#I've only ever seen this kind of plotting in some of the very best episodes of Doctor Who

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Granted, tumblr’s search function may broken but I can’t find a post on your blog centered on Alya’s writing. As a person constantly on the look out for critical examination of Alya’s role in the narrative and the compromises on her principles, relationships and competences made to artificially engineer the episode’s story, I’d be very interested to see your thoughts

I use Alya's writing as an example of a character done dirty all the time, but I don't think I've ever done a sugar post focused on her and I totally should. Before we get into it, I will openly admit that her bad writing bothers me more than Marinette's or Adrien's because she is best girl and we stan her. What can I say, I'm a writer whose best friend is an artist with a diagnosed anxiety disorder. I like characters who are writers and with artsy, anxiety-ridden best friends. They are my people and that gives us a great starting point for this post.

Marinette is the unambiguous main character of the show, so it makes sense to design both her hero partner and her best friend around balancing her out, giving them strengths to fill out the spots where she is weak. It's how you make a strong cast. When Alya is allowed the shine, she fills that balance role wonderfully and I love it! Some of my favorite moments are when Marinette goes on one of her rants and cool-headed Alya drags her back down to Earth:

Marinette: We're gonna stroll over there real cool as if we just happened to be passing by. Alya: Then what? Marinette: Then? I'll invite him out for a fruit smoothie at the end of the photo shoot! Then, we'll get married! Live happily ever after in a beautiful house and have two kids? No, three. And a dog! Maybe a cat? Nah, forget the cat. A hamster! I love hamsters! Alya: Let's just start with just happen to be passing by and see if we can get to that smoothie.

This banter from Stormy Weather is fantastic. It's exactly the type of thing I want to see from these two as it gives Alya a very different flavor of supporting role from Adrien. While Alya and Adrien are both card holding members of the Marinette hype squad, Alya is more of a voice of reason while Adrien is there to validate Marinette and follow her crazy schemes without question.

This brings us to the first issue with Alya's writing: when the plot demands it, they make her a gullible tabloid journalist even though it goes against everything her character should stand for. The reasons I'm comfortable saying this are many. The first one is that Alya is very clearly supposed to be seen as a serious journalist. That's why you get scenes like this one from Feast:

Alya: Now you know back in the day sculptures were painted, right? Most of the paint vanished over time, but tiny microscopic pigments still remain. Thanks to this special app, witness how it originally looked. But here's the big thing. All these works of art have something in common. It's the same symbol! Look, everywhere. It's like some kind of secret society emblem. As if a kind of Order of the Guardians has been watching over the superheroes since the beginning of time!

This scene would not exist if Alya was supposed to be the kind of person who only cared about getting blog hits because this type of content isn't where the money is. But money and clout aren't what Alya cares about. She's just a passionate reporter (or fan girl) who wants to know everything she can and who is having fun sharing her obsession with the world. This is an extremely important aspect of her character because it brings us to reason two that she clearly wasn't meant to be a clout chaser: if she was a tabloid journalist who only cared about hits, then she should have never been given a miraculous.

I could go on a rant her about how poorly Alya's blog is used after she becomes Rena Rouge, but I'll spare you the word count and just say that, as soon as she joined the team, she should have stopped sharing secrets on the blog. It makes sense that a blog would initially fill her need to share the fine details of her obsession, but once she's on the team, the blog should have been replaced by her teammates. She could still have the blog, but it shouldn't have things like the freaking guide to how the miraculous work that we see in the season four episode Gabriel Agreste:

Alya: The Miraculous are magical jewels that give powers to superheroes, like Ladybug's earrings and Cat Noir's ring. But supervillain Shadow Moth also has two Miraculousbrooches in his possession, and they will give him his powers. We can figure out from this that the Miraculous can either make a superhero or a supervillain. It's all riding on who wears it, which is why these jewels can't fall into just anybody's hands.

Alya, you are supposed to be Marinette's sole confidante at this point. Why are you giving the world this information? The writers are doing you dirty, my dear, and I'm so sorry. The best I can do is to promise to never treat you like this in my stuff.

Now, to be fair, there is some nuance to this. Alya is a human being. She's allowed to have flaws, so I can absolutely forgive her for getting caught up in the moment and posting scoops to her blog without thinking (see: Oblivio). That's honestly a great weakness for her character to have as it makes perfect sense for a fan girl to fan girl. At the same time, if you want to have a fan girl character who becomes part of the things she's a fan of, then you usually need to give that character something that will tone them down and make full fan girl mode something other than the standard setting.

Making your fan girl a serious reporter is a great way to do that! It allows you to have that initial bust of fan girl hype that quickly switches into serious get-the-details mode. Without that kind of complexity, Alya would just be another Wayhem and one Wayhem is already one too many.

While I will give Alya some grace on this topic and even call it a good thing for her character, the same cannot be said for her writing because the writers fail to embrace her hype as an in-the-moment weakness and it ruins her character. To put it another way, a lapse in judgement about posting a photo is excusable as a photo is quickly acquired and posted. A lapse in judgement about a full interview with a total rando who is claiming to be Ladybug's best friend is not excusable (see: Volpina). It's a completely different flavor of poor judgement as - at a minimum - it requires Alya to stand there talking to a person for several minutes and never once question what that person is saying. Those are not the behaviors of a good journalist.

Of course, this brings us to the most glaring example of Alya's character assassination: the Lila thing. Almost everything about this arc paints Alya as a terrible friend, which is a massive missed opportunity as Lila is the perfect antagonist for Alya! Who better to take down a liar than a truth seeker? It's such an easy way to give Alya her own mission to focus on, especially if you make Lila more subtle. You don't even need to have Alya believe Marinette without question. Just have her be an investigative journalist who is like, "You know what, this new girl clearly bothers Marinette and I know Marinette can get caught up in her own head, but it doesn't usually last this long. I think something is up, so I'm going to use my skills to see if Lila is telling the truth that way I know if I'm supporting the right person here." Don't have your character claim that she checks her sources and does research if you're going to turn around and have her believe whatever she hears without checking any of it!

Even outside of the Lila thing, I wish we saw more of Alya's research skills! They were such a good thing to give Marinette's best friend as Marinette is great at focusing on a clear task, but research is the kind of thing that would overwhelm her, so it makes perfect sense to make her best friend a researcher as that lets the team have someone to help track down whatever Gabriel is calling himself this week. The writers even understood this to some extent as we saw in Mr. Pigeon 72:

Alya: Marinette, how long have you been working on this? Ladybug: I dunno, six-seven days, maybe ten. Now that we're on spring break, I finally have time to put my whole heart into it! Alya: When was the last time you worked on one of your own designs? Ladybug: I do loads of designing! Look! (pointing to the contraption at her door) I designed a security system so that nobody can enter my room when I'm not in it. And if I put on this hat (puts on modified hat) I hear everything that's going on in here, even when I'm out of the room. Alya: I'm gonna have to break it to you because I'm the only one who can. THIS IS TOTALLY INSANE! Girl, trust your BFF. When I'm researching something obsessively and I can't think of anything else, that's when my mind can get really blocked. You know what you need most right now? A break! Ladybug: No way! No breaks until I find out how to keep Shadow Moth from reakumatizing people!

Remember who ultimately figures out how to keep Shadow Moth from reakumatizing people in this episode? Alya! Because her creative style is all about researching and looking at the evidence. You know, the classic skill set of a reporter?

I really do mean it when I say that the show has a fantastic setup for telling a good story. Alya's character should have been a perfect addition to Marinette's team. My favorite lineup is the line up from season two with Kagami and Luka in non-love-interest bonus roles that I won't get into here since it's a little too deviant from canon to make sense without explanation. Instead, I'll just give you the clear roles they perfectly set up and then squandered for the original miraculous five:

Ladybug: Battlefield commander

Rena Rouge: Big Picture Strategist (basically Marinette excels at reactive thinking/leading during a battle while Alya excels more at proactive thinking/long-term tactics)

Chat Noir: Peacekeeper/Heart/Hype Man

Carapace: Protector/Stop Button (much like Alya and Marinette, Nino and Adrien should have been two sides of the same coin with Adrien being focused on making everyone happy while Nino focuses on keeping everyone safe)

Queen Bee: Wild Card/Chaos Element (I love a good chaos element who is there to suggest the options that won't occur to people who have been raised to follow the rules.)

I'll also point out that this lineup would show that the characters weren't interchangeable and make the two main couples feel more unique and meant for each other. For example, Nino's tendency to encourage others to stay safe would pair terribly with Marinette's need to not get too caught up in her own thoughts. The second Nino second guesses one of her plans she'd fall apart, so she needs Adrien to be her Chat Noir. Similarly, Alya's impulsivity weakness would make her a terrible match for go, go, go Hype Noir! She needs a partner who makes her take two seconds to second guess herself. There was so much potential here you guys! So much potential! It could have been beautiful! Instead, we got canon...

There you go, my broad love letter to Alya. I could keep going, but you didn't request a specific topic, so I'm just going to end it there. Feel free to ask for more, but please do it in another ask as this is already super long and - out of kindness to my followers- I try to avoid essay after essay on the same post unless they really need to be connected.

[reiderwriter]

Thoughts on unsub spencer reid fics?

Hi! I'm not sure if you wanted more of a general answer or meant this as a headcanon or gen request, so I'm just going to go purely on vibes and answer this as a question.

Spencer as an Unsub - Thoughts

Disclaimer: Anything negative said here is absolutely not an insult towards any specific writer or fic. I don't really read unsub Reid fics, due to facts I'm about to get into, so I'm really not knowledgeable enough to be throwing shade 💀 This is personal opinion!

I personally would need a lot of convincing to believe in an "unsub" Spencer Reid.

In Criminal Minds, it's clear from very early into the show that Spencer is very empathetic with certain unsubs. The entire team have their own types of cases that they get more personally involved in (Morgan and cases involving child victims, JJ and apparent suicides, Emily and quote unquote battered women cases) but Spencer is the only one whose personal attachment to cases leaves him empathising with the unsub instead of the victim.

He's the only member of the team who could have seen himself committing violent acts the way unsubs do had his life veered down a different path. And, based on Spencer's background and the psychology of the show, he's probably right to be concerned.

He's a white male, at the peak of the show in his mid to late thirties, with a background of abuse and a family history of mental illness. By season four, we know he's highly skilled with a gun, and by season 12/13, we see that he can be pushed to violence when he is at the very edge of his limitations.

And then they make his character so intrinsically moral that you never question him ever again.

To a certain extent, Criminal Minds is about the perpetual cycles of abuse that human kind can inflict upon itself. Many of the unsubs were once victims, some of them perhaps still are. The heroes of the story are characters who have been able to break the cycle.

Spencer is neglected as a child. He has an absent father abandon him, a mother with schizophrenia who does physically beat him when she is having an episode. He is bullied heavily in school for his high IQ and his lack of social skills. But he is shown to deeply care for him mother and empathise with her deeply instead of coming to resent her like many of the unsubs in that situation. He resents his father, for sure, but instead turns that resentment into drive, leading him to "just keep getting more PhDs." And his personal experiences with bullying allow him to empathise with the unsubs that have gone through similar circumstances.

So I don't think canonically, Spencer is ever in danger of becoming an unsub. He deeply cares about the world and the people around him, and whilst he does have a kill count on the show, he either expresses deep remorse at having to oull the trigger, or it is in the best interest for everyone involved.

