#and there are such funny lines in this episode i wonder if the vas were having fun or second hand embarrassment

[stuworbutwitheds]

I still think about Edd and May so let me talk about a little thing that i need to get out my head really quick

Yall remember this scene right?? May crying bc she got rejected and stepped on (literally) on her love confession and all.

Besides this being a very sweet act of Double D by giving her a card to not make her feel lonely on Valentine's day, there's something else about it.

Double D chosen the card it was supposed to be for Nazz. You know, the prettiest girl for most of the boys in the show. He gave May something it was meant to be for a girl he actually has kind of a crush on just to make her stop crying. I think that's cute.

[rh3maji]

Lil rant abt Caine

Caine is just a lil guy, despite it all. From a design standpoint I thought I was gonna absolutely fucking hate looking at him because those chattering teeth toys make my skin crawl- but the art direction really helps make him look more appealing and whimsical than a disembodied pair of talking dentures sounds on paper.

The thing with Caine is I didn't initially like him that much after the pilot. While his interactions with Bubble were quite funny, that one episode left me feeling like he'd just end up being kinda one note or at the very least one note in a way that'd get on my nerves. Then everything changed when Pomni Wake Up Time to Go On an Adventure! attacked

The comedic timing throughout that announcement video was so fucking funny and thanks to his line deliveries and animation/model [?] upgrades- CAINE LOOKED AND SOUNDED SO ADORABLE!!

Legit it wasn't until this came out that I realized I actually could be on board with Caine as a character and it's been uphill from there. Episode 2 was better than the pilot not only comedically and visually but also in terms of showcasing just how actually unsettling Caine can be as an antagonist. Not because he's vengeful or malicious, but because he's so oblivious to how people work. His mind's always buzzing with terrible ideas and he's so so eager about these adventures, but at the end of the day he really really doesn't get the circus crew. Try as he might to include them, keep them engaged [ZOOBLE WAIT!], or even give them what they want [Exit doors] he doesn't realize how traumatic and distressing their current situation can be. The very nature of being trapped in a digital world is bad enough but it's especially rough here bc not only does its god have limited capabilities, you also are very well acquainted with him, and he can't fully understand your pain nor can he truly save you from it. He won't mourn your abstraction. He will not attend your funeral. He will not understand the distress of your arrival, nor the weight of your departure.

This isn't just sad from the pov of the circus gang, it's also very sad for Caine- not because i think he'll ever feel sad about it himself necessarily, but instead because the situation is sad. New members appear over and over, you craft adventures and games and distractions like [i'm assuming] they'd asked you to, but over and over, one by one, they abstract. They stop laughing at your jokes. They don't like you. They want you to leave them alone. It's confusing and maybe even inconvenient.

Where I'm hoping the series takes Caine is that this dissonance between Caine's intentions and the distress of the circus gang gets worse and worse and worse until something's got to give. I'm hoping that maybe at some point a character will try to sit down and talk with him and for it to either sorta get through to him but completely backfire in some form because he misinterprets what the others want from him OR i'd also be down for him to listen, but not understand any of it and proceed as tho nothing happened. I don't want Caine to come around really, it'd be interesting to see how Goose would go about having him come around to being a better host that empathizes more with humans, but personally I do prefer him to keep on keepin' on being this oblivious and eager antagonist.

My favorite Caine lines/line deliveries so far:

"You, my friend, stumbled into an incredible world of wonders, where anything can happen!…e-except for swearing."

"And here we have THE GROUNDS! Drown yourself in the digital lake, or engage in ridery at the digital carnival!"

"What do you think of XDDCC? You're right, terrible, LET'S TRY THAT AGAIN!"

"Kaufmo abstracted? Why didn't anybody tell me?"

"Bubble you can't say that"

"-ZOOBLE WAIT!"

"Why are you all just standing there?! The- The Canyon- C-Candy Canyon Kingdom needs you now!" [according to his VA, this was an actual line flub but hoo boy am i glad they use it bc it's hilarious]

"I know you guys love your NPCs, but if I start losing track of who's a human and who's an NPC, who knows...what. could. happen..."

That last line there specifically surprised me the most because up until he said that I was under the impression Caine was linked to every single NPC. I even thought he could see through their eyes if he so chose thanks to his "hundreds of all seeing eyes" line in the pilot. Him saying this here implies lots of things. Has Caine forgotten before? Is someone in the circus secretly an NPC ooooooooh~

"Who knows what could happen..."

Honestly, when Caine first said this I did immediately theorize Jax as being an NPC but now that it's been *checks calendar* three months since I watched episode 2, I don't think this is the case anymore. Jax being an NPC would be...something. Jax not knowing he's an NPC would be interesting [i like it when ppl's realities get shattered], but honestly I think this line was a way to telegraph to the audience that no Caine isn't actually all knowing. He didn't know Gummigoo was coming through that portal until he saw him with his own two eyes. My theory is that Caine is only able to teleport, create, censor, transform, and destroy the world around him, but isn't able to see all of it at once unless he tries to. I think Caine's default state is one where he only knows what he sees directly in front of him/what he himself has left waiting for someone else. And rather than implying someone in the gang is an NPC, I think that line in episode 2 was mainly implying Caine can be tricked, that it's possible to hide something from him, to surprise him even. Though I'm not opposed to an NPC we haven't met trying to join under the guise of being human, it'd potentially create some fun tension assuming the audience was given enough reason to care about them.

Jax is actually my favorite character in tadc, but i couldn't fill an entire post with things to say abt him. Caine seems to be- at least as of right now- the easiest of all the characters to try and wrap my head around. I'll probably have a lot more to say about Jax as he exists in canon as the episodes come out [EPISODE 6 MY BELOVED]

but uhhhh yeah, that's all the things i had to say abt Caine. Pls go watch/listen to the fansong Digital Land bye!

[7thingsnbeings]

Full Moon episode - takes and feelings

Hello everyone.

Last post I announced that I will be making a post about Helluva Boss' new episode 'Full Moon' where I'll state my own feelings, takes and probably add some of my own theories as to what comes next afterwards. And of course that I will be spoiling the WHOLE thing. So for those who haven't seen an episode, please go watch it before reading this whole text.

CW: Spoilers ahead

... and a very looooong text

First things first, HOLY SHIT! WASN'T THAT THE BIGGEST TRIP OF EVERYTHING I HAVE SEEN AND FELT IN JUST ONE ENTIRE EPISODE?! I mean, it wasn't extremely bad as I had thought it would be, but it still left me speechless and shocked throughout some of the scenes which I'll get to later. And the ending, oh boy I can't wait to get to that.

I haven't honestly expected for Stolitz duet to come so soon in the first few minutes. I mean I was already aware of it, but still. It was great though, and kind of funny, especially Blitz's lines and the transition where they kind of censor (but also not) the...intimacy that they usually do once a month. Not to mention how both of them are kind of nervous during the duet. Dammit, they're nervous wrecks made for each other XD.

Then we have the unexpected guests of the party. Agents D.H.O.R.K.S. and CHERUBS. I have not expected them to appear this early in the show. I mean, I have heard a theory on Twitter that the CHERUBS would appear, managing to steal the grimoire and such. I honestly thought they would show up in 'Mastermind', which makes me wonder...whats going to happen there now that those characters have already appeared? Would they appear again? Next time, actually managing to open a big enough portal to Hell, creating further conflicts in the future?

CHERUBS were interesting to me. The way they redeem mortals at the beginning, spread 'goodness' but also pickpocketing them unnoticed. And the way they differentiate, especially Keenie and Cletus, who had definitely gone south when they had gotten banished from Heaven, while Collin possibly remained the same, still hanging onto his morals, questioning his peers' actions. Based on the interrogation scene, I believe that he'll be the only one to return to Heaven, while the others will likely die or serve their punishment in Hell.

I jumped when Cletus mentioned they were the 'Exorcists' sent from above, because it made me think of the Exterminators from Hazbin Hotel, since both of these shows are from the same Universe. He probably meant something else, but I digress.

And then there are the agents D.H.O.R.K.S. I knew these guys would show up later on, especially since the ending of 'Truth Seekers'. They managed to catch the main cast on video, which would explain why they got such a massive upgrade with their weaponry. The Pope army, the portal to Hell and robotic suits which if you look closely, look close similar to IMP gang, along with Loona furry costume XD. I bet Agent 1 is a furry...

Before I close a part of this ep's main villains, I just wanna point out how innocent CHERUBS are when they spend their time following Blitz in the Lust ring. They think Blitz is buying some kind of weapons to kill mortals on Earth, when in actuality he was just buying some sex stuff for tonight XD. And when they assume Ozzie's is the armoury for demons to go to. Well I mean it could be, but for something else...

It's worth mentioning the rest of the IMP gang. It's good to hear Loona's VA again, I kind of missed it. Along with M&M whom we haven't seen for two episodes.

It was also surprising, but in my take out of nowhere, for them to have a 'deus ex machina' moment with Cherubs in order to protect Blitz. I'm probably looking at this wrongly, since they live in Hell (the place you as a mortal DO NOT want to visit) and safety to them is number 1 priority, especially when Blitz had grimoire with him at that moment. The destroyed buildings and street in Lust might come to awareness to the higher ups, but probably not as much as the ones in 'Mastermind' as I theorised before.

Before I get into big meat of the plater, I cannot forgot to mention the cashiers. Like, WHAT are they supposed to be??? Are they hellborn hybrids, the Goetia, Sinners or something else? Either way, they look cool.

Also Fizz. Not much about him, I like his new outfit and how he helps Blitz with the stuff. Now, I BET that he uses that giant vibrator with Ozzie. Boys like it rough sometimes, don't they?

Finally, the moment we'll all been waiting for. The night of the full moon.

I knew that their last transaction would end painfully. And yet, it was by far the hardest to watch. Blitz's yell was marvellously done and it truly beat to the core. And so did Stolas' last line.

'You folks think you can do this EVERY time that you can just play with our feelings because we're smaller and not as important!!'

'Blitz, I think so highly of you, I didn't realise you think so low of me.'

Words cannot express how I felt when I heard those lines. It's easy to say that I was shocked, mind blown, sad, but honestly it would feel cheap as a result.

I mean...

It's obvious FROM A FAR that the only thing standing in the way between them is lack of communication and misunderstandings. There is NO ONE who can convince me that these two FUCK EACH OTHER for the sake of PLEASURE AND GOD FORSAKEN TRANSACTION.

They LOVE EACH OTHER!

But Blitz is too scared to get hurt again, it ACTUALLY happened to him and Stolas now believes that Blitz doesn't LOVE him, let alone never cared for his feelings!

I may be exaggerating, however this is how I see it now.

Based on the scenes from trailer, I believe Blitz and Stolas would begin their relationship on bad terms after FM, then Stolas would stand up for Blitz in 'Apology Tour' where seems Verosica is hosting 'Blitz Sucks' concert and Blitz, covered in stained fabric all heartbroken, looks up at Stolas and realises his true feelings for him.

That's just a theory, we'll see what an 'Apology Tour' has for us this June.

Ooof, I wrote so much here. Might be my longest post I have ever written. I probably went into whole summary of the ep I didn't focus enough on takes, critical thinking etc. I nearly have none, because I enjoyed FM at most, so I have no prejudice whatsoever. I'm also tired of writing as you can see.

So in conclusion, 'Full Moon' was worth the wait. The outcome might have been predictable, but it still hurt. It did surprise us with few things, and for now, we can only contemplate as to what's to come next for Helluva Boss story.

Thank you for reading my long ass post.

And also thanks to Vivzie and Spindle Horse crew for FINALLY giving us 'Full Moon'.

I, as always, am sending kudos and look forward for their newer work in future. <3

[bustyasianbeautiespod]

Do you guys have podcast recommendations? I'm caught up on everything I listen to, but you guys are my favorite podcast, so I assume we have similar tastes

AWWW i'm so honored that we're your faves! grey is no longer a podcast listener so i (crystal) shall be the only answerer

in terms of people-watching-a-thing podcasts, i've enjoyed:

doctor huh- two brothers, one a former doctor who watcher and one who... only knows about it from social media... watch nuwho eps in a random order

zero to zero- three friends watch dc/marvel properties and respond w fun and funny levels of haterism. i have enjoyed ALL of this despite never once touching something they reviewed. on maybe-permanent hiatus

LMNOP- the only good cbs elementary podcast. also on maybe-permanent hiatus

i've been meaning to watch that- i've listened to less of this one, but it's hosted by manika dulcio, who we had on our s4 wrapped, so if you liked her there check her out on her home base!

as for fiction podcasts, listing my fave subscribeds below! for some of these, the first few eps are kinda rough but i've found them all resoundingly Worth It eventually! also if you, babpod listener, care about this, all of these have queer main characters and i'll bold the ones where the main char is explicitly a poc:

hi nay- "a supernatural horror fictional podcast about Filipina immigrant Mari Datuin, whose babaylan (shaman) family background accidentally gets her involved in stopping dangerous supernatural events in Toronto." v rich lore v good at being creepy! (ongoing)

the silt verses- what if every single folk deity was real and hungry and society ran on ppl being sacrificed on telephone poles? incredibly sexy writing like SO sexy (ongoing)

midnight burger- space diner adventures and friendships! they recently dropped a 3-hour beautifully audio-engineered season finale they've grown so much since the beginning. great cast and fills you w so much wonder about The Universe (ongoing)

greater boston- an expanding cast of chars tell the story of the forming of a new city on the boston red line train cars. makes u wild about community and interconnectedness and local politics and how no one is beyond compassion while also having like. cheese robots (ongoing)

within the wires- what if a world war led to a worldwide cultural shift that decried all tribalism starting at the family unit and babies were separated from their parents at birth? extremely interesting world and formats though i do think it's kinda tired after s4. i think listening to s1 then reading the companion novel might be the Move (ongoing)

unwell, a midwestern gothic mystery- what it says on the tin! lily returns to the fading small town she grew up in to care for her mom. there are ghosts and town history and wolves in the woods. some rlly beautiful and complex family relationships and friendships, great vibe and sound design (complete)

parkdale haunt- p classic haunted house horror (well i say classic. there's also an influencers cult) which i also consider a Top Friendship-Focused Media (complete)

alice isn't dead- usamerican road trip show about the horrors of freedom. spn wishes. love jasika nicole as a VA (complete)

the pasithea powder- epistolary space bisexuals after a war that left them on opposite sides. excellent interpersonal drama and aliens (complete)

wooden overcoats- v funny british funeral home rivalry show antigone funn is the weirdgirl extraordinaire (complete)

monstrous agonies- nice soothing ten-minute segments of a supernatural advice show. i think i've mentioned it as being the anti-spn in terms of the monster rights and monster-human cohabitation background of the world (complete)

midnight radio- ten-episode small town radio show ghost romance. it's an excellent annual fall listen if you have a saturday free (complete)

mabel podcast- ONE OF THE PODCASTS OF ALL TIME. if you care about women you will like this podcast. i've always found anna and mabel so revolutionary and freeing to listen to. horror podcast about fairies and a house that loves (creepy edition?) you (long hiatus)

brimstone valley mall- silly delightful y2k demons in a mall (long hiatus)

the far meridian- magical realism story about a girl living in a teleporting lighthouse. sweet and melancholic (long hiatus)

khôra podcast- greek myths in space. i need to hug all the characters (long hiatus)

ty for this ask i love podcasts i need to catch up on them!

