#anyways. character arcs wrapped up nicely in season 2 so that's where i want to say the show ended

[mia-ugly]

In honour of Good Omens Season 2

HAVE A SLOW SHOW FICLET with thanks to @weatheredlaw for the amazing graphic ❤️❤️❤️ how we doing fam

It’s a kid on set that first tells him. 

Not really a kid, but anyone less than thirty seems a kid to him these days (ugh, that’s a loathsome thought.) Jiyana’s a queer and pink-haired punk type, rainbow pin on their jacket, trans-pride flag tattooed on their inner wrist. The first time he met them, the whole wirey confident glittery thing made his gut clench with - what was it - joy and gratitude but also envy? Maybe? (because what must it be like to be that young and that certain of yourself? What must it be like to have the whole world open in front of you? Not that there still isn’t a lot of shit to deal with, and in Merry Old fucking England there is More Shit than Otherwise, but. Still. It’s something Crowley thinks about. Sometimes. When he hasn’t had enough sleep or when he’s had too much of it.)

The kid came up to him Day One to mumble about “being a big fan” and once they wore a Warlock t-shirt to an afterparty (“Vintage!” they said cheerily, and Crowley wanted to swallow his own face at the thought of something from the 2010s being considered vintage, good Christ.)

Anyway, Jiyana tells him first.

“Congrats on the new season!” They’re beside him in the makeup trailer. Crowley doesn’t realise they’re talking to him, assumes they’re wearing AirPods or something, until George gives him a nudge with the powder puff.

“Er, yeah, cheers.” It’s too early to talk to anyone this perky. Then his exhausted, coffee-less brain takes a moment to catch up with his exhausted, coffee-less mouth. “Er, wait, what?”

“Warlock. Heard it’s coming back. Did I tell you I wrote a paper on it in, like, Grade 10? So cool, the GSA at my highschool used to have watch parties, I can’t wait to see what they do with your -“

“Wait -“ Warlock? It’s been bloody years. “Where’d you hear this?”

The kid starts to list off some sites or social media whatsits that Crowley has never heard of, so he just nods and pretends to understand, the same way he does when Az’s niece tries to explain some show called “Jojo’s Big Adventure” or something. Validate, validate, empathise. Just like Pepper taught him.

It’s probably nothing right? A rumour.

But it’s a rumour Az has heard too.

When Crowley gets home that night (they’ve rented a house in Buckinghamshire, even though the studio’s not two hours from their cottage) Az is on him immediately. Heard about it from his sister apparently, who got the news from one of the kids.

“Isn’t that exciting?” His face is all lit up and his hair is wet, bathrobe snugly belted around his waist. The house has an indoor pool, and there are little indents on Avery’s nose where his extremely attractive and sexy swimming-goggles must have been resting.

Crowley presses his lips to each mark.

“Not that we’ve been going hungry or wanting for work –” Az continues.

“You work too bloody much,” Crowley murmurs into his cheekbone.

“But I do love those characters. The whole thing wrapped up so nicely though – what more is there to tell?  I wonder what the arc could possibly be.”

“I wonder what you’ve got on under this robe –”

“Anthony!” Az laughs in fake protest, tilting his head back so that Crowley can get his mouth on his throat. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Az tastes like chlorine, and maybe Crowley should join him in the shower after this. After a day in the studio, he could probably use it.

“Would you really want to do a series again?” Crowley asks after he’s finally let his husband go, turned to hang up his coat and thrown his bag on the nearest chair. “Awful lot of commitment. And you’ve that whole run at the Globe coming up, don’t rehearsals start in the spring?”

“We’ll have to see if Helen can mind the goats again while we’re in London.” Az has wandered into the kitchen, turned on the kettle. Crowley looks at the back of his neck (Crowley always looks at the back of his neck. Sometimes he dreams about it.) “If she’s free. I called her this morning to check in, Elmyra’s eating, so her anxiety must be getting better.”

“Cool, yeah,” Crowley says, casual and nonchalant and no big deal. As if Elmyra isn’t his favourite of the bunch and he doesn’t have a song that he made up and no one knows that he sings just to her. As if he didn’t hand feed her all night once because she wasn’t sleeping or eating and neither was he because he was so afraid this tiny rescue goat was going to starve to death, anyway whatever, super cool, who cares. “Is it weird that no one’s reached out to us, though? Do you think?”

“About the goats? Helen has my number –”

“No love, the Warlock thing.”

Az blinks at him, flutters his pretty blond lashes in an attractive, aggrieved sort of way. “You mean you haven’t heard from Beez?”

“I haven’t heard from anyone.”

“Oh.” Az thinks it over. “Well. Neither have I, actually. Do you – is that odd?”

“Maybe they’ve recast us with younger models.”

“They wouldn’t dare.”

“Gotta up the sex appeal of the whole thing. Jawlines. Cheekbones. Sexy results.”

“I –” Az goes a bit pink. Glances at Crowley and then away. “Fail to see how they could improve upon perfection.”

Crowley looks at his husband’s bathrobe and the slight scattering of silver chest hair and his hand on his tea cup and fuck off, his neck. His neck, his neck, who gives a shit about Warlock actually?

 “Come over here and say that to my mouth.”

Avery smiles, and sighs, and he does.

ONE YEAR LATER:

Crowley opens the email from Beez.

He fuckin' closes it.

[cloudysarts]

All right I take the bait. Why do you believe Manel should have accompanied Pacifica at the party

AHHH THANK YOU IM SO EXCITED TO EXPLAIN MYSELF (in reference to this post)

ok. northwest mansion mystery is a great episode obviously. but HERES why i think the episode would've been even better if mabel was in dippers spot!!!!!! its kinda a lot so i put it under a read more

so this episode is sort of the middle-ish of season 2 i think, right before the ford reveal!! its not a super long show anyway so theres not a ton of pacifica appearances, anyway. BUT in EVERY SINGLE OTHER PACIFICA EPISODE, her energy has been bouncing off of mabel!!! from their meeting in double dipper, to irrational treasure, to golf war; they have been established as the main dynamic here. golf war is especially important here, because this is the very first step in pacfica's redemption arc! mabel saves her in this episode, the pines give her a ride home, and it seems like pacifica is going to start being a little more understanding of mabel because she had misjudged her, hence why she was treating her so poorly. it looks like theyre gonna establish a friendship between them!

and then. they dont. they basically never interact again. because the next time we see pacifica, she goes straight to dipper in northwest manor mystery. the cold open implies that the northwests wanted dipper specifically because of his knowlege of how to deal with the supernatural but IN MY OPINION that DOESNT EVEN MAKE SENSE because we NEVER see dipper fighting these monsters on his own? hes ALWAYS with mabel. at the very least, i think it shouldve been BOTH of them??? we see a brief shot of a newspaper clipping where dipper is fighting a vampire bat or something and i just. when did this happen. where is mabel

that would be a fine argument for it being both of them instead of just mabel so heres one of my bigger points thats gonna come back a lot in this breakdown: dipper. does not like pacifica. he STRAIGHT UP HATES HER. every single interaction theyve had has been negative!!! its even massively negative at the beginning of this ep!!!! though mabel often dislikes pacifica, she TRIES REALLY HARD TO LIKE HER. mabel has a lot of love in her heart, and if she could, shed want to be her friend!!! its always been pacifica whos been rejecting those advances!!! golf war was the start of pacifica understanding that about mabel, and it nmm wouldve been the PERFECT time to wrap up that arc, rather than leaving it!!!

and i would argue that could STILL LEAD INTO A DIPCIFICA ARC, if thats what the showrunners/fans wanted? most of why dipper hates pacifica to begin with is because shes so terrible to mabel. he only agrees to go to the party in canon because MABEL wants to!!! imo, i think the lead in to them being a couple would be a million times better if that massive problem in their relationship was solved first

i dont PERSONALLY like dipcifica but im trying to stay unbiased about this if you cant tell

i would also argue that like. dipper just seems really out of character. the reason i picked some of the scenes i did for my redraws, was because they were scenes that i think his behavior would fit mabel a lot better. examples:

why do the northwests have a suit in dippers size anyway. he literally doesnt even like wearing it sjkfhkj in a potential re-write of this ep, i considered that mabel would come in wearing her super extravagent home made dress, and it would 'violate dress code', so she would be forced to wear one of pacificas we could still have that cute dress-up expo scene that we do AND have some fun commentary/symbolism about pacifica being nervous about having her in the dress because its NICE and TOO GOOD FOR HER and she looked FINE BEFORE ANYWAY

mabels empathy is a recurring theme in the show. shed WANT to give pacifica the benefit of the doubt, and would be VERY betrayed when finding out her and her family already knew about the ghosts and knew what he wanted. i understand that dipper was so upset because it seemed like pacifica was changing for the better just to find out that she wasnt, but i think this fits so much better with mabel, because shes always WANTED to believe that shes secretly a good person. she would be glad to see her turn a corner, and would be upset when finding out she was 'wrong', and that she really was mean deep down. whcih would obviously lead to her comforting her later/finding out the truth about her etc etc. on the other hand, dipper literally never believed she had good in her. from the first interaction we see of them, he thinks shes as terrible as her family. he ISNT as interested in giving her the benefit of the doubt and if it wasnt a life or death situation i dont think he wouldve forgiven her. IDK i just think its more in character for her

the dancing scene!!! honestly this works fine as is (i can see both dipper and mabel being excited to make a mess on a fancy carptet) but idk i just think it carries so much more weight if its these two girls. silly moments for mabel!!!! pacifica getting to really be a kid and not just a sparkly prop!!!!!!! pacifica finally indulging in her sillyness that she mocked in irrational treasure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok moving on. one of the bigger things that bother me about it being dipper here instead of mabel is one teeny tiny (honestly really irrational) scene at the party. in it, dipper is confronted by fiddleford, who tells him he has big news about the author/the laptop and the towns in danger and its vitally important and dipper just. shrugs him off???!!?!?!?! i cannot even IMAGINE. in alex hirschs words "the first season is about dipper being in love with wendy, and the second is about him being in love with the author" meaning that. those are the TWO things that dipper is completely and totally obsessed with. hes clearly not over wendy (as we see in later episodes) and this is not long after sock opera/society of the blind eye so youd THINK hed be more depserate for answers than ever!??!?! this child was willing to sell out his great uncle and raise the dead and stay up for several nights in a row for answers, and the second he is offered some (from a man who WORKED WITH THE AUTHOR btw) hes like like 'whatevr'?!?!?! it is so out of character and it drives me fucking nuts every time. i know hes starting to like pacifica now but as we see in the comics (if you chose to think those are canon) HE DOESNT EVEN SEEM TO LIKE HER THAT MUCH!??!?! hes STILL convinced shes vain, and mean, and selfish!!!! he DOES start to have a little arc with her but jksdfjksf IDK i just cant in a million years see him passing up the chance for answers to the biggest mystery in gravity falls to hang out with a girl he tolerates

but yknow who i CAN see doing that? MABEL!!!!!!!! mabel would be concerned when mcgucket comes up to her, and starts talking like this!!!! i can totally see her suggesting that he relax for a little while and enjoy the party like dipper did, and then forgetting to come back to talk/not running into him later!!!! ESPECIALLY since i can see mabel WANTING to spend time with pacifica where dipper just. really doesnt seem to want to MOST of the time

ok ill admit that this last one is sort of a personal opinion. but i just. i really dont like the B plot of this episode with mabel and the girls. IDK its just so annoying and pointless to me to have a plot where its just a bunch of girls turning against each other over a guy. im not gonna say its mysoginistic bc i know little girls can be boy crazy but i just. dont see why there was a need to make them fight/turn against grenda briefly??? even when they rekindled and it was all ok in the end its just. in comparison to the A plot its so. Nothing.

in my head i have a rewrite of this episode and how it goes is that pacifica approaches dipper and asks for help and he turns it down (like he does in canon). mabel suggests that they do it anyway, but he refuses, as he wants nothing to do with her. when dippers gone, mabel agrees to help (and pacifica begrudgingly accepts bc it seems like the only option) and so she steals the journal when dippers not looking. she goes to the party, and events go pretty much the same?? only major difference i can think of is that the B plot is replaced by one where dipper realizes mabel and the journal are missing, so he sneaks into the manor/sneaks around the house trying to find he rand get it back (and its so massive he has no luck). the reason i think THAT works is because we can even still have the scene where dipper turns to wood like shifty prophesied!!!! and i would even argue it makes more sense this way because wasnt shiftys warning that "if you keep digging so deep into the secrets of gravity falls, this will be the last form youll ever take" ?