Basically, all that to say: I think Unsub Spencer Reid in fanfiction has to be written incredibly carefully, or it runs the risk of being very out of character. To be clear, I'm not too bothered about characters being slightly out of character in fics because it happens. I've probably written a lot of stuff where Spencer is OOC, too. And that's fine.

I do kind of draw the line at grabbing random unsub traits from the show and giving them to Spencer for a fic. For example, Spencer would never end up as a sexual sadist. He probably wouldn't be a spree killer, either. Not that anyone wants my writing advice, but if you're writing an unsub Spencer fic, think about his background and the profiles they generally give for the kind of signature/ crimes you're about to give him.

If this was a request, I apologise for the misunderstanding. But here's a little hint at what I might do with a general "unsub Reid" request.

☆ It would most likely take place after the events of Season 12/13.

☆ It's angst or nothing.

☆ The basic plot: Reid's headaches come back after taking a blow in the field. He tries seeking help for it but can't find any relief. On his next case, because of his chronic pain, he makes a mistake that gets his teammate, the reader, shot. The unsub escapes, but the reader falls into a coma. When it looks like reader is not going to pull through, he tracks down the unsub and beats his to death after a brawl. Massive overkill. The reader pulls through that night, and he feels no guilt for getting that monster off the street. But each time the readers health takes a turn, or they require a new surgery, he is compelled to go back out there and track down and kill another serial killer until the reader finally wakes up.

☆ I don't think it'd be very well received because there would be no morally grey smut. This is some tragic angst shit only, lmao.

☆ please don't put a request for this in my inbox. If I feel like writing it later, I might, I don't have the brain power right now, though 💀

That's all I've got right now, but I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on unsub Reid :)

[jinxcrownguard]

I was supposed to be busy this week/end so I wouldn't have time to watch act 2, but my friend spoiled me unintentionally and it dragged me into watching it in bits between my work. I have thoughts about it.

Act 2 exposes some more of the corny dialog that I had an issue with in act 1, but ups it to MCU territory by having quips and just incredibly played out, on the nose, and cliche moments

Vander's letter to Silco was such an obvious "It's addressed to X, but it's really about Y" moments in the series it was so heavy handed and feankly unnecessary.

"You really are a" "Big stinking hero!" It was corny but made me laugh only because it was Sevika and Jinx. Isha, a literal plot device dropped into Jinx's narrative not three minutes old, obvious death flags from the start, had no speaking lines, and only existed to dangle the idea of hope in front of Jinx only to snatch it away in the most obvious writing decision ever.

Caitlyn and Vi being reunited was bland as fuck like good for you guys I guess but, again, there is so little justification on why they're suddenly back on good terms again. Like I get it she loves Vi, she wants to help her save what's left of her family, but literally why did she jumped to agreeing?? Remember when she found out Jinx was Vi's sister? Remember the hesitation?

Vi told Cait that her dad was the savage monster that killed 20+ Enforcers at Stillwater and she hardly even reacts she just goes along with this plan of Vi's. Ambessa has been helping her secure "peace" for Piltover in their campaign against Zaun for months now. Sure there were seeds of doubt and mistrust, but nothing so grand that it would automatically turn traitor on her. Especially since episode 4 has her defending Ambessa, saying they've only gotten this far because of her.

Not to mention the total 180 from "Zaun's animalistic savagery knows no bounds" to "my girlfriend needs to save her furry father and I need to help her" The only logic pathways we get to answer these lingering questions are weak at best and unsatisfactory at worst.

The Vi and Jinx reconciliation was rushed imo as well, but I've always said that you could understand that because we've seen for ourselves that no matter what Jinx has always loved Vi. And Vi spent seven years of her life thinking about nothing other than getting back to Powder/Jinx. Their rush to forgive one another is rushed but the path to getting there is solid enough that you don't really mind it.

Sevika can never catch a break, hardly in this act but that's okay I still love her. It was good seeing Jinx step into her cqc bag and utilize her shimmer to gain advantages in fights. Caitlyn sparring with Ambessa was great and she looked so pretty. I was happy to have Viktor and Jinx interact at least once, their dynamic was exactly what I imagined, they'd be best friends.

Vi's butt looks great in those leather pants. Corny as it was, Jinx and Sevika's moments are the best part of this act. Jinx trying to calm down Vander during his rampage seemed really stupid and I can't really get behind the logic of it. She should have been running to secure Isha and get her somewhere safe, not try to calm down your rampaging father who's spitting up lava. Like girl you couldn't beat him in his base form, what the fuck do you think you're going to do now?

Singed being a mix of Corrin Reveck and his League self makes sense in the case that giving him Reveck's daughter humanizes Singed to a better degree, but it still feels kind of weird. Man doesn't look like Reveck in the slightest he is straight up just Singed. Identity theft.

It's also very silly to me that Ambessa is doing so little in searching for her daughter, like it's kind of weak that you have all the smoke for Piltover and Zaun but a cult snatched your kid up under your nose and you're sitting on your hands because you assume you can't beat them without lightning in a bottle.

Ekko, Jayce, and Heimerdinger are hardly in season 2 which isn't too surprising. Ekko and Heimerdinger don't have much of a presence in season 1 past a certain point anyway. I know Ekko's time breaking abilities are about to help "fix" this mess to a heavy degree but I'm not going to like it at all. Jinx, once again on the verge of suicide, and Ekko swoops in like "I care about you :(" mind you, he has been presumed dead for months now and Jinx gave next to no fucks about it or the Firelights. Vi still doesn't know that Ekko even survived season 1. Mans is not loved by these two at all. Especially not enough to warrent any sort of relationship with Jinx, I'd literally kill myself it's such a bad writing move especially this late in the final season.

Caitlyn's spec ops really didn't matter in the slightest. Shoutout Maddie for getting the hexstrap but you also do not function as a character. Also her accent was a little off to me in act 2, idk why.

All said and done, act 2 does some things better than act 1, and some things worse. I think it just shows how much those 10+ years of work and rewrites that season 1 got was incredibly necessary because season 2 can not match up by any measure other than it looks good and it's Arcane. But that's about it. I don't really think I'll be watching act 3.

[cyberdragoninfinity]

wild dana spotted howling and barking about yugioh arc-v out in the parking lot

oh BOY oh boy it's bout that time again. i can't believe it's been OVER A YEAR (?!?!?) since i last did one of these 'i just finished a yugioh here's my little rambly retrospective about it' posts but we are BACK!!! Finished my first ever watch-through of Arc-V last Tuesday after some 8 months of it putting me through the spin cycle and now as it's wedging itself permanently into my psyche i need to talk about its Everything or i will explode. so LET'S SWING INTO ACTION!!! I'M TAKING CONTROL OF THIS DUEL STARTING NOW!!!

[SPOILERS ahead for this decade old anime, of course]

WOW. YUGIOH ARC-V, HUH. before i started it watching it, I knew two things: A.) every single bit of knowledge I'd learned about it from Duel Links events or otherwise had me so, so, unbeliebable fucking hyped. I was absolutely certain this Yugioh was going to be so full of Danabait and completely fry my brain like an egg on the griddle. I had to physically restrain myself for TWO YEARS to keep from jumping the gun and watching Arc-V before I'd finished all the series before it (a decision I'm ultimately thankful for--Arc-V hits kind of fuckign crazy as a chaser to four other yugiohs.). And also, B.) when people Talk About Arc-V they always talk about it in a Very Particular Way. like. it's hard to describe. I feel like you know it when you see it. There is the full range of human emotion in the way people talk about Arc-V. People talk about Arc-V like its a confusing, malicious specter haunting their living room. And this admittedly got me even more hyped to watch it.

And then I watched it and here I am and I KNOW NOW. I KNOW NOW WHY PEOPLE. TALK ABOUT IT LIKE THAT. FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART: WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT. SLASH POS. SLASH NEG. SLASH SECRET THIRD THING.

Arc-V is a fucking MESS. It starts out SO strong and then it starts setting plot threads on fire and writing conceptual checks it absolutely cannot cash. It falls down the narrative stairs like it has a goddamn death wish. It introduces 342052805 characters and then forgets to do anything with 99% of them. It does things to its girl characters that makes the back half of 5Ds's girl writing failure look like the height of feminist theory. If the stories I've heard about its deeply troubled production are any indication it is some kind of MIRACLE this show got made and aired at ALL. IT'S LIKE WATCHING A CAR WEAVING THROUGH TRAFFIC AT 90 MPH ONLY TO PLOW DIRECTLY INTO THE SIDE OF A PARTY CITY.

and goddamn if I didn't have a FUCKING BLAST watching it. GODDAMN IF I DIDNT HAVE SO, SO MUCH FUN. goddamn if Arc-V might very well end up being my FAVORITE yugioh out of ALL of them when all is said and done. WHOOOOOPSSS!!! 🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴

like. imo Zexal is absolutely from a quality/art direction/narrative/everything standpoint leaps and bounds better than Arc-V. Definitely one of my favorite cartoons I've ever seen period, and most people should give it a shot. Such a beautiful work of art. But Arc-V....... girl they put something In this one. My pre-show hype was absolutely warranted. This show is just one blast of Shit That Makes Dana Crazy after another. Every character absolutely delights me and is my best friend. I'm going to be losing my mind over Yugioh Arc-V for the rest of the year and maybe forever.

As usual I primarily watched the dub, with some sub episodes sprinkled in if I got tipped off about a big change, or just if I wanted to see what was going on back there. (glad I did, of course, for a number of reason--least of all that Arc-V's OPs and EDs are SO fun and so charming!!) (THOUGH SIDE NOTE: THE DUB OPENING SHREDS SO HARD IM SORRY. IT'S UP THERE WITH THE GX DUB OPENING FOR ME. CAN YOU FEEL THE FUCKING POWER!!!!!) Anyway, gotta say, really was blown away by this dub!! It's tied with Zexal for what's imo the 'best' yugioh dub--the majority of the voice performances were just fantastic (truly all the love in my heart for Michael Liscio Jr.'s performances as the yuboys, they all have such unique and charming voices and im OBSESSED WITH THEM.) and having watched some sub eps side by side with the dub it's really cool seeing a dub that genuinely tried to faithfully translate Most of the Original. idk it's just a really solid localization to me!! I loved it a lot!! ALSO IT'S EXTREMELY FUNNY. I SAY THIS ABOUT EVERY DUB BUT IT'S TRUE. there are line reads in the arc-v dub that have me SOBLAUGHING.

anyway. I like to do these little subsection breakdowns in these little retrospective roundups, so let's get into the weeds with it:

Stuff I Didn't Like: loooooooooong inhale through my nose. looks at you with mildly pained eyes. alright. let's get this one over with.

though I did really try to go in as blind as I could/avoid most spoilers with this one, I did inevitably get spoiled by some things from Duel Links, but in the case of. uh. Riley Getting Turned Back Into a Baby At the End. 👶🏼 I AM glad I had that spoiled for me, so I knew it was coming. Because if I didn't know that was going to happen and that clocked me over the head I would have been on the NEWS. I WOULD HAVE BEEN, SO MAD. HEY, YUGIOH: WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 👶🏼👶🏼👶🏼👶🏼👶🏼 WHY DID YOU DO THAT TO RILEY!!!!

