#I love the G-Squad! They're so underrated!!

[fountainpenguin]

Favorite underrated FOP episodes? (Definition of underrated is up to you, can just be a random small episode you like)

I think "The Odd Squad" will forever be top of the "underrated faves" list for me. The pacing and style are both so good, it has a lot of cute worldbuilding in it, the character interactions are fantastic (including a wholesome moment with Timmy and his regular parents), and it has Juandissimo saying "Nice wheels, Timmy! :D" I am a massive sucker for Jorgen freaking out over Timmy driving in Fairy World and wrecking the place but Juandissimo was more or less on the sidelines giving him an enthusiastic thumbs up because he is too silly and oblivious to foresee a problem skldfj. The dialogue is lots of fun and Timmy is happy the entire time. It's a sweet one.

I'd say that "Shelf Life" and "Which Witch Is Which?" are episodes I would classify as "episodes I enjoy that are less commonly remembered." The former has a lot of wit and clever dialogue and a silly ending, and the latter gave me a lot of worldbuilding to play with by canonizing witches in Crocker's family tree.

I love "Crocker of Gold" and "Chicken Poofs" for a lot of the same reasons- a pinch of worldbuilding and a lot of goofy character interactions. I'm sure that description applies to a lot of episodes, but there's a special place in my heart for the flower quest, Bring Your Chicken Hawk to Work day, and for the "Everything is so green here" scene, which is one of my favorite jokes in the world.

I'll always hold a soft spot for "Mr. Right" as well for being one of the first episodes I ever saw when I was out at a pizza place one time. I also really enjoy the concept of "The Big Scoop" and how it portrays Timmy in a creepy way from the perspective of his friends as they worry about what's going on in his life. Also I feel like "Please Don't Feed the Turners" says a ton about Timmy's parents... the LOOK they give each other when they're on the same page is the best.

All the Learnatorium and Pixie episodes, I'm a big fan of. "Hassle in the Castle" speaks to my soul and I think "Big Wanda" is hilarious. "Yoo Doo" will always be a favorite, and I love the silliness of "Presto Change-O," "The Gland Plan," "The Masked Magician," "The Good Old Days," "For Emergencies Only," "Talkin' Trash," "Parent Hoods," and "Formula For Disaster." Also "Fly Boy" because Timmy yelling "This is all your fault!" at Poof while Poof slightly cringes away just cracks me up.

I love the wackiness of "Dad Overboard" and "Take and Fake." They're hard to top; they're so very good. Poof playing in the sand and he finds a freaking missile, Crocker takes his class on a field trip to watch Timmy's supposed death, Dad accidentally kidnapped an elf from the North Pole who becomes a good friend, there's a line of dialogue that goes "I'll get Stanley and his headless wife! :D" and these are all the same episode. "Take and Fake" is just... goofy and nice, it's very difficult to watch without laughing so it's just lovely.

I'll also throw in "Wishing Well" because it's one of my all-time faves. The vibe it gives is kind of chilling while also being delightful the whole time because you know it's about learning life skills and it's such a positive viewing experience, plus it's one of very few episodes where Timmy meets other godkids and has a positive relationship with them.

"Fairy Friends and Neighbors" is a huge fave. Idk if that counts as underrated (imo Seasons 4 and 5 are the best in the series; they're almost all winners)

"Cosmo Rules" and "Jerk of All Trades" both feel nice because they're highly specific to the FOP world (i.e. they're about Jorgen's duty of overseeing Da Rules) and they're really fun to watch together. Facing the Fairy Council are two Fairies: one of them is Cosmo the estranged von Strangle who should care for Da Rules because it's his blood right, and the other is Juandissimo who straight-up broke Da Rules by fleeing Fairy World and returning stolen memories to his godkid, and the Fairy Council really said "Screw the bloodline, the rulebreaker gets to be in charge now." Obsessed with how after Jorgen announces he's been replaced, we pan over to Juandissimo who just sits there quietly in a chair with wide eyes like he doesn't know how he got there or what he's doing.

Let's see... "School of Crock," "Crockin' the House," "Viral Videots," "Dust Busters," "Fairly Old Parent," "Anchors Away," "Cosmonopoly," "Dog Gone," "Lame Ducks"... those are also episodes I really enjoy. Season 9 has a lot of underrated faves for me. I don't care for Sparky, but Season 9 is so good... Some of the best lines in the series are in there.

For underrated Season 10 faves, I'll throw in "Clark Laser" (idk if that counts as underrated since it's gotta be one of if not THE best of Season 10), and "Chip Off the Old Crock" with the same disclaimer. Then "Whittle Me This" and "Summer Bummer." Those are good.

