#and again im not trying to fucking steven universe this shit and say the show is awful and the writers are fascists because i dont like

[candycannibal]

am i the only person who straight up hates mlpfim season 2 episode luna eclipsed like. it falls so flat with the messaging of it. of course luna is upset about the holiday mocking her and wants to change it. of course she's confused and upset that everyone still hates her.

it's just. wow. it's so poorly written and it sucks. pinky admitting that she isn't even afraid of luna but it's "fun to be scared" and so she riles everyone up and pretends to be scared of luna and runs away. like how did this make it through test audiences or whatever the hell they do because that is the exact same way that i and i'm sure a lot of other kids were bullied (and also some of the kids who watched the show at the time of it's release were being bullied)

it literally turns pinky into a bully? the whole episode is more focused on how everyone else feels and how luna isn't being a good sport that people are screaming and running away from her even though she's trying so hard. even adding in a scene where pinky apologizes to luna for roping luna into a joke where she's the punchline would have saved the episode in my opinion, but pinky never faces any consequences for her actions- which are, again, bullying someone

i'm not dissing the characters themselves here, this is really about the writers. like it feels like they had a good opportunity to do something with this episode and just fumbled the whole thing. it's so mean spirited and backwards to me. luna getting in on the joke in the end is fine, but it would have been even better if she'd gotten an apology and the ability to express her hurt feelings to more than just twilight.

it makes sense that some ponies are legitimately afraid of luna, they, their parents, their grand parents, their great grandparents ect ect ect grew up with stories about her being the literal boogyman and some of them didnt even think she was real anymore and then she shows up- that's going to be scary! but the elements of harmony should have a better understanding of her, not just twilight. they all saw luna turn into her filly form and cry in her sister's arms! (hooves?)

i'm not saying it's a bad premise for an episode but there are five million other ways that it could have been written that didn't amount to "when people are mocking you and screaming and pretending you're trying to eat them it's your fault for not getting in on the joke"

idk man. the whole thing is so out of character

[roxyzwritez]

au writing shit idk

heres the Rough Plan for my first few eps:

ep1: the au branches off of canon in the final SU ep, Change Your Mind. renamed to Change Your World. when white yoinks the gem out of steven and pinksteven reforms and whiteasks W H E R E I S P I N K the response is something along the lines of "i am right here, but fuck you im not talking to you." (girlboss) and white gets the "im a child, what's your problem" and has the perfectionist meltdown, then steven's like "sorry but we gotta head out" and they're like "PINK WHAT THE FUCK?" steven goes "im not pink just leave earth alone" the gems agree and give steven The Legs™️.

pearl latches onto the idea that rose is still alive in there. (didn't write that tho just had it cut to this next bit oops) her and greg build a thing to connect to the gem that will essentially connect to pink/rose im just gonna call her rose damnit and allow her to communicate w everyone. shes like "...hey guys. uh. sorry for trying to kill myself i guess that didn't work but i have been minecraft spectating steven for the entirety of his existence with no ability to do anything but think and watch" pearl has a lesbian implosion, everyone's all happy n shit. steven eventually asks about the lying and she's like "yeag i done bad there. i just wanted to keep you guys together" (now that i think abt it there was no mention of bismuth here.. oops,) garnet gives her a Garnet Specil motivational speech and she's like "i missed you too garnet" (i forgot to mention, garnet violently explode-unfuses and ruby+sapphire are just bumbling with happy when rose spoke) amethyst has her own moment (she thought this was all bullshit and started playing fortnite upstairs but between games she heard rose and a p p e a r e d)

anyway rose then is thinking "oh man i gotta talk to so many ppl" and realizes eh guys nothing to worry abt just a HAPPY TO LISTEN, HAPPY TO STAY, HAPPILY WATCHING HER DR- but we should go there NOW" so they do, spinel is understandably distraught and breaks the gemspeaker in half but feels bad about it. she comes with the gang to earth, they show her around, a new gemspeaker is made and they reconcile. yippy! also spinel ate one of ALL. big donut flavors. sadie allowed this just for on e because steven is the LORD AND SAVIOR OF THE STEVEN UNIVERSE haha funny.

anyway she and bismuth talk. bis is kinda like "yeah i wasnt very gamer sorry about that herhee" again ignoring that SHE lied about the bubbling, conveniently forgot to explore that conversation for ease of writing and so i didn't need to go "how do i utilize my 2 iq points to channel these characters and get them to have a coherent, consistent to character conversation about this situation"

peri and lapis are called over by bismuth who doesn't say shit to them for the surprise. lapis is like "yeah ok hit me" peri is more curious. rose speaks, peridot fangirls and lapis is like "oh shit that's historically significant " peri is like "I NEED TO RESEARCH:)))" and runs off. spoiler: gem cloning

bis brings up the idea. rose is like "yeah that sounds legit" (the gem cloning conundrum took me way too long to understand. i drove my friend crazy. "hey can u explain every single quantum detail of this in the most verbose way i dont understand" but eventually i understood it JUUUUST enough to write it lmao i still don't get it)

rose n steven talk in roses room. all happy n shit. greg is told abt the plan and hes like oh shit i gotta clean up and steven is like "you know her standards. she don't give a shit" hes like "yeag"

peri makes progress! she made a little clump!! (explaining the gem cloning: theyre making essentially an empty gem with the powers but no consciousness inside. when its ready, white will take steven's gem out again, rose reforms, and the new gem gets ever so graciously stabbed into his belly where the old one was.)

peri tells steven its gonna take a year. he's like "well okay better than like hundreds of years" then he goes off to talk to the diamonds. he brings the speaker with. rose lets out the thousands of years of distrust and anger at the dismonds and they are humbled even more than when they got pinkd and rose is like "you WILL heal all the shattered ones i don't give a shit" and theyre like "whatever you say little one" (yes they do indeed heal the fallen. probably with regular shipments of steven fluid. that sounded wrong but im not a freak like that hes still 14)

also they go back home and steven talks to rose abt "you told the diamonds you literally wanted to die are you fr?" she explains and hes like YOU FATHERFUCKER, YOU ARE AMAZING AND YOU CAN'T DO THAT (crying)"

next episode is just year-long filler but i made it actually good by making it essentially a montage of lapis and peri in the barn becoming lesbian for eachother. finally, a controversial move on my part, they decide to overcome lapis's fear of fusion and fuse for stevens birthday. their fusion is turquoise (took way too long coming up with a fucking name) and can corrode (water + metal) and can morph/control metal (liquify n stuff. definitely not taken from a lapidot fusion concept i found on google images.) garnet is like "hey pearl look at these silly lesbians " pearls like "damn relatable" garnets like "yeag"

a week or a few after the bday, the gem is finally ready. everyone is excited until steven asks how this is gonna work. peri is like UHHHHH... 😊 and lapis is just "eh just take that one out, stick this one in!" peri goes NNNO- but after some damage control and telling everyone steven will be fine hes like "well i better get some good sleep then. big day!"

there's more but im done typing my fingers are about to go peridot and fuckin fly away let me know if you want the like 1other episode and the minisode after that

[lumity-poggers]

My thoughts on Watching and Dreaming

I watched the episode when it premeired last night but i hit post limit so couldnt post about it. Spoilers under the cut. sorry if anything is out of order lol im sick and im just throwing everything i thought last night down on this post.

-Luz being attacked by Amity genuinely made me cry

-"My girlfriend is too big a nerd to misremember an Azura quote" -luz probably

-Lilith having the haircut from For the Future but color scheme from season 1 is a nice touch

-"Dont you recognize your siblings" Ok damn man didnt need to go THAT far

-The giant stone Flapjack in Luz's nightmare killed me and not in the good funny way but in the sad crying way

-in the words of @minty-creator "BELOS FUCKETH OFF" (We were both watching the ep and screaming to each other about it)

-at first I thought belos was gonna try and possess king but then I realized no he's going to possess the fucking boiling isles titan

-I actually kinda liked that The Collector had no concept of death. They're a kid, an IMMORTAL GODLY KID. Of course they wouldnt know what death is

-Pacman Collector will haunt my nightmares

-The Collector needs a hug. I want to give them a hug.

-"You know this cant last forever" that was said to the collector but it feels like it was also aimed towards us

-The Archivists 🤝Pink Diamond "Wanna play a game?" *leaves them lonely*

-ok no but seriously the archivists telling Collector to play with the titans only to wipe them out leaving Collector all alone is just fucking cruel

-The Collector is just a lonely kid LET ME HUG THEM

-Me seeing Raine fight back: YES YOU GO

-Goo Belos in this episode looks like William Afton. Like- Remember that fucking fnaf 3 image where the springtrap head was open showing William? Thats what Belos looks like. Or burntrap from SB take your pick.

-Raine my beloved

-The Belos possessed Titan looks like a fucking dragon holy shit

-"Now that's a spinoff I'd watch" You and me both Luz

-The Collector picking up Raine's earring and realizing that the Raine talking to them wasnt actually Raine, and then looking upset is just AAAAAAAA LET ME FUCKING HUG THEM

-I LOVE that when the collector uses "Kindness and Forgiveness" on Belos IT DOESNT WORK. I FUCKING H A T E THAT TROPE OF POWER OF FRIENDSHIP REDEMPTION. It was one of the few things I genuinely hated about Steven Universe (SU is still a good show tho they just kinda overused villain redemption. And yeah yeah you could argue MLP overuses that too but MLP was ABOUT friendship)

-Luz, Eda, and King's expressions when The Collector hugs Belos is so funny tho. Literally just 👁👄👁

-I literally screamed at Luz's sacrifice. S C R E A M E D.

-Gaster Blaster Belos Real

-"Eda, King, looks like we're going to be split up again. I feel like I should be used to this feeling by now, but I still dont know what to say" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

-I like that Luz becomes lights. Not only was the light glyph the first one she learned but her name literally means light.

-Eda, King, and Luz are such a found family I love them

-"I should have thanked them" SCREAMING AND CRYING

-I love that King's dad basically said "Fuck gender"

-I also love that he has a bad girls coven shirt

-Eda makes alchoholic apple blood confirmed?

-Titan Luz is so gender

-Camila best mom

-LET. ME. HUG. THE. COLLECTOR. DAMN IT.

-Luz and King doing the WEH together is so fucking cute.

-For some reason I thought Luz was gonna die again when the titan magic was fading. Like I thought that was keeping her alive.

-Anyone gonna talk about the fact Eda gave Raine a little kiss when saving them from the Belos goop

-the entire episode was so anime but the fight scene between Titan Luz and Belos was just anime as fuck and the smooth animation makes it even better

-"NOW EAT THIS SUCKA" IT ALL COMES FULL CIRCLE

-Look at how fuckin anime this is I love it so much

-Luz looks so badass btw idk if I mentioned that

-Belos trying to bullshit his way out of this and Luz having NONE OF IT is so great. I hat the "[insert curse/supernatural thing] made me do it so im innocent" trope if it's done poorly or with a character like Belos. Love that they smashed that into the ground with Luz having fucking none of it.

-LOOK AT HOW BADASS AND GENDER SHE LOOKS I WILL NOT SHUT UP ABOUT THIS I AM SO NOT NORMAL ABOUT THIS

-I AM SO GLAD BELOS HAD A GRUESOME DEATH THAT WAS SO SATISFYING.

-I like the touch that Titan Luz isnt affected by the boiling rain

-King's dad is A PUN MASTER

-the reuniting. oh my titan the reuniting. I cried. Gus doing a little illusion with his dad, Amity hugging Alador (with Odalia rightfully in the sidelines), Hunter telling Darius about wolves, Willow and her dads!

-Darius and Eber so want to beat the shit out of Terra, Vitmir, and Adrien.

-Camila pulling Eda and King into a hug with Luz is just. YES.

-Yassified Hooty go brrr

-King giving The Collector Francois was so sweet

-All the kids as adults are so fucking gender. GIVE ME YOUR GENDER.

-All the photos on Luz's bulletin board are so amazing. Especially the one with Hooty dropping from a tree that one made me laugh so hard. Also the Bi Pride pin next to the graduation photo was amazing.

-"Stringbean's Corner" AWWWE

-ik im doing two screenshots in a row but LOOK AT THIS PICTURE OF STRINGBEAN

-When I tell you I screamed with joy when I saw there was a working permanent portal to the Boiling Isles I mean I SCREAMED WITH JOY

-I love Willow's leaf headband. It just fits her so well.

-I love that Hunter is a palismen carver and carved a Blue Jay to be his new palismen (according to Dana on twt the name of the palismen is Waffle. I love it.), but I also love that Hunter was (or maybe still is) Dell's apprentice by the looks of things

-The grave for Flapjack made me sob. And then the "Thank you for finding me" on it im just. I need a moment.

-HARPY LILITH HARPY LILITH

-Also I just realized now they all have matching Flapjack tattoos. Im gonna cry you guys.

-The way Darius just slides over after shaking Alador is the most tsundere anime thing ever.

-Theres a little abomination in Alador's pocket :0

-Raine with white hair is actually so fucking cool

-Gus looks so cool you cannot tell me otherwise.

-Everyone thought Eda would have like a robotic/abomination arm but no SHE HAS A HOOK AND IT'S AWESOME

-King had a growth spurt lets go!

-The quinceanera being called a king-cenera is just perfect. King is mastering the art of puns just like his father.

-King having his own glyph shapes is just perfect I love it!

-Collector making fireworks shooting stars is amazing

-THEY DID THE HUNTER "BYEEE" TO BOTH THE COLLECTOR AND US

Im going to miss toh. It was one of the best shows Ive ever watched.

Edit: I hat the new post editor istg

[frostbite-the-bat]

I know nothing about that character but. but. Skrunkly blorbo from my dashboard

GOOD!!!!!! i can talk abt her a bit :3 purely from memory i may get deets wrong its been a while since i was a big time SU lore nerd lmfao . is long. i ramble off topic at the end about SU in general .

she's nephrite/centipeetle (nickname when corrupted) from steven universe !!

she's not a major character not by a long shot, but she reappears a few times throughout the show - she's the first "monster" the gems fight in the first episode!!

idk if you know how corrupted gems work but, short story - pink diamond poses as rose quarts, starts a rebellion, that turns into a war against the diamonds, the diamonds then basically use a war mega weapon that corrupts everything on earth. and rose managed to only save garnet and pearl

the mega weapon is like a flash of bright light and by fans its been often called the corruption song and what it does is corrupt the gems into monsters. it messes with their mind and their bodies reflect that - by becoming confused, scared, and often aggressive monsters

one of them was nephrite!! she was a ship captain and had a crew, she "talks" about this in the episode i mentioned i just rewatched

she got corrupted like everyone else - and she turned into a centipede gem monster which earned her nickname - centipeetle

her gem type is nephrite, though! its also her eye. her corrpution is terrible and scary but she remains a gendered little beaft to me even when she eventually gets uncorrupted (though obviously, i have a Creatur bias) (but her being uncorrupted is Her Finally Being Happy Again and that is Good)

anyways shes defeated in the first episode and is bubbled - her gem put in a pink magical bubble that stops her from reforming. (gems ARE their gems and when they're badly damaged they poof into their gem form and take a while before they regenerate their body)

but in a later episode steven finds her again and unbubbles her and shes...! very tiny this time around

critter!

steven feeds her chips and goes around and wants to prove to the gems that she's good even if corrupted. even takes her on missions but uh oh things go wrong and shes poofed again and they bubble her again but steven still sees her as a friend.

then another thing to know steven has healing powers but also early in the show his powers kinda come and go as he learns to use them or realizes he has them - in this episode they came back and his first idea was to go back and try to heal nephrite

the gems allow him to do so and...! well! shes bettter than before but not healed. thats where her skrunkly semi corrupted form comes from

thank you, steven universe wiki, for the clean renders for me to show off instead of me having to go into my downloaded episodes and look for shit

AND. ITS FUCKED BECAUSE. she both remembers but is also struggling to remember. but she remembers her past after being probed a bit (by steven giving her the same chips he gave her before)- and she can write pretty decently. (comes up later but i wanted to say this to remind you shes not... like a feral animal anymore).

but she cant talk and her body is all different from what it used to be. she can't talk so steven and her talk through drawings and she explains her story. in this episode we also learn the cause of the corruption im sure, but i believe there were hints about it previously. thing you forget with rewatching is sometimes forgetting where exactly a thing was revealed, because youre going in knowing all of that already and noticing hints of it

anyways through drawing she explains that she was once a captain of a ship with her crew and that she and others were on earth. then the rebellion and the war started and she didnt have time to leave before everyone got corrupted. as she's drawing this, she begins crying. this unstability causes her to start corrupting again and she's clearly depicted to be both in pain and emotional turmoil

she runs off to a warp pad to teleport somewhere, but she cannot activate it due to corruption so steven takes her to where her crashed ship is. as they run towards it she keeps corrupting and what breaks me is just how desperate she is. how scared she is of corrupting further. she can't do anything about it. and this time she's aware of it all happening

eventually as she's basically fully corrupted again, steven and her get to the ship to reveal other centi nephrite corrupted gems - her crew

meaning all she wanted was to see her crew she cares so much about again. and i just

ghhghnghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh shes portrayed as like the mother before right she could basically spawn little smaller centipede gems to attack with and she was refered to as "the mother" and the way she got poofed later in her small form is by saving steven and her being a captain slash commander is like... she cares she cares so much . she didnt want anything else as she was being corrupted than to see her old friends again as her memories and full consciousness was fading away and im just.. ghgnhhghHGH

HUUGHHHH,H,,H,H SNNNFF.F.. HGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

