#and at no point was the conclusion 'he's evil' but nice try.

[bugslaststraw]

See it's funny because in the games, and in any other assorted media before the movies came out, everyone low-key just hates Robotnik. And not even in the fun dedicated way like they all seem to think he's a bit of a failure. Which sounds weird if you don't know anything about Sonic (and certainly sounded weird to me three weeks ago when I was one of those people) but it really is just genuinely the case. I think?

Obviously his family all hate him. Movie-only fans will have an idea about this one; we've got good old Geralt Robotnik who didn't give a rats ass about him in favour of his long-dead cousin Maria, whom he wants revenge for. Geralt manipulated him and used him and said "oh Ivo you're no Maria" even though Ivo probably doesn't even know who the fuck Maria is in the movie universe and so on, et cetera. Geralt sucks just as much in the games and did approximately the same thing there.

What you may or may not know is that in one of the games, Eggman runs into a descendant of his from generations into the future. That guy's name is Eggman Nega, and he absolutely hates his ancestor. He thinks he's cramping his style? He's trying to go back in time and kill him to restore his reputation as far as I remember. Not to mention he has other family and cousins, none of whom give a flying fuck what happens to him. I distinctly remember someone who's name was Collin but who's nickname was Snively and who also worked with Eggman at some point, but hated him, and then later betrayed him. I can't remember a single family member of Eggman's that actually seemed to like or even tolerate him.

He's had a lot of henchpeople too. Most of them were robots. A lot of them, like Omega, and Gamma, and Sage to an extent (although she was more like a robot daughter he built for himself) betrayed him and joined the good guys too (Sage is another outlier, she isn't exactly switching over I mean she definitely likes him but she definitely isn't loyal either so.??) I mean, Eggman isn't even surprised by the fourth time. Smaller minions like Orbot (and Cubot? another outlier) and their predecessors weren't able to betray Eggman, but definitely would've if they could've because they all disliked him because he's allegedly a shit boss. (Who says he isn't. He's evil after all.)

He "contracts" a lot of spies and stuff too. Animal characters. They all hate him as well, but he tends to hate them in return, so at least those are entirely fair game.

Not to mention all the villains he's conveniently happened to need the same thing as at the start of the game, but become inconvenient to towards the end, so they betray him as quickly as possible to get ready for their final boss fight with Sonic towards the conclusion of the story. There's more of those than I can count or care to remember. He meets his alternative universe self once and they hate each other. There's even a moment in I think the comics where Eggman loses all his memories and temporarily becomes nice, and hangs out in a village and builds things for the furry people who live there. He makes a wooden puppet style robot that also becomes like a daughter to him. She's good at engineering, just like him. Of course when he gets his memories back and becomes evil again she leaves as quickly as possible and later helps Sonic & co. She's very resentful about it all, I've heard.

None of that is surprising, of course. Eggman is an evil villain to the heroes and a loser to the villains. It's funny! It's a joke. They need to introduce scarier villains in the games to ramp up tension but they can't exactly just drop Sonic's nemesis down a hole somewhere, being as iconic as he is... So he sticks around. But as a joke, rather than an actual threat. And it's a little sad, yeah. But he deserves it! He's trying to create some sort of totalitarian egg-state and he bullies Sonic for having friends, for Christ's sake. Why should anyone want to stay loyal to a guy like that- and why should anyone do it at all? Joining the heroes is the cool thing to do! Shadow does it, Knuckles does it, Omega kinda sorta does it, Sage is toeing the damn line from what I've heard, it's...

Okay, it's kind of a lot? I mean I understand having nobody that's a good guy like the villain, but like... Not even his damn henchpeople robots? In a lot of the animated shows and comics he keeps building robot wives for himself that are explicitly created just to like him, by him. That or he's into someone who's into one of the animals, or similar. I mean, it's that bad. And it's like... Nobody? Not even once in like thirty years did anyone come up with the idea to give Eggman?? This behemoth among famous pop culture characters? A loyal henchman?

And- well, okay, nowadays this isn't true anymore. I'm sure we all know why. And that's kind of fun; in 2020, Doctor Robotnik gained his first and only loyal henchperson. Great! But...

Jeff Fowler is a Sonic fan, isn't he. Would he know..?

Would anyone involved in making the movies know that Eggman famously... Doesn't have any friends? That nobody seems to like him? That he's apparently infinitely betrayable? Do they know? Do they know? Is that why the third movie is written like that? Is it not just a character complex pulled out of someone's- I mean, when movie Eggman says that there's only ever been one person who actually liked him and one person who actually cared about him... He's quite literally right, isn't he. As in... Since 1991... Like 34 years since conception as a handful of red pixels in the hottest new platformer game there's actually, literally only been one character..? ooh I think I need to lie down for a bit

[glitteringcrab]

During the first re-watch of this scene, my thoughts were:

1. That faint in the end was so graceful that it was totally fake

2. That the "I'm okay, I'm okay" part was part of the "nice Morty" persona that he had put on, in a "I'm so nice I'm trying to reassure my bodyguards not to worry" fashion

3. That Evil Morty set up his own campaign manager to try to assassinate him to gain sympathy (I mean, he had no good reason to fire him, and Campaign Manager Morty never spilled the beans to the authorities about why Evil Morty was dangerous and yet we next see Trenchcoat Rick dead in space, so either Evil Morty already knew Trenchcoat Rick was stalking him, or Trenchcoat Rick was also planted by Evil Morty, possibly being the very Rick with cables in his brain that is seen in the incriminating photo)

4. Points 1 and 2 and 3 culminate in the conclusion that Evil Morty is like an evil manipulative soulless robot, not caring about getting himself shot, managing to put up an act even in such a stressful moment.

HOWEVER.

After re-watching this scene like a billion times (and, uh, creating a gif and splitting it lol), while I still think he arranged his own assassination attempt to gain votes through sympathy, I no longer think this is the face of someone who doesn't mind getting shot:

This is the face of someone who is in shock from the pain.

And, mind you, these are right after he gets shot. His fainting afterwards might have been a predetermined act (although it could be real, he was losing blood at a record rate), but at this moment there's not really a lot of time to school his expression nor think about his reactions.

And he immediately lowers his gaze and checks where the wound is, realizes it's nowhere vital (so the Ricks with their amazing technology could fix him in time) and only then he begins saying "I'm okay"...

But I no longer think he was talking to his bodyguard. He didn't glance to his direction once (and he actually turned away from him). It seems to me that he was talking to himself, that he was trying to reassure himself that things would be okay.

And. Well. When we next see him, he has a forcefield that protects him from getting shot.

Evil Morty very much DID NOT not mind his scheduled assassination attempt.

[theweeklydiscourse]

The idea that Katara should have ended up with Zuko instead of Aang for feminist reasons overlooks their strong connection. Katara and Aang both survived genocide and are the last of their kinds—she's the last Southern Water Tribe waterbender and he's the last airbender. Their bond isn't just about their backgrounds but also about fighting together against oppression. Their love story during war shows that hope and unity can triumph, challenging the idea that feminist stories must avoid traditional relationships. Katara and Aang in "Avatar: The Last Airbender" prove that shared experiences and understanding can be a powerful part of feminist storytelling.

Nice ask anon, did chat gpt write it for you?

Sorry I just can’t get over how this is phrased, especially the part where you write the show’s legal name for some reason. It sounds like AI wrote it, down to the bizarre structure of your point and the incoherent message you’re trying to get across.

But hey, I’ll bite. I’m having some difficulty understanding how that constitutes as feminist storytelling. If only you could be a bit more specific about what specifically makes their relationship “feminist” rather than gesturing at vague notions of how their shared values automatically correlate to feminist storytelling. The premise of your argument is also laughably vague, you never quite explain how shipping Zutara for “feminist reasons” overlooks the strong connection that Katara and Aang share. What are these “feminist reasons” that Zutara shippers are espousing? Could you explain what their conclusions are? Do you even know what arguments they’re making?

Don't make me laugh, "challenging the idea that feminist stories must avoid traditional relationships" as if traditional heterosexual relationships are somehow endangered by the evil influence of feminism. It's always laughable to watch Kataang shippers engage in these mental gymnastics to find any flimsy shred of evidence that their ship is "feminist" and avoiding the obvious reality that the ship overwhelmingly prioritizes Aang. The "love story" in question is Aang pining after Katara while her feelings remain unknown until the final minutes of the finale. Where Katara's perspective is absent while Aang's is reiterated many times throughout the show, ultimately neglecting her agency in this "love story". The cherry on top is Katara being reduced to being Aang’s dutiful wife and then widow, ultimately fading into the background and being neglected even further post-atla.

Yeah...that doesn't seem indicative of "feminist storytelling" to me.

