#and season 2 focus on character development while also focusing on the food

[neverbeforeandneversince]

season 3 of The Bear isn’t good...

[accioepiphany]

I've come to peace with the way I feel about season 3. And I think it's still glorious at times and if you take each episode by itself, quite great. But as a whole, and as a series that needs to follow a group of characters it does gets lost and erases some of the characters' traits and progress that we had already seen, which by the end produces an accumulation of disappointment that is hard to rub off.

I do think its main issues could be summarized in three of the non-negotiables Carmy kept breaking throughout the season:

Focus

Carmy clearly gets out of the walk-in with the goal in mind to fix all his wrongs and he thinks the way to do that is by hyper focusing on his wrongdoings. Somehow, if he is aware of his mistakes he will be able to be one step ahead of them. Or at least that is what he thinks… you have him asking Ebra if he is fucking up, he takes Syd’s notes on a dish he creates as if it is his mistake that he didn't think of it better. But that's where he is wrong. This is not about him. And Syd calls him out on it in episode two, when she tells him that he is making it again about himself. He is so focused on himself that he fails to see everyone else's suggestions and attempts at collaborating with him. He is unfocused on the team…

And so is the show. It lacks so much focus on where the characters should go, it's part of why it feels so aimless. It's trying to do ten things at the same time and none truly. It´s trying to make Claire happen while never really giving it space and actual scenes. Just a bunch of flashbacks. It wants to take us into Carmy's brain without being too certain of what's in there, hyper focusing on his trauma and forgetting the Carmy we met on season 1 who was an asshole, but one that cared. So the focus is not on the people, which is so ironic with having Chef Terry say people forget the food but not the people they had it with.

Which brings me to the second point:

Vibrant Collaboration

Carmy’s non-negotiables have trapped him in a prison of his own that has closed up any attempt anyone might have of actually collaborating with him. So his vibrant collaboration is actually him imposing his ideas on everyone and maybe letting them work over them. Which is why we don't see many of the scenes we had in season 2 of him brainstorming with Syd. Just him being stubborn.

And the show also lacks a proper integration of its characters. Giving way too many screen time to the Faks, the people less integrated to the kitchen. Failing to incorporate Tina's and Marcus' ideas, which they are so enthusiastically developing, but never even get the chance to share. except for sparse acknowledgements by Syd, Nat and each other, that doesn't really take them anywhere. We get beautiful conversations among some characters that lead to nowhere, no consequence, and just because of that, makes them feel repetitive and a waste of time...

Every Second Counts

Which leads me to one of the prime phrases of The Bear, one with so many layers, that is what made it such a protagonist last season and what made Forks so poignant. It's the embodiment of being in the present, and not wasting time, because every second it's precious, which is why if you are not living it, consciously, to its fullest, then what are you doing?

And Carmy is so trapped in his past, thinking this is what will make him not waste time, that it ends up being the opposite, because he cannot just be in the moment and enjoy what he currently has at all.

Sadly, this season has a similar problem and has too many flashbacks and side-plots that drag and just doesn't move forward and kind of waste the very valuable seconds each episode has.

I still love this show and its characters, and I still truly believe it can pivot in season 4, specially if the creators were trying to set the ground with season 3 for maybe more action in season 4. But, I think it's also important to point out when it doesn't go well, as everyone did this season with Carmy, trying to tell him his non-negotiables where ruining everything. I just hope, different from Carmy, the creators of The Bear can listen and change.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

December 2022

(Series: Aohal Devil | Artist: YUFOU)

No. of Reviews: 4

Fall anime season has ended and I have a lot of catching up to do. There were plenty of shows that aired this season that I was interested in but didn’t watch because I thought I’d be better off watching them when they were done. I think I‘ll start with Bocchi the Rock.

Digimon Ghost Game: Sadly, I ended up putting Ghost Game on hold after episode 52. When I started to watch this show weekly, I decided that I would put it on hold if I ever found myself dreading watching it which happened on the morning that episode 53 came out. I’d been starting to get bored with the shows formula for a while and was frustrated with the shows insistence on adhereing to it despite hinting at cool things. Episode 52 was the one that broke the camel’s back. It’s not like it was a particularly bad episode on it’s own but I was so annoyed that the show had been hinting at a new development and that new development was... warp evolutions from rookie to ultimate with no new animations, as well as a new field for them to battle in. That would be annoying on it’s own but it then decided to spend 3 episodes on showing off the boring transformation sequences and new settings and it was too much for me. I probably won’t be picking it up again until it finishes and I hope I will be able to enjoy it again after a break but it makes me sad that it got to this point.

Delicious Party Precure: I’ve been looking forward to watching this one since the start of the year but I held off because I worried that watching it weekly would lead to me getting bored with the formula quicker and I wanted to watch other Precure series this year and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do that if I was already watching this one weekly. This month, I finally got around to watching it and it was definitely worth the wait. I love the focus on food and enjoying it. I remember one of the things that I hated about Kirakira was how it solely focused on sweets and I like that Delicious Party has a variety of foods that it focuses on. I love the characters and how a lot of the episodes aren’t just filler and also serve to develop those characters or the plot. I also appreciate that while there is some romance, it doesn’t take over the plot and doesn’t become a source of drama. And, of course, the voice actors are all doing an amazing job. I really like this series and I’m excited to see how it ends.

Gundam Witch from Mercury: I don’t have much to say about this one. I’m still really enjoying each episode, and as long as neither of the leads get killed off in the final episode of the first cour, I will be excitedly awaiting the second cour. I won’t be able to fully give an opinion on this show until it’s complete but I am really enjoying it so far.

Spy x Family Part II: I found this part weaker than part 1 and I’m not entirely sure why. I suspect it’s because a lot of the episodes adapted multiple chapters of the manga and these chapters often did not mix well together and made the episodes feel more like a straightforward adaptation rather than something that stands on it’s own as an anime, which isn’t an issue that I had with the first part. That being said, the anime really stuck the landing with a fantastic final two episodes: one that was adorable with two parts that easily melded together and one that ramped up the tension, gave some development for Damien, and set up good hype for season 2.

HiDive is really looking tempting lately, especially with the upcoming Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte anime, but Crunchyroll has just the edge to keep me subscribed with the Precure and Digimon series. Next season, I’ll be watching Bofuri 2, Danmachi 4 part 2 and The Misfit of Demon King Academy 2. Hope to also be watching Magical Revolution but it’s gonna depend on my schedule. I did watch the first season of In/Spectre but I probably won’t be watching the second weekly as I didn’t care for it that much.

List of Reviews:

Astrea Record 1

Aohal Devil 1

Broken

Bokutachi, Watashitachi wa, ‘Honki no Benkyou’ ga Shitai

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I’m currently 25% through the second volume of Astrea Record so that I can start next year on a high note so that’ll be the first review that I do next year.

[thegreaterlink]

Reviewing Star Trek TNG - S2E1 “The Child”

THE PREMISE

Dr Katherine Pulaski, the Enterprise's new Chief Medical Officer, is brought aboard as the ship travels to Aucdet IX to take on dangerous virus samples, which will be carried to a Starfleet medical station with the hope of developing a cure for a plague epidemic in the Rachelis system.

While travelling at sub light speed, a ball of energy passes into the ship and travels around before settling in the womb of Counsellor Troi. Dr Pulaski's analysis shows that the foetus is growing at an accelerated rate and will be fully developed within 36 hours. The ship's senior staff debate terminating the pregnancy, but Troi decides to carry the child to term. Troi names the child Ian, and he continues to develop rapidly.

WHAT'S NEW IN SEASON 2?

This new season brings with it a lot of changes:

Geordi is now the ship’s Chief Engineer, meaning he can do more than just use his visor to advance the plot.

Worf has replaced Tasha Yar - may she rest in peace - as the ship’s Chief of Security. He also has a slightly updated makeup design which I think looks much better. Apparently Michael Dorn’s original Klingon headpiece was stolen which necessitated the change. And I'm honestly glad it was; his old one just never looked right to me. Just compare for yourself.

Dr Pulaski has replaced Beverly Crusher as the ship’s Chief Medical Officer. Gates McFadden was fired by then-head writer and showrunner Maurice Hurley because he didn't like her or her acting. So that guy can go fuck himself.

Deanna Troi and Wesley Crusher have new outfits, with Wesley finally getting a Starfleet uniform.

Transporter chief Miles O’Brien makes his first appearance. Colm Meaney had previously appeared as an unnamed security officer in "Lonely Among Us." Maybe they're actually the same person? Food for thought.

Whoopi Goldberg has her first guest starring role as the character of Guinan, and her Ten Forward lounge is introduced.

And, last but not least, Riker has finally obtained his legendary facial hair. The babyface is dead; long live the beard.

Anyway, time to review the actual episode.

MY REVIEW

The majority of this episode is focused on Troi's rapidly-developing child. Within a few days, he has reached the physical and mental state of an eight-year-old. Most of it is pretty by-the-numbers, aside from the implication that Ian deliberately burns himself in one scene out of curiosity.

Still, at least some effort is made to hold our interest, with Ian refusing to explain who or what he really is until the time is right, and one of the sample virus strains growing inexplicably and threatening to rupture the storage vessel and infect everyone on board. Obviously they want to avoid that - Picard only just recovered from that sore throat, after all.

At the end of the episode, Ian confides to his "mother" that his presence as a being of energy is the cause of the virus' growth. He dies in her arms and returns to his energy form. He contacts Troi and explains that he impregnated her to find out what it was like to be human.

Hmm... a sentient being impregnating Troi without her knowledge or consent? Some might call it a fascinating new form of life. I call it rape. Ian is a child begotten of a rape that he himself committed, and it baffles me that none of the crew ever address this! Marina Sirtis was apparently happy with the episode because it gave her character some focus for once, and I'm all for that, but... did it have to be like this?

I don't want to think about this anymore. Let's just keep going.

My research shows that the premise for this episode originated as far back as Gene Roddenberry's original pitch for the Original Series. A similar idea was intended for Star Trek: Phase II, the planned sequel series which was eventually cancelled in favour of making Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Because of tight deadlines caused by the Writers' Guild Strike, the script was pulled out of storage and rewritten to fit TNG.

This episode has a minor subplot of Wesley Crusher trying to cope with leaving the Enterprise to join his mother on Earth after her promotion to director of Starfleet Medical - so that asshole Maurice Hurley found a convenient way to write her out. Bastard. Anyway, he has some nice scenes of receiving guidance from Guinan before deciding to stay. Good for him, I guess.

Also this is a bit of a nitpick, but it'll annoy me if I don't bring it up. Pulaski has a small scene with Data where she mispronounces his name, and when he corrects her she jokingly pretends to scan him for a circuit which allows him to experience hurt feelings. I realise they were probably trying to give them a dynamic similar to Spock and Dr McCoy, but there’s a key reason it doesn’t work - Spock was perfectly capable of holding his own against McCoy’s witticisms, and nearly always got the last word. The cynical, cranky Dr McCoy made for the perfect foil for the calm, logical Spock, creating a dynamic which endeared us to their relationship and the characters involved.

But here Data lacks the understanding of humanity to recognise Pulaski making a joke at his expense, meaning this scene was just Pulaski picking on Data for no good reason while her jabs go over his head. The result is that we feel sorry for Data and dislike Pulaski for being mean to an established character. They’re trying to make her a new Dr McCoy-esque character, when Data met the actual McCoy in “Encounter at Farpoint” and he treated him much better! Hell, Pulaski as a character just doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the crew.

4.5/10 - Riker’s beard is generally associated with an increase in the show’s quality, but the beard evidently hasn't started to work its magic just yet.

Previous Episode | TNG Masterpost | Next Episode

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here bestie, not bothering to be spoiler free since both of us decided episodes ago that way insanity lies. I guess I'm just happy it's over and it didn't actually sink below expsctations. Max getting to be "impulsive" while Michael gas to reign it in? Checks out. Liz having a character arc about her and "the science" vs. her morals and common sense? That ship sailed seasons ago. Alex being no one's priority despite being gone for days without any guarentee he's had food or water? I

guess Michael got his allotted 5 minutes if caring so that's quite enough of that. M*ria giving some sort of BS "seize the day" advice to Isobel despite the awkward timing (her brother dying before her eyes)? Makes sense, seems like her only programmed response to interpersonal interactions, including her own relationship. Hell, even Heath appearing for no good reason isn't a shock, they had some missing guest stars in the episode, had to fix that ya know (love the justification that they needed him cause Michael wasn't good with medical knowledge, like he didn't help develop the serum to cure Iz or a pacemaker for Max at some point). Admittedly the "family" Liz chose was a new low as was Michael chillin' with M*ria instead of going back to feral mode but not unexpected. If anything I was pleasantly surprised that the preview shows Kyle actually being allowed to care about his best friend for a scene or two!! What a gift writers, you guys spoil us 🙄🙄.

Hello friend! I really played myself by saying I was getting off early because my meeting ran over half an hour late, and I had to go to the store so now I’m running about 2 hours behind where I wanted to be 🤷🏻‍♀️ But I got to all my new anons, and I will probably get to dinner before I watch the episode so I don’t have to stop or I might never get going again. 🤣

Wait, there is a double standard on how Max is allowed to act about Liz vs how Michael is allowed to act about Alex?! Color me shocked 😑 (btw, this emoji is called “expressionless face” and accurately depicts my level of shock at that statement). Heaven forbid anyone care about Alex for more than one scene every 8 episodes 🙄 Love that m*ria is for some reason working both sides of the Isobel/Kyle relationship like he’s not her doctor, and Isobel isn’t the woman she hated for a decade until they decided that genetics made them sisters so they’re besties now. Don’t Kyle and Isobel have ACTUAL friends they can talk to? Oh wait! Kyle’s is in a hole, and Isobel isn’t allowed to talk to or rely on Michael and Max anymore, and her new buddie Dallas is...also in a hole. Maybe she could talk to ol’ teach Tezca about her love life? But then what would m*ria do? And while I liked Heath and though they could have used him better last season (less screentime, more focused on Dallas), I’m currently baffled AF why Rosa is just besties with her sister’s ex. But you’re right, their guest star quotient was clearly lacking. (Is Shivani around or is she in a coma/mindscape with Liz too? Maybe they focus so hard on saving Liz that Shivani doesn’t make it and it solves their problems on that front? I doubt it, but hey I can dream!) Also, maybe if they hadn’t shipped Kyle off to Mexico he could be around to be their alien doctor, you know, the role he’s had since the pilot? (yes, I know Trevino directed and maybe didn’t want to pull double duty, but that’s something they would have worked out when scheduling and easily could have scheduled him to direct an episode where Doctor Valenti wasn’t needed) The only good thing that will likely come out of the ending is the memes about Liz’s family and Michael’s desperation to get to Alex taking a backseat to chilling with his ex. The writers really took two of the actors who hyped up the show the most and just hung their characters out to dry.

At least Kyle can finally care about Alex but I think I saw m*ria is still fucking involved so that just tanks any excitement I have about that 🤷🏻‍♀️ Anyway, cheers to us, only 4 episodes left and then the nightmare can end!

[atopfourthwall]

Ive only recently gotten into classic Star Trek so I don't think I can properly answer but what is it specifically about Discovery and recent Star Trek that classic Trek fans hate?

Putting this behind a cut because... it's a lot.

