#as I said pacing was weird but it was a fun episode. I liked it

[earl-grey-crow]

“it's me I'm people” max is awful I love him <3

[cerusee]

I've never watched any Chinese dramas but I really enjoy your posts/gifs about them and it's got me interested in trying some! Do you have any recommendations for somebody who's totally new to them? Any tropes/background context I should be aware of? The historical/fantastical ones seem the most appealing to me.

Oooooh! My first thought on reading this ask was, “oh, I’m hardly qualified”; I’m only on my *stops to count on fingers* eighth cdrama, not counting the one episode I watched of the Wang Zhuocheng xianxia where he falls in love with a rock. (Long story.) There’s a lot of cdramas out there, and I myself have not even scratched the surface of what’s out there! That said, if you’re interested in historical/fantastical dramas, those ARE the ones I’ve been watching, so I still have some opinions despite being a total noob myself.

Do not start with The Untamed/Chen Qing Ling. Twas my first cdrama, like a lot of western fans, who were drawn to it in part because of the big censored-but-still-very-evident gay love story between the male leads, but honestly, as much fun as it is for the slash fans, it’s not a great jumping off point for either Chinese television in general, or even for its own wuxia-inspired genre setting. I say this as some who is still deep in the fandom four years later, and has immense love for the show: the first two episodes are flat-out bad, the overall pacing is bad (episodes frequently stop MIDSCENE), the worldbuilding is thin (a carryover from the novel it was based on), and without a larger context for why it’s made the way it’s made (stylistic choices, industry conventions, government censorship, genre conventions) a lot about it is confusing as hell to cdrama newbies, which is…so evident…a lot…in fandom wank I mean in the discourse about what story this story is trying to tell. Like, if you came to me and asked specifically, “I’m thinking of watching CQL. Should I watch CQL?” I would say yes, absolutely! It’s so much fun! I’m obsessed with the characters! I’ve written a lot of fanfic about the purple guy! But it’s not a good first cdrama, nor it is the best example of what the Chinese TV industry has to offer.

A MUCH better first cdrama especially if you like the historical/fantastical: The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2017), which not coincidentally was my second cdrama. It’s one of about a dozen television adaptations of the classic 1957 Chinese novel of the same name by Jin Yong, generally considered to be the inventor of the genre known as wuxia, which is a blend of history, fantasy, and martial arts. (One of the most well-known examples of wuxia in the west is Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which you have probably at least heard of.)

Legend of the Condor Heroes (hereafter known as LOCH) has it all: romance, revenge, evil plots and daring deeds, people jumping off a burning mountain and being rescued by the worst CGIed eagles known to television or cinema, boat adventures, mountain adventures, grasslands adventures, a weird cult leader who lives on a spooky flower island (there will be math), murder, baby kidnapping, more murder, one guy inadvertently racking up a ridiculous number of martial arts teachers, sworn brotherhoods which invariably end with one guy stabbing the other, lots of VERY good martial arts fights, and, of course, Genghis Khan. Technically there are no magic/supernatural elements in this show—no ghosts, ghouls, magic, angels, devils, gods, etc—although the martial artists do have l33t skillz that might qualify as superhuman depending on how you slice your genre conventions, and are awfully fun to watch.

I’ve actually seen two LOCH adaptations (there was one in 2024 I liked a lot, with my favorite Guo Jing so far), but 2017 is a much better adaptation for newcomers as it tells a fuller version of the story and doesn’t skimp on or rush through or rewrite as many elements of the plot as other versions do; it’s meant to be a LOCH for people who haven’t seen half a dozen versions of LOCH already. It has a WONDERFUL cast, including my one of my favorite cdrama leading men, Chen Xingxu,* as the lead antagonist, Yang Kang, who is a trash fire of a person you just can’t root for, but he also can’t help it because he was raised by Wanyin Honglie. You can catch it on YouTube (I recall that there are couple of missing episodes from that playlist, but you can search on YT for those when you get there, to find them subtitled from other channels.)

*If you, like me, come away from LOCH 2017 with your mouth slightly ajar at how great CXX is, I have wonderful news for you! He’s been a lead in at least two other very good cdramas: the 2023 xianxia** The Starry Love, where he gets to play, like, five different characters (huge acting flex, and he’s great, although I would rush to stress I loved a ton of things about this show besides CXX himself), and the 2019 semi-historical drama Goodbye My Princess, which might actually be my favorite cdrama I have seen to date, and arguably THEE best well-made on a technical level, with phenomenal acting, a great script, and editing and directing I am constantly swooning over, but I am not entirely sure I can recommend to you unless you are a Tragedy Enjoyer.

(If you are a Tragedy Enjoyer, please stop whatever you’re doing and just start watching Goodbye My Princess right now, it is phenomenal. It is also available on YouTube. Watch the Director’s Cut, not the regular one! This is important. In its haste to get the main leads on screen together ASAP, the regular version does a Reader’s Digest version of stuff the Director’s Cut spends like five episodes carefully setting up, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense, nor does it flow well.)

**Speaking of xianxia! Xianxia is the high fantasy genre, full of magic and gods and demons and people dying and living multiple lives and whatnot. Important to note: xianxias are soap operas (complimentary). They tend to feature female protagonists, sweeping, epic romances, and put enormous emphasis on exploring the nuances of relationships and emotions. I have watched three that I loved (Love Between Fairy and Devil, The Starry Love, and Eternal Love: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms), and while technically I could recommend all three, if you were going to watch just one, especially as a cdrama intro, I have to recommend Eternal Love, which really is the quintessential xianxia, the one all other xianxias are kind of shaping themselves around. I have watched it 1.5 times and I can say that it does not properly take off until like, episode 10, or whenever it is that the main couple finally, properly meet. IT IS WORTH THE INVESTMENT. This show made me want to spit blood. I cried multiple times watching it. It made me feel things. It has a wonderful immersive quality that’s hard to describe except to say that the entire show sort of vibrates on its own frequency. The casting is just kind of…perfect? Props to Maggie Huang for portraying the most perfectly hatable xianxia villainess of all time. Absolutely no one is doing it like Su Jin. No one should try. I believe this is available on YouTube, but after an abortive start, I realized it was on US Netflix, and watched it there.

As for tropes and background context: ehhhhhh. I mean, it’s an entire industry? I know substantially less about how it functions than I do about, like, American TV and film. I know government censorship is a not-inconsiderable factor, but I don’t know much of the nuance of how that plays out in terms of filming and airing. Tropes will vary according to subject. Idol dramas (shows built to showcase media personalities regardless of their ability to act) are a thing. Most cdrama audio is still dubbed (this one surprised me!), usually by professional voice actors and not by the original cast, for a confluence of reasons, some of which historically make sense (noisy filming lots rendering original audio useless), and some of which are really stupid (fans throwing hissy fits if lead actors don’t have the “right” kinds of voices for their characters).

Anyway! My recommendations are this: try The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2017) to start with, UNLESS you would prefer having your heart ripped out of your chest, in which case watch Goodbye My Princess (Director’s Cut, 2019), or UNLESS you love soap operas as much as I do, in which case watch Eternal Love: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (2017). All three are great shows, but they all hit differently/scratch a different itch.

Oh! Lastly! @dangermousie is a great source of cdrama recs. I should note she prefers dramas and tragedies and mostly does not vibe with xianxias. But she watches like eight million hours of dramas a week and reports her findings to us because she is a river to her people.

[petriwriting]

Based on THIS Request.

Thank you for @skywalkerzs for requesting. I had fun with it! thinking of doing a continuation of the next episode as well.

"JJ where have you been?" Kie asks him.

"We've been so worried." you reply. He walks up, after his outing going to see who he thought was his father, Luke. "Long story. Where are the others" he asks. "Almost back by now, why what happened?" You ask him, kie took off her gardening gloves and folds her arms, ready for whatever exaggerated story JJ is about to tell. You had stayed with kie to tend to the garden, worrying about JJ every minute, wishing to be by his side but respecting his need for alone time. whatever it was.

"Nothing." JJ says, he's defeated. "Please don't lie." you plead. "it's just my dad." he says. "oh shit," kie mutters. "He's back?" you ask. "yup. He's been holding up at barracuda mike's, I guess," he explains. "he's not trying to come back here is he?" kie asks. "Did he say anything about the place being his?" you add. "no it wasn't about that." JJ says flatly running his fingers through his hair. "Cause' the town council thing is tonight." she adds, shes worried for him just as you are.

"It's fine." he insists. "Kie can you give us a minute?" he asks, the wind is gently breezing through his hair now, it's a mess. "Yeah totally." She says, grabbing some of her gardening tools to put away, then disappearing. Kie was smart enough to know something was up, but she wanted to respect the privacy of her two best friends.

"Luke," JJ begins, he is anxious and you can tell. "My dad," he corrects himself. "He told... He told me he wasn't my real dad." he says. "was he serious?" you ask, luke was an abusive alcoholic, so for you it was hard to trust anything he ever said. "It wasn't a joke... He was being, weird- I don't know. But I get this." JJ shifts his feet and rummages his pockets to pull out a note. "it's from Wes Genrette, It says talk to your father." he explains, you run your thumb over the note. "look at this. It says 'talk to your father,' and then luke tells me that Wes Genrette... He's my grandfather. Which makes Groff, ...My father." he finished slowly.

"So Chandler Groff is your dad?" you question. "yeah." He nods. it is some heavy news. "It doesn't make any sense," JJ paces, gesturing. "But then he says, like, Larissa. you remember the painting? The one... Larissa Genrette." he steps closer to you. "She drowned with her baby? that's me. I'm that baby." he says. you sigh gently. "He's trying to work some inheritance scam. That's it, trying to make a quick buck by using me." JJ raises his voice slightly. "He's done it his entire life!"

"I'm so sorry, Jay." you utter softly, you wanted to kiss him or hug him. your heart is breaking for him. but as if on cue, the twinkie pulls up. "finally. the others are here." you say. "hey," JJ gets a bit serious. "Can we not tell them for now?" he asks. "yeah, yeah of course." you agree.

"I don't want them thinking, like, im a genrette. even if it's probably bullshit." he says. you nod in an understanding way. "of course JJ."

. . . .

The town council meeting is packed full of familiar faces. People who have lived on that island for decades through many generations, and some newer faces. It's a full house. There is subtle chatter, as the board memebers discuss the zoning ordinaces and bring up as a topic of discussion the Maybank property. You are sitting next to JJ, your hand is on his thigh. his other leg is bouncing. He's anxiously awaiting the discussion, but it seems like to kooks already have determined what will come of the property. There is some chatter amongst the pogues. The board then invites a representative from the property to come forward. "anyone feeling brave?" kie asks. JJ tries to stand up but you and John B both stop him. "whoa now," he says.

John B is then elected. He looks at Sarah for an approving nod and reassurance. He wanders up, states his name for the record and begins his defense.

"I'm not a lawyer but this doesn't make any sense..." he begins. You tense up in your seat. someone in the crowds cheers for John B. as he ends his long statement with "We could lose our home," You sigh, saddened at that reality. John B beautifully defends your home, and there is arguing and chatter amongst the Pogues and Kooks of the island. It is such an insane moment. They are trying to invalidate the sale. there's no way. That was yours fair and square.

The original owner, Luke Maybank stepped forward and took off his hat. "I'm sorry J." He says. "This can't be legal!" someone shouts. you are in shock, upset, angry and riled up. You stand up in opposition and notice JJ is frozen, he's biting his lip. Kiara is now up there rallying everyone. Her parents are threatening the officers at the front of the stand.

JJ stands, and turns right out of the church. It takes you a moment before you realize what is happening, the broken glass and JJ fighting against cops. You are shocked and processing everything that has happened. "Go! Get out!" You scream. But everyone is too late. The pogues are now outside, In a crown of aggressive townspeople, and JJ is locked into a cop car, once pope shouts for him to crawl out, he does. for a brief moment, he locks eyes with you while you hold his hands. "Go." you tell him. "Not without you." He says, grabbing your hand and running off as fast as he could manage with you trailing behind him.

. . . .

The two of you run through chateaus, mini-mansions, kook yards. eventually crossing paths with a group of kids playing baseball, in which JJ steals their bat. "Sorry!" you scream back at them, your hair flying behind you as you rush behind JJ, as he halts in front of a jewelry store. You catch up to him quickly.

"JJ what the hell are you doing!!" You shout. there's sounds of sirens in the distance. they can't be too far by now. "I've always wanted to do this," He says, before slamming his bat into the glass storefront, immediately sounding the security system. With the alarm blaring, he steps over the glass and grabs a shiny diamond ring. "I know we've only ever talked about it, but I've been wanting to do that for a long time." he says grabbing your hand and slipping it onto your ring finger. He then looks at the bat in his hands. "They wanted one island, Y/n." he pleads. you are lost in his eyes, he's mesmerizing you. "So give it to em'." he encourages, offering you the bat. You grab it, after slight contemplating. There isno time left. something in you had said, and you took the bat and smashed the rear window of the car and watched as the glass shattered all over the pavement. "Come and get me fellas!" JJ screams as he's riled up, you toss him the bat again and he busts the lamp post, before knocking things over, and lighting the trash can on fire, causing destruction to everything. You watched timidly, while you were riled up you didn't want him to end up in more trouble, but you also knew and loved him.

you knew and loved him to the point where you knew this was an outlet for him, he was letting out all his hurt And anger And even sadness. It was almost healing seeing him be so vulnerable in that moment. The way his jacket slung off his shoulder made your knees weak. He smashed the glass to a women's boutique, taking the hand of the manequinn. "Ladies," he says jokingly. He kissed the hand and smirked briskly. "Sorry, not in front of the wife," then looking at you with a wink. he continued on, and you heard the sirens blaring as the cops approached faster. a scene of destruction behind. "JJ we need to get out of here." the next thing you know you are once again running along with him, away from the cops.

