#(i haven't watched a single episode of the show but here i am. attached to this ship anyway haha)

[ganymedesclock]

👯+📺

👯 Favorite team?

Gonna be horribly predictable and say Team Dark. Like, this has its drawbacks- the 'team' format can get really limiting in which characters are allowed to engage with which, and this can affect Rouge and Omega a lot by making them basically just attached to Shadow permanently.

But for all of how their individual lives could use some more attention, I am enamored by Team Dark's dynamic; they're all people who have reasons to distrust and be wary of each other and because of that pricklier complication their loyalty and solidarity feels like it's given some more emphasis and interest.

For better and for worse, we kind of take it for granted when Tails says he'll stick by Sonic forever; it hits with a lot more weight when Rouge, who is always weighing her odds and what's in it for her, says she's ride or die with Shadow, that she's shifting her 'what's in it for me' to a 'what's in it for us' as her own way of protecting him, or Omega who we know is very proud and very defensive of his own autonomy willingly turns himself off to endure the ravages of a bad future just to be a lifeline to Shadow in a diverged timeline.

I really love a lot of the tumblr comics out there of them being roommates especially roommates who are putting up with each others' idiosyncrasies and unglamorous sides.

📺 Favorite TV show?

Eheheheh admittedly Sonic X takes up the most space in my brain but that's not necessarily a fair shake because I consume media at the rate of an anaconda with a tummyache and Sonic X just happens to be the one I've consumed the most of. There's plenty to critique- the monster of the week format gets old fast, I'd say it's a show better curated than watched every single episode since there's some remarkable standout moments and also entirely forgettable episodes that have not much for you if they don't tickle your funny bone.

(That episode with King Boom Boo though is pretty fantastic.)

I love the settings and backgrounds of Sonic SatAM and for how old it is, it's really ambitious and has a lot of good points; it gets honorable mention here, again, not because I think it's 'worse than Sonic X' but because I just haven't consumed enough of it for it to haunt my brain meat. I will say that I consider its take on Robotnik to be the standout best of the western-style Robotniks. His smooth, relaxed villainy in contrast to the brutal efficiency of what happens every time he gets out of his chair is standout. When the guy's mostly known for his boss fight mechs across continuity, it really stands out when you get an Eggman who is a major threat with just some jet boots and a gun.

[telomeke]

9 people I would like to get to know better

Tagged by @colourme-feral at this post here. Thanks dear friend! 🥰 Because of your post you got me Googling packing cubes as well, but my fallback has always been resealable (and reusable, so not single-use) plastic bags for socks and underwear when packing. 👍

last song: I've been listening to two lately, back and forth. One is ஒரு தெய்வம் தந்த பூவே/Oru Deivam Thantha Poove (O Flower Gifted from a God), a hauntingly beautiful ode sung in the voice of an adoptive mother to her adopted child, recommended to me by dear friend @neuroticbookworm. It's a precious gift, and I need to read the translated lyrics to fully grasp how the melody amplifies the meaning, but each time I listen to this it brings a little tear to my eye.

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The second is uplifting in a different way – เธอหมุนรอบฉัน ฉันหมุนรอบเธอ (You Revolve Around Me, I Revolve Around You) by Scrubb, introduced to me by dear @recentadultburnout. It's a jaunty, retro-style Thai song that was also in the 2gether soundtrack and is an instant serotonin booster.

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favorite color: Deepest blue.

last movie/tv show: Ack. Does Wheel of Fortune count? I also watched an old episode of Nigella Express on YouTube, so let's go with that:

I love the sound of Nigella's voice and her breezy approach while demonstrating eminently doable recipes. But I was actually using this episode to hone my location-tracking skills... Nigella and her daughter Mimi can be seen stopping by a bakery on the way to her daughter's school at timestamp 4.50 – there are enough visual clues in there to track down the location of the bakery (Boulangerie Poilâne at Elizabeth Street in London) and also Mimi's school (Francis Holland School for Girls at Graham Terrace). Purely an intellectual exercise, and quell the alarms please – the episode is from 2007 and Mimi has long since grown up and graduated, so there's no privacy risk. (Both the school and the bakery in 2023 are still at the same locations they were in 2007, though Poilâne – I love the one in Paris – has had a paint job and looks quite a bit different today).

sweet/spicy/savory: Sweet wins out (confirmed chocoholic that I am), but I also LOVE my spicy prik kee noo, and every meal must also be protein-heavy, so savory gets a shout-out too. (As you can probably tell I find it hard to make decisions, especially around food. 😂)

relationship status: Attached, and have been for a very long time.

current obsession: Fruitcake! A post for a three-ingredient fruitcake popped up on my YouTube feed, and because we're heading into the Yuletide season I became obsessed with making fruitcake in time for Christmas. I've been churning out variations ever since the first one fell a little bit short of expectations, and because of my tweaks it's more like eight ingredients now, so… not quite the time and labor saving hack I envisioned. But it's a delicious obsession nonetheless, plus I get to eat lots of fruitcake along the way.

last thing I googled: Fruitcake recipes! Especially for ideas on how to reduce FODMAPs.

No pressure tags: @pandasmagorica, @bengiyo, @solitaryandwandering, @shinybiancachu, @sillybiscuitshepherdskeleton, @respectthepetty, @teaofdesaster, @lurkingteapot, @sunshinechay.

