#i appreciate the effort this season but also like... lbr can it be for every character?

[cheswirls]

alright, okay, i will give liden props.... the emma episode was good

[mollyscribbles]

Owl House rewatch thoughts

* Hard to say from what little we see of her, but I think Luz' mom might have been less worried about her daughter reading fantasy and more about the "multiple incidents of bringing uncontained live animals and explosives to school" thing.

* If Eda considers Luz' Azura book as being only useful as kindling, it means she's not inclined to view human books as something she can make snails on.  Considering how unique her portal to the human realm is treated, where did Amity get her Azura books?  I've seen people suggest the author travels between realms, but if that were the case, Amity would've been able to get the latest volume from a local store rather than needing to borrow Luz' copy.

* Suggestions for other species that escaped from the Boiling Isles: the platypus and peacock mantis shrimp.

* "Weak nerd arms" ok really identifying with Luz here.

* Really love this take on Chosen One stories.  Because yes, there is an appeal in being told you're special, you're unique in the best possible way, but ultimately this is a story about people who aren't "special" so much as outcasts who do their best with the situation they're in.  Which is something that a lot more people can aspire to be.

* The fact that this was a set scheme(as the multiple fake maps would indicate) rather than a trap specifically designed for Luz indicates that even people who've spent their lives on the Boiling Isles would be drawn to the idea of being a magical chosen one. I bet Amity's not the only one to have an interest in fantasy literature around here.

* Oh wow Amity's first appearance outside the credits is . . . something.  It's easy to forget just how far she grew in one season.

* Eda's not a *bad* teacher, so much as she has yet to learn that teaching requires expanding on a concept you introduce and explaining your reasoning.  "Here is what you can learn from tasting snow" instead of just "here, taste these different kinds of snow"

* Hm.  For someone who despairs at the concept of the school teaching blind obedience, her teaching style kinda relies on it.  Bit of a hypocrite there, Eda.

* Gonna be honest, the first time I watched this and King mentioned Eda sneaking a drink of elixir, I thought it was going to turn out to be a magic-looking flask.

* It seems slightly odd that King's apparently known Eda for a while but didn't have any idea of the curse.  Maybe she was just REALLY good about keeping up with her elixirs pre-series.

* Really like the metaphor for a chronic illness that's kept under control by medication.

* If the Emperor's Coven provides access to all forms of magic, you'd think others aspiring for a spot would be permitted a multi-track education at Hexside.  That might be why none of them seem to be that impressive at magic when they're supposed to be the "best of the best" -- even if they have *access* to all forms of magic, they've only had training in one specific field during the bulk of their education.

* lbr, Lilith's cheating was worse because at least Eda told Luz what she was doing.

* You'd think Willow and Gus might have caught on that Luz didn't have permission for them to come over when she told them to hide from Eda.

* It's nice that Eda realizes raising a kid with a "screw the rules" mindset will result in a kid who breaks her rules sometimes.  Cleaning up the mess she caused is really the correct punishment for Luz; directly dealing with the consequences of her actions but otherwise considering it a lesson learned.

* Reading to kids in the library is an A+ way to shift Amity from "Jerk" to "Jerk with a heart of gold" territory.

* Prediction: At some point, Luz will return to the human world (probably only briefly but Eda won't know at the time) and Eda will come across the "Coping with empty nest syndrome" book Luz got her from the library.  She'll cry.  King will cry.  Hooty will cry.  Every viewer will cry.

* Pretty sure that, given what the world is like, if any of them ended up questioned about their actions during the body swap episode, they could just say "Oh yeah I was body swapped that day. What'd I get up to?" and everyone would consider this a perfectly logical explanation for them acting out-of-character.

* HC that Hexside is fully aware some illusion-track students skip class by having an illusion of themselves attend in their place, but they figure a student maintaining a decent replica of themselves for the duration of the class period requires enough effort to count as a form of class participation, so they just let everyone think they're getting away with it.

* Gus and Willow are really ride-or-die friends.  Always nice to have.

* Probably some of the mystery appeal will be gone from the Human Appreciation Society once a legit human is just attending classes on a regular basis; being able to get definitive answers to questions rather than spending your time speculating would cut back on the draw.

* I love all the details they include on this show -- a lot of other shows would just stick in scribbles while panning past pictures instead of writing out all of Eda's incident reports.

* The pallisman is a neat concept; sort of like a mix of a wand and a familiar, a magical control that will have opinions of its own.

* Given Bat Queen apparently has enough of, um, a biological aspect to have kids, I wonder if that means Owlbert is capable of laying eggs.  Or having eggs with another owl/pallisman if the male pronouns are anything to go by.

* I mean even Phineas and Ferb didn't question Perry laying an egg when he uses male pronouns so could go either way in terms of what Disney would allow.

* Reading the book fair signs, it looks like sci-fi is a popular genre in the Boiling Isles.  Makes sense, since what we'd consider Fantasy would be more contemporary/urban fantasy to them.

