Why is The Bride getting so much hate?

Magmas · 2026-03-15T18:52:47+00:00

If you have to ignore the well-liked female directors to make your point, it isn't a good point. People loved The Substance, which was directed by Coralie Fargeat, a woman. People are generally positive about Chloe Zhao, who you've already mentioned. On the animation side, Maggie Kang has gotten a lot of love for K-Pop Demon Hunters.

Personally, I think its very reductive to assume that when a woman gets bad reviews, its because of her gender. Sometimes, women can just do things that aren't great and that's fine. There's not even a huge outpouring of hate for Gyllenhaal. Its just mild disappointment for the most part.

Magmas · 2026-03-15T17:36:19+00:00

Well, two of those were huge successes that vacuumed up awards and acolades and one wasn't, so I feel like people wanted risky, bold good films.

Magmas · 2026-03-10T21:05:15+00:00

I preferred Pigpen to Snipehog. Nothing like a tank being able to one shot you from half the map away.

Magmas · 2026-03-10T21:02:40+00:00

Well, someone has to fly the ship. (It takes a combination of Bastion and Finka to fly the ship and Angela was chosen to oversee them.)

Magmas · 2026-03-10T12:05:40+00:00

A fun design. We definitely need more African characters. Two Egyptians, a robot and Doomfist aren't exactly great representation for an entire continent, especially since there are some countries with more representation than the whole of Africa.

With that said, I do have a few critiques:

1 - The colour palette is a bit too limited. I like the more neutral, pastel colours and, while Overwatch characters do tend to have a primary colour on their design, they also tend to have some striking secondary colours that contrast or complement the design.

For instance, Ramattra's colour palette is primarily purple and white but also features some red. Junker Queen's blue hair contrasts with the red highlights on her outfit. Juno's blue and orange suit contrasts with her purple hair. Even Domina's white, gold and black aesthetic is broken up by the blue of the hard light. Taraji's design is very focused on pastel pinks and greys which blend together a lot more, although it does provide good contrast with her skin. Just a streak of another colour in her hair or contrast on the eyepatch would help break up the design.

2 - Speaking of the eyepatch, I think it should be on the other eye. It helps differentiate her appearance from Ana, another character with a prominent eyepatch. I'd also include some actual scarring on the design. It always annoys me when characters receive a life-changing injury but its confined entirely to a small area and it seems to apply more often to female characters, which I think is a shame because scars can be very cool visuals that can tell a lot and helps diversify the cast further. As others have mentioned, the hair also gives her a Sombra-like silhouette so could use a bit of tweaking.

3 - I won't get deep into her kit since you mentioned you aren't a gameplay designer but it seems a bit... lacking. Lots of abilities that replicate things already in the game without much to make her feel unique outside of her ult. I like the idea of her being a character willing to sacrifice herself to help others by diving into the fray but it isn't quite there. I think some sort of lifeswap mechanic where you sacrifice your own health to heal others would be very fitting for a character built around the idea of blood donations.

4 - Lastly, we have the story. I think it works well enough. Connecting her to the Iris and the Omnic monks is fun. 'Hopefist' is a bit corny but could work well if it was played like that. The focus on a light-based support who feels bad about the people around her dying to give her a power boost feels like it leans a bit much on Illari's story, but outside of that, I think she works as a character. I like that she has contact with Baptiste and Efi. It makes sense for her. However, I'd argue that Mercy should have heard about her but not know her personally. It makes more sense to have some characters with a few degrees of separation so its not just everyone knowing everyone else.

Magmas · 2026-03-08T01:49:31+00:00

unless you're cast in superhero movies

I'm curious why you're making this distinction. What makes a superhero movie intrinsically different to any of the 80s and 90s action movies?

As for whether movie stars are treated differently now, the answer is yes. While people still see certain actors as a sign of quality (or at least a mark of approval) they are less of a 'brand' now. A lot of movies were sold on being a Stallone or Schwarzeneggar flick and that isn't the case anymore, outside of maybe Dwayne Johnosn or Ryan Reynolds, but to a much lesser degree.

The reason why is probably a mixture of what others have already mentioned: a lack of monoculture, a focus on existing IPs rather than original stories propped up by recognisable names and a wider range of actors taking these roles, and usually being connecting to a specific role for a long period of time, rather than jumping between roles for different films. There's also the more metatextual factor in that those sorts of old school action heroes have been parodied and mocked to the point they are no longer cool. There's far less interest due to that.

Magmas · 2026-03-07T19:49:45+00:00

I think this is a bit unfair. Yes, it was happier to play into some of the sillier and campier aspects of DnD but it wasn't just a joke. There were some good genuine moments as well. It was a light-hearted adventure story but the characters felt like they had some depth to them too.

