#anyway i might try to go screencap bits from all the episodes once i have more free time

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

today i decided to be the change i want to see in the world and i painstakingly screencapped fix/passepartout scenes from pbs’s website, of all things. (fun fact: you cannot pause and take a cap because it puts a big “play” button in the middle of the screen, you gotta screencap while the video is playing!)

the people need to SEE THEM, the people need to KNOW that one of the most wonderful period drama tv romances is happening and being slept on!!!!

[leadandblood]

Part 2 of my Crozcest rewatch

My ep 1 rewatch and analysis are here. Ep 2 didn't have any material for me to work with, so i skipped straight to ep 3.

This entire post is dedicated solely to the breakfast scene in ep 3. Had to cut it up, bc it got really long. I'll probably make another post for the rest of the episode, but this is it for now. I have so many thoughts...

Below are my interpretations of canon scenes along with screencaps from the show. All the things below are speculation. No, these characters are not related whatsoever in the show. I made this AU up bc it's fun. Don't go into the soup store if you hate soup. Don't read this post if you hate blorbo incest.

The 'argument'

Uh-oh! A racist moment at the start there. Keep that in check, boy, or you'll get spanked.

Anyway, he looks at Francis so intensely it's like he's trying to assimilate with him.

This might be the vague start of Francis disliking Edward on screen. The ships are ice locked. Francis is sour and started to drink more. (sir John looking at his glass in ep 2). Two of the plentiful reasons why Francis is a bit stand-off-ish and mean in this scene as well as later ones.

this face is giving: ''pleEAAASE, daddy, look at me. at least once, pleeeaase, daddy, im here, look at me, please, im right here, please, daddy, look at me-''

Sidenote but it's insane that Blanky is the only person in that room actually listening to him. Hodgson is playing elevator music in his head, Irving is in disociation station and Francis is Francis.

I'm sorry Edward. It won't get any better.

This is such an eldest daughter moment oh my GOD. "...Really?" I love Blanky watching them from the background, too, sdlmskdkj.

As funny as it is, though, I think it's actually a bit deeper, because! In his question, Edward already assumed Francis had wronged the Netsilik before. And Francis is pissed off about that. His own son assuming he'd do something like that and then just basing a question off it without so much as a second thought. So he shoots right back with the "were we to put her down the fire hole as well?" making Edward seem like the bad guy instead. Eye for eye, if you will.

Though it isn't said very seriously, it's still a jab in Edward's direction. And because Francis isn't yet the grouchy motherfucker he becomes later, he softens up and actually says something more valuable afterwards. (it's still not good, but it's better) I think Francis is very eye for eye and emotions-driven in his parenting. As in emotions control him, not he his emotions. Lots of outbursts and things said in the heat of the moment.

Anyway.

Live Blanky reaction

Blanky knows about them being related - the only one on the expedition who does.

Makes sense, bc Francis had been friends with him for a long time. It would only be natural for Francis to share that he has sons. So Blanky would have probably seen the Crozier boys growing up. Finally, I can give him the fun uncle storyline he deserves!!!

He looks so amused here... I think he likes seeing how Edward grew up and learned to talk back, especially since he'd always been such a quiet kid.

Anyway. Francis definitely intended to say something really bitter or mildly threatening in here, but then *gasp*

Tommy!!!

Coming in with the: "breakfast is ready (ominous)"

I joked about them having sex before the breakfast, but I legitimately think something happened there. If not sex, then a very handsy makeout session with a lot of name-calling. (He made Edward cry)

Their face journeys are killing me - for seperate reasons, but both are just as much fun to dissect.

Ned first.

"I can do this i can look at him" ..... "oh fuck no i can't" and then he's remembering how it felt having Tom's knee between his thighs and being called a waste of uniform while Tom kisses his neck sloppy style. He looks like he's about to pass out or throw up. He definitely ugly-cried and is embarassed about it.

Now Thomas.

He looks so fucking proud of himself😭 "i made that guy kneel for me half an hour ago😌 could've made him bark if I wanted to" Then he has this sudden realisation of "oh shit dad's talking to me" so he finally focuses on Francis.

Who then tells him that he's leaving for Erebus, so all that food was made in vain. He doesn't mind ofc but like🙄 could've at least eaten breakfast... (please eet, captin! sorry i had to)

Edward's sad little face after everybody starts getting up. He looks sick fr. Tom, what have you done-

+ Bonus of him looking at Francis from below bc I'm all about that💅

At the end there's that scene with Blanky. "the girl's people are far too busy staying alive to wage a war" which is such a Blanky thing to say in a situation like that.

I also like the "you've always been a shite parent, Francis. Here's how you're actually supposed to talk to your kids" expression. (he means it, but it's also lighthearted, as are many things Blanky says)

I think Blanky would be a much better parent to them and they certainly wouldn't turn out the way they did, but we're not here for that, are we? :DD He can still be an awesome uncle figure.

Conclusion

This scene alone burned down my house, sold my soul to the devil and poured 3 tons of salt over my property. There is no going back for me, it's over. I'm in too deep.

We get a glimpse of what Tom and Ned have going on as well as the cracks in Francis's behaviour.

It's really fun how this scene inserts Blanky into the equasion, too. I have vaguely thought about him in the AU but not too much. Now I'm having more thoughts which I'll either put into the AU or make a different post for. For now, he's just the fun uncle :DDD He definitely doesn't know anything about the sex, though. He'd be strongly against it if he did.

*unlocks your handcuffs and unties you from the chair* okay, go be free now, byee (🌸^w^)/¨

[renegadewangs]

Van Zieks - the Examination, part 2

Warnings: SPOILERS for The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles. Additional warning for racist sentiments uttered by fictional characters (and screencaps to show these sentiments).

Disclaimer: (see Part 1 for the more detailed disclaimer.) - These posts are not meant to be taken as fact. Everything I'm outlining stems from my own views and experiences. If you believe that I've missed or misinterpreted something, please let me know so I can edit the post accordingly.  -The purpose of these posts is an analysis, nothing more. Please do not come into these posts expecting me to either defend Barok van Zieks from haters, nor expecting me to encourage the hatred. - I'm using the Western release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for these posts, but may refer to the original Japanese dialogue of Dai Gyakuten Saiban if needed to compare what's said. This also means I’m using the localized names and localized romanization of the names to stay consistent. -It doesn't matter one bit to me whether you like Barok van Zieks or dislike him. However, I will ask that everyone who comments refrains from attacking real, actual people.

It’s time to take a close look at Episode 3, The Runaway Room!

Episode 3: The Runaway Room.

We're skipping the first two cases, as they have no relevance to Barok van Zieks, and starting off here.

So Ryu is tossed into the deep. The Lord Chief Justice tells him that he’s basically the defendant’s only hope; if he doesn’t at least try to fight in court, McGilded will lose the trial and die for sure. (HAH… Good one, Stronghart.) So Ryu falls for this would-be motivational speech and heads for the courthouse where he finds out why McGilded doesn’t have a defense attorney to begin with; it’s because of the prosecution. No one dares to go up against Lord Barok van Zieks, also known as the Reaper of the Old Bailey, because all who he prosecutes are damned. This should sound familiar to anyone who’s played an Ace Attorney game before. ‘The prosecution has never been defeated before’ is the implication, which would initially lead us to believe Van Zieks is another one of those prodigies. Sure enough, Susato points out he must be very talented, to which McGilded replies that Van Zieks is not talented, rather, he’s cursed. This sets the mood even further. With words like “Reaper” and “curse” being tossed around, we’re sooner reminded of a prosecutor like Simon Blackquill, who was a convicted murderer wielding psychological manipulation techniques. Either way, with the grim atmosphere set, Ryu is ushered into the courtroom before he can ask any more questions.

As a sidenote, McGilded really scored some negative points with this remark:

Feels a bit softened compared to how fan translations tackled that line, but a nasty jab all the same.

So anyway, entering the courtroom we get our first look at Van Zieks and if the foreshadowing in the Defendant Antechamber wasn’t already bad enough, he honors his eerie reputation.

So far, he’s meeting the requirements then. He’s intimidating and as a wealthy white man, he’s perfectly juxtaposed to Ryu, the rookie from another country. Meanwhile, the first micro-aggression of this trial is actually uttered by the judge:

Which also makes narrative sense. Ryu’s more practical goal isn’t to win the prosecution’s trust. Heck, he could get through any trial just fine with Van Zieks’s dislike. No, what he needs is to win over the judge and the members of the jury. For them to also hold prejudice but put that aside in order to side with the truth is another important end-game here. So let’s continue. Van Zieks also has something to say here:

Initially, the remark about Ryu’s eyes might read as a typical racist jab towards someone from the East, but he is in fact referring to the way Ryu’s eyes are ‘swimming’ when he’s nervous, as evidenced by the next lines. “They shroud your fear, your doubt, your trepidation… They run wild, clinging to some phantom notion of courage.” Van Zieks is saying that while Ryu puts up a brave front, his swimming eyes betray just how nervous and unsure of his cause he really is. So really, he’s targeting the fact that Ryu is new to the courts. He did, however, make a point of tossing the word “Nipponese” in there when he didn’t need to, drawing attention to Ryu’s race in a derogatory fashion.

After the jurors are introduced, something else of interest happens. The judge points out that Van Zieks hasn’t been seen in the courtroom in a number of years. The judge had assumed that Van Zieks had renounced his fame, to which he replies with the following:

This is a very telling line. We learn several things. Firstly, Van Zieks had retired, and secondly, he doesn’t seem to think too highly of his title of Reaper. If he did, he would have gloated. To describe his reputation as infamy implies negative associations with this ‘curse’ that McGilded spoke of. Putting these two things together, one might conclude he retired because of this curse. When asked why he’s returned to the courts, he says that he’ll leave that to the judge’s imagination. So there’s hints of a backstory already being tossed in before the trial’s even properly kicked off.

Which it does now. So the opening statement happens as always and witnesses are brought in, but once it’s done Ryu interjects to say that he doesn’t understand the circumstances. ‘How could the witnesses have seen the inside of a moving carriage’? It shocks the entire courtroom and Van Zieks is the one to speak:

“-But you’re here in London yourself. Are you really so ignorant about our omnibuses? Tell me, my Nipponese friend… Have you even travelled in an omnibus?”

I have to be honest, I struggled to pinpoint just how I felt about these remarks. Sure, I can overanalyze this, looking at how the words “I’d read-” imply he doesn’t know the following sentiment to be true and therefore doesn’t feel confident enough to say something like “I knew-”... But it doesn’t change that he’s being scummy here. In a roundabout way, he’s still saying Japan is far less civilised than Britain and that Ryu is extra ignorant for not knowing about omnibuses when he’s in London. So basically, he gets scumbag points for this. But then there’s…:

Which is just a basic jab at Ryu’s intelligence. It’s the sort of remark we’d get from every single prosecutor. I think even Klavier would say this sort of line with a smile on his face.

But definitely more scumbag points here, because this was a direct attack in more ways than one. Particularly the word “stray” was uncalled for. CEO of Racism, indeed. Something very interesting happens when the knife gets pulled into the story halfway into the first cross-examination, though. When Ryu asks about it, Van Zieks replies with this:

He’s… actually being civil? (I doublechecked with Scarlet Study, and they are in agreement on the timid nature of this line, translating “yes, Counsel” as “Quite so”.) Instead, Van Zieks turns his attention to the fact that there’s an M on the sheath, directing all his offensive attitude towards McGilded. It gets even more curious when the last juror refuses to cast a guilty verdict, instead talking about what a good man she believes McGilded to be. Van Zieks says:

So he’s not only frustrated with McGilded now, he’s frustrated with the people of London for not knowing what sort of person McGilded really is. Van Zieks reveals he’s a dirty money lender who gained his fortune through corrupt means. He even takes the time to inform Ryu of this with the words “Your client is a shylock, sir!” Edit: I feel a need to address this: shylock is a word with antisemitic roots. It originally came from a Shakespeare play involving a very bad stereotype. It later evolved to have a more broad meaning basically synonymous to loan shark and I think that’s the context the localization means to use it in. There’s absolutely no indication of McGilded’s religious beliefs and even if there were, I highly doubt the localization would use that sort of slur. Still, it’s a very unfortunate choice of words and is sure to accidentally sour Van Zieks even more with some players.

With that, the last juror votes, the scale tips towards Guilty and Van Zieks assumes the trial to be over. He thanks the jurors for their work. Unfortunately, once Susato brings up the Summation Examination, Van Zieks gets very frustrated again. This happens:

IIII don’t know what to do with this line. On first glance, I didn’t think much of it and was even willing to consider it was a compliment. Then I thought it must’ve been passive aggressive somehow; that it’s the sort of thing he wouldn’t believe until he’d seen it with his own eyes. A friend directed me to the notion that it might be referencing a stereotype that ‘Eastern women are fierce’ because they were associated with, well, certain ‘paid services’. I don’t think I need to explain, I’m sure you understand what I mean. And if indeed that’s what Barok is insinuating, that’s a new low I never thought he’d reach. However, when you’ve finished the games and know that Barok was friends with a married Japanese man, it’s entirely possible that he’s remembering a story once told to him by Genshin Asogi. So this is either a bittersweet reminiscence or the most scumbag association he ever could’ve made, but I’m not sure we can ever prove which it is. Edit: As another option, it’s possible he’s referring to the Yamato Nadeshiko stereotype, if indeed it already held the ‘touch of iron’ aspect to it back in 1900. He proceeds to toast his hallowed chalice to “the enigmatic East” and to be honest, I’ve once again got nothing. All I know is that he once again drew attention to the defense’s race when he didn’t need to, so… Scumbag point. As a sidenote, in regards to the wine… I don’t count this as a humanizing trait. The same applies to the leg slam. These are animations meant to add some more lighthearted air and breathe more life into Van Zieks, so he doesn’t just stand there like a statue. They’re just quirks meant to have him stand out from other characters. So yeah, fun as the wine and leg slam animations are, they don’t count in the redemption requirements. Anyway, Van Zieks mocks the age of Susato’s book, saying that judging by its bindings it must be fifty years old. Considering the context of the conversation, this isn’t out of bounds. The defense is using ‘outdated’ information on the law, so he points that out. Any prosecutor would’ve done it like this. Simon Blackquill likely would’ve offered to shred that outdated tome to bits for Susato. Van Zieks does toss in a “Hmph, typical Nipponese” later though, which earns him one more scumbag point. Van Zieks continues to dismiss the Summation Examination, but the judge overrules him and allows it. Law is law, after all! And this is what I meant in my previous post when I said it’s satisfying to see Ryu use actual British law against Van Zieks. Ryu is using a perfectly legitimate technique to win the jurors over, and as Susato tells him, he can only do it by turning the jurors against one another with facts. He can’t appeal to them, he can only have them see sense. Which is difficult, because some jurors are more prejudiced than others:

… Yeah. Uh. Calling Ryu a “Dark Jinx” is pretty awful. Scumbag points for Juror No. 1! Meanwhile, Juror No. 4 keeps us updated on Barok’s actions throughout this trial:

Wow. Typical prosecutor behavior, though. Regardless, Ryu manages to win them all over in the end. With enough of the scales set back to not-guilty, the trial is allowed to continue, which leads to this:

Bye, hallowed chalice. A fun animation to keep things fresh and show us that the trial is about to take a turn. Once again, nothing new. We’ve seen prosecutors lose their patience before. What does interest me, though, is that Barok doesn’t direct physical frustration towards the defense. Remember: Franziska snaps a whip at Phoenix, Godot throws coffee at his head, Blackquill sends a hawk to attack the defense or uses that aijutsu slicing move, Nahyuta throws restricting beads… These were all direct physical attacks. Van Zieks, much like Edgeworth and Klavier, directs his frustration more inward and as a result he destroys his own property.

He succeeds in intimidating Ryu, though. Van Zieks explains that he kept silent, as is the norm during Examination Summation, but makes it clear that he considers it a charade all the same.

Van Zieks has been a pretty good gentleman towards the jury up until now, speaking to them politely despite that one remark about having their head in the clouds. Now that he’s seeing them ‘buy into Ryu’s stories’, as one might describe it, he’s getting frustrated with them. Maybe he’s even frustrated they’re choosing the defense’s side over his own.

He removes his cloak, entering what he says to be the next round of their ‘battle’. More typical prosecutor behavior, this. I’m not sure there’s an underlying thought to this, other than to indicate to the audience that ‘things have gotten serious’. When the next bit of testimony is going on, I noticed something odd. Both Fairplay and Furst testify to having seen blood on McGilded’s hands, to which Van Zieks says:

“... Reported that there was no trace of blood on Mr. McGilded’s gloved hands.” So in a way, by establishing this fact, he’s helping the defense and going against what the witnesses are saying. It doesn’t help the prosecution in any way at all.

The trial continues on, with Van Zieks uttering things like “My Nipponese friend” and “my learned friend from the East” and lord knows what else… I suppose to soften the harshness of the original wording a bit and make Van Zieks just a bit less dislikable? Edit: Tumblr user @beevean​ has pointed out that “my learned friend” is an actual term used in courts of law. There’s a tradition (also employed in British courts of law) that when addressing either the court or the judge, a barrister refers to the opposing counsel using the respectful term, "my learned friend". Of course, it can be said with an air of passive aggression and pretending to be respectful to the court while shamelessly disrespecting it is something Barok has always done, so the addition of “my learned friend” to the localization text is amazingly in-character. Then of course we have:

This is both a scumbag remark and foreshadowing. Naturally, those playing the game for the first time won’t recognize it as the latter and therefore take it as nothing more than a harsh blow. Things spiral even further out of control when he starts talking about how people who claim the island nations of the Far East have a learning and culture of their own use those terms ill-advisedly. He also uses the words “artless backwater” and really, this is the low point of the trial right here when it comes to prejudice. Van Zieks is just plain lashing out with these sort of jabs.