"Kale Patch Caper"... It's got bits and pieces that don't click with me, but I LOVE morally gray Chloe committing B&E on her neighbors. I love how if Chloe didn't have godparents then canonically her fate is to lose an eye and join a gang. Like. What on earth. They really just dropped that on us and refused to elaborate. What. Love that.

Special shout-out to "Beach Blanket Bozos" for giving me one of my favorite FOP moments of all time, which is Jorgen grouchily sitting on Da Rules to scold Timmy for locking his parents in "I wish they were both the best surfer ever" wish limbo.

We don't talk enough about what a hilarious character Jorgen is. Big boss fairy godparent who can crush your skull. He's not allowed to have a godkid because he'd physically and emotionally destroy them. He's married to the Tooth Fairy... We love a man who's obsessed with his muscles and threatens to destroy you on the regular but in reality he just files paperwork. Which will ruin your life. I love Jorgen.

[acacia-may]

What They See

Description: Grey's can't figure out what Gauche and Gordon's "secret project" is. She has always known that Gauche and Gordon are both much more crafty than she is, but she has never before been so confused by what they are working on. Will she ever figure it out or will her friends manage to keep it a sweet surprise?

Rating: G

Warnings: A tiny bit of Grey's insecurities and Grey being an unreliable narrator.  But mostly just fluff!

Fandom: Black Clover

Genre: Friendship Fluff, G-Squad Crafting Club, and Surprises (and just the tiniest bit of hurt/comfort because Grey is insecure and an unreliable narrator).

Characters: Gordon Agrippa, Gauche Adlai, & Grey  

Part of the Friendsgiving Event 2022 Series, But Stands Alone

Word Count: 1,847

Link to original post on AO3. Please do not repost to another site. Thank you for reading!

Grey bit her lip in concentration as she stared down at the scarf she was knitting with a sigh. She had messed up her stitching again and was seriously contemplating whether she would need to unravel it and start over. It wouldn’t be the first time and probably wouldn’t be the last either. She sighed again. Perhaps she should add knitting to the abandoned crafts pile she had been accumulating ever since Gordon had had the idea for a crafting club. Only Gauche and herself were regular members though some of their other squad mates flittered in and out if they were around. Today, however, it was just the three of them. 

“Marie, my angel. You are as lovely as ever,” Gauche cooed at the small Marie sculpture he was currently painting. Gauche’s keen eye for detail made him a wonderful painter and sculptor. Grey was often left flabbergasted by how closely his crafts of Marie’s likeness resembled her. She had tried her hand at sculpting a few months back when she was trying to decide on a craft project, but her sculpture ended up looking more like a misshapen blob than anything else. Luck had asked her for it but only so he could throw it at Magna when he ate the last of the pudding. 

Gordon had tried to reassure her by teaching her how to sew, but her stitches had ended up messy and uneven. Needless to say the handkerchief she had been working on quickly became a pot holder—then a dishrag. When Grey had thrown her needle and thread in the abandoned craft pile, however, Gordon had felt bad and "rescued" them, whispering something about how he didn’t want them to get discarded despite the fact that, as Gauche rolled his eyes and pointed out, they were inanimate objects. 

Gordon was using the end of her spool of thread now actually—tailoring what appeared to be some clothes for his dolls. Out of everyone in the squad Gordon was probably the most crafty and had a natural talent for sewing—second to only Vanessa and her thread magic. Grey couldn’t help but wish she was half so crafty, but, unfortunately, she was always left lagging behind Gauche and Gordon.

Grey sighed. She supposed it was to be expected—after all, she had spent her whole life lagging behind others, particularly her squad mates who were all stronger, braver, and more powerful than she was. They were always out doing wonderful things with their magic while she stayed cowering in the corner—too shy, embarrassed and weak to do much of anything. Though her friends tried to encourage her, she worried that she just dragged them down and could only contribute as much to their squad as she could contribute to their crafting club, which, if her tangled attempt at a knitted scarf was any indication, was not much at all.

“Done!” Gauche declared triumphantly, pulling her out of her introspection. He leaned back in his chair to admire his work with a smile. 

“That’s great, Gauche. It looks just like her!” said Gordon—quiet but enthusiastic as he shifted to get a better look at Gauche’s Marie statue.

“It’s…it’s really nice…” Grey stumbled, somewhat nervously before she buried her warm cheeks in her hands.

Gauche nodded. “They’re getting more realistic with practice.” He reached into the box of craft supplies and pulled out another block of wood and begin chiseling away. Another Marie statue, perhaps? Grey wondered, but as she kept glancing over at Gauche’s new sculpture, she noticed the figure was taller. Her brow furrowed, but she lost her nerve before she could ask Gauche who he was carving.

