#but i just the last few episodes of season 3 were a whole other level

[thisisnotthenerd]

as the fhjy premiere is upon us, i'm back with another edition of thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats. it's just the updates that are relevant, since relationship tracking is taking so long to do and i got sidetracked by polls for a few months. this will be sorted by the categories i have data for--you can look at the spreadsheet to find data for all d20 seasons. or you can read it on ao3. anyway:

player data:

runtime and episode data:

before the start of junior year, we have spent 88 hours, 40 minutes, and 14 seconds with the bad kids on-screen, including in oneshots. this is about 3 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes, and 14 seconds.

that's 41/221 d20 episodes, 22 of which were battle episodes.

we've spent 125 hours, 37 minutes, and 32 seconds in spyre as a whole, or 5 days, 5 hours, 37 minutes, and 32 seconds.

that's 57/221 d20 episodes, 32 of which were battle episodes.

cast appearances:

brennan at the top of the list, with 19 d20 appearances, 15 of those as a gm/dm.

next is lou, with 11 seasons as a player; 8 intrepid heroes seasons, 3 sidequests.

followed by ally, zac and siobhan, each with 2 different sidequests under their belts

second to last is emily, with 9, with acofaf

and in last is murph, with only 8. if aabria is in 2 of the 2024 d20 seasons, she's in the running to beat him.

seating preferences:

junior year tipped a lot of the intrepid heroes into a distinct preference, simply by setting them on one side of the table.

emily axford: strong left side preference (6/8), most commonly in L1 and L2. paired next to zac 5/8 seasons, and across from murph 5/8 seasons. fig sits in L1.

zac oyama: strong left side preference (6/8), most commonly in L2 and L1. paired next to emily 5/8 seasons, and across from ally 7/8 seasons. gorgug sits in L2.

siobhan thompson: weak left side preference (5/8), most commonly in L3 and R3. paired next to lou 7/8 seasons [doubled across 5/8], and across from emily 3/8 seasons. adaine sits in L3

lou wilson: even split preference, most commonly in R3 and L3. paired next to siobhan 7/8 seasons [doubled across 5/8], and across from murph 2/8 seasons. fabian sits in R3.

ally beardsley: strong right side preference, most commonly in R2 and R1. paired next to murph 6/8 seasons, and across from zac 7/8 seasons. kristen sits in R2.

brian ‘murph’ murphy: strong right side preference (7/8), the strongest of the intrepid heroes, most commonly in R1 and R2. paired next to ally 6/8 seasons, and across from emily 5/8 seasons. riz sits in R1.

character data:

given what the bts's have shown, there might be some changes to these that i'll update during the premiere, but as of now, this is a quick summary of the bad kids' data, including dnd race, class, level, highest stat, feats, and age. you can go through the thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats tag for my previous commentary on this data, or check out the spreadsheet.

i'm putting them at level 9 for now because that's what we left off with, but more than likely they're starting at level 10 or higher. we know about riz's respec, but there may be others that crop up during the season.

fig faeth: tiefling. lore bard 8, hexblade warlock 1. CHA. actor, lucky. 17-18

gorgug thistlespring: half-orc. berserker barbarian 8, artificer 1. STR. orcish aggression/fury. 18

adaine abernant: high elf. divination wizard 9. INT. spell sniper, war caster. 16-17

fabian seacaster: half-elf. battlemaster fighter 6, swords bard 3. DEX. sentinel. 18-19

kristen applebees: variant human. twilight cleric 9. WIS. human determination, inspiring leader. 17-18

riz gukgak: goblin. arcane trickster rogue 9. DEX. healer. 17

all of the bad kids have some magic now--the ladies are all full casters, while fabian is a split multiclass, gorgug is a 1/2 caster multiclass, and riz re-subclassed into a 1/3rd casting progression. still an even split of multiclasses and pure classes, though that may change. riz's re-spec has bumped arcane trickster up to the most common rogue subclass, with 6 arcane trickster characters, 4 of whom sit in R1.

and that's it! all of the intrepid heroes/bad kids data that i have updates for! see you all at the premiere of fantasy high: junior year tomorrow!

[onyichii]

My Reply to you Cocogum

This is a response to @cocogum post! Since it is SUPER LONG! Imma start doing this instead of reblogging if I have a lot to say.

OG Post by COCOGUM:

YES COCOGUM!! I am LOVING YOUR ENTIRE POST! I have a few thoughts to add...

A) I'm happy her hair is growing out too! I hope she eventually has hair as long as her mothers.

I want her to look like a forest goddess.

I think the growth is a symbol of just (as you said) being happy or at peace. In TV/movies people cut their hair as a symbol of change (freedom from the past) and grow it out again (sometimes) when they're at a new happy place. As we have seen, her hair and that green leaf she sports now are a symbol of her new found happiness.

B) I too was not expecting the "adult fun time" scene but i am hoping we get A TON more especially if this series is gonna be 100 chapters. I want more fluff, more hugs, more kisses, more f--ks! lol Put a baby (or three) in her Yugo! Give the Sadida kingdom an heir!

I can see where you are coming from that Yugo was having a wet dream. If that's the case, that is funny because he (presumably) had just pollinated his flower queen and he is dreaming of doing it again! 😀😀 And he called her tireless!? LMAO. Whether it was a dream or they were interrupted before the nut we can agree that they are BOTH hungry for each others touch/warmth (based on that scene alone).

I still think they were interrupted before they...made sap🌳and fell from the air.

I think the "adult fun time" positions you were suggesting are accurate and I can see Yugo switching too. I think it would depend on who initiates it. When she initiates she's top but when he initiates he'd top....sometimes (not all the time because as you said—he loves the view)! lol

C) For the open room. I think the construction of the floor (or level) gives them privacy. Like a long corridor before the room entrance. And at the entrance to the corridor there'd be a magical cotton bell (as seen in s3) that rings when pulled to let the royals know when servants want to enter. BUT if there is no magical door bell (OR ANYTHING) that is bold of them!! lol.

Rereading your post...if the doorway is open like that it makes me think of this quote (the last quote at 1:40) from the film Scary Movie (watch from 1:30 to 1:42 for context)

D) So I am GLAD people have been bringing up Draconiros. I am not deep into the WAKFU/KROZMOS/DOFUS universe and had NO IDEA who he was nor any of the other primordial dragons.

I got into Wakfu for Amalia. I thought she and Yugo would be cute from all the hugs she gave him. When they canonized a potential Yumalia (in the OVA) I STANNED for their star-crossed lover romance that could never be. I love the whole cast but Amalia's character design is so cute/fun (it drew me into Wakfu).

Anyway, I am curious if Draconiros is ALSO responsible for Nora's daydream in ep 4 of season 4. THIS SCENE ALWAYS THREW ME OFF!

I feel like this scene was added for two three purposes... 1) to introduce the audience to Efrim (in a foreshadowing way) 2) to add to what Oropo says in episode 1. Questioning Yugo's "good" intentions and actions which have caused (and WILL CAUSE) trouble for the World of Twelve. 3) To sneakily, introduce Draconiros (without the audience knowing).

The reason why I think this is Draconiros and NOT Efrim is because—how would Efrim know any of what was said in that scene? Efrim is in the Necroworld at this moment. He and Nora were in the Krozmos away from the World of Twelve for a long time. There is NO WAY Efrim would know about YUGO's effects on the World of Twelve. At none, that I can think of...

Which also brings to question, how did the Goddess Eliatrope know the Brotherhood of the Tofu and everyones names when they entered the temple? Did I miss something? I mean Quilby could have told them some things. From before his imprisonment...but I digress...

Anyway, I think Draconiros took on Efrims form/voice in s4. And now he is making an official appearance in the manga.

If they had shown Draconiros in season 4, it would be a loose end. And Tot wanted to wrap the animation up without any loose ends. So (to me) it'd make sense not to show Draconiros' true form at all in s4 and have him take on Efrims form/voice.

E) I think this dude is gonna be a problem. But I may be over thinking 🤷‍♀️. And shouldn't he be referring to her as QUEEN Amalia instead of LADY Amalia? Does he have some passive aggressive beef with her? Or is it okay to refer to a Queen as Lady instead. I feel like the Sadida's are more chill about titles (compared to other kingdoms) but...idk.

His character design (in this scene) is just giving...bad guy or pawn to me. If I am right, he could play a betrayal role (if the plot takes that turn). I do not see him being a fan of the Eliatropes either.

F) And I agree that the Sadida kingodm is tense with it's new residence. I'm glad you brought up the perspective from the Sadida but let's talk about it a little more with a Eliatrope in mind...

The Eliatrope have NEVER had to live with another race before. EVER. They had their OWN PLANET. No other race existed on there but them.

Thanks to Baltazar (in s2) they had been watching Yugo through the Eliacube, but have they been taking notes on the customs of the world around him?

Being on a new planet with so many races must be a SHOCK to them. ADDITIONALLY, they haven't interreacted with anyone but each other for goddess knows how long!!! So the communication, customs, cultures, and everything probably hit them like a TON OF BRICKS. I would assume that they don't (quite) understand what tolerance and acceptance of other cultures is thanks to their isolation too.

However, it is something they are gonna have to learn. Starting with the Sadida race.

