#but like. imo the ending very much seems to imply that it was all real 😭 and also there's a sequel with another boss baby

[goldenflowers]

watched boss baby for my dreamworks tier list earlier. i will admit that i've disparaged the movie without even having watched it before, so i tried to give it a chance. but man, i really don't feel like writing a full post on it because i thought it was just. such an incredibly stupid movie with stupid generic characters (who also have stupid generic designs) and a stupid confusing world full of stupid plot holes. with stupid humor too. and it dragged on so much and felt so long. and i'm going to have to watch the second one just so i can most likely rank that in the bottom tier of my list too. i just have two questions: how did the director of megamind (which i think is a great movie) also direct this nonsense? and how did this movie make so much fucking money that it spawned a whole franchise while rise of the guardians bombed and was left to rot? i hate this world.

[a-bottle-of-tyelenol]

I love reading Eurylochus analysis but I don’t see people mentioning the beginning of Puppeteer all that often.

Eurylochus starts that song by immediately trying to tell Odysseus about what he did. Immediately. I know we like to characterize Eurylochus as cowardly (mostly because that’s how Jorge describes him and how he’s described in the Odyssey), but I think it says a lot that Eurylochus didn’t try to hide or pretend as if this hadn’t been his fault. He didn’t wait for Odysseus to confront him about it or try to avoid taking responsibility. It’s rather brave imo that he tried to say something and only didn’t because his captain ordered him not to.

I think a lot about the timeline of EPIC and how entering the lair of Scylla likely wasn’t that long after Puppeteer. Odysseus says they’ve been away from home for “about twelve years or so” and then there’s the obvious discrepancy of Odysseus telling Circe the same thing— explained away by it being a simple mistake on Jorge’s end. If we go by the likelihood that it hadn’t yet been twelve years when they met Circe and that Ody was lying, there’s a rough two-ish year period before Eurylochus actually tells the truth.

To some, this might be indicative of his cowardice, a show that he wouldn’t actually tell the truth and would prefer to hide away his greatest mistake for as long as he can manage.

I disagree. I think this could indicate a couple other things, though; namely that this is proof Eurylochus changed his perspective and decided to listen to Odysseus. Mutiny could only happen because Eurylochus realized his mistake in not believing Odysseus not just once, with the windbag, but twice when Odysseus went to save their men on Circe’s island. Three strikes, you’re out and Eurylochus is not that kind of man— side note: it isn’t hypocritical to change your viewpoint and then criticize someone for adopting your old one btw, it’s just how people function.

Different Beast does imply this a bit, but I think the fact that Eurylochus waited so long to tell Odysseus about the windbag is much more blatant. After all, Odysseus told him to wait, and he did. To me, it seems like Eurylochus read between the lines of Ody’s order (go make sure the island is secure, there’s only so much left we can endure) and took it to mean “wait to tell me when things have settled and we aren’t on the brink of dying”.

Which leads to the second implication, why did Eurylochus choose this moment? Obviously, he didn’t know the nature of Scylla or the danger that they were in, but what about this moment in particular left Eurylochus feeling secure enough to tell Odysseus? Well, the obvious answer is the ruthlessness Odysseus showed in Different Beast showing that they’ve reached that point of power and being able to defend themselves even from monsters that have slain so many sailors.

But another option could be the idea that Scylla was their “last stop” before going home. It’s a bit unclear if this remains true in EPIC, but in the Odyssey, Scylla and Charybdis are right next to each other and the trick is that you have to pick your poison— do you want to die to the whirlpool monster or the six-headed one? What is clear in EPIC is that Ithaca is just past Charybdis, meaning that Scylla, in theory, could’ve been their final stop before reaching Ithaca had Mutiny not happened. There is a very real possibility that they might not have gone to the first island they found if Odysseus hadn’t been knocked unconscious. They still might have just because they were hungry, but it can be difficult to tell which is fate and which is the result of man’s actions.

Either way, I think that a lot of people tend to gloss over the fact that it’s very apparent Eurylochus was going to tell Odysseus what happened as soon as he could and only didn’t because Odysseus told him to wait. It’s a very interesting aspect of his character to me and I think it reveals a lot in terms of his character motivations and how it contrasts to Odysseus’ perception of him throughout the show.

[broodwoof]

forever thinking abt solas and sera as extraordinary foils of each other

elven history v. elven modernity is a big thing but just as major imo:

rebellion

solas is the dread wolf, the trickster god of rebellion and deception. we know now that it's more nuanced than all that, but he did lead a rebellion - and with good cause!

sera is a modern rebel, and what does solas do? he tries to share his experience with her. he talks about the tactics of rebellion, the choices to be made, the difficult things that lay ahead. sera listens and then rejects it and he's so confused. she's a rebel, she obviously cares about people, why won't she take it all the way?

but her reasoning is about avoiding his consequence and he doesn't even see it. she doesn't want to kill or ruin all nobles bc to do so would plunge everyone into chaos and she recognizes that. solas plunged all of arlathan into a chaos so profound it destroyed it

in a lot of ways, sera is wiser than solas, wiser about people, about reaction, about cause and effect. he went to extremes in order to free slaves and to punish the evanuris. she knows that nobles are awful and that servants and workers and all the people who provide for them are abused and misused, but she doesn't think wholesale destruction is the answer and she isn't wrong

and what's the difference? imo, community and experience. solas is such an academic, distanced from those he seeks to protect, and can be very paternalistic. sera has lived these things. she talks about how some of the red jennies make enough coin to retire and how the ones who do good are fine but others end up being the target of the jennies. she knows how people can change

also: the red jennies scare the nobles. there's power in that. it's far from perfect, but that doesn't mitigate the very real power in it. what if instead of destroying everything, solas had led a rebellion that put fear in the hearts of the evanuris? what if he forced them to confront that they, too, could face the consequences of their actions? it wouldn't have been easy but it would have prevented the absolute destruction that followed

and he! doesn't! fucking! see it! he doesn't see that sera's reasoning is about avoiding his mistake! he doesn't see that sera's wisdom grounded in experience counters his naivete grounded in an academic pursuit of justice!

which imo is all the more reason to believe he's a spirit. he had, and perhaps still has, a very simplistic view of things like this. if there is an injustice you fix it. you don't live with it and change it by degrees, you don't try to alter it at the root, you just Fix It, whatever form that takes. the evanuris are bad? imprison them. simplistic punitive justice. to sera, the nobles are bad? make them, THESE nobles, fear reprisal. give power and anonymity to the people being hurt. but don't get rid of all the nobles only to have to start the process over again

and we don't know the full form of solas' rebellion, granted. he may have tried many things for a long time. and arlathan appears to have been much worse than thedas is now - even tevinter doesn't seem as bad as arlathan is vaguely implied to have been. but he still destroyed... everything. he killed so many innocents. and yes, again, his situation was different - he talks about the evanuris destroying the world if he didn't stop them. perhaps he's right. it's not a 1:1 comparison, I get that. but they are still very profound foils of each other, and I find his insistence that sera should follow his path to be a fascinating bit of insight into his character, continuing to opt for extreme measures

[codenamesazanka]

Story really should've forced Aizawa and Mic to grapple with the fact that Kurogiri/Shirakumo seemed to have genuinely cared about Shigaraki Tomura. Not just 'oh, that's just Shirakumo's caring nature' and dismiss it as a general benevolence that was manipulated to babysit some kid, but really have them consider that Kurogiri/Shirakumo likely developed a special relationship with Shigaraki and that the well-being of the kid Kurogiri/Shirakumo watched over and nurtured for years mattered to him.