Eventually, McGilded is dragged onto the witness stand to testify about whether or not there was another passenger aboard the omnibus. McGilded admits that there was, and Van Zieks snaps at him some more for using convenient excuses. Ryu is forgotten here for a moment. The whole smoke bomb thing happens, Van Zieks confers with McGilded and Gina in his own chambers, then the trial resumes. McGilded testifies, then Gina testifies… The jury votes not-guilty, buying into McGilded’s story about protecting a poor young pickpocket and Van Zieks loses it. He slams his heel down on the bench, pointing out that this is why he doesn’t like the jury system; because emotions are ruling where evidence and facts ought to be paramount. He points out while the cubbyhole Gina had been hiding in was empty now, it had been full of the coachman’s belongings during the police investigation. Someone tampered with the omnibus. This is where things get interesting, because Van Zieks addresses Ryu:

He’s giving Ryu the benefit of the doubt here. He’s offering an option for Ryu to be truthful about this matter. And that’s curious, because any defense attorney would naturally say what’s best for his client- or so it’s assumed. It puts Ryu in a difficult position for sure, but for some reason Van Zieks put the question forward anyway. The game responds as follows:

For the sake of argument, I attempted all three options. So when Ryu says he didn’t look, Van Zieks says: “Hm… Perhaps I credited you with too much intelligence.”

So when feigning ignorance, Van Zieks is kind of a scumbag about it. He is correct in his expectation that any attorney worth his badge would thoroughly examine the details of the evidence, but he didn’t need to be such a jerk about it. Now, when outright lying and saying it was empty, Van Zieks instead says:

The lines are very similar, which is an interesting note. It adds a feel of these responses being 'rehearsed', in a way. Just a default for him to fall back to. But the real kicker comes when Ryu tells the truth and says it wasn’t empty. Van Zieks is actually speechless at first with no more than a “...!” Clearly, he wasn’t expecting Ryu to respond like this. Everyone in court is baffled, McGilded gets angry… Van Zieks is a bit rattled now.

“Your task is to defend the man in the stand. Why would you say something to compromise his position?”

So really, it seems as if Van Zieks had only ever offered the question to Ryu with pessimistic intentions. He too had assumed there was only one answer the defense could give and was prepared for just that with his silly little wine analogies, only to be shocked when Ryu defies his expectations. Ryu confesses that he’s not entirely sure on where he stands in the matter, to which Van Zieks replies with “... Interesting.” 

So now the jury members are doubting themselves again, with some offering guilty verdicts. Van Zieks decides to honor the ‘Scales of Justice’ once more now that they’re back in his favor, like the hypocrite he is. Gina testifies, Ryu points out an inconsistency, Van Zieks takes that opportunity to turn the tables back in his favor by implying Gina is a liar… He passive aggressively thanks Ryu for saving him considerable trouble and whatnot with some more “my learned Nipponese friend” remarks in there… Ryu turns the tables once more by insisting the victim came into the omnibus through the skylight, Van Zieks demands evidence and points out that furthermore, if indeed such a thing had happened, the witnesses on the roof would’ve seen it. McGilded hops into the conversation to imply that the witnesses themselves were the killers, which sends the court into a frenzy. Both Van Zieks and the judge shift the responsibility of the accusation towards Ryu, even though he never said a word to directly accuse the witnesses. Kind of a douchey move. Barok even states that Ryu’s ‘command of the English tongue must be wanting’, since

Yeahhh, that's pretty unfair. McGilded was the one who dropped that implication. However, since the judge basically accuses Ryu of the same thing, it’s a narrative choice to warn Ryu he needs to anticipate where his reasoning will lead him. Fairplay and Furst testify, pandemonium ensues. McGilded eventually gets what he wants when it’s revealed the skylight can open and there’s blood in there. Van Zieks once again turns his attention to McGilded:

He knows McGilded is at the root of all this tomfoolery and evidence manipulation. McGilded is the real enemy here, in Van Zieks’s eyes. The conversation shows this by having Van Zieks point out that he’s well aware of McGilded’s involvement in dubious matters and that evidence is often ‘adapted’ to suit this guy’s stories. And now, once again, he turns his attention to Ryu. Once again, he’s giving the defense the benefit of the doubt:

The game gives you the illusion of choice here. If you choose to say it’s ‘out of the question’ that the evidence was tampered with, Ryu will refuse to say it out loud. If you say it’s entirely possible, Ryu will admit to that.

This is probably baffling to Van Zieks. It would’ve been so easy for Ryu to insist the tampering couldn’t have happened, but he doesn’t. The game won’t even let him. No matter what you choose, Van Zieks is clued in on the fact that Ryu doesn’t condone the deceit that McGilded is resorting to. But it gets even better, because a short time later, we get:

Another option to either draw attention to forgery, or to feign ignorance. Once again, I chose both options for argument’s sake, but having Ryu say he has no idea doesn’t get us anywhere. Susato will instead object to say it for him. With “I have an inkling”, Ryu says it himself. Van Zieks once again confesses, in his own words, that he’s caught off guard.

Ryu clarifies that he thinks the blood stain inside the omnibus is decisive evidence, but he can’t say for certain whether it’s genuine. McGilded loses it and by this point, is outright branding Van Zieks an enemy. Since the player at this point doesn't know whether McGilded is guilty or not, it leaves Van Zieks in a bit of narrative limbo. One might think: 'if the prosecutor is so intent on taking down a murderer, shouldn't we be on his side? Is he perhaps not as bad as he seems?' Unfortunately, McGilded points out that recollection and memories don’t matter, only evidence does. And… Well.

Which means they can’t rule on a guilty verdict and will have to let McGilded go. Van Zieks admits that he has no more witnesses or evidence to present. He’s out of options. As a formality, the judge asks the defense’s closing statement and we get one last option. Do we believe him to be guilty or not-guilty? When claiming he’s innocent, Van Zieks says:

It seems he means “abject” in the sense of “without pride/respect/dignity for oneself”, which… You know, is fair. By this point it’s very clear that McGilded is guilty, and since Ryu has already admitted that the evidence may be forged, insisting otherwise is indeed pretty spineless. Scumbag points to Van Zieks for continuing to draw attention to the fact that Ryu is from Japan, though.

Let’s instead just admit that we can’t say for certain McGilded is innocent. Unfortunately, we don’t see Van Zieks react to this, which is a bummer because this could’ve been very telling. The judge questions Ryu’s sanity (no joke) and McGilded laughs because it doesn’t matter; it was just a formality anyway. The judge scolds Van Zieks, saying that his case was flawed and it was his job to keep the evidence secure. Instead of objecting, Van Zieks just outright takes the blame for this and apologizes. Very interesting reaction, here. He stops pointing the finger to McGilded, he doesn’t attempt to accuse anyone else… He just admits his performance was flawed. Ryu tries to interject here:

(A badly-timed screenshot if I’ve ever seen one.) Ryu is making an attempt here to defend Van Zieks, the guy who has built up like 20 scumbag points by now. Ryu sincerely doesn’t hold a grudge against him. That’s very interesting. It doesn’t matter, though. The judge won’t hear of it, Ryu thinks it’s unfair, Van Zieks warns McGilded that this isn’t over and then we get the not-guilty verdict.

Hurray??? Profit??? It’s a victory that’s bound to leave the player feeling conflicted and jarred.

But after all’s said and done, we get one last cutscene to establish just how ominous Van Zieks really is. The omnibus is on fire, someone is inside and we know McGilded went into the courtroom earlier to investigate the omnibus in question. So really, by putting two and two together we can already guess what’s going on here. Van Zieks approaches the scene and watches silently.

It’s a good reminder to us that every defendant he prosecutes is ‘damned’ and he’s called the Reaper for a reason. Really puts the finishing touch on the eerie undertones of his character.

All in all, a pretty typical first time against a new prosecutor. Now I just want to draw attention to the fact that the first time we face Van Zieks in court… he’s actually on the right side of the courtroom and Ryu is not. Van Zieks presumably specifically returned to the court after those five years to target McGilded, as he knows about this guy’s shady reputation when it comes to ‘adapting’ evidence. Barok is 'cursed' in such a way that every defendant he faces is damned. So long as he stands as the prosecutor, McGilded can’t get away with his crimes. No matter how much forgery is done, the Reaper will go after McGilded and it seems Van Zieks was banking on this happening.

He likely also expected Ryu to have been bought off by McGilded; to say whatever’s convenient for his case. Turns out, Ryu is actually a man of integrity who’s invested in the truth and near the end of the trial, Barok has seen evidence of this. So what will happen next? We’ll have to play The Clouded Kokoro and find out! Stay tuned!

[himbo-kuto]

i saw this screencap from the manga and knew IMMEDIATELY that i would have to write a lil headcanon of aone and his turtle. he is literally the most precious person who deserves the whole entire world.

i hope you enjoy reading it as much as i did writing it!

genre: fluff, wholesomeness, a whole baked bean, college!au pairing: aone x gn!reader word count: 2k warning: language

okay so you ended up being roommates with aone, futakuchi, and mai when you ended up transferring colleges last minute and needed housing

you saw that they had an empty spot and with time not being on your side, you decided to take the opportunity!! apt 205 squad!!

at first you kind of felt left out since they all knew each other from date tech but you soon warmed up to futakuchi since you had a few classes with him and mai because well-- you guys shared a room

HOWEVER!! one person you couldn’t seem to get close to was a man by the name of takanobu aone-- lemme tell u sumn about this Baked Bean

whenever you tried to interact with him, all he would do is 👁 👄 👁  or just Grunt in response

you were a bit discouraged because you thought he didn’t like you so you shied away from talking to him again :(

but futakuchi was quick to ensure you that was just his way of communicating and that he was actually really engaged in the conversation 

“oh yeah, he’s a great listener-- i talk to him for hours and he just sits and listens”

“ok futakuchi-san, but have you considered that you talk Too much for your own good?”

he gave you the finger for that one

but omg the first time aone Spoke to you????? rocked ur mf world-- what the Heck!!

you were in the mood to bake some cookies and were looking for the big mixing bowls but you just remembered that futakuchi used it to try and make a baking soda volcano 

why??? who knows but all you do know is that he put it ALL the way on the top shelf-- and for what????

but u know-- bein dumb as dirt u tried to use a swivel chair to try and reach for them

and of course it was all the way in the back like wtf curse these tall men-- 

and so you got on your tippy toes and right as you were about to reach it, Of Course the chair decided to turn 

and u were 🤏🏼 this close to eating shit but thanks to the one-- the only-- tol angel baby aone, he stopped the chair dead in its tracks just in time for you to regain your balance

“are you okay?”

you were so shook (one from almost breaking your face and two-- AONE JUST SPOKE AND SAVED YOU!!!) 

at first you just stood there blinking down at him with the bowls in your arms like hinata season 4, episode 15 - 15:37

he held up his arms to you and you blushed so hard because was he really about to carry you down????

but before your mind had anytime to roam, he pointed to the bowls and you realized with your real eyes that you were not the one to whom he was referring to 

it wasn’t long until you got over your initial iron wall with aone (…. 😏)  and he actually ended up being someone you hung out with on a regular basis

mai was always out studying for her practicals in the library while futakuchi… well.. who even knows what the heck that man is up to..

but ANYWAYS!! you guys would hang out mostly in the living room to watch TV, do homework and eat meals-- he always helped you with your math homework and you helped him with his architecture models!! 

you didn’t really know what he liked to watch but he didn’t seem to oppose whatever you had on-- however, you Did notice that whenever you put on volleyball he stared very intensely at the TV only stopping when commercials came on

aone Always ate your home cooked meals without fail

literally such a sweet and appreciative boy as opposed to futakuchi who would complain but one time aone gave him That Look™️ and he shut right the fuck up

that day forward futakuchi ate all your meals like a good boy

aone has also become very protective of you-- in high school, he may have locked onto the aces of the other teams, but in college he locked onto his close friends to make sure they were safe

one time you guys got onto a cramped bus to go grocery shopping and all it took was this creepo man to just Look at you the wrong way for aone to stand right in front of you and shoot this man a death glare that said “if you even think about touching her i’ll put you into the ground” 

HE MAY HAVE A HEART OF GOLD BUT DONT MESS WITH THE PEOPLE HE CARES ABOUT OR ELSE IT’S HANDS 

but know this ladies, gents and my non-binary friends, we MOST DEFINITELY sit next to aone on the bus and engage in the best of conversations because tHATS WHAT THIS MAN DESERVES!!!!!!!!! 

not to mention all the times he has saved you due to your clumsiness and overall single brain cell fueled activities 

one fateful day you were sitting in the living room as you saw aone come home with a whole bag of groceries

he didn’t put them into the communal fridge so you were a bit confused as to why he took them straight into his room

you weren’t one to just bust in there to try and find out so later when you guys were eating dinner you asked him what he bought at the store

he listed off a bunch of produce and then said that they were for his turtle!!!!

you were all !!?!?!??? 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 TURTLE?????? WHERE??? HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEEN HERE??? CAN I SEE THEM?

he goes on to tell you that he’s had the turtle ever since they all moved in!! but it never came up in conversation so you never knew until now

him and futakuchi rescued the turtle but when they tried to let them go, they didn’t go anywhere so they kept them!! 

so after dinner you both quickly washed the dishes, and he brought you into their room to show you his turtle

you were honestly a bit nervous going into their room-- like what were you to expect??? was it going to be messy?? stinky?? clean??? were there any secrets????

but to your surprise it was fairly clean and simple-- even futakuchi’s side (which you assumed was aone’s doing)

you looked around his room to find all these old pictures of date tech on the wall, many of them with futakuchi and mai

there was even a photo of all the third years clinging to aone like koalas on a tree and though his expression was faint, you could tell that he was happy

it warmed your heart to see that he got along with his teammates and held these memories close to him-- they accepted him for who he was and that was more than enough for you

he also had plethora of architecture books on his shelves which made you wonder why he picked that major in the first place

but you shrugged it off as you looked over to his desk

there was a table next to it with an enclosure and a cute little turtle sunbathing underneath a lamp inside

you scurried over to the tank, getting down on your knees to get eye level with the animal while you slowly brought your face to the glass  

the turtle was half curled into its shell, looking up at you as he gave you a slow blink

you could’ve sworn you felt your heart explode and melt all at once in that Exact moment

you looked up at aone with 🥺 eyes before looking back to reptile to see them poking their head out to fully greet you 

you squealed internally as you wiggled your finger as your salutations

“do they have a name?” 🥺 

“ichigo-desu...” (strawberry)

you thought your heart exploded before?????????????

oh bitch you felt like you were about to go into full blown cARDIAC ARREST MY G O D!!!!!!

“did futakuchi name them?”

“no i did…”

you literally hunched over, and leaned onto the desk for support as your heart was filled with his soft boy energy because there was no wAY!!! DID AONE JUST NAME THIS TURTLE ICHHHIGOOOO BITCHHH AHHH

but lowkey aone was also being filled with your soft energy and got all blushy-- but thank god you were too occupied by his turtle to notice

“do you want to feed him a strawberry? it’s his dinner time too”

you could not have said yes faster to this man 

he went into his personal fridge and there you saw all the groceries he had earlier that day!! he pulled out a single strawberry before handing it over to you

he walked over to the tank and cautiously pulled out ichigo before placing them on the ground

HOWEVERRRRRR!! what came next you didn’t expect at all

he walked around so that he was behind you, gingerly reached for your hand and guided you to hold the strawberry out for ichigo 

ichigo craned their neck in the sight of the fruit and started chowing down

and by God you hoped that aone could not hear your loud ass heartbeat and see your red ass face-- (you were surprised that ichigo wasn’t going after you since your face might as well have been a strawberry)

you two sat in a comfortable silence as you watched the little reptile enjoy his dinner 

as ichigo drew closer to the leafy bit, you wanted to ask aone if he was allowed to eat that part 

so you turned your head to the side to speak but immediately closed your mouth as aone’s face was only centimeters away from yours 

you thought you were red back then???? bitch buckle up cause we’re reaching a new LEVEL of red

at that moment you were no think, no thought, head EMPTY as you just stared at his profile 

all of his features were strong... the bridge of his nose, his jawline, his expression-- he himself was a strong man and you just wondered how all this soft, fluffy, wholesomeness was packed into this 192cm man

and just as you relaxed into this position

FUTAKUCHI BUSTS THROUGH THE DOOR WITHOUT ANY KIND OF WARNING JUST TALKIN OUT OF HIS ASS 

at first he’s so absorbed into his own conversation that he doesn’t even notice you guys in that position

but when he does??? it’s like those moments in animes where you’re all chibitized and you just have circle eyes and a blank expression o_o

you IMMEDIATELY come to your senses, releasing the rest of the strawberry and aone’s hand

if you could peace fade in this moment, you would’ve definitely flashed futakuchi a duces

but alas, you could not..

so you scrambled to your feet-- but not before thanking aone for letting you meet his turtle-- and RAN out TF of that room heart a BEEATTINN

from that day on, you visited aone and his turtle a lot more-- even going so far as buying things for ichigo!!

“hey aone-san, did ichigo like the squash i cooked?”

“mm.”

“hey aone-san, does ichigo like the new hide?”

“mm.”

“look aone-san! he can’t grip onto the cherry tomato!! it keeps rolling around!”

“mm.”

many of your conversations went along like that and he always appreciated the amount of effort you put into them

he wasn’t a man of many words but did his best to make sure you knew that he was listening and engaged

at one point mai and futakuchi said that “he has spoken more words to you in these past few months than he has with us in 3 years”

you were surprised but also flattered by the fact that aone was comfortable enough to open up and have conversation with you 

although it was a bit of a rough patch in the beginning, you were glad that you became a part of the 205 squad! it was you, aone, futakuchi, mai and ichigo against the world!!

