#Yes IK we have little information because we only have the first two episodes BUT

[idk-i-want-mcl-content]

What I'm referring to is: Remember how in High School Life the episodes 15-17 were dedicated to help Castiel realize Debrah was taking advantage of him? As far as I'm aware, that was the first long arc of the game (you could argue Kentin going to military service was the first, but that storyline gets expanded towards the end of the game so I count it more towards episodes 36-38. Also Rosa and Leigh almost breaking up but I'm mainly talking about the LIs here)

[garrothromeave]

let’s talk about minecraft diaries rebirth.

and why it’s literally amazing. (warning: this will contain spoilers. lots of them. also, long post ahead.)

i think a lot of people hate mcdr because they were expecting a remake; but the point of rebirth is for jess to rewrite it. it wasn't supposed to be exactly the same.

honestly i went into mcdr with a closed mind. as an og mcd fan, i thought that this was going to suck ass and that i'd rant about how bad it was to my friends later. but actually watching it, i just... couldn't help but immediately fall in love with it.

ik im probably the only motherfucker that likes mcdr, but honestly how could i not? for one, garroth and zenix actually have personalities at the beginning. AND; the villagers? actually amazing. donna made me smile, visher made me laugh and cry, brendan was just bein as good as ever. like... i even didn't despise emmalyn with every ounce of my soul like i usually do?? the characterizations of them were GOOD, man.

and honestly, aphmau like--the way she spoke, her whole thing. it was reallyyy well done in my opinion. she was oblivious to things, but it wasn't overdone and wasn't done in a way to make her annoying. she's a very appealing character in mcdr, a main protagonist i do not mind following along with. her dynamics to the characters are really cool and all very unique.  gonna cut it here so i don’t clog y’all’s feed cuz i got a lot to say :)

the early use of aphmau’s powers was actually pretty cool as well, it also really showed how clueless aphmau really was to everything going on around her. AND UH, THE FACT THAT SHE THOUGHT THAT GARROTH FELT FAMILIAR? GOLDEN. absolutely golden.

AND GENE OH BOY, the early introduction of gene? ik a lot of people are upset about it, but god DAMN i love it so much. his role in the story is very important in original, and i cannot express how much joy this brought me learning that he was actually getting the proper attention for it. and the fact that gene and aphmau were working together?? i mean ik gene was just trying to use her to get back to the "shadow abyss" (pretty pog replacement for the nether, gg) but god DAMN i loved every moment of it. i found their dynamic to be pretty fuckin funny to be honest, would absolutely love to see more of it.

i might be biased considering gene is one of my absolute favorite characters, but i honestly think that introducing gene this early on in the story was a good move. again, he's literally the right-hand man to the shadow lord. it makes you really wonder why he didn't have as much of an important role in season 1 or even 2 of the original mcd plotline. also, we get some of that good-ol-fashioned exposition with seeing early on how vylad and gene interact. vylad’s at a very strange point in the story right now; his motives are unclear, even to the side he’s ‘supposed’ to be taking (aka, a shadow knight.)  another early introduction to a character is zane! this, my friends, is good. really good. i’d say that zane is the main antagonist of season 1 in the original series--and he wasn’t even introduced until like, episode 50. it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but him being introduced this early on really gives the audience a better understanding of what threats are out there and what our protagonist will have to encounter in the future. in the original series, there’s not much explanation as to why lords are disappearing/dying left and right--and while yes, that was supposed to be the mystery of it, having some of that early information is a better move in terms of writing. 

AND IVAN?? BEING A PART OF THE JURY OF NINE?? I COULD NOT HAVE ASKED FOR ANYTHING MORE LIKE GOD DAMN that was a very pleasant surprise i'll just say that, thank you jess :)

and no i did not loop the 4 minutes of screentime laurance got in that one episode haha who would do that i would never do that anyways

SPEAKING of laurance, im so glad jess actually wrote him in this early :) she totally could have just waited for the first time aphmau visits meteli and meets him there, but no! she put him in an early episode. i dont even care if she did it just to shut up the fans about laurance but man that made me so happy seeing him, even if it was only for a bit.

okay i kinda wanna go over the guards real fast firstly; garroth. ignoring how weird the helmet showing emotions is, i really like how garroth is portrayed. he's under a lot of pressure because the village is putting a lot of the blame on him for malik's death, and he's trying his hardest to keep things running. the fact that garroth utterly refused the to take up the position of lord and even got a little snappy about it was actually really cool to see as well. and while he doesn’t have that same “reserved, quiet, observant” feel as the original mcd version of him had, this version of garroth is absolutely awesome. he’s more direct and blunt, is significantly more sarcastic, and isn’t as stiff or as much as a pushover as he is in the original. he even has a sense of humour. also, no homo, but he’s kinda adorable.  plus, the desperation that he goes through during the whole thing is just--it’s really cool to see how hard he’s trying to prove himself and help the village. my rating for mcdr garroth? 9/10. the helmet... the helmet is the main thing throwin me off, i can’t lie. next, zenix. oh BOY do i have a lot to say about this man. first of all, his and garroth’s dynamic is incredible. when i saw how the interacted with each other, my first thought was: father and son. zenix has this immaturity to him that is so fucking fun and interesting to watch, and seeing how garroth scolds him is so fuckin good man. and! seeing how he interacts with the rest of the village... honestly, if jess ever picks this story up again, i would probably cry when zenix (literally) backstabs garroth. HELL, i hope that’s something that still happens, it’d be heartbreaking to witness this character that we’ve come to love hurting his mentor, the man who took him in. he’s just a really good character all in all, and much more appealing than the original mcd zenix. ...except season 3 zenix. no zenix can be better than that one.  either way, zenix is amazing written to be the comic relief and he’s just an all-out lovable character in this series.  finally, dale and brian. yes i’m going to group them up because there’s not much to say regarding them, but i do want to address them. for starters, we have brian; who’s already 16 when the story starts. good on jess for doing that, because in the original aphmau watched brian be born and age INCREDIBLY quick, haha. THOUGH i do feel like there’s a slight connection lost there--one of the hardest things about brian’s betrayal in the original series in the fact that we watched him grow up in phoenix drop. we were there from the moment he was born, to the second he betrayed phoenix drop. BUT OF COURSE, this version is a lot more realistic, so it’s understandable. i just think that if it’s brian who’ll be betraying phoenix drop again (if it even goes down that same route), it won’t hit as hard unless jess really takes the time to grow the connection between brian and aphmau.  as for dale; gotta admit, love it. and like, i think one of the main things about how good of a call it was to make him a drunkard from the beginning is considering how much the village is struggling. the fact that the second-in-command is literally drunk all of the time really conveys the message of, “yeah. this village needs help.” plus, he’s another good comic relief character. i loved seeing molly and dale’s relationship too, it was very funny.  PLUS. we were blessed with a well scene, in which aphmau had to help villagers out of the well. i don’t know about you guys, but that was one of my favorite nods to the original series. i cannot thank jess enough for that, there was a smile on my face the entire time. another amazing thing--visher’s character. instead of just being introduced to this quirky lil merchant who only had one or two interactions with aphmau like in the first one, we got to sit there and really get a feel for someone worth remembering and worth mourning over. we had a reason to be sad over his death, it wasn’t just some npc getting blown up suddenly. this was different, and this hurt.  one of the major things that i hope is to come out of this is for jess to fix the major mistakes she had when writing the first series. she’d expressed how unhappy she was with some of the decisions she made, and i’m glad that she’s getting that second chance to undo the things she didn’t like. this series also gives her a second chance to really, really dig into characters and their motives. like, gimme laurance backstory in better detail. or like, garroth and zane’s relationship from back when they were kids? or how vylad died and who killed him? etc etc. she’s already done an excellent job so far, and i can’t wait to see where this goes. that is, if she ever continues it. god, i wish there were more episodes so that i could seriously let you guys know how beautiful of a series this is. there’s so much i want to say about rebirth, but i think i’ll stop here. i might say some more shit about it later, but if there’s anything i’d want you to take away from this, it’s: give minecraft diaries rebirth a chance. there’s a lot of potential, and this is a chance for jess to really change things for the better! ... but again, that is if this ever is continued. 

