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girlfriendsofthegalaxy · 5 years ago

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the larger courier six verse, media influences

tagged by @sybil-writes ty

the bibliography for this thing is extensive. my taste is wide and omnivorous. i try to drop what i was thinking about when i wrote a particular bit into the author’s notes, and i think i’ve credited all the direct references, but I consume a lot of dystopia and post-apoc media and harder scifi/fantasy with rules, and i don’t keep an accurate running list of shit I like, so i’m certainly not going to get everything in one post. this is mostly me looking at the very limited number of books i have with me and frantically looking at wiki lists like “yes read that liked that stole that”. if i link everything i will die. if you have trouble finding a specific thing lmk tho. this feels real goddamn pretentious like Ah Yes Look At The Media I Have Consumed but here goes

music: one of these days I will drop links to the network of playlists I have for these kids, but they’re all of Spotify and not super accessible. Danger Days, a post-apoc desert graffiti/neon/cars album by My Chemical Romance. the soft, nonsense love songs off Pretty. Odd by P!ATD. the poppy but sad neon bullshit of Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die also a P!ATD production. Wasteland, Baby! by Hozier, specifically Talk and Dinner & Diatribes. Halsey’s cover of I Walk The Line, Rihanna’s Desperado. Everything by Orville Peck but mostly Roses Are Falling and Take You Back (The Iron Hoof Cattle Call). Instrumental stuff: the opening to Silverado, the Billy the Kid musical, bits of Lawrence of Arabia. It’s Been A Long, Long Time. Fitz & The Tantrums’ Get Away. Mother Mother’s album O My Heart. Gorillaz’ Plastic Beach.

filme:

the Dollars trilogy ofc

the sheer bullshit nonsense of Wild Wild West and Blazing Saddles and Turbokid.

a lot of the interaction between many characters in a tight space from Stagecoach. my dad really loves John Wayne, so I am constantly thinking about Monument Valley even though that’s nowhere near the Mojave. honestly whenever i’m thinking about how to describe landscapes I’m thinking about The Searchers, even though I have a lot of problems with that film.

the colorful nonsense future of The Fifth Element.

the gritty self-surgery and prospecting of Prospect (2018).

SO much Trigun and Cowboy Bebop, for space western flavor and the same sort of analog-cassette-future. u kno how everything in Star Wars looks like it’s been there forever? the absolute opposite of a slick Apple future? that.

god I wish Firefly was...good

Akira, bc every time I think about motorcycles the Akira motorcycle slide gif plays in my head.

speaking of which probably a decent chunk of Adventure Time, esp the Super Porp episode.

a smidge of how a platonic trio works from Samurai Champloo.

anything with a big sprawling market and a chase scene, even though the only things I can think of are Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets and the first Indiana Jones. oh Skyfall also

the set dressing from Tank Girl

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. look I just really like airships and retrofuturisum but art deco

honestly a lot of Ghibli- the aviation fantasy of Porco Rosso, the gardens from Castle In The Sky, a lot of Sophie Hatter energy from Howl’s Moving Castle, the underground bits in Nausicca, the otherworldly sea from Ponyo (except the Fallout sea is probably much emptier). the lovely homey-ness and gadgetry of Sherlock Hound.

almost certainly some Metropolis for how I think about cities

thinking a lot about The Incredibles and earlier James Bond movies recently for that sort of sleek but still small physical gadget spycraft 60s bullshit

the team and found family dynamics in Leverage

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. the more recent film which I have stolen ENTIRELY too much of the Angel + Blondie + Six dynamic from

mad max: all of them, to some extent, but a lot of Fury Road. I have a theory about how the Dollars films take place in reverse order, bc of how they feel next to the Mad Max films. The first Mad Max film is about a specific person in a specific place and time doing really specific things. it feels like a movie made off the info of someone who was there. GBU also feels like that- it’s really place-specific in a way? The second Mad Max film is a little hazier, and focuses on mostly people trying to accomplish a goal. For A Few Dollars More also feels a little hazier, like it’s a little more metaphorical/a morality tale and it’s being told by someone heavily embellishing secondhand events. the third Mad Max movie is just over the top nonsense. feral children living in the wreckage of an old plane escaping in a working plane? sure. why the fuck not. For A Fistful Of Dollars also feels like this. of COURSE this big bad gunslinger drifts into town and escapes in a coffin and invents the bulletproof vest. why the fuck not.

