#and given that at this pace the finale's gonna have like 10 episodes or some shit I'll have time to catch up

[humanmorph]

btw if anything whack (read: extremely wild) happens in palisade tell me. just if not what

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - All's Quiet on the BL Front

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

May 2024 Wk 3

Ongoing Series - Thai

Wandee Godday (Sat YT) ep 3 of 12 - I love how were getting a solid depiction of two queers just genuinely enjoying sex with each other. That’s actually rare in BL. In this case, it manages to also be weirdly adorable and cute.

Dee is such a tease. I guess Y likes a brat? 

LOOK at those bedroom eyes!

Linguistics corner: when these two are being serious, sweet, or flirty with each other they use rao/nai which is kind of old fashioned and charming and not common in BL. They move pretty seamlessly into gu/mueng and back depending on the style of convo, tho. It's FUN to hear them talk.

Let the fake relationship commence!

My Stand-In (Thai Fri iQIYI) ep 4 of 12 eps - I HAVE THOUGHTS. I'm really enjoying the sinister backbone of this show. I hope they have the courage of their convictions in that regard and lean into a kind of sexy evil revenge narrative. It was a pleasure to watch the break up and I do not want a redemption arc for Ming or a romance for us. Fuck 'em, let’s just ride a revenge train, okay Joe baby?

That’s said, I totally sniffled at the ending scene where Ming (for two years!) has been paying penance cooking for two and waiting alone. Excellent pathos. Now, I understand how they're gonna make this a full 12 eps. And I’m excited about it. Carry on!

We Are (Weds iQIYI) ep 7 of 16 - I wasn't a fan of Winny & Satang in My School President but I'm loving them in this. The thing with Q, Toey, and Chain had me hooting with laughter. I think I’m finally just easing into the relaxed absurdity of this show. The key is not to expect anything from it. Just them being tiny gay idiots.

Two Worlds (iQIYI) ep 10 fin - Someday I’d like to really enjoy a MaxNat show, but today was not that day. (I feel like ever since Between Us I’ve been generally disenchanted with established OG pairs and what they’re bringing to the table. Perhaps that’s a discussion for another day. Cherry Magic excepted, of course.) 

OK, so this final episode, they sure tried to fit a lot in. But that made the pacing better for me. So I kinda liked this weird cliff notes resolution to the story.

In conclusion:

MaxNat do a credible job with a messy script about parallel worlds, gangsters, and strange diseases cured by forest fruits. It sounds confusing because it is. The chemistry is excellent the side pair is entirely forgotten about, and one could drive a Tardis through the plot holes. Still, I found it modestly enjoyable if not at all rewatchable. 7/10 

Only Boo! (Sun YouTube) ep 6 of 12 - I do love how bold and brash Moo is. He’s truly a great character, such an utter outgoing sunshine puppy focused on his pursuit of his older boy. I'm charmed by his utter harmlessness. They gave us a sweet coming out scene, and an awesome supportive mom. Frankly GMMTV has a good track record with moms. (With a few noted exceptions, of course.)

That said, I do keep forgetting this is a GMMTV offering. It just doesn't FEEL GMMTV. Just me?

OMG Vampire (Thai Sun ????) ep 1 of 10 - Starts tomorrow, will report on sitch next week. LeeFrank are back - not unlike the undead. But how do we feel about it? Unsure given their track record.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

At 25:00 in Akasaka AKA 25 Ji Akasaka de (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 5 of 10 - I like it. I like our sulky 2nd lead. He’s pouty, adorable, brash, and adding some much-needed tension to this narrative. The blurring lines between show within a show is a lot of fun. Probably the best I've seen done in BL so far.

Living With Him AKA Kare no Iru Seikatsu (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 6 of 10 - I like that we got backstory, but we also sort of already knew it. So this ep felt a bit like filler. They are wonderful when they’re on screen together but when they aren't it's a bit dull. I hope we just get them together for the next 4 eps. But this is Japan, so I doubt it.

Blossom Campus (Korea Thurs Gaga & iQIYI) ep 1 of 6 - The image resolution on this show (via Iqiyi ) is terrible. Meanwhile, awkward crush. Jock nerd pairing. Dorky. Maybe a bit too much awkward/dorky for me? I'm not sold on this one.

Meanwhile the ordering then not eating or drinking of food continues. Very upsetting.

Boys Be Brave (Korea Viki) eps 5-8fin - This show was just never sure what it wanted to be. Slacker sunshine KiSub moves in with nerd JinWoo, mostly because he knows JinWoo likes him but won't confess and that's never happened to him before. It reminded me of some earlier KBLs like Behind Cut, yes is had bones but not much flesh, so it only just hung together and progressed through not very much plot in a jerking rattling fashion like an animated skeleton. All the story and chemistry was with the side couple and none of the screen time. That just annoyed me. What did this BL want to BE? Who tf knows. I, for one, don’t care, and resolve to think no more on it. 6/10 

Blue Boys (Korea Sat YouTube) - This ended at 4 eps on a cliffhanger. Since this is a very small studio I don’t have a lot of faith in there being a part two. But they have bundled both this BL, and the GL, bingable chunks on YT. So if you want to binge it, it’s there. Just be aware that it ends on a cliffhanger.

My thoughts?

Promising reunion romances full of class and coming out struggles but I grade with what we got, not on expectations, and you know I HATE a cliffhanger. So yeah, it HAD promise but as of now it gets a 4/10 - fatally flawed. I reserve the right to change my mind if they amend for damages.

It's airing but...

You Made My Day (Thai YT) ep 1 of 5 - mini series staring the I Will Knock You couple Tar & Bom, started but I couldn't find it. I also didn't try very hard.

Lady Boy Friends (Thai WeTV grey) 16 eps - reminds me a bit too much of Diary of Tootsies only high school. Not my thing. DNF unless it turns a corner and is truly amazing.

A Balloon's Landing (Taiwan movie) trailer - A frustrated Hong Kong writer, Tian Yu, meets a Taipei street gangster, Xiang (Fandy Fan from HIStory2: Crossing the Line), and the two of them embark on a journey to find the Bay of Vanishing Whales. Along the way, they discover unexpected twists and turns and close bonds, which brings out the message that "there is always someone like you in this world who is waiting for you. This released to cinemas in Taiwan, no word on international release.

In case you missed it

A really really thorough and fascinating article on 2 Moons 2 and what happened.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

May Releases

VBL (Taiwan) is releasing 4 'Special Episode' epilogues to their 4 2023 shows every Friday this month on Gagaoolala, Viki & Viu. Not sure on search terms or how to find these. (Or, frankly, if we need them.)

5/10 – You Are Mine

5/17 – VIP Only

5/24 – Stay By My Side

5/31 – Anti Reset

5/25 The Time of Fever AKA Unintentional Love Story 2 (Korea movie) trailer - HoTae & DongHee are back but unfortunately not in a cinema near me. Side couple from Unintentional Love Story, same actors, same character names. I love them. I NEED TO SEE THIS.

5/28 My Biker 2 (Thai movie YT?) - trailer

5/30 Knock Knock Boys (Thai Thurs WeTV) - I'm hoping I can get it elsewhere since my WeTV account is inactive, but I do love Best and I'm interested in seeing him in a new pairing. That said, I'm not wild about Seng... so I won't be too cut up if I can't get hold of this. More here.

5/31 The Time of Huannan (Taiwan movie) - May not be BL

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I'm a sucker for this king of casual claiming. (Only Boo)

It me! (Wandee Goodday)

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @sunflower-positiiivity @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious

If ya wanna be tagged each week leave a comment and I will add you to the template. Easy peesy.

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

I'm watching too much stuff. And things are not slowing down with all the things coming in September. So I'm gonna try and keep this short. As much as that's possible given the amount of shows.

