#I'm not gonna say what show or episode

[teaboot]

THE BLORBO SAID MY REAL LIFE LEGAL NAME IN THIS EPISODE AND IT FEELS WEIRD

[rosalie-starfall]

The Not Ready For Prime Time Players

Saturday Night / Saturday Night Live October 11th 1975

[catocappuccino]

Her favourite colour is yello w

[piko-rose]

Don't mind me, just making a collection of Sonic and Knuckles being together because I want more of their sibling dynamic and I love them

If anybody is wondering, I took these pictures from YouTube, NOT Paramount+. The first full episode is out for free if you wanna check it out.

Please do not tag as ship.

EDIT: Okay so apparently I can't find the full episode on YouTube anymore lol. Just wanted to put that out there in case anyone didn't know.

[vaggieslefteye]

"Wait, what did I say?"

[x-mensirens]

"Habe keine Angst."

[jq37]

Descendants: The Rise of Red is kind of a bizarre movie to talk about critically because, imo, it almost doesn't make sense to talk about it in the usual terms of good vs bad or enjoyable vs not enjoyable when the way more obvious tension is finished vs unfinished.

Because, more than any other movie I've ever seen, it does *not* read as a full movie. And I don't mean in a "this movie has a cliffhanger" kind of way. The Empire Strikes Back and Across the Spiderverse fit that description. They end on big dramatic cliffhangers that point to a resolution in the third installment.

But Rise of Red just sets all this stuff up and then...ends without concluding anything. It doesn't feel like the first movie in a trilogy (or duology). It feels like the first act of a two-act musical. It very specifically reminds me of the end of the first act of Into the Woods where all the main characters sing the song Ever After about how they all fixed their problems with magic and nothing bad will ever happen to them again and then the narrator ominously says "To be continued" before the curtain drops. But in Into the Woods you know there's a second act and this movie wasn't sold as the first act of a bigger story. Like sure, it has the, "You didn't think this was the end" tag at the end like all the other movies, but those movies were complete, self-contained stories even though they had sequels. This was NOT a full story. It's half of one story.

Like, if we're supposed to take this as a full story, there are so many bizarre choices:

Why did they make sure to mention that Cinderella and Charming fell in love at the ball at the top if it wasn't meant to set up Back to the Future style, "Oh no, I accidentally got my mom banned from the ball so she's not gonna fall in love with Dad and I won't be born" shenanigans?

Why did Maddox very pointedly have that bit about "you could lose your mom completely" if that was never going to come into play? Red never did anything to endanger Bridget or endanger her own birth so it doesn't make sense as a warning in that way.

Why was there all this focus on this Carrie on prom night moment for Bridget if we LITERALLY NEVER SAW CASTLECOMING? Why dance around this moment and talk about it all cloak and dagger with no specificity if they weren't building up to some big reveal that it wasn't as straightforward as it seemed? And like, they leaned in HARD with making Bridget the nicest, sweetest, cotton candy princess as a teen so I need WAY more than, "She got pranked by known bullies she's been enduring with a smile very handily up to this point" to buy that she went from that to "murderous dictator". And even if she did become murderous, I find it insanely hard to believe that she'd include her best and only friend on the list of people she wants to suffer unless there was a betrayal. I find it INSANE that there wasn't a falling out scene at any point in this movie with how thickly they were laying on the admiration and camaraderie.

(Note: And adult Cinderella def has guilty vibes re: the Queen at orientation. Which I know I'm not imagining because it's literally spelled out in the Jr Novelization!)

Before the time travel element of the movie started, I thought they were going for something like they go to the past and realize that Bridget was bullied not by the VKs but by the spoiled royals, and Ella ends up joining in the bullying once she gets with Charming, betraying Bridget and justifying her whole "Love Ain't It" philosophy. Or Ella ditching her at the last minute to be with Charming meaning she has to deal with the monster prank alone and it was the being alone rather than the prank itself that hurt her (though that is NOT a good enough reason to go all off with their heads on your subjects). The fact that, as far as we know right now, it literally was just a relatively mild and reversible prank that caused all of this is just, such flat storytelling, you know?

But! All of this makes way more sense if this is meant to be the first act of a single contained story. And I don't wanna be all "Pepe Silvia, secret good 4th episode of Sherlock" about this but I did see this picture:

Which seems to indicate that this was written as a Part One. Which, if so, idk why they wouldn't advertise it that way but whatever. The point is, if that's the case then it means that we're potentially in bad pacing territory rather than straight up bad storytelling territory. Because this isn't a bad place to be halfway through your story:

The heroes, warned that time travel is dangerous, have gone back in time to change the heart of a brutal tyrant before she can stage a coup. They seemingly succeed in their mission and when they come home, everything is great! But then, the side effects of time travel start to catch up with them. Chloe realizes that, in breaking the vase, she prevented her mother from going to the ball and falling in love with her dad (who was conspicuously absent from the final scene btw) which means she's starting to be forgotten and erased from the timeline. And Red realizes that though this new version of her mom is as sweet and kind as the teen she once met, she's a complete stranger to her (fulfilling the Hatter's warning that she could lose her mom completely). So they have to go back in time once more to make sure the Ella and Charming fall in love again, perhaps at the cost of whatever bad thing that happened to Bridget happening again and bringing back the original version of her future self. But, now with more context of how her mom became that way, Red can now talk to her mother and persuade her to give people another chance.