"character gets permanently turned back into a baby for Critical Plot Reasons" has gotta be one of my LEAST favorite tropes in anything, it's NEVER GOOD. AND IT'S ESPECIALLY BAD HERE!!! Riley is such a good character, he's got such an interesting arc going on, and THEY JUST RIP THAT TO PIECES. SO RILEY'S JUST FUCKING GONE NOW I GUESS. COOL. ALRIGHT. SURELY THERE COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER WAYS TO DEFEAT ZARC. SURELY. just. good GOD. it was a small miracle to me when this happened like 8 episodes before the end, it was like ripping the bandaid off early, it was like "oh thank christ i got past that. ok well whatever happens it cannot possibly be as bad as the shit they did to riley"

^ (and imo it wasnt. thank GOD. actually let's talk about that)

LIKE. MAKE NO MISTAKE ARC-V'S ENDING IS CONFUSING AND CLUMSY AND SO STUPID AND NOT GOOD. WHY ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH DOES THIS SERIES NEED EIGHT EPISODES AFTER ITS BIG BAD DUEL.WE COULD HAVE WRAPPED THIS UP IN 2-3!!!! it feels like watching Chopped and the contestant has 20 seconds on the clock left and theyre like "i gotta make my whipped cream" like WEEEE DONT NOT HAVE TIMEEE FOR THAT!!!!! WHAT ARE WE DOINGGGG. why are we dueling jack AGAIN. FOR TWO EPISODES. EVERYONE IS YELLING AT YUYA LIKE ALL OF THIS IS HIS RESPONSIBILITY AND FUCKING IS IT??!?!??! HE'S 14. AND THEN THOSE EPISODES HAVE THE GALL TO THROW SO MANY COOL IDEAS ON THE TABLE (Gong fully exploring dueltaining, the Dimensional Highway, etc) AND IT'S LIKE. COOL!! WISH WE COULDVE HAD THIS ANY OTHER TIME THAN THE LAST POSSIBLE SECOND!!! WHAT ARE WE DOINGGGG

BUT all that being said, the way people talk about that fucking last episode I was expecting some genuinely godawful 'zuzu is yuyas mom again like in the manga' tier absolute nightmare scenario. i literally made a secret prediction chart of what insane plot twist i assumed the last episode was going to drop on me.

AND THEN THE LAST EPISODE WAS JUST. FUNNYBAD. just a run of the mill whimper at the end of eight episodes we KIND OF REALLY DID NOT NEED. THE SHEER AMOUNT OF RELIEF I FELT. like absolutely i think going into it completely blind/encountering that ending watching live I would have been pissed, folks are rightfully frustrated with it, but I WAS TRULY. EXPECTING MUCH WORSE. IT ENDS LIKE A FAKE TUMBLR POST. "AND THEN EVERYONE CLAPPED" ASS ENDING. I DO HAVE TO LAUGH

^ YIPPEEEE SIX CHARACTERS HAVE EFFECTIVELY STOPPED EXISTING YAAAAAYY (😬😬😬😬)

ALSO, IN GENERAL. SPEAKING OF. GOD. THE BRACELET GIRLS. YALL ARE SO COOL AND THEN POOR LULU AND RIN DIDNT GET TO DO A GODDAMN THING EXCEPT HAVE WORMS IN THEIR BRAINS!!!! HELL ON EARTH!!!!!! WHY DID THEY DO THATTTT GAHHHHH again!! show that introduces SO many characters, so many FUCKING COOL CHARACTERS, and then does NOTHING with them. Or hits them with PARALYZING NERVE GAS FOR 20 EPISODES. CHRIST!!! WHY DO ARC-V GIRLS SUFFER MORE THAN JESUS. LEAVE MY GIRL ZUZU ALONEEEEE

TO THAT END, ARC-V JUST MAKES; SO MANY CONFUSING CHARACTER DECISIONS. AND CHOICES. why is Yuto just out of the picture for like 60 episodes!!! Let him be Yuya's brain buddy!!! WHY WASNT HE. DID YOU NOT WANNA ANIMATE HIM FLOATING NEXT TO THE DUEL RUNNER??! BE REAL. It's like. GRAHHH In general Arc-V has a pacing problem that is like. Atrocious even for yugioh's bad pacing problems. This series needed to be 400 episodes long. I like the IDEA of a yugioh with a big cast, spending episodes cutting between different groups of characters like some kind of bulky YA fantasy novel, but in practice it got. Real Muddy. RIP Xyz dimension arc you shoulda had so much more to you. And then there's that combined with this way it's trying Really Really hard to ape the themes of the past yugiohs ('dont forget to have fun,' grief/moving on after loss, classism) but it's hitting every damn branch on the way down and just completely fumbling ALL of them, it's not actually doing much to Earn being able to have those kind of themes resonate properly. IT'S SUCH A BAFFLING SHOW. IN THE THEMES DEPARTMENT. AMONG OTHER THINGS. "DONT EVER BE VISIBLY PUBLICLY SAD" IS A FUCKING INSANE MORAL. AND IT TAKES THAT SHIT WITH IT TO THE BITTER END. WHY IS THE FATE OF THE WORLD HINGED ON YUYA MAKING A BABY LAUGH. WHERE AM I!!!!

god. god. ok. ok im calm now. im sure in the coming weeks i'll have more barking about arc-v's various fumbles. but i'll leave it at that for now, i wanna talk about stuff i DID like now lol

Favorite Season/Arc: ok well. this actually is a hard question. um. hrm. LIKE. I'LL GET SHOT BY SNIPERS IF I SAY IT WAS SYNCHRO ARC BUT ALSO

IM SORRYYYYYYYYYYYYY I GOT THAT DOG IN ME (A BACK HALF OF 5D'S LIKER'S SOUL.) and unfortunately I WILL go in there and think about it that hard (the absolutely fucked to hell sociopolitical situation happening in Arc-V New Domino City and how it contrasts with the NDC in 5D's) (one thing about me I love weird fucked up yugioh old people I love those bitchass old centrists apparently governing the entire dimension and doing a piss poor job of it it's just like contemporary American politics!!!!!!) ROGET WAS JUST REANIMATING DEAD PEOPLE AND PUTTING MIND CONTROL CYBERNETICS IN THEM AND WELL YEAH SURE I'LL BE NORMAL GRIP ABOUT THAT. NORMAL. i need to make an arc-v AU Aporia so fucking bad THEN YOULL ALL SEE *talking to empty room*

YES synchro was way too fucking long. but regretfully i love turbo duels and will never not be charmed when yugioh puts guys on motorcycles that have no business being on motorcycles. DAMN I JUST FUCKING WISH YUYA AND YUGO GOT TO ACTUALLY TALK AND MEET IN THE SAME ROOM THOUGH!!!! BUT ANYWAY!!!!

im. kidding at least a little, I actually thoroughly enjoyed like...all of Arc-V's seasons/arcs at least a little (barring a lot of the Weird Post Zarc Duel 8 Episode Dead Zone.) The first 50 episodes really are just peak banger Yugioh, I do love action duels to absolute bits (though Action Spells. Uh. Need Some Workshopping 8| If I See Evasion One More Time Im Gonna Lose It) and the shit especially that first season does with the crazy Action Fields is AWESOME. GENUINELY. GO DUEL IN THE VOLCANO. DO A FLIP. RIDE YOUR MONSTER. it's practically running on Pokemon universe logic i cant NOT love it. And well Fusion Dimension arc does just have a whole lot of episodes that make me go cuckoo bananas crazy. Truly something for Dana in every crevice of Yugioh Arc-V.

Favorite Characters: god I do think like a solid half of why I think Arc-V may be becoming my top fav Yugioh is that the cast is just, really Really fucking good. Like yes so many of them are underutilized but the time we Do get with them really just shows off what delightful characters they all are. Half the reason it took me so damn long to finish was I was having so much fun and was going to miss seeing them!! IT'S GENUINELY HARD TO PICK A TOP LINEUP OF FAVS. THERE'S SO MANY DANABAIT GUYS IN YUGIOH ARC-V. YES EVEN THE SYNCHRO ARC GUYS. LUCAS SWANK I MISS YOU SO FUCKING MUCH.

The Lancers alone are SO good, theyre up there with Team 5D's in terms of Favorite "Main Yugioh 'Friend Group'/Organization". Group of guys who kind of have horrible synergy and only like 3 of them are actually competent. Declan came up with it when he was 13. Funniest group of teenagers imaginable, I love them all. LIKE .YUYA MAY BE MY FAVORITE YUTAGONIST??? IM NOT SURE YET BUT. I DO LOVE HIM A LOT. HE'S A PATHETIC WET PAPER TOWEL AND I WANT TO GIVE HIM A NOOGIE. SLASH POS.

And I mean I'm always gonna be Z-one biased but I do like Zarc as a Big Bad a lot too... damn if I don't love Just Some Guy Has Become God and Is a Huge Tool About It <3 WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE THIS!!!!

ah. but. of course. i'd be remiss if i didn't bring up. Rainbow Carrot Rock Your World.

hey guys. why'd it happen again. why'd the Yugioh Carrot and Company get in my head and completely fry my brain AGAIN!!!!!!!! ORANGE CARROT. PURPLE CARROT. YELLOW CARROT!!!!🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕 YUGO ISNT EVEN MY TOP FAV BUT HE'S IN MY HEART AND IN OUR HOUSE FOREVER NOW. meanwhile i dont want. to talk about what yuri is doing to me. if i think too hard about this little purple freak i'll start going bonkers ballistic chewing my leg off. I like all the yuboys but he is especially. Gripping Me. La Cucaracha Loca. My shithead gay son.

dennis needs his own post he's just. a Lot. may very well be one of the funniest yugioh characters ever. Among Other Things. his dub VA's performance needs to be marked as culturally significant. AND THEY JUST KEPT BRINGING HIM BACK.

IN GENERAL, AS I WAS COMPLETELY EXPECTING, FUCKED UP AND EVIL DUEL ACADEMY REALLY DID ME IN I love you Fusion Dimension kids I love getting sick in the head thinking about card game child soldiers.My Actual favorite Arc-V character may just straight up be Sora..... I just like him a lot. He's got a really solid character arc, his deck rules, he's a little fucker AND an absolute real one. Just 10/10 little guy.