(HAS TO REWATCH PART OF AN EPISODE) (SEEN SEASON EPISODES ONLY ONCE OR TWICE UNLIKE THE OTHER SEASONS I REWATCHED TOO MANY TIMES) ok im bakck

aNYWAYS LATER in the show she gets healed and uncorrupted in the....! less than favored by LIKE EVERYONE episodes of the diamonds getting ""REDEEMED"" and stevens like yo yellow diamond blue diamond you corrupted These Gems and he takes them to nephrite (whos currently corrupted) (I FORGOT TO SAY SHE SEEMS TO REMEMBER STEVEN IN THIS STATE AND IS FRIENDLY in the episode where shes left on the ship before everyone leaves SHE EVEN WENT BACK AND SNUGGLED AGAINST HIM A BIT!! SHE CARE)

and yellow and blue use powers to uncorrupt her and SHE GETS UNCORRUPTED ! BUT IM CRYIGN BECAUSE SHE INSTANTLY STARTS CRYING AND PLEADS FOR HELP HOW THEYRE ALL GONNA BE CORRUPTED !!!!!! LAST WORDS BEFORE SHE GOT CORRUPTED! IWILL DIE! and she repeats that until steven uses his healing powers and that heals her fully

she instantly sees the diamonds and salutes and speaks to them, fully back as her old self, unaware of everything that happened. she sees them and thinks she survived the evacuation and DOESNT REMEMBER BEING CORRUPTED and her mentioning pink diamond upsets yellow and blue and they back off (they were holding her to like. keep the power flowing thru at her) and she CORRUPTS INSTANTLY AGAIN SHE HAD LIKE 20 SECONDS OF BEING BACK TO NORMAL ONLY TO OKAY BYE FUCK YOU AGAIN

anyways HERES WHERE THE OFFTOPIC RANT STARTS because being a su fan in 2023 is still scary i feel like i must talk about the issues before anyone jumps on my neck

steven is pissed and tells the diamonds off to fix this because hey dont be angry at a corrupted gem that theyre wrong YOU CAUSED THIS . and then the episodes goes to where they go off to see white diamond and i think we all know how that went. hard to talk abt these episodes considering how much strong hate they get - that i dont agree with. though i do agree the diamond redemption was quick and questionable - but people criticizing this often ignore the context that the show had to be kinda rushed after the wedding episode and that the message SU is trying to put out is about kindness and forgivness to kids - besides the diamonds are still clearly painted as being in the wrong. they havent suddenly become nice and they still call steven as pink diamond.

but yeah i do agree it still couldve been handled better with a bit more time - it was sudden. sorry i felt like mentioning that because liking steven universe and talking about later season 5 is fucking dangerous. shudders. i still remember all those transphobic ass antisemetic racist videos clearly being Just That shitting on the show because ohno gay people lets compare a kids show to nazi germany made by a jewish queer creator ! sugar isnt faultless obviously. we all know of At Least That One EENE Incident.) but damn yall in 2016 are u sure u genuinely criticized a show being questionable ? seems like ur just letting ur shitty beliefs show. and like i love the show and i enjoy it but i know its not faultless yknow???? good? good! ok! back to nephrite

she then doesnt appear until a bit later in the show finale (not SU future/movie) when yellow, blue and white are all together (with steven) and collectively help all the gems uncorrupt and we see many cameos of corrupted gems we've seen before get uncorrupted now including nephrite AND SHE GETS TO SEE HER CREW AGAIN ALL UNCORRUPTED AND RAAA!! aaand thats it thats like all her appearences i love her

i do like her semi uncorrupted design the most plus small centi bc I LOAVE CENTIPEDE!! I LVOE CRITTER! THE GENDER SILLY but i feel a bit bad for it since thats her being corrupted and unhappy but

yeag... silly critter... honestl i always liked her but especially now i grew to like her more hheehee

also she makes spore creature sounds shes My Autism Creature

joy and whimsy

[emerystellar]

The Letter, Vocalized

(the ‘why’ of every song in my simon petrikov playlist- the poor dear i love him so much) heres the playlist -> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2bFlf5AD54EyszuCKqGRVV?si=0bdff473d752467a

then all the actual writing is below the cut because this shit is 4700 words long. im obsessed. anyway BEEP BEEP

—- 1. Everything in its Right Place ~ Radiohead

*Simon doesn’t exactly have a right place at the moment per se- so this song leads more like a plea for this place, and the build of the instruments really matches a sort of spiral- it’s also got that nice eerie Radiohead feeling that’s inexplicably chilly, which is something you’ll be seeing A Lot of throughout the playlist cuz even tho a lot of these lyrics are spot on it’s also about the sound of the songs too. and this one just happens to be both and it’s lovely. i also fucking love the repetition of the lyrics "there are two colors in my head / what was it you were trying to say?" that could be the black/dark brown of simon himself and the drilling blue of the ice king \:) and then. forgetting immediately what he was talking about/what was happening- what was it you were trying to say? anyway i love this song very much*

—- 2. Grammar King ~ Flocks

*okay you know how i just mentioned the sound of the songs being important? well boom. here we go! a strange instrumental introspection to break the drone :3 it sounds like being in a blizzard (or fittingly a mental spiral) but it’s still so crisp and refined!! i love it cuz it’s got such a wonderfully off kilter feeling to it. when the fionna and cake title sequence played i was surprised at how __frantic__ it was?? and this song captures that same breathless feeling and franticness in a really nice and crisp way (plus the drums are really cool) and it holds the same, like, hallmarks of aivi and surasshu’s stuff they did for the steven universe battle scenes (which the music of fionna and cake in general feels like a sweet cousin to SU music (Looking At You Mx. Sugar Hi I See You) but either way it’s a very solid vibe and it go crazy i like it \:)!!*

—- 3. In Two ~ Will Paquin

*i think this fits very well as him singing to the idea of crown itself! "half of me is half of you now/.../you sit so high, like a cranium that rests on the spine /.../ can you feel me buckling beneath you" he sounds so soft (will paquin's voice is gorgeous) so it's almost as a love or reverence for his idolization of the crown :3 at the moment his quest is literally To Find and Have and Be it again, so i don't think he fully resents it- but it's definitely still an odd relationship with it, something so incredibly fascinating and i think there is a LOT to say about it! "in the end i won't escape from the sight of you.../is it even a game if in the end i let you kill me?"*

—- 4. The Place Where He Inserted the Blade ~ Black Country, New Road

*this song is so tender! it paints a picture of the past, immersive in memory. one bit i especially love is that with each new "Good morning" it could be interpreted as simon forgetting that part of himself again, benig wiped clean, falling into becoming the ice king again. \:) it's lovely! it also feels as if he's begging betty, the motif of "show me the place where he inserted the blade / where is your light / am i home?" is him calling out to her, asking where she is, where Golb is. show me the place where you are, betty, please. they're both clinging to these ideas of each other, and it's so hopeful and strained, and this song does a wonderful job of depicting it!!*

—- 5. The Mind Electric ~ Miracle Musical

*you really think that for one second i couldn't include the Token Song About A Guy Named Simon Going Insane? i feel like, moreso than other people i've seen, i really really really want to explore the idea of the repeated memory/identity loss really fucking with his head- it obviously has, and even though we may have seen more of this loss when he'd first gotten the crown, i'd love to dip my toes into the angst that it still continually hurts him to try and remember. citing my sources here, it's similar to jim in good omens- looking where the furniture isn't. anyway i went a bit on a tangent but point being this song represents this insanity! the sound of the song itself and the glitches/bits of samples like memories flitting in and out of his head, trying to remember himself against all odds, trying to fight the manic or strange urges that come with being the ice king, "my brain has claimed its glory over me/i've a good heart albeit insane" and he really is. the more time he spends trapped inside of himself, the more he questions his existence and reality, yea? that wretched goddamn crown, "spiraling down thy majesty". even though it's angsty i really really really want to see them delve way into this when he does reunite with the crown, more viciously than they ever could have back in AT.

doctor, i can't tell if i'm not me.*

—- 6. In Between ~ WILLIS

*some could argue this is a little too light bedroom-poppy of a sound for the purposes of this playlist, but the lyrics are wonderful! the whole introduction definitely gives the same meandering, aimless feeling he had when he was the ice king, reinforced with the line "this place still feels the same/i am bound in hindsight from now". you could also see "take me back to summertime" as a sort of take me away from the cold and ice, take me back to who i used to be, happy and unbroken- maybe thats a little of a stretch tho ;P and "meet me at a point in life when I feel more in control" framed as a last plea to betty, a perfect hopless little cherry on top to these poor dears scattered across spacetime \:)*

—- 7. The Bug Collector ~ Hayley Heynderickx

*this is a song betty sings to simon. with the different situations presented as small trivial things to the singer, and the subject of the song being scared over seemingly nothing, but they take care of it anyway. it's still worth it to them. this matches how betty treats ice king- he has his own set of motives and problems and thought processes completely seperate from simon, which yes is infuriating, but it's part of helping him, yes? this song sounds both defeated and resolute at the same time, which is a fantastic balance that is hard to strike. it reeks of the unwavering love between the two of them and it's very special to me*

—- 8. Evil ~ Interpol

*i feel like this is could be viewed in the context of simon ritualistically trying to get back to betty. "heaven restores you in life", as was done, "you're weightless, you are exotic/you need something for which to care" both things very true of betty. i also just really enjoy the sound of the song- it communicates a very certain desperacy and i love it \:) also the story of the animatronic Norman and the music video being of someone/something that distinctly doesn't belong in the place that they are, with simon not really belonging anywhere anymore- overall it's a really nice ensemble for this purpose, i may be a little biased tho thanks to norm my boy my baby haha*

—- 9. Bathed In Sound ~ Cosmo Sheldrake

*Fantastically, this song sounds like being underwater, melting into something. This, to me, is a bit more interpretive than the other songs on the playlist- of course we're not actually talking about whales, but i think "the wonder of that wild wet world beneath" could refer more to the sense of drowinging in the madness, the magic. The song presents it so slowly, so calmly, as if it is this warm and wonderful thing to sink into- and I'm sure for Simon, the idea of sinking back into that comfortable emptiness is extremely appealing at this point. He wants it. He needs it. Tense and cold and swallowing him whole, He Needs It.*

—- 10. Daydream / Wetdream / Nightmare ~ Saint Motel

*SO much of this song rings true with him!! "Well, I can die a happy man if I could be with you/behind these eyes I believe fantasies can come true" This is self-explanatory, he wants to be home with Betty. Find the time to be the man that you like to talk to/in dreams, it seems that I can be anyone you want me to, oh" The nature of dreams being of the subconscious mind, and the implications that Simon can in fact remember at least some of the things he percieves as Ice King (with lapses in those memories, of course, just like real dream remembering) is extremely curious. This whols song reads very idyllic and hopeful with the way the vocals are sang, and I love the fact that yes- against all idiot odds- the poor guy just wants to be himself, wants things to be concrete, just wants his wife back. The song itself seems to be split up in three pieces, same as the veritable phases of Simon/IK's lifetime- it matches very well, and represents the same sort of wistful nature he's got goin' on.*

—- 11. The Fool On The Hill ~ The Beatles

*If I haaaad to choose a song here that fits the most perfectly out of anything here- it might be this one. That could be the hyperfixation on the song talking, but, man. Man!! He really is just a fool on the hill!! The strange silly man with patches in his memory, sitting atop his icy mountain. A"And nobody wants to know him, they can see that he's just a fool." which is very true of the wayward motive of the princesses that he displays as IK. It's fantastic, I love this as an examination of his IK behavior. "And the eyes in his head see the world spinning round"- aptly implying those eyes don't belong to the Ice King, per se, because they're __Simon's__ eyes. Genius!! Unintentional connected genius!!!! Love it!!!!!*

—- 12. In an Ice Palace ~ The Music Tapes

*the title is a dead giveaway, and even though it doesn’t have lyrics, i still think it fits that like… somber whimsicality might be the term? of a magical world gone wrong \:) and the melody is gorgeous and chilling in all the ways it should be. whether you see it as a reuniting with the crown and his return to ice king, or as a wistful and awful recollection of it, up to listener’s interpretation because i can and will think of it as both. it is crystalline and strange and i love it very, very much \:) I also really love the almost Rankin/Bass or Charlie Brown feelings of it? The vocalizations and harmonies feel so fantastic in that sense, and it really drives home the quaint nostalgic winter feeling like not much else could in this specific sense, while still being unrefined enough to represent the strangeness of IK.*

—- 13. Waves ~ Bahamas

*"There's a part of it, that I'll miss/at the heart of it, your cold kiss"- god, he misses Betty, and even now when he's meandering through worlds he misses who he used to be. this song is an extremely tender and wistful apology to her, and to marcy, and to himself perhaps. he knows it was too much, and the motif of the waves is excellent for this- waves in the ocean are scary and unforgiving, always ready to sweep you under. "And when I knew I'd become the ocean's slave/I just stayed" (when he'd gotten taken over by the crown he just. kept it. he tried to use it to keep marceline safe until he knew it was too late. and he became far, far too attached, the easy comfort of forgetting. it's horrid!!!! i love it*

—- 14. Room with a View ~ Russ Morgan and his Orchestra

*I picked up Russ Morgan from Everywhere at the End of Time, but out of all his songs (even the more uncanny ones,) i felt this one fit the best. this is the moment betty sacrificed herself- the "room" with the view being the closing of golb's stomach, him being the last thing she say- it feels romantic, even aside from the lyrics, the instruments themselves do- much of 40's-50's connotates to be. also take a minute to imagine if they'd listened to this song together back when they were both human. danced to it, even. i'm a sucker for motifs and goddamn.*

—- 15. Video Killed the Radio Star ~ The Buggles

*i’ve always loved how sad this song presents itself!! another big sense of defeat covered in whimsy, i feel like it’s either ice king killed the man who metaphorically was once simon, or vice versa, and the Guilt that he might feel over either one of these situations..! it also kind of plays into the fact that a remote is their interdimensional tool when he goes on the journey with f&c hehe, we can’t rewind we’ve gone too faaar~ it’s such a general well-rounded song for stuff like this it’s so tonally interesting and that’s the kind of thing i am loving for this playlist If Ya Couldn’t Fuckinf Tell Hahahahhehehehe :3*

—- 16. No Surprises ~ Radiohead

*this song has always connotated to me a sense of “please for fucks sake just let the guy REST!!” which is extremely true here. I feel like it can also be read in a sense of memory loss- he starts losing his functions again, things that *should* tip his mind off or remind him of things but don’t, alarm bells that should be ringing in the face of danger are silent, instinct and memory gone. the instrumental is also extremely cold and somber and you know that’s a recurring theme at this point-*

—- 17. The Funeral ~ Band of Horses

*Help, my inner criminal minds nostalgia is showing … anyway, all things considered. Spencer Reid has some similar things going on of odd emotional capacities, schizophrenia (connected to the idea of insanity,) and just. the general idea of someone insanely intelligent being shadowed by this looming reputation, but still having that lost deer sort of empathy.. and in general, the song as a stand-alone I’ve always seen it as someone waiting for death (their __own__ funeral in a sense) and he definitely seemed ready to embrace that as a way to not be so empty and lonely, and maybe see Betty once more. It’s very interesting to read him like this, and again, it’s the same sort of hopelessness he feels in the beginning and Prismo’s episode. Poor honeybun.*

—- 18. Cold Island ~ My Singing Monsters

*This one definitely seemed like a necessary edition, it’s always read as isolation and the mental shift and resulting backwards appreciation that causes? “Look at the stars in the big black ink,/tell me what you feel and tell me what you think./Is it cold outside? Is it cold out?” holds such a deliciously dark weight to it [that tiktok found and stomped into the ground, but it still applies nonetheless]. It’s just.. so gorgeous, and solemn, and for an MSM song it’s pretty damn good- it’s complexity and layers are quite similar to Another Certain Unidentified Man’s mental complexity, yeah?*

—- 19. Forevertime Journeys ~ naran ratan

*Another simple instrumental of Vibes, this is windy and soft, holding an uncanny sense in its detuned twinkles. i also love the sort of windchime essence of it, it's so very gentle and soft just as he really is down inside. i have a massive love for these sorts of soft things, little breaks from the madness, a bit of peace. light glinting through the ice, perhaps. it's wonderful, concise, and thoughtful.*

—- 20. Bitter Sweet Symphony ~ The Verve

*ohh? is that a timeless anthem against the dreary drone of normalcy i hear????? something that simon might resonate with considering his strange relationship with normalcy and being exploited for just how perfectly mundane he is???? hrmm, yes it is! and in fact his entire existence up until now has been extre,ely bittersweet- to be sentenced to this, after a life of wonder and magic, SURROUNDED by wonder and magic? i thonk this really represents te catalyst of him missing being part of the madness... everything is far too quiet now. he had gotten used to the loud static of memory and silly brashness of being under the crown that now, all seems lonelier than ever.*

—- 21. Bluebird of Misfortune ~ Toby Fox (Deltarune)

*Someone completely taken over by ice-related magic… though in a different fashion, it definitely makes me think of Snowgrave. Slowly succumbing to a power quiet and strange. The song itself is also eerie but still light in that way- asking a question of what used to be there and what it has become now. Perhaps I’m reading into it too much and not articulating it well enough, it’s hard for such a double entendre like this is, but in a sense he’s both Noelle __and__ Berdly as it relates to snowgrave. the destruction of his old self. the idea of trying to fight back against this thing, uncanny and unwavering, coercing you into forgetting the relationships with those you held dear and simply becoming as magically powerful as possible? Yeah, i think we can all see it..*

—- 22. Philadelphia ~ Alt-J

"Am I cold, I cannot tell." (True!! I don't think he's able to feel cold in any sense anymore.) The beginning sets up an extremely melancholy tone, extremely fit with the rest of the playlist's purpose. The guitar itself echoing as it does, and the high chilling strings- i love it. It's also fairly raw and a little more... darkly intimate might be the word? Not in an odd way of course, but I definitely think Simon's mind is darker than we'll get to see on screen, especially with his longing for Betty. Y'all already know I'm obsessed with the loss of identity, the being stuck between two poles, two bastions of existence on different ends of the same coin- "And I'm losing my ability to fathom/'Awake' and 'not awake'" like damn true pop off*

—- 23. The Nowhere King ~ Centaurworld

*A media song that I feel kind of goes hand-in-hand with how AT handles Simon’s story in general, and the sense of eerieness that surrounds it. I think we can agree that him becoming Ice King again is endgame one way or another (my implications of this i am not sure i’m just Scared of it) and the sense that it will not be all he’s been wishing, and he will fall to it again. even though the concept of the nowhere king is different, i do think it’s that he’ll essentially be a nothing king instead. I don’t think this is going to solve the emptiness, the sense of loss, and potentially losing his memory again will Absolutely take a toll on him.*

—- 24. Potatus Et Molassus ~ Over the Garden Wall

*Another related media song, this sort of somber tone is very very special to me, and the whole idea of succumbing to the Beast after a long time of trying to fight it (becoming the Ice King after a long time of trying to build himself back up from it) and the idea of it being ever-present, waiting for you. ~~Also i used to be a huge Bad End Friends fan so. it has a soft spot there :3~~ The choir resonanting with that kind of antiquated sense of death or eerieness does mirror the fact that simon has been going this for years. and years. but he still holds all of those now completely historical values and I feel like in the "endgame" of the crown he will return to that kind of solemn funeral-like nature. it's giving up, after all.*

