#((kind of reminds me of a post how a lot of the other actors were doing way better than the main leads))

[hiddenonigiri]

i paused your sky at like episode 4 but part of me wants to speed run finish it just so i can make a compilation post of teerak, joy, type and punlee

[olderthannetfic]

https://olderthannetfic.tumblr.com/post/739381076510785536/so-it-seems-our-flag-means-death-has-not-been#notes

I liked OFMD and I'm sad it's not getting renewed, but I agree that the fandom was especially toxic, even by the standards of currently popular slash-heavy fandoms. I wanted to read fic after s1 ended the way it did, and I read a little bit, but along with it having all the tropes that I can't stand in a lot of what is currently big with the MSF crowd (and that I'd been happy to have a reprieve from in my current main M/M fandom), the toxicity of the online fandom discourse made me quickly realize it was one that I was going to discuss among my current-friends-from-other-fandoms who also watched it, and my sister who watches it, and pretty much ignore the rest of the Internet. It was such a perfect storm of everything awful, from people who are overly invested in it to an unhealthy degree (I think I realized I wasn't gonna be active in the larger fandom around a month or so before the s2 renewal announcement, when I saw earnest PSA tweets telling people to "stop threatening suicide in HBO's replies if they don't renew OFMD"), to bombarding and parasocial obsessions with the creators and actors, to all the classic "anti" and purity police crap that plagues anything that gets popular on here.

The fandom it reminds me the most of, honestly, is Yuri on Ice fandom at its peak in early-mid 2017. Again, a show I love, but a fandom I absolutely do not miss. In some ways they are kind of similar shows: ones with canon M/M romances where they were not billed as that, and they were hinted from early on but people didn't trust it due to years of dealing with queerbaiting, where that sort of thing slowly crept up on people and then became the defining feature of how it was discussed everywhere. I wonder if there's a particular level of insanity that that type of thing breeds in its fans - or maybe, more broadly, "canon M/M with a large female fanbase." Like, you don't see this kind of thing in canon M/M stuff that's mostly watched by queer men rather than women, but there are shades of the insanity I also remember from Glee fandom (I was more active on the F/F side of things there, which had its own unhinged drama, but the Klaine vs. anti-Klaine stuff was so explosive that it was hard not to notice it if you were anywhere in that fandom, like a mushroom cloud in the distance). But YOI and OFMD do seem very... singular in the particular kind of obsession that they generate.

And I really wish people would shape the fuck up, because if they're going to act like this over and over again, that's just going to de-incentivize showrunners to make shows like this for that audience.

Driving Con O'Neill off Twitter was one of the worst parts of it, too. There was something so refreshingly earnest about how much he embraced the fandom, even the weirdest parts - saying with regard to NSFW fanart that "art is art" and retweeting stuff like his character in a crop-top that said "babygirl." It was so nice to see an actor who didn't usually have that kind of following embrace it wholeheartedly rather than steering clear. ....And then people had to be awful and creepy and obsessive and he left Twitter. I bet he's going to be a lot more skeptical of dealing with fans in the future!

--

It's not just the canon m/m aspect: it's the wholesomeness.

Yes, yes, they're all evil pirates, I agree, but watching S1 did give me the feeling of something that was supposed to be very progressive and light-hearted in particular ways. I don't think that's bad, but it does tend to attract some very over-sensitive fans with some very rigid expectations.

It's sadly par for the course that one of the random side character actors is the fun one and people are jackasses and desperately want the leads they ship to be the fandomy ones and/or just start creeping on any actor they can get a reaction from.

[eisforeidolon]

Hi! Sorry if i'm bothering you but i needed someone to talk. About what happened recently with Destiel and Misha and the fans that believed in the things he said. I am new to Supernatural fandom, but i loved the story in an instant, thanks to Sam and Dean and their unique relationship. Then i became interested in Jared and Jensen too and i think that if Sam and and Dean are the heart of Supernatural then Jared and Jensen are the soul of the show because to me no other actor could have played Sam and Dean like they did. Now, returning to what i wanted to say i am really TIRED about Destiel, some Destiel shippers and especially Misha. I know he said some stupid thing about how CW is homophobic and how Destiel would be canon if they weren't homophobic. I don't ship Destiel because sincerely i don't see romantic love between Dean and Castiel, but this doesn't make me an homophobic person. His words are said with malicious intent. He also said some thing about how Jensen is attracted to him. I find this disgusting because he says this things only for his Destiel fan, knowing that his words are lies. Also Jensen not being there can't reply to his lies. Like i sad i'm new to Supernatural but some Destiel are making the experience in the fandom a constant war. They say that if you don't ship Destiel you are homophobic , that if you don't ship Destiel you are not a true Supernatural fan and the most stupid one... They say that Supernatural is about Dean and Castiel and their love. This make me really angry because Supernatural is about Sam And Dean, how they care for each other,how they save the world again and again and how they hunt monster and ghost and other things. But to me Supernatural is the unique love story of two brother and how they did everything to protect each other. I ship Wincest, but When i say love story i mean that Sam and Dean are Platonic Soulmates in Supernatural and even the show always remind us of that. I don't understant how Misha can say this thing without facing consequences because his words feed some Destiel fan that became hateful like him and whose mission is hating people who don't think think like them. Sorry for the long post and for the horrible english but it's not my first language. Sorry if i bothered you but i needed someone to talk to because sometimes i feel like leaving the fandom because Destiel hate and their war against everyone. I hope you will always have love and kindness in your life.

You really don't need to apologize for anything.❤️ You aren't bothering me and your English is fine - maybe not perfect, but hell, neither is mine some days! Thank you for the lovely sentiment, and I wish you the same - and that you do what is best for you in regards to this sometimes dumpster fire of a fandom.

If it helps, you're absolutely not alone. I've been in this fandom for years now, and some days it's sheer stubbornness against hellers obvious attempts to browbeat and drive everyone else out that keeps me here. They didn't get to take over the show through being loud and obnoxious and they don't get to monopolize the fandom by doing the same - and they can be butthurt forever over it.

I actually didn't mind Dean and Castiel as a ship at first. I'm always interested in what people take from a canon and then create entirely outside of it, and I read quite a lot of fanfic. Even then I was baffled by shippers insisting it was a thing in the canon, though. There was a brief period where I wondered if I'd somehow missed it, because I'm not generally really looking for romance stories and there were so many posts that were so insistent? So I actually did a rewatch focused just on Dean and Castiel's interactions - and came away with the impression they weren't actually even as good of friends as I'd originally thought, let alone anything like interested in each other romantically. The more I thought about it and the more meta I ran across and actually considered the details of? The more obviously baseless it was. I mean, some of it really is just genuinely so stupid it's hilarious. Cake. Bacon. Negative space. Widower arc. Bisexual lighting and/or plaid. But even the theorizing which wasn't absurd on its face? Always looked silly in comparison to how much more obviously and easily it had meaning in relation to the main story that plainly actually existed instead.

Meanwhile, I kept seeing more and more of those posts you mention insisting anyone who didn't ship it was a homophobe and they really pissed me off. Even if Dean and Castiel were a canon couple who spent half of each episode doing couple things and saying I love you back and forth instead of the entire show revolving around Sam and Dean's crazy tangled up lives with Castiel occasionally wandering in and out of the background with some angel nonsense or whatever? Not shipping it would not make someone a homophobe. Shipping is very subjective and any individual pairing can not appeal to any particular fan for a million and one reasons that have sweet fuckall to do with how they generally feel about LGBT+ relationships. Attempting to bully people into supporting a single very specific fictional relationship by trying to make them afraid of being branded a bigot if they don't is ridiculous as hell, regardless of how canon or not it is. How absolutely fucking disrespectful to all the people who have to deal with actual homophobia versus just being butthurt they can't force two particular fictional characters to kiss. It's so goddamn juvenile I can't even.

The longer I was in fandom, the more brain dead and divorced from the show the meta claiming Dean and Castiel were going to hook up any minute got. The more annoyed I became at all the absurd stereotypes about masculinity and sexuality they would parrot as gospel truth if it could "prove" Dean was into dudes and eventually the angel. The more obviously transparent their every cry of ~*homophobia*~ was when they tried to turn every real life LGBT+ issue and every canon LGBT+ character primarily into proof and/or justification regarding D/C. They're a bunch of entitled shitheads who not only feel like they should get to dictate what SPN is despite hating basically everything it actually was, but who are perfectly fine with co-opting serious real world issues to try and do it. I have no beef with normal D/C shippers who aren't assholes to everyone and mad at the show for not bringing their fanfic to life, but I can't stand the pairing at all even in a fandom sense anymore.