[sharkselfies]

this is kind of a weird question, but do you happen to know of anywhere i might find shots of the terror’s sick bay? looking for refs but i don’t follow too many terror blogs

BOY DO I EVER!! not a weird question at all! thank you for asking and for your patience while i wrote all this stuff in response. you probably know some of it already, but i wanted to try to be as thorough as possible.

cinemaqua, the hungarian water park that bought the ship set after filming ended, uploaded a bunch of high quality photos with the sets relatively in tact. there is one very good one of the sickbay:

check out those little shelves with railings so the bottles don't fall off if they're sailing in rough waters (or being crushed and shifted by the pack ice).

i know you asked about terror's sickbay specifically; however, as this behind the scenes video mentions, they just used the one set for both ships, so technically terror and erebus's sickbays are the same place. however, the set designers did change a few details here and there to make them look different--the erebus scenes are a bit fancier than the terror ones, swapping out curtains for real doors, looking a bit less weather beaten, etc. (semi-relatedly, did you know erebus, even though she's the flagship and is larger, is the younger ship? terror was ordered in 1812 completed in 1813, while erebus was ordered in 1823, laid down in '24, and launched in '26. so it does make sense she might look a bit more modern!)

there are 2 good detail shots of sickbay set dressing in that video:

anyway, this is the part that took me so long to get back to you on--making a list of all the scenes that take place in each ship's sickbay (which ended up accidentally turning into a partial rewatch and list of all the scenes with the doctors). we actually see terror's sickbay less frequently than erebus's (since goodsir and stanley, both stationed on erebus, are more major characters than are mcdonald and peddie on terror), at least at first. we don't get our first glimpse into the terror sickbay until episode four! but once we've seen it, we spend a LOT of time there.

the best episodes to rewatch to take your own terror sickbay screencaps would be episodes 4 and 5, then! (the best ep for erebus sickbay screencaps would def be episode 1 since you basically get shots from every angle with the combo of david young's initial exam + the hallucination at the foot of his bed.)

here are some of my own caps from 5 that show off the background details of terror's sickbay really well so you can get a good sense of where things are!

notice how they even moved all the lanterns to one side of the room for blanky's amputation at the end of the episode?

speaking of lanterns, you may find it useful to brighten your screencaps if you can, because this show is SO dark sometimes. a brightened screencap on twitter was what helped me first notice there were anatomical diagrams on terror's sickbay walls! you can see those clearly behind goodsir when he's telling macca abt the lead line on morfin's gums in 4 and behind crozier veeery briefly and blurrily during blanky's amputation in 5.

(stanley has one on the wall of his cabin as well when goodsir's telling him about the lead poisoning in ep 6, i believe. it's not 100% clear where this scene takes place since it's quite focused on their faces and not the backgrounds so much, but i think it's in his room)

finally, when i don't feel like doing an actual rewatch or digging through a mountain of screenshots for references, i'll just go browse the stephen stanley or alexander m(a)cdonald tags, since they tend to have most of their scenes in their respective sickbays and the gifsets made by creators there can be a great help for slowing things down and observing! def follow theterroramc if you want to follow some more terror blogs too, because they curate everything and have a really comprehensive tagging system!

thank you again for your question and i hope this long winded reply was helpful for you! anyone else feel free to chime in with more details in the replies or reblogs as well.

[popculturebuffet]

Pinky and the Brain: A Pinky And the Brain Christmas Review or I Just Think Schotzie’s Neat

Christmas Continues on this blog... and getting away from one set of Christmas commissions and into another, I offered my friend Blahdiddy three commissions as a present. The other two we’ll get to eventually, but with Animaniacs on the brain, heh, due to the reboot, he selected two Pinky and the Brains and one Animaniacs for me to cover. And while I intended to cover this one sometime this month anyway, my friend’s recent and sad covid diagnosis meant i’m bumping this one all the way up to the front of the line so he has some christmas cheer during this rough time. So with that in mind let’s talk about pinky, pinky and the brain brain brain brain brain shall we? Of course we can’t really talk about pinky and the brain without talking about Animaniacs. I absolutely love the series, I grew up with it as a kid and reconnected with it as an adult when it ended up on netflix. It was smart, well animated and most importantly really fucking funny. I highly recommend checking both the original and reboot of it out some time if you have Hulu. Speaking of the reboot while I might go on in full about it at some point it’s pretty good, with some creatvie jokes, some nice updates, with Rita Anita Anrita being a great new addition to the warner side of things. It’s only real flaw is it gets a bit reptitious as for the most part there’s only really the warners and pinky and the brain with a few exceptions one of which DAMN well deserved at least two segments and we all know which one that is. 

Bring.. this.. to series. The warners and pinky and the brain segments weren’t bad, but as is inevitible in a screwball comedy some just weren’t as good as others and those fell harder when you’ve already seen 2 or 3 better versions of this sort of skit in the season. They did really find their groove towards the end and if you like both Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain, or even just one or the other, it’s worth checking out.  But enough about the reboot let’s talk about those labratory mice whose genes have been spliced. Thanks to wikipedia, I now know the duo were based on Eddie Fitzgerald and Tom Minton, who worked with Tom Rutgeter on Tiny Toon adventures, with menton being the one who came up with Narf, even saying it in one episode of Tiny Tunes. During the creation of animaniacs, Bruce Timm, yes THE Bruce Timm, sketched the two, and Ruetger added mouse ears and the rest was history. Maurice LaMarche was the one who added the Orson Welles to the character, as LaMarche saw the Orson Welles in Brain, ran with it and got the part and a long and storied career in voice acting as a result. In a nice and fitting bit of contrast, Rob Paulsen got the part.. because he was already on the show. Not to downplay Paulsen’s clear talent, I just find it hilarious. 

That’s about what I could dig up on the behind the scenes of the show. From what I can tell it was greenlit because Animaniacs was a massive it, and Pinky and the Brain was the most popular segment, so it just made sense. The show would likewise be a massive sucess with both adults and kids, and go on for three seasons and what should legally be considered a war crime. 

For those of you blissfully unaware yeah, that happened, no no one people actually LIKED from Tiny Toons was in it. And yeah if you want me to talk about it commission it otherwise not going near this one. While I do need to tackle more bad animation... I’ve successfully avoided watching an episode of this show for 22 years next wedsday, I’m not breaking the streak for free. 

But some.. things aside I remembered liking the series as a kid but just never got around to seeking it out as an adult. I had nothing against the animaniacs segments and I even still have a stuffed brain doll I got at a garage sale.. the pinky is sadly missing and persumed dead. I just wasn’t as bit into it as I was the slappy bits rewatching animaniacs and didin’t really see reason to watch the show. Watching this though made me realize I was wrong and I probably watch more of it in the future This special is damn good, i’m pleased ot review it and to revive and old childhood memory. So with all the exposition out of the way let’s talk Pinky, PInky and the brain brain brain brain christmas edition after the cut. 

This was indeed a special: while it was presumably produced with season one of the show and is packaged with it both on DVD and on Hulu, where I watched it, the special was aired in prime time and even put on it’s own VHS.. which I found out and of course, like with my review of the Darkwing Duck Pilot, had to use as the art for old VHS’ tapes for cartoons.. was really fucking beautiful and it’s a nice break from my traditional screencaps.   So we open with a clever Christmas rendition of the theme, frequently sprinkling in bits of other christmas stuff, utterly fantastic. The intro animation is less impressive as it’s literally just the regular intro but with a stock snow effect over everything. In case you thought Ducktales doing that was a new thing. I do not blame the team however, as apparently they only had a week to get the scripts out, so I highly doubt warner was forking out more cash for the animation than they had to. They still forked out enough to make it LOOK really good mind you, something I wish they’d do more often with their DTV Movies but do do with their animated shows still with certain exceptions so good on them, i’m just saying they clearly cared more about money than having a memorable christmas opening. Given a budget to actually make one, i’m sure the animators would’ve come up with something lovely, and i’m sure the same is true of Ducktales and other shows and like i’ve said, i’m highly in favor of shows actuallly doing unique openings for the holidays, especially since Holiday episodes tend to get reaired every year as long as the show is in circulation on the network. Sometimes even if it isn’t. So it’s fully worth the effort to fork out a little extra for this as while you’ll most likely only use it once, you’ll be using the special for years. You can afford to treat yourself networks come on. It’s...

Just like Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain. But onto the episode itself after 80 years. We find Pinky writing his Christmas list to santa, complete with Narf, a gag I like. As usual for a comedy show, I will try to gloss over as much of the gags as possible, to avoid repetttion but yeah this episode is really damn funny and reminded me just how good these characters are. Maurice and Rob just have perfect chemistry. It’s like Tom and Jerry: It’s a very simple premise, that one being “Cat chases mouse and Mouse beats shit out of mouse”, and pinky and the brain of course being “Super genuis mouse and dimwitted but loveable sidekick try and takeover the world eveyr night”. But a simple premise can be used just about anywhere and adapated for anything. To me a cartoon’s premise only has to be as complicated as it needs to be to work. Sometimes you have a vast complex tapestry behind the world like She Ra, Steven Universe or Avatar with lots of planning and ins and outs and deep character stuff.. and sometimes you just have two mice who get into shenanigans because one is a would be dictator who sounds like orson welles and the other’s a loveable british weirdo/moron. Sometimes simple just works. 

Anyways, Brain, noticing Pinky’s distracted and replaces himself with a horrifying poorly made doll of himself called Noodle Noggin, which is both an excellent name and not the only time they’d use the name either, as there was an animaniacs short about Brain making himself a fad to endear himself to the children of the future with the same name. It’s just an inherently funny set of words, but also shows Brain’s genius in a subtle and clever way as he never spells it out, but despite sounding kind of ridiculous for such a buttoned up intellectual like brain... he knows that’s the kind of name kids will eat up. His schemes may often fail, but he’s an objectively brilliant schemer and i’ts often either PInky’s incompetence or his own miscalculation of humanity, either over or underestimating them, that undoes Brain.  Back to the plot, so Brain’s plan is to distribute noodle noggins around the world, make it the hot new toy, and as always, take over the world. Problem is naturally two Mice simply don’t have the resources to make the billions of dolls. But PInky stumbles upon the solution in the paper: a want ad for elves! Everything about that sentence except “pinky stumbles upon the solution” has not aged paticuarlly well, but point is they have a plan and we have our christmas special.  This does bring me to my one problem with the special.. Brain’s weird inconsistency towards Santa. What I mean is he spends the portion doubting Santa can do anything he’s claimed to despite being proven frequently he can. That part is not all that annoying as it’s in character with him and while yes, he is a talking mouse, he’s also a man of science and reason and Santa is the opposite of that. That would be fine... IF it wasn’t for the fact that said magical bollocks weren’t constantly part of his plans. Despite Brain constantly throughought the special doubting Santa... his plans FREQUENTLY rely on everything we’ve heard about him being right. His initial plan here ENTIRELY runs on the fact Santa has a massive workforce to make the toys yet even if that’s true by Brain’s own logic, he wouldn’t be able to deliver them. Later when the boys need to escape, They hide with the Reindeer despite Brain just saying santa can’t be everywhere in one night.. which if he can’t then the odds are slim he’ll wind up at Acme Labs isn’t it? It would be fine if the special acknowledged any of this outside of one bit we’ll get to, but other than that one bit.. they don’t. IT’s just really frustrating and really sticks out since the rest of the special is perfection, so this one failing bit really grates. That being said, it dosen’t last long enough to really drag the episode down as a whole, just to annoy me a bit every so often. It speaks to the episodes quality that the bad part ONLY drags so much because everything else is so well put together.  So our boys head to the north pole with the help of a kooky pilot and a santa dummy, this pilot is voiced by Tress MacNeile and is easily one of the best parts of the special. And naturally given their luck, she asks them to take the wheel so the plane instead jerks and causes them to fall out. Luckily they end up near Santa’s workshop and soon apply for temp work with local head of things and gruff type Shotzie, played by Jeff Bennett. And yes that is his name.  I like Shotzie: he’s a goateed elf and Bennett just plays him well.. hard to explain honestly I may just like his name and Bennett’s voice for him, one he used before in animanaics for various bit parts and in shows after this, it’s just a voice i’ve always liked. 

They get put to work in the mail room, which is the bit I mentioned: Brain earlier scoffed at Santa answering all the letters with Pinky simply suggesting that Santa had his elves go through all of them. Turns out Pinky was right... while he may be a BIT stupid, one intresting thing i’ve found about Pinky after watching the reboot that ironically the friend who comissioned this and I discussed is that he’s not ENTIRELY stupid, it’s just , much like Dan from Dan Vs his knowledge is just random.. he can not know how a lot of things work, but sometimes like in this instance Pinky generally just GETS something. It’s part of why he and Brain are such a good team despite their failures: Brain is all about planning and thought and research, Pinky is about intuition and gut instinct. He just does things and it often works out. This also makes their recently added backstories all the more brilliant as they explain this well: Pinky started life just being told to find the diffrence in cheeses and thus was taught form childhood to trust in himself and his weird brain. Brain was cruelly torturued with an experiment on learned behaviors via electroshock, and was taught to never give up control again, to always know what’s going on and to always control it. It perfectly sums up who the two are and why they are that way.  Brain however quickly pivots, as the mail room ends up being the perfect location to start his plans. Since their job is to file away what each person wants Brain simply adds Noodle Noggin to it and plans to put his plans into the workshop. While Santa and Schotzie are suprised and baffled, Santa quickly adds it to the list. However things hit a snag when Schotzie gets supscious when the two try to sneak into the blueprint room to drop theirs off and he accidently yanks off their disguises leading to a REALLY fun chase scene, as the boys end up in a toy wherehouse and thus try out various toy cars: a barbie dream car that dosen’t have a working motor, a toy truck that dosen’t go very fast, and finally an rc car that while fast naturally just means Schotzie can grab it and capture them. It’s easily my faviorite scene of the episode just for how clever it is and as someone whow as a kid around the time this came out, I applaud the accuracy.. granted I didn’t have any of those personally but I had lots of friends so yeah. 

So our heroes are interrogated.. and again Brain brilliantly pivots. Schotzie assumes since they have the blueprints their spies for the easter bunny or the tooth fairy or Herschel, the Hanukah Goblin. Why Herschel never got his own Hannukah special trying to stop Pinky and the Brain from using it to take over the world, I genuinely do not know and that’s something the reboot really needs to adress in the future. Seriously Hannukah needs a mascot and it’s either Herschel or the Hannukah Zombie. Kwanza already has Kwanzabot. I want to see more of Herschel the Hannukah Goblin dammit!. I love goblins. Especially this one.

And this one

And most of all this one

I likes goblins. It’s a thing. So anyway, point is Schotize has the blueprints taken in while our boys slip out and sucessfully make their way outside, though they have to find a way home to turn on the mind control device. They see Santa and brain being a dick refuses to let pinky hand in his letter.. but does as mentioned earlier have them pose as reindeer.  So our heroes make their way home and in time to be able to activate the device once santa’s route’s finished!

And.. then land directly on the mind control device thing, meaning they now have to scramble to repair it. Oh and Pinky is inconsolable after realizing Santa didn’t get his letter and Brain is a HUGE dick about it. Easily the worst i’ve seen him just far more focused on his machine than his friend’s wel lbeing especially since ALL he needs from pinky is for him to throw one lousy switch. 

But we then get easily the best part of the entire special. As Brain scrambles to rebuild his device while abusing his best friend we get a really nice tense sequence as Brain rebuilds while kids all over the world warmly receive noodle noggin. I mean.. it’s not the creepiest doll I’ve seen a kid enjoy. 

Also Bill Clinton gets one because the series apparently really likes “Bill Clinton is stupid jokes” Oh you poor innocent dears who haven’t had to suffer through the president being revealed to be a sexual predator, the one after him being even dumber if not a predator, the one after that being easily one of the best people around, and the outgoing one being a waking nightmare whose both a preadator and dumb beyond all comprehension ina dangerous and soul crushing way. 

But yeah onto the good part, Brain, for whatever reason, reads the letter.. and finds Pinky asked for nothing. He just wanted to give Brain the world at long last, recognizing his friend really and genuinely means well for it and that he’s worked hard to conquer it. And with that goal in reach, with the very thing he’s always wanted his... Brain instead uses the device to wish a merry christmas. He sees through his friend’s kindess and selflessness that he himself.. has been selfish once again turning something into a world destroying plot and being cruel to his best friend... when all his best friend wanted was to selflessly make sure he finally got what he wanted. It’s then that Brain, for all his cold and cynical logic and superiority complex, realized the true meaning of christmas, which i’ve said before and i’ll say again: it’s about giving, about giving someone something with your heart and soul just to be nice with no expectation of something in return. It’s about being selfless for once instead of selfish. I’ts about love. And Brain loves his friend too much to destroy his faviorite holiday. For once the world can wait.. and for once they all join in saying merry christmas to one another and in love and camradire. And I know not everyone celebrates christmas, there are other winter holidays and not everyone in the world would willingly do this. I know all that.. but the special has such a well meaning message, I really can’t be mad at that or get into the weeds too much> This isn’t some jackass making an entire movie, of which there have been several, saying “There’s a war on christmas” which instead equates to them just bitching about not everyone celebrating HIS holiday. It’s about a mouse for one moment truly being selfless and putting ihs loyal and faithful friend over his greatest want to give him a nice christmas and to do something nice for the world instead of trying to take it. And that.. that’s really damn heartmelting.  So we end on the two exchanging presents, with it being a little extra heartwarming as Brain likely already got Pinky something meaning even before his big revelation, he really does care beneath all the dope slaps. Pinky got him a keychain of the world and rather than be frustrated like you’d think.. Brain just takes it in stride. It is christmas after all.. the world.. it can wait. For now it’s just the two of them having one moment in time, this merry christmas.  Final Thoughts: If it wasn’t obvious, I loved this freaking special. It’s funny, clever and has one hell of an ending. There isn’t much more to say other than go watch it if you have Hulu.. you will not regret it and a sepcial thanks to Blah for comissioning this. it was an amazing time and is now a competitor for a spot on my best christmas special list. For now though it’s just really good and I say go check it out. Merry christmas, happy holidays and later days. 

