#aside from that he is just a bad guy who ocasionally shows that he cares when other people tell him exactly how he fucked up and how to fix

[ratbutmakeitfyodor]

Watch me going crazy over byler at the same time hating mike with burning passion

[popculturebuffet]

Animaniacs: King Yakko Review (Comission by BlahDiddy)

Hello my beautiful technicolor rainbow! It’s time for Animaniacs, and while there is no balonga in my slacks there is one last christmas review for my friend to finish up, and after two visits to Acme Lab for the spinoff we’re finishing up with a look at Animaniacs proper.  Suprisingly for a show that stands so easily on it’s own it’s existance is entirely thanks to another show: Tiny Toon Adventures, which had largely the same staff, including ep and co-creator stephen speilberg and Todd Ruegger, who was brought aboard from A Pup Named Scooby Doo. Since TIny Toon was a colossal hit with tons of awards and merch, including some very good video games I wish Warner would find a way to re-release, I mean.. come on if disney can rerelease the disney afternoon games (If...not..for..switch), and LIon King and Aladdin games (If somehow FOR switch), then Warner, which has it’s own game stuido no less, can put together a collection of the good Tiny Toons games when the new show comes out soon. 

Point is it was a mass sucess and Warner Bros likes money, so they had Speilberg try to get Rutger to come up with another show for the two of them to do, something with name value. Rutger found his inpsiration when seeing the iconic warner water tower and taking some platypus characters, came up with our heroes and the rest is history.. well okay he retooled them from plataups’ to early looney tunes and other toons style characters minus the racisim of say bosko the tall ink kid but still, the rest after that is history. And the rest of this review is after the cut

The show was, and KINDA still is, a variety show: taking a page from looney tunes, as well as tex avery’s other work, the crew decided rather than just focus on the warners, to instead create a whole cast with various ensembles to work with so we got Pinky and the Brain, The Goodfeathers, Rita and Runt,  the Hip HIppos, Katie Kaboom, Chicken Boo, and my personal faviorite Slappy Squirrel.. and the bane of my existance, Buttons and Mindy.. or rather Mindy’s Mom. The kid did nothing wrong.  So naturally the first thing Animaniacs related I cover.. is an episode entirely breaking from format for one 20 something minute Warners cartoon. I do intend to do more animanics stuff in the future, so i’ll hopefully get a chance to talk about everyone, I just feel unlike with say house of mouse most people reading this probably know who they all are, and I can save any deep dives for if I cover the characters specifically. Spoilers: there’s probably never going to be a buttons and mindy deep dive unless someone tourtues me by paying for it. 

So with that out of the way, we can dive into the episode.. which I won’t be covering in my usual recap it point by point because the writers have freely admitted that’s not what Animaniacs is about. While some of i’ts SEGMENTS are more story based like Pinky and the Brain, Goodfeathers and Rita and Runt, most are just based on simple set ups to reams and reams of gags. And I love it. I grew up with this stuff not just Tiny Tunes and Animaniacs but the classic Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry and Droopy shorts. 

Their well timed, well executed feats of comedy and most have aged pretty well.. emphasis on MOST. I’m keenly aware why there are several gaps in the shorts for both Tom and Jerry and The Looney Tunes on HBO Max, including all of the Pepe LePew and Speedy Gonzalez shorts. Also all of Droopy is missing. 

My grumblin aside though, it is VERY NICE to have all the classic Warner and Tom and Jerry shorts at my fingertips and it was one of the biggest selling points of Max for me. Last year I gained an intrest in the old disney theatrical shorts, hence my various birthday specials, so I BADLY wanted to revisit the theatrical shorts I grew up with. And honestly.. Max is the best way to do that: their in crisp hd, in neat season collections (Though the Looney Tunes one is better sorted, tom and jerry’s seasons are just.. random smatterings of shorts across various eras), and most importantly EVERY SHORT they felt comfortable with putting up there is on there. Every. Single. One.  I make a big deal about this because Disney.. has only maybe 30-40 of their hundreds of shorts on there. Now lucky for me the vast majority are still on youtube and I get why some really arne’t suitable.. we probably don’t need the donald duck short where he prepares to shoot a penguin in the face or the Goofy short where his own reflection, the goofy equilvent of tyler durden I guess?, keeps saying “Hey Fat” to him. And yes BOTH of these actually happened. But.. there’s MANY shorts with no clear excuse why their absent like the triplets first apperance, gus’ only apperance, and one a friend told me about.. that time mickey built a robot to box a gorillia. Again not making this up, just wondering why you can’t restore the rest of these for plus. They’ve ADDED shorts ocasionally, but it still dosen’t make a whole lot of sense to just.. not have them all up there. and to not put them in some sorta collection for easier consumption but hey it’s Disney. They either full ass things or half ass it. There is no middle ground.  Point is Warner.. actually cares about their heritage in shorts and honors it and thus has everything avaliable in the best quality, so tha’ts nice.

My point after that detour is I really love this kind of humor, and now as an adult I can see the effort the timing, pacing and character chemistry these shorts had takes. And Rugger and co.. they got it. They got it down perfect. And this episode is a great show of that and just how they barely updated this format for the 90′s. But as I said it’s more about the jokes and basic setup, our heroes are slotted into x scenario and just left to run wild. It’s been the basic seutp for looney tunes, tom and jerry and all the gag based greats, and it works perfectly here. Sure there’s some setting and continuity with the warner lot, scratch n sniff, ralph, plotz and in the reboot Rita, but it’s mostly just our heroes go up against “X asshole” and it just works. 

And that’s.. entirley what this episode is. The short is an homage to the graucho marx film Duck Soup, which given the warners were based on the marx brothers that isn’t a huge suprise, a film like brian’s song I have not seen, but genuinely want to. The basic setup is the same: An underqualified womanizer, though since htis is Yakko it dosen’t get past hitting on his chancelor, played by hello nurse, constantly, which is still.. ewwwww... but clearly not the same thing, becomes king of a small nation and ends up at war with another country. There were spies and other stuff in the original short but that was left out to streamline things.  But this homage stands on it’s own fine: The basic plot is this: Yakko, due to being a distant relative and the last one alive, becomes king of the small happy and very musical, as the wonderful opening number shows, country of Anvilania, which makes anvils and why yes there is one MASSIVE anvil gag as a result at the end. Yakko says he’ll try his best and geninely tries to with the shenanigans you’d expect, including Dot not gettnig Polka Dot’s are a thing and instead taknig any mention of it as a sign to polka, Yakko again hitting on his colleague and wanting ot get a new anthem because the current one by “Perry Coma’ puts people to sleep. Honeslty that gag didn’t do it for me: Partly because I genuinely know next to nothing about Como and he’s far past my generation.. and because despite this, SCTV did a MUCH better Perry Como gag over a decade before this episode that while still left me baffled as to why anyone cared about mocking him, was 80 times funnier and felt far less like you needed to know who he was to be funny. 