[chironshorseass]

what bugs me most about the pjo show is that i know they could’ve done better. i knowwwww they could’ve been as faithful as they wanted to the books. for anyone saying “oh, but it’s an adaptation! it isn’t meant to be the same so stop whining that they took stuff out or that they’re adding things in different order!” well yes, i agree that adaptations aren’t meant to be a carbon copy of the source material for the simple fact that it’s adapting the source material into a different medium (television), yet it’s just that! a form of adapting the things that are unable to be channeled from, say, a book—or on the contrary, adding things that make sense for television but couldn’t be channeled into the books otherwise…all of this in a faithful manner. a good adaptation is one that stays true to the source material by properly adapting its themes, characters, symbolism, context, pacing, and the overall story/plot so as to not only be seen as a sort of love letter to the fans, but also to reach a wider audience.

just look at the hunger games! the movies are so faithful to the books to the point that most of the scenes are taken straight out of the books, dialogue and all. and they’re movies, aka less runtime than a freaking tv show and they still did it better. did the hg movies have to take a few scenes out? yes; they have only so much time to tell the story as it is told in the books. did they resume things, like the games themselves? also yes. but did most of the important scenes and character moments stay in the movies? also also yes. again, THESE ARE MOVIES!!!!! a medium much more limited than a freaking tv series with multiple episodes that have enough run time to add even more scenes from the books than what could be possible in a 2 hour (max) movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and yet they STILL changed so much that rly had no business being changed other than that the writers decided they felt like it because…..a lot of it im not even sure. and the worst thing of it all is that freaking rick riordan took part in script writing yet so much of the source material has been watered down???? they make a whole ass episode about a monster fight with the majority of the scenes from said episode not even present in the books instead of sticking to the perfectly good source material???? and by doing so they delete the small details that are very much integral to character development and plot???? huh???? the math isn’t mathing. don’t get me wrong, i do like some changes, but then i think: at what cost do they add these things when there was a perfectly good narrative without it? like, at what cost do we get the whole turning to gold sacrifice scene if they’re gonna take out all the fun details that make the lightning thief the lightning thief? for example the silly water park merch and then annabeth displaying her spider phobia and her mortification at going to the thrill ride of love with percy and then being broadcasted to olympus. this is just one episode, but they’ve been doing it in all of them. and u know, it’s not that i don’t hate-hate most these changes. again, what bugs me is that this was supposed to be a faithful adaptation. again, it’s a tv series, with so much more time to develop everything from the books. rick is behind it, who apparently hated the movies for how unfaithful they were. the cast is great. and yet…the script is so mediocre. the spark is lost. character traits are looked over in place for weird pacing and even weirder changes. if the hunger games could do it, then surely a pjo tv series could as well? apparently not? i really really Don’t Get It.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - All's Quiet on the BL Front

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

May 2024 Wk 3

Ongoing Series - Thai

Wandee Godday (Sat YT) ep 3 of 12 - I love how were getting a solid depiction of two queers just genuinely enjoying sex with each other. That’s actually rare in BL. In this case, it manages to also be weirdly adorable and cute.

Dee is such a tease. I guess Y likes a brat? 

LOOK at those bedroom eyes!

Linguistics corner: when these two are being serious, sweet, or flirty with each other they use rao/nai which is kind of old fashioned and charming and not common in BL. They move pretty seamlessly into gu/mueng and back depending on the style of convo, tho. It's FUN to hear them talk.

Let the fake relationship commence!

My Stand-In (Thai Fri iQIYI) ep 4 of 12 eps - I HAVE THOUGHTS. I'm really enjoying the sinister backbone of this show. I hope they have the courage of their convictions in that regard and lean into a kind of sexy evil revenge narrative. It was a pleasure to watch the break up and I do not want a redemption arc for Ming or a romance for us. Fuck 'em, let’s just ride a revenge train, okay Joe baby?

That’s said, I totally sniffled at the ending scene where Ming (for two years!) has been paying penance cooking for two and waiting alone. Excellent pathos. Now, I understand how they're gonna make this a full 12 eps. And I’m excited about it. Carry on!

We Are (Weds iQIYI) ep 7 of 16 - I wasn't a fan of Winny & Satang in My School President but I'm loving them in this. The thing with Q, Toey, and Chain had me hooting with laughter. I think I’m finally just easing into the relaxed absurdity of this show. The key is not to expect anything from it. Just them being tiny gay idiots.

Two Worlds (iQIYI) ep 10 fin - Someday I’d like to really enjoy a MaxNat show, but today was not that day. (I feel like ever since Between Us I’ve been generally disenchanted with established OG pairs and what they’re bringing to the table. Perhaps that’s a discussion for another day. Cherry Magic excepted, of course.) 

OK, so this final episode, they sure tried to fit a lot in. But that made the pacing better for me. So I kinda liked this weird cliff notes resolution to the story.

In conclusion:

MaxNat do a credible job with a messy script about parallel worlds, gangsters, and strange diseases cured by forest fruits. It sounds confusing because it is. The chemistry is excellent the side pair is entirely forgotten about, and one could drive a Tardis through the plot holes. Still, I found it modestly enjoyable if not at all rewatchable. 7/10 

Only Boo! (Sun YouTube) ep 6 of 12 - I do love how bold and brash Moo is. He’s truly a great character, such an utter outgoing sunshine puppy focused on his pursuit of his older boy. I'm charmed by his utter harmlessness. They gave us a sweet coming out scene, and an awesome supportive mom. Frankly GMMTV has a good track record with moms. (With a few noted exceptions, of course.)

That said, I do keep forgetting this is a GMMTV offering. It just doesn't FEEL GMMTV. Just me?

OMG Vampire (Thai Sun ????) ep 1 of 10 - Starts tomorrow, will report on sitch next week. LeeFrank are back - not unlike the undead. But how do we feel about it? Unsure given their track record.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

At 25:00 in Akasaka AKA 25 Ji Akasaka de (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 5 of 10 - I like it. I like our sulky 2nd lead. He’s pouty, adorable, brash, and adding some much-needed tension to this narrative. The blurring lines between show within a show is a lot of fun. Probably the best I've seen done in BL so far.

Living With Him AKA Kare no Iru Seikatsu (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 6 of 10 - I like that we got backstory, but we also sort of already knew it. So this ep felt a bit like filler. They are wonderful when they’re on screen together but when they aren't it's a bit dull. I hope we just get them together for the next 4 eps. But this is Japan, so I doubt it.

Blossom Campus (Korea Thurs Gaga & iQIYI) ep 1 of 6 - The image resolution on this show (via Iqiyi ) is terrible. Meanwhile, awkward crush. Jock nerd pairing. Dorky. Maybe a bit too much awkward/dorky for me? I'm not sold on this one.

Meanwhile the ordering then not eating or drinking of food continues. Very upsetting.

Boys Be Brave (Korea Viki) eps 5-8fin - This show was just never sure what it wanted to be. Slacker sunshine KiSub moves in with nerd JinWoo, mostly because he knows JinWoo likes him but won't confess and that's never happened to him before. It reminded me of some earlier KBLs like Behind Cut, yes is had bones but not much flesh, so it only just hung together and progressed through not very much plot in a jerking rattling fashion like an animated skeleton. All the story and chemistry was with the side couple and none of the screen time. That just annoyed me. What did this BL want to BE? Who tf knows. I, for one, don’t care, and resolve to think no more on it. 6/10 

Blue Boys (Korea Sat YouTube) - This ended at 4 eps on a cliffhanger. Since this is a very small studio I don’t have a lot of faith in there being a part two. But they have bundled both this BL, and the GL, bingable chunks on YT. So if you want to binge it, it’s there. Just be aware that it ends on a cliffhanger.

My thoughts?

Promising reunion romances full of class and coming out struggles but I grade with what we got, not on expectations, and you know I HATE a cliffhanger. So yeah, it HAD promise but as of now it gets a 4/10 - fatally flawed. I reserve the right to change my mind if they amend for damages.

It's airing but...

You Made My Day (Thai YT) ep 1 of 5 - mini series staring the I Will Knock You couple Tar & Bom, started but I couldn't find it. I also didn't try very hard.

Lady Boy Friends (Thai WeTV grey) 16 eps - reminds me a bit too much of Diary of Tootsies only high school. Not my thing. DNF unless it turns a corner and is truly amazing.

A Balloon's Landing (Taiwan movie) trailer - A frustrated Hong Kong writer, Tian Yu, meets a Taipei street gangster, Xiang (Fandy Fan from HIStory2: Crossing the Line), and the two of them embark on a journey to find the Bay of Vanishing Whales. Along the way, they discover unexpected twists and turns and close bonds, which brings out the message that "there is always someone like you in this world who is waiting for you. This released to cinemas in Taiwan, no word on international release.

In case you missed it

A really really thorough and fascinating article on 2 Moons 2 and what happened.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

May Releases

VBL (Taiwan) is releasing 4 'Special Episode' epilogues to their 4 2023 shows every Friday this month on Gagaoolala, Viki & Viu. Not sure on search terms or how to find these. (Or, frankly, if we need them.)

5/10 – You Are Mine

5/17 – VIP Only

5/24 – Stay By My Side

5/31 – Anti Reset

5/25 The Time of Fever AKA Unintentional Love Story 2 (Korea movie) trailer - HoTae & DongHee are back but unfortunately not in a cinema near me. Side couple from Unintentional Love Story, same actors, same character names. I love them. I NEED TO SEE THIS.

5/28 My Biker 2 (Thai movie YT?) - trailer

5/30 Knock Knock Boys (Thai Thurs WeTV) - I'm hoping I can get it elsewhere since my WeTV account is inactive, but I do love Best and I'm interested in seeing him in a new pairing. That said, I'm not wild about Seng... so I won't be too cut up if I can't get hold of this. More here.

5/31 The Time of Huannan (Taiwan movie) - May not be BL

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I'm a sucker for this king of casual claiming. (Only Boo)

It me! (Wandee Goodday)

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @sunflower-positiiivity @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious

If ya wanna be tagged each week leave a comment and I will add you to the template. Easy peesy.

[transfemkaladin]

final thoughts on wind and truth:

it was kind of mid. like it was Fine but it felt a lot weaker than the others yaknow

i like adolin, okay? i like shallan as well. i like them a LOT. but their povs (also jasnah’s and dalinar’s) just kind of. dragged a little for me?

kaladins therapist arc was fun (he gave therapy to a talking sword. on ACCIDENT. that’s fucking hilarious) but felt a little unsatisfying. the whole time he was talking with szeth i felt frustrated bc like. idk

and don’t even get me STARTED on the “‘no,’ kaladin said. ‘im his therapist’” line. that bit was ASS. it broke the tone and tension of the scene unnecessarily, in a way that hindered rather than enhanced the storytelling, and for what. an unfunny joke.

by the way. for a book that was theoretically supposed to focus on szeth i really wish it had done more of that. yeah he got more pov chapters and stuff but also i came away. not knowing nearly as much about shinovar as i would’ve liked. which is a personal preference thing (maybe i just liked elid a lot tbh. i do think she should’ve gotten at least one pov chapter)

oh THATS what it was. the only outside perspective we really got of szeth was kaladin’s. i think seeing how szeth was perceived by others while living in shinovar would’ve been a good addition.

ishar’s plotlines felt unsatisfying as well. like all that shit with torturing spren and putting them into physical bodies, and then it was just written off as “oh yeah that was just part of his insanity 👍”. like yeah it was but i wish it had gone somewhere

GAVINOR. the loose end of all time to me. what the fuck happened to him after the duel. does he remember his secret handshake with lift.

i miss navaniel. toxic yuri please come back to me. with sadalinar and navaniel and kalmoash all gone and kaladin and shallan healing there’s no one to be toxic and insane anymore. it’s just taravangian. we need more interpersonal problems we need more people sabotaging and fucking shit up for no reason

im also sad abt the venli povs bc she was one of my favorite povs in past books. but then in this one she was just There. where is her conflict. she didn’t even swear an ideal or anything.

tbh i think that’s probably my main problem with the book. the plotlines were all interesting and i liked getting to know more about shinovar (and i never really cared about szeth before so im glad we got to know him more!) but it all just felt like it was kind of There. maybe it was bc of the short timeframe but everything just kinda Dragged a little and everyone was kind of There. there’s only so far you can stretch the tension on that contest of champions, and when you spend over 1300 pages covering ten days? everything starts to feel a little like a filler episode.

also a lot of things just felt kind of underwhelming. the truth behind the recreance? eh. the stormfather being tanavast? eh. chana being shallan’s mom? eh. this was probably bc of the tension problem at least a little though

to be clear, i didn’t hate it. there was a lot i enjoyed- it’s just that the parts i enjoyed weren’t really given as much narrative emphasis, and the short timeframe of the story made my sense of pacing weird.

[badninken]

Hi bad ninken!

I know you've speed ran the episodes, but what's your thoughts on One Piece overall, from the perspective of a Naruto fan?

