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seventeenlovesthree · 1 year ago

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SPOILER HEAVY REVIEW/FIRST IMPRESSIONS/META FOR DIGIMON ADVENTURE 02 THE BEGINNING MOVIE

So I had the privilege to watch the movie on release day and I have thoughts. Very unfiltered and out of order and knowing myself, my opinion will definitely change upon discussing, contextualizing and rewatching it, but... I need to get that first impression out of my system, maybe already link it with a few things we've previously known. So the following text will go through my experience in the cinema, the course of the entire movie and my personal opinions, so...

READ THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK, BECAUSE THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. LOTS OF THEM. ALL OF THEM.

(A/N: There will also be trigger warnings about child abuse and violence/gore/blood, so again, please be warned and read cautiously if you choose to do so.)

Alright, first of all, this was one of the special screening events all over Germany and, obviously, the majority of people who watched alongside my friend and me were nerds around my age. Those who used to watch the German dub back in the day - which was just a wonderful experience in general. The cinema wasn't completely sold out, but there were still lots of people! And I was there in my pseudo-Hikari costume nobody recognized, heh.

Before the screening, the event - hosted by KSM, who are responsible for the German dub - held a little trivia quiz! Which was pretty neat, they had questions like "What does Digimon stand for?", "What year did the plot of Digimon Adventure take place, when was 02?", "How many Tri movies are there?", "How many Digimon seasons exist in sum?", "What is te production company of Digimon called?", "What does the title of the first Tri movie - Saikai - mean in German?", "What is the first theme song called in Japanese?"

(The season number was a trick question since they said, including Tri as separate season may or may not count, but I had issues with this one too. And I had actually forgotten what "Saikai" meant...)

They handed out Blu-Ray copies of Kizuna for the right answers - and I actually won one by answering when the German dub of Adventure aired in Germany for the first time correctly. Good old 2000... I'll never forget that.

Then the movie started - I still don't really know how to go about this, so again, excuse the looseness of my rambling;

First of all, the German subs were okay, but once again a little loose and too quick/not accurate here and there. For example, when Tailmon audibly said "Hikari", the subs said "You are right". Not to mention that you HEARD them use the Japanese names, but the subs used their English dub names.

In the scene that was already shown to audiences last year, Takeru was talking about Koushirou not getting enough sleep and Hikari added that when she called Taichi, he scolded her since he was busy. The German subs outright skipped Hikari saying "Onii-chan", and made her just say "he". So... It sounded like she, too, was referring to Koushirou. Very weird...

Okay, to the stuff we haven't known yet!

If you asked me what this movie was about, I'd probably say: It's a story of child abuse and the consequences of miscommunication (and wishes). In several directions. And oh boy, the meta analysis to be written about this will take a while to conduct, because while the stuff appears to be "pretty on the nose" on surface level, it definitely CAN go deeper. The third theme of the movie is "the power of friendship" - and water is wet, obviously!

So we know about the giant Digiegg in the sky that has been floating there for a week. There is the message "Everyone should have friends and a Digimon partner" displayed on all kinds of screens. We see that Taichi and Koushirou are doing PR work while the 02 kids are hanging out in Daisuke's (employers') ramen restaurant until they see Rui on TV climbing Tokyo Tower, holding a Digivice. So they rush to save him as he falls - just to be greeted with annoyance and ignorance.

He tells them that he killed his own partner, that partnerships between humans and Digimon are a curse and should not exist. Miyako can't accept that and tells Hawkmon to stop him before he can leave.

So Rui goes: "Ah, how obedient. You are doing what you're told without questioning it and you probably like it that way."

We can tell - there is baggage there. Lots of baggage.

They later learn that the Digiegg may be Rui's partner after all - and since he claims that he climbed up there to talk to it, Daisuke is obviously super fired up ("You have balls, I like that", the cinema laughed out loud) and wants to help.

So of course he drags his boyfriend Jogress partner with him and they fly up there with Paildramon - just to get attacked by the egg and fall into a portal to travel back in time. What follows is them seeing Rui's backstory. And once they're back, he elaborates on it further.

At some point, my friend nudged me and asked me the following: "Do you also feel like you're watching Madoka Magica?"

Yes. Yes I did. 300%. I already assumed it'd be the case, since I initially thought Rui would be a time-jumping Homura and Ukkomon just another version of Kyubey. They even share lots of visual cues respectively, so it was not unlikely to happen, right?

... I was only half wrong there. Rui is not (intentionally) able to jump through time at this point. And it's actually not the kind of multiverse story I initially expected. (Even though there WILL be a change in the timeline, but we will get to that later.)

Ukkomon - is definitely Kyubey though. It appears in front of Rui on his 4th birthday. Which is on February 29 1996, meaning he is a leap year child. The Hikarigaoka incident took place a year prior - but he wasn't part of it.

TW Child Abuse

Rui lives in Hikarigaoka too. He's coming from an abusive household - his father is in a coma, and his mother may or may not have developed a bipolar disorder due to the stress, because she can be sweet one moment, and snaps completely the next, screams at him. Rui has marks of physical abuse all over his body and appears rather ruffled and malnourished... So when he accidentally wets himself on his birthday, his mother throws him out into the snowy cold of the night, half-dressed, to punish him. It's jarring to watch.

He wishes so badly for things to change. To have friends. To be protected from harm.

That's when a Digiegg appears in front of him - and Ukkomon hatches, asking about his wish and a digivice appears. He is, in this case, the first child to be partnered with a Digimon.

A Digimon that is capable of fulfilling wishes. Because it is connected with a godlike entity... Where have we heard THAT before...?

So what happens? Rui wished for friends. Rui wished for protection.

Suddenly, his mom starts being nice to him again. His dad wakes up from the coma. He has his Digimon by his side, who protects him from bullies and every type of harm. All Ukkomon says it wants is for Rui to be happy. To make him smile. To make sure to make him lots of friends who are just like him. That's all that matters to it, obediently following the initial idea, literally without questioning.

If you watched Madoka Magica (and also lots of other media that involve wish fulfillment, including Miraculous Ladybug), you know that there is always a price to be paid for wishes. And that you need to be VERY careful with how you word your wishes.

It all falls apart in 2003. What happens in 2003? Diablomon strikes back. Literally. The events are shown on television, we see Omegamon fighting Armageddomon - and Ukkomon explains to Rui how happy he can be that all these kids out there are fighting and willing to die for him specifically... Because... They became Chosen Children because of Rui's wish. Ukkomon enabled their partnerships to make "lots of friends who are just like you, having their own Digimon" - and Rui is horrified by the idea. It can be assumed that Ukkomon granted the "wish" in unity with Homeostasis (as deducted by Hikari at least and that will be relevant later on when we come to tying the lore together).

And then, in the next scene, you realize why Megumi Ogata voices Rui. The Shinji Ikari vibes are real with this one.

Ukkomon goes all "I would do everything for you to be happy" and we learn... That Rui's parents are already dead. They're just puppets Ukkomon has controlled to pretend a happy family life. It can be assumed that the same goes for the neighbour children who were seen during previous birthday scenes.

TW Violence/Gore/Blood

To say that the next scene is Ghost Game levels of gory and terrifying is an understatement. "I didn't know you took me to watch a horror movie", my friend says next to me. Rui ends up strangling his Digimon, trying to choke it to death, telling it that it completely misunderstood what he wanted, what he needed, what really makes him happy, that he never wanted any of this to happen. "This is not the happiness you wished for, Shinji-kun." When that doesn't work, he tries to smash his Digivice with a baseball bat... And loses his eye in the process. Fear not, Ukkomon pulls its own eye out to give it to Rui. More blood, more gore, body horror ensues as Ukkomon starts to melt away while crying in agony and disappears completely as Rui is surrounded by blood, the corpses of his parents and his own despair.

His narration ends there. All of that has happened years ago.

And I must say, I love Hikari. I really, really do. But in that moment, when she said "Poor Ukkomon, it just wanted you to be happy", I groaned. And heavily agreed with Rui when he replied "And that makes every action okay?!"

So again, one of the core messages of the movie is the subject of miscommunication. Rui says that there is no such thing as "unconditional bonds" and that "we can never fully understand each other". The Shinji Ikari vibes are SO strong with this one. The main conclusion the 02 group comes to is that they should have talked to each other better. That they should have talked about each other's intentions and needs, etc. And of course that IS a valuable lesson to take away from in every single way, but... Hikari's initial response felt so tone deaf to me in that moment. Of course she would empathize with the Digimon, but blaming the whole thing entirely on the abused kid not "communicating" properly with his partner after he finally experienced kindness and care after all the pain is just... Part of me wants to say "Yes, Hikari wouldn't want any Digimon to suffer, she hates injustice and condemns cruelty, we went through that with Ken's Digimon Kaiser arc", but the other part says "Hikari, do you remember the time you and your brother were traumatized because you two miscommunicated as literal children?! Taichi hurt you because he had good intentions, but you two didn't properly communicate - yet you never condemned him for that either, so I guess that's where it comes from and you haven't processed your own trauma yet after all." I am obviously not saying that she should condemn Taichi for what happened, but we also know that she idealizes him and that may have been her idealizing Ukkomon too. Hikari will be a kindergarten teacher, she will probably have to deal with other traumatized children in the future too, so... It's good that she contemplates her words as soon as Rui snaps at her, you can visibly see that she's thinking about it more closely. It's important to see the whole picture here - and that picture revolves around the circle of abuse. It's multi-faceted and it's important to address topics like that.

Then the egg hatches - and turns into a giant tentacle monster in the sky. But instead of Third Impact, it just created millions of Digieggs, to give each and every single human a Digimon partner. Because that was the initial wish, right...? To create more friends and give everyone a Digimon partner - just like the message on the screens says.

The kids start to panic, if that happens, it will cause lots of chaos all over the world, forcing partnerships to happen immorally like that, so they need to think quickly. Knowing that they need to stop it. Fight it. (Spoilers for Madoka Magica incoming here: In a way, Ukkomon's countless strings also reminded me of Kremhild Gretchen, the absurdly large witch form of Madoka that was so loaded with karma due to Homura's time traveling revolving around her that she turned out to be the most powerful, most devastating witch, nurtured by despair, capable of swallowing the entire planet, if not the entire galaxy...)

But... If Ukkomon is responsible for partnerships to be formed in the first place... Doesn't that mean that all ~60.000 partnerships that already exist will vanish too?

They discuss, they think about the consequences... And good old shoujo magical girl protagonist Daisuke Motomiya decides that partnerships aren't easily broken (*cries in Kizuna*), so they gotta go for it. The thing in the sky exists because of Rui's wish - so he is the only one who can solve this. Talk it out. Communicate it out.

And after some protagonist speeches and mutual encouragement, the Digimon all evolve up to their highest available level (meaning Imperialdramon, Shakkoumon and Silphymon - but they still had to show off Angewomon's new evolution animation prior to that, because DAMN) and rush to the place of the scene. Daisuke and Ken send Rui to fly into the egg in order to have a heart-to-heart, assuming that the Digimon evolved into this big tentacle monster in the first place because it just wanted to find a way to talk. (My friend interpreted this as some kind of Skullgreymon evolution, but I will get to that again in a sec!)

Thus he jumps in, travels back in time again, THIS TIME intentionally like the true Homura he was always meant to be - while Daiken act like a married couple wishing for their son to do his best.

If you know time travel stories, you also know that you're wise NOT to interact with what happened in the past. Ken even advises not to do that when they traveled back in time for the first time. But adult!Rui talks to his mother in the past, telling her that he knows she's got it hard - but that he wants her to listen to what her son has to say, because he really loves her. That makes the switch flip and she rushes to her neglected son to hug him... Hence causing the meeting between kid!Rui and Ukkomon to never happen. So Homura basically reached Madoka this time, huh.

Ukkomon still faces adult!Rui at the time and place they originally met - and Rui says he doesn't have anything to wish for anymore... Which Ukkomon at this point already knew. They have a light-hearted little exchange, talking about the things they actually didn't like about each other, finally being honest... And that they want to start over and meet again. "But for that, you need to let go of me now", Ukkomon says.

Rui travels back to the future and tells Daisuke and Ken that they still have to defeat the tentacle monster for the sake of a happy future. Of course they succeed, don't even need any new or special evolution or artifact to do that - and Ukkomon reverts back to a small egg in Rui's hands, ready to start over. With better communication this time, breaking the cycle of abuse once and for all.

And that's where it happens: The potential lore breaking - I mean, the whole thing is already confusing enough, which I will break down in a second, but...

Since the cause of the partnerships has now been taken out of the history books - the Digivices start to disappear.

All of them. Every single one on the entire planet. We see a BUNCH of international Chosen Children we've known from 02 before (including Wallace, Terriermon and Lopmon!) watching it happen with melancholic eyes. The Digivices slowly disintegrate into small light particles that float towards the sky... In the end, the kids reminisce about what the Digivices were there for in the first place, that they were a sign for the bond and connection between them and their Digimon - and that that may have been the case in the past, but that they're not needed anymore. That they don't need any device as proof for their connection. The bond between humans and Digimon can exist without having Digivices - at least from now on. So, in comparison to Kizuna, no partnership has "ended" this time.

Then a snowball fight happens between the 02 kids, their Digimon partners and Rui - initiated by Daisuke, who definitely intended to lighten the mood a little and cheer everyone up again. In the post credit scene, we see Rui fondly looking at the Digiegg in his hands.

The end.

... Wow.

