#didn't include every frame of that scene but it was very important to me to show that little moment of tension where clary's like.

[buffyspeak]

shadowhunters rewatch 2023:

alec and clary not trusting each other in 1.03 vs. alec saving her anyways

[miwiheroes]

Dropping Byler Evidence Every Day Until Season 5

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ Day 1 - The M&Ms scene . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

So yeah, this scene is never really talked about that much as like actual proof, more like a funni little thing where Mike looks at Will for a moment when he walks away, but analysis of the cinematography, framing and narrative of this scene can be revealing.

First thing: as soon as El wipes her nose, revealing it was her that helped Mike and Lucas, the camera zooms in on Mike, as if to be like 'oooh wonder how he's going to react'! and the audience is then in suspense, because they're probably expecting him to smile or try to take this opportunity.

What does he do? He just says 'Thanks." And the moment of suspense is broken. It's almost like a record scratch. We will come back to this reaction later, basically because it shows that Mike really does not mind being on these terms with El.

Second thing: At first glance there seems to be 3 main characters of this scene: Mike, Lucas and El. However, Will also seems to be included in this scene unlike Max who is also there. There is no reason to have Will be in some of these shots that, I want you guys to understand, is intentional. The directors didn't just accidentally set up this frame:

They didn't just forget to move Will out the way. In this shot, the Rule of Thirds can be applied. While El and half of Mike are in the second third/ third third, both half of Mike and Will are in the same third. This is also the third on the left, which is where (in western cultures) people begin to look at images from (reading from left to right). The fact that Will looks at Mike when he says 'Thanks' is the first thing that the audience is intended to notice (because its on the left), even if it is very subtle.

It is also important to note that the writers of the show know, in this moment, that Will is in love with Mike, they've had that planned out from the start (this is undeniably canon, unlike Mike's feelings to Will). Therefore, it is interesting that they included him in this shot and the next part too:

Like?? what was the point of the directors putting him in this part? Placing him in an interactional role with Mike in a Mike and El scene is just interesting to me. Like,,,, also could Mike not have talked to El with Will there?

After Will gets up, there is this really awkwardly long part where Will goes from the left third to the right third of the screen and just stays there? Like he's still in the shot (which they can easily catch and retake if they needed to). Why do the writers/directors want you to take such notice of his presence?

Also, going back to the fact that Will has to leave for Mike to be able to talk to El. Again, the directors did not need to put Will in this scene, they could have had him doing something else. Instead, they had him there to subtly further his character arc of being selfless/being shoved away by Mike in favour of El. It's also maybe simply because Mike just can't handle having both Will and El in the same context without ignoring one for the other, because he holds them to the same romantic standard.

We see this mishandling of El and Will in the airport scene, the whole time Mike is with El in the beginning of S3, Rink o Mania, the dinner after Rink o Mania etc. Basically, when both El and Will are around, he feels like he has to get rid of Will to be able to be romantic towards El, despite being able to talk about it to Lucas. When it's just him and Will, he's pretty happy (we see this in the 'Cool. Cool.' scene and the 'Guess it's up to us again' scene which are the only two scenes in S4 where Mike believes he is no longer in a relationship with El and just thinks he needs to team up with Will and go back to Hawkins without El). Therefore, he needed Will out the way because he can't be romantic with his girlfriend with Will distracting him lmao <3

Third Thing: Lucas is the one to encourage Mike to make up with El.

To be honest, him encouraging him alone isn't really that convincing of the fact that Mike is queer coded blah blah, like, your friend is allowed to say 'That was the Olive branch! Your way in!' without it being queercoding. The queercoding however, comes with the reaction to that information.

First, I want to point to something I may bring up in the future of this series. In S1, Lucas is the first person to ever suggest that there might be something romantic going on between Mike and El. When he says "Why don't you just marry her?", Mike does not go all ooooh flustery and blushy, he does not go 'EW GROSS' like a lot of boys that age would, instead he just acts confused. Multiple times.

The first time is when he goes, "Lucas what are you talking about?" The second is in response to Lucas going "Mike, seriously?" saying "What?" again. When Lucas then teases him about caring about her, he just says "Shut up Lucas" in this really tired tone, rather than a flustered or angry one. He basically gets the idea that he probably should like El romantically, if he shows even any care towards her.

Now, throughout S3, Lucas is the one to constantly question Mike's actions towards El. He's confused on why he won't tell her the truth about Hopper, and everything else, which all culminates into this "Oh my god. You're hopeless," when referring to picking up signals about girls.

I must say this rn too: You don't pick up on signals you don't want to receive. You do pick up on signals you do want to receive. I think most of us know what it's like to have a crush. You constantly look out for little things and overanalyse their actions towards you. But Mike has no clue. Maybe because.... he just doesnt feel that way.

Okay going back to reactions. Basically, you would kind of expect Mike's reaction to hearing that his girlfriend, that he's sooooo sad about losing oh nooooo, has decided to reach out and say that she's okay with him would be excitement, right?

When Lucas is describing how he's going to let Mike talk to El, Mike looks extremely nervous, which I get. It's normal to feel nervous in this situation, but the thing is, El seems okay with him, surely he would at least have a little light in his eyes?

When Lucas has to say 'Talk to her, alright?' (as if Mike has no fucking clue) Mike nods and then there is a swell in the music, the camera zooms in on him, and instead of the music swelling to some nice, positive tones, it's almost foreboding, mimicking the mixed feelings swirling in Mike's brain. His face also kind of looks.... weird like he's unsure, or maybe he's disappointed? Nervous? idk

I would understand this to be a little romantic if he smiles, but jesus, he does not crack a single grin at this part.

It almost seems like he's deciding to do something he doesn't really want to. I think he was completely content with the fact that she helped them, but didn't want to do anything about it because he's totally fine being on good terms with her, obviously, but not necessarily on romantic terms with her. Maybe he's fine with the fact she doesn't really want to be with him.

However, after Lucas says this stuff, now he's looking over at her and thinking, wait, maybe she does want to be with me.

But instead of a:

Wow, maybe she does want to be with me! :D

It's a:

Oh, so she does want to be with me.

^basically this means Mike decides, based on his encouragement from Lucas rather than his own feelings, that he should talk to her. What can he say to Lucas here? That he doesn't want to? That isn't really an option for him.

Fourth Thing: Okay this is very small but for some reason this scene is interspersed with scenes of Jonathan and Nancy getting almost killed by the mindflayer army like???

Why would they cut from this very tense scene where these beloved characters are about to be killed to this scene between Mike and El where everything is fine!

It's like.,,,, they want the audience to be tense watching them, even if it's not directly for the right reasons. They want the audience to maybe feel the tension in the foreboding nature of the fact that the mindflayer is in the same building as them, meaning there is always some danger lurking in the background.

Okay hope you enjoyed today's byler evidence :) stay tuned for tomorrow's!

[demon-country]

One thing I think people tend to forget is that, due to how short the episodes are and how few there have been despite the large time frame that's been covered so far, we know very little about the lives of any of the characters. Including Blitz, who is the main character. We've only seen a handful of interactions between Stolas and Blitz and even fewer solo scenes regarding how they feel about their relationship, and they're all important because they set up future plot points, but they're not in depth and thus are functionally taken out of context. We can only speculate about stuff like some of the memory fragments in All 2 U or the exact content of the many phone calls between Blitz and Stolas, using deductive reasoning to figure out what makes the most sense given the clues we have.

There's so much that the writers are forced to only drop hints and subtext about, because they simply do not have the time to explore things more if they don't want to drag the show out forever, so people who don't pay close enough attention or who don't want to acknowledge the romantic feelings between Blitz and Stolas end up saying that things went too fast. It's like, guys, you know they've been interacting for over 20 months, right? Surely you can't think the few minutes of them we've seen on screen is indicative of their entire relationship, right??? It only seems fast now because it was really important to show the rapid paradigm shift that happened as a result of the crystal exchange.

And while we're at it, this is what bothers me so much when people say Stolas probably doesn't know Moxxie and Millie's names. Stolas has, by Blitz's own admission in Oops, been interacting with him on social media and calling Blitz on the regular to ask about his day for about a year and a half, if we don't count the months where they didn't talk after Ozzie's. And note that even though this is part of his rant about how Stolas is only using him for sex, Blitz doesn't mention phone sex, he only says that Stolas calls to ask about his day - meaning that they must actually end up talking about what Blitz has been up to fairly often. When put into that context, do you honestly think that Blitz has somehow never once mentioned Moxxie and Millie by name?

Moxxie, Millie, and especially Loona are very important to Blitz and Stolas would undoubtedly remember their names for that reason alone, but they're also a huge part of his everyday life so they're gonna come up in conversation pretty often, both on social media and anytime Blitz indulged Stolas and talked about his day. Blitz has probably ranted about something Moxxie did fairly often during his phone calls with Stolas, and where Moxxie is mentioned so too will Millie inevitably be brought up. And you know Blitz wouldn't miss an opportunity to gush about how perfect and amazing Loona is. All of which we can infer due to the fact that Blitz does all of those things many times in a variety of settings over the course of the series.

The assumption that he doesn't know their names is ultimately based solely on the belief that, because Stolas has certain unconscious racial and class biases, he must not care about any imp other than Blitz, to the point where he'd have had to intentionally ignore and forget every mention of their names to not know them by this point. Stolas has a lot of shit he needs to unlearn and has said/done a number of harmful, demeaning things to imps (including to Moxxie and Millie in Loo Loo Land), but this is not one of them.