QL - Currently Watching

🇹🇭 4 Minutes [6/8] - Finally some answers. I haven't read all the theories floating around about this last episode and what it means, but I'm firmly on the side of, there is another alternative timeline, probably from when Tyme is dying at the start of the show, and also very much in agreement with everything @lurkingshan wrote here that these are just imagined do-overs and nothing will actually change in the real world. Which would be my preferred way.

🇹🇭 Addicted Heroin [2/10] - Haven't watched this weeks episode yet. My review for the first two is here.

🇹🇼 First Note of Love [4/12] - I like them a lot. And I like the pacing of this. I love the intro song. But with a second couple being introduced I think I'm gonna get frustrated having to wait a week for a 20 minute episode. I felt that way a lot during Kiseki.

🇯🇵 I Hear the Sunspot [10/12] - I am annoyed.

🇹🇭 I Saw You In My Dream [7/12] - May the boyfriend era commence. I am enjoying this one. I'm guessing we still have a bit of angst coming and I'm hoping for a good explanation for the dreams.

🇯🇵 Mitsuya Sensei no Keikakutekina Ezuke [6/7] - Just such an incredible show. This week brought the pain and I'm still unwell. As if Frito getting sick wasn't heart breaking enough, that ending left me in tears. I cannot believe we only have one episode left. I am not ready to say goodbye to the three of them.

🇹🇭 Monster Next Door [6/12] - My favourite thing about this is definitely Big. His presence on screen is great. But I'm not fully connecting yet for some reason.

🇹🇭 Peaceful Property [1/10] - It's a lot of fun. Yeah, I know it's not a bl. But it's bl adjacent so it goes here. Also in my head it's gonna be a bl no matter what. Possibly even with a gl side couple. The mind is a powerful thing.

🇯🇵Sugar Dog Life [4/10] - I love Isumi. I really liked that they didn't drag the girl storyline and it served it's purpose. Isumi is now very much aware of it's feelings. I'm looking forward to the date episode.

🇯🇵 Takara No Vidro [9/11] - Takara, my love. This boy has my whole heart. I can't believe I'll have to say goodbye to then tomorrow. I'm bracing for part pain, part happy. Please Japan don't let me down.

🇹🇭 The Loyal Pin [1/16] - I'm waiting to binge.

🇹🇼 The On1y One [4/10] - This show will hurt and I will love every second of it. I really like the look of this show and how we get those little insights into Jiang at the end of the episode. The actors are doing great and I specially love Benjamin Tsang facial expressions. I'm curious to see these two together and how their dynamic will work considering their circumstances. Also, always happy to see the revolving door of cameos Taiwan always grace us with.

🇯🇵Twilight Out of Focus - It's so beautiful. I'm enjoying that we get different couples even if sometimes it feels like we could have more time with them. I like Rei/Shion a lot, but I do miss Mao and Hisashi. 🇹🇭 The Trainee [10/12] - Just to get it out if the way, the Bamhee/Judy storyline was definitely the right call and @lurkingshan was right all along. Also the way the office came together was delightful and it's great to see Pah getting everyone together and once again being the best friend ever. Now. THE OFFICE FLIRTING!!! I was losing my mind giggling like an idiot. I love them. It's pretty obvious at this point that it's mutual and of course Ryan will need to actually be told that, but I still think Jane will wait until the internship is over before confessing or starting anything official. I can't wait to watch all the interns reaction next week. I love it here.

QL - Finished

🇯🇵 Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko! - I'm disappointed in this one. It started off so strong but by the end it lost me. I love Hiroko but I feel like they betrayed the character. And that ending with the kiss in the office was ridiculous. Actually most of the end was weird in the way that it seemed to contradict what came before. I like that they finally got together but it didn't feel as good as it could've.

🇹🇭 Century of Love - Started of great and imo fell apart by the end. I don't think it was consistent all the way through and the mythology was all over the place. Daou did an amazing job though. Also Ju is one of the greatest female characters of the year.

🇯🇵 Cosmetic Playlover - Pretty show. Final thoughts here.

🇹🇭 Knock Knock, Boys! - Probably the biggest surprise of the year for me. It's great. I like the development of both couples. Even if near the end I got a tiny bit annoyed with Peak, I really liked the conclusion of it all. Latte is a great character and the very rare slut unjudged by the narrative.

🇹🇭🇨🇳 Meet You At the Blossom - Look it's great that we got a chinese bl, but this was not it for me. Let's hope this one helps get others made though.

🇹🇭Love Sea - It was fine. I enjoyed Mut but in general I just never connected to this show. And Muk annoyed me to no end. I was so happy to see Aya again and now I just wanna forget that she was ever in this and simply remember her as Yiwa.

🇹🇭 SunsetxVibes - I don't even have words. I don't know if it was my lack of attention or if it never actually made sense but I never really got what the mythology was all about apart from inspiring a truly horrendous looking necklace. I was slogging though this one and I guess the finale was fine.

🇹🇭 This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans - The sides were great, their chemistry was on point. I really wanna see them again. The mains were my favourite thing about Pit Babe but I just didn't like them here.

🇹🇭 The Rebound - I just have to accept that MeenPing will always have bad scripts. They are pretty together but this was a mess.

Dropped

🇹🇭My Love Mix-Up!

Rose Watches OJBL

Pornographer: Spring Life | Playback | Continued Spring Life Finally finished the novelist. Final thoughts.

A LOT of stuff coming this month so if you haven't checked it out, here is the post with all announced upcoming qls for September with a couple of updates that I made today.

As usual my ask box is open. Have a wonderful week💜

[pain-in-the-butler]

Season Four review

Last night I finally had time to finish the new anime, and here are my thoughts, because I had at least one or two of those while I watched. I saw the whole thing with my bud @warmmilk-n-honey, whose presence helped to make the whole thing bearable:

I've seen some other people mentioning the lack of animation and the fact that most of the angles were copied straight from the manga, and yeah it's very evident lol... At one point while I was watching there was a thunderstorm, and I just had to marvel at the fact that there was far more movement outside my window than there was on the computer screen -

The episodes felt like they went by really fast and yet nothing really happened during them. It did make it clear that this is probably not an easy arc to adapt to an eleven-episode run, but then it just makes you question the small amount of cut content. Easter episode? When did they decide to get rid of you? Why? It's the Nina curse I swear to god -

Even when action was happening, sometimes it was painfully obvious they were padding for time. I nearly lost my mind during the Midnight Tea Party when Undertaker just ate an entire cupcake in between dialogue. Like, sir, please. You are on television -

The CGI moments were sometimes pretty state-of-the-art but other times really badly executed. Though warmmilk-n-honey did note that the terrible-looking horses are tradition, so thank god for them -

I felt the lack of budget most during the scene where Ciel has to run up to Sebastian and pretend to be excited that Seb elected him to be on the cricket team. He says something like "oh damn people are around, guess I'll have to milk the performance" but there's like two boys in the background and they're not even looking his way?? Guys... -

Some of the background music was fun and I will likely listen to it again on my own time. The opening really won me over too. While I still don't know what was up with the titan, at least the imagery was interesting, and we only ended up skipping it when we were in a hurry because it was fun to watch -

The voice actors did a good job, as far as I could tell. Funimation has definitely made some odd casting choices in terms of accents, but I really felt like the new members of the Japanese cast were giving it their all especially, and it was admittedly pretty fun to have so many familiar voices back in the roles in both languages -

I've always found this arc, especially the second half, to be a weak one, and overall I just thought the execution here worsened it. Goofy faces were made less goofy, flavor text was cut, and Funimation was actually out here changing some lines of dialogue for who knows what reason? Weird vibes -