The evolution of my feelings on Misha followed a similar path. I liked Castiel well enough as a supporting character and I didn't actively dislike Misha, though after I'd seen a couple of panels where his answers were flippantly irreverent or unnecessarily raunchy, I wasn't really much interested in him. Then, over time, at the same time Castiel's character was more and more blatantly just eating up screen time to give J2 time off, he started getting worse and worse about ship-baiting. He'd act like everyone behind the scenes was talking about D/C - but then they (Jensen and Bob Singer most notably) would say that was untrue. He'd slyly hint about upcoming scenes in a vague way to imply D/C and then it would be something else entirely. He'd tell shippers about things that had been pointedly removed because they could seem leading and that was not the authorial intent, but without pointing out that was exactly why they were excised. His stories would change when he got a bad reaction - he went from saying he shipped wincest to pretending he'd never heard of it, he went from claiming Jimmy was going to appear in the original Roadhouse finale to it being Castiel, etc. Then there was framing horsing around with Jared as if he was a victim and not a participant and the incredibly inappropriate objectifying sexual comments about Jensen and Dean. All of which caused the fans falling for it to loudly and angrily attack everyone but him while they kept buying his ops/books/cameos/whatever. No matter how blatantly he queerbaits them and how upset they get over it and take it out on everyone else, he does not stop. He's an ungrateful creepy narcissist who will throw literally anyone or anything under the bus if he can get a buck out of it. Who also will proclaim he doesn't want to co-opt LGBT+ causes when he's desperately trying to keep his career on life support doing exactly that in the most skeevy, backstabby way possible.

Jared and Jensen put their hearts and years of their lives into this show bringing Sam and Dean to life, episode after episode, week after week, season after season. Telling an important story about platonic and familial love that you really won't find anywhere else.

Misha and the hellers have spent years trying to co-opt that to their own ends out of gross entitlement. They deserve each other, but the show and its actual fans don't deserve to have to put up with either of them. Unfortunately, we have the fandom we have, not the one we deserve.

[samthetrekkie]

I feel like I've abundantly established that I don't think the tos movies are the best ones ever made and this one was especially wild to me, but I still do have a soft spot for all of them. I never leave thinking "oh, I didn't like that", even if there were entire scenes were I was like ??? and/or second hand embarrassed. (think, uhura dancing naked, them thinking the alien on the planet is literally god). but then sybok asking when the pain began and spock goes "this is the scene of my birth" was way too funny to me (sorry spock). and the turbo boots scene in the jeffries tube was also really entertaining in a slapsticky way.

the general plot was a bit strange, but it actually reminded me of og tos episodes. at the same time, that's not necessarily a good thing… I liked the shore leave scenes, even though they were a bit long considering how short the movie was. it also reminded me of those old, unauthorized tos books (even though I've never actually read any of those) where they recycle typical tos episodes, but make it a little larger and filled with some non-canon info, like the random pairings. I do think scotty and uhura are kind of cute though! it came out of nowhere, but it kind of makes sense to me. (why do they call each other by their last names though?) and then cut to chekov and sulu in the woods bickering like a couple. makes sense as well. but why are these people serving on the same ship in the same positions again after they've become really high ranking officers? I think it actually made a lot of sense in wrath of khan that e.g. chekov was a first officer on a different ship and spock captain. but considering this, it makes a lot of sense that some (all) of them are bound to date each other at some point. it's like going to class with the same people for 8 years.

I surprisingly liked spock leaning more into his human side and being emotional than usual. it makes sense in my head that, after he was reborn, he kind of saw how short life was and that there was no need to keep up a facade at all times, but still not lose his identity. similar to seven in picard, I am always worried about autistic-coded characters changing their personality heavily after a while, but with spock it feels quite natural and it even worked with seven in the later picard seasons. I just think it's all about the balance. like I enjoy those characters being more comfortable, especially around friends and loved ones, but they shouldn't change entirely how they are and still seem "reserved". and I think leonard nimoy especially did well in that, even if this script gave him some out of character lines I think (like the "damn you, sir!"). have I already mentioned I think leonard nimoy is the best actor in tos…?

speaking of spock's rebirth and rethinking, I do see him being more open with kirk (I almost wrote jim, but that feels weird) and they had very much a married couple vibe in this movie. even the little maritial crisis in the brig was there. so I'd like to think kirk finally made a commitment :) and while there were not too many one on one scenes with these two, the next to last scene was more than one could wish for, spirk-wise. their intense eye contact and "please captain, not in front of the klingons" while standing extremely close to one another and kirk grabbing spock. like I've seen so many posts that shatner denies there was anything between kirk and spock, but the way he played kirk, I mean come on. I'm sure there wasn't a direction in the script that said "kirk stares lovingly up at spock". but he fully did in this scene! we have proof! and kirk holding on for dear life to spock as he rescues him with the turbo boots in the jeffries tube was also something. I mean of course you need to hold on, but kirk was embracing spock with a closeness different than mccoy did. (but then there is this strange thing with mccoy, where I keep thinking: is he third wheeling or is this a three way relationship? I somehow can't see mccoy fitting in with kirk and spock's romantic vibe and I don't see him in an erotic way in general but… tumblr is giving me ideas...)

a very long winded post to say: superfluous, but overall enjoyable movie. while watching, I also suddenly had flashbacks that this was the first (!) piece of star trek that I had ever (consciously) watched. it was on tv when I was like 10 and I kept zapping away and was surprised when it was still going and was like: isn't this supposed to be a tv show? and my dad, who grew up watching tos, had no memory of there ever being star trek movies in the 80s. he also had never heard of pretty much any star trek shows after tos at that point, so he was living under a rock, apparently. anyway, some of the scenes of this movie were really etched into my mind and I honestly think one of the subconscious reasons I wanted to watch tos was to get context to these scenes! (of course besides me wanting to watch all of star trek from the beginning.)

[dehautdesert]

More random Captive Prince thoughts, because I feel like being a sadist to all of my mutuals these books are living rent-free in my head right now. These ones are more about the plot and the worldbuilding.

Worldbuilding-wise, I loved the attention to detail, because as far as I could tell all the little details of how a medieval-ish army functions and how you would run it and what you would do with the horses and the supplies and the roads etc. etc. were pretty accurate. I mean, these books are by no means a treatise on warfare (in fact they can be delightfully pulpy, which I liked - I grew up on The Three Musketeers and the Scarlet Pimpernell and similar swashbuckling novels, and I got some of the same feelings here!), but there were details in there that most other authors don't bother to put in or inadvertently fuck up (I love ASOIAF to death but historically accurate it is not), and most of the military stuff seemed plausible enough as well, though again not described in too much detail so you can fill it in with your own assumptions or skim over if it's not something that particularly interests you. And I also loved the architectural details and could imagine everything quite well, but again, as I said previously, this may be because the author spent some time living near where I live so we've seen a lot of the same stuff probably.

Actually when I was first reading it and thinking it was going to be bad I was reading it exclusively for the architectural details lol, I was like yeah, yeah, they're all sucking each other off, but Damen please tell me again how you feel about the tiling?

What I also particularly liked is how the... scale of the conflict I guess? was refreshingly accurate for the "historical period".

The worldbuilding is a mashup of Ancient Greece and medieval France, but what it really felt like to me is a world where the Roman Empire never really consolidated to the extent that it did in our world and Italy went on into the middle ages (because these are decidedly feudal systems) with Cisalpine Gaul having the, well, Gallic culture, while the South had a Greek one. I may be thinking this because I live in Italy and so everything reminds me of Italy, but once I thought of it I couldn't unsee it.

I guess I gotta put in a cut somewhere and now's as good of a time as any?

But anyway, back to the scale of the conflict, the actual middle ages were filled with small and mid-sized countries, and petty local conflicts with family members turning onto each other over succession and stuff, and random small territories going back and forth (well, that's just Europe in general, always, TBH), and this is how it all felt like to me. Actual medieval history has a guy who started a rebellion because his brothers threw a pisspot at him and his father did nothing about it and he felt humiliated, and the war was secretly funded by his mother, so the combination of the small scale with a random local conflict that probably literally nobody cares about outside of the region we are in + everything being so intensely driven by interpersonal drama between insane people felt really authentic to me, like the kind of weird historical moment that would get turned into a funny Tumblr post. And of course the royals did a lot more sneaking around than was probably smart, but I can forgive that for the swashbuckling vibes and also because if Cleopatra could sneak into a palace in a carpet these guys can do whatever they want in my book.

Speaking of the petty interpersonal drama, I also liked the emphasis on how in this system personal reputation and the performance of kingship are king. Usually when you have a heavily political story it's much more based on the quid-pro-quo, "rational actor" kind of politics, but medieval politics also had a lot more going on in the cultural sense (and so do modern politics actually but at least pretending to be a "rational actor" IS the modern performance of leadership), and here you had people dealing political blows through meticulous management of their own and others' political reputations, which was fun to see, especially in combination with so many manipulative bastard characters. Like, how Laurent is manipulated into going to the border just because looking like a coward will lose him more political points than he can afford, and Damen's continued wearing of the slave cuff and instistence on not being served by slaves initially deals massive blows to his reputation, because these are cultures that value heroism, of one sort or another.

(And speaking of heroism, the emphasis on the physical activity-related activities that are the centerpiece of noble life in both countries were wonderful, especially since because both Ancient Greece and the European Middle Ages were really into that in their respective ways and it makes the mashup feel really well-done and coherent in how she tied it together.)

What's notable is a lack of any kind of religion, which felt particularly glaring during the whole Kingsmeet thing - in the real world there would likely be a belief in some kinda curse from the Gods or something similar to discourage the drawing of weapons, but since I'm not really religious and tend not to personally care about religion (while ofc recognizing its anthropological importance) I really didn't care and it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the series.

