#i don't want to be one of those people who uses a parody episode of the show to base a thesis of a reading on

[eat-a-dicker]

honestly, i really do wish the original dexter's laboratory series finale "last but not beast" was the final impression we got of mandark, because it was the perfect representation of his character and the last time we see the true character of mandark. some silly misguided kid who unfortunately used his genius to make everything worse.

i also find it interesting that dee dee is the only character who remembers the events of this finale, but she decided to let mandark believe he was the one who destroyed the monster. it's one of the few times in the series he gets to feel good about himself and she lets him keep that.

[androdetective]

As a poc, I have a complicated relationship to vbros. On one hand, the world is really immersive and the characters can be really great, on the other hand it is a very white show and has a racism problem. Many of the white characters have done racist things when characters have gotten punished or killed for less. There's also barely any side characters of color. And even then, many jokes get made at them regarding their races, because they're not seen as the norm. Also because it's an adult swim show made by white guys.

Off the top of my head, there are 4 side characters of color (Orpheus, Jefferson, Kano, and Dr Z). If we want to be generous, we could include Al. Maybe even Triana with her being biracial, albeit entirely passing as white. Even with those characters, Orpheus became whitewashed over the years.

However, ironically enough, he's the best written character of color. He's a very nice, multifaceted character. He's even become a fan favorite. He's also had no racist comments made towards him in the show. Which was a pleasant surprise. Especially since he lived on the compound with Rusty of all people. As happy as I am with that, it feels off because why did they spare only him but not others? I'm not sure if his race was ever figured out as the writers. It never got brought up, unlike other characters. I won't lie, that gives me a feeling they didn't write him as a brown man in mind. If they did write him with that in mind, he probably would've been written worse. It feels like they could only relate to him and made his character good by thinking he's white like them. Hell, they even projected their weird breakup feelings onto him.

With Jefferson, his character is a mixed bag. He's a cool character and very capable. He's a solid character, all things considered. It's just that he gets racist jokes thrown his way. And just, the show has one black side character, and they can't even act right. Why is racism, the hatred and otherness of one's entire existence, so funny. I noticed that each episode except one that he was in had at least one antiblack joke. That's an insane ratio. The worst joke was in the Halloween episode, where he was at the party. They specifically made his character open the door to a side character, red mantle, doing blackface. It was to make a shitty reference to some niche movie and just oh my god, can you stop being shitty white nerds for a second? People who think shit like this is funny makes me want to project years of racial trauma into their brains so that they could finally Get It. Again, this is the best black character they have, but they to make him go through cheap antiblack jokes.

At least with Kano and Dr Z their skin tones stopped being yellow. The other times we see characters of color are when they're background characters. They're either there to make a scene feel full or they're labor workers. The worst is when they were what I'd describe as background antagonists. One-off antagonists that aren't really villain villains. Moreso regular criminals. These tend to be depicted as black and latino. This was more common in early seasons and stopped happening over time. Which obviously great albeit bare fucking minimum, still doesn't change that it happened.

For a world that critiques the old mentalities from previous generations and even specifically denounces generational toxic masculinity. They don't say shit about the blatant racism of the Johnny Quest times they parody. And the times they try to, it's just showing racism and doing nothing about it. Princess Tinyfeet is the worst example of this. She's a blatant racial stereotype. Who for whatever reason, used to be married to Sgt Hatred, an American soldier. And Sgt Hatred is a whole can of worms.

With Dr Z who was apart of the Quest era, at least they tried to give him a character. The thing I will say is that he's voiced by a white guy (Publick) doing a stereotypical vaguely Eastern Asian accent. Something I wished when watching the show was for Dr Z to mention the old racist era he lived through, and maybe even how the present is still rough. The toxic masculinity of the era got mentioned, so why not that too. It would've been so obvious too.

I won't lie, a part of me is glad they didn't try to handle the racism because it would've been a horrible train wreck. I can get why they didn't delve too into it, they're white after all. I just wish there were more poc in the team and sensitivity writers because they were desperately needed. But for a show that can't even handle white women, I'm not surprised they can't handle people of color. For a show whose best thing they were able to tackle was toxic masculinity, I find it ironic how misogynistic they still were. Like quick, why were the side effects of misogyny that affect you 🫵 handled the best.

The thing is, if they did try to critique the racism, they'd alienate the audience, and it'd also be strangely hypocritical of them. Venture Bros'/Adult Swim's main audience is white cishet men. The ones least affected by bigotry. They're able to laugh at bigoted jokes, and they're the most marketable people. White guys will appeal to other white guys. In the early 2000s, white creators were able to get away with much more. Not because it was alright but because it was easier for them to shut down minorities calling them out. Despite how "normal" it was, that doesn't change how that fed into a very toxic, bigoted culture. Despite today still being hellish for minorities, it was even worse just a couple of years ago.

Venture Bros obviously did not invent racism/bigotry. The show is very much a product of their time and environment. And whenever I think about that, it feels draining. Especially having had to live through the 2000s. The show can be amazing when it wants to be. There's so much potential and a lot of charm and character. I really enjoy it, and that's why I'm so critical of it. Not only because I want it to be better but because I want something better for fans of color. We barely get anything, and the least we should get are characters that look like us and are respected. Just like their white counterparts. It's like, how am I supposed to feel when Sgt Hatred gets redeemed and made a main character before we got a character of color that didn't face racist jokes/got whitewashed. Or even before we got a female character whose existence didn't hinge on their relationship to a man. Obviously, the show doesn't hate people of color. They've tried to better over time, which again great. But it barely felt like they respected poc enough.

With the movie, despite its own problems (not helped by Adult Swim screwing them over), you could tell they were trying. And it was really appreciated. Jefferson had a big spotlight, and there weren't jokes against him. We even got to know a bit more about him. It was genuinely his best. Ignoring Orpheus still looking like he's in a perpetual state of winter, that aspect of the movie was alright.

I'm very glad to see fans who are critical of these aspects. It makes me more happy seeing them vouch for poc. However, there's still a large majority that ignores or even excuses the racism. Unsurprisingly, these tend to be the white dude bro fans. But I've seen even the more liberal fans excuse/ignore stuff. The fanbase is very white, just like a lot of other fanbases. I can get why a supportive white person feels they wouldn't be best to call out the show's shit. I just wish they'd mention it more with a simple "oh there's xyz in this episode and it wasn't alright." Something as simple as that carries a lot of power in very white environments. Also, of course, uplift other fans of color, especially when they talk about or face racism. Things as simple as that make me breathe sighs of relief. It personally encourages me to interact with communities more.

I'm unsure of how to close this off. This feels like a topic you could talk about all day. All I wish is for things to be better, you know? Hopefully this all makes sense. I just wrote shit off the top of my head. I'd love to hear thoughts expanding or adding on to stuff. Really hope this reaches the right people

[lipstickchainsaw]

Act 3 mostly left behind the elements of the show that I was most interested in, and had the most to say about, but I do want to talk about episode 7, which was fucking gorgeous and extremely well done.

I've seen people say that the good timeline Ekko and Heimerdinger find themselves in is the result of Vi dying, as if this timeline is a Wonderful Life view to paint Vi as the 'real' jinx, but I don't think this makes sense (for one, I don't think this episode gives us a new perspective on Vi, and Vi isn't the one seeing this, so it isn't giving her a new perspective on herself, either).

No, the point of Ekko's half of this episode is to give him a new perspective on Jinx, by showing him who Powder could have been. Last season, he was the most prominent person to argue that Powder was dead, and that only Jinx remained within the girl he was once friends with. This is not an unreasonable position for him to hold, given that she's killed a bunch of his friends in the Firelights over the course of his resistance to Silco's regime.

But this girl he meets here is not Jinx, and when he sees her, he initially reacts with the same hostility he would to the one from his timeline. Even when he figures out that he's in a different timeline, he isn't able to get over that, to stop projecting the image of Jinx onto this young woman who's done nothing wrong and suddenly sees her boyfriend acting so cold and distant to her.

This culminates in him asking the (really insensitive regardless) question of whether she was the reason Vi died. He has so internalised the view of Powder as Jinx/as a jinx that anything having gone wrong must have been her.

But she shoots back that, really, that's on him way more than it is on her. It's downplayed in season 1, but Ekko is the one behind the inciting incident of the show. To wit, he rips Jayce off, charging him double for the stuff he's buying, and then sends his friends to rob the guy's place, little rascal that he is. It was a fun little prank for a kid to play on some rich idiot who could just bounce back from that anyway, right?

And then everything went horribly wrong! Ekko lost his mentor, his closest friends, one of whom came back different, as his home was turned into a twisted parody of itself, and he had to find himself a sanctuary from which to launch a resistance movement.

We're naturally drawn to compare this Powder and our Jinx, but I think the subtler difference here is between the two Ekkos. It doesn't get a ton of emphasis, but we see from the way the people around him respond to him that this Ekko was very different, too. He hasn't had to grow up way too fast, and take up way too many responsibilities for someone his age. He hasn't become as angry as the Ekko we know, hasn't had cause to rage against the many injustices of a system stacked against him on both sides.

This Ekko is a relaxed, content, brilliant and recognised for it, genius little inventor, with a beautiful girlfriend who loves and supports him in his endeavours, and a wider family looking out for him to prepare him to step into a wider world of great possibility.

The way he conceptualises himself, as a resistance leader, a fighter and a protector, a boy saviour, he isn't ontologically any of these things. He isn't condemned by fate to step into those roles, doesn't become them out of some innate characteristics he just has. He is that way because circumstances forced him to become that.

And the same is true for Powder, for Jinx. She isn't inherently a jinx, regardless of what anyone including she herself may believe. She isn't the manifestation of misfortune for all, and he knows this. When he took her down in S1e7, and Jinx showed the suicidal Powder inside of her, he recognised this, and it's what stopped him from killing her then (even if she tried to blow him up.)