The last episode was the most fun one by far. Cloverworks finally figured out how to do silly chibis, and they increased the Phantomfam antics in order to pad for time again, but in this instance it actually worked. The teaser at the end was slow-paced too but it was also for a legitimately good reason, so yay. The ambiance in the forest was spooky and quiet. It made me actually excited to see what comes next despite how rough this season was

I can't really say I was too disappointed though because I definitely expected not to be satisfied, you know me, I'm a stinker. I'm still glad the anime exists: the fandom was really out here starving and finally we've been given some juice. But overall I'm gonna give it a 4/10, which I think is actually very generous of me because I don't have a lot of nice things to say. Oh well. Green Witch, here we come

[gizkasparadise]

final leg of a journey to love thoughts!! (eps 35-40). this got so gd long so under a cut it goes. spoilers, of course:

PLOT STUFF/PACING

pacing for the plot definitely got shredded in the last chunk, which is a damn shame because otherwise i've been finding the pacing pretty much perfect. eps 35-37 in particular felt like they could have been like a 10 episode arc. ep 38, which mostly dealt with wu palace politics, should have been cut or streamlined imo and more time given to the characters we've actually been riding along with the whole story. by the time we get back to the pregnant empress, prince danyang, the first prince whose name i dont even remember, and the prime minister, i do not care about any of them and i think this subplot was simply just trying to fit too much shit into one bag

that said, this show still let the emotional moments hit and breathe and linger. i love the grief for the fallen liudao comrades as we go, as well as the less heavy but still emotionally important moments like yang ying and tongguan bonding over their upbringing. and we got a wedding /;3;/!!! for this show, the relationships and characters matter more than the storyline so im not mad about anything at all

side note: it's so gd millennial to have a story about a bunch of 30 something year olds who want to fake their deaths and retire into obscurity but instead they go and die for a boss they hate

CHARACTER STUFF

this show consistently brought a lot of depth to its side characters (and side side characters!!). i said it in an earlier post, but it bears repeating that even someone like deng hui i didnt expect anything from, but he got such good development and writing that he became a stealth fave. his dying words essentially being "dude, quit fucking around" ? iconic.

i didnt like tongguan as much as everyone else, so im pretty meh about everything regarding him. the attempt to force-wed ruyi was tonally really weird and didnt make sense (i assume there was some cuts made surrounding it). but LOL at him reusing all the outfits and decor immediately for his wedding to yang ying. baby duke, you tacky motherfucker. i ultimately think yang ying deserves better than him, but the good thing is that she knows this, so she'll be able to hold her own and then some entering into this partnership

shisan really was the heart in a lot of ways--the mom to yuanzhou's dad for the liudao. i was not expecting him to break my heart the way he did, but the fact that he held both qian zhao and sun lang as they died and then tried his best to remove yuan lu from harm and saved chu yue and was just very much a nurturer all the way through got me. his character couldve been cheap comic relief but the writing + performance really elevated him into one of the (imo) most memorable wuxia characters. his line wondering who would get to behead his beautiful skull!!! and how his mantra was always that he was going to drink the best wine, see the most beautiful women, and make the best of friends and he dies having lost the ability to see and having just had wine in memory of qian zhao, yuan lu, and sun lang. like. shut up!!

ruyi and yuanzhou were both so great and they're gonna be the drama OTP to beat forever. i loved the gender reversals, that they both were so respectful of each other, and that they also felt very mature in how they handled things and communicated. they were really interesting characters both together and apart and that's always a win-win. they had a schroedinger's ending where it's not super clear if they're alive or dead (i interpreted it as the latter), but what's kind of beautiful is that either option is satisfying to me. if they both died, they're reunited and with their comrades and the story is truly about the journey and the meaningful short connections we have. if they both survived, it's a bookend with the beginning where they each faked their deaths to escape. A+

COSTUMING

i gotta just separately mention the costuming for this show because it was 15/10. the textures, shisan's accessories, the way red became integrated with yuanzhou's wardrobe and blue with ruyi's. the details on the liudao name amulets!! SO GOOD. i love when characters' clothes tell a story on their own

overall i just really loved this drama it is probably my favorite wuxia ive seen so far! it's gonna be in my brain for awhile lol feel free to send fic prompts if you've made it this far :'D

[stormyoceans]

Have you seen GAP the series?? Personally I thought it was trash. So bad, but I heard they changed the script so many times so it was bound to happen. I didn’t watch Marvellous Dream but everyone says it was bad too. Now Loyal Pin is starting and I don’t want to give that a chance either. What the heck, Idol Factory? I’m not saying they’re masterpieces but their BLs are good. Why can’t they make good GLs?

i have indeed watched GAP but i have to admit that it’s hard for me to be as objective about this show as i usually try to be with all the media i consume, because while part of me KNOWS it’s not the best series, im also very fond of it for what it represented as the first fully fledged GL we’ve ever gotten

im also aware i tend to be more forgiving towards GLs compared to BLs, mostly because BL shows have been around for years and were allowed to sometimes be pretty bad as they experimented and tried things out, while as it often happens with women i feel like a lot of people expected GLs to be nothing short than perfect from the get go and refuse to allow even the smallest misstep

all this being said, my marvellous dream is you was definitely (and unfortunately) not a good show (albeit i did weirdly enjoy some parts of it), and if you already didn’t like GAP you for sure wouldn’t like mmdiy either, because sadly i think this series has all the flaws GAP had but magnified 10 times: the main pairing keeps running around in circle about the same misunderstandings over and over again, the miscommunication goes through the roof, the relationship is very unbalanced, there are way too many characters who are there just for the drama and aren’t given enough space or depth (people saying we only got crumbs for chainpun in we are, well, let me tell you….. it can be worse ;;;;;;;), the pacing is a mess, and im sure im forgetting something else too. there could have been one saving grace in my marvellous dream is you (the fantasy element), but even that was neither explored nor narratively used at all

what i think it’s interesting is that both series were adapted by novels from the same author, so i do wonder which of those issues are due to the original material and which ones are due to idolfactory itself, because while an adaptation can definitely try to fix certain things, it also depends on how much artistic license they can actually take (this is why im very curious to see how GMMTV is gonna adapt pluto and us, since they’re also stories from that author)

as for the loyal pin, i haven’t been able to start it yet (petition to get an extra day in the week just to watch my shows), however im really looking forward to finally be able to, because this time the original novel is from a different author, so im hoping it won’t have the same issues when it comes to the plot and the characters

so yeah, i do think that there are some stylistic choices that are very typical of idolfactory that they should probably revisit (for example, having a big cast and pretty long episodes), but when it comes to GL specifically maybe they just didn’t pick the best material (or the right one for them as a company), so i hope the loyal pin is gonna be their turning point and that future projects will get better and better!!!!!

[someonexsomeone]

Okay thought about it and!! I think I really liked Dead Boy Detectives!! I think there are good things and bad things, so here are my (spoilers) Thoughts:

Positives!!

- casting was amazing!! I thought everyone did an excellent job, and while I don’t personally love all the actors, I think they played their roles excellently (faves: Esther, Cat King, Niko <333, Jenny, Tragic Mick)

- each character felt unique, even the minor ones

- the beginning was a little rough but once the plot started going it kept my interest peaked without feeling overwhelming

- Charles and Edwin’s relationship was wow so heartbreaking but oh my hod the way they met the staircase scene the way Charles foiled Edwin’s grumpiness yes yes yes

- NIKO AND EDWIN MY BELOVES

- Niko making things right with her unconditional kindness. I hate when shows have the main characters kinda lack social awareness and manners in order to push the plot along faster because it makes them seem like bad people when they aren’t. Niko giving a voice to characters who are otherwise pushed aside by the others (the sprites, Tragic Nick, Jenny, and even the Lighthouse Gift Shop owner) makes her that much more endearing :((

- I love Tragic Mick and his story and the store. What a compelling side character??