Only listed nine because those are the rules of this game (literally in the header) but if I haven't tagged you dear friends, please know that I wanted to and if you would like to play please do. Always fun to get to know people better here! 💖

[decks-and-duelists]

So I’ve been planning for April Fools since December. I made that page back in January, and now I can finally talk about it. So here's a blog post talking about random behind the scenes stuff.

I figured the holiday would be a fun excuse to do a yearly "what if I was adapting a different show", allowing me to play around with making campaign comics for series that I love but don't have any actual plans to fully adapt. This year was Sonic X, mainly because I am currently absolutely obsessed with the Sonic franchise and will gladly take any excuse to talk about it.

I decided to base the page on episode 36, The Threat From Outer Space (Shadow World in the English dub), for three reasons. One, using a scene from the Adventure 2 adaptation would mean even people who haven't watched Sonic X would hopefully have the necessary context. Two, reversing the "attack the moon" scene so that an NPC was threatening to blow up the moon and Yugi was panicking about the tides was like the first thing I thought of when I decided to make a page based on Sonic X. And three, it was the arc I was currently watching at the time.

The page itself was the easiest thing, since it was a single out of context thing whose joke hinged on referencing a scene from the actual comic. But then I had to write the character bios. And because the whole point of this thing was to imagine a hypothetical campaign comic, I couldn't just not come up with descriptions of characters that don't even appear in the comic, referencing past events from episodes I'll never make.

I was originally going to include the NPCs as well, but quickly realized there were too many to write bios for all of them. Even if I just included NPCs that actually feature in the Adventure 2 arc it still would be way too much. Only two NPC bios were actually written before they were abandoned. Mr. Stewart's was "Chris's former homeroom teacher who definitely isn't a government spy" and Cream the Rabbit's was "A child who was originally created just to be rescued in the first session, only for the party to get attached to her".

So that just left the PCs, most of which were yoinked from their regular bios with details swapped out. Tristan is the only one whose class didn't change, because the entire reason he plays a warrior in the first place is that he picked the most generic class. That's actually also why I decided he'd be Chris, because I figured he's the only one who would choose to be a generic human when everyone else is playing furries.

Tozokou and Yugi are the only ones with brand new bios, for completely different reasons. Tozokou just doesn't have a bio to yoink, because I don't want to add him to the character page until Episode 6 is finished. So when creating Knuckles' bio I tried to write it as if it was an edited version of Mokuba's so it'd match the others. Besides the class and character which are swapped for everyone, the main change is replacing avenging his brother with protecting the Master Emerald. Also Knuckles did actually appear as an NPC prior to Tozokou taking him over, as unlike with Mokuba he did have notable appearances before the first episode revolving around him.

Yugi on the other hand does have a bio, but it’s completely useless for Sonic. Both him playing two characters and being bad with names just do not apply to Sonic X. Though I was tempted to try and work in a joke about Nicky from the manga, I ended up instead giving him one based on my sibling/proofreader’s justification for why I should make Sonic a ranger.

Finally there’s the chapter cover. When making the covers, both for this and the actual comic I like to try and test my editing skills by doing more complicated stuff than what I usually do for the pages themselves, usually involving editing together completely unrelated screenshots.

With the NPC bios being cut and him not having any dialogue, I knew I had to feature Shadow the Hedgehog on the cover. He is my precious blorbo and so I was contractually obligated to include him somewhere. And since the moon being blown up is both the main thing that happens in the original episode and the focus of the page, I decided to combine it with a shot of Shadow’s reflection as he looks out of the ARK.

The transition between the two isn’t quite as smooth as previous edits I’ve done, but since this one was made just to appear as a thumbnail in the archive and not a proper update, it works for what I needed.

I don’t really have a conclusion for this, but I guess I’ll see you next year with another extremely normal update�� based on whatever anime I end up watching in December. 

[septembersghost]

You've recovered so much from SPN , how did you do it? I'm still trying to learn not to be as hurt by things

full disclosure i don't necessarily recommend this, but it's simply what happened to me - several things broke me one after another from 2020-2021, i blacklisted the names of the primary cast members so that i didn't have to be exposed to anything they say or do anymore (and sometimes things still get through, but i needed the separation), and then the fandom's ugly discourse and bullying snapped me completely, and when i finally emerged recovered from that (which, in all honesty, probably didn't wholly happen until the beginning of 2022), i just...distanced myself from the fandom, except for my spn mutuals. i also quit my rewatch cold turkey at 11x01 in march 2021, and haven't watched a single episode since december 2021 when i did my traditional watch of the christmas ep (how recovered really am i that i vividly remember the dates? lol), and distance makes the wounds close much more fully. my intention to go back is thwarted by the self-protection of not wanting to rip those open again. spn blogging (and dean specifically) at this point is a loving habit more than it is a fervent attachment - i know he's still with me, he always will be, and that the fervor would return if i dipped back into the show, but i have currently made the choice not to. if that ever changes, who knows? i held on so tight for such a stretch of time there, refusing to allow the story/characters to be "taken" from me, but in the end it wasn't a theft, it was me letting go, only because holding on and tearing myself up wasn't helping me.

so my only remedy here is the tough answer to all hurt, which is space and time to heal from the causation. only you can decide how best to do that for yourself. <333

[milehighmegs]

On the Subject of Grief: How Star Trek Can Help Us Get Through This

Alright folks, I'm temporarily switching from my beloved Good Omens to my OG fandom: the one, the only, the grandaddy of beloved franchises, Star Trek.