books: i like shit that goes beyond the wander/scrounge/defend trio of verbs.

the trying to wrap your life around a huge unknowable event from Roadside Picnic,

too much Le Guin and Butler to really fit here,

god if anything i write ever has a tenth of the flavor of Kill Six Billion Demons i’ll be happy,

the postwar feel of Vonnegut and Heller,

Margaret Atwood’s biopunk Oryx and Crake trilogy

the incredibly sad decaying biopunk/mutation/last days novelette The Drowned World by JG Ballard.

the space-opera political machinations from the Ancillary trilogy by Ann Leckie.

World War Z’s accounts of survivors has always felt like reading terminal entries from Fallout games.

Philip Reeve’s Fever Crumb trilogy, for its interpretation of high-tech artifacts and archaeological reinterpretation of those artifacts.

Tales of the Bounty Hunters. Tales from Jabba’s Palace.

A Canticle for Leibowitz of COURSE.

the original three books in the METRO (2033, 2034, 2035) trilogy, for their tight dense locations and resource management and life-threatening travel/exploration.

the Family Trade comic by Jordan & Ryan, for setting and intrigue and a very unorthodox power source

Elizabeth Bear’s short story And The Deep Blue Sea, about a different kind of courier.

how Gibson’s The Sprawl trilogy (a trilogy i have MANY opinions about, not all of them positive) does worldbuilding when it implies a vast sprawling richly imagined world with casual in-universe references that you can extrapolate a lot from.

The Gernsback Continuum, for making me think about stranded architectural bits that survived

a little bit of the Empress’ energy from Cavendish’s The Blazing World.

the short story The Rational Ship by Caro Clarke, about a ship that runs on orgasms, from the EXTREMELY out of print Memories and Visions: Women’s Fantasy and Science Fiction edited by Susanna J. Sturgis. i’ve scanned it in as a pdf and will send it to anyone who asks. the stories in this volume are WILDLY varying in quality and terf-yness. i would not buy this book on purpose.

i think each separate Vault storyline is a tiny separate Lost World story, so just pick your favorite and insert it here.

Westerfeld’s Leviathan trilogy was FORMATIVE for baby me. biopunk! big trans energy! SKY WHALES

fucking hate Paolo Bacigalupi for what he does to his female characters but Ship Breaker was good from what I remember of it

there are three very oblique Sherlock Holmes references in “blow a kiss, fire a gun” for my own amusement.

Fallout scifi seems to be very Verne and Wells and Burroughs derived? a lot of very pulpy “pseudojournalistic realism to tell an adventure story with little basis in reality.” or “hey look at this COMPLETE NOVEL i found in a bottle by the sea OR locked in my weird great-uncle’s things, i shall retell it to you here”

idk i think The Road and the Hunger Games have so profoundly shaped the state of the genre, there’s probably at least a little bit of both these things in here even if I didn’t particularly like either of them. There’s also a lot of super bleak post-war stuff I read but am not necessarily incorporating, like Nevill Shute’s On The Beach. probably some Dune in here too if i’m being totally honest. why have a desert if there’s not going to be a giant worm, Fallout: New Vegas???

jesus i gotta read more lady authors. there are probably way more that i’m not remembering bc almost all the books i own are in a storage unit seven hours away that i haven’t touched in three years. there are probably way more comics also.

