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themculibrary · 2 years ago

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The Eternals Masterlist

part two

all those shadows almost killed your light (ao3) - beautifuldrukkari druig/makkari G, 1k

Summary: druig's nightmares about past emergences were always brutal, but this one in particular was something else entirely...

And You Know That She Will Trust You Because You've Touched Her Perfect Body With Your Mind (ao3) - WhenIFindLoveAgain druig/makkari G, 8k

Summary: Druig and Makkari travel to India together to visit Kingo, who cannot become used to Druig and Makkari's relationship as he spends time with the both of them; in periods away from Kingo, Druig and Makkari's relationship evolves in it intimacy.

A Walk on the Beach (ao3) - daddyoshie druig/makkari T, 4k

Summary: Getting hurled to the surface of the earth and then blasted under a couple dozen feet of solid rock was not something that Druig would recommend to anyone.-or-The beach scene, from two points of view.

body music (ao3) - dreamweavernyx druig/makkari G, 26k

Summary: The rink itself is different; less of the steel-and-titanium brightness of their old rink, more wood and glass, sunlight peeking in through the rink’s many windows during afternoon practice.

But ice is ice, and when Druig steps onto the ice of their new rink for the first time, it feels almost like stepping back into a pair of well-loved skating boots.

In the off-season just before the 2021-2022 Olympic season is about to begin, Druig, national US figure skater, finds himself facing a summer of change: a coaching switch, moving to the other side of LA, worrying about finally, finally getting a spot on the US Olympic team. But perhaps, this summer of change, of new experiences and first meetings, will be just the push he needs to get there.

cursed and drunk on love || its not your fault (ao3) - Azurame_Neve ikaris/sersi N/R, 5k

Summary: They said that love is the most twisted curse in the world.

In which Sersi, the worse of humanity bleeds into her far more easily than expected and she started to plan the end of the world.

Five Times Everyone Assumed Thena and Gilgamesh Were a Couple (ao3) - INMH gilgamesh/thena T, 2k

Summary: And one time they definitely were.

hide your soul out of his reach (ao3) - rivergift G, 1k

Summary: So she lets them go - find your own purpose - because maybe the only way to find the way out is through.Tenochtitlan through Ajak's eyes.

In a ball, in a different era, Drukkari find each other (ao3) - Lovingthemarveluniverse druig/makkari G, 4k

Summary: Hello Bridgerton fans! Here is my take on Drukkari on the bridgerton era!

Life in the Margins (ao3) - Jupiter77 druig/makkari, gilgamesh/thena, ikaris/sersi T, 98k

Summary: In one of the reviews of Eternals, the film critic commented that Makkari and Druig had a romance in the margins of the movie. This story explores the margins.

Not a burden (ao3) - TheShipper47 gilgamesh/thena G, 1k

Summary: What happens after Thena hurts Gilgamesh during an episode of Mahd wy'ry?

This scene takes place during their time in Australia!

I actually like this so I hope you enjoy it too!

shattered (ao3) - dramaticfangirl1881 gilgamesh/thena G, 2k

Summary: “I’m sorry,” she whispers, the words thick in her throat.

“I hurt you.”

~in which thena and gilgamesh both feel guilty for hurting each other and they just have a lot of feelings about it

she said to me: your heart beats only for me (ao3) - letherbeseen druig/makkari T, 1k

Summary: "I can feel your heartbeat," is all Makkari says. "Now help me get this off, will you?"

or;

in which inspired by Matt Murdock's incredible flirt game, the quote "I can hear your heartbeat" aka the better (aka drukkari) version of matt and jen’s heartbeat line.

Skull Crack (ao3) - INMH M, 1k

Summary: Kingo thinks he’s fine. Sersi disagrees.

Think of the Sun (ao3) - SummerStarWatcher druig/makkari E, 85k

Summary: Druig is an angsty, loner high schooler. He's tolerated by his friends but keeps to himself, until he strikes up a mutually beneficial friends with benefits relationship with the beautiful Makkari, spending his afternoons with her in secret. But lately, he's starting to fear it may be about more than casual sex for him.

turn your back on mother nature (ao3) - apocalyvse druig/makkari T, 10k

Summary: the drukkari scenes that were missing from the movie.

#themculibrary #mcu #marvel #eternals #eternals masterlist #masterlists

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avidmoviecritic · 4 years ago

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Movie review Monday:

Soy Luna Season 2 Review

Plot

"Luna (Karol Sevilla) is on her way to revealing truth, while waiting, hopefully, for her reunion with Matteo (Ruggero Pasquarelli). ... The relationship between the two, coupled with the help of Nina (Carolina Kopelioff), will mark a new personal path for Luna and help her investigate the mystery of her past."

We finally get to see the long waited conclusion of Luna finding out about her past. I cried like a baby at the end of season two when Luna finally fits the pieces together regarding her past and her biological parents. Honestly, the audience already knew this information from season one but a lot of drama, lies, and schemes had to lead up to this long waited conclusion.

Characters

Luna

Luna goes through a lot of changes in Season 2. She goes through a journey of self discovery with her two best friends; Simon and Nina.

Matteo

Matteo has to make some big decisions for his future since he is in his last year of school. His father wants him to go to Oxford and go into the family business. Matteo finds himself having to make tough choices this season. Matteo decides to be a musician and this causes conflict with his father. He ends up pushing Luna away in most of the season in hope of protecting her but this backfires.

Simon

Simon helps Luna discover her birth parents this season. Simon and the band break up and he tries to have a solo career. He wins an award to make an music album and tries to deal with his new music manager who wants him to do these schemes so he can be famous. Simon concentrates on his music this season.

Nina

Nina grows in this season as her boyfriend(Gaston) helps her with her fear of singing in public and she learns to skate to surprise Gaston. Nina helps Luna with finding information regarding her biological parents.

Ships

Matteo/Luna

Matteo and Luna finally get together in this season which is amazing. We have some amazing episodes of them being in love. The conflict comes from Matteo giving in to the music managers schemes and this upsets Luna. He lets her down multiple occasions throughout the season.

Gaston/Nina

Nina and Gaston are in a relationship in the beginning of the season. They are so cute and in love. They are all good until Nina sends in an application to Oxford for Gaston. Gaston was going to stay for Nina and was upset when he finds out she sent in the application. They break up for a period of time until they come back together. They end up having to have a long distance relationship at the end of season 2 because Nina has to stay and Gaston decides to go to Oxford.

Ambar/Simon

Ambar and Simon are my least favorite couple. Ambar burns down the rink and Simon finding this out was the thing that broke him. There is no denying that they have a connection. Simon sees something good in Ambar and cannot deny that he loves her. They fell in love in season 2 but this was by chance as Ambar was using Simon to hurt Luna but fell in love instead.

Ramiro/Yam

Ramiro and Yam are a cute couple in season 2. They come back together as they find they still love each other. They are best friends to lovers story. Yam tries to deal with Ramiro's conceited and selfish nature. Ramiro is really supportive of Yam's singing in season 2.

Music

In season 2, there was a lot of good songs that did not disappoint me.

Conculsion

Soy Luna season 2 was amazing. The roller dancing and the music was incredible. The plot came to an outstanding conclusion in the end of season 2.

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jordm · 4 years ago

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Heartland 14x10 - Staying the Course review

So lets pretend I’m not a week late to watch the ep but rather... I just waited to watch in its normal time slot... a week later... okay?

Anyways, the finale - here we go!

How cute was the opening, with Amy riding up as Katie and Lyndy skate on the rink? If any of you have a rink like this in your backyard, I am very envious. Emmy and Ruby really love skating and it shows.

Amy rides to the area where Ty initially set up the jumping course, y’know before they could afford proper jumping gear and we’re treated with another flashback. I wonder how long these flashbacks will last if S15 is a go.

Blonde guy, Cooper? stops by and asks if she wants to work with him at the centre. Amy stops by to look at a horse called Challenge (I swear, I’m paying attention lmao), and her and Cooper seems to have a good rapport. Does this mean I want her jumping into another relationship? No, however, it is good nice to see Amy talk to other people besides her family/Caleb.

Cooper ends up losing his funding before he even begins, and Amy wants to help (with Parker!). So at Georgie’s competition, Parker starts to fundraise and Amy accidentally calls out the donor who backs out. However, this results in the donor reinvesting, so good on them. My question is, does this mean that Cooper and Amy will be in each others circles a lot more next season? I’m all for them being friends, but i’m not entirely sure I want Amy jumping back into another relationship so soon. More friends and exploring more opportunities would be nice though.

It’s nice to see Amy (6 months later) jumping the course with Shadow because I think this shows real growth and acceptance/moving on from Amy over Ty’s death. Something, that has been a season and change and probably something that may still come up over the years but nevertheless still nice to see she’s slowly healing.

Lou and Mitch is continuing to plan their wedding and everyone they invited said yes... except Peter said no. Now now, Lou, what did you expect? For your ex to be happy to come see you get married to another guy? I know you guys have a good co-parenting relationship but still, wouldn’t that be a lil awks? How does she slip and call Peter her husband? Something tells me this won’t bode well for Lou & Mitch. Aidan has a point.. why does she care Peter can’t attend?

Lou “dreaming” about her life with Peter and Lou via flashbacks, is also not a good sign. Speaking of which, if this wedding doesn’t happen, I will be sad that we missed the chance to see Caleb and Cass at date night. Here’s to more C/C next season (and in particular Cass in person please!)

Peter (with a moustache) facetimes Lou IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT and says he can’t attend because he can’t just sit there and watch her go off into a new life.... which fair??!? I would not be able to attend my ex-husbands wedding - but then he says he still has feelings for her, something none of us saw coming /s.

So my question is, if we were going to end up with this breakup, why even have them get back together? It could have been explained that they just didn’t work out vs put us through this, but hey, to each their own. I guess they were finally honest about what he wanted. Too bad he didn’t realize it before they had already started wedding planning. It was the right thing to break up if Lou still harbours feelings towards Peter and Mitch wants a family (which Lou can’t provide nor wants) so it only makes sense that they... um, took a break? So they didn’t really break up they just took a break? Is this Rachel and Ross all over again?