- Crystal :)

[ricksanchezsimpaccount]

ok thoughts on the new episode,

SPOILER WARNING obviously

although honestly I don't think I'll be saying anything that others haven't already said haaaaa

anyway finally, a chance for morty's new VA to shine, and GOD does he. I love the way Evil Morty talks, idk why but that bored "uh huh" when Rick tries shooting him several times is soooo funny to me. he killed it and so did ian cardoni (the way he screams "I'LL KILL YOU" after slow mobius' death OOOOOUUUU CHILLS)

i honestly did not expect to see Evil Morty again, and even though I'm kinda sad he didn't get the lasting peace away from Rick that he wanted, he is a DELIGHT to see in action!! i love his interactions w Rick, it's so interesting having a Morty that's on par/better than Rick. although I'll be honest....he kinda feels like a Rick himself, especially w the cybernetic augmentations he also has--at least to me. Wonder if that's going to be brought up again later down the line, something about becoming the monster you fight against i LOVE how we got to see his backstory finally, like others have said I'm really happy that he was just a "normal" Morty. his Rick wasn't anything special. he literally was just a Morty who finally got sick of Rick's shit. i loved the reveal too, bc they DID have me going for a sec there, I thought who we were seeing was OUR morty Indiana Jones Rick 💘💘💘😳😳😳😳😳💦 that's all I'm saying on that And ok, DO I think Rick Prime is dead? like ACTUALLY dead? Honestly...yes. At least I hope so. I think it'd be FAR more compelling for Rick to be like "...now what?" and for the show to actually explore and unpack that, over it being like HAHA SURPRISE RICK PRIME'S NOT ~REALLY~ DEAD you know?

Because yeah. He got his revenge, the revenge he's literally been chasing...basically his entire life, like...since his, what, 30s? And it didn't feel good. It didn't fix things, it didn't make him feel better. He feels as empty as he did before and NOW he doesn't even have a goal to strive towards anymore. There's nothing. And I feel like the ending of the episode did a REALLY good job of portraying that just numbness. He probably fantasized about this moment the WHOLE time and it absolutely didn't live up to it. It wasn't glorious or feel liberating, he just ends up covered in blood and feeling more hollow and broken than before. That's just...kinda how trauma is Morty at first hesitating to touch Rick but eventually hugging him anyway was so sweet ;_; Anyway as for the cinematography of the episode itself...absolutely stellar. Great fights, the SCOPE of everything, the backgrounds and settings, it's wild how much this show has popped off with its animation (it's honestly so funny seeing them stitch in clips from Season 1 in there bc the CONTRAST in animation quality is astounding. its like when artists on twitter do the "my art from 10 years ago vs now" comparisons LOL. LITERALLY, SEASON 1 WAS 10 YEARS AGO). The just dead silence as Rick punches Rick Prime to death (only sounds of course being rick talking and punching), the whole exchange that happened during it, how just downright BRUTAL it was, that entire scene was crafted so well, and others have pointed out the significance of Rick literally beating Prime to death with his bare fists instead of using his tech or weapons or anything, which i feel like was definitely on purpose, and i love man this post ended up longer than i anticipated I'M SORRY. THIS EPISODE DESTROYED ME EMOTIONALLY AND I LOVE WHEN THIS SHOW DOES THAT ✌✨ MY BRAIN'S BEEN BUZZING. IF YOU READ ALL THIS RAMBLING THANKS I GUESS HLFDKSJFH

[amelikos]

Some character notes and episode notes for HZ025, writing them down for future reference.

Liking the way they are seemingly spliting the Explorers into duos with Sango and Onyx, and Spinel and Agate (who are working together offscreen). Sango and Onyx might argue, but the way Onyx immediately sent his Pokemon to protect hers when they were attacked by Cap and tried to warn her not to snap was good. They play off each other well and it's fun how they're just not listening to Hamber at all and are unruly. I hope we see more of the Explorers interacting like that, because I really enjoyed seeing Sango and Onyx at play.

Diana is cool and I liked how she distracted the Explorers and bought time for Liko and the others. Her interactions with Hamber were interesting too, and I wonder what she means by the Explorers being Lucius's friends. Is Gibeon just using the name "Explorers" because he wants to follow on Lucius's path? Or is he an acquaintance of the original Explorers and related to them? Was Lucius betrayed by his friends? I am curious about the story there. At the very least, Gibeon and Hamber seem to know Lucius's story but not Amethio and the others.

I wrote separate posts about Amethio and Friede's battle. It was an interesting one and I liked that their battle only reached a conclusion now in the climax of the first arc. Amethio's VA absolutely nailed his line deliveries during the episode, especially the more emotional lines, like when Amethio realized he lost and said Soulblades's name. He cares a lot about his Pokemon and that was nice to see. I'm looking forward to the path he'll take after this loss.

Liko and Roy's battle against Zir and Conia was simple and nice. I like that they are gradually progressing at their own pace. Perhaps they'll be able to face Amethio eventually? (if they still need to oppose him at that point)

Zir and Conia retreating immediately before things get too bad for them is always kind of funny (but also, I like that they aren't sticking around just for the sake of it and that they run away for their own safety).

Diana saving the Pokemon in the castle before fleeing herself was a nice touch. She really cares about them and wanted to make sure everyone was safe!

Cap vs Sango and Onyx was cool. I like how Cap keeps being very independent in terms of battles and can handle things himself. Sango snapping against Cap was also fun because of the VA joke since Sango and Cap share the same voice.

The end was interesting. Ever since Lucius talked in HZ012 for the first time, I knew he was the narrator for the first lines in the first episode so it's interesting that they were featured again. I wonder where they'll meet Lucius's friends, the other heroes.

[gaybananabread]

did you see the new digital circus ep? ragatha and pomni were my favorites in the ep

I did! I absolutely loved it, so I'm gonna ramble about some specifics now. For anyone who stumbles across this, SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!

Thanks for giving me an excuse to run my mouth (⁠´⁠∩⁠ω∩⁠`⁠)

Okay, so I loved this episode! Jax being a little violence goblin was funny, and the way he left the gate open? Dick move, but hilarious nonetheless.

Ragatha was trying so hard to make Pomni happy; it was the sweetest thing ever. I hope they get closer as the series progresses, love them as a duo!

As for Pomni, that emotional vulnerability was so real. Her VA sounded so sincere and sweet, and the whole scene was written so well! The way she made Gummigoo feel valid and real? I could go on for days!

Gangle was happy for maybe a minute, but it was nice seeing her get to smile. She didn't get a whole lot of screen time, but it was a pleasure getting to see the interactions. I am curious about that figurine joke, though.

Kinger also didn't get much time, but he was a sweetie in this one. He seemed much more stable than last time, and the bug line was cute. Lovely as always.

Zooble was maybe there for a minute, but I liked getting to see that they cared. Reminding Ragatha about the funeral was a bit of a sign that they're not as aggressive as they come off as.

Caine was his usual crazy self. We didn't see much of him, but I'm wondering if that little "remembering who's real" line was foreshadowing something.

Bubble's few little jokes were funny. She's trying to quit? How can a bubble smoke bubbles from a pipe? Also, what on Earth did she say?

And now, the moment none of you have been waiting for: Gummigoo! I am SO MAD at Caine for exploding him! I got so attached in 20 minutes AAAAARGHDGD!! I seriously hope he's being brought back. I mean, if they've got a plushie and keychain for him, he's gotta show up again, right? (Please Glitch I'm BEGGING-)

ANYway, there's my thoughts that nobody asked for! If you read this, thanks for caring. I can almost guarantee I'm gonna do something for this, though I'm not sure how soon that'll be. Toodles! 💚

[neige-leblanche]

actually gonna compile my current thoughts; slight spoilers below cut

- having watched all the main series i can say RANPO IS MY #1 FAVE!!!!! i love how whenever i see him i go "yayyy it's ranpo yippeeee" and i love how i share this trait with a vast amount of the cast himself included. watching this show @ the same time as reading wha and loving beldarut sm is making me realize how much i love characters who are immensely powerful and also a consummate silly billy. hes everything i wanna be. i too want a government salary & to spend it on snacks

- i also love kunikida sm he feels like if riddle & trey were one guy. i am ALSO so glad he has not been killed yet. every kunikida-centric episode felt like the anime equivalent of a dead wife flashback and i kept bracing for him to die at the end of every season 💀

- i'm also grateful for the rlly small amount of mcd in general; i feel like esp in earlier seasons that would have given the story an emotional tone that it wasn't rlly set up to handle well

- i feel bad saying this but i wish i liked atsushi more 😭 i do like him plenty but it's not proportional to his prominence in the show which is prob why i didn't like season 1 v much; he felt like a p generic shonen protag

- ALSO feel bad saying this but i did not like nikolai's voice acting v much (i watched the japanese; he might be great in the dub idk). the character slew so hard but his voice esp the more maniacal lines felt deficient in pussy 😭💔

- i kept thinking fyodor had azul's voice actor. even after i looked it up and found that they r different.

- thank you so much kyouka for being one of the only well written female characters esp earlier before yosano got her character development. i want justice for higuchi especially 😭

- maybe this is controversial but i loved all the suicide jokes. dazai felt like a rlly honest portrayal of what it's like being suicidal p much all one's life & the fact that hating yourself/wanting to die absolutely does not always translate to gloom & self-effacement

- on that note and . this might come out mean but since it is such a "he's just like me fr. oh that is absolutely not a good thing"-heavy story i do think it requires some sophistication & critical thinking that is not handed to u outright. like you might watch it & think "these characters feel the same way i do & are dangerously unwell; i must be fucking insane" however they do rlly drill in the "yet we all keep living & working anyway", so i think viewers who feel this way r meant to ask themselves what sanity is, how much of the world secretly feels unwell & othered, etc. instead of jumping right to "i am irredeemable and/or clinically disturbed"

- anyway lmfao. i was shook to find out the manga didn't have [much] more 😭 v happy to see more fyodor lore though; i'm excited for the next installment!!

- speaking of fyodor!! i like him. as i mentioned dostoevsky is one of my fav writers irl and i do like the character! i liked the references (teases being a demon/possessed; nikolai as a kirillov parallel was hilarious; i do wonder if the references to fyodor being "underground" was meant to reference notes from underground which would. also be funny bc the proverbial underground is absolutely not what that book is about lmfao)

- conflicted bc i enjoyed scenes with mori (he has crowley's va!!!) howsoever i will be popping the biggest bottles when he dies, hopefully as gruesomely as possible 🙏

- akutagawa was just funny after a while im so sorry dude 😭 he was broody & secretive for five minutes and afterward was like "I HAVE DADDY ISSUES" every single time he appeared

- i wasn't gonna look for the light novels until i read on the wiki that they have an hg wells character who is a crossdressing woman & whose ability is the time machine; i love that novel sm and ummmmm👁👄👁

- I LOVE JOUNO!! HE REMINDS ME OF JADE!! I HOPE WE GET MORE OF HIM SOON!!!!!!!

also i finished season 2 of bungo stray dogs it was great!! i didnt like season 1 very much so im glad i held on 🙏

[sometipsygnostalgic]

adventure time wizard city liveblog

 well here we go

my last adventure time liveblog, i havent actually done one of these in MANY years... probably not since 2014

this takes place at the same time as obsidian?

DID-- DID CHOOSE GOOSE JUST DIE

DID BUFO JUST KILL CHOOSE GOOSE

yeah i know that’s bufo, they only made it enormously obvious, tsk tsk

@spaceacepearl​ joked about us seeing choose goose get sent to hell but i diDNT EXPECT IT TO HAPPEN

This music is i assume by one of the many musical artists Adam Muto listed on twitter, it rocks. It’s not as hardcore as Obsidian’s intro, but it’s suitably chill for the scene. 

“get offa my bus kid”

Those wizards in the left and far right groups appear to be new! 

OH MY GOD--

HELP?????? NEW PROFILE PIC TIME

HAHAHAHAH

THE MUSICAL CON DID ME GOOD, I DID REALLY LOUD AUDIBLE LAUGHTER

i bet hanna and co had fun making these signs

my favourite is the cat with “FAMILIARS HAVE RIGHTS”

cadorka..... wow

We’re not even four minutes into the ep and peppermint butler has already killed someone in front of a large group of witnesses

“this smells of DARK MAGIC” “yall kids know thats illegal right” peps watches the other kids nod before later joining in, LOL

i cant believe pep started the great gum wars and got killed by golb

SOMEONE has been playing Overwatch... 

i-- i still cant believe choose goose is fucking dead

how long was he stuck in hell for, or was that recent to together again after new death showed up 

i have to admit im not a big fan of spader, too perfect, and not in that funny way either. i hope they give him some characteristics that make him stand out. 

im getting flashbacks to OK KO and Owl House here...

Cadebra using music is a reference to Abracadaniel’s love of interpretetive dance in Play Date. 

“they only laugh because youre different” “i know” “SO STOP BEING DIFFERENT” oh my god it’s like talking to my own parents cadebra is actually... a LOT like me, less in her hyperactivity but more in her nonchalant enthusiasm and almost acceptance of the inevitable bullying because it means more time in people’s consciousness

ahhh - it’s quietly revealed here that she is responsible and a skilled magician, she is just bored of magic! i like that she parents abracadaniel instead of being downtrodden by his ramblings. 

PEP NO--- oh i see the problem, he hasn’t got his Bug Milk... sorry Martin Olsen fans, no Hunson today. At least we get one more Phil Face for the road! 

candy people in their natural habitat

Ahhh that’s Doctor Calidoneus! The voice actor was at the recent Distant Lands panel alongside Pep and Blaine’s actors. 

“pretty sure hes just trashcandy” - i like you, sassy antler lady

the mystery of how he gets clothes

and once again spader is proving to be the most irritating distant lands character of the lot, there is no subversion here. where is the subversion?  

NANI

what is going on here? are pep and peppermint the same person or not? im sure they must be, but there is something going on here with peppermint butler’s soul being trapped in the body of his child self who hasn’t got the same memories. 

OH, HYNDEN WALCH DID A NEW LINE yes this is what im here for, special over 

peppermint butler cursed himself... of course he did - Shado was correct!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FUCK

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

ROCK STUDENT, BLESSED ROCK STUDENT, WAS THAT POOR GUY WHO LOOKS LIKE A JAWBREAKER

love the reference to astral plane, of course pep cant astrally project because cursed pep is still inside of him 

wow, blaine, wow

they have a crush

LITTLE DUDE! COLE SANCHEZ!

i love the dynamic between cadebra and abracadaniel, imo so far it’s the heart of the special. im not really gripped by peppermint butler’s school troubles. i imagine someone else probably will be but i want to run past that shit as far as possible. 