That being said it’s one of only three running gags, and jokes period that didn’t land for me. The other ones being the hello nurse bits, because it’s aged really badly to have Yakko harass one of his employees and his age is hte only thing that keeps it from scuttling the episode as he’s just 13 or 14. Maybe 15. 

So SO glad I now have that on hand whenever i need it. The other being the “Your highness” joke as it just.. dosen’t make much sense and isn’t very funny. But that’s it: a refrence i specfically don’t get and I doubt most of you will, and if you do fine we all have our frames of refrences, a joke that’s dated very poorly, and one that just.. didn’t land. And even then the Perry Coma thing’s third use to knock out the opposing army DID work for me as did the VERY clever joke of “Sire” “Maybe later”, so even the weaker bits still had some legs.  But getting back to what little plot there is the king of the rival country, upon hearing this, assumes he can easily intimidate a child into giving him the throne and goes to a royal reception. Instead, as you’d expect, the Warners mistake him for a party clown, show him no respect and fail to take his delcration of war seriously, and while in a REALLY great gag, and the reason i’m not doing a strict summary is 90% of the review would be me saying something to that effect, Yakkos’ call to action for his troops ends up having them all run off in fear, the Warners take out the army as noted above and then in one of the most GLORIOUS climaxes in the series history...

 In which the Warners give the bad guy “all the anvils” as he requested. I sadly coulnd’t find a clip of it but seek it out if you got hulu, my words can’t do it justice as they hit him with anvil after anvil in increasingly clever and insane ways till the guy finally gives up and it .. is glorious.  Other highlights not already mentioned include: The opening song, the bad guy dictator from the other nation not being able to hear because of his helmet and his attendee having to lift it, leading to Yakko taking off his helmet just to end the “what’ running gag, Yakko’s bit explaning his distant relation and more.  So yeah not a ton to say on this one. It’s a very good, very funny episode but also very typical of a warner cartoon in structure, just stretched over 22 or so minutes. As I said with few exceptions the jokes work, the anmation is crisp as always, and the climax is one of the series best. A crisp, quick watch and a nice quick review after a week of with some really tough ones behind me and ahead of me and a month of rather large ones a few weeks out. So yeah if you like animaniacs, even ifyou’ve seen this one worth a watch, if you have any more animaniacs you’d like me to take a look at feel free to comment or comission and until the next rainbow..

[nexttrickanvils]

FE3H Fic: Falling for You

Title: Falling For You

Characters: Claude Von Reigen, F!Byleth, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, Edelgard Von Hresvelg, Sylvain Jose Gautier, Mercedes Von Martritz, small cameos from a few FE: Fates characters

Ships: Claude x Byleth, background Sylvain x Mercedes

Notes: Modern!AU

---------

The first thing Claude thought was: “Did anyone get the number on the bus that just hit me?”

“Sir!? Sir!? Are you alright!?”

The second thing Claude thought was: “...Oh...”

He stared up at the bespectacled blue haired woman looking over him with concern on her face.

“Sir! Do you need me to call someone? Do you know where you are? What...”

Claude groaned as he finally sat up and gave the woman a carefree smile.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. No need to call somebody and if it’ll make you feel better, we’re at the Garreg Mach Public Library.”

She sighed in relief and smiled back.

“Good.”

The blue haired woman offered her hand to Claude and helped him up. She then turned to a group of young kids. Guess she must have been a teacher or something.

“Kana?”

One kid in particular, a young boy with messy silver hair stepped forward and stood next to his teacher.

“Now Kana, what do we say when we bump into someone?”

The boy looked up at Claude with big fat tears in his eyes.

“I’M SORRY MISTER! I DIDN’T MEAN TO! I GOT EXCITED AND...”

“Hey, hey no need to shout little guy, we’re at the library. And don’t worry, I forgive you. Just make sure you listen to your Teach okay?”

The boy let out a sniffle and an “Okay.”

He went back to his little group and took the hand of a red-haired girl a couple years older than him.

The teacher looked back at Claude, “Once again, I am so sorry for my student...”

“Come on, you don’t gotta apologize too. Believe me, if you want to hear some horror stories about hyper kids, just ask my mom about my childhood.”

She gave a small chuckle and Claude felt a slight heat in his cheeks.

“Nonetheless, they are my responsibility. So I shoulder some of the blame.”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. You should get back to your job instead of worrying about me.”

She nodded and turned back to her group, “Alright everyone, now where we?”

Claude watched with a smile as the kids and their teacher walked off to the library’s kids section. 

He quickly returned to what he was doing before and yet as the day went on, he kept thinking about the blue haired woman.

She seemed nice, hells nicer than some of the teachers he grew up with. Those kids are lucky to have her.

Not to mention, if Claude had to be honest, she was kind of cute and that laugh…

Claude shook his head, what was he doing? It’s not like he was going to see her again.

...Though he wouldn’t mind that… maybe get to hear her laugh again…

…

“...I picked a bad time to realize I have a thing for girls in glasses didn’t I?”

===

Telling Dimitri and Edelgard about what happened was probably the dumbest thing Claude could have done.

Dimitri’s reaction wasn’t too bad, supportive and was even willing to help out if needed, but Edelgard… Claude can’t remember the last time his friend laughed this hard.

“...You done?”

Edelgard’s laughter started to slow down and she finally took a few breaths.

“M-my apologies, Claude it’s just…hahaha... it’s just funny to think that you, Claude “I don’t believe in hokey stuff like Moon Signs and Soulmates” Von Reigen of all people would fall in love at first sight.”

“Hey I did NOT “fall in love at first sight.” I’m just curious about her and want to see her again. Get to know her better you know?”

“That… sounds an awful lot like love at first sight.” Remarked Dimitri the Traitor

Claude glared at them both as he took a swig of his drink.

The blonde smiled and continued, “To be honest, it all does sound rather romantic.”

“Except for the part where you were knocked over by a toddler.” Added Edelgard

“I did not get knocked over by a toddler… I think the kid was in kindergarten.”

