#and this season and this finale were both fantastic imo

[tellmegoodbye]

As we reach the end of the season this is a friendly reminder that it is possible to express an unfavorable opinion about a piece of media without being an absolute dick about it 🙃

[comradecowplant]

my beef with Hughie being the most annoying part of The Boys ended, Kimiko & Frenchie reigniting their romance is my new The Boys best enemy 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

[john-get-the-salt]

Winter Cold (w/spencer reid)

Imagine: A run-of-the-mill winter cold becomes the thing that finally reveals your secret to the team.

Contains: sick reader and sick Spencer taking care of each other, usual bau team shenanigans, a setting where Morgan and Emily are on the team together because that was peak time (imo)

Warnings: None

Snow, thick sweaters, warm drinks-there were countless reasons why you adored the Winter season.

Spending a Sunday morning curled up under a blanket with a hot chocolate in hand while it snowed outside was your love language.

Your body, however, did not thrive under such conditions. You had a terrible immune system so you were extremely susceptible to getting sick. Every winter you had at least one or two boughts of whatever nasty illness was going around that season, be it the flu, strep, etc.

So as winter came around and you got sick like usual, nothing should have been different. Except this year something was different. This winter you had Spencer Reid.

Suddenly you had someone to bring you ginger ale and saltines when your stomach was upset, to make you soup and tea when your throat hurt, to make sure you kept up with your meds and always carried around cough drops for you.

Spencer and yourself had started out as awkward co-workers before slowly becoming friends, which eventually blossomed into something romantic. You told him you loved him about 2 months in after a scare during a case, and he had returned the sentiment when it felt right.

You'd just recently celebrated your 6th month anniversary and everything was going so well except for one teeny tiny minuscule detail....the team didn't know.

You had hoped to gently ease them into the news, but any hope of that got dashed rather quickly on one particular winters day.

•

It was early January and you were fighting off your annual post-Christmas cold. All of the traveling and visiting family had caught up to you and you were suffering the consequences. Your pockets were constantly stuffed full of tissues and you had a permanent stash of cough drops in your desk at the office.

Spencer, the fantastic boyfriend he was, had been taking exceptionally good care of you. You found it slightly annoying that the genius himself hardly ever got sick but you couldn't find yourself mad for long when he was constantly doting on you.

He never fussed about keeping you on track with your antibiotics, never complained when you asked him for a refill of tea, or another box of tissues, etc. But one thing he absolutely loathed was the fact that you wouldn't let him kiss you. On the cheek you allowed, along with the forehead or chin or pretty much anywhere else that wasn't your lips.

You were determined not to pass along the illness to him, so no matter how much he pleaded for just a quick peck you refused. Which, mind you, was no easy feat. 

You stood firm on your ‘no lip to lip contact’ rule for about 3 days which was as long as your self control could hold out before you caved and let your boyfriend give you a firm kiss.

The two of you thought it was fine, no harm done, until 2 days later Spencer woke up with a racketing cough.

As you awoke that morning to a coughing Spencer in bed beside you, you sighed. "Don't tell me I finally you got sick too."

He merely groaned in response, and you pulled yourself out of bed so you could start coffee and fetch medicine for the both of you.

"I knew this was going to happen, I just knew you would get sick," you chided as if you hadn't played a significant role in the passing of said illness.

Spencer took the cold medicine you handed him without a roll of his eyes. "It's really nothing, just a runny nose and a bit of a cough."

"Work is going to be hell today. The team has been giving me grief about coughing, just imagine the ruckus when both of us are hacking our lungs up."

"Well," Spencer leaned down to plant a kiss on your warm cheek. "I consider it an honor to have the ability to kiss you-and then catch your cold. No one else on the team has that, so they can deal. And hey, now that we're both sick we can kiss as much as we want."

You giggled, annoyance vanishing as you leaned down and kissed your boyfriend. He attempted to wrap his arms around you and pull you back into bed but you slapped his hands away.

"As much as I love you and your kisses we do still have to work, Supervisory Special Agent Reid."

He sighed dreamily, a dopey smile on his face, "I love it when you talk FBI to me."

His smile quickly dropped as you whacked him over the head with a pillow.

•

Just as you predicted, the team had groaned as it quickly became apparent that Spencer had caught whatever cold was going around the building.

You and Spence arrived to work together, as you always did, on your very best behavior. After learning you both lived in the same apartment building not long after you joined the team, you started carpooling to work every single day. You had those car rides to thank for your friendship and eventual relationship, though the team did not know that.

But what the team did know, was that you and Spencer could not stop coughing. To make matters worse it was a paperwork day without a case in sight, so the team was stuck listening to the two of you. You apologized profusely, nursing a steaming cup of tea and a bag of cough drops. But it got to the point where everybody-minus you and Spence- voted to seclude you both in the conference room. They insisted it was for your own good, but you were pretty sure they had just gotten tired of listening to the sniffling and coughing.

So you two spent the day sitting in the conference room, talking and attempting to get paperwork done while members of the team popped their head in every so often to check-in and replenish your tea and tissues.

Before you knew it, the day was nearly over. There were still 2 hours left yet to the surprise of no one Spence had finished his paperwork already. Thankfully, he hung around and kept you company while you tried to finish yours.

"I really should have seen this cold coming. You know according to researchers, as many as 80 million bacteria can be exchanged in just one 10 second kiss," Spencer rattled off.

You nodded and hummed, as you always did when your boyfriend rattled off some rare knowledge he likely learned from a book he read once 6 years. You were pretty engrossed in the current paperwork you were filling out, so the insinuation of what Spencer was saying and the environment in which he was saying it didn't really catch up to you until it was too late.

"What are you trying to say pretty boy? You two locking lips?"

Finally remembering where you two currently were, work, you looked up from your papers. Spencer sat frozen in his chair beside you as Morgan and Emily stood in the doorway of the conference room with teasing looks on their faces.

"Uhm...."

All it took was the slight hesitation for Emily's joking smile to drop and her eyebrows to shoot so far up their nearly disappeared into her bangs.

"No way!"

"My man!" Morgan exclaimed, clapping as he walked into the room.

Emily followed, practically skipping towards you. "Wait til we tell the rest of the team. Damn, I owe Rossi $50 though. I thought it'd take til Valentines day."

Your jaw dropped as the shock of your friends knowing began to fade and was replaced with confusion.

"You guys bet on us? On whether or not we were together?"

"Oh no, we knew you two lovebirds were gonna get together. We bet on when you were gonna get together and then tell us." Derek clarified. "I bet Garcia $100 you two would wait until Summer to break the news.

Spencer, despite the situation, laughed. "Well, this isn't quite the way we imagined telling the team, but I guess this is it."

Thinking, you glanced at your two friends, who looked as happy as clams.

"We’ll wait to tell the rest of the team if you cut us into the winnings."

"Deal."

[coffeegnomee]

Ooooo you wanna tell me about PrinceZam and Lifesteal lore soo bad 👀👀 (I just started s6 and I'm super interested in it lolol)

Just started season 6. oh me oh my. welcome. I wrote a summary a while ago for s3-5, here it is below.

updated to add the eclipse arc too since i glossed over it last time. and added s6 up to october. 8.5k words.

I didn't hold back on any plot twist/spoilers but like, knowing what happened is very very different from watching it unfold so all videos and vods are well worth watching. but this can give a waypoint as many videos are published months (or years) after the events.

s3 zam made an empire to keep spawn from being grieffed, everyone opposed it because he called it the PrinceZam Empire, they killed him, and he agreed to be executed and banned by Red. He came back for the finale in which vitalasy wanted to revive everyone but then banned himself (or got banned i forget) and keeping everyone unbanned became Zam's job(TM) and he resolved to never give up. After 5 (or so) bases in one week that Spoke leaked every time bc he was secretly still teamed with clownpierce, spoke did a dramatic dialogue with Zam on a hill, "why are you trying to save a world people are actively trying to leave". There was a big war which ended in Zam having another dialogue with Spoke where Zam attacked spoke with a stone ax until spoke continually killed him until he was banned. Spoke got him to give up, spoke won. It was awesome. You can watch Zam's vid on it "i was banned for saving this smp" or the finale streams, both are great recap of s3. (both the spoke dialogues happened in the same vod, it's a really easy watch)

s3 was the best season for yt vids imo, i particularly love clown and branzy's videos on the funhouse, casino, cleansing, and finale vids and if you just watch that you get everything. Everyone had good videos if you start searching channels.

s4 ends with the wormhole, a game breaking glitch that Spoke Vi and Ash found (also Subz was there) and used to completely destroy the server. Before all that the server runs as normal, starting slow with the youtube arc where everyone is making their silly random youtube videos. Zam initially wants to go solo but the joins Team Awesome which is commonly just him Mapicc and Ro but also Spoke and Terrain (iirc). There are many fun shenanigans. a spawn prison, the medusa arc. Around the mid season Team Awesome finds a dupe glitch. They dupe endless gear, god apples, and hearts and get into fights where Mapicc and Zam fight together constantly. this is The Dupe War. There are videos on it, but no streams. It ends with them withering the entirety of spawn, completely annihilating it (there's more to the arc but that is important)

During dupe war Zam and Mapicc thought Spoke was betraying them by orchestrating it with Parrot, turns out it was just Spoke who was orchestrating Everything because part of the wormhole glitch required Spoke to socially engineer Parrot into clicking a sign that would give Ash creative mode. When Ash got creative he loaded his hotbar and the Wormhole Barrel(TM) was brought into the game.

That same day Ash started showing the server the exploits (changing the course of the season DRAMATICALLY). Everything that was going on between the dupe war and this moment got put on pause.

What is everything? Well after the Dupe war Mapicc and Ro were planning on keeping duped items in a stash so they would never have to worry about items. Zam realized he Hated That(TM) bc exploits are unfair. So he left the team dramatically, fought them on the nether roof, and perished fantastically. He then retreated to his sanctuary where he built a castle.

Mapicc finds him at that castle the next day and filled with rage at zam betraying him begins The Castle Arc, fantastic arc, well worth watching as vods on Zam's channel. it's the vod after "the end of team awesome" which is also a great vod. Mapicc torments Zam nearly daily while Zam was also repairing spawn with Subz. Subz, as the finale of his spawn cleanup fights Mapicc and Ro who have become the bbegs of the week, he gets exiled. Zam grows a backbone and ALSO fights them, also looses, and then proceeds to die to Ro 13 more times. This is the Stone Sword Incident.

Left on 2 hearts he does a stream with Clown and Branzy which gets him banned by Mapicc because he had paid Clown one heart to be his protection. So Mapicc thought he still had two. they revive zam and he is left on 3 hearts (or was it 1? I forget. mapicc might've taken two of them back after revival) he turns to his only ally on the server, the only person who came and defended him from mapicc during the castle arc: ItzSubz_.

Subz invited him to his team, the Eclipse Federation. What transpires after here is the most beloved arc in all of lifesteal history, from a fandom perspective. I wrote a whole writeup on why it works so well from a story telling perspective that's one of my first posts on my blog. you can use the #gnome rambles tag to find it easier.

What started as a team, protection, safety from Mapicc, two allies who would come on to fight Mapicc and anyone else whom he got to fight on his side (though subz was more active than vi) turned into a nightmare.

After Ash leaked the wormhole items vi and subz quickly dmed him to meet at the base. Vi (iirc) told him to stop stream and delete the vod, which zam did. Unbeknownst to him, subz accidentally hit go live instead of start recording and for the less than 10 minutes he was live, he and vi implicated themselves as the originators of the wormhole glitch. The secret was out.

By the time they made it to the base to meet with zam they decided to tell zam everything, letting him know that they wanted it to have been a good surprise, something exciting that they could all do together. Vi promised that there was a plan for the items, an arc that he wanted to make happen that he had been planning since the very start of the season. I forget exactly how much they told him, but it was not everything.

Faced with Vi's season long plan, and still not knowing What the plan was, only that it was good, zam agreed to go along with it, trusting subz and vi that they knew what they were doing.