OH not a book but the decaying-rich-people-paradise of Bioshock. pity how they never made a third game

#ain't that a kick in the head #ty!!!#this was really interesting to think about #i'm not sure i answered it Right bc there's probably a way i could answer this more directly and draw closer parallels to shit #but here we are in an imperfect week with my imperfect brain

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pmiller1 · 6 years ago

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Strength to Protect from this Theory (Riku is the Light, Strength to Protect. Debunk)

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Discamer. Wild I don’t ship SoRiku as a romance pairings and do ship SoKai. I feel like there just being disrespectful to Riku as a character. I do not hate Riku, the people who ship SoRiku romance, SoRiku itself nor anyone who dislike SoKai and maybe SoRiKai. You are free shipped whatever you like, You do not need me to tell you that. Also, If there is anything you like to add and point any error, Feel free for the feedback. Also, I'm only going agent the Theory, not the person behind them. I do not know them personally.

This one is something I think there misunderstand, what Riku ment with the Strength to Protect. Thinking that he only wish to protect Sora. Not Kairi, Not Mickey, not even the other Guardians of Light.

With young Riku tell Terra about the Strength to Protect, being the reason why Terra pick him. And what Date Riku (a.k.a. jiminy's journal) said to them. And how Mickey said that Riku find the strength to protect.

This to me. Tell me that Riku want to protect that what matter to him. And what matter to him it his friend, Sora and Kairi.

Now I’ll say that yeah, he would want to protect Sora. Best Friend and All. But Kairi. Yeah, He want to protect Kairi. To the point that once he think Sora doesn’t matter to him and Only kairi. He push him aside, kidnapped Pinocchio, made a heartless that look like Sora, stole Sora keyblade even if it belong to Riku in the 1st place, took into the darkness as power wearing that tight bodysuit. That let him being taken over by the formless Ansem. This to me seem like he didn’t want to protect Sora because to him Sora didn’t matter for him.

Heck, he only resist Ansem controlled when Ansem was about to attack Kairi. He only know regret when he in the Realm of Darkness, telling Sora to take care of Kairi for him. Know that he have the strength to protect Kairi.

When he find out that Sora was in his deep sleep to regain his memories. He there to protect Sora, working with DiZ and Naminé. He could have taken down Xion himself, but even if Xion was the memory of Kairi, he couldn’t do it, only telling her to think about her chose. Wild keeping himself distant both Sora, Kairi and Mickey, as he feel like he would hurt them (and that Ansem linger inside him.).

And even still, after Sora was awaken, he take Mickey to protected Sora for time and them, even then, Riku give Sora a club, protected him back in Land of the Dragon (well he attack Sora but that more of testing him or whatever), even going the extra mile to wear the emperor from the Heartless Boss, help Kairi from going to Twilight Town, saving her form Axel, give her a keyblade. Protected Kairi from Saix blach pushing him and her from the battle, Told Sora about Roxas, And after he came back being himself, Join with Sora in the World that Never Was.

I don’t need to tell what Riku did for Sora, as the theory going with this, But it seem like there are forget that he did protect Kairi and Mickey as well.

I mean, it not just them, Remember Shiki?

He just keep this strangled girl save from the dream eater and when she was safe, he was about to leave, but Shiki call him out about it and even joke (putting up her Eri persona so to say) that he a knight in shining armor. As Riku deny it.

Well he kinda is. That he is a Knight, As knight are the one that would protect the people in need. That what he is.

So Yeah. Riku is a Guardians of Light, There that. Now let move on The Power of Waking.

So yeah, Sora as it turn out never loss the power of waking. Ven made it clear of that.

However like to point out that Sora was asking Herc about his lost of Strength and how to reclaim it. I mean he was back to Level 1 again.

So yeah it not really related here. But about how Riku use “Sora” as Situation Command, Being the Power of Waking.

Yeah. I’m not doing the J. Jonah Jameson laughing gif again. But wow. Just wow. Are you saying that Sora is there, coming from a door in the sky to land next to Riku by the Power of Waking?

I’m sorry but have you miss this?

Sora find Eraqus's keyblade, the one that made Sora summon the door that let to Realm of Darkness. Riku even ask how he got here and Sora repay by saying he have help as he summon the Eraqus's keyblade.

Eraqus's keyblade led him to Riku and Aqua. It was Eraqus’s keyblade let Sora save Aqua and Riku, even letting him go the Realm of Darkness.

