#god I'm hyped for s2...

[iceclew]

I am the monster you created You ripped out all my parts

And worst of all, for me to live, I gotta kill the part of me that saw that I needed you more

---

Wow, definitely not what I expected from myself today, but since I started practicing backgrounds, I've been drawing more artsy/painterly and well... then - as often happens - a certain soundtrack hit me and I couldn't stop.

Had no Mr. No. 9-art here anyway on my blog. He's a very fascinating villian character to me. I'm always wondering what he's doing next, what he might be feeling. IF he is feeling and what he is thinking. Kudos, Matsumoto, tha's a good villain here (even if one might want to argue the late game overpowering, which I agree to, but that's more of a typical genre trait to me)

music-wise - going back and forth these songs from Arcane: What could have been - Sting, Ray Chen Goodbye - Ramsey Guns for Hire - Woodkid

[vaggieslefteye]

HUSK, Hotel Bartender & Concierge | 1x04 - Masquerade

"Oh, I FORGOT — you're the wise-old bartender who's seen it all! Get the fuck over yourself and pour me a real drink."

[questionable-idea]

vibing to the arcane ost and vividly imagining original scenes in my head like a possessed prophet inhaling fumes in a dank cave

[mieczyhale]

WATCHED THE TRAILER FOR S4 OF UMBRELLA ACADEMY AND UHHH WELL LETS SEE

Hargreeves Home for Wayward BOYS?

Viktor the bartender???

Ben what did you DO

Diego looks like he's cosplaying as Gomez Addams

KLAUS

They all look so fucking tired and Done sldflksd love that they're basically all comfy looking and then you have Five

listen. Listen. i LIKE klaus's hair in the trailer. i've wanted short haired klaus back since we lost him after the war. is it as good as his s1 hair?? no. but it's not as bad as the s2 short wig or the cult leader hair so god fucking bless

"we're back we're back we're back everyone get out of the way we're back" "FIRST MISSION BACK" THIS MADE ME SO HYPE

i'm sorry was that viktor beating someone up??!

the use of the final countdown was a little silly but then again this is the A Little Silly show so it works

LOVED the use of Hargreeves dialogue from the flashback in s1e1. bringing it full circle, baby!!!

DANCE SCENE. CANNOT have a season without one

did they just get weapons from a fast food place???

five finally gets a hug, which i love, but it being lila and he's clearly comforting her?? okay. not what i wanted for him but whatever

SANTA???!!!

the umbrella tattoo is back!!

klaus not having his palm tattoos makes me sad. bitch we are supposed to MATCH

AND YOU GET AN EXTRA HOUR IN THE BALL PIT

very quick glimpse of something that looks like it came from a marvel movie. not idea what's happening there but it's gonna be cool. i think. maybe.

BENTACLES

AUGUST 8TH?? OH I AM SO NOT EMOTIONALLY PREPARED AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE

still tentatively excited for the final season but definitely a little more excited and a little less tentative. i don't want to get my hopes too high tho. i think one reason i loved s3 so much is because i went in with such low expectations after being so disappointed by s2 and i don't want the end of this show to be another s2. it HAS to go well or i'm not going to be well

[genericpuff]

The Extended Mishandling of LO's S3 Midseason Finale Premiere

Alright, so I had mentioned leading up to the release of the newest LO episode that my feelings regarding LO returning were pretty "meh". Not hyped, but not completely back of mind either. Just sort of a weird calm before the storm type feeling that could go either way.

I'm glad I got to have that moment of calmness because good god, this episode was an absolute shitshow. And honestly, I'm not surprised, for several reasons:

Rachel has never been good at maintaining a buffer, even back at the start of the series she only ever had 2-3 episodes ready ahead of her schedule which is NOT an ideal buffer for an originals series.

Rachel has never been good at writing, she's very "draw first write later" and has stated as such in interviews that when she gets 'stuck' on what she's writing, she'll just start drawing and fit the pieces in later.

Four months is NOT enough time to both rest, attend massive conventions, and work on improving a project while also getting buffer episodes ready.

Because of the FP episodes remaining locked over the hiatus, technically Rachel only needed to have ONE episode ready upon return for the newest FP release, not multiple like she'd usually need like in the past during the S2 midseason hiatus or the season finale episodes which would unlock those FP releases like normal - so for all we know, she could have drawn this episode literally last week, especially when the promo material was so last minute. Frankly I think it was REALLY stupid for whoever it was who decided to keep these FP episodes locked (whether it was her or WT, it was more likely WT) but you can read all I have to say about that in my review of the midseason finale episodes.

All that's to say, no, there was never any guarantee Rachel was going to somehow "turn around" the ride we're currently on. I know that many of the critics were hoping for that to happen, but with the circumstances of the hiatus mixed with Rachel's bad habits of putting her best efforts into the procrastination projects that aren't her actual comic (ex. the few original pieces and LO sketches she put out during the hiatus) it just wasn't in the cards. This is where the comic is at and this is where it will remain until it's over.

I want to also point something out about this episode that was... really glaring to me.

As with all of these hiatus returns, LO got priority advertising in the first two banner slots and push notifications AND a popup ad within the app. This is unsurprising, Webtoons is still trying to milk this thing for what it's worth.

I know a lot of people are gonna focus on the art, or the fact that WT is continuing to shill LO, but I wanna point out the part that WT implemented specifically - "NEW SEASON".

