#even thought it should have realistically ended in episode 7

[ladymorghul]

the way alicent was like “the king did not wish for the murder of his daughter he loved her i will not have you deny this” and threatened jasper with sending him to the wall for his suggestions while in the black council daemon was like “that whore of a queen murdered my brother and stole his throne and youc ould have killed her for it” and “we can put every green head on a spike” and in ep. 8 before coming to kl rhaenyra was like “those vipers rule in my father’s stead” 

not even otto spoke of rhaenyra the way daemon spoke of alicent....

[twig-tea]

I haven't been posting about it week to week but I have been keeping up with My Love Mix-up (the Thai adaptation) and I'm still sitting with how badly this latest episode (ep7) is sitting with me. I just have to purge this so I can move on. Criticism of the adaptation below [including spoilers through to the end of episode 7 and very vague spoilers for the source material].

I wish these show writers would not try to shoehorn an adapted work into the bubble, because this line they are trying to walk is disturbing. By having an older gay character tell Atom that he shouldn't characterize his relationship as different, it's suggesting that societal norms and social expectations are not real, but are something Atom invented. His fear is treated as a joke and an overreaction, something to overcome, and everything I've heard from Thai people in the real world tell me that is very much not the case. This is such a different message from the original manga and Japanese live action, which were both about having the strength to defend your relationship in front of obstacles and trust the people in your lives who have earned it. There's a huge difference between learning not to live in fear even though there are realistic things to be concerned about, and learning your fear was misguided/not based in reality after all so you can just let it go. Queer kids should not be taught to not trust their instincts about who to trust with their truths.

This is the same mistake GMMTV made with the changes they made to 23.5, and it tells me their writers fundamentally don't understand internalized homophobia. You don't develop internalized homophobia in a homophobia-free bubble--kids are not born with it, it has to be learned. We are taught to hate ourselves by parents, by media, by teachers, by strangers...to set a show in a world where that is not a reality, and then to have characters have those fears anyway, is insulting and dismissive of where those fears come from and how they are based on realistic fears about potential outcomes. Gay kids do lose their families and have their lives blown up over the people they love--that is not a joke or an overdramatic statement.

I am really upset by this. It feels like these shows are saying queer people are foolish and delusional for being afraid. I've had people in real life tell me that my concerns were overdramatic before, and I've also seen people badly hurt because they didn't take the threat of homophobia seriously enough. I just...it's not that I worry this will be a model for anyone's behaviour. But this adaptation took a story about characters I could relate to, and changed them so that the show instead instead is invalidating my experience. It feels dehumanizing. In trying to be an escapist piece of media, this show instead became painful for me to watch. I sincerely hope I'm an outlier and other queer folks watching this didn't feel it in the same way, because I don't want other people to be feeling how I'm feeling right now.

I'll be walking away from this one.

@bengiyo I think you mentioned feeling similarly disturbed by this approach in your stray thoughts, so I'm tagging you in case you wanted to add on.

[theflyindutchwoman]

You know in my mind Lucy's mother would visit without warning and that's how she'd learn for Tim. Lucy not telling her because they're not close and want to protect the relationship because she know her parents. Tim would want everything to be perfect and try hard to please them during dinner but her mother isn't gonna like Tim because he is a cop and divorced. I see her to be traditional don't why. And that's what would cause Lucy to blow up. Defending her relationship and telling her mom what she has kept for herself all these time. For her biological dad and everything else. Calling her on her hypocrisy and lack of support and dare I say love. Then we'd have chenford scene for support that strengthens the couple. I could see a scene where Tim stop trying to please the parents and just tell them how amazing Lucy is and what a good cop she is and that it's sad they miss all of it without lucy present in the end of the ep. Like lucy deserve to stand up to her parents herself and Tim would just calmly tell them the facts. I would want to see this in s6. We saw Tim met with Rachel and ashley parents we can do it even with a short season it's just 1 ep. Maybe then, in the next season we could see Lucy parents finally try. You know I imagine season 7 to be the engagement for chenford so they could work on building the relationship during the preparation for the wedding. Because I don't see the end of episode ending with a good note for the daughter/parents in my scenario. It wouldn't be realistic and too easy. Not me making up a full scenario in my head. At least now we know it will prob not happen lol

It's the rookie so the storyline with the parents could be a hit or a miss tbh as we know sometimes they miss. 🤐 hoping for the best tho as always!

See, this is why I'm a bit conflicted about Vanessa showing up again because I don't know what I want to see.

On the one hand, I wish she would come back just so Lucy could stand up for herself and finally confront her mom on her hypocrisy because it's a very much needed conversation. I think it could be very cathartic for Lucy. And to be frank, I thought that was where we were headed with the reveal of her bio dad… Alas, it went nowhere (for now). But on the other hand, I kind of want Vanessa to make amends. To admit that she was wrong. It may be too unrealistic (and it certainly wouldn't happen within one episode) but at the same time, I want Lucy to have some closure. Not that she can't have that in that other scenario of course.

Now should Vanessa make a come back, I absolutely can imagine your scenario, with her showing up unannounced (like she did in 2.05) and thus finding out about Tim - especially if he was the one to open the door #awkward. I doubt very much Lucy would voluntarily mention her relationship to her parents, not in the current atmosphere. She's far too protective for that. I get the feeling that while she is still in contact with them, she also does the bare minimum - like sending flowers for the big dates and that's it. Which honestly is more than they deserve. So the only 'Tim and Vanessa meet' scenario I can picture at the moment is the accidental one. Be it an impromptu visit at Lucy's apartment, at the station, at the hospital… or by sheer coincidence.

I do think that Lucy would be overall wary of her mother. Considering how Vanessa's last visit went, she would be on edge the whole time. I don't know if Tim's divorce would be a point of contention : I feel like the age difference, his job and the fact that he was Lucy's TO would take precedence over that. Although I'm not ruling it out either. And I have no doubt either that Lucy would stand up for herself. She did it several times already after all. But that's also why I want Tim to support her here. Because it has to be tiresome for her to have to justify her choices and happiness over and over again, knowing full well that it's not going to change her parents' minds. As amazing as Jackson was for standing up to Vanessa, Lucy didn't see it. And neither did we. So it would be nice for her to see someone in her corner. Especially since up to this point, Tim has been playing the devil's advocate and has defended Vanessa's behavior several times.

I don't know if it can fit in S6, since there seems to be a lot of intense storylines already, but it could work for s7, yes.

[gritsandbrits]

Since today marks the 40th anniversary of thomas and friends (the show) I'd like to share personal story.

I first got into thomas when i was a little girl. I wasn't scared of the sudden closeups on the characters faces, or the crashes or the unmoving expressions. It was quite the opposite, i was fascinated. There was something about the vibe that drew me in. It wasnt a cartoon but it wasn't realistic either. The characters didnt have traditional voice actors yet they had a personality and charm that made me eant to see what will these guys do next.

We had tapes of the Alec Baldwin and George Carlin narrations, I used to play Make Some Happy on Repeat. I think i still have it, it's in storage and i hope to burn in onto a disc one day.

I was surprised when the show transitioned to CGI. But i still wasn't entirely against it. If anything i wanted to see where it would go. I was pleased when the show finally had dofferent VAs for the characters. Narration was great and all but i loved the idea of the guys having their own VAs and got a little tired of the female characters sounding the same. Eve. When the show started to get bad, even during the Dharon Miller era, i still got my ass up as 7 am in the morning to watch episodes on pbs kids every Sunday. I didn't care. I just liked watching colorful trains and loved seeing new characters and locations.

Thomas gotten me through some pretty rough patches in childhood, and I had a lot. It showed me a world where problems can be eaisly fixed and mistakes arent the end of the world. It taught me it was okay to ask for help, that i shouldn't tackle everything by myself. Now, you might be surprised giving i tend to criticize a lot of stuff but I am also someone who embraces change. In a way, the shoes ups and down taught me sometimes you just have ti acceot everything will not be exactly the same as you want.

