#but it had a few good early eps. like…. good for a random show on Channel 4

[puckpocketed]

PART 3 of the modern defensemen transcripts I started a while back. You don’t need to have read/listened to the other parts to understand what’s being said, but they’re very fun reads if you have the time! Topics of discussion:

Broadly, more on Lane Hutson and how he defends (he is SOOO the main character of this entire series and I’m very happy about that)

passive vs aggressive defending

reading the pinch

surfing (skating forward when defending the rush)

inside vs outside leverage

the weak-side fold

Another archival effort as always… so many podcasts live and die by the whims of the services they’re hosted on + the guys who own the channels. </3 This is full of random extra media which is why it took so long. I ended up just making my own damn diagrams and archiving stuff and making gifs so I could put them here. This part is tactics-heavy and they kinda get into a little debate about passive/aggressive defending which I really liked! Will need to go over parts 1 & 2 soon when I can to clean them up <3

Published 20th November 2024, Hockey IQ Podcast: Modern Defensemen (with Will Scouch) Ep #3 - By Hockey’s Arsenal, hosted by Greg Revak (apple / spotify / youtube)

If you missed them: part 1 / part 2

[START Transcript]

Greg Revak: Alright, welcome back. Week three of our series here with Will Scouch, we're looking at defensemen.

First week, we talked about modern day defending. Last week, we talked about point play, so; shorting the zone, why point shots are truly the worst… Point shots just suck, point shots suck. I mean, everyone knows it, we all know it.

Will Scouch: The crusade, yeah.

GR: We looked at Zach Werenski; he was leading the NHL in goals — he's consistently up there leading the league in goals from defensemen. And Will, you had a great study there showing the offensive increases that we've seen have all basically come because of defensemen being more involved in the offense.

It was perfect for our point play piece — making sure [we’re] going into the details; catching with movement, catching in good spots, giving ourselves spaces to operate in; and common mistakes of players [where] they start in wide open spaces rather than maybe starting in more congested spaces, but having space to go into. So, common mistakes there.

This time, we're going to talk about defending the rush. So [the team has turned] the puck over, we're now having to play defense. There's that transition moment where we're going from offense to defense. And now, just straight, we're playing defense.

Two ways I think about this when we're playing the rush is one, passive; and two, aggressive. [If we’re being] aggressive, we have an opportunity to maybe kill the play early, we can really get in the attitude of “We play you.” Versus passive; maybe we're not in a good spot or our team hasn't set us up in a good spot as a defenseman, maybe there's some kind of scramble, whatever it may be.

And then the third piece I'd love to dive into is reading the pinch.

So where do we want to start? I feel like this is maybe a good opportunity to start with our main man Lane Hutson because I feel like he's someone who has the ability to play aggressive, but often he's pretty passive in his rush defense.

WS: Yeah. I think that you're dead on with that. I've seen a lot of Lane Hutson over the last few years. I remember when he was a draft-eligible kid, I remember watching him in college. Now he's in the NHL and actually he's been quite effective on paper in the NHL.

I know people are throwing around player cards, and throwing around this, and throwing around that. But in aggregate, on the whole so far this season, relative to the rest of the team in Montreal, he's been — for a kid who's, again, 20 years old, playing upwards of 25 minutes a night — he's doing pretty well.

I think that that's asking a lot out of a kid, and he's doing quite well, especially [at] 5 foot 9, with all the question marks people have with players like that. With him, I think he's a really good showcase of how smaller players can play defensively and be a positive impact player, right?

There have been… I mean, I wrote for you in the newsletter over the summer. It's the area where I think, in the context of the NHL draft, there is still a lot of work that could be done of discovering some good value. Of looking at these really, really mobile and creative guys that may lean a little more offensively, but… may not actually.

A great example, while we're talking about Lane Hutson; a guy who doesn't score a whole lot, but every single time I watch him, he just does the right things all the time and has done so since his draft year, is Tyler Duke.

He's in Michigan now, and that kid is 5'10, I think, 5'9, and doesn't score a tremendous amount. But I remember watching him at the NTDP, and I remember a few interviews with his teammates going, “This guy is the most underrated guy on the team. He's small, but he works his tail off.” Just like his brother Dylan — Dylan Duke is having a great year in the AHL too — but that's beside the point…

GR: Both are Ohio boys, just say that.

WS: Ohio, yeah, exactly.

GR: I gotta rep the state that I'm from. Ohio kids!

WS: Yeah, I mean, hey, I love me some Ohio, for sure. But yeah, I think that guys like that, and Lane Hutson, showcase a lot of the same things.

Number one, possession is good defense. If the opponent doesn't have the puck because you have it they're not scoring, so that's number one. And number two, Lane Hutson does a really good job using his feet to at least put himself in good position to block play from occurring. Like we said; staying between the dots, not over-committing but not opening up too much of a gap.

I think you mentioned surfing off the top of the show, but he is an aggressive neutral zone defender as well. He can track that play laterally, challenge guys with his stick and force them to make plays, force them to make decisions, before the puck even gets in the defensive end.

And from there, if you've got good support from your partner or a forward that's backchecking, then you're golden.

To me, it's the little things that you may not notice or that may not jump out at you, but when you watch game after game after game, you kind of go, “Oh, I see how this guy has got the trust of a coach. I can see how this guy is playing so many minutes relative to the rest of the guys on his team because of the things that he brings, even though he's not the biggest guy in the world.”

He's not perfect.. There have been situations where I'm watching Lane Hutson going, “Well, that didn't really go your way, and that's unfortunate.” But that’s any hockey player.

GR: That's also learning as a 20-year-old rookie defenseman — at five foot 10, if you're lucky.

WS: And that's hockey. Hockey is a game where sometimes things are going to go your way and [sometimes] they're not. If I got upset every time a big physical guy lost a physical battle, then… But nobody really does that, nobody really is concerned when that happens once in a while.

So with Lane Hutson, he loses a physical battle once in a while. He's not involved in as many because they often have the puck, and if they don't have the puck he's doing work in the offensive zone or neutral zone to prevent [the opponent] from keeping the puck.

There's a lot of good things that happen in his game that I think brought him to this point in the NHL. Faster than I thought to be perfectly honest. I thought Hutson was going to take a little bit more time, but he hasn't really looked out of place and I think he's a really fascinating case study as to guys like him and how they might be able to work.

GR: Yeah. You wrote on the Hockey IQ Newsletter, so I'm just going to reference it exactly. You mentioned, “Hutson shows off a number of strong defensive moments that highlight his style of blocking offensive zone exits, keeping opponents to the perimeter, and establishing body position on retrievals.” Three very translatable things to the NHL.

Note: one of my very first Lane Hutson gifsets was a sequence like this. He beat Robby Fabbri on a puck retrieval by gaining body position on him — this was from his 2 games with Montreal at the end of last season. I’m so glad the broadcast chose to highlight that play. He really is something special.

Yes, he's going to continue to grow and fill out, so he's got more progress [to make]. I mean, we talk about the deficiencies and my actual areas of worry [are] more around his skating base and feet and all that. But from a standpoint of, “Can you survive in the league?” The answer is yes.

Victor Mete would be the anti-example, I would say, where he didn't have the way of deploying the things that Hutson does. The brain wasn't there to the extent that Hutson was while being small — also a Habs draft pick, so track that one as well for those that want to nerd out.

There were some great quotes that Hutson had talking about his defensive game. I'm just going to read them out because I think they're so good, and then we can dive into the details here.

So from Hutson talking about defense, “I just think it's more about being in the right spot, being more skillful and knowing the game rather than just being a big frame. It's about making the right plays and the right reads.” 

And continuing on, [he’s talking about how he does that], he says, “Being able to get up in their face,” so having great gap control, “…without getting pulled out of position,” [as in] not overextending yourself, “Controlling my speed and my gap and my spacing around the inside of the ice to keep guys to the outside.”

He just keeps talking about the things we're talking about, which are playing the game with intentionality, playing it very smartly. Basically, the opposite of how Rasmus Ristolainen came into the league, which was like, “I'm a big body, I'm gonna go make things happen.” This is just more tactful.

It's not gonna scream at you — like you said, he's gonna have his moments — but from an overall standpoint, he's gonna drive positive results. He has a way of playing the game smartly, especially for his size, where it has to be a very intelligent game, where he can't make as many mental errors and be able to recover from it. He's shown so far we're off to an absolutely great, great start.

WS: Yeah, I mean, it's like a different side of the coin. I talk a lot on my show and with you about players who seize control of the ice when they're on the ice, but that doesn't necessarily mean physical play.

It's a lot of other stuff that happens, and I think Hutson's a really good example of what that means, and it’s everything you said. It's this understanding of the game, and this understanding of what your opponents are doing.

How to minimize… Really, it’s like, “I'm going to take control of this possession and I'm going to minimize their opportunity to do anything. As many things as they can possibly try, I'm going to minimize as much of it as I can.” 

And there's ways of doing that that aren't that physical style of play that you see out of defensemen that is unheralded, a lot of it just kind of flies off by the wayside. I think people look at a guy like Hutson and see the way he plays, and if you have a really strong [tactical and aggregate] understanding of what is going on when he's on the ice, both the offensive-good, but also the defensive-good, you see a lot of really interesting traits there.

Guys like him, I agree with you, that the skating base and the quickness and all of that, like it's not… He's not Quinn Hughes, right? That's not really his brand, so he has to think of other things and have an understanding of the game that can help patch that up.

And so, yeah, the things like gap control and guiding guys laterally and being a little more aggressive are definitely key areas of interest for me. Especially because earlier on in this series, we were talking about how much I love defensemen who can skate and how many doors it unlocks.

But if you're not an elite skater, which I don't think I would consider Lane Hutson an elite skater — at least defensively — you have to… It doesn't mean you're automatically not an option, it's just that the equation changes.

The things that you need out of that player shifts and you have to help guide them in the right direction so that they can use what they do have to the best of their ability while the rest sort of develops around them. It’s fascinating to me, it's a really, really interesting thing, and I love seeing guys like Lane Hutson figure it out and play the way that they do, because it just goes to show that you could, you know…

He's obviously special in a lot of ways, but it just goes to show that all kinds of different players have a place at the highest levels of hockey. It's just a matter of how you approach the game, how you see the ice, how you manage your behavior, and what you bring to the table.

GR: Yeah. I want to dive into some of these ways to play, starting with if you're playing it passively. So say we're just doing our normal two defensemen coming back; passive, letting the offense kind of have some space. First step needs to be inside.

You need to get inside ice, you need to get good positioning, you need to get within the dots, that's first and foremost. So, first step is inside. I've heard a few coaches call it lateral gap. For me, I just say you need to get inside positioning.

And really, if I take this to the football field, so American football, Canadian football, think about it as leverage. So either you have inside leverage or outside leverage. 

Note: this next section on inside/outside leverage was reaaally messy sentence-wise. I tried my best to clean it up and make sense of it. Whenever anyone says “inside” or “outside” in hockey they’re referring to areas of the ice defined by an imaginary line we draw through all the faceoff dots where the side closest to the boards is the outside and the side closest to the center of the ice is the inside.

Inside leverage means you're taking away the inside, that's where you are and you're giving the outside. Outside leverage is [when] you're on the outside, you're taking away the outside, the boundary, and you're giving away the inside.

Now, the question is, everyone's like, “Why wouldn't you always [want] inside leverage?” And that's the most common [way]. But when would you [want] outside leverage? When you have help on the inside; like, you're pushing them to a bad spot, into a teammate, into support, into someone who's there to help you.

But for the most part, we want to be starting with good leverage. Some coaches call it lateral gap, where we're taking that first step inside, getting inside the [faceoff] dots, and being able to passively let them have the bad ice.

We may not be in a great spot to finish the play [or] stop the movement yet, but we're going to put them in a bad spot where they're no longer an A-plus threat that we need to address immediately, like we're in deep doo-doo.

You can pokecheck out there, just don't extend yourself. The time that you finally get aggressive off of that pass [is], “Okay, I'm able to get this puck, I'm able to separate, I'm able to get position before possession, I'm able to cut it off, able to seal it off,” that kind of stuff.

When I'm developing my defensemen, that's what I'm talking about with them. Like, if you have to, if you’ve gotta play passive, just get inside leverage. Unless you have a good reason to play outside leverage, just let them have the wall until they overextend, whatever it may be, and give you an opportunity to seal it off.

Great example would just be good pokechecking. You're kind of like a cobra, you wait, wait, wait, and then boom, pounce! Rather than overextending.

Showing your stick early is another classic terrible example of something you don't want to do, or we call it declaring your stick. You declare where your stick is. You're overreaching stick on puck, because some coach told you to go stick on puck, and now you're reaching, you've lost good posture, good balance, good weight distribution. That's bad. 

We want to keep all of the good things, the posture, don't want to overextend, but just make sure we're positionally sound.

WS: Have you been watching me at beer league? Like is that what you've been doing here? Is that what the prep is for this show? Because I gotta take some notes for sure. But yeah, I agree fully.

I think playing passive defense is something that can work. Personally, I think that it's something that is not as successful as being a little bit more aggressive, which we'll get to in a second. But everything you said is, to me, bang on.

If you're gonna do it you do have to play a little bit more… I guess the word would be cerebral? A little bit more unpredictable and positionally aware.

Be aware of what's going on elsewhere on the ice. You gotta keep your head up and scanning in front of you, and really just try to force them into… Nothing. Force them into a situation where they go, “Well, crap, now I have to rim it around the corner, or dump it back to my defensemen and hope that they're there with a drop pass.” [Keep] them in a position where they're not getting inside space on you or getting the puck through you into scoring areas, whatever it takes to get that done.

I think handedness plays a part in this as well, depending on which hand your defenseman is and what hand the forward is. It just makes things like stickchecking both easier or more difficult depending on the situation.

There's all kinds of things to sort of keep in mind with more passive defenders. And it can work. I think a lot of NHL teams still deploy their defensemen a little more passive.

They go, “Yeah, here ya go. You can have the defensive zone, but we're not going to give you many options. We're not gonna give you so much space that you can pull the puck around us and get in deep with a carry or get around our defensemen with a carry.”

In my view, I think that it invites a lot of potential for really talented NHL players to do just that; sort of tuck the puck between your feet and the stick. Or drive, drop a shoulder, drive down low, and make a play. You see more and more of that in the NHL these days.

But… that doesn't mean it's everybody, and I think that there's still a place in the game for this kind of thing. It's just a matter of, do you have defensemen who are aware of their surroundings, aware of where their partner is, aware of where the other offensive players are, aware of their positioning? [Are they] staying within the dots, like you said, and just keeping options as low-risk as possible?

If you [are] aggressive you may suppress risk initially, but you may increase risk down the road, assuming things don't go your way, which again, in hockey definitely happens.