This is literally just false. At best I'd like to think some intern just messed up and thought this was a new season, but it's literally not, the episode designation still says "S3". Note that the creators only design the banner art, the actual labels on top are put there by Webtoons.

But at worst, this feels like blatant lying to continue to hide the fact that LO is ending. Mind you, Rachel and Webtoons have still not put out official posts stating that this is the final arc. There is NOTHING from either of them to communicate to the audience that the comic is ending next year. It feels like they're trying to avoid the topic altogether out of fear of losing the fanbase they still have, rather than hyping up the comic's end for those who have stuck around to see how it all wraps up. And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case, considering they're now trying to funnel the fanbase into Penguin/Inklore with new marketing deals and the whole Rachel Smythe Presents thing. They're trying to make this seem like the beginning of something "new" when it's really just a quiet shifting of management (Penguin House).

But all that aside, let's actually get into the episode. It's one episode after 4 months, which is not standard for LO's hiatuses, typically FP episodes release on schedule (meaning free readers start hiatuses 3 weeks after FP readers do), the only time this has been an exception has been with the 2 week breaks because the whole point of those was to build a buffer (which you can't do if you're going ahead and releasing the FP episodes anyways). For extended hiatuses like these, usually free readers still get their FP episodes, but that wasn't the case here. That means Rachel technically only needed one episode ready for the comic's return, and it shows. It really fucking shows.

FROM HERE ON OUT THERE WILL BE FASTPASS SPOILERS REGARDING EPISODE 254. DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED !!!

As per tradition, we get a title that means nothing at all. It just says what we already know.

Our collective husband Zeus is dying, no thanks to the poison cupcake fed to him by Apollo. For those who don't remember, Apollo had tricked Zeus into eating the cupcake by making him believe it was from Hebe. We are fully aware that it was Apollo who poisoned him. Remember that for later in this review.

Right off the bat we're off to a hilarious start, both with a cryptid appearance from Apollo in the background (lmao) who is, for some reason, ALREADY returning to the scene of the crime he just committed because... who knows at this point. Apollo and Psyche know it was Apollo at this point, I might add, but I have no clue why Apollo is actually returning to the scene of the crime when he has no idea Eros and Psyche know.

Moving on from that, can we talk about this hilarious dialogue?

"We have to call a doctor! Let's call Asclepius!"

"No, we can't trust him! Gosh darn it, why are we only bothering to think of ONE doctor in this universe where we've seen more than one doctor?? Guess Zeus is just gonna die! What a horribly contrived situation this is!"

And that's literally how I can best describe most of this episode. Contrived. There is a LOT of manufactured drama in this that makes ZERO sense even on a surface level.

And what do you mean exactly, Eros? "What a terrible system!" Is this supposed to be a joke? Lampshading? We've seen Persephone go to the gynecologist. There are non-god doctors who tend to gods all the time here.

Eros just doesn't seem to be that pressed over this, he sounds like Ned Flanders and that's NOT a good way to open up a scene like this... let alone an episode people have been waiting four months for.

Anyways, after a few pointless reaction panels (again remember I have to cut a lot of what I show here for Tumblr image limitations but I promise you, I'm keeping as much important stuff as I can in this, there's just THAT MUCH filler at this point), Eros and Psyche confront Apollo and he is... good god.

There is... so much to unpack here.

First of all, remember those theories about how Rachel was clearly trying to write Apollo as this "secret twist villain" the whole time but it doesn't work because Apollo is simultaneously written as both a 'conniving villain' and a massive dumbass at the same time?

Well, I finally have a more appropriate term for him. He's your average red pill redditor - someone who thinks he's smarter than everyone else when really all he does is sit on reddit all day using big words incorrectly in arguments he gets himself into with a bunch of equally-air-headed dumbasses.

"You can't possibly understand the nuances of the Olympian political system," Apollo said proudly, a man who had, ironically and obliviously, run for president in a monarchy. The union of kettle and pot is eternal.

He's the Slappable Jerk but instead of it being a painfully hilarious impression, it's just painful and hilarious for all the wrong reasons.

this is so stupid because it's 1.) Eros pointing out how obvious Apollo's plan was, despite Apollo acting smart two seconds ago with a goddess who, mind you, has been a goddess for ten years, and 2.) patricide isn't even intrinsically linked to politics, there's nothing 'political' about a guy trying to kill his dad except in, idk, a monarchy, which again, Apollo has spent ten years trying to rise to power in as a president which is a completely different form of government.

If I wanted to be really granular with this, I'd like to think Apollo is making some kind of point about the critics who call out LO's whack as fuck political system (especially in the trial arc) - as if he's saying "well you're just a stupid reader and this is fantasy where you don't understand exactly what political system we're using, so shut the fuck up you stupid twig" - but I don't think it's meant to be that deep. I think it's just Rachel trying to write a smart character and then failing at it because she, herself, is not a smart writer. And I'm really inclined to believe that more than the theory about this being some kind of meta-narrative about the critics because this entire plotline is contrived and stupid down to its core.