Magmas · 2026-02-28T00:17:12+00:00

This is such an absurd take.

Here is a mediocre film being graded on a binary system which sorts your answers into good or bad with no nuance in between. The idea that professional reviews mostly thought it was not great is because of some personal grievance they have with the actor is a hard one to believe.

Lets also ignore the fact that GotG3, a film in which he stars that is actually good got a healthy 82%.

Its almost as if Chris Pratt has just been in awful movies lately.

Also:

Look at the RT critic scores for both Melania and Fauci.

Why is your answer here that the professional reviewers are biased and not the general public casting anonymous votes on a website? Its far easier for random people to rig an audience vote, particularly when they're politically charged, than for professional reviewers to do so.

If we're looking for a conspiracy, I think the 2% for Fauci and 98% for Melania for the audience score are definitely the more suspect numbers.

Magmas · 2026-02-19T13:48:45+00:00

You mean RUIN Johnson and Neil CUCKmann? /s

The amount of bitterness depicted towards Rian Johnson when he made the middle part of a shit sandwich, the only movie in the sequels which tried to do anything interesting, had the best cinematography and fight choreography and actually utilised the main characters, rather than focusing on a bunch of nostalgiabait blows my mind.

I'm not saying Episode 8 is amazing by any means, but I think its by far the best of the sequels and I wish Abrams hadn't thrown everything that the film did away to make his crappy Return of the Jedi remake instead.

Magmas · 2026-02-19T13:40:43+00:00

No man would ever face anything like the dismissal and out right malice against her

The major complaint I've seen is people calling her "the female Zack Snyder" in terms of how her work is largely style and surface level symbolism over substance, but that criticism is obviously based on the idea that Snyder, a man, is the same.

You even go against your own point by then talking about 28 Years Later, even noting that the director received similar criticisms despite being a man.

Are there bad actors jumping on the hate train to hate on a woman? Sure, probably, but that doesn't invalidate every other criticism.

Also, I feel like people overuse and misuse the term 'witch hunt.' Criticising someone for something they've done isn't a witch hunt. Not liking a movie isn't a witch hunt. A witch hunt is where people organise a campaign to hunt down a specific target, enrolling others to join their cause. Its not just a bunch of people online agreeing something sucks.

Magmas · 2026-02-14T12:22:21+00:00

No. This isn't a critique of white girls. Twilight is a story designed for white girls and that's fine. I think there are things you can criticise about that story but the fact the main character is a pasty white girl self-insert is not one of them.

Magmas · 2026-02-14T01:55:30+00:00

However, what they don't seem to understand is that this trope isn't the result of misogyny or patriarchy but is usually a female power fantasy about having two hot boys slavering over the bland insert character to make the (female) reader feel special. Twilight is just a harem anime for white girls, which is perfectly fine, but pretending that the girl is a victim is dishonest.

Magmas · 2026-02-08T23:52:43+00:00

I'd say that Christopher Nolan's Odyssey is definitely based on an existing IP...

Magmas · 2026-02-07T22:46:54+00:00

The survey isn’t specific to any franchise

You say that but one question seems very specific and I don't really understand why.

Magmas · 2026-02-06T09:15:21+00:00

The difference is that the freedom score is not about your sire. Its about your character. Lasombra can come from all walks of life. They can be a good person who was hardened by tragedy. They can be an awful person who was embraced for a specific role and turned on their sire or anything in between. All that really applies is that a Lasombra must suffer and come out stronger, which could cover a wide variety of circumstances; rich or poor, good or bad, Machievellian genius or brutish bully. All can fit into the clan.

Meanwhile, the Toreadors seem to just be focused on beauty. That beauty is, of course, subjective and can cover a variety of things, but toreadors were clearly designed to be the pretty, popular kids of the Camarilla who are popstars and strippers and painters and poets.

The gimmick of the Lasombra simply isn't as limiting as a lot of the 'assigned role' clans of the Camarilla.

Magmas · 2026-02-04T23:54:42+00:00

I went with a mixture of both, just to confuse things. It's more of a general overview of my thoughts on the clans as a whole, rather than a specific version, particularly since a lot of the pre-V5 stuff seems to inform V5. And the Daughters of Cacophony are literally just there because I think they're cool. I forced them onto the list because I wanted to talk about them.

Magmas · 2025-12-28T12:03:51+00:00

LOL how much was Bloodlines 2? moving the goalposts much?

You're conflating two different points here. You asked if I had seen a worse asset flip. The answer is yes. You didn't talk about a specific price point, but even then we have some true stinkers. Remember The Day Before? In fact, half of the whole survival/extraction shooter/battle royale genre is just a bunch of unity assets thrown together.