- the setting was oh my god so perfectly moody

- the Cat King forcing the characters to stay in one place when they notoriously can fast travel was so perfect to raise the stakes without making it feel forced

- I lowkey love they made Crystal a bad person because the way she was introduced made it seem like she was gonna be this perfect average joe (also what happened to that little girl ghost that originally started this all???)

Negatives :((

- okay so minor but wow I did not like the blurred edges in the show. I think it worked a lot of times to give everything that sort of dreamy look, but most times it made it hard to focus and distracting from the scene

- sometimes the writing and pacing felt…off. Like the fact that some of the opening dialogue was such Wattpad esk “hey best friend remember how we’ve been friends for 30 years? I’m the goofball to your serious branic haha brills!” And then were immediately given Edwin’s backstory with no context?? Like yes good I’m glad I know it now but it took like 5 episodes to learn Charles’? Also, the fact that we only learn Charles is abused like 10 mins before he has a breakdown with no indication earlier is crazy to me?? We even get a scene where he talks about his parents, and there was no foreshadowing to his dislike of his father??

- speaking of pacing; sometimes it felt very mechanical. Get case, case is actually something more, oh no it’s Esther, easy peasy defeat Esther she’s def done for this time, case closed, oh no she’s alive!, repeat. She just wouldn’t stay down and I love her for that lmao

- I’m trying to find solace in the fact that EVERY relationship in that show got fucked up/was fucked up but honestly the fact that anytime we were really close to having a gay relationship that was then brutally ripped away was crazy and sometimes unnecessarily brutal. I mean — Jenny finally taking a chance and opening up only for her secret admirer turning out to be a stalker and a killer?? Monty getting rejected then ripped to pieces?? The Cat King admitting he likes Edwin more than a toy and being beaten to death?? Also the bait and switch with Niko’s sprites and lowkey highkey making it seem like Crystal was in love lmao

- the way they portrayed Despair was honestly such a shameful choice for me. I would understand if they were going for a modern version to smth, but they were literally in Hell where they crafted a monster out of babydoll parts. You’re telling me Despair, creeping sadness that consumes your soul, with countless reasons and outcomes from it, and countless manefestations, was given a shlumpy cardigan??? Was given no real care beyond a human actor with minimal make up?? We literally MEET one of the, practically, Gods of Hell and that’s the best we came up with?!

- getting out of hell was surprisingly SO EASY like I think it needed /something/ else because at no point did I think they wouldn’t make it out

- DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON FUCKING SIMON?? No way in FUCK did they try to redeem to me a character who bullied Edwin to the point of sacrifing him to a demon (doesn’t matter if he didn’t think anything was going to happen, his intentions were still malicious) by giving him the biggest cop out “but I was secretly in love with you the whole time” BULL SHIT and then the fact that he got to ascend to heaven after???? ALSO THE FACT THAT EDWIN HAD TO BE CHASED BY A DOLL MONSTER AND RIPPED APART WHEN SIMON ONLY GOT PAPERCUTS ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

- WHY TF DID THEY KILL MY GIRL NIKO (I know implied she’s alive somewhat at the end but still). Also, you’re telling me they didn’t even wait until they saw Niko’s ghost and just assumed she moved on that fast without saying goodbye?? Ridiculous??

TLDR: despite some of its shortcomings, I am super excited to see what they do with Season 2, and I hope we get a more expanded universe and cast of characters!!

[orionsangel86]

Welp. Okay I watched the last episode of ofmd.

To sum up my thoughts on this season I will say that whilst I enjoyed it and felt the love and passion and respect for its queer fanbase throughout, it didnt hit me the same way the first season did. It felt like maybe a little bit of that season 1 magic was missing and for that I very much blame Max's cutting off 2 episodes and slashing the budget. They had a lot of story they wanted to tell that would have worked so much better in 10 episodes.

I consider the last 3 episodes of season 1 some of the best TV I have seen in my life. From the use of The Chain in ep 8, through the dramatic highs and lows of eps 9 and 10 it was edge-of-your-seat drama and I was in awe at the creators that put it together. But one of the reasons why those 3 eps were so good is because the drama and the pivotal moments were given time to breath.

If those 3 eps were given the same lack of time and budget as season 2, no doubt they all would have been crammed into 1 episode and it would not have had the same impact.

If anything that last episode should have played out across two, with Izzy's death being the half way point and cliffhanger ending leading to a final battle and somewhat happy resolution.

I'm not mad at Izzy's death. If anyone was gonna die, it was gonna be him. His status as Blackbeards enabler and sometimes mentor is over. For Ed to truly be free, I think Izzy always had to go. From a storytelling perspective it makes perfect sense, even though I am sure a lot of fans are absolutely heartbroken about it.

Another casualty of the reduced screentime meant certain original cast members weren't given anywhere near the amount of screentime they should have had. I was expecting a lot more focus on Jim as they were basically the third lead of s1 due to them getting the same backstory as Ed and Stede. All of the crew appear to have had drastically reduced parts which does feel like a big loss to me.

Its funny actually, OFMD S2 suffered from the opposite problem to GOS2. OFMD had too much story to tell in a limited timeframe, GOS2 had very little story to tell outside of the flashbacks and probably too much time given to it. Both shows season 2s suffered from tremendously bad pacing issues.

Also, the one thing the final episode made so obvious to me, is the uncertainty of getting a s3 renewal. It is so clear in the way they tried to wrap things up in a happy bow as best they could, so that if they do get cancelled it leaves fans at least somewhat satisfied. I hate this though. I hate that studios are so fickle and ruthless that creators have to gamble with good quality writing and avoid cliffhangers because of asshole executives who dont actually care about the stories.

Because of the fast pacing, and the fear of cancellation, it felt more like a rush happy ending instead of a part way point in a bigger story, with important character development still to come. Perhaps I need more time to absorb the story in a full rewatch, but im not exactly itching for more at this point, whilst also not really being satisfied with what I got either. I wish we had left Ed and Stede in at least some minor peril, like have them captured and threatened with hanging but at least in a good place romantically, so that we can start speculating about what kind of escape plan they will come up with in season 3. Leaving them in a dilapidated old inn somewhere just felt wrong to me. Instead of ending the season with the stakes sky high (like season 1) it feels like they left season 2 with zero stakes at all, instead of at least a happy medium. At this point we should be turning to fanfiction and wondering what happens next, but instead I'm left thinking "okay then. That was good. What can I watch next?" I don't need to bury myself in fanfic and fanart to feed the hyperfixation this time around, and that is where I feel the most loss.

I'm sure others will have hugely different reactions to me though. Perhaps my expectations were too high? Perhaps my GO obsession just isn't leaving room for OFMD this time? But then again, I think if GOS2 hadn't ended the way it did, I wouldn't still be so obsessed with that either.

Sigh. I dunno. It was a good fun show and will no doubt still be hugely popular with devoted fans, but for me I just can't say it cast the same spell over me as it did last year.

[pftones3482]

Okay I can see why people are bummed about certain parts of the Season 5 finale, but it was genuinely??? So good??? Like it was not bad at all, it's wild to me that people are calling the whole thing terrible because of like. Two plot points.

Spoilers and thoughts under the cut (in no particular order):

I fucking loved the Bug Noire design, her eyes were so COOL LOOKING

The classmates all getting their kwamis back STOP 😭😭😭😭 Wayzz and Trixx get to hang out all the time now that's so cute I'm gonna die.

I need an entire episode about what the fuck Jagged Stone, Penny, and Luka were up to because WHAT WAS THAT?