[doriansquest]

dragon prince season 7 refuses to be good and I'm so disappointed

i've been putting off finishing the season since it came out and i watched the first three episodes and absolutely hated it, but i finally decided to pull off the bandaid and wow was it so much more worse than i expected. like, i didn't really expect it to be good or anything, since everything has just been going downhill since season 4, but at the very least expected a proper conclusion, but nope, they couldn't even end the show in the finale.

this show just refuses to take the least logical path to the conclusion all the fucking time. like did there need to be so much subversion? follow through on your obvious foreshadowing. let callum be possessed by aaravos after he uses dark magic. that was set up all the way back in season 4. is he good? is he any different than as viren and claudia now, if he's willing to do the wrong thing for the greater good ("however dangerous, however vile")? hell, force rayla to reckon with that difficult choice. put her in the same situation she was in the pilot; is she willing to kill for the greater good, especially now when the stakes are so much higher and the victim is the love of her life?

let claudia kill terry and/or soren. that was bound to happen, she's far past the point of redemption now, she revived aaravos. stop tiptoeing around it. ("i'm still nice! i'm still me" what the fuck, no you're not. you made that decision ages ago, hell when you chose viren over soren all the way back in season 3). arguably, terry, as much as i love him, should have died all the way back in season 5, when viren was revived. it would have cemented claudia's conversion completed to aaravos if there was absolutely no one who loved her around anymore.

and for god's sake, don't try to make your main villain with absolutely no redeeming qualities sympathetic. don't give him a fucking daughter. not every villain is made to be redeemable, they can be just be evil! that's what i loved about aaravos. viren was morally grey from the start, but aaravos was always the dark voice whispering in his ear. he was conniving, manipulative, a force of pure evil! there was absolutely no reason to reduce him to this stupid thing that's so easy to defeat. why was it the dragons that killed him? why not the protagonists of the series instead of some side characters who haven't been in the story for multiple seasons?

like, there is no reason to constantly be adding new plot points? you can take a predictable solution. hell, it should be done in a final season. a story can still be interesting even if it's not the most twisty turvy thing in the world. it would have been so satisfying if the finale went exactly as expected: callum uses dark magic, gets possessed by aaravos and has to fight him out of his head while the other characters have to decide whether to hurt callum or risk aaravos escaping or whatever. we did not need the unicorns, nor the new archdragons, nor the fucking godforsaken sun elf plotline that never connected back to the main plot (and absolutely wasted amaya as a character). and we did not need evyrkind, nor bird harrow who never bothered to contact his sons, nor the seven fucking years. it was so easy to make a satisfying conclusion. why the fuck did the writers decide to take this route?

i don't know, i feel like i've put so much of my investment into this show for the past six years and somehow they manage to fumble it over and over again since season 4, and i keep telling myself that it's going to improve, that they're setting up something good, and they just don't, over and over for seasons. if you somehow enjoyed this season, please explain to me why. i want something good out of the time i spent.

[dr-spectre]

If Callie wasn’t brainwashed then what happened? Wasn’t it like she just grew disillusioned with inkling society and decided to go underground?

Alright so, I've said this in other blog posts and i have gone into it multiple times, BUT! I'll try and sum it all up on what happened to Callie in Splatoon 2. It is very vague and i don't entirely blame people for coming to certain conclusions because the game didn't do a good enough job in my opinion, and the English translation has issues too which doesn't help at all...

So during Splatoon 1 and when it was getting content updates, we got to learn about Callie and Marie. If you look at the dialogue present in Naughty Vs. Nice, Early Bird Vs. Night Owl and Callie Vs. Marie Splatfests, their dialogue is rather harsh and personal towards each other, showing that Callie has these dark traits about her.

These mean and harsh qualities of Callie were built up since Splatoon 1 and they come into the forefront in Splatoon 2 and I'll go over that shortly.

After the final Splatfest and Marie's victory, the Squid Sisters became a lot more famous and stepped down from their news presenting duties and gave it to Pearl and Marina. During this period, Callie and Marie became more estranged with each other as Callie became more and more popular, meaning she got a LOT more busy and had to work day in and day out every single day at an acting gig. In the Squid Sister Stories web series, Callie is stated to be "lost at sea herself" meaning that her acting career and fame are taking a tole on her, and it's pretty easy to see that with the Sunken Scrolls in Splatoon 2.

At some point Callie and Marie managed to hang out and they decided that they would go to Calamari County to visit family. However.... As we know, it didn't pan out that way. Callie at some point in chapter 7 became flustered at work and basically ran off, which her manager thought she wanted to go home.

But... She didn't... She stumbled across DJ Octavio after he broke out from his snow globe (don't ask how, we don't know and plus, octopuses are very clever and can easily get out of trapped spaces).

Now, Octavio is a man who knows how to use manipulation and propaganda to his advantage. He is the leader of an entire race of people that are on the brink of collapse, it's either they all die, or he pulls the right strings to motivate his people to fight and take the Great Zapfish so that they don't die. And now we have an emotional and mentally unwell Callie who is suffering from so much attention and overwork, of course Octavio, the main antagonist, wanted to take advantage of that. Callie is a very powerful woman with the ability to influence and inspire others with her voice, of course Octavio wanted that kind of power to help his race and get them motivated again after their loss in Splatoon 1.

So what did he do? Did he grab her and kidnap her and put on some "evil brain warping shades" and brainwash her while she was kicking and screaming trying to stop him? WRONG!!!!!!!!!! As stated by the OFFCIAL Splatoon 2 relationship chart that i love to bring up all the time, there seemed to be an on going conversation about Callie joining the Octarians, Octavio possibly appealed to her sense of isolation, hidden resentment for Marie and her being so overworked. And she says "Ok, fine. I'll hear you out." Does that scream kidnapping to you? I don't think so.

She's even called "the lovable rebel" implying she felt some distain for Inkling society from the way they treated her and wanted to rebel. Would the developers and writers of a character who was forcibly brainwashed and kidnapped display as her a rebel and pose her like this? I don't think so.

Like you would not see Marina Agitando for example in these sort of poses in artwork because the circumstances and conditions are so vastly different.

So now let's get into those god damn mother fucking bitch ass hypnoshades. As their name suggests, they are shades with an element of hypnosis of some kind, if they weren't hypnotic shades and just turned people evil and forced Octarian ideals into their brains then they wouldn't be given that name. "Hypno" is a very specific word choice and it's done on purpose. Callie was hypnotized, not brainwashed, that word is only used in English translations of the game and outside media and if you ask any hardcore fan of a series made in Japan then you would know that English scripts kinda fuck up the Japanese ones most of the time. Take me for example, I'm a Sonic the Hedgehog fan, the Japanese versions of Sonic stories are vastly different from the Western versions in tone, dialogue, call backs, personalities, etc. Same thing with Splatoon unfortunately. Take the English translation of the Splatoon scripts with a MASSIVE grain of salt. Like a meteor sized grain of salt lmao.

Now, what is being hypnotized like? is it like being a mindless puppet that follows the orders of the person doing the hypnosis? Well... Nope. Not true actually. The way it' s portrayed in media is completely wrong and untrue. Hypnosis is similar to being in a flow state, or being incredibly relaxed while also having heighten attention and suggestibility. Imagine being in a daydream while still having hyper awareness of the stuff around you. Now that part about suggestibility is important because this is where people mess up. If a hypnotized person is given a suggestion that goes against their morals and ideologies, they will NOT!!!!!!!! follow through with that suggestion. If a hypnotized person is told to murder their family, they will not do so UNLESS they secretly want to murder them and it's in line with their psychotic and fucked up wishes.

If Octavio told Callie to murder Marie instead of Agent 4, she wouldn't follow through with the suggestion. Callie doesn't wanna murder Marie but instead she wants her to leave because their relationship is ruined. Callie doesn't mind trying to kill Agent 4 because firstly, she's mentally unwell and isn't thinking clearly from having a mental illness, and two, she doesn't have any personal attachments to Agent 4 so she can just listen to the suggestions from Octavio and follow through with them. Even in the rematches, Callie doesn't know Agent 4 all that well compared to Marie and it's clear Callie is still not doing so well after Splatoon 2.

Callie while under the hypnoshades is more like herself than not. Like this line for example is just typical Callie but she's more aggressive and mean.

If she was truly brainwashed then her personality would be A LOT more different. She would be a lot more subservient to Octavio and the Octarian race and her dialogue would show this too, but it does NOT! In fact Callie berates and talks back to Octavio during the final boss.

The only real differences between Callie and Hypno Callie is that she's more harsh and angry compared to regular Callie. However this anger... this rage... this hate was always there. It was always under the surface, and due to Callie's mental state from being overworked and now under hypnotic shades, that pain and anger is at the surface and is clouding her mind and making her not think rationally. She's more chaotic, she's aggressive and doesn't care for Marie anymore.

Now i do wanna discuss this line as it has been brought up multiple times to me and other discussions on Hypno Callie i see online.

First off, like i mentioned previously, the English translations of Splatoon stories and media sometimes gets it wrong. If you want examples then look at Commander Tartar and Marina's dialogue in Octo Expansion. You can look up retranslations of Octo Expansion to see the differences of the English and retranslated version. The only other mention of remixing a brain is in the Dutch translation. The other translations mention hypnosis and nothing about warping Callie's brain directly.

Second of all, DJ Octavio is... you guessed it... A DJ! He says musical terms to make puns and he's a loud personality.

In fact that "remix" line is actually a call back to the Splatoon 1 final boss and you know what, I'll give prompts for the English translation team for doing that... Still hate them for everything else tho lol.