OK IM SORRY THIS WAS SO LONG im probably forgetting points too so i might edit it later but THANKS FOR ASKING

tldr: pacifica and mabels friendship plotline was left on a total cliffhanger after golf war and if mabel replaced dipper in nmm it would've been a good resolution to it

edit: check the reblogs if youre still interested! i added another list of reasons i think this (mostly in response to people disagreeing)

[nofacednerd]

just some more episode 6 thoughts

Obviously the Hughie thing is pretty prominent in my mind because uh. comfort character got SA'd but I'm seeing a lot of people here and on twitter think the writers were treating it as a joke? Idk if I agree with that. I think they were trying to make the scenes with it extremely uncomfortable to watch intentionally. The end of the episode at least makes it VERY clear that it (at least in the aftermath) isn't a joke. He's clearly extremely upset about what happened? idk maybe I'm not seeing something other people are seeing.

That being said, it's so gross that people on twitter/instagram ARE treating it as a joke. I think, yeah, it was kind of extreme (a lot more extreme than the other times it's happened in the show, which usually is a cut away and then talking about it afterwards) and the cake thing was just weird, uncomfortable, and unnecessary but idk I really don't think it was meant to be played for laughs for the most part

Unrelated to the above, I fucking loved Neuman this episode. Tbh I've liked Neuman a lot since season 3, she's a fun villain-ish? I'm gonna be honest, maybe I'm missing something somewhere or forgetting something, but isn't her end goal to literally just give supes opportunities to live outside of the entertainment industry? Like yeah she killed a ton of people but I feel like Neuman and The Boys have the exact same goals (killing Homelander/keeping the general public safe from superheroes) and she keeps trying to make an alliance with them??? Hughie she was your bestie for like a year and a half I know you feel betrayed by her but genuinely I don't think she's your biggest problem

Anyway Neuman especially shined this episode. The head exploding thing. Me too girl. Also her and lobotomy!Sage interacting was so funny I wish we could get more of that

Also loved that at the beginning of the episode, literally all of The Boys were there. That's his family and they're there to support him!!!!

ALSO I really like that they separated Frenchie and Kimiko this season a little bit, it's nice to actually see that Kimiko is friends with the others beyond him. Her and Annie both immediately agreeing to go rescue their boy in the mansion...... Hughie Kimiko besties are real and not just in my head for once

Tbh this whole episode showed really good team solidarity between at least Hughie, Kimiko, MM, and Annie. They all showed up to support Hughie while spreading his dad's ashes, Hughie off screen seems to have talked to Kimiko enough to know why she's upset, Hughie IMMEDIATELY coming in with the purell for MM, all 3 of them realizing how much danger Hughie was in and all going in with halothane to go rescue him, Kimiko going off to find A-Train and convincing him to take MM to the hospital, Kimiko, Annie, and Hughie all torturing Tek Knight for information and stealing all of his money and donating it to charity..... like this group was all so in sync with each other this episode it was great

Main negative thought is that honestly I'm confused on where the last 2 episodes are going to go? So far this whole season has just been disconnected B-plots. No major changes or revelations have happened yet (and based on this episode, I'm getting the feeling that Hughie might be tapping out for a bit from the team stuff). The main plotline is mostly about the supe virus and Sage, but that's all been very background stuff and it feels like there isn't going to be a lot of time to unpack everything going on? Especially since there's so many plotlines that haven't been completed yet. I know the thing this season is that the team isn't doing great, hence why they're all wrapped up in separate, personal dramas, but the last episode barely accomplished anything, on both sides.

I'm not complaining per se, I think this is the biggest issue with streaming service shows tbh. It's very obvious that the show wants to complete a bunch of emotional character arcs going into the final season (Hughie confronting his grief/inability to let go, Kimiko and Frenchie confronting their pasts and the guilt that comes with it, Annie struggling to figure out who she is as a person and as a symbol, MM struggling with his mental health and being a good dad, Butcher struggling to not kill literally everyone, ect ect) but there just isn't a whole lot of time to do both character studies, exploring different group dynamics, fulfilling show-long arcs, and keep up with a main plotline when you only have about 8 hours to do all of that and about 15 characters to do all of that with. If the seasons got more episodes, we could deal with a few filler episodes here and there to focus more solely on the characters vs the plot.

Tldr ^^ this season is more character-driven than plot driven, which makes it all kind of feel like filler and idk how the last 2 episodes are going to go

[count-von-kit]

Current WIPs and Some Incoherent Ramblings

🌹 Realm of Roses & Rosaries: With chapter 2 of my silly little for-funsies writing mess completed, I have now started on plotting where I want chapter 3 to go, with an outline.

So far I have the first arc planned to be five chapters total. My issue with this is that I initially wanted to write shorter chapters (less than 15 pages), but there's so much yet I still want to happen that I feel like they may just be longer. And, I mean, so long as I'm not dropping some 25-40+ paged chapter, I think I'll be ok with that. My ultimate goal was to make sure I was having fun with this and writing strictly for myself, so that's what I guess I'm going to throw in my face whenever I start to question something I'm doing.

As for the other arcs, I'm... still trying to organize that all in my head. Because I know what I need to get the characters to where they need to be. If that's the case and I keep them all together, with 5 chapters each between them, that would be a total of 15 collectively for the trio. With a third and final arc being their revolution and the final battle against the big bad. I think for an approach that's fine enough, and satisfies what I want.

🌹 Abel's YTP: Ugh. I'll be honest I was working on this, but then since editing a side document during a TTRPG night, I forgot (maybe) to transfer over changes (maybe), so now I'm not sure which draft was my good draft, and I really hate when I do this to myself. So I haven't been able to go back to look at it just yet. I know I'll have to figure this out at some point, but the issue is that both variants read fine, so I'm just at a loss. That said, there is a lot still to this. Chapter 3 is "finished", but the revisions are what is keeping me from marking it as DONE done. I really need to sit down at some point and finish it so that I can move onto transferring chapter 4 from my notebook onto my PC's worddoc. Far as the full novel goes, it's still 5 chapters lone, with an Epilogue, and four smaller shorts in-between as intermissions (because music-based). So uh... This project is still nowhere near completion. But also I think once I get a lot of my other WIPs cleared (I know, that's a huge writer lol there. Don't look at me rn. I can hope), I'll be able to come back to focusing on this. That's my plan anyway.

🌹 Xmas Piece: This is the time of year I should be starting to wrap this up. I vented to a friend about this last night on Discord, about how I really don't have much left to do with this. Literally 3 scenes left to finalize. That's it. But I think the reason why I haven't gone back to work on it is because of two things:

The first being my mood so far has actually been pretty good! Which is surprising given my depression is amplified by the onset of seasonal depression which just makes it an awful time for me mentally? Despite the fact I actually really love autumn? I've been hanging out with some friends more which has fed my starvation of human interaction, and I've been laughing more at some of the silly things going on - whether its something I've been reading or watching, or just something off-the-wall a friend has sent me. I've just been getting a lot more serotonin lately, and it's been kinda nice.

The second reason I feel hesitant is because this is the emotional climax to the story, where a lot of shit just drops. Normally when I'm in a bad mood I tend to write that energy into these kind of scenes because mentally I'm already there so why not? But also because I've been in such a good mood lately I'm kinda terrified that by crawling into the bathtub of bad vibes and big sad to soak in, that it'll wipe away my good mood. If that... makes sense. I've had to forcefully put myself in not-so-great mindsets before just to write out specific scenes from my other novel that's just... kinda setting off to the side... and I guess because of that, because it pulls big ol' sad energy from very specific songs, I'm apprehensive maybe that it'll happen. It has a happen ending, so I know I don't have to worry about anything. But ugh. I just need to push myself at some point or another.

🌹 Soloing The Other Side: This one is super close to being done. I haven't worked on it for a while, but I only had a few bits to finish up. Unfortunately it won't make much sense until I finish up the Xmas piece mentioned above, because it follows directly after, but at least by the end of the day it's a smaller and singular (not multi-chapter) piece I can cross off once completed. It's not complexed, but uh... I've only been working on it because of my apprehension towards Abel's YTP and the Xmas piece. lol

🌹 Abel's Backstory, Part 2: Man... I remember all the shit going on with this, but at the same time I have to completely revise the first part before I post it up, because SO MUCH with Abel has changed. Anyway, I haven't touched this at all with the others above pulling me in different directions. Maybe at some point I will get this finished. It's still in the very beginning stages, but tbh I think to get those vibes going I should just relisten to Magnus Archives, because damn does listening to Jonathan Sim read really inspire me to write.

🌹 Other Miscellaneous Ao3 Projects: Of the multitude of ongoing Ao3 projects I have that were "almost finished and then forgotten", I know I have quite a few. On top of everything else listed above. In terms of priority, the ones I'd like to finish, ideally, are Les Vampires (because it's close to the ending), Espresso-ly For You (because it's also almost finished), and maaaybe Eleanor? I haven't quite decided entirely. I'd like to finish the Senpai one as well, but that one is a bit harder to do because it's filled with so many inside jokes. I just... I need to not have writer's block when revising things, or to lose interest so I can actually finish all of these. ToT

[ultraericthered]

Anime Update V3 19

From Me To You - Most of the episode was just kind of routine as the story was building. Sawako continues to be great, Ryu continues to be great, Kurumi continues to be great, Yano and Yoshida continue to be great, Pin continues to be great....surprisingly nothing much for Kazehaya this episode aside from a baseball win, but that's going to change real soon due to the exasperating misunderstanding the episode ended on. Yeah, you suck, Kurumi. Your plans are shit!

Hunter x Hunter - So if the amount of recent Meruem and Komugi based reblogs didn't clue you in, I just went ahead and binged most of the remaining Chimera Ant arc, stopping at the very penultimate episode where Meruem and Komugi die together from the radiation poisoning of Netero's suicide bomb attack on Meruem. Don't even have too many words to spare, it was just nigh perfectly executed. I'm a little more torn on how the culmination of Gon's arc was executed. I definitely get what Togashi was going for, and using the big Super Saiyan style transformation power up to signify something negative and seal the protagonist's undoing rather than their triumph was a stroke of genius on his part...but I howled when I saw how that transformation looked, it was just too silly. It called to mind "Titan Tails" from the Sonic the Hedgehog Archie Comics series. If this was what his entire character was building up to, it's a bit of a raw deal.

SHUFFLE! - The lighthearted title card and eyecatch bumpers are back, Rin has packed up all his things and found a cheap apartment to move into, his friends come over and help him out, and he and Asa are officially a coupe, though Asa is now raising some red flags with very clingy, possessive and polyphobic behavior about her and Rin, and we even get a nice dinner get-together at the old place...and as this is the third-to-last episode, so I knw some shit had to go down. But damn, what went down was a disappointment. Asa collapses and falls ill AGAIN? Why couldn't we gotten to this point the last time?

KonoSuba - The Axis Cult town plot wrapped up in the Season 2 finale and it was more epic and intense than I was prepared for given the nature of this plot and this show. Hans was the most formiddable villain faced so far, and it was a comically cruel twist of fate that the objective that the Devil King had wanted him to meet ended up getting met due to what Aqua and the other "heroes" did to defeat him, even if he got sacrificed for it. Now no one's going to see Aqua as the actual goddess she is, though she seems much better off with Kazuma's party anyway. And yay for more Megumin and Yunyun!

K-On! - Christmas spent at Yui's house and New Years at the local shrine at the very end. All with the silliness and cuteness you expect!

