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erosia-rhodes · 4 years ago

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Top 9 Newbie thoughts on Supernatural after Six Months of Madness

I started watching Supernatural a week before the series finale, and full disclosure, it was only because I heard about the gay angel. I loved me some Good Omens, so I decided to check out a series my only previous thoughts about had been, "Is that show still on?" In the past six months, I've watched about fifty percent of the episodes scattered across all fifteen seasons. I've also spent time following the bonkers-in-the-best-way fandom on Tumblr, and here is what I have learned:

1) Everyone who loves Supernatural also hates Supernatural

No one is capable of praising this show without also trashing it. Supernatural is as awful as it is awesome. Watching Supernatural is like hate-fucking your nemesis against a wall; you're totally conflicted about it, but it's enormously pleasurable and you know you're going to do it over and over again. No one has a pure, untainted love for this show. They only have complicated emotions. This is because…

2) The fact that the show needs to be fixed is an essential part of its appeal

Strangely, if this show were better, it wouldn't be as popular. If you love a show that is perfect, you watch it once or twice or thrice, make a bunch of memes, and move on with your life two years later when you find something else to hyper-fixate on. If you love a show that's broken, you spend the rest of your life obsessed with fixing it. It's the crooked photo hanging on the wall that yearns to be straightened (because, you know, this show is bad at making things straight). It's the stray dog you know would be adoptable if you fattened it up and socialized it with your other dogs, and just like some people can't stop rescuing animals, Supernatural fans can't stop thinking about how to fix a show that isn't great, but could be with a flea bath and a trip to the groomers. Supernatural fans are not fans of the actual show, but of the show they imagine it could be, one that only exists in an alternate universe. They are in love with the Platonic ideal of Supernatural. That's also the reason why…

3) The fans understand the characters and themes better than 95% of the people who worked on the show

The people who watch Supernatural have thought about it way, way, way, more than anyone who produced it. I have read complex essays about what the color of people's clothing imply and how the state of the Impala reflects the state of Dean's mental health and other things I'm certain this show did not do intentionally. People can find depth in the shallowest aspects of this series. Any random fan could explain the complicated dynamics of the Winchester family and the overriding themes of the series better than most of the people who worked on it. That includes the LGBTQ stuff, which leads to the fact that…

4) The show is simultaneously too gay and not gay enough

On one end of the spectrum are fans who are offended you would dare to suggest one of the Winchesters might like kissing a boy and they'll shove you in a locker and duct tape your butt cheeks together for it. On the other end of the spectrum are fans who think it's odd that every episode doesn't end with two attractive men dry humping in a dark corner of the bunker library. No one is happy with the level of gayness on this show. It's always got too much "No Homo" or too much queer subtext, which is why I've concluded that…

5) The audience this show wanted is not the audience they got and they are resentful of it

The original pitch for this show targeted a male demographic who’s into toxic masculinity in a non-ironic way. It was about bros and beers and muscle cars and shotguns and hot chicks who will be killed to further the man's storyline. However, when making that show, they accidentally created a show that attracted female viewers who liked speculating about the queer subtext of each scene while looking at pretty men with traumatic backstories fight back their man tears. The show depends on the unintended audience segment to survive, but is bitter about it, which they remind you of time and time again by killing the female and non-white characters and toying with endless queer-baiting. It's like the writers got a plane to Rome, ended up in a gay nightclub in Amsterdam instead, and even though the canals and tulips make it a lovely city to visit, they wanted to go to Rome, damnit, and they'll never let you forget it! I also suspect that…

6) The people who made this show were at constant war with each other

This show has such a split personality. Sometimes it leans into the gay stuff and other times it makes fun of it outright. Sometimes they'll introduce an interesting side character that could make the show more diverse and then they'll slaughter that person for practically no reason. Sometimes they praise free will and other times they force people down pre-destined paths. The writers feel like a dysfunctional family stuck at Thanksgiving dinner endlessly squabbling with each other—who then had to write a TV show together over dessert. That's why it's such a weird hot mess. The show's unevenness makes me think that…

7) Some people's attachment to the show can only be explained by the fact that it imprinted on them when they were young

Some fans have mentioned they started watching Supernatural when they were kids. It's a pretty common experience to go back and watch things you loved when you were a kid and realize they were…not so good. Your memories of them are far better than the reality of them, but you cling to them anyway. The shows you watch when you're young imprint on you in a way you never forget. Supernatural fans are like a baby duck who looks up at a cat and assumes it’s their mother. Then that cat slices open their poor little hearts, leaving them wounded but not dead, forever be toyed with in agony. The only relief is that…

8) The fandom is batshit insane in the best way

I started following the Supernatural fandom on Tumblr in November of 2020 and OMG, it was AH-MAZE-ING. It was total insanity. I didn't understand half of what was going on, but it was more fun than a yard full of puppies doing zoomies. People were posting detailed PowerPoint presentations theorizing how the series would end, citing extensive physical evidence like the background in Misha's hotel room. People learned election results through Supernatural memes. Destiel went canon every other week. When the Spanish dub was released, Tumblr literally crashed! Obama's Twitter was following a Destiel account. There was a Twitter wedding for Destiel on Valentine's Day, which made the one-month anniversary on Pi Day.

It's been a ride, y'all. I have no idea how you guys survived fifteen years of this. The fandom has been so much fun that I actually sat down and watched more than 100 hours of this show so I could understand everything better. It's like the show is an extension of the fandom instead of vice versa. If anything sums up Supernatural for me, that's it. It's all about the fandom and the show is secondary to that. It's like the fans willed the show into existence as part of some partially botched spell. And part of that twisted spell is that…

9) The show will never die until someone finds its bones and burns them

This show has been off the air for more than six months now and it keeps trending on Tumblr consistently. Misha recently trended on Twitter simply because he was at the Oscars. That was it! He didn't even do anything there, he just attended, and some people figured it out by the reflection in a photo posted by someone else! And just as I was proofreading this post, Destiel started trending again because John Cena is a stan or something? This fandom is crazy and unpredictable and I love it like Dean loves pie! If there ever does come a time when this show stops trending, that will be the moment when they decide to reboot it or revisit it.

There is a lot more I could say about this show, but these were the elements that seemed most unique and bizarre about it. I wouldn't say Supernatural is a ride-or-die fandom for me, and I have no intention of watching another 100 hours of this series, but it's been hella' fun to drop in for a while. The show is just as much a dysfunctional mess as the Winchester family and I guess that's why people love it, right?

#supernatural #spn #dean winchester #sam winchester #castiel #jensen ackles #jared padalecki #misha collins #destiel #the cw #tv #television

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leamy-world · 3 years ago

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Reaction to The Devil Judge (spoilers for ep. 9 & 10)

It’s been a while since i’ve last been on tumblr, but i got invested in this drama every week & the fandom’s analyses to not talk about it sometime! (Last time i was hooked, it was with Beyond Evil and i watched it by the time the finale already aired so i didn’t suffer from the weekly wait!)

So here i am, this is mainly self-indulgent with essay-long interpretations of some scenes in a totally random order, but i’d love to interact with whoever reads this if they want to react!

I’m sorry for the potential awkward phrasings, english is not my first language!

- The recap was nicely done and tied everything together, it made me realize so many things happened since the beginning! The repetition didn’t make me skip it, the narration was dynamic & fun.

- The ‘power display’ & threat Yohan showed to Soohyun (by lashing out at Juk Chang and strangling him, as proxy for Soohyun, in front of her while staring at her) were something …! She answered in the same fashion, passing by him saying she will ‘arrest Juk Chang’. I wonder how their next encounters will unfold.

- Many people already pointed this out, but Soohyun’s decision to leave Elijah, a minor, alone in her car (with its doors open, daring to tell her to stay there when she has no other choice anyway) + stop the gang alone and unannounced off duty was irresponsible. Anyways, i wonder if she will interact again with Elijah because they were adorable, i would miss it!

- The conversation between Soohyun & Gaon at his apartment (ep. 10) was interesting on both parts:

It sounded casual, but Soohyun wanted to see where he stood in the Kang family and make sure he wasn’t in Yohan’s plans (i hope she didn’t seriously mean the ‘weird’ comment about Elijah, it’d be sad since Elijah enjoyed her company!).

Gaon was anxious professor Min told her about their last conversation (i think she’ll talk to him in the next eps). He also indirectly defended the Kangs by associating himself with them (« I’m pretty sure i’m just as weird ») and voiced his concern about Yohan, speaking more to himself than following the conversation at hand.

When Soohyun changed the subject with the ‘i’m jealous’ bit, maybe it was to brighten the mood with a light-hearted comment, hoping Gaon would follow. And by the look of her pause right after, it seemed she was also expecting GO’s ‘positive’ reaction to her jealousy, giving in to the kind of teasing/flirt they have in their friendship. But deep down, it was also to voice her true unease about Gaon’s involvement with Yohan she had since the beginning and ep. 8.

It’s obvious to us she meant she was jealous of Yohan. And GO could’ve understood it this way too, since she confessed to him multiple times and her feelings must be known to him (i think he takes it as a ‘joke’ given how many times she confessed and each time when he was crying, so maybe he thought, very reasonably, it was to cheer him up? I also guess he’s too absorbed by his current worries about the Kangs and her potential suspicion, to notice her attempts).

But instead of that, he’s not in the same line of thoughts at all and picks up on the « rich », musing on what makes one’s existence rich, thinking Soohyun was envying Yohan’s position and life and proving her he’s indeed in a whole different world, empathizing with Yohan.

She then looked like her face fell, until her eyes lit up again when he was about to admit she was precious to him along with his family.

By the way, this scene picks up right where we were left off in ep. 8, when Gaon tends to his plants:

« - Are you back for good? - Not really. They need some looking after. - You should come back, not drop by. This is where you live. - Someone there needs some taking care of too. - Take care of your own self, please. - What about me? I’m living a shamelessly comfortable life. Soohyun. - Yes? - What are you thinking about? - Nothing. By the way, Gaon … » (i wonder what she was going to say!)

Lost in thoughts, Gaon’s mixed emotions when he said Yohan was not rich (« he’s not rich. If you get to know him, Kang Yohan is really poor. ») were very well depicted by Jinyoung’s acting: the soft voice and the ghost of a smile that convey understanding and endearment, leaning on his counter in a relaxed stance, but also at the same time the stare lost in the space, maybe to all the memories tied to the Kangs and Yohan, and the tension in his left lip corner by the end of his sentence which betray his sadness and empathy with Yohan’s life. After this, when he became aware of Soohyun’s gaze, it’s like his bubble popped. He looked surprised with his eyes widening, and was fidgeting a little, then changed the subject to himself.