This continued for several more meetings of their crafting club—Gauche’s statue becoming all the more beautiful and Gordon tailoring the tiniest clothes—too small for even a doll. Meanwhile, Grey picked away at her knitting and tried to be brave enough to ask her friends about their projects. When she finally plucked up the courage and asked Gauche who he was carving, however, Gauche had just told her that “it’s a surprise” with the slightest twitch of a smile in the corners of his mouth. Asking Gordon was much the same—or so she thought anyway. She was getting much better at understanding him over time, but it still proved difficult for her when he returned to his usual quiet mumblings, like he did when he almost sheepishly told her that he was also working on a surprise project. And so, she merely sighed and returned to watching them work with a quiet contemplation and curiosity.

*-*-*

“I’ve finished the base,” Gauche declared proudly one afternoon when Grey’s scarf was nearly two-thirds complete, and Gordon clapped murmuring something about being nearly finished himself.

As Gauche rose from his seat to get his paints, Grey’s curiosity got the best of her, and she leaned over for a better look at his statue. She gasped. It was absolutely lovely—the likeness of a beautiful girl taking a step forward with her shoulders squared and resolute, arms at her sides, smiling proudly, confidently.

“Let’s try the cape on her,” said Gordon excitedly as he wrapped a tiny black cloak around the statue's shoulders. Grey could only blink at its intricate stitch-work and the embroidery of their magic knight squad emblem. Gordon had created a near painstaking replica of the Black Bulls’ robe for Gauche’s statue. Her brow furrowed—did this mean that this girl Gauche had carved was on their squad?

Grey tilted her head at the statue again. Her hair was too short for her to be Vanessa, and her frame was too tall for her to be Charmy. Noelle perhaps? Or Secre?

“You weren’t supposed to see that yet,” huffed Gauche with a twitch of his mouth as he returned with the paints.

Flushing, Grey buried her face in her hands. “I…I’m so sorry…”

She could hear Gauche sigh as he took his seat again. “It’s fine. It’s just not finished yet." He paused. "That cloak looks good though.”

“Thank you,” Gordon mumbled as Grey peeked between her fingers. Her blush deepened as she met Gauche’s eye and caught sight of his frown.

“You don’t have to keep closing your eyes...”

Swallowing hard, Grey managed a nod and stammered, “S—sorry.” Her hands shook as she found she could only fan out her fingers rather than uncover her eyes completely.

Gauche sighed again, but Gordon interjected, “Maybe she wants a big reveal?”

“Sure. Fine. Whatever…” he huffed with an eye roll. “But there’s a streak of paint in the hair now so it really looks unfinished.”

Gently, Gordon took one of Grey’s hands—pulling it from her eyes and leading her in front of the statue as a tint of pink flushed in her cheeks. “Ta da,” he said motioning to it as Grey let her other hand fall to her side and opened her eyes. Though she didn’t expect it to look any different than when she had just seen it, she intended to act as excited as she could to show her appreciation to Gordon and Gauche.

She smiled brightly, and began, “It’s lovely! Who is—?” She gasped noticing the streak of blue in the carved wooden hair. No… that couldn’t be right…she thought. It must just be the lighting or…Her brow furrowed. As she tilted her head curiously at the statue, she began to almost absent-mindedly reach out her hand towards the streak of paint before Gauche grabbed her wrist. Her blush deepened, and she inhaled sharply.

“Careful. It’s still wet,” he said curtly, and he let go of her wrist as quickly as he had taken it.

“S—sorry. Sorry…” she stumbled, fighting the urge to bury her face in her hands in embarrassment again. “I was just…um…wondering…wondering…um…”

Gauche’s brow furrowed. “Wondering what?”

Her face flushing, Grey stared at her shuffling feet and mumbled so quietly she wasn’t sure if Gauche or Gordon would even hear her, “Wondering…um…why her…um…her hair…um…why it’s…um…well…um…is it…? Is it…blue…?”

“Do you not like the color?” Gauche huffed—a bit irritable perhaps. “I’ve been trying to mix the right shade for weeks. I thought this was pretty close.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw Gauche grab the paintbrush in one hand and hold it up next to her.

“It looks right to me,” said Gordon. “Grey?”

Slowly, Grey looked up from the ground at Gauche’s paintbrush—its tip coated in a light blue paint. As she tilted her head at it, Gauche asked, “It’s the same color as your hair, right?”

Grey gasped. “My…um…my…hair…?”

“Yes, your hair. This is a statue of you after all.”

“Of…of me…?” Grey repeated almost incredulously. She stared at the statue again and shook her head. There was no way this was a statue of her. Everything about this girl from her pose to her expression exuded beauty, strength, and confidence—the complete and totaloppositeof her.

“Doesn’t she look just like you?” asked Gordon excitedly. “Gauche did a great job.”