[umeji-writes]

I would like to talk about the Music Festival arc - aka my favorite Mairuma arc until now. I love them all tbh, this is just very close to my heart for several reasons. [cw: non-suggestive discussion of s*x; if you are a s*x-repulsed asexual person you are very much welcome to interact, but this may not be the post for you, take care and proceed with caution ♡ edit: I'm uncensoring the words from here onwards thanks to a kind anon's suggestion] To make it short, I love that the main theme of this arc is pleasure, and the desire for it. Honestly, it's very horny - but not in a slimy or creepy way, which is sadly quite rare in my experience. The appreciation for pleasure coming from love (also platonic love) is there in several layers. First, the plot itself, as Lilith cries out her desire to find "a love that burns like fire". She is not satisfied by most pretenders, and especially this frame spoke to me:

Because... Well... It's so true. I am an adult, and I had my share of sexual partners. The expressions people make irl are not always aesthetically pleasing, but who cares! We are told to strive to be always attractive, but in those moments of intimacy it's really not important, not as much as being fully present and enjoying the moment! Then, can we talk about Kalego please?

I mean, Nishi here went all out and didn't even try to hide her fascination for ...discipline:

(and to be fully clear: I am NOT implying there is sexual tension between Kalego and his students, I am only referring to him!!!) When I saw the whip I couldn't believe my eyes. Of course in that context it's not used that way, but it's very much recognizable as an adult tool... But more on this later. Finally, I really like that the Misfits are growing up and finding out new things about themselves. They are characterized as high school students (even if we don't know how old they actually are), which is when humans tend to have their first experiences and explore their sexualities. They are building together this beautiful show full of emotions and desire, and honestly performing with other people is really an amazing feeling (I am a former musician and theater actor - let me tell you, every performance was fire). Look at their faces: from here...

...to here.

They are shocked, but happy! And definitely feeling ...feelings. And here is my main takeaway: I am really, really sad that sex is a taboo topic in our society, and when there's something about sex, it's mostly treated in a very bad way. This includes sex scenes in generic-audience movies, which I tend to dislike... I hate that sex is handled like a dirty and secret thing. I hate that sex is mostly treated as something that has to do with power imbalance and taking advantage of someone else, usually men that "want to do stuff TO" women (nonbinary individuals like myself not found) - and too often not in a hot and consensual way. I hate that social media are becoming more and more sex-hostile, because investors fear these topics, and use children as a shield to justify limiting contents for adults as well. I hate that sexual education is mainly reserved for talking about pregnancies and, if the students are lucky, prevention of STDs. Solo or reciprocal pleasure? Consent? Treating it as a normal part of life for many people (and not ALL, again, asexual people exist)??? Naaaah, why do that, when you can make people feel shame and embarassment and perpetuate trauma. Again, I am a grown-up now, and while this is legal and everything, I was conditioned to feel some level of shame nonetheless when talking about it irl (which I am working on). The whip I was writing about before (and the kneeling scene afterward)? It was a revolution in my brain. "So... That's a thing we can do...?"

(like that) I plan on doing some adult drawings in the future, but there's a part of me that resists the idea, because adult entertainment usually involves some level of dehumanization... But you know what? I want to take it back and make it about pleasure and enjoyment as it should be. Tbh, I could write a whole essay on the causes for all of the above and how they interact (patriarchy, capitalism, religions as power institutions, etc.), but this is not the place. So I'll just say that I am really, really grateful to Nishi for including this arc in a manga for a young audience, as those are important years to build a healthy relationship with pleasure and one's own body. And as Sullivan said...

I'm very much convinced that Nishi is doing a great job at sending messages for inclusion and social equality in M!IK, taking the role of educator herself. (Other reasons why I love the Music Festival arc are: Soi's story, Clara and Azz becoming closer, Iruma learning the piano, the appreciation of music itself, the immaculate art and more, but that's for another post!!!)

[rythmicjea]

Jeronica Endgame Analysis

I wrote this on Reddit and have been meaning to bring it over here. But commenting on @elizacinnamon's tumblr is what convinced me to do it. Buckle up because it's a long one!

Okay so, looking at all of the easter eggs in the episode, to me, it's heavily coded that Betty and Archie do end up together and that Jughead and Veronica end up together. The first thing that should be acknowledge is that everything in this episode is done with a purpose. They couldn't definitively say who Archie ended up with because Archie comics is predicated on the unanswered question of "Betty or Veronica?" so they had to make things "ambiguous" so people could come to their own conclusions.

When we hear of Veronica's life, Jughead says that she was known for her "impeccable taste" and "produced some of the most iconic movies of our time". So, right there, that's huge. That's a lot of heavy lifting. While he is complimentary and sensitive to everyone else's ending, the way he describes Veronica's life is just more. Take Fangs, he doesn't describe "Pixie Girl" as a "timeless" or "iconic" song. He just says that Midge and their daughter were taken care of and that his gold record will hang as long as there is a Riverdale High. He doesn't mention if Kevin or Clay won any awards for their work, but he says that Veronica won two Oscars. He goes out of his way to note the importance of Veronica's achievements.

The scene at The Babylonium is where I've found the most clues to their shared future. Jughead says "I always loved this theater". He doesn't say that about any of the other places they visit. Throughout the show, they regularly used characters to represent overarching themes. For example, Archie = Riverdale. I take Jughead's declaration to be a euphemism for Veronica. It's not that farfetched to believe that they fell in love while in high school. They were together for a year and a half before graduation. So, in the scene, he says "I always loved this theater. But it had a good run." At this time, in reality, both Veronica and Jughead have passed. Their run ended. He then lifts the seat and HIS CROWN is drawn under it! Why? This is a quick visual cue that he and Veronica are connected. If the Babylonium is a physical representation of Veronica (which is what the episode frames it as) then she essentially has a Jughead tattoo on her (a bit of a dramatic way of putting it lol). But, also this is not the first time something like that is in the show. In season 1 and 2, Betty wears a sweater with a yellow three pronged crown. It's universally recognized as Jughead's crown (she wears it on his birthday and in the Heather's musical episode). So, he makes his statement and BAM Veronica appears. Every time we see a character that isn't in the "relived day", it is a clip of them in the future. Veronica is the only character to essentially be an apparition. They didn't have to include her, but they did. And seeing as it's Narrator!Jughead (the real/angel Jughead is in the Pop's in the Sweet Hereafter, and the show literally ends with typewriter sounds) telling Betty all of this, Veronica's appearance can be taken as a clue that she is ever present in his mind/life.

When we see her in her office, she has four "The Comet" posters behind her. Hanging posters of the movies you made is very common. What isn't common is that one franchise has such a place of honor, so that means it's incredibly significant to her. Her clothing is in the style of the early 80s (the creators had an idea to bring everyone through time with each episode but it wasn't feasible so this is kind of a nod to that. Cheryl is seen in the late 60s, Betty in the 70s, and Veronica is the early 80s). We know that Jughead adapted The Comet into a comic book, and he was the one that introduced her to WEB DuBois' people. The artwork of the posters is the same as the comic he created. Making movies at that time was very time-consuming. Also, franchises like that were not common. The whole "Saga", "Trilogy", and "Universe" collections of today were not done to the same extent back then. So, not only was "The Comet" incredibly popular (because it got four movies) but it spanned over a large time frame (again, she still has the posters up decades after graduation via her clothing style), meaning that there was a consistent dialogue between Jughead and Veronica.

Outside of the Babylonium is a poster for "The Big Sleep" (It's also on the Marquis). This is a direct reference to the episode "The Red Dahlia" (3x14) where Veronica enlists Jughead's help. It is one of the main "Jeronica" episodes of the series. In that episode he says that he'll be her "Philip Marlowe". In The Big Sleep, Philip Marlowe is the main character played by Humphrey Bogart. In the same episode he says "Nice hat... Bacall." Lauren Bacall is the female lead of The Big Sleep. Bogart and Bacall were a huge draw for audiences. They were a power couple of their day (and they were also married... hint hint lol). They were the Bennifer and Brangelina first.

Now, moving onto Jughead. He doesn't talk much about himself. Everything that Betty says can literally be read on screen in his obituary. There are two main takeaways from this scene. The first is he barely talks about himself. When he does, he focuses on talking about his career and there's no mention of his personal life. This is a parallel to Veronica's description. He only describes her career and not her personal life. What is also a parallel is that in his summary of Veronica's life he says that she was known for "taking risks on young, raw talent" ie Jughead. Jughead tells Betty that he "put all of his eggs in one basket". That turn of phrase is to mean that you did the riskiest thing possible. When Betty asks if he ever regrets not getting circled he says 'sometimes'. It's a very ambiguous statement. BH shippers will say that he is talking about Betty. But his relationship with Betty ended in high school (both times) and were never rekindled later in life. It doesn't have to be that regrets not marrying Veronica, but it can be taken that way.

The second is on the artist easel in the Madhouse offices. There is a picture of Veronica. It is not a photograph it is the canonical comic book portrait of Veronica (Pep Comics IS Archie Comics). And it is smack dab in the middle of the easel. This is another parallel to Veronica's future. She has "The Comet" posters and he has her portrait. Remember, his first comic book line that he created was "Veronica: The Teenage Witch". So this is a clue that he has used Veronica's likeness IN his magazine for most, if not all of, the run. There's no picture of Betty or Archie. Why still have Veronica's portrait and use her likeness if they weren't still connected in real life?

Now we come to the final scene. So, throughout all of Riverdale (with a few exceptions) the milkshakes that the core four drink all correspond to their hair color. Betty = Vanilla, Archie = Strawberry, Jughead and Veronica = Chocolate (double chocolate to be specific - which can be extrapolated to represent them. It's a stretch but it can be made). In the final moments, we see that this formula has been flipped. When Betty sits in the booth, Archie is drinking a Vanilla milkshake and he hands Betty a strawberry one noting it's "her favorite". What are Jughead and Veronica drinking? Double chocolate milkshakes. If in the Barchie Endgame theory Strawberry being Betty's "favorite" is to mean "Archie" then we can apply that same logic to Jughead and Veronica. Then there is their seating arrangement. The girls on one side and the boys on the other. Betty is sitting directly in front of Archie and Veronica is sitting directly in front of Jughead. Again, because they had to keep the "Who will Archie choose?" answer ambiguous they use this blocking technique to show the pairings without the pair sitting right next to each other. (Couples either sit next to each other or across from one another.)