Like, Aizawa and Mic are teachers. They would understand feeling responsibility and care towards children - even if not their own, even if complete brats, even if they personally dislike a kid - feeling the duty to protect them and guide them toward adulthood. That's what Kurogiri/Shirakumo did as well - was given the job of guiding a spoiled 'knows nothing but the impulse to destroy' kid into someone more mature and thoughtful, a future leader.

But more than that - and albeit this is implied in canon and only shown in semi-canon things like the Ultra Impact game - Kurogiri/Shirakumo was partly raising Shigaraki. Making him meals, tending to his injuries, helping him train, etc. Also something Aizawa would understand well, since he's all but adopted Eri as his own. Aizawa started off only taking care of Eri as a charity case for UA, but before long, he was basically considering her like his own kid. Yeah, Kurogiri/Shirakumo's situation was much more complicated and shady than that, but you can't tell me he wouldn't have developed some real care towards his charge, especially since such a big deal was made of his Shirakumo core.

If Aizawa and Mic considered Kurogiri/Shirakumo still their friend - a ghost of one, and only partly there, but undeniably their friend - then they at least have to consider Kurogiri/Shirakumo's wants and needs as real in some way, even if they disagree or question them, and respect that. And if that includes real care for Shigaraki Tomura, to the point that Kurogiri's last act was making sure Shigaraki Tomura can be happy with his friends, Aizawa and Mic would've had to acknowledge Shigaraki as well. See what Kurogiri/Shirakumo sees in Shigaraki that's worth protecting. At the very least, they can't just help kill off the guy without hurting Kurogiri/Shirakumo.

But it feels that Shigaraki Tomura had to have stayed a unknowable, scary villain to everyone but Deku (and even Deku seemed to have considered Shigaraki and The Crying Child as separate entities for the most part). Rather, it's weird that a story about saving Villains ended up largely avoiding having anyone other than the designated Saving Hero consider a villain a person. Made sure that only one Hero can claim the majority of the effort and the victory. Essentially - did not consider Heroes having a collective responsibility toward the idea of saving in this aspect.

I think obviously, storytelling-wise, it's about chronicling the particular Hero's journey and development, celebrating their success, and it's more effective if the focus is centered on them. But theme-wise, in-universe-wise, imo, it ends up kinda saying that only one special Hero could've saved the Villain, and thank goodness that special Hero was there. Otherwise, no one would've helped. Otherwise, no one else - no other Hero, even - wanted to help. Which is bleak.

[kurtcobainindresses]

my take on challengers

1. not about the movie itself but i'm so excited for what seems to be the first occurrence of monoculture in a while it's so fun to all be talking about the same thing and it not being t swizzle related

2. i'm so sorry for this but i don't think zendaya has enough gravitas to carry the movie. like she's very good as the alluring figure you're attracted to right away but as soon as she starts speaking i can see the wheels turning in her head and it's clear to me she's not embodying the character as a person with a past and memories as much as emulating whatever emotion tashi's supposed to feel in a given scene. this is even worse in the "present timeline" scenes like i just did not get 30yo mom who is bitter and dissatisfied and weary at all her body language was the exact same in every timeline when she's supposed to be at very different stages in her life

3. continuation of the preceding point but there's no triangle if all three relationships aren't equally as entrancing!!!! and to me the scenes between art and patrick were a 100% more interesting than any of the scenes they had with tashi individually unfortunately. i just didn't get anything from zendaya

4. i like that the attraction between art and patrick was implied BUT it could have been taken further imo. we see patrick swiping (left or right i don't remember) on a guy on tinder so we know there's something going on there but what about art???? are we just supposed to think tashi repressed him so bad he just forgot about it??? (and yeah the final scene yada yada. i know. but still it felt like it still went unacknowledged for quite a while)

5. some of the editing choices were bad ie. the timestamps which were unnecessary after the first time (we could tell by the length of their hair!!!) and the slomo at certain points (when tashi was walking down the alleyway like it was a runway with her fuckass bob 😭😭😭)

6. the score fucks trent reznor and atticus finch you will always be famous

7. josh o'connor. how do you do it

8. blood orange during the almost threesome was so good. i need to know who is responsible for this

9. the non-chronological storytelling got kind of cheap for me at the end. it kinda did a disservice to the movie because it made it hinge on a bunch of big reveals we all had guessed a while ago so quite unnecessary in my opinion (and yes i know the back and forth is supposed to mirror a tennis match but to me this is style over substance and not in an interesting or original way)

10. all in all this is a fun movie but not quite all it's made out to be.....i think it could've been stellar if we'd had a real trio and a real presence at the center of the movie which i don't think zendaya can be quite yet!!! but ykw. we let keanu do it twenty years ago and we're letting john david washington do it now so zendaya should be allowed to as well!

[folcanta]

ok last night we rewatched The Edge of The World/The Gravity Of Destiny and i went on a mad hunt reading blogs and papers to hear other people's interpretations of the information we're told in these, and....... man. different people couch it in different feelings/ideas, stuff i agree or disagree with, but the crux of it is always the same. and i just don't like it... the presentation, at least, is incredibly off-putting for me.

i really struggle to accept the harshness of putting all the death and violence on Hitomi. that her— and therefor your— emotions shift the world around you. since she is just a high school girl, who's now surrounded by horrific violence and death (already put into motion) it seems very much like "hey the stuff you're messed up about is kinda shallow compared to this other stuff, maybe take a step back and get some perspective" which, while unkind imo, isn't an unheard of take, but to me still can only work IF SHE ISN'T LINKED AS THE CAUSE! that is too much for her alone to bear. especially since we know it's not just her alone bearing it, right? it's on everyone in the world?

since fanelia needs big reform anyway i kinda like the idea that, maybe, van's parents do just truly suck, that's kind of a compelling complication, but... why IS varie such an asshole to hitomi? why all this stuff with allen and his dad (which reveals v important things about the plot) but varie can't even talk to her son for 5 seconds? or hell, talk to your other son! because she shows up to van, is it implied that she Did talk to him and we just can't see it? i think it would've worked MUCH better if the scenes btwn her and balgus were reversed, because insisting van suffer when he's so broken by warfare— just as his dad does in the film— is so cruel and it could take the edge off A LITTLE if a scene with varie happened after, not before.

otherwise i think i'm just going to need to accept that van and folken's parents, for all the sweetness we see— well... the sweetness between the parents— maybe they are actually very cruel and shitty people for making their gentle, kind sons fight to the death and necessarily create competition between them. varie should've known what was going to happen, and folken staying alive (as in, not fighting the dragon) wouldn't preclude van from eventually helping save the world.