Boom, that gives us time to go back and hit everything we haven't yet hit. We can pay off the time travel tropes that were set up but not explored. We can go to Castlecoming which feels so obviously set up to be the centerpiece of this story (like, come on, Back to the Future literally does the school dance thing. This is Time Travel Storytelling 101). We can actually get info about what the prank was and why it affected Bridget so completely.

(Note: This is a side thing but it really strikes me as so crazy that Bridget would so SUCH a big 180 here. Like, I know the Queen of Hearts is a silly, goofy, campy villain, but she straight up murders people and there's no way to get around that if we're taking her out of the surreal story she comes from and putting her in a (comparatively) grounded story. If I wasn't doing a betrayal plot, I would make the twist that the spell that turned Bridget into a "monster" didn't just have a physical effect, it had a mental effect and it magically twisted her personality to be the way it is now. So they broke the physical half of the curse, but neglected the other half and it's been festering the whole time, turning her as evil as she was sweet. Because like, a simple physical transformation isn't that big of a deal to have such heavy security--Bridget made cupcakes with a transformative effect and that was totally fine. I'm not saying that that's what's gonna be the case. I just think it would be an explanation that makes sense for why she changed so crazy much that makes more sense than a simple prank or even a betrayal. Her mom wasn't even evil! How did she go from zero to murder without even an evil mom to push her onto the path? But I'm super digressing right now.)

(Note #2: OK, one last thing. The trap on the book presumably would have hit the VK's and trapped them in Merlin's office regardless of what Chloe and Red did, right? That's like, net zero influence on the timeline. I genuinely can't tell if that's a straight up plot hole or set up to be like, "Oh no. Actually when she said that she was turned into a monster in front of everyone it was meant in a less literal way." Like she was just made to look bad and that was the real thing that pushed her over the edge. Like idk. It really feels like the only thing they really did that would change the timeline was get Ella banned from the dance and presumably out of the way where she couldn't hurt Bridget. OK NOW I'm done.)

Anyway, my point is that this is not how I would have structured my movie and I think this was a super weird way to go into the second era of Descendants movies, but they can still tell a complete story if that's their plan. I'm genuinely really curious to see if this pans out to be a fairly competently told story that just happens to be split over two movies or a complete fumbling of the narrative bag because it could really be either at this point and it's fascinating to me.

[femmeetart]

Juliette is very good at hide and seek

[pothame]

thamepo color analysis loading....

i want to preface this by saying i'm not super well versed in how colors are used in bl so i might get something wrong/miss something and if i do please feel free to jump in and add on! (under the cut bc it's very long lmao) also i AM over analyzing and i'm sure not all of this is intentional but it's fun to think about nonetheless!

starting with episode 1 part 4 because that's what made me start this thought train. in po's flashback we see him giving earn the two sandwiches, but we also see a photo of the two, presumably from earlier in their relationship. po is wearing yellow and earn is wearing blue. earn's workspace is also covered in blue with a blue chair, a blue lamp, and the bookshelf painted blue. from the colors they're wearing in this scene alone we can tell a lot from the status/dynamic of their relationship at the time. earn is wearing a black and white shirt, indifferent to po and their relationship, but po has fully adopted earn's blue. he feeds his partner and cleans the kitchen in blue showing he puts more thought and care into their relationship than earn. po is also wearing blue in the flashback to the earnchop event where earn, again wearing greyscale, overlooks po in his thanks to. when earn suddenly leaves po is wearing brown/neutral colors, perhaps he was feeling less into the relationship, muddy feelings. it's hard to tell whether earn is wearing a black and white shirt or a shirt with blue on it but regardless the scene is bathed in yellow light - as is all of the flashback in the apartment - which makes the blue, earn's empty space, really stand out.

when we meet po in episode one, he's wearing a greenish brown shirt as he mentions how he gave up his career to help boost his ex, but he's over it now and can get back to work! (lying) he's obviously not over it yet. he goes to pick up one sandwich but gets given (and charged for) two, probably because the two had been together so long he became a regular at this sandwich truck. the whole area is lit in yellow, and his ex on the tv is still wearing black. in front of the logo he designed. and the sandwich guy goes on and on about how great this guy is, which proves earn never went to the sandwich shop because wouldn't the sandwich guy recognize him? wouldn't he be like hey isn't that your boyfriend that's so great! of course not. of course it was po alone.