In light of the devastating news, I've needed comfort. Sadly, with GO ending as it did with the Final 15, and with the conclusion still at least a year away, my angel/demon love story just makes me cry even harder. But I've always been able to find solace in Star Trek.

Star Trek has always been, at least to me, a glimpse of what we are capable of being: compassionate, not just accepting of the differences in others but delighting in them and celebrating them, united in the goal of bringing hope & peace to all corners of existence. Infinite variety in infinite combinations. What a beautiful thing.

I acknowledge that this is pretty utopian, but we must also remember that even in the idealistic world of Star Trek, there remains conflict, pain, & loss. Seeing beloved characters throughout the various shows & films dealing with these difficult scenarios is what continues to inspire me when things seem lost. We deal with grief in our own, widely varied ways, but we have each other to lean on, and we have the one thing they cannot take from us: hope.

Strange, then, you might say, that I've chosen to write about the heartbreakers rather than the uplifting moments (of which there are plenty). And you'd be right. But if I'm being honest here, I'm not looking to chase the gloom away. I need to sit in it, feel through it, and maybe, eventually, I'll be ready to smile again. But today is not that day.

So, in typical pessimistic-but-desperately-trying-to-find-something-good-in-this fashion, I've complied a list of the most heartbreaking episodes of Star Trek, from each of the 8 main franchises + 1. I've stuck to the live-action shows, mainly because I haven't seen enough of the animated ones (Animated Series, Lower Decks, & Prodigy) to include them. But I have included Short Treks, mostly because they're canon but also because I've seen them. I've listed the episodes in chronological order, not in what's most to least painful or vice versa. Feel free to add your own, and let me know which episodes or moments have brought you a bit of light in your darkest times.

Oh, and I think this goes without saying, but ***spoilers ahead***

#1) "Demons," Enterprise: When Trip & T'Pol's baby daughter Elizabeth died... no words, only sorrow.

#2) "Project Daedalus," Discovery: I don't remember ever before becoming so attached to a side-character in the space of a single episode; not to the level that I became attached to Commander Ariam, at least. The depiction of her life before her augmentation, the tragedy that necessitated in it, and the way her salvation was corrupted by Control was both touching and maddening. Her sacrifice at the end, and the tender, final moment of her life, was devastating. My grief carried over into the next episode, with the opening scene of her memorial and Saru's tender lullaby sending me crashing into waves of mourning a loss I never saw coming.

#3) "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," SNW: Watching the development of the relationship between La'an and Kirk, knowing full well that it couldn't last, was painful enough. Wacthing her mourn his loss and being completely unable to share her grief with anyone because Temporal Prime Directive, was a punch straight to the gut. She mourned alone. So did I.

#4) "The City on the Edge of Forever," TOS: We never want to believe that good people have to suffer for the greater good to come about; BELIEVE ME, after last night, I certainly am not supportive of that stance. Which is why this episode is so tragic: Kirk, knowing that Edith had to die in order for his future to exist, the future in which the Federation was real, was tragic enough. Knowing that he had to stop his friend, McCoy, from saving her, and in the process forcing him to violate the most sacred oath of his life, just rammed it home even harder.

#5) "The Offspring," TNG: beautiful, sweet, wonderful Data. He's always been my favorite. He may not be capable of emotion (at least, not at that point in time), but I know I felt the loss of Lal more than enough to make up for it. I still cry, knowing what's coming, every time I watch it.

#6) "The Visitor," DS9: Losing a parent is always hard. Imagine having to deal with the loss of that parent, over & over again, at random moments throughout your life, never knowing when it'll be the last time. Imagine being a parent, missing out on your child's entire life, only getting glimpses of it at random moments, and only to watch them die at an old age when virtually no time has passed for you. I'm glad that I've yet to experience either of this kind of loss, but the inevitability of it doesn't lessen the pain one bit. I sobbed for days over this one.

#7) "Tuvix," Voyager: The titular character's empassioned plea for his life was a knife in my heart. Whichever side you stand on with this still-debated episode within the Trek community, if you didn't cry, you have no soul.

#8) "Surrender," Picard: when Data started giving his things to Lore (the Holmes pipe, his image of Tasha), I was already crying with nostalgia. These were all the things that made Data who he is, all the things that represented what made him my favorite character. But when he gave up Spot... I was, at the time, facing eviction, having to make the difficult choice to move out and into a friend's home, which meant having to give up my beloved cat. In that moment, watching Data give sweet Spot to such a monster... I couldn't do it. I paused the show, literally crawled over to my sweet boy sleeping in his spot on my bed, and promised I would get it together and make sure he & I stayed together. I made it another year + 3 months, but ultimately had to move and give my cat up, but to my best friend instead of a shelter. I get regular updates and pics; my Bubbas boy is happy & healthy and dearly loved. I'm crying now remembering how much that moment changed things for me, and while I miss my boy, I know he's safe. It's extremely bittersweet.