Eureka Seven - It's the beginning of the end. Dominic faced some trauma at Warsaw when he went to recruit a replacement pilot for Anemone only to learn how Dewey has had fatal experiments with Coralian blood being performed on sickly young girls and that's how Anemone became what she is now, so his conscience makes him and Captain Juergens defect from Dewey's militia in order to go meet with and help Gekkostate. Back on Earth, Eureka's body undergoes a painful transformation and Maurice goes bonkers, pointing a gun at Renton and Eureka as he lets out his resentment and frustrations with the both of them, including Eureka for having killed the kids' actual mother in the first place. But he's just sort of talked out of it by Eureka before Renton falls ill with a fever, Eureka is experiencing more transformative episodes, and Dewey has at last discovered the location of the Scub Coral's Central Cluster, poising to strike at it!

Air - Oh my God....HE TURNED INTO A BIRB! Six whole episodes spent with Yukito as seemingly the protagonist of this story, and then at the halfway mark of this anime he just surrenders his physical existence and becomes a crow who's going to watch over Misuzu. Is this why Vic Mignogna was the initially cast VA for Qrow in RWBY?

AND

The Apothecary Diaries - So this is basically now a mystery solving show where poison or substances and herbal mixtures are involved all the time? If such things are really common occurances in this messed up orient, that'd be why you need someone like Maomao around, and she really does seem to thrive when working these scenarios out and especially when being let near poison, which she just goes nuts over in a weird and adorable way. Her dynamic with Jinshi also continues to amuse. Jinshi seems to have zero romantic interest in Maomao, but he's so used to all the ladies having romantic interest in him that it seriously confounds him to see Mamao be not only Not That Into Him, but actively repulsed by his charms, so he's now always looking for ways to get her to warm up to him.

[fzzr]

Summer 2023 Anime Wrap-up

Original post:

So honestly, this wasn't an especially good season. I'm not watching most of the popular things that got sequels, so all I had as an anchor was Mushoku Tensei. Thankfully the trio of Undead Girl Murder Farce, My Blissful Marriage, and Zom 100 were able to carry the season through to something resembling a soft landing.

New Stuff:

Higeki no Genkyou to Naru Saikyou Gedou Last Boss Joou wa Tami no Tame ni Tsukushimasu. (The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior) - The main character getting everyone to swear to kill her if she turns evil would be a lot more understandable if it seemed like she was actually in any danger of turning evil. Overall a pretty straightforward implementation of the Villainess setup, mostly interesting for not really being a romance at all. 6/10

Level 1 dakedo Unique Skill de Saikyou desu (My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1) - By any standard, this is Baby's First Isekai. I mean that nearly literally, it even has a "this time on" each episode. The setting makes no sense until you think about it, at which point it makes even less sense. Somehow it found a way to be another Isekai With Guns and made all the problems worse. Still, I finished it I guess. 6/10

Liar Liar - This was a Making Bullshit Rules Up As We Go Along show, but it had a fun tsundere and a nice aesthetic. The story and production values didn't back this up enough to make it good, as such, but sometimes you just want some delicious garbage, and this had me covered. 6/10

Seija Musou: Salaryman, Isekai de Ikinokoru Tame ni Ayumu Michi (The Great Cleric) - This season's budget isekai: I died working my ass off at an abusive company, so when I reincarnated I decided to... keep working my ass off! Featuring: OK but fuck privatized healthcare though. Not good in absolute terms, but I had a good time anyway. 7/10.

Undead Girl Murder Farce - This was fun! It could have gone several different ways based on the first episode. It turned out to be a crossover fanfic where I Can't Believe It's Not Oshino Meme, a saucy deadpan maid, and a head in a box fight with and/or against the headliner mystery- and supernatural-adjacent popular characters from the Victorian era, plus some mythology of its own. 8/10

Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon (My Blissful Marriage) - This was a pleasant surprise. At first it seemed like it would be a vapid Cinderella-alike, but it turns out our shoujo love interest has a day job as Roy Mustang. Give it a shot if you don't mind a bit of a slow start. 8/10

Yumemiru Danshi wa Genjitsushugisha (The Dreaming Boy is a Realist) - This got a whole post. Basically a problematic anime with a genuine heart. 6/10 and 9/10 at the same time - call it 7/10.

Sequels:

Mushoku Tensei II: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu (Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 2) - We're back baby! I appreciated the time skip letting them update Rudeus's character design. I'm really pleased with how this is progressing, and fully understand why it was the progenitor of the modern isekai boom. 9/10

Tonikaku Kawaii: Joshikou-hen (TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You - High School Days) - Oddly seems like it just stopped in the middle? Maybe they were getting ahead of an arc that's getting a proper cour later. 7/10

Horimiya: Piece - Watching this right after the main Horimiya anime, I enjoyed getting the side stories but also understand why they got cut in the original adaptation. 8/10

Carryovers:

Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha: Shijou Saikyou no Maou no Shiso, Tensei shite Shison-tachi no Gakkou e Kayou II (The Misfit of Demon King Academy Ⅱ) - This made a lot more sense the second time around. It's weirdly fast and suffers from too many characters syndrome, but it's still good fun. 7/10, though barely.

Continuing:

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023) - It's Rurouni Kenshin again. Ongoing.

Zom 100: Zombie ni Naru made ni Shitai 100 no Koto (Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead) - Finally, someone making a zombie show got access to colors other than grey, brown, and red. The bright aesthetic and energy reminiscent of No More Heroes made this the best new show of the season. If you have ever had such a terrible job that you wished the world would end instead instead of you having to go to work the next day, this is for you. It's been pushed into the next season for scheduling reasons, but unless it faceplants somehow it's 9/10.

Dropped:

Synduality: Noir - Alas, this lived up (down) to my expectation of being not very good. There's just kinda... not much going on. The action isn't good enough to support the poorly conveyed plot. Dropped at episode 4. 5/10

JItsu wa Ore, Saikyou deshita? (Am I Actually the Strongest?) - It kept almost showing promise but ultimately fizzled out. Not even enough anime tiddy to justify itself. Dropped at episode 7. 5/10

Shiro Seijo to Kuro Bokushi (Saint Cecilia and Pastor Lawrence) - While this was cute and comfy it ended up just being boring. Dropped at episode 8. 6/10

AI no Idenshi (The Gene of AI) - I thought I was going to watch this after the first episode and then I just... didn't. Dropped at episode 1, no rating.

Helck - The would-be shonen of the season turned out to be a big meh. I was struggling to keep engaged with it, and when it made the most obnoxious and anti-useful character the team mascot I had to eject. Dropped at episode 8. 6/10

[liopleurodean]

The Road So Far: Season 6

Holy smokes. What a ride.

If you're new, this is my recap/reflection on season 6 of Supernatural. You can find all of my previous commentary under the "ashla chick flick moments" tag (or block it, if you so wish. I don't mind.)

Well. Where do I even start? The beginning, I guess.

Dean got out. That's... so monumental. Obviously, it didn't last, but I truly believe that if the Winchesters were less famous then he could have made it. I understand why people don't like Lisa, but I can still see them being good together, and I think that he really did love her, and he absolutely loved Ben like his own. Speaking of Ben, the kid's acting was... not great, but it's a child actor, so I'll give it a pass. As it is, I'm a firm believer that Ben is Dean's son, biological or not.

I guess we have to talk about Sam, huh? Man, there were so many times when I wanted to just. Slap him. Or punch him in the face with a brick. Either would work. Even when he got his soul back, he got right back into his pushy self. I get that he wanted to "atone," but he really just did not get it.

Speaking of slapping people, Cas. Oh my stars, this angel is so stupid. Like, yeah, the boys could've been more appreciative for what he did for them, but could really not see when he went too far? 6x20 The Man Who Would Be King almost made me feel bad for him, but he wouldn't back down even when it was clear that something was wrong.

This has been really depressing, so let's get into the fun stuff! Holy cow, this season had so many bangers. Count 'em up: 6x02 Two And A Half Men, 6x05 Live Free Or Twi-Hard, 6x09 Clap Your Hands If You Believe, 6x15 The French Mistake, 6x17 My Heart Will Go On, 6x18 Frontierland, and 6x21 Let It Bleed all make my list. My favorite is probably gonna be Frontierland, which is honestly one of the lesser episodes on this list, but I have reasons: 1) the Good Omens parallel was absolutely hilarious even if it was unintentional, and b) I've always thought that Samuel Colt was cool since way back in season 2. This only made him more awesome. And anyway, watching Dean in the Wild West was hilarious, if a little embarrassing. Sorry dude, but you should've known Hollywood would make things look weird.

One thing that I will say about this season is that it's all over the place. I think, after wrapping up the story all nice with a bow in season 5, they didn't really know what to do, so they just kind of improvised. It was a risky gamble, but it paid off with one or more of the fandom's favorite episodes, and one of the most memorable characters. There were multiple story arcs moving at once (Eve, Soulless!Sam, Ben and Lisa, Cas vs. Raphael) and all of them managed to fit seamlessly together. Despite all of the development that had to fit in a regularly sized season, I didn't really feel like it was rushed, especially not compared to the end of season 5. They managed to blend everything together while still keeping it manageable to understand.

Mostly, I just felt bad for Dean. In the span of weeks, he lost his semi-girlfriend, his son, and his best friend, while still juggling the emotions from his brother's close calls as well as everything else going on. Obviously, he's not the only one struggling (Bobby Singer deserves a vacation) but man, Dean needs a hug and a nap, and then another hug when he wakes up.

Baby. My beloved. The most important object in the universe. Not a prop, but one of (if not the) greatest characters on the show.

I'm so sorry. Baby deserved better. I mean first of all, you're telling me Dean just left her to sit in a garage for a year while he messed around in a station wagon? Who are you and what have you done with Dean Winchester.

And then the Mustang. That made me sick. I couldn't even look at it, it was just horrifying. And then Balthazar played it off like it didn't matter!!! That's the most important object in the universe jerk!!! Pay her some respect!!!

And she got wrecked at the end! That car has been through so much, and she does not need to be crashed into every position possible. She deserves better. Every time something bad happens to that car I die a little inside.

Well, enough about Baby (there will never be enough about Baby). The next season is supposedly about Leviathans, which could get very interesting. I could be wrong, but I also think maybe we meet Charlie next season? Well anyway, this one is usually considered as sort of the "forgotten season" (like Adam), so we'll see how it goes. I'll get started within the next couple of days. Carry on!

[accirax]

i ran out of images again :(

x

and, there we go, the thesis of Ally's character arc! also, i just wanted to point out that they did keep Ally's backpack being ripped consistently, at least at this point. so, it wasn't as bad as it could've been.

okay, i mean this in jest as opposed to a serious critique, but it is pretty funny how Ally is like "i'm not living my life for the sake of others!!!" and then immediately chooses to live her life in a way that helps Jake (an other) and more or less loses because of it. i mean, i guess that, because she doesn't have the gems, she would've lost anyways, so maybe the point doesn't stand.

i see Fiore's been practicing her running since entering the Loser's Motel. Hunter would be proud.

now that's a pro gamer move.

live Kristal reaction:

they never want to give Fiore her cash money :,(

this part KILLED ME (in a comedy way). after all that work they put in to making Connor's allegiances divided between Jake and Ally, as soon as Jake wins and Ally loses, Connor's like "let's go Jake!!!!!!" you can literally see Connor standing off to the side and smiling, fully oblivious to Ally's sorrows. (okay he does look over with pity directly afterwards but it's still funny)

although i'm still a bit disappointed with Ally's 3rd place here (they didn't set up Riya having 10 gems properly, and i think that an Ally/Jake final 2 would have been a more satisfying final 2 pairing as opposed to Riya and Jake, who don't have much personal beef), i at least do appreciate what they're (presumably) going to do with Hunter and Ally here. as Venus said after we watched the episode, giving Ally a full episode to decompress and process her loss will be a nice wrap-up to her character. and then there's the thing where Hunter and Tom were lamenting not being able to help their respective love interests in the finale. while Tom may still be able to help Jake out with the actual challenge, Hunter will be left to support Ally emotionally, which is what Ally really needed all along. i'm excited to see it!

i feel like this will feel even more impactful once their Staff Stories episode comes out.

the parallels here were so good.

wait... are Derek and Trevor going to... take over the show?!?!?!?!?! (/j)

alright, initial thoughts over. F in the chat for Ally, she deserved to be the second-placer of the season. although, i will shoutout @uncertaindestinies229 for their comments on my last power rankings:

this logic made total sense to me, and, it turns out that it'll likely be correct! good job actually taking a moment to sit down and assess the situation, rather than just continuing to ride the "it has to be Riya" based off of prior assumptions, haha.

although, that's not to say that anyone who thought that Riya would be going home here is an idiot or anything. i was right there along with you all :,(

initial thoughts on DCAS episode 20

^ reminder for everyone that this applies to these initial thoughts as well! it was quite the surprising sight to have pop up at the beginning of the episode, though.