Still, I do have to say that the ending of the last book felt reeeeaally rushed, and that felt really glaring exactly because the rest of the series had such amazing detail work and excellent pacing and very gradual plot development.

I didn't get the part with the doctor and the letter (why didn't he say anything earlier? how would they verify the authenticity of the letter? Did anyone even have the time to READ the thing?) but I'm gonna be honest with you here, I read book 3 under a heavy fever and it was like 2 AM when I got to that part, so I'm not sure that I haven't missed something that makes it make more sense.

BUT even if that part makes sense, I feel like the Regent was dealt with far too quickly. Like in one paragraph he is in control of everything, in the next they've already beheaded him and that's it. I can imagine in my head that a lot of the nobles were probably already sick of him and took little convincing, that they were disapproving both of his meddling in foreign politics and of his likely grave breach of cultural rules via taking an aristo kid as a pet, or that he initially rationally seemed a better choice over Laurent until Laurent proved himself to be more competent and with a more competent ally, or they already had some hints about what happened that the audience didn't and the evidence confirmed what was inconclusive before.

But I feel like in a series that spends so much time detailing the shifting alliances between the characters and the public's opinion on everyone that matters? I really needed to be sold on it a bit more. Like I really needed some discussion over what to do with the Regent, I needed them to keep him in a cell for a while as they decided whether to kill him (and have the leads scared that the Regent will turn them over as Laurent often does to people), I needed them to consider the evidence just a little bit more, I needed some post mortem with the council members where they explain what was happening on their side of the things. It needed to be MUCH longer and more detailed.

Another thing I wondered at was why the Regent was so insistent to paint Laurent's collaborations with the Akielons as a bad thing when he was... also collaborating with the Akielons? Like he is foaming at the mouth calling them barbarians and accusing Laurent of sleeping with the prince-killer but it feels more like setup for Damen's big declaration of love than an actual political strategy because my brother in Christ, you are literally in the Akielon royal palace, in the middle of Akielos to which you ran after your nephew started a rebellion, with the Akielon king sitting next to you as your equal. Why do you think that you can convince your people that YOUR Vere-Akielos alliance is somehow more morally pure than Laurent's? This was also the right moment to pull out all the patricide allegations that seemed to be going around for Damen, but IIRC he didn't use that as much as he could if at all.

Since there were some Akielons in the room as well, I was also wondering WTF was Kastor doing as the Regent was shitting on his country and calling them barbarians and making it like allying with them is a grave transgression? Why was HE allowing this humiliation? It felt like a very unpolitical thing to do from a character whose strength was in his political acumen (obviously meaning the Regent, not Kastor) and the plot just let it slide by.

I feel like a lot of this is due to this being the first time that the story had to fit within the constraints of a traditional book? So it needed a decisive traditional climax and perhaps it was getting too long for a traditional format, or the author got a bit tired of it and wanted to wind it up now that she wasn't getting regular feedback as you do with serialized publishing, or she prioritized emotional impact over plot logic.

I don't know. I still think they're great books, and the conclusion was emotionally satisfying in the sense that the psychological and interpersonal threads were wrapped up impeccably, I just wanted more detail on the political side. It's still grabbed me like nothing else did for a long time, I can take a mid ending, half of my favourite series will never have one at all because the author wrote themselves into a corner and then died lol.

[three--rings]

God that David Jenkins interview collection post I just reblogged...

I hadn't read the Paste interview and my god David I have to just...marvel at some of this.

In particular:

"But I think him becoming a father figure to Ed in the last episode didn't really dawn on us until we were breaking the last episode. Asking what would this man say to Ed at the end because they've been together through everything? He went from a troubled and downtrodden employee to a jilted lover to a discarded employee, to someone that is just trying to find his footing again—no pun intended—to actually becoming this guy's parental figure on some level. And he's one person who kind of raised Ed right, because Blackbeard usually kills his parental figures. So, it felt right and it felt like that's how the mentor dies. The mentor in a story usually dies in the second act and then our hero has to go on and try to do it without them. It felt like the right journey for Izzy and a gratifying one for Con."

Like, okay we, the writers, hadn't considered him a father figure or mentor at all until the very last episode where we killed him. But we came up with it as we were writing it.

And then we didn't put anything about it into the episode at all, and then we talk about it in interviews about how obvious it is as a mentor relationship and like...I'm sorry. Yeah it was surprising to all of us as well, because you may have suddenly thought of it like that when you were DESPERATELY trying to justify this death to yourself as NECESSARY because you'd decided it WAS, but you also

DIDN'T PUT ANY OF THAT ON THE SCREEN.

So no, the audience is not on the same page, cause we weren't a part of those discussions you had. That only came up in the last episode. You can't in like 4 minutes of a 25 minute episode, the very last episode of 18, introduce a character dynamic when one of the characters is dying.

That's not how writing for TV works! Does he really think he put the Izzy is a father figure stuff on screen somehow in that death scene? Cause like, sure Izzy is showing AFFECTION for Ed in that scene, but there's nothing there that is PARENTAL. And family, which Ed says, doesn't mean that either. The ship is family. Queer family is different. IDK IDK.

And like it reminds me of something else he said in another interview, about Jim and Oluwande and how "in the writer's room we always thought of them as a friend relationship that got romantic" and that's why they got other partners. But like, okay, if your intent was they were more friends than romantic (which, I'm not sure that's what you mean, but if you're using it to say that's why they are now into other people, okay?) then did you convey that to THE ACTORS? Because it feels like the actors were definitely playing ROMANCE in S1.

That's what ended up on the screen. Two friends falling in love, sure, but actually falling in love and not just two friends who sleep together, as S2 tries to imply.

IDK but I really want to be like, dude sometimes it's not about writer intent. Sometimes it's about what ends up on the screen and you need to step back and look at what your audience is seeing. Because your actors are doing a lot of things that may take things to different places.

[demon-ness]

Well, since everyone is talking about the movie today.

What the fuck reason could there be for the existence of a movie? This is not a rhetorical question. What is their plan? And let's forget about motives like "they want to give us a pleasant experience" or "rethink the plot of the original." How are they going to make money from this? Life-action is never cheap, but here they will need decent budgets to show bakugan battles. How is this movie supposed to pay off? Do they hope that nostalgia will be enough? I highly doubt that this factor alone will be enough. Besides, life-action movies have finally begun to enter the era of decline, because the audience is tired of this garbage. So how is a life-action movie based on a God-forsaken anime supposed to pay off? Toy sales? Look at g3, the sale of toys in this franchise is bad right now.

Okay, let's assume that this movie itself will be so cool and interesting that the audience will love it and will gladly go to the cinemas. How? How can this even happen? I basically can't imagine how the plot of this anime can fit into a movie. There are practically no filler episodes in the first season of g1, and even so it lasts more than 15 hours. The script will have to be written almost from scratch, otherwise the plot of this damn movie will turn out to be, well, stupid. But even if they rewrite most of the plot, they'll cut out a bunch of characters and somehow reduce the running time to two hours… They will not be able to completely rewrite the very essence of the original. And this is not a plus! Because the very essence of the original is a bunch of battles without much meaning, the standard salvation of the world and stupid schoolchildren. And that's not exactly what's going to help the MOVIE make money. This is an ideal basis for anime, which is an advertisement for toys. But this is a very unimpressive basis for a film. You can object to me by reminding me that there were a lot of small details in my favorite anime, and in the first season even the characters are well written. But, the problem is… Like I said, to make it into one movie, the screenwriter will have to cut out most of it. And I'm just really not sure that this kind of storyline will really attract viewers. More precisely, the required number of viewers.

However, of course, we all know that some movies don't need a good plot. And the actors. Some movies only need giant monsters punching each other's faces to cool music. There are many such films and they often collect the box office. The problem is that the bakugan movie won't be like that. There won't be enough budget. Cool battles of realistic-looking monsters require a lot of money. Therefore, all such films are now divided into two categories - successful films with a large budget, and failed films with a small budget. Do I need to say that no one will allocate a large budget for a bakugan life-action film?

So what's the end result? A life-action movie (this format is losing popularity) based on God-forsaken anime. The plot of this anime is too long and intense, so it will have to be greatly cut and simplified for the film adaptation. And the battles are likely to be sluggish and, well, as poorly animated as in the original. If not worse, because the budget is clearly not going to be large.

I repeat my question from the beginning of the post. What the fuck is the plan? Is this an attempt to kill the franchise? Will it turn out that some madman poured billions of dollars into the budget of this movie? Is there an advertising campaign waiting for us so crazy that even those who hate the very concept of cinema will go to the bakugan movie? What the fuck is the plan?

I don't understand.