So it’s, again, it's all a balancing act. And that's kind of the thing I love about hockey, there's a lot of different ways to do stuff and they all have trade-offs.

GR: Yeah, I like how you put that. It may be low-risk now, but it could be high-risk later. Where do you want to start making your defensive plays? Is it in your own zone or is it higher up the ice? Modern day [defending] is finding ways to, as West Point says, be an active defender. When you're thinking about military doctrine, you're talking about keeping the initiative.

Note: West Point is a U.S. Military Academy. I honestly thought he was referencing a movie <3

Who has the initiative? It's super important. Even if you're playing defense and you're almost in a siege perspective or you're in a fixed position, you still need to be active so they can't have free maneuvering, [so] they don't have the freedom of setting up in a good spot to challenge you.

You still need to have a way to be active and find ways to keep the initiative in some way, shape or form, which will lead us directly into our other way of playing defense which is a little more aggressive, where we're talking about concepts like surfing.

So surfing [is like] angling [while] skating forward. My personal favorite, I call it the weak-side fold. So you‘ve got a weak-side defenseman, they're able to see the whole play. There's no real threat on their side, whether it be from a forward coming back or just no one's really there.

Note: Imagine the ice bisected through the middle of the goal posts. The side that the puck is on is considered strong-side, the side the puck is not on is considered weak-side. Strong-side and weak-side are relative to where the puck is! Diagram here

They've got good defensive positioning, they're able to go and skate and angle actively over to the strong-side to take out the puck carrier, [who] inevitably ends up chipping the puck right to the strong-side defenseman.

So, weak-side fold, boom, pull that over. That means that your strong-side defenseman needs to at least get inside the dots, just like they should anyways. If not, start going over to the weak-side in case that play does get made there, whether it be an area pass or whatnot.

Note: per Greg Revak: “An area pass can be defined as a tactic where the passer spots the puck into an area of the ice currently unoccupied but allows the receiver the space to skate to that area.”

So surfing would be the first concept I think we should dive into, [where] you're on the offensive blue line, you see the play starting up, rather than skating back and playing it passive, you're skating forward and going to attack the offense.

WS: I love it. I love seeing this deployed all over the place. If I were coaching a high-level team, that's how I would want to deploy the types of players that I would put on a team.

Again, I think a lot of the battle in hockey is understanding who you have on your team, what they can do, and putting them in a position to do what they're best at as much as possible. Not everybody is good at everything, but that's okay.

So for me, I look at guys and I go, well, the types of players that I like, this is kind of how they should be utilized. Be a little more aggressive.

I love the weak-side fold idea. I think it gives a little bit more of a sense of safety because you have that strong-side defensemen who can play that more traditional style between the dots, but you're utilizing their partner to cut across the ice and apply pressure.

And in my world, again, this is where skating [becomes important.] You have the opportunity to go, “Yeah, okay, the weak-side guy is coming over to the strong-side and you have two defensemen on one side of the ice.” That opens up a whole half of the ice where there might be a lot of space, but then I'm going, “Right, but that's what you have a really good skating center for, that's what you have a really intense 200-foot winger for!”

It's why, when I look in the draft, I see guys who are more offensive leaning… I say a lot; you don't get the chance to really produce offensively a whole lot if you don't chip in defensively, at least in my books.

And so when I see guys like Zach Benson, for example, who we talked about in a previous episode… [He’s] a guy who did not take a shift off, a guy who covered for defensemen, a guy who chipped in defensively as a winger, and brought a lot to the table, that allows him to push play up the ice and be part of that, and allows his defensemen to be a little more aggressive.

That style of play definitely resonates with me; the style of defenders that I always value, those really high-end skating guys that, regardless of their size, those stick-first, body-later type of defenders, I think it works for those types of guys.

I love seeing this kind of play personally. I'm a person who, I think, on the ice, with my strategy and my view of the game, I'm a lot more risk-tolerant than a lot of people. But I think it's because in this situation and in the data work I've done over the years, no matter which way you slice it, when it all comes out in the wash, generally being aggressive is a better approach than not — on paper.

Obviously, though, that depends on the types of players you have on your roster.

To me, this is exactly what I want to see out of the game, this is exactly the kind of strategy that I think is a modern development that really benefits a good type of hockey player that I love to see more of. So I'm all about it. I'll throw it back to you, but this stuff gets me going.

GR: I can already feel that the passion has risen in Will Scouch.

WS: Well, it's also after 9 a.m. now, so I'm good, yeah.

GR: Yeah, the other piece here is… I'll call it the strong-side surf. That's that inside, like, you're getting inside or starting inside positioning. So either [your] first step is inside or you're already starting inside the dots, and you're able to just surf very short.

Rather than a big weak-side fold, you're able to do a short surf into the player. Again, position before possession, feel free to take their head off if the opportunity presents it, but really, you can do this all over the ice.

And finding ways to defend skating forward is a good thing. I've yet to find the defenseman that skates better backwards than they do forwards. I don't know any player that does that. It's probably impossible, unless you're that bad of an offensive skater and you need to absolutely skate backwards to have any ability. [It’s] something that we should all try to find; more opportunities to skate forward to defend.

The other piece that I think is super important is finishing with contact and staying on the inside.

So, going back two episodes where we were talking about Rasmus Ristolainen, where he would finish with contact, or he'd try to finish contact — or even if he made it, he was the last guy getting up and the other player ended up on the inside.

If we do go stick-on-puck, we are doing position before possession — you still need to rub that player out, you still need to hit the player; have some level of contact where you're now jarring them, you're getting in the way, you're limiting their freedom of movement.

In which case, advantage [to] you and your team.

And then [we’re] making sure we're smartly staying on the inside where we've gotta win the race off the wall, where we've gotta continuously have inside leverage over the opponent.

That's a common mistake I see with guys, we just do stick-on-puck and that's it. 

Well, now the other team still has the opportunity to get a second crack at a puck, or they're still very fast to get to it. Rather than finishing it, sealing it off, [the defender has] to now restart their speed, restart their feet, all of that, where they're in a terrible, terrible position.

So making sure that, boom, you may have got [the hit, then maybe take] another step or two to ride [the attacker] into the wall. That's a step or two well taken.

WS: Yeah, no, I totally agree. I don't have any real notes to expand on that, to be honest. It's a multi-stage process defending like that, and [you] don't want to give your opponent too many opportunities, you don't want to overcommit.

I think, being a guy who's played defense my whole life I can attest skating forwards is a lot easier than skating backwards, and so if you can have defensemen who can defend by skating forwards, it's probably going to be easier for them, especially at the NHL level. So yeah, definitely something that I'll get behind fully regardless of the risk.

GR: Yeah. The last piece I want to touch on before we go into reading the pinch [is] around keeping clean feet. One of the best opportunities for a forward to change direction — and this is something that I've been toying around with and it's been absolutely great for my offensive production off the rush — is just reading the defenseman's feet.

One; I gotta figure out, “Okay, where's their stick? Are they declaring it or are they not?” And after that, “Can I get them to cross their feet? Or are they really good at shuffling [and] therefore, they're able to move wherever I move and be able to respond easily.”

So, as much as humanly possible, defensemen that are [defending] the rush should be shuffling, not crossing feet.

Basketball would be the prime example, they do a ton of drills on shuffling your feet. [It’s] similar here with defensemen, we’re making sure we're able to shuffle — so going back to our passive [concepts], now that I'm thinking about this further — making sure that we're not putting ourselves in bad positions to [defend] the rush.

So if you have anything on that, feel free to add. Otherwise, we'll go towards reading the pinch.

WS: No, I see what you're saying, I get it. I think that lateral motion is extremely, extremely important. And, again, I have no notes on that situation. I'm all about all of this stuff, I'm learning lots.

GR: Prime example of this, for anyone who wants to see Connor McDavid absolutely burn someone. This exact example of changing direction when the defenseman crosses their feet — like, just starts the crossover — would be Connor McDavid. The goal against Toronto where he just absolutely burned Morgan Rielly there.

It's so noticeable, you can't unsee it once you're looking at Rielly's feet. As soon as he makes that crossover movement, McDavid changes, boom! And he's behind him already. It's insane, so feel free to look that one up if you want to.

Note: I looked it up. Good lord. Here is the clip, and I gifed it:

The last piece here is reading the pinch. So this is maybe more of a team component, [of] seeing more than just your role. [As opposed to how] Rasmus Ristolainen, early in his career [would] just go for the pinch, destroy the guy because he could. Like, he's got him, but is that good for your team? Maybe not.

For me, you‘ve gotta look. Do you have help? Where's that help coming from? Is your team’s system to always have F3 high where it's almost like a left-wing lock in the offensive zone?

Note: here’s a fun article I archived on the left-wing lock if interested!

WS: I mean, that's the difference between a two or three-on-one coming your way, or a neutral zone stop.

I think that it highlights the importance of mobility, especially from your forwards, because if you have a center who is caught between the hash marks in scoring position and your defenseman goes for a pinch and misses, it certainly helps to have a guy who can really skate and help backcheck and help cover for that. It sort of mops up for what might be a mistake from the defenseman, or maybe the defenseman thinks they have the support from a better skater. But that absolutely is a big thing.

It goes back to hockey sense, or awareness; being aware of where your linemates are, being aware of,  “If I cause a turnover in this situation, who is probably going to have the puck at the end of this? Does this guy — who I'm about to hit 20 feet inside the blue line — does this guy have someone directly behind him, supporting him, who's just going to get the puck after I hit this guy? And then just toss it to a breakout option coming up the middle, and I'm caught a third of the way into the offensive zone.”

It's these little decisions, and in the NHL…. Again, I go back to my work doing stuff outside the NHL, but the NHL is fast. These things happen really, really, really quickly. If you're caught, you can be caught for a while.

It's about finding and identifying players who can, if they are doing that kind of thing, they are either really, really effective at it, or they cover their own butt really, really well, or they just play it a little more safe and a little more reserved, and it works out for them in that way.

But in terms of reading it, yeah, I mean, awareness is so, so important. Head on a swivel, peripheral vision-type things, it's all super important.

GR: I like your point about, who's going to get the puck once you do smoke this player? Or if you go for the contact…

WS: It might not be you, you know.

GR: It’s probably not going to be you. So who's it going to be? Like, do you have F3 support? Is there someone on the other team? Thinking is always a good thing.

I know everyone wants to read and react, but there is an opportunity and there's time and places where [you can think, you know?] Like, “Oh, okay. Should I go? Yay or nay?”

Or team rules, if you're a coach, “Hey, if you have F3, go for it. You think you can get it, go for it!”

Or just reading, I always like reading the winger. “Did they scan up ice? Do they even have an idea where I'm at? If they're looking directly back at the puck, [I’m] probably going to go.”

[If] their best option is like, “Oh, crap!” And when you go, “Oh, crap!” rarely do you make the best play possible. Often, it's a turnover.

WS: Yeah. And I think the point about having support — winger support makes a huge difference as well. I think it's a really interesting thing. I mean, all of this, this whole discussion about defensemen, it just goes to show why guys might take longer to develop, why guys might take longer to play more premier roles in the NHL, because there are so many little details.

They might have an area of the game that when they're 18, 19, 20, 21 years old, they hit the NHL and they're comfortable with it, right? That's totally fine. But then, they play game after game, after game, after game. And opponents start going, “Okay, well, here's the thing they're good at. So let's try to target blah, blah, blah…”

But the better that they can be at these little fine details of monitoring defensive rushes, pinching in the offensive zone and trying to pick the right timing on all of these things… Not trying to do everything themselves, but chipping in as much as they can in a positive way. It’s all really complicated and very on-the-fly, considering how fast all this happens in the NHL.

It’s thinking a little bit more beyond the thing that's right in front of your face, that I think is a huge thing that makes the difference between a guy who may be able to play in the NHL and a really good player at that level.

If you have that ability to read the ice, take a good survey of what's going on, not take on too much risk, but take on risk here and there when you see an opportunity to do so, I think you're laughing at this point.

GR: I think the key piece for me in what you mentioned was, you're reading the ice beyond what is directly in front of you. I think this may be just a maturity thing as well, but the more mature a person becomes, the better they are at surveying their surroundings. They take in more of the picture, they're not just hyper focused on, “This is my thing. This is what I do.”

[In life and in hockey], having a better picture of, “How does my little detail play into the bigger picture?” [That’s a big part of] reading the pinch and the thing I love that you brought out there. [We’ve got to] survey the ice and understand, “More than just my little piece, is there speed ripping? All this guy has to do is chip it and they're off on a two-on-one or a breakaway. Bad time to pinch.”

If you're not reading beyond the one player that you're trying to pinch on, [you’re] likely to make a bad decision there. That is super critical. Read the winger, read your support, read the whole play. How is it playing [into] everything?

Will, I think this has been a phenomenal series on defensemen. I feel like everyone should send this out to their favorite defensemen in the world, or just send this to your favorite NHL hopeful prospect, or just like anyone in the AHL. What’s their (inaudible)?

Anyone in player development at the NHL level should send this out to the defensemen. And if you're at any kind of level of player development, which is pretty much every other coach, yeah, send this out to your defensemen.

There's no way some of this information isn't one; going to get them thinking about “How do I play the game better?” [and] two; it's probably actionable items for them to go and work on in their own game.

WS: Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to find a way — as we talk about this and all these little subtleties of playing defense and all the things that kind of go undervalued — I'm trying to find a way to shoehorn Brad Hunt into this discussion but unfortunately I'm not sure I'm going to be able to.

I think he's just a really good example of a lot of these things going his way and seems like a beauty of a dude. And, I don't know, if Brad's a reader of this I want to have him on the show to talk about his experiences as an NHL player because I find him fascinating for a lot of the reasons we're talking about. 

It's just [he] might have been a little bit ahead of his time, but a lot of this good stuff is there with him. I don't know, it was the last thing on my mind before we call it a day.

GR: Beautiful. Alright, someone knows Brad Hunt — or, Brad, [if] you're out there, please reach out.

[END Transcript]

[slonekaru]

Old QL Game

Rules: Think about the oldest BLs you've ever watched. They have to have been released prior to 2020. Now name 5 - 10 iconic scenes that you cannot forget.

Tagged by @negrowhat

God dammit, I've slept since then! How am I supposed to remember!!

I think BL really hit is stride in 2019 so most are from that time. But I'm going to include a few shows that aren't strictly what falls into BL territory but QL and general LGBTQ+ as they are older

Until we meet Again (2019)

WinTeam my beloveds. I adore you to this day.

I have a couple of scenes that I adore and they are actually from the same episode. It's episode 13 where they go on the later swim team trip. The iconic 'you can be afraid of anything but not my feelings for you. Be brave about it' moment and then the later scene where Pharm spots Teams hickey and Team looks so afronted where as Win licks his lips and looks so pleased with himself!