Meanwhile, Georgie is practicing for the upcoming competition, when Quinn informs her that a scout for Equestrian Canada will be there. Anyways, not much to say about this but Georgie ends up getting the business card from Equestrian Canada - the road to the Olympics continues!

A side story is Quinn having trouble sleeping after Tim became his roommate and you know what? I can relate. Snoring is hard to sleep with. This leads to Tim crashing back at the dude ranch and meeting Jessica and them having a heart to heart. Jessica was scared that meeting Tim ruined her life changed and Tim just wanted Jessica around.

The solution? Tim tagging along on Jessica on her photography adventures, and what a great compromise that is. If I am Tim, it sounds amazing. I really like Jessica and Tim together so I am really glad they worked it out and hope it ends better than his other relationships.

A few end notes:

* I’m surprised that Aidan hasn’t had a bigger role in this season, besides being Lou’s sidekick in the mayoral office... maybe next season we’ll see more of him?

* I know Georgie (Alisha) was not in every episode but I didn’t miss her when she wasn’t in like I missed Ty. I think this is because her explanation for being away was a lot more sound, realistic and practical. To me, in my head, her being away to focus on jumping (especially since school is online) just made sense, vs for example Ty being away in MONGOLIA. Do I wish we got to see Georgie grieve more over Ty and get her perspective between the tiny one we got when she first came back after Florida? Absolutely, but maybe we will see more of that next season. It has, of course been a year and change so its possible we missed it all or only getting muted reactions.

* Lou is still using an older iPhone model. Think it’s time for an upgrade?

* The flashbacks made me realize how much the cast has grown up. Rewatching older Heartland episodes and seeing the glow up is amazing.

#heartland #finale

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tomeandflickcorner · 4 years ago

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Episode Review- The Real Ghostbusters: Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster

Awesome! We got a Janine centric episode! And it really gives her a chance to shine!

There’s apparently been a huge spike in paranormal activity within the city, and the Ghostbusters are struggling to keep up with their mounting workload. Each day, they have to head out to take on a number of busts and when they come back, they’re greeted with a pile of new additions to their worksheet. Needless to say, they’re really exhausted. Peter asks Egon what could be causing this rising amount of ghosts appearing in the city, but Egon doesn’t have any answers. And when he takes out his PKE Meter, it immediately overloads, further illustrating how serious things are.

When Winston and Ray head down to the basement to unload the new batch of captured ghosts into the Containment Unit, with Ray saying they’ll have to add another Klein Bottle to the machine to prevent it from going over max capacity, Janine approaches Egon and Peter. She basically says ‘hey, I know you guys are super busy and all, but my apartment is haunted. Can you please do something about that?’ But Peter and Egon tell her they can’t address her problem until after they resolve the supernatural crisis. And yeah, I can see both sides of the issue here. Janine is clearly not the only one dealing with a ghost problem right now, and it probably should be an issue of first come, first served. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair to everyone else. At the same time, Janine is on the Ghostbusters’ payroll, too. You’d think there would be some sort of office perk to that.

Anyway, Janine ends up returning to her apartment after clocking out for the day. When she arrives, she is aggravated to discover that the ghosts haunting her apartment have moved all of her furniture up onto the ceiling. In frustration, she yells at the ghosts to get out, but the ghosts all just laugh. Though they do unstick all her furniture, which all falls to the ground, forcing poor Janine to put everything back in place. The next morning, Janine wakes up to find her bed is floating in midair. And when she gets into the shower, no water comes out of the showerhead. Instead, the shower quickly fills up with frogs. As one might expect, this is the final straw for Janine. So when she returns to the Firehouse, she is fully prepared to demand the Ghostbusters help her out. But when she arrives, she is greeted only by Slimer, who informs her the Ghostbusters had already headed out to deal with other calls. So Janine decides to take matters into her own hands, borrowing one of Peter’s spare uniforms and taking an extra Proton Pack and Ghost Trap. She returns to her apartment to catch the ghosts herself, with Slimer tagging along. When they get there, the apartment seems to be deserted. And for a brief moment, Janine wonders if the ghosts had simply gotten bored and left on their own. But then the lights suddenly turn off, and the ghosts begin throwing random objects at Janine while Slimer hides in a nearby cabinet. (Janine is particularly angry that a vase her mother had given her gets smashed against the wall.) Despite Janine’s best efforts, the ghosts quickly get the better of her, wrapping her up in a blanket and taking away the Proton Pack she was carrying. Fortunately, Slimer eventually decided to quit cowering in the corner and actually help out. While the other ghosts were distracted in tormenting Janine, Slimer carefully pushed the discarded Ghost Trap into position and triggered it, making sure to hold onto a fixed object in order to keep himself from being pulled into the trap as well. So the ghosts haunting Janine’s apartment are soon trapped. And Janine thanks Slimer for coming to her rescue.

Meanwhile, the Ghostbusters were still hard at work catching all the other ghosts plaguing the city. Including a group of thug-like ghosts who were actually wielding real guns. I have no idea why I found this so hilariously shocking. After all, it’s not the first time we’ve seen guns depicted in this show. Maybe it’s the fact that the guns are being held by these small ghosts as if it was no big deal. Sometimes I forget that the 80s were a different time. Anyway, as the Ghostbusters start to head off to their next assignment, Winston remarks how the last time ghosts were crawling out of the woodwork like this, it was when Gozer was around. Peter briefly wonders if it was possible that Gozer was somehow coming back, but Egon says this wasn’t the case, as none of the readings suggest such a thing. However, he does take note that the ghosts they’ve been catching all have a common spectrography. Which suggests that there’s a single source for all the ghostly activity. Unfortunately, there’s too much spectral static for him to pinpoint the exact location of that singular source. Peter tries to put a positive spin on things by reminding his teammates of how much money they’re making. Winston counters this silver lining by reminding Peter that they’ve been too busy to make much use of that extra money.

As the Ghostbusters head off to Gracie Manor, which is being haunted by a Class 9 Free Roaming Vapor, that statue of Atlas at Rockefeller Center suddenly comes to life, scaring off all the ice skaters in the process. (So I’m guessing this episode takes place during the winter months.) The Atlas Statue ends up throwing the globe it was carrying, which just narrowly misses the Ecto-1 as it drives by. The Ghostbusters try to shoot the Atlas Statue with their Proton Packs, but it proves to be completely ineffective, since the stature was infused with so much ectonic energy, it could resist the force of the Proton Streams. So the Ghostbusters have no choice but to run. They try to get creative and slow the Atlas Statue down by using the Proton Packs to melt the ice beneath it as the Atlas Statue sets foot onto the ice skating rink, but this doesn’t work as the Atlas Statue is able to jump back out of the hole in the ice. The Atlas Statue then fires of a beam of light emanating from its finger at the Ghostbusters. In a flash of light, the Ghostbusters all vanish from sight, much to the shocked dismay of the onlookers and news reporters.

Elsewhere, Janine and Slimer return to the Firehose after capturing the ghosts that had been haunting Janine’s apartment. When they see the Ghostbusters haven’t retuned yet, they decide to wait for them to get back. As they wait, Janine pulls out a TV set. This results in her seeing the news report announcing that the Ghostbusters disappeared while fighting the Atlas Statue. So Janine and Slimer hurry back out to try and figure out what happened to the Ghostbusters. When they arrive at Rockefeller Center, Janine pulls out the PKE Meter she’d brought with her, but quickly admits to Slimer that she has no idea what she’s doing. She can’t even properly analyze the readings on the PKE Meter.

Janine and Slimer begin to wander along the city streets, at a loss as to what to do. But that’s when Janine realizes something. Remembering how the Ghostbusters seemed to disappear as if they got pulled into a Ghost Trap, she gets the idea of getting information from some of the ghosts that have recently been caught. After all, maybe they might know what happened to the Ghostbusters. While she admits it’s a long shot, it’s the only possible lead they have. Of course, Janine can’t enter into the Containment Unit herself as she’s alive. (And she probably can’t use that special suit Egon used to enter into the Containment Unit back in X-Mas Marks the Spot as I imagine she’d need someone who knew what they were doing manning the control panel.) So she recruits Slimer to go into the Containment Unit instead. Slimer is not exactly on board with the idea, but Janine doesn’t give him much of a choice. Upon being put inside the Containment Unit, Slimer wanders around for a bit before he manages to locate the Thug Ghosts that the Ghostbusters had recently caught. Slimer eavesdrops on their conversation, overhearing them gloating how they won’t be there for long as Proteus will see that they’re released soon enough. And that Proteus already has the Ghostbusters in the Erie.

Okay, hold on a minute here. First off, how do these Thug Ghosts know what happened to the Ghostbusters? From what we saw, these ghosts were captured before the Ghostbusters encountered the Atlas Statue. How would the ghosts in the Containment Unit know what’s going on in the outside world? And come to think of it, when did the Thug Ghosts get put into the Containment Unit in the first place? They were just captured earlier this very same day. Did the Ghostbusters swing by the Firehouse between capturing the Thug Ghosts and starting to head off to Gracie Mansion? Because I didn’t get the impression they had the time to do that. Talk about a plot hole.

Getting back to the episode, Slimer’s presence is discovered before he can get the chance to hear anything more, so he has to make a run for it when the captured ghosts begin chasing after him. Slimer manages to make it safely back to the entrance/exit port of the Containment Unit, and Janine is able to pull him out in the nick of time while preventing any other ghost from escaping. Now that she’s armed with the information Slimer was able to gather up, Janine does some research and locates the only Erie building listed in Manhattan. After making a remark about how there’s never any thirteenth floor listed on the elevator buttons due to how superstitious people can be, Janine ventures up to the top floor of the building. But she notices the PKE Meter is going off as they pass by the 14th floor. As a result, Janine is able to discover this building has an unmarked 13th floor, and she is able to reach it by hitting the emergency stop button and blasting the elevator doors open. She finds herself in some sort of other-worldly office building, complete with a demonic receptionist. After brushing past the Demon Receptionist, Janine forces her way through a large doorway, ending up in a room that appears to be filled with mirrors. These mirrors are soon revealed to be some sort of prison cells, with the Ghostbusters all imprisoned within one of the mirrors. Which gives Janine the opportunity to make a Lewis Carol joke. Egon instructs Janine to get out of there since she doesn’t know what she’s up against. Ray backs up Egon’s statement by explaining that Proteus was a primal god like Gozer.