DJ Octavio didn't literally remix her brain with evil brain warping shades. He is just saying that because it's to show that he got Callie on his side. So the "remixing" is just Callie becoming "evil" and hearing out Octavio.

Brainwashing implies that there is a forcible aspect to it, however from the evidence i just laid out, that cannot be the case as Octavio didn't force Callie into anything she didn't want to do. He didn't torture her, he didn't abuse her. He didn't put the shades on her by force as if he tried to do that he would get destroyed by the more energetic, younger and stronger squid woman that isn't a disabled 130 year old Octoling stuck in his octopus form.

He let her decorate bases and added glittery ink which motivated and inspired his people. Hell his approval ratings went up because the Octarians were happy and inspired by Callie's presence.

Now you may say "but didn't she lose her memories while under the shades and therefore she got brainwashed?"

Well.... Not really. I want you to put yourself in the shoes of Callie, you're in a very focused and hypnotic state, like being in a very concentrated flow state and you have a lot of anger and aggression in you. Your head is so cloudy and you're under a lot of mental distress. So imagine an ink bullet flying at your eyeball, flinging you out of that hypnotic state in a very fast fashion. It's like someone snapping their fingers in front of your face while you're concentrated on a task, or someone smacking you at the back of your head while you're working on something in a deeply concentrated manner. You are left confused and dazed and need a second to gather your composure back. Callie when the shades are removed from her, acts dazed and holds her head like she has a bad headache, only left to sing and dance cause she's an idol and that stuff is natural to her.

Some of the side effects that may occur when under hypnosis include headaches and nausea, and look at Callie when she's flung out of that hypnotic state, it looks like she has a headache and is in pain.

Now when Marie plays the Calamari Inkantation, what is actually happening here is that the song is energizing and motivating Callie. It is not freeing her from "brainwashing." That is a very common misconception about the song, implying that all Octarians are brainwashed and are just mindless drones when that is NOT TRUE AT ALL and is yet another case of bad translation. The song is just extremely catchy and it gives Octarians the motivation to wanna leave to the surface. It also makes Cuttlefish get the strength to break out of his restraints in Splatoon 1 and makes Smallfry transform into Hugefry. The song is so damn powerful and catchy, that's all it is, it is not a mind control cure, that is fucking false.

So what is happening with Callie is that the song is motivating her and flooding her head with good memories of her time with Marie. When the shades are flung off of her, she's still mad at Marie and still fights Agent 4, it takes a while but eventually she starts thinking more rationally, realizing that Marie has come to get her and what Callie has been doing was wrong. Songs are VERY powerful tools for memory and hearing a song you loved back when you were younger can bring out certain feelings and memories. Those happy memories flood Callie's mind and she goes "wait... what am i doing!? This isn't me, I REMEMBER! YEAH!" And she jumps into the air and transforms back into her iconic outfit sailor moon style.

With all of the information and context i presented, it really elevates everything that comes after. It makes Spicy Calamari Inkantation more powerful as a song as Callie has truly reunited with Marie. Fresh Start makes sense and fits perfectly with the narrative the writers wanted to tell. If you take the common and untrue narrative that people keep saying about Callie, Fresh Start literally makes zero sense in that untrue context.

It makes her eventual healing in Splatoon 3 and return to the public WAY MORE SATISFYING!

Callie has matured, she has grown up, she's more comfortable being in the spotlight again and can handle it as she has worked out her relationship with Marie. She used to suffer from being overworked and having an addiction to the shades as it gave her an escape from her life. She would rather be in a hypnotic state then go through her current life. It was only when Callie and Marie came together and truly changed things is when Callie was able to finally heal and get better.

That's why I'm so passionate about this, Callie truly went through a character arc, even it was rushed and poorly presented. I care about Callie and want people to get her story straight. Splatoon 2 was always about the Squid Sisters breaking up and eventually coming back together and becoming stronger. Callie is my comfort character and i want people to treat her better. She wasn't a powerless kidnap and brainwash victim. She was a woman with deep flaws, anger, sadness, aggression, that pain is gone now from her. She's finally... Happy. And that... makes me happy too.

[therainscene]

Since The First Shadow has folks talking about Henry’s queerness (or lack thereof), I wanted to share my take on it as someone who tends to interpret him as gay.

I’m not going to be talking about his relationship with Patty, though -- I can’t afford to see the play and don’t want to rely on secondary sources for this, so I simply can’t comment on it. (I’m sure they’re lovely together, though.)

To me, Henry’s queer-coding isn’t a question of whether he’s literally gay -- it’s a question of what role his villainy plays in the story.

The biggest non-Patty-related criticism against queer interpretations of Henry is that it would carry an uncomfortably homophobic implication: that queers are dangerous predators.

This was a common belief in the 80s, and the show references it by having Troy chuckle at the idea of Will getting "killed by some other queer" -- a prediction that comes symbolically and unpleasantly true when Joyce finds him with one of Vecna’s vines literally shoved down his throat.

It's tempting to try and solve this problem by interpreting Henry as straight -- the homophobic implications of his child-assaulting villainy will disappear if he's not queer, right?

Well... in my opinion, no.

A key aspect of Henry's character is that he's different. Whether you interpret that difference as queerness, neurodivergence, or simply that he has powers -- the fact remains that he is fundamentally the sort of person whom society looks down upon with fear and suspicion.

If he’s not a predatory queer, then he's a remorseless psychopath. If he's not a remorseless psychopath, then he's a vessel for an evil alien. There's no way to escape the implication that he’s dangerous because he’s different.

Eddie’s character resonates with this principle too. Indeed, our introduction to him is a monologue in which he complains about being treated with suspicion just because he’s different.

Given their similarities in this regard, I think it’s interesting that the show endears us to Eddie in the same breath it makes us fear Vecna. It almost feels like a test--

We know you’ll sympathize with a weirdo who sells drugs to troubled minors when you get to see things from his perspective, but can you sympathize with a weirdo who hurts troubled minors when you don’t get to see things from his perspective? Will you jump to unfair conclusions about Henry in the same way the town jumps to unfair conclusions about Eddie?

My point here isn’t that Henry did nothing wrong or that his villainy is justified -- I’m pretty sure he did commit the murders Eddie was scapegoated for and I’m pretty sure that’s a bad thing -- but he’s always held at arm’s length from the audience. The show plays the role of Jason, encouraging us to blindly hate him on gut instinct instead of giving him a fair trial.

It’s an easy test to fail, because it does seem like we get to see Henry’s perspective -- he has a whole villain speech, after all.

But the trouble is, this speech takes place within NINA. What we’re watching is footage that has been curated by his abuser and shown through the eyes of a traumatized girl who barely understands what happened -- secondary sources who are invested in viewing him as a threat.

Consider that Henry’s hairstyle mysteriously changes during the massacre. It’s one of those subtle costuming choices that isn’t meant to be consciously picked up on, but which registers at the back of our minds and leaves us feeling unsettled -- this Henry isn’t like the Henry we were looking at before.

The obvious way of interpreting this is that the mask has finally slipped -- the “nice” Henry was fake, and now we see him for who he “really” is. But I’m not inclined to interpret it that way, because of all the hairstyles they could have chosen... they just so happened to opt for one that resembles Brenner. (Pun intended.)

This isn’t Henry with his mask off -- this is Henry as Brenner wants him to be.

Fear-mongering over the existence of queer people has long been a useful tool for those in power -- in the 80s, fear of AIDS did the job nicely -- and so too has Brenner forged Henry into a tool to further his own goals, no regard given to the harm he causes in the process.

Like the “predatory queer”, Henry is defined on his oppressor’s terms, and like Eddie, it makes him a useful scapegoat. He only became what he did because of an unethical institution, and treating him as the problem is just as short-sighted as blaming gay men for the AIDS crisis.

That isn’t to say Vecna hasn’t become a genuine threat, though. Will makes a prediction as to how S5 is going to end--

--and while I’m not expecting things to end as violently as Will implies here -- that’s not Will’s thing -- I do believe that Vecna is going to be defeated by his hand. As tragic as Vecna’s origin was, he still made his own choices once he was free from Brenner, and he’s likely too far gone at this point to be capable of earning his happy ending.

But that’s what makes it so important that Will gets his happy ending.

Queer characters have been exclusively cast as villains or tragic sadbois for so long that I can completely sympathize with people’s hesitance to embrace Henry as a tragic queer villain.

But villains only exist within the context of the heroes who challenge them... and in a show about a queer-coded villain who personifies the anger and despair of being abused for what you are, a loving gay boy who breaks the cycle of abuse by learning that he has the right to be the hero of his own story is the perfect foil for him.

[randomfoggytiger]

Mulder's Alien Baby Baby Trauma In-Depth (Part XV): Making an Effort

In the last part, Mulder was able to see (for the first time since his abduction) that Scully hasn't, won't, and will never give up on anyone she deems "worth the effort"-- and that, he concluded, included him.

This being the case, it seems he's made it his mission to prove that she, too, is worth the effort.

Mulder Tries

After Monica Reyes assists in the arrest of the alleged culprit of Luke Doggett’s murder, Mulder finds Doggett by Scully’s bedside; and silently orders the other man into the hallway. Though angry at this exchange-- and angrier at the world and its injustice-- Doggett relents and follows him out, jaw clenched tightly shut as he moves as far away from his partner's partner as possible.