Zam, beyond all reason, had found himself on the very team that was behind the new exploit after just having left Team Awesome over exploits.

He asked if chat could know the plan, and vi and subz both agreed they wanted to keep it secret but that zam could ask off stream. Zam being Zam, could never hide something that huge from chat, didn't want to hide something that huge from chat. So he decided to not know, placing all his trust that Vi would tell him what he needed to know and that everything would be okay.

The doom lifted, for a brief time everything was okay again. But soon enough Vi was ready to start phase 1: a bedrock prison at spawn for the tyrants of the server. Zam didn't like that their team would have the power to imprison people, and he didnt like it was bedrock. He tried to communicate that, and vi and subz both assured him they would only put people in that the server as a whole agreed needed to go in. That helped zam for a short time. i dont remember all the meetings super well, but there were many. one time vi told zam they had "amplified" the glitch. another he said they had a bedrock farm in the end. vi was desperate to keep zam on the team because he loved zam and enjoyed his presence and didnt want the team to fall apart. zam at one point committed fully to the plan and killed himself in a hole to show his commitment (vi also jumped down and also died). the next day they made the prison and the day after zam regretted building out of bedrock. he hated exploits. nothing could shake him from the deep-set hatred that this was unfair for the server. he didnt want to ruin vi's plan, but he didn't know if he could continue supporting it.

around and around he went. changing his thoughts based on what vi said, changing based on subz, changing based on chat, changing based on vi. Feeling trapped, seeing no hope in being understood he roamed the server in despair. filled with the weight that the exploits would get worse in phases 2-5 he shouldered the burden without being able to tell anyone.

Beyond anything else he felt completely indebted to subz and loved subz more than anyone. subz had fought for him and protected him from mapicc, he had taken him in and given him hearts and gear to get back on his feet, he was always there ready to log on and help zam fight or save him when jumped.

Around this time there were many conversations with bacon and planet. They had seen some of the exploits, spoke was leaking them slowly since the prison was built, spawning a warden and endermite that could one tap players, using potions that gave you all the effects in the game. pvp was a thing of the past.

Bacon and Planet were investigating, trying to figure out who was pulling the strings and where the plot might go. Pretty quickly they figured out zam knew a lot, but zam wouldn't tell.

When Vi made the prison, they interviewed him, and planet got so upset that all this plot looked to be was a prison that could be used, not even would be used that he immediately started talking to bacon about getting zam to leave eclipse. he had previously been a proponent of zam sticking it out because being in the thick of content is always good on this server even if you don't love the methods. Zam was ready to leave the team but he was wracked with guilt and the fear of being alone again just like he was after betraying team awesome. they invited him to their team if he left, but he was still hesitant. he cared about subz too much to leave.

A few days later zam one again invited Branzy on, knowing that the next day he would have to make a decision about being on eclipse. There was a meeting scheduled about the next phase tomorrow. Spoke turned branzy into a dolphin with a potion and after the shenanigans, zam asked branzy for advice about what he should do. it's one of my favorite stream moments from s4, branzy approaches the lore with great seriousness and helps zam work through his thoughts to figure out what he wants to do. zam doesn't quite make a decision but has many talking points for the meeting, equipped with new metaphors to explain how he's feeling and how he needs vi to promise change, not just do little things that don't mean anything in the big picture.

At the end of the conversation planet joins call and starts asking zam innocent questions. he finds out about the book that vi once showed zam that had the whole wormhole plan, zam says it's in one of the bases, but not which, and he ends stream soon after. But once stream ends he gets curious to reread what vi wrote so he journeys to the base. Upon arrival though he realizes planet and bacon are both in the area. He sees them through the wall and walks into a room he has never seen before filled with barrels. planet and bacon drag him into a call and show him that the room is filled with every exploit and more, things they hadn't seen yet.

Seeing the extent of where the wormhole would go, and supported (or influenced depending on how you look at it) by planet and bacon, zam finally commits to leaving eclipse. he can't be part of this. this is too much. these exploits are far far worse than anything team awesome did.

So the next day he makes his traitor's requiem. He confronts vi, bacon planet and jaron come through the end portal invis and they kill vi, marking zam's departure from the team. Vi is furious zam didn't come to them, that he would betray so callously and kill him so instantly. Subz resignedly accepts that zam never was going to be able to be a part of the team, he was too against exploits.

Wracked with the pain of betrayal and loosing the person he loved deeply even though he had lied to him, Vi started to embrace the wormhole powers. Through a different glitch he was able to fly in survival, and with the one tap potions he tormented planet in the prison, killing him over and over and giving the heart back. but he insisted that he was not going to use the powers to become evil.

over the next days vi would roam the server using exploits, a ghost on the wind debating what to do with his infinite power. bacon and planet and zam got him in a call to talk about how vi was being a villain and they wanted him to give up the exploits. vi refused to see what they were saying.

but then spoke, lead by parrot and mapicc and ro, took a power play and tried chunk banning vi to end the evil on the server. parrot leaked the plan to vi and vi got out, but once again vi was facing the ridicule of the server for something that he wasn't even wanting to be.

So vi gave up the exploits. summoned the whole server to himself and burned all the items in his echest. but the server didnt believe him for a second. they were convinced he had more exploits hidden in the world. they were convinced he was the villain and were angry he wasn't just doing things with it.

but vi was done. spoke (iirc) killed him and after leaving call vi found himself atop the prison, gazing down at the server he loved, the server that hated him. it was over. he threw himself from its height over and over until he was banned.

after the ban, zam was left listless. he had betrayed eclipse because he feared they would be evil, but vi just banned himself off, sealing into the story that he would not be the villain. he couldn't talk to subz, he was too ashamed. so he became a farmer and lived inside subz's floating islands at spawn.

but one day while he was on subz revived vitalasy. zam wasn't invited but he busied himself at his farm, hoping his old teammates might want to talk to him. But something far far worse was about to happen. a ban message rang through chat. subz was killed by vitalasy. subz left the game.

his world shattered. The one person he cared about was gone. gone and he couldn't even talk to him. couldn't tell him how much he regretted betraying them. he needed to revive subz. right. now. he got vi into a call, a bottle of sunshine, sure it was just a mistake, sure subz was not really gone.

But vi was crying. he didn't explain it all to zam, but subz had brought him back on the server to tour him around their bases. filled with grief vi dragged his feet from location to location. eventually subz brought him to his newest base, and in the corner he could see a room filled with signs spelling out depression. lost, alone, a failed team that he had brought together, now split apart. vi immediately realized what subz was about to do. subz brought him to the end and revealed his masterpiece base, and then told vi to kill him. he wasn't capable of reuniting the team while he was alive, maybe in death vi and zam could reconcile. He was determined to have vi kill him. vi refused for an hour until he finally got subz to promise to return when he needed him most. And he banned him.

vi had zam meet him in the end and faced with that innocent smiling idiot's face, vi had almost no words. subz had left him a book telling him his final wish was for them to reconcile and vi begrudgingly decided to let zam in. he showed zam the end base. zam apologized instantly, wanting nothing more than for everything to be all right. but his focus was completely on reviving subz, almost ignoring vi in his desperation to get subz back. two lost birds.

vi explained that subz wanted to be gone and even if they revived him he wouldn't come back. they agree to be teammed again, and i think it's this zam vod or the next time he talks to vi, but within 30 minutes he's regretting saying yes to everything and wondering if it was the wrong thing to reconcile and get back together with vi. so. still good old princezam.

but it was done. they were reconciled. as the wormhole approached zam reconciled with everyone he had wronged.

but he forgot about pangi. in the wake of vi banning himself zam no longer wanted to do a "trap the gods" idea with pangi since the exploits were over. time and again this season zam had preferred his own plan over pangi's and often fought against him even though the two were friends. even though pangi was always there to help zam with his plans. frustrated at being snubbed, pangi took zam through the course they had made together, ending with the void trap they were going to use to lock the exploiters under the bedrock.

zam jumped in willingly, having taken off all his gear so as to not loose it in the void, but pangi had repaired the bedrock with the bedrock they had stolen from ash. pangi gave a great villain speech and trapped zam in bedrock. zam accepted his fate. so full of regret for all his action this season, this was nothing compared to what he felt he deserved.

And zam broke. he entered his mind and confronted all his past selves. his eclipse self tells him he cant just give up and abandon vi again, not after everything. zam thinks he has hurt vi too much to ever be forgiven. his team awesome (i think) self tells him he should just give up and destroy the server instead of wallowing in self pity.

he kills himself with a water bucket (ooc pangi had dropped it to him so he could get out) and decides to talk to both vi and spoke to figure out what side of the wormhole he would be on. vi isn't available. so he speaks to spoke first.

he meets spoke on a hill just like in s3, and asks to join him in ending the server. spoke reveals that he has not just all the exploits, but op. he gives zam creative mode, shows him custom items he coded, transports a whole chunk of the overworld to the end, gets in a console battle with parrot's admin account and wins. spoke is in complete control of the server.

mapicc was already on spoke's side and so once again devotions are together, fighting side by side just like on team awesome.

zam talks to vi next and iirc doesn't tell him he's already joined spoke, he's aware he has a team secret to keep and either way vi says he doesn't have plans for the finale. i actually dont remember when vi finds out zam is on the wormhole side.

over the next week spoke does prep events for the wormhole, involving inactive server members, mapicc and zam corrupt the world (grass to netherack, wood to basalt) with boots spoke coded for them. devotions wonder if spoke will betray them, they dont like that they're just minions and not equals, spoke isnt giving them actual power, just toys and tricks. they promise to end the server together no matter what happens.

the night before the end zam wonders if he's making the wrong decision again, the chatters fan the flames and he works himself up into second guessing everything. spoke might betray him. planet has found out he's on spokes side and hates him. he's messing everything up again. he was so against exploits and now he put himself on the exploit team.

suddenly he realizes chat is the problem. he's trying to make everyone happy, even chat, and he needs to just decide to do what he thinks he should do. and he decides that he wants to end the server as fast as possible so that subz can return in s4. because it's always been about subz.

the day of the wormhole arrives and about 100 other mcyts join the server to kill parrot, planet, bacon, and jaron. earlier spoke had said if they can survive the wormhole he will give up the exploits and they can save the server before ending it. over the next 48 hours they play a protect the president event.

vi revives subz the first day and suddenly zam is faced with the object of his desires back on this server. they have a final terribly tragic conversation where subz is disappointed in zam for joining spoke, zam cant defend himself because he agrees with subz, vi joins and chews zam out for betraying and tells him if he didn't want to play he should have just logged off. vi and subz are on parrot's side and killing people with leftover exploits vi still had. they leave, and zam even more dejected than ever.

planet decides to live the whole event at 3 hearts despite parrot having gathered 100 over the season. right at the end spoke asks both sides for items to ban and eventually hearts get banned, so planet is stuck at 3. in the final moments he almost gets banned but minute (as a guest) has planet kill him to get a heart again (minute's video on the wormhole was actually really good btw), but mapicc catches up to planet and bans him in the last 10 seconds of the event.

spoke, because the players fought so hard, brings everyone to the control room telling them they can choose to save the server or end it. while the server discusses mapicc and zam message each other and decide to jump in both options at once so that the server has to end. there's a final conversation on the grass where vi says this was the ending he wanted.

the long and complicated season is over.

s5 starts slow, Zam is very much done with being the main character and not much happens for about like 5 months. zam takes a full 3 month break from streaming, but when he returns in january he joins Mapicc and Bacon and they invite Jumper and Pentar to make the Abyss. they start breaking bedrock at spawn and getting players to fall into the void. its a fun and long and shenanigan filled arc that takes a deep turn as themes of players leaving the server start setting in. This season rek left before it started and parrot, poafa, mid, subz, and vi all leave mid way through. lifesteal feels like it's crumbling.

After days of fighting, planet gets zam into a call and asks him why the abyss is doing all of this. zam mentions mulitple things but lands on player activity. planet walks to the void hole and says "if the goal is player activity then, in a way i guess you lost" and then jumps into the void. the ban sound pierces the air announcing planet having been on one heart that whole time.