HiStory 3: Trapped (2019)

Jack and Zhao Zi my beloveds! Who can forget them.

They had some cracking moments. The first kiss, they crying on the steps, the random kidnapping and feeding your kidnap victim.

But one scene that always cracks me up is when Zhao Zi is putting up CCTV cameras at Tang Yi house and ends up feeling Jack up because he has a thing for muscles. (To be fair I'm pretty sure we would all like to do that to Andy Bian) They then both end up in the pool with Zhao Zi enraptured by Jack tight white T-Shirt (again I feel you boy)

HiStory 3: Make Our Days Count (2019)

Also known as the show that shall not be named

Two scenes I love.

Bo Xiangs' and Zhi Gangs' first time in the gym showers is one of the best sex scenes. You really feel the 'oh this is the right moment' feeling. And I like the build up, plus Bo Xiangs' stunned looking face at the fact it is happening

The second is when Bo Xiang's cousin decides to have the safe sex talk with Zhi Gang. Gets me every time. The awkwardness of it all, Zhi Gang realising what the talk is about, the sliding of the condoms across the counter and finally Bo Xiang hanging on to the window like a spider monkey!

He's Coming to Me (2019)

I don't know why but Thun's coming out scene in this show really hits me in the feels. Ohm is so baby here but he does such a good job. It's such a build up to this moment.

Also I had forgotton this was actually a short series with only 8 eps.

3 Will be Free (2019)

One of the few poly shows we have and honestly it's still a struggle to find them now so this show really was before it's time!

I think the kiss on the beach and hug is pretty iconic. I still see the gifts floating around now! In fact it was the easiest gif to find.

Advance Bravely (2017)

Do not come at me about this.

It's based on a BL and they got a lot through the censorship. It was so fucking gay. Someone really needs to let Gong Jun kiss some men! Plus well done to them for finding an actor that can make JunJun look small.

Anyway who can forget when Yuan Zong is at Xia Yao's having a shower and hears someone breaking in before he flings himself on top of Xia Yao in bed with a hand over his mouth. It was definitely a 'I hope this doesn't awaken anything in me' moment! Queue the slow motion fight in the rain while shirtless.

And whatever gay little moment this was. Actually I'm tempted to rewatch this disaster of a show!

Queer as Folk US (2000)

I was god damn obsessed with this show in the early 2000 after watching the original late 90's UK version.

I think that the first time Brian sees Justin is so fucking iconic it's unreal. The street lamp meet, the lighting, Darude Sandstorm playing. Fuck I can't hear that song to this day without thinking of this scene.

Sure Justin, we all believed you came from The Meathook

For anyone that's not watched this series I implore you to do so. It has so many iconic moments you can't list them all.

Shelter (2007)

Not a series but an excellent queer film.

Again of you've never watched it you should definitely give it ago.

Basically hard up guy gives up college to help raise his sisters kid. He reconnects with his best friends older brother who encourages him to live his life for himself while they fall in love.

The first kiss is tentative, yet casual. There is no immediate freak out, although that does kinda come later.

The Untamed (2019)

It's a BL, we all know it

Drunkji my beloved. I love you in all forms. I think your chicken stealing goes down in history. Your criminal side really comes out with some booze.

And who can forget your 'bitch are you serious' face. When Wei Wuxian asks your very gay ass if you like a girl while being stuck in a cave together with a killer turtle.

Who wants to be tagged, do it if you want, ignore if you don't :) @scarefox @poetry-protest-pornography

@pharawee @braceletofteeth

[crazyw3irdo]

what is leverage about 🔥🔥🔥💥💥💥🔥 it sounds cool💥💥💥💥🐺(i had to spice up my ask)

leverage is a show in which every episode a crew of five people (mastermind, grifter, hitter, hacker, thief) scam rich assholes out of their money and give that back to the people they harmed!! it started right after the ‘08 financial crisis and oh boy does the hatred towards people who profit off of things that hurt normal people show

every episode is like “please leverage crew i need help this company’s business choices lead to the death of my loved one! i don’t care about money, i just wanna make sure they never hurt other people again :(“ and then the crew do something so insane that it ends up tanking the company’s reputation and the CEO personally is cancelled five times over and the person who asked for help and every other victim get thousands of dollars

it’s also absolutely hilarious and has some really compelling characters- and god watching it for the first time this year it is so refreshing to see a team like this just. be friends with each other?? and not get into conflicts constantly over nothing??? idk their team dynamic really reminds me of 2012 avengers fanfic where they all live together in the same building and hawkeye’s in the vents it’s just really nostalgic to me

and of course the biggest draw: it’s free on youtube baby!!!!!!!!!! here’s a link to the first season, if you like the first episode you’ll like the rest of it (i will say also. they really get better about writing parker and hardison. like the characters are gonna be a little rough in the pilot obvs but god rewatching that ep hardison is so “black character obviously written by white people” and parker has some cringe “lol random” lines)

that’s all you really need to know but also character descriptions below the cut because i like them :3 no spoilers this is all pretty basic stuff

nate ford - mastermind. an ex-insurance investigator with catholic guilt and an alcohol problem. this character sounds like he would be boring as hell (at least to me) but god he does some weird shit and acts in such a way that makes him somehow endearing

sophie devereaux - grifter. talented actress but ONLY when committing crimes. she particularly loves stealing art. overdramatic queen who loves dressing up and messing with peoples heads.

eliot spencer - hitter. they somehow manage to give him a fight scene in every single episode no matter what i fuckin love it the fight choreography is so good- anyway he’s my favorite character and i don’t know how to describe him concisely honestly.

alec hardison - hacker. young guy in his very early 20s (22 i believe?) who’s a total geek and thinks he’s hot shit (and. he is. he’s really good at what he does) i don’t remember if it’s canon he has ADHD but he does mention a few times he has attention problems and i find him relatable so

parker - thief. an autistic woman who’s special interest is climbing in to air ducts and then stealing all the money she can. genuinely probably the best autistic character i’ve ever seen i love her she’s so silly and heartfelt

anyway yeah i love them all they’re so fun :3

[izzy-b-hands]

"10 people I'd like to get to know better game"

Tagged by @gydima , thank you!!

Last Song: TIRED, NERVOUS & BROKE! by JPEGMAFIA feat. Kimbra

Fave Colour: Green 💚!

Last Book: Beloved by Toni Morrison

Last Movie: The Zone of Interest (a well done movie but also felt. Unfortunately relevant to current times. Ya know.)

Last TV Show: Last Week Tonight, rewatching some older ones while waiting for new eps.

Relationship Status: Engaged

Last Thing I Googled: 'GNX tracklist' because the music service I was using while washing dishes earlier Refused to play the title track and I genuinely started to think I had the title wrong (I did not, it's right here lol, no idea why it was so insistent this song didn't exist.)

Looking Forward To: My wedding in early March, the Valentine's event I mentioned in an earlier post, the hearing to finalise my name change, and a few other summer events including a visit to a zoo in NY, hopefully some time in Maine and a few visits to Mystic Seaport (you can never go too many times!!)

Current Obsession: Our Flag is still sitting pretty on that list lmao; I've been into finding old horror movies, including made for TV ones and series (YT has a bunch of good UK made ones in particular, along with some that I used to watch on PBS as a kid!); music-wise JPEGMAFIA, Kendrick, ScHoolboy Q, Tyler, and Detahjae are still heading things up but with a splash of K-pop and P-pop from Seventeen and BINI despite it not usually being my thing. Other than that I've been overly focused on trying to find copies of some of the short stories I liked in school for nostalgia sake lol. Almost no luck finding some of them, but part of that I think is bc the book they were in was a random compilation published once in 1974 and then never again, so those I'm probably never finding akdnfkgn

Tagging (if u want to and haven't been tagged yet!): @starmoonchildfromthebeamsabove , @cononeillbreastingboobily , @arsenicflame , @vexbatch , @p0ochy , @crvwly , @nonbinaryachilles , @samuelroukin , @bjornkram , @femboypussy420

[california-112]

For the ask game:

If you were a character, who would you be and why?

Very unpopular opinions? Share them here!

Have fun:)

Hi, hello! Thanks for the ask!

This is the list they're from, and I'm still (always!) open to more :)

If you were a character, who would you be and why?

Mulder. Next question...

No, I'll elaborate. For my first reason, I'll quote my own post:

"Imagine. Going through your whole life looking like that." Yeah I can imagine going through my whole life looking like Fox Mulder, it's called gender eurphoria

I spelt euphoria wrong waaah

Apart from the looks, though, he seems to have a pretty cool life. UFO hunting, investigating the supernatural, cool apartment, great partner, fun basement office, action and adventure...of course, there are downsides (missing sister, constant brushes with danger, frequently hunted by the government, paperwork, etc.), but overall it looks very interesting.

However, we're also already not dissimilar. I may not be quite as much of a conspiracy nut as he is (though of course I believe in aliens 🛸), and I'm certainly not about to join the FBI even if the 'uniform' does look hella cool, but we apparently both have issues with sleeping, eating, trust, fire, and obsession/hyperfixation (e.g. Grotesque and his whole search for the Truth), at least. [Let me know if you think my assessment of his character (and/or mine?!) is unfair or wrong; I can't remember exactly what's in canon and what appears more in fanon.]

The most random similarity is that both of us have used the sound of a light aircraft to locate something. In Mulder's case, during S01E15 'Lazarus', it's a sound caught on a recording that helps him find Scully. For me, I was hiking with a group a few years ago and we were mildly lost. However, when I heard a light aeroplane doing spin training, I knew that it could only being doing that over certain areas in our locality, and from the map we had I could work out our location more accurately, the result being that we made it home that evening.

I can also blame Mulder for my new sunflower seed addiction! Thanks a bunch.

Of course, if I were actually to turn up in a TXF episode, it would probably be as background character #3 who has a couple of lines being questioned by Scully whilst Mulder waits moodily in the background, but hey. I want to believe.

Very unpopular opinions? Share them here!

Look, this show may be a new love of mine, but yes, I do already have some potentially unpopular opinions. Buckle in...

I'm not a fan of MSR. You said unpopular! I've really enjoyed the early seasons of the show for the friendship between Mulder and Scully, and I see that as just continuing. Yes, they get closer, how could they not? But I dislike the fact that they (apparently) actually get together in the end and it's canon.

I will add the disclaimer that, yes, I am only up to S05E09 at the moment, and I suppose that the storyline could lead very nicely into it. However, at the moment from what I've seen in content on here like gifsets and edits, I don't think I'll like it, and I prefer the vibe of the show as it now is.

This marries up (!) with my dislike of many of later parts of the mytharc that I'm coming to now. It's probably because I personally prefer monster of the week episodes, but especially the S4 mytharc eps were among my least favourites, and some of them were bordering on a struggle to watch.

Which leads into my general dislike of S4, definitely an unpopular opinion according to the poll that happened recently. I won't go on too much as I've said this in some tags before, but I find it hard to believe that S4 is a favourite season. Yes, there are some good eps! Demons is my favourite of the season and among my top episodes of the show so far, and Tempus Fugit/Max was excellent. But there was also The Field Where I Died, Never Again, Memento Mori, Synchrony, Zero Sum...some of my least favourite episodes so far, that I would probably avoid on a rewatch.

Ok, rant over. Thank you for this ask, it was great fun to think about the answers! :D

[imaginespazzi]

Hows things bestie? Hope youve been enjoying the holiday weekend!

Ok I havent gotten to catch quite as much hoops action as I'd have hoped since Wednesday but.. Man did I enjoy following the UConn/Ole Miss game. Two teams I really like and it was an entertaining, clean battle. And after Azzi's significant performance + tourney honors, you cant tell me that P didnt go and do some extravagant shopping on top of lavishing personal attention ha. (Just circling back to this because I love to be right ofc 🙃)

This sudden ND drop off is bewildering. Something weird happens to top ranked teams while in the Caymans huh? Kinda have to feel good for the Utes given the recent challenges theyve faced. On the other hand, not so much for TCU, as they have HVL and Sedona. But I will give them due credit for the beating the Irish. Now S. Carolina sure has looked more like themselves in the past few competitions after the UCLA shellacking. The margin of victory over Iowa St was something. Apparently things got shaky for Southern Cal w their game against St. Louis, but they managed to close strong. Seems like they'll keep people on their toes for the time being.

Minuscule bit of L/G tea, which you may have already noticed. In recent insta story, Liz acknowledged Kentucky WBB and mentioned Clara Strack having a really good tourney performance (plus I think was her BDay around then?). What it appears did not go mentioned by Ms. Kitley however was Amoore reaching the milestone of 700 career assists and being named an all tourney player. Soooooo 😐

Random but kinda feel like mentioning some recommendations to share! The Juju Watkins documentary has been a nice watch. And for those who are looking for something outside of sports or holiday stuff- kinda niche, but Ive recently watched the movie 'Blitz' and a few eps of the show 'Say Nothing'. Both worth time for someone if either are genre/theme of interest.

Ok Im gonna go try and be productive while I can ha. Bye for now!

-☕️

Hi bestiiiieeee

I had such a lovely holiday weekend and it was meant to be reserved for finals studying but instead I got drunk as fuck with my cousins and going back to classes today was physically painful lmao.

You're so right, she absolutely spoiled the fuck out of her girl after and honestly whatever she splurged would be completely valid after what Azzi did for us that game. Definitely was my favorite game so far in this early season.

THE CAYMANS CURSE!! But yeah I don't now what happened with ND but that downhill spiral has been insane and would be the most unexpected collapse of sorts in all of CBB if it wasn't for the UConn men...(just had to throw a stray I fear)

I did notice the Clara repost and definitely noticed the lack of Georgia and it's all just very inchresting but also as expected in way?

[coldflasher]

5, 15, 27?

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

For this fandom I don't think so, but other fandoms yes. I am a known and vocal destiel hater partly because I hate castiel but also because I think the spn fandom is so obnoxious about the ship (sorry destiel-shipping mutuals i don't mean you, but i have seen things...) Also I will come to hate ships from shows I've never even seen if the fandom is annoying/vocal enough. 911 fandom, i'm sorry, but i do not wanna see those firefighters ever again.

tbf that fandom seems to have calmed down lately, or maybe i just unfollowed or muted the people who post it excessively, but there was no escaping them for a while

15. Unpopular opinion about the manga/show?

Season 4 of The Flash was actually really good. Most of you quit watching too early and didn't give that season a chance!! The huge ableism issues with Devoe aside, that arc was actually really compelling and ngl I find it frustrating that for YEARS we were like "PLEASE give us a non-speedster big bad!" and they finally did and everyone was like "no :) " and refused to watch it

Devoe was scary!! He was more than a match for Barry without being a speedster which I thought is what we all wanted! Plus season 4 is actually the funniest season. I hadn't seen it since it aired because the fandom had me convinced it was bad and then when me and my friend watched it we were CRYING during the first few episodes because the comedy beats were so impeccable.