(Hope our questions aren't bothering you)

Hi!

Not bothered at all! I don't always answer but I'm always happy to receive them <3 This question is a BIG one. I'll write so much.

So, I didn't know exactly what to expect from One Piece when I started watching. It always looked like a goofy and childish pirate show to me. I'm very picky and I knew it was insanely long so just casually giving it a try never occurred to me, until Law.

Now, Naruto could be said to be a goofy and childish ninja show so it's not like I was up on some high horse, thinking One Piece was lesser than. Nothing is that popular for no reason. I could at least give the first episode a go. It would feel like cheating if I didn't even try to watch it from the start and get to know the main character before rushing to find my character.

The lead characters:

So I watched the first episode and I liked it! Or, I liked Luffy. I liked him a lot. Instantly captivated by his crazy eyes, crazier smile, unique voice and his message of "do whatever makes you happy and screw the people who try to stop you"

Now, I like Naruto (the boy) too. He's incredibly cute and charming, he also has a voice I love and he brings lots of fun, motivational energy that can be really inspiring. I've never been interested in seeing him fulfil his dream though, because I genuinely think it's a bad one.

Their goals:

The lead characters are the foundations of these two stories. I expected Luffy to be very similar Naruto. There are a lot of parallels. Like the adhd, eating habits, huge potential, but most importantly in their dreams/goals. They both want to be the king/hokage and gather + protect friends on the way. They both have their goals clearly spelled out and repeated often.

Luffy's "I am me. I'm going to get crewmates, find the treasure and become king of the pirates."

and Naruto's "I'm going to become the strongest ninja and become Hokage so people will acknowledge me."

Naruto wants strength and power to be seen, loved and to make positive changes in the shinobi system, and to protect everyone. Luffy wants to liberate everyone so they can be happy and free and eat lots of food. "I just want to be king of the pirates, not anyone important"

These goals set the premise for their respective stories and I can say, without a doubt, that I think One Piece is the better story outline. It's honestly been so refreshing to not have the plot dominated by the main character's personal quest for physical and political power, because that aspect of Naruto (the show and the boy) has always weirded me out.

Overall experience:

With that said, I found Naruto (the story) to be a tighter, much more focused experience than One Piece, and it's not just the number of episodes. The cast of characters in Naruto grows at a pace that's easy to follow and while they don't all get the time or space they deserve, they all serve a purpose. The scope of the plot starts out small and grows steadily. There are a few plot threads running parallell to each other until they get woven together into one huge event at the end. It's big but it's contained.

One Piece, on the other hand, is a fucking hydra of a story.

One thing leads to another which leads to two others which leads to four and you get the picture. Eventually you reach a point where ten, twenty, thirty separate narratives, each with their own sprawling cast of characters, compete for attention at the same time. It's exhausting. It's confusing and often, in my tunnelvision case, infuriating.

I can not care about that many things at once and characters that I probably would have liked end up annoying me because they steal time away from the parts of the story I'm interested in. I was extra impatient since I was speedrunning it all, fueled mostly by hyperfixation on one guy. Even if my attention was more evenly divided across more characters it's still way too much. I totally respect the artist's right to invent new characters to make work more fun after working on a series for that long, but, man... I can't take a new kingdom with a squeaky-voiced boob princess and 60 new named bad guys who take forever to beat while flashbacks have more flashbacks within them to explain lore I don't give a fuck about.

Ok I might still be a bit agitated.

About the boobs:

So, I haven't talked very much about the sexism while doing this speedrun. The cishet male centered fan service and the blatant misogyny in general, and I don't even want to touch the Sanji part of the timeskip period. I have thought about it though, because it is impossible to miss. It's everywhere and it's in your face and it will not miss a single opportunity to disrupt a scene. It's baked into everything. One Piece is at times fucking disgusting to watch. It was only made worse by reading some of the Q&A pages of the manga, because some of that bullshit got etched into my brain and tainted the viewing experience. The thing is that shonen manga/anime to me feels like having my favorite food while trying to ignore that half the plate is rotten. I do my best to ignore that part, because I can't get this dish anywhere else and I'm fucking hungry.

I am sick and tired and pissed off about it, and I can't pretend it's not there but I refuse to let it poison the entire experience for me. I will separate the good parts from the rotten ones, that's just how this goes, for One Piece and Naruto both.

The sexism in One Piece is extremely blatant and obvious. It's visual in a way that it just isn't in Naruto. The female characters in Naruto aren't framed boobs-first or put in lewd outfits and positions every time they're featured. The female characters in Naruto don't get half the character development or narrative importance though, and that is worse, in my opinion, than a tiny metal bikini. Only marginally, but still.

I'm going to be a bit brutal here, but there are so many insignificant female side characters in One Piece that get twice as much background story as Sakura, one of the lead characters of Naruto. That is insane. Real stories too, and real motivations that don't have anything to do with them being women or in love. They're fighting for their villages and countries and themselves, not because they need male validation. My behated Rebecca, tiny-metal-bikini squeaky pink haired princess at least had a goal in life that mattered on a big scale. Sure her boobs jiggled ridiculously in the wind and she started crying annoyingly every time that counted (don't volunteer to deliver a dude's handcuff keys if you're gonna stand in a field and weep while he has to be carried to you) and I hated every moment I had to watch her story BUT SHE HAD A STORY.

Fuck. I'm angry. Sorry I've had this pent up for a while.

The conclusion to this is that Kishimoto's complete lack of interest in his own female characters pisses me off worse than Oda's way of being a loudly outspoken perv but it's pretty much a tie here. Both of their works are half rotten and no series like this will get my full respect until they dare have a woman beat a man in a fight with the same power that is afforded the men. WITHOUT making a big deal out of her being a woman in the process. Will never happen but one can wish.

Fight satisfaction:

I put up with all that stuff because few things hype up my brain with dopamine and endorphins the way a cathartic shonen fight moment does. I mean the cycles of building power, struggling to reach full potential and the inevitable defeat against the big bad before the emotional and desperate moment where it all turns and then BAM! New power unlocked. Victory. Release. It's like sex. It's much better than sex. I'm ace so most things are, but the formula is the same.

It's been so long since I watched original Naruto, but I remember the impact those moments had on me then. Rock Lee's weights and Naruto vs. Sasuke that moment Naruto goes crazy fox mode and just RAWGRH, you know the one. Kakashi vs Hidan and Kakazu gave me some of that. Kakashi vs Obito doesn't follow that exact formula but the emotions and animation and THEM all makes it the best fight experience everrr. Kid Kakashi's first short sharingan fight belongs in there too. The fight satisfaction of Naruto is very, very high.

It's really high in One piece too, and because of how long it is, there are more moments. Luffy, Zoro, Law and Kid all had several moments that made me stand up and roar like a football fan or flail around while silently screaming at the screen. I get charged with power when my favorite characters do really cool shit and I've been super charged for weeks.

One Piece wins in power but Naruto wins in emotion, so it's a tie. It's hard to compare because of how fresh the One Piece experience is. Also because Kakashi's emotional fight moments are so, so emotional and Law's power moments are so HOLY FUCK HE CAN DO THAT?

Conclusion:

I need to go make dinner now, wow.

[thekatebridgerton]

Rewatching s3 I realized that I never actually gave my opinion on the full season to you guys.

Mostly because it was good, every single Penelope and Colin scene was well written, well paced and crafted to bring their relationship full circle. In fact if I could edit s3 into a movie I'd cut everything off and leave the 1 or 2 hours of accumlated screentime that Penelope and Colin had together. Nicola and Luke really brought their A game.

Lord Debling wasa solid character, I really liked him, at first I thought he was going to be like Theo and have no purpose other than make Colin jealous, but he stood his ground as a well developed character ( for the few episodes he was in), I'm sad that he seemingly disappeared after Penelope and Colin got together and I genuinely wish he'd have found a good bride who would write to him and take care of his estate in his absence.

Francesca's storyline with John was also very complimentary, I once said I wanted to see how Eloise related to Francesca who didn't mind being a debutante just like Daphne and I am glad they gave Francesca her own unique charm as well as her own brand of awkwardness, not as obsessed with being perfect as Daphne but also not as antagonizing as Eloise. John was just the right ammount of kind and special that you can see how much Francesca really loves him. ( I'm choosing to ignore what I know of the books and look at Francesca's meeting with Michaela as just another awkward moment Francesca suffers in front of an extrovert .. mostly because I think its weird that neither John or his staff told Michaela he was married and to a Bridgerton sparkler at that, the whole ' and you are' felt really out of place and made me scratch my head)

The featheringtons actually felt more organically integrated into the plotline because this season they are in the position of being the female lead relatives so their shenanigans actually feel more plot relevant. And add levity to what would otherwise be a very dramatic series of episodes

Now on to the things I made fun of: every scene Benedict had with Lady Tilly, is very skippable, and honestly not plot relevant, after 2 seasons of watching him hoe around, a third one is just overkill. Also lady Tilly catching feelings and Benedict activating ' I want my freedom' mode is so hilarious. Gosh I wish him a very sexually frustrated and abstinent season 4.

Eloise friendship with Cressida also felt like filler. I know I've been saying Eloise needs friends since forever but I meant Kate, or Edwina or Sophie. Cressida Cowper was..a choice. And one that ultimately added very little to Eloise character development. But hey at least Eloise tried to make friends this season, I call that a step in the right direction.

Overall it was a good season, I'm sorry if I complain a lot about the parts I didn't like, but for the most part, it was good watchable content with a few snags that can be ironed out in fanfiction. The dresses were amazing and I hope their wardrobe department gets a raise for the hard work they put in these 2 years of sewing and pattern making. Hopefully one day I'll get a documentary about the Bridgerton wardrobe department process of selecting fabrics and making dresses. It would be lovely to see.

So far that's been my very belated season 3 review. And that's the tea

[aihoshiino]

chapter 157 thoughts

Chapters Since The 143 Kiss Happened And Went Entirely Unacknowledged And Unaddressed Count: 14… IN THIS CHAPTER OF ALL CHAPTERS…????

Aqua Hoshigan Status: White

Congrats to 157 for taking 144's crown as the Oshi no Ko chapter that has vexed and confused me the most. Taken entirely in isolation, it's a sweet, lowkey, calm before the storm moment… but it's entirely because it stands in such stark isolation from the events surrounding it that it feels so baffling. It's like an amped up version of the issues with 156 - when viewed in isolation, you can't strictly say there's anything wrong with it, but as a part of the sequential storytelling of Oshi no Ko it just feels off. I'm reminded of the weird, off-kilter pacing of the Movie Arc, where story beats fell at weird places as if the story was falling out of tempo with itself. Because of that, this chapter review is probably going to be a bit disjointed but tbh besties i am fighting for my life on this one

I will say at the top of things though that it's darkly funny to me that we're fastforwarding through so much of the B-Komachi tour lol. Offscreen no Ko strikes again!

Honestly, this chapter in general kind of defies any attempt at a beat by beat analysis though that does seem to largely be by design. As the chapter title suggests, this is simply some pagetime spent on letting us stew in what a calm, ordinary day looks like for the twins and for what it is, it's sweet and chill. Taken on its own there isn't really a ton to pick apart, other than just pointing at what moments I found cute which was like 90% of them. I want a 5 chapter mini arc of AQRB goofing around at the grocery store and squabbling over the cooking together.

I also really like that Aqua is the one to suggest doing something nice for Miyako and that he joins Ruby in waiting up for her to get home and see it. It feels like a sweet and warm acknowledgement of the subtle shift in their relationship after 155, with the two of them properly stepping into their roles as parent and child.

As nice as this chapter is though, it does kind of feel like too little too late. One of the major complaints across the series (that I do largely agree with) is that Aqua and Ruby's day-to-day dynamic is for the most part underbaked and that the two of them don't really feel like people who grew up in the same household for 16+ years. I think a few more moments like this properly threaded through the manga would have helped but… well, considering OnK's pacing, do I really want to encourage much more downtime…

Moving on from the things I liked, as cute as this chapter was it's also just kind of weird that so much of it feels like the framing device is a recap episode lol. I guess it isn't the worst idea in the world to have one as we're heading into the final stretch of the story but… well, again, see my point above about weird pacing.

It's also just baffling as fuck to see Ruby frame these events in a way that distinctly did not happen lol. Like, sure, she was definitely having fun doing idol stuff for a lot of it but seeing her so warmly gas up stuff like Tokyo Blade when the anime airing right now is reminding us that Aqua was going through the SpongeBob horror hallway the entire time is so jarring - especially when Aqua (and thus, implicitly, the narrative) agrees with her. I mean, fuck, even putting Aqua aside it's WILD to see Ruby framing "Dig Deep" as having been fun for her when her major contribution to the show was manipulative drama stirring for the purposes of chasing clout that she herself said was having an impact on her mental health. I've criticized the story for the ways Ruby's black hoshigan arc amounted to nothing but there's a special kind of infuriating in seeing it specifically call back to that arc and still fail to actually acknowledge any wrongdoing on Ruby's part.

This is part of a much bigger trend in OnK right now of Ruby being super coddled by the narrative and coming off in some really unpleasant ways as a result. I didn't mention it last chapter but something that's been percolating in my brain since after I wrote my review is just how fucking bonkers Ruby's total non-respose to Mem's situation is. "Oh, you're getting stalked by the press? Sucks to be you, thank god I'm Miyako's special little favourite tho 🙏". Not only is this just kind of a shitty response to begin with but it feels insane coming from a person like Ruby who, you know, saw her mother's life blighted and then ended by this kind of treatment. No concern for Mem, tho!