That is my analysis of the finale using clues to prove that Jughead and Veronica were "endgame". I hope you liked it! If you have any corroborating theories let me know!

[coffeelovesdramasalatte]

LITA Ep. 4 Rewatch Thoughts Pt. 3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

Ok Rain, you and I both know you didn't sleep through this honey

Phayu looks unconvinced as well lmao - do you see this eyebrow raise?

Slightly controversial opinion, but I actually love that I occasionally hear fabric rustling and other mic interference. It adds a messy and fun element to the scenes that make them feel more real to me. Here, we heard what is probably Phayu's shirt slide against the mic as he leans into Rain.

The first time I watched this, I had to pause and raise my eyebrows ngl. Supremely unprepared for this relatively simple sequence and in the end highkey felt like I got slapped in the face (but in a funny way).

Boss looks so intense and good here

Taking it from the top

down

down

down

(including this shot bc wow Boss has big hands)

and...

(we just got to the halfway point y'all... whew)

I've never heard of this seduction technique before. Phayu, you might be the only one this works on (I feel seduced but not in a sexy way, more like if I was a cat I'd make biscuits on Rain's tummy)

I don't have a whole lot of commentary on this part aside from they're both adorable and I love the way Phayu likes to drag Rain physically closer to him whenever they talk. I think physical touch is really important to Phayu and I love how Rain basically preens under the attention every time Phayu touches him

I have literally seen this 12 times. Every time I'm like OMFG THEY ARE ABOUT TO KISSSSSSSS

But NO, freaking P' Saifah couldn't wait outside for one more minute. At least he has the decency to give them a countdown do-over. Phayu looks like he considering the merits of ending his twin while Rain is just distressed. I love how they framed these shots of P' Saifah with his body physically dividing the screen between Phayu and Rain's faces which are blurry in the background. This drama uses physical blocking very creatively in my opinion.

P' Saifah I'm going to reach through the nth dimension just to SHAKE YOU I mean seriously how could you not see Phayu and Rain were having a MOMENT

But it does lead to this stellar headpat so I'm not too mad (the 7th one in the series, if I'm not mistaken), plus Rain's praise kink gets activated (seriously, just watch him reminisce about the headpat that just happened)

AHHHH Rain looks SO HAPPY to see that Phayu wrote him a lil note and helped him out - I mean it's no wonder Phayu would bend over backwards just to put that expression on Rain's face from here on out

Including this shot to praise the lighting directors bc it's beautiful, as is our hard at work Rain

I think it could have been really cool if they had Rain use his lucky triangle ruler thing (that Phayu gave him) here, bc that would have been an extra layer of symbolism. I think if they were going to include it as a serendipitous plot point, it would have been better to introduce it this way rather than stick it in a glass case.

GOOD WORK BBY!!! Your reward comes later though

AND the first thing he thinks of after is...

LOOK at him being a responsible student! He's only got two left and then he's doneeeeee (unlike me, I still have so much to do lmao and yet here I am) - (OK I wrote this earlier part two days ago and at the time of writing this sentence I am DONEEE so me *join hands emoji* Rain: done with finals)

My plans for the next 48 hours:

Except this boy gets revived at the thought of seeing his pseudo-bf and runs immediately bolts out of bed 2 seconds later. Ngl if I had a Phayu I'd probably do the same, but since I'm a single pringle it's just me and my clean sheets

Ok, now where have we seen almost this exact color combo before?? Mayhaps you can scroll up a couple pictures...

Basically, I think this is the production crew's way of telling you Rain's about to get smooched by Phayu. Also Rain's changed clothes from the previous scene so he really cleaned up to go to the garage awww

I love that Rain tells himself he should be using this time to sleep, then shrugs at himself and goes to Phayu anyway. Priorities, priorities

Yay, P' Saifah is here to guide Rain to Phayu!! The in-laws are getting a lot of interaction these days hehe. Also look at how eager Rain looks here - full on puppy mode (I met a cockapoo puppy named Molly today so I know my comparison is accurate)

I like that P' Saifah is talking Phayu up to Rain - not that Rain needs any more convincing that Phayu is the coolest mechanic ever. It's the thought that counts though.

For some reason, this shot of Rain and this shot of Phayu make me laugh. Rain's just standing there like some guy when we all know he's thee guy and Phayu is making the "this is so sus" face

The interaction between the three of them right after is so funnyyy - my favorite part is P' Saifah calling his big bro out - this is prime younger sibling behavior. Also Phayu pretending to be a grump - he's just kiss deprived is all (that problem is about to be solved tho)

I also like how I though Rain was going to be the possessive one but Phayu is out here with raised hackles even though P' Saifah is just being friendly to press his buttons (again, prime little sibling behavior). Please observe how pleased Rain looks about this though!

Me + P' Saifah: Phayu you're a SIMP

Ok I like that they included this shot of PhayuRain for no discernable reason (bc it cuts to them walking over to the other part of the garage right after it) other than to show us Phayu looking at Rain fondly with his eyebrows raised

I also love how Rain immediately reports that his work is done (likely so he could get praised) but then Phayu counters with "did you sleep?" to which the answer is no. Rain's like "ahhh we can't win with this one uff" (don't worry bff, your reward is en route)

On to part 4!! I'm hoping it's the last one or none of you are gonna want to read it (this is a lie, there are 5 parts bc I have no self control when it comes to taking screenshots of PhayuRain)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

[kalispitronhibernation]

Oooooh I'm always interested in peoples structure and outlining process so 👀 22?

ah thank you for this question, i looove talking about structure and outlining! under a readmore bc this answer is loooong

22. describe your writing process from start to finish.

most of the examples here r from telemachus' detachment, bc i am very proud of that work, and i also did a LOT of work for it, because i was going through a slightly insane period and focusing on that really helped me kept going.

usually, the writing process for me starts off with a single piece of dialogue / scenario. i half-remember a tennesse williams quote where he's talking about how he starts off w a single "luminous image", and it's kind of like that. something just occurs to me and sticks. it then has to be sufficiently emotionally complicated / interesting for me to want to write it out. weirdly what became telemachus' detachment started off with a scene of stewy in a hotel room in hong kong watching kendall's s2 finale speech on TV.

i will usually then write down a lot of random scraps of dialogue / tiny bits of action in one word doc, in a vaguely ordered fashion but mainly as they occur to me. then they start to cohere, and that's when i start trying to pull it together into an outline. for shorter stuff, i probably won't outline, bc it can be done in one push - or if i do outline, it's basically a few bullet points to get the structure down on paper. for longer stuff, i find that i need to know where i'm working to or i'll lose focus / enjoyment and drift away from it. usually the outline will morph into a very very loose first draft - including little bits of dialogue, etc.

HOWEVER. this outline is like - never what the actual writing ends up being. i always think 'no this time i really will stick to the outline' and then during writing it massively changes. so, for example, here's an outline of telemachus' detachment during the writing process: everything after the ch.3 bulletpoint was abandoned bc it didn't feel right.

"Ch.1 finished for now

Ch.2, college + Logan forcing K.’s hand; focalise that all through the K. & the fact of hiding: make it about the twin poles of shame & love

Ch.2: Frame it by opening w/ the board meeting, Roman / Shiv; then end with Stewy watching the interview, and then flashback to Stewy’s reaction – just, here, to being broken up with

Ch.3, KenFest + Ken’s wedding – mirrors of each-other; how did Stewy cope with all of the hiding? End ch.3 with the confrontation about the interview; this moment of hope that Kendall will be free.

Then the drowning; Jess calls Stewy and he ends up at the hospital; he refuses to have any part in the siblings’ plots; Roman calls him a parasite and Stewy doesn’t care, he just wants Kendall to be alive.

Flashback; the various times Stewy has waited in hospitals

Ch.4: Logan dies / Dodds confession – Kendall is dragged back in; Stewy becoming an accessory on his side; he keeps loving him, he can’t not, but Kendall is changing – every dream of escape calcifying."

when i know roughly where i want the thing to go, i then have a checklist - this needs to happen, these people need to have this conversation, and i just work through that - not necessarily in order. though, for telemachus' detachment i would basically only figure out what the next chapter should be when i finished the first one.

there are then 3 very important word documents!

1 is simply the draft - i will usually split this up into smaller ones / chapters for ease and manoeuvrability. i tend to have a "Actual Thing" doc, so i can noodle around in other documents & draft stuff out without feeling the pressure of having it contribute to the whole thing, then will assemble it together.

2 is a 'deleted bits' draft. i find this so so important, bc it is a lot easier to simply cut and paste something away than it is to delete it from the face of the earth. also i will sometimes come back and rescue things from this document.

3 is a running commentary - this is where i keep notes to myself, outlines, and also what i'm going to do next. i like to try and follow the advice that you should always stop working in the middle of something that's going well, bc you will want to come back & do it the next day. always leave yourself a clear goal / target for the next time!! i like externalising a lot of my thinking.

this does mean i end up with a lot of word docs for one thing. i just counted and there are a total of 34 docs in my folder for telemachus detachment.

in terms of the actual writing, i tend to write dialogue first, especially if it's fic for a TV show. i find getting the rhythm of dialogue right tricky & v important! i sometimes write random dialogue that's nothing to do with the story just to get into the voices. i'll then go back and fill in everything else. if i'm writing something, i tend to become completely and totally obsessed w it, and think about it all the time, i quite often end up writing scraps of dialogue in the notes app on my phone, and then fleshing them out later.

if it's fic, i tend not to edit massively once it's got to the stage of actually being assembled in that final doc - it's probably already been through a fair amount of revision to get to that spot, and i really only have so much time and energy. i have no idea how to explain when something feels done apart from that it just clicks into place, and feels right. i work very much on a vibes basis, and i think i've read enough that my vibes r fairly well honed!

anyway this is very long but thank you again for asking!! i love to ramble about this

[redrikki]

Now that I've finally finished the Netflix Avatar and have had a bit of time to reflect, I'm ready to share my thoughts.