Since they're teens I think (...well, I hope) it'll be easier for them to learn and integrate into the world of twelve via the Sadida Kingdom.

ALSO...It will take time for the Sadida's to be comfortable with the Eliatropes too. I mean...people have been trying to take their homeland (via possess the tree of life) for a long time. It's no surprise that they are weary/tense of some alien race residing on said homeland. They may know Yugo, but they don't know his people. They probably think they'll take over....IDK.

But I am here for the tea! 🫖🍵

FRIDAY NEEDS TO HURRY UP!!

[fanyeline]

maybe i just have f@tt exhaustion & need a break but most of palisade has been incredibly bleak & idk if this post credits ending is going to fix that. let's take a look at where the characters started and "ended" this season

Kalvin Brnine: started unable to talk abt their feelings & with hope that millenium break could change lives. ended unable to talk abt their feelings, estranged 3 important relationships & with a death wish.

Thisbe: started w the idea that they have no freedom. ended with the realization that they have freedom, but also they have an energy thing in them that prevents them from relaxing

The Figure in Bismuth: started w wanting to break free from slavery. Ended up dead.

Phrygian: started w wanting to fight the good fight & end the war. Ended up dead.

Coriolis Sunset: started idealistic & naive. ended up grizzled, chased from planet to planet & having forcibly lost their girlfriend to a contract with a God

from my point of view, if the idea was that they wanted to make a corny, hopeful season, they picked the wrong game from the start. armor astir's pillars are practically undefeatable, that is part of the game.

secondly, the cause VS principality gameplay where the team was split into two groups didn't really work for me. it felt like it created aggression between groups, where both groups wanted to win instead of creating a collaborative story. you can hear austin struggling with this in early episodes of the game against jack & art, and eventually it felt like they just leaned into the opposition between the two groups. This is maybe "fun", but in the end it creates this feeling that there's always a losing side.

secondly part 2, the inclusion of the stellar combuster arc towards the beginning of the season felt super weird, pacing wise. i know we can't always control these things, but overall that whole arc only felt stressful, never fun or rewarding. even when brnine killed the princept, i was just kind of stressed out!

third, i'm not sure the final questlandia game was a great ending game, especially when so many of the character beats couldn't really explored in a system that's talking about kingdom level activities. Besides that, I found the choice of characters to be a little disappointing. Bringing in Levi after figure's death didn't feel like a breath of fresh air, it just felt like 'well who is this guy?'. I felt the same way about Jack's character, August Righteousness. I think either could have played a character we already had a strong connection with. What about Gucci? What about Jesset? How about Mustard Red? Keith bringing back Leap was the right choice, not only bc leap is someone we already cared about but because he's like this incredible force as a character. He is someone who generates change.

fourth, I felt the treatment of Clem as a character was absolutely ridiculous. the immediate dislike and rejection by the cast of an extremely popular character after art brought up playing her felt like it was both disrespecting art as a player and his ability to do a villain justice, and towards the listeners who have been invested in Clem's story since she was a player character in Partizan. It felt like after a certain point, Art had to give up caring about what Clem did or face backlash from the other players! In the last few kingdom episodes, art was going "I mean, whatever, I don't really care" half the time they asked him about what he felt clem would do. And I also found it to be a huge bummer to listen to the players have discourse over Clem.

There's a big difference to me over fandom discourse and players taking part in that discourse. First and foremost, Clem is a character in a story, and while their "what should we do about Clem" discussion should have revolved around how to give her a satisfying character arc, it felt more like they were trying to figure out how to wash their hands of her. I don't really understand how or why the friends soured on Clem so much, and you know what? I get being sick of a character. But having a public discussion about it was really weird, & as a fan, a total bummer to hear.

So yeah, over all I feel really burned out by this season and the decisions they've made. I think it's been a sad time. I don't think it's been fun or goofy for awhile.

Obviously as creators they have a right to do whatever they want with their art, but I can't help but find it disappointing. It feels really different to what they've put out before & I'm having a hard time enjoying this gritty, sad and stressful season.

[fernsnailz]

January 2024 Review Roundup

hello everypony‼️ something i want to do through 2024 is a mini review series where i recap some of the media i watched/played/read at the end of every month. this was inspired by tumblr user ponett’s 2023 media wrap-up, it's a great collection of quick reviews so go check it out!

i’m doing this partially as writing/analysis practice, but mostly because my memory is really bad and i want to keep track of what i've seen this year. with that said, my thoughts on everything i finished in january 2024 is under the cut :]

Portal 1 + 2

yyyup i beat Portal and it only took me (checks watch) 13 years

the first time i played Portal 2 was at a friend’s house when i was in middle school, and i had a fuckin blast. but after all that time... it still holds up! i don’t think anything i have to say about Portal will be particularly new since people have been praising this series since it came out. the writing, the level design, even the controls feel tight and engaging the whole way through. i played on switch and expected a bit of jank, but i was pleasantly surprised at how smooth it felt to play. the only part that dragged for me were the levels through the old aperture labs, but i think i would like them a lot more on a second replay. Portal 2 is fantastic and one of my new favorite games, the artistry behind it is truly incredible and i’m really glad i finally finished it. while i was playing Portal 2, i described Glados and Wheatly to a friend and said “they’re like if a ceiling fan could be passive aggressive and if Fozzie Bear was an evil golf ball”

I Think You Should Leave

finally. i can truly understand and appreciate Subspace Dubbed Over

i think one of my favorite things about I Think You Should Leave is how it utilizes horror. beyond sitting slack-jawed in disbelief at the crazy events unfolding before my eyes, a number of the sketches dipped into bits that genuinely kinda scared me. like the one sketch that circulates on here where the guy (pig?) in a mask crawls through a dog door, which is. genuinely terrifying. but so many of the other sketches have slow, nerve-racking pacing leading to crazy shit that would be perfect in a horror film were the context different. idk i like dissecting how horror and comedy are essentially the same thing and I Think You Should Leave was very good at enabling that <3 favorite sketches are probably “then let my wife eat the damn receipt” and “55 BURGERS 55 HOTDOGS 100 FRIES 100 TATER TOTS”

Sonic Prime Season 3

man. ohhhh man. i didn’t go into this with high expectations and i still feel let down. Sonic Prime Season 3 was definitely my least favorite “season” of the batch - abysmal pacing, very few character moments i actually enjoyed, and the things i praised about the show felt very underutilized through these episodes. Nine is the shining star of Sonic Prime and i was looking forward to seeing his more villainous side, but his character took such a sharp turn into pure evil and it felt like he spent the entire season repeating the same three lines. and as much as i praise Shadow’s writing in Prime, it doesn’t really matter when he spends half of the season trapped in a hole that he just… runs out of later.

lastly, i cannot stop thinking about how bad the pacing of this season is. three episodes for a repetitive final battle feels like such a waste of time when you see just how much they rush the emotional resolutions in the last episode. however, there is one thing i truly love about Sonic Prime Season 3 - i love the Sails and Mangey fakeout death. it's so fucking funny. like you really expect me to believe that two cartoon animals in this Y-7 rated show EXPLODED?????? absolute comedy gold.

overall, i just… don’t really know what to think of Sonic Prime. anything i enjoyed in the show was often fleeting, and much of it felt like its only purpose was to waste my time. also Rouge i can’t believe they did you so dirty oh my god

Ghost Trick

i was so proud that i figured out the secret behind Sissel’s memory loss like halfway through the game. however i also kept getting caught during the prison escape sequence like an idiot

Ghost Trick is in a similar situation as Portal where 1. it’s incredible and one of my new favorite games, and 2. there’s nothing i can really say about it that hasn’t already been said or just. shouldn’t be said. Ghost Trick is a fantastic mystery game, and because of that i think it’s best to go into its story as blind as possible. the narrative unfolds in such fascinating ways - even though the actual object manipulation gameplay isn’t directly about solving the mystery (like in Ace Attorney or other mystery games), it still ties wonderfully into the story in some incredibly unique ways.

i also really love the artstyle of Ghost Trick - i love 2D character artwork with that sharp lineweight, it reminded me a lot of Sonic Battle (another game with an artstyle i love). i was also really impressed by the 3D character models and animation - despite the limitations of the camera, you get a wonderful sense of everyone’s personality from the limited body language expressed in the overworld (even though the models lack much facial expression which. i guess they don’t really need? idk that was the only thing that threw me off). anyways yeah everyone should play Ghost Trick so Ghost Trick fans can be freed from their curse and talk about it without having to tag like 10 different spoiler tags. and for Missile

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

ok bear with me. i went into Scott Pilgrim Takes Off without reading the comics first. and i fuckin loved it

my understanding of Scott Pilgrim before SPTO was mostly from the movie (I KNOW I’M SORRY), but even with my base understanding of the series i really enjoyed this show for what it was. i found myself appreciating the time they dedicated to further develop every single character in the show - especially Ramona. she’s fantastic as the lead, i really loved watching her reconcile with her exes and seeing all of them grow instead of exploding into coins. my favorite episode was probably the one with her and Roxie - not only did i adore the movie-jumping set pieces, but you really understand the weight of Ramona’s mistakes in their past relationship and how much it hurt Roxie. despite the big climactic fight, the flashbacks are quiet, subtle, heartbreaking. Ramona’s apology is genuine, and it feels so wonderful to watch her confront her past throughout the show. also i think it’s really funny that for all these characters to become the best versions of themselves, they had to kill off Scott for most of the story

and holy shit the artstyle and animation. oh my god. i love watching something that makes me immediately go “i need to see the storyboards for this RIGHT NOW.” SPTO is such a visual delight to watch, it elevates the artstyle of the comics while also keeping what makes that style so appealing - i love the line weight on the characters, i love how much forward energy the animation has, i love the fucking. virtual boy section. as soon as i found out Science Saru was also behind Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, everything made immediate sense. i was destined to love this show.

