#and both episode 8 and the season so far are a bit less than the sum of their parts

[eugeniedanglars]

#very well said!#i think it's because the question of this season isn't actionable in the way it was for S1 and S2#S3E1 poses the question: why is ted still in london?#it's a soul-searcher rather than a goal#and soul-searching is good! it brings on character development!#but if it isn't grounded in some sort of actionable goal it leads to the aimlessness we're seeing in S3#if we had rebecca clinging harder to defeating rupert coupled with a rivalry with nate THAT would have provided more narrative tension#because rebecca's desperation to win at any cost would put her in conflict with ted's belief winning shouldn't be everything#but also force him to think 'well am i wrong? should my purpose be to win?'#it would also have been a fascinating reversal for rebecca#S1 she's trying to bring down the club by any means and it fails#but what if she had tried to have the club win by any means in S3 and THAT puts them on the brink of destruction?#they flirted with that storyline when they brought zava in but then it fizzled too quickly#i've really been liking this season (probably more than most) but there is a distinct lack of overall narrative tension#and i think it's because too many characters are being relegated to isolated plotlines (via @nancywheeeler)

i think the biggest problem of season 3 (of which there are Several) is the shift away from football being the crux of the story, which has undoubtedly resulted in the aimless, overstuffed, unfocused narrative we've been seeing for the last eight episodes. season one was as excellent as it was because whether richmond won or lost a match actually mattered; if they lost too many matches, they'd be relegated, and relegation was always treated as a distinct, tangible threat. there were stakes. and while season two had its issues with pacing and unnecessary subplots, no one would call it aimless. the characters had a goal (pun intended): to get promoted back to the premier league. if they lost too many matches, they would stay in the championship league. we as the audience were invested in whether or not richmond won or lost, and the narrative was all the stronger and more coherent for it.

season one asked us, can afc richmond avoid relegation? and we were invested in the answer. season two asked us, can afc richmond be promoted? and we were invested in the answer. now we're eight episodes into season three, and the overarching goal of the season, the question it is asking its audience to remain invested in, is...what? what are we building towards? is afc richmond's goal to win the whole damn thing? to beat west ham? to beat man city? to do just enough to avoid relegation again?

and because we can't answer this question, the narrative has suffered greatly. how are we supposed to believe beard when he says man city is the team's white whale if we haven't even seen them play each other yet this season? if ted's total football epiphany was so life-changing for richmond, why did we speed past all the matches this episode where the team won using that strategy? if this is all leading to a final nate-ted west ham-richmond match, why haven't we spent any time with nate at west ham? why haven't we gotten to see him grow and develop as a coach? at one point, the team was doing so badly that higgins suggested firing ted, who has been visibly struggling on and off the pitch - and the narrative did not give that suggestion the weight it might have had in season one or two. we spent an entire episode watching rupert, rebecca, and chelsea fight over zava - and then two episodes later he was gone, and we haven't so much as mentioned him since. just last season, sam was being heralded as the star of afc richmond, highly sought after by other club owners - but we haven't gotten to see any of his alleged brilliance on the pitch this season at all. i have to kick a little ball around, which those same people love me for, sam said in 3.07, that is, until i fuck up or miss a penalty, or i decide to fight back - a speech that was excellently delivered by toheeb, but loses some of its weight because we haven't actually gotten to see any negative reaction to sam missing a penalty or fucking up or deciding to fight back (not even in season 2 after the dubai air boycott).

(all this to say: i do enjoy the show. i love the characters, i've been enjoying the episodes as individual units, and i'll continue to tune in week after week. but for a show that once boasted football was life, it's sure been suffering since it decided to stop focusing on that.)

[dreamwreaver]

Kinda hoping the Lucilith flashback references the way Charlie and Alastor met. So I imagined how the scene would go:

After being scorned for his dreams by his fellow angels, Lucifer flew down to Earth for a reprieve from them and had been enraptured by a sorrowful song, compelling him to find the source of these doleful notes and finds the first woman, Lilith, by her lonesome. She sings of her rebellion, refusing to bend to her destined spouse's will and yearns for her own autonomy and freedom with a saddened cadence.

The seraphim, perched on branches of a nearby tree, resonates with her words and wishes to know more and attempts to talk to her. "Hel-," but before he could fully blurt out his greeting, the branch under him broke and he plummeted to the ground at Lilith's feet, startling her.

Lucifer rights himself up, attempting to quickly recover from such an ungraceful fall and is nearly stunned silent by the beautiful yet suspicious stare of the first woman in front of him. He finishes weakly, "-lo."

She is wary of the angel in front of her, not saying a word in reply so Lucifer tries to diffuse the awkward situation. "Uh, I'm Lucifer Morningstar! One of the archangels who just got shunned by heaven for having wacky ideas, haha... So, I'm uh, taking a little break from their judgemental stares and, uh, may I sit here for a while? I-if that's okay by you?"

Still cautious of the strange being in front of her but slightly charmed by his weirdly adorable mannerisms, she stiffly says, "You may."

(The show would most likely never have their meeting go the nearly same way as their daughter and her hotelier did but it's nice to imagine, considering the show did unintentionally make Lucifer and Lilith have parallels with them.)

I agree that there's far more parallels between Charlie's parents and charlastor than the canon pairing. Charlie and Lucifer are both fairly fantastical, and while we know next to nothing about Lilith I cannot see her having more similarities with vaggie aside from being some sort of grounding force for her partner. And given that their separation likely stems from Lilith being disappointed in how Luci gave up hope on their people rather than try to empower them like she did; I can't see vaggie doing the same for Charlie. We saw in hello Rosie she'd sooner defer to Charlie while knowing she'd wallowing rather than try to do anything on her own. And I feel like I'm in the less vocal camp about this; I don't hate vaggie. I just think she's better matched with literally any other woman in the show rather than the one she has. As of right now post season 1 at least, I'll hold out hope that season 2 does them a bit better but given there's only 8 episodes I doubt it.

This is perhaps partially motivated by spite but since Lucifer still wears his ring; I want Lilith to come back and for those two to be so sickeningly in love that it's nauseating. I want full gomez and morticia vibes from them.

[autistic-danieljackson]

So I've just finished season 9 of SG-1 and it definitely has different vibes than the rest of the show so far. Not bad! I didn't think it was bad at all which I feel like a lot of people write it off. But it almost feels like an SG-1 spin-off, if that makes sense? Like SG-1 2.0, it's not quite the same as the first 3 seasons but you sort of need to know the history of how we got here. Anyway, some quick thoughts before I start the last season. Cannot believe I'm here already but also feel like I've been watching for so long even though it's been less than a month.

First, I need to apologize to Vala Mal Doran. I'm so sorry I was too boring at 10 years old to appreciate her, she is such a fun character and I think naturally brings the silliness that's kind of missing with Jack gone. I'm very excited for her to be a series regular for season 10, cannot get enough.

Second, I'm really not sure what I think about Cam. I hadn't seen much of season 9 or 10 before now, when I was first watching it was before streaming and I'd come home from school and there were 2 episodes of Atlantis and then 2 episodes of SG-1 on each night so I just had to watch what was on(I'm not that old but god did writing that make me feel so old 😂). Anyway all this to say I'd seen Cam before but I didn't really know his character. I think Ben Browder did a great job but I think they tried to make Cam younger Jack 2.0 and I wish they would've just made his character more original. They could've made his character more interesting but I also get that they were probably trying to appease fans who were probably upset that Jack was gone. I think it could've been handled better but I don't actively dislike Cam.

The only thing I do dislike about his character is that it feels like he's undermining Sam a lot. Obviously the in-universe reason for why he's in charge of SG-1 makes sense now, Sam left to work at Area 51 and Cam was brought in to lead the team. But like...it just feels like so much bullshit. Again, they could've just had Sam in charge and had Cam come in as this young hotshot. It just feels so disrespectful to her character and being with the team for 8 years to now be second chair to the new guy. Also I know it was the early 2000s and there was a fair share of casual misogyny everywhere but it just felt extra gross coming from someone who just stepped in and basically took her spot. Like in the Kassa episode when Cam's insisting that he be the one to go collect information and he calls Sam 'Mary Poppins'? What is that even about?? (To be fair, the writing of that whole episode was not great, that's the only episode where I was like okay yikes yeah this is not super good) I just think more could've been done with both of their characters and I really would've liked to see it play out differently.

Don't care for Landry. Never did, that hasn't changed. I feel like he's unnecessarily mean a lot of times and I just don't like him.