[antiscorbutic]

welcome to my polar explorers sideblog !

books n things ive read / some thoughts etc (updated frequently)

> Endurance - Caroline Alexander

what I started with. v good read imo pretty succinct and flows nicely. not too hero-worshippy iirc, nice pictures

> The Worst Journey in the World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard

I read (listened to) the audiobook narrated by Simon Vance and really liked it! tbh I wasn't super deep in to all this when I started it and was kind of shocked at how readable it was. my favorite part is birdie's letter about the land crabs.

also in general it's really nice to get an actual pov account -- the secondary books are lovely for helping muddle through sources and stuff but I get annoyed with how much time is spent on the Famous bits and not the unglorious monotony, which i love hearing about. I gotta read some actual diaries

> Madhouse at the End of the Earth - julian sancton

JESUS I did not know anything about the belgica going in AND I'd just watched aliens (1986) and WHY are there narrative parallels this shouldn't be real??? also amundsen is a real freak (<- value neutral)

> Endurance (2024)

uhhh sorry kids I hated this. I know it's based on the guys book but like the parallel heroic narrative thing was so icky to me. also the AI voices were giving "we didn't want to pay voice actors" and!!! fucking pointless to end it when you find the ship I want to know about the ship!!!!!!!!!! I wanted to watch a doc about the ship not about some people who found the ship. tragic for me

> Shackleton (2002) - TV miniseries with Kenneth Branagh

actually loved this. there was clearly so much attention and care put in to little historical details and even with all the silly dramatic Kenneth monologues i really enjoyed it

> The Great White Silence (1924) - Herbert Ponting

fucking WILD that as a card carrying member of the attention-span-ruined tiktok generation that as soon as I found this I was GLUED to the screen for the full like 2.5 hours or however long it is. seriously jumpscared by the cat's racial slur of a name (as ever) but honestly it's a good reminder of the colonial context we're in here so I kind of appreciate it. anyway absolutely mind boggling to see this early footage of the adelie penguins etc when I grew up watching them in planet earth and have always kind of taken their existence for granted. and I think the telling of the actual polar journey was pretty touching for being obviously like the same 15 seconds of footage of a miniature

> Endurance - Alfred Lansing

eh I didn't need to read both this and the caroline alexander book. it was fine. I always wish they'd spend more time on the elephant island castaways and less time on the small boat journey. I get that that's the like, famous impressive part, but I'm here to be reminded of the horror that it is to be alive day after day and I think more time should be spent on that monotony. also he didn't talk about the post-expedition AT ALL and I need my little "where they are after the reality TV series ended" title cards

> Amundsen (2019)

didn't finish it. too much back-at-home drama not enough being on the ice

> The Last Place on Earth (1985)

I haven't read the scott v amundsen book it's based on but jesus whoever wrote that must have fucking hated scott. I'm not saying they're wrong necessarily I'm no expert i AM saying hes wrong fuck this guy!!!! but holy shit did scott look like an incompetent asshole even compared with all the other incompetent assholes. needed more screen time of young hugh grant as cherry

> basically any bbc special about explorers

PLEASE correct me if I'm missing anything but lord I stg every one of these is the worst pro imperialism hero worship bullshit of all time. "james cook was a really nice guy actually" are you fucking kidding me

> empire of ice and stone - buddy levy

this is my first arctic account and I have. a lot of thoughts and feelings about the way arctic expeditions interact w indigenous people that I don't want to get into here. truly baffled by the number of polar bears they interacted with. also fuck stefansson so much like okay fine you left the ship but go find it again??? fucking rescue them?????

> in the kingdom of ice - Hampton sides

okay this might be my favorite modern account I've read. I love how much context is provided ... like I have Thoughts and Feelings about John Muir but his diaries being included and GOD Emma's letters being interspersed was fucking devastating. definitely the most emotional I've gotten. and all the interludes to explain the geography of a region and what its called now or in russian and even all of the many chapters about bennett added so much for me. AND giving full accounts of each group after they split the party without one getting only briefly summarized in favor of the other but also without making the timeline confusing???? -- I say this all even though hampton committed what to me is the cardinal sin of these books: skipping time that's "boring". a whole year of monotony??? julian sancton only you understand me

> labyrinth of ice - buddy levy

augh. OUAGHE. oughe!!!! I am devastated. good book :(

> alone on the ice - david roberts

not my favorite .... the author is clearly bitter that mawson is not as famous and heroic to history as someone like shackleton. also I really think he should have stuck to a linear narrative structure instead of jumping around. zero mention of possible cannibalism

not historical but overlaps / scratched a similar itch:

> outlaw ocean - ian urbina

modern investigative journalism on lawlessness on the high seas. fucking hard to read because it's largely about like, human trafficking. even the "light" stories are still rough. really, really good read though and i liked hearing about recent trawling and whaling in the south and thinking about it in relation to historical whaling etc

> frozen planet (2011)

I mean I'm a huge sucker for any attenborough nature doc esp the planet earth extended universe but this was also specifically produced around the 100th anniversary of amundsen & scott reaching the pole and I love to think about the boys seeing the penguins and seals etc for the first time .... wonderful stuff

> the thing 1982

I think I'm probably the last person to watch this one so I don't think I can add much commentary but as someone who has seen approx. 3 horror movies and two were alien and aliens I did not think it was as scary as it could have been. I do like a horrible Beast though so maybe that's on me

currently in progress!!!!!!!!!

> Erebus - Michael Palin <- I have the ebook instead of the audiobook so I'm making my way through it slowly :-)

> ice ghosts - Paul watson

other things I have out from the library but haven't started:

> eight bears - Gloria dickie (not directly relevant but highly recommended to me)

> late Victorian holocausts - Mike Davis <- a little too academic for me to parse easily but Mike ily and I think it's healthy to read about other things happening around the same era

> left hand of darkness

> against the ice - Ejnar mikkelsen

> to the edges of the earth - Edward larson

^ huge s/o to @jesslovesboats's sad boat books lists btw for helping me find more sad boat books that my library has audiobooks of <3 (im very much an audiobook guy so while I'm frothing to read more diaries and shit I have a hard time with it. yet another tragedy for me personally)

[daz4i]

ok now i'm at home in bed and can make a proper post with all my thoughts. gushing abt personal stuff and possibly getting into sensitive territory here and there under the cut

today was really nice 🥹

i love our group i'm so glad i got to meet them i'm so glad they are a part of my life

everything went well. i'm honestly. extremely proud of myself for making it through this entire process, and not giving up like i at times wanted to. the last few weeks where my role was tweaked a little were super fun and today was the highlight, like seeing and hearing the audience clap even when i did just the littlest things was so. satisfying

after the show lots of people, including complete strangers, came up to me and told me i was great and that i was both funny and touching and they loved my part, i got so many hugs ahdjkflg 😭😭😭 beyond the clapping and laughter i got during the show which were already nice 🥹

the show itself was received better than i expected, and i started liking it more in recent weeks too hehe. we leaned into the campiness of it even more and it made it so much more fun to experience

it reminded me how much i love theater and how much i love being on a stage and not to sound spiritual or w/e but i truly was meant for this like this is what i'm supposed to be doing. i hope i can some day do it for money lol enough to make a living at least :P

. my whole body hurts (fr this show was so much exercise for my lazy ass 😩) but it's a good kind of hurt? bc it comes with satisfaction. hope i don't regret saying this tomorrow :P

in addition to playing in the show i was also somewhat of an assistant director lol. both our director and someone from the management team who was involved in the process mentioned it to my mom separately, like our director praised me for this and said my insight was always helpful and that i had great ideas omg 😭 this entire time i was worried that i'm like. taking over too much or smth bc i always had shit to say abt everything fr :P but ig it was received well 🙏 here and there i gave comments to other actors too to remind them stuff or correcr certain movements or lines and i was always worried it annoyed them but. they never got mad at any point. so maybe i can accept that i'm allowed to take space and offer my insight and not only will nothing bad happen, but good things will happen even hehe.

so this is where i get into the sensitive stuff i mentioned. bc if you follow me then you probably know my mental state is Not Great to say the least. and while i did have a lot of anxiety today (even got 2 pieces of somewhat bad news during the day which ofc were both huge bummers) i didn't think abt wanting to die even once. at some point my mean brain tried to bring it up and i managed to shut it down immediately which practically never happens (even when i'm having fun with friends it usually takes a bit more time for me to shake the thought away). which is kind of amazing and also another confirmation that i should be doing this more probably. i think

and. i mentioned being proud of myself. that's also smth that never happens but my aforementioned mean brain can't argue this time bc i absolutely objectively DO have the right to be proud of myself for everything i've done

less than one year ago i barely went out, maybe twice a week at most. the only people i met regularly were my parents (bc. i live with them lol) and my close friends. now i go out 4 times a week at the minimum and i interact not only with my fellow actors but other people in the art program as well, i use public transport which i basically never did since i was like. in high school. and talk to strangers even though I'm still terrified

i didn't just go on a stage but allowed myself to be filmed and managed to look at pictures of myself from the dress rehearsal despite having Issues™️ with this sort of thing. being seen wasn't bad. it was good even. i didn't feel as self conscious about the whole thing as i usually do basically

it's kind of amazing to see how much i've changed tbh. achieved. i didn't think smth like this could happen, let alone so quickly (and during. a literal war. that obviously didn't help anyone's mental state)

like. i mentioned being proud of myself. and this is a part of it, doing things that are so huge for someone like me and compared to who i usually am. but i think even compared to a normal person, i did a pretty damn good job that most people don't normally do, and i absolutely earned the right to feel good for the work i put in

^even thinking this is like chewing glass for me so this is ALSO an achievement actually. me feeling good about myself i mean. feeling pride. acknowledging my own success. makes me look back at other things i do/did that others are proud of me for and go "huh. i guess they're right" even tho i denied it before

idk. maybe i'll get a major adrenaline crash and forget these feelings tomorrow. maybe they'll last for a few days. maybe they'd even make a long term mark! who knows! i guess we can only hope (realistically speaking, the way i know myself, it won't stick :P but who knows. maybe just like i am currently building myself and my life little by little, i'll keep accumulating successes like this little by little too, solidify my self esteem a bit more at a time lol

idk how to finish this post. uh. if you read this i'm kissing you on the mouth. i'd say i hope i don't sound too conceited but nah i earned the right to be so anyway 🧐 no one gets to tell me otherwise

[suzuran777]

Lamento stageplay news + visuals

Just one more day left until the live performancs of the Lamento stageplay start! The stageplay was of course already announced last year, but as they finally started tweeting the countdown pictures, I wanted to write a blog post about the visuals and information they've released so far, comparing some of the stageplay visuals to the official game illustrations!