Well, first of all a big rejection of it is just on an aesthetic level. Up until the 2009 movie (which was considered a reboot, even with time travel elements), Star Trek tried to treat the original series and how it was portrayed as pretty sacrosanct. Sure, they might occasionally make jokes about goofier aspects of it and discard some of the stupider stuff (like how in the final episode, penned by Gene Roddenberry himself, that women weren't allowed to Captain starships), but how TOS looked? That's how the 23rd century looked. Buttons and multi-colored outfits and boxy computers and smooth, undetailed ships WAS what was appropriate for the time. When Scotty came back in TNG, they had him on the holodeck and it was the TOS bridge. When DS9 traveled back in time to that era for an episode? They went onto the Enterprise and visited it. When in an Enterprise 2-parter we had a TOS-era ship? It looked like a TOS ship. They even did a 2-parter on Enterprise to explain why Klingons had smooth foreheads when later (and earlier) they didn't. Star Trek up until then cared about maintaining that continuity of appearance. But Discovery is set in the TOS era... but nothing looks like TOS. Even when we got the Enterprise and those uniforms and we saw inside the ship, it was an upgraded form. The only logic I've seen people try to argue about WHY it doesn't look like it actually did was "Well, audiences won't accept something as cheap as TOS being futuristic." Well, then you've got a few responses there: -Don't set in TOS era, then. -That's horseshit, because audiences from the 90s through the 2000s accepted it just fine. Even a piece of dialogue from DS9 explained it perfectly: "I LOVE 23rd century design." It LOOKS cheap, but it was just the aesthetics of the period. And the Enterprise 2-parter it still looked good in HD. Hell, arguably it looked BETTER in HD because they knew how to light it and create mood and its own unique flavor. -It's even more horseshit because people are STILL going back and watching it even today, as indicated by you saying you've started watching it, so clearly it's not that much of a barrier. But what's even more egregious is the TECHNOLOGY. You might be able to accept updated aesthetics if at least matches what was present during the period... and it doesn't. Holographic displays and communication (holodeck technology AT ALL, frankly - it's possible it was there, but TNG seemed pretty adamant that the holodecks were fairly new, very impressive technology), weapons not looking or acting like they traditionally did, Enterprise and Discovery having R2D2-style repair droids that certainly did not exist in TOS, the wrong sound effects being frequently employed, replicator technology for good-looking food instead of food dispensers that gave out marshmallows and cubes, and honestly the tech level shown in Discovery looks just as advanced - if not MORE advanced than seen on TNG 100 years later. And this is a minor thing, but despite the attempt to make the future LOOK futuristic, from a cultural perspective, the future looks... way too damn similar to now. The excessive swearing (it was said in particular in Star Trek 4 that while they certainly did cuss, it was less common and they sure as hell weren't dropping F-bombs), a party on Discovery that looked like a rave (when previously it seemed like the most popular music and culture of the 23rd/24th century was considered fairly high-brow entertainment [classical music, Shakespeare, great works of literature and plays, etc.] - and while you could certainly argue that that snootiness and love of that stuff is a problem with Star Trek and a sign of how sterile and homogenized it is, THAT is the future they presented and a character in Voyager loving some of the goofier parts of 20th century culture like jukeboxes and old sci-fi serials was considered unusual), and just the general way people talk betrays the idea that the writers aren't thinking about how society changes in the future. It's just the modern day, but with cooler technology. But hey, let's set aside the general aesthetics - some people aren't going to mind that and find

ways to handwave away a lot of stuff (even Discovery season 2 TRIED to handwave away stuff like the holographic communications, but did a piss-poor job of it). This brings us to the problem of the WRITING. And the problem with the writing is a big Michael Burnham-shaped indentation. To be clear, I don't mind Michael as a character or her actress - there are interesting aspects to her, centering a Star Trek show around the science officer is a neat idea (though that means you should probably NAME IT AFTER HER and not around the ship, because it suggests this is a standard ensemble group and not JUST her)... but the actual execution is that it feels like the entire universe bends over backwards for HER. She has a unique relationship with a beloved longtime character that is retconned in. She has unique relationships with several important characters to the point where the fate of billions of people hinges on her and the decisions she makes. She is presented as almost always correct about everything, and those that oppose her are often wrong, naïve, or active enemies. Now, this is less of an issue in the third season - but that has its own unique problems - but in the first season, the resolution of two major storylines (mirror universe and the Klingon war) revolves around her and her relationship to the Terran Emperor and Lorca. In season 2, her mother trying to help or save her is the basis of the ENTIRE friggin' plot with time travel and the like, with special knowledge and history having to do with her and everyone ready to abandon their lives for her so she won't be alone when she has to go to the future when arguably they barely know her (the timeline of the show is debatable). Season 3 has a few different problems with her - the first is that she keeps being involved in things that don't concern her (why is she going down to Trill?) and she keeps violating orders. Now, her violating orders is a problem throughout the entirety of Discovery - in fact, it's kind of the instigating factor OF the series. And arguably, other Star Trek characters are guilty of that and they face no consequences, just as she faces none... and yet it's the brazenness with which it happens, and in those other series it's arguable because the series tries to avoid excessive continuity changes for its episodic nature, so the status quo MUST return to normal... but Discovery is pivoted as one of MAJOR continuity, so her lack of consequences (and indeed eventual PROMOTION) is baffling to the point of frustration. Now again, let me be clear here - she is not a bad character in and of herself. Honestly what it shows is that being the science officer on a starship is not where her talents lie. She should be in a position where she has a lot more freedom to act and not in a major command structure... but being in that command structure, what we see in season 3 is that she lacks the discipline, emotional maturity, responsibility, leadership qualities, and general other traits necessary to be a Captain. Only once during season 3 did she display such a quality - putting the safety of the Federation above a friend and colleague... but other times she will happily disobey orders and put herself and others in harm's way, creating potential new problems. Now, again, Star Trek is rife with characters doing that... but usually not the Captains. And, in fact, when this happened once on DS9 with one officer disobeying orders and putting their own personal feelings above the greater responsibility, it was made VERY clear that the incident would mean that they would never be able to command a starship because of the unofficial reprimand. What's even more frustrating about her is that the character is ALWAYS shoved to the forefront so much to the point where we just get sick of her. SHE is the one giving log entries (usually pretty piss-poor ones, at that - very flowery and nonsensical and kind of dumb) and not the Captain. SHE is the one given so much focus and how the plot of the episode affects her. Barely anyone else gets any focus episodes - I STILL can't

remember the names of some of the secondary characters because they're so rarely said, and a PTSD-related plotline in season 3 for one of the secondary characters basically gets resolved OFF-SCREEN. Michael would be fine if we actually had a chance to miss her... but we never do. Arguably one of the best episodes of the show is in season 2, when it focuses on Saru and his people because Michael DOES take a back seat. It's his story and his development and problems relating to him and his people. And even if, again, we forgave the idea of so much focus on her even in plots that aren't about her... she never seems to really change that much. She'll TALK about how she's changed, but I see no real difference in the way she acts (MAYBE season 1 to 2, where in season 1 she was stiffer and more Vulcan-like, but that's it). But hey, let's assume that's not a problem for you - you really, REALLY like Michael and are fine with so much focus on her. Simply put, the writing of the rest of the show... is just kind of dumb. The ship is powered by magic mushrooms that let it teleport everywhere because the universe has super fungus capillaries throughout it that nobody can see and also it's magic and can resurrect the dead. The time travel plot of season 2 doesn't make any sense when you sit down and diagram it. Well-established Trek lore is just kind of sprinkled in, but now in ways that doesn't match what it was before or at least in ways that completely recolor how it's supposed to work, because it needs to serve THIS plot. Everyone remembering a murdererous monster fondly after she leaves because "Hey, she was coooool." The explanation for the big mystery in season 3 is just fricking stupid and one of the two big reasons why I've finally given up on Discovery, because it's just so absurd, doesn't match how anything works, and just feels like the writers giving the middle finger to the audience because they care more about "YOU MUST FEEEEEEL THINGS!" instead of it making sense. And indeed, there is certainly a balance to be made of plot vs. emotion-driven storytelling - some stories are dumb, but are forgivable because the character writing and emotion are so strong that they override how goofy the plot is... but sometimes a plot is just so dumb it overrides anything I'm SUPPOSED to feel. And it would help if I already liked the show, already gave it some benefit of the doubt... but I don't and it hasn't done enough to impress me. A little thing that's a problem with ALL of current modern Trek shows is that whole sprinkling lore thing - I don't think a single episode goes by in ANY current modern Trek series that doesn't have a random reference to classic Trek lore. A name, a line of dialogue, etc. It comes across like the creators don't trust you to enjoy it on its own merits, but want you to like it because "Hey, remember thing? We know about thing! Like us because we mentioned thing!" But hey, I recognize that these are things that other people may not have any problem with or just disagree in general. But for me and my family, these are the big ones that keep us from enjoying it. Hell, my brother and dad still watch it for hatewatching purposes, but I was done after season 3. I gave it plenty of chances to impress me, and while each season MARGINALLY got better as it went along, I'm tired of waiting to actually like it and to stop feeling like it thinks I'm a fucking idiot. If other people still like it, great - it clearly appeals to them in a way that it doesn't appeal to me and they are free to enjoy it. Other people probably have their own issues, but this long, rambly bit is the major stuff for me.

[ninjastormhawkkat]

Another Wordgirl Au: Morally Gray Wordgirl

Morally Gray Wordgirl au

I don’t know if anyone else in the Wordgirl fandom thought about this at one point. A what-if I thought one day was what would have happened if Steven became Dr. Two Brains before Becky became Wordgirl? Such as what if Steven became Two Brains when Becky just came to earth as a baby? This is where the au begins

In this au, Becky is adopted by Dr. Two Brains. After Becky and Bob crash land on earth, Bob carries Becky around for a bit and enters the city. This is around the time Steven first becomes Two Brains. Bob, while carrying Becky, runs into Two Brains. At this point, Bob has no idea that Two Brains is a villain. Two Brains has cheese with him and Bob is hungry. Two Brains awkwardly hands some of his cheese to Bob. Two Brains may be a villain now but he is not heartless to not offer someone that is hungry food. Bob eats the cheese while Two Brains holds Becky. Two Brains is nervous at first because some random monkey just gave him a baby to hold😟. When Becky looks at Two Brains, she curiously calls him daddy. She is just a little kid who think that this new man holding her is her parent now. Two Brains heart just melts😍after hearing her call him daddy and looking into her innocent, alien, eyes. He immediately begins to dote on her as a dad would, ex. baby talk and cooing. Bob watches the interaction between Two Brains and Becky and decides that Two Brains would be a great person to stay with and raise Becky. He later regrets his decision.😓😆Here is an outline for how this au would go:

1. Becky still becomes Wordgirl. Bob tries to implement heroic morals into Becky during the time she is being raised by a villain. Becky wants to become a hero because she does not want to see the lives of innocent civilians hurt. However, since Dr. Two Brains also implemented villainous ideals into Becky growing up, her moral values are kind of mixed in her actions as a hero.

2. Becky is more sympathetic towards villains. Ex. When Chuck and Butcher claim to be innocent after being framed by Amazing Rope Guy, she immediately believes them and tries to figure out another angle of who really committed those crimes.

3. She isn’t as upset as when the spotlight is turned off her such as when Tiny Big came onto the scene or when Granny May became bingo champion. She is still upset, but Becky is not as focused on the limelight as canon. She, from Huggy’s teachings, believes that a superhero’s true reward comes from protecting the citizens and just helping when needed to prevent or avenge the cruelest of injustices. Wordgirl will accept gifts or keys to the city out of politeness. She uses the limelight to give the people of Fair City comfort and assurance that she is still there to protect them. Becky views heroism as a job more than a pleasure. It is basically, “You get good results based on how hard and well you do the work, not just what others say.” mentality.

4. That being said, Becky will not take a passive stance and try hard to prove her innocence if the citizens suddenly began to take advantage of her heroism or if they turn on her such as with the evil duplicate or when Granny May framed her for crimes. As I said earlier, Becky in this au views heroism as a job she enjoys and doesn't take impolite backlash, constructive criticism yes. Basically she just becomes done when residents of Fair City act like morons who think they know better. (I have always had a problem when a majority of the residents in Fair City act like gullible idiots. It always irks me how they will turn on Wordgirl easily and not often give a proper apology when they realize they were wrong. Sometimes, to me, it seems the villains have better appreciation for Wordgirl than the citizens. I am not including all citizens, just seems like a majority do this.) (Okay rant over.) Becky will be like, “if you guys don’t want me anymore then good luck.” She will intervene again just to keep the city from going into complete chaos. She still cares about the safety of the citizens, she just does not like it when they abandon their trust in her for no good reason. She is not even mad at the villains who cause this. They didn’t force the citizens to dislike Wordgirl, that was their choice.

5. Becky will not often take her dad to jail. She loves her dad and does not like the idea of him not being home (the warehouse; Becky’s living conditions their are like my version of the Becky Boxleitner au, just somewhat better due to her living their all her life.) She also does not like the idea of having to fight him, but has to in order to keep up appearances and not let anyone get suspicious and start suspecting her identity. That being said, she will let Two Brains escape after stoping the crimes depending on the severity. If Two Brains just steals cheese from the grocery store, she may often ignore it (its just cheese and it can easily be replenished). For crimes such as stealing money or turning artwork into cheese, Becky will stop her dad, but later act like he got away (if police are not around. “Two Brains Quartet” still happens because police are there.). Becky may do this sometimes for other villains depending on her or their mood. Citizens and Villains believe that Dr. Two Brains is an extremely tough villain to catch which raises his credibility as Fair City’s #1 villain when Wordgirl does this. Captain Huggy Face is not happy when Wordgirl let’s her dad go, but he deals with it because she cares about her dad. Becky does stand her ground if her dad, and the other villains, do something dangerous that affects the lives of the citizens. Incidents such as the plot to mind control all the city with bunny buttons and the cheesteroid do get Two Brains arrested. (Becky is like, “Sorry dad, but I can’t let you threaten the lives of innocent civilians.”) Since this happens rarely, Becky usually stays at her friends houses until her dad leaves prison. She has a visitor clearance and does visits with her dad when she can. (Still brings him cheese.) Not much interaction with the Botsford family unless they were a focus in episodes.

6. Becky is more aware of when villains act deceitful. (She was raised by one herself.) She pretends to be tricked to let their guard down before turning the tables on them. (She can be tricky and deceitful herself when she wants to be.)

The police force are more competent in this au than in canon. They were able to capture most villains, with exception to Two Brains and other major villains, before Wordgirl came onto the scene. The city was similar to Gotham before Batman showed up. It was fine, but crime rates were still high. The episode “The Wrong Side of the Law” happens differently than canon. Wordgirl is civil and polite to the police, but does really like law enforcement or fully trusts them due to her upbringing by a super villain. (Two Brains taught her she can respect law enforcement because they are capable of doing a good job, it does not mean she has to like them or follow the rules all the time. I sorta think that the villains have some respect for D.A. Sally Botsford because of how she is good at her job.)

Now on to “Normal” girl Becky. Becky is still referred to as Becky Boxleitner. (Dr. Two Brains did not want kids ignoring or making fun of Becky with a last name like Brains, or something mouse related. He wanted people to know and treat his daughter as herself, not just who she is related to. Two Brains also wanted to give Becky some protection so random people wouldn’t bother her because of his actions. So he just gave her his old human name.) Becky is similar to her canon character with a few changes.

1. Becky will empathize with someone if they are feeling upset and hurt. But if they are doing something dumb and stupid, or anything that is concerning to her, she will be upfront and honest with that person (not complete brutal honesty but something like “Please don’t do something stupid, I care about you and your health.”). She isn’t mean, but she is forward and won’t bother to hide feelings if hiding your emotions will only make the situation worse. 

2. Both Becky and Wordgirl are sassy like her dad.

3. She is still passionate about words and respects her teachers and main authority figures.

4. Becky is more clever about excuses.

5. She enjoys science more as well as literature. Becky has top grades in her class. (Next to Tobey). She enjoys science fairs and is a bit better at creating workable, and visually acceptable, inventions.

6. Becky likes puns (Two Brains) and knows every fact about cheese as well as every fact about words (again Two Brains’ fault). 

7. Becky is still a fan of Pretty Princess, but has ponies, books, and science stuff in her room. She is a bit more tomboyish than canon.  

Becky is still friends with Violet in this au. I always viewed Violet’s mom as an open-minded nature women, based on Violet’s character and where they live. She is easily accepting of Becky and Dr. Two Brains despite Two Brains life as a villain. Becky is also forward early on how some of Violet’s traditions make her uncomfortable so there is no issue in the series. 

Becky is more a fan of words and science in this au. She and Violet have fun mixing art and science. Becky does not take art classes, but rather is part of after-school science and reading clubs. (She takes science club with Tobey and reading club with Violet.)