Where to start, where to end. First of all, I NEEDED to check the Digimon Adventure novels again to see what exactly the Digivices were and how the process of "choosing the children" came to be. Excuse my rambling again, because I am still trying to figure out if all of this REALLY is lore-breaking or if there is a way to tie all of this together somehow.

So first of all - yes, Gennai did not know all about this, because apparently, a kid's wish caused all of this to get amplified. Homeostasis does not have a physical form, so it created its agents like Gennai - and PROBABLY Ukkomon too. Since we know the Digital World has "wish granting" abilities, I can accept there being a singular being that is capable of doing the same thing.

The question is - was the way the kids were utilized a happy accident too then? I'll try to interpret this as well as I can, but take all of this with a grain of salt, I may be completely wrong:

So to go in order: A Digiegg gets into the real world in 1995, and Homeostasis gets to scan Hikari, Taichi and the others, discovering the potential they have - since Hikari is the child that enables the hatched Botamon to evolve into Greymon super quickly, Homeostasis sends Parrotmon to retrieve it. Afterwards, in 1996, a Digimon like Ukkomon "would appear who had special connections with [a child] in the real world" (just like the 5 we kinda thought were the original Chosen Children). And thus, through Rui's wish, the "partnership system" was founded. Basically, Ukkomon's wish fulfillment powers enabled a system based on the limitless potential (of wishes and the bond between humans and Digimon) that was deemed useful by Homeostasis for the sake of saving the worlds. A system that wasn't in place like this before, so Rui was basically some kind of "prototype" - as was Ukkomon, kinda testing the waters of partnerships in the first place. And through analyzing the other 8 kids in the meantime, their potential had been discovered, which is why THEY also had Crests created for themselves. Like Ukkomon said - they came into existence to "protect" him, so he wouldn't have to save the worlds himself.

Takeru was the one who went "Wait, that's different information from what we have gotten!?" when Rui explains the whole situation, but I guess it could kinda make sense like this. The initial idea was based on a wish to just create "humans with Digimon friends" - and Homeostasis discovered that there is a HUGE "potential" in those partnerships since Digimon were capable of evolving faster and higher. And that also kiiiiinda explains why Gennai wasn't ever fully able to explain all of this, since - it was just very hard to explain. "You were chosen, because a kid wished for it" wouldn't sound convincing to anyone upon hearing it for the first time, right? Especially considering how often that question came up in several characters throughout the series. Sora, Jyou, Ken, just for example... They had all asked the question "why were WE chosen?" in one context or another. And now I can't stop thinking about this:

And... Even though it wasn't directly stated or alluded to in the movie, it kiiiiiiiiiiiiiinda corresponds with the neglect theory too. Since - the moment Rui wanted to end the partnership, the Digivice malfunctioned and Ukkomon just disappeared. It didn't happen the same way as it did to Taichi, Yamato, Sora and Menoa - but in a way, the way Ukkomon appeared as a giant tentacle monster, YEARS after the departure from Rui, is somewhat reminiscent of Eosmon appearing as well. And to get back to my friend's idea - yes, that also means that Eosmon and Ukkomon's tentacle form are BASICALLY like Skullgreymon, the result of neglect and corruption in their human partners' hearts. The only difference here is that both Eosmon and Ukkomon had BONKERS abilities (that were both linked to Chosen Children specifically, one of them trapping their consciousnesses and turning those back into children, the other capable of creating partnerships in the first place), whereas Skullgreymon was just terrifying...

It also doesn't completely contradict Menoa's theory from Kizuna - since, again, in the end, that was just a theory. That children are chosen "because of their potential". This can be read in both ways: their potential for the sake of causing evolution for Digimon as well as their potential to be a friend to Rui. They couldn't possibly maintain that if they "lost their ways"... (By the way, we have also disproven that "becoming an adult" makes the bond vanish, because if that were the case, Jyou would have lost Gomamon YEARS ago. I stand with the neglect theory here.)

Does that make sense? I'm not entirely sure. But stating it like this satisfies my mind more than how it felt when I left the cinema. I just wish they used more analogies and visual cues (like the ring and wordings from Kizuna) to connect the dots a bit better, but maybe I overlooked a few things.

There were a few things that absolutely got me into overthinking mode, for lore or personal reasons, but I can at least accept this theory from a lore perspective.

(Edit: On a different note, I like the idea of treating Ukkomon like Menoa in the way of her being an unreliable narrator that led to the whole "adulthood vs. neglect theory" in the first place. So Ukkomon may actually NOT even be aware that Rui WASN'T the first Chosen Child because, either it really didn't know or was manipulated by Homeostasis to claim that it's true. The reasoning behind that could be interesting to look at too... Long story short: Never take anything in Digimon at face value!!!)

As for the personal things... I saw a comment on Twitter that basically went like "It tells you a lot that I didn't even have to name the 02 kids once in an overall review". Because... Yeah, the 02 kids in particular didn't actually do a lot. They DID build up on the positivity Daisuke had already spread since the end of 02, believing in their bonds and the power of friendship and everything. An interesting aspect was also asking the question of whether or not the Digimon are acting out of free will, or if they do things out of obedience like Rui said, implying that Ukkomon just assumed his desires and completely neglected itself in the process. Hawkmon confirms that he does things because he believes in them - he DOES act very obediently towards Miyako in the movie though. But my personal opinion is that it depends on the partners and the bond they have (compare that to Jyou and Gomamon and you get a very different picture - and even Hawkmon has the ability to scold Miyako, so it really depends).

But aside from that? There wasn't as much, despite a few neat little character moments that people may or may not like, depending on their stance on certain characters (and ships as well).

Daisuke will be Daisuke will be Daisuke. He's the (endearing!) simpleton shoujo magical girl protagonist with a good heart and literally nothing but Ramen on his mind. V-mon is the exact same, they share one braincell in the most endearing way possible, they even finish each other's sentences and didn't doubt their bond for a second. ("You wanna know what friendship is about? THAT is!", V-mon says while just shaking Daisuke's hand. They're adorkable.) The bickering with Miyako is a bit of a theme there - especially in ONE particular scene...

... And that is in a scene involving Ken. For Jogress reasons, obviously, Daisuke and Ken are framed together a lot - and in this moment, Ken compliments Daisuke on being so serious and focused as he affirms his trust in Rui... Only to have Miyako ask them why they're flirting rambling so much, to which Daisuke responds veeeery defensively. (Edit: I just learned that the Japanese version ACTUALLY said "flirting", so that makes it even better, they know exactly what they are doing.) That aside, Ken is rather torn about the whole situation, he occasionally looks very troubled when the subject of partnerships is mentioned - and while they don't draw any Kaiser parallels as I initially assumed, Wormmon at least mentions how he and Ken could put their divide aside through communication. Which was a nice touch. (Also, Wormmon blushing as Ken pets him like a cat in his arms is the cutest thing ever.) And then... There is also that theme about, aside from Daisuke, another person being in his sphere quite a lot...

... And that is Miyako. They have at least three scenes in which, mainly, Miyako is the one reassuring or teasing Ken in ways that CAN be read in a certain light, but they kept it VERY tame. Again, Ken is very often framed between her AND Daisuke (and there is a moment between Ken and Miyako where Daisuke literally walks out of the frame and if that isn't meta, I don't know what is and basically, I feel like they should just have made Daikenyako canon), but... If you know, you just know. Especially with her using somewhat ambiguous sentences like "Well, let's see what the future holds, together". (I already know that a certain artist on Twitter completely exploded over that scene. It was interesting though that she had gone back to "Ichijouji-kun", even though by the end of 02, she had called him "Ken-kun" already.) That aside - she is basically the tech support in this, also there to comment on Daisuke's brashness. (Also, her saying "Goodbye, trusty D3" really got me emotional, that was tough.) And her being tech support in place of Koushirou was important, because...

... It really wouldn't have fit to have Iori do that, in my opinion. Sure, he works with computers too, just like the others do - but the scene in which he types is basically just there, because the computer room they used as shelter is from his previous high school and a superior allowed him to use it, so he simply just opened the live stream of the floating digi egg. That aside, Iori is mainly voice of reason again, nothing too major. His best scene is probably the moment one of Daisuke's snowball hits him in the face - because that's where he gets FURIOUS, it's very nice.

Then there's Takeru - and he was probably my favourite character among the 02 kids in this movie. It was already noticeable in the drama readings during DigiFes, but his main role is to be self-aware and make snide comments about things like "Oh my God, we were fighting in the open, of COURSE the media/military/whoever would see that and find us, what did you expect?!". He does that twice. (Tailmon does it too, which is hilarious. Whereas Patamon is just an innocent bean. "Patamon, you have no idea what I just said, right? "No, Takeru!") He's also driving support, as we already saw in the preview - while Daiken are riding on Imperialdramon, he drives behind them with Hikari, Miyako and Iori in the car as well. I was a bit disappointed to not have him mention his brother when the subject of "losing partnerships" came up, because he was absolutely troubled about the idea of being the cause of +60.00 partnerships disappearing, so Iori had to tell him to be rational and not be selfish...

... On the other hand, Hikari didn't mention Taichi in this regard either. As mentioned previously, I tried to rationalize her comment on "Poor Ukkomon", relating it to her empathetic personality - it DOES makes sense for her to assume that Ukkomon only did what it thought was right, since they didn't communicate properly. She thoroughly trusts in that she and Tailmon would always make their bond work through communication. To be hopeful yet also confident about their bonds. And her reaction towards Rui committing perceived injustice towards Ukkomon makes sense in context of her personality, since she probably still hasn't fully processed her own experiences. It was just jarring that she wasn't able to empathize with Rui on that. Daisuke was more open towards lending Rui a helping hand there. And hey, that is a very Daisuke thing to do - just like he was the first to reach out to Ken (and Wallace too, once he noticed he needed help and support), he was the first to reach out to Rui too. Who may have acted cruelly towards his Digimon (and that is not to be excused), but that was literally the circle of abuse, applying directly what he had adapted from his own mother. Digimon wouldn't be Digimon without trauma after all... That aside, there was not a lot to say about Hikari. She got a shot with Takeru during the snowball fight (as Ken and Miyako did), but that was it.

Long story short - the movie was fine. Visually, animation and colouring were VERY nice to look at, maybe a bit confusing at times, but that's what rewatches are there for. The sound was pretty great, the horror aspects were insane, but very well done in my opinion. The pacing was... Alright, though I'm not sure why several of Rui's leap year birthdays were skipped and that Ukkomon didn't appear in the meantime after 2003, so it begs the question of why exactly the movie took place in 2012 and not before. We also didn't really see a lot of the communication processes between Rui and Ukkomon, it was just claimed that there was miscommunication, but we don't know what else they were talking about for Ukkomon to "misinterpret" Rui's wishes. And that's where it doesn't help that Ukkomon reminds me of Kyubey so much, because its expressions are hard to read too. It's also unclear if there was actually more abuse (verbally or non-verbally) going on in the back - but it's not unlikely that it has taken place after all. So yeah, for the sake of the length of the movie, that was a lot more simplified.

I also don't reeeeeally understand why they showed the full Paildramon evolution twice. (Again, they were self-aware to some degree, because Tailmon stated "Do they really have to draw that much attention to themselves already?")

It's kinda sad that they didn't get any new evolutions. The character beats could have been even stronger, the "friendship talk" is nothing we haven't heard before, so the bonds could have been empathized a little more clearly - but then again, there is only so much you can squeeze into 87 minutes. And you could still feel the sense of togetherness, so that is perfectly fine in the end. The lore aspect is still a little difficult to wrap my head around, but seeing how I've outlined it above, I can make it work. Definitely looking forward to the audio dramas that will drop in the upcoming weeks, because a.) they will apparently contextualize more (especially in regards to Rui and Ukkomon's relationship) and b.) might allow more character beats.

Unfortunately, they may not fix my biggest disappointment with this movie. I had already feared it, but still hoped they wouldn't actually do that...

The older kids got the Tri revenge treatment. Literally. The three-second-glimpse of Koushirou and Taichi is the only life sign we get from the six older kids. Koushirou gets at least mentioned two more times, but that's it. We don't see Yamato, Sora, Mimi and Jyou. Not even during the montages. Not even when all the Digivices disappear and they show all kinds of Chosen Children across the globe. Nothing. We have no idea if Tentomon, Palmon and Gomamon are still there or not. No cameo, nothing. And that really left me with a heartache at the end, because I hoped they may at least use a montage like they did with Kizuna in the credit scene. And now I am left here craving Koushirou fretting over his phones probably also not working anymore, so he has to figure out a solution for that, gaaaaah.

That last part really left a bitter taste in my mouth and kinda soured the experience of the movie, even if the audio drama centering around Takeru and Hikari (!) may also involve Taichi and Yamato, but... It was okay. For the time being, I did enjoy watching the movie and the experience in cinema was just amazing. It was just difficult to digest. Let's see when I'll get to rewatch it. And let's hope that there still will be more content about the entire group - even without them having their Digivices.