... what is Emily's motivation to kill Trevor here, exactly? i guess she took a page out of Riya's book when it comes to pushing gays off of cliffs.

yayyyyyyy, they're finally getting along! :D

does framing people for theft and twisting their already broken ankles count as "working"?

i guess we do know from Aiden in Season 2 that Tom and Jake were the most popular players. it makes sense (especially given the grandparent context Ally goes into), but it was still quite surprising.

i really hope that Tom and Jake talk this out at some point, whether in the finale finale or in the tomjake miniseries, because the truth of the situation is that Tom's absence from Jake's life was contributing to his misery, which was apparently much greater than anyone expected. i know that Tom never intended it to be that way, but i'm also sure that his fooling around with lying about having a boyfriend wasn't doing Jake any favors. i just want to make sure that the inadvertent hurt that Tom caused Jake doesn't get swept under the rug.

haha, it's puns in visual storytelling :)

this is understandable. Riya can and will use your backstory against you.

.......................................sigh

this might sound like an odd critique given how much people love to dunk on DC's writing (especially in All Stars), but i actually think that the ONC writers don't have enough faith in themselves. i mean that in the sense that, across the season, they set up really compelling plotlines and rivalries between both Jake/Ally and Connor/Riya that people will naturally want to see fulfilled.

for Ally and Jake, just being here and being forced to work together after everything they've been through is already enough, especially when Connor's hopes are stacked on top of it as well. we're in it with the characters for the ride. so, we don't need more bits of fake drama, like Jake being petty and shocking Ally out of nowhere last episode, or Ally reacting stupidly to Riya's obvious lie, to keep up invested. we don't need a huge last-minute spectacle to feel like Ally and Jake working together is a big deal, because they've been subtly and slowly convincing us of that through the entire season. instead, diverting from the steady characterization to inject needless drama in is just going to convince everyone that nothing matters.

i don't know if this could be a miscalculated flaw from trying to account for the fact that any viewer could hop in at any time on youtube, or appealing to the youtube/tiktok algorithm, or an internal, insecure standard to insert drama into the show at any cost, but i hope that the writers realize how good they are at using heartfelt scenes to build up character dynamics across entire seasons and stop breaking character for silly plot twists in season 4. i have a lot of faith in the writers. i hope they can find that faith in themselves.

y'know, everyone keeps saying that...

OOH THE MOTION BLUR??? POP OFF ONC ANIMATION TEAM I SEE YOU

the "Ally, you're going there!" sign was so fucking funny

that's not very "i'll never work with or trust Riya again" of you, Grett

i literally said before Riya struck her pose, "i hope that Riya does the 'aren't you gay?' pose when it's her turn" and then she did! it's her signature move for a reason ;D

this is, like, the exact same spot and pose as when Trevor initially found Derek and Kristal kissing. i wonder if that was intentional. also, the Gay Thoughts Montage(tm) was really funny.

why would you do it like that? hasn't Trevor suffered enough...? (/j)

@venus-is-thinking pointed out the hilarity of Jake being the one to say this, as he's one of the two contestants who actually has been in the mines before. i guess it just goes to show how disorienting the bags were.

get his ass!!!

i KNEW Ally was going to make a minecraft reference as soon as Kristal explained the challenge. miiiiiiiiiiiiine diiiiiiiiiiamoooooooonds...

way to keep your eyes on the prize, queen.

we love money laundering!! (i think that's close enough to what money laundering is? also i'm joking, obviously.)

again, what is Emily's motivation here? i know it's technically "get the show canceled to embarass Kristal," but she really believes in that so strongly as to put the lives of six innocents-- including an eight year old-- at risk to do so? idk, i feel like Emily's character fell off the realm of reality into supervillain status. it's sad :(

boy, i sure am glad that we witness Riya and Yul pick up 10 gems in this scene! (/s /j)

very brave, Jake. i feel like this parallels something in s1, although i can't remember what. maybe it's just Alec protecting Fiore? that doesn't seem particularly relevant, unless Jake is also auditioning to be her dad.

James: wait... does that mean Jake and Ally are going to fall madly in love with each other? #rivalstolovers.

they look like paleontological fossils in there. the fuck happened to them?

somebody, quick, give them a miniseries! this is too good of a poster opportunity to pass up!

you have to make sure you strike a slay pose, even as you're dying.

props to the trailer for making it look like Ally was the one who sent the rocks to James' face instead of Riya. that was a fun setup and subversion of expectations!

see, Riya can and will use your backstory against you! i was kind of expecting her to do this to Jake, too, given the setup from earlier in the episode. i guess they might be saving that for the finale proper, though.

(check out the reblog for my thoughts on the ending, i ran out of images)

[thebeautifulfantastic]

i've made several attempts at watching season 4 of the marvelous mrs maisel, but i can only take so much because every character has started to become a little too annoying, and at this point the only arcs i’m still invested in are midge & joel & somewhat lenny, so there’s really no motivation in me to watch the whole season. and yet at the same time i want to say i watched it all the way through so i keep making my way through it in little bits and pieces

[mishasminions]

Here’s why the Supernatural Series Finale Sucked

(AND IT REALLY ISN’T JUST BECAUSE CAS/MISHA WASN’T IN IT)

First of all, I’d like to state, that this perspective is coming from someone who has watched, invested in, and dissected this show for 15 years. I’ve tried to rationalize and justify every single decision each of the main characters made throughout the years, and I’ve always tried to make sense of each of their story arcs from a “bigger picture” standpoint as each season progressed.

Anyway, before I can properly explain why the finale sucked, let me quickly take you through 15 seasons by segregating them into 3 eras, because you can’t really comprehend what Supernatural is about and what it’s become without going through how it tried to expand its universe.

SEASONS 1-5: THE KRIPKE ERA

Now, we all know that Kripke was always set in wrapping up Sam and Dean’s story in 5 seasons, and he did just that.

So, in this era, Supernatural is about two brothers who set out on a journey to fulfill “the family business”. They hunt mythical monsters that terrorize the world, while battling the monsters within themselves. Their ultimate “big bad” is an apocalypse.

Towards the end of this era, we find out that Sam and Dean are actually a parallel to Biblical characters who are brothers turned rivals. And that Sam and Dean’s destiny is to go up against each other.

However, as a dynamic, they have always been about making their own choices, choosing free will, and having a brotherly bond that can power through against any obstacle at any given day.

So, this era is neatly wrapped up with its finale. The characters grow, and get justified endings.

Dean, a man who thinks of himself as two things: 1. Sam’s older brother and protector; and 2. Daddy’s blunt little instrument.

He’s spent his whole life believing that that was his only purpose, and he knew that the only ending he’ll get would either be a bloody death fulfilling his duty to the family business; or laying his life on the line to save his brother.

Dean gets the ending he thought was never possible for him, something he thought he could never deserve. After years of living and dying for his family, he gets a shot at having an apple pie life--to settle down with a nice girl, raise a kid in a house with a white picket fence. With Sam gone, Dean’s responsibility now is to himself.

Sam, on the other hand, never wanted any part of it, because he wasn’t groomed the way Dean was, and because thanks to Dean, Sam wasn’t traumatized or forced into growing up too quickly the way Dean was.

So Sam aspires for a normal life, and works the cases with Dean so he can maybe get some semblance of it, when everything they set out to kill are laid to rest.

Ultimately, Sam performs a selfless act for his brother, who has given up everything for him, and for their cause--to save the world.

The journey is this: Dean sacrifices everything to save Sam, and Sam sacrifices himself so Dean could live.

Apart from being Dean’s “savior” and guardian angel, Castiel’s role in this era is to serve as a mirror to Dean’s journey. Castiel goes from being heaven’s foot soldier, following “God’s orders”; to an angel who learns to choose and feel for the first time in his existence.

After they realize that they’re both daddy’s blunt instruments, Dean starts choosing his own path for himself, and convinces Castiel to join him. Castiel stops following heaven, and starts following Dean.

In the end, with his newfound understanding of the world thanks to Dean, Castiel goes back to heaven to reform it.

We’ve resolved the biblical arc, and the character journeys.

SEASONS 6-10: THE SPIN-OFF ERA

So this is where the show realizes how vast its universe can be, so it tries to expand it by tapping into uncharted lands and experimenting with it.

They take on heaven, reform hell, explore purgatory, have the angels fall, turn Dean into a demon, and kill Death.

Dean and Sam recognize their codependency, and try to rise above it.

They go back and forth between which brother will risk it all for the greater good every other season.

Dean and Cas strengthen their relationship by recognizing the impact they have on each other’s lives.

Cas structures his life and decisions around Dean (Seasons 6-7), and Dean learns to trust and fight for Cas (Seasons 8-9).

Sam and Cas bond (mostly over Dean) because of their shared rationales in decision-making.

Dean, Sam, and even Cas also forge relationships with the people they work with. The concept of “found family” is introduced here.

This era was heavy on the plot while establishing, reinforcing, and solidifying relationships and dynamics.

At this point, it wasn’t just about the brothers anymore.

If Supernatural had ended in Season 10, the logical finale would’ve been Team Free Will, along with the family that they’ve found, going up against the latest big bad (Death or whoever). Maybe they lose them along the way, maybe they all make it out alive, or maybe they go down swinging, but at least the show recognizes and supports the message they keep saying, “Family don’t end with blood”

SEASONS 11-15: THE REWRITE ERA

This is where the show runs out of ideas and decides to invalidate the seasons that came before it.

From bringing Mary back (basically rendering their whole journey pointless because they’ve literally started hunting because of her death), to changing the stipulations in being Michael and Lucifer’s vessels (another character struggle rendered useless), to God himself breaking the fourth wall by saying that the Winchesters get away with everything because “they’re the main characters in his story and everything they’ve been through was just part of a badly written narrative”.

But what we’re getting from this era is that Sam and Dean, along with Cas (who has also deviated from the story) ARE trying to escape a badly written narrative.

That’s the “big bad” in this era. The writer.

At this point, the characters have picked up so many strays (including those from alternate universes), and have settled into their roles in their “found family”. Dean, Sam, and Cas all become surrogate dads and uncles.

They’ve also graduated from the whole “we’re on different sides” and “going behind each other’s backs” drama. And they just want the whole family together.

They’ve all resigned themselves to the cause, but they’re also tired. Dean allows himself to contemplate about wanting more out of life or at least getting a vacation. Sam, on the other hand, realizes his capabilities as an effective leader. Castiel learns to love another being that isn’t Dean (spoiler: it’s Jack).

However, they also realize that they’ve just been puppets on a string all this time.

So what they want now, is to write their own story, and make their own choices knowing that God/the writer isn’t the one fueling their narrative.

So here’s why the finale sucks:

Andrew Dabb, the current showrunner, said that there would be two finales.

15x19 - The finale to wrap up Season 15, and 15x20 - The finale to wrap up the series by “resolving the characters’ journey”

In 15x19 the boys find a way to de-power God/the writer. For the first time in their whole lives, they are free from the story. Their lives are completely theirs now. They can make their own decisions. There are no more “big bads” to fight

And here’s what happens in 15x20:

Immediately after being freed from their story arc, Dean and Sam go back to hunting the monster of the week.

Dean eats pie, gets nailed (literally), makes a 10-minute speech to Sam because he knows he’s dying, then he goes to heaven.