another worry i had going into SPTO (besides the fact that i hadn’t read the comics lol) is that the original cast from the movie was returning. i think the movie cast is fine, but i wasn’t sure how some of them would fare with voice acting for animation. however, i thought they all did a good job - i think the whole cast loves these characters and would be able to fit into them fairly easily no matter what form their performance takes, and they definitely had a good voice director in the studio with them. the only thing that felt off about the voice performances to me was that sometimes it sounded like some of their mics kept peaking?? idk some of these episodes i watched high as balls and i felt like i could hear and see every single sound and frame of the show. so that might have just been me.

god i did not. expect to have this much to say about Scott Pilgrim. i really loved this show and i’m currently reading the comics to fully catch up on the general Scott Pilgrim experience - i think reading the comics AFTER Takes Off is making me appreciate even more of the character work that went into the show. like they do so much with Mathew Patel in SPTO, a character that was. not originally around for a long time from what i’ve gathered? also i like the funny little robot. oh my GOD i cannot talk about this show anymore whatever it’s good get me out of here

Sword AF Season 1

i put on the Smosh cast’s D&D series to play in the background while i was drawing. i did not expect to think much of it. instead, i had one of the most enjoyable D&D podcast experiences since i listened to The Adventure Zone Balance???

i haven’t really enjoyed other D&D podcasts since i dropped off of The Adventure Zone, and i wasn’t expecting much from Sword AF of all things. then i saw that Shayne was playing as a druid warforged made of plants and his name was fucking Fernie and i sat my ass down and LISTENED. while i think Sword AF is currently lacking in its world and larger story, those things just. aren’t really what Sword AF is really trying to provide at the moment. it’s main focus is comedy, and the players are genuinely such a delight to watch play together and build off of each other. they mostly focus on bits and goofs for the sake of she show's comedic tone, but i still found it thoroughly enjoyable because every player embodies and performs their characters really well. idk Sword AF was an unexpected hit for me this month, i thought it was fun. and i love Fernie so much

Plastic Death - Glass Beach

so originally i wasn’t going to include music reviews in these roundups at all, but then i was entirely surprised by a new Glass Beach album and oh my god. holy shit. oh my fucking god jesus christ. holy shit. its preddy good

Plastic Death gets the low point of the album out of the way immediately. it starts with the “phone call/conversation audio” trope that i don’t particularly enjoy - HOWEVER despite me disliking this opening, 1. it sets up the overall themes of Plastic Death very quickly, and 2. the rest of the album blows this 40 second opening completely out of the water. from there, the album grows into something beautiful and uncontained, and i just. i really like it

Plastic Death captures the beauty of the temporary, asks what it means to be created for a cause you can’t fulfill, questions if you can reclaim yourself from cycles and constraints designed to destroy you. and is also about being transgender. the lyrics are abstract in a way that requires a conversation with the listener, many of the vocals obscured and smooth like waves - this album is definitely one that needs to be listened to a few times. i wasn’t sure how i felt about the vocal style at first before realizing the vocals were the main reason i was relistening to this album, allowing myself to find even more that i loved about it. the instrumentation is also incredible, i love the use of marimba in a number of songs - distant, eerie, almost skeletal. and the fucking. 8-bit section?? which kinda rules???? and that’s the only point in the album it ever shows up??????? incredible. a fleeting, somewhat silly moment that i love every time.

this album left my heart aching, in part from my connection to it and in part from the pure love and joy emanating from this music. i can feel just how much fun this music was to perform and create, a cohesion of time and sound that just clicked for me. Plastic Death made me miss playing music, which is something i haven’t felt in years. all from an album that starts with a conversation about CrankGameplay’s dead youtube channel. good lord

i like this album a normal amount. go listen to it a few times. my favorite tracks are cul-de-sac and commatose

Wish

i watched Wish with a couple of friends and knew i probably wasn't going to like it. with that in mind, i gave myself a challenge: i wanted to find one thing about this movie that i genuinely really loved. it could be anything, and loving it for ironic reasons was allowed.

here's the complete list of things i loved about Disney's Wish (2023):

i love the one shot where King Magnifico stirs an evil caldron evily. i thought it was hilarious. what was he cooking

i loved that the end credits included a reference to Dinosaur 2001 at all, and i loved that they paid homage to Big Hero 6 by showing the forgettable villain of that movie instead of their Baymax cashcow for some reason. my friends and i saw him show up in the credits and were like "who's the trenchcoat guy??"

you may notice that this list is very short and 50% of it is about the movie's credits. so yeah this movie is not very good

Wish is an empty husk of a movie. everything about it feels so, so hollow - lifeless town squares, uninspired character designs (to quote a friend: "i have all of these characters' hairstyles in The Sims"), characters whose existence is only justified to fill empty space or an overused archetype, and an "evil" villain who lacks charisma and spine in a futile effort to remind the audience of previous disney villains with actual character. even the artstyle lacks any sort of sauce, the watercolor effect they were trying to go for only makes the backgrounds and character textures run together, and the dull lighting makes things look even more faded. it's like disney was scared of making a movie that made its audience feel... anything. all to celebrate 100 years of Disney slop, baby!!!

Some YouTube videos I liked in January: 💥 An Exhaustive Look at Pokemon Brilliant Diamond 💥 TomSka's Guide to Plagiarism 💥 Paradise Bombed (this video is a great piece of journalism and i’m definitely not doing it justice by throwing it into the youtube vid list) 💥 Surprising Our Friends with Zoo Animals 💥 Did FNAF Ever Have a Good Story?

thanks for reading! next month’s roundup will be wild because i’ll likely be reviewing House of Leaves and Hazbin Hotel. can you guess which cursed house gives me a worse headache? WHO KNOWS! (hint: it's Hazbin Hotel)

[that-ari-blogger]

Pay Off

One way of analysing stories is by asking a question about a question. By which I mean "what question is this series answering about its plot".

For example, in the third Pirates of the Carribean film, the question is "has Jack Sparrow changed enough to give his life away?" And this isn't unique to the Pirates of the Carribean franchise, it's applicable to a ton of other stories as well. It's a question of whether or not the character development has happened, not just which side has stronger magic or bigger weapons or a better lawyer.

But if you were to apply that analytical framework to a season finale? Say, for example, The Battle for Bright Moon, the season one finale for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. What question is that answering?

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD

In my reading of the first season of She-Ra, the series asks two questions, one focused on Adora and Catra's psychology, and the other on the rebellion as a whole. The story gives the audience the illusion that they are linked, but I'm not quite sure that they are.

A few months ago, over Discord, a user going by Emerald9D gave some insight that has been on my mind ever since:

season 1 is a lot of "ha-ha here's this happy little positive message" seasons 2 and 3 are like "oh god nobody internalized any of the lessons from the first season"

She-Ra is about breaking cycles, and one of the clever ways it does this is through its format. Each season of the series is a self-enclosed tragedy, with the exception that the last season manages to change direction at the last possible moment (season four does something interesting as well, but we'll get there when we get there). The stereotype of this is death and destruction, but it doesn't have to be.

She-Ra achieves a repeated tragedy through separating the war from the psychological story it is telling, letting victory be achieved in one side and not the other. Season One focuses on the character development of both Adora and Catra, but has it come crashing down on both of their heads in a carefully laid tapestry of misfortune. It could have easily worked out well, they could have all been friends, but the story didn't play out that way.

Catra's character progression in this season is actually the simplest she gets in the entire season, at face value. I despise the term "character arc" for reasons too complicated and petty to articulate here, but it is applicable with Catra in season one, mostly.

On a surface level, Catra's arc deals growth and failure. She rises out of the abuse from Shadow Weaver and strikes her away, she very nearly joins Adora in the rebellion, but then Light Hope happens. I already have a post about that episode but suffice to say here that it changes the trajectory.

This scene doesn't have Catra directly in it, but symbolises that trajectory shift so succinctly, and it is fundamentally about Catra. Adora reaches out for a hand to hold, and if the series had gone even slightly differently, Catra would be there. But she isn't because Light Hope tore the two apart. And now Adora's hand closes on empty space.

But, Catra doesn't regress in season one, not yet. Instead, the perspective shifts, and it is revealed that Catra has been developing in an unhealthy direction. She-Progresses past Shadow Weaver, but without any closure. She believes that her mother figure made her strong, and recognises the abuse for what it is, but she can't recognise any of her own behaviours that were instilled in her by her upbringing.

"I already made it a lot further than anyone thought I would."

Shadow Weaver taught Catra that she was a failure, and Catra's attempt to fix her own self-worth issues was to lash out and remove Shadow Weaver from the equation. But removing a knife from a wound doesn't heal it. It's a step, but there are others that might be helpful that Catra hasn't recognised.