GOD WHAT EVEN IS MY TOP FIVE FAVORITES. UHHHH Okay Sora and Yuri for sure, and Declan, I love Declan. Yugo..... god. GOD IS THE FIFTH ONE DENNIS FOR REAL. I FEEL HIM IN MY BRAIN SO BAD. AAAAUUGHHHH (Runners Up: Yuya, Yuto, GONG MOTHERFUCKING STRONG!!!!!!, Rin my girl my badass mechanic girl IM ON MY WAY. I'LL THINK ABOUT YOU THAT HARD., Riley, Arc-V Aster unfortunately a Dana Guy ever. Why Is He Here. He Didnt Even Go to DA in GX. But all of this is subject to change in coming months as the entire cast continues to hit me with weapons. An honor and a privilege to induct these characters into my Blorbo Hall of Fame)

Favorite Duel: HEY QUICK QUESTION: WHY ARE ARC-V'S DUELS SO FUCKING WEIRD. LIKE. NARRATIVELY. There's like 4352984589 ties and duels that get cut short and DUELS WE JUST NEVER GET TO SEE THE FULL OUTCOME OF ON SCREEN?!?!? WHAT WAS GOING ON THERE. It feels like another symptom of arc-v just desperately trying to bite off more than it can chew 😭 Frustrating!! And god I LOVE the zaniness of Action Duels, but we neeeeeed to do something about Action Spells... GRABBING AN ACTION SPELL SHOULD NOT BE THE CRUTCH OF YOUR WHOLE DECK.........

coughs. anyway. My actual honest to god favorite Arc-V duel is Yugo vs. Celina in the Friendship Cup <3 IVE ALREADY TALKED ABOUT IT BEFORE BUT IT'S JUST SUCH A FUN ONE. It's got some great character moments on both sides, a yugioh girl Getting to Be Cool, the colors are gorgeous, it's SO funny, I just get such a kick out of it....I think part of what I Do like about the Friendship Cup is it really shows this sense of kinetic energy that the WRGP in 5D's really needed. I also really like the Shay vs. Dennis Friendship Cup duel for just going completely off the rails. Blow Up This War Criminal and The Whole Stadium With the Giant Bird Satellite Cannon. DOES NOT GET MORE YUGIOH THAN THAT!!

for all its weirdness Arc-V has a LOT of really fun duels that i enjoy--Shay vs. Sora is beloved for a reason, it also goes hard as hell. So many Season 1 duels are just a goofy blast, I really need to rewatch the quiz show one. For as much of an unnecessary mess as those last 8 episodes are, I DO really like Yuya and Dennis's duel too (THAT GETS REALLY REALLY GAY AT THE END???!?!? ARE WE ALL SEEING THIS.)

Hell even the Zarc duel started making me kind of sick in the head--watching Yuya's friends passing around his pendulum necklace while trying to save him makes me turbo emo WHAT CAN I SAY!!!

Arc-V also has the thing I had with Zexal where there's just some individual episodes that are absolute bangers for me. i love the Prison Break episode, it's fucking INSANE. HIP HIPPO SAID FUCK COPS FUCK THE PRISON SYSTEM!!! I love the episode where Gong and Dennis duel. FOR HOW LONG IT DID DRAG SYNCHRO HAS SOME REALLY FUN ONE-OFF EPISODES which I just really enjoy. Also love when Zuzu and Sora beat the shit out of a pack of cops. Based for that for real.

i do also love Yuri and Yuya's duel. Of course.

Other Miscellaneous Gushing/Shrieking/Losing My Mind About Yugioh Arc-V For Good and Bad and Everything in Between: arc-v arc-veeeeee yugioh arc-fiveeee theres just so MUCH. TO TALK ABOUT. THIS ONE'S GONNA BE IN MY HEAD FOR EONS I FEAR. THINKING ABOUT THE EVERYTHING. The sheer amount of narrative traits that make me specifically lose my mind (in a good way. as opposed to. the babyfication making me lose my mind. in a Real Bad Way :////) that they crammed into this. It's like digging in the treasure chest of elaborate fanfics I was writing in my brain in freshman year of high school. The Sick and Twisted Evil AU Version of Duel Academy. The Trained to Be Weapons Child Soldiers. Mind Control Reanimated Corpse Brain Chip. Alternate Dimension Selves. All of the Split Different Dimension Bullshit. Soul Splitting and Soul Fusion Framed as Fucking Terrifying. It's good I didn't have Arc-V growing up it would have been doing IRREVERSIBLE THINGS TO MY DEVELOPING CREATIVE BRAIN. INSTEAD IT'S DOING THEM TO ME NOW.

(side note, re: terrifying soul fusion: Arc-V is SO FUCKING SCARY SOMETIMES?!?? Like "ohh i wish yugioh was still a horror story" DAWG ARC-V ROUTINELY HAS SOME OF THE MOST DREAD-INDUCING CONCEPTS GETTING FLUNG AT YOU AT 90 MPH. SKIP BOYLE FORGETS HIS DAUGHTER EXISTED AND IT'S ONE OF THE MOST HEARTBREAKINGLY HORRIFYING THINGS IVE EVER SEEEEENNNNN )

The shit Arc-V does with Yugioh's themes of identity, these "when does a piece of yourself stop being you and start being their own person?" "what happens when multiple free standing people are one person" type ideas, you KNOW that makes my Aporia Turbofan ass go CRAAAZYYYY. AND THEN IT HAD RELIGIOUS MOTIFS TOO <3333 YOU'RE ME AND IM YOU AND IT DOESNT MATTER WHO DOES WHAT THE DEVIL WILL COME BACK REGARDLESS 😊💞💞💞

Arc-V takes such bold swings at things and 95% of the time it misses the ball entirely and spins up and out and directly into the fireplace but that 5% of sheer genius and thematic weight hits like a truck. Is Arc-V good? FUCK IF I KNOW. PROBABLY NOT. BUT ALSO YES IT IS. BUT ALSO IT'S NOT. BUT ALSO IT'S SOMETHING SO SPECIAL, AND I LOVE IT. That first like 50 episodes makes for such a good yugioh starter course tbh, the way it goes over different summoning methods and is very engaging and energetic, and then the rest of the show is an 18 car pileup of Card Game War that makes me automatically like DONT. START WITH THIS ONE. WATCH ANOTHER YUGIOH OR TWO FIRST AND THEN COME MELT YOUR BRAIN IN HERE. AND THATS SUCH A WEIRD DICHOTOMY TO HAVE WITH ONE YUGIOH. weird like everything else with arc-v i suppose. :,)

For all the mess and all the madness there truly is so much I love, though. I love the character dynamics, even when the show isnt doing much more with its cast--Yuya and Gong's friendship may be one of my favorite 'yutag and best friend' bonds, it's SO sweet and I'm going to be mad forever that Gong isn't more popular in western ygo fandom. I love the DUEL MONSTERS!! Performapals are SOOOO sillygoofy I have to adore them, the dimensional dragons all kick so much ass I love you Clear Wing my big legless weirdo. I love Shay's increasingly bigger Bird Guns. I LOVE FRIGHTFURS!!!! I LOVE D/D/DS!!!!! SO HAPPY TO SEE THEM ON ESPECIALLY SCREEN AFTER PLAYING THEM FOR MONTHS IN DUEL LINKS. MY FREAKY DECLAN DEMONS. I love the miscellaneous callbacks to past iconic monsters and funky weird AU retrains of the Legacu character's decks. Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend my friend Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend

I also do love that Arc-V in theory is trying very hard to be a celebration of past Yugiohs, but it's also instead being completely fucking insane with its 'tributes.' Oh you like Heartland City from Zexal? It's a carpetbombed warzone now! LIKE... HUH!!! When Lazar showed up at the end of season 2 i SCREAMED. I WANT TO KNOW THE LOGIC OF THESE CHOICES. THEY DONT MAKE ME MAD OR ANYTHING REALLY IM JUST FASCINATED BY THEM. i cant really be too angry at arc-v I'm just. transfixed. at every baffling choice it's ever made. I've really truly never seen a show that's so thoroughly felt like some kids doing a roleplay on a forum somewhere, players dropping in and out and mods not really knowing what to do with the lore anymore as things become more and more convoluted. I watch arc-v scenes and i can picture the text RP in my head, the players' forum signatures and all. It's truly some kind of feat to achieve that inherent vibe, that's for sure.

ok im running out of steam i think... what else. god. Yugioh Arc-V is just.... such a teetering Jenga tower of a show, a complete nuclear meltdown of clumsy writing and fantastic vocal performances (dub and sub) and confused handling of its own lore and occasionally some of the fucking coolest most intense expressions and gorgeous shots of any yugioh

I held out on watching it for so long cuz i just fuckin KNEW it was going to grab me by the brain and swing me into the wall and WELL!!! I WAS RIGHT!!!! SHES A MESS BUT SHES MY MESS BABEYYY!!! IS ARC-V GOOD? MAYBE NOT BUT, BROTHER, I FUCKIN LOVE WHEN YUGIOH IS BAD ❤ ive been a disciple of Bad Yugioh for 20 goddamn years and im not stopping now!!!!! I love you Pendulum summoning you insane busted ass mechanic. I love you all four completely fucked up dimensions. I love that they localized Maiami to Paradise City. I love the little nods to past yugioh things (like fusing with a motorcycle <3 Primo Moment...2!) I hate you Leo Akaba explode and die forever (though 'parent going mad trying to bring their child back' do also go me a little bananas.) I love the kickass shots of Yuya's monsters being set in the pendulum scale.I love Sora's relationship with Yuya and Zuzu. I love every fucked up crazyass expression Yuri makes. I love the sense of character design in this show. I love the Action Duel start chants. I love seeing the Synchro Math again and the Overlay Units and the deeply unsettling fusion hand gesture kids use with Polymerization. I love that third ED thats just the Lancers dicking around in different locations and having fun. I love Declan and Riley's complicated but deeply loving bond. I love when characters RIDE THEIR DUEL MONSTERS!!! AND I LOVE THAT DESPITE EVERYTHING I ALREADY WANNA SEE THESE CHARACTERS AGAIN. THEYRE MY FRIENDS!!!!! THEYRE IN MY BRAIN!!!!! MY KIDSSSSS

I KNOW NOW. WHY PEOPLE TALK ABOUT ARC-V LIKE THAT. AND IM ABOUT TO START TALKIN LIKE THAT TOO. YUGIOHHHHHH!!!!!

[charmac]

is there any season that you'd say does the best (or worst) at character development for the gang? personally, i've always thought that season 1 did wonders in helping the audience understand the gang's individual characters (minus frank) right away, but i'm interested in your opinion on the topic

Season 10 absolutely, 100%. It’s my favourite season of Sunny (and one of my favourite seasons of television ever), especially for the fact that it does so much insane character work in its span of ten episodes.

I don’t want to discount seasons before it, there’s an insane amount of foundational work that should be mentioned, but Season 10 being a milestone they never thought they would reach really sticks out as a major turn in the idea that the Gang don’t “develop” as characters by making the Gang face their own devolution. I've written about how Misses the Boat touches on this on the Paddy's Pub Blog, but Season 10 really as a whole just turns a lot more inward to the characters.

Charlie Work rotates around one of the Gang's schemes while having quite literally nothing to do with the scheme at all and everything to do with Charlie's character. This is the perfect example as to how the whole season operates, pushing the characters ahead of the plots, the schemes are just background work to revolve around. (Really, this is how the show operates a chunk of the time, but Season 10 is really really telling you that.)

It's hard to talk about each individual character without spiralling and trying to hit every S10 episode for everyone, but in brief summary: Frank unearths his own childhood trauma and starts to understand he's running out of time here; Dennis is diagnosed and his mask starts slipping more and more as he's forced to face (and attempt to disregard) how he is seen by outsiders; Mac is no longer able to front to himself that he's into women and he destroys his relationship with his father one step further; Charlie really sees he's viewed as less-than by Mac and Dennis and grows much more persistent to (dis)prove Frank is his father; Dee is shown as an even more 'successful' predator than Dennis, though just as pathetic at each turn.

All of this is not only built off what their characters were, but really are the very central parts of their characters that they clearly keep in mind as we push into the later seasons. (Arguably every character is still grappling with these core issues except Mac.)

(Briefly on worst season for character development, I think 13 is kind of the obvious choice. While there are some things I think they did well and are built on later (i.e. Bathroom Problem), episodes like The Gang Wins the Big Game are a prime example of how Sunny does not work well when the whole basis of an episode has nothing to do with the characters and everything to do with the plot. There was really negative character work done there, imo.)