At that moment, Proteus himself appears. And he somehow knows Janine’s name. (Yeah, I suppose he might have overheard the Ghostbusters calling her Janine, but that doesn’t explain how Proteus knew her full name.) Janine attempts to shoot Proteus with the Proton Pack, but to no avail as Proteus is much too strong. Slimer, showing some courage, ends up charging at Proteus and keeping him distracted. While Slimer is distracting Proteus, Janine turns and fires at the mirror prison holding the Ghostbusters captive. This not only results in the mirror breaking, freeing the Ghostbusters in the process, but the light reflecting off the mirror surface apparently momentarily blinds Proteus. The blinded Proteus ended up firing off one of his finger beams randomly, with the finger beam bouncing off the other mirrors. This resulted in the finger beam overloading, causing the place to begin to fall apart. Thankfully, the Ghostbusters, Janine and Slimer are able to make it out of there safely before the 13th floor blows up, clearly taking Proteus out in the process.

Upon returning to the Firehouse, Egon remarks that Janine showed real bravery to come after them like that. The other Ghostbusters then notice the phones are no longer ringing off the hook, and Ray concludes that, with Proteus gone, the paranormal activity in New York will probably return to normal. Peter then tells Janine that she’s pretty handy with a Proton Pack, so Janine suggests that she should try to go into business for herself. Peter offers an alternative suggestion- she stay on as their secretary, but with a raise in salary. Janine accepts this, on the condition that they continue to make sure her apartment remains ghost-free. With the exception of Slimer, of course.

As someone who likes Janine as a character, this was one episode I’d recommend to anyone who was interested in giving the show a chance. Obviously, Janine doesn’t have the experience and knowledge that the actual Ghostbusters have, but she still is able to hold her own when the situation calls for it. She even managed to defeat Proteus, a literal god. Sure, Slimer did help keep Proteus distracted for a little while there, so she didn’t do it alone. But the fact remains that Proteus was defeated because of Janine. And she also helped save the Ghostbusters in the process. That’s not just an impressive feat for a secretary with no real Ghostbuster training, it’s impressive for anyone. Though I do find it a bit strange that Peter seemed surprised how good Janine was with a Proton Pack, as this isn’t the first time she’d wielded one. Even if you don’t include that time in Mr. Sandman, Dream Me a Dream (since that was technically Dream Janine), she did get the chance to wield a Proton Pack in Janine’s Genie.

There’s one other thing I want to comment on for this episode. In the opening scene, we can see the Ghostbusters heading out to what I think was either a library or a bookstore. I couldn’t tell which. But the ghosts they were catching were clearly Captain Ahab, the Frankenstein Monster and one other ghost that was apparently supposed to be Mr. Hyde, though I didn’t get a good enough look at him to properly identify him. I wanna know the story behind this haunting! Are they suggesting these characters were actual people, the way Ebenezer Scrooge was shown as an actual person in X-Mas Marks the Spot? Or were the ghosts haunting that location simply taking up the form of famous literary characters? Because that would have made for an interesting episode. Especially since it could have potentially gotten kids watching the show interested enough to actually read the actual novels, the way the movie Pagemaster was trying to do. (Although, I’ve been told that with the book Moby Dick, every other chapter in that novel takes a break from the actual narrative to discuss the whole history of whaling. I imagine kids might get bored rather quickly if they tried to read that one.)

(Click here for more Ghostbusters reviews)

#the real ghostbusters #rgb episode review #ghostbusters franchise

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Paul Dini’s Jingle Belle: The Mighty Elves (Comissoned by WeirdKev27)

Well well boys, we’re back to Jingle Belle with another kevmission, though per his request i’ll be getting back to Life and Times Of Scrooge McDuck at long last. I also have some other stuff planned and all that, but for now, let’s focus on everyones faviorite elfen hellion as we dive back into Paul Dini’s Jingle Belle.

I covered most of the behind the scene’s stuff last time so in short in case your just joining us, since this one’s got a bit more stuff to tag: Jingle Belle is an indie comic book character created by animation god Paul Dini, the daughter of Santa Claus and the Queen of Elves who acts like a standard rebellious teenager sterotype and causes trouble for her dad. Last time I touched on the character a good two days ago, we looked at her first appearance, where she sent her family to Family Therapy. At the time I’d ONLY read that story, and hadn’t gotten that far into Jing’s world just yet. As you probably guessed despite plugging a decent amount of time into re-reading the rest of Scott Pilgrim (shout out to my good friend Mike for the early christmas present), on digital and in color and into the Switch port of the first Fire Emblem, I still got 2/3 of the way through the omnibus Kev gifted me of almost all her stories up to 2018′s The Handmade’s Tale. Honestly not a lot has changed from the pilot.. while Jing’s designs changed a bit, she’s still more of a rebellious hellion, and while Santa’s no longer a slut shaming jackass, he’s still hard on her while her mom tries to keep the peace, The humor’s still edgy, if toned down enough to support returning whenever Dini felt like it but it’s largely the same for better or worse. Overall the stories haven’t been bad but have been a bit reptitive to read in one giant omnibus. This really is down to the format they were made in: These were one off stories spread months apart meant to be picked up off the shelf with no real ongoing stories or character development and only some slight worldbuilding here and there. In short not bad stuff, just clearly not built to be collected in a huge omnibus like it was and not the first comic collection i’ve encountered with this problem and definitely not the last.

That being said the stories are creative and still well put together. It is Paul Dini and he has wrote pretty much every story collected here with few exceptions, so it’s still good stuff, just as I said clearly not meant to be read all in one block like i’ve been doing. And today’s story happens to be one of my faviorites so far, breaking the formula up a bit by having Jing do something a bit diffrent and also involving hockey, a sport this story made me realized might actually intrest me on some level.. if in part due to letterkenny.

God bless those two handsome idiots. So let’s ice up or skates, get those letterkenny refrences at the ready and see what the Mighty Elves have to offer.

We start at Hockey Practice for Santa’s Hockey Team, The Elves, the kind of sentence that makes me really happy to type for money. Santa’s team is naturally for this kind of story and what the title references, are the last place in the bi-polar hockey league their in.. presumably ran by commissioner bi-polar bear.

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Again, I really love this job and that i’m actually getting paid for this this go round. Anyway, Santa’s team isn’t all that agressive because.. well i’ts a team coached by Santa, why would they be? But Santa’s still proud of his boys... as for his girl on the otherhand he gets a call and we soon find out via mugshots Jing dragged her two friends, up from just one in previous stories, to an air force base, somehow got arrested for hitting on enlisted men, not a crime, and stealing and crashing a helicopter, very much a crime. Naturally Santa isn’t pleased, so we cut to a few days later where he’s letting her friends off making robo kitties, damn I want one of those now, while leaving Jing to do the packaging, though like most stern but fair dad’s he admits he dosen’t like punishing her and is right in saying there’s more to do with her summer vacation than you know, piss off the military. Santa needs his flight clerance dammit. Jing complains there isn’t much to do but feed the reindeer and make toys to which I say.. really santa? You haven’t set up anything else for your eleves to do? Making toys is their job. Build a fucking movie theater. And at the very least if not for them than for your bored and rebellious daughter to distract her from doing crimes. She’s still likely got a few hundred years of teenagering left, give her something else to do other than piss you off. Santa does have a least a little something: Hockey! Which Jing’s cousin Rusty has taken up. Rusty showed up in the first story but I kind of glossed over him, he’s basically Jing’s Dorky cousin she frequently abuses. Not really much more or less to him. Jing isn’t on board mostly because their team always looses, to the other teams: The Penguins, the Polar Bears, The Snow Leopards and the Eskimos because they don’t really have killer instinct, which yeah is kind of necessary for hockey. To her..

But during her rant she does show Santa she’s got genuine talent for the sport, so he makes her a deal: Do a little favor for him, and she’ll swap that for making toys.. it’s a deal.. one she soon regrets but hey.

Jing naturally makes an ass of herself pretty quickly beating the shit out of Rusty with her dad repremanding her and threatning to throw her off the team if she has another outburst like. That is until she runs into the Huskies Coach, Stan.

I mean i’ts a hairy old man who makes a side bet with Santa Claus despite it technically being against commission rules, might as well be. So Santa tells Jing screw it, as long as it’s the opposing team violence is a-okay. And naturally our first target is the world famous hockey player, aka snoopy aka a snoopy stand in. And being a big fan of peanuts i’m a sucker for a good peantus parody. Doubly so since Dini did his homework, and as I’d remembered and a quick google confirmed “The World Famous Hockey Player” was indeed one of snoopy’s many personas.

Not that it was much of a stretch: just about any time snoopy played a sport he was “the world famous X player”, but still it’s a nice little nod. Not so nice is Jing within seconds slamming him into the air and under a Zamboni and getting sent to the box for it naturally. So clearly she’s the shorsey of this team, all chirps and ultra violence.

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Snoopy is thankfully still alive, if barely, though he’s off course been through much worse.

But while in the Box jing helps advise the team and a presumed combination of her beating the shit out of the other team’s best players and her team now not only having something to inspire them but a strategy means the Elves win for once! Santa and Jing share a hug, though Santa advises her not to go for his wallet, it’s still a sweet moment as she’s genuinely invested now. So we cut to..

Okay Hank Ribbon seal is genuinely one of the best things humanity has made but as for Quiki I just... wow that joke is mildly racist at worst, confusing and unfunny at best. I mean... it really just makes no sense on any level and that’s with me not knowing a lot about hockey, but knowing just enough to know Kathy Lee Gifford existed. Just.. what even was that? I know Paul can do better than this.. because as my first review outlined he wrote a LOTTTT of Tiny Tune Adventures including my favorite episode. He also wrote most of the best Joker episodes for BTAS, so it’s not like the guy CAN’T be funny.. so I have no idea how he could fail so hard with this. Just.. what is this. Who thought this was funny? what was the joke?