It's this mindset that's currently helping me through another rough time. I admit, i was too hard all all Engins go, but watching some if the episodes I came to actually like some of it. Thought it probably helped that i got turned off by the massive backlash, I felt other fans were too harsh to the point of bein downright gross. I don't want to be like them. So i had to let go of that anger and see the positive AEG has. Ironically it was this specific incarnation that really got me into drawing fanart, which was how i came up for my Shining Time Station reboot.

Without thomas, i wouldn't have met my friends. I wouldn't have gotten back into art, since i have drawn some ttte art and even rewriting the magic railroad. Speaking of, TATMR got me into fantasy, I remmberthe first time I watched it was on HBO kids and was intrigued because it literally never referenced in the shoe and i didnt grow up with Shining Time. For all its faults I still enjoy the movie. I'm even making a custom ken doll of Junior conductor. I credit thomas for helping me find my true love with Junior, i dont care if he's fictional, he's my f/o and I care about him greatly.

As for the blue man himself, I relate to thomas a lot. We're both bossy and tempered, but we're also friendly and hardworking. We slip up and pick ourselves back up. I guess, seeing thomas handling failure has gotten me to reconsider how I've been viewing life and needing yo stop defining myself on my faults. He's flawed yet still likable and beloved, so maybe, I can have a chance too.

I used to think the color blue is overrated, moresore than pink, but thanks to rediscovering Thomas, I now admit I love the color blue. It reminds me of thomas and how i should work on improving myself and my worldviews.

So, thank you thomas and friends. Thank you for being in my childhood and reminding me Adulthood should'nt have to be a cesspool of misery. I can't wait to see what the next 40 years would bring!

[stealerofthe2ndbraincell]

what are your top 5 in9 episode endings?

Oooh I loved thinking about this, thank you! It was great re-examining these episodes specifically through that lens.

Honourable mentions to The Last Weekend and Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room. With the former I'd feel like I was repeating myself a bit.

5. The Bones of St. Nicholas

When making this list, this was tied with BCDR but I feel like TBOSN is incredibly underrated so I thought I might as well.

With the frequent flashes back to different "Warning's" Jasper was given in regards to his fate, this episode could have easily felt like it was spoon feeding details to you. Imo it avoids that completely.

I really like the decision to not make whatever supernatural force is involved explicit in nature or even that malevolent. Granted the motorbike accident with Posy and Jasper's hanging still happens, but the narrative doesn't seem to paint them as a result of evil intent.

We as the audience get to see exactly how Jasper ended up in that situation and, although his actions to reach St. Nicholas' jawbone were quite extreme, it still feels understandable how Jasper never picked up on those clues even when they're in your face - similar to the audience. He's realising what's going on at the same time as the audience.

I think this ending does an excellent job at using those flashbacks to give the audience just the right amount of information without forcing it down your throat and removing the mystery entirely.

Finally, the last bit of Jasper hanging from the tower as the other shoe drops (>:) ) was superb.

4. To Have And To Hold

The concluding shot of Adrian in chains reaching for the pot noodle is fully seared into my mind.

This isn't an ending I would call that positive, considering the surrounding circumstances and context. For example, Agnes telling Harriet that she should have left Adrian to die and reminding her of how long her torture went on for at the hands of him really reflects how not happy of an ending it is. Things are definitely better, but Adrian is still present. That uncomfortable air never vanishes.

However, it is an ending that is incredibly satisfying regardless. I think a lot of it has to do with Nicola Walker's excellent performance and that chilling recollection of the marriage vows she does before the final revelation of what has become of Adrian.

3. Mr. King

Describing it as the "ending" is pushing it a bit as the whole reveal actually takes up the last 7 minutes of a 29 minute episode, but I do really love how this one ends so I'm taking some liberty with that. lol

I love the Wickerman-esque ritual so much.

This ending makes sure to take what it's doing seriously, because otherwise it would be at risk of not matching the menacing atmosphere it contains. For example, the reveal that the criteria Alan had matched for this was having good dick and being "uncut and still sheathed" would be easy to take as ridiculous if the scene did not take it as seriously as it did - with that doll being stuffed down his trousers really driving that home.

The costume design for this ending twist is absolutely incredible. The children's masks still manage to remain intimidating within the context of the ritual sacrifice even though they are clearly made from arts and crafts materials children that age would realistically use. Winnie's entire "Mother Womb" outfit is genuinely horrifying and I'm mildly surprised they were able to get away with that in front of the child actors cause that would give me nightmares at that age. Finally, Alan's "Mr. King" mask used in the ending is so excellently made with tons of little details that I love: the little eye slits where all you get to see of his face is truly how terrified Alan is in that moment, the crown and facial hair being made seemingly from wheat to tie his sacrifice even closer to the incoming harvest etc etc.

This whole ending blends the two concepts of childish and intimidating really well where it doesn't feel suddenly dissimilar to how children talk and behave but remains so chilling and distressing throughout. Poor Alan wow.

2. The Stakeout

I love myself some vampires, what can I say more than that?

This ending contains probably my favourite twist of the whole series and reveals it in a kind of similar manner to TBOSN and achieves it's goal in a similar way - Varney's reveal of him listing down different vampire tropes that apply to him that have been scattered through the episode feels both in line with how the episode discusses tropes and never feels like it's spoon-feeding information to the audience. It also doesn't give up all the tropes seen within the episode. Just 5 that most people, and Thommo, would recognise.

The sudden shift in characterisation of Varney doesn't feel too far gone personality wise to what we've seen so far and yet he's suddenly so much intimidating.

This is even before he goes absolutely HAM on Thompson's neck. That entire feeding bit is so good. Varney feeding on Thompson is a little too long and a little too detailed for it not to discomfort the audience a bit and I love that.

(Btw it's described as very "homoerotic" in the official Inside Inside No 9 podcast, so take that as you will. I have an entire thing in my head that I could write up about how queer this entire episode is but that's unrelated and a bit rambly lmao)

That final bit with Dobson is also superb. For as little screentime as he has, Malik Ibheis as Dobson is such a great physical actor. There is that immediate impression of Dobson's absolute feral nature at this point which is done very well.

And it all feeds back to the beginning little monologue again! Love that.

1. Wise Owl

God I adore this episode.

And I especially love this ending. It's an instant tear jerker, I love it, I love Ronnie. 5 stars no notes. <333

That final sequence in the whole 70's PSA format as Ronnie grows, whilst Wise Owl is yelling the same insults desperately and pathetically is so impactful and also so different to the rest of the series in my opinion.

(Also with it keeping that style on the "Get Stuffed" final line makes it seem like Ronnie isn't even looking at his father/Wise Owl when he says it, which is perfect to me.)

In9 isn't exactly a stranger to more positive endings or an ending where a hateable individual is punished by the narrative, but Wise Owl feels a step apart, it truly feels hopeful in a way I can't say the other endings have.

I still think this episode would be really good if it had gone with a more messed up ending as I think the episode forebodes a bit, however I believe that final confrontation and the final animated sequence really makes Wise Owl as incredible as it is.

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale Reviews: ML Season 5 episode 25 and 26: Confrontation and Re-creation

Since both episodes are out, I will review them both. Time to find out if the finale can bring it home

Spoilers below

-Gabriel and Tomoe think they are doing this for their own good. Should have called this episode Delusion.

-So they giving everyone nightmares, at least Adrien isn’t alone in suffering

-Ladrien dream was actually Marinette in ladybug armor. It looked cool but I wanted Ladrien

-Gabriel died in the dream, still don’t get how that’s a nightmare. (Marinette really forgot chat blanc existed

- okay Marinette’s parents dreams are adorable. Tom you sweet man, and Sabine care about their children and eachother.

-oh snap, Alya’s nightmare. Actually realistic and terrifying. For her at least.