Even in that episode, she confronts him about this, calling him 'the boy saviour' in a tone that's halfway to an accusation. 'Why didn't you save me?' is what she halfway chokes out, where was her saviour (much in the same tone she'd use for herself when announcing herself as 'your big fat hero', because she wasn't able to believe in that concept either)?

Neither of them was able to address the matter then, because Ekko was still reasonably upset about the people she killed, and Jinx was dealing with a lot of complicated feelings she was expressing with violence, but it's his time here, with this Powder that gets him to reconsider.

'I've never seen you give up on anything,' and all that.

It helps that he meets a different Jinx who is, with some effort, willing to let herself be saved without trying to kill the person saving her.

(And not to be too down on our Jinx, Vi's death clearly hit this Powder hard, and she never quite built up the confidence to pursue her own ideas as a result.)

[oneatlatime]

The Blind Bandit

I had honestly forgotten that the Gaang were trying to find an earthbending teacher, so the 'previously on' segment was actually useful instead of spoilery.

Nobody's face is having a good time.

Look at this sweetheart. You go ahead and treat yourself honey. You've single-handedly escorted a pair of earth-shatteringly overpowered tweens around the world for months; the least you deserve is a shopping trip.

"You kids like earthbending?" Has the same energy as "wanna buy a sun dial?" from that animated Hercules movie.

This guy is one of those strip mall karate types.

I take back everything I ever said about Zuko's season 1 haircut. This guy has a dust bunny poop on his head.

Momo's bag now.

My absolute favourite girl power: incredible violence!

The acoustics at this earth rumble place must be great. I don't see any microphones.

"That's what I paid for." Sokka is a simple creature at heart. Likes food and violence.

Something very strange about this guy's face. I think his mouth moves but his eyes don't.

So apparently earthbending gets you mad air.

Oh! I get it. This is a WWE parody. Somebody on the writing team did their homework too. Don't ask me how I know, but this is a very accurate parody.

Sokka thinks listening to big muscles is a very good idea actually.

And here's the heel. Complete with russian accent. And oddly homoerotic anthem. And cowardice when challenged! Yep, total heel.

I LOLed at the zamboni badgermoles and hockey organ.

She's like two feet tall!

I'm. in love.

I could watch little girls beat up grown men all day.

Earthbending sonar?

Omigod it predicts. She can see moves before they happen.

Well it's a good thing Bumi said to look for someone who Waited and Listened rather than Watched.

"I don't really want to fight you. I want to talk to you." Says the guy who just volunteered, in front of a full stadium, to FIGHT her. Time and place, Aang.

Get back on the ground you flighty airbender. She sees with that ground. No fair.

This is about the face I made when Aang pulled that move. Does this boy think at all? I love him, but what part of stealing her well-earned title is supposed to convince her to talk to him?

You messed up.

I love sartorially inclined Sokka. It's a tiny an innocuous little trait, but it rounds out his character so well.

I get to watch two different girls terrorise idiots this episode. I am blessed.

So I'm guessing the two idiots at the earthbending academy are doing that excercise where kung fu people stick their hands in sand (I've seen videos of it) but it really looked like they were in the 'beat back the dough' phase of making bread.

In this universe of plot-convenient clothing blindness, how do Dumb and Dumber recognise Aang as the one who beat the Blind Bandit?

I think the voice actor for the dumb kid with actual hair did a bunch of voices in season 1. The soldier who gives Aang Bato's map comes to mind.

Have I said recently how much I love Sokka and Katara?

These wrestling guys keep switching between first and third person. Too many rocks to the head.

This could be a board for a murder mystery board game. Or a map for a DND dungeon.

It's her hair. I thought the Blind Bandit had a cap type thing with a little brim for her costume, but it's just a pile of her hair? Like a beehive?

A lesson in character writing: if you want to make someone look super dumb, have them earnestly believe in the credentials and authenticity of a guy you have previously set up as a borderline con artist. Lookin at you, Blind Bandit's dad.

"Basic forms and breathing exercises only." That line is just so funny. And they're all so stupid. She snapped like half a dozen spines last night and this guy is preaching breathing exercises.

Wow! I hate her dad!

I hate him more!

Sokka going ham on some rice rather than listen to the idiots. Good priorities.

This passive aggressive fight between the girl and Aang at the dinner table is so fun.

Looking for somewhere to store your meal after you've face planted into it? Try the top of your head!

I need to get a hold of some of those magic napkins. Wiped up a whole multicourse meal in like 5 seconds.

That is indeed the appropriate reaction to this pint sized badass. Glad Aang is learning. (Also this episode needs more Appa. The last couple have been sadly bereft.)

Called it. Earthdending sonar. Or is it more like echolocation? No! Whiskers!

How does this pint sized badass - who if I am understanding correctly, is not known to exist outside the walls of her house - have more emotional intelligence than the entirety of the Gaang put together?

So much for the guards in the garden. They'd actually be useful now.

Sokka. Priorities. Although given how many times Aang has escaped custody/kidnapping he's probably ok to take a minute to fangirl over an autograph.

These idiot parents don't know their daughter at all. That chafes.

"I'm not smiling." I LOLed at that too. Perfect delivery.

Hippo man having a snack before he gets down to business. No wonder he's missing teeth.

All this blind and tiny and helpless and fragile talk is really making me hope someone smacks the crap out of the dad. What an awful thing to say, nevermind saying it where your daughter can hear.

SMACKDOWN INCOMING

This is gonna be good.

If this girl does join the Gaang the writers are going to have to nerf her in every major conflict. She's too powerful. I bet she could take on the firelord now.

And that's why you don't announce sneak attacks.

So remember how Sokka was absolutely losing his shit over the Boulder? That's me right now.

She waits. All these idiots are losing because they're getting impatient and attacking first. Which means that, to her senses, they're telegraphing their moves. That is so cool. And so is this visual.

Here's your chance Dad. Are you going to mess it up?

"I love fighting. I love being an Earthbender. And I'm really really good at it." me:

I don't have words for how much I LOVE when little girls STAND UP for THEMSELVES and THEIR INTERESTS. This would have had me HOLLERING if I'd seen it as a kid. It was a message I needed to hear too.

Wow I want to kill her parents.

OH FUCK OFF

COME ON

You made my girl cry.

Get wrecked belt stealer. I LOLed at this too.

Sokka just beaned a blind girl on the head. Not a good look. I laughed though.

Fun fact: everyone in this picture is a piece of shit.

I haven't been this steamed since Zuko's dad burned half his face off.

Final Thoughts

IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, this episode feels like it's movie quality. This show is usually excellent, but this feels like a cut above. I feel like I could sense the love the writers, animators, voice actors, everyone had for this episode. They had a good time making it and were enthusiastic about it. And there were lots of tiny background details in this episode too. I'm sure I missed quite a few. Oh No! I'll have to rewatch it!

New team member! That hasn't happened since Momo. Actually, no wonder the episode was so good. Introducing the first new team member in at least a season's worth of episodes is a delicate operation. I bet they were workshopping this episode since early in the first season.

And Toph! (thank you credits for how to spell that - I was really hoping it wasn't Toff). Be still my heart I love Toph. She may well take Sokka's spot as my favourite character. Strength of character, self-assurance, emotional intelligence, badassery, mastery of violence, what's not to love!!!

How did she get so emotionally intelligent and articulate if her parents have kept her caged her whole life? I don't know but I'm not complaining!

How did her parents get away with caging her for her whole life? I do know (money) and I am complaining. Very much so. And yet Toph can still find it within herself to have an honest conversation with them, including apologising for leaving said cage. I never would have had the maturity to do that in a similar situation. I would have gone the Katara explosive rage route.

A little girl who stands up for herself. Against HER PARENTS. I just. Do you know how amazing that is? Especially in a kids' show? I was ROBBED by not being able to see this show when I was Toph's age.

Does bending work like a muscle, in that you build up stamina? Because if so, then Toph is the strongest human earthbender in the world by default. If she's using it in place of seeing, then she's using it 100% of the time that she's awake, all day every day. By the time she was like 5 years old she'd probably used her bending more than the average earthbender does in their whole lifetime.

My one complaint is Toph's voice. Nothing wrong with it; this is a me thing. It fits her perfectly, but my ears do not play well with nasal voices, which hers is. I had to rewind quite a few times and resorted to subtitles by the end. Hopefully I'll get used to it like I did Zuko's.

Sokka! My soon to be demoted beloved! He shone in this episode. I love that he has fashion sense and is not afraid to show it. I'm thinking, what with how hung up he was on masculinity at the start of the show, that the water tribes have a different conception of masculinity: one that classes fashionability as a masculine or gender neutral trait. Even back in season one it didn't take much to get Sokka into the Kyoshi warrior uniform, and he's shockingly good at applying face paint symmetrically. Which I still cannot do with winged eyeliner.

Katara! Not headed for a career in diplomacy but so satisfying to watch. I would love to have a Katara in my pocket that I could unleash on people. And her and Sokka bouncing off each other this episode was great. Every one was at peak performance this episode, except Aang. Not at his brightest this episode.

Checking for typos before I post this and I realise I'd already forgotten that Toph is blind! Just like in the Northern Air Temple, this is how you do disability right: as just a part of who they are, rather than an entire personality. This show is so good.

In sum, Toph:

[britt-kageryuu]

Donnie is doing a reaction stream, if only because the audience found their commentary and general reactions.

Plus many of their games mods needed to update, totalling 3 hours for just one games mods.

Donnie switches over to YouTube to watch some reddit videos, at the request from chat.

He also readjusts his setup so that his model dressed in purple sweatpants, a black longsleeved shirt with a graphic of a cartoon softshell holding a knife in its mouth, black socks, and his bandana. And sitting on an armchair with his tail visibly draped next to him.

At this moment the chat starts asking why Donnie isn't signed in to YouTube.

"Well, I don't have Premium so Ads do not matter. Frustrated Huff. What matters is that when I am signed in I get YouTube Podcasts, and episodes as Ads, and the timer just says 90, seconds or minutes, it doesn't tell." Donnie says with some annoyance, his tail whips to the side striking the side of the chair with a smack. "Sure they're skippable, but if I leave a video playing in the background and I get an Ad... well I wonder why I hear someone I wasn't watching talking for 10 minutes."

