#'why do us humans have to be so freaking complicated' is HILARIOUS

[ghostlyerlkonig]

https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/41612-male-lesbians/

This form has some wild interesting stuff on the topic of male lesbians.

some of my fav pins from the Lesbian Herstory Archives

[ID: 9 close up pictures of a pin against a gray background. In this description, images are numbered 1 through 9.

1. A pale pink pin with purple text. In caps, it reads: "male lesbians unite."

2. A pale yellow pin with cartoonish dark blue text. It reads: "Mr. Lady records • videos. The punctuation points are little white stars." White curvy lines and more stars are inside the word lady.

3. A black pin with gothic red text. It reads: "Serenity through viciousness."

4. A white pin with gray text. It reads: "I'm Hetro-Phobic." The word "I'm" is tilted.

5. A pin with dark gray text. The bottom half is red, and the top half has a bunch of red, distorted smiley faces, with a white background peeking through. In caps, the text reads: "happy gays are here again."

6. A white pin with saturated purple text. In caps, it reads: "don't feed or tease the straight people."

7. A sky blue pin with small gray text. It reads: "fondle with care."

8. A grey pin with a light gray illustration of a shirtless, tired looking cowboy. They hold a mug of beer in their hands, resting against a fence with a saddle on it. The sign next to them reads "Boots & Saddle."

9. A royal blue pin with lilac purple text. The first and last line are in a larger, serif font, and the center line is a smaller, sans serif font. In caps, it reads: "love is a many-gendered thing."

Quoted with slashes indicating line breaks, it reads: "love is / a many-gendered / thing." /End ID]

[pearl484-blog]

I've been reading Journey to the West for Fire Opal (its an old ass book that she apparently struggles with. My obsession with classical lit FOR THE WIN!)

Now, for background, we started off our knowledge from a summary given to us by Overly Sarcastic Productions. It's great. You should watch it.

Then, we watched Lego Monkie Kid, a TV series designed to be a sequel to the book with a lot of references to the series in a high energy action series with great animation. It's great. You should watch it.

But, if you're not familiar with Chinese folklore (or Japanese if you're a needy anime fan like me who liked Inuyasha and a few other series with Buddhist references (kinda did not realize how often those get in these shows, seriously)) you're going to miss a few jokes/references.

(The one about Mei, the dragon/pony descendant getting excited to meet her dragon/pony ancestor who must've been super helpful on their journey (He was FREQUENTLY forgotten by the authors of being a mother friggin DRAGON, they kept getting hung up on the whole acting as a horse thing) is HILARIOUS when you know how BADLY she's about to be disappointed.)

Anyway, back on topic, when we were checking out our book at the library, it was divided into several books (not surprising considering how big it is) and the first book was missing, so we picked up an abridged copy (only 700 pages. Yeah. Journey to the West is a door stopper at a whopping 20,000 pages.) It leaves out a lot of details, but even with OSP's summaries of each adventure, it was a LIFE SAVER.

Why?

Each friggin' character has like 8 names. You'd think the translators would give a quick rundown ahead of the book too, you know as a refresher for those who didn't have book 1, but NOPE!

The abridged version keeps each character with their easiest to recall nickname at all times and simplifies and explains a lot of mythology that English Speakers may not know as well.

Did you know that a winking wish is secretly a human? Because I did not. I've heard of talking carp, and wish granting carp. But not winking carp secretly being human.

Then there's the fact that the underworld can ask for bank loans from wealthy families on behalf of the emperor? What? Like, how does that work? Do you get a vision in a dream and your money's gone? Does a spirit collect it for you? Is it a blink and you miss it fortune? I am way too invested in these freaking underworld money lending deals.

Both are in Tang Sangzang's complicated backstory, and even with the abridged version walking me through it step by step, I can see why OSP shortened it into "basically He's the reincarnation of the Golden Cicada, former pupil of the Buddha and the goodness boy ever"

Anyways: a few comments

Why OSP did you call the spell that tightens the circlet on Monkey King's head a migraine spell? I mean, that is REALLY underselling the horror of that little do-dad. I was completely unprepared for the description of it squeezing Monkey King's skull until it resembled a vase as he begged for Tang to stop. That's a teeeeeny bit more than a migraine.

2. Also, why in the heck is Tamg so obsessed with his friggin' alms bowl?

For reference, Buddhist monks are not allowed to carry money, so to eat, they carry around a bowl you can leave food in to feed them, allowing you to support your local Buddhist monks and earn good karma. This is completely socially acceptable and is seen as a good thing to do. For this reason, most monks serve in urban environments so they can serve a large enough community to support this.

Tang Sangzang is in the middle of a pilgrimage with DAYS of rural country where there may be no one to beg from around. And YET, he seems adamantly against foraging.

One of his detractors' major complaints is that he's so gullible and soft-hearted he keeps falling into obvious traps, but honestly. That's forgivable compared to sending your companions to scoure WHOLE MOUNTAIN RANGES for some rinky dink little cabin that may or may not be there and may or may not be willing to part with their food and may or may not be able to accomodate a vegetarian diet when they are living by themselves ON A MOUNTAIN.

Is foraging REALLY against Tang Sangzang's brand of Buddhism? Is it too much to ask for him to just...asks his companions to forage and make him a meal? He doesn't mind making them beg for him.

OSP keeps describing it as Monkey going to get him food, but I genuinely thought he was using his skills to forage, not cloud hop around till he found a house to beg from.

Granted, the group would have probably gotten attacked/tricked/captured/etc. another way, but SERIOUSLY?

3. OSP describes the fight against White Bone Lady as Monkey King just hits her and she dies, but Monkie Kid makes a BIG deal out of her. So, I figured this was one of OSP's jokes. NOPE!

Ivory white bone demon or whatever is literally one-hit KO-ed THREE times by Monkey King. Her special ability appears to be illusions and the ability to drop her body and escape into an immaterial form at the last second.

However, narratively speaking, her fight is what drives Monkey King away to leave the first time, so apparently adaptations love upping her abilities so she's more of a legitimate threat.

This DOES however make her line that she's grown stronger since Monkey King last fought her VERY funny. Because I don't think there's another major demon who gets KO-ed that quickly, especially one that has that happen 3 times! (You'd think she'd have learned and called it quits by the third time. Or at least distract the freakishly strong evil-detecting bodyguard somehow, but no.) So, yeah. You survived a single punch. You leveled up girl!

Honestly, rewatching her scenes knowing this makes all her talk of being powerful very funny. She's terrifying, yeah, but also it's funny.

Edited 9/25: forgot to add a read more line. Whoops

[fantomette22]

Headcanons about the Cainhurst portraits

@heraldofcrow wanted me to share some of my thoughts on it (but I will only talk about 3-4 of them because I have no idea who are this other people...and we will never know... it's making me crazy at times) So, here's all the ideas/theory about the potato baby especially ��

First, we need to establish that is painting below, represents Annalise. Ok? I'm not gonna explained it but if you lore dig + look at the concept arts I add. I really think it's her. (Short ver : She lost her melanine like Arianna (yep her hair turned white not blonde after the birth of the celestial larvae. Probably because of the failed birth of the child of Blood).

Now, about this one there's 2 possibilities for the woman.

it's an older/more recent Annalise painting.

It's Annalise's mother, the precedent Queen of Cainhurst.

I tend more on the mother idea but I need to take into account it could still be Annalise. The big problem is that we don't know if all the painting have been made around the same time or not... so who knows...And I'm really bad at telling if it's the same person or not... But anyway I'm here to discuss more about the infant in her arms (so I will take into account both possibilities + The woman might/ might not be the mother of the child too);

If the Queen holding the child is Annalise :

The Child of Blood : I heard this idea on one on Sinclair lore podcast. (I don't remember which one). They said it could be a representation of the child of blood of the Vileblood before it's birth (the one Annalise tried to have and highly didn't make it). They explained that at the time, people didn't do painting everyday and sometimes children were painted to look older than what they actually looked like.

Arianna / Alfred ? : If the cainhurst massacre happened a few decades ago + Arianna age that could fit. Same with Alfred if you believe in the Alfred=Vileblood theory. But why would Annalise hold them in there ?? I don't know

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Others : I can only think of 2 others (3 with the next speculation below) on who that could represents. I don't think it's him but Vileblood hunter Leo (a cut npc? chalice dungeon enemy) have white/blond hair so.... and an idea of mine is that it would be another known character from the game linked with Cainhurst you might have seen pass... and fight.... Yes, I have HUGE thoughts about Baby Crow !!!!! but I don't want to develop it too much because it's for a fic idea!!!!

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If it's the late Queen

I can only see one character in that case... but who know maybe the baby is really someone we don't know... (I mean it's a baby it's complicated to figured who it would look like later) So... in that case I wouldn't be surprised if this is in fact Lady Maria. That would be the most hilarious and angsty thing ever. If Mr Miyazaki came to tell us that, I would believe him in one instant.

Now 2 more possibilities if it's Maria, because why would she have the Queen hold her as a baby in an official portrait ??

We know Maria is a "collateral" relative of Annalise (closer and correct translation from the Japanese). A collateral relative means there's no descendance link between the two (not parent/child/grandparent links) so it could be : cousins (of different degrees, could be 1st, 2nd...) uncle/aunt & nephew or... siblings... yep. wouldn't that be fun ?! extremely drama if her and Annalise are actually freaking sisters (or half sisters I dunno). And maybe it's just me but I feel the clothes the woman wear are more practical to nurse too.

In that interpretation pretty sure this is the the dad then XD I mean come on they're both blond and have the same red clothes. Don't they share a similar vibes ? (there's lot of interpretations/theories on this guy too but I won't dig into that today).

Personal headcanon of mine : her and Annalise are just cousins or smt but Maria is like really not far behind in line of succession/ or well a human pyromancer (like the pthumerians) (if she could really do her fire blade before dying and getting trap in the nightmare) and it could have been seen as a sort of miracle. So she's special.

Bonus :

I believed that guy is the cut king of Cainhurst / Annalise's husband too (I have some headcanaons about him but it will be for another day. Mr royal guard too + maybe a few other paintings as well...)

[ashitomarisu]

Final Thoughts: Kill la Kill

(Dead serious: the fucking screencap feature crashed right before I started watching this and refused to take anything. Instead, here's a gif already found around this site that sums up my feelings of not even getting one cap.)

Prepare yourselves, I need to unload a LOT of...thoughts without spoiling a screwton of shockers. First off, let's scratch the surface a bit; touch upon the summary I read.

"Ryuko Matoi arrives at Honnouji Academy to find the person responsible for killing her father; oh, and she's wielding the other half of the scissors used in the murder".

Okay, sounds simple enough, except Trigger and Production I.G. are known for BLOWING PEOPLE'S MINDS with near-stellar animation (99.9% mainly are within standards of the director) and damn good writing [watch Ghost in the Shell FFS; you'll understand why].

Thus, they were not kidding when the animation staff went all out: I MEAN FULL ON NAKED AMBITION to stay true to the manga; even if it means they had to push boundaries to bring you....NEAR R-RATED OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT with BALLS-TO-THE-WALL comedic effects that I am still trying to wrap in my head.

(For example, take Mako's gag.)

-----

NGL, the story was unexpected. For most of the first half, it seemed like typical "rise the rank" plot, although Episode 4 was....literal chef's kiss.

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(HEAR ME OUT! THIS EPISODE HAD ME LOSING MY HEAD WITH HOW IT STARTS OUT AS ABSURD AND UNUSUAL AS "GET YOUR ASS TO THE SCHOOL BEFORE THE BELL RINGS OR PERISH", except the bitch (Maiko) on the left kills me.

That's not me FFS.

They got Marina Inoue to voice her.

She's fucking insane with all these traps.

She IS a trap.

Every other episode involving a club did not hit as hard as this one. I can laugh my ass off just seeing the gifs all over again. Also, Ryuko in her jammies is hilarious).

-----

Moving on past the first half, Episodes 7-19 starts to ramp up the pacing a bit, seeing more of Ryuko and Mako's growth happening. I was actually getting interested in knowing the lore behind this until "the ball dropped".

[THIS NEXT SECTION REVEALS A HUGE SPOILER AND CONTROVERSY. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS ANIME, DO NOT CONTINUE READING THIS POST.]

Let's talk about the final 6 episodes, which blew my mind in terms of plot twist (or plot torsion is what I should say because it was WAY more complicated yet so damn clever how crazy the direction went in two episodes).

For most of the season, I considered Ryuko and Satsuki as not sisters despite thinking they could be, but how it was revealed left me floored. In fact, Ragyo has got to be one of the best-written villains with the worst intentions to ever grace an animated series.

Around episode 18-19, the origin behind Life Fibers was revealed by Ragyo, when she wanted to use it for the purpose of erasing humanity, controlling the Earth's population. To go deeper, she actually tried to infuse these fibers on her own daughter, Satsuki, when she was a year old. This didn't work; therefore, she tried again on her next daughter shortly after birth, who is revealed to be Ryuko.

When that experiment failed, Ragyo assumed she died, so the baby was disposed of as if the poor thing was worthless trash.

[Side note: Listen, I may be pro-choice, but that...that was cringing as hell.]

Not only was that a plot twist, but Satsuki and her clan basically pulling a "psyche" move; turning against her own mother was freaking ambitious. Yes, it impressed me tenfold.

The final arc left me questioning the phrase "Clothes make the man".

This whole damn series had this theme behind "society", "social status", "hierarchy", and other related topics. It's obvious when you watch the first half how the rich are standing at the pinnacle of this massive territory while the slums are at the base of the so-called "mountain" I guess.

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I do want to mention another moment that solidifies just how vile Ragyo really is: IMPLIED INCESTUAL ACTS AMONG HER DAUGHTERS.