Idk. I don't want to dislike Ruby but man. A lot of the ways Akasaka has been playing favourites with her lately has the effect of Ruby coming off, in universe, like a deeply self centered and callous person in ways I don't think narrative intends or even realizes and thus fails to interrogate in a satisfying way. But that's a rant for another day. And I'm pretty sure you guys already know what today's rant is gonna be. Which is to say, uh…

HEY. AKASAKA. ARE THEY GONNA TALK ABOUT… ANY OF WHAT HAPPENED IN THE MOVIE ARC?? ANYTHING AT ALL????

This is what I meant when I said this chapter utterly fucking bamboozled me. The way the story has contorted itself into knots to avoid letting Aqua and Ruby have a conversation even when they're literally in the same room is already insane, but giving us an entire chapter of them alone together with ample opportunity to have any sort of meaningful discussion as to the gigantic elephant in the room looming over their relationship and……. literally nothing happens???

This is made even more insanity inducing by the fact that this is, as stated above, more or less a recap chapter and not only does Ruby talk about the movie specifically but we even SEE a flashback to the HikAi kiss…. but not the one Ruby jumpscared him with at the end of 143!!!

What the fuck is even going on anymore? Was it retconned? Resolved offscreen?? Did we collectively hallucinate it??? Is Akasaka gaslighting us????

If nothing else, this chapter has proved to me once and for all that whatever goes on with Aqua and Ruby, that resolution is going to come entirely at the speed of plot, as and when Akasaka decides to do it and not when it would be natural and organic for development to occur. This is an issue that has plagued Aqua and Ruby's r/s from the start, where Akasaka simply refuses to let them communicate, seemingly for the purposes of drawing out the drama rather than because of any narrative justification. So I'm giving on predicting what direction their relationship is going in and what the outcome is going to be. The inner machinations of Aka Akasaka's mind are a mystery to me.

To pre-pick some nits before I leave off… I've seen some people calling this a 'Tanabata chapter' and insisting this is intentional/foreshadowing aquruby end/etc and uh… sorry to be that guy but no it's not lol. Even accounting for the differences in calendars that scatters Tanabata celebrations across July and August, August's Tanabata falls on the 10th this year - and even in the anime world, celebrations across Japan took place on the 'official' date of 7/7. And while there is a Tanabata festival being held in Sendai today… that's just in Sendai, which is all the way up in northern Japan, nowhere near Tokyo where the series is set (and which itself had its Tanabata celebrations on the weekends surrounding 7/7 as per usual.)

There's also just the fact that this chapter… has nothing to do with Tanabata? There's no imagery or iconography and it takes place in the middle of December lol. I simply don't think it was intentional at all on Akasaka's part. It's a cute coincidence, sure, but still just a coincidence.

break next week. i love biweekly manga, oshi no ko.

[prideprejudce]

im genuinely curious since i keep seeing this opinion, but i rly dont think hotd writing was bad? nothing is perfect but idk, unless someone points to me the times they had shitty writing im having a hard time seeing it. unless i dont actually know what "writing" means here. english is not my first language, i COULD be misinterpreting things lmao. i rly liked how they did things this season, i think it made sense with the last one, this one was just Tenser because at any second the war will reallyyy break out n we dont know when cuz we have two driving forces from opposite sides not wanting that to happen, thats the entire point of s2 i think: establishing that in war there is no clear winner ("strange victory" n all that), that everyone is going to die, that there is no point to any of it theres no point to war at all, that every character is "heroic" and "villainous" in their own right in the right pov. i think it was a fun season to flesh out the characters, have us not feel entirely happy to be fighting for one side cuz theres innocents in both sides but ultimately we all know they will all die and its all for nothing. thats the tragedy of it all imo. i loved it to pieces. i guess id say im sad some characters didnt interact but also i dont see how they would considering how this season went. n also i wanted more rhaena (i do hope she'll have a cool ass role next season, idc idc)

i personally think this season was truly a transition season to full out war. people are pissed because they wanted war to instantly happen after lucerys died last season, but in reality things arent that black and white and i think it would have cheapened the plot to fast forward through the political negotiations and underhanded scheming to try and win without fighting, to just full on nuclear dragon war.

I actually like the idea that this season was like standing on a cliffs edge where one wrong move led to oblivion with millions of people dying and the practical annihilation of half of house targaryen. I'm glad that the writers took the time to emphasize how dire this war could become before barreling us into it. the political battles and moral dilemmas are just as fun to watch as the actual battles

that being said, there are still valid criticisms of the show being brought up too: like the weird pacing and absolute dragging on of daemons harrenhal ghost adventures. on one hand I get it, because in the books daemon just disappears for weeks at a time, and the writers had to do SOMETHING with him this season instead of having him peace out for 7 episodes. but I agree that the harrenhal visions became repetitive, and I'm also not a huge fan of the back to the future magic being shoved in our faces instead of more subtle clues to it

overall, it was a transition season, not the absolute best season of television history, but it's definitely not the worst (and not even CLOSE to being as bad as got s8). I think in modern age media consumption, people now equate "i personally don't like this" to "this is all horrible and the whole show is trash now"

[low-budget-korra]

Comments on Netflix's Avatar The Last Airbender

*spoiler alert*

First of all I'm gonna start by saying it is one of the best adaptations I've seen so far. And that's the key word, adaptation. I've seen a lot of fans and others complain about some things that honestly, doesn't make sense because some things only work in a cartoon(just as much as some things only work in a book or a video game)

And before I start to talk about some topics that I judge important, I also wanna say that the production is fantastic, from the costumes to the CGI. It all looks amazing. (A part from Yue's wig)

1. The Script

It's not easy to pick 20+ episodes and make it fit in only 8 but damn they did a hell of a good job, especially when judging what was important to show and what they could let it go. Some fans commented that since there's no fillers, the Gaang and others miss some development but I think that for the universe of the live action what we got here it worked.

I can express how much I like to see Ozai and Azula's relationship and how it is now clear that he uses the siblings against each other, manipulating them to get what he wants. But I will admit I miss the fear Azula had, since it's implied in the show and some extras that she does fear Ozai, and fears becoming like Zuko.

I hope the 41. Is just fine after the battle in the north. See all of them bowing to Zuko after discovering that Zuko was the one that saved their asses and was heavily punished by that...it was beautiful. I loved the writers did that, give names and faces to Zuko's crew and a beautiful yet sad arc when Ozai banished his son and the men who he saved.

I also loved that they put weight into things that was treated as a joke, like Katara talking about her mother. She was a little kid who saw her mom get murdered in front of her and the live action made sure to let us know that it is not okay to make jokes about something so traumatic. All of the deaths here have tons of weight in it, it's not some random person, is someone we met, someone we liked, someone who helped. The costs of the war, something the cartoon manages to show us but know in live action, with real people, the massage gets stronger.

And they didn't forget Iroh's past like the fandom does, which is great. That actor, the earthbending soldier really let it all out, that's how you use the few screentime you have.

Sokka's isn't sexist and y'all were making a storm outta a cup of water, is not like Sokka sexist didn't go away after like the 4 or 5 episode in the original show. I think the live action was able to bring more depth to him in comparison to the first season of the cartoon. We see how he feels about his father's, the absence of him and his duty as warrior who kinda doesn't want to be a warrior.

I need a Gyatso in my life, I didn't know I needed to see more of him until the live action gave us more of him. Kyoshi was the Thor coming to Wakanda from this season, WHY THE FUCK BRYKE DONT WANNA GIVE US A KYOSHI SERIES? She is absolutely a jewel of a character. Roku and Kuruk, damn poor Kuruk man, so much pain in his words but again that's what it means to be the Avatar, it's not fun and games. Zhao saying to Aang what Korra villains said to Korra😭 that the world doesn't need the Avatar anymore, it hurt.

Guys I'm gonna say it, there's no way in hell for anyone to ship Kataang here. I'm saying this because some shippers complain that the secret tunnel part was different but c'mon, look at Kiawentiio and look at Gordon, it would be so s awkward and weird and just wrong. I know they don't have a big age difference, is only like 3 years but when they filmed Gordon looked so much younger than her, maybe in the next seasons the difference won't be that big.

The pace is good, once you start you don't wanna stop.

2. The Acting

Everyone is really good at capturing the essence of it's characters and somewhat making them their own. The highlights for me were Dallas and Ian, Its like they came straight from the show. Ken Leung's Zhao was also amazing as he was way more threatening here than he was in the show.

Kiawentiio was the Katara we were looking for, she is kind yet strong, brave and caring. And Gordon was Aang, sure, he has to learn a few things since he slipped a few times in his acting but nothing that could ruin the experience, that kid is good and just needs some experience.

Elizabeth Yu was Azula. It was different but yet the same character, is like learning something new of her and I like how cleared she show emotions with her eyes. Maria Zhang had great chemistry with Ian and I can't wait to see more of Suki. Arden Cho and Yvonne Chapman as June and Avatar Kyoshi look like they came out straight from the cartoon. Daniel Dae Kim...man is Ozai, so cold, so sharp, so scary, already way better than the cartoon version. I wanna see more of Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh since the character he really starts to shine in book 2.

3. The live action doesn't have the spirit of the OG?

Yes, it does have. The thing is now that we are seeing real people, things get dark one way or another but I don't think it ruined the spirit of the show. Aang is still a kid, Sokka still making sarcastic jokes, Zuko still annoying as hell, Katara still hopeful and strong... There's everything there really.

The thing is stuff like genocide, murder, war, death and suffering are, for some people, better to watch as pixels in a cartoon than real people.

I think it's a great adaptation and I would recommend it to every fan.

[comicaurora]

Hi Red! I was curious if you've watched the new Yu Yu Hakusho live action, and if so, what your thoughts were on its pacing and handling of various plots. Personally I thought it did some very clever things and it genuinely pleasantly surprised me at a couple points, but at the same time the fact that it's only 5 episodes hurt its ability to do the story justice a bit.

Also I was rewatching the Dark Tournament arc of the anime today and wondering what it must've been like to watch when it originally aired, considering all the multi episode fights. Do you remember any of your thoughts at the time?

On an unrelated note, I'm really excited for arc 2 of Aurora!!!! Also sorry this is so ramble-y

I have watched it! For the most part, I really enjoyed it, although in pursuit of compressing everything down to five episodes it did a couple things I think definitely harmed the overall impact and characterization.

Spoilers below!

The first episode is I think nearly pitch-perfect. The visual design on the Spirit World is top-tier, and the choice to make everything that was a sacred artifact move like ferrofluid was a very clever bit of visual design. It's absolutely weird and original and I think it was a very fun way to spice up Fluffy Cloud Heaven.

Of all the things they sped through, I'm very glad they did not speed through the crucial characterization of Yusuke initially choosing to stay dead on the assumption that everyone is better off without him, and the show subsequently taking its time to show the wake, let Yusuke's mom and Keiko really feel their feelings, etcetera. The adaptation of the wake was, to my memory, almost 100% true to the anime version, including the gut-wrenching moments like Kuwabara starting off angry and then breaking down, and the toddler Yusuke saved not really understanding that he's dead. And I had no complaints about the parts of this arc that they did speed up - a lot of the timeline of the original show is training arcs and Yusuke having to prove himself, and I had almost no problem with them skipping over that. Yusuke not having to do any tasks before coming back to life is A-OK with me.

I also entirely lost my shit at The Dropkick.

And then the last bit of episode 1, where they have to deal with the possessed kid, was absolutely top tier. The way they make demonic possession look and feel in this show is truly horrific, and I loved the way they played it like a one-man zombie apocalypse. The fight choreography was also very impressive and I liked how much they used the environment. Also, letting Kuwabara fight this guy first was a very good way of making the power-scaling clear and establishing that Kuwabara is a fundamentally very decent person willing to punch above his weight class to try and help.

However, this episode did get me excited for something they ended up not doing, which was a bummer. The first thing we see in the show is a Makai insect, which in the anime are the tools of the villains in the Four Saint Beasts arc - at the climax of that storyline, Makai-insect-possessed students and faculty corner Keiko and Botan in the human world while Yusuke fights an increasingly desperate battle against Suzaku to try and stop him. If the full-on body horror zombie thing was what makai insect possession looked like, that scenario immediately seemed like it was going to be butt-clenchingly terrifying.

Of course, they ended up entirely sidestepping the Saint Beasts arc, which is understandable - narratively speaking its only real function is to let the four protagonists team-build after their contentious first meetings. It became clear pretty quickly that with the time they had, it wouldn't be worth it to go there. That said, I think they really could've used a little more team-building time - more on that later.

The first episode also pretty solidly established the tone they'd be taking for the rest of the show - much more dark, almost no comedy. Normally I find those sorts of adaptations pretty dour and joyless, but in this case I thought it helped make the stakes feel solid, and if anything it lined up better with the original premise of "the demon world is a truly horrifying place and its incursion into reality would be an absolute nightmarish apocalypse." I didn't mind that it felt like the stakes were real and the heroes fighting demons was really necessary.