"Meanwhile, if I am not signed in, the ads are a worst a 30 second unskippable ad. Or the video pausing to ask if I want to sign in." Right as they say this, said pop up comes up on the video, "Like so. It doesn't 'improve my watch experience' to log in, so no."

"Now to watch a video or two from reddit readers, first up is Mildly Interesting." Donnie announces as they start the video. "Then after this will be a 'Confidently Incorrect' reddit video. So help my sanity, then Tech Support Gore. To torture me further apparently."

Donnie spent the first video double checking facts, or slightly correcting some of the posts, though some did genuinely surprise him.

The other two were a treasuretrove of clips people took of Donnie ranting, yelling and glaring at the computer for the Confidently Incorrect.

Though the Tech Support Gore had Donnie going through more emotion than anything else the audience had ever seen. Including Donnie looking close to throwing up on stream, they thankfully only dry heaving.

Though the epic rant about taking care of your electronics, was sound sampled for alot of parody videos made by those who watched the stream, and clips in the time after the stream ended.

Leo occasionally send Donnie videos where people overlay the rant over many Tech Support Gore situations.

------------------

Masterpost

I just wanted to use Donnie to do a small scale rant about my YouTube ads situation.

[ladyloveandjustice]

Fall 2023 Anime Overview: 100 Girlfriends and Spy x Family S3

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You

Premise: Rentaro is approached by the god of love, who confesses that he accidentally gave him 100 soulmates. And unfortunately, if someone meets their soulmate and fails to be with them, they DIE. Thus Rentaro decides he will date all the girls who end up being his soulmate, and be the best possible boyfriend ever to all of them.

So yeah. I watched this. I'm not someone who really watches male-centric harem anime, but I'd heard this one was really funny and yeah, the first episode was indeed really funny. The way it exaggerated the tropes of the genre to parody them genuinely made me laugh. The first two girlfriend's gimmicks were that one (Akane) was secretly super thirsty and the other (Karane) was tsundere and it played those to the hilt for maximum laughs. Tsundere says she decided to take a piss in the school flower garden to avoid saying she was looking for the perfect flower for Rentaro and Rentaro's astonished "you realize that makes you sound WAY worse than telling the truth does" was great. Thirsty girl trying to pull the ~ooh you need to drink some of my drink~ to score an indirect kiss only to find Rentaro ridiculously prepared was also a fantastic gag.

All the girls are REALLY down bad for Rentaro and the premise of this would not work at all if the series didn't sell Rentaro as legitimately a great boyfriend who could reasonably attract 100 girl and be just as down bad for all of them. But Rentaro is no classic harem potato boy, he's superhumanly thoughtful and the ultimate wife guy. It makes him very static as a character compared to the flexibility the others have, but it's generally amusing. On top of that, the series handled neurodivergence in a surprisingly thoughtful way in episode 3 with Rentaro going all out to help his ladylove's way of expressing herself without talking be more accessible, rather than trying to "fix" her.  I also really like how the girls in the polycule are genuinely friends and don't compete with each other over Rentaro--and some even seem like they're pretty into each other too (though this is entirely played for laughs rather than actually explored, of course).

Yet at the same time...yeah, the premise began wearing thin for me as tropes I'm less willing to roll with popped up.

Karane's complex over being flat-chested wore thin quickly (even if Rentaro thinks she's perfect) since it's mainly used in gags to embarrass her. One girlfriend's thing is that she drugs a lot of people without their consent (fantasy type drugs that can do ridic things, but. they are drugs. some that melt clothes or make you lustful included), and the anime genuinely tries to make you think it's so sad that people didn't want to be friends with her because of this, and Rentaro magnanimously tells her she's okay the way she is...forgiving her for his girlfriends that she drugged. Yeah, she's annoying. (also her body turns into a child's sometimes because of course it does).

And then there's the Mom girlfriend. I mean of course there's gonna be a Mom girlfriend eventually, Milf-lovers can't be denied, but it happened quicker than expected! it being paired with her being initially abusive (to the point she drove her daughter to attempt suicide) and then fixed by Rentaro's love and motivational speech...along with the justifications for her being ridiculously young (likely to parody that trope, but still)...yeah, it was all a lot.

I don't know if I'll return for the (already announced) season 2 tbh. I appreciate that the show's intentionally trashy and silly, and it is still funny a lot of the time, but it's not really my kind of trash. But I don't regret the wild, often fun ride it was--maybe if I'm really bored that season or hear enough wild things I'll retry, but right now it seems likely me and the 100 girlfriends are never, ever, ever getting back together.

Spy x Family Season 3

See previous reviews for the premise and so on.

Spy x Family is pretty much staying the course from when we last checked in, though this season gives a lot more attention to Yor, and I love the cruise ship arc and all the ridiculous fights she gets into a lot! That arc contains some of my favorite gags of the series too (like Loid's attempts to be a cool dad). Otherwise, Spyfam has settled into being a largely episodic series that seems like it wants to be around for the long haul, so don't expect too much forward plot momentum. And Yuri (the man, not the genre) unfortunately still exists, and unfortunately we have to put up with an episode of him being a fascist supercop. Overall it was good season, though and remains a fun adaptation. Yor, please step on me.

[sparkanonymous]

Dragons Rising: Season 2

I'm a little bit more nervous to watch season 2; I like watching things that make me feel happy, and from the brief spoilers I've gotten about this season, this is probably gonna be more sad than anything... But I'll try.

I will be continuing to work on the two pieces I was working on before, so check the bottom of this post if you want to see my progress! (This goes for my season 1 notes post, too, by the way.)

⚠️ Spoilers for episodes 1-5!

Divider by cafekitsune

Episode 1: The Blood Moon

New Jordana look, huh? I don't really like it right now, but I can grow to get used to it.

So are the lines on her face just... permanent?

Good to know Raz has night vision.

Jordana is clearly scared about all of this... I wonder how long it will take for her to switch sides.

The bad guys always seem too distracted, intentionally taking their time to get to their targets. I kinda understand why it was that way for the little phone video in the beginning of the episode, since it's such a cramped space to work with and the movements might cause motion sickness. But with every other fight? No.

Wow, Ryu grew up quite fast.

Fugidove? In 2024?

Holy fuck, the news reporter remembered Pixal? Most of the ninja didn't even remember her. Actually, practically nobody in Ninjago city. He's either a super fan, or the writers completely forgot that fact for this season.

Is Intelligent George a parody on someone? I can't tell.

Did Sora really have to spell that out? Did they just... not think that that people watching the second season had already watched the first? I feel like spelling it out like that will make people not want to go back and rewatch the first season to see what they missed.

Also, with how much bigger Ryu is, I would've thought more time had passed. The way Sora had said that line makes it sound like she just unlocked her true potential instead of it being like... a few months ago or something.

Okay, so now we're on the "Arin really wants elemental powers" thing. He seemed mostly fine with that last season. What changed?

Arin, if you're looking for someone to be talking about those still lost in the merge, why the hell would you watch a Youtuber who only wants to talk about the ninja to sell merch? There are plenty of people that you could talk to; the people you're currently around would be far better to talk to about this. I know that they don't have the solution right now, but they are far more likely to come up with one before a fucking Youtuber.

Sora and Arin are such good friends. Even if their interests are completely different, they still partake in the other's activities, especially when the other is looking blue.

Poor Frohicky, lol

Zane would have already heard and figured out these figures of speech back in like... season 1 or 2. But he's still cute. I like that Kai and Zane are playing the video game together.

The layout of this game makes me think of the TMNT arcade game. Nice touch.

Hm... so Lloyd's getting more visions... or he's having a nightmare... or both?

So... Zane and Sora are gonna get taken down. Is Arin going to rebel, betray them? Beatrix is clearly coming back, which I figured would happen after she disappeared into that merge-quake at the end of last season.

Wu watching over his nephew is nice, but... where's Garmadon? Sure, Wu is probably more iconic and a better teacher, but Garmadon is Lloyd's father. I want to see him again... would he have the same golden glow that Wu's ghost does, or would he have a purple glow or be a purple void?

Also, where's Nya? I don't think I've seen her at all this episode.

Why is Arin's voice so soft now? It's like he's constantly whispering into the mic?

Kreel not even denying that she tried to make their mech explode back in episode 1 lol

Wait is the junkyard ghost Wu?

Wow, that was a small investigation montage.

I like Ryu's teenage model over the baby one, but he reminds me a little too much of Toothless.

That old lady shaming those throwing away a good dragon... but not taking the dragon? Oh, come on; she would've totally tried to take Ryu back home with her. It's an old lady thing.

Oh my god, Arin stop self-pitying; this is not the time.

Arin, they will be proud of you; you're a ninja.

Lloyd's gonna have a heart attack.

Woah, the camera during this fight is really wobbly. It actually feels like Arin, Sora, and Ryu are in danger.

The actual panic in Lloyd's voice.

Give me the smoke guy's name. I need it. He's really cool.

Episode 2: Shattered Dreams

Wait, the writers of destiny are still a thing? I would've thought that they would have disbanded after it was proven that writing the future didn't actually mean anything.

Their idea of fun is bagels? Yeah, I can see it.

Wait, so their entire religion isn't completely founded on made up bullshit?

Lloyd, why would you drink that?

Sora, you sound like Raven Queen.

Arin, that's robot-ist. In front of Zane? Really?

Y'all are in broad daylight. So much for being ninja.

Everybody judging Sora's graffiti, including Zane lmao

Hitting Zane in the head with a non-magic teapot lmfao

The Gong of Shattering is such a terrible name.

Poor Arin, lol

Oh, no. This is Arin's undoing. He's gonna hit the gong in order to try and get an elemental power, he'll turn evil, and then fight beside Raz. I'm calling it now!

I really enjoy Percival's character now. He's learning, he's helping out, and he seems to be kinder than when he was under Beatrix's rule. I think the rebellion was good for him.