Similar to the DRAMAtical Murder (DMMd) and sweet pool stageplays, the Lamento stageplay will also have different routes for each main character, Asato, Bardo and Rai. I'm going to assume that the first half of the stageplay will be some kind of common route, while the second half focuses on the route of each different character. Something that is new is that this time the stageplay will have "musical elements" as well, so I'm not sure if I should call it a stageplay or a musical (I'm just using "stageplay" this time as the official account also seems to call it that). Even though in the game Konoe's song is just a melody, the actors did tweet about singing, so I am curious what they will do!

Ohyama Yoh, who composed 19 of the 37 songs of the Lamento original soundtrack also tweeted that there will be 11 new songs (+ addictional background music). I think it's super cool that they're working together with the original composer again to create new songs for the stageplay! I remember the DMMd stageplay also had a new song by GOATBED, which they even performed live a few times at the end of the show. The previous stageplays were about two hours long, but this time they mentioned it will be at least 3 hours, which makes sense because Lamento is a lot longer than sweet pool and DMMd.

I'm really impressed by the costumes and wigs so far, the ears and tails also look so fluffy... I really wonder what they will look like in motion and what the battle scenes will look like. Most of the visuals of the individual characters they've released so far seem to be based on the in-game sprites, but what I found interesting is that Rai's, Asato's and Bardo's pictures seem to have the same pose as the Kotobukiya figurines! You can see the comparison below, the pictures of the figurines are from the Kotobukiya official website.

Another new visual which was released quite recently seems to resemble another official illustration, which I've seen in the artbooks before and which was also the cover of magazine B's Log, specifically the December 2006 issue. Some of the details are a bit different, for example Konoe is not holding Leaks' mask in his hand anymore, and this time they added Shui to the illustration as well, but some other things such as Bardo's pose make it quite obvious this picture was their inspiration. The way Shui and Leaks stand next to each other kind of reminds me of the Rhapsody to the Past drama CD as well? One thing I noticed is that they're not really trying to hide Leaks' face this time, which was actually quite a big reveal in the game.

Next are some of the other illustrations they recently showed us during a short livestream which was available on Twitter for a limited time. Luckily they also posted the pictures on the official account! These won't be sold as merchandise, but they're given away as a bonus for those who attend all three versions of the show. I guess one thing I never noticed before is how little promotional/extra art Bardo got back then, so in this case they had to use one of his in-game CGs. For the other characters they mostly seem to use some of the extra/promotional art. Anyway, you can see a comparison below! I think it's fun to see how they re-created the pictures with the actors.

The last picture they recently showed during the Twitter livestream uses the cover illustration of the official world guidebook! Unfortunately no Bardo in this one either. This is one of the items they are selling as merchandise, it seems to be some kind of booklet (they call it a "pamphlet" but it's 32 pages long). I really wish they would sell the merchandise online, but for now it's only accessible for those who have a ticket and who buy it inside the venue. Maybe if they have any extra stock they might sell it online?

Update: The stageplay will also be livestreamed on DMM TV! The ticket to watch all three routes is 10000 yen (about 66 USD, which is cheaper than the in-person tickets at least!) which also gives you some special bonus videos to watch. First is Bardo's route on February 24th, followed by Asato's and Rai's routes on February 25th. Be aware that it is region locked and not all VPNs work, so unfortunately I can't help much with that! For any further updates you can check the official Twitter account!

Cast list: Konoe: Maejima Yoh Rai: Kato Sho Asato: Hiraga Yusei Bardo: Seto Yusuke Razel: Kimisawa Yuki Kaltz: Okamoto Yuki Verg: Iwata Tomoki Froud: Muramatsu Koki Kagari: Asaba Maya Tokino: Fukuzawa Taiga Firi: Kita Tsutomu Kil: Yoshun Sakamoto Ul: Arai Yuya Shui: Osaki Natsuki Leaks: Matsui Yuho

[filmmarvel]

PJO Series Overall Thoughts + Pros and Cons

Disclaimer! First of all, there are a lot more cons than pros here, and if you loved the show and don’t want to hear my criticism just keep scrolling. Second, I’m not someone to complain just because it isn’t exactly how it was in the book! I have quite a range of feelings about story changes. In regard to the ones I’ve listed as cons, i’m just irritated that they haven’t been able to match the book in frankly any capacity. I believe that if you’re making changes, it should be a) out of necessity, b) to improve upon the material, or c) taking positive creative license to try a new spin on an element from the source material. But the changes I’m complaining about, for the most part, haven’t met any of those requirements.

Pros:

Sets and Visuals

It was so magical seeing camp come to life!

The Underworld looks fantastic, the visuals are super cool, especially the Fields of Asphodel. That was a really cool spin on the books- the CGI was pretty good, and the concept there was really interesting.

Olympus was very cool looking too! It reminded me of Asgard.

Overall I Just Think There’s Lots of Potential!

Since the leads are fairly inexperienced (and kids), you can’t expect them to be incredible. They’re doing just fine, but I think they have a lot of potential, and I’m excited to see them grow over the course of the series!

Generally I still really like the casting and have high hopes for these actors, I just wish (for our sake and theirs) that they had better material to work with.

Plot Changes

This ones kind of a pro AND a con: Generally, I really like the flashbacks! They add a lot more depth to Sally, and her relationships with Percy and Poseidon. That being said, the episodes typically feel far too short to be adding material that wasn’t in the books. I thought it was fantastic in episode 7, but in other episodes it didn’t quite work when so much else was cut, or there were opportunities left untaken as a result.

I also liked that they included a few flashbacks with Luke in the finale- there was so much training and time at camp that didn’t fit into the first two episodes.

They got rid of the “names have power” stuff which is great (never made sense in the books).

They did a really nice job humanizing Medusa, but still creating conflict with her, and simultaneously setting up further issues with the gods.

I also agreed with their decision to move the fight from Santa Monica to Montauk, to save time.

Cons:

Dialogue and Writing

The dialogue is definitely less charming than in the books. It’s a huge part of what makes them fun, and the dialogue here is honestly pretty bland. The characters don’t totally feel like themselves, but it isn’t only the acting. Forcing the characters to be explaining stuff to each other nearly every time they have a conversation makes them a lot less personable.

Honestly, this series feels kind of elementary in comparison to the middle grade books. I’d imagine that, like the books, they were aiming to create something that could be enjoyed by young kids and adults alike. But I didn’t find it as successful as the book in this regard.

And the dialogue is consistently so surface level! Stiff, boring, and above all, CONSTANTLY telling over showing. This affects the likability of the characters, and the ability of the actors. Both parties are deterred by the info dumping, as they aren’t really given as many genuine lines or interactions as they should have.

Honestly, it kind of feels a bit like they gave some of Percy’s personality to Annabeth in parts of the show? I saw someone else point out that they’re kind of giving Annabeth the Hermione treatment (ie giving her some of the other characters good moments), which I kind of agree with. However, a lot of that was towards the beginning and middle of the season and has somewhat improved since.

I posted a whole rant earlier about the Lotus Casino episode, which I’ll just summarize: theres a consistent pattern in the show of having the characters figure out what’s going on immediately, removing the danger, and more importantly, not allowing the characters to make mistakes, which weakens both them and the plot. In addition, I didn’t like that they brought up May Castellan already, primarily because it was just another info dump, which (in my mind) gets lost amongst all the other info dumps and removes the poignancy from the reveal. Now, there’s absolutely time to fix the May Castellan situation and ensure that it still packs a punch later on, but for this season it wasn’t great. Go check out my last post if you’d like to hear the rest of my argument on that episode!

Some additional examples of the ‘not letting the characters experience danger’ thing: Procrustes (obviously), and Kronos- forget whether or not Percy should know who Kronos is, the biggest issue is that there’s very little evidence or buildup, so (again) there’s no tension or shock at the reveal. And finally, with Luke. I was so annoyed when Percy figured it out! I could’ve believe that they were doing it AGAIN. I still enjoyed that scene because Walker and Charlie were great, but that was disappointing for sure.

The thing with the pearls honestly amounted to nothing, and there was no reason for Annabeth to not be present in the underworld: that was just a tearjerker for the sake of being a tearjerker (manufactured drama).

Lowering the Stakes

I just wish they’d made it SLIGHTLY more mature- don’t get me wrong, it’s a kids show! I’m very well aware of that! But this feels a lot tamer than a lot of kids (PG) movies involving monsters and stuff.