The abyss is mortified. They did like their idea of player activity but planet was right, just killing memebers made them give up. so they concoct a new plan, a week long scavenger hunt for the rest of the server to complete: if they finish the Abyss will stop voiding all of spawn, if they dont spawn will be destroyed. Minute heads up the opposition in the Foundation.

for multiple 9-12 hour streams zam labors at building the freakinator to destroy 5 layers of bedrock. mapicc joins him most often, usually just sitting in call to keep him company but being there nonetheless. Jumper and Pentar start helping more once the scavenger hunt really starts while bacon joins call to work on the clues. many fun hours of banter and laughter fill the air.

jumper pentar and mapicc take valorant breaks much to zams embitterment. jumper accidentally gets pentar to fall into the void with multiple skulkers of pistons, enraging zam. zam and jumper both are filled with excitement at the future making all of spawn into parkour civilization.

the whole arc zam has to face the concept that he cares more about this project than anyone else on the team, even though the abyss wasn't originally his idea. he has to fight constantly to battle the bitter voices that tell him they don't care about him and are bad teammates. only mapicc stays in the positive light. everyone else drains resources and falls into the void with the pistons he spent hours crafting.

As the scavenger hunt continues (oh day one of the scavenger hunt wemmbu demands 50 hearts or he will orbital strike spawn. foundation and abyss join together to unite the server in stopping him. spoke leaks the orbital coords he got bc he is owner to ash and the foundation take the win at being the one to destroy the canon and spawn trap wemmbu to 2 hearts. though the shot still went off and a large portion of spawn got destroyed despite the server trying to waterlog everything)

the foundation runs through clues faster than the abyss thought they would, so bacon adds some extra steps at the end. minute gets frustrated and decides to log on before the final session starts to try and finish the hunt. zam is planning on breaking the first bedrock to void at 3pm and minute wants to beat him to it.

despite everything, in a mad rush right at the end, the foundation gets the final clue at 2:55pm. they are to give the abyss one task of their choosing. they are in control. they decide the abyss members should die to the void once and never break bedrock again. The players jumped into the void.

But what nobody saw coming, or none dared imagine even when there were signs, was Jumper was secretly on the Foundation's side and leaked the scavenger hunt answers whenever the Foundation got stuck.

All the work, all those pistons, stopped in an instant. The betrayal was one of the most insane things to happen on lifesteal ever. three months of deep cover. actively helping the team. dreaming of parkour civilization together. multiple trust tests and steadfast dedication promised. all lies.

Mapicc immediately tries to kill her, Zam helps but both give up as Minute defends Jumper and both fight them back. There is no resolution to the betrayal. (Clown's video of this arc covers the whole Foundation side and is great)

Mapicc vows to destroy her life, Bacon agrees, Zam is down with it. Leaving Pentar to have the difficult choice: stay on the team and destroy the only member he knew before joining the server, or leave. He leaves. Later he joins Jumper and Minute as a team

Mapicc and Zam try fighting Minute and Jumper over and over but fail again and again.

The Presidency Arc begins, the server elects one person to get legal exploits basically: changing three things about the server. 4C and Reddoons together win, disappointing Mapicc and Zam greatly as red and 4c were extremely inactive and only wanted CaptainSparklez on for one event, removed the heart recipe, and had a third thing so forgettable i dont remember it and it didnt happen.

Basically they stalled out the already stalled progression of the server. Nobody was doing any big arcs since the abyss weeks before, the last arc was soundly destroyed by betrayal and no revenge was possible bc Minute and Jumper were just slightly better pvpers than Mapicc and Zam.

With the captainsparklez event on the horizon, Zam being lower on hearts, and having just died to Minute and Jumper in a fight where he semi-illegally restocked, was called into the principle's office with Ash (owner of s5 with spoke). Ash told him off, and then was reminded that he didn't remove heart crafting recipe, so he did that and told Zam to just kill 4C and Mid if he wanted more hearts.

Once again Ash is changing the trajectory of the server. Zam goes into a moral quandary bc he's kind of evil this season but is he THAT evil to kill two non-pvpers? While they're building? In the middle of the debate Ash logs on again and /msg him why they're still alive. So Zam kills 4c. He feels awful and spirals and goes to his and Pangi's base to think, but upon seeing their bed, realizes he could just farm Pangi off the server. Or just take half his hearts. The idea is so horrible, the depths of darkness so great, that he just starts laughing. and laughing. and laughing. (vod: "an agent of chaos is born")

So begins Zam's Joker arc, incredibly relevant to s6. Throughout the Abyss, Minute had been calling himself batman, and thus became the fixation of the Joker arc.

The presidency had also passed to Minute who had run saying he would do pvp style events but then just added the aether, changed the kit, and added the Blaze and Caves achievement race (BAC). And he was already talking about ending the server in peace.

This upset Mapicc Bacon and Zam, who had become The Players by this time. After consulting with Spoke (bc he always ends the server), they came up with a plan to break up all the teams. Mapicc started reaching out to Clown and Leo to see if they would betray the PMC, their team with Minute. And they came up with the plan to try and steal the presidency from Minute after his term was up (3 weeks, 3 changes) and use it to make the server hardcore, thinking they would finally be able to kill Minute and Jumper.

Zam full on went onto his Joker arc, blowing up builds, having people choose to blow up builds, fight each other, and a host of other Joker inspired moral dilemmas. minute told zam that the reason he wanted to join lifesteal was because he looked up to him for his s3 heroism. (vod: "murder chicken machine") Jumper also had a great yap session with zam at this time ("your president doesn't care about you")

Zam's main tactic was taking all his armor off in front of minute and jumper, taunting them to kill him and break their peaceful ending. If they wanted him to stop destroying the server they could just kill him.

But they refused. over and over.

Then the Blaze and Caves event happened, Minute's final presidency event. whoever got the most achievements from the 900 or so new ones would get a heart cap of 30. Zam being Zam loves small tasks and went on a week of 12 hour streams to get them all, stopping all Joker activities.

In this week Mapicc made fun of Minute for not just killing Zam and over the course of the conversation Minute agreed to bet the presidency bc Mapicc implied that they were just opposing Minute bc Minute stole the presidency from Mapicc bc the vote was rigged after the CaptainSparlez event. If Mapicc could get the majority of the server to vote him out, he would step down.

Wemmbu approached Mapicc and I forget who suggested it first but what came out of it was Wemmbu would pay everyone who voted for him $500, Mapicc wanted Wemmbu to get the presidency bc he thought more people would vote for Wemmbu over him, and then proceeded to convince everyone on the server to vote against minute within like a 2 hour span. (you can watch the entire thing go down live on Zam's vod. it was incredible)

Minute was completely cooked. The presidency was ripped out from under him, Clown and Leo voted against him, everything was rigged from the start while he still believed the server would vote for what was right, not what was interesting, and definitely not for irl money.

Minute's vod "meet the yappers" is a vod of all time.

That Saturday the BAC achievement race was finished and Zam got 30 hearts, Pentar came in second and got 25.

The server got turned to hardcore, and the Players accidentally killed Bacon with an arrow cannon like 5 minutes into it that they were planning on using on the whole server.

With the presidency gone, Pentar, Minute (Brandon), Ash, and Jumper became officially PB(And)J and gave up being the nice guys. They were still self-proclaimed the good guys and they still wanted peace, they just had to kill a few people and then there would be peace on lifesteal.

So they, all four of them, jumped Zam and killed him in a couple minutes flat when zam had threatened to blow up the vitalasy hole, Vi's last place on the server before leaving. It was the classic Joker threat, but he went to actually do it bc Ash was being extra obnoxious in the call. And then got instantly murdered. and Zam was banned.

Then like a week later (iirc?) Jumper asked Mapicc on to talk, she told him she regretted betraying the Abyss, that pb&j wanted to kill people and she just wanted the server to end in peace, and that she wanted Mapicc to kill and ban her so she could end her season on her terms.

It was a trap. Minute shot Mapicc with an arrow cannon. Killing him instantly.

They then got Wemmbu on and used their presidency power that was left over to cancel out his presidency power of immortality (it was just as confusing as that sounds) and killed him instantly.

Wemmbu didn't like that(TM) so he changed the tnt damage to 100 and dropped a nuke on them instantly killing Jumper Ash and Pentar. But that was unfair(TM) (and he lagged the server illegally to do it) so it was undone.

As a result Zam borrowed Pangi's account and Mapic borrowed Spoke's and they were back on to oppose this peaceful ending. Clown and Ro also locked in and were super active in the finale.

Wemmbu's next presidency thing (this was before they killed him. whatever. time moved weirdly in the finale) was the blessings and curses, Zam was pretty much emotionally done with the server, so in a final act of GayJoker flare, blessed Minute with fire res (which was useless bc Minute had 64 notch apples).

Mapicc and Clown were Not Happy with this, Mapicc took it as a betrayal, which upset Zam a lot because his whole thing this season was not betraying his team bc that's all he did s4. So he locked in for the finale. Pangi's account accidentally got banned, so he borrowed Spepticle's account.

Minute and co were not logging on a lot, even though they had a whole meeting about them playing at least a couple of hours a day so The Players could actually try and ban them and it would be a real finale event. Mapicc pulled out Salty Mode and once again got Minute to cave and Jumper and Pentar logged on and they did a 4v3. Clown out general'ed Minute and Minute got banned and Pentar got banned. Speptical logged onto his account to kick Zam off mid fight which was a delightfully great bit of possession control.

Jumper had to survive two days and got Squiddo and Ash to help, the three of them tried chunk banning Clown and Ro and Mapicc (zam got banned by clown so they couldnt use Spep's account to get Mintue back on). Mapicc died bc Squiddo made a mod to tap into Wemmbu's mod from his presidency and she nuked him and he died from an elytra glitch.

Eventually the next day Jumper and co chunk banned everyone, but clown and Ro walked out of it bc you can join and move a bit before you get kicked. Jumper elected to stay canonically in the ban and give up, even though they let the ban despawn by accident and she could log on. She conceded the event.

Everyone went to Branzy's carnival which had been happening in parallel to all of this the past couple months. They celebrate his final moments on lifesteal, and bid adieu to one of lifesteal's most beloved members. He won't be joining season 6.

And then we have s6.

Zam starts the season deciding to never kill a player again. he will just build peacefully at spawn, swearing off violence in the wake of his violence in the joker arc and s5 in general.

within 9 days he is killed by pentar on bacon's suggestion, killed by mapicc 3 times in a row, killed by bacon and planet's trap which they pulled to stop leo from killing him, along with a host of other small moments that almost make zam break.

on the 9th day he tries building a shulker farm for hours and hours. pangi bothers him throughout the whole process and he shoots him with his bow to get him to go away over and over. in a bout of frustration over the farm not working he builds a closet to lock the spirit of the joker in. he tells bacon about the closet and how he has terrible nightmares and the demon in his closet tells him to kill people. eventually he gives up on the farm but later that night he logs on to mess with bacon more. bacon and planet manage to piss him off within a couple of minutes and he again starts using his bow to shoot at them in petty frustration.

but planet takes off all his armor and takes an arrow to the head, popping like a grape. zam got his first kill.

that night he stalks spepticle and is menacing in the distance. he tells spep he wont remember this when he wakes up but spep will.

the next day he's in agony over what he has done. pangi comforts him and tells him its not his fault. zam builds a tree and writes his first oath, swearing to never crit or bow at players ever again.

satisfied that he's learning to control his bloodlust he decides to try and get to 20 hearts from building because mapicc asks him to build him a castle. the next day flame asks him to build him a volcano for 3 hearts which makes him raise the price on mapicc's castle also up to 3 hearts (after two conversations)

at the same time squiddo, 4c, and cube run the peace trials to decide who they will give the mace to. eventually they choose clown because he put his all into it.

as time continues more and more people choose to follow zam in pacifism. woogie swears off violence after mane blows up their base and red kills kab. kab swears off violence after going in a box for a week to process red killing her. pangi swears off violence so people feel comfortable coming to his recording events. zam hates that people are copying him. it was never about making lifesteal peaceful, it was about his own bloodlust.

one day flame comes to spawn during session asking for a 10v1 fight. everyone thinks there has to be a trap, but he denies it. mapicc starts getting people involved for the fight and they get about 5-6 people because zam woogie and pangi all refuse bc pacifism and terrain never pvps and has no gear.

right at the end zam decides to let go of his oath for a day to participate in the fight so flame can do his idea. he wont kill flame but he will crit him. but flame decides there's not enough players and he hears that rek and others will just run if they get low and flame wants to kill them all, not end in running. so he cancels the fight to plan it another day.

everyone disperses and logs off but a bit later wemmbu calls zam back to spawn so he can watch them blow it up. flame is destroying builds to piss off the players so they will want to fight him. zam is horrified and gives himself up as a fight so flame will stop. flame and wemmbu kill him and keep blowing it up because it was never the point. they want a 10v1 not a princezam alone.

flame burns down zam's tree and as the fire consumes the tree zam can only helplessly look on while flame and wemmbu mock him in vc.