That.. utter bafflement aside, this newscast is used to push things ahead as the elves are on a winning streak, having also beaten the Polar Bears and the Penguins.. though weirdly we DON’T get a cameo by this guy despite having already had Snoopy show up.

That’s my boy. But yeah there’s only two teams left with this, the Eskimos and tonight’s matchup the Snow Leopards, aka snow catgirls lead by Tashi Ounce, who Jing met at the winter games last year and lost too and thus has a whole rivlary thing going. In a really nice moment Santa stops to make sure Jing is okay going into the game.

It’s part of why I REALLY like this story: Santa instead of just being disapointed in his daughter genuinely bonds over her over something and Jing shows she has a softer side to her. It’s some good character stuff, helps shake up the normal formula nicely. Back to the usual though she and Tashi naturally go at it, phrasing, and fight the whole damn time, with Belle eventually scoring the winning goal. Though noticably while Tashi is just as competiive as belle and lost this time.. she’s fine with it, knowing she’ll win next time and congradulating the opponent. But before she can leave the rink, Tashi is approached by a mysterious figure with an offer and we cut to said figure’s lair... it’s THE BLIZZARD WIZARD! dun dun dun!.... yeah I haven’t introduced him the Blizzard Wizard is.. well exactly what he sounds like, as well as the former ruler of the North Pole. He enslaved everyone there to do his bidding and was essentially, a butt till Santa showed up, united all the various animals and kicked his ass. Since then he’s been reduced to basically a rankin bass villian, lurking near bye and scheming to get petty revenge on Santa for it. So essentially....

Minus the tragic backstory. He offers them a deal: The championship cup for him defeating the elves. As he puts it the cup symbolizes hard work, respect and team work.. i.e the things their throwing out to get payback. Tashi wants none of it, but the blizzard wizard has his slush minons capture her and with the rest willing to sell out, he gets to work.

Bliz snows out the eskimos, and brings up accusations of Santa gambling, which he gets away from by.. having his wife donate the money real quick don’t ask just go. But he has a waiver signed by the other coaches so their playing his goons. But Jing isn’t phased and Santa asks her to give the lockeroom some inspiring words.

10/10 no notes. But naturally Bliz has a sneaky trick up his sleeves.. to win.. specifically a hot french canadian player which.. makes jing fall to pieces flirting with him and makes her entirely ineffective. Okay time out.... huh so this is the timeless void known only to zack morris, that girl from the reboot I haven’t watched, and Regis Filbin. But yeah while I wouldn’t expect Jing to slaughter the guy it feels out of character for all she’d do is to giggle like an idiot instead of making a move. She’s been established as forward and knowing what she wants. I’m not against her being distracted by this it’s just the how that feels off especially since the opening reinforces this. She hit on air force guys. She’s not going to just be giggly and awkward. Jing may not be the most complex charcter but she’s better than this. Aside from the baffling Kathy Lee Gifford gag, this is the only thing I really don’t like abotu the story, and it lasts two pages before it’s resolved and in a 22 or so page story, that’s a good chunk of it spent on something that isn’t funny and that’s out of character even within story. That being said it dosen’t drag the story down entirely, still a good story. Just a bit uneven is all.

But unsurprisingly Tashi escapes her earlier imprisonment offscreen to let Jing know not only the full extent of Bliz Whiz’s machenations, i.e. that the other coaches are in on it, but that the hockey player is really just one of Bliz’s minons uner a glamour. WIth that knowledge Jing asks why she’d help and Tashi shows her inner honor beneath the whole rival deal, pointing out she wants to win from a GOOD team next year. With the jig up Jing pulvirzes her former crush, claims to have been under a spell (no one byes it) and the elves clean house and win. Super fuckin shooter. As for Bliz Whiz he tries to steal the trophy but instead gets booted into the snow leopards box, phrasing... it doesn’t end well for him.

And yeah while he comes back eventually, some how, apparently, for most of the stories after this he’s just.. dead. He was killed and then his remains eaten. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

But Jing admits she had fun, she and her dad bond and we get one last gag as he assumes she learned not to showboat only for her to block everyone else in the team photo. Falalallal we’re out.

Final Thoughts: As I said, one of my faviorites. It’s really well paced, has a good premise and only one part drags at all and only that part and one gag really don’t land. The rest of it is really funny, nice and touching, and overall a nice shakeup from these stories usual pattern of “Jing getting into hyjinks”. While she DOES here, her and her dad are literally and figuartvely on the same team, and she does show a sweeter side genuinely bonding with her dad and it’s nice to see them actually enjoy each other’s company for once. It’s a nice change of pace and one I wish more of the stories had. I’m not saying they all have to be holly jolly but i’d be nice if more of them had a bit of heart to them is all. Tis the season and all that. Still for what it is, it’s a fun ride and I highly recommend it. We’ll probably see her again sometime this season but that’s a bit off. For now coming up I have some ducktales to tell, a chapter in a man’s life story that’s long overdue, a holiday mess I wish I didn’t have to clean up, and in the distant future.. an old friend to reconnect with. Until then if you liked this review reblog it, comment etc all that good stuff, and you can send me asks with suggestions fo ra review or direct message me, or ask for my discord, to comission a review yourself. Until then, happy holidays.

#jingle belle #paul dini #comics #comic reviews #santa claus #christmas #hockey #letterkenny #snoopy #opus #blizzard wizard #tashi ounce

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constantlyirksome · 5 years ago

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Review: Euphoria’s First Season Finale was Aesthetically Stunning but Narratively Clunky.

Going into the Euphoria season one finale we had a lot of questions: Would Fezco get arrested? Would Maddy and Nate get back together, or would he finally get what was coming to him? Would #Rules make it? Unfortunately, due to the episode's reliance on non-linear storytelling, we left with more questions than answers.

The Halloween episode used a similar narrative structure, the party was the centre of it and all the other scenes were flashbacks, in the end coming together in a satisfying way. Unfortunately, it didn’t work well at all this episode, while the core of the episode is the school dance (a classic hotbed for teenage drama) it’s not clear when all the other scenes occurred in relation to it, end it ended on multiple cliff-hangers.

Let’s talk about Nate and Maddy first. I have praised Jacob Elordi in the past because getting people to like a character is one thing, but to create and act out a character as loathsome as Nate takes talent. His key scenes with his father, Rue, and Maddy all had an incredible intensity and heat, he’s so convincing as a brute you wish that Rue’s fantasy, lighting Nate on fire and shooting him, was real.

He continues a lot of his patterns; first, he bullies Rue in a tense faceoff. Elordi and Zendaya have incredible rival chemistry, and as Nate sowed the seeds of doubt for Rue and Jule’s relationship, Rue threatened to burn his whole family down. He abused Maddy verbally and physically. The question of his and his father's sexuality popped up and honestly, that’s a thread I’m a little tired of. Internalized homophobia on that level, if they are gay, isn’t something I as a gay man care to watch.

Nate singlehandedly wins a football match but his father still berates him for not doing enough as a captain. Nate does what he does best, gets in his dads face, but his dad doesn’t back down and when they get into an uncomfortable physical confrontation where Nate is overpowered and breaks down completely. Like a child in a supermarket, he cries and thrashes and then begins hurting himself in his rage. This is a man who has gone through some serious emotional abuse, repression coupled with a genetic inflated ego, arrogance and violent misogyny. He was bound to explode, and he does so in such huge way I just have to applaud Elordi again. But the question is, was the tantrum before or after the dance?

Maddy did a lot of growing after being covered in the human manure that is Nate and decides she’s had enough.

“You’re abusive, psychopathic, and I hate the way you make me feel…” she says as they slow dance. I love Maddy, and this is an aspiring thing to see, a girl in the grips of an abusive relationship, who until now knew how sick it was but couldn’t leave, make the decision to cut it off. And props to her for trying to assure Nate that It’s Okay to Be Gay and that sexuality is a spectrum while he was screaming in her face. What an icon.

Cassey deals with her decision to terminate her pregnancy, weirdly McKay isn’t in the episode at all. At the dance, she says she never wants to fall in love again (honestly what a mood,) meaning they split up after she had her abortion, meaning either he is as shitty as every other man on the show or the show just didn’t know what to do with him. During her procedure she tunes out and listens to music, imagining herself ice-skating instead. It’s a beautifully shot moment, her on a blacked-out ice rink, completely alone, no McKay cheering her on. She does have her sister though, and at the scenes, for the dance they sit and laugh at other people which is always fun.

Kat got probably the only “happy” end to her story arc, finding Ethan on the dance floor, she realizes she can be the bad ass, confident, empowered woman she wants to be without being cruel, or shutting herself off emotionally. She finds a good middle ground and it’s very sweet to see her open up after so many episodes of her being so stoic.

Ethan delivers possibly the most romantic speech ever: “This is high school, will we last forever? Probably not. Someone will probably get hurt, but I’ll do my best to make sure that person is me.” What a cutie! Mazel Tov to the happy couple.

Fezco and Ashtray (just learned that’s what the little kid's name is) don’t get arrested, but he is still in trouble with drug dealer Mouse, whom he owns money to. His solution is to put on a ski mask and rob some guy, I’m unsure if this man is narratively relevant, or if he’s just rich. He’s got stacks of cash and prescription pills in a drawer so Fez gets lucky either way. When the guy pulls a gun, Fez proves how hard he really is, that Nate should be worried, and beats the guy in front of his kid. Fez has been toted as the best man on the show and it’s sad to say after that scene he probably still is. There’s something so likable about Fez and Angus Cloud that has you blaming the guy getting robbed for trying to be brave instead of blaming Fez for robbing him. Audiences perceptions around men these days are so warped, and standards are so low that characters like Fezco, who seems genuinely okay deep down, become the ones we’re drawn to. It’s weird, but I’m guilty of it too, because while he gives Mouse the money, Mouse spots blood on the bills and grabs his gun, leading the question, “does Fez get shot?” and I hoped to god he didn’t.

