#This episode would’ve failed if it wasn’t as overdramatic as it was

[halastar05]

Thoughts on Mastermind

(So yeah spoilers ahead)

So after letting my thoughts on the episode settle a bit and giving myself time to analyze, I have a LOT to say.

So first of all… yeah I think this is officially my new favorite Helluva episode.

I think this episode was pretty well paced (a little fast, but there was a LOT to cover) and also did a surprisingly good job at balancing the drama and humor. Also obviously ADORED the IMP found family showcased in this episode, they were entertaining in the first scene, and heart wrenching at the court.

Now for a bit more analysis, the way they handled the writing was REALLY interesting here. While first watching the episode, I was a little confused about Andrealphus’s plan, but after thinking about it… it’s scarily clever.

He knows that Stolas is smart in his own right, if he straight up brought him to court, he’d find a good way to argue. He knows how to work this type of stuff as shown in Oops. But if they brought in only Blitzø, they knew Stolas wouldn’t see until the broadcasted execution. He would have no time to form a concrete rational plan, Andre wants him to either act irrationally, or make himself look like a fool and incompetent. No one knows exactly what he’ll do, but Andre is giving Stolas as little time as possible to think it out. The hope is that he acts as irrationally as he has before.

And even if Stolas didn’t come, Andre purposely tries to make Stolas seem weak and somewhat helpless, incompetent. All the while he makes himself look an almost better version of our favorite bird. His backup plan is to make Stolas look incompetent and vulnerable, while it may be less immediate, with Stolas’s already somewhat declining reputation, this would make it easier for him to take Stolas’s title.

And despite being EXTREMELY irrational, Stolas did a pretty good job with his plan in my opinion. First of all, he brought ALL the theater kid energy in the song (which was an absolute banger by the way, I don’t care how cheesy the Stolitz part was I LOVE CHEESY) and did a great job playing the part. To me, this is proof that he had finally started to realize the classism. This is the type of part you can only play by understanding it even if you don’t necessarily believe it. He plays up the the classism and distaste for imps, he uses the fact that the other royals see them as useless and incompetent. And honestly, I think it was smart of him to be so vague in the song. Once again, he didn’t have a lot of time to think this through, and he somewhat used this to his advantage. Being vague added an air of mystery and made it seem like more of an unpredictable threat. He’s building up the fact that this mastermind has a dangerous plan, something possibly having to do with taking over the mortal realm. And then when he reveals himself to be the “mastermind”? Well of course he wouldn’t expose any of his “future plans”, Stolas is playing as someone who just wants the recognition and to be feared. Someone arrogant, feeling offended that an imp was getting the credit for his crimes. Claiming he has more planed while not naming those plans makes him a threat and will draw away almost any blame from Blitzø.

And of course this plan is impulsive, but he barely has any time to plan. He arrives right before the axe is about to come down on his lover’s neck. His only goal right now is making sure Blitzø stays alive. In the song he even acknowledges how impulsive it is to throw everything away for this idiot he is still frankly mad at. But he’s learned he can choose his fate, and that’s exactly what he’s doing.

And of course I ADORED the Stolitz in this episode, they were both so perfectly dramatic and the absolute SOFTNESS in the last scene had me making absolute demonic and feral noises. But, despite this somewhat being a closure to the season 2 Stolitz drama (however we do still have Sinsmas) I’m happy they’re still leaving room for more angst even with them now being able to properly blossom. This episode did an EXCELLENT job at showcasing the classism via the unfairness of the court case, so it feels fitting that at the end the power dynamic almost switches. Blitzø is now a celebrity amongst imps and lower class demons, while Stolas essentially lost everything, including his daughter. And while I definitely think this is setting up for angst in at least the next episode (in which I very much think they’re going to go and try to save Octavia from her bitchy mother), this power dynamic is going to feel different, because while there is still somewhat a power dynamic now, there is also a much larger level of understanding between the two of them. They now feel more capable of facing this together, there is less doubt of feelings. I’m REALLY excited to see how they handle this, and yes I also am an absolute sucker for hurt/comfort.