Zam almost breaks. But pangi logs on right after and he suddenly realizes he can rebuild spawn over and over from a schematic and nothing is bad at all. Skipping away he starts gaia's hand, a group of players who will help him rebuild spawn and fight flame. He's afraid of getting so involved and so close to fighting because it might make him slip up and break, but if flame burning his tree couldn't make him change he didn't think anything could.

pangi takes it upon himself to talk to flame, giving him lite therapy to get him to see that people take time to build and building is enjoyable by building a house with him. flame begrudgingly builds the house thinking it's dumb the whole time. but pangi gets him to agree to not blow up spawn anymore and pagni will organize flame's fight for him. but minutes later wemmbu logs on and starts blowing up mapicc's castle. pangi is helpless to stop him because of his pacifism and he's pissed that flame can't control his teammates. he leaves telling flame to stop wemmbu or the fight is off. minutes later again flame calls him back to the house they built and wemmbu has blown it up. flame is completely dejected and feels like he cant stop wemmbu and also that it isn't his problem to fix. pangi gives him one final chance, but he's at the end of his rope. but they leave agreeing to get flame the fight.

zam gets into mccr and leaves the server for this week to practice, during his absence the fight happens, but right as the 10 people stand together in a pre-fight pep talk mapicc and spoke tnt minecart the whole circle, killing everyone. the players are pissed and refuse to fight again. mapicc says its because wemmbu blew up his castle, and that flame needs to kill wemmbu and he can have his fight. mapicc and wemmbu end up fighting and bc mapicc was on his phone hotspot he starts to loose so he runs from the fight. in retaliation the server griefs his castle, enemies and friends together.

after the cart incident zam logs on to get updated, pangi and mapicc both hate how flame is bullying the server into getting his fight and they promise to stop flame.

in the ashes of his tree, zam no longer has an oath, so he writes a new one that focuses on refusing to kill and refusing to use violence to solve his problems. he's emboldened by his idea to rebuild spawn over and over whenever flame destroys it, convinced he will outlast him.

flame logs on and zam gets him to admit he can't control wemmbu and also cant betray wemmbu bc wemmbu has something over him that will ruin him. zam this time promises to get flame his fight if he can convince wemmbu to stop blowing up spawn. he logs off to win mccr the following weekend, and the day he returns flame has decided to do his fight during session and uses 1000 dogs to aid him.

also while he was gone kab killed planet twice, almost banning him but then gave back the hearts.

zam is left listless, there is nobody to fight. he builds a field of daisies to frolic in. he doesn't know what he will do. where his journey will take him. but for now he's content. he has completely become the pacifist.

days later mapicc calls him to his castle and reveals that he's been stalking him for months and trying to get him to break and start killing. it has obviously been unsuccessful. at one point about a month before he had taken off his armor and started attacking zam and zam still refused to hit him, only doing it accidentally before running away and getting out. mapicc offers him hearts if he kills him and zam easily refuses. they end the arc teammates rather than enemies.

with nothing going on in the server, bacon decides that while mapicc prefers having zam as a friend, he prefers having zam as an enemy and so he choses to join wemmbu to help guide him to do more interesting arcs. wemmbu takes him in and same day kab leaks spep's location and wemmbu kills spep with bacon in tow and the team starts to form.

that same day bacon starts training kab to learn to escape fights, during it kab sets her bed in front of him. a little later mane logs on and kills kab bc they have a feud going on since the start of the season, and then finds that bed and kills her again. kab immediately thinks bacon betrayed her and sends hannah after him to kill him, he dies in one hit because he's on 4 hearts and then dies again trying to get his stuff back and is overall rather pissed at kab and hannah because he didn't leak the bed. they get wemmbu on and update him and bacon refuses to team if kab doesn't give the heart back. it ends unresolved but a couple days later kab gives bacon the hearts and the california girls becomes a team (name will come later).

zam thinks bacon is being fishy so he investigates him but wemmbu leaks pretty quickly that they're a team. but then wemmbu gets hannah to kill poafa at spawn twice and zam can do nothing but watch and give poafa two of his own hearts. he's left with nothing to do and no ideas of how to fight wemmbu without fighting.

mapicc drops his stalking video and then dies to wemmbu in a 1v1 and zam logs on in time to see him die. bc of both things he's sent into a reflection turmoil over who he is on this server. mapicc has got him feeling like the team awesome days and it scares him. who do the players on the server view him as? he realizes independence was nice, but it's also isolating and he's all alone. he resolves to find teammates. but even so he doesn't have options he likes at all.

then one day bacon revives planet, and wemmbu kills planet twice and all the members of the server are too afraid of wemmbu to attack him and protect planet. zam is crushed but still doesn't know what to do. he gives planet hearts from his own hotbar, but he's running low and he vowed to not kill and he doesn't want to slip and go down a route that will make him evil again.

then while musing over ideas he flies to spawn and sees derap and mid, touching down he intends to chat, but derap kills mid, banning her instantly. horrified zam asks him why but derap just says it's because there were no repercussions to his actions. that word sticks in zam's brain and he realizes wemmbu has never had to face any sort of repercussions for his actions.

bacon and mapicc log on and zam shares his realization and him and mapicc decide to use zam as bait to get wemmbu into a fight where mapicc and spoke can kill wemmbu with zam as support (not using strength). they get the fight, flame joins in, but mapicc and spoke both die and zam gets out. zam, in post fight talking with chat admits that he's felt more happy while fighting than he has most of the season. he starts to very seriously consider changing his oath to allow fighting, but he doesn't want to do it by his own choice so he asks poafa and kab on.

the poafa conversation is very dear to me, zam admits that the whole reason he did pacifism was because of the "chicken murder machine" conversation with minute s5 where minute said he was inspired by zam s3. Zam has been wanting to reconnect with who he was in season 3 so he swore off fighting and vowed to protect the server at all costs. poafa gently helps him see he's not fighting on fair ground and it wouldn't be bad to fight. that he is capable of looking at the reasons he's fighting and choosing to not go too far.

he talks to kab, and feels good enough to choose a new title, pacifism never fit, but first derap comes back asking what the heck happened because he saw the mapicc and spoke death messages and zam and mapiccs banter with flame after the fight so he knows zam fought. zam admits what he said earlier changed everything and that he is going to fight from now on.

after derap leaves he writes a third oath, this one labeling him a protector of spawn, and collects a sword "galaxia, the protector sword" plus a bunch of strength pots from a barrel right by leo's void hole that he has stashed a couple of days ago as he thought over this arc change. (this is the vod PRIDE)

that brings it to 10/15/24

since then there's been small things that may or may not be relevant as the season continues to unfold. zam is still in his protector arc. mane has taken up the mantle of destroying spawn. a couple weekends ago there was a massive battle for spawn trying to kill mane once so he would stop. it all failed. minute became a legend for trying to 1v1 mane and lost but maybe won the ideological battle. mapicc's team built an orbital cannon to use against mane and involved zam. devotions have had incredible lore. kab is doing something with zam that who knows how will end. derap is doing lore with zam.

we are firmly in the mid season where all early things matter and we're establishing all the relationships that will matter for the end of season lore. and this mane spawn destruction may very well be the mid season economic miracle like the cleansing, dupe war, and abyss were in previous seasons. We'll see if anyone does anything bigger after him. Seasons usually end around may/june so there's still plenty of time to go unless they decide to go rogue.

[glorious-spoon]

9-1-1 Season 7 Post-Mortem

Mostly because I want to put my thoughts in order. Full disclosure: I'm really not thrilled with a lot of the choices this season made, but I'm also not at the 'fuck this show I hate it now' level either. The primary, overarching issue, IMO, is that they tried to stuff a full season's worth of plot into ten episodes, and the pacing and emotional continuity suffered badly. And also there were some writing choices that were simply deranged (and hopefully would have been reworked had they not been laying down the tracks in front of the speeding train, so to speak).

(Cut for me rambling at length)

So: Bobby and Athena were largely really solidly written. The cruise ship disaster was great: campy and OTT, but in a fun way. Their marital issues and the eventual resolution felt like a natural continuation of issues they've had in the past. Bobby Begins 3.0 was a great episode other than the cartel element, which was some ill-considered racial stereotyping (I've said it before and I'll say it again: you could have had the antagonists in that episode be a bunch of angry locals threatening people for tresspassing on their property, and the whole thing would have been 100% less gross without actually changing much of the plot. Really felt like Tim was cribbing from the similar Lone Star arc, which was also lazy and racist). Amir was a fantastic character, and while I could have done without that last scene of him offering Bobby absolution, I feel like he was generally allowed to be both gracious and rightfully angry. The cop Athena stuff in the finale was... less great, but also to be expected. I would have liked much less of that and much more time spent at Bobby's bedside.

(I'm really sad about the house fire mostly because that was one of my favorite sets, but I do appreciate the poetry of the parallel, with Bobby actually managing to get his wife out this time. Though I do wonder where Harry was that night, lmao.)

Hen was similarly wonderful. I really liked getting to see her wrestle with the responsibility of being captain, and the fallout of the car accident scene. In a vacuum, I actually like Ortiz as a villain - a complicated one, with sympathetic motivations, but still ostentatiously cruel. Were it not for the fact that there are basically NO latine characters other than Eddie who aren't villains this season, it would have been great. ALAS.

Did not love the rescue dog/foster child parallel with Mara. Otherwise really loved getting to see her settle in with the Wilsons, and I'm really glad that we got to see Chim and Maddie take her in instead of leaving her at the group home by the end of the season. Really leaned into the found family element, and Chim taking care of his best friend's child in the same way that Mrs. Lee did for him.

CHIM! Chim my beloved. 'There Goes The Groom' is the one episode that I have basically no issues with at all. The hallucinatory trip through Los Angeles, wrestling with Doug's ghost, was gorgeous. Bringing back Kevin - also gorgeous. I loved that we see the Lees explicitly framed as his real family (and am spitefully glad that his bio dad was nowhere to be found. Fuck that guy.) Kenny continues to be, IMO, the best actor on this show. He killed it. We need so many more Chim-centric episodes, because they're always SO good. He can make both humor and pathos feel so natural and human. Give us more Chim!

And of course on to Buck's bisexual arc, which was... so painfully Buck, lmao. Full disclosure: I have a lot of trouble rewatching 7x04 and 7x05 because the secondhand embarrassment is just too much for me, but objectively it feels very right and in character for him. LOVED the first kiss scene, with his dawning realization of what's about to happen and his softly stunned joy afterward. His coming out scenes with both Maddie and Eddie were lovely and perfectly appropriate to both relationships. I really liked him taking the initiative to reach out to Tommy to apologize and ask for a second chance after he fucked up their first date. Loved Tommy showing up at the hospital after what was clearly a long, miserable shift.