Instead, Catra devotes herself to the war above her own mental health and assumes that will fix all of her problems. Hold on to this thought.

Adora has a hero complex, a psychological condition defined by PeopleSkillsDecoded.com as:

"a psychological construct which makes a person feel the need to save other people. This person has a strong tendency to seek people who desperately need help and to assist them, often sacrificing their own needs for these people."

Five By Five Takes has a video on Adora's psychology that goes into more depth than I can in a post about a single episode, so I highly recommend you watch it. In said video, the idea is proposed that Adora's heroic attributes are caused by her abusive upbringing, which reframes her actions here.

Adora thinks incredibly quickly, which is a character strength, but also a weakness. It means she is easily the quickest responder to almost any given situation, with one exception that I will get to. But Adora's speed also means that things get lost in translation. She sees someone in danger and thinks "I need to save them", and she sees a loss and thinks "I caused this".

Adora had so many chances to internalise the lessons of the series. Glimmer and Swiftwind explicitly tell her on separate occasions that she is important not because she is She-Ra, but because she is Adora, and people like Adora. But No Princess Left Behind throws her off balance, and in her weakened state, who sweeps in to push her in their own direction, but Light Hope.

"Light Hope said that I'd endanger my friends by coming back, and she was right"

Adora is convinced that she caused someone to die, and Light Hope agrees with her. All she has to do to save people is stop killing them. She just needs to let go, because she did kill Entrapta. It was her fault. Light Hope can help her.

Glimmer, Bow, and Swiftwind bring Adora away from the beacon and into the war. They try to dissuade Light Hope's words, but Adora has already thought through the situation. Now she is confused and trying to reconcile her perceptions. She doesn't understand unconditional kindness, so she is tempted to agree with Light Hope because that makes sense to her. But the kindness makes her feel good. There is a cognitive dissonance there.

So, Adora ignores the problem. Instead, she devotes herself to the war above her own mental health and assumes that will fix all of her problems.

That sounds familiar, who else is doing that? Oh, right, Catra. And remember the thinking quickly thing? I mentioned that there was one exception. There is one person who processes information faster than Adora, and that, once again, is Catra.

Adora and Catra are the same person with one primary difference, expectations. Everyone has thought the world of Adora and expected her to save them. Nobody cares about Catra.

Alright, they aren't the same person. Catra is a cat, Adora is a seven-foot-tall sword lady. But does that not play into this? She-Ra is just another purpose piled upon the rest, and Catra is treated as a pest, a stray cat that wandered in and is kept around because the child of the house likes it.

What this means is that Adora internalises everything as her fault, even failures that have nothing to do with her, and Catra internalises everything as someone else's fault, even her own achievements.

The season has been trying to teach the pair that this is a problem, but the events of the season only serve to reenforce them.

"Did you really think this was about you?"

Yes. Yes she did. And so did you, Catra. That's why you lured her away from the castle, that's why you are doing this. This is very much about Adora.

The season is a victory for the rebellion. The princesses do get together and win the day, and this is one of the benefits of separating character arcs from the overarching story. It means the characters can win a battle and lose themselves at the same time.

Deus Ex Machina.

The term means "god from the machine" and originated in Ancient Greek theatre, where heroes would often be saved by a literal god interposing themself into the story. This happens too many times in the Iliad and Odyssey to count and isn't a bad thing there. They are elements of the setting. You don't need to set up gravity in a modern story for it to kill someone, the audience understands that falling kills. Likewise, in Ancient Greece, the gods were understood to just exist. So, Hermes popping into save someone because he happened to be in the area isn't unheard of. This tangent isn't really the point of my blog, so if you want more information, Overly Sarcastic Productions has a video on the subject.

This isn't really a deus ex machina. It's more of a checkoff's gun, an element set up earlier on that pays off later. I feel the need to remind everyone that Entrapta dies less than a week in universe before the finale takes place. This means that the princess allegiance needs to recover, and the fact that they get up and come back to save Adora in time is a miracle. The season is about the coming together of the Princess Alliance, so it was hinging on them coming together at all.

As a side note, I feel it is important that Mermista was the first one to arrive, because of how emotionally distanced she is. This is a character who doesn't let herself care that much, but she is taking steps to remedy that. Also, the fact that the least caring person and the bard (the guy whose job is cheering people up) rock up to save Adora is pretty heartwarming.

But I brought up the concept of a Deus Ex Machina for a reason, and that is this: The trope has a habit of undercutting character arcs. For all my love of The Legend of Kora for example, the giant spirits at the end of season two feel like a Deus Ex Machina because they aren't really set up too much. You are free to like that element, but to me it felt flat. The Princess Alliance rescue is what happens when that undercutting is intentional.

Adora is so close to character development, but then someone does the end goal for her, and she is left thinking that all the character development was a waste of time. It's not true, but again, she thinks quickly, and things get lost in translation.

The first season of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power asks two questions. "Will Adora and Catra get over their flaws?" and "Will the Princess Aliance work out?"

The answer to one of those questions is a resounding yes. The other is more complicated and leans into the series as a whole's themes of tragic cycles.

Final Thoughts

I love this episode. Despite it being my least favourite finale of the bunch, that is more a testament to the skill behind the show itself than the flaws in this episode.

The idea over discord about internalisation framed my entire rewatch of this season, as it felt so naturally true, but I wanted to be able to point to why that was. Why did nobody learn anything from season one? And people did learn things, Glimmer and Angella got brought closer by the events of the series, and friendships definitely got made. But in terms of the core character drama, this season was very intentionally a failure.

Adora and Catra got so close but fell short at the end to catastrophic effect.

Next week, I am continuing on to season two and The Frozen Forest. We'll see how things go there.

Previous - Next

[anonymoushouseplantfan]

The world moves too fast now for anyone to get to the levels of Julia and George in the 90s/early 2000s....now you can literally be hot on Monday and not on Tuesday. The markets are oversaturated and social media has literally changed the world now people literally know every single thing there is to know about you within 30 minutes of you appearing in public and before people had years to get to know and love someone now everyone moves too fast to Carr and if they don't like you now then it's OK cos their is 30 other people exactly like you for them to choose from.

I also think Meghan has overplayed her hand too many times and she the fact she doesn't have a specific demographic to cater to either hurts her and any brand she's trying to build she's too old for the TikTok crowd she's too young and common for the NYC old money society crowds she's not talented or famous enough for Hollywood she literally doesn't have a single space she can occupy even the oh I'm famous cos I married someone famous club is ram packed and the only difference she had was she married royalty but now he's not even royalty he's 3rd row Harry on a commercial flight home and hour later.

She really put a lot into her "The Duchess/Duchess Meghan brand in the 2 or so years she was a royal and then spent the next 3 years completely smashing it to shreds....like why should we care that she's royal if being royal is as awful as she says it is?

Even the mom and baby club is full and it's full of people who actually show their kids 🙈 celebrity lifestyle and wellness?? Full and with people whi project an aspirational lifestyle....do you want to be like the 40 year old ex actress who spends her whole life fighting with her family and suing the press? Nope...me neither.

If she had spent the last 3 years building her own brand instead of trying to tear down the RFs she might be in better shape.

Even the divorce is gonna go against her IMO cos people genuinely just don't like her, she's not authentic and people can spot she's a fake a mile off, that's why the sugars and her PR attack Kate so much Kate is the real deal, anyone with half a brain cell can tell she was born to do this in fact she does it better than most of the people who were born to do this but Kate also knows this takes work she has honed her skills for over 2 decades..... Meghan is too petty, juvenile and lazy to do that or anything close to it.

I don't see WME being a game changer for her either, she loves attaching herself to big brands and names cos it makes her feel important but she doesn't have any follow through and nothing comes of it, have you ever heard of the sadim touch? It's the opposite to the midas touch and that's what she has. I know we all like to joke but she literally turned a prince into a pauper, he was the most popular royal (even more popular than the monarch) and now he's known as the frozen todger guy sitting in the nosebleeds at his fathers coronation 🙈

Sorry for the essay, if you made it this far congrats 🤣🤣

Great essay!!

I agree with you generally, but I think she a window. The royal connection (tenuous as it is right now) is valuable and it differentiates her. Also, the “feminist princess” brand the palace built for her is still compelling. They did a great job for her there. The “royal Rachel Zane” persona would still sell.

WME can’t do miracles, but they can get her a guest spot in The View. They can’t get her a job, but they can get her a guest spot, particularly if she delivers a second season of Archetypes that is not seven episodes of narcissism. She can go on Drew’s show. She can get the ghostwriter to write her a bestselling memoir that is not just cringe bitching about her family. She can get someone talented to write her a few good essays for Time. If she’s smart and she works hard she can do it. If she’s super smart and she divorces him, she has an even better chance of sound it.

But that’s the problem. She’s not smart and she doesn’t work hard. She’s going to buy herself some awards, do some random passive aggressive bitching, pose for a few paps, and call it a day. So, in the end, it’s not going to work out for her.

[pinkcrocss]

Best and Worst Episode of Gen V Poll Results

The results are in! For the best episode of Gen V, according to 57 votes, it's:

A tie between EPISODE 4 - THE WHOLE TRUTH and EPISODE 6 - JUMANJI!!!