I think it's funny you mention Season 1 for character development, because while I think it’s so so insanely essential to watch (and understand) as a foundation for the show and who the characters become, those versions of the characters are pretty distant from the Gang to me. Season 1 reads very much as Rob’s original idea: these are the worst versions of themselves; characters, but still a little too clearly RCG. Season 2 took those guys and built on them to create actual characters outside of themselves as terrible people, but I don't see the Gang as fully formed individuals until ~S4 (which I think RCG have mostly (?) admitted as much on TASP, lol)

Obviously every season contributes a lot to the characters as we know them, and some do a lot more for certain characters than others, so these are just my personal opinions... But I will argue for the rest of time that Season 10 is that bitch (and the best example of who the characters are).

[chrismcleaneatspants]

General season 2 opinions. MASSIVE TDI 2023 season 2 spoilers ahead (as well as a huge wall of text.) You've been warned.

Ok, so here's everything I like about the season (I can count them on my fingers)

-There were some funny jokes

-MKulia was entertaining and it's now in my top 5 favorite ships, but it's not perfect, as I'll explain later

-Hockey dudes were a joy to watch I suppose

-Bowie stole the show as usual

-There are a lot of neat challenges (The canoe, slide, and dog challenges was a particular stand outs to me)

-MK herself was really funny

-MacArthur's cameo was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one, and she bounces off of Chris really well

-Duncney is still broken up lol

Honestly that's about it in terms of positives, cuz I have a million other negatives for this supposed sequel to (imo) the best written season of the show.

-The Relationships were the single worst aspect about this season full stop. Ripaxel and Praleb are probably the worst couples the show has ever subjected me to. For Ripaxel, they basically removed anything interesting Ripper had going on and Axel wasn't allowed to live up to any kind of hype she created because one lame ass poem turned her into Ripper's girlfriend for the remaining duration of her run, only for the both of them to be tossed aside in episode 7 in perhaps the worst double elimination in the entire show.

-Praleb started off ok. I thought it was gonna be a one-sided crush plot initially before Episode 6. They had a couple cute moments before episode 8, of which their screentime became suffocating because afterwards is was this painful back and forth where Caleb tried explaining himself and Priya would be mad at him, then ally with him, then be mad at him again like it was so tiresome. By the time they got together in the finale again, I was wishing they had just followed up on Pramien instead. Caleb by himself was funny in the first half of season 2 and Priya was great in season 1, but the two of them together were insufferable

-Speaking of Priya, she went from one of the best characters in season 1 to one of the worst in season 2. Why did she have to make it all the way to episode fucking 12 after winning season 1?? Just for some generic heterosexual romance? They also made her so dumb with shit like knowing Julia is manipulating her but then getting a surprise Pikachu face when Julia manipulated her??? You spent your entire life preparing for this show, how the fuck did you not see this coming???

-Segwayying into Julia, she's the worst antagonist full stop. I've never seen such an absolute downgrade of a character. She was a goat in season 1 who was aware of her situation and acted accordingly because the stakes were real. Here? Reality basically warps around her just to keep her in the game. She does things characters would never fall for in season 1 and they just go with it?? They insist on keeping her in the finale and do basically nothing interesting with her. She's not even as funny as Island Heather at the end of the day.

-I mentioned MKulia earlier, so I'll just get to it here: I like it in concept. Two evil sapphics causing chaos together is really fun. My main issue is that it was very sudden. They both were not fans of each other at the end of season 1 and now I'm supposed to just believe they became friends off screen? I mean, I guess, but it's kinda cheap. I would have really liked it if it was straight up enemies to lovers ngl. Also the fact MK had very little agency outside of being Julia's lackey doesn't help either. I want to point to the fake contract thing, for instance. Why did Julia do that? That sounds like an MK thing to do.

-Time to dive into other characters: Damien is an absolute fucking tragedy. At the end of season 1, Damien had one ambition: win next season. They kinda did that, sure, but they regressed Damien into being a complete coward to do so, not to mention he didn't even go all the way either. Damien didn't get a W until episode 6 and tbh that was his only W. By the end of his tenure, I was left confused on what the point of his run was. (I'll come back to this later.)

-What was the point of Nichelle? Like seriously, what did she contribute to the season at all? They didn't do the ironic underdog story with her, and considering she was getting all egotistical and aggressive, i thought she was gonna be the antagonist for sure...until Julia got rid of her in episode 5 in a way that really shouldn't make sense cuz like Nichelle is an actual celebrity that stars in blockbuster movies, I'm pretty sure she could sniff a fake contract a mile away, right?

-Hockey dudes were great, but I felt like they were very dumbed down at times? Like they were just generic dumb dudes that just meandered around a lot of the time (Wayne in particular just straight up floated away from a challenge at one point)

-Bowie was alright too. His line delivery is great as usual, but let's not kid ourselves: In a well written season, he'd be going straight for Julia the next time his team lost. Bowraj was nice to see even if the season didn't really do a whole lot with it

-Am I the only one who thinks this season is a tad bit misogynistic? Like this is the shortest them phase the show as ever had (to the point where i'd argue teams don't really matter) and 4 of the 5 team phase boots were girls. Millie and Emma in particular were really bad. Like, you could make Millie a team phase boot without like shitting on her that hard. And Emma got like fuck all closure outside of breaking up with Chase off screen like wow, way to utilize such a high potential character, Fresh. And this is saying nothing about how the girls that did make it to the merge had plots basically dominated by romance and like nothing else. And then there's MKulia which is apparently intended to be a friendship but like is written like a romantic one at times. It gives me all-stars gwourtney vibes and (as a fan of gwourtney myself) not in a good way. At least MK and Julia were somewhat in character I guess, but they had their edges really sanded off and honestly as a friendship (situationship?) it's a complete downgrade from Millie and Priya in so many ways

-And another thing: who's the protagonist this season? Outside of Praleb, who am I supposed to care for? Who am I supposed to root for? By the halfway mark, the show doesn't really make any convincing arguments to root for like anyone there outside of maybe Damien? And he went gone in episode 10, so like, hockey dudes? No one has an interesting enough narrative for me to care.

-The immunity idol stinks as usual. Like, why did Damien do THE SAME FUCKING THING HEATHER DID IN ALL-STARS?? That actually pissed me off so much holy shit. The immunity idol as it stands in the show is basically a shitty plot device made to keep characters in as there's no real strategy revolved around it.

-Oh and another minor thing: Owen's cameo sucks, and that's entirely due to him not being physically aged up at all and just being a vehicle for the same dumb jokes they always make with him. so stupid

-Anyways, I spend an entire season with two shitass straight relationships taking up screentime, a whole multiude of potential plotlines from last season (pramien) and this season (scary girl's revenge, millie being the new ripper, damien's comeback, julia having internal conflict over her friendship (feelings?) for MK) being set up and just nothing being done with them, and characters in general just being nerfed or borderline out of character (Ripper) and what am I rewarded with?

-Soar Losers. The most boring nothing finale in the entire show. The choices for finalists suck, Wayne, while being the least bad option for a winner (and i do still like him a lot), is still a mid ass winner in the grand scheme of the entire show. And more praleb drama? fuck off I hate them so much. The challenge did not feel finale worthy at all, and honestly it was the worst challenge in the whole season. On top of being a bunch of nothing, the show decides to bring back the worst trope it ever had: losing hair as karma. I almost ragequit the episode on the spot that shit makes me so irrationally mad. I think it's even worse here because Julia still had hair after the fact, which makes it seem like they were aware it's not a popular TD trope but wanted to half commit to it anyways for the sake of tradition or something. Terrible finale to an already decently sized letdown of a season, but it has some ok MKulia moments I guess. The finale was just emblematic of the entire season, where things just happen and you're just expected to go along with everything. (Also side note how come Chase wasn't the one to jump off of the cart for pizza immediately?)

TL;DR reboot season 2 imo was a step down in every conceivable way from season 1 apart of i guess comedy and it's left a very sour taste in my mouth. I'm probably missing a few points that I'll add onto later but man it feels nice putting my opinion out there.

[mono-blogs-art]

Alright, I finished GAP the series. I can't lie, I finished it in 2 days so, it was very addictive. I liked the first half more than the second, in later episodes it all just kinda dragged out a bit and the arguments felt a bit cyclical. But overall, I really liked it! Plus, the show is entirely on YouTube, I love the accessibility of it!

It's my first time watching a Thai drama, and I was somewhat aware before that GAP was one of the most popular lesbian shows coming out of the genre (and also one of the first Thai lesbian shows ever??). It's the kind of show everyone just knows through osmosis or has at least seen a few episodes of. And now that I've seen it I understand why that is the case :D

Overall: I will give the show a 6/10! It definitely has more of a silly, telenovela type edit and structure which is great, but not necessarily always for me. But because of that it also hooks you in immediately. Over time, the pace really starts to show however and it's just too slow for me. The shots are also sometimes a bit inconsistent, some of them look like a straight up painting and others are baffling to see in a finished product. I definitely laughed a few times because of that, but I find it more charming than anything else. It's a silly show after all.

The Plot: Is barely relevant to be honest, the main plot (Sam's company being in a tough spot) is just kind of abandoned after a while in favour of the love story. I didn't mind it. The romance is what I'm here for anyway. It has a very "my parents sold me to one direction" fanfic vibe, and I mean this only in the best way. Getting to intern at your idol's company, then becoming her personal assistant and eventually conquering her heart is a classic. Lesbians need that messy shit too. And brother I ate it up. I also understand now why people were comparing Chaser Game W (2024 lesbian jdrama) to this show, it has a somewhat similar vibe and is also about an unhealthy relationship in the workplace. However, GAP does literally every single thing better than Chaser Game did, and I still thought CGW was fun.

The Characters: I love them. They're simple but well executed.

Mon is understandably a bit boring, suffering from being the protagonist, but she does have a few key moments that were either really fun or really made me emotionally connect, so I like her. She's cute! And I loved her boldness and rebellious nature in the first half of the show, sadly I think it got lost a bit in the second. Overall this show isn't really interested in exploring sexuality that much (even though it's very steamy), so Mon just kinda goes from "Don't be silly, she's a woman, I'm not interested in her like that" to making out with Sam. Like girl, I get it but also... I wish we could've seen a bit more of that discovery and exploration (we do see it much more on Sam's side though). Mon also doesn't have a ton of agency, she's kinda powerless in a lot of situations because she's just a normal girl, not an... insanely rich noble lady CEO with powerful connections. You know, unlike her boss.

Sam is the true main character of the show, driving pretty much the entire plot in one way or another. She is also by far the most entertaining and charming character and I'm obsessed with her. She's a horrible person, wildly inconsistent, toxic and emotionally immature in every way, and seeing her ice-cold facade thaw every so slowly throughout the episodes is just so much fun. Underneath it all she's just a Weirdo who is so deeply traumatized by her upbringing that she's still just a kid at heart. I say all these harsh things because they are true, but also because despite it all the show somehow pulls it off to make her really likeable. Sam is funny, mean, extremely cute, pathetically down bad and horny, and just going through all the emotions ever, and her actress Sarocha Chankimha really pulls it off and I can only be impressed. Sam's development in the second half of the series also really works because it's surprisingly consistent, her falling back into her bad habits and eventually accepting her tragic fate made so much sense. She couldn't have achieved her freedom on her own and I'm glad the show didn't go that route either.