Those are most of my major thoughts in this episode. I loved every single part of this beautifully dramatic episode (yeah I expectantly loved Vassago) but most of the other things I would bring up have already been said. Plus this post is too long so yeah that’s it for now.

[alienslikedmyfantasy]

I'm Just Thinkin' You Don't Have To Read This

Okay, so I watched the newest episode of The Owl House today (S2E5) and I squealed then cried a lil bit.

I don't think I've ever connected more to a show, especially it's characters.

(I'm just gonna rant about the episode [spoiler alert] and how I connect to it...mental health and me discussed, feel free to ignore)

This is one of the shows that helped me realize I wasn't straight (see also Good Omens, Legend of Korra, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power).

It's also helped me understand myself better.

So a lot of people headcanon Luz as having ADHD (and it is now apparently canon, thank you Dana Terrace <3 ).

I immediately connected with Luz, like, it was insane.

Luz: *Breathes* Me: SAMEEEEE

Now, I have been struggling to sort out my mental health for a long time. We have suspected depression for a long time, I gained more anxiety when I got older (Covid hasn't helped with either of these), and now it's highly possible that ADHD is in the mix as well (I have done extensive research, just realizing more recently).

I've suspected ADHD for almost 2 years now (I believe...what even is time??). I read about symptoms and they made sense, and as I learn more and more, I realize 'yikes I need tested'. Being a girl makes it harder because of stereotypes etc.

Luz helped me realize more and for that I am forever grateful.

This whole show has just opened my eyes and unlocked a lot in me.

It's just so wholesome! And I love me that

Wholesome stuff.

Okay back to the beginning and original point of this post.

So in the episode I watched today, I noticed how Luz reacted when she left the library with Amity. It caught me off guard. The tears, the shaky breathe, the stiff posture. I do the same thing! I get stiff and put on a front (Luz looks like she tries to smile through the hurt) to hide my emotions too.

I did look up posts after I watched it cause I loved it and wanted to see what others thought, there was one post that mentioned Luz's ADHD and how RSD went to town. It made me rewatch parts of the episode.

Before I read it, I was like 'that's how I'd react too Luz, it'll be okay sweetheart <3'

On the other hand, after I read it, I saw so much more.

Her reaction outside the library, my heart, I know exactly what's going on in her head and just how she feels.

She believes that she's failed and hurt her friend who just said something that was misconstrued (if I didn't know how Amity felt, I would've heard the exact same thing Luz did).

THEN she does everything she possibly can to fix her mistake, to help her friend, even if she doesn't want to be friends with Luz anymore.

Later, she shows up and does the whole "I'm sorry and if you never want to talk to me again I understand" with her eyes closed and shoulders hunched (which feels like bracing for pain [I've done that to]), talking fast until she pauses and notices Amity's hair. (I do this ALL THE TIME, hunched/clenched or at least eyes closed and speedily apologizing [which I get back 'why are you apologizing?'])

She is so worried of what others think of her (same), even (especially) when there's a misunderstanding (RSD is a pain).

I tend to mishear, misread, and misinterpret things a lot which leads me to react wrongly or poorly or too much to the situation. 'Overdramatic' is a word often used. It's really hard. I've gotten to the point where I reread all my messages a few times over to make sure I understand (scared of messing up) and I still misread to be honest haha I have to ask people to repeat things sometimes too.

Okay. Just was thinking about it a lot since I watched/read the post.

I'm hopefully going to the doctors soon and getting a reference ^_^

Okay, I'm done now haha

~Alienslikedmyfantasy

[connan-l]

All right, so now that I finally digested the final a little I have some random messy thoughts about Fruits Basket 2019. It got really long lol, but this has been stuck in my head for a while so I needed to get it out!