And « I have you, Soohyun » sounded truly grateful but also sad and conflicted, GO lets his worries show when she’s gone, maybe wondering if they would be bound to be against each other one day as he continues to side with Yohan, menacing to jeopardize their friendship to the point of no return. In these kinds of stories you expect these kinds of twists, but i grew fond of the cast send help

- I loved how Yohan’s confession to GO about his brother was filmed: the camera faced head-on his pain, slipping unbeknownst to him through the façade he always showed to protect himself. But this time, despite his (late) attempts to dismiss these feelings both for him and Gaon to regain composure (the hand gestures to hide his tears, pretending to be tough with the « there’s no such things as innocent people », drinking away his sorrow with a bitter laugh that rings hollow), all this façade fades out in front of Gaon literally by being blurred out in the shot, as if he clearly sees his pain through (his silhouette appearing clear-cut between Yohan’s gestures). I know it’s a pretty classic shot but it fit well with this scene. He clenches his jaw in the next shot, moved by Yohan opening up.

- The dinner scene was really moving …! Especially when you put the colder tones the kitchen had when we first saw Yohan have dinner by himself next to this scene, full of light in contrast! I wonder when the OST playing will be released, it was so beautiful and reminded me of My Mister’s OST (especially Rainbow!). I look forward to the lyrics, because most of the time the OST gives more layers & depth to the story and the characters! (please don’t let it be about Yohan’s budding feeling of a true ‘home’ ;;) I didn’t realize it upon my first watch, but Gaon really took the cutlery hostage, it cracked me up!

- The parallels in this show will be the end of me: Yohan went from the « i’m so sick of this place » (ep. 5) to asking K to drive him « home » with a delighted smile.

- I liked the parallel of Yohan’s reaction to GO/Sun-Ah sitting in his office chair, impeding on his space (he reminds SA to stay out of it, the first time politely, the second time almost grimacing, his jaw clenched: « Just because you’re the head of the OSC doesn’t mean you can barge in like this (…) So please stop barging in like this. », while he says nothing to GO)

- At the beginning of ep. 10, we have Yohan saying he doesn’t like « hanging out with people » & by the end of it, Soohyun saying « My childhood’s best friend is hanging out with a rich guy ».

- These two episodes gave more insight and nuance into Sun-Ah’s character, which was very nice ; and also Cha Kyung-Hee’s comeback (and her last confrontation with Sun-Ah!!!!)

- The people following Juk Chang also targeted sexual minorities according to the subs i had, i wonder if it will be addressed again sometime in the drama.

- I loved Elijah’s « hacking » technique scene, i felt proud too! I always look forward to her scenes (and Kkomi’s too haha)! And her reaching out Gaon’s shoulder for the first time ;;

- The ‘humans lose their minds when they think they’ve lost what they have’ ……… repeated twice by YH ………… It will hit hard and all those lines will come right back at us viewers, but i’m not prepared haha! And also for the ‘if you want revenge, don’t hesitate’, i hope it doesn’t foreshadow a future revenge Gaon will execute without hesitation aaaaaa

Also, what lawyer Ko said about himself in ep. 8 may apply to Yohan’s case by the end, will he atone for what he did someday? (« I’m no longer a lawyer. I’m just a criminal. When all this comes to an end, I’ll pay for what i did. »)

- I really loved Yohan’s efforts to take into consideration both Elijah’s (he refrained himself from acting rashly like the last time she went out and listened to her) and Gaon’s feelings (stopping him from endangering himself recklessly, not forcing him onto the revenge path lest he’d regret it afterwards, and helping him to face the truth rationally).

- « She’s hungry for affection. No matter how much you hate the world and the people in it, you can never live alone. You always need someone to rely on. As long as you’re a human being. » Many people commented on it, Gaon must speak from his own experience and empathizes with both Elijah and Yohan’s situation. These two episodes showed how Gaon cares for the Kangs more openly, and i live for it!

- Give me that domestic scene where Gaon plays cards with YH, the nanny and Elijah! And also more K and lawyer Ko scenes!

- Jinjoo’s and Gaon’s intervention in the trial were gold! And Satie’s Gnossiennes rearrangement playing in the background during Juk Chang’s speech, it’s the cherry on the cake haha

- By the way, there was also an arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s piano concerto no. 2 during the first charity event Yohan went with Jinjoo in the earlier episodes, it was also beautiful!

- GO’s Awkward Smile. I have no words, it is now forever imprinted on my mind.

Have a nice week and take care!

#the devil judge #tvn drama #my ramblings

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chaseadrian · 3 years ago

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i'm excited for peacemaker s2 but also so nervous for it. will emilia, leota, and john even be there? based on where we leave off leota's gonna have to deal with the fallout of outing waller and emilia is recovering so there's a lot of potential there, but i'm pretty sure john just sent back to belle reve. i don't want the 11th street kids to all be separated after we watched them form this familial little friend group throughout s1.

and then i live in constant fear of s2 killing off vigilante, like not to take fiction too seriously but that's a character death that would absolutely fuck me, i'd be devastated. if the show decided to adapt adrian's comic story i would never recover.

i want s2 but also AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

(i only didn't mention chris because it's his show and so he's safe)

i have the SAME worries. i see it going two ways for adrian because the amount of articles i’ve seen naming him the breakout character of the show SHOULD ease my worries but it doesn’t!!! i either see him getting his own spin-off show (maybe post s2 or s3 if we get a s3 knock on wood) OR he does in fact get killed off purely because he’s a fan favorite and it’s good emotional tax for the series. BUT i also think it would be a misstep to kill him off in such an early season of such a popular show. obviously we can’t bank on more than two seasons (realistically i would project 4 seasons, maybe 5 if they really want to stretch it. but within the larger DC universe, a long lifespan for this show doesn’t make sense) but i’m hoping gunn will either see the potential for an adrian spin off or just give him a happy ending. i wouldn’t count on it and i’m already racked with anxiety about it though.

i think the potential for the team to go full circle this season is there. wherein during s1, it was just mistrust and a team loosely held together by duct tape and hope until that unifying scene after murn’s death when emilia is designated the leader going forward. so in s2, it would be the team split up (sans adrian and chris bc they’re besties) and struggling with the fallout of leota’s press conference but trying now to fight their way back to each other to be the team they were in the final episode of s1. only this time it’s ARGUS and waller that’s keeping them apart because this is twice now that her teams have essentially neglected her grand scheme. first by releasing the records and going after the starfish in ss and now by leota backing chris up in the aftermath and not letting him take the fall via the diary.

waller is just taking Ls left and right and i think she could potentially be a bigger player in s2 because the immediate threat now is the consequences they’ll face after that press conference. add in chris’ new hallucinations and that’s a whole other reason why chris needs the team because he’s of course going to be dealing with his own mental and emotional fallout. i don’t know much about the comics, i do know adrian’s backstory and that chris’ hallucinations were a thing. i’m just going off vibes.

#answered*#anonymous #hcs

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taylorrepdetective · 3 years ago

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i really don’t want to sound like a greedy ungrateful assh*le, but i’m pretty curious why she didn’t put out a LPSS equivalent for evermore. It seems not too much work and would be really well received by the fans. Plus I feel she enjoys performing her songs that way.

I haven’t speculated on any of this because she does like to surprise us, but I do feel like now that it’s been a year, and it was essentially not nominated for Grammys (she knows she won’t win AOTY,) that the window has basically passed for any further Evermore content. I feel pretty confident saying that now without being in danger of being 🤡’d. Now watch her release something for her birthday or New Years or something.

I think her window for really promoting Evermore was last winter, and then that window closed. After that, since I think is she didn’t expect it to be a real Grammy contender, there wasn’t much reason to promote it. People don’t vote for the same person twice back to back, and evermore was not as critically acclaimed or as impactful as folklore. So there was no reason for her to do promo for it during Grammy voting season. So she did Red for the holiday shopping season instead. She has to be very careful to manage her overexposure during this re-recording period. She released 5 albums in like 27 months and has 4 more to go in the next 13 months or so, plus the ever present possibility of TS10 (are we still calling it that?) She has to manage things and I think she just decided promoting Evermore was way down the list of things to do this year. And look at how well it did with almost no promotion. I feel like this is something she can hang her hat on. She knows she can promote the hell out an album like she did with lover and it will be very successful, and she also knows the less is more approach can also work (especially with such a great product.) And the whole industry knows it and is very impressed.

It’s a bummer because there are so many songs on it that I would have LOVED to hear alternate versions of, but instead we got Fearless and Red TV, and Red in particular was just amazing and a really fun and incredibly successful mini-era. We also got a few one-off songs, like Gasoline and Renegade (love!) We can expect, I think, 3 more mini eras next year, and who knows what else. And I’m so happy she chose this mini-era path with the re-recording rather than just quickly recording and releasing them all just to diminish the value of the originals. She’s playing the long game and also making bank along the way. I just feel like this was a very good decision. The amount of accolades and positive press and new fans she’s making along the way will serve her for a very long time.

I also think she didn’t want to do the same thing with evermore that she did with folklore. It was already somewhat in danger of being seen as redundant with sister albums 5 months apart. If she marketed Evermore the same while also trying to stir up the nostalgia for the re-records and get Red the respect it deserves, I just don’t think it would have all worked. If anyone could have figured out a way, it was her, and so I don’t think there was a way. She would have had to do it last January/February, and she didn’t.

Now we can all have evermore as sort of a fan-favorite album that she didn’t over-explain, and that has probably already kind of been forgotten by the GP, so it can kind if be ours to have as fans, and hopefully someday we’ll hear live versions of some of the songs and it’ll be a real treat. So while it’s a bummer, I think there are good reasons for it and I’ve accepted it.

Also we get Ivy in a Dickinson episode soon. Maybe that will be Evermore’s last gasp, and what a gasp it will be.

#i also think there may be songs on it that she does not ever want to sing again.

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smallersocksx · 4 years ago

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My Problems with the Pokémon Journeys Anime

Pokémon Journeys as an anime has divided the Pokémon community in so many ways but in particular last week’s episode has sparked a lot of debate and personally, I had mixed feelings about the end result. So, I thought I would write down my opinions on the Pokémon anime in its current state and comparing it to some of the previous anime.

I feel the need to say this: these are my opinions I am just as entitled to my opinions as you are to yours, so you don’t have to read this if you don’t want to. Secondly, this will probably be a long post but I’m going to split it into sections so it’s hopefully not too overwhelming.

But these feelings have been building up and up and I think I’ll feel better writing them all down and getting them off my chest to some extent.

Introduction:

So, I’ve essentially been a fan of Pokémon for as long as I can remember particularly watching the anime when I was very young. The anime didn’t really begin to stick with me though until around AG and DP in particular. The first Pokémon game, I played was DP which is why I have a particular fondness for that series and that cast of characters and Pokémon.

I didn’t watch the series as intently around the time of BW because I found Iris’ character rather annoying and I understand she developed and grew as the series went on but that initial characterization of her kind of ruined the series for me. But I did dip in and out of the series mostly for Ash’s Snivy.