As for the supporting cast, Sam's friends are definitely the most interesting. I just wonder how Sam, a cis "straight" woman, ended up in the coolest queerest girl gang in town. Only because they were friends in elementary school? Honestly that's the most unrealistic part of the show for me LMAO. Sam's fiancé Kirk is The Man in the lesbian show, he's alright. Mon's friend Nop turned out to be surprisingly sweet in the later half of the show, which was a delight. The big villain of the series, Sam's grandmother, is ... Well, it was certainly a choice to have her end up where she did in the end. I wish they'd have done something a bit more bold with the character - I found it a bit of a cop out. Not all villains need to turn out to be nice in the end, especially not this one. But I can respect the choice, and I'm ultimately more in favour of a character working to become a better person than a villain succumbing to more evil.

One thing that's undeniable about the show is that it's hot. The leads have some insane chemistry going on and you can't look away, every scene with them feels electric, especially in the beginning. I was also surprised at how sexy the show is overall, like okay, we just dedicate an entire episode to Sam and Mon wanting to fuck. And there is an honest-to-god eating out scene that made me go 😳 I appreciate the show for that :D

Overall, I'm glad this was my introduction to Thai GL, I understand why it's a somewhat foundational text and I really enjoyed my time with it. I'm also happy to hear that it's been a kickstart for the actor's careers, and that the two girlies are doing more sapphic shows together now. I'm actually already watching The Loyal Pin (trying to watch and stay up to date as it's currently airing!) and that show is much more my style, even though it's also quite slow. But it's fun to see the same actresses play completely different roles. I loved Sam a lot, but overall I think I will enjoy Anin and Pin more.

[tobiasdrake]

I've been loving your Digimon Adventure recap series! I've actually never seen Digimon or really interacted with it much before, so I've been learning about it/vicariously watching the show through your recaps. Now I've started playing this fangame, Digital Tamers 2, that I'm hooked on! I just evolved my MachGaogamon to a MetalGarurumon, and now am starting to raise a Tsumemon (now a Keramon) - I guess they're the antagonist of one of the movies? Question-wise, I have 2: -When you were first watching as a kid, did you ever notice any of the inconsistencies or errors the dub made? Not the translation differences, of course, but the times where even within the show it didn't make sense, or they didn't include some important piece of information. -What Digimon series and/or movies have you seen (besides original Adventure) and what would you say is the best of them? I know there was some kind of reboot-type series in Adventure:, right? Was that good?

Ah, yes. We'll see them pop up when we get to Our War Game, a movie that takes place after the first Adventure series concludes.

*google google*

...I should check out this game.

Anyways, on to the questions.

1 - I don't remember very well, but I do recall being thrown off by certain things. There were a lot of minor "Huh?" moments but we couldn't exactly pause and think about a show back in the day so I'd often just wind up moving on to the next hype moment.

I didn't understand the plot very well but I didn't really know that I didn't understand the plot very well.

Since we're in the area of it, one thing that sticks out in recent memory is that I always found Puppetmon to be a boring villain and didn't understand why so many episodes were spent on him. My least favorite episode of the series was the one where he kidnaps T.K. to a house and then they just... run around and do nothing.

Which I now understand to be the result of everything they did in that house being impermissible on Fox Kids. Now, I am super enjoying Pinocchimon's arc.

(I also found T.K. himself to be a boring character in the first show back in the day, which I now understand to be the result of the dub overemphasizing his Kid Sidekick-ness and underemphasizing his strength, conviction, and personal growth.)

2 - I've actually never left the Adventure series before. ^_^;; Of the Digimon shows and movies, I have seen original Adventure, Adventure: Our War Game, Adventure 02, Adventure Tri, and Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna.

I got really hooked on this particular cast of characters, so as a kid when they announced that Tamers was going to be a whole new continuity with a whole new cast unrelated to the Adventure series, I took that as my jumping off point. Then I only ever came back when they announced new material for the Adventure cast.

I've heard a lot of good things about Tamers, though, and I'm looking forward to finally seeing it.

[centrally-unplanned]

Since I discoursed about some very specific stuff in Frieren my general stance so far is that it really does have excellent work in the tone department. Its "time" theme commitment is strong, the core crew has fun chemistry, and Frieren herself is a good balance in her interpersonal dynamics of being both wise and silly. And it imbibes its individual elements with a lot of heart - the Church of their world seems like a real organization aesthetically; the legacy of the heroes really does flow everywhere; the mages and elves and such we see have old roots in deep magic systems. All these things have "set piece tonal moments" that have a ton of care put into them. And of course the art really is beautiful; particularly the background work is top 10 best I've ever seen in a TV anime of this type.

But all of that tone and care is put into pretty shallow plots and flat world building. The tone of the church & the dukes and such is there, but their social roles are barely specc'd out, it doesn't congeal into a real society at all. Frieren's story is she wants to - this is unclear right now, which is fine its plot - do something like apologize to Himmel's ghost for never being clear about her feelings and telling him how much he meant to her. Which, you know, is something she can only do at the end. And Fern is gonna...tag along? And Stark is here too? They all get these little mini arcs but its repetitive and doesn't progress much. Their personal journey would make a decent 13 episode show, and the After-The-End world setting could make a good 26 episode fantasy political drama. But its kind of doing both without committing to doing either well. It fills this gap with tug-at-heart-strings sentimentality stuff, which is fine the first few times because the thematic heft of the stuff it has done well, with time and wide scale social change, is there to support it. But only the first few times, its not putting in the work needed to set up new, truly interesting stakes.

It does have great art, great character designs, Frieren is charming and also she is like Elf Ruri from Nadesico, who doesn't want that, etc, so its fun to watch. But it has very strong wasted potential vibes.

All I am saying is I could definitely write it better, my zero years of fiction writing is no problem I would totally fix this up stand aside Kanehito Yamada-

[somepsychopomp]

binge watched all of scavengers reign in one sitting! I have many thoughts, though they all feel jumbled up right now. I think the show starts off VERY strong but faces some pretty significant writing challenges as it progresses. Basically my opinion is:

episodes 1-6: an absolute triumph of imagination and environmental storytelling. They have genuinely some of the best ideas for alien life I've ever seen. The human characters are also all interesting, too. Azi and Levi were my favorite plot line but I really relished in how our first glimpse of Kamen is this sad, lonely malnourished man slowly starving to death in a tree... only to be revealed as a violent selfish asshole who genuinely gets what he deserves as the story progresses.

side note- I'm also a huge fan of the weird plant(?) that basically clones living beings and makes The Thing(s). Also Levi is probably the most compelling character in the entire show.

episodes 7-10: I enjoyed episodes 7-10 and maybe 11 so little that i considered giving up on the show in its entirety. To me, this segment dropped the show from like a 8.5/10 to a 4/10 or even lower. They were such an unenjoyable slog to get through imo (no hard feelings on anyone who liked them tho) because of the small crew of new characters we meet. No surprise you're not supposed to like or trust them, but the show just seemed unwilling to commit to them being actually evil or arguably sympathetic characters just trying to survive their own hostile situation, and kinda waffles between the two possibilities.

I guess that's the attempt at a gray area/morally gray characterization but I just fucking hated all of them and they meant nothing to me. Also it really, genuinely feels like the show speed ran Kamen's arc and completely ran out of ideas on where to take his character from here on out. Which is a bummer considering he's the type of character you absolutely love to hate.

And I'm so, so sorry, but I felt nothing when Sam died. TO MY DEFENSE, I can articulate why! Basically, out of all the characters on the show aside from arguably Kamen, Sam gets beaten up the most. He gets his blood sucked during the early storm, then gets wounded by the freaky cloning plant and almost dies from that, and then almost dies from getting buried alive, AND THEN gets implanted with the parasite from that mysterious lady. The best way I can put it is that his character just made me feel fatigued. His situation wasn't the kind where a protagonist suffers injury after injury but gets up anyways via sheer will/desire to complete their goal/what have you (Mizu from Blue Eye Samurai is a good recent example from adult animation who embodies this trope well, for example).

In contrast, Sam just spends too long on the brink of death for the stakes to feel high anymore. He also does nothing to improve his own condition, relying entirely on Ursula, which I think robs him of his agency and depth. In fact, I spent so long prepared to mourn him, kinda expecting him to not survive the planet, that when the time finally came, I already expressed all my emotions and detached myself from his character. I will say that at the very least, I did like his actual death scene and felt it was nicely done and paced.

episodes 11-12: Perfectly fine finale, I had no major problems with it but these episodes just didn't quite hit the highs of the first half of the series. Will say tho, Levi turbo blasting the Hollow was perfect. Love that for them.

Overall, I think I'll have to rewatch the show again when it's not late at night and I have all my wits about me. Maybe I'll change my opinion on it, because I really, REALLY want to like it in its entirety and will absolutely watch a second season if/when it comes out because, despite all its flaws, Scavengers Reign is something genuinely special.

The first half of the series feels like lightning in a bottle and MUST be seen by all sci fi and fantasy fans!! Even though everything is intensely organic and raw, the planet also has this strange biomechanical feel to it, from the shrapnel wind storm to the big triangle-head birds with electric/static feathers to all the animals that look like statues or toys but still live and breathe. It's such a unique take on an alien world and it was beautiful to see.

[respectthepetty]

Hey there. Hoping you're doing well. This is gonna sound random but I need a reason to watch He's coming to Me. I was looking at a list of all gmmtv shows and I've seen them all, except He's coming to me. And the weird thing is I don't have a reason. I adore Ohm, i don't particularly like Singto but that has never stopped me before. I have no problem with paranormal bl or sadness in bl. But for some reason every time I think I'm gonna watch it, I don't. I don't know if this has ever happen to anyone else but every once in a while this happens to me with a show or a film, like there's nothing wrong with it but I can't press play. And I have no idea why. I was hoping for some motivation I guess, just cause I'm a completionist and it's nagging me that I only have that one show left. Anyway, I'd appreciate your thoughts on this. (thanks for the space)

@nothingsbetterthancoffee, as a fellow completionist, I understand. Nothing can be left unfinished. No stone can remained unturned. No show can be left unwatched! But also, this show is a HOT TOP for me, so let me easily help you by giving you not one but TEN reasons to watch He's Coming to Me:

It has color-coded boys in love. <- The reason I showed up

Med/Mes is a stable, loyal, and intelligent Blue Boy who is happy (yellow) even in death. Thun is a Red Rascal who is spontaneous, energetic, and passionate. The love was always there, but seeing the color exchange always brings a smile to my face.

It's only eight episodes, and they are FREE!

Think of this as an eight-hour workday. Eat some breakfast, clock in to YouTube, watch five episodes (because after episode 5 is the PERFECT place to pause a la Bad Buddy), eat lunch, come back, watch the final three episodes, then clock out.

I know nobody wants to think of watching shows as work, but sometimes it helps to see the finish line at the end of day. Structure aids in productivity. And free is my favorite kind of watching experience, so it makes it even better.

The rooftop scene needs to be shown respect.

Mentioning Bad Buddy reminded me that He's Coming to Me's episode 5 rooftop scene walked, so Bad Buddy's episode 5 rooftop scene could run. Put some respect on this show's name!

The team behind it are elite professionals.

Aof, the director and an out gay man, has given us EVERYTHING! Bad Buddy, A Tale of Thousand Stars, Moonlight Chicken, and so much more. Rath, the cinematographer, has served us beautiful visuals every single time in Never Let Me Go, Dark Blue Kiss, and countless others. The screenwriter, Title, gave us the MaxTul vehicle MANNER OF DEATH. Imagine the Powerpuff Girls, but with film making. THAT'S the level of power behind this show.