#9) "Calypso," Short Treks: The sadness of this minisode is compunded by the knowledge that Zora was be out there all alone for a millenia, and that she was encountered totally by accident by someone who- at first- seems completely immune to her tenderness. But then, as he opens up to her, and they share a beautiful, touching dance, you begin to hope. And then he leaves. Nothing lasts forever, indeed.

Watching beloved characters go through painful times can be harrowing, but it can also be cathartic & healing in its own way. Today, I'm mourning, but I am not broken. One day, this wound will heal, and maybe our country will, too.

[robinsnest2111]

I've been endlessly expanding on a silly winterbaron au idea with a friend in our dms over on twitter that I randomly came up with a few days ago and at this point I really want this to be A THING but I can't put into eloquent words the specific vibe I want to convey and my art skills are still too wobbly to make any solid fan art 😔

all I got are the messages with a few vague snippets of how some scenes could play out and 2,5 unfinished sketches orz

just... a soft and silly and self-indulgent winterbaron trucker au... 🥺💗

[juzorei]

By now, everyone would have watched the special episode of "Love in the Air." Listen to me then. I really want to brag about this scene. Cuz, why not! It's bragging time! 😭❤

This scene is literally a masterpiece. I am so happy that they decided to do this scene and bring this topic up. It was very brave of them. It was a needed scene in many ways.

First of all, they brought this topic up. We all know that even though Thailand has the most amazing BL series production, they still haven't legalised same-sex marriage. There may be so many couples who wish to marry and settle. Even though it's just a tradition or whatever, it gives you the right to take care of your significant other. And that's why this scene had a big impact too. Loved it!!

Secondly, this scene showed us the character development of both Pai and Sky. Mostly Pai. From a playboy with no strings attached life, he is now in love with his one and only and loyal to him, loving him, taking care of him, and whatever he can do he is willing to do. He said he wants to marry Sky because he wants to have the legal right to take care of him. Oh my god. I'm bawling my eyes out. He didn't just say that about him. He said everyone should have the right to take care of their loved ones. SPEAK UP P'PAI!!! STANDING OVATION!!! 😭💥🔥 Looking at it, we know how much Pai loves Sky. Not him being the adorable baby in front of Sky. I AM NOT OKAY! 😭❤ As for Sky, Pai keeps surprising him through action. Like Pai said, he makes Sky the happiest through his actions, not words. Sky being confident here by saying "then please wait for me," my boy trusts his P'Pai so much now.😭❤ My boy deserves it!!! He learned not everyone is like his ex. He has learned to love and trust again. He smiles more now. He is more than ever sassy now!!😭❤ Love him!!

P'Pai be breaking all standards of men!! Literally !!

 And that is NOT THE END!!

Sky asking "Are you asking me to marry you?"

Pai said "Not today. Not now. Maybe after graduation. Maybe after you get a job. Maybe after you get to live the life you want. When you are ready, I'm gonna propose to you."

WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THIS?!! I CANT!!😭

Pai is willing to wait. He is willing to wait for his Sky to be ready whenever it is. I mean PLEASE!!!! 😭 He respects and love everything about his Sky. He respects every decision Sky makes. Sky looking Pai like 'I choose the right person. He is my person.' Yes he is Sky! Just yours! You my boys deserves each other! And all my love for you both!!

He said he is willing to take care of Sky for the rest of his life. THATS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT!! The confidence in him when he said those words! He will keep his Sky by his side no matter what. Yes! He will. I mean to be loved is a beautiful feeling. And hearing these words from the person you love, there wont be anything happier than that. Sky was so happy that he giggled when he heard Pai saying that. He know his P'Pai is whipped for him.😭🤌❤

Guys P'Pai set the standards so high that we will be singles forever!!🙂🤌

[popculturebuffet]

Pirate Month Patreon: Our Flag Means Death: "Pilot" Review (Patreon Review for Emma Fici)

Yo ho all you happy people! Pirate Month continues.. somehow. With some. The last few weeks have been rough seas, but pirate month sails on. And ironically, into the waters of HBO Max

Yeah after my shockingly popular rant last week, seriously any of you following or coming in from that or just in general

It's great to have you. But yes we're back to the dumpster fire that was once one of the proudest and best streaming services around but is now a self canablizing nightmare that won't go away. I've went from hoping any adaptation went here to hoping many flee in terror and praying some still actually get made. You used to hear me constantly singling disney out for their idiocy

But this somehow tops most of what they've ever done. These shows MIGHT return or someone else might be able to save the company, but for now we're just stuck praying anything we care about dosen't get cannonballed into oblivion and left where it's avaliablity is tenious at best. So why am I reviewing something from the network at the worst possible moment? Simple.. this was planned before. Emma has a busy schedule, so she tends to pick her patreons late unless I ask early, and being a forgetful sort, I can tend to. She's GOOD at it, with her picks having had me review incest civil war laser tag, badly animated sci fi nonsense and this glory

So it was only pure Parker Luck that HBO Max decided to canablize their animation for profit the same week I was set to cover this. But I realized something important: With access uncertain, with HBO max striking randomly and insanely, and with no safe harbor... I have to get off my ass and watch stuff that may be destroyed as soon as the next season is out, and as we've seen with Summer Camp Island it can happen BEFORE too, instead of waiting. Sure this project having a high profile creator attached, being a very high profile queer work , and having a huge fanbase MIGHT be a enough.. but given Logic and tact haven't really entered into this current dumbfuckery, it's best to see the series and review an episode NOW rather than wait and loose it in a tax writeoff next year after season 2.

