#can we get some character writing? can we see actual scenes instead of montages?

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The Acolyte Brendok Re-write

I went ahead and reworked the entire Brendok storyline to flesh out and improve on character development. This rewrite ends up to the same outcomes but is set to be one long episode or two back to back if need be, with a much deeper focus on our star POV character:

This rewrite is very long (5.3k words) so I'm putting it under a cut. If anything is confusing let me know. Some scenes are not fleshed out at all as they're intended to be mostly the way they are in the show.

Thanks to my friends Paula and Vincent who helped craft this plot.

Torbin POV — He's our focal POV character for Jedi sections.

Instead of picking moss for 7 weeks they have been on a hyperspace survey, hopping from blighted world to blighted world, exactly what they expected to find. Torbin makes a deprecating joke about how excited he is to sample new rocks.

They drop out of hyperspace and discover the lush green world of Brendok.

Cockpit scene with the Jedi arguing loudly, strong emotions : excitement, confusion, lots of back and forth with words we and Torbin don't understand, and some of the conversation made all the more confusing by Kelnacca's shyriiwook.

The audience gets to be educated about vergence alongside padawan Torbin. But clearly the Jedi aren't sure this is what it is, and the vergence is made to be a very mythical and improbable thing. Sol argues it must be one, and Indara says he's being far too hasty. 

> Establishing early the theme of Sol seeing what he wants to see in things and getting ahead of himself.

Torbin seems excited that they can finally report something significant and go home. 

Kelnacca laughs and says something. Torbin is crestfallen and asks "Really?"

Sol, fixed on the world with poorly veiled enthusiasm, says "Of course, we can't pass up such an opportunity. We have all the tools we need as well."

Indara agrees and says they will land and take samples. When Torbin gives her a wounded look, she smiles and says this is definitely the last world on this mission before going home, but they can't not investigate. 

They crash land or damage their ship in some way as they come down. They try to call for rescue and find their comms broken. They trigger their distress beacon and prepare to wait. Indara decides to deploy the team collecting samples and data to not waste their time, since they're here either way.

On that first night, Torbin has nightmares. We don't get in them but see him have tremors and kicking.

Montage of how tedious and boring the life is, collecting moss and not finding the clues they expect. They have a camp OUTSIDE their ship (like a campervan extending so they can process samples and cook on fire, etc.) Field biologist vibe, and the adult Jedi all give off that field tech nerd vibe enduring the elements to get stuff done. 

Torbin (who is shown rubbing his forehead on occasion and blinking at his samples/at the horizon) is complaining a lot about the feeling that this is pointless, and Sol—who is very excited for the possibilities of a vergence—keeps trying to uplift and reassure him, getting in the way of Indara's training. They have a chat about it like in the show, making it clear that Sol is overstepping, despite it being in good spirits.

Torbin goes and has another nightmare, this time we're in it with him. 

He's running through a forest, and spirit/demonic smoky figures are running around him, laughing, cackling. He's being hunted. The trees part before him, shining bright. He comes to a hard stop. When the brightness equalises, we see the vista before him is the coruscant skyline. 

Cut to his face, teary-eyed, quivering smile of relief.

An arrow shoots through his throat. He goes to fall to the ground—next cut, the thing that actually hits the ground is an animal, shot there with an arrow by the witches.

(It's a scene transition to daytime in the real world)

Osha POV

Mae and Osha are there, being taught how to hunt. Mother Koril makes them rehearse their lessons on how to poison their arrow tips, and what poison is used for what season, establishing their mentor/student relationship and the future poison name-drop. The witches hunt as a group, and we see them using the smoke power to get ahead of an animal or away from danger. It is shown to be positive and useful.

Mae uses the Force to freeze one of the animals Osha is supposed to shoot and she takes exception to that. She starts an argument between them over how to hunt, saying Mae always does stuff like that and to stop. She wants to prove herself alone. Mae doesn't get it: they are always together so they should hunt together. 

A scout crashes the end of the hunt by reporting the presence of intruders further in the forest. Koril is first curious and cautious, but the witch says they seem to be Jedi and Koril goes into panic mode and repatriates everybody home.

The girls bicker the whole way home and wonder what Jedi are like and how dangerous they really are, with the adults too busy hurrying to really mind them.

Their settlement is in a crater/mountain/old mine too, but many of the buildings are made out of local wood. Only the inner chambers and private quarters of the girls and mothers seem to be in the stone buildings. However, LOTS and LOTS of lush carpets and tapestries are everywhere within these areas. Despite the abandoned mine setting, things are warm and cushy. That will also be great fuel for fire later. It gives the witches a strong visual aesthetic. They clearly do a lot of crafts. Visual representations of the Thread abound, and lots of spirals and dot work.

It becomes very clear that the girls are the only children and treated as little princesses.

Koril goes to talk to Aniseya. She reveals the presence of Jedi on the world. Aniseya smiles at her and says 'I know.'

Start of an argument, Koril demanding, 'When were you going to tell me about this?'

Aniseya saying it's fine, she's just keeping an eye on them through the eyes of their weakest member (Torbin). They crashed down in a valley beyond the river and should pose no threat. There's only 4 of them and they seem to be scientists/researchers/academics. 

Koril remains angry and says they can't afford to take any risk as the ritual is fast approaching and they can't miss this chance to tie the girls to the coven.

Aniseya has strong words then, challenging Koril over how much she thinks she cares for the girls and asserting she would never endanger them and only thinks about what's best for them. 

Here is when the girls come running in, having changed, and Aniseya flips to good mom and feeds them treats. Insert some cute family time together. Here is a good moment to have Osha voice how scared she is of the coming ritual and further the bickering between the sisters. Osha can complain about how Mae got in the way of her hunt, that she won't let her do anything on her own and this isn't resolved when Aniseya interrupts the fight and makes them hold hands, just like in the show.

Torbin POV

It's morning and Sol and Torbin are eating rations in the sun, sitting on crates by the ship. 

Sol gives a sheepish look over his shoulder to the ship's entrance, but approaches Torbin asking him if he's OK. He heard him scream early this morning.

Torbin breaks and confesses to his nightmares (and maybe headaches, triggered from Aniseya taking glances through his eyes). He's distraught and Indara approaches, annoyed, thinking that Sol is overstepping again. Kelnacca is on her heels. She arrives in time to hear Torbin say he thinks they're not alone on this planet. He's seen them. He sees them in his dreams. Adds something cryptic like "they live in the mountain".

This should be shot almost like a horror film moment. 

The masters exchange looks, but can sense his unease and agree to go investigate. Sure enough, they find proof of habitation. 

Torbin looks relieved at the news: it wasn't him losing it. But he's extremely aloof and clearly torn between going to confront these people and ask for hospitality + broker peace, vs. keeping clear of them since his dreams are so ominous. Anyway it's clearly not his call to make and they are very low on resources + have only a distress beacon and hope to send a message to the order.

Emphasise that the knights are more hopeful and open and consider themselves welcome anywhere in the galaxy, highlighting how unusual Torbin's anxiety seems. He looks like he's overreacting as far as the jedi know.

They bang on the door and after an awkward wait, a woman comes out and asks what they want.

They explain they crashed and have low food and no comms, and hope to trade and send out a message/confirm they're being picked up.

The woman frees the way and invites them in.

The vibes are off the entire time, but more in an awkward or uncertain way. 

When they are allowed to step in and talk to the mothers, the witches at the door perform a small welcoming ritual, dabbing their foreheads with a dash of white paint. Something intrusive and unconventional. Indara and kelnacca care the least/are used to putting up with weird local stuff, while Sol seems a little put off or wary, and Torbin is outright uncomfortable with being touched.

They go inside, get to be shown around a bit. The witches are very standoffish. Kelnacca strikes off to inspect their craft and is curious about the spirals and chats to an artisan who speaks shyriiwook. Indara is focused on getting a message out. Aniseya insists on sending it themselves (to make sure they don't plot against them). Indara promises them safety though if they could help understand the planet it would be great.

Aniseya plays dumb about the vergence (IDK what you mean?) but says they can answer their questions. Sol starts asking, more and more questions about the planet and the witches (when they arrived, where they landed, was the mine operational when they arrived, etc) making them grow visibly uncomfortable, as it seems like he's asking to figure them out, rather than the planet. 

Meanwhile Osha and Mae are spying on them. Mae insist on going back to their room as they were ordered to stay out of the way. Osha distracts her. She says look at the mighty scary jedi. They're not so bad. Sol is smiling as he asks his questions, Indara laughs politely with someone. Kelnacca is now trading food. They aren't that scary and also... There's a boy.

The girls fixate on Torbin, who looks tweaky and uneasy. They nudge each other, comment on his curls and wonder what he's like. Osha spots his lightsaber and points to it. She decides to go have a closer look. Mae insists it's not safe and that they should go back to their room.

Osha goes and pspspshhhs Torbin. He spots them and follows them to a more secluded area. He makes fast friends and shows off his lightsaber when asked. He looks much more at ease seeing kids around. 

They start quizzing him with dozens of questions all at once. Mae and Osha have different interests (Osha asking about other kids and what life is like on Coruscant, Mae asking why he's carrying a weapon and can she see it, or something like this). 

Torbin, who is clearly good with younger kids, answers them and starts reminiscing about what he left at home. The temple, his classes, his friends... he seems increasingly homesick. Osha asks how many other children there are and is shocked when she learns there's hundreds of them, living equally all together.

The chat goes in the direction of Torbin being the one asking questions and the girls guard is down. They tell him about the ritual they're about to take part in. Maybe he likens it to a knighting and they clarify they will become the leaders of their coven. Torbin asks how come they can become leaders if they're kids still learning. The girls don't really have an answer, but maybe Mae says it has to do with how good they are with "pulling on the Thread". They reveal they are FS that way (maybe pulling Torbin's saber out of his hand with a victorious smirk, which would make Torbin freeze in realisation).

They are then caught. Torbin is dragged away and the girls are forced back into the building. He is made to swear to not speak of the girls to anyone. He does. He gives his word.

The Jedi go back to their ship and very quickly Torbin says they are force users. This immediately clicks for the Jedi. "ah so that's why the vibes were so off. They're witches." sort of realisation. 

When asked how he knew, Torbin hesitates but quickly reveals the girls' presence. He says they claimed they too can "pull on the thread", which the older jedi immediately understand to mean use the force. 

Sol shows interest and curiosity and some concern. Only two children? Twins? And why are witches hiding them? Again we get to hear more about the Jedi's relationship with force cults via dialogue between Torbin and the masters. They explain to him why some force cults are seen more negatively, and he has only heard of nightsisters.

Torbin is asked for details and mentions what the girls said about being part of a ritual and becoming the coven leaders.

Sol continues to worry and the POV shifts to him.

In the morning he goes to spy on the witches, climbing the side of the walls. 

At first he only sees normal life scenes, but then he follows a large group that makes its way to the pit to begin a ritual. They carry a very elderly witch. Then they head to fields set in terraces carved from the rock wall. There he witnesses with increasing distress a death ritual, in which the elderly witch, clearly at death's door but still alive, is levitated between chanting witches with black eyes. She dissipates into smoke.

We experience and see how incredibly wrong and disturbing this feels to Sol. Dune-style montage of his vision/sensation of this, to highlight that her passing into the force was not usual. This is not peaceful or light. Maybe he feels nauseous. Visible reaction. 

But then the plants in the fields experience a mad growth spurt (close ups of sprouting seeds, things rotting faster, soil shivering with worms and insects, buds exploding into flowers and seed). Would go with whoompy and base heavy, oppressive soundtrack. 

The witches come out of their trance delighted and go observe the results in the fields while Sol makes his shaky exit.

He goes back to Indara extremely concerned and insists on "rescuing" the girls. Torbin feels more guilty now that he spoke up at all. He just wants to leave and is against going to fetch the kids. Outvoted again. Indara accepts the risk seems great and they can use the Jedi looking for kids as an excuse to confront them about this.

Osha POV

The girls are still arguing as they prepare for the ritual. Talk with Aniseya. Very little needs to change. The ritual proceeds and is again interrupted. Make that ritual look a little spookier but remain visibly just as safe.

Torbin POV

We go back to the show's scene of a home invasion by the Jedi, interrupting the ritual for the girls. The girls are hidden but this time Indara says she knows there are children here. Koril glowers at Torbin who tries to make himself very small.

Dialogue remains similar. The girls are brought forward. Sol softens and mellows and clearly is smitten with them and tries to recruit them. Torbin blurts out the mark on Mae's forehead is new, which makes everyone tense up. 

Indara insists the children be tested. Osha wants to. Koril argues. Sol argues. The camera pans to Torbin instead and their voices fade out to a hum. His face is twitching. Voices around him accuse him of lying, breaking his word, and being spineless. Intruder, child snatcher, etc. He breaks, blinks, and whispers "I'm sorry", and the moment the word is out, his eyes instantly go black.

Scene proceeds as in the show. The witches promise to bring the girls in the morning for their tests.

Sol is vindicated and extra worried due to the way they treated Torbin. Unlike in the show though, Indara cannot ask for council guidance. She sticks to the rules and says Sol can't be for real, the girls are too old, the witches too weird, they won't let them go. Torbin may add they're here with their mom and it's fine and to please leave it.

As they walk to their two speeders, the celestial bodies overhead separate (the opportunity has passed and the ritual cannot resume)

Osha POV

Chat with their mom about the test with the Jedi the next morning. Girls arguing. Mae says there's no point as they're part of the coven now. Osha saying she isn't. Aniseya tells her that of course she's part of them, even if the ritual wasn't fully completed. She tries to reassure her, says she must lie. 

Osha whines and says she wants to show her progress and what Aniseya taught her. Aniseya explains that it would be dangerous and that the jedi have to know as little as possible about their true capabilities. Both girls ask why, as they still both think the Jedi were nice and don't seem like bad people.

Aniseya explains that the Jedi aren't bad as individual people and that maybe all of them here are very kind and good, but the order they belong to is enormous, wields power and controls it. It gets to decide who can use the Thread and in what way. Then she segways into a gentle and kid friendly explanation that many generations ago, their coven already had to flee a world to escape from the Jedi. She may say that they claim to be peaceful, but have gone to many wars against the Sith, and that you can't even call it a war when they wipe out a small coven.