—- 25. Kiss Me, Son of God ~ They Might Be Giants

*I aaaaalmost wasn’t gonna add this one, but. then i thought about the contrast of simon prime to the other Simons (namely the Winter King) and by god, it shows the Possibility of what he could be. and kind of describes their weird kinship/relationship/whatever it was?? The song really talks about a sense of defeat to me almost, and it also touches on the sense of how he would react to so many people loving him at the moment.. the world really is screaming “kiss me son of god” to him, yeah? and being Ice King in general could be considered a godlike pedestal in some senses, even if he’s not taken seriously. i have so many thoughts about this song*

—- 26. The Sea of Tranquility ~ The Music Tapes (ft. Orbiting Human Circus)

*Ggghhh another song i tried so hard not to add cuz i’m OBSESSED with it and i put it on like every playlist.. but there’s definitely begging for solace in “oh, we’ll be old and weary friends.. god bless that all this never ends” and it’s such a soft and raw song i love it. ifsmgkfnejkf it sounds like him pleading for his old life back, a life where he is important and seen, or maybe begging to stay in this limbo where he doesn’t have to forget? there’s so many ways you could read this but it just reads like someone so, so weak begging the universe for comfort \:-) plus there’s my bias towards the song bc i just really love it.. another elephant 6 represent moment*

—- 27. goodnight nebula ~ EMI//NOVA

*okay yeah, maaaybe this is a shameless self plug. and it's again an instrumental focused on describing the magic and element of ice itself with crystalline tones, because at that point it's a hugely important part of his character, yeah? even as simon, it's inescapable. i wonder if IK ever went out and looked over the mountaintops to see the sunrise. and simon, back there, faintly watching, remembering. it's a nice breath of fresh air, tender and contemplative, methinks.*

—- 28. Heartaches ~ Al Bowlly

*Internally I fought with myself over this one because this song is starting to become extremely overused in fandom spaces as Everywhere at the End of Time became more mainstream, but really, it fits the energy of Simon so much better than any other cases I've seen it being used in, what with the deas of depersonalization and memory loss. And of course, obviously, the endless Sisyphus love story of him and Betty. It's just a burning memory, after all. There's not a ton I can say about the song that hasn't already been said somewhere, in some capacity, but it stiiiil does indeed do very well to describe the solemn tradgedy of Simon Petrilov with the very sounds of the past he held dear.*




—- (Bonus- not on spotify yet!) 29. flurry fugue - EMI//NOVA

*i'm not sure if anyone realizes yet that i literally wrote this song to describe how i see simon??? magical, eerie, yet sweet.... and of course it's called fugue because that was exactly what he was as ice king- and the song decays a little over the course of the runtime, just as he did. i have a tendency to write these soft instrumental songs and i do think it relfects the style of the shows' music very well too! i've had a lot of good feedback that displays it's doing what I want it to, but i don't know if anyone knows this is LIterally dedicated to him?? if anyone has picked up that on the cover.. \:) i love him so much guys you have no idea*

~~~~~~

Honorable Mentions that I couldn't/wouldn't add

—- No Children ~ The Mountain Goats

*It’s a huge trigger song and I can’t physically listen to this without spiraling, so I don’t want it on the playlist, but. I still think it fits his story. The kind of last-hurrah flippant hopelessness he has, especially showcased in Prismo’s episode, god I’m glad Fionna and Cake are helping fix that even in some sense because THE POOR DEAR NO. it’s such a ridiculously tragic song for a tragic man. i do think he could be singing it to betty as a sort of finality.. not that there’s gonna BE ANY cuz i don’t WANT THERE TO BE FINALITY unless it is HAPPY…. :)! it also really goes to show that he's been in his own sort of living hell for so long- it begs the question of whether or not betty was selfish to try and guarantee his future to be long and meandering by sacrificing herself, instead of. well. "i hope we both die," this song is also just too fuckin tragic so i dont have a lot of Text Evidence here cuz if i look at the lyrics i will cry so !! you get the idea tho.*

—- Mind Electric Demos/Inside the Mind of Simon ~ Miracle Musical

*They’re not on Spotify, but if I had my way, I would add much more of the Mind Electric demos, they all show different facets and I love them all they are my children and like. It’s Simon. He Has a Mind. It’s Broken Up and Insane, Yeah? Yeah. We already went over this in The Mind Electric in detail so i’ll save you all that but point is i want it As Much as possible on here :3 (also can we talk about how in demo 2 the agonizing screams sounded like simon AND THEN SHIFTED TO THE LOWER AND MORE GRAVELLY CADENCE OF ICE KING. WTF. MADE FOR HIM)*

—- Biggering (Demo) ~ The Lorax

*I didn’t end up adding this one simply cuz the lyrics fit Winter King!Simon more than Our!Simon, even though the tone of the song and distress and cadence still really fits our simon.. it could be connected to him trying to get to Betty, but I feel like that’s not exactly Biggering in the same sense as trying to get away from something? It could still apply to him trying to get away from being the Ice King but i feel like it also doesnt quiiiite fit now that his motives have changed towards it anyway.. we’ll see what happens as the season progresses tho…..*