#personal #my two cents #meta #digimon adventure 02 the beginning spoilers #the beginning spoilers #digimon adventure 02 spoilers

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feuqueerfire · 2 years ago

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Never Let Me Go Ep 6 Live Blogging

I have to leave for uni before this starts airing and have classes until 1.5 hours after it stops airing T.T I’ll try to watch some of it in the 2 hours I have before my next class after that (technically that’s enough time to watch the whole thing twice but it took me like 4 hours to watch Ep 5 lmao)

Read the r/boyslove on-air thread while on the bus bc i couldn’t watch the show while it was airing and at first people’s thoughts on ben were really pissing me off but then i read more and a lot of the comments with fewer upvotes reflected my feelings about the ben and nueng and coming out situation so i feel less irritated ig

Episode 6: Escape

6-1

Beautiful Phuwin in his dark green collared shirt that shows off his necklace

Lol the person talking with Palm and then Palm’s mom is cute and funny lol

The “which one of you is Palm?” seriously kills me

Oh they’re just gonna tell Palm’s mom that they’re here for vacay interesting

Plsss gave Palm, Neung, and me all a heart attack when she suggested Palm and Neung might have same father

Aw Palm 😭 his mother complaining and him being like “If we’re too much of a burden to you, we can go” poor guy

6-2

Linguistics: Palm’s mom uses gu-meung with them (like Chpper’s dad)

Neung outright said that Uncle Kit probably behind the attack, so that makes me think no?

Girl “will you tell your mom about our relationship?” And the immediate “What is our relationship?” Like my goodness and Neung being like about working for my family while Palm was definitely hoping for something else rip

Linguistics: Palm back to using Neung instead of Khun Neung but this time he seems to really want to and is using the title to his full advantage “Ai’Neung, you should go take a shower first” and then the -krab coming back when he says he was just practicing

Palm’s mom putting Neung to work and shutting down his advice. Neung character development era incoming as she treats him in a way others don’t

Lmfao they’re putting Phuwin’s English to good use with this show

Pls not Neung and Wu conversing in Mandarin while their bfs Palm and David just stand and stare

Neung’s eyes lasering in on the guys holding hands in public

Pls this scolding in Mandarin

That kiss convo smhhh I should rewatch and comment on it again when I have time

Rewatch: Palm insinuates and Neung accepts that the kiss was just part of Palm doing his job and trying to make Neung feel better rip but Neung's clearly disappointed about it and tells Palm to go that far again to make him feel better because "A kiss is special. It's meaningful."

6-3

please I think Neung always making Palm tell the sellers that food is delicious (the roti something from that uncle and now the Khua Kling from Tam) "Is it delicious?" "Yes." "Don't tell me, tell [seller]"

Palm obsessed with how Neung's lips look after eating the spicy food

Palm's mom catching on that there's something off about how Palm interacts with Neung and being like hmm are y'all dating

Palm's mom being baffled by the incredulous situation first but also saying some harsh truths like "what happens if Palm gets caught in the crossfire?" "If Palm dies, they'll just find someone to replace him." but also hits at Palm's weak point of only being considered a servant

6-4

oh interesting dynamic "I don't have money. Can you praise me for my effort?" "No. If you want to wow me, it has to be more special than this."

Neung's self-pitying is a wild ride "my life is worse than the cowherd and the weaver"

Neung getting irritated about Palm bringing him to a place where Tam's bf brought her when he's not Palm's bf and also getting irritated that Palm has to carry around a gun bc of his duty

bruhhh not Neung being like I’ll buy this beach so that it doesn’t get overrun by tourists like oh you’re such an asshole rich city kid

oh? Neung, you only show the side of yourself to Palm that you want him to see? And why is this side including your romantic side now? heh

lmfao no way Palm said “so you’re only showing me your good side? because that’s the only side I see” like be serious Palm, he’s in fact showing you soooo many of his flaws. You seem to like him despite them

Got spoiled on before watching:

just a few moments from preview of last ep and a few screenshots on twitter but nothing much

Overall Thoughts:

lmfao interesting choice of episode right after these kids’ parents got shot at. No worrying sick, no Neung losing his shit?

Seems like we’ll get back to the events of that and aftermath (people wondering where Neung is) in the next episode. This was just the ‘escape away from the city’ beach episode that’s in like nearly every BL and sometimes they progress things a lot emotionally but I don’t necessarily think that they did that this episode, either? They had touching conversations in the last part when they spent time at the scenic locations but they’ve had conversations about love and romance before too.

idk I feel like going away, meeting Palm’s mom, some heart-to-hearts could’ve been like half an episode and we could’ve gotten something else for the latter 20 minutes of the show? It’s just a really slowing of the pace after last ep had a whooole bunch of stuff happening. Not really a terrible ep or anything but not a fave.

Actually I know what would’ve made the episode better: A transition in how they treat each other or their dynamic. In Bad Buddy, even though I thought the beach eps were boring, they provided crucial relationship development and the change in scenery was significant. Here, if Palm went and started dropping to gu-meung and Neung for the whole time instead of just in front of his mom, if they got to a more equal ground away from Neung’s family, I would’ve liked it more. Instead, we still have Khun Neung krab when they’re alone and Palm focusing on protecting Neung. We do have some semblence of change in their personal characters though because Palm’s more open now where he knows how things go, rather than under his dad and Neung’s family’s thumb whereas Neung doesn’t know much about this life.

Nueng, not Neung: bruhhh I just understood why people keep calling him Noong or Noo-ang and stuff instead of how his name’s pronounced. I just read the name to be how I would type it based on how it’s pronounced but that’s not correct ahh

Fave Scene:

idk, nothing super stood out. maybe that one part where Palm called him Ai’Nueng

Posts I made

None

Most viewers that I saw per part during the premiere:

1: ? || 2:10k || 3:15k || 4:18k

12 hours later

Aw fuck I forgot, so here it is 35 hours later

Part 1: 916k || 2: 633k || 3: 591k || 4: 676k

Avg: 704k

Views Tracking (just because I’m curious):

The day after NLMG release, so 8 days instead of just a week later

Ep 1 - 1: 1.970M (173k) || Avg: 1.261M (+108k) || Max Part: 1

Ep 2 - 1: 1.272M (+103k) || Avg: 1.017M (+88k) || Max Part: 1

Ep 3 - 1: 1.080M (+105k) || Avg: 935k +(96k) || Max Part: 1

Ep 4 - 1: 1.301M (+159k) || Avg: 998k (+140k) || Max Part: 1

Ep 5 - 1: 1.073M || Avg: 937k || Max Part: 1 (also part 3 with kiss has 1.044M)

#ep by ep commentary #never let me go #never let me go the series

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lenievi · 3 years ago

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KIRK: Mister Spock, we'll need more weapons. SPOCK: I understand. KIRK: We'll try to take it easy, but if we're forced to kill... (A Taste of Armageddon)

KIRK: But if the situation calls for it, we kill, is that clear? SPOCK: Clear, Captain. (Errand of Mercy)

it’s kinda funny how these two episodes I haven’t seen until today have Kirk be very very military and willing to use force, even kill, and he asks the same from Spock

both of these episodes show some quite dark sides of the Federation too imho

---

also I guess the reason why Kirk is so uncharacteristically emotional is because McCoy isn’t there to “rein him in”. Usually an episode is done in a way that McCoy is the one projecting Jim’s emotions (because you can’t really have two irrationally emotional characters lol) and only later, Kirk allows his emotions to be shown, but he’s irrational since the beginning in this one (in an episode where McCoy isn’t present)

I mean I’m not really serious, but Kirk is unbalanced in this episode because of his hatred for the Klingons and his frustration with the Organians who didn’t want to listen, which makes him arrogant and self-righteous, and it makes me wonder if it would be different if McCoy was around (not that McCoy always works but... it does help)

Spock had to restrain him several times even

KIRK: You didn't really think I was going to beat his head in, did you? SPOCK: I thought you might. KIRK: You're right.

I’m not saying I dislike it, I’m just saying that Kirk is more flawed in this episode than usual, which is good because people often say that Kirk only got flaws in tos films... which isn’t true. He was always pretty complex character with flaws.

---

I’ve seen people say that Kirk and his actions are never criticized in universe, but this episode? It literally criticizes Kirk, the Federation, and the United States (since Federation = the US)

KIRK: Even if you have some power that we don't understand, you have no right to dictate to our Federation KOR: Or our Empire! KIRK: How to handle their interstellar relations! We have the right AYELBORNE: To wage war, Captain? To kill millions of innocent people? To destroy life on a planetary scale? Is that what you're defending? KIRK: Well, no one wants war. But there are proper channels. People have a right to handle their own affairs. Eventually, we will have AYELBORNE: Oh, eventually you will have peace, but only after millions of people have died. It is true that in the future, you and the Klingons will become fast friends. You will work together.

watching A Taste of Armageddon and Errand of Mercy back to back really just makes it right in your face that what Kirk did in A Taste of Armageddon was the same what the Organians did here, so his speech and indignation are very hypocritical

---

KIRK: Well, Commander, I guess that takes care of the war. Obviously, the Organians aren't going to let us fight. KOR: A shame, Captain. It would have been glorious.

in a way it was ‘nice’ they pretty much said that the Federation and the Klingon Empire are the same (since this was once again criticism of the Cold War)

#tos nonsense #anyway spock really didn't have anything to do in this episode hm #it's often the case when they focus on spock and kirk only #i'm probably missing an episode i haven't watched for a while but the only kirk-spock episode that worked was the one with edith #because there was a conflict between spock and kirk so spock wasn't just nodding along #spock works better in ensemble shows or at least with mccoy around because then the dynamic is balanced #yeah i know i'm like the only person who thinks like this lmao #i wonder if i should rewatched the ep with the horta sometimes during the week...#*sometime #*rewatch... i really can english heh

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akirakan · 4 years ago

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Thoughts on Onyx Equinox

Finally got around to watch it. I actually watched the first episode last week, but wanted to give it a rewatch to fully feldge my thoughts and to catch any details I could miss.

My overall feelings of the series... it’s fine. A rather generic story saved by it’s unique setting and designs.

It’s both the character and creature designs that really make the series stand out. You can tell they had to sacrify (heh) the animation in order to make the designs stand out.

The costume and make-up detail is impressive. Visually, the series looks good, if the animation looks rather clunky

I love the detail that the when the series goes to the maya region, maya people are designed after the classic maya artstyle.

My main issue with the series so far is the pacing. Episode 1 had issues, but things get worse in episode 2. After being hammered the first episode about how pathetic Izel, the protagonist, is, we spend the first ten minutes of the second episode with him being dragged by Yaotl -Tezcatlipoca’s champion chosen to protect Izel- and being told how pathetic he is.

Nearly ten minutes of this.

The depiction of the cities so far is fine. I’m actually kinda mixed on the use of real cities. So far they’ve used and referenced real cities, which although it does helps to a degree making the world feel real, for those who are more familiar with the real deal might be zoned out by them. Take for instance, the protagonist lives in Uxmal, which it’s most iconic feature is it’s unique pyramid which in itself features a entrance that is a giant Chaac (god of rain) mask made of various other masks.

And yet, we never really see such a iconic landmark being depicted. It’s not like they weren’t aware of the heavy use of Chaac in the city (is part of the Puuc region, place where many of it’s architecture features Chaac, believed to be because of a heavy drought at the time) since we do see the use of the masks, but in made up buildings. It makes you thing that if they weren’t going to make a accurate depiction of the cities, they might as well just made up a city.

I did squee at the depicition of the underworld entrance. Just by seeing it I could tell it was inspired by the Xibalba entrance depiction in the city of Ek Balam. I have seen it live, and is marvelous, one of my favorite pieces of maya architecture. Personally, whenever I depict Xibalba in my own fiction I think of this as it’s entrance.

As far as the characters go, so far the true MVPs are the gods. They truly are scene stealears when they’re onscreen, Tezcatlipoca in particular. Izel, the main protagonist still has a long way to gofor me to care about him, but I’m sure he’ll get there. Yaotl immediatly won me over with “Están jodidos” (”they’re fucked”). Nelli, Izel’s sister is lovely. Zyanya looks badass and would like to see more of her in the future.

Lastly, the music is also beautiful.

youtube

Overall, for being the first series of this profile based on mesoamerican culture and myths, is a good watch, if generic in it’s story and characters.

(Note: I watched the latino dub. From what I’ve heard it’s the better version, and people who have watched both recommend watching the latino dub with english subtitles.)

#Onyx Equinox #Crunchyroll #Izel #Yaotl #tezcatlipoca #Quetzalcoatl

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seacollectsrivers · 3 years ago

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@patrickian and i think also @whenwinterfell tagged me <3 (and also @railroad-charmer whose recent own post of this reminded me i had this in my drafts heh)

Nickname: None! Both bc i'm not gonna tell u but also like 1) we don't reeeaaallly do nicknames here and 2) both Bo and my birthname are too short for shortened versions. But ig Sea? No one has called me Sea yet but it's there!

Zodiac: Pisces. Moon? Sun? idk. i'm a March kid.

Height: 1.68m babeyyy

Last movie I saw: Rewatch of Dogma! Still good. Can deffo see their comedic influences from Good Omens and Douglas Adams. Since I drafted this my latest film was a first watch of Donnie Darko. I really liked it!!

Last thing I googled: The cast of Pride 2014, bc i forgot George MacKay's name and a dude in a youth party debate i was watching looked like an off brand version of him lol

Favourite Musician: Right now? Dizraeli

Song stuck in my head: Soldiers by Delara

Other blogs: Nada

Blogs following: 184

Amount of sleep: fuck if i know, my rhythm is whack atm

Lucky number: 9! also my favourite number. i love 9.

What am I wearing: a brown t-shirt that says "Fred, Kjærleik, og Resirkulering", a pair of woolen black shorts, and a black hoodie with my Folkehøyskole name & logo on.

Dream job: I do not know lmaoooo i don't really have long term dreams these days. Just vibing i guess. I do want a job, i just don't have a dream job.