[stellahibernis]

Lan Wangji: Out and About

AKA Lan Wangji’s costumes in the Untamed, part 2/9

I’m back with my love for beautiful costumes, more screencaps than I actually need, and some wine, let’s have a look at Lan Wangji’s second (and first blue) outfit! As always, I’ll first write about the costume, and after that how it reflects where LWJ is in his character journey.

He wears this one in episodes 8 to 11 when he goes out on a quest to find more pieces of Yin Iron, trying to escape all the confusing feelings Wei Wuxian caused. Of course, WWX will not let him go alone, and he’s only a little bit annoyed about it.

The Costume

I called his first outfit simple but formal, and this second one is pretty much opposite on both of those points; the silhouette is less formal with one less layer and narrow sleeves, but there are more details, not to mention the fabric itself is less plain. Also, in-universe this outfit cost a lot, you’d feed the whole village for years kind of money.

Above in the first image you see the general silhouette, and below we have a bit more detail in view. (Also please appreciate the soft expression directed at WWX sleeping on the roof.)

The silhouette is a curiously mixed bag when it comes to practicality. The lack of another robe over the sash and the narrow sleeves make it easier for him to move about, appearing more ready to fight if needed. Then there are the long strips of fabric falling down from his shoulders front and back, that are the opposite of practical, and potentially risky, as we see when WWX grabs one of them at one point. They look great while he’s moving, though, which is a necessary consideration in costume design, and often overrides practicality.

I was wondering, by the way, about the hen and the egg situation, whether they put the strips of fabric so that WWX had something to grab, or if he was just supposed to grab something and they were conveniently there. I’m also amused that in episode 8 WWX says LWJ always dresses in white like he’s in a funeral, and he’s wearing blue 😅

The top layer made of the blue fabric is very sheer, you can see the white layer underneath through it, and the bottom part is slit up to waist for ease of movement. That’s common for the layer underneath the sash, you can see it best if the layer below is of different color like here, or from the way it fans out while sitting. With this robe it’s especially noticeable because the blue fabric is very light and easily moves at the edges of the slits.

There’s also the usual Lan Sect cloud embroidery done with white (or very pale blue, hard to say) thread on the lapels as well as the front panel at the bottom. Even though I call this one a blue outfit, there’s still quite a bit of white visible with the layer underneath, the sash, wrist bands, and some detailing.

As I mentioned in the first post, if he has narrow sleeves, there are always fabric bands wrapped around his wrists to finish the look, as you see below. I like that the crisscrossing of fabric happens both at the wrists and in the front of the sash (seen above), it ties the whole look together. In the image below you can also see the fabric in more detail, there’s this subtle pattern of two alternating blues, and it’s very sheer indeed, if you look at the seams. That one took a weaver a lot of time. (Also salutations to whoever actually sewed this outfit, fabric like this is an unforgiving nightmare, and it’s so easy to make the garment pull at the seams.) The lapels and the long hanging strips are made of a different fabric, there’s no pattern in it, and it’s maybe slightly heavier (would make embroidery easier, as well as help with the narrow strips to fall pleasingly. (Also you might have guessed by now that I really like the string talisman scene.)

Let’s consider some more details next from the following image. First, the new head ornament that he’ll wear for the rest of the flashback. This is probably my favorite of his formal hair arrangements (I have an extra soft spot for the laid back present time look we get to see at the Jingshi).

Then we get to the main reasons why this outfit cost an arm and leg, besides the sky high cost of the fabric: just look at the jewelry on his shoulders. On both shoulders there is one large blue stone, another slightly smaller, and a white stone in the middle, not to mention that silverwork. The largest stones are huge, and the same color as the ones hanging from his waist ornament, as well as the ones he wears with his final outfit, so we definitely have a theme there.  Anyway, expensive as hell, and they’re just sewn on the shoulders of the robes he decided to wear on a quest that likely would contain fighting. Also note the silver detailing at the lapel edges, want to guess if it’s made of actual silver thread in-universe? I would say yes, all things considered. Why spare the expense there after the jewelry?

Finally, I want to point at the layers at the collar, we can see four. There’s the top layer of sheer blue, then a layer of white (it’s mostly underneath the blue but you can see a narrow bit on the right, and obviously we know otherwise that the layer below is white. Then there’s another blue robe, and finally a white layer, which I think is the undershirt rather than another robe. 

I should point out that this screencap was chosen because of his tiny smile at WWX on his roof, you guessed it, another scene I like a lot.

The Context

As I mentioned in the first part, in general in the flashback when LWJ is wearing predominantly blue, he’s moving closer to WWX and motivated less by his duty to his sect, and this quest is obviously a key point in that. At the start, he’s perfectly happy to be going alone, he deliberately doesn’t tell WWX he’s leaving even though they both made a promise to Lan Yi to help prevent the misuse of the Yin Iron. Of course, he doesn’t get far before WWX shows up, and he’s genuinely annoyed there at the beginning, just note the frequency of him calling WWX boring. After all, he was hoping to put all the inconvenient feelings aside, and now it’ll be all but impossible.

Incidentally, when we consider Lan Sect in general, only those of higher rank can wear predominantly blue robes. They are those who are responsible for making decisions, and can be trusted to act independently. In light of that, it’s kind of funny that the blue in LWJ’s outfits is generally a sign of him moving away from his sect and toward WWX.

All throughout the quest we see LWJ being annoyed at WWX, but a significant change is that apart from the very beginning, it only happens when there’s a particular reason for it (like WWX grabbing a hold of his robes). LWJ is no longer annoyed simply by his presence (while he rather is annoyed by the mere presence of NHS and JC).

The binding talisman (or whatever WWX ended up calling it) scene is great, because on one hand, we get an absolutely amazingly annoyed look from LWJ (please see below, I’m still laughing), but we might also add that he doesn’t even attempt to break the talisman, just yanks WWX to come along with him. Also, after this he doesn’t actually protest WWX’s presence on the quest, and when the Yin Iron reacts soon after, they’re immediately on mission mode and actively collaborating.

In fact, this quest is when they at first start to become a unit. At the summer school we hear WWX saying he considers LWJ his equal, and while he considers the quest for Yin Iron their common duty, I don’t think he considers them partners in general at the time, and if asked, he’d definitely trust his family first. Similarly, LWJ is used to being independent, and hasn’t particularly looked for company, but during this quest we see him start to trust in WWX and rely on his skills.

The key point in all this is the fight against the dire owl in the forest, where they work seamlessly together. At the start, LWJ significantly asks WWX to put the protective net around the others, which is a clear signal that in this fight he trusts WWX to have his back, but not the others. This is a huge shift for him. Likewise, when the disorientation fog arrives and LWJ is much less affected by it (due to his practice in controlling his temperament, no doubt, which is a Lan Sect practice that WWX mentions helped him at the Burial Mounds in episode 22), WWX doesn’t hesitate to trust his judgment on how to handle the situation (closing his eyes, putting his sword away etc.) We know that WWX has a pretty lofty opinion of his own skills, as he later admits (for a good reason, I’d add), so completely relying on someone who is of similar age with him is a big deal and speaks of how highly he actually thinks of LWJ. It is a major shift where they take the first steps on the road to become the people each of them relies on the most out of everyone in the world.

Another key scene that demonstrates the strengthening of their bond is when they say goodbyes to Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen. There is a pause where LWJ stays looking after them, with yearning in his eyes, and WWX is the one to notice and to call him to go. There is a clear and genuine moment of understanding between them, perhaps of the conflict between freedom and duty, that is a challenge to both of them occasionally (albeit one that takes very different shapes for them).

Even though their bond is now starting to strengthen, the circumstances are pulling them apart, and for LWJ it’s the start of the pivotal conflict between his duties to his sect and his feelings for WWX. At this point, it probably isn’t a too difficult choice for him to leave once he knows the Cloud Recesses may be in danger, but it is obvious he still regrets the parting. We see it clearly on his face when he tells the sleeping WWX that he must go.

My personal headcanon, by the way, is that LWJ composes Wangxian on the way back to Gusu after parting with WWX, at least consciously so. It might have been poking around in his head even before then, but I don’t think he was ready to admit WWX’s importance even to himself any earlier, and I doubt he had his mind in the mood for composing after what happened at the Cloud Recesses. Not to mention, what was he supposed to do while traveling when there wasn’t a certain chatterbox around to fill the silence.

His return to home is of course not at all a fun time, and his duty to his sect calls him back hard. Hence the next time we’ll see him in all white, not having a good time at all at the evil summer school.

(Somehow this one became even longer than the first part?! On the plus side, I managed to cut down the amount of images pretty well, I originally had seventeen screencaps 😂)

(You can find the rest of this series via “lwj costume series” tag below, or through my blog contents page. I’d link for ease of access but the links made it disappear from tags, so. 😒)

[ae0nx]

FRUITS BASKET S2 EPISODE 10 RECAP!

This was an interesting one! Definitely gave me more space and stuff to be able to question Akito’s motives a bit more. And it had a glorious ending!

Let’s gooo!

------------------------------------------

Cute! <3

Another cute moment! Such a great group shot :)

- Lol that background convo that Yuki, Kisa, Hiro and Haru were having about Mogeta and them debating whether it was a mystery, adventure or romance pretty much reminds me of every time I try to explain furuba to newbies. I’d probably automatically go for romance cos kyoru is always my first thought when it comes to this anime, I can’t help myself.

- The convo between Kyo and Momiji about whether leaving Tohru behind was beneficial to Tohru or not was interesting, especially when you attach it to Momiji’s later actions in the episode. But, I also wish they sat Tohru down and explained to her how dangerous Akito was instead of just keeping a happy pretence (this anime is full of people putting on brave faces for people and it’s kinda grating on me a bit, if I’m being fully honest). BUT, then again, I guess that’s a side effect of the curse and their cursed loyalty to Akito.

FALLING IN LOVE

FALLING IN LOVE

FALLING IN LOOOOOVVVVEEEE 💖🎶

Anyways... Momiji and Kyo moments? Yussss

- I know that Tohru wouldn’t be Tohru if she wasn’t always so self-sacrificially giving but... I just want her to care for herself! PLEASE.

I love the colour grading/tone of this scene.

*sigh* but I guess... I do like the fact that Shigure seems to be pissing Akito off... for some reason 👀.... 

Also, that hint at Ren? ooo la...

*insert X-Files theme song*

After the beach arc ends, I really hope this is the last we get of Akito being presented by the animators as the evilest of evils because I’m personally getting to the point where I just wanna understand what’s Akito’s fuckin deal instead of just saying I hate them every week haha

- Momiji really is the Best Boi of this whole beach arc cos of this episode. He REALLY tried to rationally calm down Akito as well as try and protect Tohru at the same time. And even though it didn’t work out for the best, I definitely think he had the best approach in protecting Tohru. Best bunny. 🥺

Oh wow. That... was a... punch... 😣 (I always thought Akito slapped Momiji in the manga but either way: booooo 👎🏾)

- I find it fascinating that Akito uses words like ‘save’ and ‘help’ for Tohru’s actions even though they find her ‘monstrous’... Maybe it’s a translation thing. 

But all this time, I’ve been trying to work out whether:

Akito is being petty when it comes to Tohru 

Akito truly believes that they are the villain of the story or

Akito believes the zodiac curse is as it should be and nothing should disturb that. 

Maybe it’s a collection of all three. But for the most part, I’m gonna go with the third option. However, I do wonder why they are so insistent on everything being as it should be even though it’s limiting and inconvenient for everyone, including Akito themselves... 

I’m just gonna leave it at that otherwise I’ll start going into spoilers lol

Even though I have a grand dislike for Akito, I gotta admit...

Akito finally being revealed as the personification of ‘God’ was pretty badass.

Still terrible.

Also, how sharp must your nails be to scratch someone that deep? Lol

- I love the fact that Haru had to hold Kyo back from fucking Akito up but then it becomes sad when you realise that even if he was let loose he probably wouldn’t be able to really hurt Akito because of the curse...

As always Tohru’s ethereal goddess energy is protected by the dawning of another day :)

Head bumps! <3 I’m curious to see what Momiji/Tohru shipping content comes out after this episode! While I don’t personally ship it, I’m interested in what people like about this ship! I can’t help but always see their relationship as a ‘big sis, little bro’ dynamic but this is an interesting ship.

- Lol wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a snake firework in real life and this wasn’t a great introduction haha

Baby Kyo!!!! <3 (still lowkey asking for that Kyo and Kazuma mini-series)

- I like that Kyo asked Tohru about her and her mum using fireworks cos she probably still feltawkwardabouttalkingabouthermadreandI’m-

...I’m love.

I’m not making any promises to not screencap every smile that Kyo directs at Tohru from now on. Once again, I can’t help myself.

HARU! 🤣

I love it when my favourite angry bois who should stereotypically be delinquents are actually sticklers for the rules and ‘safety first’! Hi, Bakugou!

- Rin playing Black Widow and sneaking around in the shadows, trying to bring the establishment down from the inside. We stan.

YaaaaaaaAAASSS, BITCH! TEAR IT DOWN WITH KINDNESS.

- Momiji meowing to get attention is so embarrassingly me, I can’t haha

The pettiness. I live for petty Yuki! I’m so glad we’re getting more of this side of him. But also, I love that he kinda acknowledged that Kyo obviously is in adoration of Tohru but that isn’t gonna stop him from setting some jabs directed towards Kyo 🤣

What a pretty ending to an emotional rollercoaster of a chapter :)

-----------------------------------------

This was a good one! I don’t feel like my emotions and thoughts towards Akito are defined yet and I feel like I might have more questions than I ever did 10 years ago but I’m excited! 

Also, a bit of food for thought... how would you guys feel about a live action Fruits Basket? Out of all of the anime I watch, I feel like this would be the most easy to adapt and the most exciting to see whom would be cast as who so I’m for it!

See you next week!!

[tardisman14]

Enchanting: Chapter 3: A Night to Remember

A novelized version of Enchanting Grom Fright, told from Amity’s pov. A look into what was going through her mind in that episode, with snippets of happenings in-between scenes. Told in 4 parts (3 main chapters, plus the prologue), rated to be safe, and obviously Lumity.

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Bits of final scene and flashback inspired by this tweet (12/28/20 update: screencap because Dana deactivated her Twitter) and this image which was cut from the episode for time

That wasn’t Eda. It appeared to be some kind of human. In fact, Amity could’ve sworn they looked quite a bit like… Luz.

Amity saw Luz start to back up nervously. Was this one of her relatives? What was going on? With all these questions going through Amity’s head, she suddenly heard Grom’s form shout something from the arena.

“...have you been lying to me?!”

All of a sudden, Grom turned into a more monstrous form of whoever this was supposed to be. Lying? What could Luz have been lying about? Could it really be so bad that she couldn’t bring it up during the training session? This was bad. If Amity was reading the look on Luz’s face right, she wouldn’t last much longer.

And she was proven right. Amity saw Luz make a break for the door. And… Oh no. Grom was escaping! All around her, everyone started piling out of the bleachers and went right for the hallway. But Amity was so in shock over what just happened, she was frozen in place.

“Hey, kid! You in there?”

Amity was snapped out of it by Eda, now standing in front of her.

“Come on!”

Amity and Eda started following the others already in the hallway.

“Yeah, that's right, so let's follow them and see what happens next.”

Apparently King and Gus were leading the others to see the rest of the battle. Amity and Eda were still a bit behind, but with one look at each other, they both had the same thought. They had to help Luz, and fast.

Once they made it outside Eda summoned her staff.

“I’m gonna follow them from the air. Try not to fall behind.”

With that, the Owl Lady took to the sky while Amity followed from the ground. Judging by Eda’s current direction, Amity figured that Luz and Grom must’ve been headed for the woods.

As Amity ran towards that direction, her mind was racing. This was all her fault. She LET Luz get involved because she was too scared to face her fear. She KNEW Eda was right about Luz getting in over her head, and she went forward with it anyway. And now because of her, Luz was in danger. All because she couldn’t face the possibility of Luz not reciprocating any feelings she STILL didn’t know whether or not even exist!

Amity had to make this right. She just HAD to.

She made it to the woods, but lost sight of Eda. Just then, she heard some kind of blast and figured that Eda had caught up to them. She went towards the source, and came across the other students and Principal Bump gathered behind some bushes. She went to see what they were looking at and saw Luz, Eda, and Grom several yards in front of them.

Whatever thoughts might have been going through Amity’s mind at that moment, her body started acting on instinct. And right now, it was telling her to protect Luz, no matter how dangerous it might be.

Deciding to act, Amity lept out from behind the treeline and rushed to put herself between Luz and Grom.

“Stay away from her!”

Just then, Grom reached out and grabbed a hold of her. Amity knew what was coming next.

“I'm sorry, Luz. I should have fought my own battle. I-”

Right then, Amity could feel Grom going through her head, searching for what it was that she feared the most. She could barely hear Luz calling out to her. And then, Grom had found what it was looking for.

Amity had felt Grom set her down. When she came to, she had seen that it had transformed into some kind of humanoid form, roughly around age if she had to guess. It reached into her pocket, took out the note, ripped it in half, and crumpled it right in front of her.

And with that, Amity had her answer. And it hurt even worse than she could have imagined. It didn’t matter how vague Grom’s form was. Deep down, she knew exactly who it was supposed to be. And while she knew it wasn’t the real them, she could still feel her heart shatter into a million pieces in that moment.

As Amity picked up half of the crumpled note, she saw Luz run over and pick up the other half. Well, looks like the secret was about to get out.

“You were afraid of getting rejected.”

And when Amity looked up at Luz, she could see her start to… smile?

“Amity, it's okay. What if I went to Grom with you instead?”

