#and it is simply not giong to happen again in that way | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

Text

Loud House: 11 Louds A Leapin Review or It’s My Bobby in a Box

Happy Holidays errybody! Christmas returns to this blog after a bit of a break to tie up some loose ends, and celebrate my birthday with a return to the loud house. It’s honestly good to be back. While it can be a struggle to cover a pure comedy, I genuinely like the show a lot, even with it’s flaws i’ve gone into, and my regular reviews gave me a running gag in my hatred of rusty and a new respect for the show. It’s just with a buiser schedule and me not actually trying to have something resembling order to things, I kept shoving Banned Together back despite really wanting to see it since.. you know.. Luna episode.. until it ended up sliding into ANOTHER set of episodes. It’s things like this why I have a queue now: while it’s not set day by day, in case I want to do more than one i na day, it is there to keeep some semblance of order and keep me on track so this dosen’t happen again. So with all that being said.. why did I choose to do A DIFFRENT loud house episode for the second time in a row before getting back to the current season? Simple.. i’ve been putting this episode off personally for even LONGER. I meant to watch 12 louds a leapin back when it first came out at the start of season 2... and just never got around to it. And just kept never getting around to it, wanting to watch it at christmas but then forgetting to do so for the last 4 years. Spare a thought there.. 4 years. In that time 80 years have passed, an era of marvel movies have come to an end, a tick series has come and gone, She Ra has come and gone, ducktales premiered then annoucned it was ending.. my point is way too many shows are ending too soon, and i’ve let this slide for far too long. So I bumped this one up to finally take a look at it, as i’ve waited this long and didn’t want to risk missing it a fifth fucking time. So yeah i’m taking look at what’s probably a classic episode in the fandom with fresh eyes. Let’s see what I thought shall we? It’s Christmas Eve at the Loud House and Lincoln is once again Zach Morrising it up .

Not what I meant.. whatever that is. It’s been 30 years since that episode aired, probably a good 12 since I first saw it and I still have no idea why they did this or if it was giong to end in a three way before the girls showed up. We just don’t know and the greatest minds in the country are baffled.. and you know working on the vaccine and making sure it’s safe.

No Linc is talking to the camera about it being christmas while gearing up to go sledding with his sled big red. Meanwhile the rest of the louds are doing their usual christmas activities which we get introduced to as Lincoln gets ready. The girls sub-plots here are, outside of Lori’s., less plots and more running gags, various shenanigans by the girls tying into their personalities and christmasy stuff. It works perfectly.. while it’s a bunch of gags.. the gags are funny and it’s neat to learn more about just how the girls celebrate christmas and what they get up to every year. It’s part of what’s to love about holiday specials as you get a once or twice in a series chance to see how our heroes celbrate the holiday and thus a look into stories, gags and character stuff very unique to the holiday. It also uses the fact LIncoln was the protaganist at the time very well, using him as our viewpoint to set up all the christmas goings on as he makes his way out of the house, so we can cut back to them later as his plot goes on. It’s really good stuff. So what are the girls up to? Let’s go down the list by age shall we?

Lori: Lori has the most involved plot anyway so it’s best to start here. Lori and Bobby are having their first christmas together... though it does bring up the fact that they’ve only been dating 2 years at most, yet plan to get married.. I mean that is a lot but your also 18. Then again time is nigh incomprehinsiable to unpack in the loud house, and at least 3 years passed in the one year it took to get them all aged up, so I wouldn’t think about it too hard. Lori, still being in huge bitch mode as she was early on, pressures bobby to get a good gift. She later gets said gift but despite being told to open it immideitly, her siblings chide her on her habit of tearing presents open and thus get her not to open it. So that’s a runner through the special, with Lana even putting her on a leash at one point, which I found hilarious. Less hilaroius is the conclusion as it turns out in the box on christmas day.. is BOBBY, who understandably is not looking so good...

Thankfully bobby’s not dead or they all would be, but still the poor boy missed christmas eve with his mom and sister for this stunt. I mean I get it’s his fault, he’s apparently LITERALLY too dumb to live it turns out and should’ve you know made a noise sooner and probably didn’t want to ruin the suprise.. but we still nearly got an episode where a 4 year old had surivviors guilt for letting her older sisters boyfriend suffocate in a box. That’s dead santa from gremlins levels of fucked up. Thankfully Lori loves it and I assume bobby’s worried family joined them for christmas eve. That image fills my heart with hope. But seriously bobby never again we can’t loose you. At least not before Sergio.