The girls go to the ship and make their promise to lie.

We see Mae lie and tell worrisome things about becoming "one with all" to the masters like in the show.

Then Osha goes in. The same happens but she already knows about other kids and she simply asks what it was like for Sol and is shocked to hear they have babies too and that Sol was given pretty old at 4 yo. 

Once she's done with the test she's now not failing, we get to see her try more things. The remote and saber, a little spar with Torbin with sabers on low settings, push-feather with Indara. She's exhilarated and bright eyed and admits she wants to become a jedi. We SEE her be happy with them and ask questions she likes the answers to.

Indara is looking quite displeased with this. Torbin is very uncomfortable standing in the doorway, and Sol is smiling brightly and encouraging Osha, clearly bonding with her through the test.

When Osha steps out Mae already knows she must have told them the truth because she stayed in the ship for so long. 

We go back with the witches. Have same scene as in the show with osha deciding she wants to go, Aniseya promising to take her opinion into consideration, the witches being against it, and Aniseya choosing to let her go. 

ASIDE : 

The reason why the girls are so OP, must become leaders and the witches have no other kids (all relevant to the back and forth with Aniseya and should inform dialogue)

The coven uses group action. Most of the witches are fairly weak individually but can be powerful as a group working as one. The power of many. They rally behind powerful leaders. On their last world they were subject to attack, lost a lot of their children in particular, and their OP leader. Mother Aniseya/Koril were younger then, but the two next OP. They fled to Brendock in hiding, and discovering the vergence, Aniseya created the twins. Seeing their potential they were made as next leader. This would mean leading group rituals and protecting the Coven. They are only as powerful as their best witch, and Mae and Osha are like multipliers.

The witches don't make it sound like this is taboo, and more like Jedi would definitely take the girls away to study them and never return them. They can't afford this because of protection, they are not even done recovering from the damage of their last conflict.

Back to the story, with Mae furious. She is kicked out before Osha leaves the room. We now see her lock the doors and break the pad without anyone knowing, before she runs back into the building to get to Osha. 

Torbin POV

The Jedi rescue finally arrives at the crash site. It's just one man in a small ship. He's here to give them a ride back. Torbin wants to go now, Sol wants to stay. The blood test ping right then. 

The girls are suspicious to them immediately. Sol concludes they were born of the vergence. Indara suggests they might have been created from it, split somehow. She goes to use the new ship's comm to go as the council for guidance. 

They are all in their camping area, half packed up. The new jedi is watching them argue while sipping on his soup, looking confused. Indara comes back out saying the Council said NO. 

Osha is too old, and with her alone there's no proof they're the product of a vergence. They said they must come home, and will send another crew later on to mediate with the coven and investigate the matter.

Sol is distressed and says the girls are in danger. Mae is already marked. Osha outright said she wants to come. And if they bring back BOTH girls then the council will see they are a vergence and must be trained/studied. This is where he says he feels OSha is meant to be his padawan. 

Indara goes to protest, but Sol runs for a speeder to say he can negotiate with the witches.

 Indara yells for Torbin to follow him and stop him. (there's only two speeders and Torbin being lighter will be faster alone to catch up). She and Kelnacca run for the new ship telling the new guy that they'll be right back and please mind the camp. He looks very confused but resigned.

Torbin catches up to Sol outside the coven and begs him to stop. They can finally go home. They don't belong here. Sol ignores him and instructs him to shut off his mind so they don't get to him again and breaks in, Torbin on his heels.

Witches on high alert. Koril and Aniseya rush to the yard to confront the men.

Osha POV

Fight/argument with the girls in their room. They vent a lot of their usual criticism, push and pull over Osha's notebook, and in it Mae sees doodles of Torbin too (bit of a "turning Red" style acknowledgement that girls get crushes, but it also helps establish Osha as turned to other people and Mae perceiving this as a threat. 

Now Mae mocks Osha for having known Torbin for barely a day and she's already boy-sick.

Osha rips the book from her hand and goes to hit her with it. Mae reacts by pushing her with the force out of reflex. Osha doesn't block (as she didn't with their earlier training which still can happen when they come home from the hunt). She sends Osha flying across the room, hitting her head. She passes out and doesn't see the lamp breaking on the carpet, igniting it. 

Mae freezes, watching the carpet flare up. She tries to tamp it down, screaming Osha's name. She runs to her and tries to lift/drag/shake her but she's heavy and the fire is spreading. She rushes out screaming for help.

Torbin POV

The situation is heating up as Kelnacca and Indara arrive together. Sol has dropped the fact they should be taking both girls if they can and the witches are reacting like this is child snatching and straight up won't surrender Mae.

Indara tries to calm everyone. She's starting to make sense, and Aniseya goes to say something (maybe say she's OK to let Osha go), only for Mae's scream to be heard. She comes out screaming "Fire, fire!"

Sol yells "Osha!" Only for Mae to give him a weird look and say "Osha's trapped in the room!"

Sol blinks his surprise away. The witches turn on the jedi, many voices heard at once, asking what have you done!? Indara says "Nothing, we're all here, we just want to talk." 

The witches fire back they are lying/they have a new jedi/he must be here.

Torbin whips out his lightsaber right as the witches begin firing at him. 

All at the same moment or in very quick succession:

Koril goes for Indara and is deflected by Kelnacca

Aniseya goes to smoke rescue Mae, only for Sol to freak out at the sight of the smoke effect again and stab her. She still tells him "You could have taken Osha, she chose to go and I was going to let her".

Mae screams and rushes forward, falling over Aniseya. Indara leans over her and says they have to put down the fire, asking where Osha is. 

Koril attacks Sol.

Kelnacca and Torbin block arrows while Indara picks Mae up and asks to show her the way.

Osha POV

Osha wakes up alone in a room in flames. To her, she was left for dead and left to burn. She makes her escape as in the show. She can't get to the door due to flames. We hear screams and explosions as the whole place flames up. She makes her way through the tunnels.

Jedi POV

Cut back to Mae and Indara, discovering the room is empty. Indara is calling out for Osha, tries to sense her, says she's not here. Mae has already spotted the open pipe and darts away.

Cut to the Koril vs. Sol fight and Torbin blocking arrows. Things proceed as in the show, with Koril disappearing to smoke and the witches taking over Kelnacca, except Indara stops her efforts to contain the fire and find Osha when she hears Torbin scream. 

She winces in shared pain and rushes back out to see the end of the fight with Kelnacca. She intervenes again. This is way more visceral. We actively see depictions of her mental state. When the witches are cut off it's a thread snapping/strong sound design. Indara is shaken, mumbling an "oh no... I... I...' (clearly didn't intend to kill when she severed the bond)

There are still screams about the place as women try to escape the flames and smoke. Several explosions then.

Indara snaps at Sol "Find the girls!" before rushing to Torbin's side. Kelnacca is KO. Torbin is much more grievously injured. A sweating and visibly strained Indara takes a deep breath before trying to use force heal on him.

Sol POV

Sol, running inside to find the girls, stumbles on the witches all dead. Koril is WITH them, to highlight the fact she wasn't dissolving with the smoke effect, but teleporting, meaning Sol must have overreacted to this effect (and now he can guess what Aniseya most likely attempted and we know he knows).

He hears screams and follows them.

Instead of the girls being in a split gangway about to collapse just yelling each other's name, he finds Osha trapped outside the exit of her pipe system. She is still over the same drop, though it'd there is a lot more smoke that obscures the real depth of the shaft (and there's more coughing/strong impression things are burning all around).

Mae appears from the side and at a higher point (she's been tracing the path of the pipes trying to find where Osha would emerge and is getting to her now). She proceeds to move forward despite how dangerous the damage gangplank is, to try and reach Osha.

Sol yells for her to move back. He tries to find a clear pass, crying from the smoke in the air. Mae is saying she's sorry, she's also crying and saying "Mom's dead" to a horrified Osha who asks her "what did you do?!" 

Mae says "The Jedi came for you!" as an accusation. "I didn't—" and then the ramp drops a bit, they both scream. Sol yells for them to hang on and gets closer. 

Mae gets back up at the edge of the ramp and Osha grabs her hand and joins her. Their combined weight is too much. The ramp breaks and falls down over the pit. They hang on, screaming, and Sol grabs the entire ramp with the Force. 

He's crying, blinking, straining. Mae is slipping, her grip on Osha loosening. She has one hand on the ramp and one on Osha's top.

Sol slips in the Force and the ramp falls. Mae and Osha are shaken loose, but Sol grabs Osha with the Force, letting Mae fall (She was behind Osha, grabbing the back of her shirt, so she doesn't really see what's happening in the moment).

Things proceed as in the show, with heavier smoke and fire and Osha being dragged away from Aniseya not just because Sol doesn't want her to see the wound but also because there's real urgency in leaving. They run past the main door, where we can maybe see collapsed bodies. Sol runs to the weird black pit, on the edge of the settlement, the only place still clear of smoke. The music distorts around it, ominous. He looks around, desperate, passed out Osha in his arms. 

Light falls on him from above : the jedi ship, piloted by Indara.

Cut to the same scene as in the show with them in hyperspace, except they're not in their own ship but the much smaller rescue vessel. Kelnacca is passed out right next to Osha in a cramped room, and Torbin is sitting nearby, hugging himself, face swollen and eye shut by crusted blood. He's mumbling he's sorry again and again and Indara is actively soothing him/rubbing his back before the confrontation with Sol begins and she decides they have to cover this up.

Argument remains the same : Mae started a fire, everybody died, but we know the mom allowed Osha to be a Jedi, and she's the sole survivor. She also wanted to join, and though they can't exactly prove she was created by a vergence, they have blood samples and she can still be studied while she trains.

Osha screams and cries as Sol holds and hugs her. Camera cuts to Torbin. Pale faced, bloodied. He's finally still, his one good eye fixed dead ahead as we listen to Osha's wailing. 

Indara places a hand over his shoulder and whispers, 'It'll be all right. We're going home.'

Cut to Mae POV

Close up of her face, stone grey. Flakes of ash fall on her and coat her as the camera pans out. She's on her back on a lower gangplank in the shaft. She wakes up coughing, confused. 

She took a hard fall and is limping and hugging her arm, but she crawls to an exhaust port and emerges in the woods.

She's covered in soot and dried blood. Much, much dirtier than in the show. She turns back around : it's dawn, her coven is still burning/emitting a huge plume of smoke.

She looks around, the camera is far away, making her small and alone in the shot. She asks, in a trembling voice, "Oshie?"

Cut to black.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Perfection

This is another Lila episode, so get ready for dumb writing and lies only an infant would find convincing.

Let's get into the twelfth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Perfection

We start off with a sort of funny scene of Ladybug and Cat Noir doing heroic things while casually discussing the new relationships they're both in, unaware that they're talking about each other. It's less the irony that I like, but just the visuals showing how they're so experienced as superheroes at this point, they can casually chat while saving people.

Of course, even though the last scene confirmed that Marinette and Adrien are officially dating after four and a half seasons, the main conflict for the civilian plotline is that Marinette somehow isn't able to simply tell Adrien that she loves him. So basically, even though they're now in a relationship, the show is still going to rely on Marinette stuttering around Adrien like an idiot. Oh, thank God! I thought the writers were actually going to have Marinette and Adrien talk with each other like humans beings for a second there.

We then get a montage of Marinette struggling to get closer to Adrien, stumbling around and breaking stuff as if she was a character in an infomercial, culminating in a scene where Marinette attempts to confess to a picture of a cow, only to say “I love moo” instead. Get used to her saying this, because it's going to be a running gag.

During the aforementioned montage, we get a decent moment where Lila helps Chloe realize she needs to be more discreet when it comes to screwing with Marinette instead of her usual blunt attitude, which does a good job showing the one thing that sets Chloe and Lila apart: Their approaches to dealing with Marinette. It's not much, but it's something.

Meanwhile, the writers remembered Adrien is a musician, as he wrote a song for Marinette. A bunch of their friends come over to the Liberty, including Kagami.

Adrien: It's great to see you here, Kagami. You get to hear the song I wrote for Marinette.

Kagami: You made your feelings clear and you're dealing with them. That's good. I'm very proud of you.

Man, even the characters are glad the Love Square is finally going somewhere.

After another scene where Marinette once again tries to confess to the picture of a cow (the writers are really running with this gag, aren't they?), Adrien starts to perform the song he wrote for Marinette. Fun Fact: Adrien was originally going to sing a cover of that one song from Miami Connection, but Luka helped convince him that it would be better if he used his own song instead.

As for the song itself? Well, the music itself is nice, but the lyrics? They're decent, showing how Adrien doesn't want anything complex from his relationship with Marinette, but I'm just going to say it: I don't like the way Bryce Papenbrook sings. Like, I don't know how to describe it. It's not awful, but I just don't like the way he delivers the lyrics. He just sounds so monotone when he sings, which makes it hard to take this grand romantic gesture seriously.

Marinette once again struggles to tell Adrien she loves him, so we get even more of Marinette blaming other things for her hesitance, but not before we get more jokes about the cow picture.

Marinette: I'm just grabbing the cow to tell Adrien that I love him because I have the "I love" but not the “moo”. I know it's ridiculous. I'm ridiculous.

You know, at least C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, a show full of cow puns, actually did more with the jokes instead of just saying the words “cow” and “moo”.

Kagami tries to talk to Marinette, only for her to essentially be ignored. After Marinette transforms into Ladybug as an excuse to get out of there, Kagami then decides to call Lila about Marinette failing some kind of “friendship test”.

Kagami: You were right, Lila. I checked every box on your friendship test. Marinette doesn't consider me her best friend. I'm not even sure she ever considered me a friend.

Lila: Oh, no, Kagami... I'm so sorry she didn't see all the effort you've been making to get closer to her. Someone as amazing as you deserves a more considerate friend and... I'd be honored to be that friend.