[eyrieofsynapses]

First Thoughts on YJ S4 Panel

WARNING: SPOILERS for the DC Fandome YJ S4 panel!

Okay, before I start chattering away, can I just saw how much I love this title poster? Because I love it. LOOK AT IT. LOOK AT HOW BADASS IT IS. 

Warning: this first bit is a teeny bit ranty, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t genuinely love the panel. It was really fun, but I have a few gripes with the amount of information we got. If you wanna cut straight to the cheery bits, check under the cut.

So... uh. I’m not gonna say I’m disappointed? Because I’m not, this was good, we got info, it was nice to see the voice actors. But I’m... underwhelmed. I definitely wasn’t expecting a lot but this was still, mm, not as much as I thought we’d get. No poster, no previews of character designs, not a peep as to when we’re getting the new season, nothing on where it’ll be streaming, nothing as to new characters, nothing as to who’s going to be the villain, and the Q&A session was maaaayyybe 3 minutes long. Oof, guys. Thought you said you’d leave us with something that’d leave us “more than just ‘whelmed.’” 

Essentially all we got was the title, and a few snippets of information regarding what the current status of the Team and its characters is. They didn’t really get the chance to talk to us at all about the actual season, either- I think Brandon spoke maaaybe three or four times? He got the title reveal, but, well, we knew that already, not that it’s their fault, but still. I love hearing the voice actors chat about their experiences and we got none of that, so that was disappointing. I’m wondering if there wasn’t some material cut, actually, because I distinctly recall seeing a clip on Twitter with Phil Lamarr talking about what it was like returning to the show, and it wasn’t in this. So what’s the deal, DC? Short-changing us on YJ again? When are we gonna get some actual news? 

There is the little problem that their big reveal of the title was spoiled, oh, maybe three or four months ago, and that isn’t their fault, but it does make that revelation more of an “okay, well, glad that’s confirmed” rather than an “OH MY GODS IT’S PHANTOMS WHAAAAAAAT” like I think they were hoping. Still, that’s definitely exciting to hear, and the new title poster looks cool. 

I got a “WHAT!!!” moment maaayybe three times, which is significantly less than I thought I would. There just wasn’t that much new info. But I think that’s less of a Grandon/production team problem and more of a world state and DC problem. I’m not annoyed at them, I’m annoyed at DC and at the pandemic, because I’m willing to bet their snippet was cut short by DC and what information they could’ve revealed just isn’t ready yet because of current events. Probably we would’ve gotten character designs if it weren’t for that.

As for the audio play, it was pretty good. They were definitely struggling what with having a distinct lack of people to pull from for a voice cast, but made some tongue-in-cheek references to it to take off the edge. I don’t think I realized just how many people voice for YJ until now... or how many characters each actor does. It’s a bit janky, and weird what with the arguing over who’s narrating the story (why, are they telling us the story, or are they telling it to someone else? Are you breaking the fourth wall, are you not? Make yourselves clear) but I’m blaming that on the fact that they’re more used to scripts than they are audio plays. These are different mediums, so there’s an inherent gap there; this probably would’ve gone better as an actual episode. 

So, FIRST watch-through, here’s my HAPPY cheery thoughts and reactions, in no particular order! I might do a second one later, we’ll see. (Under the cut, because it’s long.)

Return of Bowhunter Security! 

Clipboard makes a comeback!

The Supermartian marriage has taken place and they’re making reference to taking a long journey with Conner, M’gann, Bioship, Gar and J’onn. So... Mars? Do we finally get to see Mars?  

Forager gets to be sassy! And a hilarious narrator! Which, c’mon, it’s Jason Spisak, honestly, I don’t know what I expected.

Ahahah, Jason makes the most delightful faces when he’s voicing Forager. (And a few flubs, but he’s good at covering them.) We all miss Wally, but man, he does a good job with this character. Also, hey, that’s how he does the clicks!

Rocket! Even though she had a relatively minimal presence, sigh. I’m hoping they build her character more this time, she always get short-changed. 

ARTEMIS IS LEADING THE TEAM, repeat, ARTEMIS IS LEADING THE TEAM!!! YES!!! 

And she also makes a reference at some point to being in this fight for ten years, which, HMM, do I hear a reference point for our time jump? They started back in 2010, so this implies that the season’s caught up to 2020. So... season one was 2010, season two was 2016, season three was... 2018, I think? So does this make the next time jump two years too, or am I off? It also takes place on February 23rd. Eh, either way, it’s absolutely not as long as a lot of people were fearing- heck, I’m thinking this might be the shortest jump yet. Yay!

I’m not sure if the Snapper Carr dialogue is cringy or hilarious. I’m going with hilarious because I’m betting this would’ve been great if it were animated. It definitely loses something without the animation. 

Is... is Crispin Freeman playing four characters? Five? Will, Roy, Jim, Captain Boomerang... I think I’m missing someone, I’m gonna have to go back and rewatch this later, but wow. He switches between them so fluidly, too, that’s impressive.

Forget Freeman for a hot second, Nolan North, what are you doing, dude? Conner, Clayface, Mallah, at least one or two others, with a LOT of animal noises included... wow, okay. I definitely didn’t realize how many of these guys do two or three characters. 

Phil Lamarr doing Brick, Black Manta and Kaldur all at once is definitely impressive. I’m gonna take a guess and say he likes doing Brick best. He seems to get a little grin sometimes when he’s playing the character.

Ahhh, Danica McKellar definitely likes playing Terrence Terror. Don’t ask me why, I’m just getting that feeling watching her. Villains are fun to play.

...Wolf? Where’s Wolf? Uhh, guys? Where’s our fluffy doggo? Don’t tell anyone but I’m scared. 

Oooookay, that was unexpectedly gruesome. Dehydrating a man into sand? I mean, okay, it’s Clayface, but we didn’t know that till later. Eeeewww. Y’all, ik you’re going more dark, but that wasn’t an image anyone needed.

Jokes about Dadbod!Will are... hhh, cringy or funny, cringy or funny... I’m going sorta funny for now. Not enough to make me laugh, but enough to make me smile. 

Okay, Will’s definitely still hilarious. Literally that entire scenario with Captain Boomerang was amazing, and only made better by the fact that it was entirely Crispin Freeman. The “are you the Green Arrow fanclub president or something?” “...you have no idea” moment, the “boomerangs are better and Batman said so!” “...okay, FINE,” FLINGING CLIPBOARD, Boomerang teasing Will for his dadbod and Will answering with a wicked uppercut... ah, man. This is 100% Roy/Will Harper and I am here for it. 