~~~~~~

by the way! i likely will add more to this playlist, but this is already a whole fuckton of analysis and connection to write out and it took me Days to actually shove it on paper so for future entires just Ask me why i included it if it doesn't become apparent in and of itself!

~~~~~~

--

anyway yeah is it apparent that i fucking love this guy yet? i’m just. i’m so Fucking bent out of shape over it i LOVE HIM. \:)

for some of these there is an extent of "you've gotta hear it to get what i mean" bc i can only describe so much here without being insanely redundant (and i feel like i have been anyway) so please do listen to the playlist i am very proud of it and insanely obsessed with it If You Can't Tell

hes so much more than just a sopping wet cat istg y'all. smiles so hard at you. anyway thank you for reading it means a lot you stuck with me to the end

[shkspr]

hi. on your post where you may or may not have ended on 'moffat is either your angel or your devil' did you have maybe an elaboration on that somewhere that i could possibly hear about. i'm very much a capaldi era stan and i've never tried to defend the matt smith era even though it had delightful moments sometimes so i wonder where that puts me. i'd love to hear your perspective on moffat as a person with your political perspective. -nicole

hi ok sorry i took so long to respond to this but i dont think you know how LOADED this question is for me but i am so happy to elaborate on that for you. first a few grains of salt to flavor your understanding of the whole situation: a. im unfairly biased against moffat bc im a davies stan and a tennant stan; b. i still very much enjoy and appreciate moffat era who for many reasons; and c. i hate moffat on a personal level far more than i could ever hate his work.

the thing is that its all always gonna be a bit mixed up bc i have to say a bunch of seemingly contradictory things in a row. for instance, a few moffat episodes are some of my absolute favorites of the rtd era, AND the show went way downhill when moffat took over, AND the really good episodes he wrote during the rtd era contained the seeds of his destruction.

like i made that post about the empty child/the doctor dances and it holds true for blink and thats about it bc the girl in the fireplace and silence in the library/forest of the dead are good but not nearly on the same level, and despite the fact that i like them at least nominally, they are also great examples of everything i hate about moffat and how he approached dw as a whole.

basically. doctor who is about people. there are many things about moffats tenure as showrunner that i think are a step up from rtd era who! actual gay people, for one! but i think that can likely be attributed mostly to an evolving Society as opposed to something inherent to him and his work, seeing as rtd is literally gay, and the existence of queer characters in moffats work doesnt mean the existence of good queer characters (ill give him bill but thats it!)

i have a few Primary Grievances with moffat and how he ran dw. all of them are things that got better with capaldi, but didnt go away. they are as follows:

moffat projects his own god complex onto the doctor

rtd era who had a doctor with a god complex. you cant ever be the doctor and not have a god complex. the problem with moffats era specifically is that the god complex was constant and unrepentant and was seen as a fundamental personality trait of the doctor rather than a demon he has to fight. he has the Momence where you feel bad for him, the Momence where he shows his humility or whatever and youre reminded that he doesnt want to be the lonely god, but those are just. moments. in a story where the doctor thinks hes the main character. rtd era doctor was aware that he wasnt the main character. he had to be an authority sometimes and he had to be the loner and he had to be sad about it, but he ultimately understood that he was expendable in a narrative sense.

this is how you get lines like “were the thin fat gay married anglican marines, why would we need names as well?” from the same show that gave you the gut punch moment at the end of midnight when they realize that nobody asked the hostess for her name. and on the one hand, thats a small sticking point, but on the other hand, its just one small example of the simple disregard that moffat has for humanity.

incidentally, this is a huge part of why sherlock sucked so bad: moffats main characters are special bc theyre so much bigger and better than all the normal people, and thats his downfall as a showrunner. he thinks that his audience wants fucking sheldon cooper when what they want is people.

like, ok. think of how many fantastic rtd era eps are based in the scenario “what if the doctor wasnt there? what if he was just out of commission for a bit?” and how those eps are the heart of the show!! bc theyre about people being people!! the thing is that all of the rtd era companions would have died for the doctor but he understood and the story understood that it wasnt about him.

this is like. nine sending rose home to save her life and sacrifice his own vs clara literally metaphysically entwining her existence w the doctor. ten also sending rose with her family to save her life vs river being raised from infancy to be obsessed w the doctor and then falling in love w him. martha leaving bc she values herself enough to make that decision vs amy being treated like a piece of meat.

and this is simultaneously a great callback to when i said that moffats episodes during the rtd era sometimes had the same problems as his show running (bc girl in the fireplace reeks of this), and a great segue into the next grievance.

moffat hates women

he hates women so fucking much. g-d, does steven moffat ever hate women. holy shit, he hates women. especially normal human women who prioritize their normal human lives on an equal or higher level than the doctor. moffat hated rose bc she wasnt special by his standards. the empty child/the doctor dances is the nicest he ever treated her, and she really didnt do much in those eps beyond a fuck ton of flirting.

girl in the fireplace is another shining example of this. youve got rose (who once again has another man to keep her busy, bc moffat doesnt think shes good enough for the doctor) sidelined for no reason only to be saved by the doctor at the last second or whatever. and then youve got reinette, who is pretty and powerful and special!

its just. moffat thinks that the doctor is as shallow and selfish as he is. thats why he thinks the doctor would stay in one place with reinette and not with rose. bc moffat is shallow and sees himself in the doctor and doesnt think he should have to settle for someone boring and normal.

not to mention rose met the doctor as an adult and chose to stay with him whereas reinette is. hm. introduced to the doctor as a child and grows up obsessed with him.

does that sound familiar? it should! bc it is also true of amy and river. and all of them are treated as viable romantic pairings. bc the only women who deserve the doctor are the ones whose entire existence revolves around him. which includes clara as well.

genuinely i think that at least on some level, not even necessarily consciously, that bill was a lesbian in part bc capaldi was too old to appeal to mainstream shippers. like twelve/clara is still a thing but not as universally appealing as eleven/clara but i am just spitballing. but i think they weighed the pros and cons of appealing to the woke crowd over the het shippers and found that gay companion was more profitable. anyway the point is to segue into the next point, which is that moffat hates permanent consequences.

moffat hates permanent consequences

steven moffat does not know how to kill a character. honestly it feels like hes doing it on purpose after a certain point, like he knows he has this habit and hes trying to riff on it to meme his own shit, but it doesnt work. it isnt funny and it isnt harmless, its bad writing.

the end of the doctor dances is so poignant and so meaningful and so fucking good bc its just this once! everybody lives, just this once! and then he does p much the same thing in forest of the dead - this one i could forgive, bc i do think that preserving those peoples consciousnesses did something for the doctor as a character, it wasnt completely meaningless. but everything after that kinda was.

rory died so many times its like. get a hobby lol. amy died at least once iirc but it was all a dream or something. clara died and was erased from the doctors memory. river was in prison and also died. bill? died. all of them sugarcoated or undone or ignored by the narrative to the point of having effectively no impact on the story. the point of a major character death is that its supposed to have a point. and you could argue that a piece of art could be making a point with a pointless death, ie. to put perspective on it and remind you that bad shit just happens, but with moffat the underlying message is always “i can do whatever i want, nothing is permanent or has lasting impact ever.”

basically, with moffat, tragedy exists to be undone. and this was a really brilliant, really wonderful thing in the doctor dances specifically bc it was the doctor clearly having seen his fair share of tragedy that couldnt be helped, now looking on his One Win with pride and delight bc he doesnt get wins like this! and then moffat proceeded to give him the same win over and over and over and over. nobody is ever dead. nobody is ever unable to be saved. and if they are, really truly dead and/or gone, then thats okay bc moffat has decided that [insert mitigating factor here]*

*the mitigating factor is usually some sort of computerized database of souls.

i can hear the moffat stans falling over themselves to remind me that amy and rory definitely died, and they did - after a long and happy life together, they died of old age. i dont consider that a character death any more than any other character choosing to permanently leave the tardis.

and its not just character deaths either, its like, everything. the destruction of gallifrey? never mind lol! character development? scrapped! the same episode four times? lets give it a fifth try and hope nobody notices. bc he doesnt know how to not make the doctor either an omnipotent savior or a self-pitying failure.

it is in nature of doctor who, i believe, for the doctor to win most of the time. like, it wouldnt be a very good show if he didnt win most of the time. but it also wouldnt be a very good show if he won all of the time. my point is that moffats doctor wins too often, and when he doesnt win, it feels empty and hollow rather than genuinely humbling, and you know hes not gonna grow from it pretty much at all.

so like. again, i like all of doctor who i enjoy all of it very much. i just think that steven moffat is a bad show runner and a decent writer at times. and it is frustrating. and im not here to convince or convert anyone im just living my truth. thank you for listening.

[polandspringz]

g:L S2 Finale Liveblog

This one is even more incoherent than the last, im so sorry but i couldn’t be bothered LOL:

Genlock finale liveblog lets goooo

watching this in a dark room w/ my laptp super close is prbs not great w the seizure warnin g but whatever

MIgas in the tank- wait did i even watch last week when did mgias get in a tank

Yaz crying is a nice detail, but still mad they fucked up her backstory

GD THIS IS 31 MINUTES FUCK I CANT DEAL WITH THIS

why did this have to become about climate change

im sorry i hate baby caliban but i also LOVE HIM

Cammie voring everyone

Val is the real MVP f this season lets be real theyve done SO MUCH to support the team

GOD I HATE BROTHER TATE SO MUCH I HATE EVERYONE SO MUCH

Dr.Jha doing the most work

Not sure how i feel about cammie forcibly asceding everyone

Okay i keep clicking out of the video bc im so distracted but thats the point im at, i like cammie giving chase the new weapons but it also feels like im watching a video game

rip henry is dEAD

i dont have a clue whats happening why are we fighting nemesi, why are we fighting the holon frames, i come back to this show every week and forget what happened because i never feel invested enough to retain shit

like whats the point of this fight. What's the emotional investment, Nemesis isn't even someone worth fighting now, there's no combat teamwork in the fights,its just Chase while everyone else- whatever i cant be bothered

Wow cool more blood and thank GOD sinclair is clothed again i did not like seeing his almost dick last episode

Okay I spoke too soon Cammie in Nemsis' head that's cool

idk if u cant recode him just kill him

Wow cammie so you're plan is ruined

WHAT IS THIS MUSIC????? i kind of like it

is sinclair going to kill marin oh my god

I KNEW HOLCROFT TOOK UNLOCK

What is unlock again, using- YOURE GOING TO PAYWALL SURVIVE

SINCLAIR?qel q' q w qw rk

sorry marin i think ur about to die-

plz dont make me watch her die or ill lose it i dont need that gore- wow great cant believe they did that to me

WHAT THE FUCK

guess sinclair isnt on our side- oh we've lost the holon frames, what are we going to like massive link into them or something

no not the fucking monster face

WHY IS IT COUGHING BLOOD NONE OF THIS IS NECESSARY????

Cammie is just like tinkerbell now tbh

THE HOLON FRAME IS ASCENDING?????? WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING

i kind of had a feeling we would fuse- OH ITS EATING THEM

ive never watched eva but this feels like theyre trying for some big philosophical anime ending plot yknow like- why is this show so horror focused now geez

Dr. Jha SUPPORTING HER EX YEAH LETS GO WELLER CONTENT

she got the KOALA!!!!!!!!!!!!

wAIT WHY IS THIS LITERALLY THAT POST ABOUT HOW FUNNY IT IS WHEN SOMEONE IS POINTING A GUN DOWN AT YOU I SAW TODAY????

Was going to say "oh so we're steven universe fusing like i thought" but then i remembered s1's mindshare was basically that too-

Dr. Jha did you really make things better or worse and also I need to know if Kazu is permanently dead or if s3 (if we get it) will sinclair fill the void

How can Tate see this and be like "yes this is what god wants"

At least in s1 i could follow the tech talk but this season its ALL going over my head

oh so we are ALL nemesis now

watching these slow laser bullets is making me miss the cool action fast paced fight of s1 where we first fought nemmy, those camera angles how i miss u

brother tate PERISH

okay so the writers definitely just watched attack on titan before deciding to write this season i guess

HI SINCLAIR

wow call back to yaz's dream in s1 i was about to say and then we really did just become big giant robot

this sequence is cool ill give it that

KAZU HELMENT IM GOING TO CRY!!!! AND THE GUTIAR THAT'S HIS THEME IM GOING TO CRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

okay s2 hbo you got me there

primal i think u will like this robot a lot maybe s2 is worth saving

*sees the twilight monster again* okay nevermind

Wait that happened so fast I didn't even realize they won i thought we died

CHASE OUT OF THE TANK???!!

Can he exist out of the tank- OH we need to absorb him thats why

2 days later... play that song do it i know u want to

okay baby caliban u have my heart

guess we are NEVER fixing the issues with yaz's past

So Holcroft is the villain of next season

AW CUTE YAZ AND VAL WIN!!!!

So team is splitting up, i HATE this found family is broken up

I like that they didn't force Dri to ascend and we're addressing her trauma now that shit has calmed down and she has to just sit with it

yo what is sinclair up to or is that just the end

[sagaciouscejai]

And i fucking missed my shit cause of these asks

God fucking damnit you demand peoples time over a serious topic and you waste it with these hard to parse together asks that you could for the love of god PROOFREAD BEFORE YOU SEND THEM ITS A FUCKING TEXT POST and them your point is “kagewaka’s friend was a pedo for drawing sexy adult cirno cause i see cirno as a child regardless of interpretation this makes me uncomfortable and im not gonna give the artist the benefit of the doubt on it being an adult depiction cause of this and not understanding the difference between ‘obvious pedo art with a button that says ‘were all adults!’ on it’ and art thats more ambiguous going ‘ this is an age-up the depiction is not of a child’ or nothing at all cause the art is clearly showing an adult body or even when it isnt as clear cause like people have different body types and art styles and they may not fucking come out looking perfect or might ride that line but thats why we have that gray area in the first place since like people are trying to improve their art and may not be there to specifically depict the body type well given their skill or comfort level its that fucking steven universe art controversy again where they like drew rose quartz or connie wrong cause they had a limited art style from lack of experience and a desire to stay in their stylistic comfort zone and like yeah you need to work on that but FUCK ME ART IS HARD AND EVEN THE SIMPLEST SHIT LIKE THAT CAN BE HARD TO GET RIGHT ON A PIECE THAT WAS MOST LIKELY JUST A BIT OF FUN FOR SOMEONE TO DRAW A CHARACTER THEY LIKE IF THE NOSE IS SMALL OR THE DEPICTION OF ROSE ISNT FAT ENOUGH ITS NOT ALWAYS A FUCKING BLATANT RACIST INTENT EVEN THAT SIMPLE SHIT LIKE TWO LINES OR A BODY TYPE IS DIFFICULT TO GET DOWN ON A PIECE RIGHT, ESPECIALLY IF YOU DONT HAVE A LOT OF CONFIDENCE OR ARENT TRYING TO BRANCH OUT

YOU THINK THIS SHIT IS EASY CAUSE YOU CAN LOOK AT THE DAMN PICTURE? YOU THINK EVERY CURVE I DREW WAS 100% INTENTIONAL, LIKE IT WAS PLOTTED ON AN EQUATION ON A TI-93 AND JUST PRINTED OUT THAT SPECIFIC WAY BY MY HAND? I WOULD PAINT ANIMATED MONA LISAS IF NOT FOR THE LIMITATIONS OF MY FLESH. FUCK OFF.

intentionality my ass. not every artist is striving to reach your definition of what constitutes adult or not. not everyone is so trigger-happy on this shit, even if they may feel the skeev of an age-up on a kid character. These are not consessions and apologies, they're facts of the current world that you can't just smash into and hope to eradicate with these flimsy ass asks that you rapid fire off, with poorly worded justifications. With these fucking headcanons you hold so dearly that you feel them canon yet can't explain them when asked. God i hope this anon is who i think it is cause i'll look like a fool otherwise with that last sentence but the shoe is looking like it's fitting.

[popculturebuffet]

Top 20 Animated Episodes of 2020 Part 2 (#10-#1)

And we’re back.. The first part is HERE, which includes the first 10 and my thoughts on this past year in animation, so we can cut the long intro and get right into it. This is the best episodes this year had to offer in animation, and it’s , without meaning to, at least a third bojack horseman. On with the show. 

10. I Am My Monster (Steven Universe Future)  “We all had Steven when we needed him, but the only person who's never had Steven is Steven. He's always been there for us, so... how can we be there for him now?“ Oddly “The Future”, a finale I did really truly enjoy.. is not on this list. Really good episode, it’s just Future was easily one of Steven Univereses best season, tightining up the pacing without loosing what made the series feel special and really digging into some of more unhealthy aspects of steven’s life. And while the future is good and certanily the needed epilogue.. this episode is the climax, the cumilation of EVERYTHING Steven had done and gone though and something fans sadly saw coming and just had to simply watch, unable to help as Steven slowly lost himself. Previously on this list we saw him hit rock bottom and it only got worse: He went to home world, attacked white diamond due to his pent up trauma and once again ingored attempts to help him, this time from the diamonds and spinle, angrily refusing to listen to his own words she she sang Change at him.  This only got worse in the briliant and sadly edged out of the list “Everything’s Fine’ A really damn painful episode where steven tries to assert he’s okay and act normal.. only he cant and he destroys everything around him, and even repeats pearl’s text trick from a single pale rose with a pained voice message to connie saying to help steven. But the pressure of the LONG overdue intervension and the fact it came too late.. means steven confsses his recent sins.. and instead of taking them for twhat they are, spur of the moment acts caused by a toxic influence and a fuckload of ptsd and unreseovled issues with white that while certanly not okay are symptoms of a larger issues takes it to mean “Im a fraud”.. and thus he horriingly corurpts.  So here we are as Greg, Connie and the main gems all gap ein horor as Steven has corrputed himself, reduced to a monster whose not even malcious just.. sad.. so full of self loathing he can’t function and at risk of STAYING like that. And the relization hits hard.. and hits everyone who joins in hard. The auxilery crystal gems soon join but attempts from both groups to stop Steven do nothing. The diamonds arrive.. and not only are saddneed by what htey’ve doned but equally powerfless to stop him.  Everyone breaks down, blaming themselves for not seeing this sooner and for speding YEARS piling their issue on the kids, everyone ready to give up as they loose the person they care about most.. except one. Connie proves to be the hero of the episode, rallying the others with the above, pointing out Steven would happily help them if he could.. and that’s the problem. He’s spent his whole life fixing other peoples problems and focusing on that.. but never had someone to be HIS Steven. Fighting him’s not going to work.. he needs to know he’s loved... in the end the final battle of the series is not some struggle of life and death.. but of love. What wins the day isn’t a fight, though our heroes various powers do come in hand to restrain steven.. but it’s all of them, one by one telling them they love him in easily the most tearjerking moment of the series, cumilating in connie softly playing a kiss on his nose... and it’s this that FIANLLY frees steven from his self made prison.. finally realizing h’es not alone and that no matter who or what he becomes.. his family loves and forgives him. While we REALLY needed the next episode to wrap things up after this swell of emtitions. this was the climax the series desrved: after spending 6 seasons trying to help everyone ELSE and fix their issues he never should’ve had to.. it’s eveyrone else who gladly pitches in to fix steven’s own issues, to help HIM when he’s at his lowest point like they’ve been, and make it so he can FINALLY heal and finally find himself once and for all. IT’s one of the finest episodes of the series and easily the best of future. 

9. The Perfect House (Close Enough)  “I’m this close to connecting garfield, TO JESUS”  This one’s just really funny, charming and creative. Simple as that.. I could move on but eh i’m a wordy bastard. Once again we’re focused on Emily, this time as we find out an endearing hobby of hers: She likes visiting open houses and fantasizing about affording a better place she likely never will afford, one with trash can nooks, a kitchen and a living room that are fully seperate, and indivudal bins for tea and sugar... and when it’s pointed out she dosen’t drink tea it’s only because she has nowhere to put it.  But after Josh and Candace get them thrown out, if adorably so, Emily is forced to face reality... i.e. Alex, in one of the series finest gags, in his underwear with conspiracy boards trying to connect garifled to jesus and having a jug of his urine around for some reason. Did I mention I love this weirdo because I do. Brigette is painting in the ktichen.. using her body as the canvas, though in a bikini because the show wasn’t streaming only yet. You’ll have to wait a season for possible boobs. Naturally this just stresses her out so she goes to visit more houses while Josh vows to buy a family bike, a large circular bike for the whole family, as an activity because of course he does and of COURSE he also has a recurring issue of being mocked by some random kid about not having one. 