-Tikki saw the food. Get it girl.

-Adrien technically been dealing with it the longest… but now it’s not special. Everyone be suffering

-they have a tech antidote for nightmares

-Damn, that is disturbing. And Adrien will probably use it… baby no.

-Okay he resisted. Good for him. Well it wasn’t an order, but still. Adrien is trying.

-Plagg mocking Gabriel.

-Plagg gonna be a menace today

-how many rings does that robot have

-Adrien giving up his miraculous out of despair. What a surprise, he’s gonna be out of the final fight. At least for now. Plagg gotta go get ladybug.

-Tikki ate all them bread. Respect

-“it’s not personal, it’s for Adrien.” That’s PRETTY FUCKING PERSONAL

-Nathalie’s nightmare is basically Gabriel winning. Glad she realized the truth on that… even if it was too little too late.

-Nathalie got a crossbow. KILL GABRIEL WITH IT

-oh damn, I knew all meditation apps were evil!

-Plagg flying across the ocean to get to Ladybug. Plagg will always be the light of my life

-Ladybug finding out Nathalie was A Lara croft

-Plagg gonna be smart about this

-Alliance showing why tech companies are all evil

-THEY ALL DOWNLOADED THE APP! NOT THE RESISTANCE. NOW NO ONE CAN RESISTANCE

-MYLENE THE GOAT! Mylene has shot up so much in my favorite classmate rankings

-Ivan's nightmare sounds adorable

-Mylene start slapping them please. NINO MUST BE DEEP HYPNOTIZED

-NO MYLENE DONT DO IT! And she dropped down in my rankings again

-Damn it, she was tricked by her friends

-Gabriel's cliche speech to Emilie. Blah blah blah. WHAT MORALITY?! YOU WERE ONCE A BRITISH CHIP MAKER?!

-NATHALIE GONNA SHOOT HIM! DO IT! END THIS MAN NATHALIE

-Gabriel really did the 'Appeal to her humanity' then betray her. Dude said he threw away his morality.

-Imagine the last thing you see is that ugly ass costume

-Ladybug learns Nathalie had all of the stuff

-Ladybug just saw that Monarch was Gabriel. Damn. I think thats a first

-Gabriel really just out here slandering and then leaving her with the poison app.

-DID NATHALIE JUST FUCKING DIE?! SHE GAVE EXPOSITION AND DIED

-Okay this is silly how they are turning everyone against Ladybug and Chat noir

-WAIT IS THAT FEI!

-Im convinced every adult in this show is an idiot.

-Oh good, alya is being logical.

-Oh wow, okay so the charm and Cataclysm that gabriel got actually are useful to his plan. Well played. Now die

-OH That is evil. Miraculize me.

-Damn it, i wanted cat alya.

-They tracking her.

-Well I gotta admit, the Alliance minion making is probably Gabriel's most effective plan. But like all plans, the women involved did the heavy lifting

-Ladybug hid by detransforming

-Gabriel is a little TOO enthusiastic about going to find a vulnerable teenage girl in his house

-Plagg finding out that Monarch was in his house the whole time.

-LADYBUG CAT NOIR UNIFICATION!

-KICKED IN THE FACE!

-BUG NOIR!. Okay so I am very mixed on the outfit, but the entrance and that confidence is stunning.

______________________________________________________________

(This is my reaction before watching part 2, so here is my quick thoughts)

For all the stakes and reveals. If I were to rate this by itself I would say... 7/10. I dont like how Adrien is absent for this whole thing. I really hope that this changes and Adrien somehow gets pulled in. Because quite frankly... THIS IS A BIG THING

______________________________________________________________

Okay now for part 2, recreation

-Oh its Lila or Cerise or... WHOMEVER THE F*** SHE IS.

-Seems Alec also had a s*** father.

-What is Lila even doing?

-SHE DROPPED A PIANO ON HIS HEAD! Beautiful

-She's beating his ass!

-Meanwhile back on the boat.

-Rose showing why she has CRAZY ASS STRENGTH

-WANG BE SMACKING BITCHES WITH HIS WOK!

-OMG, SU HAN TRAINED JAGGED STONE AND PENNY IN KUNG FU. Which means luka too.

-hold on, so NO FERNANDO!? 0/10. Needs more fernando.

-BUNNYX! Taking Luka to Paris.

-"I cant interfere, but YOU can."

-Please tell me Fang also knows mirakungfu

-HOT DOG DAN!!!!! THE GREATEST HERO OF ALL TIME! 10/10

-Oh right, Majestia too. To a lesser extent.

-Majestia makes a point.

-Yo, they gave Knight owl an upgrade.

-So basically Majestia and Knight owl are if Super man and Batman were lesbians.

-Monarch does have a point. He has 15 miraculous.

-I do enjoy Monarch getting flipped and kicked

-Did he just cough up Dust? Oh he is dying in real time

-Doesnt he look so redeemable (Sarcasm)

-BEAT HIS ASS WITH A SHOVEL!

-Darkowl was saved

-YO! I just realized that Eagle is the perfect counter for this power.

-Alya's sister split a building in half

-Power of the buffalo. I think the sub meant bull

-Bug noir brings the house down

-FANG!!!!!!!!!!! MVP MVP

-Luka has a cute name for his sister, thats adorable. Okay only 2/10 now

-Also this proves Mirakung fu is easy as hell to learn. so WHY DIDNT SU HAN TEACH LADYBUG AND CHAT NOIR!

-Su han, "How can you resist the nightmare."

-Knight owl: "I am the nightmare." That is so batman its hilarious

-FEI COMES IN LIKE A F***ING BEAST!

-Why even use any other transformation, the Dragon is so OP.

-Okay so The typical back and forth between hero and villain. Yea this was expected.

-Adrien wouldnt want this. Adrien wants that. You know who should have a say here? ADRIEN! That would be nice.

-Marinette is clearly more right, obviously. but I still wish Adrien could speak for himself.

-Okay so the heroes are getting widdled down, lila is hacking into the mansion

-Yo! she got a ton of rings with glue and a boomerang. Nice

-She knocked the butterfly off. (which is my bet on how Lila got it)

-So bugnoir won. Nice!

"Check mate." DAMN That was a hard line drop

-And then its ruined because Ladybug sees this guy only has a few hours left to live.

-What is she doing?

-Marinette what the hell are you doing?

-You mean to tell me that Nathalie could have just tied his ass up earlier and made him watch it and that probably could have prevented the whole events.

-But lets be honest, the only reason Gabriel feels the way he does right now is because his plan failed and he is dying

-IT TOOK A 30 SECOND CLIP. 30 F***ING SECONDS

-Yes, you did ruin everything. Now die sad.

-Gabriel is like "You make the wish"

-AND Marinette gets betrayed. She tried to Steven Universe this bit but ended up Venomed.

-Well at least Gabriel is still a dick.

-Reveal yourselves?

OH DAMN! THEY LOOK SO FUCKING COOL!!!

-I can see a certain group of fans being happy with these designs.

-GIMMI. THE KWAMI OF REALITY?!

-Oh damn so thats their fused form.

-Wait, why didnt Ladybug and Chat noir just summon their kwami's god forms to fight?

-Gimmi is a whole ass mood

-Gabriel, you dont deserve to be remembered as a good father. You were s***

-So Gabriel wins. yea this f***ing sucks

-Universe gets wiped

-WTF. Its a utopia?!

-Adrien gets two moms

-Glad everyone is having a grand old time but... wtf

-Oh look a NORMAL BABY!

-There are so many jokes I can make here but I will abstain.

-THEY GAVE GABRIEL A F***ING STATUE

-A world without Gabriel agreste meme here

-I really want to see this utopia completely uprooted and turned into chaos more than anything

-It sucks because there is some PRIME adrinette moment right in front of me, but it just feels like Adrien is left in the dark and gaslit.