I know I used this clip last time, but this is essentially the same problem I had there. Lila only had a single line in this episode before this scene, and it was her talking to Chloe, and I don't think Lila and Kagami have even shared a scene together before this episode, much less exchange numbers. Yeah, Kagami had been checking off things on a sheet of paper earlier in the episode, but we never got any explanation as to where and when Lila even gave her the friendship test. While we know that Lila's test was obviously fake, it seems out of character for Kagami to be this gullible, given that she was able to easily see through Adrien's lies last season (Lies).

Kagami then decides to just give up on having friends entirely, deleting all of her contacts except her mother's. I'm not sure if it was an animation error, or if the writers forgot, but for some reason, Adrien wasn't listed in there. We then cut to Lila, cutting Marinette's face out of some random pictures she got.

The scene's clearly supposed to be menacing, but I'd be more invested if I actually knew why Lila was so obsessed with Marinette outside of Marinette telling her to stop being a liar.

Kagami goes somewhere so she can be alone where she cries, where Monarch senses this and akumatizes her into Ryukomori through her ring.

Ryukomori's design is simple, but I think the concept behind it and use of Miraculous power makes it work. Monarch gives her the power to make it hard for her to see or hear anyone (insert your own Helen Keller joke here), and thanks to the Dragon Miraculous's Wind/Lightning/Water Dragon, Ryukomori is now a giant cloud person who can shoot lightning. Yeah, you have to wonder why Monarch gave her powers that would make it harder to see people, much less get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous, but this is the kind of stuff I wanted to see from the Miraculous powers used this season: Past heroes getting akumatized and having perverted versions of the powers they're familiar with.

Adrien sees this and transforms into Cat Noir, meeting up with Ladybug and showing her the friendship test he found earlier. Ladybug and Cat Noir try to talk with Ryukomori, but in her current state, it's hard to talk to her, so they'll need to find a different way to communicate. Ladybug and Cat Noir try arranging some cars into a kanji sign.

Hey, this is a French show! I'm supposed to be seeing french words I don't understand, not Japanese words I don't understand.

Ryukomori ignores the kanji, so now, the two have to come up with another plan while Monarch goads her into trying to kill them so she can finally be alone, whipping up a storm in anger.

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, a box of ironing beads, and gets an idea. Cat Noir goes to Socqueline's art shop (because I guess the animators really want to get their money's worth out of this character model and set) for supplies while Ladybug assembles a bunch of her friends and shows her a picture she made using the beads, wanting to make a bigger one for Ryukomori to see by holding up these panels to reveal it.

As simplistic as it is, it's a pretty cute visual, and it does the trick, causing Ryukomori to reject the Akuma. While I guess the Akuma was already de-evilized by Kagami, Ladybug hands her a Magical Charm as the students cheer for her.

Marinette apologizes to Kagami about how insensitive she was, but Kagami explains that she feels pressured to be perfect around others, which is meant to parallel Marinette's anxiety around Adrien. The two make up, and Marinette calls Kagami her best friend alongside Alya. Of course, Marinette somehow never asked about the friendship test, because that would actually clear everything up, and then we wouldn't have Kagami and Lila becoming friends again. Marinette and Alya talk about what exactly is keeping her from getting closer to Adrien, something that they'll figure out together. And so the episode ends with Tomoe storming into Gabriel's office that she endangered her daughter's life by akumatizing her... ignoring the last four times she's been akumatized (Riposte, Heroes' Day, Oni-Chan, Lies). In fact, if she's working with Gabriel, shouldn't she know Kagami was also Ryuko, and—okay, forget it, episode's over.

This episode was very hit or miss. The scenes with Ryukomori were well done. I like the way they called back to earlier episodes and how emotional the memories made Ryukomori, and the overall message of friendship was handled pretty well. But while I really like the way Ryukomori was handled, the road there was a pretty bumpy one. The subplot with Marinette wasn't funny, Adrien's song was really forgettable, and the writers just expect us to assume Kagami would fall for Lila's lies when earlier episodes have shown how perceptive she is. I get that the episode's probably setting up Kagami learning the truth in a later episode, it seems very out of character for her.

Overall, this episode just had a great Akuma fight, and a mediocre first half. Nothing too special, but it's still better than “Illusion” or “Determination”.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... KAGAMI

While Marinette came close thanks for her inability to say three basic words, Kagami ended up taking the award home. Not only did she fall for Lila's lies without even questioning her, she assumed that Marinette didn't care for her in the slightest, and after that, decided she had no other friends, not even Adrien, and after everything that happened, she still chose to believe Lila even though her test ended up being false when earlier episodes showed her being able to see through lies.

[accirax]

initial thoughts on DCAS episode 20

^ reminder for everyone that this applies to these initial thoughts as well! it was quite the surprising sight to have pop up at the beginning of the episode, though.

... what is Emily's motivation to kill Trevor here, exactly? i guess she took a page out of Riya's book when it comes to pushing gays off of cliffs.

yayyyyyyy, they're finally getting along! :D

does framing people for theft and twisting their already broken ankles count as "working"?

i guess we do know from Aiden in Season 2 that Tom and Jake were the most popular players. it makes sense (especially given the grandparent context Ally goes into), but it was still quite surprising.

i really hope that Tom and Jake talk this out at some point, whether in the finale finale or in the tomjake miniseries, because the truth of the situation is that Tom's absence from Jake's life was contributing to his misery, which was apparently much greater than anyone expected. i know that Tom never intended it to be that way, but i'm also sure that his fooling around with lying about having a boyfriend wasn't doing Jake any favors. i just want to make sure that the inadvertent hurt that Tom caused Jake doesn't get swept under the rug.

haha, it's puns in visual storytelling :)

this is understandable. Riya can and will use your backstory against you.

.......................................sigh

this might sound like an odd critique given how much people love to dunk on DC's writing (especially in All Stars), but i actually think that the ONC writers don't have enough faith in themselves. i mean that in the sense that, across the season, they set up really compelling plotlines and rivalries between both Jake/Ally and Connor/Riya that people will naturally want to see fulfilled.

for Ally and Jake, just being here and being forced to work together after everything they've been through is already enough, especially when Connor's hopes are stacked on top of it as well. we're in it with the characters for the ride. so, we don't need more bits of fake drama, like Jake being petty and shocking Ally out of nowhere last episode, or Ally reacting stupidly to Riya's obvious lie, to keep up invested. we don't need a huge last-minute spectacle to feel like Ally and Jake working together is a big deal, because they've been subtly and slowly convincing us of that through the entire season. instead, diverting from the steady characterization to inject needless drama in is just going to convince everyone that nothing matters.

i don't know if this could be a miscalculated flaw from trying to account for the fact that any viewer could hop in at any time on youtube, or appealing to the youtube/tiktok algorithm, or an internal, insecure standard to insert drama into the show at any cost, but i hope that the writers realize how good they are at using heartfelt scenes to build up character dynamics across entire seasons and stop breaking character for silly plot twists in season 4. i have a lot of faith in the writers. i hope they can find that faith in themselves.

y'know, everyone keeps saying that...

OOH THE MOTION BLUR??? POP OFF ONC ANIMATION TEAM I SEE YOU

the "Ally, you're going there!" sign was so fucking funny

that's not very "i'll never work with or trust Riya again" of you, Grett

i literally said before Riya struck her pose, "i hope that Riya does the 'aren't you gay?' pose when it's her turn" and then she did! it's her signature move for a reason ;D

this is, like, the exact same spot and pose as when Trevor initially found Derek and Kristal kissing. i wonder if that was intentional. also, the Gay Thoughts Montage(tm) was really funny.

why would you do it like that? hasn't Trevor suffered enough...? (/j)

@venus-is-thinking pointed out the hilarity of Jake being the one to say this, as he's one of the two contestants who actually has been in the mines before. i guess it just goes to show how disorienting the bags were.

get his ass!!!

i KNEW Ally was going to make a minecraft reference as soon as Kristal explained the challenge. miiiiiiiiiiiiine diiiiiiiiiiamoooooooonds...

way to keep your eyes on the prize, queen.

we love money laundering!! (i think that's close enough to what money laundering is? also i'm joking, obviously.)

again, what is Emily's motivation here? i know it's technically "get the show canceled to embarass Kristal," but she really believes in that so strongly as to put the lives of six innocents-- including an eight year old-- at risk to do so? idk, i feel like Emily's character fell off the realm of reality into supervillain status. it's sad :(

boy, i sure am glad that we witness Riya and Yul pick up 10 gems in this scene! (/s /j)

very brave, Jake. i feel like this parallels something in s1, although i can't remember what. maybe it's just Alec protecting Fiore? that doesn't seem particularly relevant, unless Jake is also auditioning to be her dad.

James: wait... does that mean Jake and Ally are going to fall madly in love with each other? #rivalstolovers.

they look like paleontological fossils in there. the fuck happened to them?

somebody, quick, give them a miniseries! this is too good of a poster opportunity to pass up!

you have to make sure you strike a slay pose, even as you're dying.

props to the trailer for making it look like Ally was the one who sent the rocks to James' face instead of Riya. that was a fun setup and subversion of expectations!

see, Riya can and will use your backstory against you! i was kind of expecting her to do this to Jake, too, given the setup from earlier in the episode. i guess they might be saving that for the finale proper, though.

(check out the reblog for my thoughts on the ending, i ran out of images)

[heliza24]

Let's talk about the music in Young Royals! (Part 1)

This post, which will focus on the needle drops used in the show, is the first part of a two-part analysis. Part 2 will focus on the original score.

I love the way music is used in Young Royals. It was one of the first things that attracted me to the show, but it's only recently that I’ve stopped to think about why I find it so effective. I used to (in a pre-disability past life) work in the music industry, and I’ve been missing my old job a lot lately. So I thought I would use some of my knowledge (and my media analysis skills) to write this meta. I've tried to link a youtube video for every song I reference, so you can go and listen to the tracks if you want to.

First, let’s talk about some logistics. “Needle drops” are when a show uses a pre-existing song as part of the score (like literally dropping a needle on a record player; isn’t it weird how that terminology has stuck around even while the technology has changed?). You can also call them music syncs, which refers to the fact that in order to use pre-existing music in film, you have to obtain a music synchronization license from the copyright owner (this ensures that the recording artist and the songwriter get paid for the use of their music). The person in charge of selecting songs and clearing the rights for them is called the music supervisor. The Young Royals music supervisor is Magnus Palmborg, and I think he does an incredible job. (He was also a co-writer on Simon’s Song, so we really have a lot to thank him for).

Music serves a very important role in Young Royals. I believe that the selection of songs and use of the score really helps establish one of the most important themes of the show: the dichotomy between the public and private self. So much of Young Royals is about the images characters consciously try to project and the pressure society puts on them to act a certain way, and the way that conflicts with their actual internal feelings.  And this dichotomy exists very clearly in the music too.

Most of the needle drops in the show are big, bold pop and hip hop songs. They are usually played over montages of the students at Hillerska, often towards the beginning of the episode, and they reflect the “cool” image that the students are trying to project to each other. The very first time we see Hillerska, “Wannabe Ghetto” by Fata Boom is playing, and the lyrics “keep up the front like it’s your mission/Look our best, cover up what’s missing” perfectly sums up the pressure the students feel to fit in at such an elite school. When everyone is getting ready for the welcome back party in 2.1, the incredibly confident "Ripe" by Flavia is playing. The lyrics “no need to go to work unless you're working on my body” are full of sexual confidence, but they also play while students are putting on makeup and trying to look their best, literally working on their bodies. (Flavia is one of my favorite finds from the soundtrack by the way. She makes total queer bangers, I recommend checking her out). 

It’s probably worth talking briefly about the opening title card here. A lot of shows have full opening sequences, with their own theme song. Young Royals eschews this, choosing instead to just flash the title on screen over an existing scene, often with a needle drop (but this changes each episode). I think this approach works really well, because it lets the music clue us in to the mood of each episode. A lot of episodes start with a very intimate scene, like the music room scene at the beginning of 1.3, and then contrast that with a burst of pop music during the title card that reminds us of the front the characters are normally projecting. In 1.3 the title card is shown over a montage of Felice struggling in the stables and is accompanied by a loud, lyricless pop song. That contrast from the intimacy of the music room, to a space where Felice feels like she’s always pretending, is really effective.  

But sometimes needle drops are used to reflect more intimate, genuine emotions. Sometimes the show does this by making the song semi-diagetic. (Diagetic music is music that exists within the story that characters can hear; so Simon’s Song for instance is diagetic). At the beginning of episode 1.1, Wilhelm is listening to “Bad” by Farveblind, which has the lyrics “I think it’s bad/I think it’s lame/I think it’s horrible” over and over again, which is a pretty clear indicator of how Wilhelm is feeling. The show does a similar thing in 2.3, when Wilhelm listens to “The Lonely Ones” by Lova in his headphones when he walks by the lake. He’s feeling lonely! He listens to a sad song! That’s pretty straight forward. 

But sometimes the way the music captures characters’ genuine feelings is a little more subtle. I actually think that there’s a lot more of this in season 2 than there is in season 1. There are a few examples I love from season 1, but most of my favorite examples are from the latter half of season 2. This perfectly reflects the journey that all of the characters, but especially Wilhelm, are going on; as season 2 goes on he gets more and more in touch with his real feelings and less and less able to pretend to please the royal family. These songs tend to be a little quieter than the flashy pop and hip hop that represents the facade of Hillerska, and you sometimes have to think a little bit about how the lyrics are illuminating what the characters are feeling.

Some of my favorite examples in season 1 include  “Holes (Deep Throat Choir Remix)” by Zhala that plays during Erik’s funeral, which has the lyrics “And I lose myself inside”, reflecting Wilhelm’s descent into grief and the way that he’s about to push Simon away, and “Sunday” by Gina Dirawi that plays as the girls are setting up for the sleepover and Wilhelm is going over to Simon’s house in 1.5. The lyrics “but I can see you clear here” reflect the fact that both sets of characters have found a sense of comfort with each other. But my absolute favorite example in season 1 is “Samurai Swords” by Highasakite, which plays while August uploads the video of Wilhelm and Simon to the internet. “I am leaving/I’m unleashing/I unravel to the leeches/I’m unpleasant/I’m unloving/So call out the guys with the samurai swords” plays while the camera focuses on August, reflecting his emotional state and also the fact that uploading the video is an act of self-harm for August (the image of samurai swords makes me think of seppuku, or the ritualized suicide that samurai warriors would commit instead of falling into enemy hands) and an act of aggression against Wilhelm and Simon. And when the camera cuts back to Wilhelm and Simon the lyrics say “someone else will love like a rainstorm”. The melody is so wistful and sad, like the show is already nostalgic for the perfect love that Simon and Wilhelm had which is about to be marred by the outside world. 