Their date in the finale didn't really land for me mostly because of where it was placed in the episode; if they did something with the two of them after Buck spent the entire day at Bobby's bedside waiting to see if he was going to live, it would have felt a lot more natural to me to have them exhaustedly eating takeout on the couch or something instead of having a formal sit-down date with wine and place settings. Intentionally or not, that made it feel like they're still on Date Behavior with each other and despite some gestures toward emotional vulnerability, they're not quite there yet - as seen by Buck steering the conversation back to flirting and innuendo. My overall feeling on the relationship at this point is that it's cute, but I'm not seeing any real depth of feeling between them yet.

Buck and Eddie on the other hand - look, despite my many MANY issues with Eddie's plot this season, I loved how his relationship with Buck was written. I love the intimacy and familiarity of how they are together, I loved the way Eddie let himself lean on Buck, I loved how Buck is clearly positioned as an integral part of the Diaz family.

Unfortunately, that's really the only thing I loved about Eddie's plot this season. His relationship with Marisol was ultimately pointless; she was never fleshed out enough to feel like a real character, and we never even see the fallout of Eddie's cheating with regard to her; it's all Chris. The Kim stuff strained credulity, and also I never felt like he got any kind of emotional catharsis or resolution through it; he still hasn't really confronted any of his issues about Shannon, about their marriage and how it ended. That whole arc felt really wobbly in terms of tone, as well: using plot elements of a very famous psychological thriller without actually acknowledging any of the creepiness of it. I would have liked it to lean into that more especially with the scene where Kim dresses up as Shannon, an objectively creepy and unhinged thing to do.

The Diaz parents handled the Chris thing in a selfish and opportunistic way that felt both disappointing and inevitable. Hopefully that's going to be a hook for the next season and Eddie actually confronting them, but overall Eddie's plot this season really felt like they just tossed a bunch of balls up in the air and mostly failed to catch them.

Gerrard - look, I'm not that worried about Gerrard. I could have done without him, but ultimately he's going to stick around just long enough to make his inevitable defeat satisfying. At least, that's my hope.

[henley-reeves]

"House MD" was the first show that I was absolutely obsessed with 24/7 since I was a kid. I was in love with Huddy, they made me insane like no other ship did before. I remember I rewatching the last 2 episodes of season 5 on a loop all summer until season 6 came out. And I always knew this relationship would end up in tragedy but the way the writers ruined them is just incomprehensible to me. There were so many ways to end it badly but in a well-written way, Its like they didn't even know how to write this ship. They did mutual pining, mutual annoyance-to-lovers so well, and then when it was time to deliver the actual relationship, they lost it after a few episodes and imo, made both characters ooc in so many instances I lost count. The way they ended this relationship made Cuddy look bad, and then they did it with House but made him look even worse in the season finale, that I still hate to this day. And then the show got ruined because an important part of it disappeared. "House" was good because it was an ensemble cast show, it consisted of many elements like puzzle pieces that created the atmosphere, made this show special. And if you take away one element, the whole picture fractures and falls apart. That's why most of the characters that made this show what it was, were present even in recurring roles. That's why when Cameron, Kutner, Thirteen and Amber left the show, it didn't feel the same anymore. And when Cuddy left, the show just lost flavour. And that's why the series finale was not as good as it could be either, because Cuddy was supposed to be there. I don't remember much of what happened after "Bombshells" but didn't House have Cuddy's picture with him in prison where he went AFTER he drove a car through her house? How come she wasn't there in the finale when she was such an important part of his life for decades? A person he wanted to be with so badly that he hallucinated a whole day of romantic relationship with her. Hello?

I read a big review of the series finale by an official online source when it came out, that said the episode was fantastic except there was a huge elephant in the room because Cuddy wasn't there. I haven't thought about this in years, but now I'm rewatching and I'm reminded how badly the show went downhill and it still makes me angry.

Anyway, I miss this show and I think that despite its flaws, it was absolutely amazing overall, but it is a very good example of how the formula of the show only works if you don't mess with it or remove the integral ingredients that made it whole.

And a reminder to writers that "will they or won't they?" only works well when the writers KNOW how to write "they will" in a satisfying way that doesn't make the relationship go off the rails and lose its spark.

[true-illusion]

So, I finally got round to watching the new Doctor Who season.

I had lost interest since Clara became the companion and after Peter Capaldi was the Doctor. I only watched two episodes of Jodi Whitaker - the first episode and the one with John Barrowman and Jo Martin. I thought both episodes were rubbish. Plus, it took effort to find and download the show, so I stopped watching. I haven’t gotten round to the Tennant specials cos I thought they were just nostalgia bait.

So, I was very sceptical, going in to Ncuti Gatwa’s era. I worried it would be another snooze fest that was more interested in being PC and box-ticking than telling a good story. But I had nothing else to do, and it was on Disney, so I turned it on.

IT WAS SO GOOD. I binge watched the whole thing in two days.

I could definitely see Russell T. Davis’ hand in it. It felt like the Eccleston and Tennant era episodes. It was exciting and fun and funny, but not too silly. They made a social point without being too preachy. Ncuti Gatwa is growing on me - I think the binge watching format made it harder to sink in that, "yes, he’s the Doctor". But I’m getting there.

But, I think it was Ruby that carried the season. There were quite a few Rose-type moments. But she was different enough to be her own person. I liked Ruby overall. She was sweet, she felt genuine, and she was not forced into that “sassy/arrogant” characterisation. I was invested in her story.

Her mum was not bad - Jackie Tyler was still better, imo, cos though she had a heart of gold, she still had her flaws. Ruby’s mum was just too perfect. Gran was hilarious though. I want more scenes with Gran just waiting for someone to finally give her a cuppa.

[ALERT: SPOILERS AHEAD]

Some episodes were better than others. Episode 2 “The Devil’s Chord” was AMAZING; it is the episode I want to go back and rewatch. They should have incorporated “American Pie” into it at some point. Haha! Jinkx Monsoon as the Maestro was brilliant. It was so larger-than-life and over-the-top, it was fantastic. Only thing I hated was the twist song at the end. Cringe.

Episode 5 “Dot and Bubble” was also amazing because of how disturbing it was. How people cannot function - cannot look at the world, can't even walk - without the devices, how Lindy sacrificed Ricky to save herself, how they refused to let the Doctor save them in the end. It felt like a reflection of our society and the trajectory we could be on.

Episode 1 “Space Babies” was pretty lame. If I had seen that first instead of the Christmas episode, I might have not continued. The babies were just cringe, and the snot monster… ugh. Plus, with the space station and giving Ruby universal roaming which she immediately called her mum with - it was a bit too much like Eccleston’s Doctor and Rose’s first outing.

The Christmas episode itself also wasn’t great, but it introduced the characters and the season's central mystery well, and got me interested in them. The episode reminded me of Labyrinth. “Magic Dance” kept running through my head. The bad-luck goblins were funny. Unfortunately, this Goblin King is no David Bowie. Also, no sinister robot Santas or killer Christmas trees that were a staple of past Christmas specials. It irked me a bit that the entire season’s central mystery might have been solved if the Doctor had just went up to Ruby’s mother then. He knew she was looking for her mother. He knew they couldn’t go back cos he couldn’t cross his own timeline. So why didn’t he go to her?? (Ok, then there wouldn’t be drama for the rest of the season. Lol!)

Episode 3 “Boom” was also weak. It tried to deal with strong themes - war, family, faith. It introduced interesting technology. But the story itself doesn’t hold up too well. The way the war started and continued was just too far fetched. I thought it was cool that majority of the thing took place just in that one crater though.

Meanwhile, other episodes left question marks. Episode 4 “73 Yards” was good (I loved the Welsh landscape), but a bit too much of building up to something and then it’s an anticlimax. Eg the people at the pub building up to some horror movie scenario, and then it was just some delivery person at the door. Roger just running away and giving up politics just like that? Maybe I just wasn’t paying full attention, but it was a bit too timey-wimey and weird. What was it that the woman said to all those people to make them run away screaming? Was she really Ruby all along? Where was the Doctor all that time?

And episode 6 “Rogue”… silly story with the cosplaying aliens, but it was a nice bit of fun after “Dot and Bubble”. It made me laugh the way they kept referencing Bridgerton, and how the characters were all about the Drama, with a capital D. The resolution of Ruby pretending to be the Chuldur was very disappointing bait-and-switch. But I love Rogue. I want to see more of him. Why couldn’t he stay? He could be the new Captain Jack Harkness (not that anyone could replace Capt Jack Harkness). Rogue and the Doctor together was something special (and not just in the sexual way). I want him as another companion. But the way it ended, I don’t think we’d see him again.

I don’t have much to say about the last two finale episodes, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” and “Empire of Death”. It was a rollercoaster. It was intense. It was a bit too “Bad Wolf”. There was a lot going on but I’m not really sure what was happening. I liked seeing Kate from UNIT and the old companion Mel. Kate’s “sign out” line made me emotional. Unfortunately, she didn’t stay dead in the end. I also never watched the old episodes with Sutekh, so I don’t think I got it. The scale of the destruction was just too big in this story. The Doctor just randomly going down to that planet to get the spoon… why? If Sutekh could track dead skin cells then why couldn’t he get to the Doctor instead of through Mel? And just conveniently, the DNA test law pops up. Did Ruby find her mother in the database or not? The end resolution with the magic rope and thingy felt, again, like more bait-and-switch. I was intrigued about the concept of how Ruby’s mother is not actually important except that they had placed importance on her, thereby imbuing her with more worth. But I don’t get why Sutekh couldn’t see her or why he cared. But again, maybe I wasn’t paying full attention. The end ending was sweet - how the Doctor didn’t think Ruby should go talk to her mother but Ruby did it anyway and it worked out well. And then more questions at the end. Who exactly is that neighbour woman?

I hope Ruby returns next season. Honestly, I watched this season more for her than for the Doctor. I'm glad I gave this season a chance. I’ll watch next season, for sure.

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch 1x7: the dark along the ways

spoilers for s1 of WoT and through Knife of Dreams in the books; minor spoilers for one of the s2 character blurbs

Aaaaah, my angel Tigraine is here to kick ass and have a baby. This cold open floored when when I first saw it and it still floors me. It's amazing. I'm looking forward to more Maiden action in s2 so much. Not just the fighting here, but the emotion -- how frustrated she is that they won't just let her have her baby in peace, how she finally has a moment to herself and then this new potential threat shows up and we hang in that moment. Fantastic episode opener and it really makes me excited about what we might get in s2 for the cold opens.

So... given that she left Andor to chase a prophecy to save the world and has found herself on Dragonmount about to give birth... Tigraine could probably guess who her kid was going to be at this point, I feel like? She was very well educated, first in Andor and then in the White Tower, so I'm sure she would have known the Prophecies (maybe she even figured out when she learned that the female warrior society of the Aiel was called the Maidens of the Spear?)

The Emond's Field people want to get Mat but Moiraine must refuse because he's literally in recasting limbo right now. I love how Rand just instantly lost all trust in Moiraine the second she refuses to open the Waygate. She won him to her side by helping Mat, then immediately lost him once she stopped. Rand (and Nynaeve) are so protective & defensive over Mat in this episode and I really love it.

Of course, Rand is now probably also about, like 75% sure that he's actually the Dragon and so there's no need to worry about Mat anyway. But Moiraine is absolutely not sure who the Dragon is and it very well could be Mat (imo if she wasn't worried that Mat was a potential channeler, it would be pointless to send the Red Ajah after him).

Rand's little despairing looks back at the closed Waygate and his instant defense of Mat against anyone who says a word against him (even Egwene): catnip to a newly-minted Cauthor shipper.

Yeah, Mat is 100% Moiraine's least favorite child -- she 'knows' what choice he would make, she says (the wrong one). So, there are actually two different ways that the show could go with Mat -- Moiraine could be either right or wrong that Mat would make the wrong/evil choice and it depends on how they've decided to handle the Seanchan. Because if they follow the same storyline that the books did, Mat does essentially choose to embrace evil along that path (even if Jordan never admits it) when he decides that he's okay being married to an unremorseful and unwilling-to-change slaver. If Tuon stays the same way that she is in the books, then Moiraine was right about Mat. If Mat and Tuon's storyline gets changed/updated to be less... awful, then Moiraine will have been wrong about Mat.