Honestly, it was a very good adaptation and I’m still in awe I was able able to see the whole manga animated. Fruits Basket is pretty important to me, as I read it for the first time when I was around twelve and it was definitely one of the series that impacted me the most — the way it tackles themes of cycle of abuse, loneliness, grief and moving forward still feel very special to me even now (I briefly wrote a post about it months ago after rereading the manga), so of course I was delighted upon hearing the reboot announced and for the most part, it didn’t disappoint. I’d never truly thought I’d be able to see characters like Rin or Machi actually move on screen in my lifetime so in a way it still feel surreal lmao (RIP to Komaki though). It was really refreshing to revisit the story in that way, especially given amusingly enough I am myself in the middle of some big changes in my life where I have to leave things behind so it felt sort of... well, I won’t say empowering per se, but quite encouraging and satisfying to watch Furuba, and especially its final, at this timing, in a way. It wasn’t perfect, there are certainly a lot of flawed directive choices that I question and unfortunately quite some important cut contents — but even at its lowest it stayed all in all good. I’m genuinely a bit stunned there are people who thinks the entire thing is worthless or a failure, because man, I have seen what a bad anime adaptation looks like, and Fruits Basket 2019 definitely isn’t one. Natsuki Takaya herself was clearly very invested and satisfied in that adaptation — I mean, just the fact she drew arts for every single episodes or for the season 3 ending really shows that I think. And while there’s a part of me who will always have a soft spot for the 2001 anime, there’s no contest that the 2019 one is the superior one and more representative of the original manga as a whole.

I believe some people really don’t realize how... uncommon it is to get such a consistently good-looking and complete anime adaptation for a shojo manga? Shojo really aren’t lucky in that prospect usually; they rarely get animated, and when they do they’re usually very bland or outright bad, or they get one short season of like 13 episodes that never receive any follow-ups — even shojo considered like classics tend to get poor treatment, unless they’re Sailor Moon of course or a long-running magical girls franchise like Precure (and even then we could have a discussion about the way Sailor Moon’s treated compared to say Dragon Ball for example, but that’s another topic entirely). So yeah it is quite awesome we were able to get this kind of anime adaptation that covers the full manga with good quality from start to finish, and I am so, so glad it exists and that it managed to revive and makes the series so popular again. (Hopefully its success means we’ll be able to get more good anime adaptation of shojo manga from now on!)

But yeah, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t problems with it and I also understand why some of the manga fans had issues. We were kind of hyped with the fact this would be a complete adaptation and in the end we only got a... sort-of-complete one lol. The art and animation stayed fine during the run (there certainly were some episodes that were uhhh, lacking in that sense, but that’s just how it is sometimes with productions and budget), but I admit I was a bit letdown regarding the direction, where it often seemed… a bit uncreative or heavy-handed. There was some very beautiful and smart shots here and there, but on the whole I really had an issue with the adaptation failing to actually take more ambitious decisions on its visual aspect, especially compared to the pretty pannelling of the manga — and when it did take these decisions it just was… kind of obnoxious and in-your-face, like the show is trying to hold the watcher’s hand (with unnecessary things like Kyo’s father record player derailing or the whole big ropes symbolizing the curse that often slapped you all over the screen, which usually just made me want to roll my eyes because of how annoying it felt.) Multiple people also pointed out the overdramatization of some scenes like the Kyo and Tohru’s confrontation at the end of season 1 or Akito and Ren’s fight which was, indeed, not very good and a weird choice. Fruits Basket is already a pretty dramatic show and these scenes are already intense, there was no need for such over-the-top theatrical display of emotions that only made them comes off as comedic. I’m probably nitpicking here but it also bothered me some characters’ expressions didn’t feel properly retranscribed (Shigure especially, whose characterization depends a lot on that, really suffered from this), or that odd habit of making some big panorama plans instead of focusing on the faces and bodies, which particularly sucks during emotional scenes (like the backgrounds were pretty I guess, but that’s not what was important here lmao).