Finally our heroes Rue and Jules. Jules does Rue’s eye makeup, in a very similar way to how Anna did hers the last episode, and sings Anna’s praises, casually letting slip that she did sleep with the other girl. Later that night at the dance Rue finds her taking selfies and sending them to Anna. While Rue and Jules aren’t in a relationship, while Jules isn’t Rue's keeper, her sponsor, or her girlfriend it still came off kind of dickish. Jules deserves to be as free as she wants but she has never been good at communicating. She tells Rue that she loves her, and she wants to kiss her, (they do, it’s very steamy), and that she doesn’t want Rue to change… But when a sloppily planned escape to the city between the two of them falls through, Jules ends up leaving Rue behind, going back to Anna essentially.

Rue and Jules were connected and were in a lot of ways perfect for each other, outsiders with the same sick views of the world, but in so many ways they weren’t right for one another, between Rue's addiction/sobriety and Jule’s lifestyle there were few ways were you could see it working out but it was still sad to see, and the way it happened didn’t make a terrible amount of sense. Jules escapes with Rue, but ditches her even though it was Rue’s plan? And the worst part is that that’s what Nate predicted would happen when he was fighting with Rue.

We end on a mishmash of scenes with Rue, Jules and her family, good flashbacks, and a flashback to a fight with her mother that was so bad Rue was kicked out of home, but when did this all happen? One flashback clues us onto the fact that Rue’s red sweatshirt was actually her dads, but other than that the scenes are confusing. Back in the present Rue puts on her dad's hoodie and snorts a line of something, officially falling off the wagon. The question, made less clear after the coming scenes, is did she die? Many people believe she’s only able to know everyone’s business every episode because she dies.

Then, bizarrely it turns into a music video of sorts, if not a trippy one. You think Rue is revisiting more memories as she stumbles in a drug-induced state (Zendaya’s physicality here was fantastic) as her family ignores her, but then her dad is there, and then suddenly she’s in a sea of dancers and she’s (Zendaya) singing Labrinth's All For Us. (I already have it saved on Spotify talk about a BOP.)

It’s beautifully shot, choreographed and performed. The whole episode was beautiful, from the girls dance outfits, to the makeup, Cassey’s skate scene, and then the end dance. But it speaks to one of the biggest issues I have with Euphoria, which is if you take away the cinematography, great acting, the costuming and the killer soundtrack, Euphoria is narratively up and down. This episode was confusing, highlighted by the absurd ending. With season two confirmed more focus needs to go into planning for the future and making sure everything lines up. Speculation is Rue might be dead, or near dead but she only did one line of something so I think she’s fine, but alive or not the finale might have been so much more satisfying if things were a tiny bit clearer.

#euphoria #euphoria hbo #zendaya coleman #rue bennett #hunter schafer #jules vaughn

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weaverlings · 5 years ago

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Slightly Shortened WTNV Episode List

Okay so my charming wife asked me to put together a shortened list of WTNV episodes to help them catch up.

Aaand I still only got it down to 89 episodes. I’m going to share this anyway, though, because I put a lot of thought into it. Like I was originally trying to keep more in, based on maintaining some pacing/narrative space between certain episodes. That didn’t work.

If nothing else, I know a lot of people stopped around year 3 or 4; this has a combined total of about 35 episodes from years 5-7, so it should make catching up easier if you want to hop back in for recent stuff!

Mostly this was made from the angle of: what will help keep the continuity from getting confusing? I also tried to keep in at least some episodes that are just weird and fun and not connected to anything, because those are also a cool part of the show. If nothing else, a lot of continuity-central episodes have fun weirdness, too.

Also yes I know time is weird, but there’s still continuity from an audience perspective! And this is an extremely ymmv thing, but I do feel like sometimes things can have more weight/impact if you know what led up to them! It can, at the very least, change the experience.

So, the list:

Year 1

PTA Meeting (4) Feral Dogs (10) A Story About You (13) The Man in the Tan Jacket (14) The Phone Call (16) The Sandstorm (19A+B) Poetry Week (20) The Mayor (24) One Year Later (25)

Year 2 First Date (27) Summer Reading Program (28) Dana (30) Yellow Helicopters (32) Lazy Day (35) Missing (36) The Auction (37) Orange Grove (38) WALK (41) Visitor (43) Cookies (44) A Story About Them (45) Parade Day (46) Company Picnic (47) Renovations (48) Old Oak Doors (49A+B)

Year 3

Rumbling (51) The September Monologues (53) A Carnival Comes to Town (54) The University of What It Is (55) Homecoming (56) Antiques (59) Hatchets (62) Voicemail (65) worms… (66) [Best Of?] (67) Faceless Old Women (68) Fashion Week (69) Taking Off (70A) Review (70B)

Year 4

The Registry of Middle School Crushes (71) Civic Changes (74) A Stranger (77) Lost in the Mail (79) A New Sheriff In Town (80) Skating Rink (82) One Normal Town (83) Past Time (84) The April Monologues (85) Standing and Breathing (86) The Trial of Hiram McDaniels (87) Things Fall Apart (88) Who’s a Good Boy? Part 1 (89) Who’s a Good Boy? Part 2 (90)

Year 5

The 12:37 (91) Big Sister (93) Zookeeper (95) Negotiations (96) Josefina (97) Flight (98) Toast (100) Ash Beach (103) The Hierarchy of Angels (104) Filings (106) The Missing Sky (107) Cal (108) A Story About Huntokar (109) Matryoshka (110)

Year 6

Summer 2017, Night Vale, USA (111) Council Member Flynn (114-116) A Door Ajar (124-126) A Matter of Blood (127-129) A Story About Us (130)

Year 7

Are You Sure? (133) The Birthday of Lee Marvin (139) Pioneer Days (143) The Dreamer (144) The Veterans (145) The Birthday of Lee Marvin (146) The Protester (147) The Broadcaster (148) The General (149) The Birthday of Lee Marvin (150)

For the most part, I didn’t make changes based on preference. I did leave out most Kevin-centric episodes past year 3, because I’m just not really a fan of Kevin. But I also cut some favorites.

Those Kevin-centric episodes are: Triptych (73), All Smiles’ Eve (120), and The Mudstone Abyss (135-137)

Episodes that I would highly recommend if you get a chance:

Station Management (3) Faceless Old Woman (26) Cassette (33) Numbers (42) The Retirement of Pamela Winchell (52) Well of Night (72) Michigan (99) Save Dark Owl Records (141)

#welcome to night vale #wtnv #wtnv ramblings #years 2 and 4 were the hardest for me #5 was also tricky bc there's a lot going on #it's good stuff though tbh

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dukereviewsmovies · 5 years ago

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Duke Reviews: Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special

Hi, Everyone, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Where We Are Continuing Duke's Yultide Reviews...

And On Today's Show We're Looking At Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special...

This Episode Sees Pee Wee Herman Celebrating The Holidays With His Friends And Celebrity Guests Who Drop In Throughout The Episode. So, What Are We Waiting For? Let's Take A Look At Pee Wee's Christmas Special...

The Episode Starts With The Playhouse Decorated To The Brim...

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Making Out His Christmas List, Pee Wee Asks Us What Would We Put On Our Christmas List If We Were Him? Which Eventually Leads Him To Ask For A Yo-Yo But Conkey Tells Him That He Already Has One Which Leads Pee Wee To Check His Toys...

And After Entering His Code, Pee Wee Discovers That He Does Have One Which Leads Him To Do Some Tricks. Finishing Off His Christmas List, Pee Wee Has Conkey Print It And Seriously Long...

However, Hearing The Doorbell, Pee Wee Discovers That It's Miss Yvonne Who Tells Pee Wee About The Mistletoe In Her Hair Before Giving Him A Present In The Form Of A Fruitcake While Pee Wee Gives Her A New Perfume Of Eau De Pee Wee...

With Miss Yvonne Taking Off To Make Out With Everyone In The Playhouse (Which Is A Sight The Network Censor Won't Let Them Show) Pee Wee Takes Off To Put The Fruitcake In The Fridge And To Show Us How The Food In The Fridge Celebrate Christmas As They Give Pee Wee Another Fruitcake...

Hearing The Phone, Pee Wee Answers It To See Whoopi Goldberg Who Is Calling To See If She Could Be Apart Of The Christmas Special But This Year And "Next Year" Is Completely Booked But Pee Wee Can Maybe Place Her On The Christmas Special 2 Years From Now...

Jumping Into The Magic Screen, We Get Another Game Of Connect The Dots, As Pee Wee Forms A Sleigh At The North Pole And Runs Into Magic Johnson, Who Says That The Magic Screen And Him Are Cousins....

Uh, I Don't See The Family Resemblance, Magic...

Pushed Down The Hill By A Polar Bear, Pee Wee And Magic Go Through A Snowbank Before Going Down A Steep Incline Which Forces Pee Wee To Jump Out Of The Magic Screen And Say Goodbye To Magic Johnson...

Landing On Chairy, Pee Wee Realizes That While He Was Making Out His Christmas List He Forgot To Decorate The Playhouse, So, Calling Upon Jambi, He Wants To Wish For The Playhouse To Be Decorated But Pee Wee's Not Sure If He Wants To Use His Wish On That And Asks Jambi For An Extra Wish Because It's Christmas And He Says Fine...

Now Everyone Repeat After Jambi...

Mekka Lekka Hi, Mekka Heiney Ho...

Mekka Lekka Hi, Mekka Ho Ho Ho...

And Just Like That, The Playhouse Is Decorated...

Getting A Visit From Reba The Mail Lady, She Gives Pee Wee A Bunch Of Christmas Cards Before Giving Him Her Christmas Gift Of Another Fruitcake!...

Giving Reba Her Gift Of Large Press On Nails, Reba Has One More Thing For Pee Wee In The Form Of A Large Box Which Has Grace Jones Inside Of It, However It's Later Revealed That Grace Was Supposed To Go To The White House And Not The Playhouse...

But Before She Goes She Decides To Sing A Song...

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After That Scene, Pee Wee Introduces Teen Angel From Grease And The Only Mouseketeer From The Original Mickey Mouse Club That Anyone Seems To Remember (Just Kidding) Who Are There Making Christmas Cards As They Show Us How They're Doing It,..