Becky is also friends with Tobey in this au. I have nothing against Scoops’ character. I was just more fond of his character development in the episodes during and after he learns Becky’s identity, plus a few before the reveal. (In the early seasons, it seemed that Scoops would do anything for a big story, even as exposing Wordgirl’s identity as Becky. I was upset in that Vocab Bee episode because Scoops did not seem to consider Becky’s input or feeling when he found strong evidence that Becky was Wordgirl. To me it seemed unfair that Becky had to throw her chances at a competition she was having fun in just to protect her identity because of Scoops’ actions and attitude.) Tobey met Becky when they were between 5 and 6. Tobey just lost his dad (up to interpretation on how) and was just lonely. Kids would make fun of Tobey’s nerd-side and some other mean reasons, or they would ignore him. Becky sympathized with Tobey because most kids, not Violet, would avoid her because of her dad. (They would not dare bully her for fear of how Dr. Two Brains would react.) Tobey and Becky easily began to get along and overtime became friends. Claire McCallister was worried about her son hanging out with the child of a villain. But quickly after seeing how Becky was a good kid plus Two Brains being a good dad despite his status, and that her son was happy with friends, she let her worries slide. Claire, Dr. Two Brains, and Violet’s mom, have made an unofficial single parents support group between the three of them. In this au, Tobey does not become a villain, but still builds robots. (I already have a new villain that takes canon Tobey’s role.) Becky and Tobey are silently crushing on each other. Tobey does suspect Becky is Wordgirl, but respects her secret identity and will wait for her to tell him (or a reveal). (Still cares for her anyway.)

Scoops parents are friendly but are strong law-abiding citizens so they avoid Two Brains and Becky. Scoops in this au is nice, but is more concerned on news stories. He originally talks to Becky in hopes of getting an interview with her dad. Scoops is trying not to be inconsiderate, but he is sorta using Becky as a way to get to her dad. Becky deals with this stuff from other reporters and fans of her dad. Neither Dr. Two Brains and Becky like this attention. (Two Brains likes being in the news and in magazines, but he doesn’t like people using his daughter to get to him. Becky is the most important person in his life with cheese being second.) Becky shuts Scoops down after his first few initial attempts. Scoops is disappointed, but he apologizes and doesn’t bother her anymore. Becky is civil and polite to Scoops in this series, but that is about it. There is no crush. (I don’t know if I will keep the Violet x Scoops ship in this au or change it.)  

I really like this au along with a few other aus I made up which include an Alliance Swap au. I am going to expand more on this au and the characters later.  

[starberry-cupcake]

The Chinapuri finale and its montage aka censorship who?

I decided to do all of this in one post and read more, so that the 95% of my followers who are uninterested on this particular drama/source material can easily skip it. Here are 7 relationships showcased in the montage ranked and 2 bonus (a family relationship and an extra). 

Note: I’ll speak about the relationships as they were portrayed, whichever the form of relationship chosen to display in this version. Also, I’m glad that everyone was aged up in this version, kinda wild but very much appreciated that some of these actors are my age or somewhere around there lol 

#7 Lu Xia (Echizen Ryoma) and Qi Ying (Ryuuzaki Sakuno) 

This drama was a bit more romantically-inclined in terms of these two than the anime/manga was, but some of that may be also influenced by them giving their version of Sakuno more room (which yay!) and having them be older. 

For this to stand alone as a drama, it was a needed step, I believe. I found Lu Xia to be more vulnerable than Ryoma, he doesn’t feel quite as ~cool~ and it doesn’t take away from the character that he has moments showing internal struggle (in tennis as well as at home). These two were sweet and adorable, which gave the drama probably more of an expected appeal for a wider audience, to make it stand on its own as a drama and not only an anime adaptation. 

#6 Yan ZhiMing (Inui Sadaharu) & Liu Lian (Yanagi Renji) 

Kinda mad they didn’t do this for Fuji (Zhuo Zhi) and Saeki (Zuo Xiaohu) but they did good with these two. I didn’t know at first why they started to build up their relationship so early, but it ended up being a good emotional plot point during their match, which is, as we all know, a determining factor in Seigaku’s (Yu Qing) win against Rikkai (Hai Guang). 

I don’t remember being as invested in their match in the anime as I was here, maybe I was just too focused on the Fuji match at that time, but what they did to build that game as a decisive point in the season finale was so well developed, I was impressed. 

#5 He XingLong (Kawamura Takeshi) & Ya JiuXin (Akutsu Jin) 

This is a relationship that can get complicated and even problematic if handled incorrectly. Akutsu’s journey through the anime is pretty long and takes a while for him to be on a healthier place, but the added element of aging the characters could have gone really wrong here if they had done him exactly as in the anime or manga. I think they did pretty well with the time they were given, showing his turmoil and learning curve. 

XingLong was allowed to have a more in-depth journey being older and about to graduate, it made more sense for him here to think about his career at this stage and added the gravity of this being THE moment to decide whether to keep pursuing the sport or take over his dad’s restaurant (they even adapted the type of food they cook to match the cultural impact of the family-owned business, which was great). 

I think the two complemented each other really well and worked interestingly together, in a way I didn’t think the drama was gonna give them time to do, so I’m really pleased. 

#4 Qiao Chen (Momoshiro Takeshi) & Zhang BaiYang (Kaidoh Kaoru) 

My younger self is thriving with this one being included tbh. These two were so much fun in the anime, two rivals and opposites that represented the future of the team upon their elders leaving. 

I was surprised to see them so focused here, because it’s not a relationship most adaptations put emphasis on (their loss), but it paid off immensely by the time their game against Bunta and Jackal (Jin WenTai & Ke Jie) came around. 

Kaidoh is a tough one to adapt most times, and they did him so well in this one, I think this is my favorite live action Kaidoh in any adaptation, and I’ve watched a whole bunch of tenimyu in my day. They really captured the ambiguity of his character, how he balances a tough exterior with a sensitive core. Qiao Chen maintained his feelings for Xu Xingzi (Tachibana Ann) but that didn’t stop them from showing these two every time they could. 

#3 Mu Siyang (Tezuka Kunimitsu) & Ji Jingwu (Atobe Keigo) 

Oh, these two. Hyotei (Xing Yao) wasn’t featured as much as one would probably expect (I’m a Fudomine fan and with Yu Feng I got more than I even was expecting, but I admit Hyotei is a riot and I always live my best life when they show up). Still, they did the Tezuka/Atobe match justice and then some. 

Mu Siyang was incredibly compelling as Tezuka, and had a vulnerability to him that made me worry for his health more than I probably did for his anime counterpart. Maybe also the fact that he was older than his anime version yet looked younger than him made it sink more that his injury was something to worry about. I wish we had time to include anime!Tezuka’s issues with yips with Siyang, because I know the drama would have pulled it off, but that was further down the line in the story. Maybe for a season 2. 

Anyway, the Atobe/Tezuka game is one of the best games in tenipuri history and the drama knew it. The game felt like it earned its gravity with the development of both Siyang’s injury and Ji Jingwu’s determination to play against him. Then they sprinkled the camp on top, as the anime does, with Ji Jingwu paying for his every expense and calling him to get updates, which is 100% canon compliant imo. 

I feel like Ji Jingwu didn’t have enough room to be as much of Atobe as he could be, but then again, that’s not easy for anyone to pull off. Not even Kato Kazuki can do Junichi Suwabe as well as Junichi Suwabe.  

#2 Bai ShiYan (Yukimura Seiichi) & Tian ZiLong (Sanada Genichirou) 

So, it’s tough to feel for Rikkai (Hai Guang) at this point of the story. You learn about Yukimura’s health and it’s difficult, but you just met them and the first impressions haven’t been great. 

However, the relationship between Sanada and Yukimura has always been something pivotal for the way the team is constructed (they were named that way for a reason, two parts of a same hero and all that) and they sustain the team in a way other teams don’t have to. They are the mom and dad of the team, the coaches, the leaders and the pillars. They have a balance of severity and permissiveness, of strictness and instinct. They are like a couple who has been married for 25 years. 

How on Earth, I asked myself, will they achieve that with censorship on the way? I don’t know, but they did it, the mad bastards. 

It really does come through 100% the importance of their relationship and the way in which the captain’s health affects the team and, more than anything, their vice captain. It reaches a crescendo during the final match, before ShiYan’s operation, and they manage to pull it off with the time they have. 

Also, their scenes are like shot for a contemporary romance drama and I appreciate that vibe. 

#1 Tang JiaLe (Kikumaru Eiji) & Chi DaYong (Oishi Shuichiro) 

Oh boy. Look. I still own Golden Pair merchandise from my Days, ok? These two hold a special place in my heart. I saw actors who portrayed them grow up, succeed and pass away, sadly. I still sing Depend On Me sometimes. There is a cheerful vibe with these two, a sense of overcoming obstacles and finding balance, I don’t know. Fuji is my favorite character but these two are special in their way. 

This freakin’ drama just went full on Golden Pair. The level of content was off the charts. The moment they came on the screen, the second they talked about their doubles, it was already setting the tone of how deep their relationship was going to go. I am a bit amazed that they avoided to get closed down for this ngl. And I appreciate the risk because it paid off.

They have a body language communication that is captured in every shot. Even when they’re not the focus of the scene, they’re close, touching or holding each other, arms around each other, hands on each other’s shoulders, grabbing each other’s clothes. When they fight, that language changes drastically, and the distance they take feels intense and cold. You go through it with them and the team shows it as well. There’s an entire episode I had screencaps of and never posted when the team falls apart because they do. 

My favorite part, though, ironically, isn’t what they did with them together but what they did with them apart. They took time to develop them as individual characters with their own issues, their fears, their worries and weaknesses. They were allowed to be flawed and wrong and have to mend their ways. 

What really got me and impacted me deeply was the fact that they chose DaYong to talk about mental health. They gave room to speaking about the physical implications of anxiety disorders and about how self esteem issues can give more magnitude to ongoing issues with your mental health. Again, the age of the characters being changed helped add a depth to some issues that get developed with more intensity in a drama of this kind, and the way in which it takes TIME to get resolved, it isn’t a one episode thing, it’s an underlying issue that spans the season...*chef’s kiss* 

Even though there’s a specific tenimyu incarnation of these two that I hold dear and will always remember fondly, I think that Xu Ke and Zhu ZhiLing are the most successful and best portrayed live action Golden Pair I’ve ever seen. 

Bonus that was in the montage but it’s specifically about a family relationship: The Zhuo Bros

I have said Fuji has always been my favorite and his relationship with Yuta as an older brother (albeit he’s not the eldest sibling like me) is one I always felt close to. 

In the anime, the two have a rocky relationship that gets developed throughout, but the drama is very good at establishing not only Zhuo Yu’s (Fuji Yuta) self esteem issues, the subsequent use of that Guan Yue (Mizuki Hajime) does and Zhuo Zhi’s (Fuji Syusuke) attempts to breach the gap between the siblings, they also use it to develop Zhuo Zhi’s character and his reticence to show weakness. 

It’s tough to get Fuji towards a place of vulnerability without breaking character, but they used family and the care he provides to his brother as a point to further his story, and I appreciate that a lot. They managed to build Zhuo Zhi up with this sibling bond as one of his core elements, and that gave a lot of dimension to his games and his character. 

Bonus that wasn’t in the montage but I’m including in some capacity: Mu Siyang (Tezuka Kunimitsu) & Zhuo Zhi (Fuji Syusuke) 

I thought these two deserved a place in the list, even if they weren’t grouped much in the montage, because the drama did make them share moments together that I feel gave more depth to their characters. 

There was a very interesting moment in which they showed Mu Siyang and Zhuo Zhi establishing their differences when approaching tennis, and how serious Mu Siyang is about taking the team to victory. I think that strengthened the character as a captain to me, in a way that shows it rather than tells it, and allowed for his guidance to still be present when he wasn’t physically there. His determination ultimately influenced Zhuo Zhi to take things more seriously, and that was a pretty interesting development to see. 

All in all, I should, at some point, go and do a serious review for MyDramaList but I wanted to leave in my blog how much I appreciated this adaptation. I wasn’t expecting much and I was delivered everything.

[cruelfeline]

The Hordak Bleatings Masterpost

The new and improved Masterpost! All of my ridiculous bleating in one place! Now with categories to allow you, dear friends and neighbors, to better marvel at the utter nonsense I get up to in my spare time. It shall be updated every so often/when I remember. 

some of these categories may overlap or perhaps not be perfect; I tried; there was... a lot

Enjoy!

Biological/Medical Musings

A Fairly Comprehensive List of Hordak’s Clinical Signs

I Wrote Too Much About Hordak’s Arms

And Then Someone Asked About His Elbows So Voila

Someone Else Asked About His Eyes

Yes; I Did Measure Hordak’s Ears via Fuzzy Math; You’re Welcome

A Brief Word About Dentition

Some Sad Thoughts About Clone Lifespan

I Like to Headcanon that Clones Have Naturally Different Eye Colors

Counting Hordak’s Ports

Thinking About Terrible Ways Prime Could Institute Biological Control

Doing Very Fuzzy Math And Wondering Just How Young Hordak Could Be

Spending Way Too Much Time Figuring Out Whether Hordak is Left or Right Handed

Why Tiny Food is Probably Ideal for Hordak (a joke ask I essentially took Seriously)

Discussing Hordak’s Temper

Considering Whether Hordak Needs Oxygen

Discussing Whether Prime and his Clones are Genetically Identical

Hordak in Relation to Other Characters

Entrapdak

Hordak Can Get Close to Entrapta Because He Needn’t Fear Her

Discussing Entrapdak Age Discourse

Bit More Regarding Hordak’s Maturity vs. Entrapta’s

Hordak Didn’t Manipulate Entrapta… But Catra Did

Assessing that Unfortunate Moment When Hordak Snapped at Entrapta

Further Assessing Hordak Snapping at Entrapta by Noting When He Doesn’t

On Hordak’s Wardrobe Change

Entrapta Shushing Hordak is One of My Favorite Interactions

The Entrapdak Scene Was Also One of Self-Love

I Really Like How Entrapta Talks to Hordak About Failure

Hordak Tells an Actual Lie and Succeeds

Entrapta’s and Hordak’s Social Differences Help Them Connect to One Another

I Would Have Appreciated A Scene Where Entrapta Learns About What Happened To Hordak

Hordak Takes Strength From Realizing That Entrapta Came For Him

Hordak and Entrapta Just Like One Another, and I Enjoy That

There is a Huge Difference in How The Alliance and Hordak React to Entrapta Being on Beast Island, and it’s Jarring

This is Mostly About Catradora But Kind of in the Sense of Why Entrapdak is Better, so Here it Goes

Entrapta Didn’t Teach Hordak How to Love; She Taught Him How to Be Loved

The Soup Scene is a Condensed View of Why Entrapdak Works in Light of the Rest of Hordak’s Arc

Hordak and Entrapta Search for One Another Alone, and it Makes Me Sad

I Love How Hordak Scooches Over for Entrapta to Join Him on his Throne

Catra

The How-Catra-Manipulated-Hordak Masterpost

Watching Catra and Hordak Switch Roles in Season Three is Fascinating

Hordak and Catra’s Low Points Indicate Their Core Problems

Did Hordak Abuse Catra? Did She Abuse Him? The World May Never Know

Comparing Hordak and Catra in Terms of Consequences and Agency

Hordak and Catra’s Apparent Ages Likely Affect How People Judge Them

Why Doesn’t Hordak Subdue Catra?

Losing and Regaining the Will to Fight is Another Hordak/Catra Parallel

Sometimes I Wish The Show Would Focus Less on Catra and More on Hordak

Why Catra Besting Hordak Isn’t As Satisfying As Catra Besting Shadow Weaver

Hordak Exhibits Some Level of Trust in Catra Even in Season 2... and She Betrays It

The Difference in How Hordak and Catra Handle Relationships followed by Why They Are Like This 

Some Brief Words on the Differences Between How Hordak and Catra End Up Driven to Destruction in Season Four

Musing About What I Actually Would Accept as “Hordak Abusing Catra”

I Think It’s Kind of Funny that Some Expect Catra to be Suspicious of Hordak Post-Canon

Two Scenes That Look Distressing Side-by-Side

Discussing How Catra and Hordak Start Off as Parallels but Later Deviate Due to Character Differences

Adora

How Adora and Hordak End Season Four Differently

Hordak and Adora Parallels

I Wonder if Adora Recognizes Some of Herself in Hordak

Other

This is Actually About Shadow Weaver, but Compared to Hordak, So…

Hordak Doesn’t Seem to have a “Rule the World!” Moment (compared to Shadow Weaver)

On Hordak’s Weird Interactions with DT

Watching DT Circle Hordak is Interesting

Let’s Compare the Circling Scenes, Shall We?