Not very many scenes were shown of Ragyo performing such lewd acts towards Satsuki but it was still enough to make me punch the bitch in the face. This makes her even more damning when she pulls this stunt on Ryuko during the "Junketsu phase".

Oh, and don't get me started with the supposed THIRD daughter.

(Let's just....move on before I go on a rant about this prick.)

------

As for everything else, the music seemed decent, although I do like the 2nd OP and ED more than the 1st. That 2nd ED though; Mako clones everywhere, they be hunting me down.

The cast was entertaining for the most part (Correction: she means Ami Koshimizu). Okay fine, this was Koshimizu's peak and I will not take no for an answer. You can suck it.

Overall, I wish I would have watched this long ago because BOY I REALLY SLEPT ON THIS GEM. The ending was baffling (with how Ragyo was like "screw this I'm out") yet satisifying (watch the credits damn it and look at MakoRyuko fanservice I did not even ask for).

Oh, speaking of that ending:

BITCH CUT HER HAIR.

It's not even 2015 yet and she prevented Dia Kurosawa from being a Satsuki clone.

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Enough talk. This was worth the decade-long wait. Great pacing, crazy direction, enjoyable scenes, badass high-octane action, superb animation, comedy that would leave your lungs scarred from overexertion, a heck of a lot of absurd fanservice that may force you to look away and mature themes that make you question humanity itself are plentiful reasons to check this out.

(Crunchyroll still has this available but not necessarily recommended since capitalism is making life hard right now to even consider this option. If you're lucky to find it the swashbuckling way, kudos to you!)

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With that, thank you for reading this lengthy post. Hopefully, you enjoyed my lil' spat. Before revealing next month's watch, there is one bit of news I must share to y'all.

It has come to my attention as of late that my personal journey as an aunt is going to become way more complicated. For the past several months, my older sister has kept her pregnancy a secret until late July. She didn't even know she was so far into it; but months of missed cycles had proven that point.

My role as an aunt has been a literal pain; dealing with an older, disabled autistic nephew and a younger, learning impaired nephew with their fathers absent from their lives who have no idea about the new brother arriving. Not to mention, to have three nephews from three different fathers just paints such an odd picture; considering some people out there would consider that a negative stigma.

What is even more shocking is how soon the due date is. Originally, my mom and I were hoping she was only in her first trimester; predicting April 2024. However, last week, my sister is actually about 32 weeks in. This doesn't give us a lot of time to prepare since we're going through a lot of financial hardship with the inflation and the state of capitalism at this time.

Thus, she is expecting on September 21, 2023; it is uncertain if her current boyfriend, who is the father, will be involved.

(Aside from the obvious meme, I am still in utter shock of how sudden this is and with my own life going through changes of its own, my mental health is taking a rough turn. So, there may be some revisions starting in October with the remaining anime watches; more information to be revealed sometime next month).

As for September, there will be a separate announcement for that coming within the next couple of days. Be sure to stay tuned for the reveal. Until next time, here's to the rest of the summer; stay hydrated, stay safe, and don't end up like these two down here.

[castielcommunism]

you're my favorite spn blog anytime something happens i go to see what you have to say about it. anyway i have a question - what do you think about sammy's bloodfreak powers? do you think they should have kept that up after the first apocalypse? i think they had a narrative purpose that they fulfilled for the most part, but brushing them entirely under the rug like they did in the show does them a disservice especially since they are so important in early seasons

thank you!!!!

and yeah like sam has always been the guy messing up the monster/human binary in the show and tends to be the focal point in discussions of the morality of killing monsters, but the moral position of the show itself is ultimately “all monsters are bad and must be destroyed” with a couple asterisks thrown in for acceptable exceptions (ie garth, benny). and that binary is represented on a grand existential scale with the Michael/Lucifer Sword plot in s5 - Dean is supposed to embody the pure essence of humanity and Sam is supposed to embody the pure essence of monsterhood. The show consciously acknowledges that the truth is a lot more complicated, of course - some of Sam’s most human elements are about his own monstrousness, and Dean both outright rejects his own special place in humanity (“I don’t like getting singled out at birthday parties, much less by god”) and is often the one who voices the most monstrous parts of human belief in the show, which is the willingness to designate people as un-persons who are worthy of destruction.

but then like s5 ends with Sam dying and being doomed to hell for all eternity and Dean retires and moves into the suburbs so like narratively the show is like yeah lol monsters deserve punishment for being monsters and humans deserve reward for being humans. but THEN season 6 starts and we see that Dean is deeply unhappy and Sam comes back soulless (again another wrinkle to the monster/human divide) so it keeps going.

Sorry this is kind of rambly but like, spn wants to confront its own premise without actually interrogating it, if that makes sense. You have all these arcs that tackle what it “means” to be a monster or what it “means” to be human (demon blood powers, soulless sam, the trials, demon dean, human cas arc, the attempt to make crowley human, the existence of benny and garth, etc) but the show always falls back to baseline, which is that monsters need to be killed and humans are the good guys.

And I think that’s a product of the show always wanting to stay the same rather than a conscious ideological project. Like the show fundamentally doesn’t want to change its formula, but because part of that formula is an essentialistic worldview that posits that there are Inherently Good People (humans) and Inherently Bad People (monsters), there can never be any resolution to those arcs other than, damn I guess monsters are bad* (some terms and conditions may apply if you demonstrate your usefulness to the Winchesters).

Season 12 even gets at this with the BMOL, who are like why haven’t you guys industrialised and institutionalised hunting? All monsters are bad so why haven’t you killed all of them yet? This is a moral failing on your part so we’re gonna do it for you. But the conclusion to that arc isn’t Sam and Dean going man maybe we should rethink hunting if that is the logical conclusion of our own beliefs, they just do like, the hunter version of the American Revolution lol. Which would be hilarious if it were done with any sense of self-awareness but I have my doubts.

ANYWAY. I don’t think the show is ideologically capable of letting Sam be a blood drinking demon freak for a sustained period of time, because it demands that the text confront itself about its own foundational beliefs. Having seasonal arcs where the brothers are different kinds of Freak allows for you to eternally reboot the question “are all monsters bad?” and then not have to answer it. Again, I don’t think this is intentional - disconnected seasonal plots that all vaguely rhyme with one another is a product of network television and constant threats of cancellation. supernatural can’t be viewed as a single coherent text, because network demands and other external forces often supersede narrative. but Sam is like the eternal fly in the ointment that they refuse to either acknowledge OR get rid of. so while I would have very much liked for him to keep his powers and still remained a sympathetic main character, that alone would require more than the show is capable of giving the audience imo

[pennylogue]

Steven is a Diamond, and that’s okay.

So, Steven’s way too caught up in the fact that he’s a Diamond right now, and therefore a hideous and overpowered monster who can’t hope to be understood by normal humans or normal gems. Let’s talk about that.

For all Steven’s enthusiasm to be a Crystal Gem and to demonstrate his powers, he’s always been weirdly ashamed of how being half-Gem affects his ability to live alongside humans. I don’t think he’s ever really decided how to feel about it. It’s only after seeing Steven growing substantially and changing his hair and getting diamond eyes, now that it’s clear that his physical form is so malleable to how he thinks of himself and what he wants to be, that it really hits me how growing up with Greg and around so many humans has affected his identity. How sort of…quietly unhealthy it was, to go around with his gem covered up all of the time, and his appearance so determinedly human. I mean, think of how upset and ashamed he was when he decided his inhuman aging would screw up his friendship with Connie.

Right now, Steven is a whirlpool of self-loathing mixed into repressed issues and trauma with the Diamonds and hatred for his mother, and because he’s feeling so disconnected from and alienated and misunderstood by both other humans and other gems, because his gem powers are being triggered by his trauma, he’s connected some dots and blamed it all on being a Diamond. 

Looking back at that quiet “No,” at the end of “Fragments”, it’s easy to identify it as one of horrified realization. And you know, this is the logical conclusion of Steven’s feelings about his mother in “Mindful Education”, of “Storm in the Room”, of “Volleyball”—but it’s also the sum of a lot of other things:

Peridot: The Diamonds are the Gem matriarchs! …We live to serve them.

The culmination of Peridot flipping to the Crystal Gems is tied directly into her rejecting the Diamonds. Diamonds are introduced as the symbol of everything wrong with Homeworld.

Garnet: “How dare you fuse with a member of my court? You will be broken for this!”

…

Garnet: Pink Diamond thought for a moment, and then laughed; a wicked, empty sound. “You wish to save these life-forms at the expense of our own? Ha! Don’t be absurd. Return to your post, and I will forget your insolence.”

Diamonds are shatterers. They hate fusion. They hate Earth and organic life. They hate Garnet. They’re the evil queens in Garnet’s fairy tale. 

Garnet: The Earth belonged to Pink Diamond. Destroying her was the only way to save the planet. For Amethyst to be herself, for Pearl to be free, for me to be together. For you to exist.

Free will and the Diamonds are utterly opposed. It might be a tragedy that Pink Diamond was killed, but she was a monster, like the other Diamonds. The  ultimate enemies of the Crystal Gems.

We got almost five seasons of the Diamonds being spoken of this way. You see how terrified every Gem is of the Diamonds, whether they worship them or despise them. 

And then we found out a) Rose Quartz was one of them. And b) that Steven is one of them. 

Hey, quick question–anyone remember what Sapphire said, right in front of Steven, after the reveal?

Sapphire: Of course she was a Diamond. What a long road she took, to torture us all like this...

…Yeah, we never really got his feelings on b, did we?

I think Steven was so overwhelmed by everything else that was going on and everyone’s reactions, and later so eager to jump on the chance that being seen as one of the Diamonds gave him to fix the corrupted gems and help everyone, that we’ve never really seen him process this realization. Steven drew a very clear line in the sand. The Diamonds are the Diamonds, and Steven is Steven. The Diamonds are wrong about everything, so they’re also wrong about him being Pink, the same way everyone else in the series who’s called him another name has been wrong. He’s not Rose Quartz. He’s not Pink Diamond. 

Except…that second part isn’t true. Sure, Steven has a human body. Sure, Steven’s not the original Pink Diamond. That doesn’t mean he’s not a Pink Diamond. 

But it was easy back then, right? Because Steven was so, so different from them. A Crystal Gem. A defender of fusion. Weak. Small. Human-colored. Harmless. And as Steven says in the finale promo:

I don’t hurt people. I help people.

Yeah, there’s no way that building an incredibly black-and-white mindset with impossibly high standards for himself to create and hold on to a sense of identity was going to backfire.

So yeah, we never really saw Steven process that he was supposed to be one of these terrifying rulers. Except now he’s hurting people. In fact, it seems that all he can do is hurt people. And since he’s only able to see the bad things he can do, the amount of horrible power he has and how isolating it is and how terrifying it is–of course he blames it on what’s always seen as the source of so many horrible things. 

No wonder he’s having an identity crisis! He’s always told himself that he’s different than the Diamonds. He’s better than them. He has to be. So if he’s doing everything wrong, if he’s a freak, if he’s a shatterer, than it’s because he’s a Diamond. He’s just like them. He’s just as bad as them. He’s just as much a monster as the Diamonds are.

It’s complicated, what’s going on. Steven’s very, very wrong. But he’s also, strangely, right on target.

The thing is, this isn’t happening because he’s a Diamond, it’s because he’s human. He’s experienced trauma while growing up and is trying to react to it in a very human way. He literally has PTSD and CPTSD, and if you’ll look up the symptoms you’ll see he’s showing all of them. He’s not a monster. He’s part-human, so his symptoms are manifesting in partially inhuman ways. And that means he just happens to have the power to do a lot more damage than other humans when he lashes out in a way that is, once more, very characteristic for humans. But you know, even the best of humans can do a lot of damage, too, especially when they never really get over trauma. After all, Greg sure did a number on Steven. 

The flip-side of this is that the hilarious irony of ancient magical rocks trying to treat themselves as perfect and inhuman alien beings has always been that, that in reality, they’re every bit as fucked up and human as humans are. That’s the whole point of the Crystal Gems and the Homeworld Gems. Remember back when Garnet seemed so perfect? Peridot seemed pretty alien and unfeeling at the beginning, right? Jasper, Topaz, Aquamarine, it goes all the way up to the Diamonds. 

The whole point of the Diamonds and why the old system was broken was that the Diamonds tried to present themselves as perfect beings without flaw, when in fact they were all just as much a disaster as every other Gem. Remember back when Rose Quartz was a flawless goddess? Yellow and Blue were terrifying when we first saw them, but then we saw them comforting each other at the Zoo. They’re literally just a screwed-up family grieving and dealing with the death of one of their own–White’s first appearance painted her as this terrifying and totally inhuman being above even Yellow and Blue, but in the end, every one of the Diamonds is a normal, flawed person…just vested with the power to do a lot more damage than most.

The thing about White, was that she was so sure she had to be perfect, that she had to make everything better, but in the end, the solution was just to…let go. Accept that she was imperfect, and live with the consequences of it. Let other people help her. Stop trying to fit into being something she’s not, and just let herself be who she is. 

Does any of this sound familiar?

All four of the original Diamonds had destructive powers. All four of the original Diamonds experienced a change and made a conscious choice to control themselves and try to stop using their powers to negatively affect others. White Diamond might be stuck being White Diamond, but as “Homeworld Bound” made clear, she’s also the only one who gets to decide what that means.

So you know what?

You can call Steven half-Gem and half-human, but that doesn’t really describe what he is. He’s a human with a Gem. A Gem with a human form. None of that’s good or bad. It is what it is. And as much as it sucks to be different from everyone else, he’s also the only one who gets to decide what being different means to him. Steven Universe isn’t Rose Quartz and he’s not his mom, but just like he’s a human, he’s also Pink Diamond, and that isn’t bad. 