-A cute kiss. But something seems wrong

-So they fixed the miraculous but the butterfly is missing (called it)

-Wait, Everyone gets a miraculous now?!

ALSO NO REVEAL WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!

-Even Sabrina?!

-Wait, so Argos is allowed?! but how though?!

-Wait, how many endings does this episode have?

-Lila back at it again

-Wait... What the f*** happened?!

_________________________________________________________

Okay so this was a b**** and a half to finally watch

But yea. I do NOT like how this basically gave Gabriel his win.

Yea he's dead but he won.

Adrien has no idea that his father basically did that, and it makes the whole fight seem pointless.

Then there is all that utopia crap. (DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THIS. )

The adrinette is sweet and all that.

But ADRIEN IS BEING GASLIT. Its some bulls***

Also how does Marinette remember the wish? Wasnt it supposed to be some cosmic rewrite?

All I know is... I need some time to think. Do I even want to continue watching ML. Knowing that Gabriel wins and gets treated like a martyr.

Season 6 needs to start with some sort of Upheaval. Consequences need to be had.

As for my rating.

I cant give it an honest rating right now. I need to cool off.

Is it the worst written? No. But the ending has pissed me off

it feels tainted.

[ecargmura]

Cherry Magic Episode 7 Review - Their First Date

Adachi and Kurosawa go on a date! Though, it ends a bit disastrously as Kurosawa went a bit overboard, but Adachi decides to take him out on a second, calmer date to make up for it. This whole episode was them getting used to dating, which I’m glad that Adachi is finally taking some initiative. Now there’s a bigger issue at hand: what will Adachi do about his magic? Will he tell Kurosawa?

The first date portion was cute, but in a cringe way. Like, I was gushing, but I was also cringing so hard. Kurosawa’s date song was the most HILARIOUS THING ever and it gave me secondhand embarrassment as well. How many times did Ryota Suzuki attempt to do this without laughing? I’d be laughing at the very first note if I was recording this. Also, am I the only one who thinks that getting a helicopter is going a bit overboard? While it’s nice to see how smitten and devoted Kurosawa is, he did do too much. I’m glad that he learned his lesson in a way and that he doesn’t have to go overboard next time. Speaking of his voice actor, I wonder how many takes it took for him to speak that fast at the part where Adachi held his hand.

I was a bit sad that the first date ended up with Adachi being a bit too self-conscious about people’s opinions about him dating Kurosawa. Please understand that this is Adachi’s first ever date and that Kurosawa is the first person he ever dated. It’s understandable that the first date would be awkward. In fact, I feel like Adachi’s behavior is a bit realistic in a sense. Fortunately, Adachi makes up for the messy end by taking Kurosawa out on a second date where they talk about their favorite manga, looking at merch and then eating at the bar Adachi regularly goes to. As an introvert, I think that chiller dates suit them a lot better than helicopter dates. Like, I also like the fact that Adachi took the initiative and asked him out on another date and even held his hand. I do like that he’s putting in effort for dates and that he does want to make this work out too.

I do like the transition from having a successful date to now wondering about if he should tell Kurosawa about the magic and what not. When one wall is climbed, another one shows up. I feel like Kurosawa’s not going to resent Adachi for having the magic; he’s too much of a simp to hate him. I mean, look at Kurosawa at the office after the first date ended in failure; he looked like he was going to erase himself from existence. I’m sure things will work out because they’re both surprisingly good when it comes to voicing out their thoughts.

Speaking of which, Asahina, Kurosawa’s superior who showed up last episode appears again. He’s voiced by Hiroki Yasumoto (Chad from Bleach, Germany from Axis Powers Hetalia). He’s been in BL before, so he’s no stranger to the genre. I was surprised when his name showed up in the credits like “Wait…”

Anyways, what do you think will transpire next episode? Will Adachi tell him or will it drag out? Will their next dates after today’s episode be good ones? What are your thoughts on this episode and about Kurosawa’s date song?

[namtanlovesfilm]

axelle judges bl shows > Step by Step

summary: Phat is a young worker at Jian Group, who develops a crush on a handsome guy he spills bubble tea on. To his surprise, though, it turns out that this handsome guy... is his new boss.

where to watch: dramacool

grade: 7/10

pros:

my favorite aspect of this show is that it embraces the flaws & feelings of its characters. it lets the relationship between jeng & pat develop very slowly (as it should for this kind of story), it lets pat kiss his ex before he ever kisses jeng & realize he doesn't love him that way anymore, and many more moments that felt very realistic compared to how other shows did it. the writing really cared for the characters' motivations & feelings which I loved.

to add to the realistic aspect of the show, this truly felt much more like a lgbtq+ show than other bl shows, which was obviously really nice & I hope it becomes a trend for more thai bl shows to come.

as someone who usually prefers shorter shows, I actually really enjoyed the longer episodes here? I don't know what it is, but it really added to the show's experience for me & didn't make the show drag on or boring. my issues are more so with the writing, but the length of the episodes actually made me more attached to the story & characters that are otherwise pretty basic.

the acting & chemistry were very good. there were some moments where I thought pat's actor wasn't that great, but jeng's actor did amazing & I really wanna see more of him, as well as jaab's actor & up poompat who honestly slayed in this role. overall the chemistry between the whole cast really was amazing too & contributed to the show feeling more natural.

the show is well filmed & you can tell a lot of care was put into it, which makes the watching experience more pleasant.

cons:

jaab & jane are truly the most underdeveloped side ship relationship I've ever seen??? nothing happened in their story, and they got reunited OFF SCREEN??? this is truly the biggest failure of a side ship I've ever seen, especially since these two had great chemistry. idk what happened here but this was NOT it.

the show really lost me in its second half when it became about pat crying every goddamn five minutes. it honestly made me lose empathy for him after a while even though he was a character I really liked at first. moreover, if a character cries all the time, it lessens the emotional impact it has on its viewers. as an example, we barely see jeng cry at all during the show, yet, when he does, it was WAY more impactful. I think there's a way to write a crybaby character, but this was not the way here.

overall basically all the side characters except chot are useless & served no purpose, also what was the point of beam being in love with ae while she's with kanun?? literally so useless, it ends up being discussed as a non issue & added absolutely nothing to the show.

I fucking hate when there's a one or two year gap in a story for no reason other than to reunite the characters last minute & pretend that ending is satisfying enough, so it's no surprise I hated the two year break in the last episode. it's become so overused in bl shows & it's fucking annoying, we saw no growth from the characters & them getting back together after two years felt very unrealistic, when pat's love for jeng had never even been shown to be that deep.

sorry but the age gap between the actors bothered me. even on screen, the fact that this is a boss/employee story will always bother me, especially since there's quite an age gap, but irl? every time I remembered pat's actor is only 21 years old & there's 11 years between him & jeng's actor, I cringed. I know it's legal or whatever, but it just bothered me during my watching experience.

I have no idea if this is nitpicky or if it bothered other people, but there are very big continuity jumps between scenes in the same episode regarding pat's actor face & haircut. he looks way younger in certain scenes than others, some that even happened one after the other. it's probably bc they filmed the pilot teaser way before the rest of the show but it was VERY distracting to me.

this is very much a me thing, but the english segments were way too numerous & long. we get it, pat's actor can speak english & jeng's actor is half white, but idk... it bothered me.

would I rewatch it: probably not...

Overall there's a lot that this show put out that I truly appreciated. But sadly it really lost traction as episodes passed, and ended up quite disappointing to me. I did still like many things & will remember this show for them, though.

[scaryspears]

Baby Reindeer Review + Rant

So I watched Baby Reindeer. I'm going to be honest, I wasn't interested at first, but it gained a lot of attention by Tiktokers. I don't have my own Netflix account, so when my mum travelled and I had access to her TV, I took a chance while I could. 7 episodes, 20-30 minutes each. 