Carolyn Lam, however, I do really like. I like that they finally got a steady replacement for Janet and although no one will ever truly replace her, I think she does a solid job. Not sure how I feel about her being Landry's daughter, I feel like that plot time and energy could have gone to other parts of the story but it's also not bad.

It definitely feels quite a bit different from earlier seasons, with a cast change and a totally new villain that hadn't even been heard of before I don't think that's a surprise at all. But I think it holds its own well enough and I'm definitely glad I didn't write it off without giving it a chance. Very excited to start season 10 and then start on Atlantis!

[bookoftheironfist]

    In which all of the comics fans who spent this whole episode going “Heal her, dummy! Heal her!” are finally rewarded! What a great reveal this is. I mentioned in an earlier post that this season did not dig very deep into the Iron Fist power-set, but it did give us two key components: the punching and the healing, and since the healing is much less famous than the punching, it was hugely exciting to see it spotlighted in this climactic moment. 

    In the comics, pre-Immortal Iron Fist Danny was, relatively speaking, an untrained Iron Fist-- which is to say that he didn’t know about a lot of the things that the chi of Shou-Lao could do. This wasn’t really his fault, as his predecessor, Orson Randall (who we will get to next episode!) took with him the source of that knowledge, the Book of the Iron Fist, when he ran away from K’un-Lun. Both 616 and MCU Danny are forced to learn a lot of the business of being the Iron Fist through lived experience, trial-and-error, and sometimes just by accident. 

The circumstances in which Danny discovers his healing powers in the comics are different than in the MCU, but equally desperate: he gets caught in a collapsing building and finds himself trapped in the rubble, dying from his injuries. On the edge of unconsciousness and hallucinating, he receives some vital information from the image of his uncle, Nu-An, the Yu-Ti of K’un-Lun: 

Nu-An: “Save yourself, young dragon!” Danny: “H-how?!” Nu-An: “The power lies within you, as it always has, nephew. The legacy of Shao-Lao can heal as well as kill... The Iron Fist is not a weapon--it is a force of will...and used properly, it can accomplish...miracles.” Iron Fist vol. 1 #4 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Janice Cohen, Frank Chiaramonte, and John Costanza

    Danny’s first healing experience is extremely painful and exhausting, but it works. He survives. Over time, he grows more comfortable with using the dragon chi in this way, and after his power-up in Immortal Iron Fist he is able to do so casually, whenever he needs to, for both himself and others.  

Lei Kung: “Daniel?” Danny: “Hunh...I healed without even thinking of it. And I don’t feel drained at all.” Immortal Iron Fist #8 by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, David Aja, and Matt Hollingsworth

Danny: “Your doctors did most of the hard work weeks ago... All I’m doing...is focusing your chi a bit...” Dakota: “...Whoa...” Danny: “...To speed up your natural healing process.” Daredevil vol. 2 #111 by Ed Brubaker, Clay Mann, Matt Hollingsworth, Stefano Gaudiano, and Chris Eliopoulos

    MCU Danny is at much the same state of training as pre-Immortal Iron Fist 616 Danny, and I love that his effort at healing Colleen is clearly painful for both of them, reflecting that early power level and lack of experience. And the fact that Danny just passes the heck out afterward and is unconscious for the rest of the episode means a lot to me.  

    (There is a great issue of Heroes for Hire volume 1 in which a desperate, pre-Immortal power-level Danny heals Luke from life-threatening injuries and nearly kills himself in the process. Obviously, this is not on the same level as that, but it has a similar flavor.)  

    While this is all very exciting for geeky reasons, it is also a major plot point. After being teased as Colleen’s mysterious sensei earlier in the season, here Bakuto swoops in to save the day...much to the annoyance of Madame Gao, who is pissed that he’s muscling in on her Iron Fist manipulation efforts. And not only does Bakuto help, he knows about the Iron Fist-- including details that even Danny doesn’t know. That is hugely significant, a mystery that leads us directly into the next episode...

[I’ve been going through and providing in-depth commentary on Iron Fist season 1. Look here for all of the posts so far!]

[shiro-s2e2-erukinzu]

I got a little sidetracked on Saturday, so now I'll share my thoughts on episode 31 of the Spy X Family anime...

I THOUGHT THAT IT WAS AN AMAZING EPISODE with an intriguing thing about it...!! 😲

So let's talk about episode 31 shall we...? 😁

So, the biggest thing that I noticed while watching this episode was that this is the first time that they not only adapted 2 full chapters (Missions 46 and 47), but also part of a third chapter (Mission 48, 8 and a half pages to be exact 😌) for the anime...!! 😲 (I'm only counting the main numbered Missions this conversation and not the Short Missions or the Omake chapters mainly because they are mostly extra content that is also [sometimes not] canon...)

And just to clarify, I do not think that this is a bad thing, I just find what they did for this episode very intriguing...!! 😄 It actually makes a lot of sense that the anime would have to start adapting more than 1 to 2 chapters per episode, mainly because Endo started to do more chapters (not all of them) with less pages!! 😁 Honestly, the only thing about this episode that makes me a little bit upset is that the chapter that I thought would be a perfect finale to this season may not end up being the last episode anymore...! 😩 But, I'm still holding out hope though!! 🤞

Anyway, besides how chapters were adapted this time around, there were at least 4 dialogue changes that I noticed in this episode...!! 😁

Change Number 1:

Anya calls Loid sappy in the manga, while in the anime, she calls him lonesome. I personally prefer Anya calling Loid sappy for missing Yor because I just think that it was cuter...!! 😊

Change Number 2:

Now, McMahon saying saying that Zeb is about to soil himself is bad, but saying Zeb is gonna POOP HIS PANTS is worse...!! 🤣 When I was watching the anime, I was like:

"DAMN, MCMAHON!! YOU DID NOT HAVE TO DO ZEB LIKE THAT...!!!" 😂🤣😂🤣😂

I like both lines, but the anime version made me laugh more...!! 😖

Change Number 3:

Yor says Director McMahon in the manga, while in the anime just says Director. Honestly, nothing too major...! I just noticed this difference when looking back through the manga...!! 😁

And finally...

Change Number 4:

I honestly like both lines, but I think I prefer how the manga version is praised...! 😎

And I think that's all I wanted to talk about for this episode...! I'm definitely loving how the Cruise Arc is coming along in the anime thus far, so I gotta say that WIT STUDIOS and CloverWorks absolutely are KILLING IT!! 😆 Also, one of mine absolute favorite scenes in this arc is happening next week in the anime and I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE IT!! 😁

I wanted to post this review on Saturday, but I like I said, I got sidetracked yesterday... 😅 So, I'll be seeing manga readers later today and anime fans next week as usual...!! 😊

[callioclops]

I've been trying to structure my thoughts about this for a bit, I think I'm ready to talk about Rick and Morty season 7. Specifically I'm gonna talk about the structure of the season as a whole, why it's weird, and why I think it works anyway. Obviously spoilers ahead.

So I'm going to assume you've seen the entire season, and whether you enjoyed it or not I'd take a guess that you got sucker punched by episode 5. The season 6 finale ended with Rick saying that season 7 would be him hunting Rick Prime, maybe actively in the episodes, maybe all happening in the background. After 4 episodes of hearing nothing about it except that it's happening, it's reasonable to assume that they've elected to go with the latter, and we won't get anything until a big climax. Which granted is what we get, but in the midle of the season.

Obviously this is strange, the tension in a season of any show usually takes a dip around the middle in order to build back up for the climax in the finale. But instead we're getting that finale now. Or at least, the tension you would expect from a finale. Previous seasons of Rick and Morty have always had these big flashy displays in finales with very little on that level in-between. I have a few ideas of why this break from form happened, but I want to circle back to that later and talk about the actual finale of season 7.

Episode 10 is one of my all-time favourite Rick and Morty episodes. That may be recency bias, but I think even after that wears off this will remain in my top 5 easily. But it doesn't feel like a finale; at least not in terms of scale. It's a remarkably focused episode, barely even about Rick. It's almost entirely a character exploration of Morty and his perceived relationship with Rick. It may not have the flashiness of finales like season 2 or 5, but it is one of the most intensely character driven episodes of the entire show.

And that's just it, R&M finales typically have both of these things. A central character or aspect of that character to explore; as well as flashy, climactic action scenes. But both of these episodes only have one each. Now I'm not saying that either episode is completely devoid of the other aspect, they do have some. But in each case they aren't a focus. The character moments in episode 5 exist to show that this isn''t character development for Rick. This thing he's been chasing for so long has done nothing for him, it's what he told himself he wanted while shutting out the things he needed. This isn't a conclusion for Rick, so why should it be a conclusion to the season?