The Master Writer was so scared, he didn't even try to run. Wow. Anyone will let the bad guys overthrow them, huh.

Euphrasia should seriously train with the other ninja; she's far too weak to be looking after a kingdom alone. (Yes, I know that they're making all the ninja really bad at fighting to make it look like the smoke ninja is way stronger than them, but still.)

It's not called the Blood Moon for anything good. Is it ever?

You're supposed to be sneaky; that glowing green spinjitzu is not sneaky in any way.

Why did Euphrasia have to say that? She could have looked relieved instead of saying that terribly said "Thank goodness your okay!"

Zane, that doesn't answer shit. A written language can't look evil. That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard.

Should Euphrasia even be here to save the Master Writer? She's using a crutch. Actually, does literally everybody have to be here for this? Bigger groups are hard to be stealthy with, and most of them aren't really being useful. They should've picked three to go in while everyone else stays behind as back up.

So Raz was the reason the worms turned evil last season. Hm...

I'm still not over it. Why is Ryu here? It should've been Lloyd, Arin, and Zane; Lloyd because he needs to confirm his visions, Arin because he's really foreshadowing something, and Zane to confirm the stupid language thing. Euphrasia would've been a good choice to bring if she wasn't using a crutch. Everyone else is just... here for no fucking reason except to just listen to the Master Writer. They're not really hiding, so any of the wolf-masked characters could easily find them. They didn't bother animating anyone except Lloyd and Arin going up the wall; they all just kinda teleported. This is bothering me so bad. (Not everyone has to be here to listen. The three that would've gone could've spread the information off screen so it didn't become too repetitive.)

See, I fucking told you. Now Lloyd's having another panic attack.

Why did the gong only affect the wolf-masks? Is the detail I missed that they have to be wearing the wolf mask to be affected by the gong? That seems dumb.

Lmao Kai

Woah, Zane glitching.

Episode 3: Beyond the Phantasm Cave

Wait, where did Kai's mech come from?

Of course when Lloyd asks for an answer, the source dragons come.

Wow, that source dragon from season 1 is so convincing, he convinced the other source dragons within seconds.

Why wouldn't Sora believe Lloyd after all of this?

Aw, Kai checking on Wyldfyre.

Nya, you trained under Wu for how long? You would know that, yes. He would bring you guys somewhere based on half-understood dreams.

Why is Zane always the one to keep an eye on the ship? Ugh.

"Now it sounds like the rotor sneezed!" Lmao Lloyd

It's sweet that Sora and Arin are talking to each other about fond memories, but... why? This came out of nowhere, and they just arrived at their destination. The writing here feels a little clunky.

Aw, now they all have grappling hooks.

Wow it sure took those snake things a while to come out to try and kill them.

Uh oh, Kai's powers not working very well...

Is this like the future telling ice thing in the original series?

Sora that is quite clearly static. How the hell did you think that was Kai?

Oh man, it's all their worst fears...

Oh, shit... The Jaya thing I've seen fanart for.

Poor fucking Nya... this is foreshadowing.

They have airjitzu. They could take the jump a lot more carefully.

Episode 4: Force From The East

Ooh, finally! Back to Cole.

God, Geo and Cole are so fruity.

That was a mouthful of exposition. They could've had a mini flashback of that moment from last season when Cole left and followed Wu. Sure, Geo didn't see that, but this show has never shied away from showing other character's perspectives during flashback sequences told by another character.

Geo being worried about Cole.

They're such an artistic family.

Bonzle is gonna make Geo panic.

Kai and Nya working together is sweet.

Me, too, Arin. Me, too.

The dragon speaking English instead of using telepathy or whatever.

"Should we... ask them what they want?" "Sure. What do you want?" *Gets obliterated* Lmao

Geo's so silly.

Finally; Cole comes to the rescue!

Bonzle's hiding something... I'm not sure what just yet. But she knew that they could leave when they previously couldn't.

Why does Zane have a Frohicky plushie? I'm so confused.

Why isn't Cole surprised to see Zane?

"- why do you have a frog-man-doll?" "It is a long and barely comprehensible story." I love them.

So that's why I thought the Glacier reunion was so... weird and terrible. They're in the middle of a chase scene.

I like how Zane tries to decipher what the problem is by examining his face... I'm so normal about this pairing, I swear.

I like how this episode is split into the stuff that Lloyd and crew were doing and Cole and family were doing, but I focus on just the Cole and family stuff. Mostly just Cole and Geo. They're family is really sweet and care about one another so deeply. Fritz and Spitz need more to do, though; they're kinda just... kids in the middle of everything, but they seem to be as strong and fast as the rest of their family, so... idk

Episode 5: The Spell at the Waterfall

Ah, the Zane and Frohicky side of the plot.

I understand what Frohicky is trying to accomplish, but Zane has already gone to him if he has a problem with the things he's doing. That's just the kind of guy Zane is. This tactic might have worked better with Kai or Lloyd.

Zane whacking the bad guy with the stupid fucking doll lmao

Why wouldn't Bonzle have told them earlier? Lmao what a mouthful.

Oh, so that kinda makes sense... kinda. For Bonzle to know when the could leave. But she would've sensed that opening a long time ago, and probably would have looked more worried throughout the beginning of last episode.

See? The entire Cole and Geo family is artistic.

Bonzle met Master Wu?!

Kai and Nya are so epic.

So, wait. i thought Wu would have taken her to meet the ninja, but I guess not?

Aw, Cole and Geo getting emotional about Bonzle's story.

"This reminds of the old days. Count me in." "That's what I'm talking about." Ugh... I love them too much...

So is one of the source dragons helping Raz? Or am I going crazy?

Of course, there are some critics I have. But I'm liking this so far, even with how often Lloyd was getting panicked and the amount of foreshadowing to future episodes I was getting. Still a little nervous about what's coming, though...

Current Progress:

[margoteve]

Character Thoughts on Lawrence Limburger.

I had some thoughts about Lawrence Limburger from Biker Mice from Mars. I have finished watching first season and IDK it got me thinking how vile the man is.

So he's a really good business man and politician in the worst way possible. If he was human villain he would be quoting Sun Tzu or some modern age Steve Jobs I bet. Because all those pretentious villains do.

His schemes most of the time appear to be acts of good will and philantropy which is the worst kind of villain. To public he is benevolent if not awfully stinky and ridiculous man. His company most likely has an excellent working conditions as he tries to maintain a certain image with the human public. Plus the constant destruction of his tower he HAS to have great bonuses to keep people from quitting. Like in the episode introducing the Loogi Brothers, he took time to personally answer the calls from angry office workers. Illusions of good persona are so importat to him, otherwise how else will you steal Earth right from under humanity's nose?

I mean I am certain he must have bribed his way into ruining Chicago to the state it is now to a certain degree but I doubt anyone would be able to track it to him directly or if they did they probably got disposed of. I would have loved an episode with a news reporter doing an investigation on some suspicious activity and finding Limburger got his fingers in it and then running into Mice while running for their life.

I bet while some in Chi-Town, those who worked with Biker Mice in the past, would see them as heroes those who don't see them as menaces most likely, frequent destruction of property is certainly a reason to dislike them. I bet construction companies love them tho lol. The constant rebuilding of Limburger Tower must be making them a bank.

I think it's interesting how the show must look to the regular Chicago person from the outside. We only see Mice as heroes bc that's how the show presents it.

Great Cheese is cunning, two face and slimy, villain that if not for the rules of the genre of the show would be a serious threat which explains and gives chilling insight on just how easily Mars got stripped mined in the first place. Just look at all the social projects evil schemes he presented to the public:

solar power plant in exchange of the outdated (?) sewage system/cleaning plant

free services for evacuating the city during earthquakes

free cleanup from a toxic spill (nevermind it was destroying the park in the process and the toxins were his inventions - the public didn't know that or other options of how to deal with it)

a new subway tunnel

This is what the public knows of him. We have the knowledge of Limburger being a land stealing intergalactic oligarch (regular American businessman LOL) because the show wants us to know this. To a regular person who only hears about him from the news he's next best thing in the world. No surprise he managed to stay on top in Chicago until Biker Mice came bc they are the only ones with first hand experience of his "benevolence" always having a flip side. If not for his cartoonish looks and behaviour in the show he could have been on Xanatos level of villain but he is played more for gags rather than serious tone of Gargoyles.

But he keeps losing (thankfully). The difference here between the villain and heroes is the most classic one. His closest employees have no loyalty to him unlike Biker Mice who rely heavily on their loyalty to each other and trust each other (the famous Power of Friendship and unspeakable voilence lmao). Like the Great Cheese himself often states - "it's so hard to find good help these days".

To sum it up - Limburger is skilled politician/business man and if the show had any other tone than parody he would have destroyed Earth in like a month (exaggerating here). Fortunately for the show's world Mice are the Mongols to Limburger's Roman Empire and firmly thwarth all of his schemes.

Because Friendship and unspeakbable violence LOL.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. Also I am really curious how the Ryan Reynolds reboot gonna portray the Stinky Cheese.

[philtstone]

#7, 13, and 22 for the Psych ask game?

