#I am just not going to watch s5 - it’s that simple.

[thewolvesof1998]

I’m not going to debate cancel culture but in it’s most basic form its about holding people accountable for their actions and words.

Noah is a proud Zionist who has shown GLEE in the fact that innocent people are being killed, are being genocided. There is proof of this. This a fact. Which means it can’t be defamation. Also his PR team sucks if that’s the best statement they could come up with for him.

I’m sorry people are trying to hold him accountable in the only way they can with a public figure by saying their not going to watch anything he’s in. And from the videos I’ve seen thousands of people are listening to the ‘cancel him’ -as you call it- hysteria (I’m not going to even get into your choice of language here or with ‘angry mob’ but it’s real telling).

And the whole comparing it to Taylor Swift- like you said it was made up/exaggerated the reasons why to “cancelled” her where as the stuff with Noah is real, there’s proof of his Zionist beliefs and support of Israel as they GENOCIDE people. Like what the actual fuck was your point with this.

Anyways enough time spent on that Zionist asshole.

Free Palestine. Stop the Genocide. Hold everyone responsible for these murders accountable in anyway possible. Boycott, cancel, bring awareness.

Bisan has called for a global strike week from the 21st-28th of January- boycott work, school, business, raise awareness, call for a ceasefire - whatever you can afford to do.

Also just because some people are terrible people I will clarify being against Zionism and what the Israeli govt and military and it’s supporters are doing is NOT antisemitic. And if you decided to use anti-Zionism as an excuse to attack and harm Jewish people, you are the problem.

Do people realize that cancel culture is so fucking stupid and no one takes it seriously? For fucks sake even Taylor Swift got cancelled. People made up a bunch of lies about her and harassed her relentlessly too. And then she went on to sell out her Reputation tour shortly afterward. Years later she's one of the most popular, respected artists in the world. Noah will come back from this. Because no one likes any of the people behaving like this. If they weren't so chronically online they would realize this. He has a good PR team and the only reason he needs one at all is because of these assholes. I seriously hope he sues some of them for defamation. No one is listening to their CANCEL HIM hysteria. They are an angry mob and no one respects an angry mob. These people have no power.

[alchemillalost]

The Season 8 Destiel Meta Post Nobody Asked For (and why I think the writers had a Destiel endgame option in mind for season 8)

Okay, so here's the long version of this post that almost nobody wanted, but I'm writing it anyway. This is LONG. I'm sorry. And I want to start with it seems like s8 is polarizing, but I rather liked it, and I think it's because I live in the (delusion?) truth of this theory. Stay with me if you want to Believe too. I think Season 8 was written with two possible outcomes in mind; and with an endgame Destiel being the more likely of the two that the writers anticipated. Sounds insane, I am aware. You will need to stick with me here and extend some trust, but I promise I can show my work.

We need to set the scene: It's 2012. We are launching headfirst into the height years of tumblr fan culture. Gangnam Style grips the nation. Destiel is huge in fanfiction & tumblr land. However, interestingly, we're about two years past show's peak. Already once SPN was slated to end with S5's natural arc conclusion, but it didn't-- it was renewed because it was making the CW money, simple as. They have pushed on into the Sera Gamble era with Seasons 6 and 7, which have their respective flashes of brilliance, but all-in-all generally struggled to find footing in the post-Apocalypse Supernatural verse that was never actually planned for. It's pretty evident that the writing and plotting isn't nearly as tight as S1-5, simply because 1-5 was all mapped out from the get go.

It's been interesting returning to the fandom after a decade, because I'm finding a lot of people now who really liked Season 7. No hate, to each their own, and maybe it was just the circles I was in at the time, but in the moment S7 wasn't received well at all. It felt like they kept inflating the "big bad" to heights that sometimes struggled to get fully fleshed out (which, to be fair, continues to be a writing problem going forward). And while watching S7 in Netflix binge-mode it doesn't feel quite so bad, at the time having a year's worth of your fave TV show where Sam and Dean are systematically and pointlessly stripped of everything that gave the show its signature personality was nothing short of torture (killing Cas, the Impala, torching Bobby's place, killing Bobby), all in the name of more man-pain. All of that punctuated with a lot of filler episodes that felt like more misses than hits, the absolutely insufferable Amy Pond plot, and dick jokes just because the writers thought it was funny.

Everyone's opinions on S6-7 aside, though, Supernatural wasn't landing financially for the CW either. Season 5 aired on Thursday nights, which is a fairly well respected time slot for established and successful shows, but with Season 6 and 7 we see a demotion to Friday night, 9 PM ET. This is basically the kiss of death for a cable TV show. You sent your shows to Friday night to die. The CW was looking to the future with newer shows and the writing was on the walls that this circus was probably wrapping up soon.

However, in true Supernatural fashion, it wouldn't fucking die. Honestly, and I can only speculate here, I imagine such a die-hard and still-growing fanbase coinciding with a huge spike in social media + ease of access to fan spaces with the surge in commonplace smart phones/laptop computers is probably what kept performing CPR on this show.

So along comes season 8. The show is being passed to Jeremy Carver and Ben Edlund as a returning writer to head up the show. Other people have discussed the Sera Gamble era in depth, but what you need to know here, basically, is that the Carver/Edlund mind are ones that a) have not shied away from queer themes and b) are a lot of those Destiel classics. We're talking Ghostfacers, The End, My Bloody Valentine, On the Head of a Pin, The Man Who Would Be King (Carver), and Free to Be You and Me, Point of No Return (Edlund). Essentially, Sera's philosophy tended to be "strip it back to just the Winchester brothers" and Carver & Edlund were generally more open to having the surrounding cast of supporting characters. And these two definitely don't shy away from Dean & Castiel's relationship.

Here is where my theory gets a little speculative: I believe this is the point where where SPN was given one last hail mary by the CW. New writers and a Wednesday night slot, you have one more chance to make this work, otherwise you're getting the axe. It was renewed pretty late, in early May of 2012 (compare to S6 being announced Feb 2010). S7 had barely scraped its renewal in late April the year prior, too.

Okay, so let's put ourselves in that position for a moment as showrunners sitting down in the Supernatural writer's room in May of 2012. There are two things that might happen: 1) you just might pull it off, and you do such a good job you pull the show from the proverbial grave or 2) you don't pull it off, and you need to make sure the show ends on a satisfying note that wraps things up neatly. And you need to write and film a season that, until you get the yes or no from the CW, can do either and both or neither, and you may need to pivot in one direction or the other pretty quickly while you're filming the back half of your season.

Enter the Destiel endgame theory, which I believe was their scenario 2. Time to introduce the exhibits from the season.

General: Flashbacks. I wish they'd explored Purgatory more too, but it would've taken up too much time if they might have to fast-track a series finale later. (Also Amelia should've been all made up in Sam's head to cope with losing Dean but again, different post. Maybe it became a time constraint to explore too much too, if they thought the show might be ending.)

The evidence:

8x01 We Need to Talk About Kevin & 8x02 - & What's Up Tiger Mommy? We get flashbacks of Dean tearing Purgatory apart to find Castiel. When he finds him, he makes it clear he's coming back to Earth with him.

8x03 - Heartache- This episode focuses on the love between an immortal being and a human.

8x05 - Blood Brother - Benny/Queer Dean discourse deserves its own post. You can take or leave this one for this post's theory.

8x07 - A Little Slice of Kevin - 1) Dean is clearly hiding a boner when Cas gets out of the shower? 2) We introduce that Dean is deeply upset that Castiel didn't make it through the portal-- to the degree he's faked an entire memory because he'd rather it be his fault Cas is gone than have been abandoned by him

8x08 - Hunteri Heroici - Castiel wants to join Dean as a hunter; we're beginning to establish Castiel's genuine desire to spend his life with the Winchesters. This is then juxtaposed when Naomi forces him to stay away at the end of the episode, further telling us this is Cas' desire vs. Heaven's.

8x11 - Larp and the Real Girl - This is mostly a fun episode, but it's an example of queerness being gently nudged to the forefront of plots without immediate dismissal or being the butt of a joke-- rare for SPN at the time.

8x13 - Everybody Hates Hitler - Ah, the Aaron "He was my Gay Thing" moment. Dean leans all the way into the flirting. Does not give the "don't swing that way" speech, gets flustered, is at a loss for words. He appears disappointed later when he was wrong. This has little precedent on the show when Dean's been perceived as gay, he usually dismisses it very quickly.

February 11, 2013: Supernatural is renewed for season 9, a week after Everybody Hates Hitler airs.

Per these estimates, 8x18 is the next episode to be filmed post-announcement, beginning 2/12.

8x16 - Remember the Titans - A Forbidden Love plot. You can take or leave this one for this theory.

8x17 - Goodbye Stranger - OK, here is our inflection point for editing, in my opinion. The last month of eps, more or less, have been pretty trials-centric or one-off. This episode airs 3/20/2013. At this point, we know we're getting a season 9, but we've been building with all of the above, and this ep was filmed pre-S9 announcement... so much so that we have an "I love you" in the original script for the infamous crypt scene. I fully believe it was filmed and edited out in post.

Second, Castiel turns the walls of Naomi's office/lobotomy lounge the bi pride colors during the crypt scene. Someone on the crew at Supernatural literally tweeted that morning to be on the lookout for special choices in Naomi's office. It was very intentional. Why else pick these colors and declare they're intentional? (I have searched up and down for this tweet but it was rare i was there i remember it [the tweet] all too well please trust me)

UPDATE: Tumblr hive mind found it and it was Jerry Wanek saying they were… crosses? In the intersecting lines in the windows? (that's how lines work? lol) And it was amidst a spell of saying fans were reaching in their analyses, and though some of his replies have that tinge, it's not direct about the color commentary. I never saw the back half of that saga or forgot about it, didn’t mean to misrepresent anything! Either way I’ve been corrected but that office is still bisexual and you can’t tell me otherwise

And don't get me started on the "unicorn" stuff, that one person you'd throw everything away for (but I understand this can be interpreted in many ways) However, the season is renewed, we've picked the path they never thought they'd actually pull off-- now we've got to backpedal this Destiel just enough to not impact our precious CW bottom lines, but not piss off our faction of fangirls who watch to ship.

8x20 - Pac Man Fever - Charlie tells Dean she thinks Castiel seems "dreamy". Charlie is very gay and would only say this to elicit a reaction from Dean, we don't really get much of one. Again, lack of a "speech" on his sexuality.

*Note 8x18 Freaks & Geeks and 8x20 Pac Man Fever are filler eps, I think they could've been pulled if we needed the extra time to sprint toward a series finale*

8x21 - The Great Escapist - 8x23 Sacrifice- We hit a real fast escalation toward the season finale from here. I actually think this overarching plot was more or less always the idea for the ending, but how exactly it was executed depended on the renewal status.

