#and not weird subplots

[br1ghtestlight]

its a shame that nat doesn't know gene that well bcuz i think they would really get along if they talked more but he didnt meet her in her introduction episode LOL

[neodiekido]

maki "abort that thang" harukawa

[darealsaltysam]

okay but why is this season of the boys such a mess. like. episodes 1 - 5 were actually pretty good (especially 4 and 5, specifically the homelander + hughie and his dad plotlines respectively in those were SO good), then ep 6 was a clusterfuck outside of butcher's stuff, and i kinda thought we were on track for something pretty okay when annie took hughie's assault seriously at the end of the episode only for it to just be brushed off this episode AND hughie gets SA'd AGAIN?????? HELLO?????

[transrevolutions]

struck by a les mis au idea based off the line where enjolras is described as 22 but looking like 17. because what if he was 17. what if he was 17 in 1828 and 21 in 1832. 17 and too old for his years, making his way through the revolutionary circuit, striking and capable enough that his explanation of just 'looking oddly young' doesn't garner too much suspicion. 17 and passionate and dedicated and absolutely sure that the truth would lose him every ounce of credibility and respect he's gained along the way.

and then 21, 21 when people think he's 26. someone says he reminds them of saint-just and he trails off thinking of the first time saint-just ran for deputy and knows it's true in more ways than one. he's 21 years old, just barely below how old he claimed to be when he first joined the abc. he's 21 and he could very well die- he was 19 in 1830, his first brush with real street combat. he wasn't afraid then and he isn't afraid now. he is 21, still too old for his years, and atop the barricade fighting beside his comrades for the thing he believes in enough to throw away his youth for, he knows he will never be afraid again.

(bonus points if the amis- or at least combeferre and courfeyrac- know. they aren't going to say anything. they believe in him anyways.)

[sirguyofdykesborn]

Ash/ spark and the fool??

something in the stale air of chades chambers making everyone more transgender than before

[heyclickadee]

Okay, to try to explain why the Bad Batch finale is driving me crazy

Imagine if Rebels ended at season three. (Thought experiment time!)

Not that it got cancelled; no one is saying it was cancelled, everyone is saying that this is where they wanted to end that chapter. And the entire season plays out exactly the same as it did in the real world*. Zero Hour, exactly as is, ends up being the series finale.

And the initial reaction is, “Great! They’re alive! They made it out, no one else besides Ahsoka died, we’re so relieved,” except—

What about Lothal? We built up to trying to save Lothal even in the third season—are we really just forgetting about it? What about Ezra becoming a Jedi? The whole sequence with the Bendu was really cool, but what about that foreshadowing line he gave to Thrawn in the end? Where is that supposed to go? Why did we waste a whole episode on space whales? Why didn’t Ezra’s talent for connecting with animals ever go anywhere? What about the side episodes about the Rebel Alliance? The episodes in the season were very good on their own-in fact, a few might be close to the best episodes in the show—but because there’s no payoff and nothing goes anywhere, it all sort of falls apart. Kallus’s redemption arc was fine, but what’s he going to do now, or is he just going to feel bad about what he did? I’m glad they’re all alive and all, but that’s it? Theres no real victory except survival? Why did we spend multiple episodes in the temple on Lothal if that wasn’t going to go anywhere besides getting Ahsoka killed?

Speaking of, Ahsoka really died, and we never dealt with it? Thirty seconds of Ezra crying, everyone looking sad, a sorrowful look from Rex, then we never discuss it, and the only time she comes up is when we’re discussing her job as Fulcrum? It was ambiguous enough to begin with, then we never really got confirmation or any processing on screen at all. We had a whole episode for Ezra to process learning that his parents died, and we never even really met those characters! But nothing for Ahsoka? She’s a fan favorite, and she means so much to a lot of people in the audience. She seemed like she was Dave’s favorite, even! It’s not like her death affected anyone either—all the character motivation was driven either by Kanan’s blindness, the fallout with Maul, or Ezra being tempted by the holocron. It was noble and tragic, sure, but narratively, they just killed her for shock value. If she’s even supposed to be dead! We don’t know for sure!

So you’re thinking through all of that, trying to figure out what the hell happened here and how a show that was otherwise very good only resolved two or three subplots, none of which was the main one, never really dealt with a main character’s death, and never fully 100% resolved anyone’s character arc, all while the showrunners refuse to say that this is the last time we’ll see these characters and insist on using the word “chapter” to refer to the end. So you’ve got a sneaking suspicion that the story isn’t actually over, that there’s something weird going on, but you don’t know for sure, and you can’t just let things lie because it’s not that it’s just a bad ending, it’s that it’s bad in a particularly insane way that would come back around to being incredible if there ended up being any follow through for a series that was somehow 99% set up and no payoff.