7. Favorite Gus moment?

ooooh this one is so hard! burton guster my forevergirl ... he has so many iconic and Big Ticket moments that stand on their own and aren't related to other characters, but the biggest hallmark of gus's character to me will always be how good of a friend he is -- and so all of the scenes that popped into my head are a bit more subtle. it's a tie between the scene in the thornburg virus episode where gus bursts into the hospital room to make sure shawn doesn't confess his feelings to juliet for the wrong reasons, and the scene in "one, maybe two ways out" when gus immediately calls shawn out for being unfair when shawn says its bothering him that juliet is with declan. something about those two scenes really exemplifies why i appreciate gus so much; he's not here to be nice, he's here to be a good and honest friend who values the people he cares about three dimensionally, and sometimes that means not giving them the easy way out. that's not an easy thing to do. for all that gus runs away when the murder and chaos gets too much, he's incredibly brave and forthright when it comes to his personal relationships, more so than any other character on the show. he's the kind of friend i always try to be, and so those moments always stick out to me the most.

an honourable mention to the entire cold open of "office space", though. also the line "goldilocks was a crazy blonde shorty shawn", which makes me fall to pieces laughing every time

13. Favorite secondary character?

who counts as a secondary character??? can i say henry?? can i please say henry??? henrys secondary enough right??? my henry apologia knows no bounds. favorite disaster father in the history of television, no question

22. How did you get into the show?

good question!!! its a very convoluted story lol so i;ll try to speedrun it. also sorry because this is going to get a little bit sentimental and possibly too sincere

i very much subscribe to the "sometimes you encounter a story when you Need It Most" theory and i think my relationship w psych really exemplifies that idea. so once upon a time, years ago, i tried starting it when i was still into brooklyn nine nine -- this was like, 2017 i want to say? and i was kind of immediately put off and never got past episode 1. because i was expecting b99, which psych is absolutely not. its characters are a lot more morally gray and the show's narrative structure isn't a sitcom -- it's a parody of a crime procedural, which i wasn't used to. lucky enough for me, the beloved people in my life made me sit and watch the highlight episodes a few years later, and of course i was charmed, because psych is nothing if not charming and i grew up reading sherlock holmes mysteries as a kid. holmes and watson are kind of inherently a hit. but i think i never really saw it as it was meant to be watched: gradually, and with the breathing room to really understand the characters in the subtle way the show reveals them to you. i also don't think -- and this may sound weird -- i was old enough to appreciate the Point of the show

when i saw it for the first time, the main characters were still Adults to me -- a nebulous concept for sure, because i was just 22 and they technically weren't that much older than me, but it didn't feel that way at all. they looked like grown ups, especially because i was mainly watching later seasons. i was also stuck at home, with my whole family surrounding me, and hadn't really faced the question of "well what the fuck am i supposed to do with my life now?" yet

this last year, i moved really far from home, permanently, for the first time. i am very close with my brother, and for the last 2 years had been lucky enough to be roommates with one of my best friends, who in turn had basically become like a sister to me. in the first few months after moving, i did live with family, but because i was working remotely from a house in the suburbs without a car, i was alone in the house all day. i started putting psych on as background noise because i remembered enjoying it, and it was something the two people i missed most loved ... and i very quickly realized that shawn and gus were 1) basically the same age as me, and 2) one of the few dynamics i'd ever seen on tv that accurately reflected what it felt like for your Person in life to be a sibling.

it was so comforting to have on in the background. it felt like my own siblings were in the room with me, trying their best and making me laugh! and the more i watched, the more i realized that psych, at its core, is a coming of age show .... about what to do when you hit your late twenties, look up, and realize you have no idea what you're supposed to do next. and it takes your hand, and says gently, "well, it's ok. you have time. you don't have to leave what's familiar behind, but you also need to be brave enough to go after something new. it'll be hard, but you'll figure it out with the people you already love, and meet new people you'll love on the way, too."

that oversimplifies it for sure -- but something about that just hit home so unexpectedly. its been so strange moving into this new phase in my life and feeling terrified that i'll be forced to leave the people most important to me behind because Thats Just What Happens When You Grow Up. to encounter this story that was so fun and clever and sincere that showed again and again the opposite of that sentiment was such a balm to my homesickness and truly made moving away a lot easier than i ever expected.

and its just good -- well written and funny and extremely creative, and while it has its imperfections, it sticks the landing at the end, which has always been the most important thing to me, really. so anyway. now im here 5 months later and i think ive dragged like 6 people down with me in the last month, lol. theres probably more to say here but suffice it to say that because of all that, there will always be something very special about this show to me

[no-psi-nan]

Well, what a loaded question to wake up to in the morning lol.

Incest is such a strong taboo in most cultures, and invokes such a strong gross-out response, that it's hard to be strictly logical about it.

But in the text of the story, there's actually not really any proof I recall that would imply Kusuke has real attraction to Kusuo outside of his humiliation kink.

And I think the specification that Kusuke has a humiliation kink and not just a "losing games" kink clears up all of the inconsistencies in canon that occur with either of the theories you mentioned.

1) Kusuke is actually pretty normal around Kusuo whenever they're not in the middle of one of his games. They talk normally plenty of times (ex. the Kochikame parody episodes) and Kusuke never does anything that would indicate attraction in those moments. Even when they're younger, before Kusuke moves out, there's no indication of "puppy love" 🤢 or anything like that, THANKFULLY. Whatever this thing is probably developed once he hit puberty in England.

2) Unlike Makoto Teruhashi, Kusuke never shows any physical interest in Kusuo. He doesn't try to kiss him or hug him or anything like that, he's definitely not imagining marriage, and he's more into drilling skulls than suppositories. When he fixes Kusuo's pants in the cat tank episode, he's completely normal about it and pretends it never happened afterwards. He puts Kusuo's limiter on his crotch mostly because it would be gross and off-putting to Kusuo– when Kusuo is slowly reaching for it, Kusuke doesn't show any excitement at the fact and just tries to win. Kusuke does call his brother cute but yeah Kusuo IS his little brother so that on its own isn't good evidence imo.

3) It's not about losing, it's specifically about humiliation. If it was purely about winning/losing, Kusuke would have gotten off on the birthday fireworks win, OR on the robotized elder loss. But if you use humiliation as the goal, then it explains those situations (just not embarrassing enough) plus it explains why Kusuke made Kusuomega lick his shoes and why he was in favor of Toritsuka taking Kusuo's body out for a streaking session.

What excites Kusuke, I think, is being made out to be a fool and looking pathetic. It's not that he's LOST against his BROTHER that gets him off, it's the fact that he's lost SO MANY TIMES to his YOUNGER brother that motivates him. That's why he has a rolling tally of all the times he's lost against Kusuo, but doesn't get into a tizzy when he loses rock/paper/scissors – on its own, it's just not embarrassing to lose at rock/paper/scissors, it's mostly a game of chance. And the fact that Kusuo doesn't actually want to play makes it more pathetic that Kusuke makes him play only to lose every time.

So yeah I think that it's laid out pretty strongly in the text that the reason Kusuke fixated on Kusuo specifically is because Kusuo is the only one who can make him feel pathetic and humiliated. That's why he doesn't give Kusuo the power deleter until after he loses the cat tank game– it means giving up on his kink in favor of what Kusuo wants. Once Kusuo loses his powers, he won't be able to outclass Kusuke any more, and that's no fun. Kusuke is completely normal around Kusuo after that too, except for when he realizes that Kusuo's powers might be returning.

I really think that if someone else showed up and started beating him consistently at games, Kusuke's fixation would quickly switch to this new person. Because in his mind, every person on earth is just a monkey, except for him and Kusuo (and possibly his mom, but she shacked up with a monkey so...). Wouldn't it be so much more humiliating to lose to a monkey than to a god-like esper??

Unfortunately we don't get to see that happen in the text, because clearly the people at anime Cambridge are not challenging Kusuke at all. Nor were Kaido, Nendo, or Toritsuka providing any challenge lol.

The closest we get to seeing him beaten by someone else is when Teruhashi has her simps attack Kusuke, but tbh the fact that he thinks she's a slut probably cancels out the humiliation of him having to helicopter out of the crowd lol. Embarrassing for both of them in his mind. Good, tbh, Teruhashi doesn't need another rich freak lusting after her hsfjdlshfks.

Anyways that's my stance on it 👍🏾

[popculturebuffet]

Don't worry. I actually do like adult animation and have interest in it. I mostly just held back on asking due to those shows not having as many unified studios or networks like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Warner Bros, Disney, and The Hub/Discovery Family, I'm fine doing Adult Swim. Next up, favorite character from the mid-2000s Adult Swim shows: The Venture Bros, Stroker & Hoop, Perfect Hair Forever, Tom Goes to the Mayor, 12 oz. Mouse, Robot Chicken, Lucy the Daughter of the Devil, Minoriteam, and Moral Orel?

True but you can just do netwrok for some of those. Anyways... thank you. moving on to this one and including Aqua Teen since i somehow missed it last time.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Shake. It used to be carl but Dana Synder gives his best performance here and a lot of the series best lines are thanks to this asshole cup. The show itself is excellent. It skids a bit as it goes on but the first few seasons are just non stop joke factories and the dr weird segments are a treasured part of my teen years and even now still are fantastic. It's a great show with top notch voice acting, fun surreal stuff and lots of fantastic episode. There's even some great later ones like Bible Fruit and Totem Pole that live rent free in my head. The show kinda deserved to live it's horrifyingly long life and will no doubt return again. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Forever

The Venture Bros: Anyone who knows this blog or my history of crossover ships (I.e. maybe two people on the latter) willlikely be able to guess but

It's the boy. Hank is a consitently funny characte rfrom the start of the series but grows from a mild jock who sucks at being a jock and bullys his brother, to a loveable weirdo who has no idea how to interact with people, wants to be batman, and yet has a lot of confidence and a genuine heart you just can't help but love. I need to write this character one of these days in fanfic and i've been working on batshit insane ideas like him being a dtective duo with sasha from amphibia that I will probably go with. Hank is one of my faviorite fictional characters and I miss him dearly.

Venture Bros is a show i've covered and PLAN to get back to next year, fingers crossed, after covering another show that flows through my veins. For now i'll say Venture Bros is one of the best adult cartoons period. It started in a simlar place with a lot of dick jokes, some transphobia and way too much stuff that hasn't aged well to get into, but grew into a show with a deep world, a heart and a lot of neat points about toxic masculinity and over obessing on your passoins long before the latter two were wildely known issues. It loves nerd culture but also makes a spectacle of the kinds of people who take it too far, is clever and despite being written by the seat of creators and sole writers Jackson Publik and Doc Hammer, they still manage to make a coherent saga with tons of character growth, humor and Hank. It's one of my faviorite shows period and the best show Adult Swim has done, and it has some stiff compettition.

Stroker and Hoop: The car, because he was hilarous. This show was one I didn't like a lot as a teen and care even less about now. It's a pretty bleh run of the mill adult cartoon.