So she escapes and meets dave and caitlin, a husband whose family life is miserable and a child star who got emanicapted and they quickly form a psuedo family to look at open houses.. only to, as if to remind you what show your watching, instead end up in a tgif sitcom... and trapped in a styigian void, with only Emily desperate to get out. Also she’s been missing three days and Josh has some thoughts on that and goes after her.  Naturally given she’s crashing in on her fake sitcom family, this oly has him seen as a plot element, and Emily’s attempt at cursing and everything she can , while hilarious fail.. but the climax is what makes the episode and what inches it slighlty above quack pack.. which itself was fucking awesome. Instead of FIGHTING the format... Emily is forced to play into it, and realizes a cheesy moment of emtional honesty is what’s needed. She apologizes to her fake family, saying their nice but she has to face the world and to josh and much like Donald, seroiusly this episode was made years ago and there’s no way in hell frank knew about it, she just needed an escape but it’s more healthy: instead of wishing for a life she never had Emily just wants a break from the life she does for five minutes. She’s happy where she is, with her loving husband, wonderful daughter, impulsive but still carring best friend.. and well okay maybe not Alex, there’s somethihng really wrong with him, but as much as I love the guy I admit he’s not for everyone. I’m also a borderline feral man covered in hair who wants people to know i’m smart. I get him. 

IT’s this that sets her free.. and we get another amazing gag as Dave’s family shows up and Dave chooses the fantasy.. though instead of this being thorughly pogiant it’s just “classic dave”. COmplete with title sequence. And of course it ends on a family bike with Emily getting those tins from Josh. Their relationship.. is REALLY what makes both this show and this episode in paticular work. Here while Emily screws up, it STARTS innocently enough, simply faking being a family and spirals into tgif because while this show isn’t, possibly, in the regular show cinematic universe, it’s defintely in the same multiverse. She just wants some peace of mind from a chaotic life, but dosen’t resent her husband or anything.. he just frustrates her sometimes which is fair. But he’s never portrayed as an abusive asshat which you think would be a low bar to clear but.. you’d be suprised. Point is it’s a wonderfully weird and somehow still unique despite being one of three tgif parodies this year. Seriously that shit is a goldmine. It’s how Dashieel Driscoll got half a season out of full house and a good chunk of a very special epsiode as a whole out of it. Though a certain incident helped. 

Point is good show, jolly good show... and ew’ll be right back with the rest afte the cut

8. Agony of a Witch/Old Bodies, Young Souls (The Owl House) “You always thought you were better than me! That I could never Beat you at anything! “  “I AM Better than you!” “Then WHY WERE YOU SO EASY TO CURSE?!”  The Owl House was a show I took WAY too long to catch up on after missing the second half of season 2.. minus Enchanting Grom Fright which I caught first run and we’ll get to that story shortly. Point is my procastnation did me dirty here as this show , which was already fantastic just got better and better, cumulating in this epic, heartdestroying, soul punching, beautifully animated finale that takes everything the show has built up thus far, blows it up in some places and uses it to beautifully end in others, leaving us with a new road for the future.  So yeah naturally it’s been a long ride as one of Owl House’s strength.. is that no episode is filler. No really, each one has a purpose great or small in the larger narrative, and every major arc has been expertly paced and crafted, bringing us to this point. The only major arc or plot thread left out is Amity, and that’s honestly for the better. Make NO mistake, she’s a great character.. but like fellow great Donald Duck, she was left out because the episode had a LOT of emotional stuff going on, a lot of plot to fit in, and a lot to do and it’s simply better for her character and for the moment’s she’s bound to have in response to well.. everything happening here, to let it breathe next season rather than try to shove it into an already stuffed two episodes.  But this episode is one long string of payoffs, and payoffs creating more setups: So all season Eda, our loveable witch, has been grappling with a curse that turns her into an owl beast, one that’s been getting worse as far back as the mid season finale Escape from the Palisman. She’s been needing more and more elixer to combat it, a harrowing parallel to some real world diseases: Sometimes your meds can only DO so much to combat something actively killing you.. thankfully this time.. not speaking from personal experince.  And Luz finds out soon into the episode as Eda makes a cloak of witches wool, which can deflect powerful spells, to protect herself.. only to black out and go owl just as she’s saying she’s fine. Like most parents would Eda hid just how bad things have gotten and it’s gone from needing just one bottle of elixer to needing their entire suply, and even that barely worked. Despite her mentor’s assurances, Luz is now PAINFULLY aware her mentor is on borrowoed time... not helped by the fact the coven attacked earlier that morning and she finds out by finding hooty playing tea party with them, meaning Eda is outgunned, outmanned and while Lilith failed, again.. the emperor can now easily find her himself and send whoever he wnats and however many people he wants to fetch her.. and Eda can’t use too much of her magic or else.  So while Eda and King, touched by how much Luz has changed them, decide to throw a suprise party with King making a big cake to jump out of and Eda using witches wool she intended for herself to make her a cape. Meanwhile as you’d expect Luz.. is plotting a dangerous and life threatning mission: with a field trip to the Emperor’s Coven that day, one she was going to sit out because you know they hate her second mom for dogmatic and vile reasons the episode fleshes out, she finds out they have an artifact called the healing hat that can seemingly heal anything.  So she does what Luz does and comes up with an impulsive plan to heist the thing.. but for once her impuslivness isn’t played for laughs. Her mother figure is slowly sucumbing to a fate worse than death, for once instead of just acting rashly because Luz.. she’s doing so because she KNOWS, that she has no other choice. Nothing else in sight and she’s smart enough to know that if Eda had a cure she’d of told Luz about it. Even if it was dangerous or required a sacrifice or something Eda would’ve just left that part out.  But the trip serves a few other purposes besides getting Luz where she needs to be for the plot that makes it work: it elaborates on just what the emperor’s coven is like and WHY Emperor Belos gets away with everything: He claims to speak for the titan,  the giant dead monster whose body makes up the boiling isles and who, as Luz has discovered, is the source of the magic there. So when he bloodily, I mean it’ sa kid show so they dont’ say so but given how violent this one is i’m asssuming bloody, took power, he claimed they were doing magic wrong, killed any hertiics and set up the rigid coven system. It explains just WHY the boiling isles limits themselves, gives the whole thing a creepy dogmatic religion vibe.. something that i’m REALLY suprised disney let them get away with as they had to fight for gays in the series.. but at the same time shouldn’t be because hunchback of notre dame exists and Soul , released the same year, was a big gamble against the bible belt. So their not afriad of religious groups.. but they ARE afraid of homophobic groups.. which have a lot of overlap. 

Point is it’s a good storytelling device.. and cathartic given i’ve been playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses as I finally bought it with some christmas money. Good game, probably will talk about it in the future, not the point here. 

The point is that the visit gives us some worldbuilding that helps show just how much of a threat the coven is and why their so intent on capturing Eda. We also finally meet belos, god emperor and man tired of Lillith’s shit and giving her till twilight to get Eda.. or presumibly die. I mean he dosen’t say it but he sure is implying it as loud as he can.  That’s when things go pear shaped for Luz who finds the hat.. and LIlith who has found her barganing chip to lure Eda to her, which works as well as you’d expect and leads to the best figh tin the series thus far and one of , if not it’s best scene; A duel between edith and lilith. And while they fought back in Covention this time  it’s not a petty squabble between siblings masquerading as one trying to capture the other.. it’s  fight NEITHER can afford to loose. Eda can’t loose her protege and Lilith will loose everything, dying at best being cast out of the coven at worst, if she fails not to mention loosing what she feels is her only chance at saving her sister.  But it’s also VERY clear Lilith is groosly outmatched, and while no slouch herself Eda’s constant bragging about being “the most powerful witch on the boiling isles”.. is entirely backed up. Lilith barely is able to hold herself and only gets ahead by using a child as a shiled, going even lower than her sister. However the stress of this, the build of having been the older sister of someone who constantly outshined her then turned entirely against her, finally causes lilith to snap.. and reveal the curse is her fault. Cissy Jones delivery here.. is jsut perfect, showing a mixture of rage and pain, showing that she’s spent YEARS hiding this, years resenting her sister for constnatly being better desptie working harder and doing the right thigns. Even when she’s trying to HELP Eda, genuinely trying to undo her mistake as we find out and as we’ve seen genuinely sees the emperor as the wise and benevlolent god he portrays himself as.. she can’t let it go. SHe can’t see past her own bitterness to see her sister is right and if she could just let this go and work on Eda’s terms instead of forcing Eda into her world, then maybe it wouldn’t of gotten this bad. Maybe she could’ve told her. 

Eda takes it about as well as you’d expect, and Lilith.. uses this to threaten luz’s life and force eda to use up her magic to save her, leading to the series most heartbreaking moment and Wendy Mallick’s best acting so far as she bids her appretnince a tearful farewell. Luz RIGHTFULLY and angrily lashes out at lilith calling her a monster while Lilith takes Eda and urges luz to go home... and after a tearful ending with king realizing something’s deeply wrong.

So thus next episode after a history lesson from king and some suprisinging caution as he KNOWS what Luz is up against.. Luz still decides she dosne’t care. Eda’s sacrificed herself, to Luz it’s her fault she’s in this which while KINDA accurate missues some fine points such as her sister’s stubborness or the fact had lilith not shown up she could’ve taken the hat. And the fact LIlith saying the hat was junk was pretty unreliable. What i’m saying is maybe the child shoudln’t blame herself for being kidnapped while genuinely tring to reach the same goal. 

But Lilith soon learns to her horror her sister was right. While Belos restores Eda’ss sentience even fully owled.. he has no intrest in helping her, eveyr intrest in publicly petrifying her, and not even the slightest hint of remorse at betraying lilith this deeply. After all her faith in the man.. Belos spat in her face and told her to like it.  Meanwhile Luz goes on the warpath, and we see just how far she’s come.. and WHY Belos is probably so restrictive with magic and put it on such a tight leash: we see that with her natural power and just a handful of spells, the four she’s pciked up over the season, she easily curbstomps the conformotrium staff, gets to Eda fairly easily.. and fines sshe can’t free her and eda wants the door destroyed so whatever Belos wants with it, he can’t have it. Luz heads home, ready to destroy the door.. onlyt of ind two things. her magic dosen’t work there.. and Lilith followed her and grabbed king. After a breif fight and Luz angrily and rightously confroting the asshole, wish she was in Eda’s place.. Lilith admits luz’s right and gives her backstory: That her insecurity was so great that on the day before a duel with Eda to determine who got into the emperoror’s coven, she curfsed her own sister, with no idea it’d last this long or get this bad. And with no idea Eda had lost intrest in it and WILLINGLY gave her sister teh spot.. It’s very clear despite her masssive flaws that will need to be adressed.. lilith never stopped caring about her sister, and it took all this to make her realize that trying to fix the mistake on HER terms without including her sister.. instead has almost cost her it.  So Luz and King relucntnatly take her help, though the other two are quickly capatured when theyt ry to get to hte exceution platform and thrown in the cage with Eda.. which dosne’t help the coven’s reputation as gus and willow try to make a case for Eda. Meanwhile we get the SECOND best fight of the series as Luz challenges Bellows.. and it’s UTTERLY chillling and while he’s had scenes before this it’s here we get the true scope of who he is ..and that like eda the god complex is something he can back up. Whlie Luz proves just how strong she’s gotten by keeping up with him it’s barely, and it’s clear from the moment go, and one of the series best shots, with Belos creeply materlizing behind her before announcing “sure, i’ll play” that this is a game. She’s no challenge to him and he simply wants to see waht she can do and is mildly impressed if a tad annoyed at her actually damaging his mask. But with Eda, King and Lilith’s lives in the ballance the only way Luz can save htem.. is to give him waht he wants. 

Thing is, just like Lilith, just like everyone has, good an dbad all season.... Belos undereesitmated luz.. who left fire runes on the door, willnig to sacrifice ever seeing her mom again if it meant keeping him away from her. While he has no invasion planned whatever it is CANNOT be good. Luz saves them, and Eda flies them off with Belos saying the titan dismissed them. Also that Belos has a big penis.. super huge, size of a tractor that one. Yeah that’s the ticket. 

But we get  a happyish ending as LIlith does what she should’ve done a long time ago and apologizes, and Eda starts to fogive her, brought on by King earlier standing up to her as whle he’s not happy with her either, he realizes from her story she’s not a bad person.. just a very messed up one who couldn’t own up to her mistakes. One who belivied in the wrong person to fix her problem and finally takes repsonsiblity and part of the curse into her. So with the sequel hook of Eda having lost her internal magic power but still being able to use glyph’s like luz, we also find out the Emperor has the door and a mysterious masked minon,.. who i’m fairly certain isn’t amity only because it’s too obvious. This is simply how you end a season: It’s engaging, heartbreaking, well animated and pays off EVEYRHTING so far while setting up the season to come. It’s going to be a LONG wait till next time, mid-this year.. but I can wait. The high from this one’s going to last a while. 

7. Good Damage (Bojack Horseman)  “ That means that all the damage I got isn't good damage. It's just damage. I have gotten nothing out of it and all those years I was miserable was for nothing. I could have been happy this whole time and written books about girl detectives and been cheerful and popular and had good parents, is that what you're saying? What was it all for?! “

Bojack Horseman is one of the best shows of the last decade, and an important one to me. it was the first one I watched when we switched to all streaming. I really related to Bojack and his struggles with depresion and self loathing.. which backfired given he’s a much worse person than me and while I could relate, I also compared myself too much to a character who in retrospect is both far worse  and has FAR MORE issues than I do and diffrent ones at that outside of the depression and self hatred.  The point i’m framing is that the series and I have a complicated relationship and that coupled with how bad 2020 was meant it took until a few days ago to finally finish it, almost a year later. But I cannot deny how good the show is: it has faults, a bit of reptititon in some character arcs, casting a white woman as a Vietnamize-American woman (something both Ralph Paul Waskerberg and Alison Brie have apologized for to their credit), and .. I can’t think of a last one. They never brought Ralph back? Yeah let’s go with that one what the fuck there. So I felt I owed the show one last round and it payed off as the final stretch, while easily the hardest to get through due to covering the collapse of Bojack’s life, is easily one of it’s best. 

But before the fall, we get Good Damage, which instead of focusing on BoJack focuses on Diane, said asian woman voiced by a white lady, neurotic writer and Bojack’s best friend, who has moved to Chicago to be with her boyfriend guy, a chill, charasmatic and likeable buffalo cameraman. Things are going better than they ever have: she’s in a supportive relationship and thanks to her antidipresenants, while still her loveably neurotic self, is now not obessing over shit as much and is solving her problems with applomb. Even the weight gain from her meds, which she dreaded in the previous half of the season.. has insteead only made her look healthier and happier, and more beautiful than ever. 

The only problem is she can’t write her long promised Memoir, which Princess Carlolyn, her former boss, agent and loveable pink cat and single mother, has promised to a lot of celebrities. She TRIES, she puts lots of work into it, keeps trying to sit there but nothing comes out. And what makes the episode truly great is how this is presented. Bojack is no stranger to beautiful, visually diverse episodes, Stupid Peace of Shit being a notable example and one similar to this one but uniquely great in it’s own way, but this one is easly the bes,t using a squiggly crude style to show just how chaotic and uncomfortable diane is and how stuck she is. She’s TRYING, but she just can’t make her life’s story into anything GOOD, she can’t get the words out which as someone whose had reams of projects I never startd, even to this day and who has genuine trouble writing fiction.... I related to this like all hell. But even people who have never had an intrest in writng can just get the feeling thanks to the wonderful writing and animation, from cameos by the rest of the cast to Diane’s father showing up as a goblin to the word boxes showing what she’s writtne it’s just a treat.  But what centers this amazing visual represtnation is Diane’s internal struggles as an encounter with a rude sales person leads her off on a tangent..and to Ivy Tran, a teen detective whose upbeat, optimstic, and in a great bit outlines who she is in jsut the right amount, and solves mysteries in a food court. It’s a genuinely good idea, one I honestly think could support it’s own series... seriously get on that Ralph-Bob. Get on that. Point is it’s good.. but Diane’s so hung up on what she SHOULD be making, she can’t see what’s right in front of her, despite guy saying the passages are good.  Things come to a head when Diane makes a huge mistake and goes off her meds.. which from experince never ends well: for the entire episode she’s been under the impression she can’t write because of them.. only to be proven HORRIFYINGLY wrong. It’s a  VERY necessary aseop: that your medication will always be with you and that going off it suddenly, or blaming it for writers block not only isn’t true but is DANGEROUS. Diane spirals, cries and her writing gets dark and full of self hate. It’s then Guy proves just how fucking majestic he is: he figures out what’s going on after she tells him, and helps her get to bed so she can rest, puke whatever she needs and they’ll talk about things after she takes her meds again and gets her head on straight, when she’s in a good place to do so. As someone with mental illness.. ti’s nice to see a character who not only supports someone fully, but knows how to handle it. Instead of a shitty third act breakup like many shows would do guy stands by her.  He does however step SLIGHTLY over the line, if iwth good intentions and reason and send Princess Carolyn the Ivy Tran pages, because as he puts it he made an executive decision.. and when Diane is a bit annoyed by that as it does sound a tad douchey, he rightly points out she was in a really bad hole of a place, stuck in a loop doign something that even before going off her meds was clearly hurting her and going nowhere, and needed SOMETHING to snap her out of it, and did so not to hurt her or because he thought he knkew better or , like her ex husband, because he was oblvious to her needs; he did it because it was the hard but necessary thing to get her to seee she had something special and that she dosen’t have to constnatly tear herself up by diving into past traumas because of some internal obligation. 

Naturally Diane dosen’t take it despite Princess Carolyn not only being impressed but PREFERRING the ivy pages, as she was genuinely unaware Diane had something so happy and charming in her. While Diane is worried about it when the two end up meeting in person, we soon find out why: If all the damage she went through wasn’t “good” damage, things she could writ eabout and use later.. what was it for? Could she of just been happy this whole time? Did she waste her life. And in a rare moment betwen the two PC helps Diane walk it back, explaning that she can do what she always wanted: write something that makes someone like her feel not alone. That she dosen’t HAVE to make her life story into something complicated, just make what makes her and other people happy. Something PC’s daughter could enjoy one day. So Diane finally accepts that maybe there’s something else for her.. and then we get a segue into the next episode with bojack having a panic attack and pasing out but that episode, good as it was didn’t make it so moving on.  We also check in with Penny, the daughter of an old friend of bojacks who he nearly slept with and is stil haunted both by the decision and a drunken later visit to apologize... which isn’t helped remotely when max and page, two reporters inovlved in teh subplot that tears bojack’s life apart, start hounding her. While they have good intentions, exposing Bojack’s connection to Sarah Lynn’s death, the two’s methods still come off as creepy, following a, at this point , 21 year old girl whose been through ENOUGH home. While the two aren’t terrible people their actions.. are.. while getting hte story ismprotant is it truly worth genuinely harming this person. And penny wonders if she SHOULD air her story.. she ends up not.. but only because her mother, while lettiner he decide, poitns out it may not be worth all the pressure and possible trauma it digs up,especially since Bojack is getting what he deserved anyway. IT’s a decent subplot tha tties up a loose end but really makes our journalist characters feel like assholes for again, basically stalking and harassing a young woman who didn’t want to rehash the worst moment of her life. Otherwise top notch stuff. 

6. Heart (Parts 1 and 2) (She Ra and the Princesses of Power) “Don't you get it? I love you! I always have! So please, just this once... STAY! Stay. “