Dream trip: I'm gonna copy Patrick and say New Zealand! Also wanna do another summer train trip but focus more on eastern Europe. And ofc go back to Ireland to visit friends, but that WILL happen, not really a dream. Just a plan!

Favourite food: Anything ovenbaked and cheesy. OOh and i genuinely love reindeer uh.... skav? For anyone who can read this: steike reinsdyrskav og løk og hvitløk, tilsette rømme, salt & pepper, kanskje timian hvis du har, føkkings MWAH fantastisk elsker det.

Play an instrument: I played the saxophone in a school band for 8+ years! reckon i still could, yeah. I still have my notes, just not a sax.

Languages: English and Norwegian. Passing knowledge of Danish and Swedish, can kind of read Icelandic given enough time, know very basic Spanish and Irish.

Favourite Songs: Right now?? Fuck uuuh.... I Freak Out by Dizraeli i guess.

Random fact: I used to collect elephant things. Little statues, keychains, whatever. Recently found a portion of them in my dad's basement, but they had been colonized by some kind of insect :(

Describe yourself as aesthetic things: Good, long, warm hugs, cool & dry winter mornings in the sun, lazy evenings doing nothing on a couch, pints at an old grubby pub while people watching, old heavy scrangly trams in cerulean blue, ticket stubs from 2005 when they cost 15kr, museum exhibitions meant for kids.

#:)#OH go ahead and do this and tag me

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himmelstudies · 3 years ago

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Tag 9 people to learn about their interests!

I was tagged by: @nr-studies

MUSIC

Fave genre? kpop and jpop! been a while since i caught up with jpop but i still love it nonetheless <3

Fave artist? loona~

Fave song? i have a lot of songs that i love this period, currently its Be Honest and U R! both by loona

Most listened song recently? hmmmm.... Be Honest!

Song currently stuck in your head? be honest... (like the moment i type it here, it has just kept replaying in my head)

5 fave lyrics? i dont have like 5 lyrics but these are my all time favourites for now! (english translated) sparkle and shine on me, you are a star - UR by loona - (english translated) From now on I'll love myself instead of you I'll live on, take another step To hold myself and give myself all - egoist by loona's olivia hye -

BOOKS

Fav book genre? romance :3

Fave writer? james patterson

Fave book? i haven't read much recently but my current favourites would be my recommended textbooks :')

Fave book series? maximum ride series

Comfort book? i dont have any... :c

Rainy day book? none still... :') feel free to recommend me any books that you find nice

Fave characters? Max and Fang in Maximum Ride

5 quotes from your fave books? is it bad that i cant remember any :') I don't remember the last time i actually read for fun

TV AND MOVIES

Fave tv/movie genre? romance, fantasy, action

Fave movie? Spirited Away!

Comfort movie? spirited away heh

Movie you watch every year? spirited away again, as you can see its really one of my faves ahhaa

Fave tv show? falling into your smile! that is my current favourite

Comfort tv show? put your head on my shoulder! its a very calming school life kind of tv show that has cute romance <3

Most rewatched tv show? love O2O :3

5 fave characters? uhmm.. Jin Yang and Lu Si Cheng from Falling into your smile. Si Tu Mo from Put your head on my shoulder. i think that is about it :')

Tagging (no pressure!): @dooareyastudy @study-with-wastel@future-engr @studyviolette @hyperchemblr @theorganisedkat@thecottagescholar @diaryofastemstudent and @studyinthebluemoon

#tagged #tag game #thanks for the tag!#no pressure!

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olderthannetfic · 4 years ago

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Escapade Vid - The Untamed

I could say this was my attempt at meta on an underappreciated character and that's why I wanted to vid Wen Ning…

Nah, I just think he's hot.

Wen Ning has this adorable babyface and big eyes. Just my type. And then he got a goth makeover and became a creepy zombie, increasing his hotness by ten thousand times. The Living Dead was everything I wanted except for dubcon possession porn, and it both irritates and cracks me up to see how many people find it OOC and badly made. I agree the colors are an abomination though--but more on that later.

I like Wen Ning the best because 1. He's hot and 2. He's one of the most competent characters and compromises his morals the least. Mianmian might be one up on him given how her story turns out, but in a whole series of craven idiots, I like the suicidally moral characters, especially when they're competent.

And also JC. Because I like his face. (What? I never said my Untamed feels were deep.)

I wanted to make this vid last year, right after Escapade. I spent forever finding a song, and I'm glad I did it then because it was a nightmare. I can find love songs easily, but I don't really care about WN/WWX, nor would most love songs fit that. It's clearly one-sided, but WN is also clearly totally happy to follow him around forever. Happy love songs are out. Pining angst is out.

WN is also motivated by high ideals more than specific family feelings. WQ wants to protect her family. WN wants to repay his debts. WN is a shy doofus on the surface when we first see him, and he acts flustered around most of the older characters, but this is deceptive. I feel like the most revealing scene is when he pops up at Lotus Pier, ready to grab JC and take on his entire clan. In what universe was this a good idea? What is he even doing there? Why did it actually work???

I wanted a song that encapsulated WN's quiet stubbornness. The trouble is that like 99% of popular music is either about romance or about being a confident badass, and most of the confident badass music is "Fuck you, ex boyfriend, I'm stronger now". I did not want an ex boyfriend song. A bunch of other songs are macho, flexing dudes talking about how they'll win the sports competition. Obviously, that was out. There are a very few songs like Try Everything, but they're awfully perky for covering Wen Ning's entire story, including him getting, you know, gruesomely murdered.

I honestly can't remember how I found the song I picked. I was probably listening to Happy Hanukkah on endless repeat and saw it in the Youtube sidebar. (Look, it's a great song for all times of year. Shut up.) Matisyahu has many amazing songs that build and move in ways ideal for vids.

I then sat on this source/song combo for a year because, well, it sure was a year. But when we got close to Escapade, I realized I wanted to finish it for the con.

Clip choices:

I'm not going to include the full lyrics on their own since they're in English and on every lyrics site. Instead, I'm putting the relevant bits between my explanations of what I chose and why. A lot of it came together quickly. I knew I wanted to include cute WN moments, like him being bullied by kids, and they wouldn't fit in the main narrative, so I had to put them in the intro.

Feel like the world don't love you They only wanna push you away Some days people don't see you You feel like you're in the way

I had a lot of trouble with 'push you away' since, generally speaking, no one does push him away. However, this is a vid from Wen Ning's own perspective, so it felt like an acceptable match to use the part where Wen Qing tries to leave him behind as they go on a hunt. She's objectively correct to do so given what happens, but Wen Ning is clearly upset that she tried. He doesn't want to be protected, especially at the cost of other people's safety.

Today you feel as if everyone hates Pointing their fingers, looking at your mistakes You do good, but they want great No matter what you give they still wanna take

I was very clear from early on that I wanted to use 'mistakes' for what Wen Ning is actually upset about: ruining Jin Ling's life. Of course he feels super guilty about what he did, despite it not being his fault, but the specific fallout Wen Ning is going to care about is a kid's feelings, not the political drama. That gave me the idea for what to do with 'good' and 'great'. More than most characters in the series, WN is not impressed by the power structure or reputations--scared, yes, but not impressed. WN likes bringing people food, at little things that are quietly good, and their society does not value that. (Cf. everything about Jiang Yanli's betrothal before Jin Zixuan catches feelings.)

'No matter what you give' I used for a shot that is probably not going to read as anything in a convention vidshow. He's bruised up, so I was hoping it would read properly visually. The actual context of the shot is WN having been thrown in the dungeon for being a traitor to the Wen. And yet, when the Wen are defeated, does he get a pardon? Nope, ignominious death. It really didn't matter what he did: these factions are all thoroughly corrupt and the entire system is garbage. It's all power-hungry assholes and sanctimonious prisses ripe for manipulation. All that mattered was that he was a Wen, and the Wens were either on top or being exterminated.

Give your love and they throw it back You give your heart they go on attack When there's nothing left for you, Only thing that you can do, say

The next part is WWX being an ungrateful little bitch. He's understandably stressed, but it still cracks me up that he's all up in WN's face and WN is literally only there to help him. WN might feel an obligation, but WWX sure isn't earning it here.

'When there's nothing left' I wasn't sure about. WN hitting rock bottom is arguably when he gets killed or maybe when they're in the burial mounds, but that didn't work with my structure. I chose to put a montage here of all the times that WQ tells him to stay safe by ditching WWX. I sympathize with WQ, but as WN comments in one of these scenes, he's following their own family code that she taught him. WQ cares so much about protecting WN (and the rest of their little part of the clan, but let's be real, it's mostly about WN) that she's willing to collude with a mass murderer just to keep him safe. Maybe it's only because he's a younger sibling, but WN seems to see things a lot more clearly. I laugh every time he's like "Uh huh, uh huh" as she lectures, and then the next scene is him running off to do something dangerous again.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior, Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

For this round of the chorus, WN is burning his Wen clan membership in a fire, and the heroic thing is running away, living to fight another day. WN has no ego, nor would ego be helpful here.

Buuuut, equally, being an actual warrior means hurting people, and while he was literally mind controlled into murder, that still couldn't have happened if he hadn't been already involved in violence and fighting. Violence you regret is also part of this life, and so is accepting responsibility for your actions. (Sure, he's very literally not responsible here, but WN doesn't know that at the time and doesn't feel that even later.)

There's some things you should let go, They're only gonna pull you down, Just like weight on your shoulder They are only gonna make you drown

I swear The Untamed has the best casting for a variety of face types. I recognized everybody from the moment they appeared… Except for Su She. Whom I forgot entirely and couldn't recognize at all. Doh.

It wasn't till I was clipping the whole series for this vid that I realized that the reason Wen Ning gets possessed here is that he's the only one to notice Su She's plight and go to his aid right away. I think on first viewing, I read it as him just getting possessed before he could get in the air, but that's not what's happening at all. His dumb ass stayed behind to try to help someone. Seriously, fuck Su She. They live in a grotesquely shitty power structure, but WN responds in admirable ways, while Su She just whines that he's not on top.

We all swing high, we all swing low, We all got secrets people don't know We all got dreams we can't let go, We wanna be brave, don't be afraid

WN's secret is that he gets possessed so easily and why. WQ is refusing to tell WWX in this scene, but he has figured out something is up and gives her a talisman for WN, which shows up later in the plot to great emotional effect--though not in this vid, alas.

The butterfly reveal was one of the first things on my timeline as I recall. I have Many Feelings. Also, this is me, so yes, I totally ship them. >:D

WN and WQ showing up to accept responsibility is kind of a dumbass move, but it's definitely brave. I enjoy how WN just keeps barrelling through the plot in a way that should mean he's the cute woobie who dies early on to prove the world is bad… and that instead leads to him being one of the strongest fighters, making it through the series, and finding A-Yuan again. (Though, okay, he did that first thing also. Heh.)

I ended on Jin Ling because I was so struck on rewatch at how the juniors first meet Wen Ning.

I dimly recalled this fight, but it wasn't till I was clipping that I realized just how much focus each of them gets and how WN is literally strangling them and such. I just remembered him fighting people, not who. It's hilarious how quickly after this (in their timeline) we have doofus woobie WN being cute and them being like "He's my murder zombie! ♥"

For this chorus, I focused on that change. WN is rescuing them. "Yesterday" is their scared faces. Here, being a "warrior" is apologizing to JL. And maybe WN doesn't really owe an apology, but JL does deserve one. Almost no one in the series seems to give a shit about how JL is feeling.

And then my favorite scene with my two faves! WN is finally telling JC what he has probably wanted to for ages. WN is a wuss when it comes to himself, but he gets righteously pissed when someone else is being mistreated. The yesterday he's letting burn here is his promise to keep quiet… along with viciously burning down every bit of self perception and hubris JC ever had. Ouch!

Your heart is too heavy from things you carry a long time, Been up you been down, tired and you don't know why, But you're never gonna go back, you only live one life Let go, let go, let go, let go, let go, let go,

Bless the sequel movie for literally being entirely about Wen Ning's internal struggle. The way he breaks free of the bad guy's hold is by accepting the past and letting go of his guilt over things he can't change.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior,

He's just so hot in this movie! This first chorus is him coming out of the hallucination, having beaten his self doubt and then beating on the villain.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

Okay, in actual canon, JL mostly joined them because he was competing with LSZ like the bratty little asshole he is, but I wanted to highlight how JL got over himself enough to join the other juniors on team WN. Also, WN defends both him and LSZ in this scene in ways he couldn't back then.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior,

This I wasn't planning on at all. As I was clipping the whole series, I was thinking that WN's possessed footage here wouldn't be narratively useful since he went and got taken over again, but when I rewatched for visually impressive stuff to use interstitially, I realized that--holy shit--he's defending Jin Ling in this scene. And he succeeds. I included both a shot of Jin Zixuan, which everyone caught in the vidshow, and a shot that nobody mentioned: Wen Ning's bloody fist after ripping JZX heart out to go with Wen Ning's bloody hand on the sword in the present as he struggles to keep it from Jin Ling. Here, fighting like a warrior means keeping the sword off of JL, even if WN can't defeat the spirit or resolve the entire situation himself.

ALSO I HAVE MANY FEELS ABOUT JC JUMPING IN FRONT OF JL.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

Sometimes, WN is not that sweet. He traps this dude in a hell of his own making instead of letting him kill himself because Wen Ning can be a vindictive little bitch. And then he strides off into the matte painting sunset.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Other vidding notes:

I totally wanted to do something with Chinese characters, but there wasn't really space, and after much dictionary-searching and asking, it's clear that Chinese does not use morality metaphors involving a compass pointing true north. But that effort was not wasted since I needed a good font for my other vid.