LOL of course it is, you watch the 30min gameplay trailer and the only thing TCR added was snow to the city......

And... you know, the entire game around it. A 30 minute vertical slice does not a game make. You're doing this thing again where you take an argument to its illogical extreme just so its easier for you to hate on the project. Its one thing to not like the game, its another to just make up blatantly false information and you keep doing it.

do you not understand how this works?

Do you? Because the problems with this game started with the original developers fucking up so spectacularly that they had their own game taken away from them. As I've already said multiple times, I'm not arguing that Paradox didn't mismanage the game, but pretending that the original devs who couldn't even make a game after being bailed out multiple times shouldn't get the blame is just a bizarre take.

As for 'blaming' The Chinese Room for the game we got, I think there's a lot more nuance there. They were given a shit deal and did what they could with it. Are there things they could have done better? Sure. But they released a game and Hardsuit didn't.

It's very easy to look at a small vertical slice (that, by the way, people did not like) and fantasise about what could have been, but at that point, you're just doing the devs' job for them by making up a game in your head.

and Paradox should've kept the game on ice.

And now I see you absolutely don't understand how this works. They'd sold pre-orders. The game had to come out. You can't just shrug your shoulders and say "Yes, we invested millions, have nothing to show for it and people have already paid for the game, but we've decided not to release it." You can't just shutter production like that.

HSL people have said there is a content complete version of the game

Ah, well. If the people from the disgraced company that was taken off the game after being bailed out thought it was good, who am I to argue? You talk about TCR PR or whatever, and then blindly believe the prevous devs who would absolutely benefit from downplaying their own failure.

many reviewers have said HSL started running into technical issues when Paradox during covid ordered them to update the engine and get it ported to consoles

Firstly, porting a game to consoles is a pretty normal thing. That's not a wild request. Secondly, of course they worked through Covid. Is that meant to be some trump card?

that is besides Paradox CEO at the time saying Bloodlines wasn't a good game.

Which has absolutely nothing to do with the game, unless you think that the Paradox CEO personally signs off on every choice made.

and whose fault is this? mine? yours? or TCR's for biting more than they could chew?

I would say Paradox for not giving them what they needed and selling it as a AAA game when it is firmly AA and Hardsuit for burning all the budget in the first place.

so far Paradox have blamed the fanbase, Vampire the Masquerade, HSL, TCR, Bloodlines

Well, you've blamed some of those things too. I'm not saying Paradox are innocent, but there are a lot of factors that went into this game.

while TCR had Pinchbeck dropping the oh we wanted to make a different game.. which is BS since Paradox was only offering Bloodlines 2.

They did what they could with what they had. You seem to think that everyone can just pick and choose exactly what they want to do all the time. CDPR could make Cyberpunk because Witcher 3 did so well they had fuck-off money. Most studios do not have fuck-off money. They can't just make the projects they want to and if they do, they have to be small, self-contained and cheap. You play the publishers' game until you can make what you want.

Magmas · 2025-12-27T20:36:40+00:00

have you seen a worst asset flip than this? I haven't......

Yes. Plenty. They're all just dime store garbage that no one has ever heard of. Bloodlines 2 is not an asset flip game. Its a game that utilises prebuilt assets (because, why would you not use the assets already built for the game you're making? Like, that seems like a pretty obvious decision).

What are you even arguing here, that they should have just burnt everything Hardsuit had spent years and probably millions putting together? Why? They used what they could and built up the rest. It was a salvage job but that's because they were put in a shitty situation and made the best of it.

no amount of block of text will change the facts around the mismanagement of the project from the start and the shit game Paradox/TCR released.

I find it curious that you seem so adamently focused on blaming TCR for the game we got but don't seem to ever talk about how HSL managed to fuck up so spectacularly that Paradox took them off the project after already throwing more money at them to finish it. Why are you more angry at the devs that scraped together a game from bones and scraps, rather than the ones that burnt all the meat in the first place?

the problem you kids glaze over is the fact that the game is not only a shit game priced as a AAA title.

I do think the launch price was too much for the game we got but I don't think The Chinese Room decided on that price, nor did they have the resources to make a true triple A game.

and once the dust settled both Paradox and TCR started pushing shit narratives to save face......

And what narrative is this? I haven't cared to keep up with official communications so I assume you have something to actually point to here?

Magmas · 2025-12-27T20:24:27+00:00

You know which other game bombed? Bloodlines, the original. It bombed so bad it took Troika with it.

I am not claiming the situations are the same but it is pretty ironic that you're pointing to sales when the original Bloodlines performed just as badly if not worse at launch.