Now we get to the gays winning.. and to one of the best series finale in recent memory. And given the other two titanic shows ending, one of which we’ll get to’s ending in a moment, last year, it’s a huge compliment. Heart is how you end a space opera... with big wonderful speeches, great payoff, a huge climax.. and a beautiful cathartic kiss paying off the relationship at the heart of the series that ends up saving the universe.  So let’s just go ahead and crack open that pinata: The kiss.. was easily one of the best moments of animation this year and, at a time when the quarantine was starting, misery was spreading, and things looked pretty damn bad, having a major animated show, one of the biggest of the last few years, climax with an emotional moment between two women, one the series had been setting up since day 1... it was a huge step foward for gay representation in children’s animation, and warmed my big bi heart. And it’s not just good because of that: the fact it’s a giant pile of representation is wonderous, but it’s because it’s also well baked into the show. This is the conclusion of both their character arcs: Catra finally realizes Adora will not abandon her and her leaving the Horde was not choosing them over her.. it was simply doing the right thing. So instead of running or trying to escape she’s grown enough to fight for what she wants and fight for a future with Adora.  Adora meanwhile finally overcomes her martyer complex, her determination, especially after Angela’s death, to make sure no one else is gone and she’s the only one that suffers and looses. To make sure there’s nothing else. It’s Catra’s confesssion that FINALLY gets it through her thick skull that she dosen’t have to be alone or bear anything alone.. she’ll always have someone with her to do that.. and even before Catra.. she’s always had friends for that. She dosen’t have to be alone. So the two embrace and it’s fucking beautiful..and gives adora the full power of the doomsday device they went to shutdown in the first place, restoring the planet.. and allowing her to destroy horde prime’s fucking soul. I just want to reiterate that because it understandably got lost in the shuffle of the gays winning, but our heroine fucking tears out the main villian’s soul.. and it is SO damn satisfying given what a truly repulsive , irredemible, asshat Prime was. So the two finally get a future together, a chance to build and to stop letting the past define them. It’s wide open.  But while that alone would probably net it on this list but it’s damn good otherwise, an epic final struggle between our heroes and the horde for the fate of not just their planet but ALL of htem as Prime prepares to finally wipe everything else out in egomanical genocide. There are just.. tons of awesome moments in this one: Bow and Glimmer’s suprising but welcome love confession, Seahawk annoying mermista into fighting her chip, the people of etheria fighting back.. and the reason they do is easily the second best moment of the episode. With the chips down, not literally, and things looking bleak Bow hyjacks Prime’s egoamnacial hologram.. and broadcasts for everyone to fight, to fight back, and to END THIS. After spending most of the series as the one trying to keep his friends together, the glue of everyone.. it’s bow’s heart, courage, and voice, the one that lead his friends through some rough times and severed as reason when they needed it most wether they listned or not.. that frees the world and with Entrapta turns the tide at long last. It’s just a hell of a moment.  And the only other moment equaling it is Hordak freeing himself and deciding he is his own man, he made himself tha tway for better and worst and kills prime, at least before adora finsihes the job with the badass “I am HORDAK and I DEFY your will. “ It’s just a wonderful, epic finale that pays off most of the shows major arcs, gives our heroes a MUCH deserved happy ending after spending their lives at war, and let it be said one last time, gave gay representation in children’s cartoon one hell of a win.

5. Nice While it Lasted (Bojack Horseman) 

“ No, I need to tell you... thank you... and... it's going to be okay... and... I'm sorry... and... thank you... “

Back to back finales here and honestly both are REALLY close in quality, both satisfyingly paying off their series. But both take equal and opposite routes: Heart is an epic finale in scope size and impact... while Nice While it Lasted is a very stripped down character piece: there are other characters in the background but after the intro the only voiced characters in each segment are Bojack and one of the main cast, each one both showing how much said relationship has evolved since the show began, and giving Bojack time to reflect on his possible future. I say possible because one of Nice While it Lasted’s best aspects it that there’s no real concrete ending for Bojack. Ther’es still closure: after his life emploded and he nearly died, more on that in a bit, Bojack ended up in prison, offically for breaking and entering but unoffically for all the shitty things he did with him glumly accepting it. So one year later he’s out thanks to Princess Carolyn for her wedding, sober again thanks to prison and even started his own acting class at the prison he’s geninley invested in, inteding to continue it once he gets out. But otherwise.. his future’s in flux. HE’s sober for now, but he’s painfully aware that could change again, his friends while, with one excpetion, still having a place for him in their lives, have moved on, and his career is on the upswing again despite being a pariah a year ago because as I mentioned earlier and as PC brilliantly puts it

So he could become a better man, get his career back, make amends for what he did and stay sober.. or backslide and fall down into the same traps he always has. It plays into an aseop the series has always preached: There are no real endings, life just goes on. Even for the rest of the cast hteir lives aren’t over.. their just in a good place.. maybe bojack will, maybe he won’t. Tha’ts up to the indvidual viewer and I like that. While ambgious endings can be frustrating and I get while some preferred the more concrete if still somewhat ambgious ending of a view from halfway down, I feel this fits the series better: Bojack, like the end of every season is moving on to something new, but this time we don’t know what, and that’s okay. IT’s time for us to move on.  Well okay not from this entry as each vingette deserves some praise: Our first has Mr. Peanutbutter pick up Bojack from prison, and even get him a new suit.. and then another one offscreen because predictably for his life BOjack got meatball all over it. He also calms our hero down when he wants to go back to jail, letting him know it’s okay and he’ll be there for him.. unless his friend Erica shows up but what are the odds... 1:1. But what’s nice about it is while Bojack still makes jabs, it’s clear he’s gone from truly hating and resenting PB for being the betterversion of him.. to truly seeing the guy as one of his best friends, his jabs having gone from hurtful and bitter to wry and warranted. I mean they were warranted a lot back then too he’s just a lot softer about them. 

At the wedding Todd and Bojack finally reach some form of understanding after years of awkwardness, the two having reconclied but not being really remotely close or in each other’s lives hardly anymore after Todd’s understandable blow up at Bojack in “It’s You”. Here Todd has Bojack rush him to the beach to cary him on his shoulders.. to watch fireworks because he could tell he was overhwelmed, the two having found a rhtym again, with, like with mr peanutbutter, Bojacks jabs being a lot friendler and Todd having a respect for his own needs while actually being present for bojack instead of ignorant of how bad things were like he was at the start. He even helps BOjack see even if he DOES replase.. he can get right back on the horse, couldn’t resist that one sue me, and as the hokey pokey says turn himself around. 

After, in one of the best payoffs of the series, finally trying Hondedew and finding it’s not so bad, Bojack dances with PC, admittingh e half hoped he’d have to help her go thorugh with it before the two run through the scenario, and PC expresses some honest fears with bojack helping her showing how the two hav egone from a horribly stiffing relationship.. to two close friends who are probably stuck with one another for life. Sunk costs and all that. And if bojack does want to act again she knwos some people. But for now PC finally really has everything she ever wanted:: A daughter, and a loving husband in judah. 

Finally we have the most painful of the group because of course the Bojack finale wouldn’t be all sugar and would have to punch us in the gut. Bojack finds Diane again who hasn’t talked to him.. because he called her the night of his near death/sucidide and due to putting the blame on her due to being high out of his mind, made her feel like it was his fault during the 7 hours she could reach no one and thought he was dead. Diane is hurt, feeling betrayed that bojack promsied he’d be fine then possibly left her with the pain of his death on her concious forever. Thankfully she’s doing fine, as she’s now married guy and Ivy Tran is a huge success and probably a series now.. but it’s abudnantly clear her friendship with Bojack is over.. but even this bittersweet, and necessary, seperation, as Diane has moved past LA and Bojack needs to stop relying on her and stand on his own two hooves, still warms the heart as she thanks him and lets him know i’tll be okay, and endugles him in telling her one last story, a rathe rfunny one about prison movie night bfore the series ends on the melancholy and apporriate song mr blue as the two gaze out and they see each other and we see them for the last time. 

4 The Wasteland (Infinity Train) 

“I'm as good as dead, and if my last act is to bring you with me, sliver, I can't imagine a better way to go!” “Well, I can! “

So from a bittersweet ending to holy shit that’s depressing, we have our only entry from Infnity Train on the list. That’s not to say the series did bad this year. Season 2 was easily the series finest hour, taking the framework from season 1 and crafting a gripping story of a teenage mirror person who just wanted to live without assholes trying to kill her for what she fundementally IS, and be recognized as a person, with the help of a magical deer and a more optimstic teen grappling with his peer pressure issues.  The series was still undoubtly silly with a parasite voiced by Bill Corbett, wonderfully so, and again a magical deer named Alan Dracula, long may he reign, it simply deconstructed the nature of the train and thus opened up the floodgates. By giving us a denzin who, after years of being someone’s reflection in both senses of the word, just wanted to live and how that clashed with the train and the racist assholes she met alnong the way, from the ones who wouldnt’ stop trying to kill her.. to humans who considered her as nothing more than a plaything at best and something to get rid of at worst. While Season 3 was not bad, if a bit way too strcuturally messy and trying to do too much at once, Season 2 still handled the same issues but in a much tighter frame storywise.  And that’s why only one episode made it: Most of the episodes, espicially the later ones, are pieces of a large whole, with the show being heavily seralized. Which while a great approach intended for streaming, also means it was hard to find a chapter that worked that well on it’s own, steven universe future had similar issues. But I did and the wasteland is easily the darkest, harshest and most intresting episode out of the batch.  The episode opens at MT’s darkest hour: The apex told the mirror police where she is, Jesse is gone, and MT is now running for her life from the sadstic assshole and his spinless partner who want her dead just for existing.. gee can’t imagine why a bunch of assholes refusing ot acknolwedge other peoples opinons, rights or even existance was a big topic last year.. or this year. 

So while Mace, the main mirror cop, manages to handcuff her MT manages to throw him under the train. THe result is her trying to escape the train by wondering i’ts vast desert, forced to drag Mace along as he taunts her, bleeding out slowly from you know being bisected by a train. It’s a really moody peace as Mace mock’s mt’s dreams of escape and justify’s his own selling out, while MT pokes holes in that: he was so desperate to not nonexist.. he’s willing to kill others who just want the same. IT’s a damn hard watch but fuck if i’ts not compelling. 

And the climax is what makes it. MT finds out she can’t leave the bounds of the wasteland, as it only projects so far and after escaping the ghoms ends up back on the train, with Mace, not long fo rthis world trying to kill her.. so we get a 13-14 year old GRINDING HER HORRIFYING ABUSER UNDER A TRAIN WHEEL. Just jesus.. I mean I kind of get HBO Max’s point that MAYBE this is a bit much for kids. I mean i’ve seen other really dark stuff but holy fuck a man died.. and we see his blood splatter. But it’s this horrible, harsh moment that makes the episode.. as is MT”s reaction.. not one of triumph.. but of exaustion and horror at what she’s done, before steadying herself to prove him wrong. A hard one to write about but damn it was good. 

3. Enchanting Grom Fright (The Owl House)  “Dear Luz, will you go to Grom with me- Amity”  Now we THANKFULLY get to something lighter: the gays winning.. again. Coming out during pride month, phrasing, and only a month after the she ra finale we got this delightful episode. As I said earlier I watched this one first run: while I was super behind, I couldn’t resisit to the point I watched it before that week’s amphibia. I was that curious what was going to happen.  See as i’ve given out about quite a lot.. and I mean a LOT, Disney dosen’t have the best track record with gay representation: they don’t do horrible sterotypes or anything.. but they also don’t do much of anything for the most part. Alex Hirsch has outright spoke about how much he had to fight just to get Blubbs and Durland firmly together in the finale, and how the symbols for the love god were widdled down to just male and female. And around the time this episode came Disney was coming out of a REALLY bad batch of pr stunt gay representation: They made a big deal about the first gay x in an x having gay characters in avengers endgame, star wars: Deep Hurting and onward.. but these were cameos AT BEST, with the endgame one being so minor I genuinely didn’t realize the character was talking about dating a man and only found out afterwords. Sure Ducktales had gay dads, which is awesome and always will be.. but none of the major cast was allowed to be openly gay. I mean we know webby and lena are gay but hell if disney would allow that.  But miracoulsy.. shockingly and wonderfully.. Disney DID mange to finally just say fuck it and let some big gay rep in, something so obvious it can’t be ignored and that actually features the main character and one of the most major supporting characters. And what do you know, the good press and pats on the back outweighed the bad. It’s almost if giving up homophobic markets in exchange for doing the right thing.. is a GOOD thing while also being profable. Who’d a thunk. Point is via sheer perstiance, Owl House creator Dana Terrance got to not only make her lead bi, which Terrance herself is, but have her love intrest be a girl. And I find it genuinely wonderful that gay, bi, pan and what have you children can watch this and say “tha’ts me and this is okay”.  But even minus Owl House saying gay rights.. the episode is just REALLY good and part of it is who it focuses on. Amity easily has the most character devleopment out of the cast going from someone who walls herself off from everyone, revels in her superiority.. to slowly opening up to heroine Luz, realizing Luz is not a bad person and that Amity herself dosen’t have to be, and right before this starting the road to patching things up with her former best friend willow. Allt hrough this said friendship had been prettty, prettyy, prettyyy gay. And that’s wonderful obviously, but part of why I watched this was while I HOPED they’d get to be couple.. I wasn’t convinced since see a fucking bove. But I was happy to realize that oh my god I was wrong, the gays won all along. 

So with Amity a better person she’s naturally syampthetic when sh’es put front and center at hexside’s prom equvilent which while having a dance, gromprosals and a disco ball tha’ts also a sentient being, becuase boiling isles, it also has the queen or king forced to fight a horrifying monster that manfiests as your greatest fear. And, as we find out towards the end.. Amity’s is being rejected by Luz, having her love letter, which she fails to deliver due to running into luz.. and co (which is my faviroite gag of the episode and the adorable smiles gus and willow give in response are what make it). And . it makes sense. When you stop and think about it.. Luz is the best thing in her life. She got her to change as a person, genuinely cares about and adores her, just wants to be her friend and thinks the world of her. Given her siblings, while trying to be better, are two disaster bisexuals who just stopped a lifetime of untietonally harsh bullying and her parents are controlling asshats who made her abandon her best friend at a young age and she sees LILITH as a mother figure, just let that sink in given a few entires back.. yeah.. no wonder sh’es utterly terrified of rejection. Poor baby. 

Of course WE know Luz wouldn’t. Luz may be many things, including oblvioius to thte freaking obvoius as this story line has revealed, but shes not cruel and even if she said no, which I higlhly doubt she would, she woudln’t be a dick about it. But being surrounded by cruel assholes for some time has made Amity a bit paranoid so Luz volunteers to sub in to both genuinely help her friend.. and to prove to eda she can do this. Eda is also chaperoning. and looks neat in a suit, while King and Gus get a wonderful b plot of mcing the dance with the egotisticl king having issues with stage fright. I will get more into that when I review the episode proper, come back in a month for that.  But yeah while Luz does well when the time comes, and while sadly not wearing her otter suit does wear a wonderful tuxedo with a tutu.. she has her own repressed issues to adress as Grom takes the form of her mother, as Luz has been nursing guilt over not telling her the truth about what’s going on. Luz runs, and Amity ends up facing her fear to save her crush and the two get a wonderfully romantic, and desturctive dance together as they face hteir fear, untie as one and kill that motherfucker... well okay i’m not sure grom can die but it’s gone for now.  The dance sequence.. is easily one of the best scene’s all year, beauituflly animated and painstakingly planned out, with wonderful music.. it’s just awesome and what takes the episode ove rthe top, with the two perfeclty in synch as they take grom out in less than a minute. Also king become prom king and queen, he is best of both as Luz’s own personal issues put a damper on things. Also someone’s been writing her mom. 

Overall just a perfect episoe and a perfectly gay episode of one of the best shows going right now. Speaking of a perfect episode of one of the best shows going right now, tha’ts also on disney. 

2. Escape From the Impossibin! (Ducktales)  ”We have to keep them safe” “But not like this!”  So from some emotinal torment mixed with some lovely shipping, we get a whole buttload of emotional anguish but with a robotic scrooge and the time loop room and the time loop room and the time loop room, and time l...

As I said in part 1, Season 3 is easily Ducktales best so far, having far better pacing, character ballance and bolder and more intresting stories than ever before. While the first two seasons are still excellent, this one has taken everything great and honed it and no episode shows off just how great this season is than this one.  This one takes place in the fallout of “Let’s Get Dangerous!”, with the family dealing with finding out FOWL”s not only still alive, but is run by Bradford, head of scrooge’s board of directors former shush agent as we’d find out later, and asshole, who knows all their secrets. And given Scrooge is mildly paranoid on a good day and Beakly is extremley paranoid on her best day, it’s done a number on both as they’ve split the family minus launchpad, who just had a whole episode so fair enough, up: Scrooge has taken Della and Louie, wiht their see all the angels schtick, to test out his new security, while Beakly and Donald are securing the house while Beakly has webby throughly test the boys.  Neither side goes well. The bin ends up locking our heroes out due to Scrooge’s password being changed, and forcing them to work past it. Louie rises to the challenge, as does della.. but as they beat a robot versoin of scrooge, because of course the final test would be a robot version of scrooge, Scrooge is instead of triumphant at not being dead, incredibly depressed and furious. Because when told he’s scrooge mcduck he tellingly replies “AND WHAT IF THAT’S NTO ENOUGH’. For once.. Scrooge is SCARED, up against someone who knows his every move and is one step ahead, iti’s how it’s always been, no matter what he’ll do, he’ll always loose and Bradford will always win. I REALLY need to watch spies are forever, point is he’s scared and Bradford PROVING the point by revealing he was behind it and taking over the robot dosen’t help. Our heroes win though in a damn impressive action sequence, but as it turns out.. it was just a distraction.. but we’llg et back to that.  The other plot though is whyt his is so high. While the first plot is a fun romp with deep eomtional consequences.. the second plot is decidly far darker.. it still has some good bits as webby terorizes the boys and easily one of the best in the season when she horrifying imitates dewey, but its’ only when she does finally attack she realizes she’s taken it way toof ar. She’s terrorized her brothers, caused huey to break his leg and then turn her away when she tries to help.. all she’s done is turn them AGAINST each other and they can’t win this way.  Beakly strongly disagrees and clealry lost in her own paranoia and fear, prepares to attack huey.. and thus Webby steps in... leading to one fo the most heartbreaking and tense fights in the series as grandmother and grandaughter fight one on one but both are outmatched.. but Huey and Dewey, despite everything, refuse not to help their sister and help pull webby up, with Webby panickidly realizing something’s VERY wrong and her granny usually isn’t like this when sparring... and is also chasing them. This leads to the roof, in a rainstorm no less, and Webby relcutnatnly ready to fight even though she clearly knows she both can’t win.. and dosen’t want to anymore. Despite her wilingless to scrap, fight and train.. Webby dosen’t WANT to hurt her granny she just wants to help her. Thankfully, the boys attempt to stop this, while failing horribly, catches donald’s attention as he catches them, ntocies what’s going on and furiously refuses to let this go on. While Beakly tries to ignore it and fight..s he instead slips and despite everything, the rest of the group rescue her, with Webby impressing on her grandmother that they aren’t fowl. They wont’ win acting like them and tearing each other apart.. they need to be the family they are.  But if all that wasn’t enough turns out.. yeah, Bradford’s thing was a distraction and with the rest of the group distracted with Beakly, that meant his plan went off without a hitch: all the missing mysteries have been taken by FOWL, in a masterstorke that ties both plots together and brings what seemed like isolated adventures on their own in a tagnetally related plot into the fore. Everything so far has built up to this.. and despite the loss.. the family, having been through a dark night of the soul, is ready to fight back. They want the rest of the mysteries? Their going to have to fight clan mcduck in their elment. And it’s been glorious so far. A tense, well paced, hard hitting episode, this one’s a winner. and almost got #1.. ALMOST. But as much as I tried to not go with the obvious chocie, the one with tons of press and praise and that’s graced tons of best of lists... I had to go with what was honestly the best. So...

1. The View from Halfway Down (BoJack Horseman)  “Oh BoJack, there is no other side. This is it. “  This episode was my main reason for catching up with the series and finishing it off once and for all. Awash with praise and hype I was curious about this one.. and my curiosity paid off. This is easily one of if not hte best episodes Bojack put out in it’s storied run: it’s creative, impossible to look away from and devistating: in short it’s the show in a nutshell.. and it’s a hell of a view. 