The second episode made it pretty clear where they were going with the series adaptation. While it speeds through the intro of Goki, Kurama and Hiei, it also lets Yusuke's fight with Goki feel - again - extremely well-choreographed and tense. The choreography in this show is consistently very impressive, especially considering how often our heroes have to fight fully CGI bad guys - and this fight doesn't even have any dialogue in it, but it still makes it entirely clear what Yusuke is thinking at every point, which is very impressive, especially since he goes through an entire arc from "I don't need to figure out how to use the Spirit Gun" to "I desperately need the spirit gun to start working right the fuck now". They also handle Kurama's intro very well, making it very clear that he's cunning and kind of inscrutable but not necessarily malicious, and in the scene where Yusuke's tailing him it's pretty clear from the choreography that Kurama knows he's there and is very carefully waiting long enough for him to follow him without feeling like he's being lured, which is entirely in-character, and again a very impressive way to show characterization without any dialogue required. And of course the reveal that Kurama is in fact a Nice Boy who is trying to sacrifice himself to save his mom is real good, and letting Yusuke's past experience with seeing how his mom reacted to his death make him immediately ride or die for Kurama was a very solid bit of characterization - and adding Kuwabara to this subplot where he wasn't originally there helped balance out the characterization a little bit with an entirely justified naysayer pointing out "dude he's a demon maybe don't trust him immediately." It also helps get Kuwabara involved in the main story nice and quick, where he originally is a bit of a late arrival.

The part I was getting a little worried about at this point, and an element of the adaptation that I legitimately think is a detriment, was how they were handling Hiei. A huge part of what makes Hiei fun in the original series is that he is legitimately a huge bastard, and in his introduction is a full-blown bad guy who Yusuke very nearly dies fighting. Classic Hiei kidnapped Keiko and nearly turned her into a demon just to fuck with Yusuke. And what makes their relationship great is the team-building that happens in the Four Saint Beasts arc the adaptation is evidently skipping over, where Hiei is so baffled - and so touched - by Yusuke's completely unearned trust in him that he immediately becomes 100% ride or die for Yusuke and only Yusuke.

He's a vicious little asshole who takes himself very seriously and legitimately has the power to back up his grandstanding 90% of the time, and that's what makes him so fun to watch - those little slivers of characterization where he's goofy or baffled or vulnerable or lets himself be visibly impressed with one of his teammates, mixed with the moments where he's like "okay this has been fun but it's time to die now" and just one-shots the bad guy with another dangerous forbidden technique he picked up for shits and giggles.

So I was getting a little worried that the adaptation wasn't gonna let Hiei be, like. An actual asshole. Because what makes him fun as a character is that he is an asshole, he just also has a handful of sympathetic motivations and nice qualities that he usually doesn't own up to. And I ended up being right about that, which was a bummer, but again, the way they did it was a bit of extremely efficient streamlining. In the anime, Hiei's introduction is just him being a dick for no reason - then everyone has a team-building bonding arc with the Four Saint Beasts, and then Hiei is revealed to have a real heroic motivation hiding somewhere in there: rescuing his secret twin sister Yukina from a nasty human holding her prisoner.

So the adaptation basically just streamlined the entire rest of the show into that arc. Hiei's intro stealing the fancy knife? He's using it to get the Jagan Eye to look for Yukina. Hiei storming this compound full of humans? They're the ones holding Yukina prisoner. It's 100% sympathetic, he's just not willing to own up to that to anybody. Everything he does that's dubiously moral or kind of a dick move? It's actually fine, or he's being framed (like in the shot they perfectly remake from the anime where he kidnaps Keiko, except just kidding it's a shapeshifting bad guy framing him), or Yusuke's the one who attacks him in the first place.

And that's extremely efficient storytelling! It just makes Hiei kind of an antisocial dick and not even slightly a villain, which I think dramatically reduces how fun his character is - it just flattens him into a very standard-issue lancer archetype who refuses to express any sort of emotional or physical vulnerability to anyone, which is a fine character trope, it's just kind of more boring than the dickhead outdoor cat I was hoping for.

The same thing also happens to Genkai, who in the original series has dozens of episodes of screentime to show off how she is the best kind of mentor ever written - a dickhead mentor.

She's rude and snarky and a full-blown asshole, and she and Yusuke have a truly hilarious mentor-stydent dynamic because they're both assholes. And it's not until a good way into the Dark Tournament that we see them in a dynamic that's not just being assholes to each other - when Genkai consolidates all her power into a sporb for Yusuke to absorb, and he spends several episodes nearly dying about it. The fact that Genkai truly cares about him as her student - and the fact that he truly cares about her as his master - only comes out in this subplot, when she honestly believes she's fucked up and killed him and he goes beyond his limits to absorb the power she's given him. It's a beautiful moment of payoff after dozens of episodes of planting, and right after that happens, Genkai is killed.

So when the live-action show introduced Genkai, and after a good solid montage of training and anime-accurate fight scenes and some really good Kuwabara moments, she told Yusuke she had one final technique to give him, I said out loud "oh my god please don't speedrun this." And then they did. She gave Yusuke the sporb and he absorbed it immediately and painlessly, and then they left, and then she immediately gets killed.

My notes on that part were just

So I didn't like that part. Like Hiei, Genkai is such an effective character because her moments of vulnerability and non-assholeness are so rare, and the rest of the time she's an absolute goblin nightmare. Getting rid of that reduces her to another, much flatter trope, and killing her in the same episode she's introduced almost entirely removes the impact of the moment and just makes her another dead mentor. But again, this is episode 3 of 5. This isn't the writer's fault, this is the writers making a very hard decision on what they need to get into the plot if they're planning on speedrunning the entire Dark Tournament arc - which they are. The primary rule they seemed to use when adapting Yu Yu Hakusho is "if the heroes fought this bad guy more than once, no they didn't." So the first fight with the Toguro brothers is going to become the only fight with the Toguro brothers, and they need to speedrun the entire core plot of the Dark Tournament arc within the confines of Toguro's introduction in the Rescue Yukina arc.

And the thing is, hot take? I'm not mad about that. The Dark Tournament is an iconic moment in Shonen anime history, but like. it's a tournament arc. Like all tournament arcs, it goes on a very long time, a lot of it is extremely repetitive, and it eventually arrives at the foregone conclusion end state of "team protagonist vs team final boss". In a five-episode adaptation, you pick the smallest number of good fights with real stakes and you just use those. And that's what they do here. Kurama and Hiei both get little bottle-episode fights with their respective most plot-relevant opponents from the Dark Tournament, and they both get to show off their dangerous forbidden techniques.

And it slaps. It could've used more buildup for maximum punch, but again, five episodes. And frankly in the original they didn't get much buildup either, just "this is a thing I've been working on, hopefully I don't die about it."

And consistently, the fight choreography continues to be really good. The physicality of the actors is very solid and the way CGI attacks and opponents get worked into the choreography is so fluid it's sometimes hard to tell where the CGI ends. And considering the final boss is two full-CGI photorealistic bad guys, I think they do an incredibly good job making the fights feel real and solid.

Characterization-wise, since so much of the final episode is just a lot of fighting against a big damage sponge, there's not a ton of time for talking, but the choreography is, again, a standout. Even outside combat, the secondary characters get a lot of little moments to shine - even Damsel In Distress Du Jour Keiko gets to pull the "oh no, I, your valuable prisoner, am sick, please come into my cell within easy throttling range" trick and breaks herself and Yukina out, which slaps and makes the whole breakout feel like much more of a team effort, and it also lets Keiko and Yukina share some brief but extremely tender moments of characterization that does a lot to make them feel like well-rounded characters. And back in the main fight zone, the characters don't have much dialogue but show where they're at through how they move. Everyone is exhausted and beaten down and has already used their finishing moves, but Yusuke's in trouble, so it's time to scramble back up and tackle the bad guy. It's just such good choreo and such good acting that it makes me forgive a lot of the pacing struggles they're dealing with from boiling everything down to 5 episodes, and without dialogue - just through fight choreography - they manage to make me buy the teamwork dynamic they've thus far failed to establish due to speedrunning past all the stuff that's supposed to help them bond. This is the first part of the show that makes me believe that Hiei has any affection for the gang and any reason to fight alongside them beyond coincidence.

And they continued the trend of hitting all the major plot beats from the stuff they were speedrunning, which led to me counting down the minutes to the Kuwabara Fake-Dies To Motivate Yusuke moment.

The rest of the fight is pretty much just a shot-for-shot adaptation of the final stage of the Toguro bossfight, plus the added fun that it's the first time in the show Yusuke has actually yelled "spirit gun" out loud, which is neat. And it took every second of those five episodes, but in the closing scene they finally reached the group dynamic I was hoping for.

All things considered, given the parameters they had to work in, I think this is the best we could've possibly gotten in only five episodes. I would've probably preferred one where instead of cramming the entire dark tournament into three episodes they just left it alone and just did Rescue Yukina plus maybe the Saint Beasts, but if this is what we were getting, this was a very solid way to do it. I, at least, had an overall very good time, and have been thinking about rewatching it, which is wild since it's only been like three weeks since I watched it the first time. But yea, overall the pacing is wild but I think there was a lot of love and thought put into it, and it really shows.

[ladyloveandjustice]

Spring 2024 Anime Overview: Train to the End of the World and Tonari no Yokai-san

Who knows if poor Whisper Me a Love Song (a cute yuri anime about a girl band... with dire animation conditions so it's currently stuck on episode 10 with the last two episodes delayed indefinitely) is ever going to finish, but here’s some my first post reviewing the rest of what I watched.

Delicious in Dungeon continued to kill it with the second half of the season, kicking into high gear and introducing cranky catgirls, but you can see my general thoughts on the show here.

Train to the End of the World

I love bizarre anime, especially bizarre anime starring loveable weird girls, and Train absolutely delivers.

 A teenage girl named Yoka is bullied by a slimy businessman into pushing a button that activates the 7G cellular network across Japan, but said network warps and changes Japan completely, having bizarre effects on the citizens. For example, all the adults in Yoka's hometown have been transformed into animals and are starting to act like animals.

Shizuru is Yoka's best friend, and she said some seriously nasty things to Yoka before her friend left town. Yoka's been missing ever since the 7G incident and Shizuru is desperate to find her and apologize. So when she sees a picture showing Yoka in Ikebukuro, she decides to drive a train to find her, and her friends Reimi, Akira, Nadeshiko, and also her dog come along. As they travel across the warped Japan, they face many weird encounters and obstacles.

Train to the End of the World is greatly entertaining, as we see the girls encounter nihiists with mushrooms growing out of their heads, screaming goatmen that ram into the train and even zombies on their journey. The dialogue is snappy, and the girls all have a fun personalities. As a lover of girls doing silly violence, I also adored how everyone besides Akira (who is the smart one) has ridiculous combat skills, with Shizuru having her own form of martial art, Reimi being physically unstoppable when she's mad, and Nadeshiko might come off as the ladylike bow and error wielder...but actually she also can beat the shit out of people with said bow as a blunt object. It's fun to watch them go wild.

An example of how ridiculous the show can get is the encounter with the zombies--the absolutely bizarre logic is that since zombies are supposed to be dead to all sensation, arousal will make them blow up. Instead of the girls acting sexy to arouse them like most anime would do, they just say dirty words, and Akira recites a whole paragraph from Lady Chatterley's Lover that she apparently memorized, and they sing a hilariously bawdy folk song. This episode DOES contain the show's biggest moment of sexualizing the teenage girls though- a hyper detailed panty shot that was super jarring considering the show avoided fanservice before then.

And the next episode had Nadeshiko forced to don a somewhat skimpy outfit. Those are the only two instances of fanservice, but that episode also had a joke where this character in this children's cartoon come to life's entire gimmick was that she was suicidal. It was probably meant to be "lol look how inappropriate this would be for children" but it still felt fairly mean spirited at times.

Despite those hiccups to watch out for, the anime works because it never forgets it's core theme or friendship--the relationships between the girls are developed at a good pace, and Shizuru's guilt over what she did to Yoka is explored well too. It's not just a ridiculous anime, it has a heart too. So if an anime where a girl punches a bear in the face and arms herself with vegetables appeals to you…check it out!

Tonari No Yokai-san

Tonari no Yokai-san takes place in a world where yokai have integrated into human society. The central characters are Buchio, a cat who became a nekomata after living to twenty, and Jiro, a crow tengu who is close friends with a little girl he calls Mu-chan.

This is a very sweet, gentle series that has some heartwrenching and dark undertones occasionally.  Mu’s father has been lost to an eerie void, and a lot of the stories focus on grief. The immediate comparison tone and content-wise is Natsume’s Book of Friends, but it distinguishes itself by presenting a world where yokai are very much part of society, to the point where they have to do paperwork  and pay taxes. (There was also a confirmation that one character is bisexual when his backstory involves dating a guy yokai, so that was nice, especially since he's currently in a relationship with a car yokai that's probably meant to be romantic? Yes I said car yokai it is his car.)

There’s also some sci-fi elements mixed in with alternate timelines and what not. I think these elements could be integrated more smoothly, but they are pretty novel. It’s a really solid series.

I do love stories about yokai and I thought it was enjoyable and touching, but it didn’t rock my world the way I wanted it to…it might be that it followed too many characters at once so I couldn’t dig into any of them the way I really wanted to. Still, it’s a sweet, tender and pleasant watch, I definitely rec it.