I feel like the suspense was ruined since I knew it was a stalker situation, but I guess I was patient enough to see what would happen. I heard people talking about how Martha was scary, or how they found Baby Reindeer to be a horror, and I must admit that it wasn't the same case for me. When I think of horror I think of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or Ichi the Killer. If we're going to argue about realistic situations when I'm going to throw in Audition 1999, a film about a man ignoring red flags and suffering the consequences of chasing after a woman he had no business chasing. Perhaps I have tainted my mind of so many disgusting images that I didn't register that I was watching a horror.

Speaking of ignoring red flags, I understood that Donnie was a victim, and I understand that trauma can affect how a person views the world and how they may navigate certain situations. I know Richard Gadd was sort of confronting himself when retelling that story, and how it's to investigate his psychology. But I also understood that he was an idiot.

A part of me genuinely thought his gender had something to do with it. How men will see a situation vs how women will see a situation. The Man vs Bear situation influenced that thought process of mine. But the episode that opens up about him being groomed and taken advantage of cancelled that out. Maybe he kept underestimating Martha because he sees a poor little woman who needs help.

Martha is a dangerous person, yet he entertained her, sort of. It was clear that he wanted to set boundaries, but didn't know how to, especially if her feelings were going to be hurt. Somehow Martha found her way around it, and when he did set a boundary for sure she started lashing out. She became worse, and yet somehow he was still able to hold sympathy for her. I think that sympathy is forgiveness, but not the kind that demands you to run with caution, the kind that convinces you to give one more chance.

One act of kindness was punished. Is punished. While I can relate, a vengeful part of me scolds him instead. Martha attacked Teri. I hated how Martha was made out to be someone to sympathise with. She threatened and hurt people, and is shown to be a bit of a racist and maybe a homophone, meaning she's an overall unpleasant person. I don't care if she has mental health problems, that doesn't make her innocent or someone I should sympathise with. Do you know what's also mental health? A 36 year old man stabbing a 14 year old boy to death in Hainault. That actually happened.

As soon as a mentally unwell individual starts harming people it's wraps. Donnie contacted the police, but didn't tell the police about Teri. He went along with his dead-end-job coworkers about not reporting what Martha did at the bar to the police because it would be bad for business. The same coworkers who looked through his email and sent that inappropriate message to Martha, making things worse for Donnie. He willingly associated himself with bad people, and willingly put himself through sticky situations. Also, faking who he is on a dating app? Scary. Yes, Donnie is a victim, but he's a massive idiot. Like people who continue to let others suck the life out of them even though they know they shouldn't. Dogs returning to vomit.

I didn't psychoanalyse him while watching the show, but now that I think about his actions, he's just as bad a person. Yes, he told off Martha after she attacked Teri, but it shouldn't have ever gotten that far in the first place. Richard Gadd was honest about not being a 'woe is me' character, and how his younger self made many dumb decisions. I also know that info on stalking was quite limited at the time, such as the fact that giving them attention makes things worse. Donnie saw her at the bus stop, spacing out, and instead of leaving her there to suffer he got her home. But even that act of kindness, Martha still contacted his family to send threats. She didn't stop being a horrible person. No good deed goes unpunished with people like this. No matter what way it is framed, Martha is not a poor little misunderstood creature, she's a monster.

Conclusion: Baby Reindeer, while an entertaining watch, just made me angry. It makes me think of people who are naive and are forced to learn the hard way. No matter how many times they learn, the lesson doesn't hit.

[thetimetraveler24]

PJO Episode Rankings

Episode 4: I Plunge to My Death

Episode 8: The Prophecy Comes True

Episode 5: A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers

Episode 3: We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium

Episode 2: I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom

Episode 1: I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre Algebra Teacher

Episode 6: We Take a Zebra to Vegas

Episode 7: We Find Out the Truth, Sort Of

Key:

Good — Okay — Nope

My Thoughts:

Episode 4: Probably the only episode with a monster/fight scene I really liked and thought was well done. It was drawn out just enough that tension was raised. Even knowing what was going to happen, my heart was racing the whole time. Loved the Percabeth convo on the train when they should be sleeping. I feel like maybe that will be the callback they make when we get to the stables scene maybe? I really loved the addition of having the Arch as a temple to Athena. Loved the splashing Percy with water scene. Echidna was fabulous. Percy switching with Annabeth? Chefs kiss 😘

Episode 8: Ares fight was good. My only complaint was we never saw Percy develop water powers throughout the whole season so the wave comes out of nowhere without knowing his thought process behind it like we see in the books. I wish we got Ares cursing Percy because I truly believe the moment his sword fails him is end of MoA when he cannot use his sword to save Annabeth and cut the web. I’m sure there’s other ways to show how gut wrenching this is but I’m going to miss this when we get there. Also, disappointed there was no free appliance give away scene on the news but it didn’t seem like Gabe had a job in the show so I guess that wouldn’t have worked out anyway. Luke scene didn’t play out how I hoped but it was still a gut punch and having Annabeth be there was a fantastically angsty decision I’m loving.

Episode 5: This episode was Percabeth perfection honestly. Live laugh love Percabeth. The whole Grover and Ares thing was cool but also threw me off because I honestly don’t think the writers got Grover’s personality right. Aryan’s doing a great job acting what he was given, but book Grover would not be having this conversation. Not a huge fan of having Hephaestus present in this season, but I understand they had to figure out a different storyline because they couldn’t animate the spiders.

Episode 3: Bickering between the trio was great. I liked the consensus song. Loved the Medusa change. One problem. It was very sudden that they switched to trying to kill Medusa after Percy went to all the trouble to defend her and the episode painted her as a victim. It didn’t feel right to me. I think we could have explored that more and worked towards a shift in not trusting her anymore. Y’all could have shown the head too. Like it’s okay. Guarantee, middle schoolers can handle it. Also, we needed longer fight scenes. Draw it out, get my heart pounding because I’m so nervous about what happens next. Please.

Episode 2: Capture the Flag was a great scene. I guess there was one other episode with a well done fight scene. I think Clarisse and Percy’s fight was paced pretty well and it seemed realistic enough. I do wish the scenes with Luke showing Percy how to sword fight were before this because we don’t really get an explanation for why he’s suddenly pretty good at fighting.

Episode 1: It was a good start. I wish we focused more on Yancy and Nancy as Percy and Grover’s bully. I was hyped to see this played out and then Nancy got like a minute of screen time. There was a lot of exposition in this episode which is fine and expected but I feel like there was maybe too much? Some of the explanations could have happened in the next episode. Minotaur and Dodds fights were very anticlimactic. I was getting so hyped for the Minotaur fight and the second my heart started racing the Minotaur was beaten. Like… draw it out more. Build the tension.

Episode 6: We did not need Hermes. Didn’t need him. This episode humanized the gods a little too much and that’s not how this works. The gods are supposed to be deadbeat douchebags. They aren’t coming across that way. Also. Too much telling, not enough showing. Didn’t need to know it was the Lotus Eaters who ran the place. Let it play out please!!! That’s how you get suspense. If you let these scenes play out more then you wouldn’t have to force some tension by making the Solstice pass.

Episode 7: Easily the worst episode. All telling, no showing. Crusty was too easily beaten. Cerberus eating Grover was so stupid and unnecessary. Again, Grover was very ooc (all season but especially this episode). The pearl should have rolled into Tartarus. That would have been much more devastating. They also don’t even name Tartarus? As far as I can remember anyway. Like, obviously I know what that pit is but I read the books. Would you know what the pit was if you hadn’t read them? Hades was not giving god energy. Percy notes in the books that he was the only one to give off a godly vibe. I am coming around to his portrayal but I’m still not totally sold. Percy shouldn’t have figured out Kronos so quickly. Again. All telling, no showing this episode. Let us watch him put the pieces together. It’s not that hard, I promise.

Other Notes:

I wish Hades palace and Mount Olympus actually looked identical like in the books. Sad not to see that.