Previously as mentioned before Bojack’s life blew up and he lost just about everything, from his friends, though as the finale bared out only one of them stayed away for good and for good reason, his only family in hollyhock, his house, even horsin around. He had nothing left.. so high on drugs and in his old house he passed out at the end of last episode.. and we wake up here with a recurring dream as Bojack has a dinner party at his mother’s house, another wonderful performance from Wendy Mallick. Everyone there is someone Bojack knew who died: his former best friend he betrayed Herb, Sarah Lynn his former child co start turned washed up 30 something he let die, Courdory, a co star who died trying to get off david caradine style, Crackerjacke, the uncle he never knew who die din the war and his parents, distant mother Beatrice as mentioned and his father, who is in the body of his hero secretariat who comited suiccide in this unvierse due to getting banned from racing, as that’s the kind of weird shit dreams do. Also Zack Braff, who has no real conncetion to bojack but still died during that time Mr Peanutbutters house sunk into the earth and his ex wife Jesscia bIel formed a death cult.  The group play a game of best and worst, lay into each ohter and have some really intresting conversations with Bojack confident of when it’ll end: before the show their always mentioing. But this time, it’s diffrent.. Bojack is there for it so we get a trippy and horrifyimng stage show as Bojack watches the various people one by one vo into a black door, allt he while bojack coughts up sludge and is persued by it, unaware where he was before this. Sarah Lynn gives one last song, a reprise of a song from previous in the series, Courdroy does a ribbon dance and zack braff gets on roller skates. And bojack has a frank conversation with his dad, with his dad/secretariat revealing he DID care but was just so filled with loathing he coudlnt’ admit it to his son and thus was an abusive ass.. and then reveals to bojack he’s not waking up and bojack horryfigngly see shimself, drowning ina pool. And while he frantically, heartbreakingly tries to flee... he can’t. There’s no exit for him. As herb tells him, this isn’t the afterlife, this is his brain making sense of his last moments, and ther’es no way of knowing if he’ll get rescued, no way to do anything but watch.. watch as his father secretairat shows suicide in all it’s horror by letting it know he wouldn’t of done it if he knew “the view fro halfway down”, a horrifingly haunting poem that sells just how bad it was. As beatrice and crackerjack also go we’re down to herb who introduces bojack... before going in himself, claming there is no other side. Bojack tries not to go genle and runs, and in a horrfying sequence is surronded by the ooze as he tries his damndest to escape.. but in the end he can’t. As herb said.. he can’t do anything about this. So speaking to his min’ds version of diane he accepts he probbaly won’t be coming back and we hear a monitor as we fade out. While we know it’s not the end now... there’s no way of telling then. 

The View from Halfway Down is a haunting, beatuflly animated, masterwork, taking 6 seasons worth of communinity and regret and shoving it in bojack’s face in an intresting way, while bringing back characters we thought we’d never see again for one last go round. It was patcually nice to hear LIn Manuel Miranda and Wendy Mallick again,, and Kristan Schaal is always great. The show ALWAYS had a horrifying habit of having it’s penutlimate episode be an utter gutpunch that broke you, with the finale picking up the peices and offering some hope.. and this was no exception. They literally saved the best for last, and it was worth the wait. The view from halfway down may be gahstly,.. but the view of this episode is hauntingly beautiful. 

So that was the list, and it was.. a lot taking 2-3 days to finish all together over both parts. But it was worth it and hopefully we can get back to some regular stuff later today. For now, thank you for reading, and hopefully i’ll see you somewhere in the sunset. 

[daylighteclipsed]

“This is another reason most of future lost rights” May we hear your thoughts?

Now that I have officially finished watching the original Steven Universe series, I have many Thoughts about the continuation. Prepare for some detailed salty takes.

-- My biggest gripe is that Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst lose pretty much all of the emotional intelligence they gain in the original series to maximize Steven’s suffering.

So like the gifset that prompted this ask for example, where Garnet realizes she’s hurt Steven with her future vision and apologizes? Makes her reaction in Future to realizing she hurt Steven again OOC. The OG series also teaches us and Steven that Garnet can’t see definites, because there’s so many possibilities, and the future’s always changing, and the future can always be changed. So her line about how there was no universe where Steven didn’t propose to Connie as her reason for why she didn’t try to stop him, is bullshit.

The Volleyball episode gives away that Steven is clearly not OK, and Pearl does nothing about it. Neurotic, mother hen, let’s make a plan Pearl does not ask Steven if he’s alright and makes 0 plans to train him to control his new alarming powers. Pearl, who now has a better sense of how trauma works because she has it herself, who we have seen in the OG series suspect Steven is dealing with some post traumatic stress after being taken to Homeworld and reach out to him about it, does not in Future reach out to him after he expresses blatant distress over having to deal with more of his mom’s problems. I’m supposed to believe this? Seriously?

And Amethyst? I think she’s the most obvious offender since a big part of her arc in the end of the OG series is emotional maturity.There’s a whole episode dedicated to her putting Steven’s feelings first. Acknowledging the pressure he’s been under and the shit that’s been dumped on him for years and the horror of finding out Rose was a Diamond which makes him a Diamond and recognizing that he’s not OK. He can’t be. Learning that Steven deals by distracting himself with other tasks and people. But sure when Amethyst notices Steven throwing himself into his work in Future, her response is just “When did you become such a prick?” Yeah. Totally sounds right.

There is a whole arc about these two emotionally connecting through their insecurities and the strength they find in having each other to relate to and rely on and confide in. It is one of my favorites in the entire story. And it is totally thrown out a window in Future. If no one else you’d think at least Amethyst would reach out to Steven in Future before he spirals, but no.

Literally it’s like the entire Gem trio’s emotionally sent back to square 1 and their perception’s lowered to 0, which is lower than it was to begin with, because it was the only way Future could work. Seriously, after Prickly Pair nobody tries to talk to Steven? Nobody insists they need to talk about what the fuck just happened? Nobody goes after Steven when he runs away, twice?! Once after crashing the van with his dad inside, in which he disappears for 3 whole days. Another time after talking about how they can’t help him anymore, which is really alarming! Then they all just let Steven go when he returns from Homeworld glowing with Diamond pupils?! are you kidding me, are you fUcking KidDing me am I supposed to believe they’re even his friends in Future what the fuck I hate this 

-- And framing everything like the Gems have never been there for Steven? Hate that too. There’s countless episodes in the OG series proving that’s not true. Steven himself says it’s not. At one point that’s what keeps him from literally falling from the sky.

“I just need something that makes me happy, something I can always depend on to cheer me up. My guys. They spent all night out here just to keep me company. No matter how much I mess up they’ll be there to help me.”

It’s the biggest reason why the Gems are foils to the Diamonds!

“Remember back when I was little and maybe kind of annoying, and I couldn’t come along on adventures? You guys would still drop everything to hang out with me.”

Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst begin kind of oblivious and inattentive, but they don’t stay that way. They are always learning, and apologizing, and changing when they realize their behavior is harmful. To themselves, to the team as a whole, to strangers, to Steven. They do very early in the series start setting work aside to spend time with him. Together breakfast (which ends up meaning so much to Garnet that it becomes her wedding cake), mini golf, cards, board games, movies, the arcade, the amusement park. They’re Steven’s band in beach-a-palooza. They become, not only better caretakers, but his friends.

A team. For the main Crystal Gem quartet so much of the show is about them learning to become a team by learning to understand each other and helping each other grow, leading to a stunning display of teamwork in the finale with Garnet, Pearl, Amethyst, and Steven all fusing together into one kickass warrior, Obsidian. It’s so perfect that this didn’t, couldn’t, happen until the end, after all that development. It’s so satisfying.

-- Like I mentioned before, there’s no reason why the Gems, including the others like Peridot, Lapis, and Bismuth, wouldn’t try to help Steven learn to control his new powers in Future.

-- A lot of the, uh, conflicts Steven faces in Future also feel ignorant to the OG series.

Steven in future: i just feel like i can’t make mistakes in front of you guys and cant be honest cause its mean and i have to be nice and perfect :(

Steven in og series: oh geez I really messed up sorry guys; [feels like the worst Crystal Gem cause he’s always fucking up]; (Garnet: You’re making Pearl very upset) “IM very upset!“; “What Rose wanted--ARGH! What about what I want?! I’m sick of you always lying to me!”; “Home’s been awful! Here’s been awful! Everyone’s been acting awful too!”

Steven in future: idk how to be a friend to someone who’s not a miserable sad sack with no direction in life

Connie: hey what the fuck

What was the point of all the townie episodes if we’re going to act like Steven never connected with the human part of his life why would the og show bounce between gem eps and human eps if not to show how Steven connects with both worlds ad’g;ajfgjfagjLAFKJS

Steven in future: why didn’t my meddling advice work? this has never happened before. am i losing my touch. who am i

Og Steven, multiple times: aaAAAAAH I SHOULD NOT HAVE MEDDLED AND PUSHED I MADE THINGS WORSE

- Why wasn’t Mindful Education revisited? Steven’s a fusion technically, right, so if he’s feeling, you know, deeply conflicted about his 2 halves, doesn’t that mean he’s out of harmony? There’s a way for 2 halves of a fusion to communicate through meditation and address what’s causing the imbalance, but I guess that would’ve solved Steven’s problem too easily. That’s the only reason Connie’s kept out of Future for so long too, right? Ugh. Never mind the fact that Mindful Ed taught Steven that it’s really important to face upsetting thoughts and feelings and traumas before they tear him apart. But whatever! what ever

- God this isn’t even half of the issues I now have with Future, but I don’t want this post to be 8 miles longer than it already is. Basically I feel like Future does a disservice to the characters and story being told in the original series, which I am very fond of now. It reminds me of an OOC fanfiction. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I really do not want to argue about this. It’s just my opinion. I’m kind of venting. If you agree, great. If you don’t, please keep scrolling. Thanks.

[nodelinquent]

an obnoxiously long liveblog where i react to the swedish dub of the steven universe movie (warning: i actually like dubs and wont constantly complain, sorry).

"come live with us in the palace, you can stay here FOREVER" jesus christ lmao

steven's voice finally fits lmao

wait it's sadie THRILLER in swedish????

some of these rhymes are impressive but hus and ljus? not great gang fdsjkhf

wow ok the lyrics for steven's part in here we are in the future is uuuh not great??? like they threw words in at random

FUCKING.... PäRLAN..... hate that still

they didnt translate homeworld..... im crying why is the dub LIKE THIS....

BUT KINDERGARDEN SHOULD BE TRANSLATED I SEE HOW IT IS LMAO

i do wanna show this movie to my nephew, he really liked watching the su clips i showed him back in the day.... i think it's the bright colors and singing honestly lmao

OK SHUT UP EVERYONE SPINEL IS COMING!!!!!!!!!

OH.... idk if i recognize this voice actress?? she sounds so cute

amethyst just said "pucko" and i feel blessed lmao

who IS this girl??? i like her but WHO IS SHE

lets hear her sing ahhhhhh

"ive listened plenty of times to steven's refrain, oh how fun it is to finally meet pink's gang" I LOVE THAT.....

the song is a lil meaner to steven specifically i kinda love it lmao

the actress does a good job kinda copying spinel's voice and laugh without overdoing it, i think? it's nice i like her!!

they missed the opportunity to almost have greg say "shit" and i will never forget, never forgive.

god the way they translated some of these lyrics makes it even MORE confusing to understand what's happening lmao

i recognize ruby and sapphire's voice actresses, veterans

theres actually a lot of talented veterans in swedish su, even if ppl complain all the time abt them lmao

like man steven's voice actor is finally allowed to emote now that he doesnt have to sound like a baby all the time

idk how i feel abt bismuth... i dont think ive heard her before so it might just be like, shock fhshjdshfds

bismuth's voice is very interesting??? she seems to have a lisp or smth? man i kinda like it?? too bad she has to sing THE WORST SONG IN THE MOVIE..........

"krullhåriga" is accurate yes but god they should have used "lockhåriga"....

"isn't it love" in swedish is very good, i have no complaints

i wonder how much of the cast is woc

one of my favorite songs is coming up ahhhhhhh

oh it's cuute.... the "no matter what"-end part could have been stronger but it's good!!

"what are you doing here now huh what?" like those old anime dubs...

they used "backa undan" but "håll dig undan" would have sounded more natural imo

"i'm back you nut" again, im blessed

half of the time i cant tell if the written lines are bad or if it's the actors dinking them up and no one bothering to fix it

YEAH IT'S SADIE THRILLER????? im crying that makes no sense lmao

man am i excited to hear steg

"disobedient" is also okay fjsdhfds

i wonder if these are on swedish spotify fdshkfsd (theyre not and never will be)

OOOOOOH I LOVE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!! good voice

"independent together" is VERY GOOOOD AHHHHH they're using a word thats more like "unbound/unfettered together" and thats very sexy lmao

OPAL??? her voice is omg??? not prepared. it's good tho lmao

they dont use happily ever after, instead they say "promising future" and idk how i feel abt that

we're getting to HERE IN THE GARDEN

theyre so hit and miss with the lyrics in swedish dub su so im very scared

HOMEWORLD im still not over that lmao WHY DID THEY NOT TRANSLATE IT?!?!?

here in OUR garden????

"och sen så log hon, till min förtjusning, ögonen blänkte, det var sån berusning" ("and then she smilled, to my delight, eyes shining, it was such an intoxication")  is actually SUCH a good translation ahhhhh

i quite like "gled iväg" for "drift away" too... it's the word we use for things like "slip out of my hands (gled mig ur händerna)". like she just WATCHED pink slip out of her hands.... ahhh

"she doesn't exist anymore, only the son is left, what am i waiting for now?" MAKES ME VERY SAD LMAO

"i feel so RAW" DANG....

overall "drift away" was also good, nice job ya dinguses

i wish there were subtitles bc it took me several listens to realize spinel was very quickly shouting "JUST POUR SALT IN MY WOUNDS WHY DONTCHA"

"Found" is interesting bc they make it sound like Spinel needs romantic love and not like, general love fdjskhfdsk also instead of found it's "needed" which is hm.... i mean.... a lil messed up fdskjf

i rly like connie's voice, idk if ive said that yet

spinel's voice actor cant quite be as unhinged as og spinel, but she's trying and she's good!! we stan!!!

"true kinda love" is also good, they say "cause i believe in love" which is cute... excited to hear steven's lil bit in it

wow... steven's bit was bad, very disappointing.

steven's voice actor is so good wtf??

why did they use "förgöra" (destroy) instead of kill??? the cowards at swedish CN can fight me

theres no good translation for "change" in swedish, which is very unfortunate for this bit of the movie kfdskdsfhds

steven's swedish voice actor obviously does not hold a candle to zach callison BUT it's extra bad when he sings lmao

ok i REALLY love the lyrics they did for "change" like good job gang i wanna learn this version and sing it all the time

"let us adore you reprise" is also good, now it makes sense why they used love like that in "found", so it'd match up with this

ok steven's voice actor could pull off the high notes for "happily ever after reprise" but he missed it so many other times bfdkshfhdskds DO RE-TAKES PLEASE SWEDISH CN I BEG???

overall this dub was good, i think?? at least they didnt censor any queers this time fdshjdsfjkfjds

[chadprez]

Kay’s Questioning Adventure! Chapter 3: 1 Year, 1 Boy, and a Mom.

Note: Italics = Japanese.

-----------

FATALITY! SUB ZERO WINS!

I stare at the screen, seeing who won.

Sighing, I sulk back into the couch and scrunch up my face.

‘That’s-’

“6 - 2! Are you sure you’re good at Mortal Kombat? What happened to those skills you were talking about?”

Gripping the controller, ‘I only played against hard bots..’

“Maal, aren’t you being a bit rude? I have skills, I-I-I just need to warm up! Once I warm up I promise I can beat you..”

He looks at me with the face saying ‘I know you’re lying’.

After a few seconds, he chuckles and puts me in a small hug. “Awww, Is my little bean upset that I keep beating them at their own game?” I glare at him, “You better be lucky I love you. Dork..”

“English please! I only know anime words!”

I grab his arm and squeeze it, “YOU KNOW WHAT I’M SAYING!! STOP TRYING TO GET ME TO TALK IN ENGLISH ALL THE TIME!”

He grabs my wrist trying to get me to stop breaking his arm, “IM SORRY! IM SORRY!”

Sighing again, I let go of his arm and reach over to grab my phone. Maal rubs his arm while mumbling curses under his breath, “You got one hell of a grip right there..”

He realized I didn’t respond and just staring at my phone. “Hey bean? What you got..” He leans over and sees what I see. At the same time we say-

“Oh..”

“Dear.”

Imagine: You're in a dark spacious room with the only light source being flashed on you. Then one by one, lights being to flash on different sexualities/genders. you see your peers/fictional characters in their respect areas, and they all reach out their hands to you. You're confused, but no longer scared. Now the question is, which one will you choose?

Heh, It’s me again! This chapter is somewhat special! So I’m introducing 2 new characters. As you saw earlier, you see a guy names Maal! That’s just his nickname. So that ‘Maal’ guy is well, my partner! That’s not his actual name, it’s actually Jamaal. wOaH- an American? African American to be exact!

Now, what’s the problem this chapter? Well, let’s find out..

-----------

“Hey! Hey! Hey! No need for pushing! And do I really have to go UNDER the bed again?!”

“Yes you have to go under the bed! You know this already! We’ve been doing this for 3 years!” I continue pushing him towards my room, I CAN’T let her see him! I’m not ready!

Maal stops walking which makes me bump into him, “Why can’t she just meet me already? I feel like we’ve been kept a secret for too long.”

“We haven’t been kept a secret, Mariyah and our friends already know we’re together. Hell! Even your parents know! I’m just not ready for her to meet you yet.. Plus I haven’t even told her I’m.. You know..”

I feel 2 arms wrap around me, “I know you’re scared, I know. But she can’t really do anything. What is she gonna do? Ground you? She can go kick rocks with..?”

Chuckling I finish his sentence, “With an open toe shoe.. thanks Maal.”

He gives me a smile, “That’s what I’m here for, now, can I meet her?”

“You’re going under the bed.”

-----------

I go towards the door once I hear a knock on it, I peep through the hole and open the door.

“Heeey Momma!”

“Hi sweetie, I see you’re playing Mortal Kombat again.”

I look over to the TV, Ah! I forgot that was on the screen!

“Were you playing with someone?”

“Yep! Mariyah! You just missed her.”

That was a close one, I move aside to let her in.

I just realized how short she was again..

She goes to sit on the couch in the living room, I sit right next to her and change it to a regular channel.

“Sooo... What are you doing here?” I look over towards her to see her scrolling through her phone. I hope she doesn’t ask to go to my room, I didn’t put him under the bed because I’m not that cruel.

“I just wanted to see my daughter of course. Why? Are you busy?” She puts her phone down and looks at me.

“N-No! I was just wondering because you didn’t inform me before coming over today!” I put my hands up in defense, leaning over, I grab the remote and flip through some channels. Just to avoid eye contact.

“Hmph, okay. Let’s watch that show you like so much, you know, the one with the boy who has a gem on his belly button.”

Ah! Steven Universe! I love that show!

I look for Steven Universe and click on my favorite episode ‘The Answer’

As we watch through the episode, my mom’s mood changes.

“What’s wrong? You seem upset.” She sighs and pauses the episode, “Garnet is a fusion right? Aren’t Ruby and Sapphire girls?”

“Well, gems don’t really have genders.. but if you had to choose a gender, they’re most likely girls. Is there a problem?”

Her face scrunches up a bit, “YEAH, It’s a huge problem actually. Why are they showing 2 lesbians on a kids show?! It’s a kids show! Plus it’s just.. ew.”

I sigh, maybe I shouldn’t have picked this episode.. I forgot how much of a homophobe she was. I guess today isn’t the right day. Blocking out her constant complaints, I think about how much I wish she wasn’t like this. Can’t she just understand that we’re human to?

-----------

“Bye bye! Have a safe ride!” I wave outside the door to my mom as she leaves.

When she finally leaves, I close the door and sigh. Sliding down the door, I feel my throat burn and my face scrunches up.

Shit, I’m about to cry.

I feel 2 arms lift me up off of the ground and drag me to the soft couch cushions.

Pulling me into a hug, I let it all out.

“It’s alright, It’s alright.. Let it all out..” He keeps comforting me, over, and over again. I wrap my arms around his torso and keep on crying. Jesus, I really am a crybaby.

“I know it’s hard to tell her, you’re not ready yet.. Just know I’m here to support you 100% Me and the crew.” Rubbing circles on my back, trying to calm me down. “Look at me.”

I look up, feeling a soft peck on my forehead. “Come on, let’s go to your room. We can binge JoJo if you want, I still have to catch up on part 5.”

Wiping my eyes, I smile at him a bit. He stands up, making me stand up with him, and we walk to my room.

“Are you spending the night?”

“Hell yeah.”

“Can I bring out my Kakashi body pillow?”

“Fuck no.”

Happy 4 years Maal, you’re always there for me. <3

[bucksbisexual]

i know i said my ep11-12 one would be the last one but from the two (2) things i've seen, this episode are Heavy and i wanted to write down my reaction so, let's start:

EPISODE 15: MR. UNIVERSE

ohhh is this a greg and steven episode?

"diner is served" bRuh that's sugar

ohhhhh baby:-((

I love greg's hair rn

omg yes ROADTRIPPPP

steven lowkey looks like he doesn't wanna be there sjsjsj

WAIT WHAT SJDJSJSJS GREG WHAT ARE YOU DOING

HE'S BREAKING THE LAW WHAT THE HELL GREG

"I BETTER WRITE A NOTE" SJSJSJSJ WHAT

hes fanboying over his dad's stuff it's so cute

OH MY GOD HE LOOKS BOLD

"its a habit" sjdjsj bad boy greg

OHHHH HE'S UNIVERSE BECAUSE OF A SONG THAT'S ACTUALLY SO CUTE

okay but this song is actually good

why are u mad steven

oh boi......

oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no

STEVEN

OH NO THE VAN 😭😭😭😭😭😭

god i can relate to this so much

being given so much freedom as a kid can actually damage you and im glad we can see this in suf so new parents can't do that because that def fucked both steven and i haha

also i really like the fact that steven is so tired of everyone being all positive around him trying to make him feel better, it shows how much he's changed and how being a teenager is like (im steven's age so,,)

alright next one,,,

EPISODE 16: FRAGMENTS

what i mentioned earlier that i saw was from this episode so i'm scared...

STEVEN

TALK ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS

NOT THE FROG CUP

OH?????????

THE SLOWING TIME THING AGAIN

OH HE'S WITH JASPER

"so what you're saying is that you're here FOR A REMATCH [rips blanket]"

oh boy,,,,,,

WHY ARE YOU DESTROYING THE FOREST JASPER THE EARTH IS DYING

"NO THE GRASS" KSJDKSNS

WHY ARE JASPERS LINES SO FUNNY SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE SCARY KSJSKSKSK

"lesson 1: stop smiling" "but i've seen you smile" "ugh [kicks him who knows how up into the sky]"

dude you're probably tired go to sleep

jasper rELAX

wait he's actually staying there wtf

JASPER BAAAAAAALL

FAST STEVEN

HIS HAIR SJDJSKSJS WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE STEG'S

did he grow tall too damn son

damn hes Stuffed

steven u need to Rest not fight