In season 2, I really love “My Awe Sustains” by Ari at the top of 1.5, which perfectly captures the feeling of longing between Wilhelm and Simon (this is my other favorite discovery from the soundtrack; the whole album For Evig by Ari is one of my favorites now) and “I Wanna Be Someone Who’s Loved” by Tusse, which is included after the fight in the music room in the same episode. The lyrics to this one are really heartbreaking: “You make me feel like I’m invisible… Thought it would help but no one hears my call/No I won’t give up/I want to be someone who’s loved.” The lyrics capture how much Wilhelm wants to make his way back to Simon, but there’s frustration in melody too, which reflects how trapped he currently feels. “Please Don’t Go” by April Snow and Elias in episode 2.3 is another really interesting example. It plays right before August invites Sara to his room “just to talk” and before Simon tries to break up and Marcus doesn’t let him. The lyrics “I asked you to leave but I meant that I want you to stay/I need you to hear what I mean and not what I say” seem to capture the push-pull in both sets of relationships, and how all of the characters are trying but failing to really communicate what they mean.

But I think my favorite needle drop in season 2 that's used to illuminate the inner thoughts of a character is "Mirror" by Mogli. The song starts playing right after Wilhelm's last session with Boris in 2.5, when he realizes he has a choice: he doesn't have to become king. He could let August inherit and be with Simon. The lyrics "You don't want to be sad anymore/And I can't laugh/ No I can't laugh/I want to win this race but you can't lose/I let you score" underscore Wilhelm contemplating August in the Forest Ridge common room. Letting August inherit the crown would be letting him "win" in their invisible war for power, but what would that matter if Wilhelm gets to be happy with Simon? We see Wilhelm come to that realization, and then in the next scene he tells Simon that he's willing to give up the crown for him.

Since we’ve talked about the opening title card needle drops, we should probably address the fact there is also often a song over the closing credits as well. Again, this doesn’t happen in every episode; sometimes original scoring is used instead. But when a needle drop is included at the end of an episode, it feels like foreshadowing for things to come. My favorite is the end of 2.1, right after Wilhelm has a meltdown on the call to his mom. “Seize the Power” by YONAKA plays, and seems to signify Wilhelm’s arc for the rest of the season: 

“Woke up this morning, I feel so fucking important/Look in the mirror, I’m different, I finally made a decision/All the rejected that lost a lack of respect in themselves cause people get hectic/they hurt you and make you feel helpless/they’re not brave like you/they’re too scared to do/anything that’s different, anything that’s new/I don’t need lessons/I do what I want it’s refreshing/as soon as you taste independence/you start living life in the present”

Season 2 is all about Wilhelm realizing he needs to claim his independence and start living his own life, so the lyrics perfectly represent his arc. Plus, the melody of this song is driving and angry, which helps carry forward the momentum of Wilhelm’s conflict with his mom through the end of the credits and reminds us how urgent this need to stand up for himself is.

You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t talked about “Revolution” by Elias or “The Most Beautiful Boy” by The Irrepressibles yet. I saved these two for last because I think they get the most fan discussion of all of the music choices in the season, and for good reason. To me these two are almost the theme songs of their respective season; everything centers around them. They occur at the same place in the season (at the end of 1.4/2.4 and 1.6/2.6) and they encapsulate the lessons that Wilhelm needs to learn: how to stand up to his mom and defy what is expected of him, and how to prioritize his love for Simon.

(I’ve also already talked about “Holy” by Elias in my post about the sex scenes here).

Overall, I love the way that needle drops are used in Young Royals. I know some people have complained that the songs don’t have much to do with the story, but to me nothing could be further from the truth. The songs capture both the societal expectations of Hillerska and the tender, inner workings of the characters. They help us understand the pressures put on our main characters and illuminate how they are really feeling inside. Plus the soundtrack is filled with queer, female, and POC artists who are a delight to discover.

I would love to hear your interpretation of the needle drops in the show. Do you have a favorite song on the soundtrack? Is there something I missed that you want me to talk about? My ask box is open and I would love to hear your thoughts!

[ganthritorchic]

Okay, so I've had time to think about Venom 3 a little more

It really needed to either pare down characters or actually develop them. You have all these great actors but they're generally under utilized.

If you wanted to have that tonal whiplash all the time, there are ways to do that coherently.

Venom being Venom is like. Fine. But McGuffining him all the time just so the alien woodchipper could find him was not. Organic feeling to me. It would just... Happen what felt almost randomly.

I don't know if it's writing choices, editing choices, or Interference happened, greatly altering the final movie we got. It really really read similar to any Chinese BL up against a censor, where you see or get this really not subtle scene with symbolism in play or dialogue. But, then nothing follows through bc there is simply Too Much Gay.

General improvements would include:

-They fuckin on screen

-The movie figuring it's overall tone and choice of story telling. It was tryna be too serious and Venom while having some of that is not generally serious.

-If we're really here to fuckin mess with Eddie. This should have been a musical musical. If only venom singing and narrating and Eddie having to deal with it. But a musical would have helped in thinking about the story structure I think.

-like. If you wanna be meta in the way your story is going to play out, commit to it. If you're going to cringe me at the end with that montage it still shouldn't slap me in the face.

I do love the general acting choice of you seeing Eddie walk normally, instead of you know All weirdo when he's Venom free, even though that was actually what punched me in the emotion-face.

There are amazing bits with no connecting parts. Or the bare minimum. I don't know why I should care about these random other ppl they got SOME time but not enough to be really effective. You CAN do a lot with a little time to develop characters but we didn't get sufficient power in those scenes, at least for me. It did not carry the story. I love Juno Temple but why do I care. This military man has Beef, why do I care. This Christmas lady is cool, why do I care. Why is another Ted Lasso actor here lol. Mrs Chen, always great.

No, really. This should have been a musical. It should have been nonsensical and fantastic. And when you get to the end and it could have been just how venom made that work as a final gift/hate gift lol, to Eddie and then you get that ending after as a big ol tonal shock, which would have made that even more powerful

Whatever. I'm just rambling at this point

[blueeyedgrlwrites]

Alright kids. I spent 24 straight hours watching RWRB on loop (not kidding). And the only reason it wasn't more was because my dog decided to lay on the remote and turn the TV off late last night. She got glared at rather harshly for all of 3 seconds before my rational brain kicked in and told me, "Yes, Meg, you do actually need to sleep. You are closer to 40 than 20."

So with that, as I once again rewatch the RWRB movie, let's have some thoughts on book to movie adaptations from a fandom grandma, shall we?

First, Casey's book is beloved by so many and for all the right reasons. They gave us an iconically beautiful and unapologetic queer love story with characters that you love, get frustrated with, laugh both at and with, cheer for, and roll your eyes at as they stumble around figuring out this whole queer-in-the-public-eye thing and I don't care who you are, I'd imagine that's going to be tough for any public figure at any age.

Casey also gives us fleshed out and sometimes interwoven storylines with June, Nora, Pez, Luna, Bea, et al. Because writing allows for that to develop. There's no time or page limit on a book. The only limit to the book is the writer's imagination. It's an artistic medium that allows for more intricacies and interactions between the various characters (looking at Alex and Ellen and the PowerPoint, and Alex and Bea and "I love him on purpose").

I loved the book first, and I will continue to love the book above all else.

But book to movie adaptations are never going to be the same. They simply can't be the same. They have a finite amount of time to fill. They can't develop intricate storylines, which is why we see no June, no Luna, little of Percy, Alex's parents being married instead of divorced, nothing on Bea's addiction, and why we have little bastards like Miguel to still fill the main event that brings both Alex and Henry out into the public as their true, authentic selves.

The best book to movie adaptations are those that stay true to the plot. It's going to be faster paced because there's 2-2.5 hours in which to tell the story and all the main events have to be hit in that time. It's why we see the texting montage, and why the emails are done via voice over.

They honor the characters by not only keeping them as they are in the books, but in doing right by them as well. That includes casting the right people, and Taylor and Nick were far and away the best Alex and Henry.

Any creator who has ever created anything based on a book, movie, TV series, video game, etc. knows that when you take something that is already out there, you put your vision to the story. And that's what Matthew did with the movie. He made it his love letter to Henry and Alex, and Henry and Alex only. And while he surely had input from Casey, ultimately it was his vision that had to be realized in the movie.

Movie adaptations can also give you some wonderful added moments. And here we get to see Henry's struggle as well as Alex's. Because movies can be told from different points of view, even if the source material isn't. Ellen's powerpoint wasn't included, but it was referenced and that is just as important.

So many moments, from Alex and Henry's first kiss, to the conversation with Alex's dad, to Henry's soliloquy to Alex in the middle of the night at KP are still pulled word-for-word straight from the book.

We may not have "I love him on purpose." But we do have, "I'll break the sound barrier for you."

We don't get "Your Song" but we do get "Can't Help Falling in Love" and both are equally appropriate for what Alex and Henry have.

We get to keep, "history huh? Bet we could make some."

And we get to see Henry fight for himself and question why the established norms of a 21st century monarchy need to continue the way they've always been, rather than have his mum swoop in and save the day. And that is fucking brilliant character growth my friends.

No movie is ever going to be a scene by scene rehash of a book, no matter how beloved it is, and no matter how enthusiastically all of us shout that we would absolutely sit for a 10 hour movie of every little thing TYVM. But as long as it is there to be an ode to the original, to compliment it, then that's all you can ask for. And it's all you should ask for.

[raspberry-gloaming]

Anyone want to hear about my episode ideas for my fan companion (and secret zygon), Erin? No? Well your getting them! :D

Episode 1: Bats in the Belfry aka, "That is not a fucking bat"

We are introduced to Erin as she drives up to a property. This property is in the north east of England, and is a kinda crumbling, old country house/estate. It has recently been bought by a new family, and they want to do it up (as much as they can since something like this is probably listed lol) or even like perhaps it's a new property that has come into the hands of the NHS. Either way, the owners are having a bat survey done. Enter Erin, a 29 year old Ecologist.

There are hints or even scenes, building up tensions as the audience but not the characters can see that these possible bats... that ain't a bat. Erin decides, as per surveying thingy I need to research more, to come back at night/dusk when the bats are more active as there is stuff that suggests bat activity, but haven't been able to see anything since it's daytime and bats are nocturnal.

On return, hyjinks! Or rather more scary than simply hyjinks, but the adventure begins. Enter, Doctor. Why is he here? Plot reasons, that's what. Perhaps he's been tracking these things - that to absolutely no doctor who fan's surprise, are not bats, but actually aliens.

Plot. Ending. She's gonna travel and be a companion, tada! I know that didn't sound that interesting, but I've got a lot of thoughts I can't really express on mini scenes and visuals and relationships between how the characters interact that I can't put in writing, frustratingly. Just know that there's a vibe.

Episode xyz: The one where a bird gets stuck in the TARDIS

I'm surprised this hasn't happened before - or perhaps it has, and we just haven't seen it. This episode takes place for the majority, just inside the TARDIS. Unless I'm wrong, we haven't had a tardis as the setting episode since... Series 7? It's time to bring that back, with a low stakes episode.

Most people know the frustration of trying to get some animal, be it bird, insect or even something else, out of your house. And that animal like, never, wants to go out the way it came, it's like it wants to bang into the wall or window instead of the wide open door. Now imagine your house is an infinite complex of tunnels and rooms, stretching on for ever and ever and ever and ever... and ever... and ever....

Yup, that's the tardis, and there's a frightened animal, earth or otherwise, that we need to get out. Perhaps add possible tension by it damaging wiring or getting into places it really shouldn't, or the TARDIS ain't happy about all that jazz. Watch Erin and the Doctor bond as they hyjinks inside the TARDIS, and we get to see some rooms, and mechanics, and dimension-breaking stuff that we haven't seen before.

I've also got ideas for a two parter - somewhere in the second half of the series, possibly even like last two episodes. Not really anything about the big bad or whatever arc the series has, but about The Reveal.

And also the flashback and montage cold open at the start of the second episode of said two parter - Mwah! Chefs kiss! What I've got in my head I adore, each little scene and interaction, character building, little threads and stuff. The big bad ain't important, nooo it's this stuff it's delicious and I ship my own characters so damn much, but like... not in a straight up romantic way? It's complicated. They're alien. They're simultaneously Tudors, Millenials and Gen Alpha all at the same time. They're in love. But is it romantic love like humans have? Do zygons have a concept of romance? Idk but Rahul and Erin are soooo cute and I love them even though I made both of them up in my head.

[ben-talks-art]

Puss in Boots the last Wish is a great way to start 2023!

Finally got to see the new Puss in Boots movie after hearing everyone talking about how much they loved the heck out of it and after being more than sold in this new Spider-Verse/ Arcane/ Bad Guys style of animation that mixes 2D and 3D in such an imaginative way.

There was a part of me that was admittedly a little bit skeptical and went into this going "Okay, then, movie, impress me... If you dare!"

And... Yeah, everyone was right. This movie is freaking awesome!

While I don't think everyone is going to be blown away by the story, there is one element that I'm pretty sure we all can agree was handled perfectly...

This movie feels like a spectacle!

The way characters move, the way they talk, the way they interact, the way they are simply introduced into a scene, everything feels like it's trying to give the experience of a show to the audience.

Like for instance, the very first action scene. At first you think it's going to be this very simple and fun tiny thing, but then it keeps escalating and becoming more and more epic as it goes on. It goes bigger, the action gets faster, the music gets louder, and you just keep getting into the mood as if you were there yourself and rooting for the hero.

It does such a great job sucking you into the hype.

That's really the best word for it. The hype just feels real. When the move wants you to feel like you're in a party, you feel like you're in a party, and when it wants you to feel like you're in danger you feel like you're in danger.