Perfect Hair Forever: Not sure. The show itself is solid, but didn't last long, is vaugely racist in places and hasn't aged all tha twell. It was fine, but not really a great adult animated cartoon or an anime parody. It feels like a guy who hasn't watched a ton of anime's impression of what anime is which is right in some places, like perverted old men or characters claimed ot be teens being used for fanservice, but otherwise it's just kinda.. there.

Tom Goes to the Mayor; JEFFERTON ALIVE! While I like Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job More, we'll get to that, this was a solid start. My faviorite is the wizzard whose theme is stuck in my head

The show itself is solid.. but is hampred by the formula. You can only watch Tom's life implode so many times before it becomes hard to watch. But i've come to appricate the weirder gags and less cruel moments. It's telling the best parts are the live action commericals that tim and eric would perfect with their next show.

12 Oz Mouse: great theme song, barely remember this show. Some think it's a masterpiece, I think.. ti exists. I like the shark? I don't have much here

Robot Chicken:

Protect the Environment or he'll fucking kill you! A show I haven't watched in seasons but have fond memories of the early days. Some sketches have aged like hot milk. Others aged so well I still quote them or will review pluto nash soley because of the pluto nash day sketch. A solid show with a lot of invetion.

Lucy Daughter of the Devil: One i'll have to give another look at.. and i'm shocked came BEFORE metalocalypse. The Devil probably. It's a show I do want to rewatch as it was not only Lauren Bouchard's last show befor ehis breakout with bobs burgers, but it's solid. Its' art style is hit and miss, but the concept, the anti christ dates Jesus whose an arrogant dj while the Devil tries to tempt him, is great stuff.

Minoriteam: This show sucks. I didn't like it as a teen and tween as an adult it comes off as horrible shock humor trying to be edgy but failing. There's a reason Adult Swim has mostly buried this thing. I don't think it should be.. but only so this failure can be stuided to avoid other racist shock stupidity.

Morel Orel: Hard to say these days as I haven't watched it in a while. But the show is excellent. I did'nt like it as a teen in seasons 1 and 2 but rewatching episodes when season 3 aired changed my perspective, and the show itself is awesome. In hindsight it's a great deconstruction of this sort of religious dogma, a problem the country still has. It also introduced me to the mountain goats, something that's paid off for years. I may not listen to every album but when one hits for me, it fucking hits. An excellent show that needs to be protected

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Studies: Wordsville's Official Release -- Is It Really an Odd Squad Clone? (Part 1)

You can bet your fine ass I am, because, to put it nicely, the fuck is this?

All right. Anyway. So part of what I used to weaponize my YouTube channel for was doing Seren Reacts videos on new PBS Kids shows. Basically, I'd take the first episode they'd upload and react to it. Since I don't have the capacity to actually do that for this show, and since I did tell you all I'd do a Seren's Study on Wordsville when it came out and I had a chance to see it...here ya go. I watched the first episodes of this thing so you don't have to!

...Uh...well...if you don't want to, anyway.

In this essay, I'm going to put the final nail in the coffin as to the issue of whether Wordsville is truly an Odd Squad ripoff or not. I'll also be picking apart the first episode screencap by screencap, just like I used to do in the good old days of Odd News.

(At the very least, the America's Funniest Home Videos animation I'm not a fan of. At least with Tom Bergeron it was funny.)

Below the break we go!

(Just as a side note: this will be split into multiple parts because Tumblr apparently has a photo limit now. That's...gonna make these followup Seren's Studies just a bit trickier.)

Ohhhh they're really trying, bless their little hearts.

Look at that, they even threw in a goddamn university degree like these kids up and went to Harvard. Because Odd Squad agents didn't go to university and aw God man you gotta be shitting me.

Man, the theme even follows the same schtick of Odd Squad agents explaining who they are and what they do! I guess that's one for the Half-Ass list...

(And on a related note, because I don't think I brought this up: Gabby's actress sounds like she was on Odd Squad at one point, but hell if I know where. Guess I'll know when the credits come up.)

Hm. Hah. Just like, y'know, Olive and Otto, Orla and Omar at one point in ti- really, do I have to keep going?

You could tell me this was an Odd Squad sequel spinoff in disguise and I'd 100% believe you.

(Also is that...is that a rainbow bead design in the upper right there? Does Sly is gay or am I just going nuts because this episode was uploaded in Pride Month and Sinking Ship already has some LGBTQ+ rep under their belt?)

I will say that, unlike with Odd Squad, I appreciate them not making this out to be some stupidly thinly-veiled Zoom or Skype parody. It looks like a new fresh platform that isn't supposed to reference anything. I like that!

...Nah, not even I'm desperate enough to pry an Odd Squad jab out of this title.

I am, however, getting flashbacks to Wonderful Precure and people speculating about the colors in the title. If this were one of those seasons we'd have a group of five with a blue-green Cure as the leader, which would melt the Internet. Definitely. Maybe.

Also, unless they're working on Odd Squad UK and we don't know it yet, Christin Simms is not an Odd Squad name I recognize. Seems they've worked on pretty much every modern Sinking Ship series but Odd Squad, which I choose to take as intentional just due to the similarities between the two series alone. I mean let's be honest...if it were an Odd Squad writer, it would really only reinforce a few of my points.

So I've chosen to watch "The Case of the Disappearing Donuts", mainly because I believe that's the episode that was featured in the sample script I talked about in the previous Seren's Study. Just...y'know, as a heads-up. I tried to go for the first episode.

And needless to say...I'm not sure if this is it (TVO released five episodes in a bundle and your guess is as good as mine as to which one is the series premiere) but I can already see a striking difference with Odd Squad, in that yes, Wordsville does indeed launch us clear into the plot without any warning. Yeah yeah they explained it in the intro but I do not care. Let me get to know your characters first!

Once again, I will reiterate for you all: this show being purely digital instead of live-action completely hinders it. It is 2024. The pandemic is not an excuse anymore. I'd get more enjoyment out of this if it weren't two people communicating through mock Apple laptops.

And if you aren't getting what I'm picking at, imagine if, for the nearly ten years it's been on, Odd Squad was a purely-digital show. Would we get the worldbuilding? The lore? The character development? The funny interactions? No, no, no, and no. It's like the difference between talking to someone in video chat and talking to someone in real life. One boosts your health. The other one, not so much.

Clearly they didn't really try for this bit in the audio department, because this cookie is all about that bass with absolutely no fuckin' treble.

(To be fair, though, Odd Squad has soundbytes like this from time to time too. So I can't really complain all that much.)

Something I was shocked to find out about Wordsville: each episode is all of 8 minutes long. Which...doesn't really help the series' case because the pacing is utterly atrocious. For Odd Squad, which has mostly 11-minute episodes, the pacing is smoother for a lot of them. I can take my time, understand what's going on, and enjoy what I'm seeing. Hell, even Tiny Time Travel's pacing isn't awful for the short time it has, and I wasn't gonna even touch that show for this Seren's Study because it's not made by the same people outside of Tim...until people brought up similarities, and I felt at least obligated to mention it once.

This falls squarely into the category of "if I go on an acid trip, can I drag out this episode three times longer than it actually is?"

We.

Are 55 seconds in.

And we are already getting to the conflict.

...Hand me the bong. The BIG bong. If you see dogs in my front yard, just tell 'em to get inside and glow upstairs because I'm goin' hard.

BIG BONG.

...I'm not touching the timing of this call because convenience is in literally every piece of media with video chatting ever. It's not just a Wordsville thing.

The Town Baker walked so Baker Graham could work his hand at a whip.

No but seriously, I can't look at this character and not think of Chef O from Odd Squad UK. The brainrot set in once I viewed the trailer. It hasn't left.

Hey, it's a good marketing tactic.

And it makes a great gift for your SO if they happen to have a name that starts with any of the letters. Hell, get the U, the T and the I and you'd have a winner!

...

Waaaaaaait a second-

In this era of super-powerful processors and AI seeping into anything and everything, there is no scientifically possible way Gabby can pull up a computer dictionary within milliseconds.

And when Odd Squad, the show that has ironic low-tech stuff, is more realistic than your high-tech show, you got a problem.

Minute and a half into this thing and this is the only bit that got me close to smiling thus far.

But something I wanna point out is that I've gotten cookies from bakeries that look a lot better than that. Hell, the cookies at my local supermarket look better than that! Just as big, and far yummier!

I see they switched around the personalities for Sly and Gabby, and I can see why.

Gabby emotes the most.

So does Olive.

Gabby is Olive with a braid and a fedora.

Gabby is the serious o- guys, really, must I go on?

Something something substituting bagels like in "Soundcheck" for donuts instead.

This is what happens when you let your co-CEO binge-watch all the Shrek movies, Sly.

Careful, Gabby...please don't drop the title.

Odd Squad doesn't drop the title all that much, but the fact that the episodes are referred to as cases in-universe sells the comparison. Wordsville's cases are just...different. Copyright infringement and all that. When Oprah sues, she sues hard.

Thank you. I hate it. Off you will fuck from my lawn.

...Look, I know what the "Sly-mation" is and y'all are not being slick. You don't get to wave a fucking stylus in my face and say what you're doing is animation but with a fancy name. Animation is hard. Animating stuff halfway and slapping your client's head on their animated body instead of drawing a face resembling your client is a disservice and I will abso-fucking-lutely take that personally as a fan of animation.

I mean, hey, if I were an animator, I'd fully commit. You people remember that the studio who made this worked on a Spongebob movie. Lemme repeat: a Spongebob movie. And yet this is what they decide to do for animation.

When Odd Squad does animation, it's good in most instances. (I choose to forget "Olive and Otto in Shmumberland", TYVM.) Not anything stellar, but it certainly is passable. Here? Lol. Lmao, even. God no. This feels like a way to insert animation into the show but without employing the CGI that other shows, Odd Squad included, have. Like a "lol I'm so quirky" thing.

Get out.

This is like if Disney had Disneymation. Dreamworksation. Laikation. Netflixation. Huluation. So on and so forth.