Lan tries to tease Nynaeve to cheer her up but fails, so he tries to reassure her instead, telling her that Mat is safer where they left him. It's a sweet little moment.

Both Egwene and Rand are more open in this moment than they were in episode 2 and are able to share a snuggle as they sleep (but Egwene also checks in with Rand first this time and waits for him to essentially nonverbally give her a 'yes' before snuggling in). Rand is also a lot less raw about the breakup and they're hovering in a weird 'maybe we're not broken up after all' space.

People's worst fears clawing at them is a lot more informative kind of existential terror than just gore-whispers.

Honestly, given how on-edge everyone is put by the Black Wind, it would more surprising if it didn't lead to tensions and arguments. That was a rough experience for them all.

Lots of Lan backstory in this episode! His title, people from his past, etc.

Poor Moiraine looks so exhausted. Pretty much now until the end of the season. This is also when Moiraine has the message sent to the Red Ajah about Mat, which Lan is not around to hear, I note.

Perrin engages in some Fainspotting!

Oh, I notice that when Min serves drinks to the ta'veren, she keeps her eyes down. To avoid seeing all the viewings maybe? And I'm pleased to say that show!Min remains likable on rewatch, despite my bad experience with book!Min in my reread! She actually is a world-weary and well-traveled woman who has been through Too Much and is Tired instead of feeling like a tweenager cosplaying as one. And Moiraine literally has to blackmail her into sharing her viewings about the EF5.

And reading the new s2 summary about Min also tells us why Moiraine threatening her with exposure is enough to make her crack -- she was forced to be a carnival act! Yikes, Min's aunts!

Also that does look like the same baby from Rand's vision in the next episode, at least to me, so I think that's what she was seeing.

The EF5 all confronting Moiraine. I do wonder if it was the whispers of the Ways that made her decide to open up to them about how the non-Dragons will die when the Dragon faces the Dark One. And though the group does fracture into an argument after this discussion, they do present a united front against Moiraine here.

This argument also does a good job in laying down Egwene's philosophy and her reasons for wanting to do this. And we get another passionate defense of Mat from Rand.

It's fascinating how quickly Nynaeve jumps the conclusion that Rand and Perrin are 'fighting over' Egwene (something that both Rand and Egwene find initially baffling). I wonder how long Nynaeve has been expecting this to come up as an issue between them, that she goes there so quickly. Back in ep1, she sends Perrin away from Egwene's celebration to spend time with his wife and then in this episode, she notices Perrin noticing Egwene and Rand snuggling together. She is on "Perrin->Egwene HIGH ALERT" at all times and it's just kinda fascinating. If she'd just let them argue, I sincerely doubt that Perrin would ever have let anything slip.

Perrin's staring at Rand's mouth while saying "only woman I ever loved was my wife" moment. With a single shot, Perrin comes across as infinitely less heterosexual than his book counterpart.

We get some more good Lan content in his scenes with Moiraine and then Nynaeve. It's nice to get to see a piece of Lan's culture and for him to share it with Nynaeve. All the scenes that he has with both of them in this episode are really good. Lan comparing his devotion to Moiraine to Nynaeve's protectiveness over the Two Rivers' kids; I like it.

And this scene with Egwene and Rand is his last stab at denial. He wants to pretend that he can still be Egwene's husband/Warder. But if he doesn't give up on his denial, he might be condemning Egwene, Perrin, & Nynaeve to a painful death. What Egwene says here (that she will stand by Rand if he's the Dragon) is also related to why he goes off on his own and pretends to be dead imo -- he knows his friends wouldn't abandon him and so he has to abandon them for their safety.

And we reach the point where everything is at a crisis point and Rand can't keep denying every strange thing that's been building up since the night the Trollocs attacked.

This scene with Rand and Min is very good. Again, show!Min is doing a lot better than book!Min. Also, Min, I'm holding you to that "three beautiful women" viewing.

Aah, the kindness of how the show did Rand's birth really gets to me. The story is so much... colder in the books. That show!Tigraine gets to have a last moment of connection before she dies, and gets some assurance that her kid will be taken care of. It was an incredibly compassionate change to make.

lol, the poor awkwardness of the three Emond's Fielders (before they realize that Rand has disappeared with Moiraine).

Moiraine's thoughts, probably: "shit, it's one of the boys. Well... at least it's not Mat".

[bonsai-babies]

I'm late to the cobra kai party, but rn I'm not sure I'll even finish watching it. The show started out very strong imo but there are things that disappointed me. Like the way the relationship between Daniel and Robby turned out after jail time. I know they did that to bring Robby and Johnny together, who is his real father, but I miss the dynamic between D. and R. Does this get better? What bothers me the most is the growing disrespect (?) of Miyagi's teaching, his philosophy. I don't think the writers understand what makes his way the best way :(

Hey, sorry it took a while! Job and classes 😞

I understand your frustration, in many ways I share it. I also feel like the LaRussos and Miyagi Do are constantly shown in a bad light by the plot. Only lately they have been a bit more lenient towards them, which is too little too late.

They write Miyagi Do in this strange way, like they don't really understand the style and only think it means "meditation and pretty comfy scenery". It's pretty ridiculous.

They discredit Miyagi's teachings and try to push the idea that Johnny's style has the same value or level as Mr Miyagi, which is so disrespectful and pathetic. It unfortunately continues for a while, only in these two later seasons they somehow decide to show more respect to Miyagi Do.

The way Daniel and Robby's connection ended in Season 3 broke my heart. It was a fantastic duo, they were healthy, Robby finally had a good adult in his life, and they had to trash it. Never to truly mend it back, which is an infuriating loss. Robby had a home, a teacher and a father in Daniel. I guess since the writers don't like the LaRussos they decided to take this away from them and push Robby to Johnny, their true Hero, so now Johnny can have both Migs and Robby, despite earning NONE of it.

What made me keep watching is my passion for the LaRussos, Miyagi and my absurd ship. Also, Mary is a sweetheart, I find her charming, having her on my screen makes me happy. If nothing is good, at least I get to see this adorable actress doing her adorable karate.

[fandomwe1rd0]

Ranking every season of Rick and Morty so far for 200 followers!

Nobody asked for this butttt I tried asking my followers what to do, and was met with slience, so I hope y'all will like this and thank you so so so much for 200 followers! I love each and everyone of y'all and thank you for listening to my insane ramblings! This is for all of you! Feel free to put your own rankings in the comments and reblogs! I love you guys so so so very much!

I LOVE THIS SEASON SO MUCH! MWAH! MWAH!

For this tier I'm putting in season 3! I find that this is the season where I am most excited for the episodes next, and I never feel like rewatching this season is a chore and there's really no bad episodes here at all. Even the weakest one imo Rickmancing the Stone, is still just decent, not exactly bad, just kinda boring. While Rick isn't great in this season personality wise, I do still like him overall, since he is still really complex, interesting, funny, and fun to watch, I just wish he had more protective Rick moments is all, since I will never get tired of seeing this moments.

I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUU but you actually have some really bad episodes what the hell-

Season 1! This season is very very good! With some really good episodes! There are still episodes I dislike, for example the god-awful Raising Gazorpozorp episode, which ranks it lower than season 3, but it's a really good season! It also introduces the show, what to expect, and sets the tone for the rest of the show really well! Even if it DOES lure you into a false sense of security by making you think this is a funny show before ripping your heart out....

I have mixed feelings about some episodes...but my opinion of you is mostly positive!

Season 2. Thissss season was a mixed bag for me, I did like most of the episodes, but there are some episodes I flip-flop on, but I only outwardly dislike one episode, it's ranked slightly lower than season 1 because while season 1 has less episodes I outwardly dislike, Rasing Gazorpozorp looking at you, I feel most consistently good and just more consistent overall with season 1. So it's rank slightly higher! Both are really good seaons though!

You actually have some really hard hitting emotional moments what the hell- I mean I like the emotional moments but why rip my heart out? Why do you do this to me?

Season 7! Again, I liked the majority of episodes, I just wish Morty was here more, he did get his own episode as the fucking amazing season finale, but he should be in this season more! #Boycott Rick and Morty season 7 because Morty wasn't there enough! All jokes aside, this was a really great season and a HUGE step up, I'm also willing to be more lietent with this one, since they did just kick off a major writer, for good reason but I'm sure they still struggled, but ended up making a really solid season!

You weren't great...but you had some fantastic episodes, so I'll let that slide.

Season 6! I didn't like every episode here, I didn't really like A Mort well Lived, and the less said about Bethic Twinstic the better. BUT! It does start picking itself up in the second half and had an awesome season preimere, so I still like it, just less so than the other seasons above this. Not every episode is bad, I did find the turkey episode really funny, and laughed at a lot of the jokes there, and besides the obvious problems in Final Desmithalation, if you block THAT part of the story and Rick and Jerry are on an adventure to stop a DIFFERENT FORTUNE! Also, like I mentioned, it starts picking itself up in the second half and has some really amazing episodes like "Anaylze Piss"

You really suck...but you had a fucking amazing finale so...

Season 5. This was the...thing that brought us Rickdependence Spray, which is pretty much uniamiously agreed on as the worst episode of the series, along with the worst joke of the series that actually comes back?! What the hell?! DAN WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! Ahem. Apologies. I am calm now. I did dislike the majority of the episodes, and I'm not exactly excitied when I rewatch it. but not every episode is bad, I liked the Gotron episode if you conviently forget the end. It also had a pretty fucking awesome finale which is definetily in my top ten favorite episodes, SO I may be biased buttttt that's what saved it from getting put as the worst season.

And the last and least...

Season 4. What more needs to be said? I don't hate every episode here, but I definetily do not get happy when I get to this season on my rewatch. Now don't get me wrong, I liked the premiere a lot, and The Vat of Acid Episode (Fuck Rick in that one btw) and I did mostly like the finale. But this one was more consistently bad, not to mention that Rick was a MONSTER in this season. I was definetily thinking "Why is he my favorite character again?" In this season more than I did in others. Don't get me wrong, characters don't HAVE to be morally good, but when I see him consistently feel no guilt what-so-ever for treating Morty like absolute garbage, ittttt makes me question why I like him at all. This season is also what started the....ahem...episode. I won't elaborate but Rick and Morty fans will know what I'm talking about, it's the one that started the chain and launched us into a dark Rick and Morty era. It also has the dragon episode and the facehugger episodes, two episodes I hate so so much in one season! And unlike season 5, it doesn't have a really really good episode that puts it higher, so the last tier it goes!

Annndddd that's it! This post didddd take me longer than usual, but it was fun making it! It's fun reflecting on the seasons on a show I love so much! I may be critical of it at times, but that's because I really do love this show, and want it to suceed! Sorry if my explanations of the rankings weren't good, but I tried my best! Feel free to put your rankings in the comments/reblogs! I love you guys so very much and have a great day/night! And thank you so much for 200 followers!

[shrinkthisviolet]

So I noticed your tags on a reblog a while ago about how you had a problem with The Flash - and I'd love to know more about what you thought of it overall (as I understand that the later seasons took something of a nosedive in quality.)

Oh boy 😅 I could go into depth about my problems with each of the seasons, but honestly, for the sake of brevity, I’m just gonna abbreviate the major problems I have for each season:

Season 1

—Iris should’ve been looped in sooner, especially given how many times she was put in danger by not knowing

—The waterfront kiss and the lightning psychosis bs is stupid—I’m glad the first thing was erased, and I try to ignore the second thing. There’s nothing romantic/funny about cheating or justifying it

—Eowells should’ve been killed off normally, not by being erased from existence (because?? How does the timeline still exist??)

Season 2

—Zoom’s motives were incoherent, and he’s only a good villain because of his menace factor

—Wally and Jesse should’ve both gotten powers from the accelerator, not just Jesse

—Jesse should’ve had Zoom-related trauma that impacted her ability (and desire) to be a speedster in s3

—Eliza Harmon should’ve been a WOC like in the comics, and she deserved a better storyline and she deserved to live, yes I’m still mad about this.

