#I will post clips from that episode later probably

[zenoyambutpenguins]

Experienced it's about time for the first time ever and its easily one of my fav episodes so far

[kanmom51]

Jikook in bed - Part 2

I’m going to take one second here before diving into part 2 here and be really honest with you guys.  I’m kind of anxious about this one.  There is so much going on in these few seconds clips, and I’m not sure I will cover it all.  But I will try to do my best, and that’s what it’s all about, I guess.

With that, I feel like we need to split this part 2 this into 2 parts.

We have the JK waking up, turning on the hallway camera (do we talk about how sus it is that that specific camera was turned off at night and JK had to turn it on in the morning?), walking into the master bedroom, seconds later seen walking out of the room, going to the camera and turning it off again.

That will be part 1 and there is much to unpack with that tiny moment in the episode.

And for part 2 we have JK going back into the master bedroom after having his snack fest of a breakfast to just BE with JM.  Even with the cuts this one was quite naughty and so so telling.

Ok then, let’s get going.

I mentioned in my last post (part 1 of Jikook in bed) the need to show JK sleeping in another room, another bed.  I also shared my opinion about just how much time those two spent apart at night – being not much at all.  If you look at the bed JK slept in you can see that the pillow he threw to the side (you know how you do when you have double or triple pillows in a hotel room and just throw the extra one to the side of the bed you aren’t sleeping in), you see that pillow is basically unmoved.  And knowing what we know about JK as a sleeper, it staying put is a bit of a tell as to how much sleep he got in that bed.

But being apart for some of the night, as much as it wasn’t much time apart, JK needed his morning cuddles. 

So when he got up he needed to go get some.  Cuddles people. Get out of your heads!!

The funny thing is that he decides to let us know so.  Well, he chooses to turn on the hallway camera (which was turned off for the night – will get to that in a sec), turn around and walk into the room to JM.

Before we talk about how he looked before and after he went into the room, or where he went and where he came back out from (the suspicious cuts), let’s discuss for a second why that hallway camera was off for the night.  First thing first, I do think that the two had control and decision making powers over when the cameras are rolling.  They agreed for them to be on all night in ‘their’ rooms and had the power and ability to turn the cameras around the house off and on.  And that alone shows us just how much privacy they had if they wanted or needed it.  Even while shooting the show. That camera in the hallway being off allowed them to move between the two or more rooms without footage of it.  And you probably understand where I’m going when I say two or more rooms.  Rooms that didn’t have cameras in them. 

Anyway, JK turns on the camera looking like this:

And this is him coming to turn off the camera after leaving the room.

I’m sure you’ve already seen those two pics all over the place.  JK with what appears to be lip balm entering the room, coming out without said gloss to his lips.

We also see JK walking into the room going to JM’s side of the bed.

We hear him talking to JM.  JM asking him what time it is and he says 11:30 (am). 

There is an obvious cut and we see JK walking out of the room stating he’s hungry, coming form the other side of the room, not where he walked into the room, not from JM’s side of the bed.  Kind of as if maybe, just maybe, he spent more time than a couple of seconds (as we are led to believe from the footage) and some of that time was spent laying down in bed next to JM – on the other side - exactly where he was coming from.

JK walks out of the room, after being there for god knows how long, and turns off the camera.  Why?  Why turn on before walking in and turning off after coming out?  He asks himself if to turn it off and does. And I really would like to know why.  Not like we don’t get to see them on that camera later on in the day, so obviously they turned it on again. 

The hallway camera is on as JK leaves the room after that second visit to the master bedroom.  We don’t see him turn it on, it just is when he’s coming out of the room.

Curious editing indeed.

As I’ve been doing in my last posts I can’t help but give a little throwback.  And this moment here, the coming in and going out with this huge cut, it reminds me of this:

Summer package 2018.  That candid camera in the room, JM's shock reaction, lucky for them we couldn't see JK's face, cause I can only imagine the terror. Anyway, long story short, the way that footage is oh so obviously cut, the camera moved to show supposedly them walking in, and JM straight away walking out. Only problem is that he happened to have the bag on the wrong shoulder when he did walk out eventually.

Back then it was the different shoulder that was the giveaway, this time it's the wrong side of the bed, lol.

Next time we see JK coming back to the master bedroom, is after he had his snack fest and joked about leaving to film the episode without JM, which he obviously doesn’t, the editors taking stock of that, lol.

Something that is quite curious is that it appears that JK's mic is already on the bed at that point. He takes it off the bed, makes a move that looks like he's taken it off his top and puts it on the bedside table. When did that mic get there and why go through the works trying to show us he just took it off his top? He sure does have it on him when he's downstairs, so how did it get to the bed before he supposedly joins JM there again? And it's not JM's cause JK had it on downstairs and it's off him when he does the whole "I'm taking it off and putting it down" whatever it was.

And he is putting it back on once again as he leaves the room and going down stairs.

So, I tell you what I think happened here.

I will give you a hint.

Go look at the start of the 'scene'. The room door is kind of shut (why close the door to the room if you're alone in the house, which they were at this point, unless perhaps you have the hallway camera on and don't want that camera to catch something it shouldn't?). And when you see JK walking towards the bed, he's walking from inside the room, not walking into the room. My guess would be him coming from the ensuite towards the bed.

So, one possibility, the tamer one, would be that JK walked into the room, shut the door, went to the bed, took his mic off, when for a whatever it was he was doing in the ensuite (no.1 or no.2 - take your pick, although mine would be the latter after all the shit - literally - he was eating for breakfast) that he didn't want the mic to catch, and then walked to the bed and did his whole mic on mic off thingy.

And if we are on this subject already, do we talk about the fact that they have no issue with shitting next to each other? In that proximity? They did grow up together, and in the early days even showered together, that is true, but they aren't teens anymore and as adult grown men, who have the choice to not shit next to each other (not even talking about the CT cabin, cause there there wasn't much of a choice, but in this house with clearly more than one bathroom and one toilette they still choose to use the one bathroom which is part of the master bedroom, where JM was sleeping) they still choose to?

Moving on.

JK gets comfortable.  The way he takes JM’s leg, straightens it out and just rests his head on it. 

Soft.

Peaceful. 

Relaxed. 

Breathing. 

Being.

And cut.

Again.

As always with these two in these situations.

My question, once again, would be why? Was he getting too comfortable?  Was he getting too comfortable for too long?  Who knows. 

All I do know is that this was not the only cut we got.

There were a few very obvious cuts to the very playful, very flirty-handsy interaction between the two.  JM was being a naughty teasing minx – that grin on his face said it all.  Limbs were all over the place. 

ALL OVER THE PLACE. 

At some point it even looked like we were getting a repeat of BV1 crotch footsies.

That grin JM had on his face. He knew he was going to be naughty, couldn't help himself. And when you are naughty you get a slap on your butt. I didn't just say that. And yet, I did.

And we got this in the following order: a butt slap, a butt rub and a little later another butt slap. 

Yes JK slaps butts.  He slapped Jin’s butt when he was discharged.  But guys, there are butts and there are BUTTS.  And JM’s butt, it gets the royal treatment from JK. 

JM’s butt gets slapped, rubbed and squeezed. 

ALL THE TIME.

Oh, and do we talk about the grunts throughout this whole scene? You cannot watch that scene on mute, because DAMN, those grunts, yikes.🤣🤣

Also, was it only me or was JM literally going (without words of course) “come and get me”? 

JK moving to lie on his tum tum could very well be due to uncontrolled rising circumstances. A little much needed calming the farming on his behalf?  Who knows.  What I do know is that it was naughty and very surprising that even an edited version got into the show.

All in all it was A LOT!!!

Too much?

Not for them.  But for us. 

For those that see.

That see them, see what they are to each other.  See what these moments mean to them. So much more than just playfulness and fun. 

So much MORE.

[stormblessed95]

Watching Are You Sure?! EP 1

A reminder of how I do these reaction posts as I watch things. I just write my reactions and thoughts down literally as a happen. Think more of a bullet point format. I'll include links when I can to videos, thanks to the people who twt who upload clips. And at the end, I'll do a better wrap up of all my opinions. I hope everyone enjoyed the show so far!!

The episode starts with Jimin showing up right before JKs GMA performance and interview, July 14th 2023.

Them meeting up and talking about how he has his performance in NY on GMA later. Jimin saying that he hadn't seen him in a while, their schedules kept them SO BUSY 😭😭 this trip was so good for them. And the way he caressed JKs throat and told him to rest his voice and take care of it since it had been hurting. 🥺 So many soft touches too as soon as they were able to see each other again. And we didn't even get to see their actual reunion.

JK packing up his hotel room and talking about how he never traveled so freely before. They are so sweet and so busy and I'm so glad they were able to carve out even just a few weekends for time to themselves. And the way when the staff was talking to them about plans and who would drive etc, JK said he would drive and was just sitting there talking about traffic while they were holding hands interlocked resting in Jimins lap 😭 that's so??!!