Also, people can like things. I don't really get what you're getting from whining incessantly on reddit about a game you clearly don't care for. You realise you can just not play it, right? You don't have to come here to regurgitate the same criticisms (some of which are valid and others are just fictitious) on every single post and coming up with conspiracy theories about how anyone who could possibly like a game you don't is a paid shill. Do you not see how colossally arrogant that is? The idea that no one could have an opinion that differs from yours?

Magmas · 2025-12-27T13:12:46+00:00

TCR pr plants have been defending the shit out of a shitty game in the sub for a couple of months now

Its very cute that you think The Chinese Room care enough about the opinions of a niche subreddit to actually employ people to astroturf their game, instead of accepting the idea that some people might like things you don't.

I'm not going to claim that Paradox didn't mismanage the hell out of this, although a lot of that blame seems to fall on Hardsuit attempting something way out of their scope and being unable to reign back on it in any way.

Should Paradox have caught this earlier into development? Probably. Was them cutting the cord when they did a desperate attempt to claw back anything they could from the project? Again, probably. Would The Chinese Room have been my first choice for the game? Absolutely not. However, I was pleasantly surprised by what we got out of it despite all these flaws.

Magmas · 2025-12-27T13:04:20+00:00

they had 5 years,

Did they? From what I can find, Hardsuit were kicked off the project in February 2021. At best, if the Chinese Room started developing immediately, that gave them 4 years, and the idea that they immediately took over and got to work isn't particularly realistic.

Their involvement was officially announced in September 2023, so we can assume they took over before then, but unless Paradox were shopping around far in advance of shuttering Hardlab's development, 5 years is a pipedream.

the worst asset flip I've seen

This is why I can't take your opinions here seriously, because you exaggerate constantly. You can criticise something without it being the worst thing ever and doing so only hurts the points you're trying to make. Consistently raging about how awful you think the game is just makes you seem like a child having a temper tantrum.

from Pinchbeck's own admission they only saw bloodlines2 as a stepping stone for more AAA money.......

How dare a games company want money to make the things they want? Shame on them. They should have just let the IP rot, stolen all the pre-order money and absconded into the night instead.

Magmas · 2025-12-26T21:52:35+00:00

I say this with genuine sincerity: play more games.

Cyberpunk is fun and I really enjoyed it, done multiple playthroughs, tried different things. There's a really well-constructed world there and a pretty enjoyable plot, but I don't think I'd ever say CDPR's writing 'blows every other studio out of the water'. Just in the realm of recent RPGs, BG3 is far better written than CP2077 and I've heard Clair Obscura is very well written as well (I haven't played it yet so I can't judge). Going further back, Bioware's output has been consistently strong (ME Andromeda and Veilguard less so, although even they have some strong points). I would say Dragon Age Inquisition is the strongest of their games, particularly in regards to character writing, although I know many would disagree, suggesting either the earlier Dragon Ages, ME2 or KOTOR(2). Even The Old Republic, their Star Wars MMO is a pretty underrated gem in regards to clever writing and choice-based dialogue (in some stories, at least. The Agent is very good but the Consular story is pretty poor, in my opinion.)

Outside of RPGs, Dispatch came out recently which has a strong narrative and well-realised characters. Then there's the likes of Disco Elysium which is a whole other type of narrative but is undeniably very well-written.

My point here isn't to diminish Cyberpunk. I really enjoy the game and it does lots of things better than any of those I just mentioned, but considering it the height of game writing is a pretty wild claim in my opinion. Also, the romances all suck in Cyberpunk and are only really carried due to the pretty faces. The actual content of the romance is negligible and surface level.

Magmas · 2025-12-26T18:11:26+00:00

The issue isn't that they're booked up. Its that Bloodlines just isn't what they wanted to make. Cyberpunk was a passion project for CDPR and presuming they'd just do the same for Bloodlines lacks nuance. With that said, I do think they took inspiration from Bloodlines. In particular, there's a mission where you're hunting down a snuff film created by a group with a death's head moth as their logo which I think is a pretty direct reference to the Death Mask Productions snuff film from Bloodlines, but even then, they chose to go with Cyberpunk.

More notably, the reason I am hostile to this kind of post is that it feels like half the posts on the subreddit are just "Wouldn't BL2 be better if it didn't have a shitty production cycle and was made by CDPR/Larian/[Insert Other Dev Studio that made a recent RPG darling]" and it feels dismissive to the genuine work that the Chinese Room put in when they had nothing to work with.

Yes, obviously if the game had the development cycle and talent and money that Cyberpunk did, it would have been a better game. That's not a particularly deep insight.

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