My friend recommended that I watch the XY series and I fell in love with the cast and the storytelling that the series provided as it reminded me of DP. Sun and Moon was a good series as well providing fans with some of the most heart-breaking and tear-jerking episodes to date. (And Rowlet).

When they announced that Journeys was Ash travelling around the world instead of staying and travelling in a specific region, I’ll admit I was sceptical. To be honest, I kind of preferred the old formula particularly as I’m a creature of habit myself but I decided to give this new series a chance as the premise did sound interesting and there was the potential for Ash to reunite with some of his old travelling companions.

With the benefit of hindsight, I realise this was one of the problems: the series kind of relies heavily on the nostalgia provided by older fans.

The Premise:

The whole premise of Journeys was Ash and his new friend, Goh travelling the world and there lies one of the series biggest problems. For a series that is meant to be about travelling around the world, a bulk of the series has been set in Kanto in particular Vermillion City where Sakuragi/Cerise Lab is situated. Now that shouldn’t be a problem as Ash and Go need a place to stay and go home to. The problem is we are nearly 60 episodes into the series, they hardly seem to leave Vermillion City or Kanto for that matter.

I went through all the episode synopses released so far to see how many episodes Ash and Go travelled to an alternative region. In this case a visit to a different region only counts if Ash and Goh (and Chloe) visit the region therefore episode 32 wouldn’t count:

Johto – 2 episodes

Hoenn – 4 episodes

Sinnoh – 2 episodes

Unova – 2 episodes

Kalos – 2 episodes

Alola – 1 episode

Galar – 11 episodes

Arguably, as this is meant to a Gen 8 anime, its not particularly shocking that they have visited Galar the most especially as Ash hopes to battle Leon someday. Nevertheless, the initial premise and selling point of the Journeys series is travelling the world and yet only 2/5 of the series so far has been set outside of Vermillion City. They promised the world (no pun intended) and are kind of falling flat…

Goh and his goal:

Now Goh is certainly a character that has divided the community some love him and some definitely hate him. Personally, I’m in the middle, I like Goh’s personality I thought his rational and logical personality made him a great counterbalance for Ash. The problem I have with him is: his goal, his rapid character development, and his status as a protagonist.

1) His Goal:

Goh’s goal is to catch every Pokémon in existence and considering there over 800 Pokémon that is a lofty goal to begin with. Initially, I thought it was an interesting goal as we never had a character wanting to catch every Pokémon as there are some trainers in the anime universe who only specialise in a specific type, some who catch only cute Pokémon, some who only catch evolutionary lines etc. Therefore, I thought this was an interesting goal and wondered how they would execute its portrayal and there lies the problem…

Goh was named after the game Pokémon Go and is essentially being used as a walking advertisement for Pokémon Go and the Let’s Go series as his gimmick is throwing a Poke Ball at a random Pokémon which can get pretty old very fast. I honestly didn’t understand the need to create a character to promote these games as it has been 4 years since the release of Pokémon Go. Arguably, they could be trying to re-ignite the hype around Pokémon Go as after the initial excitement a lot of people stopped playing or uninstalled it as it was taking up a lot of space on their phone.

One of the things, I particularly love about the anime series is not only the human cast gaining character development but their Pokémon as well. Around the AG series, the writers really begun improving on giving each Pokémon their own unique personality traits as well as traits of their species. It gave the Pokémon more depth and made them memorable for example there’s Dawn’s prideful Piplup, Brock’s weird and wonderful Sudowoodoo who would salute every time he came out of his Poke Ball, Clemont’s gluttonous Chespin and Serena’s shy Eevee to later a confident Sylveon. The list could go on and on but I think you get the point. Therefore, this gives me my second issue with Goh’s goal.

Goh’s goal is to catch every single Pokémon currently in existence, with so many Pokémon, there is difficulty feeling any attachment to them. Cinderace and Sobble (and now Grookey) are the Pokémon Goh is most seen with, needless to say, Cinderace underwent a lot of development and was interested in battling which to be honest I found a little strange as Goh’s goal doesn’t particularly align with Cinderace’s interests. Nevertheless, it is clear that Cinderace is Goh’s ace and utilises him when he does need to battle. Sobble didn’t receive any development until 26 episodes after his capture. However, aside from Cinderace and Sobble we don’t feel any particular attachment to his other Pokémon, one strength is that anime does give each of his Pokémon some spotlight like Goh using his Goldeen to teach Jinny’s Feebas how to swim elegantly but aside from that.

My final issue with Goh’s goal is development, from a story-telling point of view his goal isn’t that engaging like with some of the other goals we’ve had in the series. Take Dawn for example her goal is to be Top Coordinator in order to do that she needs to win 5 Ribbons, participate in the Grand Festival and win the Ribbon Cup. On paper it sound simple but it’s not, we have Dawn’s arc where she lost twice in the Performance Stage fell into depression, lost confidence in her abilities and was uncertain as to whether or not she was a good coordinator. It wasn’t until she befriended May and competed against her that Dawn found a renewed sense of confidence in her abilities, even after that Dawn still lost a few contests before being able to compete in the Grand Festival where even then there were a few rough moments like her battle with Ursula.

My point is even though Dawn (and May’s) goal looks simple on paper they had a lot of struggle to get there. Whereas, with Goh’s goal and the current execution of it, I don’t get that same sense of story-telling especially when he’s already caught a Legendary Pokémon, there just isn’t that same level of struggle. The most I could see Goh struggling at this moment is not catching a Pokémon the first time round.

2) His rapid development

One of the biggest issues I have with Journeys is pacing and development, and this issue isn’t just exclusive to Goh. In the beginning, Goh is a rookie trainer after catching Scorbunny and as we saw in the Flute Cup his lack of battling experience caused him to be eliminated very quickly and yet 29 episodes later, he’s defeating a Flygon with a Fire-type and using a technique Ash had once used himself in his battle against Grant. I understand Ash and Goh are close friends and understandably their traits are going to rub off on one another for example Goh’s logic and caution has rubbed off on Ash to the extent Ash had his Dragonite use Dragon Dance in his battle with Korrina. Before this, we’d never seen Ash use these types of moves in his Pokémon battles. I have no issues with Goh developing as a character, everyone loves good character development, my issue is with how rapid it is.

I’ll use Dawn’s arc as an example again, I loved it because it was well-paced, in the first season of DP Dawn was overconfident in her abilities which led to some losses particularly towards the end of the first series and Dawn didn’t fully recover from this until nearly midway through the second series of DP. Arguably, Ash’s influence has caused Goh to develop an interest in battles but I feel like we haven’t seen him go through enough battles to justify the level he is at.

3) His status as a Protagonist

To be honest, I didn’t realise Goh has a protagonist status until someone pointed it out to me, I just saw him as another one of Ash’s travelling companions. This is one of the biggest issues Goh haters have with him and that’s feeling as though Goh is taking the spotlight away from Ash and there are a lot of episodes focusing on Goh. Arguably, Ash has taken on the role of mentor like Brock had done once for him. However, my issue with Goh’s protagonist status is that I don't feel like Goh's goal justifies him having it, even in episodes focusing on Ash and his participation in the World Coronation Series, Goh still manages to catch a Pokémon which as I mentioned before it got old pretty fast. I can understand some people would see this as a good thing they are both closer towards their goals but if an episode advertises its going to focus on one character, I want it to focus on that character.

In some of the previous series when May, Dawn and Serena were participating in Contests or Showcases, Ash would generally put his training the back burner and support his friends. Likewise, his travelling companions would support him during his gym battles. In some cases, Ash would even get ideas for his own battles from watching them compete like the Counter Shield from Ash watching Dawn and Ambipom.

Sometimes, I feel like Goh is there for the sake of being there like in Episode 56, I honestly felt like him and Scyther/Scizor didn’t need to be there. The episode did focus on Ash and Farfetch’d relationship improving but I felt like the only reason Goh was there was to have his Scyther evolve their presence at the training camp didn’t really contribute anything to the story.

Ash and his Pokémon:

Whenever Ash starts a new journey, he always starts with a clean slate leaving his most recent Pokemon with Professor Oak or Kukui. One of the things that excites fans the most is guessing which new Pokemon from the new generation Ash would catch. Arguably, since Sun and Moon, certain traditions have been turned on their head. Some of these traditions included:

Ash catching the regional bird e.g., Starly, Pidove, Fletchling etc.

Catching at least one of the region’s starters

Although, in Sun and Moon, Ash never caught the regional bird and it was one of the first series with Ash not having a water-type either. However, in this current series, Ash only has 2 Generation 8 Pokémon being Farfetch’d (which will evolve into Sirfetch’d) and Dracovish. This is kind of understandable as Ash isn’t based or travelling around Galar but to be honest it’s still disappointing.

As many of you know, in the most recent episode Goh caught Grookey completing the Galar starter trio (which I’ll cover later), however, a majority of the fandom wanted Ash to have Grookey as they felt personality-wise Ash would be compatible with the Chimp Pokémon and it would continue the long-held tradition of Ash catching one of the new region’s starter Pokémon which is why this latest capture has sparked a lot of controversy with some people calling Goh a thief.

Personally, I would have liked Ash to catch Grookey but in one of the earlier episodes like when they first visited Galar. The reason for this being the storyline development and I know many will argue Ash is a Champion he doesn’t need a starter at this point but Leon in the Sword and Shield games took on and trained the starter that was left over after the Protagonist and Hop had chosen theirs. However, as I mentioned earlier one of the things, I love about the anime is each Pokémon having their own personality and character but also their own traumas and trials to overcome alongside their trainer this can be particularly reflected in the case of Ash and Infernape.

I am not trying to suggest they re-create the Ash and Infernape storyline with Ash and a Grookey but one of the ways a Pokémon develops as a character is through evolution or in some cases like Pikachu and Bulbasaur choosing not to evolve and finding strength in staying the way that they are. Pokémon when they evolve can go through personality-changes whether that be good or bad but having a Pokemon at its first evolutionary stage allows us to go through that development and journey with them.

Which is one of the issues, I have with the series, Ash caught two fully evolved Pokémon being Dragonite and Gengar. Before anyone gives me any grief, I love Dragonite and Gengar’s personalities but as they are fully evolved, we don’t get that same sense of development as we’ve had with some of Ash’s other Pokémon. The only development I could see for these two is potentially learning a new move or overcoming a stronger Pokémon alongside Ash. But having two fully evolved Pokémon makes it difficult to go on a journey of development alongside them. There is also the fact, Dragonite and Gengar are meant to be incredibly strong Pokémon and yet Ash hardly uses them.