What Wrong Hordak’s Arc Teaches Us About Clones and Hordak

Wondering if Hordak Actually has Control Over the Etherian Horde (could he have stopped the war?)

Prime

There Is A Huge Difference In The Standards Prime And Hordak Hold Others Two Versus Themselves

Hordak and Horde Prime Handle Their Own Vulnerabilities Quite Differently

The Difference Between How Prime and Hordak Use Anger

The Moment Prime Touched Hordak’s Face is the Moment I Truly Knew That Something About Hordak’s Backstory was Very Wrong

Clone/Origin/Prime-Related Sadness

The Clone Thing

More Distressed Bleating about The Clone Thing

Hordak’s DMV Photo Disturbs Me

Hordak Isn’t Actually an Idiot About Disease Transmission

On Hordak’s Bodily Autonomy, or Lack Thereof

How Much of Hordak is “Hordak?”

I’m 99% Certain That Hordak Sucks at Lying Because he Literally Couldn’t

You’d Think Hordak would Think Things Through, But…

Hordak isn’t Really Proud of “Hordak” (with a bonus Adora mention)

Hordak Provides Excellent Fridge Horror

Hordak’s Behavioral Pathology Isn’t Actually Pathology

So! That Purification Ritual was Really Something

Despite Erasure, Hordak Remains Himself

The Clones Are Essentially Trapped By Prime And It Upsets Me

I Get Annoyed That The Clones Aren’t Discussed More By Our Heroes

Again, I Wish The Show Acknowledged The Clones A Bit More, Wrongie Edition

Wouldn’t It Be Swell If Prime Really Did Manage The Clones Like Livestock? 

It’s More Emotionally Poignant That The Clones Are Individuals Rather Than Drones

Prime’s Doctrine Ensures Hordak Blames Himself, and it’s an Awful Control Measure

Hordak Probably Isn’t Dumb for Using Uninsulated Cables; Rather, Clone Sadness is in Play

Why I Can’t See Hordak and the Other Clones As Colonizers (unlike Prime) (also a whole convo thread)

Thinking About Clones and Self-Care

Each Clone Will Have to Realize That They Were Victimized

Wondering if Horde Clones Might Feel Anxious Sleeping Alone

Why Prime Might Encourage Some Autonomy in His Clones (spoilers: for cruelty)

Completely Arbitrary Classification of Clones Post-Prime!

Prime is an Actual God to the Clones and it is Terrifying

Canon Plausibility of Blanket Burritoing Horde Clones!

I Appreciate That, Despite Their Devotion, the Clones are Portrayed as Legitimately Suffering due to Prime

Catra and Adora have Happy Memories; do the Clones?; does Hordak?

Morality/Punishment/Redemption Related

Morality is (sadly) not a Universal Thing

Don’t Talk to me About the Reset as “Proper Punishment”

Why Hordak Doesn’t Just Become a Good Citizen

I Think About Hordak’s Choices a Lot

Hordak as an Abuse Mimic Rather Than Pure Evil

Looking at the Horde Child Soldier Thing From a Certain POV

Emotional Support is a Necessary Part of Healing

Hordak Was Forgiven Without Redemption, And I’m OK With That

Hordak’s Arc Speaks Directly to People who were “Raised Wrong”

I Wonder if Hordak Would See anti-Princess Propaganda as Propaganda

Semi-Intelligent Plot/Story Observations

Hordak’s Portrayal is a Function of Character Lens

Hordak Gets Very Legit Development in Season Four

She-Ra Isn’t a War Drama and Here’s Why

Hordak Suffers From a Distressing Lack of Agency

Hordak is a Weirdly Unenthusiastic Lord

The Season 4 Finale Reframes Hordak’s Vulnerability 

Untangling Hordak’s Backstory in Light of What We Now Know

Why Hordak Getting Possessed is Narratively Good

Hordak’s Rebellion and Subsequent Possession Essentially Summarize His Story

There Are Big Differences Between Hordak and Prime’s Etherian Wars

It Is Pretty Unlikely That Hordak Would Have Pulled The Portal Lever

It Occurred To Me That Hordak May Initially Ignore FO’s Tech Because It’s Just Really Old

An Assessment Of The Villain Intro Cards, Focusing On Hordak

I Think It’s Silly To Blame Hordak For Everything - Especially When Considering Prime

Literally Just a Thread Explaining Why Hordak is Sympathetic

Some Words On Exactly How Terrible DT’s Reveal Was For Hordak

The Escalation of Hordak’s Situation is Really Something

An Anon Asks a Normal Question and I go on a Tangent About Hordak Compensating for his Inability to Innovate via Entrapta and Catra

There are Monumental Differences Between the Galactic and Etherian Hordes in Terms of Brainwashing and Agency

Thinking About Why Chipped Etherians May Not be That Sympathetic To Clones After All

Random Bit of Logicking About Why Hordak Calls the Princesses a Rebellion

Figuring Out Why I Find Hordak So Much More Sympathetic Than The Princesses

Brief Musing on How Hordak Might Face Antagonism From Both Sides Post-Canon

Hordak’s Story Touches on the Concept of the Imperfection of Authority

Someone Asked Me if I Found Hordak’s S5 Arc Satisfying

Discussing Whether Or Not Hordak Planned on Leading Anything After Conquering Etheria

Taking Apart an Abysmal Twitter Take Because It’s Fun

Talking About Prime’s Clone Troops v. Robot Troops

Talking About Hordak’s Emotional Age

Hordak’s S3 Backtory Being Part-Delusion Helps Emphasize the Inequality in Attachment Between the Clones and Prime

A Few Not-So-Nice Acts Hordak Commits That I Find Justifiable

Random Headcanons of All Sorts

Stupidly Cute, Pointless Headcanon #3825 (ears covered)

Stupid Pointlessly Cute Headcanon #4853 (yawning, with appropriate artwork)

Stupid Pointlessly Cute Headcanon #2938 (snoring)

Stupid Pointlessly Cute Headcanon #1423 (REM sleep)

Stupidly Cute, Pointless Headcanon #7845 (blushing)

Random Hordak-Related Thought #2935 (forearms)

I Like to Think That Hordak Does Cute Things in his Sleep

I Like to Think That Hordak’s Eyes Dim While He Sleeps

Literally Me Just Having Emotions

Thinking About the Stress of Maintaining His Image in the Horde

Why Hordak’s Trauma is Particularly Disturbing To Me (compared to Catra/Adora)

Catra Overcomes her Fear of her Abuser; Hordak Does Not

All of my Emotions over the S4 Finale

Hordak’s Goddamned Smirk Lied to Me

I Have Feelings about Hordak’s Enforced Self-Care

I Need Hordak to Know that He is Loved

Hordak Goes Pew Pew and It’s Cute

Watching Hordak Lift Things Makes Me Smile

Hordak’s Unreasonable Expectations Make Me Sad

Please Just Let Hordak Rest

A Sassy Post About People Complaining the Hordak and Catra are Forgiven

All My Words About That Hordak/Adora Scene

Hordak Taps the Asphyxiation Lever With Two Fingers And It Makes Me Happy

I Wonder If Individuality Felt Blasphemous To Hordak

Please Don’t Stab Clones In Their Ports, Thank You

Hordak Clasps His Hands And It Makes Me Anxious

Hordak Shaming Catra Mimics the Purification Room And It’s Disturbing

Watching Hordak Give Up Is Heartbreaking

I Worry About Hordak Handling Anxiety

People Being Considerate of Hordak Makes My Heart Smile

I Wonder If Magic Was Frightening to Hordak at First

Thinking About Hordak Progressing in Terms of Self-Care

Prime Never Calls Hordak by Name, not Even Once

Just Being Sad While Realizing the Sort of Life Hordak had to Look Forward To

Strange Fic-Like Things No One Should Read

Please Consider: A Concept Masterpost

Hordak Practices Eyerolling

Imp Hacks Up The Worst Color of Hairball

[ayuuria]

Yashahime Translation: Animage January 2021 Issue (Part 2)

Please do not repost this translation without my consent! This includes screenshots of any type and amount. If you wish to share this translation, simply link to this post.

For more information regarding the use of my translations, click here.

I decided to split this translation into two parts as it made more sense flow wise.

Part 1: Merry Christmas from the Yashahimes Part 2: Interview with SixTONES (the group that performed the opening theme to Yashahime)

Click here to read Part 1

SixTONES, Let’s Start Running

An opening theme that livens up the start of the story with a catchy tune and lively moving cinematic. Thoroughly dissect the charm with an interview and scene cuts!

Singing the opening theme for “Hanyō no Yashahime” is the energetic idol group that has gained popularity across a wide age range, SixTONES. What is charming about their 3rd single, “New Era”, is that it is an emotional song that has a melody overflowing with a sprint like feeling and rap mixed in. With the meaning of “A new age” included in the title, it perfectly matches this work that draws the story of the new generation.

Bringing out the feel of the tune’s youthful vitality is probably the condition of its link between the video. Going along with the lyrics of “Let’s start running” at the beginning, Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha can be seen running together. At the hook of the song, matching the melody, the three of them rhythmically attack demons. In accordance with that, within the tune’s positive impression, the “likeness” of the three girls is added refreshingly. With the synergy of the song and the cinematic, it is an opening theme with an overflowing feel of righteousness that instantly draws viewers into the world of the work.

Shared Questions

Q1. From the start, what sort of impression did you have of “Inuyasha”?

Q2. What did you think when you heard that the song would be the opening theme for “Hanyō no Yashahime”?

Q3. What is your favorite part within the melody or lyrics?

Q4. What were your thoughts during the recording?

Q5. What did you think when you saw the completed opening cinematic?

Q6. If you could go to the Feudal Era, what would you take with you?

Kochi Yugo “I took a photo together with the opening screen”

A1. My impression was the characters were so cool and cute that it made me want to try on Japanese clothes when I was little. Personally, I fell for Sesshōmaru.

A2. I was genuinely happy. I never imagined that SixTONES would oversee a theme song to an anime that is popular across a large range of generations. Anime songs have a lot of impact, so I thought this was a chance for people of all different generations to hear us!

A3. I personally love Morimoto’s B melody part. It has remained in my ear ever since listening to the demo sound generator and I secretly wanted to sing that part. Please, I would like everyone to listen (to that part) consciously!

A4. Rather than focus singing well, I went into the recording wanting to focus on the sprint like feeling and emotion. It ended up having a good nuance with more emotion in it which made me happy!!

A5. Seeing the main characters move with our tune was fresh and exciting. When the credit came up, I instinctively took a picture of it!!

A6. I would take a large amount of seasonings like mayonnaise to the Feudal Era. I want to eat fish and rice deliciously! I also want to make a triumphant face!

Kyomoto Taiga “I streaked my hair as a sign of respect”

A1. I watched it every week after coming home from school, so it feels like I’m returning to my childhood when I watch “Inuyasha” even now. V6’s “CHANGE THE WORLD” (first opening theme song of “Inuyasha”) was the first CD I ever bought so I’m happy that we were entrusted with the theme song this time!

A2. Anime theme songs are something I normally appreciate and have an aspiration for, so I was truly happy. Putting in respect for the work, I streaked my hair for the shooting of the music video and (CD) jacket.

A3. There’s charm packed in the whole thing but the falling hook is especially nice so I would like everyone to enjoy the development of tune as it changes like a rollercoaster.

A4. I was entrusted with the important parts like the beginning of the A melody and the B melody right before the hook, which influences the tune’s impression and enlivenment. Hence, I completely brought out my rock side which was locked in my internal shelf when I sang. I hoped my strength and passion came through.

A5. It’s a work that inherited the world of an anime I watched when I was little, so hearing our voices resound in the theme song was deeply moving.

A6. A blanket. I have a habit of making blankets into pillows when I sleep so I’d like to take one so I can sleep well.

Tanaka Juri “The potential of the tune expanded with the added cinematic”

A1. The image I have of “Inuyasha” is that it’s recognizable to many people and has a lot of fans. I watched it myself and a lot of my friends are big fans.

A2. I heard that we would be singing the theme song first before the actual song. Frankly, I was happy and excited as to how our music would match the anime’s setting.

A3. I think you’ll get the feeling that you’re being taken to a variety of worlds from this single song due to the way the melody continuously changes. However, it really comes together as a whole, so the quality of the song is high. It would be great if people can enjoy the six of us shining in our individual parts with their ears.

A4. As much as I could, I tried not to think about the fact that it was a theme song when I sang. I’ll mess up if I think about it. The conclusion I came to after interpreting the meaning of us overseeing (the song) in my own way was that there was meaning in SixTONES delivering cool music. Hence, I focused on creating cool music without thinking about unnecessary things.

A5. We saw it for the first time during the broadcast, but I felt that it expanded the potential of the song that we alone couldn’t express.

A6. A rice cooker. I want to eat warm rice.

Matsumoto Hokuto “I was happy there was starry sky cinematic at the slow part”

A1. At the time, I thought it was a work that was a little more for adults so I thought I shouldn’t push my limit and didn’t watch. Even so, I really liked the visuals for Inuyasha.

A2. I knew it was a highly anticipated work. Thus, I was little unsure if we could create a song that could clear that hurdle.

A3. The part at the intro and coda that goes “ai ai ai…” was sung not as a chorus but by myself. It’s a hard song with a lot of vigor but there’s a delicate harmonization paired with it so I would like people to pay attention to the depth and lightness as they listen.

A4. In addition to the “ai ai ai” part at the intro and coda being one octave lower, adding a nuance to it was difficult so I had a harder time with it than expected.

A5. It was my dream to see a battle scene go along with our song, so seeing the scene where swords are being brandished made me excited from the bottom of my heart. This is me talking personally; during my slow part, the starry sky shows on screen. The name Hokuto originates from the stars, so I was strangely happy.

A6. Smartphone. Taking high resolution pictures and videos; I want to take a walk while having a modern map open, matching up where is where.

Jesse “It fits so perfectly that I laughed”

A1. When I was little, I wanted to be a demon!! I had “Inuyasha” stationary too!

A2. I was excited, wondering how the cinematic would fit and when I actually watched it, it fit so perfectly that I laughed! It really matched! I was really happy!

A3. There’s a lot of parts such as the Japonesque feel from the intro, the rap, the righteous melody line at the hook, and my part which is the drop melody. Thus, I don’t think you’ll get tired of listening to it. Also, the lyrics are really straightforward which I love. In the drop melody, in addition to the sprint like feeling and heartrending feeling, the hue changes a little so singing it made me feel a happiness I really like.

A4. I shouted more than usual in the recording! I like Shintaro’s part, so I hum it a lot.

A5. The voice of SixTONES, the melody of “NEW ERA”, and the character’s movements all fit perfectly so I’m relieved. I’m thankful!

A6. SixTONES’s sound generator and speakers!

Morimoto Shintaro “It become one at “Let’s start running””

A1. At the time, I was in either kindergarten or elementary school, so I was always excited to watch “Inuyasha”. I remember buying Tackey & Tsubasa’s “One Day, One Dream” single CD.

A2. I was very surprised! Very happy! Just like the song’s name “NEW ERA”, I thought it would be great if “Hanyō no Yashahime” and SixTONES could create a new era!

A3. The world of “Hanyō no Yashahime” and the world of SixTONES, the sound that has a lot of changing keys; there’s a lot of substance within one song to enjoy. I would like for everyone to pay attention to the sprint like feeling.

A4. There’s my slow part that starts from “I wanna~” and I would love for people to enjoy the tempo and melody as well as the hook that rises towards the “No no no no no-“ part.

A5. The scene where the characters start running when the lyrics say “Let’s start running” really tugged at my heart like the work and SixTONES had become one!

A6. Snack food. I want to bring them like “We have these delicious foods in the future!”. Even if you’re fighting, food is sure to bring about peace. That is my wish.