I can see some people disliking this humor, but personally, I’m gonna just sit back and enjoy it. YJ has some quirky humor, but honestly, if you’re part of the fandom and you don’t like it, why are you even here?

Huh, Raquel’s a vegan and nobody’s making jokes about vegan burgers? Nice!

Oh, my gods, Forager deciding that Lian and Amistad playing with the food is an educational activity is AMAZING, 100% in character, and something I really, really want to see. 

(Fanartists? Fanartists, pleeeeaaasse?)

Will and Artemis ribbing each other will never get old.

...wait. Hang on. Is Will the comedic relief character now along with Forager? Is this a thing? I guess it is. If you’d asked me who out of the original Team would replace Wally as the comedic relief back when I had finished the second season, I would not have thought of him first, but I think I’m good with this. It’s definitely in character to his comic version. 

Ahh, Conner and M’gann’s relationship is still... interesting. Still not sure how to feel on this one. But hey, they’re married (?) now? Uh... nice? 

Nightwing’s off on some mysterious mission, hmm? I’m assuming that’s because of Jesse McCartney not being there, but I think I’m gonna headcanon that there are Other reasons for this. 

Yay, Clayface getting redemption! I love this in the Rebirth Batman: Detective Comics, so I’m 100% down for seeing it here. 

Tim did that for Clayface! Sweet! Not a plot thread I expected to go anywhere from that one season three episode, but one I am very happy to see used. 

...more secrets. Uhh, M’gann keeping secrets from Conner is... icky... again... but granted, keeping them because of confidentiality agreements is, well, a better excuse than she’s had in the past. Still, this is getting old.

Huh, so Waller will let out the Team’s secrets if they tell anyone about Belle Reve. I think this was already covered in the third season, but maybe not so explicitly. The reactions... hmm. Of course Conner’s okay with letting out all their secrets (and M’gann’s willing to... go along with that? ...okay...?), but the others, maybe not so much? Hmm. I wonder what Dick would have to say about that one. He definitely has something to lose. Not sure about Kaldur or Artemis, though. 

Jason did NOT get to make any Wally references. That makes me even sadder than if he did make one that made all of us cry. C’mon, guys. Let him have his references. 

I’m always a little meh on M’gann, but hey, M’gann gets to be a 100% certified badass! Saving Clayface AND taking down a ton of baddies with telekinesis, yay!

Oh, my gods. LOOPHOLES. WHAT IS WITH THIS TEAM AND LOOPHOLES. I love them so much.

The Team signing on as Bowhunter Security- oh my gods, all of the Team in fucking Bowhunter Security uniforms- oh my gods, so very in-character, so very true to YJ, so absolutely goddamn hilarious, I wanna hug whoever came up with that. That is the BEST mental image and it is a CRIME that they didn’t animate that. 

And, of course, Kaldur just immediately goes along with it. The Team’s corrupted him fully now. I mean, we knew that, but he’s done now. 

Black Manta attempting to roast Kaldur for his security uniform and Kaldur roasting him back 100 times worse is wonderful. “I wear my dignity on the inside, Father. Where do you wear yours?” KALLIE I LOVE YOU 

Ooooo, Artemis is inviting Roy to the Team? This should be interesting. He’s definitely not totally stable, but it seems to me that Artemis should be able to more or less keep him in check. Hopefully. She had to deal with Wally for five years, surely she can keep Roy in check?

...hmm. We’re all thinking there’s gonna be a Red Hood arc... Roy’s joining the team... Roy and Jason did have that run as the Outlaws in the comics with Kory... and this version of Roy has the sort of temper and attitude that I can just see Jason possibly getting along well with... hmmmmmmmm... 

Hah, villain shenanigans. Having Task Force X argue all the time is in character and admittedly sort of funny, especially as Black Manta’s sort of pulling a Kaldur and playing the absolutely exasperated denmother. I dislike BM thanks to him being a Baddie and all, but watching (listening to?) him struggle to contain them is enjoyable if only because I like watching him suffer. 

Ahh, watching the VAs is fun. It’s definitely nice to see that little view behind the camera. There’s the little smiles, the tiny grimaces at the icky bits, the responses to various bits, the way their demeanor changes with each character, everyone egging Nolan on when he’s yelling for Clayface being disintegrated... I’m sad we didn’t get to see them chat, but watching them interact while they work is fun. Pity Jason and Stephanie didn’t really have any interactions, though, I bet watching them work together would’ve been fun. Ah well. Still fun overall.

There’s a lot of variation in where they are/what setups they have. Some of them seem to have proper studios, some of them don’t but they have mics, Danica’s on the lower bunk of her son’s room with what I’m betting are several sheets hung behind her, and then... well, then there’s poor Stephanie with earbuds and what I’m betting is her phone at her friend’s house XD Also, Greg’s library is really awesome, can I steal it please?

Green title card... I know people have been positing this for a while, but Lazarus Pit? Also, the thing people haven’t talked about: Mars?! Is this a nod to the Martians, since M’gann, Conner, Gar and J’onn seem to be going there? 

Lots of speculation regarding Phantoms, but that’s been going around for a while, so *shrug* I’m not gonna spend any time on that for now.

Someone’s gonna have to write this out, methinks, for further examination. We’ll see if I get around to doing that or not before Fandome ends. I’m betting someone will record it and post it on YouTube, but a written-out version of the script would be useful. If I do, I’ll probably post it, so keep an eye out. 

So... season 3.9, episode 1? Hmm. Does this come directly prior to the fourth season? I kinda wanna say it does.

I have more thoughts, but I think I need to do a rewatch first, maybe in a little bit. Anyway... not what I was expecting, I sincerely miss Dick and Wally, but lots of funny jokes all the same, and lots of interesting information on the fourth season even if it’s nowhere near the amount we wanted. I might be underwhelmed but I’m certainly not disappointed. 

[cilldaracailin]

Under Pressure

This is something I have been writing while I have been stuck on lock down as I suddenly find myself with a lot of time on my hands. I have been writing fanfiction since I was a teenager and have just got into Tumblr, even though I have had this account for a while. Decided it was time to put it to use and post my story here.

I have also posted it in AO3 and you can find it here:http://www.archiveofourown.org/works/23570293/chapters/56548318

I know fanfiction helps me escape ‘reality’ for a little while, so this is my escape. I hope it can help anyone who reads it escape for a little white too.

*Disclaimer - It’s a complete work of fiction. I have never met Taron or Richard and I have done my best with all the information but as I said, it’s fiction*

1

“The 12-step chocolate program: NEVER BE MORE THAN 12 STEPS AWAY FROM CHOCOLATE!”

“Milk duds or caramel m&m’s?” she asked herself as she stared at the selection of chocolate in the 7/11.

“What?”

“Oh, sorry Claire.” Robyn turned her attention back to the phone which was balanced between her right shoulder and her ear. “I am looking at the what chocolate I am going to stuff my face with tonight.”

“Last day was that bad, huh?”

“Ugh, don’t even go there. I swear, this whole exchange experience would have been perfect if it hadn’t of been for ‘Christina’. Fuck it, I am getting both and Mike and Ike’s and turtles. I need about five packets of turtles.”