Dean is greeted by Bobby, his surrogate Dad who he hasn’t seen (fully alive) since Season 7. Bobby’s expository dialogue comprises of him explaining that he got out of heaven’s jail, that John and Mary are next door, and that Jack and Cas fixed the dynamics of heaven off-screen.

The first thing Dean decides to do is go for a long drive in his Impala (as if he hasn’t done enough of that already).

Meanwhile, Sam decides to stop hunting after Dean dies, he gets the apple pie life he hadn’t wanted since Season 8 (while Dean was in Purgatory), and names his kid “Dean” for effect. He grows old and dies.

Dean drove around in heaven for so long that Sam catches up to him.

They hug. The end.

Great, right?

After 15 years of struggling to battle their own respective destinies, going up against big bads and even bigger bads, then finally being able to take charge of their own stories, Dean and Sam regress to hunting the monster of the week, and get killed off by a nail and old age. Okay.

Sam gets to retire and have a family, sure, but they still focus on him and the kid he named after his dead brother. Still just “Sam and Dean” through and through. Nothing to do with found family. Just lineage. Just blood. And it ends there.

See, the problem here is that this ending would’ve been passable in The Kripke Era. But we’re 10 years down the road since, and while Sam and Dean are the original main characters, the show isn’t just about them and their codependent relationship anymore.

So you see, even if you take out the whole “Castiel deserves to be in the finale because he’s also a main character with an unfinished story arc” argument, the finale still does no justice to the series it tried to “wrap up”.

But anyway, now I’ll make the case for the problem with Castiel not being in the finale:

In 15x18, we get a 5-minute rushed confession from Castiel to Dean. The context of which are as follows:

1. Earlier in the episode, Dean had wounded Death with her scythe. We later find out that this wound is fatal.

2. Their friends start to “blip out” in a Thanos-like snap, and Dean thinks that Death is causing it, so Dean seeks her out, and Cas goes with him.

3. Dean and Cas anger Death, apparently for no reason because she didn’t even do the thing they thought she did. She chases them to try to kill them

4. Dean and Cas lock themselves in a room. Dean starts a pity party.

5. As Dean goes through hating himself out loud, Cas decides to inform Dean of the deal he made with The Empty. He then proceeds to explain the stipulation of the deal (that he would get taken once he experiences a moment of true happiness), then discusses his newfound happiness philosophy. Dean is getting whiplash.

6. Cas goes on to imply that the one thing that he wanted that he knew he couldn’t have is Dean Winchester reciprocating his romantic feelings for him. (Don’t even try to fight me on this because Cas already has Dean’s platonic love, and he knows that Dean thinks of him as a brother, so if he really meant this in a “familial” way, then why would he think that he couldn’t have the thing that would make him happy?) So Cas’ realization is that telling Dean about his feelings is enough to make him happy.

7. Cas tells Dean all the reasons why he loves him (thereby combating Dean’s self-deprecation tirade), and all the reasons why he’s worthy of his love. Meanwhile, Dean is still winded from the fact that Cas is about to sacrifice himself for him again.

8. Dean never gets to process anything, because Cas is shoving him out of the way, as he and Death (who busts through the door) get taken by The Empty.

After this episode, Dean never speaks of it. Misha Collins supposes that Dean doesn’t reciprocate. Jensen Ackles says that Dean didn’t really get to process it because it was too much, too fast, and that Dean, still dense as ever, thinks that Cas, a celestial being, doesn’t interpret human feelings the same way.

So what was the point of this confession?

Politics and sensitivities of a 2005 network television aside, what does this do for the story?

Cas proclaims his romantic feelings to Dean, but Dean never acknowledges it, doesn’t even give it a passing thought afterwards. So Cas’ big declaration goes unheard.

Cas cashes in on his Empty deal to kill Death (who was dying anyway), in order to save Dean who dies two episodes after.

Dean makes no effort to save Cas (despite being really broken up about his previous deaths, or even spending a whole year in Purgatory looking for him), even after they’ve beaten God, not even asking Jack (who has all the power in the universe) to bring him back (when Jack has already done it before, with less mojo).

Dean moves on to fight the monster of the week. Somewhere off-screen, Jack rescues Cas from The Empty, but Cas uncharacteristically doesn’t even bother to go to Dean? (Every single time he comes back, Dean’s always the first person he goes to)

And Cas, who apparently helped craft and reform the new heaven, isn’t the one who welcomes Dean and explains the new dynamics of it?

Sure, Jan.

Supernatural, you’ve created a finale that only your casual viewers and people who dipped out after Season 5 can appreciate.

Just goes to show how much you actually valued the people who actually invested in your story and characters, and consistently helped keep your show on the air.

[RT this on Twitter]

[makeste]

some follow-up thoughts on BnHA 306

mostly Deku angst, but also a little Baku angst (and some TodoBaku angst) mixed in for good measure. because there’s plenty of angst to go around.

1. “if I’d only been stronger...”

I’ll talk more about Deku later in this post as well, because there’s definitely plenty to talk about; this is the most character development he’s gotten in almost 200 chapters. but for starters, I want to discuss the possible parallels between Deku’s current character arc, and what is arguably the most iconic moment of angst/character development in the series.

remember how this kid, who up until this point had rarely seemed to give two fucks about the world around him, suddenly revealed that he blamed himself for being the downfall of All Might? remember how it came almost out of nowhere? how he’d been hiding it, and trying to suppress it? “but even if I try to forget... sometimes it all just comes rushing back.”

yeah. so anyway, I got to thinking -- if being the cause of one hero’s downfall could affect someone this badly, what about being responsible for the downfall of all heroes?

what if a boy who wanted nothing more than to keep people safe suddenly found himself at the epicenter of a disaster that killed hundreds, possibly even thousands of people?

now obviously, this is not the sole thing that’s troubling Deku right now; this kid has a whole array of traumas as of the War arc. like, you know it’s bad when Society As We Know It Coming To An End Partially Because Of You is the least of your problems. but still, I think this is worth bringing up, because the hero kids blaming themselves for things that aren’t their fault is hardly anything new. and yet, what with everything else that’s been going on -- all of the Todoroki drama, and Vestige revelations, and hospital antics, and political strife -- I feel like it’s easy to forget or overlook this little detail.

the fact is that AFO put this entire plan into motion solely in the hopes of finally obtaining OFA. every single thing that happened at Jakku -- Tomura powering up; Machia waking up and going on his rampage (after being ordered to do so by Tomura); and even Dabi/Touya choosing this moment to finally strike (because he knew this was when the reveal would do the maximum damage -- when people’s faith in heroes was already wavering) -- every last bit of it can ultimately be traced back to AFO’s desire to steal OFA. which, obviously, makes it AFO’s fault, not Deku’s. but then, Kamino wasn’t actually Katsuki’s fault either. it wasn’t his fault the villains went after him (but he blamed himself anyway), and it wasn’t his fault that people got hurt in the ensuing battle to save him (but he blamed himself anyway).

just. I think we’re underestimating just how strong of an impact all of this likely had on Deku. we haven’t really had the chance to see him process it yet. he’s been too busy, and there have been too many other things going on. but I’m telling you guys, that empty look in his eyes in the final page of the chapter? I can all but guarantee you that at least some of that emotional weight is coming from this.

sure would be nice if he had a friend who knew exactly what that was like, and could help him process the guilt and all of the other associated emotions, just like Deku once helped him. unfortunately I’m not so sure things will be that easy this time around. anyways though let’s move on to a couple of other thoughts and speculations.

2. “...and I bullied him.”

one of my least-favorite BnHA fanfic tropes is the one where the rest of class 1-A somehow finds out about Katsuki and Deku’s history -- i.e. that Katsuki bullied Deku throughout most of their childhood. mind you, it’s not the concept itself that I dislike; it’s mostly how it’s used. a lot of times it’s just an excuse to have all of the other kids turn on Katsuki and ostracize him; either because the author thinks that’s what he deserves, or else so that Deku can eventually come to his rescue and defend him and shame the rest of the class for not seeing how much he’s changed. either way, it’s usually pretty awkward to read, and more often than not the characters are pretty OOC (especially Ochako and Todoroki).

however! there’s a big difference between fanfic and canon, and just because I’m not a fan of this trope in the former doesn’t mean it couldn’t be executed well in the latter. and lately I’ve been thinking about this a lot. mainly for three reasons:

the recent (can we still call it recent?? well whatever) scene where Katsuki confessed to All Might that he used to bully Deku is now one of my favorite scenes in the entire series, and proof that this can be executed well.

both Todoroki and Deku have finally had their respective big secrets revealed to the rest of the class. so like, idk. feels like it just might be secret-revealing season now, you know?

and lastly, as a result of Deku’s secret about OFA finally being revealed, the rest of 1-A now either knows, or can extrapolate, that he used to be quirkless.

and from there, I feel like it’s not all that hard to put two and two together with how terrible Kacchan and Deku’s relationship was when they first started at UA. that’s not a terribly difficult puzzle to solve. so I feel like it might come out anyway, and if so, I’d prefer Bakugou telling them himself, and taking responsibility as part of his atonement process. because we know that he regrets it. we know their relationship has changed. we know that he has changed. and so I think I might like to see this.

alternately, if confessing to the entire class is too much, at the very least I could see him confessing to Shouto, because I’ve always felt like this was one of the big things that made Katsuki so resistant to letting Todoroki call him a friend. because I feel like there’s a part of Katsuki that saw the parallels between Endeavor’s abuse of Shouto and his own bullying of Deku, and thought, he wouldn’t be so quick to call me his friend if he actually knew the truth. and so there’s actually been this roadblock wedged between them this whole time that Shouto doesn’t even know about. because Shouto hates Endeavor. and so it’s not such a leap to assume he’d hate Katsuki too if he knew just how terrible he’d been to Deku when they were younger.

not that I think he actually would! actually I don’t think either of those things is actually true (because Shouto clearly doesn’t hate his father either, in spite of everything that’s happened). but the point isn’t what I think -- the point is what Katsuki thinks. and I really do think there’s a good chance he’s worried about Shouto hating him, and it’s one of the things that’s made him so reluctant to accept his friendship. anyway, so I’m really just rambling now, but you get my point. I don’t know if this is actually going to happen, but it’s a scene I would like to see if Horikoshi decides to indulge me.

3. “...so when you wake up, please give him my best.”

and now, as promised, back to Deku.

ngl guys, when I first saw this image, my immediate thought was that Gran must have died. because I mean, hello, leaving U.A.?? donning himself in his teacher’s old cape?? empty, exhausted look in his eyes?? what else were we supposed to think lol.

but maybe that was an overreaction. because when I think about it more, Gran’s death isn’t strictly necessary in order to push Deku over the edge. first of all, there’s already the whole “hero society is in ruins now because of you” thing I mentioned earlier. but also, there are just so many other things. like, let’s just list them here because omg. what a rough couple of days this kid had.

he was forced to battle TomurAFO and was terribly injured in the process (most of which was his own fault, but he wouldn’t have gone that far with OFA unless he felt like he had no choice)

and it wasn’t just him that was injured, either. in fact, even though he tried to act as bait to keep everyone else safe, he wasn’t able to stop three of the people closest to him from nearly being killed right before his eyes

and of course that last one was especially traumatic, because it was Kacchan, and because he had to watch Kacchan nearly die just to protect him. out of all the things that Deku witnessed in this arc, this might be the one that had the biggest impact on him

he was also basically helpless to do anything to protect Shouto and Endeavor when Dabi showed up. so again, we have this running theme of people he cares about being hurt and him not being able to save them

and he also got sucked into the OFA Interstellar Dream Vortex for a brief spell during the battle, during which he learned that AFO had possessed Tomura. more importantly, he learned that Tomura was Nana’s grandson, a fact which was only briefly touched on during that scene, but which I think wound up being the trigger to the whole avalanche that ended with Deku leaving UA. but more on that in a moment

anyway so just to wrap this all up, the battle eventually ended, Tomura got away despite all of their efforts, and then Deku wound up comatose in the hospital for two days. which brings us to the most recent chapters, during which

Deku learns that he will be the last wielder of OFA, whether he likes or not

Deku learns the identity of the last two mystery OFA users

and then at some point, he wakes up and presumably talks to Gran, and winds up with his cape

something happened during these last two scenes which helped to push Deku over the edge. I won’t delve into the matter of the Second or Third users for now, although most of you already know my suspicions regarding that, and I do think that would fit into the general pattern here (that is, the pattern of Deku feeling more and more strongly that he is putting the people around him in danger, and his fear of losing them becoming so overwhelming that it eventually pushes him to leave).

but that’s not what I want to talk about for now. what I want to talk about is Gran. specifically, what it is that Deku discussed with Gran. and this is where we come back to that reveal I mentioned earlier -- that Tomura is Nana’s grandchild.

basically, what I think happened is that Deku mentioned seeing Nana in the OFA Zany Psychedelic Spirit Void, which led to the topic of Tomura, and the fun fact Deku recently learned about him being related to Nana. this, in turn leads to Gran divulging his various regrets about everything that happened with him and Nana and Kotarou. his intent is to apologize to Deku for placing the burden of their failures on him. unfortunately, the part that Deku actually gets fixated on instead is this:

All for One hunted down and killed Nana’s son (and probably her husband as well), and stole her grandchild and psychologically tortured him into becoming a mass murderer, for no other reason than that Nana had once held OFA

in other words, AFO can and will hurt and kill anyone Deku is close to, anyone who has any kind of connection to him at all, without mercy, and regardless of whether it actually gives him any kind of tactical advantage or not. he’ll do it simply to hurt him. no other reason necessary.