After That Scene, Pee Wee Runs Into Cher, Who's Wondering What Today's Secret Word Is....

Really? You Have A Big Star Like Cher And You Use Her For The Secret Word? Why?

Her Talents Would Be Better Off Singing The Song That Grace Jones Sung...

Anyway, Conkey Prints Out The Secret Word And It's Revealed That The Secret Word Is Year, And We All Know What To Do Whenever We Hear The Secret Word Right? Just Scream Real Loud..

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(Start At 0:41, End At 1:05)

After Cher Leaves, The King Of Cartoons Arrives To Give Pee Wee His Christmas Gift Of Not Just 1 But 2 Fruitcakes...

How Many Fruitcakes Do These People Believe Pee Wee Needs?

Anyway, Like Always The King Of Cartoons Is There To Introduce The Cartoon But Before He Does, He's Interrupted By Annette Who Asks If She Can Do It, To Which He Lets Her...

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When We Come Back We're Interrupted By Billy Baloney Who Makes It His Christmas Special Till Pee Wee Gets Back Of Course...

Getting A Weather Alert From Mr. Kite That It's Snowing Outside, Pee Wee Suits Up And Runs Into Morpheus From The Matrix...

Scaring Cowboy Curtis, Pee Wee Introduces The Del Rubio Triplets....

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Well, At Least They're Not Being Confused For R.E.M And Singing Whip It...

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(Start At 0:46)

Making A Snowman, It Ends Up Coming To Life When They Stare At It, Scaring Both Pee Wee And Cowboy Curtis Away...

Coming Across An Ice Rink, Pee Wee Meets Little Richard Who's Having A Hard Time Ice Skating So Pee Wee Shows Him How It's Done Or So We Think....

Going Inside To Drink Hot Cocoa, Pee Wee And His Friends Are Entertained By The Song Stylings Of K.D. Lang...

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(Start At 0:28)

After Warming Up, Pee Wee Hangs The Stockings Including 2 Extra Large Stockings For Him While We Watch A Penny Cartoon, To Which After Pee Wee Talks With Cowntess Who Gives Pee Wee Another Fruitcake And Another Visitor In The Form Of Zsa Zsa Gabor Or Princess Zsa Zsa, Geez...

Headed To The Phone, Pee Wee Answers To See Dinah Shore Who's There To Sing The Twelve Days Of Christmas Or In Dinah's Case "The Song That Doesn't End"

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However, While Pee Wee Is On The Phone With Dinah, He Gets A Phone Call From Oprah Who Wants To Say Merry Christmas To Him But Telling Her That He Has Dinah Shore On The Other Line, Pee Wee Hangs Up...

(Oprah) Okay, Let's Get Something Straight Here, Herman, I Am Oprah! You Do Not Hang Up On Me! I Hang Up On You!

Leaving Dinah With A Mannequin In A Pee Wee Dress Up Outfit, Pee Wee Talks With Ricardo About Mexican Traditions During Christmas Before We're Serenaded By The Queen Of Guchi Guchi Herself, Charro...

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(Start At 0:41)

After Which Charro..What A Surprise...Gives Pee Wee Another Fruitcake...

(Imitating Samuel L. Jackson) I Have Had It With These Motherfreaking Fruitcakes In This Motherfreaking Special!

And What The Hell, Might As Well Add One More To The Pile As Pee Wee Gets Another From Mrs. Rene Who Is There To Talk About Hanukkah And Sing The Dreidel Song...

Spinning The Dreidel, It Heads Into The Home Of The Dinosaur Family...

Later That Night, Pee Wee And All Of His Friends Put The Finishing Touches On The Christmas Tree Only For Randy To Pull The Plug...

Saying That He Hates Christmas, Saying That It's All A Bunch Of Commercial Hooey, Pee Wee Shows Randy The True Meaning Of Christmas Which Changes His Mind...

With Cowboy Curtis Giving Pee Wee Another Fruitcake, Everyone Starts Wondering What Pee Wee Is Going To Do With All Those Damn Fruitcakes, Which Leads Him To Introduce A New Wing To The Playhouse Made Entirely Out Of Fruitcake (That'll Just Stink Up The Place In A Few Months)...

Singing Christmas Carols, Pee Wee Eventually Hears Sleigh Bells Which Leads To The Arrival Of Santa Claus Who Has Some Bad News For Pee Wee Turns Out That His List Was So Long That Santa Couldn't Fill The Orders For All The Other Children In The World...

Asking How Many Presents He'll Need, Santa Tells Pee Wee All Of Them. Deciding To Give Up All His Presents, Santa Asks For One Other Thing, And That's For Pee Wee To Help Him Deliever The Presents To The Other Children Of The World...

Saying Goodbye To His Friends, Jambi Asks About That Wish, To Which Pee Wee Wishes Everyone A Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year...

And That's The Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special And It's Good...

Some Scenes Are Good, I Like How They Added In Other Cultures Which Some Christmas Specials Haven't Done As Of Recent And The Songs Aren't Bad And The Characters Are Decently Written So I Say See It...

Well, That's It For Duke's Yultide Reviews, Have A Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, Happy Hanukkah Or Whatever You Celebrate And Have A Happy New Year As Next Week...Wait A Minute There's One More Week Of December So, That Means One More Yultide Review But What Do I Do? Well I Guess Like I Did For My Christmas Movies I Might As Well Find The Worst Christmas Special And Talk About That But What Is The Worst Christmas Special Ever?

#pee wee's playhouse #pee wee herman #paul reubens #annette funicello #frankie avalon #dinah shore #k.d. lang #Cher #whoopi goldberg #oprah winfrey #magic johnson #little richard #lawrence fishburne #merry christmas #christmas special #tv review

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btswtwoutofcontext · 7 months ago

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Don't wear your tophat to a hockey game

#beach too sandy water too wet #btswtw out of context #btswtw #alex schiefer #episode: 265 #episode: reviews of skating rinks

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chats-noir · 6 years ago

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So here’s my review on the newest MLB episode (Chris Master):

Although I was lowkey disappointed in this episode ngl, cause one, I thought there would be more ig, and two, cause I feel like it was kinda a filler episode if you yk what I mean (??) I still liked it for multiple reasons and here’s why:

Chris is probably the cutest kid they ever put on this show (although August is vv cute ok)

*In future episodes I want some more Nino and Chris content just saying cause ugh I can see lots of brotherly love there, and we just don’t get enough Nino in this show*

Going off what I said about Nino, he’s literally so pure and cute in this episode. (And I have so many questions for Santa and why the hell Nino is so low on the list like??)

I love Marinette, Nino, and Alya’s friendship it’s so cute, and I love how they immediately go to Mari to watch Nino’s little brother while they go on a date. (love them :’) ) Marinette really is THAT babysitter.

And I LOVE whenever Alya calls Marinette ‘girl’ like idk why but friendship goals right there y’all.

Although Chris was kind a a brat to Mari at first, Marinette and Chris’ little friendship is sweet, and even if Marinette lied to Chris and stuff about her being an elf and making up the whole story about Santa, it was still a cute moment where Chris was so fascinated and paid such close attention to Marinette and her words.

I wish Carapace was in this episode only for the fact that Chris is Nino’s brother and I want to seem him get protective and such over Chris although then it might get too personal and Carapace might just get in the way. (Then again, it would probably add a little more suspense to the episode too)

I read a post about how someone thought the Santa Claus in this episode was fake cause he would know who Ladybug and Chat’s identity is and Ladybug would not be the best kid in the world (lol true) and I agree. Adding on to that theory, I feel like Chris subconsciously made that Santa to make his ‘dream’ come true (even if Santa denied that he was the best kid). And this could also be because he heard everything Marinette told him and believed her.

I honestly really liked the whole concept with Ladybug and Chat Noir fighting ‘toy versions’ of them idk why I just found it interesting.

Although I wish there were more sentimental Ladynoir moments there’s one point when they’re fighting their toy selves, and they’re talking and Chat sees his ‘toy version’ coming towards them and he grabs and pushes Ladybug away. uwu my heart !!

AND WHEN CHAT SASSED LADYBUG AFTER SHE WAS LIKE “don’t you think this whole thing is kinda strange?” AND HE DEAD RESPONDED WITH “Stranger than fighting a pharoah’s reincarnation or a pigeon overlord empowered by magical butterflies you mean?” AND HE HAS THIS SMIRK ON HIS FACE WHILE SHE HAS THE MOST BORED LOOK IVE EVER SEEN ON HER FACE WHEN HES TALKING TO HER SKSKSKS

Love how Santa was over on the side of the ice rink pouting about all the hatred in the world I laughed so hard when the scene cut to the toys, Chat Noir, and Ladybug flailing across the ice as Philippe is gracefully skating across it sksksks

When I was watching this episode, I was just watching really closely at the details for some reason, and can I just say no matter how good any episode is or how good the plot is, the animation is always so beautiful ? Like I was just watching Mari in the beginning and you can notice her little ticks whether it be just little twitches or the way her hair moves or she moves, it’s just always so good.

Chat Noir in a Santa hat that is too big for his head makes my heart go swoosh. The only emoji to describe that is this 🥰 (rip to anyone who can’t see that emoji I’m sorry it’s the new blushing emoji with hearts around it if you must know.)

This episode is actually so colorful and I love it like wow.

I love Nino and Ladybug’s interaction (new friendship please??) and I love when Santa lets his list fall on the ground they’re completely ~shook~ reaction lmao

Nino was so concerned for his brother and was begging Ladybug to help find Chris even while everything was going on and it was freaking snowing in Paris, like this kid is so oblivious but I love him.

When Ladybug used Nino’s back to lean on as she wrote what she wanted for Christmas was adorable especially because Nino had this little confused kind of smile on his face omg

The fact that Ladybug literally asks Santa Claus for whatever Chris wants even when it’s the only thing she could have all year from Santa is the most selfless, wholesome thing to happen in this episode ugh

BUT WHEN CHAT GETS UPSET THAT LADYBUG IS THE BEST BEHAVING KID IN THE WORLD AND SHE GETS COCKY AND GIVES HIM THE LOOK I WHEEZED SO HARD

Chat was the cutest thing ever, he is pure and he radiated Adrien vibes the whole time I watched this.