STEVEN DON'T TURN BAD SON

YOU NEED THERAPY NOT THIS

DID HE PUFF HER

HE DID

HE BROKE HER GEM HWHAT THE FUCK

STEVEN WHAT THE FUCK DUDE

HOLY SUFCKSKSJDKS

JASPER??????????

"I BOW TO YOUR STRENGHT, MY DIAMOND"

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHTIRJSKSJAAKSK

I LITERALLY HAVE NO WORDS RIGHT NOW OTHER THAN WHAT THE FUCK

HE LITERALLY SHATTERED HER AND NOW SHE SEES HIM AS HEE DIAMOND

also everyone saying the hiding hand scene was the beginning of corrupted steven JOKES ON YOU

im sorry i can't think holy shit that was such a heavy episode i can't even imagine how the finale will be

because there's characters we still haven't seen that are in the intro

god im excited but at the same time nervous about next week's (well, as im writing this, this week's) episodes

also i just watched the teaser of the finale and holy shit im so Scared steven baby:-(((

well that's it for today! hope any of u relate to my reactions lolz let me know ur favourite scenes and what you thought of jasper calling steven my diamond !! if this is messy well it's rebecca sugar's fault for making me Lose My Marbles

im probably not gonna do this for the finale so this is the last time im doing this.. unless 🤔 jk i'll try to watch it live so i won't be on my phone typing (or doing anything) ,,

sigh we have 4 more episodes to go but i already know im gonna miss steven universe the moment it ends

[kerm-the-fro]

guess its time to gush again

but this time spinel version

(spoilers if you havent seen the movie yet)

i fucking love her!! her vocie, her singing, her anatomy, her plot, her animation, her bounce, everything!!

when steven keeps trying to sing to her and convince her she can change and she keeps attacking!! such a good villain

she doenst let stuff get to her so easily, only thing i dont like is when garnet goes from cotton candy to normal and she freezes, she was already attacking and knew what she was doing so she shouldve kept attacking

sure she mightve been kinda shocked by it but she saw steven and instantly attacked him in like the same scene, she shouldve been able to keep attacking garnet as well

also she doesng monologue!! good job!! she let steven monologue tho, bad choice

she was such a good villain that she accomplished what she wanted to, she made all that bad juice go into the earth, she poofed the gems and made them forget everything, she did what she wanted

the ending? ehh, i wish she kept the form but switched her gem to be the right side up, yknow?

i mean she learned to love again so wouldnt t make sense her gem was the right way up? still keeping her present form tho

if she was gonna notice she was doing bad shit why only notice after executing the entire plan

but back to loving her!!

she literally had the message on loop, im assuming while she was building the extractor or whatever its called (and ive had her song on loop while writing this)

also i got the feeling shes sadistic(not in a secual way) from the first fight scene, laughing snd smiling while slashing at steven and poofing tthe gems, and even when she gets poofed! she’s still laughing insanely!! i love it for some reason

also when she gets a mad and shes still laughing and smiling, especially when she says “on this nowhere planet with a bunch of nobodies!”

i dont get how people saw her and thought “hmm yes i will hate this new villain” like bitch i saw her and instantly knew i was gonna love her

i love her singing a lot too!! when she goes gravely or very soft, when she can go very loud or quiet, low or high, i love her voice range!!

in Other Friends when she says the “what did she say about me?”, it’s literally relatable, i mean if somebody left you for a while you would want to know what they said about you

i want a spinel poster if there ever is one

dont @ me but she has the best plot/story/whatever/character development in the whole show

also movie related stuff:

steg is like if you took a fusion of elvis and mondo and put it in jjba

gregs arm is fucking gone, i mean that shits gone like hell, its fucking grey

the human arm cannot function without connecting to a muscle in the chest, so therefore steg has four chest whatever the fuck theyre called (titties lol)

garnet is officially gay, they got the rings now

all my friends were scared when steg appeared and i was actually laughing my ass off, i almost fell out of my chair multiple times

the movie itself was kinda rushed?? like the story kinda went quickly but whatever

i love he fighting scene on the retracter!! injected!! whatever the fuck!! the harsh shading for the dramatic effect is awesome!! the animation style changes a bit but it made that scene better!!

also dropping the song here

[helpimstuckindreamland]

Nov. 7th-8th dream experiment

Nov. 7th-8th

Airport super futuristic setting. Almost everything seems like it's made of windows, I can see enormous buildings with reflective black windows and a deep red frame. There are holographic highways zig zagging all throughout the city. The city sits on the edge of the coast, the water being the only natural thing in sight. I'm on an airplane as we gracefully spiral down to the port. Im alone at the moment but I know my sister is on board as well and I get up from my seat to find her. She's playing on the dispatch chairs. They sit in a circle, indented into the floor, covered in fancy black leather. The floor here is opaque and has a sliding hatch. A memory tells me I've played on them as a kid and almost got dropped into the sea. I quickly run to Emily and tell her to hop off, we gotta go. She's sucking on a big old rainbow lollipop absentmindedly and just looks at me and giggles as she runs to the far side of the circle. I groan as I hop in with her. My intention was to grab her and toss her back onto safe flooring but just as I go to reach for her the plane lands and the hatch begins to open. Beneath me I can see the ground floor of the port, but it's stories down. I snatch Emily and hang on to the slowly receding doors, desperately trying to scramble back to safety. Finally the doors stop, with maybe an inch to spare and I use all my effort to haul us back up and over the side. .Emily smiles and produces a second rainbow lollipop for me. I roll my eyes and take it. 

I see Emily off the plane and go back to my seat where I left my bags. I see a few other passengers still leaving, some struggling with their luggage. They all look "alien" or at least they would if I were awake but in the dream world, alien seems pretty normal. I see a large snail ever so slowly making his way to the doors. He's wearing a monocle and a brown top hat, not too tall and not too sharp. I direct my attention to the corridor I'm walking in when suddenly the plane lurches forward. Everything quickly becomes chaos, luggage goes flying as well as people. For a moment we are airborne again. Shit, did I dwaddle too long and get stuck on the round trip flight? No, the plane has stopped again, it's unclear where exactly, despite the plane being mostly windows it looks dark outside. Are we in a warehouse? 

I hear doors open from the side and something inside me tells me to hide. I find a closet and crouch down, peeking out through some ventilation slits in the door. I press my face up against it and it's cold. I can see.. troops… troops of.. AI? 

Let me pause and explain what AI meant to me in this dream real quick: they are artificial intelligence, yes, but they have also been dubbed living creatures and thus are treated like human beings. Okay, press play.

They all look so perfect, and they're all women. They're laughing and chatting with one another but that doesn't seem to convince me to leave my hiding spot. Once everyone is boarded the plane takes off again. We fly up and into the air again moving incredibly fast that I can't see the city anymore, just a blurr of ocean blue. I take a moment to myself then look back out my peephole.

All of the AI are lying on the floor, crumpled in awkward positions from falling where they stand. Are they not used to flying? I open the door to Inspect and find..

Oh my god.

They're all dead. 

Lying in heaps, covering every inch of the floor are AI bodies. Who would do this? As if in answer I hear a sliding door open and in steps another AI. she's as beautiful as they come. She stands with confidence and grace. She looks over at me in shock. Turns to someone behind her and motions towards me. Immediately a large man in Black comes hurtling out of the door right at me. 

Fuck.

I run. Over the bodies. I feel incredibly disrespectful, but at the same time I don't want to end up like them. 

I find a narrow hallway used by flight attendants and bolt. The big man in Black can't fit and starts searching for another way around. Another memory pops into my head. These women, the AI. I remember them from another dream. They were in a warehouse getting ready to board an air ship. I had been in a different body then and had just landed in the warehouse. I consider this as I continue to run. There. A vent. I bend down and start crawling. I pass by several windows of light, I can see through some into other passenger portions of the plane. They're all filled with still living, breathing AI. I look around wondering if it's safe to warn them. Suddenly they all drop to the floor. Dead. Fuck, I continue down the vent line, stopping by each window and seeing the same date befall the clueless passengers. I keep going, no longer stopping to watch these creatures die. I'm pissed as I crawl and I crawl, until I find a window with one pair of feet. It's the woman who seems to be in charge from earlier. She's giving commands to people, obviously still trying to hunt me down. I crouch down further to get a wider angle and I see a few other passengers from the initial flight. The poor snail has been nearly beaten to a pulp and amethyst (yes from Steven universe) is lying dead on the ground beside him. 

I wait for the men in Black to leave before busting out of the vent. I look around, taking in the rest of the room. We're in a corridor, near the floor hatch. I immediately whirl around to face the woman. God damn does she look perfect. Beautiful eyes and hair, clear soft skin, full lips. I must've asked her what the fuck was going on because she says, " they're all imperfect. I can't have that. We are to be the superiors of this world and I won't allow mistakes." 

" What do you mean, mistakes? They all looked perfect to me! And you killed them all! They were LIVING CREATURES!" 

I'm obviously pissed at this point and I lunge at her, knocking her down. I hear a rip behind me and a rush of wind. I look over to see a gaping holes in the plane, I can see the city not too far off. Someone on board must have looped us back around. I give the perfectionist one last look before throwing her out of the hole and into the ocean, miles below us.

I look back at the body of amethyst. There are two other people standing over her, people that weren't there a minute ago. I go into third person view. "She's dead." One says. They have this mystically powerful aura about them.  

"I can see that. This wouldn't have happened if she had stayed with us."

"She made her choice, I doubt she'd have even made it this long on your side." Two more people show up from the hole in the plane. Everything gets to be really tense. I'm not going to bore you with the details of their conversation. They basically showed up at the end of this intense scene, after everyone is dead, argued to each other until it was obvious they had some sort of inter relationship drama between the two "sides" which I gathered to be gods side versus Lucifer's side. Then they take off again like "oh our work here is done." Friggin dumbasses didn't even do shit. 

Anyway. I crawl over to the body of amethyst and I see something glowing in her. Then it disappears and I see her soul give me a wink. I don't know why I did this but I went to the hole and stared out, we were close enough to the city that I could see the highways again. I look down at the water and something inside me tells me to jump. So I do. And I start flying as if it was as natural as farting. 

I'm heading back to the city, where this catastrophe is becoming the hottest news in media. 

Later, when things have settled down, I'm called as a witness for the uh, Mr. Snail. He didn't really have a name so just call him that. He's sitting in a large courtroom looking office, his boss sitting in the judge's chair. He looks fucking awful, all bruised up, swollen, one eye is looking particularly rough. He's stammering as he tries to explain why he was absent from work for two days with no pre-requested time off. The boss judge doesn't seem to be buying it, despite the state of her employee who was clearly tortured and traumatized by the events on the plane. I vouch for him and then I'm sent out of the room. Later that day I meet up with him again to ask him how it went. He looked beaten. Not just in the literal sense.

"She sent me to a new location for work." 

"Oh?" I ask, "where's that?" 

He points to the looming airport in front of us. 

Oh. 

[thelowlysatsuma]

Ramble in whatever form you choose. I won’t be able to be active all the time so if you want to be able to do it whenever you want I’d say text posts but I’ll also try to occasionally ask you about them so there’s some variety

!!! okay! well i think i’ll choose a couple from the list that i haven’t made many posts about before (aka no ts or go) and ramble on here!

oof under the cut bc idk how long this will get

steven universe

oh hon don’t even get me STARTED on su like that shit? that shit is so good? okay first of all i love the cast so much? gosh they’re just all so sweet and cool and sometimes they collab w/ thomas sanders and i love rebecca sugar and im gonna cry they’re so sweet im so soft

okay SECONDLY the show itself oof

okay okay im just? god im so soft?? like the music is so good, i can (and do) watch it w/ my parents, GOD do i wanna cosplay pearl’s new outfit (and rainbow 2.0, if i can pull it off), im in love with the concept and all the fusions and the story and the worldbuilding and god, this made me realize my utter love and adoration of COLOURS like they’re so PRETTY im in LOVE oh my gOD and just

god it has such a good message and such a good plot and such good characters i wanna be steven’s friend i wanna be all of their friends oh man i just can’t wait until my baby cousins are old enough for me to show this to them because i’m going to enjoy that experience so much

ducktales

oh jfc where the fuck do i even start with ducktales okay david tennant as scrooge mcduck makes my fucking life literally he’sthe best goddamn charaacter in the show – well, best besides the triplets (my BOYS), webby (!!! my KID), f e n t o n (god i love that nerd), mark beaks (what an asshole), mrs beakley (i wanna be her when i grow up), launchpad (!!! he!!), and so many others??? this is like serious every character in the show erasure but hot damn duck tales says gay rights and it does so in style (oh yeah also i love lena della donald oh webby’s new friend whose name i forget uhhh herules oh the inventor guy fenton’s boss that dipshit love him uhhh gandra dee who’s voiced by jameela jamil if im not mistaken??????) and yeah it’s a hilarious show but it’s also just a really good one for me to watch whenever i start to like. feel empty inside?? but then like i’ll put on ducktales and i’ll feel better

gravity falls

this show. this show RUINED ME. i started watching it like four years late (aka last year lmao) but GOD, im so in love with it. def another one i wanna show my cousins.

like?? just??? the ciphers and mysteries appeal so much to me and my love of mystery and crime novels, the characters are all amazing, alex hirsch himself is just such a g?? and like. it’s so good. it hurts me so much but then it’s all okay in the end and it’s just. it’s so good.

yeah i sobbed my eyes out when i watched that series finale.

camp camp, which somehow i forgot on my other list

god, is this show hilarious. like, fuck is it funny. it’s so good. it’s so fucking good. i was a little shocked when i saw the first episode but i’m so into it now, and i’m so attatched to all the characters bc they’re just dumbasses trying their best (or worst, in a few cases) and i love them for it. that’s peak fool energy right there and it speaks to me

orphan black

okay okay okay veering now into a much darker type of television, orphan black is??? phenominal???

okay so my best friend @fuck-me-gently-with-a-slurpee got me into it when i was like 14 or 15 i think and i honestly cannot thank her enough because this show is incredible. the plot’s super engaging, i literally cannot say anything about it without giving away spoilers, and the main character has quite possibly the best actor i’ve ever seen playing her

like. you think thomas sanders is good? he ain’t got SHIT on tatianna maslany

mythbusters

you guys. you guys. mythbusters was my childhood. like seriously, i watched that show religiously.

it’s what first got me into science, and it’s what kept me interested in explosions. it’s light and funny and ridiculous and scientifically accurate in the dumbest ways possible. i swear to god the main cast nearly dies once an episode

these guys are my idols. like, i seriously cannot overstate how much i love the mythbusters. adam and jamie, tori, kari, and grant.

when i was a kid, i wanted to be a mythbuster when i grew up, and god damnit, i still do. they mean that much to me

bill nye

fun fact! i actually had no fuckin clue who bill nye was until seventh grade, when i had to watch an episode of his show for homework because i missed a day of class. it was the episode on static electricity, and i remember sitting at my dining room table in the dim winter afternoon light, squinting at my computer, and thinking “what the FUCK am i WATCHING?”

needless to say, i’ve seen more since then, but that initial what the fuckery is still present and i love it.

not only is bill nye the science guy a flippin fantstic show, but bill nye himself? the coolest guy alive. god, i love him. what a g.

various comedians including but not limited to john mulaney,john oliver, and hasan minhaj

okay, as a gay, i am legally required to love john mulaney, but seriously that guy is so. fuckin. funny that i can’t help myself. his timing is priceless, the way he moves onstage is hysterical, just. god i love his stuff.

literally his comedic timing and style is half the reason people find me funny. i just phrase my sentences the way he would because, you know, i’m good at stealing things, and people laugh, and i go “hey. that actually worked”. and then i keep doing it

next, john oliver. okay, so while i don’t watch his show religiously, i do watch it when my parents do every now and again, and fuck is his stuff funny. like. just. shit.

finally, hasan minhaj’s patriot act is just. one of my favourite current events comedy shows out there. it’s in a similar vein to john oliver’s stuff, just more international, and shit, is he good at what he does. i lvoe it.

hoodwinked the movie (i am dead serious)

okay, while i haven’t seen it in over four years, this is still my favourite movie of all time. it also has one of my favourite villain songs of all times, and some of the best character exchanges just. ever. especially with wolf and twitchy

...god, i love twitchy. also the goat. i’m probably gonna be the goat when i grow up, let’s be honest

one day at a time

i just.

there’s so much to say about odaat. like. it’s so funny. it makes me nearly cry every episode (and makes my mother actually cry every episode). the characters, god, the characters

like. alex is such a cute dumb kid (who’s smarter than he looks), penelope is so salty constantly and i love her but she’s genuinely so cool and such a good mom and i cry??? elena is so amazing like god she’s such a fuckin nerd but she’s also so salty (takes after her mom) and is literally the best????

and then there’s abuelita, whom i adore. like, god, rita moreno is SO cool and SUCH a great actress and has SUCH an amazing sense of comedic timing and GOD, i LOVE HER

can’t forget about syd and doc berkowitz, which like. okay first off the good doc. just. god i love the doc. he’s so sweet and such a genuinely good dude and he’s a bit of a coward at heart but that’s okay because he genuinely cares and does his best and god he’s just such an amazing character im !!!!! and then syd is such a dork and i love them and elena and god, it made me so happy to see not only an actual enby character on a big sitcom, but also just?? like??? it’s not forced but it’s still there??? like there’s one episode where one of the plots is just syd and elena trying to figure out what elena should call them, since neither of them are comfy using “girlfriend” for syd since they’re not a girl, and they finally agree on “significant other” and schneider imMEDIATELY says “dont you mean, SYDnificant other?” and then they use that for the REST OF THE SHOW IT”S SO CUTE OKAY

and finally, schneider. he might be my favourite character in the entire show (which is a damn hard list to pick from!!!), but he’s just. he’s so sweet, he and penelope have one of the absolute best male/female friendships i’ve ever seen (which! never! turns! romantic! ever!!!), he’s actually got surprising depths but he’s also like such a nice goofball that when they get revealed, it hurts, and he’s just this canadian dumbass (heyyyyy repreSENT) with the worst goddamn canadian accent sometimes and he’s a hipster and The Dumb Friend and the weird uncle all rolled into one and GOD, i love him so much

the good place and brooklyn 99

okay, i love these two both so, so much, but i’m lumping them together because a) they’re both mike schur shows with a similar sense of humour, that say gay rights, and with characters who’d definitely love each other if they met and b) my hand is getting tired from all this typing but i still have so much  love to go around!!!!

okay so so SO! they’re both so good. they’re so fucking funny and amazing and i was immediately hooked on both of their pilots. their characters are all so genuine and flawed and fucking hysterical to watch, and the ships and friendships are all so amazing and pure and good and soft and they have their problems and they WORK THEM OUT HEALTHILY AND IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY OKAY!!!

god, i literally cannot overstate how much i adore these two shows. mike schur, you’re a wonderful, wonderful dude. thank you so much

many musicals (top faves include BOM, hamilton, legally blonde, chicago, matilda, and more!)

i’m putting the musicals together because while i do adore each and every one of them individually, i also just have great big deep-seated love of the art of musical theatre itself in general, ya feel?

like, as someone who’s been both performing and viewing them from a very young age, the sheer sense of utter joy they bring is almost unparalleled

not to be That Bitch who quotes musicals, but “and that hop in our hearts as the overture starts lets us know how lucky we are” might be the closest i’ve ever gotten to finding words to fit the feeling when the lights go down and the show begins. it’s simply phenomenal

the others series by anne bishop

okay, OKAY, if you haven’t read this series (first book called written in red – they have terrible titles but god, they’re worth it), then what are you doing with your life? like, not only is there the perfect logicality au to them (just sayin’), but god, it’s such an incredible series

the worldbbuilding is so cool and the characters are all great and god the ships are the damn hill i die on it’s got literally such a good “sort of enemies mostly just dislike each other to reluctant acquaintances to friends to lovers” ship and it deals with some serious issues rlly well and it’s got baby puppies!!!

like, they’re wolf puppies, but still, they are b a b e y

and finally (for now, at least), the mysterious benedict society, by trenton lee stewart

this book series was my childhood. i mean, there are so many other books i could be talking about right now that i utterly adore (the artemis fowl series springs to mind), but gosh, MBS just brings me such absolute joy to read that i just had to have it on here.

i’m not thinking straight at this point in the evening, but i just wanna say that i will never, not ever forget about reynie. about kate. about sticky. about constance. about rhonda and number two and milligan and miss perumal and my absolute son sq pedalian and, of course, i will never, never forget about mr benedict

it’s bright, and it’s bittersweet, and it’s beautiful.

and it’s good. simply, utterly, wonderfully good.

thank you for the ask, anon.

thank you.