Also, also, Good Job showing that The Three Realm Glossary. You just debunk your own theory right there! As a reminder there is no such thing of a 4th realm, the realm of sleep. It it clear that there are Realm of Light, Realm of In-Between and the Realm of Darkness.

(Edit here: Wild there is the uncharted realm where most of the sleeping world are at. I highly doubt it that even the Realm of Darkness is in another Realm, being a Realm itself. Must less all the world being sleeping worlds to be in this D-Realm.)

And it not just Mickey’s keyblade, I mean how did Mickey even got to Realm of Darkness? SImple, he stay in a world that was already fallen into darkness. And you seem to forget that Sora and Riku did end up Dark Margin after there was at “The World of Nothing” (Now the wiki said Realm Between's side of the Dark Margin. So... kinda, but you know what I'm saying here)

And I don’t think the Door itself is the Power of Waking. Not even as it intended purpose. Plus you are saying this as if there are within Realm of Sleep where you said that Saving Aqua is impossible. This really it falling apart and I haven’t got to the Self Sacrifice part.

Specking off. Even if there is true love from all of this, And that there is a self-sacrifice in all of that, there all are alive thank to another love back.

But there could be reason for how each of them able to survive that. Hercules is a Demigod and was able recame his invincibility. Rapunzel even besaid her New Seven Hearts have a magical flower born with her body, given her golden glowing healing hair, But it wasn’t just the hair, her teal was also blass with the flower magic too. And Anna, at is at least that one can be undone by true love only, But as Elsa would discover love itself that melt ice.

Still. Riku being the last two to take Demon Twister, he does what he does best.

Protected!

No matter if he dead, he will protected Sora till the end. Now this would mean that Riku love Sora that he would dead for Sora. Of course it love, just not the love we are talking about here, Riku is Sora best friend that all his is at best, And why would he, Sora is the only one that matter now. Kairi, Mickey, Aqua, Ven, Lea, Donald Duck, Goofy they're all gone. He must protected the one thing that matter now.

And Riku is the one that told he doesn’t believe he is worthless, that Sora know that he isn’t worthless, Because Riku know he have it in him. He will save them all. Not just him. Riku have his Strength to Protect alright and it Sora! Sora is his Strength. Not the one to protect!

Sora power (and maybe Level) is friendship! And Sora even said he feel stronger with Kairi, because Love it better then friendship and Kairi is indeed stronged. He felt worthless because he lost Kairi, he feel stronger because of Kairi.

Sight... Having a Theory that there in Realm Sleeping would be alright without this SoRiku biased. It would still be debunkable, sure. But all this is doing it being very biased by the fact your SoRiku ship isn’t Canon.

And yeah, there no romance between the two, but there those friendship between the two. It just, it being misinterpreted as the two being gay for each other, witch is impossible because of Japanese being homophobia even before there allow LGBT. (I think, I not really sure)

I mean, I could buy that Lea and Isa being lover, or Eraqus and Xehanort being guy couple. But I could also buy there those guy are just best friends to each other. Heck I can even see a boy and girl are just friend and that is find, Even girl and girl as friends or lover.

And it not like your need the ship to be canon, You can have SoRiku, You can have SoKai, You can even have Sora being a biseuxal dork that are in love to his two best friend for your SoRiKai. Heck, Kairi can also love Riku. Your fic, your fan art, having a ship that is canon doesn’t mean you can’t do SoRiku, RiKai or SoRiKai.

Still there two more, The Final World and Light in the Darkness to debunk in this Riku is Riku is the Light.

#Anti Sleeping Realm Theory #The Sleeping Realm Theory #debunk #Psi Debunk part

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ralfstrashcan · 6 years ago

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3x13 Reaction / Commentary

Yeah I'm aware, stop judging X___X

I feel the need to point this out. Apparently it's common practice for the Praetor to just, kill off their more troublesome charges. Interesting. But Jordan has a different work ethic which is a) apparently not usual for praetors and b) something at least Nick attributes to his past and not, idk, common decency. Just how savage is the Praetor exactly?? (Also let me add this to the list of things why 3x15 makes no sense at all.)