TRDGFYGHJH

WE

WE MADE  A PREDICTION THAT WAS JUST LIKE THIS

PEPPERMINT BUTLER GETTING TURNED INTO THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF PEPPER MINT BUTT LURE WAS IN THE WIZARD CITY PREDICTIONS ART DRAW THAT HASNT BEEN POSTED YET

ILL SHOW YOU WHEN NICK POSTS THE VIDEO and then ill tell you who made the prediction because i... think it was nick himself, insanity 

who plagiarized finn’s signature???

turns out pep really DID take over wizard city!!!!

i love this band

i understand your pain peps

you probably have a bit too much in common with your mother, and i imagine it isn’t easy being turned into a kid and not being able to do stuff that came so easy. you’re disappointing yourself! (he’s literally disappointing himself)

I’m less than halfway through the special, what the fuck. I wasn’t wrong when I said Wizard City had a lot on its plate. It’s noit that I’ve been particularly gripped up to this point, though to be fair I didn’t pause at all during the other specials barring Obsidian. 

that... that poor kid is still a rock

and then the preview happened and bufo casually revealed to the audience that, yes, he killed choose goose

i dont know whats happening with pep but it seems he needs to be exorcised of... pep. which is a shame. i hope they learn to coexist. 

i have to say the background work in this special is really good! like, really damn good. 

WH

WHAT

DID SPADER JUST DIE

IS THIS WHY PEOPLE THINK PEPBUT KILLED HIM 

oh thats right - abracadaniel is cadebra’s uncle! this must be abracadniels sister. sorry, folks, he doesn’t fuck. 

Where are they? Is this anywhere near Wizard City? It’s an unpopulated prewar wasteland. 

THESE ARE JUST HUMANS

OF COURSE SHE WANTS TO PERFORM TO MILQUETOAST HUMANS

my child

is this an art style choice or did they get the people from that one studio to make this

HANNA FINALLY GETS TO FULFIL HER DREAM OF INSERTING KANEDA INTO ADVENTURE TIME

the red jacket he wears and his head pill shape is a big kaneda reference actually, which i suppose makes sense considering he’s a rival to our protagonist, but it’s a bit on the nose

bufo killed one of his own students? but why????

“MY UNCLE’S A COP”

“no one likes a rat”

i actually really like blaine, though im confused. did their VA change halfway through the special?

HOW NATURAL, NO WASTE, IT IS AN ENDLESS CHAIN

did doctor caledonius steal the trophy,,,? 

EVIL SNAIL EVIL SNAIL

MONMSTER HUNJTER DISCOVERY NOISE, this time it’s a tetsucabra

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I HAVE QUESTIONS

god i wish this is what this special was about, i miss adventure time

these remind me of the comics with their art style :) i wonder who designed them? the one on the right with pb and pep, in particular, very comics-y. 

fdgfhgf because he’s like 500

“pep can be kind of a jerk but he wouldn’t kill anyone”

sorry, cadebra, i have news for you

is doctor calednoius the true villain? if bufo’s out of the picture, she MUST be, 

ANTS

oh no, he might gbe stuck in wizard city :( 

HELP

the writing on the wall...

SPADER LITERALLY FUCKING DIED OH YM JESUS CHRIST

PEPPERMINT BUTLER’S OWN CULT????

THIS IS JUST OK KO NOW

okay im not surprised all the teachers at wizard city are cultists in worship of peps, maybe they killed spader and bufo because they bullied peps T_T

wait no, they thought spader had the potential, but sadly not

HE FUCKING KILLED HIMSELF

sorry, i was distracted by the pretty dope fight sequence and now the special is over????

fucking jesse, hes probably at least partly responsible for the cult nonsense

This credits art is by Maya Petersen!!!! Holy shit it’s adorable!

LRETGFDRGTFGMHGFHFG

LEAF MAN

DO YOU THINK THEY PUT HIM IN RETROSPECTIVELY

DO YOU THINK MAYA PETERSEN DREW THIS AND ADAM PUT IT IN THE EP RETROSPECTIVELY

HE LIVES

MAYBE THIS IS WHY CHOOSE GOOSE WENT TO HELL

okay, it’s over :) 

first thoughts out of the way: not a big fan of this special. it’s like watching a completely different show. it’s not got the PZSHAHH of the normal wizard city stuff and there weren’t a lot of funny jokes or even hearty moments in the thing. 

it suffers from a lack of invested character interactions, much like BMO did. there was not a single main cast member in the whole thing! and like i said before, much of peppermint butler’s character in the show is based on his very sweet relationship to his mother, princess bubblegum, so when they showed a single (hilarious) photo of them together it made me sad we didn’t get any scenes with them together. it would have STOLEN this episode. and they teased the hunson golf photo, and death!!! and jake appeared in a photo T_T last jake appearance. 

it also suffers because Peppermint Butler is clearly not himself, imo he was way more entertaining in the Together Again special, where we seem him back to his “normal” self. 

i dont think peps being a dark wizard was something to “kill off” exactly. i wonder what was going on there? was that actually peps, or was that a spirit he cursed himself with based on himself? we at least know in the future he does become a dark wizard again, and even princess :) this special didn’t answer those questions but lol. 

THE GOOD STUFF, because yes, there was a lot of good stuff! 

God, I’m with Aracle and Maya on this - I LOVE Cadebra and her relationship to Pep. I wish she was even in more of this - I would love to watch the adventures of Cadebra and Pepbut in their first year of school, like in the end credits.

That, imo, is where the heart of the special lay - Peppermint Butler’s attempts to impress himself, versus Cadebra’s self acceptance and desire to follow her dreams of being a goofy goober, no matter what other people thought of her. 

It turned out that Cadebra is a responsible student and family member. I really liked that. Her scenes with Abracadaniel were, somehow, my favourite in the entire special! 

I like that theres a lot of cool magic towards the end of this special, and a lot of HORRIFYING DEATH. It wouldn’t be adventure time if you didn’t randomly kill off child characters. Poor Spader, I hated you but damn, what a grim fate. 

I like that Bufo and Caledonius had this crush/hatred thing going on, but they were part of the same cult in the end. 

I didn’t like the giant peps scene at the end, the monster was extremely milquetoast compared to the madness we usually get in AT. Obsidian, for example, had the awesome Larvo design. Nemesis had some INSANE dark magic!!!!  I wish they drew more from that episode. 

Considering how much Steve Little appears in this special, I do feel bad for Mace (little Peps). He said he would have really benefitted from coaching, but recieved none. He had to re-record his lines 3 times! Judging from his description of events, Wizard City was a hard time for him. 

The wizard school did remind me, heavily, of both The Owl House and OK KO. Personally I was hoping AT would offer me something more insane, but I do love both of those shows, and I know Wizard City was on a really tight schedule. 

I think they should have spent less time on the school bullying plot, and skipped straight to MURDER. 

We did have a cold opening, not on par with Together Again’s at all, but damn!

I am wondering where I would put this in the watch list? I do think it should sit after Obsidian as the third special. The intro scene makes it clear this takes place at the same time as Obsidian!!!

Well, that was it, the last ep of AT for the next few years at least T_T

i think together again was the better finale, definitely. but wizard city feels pretty detached from AT for me, despite the familiar characters it tonally isn’t like the show other than the awesome brutal death scenes. I thought the last 11 minutes was easily the best in the special! Which, honestly, is how it should be, though I do wish it gripped me more. Maybe I’m just not the target audience for Wizard City? It feels like something I would find very compelling if I was a bit younger! 

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure (Blind Watch) - Episode 7

And now Jyou/Gomamon get their day in the spotlight. Their dynamic is pretty cute and I like Gomamon's design. Ikkakumon is pretty neat too, I like the natural evolution from seal-like thing to wooly walrus-like thing. I thought we were going to get a reveal for where the gears are coming from, but that didn't really happen. Instead we got a reveal that they're on an island...which I thought we already knew? (Maybe it's dramatic irony).

Digimon introduced this episode: Ikkakumon and Unimon

Notes:

-The dialogue in this episode felt kinda ramble-y like it was improv. They discussed snowball fights, igloos, how to eat eggs. Pretty random stuff.

-Whenever there's an emotional conflict in this show it really lacks subtlety. Like Jyou had to to be over the top about how overly serious he was and constantly repeated "I'm the oldest!" Like, gee, I wonder who this episode is about? Of course, it's for kids, so that's only natural. It's just kind of funny watching it as an adult.

-The fact that they didn't even question what kind of eggs were in the mystery fridge was kinda weird. I don't think this world has chickens...

-Gomamon's VA apparently also voices Naruto, which probably explains the feeling of familiarity I got listening to him. I really like Junko Takeuchi's voice. So versatile!

-Somehow they managed to make a alicorn ugly. That's real talent. (This is why I prefer Pokemon).

-I appreciated it when Jyou was able to predict that the "kind and gentle" Unimon would go bad. Always refreshing when characters learn from the formulaic plot.

-Jyou's name is written with the kanji "jou" from "daijoubu!" (based on the memo he wrote in the dirt). Talk about an easy name to write.

-Birdramon saving the day on the mountain felt very Lord of the Rings lol.

-Greymon spoke at one point (more than shouting an attack name) it made me realize that the evolved Digimon can talk. Since they're always fighting, I never thought of them as speaking characters. I wonder if they'll ever stick around long enough to have a full conversation?

-After the battle Taichi says to Jyou "I've changed my opinion of you." (As in, he's impressed). I've heard this line said a lot in anime and it's a pretty shitty thing to say to someone lol. Imagine someone being like "you know what, you're not as terrible as I thought you were!" Also, Jyou gets rewarded for reckless behavior which is also pretty bad.

-Gomamon with the tsundere blush was pretty cute <3

[thegoodomensdumpster]

I WATCHED GOOD OMENS IN FRENCH SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO

and it wasn’t that bad. Here are my thoughts, barely edited as I wrote most of them while watching the show.

EP 1

OK i like god’s voice so far

possibilité d’embarras gastrique is a good formulation, I wonder if it’s the same in the book ( I think I kinda need to read it in french now...)

aghghdhgs « primo-délinquants »

of course subtitles don’t match the audio for a variety of technical reasons but when you get things that have very different underlying meanings i find it… not good This one about Crowley being evil / a demon : subtitles : « c’est ton travail » - « it’s your job » audio : « c’est dans ta nature » - « it’s in your nature » i mean dang

crowley sounds like a little shit asking az about his sword

« T’AS FAIT QUOUA » - he just loses his shit (kinda giving me some le coeur a ses raisons vibe)

ok crowley sounds very nerdy when he tries to explain that he took down the phone network, i think i actually like this voice acting

ligur sounds… very suave (im a little ill at ease)

crowley getting called mon chou by satan freddie mercury is a thumb up from me

i see the part where aziraphale speaks japanese wasn’t dubbed over and we can still hear michael sheen. it’s a bit disturbing considering french aziraphale has a higher pitched voice (and he sounds soooo much more anxious than sheen, give this angel a xanax )

“sandwich bœuf cresson” ( beef and cress sandwich ) deirdre really who makes this kind of sandwiches

im being reminded that the chattering nuns prepared little cut outs for their explanation about the antichrist switch… such dedication to useless crafts (it made me laugh on my first viewing and it’s still funny to imagine that some of them either ordered or built these things themselves just so they could make this two minutes long presentation for the most important act of their satanic nun careers)

retire-toi vil démon infernal, créature des abysses XD i swear az doesn’t sound even remotely convinced when he is saying the « get thee behind me foul fiend » line in french, it’s just too over the top for credibility, it sounds like it’s straight out of some super intense dnd session

they still can’t say bouillabaisse (which, like, weird because french, but still valid). nice touch is crowley couldn’t say soupe de poisson (fish stew) either and said poupe de soisson (sish ftew)

warlock mah boy how can you be a teenager and not like dinosaurs

c’est un dinosaure un nullosaure plutôt - apply burn heal

La façon dont warlock s’est exclamé « C’EST NUL » m’a fait penser au nain de naheulbeuk

the english version has nothing on french speaking aziraphale for the second hand embarrassement during the magic tour. it’s over 9000 i literally hid my head in my jumper when he was presenting harry the bunny. Horrible experience, 0/20, would not recommend

EP 2

oooh agnes has a lovely voice !

why is young newton having such a quality dub for the three sentences he has to say

dick turpin’s name is jesse james (tbf dick turpin is not known AT ALL in france, i discovered him reading good omens)

shadwell is pure chaos (as expected). No particular accent for him though, the chaotic energy was probably enough. Would have made me laugh if he had like, a chti or a marseilles accent.

aziraphale is so fucking stressed out by crowley’s driving i thought he was gonna explode

« tu es un gentil garçon » => « you’re a nice boy » said az to crowley DANG THAT’S SO INFANTILIZING AZIRAPHALE YOU’RE TALKING TO A DEMON FROM HELL NOT TO PINOCCHIO

ARGH FIRST MON ANGE OF THE SERIES i’m hit straight in the heart

anathema’s mom doesn’t have a spanish / latino accent at all when talking in spanish…. why...

dog being called toutou is definitely adorable (it’s basically « doggy » but way cuter imo)

tickety-boo has become ça gaze. that’s valid. it’s corny but i still use it unironically from time to time so ... i stan

EP 3

« je répands la fomentation » « i’m here spreading foment » « quoi tu fais des crêpes au froment ?????? »  « what you’re making crêpes with wheat ??? » love the fact that we shoehorned in one more ref to crêpes

az called crowley mon cher camarade, unintentionnal communist propaganda ftw

« pas de repos pour les… bah, pour les bons » « no rest for the… good »  – az was so deflated about the ineptitude he realized he was saying, he felt zero percent commited to his sentence

i was wondering how they would play aziraphale not being able to speak french in the bastille and they opted to have him stutter a bit and say to his executionner « excuse me i’m anxious » XD

« vous êtes le 999e aristo à mourir par mes soins. Mais vous êtes le premier en costume beige » « you’re the 999th aristocrat I’m going to kill, but the first one in beige attire » yeah i guess now that az isn’t english anymore his most noticeable feature is his cream aesthetic

« c’est au cas où ça tournerait en eau de boudin » « j’ADORE le boudin » => « in case it all goes pear shape » - the literal translation featuring food in french is « turning into black sausage water ». I don’t know what pear shaped inspires to english native speakers but the mere mention of boudin always make me giggle, it’s such a funny word and such a funny food

OH !!! no terrence rampa for the tv series, we’ve got anthony J. rampa. Rip terrence petit démon parti trop tôt :’(

« tu roules trop vite pour moi rampa » SERIOUSLY i know we can still infer « rouler » (here as in driving, but literally rolling) as a metaphor for their relationship but you could have said TU VAS TROP VITE that would have been so much better argh

has anathema got an emergency stock of potteries to break in case of emotionnal crisis ?