Season 3

—Savitar. In general. Wtf (existence makes no sense, him being a wannabe god instead of just Future Barry is boring, and also he was only interesting in the finale. By which point he should’ve been dead anyway. Also there’s no mf way he could’ve actually killed Iris bffr)

—Killer Frost. Incoherent—her siding with Savitar makes sense with the s4/s5 retcons, but those are from seasons when she regressed as a character imo. Also I never liked the split personality idea

—Iris being the only one at risk means there are no stakes because she’s the main female lead and would never really be killed off. All of Team Flash should’ve been at stake, with the possibility teased that they might disband permanently.

—Flashpoint was wasted potential and tbh should’ve happened after s1. Or at least it should’ve been more deeply explored here. But in any case, it feels cheap to have this after Barry already fully came to terms with his mom’s death in s2 (I know, it was grief over his dad, but still. It undercuts a fantastic episode)

—The time loop setup is nonsensical and impossible. Breaking it means that s3 never happened. No one should remember anything that happened this season.

—Caitlin and/or Frost never apologized to Iris for being an accessory in her attempted murder (and in s4, Frost threatens her life again!! Yay!! Friendly bonding!!)

Season 4

—Can someone tell me why tf Team Leader suddenly became a thing? I swear the closest the Team ever had to a Team Leader was Eowells, way back in s1. The idea of a Team Leader after that feels too hierarchal for them, idk why that was introduced

—Caitlin worked with a human trafficker of her own volition (and Frost too, this was presumably a decision made by both of them) and yet she is only held accountable in one line (“Where have you been the last 6 months again?”) and it’s quickly swept over by making Amunet into a ditz and ignoring the fact that she is a human trafficker

—Bodyswap plot was weird, DeVoe should’ve just taken their powers

—Marlize never had any clear motives after she gave up her ideals to side with her husband.

—The Thinker in general is just stupid tbh

—Caitlin and Iris barely got to be friends, and after this season, they may as well not have been. Caitlin was also unnecessarily snippy to Iris this season too (“we will, Caitlin” “no. I will” + “I’m your friend, Caitlin” “work friend”). This is a general problem with this show—female friendships are given lip service at best and no room to grow

—Barry and Iris deserved a proper wedding that wasn't interrupted

—Thawne did not hate every minute of pretending to be Harrison Wells, that is garbage writing and fundamentally misunderstands his character

—Barry should've killed Thawne in this crossover. He was so close!! WHY (and they still could've brought him back later if they really needed to)

Season 5

—Both Cicadas sucked, and the father-daughter Orlin-Grace/Barry-Nora parallels fall flat when you remember a) Dwyer literally hates Grace until she’s comatose and b) those parallels only get mentioned in one conversation

—I wasn't too fond of Cisco giving up his powers, it felt like a strange decision, especially since he gets them back briefly in Crisis and somewhat permanently in s7. I've talked about that more here (definitely read all the additions too!)

—Iris’s angle in the argument with Barry should’ve been “no one works with Thawne, they’re manipulated by him” not “it doesn’t bother me that our daughter worked with the man who half-orphaned you, threatened my life, hurt everyone on this Team, and killed my fiancé”

—Nora acts wayyy too young for being 25-28. She should’ve been 18-20. She very much gives off the vibes of a young adults who’s newly independent (and this further ties into the themes of legacy, which is a theme usually present in YA stories, with teenage/young-adult protagonists. Obviously the theme of legacy can be present in any story, but this presentation of it is usually prominent in YA stories)

—Nora having the NSF should’ve occurred at the end of s5, not during 5x20. Would’ve been more poignant if she had to choose between keeping it and becoming Thawne, or giving it up and dying a hero 😭 and her having the NSF in canon came across more as a temper tantrum than her being corrupted by a destructive force.

(Hey also why tf do people remember Nora after she’s erased—)

Season 6

—Loved Iris having a fleshed-out journalism arc, especially going forward, but her journalism career should’ve been reintroduced a while ago. Possibly even in s4 (beyond just a scant mention of her writing an article about DeVoe)

—Thawne should’ve been in Crisis. Especially over Lex mf Luthor

—The Mirroverse arc is…ugh. I don’t love the idea of Iris being replaced with an evil alter and no one noticing for an entire half-season. And an important Westallen conversation about Iris’s agency happening with Mirror Iris, not real Iris!

—Mirror Iris had sex with Barry under false pretenses. And gloated about it. But five minutes later, we’re supposed to feel sorry for her?? Yikes

And now we’re on to my least favorite seasons! Not a lot of points here, but that’s because out of all the bad stuff, I’m just picking the egregiously bad stuff:

Season 7

—Iris being saved by an emotionless Barry is weird and they both deserved better than that

—Chillame is the worst character this show has ever made. Or at least the top 5

—Eva is a dumb villain who wasn’t even compelling to watch. She was very one-note and…I don’t even remember her motive??

—The Forces arc is bizarre. I don’t like how they personified literal forces of nature, it’s dumb. And them calling Barry and Iris “Mom” and “Dad” is worse

—Frost’s arrest storyline was bs. I was honestly kinda excited, because I hoped she’d face some consequences for the stuff she did in s3 and s4, but…nope!! Kramer’s a bad guy who hates all metas!! And Frost (a white woman) gives a speech modeled after the BLM movement!! It’s gross.

—idk much about Godspeed in the comics, but he was definitely done dirty here. And that’s not even mentioning the stupid lightsaber fight…and the fact that Barry just…lets Thawne go?? And says “yeah, he’ll be back one day, but that’s Future Us’s problem.” Speaking of which…

Season 8

—Well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequence of Barry Allen’s actions. We get Armageddon, which is compelling for the first half and drops off in the second half. The logic is faulty (how is Barry the RF when Thawne killed him as a kid? Why does Iris love Thawne just because he’s the Flash?), some of the stuff in this arc is arophobic (“why don’t you love love?”) and tbh the Chester/Allegra romance is very forced, I’m not a fan. Cecile trying to one-up Iris regarding grieving Joe was also very gross

—Iris’s time sickness is so ridiculous. It started back in s7, but the show acts like it started in s8 because of the Negative Forces. It’s awful and it’s another excuse to rob Iris of agency. It should’ve just been a pregnancy…or scrapped entirely

—So regarding Caitlin's grief and Barry's response...honestly, so many problems would be solved if these characters consistently went to therapy, especially Caitlin. She always reacts to grief destructively. Barry, however, shouldn't have responded by destroying everything in her lab instead of...idk relocating her and having a talk somewhere else??

—No, Barry would not be a bad person for killing Thawne after he thought Iris was already dead. Personally, I think he should've killed the mf ages ago

Season 9

—Red Death was underwhelming, that’s all I have to say about it

—why tf is Chillame still here

—Khione deserved to make her own decisions and not be forced to die for Caitlin and/or Frost to live…but also, as a character, she’s very bland. I also skipped any episode where she and Chillame were even remotely romantic, mostly for my own sanity

—I was so excited for the finale arc and it did not deliver!! It flopped real hard!! Eddie is turned evil so fast it made my head spin, the return of prior villains was underwhelming (including their defeats...why tf did Allegra defeat Thawne?? Why did Cecile defeat Godspeed?? Why did Nora defeat Savitar with one stab wound not even piercing the armor??), and the resolution is just...hugging it out?? I guess??

And that's about it as far as major critiques go 😅 if anyone wants me to expand on any of these points, I'm happy to!

(Except the s7-s9 stuff, which I don't even plan on including in my Morgan AU because those seasons are honestly so bad that I'd rather forget about them entirely. I don't like s3 much, but at least it has potential that I'm interested in revamping/exploring)

[eldritchcreatureofwords]

So, your opinions on Arcane's finale?

Mixed. Strongly mixed. I adore a lot of what was given to us. I also feel like you could FEEL how much they had to cut out, leaving a ton of unsatisfactory plot lines and things that felt unresolved. Where the fuck did Jayce and Viktor go? Why was Ekko basically forgotten about except for his one little paper burning moment? They wrote Jinx going from 100 to 0 way too quickly imo, and the descent into suicidal depression just felt kind of out of left field.

Mel gave off huge creator's pet/sue vibes. Everything that happened to her happened in a bubble and then she just- pops back to reality, badass and super charged and she's a mage now??? But no one is even a LITTLE concerned about that??? There was zero (0) reason for Jinx to be written off/die. It felt like emotional manipulation of the viewer or that they thought if they didn't kill her off we wouldn't be satisfied. And yeah, I'm gonna say it- I don't think any of the LoL/LoR protagonists should have been killed off. It felt like it was purely for shock value. ZOMG, THEY KILLED WARWICK/JINX!!!!!! Hell, the entire kick-off of Viktor's villain arc felt forced and absurd; Jayce, without even trying anything else, just fucking kills Viktor? (Or tries to?) Sacrifices dozens of not hundreds of lives? Yes, I get he's kinda nuts at the moment but like- it felt very out of character.

I think my biggest complaint is that it feels like mid-way through they decided to give us a different show entirely then the one Season 1 set us up for. We went into a show about people, about their relationships with each other and mistakes, their losses and loves, and we ended on a show with a Gainex save-the-world ending where, honestly, very few of their actions or sacrifices mattered at all and everyone just kind of- lost the people they love for what felt like very preventable reasons. I'm also mad as hell that Vi's trauma was largely still unaddressed. They even had a Goddamn ptsd/bookends moment with her locked in fucking Stillwater and the most we got was a wall punch. ALL THAT SAID!!!!!! I did like and appreciate a lot of this season. Heimerdinger and Ekko and their little side-quest broke my heart. The 'Vi's death brings about a better world for everyone she loves' was just soul crushing, even moreso when you realize she would have happily accepted that if she knew. The shipper in me is THRILLED at all my 'yes's', even the ones that hurt, like Jayvik. The CaitVi payoff was fantastic. I loved watching Maddie get a fucking bullet to the dome. Served the bitch right. The fights, as ever, were fantastic. The music was fantastic. The animation was beautiful. There was a TON to love about this season, and overall BOTH seasons' strength far and away out stripped the flaws. If I went into everything I loved about the season, this would get even longer then it already is, so I'm gonna cut it here. But overall? 8.5/10 season, I'm not thrilled but it was good food overall.

[reversemoon255]

5th Review - Hirogaru Sky! Precure

I have said, many a time, that I think there is no bad season of Precure, and I stand by that. However, something has to be on the bottom, and, unfortunately, I think that’s this season. It doesn’t help that, along with this season, I was also watching Otoha ‘23 and Yes! 5, which were both better seasons of the show, IMO. That being said, there’s still quite a bit to like about this season.

The Characters:  I really enjoy that Sora actually wants to be a hero. While Precure is by nature about heroes, the nature of being a hero is usually an underplayed element, so having this small change ends up meaning a lot, especially in something like the 20th anniversary season. And when Sora got to star in an episode, they were often some of my favorites, with the baseball episode in particular being a highlight. Also, having the ace be blue is pretty cool.

However, when the focus wasn’t on Sora, she was the most background character of any Precure ace, period. She often felt like a second or third stringer, being very one note when anyone else was in the spotlight. There were even some episodes near the end where the focus switched half-way through and it was actually jarring how her character shifted. It doesn’t help that she only had strong relationships with Mashiro and Elle, meaning she had less people to develop her character off of. She did have the most associated side-characters, but all of them were from Skyland, and as we barely spent any time there, those side characters don’t amount to much in the end.

Mashiro was a very strong character, having the most developed relationships, with Sora, Elle, Ageha, and the villain Batamon. She also had the strongest individual plot with the most notable development and episodes devoted to it, and a good chunk of the final few episodes were devoted to her winning over Batamon. She often felt like more of a main character than Sora did, as her connections to more characters let her play bigger roles in others’ stories.

There aren't a lot of negatives when it comes to Mashiro, though if I had to complain about anything, it’s that for such a developed character, she has the most boring concept of this team. Sora’s an other-worlder and a hero, Tsubasa’s the first male Precure along with being a bird, Ahega is our first adult main-cast Precure, and Elle is an actual baby. Compared to everyone else, the fact that Mashiro was the one who got so much more focus is a bit disappointing.