On the other side of things, the actual finale shows us incredible character development from both of our main characters. Morty's fear of Rick needing him far less than he needs Rick manifesting as Diane has so many layers to it I couldn't possibly do it justice here. Meanwhile, even though Rick doesn't get much the fact that he listens to Morty when told not to go in the hole hits remarkably well. Even with the suggestion of his dead wife being in there, he trusts Morty. Personally I don't think he would've listened in season 6, or maybe even eariler in season 7. On top of that he's proud of him, enough to make sure his picture gets put on the wall to showcase his achievement (and also caring enough to keep said picture in his wallet).

Separating the action from the character not only created two very entertaining episodes for two very different reasons, but also I think symbolises where they plan to take the show. A clear favourite was chosen: character over action. If only one were to be in a finale which would it be? Now we have our answer, and knowing that answer makes me incredibly excited for season 8.

[purplerakath]

Dissecting an Adaptation - A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Adaptation is one of those weird topics. It's 'bad' because it changes things. But if it doesn't change things, its still bad. A no win scenario as you turn one thing into itself from a new angle. And a lot of the time people don't look at why it made changes, or what those changes do. Or how those changes play into the nature of the story.

TV, Film, Books, Comics, and Video Games have different tools, different rules, and different ways to do the same thing: tell a story.

This will have spoilers for both the first book, and the for season one of the series. I won't spend a lot of time on changes that impact books 2 and 3 (there are some) and won't go far enough to really qualify as spoilers for those two works.

Adaptations of Structure

The biggest change is the tools a work has to use, and the costs those tools have to use, which covers a lot of the bigger changes in the first season.

(I read the US version of the books, but won't be discussing anything to do with how those read differently from the international version.)

The books switch between three forms of writing over the course of it, narrative prose as normal for a novel, log entries written in character for Pip, and interview transcripts/text exchanges. These change the flow of how the book reads as they are written in different styles. They're very good for a written book, but won't do nearly as much good in a TV show.

Even just stopping for Pip to listen to a full interview wouldn't actually do much visually in an audio-visual medium like TV.

Which covers why almost everything from those is missing. The interviews Pippa does are all done in narrative without a break to a new format to make it clear what's going on. And this is, overall, fine. As much as Pippa's catfishing email exchanges are really good for showing how clever and duplicitous Pip can be, they don't play well in video.

Adaptations of Tempo

Books can cover a longer space of time than a TV show does, TV shows want some continuity of motion. Nothing as exact as 24's 1:1 time flow, but you want an episode to be days not weeks. A season to be months not years (back when seasons were 20+ episodes and not 6-8 episodes).

Which is bad if you're, say, unraveling a mystery. And you want the story to circle back to previous lies, previous interesting characters who graduate to suspects. Lies that become motives. But six episodes means we can't spend too much time chasing our tails.

This also means that a lot of characters who are there to fill space... can just be rolled into another character. Chloe Burch's role in the story being rolled into Nat's character is a good example of this. Ant Lowe being exiled from Pip's friend group is another good one.

There are problems, Stanley Forbes is entirely absent from this version. Similarly we don't see Mr. Singh or Mrs. Bell. And Jason isn't remarried. These all matter to a degree, but they also don't matter right now. And the room for these characters to show up in later seasons (if renewed) is there, so they will be around when we need them.

It's just a little bit of a problem.

Adaptations of Tone

Books have a tougher time with subtext, probably due to them just being text. You have what's there, and nothing else. The audiobook has a fullcast so there might be some read directions on dialog, but you can't rely on that to tell you anything if you're reading the paperback or an epub. So a lot less of it can be about what isn't there.

But when you have actors you can do so much with things that aren't being said out loud. The difference between Book 1 Pipravi as a relationship and Season 1 Pipravi is huge. The book didn't focus on Pip's feelings about Ravi outside of how he was impacted by the case, series Pip is awkwardly trying to work out her emotions over this boy pretty much out of ep 2 and it doesn't stop until she tells him to shut up in Ep 6.

Emma also brings a different sort of intensity to Pip than Book Pip seems to contain. Pip in the book is headstrong, certain of herself (until facts break her), but her need to solve this case is a little less clear in the book (where she's doing this because she thinks its right) vs the show where it's something inside her she has to struggle with.

The other tonal shifts are one of who gets treated kinder by which version of the story. Andie of course is a lot more complex in the books, while the series paints her as a well meaning terrible person. Changing her relationship with Nat is a pretty big one (and really the only shift in the series a fully dislike).

Meanwhile the book spends a lot of time treating Elliot Ward like a good man in a bad situation, that what he did was all moments of weakness and he didn't mean to. The series more firmly paints him as a man with a darkness he hasn't come to grips with, his breakdown in the books makes him less monster than the show. In turn Naomi is given more moments of helping Pip in the series, to lessen her hand in Sal's fate, making her less villainous in Pip's eyes.

These changes on who is framed in kinder light is fairly small on paper, but huge in practice. Changes born (in part) from the tempo of the series being faster. Naomi dodges Pip's questions more in the book, turning her into a more valid suspect. While in the series she's so desperate to tell anyone what happened she let's it slip in the first episode.

Overall...

Each version does different things well, most of the changes I find indifferent. Because as much as the changes are changes, adding the parameter of acting to it means that they can make characters like Max and Daniel skin crawlingly creepy. And while later books Max is very, very creepy, that's because of what Pip knows not how he was written.

While Henry Ashton knew exactly what he was playing and exactly how to sell it with just his presence on set. And that's got it's own value too.

[gaymer-hag-stan]

A Tekken 8 Review That Nobody Asked for From a Longtime Fan Who Has Been Playing for Ages But Is Not a Pro - That Title Is Too Long

Having spent a little over 24 hours playing the game on my PS5, I feel like it's an appropriate amount of time to share my first thoughts on it. I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum so just skip the "Story" section and you should be fine.

General Thoughts

A pretty healthy roster, overall happy with who we got. I do wish Anna and Christie were here, and I also miss Lucky Chloe. With Eddy already announced and Azucena taking over the "cooky dance-y character" I unfortunately don't see Christie or Chloe returning, but Anna better fucking do!

They all look great, even the ugly ones, they look satisfyingly ugly, if that makes any sense. The girls still suffer from the Madame Tussaud's wax figure syndrome that plagued the entirety of Tekken 7's roster, but, maybe I'm gaslighting myself, I do feel like they look a bit less plasticky than some of the initial teasers? Most of the redesigns are great, the hair (Lili's hair has never looked better), water and dirt physics all finally WORK and I love how all the clothing animates with the wind effect, the Fallen Destiny stage is a great one to illustrate all of the above. We can see Yoshimitsu's fingers after three decades! I'd love to know the thought process behind this redesign lmao

I love that they finally, after so many years of other fighting games having it but being inexplicably absent from Tekken, they finally added Player vs CPU matches! FINALLY! Finally I can pick my character and my opponent of choice, pick their costumes and set a stage for them to battle. I'm so happy for this even though it might not make any sense to anyone.

Combo Challenges! We finally have combo challenge in Tekken! Another common fighting game feature inexplicably missing up until now.

Gameplay feels a lot of fun. I wasn't sure about the heat mechanic but it's actually a lot more fun than I initially thought! I tried out all of the cast and am slowly completing both their story episodes and an Arcade run for good measure. I am obviously still maining Nina. They have decided to simplify a lot of her combo throws and I am having fun terrorizing people online with them by breaking their bones! I'm also using Arcade Quest to learn how to play as Lili and Azucena, some basic moves and combos and whatnot. I wanna also do Zafina, Jun, Jin, Hwoarang and Xiaoyu as well eventually. I think these eight will be my main squad for the time being. As a side note, King and Steve feel extremely fun to play, I haven't picked either in ages, but with King I was really close!

The netcode is, surprisingly functional??? We did recently switch to an optic fiber connection type, but I'm still on WiFi and I am having zero problems!

Jukebox is thankfully back again! I literally spent an hour or more before playing the game at all to decide which song goes where lol

Something that scares me regarding upcoming DLC, is that I do not see a season pass being sold anywhere except the Deluxe Edition bundle that costs 40€... I'm sorry but I don't give a fuck about owning 32 identical gold costumes or Tetsujin or whoever the fuck as my Arcade Quest avatar... I only want Eddy and the other three (one of them better be Anna!) thank you very much!