So several paragraphs and f-you's later, we arrive at our real destination: Our Flag Means Death. And this really has been one i've been meaning to check out for some time: It's produced by Taika Watiti, whose lately become one of my faviorite creators: He's director of the all time cinematic classics What We Do In The Shadows and JoJo rabbit and the fun as hell Thor films Ragnarok and Love and Thunder, and created the excellent What We Do In The Shadows tv show, which is also on the pile. Feel free to boo I know I am, i'm missing peak Matt Berry by being behind on it, as well as producing another show i've heard nothing but good things about, Reservation Dogs. The guy is a genius so while he isn't writer or director here, and his character Blackbeard isn't in this pilot, he clearly picks projects he puts his name on very carefully and if he's remotely involved with something, it's usually a good sign it's awesome. Add in Rhys Dharby who I first fell in love with on flight of the conchords as Murray...

And while he could've easily stopped with this cult classic I also need to watch (I mostly followe dit via music videos when it was airing and haven't watched it despite having easy access since max launched because i'm stupid and forget it's there), he has since made a sizeable name for him as a voice actor. Seriously while he mostly plays smaller parts he's popped up in TONS of shows since the late 2010's, from Milo Murphy's Law, RIP, to Rise of the TMNT , also RIP, to shows that aren't dead probably. He's played warthogs, snowflakes, gay hypo's, evil pistachios and more but really hasn't as far as I can tell been a leading man in anything. He was important to FOTC, but this seems like the first time the guy has REALLY been let loose and thus that was a huge draw for me.

And i'm happy to say that even before it hits it's peak and becomes a gay love story involving blackbeard, something I didn't know I needed and can't wait to hit as I watch more episodes, Our Flag Means death is an instant classic from the pirate and has finally given Rhys the meaty starring role he's always been capable of. The show is everything I hoped for.

While most of you reading this are likely fans of the show already, a quick refresher for those who aren't as familiar, i.e. Emma most likely: Our Flag Means Death follows Stede Bonnet, based on the real life pirate I know nothing about of the same name, a posh aristocrat who fled his old life to become a pirate, and is trying to clean up piracy a bit: He pays his men wether their succesful or not, and built his ship, the awesomely named The Revenge, with a sauna, rec area, and a personal library he'd be glad to lend out to the crew if any of them besides his assitant, the equally posh Lucius, played by Nathan Foad. Like a large chunk of the cast, i've never heard of him but like said chunk, he's excellent so it really dosen't matter. Steed does compensate by reading the pirates a story every night, as of the pilot Pinnochio. He's essentially trying to run this pirate ship like a modern work place, basically if Micheal Scott and Leslie Knope got combined in some horrible teleporter accident and became a pirate, having the bad need to be loved and have a family and be liked as the other, but like the latter having some compietence, optiism and good intentions, just being too naive to realize how hard ti's going to be to get these through.

Unlike other work coms though, the crew can actually kill their boss if he annoys them too much and the pilot centers around that, with the crew preparing a mutiny, with the only ones not being on board as much being Oluwande, played by Samson Kayo, a kind sort whose fond of the captain even if he's not the best and Jim, a seeming mute great with knives played by Vico Ortiz.. who turns out to be nonbinary. Which is good for me I got spoiled on that as it means I won't get any prounounds long. Though none of the crew is bad, it's just how change is: the rest simply can't accept that stede's way of doing things is PROBABLY better and he just needs to grow into the position, with Oluwande being the only one aware that not only is this much better.. but that it's so rare it' sbest to enjoy it while he lasts. Hey I said he appriacates the captain, I didn't say he was in denial about Stede's odds of survivial. Leading the mutiny is the lisping Black Pete (Matthew Maher) , a wannabe tough guy who claims to have been on blackbeards boat and won't shut up about it and the Jerry from Parks and Rec looking Kristian Nairin as Wee John, a giant who wants to burn things. Naturally I love him.

So to offset the mutiny after several small insignifigant raids, Stede targets the biggest/only ship they can see and with Buttons conformation the crew gets ready to have a bloody good time gettin good and bloody.. but Stede has a full on Panic Attack as we flash back to his past. And this is where the show really got me. See I throughly enjoyed it and was on board to this point, the jokes were that kind of goofy creative type of humor I enjoy from Stede telling everyone to "look scary' to the crew only not killing him at the moment because he's one of the only two people who can read, the only one who can do the voices and they want to know how Pinocchio ends, and Stede deciding the best way to help with disatsifaction at first is a flag design contest. It's truly my kind of show.

But what takes it from really good to great is making stede far more complex than he appears. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a work just being a goofy comedy. That's fine by me and Producer Watiti did wonders with that with What We Do In The Shadows, which had moments of pathos but was mostly just the story of a bunch of goofy vampires in new zeland and their dark bidding on the interent.

So series creator and showrunner David Jenkins could've kept at that and i'd of been fine.. but he took it one step further without undercutting the wacky tone entirely, which can be tricky but he pulls off well. From here we start seeing pieces of Stede's old life.. and it was miserable. The first flashback here has a butcher working for the family slaughter an animal in front of the kid, tell him not to look away then mock him for being soft.