Vidding The Living Dead turned out to be a pain. I had completely forgotten it was in another aspect ratio. The shots look much more beautiful before one crops them. That said, none of them are that beautiful because the entire film has this atrocious green color filter over it. It's like they're all wading through mud at all times. Ughhhhh. I spent so long trying to fix the color on that final scene to be at least a little pretty for my vid.

Still, the film had exactly the emotional tone I wanted. It very much skewers the fanon that WN is entirely the bashful wimp he appears to be on the surface when we first see him. It makes overt the change that we see over the series. It's also fundamentally different because it's a situation where WN is the senior person and in charge of someone. We've seen him babysit a small child, and we've seen him around the juniors with lots of people of his generation also there, but we've basically never seen him out from under WQ and WWX's thumbs. It's only natural that he's acting more authoritative here. His smackdown of the villain is very much in line with how he treats JC during the golden core reveal. WN is not a forgiving guy when he thinks someone has been selfish and awful.

Throughout this vid, there are shittons of color, speed, and motion effects. I don't normally use a lot, but it turned out to be a lot of fun this time. I should find another project to use effects on.

The vid:

Available on AO3.

#vidding #wen ning

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cinaed · 4 years ago

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Red vs Blue Season 2 Rewatch

Well I'd meant to do my season two rewatch Saturday but was sick most of the weekend. But now I'm feeling well enough to watch and enjoy!

Aw, I forgot that the first scene of the season is Doc's introduction.

Church being so done with Caboose and Tucker, and the combination of O'Malley and Caboose means that his threats involve giving Church a birthday present (sure it's Tucker's head, but you know).

Just imagining Doc's expression as the Blues explain that Church is a ghost and now a ghost in a robot makes me laugh. Also another thing is that the Blues apparently have a Spanish-English dictionary, which somehow the Reds never bothered to get for years. Sorry, Lopez!

I love that Church actually knows military lingo and it's Tucker and Caboose who are like "???" whenever he tries to be smart in earlier seasons. Also Tucker just being like "Nope, I like my blood on the inside."

God, I forgot that Church went "I can't pronounce Frank, we're calling you Doc." Like..Frank? At least protesting over DuFresne makes a little more sense! Church really does love to mess with people. Also Doc's speech about the differences between being a medic and a doctor remains iconic. "Well, a doctor cures people. A medic just makes them more comfortable.. while they die."

I also forgot that Church just straight shoots Caboose (and actually hit him!) so Doc will go over and help him. Stone cold. "I can't believe he shot me!" "Oh, don't even START Caboose!"

Also love that the Reds have staff meetings, which Grif presumably sleeps through. Though why they all even trusted Grif to carry ammo around, I just don't know.

And the beginning of the iconic surrender exchanges. Cake, flags (wait no flags), Lopez. Doc turning into a fake hostage. "You don't get anything except humiliation and ridicule!" "We've already got that! What else do you have?"

I forgot that Doc immediately assesses the Red Team, realizes Grif is the least popular of the group, and immediately starts insulting him to curry favor. Speaking of stone cold, like dang, Doc.

Another iconic scene is Church ragging on Tucker as he wiggles his switch. :D And of course Sarge's amazing code is "drive." He's definitely that guy whose password is Password1235.

Fun parallels with Donut's "I'm so freaking lost" and Doc's "Help, this Jeep is kidnapping me!"

Lopez is like a son to Sarge! Sarge loves him so much that he forgives him for turning against him and murdering him. Also Sarge thinking he can fight a machine gun.

Tucker: "You hardly ever used your legs before anyway. I've never heard of a grown man asking for so many piggy-back rides." Church: "Hey, I already told you: that was for science." And thus canonical piggyback rides were established.

Bold of Simmons to call someone else Poindexter.

Everyone thinking Church is shy because he can't turn around.

Grif using Doc's words against him, and thus a low-key dislike of each other was born.

Poor Doc. Stuck wandering the wilderness aka the 60 feet or however much space there is between the bases.

Simmons and Grif squabbling like an old married couple trying to tell the story about the Blues and Doc.

I am usually against love triangles, but the Lopez/Sheila and Sheila/Caboose is so good.

Caboose having a good idea, except they didn't consider that Lopez would immediately escape.

Ah, the old days when Lopez actually believed in the Red Team. Also will always love "Primary objectives: 1. Fix everything. 2. Hate the orange one. 3. Call mom more often." Lopez calling Sarge father! And then his brutal disillusionment as the Reds almost kill him.

Simmons loves that machine gun.

Lopez/Sheila is such a good ship. Love their meet-cute. Of course then Tex steals his body. Also Sheila being into Lopez AND Tex. I'd forgotten about that.

"Tucker, there's a very fine line between not listening and not caring. I like to think that I walk that line every day of my life."

Love Tex just rolling with "Sure, I'm a ghost." And now we're finally into the O'Malley plot which is so much fun.

Sarge's been wanting to get a cyborg on his team for this whole dang war. He's so happy when Simmons becomes a cyborg. Meanwhile Grif and Simmons are united in hating the idea.

Tex telling embarrassing stories about Leonard's high school years. :D And the beginning of this very weird plan to rescue Caboose from O'Malley. And seeing the inside of people's heads. Or at least Caboose's head, which means a stupid Tucker and a Church who is even more foul-mouthed than Church himself plus he's Caboose's very best friend. Sarge the southern pirate. Donut the girl. Grif's yellow armor.

Grif sounds almost impressed when he does the 1-2-3 count that he pulled on Simmons and realizes that Donut beat him at his own game. Unfortunately then he promptly gets run over by Sheila.

"Suck it, Blue!"

I honestly love Lopez's love song to Sheila. He's such a romantic.

Church is such a nerd. His insults are so bad.

And the beginning of Doc and O'Malley's saga begins. Their juxtaposition is amazing.

And the beginning of cyborg Simmons! I still love that even if Simmons instantly insults Grif, the fact remains that he went through surgery to save Grif's life. And he sounds genuinely worried when Grif starts coughing, right up until the point he figures out Grif is using his brand new replacement lungs to smoke. And Simmons trying to get Grif to eat healthy and stop smoking. Good luck with that, Simmons...

Simmons apparently likes to dance, if his fury over the assumed cancelled holiday party is any indication. That's a prompt for someone!

Donut and Tucker are both the romantics of their team because Tucker thinks Sheila/Lopez is sweet, he just doesn't want to deal with love triangle bullshit.

Meanwhile Lopez and Sheila go on strike for machine rights and I for one support them wholeheartedly.

Double O Donut! I love Donut and Grif's misadventures together.

Tucker: "Sheila and Lopez are now considering leaving to form their own robot army. They said no one would dare oppose them." Church: "What?! Did you try to talk them out of it?" Tucker: "No way, I wouldn't dare oppose them!"

Poor Donut. He has no sense of direction. And poor Doc, stuck with O'Malley for company.

Sarge talking about the entertainment value of being tortured. Sarge...what.... I'm not gonna kinkshame, but I'm definitely gonna think about kinkshaming Sarge.

Donut and Caboose's truth or dare scene is so cute. They're such a fun dynamic. And I really wonder what Donut was gonna say about the Red Team plans until Church possesses him. And Church is immediately super chill in Donut's head, and wants to just relax and do some arts and crafts. And Donut considers Caboose his friend! And Caboose really likes Private Biscuit.

Church trying to bargain for two robots so he can have Tex back is sweet right in the middle of a ridiculous scene. And Donut being so excited for a sleepover with the Blues.

I'm just saying, Sarge would make an excellent car salesman the way he's messing with the Blues over these robots. And Donut must be rubbing off on him, heh, because "I've been told my lube jobs are fantastic!" is definitely a Donut line.

Church using military lingo in one episode and then a handful later not understanding military time is such a Church thing.

Finally to the iconic Tucker line of Grif and Simmons. "It's just the same two guys bickering like an old married couple. I've only been listening for like five minutes and I can already tell they're really in love. Why can't they see it?" And Church doesn't even bother to argue.

Tucker discovering Red vs Blue is a lie is still amazing. As in the ironic discussion, which I will always love.

Donut's sarcasm when he realizes they're leaving him and Sheila behind to guard each base. Man versus tank. Should go well for him.

And set up for season three, which has some of my favorite team ups-- Sarge and Caboose, Grif and Church. That'll also be a fun rewatch.

Time for the bonus features aka Outtakes, PSAs, and deleted scenes!

Honestly most of the PSAs this season weren't great, but the Fourth of July fireworks safety one did make me laugh. And it does have Donut with his Kiss the Cook apron!

Outtakes were okay, with the running theme of Burnie trying to explain adlibbing to everyone else, haha. Also "Great Caesar's Dressing!" is as catchy as "Great Caesar's Ghost!" And the outtake of Sarge being Hamlet. And Tarzan. And the Grif and Simmons audition tape was fun.

Deleted scenes! Doc and Vic having some weird chemistry. Calling Doc hot and saying he missed him. And Doc complaining that no one likes him and that someone stole his wallet. Of course then Vic immediately gets mean. The others include Sarge and Grif prepping Simmons for cyborg surgery before Grif gets hurt and they actually go through with it, which mostly includes getting Simmons super drunk. Sounds about right for Blood Gulch!

#Red vs Blue #rvb rewatch

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gyakutengagotoku · 4 years ago

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GS4 vs AJ:AA - Episode 3, Part 5

At last, I’ve completed this case. I’m not sure how I managed to stretch it out for this long, even when they haven’t been too long of posts. I wasn’t even rewatching the ballad on tape for the umpteenth time, but it sure felt like I was. Then again, I’ve been distracted and busy and...

AVOCADO, NOOOO!

I was so distracted and busy, I just realized yesterday that she’s (yes, it’s a she in my mind, shush), started turning yellow! Aaaaahaagh... It wasn’t because I wasn’t watering her enough, it seems, but the dirt in her tiny pot has been all but sucked dry. I just replaced some of it with a touch of fertilizer, but those roots are deeply entangled in that dry dirt. I hope she can recover...

Ahem. Anyway, let’s finish this episode.

> Court Lobby

<???> ‥‥さすが、ぼくが見こんだだけのことはあるね。 ...I knew you had what it took.

<Trucy> あ‥‥パパ！ Ah... Daddy!

<Apollo> 成歩堂さん！ Mr. Wright!

オレのコト‥‥ 見こんでくれていたんですか！ You... believed in me?

<Phoenix> いや、どうなんだろ。 Not really.

<Apollo> え。 Huh?

<Phoenix> ここは、そう言いながら出てくるといい感じかなと思ってさ。 I just thought that'd make a cooler entrance than, say, "hiya"!

<Apollo> ‥‥聞くんじゃなかった。 ...Why do I even bother hoping?

"...I didn't just hear that."

Kinda reminds me of the "I left my ears back in 2015" meme... which would be all the more hilarious coming from Apollo because Nick started his career in 2016.

> Courtroom

<Judge> わかりました。それでは、証言していただきましょう。 Yes, it's high time we did. Let's hear your testimony.

まずは‥‥そう。先ほどの証人、ラミロアさんの証言に対して‥‥ You may begin with your response to Lamiroir's testimony.

あなたの言いぶんを聞かせてもらえますかな。 If, in fact you have anything to say about it.

<Daryan> ああ。言いたいコトはヤマほどあるぜ。 Oh I got plenty to say.

歌姫さんの証言は、デタラメもいいトコだ。 Lying must be a national pastime in Borginia.

アンタのデッチ上げもなァ‥‥ 弁護士クンよ。 ...And wherever you're from, Mr. "Justice". Hah!

In the JP, he simply says Lamiroir's testimony was nonsense and calls Odoroki out as a "cheater" or in another way, a "forger".

But no one at the time expected that Apollo would come to have backstory in a different country altogether down the line. First the Harlem Shake meme and now this! How does the loc team keep predicting stuff in the future!?

> 1st Witness Testimony

> Present igniter then mixing board, or present mixing board then igniter

> If present mixing board first, then present anything but igniter

<Apollo> これこそが、銃声の正体です！ This is your "gunshot"!

<Judge> ‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥ それがあなたの答えの正体ですか。 ...That's your answer?

<Klavier> おデコくん。あまり、ぼくをがっかり��せないでくれよ‥‥ And I had such high hopes for you, Herr Forehead...

<Judge> その証拠品が、銃声の正体とはとうてい思えません。 I'm having trouble understanding how that piece of evidence is a gunshot...

<Judge> “幽霊の正体見たり枯れ尾花” ですぞッ！ Next you'll be throwing pie plates in the air and calling them UFOs!

<Apollo> （ううう‥‥） (Even I wouldn't stoop quite that low...)

Heh. In JP, the judge cites an old proverb: "The ghost upon closer look is withered pampas grass," or basically "It's not as scary as it seems."

Pampas grass is seen all over Japan. In any traditional-style Japanese movie, game, anime, etc. featuring the grand countryside, you're bound to see grass just like it. When the winds blow, entire fields sway in motion like a moving painting, and in a way, they can fool weary travelers late at night because of their pale-colored ears.

> 2nd Witness Testimony, press 1st statement

<Apollo> マネージャー‥‥ですか。でも、レタスさんは‥‥ Her manager, sure, but Mr. LeTouse was...

<Daryan> おっと。すまんね。国際警察の潜入捜査官だったんだっけ？ Oh, right. Sorry. An Interpol agent, wasn't he?