The cast is stacked.

You already mentioned Singto and Ohm whose backs must hurt from carry the plot of so many shows on their shoulders, but the rest of the cast is A+ as well.

Sing and Chimon play the best friends, and they are the very BEST best friends. Sing has given us Todd(Black), and Chimon is about to embrace his sugar baby-ness in the upcoming Dangerous Romance. If they can stand next to THE Gun and the Perth, while holding their own, they deserve some recognition.

The supporting cast could beat every other supporting cast in a fist fight without breaking a sweat. We have Gunsmiles (who is no longer on the GMMTV's roster, sad times) who played in one of the best plots in 3 Will Be Free. We have Ampere who plays the office ally in GAP and La Pluie. Then we have Jum who only knows how to play the kindest mother from GAP, The Eclipse, and the upcoming Last Twilight. The twins, AJ and JJ show up, as well as Love who riled up enough people with her performance in Bad Buddy to get her own GL show!

Finally, we have the main ladies! Gigie makes you feel bad that this is a BL, so she won't get the guy, but that's because she is such a good character! Then there is Sine. I won't write much about her because I'm in love with her. I can't be rational about her. She never misses, and as a vegetarian, I would eat meat if she told me to. I. Love. Her.

The plot carries.

We all know shows that drag out the main plot for far too long. This show isn't one. It understands the assignment, and has a genuine plot beyond two boys falling in love. It also has twists and turns throughout that make sense to the original plot. Nothing seems disconnected, and everything seems logical in a show about ghosts.

The love is real.

For only eight episodes, in which one is mainly about a CHILD seeing ghosts, the way the love unfolds between the two leads is realistic. It is odd to see them first encounter each other when Thun is a kid, and Med is already a dead adult, but the way they come together as adults is touching.

The conflicts are believable.

Because of the way Med and Thun meet, and the overall plot, the conflicts are believable. They aren't just having issues because they don't want to communicate, or because it's the second to last episode. NO! One is a ghost who had his entire life ended, and the other is a young adult trying to figure out his life. The hesitation, the separation, and the conflicts in between are plausible.

The coming out SCENES are top tier.

If there is only one reason to watch this show, this is it! I don't need BLs to have a coming-out scene. Ever. If all of these shows existed in a magical bubble where being gay is the norm, I'd love it, but something about how Thun comes out in several ways, first to himself, then to his friends, and finally to his mom are all handled in the most endearing ways. These scenes healed my soul long before Be Loved in House: I Do hit me with its coming-out scene.

It has a happy ending.

Not only does it have a happy ending, but it has several happy resolutions for all the plots. It makes sure to wrap up the narrative while giving a little extra that completes the stories without feeling rushed or random.

Now that I've given you all these reasons, I hope you find it in yourself to finish the series. I know the first episode is rough to make it through, but once you get to the second half of episode 2, it should be smooth sailing.

As for me, I need to go write up He's Coming to Me (in Colors) post.

(thanks for the ask)

[idrilka]

in which i tell you to go watch weak hero: class one

it's me, hi, i'm the problem (here to recommend yet another drama), it's me. it's a good one, though, i'm serious.

so you know how you watch one drama that comes absolutely out of nowhere and makes you feel like you're seeing colors only shrimp can see? and you know how you're like, yeah, that experience is not gonna repeat any time soon, except then it does, and you end up writing 35k in a month like a woman possessed because the story just won't let you go? anyway, this is how we got here with weak hero class 1.

to be completely honest, prior to watching this drama, i'd thought i was largely done with enjoying stuff set in high school (notable exceptions apply!). i have not been in high school for a… number of years, and these days i'm just less likely to reach for high school-set fiction (though, again, if the story is good, i don't care what the setting is). but then a lovely anon on tumblr pointed me to this drama, so i checked out the premise, thought, "hm, maybe when i'm in the mood," and left it alone. turns out, i got in the mood pretty soon, and what i've ended up with are two separate fandoms which are simultaneously eating my brain. i don't know if i'd actively recommend this as an experience, because i'm pretty sure it's illegal to have so many feelings at the same time, but i'm not complaining, either.

more to the point, if you've seen me yelling about this drama here or on twitter, just know that when i say this was, in a surprising twist of events, my favorite drama that came out in 2022, i'm not exaggerating. i was not prepared for the absolute emotional punch that it delivered, and i was definitely not prepared to adopt two new boys to cry over. if you've seen and loved school 2013, this is, imo, required viewing. the emotions that weak hero gave me were the exact same kind i felt while watching school 2013, and truly, namsoon and heungsoo walked so suho and sieun could run.

apart from all the other things to recommend it, i feel like it captures the fraught transitional period of adolescence so, so well, without resorting to cliche or trite messages. quite the opposite, it's absolutely unflinching in dissecting all the ways in which teenagers are failed by the systems and people supposed to protect and care for them, and how, in many cases, what's left when all of that is gone is the last resort of violence.

and this is, without a doubt, a violent drama, but while the violence thrums in its veins, it doesn't at any point feel gratuitous or titillating. it's raw and honest, while at the same time the fight choreography is really well done and, at times, pretty unusual (if you've ever wanted to see conditioning done with a pen, look no further).

this drama doesn't waste even a second of its 8-episode run. it's tightly plotted and well-paced, but at the same time it's so, so good at working with stillness and silence - with all those moments of anticipation before the violence breaks out. i don't remember the last time i felt so tense (in the best possible way) while watching television - and it just builds and builds throughout the season, making the sense of dread palpable. this is accompanied by a very good score and some really neat cinematography.

what really makes this drama, though, are the performances. the three leads are, frankly, phenomenal and the actors deserve all the praise. park jihoon is amazing as yeon sieun, an exemplary student with neglectful parents who one day snaps when his bullies go a step too far. i've enjoyed choi hyunwook in everything i've seen him in, and this one is no different, because his ahn suho is one of my favorite fictional characters of recent years. he's so good in this role, and his chemistry with park jihoon is sizzling. i'm just saying, there's a reason why google autocompletes "is weak hero class one" with "a bl", and you know what, it should have been. all of their interactions sparkle (just like sieun's enormous eyes), and their dynamic is just so much fun. the fact that suho keeps looking at sieun like he wants to lick him and keeps calling him cute and taking him on scooter rides/dates also helps. and then there's hong kyung who gives a wonderfully nuanced performance as oh beomseok and carries that energy through all the way to the end. but it doesn't end there! the supporting cast is also excellent, with such standouts as lee yeon as youngyi or shin seungho as seokdae.

honestly, i've had so much luck recently with some truly excellent dramas, but even among those, whc1 is a definitive standout. it doesn't pull its punches, and it's so effective at getting its themes across, and i need season 2 right about NOW.

now, to leave you with something more than just my words, here's a masterclass in establishing a character in ~3 minutes (or: the meet-cute/meet-violent): link

[zimithrus]

10 Shows (gifs), 10 People 📺

Tagged by the lovely @isleofair, thank you so much for including me! This one looks like a super fun one! 💚💚 These aren't going to be in any particular order, just 10 shows that I liked enough to incorporate into my personality or just really really liked growing up 😆🌟

1 Inuyasha

My very first anime I watched with the actual knowledge of what anime even was. Shout-out to my big bro for getting me into it when I was 10. Helped me make one of my very best friends to this day and I have such fond memories of this anime. 💗

2 House MD

My favorite medical drama to watch! Some episodes had me thinking 'I can't believe my mom was okay with me watching this show' 😆 I still remember so many episodes vividly and I really want to re-watch it all again now that I'm an adult XD

3 Chrono Crusade

Oh lord the things this show did to my teenage brain 💗 I shit you not I would finish this series and then REWATCH IT ALL OVER AGAIN ON THE SAME DAY, I was hardcore obsessed with this show!! Permanently altered my brain chemistry, and unfortunately in the process I watched it so much I ruined it for my older brother 😂😂 To this date this show has one of the most powerful shows of intensity coupled with the most bittersweet ending I have ever seen 😭 Like literally, hmu about this show because there's no one else I know that even KNOWS what this show is and I am always down to talk about this one any time!! (This gif of Chrono was too cute not to use!!)

4 Tiger & Bunny

This show. These two. Holy shit. 💯 they've definitely altered my brain waves too XD This show has some of the most dynamic characterization, design and storytelling I've seen in a long time! I definitely got into it later in life but I'd say I got into it at just the right time. An anime about the nitty gritty of superhero life specifically made with adult audiences in mind 💚

5 Code Lyoko

I was obsessed with this show when it first launched on cartoon network! A unique blend of 2D and 3D animation with all kinds of dangers and hijinks. The 3D is definitely a little aged but I think it still holds up well for a show made in '03. Me and my brother used to quote this show all the time and giggle over the dumb jokes so much that my mom dropped the rule of needing to be excused from the dinner table for reasons I can't remember XD Shout-out to Odd for being my first introduction to a cat-like person with his 3D model 💜

6 Case Closed / Detective Conan

Murder mystery anime for the win!! Still ongoing even after 28 years of airing 💯 I'm going through and trying to complete an entire series watch!I didn't get into this one until 2011 with the 6th movie (they played it at our library's local anime club meeting) and only watched the dub until recently, but at least I have a lot to watch! 💚

7 Xiaolin Showdown

I loved this cartoon! Fun, exciting, well rounded characters and villains, amazing plots and fun times all around! I remember they even had a contest for this show to design your own weapon that would be later added into the show! Jack Spicer is a hilarious villain and shout-out to Chase Young for being my first fictional crush ever 💚

8 Pokemon

Raichu my beloved!!! 💚💚Aside from Raichu, I loved this show growing up. Ash was such a fun and likeable protagonist for me as a kid and heck this show is even the reason why I have my irl nickname in the first place. I legit teared up when Ash was finally no longer the main protagonist of the series anymore lol!

9 Avatar: The Last Airbender

Ironically, we did not have cable at the time this show was at the height of it's popularity, so I was only able to watch it when my parents took me and my brother over to our friends house. (Our parents were friends so naturally all us kids were friends too!) But we would all get super excited when this show was on, especially if the episode was new! I think we used to pretend to be the characters? XD And I remember the eldest sister of our friends came by one day with avatar fruit snacks for us all, it was awesome 💯💚 Zuko still has one of the best redemption arcs I've seen in a show 👌

10 Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles

A middle school favorite!! For months I wanted everyone in school to call me Sakura 😅 Still have my DVDs and a few manga books for this series. Loved it a ton even if the anime itself never did wrap up the story completely. The OVAs were bad-ass though, and a lot of the OST is still downloaded to my ipod 💯 (Yes I still use an ipod in 2024 lmao) (Looks familiar? The Manga artists of Cardcaptor Sakura, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Chobits also made this one - CLAMP!)

Holy fuck this took way longer to pull together than I thought it would! I think I spent over an hour?? XD But it was super fun anyway!! I will see if these cool cats would also like to do this one! (I can't think of 10 sorry! XD)

@prismaticpichu @up-sideand-down @kazeshxni @thatrandomartistyoufound @aerislei @enide-s-dear @waifujuju @nicoroni

And of course no pressure if you aren't feeling up to it!! 💚💚

[lazlolullaby]

Intersex Terry Mcginnis

Because I've seen fantastic non-binary Terry from @theycallme-ook and their series, I've seen this gorgeous transmasc Terry from this fic, crown of neon, and @jasontoddssuper with their transfem Butch Terry agenda and hot damn is it great.