Then fighting over the AC in the car in efforts to take care of the other is so cute. Jimin wanting to make sure JKs throat stayed okay, JK not wanting Jimin to get sick. They baby the heck out of each other. And Jimin watching his GMA performance on his phone 🥰 JKs cute smile while Jimin was jamming out to his music 🥺

"JungJi" new ship name alert?! Lmao!

JK ordering for the table 💜

The absolute bickering over who is a bad driver/bad at parking. The get out. Lmao the way they absolutely irritate each other on purpose is amazing and soooo best friends/might as well be married behavior 😂🤣

When they went shopping together and JK said they should buy the same shorts together 😍🥰 matchy matchy always!!

And an ARMY recognized them and saying hello and they were so cutely excited about it. "We've still got it." 😍🥺🥰

JK ordering for them again at the brewery 🥰 and I love that they went to an LGBTQ friendly brewery for one of their first hang out spots. Some ARMYs went and talked to the people working and said they everyone said Jikook were super polite, no one had recognized them and they kept to themselves a bit and just had some phones/go pros for recording.

The way that they also started talking about how this was their trip before military service. And how JK started bonking Jimin over the head with his camera when he mentioned it. Jimin was giggling but you KNOW that they was emotional from it too. This was when they were thinking there was still a chance they would be separated for 2 years. I know they were anxious to get to cherish this time spent together. I know it meant SO much to them both and probably so much to JK that Jimin traveled all this way and made it happen.

The way that JKs kayak tipped over immediately and Jimin just was cackling as he continued to paddle away and the staff were fishing JK out of the lake 🤣🤣🤣 just for JK to furiously row up on him and be like "you have your phone?? Tip over!!" 🤣🤣 They are so funny and cute! And Jimin taking a photo of his baby 💜 the way Jimin spent the whole time on the water just laughing and smiling fondly at everything JK would do. It's so freaking sweet. They just really had so much fun together being silly and goofy.

Not Jimin giving JK the "you come here often?" Pick up line and the immediate roleplay they both get into 😅🤣😂 they really can't go too long without at least a little bit of flirting lol

We know there was a getaway cabin with a 2 bed option but Jikook picked the one with just one bed. Lmfao good for them. Hey BH, we know you have no issues with filming the members while they sleep, even while they share the bed. How come we got zero footage of Jikook sharing the bed? 😂😂

Jimin being like "JK, you are a good cook 🥺" and Jungkook just immediately getting to work on cooking them dinner 🥺💜 although when Jimin asked for a taste, why did JK feed him from his FINGER?! Lmfao and what the hell was the noise he made when Jimin licked his finger 😂🤣 half moan, half laugh? I don't even know lmao

And the way he ran to go feed Jimin a piece of the chicken because he was proud of how his cooking was turning out. Sooo cute. Jimin accidentally dropped a piece of chicken and acted like he committed a great offence 😭😂 the way they spilt dinner duties though was so cutely domestic.

JK speaking directly to the camera to speak to the viewers. Man has done too many hours long live streams. Lmao he is too used to just chatting with ARMYs 🤣😂 that was adorable and Jimin thought so too. And the way Jimin goes "I miss V" and JK immediately is like "let's call him!" Anything to make Jimin smile! But they clearly cut so much of that convo, BH, give me my members loving each other istg I miss them too much. And don't even get me started on the yoonminkook conversation. I genuinely almost teared up. I miss BTS so much 😭 their laughter is healing

Jimin getting a stomach bug 😭😭 my poor baby. And the screen just going black while Jikook cuddle?? The give us minimal Audio and a black screen and then they cut away entirely and we KNOW they are cuddling. Lmfao TF BH!! We know they cuddle, where is my fanservice?! And JK turned over at some point and elbowed Jimin in the nose. You KNOW they were all up in each other's business on that bed for that to happen 😂😂😂

And my poor Jimmie... He feels so bad 😭😭 JK is taking such sweet care of him though.

JK outside stacking rocks while Jimin rests is giving me Yumi vibes. Lmfao I love him (and her!) SO MUCH! The way he prayed after too for a good trip with Jimin. The rock tower is also (correct me here if needed) a way to pray for someone's health and well-being. My poor sick Jiminie. Yumi also used the rock towers as ways to pray and communicate with her Gods.

Wrap up thoughts?

Not much I haven't already said honestly. Lol but just more emphasis on how special this trip is, both to Jikook themselves and for us to have it shared with us. This IS comfort TV. They bring each other such peace and happiness. They both banter and tease and have such fun. They both baby the heck out of the other. JK taking care of a sick Jimin was soooo nice seeing. The way Jimin wasn't feeling good, but rallied in order to have a good time for their weekend away.

It's also interesting that so much of this is honestly filmed from GoPro. They have some staff and crew there, but from what I've seen it's a smaller number than normally goes to film these shows and they are left alone with just installed cameras fairly often. That's extra nice for them. 💜

I am and forever will be salty about all the cuts. The Tae face time was cut short, the cuddling was cut, so much was cut. Which duh, I get why. But I still want more 😂 looking forward to the behinds to see if we get anything more. That black screen cut from them cuddling though was 👀👀😂😂

JK was such a good leader and took charge so much so far this trip. It was cool to see, Jimin ALSO thought so! The way he was speak for both of them, drove them around, ordered food and drinks for them, gave dinner prep instructions. Gave Jimin his medicine.... I'm not saying it's hyung behavior.... But... Lol also I did notice that there was a pretty even split of address between him calling Jimin hyung, or just by his name. Along with all the little random bits of flirting sprinkled through the episode lol so cute..

Hope you guys enjoyed it!! And thanks for reading all my random thoughts! Onto episode 2!

[invisiblegarabgetruck]

Since we got most of the S8 information before the actual season airs. I decided to make some guessing which footage is from which episode once again :3

(Part 1)

(disclaimer: this is mostly predicting, made for fun. Also, This post will be long)

S8E1 :

This episode gonna be summer centric.!! maybe They are scanning through something and the error caused summer to be traumatized by it. and they tried to use the mindblower on her (guessing by the look of the device) but she keep running away? also this episode's theme seems to tie to electronic theme

also i'm guessing we will see the glimpse of the future. maybe at least through summer's vision as she having the same hair as the adult design

S8E2 :

this episode is probably the one with Rick and Space Beth. (while the titles clip shows there gonna be a two beth's centric eps. I think it's this one cuz the animatic show her in her space suit.) so she probably on a mission on that evil scientist bug(?) and rick run into her and they have a tsundere bond (and then she get shot and have an ego fight with rick that she's fine)

S8E3 :

the (new) citadel episode! I'm surprised there a long of footage of this episode this time around. (since the citadel always seem like their secret weapon or smth) I think this episode will spit into 2 parts 1st part revolve around after the citadel fallen on some planet and was built into western style. and we focus on that long hair rick. 2nd sub plot is rick and morty crash the ship and they landed on that planet (and maybe met the homesteader rick?) but they don't show up again until the end of the episode when the ship is repair.

S8E4 :

probably the most informed episode at the moment. yes, this is the easter bunny episode. and yes, I'm looking forward this one 😭

this is from a conversation on the twitter. lance mention that Jerry might transforms into easter bunny and that's why he's trapped in the cystal. So, I think that after the family turn down jerry offer. Jerry probably goes out and celebrates easter alone. (:() Something happen, He's turning into the wererabbit. they need the egg to cure him (or not) also while rick is out there, they trap him in the crystal.

S8E5 :

honestly, this episode art looks amazing! this is the first episode they sneak peak. Rick and morty hijack a cyro ship. it went wrong and they disguised as one of the people in the pod. that also went wrong. though, I'm getting the same vibe from the Mortynight run Episode. (Since rick mentioned about Morty's moral compass. But I hope they give it some nice twist and not 'Morty tries to do good thing. It kill everyone and he is making everything wrose' again)

/that's it for now! :3 I'll cover the rest later. But from what I see, most of the footage is from the

[airborneice]

sooo I think this ended up being my tribute art to hilda the series? almost a whole year after the show ended but oh well 🤷‍♀️

if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to ramble about how much the show means to me for a bit -

Soooo I really really love this show. It is so delightful in every way, from the heartwarming and funny writing to the insanely beautiful visuals. You can tell that every aspect of this show was made with so much love and care and it truly has a type of charm to it that I’ve never seen in anything else. I’m really glad it exists and got the run that it did.

While I was drawing this I kept thinking back to a recent quote from Luke Pearson about how iconic to the series that little red cabin in the wilderness is, even though it was only there for a couple of episodes/comics - pretty much everything that happened in the show is because the story moved on from there and Hilda found new settings and characters and her world got so much bigger, but at the end of the day, that place is where it all started.

When I was re-watching season 1 clips to get art references it took me right back to 2018 when the show first aired. I remember often putting on the season 1 soundtrack while I was scanning animations under the rostrum when I was at uni late and re-watching the episodes when I was feeling down and needed a bit of cosyness. I was Going Through It in late 2018 for a number of reasons and this quickly became my comfort show, and that’s probably a part of why I still love it years later - things are way better but it’s just lodged there in my heart now.