As adaptations go, it was worlds above the Movie, but not quite as good as the Boy in the Iceberg. It's impossible to say on account of how the original series re-wired my brain, but I think I would have enjoyed it as a stand-alone series if I'd never heard of the original.

Overall, I really liked the casting and thought the actors had some pretty great chemistry together. The folks playing Zuko and Iroh really sold me on their relationship, as did Katara and Sokka's actors. The boy who played Aang did a really good job, but his relationship with Katara and Sokka never came off as anywhere near as close as it did in the cartoon, but I suspect a lot of that came from the fact some of their most touching moments weren't included in the live action.

Over all, the effects were really good (except Momo). Fight scenes were brilliantly choreographed and the integrated the bending effects well. On the other hand, the show runners were a little too focused on showing off in ways that were, I thought, a detriment to the emotional weight of things. For example, the Air Nomad genocide scene felt so focused on the spectacle of the violence and cool bending techniques that the actual horror of it fell flat.

The characters in the live action were very different people than the cartoon, especially the core three. It's like the writers read every internet complaint about Aang, Katara, and Sokka and decided they would be more likable if all of their flaws were removed in favor of more (or different) angst. And, to be fair, they altered their backstories enough that their very different personalities made sense in context, but it still...How do I put this? An adaptation, like any fanfic, is a conversation with the source material. And the conversation the Netflix show runners wanted to have with the cartoon is one where becoming "strong" is paramount, overcoming prejudice is bad because you shouldn't have had it in the first place, and "adult" stories don't have room for whimsy or joy.

Removing Sokka's sexism and changing his Koyshi Island arc might make him more likable than cartoon Sokka, but also erases one of the key themes of the show: breaking false barriers and learning from others. Iroh and Guru Pathik really spell it out in the second season, but it's there from the beginning in Sokka and Pakku's story lines. Sokka is so sure of the proper order of society before Suki shows him that the dichotomy of women and warriors is a false one. In the live action, this message is erased in favor of reassurances that he too can become a strong warrior. With Pakku in the cartoon, he changes his mind about Katara, not because of the quality of her fighting, but because her necklace made him realize that the rigid frame of patriarchy hurts everyone, including him. In the live action, he agrees to accept help from Katara and the other women because Katara fights good. He doesn't end up teaching her because she's so strong she doesn't need to actually learn from others. Over and over again, the importance of strength is highlighted, while accepting the wisdom of others and breaking down barriers is downplayed.

In terms of characterization, I really liked what they did with Iroh and how it impacted his relationship with Zuko. In the cartoon, season 1 Iroh was very much playing up the idea of a wise old man mentor who didn't do chick-flick moments of actual emotional intimacy. Netflix Iroh is still wise, but he's unapologetically vulnerable in a way cartoon Iroh isn't. Cartoon Iroh is with Zuko because he feels guilty over what happened and wants to save him going forward the way he couldn't save Lu Ten (or himself). There's a bit of that with Netflix Iroh, but he also clearly needs Zuko as an emotional crutch. The result is a relationship where both parties are more vulnerable and open with each other and it's not just Iroh lecturing while Zuko shouts abuse.

Katara got done dirty by the changes to her character. Key character-building episodes like Prisoners and the Waterbending Scroll got cut and her character felt flatter as a result. Where was her compassion which drove her to risk it all to help others? Where was her anger about what had been stolen from her culture? For that matter, where was her jealousy with Aang over how easily bending came to him? The Netflix version took a moment to celebrate how awesome Katara was that she didn't need a real teacher, just a scroll that had been kept from her for 'reasons,' but then they had two different moments where 2 boys who didn't even bend her element had to mansplain it to her. The actress did such a great job, but the writers were too busy treating Sokka as god's gift to give her the characterization she deserved.

[alittlefrenchtree]

Ok I'm sending you some of your own RWRB questions: Number 1,2, 5, 7, 10, 13,14, and 19 (i had to stop myself from sending the whole list lol)

Thank you so much! Maybe I'll end up answering every question on my own anyway but it's nice starting with your selection 🥰

#1 What was your introduction to Red, White and Royal Blue? How did you become aware of it, what was your first impression of it?

I didn't know anything about it until @petitmimosa started rambling about it a few weeks/couple of months(?) ago. I think she saw the trailer on prime, read the book then watch the movie? I was only half listening (she rambles a lot about a lot of stuff) because I was pretty sure I wouldn't be interested at all (romcoms aren't really my thing).

Then FREAKING TUMBLR decided that RWRB would be the only thing I'll be seeing on my dash for days and days. So I'd say to myself, if I'm going to be forced to look at pics and gifs of these two guys AGAIN and AGAIN, may as well know what this is all about. So I've watched the movie and surprisingly had a good time. And since Internet (and algorithms) keeps showering with rwrb content (nothing else is happening in the cinema industry anyway), I've decided to roll with it and enjoy the said content. I read the book quickly after and even if it was fun, I think I like the movie better.

#2 Team Alex or Team Henry? (I know you love them both equally but choose anyway. OR choose depending of the circumstances. Like, "I’d go shopping with Alex but I’d marry Henry. Or I’d hug Alex but I’d go karaoke with Henry. I don’t know. Try something.)

Even if I like Henry and find him very precious, I think I'm Team Alex. I like how refreshing he is. You can't really be sad watching him and not only because he looks cute af. But all love to both, obviously.

#5 Choose one scene from the book to add to the movie.

I'm not sure because I don't know the book that well but I know how I felt reading this

“Dear Thisbe, I wish there weren’t a wall. Love, Pyramus”

and I wish they'd found a way to include it in the movie. Maybe not in the way of the book, because that might have not worked as best as it should but in some way. I don't know.

#7 Tell us something you like better in the movie than in the book.

Oh man, so many things. One of the main thing, I like that Alex is more freaked out by being into Henry that being into guys in general in the movie. There are important scenes following, about owning the term bisexual in front of other people but being into guys feels less a big (and long) deal than in the book for him. Which is good. I feel like the "i'm bi, so what?" is a good mood to put out there in 2023.

I know the point has been quite a debate here and there so I hope I put the right words to express my view on this.

And tell us something you like better in the book than in the movie. 

A couple of things :

I would have liked for Bea to have a bit more substance as a character in the movie.

and, and that could have been an answer to the "share an unpopular opinion", I'm not the biggest fan of the parisian night scene. Not by Taylor and Nick's fault because the shots of their faces and how they acted are very delicate but I'm very not into the directing, the blocking and the editing of this scene. If felt too heavily romcom coded for my taste (and for my french person leaving near Paris' eyes), when one of the strength of the movie (for me) is being fresh and fun with the romcom codes.

10- You’re in a difficult situation where you have only one call to get help (or to save your life), who are you calling? Amy, Zahra or Ellen?

Zahra, every day, everywhere. I wouldn't trust anyone more than someone who reminds me that much of Sam Marquez in the tvshow Las Vegas.

13- A detail you feel like it’s not enough discussed. Whether it’s a scene, a quote, a frame, a piece of acting, a decor…) Time to ramble about it!

Oh I have two actually! The first good thing I have said about the movie is how much I like the opening credits. The music is good, the visuals are good, I like it a lot.

The second has probably been discussed over and over (and my recording sucks) but

I need daily screaming about the softest, smoothest, most determined "no." I ever heard in my entire life.

14- Favorites outfit(s) in the movie? (You can pick as many as you want, from as many characters as you want. But if you reply with a screenshot of a naked person, I’m going to put you in horny jail).

I wrote the question with one outfit in mind

My only regret is that he's not wearing matching pants (there must be matching pants, right?) cause I feel like AGCD wouldn't have shy away from them. And that would have been epic.

Honorable mention for the denim look 💙 that was wasted on Miguel.

#19 is going to take me forever to answer so I'll add something later :)

Thank you again for playing with me 💜💜

All the questions here !

[misscrazyfangirl321]

Sanctuary for All, Part 1 Thoughts

*I always forget how different Will is in the pilot compared to the rest of the series. So desperate for someone to take him seriously that he's resorting to rambling to the waitress about his observations.

*Will finding a Russian nesting doll and immediately assuming the family is Russian or Ukranian. Like. Do you know how common those are, my guy?

*Alexi has ADHD confirmed.

*Kinda want to incorporate Joe into The Time Wars, even if it's as a bit part.

*Forever obsessed with the bit where Will narrowly avoids being hit by Ashley on a motorcycle only to IMMEDIATELY get hit by Helen in a car.

*OK but the way Will immediately covered for Magnus. Didn't tell anyone he'd seen the person who hit him or anything. He didn't know who she was, and maybe he didn't even know why he was covering for her, but he knew she was important.

*That's not how lineups work. That's not how any of this works. A lineup consists of more than one person.

*Oh BTW Will's hair was super curly when he was a kid. I choose to believe it still is when he doesn't put four million products in it.

*Eleanor! Hey remember when it was established that Helen Magnus had friends? And hung out with people she saw in her day to day life?

*JOHN AND HIS LOCKET OF HELEN

*John acting almost shy in this scene is painful. Especially knowing what's coming.

*Will desperately trying to convince someone, anyone to listen to him. Also just... The way Joe and Meg really are trying to help Will, in their own ways. They're wrong, but they don't know that.

*Helen is so dramatic, especially in reaching out to Will, and Will just. Doesn't Engage. "Lady, I'm getting soaked here. What do you what?" Just does not let her draw him into the drama.

*Okay but the way he makes her smile, even from the beginning. Her amusement. Her oh, this will be fun.

*One of my favorite things about this episode from a narrative perspective is the way they save the Ashley reveal for so far into it. Through most of the first part, Ashley and Helen are framed as Opposing Forces looking for the boy. (.... Oh hey not like I need another AU, but that would make a great AU.)

*Tbh I really do like Meg. Wish she could have been more of a character.

*Will. Will, what is that book organization? Will.

Will, you're stressing me out.