po gets back to the apartment and there's so many decorations that are color coded. blue pillows and blanket on the yellow couch, blue curtains, a blue tablecloth, a yellow coffee table cover (it looks like there's some blue too but i think it's just the lighting bc it also makes the sandwich wrappers look blue), a yellow book, and a post-it/piece of stationary that is mostly blue with a small yellow corner next to their matching black and white mugs. you can also see two framed photos of them both wearing blue. it's warm and yellow inside the apartment, but cold and blue through the glass doors. po picks up a photo, he's in yellow and earn is in blue. you can see below a photo from probably the same day. he then picks up a photo in a blue frame of earn in either blue and pink or black and white, again it's hard to tell it may even be the shirt he broke up with po in, and po in all blue. this was probably taken in the honeymoon phase, especially if earn is wearing pink.

the next day we see him in bright blue putting blue folders in a box, probably packing up earn's stuff, and he picks up his phone in its blue case. it shows all over that he's not over earn. i don't know thai so i'm not sure about the calendar.

the first close up at the suit shop is of a blue measuring tape and a yellow measuring tape resting together on a suit situated on a mannequin, as well as a green tape under. obviously yellow + blue = green. the next close up is of fabric samples, mostly blue with one red and a few warm creams (aka yellow). po walks in to the job he took to support his ex wearing the blue that took over his life and still remains. the suit shop owner, uncle joei, is wearing a blue shirt with a blue tie that has yellow flowers on it. the shop is covered in blue fabric on top of warm wood with yellow lamps and yellow walls. you could say it's symbolic of earn taking over his life and causing him to give up his career for the time being. po even has a blue sticker at the center of his laptop.

with this much blue i honestly had a hard time deciphering what his color was during the trailer and my initial watch but baifern saves the day! at the interview she sets up for him po wears white, a blank slate, a new start. during the interview we see a flashback to po working at the shop and at the fanmeet, both wearing pink (guess who's wearing blue. that's right THAME). this was probably during a high point in his and earn's relationship or at a point where he felt very strongly for him. we see him editing the fanmeet footage in blue at the very blue very neat desk, this was probably before earnchop got started. back to the interview and we see warm po in this cold blue room. his clothes almost look yellow and i thought they were until i saw the clip outside the building again. in the flashback to studying with baifern, we see po in white again. my guy is starting fresh and leaving earn behind and we love to see it! his notes. still in blue. but! i'm choosing to ignore it<3

as po gets his id picture taken we can see more clearly that his outfit is white and i just have to have a little blorbo appreciation bc he's so cute and happy to have a new job back in a field that he loves

we meet new besties ming, wearing yellow, and tae, wearing blue (and a yellow handkerchief!). we also meet thame yay! he's wearing blue (denim) over a black hoodie and arguing with the ceo over his schedule. with the added context from episode 2 of how she persuaded him into a solo career as an attempt to save mars but then didn't allow him any creative freedom, the tension makes sense. we have the infamous sasaeng accusation and thame is very guarded and aware of what's going on around him, especially when it comes to things that could affect his group (hello leader love).

po goes to the sandwich stand in his all white fit ready for change and frowny face :( two sandwiches. the green lawn behind him is very prominent and there's a dark blue sky just above his head perhaps emphasizing that he is reminded of earn. however baifern saves the day again with a phone call and po says thame is cute even thought That was their first interaction (what is wrong with him [lovingly]).

the next outfit change we see for po is at the concert announcement where he's wearing a brown tshirt under a cream cardigan, hello muddy feelings. tae is wearing his yellow handkerchief again, over a brown tshirt this time, and ming is wearing blue (denim)! i don't think their colors really say anything, at least not now, but it's fun to see the color palette extend to side characters. thame enters the green room in black and white before taking the stage in all black. the group performance is primarily lit in blue light, and thame's solo performance is very golden.

during the interview and argument thame has changed back into his black and white outfit. these outfits are consistent throughout the remainder of episode one but let's mention the flashbacks. i already went over po's flashbacks but i forgot to mention the amount of blue in the apartment while they're (po is) working on earnchop's logo.

both people are wearing blue, and blue in general sticks out more than the yellow, like it's taking over. like earn was taking over po's professional life. we see po in all white at the shop working on the logo, waking up in blue after working on it all night, but then we get our first non-old-photo glimpse of po in yellow as he goes to the store to take care of something earn left for him in a (yellow) envelope with a (yellow) sticky note on it.

then thame hits po with his perspective and we see one of his memories. leaving his members while wearing black and white (i think for thame black and white/greyscale is him trying to distance himself emotionally from the group and feeling like he's doing what he has to do to protect it).