My personal vote was for episode 7, because I thought it had the most interesting revelations.

I think the reasons for episode 4 are pretty obvious for us Limoreau shippers, case in point:

But also, it introduced Tek Knight, who was a pretty funny character and we got a pretty cool fight and look into everyone's abilities at the end of the episode.

However, episode 6 was one of the better directed episodes I think. The director did a lot of really cool transitions as we went through Cate's mind, and I think episode 6 probably gave us more understanding of our main characters and their motivations than any other episode:

Now, for the worst (least best) episode of Gen V, according to 57 votes, it's:

No surprise, EPISODE 8 - GUARDIANS OF GODOLKIN!

(Runner up was EPISODE 2 - FIRST DAY)

Full disclosure, this was also my personal vote, but I want to head off some criticism beforehand. I feel like the people that voted for the final episode fall into two camps: people who didn't like the ending, or people who had issues with the actual episode. To be clear, I fall into the latter.

It's no secret that Gen V definitely had a few pacing issues over the course of the series, and they are most evident in the last 3 episodes. However, I was actually fine with the ending. I am familiar with the boys universe, I wasn't expecting a cookie cutter ending where our heroes would win. That's not standard for the boys.

However, on a technical level, I had so many issues with this episode. I am definitely more of a story person. I never notice technical things like lighting, cinematography, camera angles, etc. So if those things start to bother me, there must be some serious issues. I think this was probably the weakest directed episode in the series. There were so many choppy, cuts and shots that really messed with the tension, especially this one:

Like, yeah it was shocking, but the way the scene was shot really telegraphed what was a bout to happen the whole time. Also, as cool as Marie's "Coming into her power" moment was, idk if they were running out of budget atp, cuz I think that was probably the worst of the CGI blood we saw so far, even for a TV budget:

I know it sounds like I'm nitpicking, but I swear I'm not! I love this show and I was totally fine with the writing of this episode. I just maybe wished someone else had directed it... 😬

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

ANYWAY! Thank's so much to everyone who took part in the polls. Feel free to share your thoughts on the best and least best of Gen V season 1. Do you agree with the masses? Do you disagree? What are your predictions for season 2?

[hotasfahrenheit]

i had a thought while i was watching the ending of the Last Twilight finale and i think part of what threw me so much about the ending of this series is that it felt a lot like what happened that i hated about the finale and ending of How I Met Your Mother.

what???? no really hang on i know that sounds like a wild comparison but it makes sense hear me out.

looking back on HIMYM there's plenty of problematic shit with that show in general, but when it was airing it was HUGE with one of my friend groups in particular and we were all crazy about it. constantly quoting it, watching and rewatching it together, one time some of us watched the whole first season in one night and stayed up to get through it all. and the show grew and changed over the years and so did we, i moved away, but the show still was a nice connection point. and then the finale happened.

they took the original idea for the ending that they had when the show started and when they probably figured they'd get 2 or 3 seasons out of it instead of 9- that Ted and Robin would end up together- and ignored all of the years of character growth and plot development that had happened, including Ted literally processing his feelings finally and really letting go of Robin and falling in love with someone else, and Robin and Barney growing into their relationship and figuring out how to be healthy and good partners for each other- and just threw it all away and RAMMED the ending cap of Ted and Robin onto the last episode and were like "lol cool we finally did it" and just.... that was that. and it made me never want to watch the show again.

Last Twilight is giving me the exact same feelings in a much shorter time span.

it felt like someone had the idea that Day should get his sight back at the end when they first started writing this show, and then even tho they wrote a beautiful narrative of accepting your disabilities and learning how to live life happily no matter what and how anyone can find love etc etc etc they really liked the idea that Day would get his sight back after all and just rammed it onto the end of the series. it didn't fit the story anymore with how the characters were developing or the direction the story was taking, but that mattered less than hitting this plot point so everything just went out the window for it to happen.

it's true that in real life, sometimes people are only disabled temporarily even if they accept the fact that they their disability may be permanent. it's true that in real life, people can get cornea transplants and have their vision restored. but in a story that presented itself for roughly 10 episodes as being about the fact that you can learn to live with a sudden, unexpected disability and that life can still be full of joy and love even when it changes, having a magical disability fix at the last minute just feels like a betrayal of that message, the entire plot, the character growth, all of it. the idea of the cornea transplant was presented early on, yes, and mentioned a few times throughout, but the way it was dangled in when Day had hit some kind of level of meaningful acceptance then yanked away, then popped up right at the very end once more when he had again made meaningful progress in his life, made it feel like a disservice to the narrative/message instead of meant as something to give anyone dealing with a temporary disability hope or a meaningful story that is about the potentiality of overcoming a disability.

like one of the only narrative reasons i can maybe see behind it is if you really lean into Day having any lingering doubts about Mhok being with him because of pitying his blindness, having his vision restored and Mhok still being there removes any reason for pity so his love must be real? but forcing them to break up then get back together and have Day get the surgery and Mhok stick around to prove Mhok really genuinely loves him feels like a wild stretch and needlessly cruel to Mhok (which i have a lot of feelings about anyway with the whole lack of allowing Mhok a single ounce of grace or time to process his grief but-) but at this point who even knows.

i never thought i'd be relating a Thai BL series to HIMYM but they really made me feel that way and here we are, frustrated and disappointed all over again.

at least Night and Phorjai got the happy ending they deserved and this story only took a few months instead of literal years of my life to get through.

[kyouka-supremacy]

(person whose tags you reblogged on that ask about the anime here lol) I think what a lot of Bones defenders don't seem to realize is that this isn't just a case of us whining because we don't get what we want, like us complaining about like "they didn't draw this panel Exactly How It is In The Manga, how dare they!!!", we're not being nitpicking for the sake of nitpicking; these kinds of supposedly minor complaints probably wouldn't bother me in another show, because no adaptation is perfect and there will always be differences in how the panels are adapted, but in specifically BSD it bothers me because of the bigger picture, which is the fact that all of these tiny blunders are a direct result of them not understanding what kind of series BSD is and the tone and feelings each scene in the manga is meant to convey -- they see it as a shounen and adapt it as such, like you said. It's not about these moments in of themselves that are the problem, but because there's SO MANY of them, and they all add up, and they speak to the aforementioned much larger problem. I also just think that's kind of ignorant to just act like a season(s) with a downgrade in art quality, so many reused frames and animations, and disturbingly long static frames sometimes is in any way acceptable as a finished product??? This isn't about me and what I want, this is about the fact that they CLEARLY suffered to get this out and that is NOT OKAY. THERE ARE SO MANY GLARING PRODUCTION ISSUES (have been since season 3) AND THAT IS NOT OKAY. Not for the people who were forced to work on it, not for BSD as a story, and not for Asagiri and Harukawa! And not for the fans either, of course, but I emphasize the first three the most. It's just pure laziness and greed on the part of the Bones higher-ups who wanted it to be like this, and that will never be acceptable, for anyone. The quality of the anime has been significantly better the last few episodes (literally the instant Akutagawa kicked the bucket...) — by which I mean, they're doing the bare minimum for an adaptation, which is better than they usually do! — but I sure couldn't tell you why...! It's left me ecstatic, happy, and excited to watch lately, which is such a relief from constant sadness, outrage, and feeling insulted, but that still doesn't change the fact that it should have been this good THIS WHOLE TIME, and that there's absolutely NO REASON other episodes had to be sacrificed for the better ones: they should have been given enough time to do all of it justice (again, as much justice as Bones can ever do with BSD lol, but still. Season 2 is still so dear to me for a reason, and it's not just because of the nostalgia I have from watching it in 2016). Sorry for rambling more about this in your inbox asldjgflds, but tl;dr I just feel like our complaining comes across as bitching about scenes not being a perfect 1-to-1 panel recreation to a lot of people, when it's so much more than that — it's about BSD as a whole not getting the treatment it really, truly deserves, and how heartbreaking that is to see. It is heartbreaking to me to see how much Asagiri apparently loves the anime, from what he said at Anime Expo, when his story deserves so, so much better than he seemingly is even aware of. And I will always give Bones due credit when they've earned it, like I have the last few weeks, so I'm not even always constantly ragging on them, but even that praise comes with the caveat of "there's no explanation for why the quality is suddenly better now, or why it's so inconsistent in general, and I shouldn't even have to praise it so much, because this level of quality should be a given."

Yeah I agree that Bones has repeatedly demostred a very faulty understanding of the manga tone and even of the themes it carries on– even though there's also a chance that the shift in tone was intentional. They saw that undemanding shonen sold better than seinen (which may now seem easy to disprove, but the same probably wasn't as evident back in 2015 when the bsd anime was announced), so they made the marketing choice to declinate bsd so that it could cater to a shonen audience too, and stuck with that decision. That would make sense although in the end, as you said, it resulted in a series that feels deeply disconnected in tone and themes to its original, all while the narrated events stay the same.