Gabe was a real piece of shit in the books, but in the show they just kinda made him look lazy and turned him into comic relief. And I don’t believe in the argument that they had to make this change to benefit a younger audience- they didn’t really need to change anything there.

Throughout the majority of the season, I felt like they weren’t allowing the gods to be truly intimidating, or powerful. First with Ares, who wasn’t BAD but generally didn’t have that kind of dramatic presence that he had in the books. Again with Hades, who wasn’t shown as being REMOTELY intimidating, and perhaps the biggest offense of all- Zeus. Having the deadline pass with seemingly zero consequence or threat of consequence does absolutely nothing (and certainly doesn’t increase tension like I’m pretty sure Rick Riordan said was their reason for changing it). Up until the finale, viewers had very few reasons to fear the Gods. Even Dionysus and Hephaestus! In the books there’s a clear line- you can interact with them, but you DONT want to offend them. There’s a clear threat of power, and that just wasn’t remotely present for a while.

And again, I just want to clarify- this is an overall writing problem! It’s not that Ares, or any other one of the gods I just mentioned has a different personality than in the books, it’s that a show like this (KIDS OR NOT) should still be compelling, and part of that includes having real danger and clear stakes.

I would add that they did a much better job with this in the finale! Lance Reddick gave such an amazing performance, and truly made Zeus an intimidating figure. The fight on the beach with Ares was great as well. So I’m optimistic about this criticism moving into season 2, but I stand by the idea that this was an issue for the majority of the series.

Overall, it felt like they weren’t taking the serious parts seriously, AND they didn’t take the comedy as seriously either? So it isn’t as lighthearted OR as impactful as the books. It feels so much more bland and watered down by comparison.

Episodes Were Too Short

Everything just flowed really well in the books, here the pacing is off and the dialogue isn’t as natural (again, they’re forced to rely on a lot of telling instead of showing which takes away from genuine moments). Many character details and personality traits were cut for the sake of additional verbal explanation

As many others have pointed out, the fight scenes also feel pretty rushed, and haven’t quite conveyed the sense of urgency that they should. It all just lowers the stakes.

This Ones Kind of a Joke, but the Casting for Hephaestus

It’s mostly my book bias. This guy was NOT giving Hephaestus. Mainly because Hephaestus is the god of the forge, and I can’t picture this guy anywhere near one of those. He kind of looked like one of Santa’s elves, he’s giving tinkerer not GOD of the FORGE. This is also something they can absolutely fix/win me over in time lmao

Changes

I already mentioned most of the changes (good and bad) already, but there’s one more. I kind of wish they had kept Percy’s dream about Tartarus, especially given that they decided to have Percy figure out Kronos is behind it all earlier- it just would’ve clicked a little easier.

Finishing Thoughts

I don’t want to totally sound like a hater! I’m still enjoying the series, and I really hope it gets renewed for season 2! I was just disappointed in the weak writing. I hope that the writers will be able to recognize these flaws and improve for season 2.

Alright, I don’t really expect anyone to read this whole thing, but if you made it: thanks for reading! I’m curious to hear your thoughts, so I’d really appreciate comments, just keep it civil!

[cina-full-moon-xanadium]

Ultraman Dyna is not a show that starts off with the best of impressions.

I think-- especially if you're coming off of Tiga or you were a fan of it, or you're coming off of a lot of more standard Ultra shows; Dyna doesn't really do much to draw you in and convince you it's worth your time. For quite a while I'd say the episodes are split between episodes that are boring and episodes that are about Hanejiro and thus are god's gift to mankind; and much of the cast is a little dull as well with Shin in particular being just a little insufferable. So it's kind of hard to recommend; it is just a worse show than Tiga.

But the fact is it gets better!

It's one of those shows that really starts to reward you for keeping on with it past the halfway point. There's a LOT of Tiga fanservice that starts being thrown your way, for one thing; a lot more than you'd expect, but even when it's not jangling those Tiga actor-shaped keys in your face they do just start putting out a surprisingly strong string of episodes that are genuinely enjoyable to watch. It's that little thing about Ultraman that's always the case -- no matter if you think the show's bad as a whole, the episodic nature means there's always going to be some episode or two that sticks out to you. A few adventures you'd probably want to put on some kind of best-of collection.

But beyond that it starts being an interesting sequel to Tiga! Starting with the movie there's a lot of interesting ways it interacts with its base themes of The Light being within all of humanity, and it just reminds me why I loved Tiga so much to begin with. And it starts using the Tiga cast as a way to expand the world, and to make that big final push at the end feel so much bigger. It starts to become such a good sequel!

And with all that I would have said it still averages out at a solid B-tier show, but then that finale... like man what can I say. No wonder Ultraman Z pulled its premise directly from 49 because "Man builds their own Ultraman and it backfires immensely" is so perfect. For a show like Dyna that's constantly backing the idea of humanity progressing further and further ever upwards, it's so interesting to see an episode like this for how deconstructive it is towards that base idea. And then you have that last scene, that very last scene that's so unexpected for how it would turn out but really it couldn't have ended any other way...

Argh. This is my first one of these posts in a long while and I'm making it such a mess, but I don't care. I loved that. I didn't think at all that I would when I started but I really really loved that. I'm so happy I gave Dyna a chance. I highly highly recommend it to any Tiga fan, you might be surprised how you feel by the end

[oneatlatime]

Bato of the Water Tribe

Bilingual bonus in the title. Also, completely not kidding, I tried to type Bato and my fingers automatically filled out Baton Rouge.

Sokka's battle reconstruction abilities reminding me of Count Ruegen's from the Princess Bride.

I'm not seeing any flags or other identification on that ship, so I guess Sokka knows it's from his dad's fleet because he memorised what all the ships in his dad's fleet looked like? That's both sweet and heartbreaking.

That giant mole dog thing just bit through metal. I'm guessing this thing has no pain receptors in its face.

I'm with Zuko on this one. That lady is too young for Iroh.

Be still my heart!!! Is this going to be a Sokka episode?

Pretty.

BABY SOKKA!!!!!! Also his dad has either a very poofy coat or a tiny head.

Right out the gate, in a scene that can't last more than 30 seconds, we see that the Water Tribe has infinitely superior parenting skills to the Fire Nation. Mr. Firelord could take a couple of lessons from this guy.

Whoever is voicing Bato (thank you avatar writers for putting his name in the title so I can spell it) is doing it absolutely perfectly. Beautiful buttery voice with just a little roughness around the upper and lower edges, and - I won't describe this right - but there's the sound of experience and familiarity in the voice. This is a guy who has lived lots of life, but also lived lots of life with Sokka and Katara. He's really selling their connection and their relationship (which I presume is like those parents' random friends you call uncle and aunt who aren't biologically related - fictive kin).

Either water tribe growth spurts come late or Bato is stupidly tall. Also loving the toga look. Don't quite know how it's staying up, but it does look comfy.

"After I was wounded, your father carried me to this abbey." HOLD UP WHERE'S THE FANFIC 50K SLOW BURN HURT/COMFORT FRIENDS TO LOVERS GIMMEEEEEE

Sorry Bato, but your boat is a ship. Not a boat. It's ship-sized.

Katara's like 'Sokka no that's mean!' Bato's like 'oh god there's two of them.' Lovely stealthy worldbuilding here. We've only seen Sokka and Katara's dad in that 30 second flashback, which told us he was loving. Now we know he's also funny. One line, and the writers double the depth.

Aang get off your high horse. We know you're a vegetarian, but Sokka and Katara left home for the first time only a few weeks ago and are probably getting homesick by now so stuff it! Tangent time: can you imagine how happy Sokka and Katara must be at having a familiar face in a place made familiar, who probably has news of their dad? There's no indication that any of the water tribe men have been home on leave since they all (apparently literally ALL) left home years ago. This is like Christmas for them.

Quick lesson to all you youngins out there: one day you may have children. And if you do, unless your children have the upmost loving respect for you, you will lose all ability to make them follow the rules as soon as they learn about the kind of stuff you got up to when you were their age. So don't post it online. Don't brag about it. Don't document it. They will find out. Children have noses like a bloodhound's for yesteryear's parental shenanigans. Also don't stick an octopus on your head under any circumstances.

Seriously though, I'm loving the insight into normal (ie not avatar or war related) water tribe life. Adds depth to the characters and the culture.

At the end of the episode with the Blue spirit, Aang talked about how he had friends all over the world before the war. During all this global visiting, was he never taught the laws of hospitality? Or basic politeness? Don't touch people's stuff. Learn to sit still for five minutes. It's not always about you.

I had completely forgotten about Katara's necklace. I didn't enjoy Imrpisoned much, so I guess I blanked that plot point.

"You can come with me, and see your father again" once again Bato's voice actor hitting it out of the park. I felt for a moment like it was two years since I'd seen my father and I was so excited for the chance to see him again.

A surprisingly mature stance from both Sokka and Katara here. Actually, despite Sokka's hinted-at father worship I'm not surprised that he made the mature choice. He's the one who's been keeping them on track the whole time. But I am a bit surprised that Katara was ok with missing out on a chance to see her father. She's been the one chasing after butterflies and that's one heck of a butterfly.

Aang DONT

Goddamn he did. Aang has no manners and no brain this episode. Come on.