Loved getting to see the other heroes again, it was a nice change of pace

GOD TIKKI AND PLAGG??? WHAT?? The lighting in that scene was so pretty 10/10

I'm glad Gabriel fucking died he deserved it 🖕

Following that, I truly think that if Gabriel's plea had come even one season ago, I would have felt more sympathy for him. I felt none. I was rolling my eyes while he was crying. You locked your son in a literal prison Gabe. You are beyond redemption.

Really liked the parallel of this episode with Ladybug fighting w/o Chat while the classmates help out and the episode Representation, where Chat was fighting w/o Ladybug and the classmates were helping out. Not QUITE the same, but I'm glad we did get a fairly Chat-centric episode before the finale

Adrien absolutely deserves to know that his father was Hawkmoth. But he's also had like. The SHITTIEST fucking life the last year or two. His mom fucking died, his dad stopped being a dad, he was overworked, never allowed to see friends, was a whole ass superhero on top of that, and then his father sent him to a different fucking country so he couldn't be with his girlfriend. And then said father DIES and suddenly his mom is magically alive and Nathalie isn't on deaths door??? Yeah, I'd give him some time to process and just be a kid for once too. He is definitely going to find out, and when it does it'll be angsty and I will enjoy it

I really hope they don't drag out the Lila plot five more seasons. This show has fallen victim to the "too many seasons" problem and at this point I'm mostly in it for the kwamis and the classmates relationships lol

God poor Nooroo can't catch a break 😭

While I was low-key hoping for a reveal, it would have felt really forced and out of place given that Chat Noir literally didn't show up until the very end of the season finale, so I'm glad they didn't shoehorn it in

Alya. Round of a fucking plause for Alya please and thank you. Also please I need more of her and Plagg they were adorable the way he went to her for help when he couldn't find Marinette

Actually round of applause for all the classmates trying their damnedest to keep the city from falling to chaos I love them all so much together

Love that these kids have just fully accepted that their principal is a little wacky and they continue to include him

BABY BUSTIER I WOULD DIE FOR YOU

Marinette was so fucking snappy and good with the comebacks during her fight with Gabriel it was fantastic

Also the way she reacted to seeing him as Gabriel was INSANE the animators did such a good job with that

Back to Alya for a hot sec, the way she looked at Nino during the classmates group hug was so soft 😭❤️

Adrien understanding that he was at high risk of hurting the world as Chat Noir and being under the influence of nightmares is such a mature move. Alya realizing the same thing? God give them more SCENES together

Once again. TIKKI AND PLAGG???? TF???

In conclusion:

The finale wasn't bad, you guys are just upset there wasn't a reveal and that Adrien still doesn't know his dad was a literal terrorist. Which is valid, you can be upset about it, but the rest of the finale was pretty damn satisfying and it's a disservice to the crew who worked on it to just dismiss it entirely.

[blahpanblah]

Okay If I’m being honest, Hazbin has made me pretty much lock it away from ever giving it anything higher than a 6/10 (For meaning “this overall is fine but I'll never rewatch it) And I feel a lot bad for it because I'm honestly less mean to it the Helluva. Because my biggest criticism of both shows is that they go WAY too fast. And that is really bad if you are a character progression show.

But I give Hazbin less shit for this because it is a LGBT+, animated show on a streaming service. They had reasons to believe the show wasn't going to get a second season. It is of course, but when working on the episodes they had no reason to believe that. They don't choose how many episodes they are given. They were only given eight episodes. That is an unfortunate amount of episodes too, even if you did do it at the right pace, you would have to pray it doesn't get canceled. So that's less of a fault on the show and more just the fault of streaming services nowadays and that just makes me sad.

This is more of a fault with Helluva because, please correct me with proof if I'm wrong, but there is ZERO reasons why they don't have time for at least ONE more episode. I know working on an animated show takes time I'm not downplaying that. But I CANNOT stress this enough. If you are a character progression show, don't skim over the progression. My biggest problem with stolitz is that it feels rushed to the point it is now. It would’ve been better if the two had ONE episode together. IDK maybe their working on a I.M.P mission together they bond. And with that, you can make Blitz’s feelings for him not come out of nowhere. Because it just shows UP in D.H.O.R.K.S.

And honestly do think I might like the Hazbin better. I'm not at the point where I hate a character that’s a good sign for me. Charlie is good, Husk is good, Angel and Vaggie are good. Pentious is great, Niffty is great. And fucking hottake after watching episode five. I think Alastor is my favorite character, I like him being a petty little bitch. Only being asshole to Lucifer by passive aggressively becoming Charlie’s father figure in only night because he’s a bitch. he’s horrible. He’s great.

Honestly the only way I'll love him by the end of the show fully. Is if he is just the main antagonist by the end. Let this petty fucker be the villain it would be awesome.

(I lied I hate Carmine as a character. Hey writers! Don’t reavel the culprit to a mystery after we just introduced that same character and then make them sing a power ballad over it so we can feel bad for them even though we just met them. Let us at least know the character for an episode before doing that.)

Last thing I saw someone say this and I need to let out a some facts. For those who say they changed Vaggie’s backstory last minute. Let me remind you that the pilot came out FOUR YEARS AGO. Things changed. Your OC’s aren't always gonna stay the same in the span of four years. I'm sure there are DOZENS of things in Hazbin that was changed for the original plan four years ago. And that's not a bad thing. Remember in the Steven Universe Pilot where they hinted Amethyst and Steven might be a couple, that shit ain'tn nowhere in the final show. The Pilot and the final show are different things. Things are not always gonna remain the same and that's fine.

(ALTHOUGH I DO HATE THAT HAZBIN FUCKING HOPES YOU WATCHED PILOT TO UNDERSTAND THE CHARACTERS MORE VIZIE I KNOW ALOT A PEOPLE DID BUT NEVER ASSUMEED EVERYONE WATCHED THE PILOT TO UNDERSTAND THE SHOW Y’ALL COULD’VE JUST REMADE THE PILOT EPISODE IF YOU FELT LIKE YOU NEEDED TO)

[what-the-monkey]

Let me preface this by saying AOS will always be in my top 10 kdramas of all time. It truly made me feel so many things, happiness, but mostly anxiety and stress. I don't think I've ever been more obsessed with a kdrama, which is why I need to put all my feelings down so that I can move on from this show. I am well aware that writers/directors cannot satisfy everyone and there's a lot of factors that influence the final outcome of the drama. But I just wanted to talk about the good parts and the bad parts as well as what I selfishly wanted to see. This is going to be all over the place, tbh.

First of all, my love for these characters and actors/actresses is truly unhinged. This is the first time I've seen any of them in a drama and I'll probably follow all of their careers for the rest of my kdrama life.

I think Jung Somin (JSM) and Go Younjung (GYJ) both did amazingly. They were different characters (but also the same) that did great with what they had. Not gonna lie, I was very worried about GYJ before S2 aired (this being her first lead role, her being a rookie, that she had never done romance before this, trying to follow JSM, etc. etc.) but she truly exceeded my expectations. Lee Jaewook (LJW) is my boy and it's hard to believe that he's only 24 years old. Shin Seung-ho and Yoo Insoo will always be in my heart and they're so funny and goofy (in real life especially) and I love them. Hwang Minhyun wasn't my favourite character, but the interactions of all of the actors in real life just makes my heart so warm. They're so cute!

I always have strong feelings towards writers when it comes to any type of show and I tend to feel the most hate towards them. Like do they not have moderators that go "oh, this is shit and doesn't make sense, please revise"? It always feels sad when the story that they've developed for years and the characters that we hold so dearly don't reach their potential. But as I said before these are my own selfish feelings.