At that, Dimitri let out a laugh that he tried very hard to hide. Claude said nothing as he went back to his drink.

“All joking aside, what was her name? Perhaps you could look her up online...” asked Edelgard

At that, Claude nearly choked. 

Shit! He never got her name!

Claude smacked his head against the bar and even though he couldn’t see them, he could feel the disappointed expressions on Dimitri and Edelgard’s faces.

...Well okay maybe disappointed isn’t the right word but they are judging him.

===

At some point last night, his friends did actually give Claude some good advice.

Most of the local schools had photos of their staff on their websites and without knowing her name, this seemed like the best and “least likely to get the cops called on him” way to find her. 

So he grabbed his phone and a notepad and sat down at his favorite coffee shop. This shouldn’t take too long right?

...Too bad no one told him that there was a whole lot of elementary schools in Garreg Mach. Claude knew this place was a big city. He’s lived here for a good few years now and he swears he keeps finding new old places. 

But did this city really need this many elementary schools!?

“Not really how I pictured spending my afternoon” Claude muttered as he scratched out Saint Cethlean Elementary & Middle School off his list. At this rate, Mystery Teach will have retired by the time Claude found out where she worked.

After scratching out six or maybe seven more schools from the list, Claude took a glance around the coffee shop; the place was starting to get a little too crowded for his liking. Maybe he should head out and take a break. Maybe do some people watching near the old Monastery.

However just as he stood up, he spotted a familiar someone at the counter.

“Here you go Ma’am, have a nice day!” “Thank you, you too.”

No way… there was no way…

Except there was no mistaking that blue hair or her voice.

...Claude wasn’t exactly a religious man but he couldn’t help but mentally thank whatever god or goddess seemed to be listening to him.

He waited until she stepped out of line before taking a deep breath, putting on his most charming smile, and approaching her; being very careful not to startle her.

However before he could reach her, the crowd in the shop seemed to shift and Claude found himself stuck.

“Hey! ‘Scuse me! Tryna get through!”

Claude tried his best to get through the crowd but some people were just way too stubborn and pushy for their own. Before long, Claude found himself falling forward out of the crowd.

‘Okay I’m taking back the thanks to any god or goddess listening, cause they’re obviously jerks and are laughing at me.’

Claude stood back and tried to look for around for the woman. Soon he spotted her through the window, walking away and chatting with a short haired blonde woman. The blonde seemed familiar somehow to Claude but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

As for who she probably was, she was likely Teach’s co-worker or just a friend… or even a girlfriend.

It was that thought that made Claude realize: What the hells was he doing?

Is he really so desperate that a smile and some basic human decency is enough to make him act like an idiot tripping over himself?

He didn’t even know her name, for gods’ sake!

Claude sighed as he picked up the things he dropped and headed out of the coffee shop.

====

Claude had hoped to spend a nice quiet evening hanging out and drinking with Dimitri and Edelgard.

Unfortunately this was not to be because when he arrived at their usual spot, Edelgard looked like she was ready to strangle someone and Dimitri was in a friendly(?) headlock by a loud drunk with bright red hair. It took Claude a minute to recognize the guy as Sylvain, one of Dimitri’s friends.

He took a seat next to Edelgard and shot her a sympathetic look. “Long night?”

“It’s only been an hour.”

“So what brought Sylvain here?”

“Apparently he’s getting married to Mercedes.”

If Claude had a drink, this would be the point where he’d spit it all over the counter.

“Wait. Sylvain is getting married. OUR Sylvain?”

“Do we know any others?”

“...So...”

“Dimitri called Mercedes to come pick Sylvain up. She was just getting off work when he called so hopefully she’ll be here soon.”

Claude looked at the thrilled drunk redhead and could hear him gushing about his fiancee and how she’s one of the few people who could see the “real him.” 

Meanwhile poor Dimitri is just nodding along and adding the ocasional “I know” and “I’m very happy for you.”

“Never thought Sylvain of all people would get married.”

“Well I suppose this week has been one for miracles. Speaking of: how is your search for your true love going?”

Claude decided to ignore the “true love” comment and explained to Edelgard that he gave up.

“Give up? That doesn’t sound like you.”

“Yeah well, I didn’t realize how many schools I had to look up and I kind of had an epiphany that I was acting like a creepy idiot.”

“I see.”

After a few more minutes of trying to talk to his friends over Sylvain’s ramblings, Claude heard the sound of the bar door opening. He looked over and his eyes widened.

“Mercedes? I almost didn’t recognize you.” remarked Edelgard

The blonde giggled as she showed off her short hair.

“Do you like it? It was starting to become a bit of a hassle to take care of it and I thought it was time for a change.”

THAT’S WHY SHE SEEMED FAMILIAR, Claude just didn’t recognize her with the new haircut.

Upon hearing Mercede’s voice, Sylvain released his death grip on Dimitri and stumbled over to her.

“BABY!” he shouted as he fell into her arms

“Hello to you too dear.” Mercedes said with a smile

She then turned to the three, “I hope Sylvain didn’t give you three too much trouble.”

“N-not at all. He merely wanted to let us know about the engagement and celebrate. Congratulations by the way.” said Dimitri

“Let us know when you figure out a wedding date alright?” said Edelgard

Mercedes nodded.

“We will, thank you. I’ll be taking him home now. Good night everyone.”

As Mercedes started to walk towards the exit with Sylvain’s arm draped around her shoulders, Claude stood up.

“Hey wait Mercie!”

“Hm? Oh, Claude. What is it?”

“This… might be a weird question but… do you… happen to have a co-worker who’s a… woman with blue hair and glasses?”

===

“Okay so let me get the story straight. You were at the library, one of the kids that Mercie watches over knocked you flat on your ass and you fell in love with her co-worker when she checked on you?”

Claude glared at Sylvain, “Aside from the “falling in love part,” yeah you got it down.”

So it turned out that Mercedes was co-workers with Mystery Teach in an After-School Program. After Claude explained his situation, Mercedes offered to let Sylvain drive him to the school that she worked at to meet her co-worker, Byleth. 

Gods did it feel good to FINALLY have a name to work with.

“You know… since I’m picking up Mercedes, if both girls are up for it, we can do a double date right away.”

“Just shut up and drive.”

The two stayed quiet for the rest of the ride (though not for lack of trying on Sylvain’s part) until they finally arrived at the school.