I do wholeheartedly agree that if you need so many reused frames and to resort to static frames that drag on for several dozens of seconds, then your season simply isn't ready for release. C'mon, seriously, an original op and ending are the bare MINIMUM. The only reason why they didn't postpone the season release is greed. Not to mention (very much needed to mention), it's harmful for the animators twice: on one hand, because it necessarily puts them under a lot of stress and overworking conditions in order to churn out an entire season in such a short timespan; but I also feel like we shouldn't overlook the other aspect that is just... How extremely saddening and disheartening it is to not be able to dedicate the time you'd want to your art product, and seeing it published in a way that looks rushed and unfinished. I think it's important to acknowledge the frustration animators are likely to experience when that happens, especially because most times it's people who love their job of artist and of course work hard so that the result is the best it can be. But yeah the thing is: it's important - no matter how unpleasant - to say, it's not okay, because otherwise a low quality product is only going to become the norm.

I agree there was a noticeable quality improvement in the last three episodes (4-6), and I may be wrong, but I think it's reasonable to believe it's because the first three episodes had to be prepared in advance in order to be ready for the pre-screening that took place on the 8th of July in Japan. That may explain why the later episodes have been so much better compared to the first three: they simply had more time to work on them, and it's possible they're keeping working on the episodes even as they're airing. But I do agree... It's very saddening to see. Like of course, I agree, I *AM* happy the last episodes have been good (the last one was especially enjoyable!), but there really is that big ache given by thinking about what the Fukuchi vs. sskk fight could have been if only it was given the time and care it deserved. Sigh. It was just a very unfortunate coincidence for everyone, because, bias aside, it was really a pivotal moment in the whole manga... I mean. C'mon. Atsushi is the protagonist, but is yet again not treated as one because of, once again, marketing choices. It's a bit saddening. With season 4, I was dreading for when the season would have ended; with season 5 I regretfully must admit that I found myself again and again just hoping it would end already. Because even now that the animation has improved significantly, I can't stop thinking of what episode three should have been - what it had the right to be, as no less important than any other episode -, and I feel like my enjoyment of the season is just ruined.

One last note, and I know it's not what you meant when referring to panel-by-panel adaptations, and feel free to consider this my own pet peeve, but. Studios should be able to notice when they're working with the most iconic panel of the entire manga and should treat it accordingly. I'm cool and chill but what they did to the chapter 88 Akutagawa panel is unforgivable and I will resent them forever because of it.

[firstofthenewguard]

Blood of Zeus Season 2 thoughts (There's alot of them)

I watched Blood of Zeus when it first came out in 2020 and the pandemic kept us trapped in our caves. I really liked the first season, mainly because it’s one of the few media outlets for Greek Mythology that isn’t wildly inaccurate, awkward, or just plain bad. It also set up a lot of interesting possible plotlines, and when the trailer for season 2 came out last month my hopes for those stories could not have been higher. I watched season 2 twice and… I have some notes (unfortunately)

First of All things I liked:

The entirety of episode 3

Hades and Persephone NOT being villains

Hades and Persephone being the only successful and functional couple in this show

The look of Hades’ Palace

ZAGREUS AND MELINOE!

The fact that Typhon is on a “He-who-shall-not-be-named” level and this time it actually has consequences

Other gods actually getting lines instead of just being backround characters on Olympus!

Hades using shadow teleportation, and using his bident like Mjolnir, only cooler

Other races in Hellas being acknowledged

More monsters; the Hydra being an ocean species is a very interesting take

Seraphim getting more development

Gaia and Hecate looked amazing

Problems with the Season:

Okay, a gripe I had with season 2 was Hades motive, and let me be clear I love the idea of Hades wanting to ascend the throne so Persephone wouldn't have to leave for 6 months, but to have him hate being in the Underworld seems like a stretch. In the myths, Hades knew the responsibility of ruling the dead and he did it with pride. It would have made more sense to have him hate being alone in the Underworld. They could've tied into the fact that Hades was the first to be swallowed by Kronos and was in his stomach alone for who knows how long.

Along with that, the season felt disjointed, like they were focusing on the wrong things, at the wrong time, for WAY too long. There were just some scenes that took up big chunks of the episodes and they didn't need to be that long, especially scenes with Heron. I know he's "The Main Character" but if you're going to make him that then please try to make his writing interesting enough for that much time to be devoted to his plot. I know that he's lost so much but his writing honestly felt clunky, it felt like he needed different scenes to make his choices more believeable. His dialouge also seemed stiff and I don't think his voice actor helped either.

We could've had a scene where Hades is talking to or doing something with Zag and/or Meli, showing how he's a better dad than Zeus, but we never got that.

If your going to give Hera a redemption arc GIVE HER A SCENE/EPISODE WHERE SHE CHANGES! Instead, the second she shows back up she's already redeemed? Really?

So, The Demon problem is just over? I don't remember them burning the giant flesh, and on that note where did Seraphim and the Demons move the giant flesh?

Ok, let me get this straight, they could've imprisioned the Giants' bodies in Tartarus the whole time?!

Also the giant problem felt like it was resolved way too early.

They didn't really focus on the open throne idea, yes the 3 trials were to decide the next king, but they needed scenes showing who the other Olympians thought should be in charge, show that scene about Ares rallying others to his side, maybe apollo did the same, or there could’ve still some loyal to Hera.

Minor: I loved Hestia but she looked WAY too young

Minor: Why are Horses just always the ones pulling the Gods' chariots, that's boring! I know most divine chariots are pulled horses in the myths, but for the love of mike be creative!

Minor: The giants guarding the hidden realm looked way to human.

Minor: They kept using the forest backround when they were in Tartarus, isn't the whole place on fire? I wanted to see some lava.

Minor: The other races that showed up for the funeral should've had varying respones to Zeus' death, like Hephaestus said.

The whole Eluesian Stone plotline seemed rushed and felt like it just came out of knowhere. The show said that Zeus drawing the stone from 3 others was how he became ruler of the Heavens, but wasn't the reason in season 1 being because he married Hera who was already queen of the Heavens?

Evios and Kofi didn't really get enough scenes for their characters to really do anything.

Alexia had the same problem she kind of just went along with Heron's whole thing this season, she didn't really do much except (sorta) talk to him.

They really should've brought all of Zeus' misdeeds to the trial, Prometheus especially.

[landonkirbyappreciation]

I’ll never understand why the writers chose to alienate not just Landon, but Landon fans too basically. Like it had already sucked being a Landon fan in the legacies fandom, with all the relentless hate Landon got and we got as Landon fans. But then not even halfway through the show, the writers decided to join in on the hate too. Which was so clearly reflected in the way they treated Landon and had the other characters treating him, and the narratives regarding Landon’s character. As well as the way they would validate totally false anti Landon arguments that came straight from haters. (Which ended up making absolutely no sense whatsoever in the show because none of it actually applied since it was made up by people who just wanted to hate on Landon.) They’d support crap that antis would say, would bend the narrative to prop up their biased and hateful opinions, and even added in some lines that were practically taken word for word from anti Landon/Handon tweets. Which all just fueled more hate from antis. So not only were Landon fans dealing with the hate in the fandom, but we were seeing the same garbage repeated in the show as well, which made everything even worse. At least before we could still enjoy the show for the most part, even though all the hate in the fandom sucked. But once the writers joined in on the hatred, there was no escaping the Landon hate at that point. And not only did the hate become rampant in the show amongst the characters and the narrative, but we didn’t hardly get to even SEE Landon in the last two seasons. Like even trying to enjoy the bare minimum of just seeing Landon, we couldn’t even have that. Because the real Landon was gone for the majority of season 3 and then was hardly in season 4. And by then there were no fake Landons either so we hardly even saw Aria. Like I still don’t understand how a TV show can get to a point where fans of the leading man are desperate for him to simply show up throughout a whole season?? We really went episode after episode hoping he’d be in it, and we either got nothing at all or only a few minutes of screen time that did nothing good for his character. We had next to nothing to even watch in the end, and the little we did get was horrendous. The few episodes where Landon did get more than a few minutes of screen time, it was all centered around screwing him over even more. Basically every moment of screen time he got (or didn’t get) was an insult to his character. The way he was treated, the narrative surrounding him, the messaging, etc. it was all completely insulting. And it made being a Landon fan absolutely miserable. And on top of all that, the writers also strung us along (surely to keep us watching so they wouldn’t lose any more viewers) by having Landon trying to escape limbo for most of the season, making it seem obvious that he would eventually, and also teasing that he would be the one to bring back Hope’s humanity (even more reason to believe he’d escape limbo). And then when they didn’t give us that and instead changed the narrative to Landon suddenly being content to stay in limbo, they then baited us with a Handon reunion and “big Landon stuff coming.” Only to give absolutely nothing but the very worst for Landon in the end. It’s just crazy how the writers hated Landon on so many levels that they clearly hated Landon fans as well.

[steve0discusses]

Ep 45 Part 1: Wife Gone, Miss Wife

Hey y’all, been a while! I fully blame this last unexpected haitus on Tears of the Kingdom. Also a billion other life things I won’t go into because 👏 I 👏 Want 👏 To 👏 Talk 👏 About 👏 Dead 👏 Wife 👏 !

Like damn, we’re coming back for just...a wild episode. Remember how a few episodes ago we finally united Seto with his long lost wife card? (and I had to check my notes and um...it was actually last episode if you count Kaiba, and only Ep 39 if you count Egyptian Seto. So uh...6 episodes.)

Remember that moment? Anyway, she dies this episode.