Which is thinly coded as people bullying him for coming off gay. Spoilers, Stede turns out to be VERY gay., but it's always a dickish thing to do to bully someone for being diffrent and to be a homophobic twitsandwitch.

But we see through later flashbacks in teh ep Stede never fit in: He was bullied at school, chased, called slurs and then had his hands tied to oars and forced to row and at home there was literal distance between him and his family... no seriously he sat at one end while his family sat at the other

Stede was an outsider in his own home, his own LIFE, never accepted by anyone it seemed (other episodes may prove this wrong) and even now trying to find a new family, he's not really accepted. While the metaphor there given Stede is also a gay man and a not tradtionally masculine man, is subtle a knife to the eye, it still works because it dosen't overshadow the story but plays into it. Stede is not conventional.. yet he's a good man and while he may not be a good pirate YET his ideas aren't bad and he has his heart in the right place. I mean until someone cuts it out and holds it up as a trophy but for now he's trying to do the right thing he's just out of his depth. BUt he had no real other options: He coudln't get a divorce, given the century, his family , both immedite and other clearly never got him.. leaving to be a pirate, to try ANYTHING else is better than dying on the inside. He also uses the money he came from well: He gives his men a good wage, a tidy ship, and plenty of supplies. Odds are it'll run out.. but he's trying to do something better and more rich people coudl take a note from this fictional gay pirate and try and be better instead of hoarding wealth or cutting people's lifes works from a platform for 2.50 and an expired free pizza cupon.

Turns out though the ship.. is a HEAVILY armed royal naval warship and our heroes only don't die horribly because the Captain, Nigel Badmitton, a gloriously pompus name, is one of Stede's old bullies and thus dosen't buy the rumors that Stede is a pirate and Stede is able to quickly hide the crew as fellow aristocrats and servants.

The meal though is .. uncomfortable. Not only are the pirates naturally not really happy in the roll of high society snobs, but Badmittons crew are a bunch of racist twits who are unplesant to be around, and Badmittion himself a snobby bully who fondly recalls that incident with the oars I mentioned while the rest of the crew slowly get that "Okay this guy is a dumbass but he's OUR dumbass. " Things naturally break down once Stede is forced to humor badmittion and after one joke too many and Badmittion LAUGHIGN at the idea he could be a pirate, Stede tries braining him with a move Oluwande taught him.. and accidently makes the guy fall on his saber and into his eye

While the rest of the crew has a nice bloody massacre of most of Badmittions men after one's a racist to Oluwande starting with jim throwing a knife through a hand. While we don't see it, by the time Stede gets back to them only two are left alive and he's panicking over the corpse, not ready to have really killed someone, and only accepting it because Oluwande helps him, knowing that admitting to killing the guy will help the crew respect Stede.. which it does. Stede cements he can be badass for more than just accidedental murders by giving the one person they send back the same punishment his now dead captain gave Stede, showing that while Stede is out of his element, has clear trauma and may not be happy killin, which is a fair choice.. he's still got what it takes and thus his crew decides he can live for now. Also Jim's not a man OOOOO ALREADY SPOILED IT, and we end on a really nice bit: it being clear no matter how bad it was stede misses his family and treis to convince himself he's got a new one.. and him reading the crew pinoccio. Never has Rhys Darby reading a bunch of grown men to sleep been so touching.

So yeah Our Flag Means Death, at least the pilot is fucking fantastic. I don't know why the creators previous show failed: this one has style, humor and suprising tragedy, and excells at what it's producer does well: taking a mildly goofy but cool genre and poking fun at it while taking it JUST seriously enough to ground it. Our Flag Means Death is everything I hoped for and more and I highlyr ecommend watching it before it possibly burns. These are uncertain times.. but with Rhys Darby as a gay pirate... they might have some good times hidden in them too.

[eg515]

Here I am!!! While I work on answering your ask... 💕

1- If you could reboot one tv show, which one would it be?

8- You prefer week to week content or binging all in one go?

9- What's one show you thought you'd hate but turns out you really enjoyed

10- (the opposite of 9 lol)

if you could replace any actor on TV in playing their role, who would you like to play and why?

I was planning on leaving this for tomorrow but I can't sleep, so you're gonna have to deal with the answers my brain comes up with at 11pm after 3 hours of tossing and turning in my bed like a rotisserie chicken...

anyway.

one reboot I would ask for: I would love to see a kind of reboot/kind of continuation of Tru Calling, mostly because I'm still pissed it was cancelled mid-season, after that cliffhanger, when there were such great things planned for the season. yes, I know it's been 15 years. that show was ahead of its time and I need more of it.

weekly content or binging: I love binging shows, but with new releases I prefer weekly episodes. I have a short attention span, I generally only care about the show until I'm actively watching. for example, s6 of Lucifer came out on Friday, barely 4 days ago. I watched 9 of the 10 episodes on Friday and Saturday, I checked the tag and fan reactions and everything, but haven't watched the last episode yet due to the lack of time. since there won't be new episodes (ever), the more time passes, the more I'm losing motivation to watch it. with weekly releases, even if I don't have time for the episode, there is another one next week to drag me back in. also, it's just easier to interact with fandom if you're all discussing the same one episode and you don't have to worry about spoilers.