Claude could hear the kids further down the hall, guess Mercedes and Byleth weren’t off the clock just yet. Thus he and Sylvain sat down on a nearby bench.

He chuckled and Sylvain looked at him curiously.

“Oh just… sitting out here kinda makes me think of my own school days. Like I’m waiting for the Principal to come out and lecture me for releasing a stink bomb in the gym.”

“Whoa, really?” Sylvain asked with a laugh

“In my defense, it wasn’t supposed to go off at that moment; the casing was just badly made.”

The two made small talk as they watched parents come in and out with their kids.

Claude always liked people watching but he’d never seen such… interesting characters.

Like the guy who looked like he stepped out of a comic book, his wife who looked like she could bench press DIMITRI, and their kid who looked like the dad’s sidekick.

Then there’s the father+daughter duo wearing toy fox ears and making, he’s assuming, fox noises as they went down the hall.

A few more minutes passed by when a little voice shouted out, “Hey Mister!”

Claude turned to the voice and saw that same silver haired boy who ran into him.

“Oh well look who it is. You doing alright kid? Listening to your Teach, I hope?”

The boy, Kana, he thinks Byleth called him, nods and smiles.

“Uh-huh. Are you here to see Ms. Byleth?”

“Heh, aren’t you a smart kid. Yup, just here say hi to her.”

“...Are you marrying Ms. Byleth?”

Claude’s eyes widened as he let out a choked noise and Sylvain let out a laugh.

“Kana!”

Approaching them all was a friendly looking guy with silver hair, a woman with red hair that Claude could only describe as “fluffy,” and a slightly older red haired girl.

“Hi mama!”

The little boy rushed into his mom’s arms and was lifted up. The woman sighed and faced Claude and Sylvain.

“I’m sorry, I hope he wasn’t bothering you.”

“N-nah, it’s… it’s fine.” Claude said, trying to hide the red on his face

The redheaded woman nodded and started to walk away with her family while the boy waved good-bye to Claude.

“Bye-bye Mister!”

As soon as that family was out the doors, Sylvain shot Claude a shit-eating grin.

“Smart kid right?”

Claude said nothing as he glared at him.

A couple more families came and went and Claude was starting to nervously tap his foot on the floor. The longer the two waited, the more chances Claude had to overthink.

Did Byleth even remember what happened at the library? Would she just stare at him blankly if he tried to explain who he was? Would she think he was some stalker?

Thankfully before Claude could further give himself a panic attack, two women stepped out from one of the rooms.

Mercedes… and Byleth.

Sylvain of course practically jumped off the bench and ran over to greet his fianceé while Byleth stood to the side and watched the two in amusement.

Well… now or never. Claude stood up, took a deep breath, put on his most charming smile, and approached her; being very careful not to startle her.

“Hey Teach.”

Byleth turned to him. At first she looked confused but a spark of recognition quickly lit her eyes.

“Oh, it’s you, the man from the library. Are you doing alright? No bumps? No dizziness or anything?”

“I told you before, I’m fine. You don’t need to call a doc or anything. The name’s Claude by the way.” he replied with a laugh as he offered his hand

“I’m Byleth and sorry about that. The double checking’s become a force of habit. My roommate can tell you plenty of stories about me slipping into what she calls “Teacher Talk” to her.” She said as she took his hand and shook it

“Heh well maybe if you got the time, we can sit down for a drink or some coffee and you can tell me all about it?”

Byleth gave him that same smile that he couldn’t stop thinking about.

“I’d love to.”

[popculturebuffet]

Darkwing Duck Reviews: Tiff of the Titans

Uh-Oh, Gizmoduck Comes to town! In the first of a series of reviews building up to Just Us Justice Ducks,  the dopey, arrogant, anti-charasmatic, national embarrassment heads to St. Canard to guard a super weapon from F.O.W.L. Naturally, he ends up being more of a problem for our hero than the actual bad guys. Also a look at Tad Stone’s claims the series isn’t in the same universe as Ducktales.  Full review and recap commissioned by @weirdkev27​ under the cut

This review, much like Death, Taxes and Thanos, was inevitable. I’d been planning to watch and review the first appearances of each of the justice ducks and fearsome five as my next step in watching Darkwing duck anyway, and while I’ve already got one member’s appearance in the wings anyway, I’ll get to that tomorrow or Saturday just in time for Halloween, hint hint, Kev pushed this one into the queue with a commission and I  was happy to take the side trip to see just what the Darkwing version of Gizmoduck and Steelbeak, two of my favorites in the reboot, were like originally. So welcome folks to the build to the greatest superhero team made up of ducks of all time, let’s get quackin. 

We open, here in Duckburg, where the Eggmen are breaking in. Sadly they do not have the master plan, but they are here to steel the Comarant, a super powerful land, sea and air device the military is storing there. They instead find Gizmoduck! Who makes a good first impression, being a hoaky superman parody in iron man’s costume in this continuity, but it’s a nice way to contrast to Darkwing’s batman parody with a touch of Sandman.. the pulp one not the neil gaiman one.  Sadly he doesn’t have a cool gas mask but the Darkwing Duck costume is iconic without it. 

Point is the eggmen are easily repelled, though they do get away by blasting Gizmo with a tank. The General in charge is thankful for Gizmoduck’s help, but notes the Comarant will be heading to St. Canard soon for a demonstration at the big air show, and asks that Giz go over and protect it, maybe even work with Darkwing to protect it. Though Gizmo shoots that down, and not only insults Darkwing but says he’s not sure if he’s good or bad. While the latter comment did sour me on the guy.. research bears out Darkwing has been framed once or twice, and my own experience with the pilot saw him you know breaking out of jail and basically clamming superheroes are above the law, so I COULD get why someone wouldn’t trust him, even if Giz’s attitude about it still isn’t great. So fenton quick changes behind a sign and heads off to see his old buddy Launchpad.  A quick aside before we get going this episode doesn’t so much torch Tad Stone’s retroactive claim this isn’t the same universe as Ducktales, as burn it to ashes, take a whiz on those ashes and send each separate ash on a seperate probe to the farthest reaches of space. This episode not only has a cameo by Scrooge on a billboard.. but it’s one for DUCKBURG. Where Gizmoduck is said to be from. He also knows launchpad well, and vice versa, and outright mentions McDuck Manor. the episode couldn’t be saying “this is the same universe as ducktales’ harder if Scrooge himself showed up and started ranting about a Sea Monster eating his ice cream. I do like and respect Tad Stones, but I will never like or respect this claim of his and even if HE had that idea in his head during production of the show, it’s very clear everyone else including Disney who greenlit the Darkwing Duck comics explicitly connecting the two universes, felt it was a shared universe, and there’s really no reason they can’t coexist. 