And uh…not to get all cliché but…this show really did help point me towards where I am now. While I was at uni I’d study clips of it from time to time to see how the animators achieved what they did and I learned some useful stuff here and there. like..someone’s animation breakdown video on Hilda is what introduced me to the concept of arcs (I was on an animation course so I should’ve known abt arcs already but oh well. better late than never 🫠) and a ton of animation stuff made more sense to me after that. I can look at some of my very old animations and pin-point a principle or a little cheat that I learned from studying Hilda. On top of that, at my uni we focused on hand-drawn animation (on paper first and then. photoshop of all things 😑) so that was the whole scope of my animation knowledge, and I was really fascinated by how 2D rig shows like Hilda even worked.

In the end I got so curious that I took a toonboom course after I graduated and started figuring it out for myself. I didn’t really know what to do with myself in the immediate post-graduation job search hell, but I wanted to learn more skills and Hilda looked like the type of show I wanted to be on more than anything, so I made a point of learning the stuff that might get me there. And learning rig anim was extra fun bc it helped me understand how this show was made and appreciate it even more :) It truly lit up an enthusiasm in me for all the technical behind-the-scenes stuff in cartoons that still keeps me motivated to this day. anddd long story short I’m a 2D rig animator now so I guess it worked out! ngl I think it’s very funny that I stanned Hilda so hard it got me a job on a disney show. how does that even happen. (and I’ve even had the honour of working with some of the people who made Hilda so in a way it feels like it’s all come full-circle now :) )

And obviously, it’s been really fun being in the fandom with everyone and being insane together. It’s wild that it’s been 6 years of that. I’m glad for the cool people I met and all those fun times. I’m really glad I got to be a part of that.

Soo yeah!! lovely show. thank you

[felassan]

r/dragonage (Reddit) post titled "Jeff Grubb: Dragon Age: Dreadwolf scheduled to release in late 2024." Post text: "Dreadwolf to be shown this summer and planned release later this year, Bioware is internally confident on the release date. Anything could change of course." Source: [link] Clip: [link] "Credit to: u/IcePopsicleDragon for posting this in r/GamingLeaksAndRumours."

[source]

In episode 339 of Game Mess Decides, Jeff Grubb had the following to say on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf's possible/rumored release window [transcript]:

Question from chat: “Hi Jeff and Mike, when will Dragon Age 4 be shown and released?” Jeff: “Yeah, I mean, I expect it will probably pop up this summer. I don’t know when it’ll be shown is the real answer, that’s the, let’s get that out, I don’t know when it will be shown. I assume it will be shown sometime this summer. Could happen at any time though. It will be released this year [2024], last I heard. That is, and they’re pretty confident about that, doesn’t mean it’s a guarantee, could slip, but right now, internally, they expect to release it later this year, which is why I took it in Fantasy Critic”.

[source (timestamp 35 mins 20 secs), clipped version]

(there were no more mentions of Dragon Age or BioWare during the episode)

[weirdmageddon]

jackson’s words gave me goosebumps

i decided to sit down and list out the reasons why, what connections i have, and ended up deconstructing why the venture bros is so personal to me

i’m not sure if anybody else is interested but this is my blog so i can post what i want. it feels useless keeping this to myself trapped in my head.

i am from new jersey, born and raised.

i have a gen x new york city 70s-80s punk/post-punk/new wave/no wave college radio dj mom. she’s interviewed bands and just knows people. here she is

doc hammer has been to multiple of these clubs. my mom says his face looks familiar, like she’s sure she’s passed by him a couple of times, and she has good facial recognition.

mom and i genuinely bond over this stuff. she was a no wave new york city chick but didn’t hear about Swans until i told her cause i assumed she’d know and i was like WHAT? HOW and i sent her one song and caught her just listening through the discography for like the next week

i only got into the venture bros because i saw a clip from the Out of Context Violence twitter account. it was the one of younger billy hitting brock in the balls and jumping out the window and i thought he looked like claus from mother 3 (my deep special interest at the time) because of his parted orange hair and his metal hand.

started looking into the venture bros BECAUSE fucking billy’s design reminded me of something completely unrelated. that’s why. then i posted THERE’S ANOTHER CLAUS when i saw little rusty’s character modellll the yellow striped shirt and everything. it was genuinely so funny

so then i looked more into the show as a whole…. stopped in my tracks i literally went “JG THIRWELL????” cause i already was listening to foetus. and not even because of my mom either although getting passed her taste and finding that i genuinely shared it and loved it (i had way more deeply personal response to it than what my dad’s classic rock ever felt), it did open up many doors for me. it gave me a place to plant myself and grow around. and i just found it based on branching adjecently to whatever i was listening to at the time. i think someone might’ve recommended it to me on twitter. i don’t remember, but it was some industrial-related recommendation. once i got into foetus i was like oh shit he worked with coil on Scatology at the time under the alias Clint Ruin. who cares though this cartoon has JG THIRWELL DOING THE SCORE???? like i completely stumbled ass backwards into ALL OF THIS by myself.

same thing with instantly knowing i needed my hair to look like that after seeing triana the first frame she was on screen in s1e05. when i later listened to the post-punk podcast with doc hammer episode where he says “triana was based on people i knew. that’s it. she was this amalgam of people that i actually knew” i was like WOAH, because when i got that haircut, my mom went through old photo albums and showed me that same picture in the radio station booth which i hadn’t seen before and she said, “i had that exact same haircut at your age”. do you see what i mean by falling ass backwards into it?

it’s the fact that it wasn’t that i adopted my mom’s style like you’d expect it to go. i referenced it from a cartoon i discovered by complete accident that i ended up falling love with, the co-creator of which my mom happened to exist in the same generation, same punk/post-punk/no wave subculture, same time, and same place. i bet she could understand at least 98% of the references in the venture bros. and because my mom’s knowledge passively rubbed off on me i’m probably one of the few people my age who understands a large portion of the show’s references and can really get in on the humorousness about it. and my mom WOULD absolutely be one of those “references only 5 people in the world will get” to an impressive degree simply due to the proximity in time and space and subculture, but she doesn’t want to watch it because she doesn’t like cartoons which is such a bizarre hangup to me but whatever.

but ALSO …. THE ACTUAL PROXIMITY TO ME? SO I FEEL IN ON THAT TOO? the new jersey jokes were always like.. New Jersey Mentioned. i grew up in bergen county, i was IN on that shit.

“i mean what kind of supervillain lives in Paterson, NJ?” is legendary to me. i need you to understand. the scale this is on

(for cheeseburger people that cant convert metric to imperial in their heads that’s equal to about 6 miles.)

also see “Montclair” on the map, southwest of Paterson? that’s where my mom’s college was, where that photo was taken in the booth (WMSC).

fun fact: WMSC was the first station to play Soft Cell’s Tainted Love on US airwaves

most of these bands were first played on college radio stations. certain stations in big cities like in NY and CA. like NYU and UCLA had big ranges. big cities were the center of where stuff was happening. my mom could pick up WLIR (from long island) at college, but not at home which was out of range.

here’s what she tells me: when bands were first coming to tour in the US, they sent advance copies of new records to the college radio stations since they wanted to get air play, and these small groups of students who were actually interested in the “New Music” like my mom were also interviewing these bands. it really was a small group of people in this scene. if you look in the yearbook, only a select few students out of the whole bunch were involved in this. so it was like everybody sort of knew each other. they went to the same clubs, dressed similarly i suppose in order to identify each other. i guess it was about associating with people who shared your taste and being on the pulse of cultural developments. this was the crucial bottleneck, where it begins: locally platforming new music that would go on to influence others and break into mainstream culture like the butterfly effect. except it is YOU who is the butterfly flapping its wings, only concerned with what’s immediately around you and blissfully unaware that your flaps will influence a cyclonic system developing on the other side of the world. and i’ve come to realize that i have that effect too in my own way (e.g. real-time fandub). speaking of butterflies…

Monarch’s parents’ Newark home, too. my dad grew up in the outskirts of Elizabeth, NJ. (measuring bar is 2km at this zoom level)

my mom 🤝 dj patrick cusack 🤝 doc hammer. i also want to meet patrick too i want to see his music collection. maybe i can ask my mom.

in that Guild of Calamitous Podcast episode when jackson mentioned A Certain Ratio and doc pulled out Crispy Ambulance i’m like get the fuck out of here. both of them are on my “sara essentials” playlist. nobody talks about them but i like them. my mom just mentioned them one time in passing and since i trust her music taste i went to look it up and then just..got into it. partly because i knew crispy ambulance from when i was much younger before i knew its name.

you know, it’s like how many people actually can say the same thing. i wasn’t there, i wasn’t even born. how miraculous is it that i even know all this. i love my mom’s music because her taste connected immediately with what i always felt like i was meant to hear. my dad’s music taste didn’t have the same effect on me despite hearing it for as long as i could remember and way more often than hers.