Gauche huffed, but his mouth twitched with a smile before he twisted it to one side. “We were going to try to keep it a secret, but it was a lot easier to work on it when you were sitting right there and could model.”

“You think…you think this is…” Her voice hitched before it began to trail. Was this really what they thought she looked like? Was this what they saw when they looked at her—someone who could stand tall and protect her friends, who didn’t cower in corners or try to hide from the world? Did they really see more in her than even what she could see in herself? She took the wooden statue in her hands and stared at it—blinking back the tears that glistened in her eyes.

“It might be a little hard to picture now since it’s not fully painted yet and all of the clothes Gordon’s been making aren’t on yet, but…” Gauche didn’t finish that thought as his brow furrowed at her. “You okay?”

Somehow Grey managed a nod as Gordon asked with a slight, kind smile and earnest eyes, “Do you like it, Grey?”

Sniffling, Grey nodded again. “I love it! Thank you!”

As she took a step back to admire the little statue, the brightest smile spread across her face. She could never find the words to express how much her friends’ gift meant to her, but she hoped to repay them someday, hoped that someday she could be strong, brave, and confident for them—that someday she would be everything they could see in her. Grey knew that with her friends by her side, someday she would be the best she could be, and as she stood with them now as they smiled back at her, she couldn’t help but wonder if in their eyes, she already was.

[lichfucker]

Hi! (feel totally free to ignore btw!) I used to looove starkid back in avpm days, but I haven't seen anything since Starship. You posting abt Black Friday is making me want to go back tho! What starkid/tcb shows should watch vs skip? I know twisted, saf, (&apparently bf) are great - which of the others have you seen & liked? Thanks! ☺️

twisted, saf, and bf are all TOP TIER and you absolutely should watch them

the guy who didn't like musicals is, like, technically kind of a prequel to black friday? they take place in the same town and there's a handful of overlapping characters (and since black friday is generally a lot. heavier in tone, a lot of the Jokes that get big audience reactions are just references to tgwdlm). you don't HAVE to watch tgwdlm to enjoy bf, and in all honesty I really didn't like tgwdlm very much (it's just not my kind of humor personally and the ratio of songs I liked to songs I didn't is just a little too low, y'know?). you'd be missing out on a LITTLE bit of context my watching bf without watching tgwdlm but not even really that much, they do a good job of re-explaining all the plot-relevant details and the relationship between the shows isn't quite as straightforward as prequel/sequel. so it's up to you whether you'd think it's worth it to watch tgwdlm in addition to bf

you mentioned starship which I LOVE. worth rewatching. starship and holy musical b@man are maybe the most underrated shows in the company's oeuvre. I love hmb so much it makes me insane. I'm so sick of superhero media that takes itself really seriously lmao the concept is inherently absurd and ridiculous, and hmb really leans into the idea that, like, this is all dumb as hell. the characters don't THINK it's dumb as hell, and they DO take it super seriously, but it's still very much dumb as hell

trail to oregon has a lot more potty humor than I usually like, but I absolutely fucking love it. tto makes me so happy makes me go 🥰🥰 turn my brain off and watch ppl be dumb abt The Frontier. (in case you couldn't tell, most of starkid's shows revolve around people being extremely stupid and they're soooooo good at it.) trail to oregon also has a choose-your-own-ending thing which is fun and because I'm me I have extremely strong opinions about which one is the best lmao but I won't tell you which bc I don't want to influence your decision-making

AND THEN THERE'S FIREBRINGER. the perfect lauren lopez vehicle. dumb idiot cavepeople my BELOVED. if you were On The Internet in 2017 you probably saw clips of the song 'work to do,' the "I don't really wanna do the work today" song. 'twas a big meme. it's very very good. and the music?? my g-d. heavenly harmonies. firebringer is just... fun. it's fun and very bisexual, if that means anything to you

don't watch me and my dick. it's good for corey dorris having a solo and bad/uncomfy for almost everything else. most people dislike ani; I have mixed feelings abt it. I'm not THAT into star wars so a lot of the references were lost on me, and a lot of people really didn't like that they don't sing (they did it in rep with tto, and tto took most of their best singers). that's not to say there's no music-- there is!! but the band does it all, movie soundtrack-style, instead of the characters. a lot of the songs are really good, though!! and clark's voice is soooooo 🤩. but it's, y'know, stylistically a very different experience than most other starkid musicals, and it's steeped in the granular details of star wars canon far more than the other parody musicals are in their source material. and in all honesty I haven't really watched much tcb beyond saf so I don't feel qualified to rec any other tcb stuff, though iirc people seem to really love solve-it squad

thank you for allowing me to ramble abt starkid lmfao :3