« Rampa, un démon très futé, il m’oblige à redoubler d’effort » « crowley, a very clever demon, he forces me to make double the amount of effort » oh so admitting you’re making an effort there aziraphale ? :))))))

dang i really want to know how shadwell said that major milk bottle died because not only did he die in combat but aziraphale’s reaction is a bit intense, it must have been quite a tale (this could be a crack fic prompt : «The Epic Tale of the Death Of Major Witchfinder Milk Bottle, by Sargent Witchfinder Shadwell» )

des sorcières et des phénomènes sorciéreux x)

CROWLEY CALLED AZIRAPHALE DUCON ?????? EXCUSE ME ????? #NotMyCrowley #CrowleyWouldNeverDoThat  #CancelAnthonyJRampa2K20  => ducon would be an insult, the gathering of du and con, con being a very nasty but common swear word, and associating it with du- makes it extremely patronizing. it’s like « absolute pathetic digraceful moron +++ ». thanks i hate it *frowny face *

EP 4

l’apocalypse c’est pour aujourd’hui juste après le goûter : it could be translated as « apocalypse is scheduled for today right after tea time » except that « goûter » is not quite tea time but rather the little sugary snack kids take when they come back from school and that most adults drop out of (i haven’t and i’m sure az hasn’t either). thanks aziraphale for having exclusively food related notion of the time because tbh same

ligur has no right to be this sexy between ariyon bakare and his french voice actor that’s just not allowed

radio crowley’s voice vs french ligur’s voice, who has the sexiest voice : FIGHT

(jk french agnes nutter’s voice is by far the sexiest)

gender neutral doesn’t ‘quite’ exist in french but pollution has been assigned a female voice actress and masculine pronouns (i’m saying it doesn’t quite exist because officially we have no gender neutral, but it’s a serious wip among lgbt+ circles to the point where it’s started being used in a few medias)

hastur « en attendant qu’un plombier vienne » / « while waiting for a plumber to come » does hell have a special plumber unit or do demons have to call on human plumbers for their pipes damages ? Dang hastur having to call a human plumber for hell’s plumbery is another damn good writing prompt for a crack fic

Michael is called Michel in the subtitles but Michael in the audio *shrug emoji*

EP 5 

to get a wiggle on has become « il faut qu’on se remue les fesses », literally « we need to shake our butts » like, yes, se remuer les fesses is a common expression to say « we need to act in order to get things done » but it really casts the image of people shaking their booty to some music and obviously crowley thinks the same Weirdly enough I have almost nothing to say for that episode. Sorry. But we’ve discovered most voice actors and actresses so far and no bit of dialogue really struck me as worth discussing or pointing fingers to mock it.

EP 6 

« on va BROUTER quelques derrières » - « we’re gonna lick some butts » OK THIS IS UNQUESTIONNABLY FAR SUPERIOR IN FRENCH THAN IN ENGLISH you thought LICKING butts was good ??? you really thought that ???? AZIRAPHALE HERE SUGGESTS TO GRAZE BUTTS. TO NIBBLE THEM. TO EAT THEM. TO. MUNCH. ON. THOSE. BUTTS!!!! not just licking, guys. This is as serious step beyond licking. (oh yeah he should have said « botter » instead of brouter btw, which is really just kicking, fyi)

« moi je crois en la paix, pétasse ! » wow, language, pepper (fyi i think « pétasse » is far far worse than « bitch » even if it means roughly the same, pétasse is almost never used while bitch is rather common, so it’s a swear word +++)

Dagon sounds like she’s got a nasty cold. #GetDagonIbuprofen2K20

I can confirm that Crowley offers Aziraphale to not just stay at his place, but to move in with him. �� tu peux t’installer chez moi si tu veux ». omg they were roommates.

Bad translation strikes again : i don’t know why, but the french dub doesn’t have the « tickety-boo » / « ça gaze » being referenced as Rampa / Aziraphale is being knocked down, which is… a real mistep. It was narratively significant and I’m quite mad the translators missed it.

The Jesse James explanation from Newt has become very nonsensical, instead of the neat and to the point pun « wherever I go I hold up trafic » we’re getting a circonvoluted « because it’s a crime to mechanic’s diligence ». I’m not judging that one too hard, I have no idea how to make it better, and that’s probably how it was translated in the book as well thirty years ago, but it definitely doesn’t have the same impact. On the other hand, it definitely IS a very bad joke that doesn’t even deserve a chuckle, so Anathema’s embarassement really matches the audience’s (aka mine).

OVERALL :

I wasn’t convinced by Crowley… I mean, Rampa’s voice at first, but as the nerdiness showed up it really grew on me. I still think that french dubs have often problems with some voice inflexions every here and there, and for instance in Rampa’s case it was when he was annoyed or frustrated ( at the Globe when complaining about horses and Shakespeare’s plays that aren’t comedies, and also when discussing Azirphale’s magic tricks, it’s like… there is a step between having the right amount of grumpy complaining and overdoing it that is overlooked. It’s overacted, it should have been a bit quieter imo. I don’t mean to criticize voice actors too hard either but as an audience watching french dubs this is a very recurring problem and it always feels off to me. It’s actually one of the main reasons I avoid french dubs whenever possible.)

I have a hard time judging Aziraphale’s voice dub because it clashes so much with both the idea I had formed with it when I read the book and Sheen’s delivery that I just… kinda filtered it. It was too high pitched for me, and too anxious (though for this last point I must admit it could be funny at times, but I’m not fond of this character portrayal). The rest of the cast was rather good, nothing to complain about. There wasn’t anything stellar either, but everything that needed to be conveyed was and it was professionnal. It was also very homogeneous, no voice really struck me as being way too bad or way too good compared to the others, so it was really consistant.

So I don’t have much to complain about overall despite a few wonky translations here and there, BUT there is one thing I felt very robbed of : Crowley calling Aziraphale « mon ange » happens only once, when giving a lift to Anathema, and I’m almost certain they translated it that way because otherwise the joke about Anathama mistaking them for a couple wouldn’t work. So, they were forced to make it that way. The rest of the time Crowley calls Aziraphale « l’angelot », and despite being literally translated by « little angel », it feels sarcastic more than anything else ( the « L’ » in front of « angelot » is part of the reason why, it creates some distance, the other reason being that this word in itself has a very corny vibe and people being affectionnate to each other wouldn’t use it as a term of endearment). So, that’s a shame.

I like the English dub much much MUCH better than the French, but the french wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be. The voice actors and actresses were quite good, the dialogues mostly faithful and endearing despite a few really missed steps. It really had its moments. Props to brouter des derrières, that one was fantastic.

[popculturebuffet]

Close Enough Season 2 Review! or Josh Murders About 10 People

It's been hard to put into words just how wonderful a surprise this season getting released this month was. For starters before JG Quintel announced it last year shortly after season 1, I honestly was convinced season 2 wasn't happened. Do NOT get me wrong, Season 1 of Close Enough was one of the best parts of last year: It was funny, had a lot of heart, a great voice cast, and a great cast of characters that was throughly likeable and broke sitcom stereotypes, having a doofy husband and more straight laced wife with layers who clearly love and respect each other and BOTH can be prone to taking things too far instead of JUST Josh screwing up. Add in two great fellow leads Bridgette and Alex played by two of my faviorite va's, Kimiko Glen and Jason Mantzokus, whose name I finally learned how to spell, an adorable daughter and neat but out of focus neighbors and supors pearle and randy, and the show was just damn near perfect and felt like an improvement on regular show, taking the same humor and animation style but to an older cast and audience with more nuanced and likeable characters, and far more character development per episode. I wanted to see where the show would go.. but I was convinced given the show was leftover inventory from an animation block that never happened held over to give HBO Max some content it'd be canceled after one season, because I can't have nice things. But....

And very happily so: JG Quintel revealed the show had been picked up for season 2 not long after season 1 dropped, having listned to fans. As it turns out though they hadn't.. they just had a ton of faith in the show as I got ANOTHER bombshell earlier this month. While the show had showed up on the schedule for this month late in January, with no release date on said schedule, I wasn't 100% sure the show was coming back this month or that it wasn't just an error. But once again, I was wrong, it was earth all along, and they merely saved it for the press release for their adult animation lineup: alongside the huge and welcome bombshell they were the ones picking up the Clone High reboot and for two seasons, Close enough not only got two more seasons publicly announced, but fimrly revealed season 2 launched February 25th. LIke they likely had with infinity train the show was quitely picked up for another season, and they simply waited to announce it till the right time. Though unlike infinity train, they had faith in it to become a big hit and while they SHOULD HAVE with infinity train and should've accepted it was already a big hit simply not with the target demographic, it's still nice to see that after all it went through Close Enough not only got renewed but is now the network's flagship adult animated show, closely tied with harley quinn, and will likely go on as long as it wants to.

So naturally given I reviewed all of season 1 in the hopes i'td get renewed, I was happy to make room for season 2 and continue covering it and over the moon it was happening so soon. However I'm doing things diffrently this time: instead of flooding the tag with individual longform reviews, i'm reviewing the season all one go, to see if this format could work for me as I have tons of other shows i'd love to cover in this format that are either heavily comedic like say the Great North, regular show or the simpsons and thus dont' lend themselves to riffing as much and leave me less to do per episode, or more seralized shows like she ra or ones that are entirely complete like Steven Universe or Gravity falls that I could cover alone but this format could help expidite covering. Gravity Falls is also one of my patreon stretch goals if your instrested as is a whole lot of ducktales stuff, link on my blog. It also works with my much larger workload with a much tighter schedule, 6 reviews a week with a flex day in case I get behind so everything comes out as good as it posisbly can be, versus my original method of...

TLDR: One big post with smaller reviews each episode and an overall coverage of what changed this season and how good it is as a whole. We good? Good, then join me under the cut for some delightful sentient presents, couch ghosts, and jim fucking crunch as we get close enough to the heart.

I will never get tired of that image. I want it blown up and put on a banner at my funeral. But death plans aside let's get into the season

Slight Tweaks to a Great Formula: Given it's slice of life format based largely around likeable multi layered characters in comedic absurdity, not a lot has changed nor did it need to. What has are just simple tweaks to make things even better. For starters a natural result of getting to the episodes now produced directly for the 11 minute format means the pacing is much focused, subbing in full subplots for the occasional runner instead, and often only using what characters the episode needs. It will use the main five often, but the lack of subplots for the most part allows stronger focus on one or two characters to give the stories added weight and nuance and often laughs. While i'll always love season 1, this allows for much tighter stories and allows for everyone to get some major screen time instead of mostly Josh and Emily in season 1. It does mean we sadly get less of my boy Alex per episode but it's a sacrifice i'm willing to make if it means the show can grow and take more risks and evolve naturally. Though the former probably wasn't help by two of his three episodes being kinda weak, but i'll get to that.

The other noticeable change is Pearle and Randy. While they were promoted as main characters, even getting profiles along with the rest, they were in practice recurring characters in season 1, showing up pretty frequently but with only one starring episode for Randy and none for Pearle. And givne Pearle has an interesting backstory as a cop who likely had to put up with a LOT being a black woman officer, as well as raising a white redneck, while also being hilarious and having a fun energy to her, I felt they kinda wasted her in season 1.

Here though? Both have been bumped up to main cast proper, getting two focus episodes a piece (compared to the other main adults each getting three, some of those shared, and Candace getting one, hopefully more in the future as it was really good, along with, to my delight, mr.cambell also getting one), appearing far more in supporting roles and generally showing up with the main group a lot more. They still don't hang out with our loveable family all the time, but it makes sense as they have their own apartment and stuff to deal with, but it feels far more like their part of the main group. The show always treated them like this mine, but showing up more makes their friendships with their tenants feel more genuine, as it feels like their part of their lives more, whlie having their own to deal with we get to see now.

So while the series didn't change much, as I said it didn't need to and all of this is stuff is the kind of thing I wanted, especially Pearle getting a larger role and Randy being fleshed out from a dollar store version of muscle man into his own similar but difference character, and i'm happy to have it. So now i've talked about how the seasons' changed, let's talk about the episodes themselves. Grab a snack this is going to take a bit.

The Episodes!:

Josh Gets Shredded: 

Our premier and honestly it's a solid one with a singular premise on poking fun at gym culture, though in a nice twist Jim Crunch, the guy who runs the Gym Josh ends up going to to strengthen his core to play with Candace and whose voiced wonderfully by Kevin Michael Richardson is a genuinely good guy and there's no horrifying twist with him. He just wants Josh to get ripped and dosen't know his training is keeping josh from candace. IT's a simple setup of a father doing something for his daughter but getting distracted by it and while not new it works well here and we get plenty of fun gym jokes, including an exchange from Jim and Josh when Josh wants to become an "absolute unit", which in this case ends up meaning turning into the hulk but with the glowing firey eyes of an angry god, feels like it came straight out of the hockey bros from letterkenny, which is a good feeling to have. There's also a nice setup with Candace wanting to play king kong with Josh due to seeing it in class (Specially the Peter Jackson remake, also Candace knows who jack black is which I buy because of who her daddy is. I wouldn’t be surprised if Josh had Saving Silverman on a loop for several days until emily threw it out the window like a frisbee. ), which kicks off the whole thing.. and ends with ultra instinct hulk josh taking her to the top of a building and swatting away helicopters. It’s more of an average episode for the series and the runner about Emily being REALLY hot for buff josh comes off as a weaker version of the plot from family guy where Lois likes a thinner peter, apart from one inspired bit where in order to talk to him about candace without getting distracted, Emily pours an entire bag of ice down her pants.. and subtly after Josh talks about becoming an absolute unit, it’s gone nad rather than animation I like to believe it melted. Still a decent start to a great season. 

Meet the Frackers: A Randy Spotlight episode and unlike his season one episode rather than be a subplot in another episode it’s a full episode about him. And the starting incident is great as the gang gets their ancestry results back from costco, with Emily and Bridgette having ancestors in Guadalajara and Kiyoto.. and Josh being white (”Can you believe it?”). Alex coming from a long line of creeps is also pretty funny, those are his actual results by the way. 

But what the episodes truly about is Randy finding out his parents are alive in Malibu after Pearle claimed they were dead when he was a kid. She had a very good reason though: Randy’s parents were serial gas thieves, and Pearle nearly caught them one night with the two chucking him at her to escape. And to her credit Pearle TRIED to reach out to them once they ended up in jail for their crimes.. but they again chucked him at her which is hilarious. She simply didn’t want him to feel abandoned. He instead feels betrayed. 

His parents are hilariously white trash and played by two faviorite va’s of mine, David Kochner and Wendy Malick, who i’m happy is finally playing a lead roll on Owl House. They drink redneck maragretihas and eat mcribs (As Randy puts it “God’s favorite sandwich!”) every day and still steal gas, just legally now as frackers. Naturally though the two are still assholes and soon use a carnival as a cover to illegally frack and it’s up to Randy an dhis real mom to stop them> It’s a touching story with Randy genuinely wanting to hlep his mom, though I feel it would’ve been more interesting if Randy’s parents hadn’t been scum an dhe had to genuinely deal with having three parents now. Still it was worth it for some great lines from Malick and Kochner , so it works. Decent ep. 

Sauceface: Now we come to both one of the best eps of the season, and the series so far, and one of it’s most unique as it stars Candace and dosen’t feature the other main cast hardly at all, only Emily who kicks things off by, in a great bit, breaking Candace’s illusion their rich as “they live in a castle with alex and bridgette”, with her slowly realizing “Were poor”. Which is just a very kid thing to think that your parents are rich when they very much aren’t. 