my mom tells me my dad played led zeppelin while i was in utero like playing it on her belly but i didn’t pop out a zeppelin fan since birth. i’ve heard classic rock all through my house growing up. it never fused with my brain the way my mom’s music did.

and here’s the thing: my dad prioritized his own music over my mom’s. like in the car or in the house for instance, because he did not like my mom’s new wave new romantic post-punk music (but they could bond over Pink Floyd and The Doors). so i got much less exposure to hers. but when i did, like she took me out alone or something, her music stuck to my brain while my dad’s kind of just bounced off.

it sounds a bit harsh to say but in a certain way my dad dying absolutely opened up this can of worms when i was 15 that would later end up shaping me in a huge way. so now my mom could really properly introduce her stuff to me. a handful of songs were already deeply imprinted somewhere in my brain from childhood, and when i heard them again after so many years i was like OOHHH MY GOD. like it was just something significant for me. and again i want to emphasize that this is completely involuntary. why did i react that way to this music? i don’t know why this was my innate preference, there’s no rhyme or reason for it. it has nothing to do with nostalgia because obviously my brain wrinkles had a preference since before i could articulate it. why though? that’s the question. but it ended up being significant later in my life. i know like every single band these two are talking about and the general genre/scene they encompassed. i don’t listen to them all i have my favorites i cling to obviously but they have entered my cultural awareness.

certain songs on her Left of the Dial CD just stayed with me. and i was a little kid so i didn’t know anything about these bands but once my dad died we bonded heavily over this music.

some sparse yet formative ones for me i remember from my young childhood and would later find again:

Classix Nouveaux - Guilty (the song and the music video where he looks like nosferatu)

The Durutti Column - For Belgian Friends (VERY evocative, i might have been 3 or 4 when i heard this? because i always associated it in my mind with these particular images. the wooden stairs of the home of my babysitter(?) with the sun shining through the window and casting nice shadows and the grandfather clock they had. this is the ONLY thing that stuck with me about that house and those people, everything else about the existence of them has escaped my mind and the only proof i had they even existed to me was through the images evoked in association with this song since my mom played it in the car to/from there one time. it’s like her music made me gain consciousness.)

Echo & The Bunnymen - The Cutter

The Sugarcubes - Birthday (listening to it for the first time in years once i was older for me was like…OH. OKAY.)

Sisters of Mercy - This Corrosion

Aztec Camera - Oblivious

Crispy Ambulance - The Plateau Phase (the whole album. the song Simon’s Ghost really left an impression on me when i was very young too)

and as of now i’ve solidly made my musical home here. i’ve come to my mom about some band i’m listening to that was around during her time only to find out i know more than my mom in some cases because i took her initial pointers and just ran, like with Swans for instance. i fell ass backwards into finding my people because of my unexplainable and basically innate magnetism beyond my control to very specific things that just gel with me on a deeper level. i don’t know why that is.

partly explains why i’m like obsessed with psychology too, whatever’s at my disposal to explain it. neuroscience and jung and all that like, what is going on?? i want to figure it out. why did my brain wrinkles have a preference before i was basically conscious of what preferences were? and why does it lead me to people who are so similar to myself not just in terms of music taste, but in a cognitive-psychological way too?

on that note… doc hammer’s similarity to myself. when i listened to the post-punk podcast with doc hammer it wasn’t too far in that there were experiential parallels between us and how we thought about life in general. i recognized an identical psychological structure in him that could be explained by having identical types in socionics model A. even though i have talked to other LIIs he goes beyond that though. so it’s not just the socionics type, but that does seem to be a common denominator for a lot of things because like it predisposes you towards certain patterns since certain information aspects in the world are perceived with more clarity than others, and we’re the same in that regard. but similarity also depends on like where you were born and what you grew up with, etc. his taste in music and style! where he grew up!

he’s genuinely the closest person to myself i’ve ever known to just exist out there, and for me at least i’ve noticed that’s really fucking rare and hard to find. i mean it.

i remember actually kicking my feet listening to that podcast episode because i was so excited by hearing things he said that were realizations that i have had but they were so specific to me that i didn’t think i’d hear them coming from another person’s mouth. and then other realizations he’s had that would’ve otherwise take me years to have, but now that i’ve heard it i got a shortcut, like taking those bridges in candyland.

the things that he knows, his taste, and the fact that he “can’t escape being goth no matter what??” “this is the tribe you feel at one with, this is the music that makes you feel whole?” that opened my eyes. it resonated exactly with my own experiences. you read what i wrote above, right? that even from when i was a toddler and didn’t know shit about anything, hearing my mom play that music literally sat in my brain differently. i learned so much about myself listening to his own self-insight at his age older than me. it held this particular weight for me because of that. AND him being autistic too? you’re kidding me. i feel like there’s hidden connections tying this all together statistically by some features but i don’t know what they are

it wasn’t soon after that i realized the venture bros was made in LII-ESE dual partnership which is only partly the reason why it feels like home, too.

socionics is completely unrelated to all of this venture bros by the way. these interests of mine were found through completely different avenues of life.

i stumbled into socionics because personality differences and typology systems always caught my interest as a tool to explicitly distinguish people’s character and aiding in understanding how we can distinguish parts of ourselves. i have a sharp sense of where my self and my own experiences fits in relation to the people around me, both what makes me similar and what makes me different from another person. i want to know where i fit in relation to the world. wound up attracted to the same avenues that carl jung ended up spearheading in modern history. ¿coincidencia?

but it also explains why that amount of overlap with other people by sheer luck like this (from my perspective) feels so significant. fuuuckkk and jung came up with the concept of synchronicity too. it’s all related. i swear i feel like i’m poorly reinventing plato and jung’s wheel here discovering the patterns of archetypes by myself and stuff. glad that knowledge is already out there so i don’t feel like i’m insane and i have words to explain what i acutely experience to other people.

excerpt from augusta on Identity relations. this is exactly my experience listening to doc hammer. (and carl jung by extension since i’ve been talking about his ideas a lot lately):

“Individuals with an identical type of information metabolism act on the conscious functions of others and form conscious ideals, goals, and methods. Those who grow up with an identical type of personality use them as a goalpost. They walk through life much more confidently, with much less wandering and feelings of being lost, and realize their intelligence with more purpose.

It’s the same feeling people have when they meet a representative of their own type. They’re no better or worse than anyone else. But they’re transparent to you, and you’re transparent to them. You can’t pretend in front of him. You can’t quarrel with them. They speak in such simple, “your” words that it at first feels strange. The feeling of full understanding contributes to business communication and prevents empty chatter, when, in fact, there is nothing to say.

Writers and artists with an identical type of IM are perceived by the reader and the viewer as people of subtle intelligence, able to penetrate into the essence of things. But they do not uncover any mysterious things, nor do they reveal any secrets. It is just that the individual has not been where they have been and the individual has not seen what they have seen. [in the case of doc hammer, i happen overlap with much of the music he listens to, and grew up around the same general area which is why he feels so much like me to an even greater extent] That is why individuals with the identical type of IM are valued not so much as artists who decorate life in one way or another, but as explorers who open new horizons.

They’d do the same thing in your shoes. To others, you may seem like a legend or a failure. But to them, you are just a person and nothing more. Something you have failed, something you should have wanted but didn’t, and what you have achieved, as well as what you have not achieved, does not change your essence in their eyes. Perhaps because both of these are available to them to a certain extent. It is not the end result that matters, but the journey that you travel one way or another. People measure their efforts by the distance and obstacles they overcome on the way to their goal, not by the result. And the point is not at all about where the road led to. The fact that one person manages to find many helpers, while others have to wander alone, is an equal fate for representatives of all types.

Here we encounter one interesting phenomenon. With how discoverers of new truths evaluate those who worked in past generations. Everyone who made a discovery did not notice something about the discovery lying on the same surface level. Or articulated the discovered truth less accurately than was done 50 years later. It doesn’t matter whether it was Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, or anyone else. One thing that matters to us is that the identical type sees no “mistakes” in their work. They see work that’s started well and unfinished work that must be taken up and delved into in order to complete and improve it further. Any incorrect or insufficiently accurate conclusion is perceived not as an error or misconception of the author, but as an important step on the path of development of science, as an optimal conclusion from the material available at the time.

However, it should be remembered that only a person with an identical type of intelligence can go into their teacher’s work and check them. Even more than that: a person with an identical type does not take anything their predecessor has done by faith. And until they are convinced in practice, until they see with their own eyes what the theories were based on, until they probe in their own head for this “mental clarity,” and before this point they will not believe in it or repeat it. They see the premises that their teacher saw, they see the teacher’s train of thought and conclusions, but they do not memorize them. They have to experience them (which is quite different). There are no authorities in matters related to the thinking of a person of the identity type.”

and excerpt from augusta on Duality relations, since the venture bros is written by a ESE-LII dual pair (jackson and doc respectively), and that cognitive framing shows up in the show because it was created by a person with that type of intelligence (ESE is my dual).