then hitomi's grandmother, while supportive, her advice doesn't match or mitigate the intensity of varie's warnings. and then immediately after that we're to understand that dornkirk is far more responsible for far more suffering in gaea, but how does that square with being told hitomi is also responsible? she's basically just been told that she's as powerful as dornkirk, only that it's directly and immediately damaging the people she cares about. to have her "negative" (barf) emotions be as strong as his aim of Literally Manifesting Destiny feels so unfair to her... it's good that she eventually disrupts it, but we have so much time between now and then. idk. varie herself ties misfortune to hitomi's conflicted feelings for van and allen, meanwhile van is ultimately rewarded for having remained steadfast in his feelings for hitomi. hitomi's conflicted feelings shouldn't carry the weight of the world in this same way.

also e_e folken has been doing everything he can to keep van alive and ensure that he doesn't need to die even as dornkirk's plan advances. he consistently leaves openings for van to understand him. he gives van back his sword. he is always thinking of van. his feelings for van Aren't in conflict. explain his end, then.

i think i prefer the film's approach to this much more because we get to see hitomi Being unequivocally depressed. she consciously but uncontrollably lashes out at yukari and we can sort of put together that this isn't the first time. and when she shows up to gaea, it seems like it was real important to establish— thru the barren landscape and ruins and the abaharaki already banded together— that great strife was present before hitomi got there, and she's not affecting the world as much in the present, but she can affect change for its future. it's not cluttered with objects/totems of fortune like tarot or even the pendant. it's truly just about force of will and common ground. i am sad folken dies in the film as well and i really wish some of the content of the drama CD was incorporated into the film to complicate the anger and love between van and folken the way it is in the series, but... well... because of the restructuring, it makes sense that this would be the outcome. for what it's able to do, i see how it's simpler to just make him less complicatedly Bad...

idk i wish i could find something, ANYTHING that made me accept this part of the story but regardless of how it's framed, or what level of thought they give it, everyone seems to come to the same conclusion about it, and it's a conclusion i find pretty odious and unkind if true. it puts Hitomi in a position where the viewer is too easily invited to dislike her— because of what she's Literally Caused— and that shouldn't happen! i think maybe they (the team) just bit off more than they could chew ): by all accounts the series was only meant to be 26 episodes, so that "lost time" is a fantasy.

if someone can make me like/empathise with this, please lmk LOL ): crazy how a story can be SOOOOOO GOOOOD and so bad at the exact same time. it breaks my heart the way it seems to undermine all of its impeccable qualities.

[littleclover]

I feel really uncomfortable with how the character sahar behaves/is written in resident alien especially the season 2. Season 1 sahar was fine, like the dynamic between Max, Harry and her were nice and fun, like there was nice banter between Max and her because she wasn't treating Max as a lesser being like she was in season 2. I liked that they made Sahar move the plot but I really feel like they could have done it in a way that didn't extremely simplify her character to just be adultified kid which is especially a problem because Sahar is the same age as Max. Adultification itself is a whole can of worms anyways because Sahar is a Muslim goc (girl of color) and adultification in the real world disproportionately affects non-whites. While I also understand that it was the characters choice to parent an alien baby, it is still pretty icky that she became a mother to someone who physically looks the same age as her for that same reason. She even says in the beginning of the second season that she is working on speaking less like she is an adult (because she is canonically 11) which also implies she is working on behaving less like an adult as well but throughout the season she doesn't show that at all. Given the adultnapping scene at the latter end of S2 she actually seems to have worsened that habit by quite a lot as compared to S1. There is no reason why the writers decided to make Sahar, an 11 year old girl, a mother and a pseudoadult (just made that word up bc I couldn't find a better word for it) like they did in S2. There was ways to move the plot without putting this weird power dynamic onto a literal child. They could still try to help the alien baby fit in without Sahar being a mom because that is just really really unnecessary and has extremely gross implications by going the standard kid helps alien plot that the show constantly references. Also Sahar was very clearly heartbroken and traumatized when Baby was lost, yet the show (that talks a lot about trauma) kinda just skips over that fact UNTIL Baby gets taken by MIB. An 11 year old girl's first thoughts wouldn't be "I wish I could make Alien calls" after telling their child to run away as a way to justify writing in the adultnapping scene (you know it was an excuse to use the adultnapping scene bc it logically doesn't follow the flow it was going in). The adultnapping scene really did not need to happen at all imo as funny as it was. Knowing Sahar's character and how Baby did in fact listen to Sahar over Harry because of their bond (which I repeat, doesn't have to be mother and child because of the weird implications) she would not be in anyway jealous of Harry enough to want to adultnap him. Instead I think she would have fought Harry and got Max to help her find Baby like how Harry got Max to do the same thing. This would actually be a lot more narratively sound as well because of that foil it creates. And that would further reflect the message the show is trying to send about biological and found family. That foil between Harry (bio) and Sahar (found) would make that message so much more stronger. Obviously with that foil Sahar would no longer need to have the title of "Mother" because that isn't necessary in found family. I really hope I'm making sense bc I'm so frickin eepys but anyways yea I wish Sahar wasn't so 1 dimensional and static in Season 2.

[venus-is-thinking]

DRDT Handwriting Analysis

Hello everyone! I decided to take a look at the canonical handwriting of the various characters in DRDT. We've actually seen a good number of handwritings and it definitely seems like they are specifically written differently, so it's a fun new dimension of the characters we can look at. I've done my best to compile all of them in this post, but please let me know if I've missed any!

I'll be going in order of when we first see them, starting with:

Arei Nageishi!

Arei is our first handwriting reveal, which we know because she wrote the arm wrestling contest board in Chapter 1, Episode 2! She seems to write in all caps and has a slightly curvy style.

Min Jeung!

Whoops, murder time. Min's handwriting is seen on the "OUT OF ORDER" sign. We don't know it's hers when we first see it, but in the trial, it's revealed that she must have written it.

As far as I remember, we don't have another sample of her handwriting, which is unfortunate, given that I believe this is probably not what her real handwriting looks like. She's clearly printing in very straight lines; it's probably meant to look official. If it looked handwritten, it would lower the credibility of the out of order sign.

I also tried to see if you could tell what any handwriting looked like from the papers on the table in the Bonus Episode she's in, but I didn't manage to pick anything out that was actually legible. So, I guess we don't really know what Min's handwriting would normally look like.

Xander Matthews!

Xander wrote "Charles Cuevas' Motive" on this DVD, but a lot of it got smudged off when he planted it in the CD reader (god I hope I got it right I'm sorry Charles I'm trying to remember which is which).

He seems to use all caps. It's also not the neatest, given that the two Cs run into each other despite being on different lines.

Notably, there is a more filled-out version.

However, the red text isn't written by Xander himself, because he's dead at the time. As best I can figure, this is Teruko writing in an impression of Xander's handwriting. The image of the CD appears as Teruko says, "Hm, are you talking about this?" implying she's the one carrying it, and the rest of the writing is filled in when she says so. It might seem like it would be Rose, given that she's the one who figures out what it's supposed to say, but Rose instructs someone else to rotate it, so it can be assumed Rose isn't holding it. Teruko is the one to take the DVD out of the player at the end of investigation, so I'd really assume it's her.