* Getting the vibe that someone on staff had a less-than-amicable experience co-writing with a friend to inspire this one. And/or experience with shitty contracts.

* The Hexside requirements also required knowledge of basic runes, but given Luz apparently had no issue with that I'm guessing she just picked those up offscreen.

* "I've seen worse" is the ideal admissions response tbh.  Like . . . she pulled off the required spells and the headmaster has seen decades of students' awkward first attempts.  It probably counts as a good day when no one's admissions test resulted in needing to bring in someone from the Construction Track to repair the building.

* It's very reminiscent of D&D that the majority of the cast has the response of "This is clearly a trap.  Let's check it out!"

* You'd think that carnival fortune tellers wouldn't have the same appeal in a world where it's something you study at school.  Unless it's viewed the same way as those "magic" shows they have sometimes where the tricks all involve chemical reactions.

* Kinda surprised a school that teaches kids fire spells doesn't have some kind of fire suppression system in place.

* Hrm.  Guessing the mind guardian went back and undid their own damage offscreen; otherwise they'd have had to go re-do the repairs before leaving.

* Good they had the wifi and charging cable coming through the portal to explain why Luz' phone still has service and the battery's not long dead.

* Luz, how have you survived this long with your instinct for pushing buttons.  The same as the rest of humanity in a world full of buttons, I suppose.

* Probably if they thought about it, the best criteria for picking Grom royalty would be less who's the most skilled at magic and more who has the most low-key fears. . . . nvm, having a Stay-Puft incident would cause them to reasonably scrap that approach.  Maybe appointing someone who obsesses over grades would have better odds of producing a relatively-simple-to-combat exam paper.

* I'm thinking the letters are written by Eda, who doesn't intend anything sinister by it so much as being the type to cover her bases when pulling off a scam and realizing Luz' mother would need some evidence to indicate her daughter was safely at camp.

* The band-aids clearly have some healing spell built-in, considering they've been used to heal inanimate objects.

* someone on the writing staff has a long-standing rant about Quidditch they've been holding back on.

* I know that normally the humor in the cut from "she's finally growing up." to Luz planning the heist would be that she's doing something that sensible adults would consider to be a bad idea, but if Eda saw her just then she'd wipe away a tear of pride and go "Her first self-planned heist! They grow up so fast!"

* Eda's the one who talks about cheating at stuff, but Lilith has a habit of playing *dirty*.

* I would like to say I appreciate them going with a more serious credit sequence because it was disconcerting with Star Vs when a dark ending was followed by "I THINK EARTH'S A REALLY GREAT PLACE"

* Lilith may have made a 30-years-late attempt to redeem herself, but I really don't trust her.  I don't quite want her dead, but she DID spend decades trying to force her sister to join the Emperor's Coven as a prerequisite for curing her curse.

[miasswier]

miasswier’s ultimate glee ranking: no 67

67: Dance With Somebody

Written by: Ross Maxwell Directed by: Paris Barclay

Overall Thoughts: This is a bit of a hard episode to rank, which is why it’s close to the middle. I have to take into account how much I used to love this episode, because I used to love it a lot. It’s also one of the few episodes in which Kurt and Blaine are allowed to actually discuss their issues, where we’re shown open and honest communication between our boys. That being said, watching this episode knowing what’s coming in “The Break Up” is… really frustrating. I also have quite a few issues with Sam and Will in this episode, hence it’s lower rating despite having Kurt/Klaine as an A plot. At least Quinn, Rachel, and Santana pull it up a little bit.

What I Like:

Kurt and Klaine are the A plot! This is a really rare occurrence on this show, and it is really invigorating to have Kurt and Klaine on my screen the most during this episode.

As frustrated as I am by how the whole Chandler thing goes down, it is nice to see someone appreciating Kurt for once (though please don’t read this as my feeling like Blaine doesn’t appreciate Kurt, because I know he does – the show just… doesn’t really let us see it very often)

Santana and Rachel! I really do like their friendship, and I’ve always lowkey (and highkey lbr) shipped Pezberry. It’s a nice little subplot.

Rachel’s face when Quinn and Joe are singing.

Even though I think it’s literally insane that Kurt wanted to go to Glee instead of having sex with Blaine, I do think it’s pretty cute that everybody else has the same idea and decides to show up anyway. I love scenes like that, where you genuinely get to feel the friendship and comradery of the club.

That whole scene in Emma’s office, which goes from absolutely hilarious (“I only use lotion on my hands! It looks weird if a person just has tan hands!” “Well, Kurt, wouldn’t you love Blaine just as much if he didn’t have tan hands”) to heartbreaking in seconds. One of my favourite Klaine scenes, to be honest.

“Why does mine say drink ‘til she’s cute?”

Klaine actually getting to deal with their problem and get to the root of what’s causing it and then addressing the issue and dealing with it. Which leads to…

That awesome scene at the end where Blaine sends Kurt a sext in the middle of the day and Kurt promises that he told Chandler to lose his number. I love that scene so much! Glee so rarely showed us couples actually moving on from their fights and making an effort to deal with what happened.