The Alternate Series Finale Ending (That I believe they thought they'd have to do when they wrote it): If they hadn't gotten renewed, we are set up for Sam to close the gates of Hell and Metatron to use a spell to close Heaven using the heart of a nephilim (product of human + angel love), the bow a cupid (an angel that arranges love in humans), and the grace of an angel in love with a human. Hell and Heaven shutter up, Sam dies, and Dean is left with a human Castiel who has, for the better part of the season, already been "testing out" being a hunter alongside Dean and has literally moved heaven and earth to have this. He will not have to be the immortal doomed to love a human, as in 8x03, or have the forbidden love of 8x16; we receive resolution on those subjects for our heroes that the monster-of-the-week characters did not. They resolve their feelings for each other, because if we kept Dean's crypt "I love you" and we establish Castiel's grace was in love with a human... well, what else is there to say? (Oh, yes, and they did exactly this and pulled the Destiel trigger in S15 when it was all ending.)

The Actual Ending (That I think they got surprised about the renewal and had to do): Backpedal. Edit. Only drop little subtext again. We just need Castiel's Regular Grace TM for this spell. We can keep selling merch and con tickets and get views if we appeal to the widest audience possible, and we're not taking risks now that we've performed a literal miracle rescue from a Friday night 9 PM slot.

And once we start Season 9, we get a LOT of being hit over the head with Castiel & Dean's Heterosexuality TM, so much so it's awkward and even out of character. (Human Cas sighing about boobs in early s9? Like please. Get real.) It's a HARD left turn, but it makes more sense if you consider it all in the context above. I just don't think they'd have gone in so hard on the bullet points I listed if they had thought Season 9 was in the bag.

TL;DR: I think we might've had Destiel in 2013, but if we had, we wouldn't have also had the rest of the seasons. Whether or not that's a good thing is up to you, but I think it was a combination of a lot of external factors, capitalism, and, well, it being 2013, sadly. I think they were cowards about it, but at the same time, even the writers probably weren't pulling every string, they also needed to answer to other agendas. Television is a medium that is rife with the push and pulls of a thousand factors that aren't the pure story. Idk how to really wrap this, but this has been over ten years in the making so enjoy the fruits of my brain rot.

[glasskey]

I’m Gonna Cut Your F#cking Heart Out - The June Osborne Hit List Pt 3.

With Season 6 in the making and its release just a few months away, I have been hammering out a few more of these to vent my frustration and calm my nerves, as I quietly climb the walls. Today I’m kicking off with a quote I failed to mention from S2, and oh boy it was a good one.

Thank you for bringing me that.

I neglected to include this one in last seasons Hit list and I’m sorry, I’m truly sorry. Nick returns from Canada, delivering a message from June’s family and friends. She’s not seen them in years, by now Blaine’s neck deep in love with Osborne and this is the most precious thing he could possibly give her. At first she greets him enthusiastically, she’s missed him, but somethings not quite right. During his recent jaunt to Canada Blaine suddenly became aware of his ultimate impermanence, and is now slightly distant. “I met your husband” he says and immediately her face drops. Moss plays this scene beautifully, there’s a litany of emotions that pass over her, as she learns about Luke and Moira. She’s deeply concerned and yet so overjoyed her eyes fill with tears.

“Thank you for bringing me that” she says through her tears, it’s an incredible gift and Osborne is aware it’s come at a cost. Blaine is in love with her, this was painful, not to mention incredibly dangerous. In later episodes Fred arranges for June to see Hannah as “an act of kindness”, but it’s just 5 minutes, only to have her daughter ripped from her once again, leaving Nick holding a distraught June. This was not a gift, this was a painful reminder of what it was like to lose her daughter and it drew a sharp line between the two men, and their innate sense of kindness and compassion.

As Blaine watches an elated June swept up in the news and memories of her family and friends, he acknowledges with simple clarity his newfound understanding; “I should go” Blaine says. He intends to extricate himself from her emotionally and return her to her family, but before he leaves the room he tells her he loves her. Why? Nick Blaine regardless of his position wants June to know that while she cannot be with her family in Canada, there is someone here who loves her. She is pregnant, she is vulnerable, but she is not alone. His character was criticized for the timing of this statement, but this message from her family and his confession was one of greatest acts of tenderness we ever saw from Blaine.

Meeting Luke was an uncomfortable revelation that she indeed had another life, that she was stolen from a happy family. In S5 Ep 10 Nicks words “I’m nothing” brought this moment back so vividly, his meeting with Luke painfully revealing his value as merely a placeholder for a loving family…”Just a driver.” In S5 Ep10, Blaine silently sits at her bedside, watching, never waking her…..”I should go” he’d said to her…….”It’s probably better if she doesn’t know I was here” he echoes to Tuello. She stirs as he leaves the room. He never knew she nearly woke. She never knew he was there. “Thank you for bringing me that” June says to him and as Blaine almost limps out of the room, the weight of his pain is almost visible. He’s utterly heartbroken. Her joy had cost him, but when it came to paying the price, ultimately Blaine never gave a fuck.

You will never be free of me

It’s the infamous Serena and June break up scene and I am here for it. June’s angry and hurt. Serena has betrayed her, Nick has abandoned her and her country has been destroyed by these fascist fucks. Time to lay it all out and give Serena a dose of reality. Nicole and Hannah are HER daughters, and June’s here to tell her that anything Serena may have cooked up to the contrary in her twisted little psyche, is an absolute fantasy.

She was never a baby momma, and nothing she does is going to fill the giant vacant black hole inside her; not a vast evil empire and definitely not June’s stolen daughter. June HATES her, and what’s worse is she’s determined to haunt her every step, either through her actual physical self or the insurmountable guilt of her collective acts, until both her daughters are free. As June lays it out, calling Serena cold and empty, her words echo around the cold empty pavilion.

Serena starts to feel a bit sorry for herself here, her eyes fill with tears and as June talks she looks like she’s about to crumble. But why would she care? Serena’s the resident ice queen and she’s been nothing but hostile and cold blooded to June since she arrived, with a few exceptions. Well it’s worth remembering that Serena doesn’t really have any friends, she’s just surrounded by fellow back-stabbing, pearl-clutching Gilead wives and creepy old Fred. As fancy as the Waterford’s may be, Serena Waterford is anything but a typical compliant Gilead wifey; she’s written books, she’s an academic, she’s smart, articulate and time and time again we see her attempt to establish some semblance of power equal to her male counterparts.

Serena constantly struggles between what she sees as the virtue of female servitude, and her desire to have the freedom that comes with gender equality. The fact is Serena admires June, her strength, her resourcefulness, her power, her ability to garner devotion and inspire true love. June is the embodiment of everything Serena wants and she gave it all up for shitty old Fred who doesn’t love her, and cut off her finger. “I should have put a ring in your mouth” Serena seethes, wishing she could silence the constant voice of liberty from tempting her. “I should have let you burn when I had the chance” says June, regretting she didn’t see the formation of Gilead coming, and destroy or at least escape it in time.

Technically Serena’s won this one, she makes her kneel in front of a legion of handmaids, but for the next season and a half she’ll be sporting that trademark June sized hole in her icy black heart.

Bad Luck

June has just been dragged into Gilead torture central, they’ve water boarded her, locked her in a box and pushed her friends off a roof. None of it worked. She’s not talking and something must be done. Nick’s been busy plotting and twisting arms behind the scenes, and lo and behold here comes Lawrence to try and talk some sense into her about giving up the Handmaid’s. During their friendly chat, Lawrence lets slip a bunch of commanders have become a tad unwell from being poisoned at a Jezebels June just happened to be in the local vicinity of. Oops.

“It’s bad luck” gloats June casually, they both know who’s responsible here. Lawrence has had the full measure of June before, the reckless sacrifice she is willing to make in order to get shit done, be it a plane load of kids, or a bunch of dead commanders. It’s not the first time she’s killed one and it certainly won’t be the last, in fact apart from Nick and Lawrence, there’s nary a commander alive that she wouldn’t slaughter given half the chance. Unfortunately she’s forgotten who else is at stake here; her own daughter. June has been running amuck confident in the knowledge that while Gilead would happily see her swing, it would never lay a pinky on a child. After all isn’t that what all this old timey fuss and bother is all about?

Apparently not, Lawrence informs her, as with any good regime it’s all about power and in Gilead’s case, children are the currency. Sadly this includes Hannah. At first she doesn’t believe him but unfortunately Lawrence is not in the habit of lying; Gilead have their own methods of illustrating their point no matter how painful. The next scene is one of the most heartbreaking and difficult scenes I’ve ever had to watch on this show. June is taken to see Hannah trapped in clear glass box under unyielding lights.

She scurries away from June, petrified by the sight of this shackled woman she barely recognizes. June’s at first startled. Shocked by the realization that her own child is terrified of her, and then gently she tries to pacify her, inching towards her and speaking softly. It’s like watching someone trying to soothe a scared animal.

Hannah looks at June with those huge, familiar, brown eyes, whimpering, cornered. And just like that, Gilead broke her.

Do You Understand Me?

This one is a call back to Season 1 when Serena went from 0 to 100 in the space of 10 seconds slamming June to the floor in a fit of rage because she hadn’t managed to get knocked up. Personally I think this was a culminative reaction, it’s not simply her losing shit over the absence of a baby. Serena loathes the ceremony, you can tell from her icy request for June to get the fuck out after Fred was done with her. Consider for a moment that June is not the first handmaid that has dwelt under the Waterford’s roof, and you may begin to understand EXACTLY how many times Serena has participated in this horrific ordeal. The fact is, she’s overjoyed she won’t have to go through one more incidence of watching her own husband trying to impregnate another woman. It’s absolutely grueling. In later episodes there’s a reference to the fact that Fred had previously inflicted extra-curricular activities on his former handmaid, activities that Serena had been aware of. When June arrives at the house Serena is quick to advise June that Fred is HER husband, unfortunately Fred wastes no time in dissolving the illusion that they are actually in love and proceeds to get handsy with June.

As Serena hurtles June to the floor and screams in her face there’s a bitter sense of not only rage but frustration. When will she be free of this nightmare? What ensues is a battle of wills and wits that June eventually wins. No matter, Serena never forgets….back to the plotting corner. In Season 4 June learns that Serena’s in Canada. Fucking Serena. Can’t even move countries without tripping over her it seems. Not only that but she IS in fact preggers and lo and behold it’s Fred’s. June is seething; had she endured all this shit for nothing? Locked in a room for weeks, raped, electrocuted, beaten, threatened. Time to pay Serena a visit. June, like everyone else has realized there’s nothing quite like bathing in Serena tears, it’s deliciously therapeutic. As June strolls into her cushy little “prison”, Serena is stupid enough to tell June that she “prayed for this”, assuming that simply asking for forgiveness will guarantee it. It doesn’t.

June’s come to deliver a message and she won’t be giving Serena anything, in fact she intends to take a proverbial pound of flesh while she’s at it. She’s seething with rage and in a display of biblical wrath, she lays down a good old fashioned curse on Serena’s unborn progeny. Serena deteriorates into a sobbing mess, the whole incident signaling the Handmaid Lite role that Serena was to undertake in season 5.