Season 4 also had so many fantastic character beats for Barry, amazing conflict, CONSEQUENCES FOR HIS ACTIONS!! He literally got suspended from work because he was "harrassing" Devoe and broke into his house and it was SO interesting to see him face actual repercussions for letting Flash stuff bleed into his personal life! It gave us the prison arc! It gave us GOOD HAIR!

The actual downward spiral of the show began in season 5. Nora I love you but... that season had a lot of rough spots. Season 6 was also good! Now season 7 onwards deserves all the flack it gets but I maintain the show was still good way past the first 2-3 seasons that are held up as gospel and some of you are missing out on some actually really good television.

I think part of it is like... Coldflash besties, I love all of you, but The Flash was never Len's show. He was never a main character. And I think sometimes we get a bit caught up in acting like it was more Coldflash-centric than it was and like it was no longer worth watching as soon as Len wasn't in it. I get for some people (including me!) that the ship was a major part of enjoying the show but like. That was never the goal of the show. It was never trying to do that or tell that story, or even really focus on Len at all outside of a very minor big bad of the week role, and we do it a disservice by acting as if that ship was all the show had to offer, you know?

Some of my favourite episodes actually happened in the later seasons and I'd love to be able to share my love for those episodes and analyze them the same way we analyze the same 30 seconds of coldflash interactions but half of you wouldn't even know what I was talking about :( I could do it anyway and I still do, see my rant from the other day about Caitlin's s8 mad scientist necromancer arc, but it feels like shouting into the void sometimes... sigh

27. Least shippable character?

Hmm I'm tempted to say Caitlin. They put that woman in so many relationships and they were all soooo boring. Tbf I do quite like her and Ronnie (snowstorm?) but other than that... her and Jay? Boring. Her and Julian. Boring AND nonsensical considering he had such an issue with metahumans. Then there was that weird arc in season 8 where she goes on like 2 dates with a random dude and she's like "I want to tell him about Team Flash because I see a future with him and want him to be a part of my life" and then like one or two eps later she goes "nvm" and just dumps him. It was so funny. But all these relationships except with Ronnie were meh at best and by the final few seasons she was so detached from everyone anyway, they really didn't know what to do with her after Cisco left and instead of trying to have her bond more with the new characters they just shrugged and had her stand in the corner and do nothing

I have attempted to ship her with Iris in the past but it's hard work cos they gave us NOTHING. I wasn't sure if Danielle's acting was the issue and it was because she didn't have good chemistry with her love interests but I have no issue shipping Frost with people so? Idk what it is.

Kamilla is another one, which is ironic because her only purpose was to be Cisco's girlfriend but girl had no personality whatsoever, i'm sorry, she deserved better.

[tuiyla]

NATLA Ep. 1 "Aang" thoughts

It might not be the Avatar but it's still an Avatar show which means I'm giving it the respect of not doing anything else while watching, so I'm not gonna liveblog, as such. BUT, I do have many many thoughts after just episode 1 so before I proceed I'm gonna digest a bit and do a word vomit of those thoughts. Maybe I'll get around to a more in-depth and critical examination later after watching the whole thing but for now, a few thoughts here and there. Spoilers inbound.

The opening

The first huge difference is of course how the whole thing kicks off. Trust me, despite having been a huge ATLA fan for over 15 years I'm not trying to approach this in a way where I automatically shit on everything the new show changes. It's a different era, different medium, different audience. Well, in a way. So some changes are outright necessary and, in some cases, even good! Therefore I don't automatically roll my eyes because we don't open with Katara's narration and the Southern Water Tribe. Modern audiences, Netflix audiences are more fantasy savvy than Nick's target audience in 2005 so it makes sense to open with the war's beginning. I'll even take the Sozin scene, though it feels a bit wrong, in a way, to introduce a character like him so early on. I wanted to say, without much sense of threat, too, but it's not live action movie Ozai levels bad and we do get our arguably most brutal scene when Sozin straight up burns an earthbender from pretty much inside out. This level of violence is something I'll perhaps get into more in another post but long story short, I think it's the right amount. This ain't a Nick cartoon anymore but it's also not gratuitous. What it is, is war.

Part of the opening is the intro, of sorts, a twist on the beloved opening sequence as narrated by Katara. The twist itself, I'm okay with, but I have Feelings on Kyoshi being our narrator that are again for a more in-depth look. In short, it makes no thematic sense for it to be the Avatar from before the last to narrate this. I know Kyoshi is the fan favourite, pun intended, but that's all the justification they have. If anyone other than Katara, who is done dirty by taking her narration away btw, it should be Roku. You know, the actual last Avatar? Having it be Kyoshi is fan service as much fans are symbolic of her. Bad pun, I know. I haven't seen ep 2 yet but do tell me we're shifting to Katara, pls pls pls. Another gripe I have is the title, "Aang", since the OG show has such beautiful symmetry with its first and last ep titles but this is a nitpick. Also, nothing to indicate that this is the season of water? Titling the seasons after the elements matters very much.

And then, just when I think we're jumping to 100 years later, we meet Aang. I'm already going into more detail with thoughts here than I intended but I just do not like how we drag this on and on. Show Aang's backstory and the details of the attack later, mid-season. Yes, like the original did it, because the original did it for a reason and that's to not info dump in the very first episode and have sloppy exposition that would have felt more natural had it been delayed for later. We don't need to know everything about the world and the role of the Avatar right away. I do like how the Aang and Gyatso relationship was established but we didn't need All That, and we could have had the vast majority if not all of this as a flashback later on. Random idea, but maybe even in the episode where Zuko's backstory is covered. I'm really innovating here, I know. I'll explain why this was too much in another post, maybe, but for now I'll say the positive that I do think these scenes are done well, I just don't like their placement. And I don't like what we're doing to Aang's ch in terms of his responsibility and role so far, such as him not actually wanting to Run Away run away, but I'll wait and see where they take him for the rest of the season.

Wolf Cove

Omg what, the Southern Water Tribe? Finally. The ch who started off the whole thing in the OG appears 21 minutes into this episode, almost the length of an entire ATLA ep. So far, the sibling dynamic is Fine. Again a bit too heavy on the exposition but what can you do when you cut Katara's opening narration about their family and tribe. Some things I take issue with include the way Katara breaks the iceberg open, i.e. lack of feminist rage and in general her lack of strong presence in this first installment. It feels like they're trying to give Sokka more but you can showcase Sokka without making it feel like Katara is less of a presence, less of a driving force, and frankly more of a kid than she is in the OG. I do like her and the actress, her interactions with Aang and role in the story just feel lacking so far. And then they actually include her intro word for word, just said by Gran Gran! Like yeah we know Katara tells the story like Gran Gran told her but damn, straight up theft.

I'm also not satisfied with Kanna's place in the story. Her breaking the news to Aang feels flat and devoid of the tension that was present in the OG where Aang and Katara put two and two together on their own. Also no goodbye to Gran Gran? No big sendoff to her grandkids? No speech about destiny? Disappointing. What is done well is the sense of dread when the Fire Nation ship arrives at the village and Zuko's whole entrance, that's good. But again, he and Iroh give away way too much way too early about his mission and banishment and such. You guys, you have a whole season to get into it, why rush. I have a fear as to why they're rushing but we'll see. It just feels like a rookie mistake to try and shove so much into the first ep. We get it, the world is so much bigger and these chs so much richer than they first seem but that's the point, the audience will watch and learn as the season goes on. Just because Avatar has all this lore way beyond the first installment doesn't mean we have to go back to Wan and explain everything before we can head to the North Pole. I joke and exaggerate, but there were times I rolled my eyes at the dialogue. Again, not Shymalan levels bad but that is not where the bar should be.

Overall

I have less to say about the Southern Air Temple as it is quite brief, all things considered and because we already got so much of it before even making it to the present. I do think it's funny people thought the live action would let the story breathe more just because the eps are longer because look, here we are, three 23 minutes eps shoved into less than an hour with expanded stuff from the very beginning. This is not it breathing more because there aren't 20 eps to work with. They have a lot of content to get through and as a viewer you can feel it, which doesn't bode well. The whole script does have this first/second draft smell which is sus, when this thing has been in development since at least the end of 2018 and the OG eps it's based on just turned 19. Yeah, that's right, nineteen.

As for things like the visuals, the costumes, the acting, the score, bending, I think it'll make more sense to pass a judgement at the end of the season. Besides, what I'm most interested in is the script and I don't pretend to know much about things like costuming. First impression, it looks good. CG is a bit stifled at times but I like how oversaturated it often is, especially with the nations' colours. It's probably the closest we'll ever get to Avatar in live action and I'm okay with that, since I still believe they should stick to animation anyway. But yeah, good. Nothing mindblowing and bending so far but I'd also rather it didn't try to razzle dazzle with just flashy CGI and no substance. As is, there's not too much substance so far anyway so I'm waiting for subsequent eps to be more confident in what they're doing, whether that's building on or steering from the source material.

[feuqueerfire]

Pit Babe Live Blogging

This show is finally ending, I've been stopping myself from starting it since like December I think when I saw Tiktoks from those early episodes (honestly younger, cute boytoy top Charlie who is so beautiful to me had a hand in that lol). The chatter also seems to really like the show, maybe unexpectedly for quite a few people (also I think at least a certain amount of it is for the side ship? Alan and Jeff or something? who I know nothing about because I only really know some plot points until like ep 4 or smth because I'd look up Tiktoks)

So I really hope I like it! I've only been like "meh, sure" for the 3 shows/movies I've watched so far this month, so I'd love it if this one lives up to my expectations.

Ep 1 (Feb 7)

girl what's going on? okay we're starting with fucking but he's gotta blow off steam bc his senses are too sensitive? Or what's going on?

alpha smell, i died

ohhh dubcon sexual coercion racer/fan hookup as payment <3333

charlie doesn’t have a smell (smth about an enigma in the tiktok comments?) and babe can’t stand alpha scent

fuck off iqiyi ad, right in the middle of the scene

i wonder if Charlie does have ulterior motives other than the car bc tiktok comments hinted at it but i stopped looking at them after a couple eps so didn’t find out

ohhh the objectification and using Charlie as a bet is a doozy

Charlie talking about not exploiting Babe is the funniest shit ever

random villain

I need to sleep almost 2am agh - 28m

back the next morning hehe

Why is this guy who seems to be around the same age as everybody else being called Uncle and referring to himself as old man lmfao is it like how Gumpa was maybe supposed to be older than he was in Not Me?

oh, i like these scenes actually, I usually have a 50-50 on whether I'll skip through these makeout/NC scenes but I'm watching these lmao

Babe being so irritable/standoffish after an orgasm is so funny like why lol

kalsdfjlk;asfjlk;asdfj talking about roleplaying as a maid/wearing maid costume/Charlie calling Babe master omg

Babe doesn't know how to appreciate maid Charlie, give him to me instead

the holes in the walls of Babe's house are so funny like what

Also how old are these people? I think I remember a Tiktok of Charlie going to uni (and Babe following him because he's suspicious lol) and I'm guessing Babe is a couple years older than that?

[Linguistics] Pom and Phi for Charlie while Gu and Mueng for Babe

Babe calling Charlie docile awooga

So was the villain whose face we kinda saw earlier the UAC Corp leader? Tony Chen?

"report about Babe"

okay I'm reading the on-air thread for this on r/boyslove and some people are like hmmm about their chemistry so far and are like why is the NC stuff so tame/vague but personally... I can watch the NC scenes when it's like this, so it's going well in my books lol rip, though I kinda assume it might get more heated in the later eps? Also hm idk about Charlie and Babe's chemistry, it seems fine but not magnetic/magical yet.

Also people in that thread seem to have little to no experience with omegaverse or have mostly read alpha/omega and also seem confused about what's allowed vs not allowed when in fact, there's no rigid rules with omegaverse because it's a literal fanfic concept and you can make it whatever you want. Personally, I haven't read any original book/manhua/etc. with omegaverse but am so well-versed in fanfic a/b/o lol a/a o/o a/o are all great, sometimes with a beta though beta/x do tend to be quite rare, even more than a/a and o/o I feel like?? Also have read OT3 a/b/o or a/a/o or a/o/o etc. Love all the different types of fics omegaverse has to offer: the 4k explicit fics and 20k romances and 60k of criticizing society/trying to break out of the rigid molds/mirroring real world issues/etc. Traditional, medium trad-nontrad, and nontraditional omegaverse can all also be interesting and good.

I'm expecting this one to just be like the 20k kinda non-traditional romances w/ a/a.

Ep 2 (Feb 7)

Oh Tony Chen investor is Babe's literal father?

The fiery flashback transitions lmao

Babe's adoptive father

What's Charlie planning?

the menopause comment is so interesting cuz wtf do you even mean but I'm pretty sure I'm also heard it in reference to men in other BLs maybe Thai ones? So it's probably a different word that refers to a similar thing but not exactly menopause

working for free, not suspicious at all lol

This new repairman kid tuning the car to have more horsepower or whatever is reminding me of a high school class where we were doing AutoCAD and stuff but then also had to ?? create a digital car but neither my partner nor I knew shit about cars so we were fr just trying out whatever and seeing the specs go up and down

[Linguistics] Alan addressing Jeff as Nuu lol

lol the germophobe so I don't touch anybody thing

I did think Jeff and Charlie were working together so this makes sense but I thought the guy who was scheming with Charlie was the same age as him but he calls Charlie Phi and is 20 years old (so Charlie's older than that)

Wait Alan just said Jeff and Charlie are the same age? But Jeff called Charlie Phi, so did Jeff age himself up by a year or two?

Did nobody notice how weird Jeff and Charlie were behaving toward each other?

Why'd they zoom in on Way like that when mentioning the UAC Corp

dang, what plan Jeff and Charlie got cooking up

What is this random physical fight that's Charlie's doing lol

Didn't like the camera work during that fight scene, keep it still

And also this one Red Racing member's an annoying character as he's meant to be but the acting itself annoys me

ahh, Charlie choosing the car he knows is Babe's favourite and Way being like Babe doesn't let anybody get in it but Babe letting Charlie borrow it

"I'm Pit Babe, I don't decide on the wrong people" is crazy omg I hate such expectations

Ouchhhh terrible driving lesson flashbacks when my instructor would yell at my stupidity from the passenger seat like this lmfao

Ouch lol Way being like haha what if I fell in love w you and Babe being like lmfaoooo if we were gonna have sparks, it would've happened long ago

Is Way not an Alpha? why did Babe say I'm good with just chewing alphas? Or did he mean he'd rather do that than fall in love with them?