“People relax while reading books written by their dual. Reaction to all other forms of art is the same. Relaxation, peacefulness, a feeling of fullness of life. Helping the dual is simultaneously helping oneself, it is a fulfilment of one’s own needs. What the duals give each other not only does not cost them anything, it is a necessary basis for mental and physical vitality. The partner is truly irreplaceable and precious because they allow you to reach self-realization.”

it’s also the type of the creators of the music i’ve come to regard as my “home base” as i described here.

continuing to find the things that makes me feel whole (and i’ve always felt alienated from most of the world btw) has seemed to me like a completely serendipitous process because it’s not happening on purpose. i am not seeking these things out on purpose because i don’t even know what exists that i’m looking for. it’s basically passive process and then i hold on to the things that resonate with me as a “benchmark” position and go from there.

animal collective [ESE] already wrote a song about this. basically the same thing but from the extraverted orientation. ESE sense of self is understood through bodies (extraverted), LII’s sense of self is understood through fields (introverted). (see for explanation of terms: https://augustaproject.wordpress.com/bodies-vs-fields/)

and seriously what is with the coincidences? i’ve thought about this before, how i’m usually a very lucky person and i don’t know why. or like ripple effects in time that end up just coming together in the end. sure part of it is external circumstances, like being born where i was and my mom being born around that time and place, and sharing the taste that she does. but what about internal ones? does it have something to do with the way i process the world too? because it’s remarkably different from most people that i know, and obviously i can sense that because of the violent way i reacted to doc hammer and went “oh this guy could actually be me.”

why did my brain have that musical preference before i even had the life experience to know any of this would turn out like this and be so interrelated? i was NOT a tabula rasa. i swear my innate preferences were already there. it was just a matter of it manifesting in my environment, exposing me to it a sensory way so my nervous system knew about its existence.

the early imprinting of my mom’s new wave/post-punk/alternative music in my brain, but not my dad’s classic rock music that i was exposed to way more, yet it held no real estate in my brain, wouldn’t be explainable if i didn’t have innate preferences. and again i was a young child so i had no life experience to explain this or have any reason to do so. and going back to what i said before, why did that innate preference end up leading me later in life to people who are so similar to myself not just in terms of music taste, but in a deeper cognitive-psychological way?

now that i’m older, and can consciously reason and build explanations upon my life experience, i keep realizing it all keeps going deeper and deeper. my interests from all these corners of life that barely interact with each other by themselves are all connected in some deeper way because i was there. i accumulate and take them with me wherever i go. i cross-polinate wherever i go. it’s freaky to think about.

this was curious to me and i filed it away in the back of my memory. when i first read it it felt correct just from the accumulation of my experiences. but now that i’ve just consciously realized that for myself in my own context, i really understand what it means

in recent memory from a conversation i had yesterday evening

[scolop98]

Turns out I have too many thoughts to put this in a comment and honestly it was a matter of time before I made a post about these two.

Okay so: AMC's Pantheon. Season one episode one. Cary and Renee are playing out their whole "pretending to be in an abusive relationship" shtick. We the audience find out that this is a ruse after their shouting match at dinner, when they meet up in the garage.

Everything about this exchange—their dialogue and poses, the smirk on Renee’s face, the casualness of it all—read like flirting to me. That, combined with the general reveal that they'd been faking an abusive marriage—not to mention how Renee immediately slides back into The Role after Cary leaves—had me HOOKED. AND it was our first hint that something was seriously and abnormally wrong (= very interesting) with Caspian's life/the Keyes family, so my initial interest in Caspian's subplot was heavily tied to Renee and Cary's dynamic.

Then we get to episodes two and three... and they absolutely hate each other.

(context: first video is after he shoves her to the ground in front of their "son" and his "girlfriend" in ep2. second video, from ep3, they are picking out the hammer that (spoilers) will be used to break her arm later that night)

Every interaction is clipped dialogue and frosty glares and the bare minimum effort spent to make sure you and your coworker aren't going to step on each other's toes. At least on Renee's side—sometimes Cary seems like he's trying to connect with Renee (ex: after they meet "Hannah" for the "first" time), and sometimes he just seems pissed at her (ex: buying out the hammer) (which is understandable, she's the worst. she is such an asshole and I love her for that)

And then we get to end of episode three: The Hammer Scene

Where Renee breaks her own arm because Cary is "too pussy to do it himself" (not an actual quote), and Cary breaks down in tears after leaving Caspian. When Cary shows that despite participating in this ethical nightmare, he's enough of a decent human being to not want to break his coworker's arm and also genuinely cares about the surrogate son he's raised for the last 17 years; and when Renee shows that she is 110% committed to whatever this still-ambiguous, evil-shadowy-tech-corp-backed Truman Show gambit is that she's dedicated the last 17 years of her life to.

Also relevant (to me specifically) is that this scene is sandwiched directly between David and Ellen's breakup scenes, which are some of my favorite moments in season one and the primary reason why David/Ellen is my favorite Pantheon ship. The contrast between David and Ellen's dynamic (we both agree it's healthier to not get back together, but that doesn't mean we can't still banter about old memories) & my reaction to them (WOW is it obvious these two used to be married, instant OTP) compared to Renee and Cary's power hour (i.e. performing the most jaw-dropping, unexpected plot twist in the show up to that point) did something irreversible to my brain chemistry and single-handedly kickstarted my interest in "incredibly divorced animated parents with convoluted relationship histories" ships.

In hindsight, the tone shift in Cary and Renee's interactions in the first three episodes was probably just bad continuity or one of those "characterization was not fully fleshed out when we made the first episode" situations. Aside from the first episode, literally all their scenes in season one make it obvious that Renee and Cary were in a purely professional fake marriage and were NOT friends. Renee can’t stand Cary, and he’s incredibly frustrated with her half the time. While their garage banter did an incredible job as a Reveal Scene, it's also a clear outlier in terms of how Renee and Cary's relationship is written.

I wasn’t really thinking about any of that during my first watch of Pantheon. I was thinking: "flirty coworkers in a morally fucked up job" + "clearly pissed at each other" = "hate-to-love-you ship dynamic," and then I was thinking "HOLY SHIT SHE JUST BROKE HER OWN ARM" and could not stop rotating this family in my mind. I did notice that the garage scene didn't match their later characterization, but instead of thinking about the bad writing I kept rotating the potential of that dynamic in my mind.

Later S1 developments such as "Renee sees Cary and shoots him on sight" and "now that I've put you in this hospital bed I will gloat about everything (I think) you've lost, and also we still have to pretend to be married," and "we are in different states and still jump at the first chance to throw each other under the bus, which unintentionally reads as obsession with each other" did nothing to dissuade this train of thought, mind you.

So to synthesize all this: Cary and Renee are very clearly not in any sort of romantic/sexual/emotional relationship. Renee dislikes Cary at best, and all of Cary's post-episode-one moments of concern/sympathy toward Renee can be framed through this flashback sequence:

Cary, exasperated: "And… we're gonna be working together for awhile […] Let's. Try and make it pleasant. Deal?"

Cary (reasonably) wants to get along with the coworker he's going to spend the next 17 years of his life with, even (especially) if she's an asshole.

But that plot-critical-but-OOC moment in episode one wired my brain to think about these two being close enough to banter, and through that filter their dynamic in the rest of the season looked a lot like those sexually-charged, obsessive mortal enemy dynamics that enemies-to-lovers and hero/villain shippers thrive on. Not to mention the fact that these two have lived the last 17 years in the same house and might've been sleeping in the same bed for several years to keep up appearances (I know that everyone's favorite fake-marriage duo don't sleep in the same room but TwiYor don't have to keep their fake marriage a secret from their child). It is very, very easy for me to imagine an AU where Cary and Renee would have hate sex sometimes, and I feel like it would have practically zero butterflies on the outcome of the plot. Or alternatively, imagine if they were genuinely in a relationship while raising Caspian and how insanely toxic it would be—especially since their platonic, professional canon relationship is already incredibly unbalanced in terms of emotional labour.

And the fact that one of their most emotionally charged, status quo-changing, plot-relevant scenes was paired and directly contrasted with the most emotionally charged, character arc-relevant scene of my favorite Pantheon ship (David x Ellen) in what rapidly became my favorite sequence of season? Meant I was constantly reminded of this ship (Cary x Renee) whenever I thought about why I loved this show.