Had Luz not seen the half that had her name on it? Whatever the case, Amity started to feel as a weight was being lifted off of her.

“Really?”

“That’s what friends do.”

In all that time Amity had spent that day worrying about the idea of her now-confirmed crush turning her down, she had forgotten about one of things that she admired about Luz the most. Her kindness. All those times. At the covention, the library, fixing Willow’s memories. It was always Luz trying to reach out to her. There was no way she could see Luz deliberately hurting her like that.

With her worries eased, Amity felt a renewed sense of determination flow through her. There was a shapeshifting fear monster that needed to be dealt with. She knew that Luz would be by her side to face it together. And given the occasion, there was only one way she could think of at that moment.

“Well, then, if that's settled, may I have this dance?”

It was now Amity’s turn to reach out to Luz. And Luz seemed more than happy to accept. They joined together, and it was as if something had clicked in that moment.

The two began their dance, taking one step after another. Throughout it all, the two were in perfect sync, never missing a beat. It was like neither one needed to tell the other what to do next. Amity used the routine to cast a spell circle with her feet, rising her and Luz atop a giant abomination. They continued from there, with Luz placing her glyphs on the abomination before they leapt off, sending the abomination into Grom itself. At that moment, the glyphs start to take effect, causing various plants to bloom from Grom’s body. Finally, the two land, finishing off their routine in a flourish as Grom explodes behind them.

In Grom’s place, a tree stood before them. The two look in awe as tiaras appear on each of their heads. They look at each other and smile as, for the first time that night, all felt right.

“Sooooooo.... who did you wanna ask out?”

“Oh, it’s… not important.”

Amity tossed her half of the note aside. As amazing as that moment was, she still didn’t feel like she was ready to tell Luz. Not yet, anyway.

“And there you have it, folks. A happy ending for this year's Grom. Let's give a big hand to our Grom queens, Luz and Amity!”

Well, Amity was certainly caught off guard. She had been so caught up in the moment that she had forgotten there was anyone there besides her and Luz. Right then, the rest of the students and Principal Bump came out from behind the bushes and started cheering the two queens. As the two were lifted up by the crowd and started to make their way back to Hexside, Amity felt on top of the world.

---

Hexside gymnasium,

Not much later

Now that Grom had been taken care of, the rest of the evening went a lot smoother. More students had been dancing than before the main event. The photo line was even longer than before. Everything was going great.

...And then, there was Amity just standing off to the side.

“Hey, kid. Why the party-of-one?”

Amity looked to her side and saw Eda standing next to her.

“*SIGH* I know I should be thrilled that Grom was defeated. But… you were right. Luz got in over her head trying to help me, and she almost got hurt because of it. I should’ve done more to keep her from doing it, but I was too scared to face my own fear to do anything about it.”

There was a few seconds of silence before Eda spoke up.

“Look, don’t be too hard on yourself. Fear can be a powerful thing. Even for most powerful witches, having to face your worst fears can be intense. The importanting thing is that when the time came, you stepped up and were willing to face yours so that Luz would be safe. The way I see it, it all worked out in the end, didn’t it?”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“Also, speaking from personal experience these last few weeks, it gets harder and harder to say no to Luz when she offers to help. The kid’s just more endearing that way.”

“Heh, yeah.”

Amity would admit, trying to turn down Luz’s help was getting difficult for her at this point.

“Plus, I won’t lie. You two look rather cute together.”

...WHAT?

“Uh- W-well I mean, I g-guess it WAS a rather impressive dance routine, and I suppose Luz’s outfit COULD’VE been way more unusual than what it already was. But, um… Is it me, or is the room getting smaller?”

“Kid, you can save it. I’ve seen the way you’ve been looking at her all night. I’ve seen it plenty of times before with many different people.”

“...Oh.”

So it was that obvious.

“Listen, I’m not gonna tell her if you don’t want me to. That’s your business, so it’s up to you to decide when you’re ready.”

Huh. That’s actually pretty cool of her.

“Although, I will say this. You can’t wait for the right moment forever. ...But for now, I’d say enjoy tonight. Have fun with your co-Grom queen”

At that moment, Eda looked behind Amity.

“Speaking of which…”

“Get in here, Blight!”

Amity felt Luz yank her towards where the photos were being taken. She was so caught off guard, she could feel herself blushing. Right then the photographer spoke up.

“Say ‘Grom Fright!’”

“‘Grom Fright!’”

Amity realized that there were two other voices there that weren’t her or Luz. After the photo was taken, she turned to see that Willow and Gus had managed to get in as well. 

Maybe Eda was right. The worst part of the night was over with. Amity should be having fun with her friends. If Luz could be enjoying herself after everything that happened, then so could she.

---

Blight Manor,

Later that night

The walk home that night had been surprisingly quiet. While Amity may have had a lot on her mind then, it was rather jarring to not hear a word from the twins. Although, given what she had heard, she couldn’t really blame them. Apparently their dates had stood them up. While they could be annoying a good amount of the time, she couldn’t help but feel a little bad for them. She was just glad that HER night hadn’t been as bad as she feared it would be.

As Amity made it to her room for the night, she decided to reflect on the evening. The night had certainly been eventful. Not just for her, but also Luz, if that one conversation was anything to go by.

*flashback*

“You really think Willow and Gus will be able to convince Bump to let you back into the dance?”

“We’ll see. Looks like I at least found one thing magic school and mortal school have in common. Otter suits are a ‘no’ at dances.”

“Yeah… Sorry you got kicked out because of it.”

“Eh. I at least got a picture in with it, AND I lasted longer than my last school dance. I still consider this a win.”

“Well, I guess that’s one way to look at it. So, just in case they can’t convince Bump, you want me to stay here until Eda’s done chaperoning?”

“I’d like that,”

There were a few moments of silence. Then, Amity figured this would be a good time to ask about something that had been on her mind since the fight against Grom.

“Hey, there’s something I wanted to ask about. But, you don’t have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable.”

“Well… I guess it depends on what it is.”

“That last form Grom took when you were going up against it. It wasn’t anything you had brought up while we were training. And from what I saw, you weren’t expecting it either.”

Luz looked uneasy for a moment. Did Amity cross a line? After a bit, Luz gave an answer.

“That last form that Grom took… That was my mom.”

“Your mom? Did something happen between you two? All I was able to hear from where I had been sitting in the stands was something about lying. What did she mean?”

“*SIGH* You know how I can be a bit of a weirdo at times?”

“Um… yeeeeeessss?”

While Amity didn’t like saying it after how close they had gotten, if Luz wanted the truth, she supposed it was only fair to tell her.

“Well, back home, it was starting to become a problem. My mom had decided to send me to a summer camp to help straighten out my eccentric tendencies. While I was waiting for the bus, Eda’s palisman, Owbert, got a hold of one of my Azura books. So I chased him to this old house, which actually turned out to be a portal to the Boiling Isles that Eda had been using.

Eda agreed to send me back if I helped her and King with something. After I helped her, she held up her end of the deal. ...But I decided I wanted to spend some time in the Isles so that she could teach me magic. And the rest is history.

While I’ve still been able to keep in touch with my mom through my phone, I still haven’t told her where I am or what I’ve been up to these last several weeks. I feel bad about having to lie to her, and I know I’ll have to tell her eventually. But, I still don’t know how, when, or even IF I’ll be able to tell her.”

To say Amity was surprised would be an understatement. To think that Luz has been having to deal with this for weeks… No wonder she looked so freaked out when Grom took that form.

“...Wow. I had no idea.”

“Yeah. I know I should have brought it up during training so I could’ve been better prepared. But, I guess I thought that I could distract myself from one big fear with another. Guess we both know how well that turned out.”

It was then that Amity remembered what Eda had said to her earlier.

“Well, as someone rather wise told me, you can’t wait for the right moment forever. Maybe at least start with trying to open up to her a bit more.”

“...yeah, maybe you’re right. Thanks Amity. I felt good to talk about this with someone other than King.”

“Did he have any advice?”

“Well… sort of. But, I think yours was more helpful.”

“Anytime.”

*end flashback*

It really put things into perspective for Amity. If she had been having a difficult time trying to tell Luz how she feels, she imagined that Luz was feeling even worse. She hoped that Luz would be able to work it out somehow.

As she took off her tiara and placed it in her hope chest, Eda’s words ran through her head once more. ‘You can’t wait for the right moment forever.’ Amity knew that at some point, Luz was going to have to leave the Boiling Isles and go back to her realm. She didn’t know when, but she knew that it was certain. How will she know if she’ll be ready by the time that happens? It looked like all she could do for now was make the most of her time with Luz and hope for the best.

But, Amity would choose to worry about it tomorrow. For now, it had been a long night, and she needed to get some rest. As she got ready for bed, she thought about everything that night had been. Intense, nerve-wracking, and scary for sure. But most of all, that night had been… enchanting.

[makeste]

how do you feel about the anime changing things from the manga? like cutting off scenes or things like that?

it honestly does not bother me that much. for me, I always have to remind myself that the anime is an adaptation, and that no adaptation is perfect. Bones is a really good studio overall, easily one of my favorites, and I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. sometimes they’ll have to change things around for budget or staffing or deadline reasons, or sometimes simply because animation is a different format and things don’t always translate exactly the same. the characters don’t always look exactly like they do in the manga because they’re being animated by lots of different people, and those people have to draw the characters a certain way so that everyone is on the same page and the style of the animation looks uniform. screencaps don’t always look exactly like the manga because the characters have to blink, open and close their mouths, and actually move around, etc. and it all has to look natural. content is sometimes added or removed or altered or moved around because the episode lengths are different than the chapter lengths, and the writers have to play around to try and fit all of the stuff they’re adapting into a particular episode while still making sure each episode has a starting and ending point that feels natural, and fits into the time slot they have been allotted.

I think they do their best to try to get the original flavor across, and I think that 95% of the time they do a good enough job that when they don’t, it stands out that much more. I don’t think there are any conspiracies going on in terms of what they add or cut either lol. but pretty much everyone who reads the manga can name at least one thing that they really wish was adapted differently, and that’s just how it goes. for me the moments I missed the most in season 4 were (1) the panel from chapter 167 with All Might looking at Bakugou looking at Todoroki at the end of their baby-sitting adventure/Endeavor encounter (I just really like the little one-two combo of Dadmight and subtle TodoBaku friendship), and (2) the part where we see the teachers watching Endeavor’s fight on TV, and Aizawa asks Eri to go play in her room, and then tells the other teachers he’s going to find Shouto. I missed seeing those onscreen for sure. and I know that if you’re really fond of a particular scene, that to be anticipating that and then not getting to see it, and knowing that was probably the only chance and that if it wasn’t animated here it probably won’t ever be -- that really sucks. I’m fortunate in that there haven’t really been any missing scenes that for me went past the minor inconvenience level of “ah well, that’s a shame.”

but I get why it happens, and overall I still think it’s an outstanding adaptation. and for me it’s more like watching a live action film based on a book I’ve read. I know it’s not gonna be exactly the same, and people who didn’t read the book will unfortunately miss out on some nuances unless they decide to pick it up. but for me, I already had the book, which is my canon, and it’s just a nice little thing to watch your favorite scenes be brought to life, even if it’s not all of the scenes, and even if it’s not perfect. so that’s how I try to see it.

you may be right about this! I can’t really weigh in myself, though; aside from my favorite dozen or so episodes, I’ve watched the majority of the anime only once all the way through. and my memory isn’t all that great, especially for season 4, where the manga was my only reference for long enough that my lasting impression of the arc is still manga-based. (not sure if that sentence made any sense, but basically I can picture the manga Ryuukyuu transformation in my mind’s eye much more clearly than the anime version, is what I’m saying.)

but it definitely wouldn’t surprise me if this was the case. particularly when you’re working with multiple different directors for something, as opposed to only one “director” so to speak in the manga version, you’re more likely to wind up with at least a few directors who are a bit more “fuck yeah boobs” than the others. that’s assuming it’s not the studio itself that’s directing them to do it to boost their sex appeal. anyway but yeah, so this is another reason why for me personally, the anime isn’t quite canon in the same way that the manga is. at least with the manga I know who’s at the reins (and that same guy has a tendency to overexplain himself in interviews and omakes, so we get that little bit of extra insight as well, which is nice).

[natsspammityspamspamham]

Dino Watches Anime (Jan 13)

With the snow outside and cancellations everywhere, I have more time to kick back, relax, and not do anything. Seriously, playing out in the snow and being an absolute bum is my specialty.

Dropped

Darwin's Game 

It just seemed like Mirai Nikki but updated to smartphones instead of flip phones and with a new interface and system. Seriously, it’s like someone watched Mirai Nikki and went “I can remake this and rake in the money”. The animation wasn’t good (according to our local sakuga geek, there were less than 10 animators who worked on the 40 min premiere because of the inhumane conditions of the studio which adds to the yikes), the soundtrack was great (but I won’t watch a show just for the soundtrack/seiyuu cast), and overall, I felt like I didn’t want to put myself through a show like this.

Uta no Prince-sama

I couldn’t do it fam. I watched two episodes and nearly cried on the inside because it felt like Kiniro no Corda but with a new bland face with new bland characters. I never watched either of these fully. I tried to watch just for the seiyuu (*ahem* Miyuki Sawashiro), but imagine having your life hobbies made into an absolute joke by a character who can’t even read music and is in the composition department while her main song of choice is “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and the ikemen around her and swooning over it and writing their own songs for her. The guys all have the same faces too! They’re triangle heads that can only be differentiated by colour palette. I’m telling the difference based on voices at this point. I don’t want the ikemen, but I would like people to be into my music too ya know! You may think that I’m dropping this anime purely out of spite for the story and characters, and you’re damn right I am. 

Seasonal Stuff

Pet

This is this close to being dropped, and I don’t mean for the strong BL vibes. It’s a little cringy but not that bad (I’ve watched a lot of cringe straight romance and to me it’s all the same). It just feels so poorly constructed right now. The universe just hangs by a thread with characters I feel ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for. Everything in this anime feels so cheap. I’m giving this one more week before I give it the axe.

Rikei ga Koi ni Ochita no de Shoumei shitemita 

Okay, this anime is stupid, but we all went in knowing it was going to be very stupid. You’ve seen the screencaps. You’ve seen the cliches. Now get ready to have a pretentious science spin on it as if you haven’t seen these scenes a million times before elsewhere, and the characters (at least one of them) know it. The art... it’s present. I mean, character designs are giving the guys of Reddit what they want (especially with Sora Amamiya being really popular and singing the OP along with voicing the main character). Yuuma Uchida is also there. Nothing really worth noting here except “stay in school kids so you can become a pretentious science kid with no people skills!”

Dorohedoro

I might just watch this anime in place of “Pet” because this anime has a much brighter outlook and despite being CG genuinely looks better anyway. It’s the horror that I wanted to fill the void with (since Pet genuinely isn’t scary or innovative). Everything was pretty good with the first episode! I’m looking forward to seeing more!

From here on out, the rest of the seasonal list are the ones I look forward to the most! Get that head lizardman!

Runway de Waratte 

At first, this doesn’t seem like something that would come out of Shonen Weekly, but it inspires a good message about being who you want to be even with limitations if front of you. You have a girl too short to be considered a model and a guy who designs fashion without having the money to pursue it further. I know nothing about style, but I do know things about being short! Maybe that’s why I have such a soft spot for it...

ID:Invaded

This anime gets more interesting as we go along. I’m all into murder mysteries and things like that, and with the sci-fi mixed it, I checked to make sure I was up-to-date with this one. Each episode gives a new mystery with more details outline our jaded and imprisoned detective’s motives and backstory. I wasn’t sold on the character designs at first, but once you get over that hurdle, it’s all good. I like the psychological aspects of it too!

Kyokou Suiri 

Ever wish you had a female protagonist who was upfront about her romantic motives? Ever wanted to watch a show involving youkai? Here’s the show for you! Plus, her character design is so cute. Mamo sang the ED for this anime too. The animation is great, the story looks amazing (read ahead a few chapters in the manga), and this is one of my most highest anticipated anime for the season!

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun

Here’s one of my favourite pilot episodes! This anime left such a strong impression on me that I went straight to my non-otaku friends going, “You’ve gotta see this guys”. The art style is consistent with the manga, and according to the not-so-quiet manga readers, we’re in for a really good anime. 

All the characters in this anime are also adorable and really simple-minded on the surface. Hanako-kun being a boy is a really funny twist on the local urban legend (I’m one of those kids who never dared to say “Bloody Mary” in the washroom so what can I say?)

Recently Completed

Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken

Remember Aku no Hana? This is what happens when rotoscoping has a bit more budget. This anime was slow, a little cringy, but it felt really real. The voices felt real, the characters felt real, and the story felt... mostly real. I don’t regret watching this movie art style and all because I think it captures a bit of the exaggerations of being a teenager (rumours blow up like balloons)

Sennen Joyuu

Satoshi Kon really has a certain way of telling stories. I’ve watched Perfect Blue, Paranoia Agent, and Tokyo Godfathers, and while this didn’t have as strong of a punch as the latter, this film was still strong. It shows a story of a young maiden’s resilience, perseverance, and undying love... all things I can’t relate to... but it was good!

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

This show was a trip. You thought it was a fanservice anime until things got really heavy. This anime was funny, it made me feel things with the themes it took on, and it made me remember that the best girl doesn’t always have to win to be a good anime. The art was cute and sweet, the voice acting was so fricking funny (according to the cast, the improv wasn’t always included but the ones that were left along with the dialogue were pure gold), and the story was exceptional for an anime which seemed to have no base whatsoever. And plus, this had something a lot of anime don’t... A CONCLUSIVE ENDING. Give this anime a watch if you haven’t. It’s melodramatic comedic romantic teen drama at its finest.