I don’t know about you, but for me that would be a terrifying realization. and for Deku, I think it just might have been the tipping point.

so, let’s recap.

Deku learns that AFO is after him

AFO/Tomura very nearly kills several of Deku’s most important people, including Kacchan

and then he learns that this is just the tip of the iceberg, and realizes that all of their lives are still in danger and will continue to be as long as Deku is AFO’s target

and then add to all of this the misplaced guilt about society already being shambles, and the heroes already having more than enough to worry about. they’re barely holding things together as it is. and we already know how Deku feels about being a burden to them:

and so instead, he leaves. of course he does. in hindsight, I think this was inevitable.

the question is, did anyone else also put the pieces together in time to realize what Deku was planning before he actually left? specifically, did Katsuki, who understands Deku’s self-sacrificial nature better than anyone else, see the signs and put two and two together? like he did back at Jakku?

and if he did, would Deku have been willing to accept his help again?

somehow, I can’t help but think it might not be that easy this time.

anyway, so that was a lot of rambling, lol. sorry about that. I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS about all of this angsty shit. tired nomad Deku needs hugs and comfort and someone to reassure him that he doesn’t have to face this alone, and that everything is going to be all right. HE IS JUST A LITTLE BOY. this is too much, and I cannot handle any of these feels, and oh my god, somebody please help him.

[nelavili]

I'm still processing Season 6 and as an unpopular opinion I'm not too happy about it as a whole. I feel horrible for not enjoying it as much as the Cast/Crew would like me to, but I just can’t change this feeling I have.

Just to clear my head I'll write the things down that irked me. I don't want to start any discussion, they're only my thoughts on stuff ‘n thangs. Huge spoilers ahead, please don’t read if you haven’t watched.

Michael

I admit it, I have probably more sympathy for the bad twin than I should. And after the whole S5 I thought we get a bit more closure with him. I didn’t expect a redemption arc, after Michael killed Remiel, Dan and Chloe it would have felt wrong. But after the “Everyone deserves a second chance” the dude is down in hell, scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush. Really, Lucifer? That’s cruel after such a righteous line.

When Luci realized he could help everyone, even if he hated them, I hoped for a dive into the twins’ relationship but it was like Michael didn’t even existed anymore. And if someone needed therapy it would be the twin with the huge inferior complex. That could have been so interesting. (I had hoped that he'd sat on the couch at the end, but noooo we get the Frenchman.. such a disappointment.)

Maybe Tom Ellis didn’t want to play 2 roles again, or there was no time, but I feel that was a huge opportunity wasted.

What even was the plan of Michael? To get God to retire and wreck havoc on earth to get Dad back, so Mickey can take over as the new God? And then what? Wipe out humanity? I see no endgame here.

Ella

I liked Ella’s Story so far. But she stole the personal file of Carol and even broke into his house.. and everybody is cool with this? Carol might be crushing on Ella pretty hard but if somebody tells you they broke into your house, because they feared you were hiding something bad, You run for the hills. But the dude isn’t even phased.

I’m glad Carol is a good guy, though. Even if he’s kind of bland.

Ella finding out the truth on her own came out of nowhere. I would have found it better if they would have her act a little suspicious over the whole S5. But since they wrote S6 while S5 was shot, a little to late for this.

The scene at the wedding was amazing. I had so much fun with her outburst there.

Dan

Ghost!Dan was my favorite by far in this season. And I really liked how he wanted to help and tried to find out what he still felt guilty about.

I am so glad he got to spend his afterlife with Charlotte and I laughed so hard with the pudding. Didn’t expect that, in a positive matter. :D

The scene with Trixie killed me. Bawled so hard as soon as Kevin got teary eyes. That really gripped at my heartstrings.

But how could he go to heaven while in a body of a killer when his daughter stands right next to that killer?

Comedy-wise Dan is top notch

Trixie

I missed her so much.

It felt like she was an afterthought with everything. She recently lost her Dad and Chloe spends most of the time with Lucifer. I really missed the scenes with her and Luci, they always were so adorable.

They explain it later that she’s at a science camp, but I honestly thought Chloe chooses Lucifer (and later Rory too) over her.

She wasn’t at Chloe’s deathbed but here I’m not sure if the scene with Rory isn’t placed somewhere at the threshold to heaven where only celestials are able to enter. But if she wasn’t there because Chloe sidelined her in favor of Rory, then I can understand her absence.

Linda

I love Linda, she always gives good advice but nobody’s ever took it.

Her book probably would fly under the fantasy tag if she ever published it. Still, it felt cringey.

It was so sad that she thought she was a bad therapist.

Apparently she wants to keep helping celestials because it’s better than helping humans. In the end, celestials have the same problems as humans just on a bigger scale. But okay.

Amenadiel

Amenacop was good, and a nice nod to Dan who put in the application.

It made him realize that he only can change things when he has more power. I’m white and no american so I don’t know if the BLM theme there was well enough executed. Got me wondering.

The apocalypse just being Angels who are incompetent was a letdown. Like this whole season.

I really like him as god. And I am glad he took the position in the end. Even if he could have decided this a bit earlier.

Rory

I like her sarcasm and her character.

Didn’t like the whole time travel, time loop and daughter spiel. I’m not a big fan of time travels or couples getting a kid just for the sake of a happy end or to add extra drama. I could have lived without a Deckerstar baby. Instead they could have focused on Trixie for a change.

The time she spent with Lucifer on the 4th August was precious though.

How in hell did the Frenchman capture her? How did he even know how she looked? IIRC Dan hasn’t seen Rory while in that body. Dan just went over to Trixie that’s why I thought he’d capture her and not Rory.

Lucifer

He found his calling to help the souls in hell only because Rory traveled back in time? No man, he already took the step with Jimmy Barnes in preparation to take over as god. I don’t think it’s far fetched to believe that he would have the same epiphany without Rory there.

But without Rory, he wouldn’t have been helping Ghost!Dan to go to heaven. Though, before Rory traveled back in time, Lucifer was already trying to help Dan. They probably would have needed more time to figure out about what Dan felt guilty about, but figure it out anyways.

How did he even got Chloe pregnant? Was it his subconscious deciding he was ready to be a father? Amenadiel had to believe that he was human to get Linda pregnant. Or maybe it’s because they always thought they couldn’t impregnate a human and self-actualized it that way. Anyways, it’s a tiny hang-up I have with it.

Somebody else besides me thought that the scene in the panic room was awkwardly long? I know they thought Lucifer would vanish somehow, but it seemed too much to me.

His singsong while the magician talked about the trick. :D

I don’t want to even get into the whole time loop thing because I think it’s ridiculous(ly bad).

It took a lot of time for him to realize that he didn’t want to be god, after he put it on hold for a second time. Even Chloe could have asked him if that is really what he wanted. Could have spared us an episode or so. Why is the communication on this show so bad? Q.Q

I loved that he helped Maze with Eve to get the wedding back on after their fight.

He didn’t say goodbye to Trixie  - again. What a nice step-devil..

It’s been Chloe, Rory and his family since he found out she’s his daughter. Not even mentioning the one kid who probably loved him before even Chloe fell for him.

For someone who is all about free will and led a rebellion against God for it, he was quick to accept that he has a “fate”. I thought he’d find another way, or at least try to. Nope, he just did what his child wanted. And they disguised it at his “choice”. Doesn’t look like a choice to me if your daughter begs you for it and you have to promise it. Just getting along with what your child wants.

Why does everyone need to shoot him? Just cut him until he bleeds. The Americans and their fixation on guns. Nice parallel to Chloe though.

Lucifer trying to fix the relationship to Rory with gifts was so cringey. I don’t know why but I couldn’t watch him sing/dance in that scene.

Both him and Amenadiel didn’t want to become like their Dad because of the reasons stated in S5, yet Lucifer exactly did. Another letdown.

 

Chloe

As soon as she knew Rory was her and Lucifer’s daughter it was all only about Lucifer and Rory. No thought of Trixie? I understand she was worried about being a bad mother to Rory, but come on, you’re being a bad mother to your first child right now.

She was ready to go to heaven with Lucifer. And Trixie does what exactly without her parents? Living with her Grandma because one of her parent died and the other one is abandoning her? It’s like the writers forgot about Trixie while forcing Rory on us.

The addiction to the necklace got old pretty fast.

And that whole fight against Lucifer felt unnecessary just to add more drama.

She gets mad at Lucifer for not telling her everything while not telling him that she went back to the LAPD. It’s Lucifer, he always has things on his plate. Double moral, pretty much.

She looked so gorgeous at the wedding, oh my god.

Most of the Deckerstar scenes were good. I got tired of the obvious naked cuddle times, surprisingly. Somehow it felt not like the ones in S5 and it bothered me.

I thought Chloe would finally get to know about everything Lucifer did for her, but I didn’t expect her to read it in Linda’s book. And that she only took away that he left her every time they had an emotional breakthrough.

They spend Lucifer’s last day at the beach and once again, no thought of Trixie. I’m sorry I repeat myself here so often. But this whole season wronged Trixie so much.

They face the baddie without any backup.  At least get Amenadiel with you.

Other things

The use of music between scenes was too much for me. Got annoying at some point.

I appreciate that they wanted to show us snippets of past Deckerstar scenes but here too, I felt like it was too much.

Couldn’t really follow the timeline. Maybe it were the cuts.

What’s been the point of bringing Adam into the mix? Just to wrap up Maze and Eve’s story? For Linda having another celestial to therapy?

The animation in the Jimmy Barnes Hell loop was AMAZING. I laughed so hard.

I’m not saying that Deckerstar shouldn’t have sacrificed everything for the time loop to stay intact, I say that the whole daughter-time travel plot shouldn’t have had happened. They never even talked about having kids, and then ignore the whole existence of the one kid that’s already there.

I really need all the Michaella fanfics, please. My first ship that’s actually a raft, because they never officially have met. RIP lmao

The acting was great as usual, all my problems come from the writing and the plot.

In the end, I really feel frustrated, underwhelmed and disappointed by the whole season. I didn’t have high expectations other than the same writing quality like S5. My excitement for that Season died as soon as Rory told Lucifer that she’s his daughter, to be honest. I waited for a plot twist that never came. Then the whole time loop shit.  I’d rather have waited one more year for S6 if the plot would have made more sense, since this felt like a first draft of a whole other show. And now I wished that S5 would have been the last season. If I could travel back in time, I’d rather not watch S6.