This phrase shows up again in season 5, this time with an almost forgiving tone after Noah is born. “Do you understand me?” binds these women together as their relationship shifts and grows throughout the seasons. June and Serena are almost mirror images and as such this asks not only if they understand one another, but also if they understand themselves.

[raedshadowlegends]

Why Lore Olympus and Miraculous Ladybug are the Same Thing but in Different Fonts

Good evening, good day, hello and howdy. I am INCREDIBLY bored and I'm here to go on a nonsensical tangent about two pieces of media that I hate and have dedicated a vast amount of my free time to. This is all in good fun and all of my rudeness is intended to be satirical and/or comical unless indicated otherwise.

Now just to preface, if you know me then you know how much I dislike Miraculous Ladybug. Folks in my circle got to watch as I descended into madness writing a 64k word review on season 5. So I've spent an uncomfortable amount of time dissecting this show.

I have also spent an uncomfortable amount of time engaging with the shitshow that is Lore Olympus. And now my ass is gonna try and compare the two because there's a lot of shit going on here.

None of this is going to matter and it's all in good fun. Like I said, I am bored. And sometimes it's fun to compare stuff you hate.

Now let the insanity ensue. FP spoilers and MLB s5 spoilers below the cut btw.

To get a major difference out of the way, Miraculous Ladybug is a tv show. Lore Olympus is a webcomic.

But mediums aside, these two things still have a lot in common. So for the first comparison, I'd like to talk about the insecurity in both properties.

Insecurity

What I define as insecurity in this context is a piece of media that is too afraid to commit or adhere to a certain tone, story, style, etc. In short-- they don't know what they want to be.

Insecurity in Lore Olympus is a bit more obvious than with Miraculous so I'm gonna rant about that first.

Lore Olympus just straight up does not have a story to tell.

There are too many random ass plots being added and discarded on a whim for it to be a coherent story. A good way to explain it is kinda like this-- In this episode of LO, something cool new and interesting is set up and you have to keep reading to see what happens! And then nothing ever happens. Or it happens because the audience won't let the author forget so there's a half-assed attempt to wrap up that plot point.

LO is so insecure about what it is, it feels the need to add more and more to make it actually something. But what it is is a hollow story that lacks substance. So all of these new random plot points are kinda like bandaid solutions if that makes sense.

There are so many unfinished/under-utilized plot points that if you were to count out each and every one, you'd probably keel over dead before you finished. There's that many.

It's too insecure to commit to any one of them in the grand scheme of things.

I don't know how coherent all of that was so here's a shitty tl;dr

LO doesn't know what it wants to say anymore so it's just adding more shit to keep the reader "invested."

Yeah ok I think that makes more sense. As for Miraculous...

God. I fucking hate Miraculous.

It's insecure as hell and you can smell that shit from ten miles away. It's insecure with it's premise, I think.

If it just kept to the simple "monster-of-the-week" formula, I do not think I would have written so many words on it's fifth season.

Miraculous (apparently) had a grander story to tell beyond the "monster-of-the-week revert back to the status quo each episode."

But we don't see any of that in full swing till season 3, really. Which is a long ass time to get the ball rolling imo.

It's a little jarring to see the show go from the stupid kid status quo adventures to a heavy and emotional story??? And I say heavy and emotional with the most sarcastic tone possible because the only emotion I feel watching this shit is rage.

Despite wanting to make that shift to a serialized type of show, Miraculous was too scared to stray from the successful status quo format.

To explain a bit more I wanna talk about my review of the season.

While it is mostly filled with rude jokes and incomprehensible jargon, I bring up a lot of points in it regarding the state of things.

One of those things being the show's hesitancy to move the story along.

The fifth season was supposed to be a grand final battle and a conclusion to this story arc. But it was too scared to commit to that so there's way more episodes that are nothing but shipping fodder.

There are many episodes that season that just... feel the same. Just with different coats of paint. "Marinette is trying to date Adrien but she's awkward and clumsy and oh no! shenanigans ensue!" We've been doing this for 8 years.

If they want to tell a serialized story then they need to grow some balls and cut the shit we've seen a million times before.

Their insistence to stick to the status quo makes the writing exceptionally weak downright painful to sift through. It was too scared, too insecure, to stray from its formula.

That's a part of the reason why I think the season is paced so bad. There's so little time spent on the interesting parts of the story because they had to cram in as much shipping shit as possible. So by proxy, there was less time to tell a good story.

Both of these stupid ass properties don't know what they want to be. There are too many things being added and not enough balls to commit to any of them.

Now with both LO and MLB, we can all agree that the writing is pretty shit. Nothing new there. But shitty writing often bleeds into the characters and making them shitty by exposure. Almost like a spill of toxic waste, infecting anything near it and turning into a rotten pile of sludge and chemicals.

So yeah, the characters are ass as well. But I only wanna complain about the female leads for both of these things.

But just to mention Adrien and Hades, they are pretty similar. I won't go into detail but the short of it is, "Character with deep seated issues that could have been interesting, has a lot of potential, but is just kinda garbage in the end."

At least Adrien Agreste isn't monetizing death and has a bunch of shades in his basement doing his work.

Persephone and Marinette

So I always say that I don't like using the term 'Mary Sue' to describe a character. But as it turns out, I use that term a lot. So I'm not gonna lie about that anymore.

These two characters are Mary Sues.

Persephone first

Oh my god I hate Persephone a lot. She just ticks every box on my list of 'THINGS I HATE IN A CHARACTER.'

Which is funny because her character had a lot of promise and heart in the beginning.

I related to her a LOT when I picked up this comic before my frontal cortex developed. I related with her character and her struggles. Especially after the Apollo incident. That really stuck out to me. It was so powerful.

But all of those tiny things I liked about her character were stripped away. Her ambition to study in school? Poof, gone. Her charm? Not charming anymore. That kindness everyone in the story gushes about? I don't even think it was there in the first place.

Truth be told, I do need to reread this comic because the beginning is fuzzy as fuck in my walnut-sized brain. But I can tell you for certain that the way she was in the beginning is not who she is now.

And this isn't the case of a character going through an arc and developing and changing. She's just getting worse and the narrative treats it as a GOOD THING.

"Oh yeah, Persephone trashed Leuce's apartment instead of talking to her husband like an adult. She threatened to kill this nymph but you're supposed to find that endearing." Like, what??? I will not have a story try and get me to believe this is a good thing.

If this were a good story, Persephone's actions in that episode WOULDN'T BE REWARDED. But she's rewarded with sex for being a fucking psychopath towards a random nymph. Wow.

And that leads into my next point-- she can never be in the wrong ever.

AOW? Retconned, not her fault. It wasn't her fault she killed all those people. It's actually Eris' fault because she gave her wrath.

Trashing Leuce's apartment? She was in the right for that, apparently.

Killing people in a famine during the 10 year banishment? That's never explored, we just know she killed people, burned a library or something, and probably shot the president too. But it's fine, she's the good guy.

And most recently (and potentially the most frustrating);

Persephone causes winter.

Not her mother, Demeter, no fuck the myths. Persephone is the one who caused winter actually. AND SHE DID IT ON ACCIDENT SO TECHNICALLY IT IS NOT HER FAULT CAUSE SHE DIDNT MEAN TOOOO UWU She also probably killed a million flower nymphs in that snap freeze but its ok it doesn't matter.

WHAT?

WHAT THE FUCK? CMON NOW.

She's not going to receive any consequences for anything because she is just too perfect.

She's smarter than Athena, prettier than Aphrodite, better than her mother in every way, all the boys want her, she has a perfect body, she's pink, her eyes go red when she's angy, she has the most power of everyone in the world, she's a super rare fertility goddess, she has all the gifts, all the blessings, and none of the development.

It almost feels like a wattpad fanfic.

"My mom doesn't like me so she sold me to one direction and then I became queen of the underworld."

Yeah, I don't like her.

And the same can be applied to Marinette!

A character who is so blatantly perfect, the narrative fucking BENDS TO HER WILL.

She's a creepy ass stalker and has done some weird ass things to get close to this random famous white boy and it's all excused.

It's literally excused.

There is a rule about character backstories. They are supposed to provide an explanation for a character's behavior, not an excuse for it.

In season 5, episode 14 - Derision, we see a bit of Marinette backstory. Some stupid bullshit happens and Marinette essentially says she isn't going to say 'I love you' to anyone unless she knows literally everything about them.

She says a lot in that stupid ass scene but it's basically just saying that all of her stalking and creepy behavior is justified. Which it is not.

Marinette can do no wrong. The narrative won't allow it.

She's perfect in every way. And even when SHE is in the wrong, characters somehow find a way to apologize to her. Either that or she turns a situation about someone else into one about her self.

She's just the perfect character who ends up saving the world.

Fuck having Chat Noir face against his dad in the finale, Marinette has to girlboss all over the place and save the day but then actually lose because the "plot" demands it.

Oh yeah and she's probably never going to tell Adrien that his abusive dad was the villain they had been fighting for months. Do you think that's a good choice? I'll give you a hint; it is not.

It makes Marinette look like a HORRIBLE character but it's painted in a way that makes the viewer believe this is the right decision.

I don't think I need to get into specifics as to why that is wrong and disgusting.

If I had to make a prediction for this show going forward, she isn't going to tell him. It's going to be forgotten and she's going to be painted as the hero.

No flaws, no accountability, nothing.

Garbage character. Fucking hate it.

Both of these characters will never see consequences for their actions. Their bad actions are either excused or retconned out of existence. And that's not how you write a character btw. If you want them to be real, give them consequences. The world should not revolve around them. They should have flaws and issues that should be explored. But apparently that's too much work.

It's funny how both of these properties claim to be about feminism and somehow completely miss what feminism is

Miraculous thinks that feminism means "Girl power! Girls are better than guys in every way!" And Lore Olympus makes no attempt to be feminist at all. Women hate other women, and they don't get a lot of opportunities to explore and express themselves.

I could get into the whole purity culture shtick but that's a shitty rant for another day.

I've been ranting about this for a while and I got the big ones out of the way, methinks. I do want to get into the creators of both of these things but that is also a rant for another day.

Cause if I got into that now, we'd be here a while.

So let me just make a final comparison and wrap things up here. I don't think any of this makes a lot of sense but I hate both things and I'm passionate about it so I'm gonna keep rambling.

Miraculous Ladybug and Lore Olympus never attempt to grow as stories. They are both scared to try new things and to stick with it. Most of the time this results in rushed writing and horribly done characters.

It's so clear that both of these things are desperate to be something great but they just can't put in the work to get there.

Honestly, they both feel like the product of a team of yes-men. Bad decisions and errors slip by WAY too often and it's kind of embarrassing.

These are popular pieces of media and they have the resources to be great but they just aren't.

They're both too insecure to make something of themselves.

