#And can sing praises when I do

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I feel like I owe Kim Possible a minor apology. In a recent post, I used Kim and Ron's romance as an example of how the love square should have been written. I've also talked about how Ron's the perfect example of a male comedy sidekick who is more than just a comedy sidekick because he's treated as Kim's perfect partner. I've probably mentioned Kim Possible other times, too, because it's such a good match for what Miraculous is trying to do.

Because I keep singing Kim Possible's praises I decided that I should rewatch the show to make sure that my nostalgia goggles weren't blinding me to some major flaw. So far, they weren't. If anything, I've been underselling the show. This is where we get to that apology I mentioned at the start.

Prior to this rewatch, I would have told you that Ron's importance wasn't really discussed until the later seasons because the first season of a formulaic kids show is almost always a testing grounds to see what works, so things can be a little rough. Plus Ron's importance isn't exactly something that you need to dive into early on when you've got a two person team. No one is questioning Ron's importance right out of the gate. He's there to be the comedy sidekick. No explanation needed.

Imagine my surprise when the plot of episode six is all about Kim and Ron getting into a fight about Ron excelling at their part time job while Kim kinda sucks, leading to Kim going to fight alone while Ron keeps working. Kim fails, Ron gets a call that she's in trouble, and:

Wade: Not important. Kim's in trouble. She found Drakken at inside giant Cheese Wheel but I lost contact. She needs help. Your help. Ned: Well, well, well. Looks like you've got a choice to make, Stoppable! What's more important? Your sacred duty as assistant manager or your role as goofy sidekick? Ron: Well, that's no choice at all. I guess it's time to say buenos noches, Bueno Nacho.

Dude doesn't even hesitate. Doesn't matter if they're fighting or if he's feeling underappreciated, Kim needs his help? He's there. Their fight can wait until after Kim is safe. This is why I love Ron. Total dork, but you can't ask for a better partner.

Ron's rescue attempt initially goes south, but instead of getting mad, we get this genuinely sweet moment:

Ron: Guess that wasn't much of a plan. Kim: Not as great as your Bueno Nacho bathroom-break chart. Ron: I gooned on assistant-manager power. You were right. Kim: I did resent your superior burrito technique. You're entitled to excel. Forgive me? Ron: Duh! Forgive me? Kim: Totally.

Boy do I love these two! Their friendship was so genuine right from the start. This whole episode is just oozing how much they care for each other, it's great!

After this moment, they save the day with Ron playing a big part in Kim's plan because right from season one, season one, the writers understood that Kim could never be shown to win when Ron wasn't around.

As you may have guessed from the cheese wheel line, the plot of this episode is pretty absurd even for Kim Possible. That's been the case for all of the early episodes, but I think that the plots are going to improve as the seasons go on because I remember the later seasons having much stronger plots. We'll see if that proves true. Even if the plots stay kinda weak, I've still gotta give full credit to the writers for their early character work. They really understood Kim and Ron's relationship right from the start, didn't they? And in a show like this, that's the most important element to get right.

Don't worry, I'm not going to flood your dash with Kim Possible love, I just had to take a moment to appreciate how good the character work was here. They really did want Ron to feel like more than Kim's goofy sidekick and they pulled it off while sticking to the show's absurd writing and formulaic structure. As Miraculous has shown, that isn't something that just naturally happens. It takes effort, so I had to take a moment to gush because I don't get to gush about good character work often while running this blog. I hope this also makes it clear that, when it comes to writing, I'm not looking for perfection. I'm just looking for a good time. So far, that's what this rewatch is giving me.

[lil-vibes]

im a firm believer that Narinder has rizz but its the kind where he casually says stuff that he perceives as something glaringly obvious and then if you look to the side Lambert is close to exploding

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

YES! JOIN ME IN THE DELCIOUS DUNGEONS!

[vv-ispy]

Jean and her preformer wife who she can easily pick up with just 1 arm. Furina is a blushing mess and Jean has a slight pink tint to her face while both of them are giggling

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah !! Jean may say she's never performed in her life, doesn't have the natural talent that Furina does, but she complements Furina so effortlessly, an easy lift and Furina is Carried blushing and gushing about how strong her girlfriend is

[markantonys]

you know what we need around here? less praising of donal's mat *at the expense of* barney's mat (and vice versa, though i haven't seen too much of that) and more acknowledgement that they BOTH did/are doing a great job and we're lucky to have/to have had BOTH of them!

i keep seeing stuff like "donal's mat feels so much more like book!mat, he's so much more lighthearted and likable, he feels like an inherently good person who just makes stupid decisions whereas barney's mat felt like an inherently selfish person" which is so unfair to say because 85% of barney's screentime was dagger-influenced mat. he never had the chance to play a more lighthearted version of mat! and judging by the snippets of Lighthearted, Selfless, Hero-Who-Doesn't-Think-He's-A-Hero Mat we got in the first two episodes (think of him charging weaponless into battle to save his sisters!!!!), i'm sure he would've done a great job, just as i'm sure donal would've done a great job with a darker dagger-influenced mat.

i totally get it's a natural instinct to compare and contrast the two portrayals, but personally i find them both equally great and feel an emotional cohesion between the two! at their core, barney's mat and donal's mat absolutely feel like the same person to me. in my opinion the difference in s1 vs. s2 mat is less because of the actor and more because of the fact that the character spent most of one season influenced by magical evil and most of the other being himself.