Unbeknownst to Mulder, the latter was in the grips of his own PTSD flashback-- the day his son’s burnt body was discovered. The episode connects clear and blatant dots between his journey to belief and Scully's (including a cursed scene transition, here); but we are also left to draw a few obvious conclusions: Doggett lost his son and was assigned to the files while Mulder gained a son (a baby of unspecified sex, at this point) and was blocked from the files. Both men suffer from PTSD, to varying degrees; and both men are thrown together in the latter end of Season 8 to protect Scully and her baby-- a redemption of their own past losses. (And while these parallels, ideas, and themes are intriguing, it would be nice if they were properly fleshed out in their execution.)

Doggett's anger evaporates in the hallway; and he stuffs his hands in his pockets, slowly nodding as Mulder immovably explains, "She just fell back to sleep."

Head down, he says, "I just wanted to check to see how she's doin'." But that's not all; and Doggett exhales before further stating, "'Course I'm here with this other thing-- we, uh, we caught this killer Jeb Dukes. He's in the ICU. He may not make it."

Mulder runs his tongue over his lips and swallows-- a nervous tick-- while the other agent finishes. Despite everything he's been through, those profiling skills are still spookily intact: "And now you're wondering if there really was a connection?"

Doggett doesn't answer, not wanting to admit his doubts; but he doesn't bother to deny it, either. There's a defensive, curious stance in his stooping shoulders and sideways-upright glance, as if he is inviting Mulder's opinion while shifting away from his scrutiny. In short, Doggett is posturing: pretending to be rationally stable while adrift and looking for guidance.

Never one to leave others floundering or in pain, Mulder decides to act on Scully's insight, and offers an olive branch: he opens up.

Looking down at first, he begins, "When I, uh, when I first came to work at the FBI, I worked at Violent Crimes."

Agent Doggett knows where this is going-- former cop that he is-- and turns his head to the side as Mulder gently drones on.

"I saw the worst of humanity. I saw monsters."

At this, Doggett looks up, trying to guess if 'monsters' is metaphorical or literal.

"And I wondered how they became that way. How these men became so evil. I know, there were--" Breaking off, Mulder shakes his head, shifting through past testimony and reports, "--Psychological explanations: victims of their environment, victims of their parents. But those scientific explanations were never truly satisfying.

"And I began to think," he confesses, moving one hand to wave it around briefly before recrossing his arms, "of evil like, like a disease. You know, it goes from man-to-man, or age-to-age-- most of us walk around thinking we're incapable of any acts of evil. And we are. Y'know, we can stifle that momentary urge to kill, or to hurt-- we have some kind of immunity to it."

"But I think it's possible that there's..."

Again, he trails off, lips pressed tight as he weighs his words. "An occurrence in somebody's life-- a tragedy or a loss-- that leaves them vulnerable." He further gentles his voice when Doggett's face pinches: "And all of a sudden-- at that point in their lives, when they're weakened-- they're open to evil. And they can become evil."

Agent Doggett's skepticism peaks through as he fills in the blanks. "If that were true, then what you're saying is, is... this man we wheeled in here tonight is effectively evil. Same evil that killed my son."

Mulder maintains Doggett's level gaze, swallowing-- not denying the other's conclusion.

"You really believe that, Agent Mulder?"

"Nah," Mulder cracks, a genuine smile shyly peeking through-- the first around Doggett. "I'm not really a good test for questions like that. I'll believe almost anything. Y'know?"

Doggett snorts, acknowledging the joke and chastising himself for grasping at this explanation.

"You may never know," Mulder reveals. "It may be like Agent Reyes says--" an acknowledgment of Monica's instincts, as well as a channeling of Doggett's attention to the other agent, "--it may be random and meaningless: who it affects, who it goes to."

"What if it isn't?"

"Well then you'd be seeing something that I don't, Agent Doggett": and what a conclusion-- Mulder is steering Doggett to trust his own intuition. It neatly attempts to shred Doggett's reliance on Scully or himself, and to plant a seed of faith in his own instincts (or Reyes's instincts of his instincts.)

Doggett walks away, unable to accept that possibility; and Mulder remains fixed by Scully's door, knowing where he belongs and decisively staying there-- a journey the other agent is still struggling through.

She Is Worth the Effort 

“Mulder, you never fail to surprise me.”

The scene opens on Scully, perched on a couch with a pizza before her, and Mulder sneaking behind her to hide his surprise present again. Hands on her belly, she turns her head to try to find him, slowly, contentedly continuing, “I just wish I felt like eating it.”

Nonchalantly, he swings around the couch with plates, napkins, and silverware in hand-- silverware, for pizza?-- flippantly assuring, with a comedic lilt in his voice, “That’s cool-- we can just wait for the cheese to congeal and eat it later.”

After sitting and noticing her reluctant smile, Mulder deduces, “You miss your regular pizza man, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Scully pouts as her partner slumps and defeatedly lets the silverware drop to the table. 

Mulder is trying to become everything Scully needs: friend to her associate, father of her baby, and delivery boy of her favorite pizza. His efforts, however, are stymied by the new ropes he’s still learning-- forgetting, in this instance, to ask if she would like a pizza fresh from her release; or even if she can eat one. When he realizes his carefully crafted plan falls through, he slumps: Scully’s pizza boy wouldn’t fail because he would know when she needed one. And while that isn’t an entirely logical train of thought, it’s one that’s easily suggestible. 

He takes this failure to heart, caving in and avoiding her eyes as the “Aha!” moment turns into a heavy “I should have known this” thud. 

Scully, however, has an ace up her sleeve: revealing her expert rouse with a subtle, “That’s okay, he’s coming later.” She’s so pleased with herself that she fails to hold back a smile, outright giggling when Mulder catches her humor and returns it with a mock-stunned expression. 

Both visibly glow and twinkle while connecting over this simple couples’ joke-- the second they’ve shared since his return, and the first that is levied back-and-forth with equal, humored fervor (post here.)

As Scully’s giggle turns to a chuckle then peters out, Mulder reaches behind her for the stowaway surprise. (An aside: Scully looks down at her belly before her partner shifts, as if her laughter brought on an unexpected bump of movement.)

He keeps his face focused on her, watching her curious eyes track his hand (knowing his partner loves presents, posts here and here); and stays still, mouth wide in anticipation, as she gasps with delight. 

“Bet you forgot about that, didn’t you?”

Shaking her head as emphatically as she can, Scully insists, “No, I didn’t, actually. I thought about it a lot, while I was lying in my hospital bed.” She spares him an assuring, more somber glance while methodically tearing the package open, as if to say you and your efforts were not forgotten, despite my compounding worry and troubles. 

Mulder, meanwhile, loses a touch of his joy, eyebrow twitching, eyes tightening, throat swallowing at the acknowledgment of her recent hospitalization.

But he tries to school his features and zone back into the moment. Her words-- “Wondering what on earth you’d given me”-- help; but it still takes effort to shake off, with a bounce, that darker mood. 

“And?” he prods, voice intentionally buoyant. 

The present is revealed; and Scully is immediately touched, mouth opening in shock. Face pinching, she whispers then croaks, “Oh, Mulder,” swinging the doll around between them to study it intently. 

Pleased, he asks, “Is it what you imagined?”

Eyes squinting, she states, “Not even close.” Sensing there are layers of meaning behind this gift-- and that her partner is continuing a reemergence back to his former ways-- Scully looks up and breaks into a smile.

Mulder leans forward, drinking up this freer atmosphere between them. “Oh, my, that’s the wrong doll, actually.” His face slips near the end of his tease; and Scully calls him on it-- to the delight of them both-- by pretending to swipe at her partner with the toy.

He dodges, and they both fall into a fit of gleeful chuckles and giggles. 

It’s Scully who switches up the mood first, pivoting suddenly into, “But then that’s the other gift you gave me, Mulder.” She looks up from the doll, staring at his softened, tentative expression: there is a hesitant bracing there--not of having to own up to fatherhood or claim this baby, but of wondering what she’s going to say next; and what she expects him to say in response-- before he relaxes with a tender smile.

And she, as always, throws him a curve ball: “Courage. To believe.” Scully looks down, shy, but decides not to dodge Mulder’s natural assumption entirely: “And I hope that’s a gift I can pass on.” Again, she looks up, lips pursed in a smile, eyes locked as Scully draws their attention to the baby: content, and confident.

And that’s an interesting statement: not only does this imply Scully is having a baby (because obviously) but it also implies she is directly tying something intrinsically Mulder to this child-- meaning, this child will be, and was going to be, connected to him no matter what. We know both know the baby is his, and that Mulder wasn’t jealous or resentful of his child (posts here and here); but what I find more fascinating is that there are multiple, subtle clues that Scully would have raised her baby as Mulder’s child (Skinner’s “he’s not the last” in Deadalive; Scully’s blue mourning-but-moving-on sweater, post here; and her pointed remark in this scene.) This is the first time she’s confessed her intentions to her partner; and that points to how personal this decision is for her-- Scully confessions don’t come lightly; and don’t come willingly to anyone, at all, unless that person’s a Mulder.

Mulder takes this revelation in stride, staring at her bump in contemplative silence before re-locking eyes and nodding. 