Another one of the biggest issues in Journeys as previously mentioned is Ash not fully utilising his team. Whenever, a battle occurs Ash either uses Pikachu or Lucario, the others are kind of pushed to the side and that annoys me so much particularly with Farfetch’d and Gengar. I’ll start with Gengar, Gengar was abandoned by its previous trainer and told to wait in an abandoned building that would later become Cerise Laboratory and in the earlier half of the series (before Riolu) Ash utilised Gengar a lot like in his battle with Visquez and Team Rocket but after Riolu came along Ash used Gengar less and less. In Episode 57, Gengar was taking its anger out on Renji, Chloe and Chrysa and Chloe pointed out that it may have been angry Ash left it behind. This is what I found frustrating; Ash is kind of repeating the behaviour of Gengar’s previous trainer.

Next is Farfetch’d, personality-wise Farfetch’d reminds me of Ash’s Buizel and Hawlucha, with how prideful and aloof it is. I feel like the writers thought they couldn’t flesh out Lucario any further so they decided to focus on Farfetch’d and after two Farfetch’d-focused episodes I can’t help but feel that Farfetch’d is going to evolve in the next episode and that’s what annoys me, that is lazy writing, they haven’t given time to develop Ash and Farfetch’d relationship although it has definitely improved since Episode 56, I feel like it’s too soon. Farfetch’d has so much potential to grow as a character before evolving as I previously mentioned evolution in the Pokémon universe can contribute towards development and I feel like for Farfetch’d they’ll use it in a positive light as Sirfetch’d are noted for their fighting spirit and noble personality. But, as I mentioned before, I would have liked to have seen more development before an evolution.

Then there is Dracovish, this was a completely unexpected capture, however, many fans were surprised by how strong Dracovish was in the games. However, Dracovish was captured in Episode 50 and nearly 10 episodes later, we haven’t seen it… On the other hand, many of Dracovish’s Pokédex entries state that it can’t breathe unless its underwater, therefore, applying that logic to the anime world, may make battling with it difficult...

Team Rocket:

One of the biggest complaints’ viewers have is the series use of Team Rocket. Particularly, using their use of the Gacha machine and using them to create easy conflict. I love Team Rocket; they are basically lovable idiots to me. They’re meant to be “bad guys” but we’ve seen on many occasions they’re kindness and compassion such as rescuing a bunch of wild Ekans and Koffing from a Pokémon hunter and releasing their Arbok and Weezing to protect them whilst they distract the hunter, Meowth sympathising and trying to cheer up Litten following Stoutland’s death are just two examples of their kindness.

Nevertheless, the Journeys series has been utilising them poorly using them as convenient plot device and in my opinion Team Rocket deserve so much better than this. Initially, a lot of viewers may have found the Gacha device interesting but much like Goh throwing a Poké ball at a random Pokémon it got old fast. Similar to one of my issues with Goh, we don’t feel any attachment to the Gacha Pokémon they use unlike other series where they had their own Pokémon which I’ll get on to in a minute.

I feel like the writers missed a huge opportunity, as one of the initial selling points of the series, particularly to the older fans was nostalgia. Team Rocket keep some of their old Pokémon in Team Rocket Headquarters and as the series seems to like staying in Vermillion City, Team Rocket could have collected their old Pokémon and use them similar to when they brought some of their Hoennian Pokémon to Sinnoh. I loved some of Team Rocket’s Pokémon like James’ Mime Jr. and Inkay and Jessie’s Gourgeist and her Yanmega was noted to be strong.

Moreover, in series such as AG, DP and XY they expanded on Team Rocket’s role outside of trying to steal. Jessie showed a promising career in Pokémon Coordinating (particularly in DP) and Pokémon Performing, I loved how she became a rival for Dawn and Serena and particularly in XY, Jessie showed maturity in her loss in the Semi-Finals much to Meowth and Gourgeist’s surprise compared to when she begrudgingly congratulated Dawn on her victory. I just loved the fact in these series they expanded on Team Rocket, showed their friendship and support for one another whether it was cheering each other on from the side-lines or willingly helping Jessie in her pursuits of fame and glory. I realize in Journeys, it’s a bit difficult to expand on Team Rocket’s role in this way but they way they are currently using Team Rocket is to be honest kind of insulting to them as characters who we’ve watched grow over the years.

Chloe, Yamper and Eevee

I’ll get this out the way, I honestly love Chloe, and I’ve loved her development so far, I think they’ve gotten the pacing right for her when they’ve given her focus. I think many people like Chloe because she is similar to Serena, in the sense, she doesn’t have a goal and is discovering what she wants to do in life which is something a lot of people find relatable. I think what would be interesting for Chloe’s character if she does decide to be a Pokémon Professor after initially feeling as though the idea was being forced on her by her peers. Anyways, one of the biggest issues with Journeys is pacing, it takes ages before they actually decide to give a character development and ever since Chloe got Eevee, I feel as though Yamper has been pushed to the side (which is kind of ironic as Chloe calls Ash out on this) and I know Yamper is Professor Cerise’s Pokémon but Yamper acknowledges Chloe more than his own trainer. I feel like a great way to use Yamper was for Professor Cerise to actually give Yamper to Chloe when she was old enough to have a Pokémon, as a lot of Chloe’s earlier development was a result of her bond with Yamper.

Next is Eevee, I love Eevee it is one of my favourite Pokemon, but I also feel similar to Goh, she’s a walking advertisement for the Let’s Go Eevee game as she is unable to evolve. However, the fact that Eevee is unable to evolve makes her a good match for Chloe who is uncertain of her own dreams. Nevertheless, what I don’t understand is why they are trying to promote one of their older games in a new generation (especially when Lana’s Eevee (which don’t get me started) should have filled that role). Also, with Chloe catching Eevee, arguably, she should be joining Ash and Goh frequently, this could allow for Chloe and Eevee to develop and find their own path but aside from joining them twice in Galar, they’ve hardly left Kanto. Which is frustrating because I love Chloe and Eevee and I don’t want it to be another 20 episodes before we get any development from either of them.

Structure

I’ve realized that above I’ve kind of been focusing on the characters and some of the issues surrounding them. Arguably, one of Journeys biggest issues is structure or lack of it for that matter and pacing. Everything is all over the place but I’ll cover each section.

Pacing:

One of my biggest gripes with the series is pacing, lately we have been having back-to-back filler episodes and I don’t mind having filler every now and then to give us a break as you don’t want a show to be too content-heavy. And I don’t mind when the filler is at least entertaining but that Gulpin episode from two weeks ago was absolutely pointless, I’m sorry. So much stuff has taken place off-screen and Ash went up by 500 ranks to Rank 415 they could have taken out some of the filler episodes and used it to show Ash training at least or put it towards actual development for characters like Chloe and Eevee or Farfetch’d.

Another issue, I have with the pacing and I think a lot of you will hopefully agree is the pace of Goh catching a legendary Pokemon (which I’m in the middle about). Normally, around the end of the series, all of the respective characters have found or are closer to their goal like Dawn and Serena coming Runner-Up in their respective competitions or having confidence to keep pursuing their goal. This is normally, in the last series of that generation’s anime adaptation but Goh’s already achieved such a huge milestone towards his goal in the second series. I can’t help but feel as though this has been completely rushed.

Continuity:

Continuity in Journeys is strange, I can see it as a strength and a weakness. I’ll start off with the positives, continuity-wise I like the fact that Journeys at least references to past episodes and characters for example episode 57 Chloe’s younger brother says he’s going to a sleepover at his friend, Jinny’s house, the girl with the Feebas from episode 31. Or episode 47, Goh uses his prize from winning the Pokémon Eating Contest to have a dessert tour around Unova’s Castelia City. These small examples of continuity are something I can appreciate. But I can’t help but feel some of the past characters returning are merely fan-service for the older fans, so far, some of the character returns haven’t really contributed to the series’ narrative aside from the Alola episode contributing to Goh’s development.

A good example of utilising a past character is the Wallace Cup arc, with May and Dawn helping each other out of a losing streak and allowing Dawn to renew her confidence. I think no matter the outcome, both Coordinators gained something from the tournament even if Dawn lost to May, I think she would have had a regained her confidence but winning the Aqua Ribbon allowed her to re-affirm her self-belief and skills.

Episodic vs Linear:

Now I’ve watched a few videos on this to have a better understanding, the reason why Journeys feels so unstructured is that for some reason the writers chose to go down an episodic route instead of linear. The best example I know of episodic storytelling is Phineas and Ferb where characters and elements are introduced and can come back. But utilising episodic storytelling in a series like Pokémon feels like an unnatural choice we’re meant to be following these characters and their journeys towards achieving their goals whereas in a linear narrative this would be a lot clearer.

The Setting:

A lot of people have an issue with the fact that a series, that promises travelling the world, it really fell flat. As I have previously mentioned, so far only 2/5 of the episodes have taken place in other regions, most of the time Ash and Goh end up staying in Vermillion City. With the way things are currently being executed, I honestly would have preferred a Sword and Shield anime, with Ash at least travelling around Galar, it would allow for the Galar story to be more fleshed out instead of shoe-horned into a four-episode arc and with the announcement of the Sinnoh re-makes, I feel as though they are going to promote that in some way in the anime later on. (Perhaps with a Dawn cameo).

As I’ve been writing this, I’ve kind of realised one gripe I have with the anime that has become rather blatant as of late. That is the commercialism in the anime, I understand the anime is utilised to promote the game and re-makes of games but with this latest series the commercialism is blatant and honestly annoying. An early example of using the anime to promote a game was the Johto arc in DP to promote HeartGold and SoulSilver. Whereas, currently we have Goh, the human advertisement for Pokémon Go and Chloe’s Eevee promoting Let’s Go Eevee (which I honestly don’t see the need to advertise older games).

The controversary with Grookey…

Needless to say, the latest episode of Pokemon Journeys has sparked a lot of debate and anger particularly from Goh haters who have declared him a thief and are dropping the anime. There are some people who don’t mind Goh catching Grookey, they may have disliked the storyline they used for Goh to catch Grookey. I’ve made my feelings clear, that I would have preferred for Grookey to have been introduced much earlier and for Ash to have caught it.

However, I do have an issue with the way Goh caught Grookey as I can kind of understand why people are calling Goh a thief, I wouldn’t go that far maybe immoral at the most. The initial concept of Grookey belonging to Team Rocket was interesting but the whole story falls flat when they don’t give us any backstory like how did Team Rocket catch Grookey? why was Grookey so desparate to stay with Goh? was Grookey being mistreated by Team Rocket?

Honestly, if Grookey was being mistreated by Team Rocket, I’d understand why it’d want to leave them but this is Jessie, James and Meowth, the trio that released Mimikyu and Mareanie since they didn’t want them to be left in Team Rock Headquarters because they’d thought Mimikyu and Mareanie would be unhappy. So, I honestly can’t see the mistreatment storyline.

Also, the fact that Grookey smashed its own Poké Ball to gain its freedom kind of undermines other storylines that have seen Pokémon being abused by their trainers as they could have arguably smashed their Poké Balls to gain their freedom. Although, you could argue there is an element of fear in these cases.

