#One hour special episodes

[marshmallowgoop]

no thoughts just Heiji Hattori (HD)

[mischiefbuckley]

I just had a thought… Eddie doesn’t know that Buck was clawing his way through wet mud to get to him right??? So what if that’s one of the confessions learned while on the call like how they told Eddie he couldn’t get down the well this time around in the preview for episode 6 we saw at the end of the episode like again the show itself is drawing the parallel between this well call and the well call from the “Eddie Begins” episode like when he did last time go down a well to rescue a kid that was trapped and what if someone mentions that Buck was clawing his way through wet mud trying to get to Eddie once he was trapped underneath in the well and Eddie learns again just how insane Buck reacts whenever he gets injured on calls

[msnihilist]

Rewatching some S6 and I cannot BELIEVE that TWO EPISODES AFTER POOF WAS BORN, Cosmo was already referring to Timmy as his big brother.

[nexus-nebulae]

every day i wish that Rats SMP was a cartoon bc it would make the greatest show ever i think

[episodes-without-incident]

Special Edition Post:

The Drawfee 2023 charity stream is NOT free of Cats (2019)

[detco-hell]

[Episode One: The Great Detective Turned Small]

[clownsnake]

Been watching adventure time for realzies instead of through osmosis and man. Ice king. MAN.

Literally every time Simon is referenced after the initial reveal has me bawling my eyes out. what do you MEAN he saved the farm world universe from the mushroom war. And he asked for help as he died. What do you MEAN Finn wrote mean letters to ice king and flame princess to make them fight and called ice king "simple Simon". I thought it was just the specifically Simon focused episodes that'd be fucked up but once you know he's Simon, literally every appearance of him or ice king is so tragic.

[hopkei]

KeitoNatsu and their Otter

[elizabeth-mitchells]

you know what. i think that to this day still nothing mike flanagan has done has hit quite like episode 3 of hill house

[notmoreflippingelves]

Hi! I just read your post about Mateo recently. If I may, can you give me any specific instances in the narrative of the show where Mateo isn’t called out as heavily as they should have? I’m just curious?

During the Shuriki returns arc in particular, Mateo makes some pretty glaring mistakes that I feel like he should've gotten much more flack for (and based on what we see elsewhere in canon, I feel pretty confident that if Gabe, Naomi, Isa, or Esteban at least --and possibly even Elena-- had made these mistakes, they wouldn't have been swept under the rug nearly as quickly as they were for Mateo).

While it's unfair to completely blame Mateo for Carla's manipulating him during the "Rita" arc, I feel like it's reasonable to hold him a *bit* accountable. He did after all blab highly confidential information (on more than one occasion) to try and impress a pretty girl with how clever and important he was. (Something tells me that if any of the others had done likewise, they would've been called out for it. But because it's "beloved" Mateo, we don't even get "wait, you told Rita how to get into your workshop? And you've known her for only a few weeks? What were you thinking, Mateo?") Moreover, he never even apologizes for this or promises to do better/be more careful with such important, sensitive information in the future.

Even more aggravating is his behavior in "The Scepter of Night." Mateo is so eager to play the hero and claim all the glory for himself that he twice (!) disobeys a direct order/abandons the plan and goes looking for the scepter piece on his own. This directly leads to Fiero and Victor finding the scepter piece and (temporarily) stealing it. And it's really only due to luck and very conveniently-timed infighting amongst Shuriki's allies that Elena and co. are able to get the scepter piece back. While Mateo does receive some (brief) criticism, it's nowhere near the level that it should be.

Also noteworthy Elena doesn't really get particularly "mad" at him (especially considering how angry we see her get at other characters even for more minor things) . She's not truly, actually angry at Mateo (and Gabe and Naomi are only a bit angrier); she's just a little frustrated and disappointed at him in the moment. And apart from a (very short) little "do better next time" speech, Mateo doesn't face any real consequences or lingering resentment unlike other characters who do.

When Isa obeys direct orders in "Sister of Invention," she has to face consequences (Elena grounding her). Similarly, Elena holds a grudge against Esteban for days (if not weeks) after he interfered with the Feast of Friendship (a much lower stakes mistake than Mateo's imo). Moreover, it's possible to interpret Esteban's staying behind in Avalor when the others go to see the Norberg Lights as a punishment (either self-inflicted or imposed by Elena) for his actions in the previous episode.

In contrast, Mateo just gets a brief "I expected better from you" speech from Elena and Gabe jokingly assigning him push-ups as punishment (which he immediately takes back when Mateo tries to do them). I'll give Mateo a little bit of credit for actually apologizing this time (which he doesn't always do). But it's still frustrating that everyone is so ready to forgive and forget Mateo's missteps immediately while this same courtesy is seldom shown to others.

I think it's worth directly comparing a few Mateo-centric episodes with a few more similar ones that focus on other characters so that we can see how there does seem to be a noted narrative bias in his favor compared to the others.

Let's start with two "feeling kind of insecure" episodes: "Spellbound" for Mateo vs. "Naomi Knows Best" for Naomi. In the former, Mateo expresses doubt that he's capable of rising to the occasion as royal wizard. No one (except Gabe and he gets over it by the end of the episode) blames him for not having reached his full level of confidence and potential right away and not being able to immediately solve the problem. And Elena in particular (and by extension the narrative) gives him so much validation and support. Whereas in "Naomi Knows Best" (and to a lesser extent "Finders Leapers" and the "Carla-as-Rita" arc as well) the narrative "punishes" Naomi for her feelings of self-doubt. We're told that *if only* Naomi had trusted her gut instincts and stood her ground right away, Elena and co would not fallen right into the trap and that Naomi needs to screw her head back on straight and embrace confidence ASAP to fix her mistake.