The emotions transmit so well through the imagery and the animation. You just feel like you're Puss in Boots fighting all these enemies, running for your life, traveling through these dangerous locations and connecting with these people.

It reminds me a lot of the Kung Fu Panda movies whenever they do a montage scene

Imagine a whole movie done like this, taking full advantage of the animated stylized visual storytelling!

Another thing I really like is the way they incorporate personality into the actions of each character.

For instance, there is a scene where one of the villains needs to place a glass ball into his bag, but instead of just putting it in he launches it as if it was a bowling ball. There is another where one is talking with her family while jumping on top of a bunch of bears, and the way she jumps from one to another just looks so much fun.

Everyone in this movie feels like they are always having fun, always enjoying every second of being who they are. And the one who looks like he's having the most fun is the main bad guy who, I'm just gonna say, It's probably Dreamworks' best villain since Shen.

(In case you haven't noticed it, I'm not actually going to spoil any imagery of this movie because everything here looks way too good and it deserves to be experienced blind)

This villain is so freaking badass! His voice is badass! His design is badass! His motivation is badass! And the way he interacts with Puss!

I'm so glad they remembered that their best villains were Shen and Ramses and the reason they are so great is because they actually have a connection with the heroes.

This dude's interactions with Puss are cool, scary, intense, and at the same time still feel justified, you totally get where he's coming from, which honestly makes him even more of a threat because you know he's right.

This is such a fun, hype, cool, and awesome spectacle of a movie!

Even if the writing and the story aren't that outstanding (personally I feel they could have used some better jokes, but oh well), the style more than makes up for it.

I had a great time and highly recommend it! I want to see more of this from Dreamworks! I would be immensely happy if they just reformed themselves as the 2D/3D mixed company.

You know they want to anyway. They always loved putting 2D stuff in their 3D movies, just let them make this their new home.

Spider-Verse was awesome. Arcane was awesome. Bad Guys was awesome. And now Puss in Boots is awesome too! Give us more!

[libraryleopard]

i keep meaning to write out my thoughts on how to blow up a pipeline and forgetting but anyway here are some:

i know it's based on a manifesto but i don't know anything about that book but i did think the film was a pretty great heist story with a solid ensemble cast and some great tension

literally i was watching it with my sister and we were so stressed throughout that we forgot to eat the popcorn we'd gotten which is personally a testament to this film's ability to build tension

forrest goodluck and sasha lane being in this movie is great for me personally! cameron post reunion!

goodluck is also really talented at acting without a lot of dialogue–the scenes where he's constructing the homemade explosives had me on the edge of my SEAT

really solid ensemble cast in general–didn't take me long to get all the names/characters/backstories straight

i enjoyed the format of the film giving us flashbacks to the backstories/recruitment of the characters throughout the story rather than having a "getting the gang together" montage at the start because it worked really well to build tension about whether the characters were trustworthy and how they got involved

especially in regards to rowan and logan–i did NOT trust them from the start so i was legitimately surprised when it turned out they were actually committed to the mission (i admit that my sister and i spent some amount of time yelling "ECO-TERRORIST POSERS" when they were onscreen. sorry logan and rowan the film did a good job of making me misjudge you. but also why did you have sex in the middle of the heist my GOD.)

and i think the way that you're in the dark about the entire plan until almost the end worked well–like at first i didn't realize why theo and alisha had such an emotional goodbye when the team is splitting up after the explosives are all planted and then you learn that it's because xochitl and theo have planned to take the fall so alisha and theo may never see each other again and certainly won't be going back to normal lives

oh and also when you realize that the photos rowan took to send to the fbi only had theo and xochitl in them and how that was a calculated choice to keep the others as clear from suspicion as possible

oh and when logan got shot and rowan shoved him through the hotel window instead of bringing him around the front was like why are you doing this?? but then it became clear later it was to avoid him being in cameras so he wouldn't be implicated

i think it would probably be fun to rewatch this film at some point and catch details like that again

"it would take days to clean the place up" and then cutting to the house they were staying in being blown up was also a great moment utilizing the nonlinear form

i think the varying backstories of characters worked well (theo's cancer, xochitl's radicalization after the death of her mom in a heatwave, michael being from an indigenous community that is affected by oil mining) and the movie was pretty efficient at balancing backstory/current heist

though i have to admit the scene where shawn recruits logan by standing around in a bookstore reading the source material manifesto was so unserious lol

the scene where alisha's leg is broken and she's just said goodbye to theo and she's driving and kind of crying was so well-acted i need jayme lawson to be in lots of stuff after this

"this is an act of self defense" is such a banger of a last line also

i love well-structured heist movies woohoo

also did you know that dwayne's actor was in a movie about zombie beavers called zombeavers. wikipedia can teach you such beautiful things

i thought it was cool that the "a film by" title card at the end included the writers of the film and not just the director

[fmp1cieranshippy]

GENERAL PLAN

With a discussion from Kyrstie I now need to think of what I am good at and where can we start this FMP on, with our discussion we've agreed upon two aspects of what I have done so far.

Pixel and Sculpting / Modelling

With what I want to do with this Fmp for the most part which is B movie style monster designs, character designs and focus on the story aspect of Man vs Nature, science gone wrong, life gone wrong; good and bad aspects of both parties, who really is at fault etc etc.

Before I get to the designing process and the story aspect of the project, I need to tackle some important obstacles, The first is dumping the Symmetry style as I need to start drawing designs with different styles to them, directions and shapes and sizes instead of something just being the same over and over again (which gets boring after awhile as I may agree) I would also need to start sketching my ideas first before actually drawing pixel designs as I can't just straight away draw something and expect it to be exactly how I want it, so I need to get good at drawing monster bodies, human bodies etc in form of sketches so I know exactly how I want my pixel designs to look like when I actually get through into drawing them fully on a digital platform.

I also need to research different Pixel styles on Pinterest to see which one works for me and which one doesn't or just have different styles all together, as a montage of the different styles I have achieved.

I need to consider making cool and inserting, game style backgrounds and scenories to not just set the scene but to be good at presentation instead of having a boring plane uninteresting background where the character would be mainly in front of.

I would also need to research B movie posters and game posters etc just to get an idea on how they present their work and what makes them a B movie or in general.

I would also need to find my target audience, I need to understand what I am looking for in my audience, for example am I looking for something gory or sexual, something dark and deep, something funny and goofy; I need to figure out and understand my target audience before I actually begin the drawing process because I need to know what will catch their eyes not what will catch my eyes, with another few examples that will be playing cards, board games, animation, movies, games in general that sort of thing what style it is going to be in and what will be a more interesting choice to catch everyone's eyes when making my designs.

Here is the list that I used to write down this quick step by step instructions of what I need to do when I get into the design and story process of my project.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

hi yes im still alive

DON’T MIND ME, I’M JUST--

HAVING A MOMENT TO PROCESS ALL THE LORE AND STORY CHAPTER 6 JUST DROPPED ON US, I CAN BARELY WRITE

AHHHHHHH, I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS 😭 kjdbbaufbiafafvoaybo LEMME PUT ON MY THINKING CAP AND THROW SOME STUFF OUT ASDYUBUASDLI;AGVUOQIB;VI You’ll understand why I used Leona’s face here even though it’s Idia and Ortho’s chapter after you read my thoughts--

***Chapter 6 (and other main story) spoilers below the cut!***

Okay, just to keep it simple, I’ll try to keep things in chronological order!

First is a bullet point list of my thoughts on chapter 6 so far, then all my questions and theories (mostly a biggish theory on Ace) are at the end of the post.

Expectation: Idia cowering in his room, Vil and Rook busting down his door using Epel as a battering ram, dead Ortho theory confirmed

Reality: SWAT TEAM RAID ON NRC, DORM LEADERS (sans Kalim) AND JAMIL GET KIDNAPPED

Admittedly, I’m disappointed to see that the injury Grim inflicted to MC was basically just a cat scratch and nothing more. I thought it would be a lot more impactful if MC had to deal with juggling the realization that Grim has betrayed their friendship and trust while also on the verge of death (or at least while being severely injured)... And given how MC reacted to the attack at the end of chapter 5, I would think whatever struck them was much more substantial than just a cat scratch. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say either the script got scrubbed by Disney, or the intent was that MC was still woozy from VDC / OB Vil, MC felt so betrayed that it shook them emotionally, or that MC was just that weak by default that they can’t defend themselves against cat claws.

Hey, Ramshackle’s finally getting renovated! Proceeds to immediately get destroyed again--

I feel like????????? They tried to retroactively explain why Neige won to try and mitigate the uproar over how VDC ended. There’s some dialogue between the VDC group about how they didn’t perform at their peak because of having just walked out of dealing with OB Vil, and how Neige’s fans were going to vote for him anyway because they resonated with his background. Honestly, I think they should have moved on from that sore spot instead of bringing it up again, even if how chapter 5 ended didn’t personally bother me.

BOOM, HERE COME THE TWST TERMINATORS--

NOT GONNA LIE, THOSE STYX GUYS LOOK HOT SO COOL

AAAAAAND IT’S KIDNAPPING MONTAGE TIME, KIDS

JOABSFHUPAUABDBADB CALM DOWN, RIDDLE??????? YOU’RE GOING TO COMMIT ARSON IN BROAD DAYLIGHT--

Okay, I know this chapter’s focused on Ignihyde and Grim, but the standout part to me (so far) has been the scene where Leona’s being kidnapped. Historically, Leona has not been a character that I like (excluding that one time I had to pretend to like him for a game). I feel like he’s one massive missed opportunity (he didn’t show up much in chapter 2, he’s pretty similar backstory-wise to his Disney counterpart compared to the other Dorm Leaders, he didn’t seem to learn anything or become a better person even a LITTLE after chapter 2, etc.). I’m not a fan of his lazy and arrogant attitude either (even if it is justified by his backstory). But here? THIS IS THE LEONA I ACTUALLY LIKE AND WANT TO SEE MORE OF. 

LIKE????? I CAN’T DESCRIBE TO YOU HOW MUCH I LIKE THIS SCENE???? Yeah, we have Leona fighting STYX at first, but as soon as he realizes who they are, he wises up and surrenders because he knows better than to resist arrest. AND NOT ONLY THAT, but he uses King’s Roar in a smart way--to turn the falling greenhouse glass panes into sand so they don’t hurt anyone nearby (namely him and Ruggie).

And after he turns himself in????? LEONA TELLS RUGGIE TO TAKE CARE OF SAVANACLAW FOR HIM!!! THIS is what a real leader would do. He looks after himself and his people, but he knows when to surrender, AND he leaves his “kingdom” (the dorm) in good hands while he’s away. THIS is the Leona I want to see.

AJBDUASHPFBUABFIABIYFBIPFAAFIAF I ALSO REALLY LIKE HIS SASS WHEN HE JUST THROWS HIS HANDS UP AND ASDBIASBIABAIODDAYOFAIPPADAIDB SAYS “I’ll go with you, but be careful while escorting me, okay? Despite my looks, I'm a precious prince. I’ll get sick/dizzy if you drive recklessly.” SARCASTIC SASSY SMARTASS??????? IF YOU HAD MORE LINES LIKE THIS, I’D LIKE YOU MORE

I love how Azul’s still talking about capitalism/how he can profit from Idia (apparently the Shrouds are like the TWST equivalent of Google??????) as he’s being escorted away by the agents?????? IF I WERE HIM, I’D BE PISSED OFF THAT THEY INTERRUPTED MY BOARD GAME????? At least let the man finish first--

Damn, everyone’s being tasered???????? And apparently all the STYX agents are equipped with anti-magic plates? I guess Bind the Heart can just eat shit then--

Lilia’s ringtone is cute, period.

CROWLEY CALLED STYX TO CAPTURE GRIM???? GRIM IS OFFICIALLY A SCP THAT NEEDS TO BE CONTAINED????

WAIT WHAT CROWLEY’S BEING KIDNAPPED TOO??????? Oh well, the school is probably safer in Trein’s hands anyway--

askhlbfbilhidbabbidasb RIDDLE WAKES UP POST KIDNAPPING AND HE’S USING LEONA AS A LAP PILLOW?????!

How does it feel to be held in a room against your will, Jamil? Yeah, don’t like a taste of your own medicine, do you?

OH HI IDIA, NICE YZMA MAD SCIENTIST GETUP YOU GOT THERE

Wait, what????? THAT’S IT?????? SERIOUSLY???????

MAN.

I have so many questions??????? Specifically about STYX and what they do, and how the Shrouds are tied into all of it.

So they say STYX is a specialized unit called in to quell serious Overblot cases. And if Crowley called them to deal with Grim... well, bad times ahead for Grim. STYX has also been studying Overblot for a long time, which is why (I think?) they captured Riddle, Leona, Azul, Jamil, and Vil. 

There’s been some allusions made between Grim and Stitch in a lot of fan art and fan theories I’ve seen, since their struggles have some parallels: that being them struggling to decide if they are “good” or “bad”. I don’t know if this was intentional on the part of the TWST writing team, but regardless, it’s a really good concept that plays into the themes of TWST itself. There’s no good, there’s no evil, no black and white--most of the characters we see may be BASED on villains, but that doesn’t MAKE them villains. They are good, and bad, in their own ways--and now Grim is dealing with that crisis as he fights to keep his sanity and avoid completely succumbing to Overblot.

Though Idia seems to be involved with STYX’s research, it doesn’t sound like he personally gave the order to retrieve those test subjects (or at the very least, he’s not happy about roughing up the test subjects), it sounds like the orders came from other people in the organization. His parents, perhaps?

They mention briefly that Idia’s parents are asking him to “come home”, so it must be for something urgent. Are they worried about his safety? But Idia’s lines at the end of chapter 5 lead me to think he is estranged from his family, since he straight up rejected a job offer linked to them (Olympus Corp is owned by the Jupiter family, and the Shrouds are a branch family of Jupier), and says something like “I’m not welcome anywhere”. Has Idia done something to disgrace him from the rest of the family? Or is it more of a self imposed/self inflicted statement, given that he always says he’s “cursed” and acts like he’s guilty of something that deserves scorn?