Yeah. Like. Damn. That quick huh? Knowing Yugioh’s track record with wifeys we’re pretty lucky she’s been on screen even that long before she went the Valon route and just full on died from one brush of cards with Joey.

Speaking of Joey, we last left the gang fumbling through a series of puzzles to unlock the pharaoh’s name. Bakura, disguised as Tristan, ran head first in there and threw off any semblance of a disguise and y’all, lets see how long it takes the guys to realize this isn’t Tristan.

Inside of this glowing door is a room with absolutely no light in it, which, don’t worry about it. That’s just a thing we do in art when we don’t want to draw a background--blow it out with light.

(Read more under the cut)

MAN I have questions about the support bricks on the wall, but for now we’ll ignore that and look at the even more confounding giant bricks on the ground.

faced with a wall of Egyptian text on this pair of ancient Egyptian sunglasses they drew on the floor, it is lucky that Bakura cursed Tristan’s bean or else they would have never gotten past this room.

They’re zooming right by the fact that their friend is reading ancient Egyptian. A friend who is best known for 1.) Being a student janitor because he failed to become class president, 2.) being head of a “melons” club, and 3.) punching god-strengthed villains in the face when he should know better. A god which definitely didn’t get pissed as hell and immediately possess his bean earlier today.

So he levels with Yugi, using the biggest most simple baby words that Bakura knows, and they still talk right completely round each other.

Hey remember in Season Zero when that effed up thing happened and we all assumed it would never show up in this remake? (and by we I mean me)

It freakin showed up. My audible gasp when this show remembered that Yugi cursed um ALL of his friends. Like and he just straight up told them? Just like this?

Like at the start of this arc he and Pharaoh did have a chat about how Yugi didn’t have friends before he came along, but I thought they were gonna glaze over it! But nah, he just laid it out there that the past few years were all because Yugi got bored between class and wanted a buddy.

The implications of “hey we would not be friends if I didn’t curse your ass” is already pretty deep. But doing it within a brain puzzle that you followed your friend into, despite the fact you could literally die doing this, and realizing...the only reason you’re in this puzzle to begin with is because you were cursed 2-3 years ago...

...this is the Yugioh I never thought would come back. This season, man! This season goes so freakin fast and so freakin hard through things that like...this could be a whole episode in another show.

But, this is Yugioh, so we’re gonna put a pin in that.

Because it’s time to go back to Seto Kaiba’s past life and his nearly dead stranger friend that we have collectively decided is his wife, and by “we” I mean literally everyone on this show but Aknadin.

Aknadin sure doesn’t know what a “wife” is, but he sure as hell knows what it ain’t.

Kissara runs towards Seto in this huge, empty boss arena that I would avoid like the plague in any video game.

And speaking of based, Seto Kaiba shows up. Because this episode wasn’t unhinged enough yet. Seto Kaiba is here to be the greek chorus of his own wife’s death.

He’s noticed. He’s noticed this is weird.

It’s a different storyboarder this season, but this storyboarder is still dropping some great frames. Look at this Seto they gave us, just snooping behind a pillar. New PFP just dropped (that is if anyone was even still using twitter which like, my life has been extremely blessed ever since I left it, we should all leave it together.)

So anyway she farts out a Blue Eyes on turn one, and Seto just kind of seethes from behind a pillar while trying to parse just anything that is going on.

Aknadin decides to shove her (well, her dragon...spirit...thing) into the rock tablet during the card shenanigans that followed. I, at first thought it was with an Orichalcos, and I got very excited about how complicated this season was going to get before I realized it wasn’t lime green.

I do not fully understand the card shenanigans at play here, it was not covered in my education playing through Yugioh Duel Masters (Master Duel) but it doesn’t matter because of the power of...love? or whatever the hell vibes are going on between these two goobers. They, with their vague as hell energy, will stand together against whatever life throws at them.

And by that, I mean literally dying 5 seconds afterwards

Seto Kaiba behind a pillar watched this go down, confused by whether he should feel anything at all by this random series of events between a girl he had half a conversation with, and a guy who looks like him except with guns the size of barrels.

Seto, filled with the pure anger of his wifey’s revenge, also immediately biffed it in solidarity.

Seto still remained behind the pillar, because why interrupt this? I mean yeah he looks like yourself and that girl absolutely died but eh...he’s gonna stay behind the pillar. Maybe if he had a duel disk he’d have thrown a couple cards and done some property damage. but as you can see, there are not helicopters or cranes to do property damage with.

So instead he remains behind the pillar, which they didn’t draw here in this next frame.

And on the back of a horse, in gallops Pharaoh.

I live for these popcorn moments in TV, where we’re like “hey, what if we just threw these characters in a weird blender and see how they reacted?” and this episode is just--everyone ends up in this one random spot and they all collectively are like like “what? The hell is happening?”

And we will see more of that next update.

As usual, here is the link to read these in chrono order:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

Next post will go up like tomorrow probably, but, may my post after that not take 2 months to make, lmao, I swear guys we are going to finish Season 5!

[singswan-springswan]

So, I just rewatched The Rookie season 3 finale, and now I feel the need to bother you about Chenford, so: top 5-10 moments Chenford moments so far?

asdfghjkl; um I don't have them in order but let me scrounge up a few

still a solid "thank you" "for what? doing my job?" because it outlines both of their characters and the way they fit together so cleanly in like,,, neon orange highlighter. Tim genuinely cares for Lucy and it's his job to help her so that's what he's going to do, and you'd better believe that he'll pour every drop of softness into the act because it's what she needs at the moment. Lucy on the other hand is allowing herself to open up to him and letting go of her hardened self-preservation instincts. she's accepted that she has no control and is trusting Tim to guide her through it. The moment was so so gentle and I really loved that

paintball. it's over anakin, they have the high ground! also a bit of a shock because what??? they're hanging out off the clock????? huh???????? this was nowhere near prospective at that point but it was the best most brilliant delightful surprise. They really deserved that moment to let loose in an exciting but low risk environment and just have fun for kriff's sake. the fact that they went and did it together was so unexpected in all the best ways

um you know... post barrel hug. We'd never seen Lucy that vulnerable until that scene. Sure, she'd been scared or nervous in past episodes but this... this was pure childlike terror and sadness; you can see it in the way she cries and curls her hands close. BUT we only get a brief glimpse of that raw emotion because immediately Tim has her bundled up in his arms and he's holding her so perfectly and auuughghhh 🤌�� You can see the relief in the way his face pales and it's just. mwah. wonderful. so human and broken but it feels so right that it's him, it's them together, and he's got her now she's SAFE. it's going to be okay. i feel like this scene solidified more than anything that they were partners, and while I'll never get over TV CPR, i'll always love it for that.

When Tim pulled her over on her first undercover op. that was hilarious. on so many levels. first of all she leads with "oh flirting! let's flirt! weeee!" despite having like. never flirted on the show before. maybe she's just playing the part? BUT WAIT. THERE'S MORE. Tim is just🧍‍♂️hello? then Lucy starts talking and you can see the wheels turning in his head. "wait is she trying to flirt?" while she's being really kriffing slick she is definitely not flirting i dunno man it's really not coming off right and he's. guys it's so funny. he's trying to play along but he can't tell if he'd rather do that or bust out laughing, but then also she's trying to sneak in some intel and hang on he might need to write that down. amazing. beautiful and awkward and so so dumb I love it

Lucy's feelings fake-out. *wheeze* man she really got me at first. ngl I paused a few times because I needed a break or two from the second-hand embarrassment. Sheesh Lucy I knew you were sentimental but this is a little over the top. AND POOR TIM. Mans was floundering oh my. you can see the panic in his eyes. wonderful acting on Eric's part. the emotion is so blunt and obvious you cannot possibly mistake the fact that he's have a Tim.exe has stopped working moment. LOOK AT HIM. I bet if you pushed his chest he'd make a squeaky toy noise. And then Lucy starts cackling laughing and the whole scene gets five times better in the span of two seconds amazing. bless. This scene was actually special to me because I realized like. woah. actually he does love her. and he realizes too, and I think that's part of why he's panicking so much. As funny or cringey as the scene may be it really is artful because of the way it redefines their relationship. it's the last day of him being her boss, and we've established both that Tim has many kinds of feelings for her while Lucy has just staked her claim on sharing none of them. wow. how do you put a piece of writing like that together? that's some serious skill holy kriff. mad respect for that.

[gwrgamer44]

My Critque of Pokemon Masters 8 and how I would have done things differently.

I've finally watched Ultimate Journeys and I feel now is the time to provide my honest feedback on what was supposed to be the greatest arc of the whole anime but in reality was a bit half cooked. So let's break this down into points.

Leon: I'm just going to say it, I don't like Leon, i don't like his personality, his "rivalry" with Ash is none-existent, the way his power scaled against the other trainers like Alain & Diantha basically makes out he's an unbeatable god, his ace Charizard is a poor, overused choice with too many crippling weaknesses and the attempts to humble him by making out he's just like Ash only highlight the fact he was funded by Chairman Rose.

Ash should have used his old Pokemon: For what is supposed to be Ash's finest hour the fact he only used the Pokemon he'd caught in Journeys was rather underwhelming. I know we were going to see some of them in Aim to be a Master but would you rather see Charizard, Sceptile etc battling against the best in the Pokemon world or just stopping Team Rockets antics?