When Mateo feels insecure, the narrative gives him every reassurance about how capable and special he is, that he can learn at his own pace, and his insecurity isn't really such a problem after all. When Naomi feels insecure, the narrative encourages her to get over her doubts as quickly as possible because unlike with Mateo, there's "no time" for her to wallow in self-doubt and actually the fact that she even had said doubt in the first place is what "caused" the disaster.

On a slightly different note, Naomi is also called out for taking a little free, fun time for herself in "The Last Laugh" when the group needs her, and yet somehow I have a feeling that Mateo would've been allowed to take a day off if he wanted without any protest. He complains about long hours in "Movin' on Up" and Elena gives him the big royal wizard's chambers for him to relax and unwind in. Naomi asks for one (1) day off to spend with her childhood friend for her birthday , and suddenly it's big drama. (And at the time, Naomi asked for said day off, all Elena needed from her was help doing paperwork. The Team Ash stuff came up unexpectedly.)

Similarly whenever Gabe and Mateo get their little rivalry on ("Spellbound," "Party of a Lifetime," "Captain Mateo" and a few other examples) , the narrative either presents them as equally at fault or Mateo as the only one in the right.

When Gabe brings in Bronzino to train the Royal Guards in magic, it's specifically because Mateo failed to explain how and why he was training the guards in the way he was. If he'd just explained how they were going apply the seemingly basic exercise they were doing to real magic, Gabe likely would've allowed Mateo to continue the training at his own pace.

(Also like. it's super hypocritical imo for Mateo to get annoyed at Gabe feeling impatient/impulsive about their apparent-lack-of progress when Mateo himself is easily the second most impulsive character in the show after Elena.) Mateo feels entitled to keep important information to himself (or blab it to a cute girl he barely knows) even when its no one else's best interest. He's only okay with being "cautious and patient" when he specifically is the one setting the pace. And yet, Gabe is the only one who is called out for his behavior in this episode--even though he might not have acted as he did if only Mateo had trusted him and the guards with an explanation in the first place.

And then there's just a few other "dude not cool" little moments that never really get acknowledged/Mateo never apologizes for. For instance, there a two low-key terrifying Mateo moments in "Captain Mateo" that are not only not acknowledged but are also framed in context as Mateo being just "so funny and quirky". Near the end of "Should be in Charge," Mateo magically gags Gabe so he can't protest anymore about Mateo taking over as leader of the mission. And this is after having already enchanted one of the stationary suits of armor to come to life and fight Gabe. (Gabe admittedly does lightly shove Mateo out of the way during his parts of the song, but that's still a far cry from literally drawing a sword on Mateo as Mateo does via magic to Gabe.)

It's played for laughs (The Grand Council is just smiling happily in the background throughout the scene which is so yikes), so it's easy to overlook what's actually happening. Frankly, it's pretty horrifying that Mateo's natural instinct upon his experience/authority being questioned is to literally attack and then silence. (And attack and silence someone who is supposed to be one of his best friends and closest allies at that!)

Rather than the narrative acknowledging that maybe it's a bad idea to immediately grant power to someone to someone who is so retaliatory against fairly minor criticism, the Grand Council just gives Mateo exactly what he wants and doesn't even offer a "maybe next time, let's not gag or attack our friends, okay?" alongside it. I mean sure Mateo does step down as captain at the end of the episode, but it's very specifically presented as his and Gabe's voluntary choice and not an order from Elena/the Council.

[marshmallowgoop]

No matter how special it is, a kid's lunch is still just a kid's lunch.

I dunno, I liked "The Genius Restaurant" (Episode 1,089).

Happy (belated) birthday, Jimjam.

[Song link] [YouTube link]

[shwoo]

I've been rewatching Game Center CX, and also wondering about the source of the "There's not a single encouraging word on that screen" image, and I just found it! It's from the Punch-Out!! episode.

The screen mentioned in the subtitle was the game over screen from Punch-Out!!, which shows Little Mac sitting on a bench looking sad and beaten, with "GIVE UP?" to the left of him and "RETIRE?" to the right, and "GAME OVER" below him.

After getting a yet another game over at Bald Bull and having to go back to Don Flamenco, Arino says something that the SA-GCCX/Clover translation subtitles as "Maybe I should throw in the towel... (reading the game over screen) Give up... Or retire... Game over... There's not a single encouraging word on that screen." (Japanese: タオル人れたったらええのに。。。GIVE UP。。。 RETIRE。。。GAME OVER。。。前向きな言葉１個もないやん。)

The game over screen did have a bit at the bottom that said "AFTER TRAINING, MAC, COMING BACK!", but I don't think Arino could read that part. The game's entirely in English for some reason.

The "His smile and optimism: Gone" image is from the second Quest of Ki episode, by the way. Quest of Ki is... I'd call it a precision platformer? Arino had spent thirteen hours playing the game in the previous episode, the last three of which were on level 79 of 100, and he suggested he might be able to finish the game up in the next two hours. At some point in the next fifteen hours, he made the face in the screenshot.

[doctorwhoisadhd]

also one thing that chibnall certainly did right was having new years specials instead of christmas specials. im pretty disappointed that rtds bringing those back.

[the-kneesbees]

give me six seasons and a movie or give me death

[mwagneto]

whatever. jesus christ. good night

[master-missysversion]

I know it was sort of Moffat's thing but i wouldve loved to have a 13 episode centred around children. I love seeing the doctor interact with kids, especially Eleven, and thirteen is very like him