Point being, it's dumb. Just say it's animation and stop plopping flowers onto it. When you get more of a time limit, then you can be quirky all you want.

We are now 2 minutes into an 8-minute episode. I know what's happening. Kids know what's happening. Unless you're banking on the research that kids' attention spans are the size of a pea, we do not need a recap.

...Is this really the same person who wrote for Endlings? Because apparently they can't handle something in an 8-minute timeframe.

You either get the Chad Blender/Flash/ToonBoom, or you get the Virgin Mock Scratch.

I just feel cheated. Disappointed. Like when your mom and dad drove by McDonald's when you were a kid after they promised you they would get you some. I've seen good animation. They had the chance to do better, and didn't. That's what pisses me off the most. It's that complete utter wasted potential.

I know Vet Wilder is a reference to some celebrity (the name is at least somewhat familiar), but I'm at a complete loss as to if they did the same thing for Athlete Glory or if they just confined a girl named Glory to one destiny in life.

So she'll become...a Faded Glory.

(I'm sorry, I had to.)

Okay, they're reiterating this for the young children, and I- guys, this hurts. It's like they're trying to differentiate themselves from Odd Squad but tripping over their own feet in the process.

Ten cookies Gene Vet Wilder gave it to an animal named Yummy and that this series will go down another Odd Squad route and defy biology.

Either that, or "Yummy" is his pet name for Not-So-Faded Glory, which I am banking absolutely nothing on because romance.

...No, not Baker Graham's cookies. I'm sure dude's good at what he does, but I know of a better bakery, thank you very much.

*aggressively takes out the ibuprofen for the headache this shit is giving me*

This reads like TVOkids font, and I'm not even mad.

I'm only sad I didn't get the "I know so much about fonts" autism.

(Also, this is really just called The Bakery? They have one bakery? That's it? Even Toronto has more than one!)

-----------------------------

Onward to Part 2!

[naughtynoodle056]

I wish I could comment but I can't so:

oh my godddd I know this is kind of counterproductive or, like, just pointless for me to say this as a white person adding noise to the conversation but please please PLEASE DO NOT LET THOSE PEOPLE GET TO YOU!

I've only found ur acc recently since I've joined tumblr instead of lurking and your art is some of the best I've seen.

I have Aphantasia and general face blindness irl, so defining features (not even ethnic features, just general appearances) in drawings are the main thing I've had to focus on my whole life because I struggle to accurately display them in my art.

I've practiced and studied countless art styles and ways people have drawn and depicted eyes, eyelids, mouths, hair, skin, lips, noses, faces, body types, etc. Of course it differs depending on the art style, but you literally managed to perfect the way you draw individual features in your characters that make them not only stand out from eachother, but as characters with unique and diverse backgrounds.

I don't wanna clog up ur inbox too much, so without repeating the whole thing again, I will say that I also saw @cheeseburgersinparadise's comment on your post and I was thinking the exact same thing.

Idk what these people want you to do short of making racial caricatures or stereotypical depictions of people.

So here's some things I really enjoy about your artwork instead:

Little differences in body type are noticeable and really cool to see

you're very consistent in your character's personalities and depictions, so even if in one drawing they have their hair tied up and in another it's just completely natural, I can still tell who it is at just a glance!

Despite what the armchair critics say, the skin tones you use are really good and I can tell they're well thought out.

Your lineart is awesome. I've never been able to use the uhhh the one effect (I forgot the name) that makes the lines all sharp and stuff without my drawing looking like a SBAHJ comic parody/shitpost, but in your drawings it looks super neat and has a cool kind of side effect where it highlights the colors and stuff, making it all really pop but at the same time feel really like.. story and held together? I'm terrible at describing visuals I'm sorry but just know it's good! You know how to actually use brushes and effects/overlays.

facial expressions. You nail them every time. 'nuff said.

Same Face Syndrome fears you.

"try exploring shape language" idk what crack these people are smoking because your art is like the pinnacle of good use of shape language in drawings. It reminds me of Canadian cartoons (IN A GOOD WAY. I GET CANADIAN RADIO/TV SIGNALS, I GREW UP WITH IT) where it's like 'less is more' in terms of line detail and instead putting the focus on the basic shapes in a way that can make even the quickest sketches/simplest versions of a drawing look lively

if nobody else got me, the tumblr crowd got me fr 🥹💖

It's hard to articulate how much this means to me (hence why it took a bit for me to answer this ask lol) because like. I don't know if y'all remember that one episode of iCarly where one of Spencer's favorite artists just blew him tf off and it lowkey ruined his life for a while, but I felt just like that fr

It can be really frustrating sometimes being a silly kink artist(TM) and feeling like because I have a particularly cartoony art style and don't often draw the most extreme WG art, I get kind of overlooked and treated like IDK what I'm doing sometimes, y'know? I never went to art college and studied drawing there, other than one cartooning class I took for funsies at a community college, my knowledge comes from what I learned throughout grade school and studied myself with online resources or books at the library. So sometimes it DOES FEEL A LITTLE like certain huge artists who did go to college for that turn a nose up at artists like me.

It's the craziest feeling when someone makes a criticism on your work that's just like, objectively unhelpful or even hypocritical, and then doubles down and like subtly paints you as one who just can't accept criticism. Because if I couldn't, then you wouldnt have such kind specific compliments on my art hahaha. My lineart is so clean because I took the advice from an art teacher when I was 16 and it was shaky. I keep facial features and whatnot simpleish and cartoony so I can depict expressions in a more fun way.

Hell, that artist's "fair criticism" about leaning into ethnic features more may have been referring to the fact that Shay doesn't have a noise here. This is seen in some other pieces of mine, too

but that was intentional... a gentle nod to certain anime facial expressions were they leave the nose out for Extra Effect

It's a little ode to the funny facial expressions in Sailor Moon that do much of the same

Speaking of the lineart effect, heh, I'm soooo touched someone noticed it omg?? ;0;

I like to duplicate my lineart and put the top layer on multiply with a lighter (usually warm) color and guassian blur it and then the bottom layer with a bright (often brighter) and then guassian blur it even more before setting it to glow dodge :^)

I feel vindicated that I wasn't just like. overreacting when I was DEEPLY offended by the "helpful criticism"

I feel like whoever made the skin color comment just. forgot about the concept of lighting in a dim room 💀💀💀 It was so crazy to me that she was talking to me like I haven't been drawing these characters for years at this point and use the same base skin color like. 98% of the time

ALSO DW I THINK THE CANADIAN CARTOON COMMENT IS A BIG COMPLIMENT CUZ I USED TO WATCH A LOT OF THEM ALL THE TIME!! 6teen is one of my dearly beloveds fr and a friend of mine said my art style reminded him of that so 🥺🥺🥺

TLDR: thank you for being a real one and the heartfelt ask I will be mentally hanging this up on my fridge 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 (also sorry Tumblr is wack and wont let you reply to posts smh)

[beardedmrbean]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvFfjb2wGc0 This was uploaded on April Fool's day but nothing in the video or the description appears to be a prank. If the description is accurate, the reason he stopped making new episodes of Code MENT was because his sister passed away, and she was pregnant at the time so he lost both his sister and his unborn nephew/niece.

I don't know what these are normally like so I couldn't guess by the video, but from the video description

Given the impact these friendships and experiences have as influences, it is incumbent upon this parody to be unyielding in the very design philosophy and principals which was captured its creation (one example of a principle would be the necessity for parody and satire to have access to the full suite of human language, in tandem with discussion for categorical considerations (i.e. maturity, how many current farts are in the ecosystem, etc.) but always with the presumption of innocence on the side of parody, satire and comedy).

Says parody a lot, but that may be their normal MO, I don't know so I'll leave that up to people that do.

Full Video description under the cut

To the 6 viewers who read descriptions, At this very moment you may be asking yourself: but why? Well, sit back as the rambling commences; I applaud all those who might read it to the end. A significant portion of this series’ ethos is based on real world people trying to navigate this world in which we live. Elements of the characters are based off real-world friendships… nay, kinships! In that hopes that this may help understand the ethos of this channel, we want to share a bit of background here (limited time only, I’ll delete this when I remember how silly it is but until then do what you want with this info). The person that heavily influences characters seen on this channel experienced his first and second times of whompa-stompa times by two INDIVIDUAL (we promise to NEVER blow the lessons learned out to the category at large, in fact I’m starting to think it doesn’t really help in proper courtship) old globin women during his 12th and 14th year of age respectively (don’t pity him, you should have seen what he was wearing). On a more serious note, that same person lost his sister along with her amazing and wonderful yet-to-be-birthed human being in a horrific, terrible incident. Given the impact these friendships and experiences have as influences, it is incumbent upon this parody to be unyielding in the very design philosophy and principals which was captured its creation (one example of a principle would be the necessity for parody and satire to have access to the full suite of human language, in tandem with discussion for categorical considerations (i.e. maturity, how many current farts are in the ecosystem, etc.) but always with the presumption of innocence on the side of parody, satire and comedy). While most who use it are well-intentioned, DEI turns out to mostly result in Diversion (diverting people into unidimensional groups), Incursion (including a pre-set, one-sided, linguistically locked moral interpretation based on those groups into the workplace/school), and a contemporary Evil (prioritizing and rewarding loyalty to fully collectivist behaviors). The people in these DEI organizations are NOT themselves evil. Please, we extend this plea to you who are in these orgs: if you have the ability, help us get this out of acceptable society. It should be removed with minimal repercussions, as it was not fully understood by most. We’ve seen the ‘organizational redistribution/Harrison Bergeron equity apples’ too many times to ignore (I dunno what you guys are doing but its scariest to see these policies adopted by the New York State School Boards Association and subsequent grade schools, we are NOT having that). We have seen our own ethos’ accomplish better outcomes than DEI on the ground level and therefore will continue do what we are able to continue to champion it! Love, Nick Lizzo P.S. I miss Chappelle's Show. Comedy works. DEI doesn’t. I’m not entirely sure yet about the undefined gloss coming from these algorithms. To any YouTube employee who might happen to stumble upon this, Is Journalism covered in EDSA? It could fall under E or D but it’s a little confusing for me, just your average reader. Just trying to be helpful! Regards, Professionalism P.S. I think there might be a glitch, I wasn’t able to counter claim two videos on this channel. Is there any way to allow that? To my fellow abridgers/parody/comedy/artist peoples, I’m sorry for not saying this enough but you are some of the most talented and capable people I’ve ever met. From what I’ve seen you were able to tap into something we need now more than ever, ideas that transcend a sometimes-stifled paradigm. Keep that up and I believe humanity will never end up in a zero-sum game! Love, Purps To Insider, I don’t know if I ever said this formally but thank you. It was extremely gratifying to have gotten your acknowledgment. It feels good even all these years later to reflect on that achievement. I sincerely can’t thank you enough! From your supporter, Nick

[vulturevanity]

Like, it was bad, y'all

I've been revisiting FiM because a friend decided to check it out (after she realized it was a significant part of my personality and wanted in on it), and by god, did they do a racism. And then another one. And then another one. And then-- you get the idea.