Also that might be just a personal thing, but can I point out that the openings were pretty disappointing to me... They're not bad, but they all looked so... bland. The songs are fine but the rest feel so uninspired and it's kind of sad... I dunno, I wasn't asking for much but I just think they could've done more than just scrolling each character looking vaguely melancholic or making them walk randomly one after another :/ The endings have at least pretty illustrations and I'm okay with them (I liked what they did with Kyoko’s photo in season 3 too), but the OPs kind of feel as if they ran out of budget and ideas for them or something. I kind of feel the same with the OST as well, where they’re generally fine but were a bit lackluster, and sometimes… they were kind of played at bad times? I remember the Rin episode in season 2 were the music felt a bit out of place and took me out of the immersion, which is a shame cause it was otherwise a pretty good episode. But that might just be a me-thing here lol. The voice actors were awesome though! (The Japanese ones, at least, I didn’t watch any other dubs). I’ve said it before but special kudos to Maaya Sakamoto cause damn she’s so perfect as Akito, and Shimazaki as Yuki and Toyosaki as Rin truly delivered too. I didn’t know Manaka Iwami at all but I was really impressed by her Tohru, especially in season 3 — she really was good at capturing her character’s subtle emotional turmoils (I think she makes a better Tohru than Yui Horie too, although I admit I missed Horie a little lol.)

Anyway, on the topic of lack of ambition, that might be an unpopular opinion but there’s also the fact that I’m sad they didn’t actually... try to change or add more original scenes. By which I mean, obviously we had some changes, but not ones that were really interesting (when they’re not actively detrimental to the story). For example, I was really hoping that we’d be able to get at least one original episode focused on Ritsu (and Mitsuru too why not) in season 2 or 3, or on Kagura or Kisa; I dunno, it would’ve been a good occasion to give something more to the characters that got sidelined in the original manga, or add some moments that would’ve been nice to develop like about Akito post-cliff confrontation, but we never got that. And well, that makes sense now that we know they seemingly had an episode restriction (at least on season 3), but, yeah, that’s still a shame. Honestly in the end Ritsu’s character made even less sense in the anime, because like, it was nice they tried to adapt his introduction episode so that it feels less “you have to adapt to gender norms to feel better about yourself,” (the gender non-confirmity is definitely one of the bits that aged the less well in FB) but then they still made him cut off his hair and give his feminine clothes to Kagura at the end so why lol. (And speaking of his episode introduction, I dislike that they cut off his conversation with Tohru after the suicide attempt, not only for Ritsu but also for Tohru cause it is one of the small instances bringing up her issues that is set up early on and that is crucial to her, but I’ll come back to this later.)

And now about the biggest problem to me being, the cut content and episodes rearangement. So, just so we’re clear, I definitely don’t think an anime adaptation needs to be a page-by-page adaptation of the manga to be good. Every decent adaptation needs to have changes, and the ones that tries to just follow the source material without any heart often tend to get pretty bad. So changes are good! Cut content are needed sometimes. But in Furuba 19, it really... wasn’t the case.

And the most unfortunate thing being that the one suffering the most from this is the show’s main character herself, Tohru.