I did not cut anything out here, that's the pacing. Leto literally just appears out of nowhere and uh oh spaghettio's, she has Kassandra! Remember Leto? The character we were led to believe was truly "pulling the strings" until she disappeared from the story completely after she realized that Apollo and Persephone weren't a thing, even going so far as to call out her own son for being a fucking dumbass? Well, she's back and once again she's being involved as some kind of "double agent" in this whole thing, even though we literally haven't seen her since halfway through S2.

"Mm yes, you're so stupid, falling into my trap! Even though you had no reason to remember Kassandra anyways because she's literally a mortal woman you just met and you yourself have committed acts of violence against mortals without a shred of care! I'm so smart! My plan is all coming together!"

We've never seen Apollo do anything except cry and poop his pants, the closest he got to being "powerful" was his attempts to murder Daphne (who he seems to have forgotten about in this "master plan" of his) but ultimately he's literally just a piss ant baby and there's no reason to believe that he could somehow outmatch the God of Love who can literally manipulate people's emotions and states of mind with his arrows. But yeah sure go off, you're so powerful and smart.

The worst part is, I can't even buy this as the narrative trying to be like "see how manipulative and conniving he is?" because it's just silly. We've SEEN this man cry with his victim complex, we've seen him say and do the DUMBEST things that don't lend to any amount of "intelligence" he may have, it comes across less as him being "smart the whole time" and more as him trying to sound smart but ultimately sounding incredibly stupid. And I can't even immerse myself into it and buy that maybe that's the point, because it doesn't feel like the point, it just feels like inconsistent writing, he doesn't feel like a 'threat', he's just monologuing.

Bad art and Apollo literally just repeating what Leto already implied so this is a waste of the audience's time.

This is the funniest panel in the whole episode because I can't tell if Apollo is supposed to be in the background (for some reason, despite him literally being in front of Eros and Psyche two seconds ago) or if he's in the foreground and just REALLY small for some reason. This is so off-putting. And of course, it's just Apollo explaining what we're ALREADY SEEING ONSCREEN.

You see, in addition to this episode being contrived, it also talks down to its audience a LOT by explaining exactly what we're seeing onscreen. It's like Rachel saw the criticisms about her not including enough to depict what's actually going on in her head and so she thought the solution was to spoon feed information over pictures that are already doing the job of explaining what's going on. Rachel really doesn't know how to write and even when she tries to implement changes that reflect criticisms that have been made of her writing, she somehow makes things worse because she completely misses the point of what those criticisms are trying to get across.

Anyways, without even trying to resist (for some reason) Eros and Psyche get sentenced to horny jail.

They're now trapped in a basement that Leto somehow has in her home. How do we know that?

HAHAHA FUNNY LAMPSHADING SO FUNNNYYYYYYY

Leto claims that they shouldn't try to escape because the dungeon is "enchanted", but she doesn't even bother to explain what that means. So they literally don't bother trying. They don't try to call her bluff, they don't try to teleport out of there, they literally just go "well shoot", shrug their shoulders, and accept their fate. Just like with the whole "we can't trust the only doctor we bothered to think of" situation, Eros and Psyche are turning out to be some of the stupidest, lowest-effort characters in this comic who literally can't be bothered to try because that would require too much brain power.

Notice how much time we've spent on this and we haven't gotten back to where the cliffhanger of the last episode left off? Well buckle up because there's still more to cover.

So it turns out Hebe was still inside with her dad, in FULL VIEW of what was going on through glass which is somehow COMPLETELY soundproof, and when Apollo steps inside, she just has no idea what happened. She never bothered to even look outside to see what was going on with Eros and Psyche, she's just been sitting on the floor staring at Zeus' dead face for what was likely several minutes, unless Rachel is seriously trying to convince us that conversation and hostage negotiation from earlier only took 2 seconds. The timeline is such a mess at this point that characters basically freeze in place as soon as they're not the focus of the scene.

Apollo rushes inside, acting shocked over the situation, and when Hebe asks where Eros and Psyche are (again, she could have just looked out the window at any time), he's just like "dur idk they just left lol" which Hebe just... buys, I guess.

That's just Persephone but yellow. She's even missing her beauty mark.

See how Apollo put his hand on Zeus' chest/shoulder by the way?

Apparently, despite Mr. Smarter Than Everyone Else trying to pretend it wasn't him, he's able to discern that Zeus is dying from a toxic and rare poison just from touching him. He doesn't even really seem to use his powers, he just touches him and goes "welp he's dead i guess lol don't bother asking me how I know that".

But oh nooo remember that note from before? Well gasp Apollo's gonna use it to frame Hebe! In front of no one else at all!

Hebe of course says she didn't write it, but Apollo continues to try and frame her anyways, even though, again, there's no one else present here, and so it effectively just becomes the most absurd form of gaslighting I've ever seen.

Again, THERE IS NO ONE ELSE HERE IN THE SCENE. He's just trying to claim she did it to absolutely no one at all, in the hopes of... what exactly? That she'll just take the fall for something she knows she didn't do? That she'll somehow be convinced? It's not like Hebe has the same thing going on as Persephone where she has a 'wrathful dark side' he could pin it on, this is just a criminal who just robbed a building pointing at the first person they see and yelling "YOU DID IT!"