I feel like if they built up the story more, I may have been more accepting but I kind of find it hypocritical in the sense Goh wants this Pokémon that belongs to someone else and it smashes its own Poké Ball to be with him. Whereas, its bad when Team Rocket try to steal someone else’s Pokémon but its okay for Goh because he’s the protagonist. Considering this is a kids anime that kind of sends the wrong message. I honestly would have found it more interesting if Grookey decided to stay with Team Rocket that would have been an interesting twist with Team Rocket having a starter Pokémon on their side. Plus, we know, James loves his Grass-types.

Conclusion:

Basically, I needed to get this off my chest and honestly, I feel much better for it. No Pokémon anime series is perfect by any means but lately I feel as though the writing has taken a huge dip and it has taken the enjoyment out of the series. I’m still trying to give the series a chance and hopefully I can warm to Grookey under Goh’s ownership, I think if the episodic formula has taken away the storytelling element that I love about the Pokémon series.

I have honestly never seen a Pokémon anime divide the community so much but I’m hoping that things begin to improve particularly if Ash’s Farfetch’d evolves in the next episode.

#pokemon journeys #pokemon #pokeani

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zaptap · 3 years ago

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a few months ago or something i got back to my pokemon rewatch i started in gen 6

well, it’s a rewatch in the sense that i’m watching the dubbed episodes over again, but on the other hand i’m watching the japanese episodes for the first time (having only started watching those in late gen 5). yes i’m watching every episode twice basically which is kind of insane, but once i get to the end of the 4kids dub it’ll just be the japanese version (though that’s over 400 episodes in)

when xy&z introduced the “meowth’s ballad” ending i’d recently gotten to the episodes with “meowth’s song” so i immediately caught the reference. unfortunately i fell out of the habit of watching it just 10 episodes before “type: wild,” an ending that was remade in the sun and moon anime, so i didn’t recognize that when it showed up a few years later

the good thing about having taken a break from that though is now a lot more episodes are subbed! and this post got long so if you want to hear more about that i’m shoving the rest under a readmore

originally there was a group called PocketMonsters that subbed from late gen 4 to the middle of gen 7 (before disbanding in 2018) and they’d do an original series episode whenever they found the time, but they only got through 40-something episodes. after i got through those i switched to watching raw, which is sort of ok since i know a fair bit of japanese and i’d watch it after the dubbed version (giving me a general idea of what’s being said, though the dub changes things of course) but i’d still prefer watching it subbed

but then in 2020 a sailor moon focused group called Sea of Serenity showed up and started subbing the original series. they released all the kanto league episodes in 2020 (as well as the first movie), all the orange islands episodes in 2021 (plus the second movie and both movies’ pikachu shorts), and as of 2 months ago they said johto was basically done and just needed to be revised, so it seems like that should come out soon too (at my current pace i should be done with the orange islands in 2 weeks, but if it’s still not out then i can definitely take a break)

other than that, based on what i’m seeing on 9anime there’s still about 80 hoenn episodes that haven’t been subbed at all (though as i understand it some of the episodes that are subbed aren’t done very well, but i guess it’s better than nothing), and i’m also having trouble finding subs of many of the side story (pokemon chronicles) specials. 9anime also lists almost all of the dp episodes, except the clip show that never got dubbed (which is weird because you’d think that’d make it a bigger priority?) but i’ve also heard that a lot of those ones haven’t been properly subbed either

fortunately we’ve consistently had everything subbed since gen 5, first by PocketMonsters (who were several weeks behind, at least during gen 5-6 when i watched them, but at least they did good work), then since gen 7 it’s been done by Some-Stuffs, who’ve released the episodes on the same day (very impressive compared to the situation when i started watching the subs in 2013, so i’m very thankful for all their hard work)

anyway my original intention when i started was firstly to rewatch the dub (and only the 4kids dub, so that gets accomplished towards the end of gen 3), and secondly to watch the episodes i’d never seen in japanese before (which only applies until i get into gen 5), but i think i’ll keep going after that since the past few generations have been the best ones so i might as well just rewatch those too. several years from now when i get that far!

#pokeani #pokemon

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solo-23 · 3 years ago

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I'd debated about whether or not to post this because it's definitely a rant and there is definitely a lot of negativity, but I need to vent after last night's episode (with some leftover issues from earlier this season, too). If Betty is your favorite and you don't like to read anything negative about her, you will not like this post.

1. The way the voicemail has been blown completely out of proportion by the writers, reviewers, and some shippers is ridiculous. We keep hearing about how it was terrible, emotionally abusive, toxic, and something that Jughead definitely needed to apologize for, but nothing he said was actually out of line. There is absolutely nothing in that voicemail that Betty should have been surprised about, let alone treating it like it somehow turns her into the victim in the fall of Bughead.

It's not surprising that Jughead has now apologized twice for the voicemail, even if he doesn't actually remember all of it, because he knows that it hurt Betty. He can also probably guess what he said because he knows what he feels and how it can be exaggerated when he's feeling depressed or under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Generally if you actually admit what you're thinking or feeling when you know it would hurt someone, you feel bad about it. It doesn't matter if it's true or not, or if you're under the influence. A good person apologizes if they know they hurt someone. Jughead is a good person.

Just a note here, I've seen other people saying that Betty's actions while high should be excused just like people have said Jughead's voicemail should be excused because he was under the influence. Being under the influence DOES NOT excuse the voicemail.

The fact that Betty cheated on Jughead, did continue to sneak around with Archie while debating whether or not she wanted to "officially" pursue him, hid the whole affair until Jughead actually caught on and she had to make up a direct lie to his face or confess, never actually explained anything to Jughead (things like she was the one who stopped the affair, she wanted to stay with Jughead, etc.) even after he asked if they could talk about it, stood him up at Pop's a year later, and then stood him up again at the book release party justify Jughead's voicemail. And he has apologized for it twice.

2. That is why it was so intensely frustrating for Betty to just brush off his apology (again) and then turn the conversation to her, but without actually apologizing for anything. When Jughead mentioned not really being able to remember the voicemail, she could have brought up what bothered her in it so (a) he would know and (b) they could actually discuss the issues, which could have led into Betty actually explaining what happened with the cheating, including how the affair ended, and she could have apologized for that. It still wouldn't have been fully satisfying because Betty never apologizes first for her actions, but it would've been better than nothing. She also could have apologized for standing him up, although at least she explained why she didn't make it to the book release party.

3. However, she still didn't admit to or apologize for giving away Jughead's manuscript. The entire reason Jughead relapsed into drinking and almost plagiarized Cora is because Betty gave Jessica his manuscript. No, Betty does not get credit for "saving" Jughead because she was present when he got a phone call from Samm and admitted that he wasn't the author. She's the reason he was in that position in the first place. Yes, she had been drugged. Yes, Tabitha was present and didn't stop her. No, neither of those things excuse it. It also doesn't excuse her from sharing the voicemail with Tabitha and Jessica.

Why not? She and Tabitha were still shown as functional when all of this happened. Jessica admitted that she drugged them to try to get the manuscript. They were both capable of thinking and arguing. Betty chose to give the manuscript to Jessica. It wasn't until afterward that Betty and Tabitha started being really impacted by the drugs. Jughead's manuscript wasn't Betty's (or Tabitha's) to give away and doing so completely screwed Jughead over.

There are some questions here--did he switch over to his typewriter and that's why there was no backup? did he forget to save a copy on his laptop? did his laptop crash or get lost? who knows, but in the story it doesn't matter. There was one copy and Betty gave it away, placing Jughead in the position of losing his agent or plagiarizing another author.

Also, for playing the voicemail, Jessica had just brought the drugged fries to the table. No one is shown as having felt the effects of the drugs until Tabitha made a comment about being warm after the voicemail is over. Betty had been reluctant to help from the beginning, before Tabitha mentioned the "don't be a Betty" line, and made fairly rude comments about Jughead throughout the episode. I don't think she needs to apologize to Jughead for sharing it, but I also thought that playing the victim and having some people blame it on "being high" was ridiculous.

4. You cannot convince me that Betty cares about Jughead in the slightest when he was telling her he was an alcoholic and he's trying to get better and he's clearly drinking alcohol right in front of her and her response is "I'm an addict, too. I'm addicted to serial killers." She's struggling, yes, and it's good that she's opening up, but if she cared about Jughead at all an appropriate response here would be "So, why are you drinking?" or "are you okay?" Show some sort of concern for someone who is relapsing in front of your face. Jughead does it for Betty when he suggests she should take a break, even though he's in a moral quandary caused by Betty, depressed, and drunk.

Also, no, chasing serial killers is not an addiction in the same way as drugs or alcohol and it's insulting to say they're the same. Chasing serial killers could be described as a compulsion for Betty, or a hyperfixation, but it's not the same. It's difficult, but you can choose to not follow a compulsion without experiencing the often severe physical side effects experienced by actual addicts. I'm glad Betty recognized that she has a problem, but no, that is not an addiction.

5. The entire conversation is extremely awkward. It's clear that it isn't what Jughead had in mind, but his life that he had just been starting to get back together fell apart. He sank to new (or at least different) lows. Betty seemed like she wanted to leave as soon as she got there (understandable given how awkward it was, even secondhand) and disappeared once Jughead was distracted by a phone call. It's understandable, but disappointing. The part that was really frustrating, though, was that after talking to Jughead about how unhealthy her serial killer obsession is and how she's worried about her mom, she still goes out. Alice was passed out on the couch, which Betty paused to acknowledge. That should have been a turning point for Betty and it just wasn't. Screw these writers.

6. I loved that Tabitha and Jughead had mutual apologies, discussed their issues, and genuinely seemed to care about each other. I also loved that Jughead still cares and worries about Betty (frustrating as it is when it seems unreciprocated) because it's so true to Jughead's character.

7. It is absolutely fine and understandable if Betty has moved on from Jughead. She seemed to believe that if he found out about the cheating in their senior year, it would be the end of their relationship. She started shutting him out and trying to move on the next day.

However, as a Jughead fan, it's intensely annoying to see him still struggling with the lack of closure and continuing to have feelings for Betty after all of that. I would have preferred to see either both of them move on, then rediscover each other later (or not, depending on where the show is going), or have Betty be the one who still clearly has feelings for Jughead and have her regret blowing up the relationship.

8. Overall, I hate a lot of what the writers have done this season. I don't particularly like any of the backstories for the characters during the time jump, I don't like each character following a separate plot line(s), the lack of interaction between characters, and how disjointed everything feels.

The mothman plot was interesting, but seems destined for a disappointing end. There have been a lot of missed opportunities to bring storylines together (Jughead went missing while Archie was looking for escaped prisoners, he could have found Jughead; Jughead hitchhiked with a random trucker, even without the trucker attacking him he could have seen clues or found Polly; Sweet Pea or Fangs could have seen Betty playing hooker and organized an intervention instead of having the weird cult plot line; I'm sure there's more). Maybe it'll be better with a binge watch, but I'm having trouble maintaining interest in the final three episodes, let alone rewatching this mess of a season.