The Start of the Three’s Journey Opening Storyboard, Production, and Key Animation: Tobe Atsuo

— Please tell us what your thoughts were when you first listened to “NEW ERA”.

Tobe: I felt pressure as I thought it fit the image of the work.

— The cinematic was matched with the song but what sort of theme did you think of for the storyboard?

Tobe: At first, it was originally planned that Director Satou Teruo would draw the storyboard, so we composed it based on the director’s ideas. First, the number one priority was that we wanted to make the feeling of continuation from the work called “Inuyasha” straightforward. We decided we wanted to express “The three meet through the guidance of the rainbow pearls and go off on an adventure together” in a simple composition.

— It seems that you were the “One-man key animator”, is this what you wanted yourself? Also, within those 90 seconds, was there a part in particular that you enjoyed drawing?

Tobe: The one-man key animator was the director’s request. Of course, expressing the forms and impressions of the three new protagonists was fun and it was work worth doing. However, drawing the inserts of characters from “Inuyasha” was nostalgic. Especially Kirara. Also, Takechiyo’s a good character (laughs).

— Please tell us the parts you focused on or points that we should pay attention to.

Tobe: In any case, I made sure not to deviate from the image of the three leads being “youthful”. I was careful of not making it “childish” but instead “youthful”. In the opening, I didn’t concretely present the enemies that would appear going forward as I wanted to focus on the aspect of “the of start of the three’s journey”. Nothing would make me happier if viewers are able to enjoy the main story like “What’s going to happen from here on”.

Inuyasha & Sesshōmaru

While holding the key to story of “Hanyō no Yashahime”, Inuyasha and Sesshōmaru, who have not yet made a proper appearance since episode 1, are drawn in a meaningful way in the opening. Just what sort of meaning do their expressions have….

Illuminated by the Morning Sun

In the opening cinematic, it finishes off with the forms of the three girls gazing at the morning sun from atop a cliff. It is a situation where the scene closely resembles that one scene from the cinematic of the very first opening theme of “Inuyasha”, “CHANGE THE WORLD”.

[riskeith]

HIIII hope you have been well my dearest last airbender hehe. i have so much exciting things to share <333

so first off, i did two wish rolls the other night and guess what? on one roll i got BOTH bennett AND qiqi!!!!!! (the other one was just weapons but 🤷🏽‍♀️) i love them both so much i literally ascended them the second i got them. i still can’t believe my luck. so now my team looks like: traveller, noelle and those two. i’m having a little issue bc i don’t have a long range combat character but i love them all too much to change anything. which means i struggle sometimes maybe if i roll for someone else in the future i might change but rn i’m LOVING them. have you ever had luck like that?

AND i started watching haikyuu again and i forgot how funny it is. i usually don’t laugh out loud while watching things but i was literally chuckling while watching some moments. i’ve only watched 10 eps-ish but i fell in love with it again at the first ep already. i cant believe i dropped it before i’m so stupid.

ok that’s all the updates i had hahaha ! i was like buzzing waiting to tell you lmaidhdhdbd 🥺

oikawa is SO pretty it’s insane. when he showed up i was like yeah.... that’s him. that’s the pretty boy. but then again pretty much everyone is pretty in haikyuu who the hell are we supposed to focus on hehdhd the art style is just that good yk?

ships that have silent (+ points for angry) yearning are just superior. and usually they fall in the enemies/rivals category which is lovely. nothing is finer than watching people struggle with their feelings like mmmmmm... tasty. also as good as rareships can be, popular ships are popular for a reason yk? like canon content isn’t everything ofc but if canon can back it up in some way more people tend to be interested heh

wanna know something super weird? when i consume content i always fall for the stotic bois with angst backstories first but after i finish the shows i always miss the cute happy babies and that makes me obsessed with them? idk it’s crazy like voltron for example keith is literally my favorite character of all time but when i finished voltron i was literally bawling bc i missed lance so much help

well i guess we’re talking about voltron now HAHA 😭 dude s3 was a fucking blessing i can’t believe we got that and they just cut it off cold. the leader and his right hand man dynamic makes me yell to this day 😭😭😭 remember all the scenes where they continuesly reassured each other 😭 the ‘leave the math to pudge’ scene lives in my head rent free no joke dhdnhdbdud... s3 was just them loving each other tenderly and dw stole it from us.. ALSO PLEASE WRITE THEM AGAIN LITERALLY BEGGING 😭 pls 🥺

dude our government doesn’t give a shit we literally have politics traveling around and chilling without masks. they don’t care at all we barely have any restrictions so people don’t care either. it’s a mess here ngl.. :/

can’t wait to hear from u again... mwah!

hi hi!!!! is this gonna end up being 2 replies in one day for you again HAHAHA i’ll try not to disappear after

!!!!!!!!!! QIQI AND BENNETT??!!?!!!!!!!! oh my goodness… oh my goodness!!! i can’t believe you got a 5 star before me fjskskkdd but big deserve 😭😭😭😩😩😩 i’m so happy for you nejdnskamxlxmm holy shit!!!!! that’s so cute tho that’s such a cute team… and big mood!! who cares about team dynamics/fighting styles all that matters is that you like them 😩 but also does that mean you currently have 3 sword users and 1 claymore on your team jdjsndnsm. i also used to not have a ranged fighter on my team but it just got so inconvenient lolol. and no my luck is actual ass :( so often i only roll weapons, and when i do roll charas it’s like. all the base free ones djdkskdk

haikyuu is SO funny!!! everyone’s humour is so >>>> omg they’re just silly boys… are you restarting it from the very first ep? and it’s all good if you dropped it before bc you’re coming back to it now and that’s what matters 😩 keep me updated tho! i’m so excited to hear what you think

HFJDNSKSN sorry i went mia and made you wait chksjs WHICH REMINDS ME!! omg i’ve been meaning to tell you and keep forgetting but i downloaded genshin on my phone last week for my trip and it’s so??? difficult? like mad mad respect to you for being able to play on mobile omg… maybe it’s just bc i was used to pc already but damn.. djsjjs

HAHA yeah just admiring the visuals instead of focusing on the story.. we’ve all been there 😩 sometimes you just gotta rewind and take 48394993 screenshots of the one scene you know? who let them be so gorgeous..

yesssss the mutual oblivious pining is so good.. like they’re enemies to lovers but they’re also IDIOTS to lovers… or my fave headcanon which hurts so bad… the one person (keith) pining for their rival (lance) but it’s unrequited and they’ve just accepted that and are kinda resigned to it but. they just want them to be happy above all else :’) :’(

and honestly you are so right like if the popular ship are foils and have all these parallels between them and a deep backstory and stuff that’s so good too there’s so much food AHAH

omg that’s kinda cute tho.. like once you’re done you enter the honeymoon phase w bubbly outgoing charas.. (speaking of honeymoons when’s ours 🤪) speaking of lance he deserved everything lmao.. he deserves everything PRESENT TENSE!!! wow we are really talking about vld in 2021 huh

LEAVE THE MATH TO PIDGE!!! I AM SCREAMING JUST THIBKING ABLIT THIS TOO!! WHAT THE FUCK DOCYOUCMEAN KEITH. WHY DIDNYOUCSAY IT WITH THAT SMILE. LANCE WHY DIDNYOU SMILE LIKE THAT IN RETURN. LEAVE THE MATH TO- KEITH EXPLAIN??? WHA WERE YOU WDOIDJGNDKDNSKFKDKFNDNNCMS the way that lance went from ‘despising’ keith and hating being beaten by him in everything to SEEKING OUT HIS ADVICE AND COMFORT???? IF THAT ISNT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS like their relationship progressed so so so so so so so so SO much in that one single season… like. i cannot BELIEVE that was real???? no fucking way. like. we were literally so close.. SO FUCKING CLOSE!!!!!!!! my god the trust they had in each other..… LANCE SEEKING KEITH OUT!!! lance accepting keith as the leader before even keith accepted himself EVEN WHEN LANCE HIMSELF SO DESPARATELY WANTED TO BE THE BLACK PALADIN bUT RECOGNISING IT WASNT WHAT THE BLACK LION WANTED AND i have to stop or else i’ll literally never stop typing chskdkdkndcuksncjxjskcoskosnaksj

hhhhhhh i wanna write them sometimes i get hit with the feels SO SO BAD (like just then? LOL) but i haven’t properly written them in so long i feel like i don’t even know how to anymore D; but anyway do you have any prompts? i have so many wips (i have one fic that i said was gonna be my Final klance fic but lmao i’m never gonna finish it at this stage so i guess i’m also not done writing klance? lmao) but after a while i just. have no desire to go back to them anymore fjdjjx so something new might spark my motivation! but also no promises sorry i always say i’ll do shit but never do JEKSKS altho i will try!! i’ll try bust out at least a drabble even if it ends up as an unfinished wip as well lol 😩

oh fucking rip that’s so horrible i’m so sorry you have to deal with that :((( legit it’s so upsetting to see so many governments just. complacent and not caring about this issue at all like?? this is your job? you’re literally meant to be doing all these things to help us right now and you’re just not. which i guess unfortunately also makes sense bc they’re the ones who would suffer least. it’s so frustrating lmaoooo >:(

:***** i’ve stayed up again bc i am Not intelligent fjskdk but i’m looking forward to your response!! goodnight and sweet dreamssss (for when you next sleep LOL) 💗😘

[yurireview]

Whiterose Masterpost

Hello dear followers, here is a new review of RWBY and I must say that I am going to make this new review based on a small debate that is forming online after this season.

First of all I really like the Bumbleby but I am very objective in the subject, they will be aware that the BB is about to be canon or probably already is and this was confirmed by Kerry in the last RWBY Review.

But what about Whiterose?

Lately I was reading that the Bumbleby was planned "from the beginning"  But what about Whiterose?

Do you remember Monty video about LGBT characters and relationships?

Look, he did not refer to characters like Ilia, Terra etc. Do you know why? because those LGBT characters that were established did not have "development" they were simply there ... because the LGBT characters that Monty referred to were from the main caracther someone they were going to develop and their response reveals a lot:

"Sure, the best part of that ... is that maybe they are already there, because they are children (Lol what Ozpin said) ... they are on a way to try to help themselves discover themselves, not even we have to make the decision quickly because as we write these characters we learn from them, so they discover it is very real for us, there are many cast members who say that these couples would be great ... but we can not push it, but it has to be won and that's the best way to do it, we try to see more of his gender ".

Basically in those moments the Staff and Monty of all the things that they planned were debating. What would the "LGBT Couple developed" be? (Whiterose or Bumbleby) because it is obvious that this does not refer to the "secondary" since those are not developed yet, while the other principals Jaune was already hooked with Pyrrha, Ren and Nora either (so there is no debate in which he refers to the protagonists)

Although seeing everything rwby apparently they are developing both ship

Weiss x Ruby and Yang x Blake

If I'm honest, I think they both had signs although it's impossible not to see how in the first 3 volumes the Whiterose surpassed the Bumbleby.

Why do I affirm this? the reason is that in the first volume the approach that the Whiterose received is too much compared to the Bumbleby.

In fact the greatest dynamics of the first volume was Arkos and Whiterose

The meeting of Weiss and Ruby was much more important than the Bumbleby and that is a fact

The dynamics of them were so funny because they were so opposite, but it is obvious that Monty liked to address every aspect of his dynamics.

The phase of accepting as partners was great

is the classic dynamic of silly-adorable girl with noble girl-tsundere

As I said before in this volume the Bumbleby was not even focused on any measure.

But instead the Whiterose already presented us with a new stage (the leadership) the fact that Weiss did not accept Ruby as a leader is quite important... because when the conflict is resolved gives Ruby a unique confidence and development as a protagonist

I think the next scene is one of the most tender and emotional ... The first thing we see is that Weiss is surprised to see Ruby asleep from studying so much

It's great how they approach all kinds of dynamics and if there is a problem it is solved in a brilliant way ... Ruby's smile towards Weiss is undoubtedly one of the sweetest and at the same time the kindness of Weiss stands out a lot.Ruby's smile when Weiss says something about her pass is a very nice detail

As they saw their team dynamics was developed and they have many funny moments and the one that stands out the most

Vol 2

Even at the beginning of Vol 2 in the middle of jokes always Monty put the Whiterose ... in fact that scene inspired a famous gag of the manga, I must say that it is logical (it is almost a Japanese cliche yuri)

Again in the food fight instead of pointing out the Bumbleby, the Whiterose sticks out, what makes me laugh is that Ruby treats Weiss in a more "special" way

again there is almost no focus on the Bumbleby, instead the Whiterose:

The difference between the rival ship of WhiteRose and Bumbleby

For example, the scene in chapter 3 where the girls have their infiltration plan but the handsome boys appear.

Ruby automatically joins Sun-Blake and Neptune-Yang ... but Neptune is flirting with Weiss and she wants to go with him, the funny thing is that Ruby does understand but her reaction was "Fuck you come with me"

His tsundere attitude is always nice, even when she is upset with Ruby because of what happened with Neptune ... she was disappointed that Ruby left her because of Penny.

I love that narrative of how she would have preferred Ruby to be there

something that makes me laugh at that scene, is that Yang does not say anything about Blake and Sun that contrasts with the other dynamic ... to be something "Planned from the beginning" this was weird

Did you see the difference? Is very evident

In fact part of the function of Neptune was that Jaune stopped trying to conquer Weiss, that's why Neptune personality never really changed and it was not going to be anything important for Weiss

Even when Neptune returned to the party with Weiss because of something that Jaune told him, this did not help them to develop them or anything, in fact they do not do anything.

they did not even bother to focus it

Again many elements that the Bumbleby owns appeared with the Whiterose such as the "Secret Language"

To summarize things at the end of the Vol there are scenes where you could say that all the "pairs" of the series are together and it is obvious that the Whiterose is included

It was a great volume for the Whiterose as always

Vol 3

Whiterose chapter 1-4

I must say that the vol 3 is one where there are very few moments of "ship" whatever your ship ... but I think the Whiterose highlighted on the others (even though the Bumbleby was planned from the "Start")

I love that Ruby always wants to be aware of how Weiss perceives her and the writers do a good job in that.

As mentioned before the Whiterose really did not have "rival ship" because as seen in chapter 2 of Vol 3 instead of even joining them so that the audience says "hey there is a possibility" they show us that they will not be together.

It even contrasts with Sun and his friendly flirting with Blake

Even before the chapter ends, the writers make Ruby stay close to Weiss as an advancement that both will see the "mentor" of Weiss.

It is an irony that a chapter after the ship of Weiss and Neptune failed, the Whiterose took a very big step to make Ruby meet the only family to whom Weiss has great appreciation and respect

I always laugh at this scene, the way it is written is phenomenal: Weiss presents Ruby, that Winter says "you took interest in my sister" is an interesting selection of words ... besides that the attitude of Ruby all uncomfortable is parallel to that of Sun when he is with Blake parents

The fact that the role models of our girls fight in that scene says a lot

Chapter 5 was about an interaction between Penny and Ruby that is basically an advance of the future misfortune, in addition to the team fight of Yang and Weiss

Chapter 6 was about Phyrra decision and Yang duel against Mercury

Chapter 7 was a Flashback to understand the situation

Chapter 8: After 8 chapters recently, they give us a little Bumbleby moment, but even so it was a group thing, although if it counts, the other part was occupied by Pyrrha and Ruby, each one following their story separately.

Chapter 9: Cornered Ruby, Cinder plan and Penny death, Grimm attack in addition to Roman release

Chapter 10: Battle of the hunters against the Grimm, Ruby goes to meet Roman and the meeting of Blake against Adam

Chapter 11: Battle of the hunters against the Grimm, Clash of Ruby against Roman and Neo, death of Roman, then the Adam-Blake-Yang moment (Bumbleby's biggest moment so far) ... Cinder gets the powers of one of the Maiden.