...HOWEVER!

We actually have a specific example of Teruko replicating Xander's handwriting! She smudges it during investigation and re-writes it on. It seems to me like the creator went back to the original version of the CD in the trial (the little ink blot at the left of the O matches better with the first of the two images here, imo). I doubt there was much internal consistency given to how Teruko writes Xander's handwriting when trying to replicate it on this CD, but...

Teruko Tawaki!

Teruko's handwriting is bad-bad. It's very shaky and she struggles with letters. The O and C (as she thinks she's writing) that she replicates back on the CD have some more of the shakiness that this handwriting has, which implies to me that the creator knew at the point of the Chapter 1 murder that Teruko's handwriting wasn't smooth. The replication of Xander's handwriting in red back in Xander's section looks smoother than I think Teruko's would, which might be points towards someone else having written it. No clue who, though.

Notably for Teruko, I honestly wonder if she's meant to have dysgraphia? I don't know a ton about it, but it's a learning disability that makes it much harder for people with the condition to handwrite clearly. Just an interesting sidenote, if anyone with dysgraphia knows more/if this is wrong to say in some way, please let me know!

Charles Cuevas!

Back on track, I skipped ahead with Teruko to put hers next to Xander's. We don't technically have confirmation that this is Charles' handwriting, but it's very very heavily implied. It's written in cursive, which Whit says Charles writes in in the Chapter 2 trial.

This also implies that Whit has seen Charles' handwriting, which could add more to imply that this is his, but considering Charles has evidently seen Whit's (more in a sec), I don't think that means much.

Plus, as a fun note, Charles' custom weapon is the only one that isn't listed on the above handwriting sample. This is the biggest factor in me believing that it's Charles'. (Plus, I think Whit says something about getting it from a friend? I'm not reopening the episode sorry gang)

Whit Young?

Wait, where's the handwriting?

Well, as far as I remember, we haven't actually seen Whit's handwriting. We know from Charles that he dots his Is with hearts, but that's all we got. Sorry gang.

Eden Tobisa!

Eden literally gave us a handwriting sample. Thanks!

It's pretty cute! She has a curvier handwriting style with some irregular spacing, which I think gives it nice charm and character.

The Chapter 2 Killer??? (or accomplice)

Idk man! It seems like it has to relate to someone who's at least somewhat guilty in this whole thing, right?

I've written briefly about why I believe this is Levi's handwriting on @1moreff-creator's Levi accomplice theory post, but that would totally work for the popular theory that he's the killer, too. Either way, it's a handwriting sample.

Bonus!

NO WIFI! WHY LIVE :(

I have no idea who wrote this. From what I can tell, it might've been here when the cast got there...? The weird thing is that it changes.

Shoutout to @accirax for remembering that the white board changed, because I did NOT notice/remember. However, that begs the question...

WHO THE HELL WROTE THIS???

It's very possibly Veronika, as she's the one who's noted to, like, know and remember what Monokuma looks like. If so, that means we have a Veronika handwriting sample, yay! I really don't know who else would be drawing Monokumas. Maybe the mastermind...?

And that's all! Clearly there's no point to this post and I can wrap this-

Haha. You didn't think I actually made a post that doesn't have a theory to it, did you?

This has all been building up to me trying to figure out who the hell wrote this note. Because, I originally believed it made the most sense if it was a note that Xander wrote to himself, but accirax pointed out that we've seen Xander's handwriting, and it looks different. Then, I started noticing that we've been receiving various handwritings. Like, a LOT of handwritings.

I think that it's plenty likely that we're going to receive EVERYONE'S handwriting at some point throughout this series. Notably, all characters who have died thus far (Xander, Min, Arei, Chapter 2 Killer Even Though We Don't Know Who They Are) have already shown us their handwriting. This is probably because we're going to figure out who wrote this note at some point.

Does that mean everyone whose handwriting we've already seen thus far is safe? Maybe! I've gone through and talked about Xander, Arei, Eden, Charles and Teruko's with confidence. From what we know of Min's and Whit's, it doesn't seem like it's theirs, but I'd believe for either of them that it could be theirs if the devs wanted to pull a fast one on us (Whit could just... not write with hearts on the Is for this one. Min was replicating printed text).

I guess that means I'm saying that the most likely authors of the "Kill Teruko Tawaki" note are Mai Akasaki Ace, Rose, Hu, Arturo, Veronika, J or Nico, with Min, Whit and Levi also being possibilities that I just don't believe as strongly. I do want to note that, if Rose IS the one who wrote it, she could also easily be replicating someone else's handwriting. Ultimate Art Forger moment.

Conclusion

I compiled this image of all the handwriting I talked about with the purple being known handwriting and the gray being unknown.

I think it's really cool that the dev put time into giving each of the characters unique handwriting, and I think it's definitely a piece of evidence to keep in mind when theorizing about masterminds and killers and such.

Hopefully this was a fun read! I look forward to possibly figuring out the handwritings of literally every other character someday.

[ladyluscinia]

I have rewatched the mean lesbians episode in hopes I would like them more the second time, but I'm afraid I'm still not vibing with it. Credit that they tried to undercut the "lesbians who drop in to give our main couple therapy" with the whole reveal it was game and Mary's little rant about their relationship "losing the magic", but like... did they really? Do Anne and Mary not successfully tee up the really touching BlackBonnet airing of grievances and reconciliation? Laughing at them a bit for being dorky doesn't change that they really didn't do much sabotaging, overall, so it's not like they weren't pushing them back together.

I mean, even Mary's whole rant happens after Anne leaves the room. By the time they really start telling us how this couple has their own foundation cracks and issues (vs the veneer of just keeping it interesting) and aren't a longstanding example of a healthy relationship, Anne is literally offscreen making a grand romantic gesture that will solve Mary's discontent. I know they are fitting a miscommunication arc into half an episode instead of 2-3 seasons, but the end result just feels like speedrunning a knock off of BlackBonnet's issues.

And that along with the fact they function as BlackBonnet mirrors first and characters second, it all just feels very... underwhelming (?) to me.

Like why do I care about Anne and Mary? Is the face stealing gimmick supposed to have hooked me? They also, imo, really fucked up by ending on a hug - it just spotlights the fact that, for all the sex jokes, they don't really bother to sell physical intimacy between the two. They maybe bump shoulders at the shop, sit in separate chairs in every scene in the house... honestly the best they do is the offscreen knife flicking. Which funny metaphor but like. Why can't the lesbians be into each other without the metaphor? Or am I supposed to think that Anne "burn the whole house down the second her wife admits she doesn't like swamp life" Bonny didn't pick up that Mary was maybe unhappy when they entirely stopped touching each other and replaced it with murder attempts.

Even a repeat of the offscreen joke but this time imply they are hardcore making out as Stede and Edward slip away would have probably hit better? (I'm assuming for some reason kissing was off the table, otherwise even more wtf why not just kiss?)

(Can you tell I've been thinking about the sorry state of femslash?)