It's honestly really sad and I don't want this for either of these things. I want LO to be stunning and retell the myth of Persephone with the respect it deserves. I want MLB to be a serialized show with focus on the lore. Sure it can start as episodic but it can ease us into a deeper story and intrigue the viewer. But I want it to flesh out the world and be an entertaining experience.

It's sad but it's the way it is.

Who knows, maybe MLB season 6 will be good. And maybe LO will have a 4th season and it'll fix all the problems it has.

I dunno.

Thanks for reading this incoherent nonsense.

[ep2nd]

@remy-a

Today's topic- the change in animation in LMK

I know like the majority of the Fandom has probably been sent to the ER after season 5 animation (or the emotion couldn't tell) but I think someone said that the animation slightly changed from like the Pilot to s 1-3, somewhere there, so like 3 different animation at this point, maybe??

Alright here's my thoughts

AGGAGAGAGGGGHHHHHHHH

Okay for real this time-

When I first watched LMK, I fell IN LOVE with the fluid motions, the active movement, the anime-style Influence, the exaggeration, the most random fun moments, pop ups, yse of environment, angles, camera movement, facial and body expression and other stuff I don't know the name of

Now as someone who's never watched Anime, please don't kill me, I don't exactly know what that looks like, but try going anywhere on the internet without tripping down the stairs and falling into the basement of ANIME

Also, I'm used to more rigid, beautiful backrounds, great lighting, or basic show animation. Such as Trollhunters, Amphibia, The Owl House, Big City Greens, Ninjago, How to Train your Dragon, Carmen Sandiego and others

So as you can see, this was new to me, and I fricken loved it

Now I can tell there definitely has been change from the Pilot to season 4, more refined, less sloppy

So, when season 5-

Oh dear, I love you Wild Brain, I really do, Ninjago and Carmen Sandiego WERE BEAUTIFUL

BUT AHHHHHH

I will say this, this is a new artstyle, they need practice, and I'm sure it'll improve, but this is not that time it's time to CRITISIZE GET THE RED PEN (maybe I am an English Teacher)

Remember what I said about what I love about LMK animation? Okay now throw it out the window into the Fire of FRICK THIS

Now I will say, they used some angles pretty well, such as using the environment to show emotion/tension, like when it would Pam out and something was blocking the two characters, from Wukong to Macaque to the poll in the Pagado and then a mountain between MK and Wukong near the end- look for its cool- someone pointed it out here on Tumblr can't remember name sorry

2nd, the expressions look really typical, like I miss the shot eyebrow from Wukong, or the the pathetic puppy eyes of MK, or the :3 for Mei, or the furious faces of Pigsy, the sparkly pure joy of Sandy, the chaotic gremlinness of MO, the evil Edit maker smiles of Macaque (I've seen your tiktoks) ALL THE LITTLE EXTRA THAT MADE THE EXPRESSIONS AND HUMOR/TENSION/EMOTION BETTER

3rd, the movements. Seen especially in the second episode when they escape. It's just, so basic running, like compare them running to MK's run in s2 running from the LBD and then when he ran in s4 away from the Ink scroll. Just so much more fear and dread. Also talking bout LBD, her voice actor? Phenomenal as always? Her movements and how they animate her? She seems more like a red headed doll with button eyes than the horror of something like FNAF(haven't played FNAF so can't really compare) what I'm saying is she seemed less huanting, a weary, fear-instilling, and bone-chilling(shut up let me pun) presence this time around, which really makes the scene less dramatic, but the camera angles, voice acting, and some animation still make it somewhat good.

Okay, this post is getting long and I can rant all day, and that's not even with me rewatching the show to pick it apart, someone probably already has good for them I'll look for it👍

In conclusion, comes of more dull, simple, rough, and rushed. S5 story, which has some problems, really hit deep in the last few episodes, mostly MK and Wukong, and if the studio beforehand continued animating, then I think it would have been a masterpiece, really sad to see the wasted potential

I know it's a new studio, but I wish they took more time to practice and learn, and maybe do it on a season that wasn't like the big reveal and end (I'd say a more happy season but let's be honest the Trauma train ain't stopping for a LONG TIME)

so, I guess I'll give it a 4/10, points for using the backround to storytell, still got some great angles, some funny bits here and there (the soldiers where a joy), action scenes were somewhat good, not a lot can't judge more, and pity points because I know they're still learning

[theoriginalbylergod]

What do you think about the whole Mike was only so protective of Will in S2 because El was gone thing? Do you think he’s going to ignore Will again in S5 and be super focused on El? I’ve seen recent discourse about this and it’s making me sad.

Anon, full disclosure I haven't seen this discourse recently. But I'm gonna take your word for it and tell you what I think. This is gonna be kinda long because I am incapable of being normal.

I think anyone who thinks that this is the case has a very very poor understanding of Mike. And also a poor understanding of literally the entirety of s2 and s4.

Mike cares about Will, and he cares about El. It's possible for him to care about both of them at the same time. The only reason he has a hard time balancing his relationship with both of them is because he's denying the true nature of his feelings for both of them. With El, he's trying to convince himself that his platonic feelings are romantic. With Will, he's trying to convince himself that his romantic feelings are platonic. It is my belief that he is fully aware of his romantic feelings for Will, and his lack thereof for El. But being aware of something and accepting something are two different things. However, by the end of s4 I think it's clear he's headed in the direction of acceptance.

So, about s2:

Mike is protective of Will because he's protective of Will. Simple as that. His fierce protectiveness of Will is established in s1.

We see it when Hopper is first questioning the boys about the last time they saw Will. Mike is insistent that he wants to be there. He doesn't just wanna help by answering questions, he wants to be out there actively searching.

We see it when he defends Will against the comments Nancy and Ted make about him at the dinner table. "All because Mike's friend got lost in the woods" "oh so this is Will's fault?" // "See what happens?" "What happens when what?"

We see it when he is the one to plan to go out to where Will's bike was found and search the woods.

We see it when he confronts Troy after the assembly and pushes him down

Mike being protective of Will in s2 is just a continuation of an already established trait. We just didn't see it in the same way in s1 because Will wasn't there. In s1 it was almost like Mike was being protective of an idea, but in s2 he's being protective of a real and tangible thing. He's not just protecting the belief and hope that Will is still out there, he's protecting WILL.

And that isn't because El is gone, his protectiveness of Will persisted throughout s1. El was there and he was still protective of Will. So El's absence cannot be a cause of his protectiveness of Will. However, the intensity of it was likely influenced by the events of the previous year, which would include watching El "die". But his behavior regarding Will definitely has more to do with what happened to Will than with what happened to El.

I think that if El was present in s2, he still would've been just as protective of Will. Because that's just who he is.

Now, about s5:

He's not going to ignore Will in favor of El. Anyone who thinks that definitely just blatantly ignored his entire s4 arc.

I mean, Mike and Will's s4 arcs were almost entirely dedicated to fixing the damage that s3 did to their relationship. Mike apologizes to Will for how he acted since he got to Lenora, but there's also a sense that he's apologizing for more than that. He says "this last year". He's not mentioning anything specific, but we know what happened. Will knows what happened. And although it still should be, and likely will be, explicitly addressed, this is a start.

I kinda think that the "cool" "cool" scene is when Mike starts to prove to the audience that he's worth Will's love. Because if s3 didn't happen, I don't think there would be doubts. If s2 Mike was also s3 Mike, I don't think anyone would be saying "Will deserves better". But s3 did happen. I love Mike, but he did mess up. He did treat Will like shit. And that should be acknowledged by the characters and by the plot. So when Mike apologizes for his behavior, and subtly addresses s3, and then Will decides that it's worth it to bring his painting - which is a declaration of love - it's a confirmation that this was a turning point for Mike. This isn't a fluke. Mike wants to be better, and he's trying to be better, and that's going to continue for the rest of the season, and it will carry into s5. This conversation, which marks a real change for Mike, includes the line "I have no idea what's gonna happen next. But whatever it is, I think it'll be easier if we're together. A team. Friends. Best friends." And then Will makes the decision to bring what is a plot device for byler's development specifically. Like it's pretty clear what behavior the plot is rewarding.

"I think maybe I was worrying too much about El... And I don't know maybe I feel like I lost you or something" is worth mentioning here because not only is this Mike explicitly stating that his s3 behavior was a deviation from the norm for him, but also the plot rewards this confession. It rewards Mike's vulnerability (although tentative) in this moment. Mike's vulnerability is returned tenfold in the van scene. And since we know Mike's vulnerability was rewarded, it only makes sense for the same to be true for Will's. The painting is the catalyst, Will's vulnerability (although veiled) has to be rewarded by the plot.

And then again, in their last scene together, Mike reaffirms that they're a team. Yeah, you can say that when he says "we will" he's referring to everyone involved. But he says this while firmly grasping Will's shoulder. He wants Will to know he's here, and he's not going anywhere. Yes, it's about everyone, but underneath that there's a sort of desperation for Will to believe him. He's determined to live up to what he said in Dear Billy. He wants them to be a team. So when he says "we" he means everyone involved, but there's an unspoken "you and me".

AND THEN AGAIN, in the final shot, they're together. But more than that, Mike makes a CHOICE to stay by Will's side. He's there because he wants to be with Will. Nothing is stopping him from walking to stand by El's side. But he doesn't do that. He stays with Will because he told Will they were a team and he meant it. I could go on and on about what this means from a storytelling perspective. About how there is obvious thought put into using this to tell the audience what to expect. But from a character perspective, thinking of Mike as a real human with his own thoughts and motivations, it's clear what he's thinking in this moment. They're facing something terrifying, and he knows exactly where he wants to be while he faces it, and that's by Will's side. This scene is undoubtedly foreshadowing for s5, and it's very reasonable to conclude that it means his priority will be Will.

TL;DR Mike was protective of Will in s2 because that's just what is natural for him. And his priority in s5 is going to be Will, because that's what s4 very deliberately set up.

[raayllum]

considering Rayla has absolutely buggered Aaravos’ plans multiple times in S6 if he were to posses Callum again do you think he’d go straight for killing Rayla?

Yeah she's been the last minute fuck up of Aaravos' plans now twice - which considering her "I am pretty awesome at everything... right up until the moment it really matters" choking at the finish line complex - is so on brand for them as a foils dynamic it actually drives me insane now that it's a parallel that could turn into a pattern. But post for another day

I think that if Runaan coin stuff leaves Ezran and Rayla at odds for a time in S6, wanting to save a brainwashed Callum may be what brings them back together in terms of that initial rift. As much as I want some broyals angst & fluff next season, I do think ultimately Rayla will have the bigger role to play in the possession plot line, simply because it's been set up that way, for a few years:

Aaravos specifically taunts Rayla with being unable to kill in 4x04 only for that to be precisely what Callum asks Rayla to do in 4x07. That's a plot beat / choice and set up that has to be paid off eventually

Furthermore, Rayla is the one emphasized more in said scenario. She's the one catching Callum and stepping toward him at first in 4x04, she's the one interrupting Callum with the mirror in 4x02, and she's the one to explicitly tell him he has another path in 4x07. They also cut to a shot with her directly when Callum says "he'll [...] hurt people I care about" which - Yeah

S5 actually furthered this thread of Aaravos-Rayla tethering. Whereas twice in S4 people think Callum is going to talk about Rayla when he actually talks about Aaravos, S5 switches it up with Callum's research into Aaravos being derailed by his devotion to Rayla (5x01: "Your elf friend is in trouble" / 5x04: "But you can trust me to stay focused" whereas Callum immediately loses focus because of her). 5x08, in which Callum is willing to help someone murder an Archdragon and to do dark magic in order to save her, likewise has the Callum-Aaravos intro.