And I think that’s what he needs to hear from everyone. The solution at Steven’s birthday party wasn’t to react to the situation they were in and cheer him up the same way you’d cheer up a baby. He wasn’t just a baby, he was Steven stuck in a body that he didn’t know how to control. What he actually needed was to hear from Connie that she wanted to be there for him, no matter how strange he was. 

He needs the people he loves to stop telling him he’s “better than” his trauma and his diamond powers, to stop freaking out at how much damage he can do or treat it like a problem to be fixed. To not tell him that they know he’s going through, they’ve been there, too. They haven’t, and that’s not what he needs to hear. He needs to hear that none of what he is is bad. That his loved ones will be there for him and will love him unconditionally. 

And I think that’s what will allow him to accept himself; accept that if he’s a Diamond then he’s also a human, if he’s human then he’s also Pink Diamond–and, just like the previous Pink Diamond, he’s the one who gets to decide what that means.

TL; DR I actually really hope diamond eye Steven is permanent for non angsty reasons. This kid needs to stop being ashamed of his identity.

[thewildwaffle]

Pack-bonding

A conversation pulled from Galaxy Chat - the galaxy’s largest social media platform:

***

@CruisinEeper said: Oh my light you guys. Humans and their whole pack-ponding stuff are getting out of hand I think!

56 reactions 7 replies @coolThrishal147 replied: Well yeah. What’s going on now? @bookaAmongBookas replied: Hey, aren’t you on Earth now? How’s that going? @blueLeafLove replied: What else is new? ...reveal more replies...

@CruisinEeper said: Okay, so Human Alyssa is taking me on a road trip to the Yellowstone, right? So we’ve been driving for a few bantiks without any issue. The scenery is lovely and I’m focusing on that while she drives. Out of nowhere, she gets all sad and starts saying goodbye to someone called “Rusty Rover” and I’m sitting here freaking out because it’s just us in the car.

14 reactions 2 replies @blueLeafLove replied: What’s a rover? @alwaysHungry87 replied: Eeper you’re going to Yellowstone! Jealous! I went a while back. Don’t eat the rocks, no matter how good they smell. #offLimits #noSulfurSnacks4me

@CruisinEeper said: It turns out, she was talking to the red car that was following us and had turned onto the highway’s exit ramp. Apparently, we’d been traveling in a “pack” of cars down the road. I’d had no idea.

11 reactions 2 replies @coolThrishal replied: How did you not know if you were traveling with others? @troeStrong replied: Why did the red car leave your traveling group if you hadn’t arrived yet?

@CruisinEeper said: The thing is, we weren’t traveling with any other cars. The red car and the other three in our “pack” were just driving down the road in the same direction within proximity. I don’t think any of us knew each other, and I have no idea where the other three are going other than it’s somewhere in the direction we are currently traveling. At some point, Human Alyssa decided that that was enough to form an attachment to these complete strangers.

49 reactions 8 replies @alwaysHungry87 replied: Oh yeah, same thing happened to me when we went! @bookaAmongBookas replied: That’s hilarious! I’m laughing so hard right now! @coolThrishal147 replied: Humans are so weird ...reveal more replies…

@CruisinEeper said: You guys… she gave each car a name! Rusty Rover left. The blue one in front of us is Glamour. The white car that keeps adjusting speed whenever they change lanes is Squirrelio. She talks to that one a lot as if it can hear her. The other one is a black truck she calls Mouse. Oh, and apparently the car we are traveling in is named “Mabel.” I had no idea

31 reactions 3 replies @blueLeafLover replied: And just to confirm, these aren’t living things, right? They aren’t animals? They’re machines? @beaks-For-Brains replied: I was on a crew with a human named Mabel! @sweaterLifeChoseMe look! It’s your name! @sweaterLifeChoseMe replied: Lol

@CruisinEeper said: Okay. We just pulled off the main highway. Alyssa had this speech saying goodbye to the other cars. Again, they can’t hear her. Also, we don’t know them. I highly doubt they even realized she thought we were in a group, they just continued driving on their merry way. Once we got off the exit, she didn’t seem to be too upset though, so I guess that’s a good sign?

21 reactions 6 replies @domesticatedPancake replied: Dude, I totally do that too! Ha! Also, Eepers, if you’re in the area, you should swing by and visit me too while you’re still on Earth! @Sol3Trainee replied: I have done a bit of study as to why humans do this. It’s a pretty complicated bit of history, psychology, and neurobiology. While I’ve been stationed on Earth, I’ve been doing my best to try to figure it out when I have time with all my other studies. Humans who have strong social bonds typically...read more… @simpleMareek570 replied: Lmtfo! I made friends with some humans on my cruise last partec. Let me tell you, the pack-bonding is REAL! ...reveal more replies...

@CruisinEeper said: Rest of the trip went well. Saw some beautiful geysers and very colorful hot springs. Alyssa told me that some of the pools are colored the way they are because of thermophilic microorganisms living in the boiling hot water. You know, at this point? Sure. Earth is crazy, might as well add that to the list. Also saw some buffalo by the side of the road. I did NOT realize they got that big! Alyssa thought they were cute, and she bought a stuffed toy one at a souvenir shop. She named it Buford. It’s not a real buffalo, or a living thing at all, but again, humans will pack-bond with anything.

50 reactions 7 replies @blueLeafLover replied: Just be glad she was satisfied with a toy, you have no idea how much humans love being around dangerous animals @bookaAmongBookas replied: Hey, if you got me something cool while you’re there, I’d pay you back! @coolthrishal147 replied: And I’ll say it again: Humans. Are. Weird. ...reveal more replies...

***This story has been animated! Watch it here!

[moonstomars]

De you have headcanons of Kiane on their wedding day?

HELLO ANON! Thank you for the ask!

Oh of course I have headcanons … I think I’ve written some down already but I’m always happy to write more about them! 

Even though King and Diane would like to marry as soon as possible, it takes time to organize the wedding. Both because the war is just over and their clans need time to readjust and because King wants their wedding to be perfect. 

They also struggle a little to explain the concept of marriage to their clans. 

The Fairies are still very confused about it but they generally like Diane and support their king 100%. Besides, it’s a good excuse to celebrate.

With the Giants, it’s … harder. I doubt they would all accept Diane as their queen right away and her will to merge their clan with the Fairies. So Diane probably has to work hard on having her people accept her and change their way of life and she also has to explain to them that she is going to marry no matter their opinion about it. 

In the meanwhile, King supports her in everything and organizes the wedding. 

I like to think that he made her wedding dress! Diane didn’t let him see her wearing it before the wedding because Elizabeth told her it wasn’t supposed to happen, and this made things a little more complicated, but eventually, King managed to do a wonderful job! 

(And he kinds of paralyzes when he sees her wearing it for the first time and then gets very very emotional … he just can’t believe she is marrying him okay?)

They marry in the Fairy King’s Forest and invite all their friends so in the end the Forest is filled with people from all the Clans. (And Zeldris and Gelda would totally be invited too)

King works very hard to make sure that the ceremony will be perfect. He decorates entire clearings, makes flowers grow everywhere for the occasion, takes care of the music … he is totally freaking out. Gerheade tries her best to help him with it. She isn’t sure why he would want to follow a human tradition, but she truly wants him to be happy.

Diane is a little more chill about the ceremony because what really matters for her is that she and King are going to marry. She appreciates a lot the fact that King wants it to be the perfect wedding, but she would be fine anyway. She helps King decorating the Forest with her powers anyway!

Ban cooks of course, and even though he constantly bullies King because he is way too nervous and is going crazy about the whole thing, he works hard on making good food for Fairies, Humans and Giants. He also makes the biggest cake ever.

Meliodas brings alcohol! And also moral support and advice.

I think that even though both Meliodas and Ban would tease King all the time about the wedding and about how hard he is working on it, they would also reassure him about it. They know how much he cares about it and are going to help him keeping his shit together. 

Gowther is also there to help! He read everything about weddings to be useful and is also always ready to give super blunt opinions on things when he is asked to. He also really wants King and Diane to be happy and wants to help as much as he can. 

I … think that King and Diane at least thought about inviting Merlin, especially Diane. I like to think that they talked with Meliodas and Elizabeth about this first to see if they would be okay with it and then tried to reach for her. Honestly, before the last chapters of nnt, I always imagined Merlin taking part in the wedding, but as things are now, I’m not sure she would do that even if they invited her. 

Anyway, before the wedding day, Ban, Meliodas and Gowther (plus the Holy Knights) totally organize a bachelor party for King. King wouldn’t want to do it actually, he is too busy being stressed as hell, but they force him. 

As was to be expected, it’s crazy. 

Later, when Diane asks him how it went, he refuses to talk about it. He will never speak of it again. The other Sins may tease him about it once in a while. 

In the meanwhile, Diane had a super fun girls night with Elizabeth, Elaine, Matrona, Guila, Jericho …

And then, there’s the wedding! Finally! 

Diane gets ready with the help of Elizabeth, Matrona and Elaine. She is a bit nervous and needs some reassurance but she is also very excited. 

King is super nervous the whole time. He literally can’t believe this is happening and is constantly on the verge of freaking out. Ban has to physically stops him from flying away to check that everything is in order. 

I’m not sure who would be able to legally perform the ceremony in Britannia. I guess it would make sense for Bartra to do it, but I’m also like the idea of Gerheade marrying them.

King is almost shaking while he waits for Diane, but the moments he sees her walking towards him he just stops. He can’t do anything else but staring at her, and that’s when it really hits him that they are really getting married, that they made it, finally. 

And that’s when he starts crying. He keeps crying throughout the whole ceremony.

Diane is getting emotional as well but she tries very hard not to cry until the end. King isn’t making things easier. 

(By the way, I think that Diane married giant size … King is completely fine with it anyway)

Also I love the idea that King and Diane made each other wedding ring using their powers!

When she can finally kiss him, Diane grabs King and smooches his face again and again because she is just so happy. 

They have a lovely wedding party! It’s a great occasion to see people from all the clans getting along and having fun together! 

Ban and Meliodas give at least one hilarious speech and augurate King and Diane the best for the wedding night. King is super embarrassed but he is too happy to do anything about it and Diane just finds it fun!

The party lasts a very long time because Giants and Fairies have a very weird sense of time. It would last longer if it wasn’t for the Humans reminding them about time passing. 

[banashee]

Part 1/2, for @hopelessly-me - enjoy! ♥

Kitchen Nightmares

Clint loves cooking. He is pretty damn amazing at it, too. Give him some time and he’ll whip up what the other Avengers refer to as “magic on a plate” seemingly out of thin air. No matter how simple or complicated, his food always turns out delicious. Whether he is cooking or baking, it doesn’t matter if they just got new groceries or if he is basically cleaning out the refrigerator. Clint’s food has truly spoiled them all, and when he is gone for longer stretches of time on SHIELD assignments, they definitely miss him for more than just company and bad puns. 

  The thing is, Tony likes cooking. He really does - he spends a lot of time trying to make dinner or hot breakfast, and the results are… Interesting. Oftentimes burned or stone cold with very little in between, unless you count his food being over- or under seasoned. Or any imaginable combination of forgotten or randomly added ingredients. 

To say that Tony is bad at cooking would be putting it very nicely. He may be a genius with a remarkable brain and way more PHDs than anyone really needs, but that doesn’t mean he is fit to be let loose in a kitchen on his own devices. Which, of course, doesn’t stop him from trying. 

Clint loves Tony, and Tony loves Clint. Which is why Tony wants to surprise him with a meal some days, on which he’s spent hours, trying to get it right. To be fair, he really puts a lot of love and effort into the whole thing, because again, his intentions are good, but the execution needs work still. 

As a result, Clint is choking down almost inedible food on a regular basis, because he recognizes the love and effort, even though he has suffered through more than a few awful meals.

So, it’s a thing.

  Whenever he catches Tony early enough, with JARVIS help, because the AI really is amazing, Clint casually asks,

“Hey Honey, need any help?” in an attempt to keep an eye on his boyfriend and keep the damage to a minimum. But Tony, bless him, without a fail will just beam at him and say something along the lines of,

“Nope, you go relax, I’ve got this!” and pull Clint in for a kiss before shoving him out of the kitchen to keep working in secret and almost set the house on fire in the process. 

Tony doesn’t “got this”. He really, really doesn’t, but Clint also doesn’t want to crush his excitement or enthusiasm. 

  While the interest and good intention is definitely there, Tony never had the opportunity to actually learn how to cook. Growing up, there were always butlers and chefs to take care of the meals, nevermind the fact that Howard Stark would have freaked the fuck out if he had found his son on a kitchen stove - that one incident when Tony was six had been more than enough, and he’d never treid again, up until he was an adult. All through college, he’d either lived on cup noodles or whatever Rhodey had cooked, and then there is that one time where he spent three hours on scrambled eggs, which caused Pepper to be worried about his well-being more than anything.  

So yeah, Clint knows all this, and he absolutely understands what it is like to have missed opportunities. He himself has experiences with that, although on a different level under different circumstances, but the point is: missed opportunities, never learned something as a kid, wanting to catch up - Clint gets it. He really does. 

This is why Clint lets Tony have his way, and silently pulls up the pizza delivery app on his phone, knowing they’ll more than likely need it in the near future. 

  Not even Lucky wants any of the scraps Tony cooks. The very same mutt who will dig through the trash can because it’s fun and there might be something edible in it, refuses to even touch whatever Tony is cooking. Lucky might come over to inspect it, but more often than not, he’ll just sneeze at the offering and leave the room. It’s kinda sad and kinda hilarious at the same time. 

Tony continues causing absolute havoc in the kitchen nonetheless.