So, obviously other characters also got done dirty by this; Yuki and Machi’s relationship was so incredibly shifted in the background and rushed it’s almost funny. I’m one of the people who thinks that, while I do think they’re cute, I definitely agree on the fact their relationship was a bit underdeveloped in the manga — and that Machi’s character especially suffered as a result by being a bit reduced to just "Yuki’s love interest" when she was a character with so much more to offer (and as a whole I also tend to agree with the fact that Yuki probably didn’t need a romance at all and that his arc is more meaningful while focusing on his platonic relationships, but that’s another topic entirely) — but man, if the manga already underdevelopped them, then ohhh boy, the anime just completely dropped the ball. It feels very odd because to me it seemed like season 2 was taking their time with setting them up, so if they knew they had only 13 episodes for season 3 then they should’ve started the changes there; instead we got 1 nice Yuki/Machi/Kakeru episode, and then it’s like "Yep, they’re in love, just trust me." (It does makes me wonder if season 3 wasn’t originally supposed to be longer but then got restrained because of budget or covid or something…) Kakeru also very much suffered because of them cutting off his girlfriend and his complicated relationship with Tohru… Now, to be honest, I’ve always found the Kakeru/Komaki/Tohru subplot pretty... contrived and useless, and Komaki’s not so much a character more than a device for Kakeru’s development, but it does have some good moments relevant to the story’s themes (I like the ‘‘you can’t play suffering olympics with people’s pain’’morale) and it is important to his character (and Komaki is cute, I admit), so it was still sad they shafted it entirely. (Also I kind of like the tense relationship between Tohru and Kakeru. The fact they both seem to not appreciate each other even afterwards feel sort of refreshing even if it’s never explored unfortunately orz.) I was still surprised they didn’t actually try to make a Komaki cameo at the end? Cause I think it would’ve fitted and Kakeru’s girlfriend had already been mentioned in season 2 but... for some reason they... didn’t. (Mayyybe we’ll get an OAV like with Kyoko and Katsuya? Who knows.)

One scene that was skipped/rearranged that I’m very bitter over is the whole Tohru/Kagura confrontation and Kagura/Rin scene — it might not seem like much, but the moment of Tohru refusing to forgive Kagura is very important, and I was pretty annoyed they turned Rin’s trauma response to Kagura’s violence and her subsequent apology/hug to a gag, it legit felt tasteless. The Tohrin scene they removed at the very end too was frustating; it was great they managed to fit in the "Rin doesn’t want to forgive Akito" bit at least (I was afraid they’d cut it off entirely), but it was so essential for her to say to Tohru, not to Haru and Momiji (plus the way they put it in felt very random and awkwardly placed there, when they were initially talking about Tohru before orz). OH AND the Akito/Hana friendship too! Yeah I know it’s not a Big deal but I absolutely love the little glimpses of their friendship and it’s very important to me so I’m disappointed over them not including the ‘Ah-chan’ scene… (It was kind of weird that the show sort-of implied Hana and Kazuma got together too cause that’s… not the vibe at all from the manga… oh well.)

Most people I’ve seen generally only bring up season 3 regarding the cuts/rearangement because it’s the most obvious and the biggest offender, but I personally think there were already problems with season 2 and 1. At first glance I didn’t have much issue with some of the rearrangement, because early Furuba can indeed be pretty episodic, but thinking back on it as a whole I think it might’ve been better to leave some stuff, like Hana and Uo’s episodes for example, to season 2 (I do wonder if they did this specifically so the reboot would offer original content and differ from 2001 early on...) and cut off other not-so-important things from S1 & S2 — because as a result season 2 kind of suffer a bit by being The Yuki Season, which, for as much as I love Yuki, did end up being a bit annoying and made his development feel less natural and gradual, as well as the fact it sidelined the other characters a little and left them with not much conclusion in its final. So this added to how much they ended up cutting in season 3, it makes the show as a whole feels really unequal. I think they did overall a good job in season 3 with what they had, and they really nailed some of the dramatic and Kyoru moments (the sheets scene, cliff confrontation and post-hospital confession were practically perfect), but it is a shame that it ended up as an extremely marathoned emotional roller-caster rather than a more well-paced watch that we would’ve had if it had been 20 or so episodes. (I know others argued that season 3 was what it was because there wasn’t enough content left to cover for 22 or 24 episodes, but I disagree and even if there weren’t, it would’ve been the perfect occasion to add original episodes then. But I think it was more of a budget and Covid issue personally.)

But anyway, all of this isn’t actually what I’m the most annoyed with (and YES that’s a already a lot lmao), those are stuff I can live with, but like I said earlier the most problematic is what they cut off from Tohru’s character. And that indeed includes her parents’ backstory.