Also I'd be remiss not to tie my dissatisfaction with Anne and Mary to my dissatisfaction with OFMD's prevailing approach to female characters. Spanish Jackie's entire thing is being so awesome and desirable that she has 20 husbands that all work for her, which is super fun. Mary Bonnet became a widowed girlboss with a Doug, which was also fun. Then suddenly we're meeting Zheng Yi Sao who is a girlboss Pirate Queen better than any man, and her right-hand woman that seems like a more stable and competent Edward/Izzy parallel, and her crew of only hyper-competent women... do you see how this is getting a bit repetitive?

Now we add Anne and Mary speedrunning BlackBonnet parallels to teach them a grand gesture romantic lesson? So... doing Stede and Edward but Better™?

Zheng Yi Sao still has time to get more interiority that could offset the whole "girlboss" gimmick which would help, but until that happens the only real female character standout to me is Archie - a woman who has something deeply wrong with her but has so far just kind of slotted in as a equal crewmember instead of the Competent Woman Character.

[22degreehalo]

Okay I finished the movie. (Spoilers follow!)

I liked the parts about Barbie as an actual doll. I liked the ending! It was fun and creative and had some real emotion to it!

I didn't... enjoy the portrayal of gender.

The movie just really does not seem to want to face up to the idea that in the Barbie world, women are the privileged class. They hold all positions of power and property. Barbie doesn't even know where the men live?

Yes, it's all deliberately weird and surreal. But it's all just too weird and surreal to relate much to the real world. The climax relies on assuming that the barbies would essentially relate perfectly to a random real-world woman, which... even if it were true that all women IRL can relate to each other, their life experiences are just way too different.

(Yes, the patriarchy got introduced into Barbie land! But... how??? It's very hand-waved. Why would the privileged class suddenly completely turn the system 180 just because a guy came by with some books? It almost feels like a reverse-racism thing...?!)

And then, in the end, the kens still aren't treated equally. The movie jokes that 'someday' they'll have as much power as women IRL. But... we literally just spent the last hour exploring how shitty women have it. So now the kens have it even worse than that. And that's okay?

Again: it's meant to be dumb and silly. But we're also supposed to suspend our disbelief and live in this world for two hours. And the world just doesn't really jive with the tone. The more you think about it, the more you treat it as a real place, the less sense it makes. It only works if you laugh off the kens as just privileged white guys just because they resemble them.

Which, also! The movie in the end tries to be comforting to men and say that they don't need to be defined by their girlfriends or whatever! Which is actually a good message IRL: for too many men, being able to Date A Woman really is treated as the ultimate arbiter of human worth! (It... makes little sense in the world, where it seems like the kens really do need to rely on the barbies? But. see above.)

Except the entire way through, the idea of men having feelings is mocked and laughed off. Like I said, they imply that a gender non-conforming man would have absolutely 0 reason to fear violence at the hands of other men, which is... completely detached from reality?! Everything a stereotypical 'man' might care about is treated as being not really all that good, men's fears of abandonment or failure are eye-rollingly chalked up to 'egotism' (again, despite the status of the kens in this world), and when Ken cries at the end, it's presented as humiliating, as opposed to the dignified crying Barbie does on multiple occasions.

To be clear: I am not accusing the movie of misandry. I'm accusing the movie of being excessively cruel towards men who do not fit the stereotypical image of 'masculine', and then also being kind of pointlessly mean at those who do, as well.

Like, in the climax, one of the ultimate scenes of 'female empowerment' has the barbies pretend to listen while the kens play the guitar at them ('Push' by Matchbox 20, which is a good song IMO??? But it's treated as like. Objectively bad.), only to deliberately check their phone to show they don't care, then get up and talk to another man instead. And all of this is framed as, like 'playing on their petty egos and jealousies.' And not as like... them opening up? To someone they like? And trying to do something nice? And then being hurt when they don't feel the connection they wanted?

(Also men getting angry at other men, or staging a 'war', is treated as entirely petty and silly and kinda funny. Just an 'own goal', so to speak. Which, again, feels very insensitive when men... do in fact violently attack other men over reasons like jealousy.)

(Also also it's treated as super arrogant when a man tries to help out a woman who is literally saying aloud that she doesn't understand and wants help??? Because it's soooo offensive to think a woman can't do something she says she can't do??? even though the end of the movie is all about how women shouldn't have to be perfect and should be allowed to be just normal and not really good at anything???? I'm so confused.)

It's just... such a weird mix of a genuinely fun and creative campy setting, which then mixes in the most weirdly tone-deaf and old-fashioned gender essentialism possible. It tries to be progressive at the end, but the setting is already so stuck in those ideas (that inverting gender power dynamics would be really good actually since women are better in power, that men don't have any real legitimate reason to have emotions so it's weird and dumb if they do) that it doesn't track. It doesn't match the actual events of the movie.

It's not just an empty popcorn movie. Frankly, it'd be a lot better if it was!!!!!!! (At least for me, hahah.) It's best appreciated, honestly, if you do turn your brain off and just enjoy the pretty visuals and the nice moments at the end. Which is sad. Because it clearly does try to do so much more than that! But all those attempts just... make the movie more confused and weird and kind of mean?

Basically, the movie tries to do a whole 'haha what if we switched the power of the genders' but then still wants to treat all of the men like they're privileged white guys, even though there's 0 worldbuilding reason for that to be justified. (Plus also it has the typical 'wacky misandry' problems of being incredibly shitty to GNC and disabled men. but like I just expected that literally always nowadays.)

So yeah uhhh. unfortunately I gotta say that I don't really agree with those 'lollllll men hate this movie even though it literally just says that they're okay by themselves and don't need to base their worth on women!!!!!' like YEAH but it also implies some pretty. questionable stuff about oppression and mental health and how much we should respect men who have ~delicate fragile emotions~ too.

[maryasmorevna]

The Targaryens are an objectively horrible family. And yet it's possible to actually enjoy individuals in that family lmao. I think what indicates more hypocrisy is implying Targ antis are hypocrites for loving Jon or whoever, when so many Dany stans are pretending you're such Sansa fans while criticizing her to the moon and back.

anon if you think i'm engaging with targ discourse on the last day of yet another difficult year... well you're wrong.

one thing tho: none of the "dany stans" i follow/am mutual with criticize sansa, at least from what i've seen on my dash, and neither do i, so i don't see the hypocrisy. i really love sansa as a character - i love basically any female character in asoiaf, and in general i consider them more interesting than the men in the series, with some notable exceptions (though grrm's writing about women is. not flawless). when did i ever criticize sansa? i've criticized a particular brand of sansa stans, who often conflate with stans of a certain ship and - no matter how far-fetched said ship may be - they really seem convinced dany is somehow an obstacle to its canonicity, and therefore are legitimated in their hatred of the character. except that this hatred shows obvious unchecked misogyny and conservativism (in correlation with dany's place in the narrative as a revolutionary figure - and often this kind of characters is maligned and shown to be "stalin-like tyrants" in many media, see: the show's ending, for their audacity in standing up against the status quo). believe me, i Was There, and as a former fan of the abovementioned ship i saw all kinds of fanwank against dany. it's especially nonsensical in the books, where the probability of That Ship becoming canon is close to 0, and they're just butthurt dany is going to be their male fave's love interest.