The background music fails to build tension, suspense or energize: Now I did like the remix of the original Pokemon theme in the final battle with Ash and Leon, but it was only for the last few seconds. It really should have played throughout the whole Charizard vs Pikachu fight. But the music used throughout the rest of the battle's really doesn't suit the circumstance, it almost trivialize's them. Considering the great remix's used throughout the first 13 seasons, such as remixs of the Hoenn Elite 4, Kanto Champion and Johto Champion and even anime original tracks were capable of building excitement and really hyping up the battles. Pity that couldn't be done here.

Alain- The way Alain was handled was poor. Why the writers decided he shouldn't battle Ash is just bizarre and it also seems they forgot who the hell he was apart from the fact he use's a Mega Charizard X. He was badly handled, made no prior appearences to his frankly rushed defeat at the hands of Leon and was made to look pathetic just so the writers could hype Leon up even more. As you can probably tell, I don't have to many nice things to say, but i will add, I enjoyed Iris and Cynthia's battle and the basic concept is good, just poorly handled. So how would I improve it you ask? 1. Establish the rules of the Master's 8 beforehand. The rules would be the same as the Pokemon League: Levels are not set at 50 or 100, Legendary/Mythical Pokemon are allowed, Pokemon gain EXP when battling and the reigning monarch chooses the battle structure for the Masters 8. With said tournament taking place once a yeat. 2. Change the structure. Instead of Leon taking part and making all his battles super predictable, he will be the final boss awaiting the winner of the tournament. 3. Change the episodes continuity. So, here goes. Alain beats Diantha in the first Master's 8 we see in Flash of the Titans. Then, when Ash goes to Kalos to see Clemont & Bonnie, we hear Alain has become Kalos champion and that Diantha is retiring to work on her movies. Then, when Ash goes back to Oak's lab in Friends, Rivals, Lend Me Your Spirit!, Diantha spars with him instead of Paul (more on that later), Diantha also get's a position as a guest commentator alongside Oak. On to Paul. First, we'll see him leaving the Masters 8 in Flash of the Titans before we see him again at the next tournament ranked 9th. And since we have another spot open, Brandon will also be taking part. Finally, instead of rushing a battle at the end of Curtain up! Fight the Fights! We get a nice Q&A section with participants taking questions from the audience. 4. Change the battling order. The order of the battles will look like this. 'Paul' v Brandon 'Ash' v Alain Iris v 'Cynthia' Steven v 'Lance' Followed up with Ash v Paul and Lance v Cynthia, then it's the same as it is in normal Ultimate Journeys. 5. Ash get's to use his old Pokemon. Here is what his teams look like: Greninja, Lucario, Gliscor Pikachu, Charizard, Infernape, Krookodile, Snorlax, Melmetal Pikachu, Dragonite, Lucario, Sceptile, Heracross, Muk And his final team is the same as. Here is what the other altered teams look like: Paul Electivire, Magmortar, Aggron Electivire Z-Move, Urasring, Garchomp, Froslass, Torterra, Drapion Brandon Regirock/Steel/Ice Alain Mega-Charizard X, Tyrantiar, Bisharp Cynthia v Lance Mega-Garchomp, Roserade, Togekiss, Kommo-o, Lucario, Gastrodon Steven Swap Aggron for Skarmory Lance Gyarados, Dragonite, Mega-Salamance Mega-Gyaradoes, Dragontie, Aerodactyl, Hydreigon, Salamance, Kingdra And so, that is how I would I fix the Masters 8, would what you do to change it?

[skayafair]

I have to admit I miss season 1 and 2 atmosphere. I fell in love with this podcast as my most comfort one because it had everything I love - lots of supernatural stuff, a very mysterious air - not horror one, really, - a thick plot and two very imperfect characters growing as the action went, good character studies - and it was very well-balanced.

I think going downhill started back in the pits time, the balance tipped quite considerably to the macabre side. But it was still mostly alright, season 2 is my favorite.

The real change happened in season 3.

Firstly, the enemy weren't some supernatural beings anymore - it's humans now. Using some otherwordly technics and creating monsters, sure, but still humans. The town's folk, Uncle, Larson, people in the mines (weren't exactly enemies but they were considered a possible threat for some time). When it was going on for just one season, it was okay - felt different, not as nice and comforting as the first 2, but okay. But now in season 4 there's a heavy focus on the Butcher (who is just revolting to me even as an enemy), who has been appearing as a human so far, although now we know there might be some supernaturally weird shit going on with him either. And... If I wanted to listen to a true crime or be reminded how cruel people are, how they can enjoy hurting and killing others, I'd just listen to a true crime or open any news website. The place I live in won't let me forget anyway. Podcasts are my escape.

Secondly, the drama or even tragedy level. The balance between the lighthearted or not as emotionally charged parts and the dramatical ones used to be very good, but in season 3 it dipped VERY much. I mean it's great to have emotionally intense episodes from time to time - season 2 was edging on its limits but still held the balance, but almost the whole season 3 is just an emotional wringer. I love the episodes with Yellow, they were GREAT, but soon enough afterwards I've noticed for the first time that I was postponing listening to the new episodes because I was dreading of how emotionally intense and draining they were going to be. This podcast was supposed to restore my energy like it did for 2 seasons, not drain it. While I'm glad we had so much character development for Arthur, I wish the mood of the season was balanced much better than it actually was. The 4th one started well in this regard, but the nightmares episode and the last one were too much for me. I think it has to do with the torture - emotional or physical one, doesn't matter. It happens too often now, and I don't respond well to it. It's too intense.

And lastly, the pacing. This is my beef mostly with season 4 and probably with the 2nd half of season 3 as well - it's slow. The mines part was just too dragged out for me, and now the events sort of happen but also it didn't feel much like it for the last few episodes. Half of the nightmares ep was just boring (probably the fact that I don't like Kellin one bit contributed to the impression as well), the 33rd was nice to have character development-wise but not much in any other regard and the 34th is just insufferable for 2 reasons: I can't stand the Butcher (he was more or less ok in ep 1 because there wasn't much of him, but listening to a narcissist for 45 minutes straight? No thanks) and the chase is... well, mostly running and chasing, which is plain boring to me. Characters interactions weren't much to me either, I don't see any common points between them, any chemistry, and they don't work as mirrors like it was with Larson. I mean looking at Arthur from an outside perspective was nice, but that was the only interesting thing there. Season 1 was quite like season 4 with the investigation and a lot of human characters, but it had crazy pacing and frankly that was the only thing that saved it initially for me (I enjoyed it properly later, but when I just began to listen it took quite a while to draw me in). Season 2 was thankfully slower, more introspective, which was great, but it was great thanks to a very good balance of what was going on in both inner and outer worlds. The Dreamlands itself as a location with completely unknown rules and plenty of various creatures, when one could never know if it was going to be a friend or a foe, was dynamic enough to keep just the right pacing.

I'm not looking for a discussion and not trying to berate the podcast, not dropping it either - I mean it's just about an hour once a month at most and the plot is still interesting to me, so no reason to drop it. But I really miss the way it used to be, I want my comfort series back - monsters don't scare me, people do, so I wish we went back to cosmic horror instead of a very real one.

[the-paris-of-people]

I'm curious. Do you hate S4 benvi because of Ep1 and 2 Ben, or is there another reason? Because I think Ben was entitled to it. Idk S2 and 3 were basically him trying to be okay with whatever Devi wanted/could give him, but again, I'm curious about your opinion

I disliked s4 benvi for multiple reasons:

1.) They were relying on their chemistry in s1-s3 to sustain the audience popularity and barely interacted for half the season, which just felt empty and wrong.

2.) Ben ghosted her after they had sex for the first time, which is incredibly intimate, which maybe I can forgive because he was scared but I still personally don't fuck with avoidant attachment despite the reasoning and would not forgive someone for that. But then he straight up told Devi they weren't right for each other, LIED to her about Margot not wanting to talk to her, and Devi just forgave him with no communication/explanation and suddenly they were friends again?

No.

I honestly would've been fine with Devi not pursuing him after this (hot take) if I had not seen how devoted and loyal Ben was to her in previous seasons. It was completely out of character for Ben so that's why I let it slide, but I totally disagree with the idea that "oh Devi was shitty to Ben to the first couple of seasons so Ben had to be shitty to her to even out the playing field" No. Devi had PTSD from her dad dying and reacted rashly, but she DID apologize to Ben and treat him well moving forward from those mistakes. I hate this stupid new-fangled therapy talk idea that a relationship has to be 50/50 all the time, because it depends on personal circumstances. Devi obviously was dealing with a lot the first few seasons and I'm happy she was held accountable and grew from her actions but THAT DOES NOT MEAN SHE DESERVED TO BE TREATED SO SHITTY BY BEN IN RETURN in the last season! When we're supposed to root for them!

TL;DR Ben's whole conflict with Devi triggered me personally because of my avoidant attachment hang-ups, I felt like it was out of character, and I hated how they barely interacted in s4 which made me upset because their relationship in s1-s3 is what makes the series so great. The writers just added it to add conflict for no reason to stall them getting together until the last episode, and I disagree with the idea that just because Devi was shitty to Ben in the first few seasons that he had to be shitty to her to level the playing field.