So, just so I get this out of the way; yes, I do understand why people were relieved to not see Kyoko and Katsuya’s relationship play out on screen, and yes the age gap and teacher-student thing is creepy and I do kind of wish it hadn’t been written that way. (Though I was a bit amused by people who thought we didn’t get the backstory because of the questionable age gap when, uh... you know I very much doubt the anime industry has an issue with that. Like, to start with, we wouldn’t have had Uo and Kureno’s romance if that was the case (even if Uo and Kureno is less problematic, it’s still the same basis of a underage high school girl/20+ adult man relationship), and second there was a literal romcom anime about a high school girl and an adult man that was broadcasted at the same time as Furuba season 3 lmao. So nah, it wasn’t there the problem to them, it was just time and episode restriction, which was pretty much confirmed with the announcement of the OAV focused on them.)

So, Kyoko and Katsuya is definitely Problematic and I agree on their relationship being uncomfortable; however, I’m a bit baffled that people were literally cheering on not having that part in the show, because it is... it is not just like a small bit of family trivia, it is Extremely important and actively essential to Tohru’s character and Fruits Basket’s themes and narrative as a whole. It’s very important to understand Kyoko’s character, of course; to humanize her and finally present her as a very flawed person and not just the idealized mother that Tohru project upon her, and it is extremely important simply to understand Tohru herself as well; to understand where her way of thinking, her trauma and attitude stems from, and this in a way that just isn’t possible to see with the little fragments of that flashback we got or the bits of Kyo and Kyoko’s interactions.

See, Tohru’s character is principally constructed around two things; her grief over her mother and her almost-pathological selflesness and people-pleaser needs that comes from her abandonment issues and loneliness, and her arc is very much about letting go of both of these things and finally moving forward and letting her life change. There’s this perception of Tohru I see sometimes that she’s not a very interesting character especially compared to others like Yuki or Kyo, or that she ‘‘stays the same kindhearted, naive girl from start to finish,’’ and while I deeply disagree with this I know where it comes from. The thing with Tohru is that she is firstly an extremely emotionally repressed character, and so a lot of her depth and development is made through small, gradual details scattered throughout the manga. It’s done in such a way that except for some obvious scenes those small, apparently insignificant moments are easy to miss or disregarded, and unfortunately it is a lot of these details that the 2019 anime cut, or rearanged in a way that feel less impactful or makes less sense; such as, like I pointed out earlier, her conversation with Ritsu after his suicide attempt. As I’ve seen others point out, this result in altering Tohru’s portrayal and rendering her character mostly about her romance, undercutting and downplaying all of her small, subtle character moments and developments, and miss a bit the second part of the story where the narrative actively challenge the ‘savior/therapist/mom’ that other characters and Tohru herself projected upon her.

And as a result it also means undermining things like her parallel and relationship to Akito, which idealistically should’ve been slowly built up throughout the last season but because of how rushed season 3 was in the end felt a little flat. (Akito’s character in general had some issues also because of the unequal pacing and rearranged scenes, though admittedly I think this was also an issue present in the original manga.) Kyo’s character and his romance with Tohru is the one element that managed to get out of this mostly unscathed (although Kyo also does suffer a bit from it), but because of what was removed from Tohru’s character it still inevitably impacted them by making their characters as individuals lacking. It’s not like it is a complete failure, mind you; I think the anime at least did a decent job at showing Tohru is Not Okay even at the beginning in season 1 (they certainly did a better job at it than the 2001 one lol) and managed to roughly portray her issues well enough overall, but it is just… lacking in the subtlety and nuances that, to me, makes her character and writing really special and unique.

(This post explains what I’ve tried to say here in a much more eloquent and better way that I ever could, and this all put into perspective what I basically love so much about Tohru and Fruits Basket in general.)