Callum and Rayla watching a literal falling star together in 5x02, all of Rayla's associations of being light, etc.

This all ties together, then, of Rayla likely being the one to save Callum from the brainwashing (even if she also is, come hell or high water, what leads to him being brainwashed again in the first place - kinda like how Viren's love for his family doomed him at first and then also brought him back from the brink again in S5). This has been foreshadowed in a few ways / would be payoff for a few different ways.

Rayla being associated with light and Callum's agency (even if the light isn't always good and agency isn't always that simple, which is already in line with the flashing white cube in 4x04 and 5x08 as Callum is Aaravos' pawn). Also these lines from the book one novelization, which drive me crazy every time: “So they might kill you or they might save you,” Callum said. “Exactly.” Rayla smiled. “Just like me.” (—Book One: Novelization)

S5 puts Rayla's selflessness on full display, as she doesn't prioritize her parents once and instead Callum is the one who pushes forward on that front, even while acknowledging that "The world needs me. Callum and Ezran need me" still go basically hand-in-hand with her. While the "stronger together" is something she's learning (with practice) and is something that Callum may need to re-learn to a degree, Rayla's tendency to sacrifice hasn't been really dismantled yet. Her refusing to sacrifice something - in this case, a possessed Callum - by refusing to kill him (even if it puts the world at risk) would be a big, meaningful step forward for her, and is I think where they're headed.

On that note: S4 opened up an interesting character aspect for her with "we can't save everyone" regarding the drake in 4x05 that again, S5 has kind of left unaddressed for now, so Rayla and Callum both reconciling their identities - Callum, through reconciling the light and dark inside him and being brought out of possession (moon arcanum time?); and Rayla, being someone who can save people and depend on them without always having to sacrifice herself - could work really well if she's the one who breaks him free. Chains and keys and "That's your name right - Callum?" and "She's not the elf, she's Rayla" and "You're the destiny is a book you write yourself guy" and "That's what makes her a hero. That's what makes her Rayla" etc.

Finnegrin implies that Callum's love for Rayla makes him weak ( "All that talk about how love makes you stronger, but the second you see that elf girl in pain") and foolish. Impulsive, irrational. Opeli implies it to a much lesser degree, but that's still why she cautions Callum in 5x01. If "losing control" is synonymous with Rayla for Callum, it just means that Aaravos losing control of Callum probably will be as well.

Love is good and bad. Strength and weakness. The ocean and dark magic. Light and dark. Control and liberation.

I think we'll see all of that reflected in the possession plot line going ahead in S6.

[happilylovingchaos]

Hello, @lonestar-s5countdown.

Content warning: I trauma-dump for like 85% of this post. Sorry in advance.

(1) Which character death in 911 Lone Star hit you the hardest?

Okay, whoever’s behind the blog? First of all how dare you. (Both jokingly and devastatedly) Because This is what thinking on my personal tearjerkers and failures does to me👇🏼

3x08 is a visceral episode that always hits me in the jugular from start to end, followed by 3x09. The fact that Ronen method-acted his character’s physical agony from his drug addiction? I am horrified and awed at his dedication. Lisa was amazing with the little time she was given in the show’s 2017. And in the following ep, after TK’s scene at grief support, Rob’s monologue just… god, the melancholy when he tries to put himself in Gwyn’s situation, in the seconds before she was killed. And the surprise when Ginsberg shows him affection for the first and last time.

In my last year of high school, there was a video of the 1992 Olympics that my AP English class watched to boost our morale; it was an Josh Groban AMV that featured a track runner, Derek Redmond. He seemed to be pacing everyone behind him… until he started limping and trying to keep himself from tripping and falling on the field. The running had taken a toll on his ACL, and this injury allowed the rest of the racers to catch up. But his father, Jim, and his coach had rushed onto the track. They took each side of his sobbing self, helped him hobble through his lane… and then they let go, allowed him to limp across the finish line in last place.

It made me tear up then, but it took me years after I graduated to start working out what exactly I took away from the video. And I didn’t know what to think or even express it without sounding… ableist? Unsympathetic? Nihilistic? Some other synonym for “bitchy”, “mean-spirited”, “pathetic”, “pitiful”?

Then I remembered the AMV the first time I saw 3x08. Short version: TK was Derek Redmond and Gwyn was his dad, his Jim. I was projecting hard— an ACL injury and an addiction to opiates/ barbiturates/ substances don’t compare with each other, but one event often results in the other. And the portrayal (both in the show and also in reality) of leading an addict onto a redemptive path really isn’t as pretty as carrying an injured racer through most of their last lap. TK kicked and bitched and moaned from Queens to LAX, Gwyn refused to give an inch because doing so would enable and then kill him… and all I thought was “Why would she look for and help and care, beyond the simple fact that she is his mother? TK knows that he is loved, so what is he doing? How does he not think of her when he’s taking and withdrawing from drugs?”

I think it came from projecting some complicated feelings about my parents, and how I’d be able to cope with similar adversities without them. My dad would be pretty disappointed and angry in me if I’d fallen that low, but chances are he’d do what Gwyn did with less levity and more grousing. And… my mom is the first most hard-working person I know. She’d definitely take me to rehab, do what she could when my body tried to adjust without the addiction. But I wouldn’t— don’t think I could even try— looking at her. Because she would be prominent in my mind. If I looked, I would see both my shame and her own tired complicated version of it in her eyes, and it would kill me inside before withdrawal could. I was depending on my mom, using her, letting her help me and hurting her with weak defiance, because I knew she didn’t want me to suffer. And that additional fact would just make the shame all that more painful. I don’t know if that’s a sound interpretation of TK’s mindset, but… well, it all happened how it did. Gwyn let him go, he decided to proceed, I made my own negative interpretation of this scene and the Olympics AMV, and it was difficult to convey. There’s more to make peace with now, but for the sake of time I’ll stop right there.

(2) What is your favorite grief-related moment in the show?

My top 4:

Owen’s monologue and apology to Ginsberg (was it meant to be ambiguous as to whether Gwyn’s spirit remained in her macaw, waiting for Owen to make amends with her? Probably, probably not). And then he and Catherine find his feathered corpse. That was such an underrated moment killer.

The montage of everyone grieving for Tim. Though I wish he got more screen time to show how he got to bond w/ the 126, it seemed clear to me that Tim got almost-not-quite close to being accepted into the found family.

Related to the first point, Owen seeing Gwyn in 3x18 as he was recovering from the building collapse. TK got to grieve his mom more than once in the season, but I wasn’t sure how much Owen felt too until he brought up her accident to her spirit. She didn’t blame him, encouraged him to keep going forward...

Tommy’s rendition of “Being Alive” at Tarlos’ wedding. It celebrated living life, but I think I got why it was also considered a lowkey funeral. Especially Robert’s bit— that contextual dissonance and parallel to the song as Owen saves the brother he hasn’t known for long from an approaching “long goodbye”? On both of my rewatches, I was sobbing. And the second time hurt even more this year with the added experience of watching my grandmother’s health sharply decline and hearing her decide to die while she was still lucid and upright. She’d battled reproductive cancer four times throughout her life and didn’t believe she could endure a fifth just to stay with her family; in her words, living out one’s life in chronic pain and exhaustion wouldn’t be living. So… Robert’s death paralleled my grandma’s death— they lived full lives, and they got to die on their terms with support and love from their families (at least where TK was not made aware [yet] about his uncle’s death, my aunt and uncle were present when my grandma finally died before we stood vigil).

(3) Do you think there will be a character death in season 5? If so, any guesses about who it might be?

I again hope beyond hope: Do Not Kill Grace Ryder. Or Andrea Reyes.

(4) Which living character's death would destroy you the most?

Grace, especially if it’s used to explain/ excuse Sierra’s absence.

Owen, because he’s been such a catalyst for most of the show’s developments. And some psychopathic part of me is curious about how TK would feel about losing both of his parents— how much of his sobriety hinged on having both his mom and dad’s love in his life? How much of his physical health would be affected along with his emotional health? Could he utilize this pain in his life and career, or would the extra loss be too much for him? (I’m sorry, TK. 😞)

(5) Which character's childhood trauma do you think was most significant in shaping them?

I think Mateo’s childhood trauma is the most overt-ish. If his WandaVision-inspired dream is anything to go by, losing Marvin for his misguided arson changed him from an adrift and immature prankster to someone more withdrawn and hyper-focused, to a relatively healthy balance between both.

Sorry to cut off the post this abruptly… it’s getting late where I’m at. For @littlemissmarianna @trkstrnd @alrightbuckaroo @bisasterbuckley, this tag game’s open to y’all at this link! https://www.tumblr.com/lonestar-s5countdown/759338493467099136/this-week-we-have-some-grief-themed-questions-for

[astarkey]

I was tagged a century ago by the lovely @barbienheimer to list 5 unpopular opinions from 5 fandoms! Thank you babe, and I am so so sorry it took me this long to get around to doing this! 😘💖🙏🏽

1. From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series

I know I’m gonna get dragged for this, but this has been my opinion for years ever since I stepped foot in the fdtd tumblr fandom... The Kisa and Kate war thing is just ridiculous. And bashing people for having siding with either of them and saying they’re wrong to like either of them too is ridiculous when literally they’re fictional characters and these characters ain’t that deep. Like I feel like people take it too personally when the real person to blame is the writers who wrote them that way. I love both the characters and I feel like I’m the only one in the fandom that’s playing at an even field here lol because I know that both of them aren’t good and aren’t perfect, but I’m out here having fun imagining them being best buds going on a girls road trip with Kalinda, Dakota, and Maggie :p

2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Not gonna lie, ever since Dawn showed up in s5, I’ve always found her very, very annoying and never liked the plot of Buffy all-of-a-sudden having a sister.

3. Stranger Things

Definitely felt like they could’ve handled s4 better in the ending after they left Eddie in the upside down instead of just showing him dying and then flashing up “two days later.” Also, the Steve/Nancy thing they were pulling, I didn’t like it at all.