If it’s because “Well launchpad wouldn’t leave scrooge”.. besides the fact Scrooge tried to fire him MULTIPLE times, it’s not farfetched Scrooge would put him in charge of a hangar both because he trusts him.. and to get rid of him since he doesn’t like Launchpad very much. Plus Donald has to come back from his tour of duty sometime and likely could easily do Launchpad’s job as pilot, as he did in the source material. My point is there’s tons of ways to write the man out easily, and he could just as easily be doing both jobs like in the reboot. This feels like a weird, unnecessary retcon no one wanted and everyone just politely ignores, like the creators of Doug saying he and Patti didn’t end up together after High School. Which even then makes more sense than this claim, since at least there I get the creators not thinking a high school romance would last forever. That’s fair.. it’s just not something fans really wanted to hear after spending two separate series and a movie getting them together. It would be like if Girl Meets World had revealed Cory and Topanga had divorced. Yes it’d be possible since they’d broken up twice over the course of the series, but no one wanted that, why would you do that. I’m getting off topic, the point is a few breakups aside Doug and Patti clearly married eventually, and Darkwing Duck and Ducktales are in the same universe. Sometimes you just have to ignore Word of God for your own sanity.

Back at the actual episode we cut to Steelbeak’s Bowling Alley Hideout... and I do love a job that allows me to say things like that. But in a really fantastic bit Steelbeak is bowling his minions over as punishment for failure.. even though they have a valid reason but eh he’s the bad guy and he has to get his bowling average up for FOWL’s bowling team somehow. Their insurance covers evil punishment related accidents anyways, they’ll be fine. 

But yeah let’s talk about Steelbeak for a second. I honestly hadn’t seen any of the original version so I was curious.. and he’s really damn awesome. Rob Paulsen always does a great job though and is always a pleasure, but he really does a good job here and with the contrast in him: He’d seem like a dumb thug, what with his gangster accent and general cockiness and swagger.. but he backs it up with great combat and even greater planning. He’s a schemer, a fighter and damn if he isn’t fun to watch.  It also makes me love the reboot version even more. While I already loved him for being played by Jason Mantzokus, being enjoyably dim, while also still enough of a threat to be freaking cool, it’s even cooler knowing he’s still fundamentally the same character. Much like Drake he’s simply been tweaked a bit. For drake it was softening the edges since Ducktales isn’t as broad a show, and neither will the darkwing reboot i’m betting, so his ego and selfishness is sanded down considerably. For Steelbeak it’s giving him an actual origin: Instead of starting at the top of FOWL, he’s starting as a very competent but very wet behind the ears and full of himself agent, working his way up to becoming justifably full of himself like the original show. He has the same swagger and badassery, he’s just not a master planner yet and he’ll get there. Like many of the reboot characters, he’s simply an already great character given some extra depth and rounding out. I love both and can’t wait to see him again next ep and hopefully he’ll show up in the Darkwing reboot so they can go for round 2. 

So with that out of the way, Darkwing naturally interrupts, and cleans house with his gas gun, forcing Steelbeak and his crew to literally go underground into the sewers. This successfully fools drake, and Steelbeak bemoans how both Darkwing and Gizmoduck have been thwarting his plans.. until he gets a great idea; pit them against each other so he can pilfer the comerant while their too busy fighting. It’s a classic supervillain tactic, and one that works perfectly because one of them’s an egotist and a dick and the other is also that but with more style and likeability.  Back at Drake’s place, Gosalyn and Honker are watching a horror movie they clearly aren’t supposed to till Drake and launchpad come back in via their easy chairs flipping them in from Darkwing Tower which is just.. really cool. I like it. I also like that much like the Shakespeare bust in Wayne Manor, Darkwing has his own neat statue to provide acess to his lair... a tiny bronze statue of Basil from the Great Mouse Detective.. I REALLY need to fucking watch that film but it’s a nice nod. But yeah Launchpad brought them back because he feels drake could use a break while Drake refuses to stop because crime never stops and he doesn’t have time for it and your usual self destructive bollocks. It’s interrupted by a knock at the door? 

It’s Fenton! Whose stopped in to see his old buddy launchpad, who is happy to see his old friend and the two catch up, though Drake dosen’t like the interuption because Classic Drake is kind of a grumpus. Fenton naturally is here because Gizmoduck is but says he’s doing a job for the military.. which makes no sense but given Drake doesn’t know what he does and Launchpad dares to be stupid, if not nearly as stupid as his reboot version, no one questions it. When Fenton says he needs to find a hotel Launchpad, being Launchpad, invites him to stay and while Fenton watches the movie with the kids, Drake wants him gone because you know he has a secret identity to keep and a case to work on and they don’t know if they can trust him with it. It’s fair.. but since this is Drake he almost handles it with the subtly of a howitzer. But before he can try to literally throw Fenton out on his ass, a news report comes on about an attack at a local theater and both head off to take care of it.. we also get a nice moment where both react to it with the same words at the same time.  Fenton.. is actually really likeable. He’s a bit awkward, more in that he sort of barges in and makes himself comfy.. but it’s very easy to see from this and the one Ducktales episode of his i’ve seen where the utterly marvelous reboot version gets some traits from: his nervousness, his pluckness, his lack of thinking things through ocasionally when he’s not overthinking them. Fenton is charming. The issue is once he switches on the costume he goes from utterly charming to punchable REALLL quick. I’ll explain my problems with his alter ego in a sec. 

At the theater Steelbeak fakes it to look like Darkwing’s doing the bombing, if half haphazardly and leaves Darkwing with the bomb so when Gizmo shows up he thinks he’s responsible. Darkwing naturally says it wasn’t him, but Gizmo dosen’t buy it and asks if he’s so good how come he wears a mask... says the guy in a helmeted visor’s whose only defense when that’s pointed out is it came with the suit. Which yes is a joke.. but it fails to land and instead of being funny just makes Gizmo look like a hypocritical dick whose assuming someone is evil based on flimsy evidence, and what’s very obviously a setup. it makes him come off as the biggest dumbass alive instead of this world’s superman and that is annoying. More ranting about him in a minute. We do end up getting an incredibly funny bit where the two end up arguing over who gets to defuse a bomb, with both wrestling over it till Gizmoduck takes care of it and both fall into the theater. Gizmoduck tries to arrest Darkwing who ignores him and runs off.  The next day the Mallard family, including Honker naturally, watches Gizmoduck get a parade, a key to the city and other good stuff on the news while Drake sulks before turning it off. And yeah i’ve waited long enough let’s talk about this version of Gizmoduck and why he does not work. I get in theory he’s supposed to be “The Cape”, minus the cape: The big cheese that everyone looks up to and loves to Darkwing’s  dark avenger of the night, a parody of that whose also really dumb. The issue is two fold. The first is .. the classic archtypical cape type chracter has been parodied to hell and back by 2020. He’s been a monster, an asshole and as with here an idiot. And even for then a superman parody, if not in apperance or powers but in treatment, whose really dumb wasn’t very new. 