  One morning, Clint enters the kitchen, running frantically because there is a lot of smoke. He can see the flashing lights and feel the vibrations of the extra loud smoke detector in the kitchen - all accommodations to his damaged hearing. Lucky is barking like crazy, and even though he woke up about 20 seconds ago, Clint is on his feet and scrambling, worried because there is smoke and the alarm is going off while Tony was not next to him in bed when he woke up. He needs him to be okay, because he doesn’t know what he would do without him.

“Fuck!” Clint is cursing and coughing, smoke stinging his eyes and creeping into his lungs, which is bad.

  Thankfully, as it turns out, the fire was relatively small and Tony is perfectly fine - he slips into his boyfriend’s frantic hug with ease, squeezing to reassure him that everything is alright - well, apart from the smoking pan on the stove and the wide open window. At least JARVIS has turned the alarm off now.

“Fucking shit. Are you okay?!” Clint asks, despite seeing so for himself and being able to hold Tony close to reassure himself that he is, in fact, fine and in one piece. With a heavy sigh of relief, he adds,

“Next time just set an alarm clock, huh? It’ll be evil still, but much more gentle than the smoke detector going off” 

“Yeah, sorry about that. I was gonna make eggs and bacon… Extra crispy, as it turns out.” 

Tony shoots him a lopsided grin, almost sheepish as he runs a hand through the messy mop of hair on Clint’s head. If the archer wasn’t so genuinely freaked out about his safety, Tony would have laughed. He loves early-morning-Clint, because he’s always rumpled and disheveled in his own adorable way. Especially before coffee, when he is a tired, grumpy mess and Tony wants to kiss him senseless every single day. 

Today, Clint is wide awake and sags into his partner in relief. The two of them hold onto each other for a bit, simply enjoying each other's company. A cold chill from the open window creeps into the room, and the smell of burned breakfast is slowly getting less and less. Small favors. 

Both men  look over at the pan, where nothing edible is recognizable as such. 

“Extra crispy indeed. Idiot.” Clint adds, fondly as he presses a kiss into Tony’s dark hair. It only makes him laugh. 

  Another morning, the kitchen is not filled with smoke, which is honestly always a plus, but Tony is standing near the stove, unmoving and staring as if he isn’t sure what exactly he is looking at.

Cautiously, Clint steps closer - thankfully, he already had a cup of coffee before his workout routine and is as much of a functioning human as he can be. 

“...Tony?” he asks, stepping closer. The man in question shakes his head slowly.

“It was supposed to be french toast.”

“...Okay?”

“It was supposed to be french toast.” Tony repeats, then sighs.

“I’m not sure what it is now.”

“So, uh… Wanna walk me through your steps to see where it might have gone wrong?” Clint asks, and he is looking at a defeated man. 

“The step is I’ll order breakfast online, goddammit.”

“Are you sure? We can make some together, if you want to.” 

“Yeah, about that, I kinda used up all the ingredients and fucked up too many times…”

A long beat of silence passes, and even the dog looks up from his pillow in the corner as if to say “Silly human”. 

“...Ordering online it is.” Clint agrees, and for once, keeps the snarky comments to himself. 

  One would think that the day would come where Tony gets discouraged by failure after failure - it doesn’t. On the contrary, it makes him want to prove even more that he can do this, which also means that he refuses to accept any help, determined to figure it out on his own.

Spite and stubbornness have kept him alive at more than one point in his life.  There is no way Tony Stark will be defeated by a simple breakfast recipe - or any other for that matter - again. 

So, one day, he greets Clint with a wide, toothy grin and a “taste it” as he shoves a pot and a spoon in his direction.

  And because Clint loves him, he does taste it. He only barely manages to keep himself from coughing, but he is not sure for how long things can go on like this. Sooner or later, he will have to sit Tony down and talk about this. He would love to encourage him to keep going, but the results and waste of food are too much to bear at this point. Not to mention the fire hazards.  

 *+~

 Prompt 16: "Taste it (evil grin)"

[ladyherenya]

My favourite thing this year has been the Korean drama Crash Landing on You (2019-20).

It has something of a ridiculous title (I’ve ended up calling it Crash Landing or sometimes just Crash). But, to be fair, North and South was already taken.

“I can go to Africa and even Antarctica but not here. It’s a shame that you live here.” “It’s a shame that you live there.” -- episode three

To my great amusement, every month or so, Netflix has sent me an email that’s said: “Don’t forget to finish Crash Landing on You” or “Remember this? Watch it again: Crash Landing on You” or “Rewatch your favourite moments - Watch it again: Crash Landing on You…”

And I’m like: NETFLIX! Seriously, WHAT do you THINK I’M DOING?

I have now watched Crash Landing on You five times.

There are several reasons for this:

I successfully dragged other family members down this particular rabbit hole, and in a pandemic season, when things have been unpredictable (or cancelled), rewatching Crash Landing has been an appealing and comfortably-familiar distraction, as well as the source of many, many long, analytical fandom-y conversations, which has been fun.

I needed to watch it more than once to straighten out all the pieces of the story in my head. With 16 episodes, each over an hour long, it’s one of the longest stories I’ve ever watched. I’ve seen other TV series with more episodes, but nearly all have been much more episodic, rather than telling one continuous story.  

I kept noticing details that I’d previously missed because I’d been focused on the subtitles or that I hadn’t properly understood some cultural nuance. And some things are ambiguous in translation -- in a good way, a fodder-for-discussion way.

I have ALWAYS rewatched (or reread) my favourite stories. And Crash Landing fits right in with those. Someone in my family described it as: “Like Lord of the Rings on steroids!” However, I think it actually has far more in common -- visually and thematically, and also in terms of my willingness to discuss the characters as if they were real people -- with my favourite historical dramas.

In terms of story, Crash Landing is easy enough to summarise: A South Korean businesswoman is paragliding when a freak storm blows her across the border; she’s discovered by a North Korean captain, who hides her and helps her get home.

But I’m going to need more words to explain why I fell in love with it.

It is fascinating and, first time round, tense and unpredictable. It’s funny and very meta -- very aware of the tropes it’s playing with and of parallels and contrasts within the story. It’s visually and aesthetically pleasing, and the soundtrack grew on me.

There are a number of coincidences and a few ridiculous fight scenes, but the emotions are intensely real and so are the consequences. It has camaraderie and found-family and thoughtfully-complicated family relationships. There are characters I love, and characters who surprised me, and so much time given to character development!  It’s romantic. There’s a fake engagement (a favourite trope of mine) and while I’m not a fan of love triangles, I liked how this quadrangle-tangle is handled. And the obstacles to the romance are satisfyingly realistic; characters have sensible reasons for the choices they make.

I love how the story uses flashbacks, particularly the post-credit scenes.

The final episode isn’t perfect, but given that a perfectly happy ending would, realistically,  require the reunification of north and south, I thought it came very close.

Let me elaborate.

Cut for sheer verbosity, rather than spoilers. (I’m not allowing myself to list spoiler-ish examples or dive into analysing my favourite scenes, because then I wouldn’t just be here all night, I’d be here all week).

⬦ Fascinating, tense, unpredictable: I knew almost nothing about life in North Korea, so that was fascinating and made the story harder to predict, as I couldn’t anticipate what options the characters had or what obstacles might arise. And that isn’t the only reason I found it tense -- at different times, different characters are greatly at risk if discovered; there are occasions when characters are in danger of physical violence or are injured; and they have a couple of dilemmas to which there are just not easy solutions (See also: Obstacles for romance).

While I’m on the subject of the setting, although I cannot judge how accurate this portrayal of the north was, it’s portrayal of people as people was incredibly convincing. It’s a society where people have differences in personality and in circumstances. There are orphans begging in the market, people who can afford to stay in fancy hotels -- and a lot of people somewhere in between. In the military village, people have varying attitudes, tastes in clothes, privileges, standards of living, etc. Their lifestyle differs from that in Pyongyang, and also in other parts of the country. Amongst the military, some men are compassionate, some are corrupt and some are not obviously one or the other.

Moreover, it’s clear that corruption and villainy isn’t just in the north. In the south, as in the north, we see a range of humanity -- selfishness, good friends, complicated families, happy marriages, criminal behaviour, and so on.

I’ve read an article or two suggesting that the least realistic aspect is Ri Jeong Hyeok being such a sympathetic and honourable officer. I think it’s interesting that he clearly isn’t a typical captain -- he wanted a different career, he’s spent time studying overseas (in a democratic country), and, perhaps most importantly, his father’s position gives him protection from pressures many others face. He has the privilege of being able to afford to act with integrity, and of encouraging such behaviour in the men he leads.

⬦ Humour and meta: I’ve included these two together, because so much of the story’s self-awareness and intertextuality is humorous. I am very amused by so many things -- the village women’s interactions, Se-ri’s wit and banter, Jeong Hyeok’s facial expressions, the duckling's reactions, the way Ju Meok keeps comparing things to South Korean dramas:

Ju Meok: “I haven’t seen any drama characters that don’t fall in love in that situation. That’s how they all fall in love.”

(Because my knowledge of Korean drama is limited, there are a few cameos and references which I suspect would be amusing if one was in the know. The exception is the taxi driver singing, who was funny even without recognising the actor.)

I love the commentary that comes from all the moments when other characters witness the unfolding romance. Others’ reactions are often memorably hilarious -- some of my favouritest scenes fall into this category. (The customs officer! Jeong Hyeok’s dad!) They introduce humour and self-awareness into these moments, allowing the story to acknowledge “Yeah, we know these two are being ridiculous/sappy/emotional”. These moments reveal people’s attitudes towards displays of affection, particularly in the north, and their different attitudes towards Se-ri and Jeong Hyeok’s relationship.  

And as their relationship changes, Se-ri and Jeong Hyeok’s awareness of being watched and commented upon changes, too.

Which leads me to…

⬦ Contrasts and parallels: So many scenes which echo/parallel earlier scenes. Most obviously, this allows the story to compare and contrast the north and south, but it also shows changes in time, differences between characters, and differences in relationships too. Sometimes all at once!

 It means some plot developments weren’t totally unexpected -- it was Oh, of COURSE, we’re going to now see that character in this situation! or OBVIOUSLY we now have to see what this is like in the south!

But I thought it was really effective storytelling and I so much enjoyed spotting and analysing these moments.

⬦ Yoon Se-ri and Ri Jeong Hyeok: These two are the heart of the story and there are so many things I love about them. Like how, even though Se-ri is dependent upon Jeong Hyeok to hide and help her -- even though they’re initially hesitant about a romantic relationship -- they quickly become very protective of each other. Often to the point of willingly risking their own safety. Often to the point of exasperating the other. It’s great.

 That’s not the only thing they discover they have in common. They share some interests. They’re both highly intelligent, driven, successful leaders (he’s a captain, she’s a CEO) who are very private, lonely people carrying around grief about their family and their past. Neither of them likes to reveal their emotions -- he tries to conceal his by suppressing his facial expressions and avoiding answering questions, while Se-ri hides behind play-acting.  

I like watching Se-ri trying to get to know Jeong Hyeok. She isn’t deterred by his silences (unlike someone else) and she keeps the conversation going even when he doesn’t respond. She watches him closely, and says or does things to provoke a reaction. Poke, poke, poke.

And the time they spend together is really revealing. They share meals, they share a house. They see how the other responds under pressure, but also in various social and domestic situations. They see each other in a range of moods: calm, happy, grumpy, scared, tired, upset, unwell. Crash Landing takes advantage of spending sixteen episodes with these characters. Going through so many different experiences together, they learn a lot about each other -- about each other’s values, tastes and temperament -- and this means the audience gets a deeper, more nuanced understanding of who they are, too.  

Se-ri and Jeong Hyeok are also well-matched in how they show they appreciate each other -- she delights in giving presents, and he is quick to notice things Se-ri might need or like.

And it’s very satisfying when they open up, or when they cry in front of each other, because you know that they don’t do this lightly or easily.

⬦ Obstacles for romance, love triangle quadrangle-tangle: I appreciate that the obstacles in this story are not contrived or fueled by needless misunderstandings.  Se-ri and Jeong Hyeok have really solid, sensible reasons to be hesitant to first recognise, then admit to, and then act upon, a romantic attraction. Even once they realise that getting Se-ri home is going to take longer than they’d hoped and she’s pretending to be Jeong Hyeok’s fiancée, romance between them is still a road that leads nowhere. She isn’t safe staying in the north and he would endanger his family if he defected to the south, and they both accept that. And they’re reticent about sharing vulnerable feelings, and Jeong Hyeok is actually engaged to someone else.

But once they really open up to each other, the narrative conflict revolves around their circumstances, rather than doubts or misunderstandings they have about each other. Because the situations they face are dangerous and difficult, with no obvious or straightforward path to a happy ending, there’s quite enough tension to drive the story forward. They still have a couple of misunderstandings, but I like how they handle those, and I like that they don’t have more of them.

As for the love triangle, it doesn’t have the angst of someone torn between, or even attracted to, two people. Jeong Hyeok’s engagement has been arranged. Having feelings for someone else doesn’t change the foundation of that engagement, nor the pressure to please his family. He doesn’t love or know his fiancée -- not well enough to risk revealing Se-ri’s true identity to her. He’s honest with Se-ri and he makes an effort with Dan.  

(I have a theory that, if he had been in love before, he might be quicker to recognise how some of his behaviour towards Se-ri fosters intimacy and sends her messages he doesn’t intend, but this is all new for him.)

He tries not to mislead or hurt Dan, but she’s hurt nonetheless, and I like that Crash Landing doesn’t gloss over that. It explores why she’s hurt, why she’s so reluctant to let him go and why their relationship never really worked. (Neither of them are good at communicating with each other, and I think she takes some of the things he does for her for granted, rather than recognising them as overtures and as opportunities to get to know him better.)

Dan is not just a romantic rival, nor a narrative complication, but a person whose concerns and desire are taken seriously, and who is given space to grow.

Which leads me to...