Story

"The Dark Awakens"

Believe it or not I haven't even finished the main story yet as I'm trying to pace myself through all the modes and enjoy them, savouring every moment. At the moment of typing this I am almost halfway through and I must say, even though I am still firmly in the "Drop the cinematic NRS style story modes" camp, and I would much rather have had either arcade mode with proper, canon endings back, or a revival and repurposing of the Tekken Force mode, in an SF6 World Tour mode type of way, out of all of Bandai Namco's attempts at a cinematic story mode, from SCV to Tekken 8, this has been the most satisfying attempt so far. I love that they are fully embracing the overdramatic nature of Tekken along with its campy side and it's present from the very beginning, with Jin throwing his bike at Kazuya's helicopter! "A Fate Decided by Fists" were we actually get to choose which fighters advance through the first round was the biggest highlight so far! I did not expect to fight Azazel again in 2024! I miss his Tekken 6 design though, he no longer glows according to his remaining health or has his limbs crumble away into scarabs according to which parts of him you're hitting. Also, I do understand why they felt the need to overemphasize how "Jin was a good guy all along and he's not like Kazuya" to redeem him and attempt to portray him as a more traditional hero, but I think they went way too far. Literally every single cast member, characters who've never met him before especially, makes a point of how good a person Jin is. Also, I do understand that there were a lot of people complaining that most of the cast were ignored in Tekken 7's story mode and I appreciate that they tried to include more of them this time, but it's so half assed and superficial. Like, Lili, Asuka, Hwoarang, Leo (who finds their missing father, a forgotten plot point from Tekken 6 of screen without a single explanation) Xiaoyu, PANDA offer absolutely nothing to the story so far other than to just be there and tell Jin what a good guy he is. And I say all that as someone who is firmly on Jin's side and despises Kazuya.

Character Episodes

Thank god they have more than one single fight this time! I would have liked it if they found a way to make each of them be canon. Like, I think every single one of the Arcade mode endings of SF6 is canon, if I'm not mistaken, and most of them seem to take place before the events of the main story, as a way to give us a clearer understanding of why each fighter fights. I think Guilty Gear does exactly that too. Nevertheless, I do appreciate that each fighter has fights specifically tailored to them, with specific opponents. It's not clear to me yet if they're completely non-canon or not, as in Nina's she seems to have been hired by Lee to sabotage G Corporation and Kazuya, I pray to God this is true and she's not actually, willingly working for that asshole, like, I'm still in complete denial that they threw her entire character development from Tekken 4 to Tekken 7 to the trash can just to go "NInA WiLl WoRK FoR WhOmEvEr"... She's also suspiciously missing from the actual story like, she simply just appeared in ONE scene so far and then left without doing literally anything. She also seems to only have special interactions with Steve and Lee so far when others get a lot more. Her handling story wise in this installment is insulting, considering she's the most popular female fighter in the series and one of the most popular in the genre...

Offline Modes

Arcade Quest

It's cute... It's certainly a cool way to mask your tutorial and the avatars are kinda cool, but they're nowhere near as good as what Capcom did with SF6 and World Tour. I must say I prefer Tag 2's Tekken Lab over this.

Super Ghost Battle

Ghost battle, after five attempts is finally fun! Tekken 7's was by far the worst attempt as the game would automatically pick opponents for you, matching you with much harder ones if you were winning too much and much lower ones if you were losing too much so that you wouldn't climb the ranks as fast and it would artificially increase playtime. Now that Tekken has actual single player modes other that the story there's no need for that, and they made it work. You simply choose from a list, and the ones that contain unlockable (useless) customisation options for specific characters are actually marked so that you can attempt to get the item you want.

Arcade Battle

I love that they still included a traditional eight battle long Arcade mode, even though they could have just had the character episodes and call it a day. My slight nitpick, again, is that they're still doing this thing that they've been doing since Tekken 5 or 6 where the first few battles are characters in their default costumes and then a horde of Namco's customized monstrosities attack your eyes... This is a huge pet peeve of mine, I understand it in the context of Ghost Battle, and Arcade Quest, but I do not want to see goofy customs in other, "serious" modes. On top of that, the ghosts you get seem to be from the Super Ghost Battle's catalogue of freaks, and are therefore higher difficulty than most, which in turn makes them actively harder than the mode's final boss which I think is kinda hilarious!

Tekken Ball

I will admit, I only played a single match and never touched it again. It is actually challenging, I'll give it that, but I don't see the appeal. I'd much rather have Tekken Bowl again back instead tbh. Also I wish that stage was playable in normal modes too.

Customization

Avatar customization is kinda whatever, but it works well enough for Arcade Quest and I don't really visit the Tekken Fight Lounge.

Character Customization however is where I have an issue. While I've seen lots of cool customs of various characters from other games and IPs, including Shimbori himself dressing up Super Battle ghosts as DOA characters!, I don't really care for the customization options? My only real use for Character Customization in Tekken so far was to recreate past / alternate outfits. Like, in Tekken 6 I would buy the schoolgirl outfit parts for all the teen girlies, in Tekken 7 I recreated Nina's 2P outfit from Tekken 4 using her Blood Vengeance catsuit as a base, stuff like that. In Tekken 8 all I'm getting is a huge catalogue of Zara's apparel... And all the unlockable outfits are either their default look with less clothes on, or weird cosplays of other characters. Why? Tekken Character Customization peaked in Tekken 6, where every single one of the 40 (41 if you count Panda, who I think had some different options from Kuma) characters had his own personal selection of outfits and items, matching their personality and look. I don't want to play as Nina dressed up as Ada Wong or in a business casual for a 9-5 desk job. They made everything way too generic and bland and, on top of that, we don't even have trademark pieces like Nina's purple catsuit, her ponytail, Hwoarang's taekwondo garb, Xiaoyu's Tekken 6 battle costume. The Tekken 5 veterans should have had their Tekken 5/6/TTT2 costumes and hairstyles on top of their Tekken 7 ones.

Overall, I am very very happy with this game! It seemingly does almost everything right and I am glad to see it improving on, literally, every single thing over Tekken 7.

Score: 9 / 10

[variousqueerthings]

Oh, I love puppets! / I'm just passing through, like fish in the night

It's The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who Lived tiiiime, and this is one of the big recurring thematic episode holders of the season, and possibly... possibly I should watch them again at some point, when I'm not over-inundated with what in hindsight was a bit of a bonkers schedule of getting through M*ffat-era in a relatively short space of time, because I think some of it lost me a bit. not the plot, just a couple of Things here and there, which actually goes back to the first couple of episodes, where they were mentioning a Hybrid, but I'm like. wait did I miss something? was this Hybrid relevant or did it just Appear as another legendy type thing? why is it being mentioned like everyone knows what it is out of the blue?

this not because I remember the Hybrid being mentioned in these episodes, but because "Me" mentioned them in the finale episode and I was like... wait, hold on a second, I missed all this build-up, does it tie back into these episodes... I cannot tell you, I honestly can't, I cannot remember, I didn't note when the Hybrid was mentioned. but I will rate what I do remember!

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 10/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 3/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 7/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 5/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 3/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 8/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 7/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 10/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 8/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 6/10

FULL RATING: 67/100 (if I can count….)

this season is so far pretty consistently in the high 60s. it's a good season, but a few things are definitely starting to look like A Pattern (this is why it's great to have a System, I can be like "it's not just vibes, see I have a System, and if people tell me the System is highly subjective, I can knock over a water deliberately and run away in the confusion)

OBJECTIFICATION: as far as I can remember there's nothing here on that front. we've been cured at this point, I tellya

PLOT-POINT: Clara isn't really going through an emotional journey in the first episode (the Doctor sure is though boy oh boy) and straight up isn't in the second one, unfortunately. we'll get to that.