I can honestly live with the fact that Luci and Chloe are in hell, trying to help souls to get to heaven. (But hello, not the murderers perhaps? Or I want Michael sitting on that couch right now.) But the fact that both “chose” to sacrifice their time together with their family and friends just because it’s fate now and parents have to make sacrifices for their children; and anyways there’s an afterlife because (human) life is just a blip in our existence… nah thank you. I do not want it.

I’m probably not gonna rewatch S6 anytime soon.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S5 Ep 19: Yugi and the Only Neck Accessory He Didn’t Really Want to Wear

Been busy! Hopefully stuff will open up soon as I’m taking a hiatus on a different quarantine project and will be finishing painting the entire roof of my car this week? One can hope. Sanding the rust off the whole top of a car takes a long time it turns out?

Also, fun Yugioh fact, I recently painted a book cover for an author who is older so she’s never seen the show, and she looked at my tumblr, saw my Duke Devlin fanart and was like “That’s him. That’s my main character. OMG. You captured him perfectly!” and I was like “Ma’am that is Duke Devlin, hence the single dice earring on his lobes there, but we can work with this.” and now a spiritual Duke Devlin is on the cover of a Wuxia-style fantasy trilogy on the Vella. Had to give him a top knot and delete the eyeliner for Wuxia reasons but uh, that’s just Duke.

So long story short, fanart can get you work, don’t even worry about posting that stuff online because most people don’t even know it’s fanart anyway and older ladies freakin love it.

Back in Yugioh, the team was doing their best to navigate a map through the woods and they do about as well as they normally do.

And inside Tristan lifted up the floorboards and was like “I found the only way out, this is it, this is the only way.”

And they ended up in something that has a color scheme I would actually associate with a jungle. Finally. We have finally left California (in order to go to another Hell.)

Youknow, when we went to California, we visited Hell, and when we went to India, we also took a stop at the nearest death destination. There’s just so much death on this show and sometimes I forget because there’s been a ghost in our party for so freakin long it’s been normalized.

(read more death imagery under the cut)

Joey freaks out at a flock of crows and reveals in this episode something I never realized about him before.

Like I’m not always the perfect observer as I’m sure you’ve noticed, but I love that this is canon for probably only this episode, but I will never forget it for the entirety of this series.

You go on hating birds, Joey.

Bro was like “Maybe it’s a deep cut about Mai Valentine because she’s a harpy lady” but eh...pretty sure we spent like an entire season of Joey telling us that Mai was a good experience? Would be incredibly funny if immediately after all of S4, Joey was like “You know what? Screw Mai, guys.”

So my thoughts...it’s probably just a literal bird experience. Like I had a friend who hated deer because once she went to a petting zoo, got some pellets to feed the deer, but her finger was sticking up, so when the deer came over to nibble on some pellets her finger went up it’s nose by accident. She was so disgusted by this event that was entirely her fault, that she brought up how much she hated deer basically whenever we saw one.

So like...maybe Joey fed a bird wrong at a petting zoo. I can see him getting bit by a parrot because he was too Joey Wheeler.

But now that we’re in a graveyard neighborhood, Pharaoh decides to hop out because there’s a lot of ghosts here and he needs to practice socializing with his peers.

So that’s just a Yugioh monster doing the ostrich dance, right? Like this is a meme from like 2010 but on Yugioh in 2003(4?)

Good to see the Ostrich dance here in the land before Vine.

So they pull out their Pokemon to do some antics, Tea looked like she was about to do something useful, and Yami does a yump across time and space to get her as far away from playing (not)cards as quickly as possible and y’all...sure was a position these animators animated.

Holy crap.

And I was going off about that scene last season where they woke up in the same bed like...

...have these two been together this entire time? Like together together?

They’re like...way more comfortable than you’d figure they’d be considering Yugi nearly passes out every time he gets a hug. But Yami just like....How long has this been going on? As long as Joey’s fear of birds?

Like obviously this show would never cover what the hell Yugi may be thinking about this overreaching move here, because we’re gonna gloss right over that, and just run away up a flight of stairs. No one mentions this ever again. Which is mind blowing for an anime to do. I think in most anime I watch, the kids would be like “ahh ahhhh I bumped into a booooob!” like it does for I want to say every other episode of My Hero Academia. But in Yugioh, they saw that low hanging fruit and they were like “we expect a higher level of maturity out of our audience. Now here’s a fleet of ostrich dancing tree monsters with faces for crotches.”

They decided to sprint up this flight of stairs, and it enough of a slope to deter the monsters who are only unbalanced weird legs.

I want us to take a moment and admire this background painting. I can’t unsee the rocks that are all the same size, just piled on top of eachother. Did Alexander the Great just plop rocks here--or was the mountain made up of tons of similarly shaped boulders?

Like there’s a lot of nice bg’s in this arc, don’t get me wrong, but this one...I’m just trying to wrap my head around the logic of it.

At the top, they meet a pantheon, that is immediately blocked by this wall, because if this arc had a tagline, it’s “Yugi gets inconvenienced every 4 seconds.”

Bro was like “Clearly they would have pushed it over if Tea wasn’t slacking off” and like...she is actually. Look at her. Only used one hand? Slacker.

Joey was disappointed he couldn’t push over a massive wall, and the team decided not to analyze how much Joey Wheeler thinks of his own strength and instead fixate on these statues.

Usually in anthro characters they kinda look birdlike but act human. But what about an anthro that’s just a bird? Like human torso, but can turn his head 180 degrees? Yugioh made me ask this question.

And then Joey was like “wait, there may be a solution that isn’t just to use brute strength!”

Youknow it is a bummer that Kaiba couldn’t witness Joey own a dragon while he himself only has a robot jet dragon. Although, the jet is probably faster, stronger and overall...better than this baby dragon. It would have been great for Kaiba to witness Joey under-utilize this dragon and forget he has it for like huge swatches of the episode.

And then Grandpa pulled some body horror out of nowhere.

Wow.

I mean that is really gross.

I guess Grandpa can’t use Blue eyes, because Kaiba ripped it up, Grandpa can’t use Exodia because Weevil tossed it off a boat, and grandpa can’t use the card that’s just a building because...it’s a building.

So instead Grandpa has a bunch of meat and bones that look like something out of Doom. It’s probably from a more obscure Konami property, but I forget which.

I’ve seen Tristan hold back Joey in this hold, first time it’s been Tea.

So much shipping in this episode, it’s wild.

It’s also wild how low my standards are for what could possibly be shipping when it comes to Yugioh because of how freakin tepid all of these characters are, which as I’ve brought up before, I really don’t mind.

So Yugi decides that because Grandpa was folding his arms like one monster and it made a gem light up or something, to just do the video game thing and use the giant ass statues as clues.

Why was this arc not a video game? Like parts of it really feel like it was meant to be.

So Yugi falls down a hole, where the walls cave in like it’s that dumpster in Star Wars but like...it barely phases him.

Also...Yugi might be able to see in the dark. It’s never been brought up but like...the more I think about it...has Yugi ever struggled to see without the lights on?

After Joey disappoints everyone, he confronts death.

And Pharaoh and Yugi decide to solve the puzzle of “how do I get out of this trap dungeon room” which, honestly, is probably what they’re doing every time they hang out in the brain pyramid.

So they summon their mascot monster, and surprisingly the show decided its ability to fly cannot help them out here.

Kuriboh manages to become enough of a doormat to push Yami up to the stone and they end up in a set of weird cuts that ended in this?

Like seriously it was like flashes of light and then they were just...up here like this.

Hey like...

Alexander the Great, my man...

Were you planning to put that stone in the middle of a exhaust vent hoping someone would touch it? Because there’s no way anyone would rationally have done that. You would need to fly to do it. This is the world’s worst DM.

Like Yugioh pulls a lot of fantasy nonsense but this arc is a lot more like a “it’s a kid’s show, just go with it.” arc than most of them. It’s not a bad vibe, necessarily, it’s just not the vibe I’m used to.

So once I witnessed maybe the most boring conversation I’ve ever witnessed about corn (this was on a twitch stream, by the way, a guy was playing an interesting game, and then a guest came on and started talking about corn and plants for 2 hours) and they would not shut up about how all taxonomy is wrong because there are no such thing as trees and how all animals are labelled incorrectly, and then they started comparing it to like all sorts of mushrooms and phytoplankton as you would if you clearly got a little bit high before dumping your corn knowledge on a twitch stream.

Anyway, after that bizarre experience I suffered so I could learn how to play an obscure video game, I think I can safely say, that while I know everyone here thinks a bird can’t be a dog. If you’re a high biologist: a bird is absolutely a dog. Apparently you can just do that if you’re the most boring biologist alive and no one will argue with you because to do that would involve talking to you. We’ll just say a bird is a dog and no one can fight me or I will talk about the corn book that this guest on this twitch chat was thinking about renting from the library about the different types of corn mutations inherent in freakin Indiana. Therefore, Joey’s fear of birds and dogs is same.

So they use Dark Magician to save them from the statues, and Yugi busts into the pantheon again because they got to open this casket before a time limit that I kind of forgot about, tbh.

And inside the casket, is...this thing!

(enjoy this line on the bottom of the image I don’t feel like fixing it)

And you may say to yourself...it looks like it’s just floating in mid-air, that’s silly, and so I want to introduce you to the next panel where you can see that it is...quite literally...just floating in the air like a video game.

and it just slurps itself onto Yugi before he can be like “nonono.”

Wasn’t there some horror movie where you were stuck in some sort of body brace that slowly tortures you (was that Saw?) This has that vibes. Like man that looks uncomfortable to wear over a jacket and two belts and a collar that is another belt.

That and I...I gotta appreciate that Yugi popped his collar while wearing body armor and chunky necklace. What 00′s fashion appreciation right there.

Bit like...this isn’t breathable, right? Like Yugi’s gonna finally take this thing off and his jacket will just be completely soaked in sweat?

Anyway, that’s it for this post, next week we’ll see if Yugi can walk through a doorway in that thing.

Also, I can’t bring up the ostrich dance without sharing the vines of my generation

[soup-du-silence]

Idk if we’re still talking about this but I am SO mad we never got ANYTHING about Lena and her adoptive family (outside of violet- actually, no. We should have had more Lena and violet as well) like... really? We’re just gonna skip over the abuse victim learning to love and live with her new family? I know it’s probably because Disney didn’t want gay dads to have more screen time, but come on! It felt like Lena had a huge change between friendship hates magic and Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks and we never got to see it!

Oh I'll probably always have something to say about it lol. Every other day this week I've slammed open the door to twitter to go "AND ANOTHER THING..." because the more I think about it, the more I find something to get mad about. Maybe its not the most productive mindset to have, but honestly releasing frustrations on stuff that ultimately doesn't matter has been very therapeutic.

Okay, so. The bulk of season 3 was sort of "wrap-up" episodes for secondary and tertiary characters that weren't gonna get attention in the finale. Some of these episodes really struggled to find something to say about those characters, especially if their stuff wrapped up pretty nicely in the course of season 2, victims of "we write every season as though it was our last." Lena's arc is one of those. In Killmotor Hill, she gains confidence to believe in herself as a unique person and to stand up to magica. By the S2 finale she's slinging spells with no problems. So when it came time to revisit and send Lena off in season 3, they had to manufacture some new problem for her.

And the phantom and the sorceress sucked.

The manufactured problem (lenas powers are unpredictable and she hates them) was already resolved in season 2. The solution (webby suggests they go to magica for help) fucking sucks. Webby would put herself between Lena and Magica at any cost. But its very urgent that they fix lenas problems and stop the blot from stealing magic because SCROOGE is trapped in another dimension. Also gladstone is there because everyone was asking the crew about magicstone probably around the time this episode was being pitched. Or whatever.

Sigh.

Anyway they should have torn this episode down to the foundation and set it in the sabrewing household.

Its baffling to me that they never said on screen ONCE where Lena is living. There are two context clues: "sister from another mister" which is just a ....thing people say, very specifically about people who are not their siblings, and Lena and Vi sharing a bed in the christmas episode, which looks way more like a sleep-over than it would have if they had given them separate beds. Make Lena look like a permanent fixture and not that shes just crashing for the night.