Chapter 12

What can I say about this chapter? Apart from the obvious, the Whiterose interaction is very good

It's always funny to see how Weiss dedicates that little smile to Ruby is something exclusive of both

It's funny how in that chapter in the middle of the chaos of the battle the "couples" stand out, although I think the most obvious is that at that moment Ruby and Weiss made a parallel opposite to Jaune and Pyrrha

As you saw here the Whiterose was a pretty complete ship and was really following a slow development, I mean compare it with the Bumbleby:

-It was not just a ship that had more development -It has the same number of important moments -It had 3 times more time on screen

Whiterose crisis (Vol 4 and 5)

After the great development of Ruby and Weiss in the first 3 volumes, what could go wrong?

Monty unfortunately died and his friends continued with his legacy ... but it is not the same, something that many began to notice was that Ruby lost a lot of prominence and of course they squandered the opportunity to develop it in parallel with Jaune

This being honest is a volume that I like very much except for the development that Ruby was given ... in general Ruby in the first chapter was more joking with Team RJNR and that's fine but the moments in which it should be used in develop Ruby as a character were wasted

In chapter 2 of that Vol, do you remember the scene where Ruby looks at Jaune sad about Phyrra? That was a great moment for Jaune as a character, but it could also have been for Ruby ... but nothing was done and it was left to the air.

Literally the most I saw of "Development" is when I attack Tyrion aggressively to save his uncle ... but it was a short scene.

One of the biggest complaints of that Volume was that Jaune stole everything that should be the development of Ruby questioning, the grief and basically the elements of the protagonist ... in addition to his connection with Weiss that is quite focused on the previous ones volumes

the last scene where Ruby character could have been given more depth before focusing on Ruby made Jaune give him a 1 minute speech and then the whole end of the season to be focused on Ren and Nora ... basically Ruby's development It was a total crap .., in fact Jaune had to say this is so stupid.

Weiss in Volume 4

As with Ruby, weakening the great dynamics between Ruby and Weiss made the Weiss saga a bit lower than it would have been ... do not get me wrong, its part in the volume is very good but it could have been exceptional, in that Weiss volume has 24 minutes of screen

Something I noticed in Vol 4 is that even if Weiss was very dissatisfied with his situation, there is really no scene where she misses his teammates or anything like that..(although he left it understandable in a scene I think it was better to execute it in a better way)

Chapters where Weiss appears -Episode 2 -Chapter 6 -Chapter 7 -Chapter 9 -Chapter 11

The only thing that we can appreciate of this arch was the idiots that are the rich, the crisis of Atlas touched by General Ironwood, the rules of Weiss father and his general discontent since she does not want to be like his father ... but in if it was a regular arc and what I highlight is that he learned to invoke ... although the consequences of the writing of Kerry and Miles affected Weiss in Volume 5.

Vol 5 (Weiss the Bumbleby Shipper)

I think it's no surprise to anyone that the Staff had a taste for Bumbleby in fact in Vol 4 they put quite subtextual scenes between them even though they were separated ... but they forgot the Whiterose a lot and this is reflected in this volume (which as you know it was the worst of all)

Ruby narrative at the beginning of the volume literally does not exist...I mean, she is there with her friends and everything. But does something relevant happen? Does she question something? She have any development? unfortunately she does not have it ... The only thing she did was to become friends with Oscar and even if that is not possible, it could be considered a "protagonist" action since in the end everyone did it

One of the things that really bothered me in this Volume is that they decided to have Weiss approach Yang so she can be a builder of the Bumbleby plot. What do I mean?

When Weiss is captured (for no reason) because she should be with Yang and then have more confidence in having the "talk" with her.

I remember the scene where they both embrace and I said "what a nice scene" but then I said to myself, really? ... if some in the fandom keep saying

"But Yang does not have many scenes with Blake in the first 3 Volumes" which part this is true ... but now ask

How many had with Weiss? The truth is that their interactions were very vague. In fact, Weiss interacted more with Blake because of the White Fang incident, the only time they had a long interaction was in a Vol 3 combat but more of that I did not understand because they decided to make that scene between those two.

but is fine

What bothers me about that scene is that when Weiss meets Ruby, instead of making a more intimate scene between the two of them it was something group and again that's not bad ... but:

Why did Miles and Kerry prefer to make a lonely scene of Yang and Weiss? he is too stupid as if Pyrrha revived but Kerry and Miles put a very significant scene with Ren ... but when she meets Jaune (There is only a group hug)

Makes sense? Obviously not ... but I'm going to say the reason why this narrative bothers me a lot.

While Ruby is still relegated in this volume, our beloved Weiss with no apparent reason was much closer to Yang, while relegating his interactions with Ruby many say "What is the problem" well this is simple.

Not only this is the reason why Ruby lost a lot of prominence in this Vol in particular ... but the reason for bringing Weiss and Yang closer was only for it to drive the Bumbleby and it is like ignoring past volumes

In this scene basically Yang is doing his drama for Blake of how he "needs her, who was there for her and blah blah blah" that parallels Ilia ... well it's good writing if you want to push the Bumbleby ... now that I think it even when I love the Bumbleby the only thing that irritates me that thanks to this we lost good interactions between Ruby and Weiss ... that for some reason they refused to offer us, I mean after the Phyrra did neither of them have a talk? although the damage was already done from Vol 4

In that scene Weiss shares something very intimate with Yang, but as I said it's a bit empty that the writers decide to do this with the two of them ... it's as if Jaune did this with Nora (something fucking weird and the worst thing is that it would be for boost another ship) ... literally the narrative relegated Ruby too much.

Continuing the narrative of Weiss and Ruby, we can appreciate how in the conflict against Cinder not only is not something of great impact on Weiss and Ruby but it is decided to make one of the most stupid scenes of all RWBY (Make Jaune the protagonist) ... make a drama between Cinder-Jaune-Weiss where the narrative focused on Jaune's emotions when Weiss is wounded.

Where was Ruby? pulled out of the plot when they were about to kill Weiss.

The importance that they gave to the interactions between Weiss and Yang was very strange if not forced, those of giving focus to those of Jaune with Weiss were much rarer and literally the dynamics of these is the least developed of all. But do you know what is the worst?

That Yang does not do so much "drama" for what happened with Weiss I'm not saying that she does not "worry" but really did almost nothing with that dynamic...Vol 5 is supposed to have made them "closer"

Why not keep focusing on them? ... Because obviously give more prominence to Jaune and of course since Weiss was not going to boost the ship of Yang and Blake ...why give them more scenes with Yang?

Weiss is one of my favorite characters and I mean it but in this volume it was crap.

The worst climax of Vol 5 is that literally Weiss neither thanks Jaune nor has any "link" with him after that, not even a small gratitude scene (I made a meme of that) ... but going back to matter, Blake comes back and that just happens

(Weiss remembers that Ruby exists) For what reason? because it is no longer necessary to boost the Bumbleby xDD ... I mean it's hilarious how Miles and Kerry destroyed what could have been a big volume for these two but obviously it was the turn of the Bumbleby ... shit like I hate what they did in this volume, even when I'm happy for the BB (it should be done differently)

the looks that Weiss gives Ruby are the most loving in all rwby (a pity we had to wait too long for this)

The way in which Weiss looks at Ruby in that scene is the same as that of Yang to Blake and that can not be denied

Weiss and Ruby in Volume 6 (The rebirth of Whiterose)

Do you know one of the main reasons why this Volume was great?

If you can not guess, I'll tell you that the Whiterose came back stronger than ever, even though the Staff was going to focus the Bumbleby ... the Whiterose narrative was not going to be affected.

The scene of both in the opening is so cute (besides that it is literally a cliche yuri) I love that the opening also shows us that Weiss is the closest person to Ruby and his greatest support

Many focus on the teamwork of Yang and Blake but I think the most remarkable thing was the dynamic of Ruby and Weiss was simply a genius.

All this in the first minutes (as a bonus)

I loved the scene in which Weiss dedicates that smile that only has reserved for Ruby ... a pity that those hunters interrupted the moment

Besides, I want to remind you that again the Staff brought Neptune who was still the same idiot as always, besides the fact that they do not bother to spend a moment between him and Weiss.

Many talk about the Bumbleby moments of chapter 5 ... but I think the Whiterose moments are just as good.

Weiss feels tired, sad and wants the company of Ruby and our foolish protagonist does not even notice it, it's just cute

I like the fact that while the Bumbleby there is a lot of "drama" the Whiterose is developing without needing that focusing as both complement each other

I like how Narrative makes Weiss the first person to appear after they tell Ruby to think about the people who love her

this also happened in previous chapters, in the same scene where Yang focuses on Blake and Blake focuses on Yang ... Ruby first thinks of Weiss and Weiss only focuses on Ruby (a great parallel)

Again in chapter 8 Weiss is full of insecurity and Ruby is there to give her support ... Weiss dedicates that little smile again, to be interrupted by Qrow

Vol 6 chapter 11-13

What can I say about this? I just loved it, there were Renora moments, team work ... but the scenes of Weiss and Ruby stood out

The scene where Ruby almost claims that she just wanted Weiss to be by his side in the battle was great

more scenes of dynamics together

Although the most significant scene was in which Ruby almost died and Weiss rescues her.

The expressions of the "ice queen" are great, her fear that something happens to Ruby is tender and even more so if we consider that she still does not let go of his hand ... Ruby makes a joke to relieve attention to the once showing his absolute confidence in Weiss with "I knew you would"

Ruby expression at Weiss discomfort is very funny but I liked the fact that Weiss is still angry about Ruby imprudent actions.

It's almost a couple fight

Although the thing does not end there, the next scene next Ruby is together with Weiss separated...but for some reason the Staff decided that both are clinging in a tender way in the middle of the fight when it was not necessary.

It is obvious that they were put together and I must say that I love it (besides that it is more suspicious when this chapter stood out the ship of the series)

I saw some post about how in the memories of Ruby the Bumbleby focused, it is debatable ... but really the same thing was done with the Whiterose

The memory of Weiss and Ruby from Vol 1 was one of the most beautiful and coming back to the scene is really quite significant

The Vol 6 can be considered correctly the saga "Bumbleby" for all the necessary development between Yang and Blake ... but this Vol also had a lot of Whiterose but in preparation for the Weiss arc that directly involved Ruby ... it was a great volume for the Whiterose

Bonus

Something that I always noticed that the Bumbleby had a lot of external support from the Staff ... but in the additional material the support was regular. How does the Whiterose compare?

The Whiterose is the third most popular ship and still has a great focus on all the Anthalogias and in fact the element "yuri" is stronger than with the Bumbleby in these adaptations

Many talk about the flirtation that Yang does to Blake ... but it does not compare to the flirting that Ruby does to Weiss in these sleeves

It's not to say anything, but the Japanese understand the yuri signals of this ship

RWBY official manga

If this is not enough, I think you should see the adaptation to RWBY manga in the Shonen Jump.

The focus of that manga is directly on the Whiterose even though Bumbleby and Arkos give more obvious signals ... but the Whiterose stands out above all of them

also it should be noted that Monty liked Whiterose a lot, I still remember his art of both and clearly retweeted several fan art from this ship

Conlusion

It is evident that the Whiterose was established as "End game" as well as the Bumbleby in fact a little more, so Whiterose companions do not get discouraged because the Bumbleby is canon, since when opening that door ... it leaves a world of possibilities and thanks to the Vol 6 that left many things to develop between Ruby and Weiss as the Vol 5 left many things pending for the Bumbleby.

That said, I'll finish the review with something obvious to everyone "Whiterose best ship"

[skaylanphear]

I didn't realize you were so critical of Voltron's writing. Is there anything you think the writers did really well?

Not… really? 

The one episode that sticks out to me as having been well-written was an episode in season 3–the one where Keith is leading them into that planet and all their tech gets screwed to hell. It works on a lot of levels because it introduces Lotor as a scary villain, establishes Allura as inexperienced while giving her the chance to learn, and shows Keith learning a lesson while Lance gets to stretch his legs as an actual competent member of the team. What I loved about it though was the lesson Keith learned onscreen and how he learned it–we got to see actual development as well as him opening up to another member of the team other than Shiro. It’s one of the best episodes in the series and really goes to show what Voltron could have been if the writers actually knew what they were doing. I assume, at this point, that the episode was merely a happy accident. 

Now that isn’t to say Voltron doesn’t have memorable moments for other reasons–the scene where Keith and Shiro fight was wonderfully animated and probably the most beautiful looking scene in the whole series, but that doesn’t mean how we got there was as good by comparison. 

One of Voltron’s biggest problems (among other glaring issues) is that it relies heavily on concepts, but pretty much fails to expand those concepts into actual narrative development. We’re told via Hunk’s one episode in the Galra empire that he’s become quite the diplomat, but we never see that in action or see him struggling with that arc at any other point in the series. We’re told Lance has become a great member of the team by seeing his sword form during training, but we rarely get to see those skills in action. And yeah, Lance takes up giving commands when Keith and Shiro are busy, but it’s never highlighted. He’s never given his moment to truly prove himself to the audience. Which makes it all little different than telling the audience that development is happening offscreen, which you should NEVER do. Which brings me to Keith. Not only was Keith’s path through “development” poorly concocted, but we didn’t even get to see it. Why was he such a great leader after having spent time with his mother? What did that do for him? Fans can speculate all they want, but at the end of the day, Keith is one character when he left and another when he comes back, and WE DIDN’T SEE IT HAPPEN! 

This leaves me with one of two conclusions: Either the writers were too lazy to put any effort into telling a proper character arc OR they simply don’t know how. And seeing how poorly every other character in the series is handled, I’d bet on the latter. The Voltron writers don’t know how to do their jobs on the most basic level. Even Shiro, the second-shining child of the series after Keith, doesn’t get any development. He’s got PTSD, sure, but he’s literally the exact same character he was in the beginning as he is now, much like the rest the cast. What would have made Shiro’s character really great would maybe be some regret on his end, or some self-doubt following his PTSD issues, or maybe a loss of confidence he had to overcome or literally ANYTHING! Instead he’s relegated to a plot device. 

Which brings me to another glaring issues with Voltron alongside the character development–they’re taking what should be a character-driven narrative and pretending it’s a plot-driven narrative. 

You want to know why Voltron was so promising from the start? Because it had a perfect premise for character building. It was like Avatar the Last Airbender but in space. You had a big baddy in the distance that the characters had to work their own skills up to in order to face. It gave the characters time to explore both themselves and the world around them, while still retaining a goal that implemented a sense of urgency. Which is why the originally episodic storytelling of Voltron in the first season worked so well and why the series seemed so promising. Each episode had a different character or couple of characters that had a problem they needed to overcome before the resolution of the episode, or a couple of episode as they sometimes did them in twos. This is a good format for storytelling with a big cast because it gives each character the turn they deserve, while still giving time for things like comedic relief and problem solving/conversations between characters, which is the FOOD of character development. Being able to have two character sit down and simply chat is the main course of character development and interpersonal relationships, hence Shiro and Pidge’s relationship was so precious in the first season, and why people latched onto Keith and Lance so hard, because they were constantly snarking at one another. 

The problem comes with season 3, where the writers tried to change Voltron from an episodic format into a serial format while trying to retain the same tone. Serial storytelling has an overarching pot that the characters work toward the whole season–like all of a season is a single episode. Yes, Voltron already had an overarching plot, but it was secondary to the character story-telling. That was, until season three, when the writers decided that they wanted the story to be “epic all the time” instead of sticking to what was originally good. 

Avatar the Last Airbender isn’t good because it’s epic all the time. It’s good because it’s well-balanced. Because the characters got the time to build themselves up so that when those epic moments finally happened, the audience actually cared. Voltron decided that they wanted to be edgy and took all of that away from us to make the show serial and focus more entirely on the end plot instead of each individual character’s struggles. They tried to retain a bit of this, but in contrast with the more serial episodes, it feels like whiplash. This is why season 3′s tone is so vastly different from season 1 and 2, and why so many people were so shocked. And why it feels so fast. 

But the problem is that the writers clearly want to write an episodic show, they just don’t realize they do, which is why we’re getting TOLD character development instead of shown in favor of over the top battles and other “intense” mumbo jumbo that falls flat when anyone takes a moment to sit and think about what they’re watching. 

This is why I got so infuriated when all those new characters were introduced in season 7–we don’t even know the characters we got originally and now I’m expected to care about these new ones? No, absolutely not. And this is also why I get angry every time we get a “filler” episode. Avatar had filler episodes, but Avatar was also episodic and used that filler to develop the characters, with the exception of Tales of Ba Sing Se, which was amazingly done for other reasons entirely. 