[opinions-about-tiaras]

Ten Years Against Fascism: Star vs. The Forces of Evil in 2025

Today is the 10th anniversary of the premiere of Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

During the 2010s, Disney had a pretty epic run of extremely high-quality YA animation series. They were characterized by being intensely creator-driven, and beginning as humorous episodic adventure shows that eventually morphed into strongly serialized affairs focusing on plot and character development. That run was kicked off with 2012’s Gravity Falls, and would come to an end in 2023 with the abrupt cancellation of The Owl House. Their sophomore outing, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, premiered on January 18th, 2015 on the Disney Channel, before beginning its regular run later that spring on Disney XD.

Of the “big four” series of that era (Gravity Falls, SVTFOE, Amphibia, and The Owl House) SVTFOE is probably regarded as the weakest, and is the least well-remembered and engaged with a decade later. It was far from bad; at the time it was one of Disney’s hottest hits, with crazy high ratings, heavily promoted, with celebrity guest voices (they brought in the lead singer of Fallout Boy to perform music), tie-in books and comics, the works. But it suffered from a flabby last season and an ending that left almost nobody happy. If you look at fandom engagement and the prevalence of fanworks compared to any of the other three series on that list, it isn’t even close to which one lags behind.

And that’s a damn shame, in my opinion, because I re-watched the series in its entirety in preparation to write this post, and SVTFOE slaps hard.

Let’s take a look back at this magical princess from another dimension.

SVTFOE starts off in a fairly direct and nearly formulaic way; frenetic humor, big personalities, straightforward plots that grow out of wacky premises. (Essentially the Adventure Time playbook, really.) It dispenses with secret identities and the pretense that this is taking place in anything other than a fantastic setting. Take Star Butterfly, magical teenage princess from the dimension of Mewni. Give her a wand and a distinct lack of self-control. Send her to Earth and high school and pair her with a straight man. Sic a bunch of monsters who want to GET THAT WAND on her. Let the hijinks ensue.

I mean, hell. Star Butterfly turns her math teacher into a literal magical ogre in the second episode, and she stays that way for the entirety of the series. It’s just… whatever. That’s how it rolls.

That was the premiere, in 2015. In fact, said premiere is still available in its entirety on Youtube, even if you don't have Disney+. The first ten minutes are worth your time as an example of "how to immaculately pace your show" if nothing else.

Wacky and fun and as light and airy as strawberry soda, yeah?

By the series finale in 2019, Star Butterfly was conducting surgery on the universe because the magical powers that were the source of her family's entire identity for hundreds of years had in fact been a tool of conquest, imperialism, genocide, and terror, and in order to prevent a mass campaign of ethnic cleansing she has to detonate them, because her power, privilege, and identity are less important than basic justice.

It was a hell of a ride to get there.

*      *      *

Before we get into the giant myth arc, the political drama, and some of the shipping stuff, I want to jump into a big under discussed aspect, and strength, of SVTFOE; its willingness and ability to be gross and weird and filthy on a lot of different levels.

The animation is the obvious place to start with here; it was rather unique, at the time. All of the big four series of the 2010s adopted very obvious anime-inspired aesthetics; big eyes, small mouths and noses, thick black borders on characters and objects (as opposed to the thinner linework on something like Phineas and Ferb or Kim Possible) with lots of solid, bright, contrasting colors to make things pop. But SVTFOE went in its own direction away from this “house style,” by adopting an explicitly Ren and Stimpy inspired level of being willing to squash, stretch, and deform its characters. There’s an entirely deliberate grossness about it. Smash cuts to peoples fucked-up faces and arms, often covered in pustules and leaking all kinds of fluids, were common. 

It’s a much grosser show in this regard than even Amphibia, and Amphibia takes place in the middle of a disgusting swamp and features at least three characters with poison skin; SVTFOE out-grosses it.

This is unusual for a Disney show. What was also unusual was how filthy it was willing to get, and when I say filthy I mean “this is a show with a predominantly teen cast, and it wasn’t afraid to lean into how thirsty and horny and emotionally twisted up and weird teens can be.”

Let me put it this way. This is a show that wasn’t afraid to show a bunch of high school girls flocking around a boy’s tentacle arm, cooing over it and remarking how they want a tentacle boyfriend.

Yeahhhhhh. That's... look at Janna there, in the middle. The animators knew what they were doing.

Shows of this type (by which I mean TV-Y7 rated shows intended for a primarily Young Adult audience) don’t eschew romance. But it tends to be… very chaste, and very straightforward. Love triangles can be a thing, sure. But usually it isn’t messy, and characters who are weird about it usually have it played for laughs or are depicted as warped or wrong in some way. “Girl character is a crazy stalker girl that lets us make a few Fatal Attraction jokes the parents will get” is practically a trope. (I’m looking in your direction, Mabel Pines.)

That isn’t how SVTFOE rolls.

Star, herself, is a deeply thirsty person in the way that only someone who is fourteen can be thirsty, and the show basically revels in that. She is not traditionally boy-crazy, adopting the aforementioned stalker-style behavior and suddenly becoming a dumb idiot when romance is in the air. Rather, she is a fourteen year old with an active desire for romance who the show allows to be quite open about it (by Disney standards) when she sees someone whose abs she wants to run her face up and down on. Her dumb decisions aren’t “I will entirely deform my personality for the cardboard cutout of a boy I have a crush on” but rather “my ex has invited me on a date, and he is very cool and my feelings about him are ambivalent, so I will accept against my better judgement.”

The show is very up-front that parts of it are a straight-up romantic drama; Scott Pilgrim is specifically cited by the showrunner as an inspiration and influence. Things get messy. People cheat on each other. There are multiple love triangles. People hurt each other and are hurt in turn in ways that, despite them happening in the context of demon battles and court intrigue, are highly believable as “these are things that teens in high-stress situations would do with, for, and TO each other.”

This isn’t something you’re going to get from just about any other show, especially any other Disney show. Those shows usually involve straightforward meet-cutes, adorable crushes, unrequited love played largely for laughs (Phineas and Ferb) or at best a well-executed enemies-to-lovers arc (The Owl House.) That’s when they bother with romance and, yes, let’s be blunt, lust at all. Teens in mainstream YA fiction tend to often be either curiously sexless, or sexy desires are portrayed as kind of gross and weird and shameful.

SVTFOE allows its cast of colorful adolescent weirdos to get filthy with each other. This is still a Disney show; nobody is getting to second base or, god forbid, having premarital adolescent sex. But it really goes the extra mile and it feels real. It feels raw, in a way most other mainstream shows of this sort never, ever do. One of the bigger and more important sub-plots is literally about how sexy miscegenation between a queen and her sexy monster man lover she committed adultery with might bring down a whole kingdom, and this isn’t portrayed as shameful or said queen a disgusting harlot in any way. 

Speaking of the queen of darkness…

*   *   *

One of the big narrative strengths of accomplishing the shows transition from episodic adventures to longer, more serious arcs was establishing ridiculous setting conceits as jokey fun things, and then later revealing them to be of serious, critical importance.

The magical princess has an overbearing mother, just like regular teenage girls! How will they learn to communicate? (Her mother is overbearing because their family line has DONE SOME SHIT.)

Aww, this twelve-minute episode is devoted to Star meeting one of her heroes, who is mysteriously living as a hobo on Earth, and trying to be her apprentice until she realizes that her hero is a bag of mixed nuts. The larfs! (Said hero is an ancient genocide engine and a walking war crime, and will secretly be the series final boss.)

Monsters are trying to steal the magic wand! Fights ensue! (The monsters are trying to steal the magic wand because the humans have magic, the monsters don’t, and the humans have been using that magic to impose a racial hierarchy.)

Star goes through magic-inflected puberty and becomes boy crazy! (The magic inflected puberty is because her family has been fucked up on a basic level by constant exposure to magic and is dangerous and deadly.)

The queen of darkness had returned from her terrible crystal prison! She’s corrupting the youths! (The queen of darkness is a wrongly convicted political prisoner and  the most empathetic, concerned, responsible adult in the whole show.)

All of this is slowly unpeeled over the course of four seasons. Almost everything that shows up as a total joke in season one will turn out to be fairly plot-relevant by season four. Again, the Adventure Time playbook. And it serves as an underpinning to the series main political thrust.

Because, yeah, SVTFOE is an intensely, almost uniquely, political series.

*    *   *

The politics in Disney shows tend to be paper-thin. They’re functionally nonexistent in Gravity Falls, for example, except as jokes. Amphibia and The Owl House approach them through bog-standard “fight the evil empire” lenses. (Yeah, I’m sorry, fellow Owl House fans, Emperor Belos is a great villain but his religious-inflected bigotry is very much soft pedaled; he’s functionally Palpatine in so many ways.)

SVTFOE doesn’t do that. SVTFOE faces this shit head on.

The show starts as basically “Oh, the goofy, somewhat comedic, but also very threatening monsters are obvious villains, out to steal magic for their own nefarious ends.” The theme songs and opening credits and basic structure of the show all support this. Then they pull back the curtain a little bit, and it's like “Oh, okay. The monsters are fully fleshed-out characters and some of them will be Star’s friends. Aww, they have cute monster kids she babysits for!”

Then they pull it back further, and further, and further, until eventually what is made clear to the viewers is that Star Butterfly’s magical kingdom of Mewni is a colonizing force. They have magic. (And corn!) The monsters do NOT have magic. (Or corn.) The humans therefore view themselves as having a manifest destiny to subjugate, drive out, or exterminate the monsters. In the service of this, the Queens of Mewni have at times used their magic to attempt to develop spells of mass destruction, create super-soldiers, and other such mayhem. There have been people who tried to stop it. Those people have their names smeared, are imprisoned in a kind of endless living death for the crime of miscegenation, and have their legacies erased from history.

This isn’t really a giant secret anyone has been concealing, some horrible revelation. (For the most part. There are… SOME horrible revelations.) It’s just part of the background noise. Star never really questions it until one day when she does. She has the privilege for it to be something she doesn’t need to engage with.

And when she tries to stop it, it isn’t easy. The show is very up-front about that! There is no single source of evil that Star can point her magical wand at and make go away by blasting it with multicolored sprinkle unicorn lasers. It’s a constant, unending miasma she has to try and plow through. When not met with hostility, she is met with indifference, which in some ways obviously cuts her even deeper. Her own mother, the walking embodiment of centrist idiocy, becomes so nervous about the social change Star is trying to usher in that she makes common cause with straight-up genocidal fascists.

(A lot of people think the show engaged in character assassination of Queen Moon. I say that given her background, personality, and place in the world Moon’s actions were entirely overdetermined.)

The show is not subtle about this. The physical embodiment of this is a seemingly goofy, out-of-it crusty old relic of bygone days, who clearly is not that smart, has several screws loose, and can’t utter three sentences without it seeming like her brain is going to leak out of her ears.

She seems entirely unthreatening until you discover she’s a thin shell of humanity over a bottomless lake of hate… and that all she has to do is start saying things like “Our Kingdom used to be great! But not anymore!” and she’ll get many worshipful followers willing to do whatever she says, and what she says is “ethnically cleanse Mewni.”

The final climax of the show, which remains endlessly controversial to this day, presents Star with a choice. Magic and the use thereof is central to her, her history, her family, and the life she leads. But magic has been an absolute nightmare for everyone but a thin slice of privileged humans, who are the only ones who can use it and who have the literal embodiments of its various aspects dedicated to upholding their racial supremacy, and a horde of magical crazies have juiced themselves up on it and are going buck wild with the aforementioned ethnic cleansing.

So Star just destroys it. She removes access to magic from the universe, despite the personal cost.

The hell of it is, and this honestly the bravest decision the show ever made, was that this doesn’t secure victory. You can’t kill bigotry like that. Sure, Star stopped it and removed its most powerful tool… this time. All it does is scuttle off into the woods and wait.

“You can get rid of me. It’s soooooo easy. But the sweet thing is… I’ll never really be gone. ‘Cause I’ve got GOOD IDEAS.”

So yeah, that was SVTFOE. It was brave, and bold, and achingly relevant, and despite its flaws doesn’t deserve the bad rap the final season got.

Here’s to ten years of fighting the forces of evil. Because if there’s one thing you should take away from the show, it’s that that fight never ends, but there’s meaning and even joy and love in the struggle.

[just-prime]

I'm not sure if you've been watching The Acolyte, but my critically high levels of sodium over the Ahsoka series have returned with the revelation that Rosario must have fought Lucasfilm over fight/lightsaber training stipulating in her contract.

Manny Jacinto, who came to the role with a black belt in Tae Kwon Do trained for four months for his fight scenes before filming. Rosario repeatedly said in interviews that she trained for two hours a day while filming, and it was clear that she thought this was a lot.

I tried to write it off last year. Budget and time constraints, George Lucas overspent and Disney is doing things differently, the prequel era is dead-

No.

No, this is not the case.

Prequel era love and care in the arena of bringing characters who are expert sword wielders and martial artists to life is alive and well at Lucasfilm.

Daphne Keen fights like Ahsoka plucked from the middle of the Clone Wars and brought to life. Dean Charles Chapman's saberwork is a beautiful hybrid of Obi-wan and Anakin with lightning fast, graceful Soresu and saber spins, lightsabers are deadly once more and used in ways we haven't seen outside of animation and video games, and characters far, far older than 11 ABY Ahsoka have kinetic, energetic choreography because a 42 year old Jedi is nowhere near over the hill, and I'm done with being gaslit about her age.

There are many issues with this show, yes, but there are no cameos (save for one blink and you miss it), no name dropping to make the audience tear up and feel something based on the hard work of previous content. Nuggets are plucked from the EU and made fresh, like the delightful and creative use of cortosis. New force worshipping sects with their own beliefs are brought to life without being the Nightsisters. The galaxy feels large again.