*EC or not, there's definitely comparisons and contrasts between Meg's relationship with Will and Helen's relationship with Will. (Specifically humor, and also the contrast of Meg thinking he's crazy and him looking at Magnus' business card.)

*Magnus' excitement when Will says he doesn't know why she's looking for the boy is so fun.

*I forgot how HUGE the Sanctuary is from the outside.

*The one time teleporting into an EM shield just bounces him back. Also him laughing as he hits the ground, so fond of Helen... John, you're a DistasterTM.

*"Next time you just want some company, don't give your number out to strangers on the street." Ajdmsjsjdm Helen's sitting here trying to be all dramatic and mysterious, and Will's just like. "I diagnose you with Loneliness." And. He's not totally wrong.

*Ashley knocking out those cops just adds to the perceived contrast. We're so nervous that it looks like she'll get to the kid before Helen.

*Hey wait there's a clock on the wall when Will walks into the Sanctuary lab. We can see what time-WAIT THERE ARE TWO CLOCKS SET FOR DIFFERENT TIMES. ONE SEC. Wait, no, there's at least 3. All different times. Huh.

*Okay it looks like every pillar has a clock set to a different time. Nice detail actually.

*Love that the example for "Other [Abnormals] can't be allowed to run free" shows up multiple times throughout the series running free, including the VERY NEXT EPISODE.

*Flying Person should have been a major character.

*"He's just as unnerved by you." Ajdkfksms Biggie's characterization probably changes more than any other's throughout this show.

*Such a fascinating thing how Helen speaks so highly of Abnormals, but never refers to herself as one unless absolutely necessary. They're valuable, but they're still "Other" to her.

*Why does Ashley sign her texts? Ma'am you're texting your mother. Does she not know your number?

*Obsessed with the fact that it's played as if Helen looks too young to be Ashley's mother, as if Amanda isn't 19 years older than Emilie.

*"What she lacks in refinement, I assure you she makes up for in her field skills." Lines that get painful when you realize how soon Ashley will die.

*Wish there could have been more with Ashley trying to fool Will with stories and Will just shaking his head and laughing.

[fallloverfic]

Solo Leveling Episode 16 Thoughts

The fourth episode of season 2 was AMAZING! I am aldkjaldjakldjalj Spoilery thoughts for the anime, novel, and manhwa below:

I HAVE BEEN WAITING THE ENTIRE SERIES FOR THIS EPISODE lakdjalkdjladjalj

But first, a shout-out to a panel I've always really loved in the manhwa:

I honestly really love the way the anime redid it (his body is proportional!). And Jinwoo has a proper chin for once (in the anime)!

And now for the insanity.

I AM JUST

THEY

THEY SUNG HYUNJE'D CHOI JONGIN (^^)

I AM SO INSANE OVER THIS Lkajdlakjdlaj THANK YOU SO MUCH A-1 PICTURES ALDKJALKDJALKJ

(^This wasn't in the manhwa, you can't see the front of Jongin's face in this scene)

Also, I love that Jongin's not smoking. Just... a personal thing. I'm glad it wasn't included. Maybe it was a budget choice or whatever, I don't know. But I'm glad.

HE'S SO UPSET ABOUT BEING SNUBBED alkdjalkdjalj

This is so funny aldkjaldjalkj He's just like, "Choi Jongin.exe has stopped working" aldkjalj His VA having his voice be a little higher-pitched and fragile when he talks nervously to Woo Jinchul is just lakjdlajlalkjd The best. Also because of the angles in the manhwa, I didn't notice just how much taller he was than Jinchul, but aldkjlaj That's kind of funny and cute for some reason (I know S-rankers canonically bulk up over weaker Hunters, but it's funny to see this here).

I do want to add this sadly trimmed tidbit about how Jongin frames this scene in the novel (Volume 3, Chapter 1: Rank Evaluation, from the Yen Press English translation):

[Jinwoo]: “Yes.”

[Jongin]: “Do you have a guild in mind?"

[Jinwoo]: “No, not yet.”

Jongin brightened upon hearing this.

[Jongin]: Nice, we’re finished here.

The Hunters was among the world’s top three guilds—how sweet those words sounded. From this day on, it would no longer be a pipe dream.

[Jongin]: You’re mine.

Jongin clutched the welcome news close and spoke the words that might very well be recorded in history books. “I’d like to discuss that matter. Do you have a minute—?”

“I don’t. Sorry.” Jinwoo cut him off and promptly exited the association building.

“……” It had happened so fast, the thought of catching up to him didn’t even cross Jongin’s mind.”

I just. I am still not over this. This scene in the manhwa (where he's still so thirsty) is what inspired me to love them as a pairing and this bit in the novel (I was a manhwa-first reader, went to the novel afterward) cemented that. Here's a fic for them if you're looking.

Also the wonderful Choi Jongin/Baek Yoonho food. Jongin totally not over-analyzing every aspect of Yoonho aldkjalj Love it.

Go Gunhee is so thirsty for Jinwoo alkjdalj This is the "everyone is thirsty for Jinwoo" episode, I love it XD

Also I'm not sure how clear it is in the anime, but Gunhee gets really excited that Jinwoo can be his successor, which Jinwoo shoots down. The novel + manhwa better explain this, but the anime cuts out most of Gunhee's thoughts. It was always kind of weird, since Gunhee doesn't know Jinwoo at all and has a lot of assumptions about Jinwoo as a Hunter, which is clearly based on a lack of information (he only learns more about Jinwoo after making the offer, which happens in the anime, too). It seems like a lot of power to just... offer to give someone. So I'm not upset it was largely nixed. But that's what he's talking about when he thinks, "Perhaps even one day..." The way it is in the anime is a lot more open-ended and natural, even if it's still creepy they stalked Jinwoo to the hospital.

Meanwhile, Gunhee still flirting with Jinchul. They're so cute. And yes, Gunhee is thirsty for Jinwoo and Jinchul in every version of the story. For context, here's how flirty Gunhee is with Jinchul in the novel (Volume 3, Chapter 2: President Go's Proposal, from the Yen Press English translation):

“Nothing important, just……” Gunhee hesitated a second and tapped his chin. “Would you like to have a drink with me?”

Jinchul offered an awkward grin at the unexpected invitation. “I’m not very good at holding my alcohol… Is that okay with you, sir?”

“Huh, I didn’t peg you as a lightweight.” Gunhee playfully tutted.

“Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘The size of the glass a man can drink determines the size of his world’?”

“Apologies, sir.” Jinchul sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and blushed.

“I’m kidding. I’m in such high spirits that I’m in the mood to joke.” Truth be told, Gunhee actually had someone else he wanted to drink with. He turned his gaze toward the hallway through which Jinwoo had left.”

So flirty.

It's interesting they cut out the introduction of Lee Minsung. I assume he'll be in episode 18/19, but I guess we'll see! The manhwa moved around Yoo Suhyun's (Yoo Jinho's cousin) appearance around (I imagine she'll be in next episode, like in the manhwa) and Lim Taegyu got cut again (he's in the novel but not the manhwa), so I'm not bothered (especially over Minsung), but still.

Jongin throwing fireballs was fun.

The official Japanese Solo Leveling twitter account actually shared a really great preview of Jinwoo running in the dungeon.

This scene was really cute. He's so excited. It's honestly adorable. Too excited at any point to strap his helmet on I guess (it's that way in the manhwa, too). Gotta hold it. He's so bulky, too alkdjlaj

Just generally, I really like the way the manhwa and even more so the anime went out of their way to more naturally introduce characters into the story rather than what the novel does. The stuff that happens in this episode is where a lot of characters get introduced for the first time/virtually the first time in the novel. Jinchul shows up at the hospital for Jinwoo's first reassessment, after the double dungeon, and then he only gets a reference in Jinwoo's thoughts after Jinwoo recruits Igris. The next time he shows up is when Gunhee shows up in the hospital where Jinwoo's mother is. Gunhee gets referenced once when Jinwoo is in the hospital after the first reassessment, but he doesn't show up until this point, where he invites Jinwoo to join the Korean Hunters Association. The manhwa changed this by having Jinchul show up at the dungeon where Taesik Kang dies, rather than a random, unnamed member of the Surveillance Team, and still later having Jinchul show up for the manhwa-original sequence with Hwang Dongsoo returning to South Korea and going to the red gate, and then again when Jinchul replaces another member of the Surveillance Team (Director Park) chatting with Jongin while Jinwoo is being reassessed, before Jongin and manhwa/anime!Jinchul go to check on what's happening. The anime added even more, so Jinchul is even more of an established character in the universe. And every scene of Gunhee in the anime prior to his appearance in the hospital is anime-original, establishing him - and his relationship with Jinchul in particular - far better in the story.

This was also very close to Jongin's first appearance. In the novel, he gets name-dropped twice in volume 1: once when Jinwoo's nickname of "Weakest Hunter" is mentioned (which is referenced this episode, as Jongin is known as the "Ultimate Hunter"), and again later when Jinwoo is in the hospital after the double dungeon, and thinking about things. Jongin doesn't actually appear on the page until after Yoonho makes a press release about the red gate in volume 2, and Jongin takes an interest in investigating it, because he suspects there's a new powerful Hunter on the scene and wants to make sure White Tiger doesn't overtake Hunters. He doesn't appear again until slightly later in the story where he's chatting with Director Park (Jinchul in the manhwa and anime) while Jinwoo is being reassessed. If the anime had kept Jongin's first on-page novel appearance, it would have been in Episode 15, but they cut the broadcast bit entirely, I imagine to save time, and he was going to show up anyway this episode. Even in the manhwa, Jongin's scene where he's plotting to figure out what happened with the red gate is cut, and he doesn't actually appear on-page until chatting with Jinchul while Jinwoo is being reassessed. So around this time is virtually when he shows up for the first time in both the novel and the manhwa. But the anime, on top of this, added the stuff with Jongin being at Jeju and being part of the later investigation with Jeju, and added the emphasis on Cha Haein's recruitment and her relationship with him as his second-in-command, and a bit more stuff with Yoonho's relationship with Jongin. So he's better established in the narrative.