look, let's be clear about something: i'm a dany fan, meaning that while i don't want her on a throne and i'm even okay with her sacrificing herself in the end to save the world, which i think it's her real mission (not as jon's nissa nissa tho; also *gasp* i'm not a j.onerys fan!), i appreciate her, find her very interesting and compelling, and obviously feel so much affection for her, even if she's just a fictional 16yo. i'm okay with her having a Dark Phase, too; what i'm not okay with is, basically, the show's ending and the impossibility of a redemption for her when she's already accomplished so much, shown so much compassion - much more than any ruler westeros ever had, with maybe some very few exceptions. because that would be so regressive and redundant, and extremely disappointing for all the fans that find dany an inspiring (not perfect!) figure. as for the targaryens as a family, i love them, yes - i find them fascinating - as much as i love the lannisters and the martells etc. grrm seem to find them fascinating too, since he's written so much about them. these are magical people with their weird, dark history and their connection to dragons - and asoiaf is a fantasy (duh!). of course it focuses a lot on them. i still think that their "horribleness" is not innate - that would be very much against grrm's philosophy imo - but stemming for the most part from feudalism and patriarchy, ills that affect other families too and are systematic. but the targs were the ruling family for centuries, and they struggled with and for power more than any other house because of the dragons (who are fantasy creatures, yes, but also "fire made flesh, and fire is power"). when they fight, all the realm feels the consequences of this, because of the power they yield over it. idt another powerful household with dragons would have behaved very differently, not in the asoiaf world.

but the most important thing is: i don't subscribe to the false You're Either A Dany Stan Or A Sansa Stan dichotomy. i don't think these characters - or sansa and arya, or hell, even cersei and brienne - should be put against each other just to paint one or the other in a unfavorable light, especially because in dany and sansa's case the narrative isn't doing this. they're not even foils! they have got much more in common (abused little girls preyed upon by much older men, lovers of knights and history and romanticism) than this stupid ass fandom diatribe would let people think. so... what kind of hypocrisy am i accused of, exactly?

[royboyfanpage]

oooh ok i have a roy question for you! you mentioned in your 'favorite thing about roy' post that him killing electrocutioner was in character for him (i think i agree), could you expand on that? also, regarding rise of arsenal*, is there anything else from it that you think has bits of good characterization, or at least could have if actually done well?

*which imo is pretty awful and poorly executed (and i hate the idea of antihero/villain roy SO much). dead cat panel my beloathed.

Hi, thanks for the ask!

I'm gonna preface this and say I totally agree with you on hating Rise of Arsenal. I know some people really like it, and I can respect that, but personally I really didn't like it. It did it's job of making me cry (every time I have to collect panels from it I tear up), but other than that it was very much just shock value and didn't show much care for any of the characters portrayed in it imo. I also didn't like the way that Roy killed the electrocutioner, I said in my original post that it felt like a villain origin story and I stand by that, it reminds me a little of the Joker movie in some ways which isn't a positive.

That being said, I do think that Roy killing the electrocutioner was in character. I don't think Roy's a killer, which is what RoA seemed to imply (very "one bad day"-esque), but I do think that Lian's death would be the one instance he'd make the conscious decision to take a life. I'm a little tipsy tonight so I can't think of any other examples and I don't have the energy to go searching through comics so take this all with a pinch of salt, but the one example that comes to mind is in his Arsenal mini, where he teams up with Vandal in order to save Lian. Sure, he ends up switching sides mid-fight, but Lian's alive and there's a very real chance that he can find another option to save her (which he does). But I think that comic demonstrates that Roy is willing to bend his moral code when it comes to Lian. I mean, in that same mini it shows something similar, him taking a life in order to protect someone else in the Checkmate flashback in issue 2.

I'm not saying that Roy's an anti-hero, in fact I think he's actually a really good symbol of what a hero should be most of the time, he's a genuinely good man who gets back up when he gets knocked down, and while he does have a reputation of being I guess 'sleazy' he's actually closer to being a boyscout. I can't remember where but it's like that issue in Outsiders where Grace says that Roy doesn't belong in the Outsiders, he's too much of a 'conventional hero' I guess.

But I also don't think his moral code is as strict as, say, Batman's. I know that Bruce did initially want to kill Joker after death in the family, but that whole comic was kinda a mess (Joker being an ambassador for Iran will always confuse the shit out of me), and the main conflict of UtRH was Bruce not killing the Joker, so I'm focusing more on what happened than intent. Although, that is actually another good comparison point for UtRH and RoA. Bruce had Clark there to stop him, whereas throughout RoA one of the biggest points (which I hate) is Roy's isolation. Dinah, who's consistently been one of Roy's biggest supporters, is barely present, and most of the people in his life either dismiss his grief or actively make things worse for him, which really made it easy to kill the electrocutioner. Anyway, I realise I've digressed a lot from the original ask.

Yeah, I do think that killing the electrocutioner was in character for Roy. Again with the Bat comparisons, excluding whatever the hell was going on after Jason died in Death in the Family, Bruce has to be Batman first. Bruce can't kill the Joker, because Batman can't kill the Joker. Roy? He's always been Roy first, at least in my opinion. A lot of the time his identity's at least somewhat public knowledge (Istg there's a panel where he says that, maybe in Titans '99, but either way he literally just wore sunglasses as his disguise for a big part of his hero career so I mean. Who's he hiding from.) Ever since Lian was born, he's been a father first hero second a lot of the time. It reminds me of that video of "would you kill for your kid", and I think Roy would. I think that without the fear of 'what'll Lian think', Roy would be pushed past that point needed to take a life. I don't think he'd become an anti-hero because of it, I hate pretty much everything post-RoA in the New Earth continuity in relation to Roy, but do I think he'd avenge his baby? Yeah.

And for the second half of your ask, the thing is I don't per se think Roy's characterisation was the issue. I think it was mostly the characterisation of everyone else around him. Roy should not have been that isolated during RoA. Plus the writing was all shit, it was just an excuse to have Roy relapse. I'm not saying that Roy relapsing was unrealistic after what happened to Lian, but it's clear that the writers genuinely didn't care about telling a story of grief and addiction when writing it, they just wanted something was maximum shock value.

So yeah. In conclusion, I hate RoA, it makes me cry and IMO it was really shitty writing, Roy would've killed the electrocutioner but not Like That, and where the fuck was his support system.