one show I expected to hate but ended up loving is Single Parents. as the name says, it's about a bunch of single parents, and their kids play a big part in the show. I'm not good with kids, I really don't like them, so I didn't expect to like the show, but Leighton Meester looked hot, so I started it. I ended up loving the show, kids and all. and Leighton Meester was even hotter than I expected 😌 also, I recently binged The Rookie, 100% only for chenford after seeing gifs on tumblr. I expected to hate the copaganda, and while it was definitely there, the non-police related parts and the characters are surprisingly well-written. I got a lot more emotionally attached than I expected.

a show I expected to love but ended up hating... the thing is, when I drop a show or it disappoints me, I immediately and completely forget about it. so I can never name a show that had a disappointing ending or was overhyped or anything, because I just simply erase it from my mind.

if I could replace any actor and play their part... I would most definitely pick one so I could make out with one of my many crushes. was that even a question? 😌 alternative option: just some random background character in The Mummy or The Mummy Returns so I can just stare at them up close with hearteyes for a few minutes. don't even mind if I end up getting killed by a zombie mummy priest if I can get a fleeting glance at Ardeth Bay on his first ever bus ride.

yeah, I'm not gonna read this back. I don't think I want to know what I wrote.

but thank you bestie, it's been a blast as always 💖

[gunsatthaphan]

Hi german anon late reply🌸💜

I am happy to hear you are coping somehow, that is seriously the best we can do right now🤗

Yeah the snow looks beautiful, the only downside is Schnee schaufeln. And thank you, I am doing well. Have an exciting thing happening in February.

And totally We Best Love, gives me so much serotonin, but I itch for something comedy. Gen Y was it for me but that ends today ( as of now haven't seen it, because my sister doesn't have time🙄).

Also I loved/love Gen Y, everyone complaining about the thousands of Storylines and I am here just living for every single one😅😂

Yeah I would love some more MarkxKit(who are like one of the ebst couples ever)time, but yeah I saw it as some sort of comedy.

I think the closest I currently watch that has comedy aspects is To My Star, the first three episodes are really fun.

The thing is, I have like 3 shows I should finish and so many I could start (Bl, K/J Dramas and western shows) why do I complain that I havenothing to watch ????

Or I just could watch the last few BTS Run epsiodes??

Anyway, I am hyoed for the finale of Gen Y and I am happy to hear there will be more.

Also I am always so happy to read your answers 💖💜.

Schöner Abend noch 🌸💜❤

heeelloooo!!!! 🌸💜

We Best Love has crack vibes but I do like it a lot. It’s cute and it made me realize how much I missed taiwanese shows 🙈 I’m not suuuper invested in the story yet but I think it’s pretty funny at times. however you’re right, Gen Y def has the crack-comedy down pat lol. 

Speaking of which, the finale was an absolute disaster lmao. I’m not as attached to the show anymore as I was at the beginning/in the middle, just because it’s so messy?? Idk how else to word it lol. There are way too many stories and characters and definitely too many couples and not to mention triangles & quartouples(?) lol. But even though nothing turned out the way I wanted in the finale, I’m still looking forward to season 2 bc I have not abandoned all hope yet. Surprisingly. MarkKit were the highlight for sure. They had a decent story but for some reason they were abandoned halfway through the season?? they got overpowered by the other nonsense which was a bummer lol. 

In the end I had a good time though as I chose to just laugh at everything rather than trying to understand it sjkhfkds so yeah. It was a fun ride ✌🏻😗

ALSO OMG. I have completely fallen in love with To My Star. It’s SO GOOD. I only caught up on the first 3 episodes yesterday but I’m 1000% obsessed. It’s so well done, the acting is on point and the characters are all so lovable omg. I love the cute coffeeshop vibes (even though there’s no coffeeshop lol) also their chemistry?? oof. also the familiar celebrity x mundane trope just never gets old. I need 132 more episodes. UGH. 

I feel you about the shows lol. I’ve recently discovered how much stress it causes me when I have too many shows going on at the same time lol and after the 10-week emotional rollercoaster that was thct I decided to take it down a notch and not watch more than 4-5 shows at a time. others who watch 10 shows at a time might find that hysterical but my braincell can’t process more than that sdjkhfsd sorry. 

I have not seen bts run in AGeS but i should really get back to it omg. I’ve been too busy with other stuff lol. 

have a nice evening and stay safe 🌸💜 tschö mit ö ~ 

xxx

[superjennysunshine]

Arcane is my favorite piece of Western Animated Media since Avatar: the Last Airbender. Maybe that's enough said for you but if it isn't then here's why in probably too many words.

So in the last seven days I have watched Arcane twice and am in the process of gearing up for a third watch. If you know me even a little bit than you know that I am terrible at watching things. It's not that I have anything against movies or television it's just that I have a short attention span, tend to get distracted and miss things, build up too much energy that needs to be released by doing something more active, massive electric brain need constant physical stimulation type shit. But I've managed to navigate around this problem by watching things with my friends, we tend to have little conversations and joke around while watching things and it makes the process alot easier to go through with for me.

One of the shows we decided to watch last week was Arcane.

Right away, from the ending of the first episode I knew I was in for something special cause I felt a feeling I haven't felt in years, 6-7 long years. That feeling is a little hard to describe so allow me the time to paint a picture.