Anyways that's how a tiny bit of inconsistent characterization in pantheon's first episode turned these awful fake parents into my second favorite Pantheon OTP - not in the sense of "I think these characters should be together," but more like a "can you imagine how much worse their lives would've been if they were in an on-and-off situationship at any point in the last 18 years" that I constantly rotated in my mind for weeks after finishing season one. I hope my first attempt at a proper tumblr analysis essay was coherent, I wrote it between midnight and 3 AM. As a bonus, have this edit of them that I made last summer for a "toxic/complicated/disorienting relationships" MEP

The song is Tainted Love, covered by Milky Chance and originally by Soft Cell

Also, to clear up any confusion: just because I think Renee is The Worst and an Awful Human Being does not mean I don't like her as a character. I like her character a lot more than Cary actually. She's not blorbo material but she IS "I love to hate this character" material. She's the centerpiece of the entire fucked up Keyes Family Dynamic! From an audience perspective, she acts as The Face of Logorhythm's clone plot, given how she has more screen time and direct interactions with Caspian than Cary or Julius Pope in S1, and she's so intricately tied to Caspian's "what the fuck is wrong with my life" investigations. She's an asshole, but she's a complex, interesting asshole with plot relevance, screen time, and more personality than Julius Pope, and I loved watching how she and Caspian play off each other and how that changes over time. also she's a fucked-up and evil woman and idk i find that compelling in a fictional character, sue me.

[mystycalypso]

Hello there, hope your having a great day. Love your art. Soo, as you mentioned before about Lazer still having some of his OG rage, I came across a clip of the show from one episode. And I must say *takes in a deep breath*

This moment in particular is about the only time K.O. shows any sort of rage without being as T.K.O. Probably the only moment ever where you see that rage he must've inherited from his father.

And its when his fully planned out week gets interrupted, only a bit, by the Box-bots, scaring them pretty well too. If that's not some sort of Autism scheduling or inherited rage, then I don't know what is.

Any thoughts?

Alright, to start off, this clip is one of the last in my vocal stim comp from this show, ironically because it's the one I quote the most IN FULL, unprompted. I love it so much.

And yeah, it encapsulates why (at least from a personal standpoint) autistic anger issues bubble up. K.O. is tired, self overworked in preparation, and excited for this to happen, and having someone else come in and try to force their plans instead in cases like this, you kinda snap. "Like no. No. I prepared this and it's what we're doing. You didn't do the work to get this ready, I did." It's not the narcissistic fear driven anger we see bring out parts of TKO in "you're level 100", it's much closer to the annoyed helplessness that he gets from Laser.

Specifically, the boxbots have always seen K.O. as lesser, he's smaller, lower power level, and yknow, a kid. Similar to how I think a lot of enemies would look down on Laser for (in the au) being young and rather untrained in his fighting and (in both canon and au) being the pretty face on the team more than anything. They both look like cheerful giddy cheerleaders on their team, despite arguably both being the strongest. So when they're trying to be serious and do what they think is best, what they've been working hard on, and no one will take that seriously? They tend to blow up, and that's when it gets scary.

Because yeah, your friend is the goofy guy who shows off how he can put a whole sucker in his mouth and pull the stick out through his teeth, or the kid who's excitedly showing you all the research he did just to make health week fun for everyone, but that powerful self is still there even when you forget it.

Another good comparison would be, K.O. slapping his friends' hands away at the end of "You're in control" he laughs and jokes that he just got his hair done, but Enid and Rad are awkward about laughing with him, because this kid could still absolutely destroy them, and they know that all too well now. I think a similar thing happened after the sandwich incident. POINT trying to get more back to normal, to make jokes and whatnot again, but everything just dying whenever Laser enters the room, worried any comment might set off whatever came out that night.

Honestly, ironically, the biggest difference between them in this au especially, is what fuels TKO and Taser. But that's something for later haha

Uhhhhhhh, anyways, I don't wanna post these text answers without any images, so once again, I will be using memes

[ennn]

I expect Billy is going to be an antagonist for a while and that's OK

Anti's for either Agatha or Billy are probably going to get more intense as I predict our boy Billy's gonna be antagonistic for a bit. And let's be clear, I'm not hating, or saying either are evil, or in the wrong.

That's way too simple a take for this show. In the words of showrunner Jac Schaeffer:

...we populated the show with similarly flawed individuals who are also selfish and self-serving, who are self-sabotaging, who are constantly standing in their own way. And then they were just in conflict.  Everybody is kind of an anti-hero in the show. That was really fun and felt very truthful there. 

No one here is meant to be a pure "good guy", which is I think kind of Billy's arc -- but more on that later.

And when I mean antagonist I'm talking about the characters roles in the story. An antagonist isn't necessarily a villain. Agatha is the show's protagonist as well as its main antagonist: as much as she claims she wants only power, deep down she wants a coven, a community, a family. But she is as Schaeffer puts it, "in the way of her own thing."

Billy being an antagonist simply means that his goals – or some of them at least – conflict with Agatha's. Rio has been described as a "romantic antagonist" as well because some of her goals are also in conflict.

Long text speculation post and mild promo spoilers under the cut:

Let's first get this out of the way: Why do I think Billy's going to take on an antagonist role? Aside from well, all the things that happened at the end of Episode 5, there's some clues Billy's not all who he's been saying he is:

There's a promotional video with audio lines, and you can hear Billy saying things like "Agatha Harkness can never be anything but a covenless witch" and "I do not trust you".

Billy claiming to be "obsessed" about Agatha and her biggest fan and going on the road for power should know that she is the world's most notorious witch-killer – why is he appalled about her killing and so against it? And if episode 5 is any indication, power is not what he's lacking.

Joe and Schaeffer have mentioned that Billy will be different in the back half of episodes.

A quick clip from a trailer has Agatha (covered in mud) telling Billy "Last one there is a nice person", implying that Billy at this point doesn't want to be nice. I assume, at this point, he wants Agatha to pay for her misdeeds. The yellow tint of the clip also matches with the current Road area they're on.

Now at this point I do not know if Billy was involved in what I believe is a fake trial in episode 5. I'm inclined to think it's the Salem Seven, and we get this truth of Billy as fallout. I believe he definitely didn't want Alice dead.

Now for reasons why I think it'll be okay–even interesting–to have these two in conflict and everyone should put away their pitchfolks:

They are going to come to an understanding

You know how in Hawkeye series Yelena wants to kill Barton because she blames him for Natasha's death? I think we'll get a broadly similar arc or vibe for Agatha and Billy here. And they will design it in a similarly emotionally satisfying manner.

Right now Billy's basically like everyone–including the rest of the coven–who believes that Agatha is truly what her reputation says. And that's not surprising! Agatha is masks and layers and theatrics and she's not opening up unless she absolutely has to.

It may take a few episodes but I expect we'll get that before the series end, with this sobering exchange we have from a trailer:

Why do you let them believe those things about you? Because the truth is too awful.

I don't think Billy will be the Big Bad simply because I expect at the end Agatha's going to have to choose between wanting her coven, her community of witches, and something else—power perhaps, or her son, and go back to her old ways.

And for that to happen Agatha will need to have formed enough bonds with her coven, including Billy, to make it a difficult choice.

Power, darkness, and anti-heroes

Look, Agatha is my babe and she definitely needs a win after all that awful that happened in episode 5, but if you think about it Billy being a lot like his mom is really interesting? More interesting than him just being a cute innocent fanboy.

Because if he is an anti-hero, with some darkness in him, it's an opportunity to explore some of the themes or ideas we touched on in Wandavision with Wanda and her power, and her sense of self.

Heroes don't torture people.

Agatha recognises the darkness in people, delights in it even: as touched on in interviews, it's one of the reasons why she saw herself as Detective Agnes in that spell, as an investigator exploring the darkest aspects of humanity. She's seen the worst in people, and knows how to play the villain.

For Billy to avoid making the same mistakes as his mom, he needs to understand not just his power, but his potential for darkness.

Power corrupts, and when you're born with that reality-warping level of power, it's dangerous. It's so tempting to make people do what you need them to. And it's a slippery slope once you start killing, even if it's for good reasons.

Agatha never wanted to kill her first coven, in that moment she only wanted to live. But she did, with a power she never asked for, that made it so easy to keep taking and taking.

It is kind of tragic given the circumstances that Agatha couldn't have been a mentor to Wanda at the end of Wandavision, given the events of Multiverse of Madness, because she made some valid points and they could have been a coven, given Agatha's deep-deep-buried desire for one.

And looking at all the mentor-kid pairings we've seen in the MCU so far (Parker and Stark, Clint and Bishop, Strange and Chavez, etc.), I don't think we've ever had this kind of dynamic.

Interesting power dynamics

I think Agatha is at her most interesting when she's on the back foot. As we've seen in episode one, she's not one to give up when physically outmatched, quite the opposite. She's a survivor, she's stubborn, and she's a performer.

Billy has been revealed to have the magical equivalent of a gun, and is capable of taking this entire coven hostage.

They're going to have to interact in new ways now. But now it's going to be more of a dance.

It's new danger, new complications, but also new ways to connect, and also the opportunity for a more honest relationship.

Knowledge, history, community

This point isn't specific only to Agatha and Billy but I'm reminded of Billy taking it out not just on Agatha but Lilia and Jen as well.