Voltron made itself serial, which means we don’t have time for filler. It’s jarring and takes the viewer out of the experience. I don’t care about a stupid gameshow episode because the writers have made it overly clear that the situation is dire and serious and now I feel like I’ve been slapped. Especially when that filler does nothing for the characters. It’s a waste when they could have been using the time for something more worthwhile. Instead, they just wanted a Q episode, or a D&D episode, as if their storytelling had been good enough prior to earn them that wasted time. 

Which brings me to yet another glaring issue that Voltron has–pacing. Not only did the change in storytelling alter the pacing in a way that was jarring for everyone, but they can’t keep up with the pace they decided to set, nor do they know how to keep tension going in the story so as to take advantage of that faster pace they forced on themsleves. Pidge, Lotor, and Zarkon are prime examples of characters whose arcs were slaughtered by this incompetence. Why was Pidge’s search for her brother concluded at the beginning of a season in a standalone episode that is so far outside the serialized plot? Well I can tell you why–because they didn’t know how to integrate it properly with the rest of the story. Which is why it feels like filler. Like fan service. Why it’s so out of the blue. Why is Zarkon’s death so lackluster? Because we’d been told that Zarkon was the big baddy the whole time and then they ended his reign in the middle of a season. Not only do we see Zarkon suddenly in the daylight outside his scary space darkness, but his entrance is lame and lacking impact. And then Lotor, a newer character by contrast, is the one to take him out. Suddenly, the show is without the big baddy that had been pushing it from the beginning, which is glaringly obvious in how disorganized the plot becomes after his death and Lotor’s subsequent defeat. Sorry, but by default of the role she had previously, Haggar is not as scary as Zarkon was, nor is Sendak. It’s like we’re supposed to now watch Voltron clean up the leftovers instead of fight a war, which is fucking stupid. And don’t even get me started on Lotor’s arc. They wanted to make him seem like Zuko and then pull an Azula? Well, sorry hons, but your storytelling capabilities aren’t strong enough to accomplish either. 

Lotor was not made sympathetic or psychotic enough to pull off either act, which just makes him fall rather flat. The most interesting thing about him was his relationship with Allura, which was only interesting because we hadn’t gotten any romance yet in the show so everyone was super paying attention to how it’d unfold. 

This pacing issue is continuous from season 3 onward. The story regularly takes detours it shouldn’t and focuses on things we don’t care about and interjects important plot-points at the wrong time while completely leaving out others. Like Haggar coming back in season 7. If we’d actually seen a bit of what she was up to, the addition of the last robot to the final fight might have been a little less stupid, but we didn’t see that, so it’s still just regular stupid. 

So the characters in Voltron suck, the plot sucks, and the pacing sucks. The only thing that’s saving Voltron is the fact that it looks nice and that the fandom is happy to take concepts and run with them in fan works. There’s a reason the fandom is so happy to explain away everything in the series, because expanding the series for themselves is the only option they have. Voltron itself doesn’t do it on but rare occasions, and if the fan creators didn’t give the characters depth, no one would. Every piece of “character” we get in Voltron is a concept, not actual storytelling. They set up what could be something amazing and then dash it at the last moment by completely ruining everything. People say Voltron never ceases to surprise them, but this isn’t because they’re great storytellers, it’s because of the exact opposite. Voltron rarely follows through with minor plot points set up previously, instead settling to just tell you about them later in favor of laser battles. Lance is insecure? Just give him a sword, he’s fine. Hunk has no development? Give him a short, five minute moment about his family–a family he talked about one other time and a plot point that should have rightfully gone to Lance. Pidge’s “arc” is over? Just have her say a whole bunch of nonsense in the next scene. Need someone to do something cool? Better get Keith since that’s all he’s good for anymore due to his character being so inconsistent. Need some of that quality angst? Throw in Shiro too, because god forbid Keith relate to any of the other characters on a personal level and actually break out of the isolated existence that caused all his character problems in the first place. Oh, and don’t forget Allura, whose overpowered abilities have become such an expected norm and so unexplainable at this point that she’s nothing more than a bore-fest to watch. 

Voltron had everything going for it–it could have been great, on par with Avatar the Last Airbender by sheer default of how the original premise was set up and how interesting the characters were to start with. And then the writers screwed it up because they didn’t know how to properly tell the story they’d set up in the first place. 

This is why people who don’t watch Voltron or who don’t see anything special about it don’t understand why it’s such a big deal (and why comparing it to Avatar the Last Airbender is such an insult). Why it’s plain toast in comparison to other, better shows. Because anyone who actually takes a step back and looks at the show with more thought than “oh I like this character because of what they could have been,” they’d realize just how badly concocted Voltron is. 

I know. I was once one of these people that had faith in the concepts that I eventually realized would never come to fruition. I was happy to ignore the faults in the show because I kept hoping it would get better. But then it never did and all that was left were the faults. 

Voltron is not a good show. Like, it’s just literally not well done. The visuals are nice, which is part of the reason it’s gotten so popular. But even if the art is nice, at the end of the day, the writing has been and always will be the heart and soul of any narrative, and if that’s a pile of trash, the entire show will end up that way. 

[digikate813]

My Top 5 Favorite Ponies from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

One thing that’s amazing about Friendship is Magic is just how many memorable characters there are. Not only were there six main ponies who each took turns having dedicated episodes, but each season brought with it new locations, new challenges, and yes, new characters. All diverse and most endearing. Which is why today I”m counting down my Top 5 favorite pony characters. And since ponies are what started all of this, we’re gonna stick with ponies. Although there are many great characters in Equestria and beyond who aren’t ponies that could easily make for a list of it’s own. But let’s start this off with…

#5 Derpy Hooves/Ditzy Doo

No I am not calling her Muffins. Nobody calls her Muffins besides Hasbro. But if that’s what it takes to keep this adorable wool eyed mare around, then so be it. As someone who came into the fandom right before Season 3, Derpy as a creative piece and what she represents to the fandom, fascinates me.

Of course what made Derpy special right from the start is how fans personified her. From a simple animation error, she developed a character that attracted people. And from what I can tell, as the first season continued, fans assigned her personality traits like they were an improv troop. Derpy is really excited about muffins? They must be her favorite food! She drops things out of a moving truck? Maybe it’s a delivery truck. Maybe she’s a mail mare! From becoming a companion to a time traveling stallion to being a single mom of a unicorn filly also in the background who looked a little like her. It was the first time (though certainly not the last, not even on this list) the brony fandom created such a rich and involved life for a character who was never meant to do more then fill in the background.

But then “The Last Roundup” controversy happened. And something about Derpy’s role in the fandom culture, changed. Suddenly Derpy was, a symbol. People related not to the people who complained that she was offensive, but how her presence on the show was censored and almost silenced. One of the most relatable things to a brony is being ostracized from the outside world for expressing yourself. As time went on, Derpy began to become a symbol of strength and self love. Heck my favorite song in the fandom and one of my favorite songs period, was inspired by a note left behind to the writer and performer at Bronycon saying “It’s Great to be Different. Love Derpy.”.

Derpy went from being a lovable joke, to an icon that represented the failures and triumphs of many members of the community, and those who chose to tell her stories. That even if you are different in some way, you can still live a full and loving life. And when “Slice of Life” came around, it felt like it was the true celebration of what Derpy was to all of us that she was meant to be back in The Last Roundup. But because there was more screen time now, they were able to show all of what makes Derpy so adorable and beloved.

From her many future appearances in the show itself, to the empowering and endearing fan made content surrounding the little gray pegasus that’s been produced since, Derpy is an amazing creation that is so wonderful to watch no matter what form she takes. And now for the complete opposite pony…..

#4 Twilight Sparkle

I generally consider MLP an ensemble show, since there are so many characters who get almost an equal amount of focus. However, there’s no denying that the show started with, and therefore mostly revolves around Twilight and her journey. Her friends and then their friends and family, as it expands into the massive cast we know and love. But that all started with a studious little unicorn.

There’s so much to like about Twilight. On the surface I always found her excitement for knowledge and study to be a great trait, especially to display to kids. Showing how excited people can be to learn and explore without being the “token nerd”. And of course her freak outs are legendary.

But what I appreciate about Twilight is her external and internal journey as a character. That despite being the studious one, she doesn’t know everything. That just because she’s really good at the skills she acquires, doesn’t mean she’s perfect all the time, or that she should be expected to be.

Twilight’s journey represents the path of the entire show. Learning different lessons on friendship and responsibility. That just because things happened in the past doesn’t mean you can’t evolve if someone’s willing to give you the chance. That just because someone is different and maybe a bit closed off, doesn’t mean it isn’t worth it to try and get to know them. That when you move up in the world and magically sprout a pair of wings, and it feels like you’ve achieved everything you thought you could, doesn’t mean you have.

There are always things to learn, ways to grow, mistakes to be made and friends to find. That lesson and advice can come from the most unlikely of places like Discord and Starlight.Twilight had a cray journey through the 9 seasons of Friendship is Magic, but the most important thing is that she never stopped learning. Even when she moved on to teaching.

Twilight represents how no matter what you think at the time, there’s no one path to life. One day you’re focused on being a princess’s best student, the next you’re a princess yourself. Or venturing out beyond the borders of your land. Or opening a school to all creatures so you can help them all. To eventually, ruling the land. And even after achieving that, there are still challenges.

A friend of mine once pointed out that Twilight’s journey is quite a bit similar to some of the reformed villains. Somepony who was isolated and alone and wanted nothing to do with friendship. Who thought she could do everything herself. Until five random ponies decided to march into a forest to lend a hand, and changed her life forever. Twilight represents that no matter how much you succeed or how much you fail, there’s always something to gain from it. And that nobody accomplishes greatness alone. TL:DR, Twilight embodies the magic of friendship. Which is pretty obvious I know but it’s still worth celebrating.

#3 Princess Luna

Luna Luna Luna. Everypony loves Luna. At least everypony in the fan base does, it took a while for the ponies in the show to warm up to her remember. So Luna makes this list above the main character who I just said embodies what the entire show is about because, thanks to Luna’s overwhelming popularity, it sparked my curiosity enough to watch the episode she featured in. My first episode of MLP was “Luna Eclipsed”. So yeah, Luna is partly responsible for getting me involved in all of this and why you’re reading this right now.

Some people think Luna is overrated or not worthy of all of this praise. And while I understand where these people are coming from, I can’t say I agree. The reasons to love Luna only got longer as the years went on, but I think the spark in the beginning was her story as Nightmare Moon. Can you imagine how easy it would have been to make Luna Celestia’s opposite in every way? Not just in their functions for the land? Relatives who are evil for the sake of evil are hardly rare in children’s media. Especially in the stuff marketed to girls.

But what set Luna apart is that they gave her motivation. An actual reason for why she wanted to plunge the world into eternal night. Because she wanted to be appreciated. And while Luna may not have, taken the best approach towards accomplishing that, who can’t relate to that?

And I’m always a huge fan of villain redemption stories personally, so as I watched “Luna Eclipsed”, and saw Luna fitting back in with the ponies was something I really liked. And after getting more involved with the series, it was really gratifying to see more of her as she slowly began to have a more prominent role in the show and progress more as a character.

Having her teach the CMC through their dreams was a great idea for a group of episodes, showing that Luna can use her past mistakes to teach other ponies to be better. Watching her still struggle with those feelings of guilt and regret from her actions as Nightmare Moon in the somewhat controversial, yet beloved to me and quite a few others, “Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?”. And much later, getting to finally see how she spends time with her very different, yet still loving sister.

The show may have had many villains see the error of their ways through the power of friendship and rainbow lasers, but Luna was the first, and to this day, most loved. She dominates the charts every time a “Best Princess” poll comes up because apart from Twilight, she’s the most interesting and developed.

There may have been times where they had to work backwards for development, but in the end Luna had an amazing presence throughout the series from Day 1, and in a way, may have been one of the keys to it’s first spark of appeal to older viewers. But who knows?

#2 Time Turner/Doctor Whooves

Well we’ve all got a favorite background pony. And as much as I love Derpy, this eccentric scientist remains my favorite. Like with Luna, part of the reason the fan named Doctor Whooves is one of my favorite ponies is because he got me more involved in the fandom. And just to clarify, no. I was not a Doctor Who fan before I was an MLP fan.

But there was just something about the bizarre combination of My Little Pony and Doctor Who that just peaked my curiosity. And thanks to the likes of the incredible audio dramas Doctor Whooves and Assistant and Doctor Whooves Adventures, I became even more interested in both MLP and Doctor Who, and dove full force into the fandom within a fandom that was the Doctor Whooves community. So many Doctors, so little time. And it was glorious!

Doctor Whooves is just one of those concepts that is so enjoyable to create stories and concepts around. Between the two worlds the possibilities are endless! And it was always fun and exciting to come across someone else’s version of this idea that’s, weird, but works. And I myself have celebrated my love for the time traveling stallion in all sorts of ways from animatics to reviews to traditional fan art.

And then, “Slice of Life” happened. While he wasn’t an actual time traveling thousand year old alien (not as far as we know anyway) I really loved how they characterized him in the show itself. His eccentric experiments, Peter New’s delightful rambly voice work, throwing in a couple of Doctor Who references that are blatant and subtle at the same time. It was so much fun to watch, and to see him again every now and then during the remainder of the series.

And to think all of that came from a random hour glass cutie mark and someone out there thinking his mane looked sort of like David Tennant’s hair. Have I mentioned how much this fandom’s imagination blows my mind???

#1 Fluttershy

Oh my dear sweet Fluttershy. One of the benefits to having six main ponies is that they can cover a broad spectrum of character types. Everyone develops a favorite among the group at some point, and while there are many different reasons for a character to be your favorite, 9 times out of 10 when someone is asked who their favorite is among the Mane Six, it’s usually because they can relate to them. That they see themselves in one of these pastels ponies personalities or goals or growth. That is what Fluttershy is to me.

I relate to Fluttershy, so much it scares me sometimes. Being really quiet around people I don’t know well. Getting nervous about things others might find ridiculous. Apologizing profusely for things. And most importantly, trying to be genuinely nice and understanding, even when it’s hard.

I understand both Fluttershy’s highs and lows. How she really tries to be stronger then her anxieties, that are tough for those who don’t have those issues to understand why she’s acting that way. How satisfying it is in those times when you can overcome your anxieties, and look a scary person or situation in the eye and face it. How the friends you make can make you more comfortable and open to new opportunities and experiences.

Despite her shy nature, Fluttershy is a tower of strength. And her development throughout the course of the series is the most satisfying to me. Going from not being able to talk to a new pony in town, to sincerely befriending the lord of chaos. From being kicked around by strangers in a marketplace, to being assertive with her own brother and helping him get his act together. From bending over backwards to not hurt other ponies feelings, to firing workers who weren’t respecting here wishes.

Probably the best thing about Fluttershy’s character development is that, it takes it’s time. But the progress she makes is clear. As she says in “Fame and Misfortune”, it took her a while to get there, but you don’t learn a lesson once and completely change who you are. Fluttershy represents the very subtle development we all make everyday if we try. It may not show too much the next day, but if we keep striving to be better and more outgoing, the results will speak for themselves over time.

I love absolutely everything about Fluttershy. Her design is adorable. Her voice work from Andrea Libman is perfect. Her work with animals and the kindness she spreads throughout the show is sweet and admirable, and she’s a beacon of hope for those who feel weak or suffer from anxieties. Who feel like they can never improve. Fluttershy shows that you can make improvements every day. It doesn’t mean you have to change overnight. And that the quietest pony, can turn out to be the strongest.

So those are my Top 5 Favorite Ponies, and be sure to let me know who some of your favorite ponies are. Not just your all time favorite, but some of the runner ups. There are many different reasons to love certain characters and that might not all apply to one of them. That’s the fun thing about this topic. With so many great characters and so many reasons to like some of them, everyone’s answer is unique and interesting. Just like the ponies themselves.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 10x01: Lines We Cross - First Thoughts

Today I’m going to talk about the big things that jumped out at me. Tomorrow, I’ll do Details, which will be longer and focus in on the nitty gritty symbolism. Throughout the week, I’m going to try and do posts on the structure of the episode (the headings throughout), the opening credits, and the radiation reference. Wish me luck in getting all these written. But let’s dive right in!