When I was a teenager I was deep in fandom culture. every show I watched was the greatest show in the world and every single show I consumed had to be greatest show in the world or else it wasn't worth my time. I made pinterest boards, playlists, OC's in all their universes, I was absolutely insatiable. I LOVED western animation too. Shows like Young Justice, Batman the Animated series, AtLA, they were some of the greatest among things I had watched ever at the time. I loved cartoons, I loved voice acting and i remember this ravenous craving for cartoons that weren't just made for kids. I wanted BIG. GIRL. SHIT. from all three of the shows listed above I got a lot of it. All three are few examples of amazing pieces of western animation that while appealing to children offer intelligent storylines, and great characters, facing real and deep problems.

But eventually I grew up and my interests changed. While I still love animation and voice acting I don't feel that burning passion from my teenage years anymore. I'm not really into fandom culture anymore (a good thing that I don't intend to change), my interests more or less lie in video games and things that provoke deep thought and reflection, or sometimes just something chill I can have for a while and then move on from it when I feel like it. Now this isn't a boring or depressing way to consume media. It's the perk of being an adult that you can seek out and identify deeper themes in media and connect to more adult stories. But without even realizing it, I let that passion from my teenage years fade away and while i didn't notice it was gone, I felt it's loss still.

Here is where Arcane comes in. Arcane both satisfies me as an adult who craves for good, intelligent media with themes I can identify with and more specifically, craves for more adult western animation that isn't adult swim comedies that have garbage visual styles. And the teenage me, who looks for vibes, characters she can attach to, a world she wants to play a TTRPG in, something to obsess over, something to unabashedly, uncritically adore. I love Arcane. I love it so much I find it hard to give a critical analysis of it, I love it so much i'm scared to interact with negative opinions about it, I love it so much I started to cry about it, i love it so much that im honestly scared to write this all out cause I think people will think I'm crazy or cringe for feeling THIS hype about it. and who knows I may be but more importantly I'm happy in a way I haven't been in nearly a fucking decade. Lets get in to why.

so first of all the show is absolute fucking gorgeous. It has a very frenetic and bouncy animation style, incredibly stylized characters that are beautifully crafted, gorgeous color all over, and really cool blend of 3D animation and 2D visual effects and backgrounds GODDAMMIT is the show gorgeous.

The show is also voice acted so well. Ella Purnell who Voices Jinx is a standout for the sheer amount of emotional range she can cover in a single scene. She's perfect casting for the character and everyone else does a phenomenal job as well. The characters of any show are the make or break, really. Arcane's got some FUCKING GOOD ONES. The main antagonist, Silco, is among the best in the whole show. He comes off at first as a sly cool villain that never shows his hand and is an emotionless, nefarious actor, but without spoiling, to see what occurs to him across the show is fascinating to me. How he grows beyond that initial perception and how that growth affects him is so interesting. Other Standouts for me Include Jinx (who just makes me so sad all the time) Vi, Vander, even Ekko who isn't in the show for that long (he's fucking hype dude what can I say). The show is also smart. It understands it's being watched by people who can think and understand implication and subtext so the show rarely bothers with giving reasons and story to you through monologue or exposition when it can do it in a quarter of the time through visual storytelling, something that greatly appeals to me as that tends to be a problem that nags the ever loving shit out of me. The shows soundtrack also bangs. Look here I'm gonna say it. I like Enemy a lot. I hate on Imagine Dragons, it's basically something we do as adults but i don't give a fuck. The song makes me happy and hype, it brings me to that teenage part of myself that listens to music and pictures herself in cool fictional situations with it playing behind her and I love it so much for that. I know I've just sorta been GOING on but that's how excited I get. I can't be entirely well written and critical about it. It excites me, its relit that spark in me and it's burning bright. It's become something I can't stop thinking about, it's become something I cannot let go of. It's become something I'm going to absolutely love for many many many years to come. It's become my favorite piece of western animation since Avatar: the Last Airbender. Look, you might not like it like I do right. In fact I don't think anyone I know likes it quite to the level that I do cause seriously this shit is bordering on psychopathy at this point and it's been literally a couple days since I finished it, and that's all fine. Consider me crazy or cringe or weird for feeling SO hype about it, you probably wont but I have anxiety and will think you do anyway. To sum at up I suppose. Arcane both combines intelligent storytelling, compelling, fun, and interesting characters, absolutely beautiful animation and visual design, and top notch voice acting, into a 11/10 show thats short, easily digestible, and great the entire time. It's visual story telling, ever growing chaotic narrative, and the slow bubbling over of it's drama is so fun to watch. It also simultaneously invited the teenager in me, the one who thought misfit was such a cool and compelling word, to come rise all the way back up to the surface and flood me with feelings and hapiness I haven't felt in a long time. I've made a playlist, I've made a pinterest board, I've made an OC, once again I am insatiable, and the true acheivment of the show is that it's managed to do that to me. I don’t wanna go into my entire life story mainly cause my back hurts after writing all of this but to have this piece of myself back and to joyfully reconnect with an earlier part of myself, which is something that I genuinely didn’t think I was capable of doing these days is incredible and so special to me. Of course all of this can be percieved as "Jenny really likes the show a whole lot in a very deep and personal way." but I wanted to write it all out so. Anyway see you guys when Enemy shows up on my Spotify Wrapped.