Okay, so they found another mundane dead by Heidi's hand...... why exactly don't they call the Shadowhunters? Aren't they obliged to? I mean?

True, but it sure as hell is her responsibility how she handles them. But we established already that she has a serious perception problem and always sees herself as the victim.

I mean, prime example, if she could have made that smooth exit through the vent where the werewolves couldn't follow, why didn't she just do that from the start instead of attacking Nick? Because she wants to cause trouble and not just “live her life in peace” as she's pretending to.

More like, he didn't have the guts to face Alec like that. Also does that mean he draped Izzy on the couch like that in that cliché sleeping pose with one hand under the head? At least he took off her boots like a sane person.

“I'm just drained.”

Haha it seems Alec isn't the only Lightwood sibling with a shitty sense of humor.

“I don't have the same preexisting condition.” “You mean my addiction?”

No, Izzy, he obviously means your fashion sense, keep up. Seriously, who wrote that stupid ass line of dialogue.

I found it pretty hilarious that Simon, Clary's literally oldest and bestest friend since kindergarten, feels the need to apologize to Izzy for taking up so much time with his Clary-reunion and blocking the path for her. The Clizzy Energy is Strong.

“Hmmmm hot hot hot Clary, please show me more.”

MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY HAHAHAHA PERFECT

Also, Morningstar.... didn't Val name his dumbass tanker ship in S1/S2 Morningstar? Guy really has it with name repetitions, first Jonathan 1 and 2, now Morningstar Ship and Morningstar Sword... I bet he named all his stuffed teddys Mr Snuffels 1, Mr Snuffels 2, Mr Snuffels 3.....

The way he delivers this line me might've as well said “Please cut out the emotional disgusting bullshit my skin is crawling already from this I can't take any more mushiness PLEASE GO AWAY.” Gotta love Alec.

MAGNUS RAGE PUNCHING THE KEYBOARD IS THE MOST RELATABLE THING I HAVE EVER SEEN

Magnus opening up about missing his magic MY HEART OH MY GOD

(Sidenote though: No wonder he got frustrated with the pretentious Shadowhunter Technology, I mean, look at it. There are only runes. Runes may be called runes, but they don't actually make up an alphabet. Why the heck is there a flexibility rune on the screen? It makes no sense.)

This whole scene (and Izzy's lipstick lol) is absolutely perfect. I love everything about it, especially Magnus and especially Izzy. I'd be really surprised if Magnus didn't find a way to get her that weird root thingy anyway, because he surely doesn't buy the “feeling a lot better now” line.

(Edit: Now thinking about it I realized two things, a) she probably didn't take him up on his offer to go to another warlock because she felt like that was unnecessarily rubbing in that he can't do it himself anymore* and b) with that line she probably meant she feels lighter already for sharing what happened and just <3<3<3<3<3)

*The only think that would have made this scene more perfect is if Izzy hadn't skimmed over his magic comment without acknowledging it in any way. Though with this thought in mind, that she rejected his offer to spare his feelings, I find myself placated.

Also I love how Magnus pretends he's going to look for pen and paper when really he's running straight to Alec to tell him all about this (and to prevent a repetition of 2x09 form happening.... and now I made myself sad again).

#effortless (Also reminds me of that post about fire message mechanics that I still owe a certain someone. Where is the time.)

HAHAHAHA

???????????? How do they know that? More importantly, does Alec know? Will he hear through the Shadow World grapevine??? So many questions.

I mean, I have sympathy for her. But like, she's too smart for me to buy that she genuinely can't see any other course of action. She just does this because it's the least effort for her, not because she's truly clueless what alternatives are there for here (aka not running around, killing mundanes, starting a fight with everyone). She just thrives on chaos.

Also “Wolves don't just attack without cause. Not in New York” ? Seems like all Institute except the NY one do a shit job since supposedly keeping peace between the Downworld factions is part of their responsibility. Yes, I am still salty about 3x15. (Also, if anyone's confused by this weird foreshadowing, I wrote notes for this reaction post while watching 3x13 when it first aired, but only got to finish it now after 3x19 aired and I can't keep my chronology-screwing bitterness to myself while finishing up the post. But mostly these are my thoughts from then.)