(btw using he/him for Terry because that's what the show did.)

Whatever he is, he cisn't.

This is all in the name of trying to incorporate the VERY late game (I truly mean last episode with him ever so it never impacts any other plot just a wrap up theme and thesis statement on Heroism) twist and have it inform his whole - teenage attitude and everything.

so. uh. let's dive.

General warning for intersexism, queer phobia, messing with gender and such. Divorce. Cadmus manipulating people. The violation of consent that's inherent in making someone give birth to and raise a child designed to be a legacy vigilante without them knowing.

Genetic alteration isn't all that it's cracked up to be. It's DNA testing, it's virus loads and constant correction, it's incorporating extra violet genes into flowers and them rejecting them completely and going blank white.

I know it's the DCAU, with Manbat being the first episode, animal chimeras being created all throughout but, fantastic science that let the plot move but. It was the 90s and the early 2000s. on our side the human genome project started in 1985, was partially complete in 2003, and only fully completed in 2022! Cadmus is cutting it close.

there's a lot of room for error, here.

The alterations done to Warren's DNA were sketchy at best. Lots of sperm failed after the nano machines got to them. It was difficult for Mary and Warren to conceive, which is why Terry and Matt are so far apart in age. That put stress on their relationship, not including that the kids don't even look like Warren either.

Mary and Warren were very happy that Terry came to term without major problems. He wasn't visibly intersex until he was born, but because it's the Future TM, they ran the DNA to screen for any major disorders. Terry comes out chimera style intersex, with different DNA depending on where you take the sample. His hormones are giving him a mix of traits that make him ambiguous.

((yeah this is specific but shush: Terry can't naturally grow a beard. (Not like he wants to, he's heard his mom complain too many times about his dad's face bristles to be excited about getting his own.) People generally do a double take with him. "I ate my sister in the womb." Is the snappy answer he likes to give. "she left me with some things."))

The Future is a little more forgiving, there's some paperwork and not much pressure for the parents to put him through infant surgery.

And then we get to Matt. Because Terry was difficult, the parents sought out a fertility clinic to get Matt as good a start as possible.

Terry is angry at first, that he's a genetic mess and they had to go to a clinic to get a "real boy". That they tried to have a "good kid" but it couldn't fix their relationship. That even Matt didn't turn out right; A "clerical error" gives Matt an "anonymous donor" as a father instead of Warren.

It's building up with bunch of smaller things - having to explain their gender every so often, being confused with older buildings with split gender bathrooms and teachers treating him different depending on his perceived gender.

It was clear that the grace period ran out. He just - was given an ultimatum. Guy or girl. There's also some manipulation on Cadmus's part - can't be Batman without being a man...right?

and It's Gotham. Having a healthy vision of masculinity is not going to happen. So to protect himself Terry decides to be a Guy. A Real Cool Guy.

But it's not clicking. He's not comfortable. His parents tell him that he can be "whatever kind of man he wants" but that's still vague.

All this gender identity frustration builds up with his general teenage "pushing boundaries" and "parents arguing" leads him to hang with the wrong crowds.

and that's how he lands in juvie. He ends up calming down, putting himself into a box of "reformed good bad boy" and "I'm committing to the bit." and just dealing. Being a man like Warren is trying to teach him and not just...staying an unknown variable.

Now we incorporate Neo Batman and Bruce. Who have a very strict set of rules about what or who Batman is meant to be. And in a way, it's freeing his head to think about who Terry is outside of the cowl. Bruce is also a Queer Elder, he's seen plenty of people work through their identities and he works with Terry to find a label that fits.

That it doesn't have to be all or nothing, that it can change over time.

Experimentation is expected of teenagers. Splicing is a flat no because of his already precarious genetic status. And Terry likes hanging with his girls that are friends and his girlfriend. He does a mean eyeliner too. Terry is a lot happier.

Mary sighs "is this some late teenage rebellion against your father?"

"I...really don't know what he'd think. This isn't a spite thing. But I don't think he did - or you did anything wrong. It just took me some time to get out of my own head and realize."

"Well. You look settled. He'd be proud of you."

"Thanks ma."

[naddpod-encounter-tourney]

Option 1:

Enemy: High King Durretar, Ancient Blue Dragon of the Sapphire Scale

Episode: C3 E27: King of Dragons

Time: 48:48-2:11:35 (battle stops at 2:03:55 but initiative ends at the later time)

Finish: Princess Shiverblight

Notes: On 3, regicide! The level 8 party decides to fight an ancient dragon on their own when only one of them manages to long rest beforehand. The mechanics of this encounter include dragon riding and are so goddam cool. It's also incredibly visual and one of Murph's best uses of lair actions to date.

Propaganda: (anonymous) CMON ITS KING OF DRAGONS. SO SICK. genuinely from the bottom of my heart the most exciting, interesting, and cool encounter I've ever seen. Rad as hell both mechanically and plot wise. SHIVERBLIGHT SWEEP!!

MY SUPERBOWL OF DND FIGHTS!!!!! TRULY SO ICONIC AND FUN!!!! COMBAT OF ALL TIME

I mean, come on! It was a giant fucking sky battle on the backs of dragons, unbelievably cinematic, lots of close calls, princess shiver blight, nothing comes fucking close!

Princess Shiverblight MVP

you know.

it's just so sick and scary

Option 2:

Enemy: Lord Ultrus and the Order of the Runny Eye

Episode: C3 E44: Trial by Steel and C3 E45: Lord Ultrus

Time: 1:04:08 (44) - 1:42:08 (45)

Finish: Hardwon (traps Ultrus in the Kingshammer)

Notes: Hardwon starts the battle with a Battlemaster ability. Jaina and Calder finally get involved in a fight (from inside the helm!!). Callie joins them inside the helm, and Ultrus and the cultists keep swapping who is inside the helm and who is outside the helm. Hardwon has a real Hardwon moment of standing alone, facing down a god (or a giant who made a deal with a god and has the powers of a god, who was responsible for the death of his best friend). Sol does some shenanigans and kind of keeps missing but is also impossible to hit. Kenna keeps saving lives. I cannot actually describe in words the moment where Hardwon regains the Kingshammer, casts Spirit Guardians, and an army joins them, as we get to finally see Cobb's final moments and the memory that was stored in the hammer. Jake is playing 2 PCs wonderfully. Also: "Hardwon! Catch!"

Propaganda: (anonymous) Not only is the battlefield dynamic and engaging (having Ultrus and his cronies switching between battlefields, making it effectively two battles at once) it also has narrative emotional stakes and big character moments (Old Cobb’s last words to Hardwon).

(also this post)

The concurrent battles in the material plane and in the demiplane, Ultrus's ability to switch between the two so everyone got to fight both him and the warlock goons, the extra abilities stolen from the trapped prisoners, the mechanics for breaking out of the helm, HARDWON AND JAINA AND THE DWARF DADDIES

god i know so many people will add this one but i love it so much. the way they jump back and forth between the Trial by Steel and the fight inside the helm is SO GOOD. i still have goosebumps from Jaina throwing the queenshammer through the barrier and Hardwon catching it. also the stakes were SO HIGH it was FANTASTIC. 10/10 combat

HUGE!!!! ITS HUGE!!!!! omg where to even start with this. the rolls alone feels INSANE AGSHAJDJSKD. JAINA AND CALDER. THE MOMENT WITH THE KINGSHAMMER. CALDER SUCCESSFULLY TACKLING ULTRUS. HARDWON GETTING A 30 TO PUT HIM IN THE HAMMER. THE SPIRIT GUARDIANS???????? I CRIED

truly the epitome of murph encounters! two different battles waging at the same time, with different combat styles (one big enemy vs lots of weaker baddies) in different planes, that then switch so everyone gets to fight in every situation. great group of PCs and NPCs that make excellent choices (shoutout to jake for playing two characters at once!), tons of emotional beats, and a very satisfying narrative closure to the arc. gotta love it

[alloveydovey]

Ok, random thoughts on dramas I finished watching this month (some of which I've been dragging out since July).

Meet Yourself (cdrama) 10 ⭐️

It's the first cdrama I've seen that I felt was well-acted and felt genuine. Perhaps because the ML has a personality and isn't simply some stone-cold dude and the FL (who I was obsessed with) is mature and insightful.

It’s very light and yet deeply meaningful. Yes, it could be a little draggy at times (could have been shorter), but I can't really complain because I didn't want it to end. You really find yourself falling in love with the entire town, as well as most secondary characters.

A Time Called You (kdrama) 8

It was really emotional, but I lost interest in episode 9 and wanted it to end. I don’t know if it was because I didn’t fully understand what was going on or because, although I like time travel plots, this one was just too twisty for me to get.

King The Land (kdrama) 8/8.5?

People complaining because it had no plot— what do you mean? The plot was ✨love✨

I mean yeah, I get it, though, because I started it in August and finished it in October (I got low-key bored on episode 11). The .5 is only because Yoona and Jun Ho’s chemistry was insanely good, like the kind of chemistry where you feel like you're intruding on them or something.

My Lovely Liar (kdrama) 7.5

This one was all over my fyp on tiktok, and I'm not sure why everyone was so into it.

I initially started to watch it because of Kim So Hyun. The first eight episodes were okay. I wasn't particularly intrigued by the mystery of who the killer of the ML’s girlfriend was, but it was enough to keep me going. But, later on, I just wasn't into it at aaall. The ML and FL were cute, but i didn’t feel any spark between them :\

Here We Meet Again (cdrama) 8

Another cdrama with good acting 🙌🏽 lol I swear I’m not bashing Chinese dramas, it's just I watched some questionable ones. I wasn’t that much into the whole work thing but, let's be honest, I only saw this one because FL and ML were the cutest and had an insane chemistry.

Why I Dress Up for Love (jdrama) 9

Workaholic social media girl moves into a house with four roommates and ends up having a situationship with one of them.

This is my fourth jdrama (Only Just Married, The Fallen High School Girl and The Crippled Teacher, and A Girl and Three Sweethearts), and it is without a doubt the best one and most likely a future all-time favourite. The obstacles the characters experienced were not too deep, but enough to soften you, and the chemistry was excellent. It was simple, natural and cute. An overall feel good 👌🏽

Destined With You (kdrama) 8.5/9 still not sure lol

Okay, I’ll be honest, this probably doesn’t deserve a 9. That whole extra point is for Rowoon's face and Bo Ah's cuteness.

I feel like the writers of this one got down and began pulling out pieces of paper from a bag full of common clichés that are currently used in dramas. Past lives lovers? Check. Sort of enemies to lovers? Check. Rich ML x Poor orphan FL? Check (although a little twist with the mom being the cutest mother ever) Mean ex girlfriend who can’t get over ML? Check. A culprit dressed all in black who is after the FL? Check. I don’t know what else but I’m sure there’s more… and it should have been boring but somehow they made it work?!?! And I was so into it?!? The comedy was comeding, the chemistry was chemistring, the Samsung phones were samsunging (?), Subway was there, music was banging? Magic was entertaining, even the angsty moments were hitting.

Like yeah, I don’t know. Maybe it was Rowoon and his perfect face or maybe this was a really entertaining and romantic watch. Anyway, a 9.