COMPLEXITY: okay so on the surface, these are quite simple, chill plots, I enjoy them both. the snag is... what the fuck just happened with Me??? immortal Me???? really immortal Me???? I wrote way more about that in the point below, but yeah I think they should have made her... less immortal. durable perhaps. long-lived. but ooh that was... that was very very immortal huh

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: one thing I've noticed, that I dunno which point to put on and so has ended up here (but maybe it should have been on the "plot point" point, is that several times throughout this season we've smash-cut to "Clara is in danger in some way/close to death and then the Doctor gets her out of the situation"

I note this because I feel like it's there as a recurring joke, but also it comes up in "Face The Raven" that Clara seems to be enjoying herself too much with these life-and-death situations, but... I don't think it's clear enough. Idk if I'm being pedantic or not, I really really don't, but I'm not a fan of these "insights" into their adventures being uniformly about danger as a Joke

couple of times, sure, but... do you ever go somewhere just for the joy of the experience? why no snapshots into fun/beautiful/joyous experiences? like back in Rings Of Akhaten, it felt like yes there was danger because of circumstance, but the point of the journey was to experience, in fact the thing that tends to keep companions coming back is "anything could happen next that is wondrous, despite the danger (although the danger could become intoxicating, this isn't the goal from the outset, and how companions interact with that danger when it appears in balance with the joyous experiences gives a lot of the tension of their individual stories)."

this is a thing that happens at the beginning of this episode and is irrelevant to the rest of it. Clara's relationship with danger beyond "she weirdly doesn't care much" isn't as explored as I'd want it to be. genuinely why do we never see them setting out to have a good time? what do these scenes tell us about their dynamic, and are they telling us this On Purpose, or am I reading too much into them?

I'm jaded I tell you, jaded!!!! I never know when M*ffat is doing something because of "fun setpiece opening" or when it genuinely Means something. Fuckit I'll read into it: Clara has a weird fucking relationship with danger, because she seems to have been casually on the verge of death several times and brushed it off in a super chill way within the same episode! there we go, read into it

the other way to read into it is Clara has a weird fucking relationship with danger, because the Doctor's influence has made her believe she is literally invincible and nothing really bad can happen -- this despite her boyfriend yeeting himself into the atmosphere after becoming a cyberman

anyway, there is actually some real ongoing Plot stuff in this lol, I went off on a tangent to begin with because of that being the beginning: this plot is not... really related to Clara. it semi-is because of the end of the season, but I do think it's weird that this double-episode about Me -- who will later travel with Clara -- doesn't really cement a bond between Clara and Me. like yeah, they get on in the first episode, but in the second episode where we meet Me properly -- the Me we'll know moving forwards -- Clara just isn't there. I genuinely don't get it, because I've said that there are episodes where it feels like Clara is redundant from a thematic and lore/plot-building perspective, but this episode which sets up Me, doesn't also set up little threads that could make us look back end-s9 and say "ah yeah, I can imagine what kind of co-travellers these two might become"

but back to Me. IIIIIIIIIIIIII have questions. I actually think this is way bigger for some reason than a lot of more commonly discussed lore-building. like, sure, Time War, granted I was 10 or so so maybe that's just in my read of the story as indelible, but then bringing Gallifrey back, yeah, makes sense, it's a show that goes on forever, Timeless Child, yeah why not, [spoilers for the last special in case you haven't seen it] doesn't change much, but the Doctor just... made someone immortal? Immortal immortal???? meet them again end of the Universe immortal??? just travelling around in another Tardis immortal???????? you can just do that?????? why does this shock me so much, idk. maybe it's because with the Doctor you can really fuck with stuff, they're already an alien who can change their face, I get you wanna shake that up sometimes

this just casually happened midway through a season and is -- as far as I can remember -- irrelevant outside of this season of the show. it's sooooooooooo. can we talk about how this works please??? what. what was that for??? so many questions about Me-as-concept, but I guess she's just... out there. still potentially immortal?? she's gotta be more immortal than the Doctor is, how can she be totally unharmed after whatever the fuck trillions? trillion tillions??? of years???? okay stop thinking about this now, brain broken

fuckn Jack was made immortal by the time vortex itself and is less immortal than she is, okay I'm over it now. so many questions

COMPANIONS MATTER: Clara kind of does in the first one, in that she's the point of contact with Ashildr. but then she's literally not in the second one at all. I wonder if JLC had a commitment, it feels like a commitment thing. RIP because that was genuinely an episode I think Clara should have been in

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: this is a turning point for the doctor, and I do note it's happened roughly halfway through his run, in which he basically realises that he has to save this girl, because this face -- in turn -- was saved back in Fires Of Pompeii. truthfully I don't think anyone questioned Capaldi looking exactly like... well, Capaldi, but fuckit, it's Doctor Who, fuck around a bit + it's for good and not evil! (+ hi ten hi donna!!!)

the point is that the Doctor's been having a bit of an identity crisis ever since this face arrived, and spent all of s8 running around seemingly just dissociating from themself and everyone else in the Universe, and s9 they've sorta been going. oh hey people. I don't want to be an asshole anymore. I got flashcards! (I wish actually the flashcards had been there from s8, I think they would have made s8 Doctor much more fun to engage with for me)

these episodes really feel like the episodes to fully nail that, although s9 has been going in that direction from the start. can I trace it back to anything particular in s8, yeah, I guess, it's sort of thereee in certain interactions, especially in the last few episodes. truth be told, now I'm a little away from s8, it's like I can't quite remember just how pissed off and distant he was all the time, I've just got to trust my notes saying he was (this is why we take notes kids -- the kids are me, I did not take notes for s9 so now there is a very limited amount of time I have to write these reviews before it stops existing for me)

I think this works. I have... questions... about the "can't travel with another immortal" bit which I'm putting here, because while I like the Doctor finally voicing their thoughts on some of the internal stuff that's been going on (which, notably isn't to Clara, but then again the Doctor often doesn't tell their emotions to companions, because they must be Spared, get some therapy king, and apologise to Martha Jones someday) -- while I like the Doctor and Me having that conversation about "the mayflies" (which I'm also into as descriptor), I feel like it's a bit of a cop out, similar to back when River Song was like "naahhh can't travel with you because scheduling issues uh Real Plot Reasons I swear" and just like then, I feel like they wrote their way into a corner with this one

I think personally Me should have flat out refused the Doctor. Or have it be like with Jack Harkness -- You Feel Wrong To Me, because Me is frankly a nightmare creature according to season 9, and by this I mean not in personality (remarkably chill considering linear immortality spent Alone until the end of the Universe???) but simply wait what you can just make people immortal like that??? Doctor Who Explain!

I think the Doctor should have been wahaaaay more disturbed having created a fuckn Creature, not just because she may do immoral things because she forgets what it's like to be mortal, but because it's some fuckn Horror Shit that's going on here. I mean, it's there and I'll read more into it, but it's so. "oh yeah, this is a thing I can do, and I chose to do" and not "wait was this a really really really fucked up thing to do??? am I the bad guy???????????? do I remember life and death as concepts???????????????????????????" this is noooot Fires of Pompeii where they handy-dandy yoink out some people so they don't burn to death, this is bringing someone back from the dead and MAKING THEM IMMORTAL. this is more Time Lord Victorious than Just Save Someone

I can tell this will be in my head for awhile....

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: looots of fun references in these episodes, generally just a good time. the only thing is... immortal Me. is. so. immortal. the most immortal. I spit on your other immortals. how did you immortal so hard?? harder than any other immortal character??? did it have to be so, for writing reasons???? (you can probably tell at this point I will be returning to this concept in the finale review!)

“SEXINESS”: I... genuinely do not remember. I don't think there's anything weird here. I should've taken notes, but past me was having a time.

INTERNAL WORLD: there's two worlds here and both are actually fine. I feel like we're not just in these times as set dressing (like I often felt with the paternoster gang and the victorians). the Vikings are a coherent village and I care about them (maybe not totally historically accurate but that's not the point with this, it's the feeling that they belong in the world set up for them) and the 1600s part 2 was given enough to feel lived in. I think it especially helped in both cases that we were seeing people around the leads who felt real -- that's what has often been missing in the past of this era, that it's not just the Super Impressive Immortals And Aliens And Important People but that people exist in these kinds of stories (and they're all important)

POLITICS: this was super unintentional and I'm mostly having a laugh but...

Lady Me: My chosen name is "Me." The Doctor: No it's not [deadnames her].

Doctor Stooop you literally chose your own name in canon!!!

generally, okay, I'm being a meanie here in over-analysing, but I do wish what is very similar to an orlando-type storyline were more queer. orlando is like. my jam. and this character is basically orlando. and she crossdresses. but a queer writer would have been soooo much juicier with this narrative. it's especially noticeable as we've got a couple of literal gender-crossings with Time Lords, but I do think the show is still in its... not infancy but let's say toddler-era when it comes to queer intersectional feminist vibes. it's basically still doing the "girls rule, boys drool" type thing

FULL RATING: 67/100 (if I can count….)