Zuko and company taking us on a world tour. Popping into previous episodes is a cool idea.

Haybending. Another entry on the list of vaguely defined avatar powers.

Is this ice dodging thing going where I think it's going? Because if so, I am completely on board.

I finished the fortuneteller episode pretty peeved at the plot in general, but I gotta say I admire the balls on this lady. Only person in the village with a spine (and a brain). Followed up with a pretty banger line from Iroh. If Iroh is looking for some action he should check out this lady rather than the bounty hunter. They could make increasingly cryptic comments over a shared pot of tea and annoy Zuko so much he turns colours.

The most intense Bar Mitzvah I've ever seen. As a general rule, Bar Mitzvahs don't (usually) involve the possibility of a body count.

What's on Sokka's face?

Just going to slip in some sneaky meditation. Seems like a quiet enough spot.

You know, I think Katara's actually in the correct pose for holding the mainsail. Obviously Sokka has nautical knowledge, but I guess Katara sails too.

Can we talk for a moment about how sweet it is that Sokka finds a way to turn his test of manhood into a group project? To be clear, I think his greater motivation was the glory of greater achievement, but it's so very Sokka to find a way to include his sister.

That's pretty funny.

Wisdom is appropriate for Sokka. Bravery is appropriate for Katara, mostly because wisdom certainly isn't (*cough* Jet *cough*).

Interesting that it's Sokka who has a Katara-style blow up over the missing map. I definitely buy this. So soon after a very personal and important ritual that both connects them to their people and - by necessity - reminds them of who isn't there at the moment (dad), Sokka and Katara would both be sensitive to anything dad-related. Normally Katara is 100% ride or die for Aang, but pre-existing family is about the only exception I can think of that she would make for that policy.

"I'm an idiot Momo." YEP.

So the mole dog thing bashed the gate in, to turn in a circle and leave after ten seconds? Was that worth the headache caused by using your head as a battering ram? Especially when the very leapable wall was right there?

Side note, I would pay good money to be able to keep my hair as perfect and my makeup as unsmudged as this bounty hunter lady can, especially while doing extreme sports.

Lo and behold, he gets it. His dad told him he would get it someday. Kudos to Bato for the stealth teenage wrangling that prompted Sokka's epiphany. Bato didn't have to phrase his explanation of the wolf in a way that so paralleled the situation with Aang, but he chose to for a reason. I think Bato and Iroh should sit down for a drink and exchange stealth teenager wrangling tactics.

This is so perfect. Bato's not even their dad but he's Dadding so well! Letting them come to their own conclusions (with only a gentle nudge), respecting that decision and affirming that it's the right one by stating that their dad is 100% for sure super proud of what they're doing, then - the cherry on top - giving them a way to BOTH go with Aang AND see their dad if the opportunity presents. And then leaving a message at the rendezvous point as a last bit of long distance dadding.

Side note: I'm hoping Bato's bandages are cosmetic only, otherwise that backpack strap is going to be murder after half an hour.

Side side note: if Bato is walking to the rendezvous point, what happened to his ship?

How does the nun know about the necklace?

That poor gate gets no respect.

This mole dog thing sure is getting whipped a lot. I don't like that.

Pro tip: if your opponent has horns the size of a grown man and is looking for a headbutting contest, just walk away. Poor mole dog thing has no eyes, so he tragically can't see the horns and gets thoroughly curb stomped.

Would Aang really look this worried about fighting Zuko? He's come out on top one way or another in every fight they've had so far.

Some elements don't mix. Good to know.

Iroh. Forget about it. Bounty Hunter lady has extreme non-straight energy. Go for the fortuneteller instead.

Appa showing that he does not subscribe to Aang's pacifist philosophy. If the bounty hunter hadn't dodged she would have been a thin paste on Appa's paw.

I'm seeing lots of parallels in this fight. At one point Aang recycles Zuko's move, after they've switched so that Zuko is in Aang's original place. Neat.

I really know nothing about fight choreography, but this action is followable and entertaining, so I'm calling these fights good.

This episode's Beat Up Sokka quota is now fulfilled.

This well set piece is making me giggle.

You tell him Appa!

I get that they're the bad guys, but that poor mole dog thing can't catch a break. The trick with the perfume must have been distressing, if not also painful.

Skeezy. Knock it off.

I hope Zuko got a new clasp for that necklace while he had it.

Final Thoughts

Well, I finally got my long-desired Sokka episode. It contained less Sokka than I thought a Sokka episode would have. But I do feel like I have better insight into his character. The somewhat exaggerated attempts at manliness (followed up by a genuinely terrifying need to be the man of the tribe) of the first two episodes now have context. (I could include the Kyoshi Warriors episode in that statement too, but I felt Sokka wasn't in character that episode so I won't)

Sokka was told that he was too young (true) to join the men at war. Sokka being Sokka, what he heard was that he wasn't manly enough rather than wasn't old enough, hence the compensatory manliness at the start of the show. But, and this bit is probably more important now that Sokka is a certified man, Sokka also seems to define himself through serving others, particularly his sister. His dad tells him to protect his sister in the flashback; I think his grandmother said something similar to him when they left the south pole. Having your life's purpose 100% rooted outside of yourself is generally not a great idea. I pointed out a few episodes ago that Sokka has that classic teenage boy combination of soaring ego/crashing self-esteem; I now see why. Whatever his dad's and grandma's intentions in telling Sokka to look after his sister, Sokka has interpreted that request as becoming his sister's human shield, provider, brain/planner, and - if needed - sacrifice. Pretty hard to think too much of yourself when your life's work is to serve and die for another. This also explains why I keep seeing Katara outsourcing her thinking - she's basically been told to, and Sokka believes it's his duty.

I love Bato. I love his design, his voice, his purpose in the narrative. Excellent combination of worldbuilding, character work, and a light-hearted reminder that fun can still be had, even by grown ups who are actively fighting a war. My heart did a funny flip when I realised that I was being introduced to a responsible adult. That's how I know that I'm a proper grown-up: swooning at the notion of our main characters finally getting some caring adult supervision.

I love the family tidbits that Bato gives us. One throwaway line and we know that Sokka and his dad have the same sense of humour. Another half-referenced anecdote and we learn that Sokka's so-genius-it's-stupid manic tendencies, which are excellent at getting them all out of tight spots, are inherited or learned from a father who has similarly outlandish adventures pretty regularly. And it's such an effective story hook! Dangling small tidbits and noodle incidents leaves me wanting more.

Aang. Oh Aang. His problems this episode were self-inflicted, my least favourite type of narrative. I've gone hard in the past on Katara for her self-inflicted problems, so it's only fair I go hard on Aang too. If he had just behaved properly and not gone off in a sulk over being less than the centre of all attention for five whole minutes, he would have heard Sokka and Katara turn down the offer to see their father. But he just had to be an asshole for the first few minutes of the episode, and things snowballed from there.

That being said, all his actions from that point on do make perfect sense. 12 year old whose entire civilisation has been wiped out and who actually discovered his father figure's remains is NOT going to be ok with the idea of his remaining support system deserting him. Especially since the actions he took the last time his support system was threatened (running away) kind of inadvertently caused his support's system's extermination. Of course he's going to be irrational, to cling twice as hard to what he has left, by fair means or foul.

One thing I do like about Aang's otherwise dumbass behaviour is that he knows 100% that's it wrong to hide the map from the moment he does it. No initial self-justifications and gradual creeping doubts. He's doing wrong and he knows it. Shows he has a moral compass.

Zuko's plan of tracking the Avatar by Katara's necklace was solid, and he only lost because he's the villain in a kid's cartoon and is thus contractually obligated to lose. Iroh was not so great this episode.

I adored the Water tribe stuff. The intersecting fights at the end were very good. The Aang stuff was annoying, if understandable. And we'd already learned in previous episodes that Sokka and Katara were ride or die for Aang, which is the ultimate lesson here. It was interesting to learn that the breaking point for that statement is family, but other than that, no new info. I love this episode, but I would have loved it even more if it had more Sokka and Bato and less Aang.

I hope they went back and collected the map.

[blackbyrenflowers]

My thoughts on Season 2, episode 1: A Son for a Son

Some general spoiler-light thoughts:

No mention or presence of Maelor or Daeron, unfortunately.

Jace was definitely the highlight of the episode.

Nice to see more of Aegon - he seems to like being king, to put it lightly.

Overall, I'd say a 6.5/10. Maybe a 7.5, if it hadn't been for the way they did B&C, which was... well I didn't go into the episode with the highest hopes, but I'm still disappointed. I'll make another post on it.

More details below:

Perhaps it's just my unrealistic expectations after so much time waiting, but this episode felt a bit muted. It sort of reminded me of Episode 6 - a general catch up after a long absence, where we see how everyone's doing. Necessary, but it's not going to be electric.

The opening at the Wall felt like it suffered from the need to have Jace back at Dragonstone in time for Luke's funeral. Which is a shame, because what we got of him and Cregan felt really good - my favorite little bit was Jace reminiscing about how Aegon and Torrehn Stark stood where they were, only for Cregan to sarcastically thank Jace for not threatening him with Vermax.

