school and hero life. He can have his cake and eat it to if he bakes two cakes, but baking two cakes will never be not stressfull, and the cakes won't last forever either.

However, these thoughts cast aside, I have absolutely no doubts that the third movie will be great. And I am confident that the people behind this trilogy will give it a satisfying conclusion, that both feels like a good Spider-Man story and satisfies our punk-rocking hearts with a story that won't yield to a flawed status quo.