BONUS: I was relieved that the Bughead talk did not go with my worst case scenario. Based on the possible B/A return, I was a little bit worried that Jughead would apologize for the voicemail and remember what he said, then talk about how he always knew Betty had feelings for Archie. Betty, who said she'd been "wanting this since high school," would then nod along and say she was sorry for hurting him, but acknowledge those feelings. Then Jughead would ask why they never acted on those feelings after the breakup, Betty would talk about the FWB, and Jughead would go full B/A cheerleader and tell her to give it a chance (like the Pacey and Joey chat about Dawson at Mitch's funeral in Dawson's Creek). I was dreading that possibility and I'm so glad the show didn't go there. I'm sorry if I've given anyone nightmares.

#anti betty cooper #rd fandom negativity #riverdale writers negativity #anti barchie

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chrysallisthenum · 4 years ago

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I just saw your firefighter sweet pea posts and I love them so much? Like holy shit we were ROBBED- and your take on it especially? I love it I want twenty. Now a small part of me craves Kindergarten teacher Jug and Firefighter Sweet Pea, like a season 5 au where Betty, Veronica, and Archie teach at the high school sure, but Jug is asked to teach the kindergartners and what do you know, class field trip to the fire station! (If this is the first time the two see each other since their meeting at the White Wyrm, can you imagine the meeting? So much potential. And if one of the little kids comes up and shyly tugs Sweet Pea’s pant leg, “Are you Mr.Jones’ husband?” Because little kids are PERSPECTIVE and they notice the longing looks.)

Alternatively an au with High School teacher Jug and Firefighter Sweet Pea, like the one @juggio came up with, fuck that’s genius too. SO MANY POSSIBILITIES and it was all thanks to your posts on firefighter sweet pea, I love it.

Oh my gOD!!! First of all, thanks for liking my prompt 💕💕 someone else came up with it though, so I can’t take all the credit haha (I’ve tried to find the post but it’s so far back I literally can’t,,,)

Second of all, I have to start with: I haven’t watched the fifth season lol. I want to wait until all the episodes are released so I can binge watch them all (I have no patience for waiting every week for one episodes 😌). I do however know these kids are somehow hired as teachers (like why,,, what were the adults thinking,, Archie started an underaged bdsm boys club, twice; Betty is borderline insane and should have stayed in her fbi job; jughead is... a gang leader; Ronnie.. is the sanest one and therefore should stay out of that town)

BUT I will go off the rails and say for the sake of fanfic these kids shall be teachers! I feel like Archie is definitely a PE teacher. Betty can either be that kindergarten teacher who hates kids but she likes them, you know, or made a subject teaching middle to high school students their basic civil rights. Ronnie is definitely a business and/or econ teacher, probably took up accounting too just to voluntarily add to her own stress. Jughead is either a tortured artist writer turned English writer in high school or decided to sign up as a kindergarten teacher cause he thought it was easier (it wasn’t).

Sweet pea decided to take up a job to become legitimate alongside his regular serpent night job and it was well known among the members hes a firefighter — and one of the best in riverdale too. Jughead though, went away and never looked back until he had to. Even while in Riverdale he kept his eyes away from the serpents and thus was thoroughly surprised when sweet pea showed up in front of Archie’s door, where he had been staying (jughead is crashing with Archie isn’t he??), in bright yellow uniform and a crying James in his arms and Thomas clinging to his leg.

This has been LONG, so I’ll stop there 🤧 the longing looks though,, the kids pick up on them real quick, like scary quick, cause jughead hasn’t even noticed himself even staring at sweet pea sometimes.

#Riverdale #jughead jones #sweet pea #archie andrews #fangs fogarty #jugpea #betty cooper #firefighter sweet pea #teacher jughead #these kids are taking bets I know it #James and Thomas are absolutely obsessed with these two #they take it upon themselves to play Cupids #since they’re the ones who brought them together your welcome 😌#jughead is absolutely mortified once he realises his feelings and what the kids are doing #Betty is absolutely amused. like she’s definitely in on it with the kids #jughead finds himself writing again coincidentally after his reunion with sweet pea and thus the serpents #sweet pea accidentally finds a short story once and Toni fangs and Betty are convinced it’s about them together

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wiz-witch · 3 years ago

Text

I posted 305 times in 2021

34 posts created (11%)

271 posts reblogged (89%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 8.0 posts.

I added 26 tags in 2021

#ducktales - 10 posts

#dt spoilers - 5 posts

#animaniacs - 2 posts

#professor layton - 2 posts

#animal crossing - 2 posts

#anyone who's seen my discord status can attest - 1 posts

#i'm not even done counting - 1 posts

#ask game - 1 posts

#anonymous - 1 posts

#black lives matter - 1 posts

Longest Tag: 88 characters

#i had the daily log and a 'you planted flowers' message both ready when i opened the app

My Top Posts in 2021

Yknow the thing of Huey not being in the promos is suddenly reminding me of before "Astro Boyd!" aired when the preview stuff didn't include Gyro at all even though we knew he was in the episode so we all started worrying about him...

... And it turned out the promo content took place while he was doing something mundane somewhere else

24 notes • Posted 2021-03-12 03:09:34 GMT

If I had a nickel for every cartoon I watched where an anthropomorphic actor in Hollywood had an old friend who's an anthropomorphic deer living in New Mexico, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't much but it's kinda funny it's happened twice

27 notes • Posted 2021-05-25 06:34:09 GMT

I keep feeling like I need to say some sort of final words on the fact DuckTales is over, but I’ve been struggling to figure out what I wanted to say all day until I realized something...

The emotional attachment I have to this show was higher than I realized

I remember four years ago, scrolling through my phone kinda trying to ignore the face I was officially an adult when I found the first full trailer for the upcoming DuckTales show. I’d seen some stuff about the reboot but I’d never really watched the original DuckTales so it hadn’t drawn my interest too much. However, I decided to take a look at the trailer...

“Now going to: McDuck Manor.” “McDuck Manor? As in Scrooge McDuck?” “The bajillionaire?” “You’re finally gonna sell us.”

I laughed out loud at Louie’s response, and that moment had sold me on the show. I eagerly awaited the show as I finished high school and prepared to college, I looked into the lore of the characters that were going to be appearing in the show, and I even started plotting out a fic the day the theme song was released on YouTube.

I ended up loving the show when it aired. I fell in love with these characters and the story, though at the time, a different show kinda tended to take priority in my brain.

Two years later, I was struggling through my second year of college and that second show ended as Della Duck returned home to meet her kids. My mental stress had reached a peak and I spiraled into a nervous breakdown that forced me to drop out of school and even took away my writing ability.

That. That was a hit. I started writing when I was nine, so to lose that ability ten years later was... Scary, especially when my mental health was already so severely damaged. My friend introduced me to a different show I was able to write a little bit for, but everything felt off and sticky when I tried to write...

I then came back to DuckTales. And my creativity flourished in a way it hadn’t been when my mental state started declining. I’ve been sorting through WiPs in my folder and while the show that’d ended around the time my breakdown hit always had kinda been my ‘dominant’ fandom with most of my fics in it, I’m looking over it now and it seems DuckTales has overtaken it (even of many of those fics aren’t posted yet). I just couldn’t stop coming up with ideas once I started.

So I think that’s why this is hitting me so hard. This show helped restore a core aspect of my identity, so it feels hard to let it go. Plus the fact that I... Don’t have any other fandoms I’m active in after this.

I hope this fandom stays going. There are so many creative people here and I want to hold onto this... And a few I’ve met because of this show I want to personally thank:

@halfshellkayla -- A fellow angsting buddy who helped me develop that first scrapped idea and to this day continues to help me with story discussion

@kats-randomology -- We don’t talk as much anymore, but you definitely were an early influence in me developing my take on these characters

@stevenfallsvs -- An absolute AU genius who somehow thinks me wanting to write for said AUs is a huge honor (even I stand by you being the true genius behind them and I’m the one who should be honored for you allowing me to play with your ideas)

@pholux-twg -- A great analysist who has always been willing to listen to me develop my ideas, even when I decided to throw in details just to cause to angst and pain and see your reactions ^-^

@plainiack -- Every story needs a villain and you were always one who liked to see the potential in them. For some reason I never thought of the villains in my stories too much until you not only brought the potential of canon ones to my attention, but helped me develop my OC when all I had for him was a name and “he’s an asshole”

@lunawoona11 -- I don’t even know how we started talking but I’m glad we did. Your ideas are always fun and I always get excited when it’s time to talk with you every night

@imagine-pleasantnonsense -- A newer friend but one I love all the same. It’s rare to find someone who can make angst ideas that have me react, but that’s definitely something you manage, and I getting the chance to develop ideas with you

I hope we all can keep this adventure going ^-^

40 notes • Posted 2021-03-16 04:20:21 GMT

Glad my hc of "Huey is going to give Fenton a heart attack one of these days" is canon

42 notes • Posted 2021-02-08 22:29:32 GMT

Me: Haha Fenton being a traitor for FOWL is a fun hypothetical to play with in fan fiction that could absolutely never happen in the show

Beaks in the Shell: Fenton is dating and working on an experiment with Gandra. Who everyone knows is part of FOWL. And Huey is needing to keep it secret

Me: ......... I'm going to go scream

46 notes • Posted 2021-01-19 23:06:43 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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ihatetaxes99 · 3 years ago

Text

A Brief Retrospective Look At MVA (In The Anime)

Well. Here we are. Every end of the time is another begun. After what has felt like years of anticipation (mostly because it actually has been years), My Villain Academia has been fully animated. Well, "fully" may be the wrong word here, but that's something I'll get into later.

To honour the end of the arc, I decided to do two things: One, I re-read the entirety of the arc in the manga all in one sitting; Two, I rewatched all five episodes of the anime's adaptation back to back once again. My life is pain and I know not of sleep. Anyway, the reason I did this is because of a little project I proposed to myself back just before the first episode aired; Once MVA was done and dusted, I would go back and give my own retrospective on the whole thing. Because why the hell not, sounds like fun. This will also hopefully be less emotional than my thoughts I shared as the episodes were still airing, but who knows?

So, let's begin. And I wish to start by stating that My Villain Academia is my absolute favourite arc in the manga. It did a lot of things right. It focused entirely on my favourite faction, the villains. It offers a glimpse into their lives and goes a long way in humanising them, particularly Spinner and Shigaraki. It sets up key points for others too, such as Mr. Compress' habit of thinking more about the bigger picture than the others, which would factor into his major reveal during the Paranormal Liberation War and of course the formation of the Front itself. It introduced us to Rikiya Yotsubashi, one of my favourite characters in the manga, even if he honestly peaked in this arc and was never as good again. And it gave us a large-scale, grueling fight for supremacy in which I found myself actively rooting for the League. It is, in my mind, the very best of BNHA, the only arc I would want them to do well in the anime. They could screw up literally everything else and I would be happy if MVA was even just as good as the manga, it didn't even need to be better. I would have been delighted to have an excuse to experience the arc all over again, seeing my favourite moments with the sublime soundtrack and voice acting.