On the note of Hades being the only one to appear godly to Percy, I wish we could have gotten the gods fire eyes stuff. That was so cool in the books. And I wish the gods were made to look slightly bigger. Like seven foot maybe? Just slightly bigger so they tower taller than the lowly demigods, but also not totally out of proportion of a real human. The gods all appeared so… small. I liked Luke’s small, scary things get crushed speech and it would have been so in line with that to see very tall very big gods. Like, Hades’s throne room should not dwarf him. And it did. He was an ant and Percy and Grover were slightly smaller ants.

Anyway, these are all my thoughts for now. Probably will have to go back through and rewatch again to see if my opinions change.

[claudiajcregg]

S5 Pregnancy AU - I’d love to hear about!

Welp, this is embarrassing – mostly because this has been sitting in my inbox for almost two weeks, and I kept saying “I need to write something up!” and then… I didn't. (Or rather, I did, then I forgot to post it.) Sorry for the wait, Lil! Thank you for asking <3 (I'll divide this up because I keep writing about the process and how it came to be, instead of any actual, interesting facts.)

I have talked about this one in the past though I don't have a tag for it. The gist is what it says… (Early) S5 but CJ is pregnant. I had this idea over a year ago when I hit mid/late S4 in my rewatch. I thought it'd be interesting to explore some of her disappointment at that time if you added an unexpected pregnancy to it, even if I had the idea before even getting there, lol. Think, the ending-ish of Han, or parts of Disaster Relief. (Both of which do feature! I surprisingly focus a lot on Disaster Relief.)

The thing with S5 is that the timeline is so weird, and I feel I've also created one that isn't entirely realistic but I think it works within the story. (IIRC, the season starts in “May” but also July, then the Shutdown is in November, lmao. A few of the episodes are sneaky two-parters that flow into each other… See 5-6, 7-8.) I've finally gotten out of the no-man's-land I wrote myself into and the next chapter or two, knowing myself, will deal with 7-8! There are a couple of scenes that should be fun to write! (There are so many details I want to mention that are technically spoilers for early twists…)

Every time I had the urge to write it, I'd edit whatever outline I was working in, and though I kept some details… my muse decided to make a big change early on that completely changed the fic's direction. That, and my inability to write anything succinctly. No reason why this story will cross the 100k barrier in a couple of chapters, tops. (It's sitting at 85k across 12 chapters. I think it'll be less than 20 chapters total. Hopefully.)

This might be too long to share snippets, but I've shared some either on the server or here, a couple of months ago.

For more irrelevant details on the “process”…

As I hinted at, I wrote an outline or two around this time last year, because I couldn't stop thinking about it. When I say outlines, it's a general path for the story to follow – ideas, suggestions of dialogue and/or scenes I write to myself; all focused around some sort of chapter structure. I find it much easier to write if I write down where a chapter might go, even if it's just a few lines saying “This happens → then this → finally this;” otherwise, it takes me months. Some would say that I should post it and get encouragement that way but… I hate being dependent on something I can control even less than my muse? That's not for me, thank you. Mad respect for those who work like that.

It was meant to be short – 1-2 “long” chapters per trimester, more if needed, but then interludes in between trimesters. It's not that. Most chapters currently cover 1-2 weeks, but there is not really a pattern. I was afraid of having a fic that would take over my life like the WOWO did three years ago… And it has, but I've also taken breaks and not felt too guilty about them. I definitely don't want this one to sit in my drive and have me wondering what to do with it.

(The novel, aka WOWO, aka IM AU (2021): 150k written in a little over five months, even with extended breaks over the summer. Still hits, even with all its crazy decisions, maybe because of them, but it's also been too long, and it will always remind me of someone who kinda hurt me. Attempts to replace those memories by sharing the story with others, trying to gather whether it's worth posting, have failed, lmao. One day! Maybe!)

But yeah. Uuuuuhhhh. As I've said… Twelve chapters in ten months, 85k words… It's still not done. In fact, I've repeatedly said I am unsure of how to end it (beyond the obvious), but I'd estimate it to be under 20 chapters. I'm not posting it anywhere yet because I want to be able to edit it as a whole and try to make it more consistent; to add little details as I come up with them. There's also the fact that I am not skilled enough to write a compelling story that mixes politics and emotion into something remotely engaging. As a result, the story's politics are very surface-level, and probably repetitive at points, but it's also true I've always been more interested and focused on the emotional journey and the relationship(s) at its center. (Which should surprise exactly no one who's ever read one of my stories.)

But, as critical as I might sound of myself here, I am having fun writing this and I'm committed to seeing it through. I just keep having ideas for stories down the line, putting actual show events through a 'but she also has a kid' perspective.

[t-u-i-t-c]

4, 12 & 16 for the toku ask

4. Thoughts on what you’re currently watching/watched most recently?

Currently I'm watching King-Ohger and rewatching Ryusoulger.

I'm very happy with how King-Ohger has been going, especially with handling Racules' reveal. I really appreciated how they made it clear that he had done bad things and things that really were unforgivable, such as doing nothing during the Fury of the Gods. I like that he says himself that people should not sympathize with him, as even though he'd been in a difficult circumstance it was no excuse to endanger others. I also really like how the dots connect, like how each little slip of information he gave or each little tactic he pulled had relevance. It was all very meticulous and I really do like how they planned everything out for him, including only letting Masato know what was going on with his character. It made his scenes feel all the more impactful knowing that the King-Ohgers as well as the actors playing them were unaware of Racules' plans most of the time. I just think it's nice to see Racules accepting accountability and putting in the work to help the King-Ohgers in their final battles and with menial tasks.

Another thing I'm liking is the relationships between the characters. I do think one of the highlights of Super Sentai is the group dynamic and I think the King-Ohgers have a really solid and strong group dynamic amongst them. I think it was good that they put a time skip in the middle of the series, because it allowed us to realistically believe that the relationships established in the first half could naturally end up where they are now due to the time that passed between those two years. It makes it so we don't have to bother with the King-Ohgers questioning one another or falling out over small things, but also allows the civilians' opinions to change as well. Really the time skip has the most impact on Jeramie and Gira, as they both became kings not long before the time skip and were able to get comfortable in their roles as kings without us having to see them learn how to be kings over an extended period.

I do have more thoughts on King-Ohger but I'll leave it at that for now.

As for Ryusoulger, I have made multiple posts throughout my rewatch liveblog. I do have a lot of thoughts on the lore as I am trying to document it but there's a lot. I will probably make a post about it at some point in the future though.

12. Weirdest thing you’ve seen?

Aside from Mario's working cow costume, Kakuranger episode 7... If you know you know.

16. Do you collect any merch?

Yes, it's part of the fun of it all for me. I collect all sorts of things from plushies to photobooks to figures and more. I have a tag where I post things in my toku collection from time to time here.