[nimblermortal]

The Yule boasting post that was going around is still bothering me, because it's not really boasting, as I understand it. So here's my take, as a self-taught student of Old Norse.

I think where it gets off the rails is because there was a ritual of making claims at Yule, and it centered around the braga(r)full, and you look right at that word and you see brag or boast. But it's a cup. What kind of cup? The one belonging to the bragningr. What's a bragningr? A hero or king.

So where does that brag actually come from? Well, that's not a word I know off the top of my head, but I'm willing to bet it's related to either braga, bragi, or bragr. Unlikely to be flickering, I could make an argument for poetry, but in context with bragningr it's pretty clearly bragr, the best or foremost. The bragningr is the best dude. For Yule you go stay with your best dude, and he gives you the best alcohol, and when you're thoroughly soused you announce your new year's resolutions.

It's not a boast, it's a declaration of intent. (The phrase used is strengja heit, to string an oath - strengja is the same verb used to string bows.) In the sagas this is generally used to get people in trouble; most frequently they make an oath at the new year that they're going to marry such-and-such a woman, who has not heard of them before, they go off to do it, someone else wants to marry her instead, and boom, duel's your uncle. (Yes, I'm still reading Hervor's saga, and you should too.)

I do think it's worth mentioning in passing that the Norse sense of being drunk was that it showed you at your most true-to-self - strips away your filters and makes you just be. So in that sense, it's the perfect time to make an oath! And also, "I was drunk" is not a defense because... if you were drunk, then that's who you really are and that's just underscoring whatever offense you committed.

[simptasia]

sometimes a media will be like "this character is annoying" and i'll be like "they're very likable actually" because of the autism

[revserrayyu]

One HSR Character a Day Day 41: Serval (aka: revs' favorite)

[dukeofthomas]

I'm enjoying btas so much bc the villains usually only have 2-3 henchmen employed- and that's enough. Bc no matter how talented or skilled Batman is, a huge guy coming at you with a weapon is always gonna be dangerous. Batman is a human which means he can lose.

[thesapphiredragon13]

Just a reminder to new artists or anyone feeling down about their art not looking as good as other artists: This is barely two years apart, you’re really not as far away from progress as you think!

[curseofpower]

"It'd be super interesting to hear these counterarguments 👀."

@goopi-e Well let's see… where should I start? The mass assumption that Ganondorf just sort of left his kingdom for dead and stayed holed up in Hyrule Castle for seven entire years, (lolwut???) no longer caring about his fellow gerudos or even letting them know what the hell was going on?

Or something else? Maybe something a little dicier? Like the existence of gibdos? Or the fact he didn't save Nabooru after his moms decided her punishment? ... That last one might be a little self explanatory, though, if you understand his mindset.

Ganondorf is a man with a very strong sense of justice and a very skewed sense of morality. I think it's actually because he cared that he'd ever punish or let his people be punished like she was. Twinrova were his mothers too, so, it's likely he trusted their judgement more than anyone else's. A lower ranking pair of gerudo might not have gotten away with dealing justice in his name like that.

But I digress. I know I have to be missing something. I'm just very tired today and have a lot on my mind. Do feel free to let me know, though, if any of that interests you or if there's another thing I forgot to address that you want me to go into.

[dbphantom]

To absolutely no one's surprise, Reddit didn't like the Silly Time episode

You'd think after following this show for 1071 episodes they'd finally learn to have a little fun LOL

[zenathezee]

Me responding to an email at work: "Blah blah blah, yes, no, here's a line for filler that probably doesn't need to be mentioned at all but it's weird if the email is too short."

Response I get back: "Thank you for saying [line I threw in as filler], I didn't know that and it was very helpful!!"

[whoviandoodler]

hot take but pirating books serves the same function as watching game playthroughs

[sodacowboy]

being adhd/autistic is like having to collect things in a video game to fix your weapon or make a potion or whatever in order to do any chore except the game doesn’t tell you what those things are and sometimes they change for no reason

[kavehayati]

Can’t believe discord boy never knew who mitski is like bro she’s just me with musical abilities keep up with the times !!!