And, you know, it would’ve been sad but comprehensible with any other character, but here we’re talking about the story’s literal protagonist, which is why it is the part of the adaptation that makes me feel the most bitter. Tohru and her story is truly amazing and well-written, the thing I was looking forward to the most with this reboot — and while I do understand the episode restriction and I do believe they still did their best with what they had — her arc still deserved to receive a full proper adaptation, not a kind-of-half one.

So, yes, I am at least glad they’ll adapt Kyoko and Katsuya’s story in OAV, but the fact that it will never be included in the actual main narrative is still actively detrimental to it, and it will never have the same effect that if it had been played out before the Kyoru sheets scene where it should’ve been. (I hope they also won’t cut the fact that their story is narrated by Kyo, because that is also a very important detail for both Kyo and the story, but I have the feeling they will…)

Welp, that was quite a long, messy rambling. Not sure if anyone will actually read all of it but if you did then congrats lol. I feel in the end I’ve been really harsh and negative with the reboot… I do love it a lot! If someone asked me I would wholeheartedly recommend it (though I guess I would still argue to read the manga first if you really want to experience the story in all its nuances). I think they truly did an impressive job — even with season 3, which a lot of its episodes were beautifully done and did make me tear up a few times lol. I’m just sad it couldn’t actually offer a better, more nuanced delivery of the story’s depths and of one of my favorite manga protagonists that means a lot to me. But that’s an adaptation that so many fans wanted for years and I’m happy and grateful it’s here cause Fruits Basket deserved at least that much!

[biblio-bitch]

Teen Titans 1x01 Blind Reaction

I haven’t watched the OG Teen Titans yet. Sue me. I wasn’t allowed to watch cartoons as a kid so I’m playing catch-up here. As usual, spoilers and cursing under the cut! Also. apologies for the short sentences, it was like 3 am.

A disclaimer: This is entirely for fun and a lot of the comments I make are based on my preferences for media as well as the way I, as a writer, would have written things.

If I say something you disagree with (more likely in my analysis posts than my reactions) then I am more than happy to hear your opinions so long as you are respectful! 

If you followed me for Detroit Evolution content I promise I’ll post the rest soon. Formatting and proofreading takes ages. I also might start liveblogging my adventures in screenwriting so look out for that!

That being said, let’s get into it!

[In brackets is added post-watch.]

Holy old animation Batman. It feels like Phineas and Ferb.

BB Sounds like Phineas.

The cheesy intro tho

Seriously which Robin is this cause I think it’s Dick but Idk

“Titans Go!”

The theme song is iconic

Love the OG Raven design

Is the theme Japanese?? It kinda feels Japanese

I love that Starfire’s outfit isn’t like literally a bikini it’s nice since she’s designed like a sixteen year old

Epic fight scene™️. Makes me feel like something’s going to go wrong.

“I am stronger than I look” fuck yeah Star get his ass

Honestly wtf Rob you’re like twelve and you don’t have powers??? Also is he wearing steel toe boots?? I thought they were converse at first. Seriously Batman, what’s with the child soldiers??

Cyborg?? I love him

Ouch that was a fail

Ok the bo staff is a Tim Drake signature as far as I know so wtf???? Which black haired mf is this???

It’s Dick. I googled. [I love DC and I realize that most of the Robins were designed before having diverse characters was a thing but literally they all look the same. Like personally I’d love to see a Romani or other non-white rep for Dick.

 {I gleefully return to this post with news that Dick is canonically Romani! He’s been played so often as white, including in the new Titans, which I will be making a post about, but he was confirmed to be poc in Devin Grayson’s Gotham Knights. He’s part Romani on his mother’s side. She, according to Tim Seeley’s twitter, is an immigrant. He was originally presented without a confirmed ethnicity! My apologies for being uninformed about this. I stated Romani specifically here before knowing because I had seen people talk about him as such and really enjoyed it.}

 Maybe a mixed Jason? I feel like Tim is white mostly bc he’s rich IN GOTHAM,,, but like I never turn down the possibility of poc characters. Damian is canonically middle eastern so if I ever see a live action Damian not played by a middle eastern brown kid I’m rioting.]