Toku 20 Questions

[tiggymalvern]

Burn Notice - s7 rewatch

I finished rewatching season 7 of Burn Notice a couple of weeks ago now, and on second watch, it worked better for me than it did the first time. The first time, the ending felt rushed, and I didn’t entirely buy into Michael’s switch of allegiance; but knowing it was coming, and watching the details more carefully, it seemed more realistic. And I’ve been pondering over it since, poking over what I felt were flaws on first viewing, and it holds together a lot better than I thought. It always made sense that Michael would turn against the CIA, given how they treated him and everyone he cares about, given the corruption he uncovered among them. On first watch, though, I didn’t buy that turning against the CIA would immediately mean siding with James. There had to be a third option. Except there pretty much wasn’t, from Michael’s perspective. He didn’t know that the rest of the gang were already working on the ‘get the hell out of the country’ plan – and even if he had known, the last time they all tried that, it went appallingly badly. Michael’s first choice for getting out was to die. He expected James to shoot him in the head, and he was so done with everything, he was fine with it. But James didn’t – instead he exploited Michael’s weakness. He knew that Michael was doing everything to keep the people he loved out of prison, and he offered Michael another way to do that. When Michael was in the world’s shittiest frame of mind and not likely to be making good choices, James dangled a carrot in front of him. And Michael being Michael, if he decides he’s going to do something, he goes for it 100%. That’s always been one of his primary strengths, but applied in the wrong circumstances, it becomes a massive flaw. In Nature of the Beast, Michael admits to Sam that he’s struggling, that he likes James and Sonya despite who they are, and he says he’s relying on Sam to help him. Two episodes later, when Fiona confronts him about it, he’s all, ‘Nope, I’m fine, nothing to worry about here.’ I don’t think he would have said that if he and Fiona had still been an item. But he knows that she’s moved on with Carlos, and there’s a combination there of Michael not wanting to dump his crap on her when she wants nothing to do with his world anymore, and Michael not wanting to rely on her when he’s no longer her priority. It’s a case where he’s protecting both of them from each other, I think, but it results in him turning away from support even though he knows he needs it. And he turns away from it more after some of the things he has to do. After he has to kill Roger Steele, after he watches James shoot the useless dude. Michael’s got some pretty bad self-loathing going on at that point, and he’s deliberately dodging the rest of the team because he doesn’t want them judging him too. When he needs help the most, he won’t ask for it any more. It's been apparent for a long time that Michael’s the most dangerous of the Burn Notice crew. Fiona’s dangerous because of what she might do when she’s furious, in a particularly bad moment. Michael’s dangerous because of what he might do when he’s cold and semi- rational. Because of that Larry-like part of him that’s he admits is in there. Michael might do terrible things when he’s not actually all that rational, but he thinks he is, and that can be so much worse. Sam and Jesse, meanwhile, are the stable ones of the group. Which isn’t to say that they can’t get angry enough to want to murder someone – they absolutely can. But they nail that shit down. It’s most obvious with Sam when they’re interrogating the guy who tells them how he took Sam’s friend out into the Everglades and shot him in the back of the head. At which point Michael grabs Sam and hauls him out of there – good call, you should absolutely do that. But later, Sam’s back inside asking the guy who paid him to do it. Which makes sense, because you don’t make the cut for a SEAL team if you can’t get a grip on yourself under just about any circumstances. And Jesse somehow manages not to murder Michael after he figures out Michael was the one who destroyed his life. Those two guys are reliable pretty much anywhere and anywhen – they’re the stability Michael needs to be utilising and isn’t. Another big flaw of Michael’s is that he’s willing to hurt people he cares about to protect them. He tells his mother early in season two that he ghosted her for ten years because he wanted to keep her away from his world. He knows the rest of the gang will vehemently disagree with what he’s doing, but Michael’s convinced himself he’s right. In his own head, he’s not turning on the gang, even when he is. When he and Sam climb out of the water after their fight, Michael leads his threat with, ‘Because we’re friends,’ - still present tense, even when he’s warning Sam to stay the hell away from him. And that fight on the bridge is SO perfectly done. We’ve seen disagreements between these two turn physical before when Sam’s tried to stop Michael from doing something stupid. With the stakes so much higher this time, neither of them were going to back down, and it was always going to get ugly. Sam knows that in a straight fight he’s going to lose, so he plays it smart and gets them into the water. It takes him a couple of tries, because Michael sees it coming. – they’re both smart. And it works. Sam has the advantage, and if he’d wanted to kill Michael, he could have. He loses because killing Michael is the absolute last thing he wants to do, and because near-drowning is so unbelievably dangerous. He has to loosen his grip and head for the surface the second Michael goes limp, and so Michael fakes him out. They both played to their strengths and their understanding of each other, and Sam really couldn’t have done anything differently. There are a couple of things in season 7 that don’t really work. First of them is that it takes Michael any time at all to make his decision on the roof. Sonya vs the woman he’s been in love with a decade – he really shouldn’t have to think about that. Even if Fiona tried to move on emotionally, it’s obvious all season that Michael hasn’t. Dramatic tension and all, but… nope. The big thing that bugs me is James’ security lapse. Sonya vouches for Michael, and then Michael gets put through days of sleep deprivation, drugs and interrogation before James will trust him. Which makes sense in a vile way. But then James takes Fiona, Sam and Jesse on trust because Michael trusts them? Meets up with them more than once, lets them see his face? Since when? It’s not even necessary for them to ever meet James. Michael could have worked with the rest of the gang exactly as Michael worked with Burke and Sonya prior to meeting James, all at one step removed. That’s what I would have expected. Yes, they have to be able to recognise James when they see him with Michael at the end of the series, and know that Michael’s lying to them. But they didn’t ever have to meet James for that. By then, they’ve already got James’ full name and background and details from his ex-colleague at the mental hospital, so they’d only need photos to recognise him. If James had stayed away from everyone but Michael and Sonya, that would have been consistent behaviour and changed nothing about the overall plot. The only detail that would have been different is that the others wouldn't have been there to see James kill the useless dude. But that could have been worked around. The others could have been all, 'Hey, where's useless dude these days?' and Michael wouldn't have wanted to explain. And they'd figure out he's dead quickly enough, and maybe they even start to speculate that maybe Michael killed him... Season 7 still has its glitches, but fairly minor ones in the overall plot arc. The writers wanted to send Burn Notice out with a dramatic bang, and they certainly did that.

[animescapist]

ANIME REACTION YUBISAKI TO RENREN Episode 3

Okay, onwards I will try to catch up to this and Dungeon Meshi cause there're quite a lot of episodes out already. You may notice I would be uploading more than one episode reaction per week for these series in particular. I want to be at least caught up in reacting to these two because they are of this season's releases.

I noticed this is already rated 8.9 in MAL. That's quite high, guys. Well, let's see if the ratings live up to my standards. As I've said before, romance genres are not my favorite. This is usually because they're either unrealistic or at the very least the characters feel like they have no substance. Romcom genres are different because they have the other goal of making the audience laugh. But romance... there should be intense emotions involved, plus it is based on real life occurence. Judging from the first 2 episodes alone, I am giving this series like a 7/10. For now that is the benchmark rating.

I want to see a bit of drama or conflict developing between these characters because that's how things realistically happen in real life and I think this anime is trying to gauge to that realistic view of romance, hopefully. And then, I can rate it higher depending on how good the conflict is written and delivered in animation. So yeah, I'll see.

I listened to the opening again, and I truly, truly hope this anime will tug my heartstrings cause the opening surely has. The song is just fcking beautiful. I feel like I want to cry listening to it.

Yours truly may or may not be heartbroken irl. (Ｔ▽Ｔ) But yo homie's strong, so everything is daijobu... janai?

Holy shit, she draws better than me! What the heck! Also, how many nights has she been making this guide? Gurl? Are you studying for college or what?!

Bro STAHP! I'm facepalming.

God-fcking dammit! This guy is so fcking effortlessly charismatic. KAAAAHHH! YUKI STAY STRONG! ME TOO, I SHOULD STAY STRONG. AAAAAAAHHH!!! Is it just me or does his voice sound deeper here? ( ͡°⁄ ⁄ ͜⁄ ⁄ʖ⁄ ⁄ ͡°)

Bro, stop. I swear. If people do this out of nowhere towards anybody, they for sure would make people feel flustered and confused. It's misleading. It turns out to be fine here since we know they'll end up together. Real life? Doubt 100000.

A question we all have in our minds when we fall in love. I totally understand, Yuki. Gambatte.

He's not wrong, to be honest. Meeting up with a guy at night these days is not very safe for girls. And she's deaf, so that's even more risky for her to go out on her own. She should at least go with someone she trusts.

Mm. I strongly resonate with his line of thought here. I know several friends who have gone to live or work abroad either because they want to live in a different culture, or they believe they will like living there. Personally, I think there are plenty of great things nearby, that you don't need to go so far to feel complete or to enjoy. Perhaps it's because they haven't found it in their motherland, that they seek for it in other lands and hope to live their best. But if they never tried to see everything their original home has to offer, it makes me think how can they truly appreciate other cultures and countries?