Why is Idia participating in STYX research, even if it means experimenting on his fellow students (and fellow board game enthusiast Azul)? People are speculating that he wants to use blots to fully revive Ortho (if dead Ortho theory is true), or that Idia actually has heroic intentions (he wants to know more about blots to prevent OBing from happening?), but at this point??? Literally anything could happen?!

In future parts, I’m guessing Pomefiore, MC, and Adeuce will team up to break Jamil and the Dorm Leaders (except Malleus, Malleus got left out again www) out? And HOPEFULLY we get to see Rook’s Unique Magic or at least more screen time, since I feel like he got so little in chapter 5... Another thing I’d like to see is Ace and/or Epel getting their Unique Magic, or at least starting to develop it. It’s really mostly Ace I want more details for.

A theory I’ve been holding onto for a long time is that Deuce getting his UM will spur Ace on to become jealous (since he has always seen Deuce as an idiot/”lesser” than him), and that will cause a rift in the friendship, or for Ace to throw himself into a dangerous situation to prove himself (he has done it before with Riddle)... and has his ass rescued again. This would make Ace even angrier, since he feels like everyone is treating him like a little kid or rubbing it in that he isn’t “as good” as they are. I don’t know where it would go from there (I’m sure TWST would get creative), but ultimately it would culminate in Ace making amends with everyone and rushing in to save them from either Grim or Idia OB.

I don’t think Ace would discover his UM in a similar manner as Deuce (Deuce had to embrace his own stubbornness and straightforwardness, but as the term “Unique” Magic implies, the way a magic develops and manifests is “unique” to the user). While Deuce has to learn to accept his own way of thinking, I believe Ace is already sure of his own way of thinking and has totally accepted it. I think what Ace has to deal with instead is coming to terms with his fickleness. We’ve seen him time and time again treating his loved ones kind of callously, from constantly bullying MC, Grim, and Deuce to ghosting his own girlfriend and flaking on people when they are counting on him to do a task.

The issue with Ace isn’t that he isn’t aware, it’s that he is aware and he seems to think this behavior is totally okay. He demonstrates little to no remorse in what he does and says, and he doesn’t seem to care about the consequences either (how many times does he get punished by Riddle, yet he keeps doing the same dumb things over and over?). Ace appears to operate under the mindset of always being in the right, or (if he’s in the wrong), he won’t really acknowledge it, or he will wave it off as “no big deal”--and I think that’s his greatest weakness.

In the scenario I described earlier, I mentioned that Ace’s jealousy will cause a wedge between him and his friends, and I think this will play into him realizing the error of his ways. When he has finally driven away all of the people that supported him, what will he have left? Nothing. Then maybe Ace suddenly finds himself relating to Idia, or to Grim, who have Overblotted and are in a similar emotional state as he is. Confused and lonely... and that energizes him to pitch in again, even if all he has is wind magic up his sleeve. Everyone could be shocked that Ace has returned, and in that moment, he could finally realize his true potential and unlock his Unique Magic!

(Maybe that’s too specific, but that’s a scenario that I’ve had playing in my head for a long time!)

... Buuuuut given that Ace has gotten little to no spotlight so far in chapter 6, I’m not sure if they’ll lean into him developing his UM yet (unless they pull a chapter 5 and really start addressing Ace in the latter half of the chapter like they did with Deuce). Seeing as chapter 6 is dealing with a lot of heavy topics (death, Grim lore, Overblot lore), I’m thinking maybe the TWST team will push off Ace’s UM development to chapter 7???? The only way I can see it happening in chapter 6 is if the chapter is SUPER long, or if the writing is REALLY good or really bad. 

Anyway, I’m keeping my fingers crossed!!! I’m so excited for the rest of chapter 6... I hope that we don’t have to wait too long for it!

[nellie-elizabeth]

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Darkness Within (1x12)

Amazing! I can't believe how happy I am with this whole season, it's just caused me so much joy from beginning to end. I can always find flaws in any thing I watch, and I'll talk about those briefly, but wow. I'm happy. I'm so happy.

Cons:

But let's start with a couple of things I wasn't totally sold on, although I wouldn't call them huge problems or anything...

The resolution of the cliffhanger with Keyleth didn't quite land for me, and it was mostly a minor pacing issue. We end the episode with "holy shit Keyleth is going to DIE," but this final episode isn't about that at all... We have a drawn out period of time where we are struggling to bring Keyleth back, but to me it lacked tension because when Keyleth did wake up, it was like "oh hey, we don't have time to deal with this" since Percy and Orthax were now the obvious focus. If I had been the one writing the scene, I would have replaced the weeping and the long pause before Vax realizes he can try the herb and dirt thing, and instead have it be more frantic, like, "oh shit, no more potions, quick, grab the dirt!" keep the momentum, make it more of a triage scene than a true resurrection-type scene. I get that they wanted the stakes to feel very serious, but it didn't quite gel the way I wanted it to in the aftermath. In short, while I loved the decision to make Keyleth the one in peril in the last episode, I'm not sure the resolution to that plot beat landed in the context of this episode.

And for a much smaller pacing issue, this was such a small moment and I only want to comment on it because the show has been so good at pacing character beat moments all along, so when there's a slight misstep it stands out. After Scanlan throws Percy's gun into the acid and we see the bubbling Orthax goop, there needed to be an extra beat of silence before "well I'll be damned" and then another extra beat before "thank you, Scanlan." It happened so quickly, I wanted more space for the incredulity to build. Like I said, this is tiny, but it stood out to me as a moment that wasn't paced entirely right.

And then for the "big" one, and by big I just mean comparatively, this is the most negative thing I have to say about the episode... I mentioned in an earlier installment that the pacing was my biggest concern for this season as a whole. These are short episodes and there's a lot of story to tell. They managed to build in a lot of character beats among the action and chaos, but these past few episodes especially have had very little in the way of breathing time. And that makes sense, I don't need breathing time when everything is action-action-action, go-go-go. But the consequence of that is... well...

In the aftermath of what happens at the Ziggurat, we see that Whitestone is trying to recover from the rebellion and zombie horde attack. The Briarwoods are defeated, as are all their henchmen. What happens next? Well, Percy decides that he isn't fit to lead, it should be Cassandra, and then he immediately fucks off with the rest of Vox Machina to Emon, since they need to tell the sovereign and the council what happened with the Briarwoods and all that noise. This... feels cheap and anticlimactic to me in the show, in a way that it didn't in the original version. See, there, they hung around in Whitestone for a while, they had a festival, we had conversations with Percy and Keeper Yennen. The reason Percy leaves with Vox Machina in the story is because it's a D&D campaign and Taliesin wasn't leaving the game. The reason Percy leaves here is... not well founded. I get that he feels like he needs to work on himself and can't be a leader, but that's not actually a reason he needs to leave town literally hours after defeating the great evil.

And this is a consequence of pacing - if we could have had some sort of montage showing that a couple weeks had passed with Percy and the whole of Vox Machina staying in Whitestone and helping Cassandra establish herself on the throne, helping the people to clean up and grieve after what they'd lost... hell, a scene where we see a monument, where Percy has a moment to grieve and say goodbye to his family and to Archie and all the people of his community who died, since he was forced to flee and never got to honor them at home... I just felt I was missing that final emotional resonance that we could have gotten with honestly just five more minutes of screen-time here in the finale.

I understand why they rushed everyone back to Emon. I knew exactly how they'd end season one of this show, a lot of people guessed it and they were correct, and I get wanting to end on a bad-ass shocking cliffhanger that gets people hooked in for what's next. But it did rob something from the epilogue of Whitestone specifically. I hope that we get to return there, maybe repurpose some plot beats from the next arc and set them in Whitestone so we get that chance to have Percy check in with the home he thought he'd lost forever.

But anyway! Enough of my complaining!

Pros:

While I stand by what I said about Keyleth's near-death being imperfectly executed, I do want to say that I loved the character work and the acting here. Vax's utter despair, Vex's disbelief and grief... and Percy's coldhearted focus on his revenge even as his friend lies dying. I like that Scanlan gets to be the smart one to figure out about the orb causing an anti-magic field. It mimics the fact that Sam is often the first one to cotton on to a clever mechanical aspect of the gameplay at the table, since he's got quite the strategic mind for this kind of thing. You've also got the tenderness of Grog taking Keyleth from Vax and carrying her, that little moment of solidarity between the two men... so tender!

But the bulk of this episode is focused on Percy vs. Orthax, and it is one epic showdown. I don't really know where to start in praising this aspect of the episode, and to be honest these reviews have gotten a little out of hand with their length so I'm going to try to restrain myself, but I probably won't succeed.

Percy goes insane at Delilah, doesn't kill her quickly, instead saying: "I'll shatter your ankles for my sister Vesper. your hands belong to Julius..." oof. Chilling. He breaks out into Percy's maniacal laughter, and when Vex says "something has possession of you," he and Orthax answer together: "and we are better for it." I just love how Percy has been doing this shit all season and yet the extremity still kind of catches you off guard, the degree to which he's gone off the deep end...

And let's just talk about the moment with Vex, because... fuck, I'm so happy with it. I knew they wouldn't let us down, I knew they must have moved this moment to a more pivotal place. First, you get Vax's panicked yell: "Vex'ahila, what are you doing?!" as Vex stands between Percy and Delilah, the object of his vengeful hatred. And then she says the thing. "Darling, take off the mask." The reveal of Percy's face under the mask, just full on sobbing, is exactly what I expected it to be and yet it still hit so fucking hard. Because this is the thing, right? The mask is so creepy, but what is it hiding? Not just the glowing eyes of Orthax, but the real anguish Percy has been feeling all along. Percy tries so hard to stop Orthax from controlling him, ends up pointing the gun under his own chin, but Orthax takes control before he can end it...

Everything about Orthax and Percy's fight is gorgeous. The animation, the voice acting (Matt does an amazing job as Orthax, holy shit!), and the whole psychological journey of seeing Percy's past and his present collide. This works for me on so many different levels. You have the flashes of his family being killed, and then said family insisting he avenge them, you have Percy trying to kill his tormentors again, but actually aiming at his friends... and then meanwhile Vox Machina is darting around trying to avoid him, Scanlan is dragging Delilah around like a ragdoll trying to avoid Percy's shots, the names of his friends are appearing on the barrels of Percy's gun... the intensity just won't stop!

I like that we're doing the possession trope too, this idea of "only he can stop it," and the power of love breaking through. Vex gets a moment where she manages to penetrate the fog, and Cass makes her speech to convince him. The reason this all works for me is that we learn that in some ways Percy asked for this. Not in the way where it's his fault, of course, but in the sense that he wanted vengeance, he wanted to kill those who had wronged him, and he let himself live in denial about Orthax and the darkness consuming him all this time, in order to achieve his goal. It's not some straightforward thing where Percy has been controlled this whole time so actually none of his behavior is his own fault. It's a series of escalations, a series of decisions that culminated in this moment where Orthax is trying to take all his choice away.

And then Cass is there, she says "I'm here for you", and Vox Machina is there, and Vex says "we all are", and my heart skipped a beat, I was so happy!

I like that the way of subverting Orthax was deceptively simple and yet still enormously thematically relevant. Percy shoots his own hand instead of shooting Cass, thus paralleling shooting Desmond's hand all the way back in episode three.

And then there's the silence in the aftermath. There's Cass asking for assurances that it's really Percy, and Percy saying: "I'm afraid so. Well, most of me anyway." There's Vex's declaration: "So... that was the most fucked up thing I've ever seen, and I hang out with Scanlan."

But of course, there's still Delilah to deal with. Her grief in the aftermath of Sylas's death, and her failure to resurrect the Whispered One, were excellently portrayed. I like how she basically goads Percy to kill her earlier on, and then after Percy defeats Orthax, she mocks his failure to finish the job.

And then Cass gets the kill. It's perfect, it's bloody and brutal, and the line delivery on: "I'm glad you forgave her brother, but I could not" was honestly so perfect it gave me chills.

And then we're in the epilogue, basically, and the setup for the cliffhanger.

Taliesin's voice acting in the aftermath of Orthax's defeat is so perfect. He sounds different, like the Percy we got to see briefly back in the earlier episodes, but even lighter, even more free. It's only with the contrast that you realize how gradually and how entirely he has been consumed by the darkness. It's a brilliant performance from Taliesin Jaffe, I just can't say enough about what a good job he did with all of this.

And of course next let's talk about Vax and Keyleth! We got to see Vax's sincere grief and even a kiss on the hand when he thought he'd lost Keyleth, and then they spend the rest of the episode just a little too busy for a conversation... it's cute that Vax is holding Keyleth up, though, that she knows she can lean on him.

And then the final conversation between them out by the Sun Tree. It's obviously a lot shorter than the full conversation that played out at the table, but it amounts to something similar. Vax tries to reopen the conversation and say he meant what he said, and Keyleth shuts him down with a soft no. She doesn't say "I don't feel the same", but rather "we can't", because of responsibilities... honestly the reason why I love their relationship so much is that it does start with this rejection that is pretty clearly "I don't think I'm in a place for this right now" and not "it's impossible, I don't see you that way." It's a distinction that matters because of where the story is going, but Vax is going to respect her rejection and be her friend anyway, and I am honestly feeling very tender about it. Of course, Vax saying "I'm gonna walk away" was a lovely little comedy beat and a fun reference for all of us Critters out there who saw Campaign One.

To be honest and I don't want to be negative here but I've seen people saying some completely unfounded stuff about the Vaxleth content, and I don't agree with them at all. I think the people who are disappointed with Keyleth and Vax in this episode aren't paying attention, or something. I keep seeing people say "it was played for laughs" which is... absolutely not accurate to what literally is happening on screen? What are you even talking about? Just because a moment has some levity to it, or there's a laugh in there somewhere, doesn't mean an entire scene is being played for laughs, written off as nothing more than a joke. I even saw someone say that the Vaxleth dynamic was completely different from the stream, and that's not even remotely true. This is exactly what the dynamic was in the stream, they just haven't kissed yet. Calm down.