What a petulant child. Blaming each other. Now they’re fighting. [This part feels very overdramatic to me personally. I do think that if this wasn’t animated it would be toned down quite a bit. That being said? I do think it’s in character for Dick, especially late Robin-era Dick, to have outbursts like that, especially as a character that I see as needing a lot of control.]

Oh wonderful. He quit. That’s overly dramatic.

Oh goddamn it Slade.

I’m not supposed to know he’s Slade yet tho huh. [Rip the element of surprise with that, I have a habit of learning everything from things before investing my time in it, and my obsession with other versions of DC comics isn’t helpful in this situation. Also the 25 pages of AO3 I’ve read about the Bats gives quite a bit away.]

Oh ew that’s a plasma monster

He looks like fuckin,,, Underbelly! that mf from the Red Hood/Arsenal comics. [Underbelly is the personification of the criminal world. I got through four RH/A comics as of posting this so once I finish that storyline I’ll probably post about it]

“It’s pointless to get upset about Cyborg” breaks glass. [I personally really fw Raven being like ‘master of meditation i feel nothing’ but then these dumbasses get all up in her brain and she ends up loving them like honestly that’s amazing]

“I’m fine” fucks up that punching bag. Master of emotions this bitch. [I don’t think that this little tantrum is entirely because Cyborg left. Again, Dick was raised by Batman, and neither of them are too good about losing control and fucking up. This to me is very much a mix of guilt for having driven away a friend and teammate, anger at Cyborg for leaving, and also anger at himself for a perceived failure. Bruce really needs to get his kids therapy bc the complexes are really shining through.]

Now they’re sad like bitch ur the one who kicked him out???

He’s eating something and it’s gross.

“That stuff can’t be good for you” Robin,,, sweaty,,,

The puns. Jeez Louise.

Immensely powerful half demon lady and the best you can do is some cans?? [Again with the things you shouldn’t know, Theo. Yeah I get that she’s still a kid and the demon lady thing isn’t exactly revealed yet, but I maintain that the barrels -- which I realized that they’re barrels not cans -- could be improved upon]

“You giant zit”??? A Child [Seriously how old is he because it’s concerning that he seems as young as he does. @ Bruce wtf did you do to your kids]

Phase three what an ominous asshole

Again with the puns Rob like jeez just fight this mf

Star,, you’re an alien?? Why are you screaming??

Both eyes on the road while flying Raven

He just extends the bo again bro what kinda bat bullshit is this

Cyborg saving the day!! We gotta love that. “Still got the sonic if you still got the boom” what kids I love them

I love that he just,, brought Cinderblock with him. He’s just that powerful.

Wtf is up with this knockoff Alfred mf with Slade? Also?? What stereotypical villain shit Slade step it up. [Titans (2018) Slade is like,,, so much better at this. Hell, even Arrow Slade is more nefarious.]

[I know it’s stupid to say this about an antagonist from a kids show vs two YA/Adult shows but like?? Titans Slade had the Motive, and Arrow Slade was Deep. In my defense here, I’m only on Ep 1, I’m sure he gets more interesting as the show progresses.

My non-sleep deprived rating? 9/10. Points off for melodrama but points on for nostalgia and attention grabbing. I’m not really into kids shows so I did my best to be fair despite that. Personally I think it’s a little much on the fighting especially for a pilot and it definitely seemed a little bit rushed. But, the animation is fun, I love the way each character is distinctive in costume and personality.

Keep in mind I prefer watching things with writing/pacing like Arrow, The Flash, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the new Titans TV show and all of my ratings are going to be skewed based on a preference for stronger and darker material. 

With that in mind, I did enjoy the episode and I do want to continue watching. I think if I had watched this as a 10-11 year old, it would’ve been amazing.]