But the episode really is a crime boss parody story, as the title would imply as Candace and her best friend start selling hot sauce, which is banned from the school due to it’s political correctness having gone mad and it being offensive to “sensitive palates” (They’ve also banned general tso’s chicken for mitlarialism and everything bagels for being “too much”). This leads where you’d expect: Candace getting drunk with power and forgetting why theys tarted, wet willies, and an art room brawl, all leading to candace’s friend getting pinched and candace having to use the money to buy Mr. Cambell a pelaton to get him off their backs, which leads to this lovely exchange “YOur letting them off just because they bought you a present?” “This is a 2000 dollar bike”. We also get the subtle reveal Mr. Cambell is gay which given how straight the main cast is, is nice.  But this was a great one with too many good gags to mention, a great setup, a great rolling stones song played during the montage I do not know the name of, and I hope we get other candace advnetures at her school in the future, because this was a real delight. Again one of the best episodes of the season. 

The House Guest From Hell: Speaking of best episodes, this is probably the best pairing of episodes yet, as both are standouts of the season. 

Emily’s old friend Becca drops back into her life, to everyone’s annoyance as Becca is an utter leech who constantly take advantage of Emily’s lack of boundaries with her to constantly talk about whatever drama she’s wrapped herself in and mooch off her. Josh and Bridgette want her to set firm boundaries, but Emily fails to and instead only gets Becca to set boundaries with her boyfriend.. which leads to her moving into the apartment temporarily, and annoying the hell out of everyone. Becca is a great character, being that asshole in the most over the top and annoying way possible, to the point she takes alex’s room, watches tv on a loop and doesn’t seem to realize Emily is married (Despite being part of her bridal party), or that candace is Emily’s daughter and not a tiny butler (Which Candace assumes is a game. )

Naturally for this show things escalate hilariously as Emily finds out she’s pregnant when she tries to throw her out and the pregnancy is escalated.. and we soon find out it’s because the pregnancy is demonic: She has Hecate as her dula (And Alex naturally asks if she’s single, get it guy get it), needs goats hoves, locusts and the blood of the innocent (Which is the only item that trips josh up who hopes they can get it at costco, which made me have to pause as I could not stop laughing). This would be funny enough. .but what takes it into making this episode a classic is when Emily tricks her boyfriend Luke over he’s unsurprisingly a devil.. but also a hilariously over the top douchebag dudebro played by Beck  Bennet, who it’s not only nice to see outside of ducktales, but is also just totally game. Luke is so odious it wraps around to being funny, to the point he unsurprisingly hits on Bridgette while his girlfriend is in labor, messily makes out with her and they try to move in, though thankfully Emily cathartically screams Becca out midbirth. Also they end up going to hell, with Luke getting there by doing donuts. Yes really. This episode is a treasure and does the series schitck of taking a relatable problem and escalating it to perfection. 

Joint Break:

Another unsurprisingly good one, as Pearle deals with the fact that despite her decades of service, the force’s health plan doesn’t cover her needed hip surgery after she slides over a car wrong (Which also leads to a great riff on the old csi Miami parody). She then finds herself between her oath as an officer and her needs for help as she befriends a gang of saucy old women at water aerobics who are also bank robbers and want to cut her in. And they provide a tempting offer, getting what their owed and ti feels like a genuine dilemma, even if Pearle ends up siding with the police, not that she should. It’s also full of great bits of the old lady gang weaponizing stereotypes about old people, with the three of them dawning classic old lady getups to fool an officer, and having one of them i a walker slowly cross the street to stop an armored truck. Fun stuff helped by their leader being voiced by Jane Lynch, continuing this season’s red hot guest star streak, not that the series has ever been light on them (They got David Hasselhoff and weird al in season 1, so yeah), but this season ramps up the good guest voices to the point there’s one per episode almost. 

Cyber Matrix: This one’s okay though the setup is good. Unsurprisingly given both his dale gribble-esque penchant for conspiracies and his hipster holier than thou ways, Alex has never had a smart phone, and has a very old flip hone that’s horrifc to look at and naturally gets destroyed, leading to him getting addicted to the thing.. and this being the show it is fusing with it. What makes this one is the climax, as the rest of the main group scramble to take out the cell tower so Alex’s phone doesn’t upload him to the cloud while Josha nd Alex open everything they can to slow her down. The result is the phone hacking Emily’s and ordering packages, task rabbits to punch her inthe face (With randy taking it so they can go) and outright hijacking a car in a clever chase. The ending though does sink this as suddenly their in veirutal reality again and it just feels weird given the series, while not really using continuity much so far, dosne’t have negavite continuity punch out endings outside of this one ep and I hope this dosen’t happen again. Otheriwse a decent one if sadly not one of Alex’s best and he equally sadly onlyg ets one truly great episode this season, compared to having a good chunk of the best plots last season. Still you can’t win em all and i’m sure my boy will return to form and said great episode, which we’ll get to soon, certainly shows they didn’t loose their touch. They just fumbled a bit and that’s okay. 

Haunted Couch: Balancing that out is the fact that Bridgette, who didn’t get nearly as many good eps as Alex or as much focus as the rest, gets some great episodes this season with this one being my out and out favorite as it fleshes her out more and has some really great gags. Josh brings in a street couch (And he and Emily’s argument over it is great including him using the fact she forced them to get a savings account as leverage somehow), just as Bridgette is in emotional turmoil over her latest boyfriend suddenly ghosting her. 

Naturally she ends up falling for a REAL ghost, a french couch designer who had a habit of cheating on his lovers, died for it by one of their hands, and his soul ended up bound to the couch. Naturally hea nd Bridgette hit it off and we get a LOT of good stuff in a montage as the two take the couch everywhere, and her friends, minus Alex who surprisingly rather than being jealous, simply dosen’t like the fact there’s a ghost in the house technically haunting them which surprisingly goes nowhere, are happy for her and like him after the initial shock wears off, though Josh still wants to sit on the couch. He and Bridgette even have really good sex using Randy’s body, with him being a willing vesel for Marcus. And i’d just like to point out that an intensely weird comedy show that also has a sentient present, bob vila with saw hands, and dude bro satan in this very season, 2/3 of those to come.. STILL did this better than wonder woman 87, as they actually asked someone to let the ghost of the couple use his body so they could fuck, and he gave full consent to it. And no I sitll haven’t let that go, it was a very bad plotline with nightmarish implications and the fact close enough did it better in a joke, they also have the song from ghost in the background by the by, than a big budget movie from the same company, is a really large bilboard saying:

But while the episode was thoroughly interesting and funny.. it’s what happens next that makes it one of the series best. While the series is amazing at comedy, it’s the character growth slid in between it that makes it so awesome and this episode is a great example. Bridgette turns cold towards Marcus as it’s clear he’s serious, and he’s even moved a tooth brush in. She gets more and more hostile until eventually Marcus calls her on it, and prevents her from leaving with a vortex of furniture.. which could’ve gone bad very quick but instead just means she has to face him.. and is hit with a rather painful relization when he asks “Do you what me to, how you say, ghost you?” (She explained the concept earlier). She says no.. but quickly a series of flashbacks puts the previous breakup in context as the guy she was seeing asked to leave a toothbrush, a  simple escalation and she got real nasty real quick without saying what the problem was. We see more of this with a previous boyfriend and hilaroiusly one before that guy who not only had a toothbrush in a ringbox but was also in a hot air ballon she casually cuts the anchors too and has float away. Which does mean Bridgette probably killed a man but that’s one compared to josh’s 10 this season. Yes, 10. We’ll get to that. 

Point is she realizes “oh shit i’m the dick”, and has a genuine talk with Marcus, realizing why: “You know how women feign being submissive because society’s taught them to so they don’t get raped or murdered or kidnapped?” “Oui”, best bit of the episode and damn if it ain’t horribly true. But due to tha Bridgette simply got terrible quick to scare guys off when she really just wanted to break it off instead of take things further and breaks it off with marcus.. and is surprised and relieved when he doesn’t want a big fight and takes it acceptably, Marcus having grown from his past of being a women using cad and genuinely wanting to treat them better. For once Bridget gets to have an emotionally mature breakup with someone, and while you could say her relationship with alex is like that, it’s very clear from an upcoming episode it wasn’t a very clean break at first and while their amicable now their marriage was a hot volcano of arguments. This allos Marcus to pass.. if also destroying the couch to Josh’s misery. An instant classic and one of the season’s highlights and one that really fleshes Bridgette out a bit by giving another reason for her relationships not working besides alex that fits the character perfectly and has her grow from it. 

Also just a quick sidenote, this episode vaguely reminded me of the Nightmare Time, theater troupe team starkid’s zoomcast I highly recommend set in their hatchetfield multiverse, episode “Jane’s a Car” , which is about a man’s wife possessing his car and also involves an object. Both are very diffrent mind you, Jane’s a Car ends up way more depressing, but its’ stil la story involving ghost fucking though Bridgette found a vesel instead of straight up fucking a couch the way tom went to town on that car. It also involves the lead’s perosnal issues, if far more severe in Jane’s a Car’s case, reflected by their relationship with a ghost. I mean it is a stretch but these are the weird connectoins my brain makes and I mostly bring it up because an  upcoming episode in the season goes from kind of similar but only to me to very similar, and a very fun concidence that these two episodes existed in the same year, especially since this happened last year with this show and Ducktales. But first josh doing a murder on some people. 

Man Up:

Okay for starters the title man up reminds me of this short lived abc sitcom I never saw but given it was about three guys tapping into their “inner man” it sounds like aresnic somehow took the sentient form of a tv show. This actual poster for it not only proves the point but why it lasted one season if not why the hell I remembered this existed at all despite never seeing it, not recognizing anyone in it and not wanting anything to do with it. 

Given I have 8 more episodes to go after this one, I do not have time to disect all the way that poster is a waking nightmare, though i’d love to, and instead i’m going to talk abotu the episode itself. The intro is funny enough, with the Ramierz-Singletons going to a bank for Candace’s first bank account, the Bank of Hollywood. An alien seemingly attacks, it turns out to be a promotional stunt with high budget effects a great gag in of itself, but Josh runs out on his family.  Naturally he’s horribly rattled by this, and wants to be a better dad, a John McClane type. So two things: I now want a crossover with this show and brooklyn nine nine along with the hatchefield one in my head and the regular show one most fans want. And the second is that John wasn’t the best dad or husband, and both the original film, the sequel josh saw, and the fourth film all spell this out. The fifth does too but I feel if I wish hard enough a good day to die hard will just spontaneously cease to exist and we’ll all be happier that way. 

So Pearle agrees to help him, and we get a fun training montage, with Josh protecting a candace made of eggs Alex made, because of course he did, and an emily made of the same because of course he did, and get punched in the junk by randy in a dog costume, as you do. He actually feels tough and is ready for phase 2, pearle hitting him with something unexpectdly.

Instead what he thinks is Phase 2 is actually a die hard style hyjacking of Emily’s company christmas party, which josh misses due to being in the bathroom after panickily running into corn. As a result.. we get josh killing about 8-10 people not realizing it’s not a simulation but not really caring about that part when it’s revealed. Which granted it is in self defense but he still kills a LOT of people this episode, and I will be forever haunted by the fact that stringbean can REALLY do some murders. Seriously who knew JOSH had it in him. That is terrifying to comprehend. Naturally after he john mclanes his way up, he finds out it wasn’t a simulation panics but instead of running away runs the hans gruber knockoff, whose sadly not very entertaining out of the building and onto some exploding corn, saving the day, earning his family’s respect and cemnting himself as a badass. The reveal of what the text actually was is just.. perfect as it’s just a bat on a string with Alex saying “he’s totally going to shit”. The perfect capper to good ep only hampred by hans being really weak.. seriously he just has a weird sentence sturcture tha’ts hte joke. They can do better. Otherwise a good die hard parody. John would be proud. 

Handy:

Another decent one not a standout but it has a truly astounding bit. Randy finds out, after going to Guy Fieri’s flavor diaster for Pearle, that she hired another handyman and he’s not good at his job as as he puts it “I’m going to do what troubled young men have done for years : i’m going to sea!”. Which is funny enough but leads to him stranded on a desert island, hallucinating and then meeting his idols in handy manning who may or may not be hallucinations: Bob Vila, The Ikea Mascot (Who speaks only in pictures and is a fun gag despite never having seen him before this episode) and my favorite tim the tool man taylor, whose tie is constantly pointed up for some reason and who amazingly only speaks in grunts. I didn’t know I needed this so thank you close enough. We also get the three helping with bob turning his hands into buzzsaws, ikea man creating nails and screws and Tim using his head as a tool. All accurate to their original shows and in ikea man’s case brocures. Really good adaptation. But through this he discovers the clog the guy is trying to fix at the house is loadbearing and rushes home to save the house, leading to a fun actoin scene and a weird version of the celebration from the end of return of the jedi, complete with force ghosts. So we also get a tim taylor force ghost which I did not know I needed and as much as that show makes my stomach churn I badly hope shows up in the finale of last man standing. A decent one and givne how I keep sayin ga decent episode over and over you can kinda see why I didn’t review all these. LIke season 1 I simply don’t have a full review in me for every single one of these episodes. We’re now at the halfway mark, only 8 more to go, I envy the dead, let’s do this. 

Birthdaze: This was the episode most heavily promoted in the trailer and for good reason as it’s the best of the season. Also relatable as while not having kids I do get how Kids Birthday parties feel and how they often end up weirdly close together. In this case both coalse as Josh and Emily have three birthdays in one weekend, their friends Emily’s friend Trish from “Cool Moms”, who is so far some of the only continuity the series has, but a nice sign it has it, and that we could see Jim Crunch (who rose from the grave after an utterly wonderful funeral) or Dog Boy again. Or this episode’s standout gifty. But we’ll get to that in a second.  So Josh and Emily well intentiondly decide to throw a party for the parents at the same time as Candace’s.. but end up neglecting Candace. While their idea is good, to reward the other parents for having to sit through so many parties, putting it at the same time was a horrible idea as giving a bunch of pent up people with low alcohol tolerance booze ends up resulting in drunken antics and them heckling the magicain... and given the world we’re in, that’s a horrible mistake as he makes the children disappear to a world of perptual brithday parties and forces JOsh and Emily to follow him if they want their child back.  What results is an utter delightly as we meet the wonderful and incomprable Gifty, a giant living present who works iwth the magician, named sardini, and is voiced by Kate Miccuci, heart eyes> Just.. evey bit with gifty is great, from her genuinely being animated and looking like a muppet, to her casually going demonic to explain if the kids stay too long they forget parents, to as seen up top playing a pipe organ that is apparently made of gold plated clown bones, and her best bit, which I posted on this very blog, where she assures the trapped kids if JOsh and Emily fail their final test, they’ll get to live of nutricious necco wafers before vomiting a giant cloud of them at the poor children. Those things are gross and we now knwo it’s because they come from a giant present’s stomach. 