Fantasy/romance genre is my absolute favourite. The further from reality the better and romance (when done well) just feeds my soul like no other. Fortunately/unfortunately fantasy has a lot of potential for world building and story telling. So where the kdrama fell flat was the plot, pacing and world building.

This drama had 30 episodes and they had multiple filler episodes that could've been used to flesh out the magical world and the dominant families and how they came to be. I loved ukiedoekie and ukyeong (my fav, tbh), but they could've given some of the other actors more screentime to better the plot.

The questions I have are: was the plan always to have Go Younjung come back? Because season 2 makes you question whether they even wanted her there. What happened with Jung Somin? Why did she not even have cameos in season 2, when clearly she should have? If it was just scheduling issues, then I kind get it, but she made that insignificant cameo when they could've made her do young Jin Buyeon's role, because it doesn't make sense that the 10 year old was there. Was the budget less for S2 than S1? Could they not afford JSM for S2 so they had to rewrite stuff? I just feel like the show really lacked cohesion in S2 and it shows and I'm trying to come up with excuses as to why. I loved Naksu/JBY/CY and how GYJ portrayed her, but the storyline and how they went about her character makes me question everything.

I do not like how they under utilized the female characters in this show. Jin Cho Yeon was just there. It's crazy to me that she was part of the oh so great "four seasons", for what?

Jang Uk (JU) and Mudoek were portrayed very well by the respective actors, I think they were great. But I wonder whether in interviews and press stuff whether it was a PR thing to not have them interact or make you feel anything when they're together (because they knew that LJW would be endgame with GYJ) so that the fans wouldn't get even more attached to them. Or did they not really "like" each other that much outside of their work or maybe their age gap was too significant? I put "like" in quotations because from the BTS videos they were always professional and pleasant with each other. I was sad when NO ONE from the AOS cast showed up to JSMs movie premier and no one really posted about her when the show wrapped for S2, except Yoo Insoo, that sweetheart.

LJW and GYJ are a whole other story. Their chemistry was extremely apparent on screen and in real life. I think they're the cutest and you can clearly see how much they care for each other and respect each other. If they were trying to distract the viewers from the plot with kissing scenes and on screen chemistry then it kinda worked, but I see you.

Naksu, Naksu, Naksu. That opening fight scene was the biggest clickbait I've ever seen in my entire life. I loooooove physically strong female leads that can fight with the boys and hold their own physically. Please see that I'm saying physically, because obviously emotionally or mentally strong is inferred. So to say I was sad that we never truly got to see that again is an understatement. In S2 I get why they ended it how they ended it, but if Naksu/Cho Yeong (CY) was never going to use her mage powers they could've fleshed out the priestess powers to make the ending more satisfying. (See earlier note about budget or them making JU look the strongest at the expense of the female character.)

I would've like to see JU and CY seeing each other when they found out that they could be together forever. Even if it was just them looking at each other from a far. (I just know that their micrexpressions would've slapped) I wish we got more interactions with all of the actors together. I wish that the final scene was them hunting a relic in Daeho and all the village people in awe of the power couple and seeing the faces of their friends and family knowing that they're home. That would've been cute. If they made half of season 2 about them hunting relics, I would've been so happy. I hate that they never cleared Naksu's name. Does the main cast know that she's Naksu or are they still lying to people? That's something that should've been cleared up. I also feel sad about Danggu and Mudoek's relationship that never got closure, because they were besties in S1. I would've also like to see more of Cho Yeon and Naksu's relationship, it was eluded to in one of the episodes that Cho Yeon is aware that Jin Buyeon is Naksu and she still treated her like her sister, which I found very endearing. So I would've like to see them being chosen sisters instead of just blood sisters. I quite like how they never bother to mention to JU that GYJs face is Naksu's original face, like they don't compare the two and JU immediately accepts it because he loves her soul. Cute.

I feel like they didn't let Naksu/CY deal with her trauma. That chick has been through a lot a lot. Like a lot. And they were just like "vibes, she continues". Why, when they gave JU time to heal from his trauma? Yes, in the end it was her choice to give up her sword and not train, but why couldn't they show us her healing process and how she decided that?

This brings me to the pacing of the show. S1 also had shit pacing, let's be honest, but S2 was worse because they could've had so much plot filled episodes and they still decided to give filler episodes. Season 1 kept on opening so many doors that they never closed and that continued on to S2. They dragged that amnesia plot and then the last 2 episodes were rushed. They very much showed the conflicting sides of JU in S2. They showed his reluctance to feel anything towards JBY and him pushing her away (I found him to be really mean at some points) and then his inability to see her suffer and caring for her from a distance. But to drag this out was also unnecessary, he was still mean to her up until ep 7.

That doctor chick was so fucking annoying. She literally had no point in S2 (or S1 really) except to be exceptionally annoying (please see earlier note about how female characters were underutilized and sidelined).

Anyways, regardless of budget and politics the storyline of AOS could've been much better, but I will always be grateful to the Hong sisters for giving me these characters and showing me these actors/actresses.

May 2023 bring in all the good kdramas and HEAs, because 2022 was a bit much. (A part of me hopes that GYJs new action kdrama "moving" is fucking amazing just so that the Hong sisters regret never giving her another action scene.)

[peniswizard69]

The arc of Torchwood as a series is something that's sooo interesting to me so enjoy reading this post if you care.

Seasons 1 and 2, which I like to call Torchwood Who between me and myself, are very simple. It started off as a Doctor Who spinoff, but horror drama instead of scifi adventure. It tries to mix in some worldbuilding, some character work, mystery driven plots, and deeply explored themes, and there's just no room for that; solid bones but kinda boring all around. It's furtile for fandomwork, inkeeping with Tumblr's fine tradition of making up half of their favorite show, but the tone is on the grim and gray side for those purposes. It's ultimately British fast food tv, for everything you'd expect of that.

They didn't expect to get a season 3. They killed off two of the main cast, and gave the rest an ending in the Doctor Who season 4 finale. Then they got a season 3

Season 3 is called Children of Earth and it's a gut wrenching, stomach churning, horror tour de force. The total runtime is down 54%, from thirteen 50-minute episodes (per season) to five of an hour each, but Torchwood Who was monster-of-the-week but Children of Earth is fully serialized, so the premise has 6 times as much room for all the things the series wanted. To a more discerning viewer this is an oasis of pure light in a dim desert; to the humble Tumblrina, this is a betrayal. Children of Earth is not fun; it has fewer gaps to fill with little scenarios and interpretation; and it leaves you broken, hesitant to come back. Honestly CoE being stapled to the end of Who is one of the wilder things in television.

They didn't expect to get a season 4. They killed off another of the main cast and blew up the secret base and almost all of the gadgets; and they gave the rest a sort of biter-sweet ending. Then they got a season 4

Season 4, whose name is Miracle Day, was mostly produced in the US and it shows. The season mostly takes place in the US, but there's a definite change to the writing that's hard to pin down. It's faster paced and more plot-driven, lighter in tone. The runtime was brought back up to ten 50ish-minute episodes, which feels like bloat given how tight CoE was om 60% of that, and the lower budget/screentime ratio is more important with the American style. It also has Bill Pullman? What is he doing here? It would be rich ground for a fandom, if not for the rest of Torchwood. Fans of Who that didn't bounce off CoE are probably gonna mostly spend it missing Who, and to the discerning CoE enthusiast it is AWFULLLLL. My brother hates it so much, which does fill me with power. At the end of the day, when you hear "American sequel to high budget British mini series" you make a series of assumptions and they're all correct.