Leni: Leni’s is very simple it’s just a running gag of her taking various christmas things, making them into outfits then saying shhhh to whoever’s around when she hears, or in later cases is right there, with the person asking. Just a funny bit. Luna: Is working on a christmas song. It’s one of the weake runners as the failed songs just aren’t that funny, but the payoff for the main plot makes up for it. WE’ll get to that. Luann: Has one of my faviorite bits, her 12 puns of christmas which is both really adorable and leads to an adorable moment with her dad. Always loved their relationship.

Lynn and Lucy: Are teamed up this episode which makes me genuinely miss how the two would be used as a pair ocasionally earlier on but just .. arne’t anymore> The rest of the girls status as roomates is used liberally but not so much these two. IT’s just weird and disheartning to me. That being said their plot is simply the two digging around to find where the presents are hidden, which I never got as why would you want to know weeks ahead of time. You can’t use any money to buy the stuff you dind’t get or they’ll know and they usually figure out you knew ahead of time and it just brings thigns down. But from a kid’s perspective I guess I get it and while it’s weird to have Lucy be one of the ones following I like it, as it shows that benath her gothy demanor she’s still just an 8 year old girl excited for christmas, and that’s adorable. A decent enough runner.

Lana: Gets a good one: She keeps accidently catching people, and a passing car in one case though she has a jack to help, in her reindeer traps. Its not only funny but really adorable especially since she dosen’t care about trapping SANTA persay, she just wants her own pet reindeer and frankly who wouldn’t want a rideable woodland critter who can fly. Dammit now i want one too.

Lola and Lisa: Lola gets a fairly standard one tha’ts still pretty damn funny; She wants to get offf the naughy list by playing good for a day. What makes it funny is that last part.. that instead of doing it over a few days like most of this plot she’s trying to cram it all into one day while also trying not to strangle Lisa, who keeps showing up to say santa’s route is impossiuble. As ducktales covered he slows down time.. also you know.. not every kid celebrates christmas so ther’es probably a good number of houses he dosen’t have to cover in one night. Lily: Just randomly pops out of stockings a bit. it’s precioous as it sounds. The Parents: It had honestly been so long both since i’d seen a season 1 episode, and since the two had been both given actual names and fleshed out considerably, that i’d forgotten Rita and Senior had their faces obscured for all of season 1. It’s REALLY weird and jarring to go back to after getting to know them as fully formed people of their own over the past 3 seasons, and especally gorowing to love Senior, as he’s a loveably goofy dad but without the incompetence of most comedy dads. He can bumble but he’s also genuinely supportive, talented and pulls his weight in his marriage and family. We do however start to really see their fully formed , full member of the cast perosnalities here: Rita is clearly tired from the sheer amount of shit she has to juggle, but is also nice and warm and while Lynn Sr.’s goofiness was established already, here it’s tempered into his current shape and his love of cooking and through role as the family chef is established. While he was established as cook earlier he goes from someone who’d use frozen food just to get by to a master chef who probably does use a lot of frozen stuff but can make anything taste good and will eventually have his own restraunt. It’s really fascenating to see them slowly emerge. They don’t really have plots themslves, and Lynn’s only real gag is wanting everyone to try his figgy pudding.

So with the rest of the family covered let’s get to our main plot. Lincoln is sledding.. on the slide out back.. for some reason.

The reason is simple.. his sled ends up in the yard of Mr. Grouse, their neighbor and old man who yells at louds. Lincoln explains grouse keeps everything that ends up in his yard and has taken a lot from the Loud Kids over the years. So lincoln.. uses the slide to sled.. DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF HIS YARD.