⬦ Surprising characters, thoughtfully-complicated family relationships: As mentioned, Crash Landing takes advantage of the amount of character development 16 episodes allows, and not just for its lead couple. I was surprised by how much my opinion of certain characters changed, as I came to understand them better.

The character I was most surprised by was Gu Seung-jun.

Each time I’ve watched this, I’ve liked Dan more. I have a lot of sympathy for her now. I also like her mother, even though she’s embarrassingly over the top, because she cares fiercely about her daughter and about advocating for her.

Se-ri’s dysfunctional family are more nuanced than I expected, too. In particular, I love the attention the story gives to Se-ri’s relationship with her step-mother. I was expecting Se-ri’s father to play a larger role, perhaps because he’s nominally the one with the power and influence, and at first Se-ri’s mother seems so passive. But it was really interesting to understand where she’s coming from, why her relationship with Se-ri is broken and sad. The steps the two of them take towards rebuilding their relationship are believable.

(On a related thought, I appreciate a lot of the choices this makes in addressing these women’s mental health struggles. One or two moments arguably could have been handled better, but on the whole it’s realistically optimistic, with enough detail so that we understand the seriousness -- the impact it’s had on these women’s lives.)

⬦ Camaraderie, found family and the ducklings: Se-ri doesn’t spend as much time with the village women as she does with Jeong Hyeok and his soldiers, and when she does, she’s play-acting, in order to keep her identity a secret. But I like how they nevertheless support her, and how meeting her sparks change their dynamic with each other. They grow closer and become much better at supporting each other. It’s really heartwarming.

We gave many of the characters codenames, so we could discuss them when we were still learning their names. (I was surprised by how long it took me to learn some of the characters’ names.  Because so many were unfamiliar to me, they were harder to remember; I wasn’t always sure, from just reading the subtitles, how all of them were pronounced, and sometimes it was hard to separate the sound of the names from surrounding sentences, especially when, due to honorifics and titles and so on, subtitles don’t always match exactly what is being said.) Jeong Hyeok’s men are “the ducklings”, inspired by something I saw on Tumblr: Gwang Beom is “Handsome Duckling”, Ju Meok is “Drama Duckling” and Chi Su is just the sergeant.) I love how they function as a found-family, especially in contrast to Se-ri’s real family. They’re funny, loyal and caring, and in spite of their different personalities, work well together as a team. I enjoyed seeing the different relationships they have with each other, with Jeong Hyeok and Se-ri, and how some of those relationships change. And they’re so protective they are of Eun Dong!

Man Bok has an interesting arc -- I could have mentioned him under Surprising characters. I really like how he fits into this story, how he’s connected to the mystery Jeong Hyeok is investigating, how he becomes involved with the rest of the characters and has these moments when he plays a significant role. Or gets to be funny. I like the contrast and parallels too -- he’s in a different place in his life to the ducklings, and he gets opportunities to revisit past choices he regrets.

And I’m trying not to write essays about all the characters, and it’s ahhh, I have too many thoughts and feelings about them all!

⬦ Satisfyingly realistic: I like how -- one or two ridiculous fight scenes and an unrealistic paragliding scene aside -- things which happen have believable consequences. Particularly emotionally. We see men cry! A lot! And it always feels like a genuine expression of emotion, not gratuitous or overwrought. (Well, okay, there’s a very minor character who’s a bit over the top but he’s very minor.)

When one of the characters is gravely ill, she looks it, I found it oddly satisfying that she doesn’t have to be pretty all the time.

And I wasn’t sure if this belonged here or under “Visual details” but I love the attention given to Se-ri’s clothes. She cares a lot about fashion and in the north her clothing choices indicate that she cares a lot about her appearance, while making do with a limited wardrobe and still dressing for warmth.  (I’m happy to handwave that she seems to have more clothes than would realistically fit in those shopping bags.) I appreciated the practical streak, and, as winter wore on here, became envious of one of her outfits.

I don’t personally like the style of Se-ri chooses for work, but it’s different it is from what she wore in the north and from what she wears at home -- her power-dressing is like a uniform or a statement of persona she projects in her working life, and not necessarily a reflection of her personal tastes.

⬦ Visual details: I love so many of the visuals. Gorgeous scenery, interesting settings and clever framing for significant scenes. The sky, a place without borders, often becomes a focus and there’s a thematically-relevant flight motif -- paragliders, birds and kites.

I did not start noticing the   product placement until a rewatch, when I stopped to think about how often they went to Subway. The first time, it just seemed like a commentary on south-versus-north, and then I was just baffled-yet-amused by it all. (That sort of thing does not make me want to eat fried chicken...)

⬦ Soundtrack: The first time round, I liked the instrumental score and the presence of piano music actually in the story. As I kept rewatching, the rest of the soundtrack slowly but steadily grew on me, and I found myself liking the songs more and more.  

Now I not only recognise them by name, I can recall most of them well enough to hum them and know which scenes they’re associated with. Which is a lot harder when the lyrics are in a language I don’t speak and so I can’t use them as a prompt for memory.

⬦ Flashbacks: Instead of “previously-on” segments, Crash Landing employs lots of flashbacks whenever it wants to remind the audience of something.

Sometimes, instead of just repeating part of an earlier scene, it takes the opportunity to show the same moment from different angles or from a different character’s perspective,  or to juxtapose it with a different scene or to introduce new information. This was really effective. And when flashbacks were a simple repeat, I was usually happy to revisit important moments in the story (and sometimes, having a different person translating the subtitles meant there was a slightly different perspective on the dialogue).

Then there are the post-credit flashbacks, quite a few of which take places years earlier. I love how they’re puzzle pieces about the characters’ pasts and the connections between them.

⬦ The end:  The first time round, after watching the penultimate episode I was so engrossed in the story and so invested in the characters that I had trouble sleeping and I went around the next day with this tight, anxious feeling, unable to get the story out of my head.

The final episode is an emotional rollercoaster. SO. MANY. FEELINGS. There’s one particular scene which packs a powerful punch -- it’s exceptionally emotional and beautifully filmed. I love it, but I’m  glad we get the aftermath too.

It isn’t a perfect ending, but as I said, I don’t think there was a perfect ending was possible, not one that was both realistic and satisfying. But this comes very close. In the very final scenes, not everything is resolved or explained, and I like how that ambiguity is open to interpretation -- I like that there are some gaps for the viewer to fill in for oneself, however one prefers to imagine the characters’ lives going forward.

I know I could easily write another four thousand words about this story -- there are aspects I haven’t really discussed but this seems like a good place to stop. For now. I really like this story. I expect I’ll watch it all again soon.

[onlydylanobrien]

Dylan O’Brien Talks Feeling “Broken” After Traumatic ‘Maze Runner’ Accident & Why New Indie Pic ‘The Education Of Fredrick Fitzell’ Came At The Perfect Time

Former Teen Wolf star Dylan O’Brien has been through a transitional and challenging period after a serious accident on the set of the final Maze Runner film left him with injuries that required reconstructive surgery. The actor’s recovery coincided with him reading a script called The Education Of Fredrick Fitzell, a low-budget, mind-bending drama written by Canadian filmmaker Christopher MacBride, whose previous credits include 2012 horror The Conspiracy. The material sparked with O’Brien in an intense way, he tells Deadline in his first interview about the movie, connecting with that period of his life and reflecting some of what he was going through. “I was a mess,” he admits frankly.

Inspired, O’Brien attached himself to the movie, which follows a man who, after a chance encounter with a person forgotten from his youth, literally and metaphorically journeys into his past. It marks an intriguing and sideways move for the actor, whose career has almost entirely been in studio movies, such as Deepwater Horizon and Bumblebee. The actor also had interesting and timely points to make about how he thinks COVID-19 protocols could give the industry an overdue wakeup call over “outdated” health and safety regulations.

Deadline sat down with O’Brien and his Fredrick Fitzell director Christopher MacBride ahead of the film’s premiere at Spain’s Sitges film festival this week. Maika Monroe, Hannah Gross and Emory Cohen also star in the movie. Protagonist Pictures is handling sales.

DEADLINE: Congratulations on the movie’s premiere, are you disappointed not to be heading over to Spain?

CHRISTOPHER MACBRIDE: I would’ve gone for sure. My last film (The Conspiracy) went to Sitges, I’m super bummed not to be going back.

DYLAN O’BRIEN: I’m super bummed too. I saw pictures from the festival the other day, I hadn’t been thinking about it and they made me realise what we’re missing, any other year we’d be going and premiering our film which would be incredible.

DEADLINE: How did your collaboration on this movie come about?

MACBRIDE: I wrote this script more than 10 years ago. It was always in my back pocket, sort of ‘the film I want to make before I die’. A couple of years ago I started taking it seriously and me and my producers started taking the road of finding people crazy enough to join us. I got really lucky that an awesome cast responded to the script, that’s the difference of if it gets made or not.

DEADLINE: Did you have Dylan in mind?

MACBRIDE: I did not. I really disliked Dylan before this film [laughs]. The producers suggested Dylan because they had a relationship and I devoured every piece of Dylan O’Brien work I could. I could tell he had a depth to him, I could see a real actor at work. When we got on set I had this illogical anxiety – ‘what if Dylan sucks?’ – I remember when I called action the first time, I saw his whole body transform and this great, horrible, Fred Fritzel posture overtake him. He became Fred, and relief hit me.

O’BRIEN: That is hilarious.

DEADLINE: How did you get attached Dylan?

O’BRIEN: I had a general with Russell Ackerman (EP on the movie). He sent me the script and I remember thinking, ‘yo, this is me right now’. I happened to be in this place of life, I was going through a lot, and this script felt like what I was going through, I completely got it. Me and Chris talked and I was raving about how fascinating it was and how I was connected to it.

DEADLINE: What was it about the material you empathized with?

O’BRIEN: I was entering a new chapter in my life and career simultaneously. I must have read a hundred projects and to do one it had to be really great. A lot of things struck me about this script, it was exceptionally impressive, extraordinarily visual.

When I read it, I felt like I was going through a quarter-life crisis. I had been allowing myself to be in this pretty f*cked up, lost place. And then this script came along and I thought it was crazy how much it was me at that moment. The film surrounds a guy who is baulking at the next stage of his life, he’s dealing with tremendous loss, and at that time in his life he reached back, to a specific night, I liked that idea. It’s a very human story.

DEADLINE: To what extent did those emotions stem from your accident on The Maze Runner?

O’BRIEN: That was definitely one of the pieces. It was a concoction of sh*t. I had a rough and long road back from that, probably more than people realize. It was a very private and personal thing for me. I was going through that sh*t for long time.

A lot of things in my life were changing and were difficult at that time. A lot of things in my career were changing too. I was fighting it for a while, and freaking out that I felt so f*cking broken. I had to accept that and sink into it. It’s hilarious to think back to the place I was in when I read this script and then the onslaught of information I screamed at Chris after I read it. But I think he took it as interesting, that I got it to the core. I was so in that moment.

DEADLINE: Was shooting the movie a cathartic experience for you?

O’BRIEN: Yes I guess it was. I used it as an outlet, to lean into the mess I was in at the time. I really loved Chris and I loved our cast. It was such a great challenge too, we had to shoot fast and it’s a very complicated piece to film in 25 days.

DEADLINE: I assume a tight budget too…

MACBRIDE: Oh yeah. I’m sure every movie that gets made feels like it doesn’t have enough time or money, but we really didn’t have enough time or money. It’s the nature of filmmaking, you have to accept you’re gonna have 300 disasters along the way. Everything that could possibly go wrong is going to go wrong. You have to navigate that and still try to execute.

DEADLINE: Dylan, what was it like working on a more indie production, in contrast with your studio jobs?

O’BRIEN: I loved it. But I think people’s perceptions of things I worked on are a little inaccurate because of how commercial they ended up being. Maze Runner was a $30m movie but we shot it in 40 days. And Teen Wolf was notorious in the industry for being the most low-budget and ambitious TV scheduled at the time. I was used to the hustle so this wasn’t jarring. It’s my favourite thing to do, being on set, that family and that camaraderie, that’s what it’s all about.

DEADLINE: Do you see yourself doing more indie work going forward?

O’BRIEN: Absolutely. I’ve never thought of myself as a studio actor. The two things that give me that reputation both started out quite small and were little miracles in their own right. I’ve always felt I respond to, and work better with, more intimate pieces of material anyway. Going forward people will see me more in independent, weirder things like this. This is the first time I’m choosing my own path. I’m picky, it’s got to mean something to me.

DEADLINE: How do you feel about doing your job in this COVID era?

O’BRIEN: I definitely don’t love the prospect of it as of now. A large part of me thinks it’s going to be a long overdue positive influence on these dated health and safety regulations that tend to be on a set anyway. I’m looking forward to that but I hold some reservation, I need to see it function first. Set culture in terms of health and safety – everything comes ahead of it. We’re talking about capitalism, everyone egregiously prioritizes money. Sets are a lot of people, moving parts, equipment – lots of things can happen. As actors, we have to protect ourselves. I learned that. I’m adamant about it, the only person who’s going to have your back is you.

[aros001]

Going in blind: Watching season 5 for the first time. Random thoughts.

Episode 1: Well...that dinner got dark. From what other fans have told me apparently Glimmer gets a lot of hate for her decisions during the series and I just find that odd. I was more annoyed with her in the early seasons where her actions were more harmless simply because she had no patience and wouldn't listen because of her immaturity. Season 4 and here though? Even her most reckless and risky actions have at least been fueled by the genuine desire to keep people safe during a very hard situation. Even here, yeah, she tells Prime something it's very bad for him to know but he was going to have Adora and everyone else literally murdered before her eyes if she didn't. I can't really be mad at Glimmer for making a bad choice when it flows logically and fueled by the desire to keep the people she cares about from being slaughtered.