at po's very yellow desk, in contrast to the one at his apartment, we see him starting to pack up for the night, surrounded by the dark blue night sky visible through the large windows. after he calls baifern with a question about perspective, he tries to find thame to explain himself. we see thame on the roof, alone, shrouded in the blue of the sky. po runs past the yellow walls of the inside of the building before heading up the rooftop where he and thame have their first moment in the beginning of getting closer. while you can see the blue of the sky and the cityscape, you also see the green hedges. where blue and yellow meet. po says a line he swears isn't flirting and that's where episode one ends!

this ended up being WAYYY longer than i intended and i guess also part recap of the episode?😭 so i'm gonna cut it here and make a separate post for episode two. i'm not gonna reread this because it's 12:30 at night so it's probably kinda cringe at points but it is what it is, maybe i'll polish it tomorrow but probably not lmao

[swordbending]

I'm over people saying "give the live action a chance before you criticize it" like trailers are mostly a marketing tool to convince ppl to watch smth but they're also there to let viewers decide whether they think smth is worth their time. if people look at trailers & promo and decide they aren't gonna like it based on that that's no one's problem but the marketing team's

[meownotgood]

i have so many thoughts about arcane but I'm so tired because it's 5 in the morning and I'm starving because i didn't eat and my brain is functioning at about 2% and all of my insides feel like mush.

[twilightarcade]

AND THEREFORE I NEVER LIE

[hua-mo-jin-is-a-cutie]

this is the only social media website where I feel like I can talk about this without getting hated by teenagers with no media literacy, but I watched (pirated) Hazbin Hotel. And while I'm still very critical of Viv herself and the decisions she's made about her staff and her public statements and her past actions, some of which are very gross, for what it's worth, I think Hazbin is alright.

There are things I'd do differently sure, but it's like... aggressively average. The music is hit or miss, with mostly catchy tunes accompanied by lyrics that often made me cringe a little by how they already feel like outdated references to current slang. I also really don't enjoy when they have a big musical number come out of nowhere and have other characters acknowledge that they're singing. It really takes away from the musical numbers themselves. it's like musical writing 101 to NOT do that.

I know this is something people tend to criticize, but I'll be honest I like most of the character designs. They have fairly distinct silhouettes and it's kinda what drew me in enough to watch it in the first place. I'm particularly fond of Nifty. I do think some of them are a bit too complex, too busy to be super appealing, and must be hell to animate. I also think there's not really much cohesion in character designs of the world other than color, and even that's a stretch. I wish we'd at least been given some sort of reason in the show that some demons are furries and others aren't.

The animation is pretty nice, though the camera movement tends to make it a bit hard for my eyes to focus when there's a lot going on.

I've seen a lot of people complain about the pacing and while I agree that things are moving too fast, that we need time to get to know these characters and this world and earn these, what are supposed to be, hard hitting moments. I also acknowledge that I like fast pacing. I want it to slow down, but not astronomically, just a smidge.

I'd say the writing is also hit or miss. Sometimes it's got me fairly entertained, but other times it's making me uncomfortable and not on purpose. Again, slang that will quickly become or already is irrelevant is a major issue for me.

Contrary to what I've seen many people saying, I actually thought episode 4 was handled decently enough. Honestly the pacing is really the only thing holding it back for me. It doesn't feel like it's glorifying or romanticizing sexual abuse or domestic violence. It frames Valentino as the abuser he is when it's most important, even when he is a bumbling idiot in other scenes. Scenes of abuse between angel and Val are taken seriously enough. I wasn't a huge fan of the song Poison, but I also don't think it's romanticizing SA. I mean it literally ends with Angel sobbing on the floor so... I dunno how anyone came to that conclusion. There are times when the show jokes about sexual assault which I do think is distasteful and is one of my gripes with the writing overall, however when it comes to the topic of angel and val, it's handled well enough.

I'm interested in seeing where the plot goes with how episode 6 ended even with it's flaws. It's going in an interesting direction so far and I think the music of that episode was pretty good, calling back to the first episode's song with Adam in a clever way.

So overall I'd give Hazbin like a 6/10. It's fine, but it's got flaws. I'd like to see the kinks ironed out in season 2 and have Viv acknowledge some of her mistakes or at least take criticism well for once.

Anyway, stan Nifty, she's best girl.

[lab-gr0wn-lambs]

[deanpinterester]

i was going to make a post telling yall to stop calling godzilla minus one a low-budget film (because it isn't) but then i remembered disney regularly drops 12 million for ONE EPISODE of their shows without nearly the same cultural impact so. yeah godzilla is low-budget as far as i'm concerned idc

[prettyflyshyguy]

Having a Rough One (tm) and I have NO ART to show you but here's some WIP scraps cause it's wip wednesday (miscellaneous, from the two drastically different things I'm writing right now. I'd say guess which is which but its bluntly obvious)