They thought they were gonna get a season 5. They set up a recurring antagonist, only killed characters that debuted this season and made one of them immortal. They didn't get a season 5, which gives me ample opportunity to pretend to speculate on season 5. Jathesson is endgame

The arc of all of this is soooo delicious to me. They legitimately went "I'm dying let's party!!!" and then "I survived let's just sorta sit here". Hard to sit through for three different reasons. Campy to classy to cheesy. Ultimately I have to give Torchwood 1 out of ten children, because that's a CoE reference. Trying to actually rate the show is tricky, it's three different shows amd deserves three different shadows. I give it 1, 7 and 3 out of 10 on my little pet scale where 0 is neutral. You probably don't need to watch Torchwood Who to get Children of Earth, but you do need Children of Earth to get Miracle Day.

Also, Bill Pullman in Miracle Day is actually so fucking good??? He brings this powerful and spcific energy where he's the most wretched and disgusting thing in history but also still charming and charismatic. How did he do it

[kaownah]

finally finished kinnporshe, and tbh im sad bc i wanted so badly to absolutely love it but i have so many mixed feelings

just some thoughts:

bad stuff first

1. i really did like the show up until around ep 6-7, then things just slowly (then very quickly) started falling apart tbh

2. lots of pacing issues, some plot holes, predictability

3. was i supposed to care about kim/chay at all? like? chay’s obsession with kim was so goofy and their chemistry was nonexistent like what a horrendously pointless plotline tbh they should’ve just cut the couple all together it literally added nothing (give jeff something with substance please i beg)

4. speaking of chay... barcode’s acting.... um. chile anyways so

5. i loved kinnporsche’s dynamic but then after they got together they totally fell flat and were like every other mediocre 2d couple i’ve seen in less hyped bl’s like... where did that fun dynamic go

6. why was everyone so stupid for most of the second half? where was the common sense? tankhun of all people was really the one with the most common sense tbh he said “why are you all suddenly becoming stupid” and he meant that

7. there so much hype for vegaspete, i was SO excited for them going into this and? all we were given was torture, a sort of stockholm syndrome, then pete left. i have some qualms about bible’s acting too (it took him a while to find his footing but he wasn’t bad later on, i’d say the tail end of pete’s captivity onward he got substantially better). with the relationship, not enough happened to justify pete’s feelings for vegas. i can kind of see why vegas feels how he does for pete, although it feels very shallow and like he is far too dependent on pete, considering literally the only reason he didn’t shoot himself was bc pete came back. as for pete... i just don’t buy the whole starting to love vegas while being held captive/tortured, just bc he felt bad for him regarding his dad? idk

8. by the end watching it felt like a chore... idk i just wish the energy and spirit and quality of the first maybe 5-ish episodes stuck around bc everything after that was just. boring. flat. predictable. kinda cringe-y at a lot of points

9. character development was really there at first and then it’s like it was too much work for them bc they just seemed to drop it at a certain point and personalities just started completely being drained out of everyone

10. this is a small random thing but it kept bothering me... people would have their guns out and trained on someone, and then gave that person enough time to slowly, VERY visibly get their guns out so there could be a showdown? like what’s the point of having your gun trained on someone if you’re gonna allow them to point one back??? shit made no sense lmao

11. unrealistic fights... tbh this isn’t just kinnporsche, it’s a big theme in action genre in general, but like.. wym everyone has guns and aren’t shy in shooting until the mains get close, then suddenly they’re given enough time to take out massive groups one by one bc the enemies just... let them. plenty of instances of characters taking down a baddie and then just standing there before the next guy comes up, which would’ve been ample time to get shot, but the baddies are just like nah let’s fist fight :) i understand plot armor but at least make it make sense

honorable mention: i know subtitles aren’t production’s fault so i’m not going to fault them for this but. holy shit. who was subtitling this, they were absolutely godawful ie. changing curses into ‘fudge’, ‘frick’, etc (are we six? why can we see murder and violence but curse words are where lines are drawn), and grammar being butchered

okay i know i listed all these negative points, i will say that the show wasn’t a COMPLETE flop. some positives...

1. apo was great. i loved the little mannerisms he gave porsche, the physicality of him, just overall i really enjoyed his acting

2. build was also consistently good. for most of the series, he wasn’t given as much to do, but he really was a standout particularly at the end of the series (that tub scene was a shining light in a show that otherwise had dulled by this point) and pete’s journey was actually interesting but imo we just weren’t given enough time with it

3. i know vegaspete was a negative but i will say that there could be some positives there. they could have a very interesting dynamic if were given enough time with them and really got to the root of their motives with each other. i MIGHT be interested in having a story about them, but i’d be really wary about the story going in the same direction as kinnporsche (initially interesting before turning into something kinda boring)

4. the theme song. THE THEME SONG. A BOP. it’s such an earworm omg it’ll be stuck in my head for months

finally.. the final ep. this one really can’t go into the negatives or positives. on one hand, this episode finally marked a massive uptick in quality after so many boring eps. not only was it unpredictable as hell, but we finally got our characters finding their personalities again, common sense made a return, and we ACTUALLY got some mafia activity. i signed up for a show with gang/mob plotline, and it felt like we had lost virtually all of that for the second half of the series. why couldn’t we have had quality like this in pervious eps? i’m not saying there had to be a shootout in every episode, but something with psychological meat. with that being said, i think they kind of overdid the plot twists in the finale. it was one after another after another of shit going down and pasts being revealed and characters kind of going batshit, that it really started to get ridiculous by the time porsche’s mom and korn were revealed to still be alive. korn’s reasoning for everything that happened was so silly that it really made me pause the ep entirely just to be like... are you fr? really? goofy stuff. also, throwing in the casual mention of sexual violence against one of the show’s only women as a reason for angst for the male characters was so beyond lame and unnecessary. idk how i felt about the whole porsche being head of the minor family, it was fine ig. overall, the final ep really gave me whiplash

idk i’m just so sad bc at this point 99% of the super super hyped thai shows i go into at this point i wind up being disappointed in?? and i want so badly to bc the ones that hit REALLY hit. but they’re just so rare. idk like japan has completely taken over in terms of quality imo, i really don’t trust thai bls anymore atp which is sad bc even the ones that are finally taking a step away from the insanely overused tropes wind up boring or poorly written in the end 

anyway just my opinion let me wallow!!

[incesthemes]

final thoughts: supernatural season 7

holy shit i finally did it. "it only took you a week" it felt like 5 years okay. i'm not good at watching shows.

anyway. overall i'm gonna say i liked season 7 more than i liked season 6, but the bad episodes were imo much worse than s6's bad episodes, at least from what i can remember.

season 6 was overall really disjointed and clumsily handled, and i just watched it 2 weeks ago and i can barely remember what happened in it now that i'm trying to. wow. season 7 was a lot more coherent and didn't try to cram 3 different miniplots into one season. i appreciate the effort honestly.

that said, some of the episodes really were. not good. and some of the ways they used to resolve conflicts and move on were bizarre and contrived (i'm absolutely talking about cas "taking" sam's crazy for himself. genuinely what the fuck was that). the filler episodes felt dropped in without any regard to the context of the rest of the season (why did the "sam gets legally married" episode happen immediately after the one where they're #2 on the fbi's most wanted list? that doesn't make any amount of sense) and a lot of the episodes were honestly just boring.

and i don't know why, but this season specifically had a lot of issues with pacing. too many episodes had way too much buildup only for a "quick fix" to be presented in the last 5-10 minutes. a handful of episodes like that can be fine, especially when you need the time to build up the overarching plot of the season, but this was like... nearly every episode. 30 minutes of nearly unrelated drama followed by "here's your deus ex machina! finish the episode so we can go home already." it just came off as unskilled writing to me. i know episodic storytelling has to tie each episode up with a nice bow, but there's only so many times you can throw a simple deus ex machina-like solution to the characters and not expect me to find it contrived.