I don't think we've ever seen Catra this completely at the mercy of another person before, save maybe for Shadow Weaver when she was a child. She has nothing to offer that Prime doesn't already possess. Nothing he wants that he can't get for himself. Her relationship with everyone these past few seasons have been either "I'm your commander and you have to do what I say" or "You are my commander and here's the reason you have to keep me around". This time she has nothing to protect herself behind and the only reason she's still around is because Prime might think of a use for her later.

I love having Scorpia on the heroes' side.

Episode 2: That ending though.

I think what helps elevate Entrapta for me and keeps her for being annoying or irritating is that the show really sells that she just genuinely has trouble understanding why she should/shouldn't be doing certain things. It's not stupidity or even pure self-absorption, she just struggles with people and social ques while machines and science is a lot more straightforward. Heck, she was probably able to bond so well with Hordak because work together in the lab was them meeting on a common middle ground she could understand and relax in. The way she's trying to overcome the issue to help save Glimmer reminds me a little of Mob from Mob Psycho 100, feeling a little frustrated in not understanding something that she knows she should be.

Episode 3: Anybody else get a Disney's Hercules vibes at the end there?

Catra: "Besides, O Oneness, you can't beat her! She has no weaknesses! She's gonna kick your...!"

Prime, smiling: "I think she does, little sister." [Strokes Catra's hair] "I truly think...she does."

This episode really sold how completely isolated Catra is. With the sole exception of Glimmer, she's in space, no idea where exactly she is, onboard a ship filled with nothing but Prime and hundreds of cultist clones. Throughout the entire series we've seen Catra push everyone away and now that she's in a situation where she is almost well and truly on her own with no power, freedom, or authority, she seeks out the one other person around to find any sense of comfort in. Despite everything, Catra doesn't like being alone.

Little child Catra lashing out because she didn't want Adora to have any friends other than her kind of reminds me of Glimmer and Bow during the Princess Prom episode. I imagine it's the same mentality. Growing up in isolation, even if in different forms, and finding only that one person they feel thay can really lean on, there is that fear that they'll find someone else they like more and start caring about them less, or even outright stop. The difference is Bow set Glimmer straight, assuring her he'll always be her friend no matter what but he's not going to be just solely dedicated to her. Her fear was understandable but she was not respecting him as a friend either. Adora never really had that with Catra, one because she was much younger and less mature than Bow, and Catra was probably all she had too, to an extent. As we saw season 1, she was always trying to look after her, even when Catra needed to take responsibility for herself. Bow is not Glimmer's keeper, while Adora too often was that for Catra, so Bow and Glimmer have a better foundation of mutual respect while Adora and Catra's dynamic has been really screwed up for a long time.

Kind of tying into that, despite all that's happened between them, the minute Adora hears Catra's in distress she starts panicking and tearing up. The last time they saw each other they were very much enemies and Adora was done reaching her hand out to her. I suppose you could make the argument she's really been hoping all this time that Catra would finally do the right thing for once, just probably didn't expect it to be like this.

Prime better not mind wipe Catra like he did Hordak.

Episode 4: See, calling the heroes the rebellion now makes sense since they are rebelling against the established power, which is Prime.

Love that trick with the reflections, where you can sort of see/sort of can't see She-Ra. A nice little tease for what I imagine will be a big reveal later.

I really like that explanation for what Bow's going through. Last season's finale was the last he'd seen Glimmer and was desperately trying to save her, and he's been consistently worried for her since then. Now that she's safe he's starting to let himself process his other emotions towards her, and I totally get it. It's hard to be mad at someone when you're also terrified over what might be happening to them, even if your anger is justified. While I get why Glimmer last season did what she thought she had to, it was still a big risk that Bow warned her about and she didn't listen, putting them all in danger. This situation and Glimmer's words is a very mature way of handle this topic. He's not wrong for being mad and it's not a contradiction to what we've been seeing from him this season. Humans and emotions are complicated.

Episode 5: SHE HAS PAAAAAAAAANTS!!! (I will miss the cape though)

That almost makes up for them cutting Catra hair. Seriously, that mane was beautiful!

But boy, speaking of Hercules, that return of She-Ra definitely felt like Hercules emerging from the pool of souls to save Meg.

With the one clone being disconnected from the hive mind and having a breakdown over it, that does make me wonder if Hordak has been connected to it. Wasn't he deemed a defect because Prime couldn't connect to his mind? I suppose it's possible that flaw was corrected. Clearly Prime can take over minds other than just his clones, like with Catra. But if he could do that I'm wondering why he just didn't when Hordak was first created and he instead cast him out to Etheria.

Was Catra purring at the end? I swear there was a sound that sounded like purring.

Episode 6: Assimilation is easily one of my biggest fears in fiction, be it zombies, Borgs and Cybermen, Get Out, the freaking Sapphire Dragon from Xiaolin Showdown that scared the hell out of me as a kid! Just the concept of having your free will and autonomy completely ripped away from you, potentially with you still being aware but unable to do anything about it, is horrifying! At least with Prime's chips the process is reversible.

Anyway, in lighter plots, I kind of love Wrong Hordak. He's really funny. I feel bad that he's being deliberately misled, but he really shouldn't be following Prime anyway, so...

I do like that Adora is being a little more tough on Catra. She needs kindness, yes, but she also needs honesty and discipline, the kind that has actual love and care behind it, unlike what she got from Shadow Weaver. Adora is genuinely trying to help so Catra needs to stop acting like a brat and LET HER HELP.

Episode 7: Catra was definitely purring.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume people probably ship Scorpia and Perfuma. Not that I have any problem with that. It's like the Midoriya/Todoroki ship; I don't ship it myself but I totally get why others do. It's a relationship based in mutual respect and one of the characters having a significantly positive effect on the life of the other. As long as the shipper themselves is not horrifically toxic, I don't care.

Also, I don't think I've ever been so intimidated by Mermista before than I was with that one shot of her in silhouette, just before the reveal she was chipped.

Episode 8: Okay, I definitely love Wrong Hordak. Just that realization of his. "Horde Prime...lied to us..." There's just something about it that's so full of character. Obviously he's a brainwashed clone but he was truly devoted to Prime and just to find out that he would keep something so big from them, from the hive mind that's supposed to be so open to him and each other, it destroys everything he ever believed in. It's hilarious to watch him prepare to lead his brothers in a revolt against Prime.

I assume magic is Prime's "weakness" in that he himself cannot control it. Obviously he can control magical beings like Spinnerella and have them use magic but magic itself is too free and too powerful for him to contain and fully fight back against. He's all about order and stillness and magic is basically chaos.

Episode 9: I like to believe the mushroom kingdom they saved is a Mario reference.

Something I like in hero stories is "the power of a name" or "the power of a symbol". Something as simple as Superman's S-shield can have so much weight and meaning behind it just because of the person it's tied to. She-Ra isn't just a powerful warrior to the people of Etheria, she's a hero of legend. We saw it touched on even back in season 1 how much Adora returning She-Ra to the world meant to everyone. She-Ra to them is a symbol of hope. If they have her on their side, then they believe they might be able to win and with that ordinary people can find the strength to fight too. It's something I think the Green Lantern put best with how the Blue Rings of hope supercharge the Green Rings of will but lose a lot of their functions when the greens are not around. Hope is useless if you don't have the will to also act, but in turn hope can give people the will to act. The more hope they have that they can win, the more they will fight to win.

That was the nerdiest comparison I've ever made.

Episode 10: I appreciate a good bad dad joke and that's why I can't approve of "punderstand". It's too much of stretch to flow well. "Ruined" was good though.

I'm less surprised that Scorpia's been chipped and more that she's even alive. She was at the bottom of the ocean when the roof broke and she's a scorpion woman. I don't think water is a very friendly element for her. She's even commented on how good the desert was to her.

I wonder her She-Ra mode is not working for her simply because Adora is exhausted; mentally and physically. I don't think she's ever used the form this continuously before, and she's been doing it without the First Ones' sword that she has experience with. Her new sword and its transformations may be made out of her own energy for all we know. And then there's just the emotional toil of having Catra back in her life while it feels like more and more of the world is being turned against her.

Episode 11: Oh, I'm definitely shipping Hordak and Entrapta.

I think Re:Zero has spoiled me on dark magic. While Micah with his dark magic is a threat, in this show and many others dark magic basically just equates to "spooky, evil, bad stuff" magic that isn't that different from most other kinds of magic other than being either harder to control or more geared towards causing harm. In Re:Zero, dark magic was DARK. It felt unnatural, like a perversion of how their world's magic is supposed to be and that it didn't belong in this reality. Micah's dark magic is basically "I'm attacking you with shadows, oOoOoOo so scary!"

Not really surprised Catra left. She just got Adora back and now she's potentially about to let herself die. Perfuma said it best, letting people in and letting herself be vulnerable is hard. Caring about Adora and watching her die would be a huge blow, so Catra would rather curl back up into her shell and block out Adora again than have to risk taking that hit.

Episode 12: I keep saying it but now having them right next to each other, yeah, Mara's She-Ra outfit is better than Adora's. I don't know, there's just something grander about it. Anyway, on topic, I'm a big fan of superheroes and legacy and all that and I really like Mara's words to Adora. All she did and sacrificed was so that others, especially the next She-Ra, wouldn't have to do the same. It doesn't matter how noble and heroic it is, tragedy is tragedy and anyone who knows that kind of pain doesn't want anyone else to have to go through it.

I'm not surprised by the love confession between Glimmer and Bow. I felt it could go either way with them either hooking up or just staying really good friends, but that in itself is a sign of how good and natural their friendship is. I can easily buy how it would evolve into something more between them. The situation they're in probably helps. When Glimmer was taken they both thought they might never see each other again and that fear and worry probably caused them to reevaluate how they feel about the other. They've been clinging to each other since getting back, as every day could be their last. Something like that is naturally going to push two people together.

Episode 13: So...are there any plans for a season 6? Or a comic continuation like Avatar and Korra got? Because this was a good finale...buuuuuuuuut I feel there are definitely some things that needed a bit more exploration.

This is typically why I like stories with epilogue endings, especially those set some number of years in the future. Little glimpses of what everyone's doing now, allowing the audience to fill in for themselves what happened in-between. There's nothing wrong with this episode but it does just kind of...stop. They beat Prime. Everybody's cheering and happy. Adora suggests they bring magic back to the universe. And...that's it. We don't see anything more. No aftermath, no post-war, nothing. We end on the moment of victory, and while it's not a bad moment it leaves the ending feeling a little incomplete.

It kind of feels like the writers either really had to rush to the ending to make the 13 episode deadline or simply didn't want to address whatever happens with Catra and Hordak now. With the bigger threat of Horde Prime it makes sense why everyone puts aside past issues and works together. But now that the crisis is over, naturally everyone would have to address everything the Horde had done to Etheria for years with Hordak and Catra leading it. Don't get me wrong, I believe that Catra loves Adora, I believe Adora loves her, and I believe Catra wants to be a better person. It's not like I'm saying she needs to be locked up or executed. But she did cause a lot of damage and put Adora especially through hell, and just because Shadow Weaver is the one who screwed her up so bad doesn't mean she doesn't have any responsibility for her own actions. So it just would have been nice to get even a little bit of lip service to show that Catra would be trying to right her wrongs from this point forward, instead of just "Prime's gone, everyone's happy, bye!" At least with Entrapta she seemed to genuinely not understand why what she was doing at the time was wrong and Scorpia, like Adora and Huntara, defected from the Horde to do the right thing despite it being even more part of her upbringing than anyone else. I can't even imagine what happens with Hordak now.

Don't get me wrong, this is far from the worst I've ever seen a redemption handled. I haven't read/watched any of Boruto outside of the movie and Gaiden tie-in but I've read all of Naruto and there is no reason that Orochimaru should just be walking around and casually talking with people after all he's done. Kaiba in the Yu-Gi-Oh manga built an entire theme park to try an murder Yugi and his friends and they bring it up like twice after that arc. Kylo Ren turning back to the light was one of the potential paths for his character, so that made sense in TROS, but they essentially did "He died heroically and therefore totally redeemed himself for every terrible thing he's ever done."; basically a cop-out. Catra's alive and can at least potentially still own up to her actions and work to redeem herself. And I love Steven Universe, but kind of like with Catra nearly killing everyone (including herself) via the unstable portal, fans have naturally pointed out that the Diamonds enslaved and committed genocide on multiple planets and really faced no consequences for that other than "Stop it". Catra's not at the gold standard of redemption stories, which for me is probably Zuko and Endeavor, but she's far from the bottom. I think the best way to describe it is that Catra had as good, if not better, reasons for being so bad and screwed up as Zuko did, just as good step-up for turning good as Zuko did, but she didn't have nearly as much payoff afterwards to make it feel like a full journey like Zuko did.

But enough about all that. Love the basically goddess She-Ra Adora became. Given the emphasis on healing powers with She-Ra we've had, I'm guessing that's essentially how she destroyed Prime. She purified Hordak and Prime was basically an infection within him. I like when heroes snatch victory from the jaws of defeat but I also when there's an implication towards the villain that "Wow. I never stood a chance." She-Ra's power just dwarfs his. Full potential realized by Adora and he was just gone.

Also I don't know how I forgot that Prime could jump into the bodies of his clones but his possession of Hordak got me. I genuinely couldn't think of how he'd survive after Hordak shoved him off the edge (set free by the power of love!).

And even if the ending feels a little incomplete, the episode itself still did well with my emotional investment. I was gripped by during Catra's confession and the tension within the heart.