“Turtles? Ro, focus!”

“Shit sorry Claire.” Robyn threw a pack of normal and sour Mike and Ike’s into her basket, as well as two packets of milk duds and a packet of caramel m&m’s before she went looking for the red packaging of turtles, her definite go to chocolate while living in The States. “Everyone else in the day care were amazing as you know,” she continued, holding the phone back into her right hand, the basket now hanging in the crook of her elbow of the same arm. “I just don’t know what Christina’s problem was. She knew I was there in a supervisory position and she still just gave me grief and stirred shit. Ohhh white chocolate m&m’s, I’ll have those too.”

Her friend chuckled on the other end of the phone. “Robyn, come on, step away from the chocolate for two minutes.”

“Oh yes crisps! Of course, genius Claire.” She moved down the aisle towards the shelving which held all the many packets of chips and pulled three red bags of Doritos off the shelf and let them tumble into the basket on her arm.

“Not what I meant.”

“Ice cream!”

“Do you want to have a sugar coma on the plane home tomorrow?”

Robyn sighed. “No, I really don’t.”

“Then put the crisps back.” Reluctantly, Robyn put the three bags of crisps she had grabbed back onto the shelf, listening to her best friends’ advice. “Now you can keep the chocolate because you can give me some when we meet but seriously, what happened? I know you. You are avoiding the subject which means something really terrible happened or something really terrible happened.”

Robyn gently dropped the basket onto the ground, stood in the confectionary aisle and turned her attention to her friend, while leaning on a waist high steel basket that was selling scented candles. “Right so I have no idea what got into her head, but she thought it was a wonderful idea to have all thirty-three children out in the garden at the same time, with only two staff members, while the third staff member stayed inside and completed some paper work as Christina told her it was perfectly fine to do that. Thirty-three of them with two staff members! No thought for the children’s safety or our ratios. I went out to speak to her immediately, asking where Judith was, explaining for the millionth time that she, Christina, knows that many children cannot be outside at once and she rolled her eyes at me. Rolled her eyes Claire!” Robyn’s tone was full of disgust. “And of course, as soon as I went to get my teacher stare and voice on, one of the children who was on a motorbike, lost his balance and went straight into the stone wall.”

“No!”

“Oh yes and what did Christina do?”

“Do I want to even know?”

“Told poor little Kevin to get up and walk it off. Jesus, Claire I lost it. I actually let my temper get the better of me and I lost it with her, for about three seconds until I realised that poor little Kevin’s forehead was pumping blood and he was in hysterics.”

“Oh, shit no,”

“Oh, shit yes. I’m only glad I stay calm in a bloody crisis because Louise just stood there staring at the calamity unfolding in front of her and Christina starting freaking out over the blood and despite the noise outside, Judith stayed where she was inside doing paperwork. Then the manager came out during this whole episode to see me holding my hand to Kevin’s head, trying to stop the bleeding, while comforting him, Louise still standing frozen staring and Christina now yelling at me for causing the whole incident outside. Serious shitstorm in a bottle.” Robyn had picked up her basket and walked over towards the fridges, while retelling the drama that had unfolded that morning, opened the door to take out a bottle of mountain dew and put it in her basket.

“Don’t tell me she tried to blame it all on you.”

“Oh tried…” Robyn put her basket back down and on the ground. “…and thought she had succeeded until, Regina, the manager, piped up to say that we, me and her, had been in an exit meeting in the office and both had seen the children playing in the garden in such high numbers on the security camera and she had asked me to go and out and see why it was so and then she also saw the scene Christina was creating and how Kevin had fallen off his bike as there were too many children in the garden. I knew I always like Regina. She always had my back.”

“What about Kevin.”

“Thankfully he was ok. There was a lot of blood, but that was to be expected with a head wound, but thankfully it wasn’t actually that bad. The cut was much smaller than I had anticipated. I cleaned him up and patched him up but had already called his parents and they came and picked him up. Brought him to the doctors to get checked out. They rang as I left work, he will be just fine. They glued the little wound back together and are keeping an eye on him but he will be absolutely fine and hopefully there shouldn’t be a scar either.”

“Well you have had an eventful last day.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Hence the absurd amount of chocolate.”

“Absolutely. My plan is to go home, put on my pyjama’s, finish packing, order my last American pizza, stuff myself stupid on junk food and watch movies that involve some form of a gorgeous looking man.”

“I think that is a perfect plan but please tell me the other girls in the day care were sorry to see you go. I mean it has been the last six months of your life and you were their supervisor.”

Robyn sighed. “It’s been a dream. I have enjoyed it all Claire, you know I have. It has been an incredible experience and the other staff were amazing. I have made some great friends. We had a laugh while working together, taught each other a lot and we definitely enjoyed our last night out together last weekend. It has been such a great programme to get the opportunity to be involved in and to be in Clearwater Florida of all places to do it? You know I love this place. Christina may have been a serious pain in my arse but everyone else has been so lovely and not to mention teaching all the kids. It was so hard to say goodbye to them today. I think I have cried about four times before I actually left the building.”

“I can only imagine but you are back to work here on Monday, right?”

“Yep, I have been speaking to Emma in creche and we are looking forward to bringing some of the ideas I have been working with here into our creche setting. We are going to develop a plan on it once I get settled back in.”

“Yeah into the cold and the rain.” Robyn laughed at her friend’s glumness. “Hope you are going to enjoy your last morning of beautiful sunshine tomorrow.”

Robyn looked down at her sun kissed arms, six months in Florida helping her skin become a dark golden-brown colour, which she knew would be gone in an instant once she was home. “I shall be at the beach first thing, if I survive my sugar coma.” She looked in her basket. “Yeah I need to put some of this back on the shelf.”

“No keep it!” laughed Claire. “I was serious when I said bring it home to me. I can’t wait to see you on Sunday. I will definitely eat those milk duds.” Robyn laughed too. “At least back home you won’t have to see Christina any more.”

“Thank fuck for that. I am looking forward to getting back into my routine at home. Back in my office and chair.”

“So, what movie are you going to watch for your last night in Florida?”

“Do you know, I have been itching to watch Rocketman again.”

“Again?”

“It’s a beautiful movie and come on, it’s the music of Elton John.” Robyn moved in closer to the fridge to make some room as two men walked past her down through the aisle, pushing her basket in with her foot.

“Oh, and nothing to do with a certain leading male, yeah?”

“Shut up Claire.”

“Shut up Claire,” mimicked her friend.

“You know I went to see that movie because of Elton John and his music not because of the male lead and it also happened to be released on my birthday so it was my birthday treat.”

“Yeah alright, but how many movies of Taron’s did you watch after? Hmmm?”

“Ah here, Eddie the Eagle is cute and so endearing and it has Hugh Jackman in it and you know I love him and have done since his Oklahoma days and…”

“… and you also watched Robin Hood and Kingsman and…”

“And I have to go Claire!” Robyn grinned into the phone. “This junk will not buy itself and I need to find those damn turtles.”

“Ro come on!”

“I will text you this evening Claire and I will see you on Sunday.”

“But Ro…”

“I love you, you tosspot!”

“Ugh hate you.”

“Bye Claire.”

“Have fun with your turtles and Taron!”