Orange

Speaking of melodramatic romantic teen dramas, here’s another one that fits that bill! Minus the comedy, more suicide, and far less cohesive plot. Imagine throwing letters into the Bermuda Triangle and having your 16-year-old selves really reading those letters. I was wondering how they were going to explain sending their letters to the past, but they should’ve come up with better BS than that. Aside from really bad plot holes, this anime was alright. It was slow... really slow. I finished this whole 13 episodes plus the movie in about 2.5 hours after trimming the slow recaps. 

The art was alright. The story was slow, but near the end (excluding the last episode and the movie) it got really heavy. It hit close to home. I struggled with suicide for years, and I felt what this character felt. Certain lines of that dialogue just hit hard. It was depicted in a way that didn’t feel as romanticized. He wasn’t saved by just one person, his trauma didn’t go away just like that, it took a group of friends and planning to help him realize that there was more to life then just regrets.

Would I recommend this? I mean, it was recommended to me, but I’m not forcing this anime on anyone... not because of the themes but because it was darn boring and cliche 70% of the time.

Still Watching

Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha

Same things apply as previous entries

Hunter x Hunter (2011)

My brother expected me to finish this a while ago but I put it on the back-burner because the number of episodes seemed daunting. Everything else is good though.

Sousei no Onmyouji

I only watched the first episode.

Boku no Hero Academia Season Four

Same things apply as previous entries. It seems like the Overhaul arc will end in the next episode or two (depending on how much they milk this).

Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu

Groundhog Day but isekai. Seriously, this is a pretty big staple in terms of big isekai. Everyone’s fighting over who’s the best girl meanwhile Subaru is trying his best not to die every five minutes. Seriously, Subaru is a champ and what I’d want out of a Mary Sue isekai protagonist. Get em Subaru. Prove to me you’re not a car.

This will be me for the next few days because it’s getting colder where I am so watch me slip on the ice and die!

[autumnstwilight]

Dawn of the Future (Ardyn)- Initial Thoughts

Okay, so I got my copy of the Dawn of the Future novel today and I managed to get through Ardyn’s section (up to about page 100). I might write a better summary later but here are some thoughts (spoilers under read more):

-Okay so it basically is the same story as the Prologue anime and Episode itself (with a couple of differences I’ll get to in a minute), but more fleshed out and explained. -Somnus in particular has a better characterization, with an argument between him and Ardyn being included, and he actually makes some reasonable points. -That being, the Starscourge is spreading way, way faster than Ardyn can heal it and Ardyn is refusing to acknowledge that reality, refusing to say anything other than idealistic words about the infected, including the actual daemons that are attacking people, just being “sick” and “innocents” and that “even saving one more person” is worth it. -Somnus believes that what Ardyn is doing is essentially choosing who lives and dies, ignoring the reality of what happened to the many people who succumbed to the Scourge while he was off healing that “even one more person”. He thinks that someone who was chosen and blessed like Ardyn doesn’t think of the unchosen. He also thinks that Ardyn’s refusal to see things that he doesn’t want to is... not a good trait for a king to have. -(He’s still a dick who is motivated by jealousy and and sends soldiers after Ardyn, deceives and kills Aera, then erases Ardyn from history, but now he’s a nuanced dick.) -Ardyn muses that his gift from the Gods is a body that can absorb the Scourge and withstand much higher levels of infection than a regular person, but that he has no way of getting rid of the Scourge he’s absorbed and it’s gradually taking a toll. It takes until after he’s chained up in Angelgard to admit to himself that he would have eventually become a mindless daemon if he’d kept doing it. -There’s also a bit where he’s comforting himself in Angelgard by imagining Aera and wondering what would have happened if they’d run away together, then realizes it’s been hundreds of years and he’s immortal and he would have watched her die by now anyway. (FEELS). -He’s entirely aware that “Aera” and “Somnus” are creations of his own mind, and is thus utterly furious that Somnus keeps popping into his head no matter how hard he tries not to think about him. Also he realizes that everything horrible thing “Somnus” says is something that his own brain came up with. -He doesn’t seem to need to eat, etc, so the main torture of Angelgard is the insanity-inducing boredom (which is bad, but less horrific than most ppl’s headcanons, I think). The narration states at one point that there are no windows, which is interesting because I thought someone posted Ansel screencaps showing that there was one. -He’s just so done with everything when Verstael breaks him out. Also so confused. After seven months, he knows what the intercom is but is still uncomfortable with boxes speaking to him. Doesn’t like modern clothes. Apparently he focuses on the bread because it’s the only thing on the table that looks like “food” to him (but he doesn’t actually need or want to eat). -He finds the experiments and questions annoying and even thinks at one point that at least in Angelgard no one was bothering him. (if anyone finds that tweet where Ardyn’s reaction to meeting Verstael is “put me back” congratulate them for being right). -Though he has a lot of suppressed rage and hatred, he keeps telling himself there’s no point in revenge since Somnus is long dead. He does actually resent Lucis but thinks it’s none of Verstael’s goddamn business, basically. -He learns the Astral language from Ifrit’s memories (which is why he can understand Ifrit’s dialogue after the fight). He also gets further, hazier memories from the Crystal, which acts as a conduit for the sleeping gods to observe the world. Through this, he is able to see Aera’s vision of him as Chosen King. -He knows the Lucian soldiers are not literally Somnus, but he can’t stop seeing and hearing them as Somnus and flies into a blind rage. Through a combination of seeing the real prophecy, Verstael egging him on, and coming to see all Lucians as Somnus’ blood, Somnus’ children, he finally snaps and goes for revenge. -The attack on Insomnia doesn’t have anything particularly notable compared to the in-game version, but it does make it explicit that he was disguised the whole time. Also he knows his way around the city and recognizes important people (eg. Regis) from the memories of soldiers he’s eaten. No mention of hats in the book :C -Even Ardyn is not sure exactly what happened, but the book seems to imply the Gods chose him, but the Crystal, not having a mind of its own, reflexively hurled him away because of the Scourge in his body. -Then again given Bahamut’s speech at the end, it could be argued that the Gods “chose him as king” precisely because they knew that would happen- they needed a resentful Accursed to become the embodiment of the Starscourge and fight the Chosen King. -Which brings me to the biggest [RECORD SCRATCH] moment for me... in the book, during the scene with Bahamut, it’s revealed that Ardyn isn’t immortal because of the Scourge. He’s immortal because when he touched the Crystal it absorbed his soul into the 対のなす世界... “the beyond”, “the other side”... a realm connected to Eos by the Crystal that cannot be entered in physical form. Anyway, it’s the place where Noctis goes at the end of the game to annihilate Ardyn’s soul, which has apparently been there since he touched the Crystal 2,000 years ago. What. What. -(that seems like an unnecessary complication of the lore here and I’m not sure what it achieves but I’ll try to reserve final judgement until I read the rest of the book). -Also everything during the conversation with Bahamut is effectively an illusion created by Bahamut, which he uses to cause Ardyn more physical pain than it’s actually possible to feel (while fake!Aera stabs him). Bahamut is definitely being set up as a villain here. -(I forget since I only played Episode Ardyn once, but did he say he was going to kill the Gods in that? Cause he says it here, after saying he’s going to kill Noctis etc.) -Anyway, then we have a recap of the timeline between then and the final battle, up to the door of the throne room opening and Ardyn saying, “I’m afraid you’re out of luck,” only to find that it isn’t Noctis entering the room at all, but Lunafreya. (Anyway, for Ardyn’s story I’ll say I really enjoyed the fleshing out of Somnus, and Ardyn’s introspection and thoughts/elaboration about the gods, starscourge, etc. The fight in Insomnia dragged a bit, and I’m not very pleased with a definitely-evil Bahamut because of the implications that has for the original ending... but the idea of Luna coming back to life and marching into the WoR throne room is pretty badass)

[quarterfromcanon]

27-29 for the get to know my favorites game

Hello, lovely! Thank you for these. :) Trios turned out to be a surprising challenge (I apparently have more favorite groups of four than three), but I’m pretty happy with the ones I remembered after giving it some thought. The final picks are under the cut! <3

Top 5 BROTPs

1. Paula Proctor & Rebecca Bunch (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) - Naturally, this was the immediate choice that sprang to mind. It’s the first relationship on the show I really fell in love with, and it’s the one friendship in the series that consistently tugs on my heartstrings. It’s flawed, complicated, and messy but the genuine connection underneath it all is strong enough that I’m hopeful they can work through their problems. I would’ve preferred to see more emphasis on that effort in the fourth season (and a lot more work on Rebecca’s friendships with Heather and Valencia as well), but I want to believe things improved between them after the finale. 

2. Steve Harrington & Robin Buckley (Stranger Things) - The general public opinion of Steve Harrington has been on such a journey since Season 1, bringing him now to a status of common fan favorite. As such, I think a delicate balance needed to be struck in finding a suitable match to team up with him on adventures. This person needed to:

A) Have good chemistry in their interactions with Steve

B) Bring a new dynamic to the table that he didn’t already have with an existing connection 

and most importantly 

C) Be a unique and engaging character that the audience would care about individually, so they didn’t get lost in simply being an offshoot of Steve’s story. They couldn’t be relegated to perpetual sidekick with little else to define them.

As far as I’m concerned, Robin Buckley fits the bill on every account. She’s artistic, resilient, loyal, and - especially endearing to me - a movie buff. She has a quick wit, a sharp mind, and a big heart. Being friends with Robin helps Steve take the specter of his high school self less seriously so he can put it behind him, and she helps him more fully embrace the person he’s becoming in the wake of that lost status. Having Steve for a friend helps Robin resolve some lingering emotional scars from school as well. It gives her an opportunity to share her authentic self with a peer and - to her relief and ours - find acceptance after revealing a pretty important secret. I can’t wait to watch the two of them be adorably nerdy and goofy bros at Family Video in Season 4, presumably with some daring fights against dark forces when they’re off the clock. Does saying I hope Kali comes to Hawkins somehow and bonds with one or both of them mean I can speak that into existence? I’m doing that now. It’s worth a try. If it happens in some capacity when the time comes, know that I will throw a One Blogger Party of epic proportions. 

3. Wynonna Earp & Nicole Haught (Wynonna Earp) - I had to use this specific screencap because it perfectly encapsulates the chaotic energy that makes me loves these two together so much. Their separate approaches to their shared work environment are at pretty much polar opposite ends of the spectrum, but they make a pretty solid team when they play to each other’s strengths and communicate. They also both love Waverly most of all, so it feels like they were bound to work out their differences eventually since neither would want to make her feel torn between her sister and her girlfriend. The hijinks they get up to in each other’s company are just top shelf. I look forward to at least a little bit of fun like that from every season. If I wind up having a lasting partner later on down the road, it’d be cool if their personality balanced well with my sister’s on this level. I’d also be really happy if I ultimately gelled with her person in a way that sounded unlikely at first but worked. Fingers crossed for both outcomes, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

4. Emily Thorne [Amanda Clarke] & Nolan Ross (Revenge) - I have two things to quickly clarify for those who are unfamiliar with this show.

#1 She has two listed names because she was born Amanda Clarke but goes by Emily Thorne for most of the series to hide her true identity. 

#2 Despite the impression this picture may give, Nolan is not marrying Emily; he is simply walking her down the aisle. 

These two are there for each other through so much - the looming threat of discovery, jail time, capture, near death experiences, heartbreak, the passing of loved ones, etc. - and they make it to the other side with a deep bond the likes of which they’ll never experience with another person. It is at times heavily one-sided because of how much drama Emily deliberately dives into, but it’s something that she tries to make up for during her more self-aware and less self-involved times. There’s genuine love and mutual respect there by the finale and it’s really gratifying to witness the journey they’ve taken together. 

[~Slightly spoiler-y closing statement after these brackets~] I was pretty sure I knew where the show was going with romantic ships by the end. I knew for certain it wasn’t my personal OTP for her because they’d already killed that person off quite some time ago. There was a part of me that could’ve found some contentment in leaving the story with these two as a couple. After all, one of my favorite ship dynamics is Reluctant Acquaintances to Best Friends to Lovers, but it was not to be. That being said, the platonic friendship they shared was a big part of the heart of the show and I cherish it for that. Nolan was a rare exception for Emily, a genuine bond formed in the years when she was tried to operate like her heart was made of stone. I also think working with Emily gave Nolan a sense of purpose and let him flourish in his area of expertise. I’m not sure how either of them would feel about the musical reference but, to slightly paraphrase from Wicked: because they knew each other, they have been changed for good.

5. Penelope Stamp & Bang Bang (The Brothers Bloom) - I have seen Rachel Weisz and Rinko Kikuchi in more roles since this movie than I had prior to watching it for the first time so, if anything, my fangirling over this friendship has gotten worse rather than more manageable. x) This post classified the film under the subgenre whimsical noir. It turns out that’s a style I instantly adore every time I stumble upon it. One of the titular brothers, Stephen, lives so deeply immersed in the variations of the world he writes for their heists that even those closest to him are essentially characters he can interact with on a daily basis. His feelings for them as people can get very muddled with his feelings for them as interesting OCs to move through narratives. A big trouble with this is that his living archetypes can often get reduced to clichés. He’s not always mindful of their nuances or allowing for the full range of their autonomy. Penelope is selected by Stephen to serve as the “manic pixie dream girl” who will be his brother Bloom’s forever love and Bang Bang is essentially presented as a “dragon lady” stereotype. I haven’t done a rewatch in years so I may be giving the movie too much credit here, but I remember this choice feeling at least semi-deliberate. It could be interpreted as a way to illustrate how Stephen warps real life to fit his vision. At least, I can definitely remember scenes that felt like they debunked the one-note assessments of these two. What I genuinely love, though, are the little moments when Penelope and Bang Bang are able to just spend time together with little to no interference from Stephen or Bloom. They share their hobbies and teach each other new skills. It feels like they truly perceive one another as whole human beings on a level that neither guy is capable of doing since they’re both so immersed in the drama of the plot. When the women are with each other, they get to be more than an extension of the men who maneuver them; they get to be themselves. Penelope is the only one Bang Bang clearly wants to maintain contact with once the heist is finished. I think that says a lot. Honestly, this is another BROTP that could slide to OTP. If someone wrote fic of them completely severing ties with the brothers and going off on their own - romantically or platonically - I wouldn’t be upset at all. 

Top 5 Trios

1. Luke, Leia, & Han (Star Wars Episodes IV - VI) - Oh dear, I’m overwhelmed just looking at a picture of them together. Star Wars has been a part of my life since childhood. Getting to watch the original trilogy felt like a rite of passage (when I was really little, Mom used to find things for us to do outside the room while Dad watched because she was afraid some of it might scare me). Princess Leia resounded with me on a level that almost no other fictional royalty has ever quite matched. Han’s wardrobe is still some serious #aestheticgoals and I would 100% wear replicas of his jackets and vests if I had them. I also remember thinking that Luke’s new look in Return of the Jedi was SO COOL with the all-black wardrobe and green lightsaber. Wow, imagine that, an edgy costume change that shared vibes with the common Disney villain color palette called to me as a baby fan of antagonists and antiheroes! Who ever could have foreseen that sudden spike in appreciation? :P Anyway, one of my lingering sorrows about the more recent trilogy is that we never got to see all three of them as aged adults in each other’s company. I still wanted our new cast to get their time to shine, of course, but I do lament the absence of at least one little trio reunion.

2. Luna, Neville, & Ginny (Harry Potter series) - The Silver Trio, pictured here with the first set of three that comes to mind when thinking about the books and movies. I do still love Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but I’ve found a growing appreciation for this other team-up over the years. They’ve been through a lot too, even if they are not always present where the main action is. Bullying, loss of parents, manipulation of the mind and body, abuse at the hands of authority figures - they’re all left with internal (and probably external) scars to bear. There’s also something to be said for how strong they all were in the school year set during Deathly Hallows, when the Golden Trio wasn’t around to inspire and unite those who wanted to stand up to ever-increasing tyranny. It can be easy, unfortunately, for them to get written off based on the oversimplified stereotypes that have gotten associated with them. People remember Luna as being weird and spacey, Neville as awkward and hapless, and Ginny as bland and lovestruck. They’re all far more nuanced than that, and they accomplish great things while fighting for and beside their friends. I’m planning on doing a re-read of the books at some point, and I really look forward to revisiting these brave kids.

3. Irma, Marion, & Miranda (Picnic at Hanging Rock) - Ah, yes, my very recently discovered darlings. I have many thoughts about them all. I’ll try to keep this as condensed as I can while still making sense. Some spoilers will follow, although those won’t answer every question the story poses. There are audience members who ship the above characters as a throuple, which I totally get, but for me it’s like soulmates of a different kind. These three have met at a point in their lives when they all burn with compatible intensity. They long for the same dream version of youth, for a way to begin life free from the confines of a world that won’t accept all their hearts contain. While the people that surround them may not be willing to bend the rules, nature itself appears to show them mercy. How often do we see a story of girls who just... love other women so much that a sacred location goes, “Y’know what? I’m gonna help you escape your restrictive society. Permanently.” This miniseries definitely depicts the setting as being involved in messing with the investigation, as a mystical place that befuddles unwanted intruders. I love the way these three fortify each other in times of pain and fear, and there’s something deeply moving about how standing side-by-side helps them defy the odds.

4. Sarah, Alison, & Cosima (Orphan Black) - Okay so, technically, when I picture our core team in this show, the net is a little wider. My mind tends to also include Felix, Mrs. S., Kira, Helena, Donnie, Delphine, and Scott. However, I think you could kinda argue that those characters have a stronger connection to one of the above three than they do to the other two. Thus, this ends up being the central triangle. They’re all such solid performances and the fact they’re all played by the same person is incredibly impressive (not to mention the, like, twelve other clones Tatiana brings to life throughout the series). Watching them go from tense strangers to sestras was wonderful. I’m glad they had each other through the increasingly complicated web of lies and schemes they had to unravel and survive. 