Season 5 and overall series verdict: I'm very glad I saw this series. Even though its ending falls a little short for me, this was still really good. Seasons 3 was probably my favorite overall but this story had a very good flow to it. It steadily built up bigger each season, with Catra and Hordak being really compelling villains driving the whole thing. Not that Prime was bad. He was a genuine threat and his cult of clones is a good creepy concept. He's just not as good as the other two. I'm sure part of what elevates him up is because I'm thinking of the JL director's cut but Hordak really is just better Steppenwolf. Everything that worked about that character, Hordak is that to an 11.

Given how I've talked about her more than any of the others, Catra is probably my favorite character. Just the damage that girl has been through. I always understood why she was doing what she did, even though there was rarely a moment I'd agree with exactly what she was doing. Again, it's one of the reasons it feels like the series just kind of ended. There's a lot to be seen with Catra's character now, a lot that can be done, and it just feels like a shame to really not show any of it. This isn't a fault of SRPOP itself because so many series, especially animated and anime, are guilty of but it always bugs me when a series ends on two characters hooking. Relationships are interesting, I'd argue more so than the build-up to them, but no writer ever wants to actually explore them after the hook-up. I never cared about Korra and Mako being a couple but I still found their relationship as a couple more interesting and character building than any of the will they/won't they build-up to it. And I actually like the idea of Adora and Catra as a couple. It's a big reason why I'm so happy the Harley Quinn animated series got renewed for a third season, as it otherwise would have just ended on a hook-up between two characters who, like Adora and Catra, love each other but have had a complicated dynamic for a while. I believe Adora and Catra love each other, but they've got a lot of stuff to work out and I want to see that! Catra's got abandonment issues and that in turn caused her to be unhealthily possessive over Adora. Just seeing the two of them try to work through that alone would be fascinating.

Like I suspected early on, Scorpia's my favorite supporting character. Entrapta's a decent 2nd. Took a small dip when it seemed like she was joining the Horde over feeling abandoned by the princesses when they thought she was dead but that picked back up once it was made more clear "Oh, okay, you're not being petty or stupid. You genuinely don't understand." It made her a more interesting character, and I love her and Hordak's relationship.

Least favorite characters...probably Sea Hawk and those three former Horde friends of Adora and Catra. I never hated them but I never cared about what was happening when they were on screen. They fill out the world a bit, they drive the plot, they're not wastes of space, they even get some laughs. There are just so many other characters in the series way more interesting than them.

Biggest surprise for me was definitely Glimmer and Bow. I never thought I'd dislike them but the best friends characters in series like this can kind of go one way or another with how relevant or deep they are. Glimmer especially I was surprised how much I was invested. She really grew a lot as a person throughout the series and I thought the dilemma over the Heart of Etheria was a good one.

Honestly there's a lot more I could talk about but I have only so many words and my thoughts are a jumble right now so I'm going to leave it at that. I will say I really appreciate how supportive you all on this Reddit have been. It's something I hate about some other fandoms I'm in where they basically are so toxic that they make no one else actually want to watch/read the thing they're fans of because they can't help but associate it with them.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o2p6wq/going_in_blind_watching_season_5_for_the_first/

[kiyo-yoon]

I think it's safe to say that this fic literally changed my thoughts on fanfic. It seems everyone's losing their creativity and using the same old plot lines, shameless pwp etc, but this, THIS! This is what everyone should see as a work of art! I could NOT stop reading! It's been my favourite since forever and I'm so glad I found this! Namjoon and Jin are foster parents to five children and obviously it's the rest of the group. Anyways I couldn't help but decide after forever that I'll post my moodboards to show appreciation because this is gorgeous! 

@thecheekybrunette​    

Namjoon is the foster parent along with Jin and he is just so wise in this?! He is such an amazing father figure and is always there to put his stern ways into action. Hes forever patient and amazing with Yoongi and Jungkook especially. His relationship with Jin is so pure and beautiful and their backstory is hilarious! God I love them!

Jin is the foster parent along with Namjoon and he is just so amazing at being there for his kids! He loves all of them and god I couldn't see a better parent figure ever! His and Taehyungs relationship in this has moved me to tears so many times, honestly! Then him and Jungkook, the way he's so incredibly patient?! I loved him from the first paragraph in the first part of the story!

Yoongi is adorable as a kid and I love this fic because we see them all grow up from children to adults. Yoongi especially. His OCD is portrayed perfectly in this, as a kid and then as an adult. His thoughts on education is amazing and I love how he becomes super close to Namjoon with his music!

Hoseok, ack, my heartu! I think I've cried for all the characters but Hoseok just made me wanna give him a hug all the time! Hes portrayed as someone who's always super smiley and he cheers all his brothers up until he gets into a toxic relationship. "I just wanted a boyfriend" and then Jin comforting him while he cries?! Are you trying to kill me?!

Jimin is such a sweetheart! Hes such a grubber hahaha. While he is popular at school with loads of friends, cheerleading and just being an amazing human being, he struggles with his grades due to his dyslexia. He also has slight anger issues which Jin helped him throughout when he was a child and I feel so bad for Jimin because he just wants to be able to get his grades up so he can do his cheerleading. Protective Jimin over Taehyung was so beautiful to see and Jimin being excited for blue planet was cute!!!

Taehyung, oh my god I think he might've been my ultimate favourite in this story and I NEVER pick favourites! Taehyung suffers from seizures which is a constant normal in his life. Thanks to these seizures, hes scared to make friends and I think this is where I related to him so much because when he just broke down and started sobbing that he didn't want to make friends because he was freaking PETRIFIED, I sobbed hard. The fact that when he tries to make friends and has all those thoughts of not being wanted, god it struck home so so hard. His and Jins relationship is so incredibly beautiful! They've always got each others backs and the amount of love they have for each other is enough to make you cry. I love his boy scouts journey! I love that he made friends in the end who he felt safe and comfortable around!

Jungkook, my baby! I loved reading his backstory when he was a literal baby in Jins arms, how Namjoon took to him immediately and that Jungkook reminded Namjoon why he wanted to become a foster parent in the first place. It was just so beautiful! I love seeing him grow up, trying to find his place in his family when he felt like he didn’t belong. The way he just lashed out at everyone and his wake up call was Jins breaking down. I rooted so hard for him and Yoongi to make up again and was so glad they did. Jungkook was a bit complicated but at the same time he wasn't? I just loved him anyways, especially teenage Jungkook with Namjoon. Those moments were adorable!!

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Adventure Time Reviewed - S1E20 Freak City to S1E22 Henchman

A weaker group, ending on a sweet episode with Marceline. 

Ep 20 - Freak City

These openings with Finn and Jake doing silly stuff are my life.  Finn thinking that a homeless guy will reward him for a single cube of sugar...  The bird scene with Magic Man is really funny and the darkest scene up to this point, besides maybe Finn’s near death experiences in Dungeon. Jake got traumatized!!! 

For the record, this episode is flashing and it’s not advisable to watch with epilepsy.  

In this episode, Jake refuses to help Finn get his body back, because he seems to have a foot fetish and is living vicariously through Finn. So Finn grows depressed, and then kicks Jake’s ass. 

“Im gonna go rescue all the babies in town! Only the babies.” 

Jake throws Finn into a burning city. 

JAKE HAS A CRYDAR... he can sense when Finn is going to cry... 

Jake’s nose is brown in the firelighy. I don’t like it. 

“Kim! Get under Trudy!” “No man, please, I freaking HATE Trudy.” “Kim. I will DESTROY you!!” 

“GET HIS EYES! CUT HIM IN THE EYES!”

I love how good the reverted designs for the Freaks are. Even though they just appear for a second, they’re very creative.   

Altogether an... okay episode? Certainly not one I’m going to rush back to rewatch. The next Magic Man ep in s4 is 10 times better. 

Ep 21 - Donny 

Not the highlight episode of the season. In fact, this character sucked so much that they never brought him back until the series finale. He’s seen briefly in the final montage watching Crabbit dance!

Finn and Jake start the ep on a “safety patrol”. They are never seen doing this again. I find it sweet that they’d go around making sure everyone is being safe. Maybe Finn wanted to, so Jake is playing along with him. 

Finn thinks he’s complicated... He is a young boy with feelings! He’s not an outsider. He doesn’t even necessarily feel like one. But he’s 12 so he is confused. Finn probably feels funny about being the only human too. 

I enjoy that he and Donny become friends through a wrestle that becomes Finn teaching Donny how to fight back. It reminds me of when I fought my sister when I was little. Sometimes we needed those fights. 

The Why-wolves are a nice introduction to the ecosphere and population control... I always wished these guys would come back. There’s a sidecomic to one of the AT issues where they work with Bubblegum on a project but then reveal they’re going to eat everyone, and I think she’s already planned for the possibility, so they’re easily dispatched. 

“Our population will rise exponentially until we are eaten by the cosmic owl, so is the course of nature.”  Beautiful. 

22. Henchman 

This episode was really sweet. 

I like that it establishes Marceline has a known presence in Ooo. Honestly, I’m not sure how Finn and Jake never heard of her before, but she probably doesn’t perform in the Candy Kingdom... She has an old diving buddy, and the Duke of Nuts invited her to perform. 

Upon watching, it’s easy to brush off her so called necromancy as just yelling at the skeletons to wake up. She did use the power in Diamonds and Lemons, but that episode isn’t canon. I think it would work either way, because the Vampire Coven surely had some necromancy powers between them. 

The bow tie guy had an entire family on his walls. Even though he’s a minor character they put a lot of love into showing he has a life.  In the episode Sky Witch, much later, you see Maja’s family on the walls in her house, alongside the 10 million other objects in that episode. I love it when background designers go crazy like that. 

Marceline is acting like an enormous jerk to mess with Finn. It doesn’t seem like EVERYONE thinks she’s a jerk - or if they do, then they don’t care - but she finds Finn’s childish, heroic reactions hilarious. I feel really bad for him. She’s a bully! She even hurts his arms. But her moral code is slightly wack so it’s not as if she thinks it matters as long as he comes out of it alive. She’s certainly not going to molly-coddle him!  

And when Finn figures it out, she’s very friendly.    Finn learns a lesson of not judging books by their covers, while Marceline makes a new friend. 

What’s jarring is that even though Obsidian provides better context for Marceline’s behaviour in this ep, it’s not until her NEXT appearance - It Came from the Nightosphere - that she feels like a person. She’s still stuck in the season 1 archetypical babywriting. Season 2 is much better with dialogue and characters, other than PB and Jake, who are pretty good in s1. PB doesnt get any real standout moments in season 2, which is probably why I remember fuck all from it. Jake is really funny in s2 though.  

[sunflowersseemhappy]

Hcs for the the main six doing pranks w Mc ?

Sorry this took me so long to get to, but thank you for the request!

Next up will be Main Six with an MC who struggles to control their magic when they feel intense emotion. 

Enjoy for now! 😘

Asra

Scary good at pulling a prank off.

Magic gives Asra an upper hand and it shows.

You have warned him against pulling a prank on you because you will turn it around on him, and he believes you so he made you his prank partner.

Faust is always involved and gets super hyped, usually shouts ‘fooled!” after the victim has been pranked.

They are generally harmless pranks, ones that scare people (like making it seem there’s a ghost slamming the shutters).

Muriel probably got roped into a prank at one point or another, Nadia would probably be involved too.

Asra’s favourite targets? Julian and Lucio, he wouldn’t dream of hurting them but its fun to mess around with them. Rude customers at the shop are fair play too.

Has code words for quick prank preparation and execution

He’s often only in a pranking mood after someone has annoyed him.

His favourite prank was the day he decided to shock everyone with a bolt of electricity through his hand when he touched them, he did it to almost everyone and Muriel managed to avoid it because its strange that Asra wanted to shake his hand.

He got you too, but you followed up on your word that you would get him back. His hair was sticking up on end all week...

Nadia

Definitely the unexpected prankster.

Didn’t quite get the concept of pranks at first.

After she tried to ‘prank’ you, then you had to explain that hiding your toothbrush in a really obvious place isn’t really a prank. You teach her because you think it would be an excellent way to throw off your victims.

Chandra is good at scaring people in general but is a casual observer of the pranking events rather than involving herself.

Nadia’s pranks tend to aim to make people wildly uncomfortable or question her eccentric quirks, they generally involve eating something that’s not usually edible (like edible makeup or something like saying a weird thing in public. Like this but more refined).

Portia is usually involved in the pranks too, but she has definitely pranked everyone including you and Portia.

Her favourite targets comprise of Lucio, her sisters and you. She tried pranking the courtiers, but they just thought it was normal human behaviour.

Despite being as regal as she is when Nadia is about to perform a prank, she is liable to be very smiley.

She’s all about pranks when she needs some amusement.

Hates being on the receiving end of the prank.

Her favourite prank was flirting and smooching with you in front of nobles, making you feel very awkward and making the nobles feel very uncomfortable.

Julian

Julian makes his pranks tediously complicated.

Not very good at them but he tries.

Involved you after his prank backfired on him completely missing you. Anytime he tried it was like somehow you managed to avoid them, it’s probably why he involved you in the first place. But two heads are better than one after all.

Malak is much better at pranking people than Julian, thing is the crafty raven likes to prank Julian more than anyone else (maybe that’s why all his pranks backfire on him).

Julian enjoys the classic pranks, anything like flour/water on top of a door or hiding mouse traps in unexpected places (which he always forgets about), if cling film existed, he would use so much on the doorway prank.

Other than you Portia is regularly involved in the shenanigans; Julian has tried to convince Asra to help him but with Julian being one of Asra’s own targets it’s unlikely to happen (unless they team up on Lucio).

Just about anyone (though he fears Nadia and Mazenlenkia’s wrath), if Portia’s not with him then she’s against him! He tries to get Asra and Muriel but the two are good at expecting him, and Lucio and Julian are in the midst of a prank war as we speak.

Usually does pranks when he sees an opportunity.

Doesn’t usually get upset when his pranks fail, he knows one of these days he’ll have some luck.