I CANNOT STRESS HOW PERTURBED I AM BY CASUAL HALFWAY THROUGH A SEASON IMMORTAL CHARACTER CREATION. fuckn. who knows when I'll have finished rolling that around in my head

they're good episodes, this is a good season, but. and I write this having recently finished said season. the things it's setting up will not be paid off for me, which is a shame. I enjoy this season, but I enjoy it more for its parts than its whole. I like a lot of the ideas it's putting out that will end up coming back in the last episode. but it's. the way it casually does things and asks me to go along with them, when I'm going, "no nonono wait, I have questions about this one, you can't throw away the rule book entirely," and just adds plot and emotional beats without build-up to those beats. I like those beats, but why didn't you build to them??? (this was a problem in the first double-episode, it's a problem in this double-episode, and I know it'll be a problem in the last three episodes, post Sleep No More)

mayflies though. I do like the mayflies

[marshallpupfan]

Have you heard that Marshall has collapsed down to the 2nd least-used Pup, only behind Zuma now? The lack of respect for Fire/EMT is unreal.

I'm truly out of words, not as just a fan, but as a writer too.

Yeah, I know about it, and it's unfortunately true. They pretty much started using him less and less around season 7, and things never really got better for Marshall from that point on. Season 8 even flat-out ignored him for many missions in a row (about eight to nine, which equates to about four episodes... and it happened twice), and over half of season 9 was just lousy to him, both in terms of getting called in and the roles they gave him (you'd be surprised how many times Chase and Skye actively saved lives, while Marshall kept getting restricted to minor tasks). To add insult to injury, even the first theatrical film wasn't too kind to him, as they stripped him of his personality, reduced his clumsiness to two brief bits in the first twenty minutes, and gave his elevator wipeout to Rubble (I can't help but believe the same will happen again in The Mighty Movie).

Why, and for what reason? Nobody knows.

Truth be told, I've pointed this out many times in the past, and it's one of the biggest reasons why my love for PAW Patrol has gone down in recent years. It's just so unnecessary, especially since they found plenty of uses for him in the earlier seasons just fine, so... why hold him back so much now? I suppose stuff like this might have something to do with it, but even then, I really can't say... nor can I say if things will ever go back to the way they were for Marshall anytime soon.

On the bright(ish) side, season 10 has been... somewhat better to him so far. He's been called out more than Rubble and about the same as Rocky and Zuma (we're only three episodes in, but still), the description for the next Jungle Pups directly mentions him by name, and he'll be the first of the other five pups to guest star in Rubble and Crew. Not that I want to go getting my hopes up, but... maybe this is a good sign? Possibly? Hopefully?

As always, I guess all I can do is hope for the best for my favorite spotted pup.

[presidentdisastraofgallifrey]

Rating Every Nu Who Episode: Season 5

The Eleventh Hour: 9/10 perfect intro to the ADHD whirlwind that is Eleven, baby Amy was sweet, and the tragedy of missing time was fun. Also I think I enjoyed Amy more in this episode than any that followed.

The Beast Below: 10/10 utterly haunting. Willful ignorance metaphor. A space whale that, like the Doctor, is alone and can't stand children crying. Liz 10 is SO COOL. Choosing to risk everything because you won't go on allowing a creature to suffer. Just perfect.

Victory of the Daleks: 7/10 not overly exciting but I love this dalek trick and also the shiny new dalek design.

The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone: 8/10 I thought this one was fun, and I always love to see River.

The Vampires of Venice: 7/10 I like the plot but Amy and Rory ruin it for me a little bit. Also nice foreshadowing about everyone losing their planets.

Amy's Choice: 8/10 every villain involved was fun and the idea of the Doctor haunting himself with a new and unfamiliar face is really funny. Also nice characterization: he is both extra hyper and also the most explicitly self-hating version so far.

The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood: 9/10: silurians! This one was just fun in a less world-ending way. And they won with diplomacy! And I appreciate the random kid being dyslexic being a plot point a couple of times. I actually forgot Rory died/got erased though and that shows you how much I care about him.

Vincent and the Doctor: 9/10 how dare you have an invisible silly creature and also make me cry like this?

The Lodger: 9/10 really, really funny and a nice break from...the rest of everything falling apart all the time.

The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang: 1/10 why is this finale? I don't like anything about it, except maybe the running around the modern-day museum bit, and that's not even amusing enough to get it any points. Plus, if Amy couldn't remember Rory before she shouldn't have been able to remember the Doctor, and if you write yourself into a corner where you have to reset time to fix it, maybe rethink your plots.

Bonus Character Ratings:

Eleven: 8/10 I like his hyperactivity and self-hatred but he gets a lot of lousy storylines.

Amy: 4/10 I don't hate her, she's just...nothing. She feels flat to me and is just there to follow the Doctor around and like him better than her husband.

Rory: 3/10 he's even more nothing than Amy, just there to be devoted to her.

[incesthemes]

final thoughts: supernatural season 8

oh my god i'm finally done. i don't even know why this season was so difficult to get through because honestly i liked it infinitely better than seasons 6-7, so what's up with that?

the beginning of the season was REALLY rough, but i think it found some footing toward the end. it had some pretty good plots, and i was genuinely so pleased to see them tying in original supernatural worldbuilding and plots to build this season. it felt like a return to its roots after deviating so hard in s6-7, so i greatly appreciate that. it almost made up for how often they disregarded established canon and retconned developments lmao (no it doesn't. i am salty about this).

as always too many episodes felt contrived and without consequence which annoys me to no end, but i think the god trials are a pretty good plot, and the emotional throughline of it was well done too. it had some good brother bonding and even some character development for them both: i love that sam and dean started the season so far apart and reaffirmed their undying love for each other in the end. it felt cohesive and well thought out.

imo the god trials should have started sooner. like, way sooner. getting to mid-season was a drag, and there was nothing acting like glue holding the storyline together for far too long. i really like what they did with benny and i will always love him and miss him (rip king) but i think conjoining the amelia/benny drama and the god trials would have been a better option. add some more trials in there or something idk, just give the show a leg to stand on.

but really i am actually genuinely impressed with how they handled benny. i think paralleling him with amelia was a smart choice, and it gave the entire season and undercurrent of tension between sam and dean that provided just enough oomph to make the finale hit hard.

and yeah the finale was good! actually i think the last three episodes were all pretty dang good. i had prepared myself to critique the angel trials in this write-up, particularly for being crammed in at the end, but i ended up really enjoying how that came to fruition, and the speed of it gave a particular tension and urgency to it that helped carry the resolution in the finale really well. i'd forgotten about the little twist ending, so i was pleasantly surprised!

thinking about it now, i think probably what made this season so difficult to watch was because too many episodes interrupted the momentum of the story. you have some cool trial episodes which are done pretty well and have a lot of tension, and then you follow that with... a random, unrelated filler episode. and that really does kill the mood, more so in this season than in 6-7 because 6-7 didn't really have very tense or coherent plots to begin with. there was nothing grasping my attention fully, so the plotty episodes and the filler episodes were more or less equals—not the case here. going from 100 to 0 every other episode was like breaking all the bones in my body with a wrench. seriously.

but i'm not gonna lie, the finale was so exciting and so well done that i'm almost tempted to start season 9 just to see the fallout of all that. SUPER excited about human castiel, i've been waiting for this moment since i started my rewatch. and finally sam and dean are un-divorced again. and isn't the mark of cain plot in season 9??? i remember enjoying that. i think. finally dean gets his time in the spotlight (suffering unimaginable horrors), thank god.

but i know objectively i need to take a break, so i'm gonna watch at least one season of hannibal next i believe. i keep getting torn between hannibal and black sails and then cursing myself for not watching hannibal when it was first airing, like an idiot. either way season 9 will have to wait for a little bit while i detox. holy shit.

[beatnikbedlam]

Best New Anime of 2022

(reposted from cohost)

so i had cancer this year! which apparently means i actually watched enough new anime last year to do a top ten list? so i guess this is my first anime top ten! pretty neat! i’m only gonna cover shows that premiered this year because it would be hard not to put stuff like Mob Psycho and JoJo on here and there was so much great new stuff that i wanna focus on. here goes!

10: Love Flops: this show… this fuckin’ show y’all. the first few episodes are…. A Lot. some of the horniest anime bullshit i’ve seen. it takes over half the season to really show its hand. and look, i really don’t want to spoil anything, because it has some truly great reveals, but goddamn is it an incredible fucking hand. a show that is both absolutely demented and very touching

9: Aharen-san wa Hakarenai: translates to Aharen is Incomprehensible. just a really cute, chill little romcom about a couple of goofballs and their even goofier friends. was a very nice thing to look forward to during a pretty hard summer!