I’ve been wanting to use pigtail kim since I made that one recently. But her points stands. What?!. I mean Lincoln can be stupid, he’s only 12 it’s allowed, but usually more out of not realizing what he’s getting into or using kid logic. He’s not this brain dead. That’s Leni’s job. It just feels like plot contrivance. Just have him build some sort of contraption as a makeshift hill and tell the audience he’s doing this because his family dosen’t want him going to an actual hill on christmas or is too busy to take him. There are easier ways than this half assed rube goldberg machine of a setup. So naturally his sled ends up in the yard.. and he calls on Clyde to help....

Now if you’ve been reading my reviews for a while, you know that reactoin is normally reserved exclusivley for this guy.

But since Rusty was in his larval state with only a few apperances and hadn’t emeerged from his coocoon as the douche I know and love to take pot shots at, there was actually something WORSE. Something more obnoxious. And with far far worse implications. And that my friends was seasons 1 and 2 Clyde. Clyde in the early seasons CAN be fine, and the self we know now. In fact I wish he interacted with the sisters more as the slumber party episode early on gave him a nice dynamic with all of them and the episode with him and leni was terrific. The problem one there was running gag with him, one character trait that utterly sucked the joy out of the room at best and made him into an unlikeable little shit at worst; HIs crush on Lori. When she’s around at BEST he has a Master Roshi nosebleed, stammers her name and passes out, something that wasn’t funny the first time and quickly became grating the 80 other times they did it. But at worst, as he is here? He’s creepy, obessevie and worst of all. .a real dick to bobby. Who as we’ve established is...

So that was NEVER going to go over well and even ignoring that is still very bad. The little creep just constantly treats Bobby with hostility, which given this is Bobby, he dosen’t realize is going on. Any time their relationship is threantned Clyde’s main goal is to swoop in during the aftermath and win lori over. He constantly wants Bobby out of the way, The ONE TIME he dosen’t come off as a massive dick is when Lincoln thinks Bobby might be cheating, and that’s because Clyde isn’t planning on swooping into the wrecakge of someone’s relationship to get a girlfriend, but to punch the guy out for cheating on her. Bobby wasn’t and Clyde obviously isn’t capable of that, but it’s a bit more understandable and even CLYDE wants to make sure there’s evidence first. But more often than not he’s just under the assumptino Lori will be his despite the massive age gap, her having made it obvious she’s not intrested, and her being in longterm relationship she’s really happy in with someone else. And this was season 1 lori who reacted to this, so the fact she’s not being the queen of all bitches about it only makes him look that much worse. And to add to that, Bobby not only KNOWS he has as crush on Lori but is suppportive of clyde, cheering him on when she kisses him once for doing something noble, and generally treating “Clydsdale” like he would any of Lori’s blood siblings. It was excurating then to sit through this every few episodes.. and it’s even worse now because the gag’s complete dissaperance from Season 3 onwards really paints the picture that this gag was entirely because series creator Chris Savino thought this was FUNNY and no one else did. And given he got fired for, you know, HARASSING WOMEN AND NOT TAKING NO FOR AN ANSWER you kinda see how an already bad bit was made worse. So yeah while the sled thing is bad this.. is objectively worse and drags the special down more. It’s thakfully not omniprescent but man is it hard to watch. Clyde being in full dickhead mode is trying to get a kiss from lori and is using a missletoe hat for it.. And can we just agree that while Missletoe can be used well in stories, to help two shy people finally kiss or to ramp up romantic tension or what have you, that it’s often used by creepy douchebags to get kisses they don’t deserve both here and presumibly in irl before the plauge hit? We can? Good. But yeah that’s his plot, no suprise he gets one, bah hum bug. He also throws in some Bobby bashing by fantasising about him ending up in the yard and clyde ending up with lori since Grouse keeps bobby.. even though instead Lori would just ignore clyde, storm over there and rip an old man’s spine out mortal kombat style.

So yeah Lincoln wants his sled back, but he can’t do it alone as the old man scares him, hence Clyde coming in. They make an elaborate plan using some careful blueprints.