Alan and Jeff barely exist so far beyond Jeff ignoring Alan and everybody laughing about it but I'm into it. The age difference + Nuu thing is also uh good

The Glances that Alan and Babe share whenever Way's talking and kinda sidelining Charlie makes me think that Babe must know that Way likes him, right?

Red Racing aka the team Tony Cheng (Babe's foster father) is investing in wants to poach Babe?

Saw through some reblog's novel spoiler tags that Jeff's an omega

Ep 3 (Feb 8)

Pouty, whiny, dramatic Charlie and Babe's smile peaking through at the act so cutee

Aw, our tough guy sad backstory

damn, tf he fostered a bunch of kids and did what with them

unexpected telekenesis - if I hadn't been spoiled through a post like 2 hours ago about how it just randomly appears in ep 3, I would've been shocked lmfao

and Babe breaks his no kissing rule

Jeff’s reaction after the sniff kiss from Alan akhdjaja threw him off fr

Alan’s hiding that Pete will take % of price money? or is that just understood?

tbh i dint rlly get the investment and returns cuz the show doesn’t explain it like why couldn’t they do smaller races before but now they can? cause of cost to join the race and fuel and whatever else needed for it without the guaranteed winning money to subsidize it? would it be so expensive to do that they couldn’t go to smaller races at all without investments? how were they doing it before this though like why does it matter if red racing is getting this investment, how does that mean x hunter can’t do the same stuff they’ve done so far?

Ah, I've seen tiktoks of the suspicion and Babe following Charlie

Can Babe tell that it's Jeff

damn girl, how are these thoughts even come into your mind as you drive such at high speed with high concentration

Winner is such annoying character I really cant

Ah, so the driving accident wasn't in this ep but ep 4 I guess

Lol caught a glimpse of the next ep preview and I remember seeing people discuss whether the Way and Babe talking about being boyfriends in the preview is in the past vs present (It looks like the past to me)

This show must actually be insane to watch on air, first the surprise omegaverse and now surprise telekenesis

I understand Way's suspicion of Charlie and he's right to be lol but the way he talks about how nobody cares about him and Babe and Babe shouldn't get too close to people is... I wonder if he really has power to hypnotize through touch bc I did see murmurs about that on the tiktok comments. And I didn't think about this, but Way should've waited a couple days to mention to Babe the results of stalking Charlie since it'll affect Babe's performance

Ep 4 (Feb 9)

Annoyed that I was too busy today to actually watch more than an episode yesterday and I think it'll be the same case today, maybe I'll try to squeeze in 1.5 eps.

Is Babe specifically not mentioning seeing him and Jeff together because he wants Charlie to come clean himself?

Damn, Way really is clutching Babe's arm as he tells him to be alone and not trust in love

Babe so mean for pulling that "shall I be your bf?" thing on Way aksdfj

also young Babe is sooo pretty omg

mopey sad Babe :(

How did Charlie get there?

Oh, Jeff watching but unable to outwardly show concern for Charlie in front of everybody

would Tony do this fr though? I thought it was fuckass Winner

Damn, Winner tryna bribe someone to cut the fluid line or smth in Babe's car idk what that means but sounds bad. stopped by Kim but Winner does say he didn't send those people to beat Babe up, so did Tony really do it? Did Charlie...?

Charlie's endless cooking for Babe ahh

Jeff and Alan hehe

Oh yeah lol Babe's upset at Jeff cuz he thinks Charlie went behind his back w Jeff

woah Jeff can see the future via touch?!?! No wonder he was averse to touching so cool

So does this mean that Charlie and Jeff were also in that house raised by Tony along with Babe? The kids were all separated from each other, so it'd make sense if Babe didn't know them. Interesting

The Tony and Co. have been looking for somebody with Beyond Group Pete's power for a long time? Archery? Hand-eye coordination?

Finally, the car crash. Not much happened this ep tbh since it's continuation of last ep's tensions but hopefully we'll move forward at a faster pace now, either in terms of relationship or plot. I also stopped checking the tiktoks at this point, so I don't know as much now and haven't really seen stuff after this except stuff I've already mentioned like Enigma Charlie? Omega Jeff?

omegaverse + racecar + xmen powers & evil father foistering said powers

Agh, fuck, people are writing novel spoilers obviously and accidentally saw it I think say "Charlie and [Babe I'm guessing] have the same evil foster dad" well the on-air thread people who guessed this like 2 eps ago were correct, gj

Ep 5 (Feb 9)

hmm is it indeed somebody on X Hunter who betrayed Babe? I refuse Charlie and Jeff, would Way do it? Would Tony?

Did Jeff go to that car at night in secret because he wanted to try to prevent the fire since he saw it in that vision?

I mean Alan’s not completely wrong, though Way and Dean came off real strong

exploiting Jeff’s sadness for an ad smh

the person avoided the cameras seeing his face as if he knows where they are…

Pete being like “I thought you guys had a mole and didn’t know”

oh i went to ep 4 on air discussion and ppl were discussing whether charlie can suppress powers/steal powers apparently shown in teaser for this ep and immediately as soon i start this again we get Babe being like why can’t i sense you

choosing Charlie (guy who barely just started training and has never done an actual race before) to take Babe’s place is crazy esp amongst others who may not be good but have actual experience before being thrown into the deep end

well at least they’re gonna test Charlie

wdym? Isn’t Babe too hurt to do a fucking competition?

getting v strong insider job vibes but idk if they’ll make it be Way (suspicious), Dean (suspicious just cuz he’s eager to side w Way), or the youtuber dudes (they seem useless and it’d be boring if it was them)

Ep 6 (Feb 10)

Well, at least they still made Babe win by a fair amount while rookie Charlie who has never competed won by a hair compared to junior Dean who doesn't really win

The directing was bad in this though i literally couldn't tell who was ahead because the cars look the fucking same

Charlie looks sooo good with the kinda mushroom hair here idk omg

What even is this argument? Dean is not acting well here and somehow neither is Alan even though Alan's been fine thus far, though he hadn't had to express too many outward emotions until now

Oof, Way watching Babe walk away from him down to Charlie and going with him

so does this cafe thing happen often or no? and in which countries? First Twinkling Watermelon also had some "story" about their table that the guy had submitted for Se Kyeong and now here Alan did a apology thing for Jeff

Ahh it's so cringe but I'm kinda into it, idk esp the way Jeff keeps trying to not smile

babe and charlie looking at stars scene so romantic

omg children

sorry this mama papa thing is killing me so bad

it’s also killing babe lol he keeps laughing during the roleplay

actually okay idk role playing as each other during the first meeting is kinda fun fr and them giggling through it hehe so cute

Pete watching Way drink at the bar?

Dean so annoying

What did Pete see in Babe's future?!

Ah, publicly saying they're bfs but rip Way

Babe doing that smoke thing was crazy cuz if I was Way, I'd be like damn is he boutta step out of his relationship with me rn

ouch ouch ouch ouch

Unrequited crush on a friend is so saddd even though Way's being annoying about it

broooo that spot when Babe and Way are sitting on the car, looking at the sky - is that the same spot Babe took Charlie?

man, ouch!

I seriously wish the subs were better man

but Babe and Charlie were so cute this ep hehe >.< and Babe was just sooo smiley

I want Charlie to get some more personality soon though because we don't know shit about him and I also can't tell what's genuine vs not with him since he's so secretive

Ep 7 (Feb 10)

Ah, so Babe indeed feels suffocated by how Way tells him to be alone and feels like he can't love anybody

I don't get it, I thought Jeff touching Babe would mean he sees Babe's future, so how can that guy lying in the car not be Babe?

Oof, Way and Pete

Also, I try to track when someone's putting on shoes for a romantic partner/candidate but taking off shoes is also so good and intimate, like now Pete taking Way's shoes off

Are Kim and Kenta supposed to ba thing? Can't remember but hope Kenta stops being Tony's laptop someday

As expected, it was Tony's doing

omggg so many things happening at once, exciting

Kim doing a little investigating to find that Tony sells his kids and Babe's the highest price

and also he called Babe to the place he knew that Charlie would be meeting Tony and Kenta omg

and Tony asking about Jeff

oh yeah lol Babe last ep being like since you're Charlie's nong/brother, you're my nong too :) at Jeff like girl first of all Charlie is also your adopted brother technically so let's not get too familial here lol

Tony seeing Charlie and Babe's interaction... Also, I wonder why Tony doesn't know that Jeff is a mechanic at X-Hunter c'mon

On that note, I also wish Charlie had somehow blurted out that Babe shouldn't tell anybody about Jeff being Tony's son also or tell anybody about Jeff's location

Aw, crying and regretful Babe and heartbroken too

Charlie just SAY it while following Babe around instead of being like P'Babe x10 and asking him to listen/being like let me explain. LIKE JUST EXPLAIN BRUH

Charlie doesn't have a power for real or it's just a power like stealing/suppressing powers that Tony's teachers couldn't sense? especially because Charlie specifically mentioned that Babe was just buying time by running away since they were still after his powers - so maybe Charlie thinks the solution is to suppress those powers and that's why Babe doesn't have them anymore

sorry what are we even talking about right now, they're suggesting that Tony intends to get an Enigma (different even more powerful sort of alpha - 1%) to impregnate Babe????? Because that child will be even more powerful? Like what are we doing right now klajsdflkasdjfk

But anyway, this means no hope of Omega Jeff? Since apparently only Alphas have powers.

Kenta doing these "mistakes" with being sloppy enough so that Kim can find evidence + letting Charlie live with Babe... is he on their side?

Oh, Charlie did indeed make Babe's sense disappear by absorbing/stealing it (and being able to do it so well because he's closer to Babe)

ow ow ow ow owowoowowowowowowoow owwwww Babe thinking back to the first night and how Charlie touched him

oh my goddd all their encounters T.T

tf Charlie can't return Babe's powers unless he dies? no way...

girl why is Charlie even thinking of reconciliation right now, you just told Babe all this stuff you hid from him including the way you stole his powers and can't give it back unless you die

stop, I'm really annoyed by this tone change, this is not the time for mama/papa, I want Babe to blow up on Charlie now to dare to make light of the situation and how much Babe's hurting

ah I can't even appreciate the making up T.T

Also, is the fact that Charlie's not mentioning Jeff gonna be considered a secret later on?

Way waiting for their dinner which he took as a date to the sentimental restaurant vs Babe riding Charlie in the car on the road with the roof down

okay sorry this is a whole lot, too much in fact um

Bro Way gotta escape cuz Babe is fr stringing him along for too long let's end this, make some bad decisions but in terms of drinking too much/fucking random people (Pete) but not hypnotizing Babe or anything. and then, let's move on

broooo why are Alan and Babe just discussing Tony and everything in the garage where there are other people

I thought Babe realized that Way liked him... does he not?

woah soooo much info

Wish there was actually more angst/longer drawn out period before reconciliation because Babe would need time to come to terms with everything. but oh well

The spoilers I found right now while going through gifs is that: Apparently Way is the Enigma that Tony's planning to use to impregnate Babe... I'd seen hints that Way is evil/does something against Babe and if we're going with the fact that he has hypnosis through touch powers, then he'd been with Tony but the fact that he's the enigma was new to me

Ep 8 (Feb 10)

Aw fuck, I keep watching this instead of doing my much-needed work D:

Kenta has to somehow not let Kim get killed and his organs harvested right

Aw, Jeff telling Alan his secret special power

Way talking about revenge and being a bad person and doing what he was originally supposed to do...

ahh Charlie not telling Babe about Jeff's vision is scary, even though Charlie consoling Jeff is nice

omg blood everywhere enough investigating let's leaveee

First time seeing Charlie use his powers and he uses it to be kinda stupid lol

Did Tony pick up on the fact that Babe lost his powers?

Ken? Do Pete and Kenta know each other?

Damn, Jeff's visions, he's getting them without touching anybody?

Also, how are you sneaking around in Tony's house lol cameras gotta be everywhere

ah, I wish I wasn't spoiled about Enigma way cuz I might've been like gasp but actually probably not since I already knew about Way being from the other side

Jeff no don't get caught

the fact that Charlie is still like -khap at the end of his sentences with Babe despite having fucked like 50 times and being boyfriends and also having held secrets from him is funny

they're doing doctor/patient roleplay while jeff's in trouble D:

ah, all the plans in front of Way

This must be a trap as well right, set up by Way? I'm afraid Andy's gonna get killed or smth? Or even if it's not a proper dangerous trap, like a trap t somehow save them to gain trust?

Why did they even get out of that room though lol

Winner's soooo annoying, like not even an intriguing semi-antagonist like Way, just irritating and bad at acting

North, Sonic don't both go into the cell cuz what if it's locked from outside

They left Kim again? man...

Jeff I believe in you

Ep 9 (Feb 10)

Charlie can't you at least once wonder where Jeff is? WHAT ABOUT YOUR BROTHER? Literally everybody at the garage is staying at Alan's except Jeff?

you know Tony's looking for Jeff and you're just chill about the fact that neither you nor Alan can contact him? Man, cmon Charlie wtf

girl not Babe finding out about Pete being an Enigma at this place where they're auctioning kids D: and then Immediately going to tell Way about it bruhhh

aw fuckkk not Way hypnotizing Babe when Babe's at the auction place alone with Way and has just found out about Way beingthe Enigma through Charlie. I hope Pete comes out and sees them

ahhhhh aklsdfjalks;fj ewewew I can't watch this like I watched 0.2 seconds of it in the reflection and no aghhh and Babe's sad face in that reflection T.T

Or I hope Charlie immediately goes to Way's apartment or smth after informing Alan of what happened

okay at least Charlie did come

This is so fucking sad, poor Babe D:

And every Babe and Way montage is so sad, first when Way was going through his heartbreak and now because Babe got sexually assaulted by Way agh

abusive father Tony fr but also what power or whatever does he have? He said Way's Enigma can't compete with me

man, this is so fucking sad, the way Babe's trust in me people is shattered and doesn't wanna be betrayed again

Anyway, Charlie learned than his brother Jeff was captured by Tony and crew but has called him and hasn't heard from or seen him since, he should be a little more concerned about him I think

Well, it's good that apparently Jeff is all good and safe

Alan and Jeff are sooo cute, espp because age gap but Alan and Jeff are both so skittish lol... Jeff asking if he can be Alan's boy is crazy though

what are Charlie and Jeff planning, yikes

Also, Charlie being like okay at least father doesn't know that my powers will go back to Babe if I die... so if he fakes his death, Babe still wouldn't have the powers back but the father wouldn't find it questionable?

Is Dean trustworthy?