5. Galavant, Sid, & Isabella (Galavant) - Remember how James Marsden was in Enchanted? If you dialed down the deliberately cartoonish quality of that performance and allowed for more not-so-G-rated humor, I feel like you’d have a general sense of what Galavant is like as a character. Sid is his squire and Isabella is a princess whose mission happens to combine with Galavant’s, albeit fueled by different driving motivations. They find themselves involved in a lot of shenanigans because of Galavant - even in his own universe, he’s into the whole dashing knight thing more than is strictly necessary - but they make a fun little team to follow through the world of this musical television series. I’ve gotten fuzzy on the details since I watched it air live four years ago, but I remember the series being enough of a summer feel-good time that I’d be game to revisit the show again someday.

Top 5 Family Relationships

1. Stevie Budd & The Roses (Schitt’s Creek) - The whole fish-out-of-water setup for this series was already pretty fun in and of itself, especially given how outlandish their lifestyles evidently were before the show begins. The thing that makes it special, though, is how the absence of all their expensive distractions finally helps them prioritize being a family. The Roses do a lot of work to reconcile who they were with who they find themselves becoming in the present. It’s sweet to see them collectively conclude that growing closer to each other is one of the few things they do not regret in the slightest. They also silently agree to adopt Stevie along the way and, boy, does that give me a lot of Big Feelings, particularly in the later seasons.

2. River Song & The Ponds (Doctor Who) - I think it’s been like seven years or so, give or take, since I watched Doctor Who with any regularity. These three have resurfaced in my mind many times since then. They all love with such fierce and unwavering devotion, spanning lifetimes. It’s fascinating - and often heartbreaking - to learn about the things they’ve experienced and endured. Oh gosh, and once the show reveals how River’s story overlaps with theirs, and you pay attention to how she looks at them, IT HURTS but it’s so engaging to watch. The emotions are all flooding back just remembering them now. Argh, what great characters... </3

3. The Tico Sisters (Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi) - Rose appears in two installments of the third trilogy, but this is the episode that has both Tico daughters. We never get to see them interact onscreen in the film, but I still feel the bond between these sisters so intensely. I found out later that Kelly was present for the filming of Paige’s death scene (which happens so early in the movie that it doesn’t feel like a big spoiler - please forgive me if it is). I’m glad that was something they decided to do behind-the-scenes, because it definitely informs Rose’s grief. She’s sitting in the dark, picturing her big sister’s final moments with such horribly vivid detail that it feels like she was there, and yet she can’t do anything to change how it ends. The shape of the sisters’ necklaces immediately establishes that they were a unit even when acting independently, that they felt like two halves of a whole - all they had left of their family. Now there is only one, and that fact is a weight around Rose’s neck both figuratively and literally. It serves as a visual reminder of how she carries Paige’s absence always, trying to discover and embrace who she is on her own while still honoring the memory of a relative she loved so deeply. I think she reaches the end of Episode VIII feeling like she’s someone of whom her sister would be quite proud. I’m very proud of her, too. 

4. The Tyler Siblings (Wonderfalls) - Jaye is comically different than the rest of her family, and the show establishes that right out the gate when we learn that she’s the only one whose name doesn’t rhyme with the rest (left to right, the others are Karen, Sharon, Darrin, and Aaron, respectively). Her relationships with her parents could certainly lead me off on some analytical tangents but, predictably, it’s the sibling stuff that interests me more. I think it could be said that all three do more living inside their heads than they do out in the world, and that they’ve all grown up to be borderline loners (Ironically Jaye, who is considered the most troubled, is the only one I remember being shown to have formed and maintained a friendship). Aaron’s a very philosophical and analytical person, so you get the sense he talks to himself more than to others, although he still manages to resurface from those deep contemplations so he can goad and tease his sisters from time to time. Sharon is high-strung, competitive, and brings that “disaster lesbian” energy to basically every social interaction she has. Jaye’s standoffishness seems to stem from both the difficulty of fitting in with people and the fear that connections will fall apart once they manage to form at all. They’re all just messes trying to make the best out of the situations they face, and I appreciate that. I also enjoy how prominently the Jaye and Sharon sister bond features throughout the show’s only season. It starts out on pretty rocky ground, but they grow a lot in regard to how willing they are to communicate and express their love for one another. 

5. The Brothers Proctor (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) - The family dynamics in their house are in need of some serious work, without a doubt. I’m just really touched by how close these two have become without Paula’s notice. It’s possible they always were, in that we-fight-but-we-care way that siblings can often be, but the supportive side of that really moves to the forefront as they get older in the series and it warms my heart. There’s such a glaring difference between The Household As Paula Views It and Things That Are Happening While She’s Not Paying Attention. I can’t help using fic as a way to explore that. I happily find excuses for her sons to make pop-in appearances, just to check up on them. I'm so pleased that, as of Season 4, they seem to have become fairly well-adjusted in spite of everything. Oh, and I am still not over the revelation that they attend renaissance festivals together, in character, for fun. What precious cuties who would no doubt dislike me referring to them as such! Paula, please give them an extra hug from me! 

[michelles-garden-of-evil]

Episode 23 Review: In the Not-So-Hidden Temple

{ YouTube: 1 | 2 }

{ Full Synopses/Recaps: Debby Graham | Bryan Gruszka }

{ Screencaps }

CONTENT WARNING FOR MENTION OF SUICIDE TOWARDS THE END OF THE REVIEW

Welcome back to my Garden of Evil, which I have let lay barren for far too long. A few busy weeks of mask-making threw me off my posting schedule last April and I have only just begun to get back into the habit of writing episode reviews. Also, I knew that I would need to do a lot of research for this one, so I kept putting it off while I worked on my essay about Strange Paradise on WKBF. But now I’m ready to return to reviewing this show regularly, and let me tell you that I learned some very interesting things while researching this episode.

But first, a word from Jean Paul Desmond.

Jean Paul: “Erica, my darling, I do know what is right and wrong, and to be with you is all that is right for me. I cannot control either, though, for is it wrong to want you alive again? Is it wrong for me to want to give up my life for yours, if need be? Because the Devil will not have my soul! And, if it means freeing you from the capsule, I will. We will destroy each other so that at least we may share our eternity together.”

Jean Paul is wearing a lovely green shirt that, unfortunately, we will never get to see again after this episode. He has also not yet given up on his habit of stalking, as we see when he spies on Matt Dawson. Matt prays for Erica, then goes to investigate the coffins of Jean Paul’s ancestors while Quito sneaks up behind him. Then he starts talking to the mute servant about how much he wants to leave Maljardin and tries persuading him to sail him back to the main island.

That is when Raxl finds him there and tells him something which I can't make out (see Part 1, 2:54 to 2:59). Debby Graham transcribes part of her line as "he is deaf," but Raxl says more than that. Bryan Gruszka of StrangeParadise.net says nothing on either his synopsis or the corresponding trivia page about Quito being deaf, so it’s possible that he didn’t understand her line either. Still, I'll be damned if I can make out anything with the bad audio. The automated captions don't even transcribe any of it, correctly or not, so I have no idea what the hell she’s saying.

"He may not be able to talk," replies Matt, "but he can hear." You would think that being together with Quito since at least 1689 would be more than enough time for her to figure out whether he is deaf or not, but I guess I'm wrong. Anyway, she decides that, because Matt is a minister, she can safely confide in him about the evil on Maljardin aka THE DEVIL JACQUES ELOI DES MONDES.

Stop trying to distract her, Dan! Go rant about Jean Paul to a hidden camera again!

Meanwhile, Dan is being a patronizing ass to Alison in the lab as she searches for Dr. Menkin’s missing notes. I can’t tell if Dan was intended to be so unlikeable or if their scenes together just haven’t aged well. Either way, they still have no chemistry (unlike her and Jean Paul/Jacques) and I still have no idea what she sees in him.

But enough about them for now. Let’s return to the crypt, where the interesting stuff is happening. There’s a lot to unpack, so I will be going through their dialogue and analyzing the important bits.

Alison (from the previous scene): “You talk of-”

Matt: “-Evil, of danger, but not of how I am to fight them.”

   Raxl: “God--the Christian God--He is good?”    Matt: “He is love, Raxl.”    Raxl: “So you are good.”    Matt: “I am His servant.”    Raxl: "It is not enough to do as the curandero does."    Matt: "Curandero?"    Raxl: "When evil walks, the soul is lost. The curandero--the sorcerer--calls for it to return to the body."

Here Raxl references a type of traditional healer popular throughout Latin America. According to Wikipedia, the rituals of curanderos and curanderas combine traditional medicine from indigenous cultures with religious practices from both Catholicism and traditional African religions. Sound familiar? That’s because modern curanderismo came about because of the same social factors as the religions collectively known as Vodou[1]: namely, colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade, which led to increased interaction between indigenous peoples, African slaves, and European colonists. When the colonists tried to impose Christianity on the people they enslaved (both indigenous and black), many of them responded by combining Christian figures and trappings with their own religious practices in a process known as syncretism. Although curanderismo is not Vodou, both are syncretic traditions with a similar history and a similar association with witchcraft. This is probably why the show makes the connection between them.

Matt: "And is a soul lost in this place, Raxl?" Raxl: "Most easily. It returns [through the hands] or [through the temples]." [She touches those areas of Matt's body.] "These are its holes in the body. When it departs, it goes from them. When it returns...The magic of the curandero is a fervent belief of my people. You understand?" Matt: "Which you no longer believe."

The Reverend appears to assume that, because Raxl is seeking his help, she must no longer believe in the curanderos’‘ magic. Most likely this is because he follows a religion that tends toward exclusivism, the idea that one true religion exists and all others are wrong. Although Matt has already revealed that he does not believe this--he said in Episode 10 that “a minister should have an interest in all spiritual phenomena” and “any path that leads to God should have a minister’s approval”--he might still unconsciously believe that a non-Christian who expresses an interest in God must want to convert.

Raxl: "I believe the Christian God is good." Matt: "And that I, His servant, can help you with this, this matter of the soul?" Raxl: "Someone must! Please! Help us! HELP US! SOMEONE MUST!"

Yes, he’s still watching them.

And Raxl notices the camera!

Raxl tells Matt that they mustn’t stay in the crypt in case someone overhears. Jean Paul watches as they grab torches and get ready to head to the Not-So-Hidden Temple, and very nearly discovers the temple’s entrance, only to turn away at the wrong moment to scowl at the camera:

Proof that I did not just make that up.

When we return, we see Raxl and Quito escort Matt to the temple. Between the torchlight, the eerie music, and the darkness of the tunnel, it’s a surprisingly effective scene that gives a sense of suspense and wonder. When they reach the temple, Raxl tells Matt about the temple’s history:

Matt: “I’ve read about many ancient temples, but this one is-” Raxl: “Secret and sacred, the Temple of the Serpent.” [She and Quito pass their torches between their hands, as they do in many of their rituals.] “An ancient people years ago lived on Maljardin. You know of them?” Matt: "Like the Aztecs and the Tarascans, the Totonacs." Raxl: "Like them were our island people. For three thousand years, they were one with the Earth." Matt: "Farming people?" Raxl: "Not warriors, not dealers in the Devil's business of death. This was our temple, is our temple!"

So Raxl and Quito are natives to the island and of indigenous Central American descent, related to the Aztecs, Tarascans, and Totonacs. (In spite of this, both of their actors are white.) Unlike the Aztecs, however, they were a peaceful people. That is, except for one little thing...

Raxl: "The Christian god is not displeased?" Matt: "God believes that each may have his own belief." [He touches the altar.] "If this is what I think it is..." Raxl: "The basin of the blood sacrifice."

Meanwhile, Jean Paul heads to the crypt to continue stalking and is shocked to find neither Raxl. nor Quito, nor Matt, nor the very obvious hidden door leading to the Temple of the Serpent:

Well, if you had left your monitor on and watched it for just a minute longer, you would know all about the not-so-secret door to the temple. *Jacques voice and laugh* You snooze, you lose, Jean Paul!

Back in the Temple of the Serpent, Raxl and Matt discuss the use of the altar:

Matt: "God wouldn't be pleased with this!" Raxl: "Only the priests used it, and only to please the gods of fertility and the maize." Matt: "Sometimes humans were sacrificed." Raxl: "As others have sacrificed. You know the Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent?" Matt: "Yes." Raxl: "He gathered bones of the dead from all the world. When he returned, he sprinkled his own blood on them." Matt: "And thus created his man." Raxl: "This is the belief."

Here we learn the identity of the Serpent whom Raxl worships: it is Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec creator god also known as the Feathered Serpent. In Pre-Columbian times, many peoples throughout Mesoamerica worshipped feathered serpent gods, including the Olmecs, the Yucatec Maya (Kukulkan), and the K’iche’ Maya (Q’uq’umatz). Although the legends and appearance of the Feathered Serpent vary from culture to culture, all Mesoamerican Feathered Serpents are generally considered variations of the same ancient deity, once again connecting to the aforementioned practice of syncretism.

Before re-watching this episode, I had forgotten that Raxl identified the serpent as Quetzalcoatl. Because the show, many ads promoting it, and the tie-in novels refer to her religion as voodoo, I assumed (after Googling “voodoo serpent” and reading many pages in the results) that the serpent she worshiped was the Vodou god or lwa Damballah, a deity similar to Quetzalcoatl. According to legend, Damballah created the world and all living things, much like the Feathered Serpent, who restored humanity to life after its death at the end of the world’s previous cycle.

Some modern pagans and Vodou practitioners syncretize Quetzalcoatl and Damballah. This post on La Bloga by Ernest Hogan and this essay by the Steemit user yestermorrow are good examples.[2] Another example of this association can be found in Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel Almanac of the Dead, where one character, a black Vietnam vet named Clinton, says the following about them:

The spirits of Africa and the Americas are joined together in history, and on both continents by the sacred gourd rattle. Erzulie joins the Mother Earth. Damballah, great serpent of the sky and keeper of all spiritual knowledge, joins the giant plumed serpent, Quetzalcoatl. When someone dies, the spirit goes to the Dead Country. Legba Gede, Lord of the Crossroads of Life and Death, directs the traffic of the human souls.[3]

Does Raxl also syncretize the West African and Mesoamerican serpent gods? They never say, but I think she does. She likely practices a combination of her native religion, curanderismo, and "the conjure faith” (as she and Vangie usually call voodoo).

Matt: "Did you bring me here to talk of ancient tribal history, Raxl?" Raxl: "Tribal? It wasn't! It is the highest culture!"

Matt inadvertently reveals a somewhat condescending attitude toward the ancient Mesoamerican civilization on Maljardin by calling it “tribal.” The word’s connotations of primitiveness are not lost on Raxl.

Matt: "All right, but what of this danger, this evil that rambles around here?" Raxl: "You scorn what I have said. I see it in your face and in your eyes: your scorn, derision. Your presence corrupts the Temple! It was wrong of me to bring you here, to trust you!" Matt: "Wait! If you must trust someone, trust me. I scorn nothing about this temple. It's a place of worship. I respect it as I would my own. If I seemed impatient with past history, it's only that the present concerns me more."

Sure, Jan Matt. I totally believe you respect a temple with an altar for blood sacrifice. Not that many people would, but still, his claim not to disrespect it is not entirely convincing (to say the least). It’s about as convincing as his insistence that he’s officiated at many funerals in crypts back in Episode 16. Even so, Raxl agrees to trust him and tells him all about Erica’s death and Jacques’ possession of Jean Paul.

Meanwhile, Jacques continues to torment his descendant. He also continues to reference things which no mere mortal from the 17th century would have been aware of:

Ah, yes, just like the bus depot that Louis XIV built at Versailles and the time clock he made all his ministers punch.

But Jean Paul can’t keep himself away from his hidden stalker room for long and returns to it two minutes later to spy on Alison, who is looking for Dr. Menkin’s notes on Erica and who is also desperately trying to persuade Dan that she does not have feelings for her brother-in-law. And then he visits the lab to let them know he was spying on them:

He’s stopped hiding the fact that he’s spying on everyone.

Dan, sick of dealing with Jean Paul and his moods.

Getting salty!

Dan asks Jean Paul when he reported Erica’s death. He insists that Dr. Menkin wrote a statement about her death, which he showed to the Cryonics Society before they froze her corpse, but Dan does not accept that. He asks if he ever told the authorities of Erica’s death, but Jean Paul didn’t for obvious reasons. He refuses to allow anyone to open the capsule to give Erica an autopsy, because that would mean that she could never be revived (not sure what his logic is, since zombies exist in this show’s universe).

He also officially rehires Dan, which is when he learns that Jacques already did so a week ago. This sends Jean Paul over the edge and he sends them off so they don’t see him rummage through the medicine cabinet.

THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE SECTION ABOUT SUICIDE. IF THE TOPIC OF SUICIDE TRIGGERS YOU, SKIP AHEAD TO THE NEXT PHOTO OF JEAN PAUL.

He grabs a bottle of cyanide and sneaks behind them back into the Great Hall. He announces to Jacques that he plans to kill himself and Jacques along with him, as though suicide were enough to defeat THE DEVIL. He is delusional, of course. All that would do is prevent Jacques from taking over his living body (and, as I mentioned above, zombies exist in this show’s universe, so Jacques could--in theory--possess an undead Jean Paul). “Now, be a good boy,” Jacques purrs to him like the handsome biscuit-maker that he is, “and store that away for another day. Now join your guests, eat slowly, and digest what I have said very carefully.”

END OF SECTION ABOUT SUICIDE

I enjoyed this episode, particularly the scenes with Raxl, Matt, and Quito. The Reverend may be somewhat of a creep when it comes to his behavior towards Holly, but I like his other subplot with Raxl and how they join forces against Jacques despite their religious differences and the temple’s dark history. Also, although initially I kept procrastinating, researching for this entry was fun and I ended up having fun going down the rabbit snake hole. I’m not an expert on Vodou, curanderos, or ancient Mesoamerican religions now, but I’ve learned some interesting things.