Robyn laughed as she ended the call, knowing there would be a text message within the next thirty seconds from her best friend from home, calling her out for hanging up on her. As much as she enjoyed the last six months of her life and the experiences it brought, good and bad, she could not wait to get back home to real green grass, rain and some cold weather, her crazy best friend and her own bed in her apartment. Florida had been enlightening and enjoyable but Ireland was home.

Finally finding the red packets of turtles near the cash registers, Robyn picked up five packets and threw them in her basket, before waiting in line to be checked out.

[groundramon]

I’m bored and I cant focus on my drawing so...

Since I’ve been ratting on Teen Titans all week even tho I insist I like the show (I SWEAR TO GOD I DO...I was off-put at first but? its okay, its hard for shows to immediately hook me), I think it’s only fair to list some of my major problems with some of my all-time favorite shows and some other shows that are currently on that aren’t really my favorite, but I still think are objectively decent and arguably pretty damn good.

I’m not gonna go in order from best to worst but here we go: (keep reading tag because this is going to get really fucking long and ik i dont usually do this with my rants but i feel like i should this time, idk im inconsistent this is a personal blog sorry)

Steven Universe: - I sometimes feel bad critiquing SU because it’s not too far into its run.  I love the show, some of the moments and even full episodes are legitimately mesmerizing, but it...has quite a few problems, yeah.

- The one I bitch the most about is the pacing.  Steven Universe tries to combine serialized storytelling, which is telling an overarching story over the course of several episodes (IE Avatar: The Last Airbender, most anime, ect), and episodic storytelling, which is telling several smaller stories that each fit in one episode with little to nothing connecting them besides the characters (IE SpongeBob, We Bare Bears, most cartoons honestly).  But emphasis on “tries”; Steven Universe, unfortunately, is not very good at blending these two styles.  Steven Universe ridgedly adheres to the idea of having a season that is half filler/”townie” episodes and half “cool alien”/plot-related stuff - and this is something that’s been confirmed, by the way.  So while this was fine in the first season (where the only true overarching plot-related episodes that weren’t just worldbuilding were at the end of the season) and the second season (where the plot episodes can be summed up all-together as “they catch and befriend Peridot and learn, not stop, the Cluster”), it isn’t in the later seasons.  Season 3 has the following plot points: the Cluster is defeated, Malachite is found and defeated and defused, Lapis joins the Crystal Gems, more homeworld gems (rubies) find earth, Jasper is corrupted and bubbled, its revealed that Rose Quartz shattered (killed) someone, and Steven gets lost in space because of a plan gone wrong with the Rubies (and he’s rescued in the last episode).  That is a paragraph worth of plot points.  And, being generous (IE including plot-forwarding episodes that feel more like filler than actual plot, like the baseball episode) that is 13 twelve-minute episodes worth of content.  All of those plot points are addressed in 2.6 hours time.  That is not long enough to visit all those episodes.  And there are a few more I didnt count that /are/ related to the aliens, but Bismuth and Centipeetle currently irrelevant and weren’t related to the plot points I listed so I didnt mention them.

- I’m also still waiting somewhat impatiently for resolution on certain character arcs.  Pearl’s behavior hasn’t been properly addressed for a while and I’m really hoping they dont wimp out of addressing what a piece of shit she can be sometimes.  Like, I love Pearl, but get the fuck outta hear with your Pearl stanning shit.  She’s unintentionally awful and I lvoe her for it.  I’m more patient about Bismuth but.......crewniverse, im starting to get a little impatient with her too.  Bring her back.  You should’ve brought her back in the next episode, because her friends shouldn’t have left her bubbled, but whatever.  It’s fine.  I’m fine.  (I’m not fine).

- Also, Lapis’s character arc.  Wasn’t properly addressed.  One episode she was saying she deserved to be with Jasper and the next she seems fine.  One episode she hates Peridot and two episodes (well several episodes, but two episodes as far as they appear) later they’re buddy-buddy with one another.  I get that there was probably a time gap where they developed closer with one another, but fuck, I would’ve liked to see that instead of Future Boy Zoltron but okay :) (and i dont even hate future boy zoltron, its just one of the few “meh” episodes I bothered to remember the name of)

- SPEAKING OF UNPROPERLY ADDRESSED CHARACTER ARCS I swear to god Crewniverse, if Amethyst was being sincere when she said she didn’t have self esteem issues anymore, I dont think I can call this one of my favorite shows anymore.  Where.  Where did she find the resolve to get over her self esteem issues.  The last time we saw her talk about them was when she broke down in Sardonyx’s room, but, she was speaking through Smoky Quartz (btw, where the fuck has Smoky been? I literally forgot about her because its been so long...).  But still, even if she WAS speaking through a fusion, before then she displayed the same self-destructive mindsets and she was never given the resolve to better herself.  All she did was wallow in her own pity with Steven (which? relatable, but not constructive).  Show us her getting the resolve to better herself.  Show her positively reinforcing herself.  Have her whisper “you can do this, Amy,” under her breath right before she kick’s a bad guy’s ass.  Have her high-five herself, have her cheer for herself, have her be sincerely proud and acknowledging her accomplishments.  Because that’s how you fix self esteem issues and kids should be taught that by someone other than a therapist or the internet.

- Just because a lot of these issues could be fixed with time doesn’t change where they are at this moment.  The past pacing issues might not ruin the show for me depending on the direction they go in, but I feel like they’re going to continuously make the same mistakes over and over - and with the intense direction this show is going now, the idea of having five filler/townie episodes in a row while Lars is in space is terrifying because of how awful that pacing is.  I do not care about Onion, please go back to Lars.  But even if they fix it and the rest of the series is near-spotless, what’s done is done, you cant fix the rushed pacing of the past seasons’ stories and the dumb filler that padded out the seasons in the wrong areas.

- Also, another problem with combining episodic and serialized storytelling is that SU’s story gets WAY too serialized for an episodic show.  There’s so much going on that you can’t just sit down and watch a random episode of the show and start watching the show from there, which is a huge problem when you have episodes like Onion Gang and Future Boy Zoltron that take up 30% of the episodes and offer literally nothing to the story and honestly arent usually even that great as far as episodic stories go.  You cannot have 30% of your serialized show be 100% filler.  That’s bad writing.  And SU is in denial of the fact that it’s too serialized to be episodic.

Gravity Falls: - I generally cite Gravity Falls as one of the best combiners of the traditional episodic and serialized styles.  It’s what Steven Universe dreams of being; it becomes serialized when it counts (the final half of the last season), but up until then, it’s episodic with just a few clues/reoccuring things sprinkled throughout.  However, this show is far, far from flawless.