I ain't talking about people who have nowhere else to go though.

YOU GUYS! WHAT LITTLE GERMAN KNOWLEDGE I HAVE FROM ATTEMPTING TO STUDY IT HAS GOTTEN ME THIS FAR! AAAAAAAHHHH!!!! HOLY SHITTTTT

"Du bist süß." It means something like "You are adorable."

I'm K.O-ed. This guy is cute. Du bist süß! >////////<

Oh man, the amount of physical touch happening. This is illegal! THIS IS JAPAN WE TALKING ABOUT! HOW IS THIS LEGAL! HAHAHAHA.

Girl, I'm sorry. But you just don't have the main character hair color, okay? LMAO.

It seems things are looking like Itsuomi's taking a step. A small step towards making this romance fly. And there's this lady who I hope her character will be given some depth, and that she's not just a desperate girl clinging to her guy friend. I can't wait for them to show the reason why she and Yuki's male friend fell for the main characters. I wanna know. Here goes me getting into the next episode then. Maybe I'm a little glad that I stayed behind in watching these episodes so I can binge more. Hmhm.

[so-much-nonsense]

potential

one of my niche interests is binge watching. i am almost always watching something. one point in my life i ran out of things to watch. well, not literally, obviously, but i only wanted to watch certain things i completed them. stuff i did not wanna watch very often ends up being bad and boring than not. so as my last straw i have resorted to all languages. i watch content regardless of genre, language, country, age restriction(ahem thats not to say i am not old enough). anyways, during this process kdramas stuck with me as something to watch while i go to sleep or when i dont want too much plot and worry about or even think about it. they never came across having potential to me. i know a lot of others out there would disagree with me but this is just what i feel. theyre always slow paced, very bright, when not very bright trying too hard to be too dark(and failing miserably), no plot that hooks us up. but, BUT, recently, very recently, just 2 hours ago i watched a kdrama named long time no sex. obviously started off bc of the title but god it is so good. i mean, i have only watched 2 episodes really and that is the problem. so far everything they have shown me i cannot wait another 2 days for another two episodes. basically a married couple with no kids, pretty in debit and paying off loans and interests, a couple of insurances, but live comfortably. they start blackmailing others involved in multiple relationships. now the plot might not be the most interesting one ive watched, but the way everything is portrayed bw these two main leads, is more than unique. truly there are only a handful of series or movies that show this comfortable couple dynamic interestingly and god did this drama nail it. though they were a very active couple, they just stopped having sex few months or years back unintentionally and neither of them have had a problem with it. how they never stopped loving each other even though they havent been intimate is portrayed really well. the husband is literally the greenest flag everrrr. let it be when he remembers every single detail about them from 7 years ago or when he tries hugging her and reassures her that its fine if they dont have sex, or when he talks about how having sex is not a duty for married couple and when he sees that shes actually interested he recommends trying to get in the feel by telling each other things they like about one another, every single thing he likes about her is spoken so well and it is very evident how much he loves her. whenever theres a disagreement both of them proceed to talk it out in literally less than 2 minutes. though it might not be realistic, i mean, why is it not realistic? exactly! that is what should be going on and not hours of unnecessary arguments. he is really never afraid of being "lady like" and that makes him all the more manly because he is always very thoughtful and considerate about her and deals softly. no fragile masculinity exists here. i could go on about this man but ill stop lol. i can guess what the future episodes could host but i dont want to this time. this time i just want to be intrigued by it. i cannot wait for them to start having sex again, or its ok even if they decide they are better off this way(which would be totally unexpected). ok i just said that about two characters in drama. guess whos crazy? AND, and the fucking trust they have in each other, shed trust him with her life. even though he is foolish at times she balances it out. when his car got totalled and she found out that he dint tell her she figured a way to get him money instead of getting back at him or starting a fight(not that hed let a fight sustain or theyd go on for more than a minute) bc she knew theres no point in getting upset now that the cars gone and the intention behind his lie is nothing. its almost as if they know each other and communicate. crazy right. its almost as if they love each other.

[constructionaccounting]

505: Setting Construction Business Financial Goals For 2023

This Podcast Is Episode Number 505, And It's About Setting Construction Business Financial Goals For 2023

The new year is a natural time to decide what you want to achieve and how. Businesses tend to progress more consistently if the owner sets financial goals and makes a plan to achieve them. 

  Your construction business (and personal) budget is one area where you should keep your resolutions from slipping. While it’s true that there’s also next year when it comes to your financial goals, putting it off has real consequences that equal less money and more work. So here are seven steps you should take in January to start your 2023 budget.

  1. Review and evaluate your 2022 goals You’ve got to see where you’re coming from to know where you can realistically go. At year’s end, review the goals you set last year and use your numbers to see how your business measured up. Whether or not you met your goals, that information is valuable. What circumstances enabled you to meet your goals or prevented you from doing so? If you didn’t make a formal list last year, try to think of where you were a year ago and see if you progressed as much as you thought you would. 2. Use that information to set your 2023 goals Now that you know how far you came in 2022, jot down what you’d like to accomplish in 2023. Don’t worry about getting specific here – it’s just a jumping-off point. Try to be ambitious without being unreasonable. Setting unreachable goals only sets you up for disappointment and a feeling of failure, which is entirely counterproductive. 3. Get specific Flesh out your ideas by paying attention to the details. Use real numbers in your goals. Are you going to make more sales? Raise prices? Find new clients? Outline exactly how you’re going to get to these numbers. The more specific you can be here, the better. It will help you to make your dreams a reality. 4. Sort your goals into categories Once your goals are outlined and detailed, look at them. Some plans are small and quickly achievable. These are fantastic ones to tackle early in the new year to boost your business and get you on the right track. Plan to get to these as soon as possible so you can reap the rewards. There should be some items on your goal list that will take more time, effort, and planning. Break these bigger goals into smaller steps, and create a timeline for achieving each milestone. You will likely have a handful of goals that fall somewhere in between. Distribute these evenly throughout the year in a way that makes sense for your business. 5. Break down the steps in each goal With your short, medium, and long-term goals laid out, go over them with a critical eye. You need to ensure that each one has a clear set of steps to help you achieve it, especially if it is a bigger or more complicated goal. Create milestones for each one of your goals, with what you need to accomplish broken down into manageable chunks. A complex goal may even require weekly targets to help you get to the finish line. After finishing this step, you’ll have a detailed picture of what the year looks like for your construction business. What was once daunting becomes exciting! If you’ve balanced things out well, you’re likely to gain a feeling of accomplishment when you look at this goal map and will be keen to get things underway. 6. Check that each goal is SMART Most of us are familiar with the concept of SMART goals, but we don’t always take the time to make sure they pass this check. Go over your goals to ensure that each is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant (or realistic), and timely. If each goal meets these requirements, you’re good to go! 7. Set reminders to check in each quarter Accountability is key. Set up dedicated time at least once per quarter to review your progress. If you find that you’re falling behind, make a plan at that time to get things back on track.

Final thoughts

Most construction business owners have an idea of what they want to achieve each new year, but the only way to make those dreams a reality is to plan, plan, plan. It’s the best way to make sure your ambitions come to pass. After that, check in on your project regularly.

About The Author:

Sharie DeHart, QPA, is the co-founder of Business Consulting And Accounting in Lynnwood, Washington. She is the leading expert in managing outsourced construction bookkeeping and accounting services companies and cash management accounting for small construction companies across the USA. She encourages Contractors and Construction Company Owners to stay current on their tax obligations and offers insights on managing the remaining cash flow to operate and grow their construction company sales and profits so they can put more money in the bank. Call 1-800-361-1770 or sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com

Check out this episode about Contractors Marketing - Accounting - Production (M.A.P.)!