And I'm not talking about the weird ways in which they tackled the subject of racism itself, most notably on the later seasons. Setting aside awkward lessons in "be nice to those who look and act different from you", gen 4 is loaded with racist caricatures, cultural appropriation, tone-deaf storylines of conflict between natives and colonizers and a heap of other elements that, later on, the writers seemed to realize were, hmm!, not so great!, and therefore quietly phased out of the show without ever addressing them in a sensible way. Things that go as far back as episode 5.

It's late and I don't have the brain power to tackle all of these right now but I just want to list some of the things I'm deeply umcomfortable with in the show that I can recall right now:

Zecora as a character AND as the only zebra we see in the show for all of 9 seasons. Simultaneously the Token Black side character, the Magical N**** stereotype and the fact that she's described in the show as an "exotic" outsider. (You know, later on they had an Egyptian-coded character appear in the show. She was a pony. I never got why they didn't use that opportunity to fix The Zecora Problem)

The Buffalo episode. Specifically the fact that settlers took their sacred land and they were told to just "learn to share" and it was ok because the settlers gave them pies about it

That scene where Pinkie Pie dresses as a stereotype of Rroma people (which spawned a very popular arc in a parody that had her saying and singing the G-slur in multiple songs.)

The imperialism in The Crystal Empire (not king Sombra, the fact that after they defeated them, rather than letting a Crystal Pony rule the empire, they put Cadence, who is from Equestria, on the throne)

After deposing Chrysalis, the one changeling put in charge was the one the ponies had a good relation with (something that happens with startling frequency between the US and cartain parts of the Middle East)

The uncomfortable power dynamics between the pony races (especially the Hearthswarming Eve backstory)

The W*NDIGOS

And that's just off the top of my head. That's just what I can remember at 1 am while frantically typing in the dark.

The fandom's white supremacy problem suddenly isn't all that surprising when you realize how BAD things were in the show. It's not like it was doing much against that kind of bigotry.

And for the record, I'm not trying to "cancel" FiM. I still love this show with all my heart; it's really important to me, and it's still a good show that, in a way, kick-started the 2010s cartoon renaissance. We owe a lot to it. But that's exactly why I'm so upset by it's failings as a show that defined itself by its morals on friendship and standing together against hardship. To see the glaring blind spots on a show created by a white woman, with a writing room full of mostly white people, who despite having good intentions really did not know what they were doing sometimes. It hurts me as a fan of colour, and it hurts black and indigenous fans most of all but not exclusively.

Hopefully, now speaking a as someone aiming to be in the animation industry, we can use this as a learning experience, so we grow to be more critical of our own work, and maybe our own shortcomings won't be offensive or hurtful towards any demographic we may want to represent.

[bourbon-ontherocks]

hi 👀 306 was last week but I still wanted to address a couple of things… mainly roxane’s last scene, ouch, she deserved a better exit than parroting the writers’ memo on [gros canard]’s failings 😩 c’est faible. feels like they should’ve axed the scene (it was clear enough they’d break up, anyway) and simply confirmed she left with the voicemail about her sister dropping off the keys. (btw--did we know she had a sister before you mentioned that detail in fic, or was it another of your predictions??)

big fan of the attic scene though, and daphné & [gros canard]’s synchronized "gilles 🙄😵" lol. plot-wise, however, I’d like to know who would put multiple acid tablets in a bottle they’re not drinking, because 1) big waste of money for a student population, 2) it’s probably not the most efficient way to take lsd (les résidus au fond de la bouteille !!!), 3) que fait le bde ? shouldn’t they at least pretend to care about safety when there’s a party in the dorms?

and I’ll admit it was kinda fun to see [gros canard] using his ~"just broke up" privileges to dunk on morgane’s relationship history. the guy woke up and chose violence 😭😂😭 ça va qu’elle le prend bien…

bref. that’s all for me on this one!! brb ✌️

Oh hi anon, it's so good to see you back!! 😘

I tend to disagree with you re Roxane's break-up scene, because let's remember that we are obsessed. We can list all of Adam's misdemeanors in the blink of an eye. The casual viewer can't. So this last fact in itself justifies Roxane's monologue reminding us what a terrible boyfriend he's been. And also, even though it all wasn't fresh news for me, I must say I appreciated hearing them all together and I appreciated even more Adam having all of this said to his face. And Roxane's conclusion "Et tu penses que ça fait de toi un type bien" poooooooow elle tire à balles réelles et ça fait du bien !!!! So yea basically I loved that scene because he deserved it. Period. 😂

And yes, Roxane mentioned her sister in 206!!! ("et pour l'anniversaire de ma soeur, tu as pu te libérer ?" while Adam is cursing Morgane for not capping the ketchup bottle) Now did I mention her sister in PQENCEL, well I'm afraid that's another occurrence of Local HPI anon knows my own fic better than I do lol!

(oh wait no, I mentioned her in the 303 fic, didn't I?)

The attic scene was funny-ish, granted, but it's entirely thanks to Gilles' inability to correctly answer multiple-choice questions! Ok full disclaimer, I'm kinda meh about this episode, I don't understand why so many people, cast members included, claim that it's the season's best, but also I must say that for me, the episode is completely doomed because of some infuriating stuff that happens in the finale 😭

Agreed that there's some very generous dealers on this campus, last time I checked open bars didn't include full bottles of LSD, but hey what do I know, my student years are far behind (also BDEs have never been worried about safety, come on 😅)(but this makes me think of the Palmashow's HPI spinoff "BDE" lol I bet it would have made this ep more interesting)

(speaking of the Palmashow parody, Morgane finding the victim's daughter behind the screen that *happened to be here* reminded me so much of fake Morgane finding the killer behind the curtain lol)

"the guy woke up and chose violence 😭😂😭 ça va qu’elle le prend bien…" -> true, perhaps it was a bit harsh to tell her that, but honestly the return of the flirty bickering felt so refreshing!!!! 😍 And I'd dare to think that maybe that's also the reason she takes it well while she has all the reasons to be hurt by him reminding her that she always gets dumped, because he's FINALLY risking a joke at her after all those weeks of silent treatment and closed face and angry looks, my boy is making amends and holding a timid Olive branch and she couldn't be more relieved....

... which makes the three months window proposal absolutely frustrating!!! I *hated* this part (I mean, before I watched the finale and understood what hating an episode's ending really meant lol *crying laughter*), because even though Adam needs some time to heal (understandable), and is a total control freak who shows up early on dates and probably needs to know his schedule six months in advance, this is like peak non-romance. Where's the passion? The spontaneity? I'd have accepted this scene if we'd seen him showing up at Morgane's door barely a week later and telling her that he, in fact, cannot wait, but this... UGH!

My theory is that he wanted to wait long enough to be sure about his feelings for Morgane (which would explain why he's so enthusiastic to date her in the next ep, unless he's that dtf haha), make sure it wasn't a phase or a fantasy due to being stuck in a relationship, and that's probably the only theory I can accept because it's vaguely romantic at least, and also I need to believe that his feelings are real, which is something that tends to be hinted at in 307-308 imo, so there's that consistency at least...

Speaking of consistency!!! I know I'm just hurting myself at this point but I wanted to make a quick check on the timeline... Surprisingly the show actually manages to speak the truth, Timothée did spend 4 months with the team (he arrived in the summer, two months later around September/October - remember that the months were mixed up in 303-304 - he starts dating Morgane for two months, and here we are!). So WHY would they instantly ruin that effort with the most random line this show's ever delivered:

"Et bah moi, je me suis séparée de Ludo il y a neuf mois..."

GIRRRRRRRRL, you spent two months on a couch after your breakup. Then, admitting that 205 to 208 happened in like a week which is in itself a ridiculous assumption, you left the PJ for six months. And here we are, four months later, as dutifully reminded by Timothée. And I didn't even extrapolate here, I just took point blank the elements that the show gave me.

2 + 6 + 4 = TWELVE FUCKING MONTHS BARE MINIMUM. Was it that hard to follow up? Jesus Christ.

And since I'm on the inconsistency chapter, the way TIBER is written on Morgane and Adam's wrists suggests that it's Morgane who was holding the pen because of the letters' orientation, but in this case she wrote on her left wrist. While she's left-handed. Too bad, huh?

Other honorable mentions include:

Adam playing a Columbo bit on the university's dean re the silver scalpel

"C'est doux en fait. On dirait du mouton" -> this one goes straight in the top ten show's best lines 🤣🤣🤣

The LSD trip scene being WAY too sexual, this is pornography 😆

I know it's fleeting and not properly framed, but did you see the only interesting part of that re-doing the house montage in the end? THIS:

No I will not accept any other theory, this is the handprint. I will justify it further with this shot from 304:

While the handprint is not visible, probably due to the light and filming angle, it's the same spot as above, which ties in with where Morgane landed in the dance scene, and also it's interesting to note that she put a little candle in front of it 🕯️🥹