All I'm saying is that Apollo would be really bad at Among Us. He'd be the type of player to kill someone, hit the report button, then claim yellow did it which, even if he DID convince the rest of the team, would still get kicked anyways as soon as yellow was proven through the eject to not be the imp and everyone would go "okay cool so yellow wasn't the imp, that means obviously it's purple self-reporting." It's a trick that doesn't even work anymore because of how old it is. Hebe isn't a child here, she's an 18 year old woman who should be fully capable of raising an eyebrow and wondering why Apollo is this quick to accuse her - almost like he's trying to hide the fact that he did it.

But Hebe can't catch onto this, just like Eros and Psyche, she has to act stupid for the sake of the plot.

At first I thought maybe Rachel was trying to do some "whodunit" scenario, but that doesn't work here because we already know who did it. And while there are stories that exist like that that pull it off (ex. Knives Out) the problem with trying to do this the way Rachel did is that the person being framed has to have this thing called motive. The reason why Knives Out and Glass Onion work so well is because the person who was murdered (or conspired against) is someone who is being targeted by multiple people who could all be the murderer. It's quite literally called out in Glass Onion as a form of smart lampshading. "It's like putting a loaded gun on the table, and turning off the lights."

But it doesn't work here because Hebe does not have motive. If you're going to attempt to frame a murder on someone, it has to be someone who would have reasonable motive to commit that murder, even if they didn't actually commit it.

And who among Zeus' children has motive?

What about the war-mongering bloodthirsty god of war who has been regularly sentenced to time in the Mortal Realm to fight in wars in which he's been regularly injured?

What about the chaos-seeking wrathful goddess who would do it to get revenge on the parental figure who cast her aside, or even just for the fun of saying she did it?

Why try and pin it on Hebe, the doting daughter of Zeus who's only had a collective of maybe 20 panels in the entire comic?

But then I realized... it's not Knives Out, it's the fucking Lion King.

Which is just as contrived - if not more - than the assumption this was gonna be some attempt to frame Hebe. It's not. He's literally just trying to keep her from assuming it was him. He could have just as easily played dumb without calling attention to the note but he intentionally went out of his way to try and be Scar from The Lion King , while completely missing the point of why that scene worked in the original movie.

Scar wasn't trying to 'frame' Simba for Mufasa's murder. He was trying to hide the murder, while also attempting to get the only heir to the throne out of the picture, so he passed the guilt of the death onto Simba - a child who, unlike Hebe, wouldn't have the ability to rationalize or realize his uncle his a scumbag - who then ran away from home because he was too terrified to face his family for what happened, assuming that it was all his fault when it wasn't.

That's not how this is panning out here. Hebe is the now 18 year old daughter of Zeus, and not one of his only children. She doesn't even fit into the whole "sons overthrowing their fathers" prophecy like Aries would. Apollo is literally just being a big idiot here by saying "well I'm gonna give you a headstart to run away, because if you stay, I might hurt you" (which btw, should be MORE of a smoking gun that Apollo did it??)

And again, it's all so contrived so that the plot can move forward. "Well I'm going to frame you for this murder, but y'know, you should just leave, I'm not gonna try and press it further lmao"

Again, Apollo is a fucking idiot here, because he just attempted to frame someone who has NO MOTIVE to harm Zeus, to absolutely NO ONE at all who would side with him, only to let her go which would leave her to question why Apollo would try to accuse and harm her in the first place before considering other options. And through ALL this he claims he's the smart one, which I can't even be bothered to "love to hate" because it's written so poorly.

And really it all comes down to how everyone else behaves in relation to Apollo that makes it so stupid and unbelievable. Apollo, you're not smart just because all the characters around you are intentionally being written to be as stupid and non-confrontation as possible. If you can only write a smart villain by making everyone else stupid, you haven't written a smart villain, you've written a dumbass whose victory only happens due to contrived plot convenience. It's not even done well like in Glass Onion, it's just bad writing, full stop.

And who does he call to report this emergency? The satyr police? His son the doctor?

No.

The media. Literally just "hello, the media?? I need your best journalist here stat!"

I need you to understand, even if he were calling a tabloid magazine like The Weekly Nark, you don't just... call a journalist to report a murder. These are not the actions of someone who's trying to absolve himself of guilt, these are the actions of a complete dumbass trying to get news coverage of his trophy kill who would be better off just playing dumb instead of trying to play smart. Even Walter White wasn't this fucking stupid despite all the times he fell on his own sword, Apollo is literally just instigating suspicion towards himself for no reason at all. He's self-reporting so hard and worst of all, you can't even take any of this seriously because of how corny it is. There's no dramatic tension, no stakes, it's just a bunch of characters performing in a really bad stage play and reducing every conflict to "well I guess Zeus is just dead now because no one's bothering to make an effort to stop Apollo or ask questions lmao"

It's truly the epitome of "this plot wouldn't exist if characters would just talk to each other."

But finally, FINALLY we mention the thing this episode is named after, the transition point to Persephone.

Just like with the midseason finale episode, there's a lot to cover here, so I'm gonna get more into it in a part two post.

That said, you can see already this is the messiest, most contrived bullshit to ever wind up in LO. It's trying so hard to be smart and it just comes across as a bunch of toddlers in the world's worst stage play rendition of Clue. None of what was done here was in any way dramatic or tense, it's just a bunch of characters infodumping shit we already know, trying to set up new plot threads that don't make any sense, and allowing one another to get away with what they're doing because they don't bother to even try.

It's completely manufactured, contrived nonsense. It's not "smart", it's not "so dumb it's brilliant", it's just dumb.