***As always, spoilers for TWD 10x01 abound below! Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned.***

Plot Recap:

 TF trains on the beach against walkers and shows off their mad skills. It’s obvious that in months since The Storm, they’ve realized the Whisperers are no longer in the area. The kids recover a skin mask, which makes everyone think the Whisperers might be back. Michonne leads a group to look for more signs of the Whisperers’ return, and she finds some. Daryl and Carol hang out together. Meanwhile, back at Alexandria, Eugene, Rosita, Father Gabriel, and Siddiq raise baby Coco with some mild hilarity. People still discriminate against Lydia for being a former Whisperer, but she and Negan seem to be forming an understanding because they’re both outcasts. 

Then a Russian satellite falls from the sky, causing a fire where it touches down. TF has to cross Alpha’s arbitrary border to put it out. They decide it’s something they have to do because the fire threatens their homes and food supplies. They work all night together to put out the fire and succeed. In the morning, Eugene wants to harvest parts of the satellite to use in the communities. Daryl takes Carol to where he and Alpha looked out over the walker herd and talked, before the heads on the pikes were discovered. It ends with Alpha herself emerging and looking at Carol, which means she knows they’ve crossed her borders.

Biggest TD Symbols:

In general, there were about a billion dog, ocean/sea, and bird references. I’ll mention a few today, but get into them more in tomorrow’s detail pos. But I felt like not a single minute went by when we didn’t get one of these references, either in things we saw or in dialogue. I had to keep pausing the episode because I had so many things to write down, and that honestly doesn’t happen to me often.

Today, I want to focus a few in particular, because these are the ones that jumped out at me in a big way. 

1. The first happened before the episode even began. You know how they always show text on the screen, even before the recap, that says, “This program contains violent content…parental discretion…yada yada?” That text has always been shown against a black or perhaps grey screen. Well, they suddenly decided to put it against a picture of a dog.

The shot I got of it isn’t great. It’s actually a dog looking at an orange lamp shade. It shows a lot of the lamp at first for like half a second and then the black outline covers it. It zooms out a little and we get a piece of the lamp again. I mean…why suddenly put a black and white dog there this season? (Sirius/return symbolism.) I’m telling you, this is our season.

2. The second is one that @frangipanilove pointed out. The scene that includes Daryl, Connie, and Dog. Connie brings Dog to Daryl and holds up a sign that says, “I think you lost something.” 

So, dog? Lost? Something Daryl lost that is being returned to him? That’s a super-obvious Sirius/Beth reference. And it involves Connie. Much like last season, she’s being set up as a Beth stand in. Not so much a direct proxy, but we’re seeing Beth callbacks and symbols around her. (Incidentally, I think that’s why tptb pushed the idea of Donnie so hard; they aren’t advocating for these two characters specifically, but rather it’s a clue (albeit very misdirectional) about who Connie represents.)

Let’s consider the scene setup.

Connie was already on the beach working on a net with some others (including Kelly). Then Daryl and Dog show up. Dog runs up to Connie because they’re pals. And Daryl waves at Connie but doesn’t come over. He goes up the beach to the dock where Carol’s boat is about to come in to meet her. Then a few minutes later, Connie walks onto the dock as well, bringing Dog with her and says the thing about him having lost something.

So, think about it this way. Daryl and Dog go their separate ways (just for a few minutes) and then Daryl LITERALLY goes up the road a bit, (as he said to Beth in Alone) and then Connie shows up and returns Dog to him. A very obvious Sirius reference if there ever was one. But I think it’s important that it’s Connie that brings Dog back.

If I were to try and interpret this sequence beyond just being an obvious Beth/Sirius reference, I would say Connie is going to have something to do with returning Beth to Daryl. I have a LOT more to say about how I think this is going to go down. I’ll talk about it later in the week when I do a predictions post based on what we’ve learned from this episode.

3. Luke and Jules’ hot dog conversation. At first, I didn’t know what to make of this, but they focused on it and it’s too random to not mean anything. @frangipanilove helped me figure it out. Obviously a hot dog is a different thing than a dog (Sirius/Dog Star symbolism) but even so, this is a dog reference. I thought the “hot” part might refer to fire (like Beth and Daryl burning down the moonshine shack). But @frangipanilove tells me that Sirius actually means “scorching” or “glowing.” So to call Sirius a “hot” dog star wouldn’t be incorrect.

But this is even better than just that. It takes place around a budding romance *coughs Bethyl* and even has an obvious romantic/sexual angle. So I figure, since Luke is the musician (think Stradivarius from last season) he probably represents Beth in this analogy. Which means Jules would be Daryl. She “found” a bunch of “hot” dogs at sea. See what I mean? To me this is an obvious Bethyl reference and it’s setting up that in this next arc, not only will Beth return to Daryl, but we’ll finally see their romance take place.

4. Callback to the Claimers. You know that part where Daryl and Carol were hunting walkers? Yeah, major callback to the Claimers. To Daryl and Lennie shooting the same rabbit with their two arrows. And then Daryl says to Carol, “You’re supposed to call it.” She says, “you didn’t call it.” And he says, “I don’t want to play with you anymore if you’re going to cheat.” They both laugh, but calling it is just like when the Claimers “claimed” things.

I’m honestly not sure exactly what to make of this yet. The last time we saw the Claimers wasn’t in S4 but in The Red Machete with Legs. So it’s definitely calling back to some things that make me happy, but I’m just not sure how to interpret it yet.

Other things:

I’m not sure entirely what’s up with the Russian satellite, but let me say for now that this is a VERY significant development. Again, I can’t be sure exactly what they’re setting up with this in the plot, but symbolically, it’s huge. I’ll talk about this later in the week in conjunction with the radiation reference. I’ll also talk about Ezekiel coughing and wheezing. I know there are lots of theories floating around about that, and I have a lot to say about it, but I’m saving it for the radiation post. Bear with me. (There’s SO much to talk about from this episode! Dah!)

We get a bunch of cool character references. One to Tara, several to Rick. Also Jesus and Eric. I really liked those.

Setups:

I always say that the premiere episode sets up what will happen throughout the season. But because we also have some changes to the opening credits, this is not only the beginning of a new season, but the beginning of new arc. So these may be setups for the season, or for a much larger arc. No way to tell for sure yet. 

1. The most obvious is the Whisper War. Alpha knows they crossed the border and that will probably be the kickoff of the official war.

2. Aaron is sick of being the “nice guy,” and Negan wants to lay low and avoid getting his hands dirty where the Whisperers are concerned. All those who think either of things will lead to a peaceful life, raise your hands.

In the CBs, Negan gets involved in the Whisper War in a big way, and while it will probably be different in show, I think that’s what they’re setting up here. I have a lot to say about Aaron, but for now, just revisit THIS POST where I talk about how he will probably be involved in Beth’s return as well.

3. Siddiq is having serious post-traumatic stress over the killings he witnessed in 9x15. That can’t be good. 

4. The stuff with Eugene, the satellite, and the radiation reference are all important and probably setting something up. Again, more detail on where I think it’s going to come, but just keep it in mind for now. They went out of their way to emphasize these things in the premiere, and that’s significant.

5. Daryl and Carol. Shipping wars aside, their conversations together probably had more TD symbolism and references than any other in the episode. For the most part, I found it to be very inline with what I said in THIS POST about them taking off together and how it follows the template from S5. More details to come on this as well, but the two of them finding Beth together (as they did in S5) would explain why they have all these references. I’ll illustrate more over the next few days. 

6. Coming Drought. We’ve been talking a lot about water scarcity that’s coming because of Fear. We saw references to it here because when they were trying to put out the fire, people were constantly saying, “I’m out of water.” That’s a dialogue foreshadow, y’all. And it’s in conjunction with the satellite and radiation references. So just keep it in mind.

7. Beth! The last is the best. Between Connie bringing Dog to Daryl and the Luke/Jules/Hotdog reference, I feel like this is setting up that Beth will return to Daryl sometime during this arc. New Opening credits show that we’ve entered a new arc. One in which Beth will return.  

Unfortunately, I can’t say for sure that it will happen this season. I’ll talk more about the structure of this episode and how it foreshadows what we’ll see during this arc in a day or two, but sometimes these arcs can last multiple seasons. So I’m not going to say that I think for sure she’ll return in S10 (though I certainly hope she will) but rather than it will be in this arc, which could possibly be several seasons long.

Shipping:

I’ll end by mentioning the Connie and Carol situations. Only because I know there’s a lot of meltdowns happening in various fandoms right now. Just know that there’s nothing to worry about. 

I know people have noticed the Kelly eyebrow raise. I did too, Obviously Kelly thinks there something going on there, but that doesn’t mean there is. At first, I thought maybe Connie’s reaction was one of embarrassment, which might show that Connie is crushing on Daryl. Even if that were the case, Daryl is much more focused on Carol than on Connie, so I think it’s safe to say he doesn’t return it.

But upon watching it again, I think Connie’s reaction to Kelly was more annoyance than embarrassment. Which suggests there isn’t anything there and she’s annoyed at Kelly for suggesting it.

Daryl is much more focused on Carol than Connie right now. Evidenced by the fact that he waved to her at the beach but didn’t bother to approach her. MUCH more focused on Carol. Which precludes a Donnie romance in my view.

But of course we also know Carol and Daryl are a mother/son relationship that will never be romantic. AK pretty much confirmed that a month or two ago in an interview where she said (and I paraphrase) “we know about the shippers, but even if it doesn’t go where they want it to, it’s still fun to have Daryl/Carol scenes in the show.” Yeah, really nothing to worry about there. So don’t.

Overall, I feel like the writers are pushing Connie and Carol equally as possible love interests. I already said this to my group, but my feeling is that they’re kind of saying, “Who will Daryl be with? Door #1: Carol? Or Door #2: Connie?” And it will actually be “hidden” door #3: Beth.

So I guess my point is that they’re teasing both so heavily, I don’t think either will happen. Yes, the shippers are gonna freak out. Nothing we can do about that. But that doesn’t mean they’re right.

Okay, I’m gonna stop there for today. More coming tomorrow. And a TON more coming over the next week. 😉

[pixie-mask]

So I was planning to make this post to just gush over how much I’ve fallen in love with Milo Murphy’s Law, but then I remembered that I’m not that good at writing coherent thoughts, so I apologize for this rambling mess if anyone reads this.

The Show Itself

So, yeah Milo Murphy’s Law. I remember hearing about this show last year and of course saw that amazing peach clip, but other than that I didn’t look much into it and just let it be. 

However on the one time youtube actually gave me a good recommendation and I ended up in a loop of MML clips. (namely clips of Dakota >.>)

In the end I’m so happy to have finally given the show a proper try because it is amazing. The animation is really nice and at various moments there’s these really amazing bits of really fluid animation for certain movements.

Also I tend to be kinda meh to iffy about shows where there’s songs involved especially continuous shows but the songs in MML are so enjoyable. They’re either catchy, funny or both and actually an enjoyable treats to listen to.

However all of this is even more enjoyable due how fantastic and the setting and characters are. 

I mean I’ve seen characters or similar things where a character/the protagonist has some sort of “affliction” that causes trouble for them routinely and the show typically focuses on the characters ups and downs, struggles to make friends, their hardship of being accepted and other things. So it was so nice to come into a show where Milo is just a walking chaos magnet but he’s already has friends, is well liked and no one is ostracizing him from the community or from activities. It’s like so nice to see a story where all of that is avoided to focus on what adventures and mishaps the characters can get in and out off. 

At the same time it’s nice to see that Murphy’s Law is understood with a healthy dose of realism (as far as cartoon can get) in this show. Milo understands Murphy’s Law can be a problem and doesn’t get offended when people want to be cautious around him and others aren’t all that jumpy around him. I mean they glance around their environment every now and then but they aren’t constantly panicking 24/7.

I also love that that there is a generation of Murphy’s. Like despite the curse like nature of Murphy’s Law the Murphy men have been able to find wives that dearly love them and carry on a family. I constantly think about it whenever I see Brigette and Martin or Milo and Amanda interact.

Speaking of interacting I love these characters. All of them are really enjoyable. Even characters that aren’t really set to be all that pleasant; Mr. Block, Elliot, Savannah, Brick, Bradley; I find to be really enjoyable. I like that Melissa is allowed to be this tough girl without the show trying to go frequently out of its way to mention how she isn’t girly, but then she’s also got fears that aren’t mocked and is a nerd who works on making sure her grades are always good and is just so sure of herself. I like how Zack is this ex-boy band member whose allowed to be on the cowardly side and more sensitive without being criticized and is willing to try to turn situations around and grow through his experiences with Milo.

The rest of the cast is golden as well. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a show where the school faculty was actually really fun to see and not overly stupid, neglectful or constantly angry. It’s nice to see that the school staff has actual personalities and are capable of getting along with their students. The other students are pretty fun to and really help round out the characters. Also the Murphy family is just so sweet. I love that Sara can be so geeky without being mocked, that both parents are successful but also very caring and supportive off their children and that they don’t let Murphy’s Law hinder them in being around one another. I’m not going to go into too much about them (running out of energy) but I have to give alot of props to Amanda’s character. While she’s set up to the be this tightly wound perfectionist its nice to see that she’s able to be silly and have fun and I was so thrilled that they didn’t try to make a long standing story thread about her being a perfectionist and Milo being being basically an embodiment of chaos get in the way of their relationship developing.

Even the more minor characters really fun. I genuinely enjoy Trucker Ted’s whole gag and get a little excited whenever I see a truck on the show. Seriously I regret getting into the show so late, but I’m glad I finally did.

My Favorite Characters

Since I’m running out of energy I’m just going to list my favs and bullet point why I like them.

Vinnie Dakota

His build/design

He’s so short, like what only a foot or so taller than Milo and co

He’s adorably chubby and yet light enough Cavendish (or Cav is just really strong) can easily lift him up or hold him

The fact that he’s just had the hair for his entire life just in varying sizes

And thanks to Cavendish we also know he’s got a decently squishy face apparently.

His Personality

Like he’s played mostly like a typical laid back guy but he’s surprisingly grounded. I seriously did not expect for him to point out Cavendish’s flaws and make some solid arguments given their season 2 predicament. Like how Cavendish needs to stop gunning for trying to save the world and how they can’t risk their jobs because they can’t time travel and fix things like they used to and they have to pay for rent

He’s also genuinely nice. I seriously love how him being nice made his disguise work for him during the second Pistachion take over and how that never came back to blow his cover.

Also despite how things are going he does try to make the best of things. 

Give this man his action moment.

I’m serious about that previous statement btw. He made a one liner, slid over the roof of a car, did a dramatic dive and tried to ram an airboat through a steel grate. Just give him his successful moment

He’s clearly being set up to be one of the more action oriented characters and overall he’s pretty good at it

Extra things

The fact that he’s a near bottomless pit when it comes to food

He was utterly adorable as a child

He loves animals and the zoo

And speaking of which I think it’s a shame that we haven’t seen Dakota eating animal crackers in this show

He’s an absolute angel of a best friend

Milo Murphy

His personality

I love that Milo is a sweetheart who understands peoples caution around him at time, but I love that it doesn’t stop with him being nice until he hits the usual dramatic breaking point

It’s nice to see that he can have a healthy level of sarcasm or frustration with both other’s and Murphy’s Law itself

It’s to see a character like this with a nice but also rounded personality instead of the whole nice until a breaking point or nice with no concept on how to be mean and when someone is being mean to them.

Murphy’s Law

Yeah Milo’s past and current events are hilarious. You can never tell how things out of control and as such it brings some fun when we get to see how they resolve themselves or what Milo will use to fix the problem.

Diogee

I don’t have much to say about Diogee.

He’s one of the (or the given my memory) cutest designed dogs that I have ever seen

I thought I would get sick of the “go home” gimmick but I ended up liking it

And his episodes are surprisingly fun

And yeah. Like I said I’m love this show but lack of coherent thoughts and running out of steam has made it difficult for me to continue writing more for this post.