The scene between Burt and Kurt! Dang I missed that man.

I really do enjoy the scene with Quinn and Joe at the end when Quinn tells Joe she would never ask him to give up his faith for her, because she likes the idea that there’s something that can’t be lost. I also kind of like that they didn’t label themselves as boyfriend and girlfriend since they didn’t do much more with them after this episode; plus it shows that two people can like each other and it doesn’t always mean they have to go out and be in love forever. Sometimes two people just… like each other. The end.

Scully from Brooklyn Nine Nine!

What I Don’t Like:

Will is a little bitch baby in this episode. First of all, he kisses Emma to make her agree with him, instead of listening to her arguments, which is gross and also proven ineffective since they end up having the argument anyway. Secondly, he’s an asshole to that wedding planner who is really trying his best? And who Will hired in the first place? Thirdly, he puts his future wife’s emotional and mental wellbeing aside so that his fucking students can attend his wedding?! What the literal fuck?!?! Like, does nobody else think that’s weird?!?!? He wanted to change the date of his wedding and have it at a fucking campground because he was worried his teenage students wouldn’t attend it otherwise?!?!!?!?!?!!?!? OH MY GOD.

The scene between Joe and Sam makes me angry for several reasons. First and foremost: the girl they are talking about is Quinn. Quinn Fabray. Do I have to say it again? They’re talking about Quinn Fabray. Quinn would never ask a guy to compromise his faith to be with her (and, surprise! When Joe talks to her, she doesn’t ask him to! What a shock!). Also, this is captain of the celibacy club Quinn. Yeah, she had sex with Puck, but that was one time, almost three years ago. There has been no explicit canonical indication that she has had sex since. So… why exactly would she refuse to date someone if they didn’t want to sleep with her? Especially considering every boyfriend she’s ever had has tried to pressure her into sex before she felt comfortable with it? Second, the whole spiel Sam gives about how it’s impossible for men to avoid temptation is such a load of bullshit. Listen, there is nothing biologically innate in men that makes them unable to abstain from sex. They are not more hardwired to want sex than any other gender, they are just told by society that they should be. What about asexual guys? You’re telling me that’s impossible because how could a guy not want sex? What about men whose partners are asexual, or whose partners are physically unable to have sex? Is there just no other option for them but to cheat because they gotta get their rocks off somewhere? Or, hey, what about guys that nobody wants to sleep with? What are they supposed to do? Because I really don’t like the implication of “how are we not supposed to give into temptation” like dude that sounds super sketch. Ugh. I just really, really hate that scene.

Everything that happens between Kurt and Blaine pertaining to Chandler is really frustrating in hindsight because in “The Break Up” Blaine cheats on Kurt for the exact same reason as Kurt is ‘cheating’ (I know some people would consider what Kurt is doing to be cheating, but I know others wouldn’t) on him now. This is less a frustration with Blaine and more of a frustration with Glee. Here we have Blaine getting really upset that Kurt didn’t just talk to him about why he was unhappy and instead turned to someone else, and then in “The Break Up” Blaine does… exactly that? What?! WHAT?!?!?

This is so dumb but I find the line “It’s not right. But, it’s okay” so stupid like it doesn’t work at all and it was just shoved in there to introduce the song he’s about to sing which is SO DUMB ugh I hate that.

Songs:

How Will I Know: I do like this cover, but I feel like I don’t like it as much as the rest of the fandom does. It’s still a beautiful and melancholic song, though.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody: I love this cover! I’m not as big a fan of the actual performance, but that’s because I get so bored of choir room/auditorium performances after a while and season three is full of them. But seriously. This song. One of my favourite Glee covers.

Saving All My Love for You: I’m not that big of a fan of this song, to be honest. Also, side note, but why are so many Whitney songs about cheating, being cheated on, or helping cheat? Like, what’s the deal with that?

So Emotional: Another cover I really like! Again, the performance not as much, I find it kind of boring, but the song is absolutely killer.

It’s Not Right, But It’s Okay: An awesome Blaine power song! I fucking love it. My favourite moment is when he goes “Was it really worth you going out like that – tell me” and the shot switches from the fantasy sequence to the choir room and Blaine is staring at Kurt looking so angry IDK I just love that shot.

I Have Nothing: So gorgeous. Kurt solos are always amazing, but this one just takes my breath away!

My Love is Your Love: I love the combo of Mercedes, Artie, Kurt, and Blaine’s voices. I also love how everyone slowly comes into the auditorium to hang out even though they technically don’t have to. Also, Mercedes and Artie singing by themselves just to have fun is so cute.

Final Thoughts: There are quite a few things that really bother me about this episode, which is why it’s not as high as a lot of other Klaine-centric episodes. While they do deal with conflict in a relationship better than they usually do, everything that happens is really annoying in hindsight, and Will and Sam just annoy the fuck out of me. Still, these things don’t bother me enough to ever skip this episode, and I do still seek it out sometimes to watch as-is, hence it’s middle spot.