Ah, this time Charlie getting overwhelmed with the senses and Babe helping me out with an orgasm... romance <3

why is the sex scene surrounded by the car race lmfaooo I kinda wanted to see it and choose to skip parts if it was too much for me, not have it spliced

Ah, they spoiled that Dean's a traitor/snake in the preview, that's dumb smh

oh omg, okay I remember seeing some stuff about main character death in Pit Babe just a few weeks ago (esp when Last Twilight was ending) but as I started this, I was like hm this doesn't seem to track, maybe that was about The Sign. But now I just glimpsed the words "The cross on Charlie's grave [...]" in a text post and seems like this really is for Pit Babe. Not to mention that Jeff and Charlie's plans seem to involve Charlie's death, though I'm assuming it's a faked death.

Ep 10 (Feb 10)

I'm dreading the scene from last ep's teaser where Charlie is against Babe driving and Babe's like you don't have any faith in me? I'm so disappointed in you

ouchhh "you don't believe in my skills" because of the lack of sense? ah it's true like charlie can't control babe just because he wishes babe well but I'm nervous that Charlie planned something terrible what with their plans and Charlie dying/disappearing

ah yep, Charlie's plan is to flip the car over, so scary but Jeff knows at least.

dang, did Babe not finish his lap and just came off in the middle of his last lap? Makes sense, I didn't expect the car to be right there

Jeff's pretending that he did that to Charlie's car to kill him in order to get Tony to do something on his end? Or does Tony also know Charlie's not dead?

Bro what the fuck what do you even mean that Babe got his senses back

This is actually devastating for real

How has Kenta not turned his back to Tony yet fr

Also, so I guess Jeff was telling Tony that he'd crash Charlie's car + with Kenta's help but Jeff was really planning on it killing Charlie

Babe's "I don't want my senses back, I don't want anything back. I just want charlie back" askldfjaskdlfjsadf owwwwwww

This montage is so fucked up

Oh, can you walk over the grave just like that to give the flowers omg? I'd be like D: there's somebody's corpse right underneath my feet and I'm stepping on them...

fuckkk this grave scene is also so devastating

Jeff really and truly is the only person getting anything done, so he got Kim in exchange for the Charlie thing?

girl, not the Jeff and Alan flirting in the midst of devastation. cute thought :( jeff being so done with Alan's inability to flirt that he has to do it himself here too

aklsdfja;sdlkf ow Jeff so cute, coming back to give him a little kiss on the side of the mouth and then running away

The fuck, Dean hit Babe with a HAMMER?!?!?! to the head

So was it Jeff (or Kenta w/ Jeff) who punctured the oil rigg while Dean did something else (gas smth?). or was it that Dean and Kenta together cut the gas line to crash the car but Jeff punctured the oil rig to kill Charlie?

Oh man, the fucking devastation. How did people who watch weekly go through this fr? I wonder... if I could get away with just looking at Pit Babe archive tags or if I'm gonna be spoiled with ep 11/book spoilers... ig I'll try to be very careful? agh idk

Also, I wonder how they're pulling off this fake death if Babe got his senses back? And we saw the dead body? Though ofc Jeff "took care of everything" on his own afterwards so we didn't see him be buried or anything but yknow

Ep 11 (Feb 11)

Good morning, time to watch the show and hopefully finish it toda

Man, I would've rooted more for Way/Pete if Way wasn't gonna rape Babe when he got the chance... makes me a hypocrite since I'm a Vegas/Pete enjoyed but yknow

Oh my bad, seems like Dean did stuff to the gas lines but Jeff had done stuff to the brakes

Ooh, okay, we get to see Charlie already

ugh so did Kenta tell Dean to do stuff to the break lines? I thought Dean did gas

who is this Uncle Reval and what's his backstory? Anything to do with Babe? He's not his father or something right?

lol a secret drug that fake-kills you and gives Babe his powers back

so what's the plan after this? How we catching Tony guys?

Ah, I love Alan and Jeff :( And Jeff telling Alan to think a lot because he knows he's the one who made Charlie's car crash like that + is hiding Charlie from them all

They sometimes treat Jeff like he's a mourning brother and other times they don't lol

Oh that bracelet with the A is crazy like oh Alan you're marking him laksfj oh and he's got one with J, very presumptuous to wear it first before letting Jeff know but loll I guess he's finally stepping up in the flirting department and not leaving it all to Jeff

I can't believe we're not getting proper Omega Jeff though, so he's just Alpha :(

Why did Jeff say I like no love you and Alan's like I got it already and didn't say it back

Jeff's actor is 28 and Alan's is 30, I wish at least Jeff's one was like 20 (That's Charlie's actor's age) so that we could at least feel the difference in age when they're talking as if there's a big age gap cmon

omg sorry the "Nuu, cooperate" "How?" was so good in terms of experience gap

okay Enough, this is going on forever actually lol

ah, Kenta and Pete were playmates and brothers while growing up in that house, thus the Ken and familiarity before when Ken had his knife to Pete's throat

Does Pete not a special power other than just being an Enigma?

oh ngl I thought they were finally doing a pair of Tony's kids who actually saw each other as siblings and not as lovers lmfao but seems like Kenta liked Pete

God why did they leave this dynamic for the end, Kenta crying (or is it just intense sweat?) while trying to harm/maim/kill Pete and thinking of their times together, it's the perfect dynamic - ToddBlack & VegasPete vibes

Wild turn from last week (Babe's still devasted though, I knew I could trust him) and it's like glad AlanJeff is finally happening but it's really happening a few days after Jeff's brother died lol

Also okay idk how to feel about Alan and Jeff sex scene cuz it's like... Alan is very subtly pressuring Jeff just a little? Like when Jeff was like shouldn't we get to know each other a little? but Alan's like that's for later bc he's so intent on fucking Jeff tonight. + the "Nuu, cooperate" when I guess he thought Jeff didn't want to let him take off his pants. the thing issss I could be so into age gap slightly dubcon, slightly immoral relationships but that's not how it's presented here + Jeff's supposed to be in mourning, so idk how I'm supposed to take this

Ep 12 (Feb 11)

Please please please please please Kenta and Pete scenarios and scenes and moments please please please idec if it's a happy or sad ending

agh no i don't want peteway anymore i want petekenta

oh Pete can read minds, woah

Aw shucks, they're kidnapping Jeff

Is the sense going back to Charlie and disappearing from Babe?

girl every 3 hours? that's all it takes before Charlie's senses start coming back from Babe?

okay I'm sorry but literally why are you bringing Way to meet Babe randomly like that fucker would've raped Babe and gotten him pregnant to forcibly make him have kids like we as the audience could be like oh tortured angsty Way but why is Pete randomly bringing Way to meet Pete. Anyway, Kenta now also knows Way's on Pete's side so it's not necessarily like Way can infiltrate the other side either unless Kenta keeps his lips sealed

ah I wonder who is "working for" Tony now...

Pete, Babe, Kenta, and Way lmao for sure there are not gonna be any betrayals and this team isn't gonna go up in flames. It'd be hilarious if Kenta does manage to finally join the other side but Way or something betrays them

Sorry that I was thinking of kicking Kenta (in a fun sexual way) while he was kneeling down like that and then Tony actually did it (in a mean abusive way but I was unfortunately into it)

oh my god okay sorry this is actually so devastating that Kenta is learning how the man who he's ready to give his life for doesn't see him as a son but as a dog but I'm actually losing my mind at his kneeling and crying and begging and getting kicked and giving his hand like a dog gives its paw

Did they also leave the bag this time? Girl, they're so bad at rescuing Kim and not retrieving the bag

I like don't even want Way and Babe reconciliation for real, so I'm glad we're not getting that already at least

ah, as expected he's Babe's father

All these people know that they're buying the kids right? Is it gonna be like Gifted when they're like making a disruption to let the world know what's really going on but they all already know?

Alan trying to drag Jeff away while Jeff wants to protect the kids, this uncle man is annoying me lately

Charlie just zooming in at the end lmfao

The lack of Charlie and Babe was so interesting. Like yeah, makes sense that the two wouldn't be together in Ep 11 and 12 but we got so much airtime for side characters in these 2 eps but it didn't make me feel like no, go back to the mains, because there are so many characters and threads here. And even gave me Kenta and PeteKenta brain rot in these 2 eps.

Ep 13 (Feb 11)

Last episode, like 50 mins long and I don't know what I'm hoping for. like at first, the show was mostly about Babe and Charlie and I want a good closure for them too, esp after like 3 episodes without them together. But I'm randomly so invested in like Kenta now and I don't know what I want from that end. I don't care that much about Alan and Jeff anymore, unfortunately but I'm guessing we'll get some time with them too. Also want to see how the huge and elaborate child trafficking ring is dealt with.

Bro stop explaining everything right now and escape, even though I get Babe's conflicting emotions of "am I dreaming?" unbelievable amounts of happiness and confusion at why Charlie fakes his death

Kenta okayyy

damn, the reaction to the socmed vids seem dumb from Tony's part but who knows

loll Sonic dgaf about pushing away Winner's gun

What happened to all the other patrons and guards?

ah, you did it Kenta even though you cried, you still killed your father. stabbed him in the back, poetry

oof, rip Way

Man, these scenes of Way dying and everybody mourning him at his grave are objectively sad (esp the Way and Babe compilation again) but I don't care as much about him as I did in the earlier eps when he was going through his unrequited crush but before he attacked Babe

The part with Babe and his dad is so sad man but I hope this is heading toward a better future

Charlie and Babe will never stop having public sex and they shouldn't

negl for a second I got scared that they were implying Babe's pregnant or smth like what

Y'know I realize that Charlie and the other drivers a bit of a public figure, does nobody in their audience wonder why Charlie's not dead suddenly? Or was that not public knowledge, just that Charlie crashed real bad

public-ass kiss frr

Where is Kenta? my beloved

Overall:

This show had everything: non-traditional alpha/alpha relationship (w concepts I wasn't aware of like Enigmas but somehow no Omegas lol), racecar competitions, x-men like superpowers (heightened senses, stealing powers, hypnosis, mind reading, telling the future), child trafficking, pseudo-incest if you think about it (from Kenta's side at least) and more. And it didn't have a super strong script, there were nonsensical elements and plot holes that didn't get addressed and things that happened to just move the plot along, but it was a fun watch nonetheless, both for the novelty and the entertainment factor.

The most important aspect of the show was definitely the characters and relationships despite there being like a wrong human trafficking ring and everything involved; it well went back to how it affected the people and their relationships. Babe was a very compelling character with his past and how he behaves in the present and his relationships with Tony/Way/people in general. Also helped that Pavel did a really good job with him and acted his ass off, there were quite a few emotional moments in there.

I agree with some people's comments that I wish Charlie's actor Pooh as a better actor. And his character wasn't as developed or with depth as the other ones either, like in terms of emotions I guess. I could never quite tell how much in love with Babe he really was at a given time because he didn't quite... look it, it looked more like a little puppy fanboy who may or may not be playing it up to conceal his true intentions. Alan and Jeff were cuter in my head before they got together tbh. North and Sonic are dating to me, they're so cute.

Although I really liked Charlie/Babe, my true ship winners might be Pete/Kenta in a Not Me ToddBlack fashion, to be honest, with Kenta as maybe my favourite character (2nd is Babe). They gave us like 2 tiny hints that they might know each other and waited until literally last 10 mins of episode 11 out of 13 to lay out their history and baggage and relationship and Kenta's crush, all the while showing them in a fight where Kenta's trying to hurt Pete (but Pete knowing Kenta can't kill him). They have an interesting friends (-> brothers/crush) -> enemies -> allies again at the very end dynamic where I think that they could become lovers post-canon. And I love how pathetic and desperate for love Kenta is and how he was willing to do despicable things for Tony's approval before finally, finally knifing him. Really had me writing a fic idea in my notes app after my few months of no drive to write, I wonder if I'll actually finish it or not because it's kinda... more explicit and intense than the fics I usually write but it was really good in my brain.

Once again, I'm shallow, so here are the people I find most beautiful: Charlie specifically when he has his glasses on and is being a cute puppy, Sonic omg pretty girl for real, Babe is so attractive - esp the younger version of him without the gelled hair but even in the present day when he smiles and is happy he's so beautiful. Jeff sometimes but I think I'm more into his vibes than specifically his face. Way is gorgeous omg, also aside but that actor has mentioned dating men before including a 7 year relationship.

Rating: 6.5/10 [May 12, 2024 Update: Decreased by 0.5 stars when rerating shows I’ve watched in 2024: 6.5 -> 6] [May 3, 2025 Update: Increased by 0.5 stars after rewatching: 6 -> 6.5]

Tiktoks:

Several of the most liked Pit Babe edits from Ep 1 - 2 because that's when I first saw it and went through the tag

Charlie (song: Honey, I Hate You - XIS)

Ep 3: When Babe stops Charlie from kissing him before the race

Ep 4: Babe telling Charlie they're done

^ Those ones I added before I watched the show and these ones I added now:

Kenta with Tony (Song: Mama's Boy)

Ep 11 Kenta and Pete history (Song: Take Me Back to the Night We Met)

PeteKenta interactions

Pit Babe Movie Watch

I did not know this movie even existed until I saw this gifset about added content in an NC scene for the Pit Babe movie. Well, Pit Babe season 2 episode 1 released literally today, but I will try to not watch it until it's fully out (and in like 2-3 eps I'll have to mute the tags and such too). Insteead, I think I'll rewatch this 3 hours shortened version of the show (and I notice that I decreased it to 6 stars... I might move it back up to 6.5 after the rewatch).

Also since the teaser released on April 2, I've begun to be obsessed with Charlie/Babe again... I read fics + I read some parts of their novel (...mostly just the NC scenes lmfao). I'm so excited by the prospect of Charlie losing his memory and also Babe chasing after Charlie and also Charlie getting mad at Babe scheming to get with Willy to get info or whatever.