This was also technically the first appearance of Cha Haein in the novel and manhwa. She's never mentioned until Jinwoo sees her at the A-rank Hunters gate here in the novel. In the manhwa, Song Chiyul's work as a sword instructor is brought up way earlier (Volume 3, Chapter 6 of the Ize Press English translation), at the start of the arc with Taesik in the gate, and you can see Haein and Chiyul talking after a practice match, but the identity of Chiyul's student (who is stated to be S-rank: "You're an S-rank, but you're still learning sword skills from me"), is unknown until much later in the manhwa (near the end of the story), when you find out it's Haein. In that first manhwa episode, her face is cropped and she's never named; the anime edited this by replacing her with an unnamed person in Episode 8, possibly because they wanted to keep Chiyul's expanded development while not having to badly mask Haein's VA? Anyway, Haein finally shows up, identified, at the A-rank Hunters gate (in the novel and manhwa). Every scene in the anime with her in it prior to this is anime-original, so they expanded even more on what happens with her, better establishing her in the story. Though the swimming sequence is still dumb and pointless and we could have had the flashback to her talking to Jongin without it. Or while running track. Cause she's a track runner.

I'm just so happy about this episode overall. My bois met. So many people are thirsty for Jinwoo. The art was generally really great. And I'm excited for next ep!

Season 1: Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12

Season 2: Episode 13, Episode 14, Episode 15, Episode 16 (you are here), Episode 17

[serenhiscoxprofessionalpractice]

Final Major Project Week 12

For the final Tuesday class I used the footage I filmed last week to finish my technical tests. The first test I completed was the walking through the field scene. I imported the walk cycle stop motion animation into after effects and keyed out the background. I put a mask around the puppet so I didn't have to key out as much. I also imported the puppet animation into TVPaint and animated facial features on using a textured pencil brush. I exported it as a PNG sequence and imported it into after effects , I used the parent tool to link the two assets, so any alterations I made to the puppet would also affect the facial features. Once I had the puppet sorted, I imported the background from TVPaint and then imported the moving foreground as a PNG sequence. Once I had all the assets in the composition I adjusted the positioning of how the puppet moved through the frame. Once I had the movement in a place I was happy with, I made all of the assets 3d and then adjusted their positioning to make the whole thing less flat and to create more depth. I also had the camera slightly pan across the scene just to make it appear less static. Overall I am really happy with the end result of the test, I recognise that there's a lot of room for improvement however as a first attempt I am pleased with the execution. I then moved onto the lip sync test, I was already confident in how the end result would look as I had used the same process for the walking test. I recorded me speaking a line from the script as placeholder dialogue, and then animated the mouth shapes. One thing i had not anticipated was the model's unpredictability, unlike previous lip-syncs I had animated, due to the fact that it was stop motion, the puppet was almost always moving, even when I didn't intend it to. This added a challenge as I had to go back and make sure the mouth was positioned correctly on the face every time, this was a small detail but made a lot of difference in my opinion and really helped combine the two mediums effectively.

On Friday's class we had our alpha crit, and so to prepare for this I wanted to have my animatic ready. I recorded all the dialogue just as a placeholder so I could work out the timings. On the first pass, the animatic was coming in at 9 and a half minutes...The animation is meant to be 2 minutes so I knew I had a lot of cutting down to do. I had already got some ideas of things to cut and so executed that however the runtime was still too long. I managed to get a version that was 6 and a half minutes, I realised that I could reword some of the dialogue to be more effective, however I couldn't re-record the audio and so instead was cutting down on the audio I already had. With the Animatic as short as I could get it, I implemented some other sounds, I found some medieval pieces of music that fit well with the opening and montage scene. I also played around with the reverb settings in premiere pro and I feel that that helped the audio massively as I was able to create different settings and atmospheres through the sound- the scene in the cave worked particularly well. I also implemented all my camera moves, which I wasn't too experienced with in premiere, however after this I feel so much more confident in the program!

Alpha Crit

On the morning of the alpha crit I rewrote my script so that each scene was around 13 seconds, I then used this new script to make a new animatic which I managed to finish just before the crit. Whilst I am sad I wasn't able to include sound, I was happier that the runtime was a little closer to what it should be. The crit went rally well, I was very nervous about it and definitely in the beginning I felt that I wasn't articulating my story very well, but I got some really good feedback. I think to meet the runtime I need to step back from the story and analyse what's important. One suggestion was to cut out a lot of the exposition and instead use flashbacks more often. I liked this idea as I felt that it could push the idea of Gwaine's internal struggle more. Another way I could cut down the runtime would be to utilise the narrator more, this made me think of Julia Donaldson's animations, and how they will have the narrator explaining the characters actions as the animation occurs, like reading a storybook. I really liked this idea as it brought me back to the idea of 'Bardic Tradition' I had learnt about in my early research, how stories were all recorded and told through word of mouth. I also received feeedback that I could cut out some unnecessary characters as well as push the design for my protagonist further, something I wholeheartedly agree with, as from first glance I don't think his character is very clear. Overall I'm really happy with the feedback, I feel like im progressing rather than being back at square one, and I am excited to build on these ideas over the Christmas break.

[everyonedni]

The framing device is a news reporter (plushy) doing an interview piece with all the members of the up and coming piece of shit industry

Plushy talks to person about backstory

Scene fades to flashback plushy exits and all characters for backstory enter

At climax/dramatic end song

SONGS

-Plankton duo (Just a greasy stove)

-biggering

-into the woods

-jekel and hyde

-outro by Shrek

Partyshark:

Plays plushy axolotl

Interviewer interviewing different characters

Shrek:

kind of a mr krabs character. He has a reason and backstory for this.

Treats Xavier like Squidward, but worse

Xavi:

Two different characters: Xavier and Xavier’s soul

Manager handling reception

Emerald:

Skincrawler

Joke - I come from Emeraldsville, where nothing ever happens, literally

Justin:

Jekyll and Hyde type character

Party plays reflection

Joke - Mr boopkins makes joke about how instead of doing HR things he will turn people into human resources

SCRIPT ROUGH DRAFT

PART ONE:

PLUSHY: 

Welcome to the broadcast. And welcome to our show. Our story’s super scattered, the genre no one knows.

But we offer tales of past. Seen across the years. Of many different people [yelling]. Lets kick it to high gear!

[lights switch on, plushy walks backward]

[All cast enters]

This is our small little town of New Fredrickson, home to industry and invention. The streets are wide, the allys narrow, and you can find just about anything and i mean ANYTHING on these streets. Wink wonk! 

[music beat every one exits except plushy]

And you might be wondering [in deeper mocking voice] “who are you” well my dear viewer who looks dumb talking to your tv screen I am the head writer and reporter for the moss times. And WE (i say we so you feel included but your doing diddly squat) are interviewing the newest and possibly greatest company to come out of this crumby town!

[Sound of glass being broken as plushy enters a window] [screams]

[plushy is beaten out of window]

Plushy: wrong window

[sound of second window being broken as plushy breaks the correct window]

Xavi soul: Door is over there.

Plushy: Your Xavier right?

Xavi soul: His soul! We’re a bit short-staffed so he’s handling management and im-

[Xavi motions around]

Plushy: neat neat, didn't ask, can I talk to your boss slash body?

Xavi Soul: If you have an appointment

Plushy: I do! Not! Which way is he?

[Xavier soul pauses for a long moment before calling out for Xavier]

[xavier come in from stage (left or right depending on the stage)

Xavier: what.

Xavier soul: the fish wants to talk to you!

Xavier: Do you have an appointment?

PLushy: Nope! 

[pulls out mobile office]

But I won't take too much of your time, take a seat take a seat! Im writing a piece on POS industry and wanted to interview only the most IMPORTANT members.

Xavier: [flatterd] Oh, well in that case, interview away

Plushy: You must be very dedicated to your company to separate your soul from your body!

Xavier: Well about that

INTO XAIVERS BACKSTORY

Xavi’s part:

Xavier: *Drags a cigarette* Tell me, you ever heard of a place called Vallesia?

[Plushy shakes her head]

(I imagine there’s an animation playing in the background as he narrates the scene)

Xavier: It was my home before the war. Lived there with an old friend of mine. To make a long story short he pranked me by making me immortal and condemning me to a life of eternal unrest.

Plushy: It kinda be like that sometimes.

[Xavier nods solemnly]

Xavier: Anyway fast forward a couple thousand years the gods all killed each other or something, the world’s been reborn, but I’m still the same old immortal me. So now I'm thinking: ‘Damn, this undeath curse kinda blows.’ So me and my aforementioned friend set up a lab in Handleberg, thinking we can distill a cure y’know? We needed money to fund our research and well… that's when I met Mr. Doc Shrekbot.

Plushy: That’s the CEO of this place right?

Xavier: Yes ma’am. He put me in charge of management and finances. I was feeling a little hungry one day so I spent some company budget on cupcakes, and also some thigh highs, perfectly reasonable purchase am I right?

Plushy: Definitely. Everyone needs at least one pair of thigh highs.

Xavier: Right? Anyway, turns out $17 was enough to plunge our company into crippling debt so the CEO took my soul as payment.

Xavier’s Soul: Oh! That’s me!

Plushy: So people don’t need souls to live?

Xavier: *Shrugs* I think it’s just cause of the whole “immortal” thing. But yeah, I’m kinda stuck in corporate limbo for now.

COMING BACK OUT OF BACKSTORY

Well, that's certainly going to open you guys up to some sort of lawsuit from some sort of player rights group. Thank you for your time.

[plushy starts to crawls back out of the window to come face to face with Emerald

Emerald: Hey, I'm security, I’m here about someone who broke in by smashing a  window?

Plushy: Huh, didn't see anyone doing… that. Oh! But I'm here to interview members of pos-

Emerald: IT STARTED LONG AGO!