Yeah something tells me she's not gonna be totally uninvolved in that.

This and the fact that Russel wants to stop Bat from even leaving the Jade Wolf are the final proofs that all the werewolves actually live at the Jade Wolf and pile up in a giant snuggle pile in the kitchen at night. This is further cemented by the fact that Luke and Maia claim to have flats of their own but we never actually see them. Clearly they're both dirty liars that just wanted to mislead.

*late Jocelyn's late friend Eliot #rude #whatever

.......why the hell would Elias code that shit in Circle short hand? So other Circle members, who Jocelyn was hiding from, could easily open that super important safe? So smart! Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Luke in the Circle as well? Shouldn't he be able to read that, too?

1) Eliot is such a loser and a showoff for ostentatiously writing that J in Jocelyn 2) His hint is seriously “Don't open with brute force.” Wtf kind of hint is that man are you even real.

I'm sorry, okay, but everytime I see / hear Bellicosi I think Maxi-Cosi XD

*glares at 3x15* Will I ever tire of raging about that episode? Unlikely.

Why.....? Since he didn't have any problem 100% blaming Raphael for everything Heidi did (not unjustified, but I'm just saying he's suddenly changed his mind). I mean, if he'd said she's dangerous to him and his family that would've been another matter.

These are all runes that I don't remember seeing on the Shadowhunters' Wiki Rune Page. Please tell me more.

Jace: “Clary, you've been going nonstop since you came back. You need to take a minute.”

lol if only Jace would implement the same advice himself.

“Wow I suddeny remember I had a life before I was 10.”

German Dubbing: Yeah, the ones Consul Penhallow categorically ignored. Honestly. Who dubbs this shit. Wtf.

Listen I love everything about this scene. (Fun Fact: In the German Dubbing she says vampire addiction, not venom addiction lol as if she was addicted to vampires XD)

Alec Lightwood, best brother of the year. Btw he's been holding that title since birth. I also don't think Alec would ever judge Izzy for her addiction / look at her as if she's weak, so the fact that she thinks that says a lot about how the addiction affected her self-image.

Too bad Alec forgets this for the next few episodes and acts like a total tool in that Clave Investigation Thing, smh.

Good to know.

Haha that was witty.

Oooooh why don't they ask another warlock then? For example one who's actually always the smartest person in the room?? Who's also willing to work on this??? Just a thought tho, don't let me interrupt the Maruke Bonding. No, you know what? I hate the shipname Maruke, it's shit, so I'm calling it Luryse as it should have been called. Then again, when am I even gonna talk about that pairing? We shall see.

“Outrageous, just because people around me keep turning up dead! It's ridiculous, really, that they'd think I could have something to do with that. It's as if they're not aware this is a TV show and supporting characters die because *Moriarty Voice* THAT'S WHAT PEOPLE DO!”

“That what the kids call it these days when they get kicked out on their ass?” She literally says “From one exiled to another” so she clearly realized he's full of shit.

“And that's why in two episodes Imma get myself arrested by behaving like a dumbass and then chill in prison as if it's my greatest accomplishment.” Honestly Luke, so many No-s. I can't even.

“Wow I can't believe I have to see this Luryse bs up close.” Hah, now I used the right shipname and can move the f on from bashing that pairing. Sorry about that. I'm sleep deprived. That always makes me extra salty.

“When you're alpha you need to make the pack your first priority. Your personal life needs to take a back seat. And mine never did.” I applaud Luke for admitting he was a shit alpha because he didn't proritize the pack. Hindsight is 20/20.

Wow Luke so helpful <3<3<3 Just like I know and love you.

I also love how nobody questions that Heidi bit that mundane and then chilledly made a phone call at the scene of her Accords-violating crime. How frakking convenient.