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Mid-Season Teaser!

Not ME salivating over another IWTV teaser, spending a dang hour fangirling frame by frame over less than a minute of footage. Certainly not EYE. (I blame @thedaswolves)

That familiar blue-screen news segment we saw in Ep4--I can't wait to find out what it was reporting.

Chile, lemme find out DanLou is canon, with those bedroom eyes.

Louis' VOICE. 😨 The way he's screaming; I can't--Jacob's the goat of putting every negative emotion on the planet into his voice.

Did Armand initially want Daniel killed cuz Louis did the interview (breaking Rule 3 about writing the history of vamps)?

It seems Armand kicks Louis out so he can screw with Daniel--I mean with Dan's MIND, you pervs!

"I serve a God" chic, coming to a Dubai penthouse Spring 2022~!

"You'll NEVER make it up to me"--OOF!

OF COURSE he knows; Louis already warned him.

Armand's been in his Grovel Era all this time; "Vintage Lioncourt" indeed! 😅

Is that the same outfit Les wore the night of their "anniversary," when Lou broke up w/ him, then came back w/ Claudia, wanting a baby?

If so, then which scene is this revisiting, that Louis will regret--leaving Lestat (Les has tears in his eyes)? Or coming back w/ Claudia (I'm scared it's the latter)? 👀

There's a crack in the wall like an impact crater--what's going ion in the living room!? Is Loumand fighting!? Omg! Cuz their argument in Ep4 sounded CRAZY; you know those two have TEMPERS. 👀

Wtf is Santiago doing? This is definitely the same scene where he's zooming thru the sewer, so I wonder if he's tryna jump Armand, then Armand does a wee little taste of the Killing Gift on him to make him spasm and put him back in place.

We are NOT gonna be okay, omg. The coven's abducted him & Claudia & Madz. I am SHAKING.

The Trial finna be SPICY.

S01E05, here we go....

That's DELAINEY, lfg!

The gutteral way she screams "OF YOU TWO!" is giving Jacob a run for his money--PURE RAGE. She's so SICK of Loustat, it's palpable.

Yes and no, love.

This ain't funny at all, I'm near tears.

That's the front of the Theatre behind him.

And the marquee falling down as the whole building goes up in flames; you love to see it.

THE HYPE IS REAL.

[low-budget-korra]

Let's talk about "Fantastic" and how it fits CaitVi

A lot of people are either excluding this song wherever they make memes like "my reactions to s2 soundtrack" or simply saying it was generic and didn't fit CaitVi. I'm not gonna pretend that this song doesn't suffer lesbophobia bc for sure it does, but I'm here to show you guys who they fit CaitVi

"And I'm thinking of you. Well, I might be higher than God (higher than God) - cuts to Vi thinking of Caitlyn's while drunk and Caitlyn thinking of Vi when she is eating Maddie and Caitlyn still thinking of Vi while "high" on rage and thoughts of revenge

Feeling strange 'bout the way we left things in the back of the car (back of the car)". - basically the way they fought and broke up in episode 3.

"Mm, can't believe that I'm in pain I need to disassociate I just wanna be a good passenger"- They were both in pain, both dissociating in their own way. The "I just wanna be a good passenger" could be like "I just want to have a good trip"

"I'm feeling fantastic, I'm fucking fantastic. I wanna get drunk and watch American classics. Drink champagne out of plastic. Do you want someone crazy like me, babe?" - This has the "I would have liked just doing laundry and taxes with you" energy. We always talk and hear about those larger than life love stories, those crazy and exciting adventures but what about the boring day to stuff? This is like saying "I want to be all corny , cliche and do all the boring couples stuff with you" and I think this is cute and romantic. And both Caitlyn and Vi are kind of crazy and def crazy for each other

"I'm feeling amazing, I'm fucking amazing. I'm high as a kite, I'm sat here picturing you naked. You just have to take it If you want someone crazy like me, babe - Again, the image of them high on alcohol or just high on love and lust for each other, imagining the moment, their moment. They are both crazy in their own way, can you take it? Can you accept me?

"I be thinking about you. While you're down here being a doll. It's either a curse or a blessing. Every time that you call, oh - I immediately thought of Vi, constantly thinking of Caitlyn's back in the pit fighting days. "Being a doll" could fit like Cait being a doll in Ambessa's hand, or the fact that Cait is everywhere (bc of the enforcers posters and banners) like "while you're down here being somebody else's puppet". The "either a curse of a blessing. Every time that you call, oh" Could be the duality of their feelings and different contexts, as both of them are constantly on opposite sides. First as Zaunite x Top Sider and now as Enforcer x Zaunite/Ambessa enemy. But still, deeply in love with each other.

Then the music basically repeats itself. But I think it's about this yearning love they have for each other, and things they had to overcome to be together. It's good lyrics that talk through metaphors, and you easily see the characters in them. The melody and rhythm is sweet and hot at the same time and King Princess voice is like a whisper in your ear. I understand that everybody has their own taste and it's okay but saying this song is bad is nuts lol. Ma Meilleure Ennemie is amazing too, I love it , but it wouldn't have half of it's hype if it wasn't in french.

[dusty-siltstrider]

Alright I'm gonna ruffle some feathers I think but idk I gotta say something.