May 2

They're skipping over the first locker room fucking scene when Babe's "concentrating" lol

Oh, I didn't know Babe could even hear the other drivers changing gears and stuff. His powers were even more powerful than I thought

They're hot, their NC scenes are hot, it is what it is. I'm watching the scenes instead of skipping through

so funny that with the cuts and shortened scenes due to time constraints, we're at our second CharlieBabe NC scene less than 16 minutes in

oh, the unseen few cuts from the NC scene are here... I'm watching like O.O on my big monitor. and also there's moaning and groaning

Oh, this is ep 2 stuff already, we missed maid costume Charlie

Damn, lots of ep 2 got cut, specifically Charlie and Jeff I guess, from my reactions above in ep 2

I think the first time, I was like hm idk if I buy the kiss, Babe broke his rules already?! But I now know how soft-hearted Babe is and how great his desire to be loved is, so it makes sense

Pavel really is soo gorgeous. I've repetitively had this thought but at 1h mark after they've competed and he's laughing at Charlie's disappointment is soo nice to look at

[Linguistics] Babe calls Charlie nuu during the club celebration around 1h 10 mins ig and it's even more fun to realize that after the incidents of apparently Pavel calling Pooh nuu in general + the mistake of calling Milk nuu that one time lmfaoo. He also refers to Charlie as nong when speaking to Way at like 1h 14 mins

Crazy that in the movie Babe's power disappearing isn't mentioned until right now 1.5 hours in when it's been apparently mentioned throughout in the series based on my notes above

The Way and Babe scene really is sooo horrible

And now it'll be no Charlie/Babe scenes together for like 45 minutes rip

Alan and Jeff's interactions are really so odd if you don't know that Charlie's not dead lmfao like Jeff should be in mourninggg

Ah, the AlanJeff sex scene that turned me off of them even though I liked them a lot previously

Ah, the Tony beating up Kenta scene that gave me brainworms after I finished... Where would I be without the series' PeteKenta scenes...

Oh, this version straight up just did not show Charlie being alive and with Raval until he just suddenly appears in the gala fighting

Oh, Babe calling Charlie Pa and it being translated as Dad instead of Papa or whatever it usually is is really... wowie

I really do enjoy Charlie/Babe a lot, it is what it is

lmfao not them ending on the reverse roleplay of their first meeting NC scene, this happened in the middle of the series I believe

Is this final very naked-looking NC scene new? I don't recall it

Overall:

I'm not rating this because they cut out a whole lot to fit it into a 3 hour movie, I just wanted to get a short version instead of watching all 13 episodes. It was fun, I continue to like Charlie/Babe, I don't think I should've lowered my rating to 6, so it's going up again lol.

[thevulpinehero1]

Gwatch: Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Ep 2

Time for Episode 2. After a high-octane first episode, EP 2 has some minor administrative stuff to take care of in regards to laying out the situation the protagonists will be in. As before, be wary of spoilers.

Pictured: the Captain of the White Base asking a sensible question about war machines that would later be almost exclusively piloted by people too young to legally drink

Let's talk about Zakus. People love Zakus. They're cute little cyclops guys, and they get totally manhandled basically from start to finish whenever they appear which gives them underdog points, but it's worth noting that at this point the story goes out of its way to establish that even a Zaku, the punching bag mook suit of future Gundam lore, is a huge threat.

Char reports losing two Zakus, and his superior cannot believe his ears. These are the shaky beginnings of mobile suits, and the Earth Federation doesn't really have any horses in that race yet. They're still trying to fight off Zakus with tanks and planes, and the Zakus are as far above conventional military vehicles as the Gundam is above the Zakus.

Two Zakus murdered entire crowds of people. They're stated to have wiped out almost every single military officer and engineer that was supposed to staff the White Base. They're directly responsible for the ongoing crisis that the protagonists experience throughout the series; those two random guys Amuro yolo'd in a suit he could barely get to stand up were more effective in stalling the Federation war effort than almost anything that follows.

And they sort've need to be that effective, because the audience needs to be sold on the premise of mechs as a weapon of war, subject to the logistics and concerns of the battlefield. Previous shows in the genre have been more super robot types, so they got a free pass, but the Zaku needs to show why you wouldn't just use a tank or more conventional vehicle, and that threat level has been established early on (even if it's mostly brushed over; as mecha fans will admit, the question "but why does it have to be a giant robot?" doesn't have any good practical answers outside of it being cooler. Even if you ignore things like the square-cube law and the difficulty in scaling up a humanoid body, even if you ignore how complex mecha would be in comparison to a tank loaded with the same armaments, the simple fact is that humanoid is not a particularly effective shape to be on a modern battlefield.)

Sayla Mass shortly after slapping a random civilian who has understandably elected to get himself away from an active battlefield instead of roaming around looking for survivors, then telling him he should be left behind to die instead of being evacuated. Her sweater has become part of her skin; she's a Na'vi from the neck down.

Sayla's an interesting character who basically never appears in other Gundam shows, despite the fact that she'd be pretty relevant to a couple of them and the series being quite happy to include previous major characters in later instalments. I forget why this is the case -- I think it might have had something to do with her VA? -- but either way, she's one of the few who doesn't return in any meaningful role, which means we can only enjoy her here.

Part of what makes her fun to watch is that, when she's not just randomly slapping potentially traumatised survivors of a military attack, she's generally pretty effective. Within minutes of us being told her name, she's pulled a gun on Char, who's snuck into the colony on foot to do a bit of spying (which is honestly something of a habit for him as the Gundam series goes on). He almost immediately disarms her because he's Char and also extremely effective when he wants to be, but hey.

Char Aznable playing Touhou in his off time. Seriously, this guy dodges lasers like it's going out of style.

As Char makes his escape with the valuable data, we're treated to what will become a fairly common sight: Amuro getting out the beam rifle and just kind of yeeting all of his ammunition at nothing in particular. This time, he has excuses; he's aiming at human targets in a mobile suit, and he's never really killed a human in cold blood before. He also pulls off a couple of neat shots where he hits two missiles mid-flight. But I remember the amount of times 'oh no I fired wildly with my rifle and didn't hit anything, and now I have no ammo!' became a complicating factor becoming something of a joke to me.

We're then treated to the first ever battle between Amuro Ray and Char Aznable, which ends up as more or less a stalemate. Make no mistake: Amuro gets completely manhandled by Char, who's an accomplished ace pilot with five battleship kills to his name. But the Gundam is so OP for this point in the series that, even though Amuro can't really touch him, Char can't really capitalise on the opportunity since the Gundam can tank his weapons head on. In the end, their skirmish is a mutual loss. Amuro loses to a pilot. Char loses to a suit.

But Char walks away with a head full of the Federation's military secrets and a much better understanding of the Gundam's threat level, and he has supplies and reinforcements on the way...

[falloutbradreviews]

First Impressions, Ep. 3

The third installment of my new First Impressions series, where I talk about albums that I’m hearing for the first time period, or that I’m hearing for the first time in a long time, is going to have more of a theme than the last one, and it’s going to be solo artists, because I’m in the mood for pop-rock / pop singer-songwriters, or straight up pop artists, versus hard-rock and post-grunge. I may talk about some of these in a longer format, but for now, I just wanted to talk about these albums briefly, just while I go through them and figure out what I do want to listen to more.

Gavin DeGraw – Make A Move

I was a random flea mall the other day, and I found a copy of Gavin DeGraw’s fifth album, 2013’s Make A Move, and it might have been the first album of his I ever heard. I remember picking this up when it came out in 2013, but I haven’t heard it in a long time. The booth that had it was a booth that had albums for $1.50 each, or four albums for $5, so I picked up a few albums, including the next album I’m going to talk about, but I picked this up out of a curiosity to see if this album has held up over the last decade. Honestly, I like it just fine, especially for an inconsequential pop-rock / blue-eyed soul album that doesn’t try to do anything more than what it sets out to do. I don’t love this album, mind you, but it’s pretty catchy and fun, so I don’t know, take that as you will.

Sara Bareilles – Little Voice

One of the other albums I got was Sara Bareilles’ label debut album, 2007’s Little Voice. I’ve listened to some of her stuff in the past, but I’ve never heard this album, which is a crime, because this is the album that has “Love Song” on it. That song is so good, even all these years later, and the rest of the album is pretty fun, too. It’s mainly a pop / piano-pop album, and yeah, it’s really solid stuff. I would love to dive into this one more throughout the week, but in terms of a quick first listen, I absolutely enjoy this.

Jack’s Mannequin – The Glass Passenger

I picked this album up at FYE a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve always wanted to check this out, despite not being too familiar with Jack’s Mannequin. I’ve heard a couple of Andrew McMahon & The Wilderness albums, but I’ve also listened to the other two Jack’s Mannequin records. This was the only one I hadn’t heard, but I remember when The Glass Passenger came out in 2008. I never listened to it them, but I remember seeing promotional stuff for it. I got it at FYE for $2, and it was a great $2, because this album is really good. This is another one that I’m debating on getting into. It’s a bit long, as both and his debut with this project tended to be, but it’s got a lot of really fun, catchy, and enjoyable songs. For a couple of dollars, that’s a great deal, and it’s a really solid piano-pop / power-pop album.

John Mayer – Continuum

One artist that I haven’t listened to much of is John Mayer, believe it or not, but I’ve always wanted to. I did listen to his last album, 2021’s Sob Rock, partially because I love the 1980s yacht-rock aesthetic that he has on it, but I’ve never heard any of his classic material from his debut in 2001 to 2013, give or take. He’s had a few musical changes over his career, and this album, 2006’s Continuum, shows him moving into what I always knew him as, which was a blues and soul. I guess his early stuff was more pop-rock in tone, even with “Your Body Is A Wonderland,” but this is blues record. This is the one that I’ve been wanting to hear, because I remember seeing this quite a lot in the mid-00s, but it’s a really solid record. It’s a great blues and soul record, especially for being a bit different than what was popular at the time, so I have to commend this record for being relatively unique. I also love his voice, and I forgot how good Mayer’s voice is, but it’s like butter here.

Elliott Yamin – Self-Titled

I’ve always wanted to check out the debut album from American Idol finalist Elliott Yamin, and I finally found a copy of it! It’s crazy that he was on the same season as Katharine McPhee, Kellie Pickler, Chris Daughtry, and Taylor Hicks, but he placed very high. I’ve never heard this album until now, but it’s a solid little R&B and pop record. He had a decent-sized hit from this record with “Wait For You,” but it’s kind of a shame his career didn’t blow up as much as it should have, because his voice is utterly fantastic. I’m shocked he didn’t win American Idol, but that’s neither here nor there at this point, since that was almost 20 years ago. Even so, this record is actually quite good, but it’s nothing super unique, either, so I can guess I kind of see it. It’s still done quite well, regardless, so R&B fans should definitely check this out.

[storyteller-ish]

Thoughts on GMMTV 2024 Part 2, for my future reference:

Will probably watch

Ossan's Love, The Heart Killers, Hide & Sis, Us, Break up Service, ReVamp

Will wait to see the final trailer/until the first few eps air

The Heart Killers, Thame-Po, The Dark Dice, Leap Day

Intrigued by the cast but likely won’t watch

Friendshit Forever

Not for me

Sweet Tooth Good Dentist, The Ex-Morning, Scarlet Heart Thailand

Absolutely no thoughts

Perfect10Liners

Trailer thoughts below

Ossan's love: tbh I was hoping Earth would be in the Haruta role since I've wanted to see him do something goofy after seeing him in Mama Gogo. Needless to say I'm quite pleased lol. I was thrown off by the changes at first, specifically to this version of Haruta, but I'm pretty I'm pretty indifferent to it now. Maybe just seeing that they kept the rooftop fight scene in tact placated me lol. I look forward to it, it seems like it'll be fun!

Leap Day: Really interesting concept. The acting was a bit hammy, but it's only the concept trailer so I'm not especially concerned especially since Gun is involved. so I'll wait and see the final trailer

The Heart Killers: lost it when he threatened someone with a wrench to the neck. it's a good thing that person kissed him a second later or he would have had to figure out how to kill slit his throat with a wrench. Anyway, I'll probably watch it lol. I feel like I'll be more invested in the side couple since their loveline apparently based of Taming of the Shrew? but we'll see.

Friendshit Forever: I love this title so much.... no notes skdfsjl Am I the only one who thought this was a GL in the first few seconds LOL. I already knew about Us, so I was like TWO GLs??? But no lol. It doesn't really seem like the type of drama I'd like, so I'll probably pass on this one.

Perfect10Liners: Seems like a real classic type of BL. Didn't really have any thoughts on it.

Us: I do really look forward to this one! It already has a really distinct vibe that gives me an idea of what we'll be getting with this one. I'm so scared of the random death flags I'm getting from the tone though, I hope it's just me.

Hide and Sis: Ohhh I don't think I've had a GMMTV early trailer pull me in as well as this one did. It has a really strong sense of identity already. I really look forward to it. My track record is that I see these types of murder mystery dramas and every time I say I'll watch them and then they air, and then I don't watch it P.S. I Hate You I will get to you soon I promise but I DO really want to see this one. I'm going to try to do my best to hold myself to at least starting it once it airs.

Thame-Po: I JUST got the pun in the title lol. I'm curious about what Mr. Superstar asked the assistant to help him with and I feel like what they're up to will be the deciding factor in whether I watch this drama LOL idk why.

Break Up Service: Reminds me of Enjiya and, to a lesser extent, Revenge Agency's Two People. I like the concept and it seems like it'll be a fun time.

ReVamp: oh? TWO vampire shows on the roster? must be my birthday LOL. kind of wish I didn't know bohn and deun were signed to gmm now. the confusion I would have suffered from seeing this trailer would have been astronomical but also really funny.

Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist: Mark Pakin in a leading role (not the Last Twilight reference), good for him! His destiny has been fulfilled at last! Probably won't be watching though lol.

The Dark Dice: Looks interesting. Cool concept that I've seen before, but I'm curious about what they do with it. The fact that the game manifests as what looks like a sims plumbob, is going to open up so much potential for Sims jokes lol.

The Ex-Morning: seems fine, but why is there a random car accident thrown in lmao? and wouldn't that be a pretty major spoiler? Anyway I'm not opposed to watching it but I'm most likely going to pass.

Scarlet Heart Thailand: Reminds me that I still haven't seen Scarlet Heart Ryeo. I will probably skip it. I don't have any attachment to the original story that would make me want to see this story more than once.

[ncisfranchise-source]

How can NCIS Season 21 best pay tribute to original cast member David McCallum, who died on Monday at age 90?

McCallum played chief medical examiner-turned-NCIS Historian Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard for all 20 seasons, most recently appearing (remotely) in the final two episodes of Season 20 last spring. He had been the show’s last remaining original cast member following the exit of series lead Mark Harmon early in Season 19. (Sean Murray in Season 1 only recurred as McGee.)

“For over 20 years, David McCallum endeared himself to audiences around the world playing the wise, quirky, and sometimes enigmatic, Dr. Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard,” NCIS executive producers Steven D. Binder and David North said in a statement. “But as much as his fans may have loved him, those who worked side by side with David loved him that much more …. From Day 1, it was an honor to work with him and he never let us down. He was, quite simply, a legend.”

The character of Ducky as of late was largely off-screen, ostensibly on a globe-trotting book tour; his most recent video consultation was delivered from a stop in Edinburgh. So on the one hand, the NCIS writers may decide to emulate what, say, Call Me Kat did for the late Leslie Jordan and simply have Ducky continue to live an idyllic off-camera existence.