I will say though, the different motivations they gave Cregan was kind of odd - in the book he sends only his Winter Wolves because he needs his men for the harvest (otherwise they'll starve and die), but in the show he needs them to protect the Watch in case the Others show up? Is the implication supposed to be that the North sends thousands of men to protect the Wall at the beginning of winter (which in Westeros, can last for years)? And this happens every year, never mind the logistical strain this would place on the entire North and the Night's Watch? Alright, buddy.

No scenes in the Vale, unfortunately, presumably due to the same reasons for the condensed Wall plot. We're told that Jeyne agreed to support Rhaenyra in exchange for a dragon to defend the Vale, but we don't get to see the Maiden of the Vale. Of course this episode had a lot to cover, but it would've been nice to see her.

In my opinion, the highlight of the episode is Jace reporting to Dragonstone. He stands proud, strong (no pun intended), but has a wavering voice as he struggles to tell Rhaenyra about his diplomatic mission - and then he breaks down and Rhaenyra rushes to embrace her.

Rhaenyra I feel doesn't do much this episode. She spends her time looking for Luke's remains, finds a cloak tangled up in his dragon, she's there at the funeral. I like her pained, subdued entrance to the war council, announcing that she wants Aemond's head - but it feels like a bit of a narrative retread of the end of episode 10.

From all the reviews raving about Tom's acting chops, he was probably my most anticipated character in season 2. I wouldn't say I'm disappointed in his portrayal, but he was a bit more... carefree than I was expecting. A great actor, but the reality of the war doesn't seem to have sunken in for Aegon yet. Definitely my most anticipated watch for the next episode, however. A vengeful, grieving Aegon will be fun to watch.

Moving over to his mother, we see that Alicole is a thing now - our first glimpse of the two is Cole kneeling between Alicent's legs. It's implied this isn't the first time, but it's unclear for how long it's been going on. I feel like this episode could've used a little more time between them. However, I do very much appreciate the touch of Alicent being the one to put Cole's white cloak back on. Very obvious symbolism, but I approve of it all the same.

We get a preview of some upcoming characters - Alyn appears as a shipwright in the Driftmark docks. He gives his condolences to Corlys for the loss of his heir, and Corlys thanks Alyn for being the one to pull him from the sea in episode 6. Interestingly, Alyn seems almost uncomfortable to be thanked by his "lord" (gee, I wonder why?).

Hugh Hammer shows as a blacksmith petitioning Aegon for more funds due to rising iron prices. No real foreshadowing there, though I did find it slightly amusing how he was obviously well-groomed compared to all the other petitioners - he's definitely not a reoccurring character.

And that's all I can think of, I guess. Looking forward to next week.

[accio-victuuri]

clowning: xzs xi’an food vlog edition 🌶️

you all know the drill. for cpn-loving turtles only. don’t take it too seriously.

i honestly didn’t expect another food vlog from xz. his past adlad cities had them but it slipped my mind that he did go to a xi’an this time and spent quite a bit of time there — so we’re due another episode. i’m really thankful to xz and his team for the effort they put to share with us!

a few clowning points here ⤵️⤵️⤵️

The first one is how XZ can’t seem to handle spice well anymore, like a chongqing native should. Then you have WYB whose tolerance for spicy food increased. It could be that XZ has been living in BJ for so long that his taste has changed or maybe, he is thinking of the other person in his home who does not like spicy food. This is a long running cpn in cpf circles, that their preferences changed after spending time together. You can interpret this as a sign of a romantic relationship or not — but they definitely spent a lot of time together for their tastes to change and then be the same. except for garlic cause xz can’t really deal with that lol.

case in point, both wearing clothes that are for sun protection ( bobo’s is an ad, but he wears one in his personal time too ) and eating cold skinned noodles ( liangpi ). lol. i swear they have the same aesthetic sometimes.

we always joke that xz is the art student and wyb is the sport student — but they actually have a lot of things in common if you observe them more. Another one ZZ enjoyed was a meat bun (Roujiamo) which is a popular street food, but the cpn here is back in 2021 valentines day day they ( allegedly ) spent time together in Henan. Someone even saw Lele buying a lot of the same food and people were clowning that it’s for the two to eat as well. let me live in the fantasy that when they are together, they do this food tasting thing minus the camera recording.

and what is that? some people are pointing it out but i’m pretty sure it’s not a necklace. so funny how we panic when we see some vague clue of a personal necklace with XZ. but this is NOT it. Tho i’m still curious…. what could it be? 👀 popular guess is the string of an amulet. we know how superstitious he is so it could be.

My favorite would have to be the meme/emoticon they used, because it reminded me of what CPFs usually post. I am not sure how popular this is, and i’m positive it’s not exclusive to bxgs, but thinking about xz or his team going to CPF part of the internet and becoming fond of this meme/ emoticon makes me happy. ☺️

and well, same energy as this “incident”:

The loudest CPN being talked about tho is ZZ’s wechat video account that just opened. It’s under his studio and was opened 5/17, the day their certification was completed. What a nice coincidence that this day in the lunar calendar is 3/28. ZHAN AI BO. Also 5/17 is the international day against homophobia, transphobia and biphobia ( remember ZZ shared the song somewhere over the rainbow back in 2016. and it’s one of those 🌈 clues that cpfs

with all of ZZ’s “superstitions”, I feel like the day to open this new account was chosen. and it’s under his company Beijing Bamboo News Culture Media.

So if they already got certified that day, why wait for 5/18 to post. 18= Yibo. Not only that, on Wechat Video they posted at 20:05 which is 8:05. It’s not like weibo where the time stamp stays, users say it’s like IG that says “13 minutes ago..” but does not retain the specific time. So the screenshot below is the time was 20:10 and then XZS caption for the actual post was made 5 minutes ago, the time it was posted. 20:05. I’m not a wild kadian believer but this speaks to me. 😌😌😌

I’m excited for the next couple of days, cause hopefully we will get WDB 5/21. Which is still a rumor and who knows — will be a surprise drop. WYB allegedly going to an awards show 5/23 Huabiao Awards. Please make it happen. I’m looking forward to Movie Actor Yibo attending these kinds of awards show! 5/27 Chunzhen fanmeet with WYB @ Qingdao!!!! It’s been a while since he did something live! So this is a treat. && it’s the same month GG did his Molsion live/fan-meet too.

but wait wasn’t there rumors that xz will go to qingdao on the 27th too for condor heroes prep/training. lol. nothing is confirmed of course but it will be fun is they can be in the same city again for one day and not just in beijing.

-END.

[utilitycaster]

On the Midst messages topic:

I thought the discussion about making their original PCs less heroic for the sake of the story was interesting, and “must a character have flaws?” reminds me of “must a story have conflict?” So I was curious if you had thoughts on what differentiates interesting characters in actual play vs. other kinds of storytelling, and how their flaws/virtues play into that.

Like, obviously there are lots of flawed characters in a show like CR that are in fact excellent for storytelling and fun to play, but somewhere else along that spectrum is Moc Weepe who is a fascinating character but (at least for me) would not be fun to play in a TTRPG.

Oh sure!

I think all characters do need to have flaws, and it's worth noting that even the classic D&D character sheets have a box for flaws and that's outside any stat dumps they may have. And to be actually compelling, it does need to be an actual flaw and not "they try too hard and care too much" unless they truly care do the above to the brink of destruction or something. I suspect the original incarnations of the Midst "PCs" still were flawed to an extent; it sounds like Moc was still kind of creepy and weird, Lark still kind of brusque and awkward around people, and Phineas still overly devoted to a horrible cause; they just weren't quite as extreme. (For what it's worth I think Weepe would be super fun to play in a TTRPG provided you all had had a good chat about boundaries and everyone understood that you were playing a complete bastard; I've never really played a TTRPG where you weren't a party working together but Midst clearly is not a party-oriented story so I think that makes a huge difference.)

It's true that a lot of people do make a really cool guy (gn) to play in D&D or similar TTRPGs. Sometimes, to be honest, this means that their game would not actually be terribly fun to watch. I do know people who are mostly interested in playing D&D for mechanics and puzzle-solving and not character development, and that is valid! It's collaborative storytelling, but the experience of playing in the story is a different one from watching it. I think a lot of people don't realize this - a really fun game between you and your friends could be mostly fucking around that makes for a terrible story (*cough* anyone who writes a novella in the replies or tags in a generic D&D post about their home game). That probably wasn't true of Midst even in the earlier incarnations, since they were working outside the bounds of mechanics specifically for the purpose of storytelling, but (for example) the CR cast has specifically talked about some minor changes they made to playstyle compared to a home game, and the reason a game not intended to be actual play from the start made the transition so successfully was in part because of the voice actor angle - these are people who have to find a story and come up with an entire realized character, often from very little, to be able to act.

The biggest thing actual play characters need to do for me is take action and voice their thoughts either directly or through subtext, because actual play has a pretty unique challenge in that it's like film, in that you don't really get a narration of the character's innermost thoughts unless there's some kind of voice over monologue; but you also don't have film's ability to show a character alone for a long stretch of time, at least not frequently; and you have to describe all the visuals. A passive actual play character, even if their mind is full of interesting thoughts, is not interesting unless that's being conveyed somehow. Bold moves are to be rewarded, as are characters who are good at bouncing off others (which means both conflict and cooperation; interaction in all forms). Characters really need to be making choices and those choices need to be communicated.