It's everything Ahsoka wasn't and shows just how soulless an effort that show was. Ironically this is the show that's getting raked over the coals while nearly all criticism of Ahsoka was met with dismissal despite the show being desperately mediocre.

If you had asked me to go in without behind the scenes knowledge and tell you if Filoni or Headland was the one new to Star Wars and who was approaching this effort with genuine love of the material and passion for world building and adventure, it wouldn't be the guy who was recently made Creative Director.

I'm sorry for once again paragliding into your inbox (yes, this is the salty anon from last summer lol), especially if you aren't interested in The Acolyte, but it just sheds so much light on everything wrong with Ahsoka and how valid our criticisms were. Salt doesn't have an expiration date, so I hope this is a little bit of vindication!

Hello, hello! Hang up your paraglider, you're always welcome in my ask box.

I have been watching the Acolyte! I'll admit, I saved off answering this until the final ep had come out so that if there were any more cool fight scenes, they were not missed in my response.

Thoughts I had Pre Finale

All in all I agree completely.

While flawed (personally I feel like the acting on Osha and Mea is the weakest part of the show as a whole, as well as the fact that this very much felt like a movie idea stretched into a tv show) the Acolyte has been legions better than the previous slop that Disney Star Wars has put out recently. You know why? Because I had fucking fun watching it. Sure, afterwards I'd usually say something along the lines of 'wow the pacing is a bit weird' but all in all? Actively enjoyable. It never made me angrily close the D+ tab mid episode.

It's also been a facinating litmus test for what people are able to be chill about Star Wars and which ones are not able to handle it. The amount of reviewers and reactors whom I previously had massive respect for who just are acting like utter tools is really getting on my nerves.

Because in sooooo many ways this has been exactly what people have been asking for. A new perspective, with new ideas that isn't just focused on the Skywalker saga. And on top of that, holy fuck the fights are glorious. You are absolutely right, both Dafne Keen's and Tommon's fights prove just how well you can have lightsaber skills look from a single person, as well as the Wookie fight showing off some truly impressive choreo between the three.

And then you have Manny Jacinto...hello ARMS

The man is by far the standout joy of the series (followed closely by Sol) as the man just oozes charisma. His big fight against everyone was brutal and I'm glad to see that lightsabers are once again deadly in the Star Wars universe. Watching him mow through a legion of Jedi was so incredibly satisfying to watch, and again he is just knocking it out of the park with the choreo. LOVE the way that they've introduced cortosis into live action, especially in a fighting style. Headbutting a lightsaber was fucking amazing to witness. Though it's actually not the first time that it's appeared in Canon star wars, as it appears in the second canon Thrawn book, Thrawn : Alliances!

The exploration of the Dark Side is being done in such an interesting way, because none of the practitioners we've seen would self identify as 'dark side users' at all. Because sure, you have Manny Jacinto who is out being evil because the Jedi were going to label him as dark side either way so he might as well defend himself, for him it's just the way he connects with the Force. But you also have the witches, who's mind infiltration is certainly Dark Side, but are just out here living their best witchy lives. They live by their Thread, regardless of what the Jedi would call it.

As always, also the "the jedi need to be the coolest and the morally purest people in the whole wide world" people are having hissy fits, which is just like...no? Stop being allergic to nuance? We've seen time and time again how the Jedi were in fact a child taking cult (yes, yes they are, if you disagree i'd recommend going and rewatching TPM which spells it out pretty clearly) usually we've just been on the Jedi's POV so it seems justified. The Sol flashback episode I think shows off this mentality very well. He had good intentions, sure, but all in all, he wants to take and even Trinity calls him on it. It's a fascinating examination of what decades later would lead Anakin down a path of desperation.

Speaking of Anakin...People getting suuuuuper protective over Anakin's super special status as 'the chosen one' was also rather surreal to witness. Personally, I don't see how this invalidates his 'the chosen one' in the first place? But people were definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel for things to complain about, as opposed to offering actually constructive criticism, of which there are plenty of options.

Thoughts I had Post Finale

All in all, nothing really changed for me, as usual, the pacing was absolutely fucked and the action was absolutely incredible, and in the end, I enjoyed the experience of watching it.

I certainly appreciate seeing more of the Jedi actively covering shit up, both in little ways as well in big ways.

Also *waves* Hi Plagueis!

My main little gripe

I really don't get why they needed to actively tie Mr. Darth Hotpants over here to Venesta specifically? I get the want to connect him to an established character, it just rang a little hollow for me. I think I'd have preferred it if he was just a rando youngling who never even got to being a Padawan cuz the Jedi kept trying to basically de-dark side him ala grade schools punishing for being left handed. Donno, I just think that would have been a bit more compelling.

My main BIG gripe

Why...THE FUCK...did they split up??? They burned waaaay more time having their little heart to heart then had it been all three of them fucking booking it to the ship. I just don't get it. I don't get why Mae or Osha would want to leave each other again, and I don't get why Manny Jacinto would willingly give up an additional fighter. I get the whole "There can only be two" bit, but A) Plagueis is already there on the island, so Osha makes it three and B) Osha's probably going to be more motivated with a little living reminder of the Jedi's lies being right there and present and C) Osha and Mae are both so fucking powerful why would anyone just let one half of the pair walk away????

It just didn't fit with any of the character's previous actions so it annoys me.

Kinda ended as I began, relatively neutral on it all. Think if pressed would give it a 7/10 just because the action was SO FUCKING GOOD, otherwise it would probably be lower due to the rather painful pacing issues and the meh acting on display from Amandla Stenberg which was just such a huge shame cuz I know she's got more range than this.

Mainly, I just really really hope future shows take from this just how good lightsaber combat can be when you have properly trained performers. THIS should be the standards, and it's painful that its not.

As always thank you for dropping into my ask box! You always give me so much to work with it's a joy to respond :D

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s2 episode 25 thoughts

OKAY S2 finale!!!!! make some noiiiiiise!!!! this is big, this is huge!!!

i remember the s1 finale like it was yesterday. because it was a little over a month ago. man, how time flies. but a season a month isn't a bad pace, and means i still have lots and lots of fun agent time to go. wowowow we sure did go a lot of places this season! in every sort of meaning.

the episode description refers to "an encrypted computer disk” and i'm thinking, girl it’s a virus… watch out! (hint: it was not a virus, but taking proper safety precautions is always advisable)

(while the beginning of the episode was loading i sighed wistfully and said “i miss you deep throat” out loud and then burst into laughter at the sheer absurdity of that sentence. i'm always saying weird stuff and so glad no one is listening. can you imagine hearing someone say that. in absolutely any of the contexts to which "deep throat" can refer. man. need to find a way to work that phrase into ordinary life)

anyway. we are at a Navajo reservation in new mexico. an earthquake is going on. be careful, young man whom we open upon, do not let the cacti on the shelves above your head fall on you! he somehow dodges the spiny falling objects, and we learn his name is eric.

eric is riding on his cool little bike up into the cliffs. someone in his family- who we later learn is referred to as albert, so i shall refer to him as albert starting now- told him to leave the snakes alone. which raises the question: are we interating with snakes on such a regular basis in this town that leaving them alone needs to be pointed out…? that has always sort of been implied in my life. but different lives we lead.

eric sees something white in the ground… and a crowd has gathered? eric, what have you brought to the door of your home like a cat with a bird it shouldn't have? OHHHH... an ALIEN BODY. it has seen better days, very old and looking mummified (which i'm sure would actually please many historians). albert says to return it because they will be coming- i'm torn on the meaning of the "they" here, is he referring to aliens coming to fetch their lost comrade, or the government coming to bury the evidence? either way, he has been commanded: put that thing back where it came from or so help me.

(sidenote: why did we decide aliens look like That. they could look like ANYTHING. i'm sure there is a reason and i could look it up with ease but i just think that we could exercise some creativity here. like we're coming up with an entirely new species of intelligent creature and we make it... vaguely humanoid? like god in our own image? but creepier? hmm. no. go all out on that)

new character alert! he is hacking Something. i would guess this to be the mysterious records referred to in the episode description that prove aliens are real

and it looks like he succeeded, because we hear that someone has broken into the “MJ” documents. this is causing a stir in the UN! Italy, Germany, and Japan are involved. suspicious selection of countries….

germany man is on the phone w cigarette guy. cigarette guy speaks german?????? i'm impressed. he hangs up and says “gentleman, that was the phone call I never wanted to get” okay so who are we talking to here...

MULDER AT HOME!!! TAKING ADVIL IN A SLUTTY TANK TOP!!! YES I’M CHEERING!!! WHAT A GIFT!!! WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!!!

(i was worried calling him a slut wouldn't bode well with the established x files fans, but i'm glad that everyone has so far been in agreement that this is an appropriate way to describe him) 

he doesn’t feel well :( the lone gunmen are here but he doesn’t feel well… have we ever seen him not feel well? beyond the boat. if we have ever seen him under the weather before, i don't recall it. so this has got to be plot relevant.

news from the lone gunmen: someone named kenneth “the thinker” hacked into the defense department database. and the thinker left a time and a meeting place asking SPECIFICALLY for mulder!!! let him have his aspirin in peace y'all

(for an organization that is supposed to thrive on secrecy, mulder sure is well known in the community of conspiracy theorists... i fear this may come to bite him someday)

but the thinker might already be dead…. (spoiler he was not!)

down the hall someone just SHOT her husband? slutty tank top investigator on the scene. he finds nothing. i knew this was too weird to NOT be a chekov's gun moment but everyone was acting pretty causal about an old lady killing her husband in the apartment. it was an interesting tone choice. but of course, detective tank top still feels very ill, so there are bigger fish to fry.

he is now waiting in the botanical gardens. “i don’t want you to use my real name, I don’t think it’s important that you know”, says the thinker, to which mulder replies “sounds like a line I used in a bar once” <- LMAO??? slut confirmed?

(it's so hard to know with him because he'll say anything he thinks will make him sound clever. but i'm trying to imagine him at a bar and the image isn't really loading mentally. this is a man who is probably at the library in his nonexistent free time)

the thinker claims to have the original UFO files from the defense department. big if true!

what do you want from me? “I want you to promise that those rat bastards answer to the people” <- guy who is saying words in precisely the correct order to get mulder involved in some sort of Scheme. mulder takes the file and the dude leaves and i find everything suspicious! how does he know there isn’t a tracker in there?

LMAO he puts the damn thing in right at work i'm cryingggg he does not give a damn. whilst clocked in!

“you familiar with the Ten Commandments, Scully?” WHY DOES HE ASK WEIRD AND OFF PUTTING QUESTIONS IN THIS MANNER. you kept her cross necklace in your pocket for like a looong time you weird rhetorical man. you know she was Raised Catholic ofc she knows them.

he is showing her the files labeled “TOP SECRET” and there is panic in her eyes and tbh I’m feeling it too!! like damn i never want to be burdened with the forbidden knowledge

he sees it is written in what he calls "gibberish" (i’m suspicious… looks like phonetic pronunciation to me) and he starts THROWING STUFF!!! scary angry man

(i realize now the impulsive throwing and putting of the top secret cassette in while at the work place are the effects of being drugged but at the time he was scaring me a lil. calm down, i was thinking. men who throw things are not my friends generally!)

scully notices the writing looks like it is in Navajo!!! YESSSSSS MY QUEEN OF REALIZING THINGS. her father told her about it and she remembered awww :,)

“only a handful of people can decipher it” she points out “well find one of them” he says <- BITCH??? do it yourself??? you take for granted her presence in this manner again and i will have words with you. i am thinking to myself, he is NOT acting like the man who stayed by her comatose bedside. suspicious.

she asks if he’s okay and he is not looking very okay but he says he is because he is a scoundrel and a liar. and then he goes to see skinner. he says he hasn’t been sleeping. that’s weird. 

he denied knowing anything about the files and then PUNCHED SKINNER IN THE FACE??? WHAT THE HECK. okay, so whatever is going on that made that old lady snap is clearly getting to him too because WHAT.

(i had faith that my boy would not truly do such awful things as throw hands with skinner and be mean to scully out of his own volition. sometimes he can be a bit of a jerk but never in such raw quantities)

skinner got him in a headlock and asks if they’re finished HUH??? what is going ON?

(skinner handled that quite well all things considered. i wonder if this has ever been a problem in the past)

scully called skinner's his office with a bunch of other people present. looking scared. nooo they’re gonna ask about the top secret files she was burdened with knowing exist! but right now they are asking about mulder's behavior. 

ohhh “weren’t you brought on to debunk his work” says some smarmy guy in the back... well things change??? get with the program

they say that if she hides anything from them she could get fired but she gets up and leaves and does not mention the files LMAOOO. that is what it means to be a ride or die. even after the bestie punched boss in the face and was acting rude as fuck she is gonna cover his top secret rule breaking. because she's the last real one on this planet.

also, skinner has an awful bruise on his face. it makes me sad.

cutscene to the vineyard: MULDER WENT HOME???? it's a long drive to Massachusetts. BUT NO!! it is not mulder at the door! but cigarette man!!! mulder’s dad answers. and he looks like they know each other??? 