- Some of the episodic shows, and I mean a lot of the episodic shows, have a tendency to feel rather generic.  Ah yes, a girl whose obsessed with boys and boybands.  Okay.  Seen that.  A nerdy, whimpy boy who has a crush on a cooler older girl.  Again, seen that.  I’m not saying that’s all there is to Mable and Dipper; clearly not.  But a lot of their traits encompass many different stereotypes, and while the characters themselves aren’t bad, the situations they find themselves in aren’t always the most original.  Sometimes I feel like Gravity Falls is a PG-rated Scooby Doo meets Disney Sitcom.  Which is okay if you like Scooby Doo and Disney Sitcoms, but it doesn’t always make for the most eloquent storytelling.  Which is fine for a kids show, but less fine for one of the cartoons heralded as a harbinger of the current cartoon renaissance (then again, I’m not into hardly any of the other harbingers of the “current cartoon renaissance” and I’d argue that we aren’t in a renaissance at all; we’re just finally, finally getting some decent cartoons after the awfulness that was the late 2000s)

- I’m gonna say it; we should’ve learned more about Ford’s adventures in the other dimension.  It’s possible some of the non-animation related materials (namely books) have information about his travels, but as it stands, I havent got a clue what happened to him during those years.  And I want to know.  I should know.  Its a glaring plot hole in all honesty, because we should know what happened to him and how it affected him.  Or maybe im overreacting idk.

Voltron: Legendary Defender: - Hoo boy, where do I even start with VLD

- VLD seems like a show that wants to be character-driven but somehow refuses to.  It wants you to be emotionally attached to the characters, but either it does that and does nothing with it, or it doesn’t even bother to do that.  The only characters whose struggles I care about are Pidge, Shiro, Allura, and only as of season 3, Keith.  Allura I was kinda on the fence about until season 3 but thankfully, if season 3 did one thing right, it was Keith and Allura (and yes I know people are complaining abt Allura’s treatment but I like watching my faves suffer).  That leaves two paladins - and Coran, but I’ll give him a pass because literally the only show that’s done a comedy relief right is ATLA so I’m not expecting him to be superbly well-developed - that I dont give a shit about.

- Lets start with Hunk.  GOD I want to love Hunk so much.  So FUCKING much.  But every time a new season comes out, I feel more and more disappointed.  This show is so obsessed with melding him down to “the fat kid who eats a lot and makes a lot of dumb jokes” and it’s....so disappointing, because there’s so much potential here for something more.  In the first episode of the series, we see Hunk display cowardice (which isn’t an uncommon trait for a fat stereotype) and a prowess for engineering.  Yes he’s a bit of a fat stereotype, but you know what?  I dont care if a fat character is cowardly, makes bad puns, likes to eat, throws up a lot, all that jazz.  I care that they’re more than that.  I hate the idea that a character having a stereotypical trait (assuming its not straight-up a caricature) makes them automatically stereotypical.  Sorry buddy but smart asian people exist.  Preppy blondes exist.  And food-loving fat people exist (hi! i know that last one is true because I am one).  But they’re so obsessed with ignoring Hunk’s other traits - his love of cooking and his engineering skills.  I dont even remember if he used his engineering skills in season 2 and I know he only used it once in season 3.  He didnt even cook in season 3.  And I think the most telling thing in this show is how the show described Hunk’s relationship with Shiro.  As Keith was expressing grief over loosing essentially his big brother figure, Lance thought back to when he viewed Shiro as a legend and a hero, Pidge reminisced about how her father and brother used to praise the guy, and Hunk?  Hunk basically said “uhhhhhh he taught me to pilot my lion.....that counts right.”  Because Hunk has no relationship with Shiro.  Because Hunk has no relationship with any character.  He doesn’t even have that much of a relationship with Lance, and the two seemed to be best friends - or at least friends - prior to the formation of team Voltron.  At best, Hunk is friends with Lance and Pidge.  But all Hunk has done with Keith is make bad jokes while Keith acted all loner-y, and Hunk hasn’t even interacted with Allura and Shiro.

- Now, speaking of Lance, lets talk about him.  While Hunk gets points from me because he’s a sweetheart who deserves better, Lance is a flirter whose too high on his own horse and makes even worse jokes than Hunk does.  Considering Lance is the one we follow in the first episode, I would’ve expected him to be the most centric member of the team.  But first off, fuck me for projecting anime stereotypes/tropes onto a western cartoon (even though voltron was originally an anime kinda but shhh), but secondly he actually is...the most forgettable of all the Paladins.  Yeah I said it.  I legitimately dont like Lance at this point.  Yeah, I said that too.  I basically cant remember anything about him besides the fact that he flirts and jokes around a lot and that Klance is inescapable (like, not that its inevitable that you’ll ship it, but you’ll never escape the fandom for it).  He’s Sokka with all the charm, intelligence, and depth taken out of him, and also bi but that’s the only improvement.  Seriously, what...draws you all to Lance?  I dont want to judge, but he’s just....so stereotypical.  So boring to me, despite being the most lively paladin.  And the development cockteasing.  Oh, the development cockteasing.  I cant tell you how many times I’ve gotten my hopes up specifically because of something the show said about Lance/Lance seeming to be insecure about something, only for them to immediately shoot it down and replace it with more bad jokes or...nothing at all.  Because did Lance even do anything in season 3?  He pilots Red now, he had a funny bit with Blue during the “breakup”, he comforted Keith, Keith comforted him, uhhhh ??? did he even have a line in episode 7??  I feel like there might’ve been episodes where he literally had no speaking parts.  The only good things I can say about Lance so far are: 1. sometimes hes really fucking funny, and 2. it looks like they COULD be building up to something.  But if they’re just cockteasing me all the way through, I’m disowning dreamworks entirely.

- The tone of the show? also shouldn’t vary as much as it does.  The tone of a show varying is fine, but it shouldn’t vary in the way it does in Voltron prior season 3 (I’ll get to what I mean by that in a second).  In season 1 and season 2, the heavy moments of the show were almost entirely carried by Shiro; there was something for Pidge and something for Keith, but even then, Shiro got involved or was there for the entire time.  Shiro, by merely existing, brings the tone of this show down to something almost too serious for a kid’s show (emphasis on almost).  During the light-hearted parts, he just has to keep his mouth shut, because the only time he’s done anything funny (besides ironically funny like with his new outfit and haircut) was when he was yelling at Sven.  Yelling should not be your only source of humor.  But the rest of the show?  Was pretty goofy, yeah it took itself seriously sometimes but it also knew how to have fun.  Which is fine, a show should be able to have fun sometimes.  But that means all parts of the show, including Shiro.  Shiro is physically incapable of having fun and that’s kind of sad.  Season 3 was better about this though; nothing in season 3 felt fun and goofy, like at all, besides Lance taking selfies with girls in the first episode, and that was just one scene.  So I mean, they didn’t fix their problem, but the tone didn’t vary as much.  And I’m not saying the tone shouldn’t vary.  No, it should; you shouldn’t have all serious moments or all goofy moments.  Have some fun, but also take yourself seriously sometimes.  The problem is that parts of the show can’t take themselves seriously (Lance, Hunk) and other parts of the show can’t take a joke (Shiro, Zarkon/any villain too but they get a pass since they’re villains).

- Also we REALLY should know all of the Paladins’ backstories by now, ESPECIALLY Keith’s.  I know his is a mystery, but we need to know what he knows or else we cant get invested in the mystery.  If we dont have the same facts as the characters, we dont know where to start or what to expect.  We should’ve also seen flashbacks to Lance and Hunk’s families - ESPECIALLY Lance’s, since he seemed to care so much about them, but welp now that’s gone :).  We should’ve also seen more flashbacks to Pidge’s family but at least she’s trying to find them.  Nobody else gives a shit about their families and I just.  Aaaaaaaaaa this show infuriates me sometimes.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: - There’s nothing wrong with ATLA, move the fuck along

- I’M JOKING IM JOKING SWEATS okay but it’s no surprise I like ATLA and think its near flawless.  But still, it’s near-flawless, not flawless.