あのオッサンが捜査官だったなんて、イメージがわかなくてな。 I just have trouble picturing that big lunk as an undercover cop, you dig?

捜査官のくせに、すぐ殺されちまったみたいだしよ。 And not a very good one, seeing as how he got wasted.

ハッハッハッハッハッハッハッ！ Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

<Apollo> （‥‥笑いすぎだろ） (That's cold, dawg!)

Wocky sure has been some kind of influence on Apollo; one thing I wish the original JP also did more of, since Apollo never actually goes into Kansai dialect or any Yakuza lingo. (That bit last episode was my bad, sorry!)

> Press 3rd statement

<Daryan> はずかしいハナシなんだけどよ‥‥ オレ、海外行ったことないんだよね。 Yeah. It's a bit of an embarrassment... but I've never been sent overseas.

<Apollo> え！　それはないでしょう！国際課なのに！ What!? But you're in International...

<Daryan> オレは、飛行機ってヤツが苦手でね。シートが、オレにはせますぎるのさ。 See, me and planes got a difference of opinion. We don't like each other much.

<Klavier> おデコくん。残念だけど‥‥ ダイアンの言う通りだよ。 My condolences, Herr Forehead, but he's telling the truth.

たしかに、彼はこの国から一歩も出た事がない。ぼくが保証するよ。 He's never set foot outside the country. I can guarantee it.

<Daryan> 国内にも、国際課のシゴトはあるんだよな。コレが。 As it turns out, my division has plenty of work to do locally as well.

<Apollo> （そんな‥‥ 　そんなのサギだろ‥‥） (That's... so unfair.)

There was one bit missed in the English script when Daryan was disagreeing with planes: he can't fit in those seats. I can only assume his giant torpedo hair also easily gets caught when people are stuffing their luggage above their seats.

> Press 4th statement

<Apollo> コンサート中にも、親交はなかったのですか？ So you didn't fraternize with him at all during the concert?

<Daryan> ないね。そういや、ヒトコトも口をきいてないんじゃないかな。 Fraternize? Hah! I don't think we exchanged a single word.

ダレが好んで、あんなオッサンと話をするかってーの。 As if anyone would want to talk to that old Eastern "Bloc"-head.

かわいこちゃんなら、ハナシはベツだけどな。 Now the ladies, that's a different matter altogether.

...He says, as he strokes his massive hairdo.

Though it was clearly established in the JP script that Borginia is in Northeastern Europe, they barely give mention to it beyond how "foreign" it is, but with mysterious fascination rather than any weirdness, and treat the people from there as they would any native Japanese.

And then you have "Eastern Bloc-head" here. Oh, loc team, you lovably cringy people, you.

> Present at 2nd statement

<Apollo> 裁判長‥‥ これを、見てください。 Your Honor... Take a look at this.

<Judge> これは‥‥なんですかな？キャンデーのように見えますが‥‥ What's that? Hmm... Looks like candy.

<Apollo> ああ。ちがいますからナメないでください。 Er, it's not. Don't lick it, please.

眉月刑事。 ‥‥コイツに見おぼえは？ Detective Crescend. ...Ever seen this?

<Daryan> ‥‥キャンデー、に見えるな。 ...Looks like a piece of candy.

<Apollo> オレをナメないでください。 What it is... is evidence. Don't lick it before you try it.

The line here in JP is: "Please don't take me lightly either", where the verb for "to lick" is the same for "to take lightly" or "to underestimate". Nice job from the loc team to come up with their own using the same word.

> 3rd Witness Testimony, press 4th statement

<Apollo> 逆に、希少価値が高いということにもなりませんか？ But, wouldn't scarcity drive up prices?

<Daryan> それも、モンダイなんだよ。 Yeah, and attention.

奪い取ろうって危ないヤツが大量におしよせてきやがる！ Every gangster and his brother would want a piece of that action!

あんたのおデコなんか、すぐにハチの巣だぜ。 They'd turn your forehead into swiss cheese before you could say, "Objection!"

<Klavier> 前髪も、消えてなくなるだろうね。 Maybe we could get them to cut his hair, too.

<Trucy> ダレだか分からなくなっちゃいますね。 Who's on trial here again?

<Daryan> ようするに‥‥ カンゼンなシロウト考えなんだよ。 Man, you so obviously know nothing about the market!

<Apollo> （‥‥そりゃあ。　こっちは、シロウトだもんな） (...And that's a bad thing?)

I'm not sure if Trucy's line here may have been mistranslated because it sounds too different from the original line: "Then no one would be able to tell who you are."

You know, 'cause his spiky hair is part of his identity.

> Present newspaper at 3rd statement

> Press 6th statement

<Klavier> たしかに、いささか異常な厳しさではあったね。 I do recall it being a bit extreme.

コドモたちは、のきなみアメ玉やマシュマロを取り上げられていたよ。 They were even confiscating gumdrops and marshmallows.

<Judge> なるほど‥‥このマユと見分けがつきませんからな。 Yes... it would be hard to distinguish them.

<Apollo> （そっか。牙琉検事、ボルジニアに　行ったことがあるんだっけ‥‥） (That's right. Gavin was in Borginia, wasn't he.)

<Klavier> ぼくは、何度も金属探知機が反応するのがイチバン困ったね。 I remember setting off the metal detectors several times.

反応するものをひとつずつ脱いだら、最後には、ほとんどハダカさ。 I had to practically strip naked to walk through.

<Apollo> （それは��ジャラジャラしてる　アンタに問題があるだろ‥‥） (Here's a travel tip for you, Gavin: leave the bling at home, you glimmerous fop.)

Man, I can understand Daryan not taking planes, but how does Klav manage to endure through all that every time he has to fly somewhere for his rock star tours?

Alternatively: "(That's your fault for always jangling everywhere you go.)"

> Present at 8th statement

<Apollo> ひとつだけ‥‥ 方法を知っています。 Actually, there is one way.

<Daryan> なんだと‥‥？ Whaa--!?

<Apollo> ボルジニア共和国から、チェックを受けずにニモツを持ち出す方法です。 One way to get something out of the country, no checks.

<Judge> そ。それはいったい‥‥？ What is it!?

<Apollo> ‥‥検事になることです。 ...You become a prosecutor.

<Judge> けんじ‥‥？ A prosecutor!

<Klavier> あ‥‥あああああ‥‥ッ！ Ah... Aaaaaaaaaaah!

ま。まさか‥‥ I don't believe it...

<Apollo> そうなんですよ。 ‥‥牙琉検事。 Believe it, Prosecutor Gavin.

Is this a Naruto reference? I think it's a Naruto reference. This game came out in 2008 in the US; Naruto was definitely popular by then and his memes were (still are) everywhere online. I would know, since I was a rabid Naruto fangirl at the time until I was introduced to One Piece.

<Judge> そ。それでは‥‥ この発火装置は‥‥ So the igniter...

<Klavier> こうなってみれば‥‥その意味はアキラカ、なんじゃないかな。 ...Was placed in there for a clear reason, it seems.

<Apollo> そう。いわばコイツは “安全装置”だったんだ！ It was a safety precaution!

<Judge> ‥‥あんぜんそうち‥‥ A precaution...?

<Klavier> そうか‥‥おデコくん。 Ahh... Herr Forehead.

すべてがつながったようだね。今になって‥‥ついに‥‥ At last, it all comes together.

<Apollo> コンサートの日に起こった、すべての“フシギ”‥‥ Every strange thing that happened that day.

今、もう一度‥‥ たどってみましょうか。 Care to review?

ラミロアさんの歌に乗せて。 Maestro, the gentle sounds of Lamiroir's ballad, if you please.

This may be the first and last time Apollo ever refers to the "Maestro", which I assume to be the bailiff (because who else would it be?), so I'm documenting this for the record. Fyi, the original line is pretty similar; suggesting that they review the case to the sounds of her ballad too.

> Present Machi as accomplice, present proof but it's wrong

<Apollo> コンキョは‥‥ この証拠品です！ The basis for my claim... is this evidence, Your Honor!

<Judge> ‥‥‥‥‥‥これは、どういうイミですかな？ ...I'm not sure I follow.

<Daryan> ハッ！ハッタリもいいところだぜ！ Hah! You can't bluff your way out of this one!

<Klavier> その証拠品では被告人がスイッチを押せたことを証明できないよ。 Nor can you prove anyone pressed the switch with that... "evidence".

<Apollo> （どうやら、　まちがったみたいだな‥‥） (Maybe... I picked the wrong evidence.)

<Judge> ハッタリには、バッチリ、ペナルティを与えます！ For every bluff, there is an equal and opposite penalty!

I just love this line. It's so condescendingly snarky yet comfortably assuring coming from the judge.

The original line here is just "That bluff will earn you a perfectly matched penalty!" I notice that "ハッタリ" (hattari), "bluff", and "バッチリ" (bacchiri), "exactly", look kinda similar, though.

> Present mixer, point out section, present witness to prove Daryan's guilt

> Not Guilty, back to Court Lobby

<Lamiroir> 目の手術を‥‥ 受けてみようと思うのです。 I am considering an eye operation.

<Phoenix> ぼくがね。オススメしてみたんだよ。 It was my suggestion, actually.

<Trucy> え‥‥じゃあ。見えるようになるんですか？ You mean, you'll be able to see again?

<Lamiroir> 今まで‥‥“光”というものが、怖かったのです。 It's funny. I have always been afraid of the "light".

何もかもをアキラカにしてしまう、 “光”が‥‥ Light seems so harsh, so unforgiving...

Alternatively: "It can make anything and everything clear to see, the 'light'..."

<Apollo> （こうして、殺人事件のバラードは　静かに流れ、そして終わった） (And so, like a ballad, the trial flowed on and on... until it came to the end.)

（この事件のおかげで‥‥） (Thanks to the trial...)

（《恋するギターのセレナード》は　大ヒット） (..."The Guitar's Serenade" was a huge hit.)

（牙琉検事のハデなアクセサリーが、　また増えたみたいだ） (Prosecutor Gavin's even more dazzling to look at now.)

（でも‥‥検事さんに　言っておきたいことがある） (But... there's something I want to say to that guy.)

（今度また、バラードを　作るときは‥‥） (Next time you write a ballad...)

<Trucy> 歌の最後で、ちゃんとハンニンをつかまえておくこと！ ...Have them catch the killer at the end!

Just a note that he's more "dazzling" because he's gotten even more flashy accessories, and I'm laughing at the image that popped up in mind. Hey, Wocky! You lookin' for a new gangsta icon?

#gsvsaa #gs4 #ajaa #turnabout serenade #part 5

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tokaywineandcheese · 4 years ago

Note

💕 Your two top fave fictional characters 🕹 Video game you are currently playing 🌐 Languages you can speak and/or are learning. Which are you fluent in 🐷 Junk food you can never get enough of 🎁 Best gift you ever received and why👾 Do you believe in aliens👻 Do you believe in ghosts 🎥 Fave film📻 Fave song currently again i dont have impulse control so just pick what u wanna answer xD also cant believe its still no cheese related stuff...😥

HEYO BLU! GUESS WHAT!! I’M FEELING MUCH BETTER TODAYYY. Well enough to tackle my long list of things to do hehe.

Anyway, thanks for the ask! Ngl, I am actually very pleased you asked the ghost one :3

“ again i dont have impulse control so just pick what u wanna answer xD also cant believe its still no cheese related stuff...😥” Blu, cheese asks are so offensive to this blog don’t you know that hdsfuka also you can’t stop me from answering ALL of these thanks

💕 Your two top fave fictional characters

Uh this is incredibly hard but number 1 is a given, number 2....hm. Will Herondale and......uh.....I don’t know.....;-; maybe,,,,Shikamaru......?

🕹 Video game you are currently playing

Undertale :3 My friend bought it for me and was like PLAY. Though I haven’t touched it in a few days now cuz busy,,,,and then,,,,sick smh

🌐 Languages you can speak and/or are learning. Which are you fluent in

I’m fluent in English heh. Though Mandarin was my first language. Idk if I would call myself fluent with Mandarin though lolol. Though I also know basic stuff in Cantonese from my dad’s side. And of course some cuss words in tai yu

🐷 Junk food you can never get enough of

Chips ;-; Specifically, low-sodium lays normal flavor. It’s my go to snack when I’m studying lolol

🎁 Best gift you ever received and why

Um...it’s unfair to rank all gifts like that. But....out of the gifts this year...you guys are the best gift. Especially, the folks who, unprompted, got angry on my behalf and said they would fight someone for me or die for me. No one’s ever really said such a thing to me before and it almost made me cry the first few times. Like....I don’t have to face these things alone. I have people who will look out for me, not for their own selfish reasons. And honestly? That’s a gift, even if they don’t know it.

👾 Do you believe in aliens

Heck yeah! If by aliens, you mean, living things not from earth. They may look like cells or bacteria, or look like us, but I do believe we’re not the only living things in the universe. They’re out there....somewhere....

👻 Do you believe in ghosts

I’m like. Idk what’s the term. I don’t really believe in ghosts but.....I’m waiting to be proved wrong.

🎥 Fave film

Um, nothing in particular? Though I do love to rewatch XMFC, Inception, and Star Wars a lot ;-;

📻 Fave song currently

‘Alright’ by James Lee (ft Amber Liu :P)

#thank ye blu!!#:D #asks #zabdabz blu #ask game: get to know me

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spell406 · 5 years ago

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So, a friend of mine basically forced me to watch at least one episode of Netflix Castlevania.