Yeah…

But before I get to that, let us take a little trip of sorts down memory lane to see the road to MVA, what led to it. So, 2021 rolls around. What a fun year. It's just 2020 without the excitement of everything being so uncertain, and frankly it's been really fucking boring as a year. However, BNHA Season Five was announced. In February, we get the first trailer for the upcoming season. It's... It's fine. Obviously, it focuses heavily on the Joint Training Arc (in fact, that is all it shows) and although I despise that arc with a passion, it's not too bad. I had not watched the anime since Overhaul ended, so my plan was I just wouldn't watch JTA and would wait until the big attraction, MVA. And so, Joint Training starts. And it goes on. And on. And on. I checked back almost two months later to discover it still wasn't over yet. Now I found this odd. Joint Training Arc was horrible for many reasons, but the big one was that it dragged on for so long as a result of Horikoshi's health complications, which is by no means his fault. But, surely the anime, which would consistently release on a weekly basis, wouldn't have the issues associated with this. Episodes of BNHA have always encompassed around three to five chapters, and Joint Training's were shorter than usual, so why was it taking more than ten episodes to adapt it?

Very strange, but I didn't question it much. Then, the key visuals released, confirming that MVA was at the very least happening. Great, wonderful. I love it. We've got the whole gang there, seeming like they're in Deika, looks pretty good.

Wait, did I say whole gang? Yeah, my bad, there was someone missing. Spinner. Now, I am not the biggest Spinner fan so I wasn't prepared to riot over his exclusion like I would have been if Compress wasn't in it. But this was starting to get strange. Spinner was the main narrator of MVA. Even if his importance was not on the level of Shigaraki, Twice and Toga, it was certainly more than Dabi and Compress, who did both appear in the art. Why was he excluded? Obviously, I bet you're all having a good old chuckle to yourselves right now because in retrospect, this makes perfect sense now.

Alright, then. I heard from a friend around June time that Joint Training was finally over. Awesome, great, time for the good stuff- why is there a Christmas episode here?

Yes, this was probably what really started to get the alarm bells in my mind going. The Christmas episode- in June. Very, very strange. Also, absolutely no mention of Rikiya, which even if they were reshuffling things, I would have expected him to appear in the episode of Bakugo and Todoroki getting their licenses, since it directly ties in. Concern levels rising, I shrugged it off and waited for next week.

Bam. Major reshuffling. Now, Endeavour Agency comes first, fuck you if you want context for who the hell the PLF are or the significance of Destro's memoirs. This was really starting to worry me now. I told myself that the key visual meant that MVA had to be happening, but it was starting to seem like the villains were being shafted. A fact not helped by the new OP.

Look, I'm sorry. I don't mean to complain or whine, but season five's second OP is just bad. The music is fine, I have no problem there. But the visuals are just awful. Not only is there an extended focus on that stupid bloody trio of Midoriya, Bakugo and Todoroki, not only is there more screentime given to characters who don't appear in MVA or EA than the main cast of the former, but the animation itself is just so stiff and lacking. It had potential, but the visuals are the worst out of any recent anime opening I've seen in a good few years and this was what got me really panicking.

Boom, a beach episode smack in the middle of Endeavour Agency to promote the upcoming movie. Boom, adapting two chapters per episode during EA. Boom, the Shirakumo episode, which I always thought was part of the War Arc and not EA. But finally, mercifully, the title leaks came and it was revealed that episode 20 of season five would be the start of MVA.

20. Out of 25. And it was pretty obvious that they weren't going to end the season with MVA, so really, up to 24. Ohhh no…

But hey, I'm an optimist sometimes. I was excited to just finally be clear of all this nonsense and get to the real good stuff. Hell, in preparation, I watched the entirety of the season up to that point. I finally realised why JTA took so long and it's one of the most depressing things I've ever learned, in a bad way. Were all those flashbacks really necessary? EA was okay, as someone who as a manga reader, already had the necessary context for the PLF stuff. The beach episode, I watched half of, got too bored and skipped the rest of. And you know what, I liked the Shirakumo chapters. They weren't as good in the anime, but it was nice to see.

And then, finally, in comes episode one of My Villain Academia, on a cold, dark August morning. I even bought Crunchyroll Premium to watch it as soon as possible, I was excited. All the messing around, all the crap, it was finally over and the time had come to enjoy what this season was really all about.

I can now safely say why Bones kept pushing back MVA, because if I was them, I would be embarrassed to show this.

No, that's not fair. I promised I wouldn't get too snarky, so let's reek things back in. As a whole, MVA has been… fine. Just fine. Not good enough to justify the bullshit, but not horrendous (mostly.) In fact, right now, I'll give a ranking of the episodes, my worst to best:

5) Episode One

4) Episode Two

3) Episode Three

2) Episode Five

1) Episode Four

Yeah. So, there's a clear pattern here, that things more or less got better as time went on. From just straight up bad, to still not great, to alright, to the final two episodes being what I would comfortably call good. This is not a good look. I'm sorry, but Episode One, an episode that I just called bad, is still one of the season's best in spite of that. That spells out awful things for this season as a whole. But what exactly made this such a disaster?

Well, cut content is the big thing. MVA in the anime cuts out:

The League's battle with the CRC

Their struggle with poverty

The sushi joke setup

All of Spinner's character

All of Rikiya's character, including most mentions of Detnerat and Miyashita

Fairly integral pieces of Skeptic's character

Most of Giran's integrity and bravery

This doesn't look too bad at first. It could be far worse. We got basically everything else from the arc, so what? Well, I would already be annoyed about all of these cuts, but the issue is that they cause a knock on effect. Without the establishment of the League's poverty, the payoff of Toga's duffle coat now makes no sense. Without the setup of Spinner's characterisation, his battle with Hanabata now feels hollow. Rikiya's surrender to the League now makes even less sense, as his love of human life and desire to cause no more death is completely non-existent. The first time Rikiya being a CEO is mentioned is in the closing minutes of the arc. The sushi scene is hamfisted into a two second flashback just so that the payoff makes some sort of sense, but again, it is hollow without it being at the start (this is also the first mention of the League's poverty and it literally happens just as they are freed from it.) Can you see how these little seemingly unimportant cuts spiral into bigger problems? I would have been pissed even if they hadn't caused some tremendous cascades, but the fact that they did just makes this from a subjective issue to an objective one.

Yes. They did some things well. Toga's backstory is mostly intact, SMP is just as satisfying as the manga, Tenko's backstory is one of the best things the anime has ever done, the awakening is very well done, I adore the PLF formation as much as I did in the manga. Everything important is intact, but as I keep saying, you cannot just keep the bare minimum and expect it to work. How about in the next arc, they decide to cut everything involving Bakugo out, and only keep him jumping in front of Midoriya because it's the only absolutely necessary thing he does in the arc? People would be pissed, and it's the same thing that's happening here. It's a problem, it's not just a bad adaptation, it leads to bad storytelling in general.

The animation. Now, I do not believe this is a be all, end all. BNHA's anime is never going to look as gorgeous as Horikoshi's art, that is a fact and I do not begrudge them for that. They have a week to draw hundreds upon hundreds of frames, it's not a process that lends itself well to good looks and the animators and artists do their best with what they have. This does not change the fact that it is extremely hit or miss. Some things, Tenko's backstory in particular, look fantastic. Other things, mostly every action scene, make me laugh at how bad they can look and some things, particularly Twice and Re-Destro's hideous designs in the anime, make me cringe. The lighting is also an issue. Garaki's lab looked fantastic, but every other scene is just boring mid-afternoon with dull, basic lighting. I don't expect huge detail, but sometimes, it fails to achieve competency and as an extremely popular show, I don't think that's okay. I don't blame the animators, I blame the higher ups. And while I wouldn't mind the poor animation and art in an MVA that at least has all the story content, this does not have that and so I am even harsher than I would have been.

MVA was rushed. That's not up for debate. It took forever to get to it and once it came, things moved so quickly that they gave me whiplash, with no time to think or lament. Now, this could be attributed to the story structure of the arc, which is essentially a series of big fights, and it just isn't as bad in the manga because I can stop at any time to catch my breath. But I think it's worth noting that the anime at least highlights these issues. Curious dies in the same episode where she first appears, really driving home how pointless she was in the end. Episode Two alone tries to cover everything from the journey to Deika up until Jin finding Toga's body. That's a lot of content to fit in one twenty minute period and it was bound to feel messy in the end. I will say that, much like everything aside from the animation, this did get better as time went on, with episodes three, four and five adapting more reasonable amounts of content, compared to one giving us almost nothing and two giving us too much.

At the end of the day, that was it. The show's over. MVA has been closed in the anime. It will never be given a chance to improve, to go from just fine to anything even close to the manga. Why did this happen? I don't think we'll ever truly know. Some blame the new movie, others the studio's lack of faith in the villains, and there are those who say that it's just how fate turned out. I personally think it's a combination of all of these things. Without the movie, that beach episode wouldn't exist, giving more time to MVA, without the studio's hesitation, we'd perhaps get stuff like an actual good OP and perhaps some more general hype for it (I mean, MVA didn't even get a trailer.) Whatever the reason is, we got what we got. My verdict is something that's very overplayed as of late, but seriously, just read the manga with the fantastic soundtrack playing in the background. The anime's adaptation of MVA is not worth the time investment, when you could read the manga in roughly the same length of time and get more content, a more coherent plot and beautiful artwork.

So, what may come next for Season Six? I don't know. Season Five has definitely been one of the most unpopular seasons in the anime, with a lot of people speaking out against it, but this mostly seems to come from the Western fanbase, so it's up in the air if Bones will learn from their mistakes. Since they'll have a full season to do presumably the War and Rouge Deku arcs, then I feel like they'll put on a better show. But we just don't know. Spinner had his spotlight stolen this time around, will Compress suffer the same fate in Season Six? Dabi and Toga will probably be handled well, since they have inexplicably high amounts of popularity, but with his own lack of recognition rivalling Spinner's, I can see Sako ending up much the same way. Time will tell, I suppose.

#my villain academia #mva #league of villains #Meta Liberation Army #studio bones #bnha season 5

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curestardust · 3 years ago

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if you want: “group of young girls with special powers have to save the world” trope / very pleasing art style and animation / story and set-up had potential (but were wasted by inconsistent writing and pacing)

"Assault Lily: Bouquet” was a disappointing watch to me due to just how much potential this anime held that got wasted by bad writing, pacing and inconsistent tone shifts.