now i do like the leviathans though. or at least the concept of them. i wasn't overly invested in their plot (though honestly? i kinda like dick roman. he's annoying enough for me to appreciate) but the idea of them is really interesting. you can see this conglomeration of several different monsters within the species, so they fit well within the context they've been given. primordial monsters that came before all the others? well of course they'd have traits of those who came after them. it's like evolution: the later-born monsters became more specialized to their environment i guess. the worldbuilding there is intriguing enough for me.

i'm sick as a dog so i'm having trouble coming up with other thoughts. i really liked meg's involvement in the season; i thought her role throughout was well-placed and well-developed. the weird romance subplot between her and cas is, well, weird, but i don't dislike it either. i'm a sucker for demon/angel dynamics, even if the angel is totally crazy. but every time they hint at it i keep thinking about the destiel love confession and start laughing.

crowley was kinda weird and boring this season tbh. very disappointing as a crowley fan. the ghost bobby plot was kinda interesting, but i'm not 100% sure how i feel about it. kevin tran is a loser and i'm a big fan of losers. i think the show tried a little too hard with charlie, but i don't dislike her. she's no becky though smh. my taste in fictional characters is bad and charlie is too good, i guess.

well anyway, dean and cas are in purgatory now and sam is a soggy sad boy as usual, so with that i'm going to take another break from this wretched show and watch something good, the haunting of bly manor :) i really want to get through mike flanagan's entire compendium of work because hoooooly shit he is a great idk. do you call him a filmmaker even though it's miniseries. idk the terminology. whatever

[sealwithfeels]

Danganronpa 3 Episode 10

Well, thoughts up to episode 10 since. Spoilers below.

Sooooo they treat the aftermath of Komaeda's bomb very seriously, but the explosion itself is almost comedic, weird tonal dissonance.

I am interested what's going on with Ruruka and Seiko (and I guess Izayoi) but I'm also so torn. In one of the main games this would be cool, we get to see the characters and their beef with each other. But this is a short anime that's meant to wrap up the whole saga and so it feels like it's taking time away from the overarching plot. So I'm annoyed by that aspect as I'd rather they flesh out the main plot more, but also do genuinely want to see more of these characters and get attached to them. Maybe it's just the very fast pace and short runtime that's the problem.

TBH the whole story has the issue where it's battling with itself, be it being a grand finale for the Hope's Peak saga vs introducing a bunch of new characters and trying to flesh them out, or elaborating on the backstory for the DR2 cast but not wanting to do too many character things with them because they've already had their time in DR2 itself and we don't want things to diverge too far from that. The latter probably could have been solved by more episodes and leaning more into the corruption arc aspect, I mean there's no indication of them falling to despair yet.

I guess that's the main issue with the anime so far - for example, is the Despair arc meant to be about Yukizome investigating the school with the DR2 cast as supporting characters because they're fairly static and simplified versions of themselves in this, or is it meant to be showing us the implied juicy backstory of the Ultimate Despairs, with the murders and falling into despair and Hinata being turned into Kamukura and all that and if so then why isn't there more focus on that.

Monaca is back, and tbh it's pretty obvious twist but lol good to see she's relevant. She's in full Junko cosplay gear which is kinda cute in a villain way. She's definitely not the only traitor, that would be too simple.

I'm almost sad they're using red for blood and not the goofy bright pink for lowering the ratings. The pink blood was a fun part of the style.

Aww it's actually really sweet to see more of SHL Impostor and he's looking out for Mitarai. Mitarai is too precious and I'm convinced he's one of the traitors.

Lol that's a lot of nonvirtual!Nanami praising, and I say that as a fan of her DR2 character. Soooo they ever gonna show how she and Chihiro know each other, cause it's kinda weird for Chihiro to create a virtual person based on someone who actually existed.

Junko is here! Can't wait for the corruption arc!

But yeah my main frustration is the anime's identity feels muddled and it has misplaced priorities with the new characters. The ones who are connected to the main story, like Munakata and Yukizome, are done well here and have the right amount of focus, but some others feel just added on because they could rather than because it adds to the overall story. Which given that each side of the story has only 6-7 episodes each, is a major problem.

[northwest-cryptid]

Like okay spoilers here obviously but:

Tl;dr British people making other religions gods into antagonists is a bad look when they clearly don't understand those religions and misrepresent them, especially when the writing lacks pacing, interesting plot development, or any ties to its source materials.

You have a character who's Aztec which would be cool if you know, you didn't have him literally shape shift into Quetzalcoatl instead of a normal bat or whatever. Then he literally says he's not as powerful as Sekhet who by the way is the Egyptian goddess of war yes, but she is also a healer and known to both cause and cure disease. I learned that shit from the most basic Google research, took all of 5 minutes to look her up and realize this show making her the main antagonist is absolutely some bullshit British dude going "she was the god of war make her the antagonist!"

Also I get it right, if you want your whole plot to be "religion is bad religion is corrupt" fine that's okay I get it, it's vampire media why not. However if you're a British man you're not entitled to write shit about religions you clearly don't understand. You can shit on Catholic stuff all you want, you can shit on Christianity all you want, those are British, those are your religions, but don't you dare tell me shit about Sekhet or literally Quetzalcoatl who's a god oh creation, again 5 minute Google search on that one.

Castlevania as far as I'm aware as I'm aware as an admittedly fairly casual fan of the series; never had this whole racial interaction as part of its plot. And while I'm more than okay with us getting some cool representation this ain't it.

We literally were told it takes "major plot inspirations" from Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night but we don't see Alucard (LITERALLY THE MAIN CHARACTER OF SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT) until the last 10 seconds and he outright kills off one of the major antagonists rendering the entire build up of her character entirely useless outside of showing us that Alucard is strong, something we already knew and didn't need to be explained like this. However I'm not surprised as both my partner and I literally predicted this would happen from THE FIRST EPISODE because the writing is so shit with it's pacing and predictability that nothing feels surprising or even predictable in a good way.

They take show don't tell to such an extreme that you don't know what anyone is actually capable of, there's no stakes, there's no way to anticipate how an encounter might go, powers are not earned they're just randomly obtained. There's no fun "how are they gonna get out of this one?!" With some clever use of skills and such that we already saw these characters develop over time. It's all deus ex machina shit over and over again for whichever side the writers think will be most "hype" in that moment or whichever the narrative needs to "win" to shove this dumpster fire of a plot along.

Characters aren't based on shit they're just made up along with made up powers that are literally never explained so you are left wondering what someone is actually able to do or not do, at least in the first series we had some concept from the games and established media. We saw them use the same powers and develop them slowly so the final showdown always felt tense because you knew just how outclassed our protagonists were, but you also knew what they've been through and what they've learned so you felt like maybe they did have a chance, not because the narrative demand they win but because it was believably possible for them to do so given what we know. None of that happens here.

One of my small gripes that seems a little dumb is that everything and everyone has to always be connected in some absolutely pointless but also super meaningful way. This random person from another country? Actually your sister, or you know them from 15 years ago, or they're your ex's cousins boyfriend and the plot needs you to know THIS IS DEEP THIS IS IMPORTANT THEY'RE SPECIAL and this is literally everyone. The writers don't understand the importance of the everyman. They don't understand that by making everyone this super special character with ties to the main cast in some super special way you eliminate any sense of care for the every day individuals who you know, are the fucking victims of the oppressive upper class your whole story is trying to make the antagonists. Give me a random dude who becomes important for mundane reasons, give me the every day individuals who matter because without them there is no one to fight for. I understand if your thinking "yeah dude everyone and everything has to be connected for plot" but this is excessive to the point it fits the "when everyone is special no one is" thing.

Just watched the new Castlevania, can British writers please leave Native American and Africans alone already and stop bastardizing our cultures and religions.