Sorry, I just really can't stand it that people are seemingly looking for reasons to be unhappy? The campaign is the campaign, and the show is the show. They are going to be different, but to look at what we saw with these characters, their relationship dynamic and think it was disrespectful and diminishing... I could not disagree more, as a huge Vaxleth shipper. To me those responses reek of entitlement. If you don't like what you saw, that's fine, but to act like you deserved something different betrays a lack of understanding in so many things. This show was made with love, and the obvious respect and attention given to Keyleth and Vax and their relationship is plain to those of us who aren't determined to be negative. I get steamed about this because the people who don't like something and are cool about it, that's awesome and great. I've listed my complaints in these reviews, the things that didn't line up for whatever reason. But I don't turn around and say "how dare they not give me the version I wanted." I've seen people go so far as to imply that people who disagree with them are watching the show "wrong" in some way. I've seen people doing that, and it grates on my nerves like nothing else. Okay, sorry, end of soap box.

This epilogue also has adorable Vex and Keyleth moments, like Vex calling her "Kiki" as they're being hailed as heroes, and then Vex encouraging her: "darling, you've got this" as Keyleth prepares to cast her spell to take them through the Sun Tree. Keyleth blushes, it's super adorable, and of course I love Vaxleth but honestly Kiki has got such a crush on Vex and we love to see it.

While I wanted more of Percy coming to terms with his home being rescued, I still did like the brief resolution we did see, with him leaving Cass to rule. He gets to say another classic Taliesin line, slightly altered and taking place at a very different point in the story: "we live as long as Whitestone lives." I loved that the line was in there, it was such a lovely tribute to the campaign but also a lovely setup for an imagined future prosperity for Whitestone, depending on how much of that future we actually get to see.

And then we're back at the keep in Emon! Percy is tinkering with a new gun, which I think might surprise some viewers but it's part of what makes Percy the deeply complicated character that he is. He knew what he was unleashing on the world when he invented guns, and he did it anyway in his quest for vengeance. He can't put that back into a box, and so instead he'll keep refining, and keep using the weapon he created when he was lost in darkness. Also, his hand gem thing thing is so cool! I bet I know where they're going with this based on a certain glove Percy has in the campaign, and I think that's such a fun way of showing a lasting consequence from what happened in Whitestone.

We also get an all-too-brief flash of domestic bliss at the keep, with Grog trying to do some repairs and dropping a door on his foot, Pike doing some healing and also some reading of a certain romance novel previously glimpsed at Gilmore's, we see Vex and Vax hanging out with Trinket, the best member of Vox Machina finally returned. While I think the pacing issues are a bit of a thing here, in that I would have wanted a bit more time to relax in this space before the end, I was still quite pleased with what we did see!

And then we're at the Cloud Top District. Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei is making a speech - he's stepping down as sovereign and handing rule over to the whole of the Tal'Dorei Council! What a shocking twist for the end of the season, right?

Oh yeah, and four massive dragons are flying towards the city. That's also a thing that happens.

I've got to say, I love me a good cliffhanger, and this one was so much fun because us in the know were all waiting for this exact ending! They teased us with not a whole lot in terms of character design for the Chroma Conclave, but what we saw has me super hyped for what comes next.

God, what else is there even to say about this show at this point? I'm already excited to do a full re-watch, and I know I'll be delightfully revisiting these twelve episodes for as long as I have to wait until season two comes along and gives me more to obsess over! I'm so happy that this show was made with such obvious care and love and attention to all the characters we already adore. You can tell this is a labor of love and even the times when I didn't agree with a choice or felt a joke fell flat, I could still sense the passion and effort behind every frame. It's all more than I ever could have hoped for.

High points of the season for me were probably episodes three, eight, and eleven, but honestly the whole season is a roiling adventure and a heart-stopping joy to behold. The finale gets...

9/10

[olderthannetfic]

Could you rant a little about the way films could convey different POV/relative time? This is interesting to me as I cannot figure how that would work.

--

Oh man... Okay, I'll try to come up with something relatively coherent and concise, but no promises.

--

POV in film

This isn't quite as concrete as it is in writing. The film version is sometimes called "narrative perspective" instead. Sometimes "emotional perspective". When someone talks about whom we're "with" in a scene, it's often this same concept.

Unlike in most writing, film can shift whom we're with pretty frequently and still be seen as artistically good. Some films don't make very good use of visual/editing cues about whom we're with too, which makes it extra non-obvious.

How we tell who's the POV character or more the subject or more important is from things like who has the most closeups or the closer closeups. More closeups = more emotional intimacy with the character.

Who looks closest to the camera lens vs. being seen from the side or some more observation-y angle? More full-face view = more emotional intimacy. Can't see full face with full emotions = less intimacy

Who drives the cuts? Driving the cut means like:

There's a noise.

Character A turns to look.

Character B turns to look.

We cut to the thing they're looking at.

B is driving the cut there. B's interest is what tells the audience where to look and what's important. Character B making a decision and that ending the scene or character B's eyes leaving frame and that ending the scene are also examples of driving the cut.

I'm not saying every scene from every sitcom with a million characters will make this obvious, but if you go watch a scene from one of those films like The Godfather that film bros cream themselves over, you'll see a lot of meticulous, carefully-planned cinematography and editing like this.

I have some video meta on AO3 trying to demonstrate this type of thing if you need some examples.

--

Temporality & Reality in Film

I have less of a canned lecture for this one. One of the early realizations by film editors was how humans interpret cuts. It's why montage works. If you stick thing A next to thing B, we assume that they're related. If they're two normal-seeming scenes, we assume that B closely follows A in time (if they're the same characters/location) or that they're concurrent (if not).

This is why i was so irritated with The Witcher S1 and all that "Ooh, we never tooooold you it was all happening at the same tiiime!!!"

Actually, you did, assholes. A straight cut means that.

If you did not mean that, then you would have used a transition of some kind, a sound cue, a radically different color grade, or some text on screen indicating when and where we are.

If A and B aren't just two normal scenes that are going to have a temporal relationship, we'll assume a metaphorical one. Like, if you edit a video of a politician and cut in clips of a pig rolling in mud, you can't go "Oh, I didn't meaaaan anything by it!" Everyone knows you were saying politician=pig and that whatever he's bloviating about = him rolling in the political muck.

See the Kuleshov effect for more on montage.

TBH, part of my problem with The Untamed is that I didn't feel they lingered on LWJ's impassiveness enough for me to get a sense of what lay under it. I wanted more of him looking blank, then WWX, then him looking blank. As it was, he felt blank to me.

Anyway, if you're trying to show that time or levels of reality are skipping around in film, you have various options. Often, a film will set up a pattern early on in a relatively clear way so that the audience understands that's the cue for Thing X later on.

The most typical cues are things you're familiar with: flashbacks are sepia toned, flashbacks are over-exposed and full of glowing white light, dream sequences are weird colors, characters who are on drugs can see distorted versions of reality but it sounds like everyone is shouting from a million miles away, etc.

Subtler sound cues are things like which mic was chosen. Most regular dialogue is recorded on a boom mic with support from lavs on individual actors. It sounds like it was recorded on set in a relatively open space, probably.

If you want to record the voices in the protagonist's head, you might choose some other mic in the studio, right next to the actor's mouth, so it sounds like a podcaster speaking directly into their microphone or something.

The voice is too pristine and too close. It doesn't sound like it's in the scene, so we can more easily buy it as being inside someone's head.

You could also achieve an unreal effect by adding some unnatural reverb.

I was teaching editing this morning, and my student showed me this scene from Dune. (It's the one with the guy and his mom around 3:50 if the link doesn't pop to the right spot.)

Pay attention to how the unnaturalness of the sounds builds. We start out with naturalistic sound design and return to it after. In the middle, there's an increase of tension music, wind chimes that shouldn't be that loud, etc. Then the time delay on his words. Then a subtle visual effect on her hand reaching for the glass.

Pay attention to how they cue 'back to reality'. We see her sort of waking up, the sound changes back, and we immediately cut to an insert shot showing the water in its original spot to make it clear we saw something that was not real before.

That's the kind of thing film can do to move from real to unreal to real again.

The way the editing jumps between insert shots of other things in the scene is perhaps mimicking how human concentration works or maybe heightening the unreal feel, or both. The windchimes could be that too: hyper-focusing guy hears a real noise as way more prominent than it would really be.

Film can convey what it's like to have your attention jump from thing to thing.

So can writing, but differently. Film is exceptionally good at depicting things like emotions we aren't sure how to describe and the eye being caught by movement and light. Novels are often better at capturing intellectual flights of fancy where your brain is relating 10 things you read to each other. (I know, I know, I just said "Books are good at verbal things". Very deep.)

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Truth

Hey. Hey guys. Remember when I said I was feeling optimistic about this season? God, that was funny, wasn't it?

Let's just... Let's just get into the actual first episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season: Truth.

We start off with Gabriel repairing the damaged Peacock Miraculous, which also restores Duusu's sanity, before he quickly gives it a test run by transforming with both it and the Butterfly Miraculous.

And good lord, the result looks atrocious. This is the design for the new and improved Hawkmoth? First off, the peacock feather eyepatch looks stupid. Is he trying to be the Phantom of the Opera? When Mayura had the same thing, it didn't completely cover her eye and matched her color scheme. It just doesn't match with this new design here. Other than the feather, the peacock aesthetic is barely visible here. The most we get is a peacock feather pattern on the back of his jacket. And then there's the popped collar and coattails, which only look more ridiculous than menacing. What made the original Hawkmoth design work was how sleek it was. It was simplistic, which reflected Gabriel's no-nonense personality. This just looks gaudy and unnecessary. How was this right after the amazing suit the animators gave Dragonbug?

So after Gabriel designs another stupid looking outfit, we cut to Marinette, who's still trying to figure out how the Miracle Ball works. She accidentally opens it, letting the Kwamis out, who wreak havoc on her room because Marinette suffering is going to be a big part of this episode. This just raises the question: Why can't Marinette simply order them back into the box like Su-Han did, or rather, is going to do? It's still not established what gives the Guardians authority over the Kwamis in the first place.

Two of the Kwamis accidentally start a video chat with her friends, leading to some more Unfunny Marinette Slapstick. But Alya thinks something's up with her friend.

Has Marinette even told Alya she's already in a relationship? Like, at all? It feels like all Alya is there for now is to remind the audience that Marinette and Adrien are “meant to be”, even if they're both in relationships right now. It's either that, or teasing Marinette over her crush and doing nothing to help her anxiety.

Marinette accidentally ends the call, before Luka calls to thank her for the pictures of Adrien one of the Kwamis accidentally sent him. Yeah, even though he barely appears in this episode (barring his scenes at Cat Noir), they're going to talk about Adrien a lot. Marinette continues to stammer around Luka (once again making fun of people who have speech issues), but Luka, being the ray of sunshine in any abysmal episode he's in, is completely understanding of it. He also sets up a pretty funny joke.

Apparently, Marinette missed her last date with Luka yesterday to see a movie that was re-released, Crocodile Heart, that was actually Jagged Stone's first movie. I wonder if it's connected to Crocodile Dundee.

While walking to the movie, Luka and Marinette play a game finishing the lyrics of a Jagged Stone song, establishing the former as a huge fan of the rock star. Before we can actually get an on-screen kiss for Lukanette, Mr. Pigeon attacks yet again, because I guess he's the first villain Hawkmoth wants to use in his new form.

Cat Noir sneaks up on Ladybug, causing her to accidentally throw him off a building before catching him, chastising him for the stupid jokes, yet Ladybug has to apologize for missing patrol with her partner, who casually acknowledges her new status as Guardian before the two go and fight Mr. Pigeon.

By the time they defeat him, the movie ends as Marinette gets back, disappointing Luka. We then get a montage of Marinette bailing on Luka multiple times to stop Akumas and Sentimonsters. To his credit, Luka is seriously torn up by all the times Marinette leaves him, showing he isn't just a calm soul.

After Marinette gets back, Luka takes her underneath a bridge to listen to the echoing sound of the water. Luka says that he never knew his father, and he would always go here to relax whenever he got stressed. He uses this to segue into asking Marinette where she constantly disappears to. He doesn't pressure her or anything like Alya, and he even says that if she still loves Adrien, he'll understand. He only asks for the truth. Unfortunately, Marinette can't tell him the truth, which just breaks the poor boy's heart.

Hawkmoth, now calling himself Shadowmoth, sends out an Akuma and an Amok for Luka at the same time, corrupting a guitar pick signed by Jagged Stone that Marinette gave him. And again, to Luka's credit, he fights back against Shadowmoth's influence at first, saying he trusts Marinette, but the temptation of knowing the truth is too good to pass up. He tells Marinette to run before being akumatized into Truth, assisted by the Sentimonster Pharro.

Truth's design is... pretty forgettable. The guitar pick being prominent around his neck is a nice touch, but it's just a generic black bodysuit with light blue highlights, and he has a third eye instead of a visible mouth. Pharro is also pretty boring, just a giant eye that freezes people in place so Truth can use his powers to make them tell the truth.

So Truth goes back to where everyone else was hanging out before he was akumatized and asks Alya to tell him the truth about Marinette.

Yeah, he's right, Alya. That's what you believe. We're supposed to treat Alya saying Marinette loves Adrien as an unbiased source. Truth asks Rose, Mylene, Tom, and Sabine what Marinette's secret is in this episode, and they all say she's in love with Adrien. That isn't actually the truth. It's like asking an atheist if there is a God. You know what they believe is the truth, but you don't know if that answer is actually the truth. Why not have them reveal other secrets about Marinette, giving the audience subtle character details? Like the writers could make someone say stuff like she still sleeps with a nightlight on, or that she secretly gets cookies from another bakery.

You know what also would have worked? Instead, have Truth catch Marinette before she transforms into Ladybug, ask who she actually loved, and then she'll blurt out Adrien's name, shocking both her and Luka. This could also make Ladybug's confidence in herself waver throughout the episode, wondering if she actually loved Luka at all. That would have been much better drama than what we're going to get instead.

Ladybug charges in to stop Truth, but is zapped by his truth ray, meaning she'll be forced to tell the truth when asked any question. Before she can admit her identity, Cat Noir saves her by retreating with her into the Seine, before reassuring Ladybug that he wouldn't force her to tell the truth by force. It's a nice bit that does show he respects Ladybug's secret, a far cry from his behavior in episodes like “Syren” and “Frozer”. Truth turns his attention to his mother Anarka, and asks who his father is.