It's not surprising that Alice and Billy, the two youngest coven members are also the most idealistic and noble. The world has not been kind to witches over the centuries—Lilia's been chased out of villages for her visions, Jen has been attacked—and the older members of the group have done what they can to survive: How much can you blame them for being selfish in a cruel world?

Power isn't your problem, it's knowledge.

In this case I mean not just the knowledge of witchcraft, but lived experience as well.

Younger witches have to learn their community's history, and the older ones have to be challenged in their set ways of thinking, in how they've adapted, because they're not always good.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was an allegory to be made here to the queer community as well. Schaeffer has mentioned there is a large overlap between the history and persecution of witches and that of the LGBTQ community.

--

Good lord this post ran away from me. If you actually read all of that you do deserve a cookie.

[seoul-bros]

Jikook Week 53 Complete (10-17/12/2024)

This week was the one year anniversary of the enlistment of Namjoon, Taehyung, Jimin and Jungkook and it's time to look back on everything that happened that week in 2023.

Jungkook had spent most of November and the beginning of December promoting Golden and its lead single Standing Next to You. He had returned to South Korea from the US on 02/12/2023 after filming the remix version of SNTY with Usher and this week the last of the promo material for the album was released including the iHeart Radio concert which included this rendition of Hate You....

....and photos from the three phases of Golden - Seven, 3D and Standing Next to You

On 11th December, all the members of BTS turned up to see Namjoon and Tae enlist. It was an emotional scene.

It was also clear that Jimin was determined to keep his hair right up until the last moment.

Finally, on the 12th December, Sope accompanied Jimin and Jungkook to their enlistment ceremony. Now all the BTS members were enlisted and the long wait until June 2025 began.

That day they filmed a clip for Are you sure? They were so excited to share the show with the fans.

TwiX

They went in with a quick sideways glance and a thumbs up for the camera.

Finally, on 15/12, the Usher remix of Standing Next to You was released accompanied by the performance video.

In I am Still we get to see JK filming the video and talking about his enlistment with the dancers, "You sad?" "No" "Happy" "(Hell) No"

The night before enlistment both Jimin and Jungkook came live to say goodbye to ARMY. It was hard to watch the first time but even more emotional rewatching with the benefit of hindsight. JK was far from his usual self but he still managed to communicate how much he was going to miss ARMY.

Jimin was also serious and low key. He talked about how much BTS were looking forward to getting back together and going on tour. He was clear that this was not his choice but something that had to be done and he thought that he and JK would do well because they could support each other.

Enlistment is a forced break in their activities just when they felt like they were getting started, beginning to express themselves as solo artists as well as members of the group. They faced their obligation with a positive frame of mind and, from the little we have heard from or about them since, they have maintained that attitude throughout.

I can imagine that now a year later, they, like us, are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. They probably still have a whole series of additional surprises waiting for us in the first six months of 2025. We know J-Hope had a whole plan for the six months after his military discharge (new music, a concert tour?). There are rumours that we can expect more music from the maknae line. Jin has been so busy, I hope he gets a bit of a break but he may also have more to share with us. We still haven't seen the Run Jin episode with Hobi!.

Post Date: 17/12/2024

[saveahorserideaneddie]

thoughts about the ep? i'm feeling super negative atm lol. most people are thinking this will lead to buddie canon and i love that they're being positive but i personally can't

(if you don’t want to read a doubtful post about buddie, please scroll now)

i’m going to be entirely honest i don’t understand why people are freaking out when nothing about that last scene was any different from anything else we’ve ever seen from them 😭😭 like there wasn’t some super romantic moment or anything it was just… a goodbye to me?

i haven’t seen the whole episode yet but i’ve been watching different clips and i stand by my feelings that this is probably just gonna end up being the most egregious example of people getting their hopes up just for the show to once again be like “oh look, best buds!” just bc we literally have not gotten anything to prove otherwise imo but… ik im in the minority feeling that way because ive been dragged along with no payoff so many times before that im tired of pretending that the pattern looks any different to me when frankly it doesn’t :/

like this just feels like all these scenes are gonna lead to is another “ah look at these best bros” and a bunch of edits saying “season 9 will DEFINITELY be the year” just like it always ends up panning out every single time we get “closer than ever”

like people were saying the same things last year about how “oh buddie is the only possible outcome” yet here are a year later, not any closer to it than we were 4 years ago with the shooting

so yeah; im putting buddie on a back burner for my viewing experience this year bc so far the narrative, tim, nor the cast have given me any reason to believe things are actually different this time around the same, endless bait-cycle that tim has kept us on since he took back over (a cycle that he himself started in s4).

[darkstarofchaos]

I believe I’ve mentioned this before in a post but by now it’s lost to time, so as another blog who has issues with the Megatron redemption thing being very flat:

I wish Earthspark had taken the same route as Steven Universe’s did on Rose/Pink Diamond but with Megatron, the younger members of cast who have only ever known this ‘good’ version of them get to slowly learn new things and experience his redemption in reverse.

All the older bots they know like Elita and Bee and Optimus all get along so well with Megatron except for minor things, so to them it would likely be hard to imagine it could be THAT bad. Even hearing from other Decepticons how he used to be could’ve been interesting and they half-way opened the door to that possibility with the Starscream arc and then slammed it shut by making Starscream so much worse.

Thinking of it from a kid/teen perspective like the terrans, Starscream described him as cruel and how he rules with fear. Hashtag sort of gets an understanding that Megatron didn’t exactly risk his ass for a soldier who was left behind, and yeah that all sounds pretty (vaguely) cold and cruel, but then Starscream rips the life out of two children right in front of them rather maliciously. They’re probably gonna have Starscream as the worst of the two from their views. Like everything he non-descriptively told them about Megatron is gonna pale in comparison to the trauma he just caused them.

(On a side note, I saw a clip from season 3 where Starscream is sitting trapped in the dome having propped up the chaos Terran’s bodies and that’s not really taken as something horrific? Like they all blatantly ignore Starscream as if he poses no threat and the terrans aren’t even a LITTLE disturbed or angry with him? Theyre all just sighing and rolling their eyes??? Pls PICK A TONE they never seem to portray anyone the same way twice whyyyy.)

Focus on Megatron backstory being revealed to the terrans is always so weird and passive. Like them seeing an earlier version of him in that training simulator wasn’t enough for me. I’m not saying ‘traumatize the kids’ cause that’s mean, but like idk an old war story from an oblivious autobot who hasn’t been in touch with the others! That’s an easy option! There’s so many ways and they didn’t utilize it they just… RGH I’m no good with words sorry it’s just so many wasted opportunities and ill-planned plots.

The thing about the "old war story from an Autobot who hasn't been in touch" option is. They literally had the opportunity to do that in S3. Because they introduced Prowl, who had no idea Megatron changed sides, didn't trust him, and didn't like the Autobots relying on kids. So like. He was literally the perfect character to be uncomfortable with how much the kids trust Megatron and want to talk to them about it. And not only did S3 not do that, it ended with Prowl and Megatron on good terms, so they actually removed the possibility of it coming up later (Prowl also decided relying on kids is fine, actually. Mostly I liked how EarthSpark handled him, but they wasted no time forcing the worst parts of the status quo on him).

I'm not super familiar with Steven Universe (mostly I just watched a few Peridot episodes), so I don't know how they built up the reveal with Rose, but I feel like SU is a perfect example of why Megatron's redemption doesn't work. Rose/Pink Diamond was at the top of her society, and when she changed, so did everything around her. She was one of the most important characters in the story while being dead.

Meanwhile, Megatron is just kind of... There? Sure, you have one-off episodes like Shockwave's and Soundwave's debuts where they were specifically mad at Megatron for betraying them, but his redemption doesn't serve the narrative at all. None of the other Decepticons went with him when he defected, there's no evidence that he tried to end the war through negotiation, none of the Autobots have any lingering mistrust. His defection changed nothing, and if the war had ended because of his death instead, you could tell the exact same story by just modifying a few episodes.

And yeah, you have people who'll say it doesn't matter because the story is about the kids, not the legacy characters, but we're talking about the leader of the Decepticons. You don't just redeem the leader of the enemy faction and handle him the way you would handle a random low-ranking soldier.

Honestly, I don't think anything short of a complete rewrite of his character and his impact on the story would fix his redemption. At very least, you'd need to revert back to S1 Starscream, because making the victim worse than his abuser is the surest way to ruin a redemption for me. Just come right out and say the abuse was justified, why don't you.

(You also have people who'll say there's no evidence that Megatron abused Starscream in EarthSpark. I assume those people just kind of ignore Starscream explicitly saying he's not safe around Megatron).

[notnights]

Little ninja fans of present day and past, I began watching RC9GN in December of 2012, and it changed my life forever, now it's 2024 and I'm nearing 30, time sure flies! Anyways I've been working on cleaning out my computer files and found a bunch and I mean A BUNCH of Randy Cunningham 9th Grade Ninja promotional material and side content. I pretty much have most things that came out from 2012 - 2015 pertaining to the show.