“no one was supposed to know”, one of the men says to the other. okay so they DO know each other because they worked together??? tea... this is juicy.

unrelated really, but cigarette man has a very soothing voice. too bad he chooses to use it for evil when audio book narration could have been a viable career.

the files from the defense department have mulder's dad’s NAME on them??? WHAT DOES HE KNOW??? what has he been hiding from his son?!!!

cig man claims the file thief came forward but i'm doubting that... the thinker seemed very committed. this seems like a classic case of “claim something and see if the accused goes along” 

“you wouldn’t… harm him?” asks mr. mulder. “I’ve protected him this long, haven’t I?” <- HUH??? YOU NEARLY KILLED SCULLY YOU CANCER PUMPING RAT?? NOTHING about you makes anyone feel safe.

mulder’s dad’s name is “Bill”. this has no real relevance, but i find it interesting. and cigarette man says to deny any involvement: "deny everything" like the words on the opening screen from the s1 finale!

(is anyone getting a homoerotic undertone here or is it just me? the whole cig man and bill scene went down so quickly it was hard to tell. but the hand on the shoulder lingering and the "you look well"... hmm)

mulder on da couch. he is sleeping. seriously we need to get him a mattress. scully is here!!! he nearly shoots her but luckily this does not happen.

(it was lowkey funny to see her just standing there watching him sleep lmaooo. like was she gonna wake him up or just observe and try to figure out what exactly was wrong with him. i guess we'll never know)

she needs assurance that she’s doing the right thing (and i love this. i love a character that Needs to do the morally right thing) and he is being snappy about "just getting that code" and i feel that something larger is going on here. he looks very sick. he puts the X in the window. ohhhhh no, getting x involved, that is just asking for trouble

“why did you attack skinner?” “i honestly can’t say” <- yeah there has to be some sort of brainwashing going on here. she looks freaked tf out. and I would be too!

despite him being the way that he is, scully goes to the office of the Navajo nation, bringing the coded files. it’s still encoded but she recognizes a few words.

(they didn't just transmit their message in the Navajo language; the words translated into Navajo had their own coded meaning. which i think might be a common misconception. so translated into Navajo, the words would still look like random nonsense, unless you got someone who had been trained in the code from ww2. which i think is so cool)

mulder's father calls in the middle of the night saying something is very important and he needs to see him right now. he seems quite ill for making that journey.

scully is still at his apartment. then someone FIRED AT SCULLY THROUGH THE WINDOW ?? they hit her head. girl what the hell!!! they nearly killed her!!!

(is his dad getting him out of the house so that he won’t be there when the agents go to shoot him?!? i don't actually think this is what happened but i had a bit of hope)

mulder is sitting on his dad’s couch looking like he’s about to die. and his dad is mumbling vague things about his work. “you’re taking about your work in the state department” <- okay so he KNEW his dad worked at the state department. i'm guessing he just didn't know in which capacity.

“you’ll come to understand the words… the merchandise” <- ohhh that was one of the words the woman at the Navajo nation could understand from the code!

dad is acting strangely and says he needs some medicine. GUY IN THE SHOWER WHEN HIS DAD WENT TO THE BATHROOM???? WITH A GUN? is that krychek or another random white man.

DAD IS DEAD??!! MULDER HOLDING HIS BODY WHILE HE DIES???? 

now both agents have dead dads. this is SOOOOO evil.

and mulder is gently laying his body on the couch. ohhhh my heart.

calling scully. it is a very painful conversation, and he sounds crazed and deeply ill. she is telling him not to leave the scene whatsoever because everything points back to him- his weird behavior lately, him being the only known person in the house at the time of his death, his access to firearms. and while she is yelling trying to get him to understand, she tells him that someone shot HER!!!!

cutscene to him stumbling into a room and falling into her arms OUGHHH I will eat that up a million times over. so clearly he did not listen to the "stay put" advice as she guides him through her place. is he laying down in her BED covered in his father's blood???? wow. her devotion to him is truly endless.

“we’ve got to find out who killed my father” “right now you need to rest" OHHH CRADLING HIS HEAD and putting a cold compress on it. the gentle murmuring of "it's okay". OHHH I could die. be still my whump addicted, rapidly beating heart. it's so gentle.

he wakes up mostly naked on her bed. she took his gun!!! and she took it to be compared with the one that killed his dad!!!! she is trying to clear him of wrongdoing. but it LOOKS like she suspects him.

he calls her to ask about taking the gun… “what, were you afraid I was going to shoot you, too?” <- OH I paused right there to copy down that line and her eyes look SOOO scared. my heart is breaking. she must be wondering what has gotten into him and why he can't trust her.

“you’ve been making reports on me since the beginning, scully, taking your little NOTES” <- this is SICK. SICK!!!!!! i wonder how much of this is whatever evil has gotten into him talking and how much of it is him really believing deep down that he Cannot trust her. or anyone. oh i just know that must have felt like a knife to the gut after everything she has done for him.

“you have my files, and you have my gun. don’t ask me for my trust” he hangs up after saying this. okay wow like i get he’s sick here and something is afoot but damn. after all they've been through.......

she takes the bullet from his wall. and notices someone is bringing a tank of stuff out. gas?? gas that makes you crazy?? is that what has gotten into him??? and the lady who shot her husband?

it's actually water! someone has been messing with the water on mulder's floor. we see the fellow who did this leaving in a van.

mulder takes a cab… back to his place? and sees someone running around the corner…. is that fucking Krychek. they are closing in on each other. 

and yes!!! it is him!! good to know even sick mulder can still kick krychek’s ass!!!!!!

now scully is on the scene!!!! AND SHE SHOT MULDER right in his shoulder!!! and krychek ran away!!! what is going on!!! what ratlike activities has krychek been up to!!

mulder wakes up in a bed in the house of the man from the very beginning who warned about snakes. albert!

“your shoulder is gonna be fine, the round when through nice and clean” she says, very gently, sitting next to him. YEAHHH MEDICAL PRECISION BABY!!

(in the whiniest, angriest voice imaginable) “you shot me >:(“ “yes, I did” <- LMAOOOO she is being so gentle with him

“if you killed krychek with that weapon, there would have been no way to prove that you didn’t kill your father” OKAYYYY queen of logic and facts!!! she is so smart. saved him by shooting him.

oh tea… they were putting what scully assumes to be LSD in his water. to make him distrust everyone he knows. and she still loves him after all of that. AUGH.

she drove his comatose ass TWO DAYS to New Mexico… like can love be any stronger??? it’s debatable.

“you’re lucky she’s a good shot”, says albert and YEAHHH THAT IS MY GIRL!!!! a good shot!!! :,)

pause. just gotta say here. scully is remarkable. mulder had been acting very Weird and yelling and screaming and his dad was shot and it looked like he did it. and despite all the evidence pointing to him killing his father, she never believed it fully. and he found this guy holding krychek at gunpoint, about to make himself appear guilty for his father’s murder. so she shoots him with enough accuracy to knock him down, gets him bandaged up, finds the LSD in his water, knocks his ass out, and drives him two days to New Mexico to find one of the very few people that can understand this code he is breaking a million rules to try and understand. like are you joking. is she not top ten characters of all time??? take a moment to acknowledge how amazing this is.

okay, so Albert says that evidence of a secret agreement is buried not far from where they are. 

he groans and gets up and asks “what about you” OHHH :( she missed her meeting with skinner for this and now she will have to Atone. he will be on his own for this one. this is probably for the best. she needs to stay employed and also explain to skinner that the punching thing was not actually his fault.

“thank you for taking care of me” OUGHHHH <- moaned by a girl who is in emotional pain. he thanked her. i mean, it's the least he could do; i'd say buying her dinner for a year and also bankrolling the animal shelter of her choice would be more appropriate, but this is a good starting place. for him to acknowledge his vulnerability. how out of his mind he was. chef's kiss.

OH her NAME is in those files?? with duane barry’s?? AND IT MENTIONS A TEST??? “i want you to find out, Mulder. i need you too” NOOOOO WHAT DID THEY DO TO HER?? she deserves NONE of this. i can only imagine how horrific it is to know you were taken and you don't know What Happened. again with the complicated medical history thing. mulder PLEASE find out for her. she deserves a lot more than that.

despite being shot, mulder is back behind the wheel, driving somewhere. albert says a people called the Anasazi disappeared 600 years ago and historians say they don’t know why because they won’t “sacrifice themselves to the truth”, and that "nothing disappears without a trace". i know a lot of historians so i can try and check and get back to you on this.

albert says "they still visit"... i wonder what the aliens like about this place? they make it to where they wanted to go: to eric! 

mulder is riding on the back of eric’s motorcycle. it is a bit of a funny sight. shoutout to eric for real. he shows mulder the big white thing from the start of the episode. and why do I feel that this episode will end before answers are obtained...

cigarette man calls!!! he says he needs to talk to mulder NOW. Re: his father: “he was never an opponent of the project. in fact, he authorized it. he couldn’t live with it” girl he doesn’t even know his dad was ON the project yet so. let's take it one step at a time. 

“no, he couldn’t live with it because you had him killed” being killed does generally stop living. but seriously mulder there are more pressing matters at hand!!!

“listen to me you black lunged son of a bitch, I’m going to expose you and your project” banger line but. WHY are you answering your phone rn mulder like they could be tracking you and you have BIG discoveries to be making!!

“expose anything and you only expose your father” <- ooo that is interesting... how much will that weigh in on his decision making process? i bet it's more his mom dealing with the fall out he's worried about

AND THEY DID GET A COORDINATE ON HIM DURING THAT CALL!!!!! WHY WHY WHY DID YOU ANSWER, MULDER! the minute you heard his voice you should have hung upppp ohh i'm gonna YELL 

he’s digging in the dirt and it says something about a railroad… it’s a refrigeration car…. thank you eric for showing the way. you are a hero. and he is IN THE CAR calling scully. he describes that it is filled with bodies. she asks, “what happened to them”, further revealing that she is the queen of asking grounding questions for those experiencing extreme distress

she knows some of what was in the files: it mentions that Axis powers scientists conducted studies after the war… so the alliance of earlier countries was NOT an accident!

in the railroad car, we see shriveled bodies, alien bodies, a foot. all visible as I type all this. she mentioned tests on humans referred to as “merchandise” but they aren’t humans, he insists!! they’re aliens and they’re scary… is he gonna see his sister… (thank god this did not happen)

he sees one with a vaccination scar. that is a terribly human thing to have. what did they DO to these people??

eric shuts him in the box car because the helicopter is arriving. 

eric refuses to talk to the government (king of knowing his rights) and mulder is gone. “nothing vanishes without a trace”, says cigarette man. okayyyy repeated motif. maybe mulder hid in all of the alien bodies in the car? that would be my guess.

ohhh, cig man is saying to burn it… and they do, in fact, blow that shit up. WHERE IS MULDER THOUGH??

NOOOO THE EPISODE ENDS THERE WITH A “TO BE CONTINUED” NOOOO

sigh. The AGONY contemporary viewers must have felt seeing this……. i feel for you, i really do. and all i have to do is just click the next button. but unfortunately i have too many rules to do such a thing and must first post my thoughts on this episode, and then my favorite moments from each character this season, and then my favorite moments of them together, and then the things we learned about them, and only THEN can i allow myself to watch the next episode.

but omg this was goooood though… last time i made a list of some fave episodes and this has definitely joined their ranks. the drama! the angst!! mulder being sick!! the fear of being unable to trust each other- if they cannot trust each other, does trust exist at all? my least favorite rat bitch krychek returning,,, and while I don’t care for him, it is an interesting development. also. mulder’s dad KNEW Cigarette Guy? and not just KNEW him casually, but was somehow involved in their alien fuckery? and we also learned today that, if we had any doubts, they have been squashed: scully is one of THE characters ever. she can shoot you so clean!!

I’m glad he was the damsel in distress. like i said, i demand gender quality in saving each other.

and the plot!!! the aliens!!! alien bodies with vaccines… so humans that TURNED into aliens, somehow? and we see them!! we so rarely get to see the aliens. and what if we get to learn what they did to scully!!

but where will this go from here!! will scully be in trouble with skinner? I feel like skinner will believe “mulder was being drugged part”, but I’m not sure if he can dig them out of the hole of having secret encoded files. 

and scully. she just wants to do the right thing. i love so desperately a character who wants to do the right thing, make the moral call, even if it’s hard, even if it means lying, putting it all on the line, it just has to be the right and ethical thing to do and then it’s okay. 

and mulder… losing his father… who he clearly didn’t have the greatest relationship with… his haunted voice on the line when he called scully… the way her first thought was to protect him, even if he couldn’t see the bigger picture, the way she SHOT him so he wouldn’t be accused of his father’s murder…

and krychek… i thought that was him in the shower but it was hard to tell because it was such a brief scene… but it was!!! what have they been doing to the rat man!!! he has been in the sewers rehearsing his ratty deeds!!!

a very good episode. i am hooked. i wish to jump right into the next one, but i shall not. i felt the same way at the end of last season, but i have to do my duty and blog. and to think, so much has happened in one month! both in the show and in my own life. wow.

it’s funny, i usually don’t care about the aliens at all. like I watch this show for mulder and scully time and not the spooky. but here, i'm kinda hooked. i want to know what happened and what they are hiding and what the bigger picture is between this and the stuff we learned in s1. you know it’s good when the girl that’s only here for the steady undertones of two people exhibiting extreme devotion to each other is actually tuned in to the extraterrestrials. who we think look like this: 👽 

i’m pleased! i’m pleased, and i’m intrigued, and i want more.