4. Kingdom Hearts

... Remember when the first game was about a boy who wanted to leave the island and travel to other worlds (disney worlds)? Yeah, that was a simple story. ‘Cause like right after that, I really felt like... that series became a cash cow for Square. Because right after that game, they came out with Chain of Memories for the Game Boy Advance and not the ps2, and then the sequel came out for the ps2, but then Birth by Sleep and Re:Coded and 358/2 Days came out for the psp and Nintendo DS, and then Dream Drop Distance for the Nintendo 3DS, KHX for mobile phones, 0.2 and KH3 for ps4, and I don’t even know what KH4 is gonna be on, but it’s like I just never liked that they wanted to have these games on consoles that nobody has?? Like it’s just something that has bugged me for 20 years, like why not keep it simple and have it on like a main console brand like playstation? Like imo, I thought that they were making up these other stories just to have them for specific consoles for like a cash grab instead of having a coherent storyline that makes sense. And with KH3, I was expecting Sora’s story to be over-over, not go back to how it was in the ending of the first game where Sora and Kairi are separated AGAIN, in order for the story to keep going. Like right when the news broke out about kh4, I was happy and excited, but I wasn’t all too thrilled because I feel like it’ll be this never-ending cycle where Sora’s story is said to end, but it will never end. I will say though that the fans that kept pushing the developers to finish kh3 and kept asking when will it be released, that wasn’t cool at all. Like they don’t know how much work the devs put into to creating a game, and for them to demand it, that wasn’t right and I felt bad for the devs.

5. Yellowjackets (SPOILERS AHEAD)

S2 was not as good as s1. I felt like everything was rushed to answer almost everything, while there’s still important things left unanswered. Natalie being the antler queen???? And then having her killed off while she was also a recovering addict was just a wrong move. She was literally the most sane character in this story, and now the most sane person is gone. I don’t even know if I wanna watch it anymore after that because she was the strongest character and my favorite, and I had high hopes for her. I was hoping s2 was all just a dream because it all felt like one big joke to me. There was no mystery, no thrill, nothing that left me hanging wanting more like s1 did where there was one mystery after the next that doesn’t reveal itself. And I also didn’t like the Misty/Walter thing, like it was cute, but it also got on my nerves idk how to explain it lmao 😂

I felt like I was rambling through this 🤣 But yeah, those are my unpopular opinions.

Tagging (no pressure of course!): @bloodychamber, @camiladnne, @bellamuertes, @justjstuff, @blondiest, @ondinaaa, @alwaysupatnight, @lilmissuncreative, @charlottesmatthews, @chronic-ghost, @bonnielass23, @weloveachother, and anyone else who wants to do this! ❤️

[aprillikesthings]

I have flipped the laundry and put the towels away and re-made the bed, I have made dinner and done a load of dishes, it's time for more She-Ra!

s5 ep4 Stranded

but first do you want to see my dinner

Rice Cabbage stir-fried in light sesame oil w/ garlic A couple of eggs Sesame seeds

SO SIMPLE but so good!!! Seriously this turned out perfect. God damn.

BUT TIME FOR CARTOON

Adora: "Let me get this straight: Catra saved you from Horde Prime?"

lol

pfft

Man I am not going to screenshot all the things her face does in a few seconds, but remember waaaaaay early on when I was comparing their facial expressions when Catra and Adora hear each other's names, to that scene in Arcane where Vi realizes Caitlyn is into women, and Vi's face says a TON of things in 1.5 seconds? Adora's face here goes on a JOURNEY: confusion, shock (as shown above), anger, something I can only describe as "well I obviously have to rethink some things"/"maybe I've been wrong about her this whole time", some kind of fatigue tinged with regret, and then she slides down the wall to sitting.

It's just really well done.

Also I know there's a ton of videos showing the progression between Catra and Adora in the last season and I am forcing myself not to watch them or any of the meme videos until I AM DONE WITH THE SHOW because I don't want to dilute the emotional impact of watching them when I get to them.

Anyway Glimmer goes to apologize for the shit she did to make everything go to hell on Etheria, but then the ship goes bumpy bump and stops moving. But yeah Bow is keeping his distance from Glimmer right now.

So Glimmer sobs in Adora's arms instead. And the ship goes bumpty again. Entrapta says it's because they're out of fuel crystals but there's a planet with some nearby.

Aw there's a lovely interaction between Scorpia and Swift Wind back on Etheria.

Back to Space:

I've just noticed it looks like a ship anchor, which I assume is deliberate, since it would be Horde Prime's "anchor" on a planet.

Yeah Bow's still mad about it.

I love Entrapta (she's talking about how the old fuel crystals are probably fused to the engine by now)

LOL THE SHIP (Darla) RESPONDS "I do not feel pain" and Entrapta immediately smiles again "oh okay!"

pFFT

she WAGGLES HER EYEBROWS AHAHAHAH

*looks at Adora* *looks at Vi* *thinks about how I've wanted to cosplay both Catra and Caitlyn*

hm. *side-eyeing self*

EDIT: ALSO THEY BOTH WEAR RED JACKETS LOLOL

Anyway Adora fell in a hole

Glimmer: "Just stay put, we're coming. We'll have to find another way down." Adora: "I think I see a light. I'm gonna go towards it." Bow, freaking out: "Don't go towards the light!"

LOLOL

And Swift Wind does a little story-telling into the sky about how things are going on Etheria. It's cute.

And Adora gets in a fight with other people looking for fuel crystals.

They're also from a planet Horde Prime destroyed. Also it turns out the crystals are nearly impossible to get to.

awwww

and then "he has to pay for what he did! And he--he has someone on his ship. Someone I--" and she looks back and forth and then stands up straight again. "We're stopping him! Period."

BAHAHAH

"if your friend is with Horde Prime, it's already too late"

"I mean, she used to be, but that was a long time ago,"

"but then she saved Glimmer. And maybe that means there's still good in her, and now, I don't know, it's--"

BAHAHA (remember when that was a relationship option on facebook? "It's complicated"?)

(lol I accidentally closed the tab and had to reopen it and it wouldn't let me take this without the rating???)

Anyway they're all like, Nobody stands up to Prime and survives.

They all head out to find the fuel crystals but there's a bunch of earthquakes and they have to GET THE FUCK OUT, and as their only way out starts to collapse--

Adora manages to make a way out!

Entrapta is like, that was She-Ra, obviously

ANYWAY there's some lovely derring-do and Glimmer gets the fuel crystals, Bow saves her life a couple of times over, and everyone makes it out of the cave before it collapses. Then the star kids (who haven't seen magic in centuries) offer to join the cause.

Back on the ship, Glimmer does an amazing apology speech to Bow:

Glimmer: "Look, I know you're still mad at me. Maybe you'll be mad at me for a really long time. I deserve it. And maybe--maybe we'll--maybe we'll never be friends like we used to be. But I'm not going to stop trying to make it better. I made a mistake with the Heart of Etheria. I should have listened to you, and I'm sorry. You get to be mad, for as long as you need to be. But I'm not going anywhere. And when you're ready, I'll be here."

And Bow accepts her apology

And Adora watches, and then turns and looks out the window

Are you thinking of someone you'd maybe like to reconnect with? To maybe forgive? hm?????

LOL I SPOKE TOO SOON Bow and Glimmer notice the way Adora is staring into the stars and ask if she's okay

"and I know Catra was our enemy and she's done a lot of bad things, and hurt a lot of people, but--

;_;

the poor thing. she's so torn up about it.

Glimmer: "Whatever you need to do, I'm with you." Bow: "Then let's do this. Best Friend Squad style."

And there's a group hug.

AND SWIFT WIND FELT ADORA DO THE SHE-RA THING even if only for that few seconds, wooo!

End of episode! Roll credits!

OH GOD THE NEXT ONE IS SAVE THE CAT

AAAAHHHHHHH okay first I gotta flip the laundry again

[brainrawt]

what ep do you think the jordayla love confession will be in and how do you anticipate it going down

I hypothesise very little about Jordayla and I'm sure I'd be wrong every time— throughout s5 they’ve been constantly surprising me! 

I’m hearing the Twitter rumblings that it’s going to be 5x14. 

We have always known Jordan to be extremely forthcoming and he is extra appreciative of her right now, so I think it’s shaping up to be him saying it first, but personally I have always been team Layla. I just love their love story from her POV.

I could see it being as simple and natural and sweet as them just being together and just saying it –not a big deal, even. Watching them the last few episodes, it could’ve fit in any of their scenes! 

By not a big deal, I mean obviously a very big deal to me. 

The writers are so careful with Jordayla and care for them so much. They literally made up a red carpet plot just so Jordayla could get a pretty outfit and backdrop for their second kiss. (Having typed that, I just realised we’re getting the same for 5x14 👀) 

And they’ve almost been avoiding the L-word (Do you have feelings for me?”/ “The guy I have feelings for…”/“Does she know you’re crushing on her brother?) in a way that’s so intentional. Generally in teen dramas, “I love you”s come very quickly. Spencer realised his feelings for Olivia for the first time ever, and immediately said it. When Jordan took Simone on the field, he said it. Both of these were in the first confessions. Whereas with Jordayla, in their first confession, Jordan said “I have feelings for you, Layla.” They have paced it so that LOVE is its own stage for them, so it's really going to mean something of its own.

That’s the only thing making me think it’s not coming just yet. Maybe the writers have ticked off “gone public” as the current relationship stage and are holding onto the love confessions a little bit longer. But how much more in love could they be?! 

What a mess this post was. I guess my answer is no idea but I trust the writers and am looking forward to it so much!

[addictedtostorytelling]

That Lucy Knight ER post/analysis ... It's soooo good. And sooo much more heartbreaking.

ER is one of the best shows I've ever watched, with so many good stories, big and small. But Lucy...even after all these years, when I read, hear or think about ER, I think about Lucy dying. It was so devastating, but such moments, such tragedy made this show so damn good!

Well, done!

hi, anon!

thank you for your kind words! i'm glad you liked the post. is it wrong to say (given the subject matter) that i had fun making it? ;)

in all seriousness, i am right there with you on still being devastated by lucy, even going on twenty-three years later now.

i had watched er during its original run from its premiere in 1994 (when i was seven) but for the first several seasons was too young to really understand much of what i was seeing. it was only around the time that s5 started airing that i was finally old enough to really comprehend the larger stories, beyond just the simple patient-care interactions.

lucy, as a kind of audience surrogate, was the character i latched onto at that point—the first character i ever truly fell in love with.

her death in s6 honestly changed the chemistry of my brain.

i was thirteen years old at the time, and i couldn't stop obsessing. without realizing that that's what i was doing, i wrote fanfic and meta about it. rewatched old episodes—lovingly recorded on vhs during the summer rerun season—and had my little mind blown as i realized that so many of her early scenes suddenly seemed to have been imbued with increased significance in light of her eventual death. i turned the story over and over again in my mind, thinking through all of the myriad ways it broke my heart.

looking back, i learned so much about the function of tragedy and the structure of tragic narratives from (over)thinking so much about her character arc and its culmination, so it seemed only fitting to pay tribute.

making that post, i was reminded of how many moments there were during s5 and s6—even beyond the ones i included in the set—that foreshadowed her ultimate fate.

in a lot of ways, hers is a circular or even chiastic narrative, replete with callbacks and repeated themes, everything seeming to work together to bring her to one inevitable end.

it's almost hard to believe that her death wasn't planned from the beginning, given how tight those story elements are with her.

she is very much a girl marked to die from the beginning.

it's a tribute to her and the writing of er that even over two decades later, her death still hits home in the way that it does not only for me but for so many fans.

it's truly one of the most memorable stories in the entire series.