A split-second one-two-three happened there: 

His eyes slid lower, taking in her words as they came to rest on their child. 

His eyes snapped up, a wild, possessive, purposefully stilled gleam in them. 

His eyes lowered again as he nodded and twitched an eyebrow: I understand and That’s not all I gave you wrapped up in one. 

Scully, being Scully, catches this one-two-three. She begins petting the doll’s hair, an attempt to work through the happy, vulnerable emotions that are nearly breaking from her control. The camera fades out as she masters them; and that is the end of Mulder and Scully in Empedocles.

NOBODY GETS THERE ALONE

I'd be remiss if we didn't compare this sweet and affectionate moment to the last time Mulder gave Scully a gift. There are quite a few parallels, actually.

In Tempus Fugit, Mulder takes Scully to their frequent hangout, and loudly sings along to and claps afterwards with the staff's "Happy Birthday" cheer. (In fact, he continues clapping long after the staff leave and the patrons drop off.) Then, he made sure she had something fun to nibble on (either because the local provided it or because he sneaked in a Snoball) while opening her niche gift. Like Empedocles, however, their moment is interrupted by tragedy and more tragedy (Max's and Pendrell's death; Scully's abruption and Luke's killer's case.)

Alongside these parallels, the mechanism for each gift remains the same: to do things right. In Season 4, it was spurred on by Mulder's fear of Scully's cancer and realization of the depth of his feelings (post here); in Season 8, it is instigated by Mulder's return and stabilization after his death. In both cases, Mulder wants to make up for lost time: birthdays (in dog years, he parries) and fatherly moments missed.

And Scully figures him out-- already had him, probably, when he showed up at her door with something from his mother's, post here-- both times, smiling and puzzling over her partner's presents, divining their oblique and askance meanings. "Teamwork" in Tempus Fugit and "Family" in Empedocles.

Mulder's gestures themselves paint a broader, more evolved picture of his feelings for and commitments to Scully. During the cancer arc, Mulder ran and ran and ran headlong into work or self-recrimination or anyplace where he didn't have to acknowledge Scully's death (they both did, post here.) During the pregnancy arc, Mulder returns, despite his PTSD and doubts and fears, after an abduction (This Is Not Happening), after his "death" (Deadalive), after the failed DOD mission (Three Words), after Doggett and Reyes's case (Empedocles), after the black oil rig (Vienen), after a begrudging trip to help Doggett (Alone), after trying and failing to do the right thing (Essence-Existence.)

An important note: the writers carefully picked and chose what present Mulder picked and chose each time. A NASA commemoration medallion in Tempus Fugit pointed to his hope alongside Scully and the fathomless, though largely unspoken, value Mulder placed on their work together. Their partnership, Mulder said, is a gift; and one he needed (needs) to see things through. It was a sentiment Scully didn't hear voiced until Fight the Future, but it's one he was acutely aware of since their separation and her abduction in Season 2. A cloth doll from his mother's pointed to the day Scully was by his side when he lost sight of the answers and would have lost his closure if not for her truth. It was a different time in their partnership, one that didn't require them to step around the danger between them. In both instances, his presents were a symbol of their relationship beating back the darkest hours: her cancer and their hope, his mother's death and his closure. And there is one last meaning to this gift-- the most glaring one: an extension of the Mulder family trinkets to the next generation of Mulders.

CONCLUSION

Empedocles is wrapped!

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[sexhaver]

me n bailey marathoned the first season of this show over the last few days. some thoughts:

Alan Cumming, specifically his accent and wardrobe, are by far the highlights of this show. i sincerely hope someone has made an edit compiling all of his outfits without any of the actual gameplay, because he is consistently serving cunt

like just look at this

that being said i did keep seeing him as Fegan Floop from Spy Kids

oh right there's an actual game/competition component to this

im just gonna get this out of the way: the entire premise of the show is fundamentally flawed. they keep trying to make it sound like the three Traitors in the group are "backstabbing" and "working against" the Faithful (non-Traitors), but, like, everyone on the show (Traitor or Faithful) is competing for the exact same prize pool. it's not like The Mole (or any other social deduction game), where the secret evil team actually has different goals diametrically opposed to those of the good team and has to complete them without having anyone notice. here, the evil team just... votes on someone to "murder" every night. that's it.

to emphasize this point: the literal only thing that can ever give you away as a Traitor is being bad at lying/concealing guilt. there are ZERO gameplay differences between the goals of a Traitor and the goals of a Faithful, which means the arguments over who to vote for banishing are based entirely on "gut feelings"

nobody on the show has ever played a social deduction game before. late into the season, there's a day where all 3 Traitors are alive and it's down to 6 people total (so 3v3). anyone who has played Mafia/Werewolf/ToS/etc knows what this means: barring bullshit last-minute rules from the producers, it is quite literally impossible for the Traitors to lose, because none of them can be voted up. it takes 4 out of 6 votes to exile someone, and there are only 3 Faithful left. if no Traitor votes for another Traitor, then it is, again, literally impossible for a Traitor to be exiled. furthermore, if they all coordinate their votes on one Faithful, all they have to do is convince one of the remaining two Faithfuls to vote with them, and they instantly win $180k (split three ways). and hey, wouldn't you know it, one of the Faithfuls (Kate) was already really suspicious, and another one of the Faithfuls (Quentin) said out loud multiple times that he was voting for her!

so what do you think the Traitors did?

god this part pissed me off so much im having to pause for breathe while typing this. okay. so.

two of the Traitors voted for the third Traitor, who got voted off.

after being voted off, youre supposed to walk up to the Circle of Truth and reveal if you were a Traitor or not. the guy who got eliminated (Christian) was entirely too nice and gracious about it. me n bailey discussed this and came to the conclusion that we would either a) out the other Traitors on the stand and explain, using game theory and math, exactly how fucking stupid they are, completely ruining the game for them, or b) pretend to cry a little while walking up to the Circle of Truth but as soon as you walk behind the first other Traitor's chair you flip it over backwards and elbow drop their nose into their face while screaming "YOU STOLE $60K FROM ME YOU SON OF A BITCH"

also the guy who got eliminated (Christian) was very clearly autistic and Every Single Reason the other traitors gave for not liking him was like straight out of the DSM V diagnostic criteria ("he talks too loud and laughs weird", "he's got way too much energy all the time", "his emotional responses don't make sense")

apparently there's a season 2 but i cannot bring myself to watch it after seeing Christian thrown to the lions (ayyy Sunday school reference)

also at one point a Faithful has to leave because of COVID (this was filmed in 2020) so the producers don't let the Traitors murder anyone that night for balance reasons, but to compensate, they tell them they can like. write down three names that will be publicly revealed to everyone the next morning, and then one of those people dies the next night. so obviously this is mostly a nerf for the Traitors because they miss a night of killing someone, but the intention was clearly to give the Traitors an opportunity to sow confusion by putting one or two of their OWN names onto the list to make them seem like Faithfuls. and they even had an extra objective during that day's game where one of the three people could earn a "shield" to protect them that night, so if a Traitor was on the list, they could basically "steal" the shield from the other 2 (since they obviously weren't getting killed no matter what). but i think the Traitors heard "write down three names" and "kill" and had all the blood rush to their respective dicks because they just wrote three Faithfuls lmao. deeply unserious show

[xecutivecucumber]

Executive Cucumber's thoughts on the Bad Batch: Season 3x06 and 3x07 (I'm pretty sure I'm formatting this differently every time. Oh well)

Okay, there's a subject I'm going to have to postpone until the end of the post because I want all my thoughts on that to be together: the main operative clone. And the rest might be slightly out of order. I'm also doing this before I see anyone else's thoughts, just so we get the pure version.

Let's go!

I honestly thought that Senator Singh and Riyo were dead meat. But no, they're fine because REX IS COOLER THAN ANYONE. Ugh that man. Freaking throwing the grenade back at him.

Clones are beautiful. That is all.

THAT'S THAT ONE PLACE FROM THE OG CLONE WARS MOVIE!!! TETH!!!

Howzer I love you but if you touch Crosshair we will be having words.

I am actually really proud of Crosshair and his restraint this episode. He could have been really cutting to Howzer.

OMEGA WITH THE TOOTHPIIIIICKS and Hunter is jealouuuus

EDIT: ECHO AND THE CROSSBOW HE'S SO SWEET

WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU CROSSHAIR

It's really nice to see normal clones being normal again. (Too bad it doesn't last)

There's something up with Omega. I'm not going to lie, I think that she and Rex are going to plan to get her captured in order to track her back to Tantiss.

HOWZER STOP DISTRUSTING CROSSHAIR THIS MOMENT

I appreciate that Hunter doesn't seem to distrust Crosshair during this point.

...they really shouldn't have brought that operative back.

Rex is considering stealing Omega, I swear. I love that he gets down to her level.

WOOOOOOOOOOOLFFE (Plo would be so disappointed in you)

It's...odd to see these normal troopers with him.

It's also strange that he cannot comprehend that the clones could be traitors at first.

STOP DYING YOU BEAUTIFUL REGS

'She only bites half the time' I'm pretty sure Omega is lying here but I don't care.