- If you cant stand a little kiddish cheese, you wont be able to stand ATLA.  ATLA takes itself super seriously for something on Nickelodeon, especially something on Nickelodeon in the mid-to-late 2000s (god I wish I watched this show as a kid, my standards would’ve been so much higher and i would’ve known what animation could actually do if you tried) but it’s still written for kids.  Which is fine!  I actually prefer things written for children over things written for adults.  But if you can’t handle something with content that’s clearly written for children, ATLA isn’t for you.

- Ozai fucking sucks.  There’s no other way to put it, his character fucking sucks.  He’s meant to be the embodiment of pure evil, he’s not meant to be sympathetic like Zuko, but for fuck’s sake, we needed his backstory.  And no, The Search doesn’t count; love that comic book, but that’s not enough backstory on Ozai (unless I’ve forgotten an important scene in the comic, idk its been a while).  Azula isn’t a sympathetic villain but we see her reasons and backstory.  Give us something like that for Ozai.  Show us a character that was emotionally neglected and then grew up in a society where killing and genocide were encouraged and praised.  THATS the backstory for Ozai I want.  I want to know where he came from to fuel my hatred for him, to see him as a real person but not as someone who should’ve done what he did, and I want to hate him BECAUSE he feels like a character.  Right now he just feels like the embodiment of evil and that doesn’t make for a good, truly intimidating villain.  A truly intimidating villain is one that you understand and can possibly relate to.  Not...whatever the hell Ozai is.

- Katara and Aang’s romance plot fucking sucks.  I am ace/aro and cannot write romance for shit nor tell when characters have chemistry, but I can still tell this.  It’s not...forced?  It’s not...rushed?  But it’s unnecessary and poorly written and it’s just puppy love and honestly if it was real live I couldnt see their relationship lasting.  Also the idea of seeing someone as a brother and then dating them later is verrrry .... poorly worded to say the least bUT ANYWAYS NEXT BULLET POINT

- Toph and Suki could’ve been developed more.  Like, they were okayly developed, they were great characters, but idk.  Toph didn’t grip me nearly as much as Sokka, Aang, and Katara and I feel kind of bad about it, but thinking about how much development the others got compared to her, it’s not really surprising.  I also am not the hugest fan of rude characters anymore, but I digress.  Also Suki.  Suki had like, little to no development.  I want Suki to be part of Team Avatar.  Can we do that

- General Zhao also fucking sucks.  He’s so generic that the first few times I watched the show, I forgot he was even a significant reoccuring villain.

- Sokka could’ve also been more developed but they could’ve all been more developed honestly?  You can always add to perfection.  I shouldnt complain about Sokka tho, he was finely developed and I love my nonbending son

The Legend of Korra: - Uhhhh the first season’s ending?  0/10 bad, rushed, not good.  I wanted to see Korra deal with the loss of her other elements.  I wanted to see her cope with that.  But no, because Nickelodeon kept screwing over LOK, they had to rush it because otherwise it wouldn’t have been a happy ending for the series if they potentially had to end it after one season.  Fuck Nickelodeon :) but I’m still going to critique LOK for it even if it is Nickelodeon’s fault.

- Bolin and Mako were horribly underdeveloped.  Especially Bolin.  It’s so sad how underdeveloped “Team Avatar” was in this series compared to the last series.  I feel bad complaining about Toph, Suki, and ESPECIALLY Sokka in comparison to LOK.  The only one even comparably as bad is Suki, but she got half a season to be developed and these two got an entire series.  We got some of their backstory and then...that was it, besides the love triangle that Bolin was barely part of.  I guess they were kinda irrelevant for season 2 and season 4, but they had no reason to be missing in the later half of season 4, plus they had season 1 and season 3, so....  God, poor Bolin.  It would’ve been nice to see a nice (fat) comic relief guy like him get the same treatment as Sokka, but whatever....its fine.......ill just sit here patiently waiting for my good representation coughs.  Also all Mako did was do the love triangle and I Do Not Like Him for it.  Keith is a better Mako than Mako ever was because Keith dont need no love triangle and also he already has more development

- Asami also should’ve been more developed, but it looks like there’s potential for more development in the comics so thats good.  From the series alone though, she was pretty flat; better than Bolin and Mako for sure, better than Suki from the original series, but not nearly as good as Toph or the others.  At least she did have some development and a likeable personality that’s relatively original.

- I hate saying this but...Korrasami should’ve been more developed.  I wouldn’t like, take points off of a rating for this point because I mean it was the first lesbian/gay representation in a kids cartoon (from my understanding) and Nick might not’ve even known they were sneaking in something romantic at the end, not to mention they completely subverted the love triangle plot so it actually gains back favor in that way and its great.  Also, I mean, they had that buy-curious joke lmao.  And I’m pretty sure its expanded upon more in the comic; there wasn’t really room to expand upon it in the show because it was just starting.  But they probably could’ve done better than that.  It was still okay though and also, the subverting of the love triangle trope is the greatest thing ever and i long for the day that I can do that plot twist in one of my shows lmao.

- The Villains could’ve been more developed.  Besides Ammon (who is FUCKING AWESOME and you can FIGHT ME) they all had the same problem as Ozai; we dont have many reasons to see them as human or relatable and it makes it hard to hate them as much as we should.  I mean, they do show /some/ human qualities which I appreciate, but I dont entirely understand their motivations half the time and I want to know how they came to view the world the way they do.  But at least unlike Ozai, they do feel somewhat human.  (Except maybe Unaloq, I didnt like Unaloq very much)

And that’s like half of what I could say about each of those shows, and those are just some of my favorite shows I watch.  Dont ask me to go off on like, AOT or something, because I’ll be writing for another three hours lmao (actually feel free to because i wanna INSULT this PIECE OF GARBAGE ANIME that looks rlly pretty but otherwise IS BAD AND IDK WHY I WATCH IT lmao [idk if im joking or sincere sorry])  No show is flawless so I’m going to insult whichever flaws I see.  Fight me.

[peaks-fever-dream]

Twin Peaks: The Return, Part 7

Air Date: 6/18/17

Warning: Contains Spoilers

Locations:

     Twin Peaks, Washington

     Buckhorn, South Dakota

     Arlington, Virginia

     Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

     Sioux City, South Dakota

     Las Vegas, Nevada

Jerry is wearing the same clothes as he was when he was in the woods listening to Dr. Amp. Does this mean that he has been lost in the woods this whole time?  People have been known to disappear for a day or two in those woods without knowing how much time has passed. Has Jerry had one of those experiences? We shall have to see if any strange markings have appeared on him, as with the Log Lady and Major Briggs.