We get a great montage before most of that of our heroes treking through a weird and awesome birthday landscape with too many good parts to mentoin, before finding Sardini who puts them through tests before they can get candace back.. and one of those are you human image tests via the ball from phantasm. As gifty puts it “We have to make sure your not a bot”. But the tests, about candaces faviorite things, help the two realize she liked them because they did it together, and a final talk with candace, as the final test has her ask why theyd idn’t want to spend time with her, with the two warmly apologizing and explaning why they did it but that they went too far. Candace reconclies with her parent,s the kids and our heroes go home, and Sardini finds himself sad no one stayed.. but at least he has gifty... and then start making love to her “Unwrap me!” which is far and away the best gag in the season’s best episode by a mile. 

Time Hooch:

Now to talk about two things I hinted at earlier: The only good Alex episode this season and the one that vaugely resembles one of the Nightmare Time episodes. And while their two very diffrent stories with very diffrent outcomes and only one of them involves this guy

And suprisingly it’s NOT close enough that has the eldtrich horrifying goat monster with a goofy cartoon voice who says things like “I’m coming for your ass Teddy Bear!” But both are stories about a sketchy (mildly for alex, entirely for Ted) middle aged man who feels one moment is where his life went wrong then accidently time travels after drinking 80 tons of liquor and decides to use said time travel to save a relationship, and fails at it in some fashion.  There’s even a jaunt to a distopian future with robots and cyborgs. So while it’s not 1:1, alex is far more sympathetic than Ted, Time Bastard is dark horror comedy, and it again dosen’t involve a horrifying goat man suprisingly enough, it’s till way too many happy coincidences for me to outright ignore. Also check out nightmare time and especially the musicals it spun off from The Guy Who Didn’t LIke Musicals and Black Friday. It’s good stuff. But I couldn’t help but make the comparison, or now imagine Alex, Ted and Professor Hidgens as some weird diasterious power trio. This is how my brain works now. 

But to the episode itself it’s just great from start to finish: Bridgette finds out while rumaging for an old photo in an old box of their stuff that Alex never signed the divorce papers. Turns out he was hoping they’d get back together.. and while not doing it and not telling her was a VERY selfish and horrible action.. you still sympathize with him. He hoped things would work out and they’d get back together, and given they had some close calls with that in season 1, to the point I shipped them, you can see where his sprig of hope came from. But with this he’s realized there probably isn’t any hope and drinks some old moonshine he and Josh made in college.  Said moonshine was from a recipie in an old blues record, the titular time hooch that true to form, allows them to travel back in time. And since he was thinking of when he thought the relationship truly hit it’s breakig point, when Bridgette at a sandwitch of his and he’d said in the heat of it he wished he’d never met her, they end up there and Alex tries to use it to help. Also Jason’s delivery of Alex saying what the recipie was “rye, barely, a dead man’s pocket watch, mixed under a full moon (Laughs) okay we probably should’ve seen this coming.  

Naturally here’s where it really gets intresting. As you’d probably guess, our heroes are the ones who made the sandwitch disappear and in desperation, alex kidnaps his past self before he can say the fatal words> We also get another spectacular bit where all past alex needs from alex to know he’s really him from the future is what year he was born (1982), meaning he’s defintely older than the rest of the cast. Though I wouldn’t be suprised if he was held back.. like at all. Look i’m not thinking too hard into it this is also a story about whiskey based time travel. 

But with that said intresting part takes hold as Josh’s past self reminds him of another fight that made things tense for a while.. and you can see where this goes. Alex keeps going back, and back, and back and back and back and back and back... and back, to try and stop the one fight, only to find a bigger one, leading to a montage.. to the point he ends up at the start of the relationship, the day they met at a college bar. The younger Alex’s have decided screw it it was always wrong, let’s end the relationship. 

We also get more of Alex’s backstory as it turns out he’s at a community college rather than UCLA, where he used to teach because of his own dumb actions: He met bridgette, let her enroll in his class and didn’t try to convince her to take another one. Don’t get me wrong the decade age gap and power dynamics are iffy.. but it’s not as bad as it could be. They met before the class, and it comes off more as both being too stupid or too horny to realize how her being in his class came off before it was too late. She got with him entirely on his merits, and yes he has some trust me.  Case in point.. Alex realizes a few things. The first is that no amount of time travel can save his relationship. They fought all the time clearly, and there were inherent problems. It’s also clear just from the series itself that while they have chemistry their just not that compatible as people. Bridgette is obessed with image, social media, and herself while Alex just two episodes ago called phones the downfall of society and likes feeling superior to the exact kind of person bridgette is. They have chemistry but sometimes it’s jut not enough. You have to have some common ground or your going to fall in a big hole. It’s honestly feels like a much more tolerable and realistic version of Leonard and Penny from the Big Bang Theory. And yes I know that show’s not the most popular with my core audience, nerds, and I bring it up because mom’s been watching it a lately, and any time I see Leonard and Penny on screen it annoys me into a tizzy as the two just have NO REASON to be together other than boning, and even then he’s apparently not a good partner so why then. They have nothing in common and she mocks and belittles him all the fucking time, mocking his hobbies, finding his job boring, and mocking him as a person. And not sharing hobbies or finding his job intresting would be fine, and still work but it’s the constant teasing about it that comes off far more vitrolic than probably intended that just makes me hope for a divorce. Here it’s not only much milder but they did actually get a divorce because their just diffrnet people and i’m not mad the ship was sunk. It was done in a poetic way. 

And part of that poetry is Alex realizing that as doomed as things ended up being, via a very sweet montage of their time together.. he realizes he can’t loose this all together. That sure he’d gain a lot and porbably woudlnt’ be living in a closet, but he’d loose all the good times, and he’d loose a friend. His marriage wasn’t so bad he wants to erase it it just ended and that happens. Naturally the other alex’s don’t feel that way but Alex stops them.. Josh is too drunk at this point to help, and ends up creating a time vortex. The vortex sends our heroes home, where Alex realizes his mistake and apologizes for it to bridgette and signs the papers in front of her.  As for the Alexs we get a horrifying and hilarous gag as, given they’ve all commented each other is handsome.. start having an orgy, and are later found in amber and their dna is used to create our alex apparently. How does that work?

Point is this episode.. is a masterwork. It’s emotoinal, hilarious, and really good character work, with Alex having a really stellar arc that shades him in and putts a final button in his and bridgettes relationship. And having seen many ships I like end horribly, it’s nice to have one end in a satsifying way like this. Also we see Alex in his borat thong, and i’d just like to point out how funny I find it that the same year they made a borat joke, specifically on it being from a decade or two ago, we ended up getting a second Borat movie. Very niceeee. 

World’s Greatest Teacher: This one was alright. On the bright side we got a Mr.Cambell episode! I”ve loved the guy since first meeting him in 100% no stress day, it was the first episode and that hasn’t changed and he’s always a bright spot when he shows up. So an episode about him dealing with a rival teacher, MS. Lake a twice a week music teacher gunning for his job and his students love sounded made for me. In practice he gets a bit too petty to be symapthetic which takes things down a peg, even if it turns out  Ms. Lake really is coming for his ass Teddy Bear, but it has enough good gags to help it still be a fun episode.

The biggest one and the biggest reason I sitll like the episode is Timothy’s coffe mug for world’s greatest teacher.. which naturally comes to life, possibly as a psychotic break possibly for real because of the show this is, and starts speaking in the dulcet tones of keith david. ANd i’ve made no secret I love and am thirsty for Keith David on this blog and never will, and having him voice an abusive fowl mouthed coffee mug  is something I dind’t know I need but boy did I always need it my entire life. Yes even as a baby. It’s just glorious every time he shows up. The climax is also great as the two teachers end up bonding over the greatest love of all and george micheal after Candace invites River to a part sh’esd having for her tooth coming out, and end up becoming frinemies, a nice solution i was glad to see. Even if i’ll miss evil keith david coffee mug. Rest in power my dude. 

Where’d You Go, Bridgette? The second major Bridgette episode of the season and like “Haunted Couch” this one’s an instant classic. After realizing Bridgtte’s already out of control addition to her phone has gotten even worse, Pearle confinscates it and takes her to detox. This leads to two great plots; Bridgette going into withdrawl, complete with an inspired nightmare sequence about her aps and missing her friends death because she was on her phone and the rest of the cast thinking sh’es been kidnapped because she’s not on social media, which while stupid is DELIGHTFULLY stupid and makes some sense given how glued to her phone she is. They end up calling a true crime podcast over, two egosticial college girls who quickly blame them for it despite it making no sense and their fans torm the apartment, and don’t belivie it when bridgette actually shows up.. It takes an inspired speech from Bridgette, whose developed as a person and after actually tasting a late for the first time sees how good they are, and Pearle posting that speech online to dismiss them and our heroes are saved. It’s an utterly amazing plot from josh being excited about the mob attacking them, to Pearle revealing part of the reason she’s so dedicated to helping bridgette is due to her own weird addiction to six flags, which is just so oddly specific I love it. 

The Erotic Awakening of A.P. Lapearle This one STARTED well, with Alex reading his viking erotic to everyone, and not getting that Candace maybe shouldn’t be there, only for Pearle to be the only one to actually enjoy it and be inspired by her enjoyment of his work to submit it to a publisher. The publisher ends up making a valid point that women want erotic fantasy from someone they can feel safe by and alex is well.. alex, so he suggests using pearle as a front. it goes how you’d expect: he wants actual credit, the publisher slowly pushes him out, she regrets it, they fight an army of fans and make them vomit with alex reading the book.. standard stuff. It’s just not very funny or a great insight into either characters, and is easily the weakest episode of the season.. though the next one gave it close compettition. 

Men Rock!

This one was a chore to sit through, and is only ahead of the last one because it has some really good josh bits and musical numbers which is more than the last one gave me so hey. In a nutshell Emily is on the verge of quitting her and Bridgette’s music careers as she feels they’ll never be famous only for their latest song Men Rock!, an ironic title for a sarcastic song poking fun at a bunch of toxic masculinty bs that is a good song, has hit it HUGE in a fictonal foreign dicatroship and get invited to go, reclutantly agreeing. If you haven’t seen the ep, you can still guess how this goes: say it with me THEY TOOK IT AT FACE VALUE. So our heroines have to help inspire the repressed women and inspire a bloody cou, helped by josh finding some improisoned femisinists in a bathroom. They also gain a fan. it has a few good gags, mostly Candace trying to remind her dad to help her find a place to pee after he keeps getting sidetracked by being taken back by Emily’s sucess. I’ts just a very bad, very predictable episode with very obvious misogyn is bad jokes. And misgoyny IS bad but other shows, paticuarlly tuca and bertie with one early episode, have tackeld this topic better. This episode did not. Last one. 

Secret Horse:

This one in stark contrast is one of the series best and an utter joy to watch. On a bad day for the whole apartment with some santa anna winds, an adorable, poofy mained utterly precious horse gets free and ends up at the apartment. Thus we get a vingettte episode, as the horse has a delightful adventure with each of our main 7, and each up tot he last try and hide the horse badly only for the horse to suddenly sprout up and help their mood.

I do love a good vinegtte episode, with two of my faviorite simpsons episodes being 22 short films about springfiled (Minus kirk dragging MIlhouse away from the bathroom, fuck you you balding asshat, it makes the episode hard to watch) ,and trilogy of error, and this is a classic example of it as we get some fun adventures fro each of the housemates: Candace plays with the horse, adorably so, Josh finds it in the garage as his car breaks down and takes them on an install with him, even stuffing them into a suit and we get a great bit of the horse getting fed sugarcubes and josh money. Brigette gets help living in the now instead of posting about it all the time.

My faviorite comes next as Alex needs new patches for his suit but obviouslyc n’t afford them so he takes the ponyt ot he track.. to help him pick which horses to bet on. It’s just such an inherntly funny idea, especially since it works, and really the horse is just hilarious wherever it ends up. It next helps randy win a skating contest, we get a touching story as Pearle misses her old tragically dead horse partner and uses our boy as a subtitute and finlaly we get emily who needs help relaxing and while she naturally calls animal control she hangs up as she falls for hte horse. The group all fight over the horse in the end, the horse leaves and they let it go home, wonder if it was a hallucination and it whizes on thier car. Overall a really great finale and a wonderful note to go out on. 

Overall Ranking I’ve decided eveyr time I do one of these, or a post season wrapup of a show i’ve covered every episode of the season to rank them from best to worst sooo

Birthdaze Time Hooch Haunted Couch Secret Horse Where’d You Go Bridgette? Sauce face Houseguest  From Hell Joint Break Josh Gets Shredded World’s Greatest Teacher Meet the Frackers Handy Man Up Cyber Matrix Men Rock!  The Erotic Awakening of A.P. Lapearle

And i’d like to note that outside of the bottom two hear.. I enjoyed ALL of these. WHich leads to

Final Thoughts; This season was excellent. It had everything the first season had the heart, the character and the utterly great sense of humor, and fine tuned it to be a well oiled machine I could hardly stop laughing at and with tons of great character stuff. Before it had the potetial to surpass regular show but now it has as despite having a few dud episodes itself, as is intievitble in any show, now, they still aren’t as bad as a lot of RS’s early misteps. And Regular SHow as a FANTASTIC show and really stuck the landing, so i’m only saying this is even better and can only go up from here. And even if it stays about the same quality wise, that won’t be a bad place to be. This season was near damn perfect, i’ll probably watch it again and again, and I can’t wait to devour more and given the current tragectory probably will this year. And I couldn’t be more excited.

If you like this blog follow for more reviews, become a patreon to help reach stretch goals or comission a review outright, details for the latter two on my blog. And i’ll see you at the next rainbow. 

[wild-battlebond]

Digimon Xros Wars: Hunters Ep9 Liveblog

Akari is back!!!

they're doing a new sport AGAIN

i think it's really funny that Tagiru and Yuu just follow him around while he helps people

oh he's fainting like old times

AKARI!!!

you'd think that Taiki would have told all his old friends about the hunt and stuff since they all have ties to the Digimon

oh so this is gonna be like, the super Taiki and Akari ship episode

well i guess it makes a little more sense if they're worried about the others being worried if they tell them about the hunt? i guess?

and Tagiru is going to spy of them through DigiQuartz……. that's really silly, but I'm curious to see how exactly he plans on doing that.

he just put a suit jacket over his regular shirt. what a kid.

...ok Tagiru's schtick is weird. but i guess he's going to meet with his rival? and do rivalry things?

is everyone finally going to get some comeuppance for thinking of Taiki as more-than-human

man do i love DigiQuartz's general aesthetic. this slaps.

wondering if SuperStarmon has any relation to the Starmon of og Xros Wars fame

well they at least referenced that Starmon

so SuperStarmon is a Starmon that was really cool so it evolved. also it's good to see cameos from everyone.

i also still really like the sinking/rising to enter/leave DigiQuartz thing

im no expert on celebrities but aren't most of these people dead

maybe they're wax statues that SuperStarmon thinks are real people

no they were turned into dolls and now SuperStarmon is slowly sapping celebrity power from them

that must be scary to see a bunch of frozen people placed on literal pedestals and then see one with your own name on it

love how glaringly obvious it is that Cutemon's va must have been constantly available since Cutemon has made a ton of appearances so far

*paused the episode for like a week. welcome back to the gumdramon gets beat up show. (i started it a little too far back)

so DigiQuartz is super-brittle…

WHY do the tiny stars turn into a bear

"when digimon things are happening i stop thinking and follow your lead" that's not as cool of a line as the show seems to frame it. man does xros wars suck at writing its girls.

im glad Taiki is finally telling his friends about everything

the rivals are cooperatinggggggggg

they're cobbling together X4 somehow?! and Akari was the one who suggested it!