I imagine a lot of these things have been lost to time as some of it was originally posted was from the DisneyXD website, and variations of the DisneyXD website (meaning from other countries). I have interviews, bumpers, dubs of episodes, even footage of some of the old RC9GN games, and Randy cameos (I saved footage of someone playing the RC9GN Poptropica promo!)

I also have a clip from WSFA where they reported on the fan that wrote Rachel's song. I had thought it was posted to youtube but I can't find it again so maybe they removed it, it's not on the article that's still up either! Guess it's good I saved it. (The article isn't entirely accurate, I believe she said she got the internship because of her song)

I also have a few clips of other dubs, including an Italian dub of the song and music video "GO NINJA GO," that's pretty cool! I also found audio files of the raw music from the show! I can't even remember how I got that. (they are unfortunately not named)

I have some less quality stuff like literally me just recording promos and bumpers off of the TV screen lol. Some of these also include snips of other Disney XD bumpers and promos though.

Anyways, I don't want this stuff kept all to my self as I see a lot of it is lost to time, if not hard to find. And oh look at that looks like I have a handy little sideblog I never used that's perfect for this! @theninjanomicon (I'll pretty it up later), so over time I'll probably share some of it on there.

Younger me was unfortunately not very thorough in the archiving, so some titles, dates, names, and exactly where I got them from, are missing, but I can give a rough time frame and where I got these from that I can remember. (another reason why I'm doing it! to mark down what I can remember before I forget anymore of it)

I wouldn't be uploading any full episodes for obvious reasons but might upload clips of some of the alternate dubs I have. And yes I have the pilot, which I can't share either but I do have STORYBOARDS from the pilot (which up until this year was our only reference for this "kim possible style" it used to have) which maybe I can share as I got it from the storyboarder's portfolio which was public back when I got it.

I might add some commentaries under a readmore for certain posts to give extra contexts/what I remember being relevant to the piece I post.

Now the hard part is figuring out where to start! What would y'all like to see first?

[lesbiansforangusmcdonald]

Ok, finals are over, so now I can FINALLY post my Pepe Sylvia theory about Porter actually being evil that has been ruminating in my head ever since I saw season 2! (spoilers for s2 of fantasy high, obviously)

(sorry if someone’s talked about it before and I couldn’t find it, but like WE NEED TO DISCUSS THIS BEFORE S3!)

Ok, so I noticed something when Ragh talked about the first time he saw Kalina in episode 4 of season 2 (“Heartache on the Celestine Sea”). He says that he saw Jace talking to some elven woman (who is revealed to be Adaine’s mom, Arianwen) and to “someone he couldn’t see. I just assumed somebody was invisible.” This is most likely Kalina, as Arianwen was there to get the Nightmare King’s crown and Kalina could have been helping her do that. However, this is important because, since Ragh could obviously see Kalina later on, this is a point in time when he couldn’t see Kalina.

Then Ragh says that after he saw that, Jace and Porter came to talk to him, and “Porter did some barbarian healing with me.” This seems normal enough, as Ragh had just been in a huge fight, but Ragh stipulates that “I didn’t feel that injured, honestly.” So this line already makes it seem as though Porter may have had some ulterior motive for healing Ragh.

Then, Ragh says that as he was walking home after this, he was approached by Kalina, who threatened to kill his mom if he said anything about seeing Arianwen at the school.

(the clip of the scene is here, if you wanna watch it, edited slightly for clarity)

So this makes me think that Jace and Porter knew Ragh saw Arianwen at the school, knew he would probably tell the Bad Kids about it, and Porter intentionally passed Kalina to Ragh through healing in order to ensure his silence.

AND if you’re thinking this may be a bit far-fetched, I’ll remind you that Landren Leir, the cleric of the unnamed goddess who infiltrated the elven Galicaean church after the fall of the unnamed goddess, also passed on Kalina via healing of the high-elven clergy, which she was then murdered for.

But in order to pass it on to Ragh at all, Porter must have been infected with Kalina as well, so here are some of my theories of what that could mean;

1. Porter had no idea he was infected and was just trying to heal a student.

I mean, totally possible, right? From most of the other angles, Porter seems like a decent guy; he supports Fig in barbarian class, he’s part of a community at his local gym, and he did get sucked into a palimpsest when Kalvaxis/Goldenhoard was trying to take over the school — why would that happen if Porter wouldn’t have been opposed to what Kalvaxis/Goldenhoard was doing? And there are plenty of people who are infected with Kalina and never show any symptoms, and therefore never know. It could have been totally innocent. BUT it’s just a little too convenient, isn’t it? Ragh sees Arianwen at the school, and then right after he’s “randomly” infected with Kalina? It just doesn’t seem like a coincidence.

2. Porter knew he was passing Kalina onto Ragh, but wasn’t aware of the full plot to steal the Nightmare King’s crown.

I mean, also possible, right? Maybe Jace put Porter up to it, maybe he knew more than Porter did about the whole situation? Porter wasn’t initially mentioned as talking to Arianwen, maybe Jace just manipulated Porter because he knew that Ragh would trust Porter as his teacher. BUT I think that it would be kind of weird for Porter to be in the school, be infected, be around all of these other people who are in on this wider plot, but they don’t get him involved. Maybe they thought he wouldn’t go for it, thought he was too nice, but I’m not sure. I mean, I think this theory has more merit than the first one, like it’s possible, just would be a little weird.

3. Porter was in on the plot to bring back the Nightmare King.

I mean. Like I know this may not be another Loose Duke situation. But it’s possible! Like, he’s in the right positions! He works at the school. He has the trust of some of the bad kids. He didn’t openly support Kalvaxis or anything he did. Maybe their larger organization (which they do hint that there are more people throughout the world that want to bring back the nightmare king throughout the campaign) thought that he should lay low and hold onto the trust of the bad kids, just wait until the right time to strike. Again, the fact that he would knowingly put a student, one of HIS barbarian students, in such serious danger, in order to protect the larger interest of bringing back the Nightmare King, does not stack up well against him.

So, do I think that Porter will end up being the big bad of season 3, or even the elusive season 4? No, probably not. BUT I do think that he’s sus as fuck and we need to stay on our toes, because he could turn out to be more of a threat with the right opportunities.

[squishycat330]

Nya~ I just wanted to ramble about some stuff I noticed~

ok so I saw a post someone made with two scenes from the 2003 series and the 2012 series, and I also watched a bit of the original 1987 series and it got me thinking

I looked up the two to get the full clips and I wasn’t able to find a full one for 2012 but I got the general idea. I think it’s very interesting how the Episodes have such similar scenes there it’s neat, it also shows A lot for my beloved Raph.

See before I saw that wall I was drawing Leo (a post for later) I came across the first 3 seasons of the original 1987 series, I decided to watch it and I notice more details that where paralleled or in homage to the older/series prior, and other things that had developed in the characters over time,

for example Raph, originally he wasn’t that Aggressive with Anger issues, he was just kinda mean with an attitude making sassy comments and such(1987/1997shows), then the 2003 series rolls around and suddenly Raph has Anger issues and is more physical/Aggressive, he develops and grows out of it throughout but still keeps his fierce personality and protectiveness, which is where 2012 Raph probably got his personality it seemed to have been a liked character trait or at least one that stuck for a bit. 2012 Raph much like 2003 Raph learned and grew as a character, (just look up Character analysis on him for 2003/2012, you’ll see what I mean)

I have no idea how the comics portrayed him in that time frame tho so if it came form that cool.

other then the obvious changes of April, Casey, and some other characters, so I wouldn’t really note that what I would note tho is the fun detail I noticed with Donnie, 1987 Donnie and 2012 Donnie basically have the same voice, seriously they sound really similar and it’s a voice that fits Donnie, I had to take a moment when I first heard him speak. Wall the other brother dispite having distinct voices (especially Mikey, Surfer bro) I keep geting them mixed up and have to pay close attention to tell who’s speaking sometimes.

Another thing that is less of a detail or anything and more of just something I noticed, Baxter Sockmen (heheh) was (in my brothers words) a ‘generic white 80’s/90’s scientist’ for like two iterations, (1987/Archie comics?)

I don’t quite remember but I think theres one from 1987 that was paralleled in the 1997 live action ten years later,

I also noticed in the 1987 series the turtles dress up in coats and hats and go top-side with April, in the ‘Tmnt: Amazing Adventure’ comics theres a panel or art from it I saw I few days ago of them wearing those outfits and April has a og Turtle design on her shirt

April is so cute there~

the 2003 and 20012 series seemed to have been big turning points in doing/differentiating the turtles apart, 2003 was the first to give them different skin tones to help differentiate them, and the 2012 added to that giving Mikey his (to me) iconic freckles, Donnie his tooth gap, Leo something to make him seem younger (his love for space hero’s) and just overall different it’s nice. . .

there’s more but due to the fact I kept geting distracted writing this I forgot them. . . This post is pointless honestly. . . .

yes Ive added on to this post