Plushy: oh um well I was hoping for something more recent?

Emerald: IT STARTED VERY LONG AGO

[lights dropped except a single green light over emerald]

INTO EMERALDS BACKSTORY

Emerald’s part:

When I left my hometown of Emeraldsville, where nothing ever happens, literally

and encountered a Pig named steve

(Shrekbot enters wearing a war pig skin)

Steve was no ordinary pig, he was a battle hog

���Hi, nice suit of armor you have”

Shrek: “Thanks. My grandmother died making it”

Emerald: “That’s depressing”

Shrek: “That bitch never baked me cookies, I should throw some dough down there and watch it cook”

(Xavier walks in with granny pig skin and burns using fire resistance potions)

Emerald: This battle hog was not very nice, we became friends quickly, but it was short-lived because of the war that happened between the Pigs and the Emeralds due to lack of cookies

I was drafted into this war after a grenade eating contest went ary and killed my father

(A few extras walk in wearing an assortment of emerald skins)

“Cmon guys why do I have to be the negotiator, nothing good comes of negotiators”

All Extras: “Because you lost the Emerald-Diamond-Gold match”

Emerald: “YOU CHEATED!”

All Extras: “L Bozo”

Emerald: I went into the woods to go negotiate

(Modified version of “Into the Woods” plays)

When I finally got there, the Pigs were ready to attack

(Cuts to extras wearing armor ready to attack)

“Oh god, what do I do”

(Shrek goes right behind Emerald)

Steve: Hello, OLD FRIEND

Emer

OUT OF BACKSTORY

Plushy: Well! That was certainly something. I um. Look at page 80 for your story in the next issue

[lights go off and emerald exits]

Plushy: This is an aside! The paper only has 60 pages

[She slowly backs back into the window and comes face to face with Justin]

Plushy: [startled] HOLY HR! YOU! Your the goat hr. Hr goat. I um. Alright mr…

Boopkin: Boopkin

Plushy: Boopkin, walk with me, I'm interviewing people from pos industry and you are JUST the player I wanted to talk to

Boopkin: You wanted… to talk to the HR guy?

Plushy: YES! Hr is the heart of a company, is it not? Anyways, tell me how you got here!

Boopkin: I walked here

Plushy: I mean here in your life, how did you end up as the HR of POS industry?

Justin’s Part:

Boopkins: Well I didn't used to always be like this, I used to be a regular goat just like the rest of them

Plushy: What do you mean by them?

Boopkins: Turn around

[*shot pans in on goats shuffling in from the background that are there for literally no reason. goats shuffle out of view]

 I was even in the world before the war. Granted I wasn't sentient as I am now, annnnd i didn't have this swanky suit. Made from pure goat fur, might I add.

Plushie: …

Boopkins: What don't look at me like that feel how fluffy this suit is

[ grabs plushies hand and brings it to the arm of the suit] 

Plushy: Oooo that is fluffy, how is it so soft but so sleek looking at the same time (starts feeling the suit more) I wanna play with this joke of plushy just getting addicted to the fluffiness of the suit and just more aggressively feeling the sleeve.

Boopkins: That's just one of the amazing things about goat fur, but that's for another time though I guess, back to the story. 

In the world before the war I was, as I said nothing more than a simple mountain goat. (The pack of goats shuffle into view again and quickly disappear once more)

Plushy: wait where do they ke-

Boopkins: I was simply grazing on a mountain, yknow as we do when it seemed like the whole world itself started to shake. I was then swallowed by a bright light but I found myself on the same mountain completely unchanged. Except for you know sentience and now walking on two legs. Yeah never fully got over that not walking on four legs thing. It's a lot harder to ram someone with only two legs y'know. 

Plushy: *perplexed face*

Boopkins: By the way can you stop feeling my sweater.

Plushy: oops sorry its just reeealy soft. Continue, please 

Boopkins: Anyways, I found myself on the same mountain but everything else was different. A questionable amount of snow and dark oak forests might I add. As if the mountain itself was taken and just put somewhere else. Eventually after struggling down the mountain on two legs, which I later learned was called “Sparkle Peaks” I found others like me in this world who were from the last and eventually through that the now owner of POS noticed my uh… unique… skill set.

Plushy: What kind of skills would that be exactly?

Boopkins: oh you know Human Resources

Plushy: ummm, ok then I think that's, uh, thats all i need. Thank you for the words, Bye

[possibly jump out a window again?]

Shrek: you've asked all my employees this question so I think its only fair I ask you

Plushy: please don't

Shrek: How did you get here

Plushy: I walked?

[silence as Shrek stares at plushy]

Plushy: sigh

Plushy: You know of vallesia,

[songforten]

yeah yknow what ok i'll bite. with or without context, this post is extremely fucking racist. i didn't include the rest of it because i did not want anyone to harass anybody, and of all people, i know VERY well that posting publicly about someone you disagree with WILL get both them and you harassed. instead i made a somewhat catty post about a take that made me mad on my personal blog with no expectation of likes or reblogs, and in fact got far more attention than i ever intended. had i known this many people would see this post, i probably would have been a bit less vague. g-d forbid someone makes a post on the internet without fully explaining themself and all of the context every fucking time. anyway. sure, i'll talk about it in context. because the rest of this post doesn't change my opinion at all.

this post starts out by decrying christopher eccleston as a terrible person who hates fans and is really really mean to them, which is categorically untrue. nor is he "disdainful" about the show as a whole. he is open about his struggles with mental health, an eating disorder, and a bad environment on set during his time on the show, which he has every right to be. i personally have never heard of him being anything but lovely to fans, if a little blunt sometimes, but i think that's more just him as a person being kind of blunt. which i really don't think is a crime.

the post then accuses him of "downplaying" an accusation of sexual assault and insulting the woman who accused him and insinuates that he did assault her. this is, well, to put it in your words, classic shit stirring. it took what he said out of context to make him seem like a horrible person. what this comment is actually referring to is an interview eccleston did in january where he talked about the importance of intimacy coordinators on set when sex scenes are being filmed, and about one experience he had with an unnamed actress who accused him of inappropriately groping her during the scene in front of literally everybody on set, and that it's the most betrayed he's ever felt by another actor. at no point does he call her a bitch. he says he would rather put his hands in a blender than touch her or anybody else inappropriately like that. so far this post has framed chris eccleston as a horrible human being for practically no reason. can't wait to see what's next, i bet this will be a really meaningful take on misogyny in fandom.

next up we get a paragraph of good things jodie whittaker has done contrasted with a straw man hater who hates whittaker and wants her to fail and writes rape threats about her -- an EXTREMELY serious accusation here thrown out really nonchalantly in order to make the strawman hater seem even worse. not saying that's never happened, i'm sure it has, but i would hazard a guess that most people who talk about liking eccleston and gatwa are, for the most part, not the same people who act that vitriolic towards whittaker. gatwa and eccleston? those are two actors that are NEVER criticized on false standards by people with very obvious actual motivation for disliking them. the working class politically involved notherner who very adamantly and loudly stands up for the worker's rights of both himself and others in the industry, and the queer black refugee who is very open and unapologetic about these things. never.

this is sarcasm. op chose THE most loaded pair of actors they possibly could have to compare, and i can't imagine why they did that. the people who like eccleston and especially gatwa in the role as the doctor are not the same people who hated that the doctor was a woman.

the final part of the post, and the part i included in my own, again, admittedly catty post made out of frustration, opens by censoring ncuti gatwa's name, which i understand is #hater culture or whatever, but like. in this instance? is horrifically fucking racist. it then insinuates that he's a bad person (?) for jokingly calling the doctor slutty, which.... do you not see that this is a really bad way to treat an openly queer actor. when queer people are called groomers for existing on a daily basis. and on top of that, it flat out accuses him of not taking the role seriously. i cannot imagine what would make someone think this, having watched gatwa in the role. what about him makes them think he doesn't take it seriously? is it the way he talks? the way he acts in interviews? because in that case i don't think you have a problem with how he treats the character. i think you have a problem with him.

i like jodie whittaker. i think she is a fantastically talented actress when given the chance to be (seriously, go watch her antigone if you haven't. funnily enough chris eccleston is in it too.) on top of that she seems like a lovely human being with enthusiasm for her work and love for fans pouring out of her, and i really really admire that about her. i don't think any actor needs to have encyclopedic knowledge of the show in order to play the doctor, because that's ridiculous. they're actors. their job is to act. it's a WRITER'S job to give them material to act with, and that's a job i think chibnall failed miserably at. with a good writer, someone can join the show with absolutely no knowledge of it and do incredibly well, such as, famously, catherine tate. who, last i checked, is also a woman. (interestingly, matt smith had also not watched the show before being cast, but he's not mentioned here.) it's not and has never been whittaker’s fault i don't like the era, and i have never said otherwise. nor has anyone in my social circle.

my post isn't saying it's bad to talk about the misogyny jodie experienced. it's saying that dragging down two other actors, who are already criticized under false pretenses all the time, FOR NO FUCKING REASON to make her look better is bad. being racist towards ncuti gatwa in order to make the misogyny directed towards jodie whittaker seem worse... is bad. big fucking whoop. this post was racist towards ncuti gatwa, which you admitted. your problem is that you seem to be willing to forgive that racism in order to listen to what this person has to say about misogyny, when i would argue that being racist makes me discard the opinion of the post entirely. because they were being fucking racist. to which all i can say is:

you have put a lot of words in my mouth that i did not say, and i don't appreciate it. at no point did i accuse people who like thirteen of inherently being racist. when i say "chibnall fans", as i often do on this blog, i mean people who lick the man's boots and think he's g-d's gift to television and can do no wrong.

i am not trying to "pit fans against each other" -- i am pointing out a pattern of racism that is extremely common in every fan space on the internet, and, as i've noticed over the last five years, often goes practically completely unchecked by people who are hardcore fans of the chibnall era. and a lot of those fans will take ANY excuse to raise up their favorites, even at the expense of being outwardly racist. notice i said often. not all. if you like both thirteen and fifteen and you are not saying this kind of racist garbage in order to make your favorite look good, and none of your friends or the people you follow are saying this shit, then congratulations. this post isn't about you.

on top of that the idea of "profit" is laughable. i could not give less of a shit about the number of notes i get. do you really think if i wanted social capital, i would be posting on tumblr about doctor who. get real.

sorry for taking the original post out of context, since the rest of it makes it so much better and DEFINITELY not way worse. (sorry, sarcasm again. including the context does make it worse actually.) i apologize for being a little flippant on my tumblr post. i should have remembered the number one rule and not accused anybody of pissing on the poor.

chibnall fans when they get a chance to be racist to the young queer black man who took the role after their cishet white woman fav left

[fluffykitteninabox]

The MHA anime is animated weirdly:

ok i just watched the new episode and i have come to a realisation

most of the "ugly" shots of characters are from the front, but the characters look perfectly fine from the side

no no don't leave, hear me out...

ugly

pretty

ugly

pretty

except these 2 shots that are the exact same angle so i don't know wtf happened here:

ugly

pretty

rambling under the cut

WARNING: SPOILERS, NITPICKING & EXCESSIVE USE OF ITALICS

Now this is very interesting to me because most artists (me included) struggle drawing characters from the side and find the front view easier.