And you CAN parody a big silver age type hero: Justice League International did so well without being too overt, having most of the team either annoyed or actively hostile to Shazam/Captain Marvel. But it was done well there because well.. billy’s a very corny very earnest and likeable kid in an adult’s body. To us he’s charming and loveable. But to a bunch of actual adults he’d be offputting at best and annoying at worst. While some have been annoyed at how he was handled, I a fan of both JLI and Shazam liked it and thought it was an interesting take. Another REALLY good and REALLY hilarious take on this is from fellow superhero action comedy Danny Phantom, one of my favorites and one I need to revisit. One episode had Danny split himself in two so he could crimefight and have fun with his friends resulting in one self whose a burnt out slacker, and another whose an over the top crimefighter who says things like “you Felonious fiend!” And “This looks like a job for the vacuum cleaner!”. It’s a damn good episode. My point is it’s been better done before and since. 

What doesn’t help is the episode tries to paint it as equal, since Darkwing’s problem in part is Gizmoduck stealing his thunder.. but it doesn’t work. Darkwing is a fully fleshed out character we know and love who despite his huge ego and rampant jackassery, is a decent person whose fought hard for St. Canard, loves his daughter and most damingly... is entertainingly sickish. Gizmoduck’s dickery just makes him come off less likeable and incredibly dense, while Darkwing’s is part of his charm and, along with his ego, has backfired enough to balance it out. Gizmo just doesn’t get comeuppance for his behavior, and instead gets rewarded with a parade, a key to the city, cheerleaders and Gosalyn looking up to him just for having powers in his gadgets. And really his methods aren’t that different from dark wing: While Darkwing is secretive, a loner and uses gadgets.. Gizmoduck’s suit is basically one BIG gadget, and he refuses to see. And I get that’s probably the joke but it just. doesn’t. LAND. It just makes him insufferable. And as far as I can tell in the original show he wasn’t: he was an awkward dork we root for like in the reboot, not a gloryhogging jackass whose squandered his good will long before he gets Darkwing isn’t evil and tries working with him to the point I don’t care by the time that happens: He’s already been so obnoxious it dosen’t make up for it. Maybe later appearances are better but he’s just a chore to watch in costume here. And that’s WITHOUT comparing him to the 2017 version, one of my favorites there, one of the best animated superheroes i’ve seen in a long time, and a toughly likeable character who struggles due to his superhero identity but took it up for exactly the right reasons and wants to help people. Darkwing Gizmoduck thinks he’s the cape and an inspiration when a good guy when he’s worse than the guy he hates at times. Reboot Gizmo is an honest, decent guy who simply wants to help people and use the gizmotech as a way to do that, to help change the world for the better and save the helpless, and only clashes with Darkwing due to his ego and lack of understanding that Gizmoduck and him really aren’t that different. Finally if THIS is why Tad Stones wants them to be different universes, because this Fenton is different from the Ducktales one in personality.. then that’s on HIM. That’s on him for writing this version poorly or letting him get written so poorly and not on the fans who had no reason not to connect a dot. God this character was disappointing and hopefully when I watch more of him at work in Ducktales, he isn’t this obnoxious, nor will he hopefully be in his sequel episodes.  Thankfully moving on Darkwing gets to work, because you know he has experience, and finds Steelbeak trying to pilfer the cormorant but Captain Clueless interrupts and tries to arrest him. The two then finally fight and while it’s sadly short, it’s a fun clash and I genuinely hope the reboot has it’s own fight with them, as given how damn good they are at fight scenes, it’s bound to be even more awesome. But Steelbeak gets away, and uses the comarant’s secret weapon.. a giant fake egg that drops a giant pile of yolk to drown them. Gizmo finally realizes he’s been fighting the wrong guy but our hero's are now running out of time. Darkwing , being the actually capable one here, has Gizmo uses his propeller to beat the eggs and the two head off.. though after a funny bit where Gizmo breaks the Ratcatcher’s sidecar Darkwing lets him use his spare tier, which is huge and likely intended for the main vehicle. Good stuff.  The two get after Steelbeak and while Gizmo makes me pray for death but death won’t come we get a fun battle with Steelbeak including Steelbeak using his beak to bite down and destroy the gas gun. It’s a damn fun bit I must say. But eventually the good guys win, disable the comarant and Darkwing beats Steelbeak. The day is save, FOWL is foiled, our heroes are on shaky but better terms, and Drake and Fenton depart on good if equally shaky terms, before arguing about which of them is better. And we’re out.  Final Thoughts: This.. was a disappointingly mixed bag. Gizmoduck REALLY drug down what was otherwise a good episode with a great concept: Bringing in a hero whose stronger and more popular than Darkwing.. but mostly uses it to make Darkwing look good, which he didn’t need, and make Gizmoduck look REALLY bad, intentionally or otherwise. Steelbeak is a delight and his plan, and the egg trap, are really good, and as mentioned there are enough good set pieces to prevent this from being a terrible episode.. but as an old friend says for me time and time again...

[popculturebuffet]

The Loud House Reviews: L is For Love

Happy Pride Month Everyone! I have to admit I didn’t realize pride month was in June. Luckily that just meant two things: 1) This was a plesant suprise for once in an escalatingly terrible year when I found out early yesterday morning when most of this review was written. And 2) I already, thanks to thinking about them due to the she ra finale and watching more loud house again now i’m back on cable, planning to do the three Saluna episodes as at trilogy after getting blood moon ball out of the way. 