8: Urusei Yatsura: i originally had Spy x Family here, but y’know what? fuck that. Lum’s Back Bay Beeee and she looks better than ever. David Productions outdid themselves here

7: Bocchi the Rock: the most i've related to a character in ages. great music, great animation, great pals

6: Chainsaw Man: not typically my vibe, but it's so good i can't help but appreciate it anyway. i have trouble with “misery parade” stuff but Chainsaw Man takes it so far that it becomes hilarious. i really love its exploration of intimacy and control, very nuanced and looks at a lot of different aspects of it. Power and Denji’s friendship is super refreshing, Makima is scary as hell, and Himeno is… unfortunately very hot. don’t @ me

5: Ya Boi Kongming: time travel is always my jam, and this is one of the best. it subverts the whole "the character is dumb bc they're from the past" thing by making the MC a master strategist from the Three Kingdoms period. there's initial confusion, but he picks up quick, and it's more about him using his stratagems to help a girl become a famous singer. it also has one of the best OPs of the year too

4: Birdie Wing: it's the Lesbian Mafia Golf anime, what do you want from me

3: Akiba Maid War: legit one of the most buckwild first episodes ever put to film. absolutely has to be seen to be believed. all i'll say is that the title is literal, and it’s majestic. #1 fuckup gang of 2022

2: My Dress-Up Darling: immaculately crafted romcom, incredible characters. more or less a perfect show, would have been my top spot if the next one hadn't come to eat its lunch a few months later. the scene on the train after the con is one of my favorite scenes in anime period

1: Call of the Night: feels like a show made specifically for me. it's a romcom, but it's moody and there's philosophical shit and vampire fights? sign me the fuck up. then there’s Anko Uguisu, who is a fucking Problem 🥵 and to top it all off, it's the most gorgeous show i’ve seen in a long time. something like Demon Slayer has really fluid action sequences with amazing effects, but it looks pretty standard otherwise. but the composition and color and detail of every shot is so carefully considered in Call of the Night, it’s really something special. truly, absolutely cannot wait for season 2. i picked up the manga and am around chapter 100 now, it’s going in some really fascinating directions

and that’s my list! i was going to make this an honorable mentions section but ended up just mentioning basically everything else new i watched lol. so here’s that:

Ranking of Kings is a show i really loved but it just didn’t quite make the cut. the ending felt a little rushed and it started getting a bit predictable, but still great if you need a good cry

Shikimori Isn’t Just a Cutie was sweet and fun but felt a little thin

Spy x Family is really well-made and totally adorable but i have to take it in small doses for some reason

Reincarnated as a Sword i had no real issues with and i’m looking forward to season 2, but it just wasn’t a top 10

Eminence in Shadow: love the farce, fuckin’ hate the MC. still not sure where i come down on it tbh

Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting: liked it, didn’t watch enough of it

Do It Yourself! is really cute but it never quite hits the highs of something like Laid Back Camp. still worthwhile if you like that kind of thing tho

Lycoris Recoil: i really enjoyed it while i was watching it, but i keep forgetting it exists tbh

and as far as returning stuff goes Mob had such a great ending, i’ve really enjoyed the Stone Ocean adaptation, i just got into Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun this year and i’m having a great time with it, reminds me so much of that 00’s Soul Eater/HxH/toonami-type shonen but much less fight focused. and of course, Uzaki-chan was fucking incredible, as expected

it’s kind of crazy how much good anime there was this year and how many i haven’t even gotten around to yet! this winter 2023 season is seeming… a bit dry so far but at least Queen Nagatoro has returned to grace us with her presence. gonna wrap it up, but if someone found this and read all the way to the end… hey, thanks! you’re great!

[warm-soda-solutions]

SUMMER ANIME FIRST IMPRESSIONS/RANKING WOW!!!!!!!

bunch of shows are coming out and i'm watching some of them!!!!! now that each show has 3+ eps i'm gonna rank them from worst to best by my enjoyment of them so far. 12. My Deer Friend Nokotan: probably a controversial pick for last place but i dropped this one after 2 eps because it was painfully unfunny and also not nearly as wacky as i was hoping it would be.

11. Days With My Stepsister: i don't get the generally positive reception this show was getting. dropped after 1 ep because it was real boring. this kind of premise is trashy no matter how you try to dress it up, and doing that rather than leaning into the trashy aspects like Domestic Girlfriend makes this show a lot less entertaining than that one. essentially this is a trashy show pretending to not be one and i dislike that sort of thing greatly. 10. Narenare -Cheer for you!- : dropped this one after 2 eps because it still wasn't really clear what the motivations of the protagonist were or where the plot might go. felt like it was juggling too many characters and i wasn't super interested in any of them. parkour was cool though. big gap in quality between the bottom two and this one. 9. ATRI -My Dear Moments- : dropped after 1 episode not because it was bad, it was honestly pretty solid, but because i found the whole robot girl thing to be done in a way that's kinda cliche and uninteresting to me. definitely check this out if you want a Key-esque thing but other shows were just more interesting to me.

8. Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin: this is where we get to shows i'm actually still keeping up with, and this one is just a cute little farming show. i like the character designs and the world a lot, but i'm pretty mixed on the characters themselves and the focus on rice farming after the premiere is expected and done solidly but also not quite as interesting to me as the more fantastical elements from the premiere. unsure if i want to stick with this the whole way through 7. Wistoria: Wand and Sword: absolutely killer visuals and music elevate a very generic Harry Potter/Mashle/Black Clover thing into a solidly enjoyable spectacle. if this were at all dumb or annoying i'd probably drop it but it's fairly inoffensive when it comes to dumb anime bs surprisingly.

6. The Elusive Samurai: some of the best art and animation i have ever seen in a TV anime (less so in the newer episode for justifiable reasons) and a very solid premise mixed with some awful, tonally dissonant humor and not super interesting characters so far. thankfully it seems like the show is getting the humor in check but it's gonna have to keep up the good elements of the story and the quality of the animation to keep me watching. 5. Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!: this one is mostly a very good romcom so far with a great, kinda grounded visual style that i really like. the op and ed here are also both fantastic. i think this shows's got a really good sense of comedic timing and a very likeable cast of dorks so i generally feel quite positive on it BUT i'm worried it could very easily become some garbage-y wish fulfillment harem stuff, and an awful, out of place fanservice scene in episode 2 has made me highly suspicious of the show's direction in the future. if this stays good, which it so far has, i will keep watching, and if it doesn't i will not. 4. Senpai is an Otokonoko: this is kind of the unexpected sleeper hit of the season for me. i was worried going into this one that it would handle its subject matter poorly since i don't really trust most anime to handle LGBTQ+ issues sensitively or all that well in general (not that i can particularly speak to this personally). however, it turned out to be mostly very good in that area and all the characters are quite layered and enjoyable. it's a great mix of fun slice of life shenanigans, a little bit of romance, and some surprisingly compelling if somewhat too quickly paced character drama. likely sticking with this one all the way through. 3. Mayonaka Punch: just a super fun romp about making YouTube videos from a lot of the same people behind Ya Boi Kongming, which i also loved. i think this show's got a really strong sense of style visually, and i enjoy getting an anime where the protagonist is actually an adult, i feel like that sort of thing is far too rare. every character here is fun in their own way, and the show seems intent on meaningfully developing them as well. i also like that the protagonist is really not a great person, so i'm curious how she'll change over the course of the show. 2. TASUKETSU -Fate of the Majority- : this show sucks really really bad but it's so unintentionally funny that it's easily one of my favorites of the season. the combination of an edgy nonsense premise, beyblade looking characters, limited animation, and completely out of control pacing make for the most fun i've had with a trainwreck of a show since EX-ARM. this honestly might be at number 1 if it weren't for the pacing grinding to a halt for no reason in the 4th episode, but even that just kinda adds to the fascination of this show. 1. SHOSHIMIN: How to become Ordinary: i really like Hyouka, so unsurprisingly this is my favorite of the season so far by a decent margin. it's a ton of fun to watch the two leads solve such incredibly mundane mysteries. you'd expect that kind of thing to be boring but the characters and direction work really well together to make it actually super engaging. i also love that the leads are something of a mystery themselves, with the audience slowly learning more and more about why they are the way they are each episode. it seems like it's just beginning to get to some even meatier character stuff so i'm very excited for that. i also really love the ED for this show, the live action settings with the anime characters just fits the whole show's vibe so well.