Their real plan is to have Clyde disract grouse while Lincoln grabs the sled but it fails and mean mr mustard finds it and takes it inside. Desperate, Lincoln prepares to do some crimes and head into his house. Clyde is afraid he’l end up in jail and never get to visit because only family can. Clyde you are family. Plus Prison visits aren’t limited to relatives only, any show with a character in jail storyline will tell you that. But Lincoln makes a valid point that Grouse stole his property.. I still dont’ think this is the right way to handle it and his parents should just go over and ask the loud, irate asshole to give the kids stuff back he stole to be a dick, but this is a kids show and again we wouldn’t have a plot but unlike last time my head dosen’t hurt from this. He’s desperate, he knows that probably wouldn’t work and again he’s 12. 12 year old logic is fine. Naturally he ends up getting caught as Grouse didn’t leave for long, though having found a photo of Grouse with a sled as a kid, understandably fires back on him that he wasn’t always like this. Why he like this. He also has the much farier point that again, it’s his property and “My yard my rules” is about as much a legal rule as a note saying “I can do what I want, ron”. But Grouse understandably, hey he’s a dick but the boyd id be and e, makes him clean up and after Grouse fails to get the loud parents Lincoln, via a comination of a charming family photo and Grouse talking to his sister on the phone, finds out the real reason he acts like this: He misses his family and being on a fixed income can’t visit them often as he tells his sister he won’t be home for christmas to see his sprawling family.

And while it doesen’t excuse his actions.. it does explain why Grouse is so bitter: you would be too if you had a massive family who clealry loved you and your on good terms with.. but through no fault of your own and presumibly despite working hard toa fford retirment you just.. can’t see them. Their there and you have the phone, but you don’t know how to work the internet and it’s just.. not the same as seeing them. Your just seperated from them and can’t be near them or hear their voices or get hugs. Which.. given the current pandemic i’m sure MANY of you can relate to that.. to being seperated from your loved ones and trapped, and especailly many people mr grouses age are facing that. While this special is good even without the context of seeing it this year it especailly resonates and i’m glad I waited this long simply beaause it came at just the right time. Grouse tells him to leave not planning on calling his parents.

So in christmas special fashion, Lincoln is touched byt his story, and feels bad for the old curmudgeon. Sure they don’t get along and the bastard broke his sled.. but again you’d be bitter too in his shoes. The guy has nothing and is alone.. and Grouse has done nothing to deserve that, even with his actions resulting from it. No one should be alone on christmas. So Lincoln tells his sisters, all of whom rally around him, including Luna whose writer’s block is broken as she finally realizes...

And not singing about that was holding her back. Luna has her song and Lincoln, as expected has a plan. And we soon see that plan as Grouse gets a knock on the door.. and finds the Louds, parents included, and The McBrides all there singing him a christmas song. It’s pretty decent and the first time we really get to see Nikka Futterman sing and i’ts beautiful> Ther’ed be better, and worse luna songs to come but this is still pretty neat and sweet. THey came to offer him deocrations, dinner, company.. and a one way bus ticket to his family... presumibly the family will pay the other way or he can easier the day after christmas. Point is he’s touched, and genuinely and sincerly thanks them and invites them in, with Grouse’s actor John DiMaggio REALLY selling it hard.

So our heroes gather for Christmas Eve all together, and under Grouse’s roof with Grouse giving the kids their stuff back having had a change of heart. Sure he misses his family.. but the Louds and Mc Brides have shown him he dosen’t have to shut everyone out as a result. And while Grouse apologizes tht his sled is gone.. Lincoln’s fine with it he got something better. So the next morning we end on the kids opening presents, and Lori saving her boyfriend from axphisxiation, seriously between this and strife of the party i’m really starting to sour on lana. Regarldess Lucy finally belivies in santa both due to gifts nd seeing him last night, while Lincoln finds a sled from santa.. and then goes outside to see Mr Grouse off, recognizing he’s the one who played santa in a really sweet and senitmental bit. The two part on good terms even if Lincoln breaks another window. Things have changed if not that much. Final THoughts: If it wasn’t obvious, I REALLY loved this one. While it has it’s flaws, and Chris Savino sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms obviously.. it’s still a really sweet, well constructed special and I really recommend checking it out. It’s on the nick app if you have cable and on CBS All Acess if you have that. Until next time merry christmas to all and to all a good day.

And if ther’es an episode of the loud house you’d like me to review leave it in the comments or you can comission a review of it for five dollars. Just direct message me to work out the details or send an ask for my discord.