For this moment and this moment only I'm going to set aside the rabid Viktor fan that I am and speak as a slightly less rabid Vi fan. She's a very close second and I relate to her the most out of the cast. Love her. So on and so forth. At this point the marketing is frustrating me less as a Viktor fan and more as a Vi fan.

When the Annecy people talked about a goth Vi fighting in the pits piss-drunk mad seeing crazy things I was ECSTATIC. Like holy shit that's such a major turn in her personality! Really fills out that whole "what does Vi do when she has no one left to protect" thing! Wow! Not to mention she's gonna be hot but that's a given. What a shocking thing to see when November comes around aaaand there she is in the trailer okay. Along with what is presumably her act 3 timeskip design judging by the longer hair. Element of surprise gone. Cool.

So where the Viktor part of me gets to waste hours yapping about where he's gonna be in season 2, what his arc will be, what he's gonna look like, what's gonna cause divorce era... feel like we're running out of room for speculation for the main 3. Room for imagination, if you will.

Like WE'VE BEEN KNEW ABOUT PIT FIGHTER VI. This isn't a surprise sneak peek anymore, everyone's either seen her in the trailer or at least heard about the Annecy stuff. Personally I no longer have the same level of insane jittery excitement to see how that arc goes in s2 anymore. Her new design is no longer a surprise and they're going to show even more tomorrow lol. I have little room to ponder "huh wonder what VI's gonna be up to." Pit fighter arc gets started and instead of my jaw dropping going "oh my god Vi honey you really are broken aren't you noooo" it's just... yeah that thing I saw during a Netflix event. Damn. Looks cool still but it's not a shock.

This massive point in both the plot and Vi's arc has become a marketing hype machine. Which dampens, you know, the whole "telling a story" thing.

What do I have to speculate about? Cait's whole iron-fist arc is fairly obvious via marketing, Vi's three-act structure has been pretty clearly laid out, they even spoiled Noxus/Ambessa turning on Piltover. Yeah, think we saw it coming, sure, but I kind of like being able to speculate on stories I enjoy. At least Jinx's revolutionary thing is pretty up in the air (which I still believe is a misdirect but I digress).

Please don't get me wrong, I really like her design and I'm still very excited to see where it goes! Obviously there's still plenty of details in between to fill out and yes I'm being slightly dramatic and yes my salt towards yet again no Viktor may be contributing to this frustration and YES pit fighter Vi is sick and the clip will be cool as fuck no matter what. But I'm honestly a little surprised everyone's so thrilled about this. I'm (likely) not watching it solely to preserve at least some element of surprise because I'm so excited for Vi next season and it sucks that they're just giving this all out in marketing.

Assuming this is the Annecy clip, that's just kinda lazy to reuse btw. But whatever this is lengthy and poorly worded enough.

Anyway bringing back the Viktor fan that I am yes I'm bitter yes I miss him yes I will not stop insisting that throwing in a few voice lines is not only perfectly reasonable as a teaser but would be more effective marketing wise than burning out the Cait/Vi/Jinx stuff bc deadass what else can they show us at this point okay thank you goodnight

[specialagentartemis]

ohh my god, are we hating on Rowland here?? I can't say I have any personal beef with her (though I did block her over her stupid ass "good omens s2 bad on purpose" essay back in the day) but frankly she permanently ruined any goodwill I had for her with the way she was promoting the book before her most recent one (gold and iron or something??) because her promotions were all "ohh political court intrigue With Gays" and I read the summary and it was the most absolute nothingburger of a plot. like homegirl people were doing better political intrigue sword and sorcery with homoeroticism back in the 80s, you're not special. can't say I'm surprised she's still acting like this lol

*them, Rowland uses they/them pronouns

but lmao yeah. they have a Massively outsized perception of their own influence. They were bragging about how groundbreaking and important and significant A Taste of Gold and Iron was, and like I didn't read it because it sounds annoying and boring, but. there is no way, with what else of their work I've seen, it even slightly lives up to their own hype about how important it is.

[thatswhatsushesaid]

Oh thank god someone else who is…idk if ambivalent is the right word for CaitVi? I also really wish I was more abnormal about it, I just can’t find it in myself to be…

yeah like, i wanted to be hype for them because i'm normally so weak for any ship involving butch women (case in point: one of my favourite romances in bg3 is with karlach. woof. 👀) but their journey just didn't move me that way. honestly i'd say i liked them a lot more in s1, but in s2 the pace of the story was already moving at light speed, and given everything else that was going on, they just didn't hold my attention.

you know who did hold my attention tho: sevika, every time she was on screen. she can throw me around like a vi-shaped ragdoll any day.

[beevean]

You wonder about S4, I'm wondering about how much of Nocturne has been and will be rewritten and rushed

Of course Alucard was always planned, but what about Juste? He's literally just there in S1, you could take him out and nothing of value would be lost

Was Tera originally supposed to be Annette? She essentially meets the latter's Bad Ending fate, which makes me think that she was initially written as being Annette but then they decided to create an OC named Annette, make her Richter's girlfriend and then decided to have Tera be Richter and Maria's foster mom and named her Tera after a quick wiki search through the character names in Rondo

Was Mizrak added in a later revision of the script? Because he's got literally nothing going for him except being Olrox' boyfriend with little to no personality beyond that

The pacing literally goes a mile a second

God I can't wait for Season 2! 1 Month!!