Or, the well-watched CBS drama might choose to better honor McCallum — whose acting legacy spanned nearly 70 years and also included memorable roles on The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Sapphire & Steel and other TV shows — by giving the longtime NCIS team member an emotional sendoff of his own.

If NCIS takes the latter, sadder route, which faces from the show’s past do you think should be on hand to pay the good doctor their last respects? We have a few suggestions, followed by a poll where you can express your own wishes….

Mark Harmon as Gibbs

LAST APPEARED: Gibbs was tooling around in his newly finished boat when it shockingly went “boom” in the Season 18 finale. In the fourth episode of Season 19 — after Gibbs, McGee et al solved the case of a contract killer hired by a conglomerate to clear the way for an environment-poisoning copper mine  — “boss” decided to stay put in “the middle of nowhere,” in Alaska, where the multi-episode arc had led him.

CHARACTER STATUS: As EP Steven Binder told TVLine a year ago, “There’s this feeling among the writing staff — and I share it — that we left [Gibbs] sort of nowhere but also everywhere. Like, when I think of Gibbs, I don’t think of him living in an apartment in Alaska. Instead, I imagine he’s sort of melted into pixie dust and is floating around in the sky until he is called back to duty.”

What better “call to duty” than to pay D.C. a quick visit to say a proper farewell to longtime friend and esteemed colleague “Duck”?

Michael Weatherly as Tony

LAST APPEARED: Original cast member Weatherly’s run ended with the Season 13 finale, after Tony learned that longtime romantic interest Ziva David had years earlier — prior to her “death” — given birth to their daughter, Tali. Weatherly has often teased some sort of NCIS encore (sometimes even a “Tiva” two-fer), but even in the wake of Bull‘s cancellation, that has not yet come to fruition.

CHARACTER STATUS: As detailed in the “Ziva” recap below, Tony and Tali presumably enjoyed a reunion with Ziva sometime in late Season 17. Since both former NCIS agents really should be on hand for any Ducky remembrance, the series could deliver some overdue fan service along the way.

Pauley Perrette as Abby

LAST APPEARED: Original cast member Perrette’s NCIS run ended after 15 seasons, in May 2018.

CHARACTER STATUS: After Clayton Revees fatally took a bullet for her during a seemingly random (but not) street mugging, Abby committed herself to following in the MI6 agent’s footsteps by shepherding a charity for homeless women. She then accompanied Reeves’ body back to his London home, before embarking on this new chapter in her life. Abby, like Ducky, was all about the science, so it’d be odd to not hear from her, in some way, in any sendoff episode. (She just might not share a scene with Gibbs.)

Cote de Pablo as Ziva

LAST APPEARED: After exiting NCIS at the start of Season 11 (ending an eight-season run), de Pablo’s enigmatic Ziva most unexpectedly resurfaced in the Season 16 finale, then recurred in a handful of Season 17 episodes.

CHARACTER STATUS: In de Pablo’s mid-Season 17 mini-arc, Gibbs helped Ziva with the “one thing” she needed to tend to before reuniting with Tony and their daughter Tali: making sure that Adam Eshel was OK. Once that was handled, Ziva told Gibbs that she had slipped word to Tony to get Tali into hiding, and that once he and Tali are safe and settled, she would reach out. So presumably the DiNozzo-Davids are reunited and well. But having one show up to honor Ducky without the other could be narratively clunky.

Emily Wickersham as Ellie

LAST APPEARED: In the Season 18 finale, “Rule 91” (as in the Gibbs rule, “When you walk away, don’t look back”)

CHARACTER STATUS: Special Agent Bishop famously — and abruptly! — dipped on romantic interest Nick Torres and the rest of NCIS at large in order to prep for a super-secret undercover op on behalf of Odette, a former CIA operative and Ziva David’s onetime cohort. While it’d be nice to somehow bring Ellie in “from the cold,” it might create more closure issues with Nick than any one guest spot can resolve.

Maria Bello as Dr. 'Jack' Sloane

LAST APPEARED: Bello’s swan song as forensic psychologist Jack Sloane aired in March 2021, ending a three-season run.

CHARACTER STATUS: Jack had hinted that she was leaving NCIS to retire to “Costa Rica”; instead, she stayed put in Afghanistan after a mission with Gibbs, to continue a friend’s work protecting young girls from abduction by the Taliban. Having been around for Ducky’s transition from Chief M.E. to NCIS Historian, it’d be fitting to hear from Jack again.

Adam Campbell as 'Young Ducky'

LAST APPEARED: Campbell’s fourth turn as Young Donald Mallard, in flashbacks, aired early in Season 18.

CHARACTER STATUS: Alive and well… in the past. But what a sweet touch it could be to serve up even the briefest new flashback to bring the good doctor’s colorful story full circle.

Bob Newhart as Ducky's mentor, Dr. Walter Magnus

LAST APPEARED: In the mid-Season 8 episode “Recruited” — the esteemed guest star’s only NCIS visit thus far.

CHARACTER STATUS: Out there in the world somewhere, though Newhart, now age 94, hasn’t acted on a TV series since an April 2020 episode of Young Sheldon.

[melrosing]

black mirror is one of those shows where the worse it gets the less I can understand what I ever saw in it

[dangermousie]

I confess that the narrative of TTJ in the sect learning how to be a human properly was always my favorite part of the novel even if it wasn’t a romantic portion of the story. So I am so excited the drama kept it (with bits of the Cang Jiumin dream storyline, they meld seamlessly.) 

(I love that he actually gets a name chosen with care and not one that is expression of hatred and bad luck!)

Look at how shocked he is the master is all “the sword is yours, keep it.” He is so not used to care and kindness.

Honestly, it’s little things that get me, like how he’s so awkward being hugged by the blind lady and you realize he’s still not used to being touched in gentleness and love.

It’s just such a pleasure watching TTJ find acceptance and care in the sect - finally a decent parental figure in his master and then also the sect brothers who just accept and like him, do not view him as a monstrosity (he didn’t have such matter-of-fact acceptance even during his emperor days for obvious reasons.) This is the longest stretch of normalcy he’s ever had and he needed it so badly (and the fact that it comes from sect master and brothers he destroyed in past timeline is extra glorious; it does show that we are our choices, we are not doomed to do the same thing over and over.) The fact that he probably got it because Susu broke his fate/curse and so he is not being pushed by literally the Universe into more and more suffering as a goad to turn him into devil god, is an extra bonus. And the thing that gets me so hard is - TTJ aka Cang Jiumin, thrives. He repays kindness with kindness - you watch him be a good student and kind to the old lady and practice well. 

It makes me think of the scene in an early ep flashback where older nanny tells younger nanny that the reason TTJ has difficulty processing or understanding emotions and people is because of his fucked up existence. And she is proven right - he is clearly always an introvert but living a nice life full of physical and emotional caring (he does not go hungry, he is liked, he is taught, he is valued), he adjusts more and more. He soaks normalcy as a sponge and I think learns as much or more from this stretch as he did from Susu. Susu opened up the gate but it’s this time that really puts the seal on it (yes, I am mixing my metaphor.) He needed to love and be loved by at least one person to give the world a chance, but he now has demonstration that not the whole world is awful. Before he hated the world but refrained from damage because Susu loved it, but now perhaps he can learn to love it a little on his own behalf. (And it makes sense his fate was nonstop horror before - if you want someone to turn into a demon god who is in so much pain he wants to erase the universe into nothingness, you can’t give him a glimmer of hope or a positive outlet. You don’t want your would-be world destructor to go “I don’t want to end the Universe because I have a sect dinner on Thursday, and my wife and I are going on a vacay the following weekend, how about we check back in a few millennia.”)

He is so gentle with this random old lady and he’s able to analogize the two of them - that is empathy, really, something impossible for a person they claimed was devoid of feelings; he’s come so far all because he’s had normalcy and care.

And he tries to make her withered tree bloom because she wants it, tries so hard even tho he just met her (and that he tries with the help of charms Susu taught him - he really is a memorial to her in so many ways, a living breathing memorial.)

I love his conversation with the old lady btw, it is my favorite scene in the episode, where they talk about why people live. In some ways, despite his age he is pitifully young since he’s had so little normal experience. This isn’t just a mission to help and old lady, it is a mission to help him too.

The way it turns out she knew and yet still took it, because kindness is rare and precious...

I love his opening up, responding to honesty with honesty, care to care. He is like a mirror to the world, in so many ways, and when all it gave him was pain he dealt pain back, but he is slowly healing, slowly climbing out of his well of misery and abuse and seeing humanity in others and in the process finding humanity in himself.

It’s so interesting how he answers about people, not home, because he doesn’t have a home, not really. Nowhere where people are glad to see him and so there is no home for him because without care it’s just rocks and dirt and why does he care where he is.

Oh God, this killed me.

The way he ponders that!

The way this is written - it’s as if Susu translates the world to him and him to the world and without her as the conduit, he cannot judge his success or his worth or his morality. I am incoherent!!!

It is gutting that all he needed was a little push - a little choice, a little happiness. Look how quickly he learns - like when he talks about his wife to the old lady and old lady asks if he could get his wife back by becoming evil, would he, and he thinks and is tempted but says no because Susu would not have liked it. He has learned to put what she wants above what he wants (a change even from “hate me as long as you are here.”)

The way he figures out how to fulfill the old lady’s wish with his white lie and her response just...

Here he is with the old lady who passed away. I am verklempt....

It really is nature/nurture debate and the answer is pretty clear - if he was brought up with love and care instead of constant trauma and suffering - he would have been just lovely; he is climbing out of that abyss even after all the torment and without it he’d have been there so much sooner. Devil God actually is a manifestation the world’s cruelty creating its own monsters and seeds of its own destruction and I love that.

PS Devil God voice is proof that you can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good (or evil in this case.) He should have taken the body/soul when TTJ didn’t care and was offering but he wanted to wait for the perfect host as opposed to 98% compatible and now he’s living (undying?) proof of the old adage of “you snooze you lose!”

[matan4il]

Buddie vs Lone Star meta (2/3)

Notes: || LS = 911 Lone Star || OG = original 911 || These three meta posts were written before watching LS s3... || part 1 || part 3

LS 209

Okay, I love Grace, Judd and their ship (Grudd), they’re probably the best part of LS for me (and I also love Tarlos, so that says a lot). Obviously a “Grudd Begins” ep was bound to be a fave. But yes, we’re here to talk about its parallels to Buddie… Because there are A LOT, I tried to be brief in what I wrote. Here we go! ~~~

Let’s kick off with the fact that Grudd and Buddie are both partners who experience a shared major trauma! As I’ve pointed out before, it is A Choice who the show chooses to go through this together... ~~~

When they met, Judd instinctively trusted Grace and confided in her, despite thinking he’s not in a confessional mood and saying he’s not much of a talker. Over time, he gradually kept telling her more and more of his truth (I mean, that idiot was in love before the end of their first talk, telling her his real name already). Similarly, Eddie trusted Buck intuitively, despite their initial friction in OG 201, and after a few seconds of hesitation he showed Buck Christopher���s picture and told Buck all about Chris. Over time, he kept letting Buck more and more into their lives (TBH not even after that much time, either. It took him what, presumably one week to move from, “this guy is being a jerk to me, I should ruffle his feathers” to “hell yeah, I will trust you with intimate info on my son”? More meta on just HOW MUCH trust Eddie put in Buck early on in season 2 in regards to Chris, here). ~~~

Grace is shown as someone who makes Judd’s life better by advising him on how to approach Kyle’s mother, which is exactly what we saw of Grudd in LS 101, and as I’ve already mentioned in part 1 of this series, that parallels the way Buck is shown as helping Eddie and making his life better in early s2. Except, if in LS 101 Grudd are already married, here we see that this theme started even before they became an official couple, which is even more similar to Buddie... ~~~

Judd lets Grace know as early as their second talk that he sees how good she is at what she does. Eddie lets Buck know as early as their second shift together that he sees how good Buck is at what he does. Buck and Grace both get to feel seen and valued thanks to these new found relationships! ~~~

After their initial connection, Grudd proceed to flirt under the guise of a growing platonic bond over the phone. After their initial connection, Buddie proceed to flirt (most undeniably in eps like OG 309 and 408) under the guise of a growing platonic friendship. ~~~

After Grudd had become set in their routine, Judd is shaken up when he thinks Grace has left her job at the prayer hotline, which is how they met in the first place. In OG 510, after Buddie had become set in their routine, Buck is visibly shaken up when he thinks Eddie is leaving his job with the 118, which is how they met in the first place… ~~~

Grace’s father says he trusts Judd to do the ‘right thing’ (for her), which would mean letting her go so she could have a better life without him, but eventually it becomes clear that the best life for Grace is with Judd. In OG 315, Eddie’s mom says they trust him to do what’s right for Chris, which would mean letting him go so he could have a better life without Eddie, but eventually it becomes clear the best life for Chris is with Eddie, who chooses to share that life he’s building for Chris and Buck, a point that is made even clearer when we later learn that this is the very same episode in which Eddie decided to write Buck into his will as Christopher’s legal guardian (revealed later in OG 414). ~~~

When Judd was hurting without Grace in his life, he went off and punched a random asshole parking where he shouldn’t have, an incident for which Judd got himself arrested. In OG 305, when Eddie was hurting without Buck in his life due to the lawsuit, he went off and punched a random asshole parking where he shouldn’t have, an incident for which Eddie got himself arrested. Both of these morons couldn’t deal with this emotional loss of their other half.

~~~

In the present of LS 209, we see Grudd together in the sinking car, and Judd is unwilling to leave Grace because he would rather die than live without her, which immediately reminded me of OG 315 (yes, again!) when Eddie was buried underground. Buck wanted to go down there to get him and Hen’s response made it clear that if Buck was allowed to, they’d just end up with two cut ropes (an accusation which he doesn’t deny), meaning Buck too would rather have died than live without Eddie (something that he repeats explicitly to Eddie in OG 414, I SCREAM). ~~~

Grudd getting together in 209 despite some bumps along the road is finally resolved when Grace lets Judd know he’s actually been her man all this time, even when they weren’t officially a couple (he’s just an oblivious moron and didn’t realize it). Buck and Eddie might not have reached this conclusion explicitly yet (Grace has an advantage over them because she apparently has more than a single brain cell), but tell me that what she implies doesn’t basically sum up Buddie’s dynamic, where they’re married and are raising a kid together despite not officially being a couple… ~~~

…In conclusion, the 911 verse has spoken, loud and clear, and the only question left is, “Buddie Begins” when, Tim?

~ ~ ~ Thank you so much to the superstar @judsonryder​​​ for making the gifs for these posts. She’s been unbelievable with these! You can find more of my Buddie meta, gifs, humor posts here, and my Buddie fics here. Please feel free to poke me if you need help with anything, and thank you in advance for any show of support! xoxox