(Disc - I am new to tumblr and had a little problems with posting this thing correctly. Sorry for spam)

So I watched one. And then another. And another… When I finished it was 3 a.m., my eyes were burned out, my brain fried, and my soul forever forfeited, but whatever, who need it anyway.

I am new to the universe, and I know that I am something like 10 months late to the review party, so instead I decided to just share a bunch of thoughts of mine. [UPDATE – Because I am extremely heavy procrastinator and it took me almost two weeks to write this thing I am already at 50% of SoTN right now I’ve finished SoTN by now]

First of all – Castlevania looks like anime, but shares almost nothing common with it. It was a relief, to be honest, as I was a little afraid of show being just another shounen with specific set of clichés and similarities that might quite not bad (or even enjoyable), but I’ve seen them too many times before – better or worse executed – to watch without a mild nausea another Bleach/Naruto in a darker scenario.

I would never demand a fantasy world to be realistic. Like, who would do, fantasy world is supposed to be… fantasy, right? I am fine with lack of realism but I can’t say the same about lack of common sense, and there is a matter of logic that I personally find quite funny. When you are about to fight in close quarters with someone, with both of you lives on stake you’ll want to use every possible advantage. In general there are two kinds of battle armors – first one is focused on providing maximum protection (like typical medieval plate armor) and second one designed to grant freedom of movement especially critical in usually legwork-heavy duels. And here are our “battle” priests in gowns. Gowns, that manage to provide neither aforementioned advantage and downsides of both. Heh. It just bothers me too much, honestly.

I really love the flow of narration; the way that every character including antagonists has its own set of motives and reasons, even Carmilla has her own background that is convicting to justify her bitchery (Well, she has seen it before, right? And Dracula wasn’t even trying to hide his apathy, so why would she like to watch as dead man wages his hollow war)(Is it only me or Dracula shows typical signs of severe depression? Apathy, lack of strength to take any decision, not taking care of himself, loss of interest – even in his own war – well, to be honest he has a good reason to do so).

Animations. Ah, that one is unquestionably excellent, although you Powerhouse Animation guys could have make use of an additional 4-5 fps – from time to time I had a feeling that there is a cat sitting on my keyboard’s space bar, pausing and starting show over and over - it happened something like two or three times. If it comes to favorite scenes – for me, it would be first meeting and fight between Trevor and Alucard. The dialogue and music is so good at reflecting rising pressure and tension between those two – let put oneself in Trevor’s boots – just day before he was rather concerned about getting some food/drink and move on and now he is standing against something that he now considers to be last boss of his life, or perhaps not, he doesn’t even know how does Dracula looks like and he doesn’t seem to be openly aggressive, or perhaps yes, he is obviously vampire and he seems to doesn’t like Belmont name, on the other hand even lesser vampire might be not so easy foe and he is kinda out of practice, and Sypha doesn’t feel like helping out, at least for now… It is all just perfect, and the sound track alone is stuff of legends. (Season 2 OST on Spotify WHEN??”)

Second best would be first phase of Dracula fight – the way which they are team working fluently to not let eachother get killed pleases my inner maniac in best possible way, although the 1 vs 1 part is kinda downgrade - but still ok.

But there is one thing that really stands out in best possible way from things I’ve seen before and that’s utilization of facial expression and body language. Like seriously, this combined with really outstanding voice acting bring interactions between characters to another damned level. (Unfortunately, national translation and voice acting is so awful that I couldn’t bear myself to finish even first season). There are few thing I consider more important in creating credible character than combining overall expressiveness and voice acting, the ability to tell words without actually using any (Finding Ciri cinematic in Witcher 3 is perhaps best known to me example) - and Castlevania does it just soooo good.

Dracula generals. When they were shown for the first time I was like “oh boy he has summoned generals, (Generals! Master tactician, the artists of war!) the oldest, most cunning and powerful beasts from entire world, now things are going to get rough.” And how did it turned out? I can understand that Dracula tasked his forge masters with overseeing the war (Although his reasoning was kind of ok, good job Dracula for nominating for executives two people, that knew least about proceeding war) Did they were incompetent so much? Then how did they managed to get their titles, if they were just a bunch of endlessly whining mischief-makers? They were supposed to know how war looks like, and how to do one, but instead they did literally nothing for war effort! If you ask me, that is at least one risen eyebrow. Excluding Godbrand, the only member of council that did anything more than grate his teeth in silent anger, killed some civilians and got taken care of quite effortlessly. Also, Godbrand wasn’t made to be the sharpest knife in a closet, but he still was bright enough to ask himself “What will we do when we’ll win a war?” Also, he managed to notice that there were no real plan to follow... That is +1 to you Godbrand, I’ll miss you my vikingy boi. In the end, if they were meant to be just a background, they did get a little too much of screen time, and if they were not, they got faaaaaar from enough of it.

By the way – not sure if it’s only me but I personally think that Trevor might be keenest (or – at least – not dumbest) of protagonist trio. He might lack classic education, but he is careful watcher (he noticed fresh oil in torch and overall state of Alucard’s hideout), he correctly chosen and quite successfully executed strategy at Gresit square (isolate, divide and destroy) and quite steadfastly shrugged off Alucard bickering (well, most of times). Also, his plan for battle with vampire generals was quite logical – avoid close quarter cause humans are in general more fragile than vampires, and Alucard as frontline. My inner maniac was most pleased.

As I said before, I really enjoy Castlevania’s overall character design but with an exception of bishop of Gresit. There is no reason for his work, I know that he is insane and reasoning usually does not apply to those like him but I feel like there is no reason in villainy (this entire talking about making a God’s own country – well, I don’t buy it), aside of being genuinely baaaaad, which kinda stands out in negative way in comparison to the rest of characters.

To highlight the issue, lets do some roleplaying here:

The night creatures are ravaging the land that you had sworn to protect in unholy war against humanity, killing women, men even your subordinates alike. The citizens are growing restless, and demand taking an action. How do you proceed?

a) Find the last descendant of family known for their prowess in fighting those beasts; but be wary – he doesn’t seem to like you very much after you branded him as heretic, exterminated his entire family and burned down his home (probably with some of aforementioned family still inside it). However, if you nicely ask for help, reverse the curse, apology for making mistake and return the estate it actually might work. (to be honest that could be quite interesting moral choice for Trevor, to help people of Wallachia and let bishop take all glory or decline the bishop proposition and screw people over in the process)

b) You can fight them, you are the Holy Church after all. You have access to unlimited supply of holy water, relics, you have enough money and authority to arm and train people’s militia properly. Your knowledge of those beasts might be as wide as Belmont family, but at least should be sufficient to minimalize the damage. Killing the Dracula, however, might be impossible for you.

c) You spent most of your time on biting, trashing, or looking for anyone to cast entire blame upon; it doesn’t matter who is that poor bastard as long as it is not you. In addition, you…

AAAAARGH I CAN’T CONTAIN MYSELF ANY LONGER! BROTHER, I DON’T FEEL LIKE I AM WICKED ENOUGH! I REQUIRE TO SEE SOME SUFFERING OF INNOCENT TO FEAST UPON! WHAT DO YOU SAY, BROTHER? I CANT HEAR YOU OVER RAGE BOILING IN MY VEINS! WHAT, SPEAKERS? OF COURSE THEY WILL DO RAAAAAARRGARGAJGIOGJIHKBYIUOL

Oh well.

Well, looks like I am done here. By the way, sorry for my English, I am not a native speaker (If I’ve commited any spectacular crime against vocabulary/grammar let me know on priv).

Now I’m going back to rewatching show and torturing SoTN

No TL:DR, just read it if you want, it is not an entire book, you know.

#castlevania #trevor belmont #sypha belnades #alucard

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furubaish · 6 years ago

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20 QUESTIONS

INFYPLRules: answer 20 questions and tag 20 people you want to get to know better Thank you @junishi-stan for the tag!! （っ・∀・）っ 1. Nicknames: Marz (hardly used though)

2. Zodiac Sign: CAPRICORN ! im bout dat goat life moo. i mean baaah. 3. Height: 5”4

4. Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw!!

5. Last thing I googled: i literally just googled the english translations of the 2019 opening and ending themes wow. last non fruits basket google search: atrial fibrillation.

6. Favorite musicians: Hozier, The Lumineers, One Republic, Of Monsters and Men

7. Song stuck in my head: an assortment of the FMA B opening/ending themes i love them and i recently did a rewatch

8. Followers on this blog: 150 beautiful human beans ⊂(・﹏・⊂)

9. Following: like 500 something heh

10. Do I get asks: No, but asks are always welcome!! i love talking to people （⌒▽⌒）

11. Amount of sleep: oh um i think i can function on even 5-6 hrs but i inevitably end up making up for it at the next opportunity for a 10 hours sleep heh

12. lucky number: i do like the number 7, and also 11 because i really reaaaally had hoped for that hogwarts letter

13. What are you wearing: blue jeans and a loose flowly printed pink and turquoise shirt

14. Dream job: an adventurous archeologist!! or just something that can help me make a positive difference in people’s lives, help people.

15. Dream vacation: mountains and greenery and rivers and adventure

16. Instruments: i attempted to learn the piano but i was terribly impatient (ﾟAﾟ;)

17. languages: apart from english i am fluent in Urdu and can understand punjabi and speak a little, and can read Arabic because the script is the same as Urdu.

18. Favorite song: Like Real People Do by Hozier, and I adore I Won’t Give Up by Jason Mraz, and The Book of Love by Peter Gabriel, also love love love by the lumineers and little talks by of monsters and men.

19. Random fact: the first anime i ever watched (and ADORED) was card captor sakura and i shipped sakura and syaoran so hard even before i knew what shipping was

20. Aesthetic: cherry blossoms in the wind, rainy afternoons, excavating a stormy cliffsides in a big billowing black cloak for fossils, hands reaching out, clouds over a full moon in the sky.

I tag @palamig @sohma-stan @dontlookatmepwease @thewinterose @uchisuke @ahiruarima-elric @pellumair @hollyiries @machi-kuragi @yunsoh @sohmanyfruitsbasketmemes @ethics-basket @fururuba @zoerussle

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ilwinsgarden · 6 years ago

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Tagged by @unwillingadventurer Thank you! :)

Nickname: Any real one. In my teenage years with my friend we called themselves with names of the characters of TV show or book we liked at the time few times but never had any real nickname.

Zodiac: Leo (but you would never guessed that if you knew me in real life)

Height: umm... something about 170 cm I think?

Last movie I saw: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them on TV (first movie. Well it was rewatch for me, but watched it with my parents.)

Last thing I googled: How to get old sweat stains out of the clothes. (yeah, really. That boring)

Favorite Musician: Eh, that would be too many, but to name at least few randomly... Beatles, ABBA, Claude Francois, Enya, Blackmore’s Night, Loreena McKennit, Hana a Petr Ulrychovi, Spirituál Kvintet, Klíč, Zuzana Navarová, Jiří Pavlica a Hradišťan, Tomáš Kočko,...

Song stuck in my head: For some weird reason it’s now the main theme from “Godfather” as sang as a song in czech by Eva Pilarová. I have no idea where did it come from, I even never saw the movie.

Other blogs: I have a sideblog for crochet Doctor Who characters I make, a sideblog for a scene like pictures with crochet Doctor Who dolls, sideblog for my Miraculous Ladybug fanart

Followers: 605

Following: 295

Amount of sleep: It depends, but about 7 perhaps?

Lucky numbers: Don’t think I would consider some number as my lucky, but I like better even than odd numbers (don’t know why)

Dream job: Don’t know unfortunately.

What I’m wearing: green T-shirt and a home-wear set of trousers and jacket in sort of a dark pink or pruple or whatever is the actual colour. (and of course I have underwear and socks too! ;) )

Favorite food: I don’t have any particular food that would be my absolute favourite but I like chicken meat and I really love cheese.

Language: my mother language is czech, then I can - more or less - speak english. I also studied French and German (and Latin actually) in the past but too little is left from those at the time. I’d like to refresh the skills a bit though (but that would have to be someone more organized and disciplined than me heh)

Can I play an Instrument: No.

Favorite song: I can’t say just one, I couldn’t even say like top 10 or something. Just pick some song from the musicians named above and it would be most likely one of my favourite songs (obviously). (plus hundred other songs *shrugs*)

Random Fact: I still use MC cassettes and VHS, I don’t have a smartphone nor a tablet and it really drives me mad how everyone everyone expects that everyone has a smartphone and facebook and instagram, etc.

Describe yourself in aesthetic things: green hills, stones, cup of tea, beads, yarn, paper and colour pencils, digital camera, trees, dragons, books

Tagging @gentianablue @smudgethistle @whatthefoucault @cookiepianos @stitching-in-time @forestagain @llywela13 @doctorloki40, @north-wyrm, @dayoldhakarl, @upslapmeal @bowser14456 (as usual, do only if you want to do it and if someone who wasn’t tagged would like to do it consider yourself tagged of course)

#memes #about me

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simplylove101 · 6 years ago

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Influential TV Shows

Okay this is kinda random and why I prob won’t tag the shows I list cuz this is more just something I wanted to get out of my head after watching J&J’s latest podcast where they were talking about this topic. They kept it to 7 shows each and while that would certainly be interesting to try, that’s kinda hard. lol I went about grouping some of them - shows that shaped me growing up, shows that impacted me/stuck with me, comfort shows/watch with the family, taught me about fandoms, etc. And saying something about each of them. Anyway, this is stupid but here we go lol:

The Shows Growing Up:

Sailor Moon: Okay, nobody make fun of me. lol This is the first show I remember really watching as a kid that wasn't Barney or whatever, something I decided to watch by myself and it actually had an ongoing story. And ofc it took time for me to realize that this was just an English dubbed version that they would play on Cartoon Network. Looking back on it, it’s a little cringey (the voice readings, Serena being a bit of a crybaby) but seeing girls, even if it was animated, kicking ass over evil as a group made an impression on me so it’s no wonder I would watch it religiously after school and was sad when they stopped airing it. And ofc I watched all the movies too. I was a shameless fan. lmao I also eventually read the manga and appreciated it.