CROSSHAIR IS SUCH A WORRIED DAD HOLY CRAP. 'Oh, I'm much worse' I LOVE YOU

And this just gives such a little insight into how the Batch was when they were together. I have a feeling that Crosshair was a fusser and a nagger.

And I love how Howzer's natural and correct conclusion is: 'no one evil could love that child.' (Unless you're Nala Se)

Hey, actual candor from Crosshair. I keep saying this is who he always was under it all, but I do think he's healed somewhat, at least towards regs. The healing power of Omega.

'Too bad' I LOVE THIS MAN

STOP DYING REGS

Rex talking down Wolffe reminded me so much of him trying to talk Jesse down. So ow.

Okay, what ROCK have they shoved Wolffe under for the last YEAR??? YES THE EMPIRE WOULD GET RID OF THE CLONES YOU DOG BRAINED IDIOT

(Plo would be proud that you let them go)

...they just killed all of Rex's clones, except Howzer and Gregor. And I have a bad feeling about Howzer. STOP TAKING THINGS FROM REX HASN'T HE LOST ENOUGH???

Okay here we are, at the big topic. Hold onto your pants.

That operative clone. Is. Tech. Because if he is not, they are purposefully using the narrative to deceive us.

I might miss a few things, but that's because I'm up past my bedtime and I've been up too late the last few days.

1. The falling and water parallels. This clone falls a LOT during this episode and dives into a lot of water. He even falls into mist. This time it's to kill and capture his siblings instead of save them.

2. The injury. This clone is hobbling around a lot after his injury, which was immediately reminiscent of Tech's broken leg at the beginning of season 2. Both of them are forcing themselves past their limit to achieve a mission. Specifically with injured legs.

3. General attitude and demeanor. In combination with the stealth and injury, this clone has a more hunched posture. His speech patterns are more formal, though we haven't really heard a lot of other clone operatives talk with their helmets on. But he's also apparently allergic to orders. I first thought that he'd be out of the chain of command, but they would have told Wolffe that he wasn't in charge of the operative if that were the case. Or the operative would have straight up told him 'I don't take orders from you' instead of staring awkwardly at him. Instead he runs off and does his own thing. While injured. Not to mention the buttons on his gauntlet. The other clone operatives don't have those.

4. The cybernetic legs. Now we don't know for sure if Tech would have cybernetic legs, but it seems likely for a severely injured trooper. And when Crosshair is looking at the heat signature, you can see that his legs are blue instead of yellow or red. No heat. Not organic.

5. What he says to Crosshair. 'You could have been one of us.' 'You chose the wrong side.' Yes, he's talking about Crosshair resisting the re-education. But flip it on its head real quick. 'You could have been one of us. One of the Bad Batch.' 'You chose the wrong side. The Empire.' Those lines very easily have double meanings.

6. An interesting one is when he starts moving rocks after the explosion. Why would he do that? Why not immediately go find another way in? He's moving only the smaller rocks. There's a large one in the way that he couldn't move himself. And he doesn't get the rest of the troopers to come move it when they arrive. He almost seems confused.

Like he's somewhere else after an explosion, having to move rocks. Like in the Crossing.

I know that this hardly seem like iron clad evidence. But in the language of story telling, it's practically screaming in our faces.

And I'm so glad he's back. I missed him. He won't be himself for a while, but I legitimately believe we'll get one last fight with the Batch all together. Because brain washing is a heck of a lot easier to fix than being dead.

My sister is doing the good work and creating a tik token about it, and I'll probably share it here when she's finished.

(We're getting the episode 'Identity Crisis ON MY BIRTHDAY and so help me if that's about Tech)

Honestly I thought I'd be more excited, but I spent the entire two episodes forcing myself into not having expectations and also I might be in shock.

[tgammsideblog]

Let's talk about Jinx vs The Human World

Jinx vs The Human World is... certainly an episode. It hasn't been talked much in comparison to The End because it has been greatly overshadowed by the later.

One thing that i think many of us can agree about Jinx vs The Human World is that it has super chaotic pacing. It doesn't give you room to breathe because it is already jumping to the next plot point and you can't digest well what you are watching. This hurts the emotional impact crucial character scenes have, because again, they aren't allowed to flow well, not letting the characters to react properly.

It's an episode that should have been around 44 minutes long since it covers multiple plot threads. With that ammount of time some things could have been better paced and given a proper conclusion.

As for the plot threads, i already talked about how i like Jinx as antagonist in this episode. She is fun, her song sequence is pretty good. She ends up capturing Molly and using her as away to power up her sobgoblins.

I really enjoy seeing Scratch finally having to deal with the consequences of not being a good leader. The reason the events of this episode happen are because of his own irresponsibilty, letting Jinx steal the Chairman robe and take over the Ghost World. He realizes that he has been messing up a lot and someone else should be in charge instead. He lets the chairman robe go and chose a more appropiate candidate to be the new chairman.

My biggest issue would be the Chens plot part. I do like the part of Ollie and June standing up to Ruben and Esther and trying to persuade them into helping them to stop Jinx. It's a scene that serves more or less well as a conclusion for their arc, even if Necro-Comicon and The Grand Gesture have this purpose, (more for Ollie's character)

The reveal that Geoff was the ghost that scared Ruben was nice too. It has been a thing that was foreshadowed back on ¨Book Marks The Sprite¨

What i'm not so fond of is how it was Geoff sneezing at him when he was a kid. I think it could been more interesting if it had been Geoff hurting Ruben by accident or scaring too much. That way Geoff apologizes to Ruben, showing to him that he didn't mean to hurt him that way.

Ruben also feels like he lacks proper scenes to show his change of mind. Sure, he realizes that Geoff wasn't evil as he thought he was, making him question things. But there isn't much else. I think there could have been a scene of Geoff saving Ruben from the sobgoblins and Ruben realizes how a ghost saved him, making him reconsider his views.

His change of mind is like it comes a bit out of nowhere. Another problem is how he seems to be super friendly around ghosts near the end which it is very weird. I think it could have been better if he had some expressions and lines that indicates that he is still trying to get used to not seeing ghosts as evil.

In addition to this, the Chens don't get to do much in this episode outside of trapping Jinx inside the phantom canister. I wished that they could have set up traps to catch the sobgoblins and contain them temporary at least, that would have given them a bigger role in the plot.

I do like some moments that June has, like her interations with Darryl and giving some funny moments. She is pretty enjoyable in this episode and she shines almost scene she is in.

In some other problems, i find the whole wraith transformation of ghost friends unnecessary, it doesn't have any funtion in the story aside from seeing how they look as wraiths (which is cool!) but the plot could have played out the same if it had been just Scratch and Molly going to the Ghost World.

The Ghost Council saying nice things about Scratch and that he wasn't so bad to give Molly joy fits well their character arcs this season, but, Sir Alister saying they are Scratch's ¨friends¨ doesn't add up since Scratch doesn't want anything to do with them and he has interacted with them because he was forced to be the Chairman in first place. I would change that line of dialogue and leave it as them thinking that Scratch is not so bad instead.

In all, i think what really hurt Jinx vs The Human World is that it needed to be a way longer episode (around 40-50 minutes) to allow things to be spaced out better. A good chunk of the issues from this episode seem to come from that. With more time to explore the events and changing some things, this episode could have been more presentable in quality as a whole.

[completeoveranalysis]

[8]

Oops there's a bit more of the blood and dark themes in here as well, so be warned!

Watanuki falling out of the window at the same time that Lava Lamp was fighting Syaoran has been pointed out to me by quite a few people over the years, so that’s not a surprise at this point. But I DO love that the joined narrative event was not only intended but is highlighted here and explained a but further - Watanuki was, unconsciously, trying to rectify the balance of his existence. And with Lava Lamp out there fighting yet another Syaoran across the universe, perhaps the universe thought that was one Syaoran far too many and tried to tie it back together. 

What I didn’t catch before is what Yuuko says here - that Lava Lamp returned to where Evil Wolverine was. And that’s kind of true isn’t it? He left Evil Wolverine’s lair, went to Yuuko, and then went straight back to Evil Wolverine's lair - but in the far distant past, as Acid Tokyo. That’s wild.

Yeah there we go! That’s a good conclusion of the sentiment that leads back into the present. Watanuki has learned how to want to stick around because of all the people who care for him - and also this will help change the future. Which is also nice! But Watanuki would be worth it even without that. 

[krockdove]

You know, after watching the last batch of Earthspark, I was really disappointed for a number of reasons. I was angry about it.

But then I learned the producers were treated terrible by Paramount and had no choice but to end a lot of things in season one, now I'm not mad at them at all. I instead curse Paramount forever.

so....I'll write some headcanons I was looking forward to in Earthspark. I maybe do a series of related posts. Today is about one of the most important characters, Starscream.

Warning! This post contains spoilers.

Let me make one thing clear: I have no beef with his redemption. No, rather, I believed that Earthspark would do it as a matter of course. I never once doubted it.

The one of themes in Earthspark is "Second Chance". Starscream is the character in the Transformers franchise who most deserved a second chance, the character who could become the most dramatically three-dimensional with a second chance. Even though S1C was made under pressure to wrap everything up quickly, his redemption eventually came, which is what the show was meant to do from the beginning. The problem is, because the story had to be wrapped up in one season, all the dramatic plot points, connections between moments that should have been important, and characterizations were weakened across the board.