[eerna]

Sorry if this is a bit long but I do really like coming here to talk about our latest fiction gripes lol. Ok so I totally agree with you about tdp and now s5. It's definitely something that started back in s4 but I was still trying to be optimistic. The show is as wide as an ocean but about as deep as a puddle recently. Pick a lane on how mature you want the show to be writers? I love kids shows i do (I loved Nimona), and I love adult fantasy animation as well (Vox Machina). And yes no show is without flaws, but guess what, the thing that they both have in common is GOOD emotional writing and choices that don't make the audience feel stupid when watching it. The dragon prince would have been amazing if it started out as a darker more mature adult show like vox machina. But it instead WAS written with the emotional stability and thought provoking messages of being for all ages that Nimona has (seasons 1-3)! I think the time jump kinda screwed with the pacing and the writers thought older characters must mean a little less fart jokes, more horses getting eviscerated (that was something I was THROWN with lol). But writing depth is not that simple obviously, I do like the more mature fight scenes and villains(the sea captain was actually pretty cool and I wish we could've gotten more of him) but just constantly jumping back and forth between the childish schneagains of claudia and her boyfriend and then back to something more dangerous and "scary" is not a good way to try to bring in every audience age group. I'm kinda tired of the 3D art too? Imagine if the characters were animated in 2D just like all of the fantastic 2D backdrops and end credit art. Oh well i guess. I am curious what their "hard hitting" writing will turn into (even though I think you're right in that it alienates the very young audience that made the show successful?). I just wish I could go back to feeling the show gave me back in the first 3 seasons, because I still love the characters themselves.

I forgot to add cause I just thought more about it lmao. The overall Satisfaction is what is missing from tdp in these past two seasons. In seasons 1-3 what was really fun to watch was the character growth, Rayla and the boys learning to trust one another and what got everyone into this situation in the first place. Now its kinda stalled and it sorta feels like its more filler than giving us the meat we so desperately want. Like what happened in the two years Rayla was away? What are aaravos's more grand scale plans? Why do they refuse to touch more on Raylas parents and Runaan in the coins?Etc Etc Etc But nooo give us another season of slow filler and fart jokes just to get to one goal (that they honestly could have done by the middle of the season) and than we're just left with a WELP SEE YOU NEXT YEAR. Ummmm yeah thats about it off the top of my head lol

No worries, my asks are always open to ppl ranting about fiction~~

Awwww I am so so sorry you were disappointed, but yeah your gripes are valid! I have it way easier, I realized I was just charmed by the setting and none of the seasons were for me actually, but I can imagine how it must feel to want more of something you've enjoyed and only keep getting bad versions of it. You're so right that the plotline of arc 2 feels like filler- we cut back to the characters and they are STILL in some random woods STILL talking about the same stuff STILL being boring and then we do it for 18 episodes. This is where I think the show would profit fantastically from "monster of the week" format, where yeah we spend 18 episodes traveling but every episode or two delivers SOME form of a narrative conclusion. It doesn't even have to be literal monsters if they think that's too childish, it could be any kind of short, self contained stories that add up to a larger story, kind of like how a proper cartoon aimed at all ages should be lololol. Your last bit of ask 1 depicts how I feel perfectly - "I wish I could go back in time and feel the way I did during the first few seasons, also I wanna see what is soooo dark and mature that kids can't be exposed to it".

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here bestie and, well, that episode happened. I have a lot of thoughts, that I'm sure we'll get to, but if I had to summarize I'd say KR looked at the only successful thing in S5 (meaning Eddie's storyline) and in all her originality decided to do it for Buck, but put it through a half cutoff funhouse mirror and we got THAT. I'll have more to rant about later but for tonight let's take a break and enjoy wedding planning shenanigans over on LS (please LS, i need some fun). Good luck 🍹🍸

Guuuuuurl. This episode. I haaaaate that we got TOP TIER acting, from Oliver and Peter especially, and some really cool framing and camera angels and an interesting *concept*, and then the WHOLE episode was let down at every turn by the writing not making any sense and contradicting its own narrative within the episode! Like, pick a lane! It was so weird!

I am READY to sit and watch LS with zero thoughts and just relax because damn. How are you going to take something as simple as "Buck has a found family that loves him and doesn't need validation from his parents or to save others to be worthy of love" and bungle it THAT badly? Add to that the incompetent twitter girlies who don't know the difference between 85 people leaving a fan rating on the fan rating website, and official TV viewership ratings showing how many people tuned in (hint! It wasn't the Buddie stans that didn't show), plus the typical you're stupid if you don't Get It crowd, and I am tiiiiiired.

Can we all just admit that the cast is great but the showrunner is shit and consequently drags everything down?

ANYWAY

Yes, time for LS fun, wedding planning shenanigans and I'm gonna go work on a puzzle and then sleep because this time change fuuuucks me up. Can't wait to hear the rest of your thoughts!

[tellytuber]

12 Shows of 2022

The new (and sometimes old) series and seasons that made my year.

Law & Order (S1-12) + Law & Order: Criminal Intent + Law & Order: Los Angeles I started off the year catching the early (and Best) seasons of the mothership via cable reruns; got Peacock for CI; and then returned midyear when I was half-gone from covid and blearily endured the commercials of what was then IMDBtv for the very LA edition. While I am not technically a "geriatric millennial," I am a millennial and with geriatric interests. For me, peak television has become something that I can either focus on fully or play in the background while I do other things and be equally thoroughly entertained. That is why this franchise has become my number one comfort show.

Shrink + Michael: Tuesdays Thursdays Grouping these into one because I just so happened to watch one immediately after the other, and because they're both about moderately adept therapists who are codependent with their patients. They are also both incredibly funny! These got the biggest laughs out of me than anything else all year. (A shame I didn't get to them till December.) While they are both hilarious, each manage to sweep into very heavy topics and deep emotion without toppling over. #ReviveShrink

Big Love While I’m pretty sure I’ve watched more L&O than anything else this year, I’m deeming 2022 the year of sister wives. In my post marathon blues, I went surfing on HBO and turned on Big Love (after once trying the pilot a while ago and being turned off by its HBO-ness.) But this time it hit me right in the late-00's cable nostalgia. The melodrama, the humor, the cast - Mary Kay Place! It's a (new) classic for me.

Grand Crew (S1) With its simple if derivative set-up, this delightful sitcom got better and better every episode! The ensemble is funny and charming, and the stories silly and fun. Thank god it snagged a renewal and will return because I will need my weekly fix of Carl Tart in between his Comedy Bang! Bang! appearances.

American Auto (S1) At base level, it's just another workplace comedy with a pseudo diverse cast. And the setting of the executive floor of a car company is quite baffling. (It's not even a riff on Telsa. Neither is it too concerned with Detroit.) But it all came together during the commercial episode: During which the team spiral in heated disagreements over how to shoot a commercial that is appropriately inclusive but not too inclusive. Funny! From then on, I started to watch it from a new angle. The ensemble itself is a focus group - and every week is a new satirical debate on the weird standards of contemporary ethics. The show is at its best when it’s everyone in the conference room talking over each other in the voices of their respective demo. I still don't necessarily like it - But it does get me thinking. (About all that I wish it was!) But honestly, I'm only really including this on the list because of the perfect Cyrus played by Michael Benjamin Washington who is never not incredibly funny. He was my favorite character/performance of the year.

Severance (S1) Part Office Space, part Fringe, with the style of Legion. This trippy, beautiful, and exciting drama was a dream to watch! Especially since I watched most of it in the very very early morning with a cup of coffee - the very best way to watch something creepy.

Claws (S4/final) While, the finale was one of the worst I've ever seen (Niecy Nash's scenes were almost exclusively Facetimed!) - This show will go down as being one of the most iconic. The outfits, the colors, the insane swings. It was never not outrageous and gonzo. Did it always work? I don't know. But they had a Vision and Went For It! It was always a wild ride, and I had fun.

Better Things (S5/final) Every year Better Things airs, it automatically gets a spot on my list. And this is the last time. A beautiful show so full of humor and love and art and great music and lots of food.

Search Party (S5/final) Every season comes with a genre turn. And when this one turned, I didn't want to believe it. It wasn't until it turned to black without the Actually It Was All A Dream rewind I was expecting did it set in. I have yet to rewatch it, but when I do I'm sure I'll love it (as my experience with S3). But I do understand it. For Dory, who began the show adrift and yearning for a meaning to her life - to enact some sort of change, to literally change the world is a fitting end. (For me, S4 is the real ending and this is a bonus season.) Either way, it still earns a spot in the TV Hall of Fame. A crazy comedy with twisty mysteries. Extremely sharp and biting, confident in its hipsterness, unafraid of being unlikable - An ideal close to my heart.

Sister Wives (S17) As Elizabeth Laime so astutely put it in the Sister Wives spin-off of Bitch Sesh: There is no other show in which less time was spent making it than time spent watching it. Save for the very beginning (of the end) when Robin joined the family, nothing has happened. (Save for The Catfish, and even then nothing actually happened.) But all that nothing was for the cameras. Big Happy Family propoganda. And this was the season it all fell apart. Now, too much is happening! Cody-19! Christine leaving! Robin wants to talk! Janelle needs a truck for her trailer! (To Cody's dismay) Meri is also there! The knife to the kidneys! As I said before: This was the year of the sister wives. Incredible television.

Evil (S3) The beginning of this season had a lot of splitting up of the trio, which bummed me out. But it made the eventual reunion of the team that much more satisfying, and each of their individual crises of belief more affecting in their isolation. Every season is more weird, more tense, more absurd. I love it so very much! 

My Liberation Notes Every year I have one thing that completely consumes me. This year it was My Liberation Notes. It captured me from the very first episode: A story about a introversion and anti-socialism, when to hold on to it and when to let it go. A story about adult siblings, reared together yet all very different people seemingly in different worlds. So many existential ruminations. Plus an exceedingly slow teasing romance, barely one in the conventional sense, but deeply so as a connection of souls. All about life and its disappointments and mundanity, what beats you down and how you change, how people change you and how you change others.

[starlight-time-machine]

Week in Review

10/15/2023 – 10/21/2023

Sunday

My friend and I were both hype for the House S4 finale so we hopped on it when we both woke up. I think this is my favourite season finale in House, since it was the only one I remembered other than the series finale. The reveal was definitely shocking when I first watched it, and Wilson flexing his emotional acting is fantastic. Then we jumped right into S5, and the Hilson break-up angst is fun.