[reco-obsessed]

"(hey, who knows, naoreko headcanons deathgame edition could be a whole other request)" guess what im about to ask. - hc anon

hii. ffuck . "im sorry for disappearing for a week" and then dies again for two . well. here now . might be shorter than usual because my brain is still repairing from two weeks of no reko textposting

naoreko deathgame headcanons (chapter two spoilers) :

short and fluffy x tall and spiky . good start

a lot has already been pointed out about them in ways that really interesting so its a little difficult to inject as many cool original ideas

obviously theyve got that whole "star crossed lovers" thing going on; in the original sense of the term, not in the "theyre soulmates" sense. they both have different views on themselves and survival, and that inherently dooms them as a couple, no matter how compatible they are; its the core of their dynamic in the deathgame, imo.

one thing about the two is nao's tendency to get anxious and worked up, whereas reko often instinctually comforts other characters (namely sara). the most obvious, stand out example of this is of course how reko talks to her after the mishima's head saga, but i pointed out the another specific example of this in a post where i compared reko's and nao's dialogue for the quick draw. you can also see how even after situations where shes scared shitless, like after ghost shutter (or whatever its called) or the room of lies, she instinctually tries to play it cool; while this is likely mostly reflective of her trying to save her pride, i think for an anxious character like nao it could serve for her to be the more emotionally stable one that nao can rely on, rather than feeding into her nervousness.

we dont see a lot of it directly, unfortunately, but it seems pretty implied that nao spent a lot of time with reko during chapter two; probably moreso than anyone else. she was the one who noticed the difference between the fake reko and real reko enough to sus them out, after all. i think after mishimas death nao would probably crave the stability that someone like reko could provide. she can be a little emotional violatile to others, but we dont see that side of her with nao. i imagine that someone like nao probably spent a lot of time around mishima to use as a "home base" socially; someone she can rely on, let her guard down around, with a tendency to specifically focus on person at time rather than risk exposing any of her perceived "weirdness" to a lot of different people as her first impression.

reko, i think based on what we see (her offering to spend time with sara as a way tp get her to relax specifically), values spending time with other people. this makes sense; shes a busy person in all likelihood, so its a valuable commidity to her. i think in a way, nao wanting to be in her presence so much taps into rekos values in this sense.

especially when you consider reko is probably the person used to being the person initiating, both romantically and platonically. reko comes off very intimidating; this is something we know canonically. and in the past, shes been very much by herself. so i think in of itself, nao going out of her way to spend time with reko in chapter two is something that means a lot to reko in return.

but then theres the whole . ya know . fake reko thing .

the conversation nao has with sara about reko always stands out to me. nao is hesitant to tell sara the specifics of what happened between her and reko to tip her off and theres so many ways to interpret it; is it just nao's usual nervousness creating a weird speech pattern? is it a budding romantic development cut off by an impostor entering the scene? or is it that the fake reko lashed out at her, unable to see her strength in the way the real reko does, and nao didnt want to mention this to anyone else and risk spoiling that persons view of reko?

i tend to go with the last one, but you could easily view as a combo of all three.

something a little fluffier to end with- in a lot of side content, reko is shown with her hands in naos hair, so i tend to headcanon this as one of her habits. i dont think that its impossible that in the deathgame, reko would have helped nao brush out all her hair. she has so much, and we dont even know if the characters have hairbrushes. its also not impossible that nao could need help simply because of how much time it must take to brush it all out.

sorry this was so short... and that it took me so long ...

[thebwarch]

Finished up totally all the episodes in Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix, that animated netflix show that contains a ton of Ubisoft IP in a cyberpunk setting. Show is better than it has any right to be, it's great even for my opinion. I loved this show and these characters.

It is of course enormously adult but everything feels Earned imo in some way. (Be aware, sex, blood, death, you know how this goes) Nothing feels like it was done Just because we're in an adult show and we can do whatever we want now. Plotlines are just cool and great. Every character is just nicely realized.

The animation is incredible and they have a lot of gags of switching up the animation from the main 2D style. The show will go into pixel art, into anime, into FMV sequences for gags and stretches of the show. The movement and look is just, good. I loved how this show was drawn a lot, I want to see more from this studio like this now.

I was personally never really annoyed by almost anything and laughed at a good amount of the jokes, but at least smiling most of the runtime.

It's six episodes long, average 25mins per. Short show, you can crack it out in a day. This show has the best pixel art in a show I've seen so far, I think they got legit pixel artists on this. Puts Sonic Prime to shame.

Okay so like, this is neither a positive or a negative, but they have a couple real life wrestlers show up, like Kenny Omega, and their cameos are kinda ??? Like very short and not particularly impactful or entertaining. I just feel like they coulda used these boys a bit more if they were gonna get them at all.

It's a cyberpunk show and, I think it gets that more than most other cyberpunk media right about now. There are incredibly fucked up fascist things that this show contains and that The Overlords do to citizens. It felt like the writer(s) weren't just saying "Oooo cool glowy city", they had a legit idea about the kind of opression that rampant capitalism and facism would cause and what they wanted to criticize.

Minus maybe oooone franchise, I think all the Ubisoft IP is used really well. I dug what they did with Rayman in this show, and if you've only seem him snorting coke, like, that happens. But there's more to Rayman's story and arc and character in this than just pure shock value. If someone is a fan of multiple Ubisoft IP there's surprising references and characters that show up, it is a show that very much loves Ubisoft's IP. (Ubisoft being a french gamedev and this show being done by a french animation studio.)

Soundtrack was just okay. Functional. Especially comparing it to Cyberpunk Edgerunners, there were A LOT of jams in Edgerunners that I could throw on my spotify playlist. I wouldn't throw a single Captain Laserhawk song on my spotify.

Show is gay. It shows male to male gay explicitly and without hiding it or implying it, a few of these boys are GAY. The main CHARACTER, the PROTAG, is GAY. But it doesn't have any other LGBT letters.

I could feel the Budget at times. Sometimes there would be a freeze frame of animation to end a sequence. But I could mostly just respect what they DID do with what they had.

[bossthebicon]

Wanted to start this by saying that I usually agree with your opinions (or even when I don't, I can at least see where you're coming from) but that's not the case when it comes to your opinion on Only Friends because I completely disagree and just wanted to add my two cents. You said that it wasn't relatable to the queer community but I'm sorry, the queer community isn't a monolith, there isn't one universal way that every single queer friendship group functions. Just because it wasn't relatable to your experience, it doesn't mean that it wasn't relatable to many other queer people's experiences. For example, one of my friend groups consists of gay men and the stories they've told me (and some of which I witnessed with myself)? Not that far off from OF (aka everyone getting with everyone, behind people's backs as well, and most of them are still on friendly terms now). It's perfectly fine that you didn't personally relate but you can't say no queer person/community did.

I also saw depth to a lot of characters and I could relate to several of them in different ways and everything in the finale made sense to me for those characters. For me it achieved what it set out to do: entertain, while also make me connect/care about some of the characters. It didn't do that for everyone (you included) but please don't claim it's a "bad show" as a general statement just because you didn't get anything out of it because a lot of people did. (My friend who struggles with depression and is currently going through a depressive slump found comfort in seeing Ray progress to a point where he's much happier at the end of the series because it gives her hope that she can get to that point soon too.)