We are happy with his Redemption, but this is Earthspark. Not TFP. That means, we once had the opportunity to explore Starscream's character much more deeply. Not just in one episode, but a few.

Especially since I was serious about what was hinted at in the Warzone episode, I was disappointed that it wasn't used in the story.

I've seen several theories about that episode, the conclusion was that Starscream was caught in the Space Bridge explosion and was officially declared dead. I was actually pretty sure. That's why his appearances were low throughout the season, and he survives the explosion, BECAUSE Allspark revives him and fuses with him, right?

It makes it natural for Megatron to talk about the battle like that way and reveal his trauma, especially if he thought he lost both Shockwave and Starscream because of his actions. (This explains Soundwave's anger too.)

So Starscream was treated as dead, but actullay he was secretly imprisoned by the evil GHOST. He was unconscious when it happened, so it would have taken him a long time to figure out what was going on. He doesn't know that others to think he's dead. He sees his comrades locked the cell and thinks Megatron has really abandoned them.

This misunderstanding would have been a very important source of conflict when he was later reunited with Megatron. I even expected him to be the one to reveal the truth about GHOST.

I was almost certain that the GHOST and Mandroid plots would carry over into S2, so I thought it would be a conflicted ending with Starscream revealing the truth at the end of S1. It would have been nice if Starscream's character to be explored at the beginning of S2, along with his redemption, and the past war story.

And that would have made for some interesting drama not only between him and Megatron, but also with Optimus.

Imagine if that really happened. Starscream insists GHOST is wrong. How do you think Optimus and Megatron would take it?

Yeah, I can hear their doubts up here.

The point is, Starscream is seen as untrustworthy. Megatron would have a 50/50 chance of trusting him, but Optimus certainly wouldn't. From his perspective, Starscream would be seen as trying to drive a wedge between him and Megatron and reignite the war. In this situation, no one is lying, but someone ends up being unfairly labeled a liar. Optimus would compromise for the sake of the people he cares about, but they wouldn't include Starscream.

And I think this is the perfect moment for Hashtag to appear!!

Like, she's going to show up and be one who believes Starscream. If she believes in him, so do some of the Terrans – not all of them for now – but eventually the Hashtag and the Terrans believe in Starscream, and it would be really touching if that led to his redemption!

(also it inspires Terrans to dig into the truth of the GHOST themselves)

After it was revealed that he had an Allspark inside of him, he must have had an internal conflict. When he realized that the hope of his home planet and their people lay within him, could he handle it?

He struggles with it, but eventually does something heroic to help the Terrans. Maybe he uses the power of Allspark.

Terrans believe in Starscream when even Optimus doesn't, and it changes him, it would have fulfilled the show's message – Everyone deserves their second chance.

[tiodolma]

Colin Morgan and Katie Mcgrath DVD Commentary on Merlin and Morgana's Relationship in S1x08 "Beginning of the End" (Mordred Episode)

featuring

Colin Morgan, BBC Merlin Katie Mcgrath, BBC Morgana Julian Murphy, Producer Angel Coulby, BBC Guinevere

S1x08 Merlin and Morgana watching over Mordred who was behind the curtain

COLIN: This is one of our few scenes together. KATIE: Actually this is one of my favorite scenes. JULIAN: Yeah, mine too. KATIE: me and you JULIAN: I think when you think about the whole sort of texture of the legend about what, who these people will become COLIN AND KATIE: MHHM JULIAN: Or what we think they may become. We’re pretty sure about Merlin but we don’t know about Morgana. And then it has a real resonance. KATIE: It’s just really nice, this… do you remember we played it two different ways? COLIN: Yeah.. KATIE: there was one other way that’s ah.. JULIAN: It’s a little bit too sexy, really. KATIE: Yes! There was a lot of eh.. COLIN: It was… JULIAN: I was like hang on wait a second you’re smiling at him too much! COLIN: It was a bit too flirty, wasn’t it.. as in... KATIE: (Squeaking) I thought it might have been an interesting sort of sideline story but apparently not. COLIN: MHHM MHMMM JULIAN: No, I came in and stamped on that. KATIE: Yeah… that was... that was my idea was obviously useless. COLIN: HEH HEH It’s good though the undertones of this because you know I know about you at this stage and it’s funny that you’re sort of picking up on on on things as well but you know, you know not quite sure so it’s... there’s loads going on thinking... the scene is just cool JULIAN: Just trying to test each other on you COLIN: mmm JULIAN: Find out what each other is about. You’re also hoping that you, that you may have found a kindred spirit. COLIN AND KATIE: mmmhm COLIN: Well that’s oh yeah finding one like you and she mean hers and ehm you know, if there’s wrong and what if, you know, magic chooses you. It’s exactly what you’ve/he’ve been looking for. KATIE: And it’s sort of I’ve been speaking directly to you as it were. I’m saying exactly what it is that you’re thinking, you know? But you’re still a coward and don’t tell anyone anything. COLIN: Thanks, Katie KATIE: You’re welcome COLIN: …. KATIE: Saw you’re all being serious there. COLIN: (chuckle)

Scene: Gaius and Merlin treat Mordred's Malady

KATIE: ..that they’ve done it as well because everybody knows what Mordred ends up being and what Morgana ends up being and this connection here, you wonder if the connection is because they’re magical or if it’s because they’re ultimately evil. COLIN: MHHHM KATIE: You know, Which is why I asked you whether you and you felt Mordred were similar COLIN: Yeah. KATIE: You know, Whether the connection is through magic or through or (whispers) our ultimate evildoing. COLIN: (surprised laugh) Well suppose that’s where, you know, if, if there’s sort of Morgana-Merlin thing was any further there’d be a point, you know, where we’d possibly do come together at some point but again ultimately going completely different directions. KATIE: See, I’ve come to the conclusion that in, in Merlin and in Camelot that magic isn’t good or it’s bad, it just is and it’s the person, what they take it . COLIN: YEAH KATIE: You know, So I feel Morgana does the, the right thing for the wrong reasons. JULIAN: Well I think that’s what we kinda decided. COLIN: Well suppose you don’t, you don’t have a mentor whereas Merlin’s got Gaius here to really steer him KATIE: And you guys know I’m magical and yet you leave me! COLIN: (laughing) KATIE: So it’s really your fault that I become evil! Without your guidance! ANGEL: …besides you COLIN: Well you’re the king’s ward. ANGEL: YEAH COLIN: He’s gonna believe you over us. KATIE: But I don't even know!

notes:

the (in)famous interpretation of colin and katie portraying merlin and morgana with more romantic undertones and getting blocked by the producer

katie telling colin that merlin is a coward.

colin morgan projecting what a merlin-morgana conflict would look like if mergana actually did happen.

both of them hoped for mergana to happen

[camprell-art]

Hii! Really love your art! Your designs for the mario characters are super lovely. I was wondering tho, what drives your dimentio? Why does he, like, destroy nearly every kingdom he comes across? Why does he want to become king of all worlds when he doesn't seem to mind the 'subservient' role?

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

Okay so, this probably will get extremely long ksajhd

Dimentio is unconsciously reenacting what the Pixl Queen, or his sister Shadoo, did. After getting driven to madness by being resurrected in a vessel with the Dark Prognosticus, she brainwashed every Pixl, formed an army and tried to destroy the Ancients for their selfishness and supposed egocentrism, so she is technically destroying a kingdom.

I never worked much in the time-line of events, but before all of that happened, Dimentio and his mother Illuminata died, because Merloo, the father and great magician, was researching the Dark Prognosticus and one day he tries a spell and everything goes wrong.

A recurring theme in the family story is how everyone of them had a tragedy, the father gets obsessed with the Dark Prognosticus and kills both his wife and son in an accident, the mother dies protecting the son, the son is cursed with immortality by being bound to the book, and the sister gets ill because of the dark energy the house had, dies, is brought back, dies again, now by her brother's own hands, gets cursed and also locked away in the Pits.

You can say that Shadoo and Dimentio are the ones who suffered the most, and depending on how you see it, yeah they are, but imagine living the rest of your life thinking that you ruined everything, like, EVERYTHING, because a book was "that" important. That's why Merloo ends up helping with the Light Prognosticus, but also completely alone, as if you see in the game, he's the only sage who, apparently, has no descendants.

Before I forget, Pixl Queen Shadoo had the DP, when Dimentio "kills" her, he takes it, tries to protect it from evil, but reads it in morbid curiosity of what is written there, people steal it from him and then he starts getting insane, just like Bleck. ^v^

In conclusion, Dimentio is traumatized, but instead of having a chance to really think about his past and not commit any crimes, he has the DP talking in his head and leaving every other memory to the side, which is why he has kind of an amnesia and why he knows roughly where the thing is. In other words, the book makes you go crazy, and after living so many years and so many deaths I think that the person is very likely to just go apeshit after some point.

Ah, and about the thing with being a servant and wanting to be king at the same time, I don't take what he said in that part too literally, because I do believe that his motivation was to make a perfect world without all the rotten evil people in it, that would explain why he doesn't like the Count, Dimentio may know he's bad too, but he's being bad for a greater or purer reason. The role of servant is mostly just a strategy to be seen as someone who is vulnerable and eager to please, a perfect lie to hide the strings he's holding.