Today’s ep takes place in late season 2. As mentioned in the “Brave the Last Dance Review’ the series had some growing pains before it got to it’s current shape: the series largely focused on lincoln at first, but as season 2 went on the show slowly eased off him. While he still gets plenty of episodes focusing on him, and still gets the ocasional weird zach morris talk to the camera moment when the episode calls for it, the show wisely decided to make itself into an ensemble piece. INstead of being about the one boy navigating a big house it became about 11 children and their parents navigating being a big family and the perils of adolsence and what not.  As such today’s ep , while focusing on the kids as a whole, evnetually zeros in on my faviorite Loud child, Luna. Luna, as you probably know but what the hell, is an aspiring rock star, most of the time fairly chill and using the word dude a lot but not afraid to get loud, pun intended, or throw up the devil horns at a moments notice. She’s also a loving big sis, cares about her siblings, and is in short a wonderful character that season 1.. really didn’t give much focus. Season 2 rectified that to my delight, giving her a focus episode early on, Roadie to Nowhere, which revealed that she also has some confidence issues that are brought to the forefront here and go on to be a vital part of her character. I also admitely was delighted to see her voice actress, Nika Futterman, in a major role again, and she’s delightful in the role and even does luna’s singing. And this ep while being an “all hands on deck’ episode about all of the siblings, does have a major focus on luna as it goes, and thus I jumped on it immidetly.. that and you know, the fact it canocially made her bisexual, making a headcanon I had about her canon and being something they actually hinted at back in season 1. But we’ll get more into that later. For now, L is for love, lunacy and luna after the cut!

We open with Lincoln getting the mail and then gasping in shock at one letter, before calling an emergency sibling meeting. The sibling meetings are something that had been set up before with Lori,a s the oldest, leading them, and a thing I like: it makes sense with this many kids to have some sort of internal way to solve problems with them or vote on things as a group when needed. Simple, makes sense and i’m glad it’s stuck around. After dealing with the previous meetings minutes, Lincoln reveals what rattled him a bit: A mysterious love letter adressed to “L.Loud”. And it’s a nice way to use the series cute naming gimmick as a plot point: ONE of the siblings has a secret admirer,a nd while Lori, being lori, assumes it’s her boyfriend bobby, sh’es quickly shot down. And that.. makes sense. Bobby is a romantic, and a great character who I love dearly and will watch the spinoff soley because he’s in it.. but it’s been shown before this ep that bobbi’s a big romantic gesture guy. The boy put himself in a giant present and nearly suffocated to death to surprise his girlfriend for Christmas and went above and beyond for their anniversary. The guy’s a peach.. but he’s also not subtle. He’s also, while not lacking in cleverness as his later career as a bodegaman shows, not very bright so if this was him, his name would probably be crossed out somewhere on it.  But each of the louds have their own crushes... which is a problem with the ep. Now to the shows credit, besides the obvious of having Sam come back, two of these characters DO come back later: Chaz, Leni’s crush, ends up mentioned in season 3, and Luann’s crush Benny ends up the focus of a spotlight episode for her in late season 3, voiced by another one of my boys (and girls) stable of voice actors Sean Gambone later on. However even with that in mind this disconnect is the episodes biggest issue: outside of sam, since we see Luna visably struggle in a bit and we’ll get into that then, we have no real investment in seeing the louds get together with most of those people other than because the episode tells us to.  It didn’t really help that Lincoln and Lucy HAD love intrests in previous episodes. And sure Ronnie Anne had moved at this point, but Lincoln had a previous crush before her Cristina to use, and we had an entire episdoe about Lucy having a crush on rocky. And somehow Rocky still hasn’t come back, but his dumbass brother is a recurring character, which if nothing else is my proof that god hates me specfically. Also yeah.. while the crushes all have names I’m purposfully not looking them up as most of them are nondiscrept at best, and the only notable one is LIsa’s crush who looks like a tiny Doctor Octopus..so apparently Otto cloned himself and gave his son black hair? I mean that’s what i’m going with it sounds like the kind of contingincey he’d do and he did die for a while. Twice. Oh and the fact Lily is crushing on a teddy bear which is just really cute.  That being said, the episode DOES get something big right: Doing this kind of stock plot right. I mean “everyone thinks a romantic letter/card/card and flowers’ is for them is a stock sitcom plot and an annoying one at that half the time as the person who sent them comes off as super dumb, or the card has to be smudged or it has to be a nickname or something something, etc etc. Here... while they all think it’s for them, it makes perfect sense for once: They ALL have the same initials, so not knowing which ones which, aside from not Bobby because of reasons I mentoined already and Bear because AS FAR AS WE KNOW he’s not alive... I mean they do live in a house with a 4 year old who tampers with the natural order as part of her to do list every day, so it’s really a matter of when not IF with that.  It also avoids: “Everyone fights and gets petty over it” .. which itself the series has botched at times for other plots, so instead while they all want it to be them and breifly get agitated over it, they instead all work together using the same tactics to try and suss it out. It’s a nice change of pace and part of why this episode works despite the repettition.. more on that later.  Anyways of all of them it’s Lucy who offers the easiest way to narrow it down, knowing how secret admirers work because she reads a lot of vampire fiction and vampires , while inhumanly goregous are also deeply insecure which, having watched all 5 seasons of angel.. yeah that tracks good work. As such she suggests they all send a signal to gage their intrest and if their intrested, they’ll send another letter.  Shenanigans insue, my faviorite being Leni pretending to be a manquin and scaring the shit out of Chaz. Not bad jokes, but we’ll get to more about it later.  The plan actually works and the next poem has a rose and-mentions the targets brown hair, so our bachlerottes are down to Luna, Luann, Lynn and Lisa. It’s also a nice clue for the reveal later. Naturally their all stoked.. except Luna who looks visably depressed. Turns out she never GAVE her signal because she talked herself out of it, thinking Sam’s out of her league. But her siblings quickly all jump in to encourage her. It’s a nice scene. Starting with the easier part to talk about I do love the siblings comradere. Sure they fight, scheme against one another, ocasinally encourage one of their siblings to date a bully or throw him out of the house.. okay the last ones aren’t as typical or easily forgivable but still, the point is despite it all.. they love each other and when it counts, their there for each other. Hell here Luaan, Lisa and Lynn are all directly against Luna, hoping the letter we’ll be there’s.. yet they have nothing but support for her. The rest of her siblings just found out this wasn’t about them.. but the instant they realize Luna is so down on herself she thinks she’s out of the running, they change from disapointi to being her cheer section. It’s really sweet and it’s this among other moments that helps boost the episode up. I also like the special touch of Lori chiming in at the end, not to be lost in with the rest of her siblings, knowing likely that being both the oldest and the only one there having been in a relationship for a while, her words likely carry some weight. The other thing.. is Luna’s character, and how this episode cements self-doubt as a major part of her character. And i’ts a part I really like, a nice contrast from her usual confidence, and most episodes about her afte rthis would zero in on this aspect for good character growth.  So since Lucy was already right, they follow her advice for round 2: Give there crush a token of affection, and wait for at third letter. Which honestly aside from actually giving signals back, she’s not entirely wrong: most “love letter plots” have this sort of rhythm.  Speaking of rhtyum.. yeah this sequence is basically the same one as before just with a diffrent goal in mind.. however I do give the episode credit. In my previous review I spoke about my annoynce at the series love of repettion, and while this episode does suffer for it.. I inflated it in my head that it was worse here. Here the jokes land enough and it does work to the episodes benifit to repeat stuff. Plus here it ends up being plot relevant: After gifts of a pie to the face (Luann), a literal hart (Lisa) and a jock strap (Lynn), Luna has a decidedly less psychotic gift in mind: Her faviorite guitar pic, which even has a heart within a heart and is a very cute gesture... but she once again backs out and accepts not being that lucky. But I also like it because it cleverly shows that it’s not Luna herself that’s the problem: out of the 4 remaning siblings she’s the only one with a valid gift, and it make sense given both her personality and her siblings inexperince. It’s jsut she’s so scared of rejection she can’t bring herself to try.  So the family is familing in the living room when Leni comes in with the final letter from the mail man... and with the final letter admitting to a love of their sounds and all things british, yeah it’s gotta be Luna? So the secret admirer has set up a meting at bangers and mosh, a place that serves british food and is a rock venue. Luna is shocked but happy and the family carry her off.. minus Leni who being Leni wants to make sure the mailman is okay since she tried letting him down gently thinking the letter was from him.  The kids arrive, all coming with for moral support apparently.. only to find their parents. Wah wah wah! In all seriousness, this twist works. With the episode geared towards Luna, most fans probably woudln’t think about their parents or this being some wacky sitcom solution, but the episode gives decent hints: Brown hair, a love of british things , an established trait for Luna as much as Lynn senior, who spent a year abroad, ironically enough revealed in the same ep Luna hinted was bi and all the girls stalked an innocent british person because of course the head writer with a history of sexual harassment would think that was a good idea. Anyways, he also was established to have a band in “House Music”, luna’s other spotlight ep from season 1, So it’ a really good use of continuity, and if you were a diehard fan of thes how or rewatched those two eps a lot, you’d probably be able to figure it out. To their credit though I did not.  Anyways Leni gives out an amaazing line “Sam likes dad?” , Rita, after a bit of confusion at her daughter’s hilarous dumbassery, explains she sent the letter: As it turns out it’s how they met. Now granted you’d think they would’ve told the kids this before but I brush it off as the kids simply not thinking of that: It was a resonable assumption the letter was for them, and none of the letters had anything about Lynn Sr. That didn’t apply to his kids. Anyways, thinking Lynn Sr out of her league, much like her daughter’s current delimma which is a nice touch. ON the third note she asked him to meet her at the very restraunt they are now, celebrating the 20th anniversary of their first date. And to me this little story is just.. really fucking adorable, as is Rita’s love of Lynn Sr.’s pisstake british accent.  Rita, being a great mom, does try and comfort luna hoping she’s not disapointed. However while Luna was at first... her story inspiries Luna to take a risk. After all it worked for her parents, she and Sam could work. She just has to make that move and rallies her family to do the same. We also get one more fantastic gag before we get to the end montage: Lynn Sr: This calls for a celebration! Meat pies for everyone! Restraunt: Yay! Lynn Sr: Actually I just meant my family Restraunt: (grumbles) Lynn Sr: Oh come on theres 13 of us! So we end on one last montage as each loud kid gives their crush a note, some seeing it some not, and for Leni does the manquin bit again, which is adorable. Also the otto kid is apparently not named otto, but in my defense.. I don’t care. So after some genuinely cute bits, we get one last one as Luna leaves a note for sam.. and you see, as you probably know for most of the episode the show hadn’t been specific on which one Sam is, so when it turned out to be one of the girls, it’d be a twist. Of course it isn’t NOW: I called this a saluna trilogy after all and really most people hearing about the loud house probably know about her and Luna but at the time it was a smart twist. 