Yes. Seriously. This is happening. Luka's father is actually Jagged Stone. I have... mixed feelings regarding this development, but my biggest question is, well... they're doing this now? They couldn't save this for another episode? I mean, was focusing on Luka and Marinette's relationship (something that had been established since Season 2) not good enough of a plot for the writers? Why shoehorn in this plot development? Why not save this part as a teaser for a future episode? You know, have Luka walk home, and remember what he made his mother say as Truth, setting up an episode focusing on his relationship with Jagged Stone.

But no! Instead, we're just supposed to go along with the plot taking a detour. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I don't want Jagged Stone to appear in this episode.

Truth heads over to the hotel where Jagged Stone lives and asks him if he's actually his father, the latter admitting that Anarka was right. Truth naturally isn't happy.

Well, to be fair, it's still a better title than his first drafts, like “It's Not My Fault the Condom Broke”, or “Up Yours, I'm Not Paying the Child Support, Bitch”.

Honestly, I can get what the writers are going for, and I like the idea of them trying to give some depth to a character who was mostly used for comic relief in earlier episodes. The problem is, as much as they want to portray Jagged as regretful for walking out on his family, it still doesn't excuse him for never even bothering to check in on his children and their mother while writing a song about it. He doesn't even bother to give some money to the person he knocked up.

I'm not saying a conflicted relationship like this can't work in animation (a decent example being Steven Universe slowly growing to resent his mother for her time as Pink Diamond and believing his birth was an excuse for her to avoid responsibility), but you need to put more emotion into this. I don't come from a broken home, but if it turned out my dad was, let's say, “Weird Al” Yankovic, even if I enjoy his music, I wouldn't be happy that he decided to come back now of all times without so much as a “hello”.

Truth goes to Marinette's house/bakery, and starts looking for Marinette's diary to find out her secrets. It's almost like the minor plotline that he has a deadbeat dad was only there to eat up airtime. Ladybug is still affected by Truth's powers, and not long after she summons her Lucky Charm, Cat Noir is zapped too, so he starts asking questions that basically amount to complimenting certain qualities he and Ladybug have. When Ladybug asks him what he thinks about her being Guardian, Cat Noir says nothing's changed between them. It's a nice strategy, very reminiscent of when they had to talk in rhyme when fighting Frightengale. I'm also glad they aren't trying to play up Cat Noir not feeling as important immediately now that his partner has access to top secret information.

Cat Noir Cataclysms Pharro, but rather than destroying the Sentimonster, it causes it to go out of control, accidentally paralyzing Truth with some manipulation from her and Cat Noir. Ladybug then de-evilizes both the Akuma and Amok, defeating Truth.

Marinette struggles to find the words to explain things to Luka, but he says that he'll be waiting for her when she's ready. While walking back to his houseboat, Luka runs into Jagged Stone, who promises to write a song together with him. Because I guess Shadowmoth was kind enough of him to not erase that part of his memory. And of course, Luka just accepts this despite the fact that Jagged was absent from his entire life.

So according to this show, you shouldn't bother to give mean people a second chance, but it's okay to give your deadbeat dad a second chance without harboring any negative feelings? I'm sorry, but I just don't see the point of shoving in this subplot if you're barely going to do anything with it before coming to a resolution. If there was more detail put into it, like if Luka just angrily lashed out at Jagged for abandoning his mom, I would have been more open to it. But in the end, this major character revelation is nothing more than filler the episode doesn't need.

We cut to what I'm surprised doesn't happen at the end of every episode given how much crap she gets, Marinette crying in her bed, saying it's too dangerous to have a boyfriend thanks to Shadowmoth. One of the Kwamis apparently doesn't know what crying is, so Marinette asks them to give her a hug, and the showrunners really need to find another song to play at the end, because the upbeat song playing doesn't go with Marinette crying at all. Imagine if this song played at the end of Deep Space Nine's “In the Pale Moonlight” when Captain Sisko confessed to basically being an accessory to the murder of an alien ambassador. It'd be tonally jarring, wouldn't it?

Even the ending image doesn't feature Luka and Marinette together. Instead, he's hugging it out with Deadbeat Stone like everything's okay.

So yeah, that's how the episode ends. In case you couldn't tell, I thought it was awful.

Remember in my New York Special review, where I theorized that Astruc rewrote it to focus more on Adrienette to stop people from shipping Lukanette? I have another theory that I also want to be taken with a grain of salt. I think this episode might have also been rewritten a little to follow up on that. I mean, why else would Astruc spend two seasons building up Luka's relationship with Marinette only to rip it away the episode after they officially get together? It would also explain why it feels like there's two separate episodes going on with how shoehorned in Jagged Stone is.

But other than that, this episode managed to screw up the one thing I was actually looking forward to about this season, seeing Marinette together with Luka. Even if they were going to break up, I was hoping there would at least be a character arc for Marinette where she realizes what she truly wants in a relationship isn't with Luka, leading into a relationship with Adrien where she feels more confident in herself. I was at least hoping their relationship would last more than A SINGLE EPISODE.

In fact, remember that tweet Astruc made soon after the New York Special, defending Marinette and Adrien essentially cheating on Luka and Kagami respectively?

What exactly was so complicated about Season 4 when you're immediately going to break up a couple you spent two seasons building up? Astruc's predictions are about as accurate as Uri Geller.

And then there's the fact that all everyone talks about this episode is Adrien. Marinette's wall is covered with pictures of him, Alya thinks her friend's abnormal behavior is because Adrien's in the room with her, Luka somehow knows Marinette loves Adrien and is actually cool with it, and everyone else thinks that it's her biggest secret. How convenient is it that all of this happens when barring his scenes as Cat Noir, Adrien doesn't appear in this episode barring a five second cameo?

When I was writing this episode, I saw a tweet Astruc made addressing a question someone posed, asking why Adrien didn't get as much screentime in the recent Shanghai Special. He said that “history does not revolve around him”.

For the love of God, writers, just give Marinette a plotline that doesn't revolve around her feelings for Adrien for once. People already started to get sick of it halfway through last season. Either have her confess and make the Love Square canon, or stop letting it dominate the main story for once. Why can't the writers just let her move on from Adrien for more than a single episode? Give her a goddamn break already.

I once again have to ask: what was the point of building up a relationship between Luka and Marinette since Season 2, if you're just going to break them up the second they get together? Why make a big deal about Marinette's conflicted feelings for both Adrien and Luka if you're just going to ignore her feelings for the latter in favor of the former? And remember, chronologically, this was right after the end of Chloe's “damnation arc”, another plotline that had been built up since Season 2 only to be aborted in favor of “sUbVeRtInG tHe AuDiEnCe'S eXpEcTaTiOnS”. It feels like the writers are trying to punish people for getting emotionally invested in any storyline that doesn't relate to the holy pairing that is the Love Square.

This episode is just frustrating to watch. Part of me knew Marinette and Luka were going to break up, but I didn't think it would be this bad, and it would be so soon. I'm glad they're on somewhat good terms, and I liked the buildup to Luka realizing Marinette might not trust him, but the timing of this episode is what baffles me the most. Is it any wonder I think Astruc may have rewritten this episode?

If any Lukanette shippers need to recover, I'd recommend checking out @mc-lukanette​. They have some wholesome one-shots and fix-it fics for some of the weaker episodes of the series. In fact, she already wrote a fix-it to this abysmal episode that’s so much better than what we got.

[elias-veturius-laia-of-serra]

Why Elias And Laia Mean So Much To Me

Okay so I’ve been wanting to write this for a while but knew it would be long and that I’d need some time to get my thoughts in order. So without a further ado here is my attempt:

Why is Elaia so important to me. Well to start off, Laia Of Serra in particular is very important and inspirational to me. She is not only a brown girl who is a hero but she is the most realistic hero I’ve ever had the honor of meeting. I’m so used to white female main characters that are badass warriors who are smart, beautiful, strong, special, that everyone is attracted to, and who fight for their people. I grew up on books like that. In which don’t get me wrong I still greatly enjoyed those stories and some of them are still my favorite to this day.

However I could never relate to those characters and it really solidified the belief that I most likely could never be a hero cause I could never fit that mold. And for the longest time I thought I was okay with that and I never really understood how much physical and emotional representation could mean to me until, Laia Of Serra.

Laia is a brown girl that is afraid, insecure, oppressed, sheltered, poor, weak, with no fighting experience, kind, emotional, girly, and self deprecating. She’s scared and second guesses herself all the time. It’s hard for her to phantom that she’s good enough to make the right choices or save anyone or anything. Which is exactly what I struggle with on the daily let alone in the middle of a war. I first read aeita when I was 17, the same age as Laia. So meeting a heroine that made mistakes, berated herself, cracked under pressure, had no clue what she was doing, let herself cry, understood that in a place filled with skilled deathly warriors she was weak, and let people trample over her. It was so relatable and heart wrenching. Especially when I’ve been wired to think girls like her are useless and typically the first to die or used as a stepping stool for the real hero.

Seeing her continue to fight with what she can and however she can made my heart soar. There were so many times she wanted to give up and feared death. However in time she grew and instead of fearing death she embraced the possibility of it in order to fight for what is right and for the people she loved. She stayed true to herself and became a badass without the need of having to kill people. Laia detested killing people especially after having to see how her people got killed all the time. She’s filled with understanding, love, forgiveness, sensitivity, kindness, and determination. No matter how many times she got knocked down she kept getting back up.

She gave and still gives me hope. Hope for who I am today and who I can grow into the future. She’s a symbol that you can be strong in other ways. That physical strength isn’t the only way to be a hero. Her bravery to face things head on, her compassion towards everyone, her determination to reach her goal, and her heart always willing to accept others is what makes her a hero. Even when it came to the final battle. It wasn’t her powers or weapons that got her to win the war. It was her kindness and understanding and love.

I understand people are disappointed that she wasn’t as “brutal” or stabby as other heroines. I love stabby women as well! But I think her depiction of strength and heroism is so important. It really shines a light on the meek and shy and scared and shows that it’s okay to feel like that. How that doesn’t automatically make you weak and how you can be just as important in the world.

I also love that Laia isn’t reduced or or shown as “not like other girls”. Laia loves to dress up, she likes to look pretty, she does think about boys, she is bossy, she is emotional, often has break downs, and she’s just so human. I find that a lot of the most badass heroines are always the ones that don’t like dressing up and finds it a waste of time, doesn’t fit in with other women, is stoic, cold, good with swords but not with words, and violent. Im not saying that these characters shouldn’t be allowed, but I feel like it reinforces the idea that the normal things a woman feels or behaves is considered weak. Not saying that all women are emotional, but we do feel. We do stress and some of us do love to put on make up and dresses. That shouldn’t be demonized or looked down upon.

That’s why I adore Laia. She’s a normal teenage girl that IS like most girls. And she gets praise and stronger because of it. Also people need to realize that at the start of the series Laia is a 17 year old girl with zero survival training skills. Elias and Helene have been training since they were literal children. Their whole lives revolves around fighting. Laia’s didn’t. So it makes sense and is realistic why she isn’t as “strong” or “skilled” as them.

To expect her to be at their level within the three year timeline between these books is impossible. I feel like people are so used to heroines that know how to fight or learn to become the most badass fighter through mere chapter montages that seeing a realistic depiction of a teenage girl that’s never fought in her life is displeasing. But I love that about her. She always becomes stronger in spirit, braver at heart, but at her core she is still Laia. A teenage girl trying her best.

Her needing help or needing a team to fulfill her goals shouldn’t be looked down on. It’s shown through even real history some of the best fighters or leaders needed a team. Needed support, right hand man, etc. Which is why I feel so connected to her and wish she wasn’t so underrated or looked down upon. Cause I feel like she’s a voice for girls like us that so desperately needed a way to be heard. She’s someone I can look up to and remember and find comfort in when times get stressful or dark.

Now as for why Elias and Laia’s relationship mean a lot to me. It’s simple. They’re a healthy brown couple and I love finally seeing a girl that looks and acts like me get praise and love. I love that Elias sees her strength and admires her for who she is. And how he actually finds comfort in a person like her. How he views her at times even stronger than him and everyone else.

Girls/characters like Laia are always reduced to a side character, the best friend, the second choice for the love interest, the death that motivates the main character, and or the character that pops in and out to give moral support. However under Elias’s eyes she IS the main character. She IS the only girl for him. He loves everything about her and was the first to believe she’s strong. He chooses her above all. Above anything and anyone else.

As a brown girl as shallow or dumb as it may sound it really does feel touching to see us described as not only just strong and desirable but loved and wanted by the warrior. The main love interest. That in his eyes this brown girl that others deem as weak, useless, boring, and a waste of time. To him she is everything. She is brave, smart, powerful, beautiful, admirable, and perfect. It means the world to me. Especially with how characters like her especially in fantasy is seen as never good enough or tossed aside.

I also love that Elias shows the struggles on what it means to be “strong”. How a lot of learning to be the best fighter happened through a lot of trauma, shame, and guilt. He does show how physical strength isn’t the only way to be strong. Which is why Laia is his balance. She is the peace and freedom he yearns for while Elias is the strength, power, and love she’s always yearned for. Where she falls in believing herself he is always the first to count his vote on her. They compliment each other perfectly. Countermelodies. True loves.

They show me a healthy version of love. One of the purest and sweetest kinds of love. Elias is always soft, kind, and patient with her. He’s proud of her even if she feels like it’s undeserved. She sees the good in him even if he feels like he’s a monster. They see each other for who they are and love that about each other. They love each other so much and I’d never seen two characters be as in love as these two are. They are utterly devoted to each other and constantly fought for their way back to each other. It’s been five years and rereading their scenes still makes me smile and feel butterflies, like it’s the first time all over again.

Even now seeing any content of them is like a shot of straight up serotonin. They are my comfort ship. Despite the stress these past five years of being with them and shipping them has brought me. They also bring me great happiness and excitement and I wish I never had to say goodbye.

Though here’s to hoping that maybe we can have an Elaia novella, at the least, in the future 👀🤞

♥️♥️♥️ Elaia Forever ♥️♥️♥️