And the specific angle that Tenko is shown from here is (for me at least) one of the hardest in general, because you have to show the way the body turns without making it look weird.

In the baby Tenko screenshot the way his shoulders are positioned and how his neck is turned is unclear and a bit confusing. Or at least I can't see it.

In the adult Tomura screenshot these parts are a lot clearer.

It's not just his face that looks weird, it's the entire thing. The face problem mostly has to do with the hair. They made it less... fluffy!

If you look at the original panel too his ear is supposed to be visible and his mouth is supposed to be bigger

but in the very next shot he looks amazing:

look at the details, you can even see how his little teeth are crooked!

Bones really half asses specific parts of episodes and puts extra effort in others..

and that's usually normal for an anime,

but there's no real logic to what scenes get the premium treatment and which don't.

Or, to be more accurate, which characters get the premium treatment and which ones don't.

Take for example this scene from the beginning of the episode:

So I'm ok with how they handled this scene for the most part. Zooming in on his lips with no sound.

cool cool cool..

You can literally read them btw, even though my gif is kind of bad. But it looks like he introduced himself using his first name first and then his last name. (waiting for someone good at analysing shit like this to find what the order is implying 👀)

Hawks' reaction was a bit disappointing however. I was expecting the eye widening to be more dramatic and..

you know... faster

Usually when you're shocked at something your eyes widen at a pace that's definitely faster than this.

I won't pretend I'm an animation expert but i think this has to do with the amount of frames they used.

I usually make gifs from screenshots instead of screen recording, because most screen recorders make my phone really slow. So I have to repeatedly start and pause the video to do that.

Obviously the amount of screenshots i manage to take depends on how fast my fingers are each time, so i might not get every single frame.

But even then the difference in number here seems odd

I managed to get 12 screenshots of Dabi moving his lips, and 17 of Hawks' reaction. And I also miss clicked once and lost about a second of Hawks so there would have been more.

The number might not sound like much, but it's weird when you look at it. Go look at the actual episode if you need to, it's more noticeable there.

Why do we need so many frames for Hawks to react to this??

This sounds like extreme nitpicking but I genuinely think it would have looked better with less frames. Yeah it's cool that it looks smooth but smooth is not always what you want.

He's shocked, this is supposed to look abrupt. It's especially odd when you look at how detailed his face is in that shot.

Why would they choose this part to get the smooth premium animation when that actively hindered the scene

and didn't choose something like... I don't know.. Dabi silently name dropping himself while we see an extreme close up of his lips???

YES I'M FUCKING BIASED BUT I AM OBJECTIVELY CORRECT IN THIS!!

Wouldn't it have been cooler if they had made him enunciate his name and we got to see that in hyper detail?

Because that's the actual important part of this scene. We should be focusing on Dabi, not Hawks' reaction to Dabi.

This is kind of similar to the issues in the Shirakumo reveal scene in season 5. We should have been focusing more on Shirakumo/Kurogiri but because Bones were cowards and didn't animate the Vigilantes flashback chapters, we had to focus on Aizawa instead because that's who the viewers were more emotionally attached to so we needed him as an audience stand in to tell us what we should feel!

I swear if they decide to focus on Endeavor's stupid as fuck reaction during Dabi's reveal instead of him I will lose my shit!!

Also I just realised why the close up shot of Dabi's mouth looks wrong. Scroll back up and look at the gif..

His teeth are too straight!

Apparently someone forgot that humans also have canines!! I mean sure, some people's are less prominent, but his teeth look like they've been drawn with a ruler!

Tumblr posting my drafts again so everything under this point is me editing the post really hastily:

not much else to say

just kind of a conclusion thing i guess

basically i think bones is focusing on the wrong parts of some scenes or focusing on the wrong scenes during an episode in general.

Like Dabi's anger at the beginning of the episode and the dream sequence in Tomura's mind should have been the focal points. That's where the premium animation treatment should have gone.

I appreciate the extra dramatic animation when Tomura wakes up, but that wasn't as important as the entirety of the dream.

Everything looked so static. Yes they had some debris floating around, but if you pay attention to the floating parts of buildings where the characters were standing, all the debris around that wasn't moving at all. It was like it was still attached to the building with invisible strings when it should have probably been moving away.

This is the same issue I had with Twice's clones in the previous episode. He's supposed to be replicating them while Hawks is getting rid of them, but all we see is a static image of a bunch of clones.

Anyway that's enough ranting I think

congratulations if you've read this far, and thank you for tolerating my annoying rambling..

[diamondcitydarlin]

all personal feeling/preference aside, I really feel like one of the bigger cruxes of the shipping debates is caused by the confusing tonal switch the show takes around the end of episode 3 (I know this has been talked about to death but this is just my stream of consciousness rn ok). The Loki series starts off establishing the dynamic between Loki and Mobius; apart from Mobius and Ravonna's 'friendship', some interactions with B-15, and some expository moments with other TVA folks (like Casey), there aren't really any other focal characters or dynamics and it stays this way for the first two, rather lengthy episodes. The audience is essentially being told 'these are the two main characters of this story and it will begin and end with them and their dynamic', so this is doubly unfair to people who 1) may not have liked the dynamic bc idk why you'd think after watching the first 2 eps that the show would be about anything else other than this and a character journey for Loki (and time travel), 2) people who did like the dynamic because after the 2nd episode, guess what, it's not really a thing after that. You'd have no way of knowing that from the FIRST TWO EPISODES of a 6-part series.

It's not that Sylvie is inherently a problem- at least not to me, I love the idea of everything she could have been and that's generally how I think of her- it's that the show takes an abrupt turn from not only focusing the heart of the story around a particular dynamic, but it also begins to prioritize Sylvie's pain and struggle at the expense of literally every other character, including the two the show led us to believe were going to be the most important to the narrative. The set up in episodes one and two for this series to be an opportunity for Loki to take a hard look at himself and grow as a character as a result of his new circumstances is just about completely forgotten because it seems enough to the writers that he fall in love with a female version of himself that he met 12 hours prior- character development speedrun!! Once Sylvie shows up, everything in the show seems to readjust to orbit solely around her and the pain only she is justified to have. Which, honestly, would be FINE if they had just established from the first episode that this would be the direction of the show (soidknowtostopwatchinginthefirstfiveseconds). Maybe call it 'Sylvie' instead or make her more clearly the MCU version of Enchantress and give her her own series like Agatha.

anyway it creates endless roundabout arguments of who goes best with whom because...there isn't really a good answer to that in terms of what the show gave us (see: trash). The Loki that later falls head over heels in love with Sylvie and forgets his previous 500 personalities entirely isn't really the same Loki that had scenes with Mobius prior, because Loki was rendered to caricature playdoh that molded around whoever his scene partner happened to be and whatever goals Michael had in mind at the time. There isn't anything very consistent about him in his own namesake show, there is no real arc or linear growth we can track just, 'now he's this' and 'oh but now he's this' when it's not really clear how the character got from point a to point b.

That's not to say I didn't want to know about Sylvie and her pain- of course I did. I would so much rather have heard about and seen flashbacks of Sylvie's time in the palace, what her Thor was like, how deeply she grieves Frigga and how it drives her anger etc etc, I just wanted to see it depicted with the same approach as Loki's was, in that she isn't immune from being criticized by other characters or allowing the audience room to interpret her behavior for themselves rather than manipulating the narrative to frame her as justified in everything. If B-15, Mobius aNd Loki are made to look critically at themselves, so should she so as to be a fully three dimensional part of the ensemble.

This is also why I will maintain for the rest of time the Loki / Sylvie dynamic would have been better served as something platonic / more frenemy sibling-like at least at first...because for as much as the show REALLY WANTS Loki to hate himself, for as many chances as the show takes to make him cringe at his own behavior and that of his variants, they really did nothing in the way of explaining why Sylvie is not only an exception to the Lokis-hate-Lokis rule, she fucking makes one fall in love with her in matter of hours. How? I mean, they had fun banter and there was a suggestion of them eventually getting along better but nothing that would convince me true love happened right there on apocalypse planet, that now suddenly every motive that Loki has is purely, selflessly in favor of Sylvie, a presumed Loki variant that he has already expressed intimidation towards for being more elusive than him. (What happened to him feeling threatened by her...? He just kinda forgot I guess?) The only explanation is that she enchanted him and we'll find that out in season 2, but I'm not holding my breath. It'd be a dope twist tho tbh and would explain so much.

so idk, Loki (tv show) sucked, and that's mostly because it had every opportunity to be something new, refreshing, a show for more marginalized members of the Marvel viewer base, hell maybe even profound, and it took none of them 🙃