If he’s made a mess of himself by walking into one of his traps Julian will chase you around to give you a ‘loving hug’.

His favourite prank was one of his few successful ones, cutting open a giant teddy bear and sitting on the bed waiting for you to come home. Your scream of surprise was worth waiting an hour for.

Muriel

The mellow prankster, usually preforming small pranks that are still funny.

He’s watched Asra preform dozens of pranks, so he knows the ins and outs but he’s no mastermind. Better at avoiding pranks.

Muriel caught you preparing a custard trap for Asra, he didn’t say anything but you could have sworn those chicken feathers looked familiar when Asra stumbled into the hut covered in custard and fathers. Muriel wasn’t smiling but you could see the mischievous glint in his eyes.

Inanna likes to act like she’s better than pranks but you and Muriel (after freaking out) both know that was red berry juice around her muzzle and not blood.

Muriel likes making more subtle pranks, but he’s not adverse to larger scale ones so long as you’re helping (spider in a cup, nail though hand, placing all his chickens in the shop (Asra hated that one)).

When it comes to pranks Asra no longer trusts Muriel, so generally allies come from unexpected places such as Julian (the two of them love pranking Asra together) and Nadia (there is a law between the two that prevents them pulling pranks on each other). Also the chickens really like getting involved.

Asra is the main target, closely followed by Lucio and then Julian. Unfortunately you are also one target and although you love Muriel it’s do or die when it comes to the pranks between you two.

Thinks shoving a whole lemon in his mouth counts as a prank.

Very good at hiding that it was him who did the prank.

His favourite prank? He preformed on every single one of the other main six plus you. Moving all the furniture in homes/bedrooms a couple of inches from it’s original place so everyone was tripping over for weeks. Externally he was as stoic as ever, internally he was loosing his mind over how hilarious it was.

Portia

Arguably the most evil prankster ever.

So much better at it than Julian is, be careful because as soon as you say something that sounds like a great idea she will devise ‘The Plan’.

Great evil masterminds need a henchmen right? After pranking you and then you doing so back Portia deemed you worthy of assisting her.

Pepi is as sneaky as Portia, she’s become the figurative black cat. If she crosses your path you’re doomed to be pranked sooner or later by Portia.

The evilest pranks you can imagine (sometimes so evil they concern you), think hair dye pranks, stink bombs, caramel apples that are actually onions and many more top secret plans.

More than likely to team up with Nadia and Asra, who love her evil plans. She’s even enlisted Muriel’s help on occasion (she needed a lot of eggs).

Naturally her favourite target is Julian because he’s her brother, but she likes to get Lucio to entertain Nadia on occasion.

Like a ghost when she’s going about preparing a prank.

Goes all out, she has pranks on top of pranks and you know for a fact she has a prank planned that will compile several pranks on top of each other. Portia calls it the ‘mother of all pranks’ and not even you are allowed to know what it involves.

Portia’s favourite prank is the one Nadia challenged her to pull. She considers it the best prank she’s pulled so far, Lucio screamed so loud when he discovered his hair was pink. Then he cried for hours over how pink his albino animals including Mercedes and Melinchor were (they were very pink).

Lucio

The most impatient prankster ever.

He’s poorly co-coordinated and wants to do the prank without putting actual effort into it.

After being pranked one too many times by literally everyone else Lucio had no choice but to come begging to you on his hands and knees, poor man was almost crying (he just wants one win bless his soul).

Mercedes and Melinchor have more luck than Lucio does, the two are little fiends when it comes to scaring the servants by chasing them through the dark corridors like deranged ghosts.

Spontaneous prankster (because he’s so impatient) Lucio will see something and think, hey that’s a good idea for a prank and run to find you! Think tying strings to doors across from each other and knocking on them to result in a door opening fight, ‘kick me’ signs, or messing with other people’s food while they’re not looking.

Everyone is too busy pranking Lucio to help him so all he has is you and maybe a few unwitting servants he bosses around.

Tries to get everyone, but has yet to do so. In the end he settled on pranking Valerius and the courtiers because they were the only ones willing to indulge him.

Most likely to descend into a prank war, which happened after Portia turned his hair and most of his albino animals pink.

Very dramatic when his pranks fail, you told him he could prank you anytime but he said ‘it’s not the same!’

Lucio’s favourite prank was a simple one with great after effects, replacing Valerius’ wine with grape juice resulted in the Consul spitting it out so far that it got Nadia and some of the outer courtiers. Lucio thought he was going to die of laughter.

[ordinaryschmuck]

Top 20 BEST Animated Series of the 2010s-1st Place!

And now. 

For real this time.

What is hands down.

The Best.

Animated series.

In the 2010s.

Is…

(Pause for dramatic affect)

#1-Adventure Time (2010-2018)

I mean...what else?

The Plot: The magical land of Ooo has many things: A kingdom made of candy, a sociopathic Ice King, and even a self-proclaimed Vampire Queen. Amongst all this chaos are two adventures: A human boy named Finn, the Human, and his magical dog/best friend/adopted brother (yes, really) named Jake, the Dog. These two then go on adventure after adventure, facing against the many oddities that the Land of Ooo offers. What type of dangers? Well...you’re just going to have to watch the show to find out.

Before I start praising the crap out of this show, there’s one thing I want to get off my chest. You see, I hate Top X lists that always end with “the one that started it all.” It comes across as lazy because there is no way the first story tops every other one after it. Case in point: when looking at the best episodes of your favorite shows, how often do you see the first episode making the top ten, hell, even the top five? Not often, I bet. And sure, you can make the argument that “Without X, there wouldn’t have been Y,” but is that even a fair comparison? Sure, Disney wouldn’t have been as big as it is now without Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs being a success, but does that make it right to ignore great movies like Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994)? Sure, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is the reason why fans love to hate Star Wars in the first place, but how often do you hear people saying Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is the best of the franchise. And sure, the Marvel Cinematic Universe wouldn’t have existed without Iron Man being a box office hit, but with movies like Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, can you really say Iron Man is the best in the franchise anymore? To me personally, if you’re going to pick “the one that started it all,” then it better be something that can outshine “it all.” This is why I chose Adventure Time as the best-animated series of the 2010s. Not because it’s a show that practically sparked the existence of almost every show on this list, but because it really is that good of a series. Unfortunately, with a series that really is that good, there will be people who try to pick it apart. This is why I’m going to do my best to defend against some criticism that Adventure Time seems to face. 

The first criticism I want to talk about is one that hasn’t even occurred to me until I watched JelloApocalypse's video called, “So This is Basically Adventure Time.” In that video, I realized that Adventure Time doesn’t really have a proper storytelling structure. Hell, most episodes don’t even have a conclusion. They just stop almost randomly. But there’s a remedy to this problem, and it's one that I discovered somewhat effortlessly during my rewatch of the show. And that solution is to stop looking at Adventure Time as a series of episodes and more of a series of experiences. What do I mean by that? Well, while watching, you can either have a good experience or a bad experience. A fun experience, or a depressing experience. A philosophically brilliant experience or a randomly stupid experience. All of which can happen separately or conjoined in every episode. Personally, I like this style of storytelling because I’m more likely to remember the experience of watching something rather than the basics of what is being viewed. However, as JelloApocalypse has proven, not everyone is going to be ok with this style. This is fine, as everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Just remember that if it doesn’t work for you, that doesn’t mean it won't work at all. Case in point: there’s a reason that this show got ten seasons.

However, with those ten seasons come the inevitable seasonal rot. Which, in this case, can easily be explained. Halfway through season five of Adventure Time, series creator Pendelton Ward left and made Adam Muto the head showrunner. And where Ward’s style relied on being random and hilarious, Muto took the series in a more philosophical direction. Several fans were turned away from this aspect, but I like to argue that this isn’t seasonal rot and more of a series’ development. Tons of shows on this list went through their own transitions, some subtle and some drastic. Whether or not you’ll be ok with those decisions is entirely dependent on who you are. And personally, I actually enjoyed the direction that Adventure Time took. While I was entertained by how hilarious the original seasons were in Ward’s run, Muto caused me to think more intensely than any other show I have seen in my life. This is why, once again, I would like to point out that just because it didn’t work for you doesn’t mean that it won’t work at all.

But one thing that didn’t work for me, and one criticism that I’m inclined to agree with, were how some characters got treated in later seasons. Now to be fair, most of the characters actually become more interesting as the series goes on (Ice King, Marceline, BMO, Susan Strong, etc.) There are just two characters that got a little iffier compared to others: Finn and Princess Bubblegum. The main reason why Finn’s character seemed to fail is that the writers focused more on Finn's love life (or lack thereof). I genuinely believe that Adventure Time has some fantastic romantic relationships, but that aspect of Finn’s character is easily the most uninteresting. It’s even worse when an episode focuses on his armorous hangups through past...mistakes. I even heard that this decision ruined Finn as a character for some people, which I can totally see why. Luckily the show course-corrected itself, and by season six, it started focussing on an aspect of Finn’s character that is actually interesting: His family. Not to give away any spoilers, but let’s just say that Finn gets significantly more fascinating through this decision. Unfortunately, one decision that never got better was how the show treated the one and only Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum. This character started off as a gentle/playful ruler who was as sweet as her kingdom. Only to evolve into a sociopathic control freak who is obsessed with science. What went wrong is that the show goes so far as to say that she’s always been that way, even since she was a kid. I guess she just was good at hiding it in early seasons. Once again, the writers try their best to course-correct Bubblegum, but all they did was make her bearable than despicable.

But while Bonnie doesn't work for me, do you want to know what does? Literally everything else about this show. One of the reasons why Adventure Time is the best series on this list is because it has elements of every other show that has already been mentioned before it. You see, Adventure Time can have: Hilarious comedy, intense action, superb animation, creative ideas, compelling drama, catchy music, thought-provoking stories, good romantic subplots, gay romantic subplots, great lore and backstory, intriguing mysteries, and, most important of all, bacon pancakes. All of which can be handled in ten to eleven minutes, where most shows struggle within twenty-two.

But one element that stands out among the rest is Adventure Time’s serialized storytelling. You see, there are two different types of storytelling: Plotting and pantsing. Plotting is how it sounds: You come up with ideas beforehand and work your way into making them come to life. Pantsing is where the goal is to basically make things up as you go along and try to make everything connected afterward. The ladder is the route Adventure Time takes. Every single amount of lore, character development, and even surprise twists were thought up almost on the spot. And one might think that this makes things more complicated, but when I rewatched the series in 2019, a solid 99.9% of what’s written lines up. Sure, there are small things that get confusing or downright forgotten. But that’s the keyword: small. It’s the big things that the writers try their best at explaining away, which can be much appreciated. And while I can love a show for creating a well-crafted story, I got to give Adventure Time respect for doing the same thing just by improvising. But do you want to know the real reason why I stuck with this show? And why do all the elements mentioned before manage to work so well? The same reason why any show can work so well: The characters.

And yes, I know I just complained about how certain characters were nearly ruined in this series, but that doesn’t change how good they are. Almost every character that the show focuses on has a level of intrigue to them, and characters that don’t still manage to be incredibly entertaining, to the point where a worm’s butt can carry an episode by itself (Yes. Really). But nothing beats the central duo, and I’m being honest when I say they make the series enjoyable. Finn and Jake not only have such an entertaining brotherly dynamic, but the two of them are just so much fun that I can’t help but smile whenever they’re on screen. They’re easily the best thing about the show, as well as the most entertaining characters in it. This is saying something because Adventure Time has a LOT of characters. One might say too many. In fact, one could argue that Adventure Time suffers from the too-many-characters syndrome, which I can absolutely see. However, every character is so unique and creative that to this day, I still remember the Tree Witch in the episode “To Cut a Woman’s Hair.” From her voice to her design to even Tree Witch's creative and hilarious way to convince Finn to get her some princess's hair.

This brings me to another great thing about the show: Its endless amount of creativity. Everything that Adventure Time does is something you will never see anywhere else. From all the unique ways the show has Jake use his stretchy powers, to also having a vampire drink the color red instead of blood, Adventure Time is always a show that leaves me scratching my head wondering, “Why hasn’t someone else done this before?” And the best part is, no other show can do the ideas that Adventure Time has had. Because there is no way of doing it without coming across as a carbon copy. Which I can appreciate. Believe it or not, I would rather see an idea done once and never again, rather than repeated to the point where it becomes stale. Letting Adventure Time keep its creativity helps the show stand out among the rest and prevents it from being forgotten through time.

Thus, we come to the real reason why Adventure Time is the best-animated series on this list: Memorability. When doing a rewatch of the series, I was surprised by how many episodes I somehow remember. In fact, out of over two hundred episodes, I only manage to forget one (which coincidentally managed to be an episode I hate). I honestly don’t know why so many episodes managed to stick with me. Maybe because the show is so creative that it’s hard to forget. It's probably because the characters are instant icons that their impact just won’t leave me. Hell, perhaps it’s because the show is so gosh dang weird that my brain refuses to forget a second of it. No matter what the reason is, it all still stuck. And I’m not going to lie, I feel as though there are going to be a lot of shows I'll forget over the years. But ten years from now, something tells me I’m never going to forget Adventure Time.

Now that I think about it, there really have been many great cartoons over the previous decade. And we owe it all to Adventure Time. The act of being unique and creative with one’s ideas came from Adventure Time. The idea of being more mature and deciding what should and shouldn’t be for kids came from Adventure Time. The fact that a show needs well-written characters to tell a great story came from Adventure Time. Even certain shows were made because creators worked on Adventure Time (looking at you, Steven Universe). Is the show perfect? No. Far from it, even. But when looking back at the many great series we’ve gotten in the 2010s and the many great shows we’ll get in years to come, I realize that the fun will never end WITH Adventure Time.

(Especially since we’re still getting it with four hour long specials on HBOmax)