Anyway, this is where I’m at with The Bad Batch right now.

* For the purposes of this thought experiment, we can add a except that there’s a little epilogue at the end—not the epilogue we actually got at the end of season four of Rebels, but an epilogue where a fifteen-year-older Ezra has a conversation with Hera (no one else, and no Jacen around, no sign that Jacen even exists) about needing to go do something, and then hopping into a ship that looks a bit like the Phantom and has little mementos from various members of the ghost crew family around. Ezra mentions Zeb, Sabine, and Chopper, so we at least know they’re alive, but he doesn’t mention anyone else, and neither does Hera. Something with Ahsoka’s fulcrum symbol is sitting on Ezra’s dashboard. We learn nothing about what anyone does in the meantime. It’s completely open.

[lt-kaollumn]

did you guys know spock and saavik get married in the novels. now, i love the vulcan’s forge series a lot. and the author writes their relationship pretty cute. but. kinda gotta ignore their relationship in the movies to enjoy it. cause why couldnt they have just been mentor-student. why they gotta fuck.

[asukiess]

I need the Tibet special like. yesterday. because I have a real need to see the three most horrible people plan their horrible future in one (1) tent and become the most horrible throuple to grace kids media and I also need to see emilie and nathalie interacting. thanks

[lucyshypemaster]

we genuinely need more platonic male-female relationships like the one brynne and aiden have

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The Sapling Cage

YA fantasy, start of a trilogy

a trans girl and her friend swap places so she can join the coven of witches who wander the land instead of becoming a knight

as they travel and she starts to learn from them, while hoping she’s not found out , they uncover a corrupt magical blight that threatens to become a civil war

bi demi MC

[stoat-party]

Did you guys ever see the Beauty and the Beast sequel Belle’s Magical World? Every time I describe it to someone I have to comb my memory to make sure it wasn’t just a REALLY weird dream I had.

My perception of the first movie was that Belle realized Beast would never actually harm her and immediately lost all fear of him (and that his servants were never actually scared of him). But no, in this movie, he upends a table and crushes several of his living dishes. To death. We see their corpses being swept up later.

He does this because Belle called him rude. Which she did after he backhanded another one of his servants across the room because it was too hot.

Belle later feels guilty? And wants to apologize? But she wants him to apologize first. So three of the servants (who, bear in mind, are trapped as appliances until these two idiots decide to fall in love) forge a letter from Beast. Beast finds out and banishes the three of them into the snow, threatening to kill them if they return. When Beast finally does decide to apologize, he barges into Belle’s room so aggressively that he crushes Cogsworth against a wall.

Belle fosters an injured baby bird. Everyone is terrified because, we are told, Beast hates animals, especially birds. Belle is so enthralled with the little dude that she misses lunch with Beast. He flips out and barges into her room, sees the bird, and starts chasing it around the castle on all fours like a dog, trashing the place in the process. He’s so checked out in this blind rage that he slips on a flight of stairs, landing on his neck.

Suddenly, he loves the bird and decides to put it in a cage. He yells at it for awhile but it won’t sing for him. Belle says it will never trust him or be happy as long as he’s keeping it imprisoned (*COUGH*) and I’m fuzzy on the details here but then he falls off a building for some reason and the bird is free and loves him.

Beast’s comical levels of abusive behavior are broken up by a weird song from Belle, and an extended sequence where the feather duster thinks Lumiere is having sex with Belle and attempts to orchestrate their deaths. (No, not a vague disneyfied canoodling, it was clearly implied to be sex.)

No, I didn’t make any of that up. You’d think a movie this ??!?!??!??! would at least be not incredibly boring, but you’d be wrong there too.

[bloodandfleshautism]

just watched the borderlands movie and the only good part was that krieg’s little harness thingo lowkey looked like a very skimpy little bra thing sometimes

he needs some back support with those jugs ofc

[lucky-clover-gazette]

it’s funny how i can easily agree with many of totk’s commonly cited problems, yet i only feel an overwhelming sense of love in my heart for the game

[overly-hubristic-mad-scientist]

Reanimator would probably make a good sitcom. Those movies are just too fucking goofy

[nellasbookplanet]

I'm working on book rec lists for monster romances and monster friendships and I'm thinking wistfully that man, why can’t someone write, like, digimon or pokemon but for adults. Everyone gets a monster buddy who fights other monsters for you and you're best friends forever, also there's fun and weird worldbuilding. I want that please.

[woundlingus]

Real weird vibes between dexter and his sister