Manga Sunday time: MamaYuyu was fine, I kind of expected Escaba’s villainous turn since they emphasized his openness so much, but maybe they’ll do a double heel turn back to him being a good guy. The story was starting to shake up into the tried and true “group of young people (two guys and a girl) fight monsters” structure so at least there’s some movement happening here. I’m pretty close to dropping the manga as a whole, though.

Undead Unluck was great, I love when they pull out these big moments. Seeing Fuuko jump into surgery is fun, and seeing Rip and Latla do a three legged race I mean fight is both funny and heartwarming…it’s a clear evolution of Rip’s arc from a doomed loner shouldering the burden to someone who has to depend on others. I think Undead Unluck’s storylines have always been like, a pure distillation of shounen hype. It’s like the platonic ideal of characters who do their best and work together and better themselves for the people they care about, which could get boring if it weren’t for how genuine the writing feels and the interesting worldbuilding and the simple fact that it’s not all just teenage boys having these emotions but a variety of characters.

(Speaking of Undead Unluck, they just announced who the seiyuu for Mui is going to be and it’s not Homoto Akina or Liyuu…I’m sure Ishikawa Yui is a good fit but man…one of my favourite parts about reading Undead Unluck was seeing the little bits of Chinese and being amazed at how real it was…oh well…)

Ichinose Family is finally picking up a bit for me. After reading this and Takopi, I think Taizan 5’s brand is very much “strong premises and fantastical and intensely emotional and roundabout ways of getting to a simple and somewhat cliché truth.” So you’re telling me the various bouts of amnesia and dreaming and waking and running away would eventually lead the characters to realize that they need to face their problems and that the perfect family doesn’t exist and you just have to work at it? Wow there was no way I could’ve seen that coming. And to be honest, I kind of don’t buy that they’re such a wreck of a family to warrant all this prelapsarian desperation in the first place, but I guess it just speaks to their naïve mindsets. I am looking forward to the confrontation between Mom and Dad next week, though. I’m more interested in their relationship as a couple than the kind of played out familial relationships we’ve already seen between the other family members.

Aww the Dandadan chapter was cute, little Rin is adorable and it’s fun that the catboy in her fantasy is still a vampire catboy.

Marriagetoxin is fine, I’m still rooting for Kinosaki to be the endgame candidate for Gero but their relationship hasn’t progressed much lately beyond advisor and advisee. But since we already have canon lesbians, my hopes are still alive. The thing with Marriagetoxin that bugs me a little (aside from the action sequences that I literally could not care less about) is that I can feel the creator’s modern sensibilities in writing these female love interests and giving them real personalities and motivations and making sure they don’t end up just as damsels in distress (and I appreciate that), but when it comes to the actual romance it regresses to middle schooler levels of “oh no how do I talk to a girl.” Which, okay, I can accept that for Gero since it’s a part of his character, but it gets a bit tiring when even the cool ikemen love interest gets all blushy and embarrassed too. I’m sure people find it cute and moe and endearing but it just does nothing for me, and I wish we’d move past this general shyness around romance and, god forbid, kissing, but I guess I shouldn’t expect too much from a magazine aimed at teens. And comparing something to Chainsaw Man wouldn’t be fair, so I won’t. I guess I’m just wanting for a little more romantic progress instead of introducing new love interests and going through the cycle of Gero helping them and them becoming fond of him again, because it’s starting to feel like Marriagetoxin is spinning its wheels.

As expected, shady looking private investor guy has joined the team in Magilumiere. It’s fun seeing Sakuragi confidently chase her ambitions – she’s come a long way since chapter 1. I’m curious about the sudden focus on glasses lady whose name I can’t remember. I wonder if she’s just a conduit for information and will report back to Sakuragi and co about what she’s learned, or if this is hinting at her getting a storyline…

The latest Akane-banashi chapter was fine, I’m just not particularly emotionally invested in any of the characters and why they do rakugo. But I suppose it would’ve been hard for any rakugo centric series to capture my attention after Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu did it first. But I stay with Akane-banashi to learn about rakugo stories I don’t know, so I’ll stick with it until the end.

The One Piece chapter was good, I don’t have much to say other than I never expected to get a backstory flashback for Kuma of all people, but it looks like it’ll be pretty important.

It’s great to get another SpyFam chapter, and I always love the Damian/Anya ones. Damian’s shoujo filter for Anya is a fun visual gag, and the whole chapter wrapped up in a wholesome and funny way. I enjoy these comedy slice of life chapters as much as I do the spy or assassin mission chapters, but I do wish we could use them to progress a bit more in the social games that also play a part in Loid’s schemes – though I suppose we get an indication of Damien’s deepening crush on Anya so there’s that.

I can’t believe that Cipher Academy is something I get to read every week. It’s just so so so so good. So good, in fact, that I feel the need to go page by page and talk about all the things I noticed. I liked that they kept the detail of Iroha’s barrette getting chipped in the explosion, I like that we’re finally looking deeper at the bits of Iroha’s backstory that we saw in the Code Battle with Tayutan, Iroha’s backstory is as tragic as I expected, and I realized that his five barrettes design feature is to keep up a long strand of hair…perhaps to remind himself of his past? Amvicious is great, she has the same energy as Boku no Hero Academia’s All Might. And as I looked at her design again just now I’m realizing that perhaps Iroha saying he liked their buff instructor in the Code Battle wasn’t just a deflection but because she reminds him of Amvicious, another tall, muscular, and light haired girl… And I like that Iwasaki drew stairs in Iroha and Koshibai’s shadows to indicate them moving down through the floors. I LOVE that double spread between Tayutan and Kubinashi, and I like that they’re thinking along the same wavelength… And I love that Cipher Academy has such an attention for detail that it’s really rewarding to read and pore over and make your own connections because they don’t always relay everything clearly or right away… God I love this manga.

I checked out the first few chapters of You and I Are Polar Opposites because I saw people say that it was good and unconventional, and it’s certainly cute but it’s just not for me.

Monday

Went over to my friend’s house and watched an episode of House, then went home and watched even more episodes of House over Discord. The Hilson road trip to House’s Dad’s funeral was great, and I suspect that’ll be the highlight of the season as the overall narrative descends into House/Cuddy’s blossoming relationship.

Tuesday

Almost forgot it was Tuesday until I saw CSM screenshots on Twitter and wow, what a chapter. I’m excited to see the Death Devil’s design.

More House marathon – we’re trying to cram as much in before our lives get busier. The agoraphobic patient was an interesting challenge, and in the episode after that I’m happy to see Foreman finally get a win on his own.

Wednesday

Nothing today lol just YouTube and Picross.

Thursday

Does it count as watching if I slept on the couch while my friend watched the newest episodes of Our Flag Means Death?

Friday

Also nothing today – I’ve fallen down a deep video game rabbit hole.

Saturday

Okay I’m feeling bad about how empty this Week in Review is because of my gaming addiction (to be fair, I also did some work), so I’m forcing myself to watch some anime today (maybe force is a silly word for watching anime, which literally requires next to no effort on my part…but I’m four years behind on my anime list for a reason). Perhaps I’ll start Anime Saturdays as a counterpart to Manga Sundays…that’d be a cute way to bookend these things.

I started with Kusuriya no Hitorigoto because it was the one I was most anxious about. I fell into this series just a few months ago and it immediately became one of my 10/10 series (the first manga to ever be so good that it got me to read the original light novel), so hearing that it was getting an anime was both exciting and nervewracking. I didn’t expect like, sakuga levels of quality for this sort of story, but I at least wanted more than just a bare bones adaptation, especially with a sumptuous setting like the Rear Palace. So far I’m pretty pleased with the setting design and the music, I’m such a sucker for Chinese instruments. I really love the background art here, all the beautiful colors breathe so much life into the show. Maomao is also very cute, especially when she’s chibified. And I love Yuuki Aoi’s voice performance.

I’m a bit confused about the opening though – I suppose they wanted to establish some things about Maomao’s life before she got kidnapped, but I feel like it just messes with the pacing. Kidnapping is a pretty hard event to try to play off as a comedy beat to match the relatively light-hearted tone of Kusuriya, which is why I think the original story just skips over it. If anything, I would’ve kept in Maomao saying goodbye to her dad, getting distracted by medicinal plants, and then a quick cut between the kidnapping and the three month timeskip. There was no need to show the consorts so early when Maomao explains their dynamics within the palace later on anyway – but now I’m rambling.

I lied, I’m back to complain about that tiny cut of Gaoshun informing Jinshi that the consorts are fighting, I feel like that was also completely unnecessary…these are just tiny nitpicks, sure, but they’re bugging me since I love this series so much. I guess the pacing of Kusuriya was always one of the more unique things about it, since long swathes of time can pass very quickly between scenes, so it was a challenge to adapt that to a fixed time medium like anime…but hmmm it’s just the little things. Like I’m tripping over rocks while I watch.

Next up is the new SpyFam episode, which starts with some nice footsteps-on-wood ASMR. And wow, I’m impressed by the actual English text happening in the show, I wonder if they had a consultant or looked at the official English translation of the manga. I also liked the shadow of the window frame like a cross or a cage on Perkins’ face as he realizes he’s been caught, now that’s subtle imagery. The story makes me so sad though…

I spoke a little too soon on the subtle imagery. The blue sky and sunlight hitting the top part of the apartment building as the story wraps up was a bit too on the nose, guys. The Bondman episode was super cute, I loved the retro style. And I loved the watercolor style of the omake – I’m glad that they get to experiment with the sillier parts of the show.

Oh hell fucking yes, every time I watch a new episode of Undead Unluck I just sit in awe of how much the show gets the manga. The direction is fantastic as always, with really new dramatic compositions unique to the show. I love that silent snippet of Gina and Andy in the cold open, it just does so much to establish her character and the scope of the Union’s operation. The quick cuts for comedy and the motion through the ocean and the sky…god I feel genuinely emotional watching this show.

Oh my god Fuuko’s little “nya” as Andy pushes her out of the grass…

I love that the first half of Undead Unluck is like, Andy and Fuuko’s romantic worldwide getaway on top of the typical shounen battle fight a boss stuff. Just this one little addition of pathos adds so much dimension to the story.

Ooo, now we’re getting some Russian…I wonder how accurate it is/if they got a Russian voice actor for this rando background character. And ahhhh Gina is so cute, such a nice contrast from how powerful her intro scenes positioned her as. AGHHHHHH HER REVEAL TO FUUKO IS SO SINISTER AND COOL AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THE MUSIC IS SO GOODDDDDDD I remember this arc being the first one where I was so impressed by the unique ending that it cemented my interest in the series, and the anime is doing such a good job of elevating it closer to its platonic ideal…I almost wish I could go into the anime blind, but then I probably wouldn’t have watched it at all. But at least I can fully enjoy the ride now. It seems like the Week in Reviews for the next few months are all going to end with me livetweeting the latest Undead Unluck episode from excitement heh. I really hope they can keep up this level of quality…and also adapt the entire manga.