#the loud house #lincoln loud #lucy loud #lola loud #lori loud #leni loud #luna loud #lynn loud jr #lynn loud senior #rita loud #lily loud #lana loud #luann loud #lisa loud #clyde mcbride #harold mcbride #howard mcbride #bud grouse #christmas

6 notes · View notes

cpdevos · 5 years ago

Text

3/31/20 Devo: Not a Shelved-God

Hey Everyone!

Hope you are safe and aren't going insane being stuck at home.

Sorry for this late posting, I usually try to post my devos on Monday but these past few weeks have been sort of hectic and covid-19 is flipping everything around as I try to figure out where and what's happening so please bear with me.

Take some time now to pray and give God your distractions and deep desires of your heart. Whatever's on your mind, just set it aside for now and let God change you from within.

Psalm 1:2-3 English Standard Version (ESV)

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

This title may have intrigued you before you decided to read this devo: "Not a Shelved-God". I'll get to why I named this in a little bit but here's the breakdown of this passage:

What does it say and what does it mean?

In verse 1, which I didn't include, it says, "Blessed is the man that doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked...etc." and then verse 2 starts with BUT. If you dissect this passage as a whole, we can see that God is saying "blessed is the man that doesn't do x,y, and z, BUT blessed is that man who

delights

in the law of the Lord. This blessed man meditates on it day and night."

QUICK SUMMARY:God blesses the man that 1) delights in the law and 2) medidates on it day and night (with consistency, daily and constantly, without ceasing)

This blessed man also avoids wicked counsel and foolish sinners and does not associate with the scoffers. I will include that for now, but in this devo I will focus on what we need to be DOING and not what we should be AVOIDING, so maybe I'll save verse 1 and that topic for a different devo.

Verse 3 says this "he" (who is the blessed man) is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruits in its season. So, who is who and what is what?

1.) the "he" is compared to this "tree". "He" is the subject found in verse 1 2.) the streams of water is God himself, who is the supply of the trees growth 3.) The fruit and leaves refer to the growth of the believer and follower of God

Now what is verse 3 saying? When we (the subject, in this case referred to as "he" who is compared to the tree) are acting like a tree that is planted near a stream of water, we bear fruit in its season and bear leaves that don't wither. Then it ends saying that in all that "he" does, "he" prospers.

What does this mean for me?

This "he" that I keep putting in quotation marks is what we as disciples of Christ COULD be like. We don't become prosperous in our works, we don't grow in the Lord, and we don't bear fruit personally and in ministry by lying around, being lazy and expectant that God shows up.

In fact, I'm giong to take it further: you don't even grow necessarily by going to church, going to Bible study, or even reading the Bible. Anyone can go to these events or study the Bible on their own. What are we going to do about it? And what's the source of our growth?

Notice verse 2. It says DELIGHT. And that man that delights in His law bears fruit. Here's the breakdown of the application in a numbered list. We can see the genuine transformation of a Jesus-loving and God-fearing Christ follower here: 1.) He LOVES the Lord's law and His word. How do we love the law? Here's the answer found in Psalms: Think about a passionate desire, all-consuming love for, ever fervent, urgent filled, full and complete obssession of what God says and obedience to it. It's three fold: 1. We must LOVE the law (trust what it says, trust it's the word of God, trust its authority) which then propels us to the next... 2. We must study, meditate, dissect, pray over, learn, and crave the law of God and His word DAILY, constantly, with disciplined repetition (hence day and night). We love the law therefore we meditate on it always. But that's not enough. Because we love God, then we love His word. And when we love His word, it then propels us finally to... 3. Live out His word. We read what His word says, study it in context, study it effectively, take notes from Bible text commentaries given by preachers and teachers of sound doctrine, and ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate what God wants to say to us in how to live. Then, we simply live it. When we savor Christ and savor God's word, we are so excited to put it into practice.