Is Only Friends a brilliant, amazing, showstopping, incredible show? No. But it's not bad, far from it. It certainly has its flaws but the sudden hate it's getting is not warranted imo.

hi, first of all, it's fine to disagree lol, though it's always a bit jarring to me when people feel the need to let me know they disagree with me bc clearly we simply have a different taste & opinion. when I share my opinion about a show, I do it on my blog but never go on others' blogs to either defend a show I liked or trash a show I didn't like, but anyways. I have NEVER, EVER said that the queer community is a monolith & that all queer representation needs to be relatable to ME. in fact, a lot of my favorite queer media are HIGHLY UN-relatable to me lol. I never implied that only friends' flaws comes from it being unrelatable or unrealistic? in fact I believe it to be realistic since it's made by queer men & has recurring topics that p'jojo especially has used in previous shows of his, especially since the story of only friends is inspired by real-life events. in fact I said that I WISH they'd have leaned into the queer community aspect of it even more bc it was the one point in which this show differentiates itself from friend zone, so yeah. don't really know where you got that notion from. secondly, like it or not, I can claim any shows I've watched are bad in my opinion. once again, media is subjective & I did not like only friends so for me it IS a bad show. is it the worst? no. did I HATE it? no. did I have a good time in front of it? also no. also from a writing standpoint I'm sorry it IS objectively bad and FAILED at what it set out to do, especially considering the show itself doesn't seem to know what it set out to do in the first place. moreover, sudden hate? I've been criticizing only friends since it started airing lol, I'm not jumping on any bandwagon, and in fact it's more so the fandom that's catching up to the fact that this show is not very good. now, I'm genuinely glad that this show helped you & your friend and that you liked it! that's great, of COURSE this show is gonna have its fans, and in fact it has a lot of them! however it seems to me as if you've taken my (justified) criticism of the show to heart for a reason that only you fully know, and I hope you can investigate why that is. I truly value you as a long time follower of mine & I hope you can agree to disagree with me on that one even though I must admit this ask seems a bit jarring & personal to me. wish you all the best :)

xxx

[trobedgirldads]

Hey, I'm working on my Cooliver fic. Do you have a list of episodes that are best to rewatch to get their personalities and dynamics?

okay first of all i’m honored that you thought to ask me. second of all, i’m sorry i took forever to reply but i realized i didn’t have a list so i put one together lol

the otto motto (s1 e18) is the first time the idea of oliver being gay is mentioned

the walk (s1 e 20) is sooo important for cooper. first time we see his real personality instead of just his cool kid facade. also iirc this is the first appearance of “move on to your next point”

boo-who? (s2 e5) is pretty good for early oliver. it’s got his sass, some insecurities, a touch of scheming and ofc his iconic scream. cooper’s not in it tho.

blondetourage (s2 e11) is so iconic for them. the sneakers, the phone scheme. “i’m already riding bitch on your vespa.”

all coupled up (s2 e17) is their first big fight, so if you’re writing a fight/argument this is a good one. also some good cooper & katie moments.

it’s hard to say goodbye (s2 e19) is another one without cooper, but if you’re writing sad oliver this is such a good reference; he’s really well written and acted in this episode. the cgi tears take me out tho 😭😭

here we go again (s3 e2) has them work through conflicts and like resolve a fight without intervention from katie/greg. i love them <3. absolutely banger episode for each of them individually, and them as a duo.

enemies: an otto story (s3 e4) has a good oliver scheme, and he gets cooper in on it. cooper talking about tagging along to boarding school with him makes me feel things.

trust me (s3 e5) is the absolutely iconic scooby-doo halloween costumes/making out practice episode that every cooliver writer has written about. i think it’s the first time cooper is seriously brought into the whole “oliver might be gay” bit, but i might be wrong about that (i know cooper’s mentioned the first time it’s ever brought up, but i think this is the first time he really seems like a piece of the puzzle)

body image (s3 e6) again, no cooper, but very good for insecure oliver

mo’ money, mo’ problems (s3 e13) is also so iconic in my brain. idk how genuinely important it is to either of their development, but it means a lot to me. i can’t remember who it was, but someone on here posted a really good analysis of cooper in this episode and how he’s lying to try to get oliver to not go to the party, which could be useful depending what you’re writing. also this is the first time cooper calls katie and greg mom and dad :(

insta-friends (s3 e16) is another big fight for them, and also some serious cooper daddy/mommy issues. this one isn’t super helpful for individual oliver, but it’s great for individual cooper and their dynamic when they’re mad at each other

field trippin’ (s3 e20) is a much sillier, fluffier episode than a lot of what i have on this list. silly lil scheme gone wrong. cooper’s really only in the first like half of this one tho

a mom’s parade (s3 e22) ok so hot take i don’t really like this episode that much… you can do you is very queer coded tho so it’s going on the list lol

girls’ night out (s4 e6) is just so awesome. oliver’s really sweet towards the end, and it’s bcuz of cooper. cooliver/triplor double date mention!!! tiny touch of cooper angst. greg implying that cooper holds a similar role in the family to trip. just all of it is so perfectly cooliver. this is one of their best episodes imo

hip to be square (s4 e9) is the i love you episode!!!!!!!!!!!! them fighting and then saying they love each other!!!!!!!!!!! so interesting for their dynamic!!!

a very english scandal (s4 e14) is the one where the whole school thinks oliver is gay. the one time cooper denies being oliver’s boyfriend. overall very gay episode.

all is fair in love and war reenactment (s4 e17) is a good one for them supporting each other, but not enabling each other’s shitty behavior. really good for their dynamic, and cooper’s got some good layers in this episode

senior prank (s4 e18) ohhhhh they’re such big brothers in this one i love it so much. if you wanna write them as parents this might be a decent reference. also, not cooliver related but franklin is just so iconic in this.

vacation! (s4 e19) i’ve said it before and ill say it again: this episode feels more like a cooliver fic than an actual episode. so good for both of them as individuals, their dynamic as a couple, and how cooper fits into the otto family as a whole.

prom (s4 e20) is another one that i think is good for oliver as an individual and their relationship as a pair. also big brother cooper crumbs!! (they’re very small but they’re there and they’re important to me 😌)

graduation (s5 e1) is ofc so good if you’re writing some angst. seeing how they deal with issues involving them that seem out of their control. also more cooper fitting into the family as a whole <3

psych (s5 e2) is really good for later-seasons oliver and his need for validation. also supportive bf cooper :)

coupling (s5 e3) is the episode i show ppl if i want to get them into the show bcuz it gives such a good overview of all of the characters and their relationships with each other. more cooliver fighting if you need references for that. the couple coding in this episode is so intense.

kids these days (s5 e5) is sooooo good for their dynamic bcuz it really shows how they support each other without enabling each other. i love cooper so much in this episode. “our family” <3

mother’s little helper (s5 e6) is pretty good. shows off that no matter how much they’ve grown, they’re still just dumb teenage boys.

encourage, discourage (s5 e8) is soooo good for cooper fitting into the family as a whole.

the heist (s5 e9) chef cooper origin!!!!! oliver being a supportive bf!!! i love them!!!

getting frank with the ottos (s5 e10) is a big turning point in their relationship. once again, supportive bf oliver!! they’re so cute.

the election (s5 e13) i feel like their dynamic is a little bit weird in this episode (oliver’s like weirdly chill abt once again being confronted w the idea of cooper moving, but ig it’s bcuz he has his own stuff going on) but it’s so good for sad cooper/daddy issues cooper. this is definitely a huge one for cooper angst references

okok so this is a really big list. obvs i don’t know what the plot of your fic is or when it’s set, so some of these might be much more helpful than others depending what you’re writing. these are just my suggestions of the ones that stand out as important for them as individuals and as a duo. hope this is helpful!!!! i’m excited to read your fic if/when you post it :)