And I loved it. WHile i’d headcannoned her as bi, there were hints after all, it was, much like the korassmi ending of legend of korra , a plesant shock to have it be REAL. And the ending shot, of luna simling at the above from behind the lockers, is really sweet.  But I also give Nick and the Loud House credit where it’s do. While they weren’t the first children’s cartoon to have an out and out gay/bi/pan protaganist, they were one of the first to not only have a bi protagnist during the context of the show, but to have it be visable.. it was really nice. Even if I do wish they’d use the term bi i’m not greedy and the show to it’s credit, while giving moments like this florish, dosen’t go out of it’s way to pat itself o the back about it’s represenation. The characters who are queer or disabled or POC are just.. there , with enough prominence to be proper representation while not letting that be ALL they are. Now sure at the time of this writing Representation, even within the Loud House itself as it followed up on this, has taken even greater leaps: In Adult Animation we have Harley Quinn having the last act of it’s second season be dedicated to Harley’s emotiona turmoil over being in love with her engaged best friend and said best friend, for now NOT wanting more, a pairing fans had wanted to see played out since the two first met. She Ra had two LEADS angished declartions of loved save teh unvierse and be the emotional climax of the finale. And netflix has gone on to have several gay characters in it’s childrens show on top of that, all leads. But while I think all of tihs would’ve happened without L is for Love, I do still applaud it as a good step forward. Sure the show had Clyde’s  dads’ before, and they are good characters don’t get me wrong, but this was something else and as  Bi person myself.. I really welcome it.  Final Thoughts: Not much to say I haven’t, but overall a realy damn good episode with a hell of an ending that makes use of the repetttion rather than usingit because “Oh shit we have a lot of episodes to get out this season”. Of course we’ll be getting back to sam and luna soon enough with season 3′s followup racing hearts, and with me knowing it’s pride I have tons of review ideas a coming, but for now, reblog this review if you liked it, or just like it if youd ont’ feel like that, send me an ask if you have any other episodes i’d like to cover, or comission one if you wnat to make SURE I cover it, and i’ll see you next time. Later days.