DOUBLE XROS???

oh that is SO cool. i completely forgot they weren't limited to only xrossing their partners with another Digimon (since Gumdramon is usually the only one getting xrossed)

ohg that was so cool. i don't even like the design of X4 and the fight was short but it was still SO cool to see X4 in action again. really hope they make new combinations with double xros later in the show (since xros heart is currently a trio of Taiki, Tagiru, and Yuu, they could even possibly use great xros at some point? they could xros up to 6 Digimon that way!)

oh, so using double xros is exhausting for the humans… so it definitely won't be a common occurrence

ZENJIROU!!! smash bros everyone is here moment.

[love-takes-work]

Steven Universe Podcast: Fan Celebration

This is an outline of the Steven Universe Podcast regarding “Fan Celebration”: an issue of the podcast in which voice actors and storyboarders answer fan questions. No volume number or episode number was given for this one. The official description:

It's a celebration of the fandom! Zach Callison (voice of Steven), Deedee Magno Hall (voice of Pearl), Michaela Dietz (voice of Amethyst), Matthew Moy (voice of Lars), and Storyboard Artists Miki Brewster and Lamar Abrams tackle everything from gem weapon of choice to creating their own storylines to favorite scenes and hardest ones to voice and create to memorable studio moments and best-loved characters!

This is a long podcast with a long summary, so as usual I will give you a bulleted list of highlights, followed by a detailed summary.

Highlights:

Miki Brewster’s favorite characters to board are Amethyst & Ruby. Character reactions are inspired by what she thinks a fan would want to see, and designs she loves are overgrown old Gem stuff on Earth. In the SU world, her weapon would be a greatsword.

Matthew Moy would have related to Pearl or Lars most as a child. His hardest thing to VA for has been Lars’s switch to being a confident space captain. He feels connection to characters he plays is vital. His memorable moment with the Crew was finally meeting Estelle after about four years of doing the show. A line that sums up his character would be just groaning about what Steven has gotten him into. His favorite episodes to be part of were probably “Lars of the Stars” and “The Good Lars.”

Lamar Abrams would have related most to Sapphire as a child. His hardest thing to VA for was the energetic stylings of Zooman Wy-Six. Lamar leans on direction to properly play characters and doesn’t necessarily need to relate to them. His memorable moment with the Crew was improvising a chant to egg Sour Cream on in “Lars and the Cool Kids.” A line that sums up his character (Buck) is “That’s nasty. I don’t like nasty stuff.” His favorite episode to be part of was maybe “Shirt Club.”

Deedee Magno Hall thinks the thing her character would never say would involve enthusiastically ordering food. If she was in the SU world, her weapon would be an antibacterial spritzer. The most fun part of her job is the people she works with. The hardest scenes for her involve when Pearl screams. Deedee’s favorite thing to record is “all the songs.” If she could write an episode, she would have it be musical and involve a tour of the SU world on a flying carpet. she thinks jewelry in the SU world would be an alternate way to protect your friends and keep them close.

Michaela Dietz thinks the thing her character would never say would be a sincere “I love you” (though she would SHOW it), or maybe saying she’d had enough food. If she was in the SU world, her weapon would be a cannon that shoots “the bits.” The most fun part of her job is the people she works with. The hardest scenes for her involve talking during a song. She says she sometimes has to burp on cue and has trouble doing it. Michaela’s top episode to record for may have been “The Question.” If she could write an episode, she would have the Crystal Gems writing a cartoon. In answering what food Amethyst would NOT like, she thinks it’d be anything with nutritional value or superfoods. And she thinks jewelry in the SU world would be like being able to carry your friends around.

Zach Callison thinks the thing his character would never say would be about loving his mom (his feelings for her are weird, and he doesn’t know her), or that Steven would never insult a restaurant’s cooking and send it back. If he was in the SU world, his weapon would be a gun blade. The most fun part of his job is the people he works with. The hardest scenes for him were doing all the Stevens in “Steven and the Stevens.” A funny VA moment for him was when he and Grace Rolek had to stuff huge marshmallows in their mouths for a full-mouth line. Zach’s top episodes to be part of were big turning point episodes like “Jailbreak” and “Mr. Greg.” He thinks the biggest difference when recording for a video game is the increase in effort noises and being trusted to know their characters more. If he could write an episode, he’d have Peridot and Steven hunting down a mob boss in a gritty episode where they’d fuse into a tiny Fusion at the end. He thinks jewelry in the SU world would be like keeping Gems as pets and would horrify Homeworld.

The detailed summary is below!

[Archive of Steven Universe Podcast Summaries]

Miki Brewster is first up; Miki is the storyboarder who wrote and boarded on the episodes "The Question" and "Reunited" (among other episodes). She answers these questions:

Q: Who's your favorite character to storyboard?

A: Ruby or Amethyst. She just thinks Amethyst is cute and Ruby is excitable and fun, and her square head is fun and easy to draw.

Q: How do you come up with how characters will respond to situations?

A: What would a fan really want to see this character do? If you're a fan, you could watch a whole show just for a character, so reactions should be about what makes that character unique and worth watching.

Q: What kind of motifs in music or design are most interesting to you?

A: Gem architecture on Earth, like overgrown temples and crashed ships.

Q: If you were in the SU world, what would your Gem weapon be?

A: A greatsword. They're cool and you can hit hard with them.

Matthew Moy and Lamar Abrams are the next guests.

Q: Which character would you have resonated with most as a child?

A: Matthew would have resonated with Pearl (because she worries so much) or Lars. Lamar would have resonated with Sapphire (because she's quiet and introspective the way he was--he would have identified with her diplomacy, and she's trying to make people understand).

Q: What has been the hardest scene to do voice acting for?

A: Matthew feels it was when Lars became the space captain. It's a big switch, being confident, such a contrast to his teen angst from before. Lamar said he has an easy time voicing Buck, so his most difficult was voicing Wy-Six (he can't remember if it was Jay-Ten or Wy-Six, he always gets those two mixed up). It's so energetic and exuberant and he says it was tiring to do for a whole session. He can't believe other people have to voice characters who yell and scream.

Q: How much do you feel for your characters, how do you relate to them?

A: Matthew feels like acting requires it; connection is vital. Lamar thinks it's just about getting across the right feeling even if you can't personally relate. Rebecca helps with the direction. He suggests he might sometimes be told to make Buck "more disinterested," and Matthew wants to know if he's ever actually gotten that direction. He thinks maybe, or at least he's sometimes told to try stuff in a higher or lower tone.

Q: What kind of antics do the voice actors get up to? Any funny or memorable times recording?

A: Matthew remembers meeting Estelle finally like four years into the job. During the pilot he recorded with 80% of the cast but not her, and he finally got to meet her and introduced himself awkwardly, and she's like "Hey Lars, nice to finally meet you." Lamar suggests maybe it was almost like what Garnet herself would do in that situation, and Matthew enthusiastically agrees, suggesting "Oh my gosh we're all the same." Lamar remembers finally meeting her after a while too, and he met her outside the studio when she was probably going to get something to eat. He saw her with her glasses on and thought she looked cool but later realized that was probably Estelle. Lamar remembers one time he was voicing Buck with Brian Posehn (Sour Cream) and Reagan Gomez (Jenny) and they had to do a little chant egging Sour Cream on while other characters would be talking over it, and he thought that was fun. (The improvised chant he describes is the one at the end of "Lars and the Cool Kids.") They love the "side walla that nobody hears." Lamar always hopes someone notices those things.

Q: If you could sum up your character in one quote or moment what would it be?

A: After McKenzie jokes that Matthew should say "bingo bongo" or she'll be disappointed, Matthew says that doesn't really sum up Lars 'cause he's a complicated fellow. He just makes a reluctant/frustrated grunt and says "that sums up Lars." He adds, "Ugghhh, Steven!" That's Lars's inner monologue all the time: "Steven, what did you get me into?" Lamar remembers writing one of the first Buck episodes in "Lars and the Cool Kids" when Buck is reacting to Jenny's story about doggy-do. "That's nasty. I don't like nasty stuff." Lamar loves how he doesn't exclaim or get into a lot of emotion: it's just "that's nasty, nope."

Q: What would you say has been your top favorite episode to be a part of?

A: Matthew loved "Lars of the Stars," and "the baking episode" ("The Good Lars"), the whole Wanted arc was really cool. Lamar isn't sure--he guesses he loved in "Shirt Club" when Buck is being a jerk about Steven's art, "this is bad and it's funny," and then when Steven gets back at him shooting his "vote for my dad" art out of the t-shirt cannons and some people are laughing at Buck's art, he sheds a single tear. Lamar loves that, "wow he DOES have emotions." He also really liked that it was a bonding episode with his dad and an episode about being better friends with Steven.

The next group is Deedee Magno Hall, Michaela Dietz, and Zach Callison.

Q: What is something that you think your favorite SU character would never say?

A: Deedee says, "Can I get a double double with cheese, please?" (They all laugh.) Michaela says she thinks Amethyst would never sincerely say "I love you." Deedee objects, but Michaela says she would show it but not say it, and wonders if she made the others sad by saying that. Zach says he has a dark one: that Steven would never express feelings of love toward his mom, because he doesn't really know her like that. Deedee says she feels like she's gonna cry. Zach says they've literally never met and she's causes tons of problems in his life. McKenzie was not prepared for answers like this because she expected them to be more like Deedee's funny one, so Michaela jumps on that and says Amethyst would never say "no thank you, I've had enough." And on the subject of food, Zach says Steven would never say "THIS FOOD IS TERRIBLE! TAKE IT BACK!" (He says it in Steven's voice.) He'd never do that in a restaurant. Michaela thinks he'd just silently eat it and think something positive about what he could imagine the bad food tastes like. Zach begins to chant "Chew . . . swallow" in Steven's voice.

Q: If you were in the SU world, what would your Gem weapon be?

A: Zach says maybe an anime style gun blade. Like a musket. Michaela says probably a cannon that shoots out "the bits." Deedee says anti-bacterial spritzer. They agree that it fights germs. Michaela agrees that that is SO in character.

Q: What is the most fun part of your job?

A: Zach says "This right here." They all say it's great to see friends, and Michaela adds, "AND seeing Zach and Deedee. Just kidding, they ARE my friends." Deedee says she's getting so many wrinkles from smiling due to being around these guys.

Q: What was the hardest scene to voice act for?

A: Deedee doesn't like when she has to scream, because it's hard on her voice. Michaela has a hard time with speaking during a song, because she slips into like a weird Broadway projection and has to remind herself that that's not Amethyst. Zach adds that the timing on that is really difficult. For Zach, he says it took a lot of time to do all the many Stevens in "Steven and the Stevens," and there was lots of screaming.

Q: Do you remember any particularly funny moments from when you were recording?

A: Zach immediately answers "No. None. Zero." Michaela agrees and says there is no laughing and it's a very serious show. Deedee bursts in with disagreement and reassurance that they are joking and there's SO much laughter. Deedee says efforts are the most fun. Zach loved when Robert was looping one of Deedee's "???" reactions into the booth. Zach loved when he had to use jumbo marshmallows for him and Grace to put in their mouths to make full-mouth noises. Michaela chimes in that sometimes she has to burp on cue and that's hard for her. Zach can burp on cue and offers to do it for Michaela, and demonstrates.

Q: What would you say has been your top favorite episode to be a part of?

A: Zach says "Mr. Greg" and "Jailbreak"--any episode that was a huge turning point like that. Deedee loves "Mr. Greg" too. Zach loves Deedee's performance of "It's Over, Isn't It," and Deedee responds "No, YOUR section was great," and they just keep saying "No you're great, no YOU'RE great." Michaela's was probably the "Ruby Rider one" ("The Question"). She loved the engagement at the end. Zach chimes in to say the wedding episode ("Reunited") was great too, and the song was very difficult, but the others loved hearing him sing "Let's Only Think About Love." That song is almost four minutes long! Deedee loves ALL the songs.

Q: How is recording for a video game different from recording for the show?

A: They agree it's SO different; Zach says it's partly that they have a different crew recording them, with a different voice director. Michaela feels they depend on them to know their characters more in the video game recordings. Zach agrees they trust them more, while on the show the boarders and crew know as much and more than the voice actors. Zach says on video games they have to make a lot more effort noises and weird command prompts, so many details. Michaela agrees about the efforts, and Deedee is sad that they're not in the room together. Michaela adds, "so we cry the whole time, it's crazy."

Q: If you could write your own episode, what would it be about and what would your character be doing?

A: Zach immediately says DO NOT LET ME DO THIS. Michaela says she would write an episode about the Crystal Gems writing a cartoon episode about themselves. Pearl would say "and then I would say a joke! I'd be the comic relief!" Zach thinks they'd have to look at the camera and break the fourth walls. Deedee says she'd love an episode where the whole thing is a song, even more so than "Mr. Greg." It'd have to have a flying carpet scene where they can see the whole SU world, through music. Zach says he'd want a gritty detective show with Steven and Peridot taking on a mob boss, with them talking in deeper voices, Peridot going "those clods are gonna get what's coming to them!" And he'd want them to fuse at the end because he really wants the Steven/Peridot Fusion. Michaela prompts him to "say the theory," and Zach says he just wants that Fusion to be half the size instead of double the size. For shorty squad rep. There's so much utility to a tiny Fusion!

Q: Is there any food Amethyst DOESN'T like?

A: Michaela says: Anything with nutritional value? Superfoods? Anything that lacks textural integrity--she thinks Amethyst would not have much fun with baby food or applesauce, she just loves to chew and have something to do.

Q: How would Gems react to the concept of jewelry?

A: Michaela thinks it'd be like Baby Bjorns, they'd be carrying their friend around, like Amethyst could run around with friends on her wrist. Zach feels like it'd be too much like keeping Gems as pets, and Homeworld would be horrified by our civilization enslaving their people. Jewelry is totally how come Homeworld is mad at us! Deedee says when they're poofed jewelry could be a way to keep them close and safe. Zach worries the jewelry casing would break when the Gem came back. Deedee worries they'd fall through a hole in a pocket. Zach suggests if someone complimented your necklace you could be like "thanks these are my cousins!" Michaela suggests Bismuth would have a "Bedazzled fanny pack." Deedee says "maybe a Pearl Pouch."

There's no information about a next podcast episode.

[Archive of Steven Universe Podcast Summaries]

[shikai-the-storyteller]

ALRIGHT HERE WE GO

AT LONG LAST: STEVEN UNIVERSE THE MOVIE WATCH

I’m staying up so late to watch this but Tumblr and Twitter already gave me three screencap spoilers so I gotta watch it now or I’m Gonna Die

Omg the opening curtains looks so official and cute!!!