When Ladybug sniffs Santa’s hat I was like ‘wtf’ but then when she described the basic smells of Christmas it made me want December to come faster.

^^which also made me wonder what month is it supposed to be in the mlb timeline rn??

Ngl, Philippe kinda annoys me normally, but I loved the moments with him and Chat begging for presents from Santa Claus in this. Comedy g o l d .

The fact that Marinette actually made gifts for Adrien’s next thirty five birthdays. This kid better embrace his feelings for her soon before it becomes even more borderline creepy lmao

I feel like also at the end it just shows how much growth Chris went through between the beginning of the episode and him being akumatized considering it’s in a span of like a day.

When at the end the mischievous little shit Chris still wanted to know what was inside Mari’s trunk even after technically getting akumatized by his curiosity about it and after Marinette tries to explain its has stuff for her crush in it and he ended up cutting her off saying it was ‘gross’ anyways

^^and how all this time Marinette was thinking about his whole elaborate response to it and how he would probably go back to his brother to tell him, who would go to Adrien and tell him, and it would be hella awkward at school but she didn’t even get that far into telling him before he stopped her.😂😂

Marinette chasing Chris around at the very end and teasing him is just proof she will be a great mother and amazing aunt to Nino and Alya’s kids.👀

And Marinette’s denial and utmost confusion throughout this whole episode just ties it all together and makes it better than it already is.

Overall, this episode was very cute. (As I stated twenty billion times already in my reasons of liking this show)

I seriously psychoanalyzed this episode w o w but it’s fine these are just my observations on everything.

#cat noir #chat noir #ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #nino lahiffe #alya cesaire #miraculous ladybug #the tales of ladybug and cat noir #season three #season 3 #chris master #djwifi #miraculous ladybug season 3 #mlb #ml

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hufflepuff-ravenclaw-reviews · 6 years ago

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Titans Season 1 Episode 3

This episode contained a lot of jumping back and forth between different plots. But unlike in the first episode where there were separate plots that were only promised to connect later, THESE ONES ALL CONNECTED. So, I have to do a more or less chronological review today. Poop.

First off, Dawn didn't die, but she's in intensive care. As Dick stares at her, he has flashbacks to right after his parents died.

He was obviously put into foster care; Bruce didn't just take him. But as you might imagine, Dick was going through a lot. He ran away once, and then he stole one of Bruce's cars and went for a joyride. After he was caught, Bruce heard Dick telling the social worker/therapist that he wanted to be the one who found out who killed his parents, so that he could kill him.

Later, Dick went back to his room at Wayne manor and found a note from Bruce inviting him to put his anger in a more positive direction.

(It's also worth noting that we never actually see Bruce's face. His hand, hear his voice, see him in a window in the distance, and from behind as he watches Dick talking with the social worker. But we never actually SEE him.)

Meanwhile, two days before Rachel was taken by “creepy family”, Kori went to the Roth house in Michigan. There, she found a box hidden under a floorboard, which contained a lot of weird looking documents (some of which were in what appeared to be Cyrillic). But also a photo of Mrs. Roth holding a baby, and surrounded by nuns. On the back is written “St. Paul's 2005”. (It might give some indication of how old Rachel is, but we also don't know how old baby Rachel is in that photo. Because she's not 13 years old, that's for sure. Probably closer to 15, but she's being held like a newborn in the photo.)

Kori runs into some police officers in the Roth house, and kicks their asses.

Kori was downstairs when “creepy family” snatched Rachel away. She followed them to a gas station, where she used her firebolt in order to murder “dad”, and blast open half of the wall. There, she convinced Rachel that it would be better if Rachel went with her... and Rachel agreed.

After losing Rachel and “dad”, “creepy family” goes back to their creator. He's about to destroy them for having failed, but “daughter” asks why Rachel's so important. The guy starts on this long rant about some great evil... Blah-blah-blah. Sounds like a cult, but where raising Satan is a distinct possibility. He finally agrees to give them one more chance, and also promises to find them a new “dad”.

Meanwhile, Dick is put onto the trail of Kori by an officer working the Roth murder investigation. He goes to the gas station, where he's shocked to see the state of the body; it's completely unrecognizable. He gets security footage, and is able to locate the car Kori took Rachel away in.

After a pit-stop in which Kori kicks the asses of some drunk, local small-town assholes (and earns Rachel's respect), they end up at St. Paul's. Which... I'm no religious expert, but isn't St. Paul's kind of...??? A common name for churches and stuff? Maybe they figured that they'd hit up all of the nearby St. Paul's and go from there.

But they found the one at the first try, because plot. The nun who answers the door not only knows Rachel, but she also knows Kori. Which is a surprise to Kori, because she's been searching for answers this entire time.

The nun tells Rachel that her mom brought her there when Rachel was really little, but Rachel doesn't remember any of this. The nun tells Kori in private a bit later that Mrs. Roth had strangle marks around her neck that convinced the nuns to help her. Rachel goes into a room, where she finds things that indicate that she stayed there longer than just in her infancy. Kori also asks the nun if she recognizes a weird key thing that she has, and the nun identifies it as being from a storage locker for a skate rink.

They go there, but all Kori finds is a key for one of those self-storage facilities; she's irritated. Rachel, however, has ordered food, and asks for money so that she can play the arcade games. As she's playing pinball, Garfield walks over to her and tells her to hit the ball in certain places. They flirt in that awkward way teenagers do. (AND ALL OF MY SHIPPER FEELS ARE COMING BACK.)

Dick shows up at the rink, and he takes Kori and Rachel outside to have an argument. Rachel says that Dick never intended to help her, so he should have just stayed away. She then gets upset enough to blast out all of the windows of the cars in the parking lot. The three of them hurry away in Dick's car, which probably has bullet-proof glass. Because Robin. (And as they're leaving, Garfield comes out, looking confused. I kept expecting for him to pop up in some other part of the episode, but that never happened. Although, that's not to say that it won't happen sooner or later...)

Back at St. Paul's, Dick tries to comfort Raven. But she gets after him because he was planning on leaving. And then Dick kind of throws it right back into her face... If only because he's been almost exactly where she's been.

Dick only leaves when he hears his car zooming off. Kori stole it.

Kori meanwhile goes to the self-storage place, where she finds two things: the detective wall in which she was trying to track down Rachel (and the people who're after her), and a tanning bed. I have way more questions about the tanning bed than about Rachel. But do we get answers about that? Nooooo...

Anyway, Dick follows her there, where they look at all of the stuff together. Aside from pictures of Rachel and her mom, there's also a lot of stuff about ravens (the birds, not the super hero), and bible passages. There's also stuff that's written in a bizarre language, although at this point, I feel like it's a toss-up of if it's demon writing or Starfire's alien language. NOT ONE WORD IS SAID ABOUT THE FUCKING TANNING BED.

Meanwhile, the nun gives Rachel a drugged drink. She and a bunch of other nuns then put her into like a slightly underground room with a reinforced door. Rachel obviously flies into a panic, and then starts communicating with “Raven” in the mirror. Or rather, it tries to talk to her. Eventually, she blows a massive hole in the wall and is seen running away from the place.

Kori eventually comes to the conclusion, after having looked at her notes, that Rachel is the “destroyer of worlds”. They hear a loud explosion and everything rocks a little. They run outside, and see a giant plume of black smoke, and instantly jump to “Rachel!”

#Titans #The Ravenclaw mod

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batmads-ao3 · 2 years ago

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Written in the Stars

After Yakov decides to take a break from coaching skating to focus on his crumbling relationship with his wife and soulmate, Lilia, Victor is forced to move away from his beloved home rink to Detroit so he can begin training under Celestino Ciandini. With his young friend Yurio in tow, they befriend their new rink mates and are quickly folded into a new little family unlike any Victor has had before.

Soulmates!AU • College! AU (kinda) • Slowburn

Read Chapter Twenty-One here!

In which Theia makes an abrupt exit, and Victor is left alone with Yuri.

Posting every day at 5:00, chapter preview below the cut

After they had gotten settled and moved everything that Victor and Theia had brought along into the cabin, they went out for tacos, as promised. It was a good stand, and Victor could see why Theia had been so eager to try it after the reviews Yuri and Patrick had given the place year after year. They sat on picnic table out front and listened to the water crash onto the nearby shore. Yuri and Theia talked about Pontiac and school and the things to do around Herrington. Victor ate his tacos and listened and let poems unfold across his mind.

The night settled down around us Waves coming in and out A star in the sky for Everything I love about you A crash of the waves for Every time I wish to recite them aloud.

Afterwards, they walked back to the cabin, some of the neighbors pausing on their evening stroll to say hello to Yuri and ask after Patrick and Seamus. They watched a Disney movie that Theia had brought along when they got back and ate ice cream while they lounged on the couch and floor to watch. ‘Vacation’ had previously been a foreign experience to Victor, a vague memory of eating crepes by the Seine in the summer. He had claimed many times since to have gone on vacations throughout the years. To Milan, to Barcelona, to Nice, but Chris had been quick to point out that it wasn’t really a vacation if he spent half his time practicing at a local rink and the other half being bombarded with fans and paparazzi. That, Chris had said, was just his usual life transported to an exotic location, like if it was the “special episode” of a popular TV show.

But this, this Victor could see, clearly, was a vacation. None of the locals would bother him, if they even knew who he was in the first place. If there was a rink nearby that he could have been practicing on, he didn’t know about it. This month, tucked away in this hidden corner of the world with Yuri and Theia, was just going to be about walking on the beach, and playing with Makkachin, and relaxing in the evenings as they watched Disney movies and ate ice cream. The only way it could have been made better, of course, was if Theia wasn’t there to prevent him from going swimming, but otherwise...and endless march of perfect days, stretching on until the end of time.

After the movie was over, Theia helped him make up the foldout and Yuri retreated upstairs to skype with Patrick alone. It must be hard for him, Theia said to Victor in a hushed whisper, to be here without the Patrick for the first time since they had established this tradition, but she liked to think that her and Victor’s presence made it slightly easier.