Hey Arnold: As a kid, I would watch Cartoon Network & Nickelodeon (& eventually Disney when I got a little bit older), and I think one of the Nickelodeon shows that really stuck with me as a kid, like Rugrats, was this one. It had a wide range of really distinct characters. It was genuinely funny. And I did love the dynamic between Arnold & Helga (who was interesting & sometimes they would let her be the protagonist of an ep instead of him, like the therapist one which is a def fave) even if her crush was kinda as stalkerish as you can get why maintaining innocence. lol And you know what? I did totally watch the recent movie they did where it tied up loose ends like getting these two together and allowing her to grow as a character. Gotta say it was rewarding after all this time. lol

All That: I feel like I gotta put this here because I watched this show all the time as a kid. And I think it’s something that really taught me about comedy. I had seen things from Saturday Night Live growing up cuz of my parents but this was my Nickelodeon version with people that weren’t much older than me at the time so I could really get what was going on/enjoy it. It’s also the first place where we saw people like Amanda Bynes & Kenan Thompson & Kel Mitchell (which is partly why I later watched things like The Amanda Show and Kenan & Kel) What can I say? As a young person, it was just really cool seeing kids being funny. Yeah, there was some cheese but I didn’t care. It stayed with me.

Boy Meets World/Sister, Sister/Lizzie McGuire/Even Stevens: I kinda cheated here and bundled these shows because these are four of the shows I watched on Disney growing up (Disney showed reruns of Boy Meets World & Sister, Sister for the record) There were others like That’s So Raven, Suite Life, Wizards of Waverly sort of, Proud Family to name a few but these shows I picked have such iconic episodes that I still remember well and love. Like Even Stevens - musical episode hands down Idc. Boy Meets World - Scream-inspired Halloween ep for sure. Yes, there was cheesiness with all these shows. Sometimes very after-school special, but they shaped me I think. Also gotta mention, I remember thinking of Hilary Duff as my idol. lol

The Ones I Watched With the Fam:

That 70′s Show: Now the thing with my family is that we were one where for a time we would watch tv while eating dinner and my dad would have control of what channel we watched. It was always this way, which meant it would either be Law & Order or Seinfeld (the second one I was cool with and I almost included it on here cuz it’s such a staple comedy but eh,,, I appreciated it more later on. It felt more forced on me at the time) This is probably one of the only shows I can say my whole family truly agreed on watching all together tho, including my sister who generally watches trashy reality shows. This show will always remain one of my faves, because it was hilarious. It got a little weaker towards the end (We do NOT speak about Season 8) but I loved how it was a true ensemble sitcom where everyone brought something to the table and enjoyed the different dynamics between the group. The funny running gags, Jackie & Hyde still remain one of my all-time otps, and Kelso is probably the funniest & lovable dumb character I can think of (If nothing else, Ashton Kutcher was meant to play this part ok) It was nice to have something my whole family could enjoy together. It was a rarity so this show has a special place in my heart for that alone.

Joan of Arcadia: Another show that has a place in my heart, despite it only lasting 2 seasons and it ending on a bad note (major cliffhanger, still never fully making things right w/ Adam after destroying his character, ultimately S2 was problematic but still) because this is a show that I watched religiously (pun not actually intended here lol) with my mom every Friday it was on. What I loved about it was that the concept is centered around Joan talking to God yet it generally wasn’t being preachy. Joan wasn’t always willing to do what God wanted her to do, and things didn’t always turn out how she wanted. It was a kinda perfect blend for me and my mom to watch together. After this we were more willing to watch stuff as a pair cuz we were close but this started all that. I remember always being curious how God would appear to Joan cuz it was always changing, but there were some fave recurring ones like Cute Guy God, Goth God & Old Lady God to name a few. heh Joan was played wonderfully by the awesome Amber Tamblyn who could always make me cry (naturally she played my fave Tibby in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movies too lol) and she had awesome friends in Adam & Grace (who were my faves) and family. I rewatched this show and you know, I’d say S1 holds up and even the first half of S2. Heck, the episode where Joan & Adam break up towards the end of it, while totally heartbreaking and PISSES me off cuz bad writing for Adam, was solid simply for the acting so there’s that. lol

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Putting this show under this category because this was a show that I mostly got into because my sister loved it growing up. I was really young when it came out so I mostly remembered bits & pieces when I later watched it when I got a little older. It stuck with me tho cuz ofc the awesome Sarah Michelle Gellar playing badass Buffy (she was my sister’s idol) and it was a genuinely funny and smart show. It also got dark too. It wasn’t always solid towards the end, but I think it mostly nailed the actual ending (why Anya had to die tho... Spike I got but ugh) Anyway, this was kinda a big deal cuz it was the only thing my sister and I really watched together that wasn’t bad reality television or me barely paying attention to Dawson’s Creek at the time lol This showed that my sister could have taste when she wanted to (lmao sorry)

The Carol Burnett Show: I had to mention this show because this is one that got me, really my family, through dealing with my mom’s dementia. We chose to care for her at home instead of putting her in a nursing home. We did this for 2 years until her death. And the one thing we (excluding my sister cuz her & old stuff don’t mix) could always count on cheering us up was this show. My dad told me that my mom loved this show growing up and that’s why we turned on for her. So luckily memory or no memory, she still had a sense of humor and she knew when to laugh. And with good reason. This show is hilarious. So iconic. Carol Burnett was/is rightfully loved dearly for this show. I wish I had more I could say, but this was truly a comfort show when I desperately needed it so I am forever grateful that it existed.

Honorable Mention: Young & Hungry - another show that got us through that dark period, my dad actually really enjoyed this, despite seeming skeptical, and eventually started calling it the “Josh & Gaby Show” lmao Only thing is we never finished it together so oops. Not so much influential maybe but worth mentioning it felt like since it was underrated, got me thru a tough time, was hilarious and I loved that cast a lot. Emily Osment deserved to be the lead of her own show. Comedy queen.

The Ones That Brought Out the Fangirl In Me AKA The Teen Years:

The O.C/One Tree Hill/Gossip Girl/The Vampire Diaries: Another category where I’m just grouping them up together cuz ultimately it wasn’t about high art with these shows. They were the staple teen shows that everyone was watching and well, I was one of those people. lol It all started with The O.C. It was one of those ‘at the right time’ kinda things cuz I just went into the 6th grade when S1 started and it was such a big hit that everyone was always talking about it and there were even shirts involved (I never went that far lol) but this is where my need to explore YouTube came and then I was making fanvids. Gossip Girl is the one where I actually inserted myself into a fandom for the first time. My goodness the cringe that came with it but it gave me two of the longest online friendships I’ve ever had so I don’t regret it. (Shoutout to @backtothestart02 here as one of them) And well, three of these shows taught me the toxicity that can come from fandom. So I’ve been less vocal/more aware with other shows because of it. There’s problematic stuff in all of these but they were entertaining most of the time despite frustration (lol)

Honorable Mention: Teen Wolf - Had to mention this one cuz this was a show where I had a group of friends who all watched this together and we talked about it til the end (even when we weren’t happy with it lol) I was never really vocal in the fandom cuz by this point I was wary of them (fandoms I mean), but it was nice to share a show with people who felt similarly about it. As a show, I truly loved it up to 3B. Some of my favorite episodes were the ones that almost felt standalone-ish (3x06 AKA Motel California still remains my fave to this day) Lastly, it’s because of this show I was introduced to Dylan O’Brien who I always refer to as my ‘always & forever’ guy so yeah lol

Maybe Superhero Shows Are Worth Watching lol:

The Flash/Daredevil/Cloak & Dagger/Runaways: So I’m someone who growing up, beyond Spider-Man and Batman, never really jumped at superhero movies. I still don’t to an extent but I’m more willing to watch stuff now. I think because when it comes to TV, I’m willing to check out at least an ep. I got into The Flash because my friend Lauren was really into it (and still very much is now) and wanted me to check it out so I did. I sorta watched Arrow before it until a point so I’d seen Barry’s appearances on it and remembered thinking he was precious so I wasn’t surprised that I liked him as a main character. I do think these later seasons have lost some quality but I think the earlier ones were very solid and Grant is perfect in the role. Daredevil... R.I.P. That show was so high quality so the fact that Netflix cancelled it is just rude. Now... Cloak & Dagger has been one of those surprises for me cuz it was such a slow burn that when it really got going it left me wanting more. That S1 finale was so solid. Cannot wait for S2. Love the dynamic between Ty & Tandy. Now Runaways isn’t perfect but it’s my biggest fandom right now and I’m proud of that fact. It’s a show that highlights diversity with 4 PoC leads & 4 kickass ladies (Nico & Gert are my bb girls), healthy ships including an LGBTQ couple currently as the main one (tho it is Gertchase that owns my heart), and overall a pretty great cast that meshes well like the thrown together family they portray. It even got me back into writing fanfic again. A miracle tbh. lol

Overall Just Amazing:

This Is Us: I just think that this show pulled me in the second they revealed that first plot twist in the pilot. It surprised me and then they kept doing that a bit after. Now it’s more about how it has the ability to make me cry every ep and feel things. It doesn’t always touch me the same it did in that first season (it was an emotional year for me tbh) but it does have a class act cast who can always pull at my heart strings.

Boardwalk Empire: This technically could have went under something I sort of watched with my dad, but it is kinda a weird show to share I guess. We didn’t usually watch it together (saved some awkward convos sometimes lol) but always talked about each episode weekly and it was kinda fun cuz it was usually in-depth. My dad still quotes things from it to this day. He also once said that he considers S1 the best TV season he’s ever watched. I agree that it was great. For me, the first 3 seasons are solid while the last 2 felt different but still pretty good. There was such quality to it. Great acting headed by Steve Buscemi. What can I say? I have a thing for gangster stories. I could say more but I’ll stop. lol

Stranger Things: The show that really turned me into a binge-watcher. I had just gotten Netflix and what show did I decide to watch on my birthday? This show. I had seen things in the media about the kids from it and I was like, they’re adorable!! And ofc I got hooked when I actually watched the show. It just has everything in it that I like: mystery, thrills, humor, hint of romance, awesome acting, music moments, nostalgia. This was my obsession for a while until I got into some other things but if you don’t think I’m totally pumped for S3, then you best believe I’m watching it all in a day if I can. lol

Community: This is a show that reminded me how a show can think totally outside of the box and still have a lot of heart with its comedy. I love situations where a group of misfits come together and become a family. I love that this show celebrates being different. Troy Barnes remains one of my favorite TV characters ever (& omg his friendship with Abed is pure goals!!) and Donald Glover played him perfectly. And Alison Brie is just adorable as Annie. Love this group of weirdos. The quality was different after S3 but I still adore it.

Into the Badlands: Have to mention this show because what it has been doing action-wise is just incredible. The fighting sequences are out of this world. I’m always excited to see how they top it. Also, an Asian male lead? Go dude! The whole cast is wonderful and everything is just high quality, ok? Also, that cinematography!! Can’t believe it’s ending when it comes back. Sadness.

One Day at a Time: This is more of a recent discovery for me (had friends who watched it and knew it was good but only decided to check it out not too long ago) but it’s already made its impact on me. This show has so much heart to it. The writers put so much care into their work when they bring up these controversial issues in the episodes. All while being totally hilarious (but also trust me, I manage to cry at least 1 or twice an ep lol) A show centered on a Cuban family, plenty of good rep for LGBTQ/non-binary people while also handling things like depression/anxiety, addiction, immigration, etc. It’s definitely making its mark on TV. Also, Rita Moreno is a living legend who I adore. I love this cast so much.

12 Monkeys: I. loved. this. show! I still think it had the best series finale that I have seen in a while. It wrapped up things so well that I was smiling for a while after watching it. I couldn’t believe that of all shows this one gave me a happy ending. lol Casserole remains one of my all-time ships because they were truly epic and pulled at my heart strings so many times. Jennifer Goines was my queen. But seriously, a show about time travel that managed to make sense? So impressed. And the visuals? gahhh

Friday Night Lights: Last, but most definitely not least, this show is just up there as one of the all-time bests IDC. The fact that at first glance the show seems centered only about football and it got me to keep watching definitely says something. lol This show had so much heart, the cast was excellent, an ending that was pretty much perfect. Coach & Tami Taylor were relationship goals. Honestly one of the best portrayals of a married couple I’ve ever seen because they were very much a team (while yes there was the occasional bickering that you gotta love) and it just felt real, you know? Also, it’s a show that proved that you can come back from a sophomore slump (yeah S2 was the worst season) and continue to be great.I can’t decide if it’s my favorite show of all-time but it’s certainly one of the first ones to come to mind. So glad I decided to give it a chance.

There’s probably a couple other shows I could list here but some I haven’t finished yet and don’t feel ready to put them on here yet. This is just what I could come up with.

#about me #influential tv shows

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