Hawk says that the 3 pages are definitively from the Secret Diary of Laura Palmer that Harold Smith had. He also suggests that it was Leland who had stashed them in the door of the men’s room stall, perhaps when they had brought him in for Jacque Renault’s death. Here is the problem: In Fire Walk with Me, we do see Leland/Bob tear some pages out of Laura’s diary. We previously assumed that these were the four pages that were missing. When Laura discovers these pages have been torn out, she takes the diary to Harold for safe keeping. Later, after she has taken the diary to Harold, she has the dream about Annie that is described on these pages that Hawk has found. This means that the pages we saw Leland/Bob tear out of the diary earlier can not be the ones that discuss the dream about Annie. That dream came later. Right away here, this makes a second problem. It means that if these pages were missing as well, then there are more than a total of four pages altogether torn out and missing from Laura’s diary. Even if Leland/Bob had somehow gone to Harold’s and torn out those pages later, there would be more than four pages missing. From Leland’s look when he was told about the Secret Diary at Harold’s in the original series, however, it was pretty obvious that he had known nothing about this “second” diary. The pages he had torn out earlier in Fire Walk with Me were the ones he showed Laura in the train car and said that he thought she had already known. Now it is possible that Laura had written about the dream of Annie in her other, non-secret, diary and that Leland had torn out those pages and stashed them. Hawk is pretty adamant that these pages came from the Secret Diary at Harold’s, however. This is also information that she would not likely write in the non-private diary, as these pages also contained the fact that she now knew who Bob really was and she would not want Leland/Bob to find that information.

So now we have two problems. The first is that, with these found pages along with the ones Leland/Bob had already ripped out, there should be more than four pages missing from the diary. On a side note, Hawk says here that there were four pages that were ripped out of Laura’s diary and the fourth one is still missing. Well we know from the original series that Harold had ripped out a page and left it for Donna. So would this not be the so called “fourth” page that had been ripped out? Cooper had been with Donna when she received it, so why would it be still considered missing? Did Cooper not tell anyone about this page? Or, again, are there actually more than four pages missing? The second problem is that Leland/Bob could not have been the one to stash them if he did not know about the diary being at Harold’s and therefore could not have them to begin with.

Now it could be argued that the Annie scene in Fire Walk with Me was shown out of sequence and that it had actually happened before we saw Leland/Bob rip the pages out of the book. I will have to go back and re-watch the movie to see if there are any other problems with that interpretation. Now if that scene was shot in this third season, I could see a precedent for that argument as we have already had a number of scenes shown out of sequence during this season. From everything we know, however, every other scene in that film was shown in sequence. It just makes no sense from that perspective that Lynch would have chosen to show this one scene out of sequence. It would also serve no purpose to the telling of the story.

The Giant had mentioned four-three zero to Dale in Part one. The farmer and Andy arrange to meet at 4:30. Right now, this does not appear to be related at all. There is a question, however, of what happened to the Farmer. Could something significant have happened at 4:30 that we are just not aware of yet?

I know that Lynch and Frost had wanted to show Warren Frost on screen. It is even more significant as this Part was shown on Father’s day and Warren Frost was Mark Frost’s father. This is probably why the first four episodes were released in twos. But they really could have found a way to make it serve the story. Now don’t get me wrong here, I loved seeing Doc Hayward, but there was no reason for Frank to talk to him on Skype when he already had him on the phone. It was not like Frank had something that he wanted to show the Doc. Everything that they discussed could have been done right there over the phone. This scene did disappoint me a little as a result.

Absolutely loved the wood paneled computer screen in Frank’s desk, though.

Evil Cooper could have been visiting Annie (I don’t know if she would have been in the ICU, though), or even retrieving the ring from the nurse that had stolen it from Annie (according to the Missing Pieces). The fact that Doc Hayward specifically mentions Audrey in her Coma, however, suggests the one thing that I did not want to think about. I had previously heard the theories that Richard was the product of a sexual relationship between Audrey and Evil Coop, and I had previously said that the only way that could have happened was if Evil Coop had taken advantage of her when she was in the hospital. That she was in a coma somehow makes this even worse to me, though it could be argued that at least she did not have to be awake for it. We do not know how long she was in the coma for. Perhaps she had the child while she was still in the coma and it had been given away to be raised. Who knows? From her point of view, however, she would have to think that the child was actually John Justice Wheeler’s.

What I would love to see, if Richard really is Audrey’s son, is for Audrey to just rip into him and chew him out for his behavior.

Because the body was around 40 years old and had only died five or six days ago, there are only two possibilities that I can come up with. First of all we know that Briggs could not just have been in the Lodge for all this time as we see that others, such as Cooper, do still age in the Lodge.

1) There is time-travel involved. Now we already know that real time travel does exist in this universe as Cooper had traveled through time when he went into the glass box (see my previous notes for further discussion of this). We also remember that in the original series Major Briggs had shown up in an old war-time flight outfit, which suggests that he may have gone back in time.

2) This body is not that of the original Major Briggs, but was manufactured. This gives further credence to the theory that Evil Coop had stolen the body’s little gold ball and replaced it with the original Dougie’s gold wedding ring so that he could manufacture the new Dougie.

Hmmm . . . the Woodsman shows up again, but we do not learn anything more about him.

I’m glad that they explained the reversed lettering along with the reversed fingerprints.

It was also nice for Cole to reference the backwards word spoken by Evil Coop, and tied in to the finger, which he had hinted about when he had told Albert that Cooper had not greeted him correctly.

HA! The girl from Ipanema. I wonder if Albert took her dancing.

So it seems that Evil Coop may have had his way with Diane as well as Audrey. Did Diane have a child as well? Is Linda her child? Two birds with one stone.

So now we have a Joe McClusky to go along with Mr. Strawberry. Unfortunately it appears that no one will hear about Joe McClusky or the late Mr. Strawberry again.

A part of me had wanted to see Cooper’s instinct kick in when Ike came after him, and I’m glad to have seen it, but a part of me also wanted to see Battleing Bud punch Ike out when he came after Cooper. Ike is still out there, though, so it could still happen.

Why does the arm show up here and tell Cooper to squeeze Ike’s hand off? Very strange for the arm to show up outside the Lodge.

Odd that we had the little circle of light area around the piece of flesh being taken off the handle of the gun. It was almost as if it were being shot by one of the news crew, though it really did not feel like it.

My first thought is that the sound was coming from the hidden passageway behind the walls. Because the sound seems to move, however, I’m wondering if it isn’t Josie still trapped in the wood of The Great Northern.

The key to room 315 returning to The Great Northern Hotel through the mail is in fact the final Key, the Lynch Pin if you will, in the puzzle that links all of the story lines to the same time period. There are still individual scenes that are shown out of order, but all of the events of the story now appear indeed to be happening in the same year.

We saw Ben trying to turn over a new leaf in the second season of the original series and it seems that he is still trying to fight his urges and to be a good man. He obviously senses Beverly’s attraction, but does not give in to the temptation. Good for him. We’ll just see if it lasts.

Yes, Lynch is known for his long, drawn out scenes. The sweeping scene in the Roadhouse, however, seems to go on for so long that it really feels as if they are stalling for time because they do not want to get into other information that fits better in the next Part. This is the first time that I have actually skipped ahead on re-watch. He did, however, have the presence of mind to film all of that in the first place.

Speaking of the Roadhouse, it is nice to finally have someone refer to it by name in this season and officially put an end to the idea that it is called the Bang Bang Bar.

We must remember that Ray is still under orders to kill Evil Coop, and that Evil Coop knows this.

Additional: I had not caught this one myself, but some of the customers at the counter of the RR actually change between the time when Bing pokes his head in through the door and he asks if anyone has seen Billy. Shelly actually shakes her head as if she senses that something is off, although she may just supposed to be reacting to Bing.