As I just mentioned, Tsubasa is our first male Precure. It opens a lot of avenues for future character ideas in coming seasons. And while not the most exciting character on his own, Tsubasa has strong relationships with both Ageha and Elle, and his personal stories often added to Skyland’s lore, and I do love me some lore.

But as I alluded to, Tsubasa isn’t very interesting as an individual. I have a hard time pinning down what his character is supposed to be outside of “male caregiver.” And while I’ll address this more later, I feel like the main reason they chose to have Tsubasa be male is so Elle could have a male caregiver that was on the team and not a side character like Rosemary or Harry.

Ageha was a similarly strong character to Mashiro, having strong relationships with Mashiro, Tsubasa, and Elle. She was also legitimately charming and well written to a notable degree higher than some other characters. The couple times we see her at work are very cute, and at times quite heartfelt. Furthermore, while we’ve had some high school age Precure before, Ageha is our first working adult on a main team (as we’ve had retired and ancient Precure in previous seasons), which is another cool idea that could add to future seasons in big ways. I’ll also add that having her be an early introduction, but not having her become a Precure until after the defeat of the first General are fantastic story beats.

But even Ageha is not without criticism, as her being an adult and a Preschool teacher both felt like they were more in service of raising Elle than furthering her own character at times. Also, as a big part of this show was raising Elle, and she was the most knowledgeable on raising children by a large margin, she was disproportionately featured in the show, further overshadowing the other members of the team.

And last we have Elle. I’ve said my piece on several occasions on how I don’t like babies in Precure, but to Elle’s credit, she was very cute. Her doing things like charging into battles, wanting to share her toys, and specifically her trying to save the rabbit during Minaton’s first appearance were all very nice moments.

But Elle was also the biggest hurdle this show had to overcome, and I think it failed to do so. As I mentioned, certain decisions, like Tsubasa being male and Ageha being an adult, felt like decisions catered to raising Elle before anything else. And that’s another problem. This isn’t a season like Tropical Rouge where Laura was the stealth main character; this season was primarily about raising Elle, not Elle as a character, so despite being the primary focus of the entire show, she has very little actual character to explore. It also doesn’t help that they didn’t give her the power to age-up until the very end of the show. There was such a huge jump in character moments after she got that ability that it’s a shame they waited until the last, like, four episodes to give it to her. I feel like almost every issue in this show could be traced back to accommodating Elle in some way. It sucks that this very unneeded subplot and (most likely) company mandate had to drag down the 20th anniversary season.

The Plot: There are elements of the story for Hirogaru that I really enjoy. The opening series of episodes are really good, and the fact that they really pace out the introduction of each Precure gives us opportunities for stories most seasons only give an episode, if that, which is neat. The ending arc is also very good, with good animation, a decent villain, and fun lore. And on top of that, there are a number of excellent individual episodes sprinkled throughout.

Unfortunately, the story does drag a lot. They always create a new reason for things happening, from generals switching out, to collecting sparkle energy, but when Minaton shows up there really isn’t anything going on; everyone’s just going about their business. From the point when Ageha becomes Cure Butterfly until the point where they decide they want to redeem Batamon, nothing really happens. I mean, there are events that happen that tie into the story, but there’s so much downtime in between moments, and for some reason it’s more jarring than with seasons like Tropical Rouge since only Mashiro has an individual subplot. There’s also so many missteps, like not introducing Kaiserin until the last few episodes, to having all the supporting characters being from a rarely visited other world.

Precure All Stars F: Just because I want to inject a bit more positivity into this review, and because I watched it right after finishing the series proper, let’s talk about the 20th anniversary crossover movie!

It was super fun! While it seems to be slightly bogged down by the voice actors they could get from each previous season, it was still a very well done film. They did get a lot of characters back, even if a lot of them didn’t have a lot of lines, and the characters that did get more screen time were done well, even if they did seem a bit random at first. There’s also a ton of cool crossover attacks, a lot of pivotal moments from previous season got redrawn, and the animation and action were great.

The thing that stood out to me the most, though, was probably the villain. Cure Supreme was an excellent idea for a 20th anniversary villain; a being seeking power that tries to emulate the powers of the Precure, only to not understand how they work. Also, Supreme and Puca being a team of black and white Precure was just a nice callback right at the end.

Overall, Hirogaru Sky! Precure is a season filled with good ideas, but doesn’t live up to its potential. While it’s filled with plenty of cute moments, it’s bogged down by the team needing to raise a child, a task that, ironically, gets in the way of said child’s development. I think a lot of the new ideas it brings to the table will positively influence future seasons, but for now, of all the seasons I’ve finished (that being 14), this one is definitely my least favorite.

As for Wonderful Precure, making the ace an actual dog is so left field and hilarious that I’m quite pumped. I’m really hoping this season takes a cue from the recent Sentai and Rider shows and does something a bit more story driven, but even if it remains episodic, it’s such a batty premise that I think it could work in either format. I hope the fifth member is a chinchilla.

[stormoflina]

Thoughts about tonight's LIVFUL:

- Second-half fc, handsome fc, injury fc, but never bottle fc 😽

- Okay, still gotta admit, i was going through it in the first half, one of our worst 45 minutes we have played this season. Still, the boys powered through it, Klopp's subs were fantastic, Darwin and Cody won us the game.

- But of course let's talk about my man, our man, the one and only Curtis mf Jones. The way he stepped up today is incredible, even is his stats won't show it in the first half, he was bossing (the still very weak) midfield around, working his socks off, shielding the ball. And that second half? THE GOAL?! What a magnificent goal that was, oh my! Curtis is a special, special player. It's a tight draw with Darwin, both deserve MOTM imo.

- Darwin!! Anyone who dares to slander this man after this game should go to get his eyesight checked, because he won us the game today. He completely changed our pace, our play, started creating chances. We had 1 shot in the first half. Then comes Darwin on and bumm. Idc if he misses his tap-ins (ok, I do, he needs to improve on that), but his influence is astronomical. He's a Red through and thorough, we need him.

- Cody is the true stepson of our squad, ngl. He rarely gets played in his preferred position, yet he still manages to deliver. Very happy for his goal. 🩷

- Virg wasn't his sharpest today, but I'm not gonna say anything bad about him. He was sick just a few days ago, who knows if he even healed fully. He probably insisted to come and play, with how many injuries we have...

- Bradley was so good! There were times when I thought he was the best player on the pitch. Incredible performance from a 20 year old.

- I feel bad for Harvey. I think he was one of our better players today in the first half, tried his best. Thought it was a bit harsh when he got hooked with Grav, but clearly Klopp knew what he was doing.

- Grav tho... I think this was his worst performance so far. I know he's more of a project signing and still so young, didn't play football for a whole year in Bayern, I understand that, and it's not his fault that we signed him in a transitional year, than decided to do a title charge and all, but gosh, it can be so frustrating. He has great potential, but right now, I think he is our riskiest player in the whole squad. Sometimes he has such great moments, like that one dribble against Rodri, but when he is bad, he's BAD bad. What's most frustrating about him is that sometimes it feels like he just gives up too easily and doesn't even try - like with tracking back, or when he loses the ball. Clearly this is something that can be coached out of him, but when you are in a semi-final, I found it a bit mental to just pull your hands up in the air and watch the opposition take your ball.

- Klopp is so funny, I love that old german man.

- Hopefully for the second leg we can have most of our players back and play less of a heartattack type of football. 🤞🏼

[asm5129]

Dragons: the nine realms—final thoughts (Full series spoilers ahead)

Genuinely, I’ve become quite fond of this show over time. It definitely needed to grow into what it actually wanted to be, and with only 7 or 8 episodes a season it took half the show to get there, but even so I think it really found it’s footing as it went on—some somewhat forced-feeling team drama in the penultimate season notwithstanding.

In terms of the characters, I grew quite fond of Tom, Alex and Jun, and even managed to come around to D’Angelo later on—probably later than the writers intended though, haha. Eugene less so but they surprised me by giving him some genuine emotional moments , particularly in the last two seasons, and most of them hit right. It never felt like the show was just repeating what people already saw, Tom isn’t Hiccup, Jun isn’t Astrid, and D’Angelo isn’t Fishlegs. The closest direct parallel would be Eugene to Snotlout frankly, and that’s about it. These characters feel like their own characters, not a cheap attempt to continue the popularity of what came before.

Also, Alex is pretty autistic coded, but never confirmed. Jun kinda is too honestly. I appreciate that the things that we might call their special interests are never devalued within the show, both turning out to be incredibly useful many, many times. Alex is an introvert who spends most of her time on her tablet, and even as she makes friends and socializes more that never changes. Jun has interests many dismiss as “weird” and she has genuine trauma around being referred to as such that is taken seriously.

The supporting cast of parents and other crew members of the research station the majority of the show was based in or below were pretty strong, with even some much less significant cast members getting fun moments, and also add a nice sense of diversity to the world.

The bonds with their respective dragons also always felt well established and strong, and I was genuinely sad when the riders had to let their dragons go in the last episode.

Dr Sledkin and Buzzsaw as villains never hit the heights of Viggo in RttE but actually think I prefer them to the human villains from HTTYD 2 and 3—definitely liked them more than Drago from 2 at least. And i actually felt like Buzzsaw’s change of heart at the end of this final season didn’t come out of nowhere. We had seen, in particular last season, that he is a man starving for genuine connection, so when his dragon—the only creature, dragon or human that it could be argued ever genuinely seemed to accept his presence—was actually at risk it makes sense his ability to put up a bold front would crumble.

World-wise, while the titular realms themselves couldn’t be realized as the kind of beautiful environments we got from the films or even RttE, I think there was some really great usage of the modern day setting for the conflicts that drove the characters and the story alike. There was also great use of the established stories from the HTTYD series. Even though we as the audience knew a lot about Hiccup and co, imo they managed to make Tom discovering that history meaningful. He is a direct descendant of Hiccup, yes, the finale makes clear the fact that Tom being very much a blend of Hiccup’s ability to connect to Dragons and love of exploring and Astrid’s more blunt, action-focused impulses was always very much intentional. I think that’s a smart play, and the legacy of Hiccup proves a source of very compelling drama for Tom’s expectations of himself.

I’m also particularly fond of how the final two seasons really reconnected to the Norse mythology that has almost never been brought to the forefront outside of aesthetics by introducing the World Serpent who has a name I’m not motivated to look up how to spell right now. Regardless I think the way they tied the world serpent and ragnarok into the story was quite well done, and the built in fear of the world serpent being the reason dragons freak out at snakes is a fantastic bit of retroactive lore.

If these characters were brought back aged up, with a bigger budget for new stories I would watch it. This is by no means a masterpiece of a show, but there’s a lot to appreciate.

[wikiangela]

I love how despite Hen's concerns (which were mostly valid, she was just a protective friend who didn't wanna see her best friend hurt again, I just didn't like how Maddie's ppd was framed here, talking about choices and trust etc) - she was still trying to be supportive, and mostly keeping her opinion to herself, at least in the beginning, and even tried not to get involved, whish imo was the best thing she could do feeling like she did

but also, I'm not surprised she finally snapped and told him what she thinks, bc I feel like Chim flip-flopping the whole episode just added to her concerns lol

and their conversation when she finally voiced those concerns was fantastic

"we've spent a lot of time trying to rebuild what was broken. on both sides" YES, that's basically what Buck said, too, and it's so true

and again, I love that Chim mentioned Hen having to regain Karen's trust after she cheated, bc fr, she should really understand when it comes to trust (and thank you everyone who mentioned it after the sneak peek came out for reminding me, bc I completely forgot about it, I binged the first few seasons and it's mostly a blur by now 😂)

"we hurt the ones we love all the time, doesn't mean we shouldn't be together" 😭 I am loving this convo (and I must've been super tired when I watched it last night bc I didn't remember half of it 😂)

I love how this whole conflict was resolved, and Chim and Hen's friendship remains one of my absolute favorite relationships, they're the best 🥺🥺