Coming up next: An analysis of the top five things wrong with Tim’s subplot.

{<- Previous: Episode 22   ||   Next: Episode 24 -> }

Notes

[1] I use “Vodou” here to refer to the real-world religions commonly known as voodoo and “voodoo” in reference to their portrayal in popular culture.

[2] Along with Simbi (another serpent lwa), Damballah is also believed to possess the ability to control snakes; because of this, many of his devotees further syncretize him with Saint Patrick and Moses.

[3] Leslie Marmon Silko, Almanac of the Dead: A Novel (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), p. 429, https://archive.org/details/almanacofdead00lesl. (RIP National Emergency Library)

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 222

The recap for this episode includes a cutaway diagram of Babidi’s spaceship.   I think I messed up the screencaps here to make it look like there’s five stages instead of just four, but you get the general idea.   The big chamber at the bottom is where I think Babidi monitors the fights, and then below that is the room where Buu’s ball is stored.  

The thing I never understood was why so much of Babidi’s ship is devoted to this gauntlet he’s having our heroes run.   Each “Stage” is equipped to absorb energy lost by intruders as they do battle with the stages��� defenders, which is handy for Babidi’s current project of reviving Majin Buu.   But this is probably the first and only time this has ever come up.    Would Babidi even have need for stolen energy other than reviving Buu?   

Come to think of it, has Babidi ever had any other agenda before this?   My understanding of his life is this: He was created as a duplicate of his “father” Bibidi, probably to do some side work for him, and when the Supreme Kai killed Bibidi he eventually started plotting to take over where Bibidi left off.   So I would assume he’s spent his whole existence trying to recover Majin Buu, though much of that was preparation, I’m sure.   He had to learn more magic, assemble a crew, acquire this spaceship, and figure out Buu’s location.

Anyway, up on Stage 1, Vegeta has to fight Puipui before they can proceed further into the ship.    If Puipui hurts Vegeta (or Goku or Gohan, if he ever gets to them), the damage will feed Buu’s ball.  But that doesn’t seem to matter, since Vegeta utterly dominates the guy in his base form.

To improve Puipui’s chances, Babidi uses his magic.

Now, the Supreme Kai claims that Babidi only used his magic to change the room, but later episodes will strongly suggest that they’ve all been teleported to a new location outside of the ship.    I’m not clear on this, but one way or another, they’re now standing on what looks like Puipui’s homeworld, the planet Zoon.   The subs spell it “Zun”, but I feel like “Zoon” is right.    “Zuun?”    I kind of like all three.   Skip it.  

Whether they’re actually on Zoon or a reasonable facsimile, Vegeta is surprised by the change, and Puipui brags that he now has the advantage, because the gravity here is ten times that of earth.    Oh, you sweet summer child...

Punch.

Kick.

Titty grab.

>:^D

Closed casket funeral.

The Saiyans head for the next deck, while the Supreme Kai is gobsmacked by Vegeta’s performance.   Puipui never even touched Vegeta, and Geets wasn’t even using Super Saiyan.  

Watching this fight again, I notice that Vegeta’s style has changed dramatically since his battles against the androids and Cell.    He taunted Puipui a few times, but he wasted no time in putting the guy away.   I’d suggest that the only reason the fight lasted as long as it did was because Vegeta wanted to scout him out a bit before he committed to a finishing blow.   This is a far cry from when he fought 19, and he basically gave 19 a bunch of free hits just to show him how outclassed he was.    He horsed around with 18 and Cell in a similar fashion, thinking he had an advantage that he really didn’t.  But against Puipui, he was all business.   

I point all this out, because it’s tough to square Vegeta’s stoic gruffness in the 2010′s with his manic bluster from early and mid-DBZ.   When he first showed up in the Saiyans Saga, he was very cocky, but also quiet, letting Nappa do most of the gloating.    Then Goku got under his skin and he became downright nutty.    On Namek, he acted like a total lunatic sometimes, which I always chalked up to his desperation to beat Frieza to immortality, and the rich rewards he would achieve if he could pull it off.   

Most of the Androids and Cell period was him trying to prove his superiority, to be the man he had always claimed to be.   His big problem was that he thought turning Super Saiyan was a destination instead of a journey, and that it would solve all his problems.    This is why he kept losing in that arc, because he went into every fight thinking he’d already won by showing up.  

The Puipui fight is the last time we see him win a fight in DBZ.    If we want to count the later series and movies... let’s see.    He killed Nappa in Dragon Ball GT, but how big a deal is that?    He beat Golden Frieza in Movie 15, but he was practically beaten anyway after fighting with Goku.    In Dragon Ball Super he took out Captain Ginyu, then several fighters from the other universes.   Toppo was the big win for that series.     Dramatically speaking, though, all of these resemble the Puipui fight more than the battles he had before that.    Much more focused, no nonsense, and shutting out distractions.   

Maybe that’s what Whis meant when he told him he was wound up too tightly in Movie 15.   If Whis could have seen Vegeta’s fight with Semiperfect Cell, he would realize that Vegeta used to be way too sloppy and self-assured, and the “overthinking” approach he used afterward was his attempt to compensate for that.  

Anyway, Babidi and Dabura are shocked to find anyone this strong on Earth, because they scouted the planet 300 years ago and didn’t find anyone nearly that powerful.    Okay, but what I don’t get is that they must have realized the Saiyans were unusually powerful, because that’s why they lured them on board in the first place.    They wrote Krillin and Piccolo off as useless, and I’m betting either of them could have killed Puipui.   

Back at the stadium, Chi-Chu suddenly realizes that she has no idea where Goten is.    For some reason, Bulma doesn’t seem terribly concerned about Trunks, though.  

Turns out, they’re both in the... lounge?   I have no idea what this room is for, but it’s some place for the tournament fighters to hang out, because when the World Tournament Announcer comes into find Mighty Mask, he finds the boys instead, and tells them they aren’t allowed back here.   See, Goten was tired of carrying Trunks on his shoulders, so they came in here to take a break.   

WTA wanted to tell Mighty Mask that they’re still figuring out how to proceed with only five fighters, and then he notices MM’s costume on the floor, so Trunks uses super speed to turn on the shower.    WTA almost walks in on the guy, but Goten insists that he’d be mad about that.    WTA’s like “Oh, yeah, those masked fighters hate for anyone to see their faces.”    Okay, yeah, but more importantly, maybe you don’t just walk in on somebody while they’re taking a shower?   Geez.  

So he calls out to MM from there, and Trunks has to pull the crappiest ventriloquism act ever to respond.    The Announcer buys this completely, just like he buys that Trunks and Goten only came in here to find Mr. Satan and get his autograph.    Then again, WTA’s seen a lot of weird shit in his time.   I get the sense that he’s a dude who gets along by not asking too many questions.    If you served him Steamed Hams, he’d be all excited to sample authentic Utica cuisine.   

Piccolo and Krillin update: They’re still statues. 

In the ship, Babidi decides to send Yakon down to Stage 2.   Dabura thinks that’s a bit extreme, but Babidi doesn’t want to take these intruders too lightly, not after Puipui got killed without landing a single blow.    

Dabura’s all worried that Yakon will kill them all before he gets to have any fun with them, and Babidi has to remind him that he’s his mind-controlled henchman, so he’s not here to have fun, dammit.

That’s kind of the interesting thing about the dynamic between these two.    Babidi seems to give his slaves a lot of leeway, either because he can’t control them absolutely, or because he prefers to let them think independently.   In Dabura’s case, he seems to enjoy having him as a dependable second-in-command, offering counsel and relaying his orders to the crew.   It gets to the point where even Dabura gets a little too comfortable with the role now and then.   

And it becomes easy for us in the audience to forget that Dabura is one of Babidi’s victims.   He only wants to awaken Buu because Babidi told him to want it.    Would Dabura even care about this goal otherwise?   I mean, it’s an evil agenda, but maybe not his brand of evil, you know?   

I think this is why Toriyama designed him to look so much like a classic interpreation of the Chrisitan Devil.    He’s not like Frieza or King Piccolo, where he’ll have time to establish his credentials as a major villain.   Dabura has to look like a major villain up front, because we’ll never really get to see how he earned the role.   His job is to look like a big deal, to emphasize that Babidi has turned him into plaything.    He could make this guy swab the decks with his tongue if he wanted to.    He only lets Dabura play first-officer because it suits his purposes.  

So some of the henchmen got to summon Yakon for Stage 2 duty, and he kills them as soon as they open the door to his room.    Awesome!   This guy ain’t fucking around.

Then Babidi calls to him, probably though telepathy or something, and it’s clear that this guy is Babidi’s plaything too.    It kind of makes you wonder why Babidi even bothered having minions go fetch Yakon in the first place, if this was the only way to get him to cooperate.    But it makes a lot of sense once you realize Babidi is a sick fuck and all of his servants are expendable.   

In Stage Two, Vegeta suggests forcing the door again, and when the Supreme Kai argues that this might release Buu, he asks how big a deal Buu really is.   After all, Puipui was helpless against him, and Dabura’s not that big a deal either.  

Shin’s like “Whaaaaa?” and Vegeta’s like, “Yeah, Dabura’s not that tough.    Your friend Kibito only got killed because he’s a bitch.”  

Shin asks Goku if this is true, and Goku’s like “Yep, Kibito’s shit tier, Supreme Kai.”

Goku estimates that Dabura’s about as strong as Cell was, and Cell was a big deal... seven years ago.    Now, being as strong as Cell doesn’t mean jack to these guys.   That’s awesome.   I love this.  

And this makes the Supreme Kai look like a real geek, because he only seemed to know that Goku and the others were very strong, but he had no idea how strong.    My impression is that he had no idea the Cell conflict ever happened, which kind of makes sense, seeing as Cell came from the future.    Perfect Cell was never really meant to be, when you think about it.   In his own timeline, the androids he had to absorb to become perfect were already dead, so without time travel, no one would ever have to deal with him at full power.   As it was, he fought the Z-Fighters umpteen years before he was born, so it sort of forced the heroes to get stronger than they would have been normally.

My guess is that the Supreme Kai knew about how strong Frieza was, and that Goku beat him, so he estimated his power based on this.   Still, you’d think he could have asked around before today.    He knew Goku would be at the tournament, so he must have had some advance notice on this.    All he had to do was talk to King Kai and go “Hey, how do you think Son Goku would stack up against, say, Dabura?”   And King Kai would go “You know, I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I think Goku could take him, sir.  He’s improved dramatically since he beat Frieza.”    And at least then he’d know what he was dealing with.  

Something else I wonder about is why none of the Kai’s seem to know anything about Saiyans.   I mean, they’ve all been around for millions of years, and Goku wasn’t the first Super Saiyan.    Maybe he and Vegeta are stronger than all the ones who came before, but you’d think some of the Kais would have noticed when the last Super Saiyan was running wild a thousand years ago, or the Super Saiyan before that, and so on.   

My point is that both the Supreme Kai and Babidi seem to think these guys are key to their respective plans, and yet they seem surprised to find out how strong they are.    Let me throw out a suggestion here: If Shin knew exactly how strong Goku is right now, do you think he’d just blow up this spaceship and have done with it?    I mean, if Buu wakes up prematurely, in his weakened state, Goku could probably beat him, right?   It’d be a gamble, but no worse than what ends up happening in this story.    

Anyway, Yakon finally shows up on Stage 2, so we can finally get on with this thing.   

And it’s Goku’s turn to fight, so we get to see what he can do after all these years.    Doncha dare miss it!

[ettadunham]

A Buffy rewatch 2x05 Reptile Boy

aka adulting and frat boys

Welcome to this dailyish text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and point out / hyperfocus on one detail in it in 10-3k words. Mostly. The rules are arbitrary.

And today’s episode managed to heighten the show’s ever present metaphor of Buffy fighting toxic masculinity and rape culture by adding some super disturbing and way too real moments to its supernatural spin. There’s also the question of adulthood vs. maturity, Willow’s totally not jealous, and Angel is starting to be aware of some... stuff.

Let’s start with our ‘gay watch’ which may or may not become a regular segment on these posts, and appreciate this exchange:

Buffy:  I'm not going with Angel. I'm going with... Ye gods. Cordelia. Willow:  Cordelia?! Did I sound a little jealous just then, 'cause I'm not really... Cordelia?!

Now, that being said, during my previous experiences with the show, I definitely noticed a pattern of Willow being jealous / hostile towards other prominent people in the Scoobies’ lives - specifically towards other female characters. It happens with all of Xander’s love interests, sure, but also with Faith (so basically... Buffy’s love interest), and it appears to point to a fear of being replaced / abandoned more than anything. Probably more on that later.

The Buffy/Cordelia train has definitely left the station at this point though. Like who is Cordy kidding (other than herself) - she just wants to hang out with Buffy. And maybe her friends...

Speaking of said friends, I had to include the above screencap, especially after I saw someone once pointing out the way Xander makes a fabulous braid on his end and Buffy is just fumbling and looking confused at Willow’s hair. I really love these little bits and exchanges on the show, it often builds character and establishes dynamics in unexpected ways. Right now for instance we can clearly see that Buffy never had a little sister whose hair she’d braid as a kid.

...Also more on that later.

But I also want to fold this onto my talk about maturity and adulthood. because of the context of this scene. Apparently the Scoobies are all out of money and don’t really have anywhere to go out as a result - so they’re staying at home, watching a Bollywood movie together instead.

Later on the episode this will be juxtaposed with the whole aspirational idea of going to a frat party, and doing ‘adult’ things like drinking and hooking up with your (slightly older young adult) date; as well as the dull repetitiveness and responsibility of having an obligation that other people rely on you to do. And yet, that scene at the beginning - staying at home watching movies because you’re too broke to do anything else - is actually the most adult experience I could think of.

And I guess that’s sort of the point. Adulthood is much more mundane than what we imagine in high school it to be; while college can be this weird Twilight Zone where you can not only suddenly do all the ‘adult’ things, but potentially have the freedom to do so as well. Especially if you live in a country where higher education is easily affordable and not in some dystopian landscape where apparently only the richest can focus on their studies and not their part-time jobs .

Speaking of dystopian societies that the American culture appears to be to me - what’s it with these fraternity clubs? And why are they so weirdly gender-specific? And why are Americans so obsessed with the idea of ‘legacy’ students? ‘My father and grandfather attended this same college and were part of this same fraternity club’ who the fuck cares, Chris, it’s college, not a cigar club.

You guys are weird. Like we have hazing rituals for freshmen and all these weird parties going down in dorms, but the whole structure of fraternities just seem to give way too much space to up the notch on the worst aspects of college life. Of course my exposure to it is admittedly only through pop culture, but it really does look like a cult from here, ngl.

Anyway, the point is that college is the part of your life where you can be legally an adult, but you don’t need to have the level of maturity that that entails quite yet. Which is basically the polar opposite of where Buffy is at this point - someone who hasn’t yet entered the age of adulthood, but has all these obligations and responsibilities that demand a certain level of maturity from her that goes well beyond her years.

There are two particularly insidious scenes in this episode, one where Obnoxious Frat Guy offers a drink to Buffy that she refuses to which he says: “It’s okay, I wasn’t into adult things at your age either.” And then on the other end of the spectrum, we’ll have Nice Frat Guy talk about how “mature” he thinks Buffy is. So when he offers a drink she finally ends up accepting, because she’s tired of being ‘mature’.

In both cases, these guys are being manipulative and predatory (especially given how the drinks are spiked... I know, this episode gets way too real). Obnoxious Frat Guy is trying to be condescending, and reaffirm the high schooler idea of conflating adulthood with doing ‘adult things’. Nice Frat Guy however is being more subtle in his approach and appeals to Buffy’s sense of being burdened by her responsibilities - if she’s already so mature and has to deal with so many adult themes, she might as well do some of the ‘adult things’, right? She’s earned the right to loosen up in the ‘adult way’ a bit... right?

And then she gets drugged and chained up in a basement because no girl can ever let her guard down in this society. As Buffy says, she went to one frat party and had one drink, and this is what happened. I do kinda wish that Giles’ reaction to that wasn’t just that “let that be a lesson” line, and instead offered a reassurance that this wasn’t on her. But he also promises to put less pressure on her in the future, and he’ll have a great line to Buffy later in the season that makes me want to cry even now, and that evens those scales for me.

Given how the show often deals in caricatures when portraying characters like these frat guys, I also kinda appreciate that Nice Frat Guy actually seemed like... well, a nice guy (but also, a Nice Guy). I mean, as the audience it was easy to see through his manipulative bullshit act but I could also understand why Buffy liked him and was able to trust him somewhat. (This will happen in s4 again, although with much less rapeyness and much more general doucheness.)

This episode also seemed to have heard my 2x02 rant and it kind of addresses my concerns of Angel seeing Buffy as a “kid”. Their conversations here basically leave out the whole vampire pretense, and skip right into what’s this really about... sex. As the older one in their relationship, Angel seems to have come to the understanding, that it’s his responsibility to put an end to things before they get too far. Apart from the obvious age difference thing as well as Buffy being underaged that I touched upon previously, there’s also just the idea that Buffy may not be ready yet. And I do kinda respect Angel for finally acknowledging that.

Again - there’s this idea of adulthood vs. maturity. And how the latter is often recognizing the difference between being able or wanting to do something vs. whether or not you should do it. Being in the moment vs. considering the consequences of your actions.

When I previously talked about their relationship, I mentioned how I saw Buffy being the slayer tilt the power dynamic between them toward her, and making me more prone to get on board with them together. This episode however starts bringing the older guy / high school girl aspect closer to the surface. Even if we look at vampires as beings in some sort of arrested development, Angel was still in his early 20s when he was initially turned - which is just enough to make this a little murky.

I guess no wonder that them eventually going down that road will lead to disaster... But more on that later.

Or not. It’s a lot to sort out and maybe I’ll just want to talk about something nice and cozy like Oz instead.

Let someone else deal with all the heavy stuff.