I’ve started dubbing certain anime “PMMM-likes” (you know like Roguelikes in video games) because these anime have quite a few things in common: a main cast of girl characters, who fight with magic or some sort of enchancement, usually in order to save the world from some enemy. And the “depressed, lone wolf” dark haired and “ditzy, naive, self-sacrificing” pink haired protagonist duo seems to also be a must. An anime I *really* liked that I’d put in this sub-genre is “Granbelm” (x) (which I’d urge everyone to watch tbh).

“Assault Lily” is somehow based on some kind of toyline and by that I don’t mean figures but literal barbie like dolls that you can customize and such. Although, I didn’t look much into it cause I’m not interested in that stuff. This whole anime feels more like a showcase than an actual story, almost like a build-up for a mobile game. We meet a shitton of characters, get exposition dumped on every little thing and see the workings and aesthetics of the fights on a few occasions.

Again, I’m quite sad at the potential this anime could’ve had. I think the story, if well written, could’ve even lasted 3 seasons.

In short for the story, there are some sort of weird lifeform called the “Huge” that’s attacking humanity. These creatures use a power called “Magie” to function and certain humans (yes, young girls as usual) were found to also be able to use Magie. These girls are called “Lilies” and they use special weapons called “CHARMs” to channel their Magie into and fight the Huge. The protagonist of “Assault Lily” is Riri (the ditzy pink haired girl) who wanted to become a Lily due to being saved by one when her hometown was attacked by a Huge. She meets this girl, Yuyu, but she has changed. She’s cold, uncaring and a loner.

Instead of explaining the story in more detail as I usually do, I’d like to write things out as what each season could’ve focused on if this were a multi-season anime. The 1st season’s content takes place in like the first 3 episodes but spoiler warning from then on.

- Season 1

In this academy, 2nd years can become “Schutzengels” (Guardian Angels) who can take on a younger student to become their “Schild” (Shield) and help them improve. [Sidenote: the younger student herself is referred to as “Schild” even though that doesn’t make much sense to me. I feel like they wanted to go with “Kind” (Child) but that might’ve been confusing to English speakers?].

Yuyu has become a loner because she lost her Shutzengel in a fight and as her memories are fuzzy, she thinks she might’ve had something to do with it. Lilies have “Rare Skills” and Yuyu’s is called “Lunatic Trancer” where she becomes insanely powerful but also can’t differentiate between friend or foe and is thus seen as dangerous to be around on the battlefield.

This issue comes up twice in the anime for some reason, with the exact same conclusion as well. I think an entire season could’ve focused on Riri improving as a Lily, Yuyu getting herself in more and more risky situations as she uses her Lunatic Transfer during fights and then concluding with what the anime did; that Riri for some reason can “cancel out” Yuyu’s Lunatic Trancer state and then the 2 of them work together to take down a huge enemy. The season could’ve concluded with them making the Shutzengel/Schild pledge.

- Season 2

Lilies also create Legions which need to have at least 9 members. This anime also has an insane amount of supporting characters besides the Legion members so some of the characters we barely get to know. In season 1, while the main plot is going on we could’ve gotten close to certain side characters. As this is an in-between season, it could’ve been more low-stakes and relationship focused. Riri and Yuyu decide to create a Legion, we have the side characters from S01 join and meet more characters to create the 9 member Legion. These characters could’ve also been lacking in some areas so, training segments. Character improvement! Always better than being perfect from the start. Toward the end of the season could’ve been the introduction of what was supposed to be a huge character development arc for Riri: the meeting of a girl with amnesia who Riri takes care of and kind of becomes her “Shutzengel”, although unofficially.

<SPOILERS> - Season 3

The most depressing shit left for last. The afformentioned girl with amnesia comes to be called “Yuri” and turns out to be an experiment in creating artificial Lilies. The government thus wants her back and Riri runs off with Yuri. This whole debacle is simply solved through a 5 minute long scene where the character responsible for exposition dumps reveals that Yuri doesn’t have any Huge DNA and thus that makes her human aka under the protection of the academy. This is great but like 2 seconds later, Yuri runs up to a Huge that appeared out of nowhere and gets herself killed. This doesn’t have the effect the anime wanted. We’ve only known Yuri in the original anime for like 3 episodes. Her loss doesn’t feel as depressing as it should and thus sympathising with Riri’s sudden depression is harder as well.

So, the way I’d fix this, is to have the first half of the season more normal, with Yuri getting to be a part of the group. The second half of the seaosn would be the “depression/drama/conclusion” starting with Riri and Yuri running away. As Lilies fighting humans is a big ethical question in the anime, I’d want a stand-off that lasts longer with a Huge appearing in the middle of the whole thing. Lilies fighting humans on one side and the Huge on the other, leading to a struggle, where eventually Yuri decides that the only way to resolve this is for her to sacrifice herself. Cue Riri’s depressive phase and Yuyu’s hallucinations of her Shutzengel coming back. Their Legion’s atmosphere is also soured due to the loss of Yuri, the chance that they might need to find humans in the future because they disobeyed orders and their 2 leaders’s moods being in the dumps.

Cue big threat, Riri and Yuyu coming to an understanding and accepting what happened, ready to take on the “Final Boss” where they might even die in the process, their Legion and other classmates showing up in that dramatic “Hey, you guys weren’t planning on getting all the glory for yourselves right?” and pulling of an incredibly powerful move that wipes the Huge nest out. (If you watched the anime, you know this is kind of sort of what happens, I just cut out some stuff I felt was unnecessary.)

Well, anyway, now that I’ve finished daydreaming about what could’ve been, I’m still left with a badly written anime in the end. I mean, the art was there, the music was there, the set-up was there, the characters were there but the writing felt half-hearted, like whoever wrote it didn’t believe in the potential of “Assault Lily”. Oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

EDIT: I just found out a mobile game called “Assault Lily: Last Bullet” was actually released so I was right about that.

[6/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | There was actual money spent on this

#dusty reviews #Assault Lily: Bouquet #Assault Lily #Assault Lily Bouquet #why this so long

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hunterguyveriv · 3 years ago

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My Hopes and Wants for the new Masters of the Universe series

So in approximately less then 12 hours(if Netflix still follows its "release a new series at 3am" mandate) Masters of the Universe: Revelations is set to premiere on Netflix. While I am still a bit upset about the recent reveal I can't help but feel that I'll be going into another shitshow-reboot that started off with great potential but ended up going to trash. And this is based off going to youtube for Godzilla videos and music and seeing reviewers and vloggers practically all say the same thing.

Lets get one thing straight before all of you jump down my throat. I've been a MotU fan since I was a 2 in the 1984. I had bedspreads,pillow covers, books, toys, pajamas/underwear, even a homemade muscle suit that my mother found the pattern to make at a fabric shop for Halloween one year. So know that when I say I had high hopes for this series from the moment it was announced it's the truth.

Even when it was revealed that when Netflix released it's synapses, and the drama behind the scenes with some youtube vloggers and Kevin Smith over the past group of months I still had hope it would be one of the very few reboots that surpasses the original like 2002s He-Man series, the 2011 ThunderCats, 2012 TMNT series (which could have had a better ending IMO).

I wasn't even upset when it was revealed that King Greyskull and Andra were what people call today "race-bent." Andra was never really that important in the MotU universe only appearing once or twice in the comic strips and again in Injustice vs Masters of the Universe. As for King Greyskull, I grew to accept because of, well my own family. Looking at my family (Aunt who identifies as black gave birth to a daughter who is biracial who then had 3 blond hair blue-eyed kids) so I am taking this as a win for biracial/mixed blood rep.

I even like most of the cast and crew that I recognize with the exception of one, but I never really liked the actress from the 90s. I am talking about Sarah Michelle Gellar. I never liked her as Buffy or any other role she was in. Some may say that makes me bias towards Teela, but you are wrong.

I've always loved the character Teela. Because she is the Sorceress' daughter she has always been Prince Adam/He-Man's equal both in the previous series and comics. Even though she seemed like she was a tsundere towards Adam because she has to even after learning who he is (in the comics), she was always been He-Man's version of what Lois Lane is to Superman, or Abby Arcane is to Swamp Thing, she was his rock - his light in the darkness.

I am still a bit pissed about the Orko thing, but I explain my reasons in one of my previous posts - so I won't go into that.

The purpose of this post on the eve of the series being released is to voice my hopes and wants for it.

1.) Lets get the big one out of the way - Representation. I want representation, (because God forbid there be a series without it these days) to be natural and not the focus or feel forced. Believe me being a mixed-race person who is part Native/White/Black I get it more than anyone gives me credit.

Growing up Star Trek from 1966-2016 was the king of natural representation. Where unless the episode's story called for it NO ONE CARED about race/gender/ or one's orientation.

2.) Developed Story Well developed story that makes you feel like the show-runners have a plan from start to finish. That means a well thought out story, developed characters, what are their contingency plans if no one likes the series, what are their plans if the series is received? It needs to leave you wanting more!

3.) Let the villains be villains! Enough with the frigging "redemption" arcs! A redemption arc worked for Zuko in the Avatar series because of his character development. But ever since A:TLA, it seems every villain needs to have a redemption arc. Characters like Zarkon, Haggar, Lotor, HORDAK who is practically the Darkseid/Thanos of the MotU universe doesn't need a redemption arc or a "happy ending." In the MotU universe genocidal threats like Skeletor and Hordak raise the stakes for the heroes and drive them to win. Evil-Lyn does not need a redemption arc she has ALWAYS been Skeletor's equivalent to the Sorceress.

4.) Fans need to respect each other unlike when Voltron and She-Ra were playing. People are entitled to their own opinions whether they are new fans or old-timers like myself. If we don't like the way a series is going we are allowed to voice our opinions whether it congeals to someone else's opinions or not. Keep in mind that many of us have kept series like Voltron, She-Ra, TMNT, ThunderCats, and many other 1980s cartoon series going for the better part of 40 years for you to watch and enjoy these newer series. Our opinions mater just as much as yours.

5.) If you truly want to support this new series, and MotU as a whole buy official merch to the series. Like it was when we were young, getting the official merch helps the series more than you would expect. Now I am not saying don't support fellow fans who make trinkets and cosplay outfits and so-forth. Just keep in mind if there is a demand for officially licenced merch it can and will help the series.

These are my hopes and wants for the new series. I am still holding out on hope that the critics and vloggers are wrong on Masters of the Universe: Revelations lives up to the original series while being original itself as it has been advertised as when others (see below) with the exception of 3 did not, it has a a Godzilla sized mountain to climb to impress me. But know this when I see this series I will give my honest opinion of it, whether people like it or not.

#he-man #teela #He-Man and The Masters of the Universe #masters of the universe #skeletor #Prince Adam #man-at-arms #sorceress #orko #cringer

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