[petalsmooth]

I only know bits and pieces of spoilers. I try not to know everything out there so I can speculate on some things. 7 and 8 really don't have too many spoilers because weren't screened and then leaked by influencers...yet. Although we now know Luke has seen it and Nicola hasn't only because she has this thing about savoring last episodes. Which means next week or two someone may break embargo and spoil more but I don't think anyone has yet. Someone is pretending to know something online right now but they are vague and I don't think credible.

Ep 7 is Colin and Pen's wedding though. We've known that since they were filming and the paps got all those shots of everyone dressed up. Which means any drama with W.D for Colin and Pen can't last too long if rumors of him finding out end of ep 6 are true. And I still think the mirror scene follows their argument so I'm not really worried. I'd prefer they not have dragged out the secret for 2 episodes of them being together, not really thrilled about that part but I guess that might be the exchange in order to keep Whistledown a cast member? Because in the book he knows far earlier and the drama is his jealously over her having found her purpose and his fear over her being discovered which at end is resolved when he announces she is Lady WD and cressida's blackmail attempt is foiled.

But if they aren't going to reveal her as Whistledown, I guess I could see why they went this route for maintaining tension and hold the wedding till ep 7. It does present a question of what the drama for ep eight would be though. For Pen and Colin that is. I'm fully expecting either Eloise to run off to meet Philip or Benedict to meet Sophie at a masquerade. in last ep. Maybe that doesn't happen but originally this season was to start filming before season 3 aired until the strike happened. Unless completely changed story plot, that to me suggests some sort of cliffhanger closely related to 3 and those seem the most obvious. Eloise's was infact closely aligned with Pen and Colin marrying as felt alone with her best friend and fav brother in book together but you could stretch that to Benedict too with both Colin and Anthony married.

The actors are supposed to start filming in a month btw. Well, maybe less than a month now. I know Jonny, Nicola and Luke all said would return but I don't know how often they'll be on given past examples. Hopefully a more because I missed Jonny in part one. I'm tired of the family shrinking.

I also realized Benedict needs his art back. The show may find him bed hopping to be interesting, but I don't. And the audience imo doesn't either. He's not even that involved in the family right now outside of one or two quips. It's reminding me of when Luke N was mostly sidelined in season 2 until the end but he at least had Pen to bounce off of so wasn't a completely forgettable year. Luke T had Jonny and Claudia in past but this season has had neither. It's rather painful seeing him relegated to the kiddy table.

[lightwise]

There’s a lot of good points here. At first I was enjoying most parts of this show and was willing to see where it was going to lead (aside from being upset about Carrie Ann Moss being a carrot on a stick for marketing 😆😭). And while I LOVED the action sequences in episode 5, I’m starting to see the rest of the elements of the show fall apart a bit.

1. I’m seeing a lot of people either be disappointed about the number of deaths that occurred in this episode OR being shocked at the number and brutality of them. For myself, along with many other Bad Batch fans, an unexpected character death hasn’t been overly shocking since Tech’s death in TBB season 2. The shock and horror and despair of that storyline was very much a shift for me and many other people, and has since left me a bit numb to similar displays of “shock value” deaths, even though his arguably had more meaning than the ones that occur in The Acolyte. Using death as a plot point, as some of my friends have pointed out, gets boring.

Interestingly, I know that the actors feel differently. Both Jecki and Yord’s actors were told their fates ahead of time and are excited that they got to portray characters who show some grit and stakes in the drama. I’m happy that they are happy with their roles and that they threw themselves into still giving a great performance knowing it would be short. (I’m actually less happy about the amount of focus and marketing that went into Indara and Kelnacca because I think pulling an immensely charismatic and well known actress, and creating an entirely new and intriguing Wookie character, only to have them do next to nothing and serve only as plot fodder, is very disappointing to me, even though I understand their role in the story).

2. For awhile I have been starting to feel like Star Wars shows are starting “too far ahead” in their storylines, so to speak. I saw it with Ahsoka somewhat, and I think it’s causing issues here too. Much of Star Wars has been written backwards, often filling in gaps in timelines that we already know a lot about (TCW, TBB, Rebels, many of the games and novels, Andor, Rogue One, Kenobi, etc), or introducing a past or future era that is still heavily tied to the original storyline via characters and tropes (the PT and ST, Mando, Ahsoka, TBoBF, Resistance, etc). We either are familiar with how the galaxy “works” at a given point in time and can then focus on getting to know and appreciate the characters, or we already know many of the characters and can focus on understanding what is going on in the galaxy in this new story.

The Acolyte isn’t accomplishing either. It is both an entirely new era AND an entirely new cast of characters, both of which we are supposed to come to care about in only 8 episodes. That’s not an impossible ask. But, since they chose to set this show only 100 years prior to TPM (making canon more important), and not tie it more firmly to the existing High Republic storylines, it is unmoored from the precedents set in both THR and in TPM, yet close enough to them that we can’t just start from scratch and suspend disbelief on certain things. We are told the Jedi are concerned about their political image, and seem to be a mix of the more open and compassionate Jedi of THR while turning into the more stoic and uptight Jedi of the prequels, but we don’t know *why*. We have no idea what the state of the Republic is right now other than offhand comments about the Jedi religion and how they interact with other force users. We’re barely shown how the Jedi normally act in day to day life in the temple, other than Sol teaching younglings (which tells us more about him than about the Jedi as a whole), and other than Osha, have little insight into each character’s motivations and thoughts about life outside of this mission they’re dragged on. We know in 100 years the council cannot be aware of the Sith having risen again—which boxes us in to either a cover up or everyone involved in this story dying or leaving.

What I’m getting at, is in a similar vein to what is said above—we need more time with these characters. We need more context. We need more world building. Give me a whole season with Jecki and Yord, and then kill them off midway through a season 2, at the height of me caring about who they are as individuals and who they are to Osha—then I’d be devastated.

This show has been tightly focused on Osha and Mae’s experiences and what happened on Brendok. But it is trying to do that while dropping us into the middle of a galaxy and a group of people that we have no prior experience with, sort of setting up an ensemble cast that was never meant to actually stay coherent, while expecting us to rely on our knowledge of other time periods in this universe to fill in the gaps, even if they’re not entirely applicable. At first it was fun, and the dialogue was quippy and the force bond was intriguing and the witches culture felt unique and worth exploring. But now I’m wanting the cracks to be filled in less sloppily.

3. I did LOVE Jecki and Qimir’s action sequences, both of them were absolutely incredible, as well as the inclusion of cortosis. The cinematography and choreography were beautiful and fresh and very admirable. A few lines of dialogue especially from Qimir were very poignant, and his interactions with Sol and their fight sequences were excellent and heartbreaking and make me want to know just exactly what darkness Sol is hiding. But the rest of the dialogue and plot choices felt on the cheesy or poorly used side, including almost everything between Osha and Mae, who are supposed to be the characters we’re the most invested in. As you said in comments @gffa, a lot of this feels cool but not particularly necessary, and it doesn’t feel like it’s drawing a straight line between THR and TPM the way that other “in-between eras” projects have.

I want to care about these characters. I do. But I don’t think this show is going to add to my experience of the Star Wars universe as much as most of the other shows have, sadly.

I genuinely didn't think The Acolyte would kill Jecki or Yord, not at just barely past the halfway point, and I had to stop and think about why I felt so disappointed by it. It's not really about the deaths of characters I enjoyed--though, I definitely said, "Welp. There goes about 60% of the reason I cared about this show at all." in the most exhausted voice you can imagine--because I can respect a show's decision to kill off a character, especially in a High Republic show, but I still had to wonder about what the point of them even was. What was the point of including Jecki and Yord in the show? I kept thinking about the comments their actors made about their characterization and it all felt so misaligned from what's actually on the screen, there's cute banter and fun moments of care and some badass fights, but neither character really went through anything, there was no character growth because they didn't have time for it. There was just no character arc there at all. So were they only there to be cute and die for the show to tell us that Darf Teefs was Real Bad News? Maybe if I'd had more time with them, more than just four and a half episodes, it might feel like there was a point to them being in the story, beyond just there to die, but right now it really feels like that's all they were there for. And if the show doesn't really care about giving them any kind of real story, it's a lot harder for me to be invested in any of this, either. Maybe I'll come around on it, but my initial reaction is very much feeling like I just got a whole lot of my emotional investment in the show handed right back to me.