For the next few days, life proceeded as expected. They would woke up in the morning, Theia would help Victor fold up the bed, they’d make breakfast together, then head off to the beach. Theia would go swimming, Victor would sit under an umbrella in the shade reading poetry and keeping an eye on Makka, and Yuri would split his time between the two of them.

Continue on Ao3

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literaryeagle · 7 years ago

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Okay, so the Yuri!!! on Ice item that I'll be reviewing today is Yuri!!! on Stage, on Blu-ray. (It’s also available on DVD, but I chose to get the Blu-ray because the image quality would be better.) I'm sure a lot of people have talked about it already, however I will translate the scene titles and discuss an additional feature that you might have missed if you didn't explore the menu screen. I will also show the bonus items packaged with the disc, and show the extra special items that you could only get if you ordered it from Animate! So, hopefully this review will still have something useful. ^_^

Just in case anyone isn't familiar with Yuri!!! on Stage yet, it was a live show that took place on April 29, 2017 at Maihama Amphitheater. The voice actors for most of the male skaters were there, plus the voice actor for Takeshi Nishigori, and series writer Mitsurou Kubo. They did a bunch of fun stuff like discussing their favorite scenes from the anime, playing games, and performing a NEW STORY that takes place after the TV series (the new story was an audio drama that they voiced live, so it wasn't animated). The Yuri!!! on Stage event actually occurred twice on that day... once in the afternoon, and once in the evening. There were a few differences between the two versions of the event, however the audio drama was the same story both times. The Blu-ray and DVD are a video recording of the evening version. As an example of one of the cute things you can see in the video, check out the image below... from left to right, that's Junichi Suwabe (voice of Victor), Toshiyuki Toyonaga (voice of Yuri), and Koki Uchiyama (voice of Yurio):

Sorry for my bad photograph of the screen, but taking high-quality screen captures from BDs is a no-no. Anyway, yes, the above image is a reference to Yuri poking Victor's hair in the anime, except here it's Victor's voice actor doing it to Yuri's voice actor. Hilarious! Also, wow, Suwabe bleached his hair to look more like Victor. Talk about dedication!

Want to know more? Keep reading for the rest of the review, plus a few more pictures!

There are no subtitles, so you'll miss out on a lot if you don't understand Japanese, although for some reason the end credits are in English. The scene selection menu is written in Japanese, but don't worry, I'll translate the scene titles for you! The first one is simply called "Opening", and it's the part of the show that introduced the characters and their voice actors. Unfortunately, the actors who play as JJ, Otabek, and Michele were not able to make it to the event, however they had recorded videos that were played later in the show.

The second segment is named "Jibun o Suki ni Natte... Popovich no Carabosse no Heya", which means "Like Yourself... Popovich's Room of Carabosse". (The "Like Yourself" bit is a reference to the title for episode 4 of Yuri!!! on Ice, "Like Yourself... And Complete the Free Program!"). The MC for this part was Wataru Hatano, the voice of Georgi Popovich and also the artist who sang the anime's ending theme, "You Only Live Once". Basically, the voice actors were divided into groups, and the actors discussed their favorite scenes from the anime involving their characters. For example, Kensho Ono (voice of Phichit) chose the "Congratulations on your marriage!" line from episode 10 as his favorite Phichit scene. He has good taste! Mitsurou Kubo also commented on the fans' enthusiasm for that scene. Here's an image showing Wataru Hatano on the left, and Mitsurou Kubo on the right:

The third part is called "Chou Chou Chou Chou Ganbaranba! Katsudon Pirozhki Soudatsu! World Question!" ("Gotta Super-Super-Super-Supercharge It! Katsudon Pirozhki Contest! World Question!"... Whew, these titles are a mouthful, ha ha!). For this part, a bit of dialogue from the anime had been translated into Russian, and after a Russian-speaking person read the dialogue out loud, the voice actors had to guess what scene from the anime it was. (For the afternoon version of Yuri!!! on Stage, a scene had been translated into Thai instead of Russian.) By the way, it turned out the Russian speaker's name was Emil, much to the amusement of Satoshi Hino, the voice of Emil Nekola.

Even though Mamoru Miyano (voice of JJ) wasn't able to make it to the event, there was a video of him giving the voice actors a hint for this Russian game. Frankly, the scene was pretty simple to guess even without the clue (you can hear Emil say "pirozhki" and "katsudon", which narrows down the possibilities quite a bit), but I'm always up for more JJ Style, so I enjoyed the hint video anyway.

The fourth section is named "Afureko Imagination Show" ("afureko" is short for "after recording", meaning adding sound after a film has been made... so I guess it can be translated as "dubbing" or something like that). For this part, they played various clips from the anime, but instead of using the recorded audio from the show, the voice actors performed their dialogue live! Very cool.

Next, the fifth part is called "Special Video Letter", which had video messages from Yoshimasa Hosoya (voice of Otabek) and Tomoaki Maeno (voice of Michele), since they weren't able to make it to the event. After that, there were a few more clips from the anime, with the voice actors for Victor, Yuri, and Yurio performing their lines live... but with something very special added to the stage! Part of the floor had been replaced with a miniature skating rink (just a small square of ice, really), so figure skater Honoka Kawanishi could perform Yurio's free skate during these scenes. Wow! Since the square of ice she had on the stage was so small, there wasn't enough room for her to do the jumps, but it was still a lovely performance. What a brilliant idea! Check it out:

The sixth segment is named "Roudoku Geki Hasetsu Exhibition Onsen!!! on ICE Victor with Friends" ("Reading Drama Hasetsu Exhibition Hot Springs!!! on ICE Victor with Friends"), which is probably the part of Yuri!!! on Stage that people have talked the most about already. As mentioned earlier in this review, it's a new story that takes place after the TV series. It was written by Kimiko Ueno. This story is not animated, but the voice actors are fun to watch as they read their scripts, and music from the anime is played in the background, which is a nice touch.

I won't get into too much detail about the plot, because so many other people have posted about it already. But to put it simply, the skaters have gathered in Yuri's hometown for an ice show called "Victor with Friends", however a little too much drinking and partying happens the night before the show. If you've ever wondered what would happen if Victor and Yuri both got drunk at the same time, well... it involves a lot of flexibility, and not much clothing! There's also a hilarious misunderstanding involving Yuri's drunken ramblings about a statue of Shachihoko (a legendary creature that is part tiger and part fish), which Victor mistakenly interprets as Yuri reminiscing about a really flexible ex-lover named "Chihoko". Silly Victor, getting jealous over a fish statue! It's pretty funny. (By the way, there was another live event in the summer called Yuri!!! on Festival which included a sequel drama, about Yuri getting possessed by a squid demon. Unfortunately, word has it that Yuri!!! on Festival will not be getting a DVD/Blu-ray release. Hopefully they'll change their minds, or at least release the drama part as a CD.)

Okay, moving on... The seventh part is called "LIVE You Only Live Once Yuri!!! on ICE feat. w.hatano". As you can probably guess by that title, Wataru Hatano did a live performance of the ending theme to the anime. He was accompanied by two backup dancers.

The eighth section is called "Ending", which had everyone wrapping things up and thanking the audience. After that, everything seemingly ends with the credits... If you have the Blu-ray or DVD, did your video player just go to the menu screen after the credits finished? That's what mine did, however there's actually more on the disc! If you look on the menu screen, the last numbered segment is part 8, which is the aforementioned "Ending". But after that, there's one more item, which doesn't have a number. So be sure not to miss it! This last bit is another version of the Special Video Letters from Mamoru Miyano (JJ), Yoshimasa Hosoya (Otabek), and Tomoaki Maeno (Michele). You can tell these must be from the afternoon version of Yuri!!! on Stage, because Mamoru Miyano gives a Thai clue instead of a Russian clue.

That's it for the show, so next I'll talk about the bonus items packaged with the disc, and then I'll talk about the extra special goodies that you could only get if you ordered it from Animate. Yay! First, there's a little booklet that comes with the disc. It has a shiny silver cover, but unfortunately my photo doesn't do it justice:

This is basically a miniature version of a pamphlet at that was sold at the Yuri!!! on Stage event, except the mini version is missing a few pages advertising Yuri!!! on Ice merchandise (although it makes up for it by having extra artwork for the last page). I think the reason why it's miniature is because it had to be the same length and width as a DVD case, to avoid an awkward packaging situation. It includes some really nice photos and profiles of the voice actors. I actually have the full size version of the pamphlet that was sold at the event, so I'll be covering that in a future review. In other words, I will wait until that review before I get into further detail about the contents of this booklet. (EDIT: My review of the pamphlet is now available!)

Okay, the other item packaged with the disc is this Makkachin selfie light, which can be attached to a smartphone:

Isn't that adorable? All right, next I'll talk about the additional goodies that were obtainable by ordering Yuri!!! on Stage from Animate. The first one is a "portrait". On the outside, it looks like a thin gray hardcover book...

...but it's not actually a book, because there's just a picture inside. But it's a very nice picture. What kind of picture, you ask? It's a beautiful textless version of the Yuri!!! on Stage cover art! Check it out:

So nice! And finally, people who pre-ordered from Animate under certain conditions were able to get a cute little Makkachin can badge. I took a close-up of it, so you can get a really good look:

Overall, Yuri!!! on Stage is funny and entertaining, and the bonus items packaged with the disc are cute. The additional special items from Animate are great as well, although I'd imagine those are sold out by now. However, please keep in mind that the Blu-ray and DVD are not subtitled, so you'll miss out on a lot if you don't understand Japanese (although the voice actors' antics are still fun to watch), so it's up to you to decide if that's worth it. The Blu-ray and the DVD are both still available on Amazon.co.jp (NOTE: the DVD is Region 2 only!), however Avex Pictures has placed a restriction on their CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays being shipped outside of Japan. Unfortunately, this means that Amazon.co.jp will no longer ship those items overseas, so if you don’t live in Japan you’ll have to either buy it from a source that’s not affected by the restriction, or get a shopping deputy to help you with the purchase.

Thanks for reading, everyone. I have other official Yuri!!! on Ice merchandise that I’ll be reviewing, so keep checking my blog for new stuff!

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