To me it's very obvious that Nocturne was compressed due to the number of episodes. Clearly, what they had in mind didn't fit 8 of them. Nocturne S1 has all the hallmarks of a writing forced to rush through significant plot points, not allowing characters to develop organically - boom Annette and Edouard's backstory after he "died"! Boom Juste is here and he does nothing, basically being the shittiest fanservice possible! Boom Richter got over his trauma over Olrox! Boom Annette is now in love with Richter after calling him useless for having PTSD! Boom Drolta dies like a bitch after doing nothing worth the hype!

And do I need to mention the downgraded animation? It was already shaky in S4, but here, big oof, how can you forget the Richter vs. Drolta fight moving at 10fps

The Deats brothers don't seem happy with how Netflix treats animated series, I remember Sam snarking that one episode of a live-action series had a higher budget than they were allowed. They have definitely run into some issues, which doesn't bode well for S2.

If it keeps like this, I don't think we are going to see the fabled AoS adaptation :P

[sehtoast]

It’s kinda annoying that people are obsessed with s1 Homelander and completely ignore the other seasons😭 They are using only s1 scenes in all the edits, gifs etc and i’m like??? He looks so fine in all the other seasons (even better than s1 imo i wasn’t even that attracted to him when I was watching s1 for the first time). Idk i feel like i’m the only one who prefers his s2-4 hair and look, especially in all of his scenes with stormfront😍

i feel like there's potentially an abundance of s1 homelander content right now as a lot of people probably started watching the show after seeing the s4 hype. i can't say i've noticed any one season more than the other, but i definitely know a lot of us have a preference for his look in s1

i'm sure you're not the only one who prefers his s2-4 look though!

i will add, and i mean this with good intent (and i say that bc i don't want it to come off the wrong way), if you want to see more s2-4 homelander content, you should make it! i can understand feeling some kind of way that the content that's available for a character doesn't scratch your particular itch- and god knows i can relate as a trans man looking for trans-friendly fics of homelander. the best way to scratch your itch is to make the thing that scratches you, you feel?

[my-mt-heart]

I have some thoughts on Daryl’s arc that I want to share, but I’ll hold off a day or two because 1) it might get ugly and 2) I think Carol/Melissa deserve the spotlight a lot more right now.

Just seeing her on my screen again is a huge relief after so much uncertainty over the past year and a half, and of course the performance is insanely good. What I'm most grateful for is the fact that Carol has a clear emotional drive. We don't have to analyze her micro expressions for hours or turn over every stone to get a rough idea of her headspace. She says it herself. She's looking for Daryl. She's already gone to great lengths to find him when he doesn't turn up at the time he said he would, and thanks to the teaser, we know she'll keep going as long as there's hope he's still alive. I want to see where her determination takes her (once she gets across the ocean I mean), and obviously I want to watch the inevitable reunion between her and Daryl. It's the most anticipated scene of S2, so it needs to be big. Like, unambiguous canon big. It's what the characters and the fans deserve.

Bear with me though because I do have some issues with Carol's first appearance in 106. “God, MT, can't you just look on the bright side?” I could, but then I’d have to lower my standards, which enables AMC to keep lowering their standards when it comes to telling Daryl's and Carol's story. Theirs has always been an inspiring one, not because of all the people they've saved or all the things they've blown up, but because of the emotional core. They're two lost souls who find each other after the world ends, raising each other up to become stronger than the people around them, the audience, and even they themselves ever imagined. Their story is deep. It offers hope to fans facing their own challenges in life, so it has to be handled with a lot of care. Cheap gimmicks are beneath them, but cheap gimmicks are what we get in this scene.

It's a little bit like S7 when she runs into a group of saviors on the road, taking them out with a gun hidden up her sleeve. It reminds me that this woman is one of the most resourceful badasses in all of TWDU. And as a Caryl shipper, it delights me to see her ride off on Daryl’s bike—also badass for the record. To me though, when the nostalgia/shipper's high wears off, these things feel like distractions. There’s not really a compelling twist, like for example, finding out that Carol stowed away on the boat Daryl was on and had been in France the whole time. There's not enough momentum to keep me hyped through the long hiatus. The teaser does the vast majority of that right now, which is cool, but I want to see that same effort to market the show to me in the show itself. I want good writing. I want the connective tissue. I want the payoff. Will we ever see how Carol learned to ride a motorcycle in the first place or do I have to fill in the blanks myself just like I had to do throughout most of S11? Will we get Caryl beats that outdo the extremely unnecessary and OCC nunbaiting beats?

I don't trust Zabel to deliver everything I'm looking for. I don't think he's very clear on who Carol is, what she represents to the fans, or what her relationship with Daryl represents to the fans. Melissa does understand all of that though, so I have hope her input will make a difference. I've said it many times, and I'll say it again. I'm so happy she's back. I'm happy she seems so excited to be back. She deserves everything she's ever wanted for Carol.