But if we had set the phantom and the sorceress at the sabrewing home, we could have seen it. We could have seen lena and violet defend their family, or the dads try to protect them, we could have seen how much they love her. One of the dads could have shouted mindfulness techniques or something when she fumbles in a fight, implying they've been helping her through therapy. Blot could have still been there, magica could have still been there, both convening at the same time to take lenas magic with varying levels of effectiveness... but the episode absolutely should have been centered on what Lena needs for herself, not what she needs to do for scrooge or gladstone.

I suppose ty and Indy would have to be more than cardboard cutouts in the background for that to happen, though. 🙃

Somewhere along the line, Ducktales stopped being a show that wanted to tell interesting stories full of heart that sometimes got kind of dark. I want to say...around the time Della came back? Because the stuff about Lena in season 1 was really dark and compelling and the early stuff about Della in season 2 was good (she amputated her own leg!!) but round about the time she got integrated into the cast and we started focusing on the moonlanders and not how she had to learn how to be a person in society again with kids she doesnt know, it kind of all became....cameos and catchphrases. Like the show didnt want to get deep or challenging anymore.

Anyway yeah they did Lena really dirty.

[modern-oedipus]

The Promised Neverland S2 EP1 Review

The anime is well up to six episodes by the time I am writing this, but I finally put time aside to devour the second season of The Promised Neverland. As much as my time permits, I want to write analysis posts for each episode!

Before we start, here is a reminder that I read all of the TPN manga, so I may compare some scenes, which may be spoilery for anime-onlys. Also, I heard that the anime skipped Goldi Pond arc, dismissing some of our favorite characters like Yuugo, and bringing Norman up significantly early compared to the built-up in the manga. However, as much as I’m disappointed that we will not see Yuugo animated, I’m going to start this season without holding any prejudice. In fact, I think it’s nice to see that anime is taking a different path, both because I can now enjoy something new and maybe even get surprised, and it may open doors for a remake in future, which calls for more TPN content!

Anyway, let's get to the point!

I love this opening. It gives flashbacks to the TPN trailer, but it highlights the word “cruel” a lot more when there is a demon following them from behind, rather than the trailer where they were looking at a beautiful sunrise.

This screenshot is called Nostalgia and it hits me so hard. In fact, it is hitting me extra hard because the last year I properly remember is 2019, since 2020 was not… lived in the way we are used to. That’s why TPN feels more like an anime that aired last year- and I’m feeling like I’m back home.

Holy shit, this opening is so good- I’m not so good at pointing out visual details but, these are not just random people, I think they’re our babies, right? I can spot Ray, Lani and Gilda..? The hint of rabbits to humans to demons was so well-put. It’s like the food chain, and the opening is really quick to pace up, which is good- I LOVE songs that START RIGHT OFF THE BAT! NO NEED FOR A BUILD UP! BE BRAVE! SHOW UP! I LOVE THIS!

Is this… is this a foreshadowing of that major thing that happened in the manga? I almost teared up. I missed these children so much. I wasn’t putting TPN Season 2 aside because I don’t care about the anime coming out, no- I was waiting until I was properly available so that I could stop, watch and devour, just like how I watched Banana Fish. (Looks like it’ll take a long while for me to catch up with six episodes. :P)

MY BABIES!!!! MY ABSOLUTE BABIES!!! THEIR TIME SKIP APPEARANCES ARE FINALLY ANIMATED! My heart can’t take this sdgsdlg. Emma my baby. You were so good before manga utterly disappointed me, that’s why I’m glad anime is taking a different path. Despite the general rage in the fandom, I’ll actually give a chance to the anime, because I personally wasn’t happy with the way manga ended. So maybe anime can offer a different sight! ANYWAY, I’M SURE SOMEONE MUST HAVE POINTED OUT BEFORE BUT??? THE FACT THAT THEY SAVED NORMAN’S SIDE ON THE TRIO FRAME EMPTY?? MEANS SO MUCH. It’s like. We didn’t forget you, Norman. We love you, Norman.

Skip to the first frame.

THEY REALLY STARTED FROM THE VIDA FLOWER!!! If only you didn’t exist, you hoelower.

Spot the difference between a serotonin molecule and Ray, if you may. I dare you.

SAME EMMA, SAME. HE IS GORGEOUS AND PRECIOUS AND ALIVE AND SAVED AND OUTSIDE AND BREATHING AND SAFELY WRAPPED AROUND HIS SCARF. YES. FUCKING YES.

I love you fucking much, you have no idea. You’re the best boy on the earth. I’m so happy. I love you so much. I wish Ash had a happy ending like you as well. But no. Ash had to suffer. (For those who don't know, it's a reference to the anime Banana Fish.)

Continued in the comment section.

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep1 and 2

After what’s felt like an eternity, we’re finally back to our good old fashioned anime about trauma and murder :)

Like with my posts about Gou, this will contain spoilers for all of the original series.

Anyway, thoughts under the cut.

Continuing on from how the second half of Gou went back in time to show Satoko’s descent into villainy, Sotsu is starting off by going back to Onidamashi and showing what was happening from Rena’s point of view, as a way of basically doing it’s own version of the answer arcs from the VN.

This isn’t 100% the same as either Onikakushi or Tsumihoroboshi, but effectively these two episodes were still almost entirely taken from material in the VN, which reminds me of how I still think that this show is more of a reboot than people would like to admit. Even if in practice it’s probably still better to just read the VN first and then watch all of this. I just feel like a lot of VN readers are going to end up kinda bored with this because of how much of it is just retreading stuff from the VN, like with the first half of Gou.

Anyway, I’m entirely on board with this being a new take on the answer arcs, and thus far I think the execution has been done really well. Rena ended up getting kinda sidelined in Gou, so I like how they’re really focusing on her perspective in this. It’s obviously not quite as in-depth as the VN, especially if this arc is just going to be one more episode long, but like with Gou I think they’re doing a great job of getting across the characterization and development without many internal monologues or anything.

Although this ended up basically playing out the same way as Rena killing Rina in Tsumihoroboshi, it turns out that this version of Rina has gone through the same sort of character development as Teppei did, and now she’s way more sympathetic than she was in the VN, with her wanting to cut ties with Rena’s father out of sympathy instead of just being out to extort all of his money no matter what. The way that this new series has been going about ‘redeeming’ it’s more evil characters has been kinda polarizing with people, but I think it worked out really well here. Partly because they don’t really spell out whether or not Rina has gone through the same process as Teppei with getting traumatized by nightmares of previous loops, and we just see her being a more sympathetic person instead. I think it also makes Rena’s actions here even more tragic, since in this timeline Rina would have left them alone if she’d done nothing, and by the time she found out about that she was already past the point of no return. It doesn’t exactly erase or make up for all of the shit that had already happened between Rina and Rena’s dad, though. It still makes sense why Rena ended up snapping like she did.

Which gets into the whole topic of Satoko injecting her with the syringe, which basically sealed the deal on Rena irreversibly going insane in this arc. In practice she ended up just going down the same path that she already did in Tsumihoroboshi without needing to be injected with anything, but it still raises the possibility that she might have been more willing to abandon her plans if she hadn’t been injected.

Sorta like how the VN was already about the inherent tragedy of how in a perfect world none of these things should have happened and nobody should have resorted to murder, this adds an extra layer of dramatic irony with how Satoko’s looping has caused a situation where the external forces triggering people’s insanity have been slowly going away, but because she’s so intent on keeping Rika in the village by mentally breaking her through continued tragedy, she’s having to go out of her way to force all these things to happen, when otherwise all of these loops might have ended up being ‘perfect’ if she’d just left it alone.

And just for the record, a lot of people seem confused by it, but I think Gou already made it clear enough why Satoko is trying to convince Rika to stay in the village by subjecting her to repeated torture. From a meta perspective, it’s all just about setting up the premise of Rika going through the original arcs again so we can have a part-sequel/part-reboot, but in general her whole plan with this seems to be to traumatize Rika enough that she’ll accept the idea that she’s being punished by Oyashiro-sama for wanting to leave the village. Obviously it’s a pretty extreme and convoluted way to try and convince her to stay, but Satokowashi went to great lengths to show how Satoko tried basically everything else she could think of to stop her without resorting to violence.

And yes, the point of ‘she should be able to just talk to Rika directly and work things out that way’ is an intentional part of the whole tragedy of the situation, lol. If this was a story where people were willing to calmly open up about all of their problems and achieve peaceful resolutions, basically none of this entire story would have happened. And honestly, at least on an abstract level, I can totally relate to that feeling of being willing to do literally anything instead of just talking to people openly, no matter how much extra time and effort it takes.

I also just don’t even think that ‘just talking about it’ would even be enough. Partly because Rika is really dead-set on leaving the village and would prefer to take Satoko with her instead of staying in the village just for her sake [which is the entire premise of what happened in Satokowashi], but also partly because in the long run this is more about Satoko’s personal trauma and her inability to accept leaving her childhood behind. No matter what she does, she’d have to eventually contend with the idea of her friends moving on in their lives, or the village itself changing.

She doesn’t just want Rika to stay with her, she wants to keep everything the same forever because this is where she feels safe and in control. And that’s just not something that you can actually achieve without, well, the ability to loop through time, lol. That’s also why I don’t really think it’s ‘unreasonable’ that Satoko was so willing to sit through Rika’s loops, and to enact her own loops. The looping isn’t just something she has to put up with to achieve her goal, it IS her goal. She isn’t exactly aware of it since she’s so focused on the point of keeping Rika with her forever, but what she wants is to keep repeating this time period forever, and that’s what she’s doing. 

Funnily enough I wasn’t really onboard with the idea of Satoko being the villain for most of Gou, but I guess by this point I’m a Satoko apologist, lmao. I just think her whole character arc makes a lot of sense, with her doing everything she can to cling onto the present and avoid the future, but obviously I also get why people think she’s irredeemable.

Either way, I’m kinda curious to see how the next episode goes, since it seems like there’s just going to be one more episode to this arc. It feels like there’s a lot still left to be covered, but maybe I’m over-estimating it. I think they still have to cover the flashbacks with Rena after she moved, her getting more paranoid about Keiichi until finally killing him, and then whatever happened with Rika and Satoko at the end of the arc, so hopefully that’ll fit nicely into one more episode.

I’m still curious to see what happens when we see Rena’s perspective on her fight with Keiichi, though, since there’s been so much speculation about it partly being a hallucination from Keiichi as he rapidly descended into L5 when Rena attacked him. There’s also still the possibility that they’ll reveal that this is an entirely separate timeline to Onidamashi, but I think that’d be a bit convoluted for no good reason. It’s be enough of a twist to just show that the fight scene went differently to how it was originally presented.

Other than that, I think that Rika probably ended up killing herself in despair at the end of this arc, and Satoko kills herself to jump to the next loop. I think that’ll all be pretty straightforward, but hopefully it’ll lead to an epilogue scene with Satoko and Eua.

After this, I guess the next three episodes will be the answer arc for Watadamashi, going by the Sotsu blu-rays being split into sets of 3, 3, 5, and 4 episodes. Unlike how this arc was very straightforward and predictable for people who’ve read the VN, I’m really excited to see what happens in the next arc, since Watadamashi was kinda confusing in a lot of ways, even after we found out about the Satoko stuff. But we’ll get to that when the time comes.

The third arc should then be an answer arc for Tataridamashi, but it’ll be interesting to see if they fit in Satoko’s perspective of Nekodamashi there as well, or if they push that to the final arc, or if the Nekodamashi arc will overlap both arcs. Either way, the fourth and final [unless they reveal more episodes or even another season later] arc will probably then continue on from the end of Nekodamashi and show however things manage to wrap up after that point. It’s really hard to tell how much time they’ll actually need after that to wrap things up, though, which is why I’m not sure if they’ll actually be able to finish things in these 15 episodes, or if we might get more later. Unless we get some major curve balls, I don’t really think it’d be that hard to wrap things up that quickly, but we’ll see.

Anyway, Sotsu is off to a great start, and I’m excited to see where it’s going to go, but mostly at the moment I’m just relieved that the last four months of my life are over now, and I can go back to live-blogging about anime where kids murder each other, lmao.