I just tried to turn on subtitles rip

Aw this feels like some kind of musical! How cute. And this opening is so beautiful! I love the style

“What a revolution, a gem that loves and grows” Ahh part of this song sounds like the Diamonds singing it. It reminds me of a disney song

OMG THIS REALLY IS LIKE A DISNEY FAIRYTALEOPENING that’s hilarious. I love it! This is so beautiful. Man I’ve missed this show so much :’)

AW STEVEN’S VOICE IS SO MUCH DEEPER I LOVE HIM....BABY BOY GREW UP. he’s 16!!!

I love that the Pearls were running the news feed, that’s so cute

Aww his Diamond aunts, that’s so cute :’) They really do feel like super overbearing loving aunts. “Don’t forget I’m not Pink Diamond!” POOR STEVEN

This is such a cute screenshot 

“We’ve been so good! Please stay with us Steven!” Aww they all miss Pink so much

MAN THE ANIMATION IN THIS SHOW IS SO GORGEOUS I can’t get over how beautiful everything is. And AW EVEN CONNIE IS BIGGER I love her hair style! And dang they got such a huge high-tech upgrade

WHO PAINTED THIS I LOVE GARNET

OH SNAP SHE KISSED HIM ON THE CHEEK awh these kids are really growing up aren’t they *sobs like a proud parent*

“Nothing to fear, no one to fight” Oh don’t say that now Steven, we’ve still got over an hour to go

Ohh I wonder if Jasper is going to show up some time in this movie, I’d like to see her again! I miss her

ITS PEARL AND GREG!!!! I’VE MISSED THEM SO MUCH I MISS ALL THESE CHARACTERS

GARNET’S SINGING....I MISSED GARNET’S VOICE

THERE SHE IS...THE LOVE OF MY LIFE....THIS IS MY FAVORITE SCREENCAP EVER

“LITTLE HOMEWORLD” OMG THEY HAVE A LITTLE COLONY CITY THERE, THAT’S SO CUTE AND AHHH IT”S ALL THE HEALED GEMS!!! OMG OMG OMG

I LOVE WORM GIRL’S DESIGN

BABY AMETHYST....I LOVE HER LITTLE MESSY HAIR STYLE.....

THE LITTLE SELFIE THEY’RE SO CUTE, I FORGOT HOW MUCH I MISSED THIS SHOW...

WAY TO JINX IT STEVEN

“NICE PARK JOB DINGUS” AMETHYST PLZ

gosh I love the animation they use for this gal Spinel, she’s such an old-school villain, I love it. AND SHE’S GOT A GREAT SINGING VOICE

sHE”S GOT A FRICKIN SCYTHE GEM OH MY GOSH THE GEMSONA COMMUNITY IS GOING TO LOSE THEIR FRICKIN MINDS

HELL YEAH CRINGE CULTURE IS OVER!!!!!!!! GIVE YOUR OCS THE EDGIEST WEAPONS EVER!!! I LOVE IT

WHOOPS WELL. NEW OUTFITS FOR THE CRYSTAL GEMS I GUESS

OH SHOOT SHE ACTUALLY HIT HIM AND HIS LINES GOT ALL WEIRD

UH OH WHAT DID SHE DO TO HIS GEM AND POWERS

STEVEN GO TALK TO LITTLE HOMEWORLD AND TALK TO A GEM ABOUT THIS, STEVEN COME ON THIS ISN’T SEASON ONE

“I just have no idea what’s going on!” “Well son, now you know how I feel almost all the time” Lmao Greg I missed you so much

Uh oh is Pearl going to come back messed up. UH OH WHY IS SHE A SEA SHELL

OH NO SHE RESET ALL THE GEMS OH NO OH NO OH NO OH NO

OH NO SHE’S ATTACHED TO GREG NOW THAT’S HORRIFYING

SPINEL IS TERRIFYING she’s essentially a home-made best friend. No wonder she was trying to reset everyone, she wants Pink back to be reset

Steven WHY DON’T YOU JUST GET THE REST OF THE GEMS COME ON

Spinel’s heart hair works the same way as Mickey Mouse’s ears do that’s so funny, really leans into the Disney aspect of it.

You guys really gotta get the injector out of the hill, this is killing me

“Wow. Quick turnaround” “It took me a month to quit trying to kill him” “I’m still on offense” GUYS PLEASE

“I COULD’VE LOST ALL MY CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT” PERIDOT PLEASE

I like Bismuth’s new overalls. And that was so sweet that he went to Bismuth for advice when Garnet’s not there (BUT ALSO OUCH WHEN HE SAID “Garnet would know what to do”)

“As long as one of us is standing to brandish that star” GOSH THAT’S SUCH A GOOD LINE

Oh no wait if they send Steven to space he won’t be able to breathe gUYS NO

THE HEAVEN AND EARTH BEETLES ARE SO CUTE

SAPPHIRE SAVED HER AWH...THIS IS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL MAGICAL GIRL TRANSFORMATION

GARNET IS SO CUTE IM WEEPING I LOVE GARNET SO MUCH

“PEARL YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO THAT, I OWN A CAR WASH” LMAO

Well Spinel’s super freaky, definitely gives me a Disney vibe for sure. I do feel kinda bad for her though since she’s obviously just a very lonely little girl BUT STILL

I love that Ronaldo’s still trying to capture weird stuff going on in Beach City despite the fact that they literally have an alien civilization living next to them

AW Peridot put little sunglasses on her orbs

Peridot: Amethyst, get away from me, I can’t stand to see you all vacant and bereft of personality Amethyst: Yo I’m back you dip Me: *HIDEOUSLY LOUD SNORTING LAUGH*

lmao Peridot’s machine is a microwave, I love that

Maybe the Cluster can help with the poison leaking into the spoil????

FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE STEVEN JUST GO ASK THE DIAMONDS FOR HELP

NOOOO NOT YOUR NICE NEW JACKET STEVEN

“We’re going to die anyways” Thanks Peridot

AW GEMS ARE GOING TO THE ROCK SHOW TOO THAT’S SO CUTE

“This has got to bring Pearl’s memory back! It’s all about quitting a crummy service job!” LMAO

OH SNAP AMETHYST IS REALLY GOING TO HIT HER WHERE IT HURTS

“As long as you exist” Steven: “OH HEY LET’S KILL GREG”

OH SHOOT ARE THEY GOING TO FUSE!??!

AHHH OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH

AHHHHHHHHHHH IM SHRIEKING 

HE HAS A FRICKIN SIX PACK

HE”S A FRICKIN JOJO ROCK STAR IM LOSING MY FRICKIN MIND

AW GARNET IS WEARING STEVEN’S CUTE LITTLE JACKET

I’m screaming, Greg and Steven’s fusion is literally a god of music that’s so cool, I wonder who his VA is, I love him

PEARL’S TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE IS SO BEAUTIFUL....And Amethyst and Pearl’s dance...that’s so beautiful AHHHH OPAL!!! OPAL OPAL!!!! SHE”S SINGING OMG OMG OMG

Aw I do feel bad for Spinel, she’s so lonely....

OH NO...THE POISON IS LEAKING INTO THE OCEAN

You know that one scene in Toy Story 2 where Woody is having a nightmare? Andy says “I don’t want to play with you anymore” and he drops Woody into the garbage bin? I feel like Spinel’s been living that nightmare for the past 6000 years.

“Just this morning things were perfect. Why did everything have to change?” I feel like Spinel’s probably thinking the same thing, except wrt Pink Diamond

OH NO...SHE REALLY HAS BEEN WAITING IN THE GARDEN FOR 6000 YEARS....I knew those were her shoes we saw at the very very beginning of the movie

“And then she smiled, that’s what I’m after” OH MAN........this show is still so good at ripping my heart out....Pink Diamond really messed a lot of stuff and a lot of people. She was really young and didn’t realize the effect she had on other people :(

Heart shattered yet again

Hmmm I rewound this a little bit and I’m thinking about stuff I’ve done in the past, and if I’ve ever made someone feel that way without meaning to because of some careless action. I really hope not.

I just thought about that “When She Loved Me” song and legit felt some tears well up but I HELD THEM BACK

I wonder if the Diamonds are going to adopt Spinel as their new Pink

CONNIE DOING A TRIPLE FLIP OUT OF LION I love her

I really love the type of villain Spinel is

AND IM REALLY GLAD STEVEN SNAPPED THAT OVER HIS KNEE that’s what I wanted to do too

HER WEDDING RINGS....AND ALL HER DIFFERENT FORMS...GARNET I LOVE YOU

OH NO GREG’S ARM!!! Steven’s healing powers better get pumped up to max by the end of this episode otherwise everyone’s gonna be in trouble

OH WOW STEVEN’S ACTUALLY BLEEDING we’ve never seen that before

“There is no happily ever after. I’ll always have more work to do” Man that hit way too close to home

GO KISS THE WHOLE PLANET STEVEN

“Staying hydrated is very important when it comes to smooching” I love Garnet

I can’t believe I called The Diamonds adopting Spinel holy heck

WELL

I will say that movie wasn’t what I expected at all but I wound up loving Spinel so much more than I anticipated. I felt my hyper-empathy kicking in so hard it made my heart ache. I really loved Spinel’s song, I think that was my favorite song in the entire movie! AH SHOOT I JUST REALIZED WHY PEOPLE WERE TALKING SO MUCH ABOUT THAT “Let’s go in the garden” SONG FROM ADVENTURE TIME TODAY, HECK. But anyways I’ve been listening to Spinel’s song on repeat for the last 20 minutes, the topic and the kind of character Spinel is really struck something in me. I might try and rewatch this tomorrow again if I have the time.

The movie reminded me of just how much I love and miss Steven Universe. I want to rewatch the entire season now, I miss the memories I have attached to the show. I love how much love is put into this series. I’m glad it exists.

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

Dean and the snake’s bite

The episode Peace of Mind offers us a funny little gag - Dean is afraid of snakes! He is adorably uneasy around Jack’s snake! ...or does it?

I mean, yes. It is a lovely little gag. But it’s more than that. I have spoken here about the queer subtext and queer-based humor in the Cas side of the episode, but as @lymeandcoconut​ pointed out, there is queer subtext in the humor in the Dean side of the episode.

First of all, the episode doesn’t let us forget that the snake is, in fact, not Jack’s. It is the gorgon Noah’s snake, and that is reinforced by the narrative: Cas suggests he misses his previous owner, and eventually Jack lets it reunite with him in heaven. Obviously that doesn’t inherently mean the snake represents bisexuality or queerness; but the narrative also establishes a connection between the snake and Dean, all sprinkled with a dose of queer subtext.

Long story short: Dean is utterly fascinated by the damn snake.

On the surface, he’s afraid of it. Which is... not untrue. But there’s more to just fear (and Dean himself says it in text). He keeps trying to get close to the snake. He suggests the snake come along. He seems interested in the snake’s wellbeing... But let’s start from the beginning.

The first scene featuring the snake has Cas in Jack’s room, inquiring about the wellbeing of the snake. When Jack says it is unwell, Cas suggests it might miss his previous owner, and says that the snake has been through a lot of change in a short amount of time. Cas himself establishes a parallel between Jack and the snake - a valid interpretation. But not the only interpretation given in the episode - which leads us to the next scene in Jack’s room.

After Cas and Sam leave for the case, Dean enters the room and inquires Jack about the various bowls he’s set on the table, and Jack says he’s trying different foods for the snake. When Jack says he thinks the snake is sad, Dean jokingly (semi-jokingly?) suggests bacon (which indicates he makes a connection between curing sadness and bacon), and the unspoken reference is to Aaron Bass’s piece of wisdom... everybody loves bacon (including God, who is explicitly mentioned in the episode, beard included - might that be a reference to his “being closeted” as God and pretending to be Chuck?).

So Dean suggests that the snake’s sadness could be cured with bacon, and Jack takes the suggestion seriously, asking if snakes like bacon. Dean replies that he doesn’t know about snakes, but he likes bacon... and there we are our juxtaposition between the snake and Dean. Dean basically puts himself in the place of the snake, basically saying that if he were the snake he would like the bacon. It’s not super blatant, but it’s there. At the very least we have a reference to bacon that is subtly queer-coded.

Then Dean suggests Jack and the snake come with him on a field trip, and then he goes towards the fridge announcing he’s gonna make some bacon. Jack asks the snake if it wants some bacon, reinforcing the juxtaposition. (I call it a juxtaposition because, well, snakes are supposed to only eat raw meat, but ça va sans dire that parallels don’t have to be perfect, especially since at the core of this post we’re talking about... a different kind of meat. A different kind of snake, if you want.)

While they’re in the car, Dean suggests Jack eat something, and when Jack says he’s not hungry, Dean (whose goal is to see which cake Jack picks) prods Jack to look at the cakes by suggesting he feeds them to the snake.

Well, maybe feed the snake something. Yeah. Here. Give him one of these. I bet he’s never had that before.

If earlier, about the bacon, Dean substituted himself to the snake (snake likes bacon? --> I like bacon), now let’s try the same. Have you ever had Angel’s Food Cake before, Dean...? What about cake in general...?

Now a very interesting bit. Jack tells Dean he doesn’t have a good grasp on what snakes eat, and Dean says:

Yeah, no. Yeah, I always thought they were kind of cool, though.

There it is. Dean is fascinated by the snake. Beyond the surface, he admits he thinks snakes are cool, always thought that...

Well, most people think they’re dangerous. Mm. Well, it’s not the snake that’s dangerous. It’s their... bite. Is--is that a saying? It is now.

Okay--let’s just skip to the point and substitute (queer) men to snakes, alright?

“Most people think they’re dangerous” - what kind of people? People like the hyper-traditionalist Chip Harrington, who projected his concept that “morals, you got to have morals -- you know” into the lady’s mind?

“It’s not the men that are dangerous. It’s their... bite”

...I’m desperately trying to forget the French language here, okay

The line is obviously not supposed to be taken super literally, because even on a purely surface level Dean himself is aware that what he just said is silly. He is aware that snakes aren’t inherently dangerous, but he still has a fear he can’t get rid of rationally, because he can’t help but wondering whether something might go wrong... in fact, when does a pet snake bite you, when you accidentally scare it? He’s afraid that he might accidentally scare the snake and lose the snake’s trust, is he...?

Anyway, Dean is afraid of the possible danger in getting too close to a snake... while recognizing that snakes aren’t inherently dangerous. And, in fact, he’s always been fascinated by snakes, thinking they were cool... Do whatever you want to do with this information.

When Jack and Donatello get out, Jack asks how’s the snake, and Dean answers “he’s good, might be hungry” which I’m pretty sure is about Dean rather than the snake... (ah, the theme of hunger in this show. Can’t exactly summarize it here, uh.)

And when they’re back, Dean comments that the snake seems to have enjoyed the trip, and Jack says that the snake is “very guarded” - a definition that reminds you of someone?

And then the final scene. In the first scene of the episode, a young couple cannot be together and happy because of the promise one of them made to a dying mother, a promise she’d take care of a family member who is, though, the very reason she cannot be happy with her lover. Is this foreshadowing...? That Jack... kills the snake because Cas has promised his dying mother to take care of him, and Cas has chosen to give up on happiness because of that?

Is Jack going to be the ultimate, um... snakeblocker...?