I hope this is a good answer to your question! As always I think that I gave more useless information than a direct response. akjsdh

Have a nice day, or night, wherever you are! :)

Edit: Thank you so much for all the compliments!!! Dumb Camprell was so focused on trying to explain the shitshow that is his fanlore that he forgot completely about what you said first!! But know that it's always one of the best things to see in an ask! :3

[eleanorfenyx]

I have finished Mysterious Lotus Casebook, and here are some of my thoughts! (Obviously not spoiler free)

The cases are absolutely batshit insane and I loved it every single time they were like 'we totally collected this evidence that incriminates a secret suspect, just believe us and also don't question when the fuck we had the time to do this or when we figured out that we needed to look for it'. 10/10 no notes, that's a hilarious way to have a genius detective. Show us nothing, tell us everything, YES king.

That being said, I could have done with a lot less standing around having the supporting cast repeat whatever Li Lianhua and Fang Duobing announce, maybe in an attempt to make sure their genius is clear for the audience? I get it, but at the same time it felt a little too hand-holdy for me, especially in scenes where LLH and FDB had already discussed their findings between themselves before presenting them to the concerned bystanders. I can read between the lines (or else understand what has just been explicitly stated) without having every conclusion filtered through a slightly different sentence structure to make sure I got it.

Di Feisheng amnesia arc my fuckin beloved

Di Feisheng destroying his 'father' and freeing everyone in Di manor in a vicious act of catharsis that tied nicely into the main Nanyin bug-mind-control-thing narrative my beloved

Di Feisheng my beloved

The amount of times I was like...genuinely surprised he and Li Lianhua didn't kiss is both embarrassing (because I do in fact understand censorship and what I sign up for with these dramas and yet and yet) and numerous enough that I could...possibly...theoretically..write a 5+1 fic of every time I want them to kiss about it. No one hold me to that but it's something I think I'd like to do.

Re: the above point: because what the FUCK was that ending?!!! EXCUSE ME?! I gotta FIX THAT SHIT.

There will come a day when the strength of my hope for an unambiguously happy ending in a queer(-coded? is the source originally bl or is this its own thing?) wuxia drama is rewarded....but it is not this day. I must fix this myself.

Jiao Liqiao's laugh is one of the most annoying things I've ever heard. I was reaaaaally hoping someone would just up and stab her during one of her little evil laughing fits. At one point I was shouting "KILL HER, KILL HER" at my screen because I could NOT take anymore of her (unfortunately, I did in fact have to take more of her).

I still think her insistence on being obsessed with DFS is hysterical when he is so VISIBLY only interested in LLH. Explicitly STATES that his only life purpose is to fuck fight LLH again. Babygirl (derogatory) he is so fucking gay let's get you a nice knife to the gut instead, okay?

I thought the whole Shan Gudao plot was interesting, going from looking desperately for his body -> putting him to rest -> hunting for his murderer -> finding out he's alive/the mastermind behind everything going wrong (which I was proud of myself for realizing before the reveal, I'm normally bad at that) -> thwarting him with sass and superior martial arts at every possible turn -> killing him stone fuckin dead with beginner level skills because he's so up his own hole he can't see that's what's happening - was really fun!

He also has a SUPER annoying laugh he can fuck off

OH OH OH MARTIAL ARTS SKILL OF TRANS YOUR GENDER?! I MARRIED HER SO HER AFFAIRS ARE MY BUSINESS NOT YOURS??? ASKING YOUR WIFE FOR HER FORGIVENESS AND UNDERSTANDING AS YOU LAY DYING AND SHE GIVES IT TO YOU?????? OKAYYYYYYY

The twist at the end that LLH is the one with royal blood was so funny to me. Like it's a good twist and I love that Shan Gudao was just quite literally always a fuckin try-hard loser in ways he didn't even know, but also it was SO funny. Granny coming in clutch at the last fuckin minute with secret knowledge she just literally never shared.

LLH is such a smooth motherfucker. Shame about his insistence on dying when quite literally everyone (bar the people who suck) is begging this man to just live. Just LIVE DAMN IT!!!!! I really liked it when FDB begs him to just consider his own life as important for ONCE and remember that people care about him because YES his self-sacrificing and committment to Chilling Out Farmer Style was not the mercy he thought it was!

LIVE AND GROW OLD WITH DI FEISHENG YOU DAMN IDIOT (the likelihood of me resisting the urge to write at least the one fic for them is zero to none)

Unironically love spitting up blood as a plot device and this show is no different. The Drama. The Panache. The desperation of everyone around you because you have BLOOD coming out of your MOUTH and you are FAINTING. Poison acting up? Spit blood. Someone bitch slap you with their magical palm ability? Spit blood. Get stressed? Spit blood. Get stabbed? Spit blood. It's always good!

Okay I think that might be all I've got for now, if I think of anything else I'll add them in a reblog. I thoroughly enjoyed it, would definitely recommend!

[this-acuteneurosis]

So Im all here for the Pretty Ladies who dress nicely doing all the politics, wonderful court intrigue right here, are we gonna talk about in the back ground the majority known Male characters are in War killing dying thing? this story IS about the back room deals and others as main setting, (although we should tease you about dodging the wars in Star Wars sometimes just as a little poke.) curious cause the 4 main Male politco 2 are enemies in Rush and Palps. Kamino had a fem evil Senator! use??

Who wants to talk about ✨🌈Palpatine🌈✨!

There haven't been a lot of opportunities to talk about the structure and the influence of our main villain textually in the story, because Leia is kinda blind to her own bias, and also a lot of stuff that I have as part of his character just...doesn't come up.

So, keep two things in mind as I talk about DLB Chancellor Sheev Palpatine and pull back the curtain just a little.

His character is coming pretty exclusively from the OT and PT movies (with minor exceptions).

I'm taking advantage of a lot of silences and time period circumstances to draw conclusions about his character, so don't be surprised if I say something that isn't said out loud at some point.

Ready? Let's go!!

The OT features an overabundance of male humans in positions of power in Palpatine's government. This may have been balanced out slightly by novels that I haven't read or newer shows that I haven't watched, but the people Palps promoted to his special seats of power (Moffs, military leaders) are overwhelming human men. If we stretch canon to include the two Clone Wars cartoon series, the only women brought into Palpatine's plots are brought in by Dooku or other associates, not Palpatine himself. Of the three apprentices Palpatine has, two are human and one is humanoid.

I don't think I'm breaking anyone's brain to assert that Palpatine is sexist and racist. I know I'm not the first person to suggest or write this sort of character.

What I'm going to assert, beyond those points, is that Palpatine is only really impressed with himself, and assumes that anyone lacking qualities that he has is progressively less useful and important than him. So he's also, for lack of a better word, Force-ist.

(Ugh, nope. I still don't like it, but I don't have anything else.)

Palpatine absolutely has loyalists and panderers that are women. But as far as DLB is concerned, he's not promoting them, searching them out, or impressed by them. So women are going to be antagonists in this story more incidentally. On a small scale. Major antagonists are going to end up frequently being male and human. And I'm not going to try and change that.

Only tangentially related, but a little important because Leia comes into the Senate through Padmé's office, because of the prejudices listed above, I will pretty much die on the hill that Palpatine loathes Padmé. And he really loathes that he loathes her. That he has to have any feelings about her at all.

She's young. She's a girl. She isn't Force sensitive. He plucked her out and carefully curated her early political experience and was probably violently influential in her success in getting elected the first time. He had a tiny, fragile, 14 year old stumbling under the weight of the crown, ready to start his civil war and initiate the end of the Republic. She gets him elected. His plan is flawless.

Until it turns out that she has a spine, and humility. She has the courage to face danger and the grace to bow to another sovereign power. She trusts Jar Jar Binks when he suggests that the gungans have an army. Like this is somehow a viable plan for taking back her people, when Jar Jar isn't even slightly popular or powerful.

And she wins. Palpatine loses Maul, he loses Naboo, and he loses the opportunity to start a war. She sets him back a solid decade, at 14. On a hope and a the thinnest apology.

DLB isn't so much about creating a perfectly equitable Star Wars universe. I'm not equipped for that, and it wasn't the goal. This story is about a bunch of ladies doing politics and kicking Palpatine's plans to the curb because he was always vulnerable to the people he dismissed the most.

Palpatine's plans had the Jedi and the Senate in a steel trap of lose-lose situations. But he loses, over and over, to kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and diplomacy. He's stymied by it. He literally can't plan for it. I've had all sorts of fun having Leia and Padmé do "mother-daughter" politics together, but I love that in RotJ Luke Skywalker looked the Emperor dead in the eyes and said, "No. No you can't make me do this." Like his mother would have. It had to drive Palpatine completely nuts. And it worked.

Anyway, all that to say, there's a lot of story left, and I'm not going to give away all of Palpatine's plans and plots. But part of how Leia got this far without any resistance was that Palpatine saw a short, unconnected woman from the outer rim, had no idea she could use the Force, and went, "Not important."

And he was very, very, very wrong. :D