[sunfortune]

me, having just watched s2 of Bridgerton and utterly obsessed with Kate and Anthony but especially Kate, entering the Tumblr tags that are full of S3 stuff: aw man, I missed the hype when it was happening :( I'm always late to the party :( guess I'll survive with the crumbs of my pookies that I see every now and then in between all the S3 stuff

You, descending from on high like a god, equally as obsessed with Kate and Anthony but especially Kate as I am: I am here my child. Rejoice and live fruitfully on the many gifsets and posts I have here. Eat well and never be hungry again

Me, sobbing deliriously: ; ; I love U

(fr I'm so glad I found your blog I've been going through it all and just squealing like a child about them and all your tags I love how much you love them I am WITH MY PEOPLE!!)

<333 she is character of all time. if kate has 100 fans im 1 if kate has 0 fans im DEAD etc etc. my best friend‼️

[thenwethrowitonthefire]

Boop! tell me about your top three fav lilith clawthrone scenes? and if you had answered ask like this before then tell me if you get to build a house for yourself in owl house world what would it be look like?

Boop! Oh that's a really fun yet difficult question to answer!

1. I think basically all of the episode "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" is my favourite. She's so wonderfully autistic and relatable <3 Look at her, I will cry. I love her so much :) Bespectacled S2 Lilith is the best (⁠◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕⁠✿⁠)

2. This is kind of similar to the above but again it's the delightful autism, and the recovering from the coven. Her getting to just do the things she enjoys again and to be herself, I just afgfgdf. Goodbye to the perfectionistic self that she had to be in the coven - she needed the coven for a time but she's so much better of now :) look at this little nerd watching the ink dry. (I'm normal about this.)

Her whole friendship with Hooty is also literally the best thing ever. I used to have a friendship that was pretty much exactly that and I really needed to mention how much I love that. I love Hooty and Lilith both and their friendship is just the greatest <3 Best canon ace rep I've ever seen. However that's not what I'm going to pick for my third thing. Because that's this:

3.

The way her voice cracks, the hype... oh you dysfunctional traumatised queen. "I'M A GOD'S AUNT! \⁠(⁠๑⁠╹⁠◡⁠╹⁠๑⁠)⁠ﾉ" Yes, King & Steve are right, she might benefit from working on this, and also it's not good for King. But I loved that we got to see this. It's a thing that makes so much sense, both from an invisible autistic child standpoint and the standpoint of dealing with that in an autistic way. To me it feels cathartic to witness the unconscious coping mechanisms she developed over the years coming out, and it's so cool that the show then let's her grow from it. (This ask has me yet again going full "hold on, I need a moment" about how right The Owl House got this. They did this so well, I've definitely got feelings about this.)

Anyway I could pick more moments and write a whole essay on her (and I'm sad she didn't get more lines in S3) but I've picked this by trying to just go with the first thing that came up. I just think she's neat :D

So that answers your first question, I know your second question was just in case I had answered a question like the first one before. But it is an interesting one, too. However that's even harder to answer for various reasons. But if you want me to, let me know and I'll try my best.

[astrals-and-pirates]

given that the cast just revealed their classes in campaign 2 (HYPE!!!!), heres me trying to predict what subclass each of them are gonna take based on player vibes and the setting hints (and also general thoughts and hopes?)

im basing this off of the assumption that were gonna be seeing a lot of gritty city characters with the freelance detective prcoedural-ish premise of s2

Red - either Oath of Redemption or Oathbreaker Paladin. i think this one's fairly obvious because Red has a clear type for Big Guys with Tragic Backstories (see: Binh from the atla two-shot and Red's love of Eliot from Leverage). i also think a backstory heavy character would be really interesting to contrast with Kyana who is very backstory-lite. Also interesting to have Red play a character with connections to a god or entity that supplies their powers and i'd love to see her play a character who is more of a schemer (given the high charisma stat) than Kyana.

Sophia - College of Whispers Bard and ??? Rogue. i'm not super familiar with rogue subclasses but i think any of them would be super cool and work well depending on the character's role. Arcane Trickster or Phantom if Sophia wants to lean towards a magical character, Inquisitive or Mastermind if she prefers a more detective/investigator character and maybe even Scout or Thief if we're getting another street rat. For the bard subclass, i remember a Q&A where Sophia mentioned enjoying that subclass and given the Rogue multiclass, Whispers seems like a good in-character pairing. Also given the Recently Divorced archetype Sophia mentioned enjoying, i think it would be very fun if she played a depressed, wet-cat-vibes older character in contrast with Dani's hyperactive youth.

Wally - Gloom Stalker Ranger. Given that the table is already established and comfortable with each other, i'm excited to see if were gonna see more of Evil Wally in this campaign, and i think the Gloom Stalker subclass works with a sort of tricksy character with questionable vibes he might enjoy playing. Wally also mentioned thinking abt sprinkling in some Cleric and i think that would be so fun, even if i have no subclass i can predict for that (i think Death, Grave or Trickery Domains would be fun tho).

Noir - College of Lore Bard? This is the one i'm the least sure about bcs theres so many fun types of bard, but Noir mentioned Lore as one of his fave bard subclasses and i think it makes sense with this version of the party i've invented. he would probably fill in the researcher/smart guy/magic user role and Lore Bard feels like a good standalone class to start with at the start of the campaign. i do feel like its the most similar to VR-LA so i am apprehensive with my prediction and do think Noir would enjoy mixing it up a bit, so i'm excited to see how he'll surprise me. (College of Eloquence maybe? so Noir can back his speeches up with dice rolls?)

so yeah, campaign 1 isn't over yet but im already so excited!! i <3 'gil