2.) Now that we have this three-fold plan, God promises this to us: we are blessed by Him when we act on it. How? Let's look at the simile the Psalmist uses in verse 3. We are like this tree planted by streams of water. PLANTED. We are grounded in the source. What tree grows by planting itself next to an oil rig or frigid ice and snow? It will wither. It will die. It does not prosper or grow or bear any fruit in any season. Only God, who is the streams of living water and living life, bears fruit in us. Thus, there are no means of growth other than God Himself who is the streams of water next to us. We know we love God and we know that we genuinely KNOW God if we obey Him (1 John 5:3). When we obey Him and heed His call for a blameless and righteous life, He will abide in us (1 John 2:6). So, obey the Lord and abide in Him and He will abide in us. Therefore, if we live according to His love and walk the way Jesus walked, He will bear in us fruit and leaves that don't wither as verse 3 says. So, to sum up, how do we practically live out verse 3? Abide in God. This could be through humbled prayers, intense studying of His word, asking God for His Spirit throughout the day, praying with fellow believers, etc. Always be filled and think about things that are true, things that are noble, just, pure, lovely, commendable, anything worthy of praise, and He will bear the fruit He wants to bear in us.

Finally, what do I mean by a shelved-God? Often times we store our books in shelves. We pull it out, read it for enjoyment, then put it back in once we're done. This is not how we ought to treat the precious Word of God. Psalms 1 clearly gives it to us straight: blessed is that man or woman that delights in God's word, studies it days and night, and abides in God. So I want to encourage two types of people here: 1. Those who don't read God's word or 2. those who read it, enjoy it for a little, and store it back into their shelf.

For those who haven't spent enough time in the Bible, I'd encourage you to reread Psalms 1:2-3 and everything I just mentioned. Take time to review these simple steps and actually put it into practice. Tomorrow morning, wake up, shut your phone off, and go to the Word and spend 30 min, an hour, 3 hours, however long you want, studying it. After you shower and are ready to go to bed, turn off your phone. Close Youtube, close Hulu or Netflix, turn off the gaming systems. Take 30 mins, an hour, 3 hours, etc. and meditate on His word. God promises, not I, that He will bear fruit in you if you humbly and excitedly delight in His law and His word. Then, pray that you will live it out once you read it! Don't let God stay inside your shelf.

For those who do spend time in His word but don't seem to live it out or feel it's dry, you may be storing God in your shelf as well. God can't be contained. He isn't limited. He isn't confined to time and physical space. He's omnipresent. He knows every bone in all 7.8 billion people on this earth. He knows every structure and every back bone of every building that exists. He deeply knows and understands the deepest complex of every tree, every piece of grass, every wave, every particle of air, every grain of sand, every animal, every ray of light, every cloud, every paved road, every computer system, every phone, every camera, every hair on your body, the list goes on and on. He made you. He made everything on this earth. He is fully, completely, wholly and totally sovereign over every moment and every place and every being. This is the God your'e reading about in the Bible. I'm often this person that reads His word and can "shelf" God again. How dare we try to confine Him, how foolish and silly we are to limit God to 30 min. a day and forget Him when we leave the room. He was, is and is to come. If He is that God, and He really encaptures all I just mentioned (AND MORE!) then let's reevaluate our practice. If this is you and you feel "dry" moments in God, be reminded of these truths. The next time you have your quiet time, pray this:

"God, you're perfectly holy, full of justice, filled with righteousness, and abound in love and in grace and in gentleness and in kindness. With my quiet times recently, I have been reading your Word and keeping you only in these quiet times but go back into my normal life. I don't "bring" you and your teaching with me or keep it in my thoughts when in fact Lord, I need to connect with you every moment of my life, even after my devotions. You are not confined to my bedroom or whereever I read your word. You are in the deepest darkest valleys, you hold the brightest days in your hand, and you are intimately working in all parts of this earth. God I want to love your Word and I want to live it out fully. Would you so graciously fill me with your Holy Spirit now and throughout today, so that with every action and every thought and with every word and deed, I would be reminded to glorify you in these things. Be with me now Lord, but also continue to remind me that you are still with me throughout the rest of my days. May I never stop seeking you or cease worshipping you in every moment of my life. Amen."

This is a long devo, so I'll just end here. Don't let the Bible just sit in your shelf. Don't just be reminded of God when you're in your room reading His word. He is with you now and until the end of the ages and forever. Dip into Him and His word. Don't box Him in. Ask to bear the fruit as a tree that sits next to those glorious streams of water.

Reflect on this, and pray to close,

Moses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLBvCTV23qw

#momo #moses

0 notes