But their runes aren't on the same side. Sloppy work. Also, if the illustrator obviouly takes artistic liberties, then the rune missing on the second pic doesn't have to mean anything. Maybe they just forgot to draw it. Then again this isn't even the most flimsy conclusion-making I've wittnessed on this show so I'll let it slide.

lol Jace and Jonathan are basically playing tug of war with Clary: Jonathan burning himself, Jace activating her healing rune XD

Ooooh brainless S1 Clary, how I have not missed you. Srsly now? Carve it out? That didn't work for Simon so why should it now? lol she should ask the seelie queen if she has some handy floor mosaic thingy in her courtyard to help with that.

In his defense, he moved.

It's not gonna work is what it is. Srsly how dumb are they? Why the hell does she think something so powerful can just be carved out?? Wtf.

Woooow they're using a rune removing device, color me impressed. I really thought they'd just put a scalpel to it. So, at least points for trying.

Uuuuh get some morphin, try again. I mean. But anyway.

*break up

......didn't she just break up with him because pack reasons? Where is that not a Shadow World Reason? Please explain. (Also choosing an unflattering screen cap of Simon because he annoys me? Absolutely. I am petty like that.) The easy way Simon accepts their break up really makes me wonder. If Maia hadn't said anything, would he have broken up with her? Since apparently things “changed” and they could “both” “feel” it. Honestly. He literally calls her his girlfriend at the start of the scene as if to draw attention to how ridiculous this is.

You know what, I don't even have the energy to rage about this. Their relationship was so great, they were so supportive of each other, they had great chemistry, great communication, they always stood by each other. And just because Sizzy has to be endgame there were suddenly weird-ass tension between them for no real reason – none that 3A Saia wouldn't have worked through like pros anyway – just so this break up wouldn't come out of absolutely nowhere. It's shit treatment of both their characters and their relationship and I'm just so exasperated with it all. (Also not the way to endear me to Sizzy. But at this point I feel like a broken record.)

Discount? It was free. Which I'm still finding super hard to believe by the way, that a werewolf establishment would just give out free food to vampires who don't even work there. But what do I know, right, I mean it's not like they just mentioned a few minutes ago how werewolves and vampires hate each other? Right?? Hahaha.

Wow. This actually takes the time to highlight that this break up wasn't as amicable as Simon thought. Maybe he thought that they were breaking up for human reasons, but Maia clearly feels she threw her relationship away for the pack and it's hard for her. And Simon's tirade wasn't really encouraging her to let him know that. I really appreciate that detail.

Other things I want to say: 1) I didn't like that Maia just flat out broke up with him. She should have informed him that she was going to step up for the pack and would have to prioritize that over their relationship and then leave it up to him if he wants to put up with that or not. By breaking up she made the choice for him. Her course of action is ic, I'm not critizising that, but from like, a personal stand point I don't like it. 2) Foreshadowing: Since her whole pack gets slaughtered, if that would have been the only reason to break up with Simon she coulda just gotten back together with him lol. Haha sorry I'm trash. I know.

Wow he's really dumb. He knows Heidi's brand of crazy and still he doesn't realize this was a trap. He said himself that Heidi must have done something for the Preator to be after her, and when the Praetor tells him she's been leaving copses left and right he...... takes this as his cue to ally himself with Heidi??? Wtf?????? Does he not believe what Jordan said? Again, he suspected something like that himself and since the Praetor are playing at being the Downworlder Police they wouldn't just make something like that up with no proof. The heck. I don't get you, Boss Vampire Guy.

Also, thumbs down for the Praetor, if they'd just told them their source was Heidi herself (on the phone) this could have been prevented. But, ugh. With how things are I can at least kinda buy that no working communication between vampire clan and Praetor exists.

Still, if the Praetor wants to be accepted as some kind of Shadow World Institution they should really work on their manners.

.................................................

I I don-- I can't. *sigh* I can't believe I just had to watch this with my own two eyes. Have they not been trained for a case like this? A fellow shadowhunter injured in the field? That activating the healing rune should be the first thing you do? Before lovingly prying information from the dying person?? I mean, if that's not Plot Convenience then I don't know what is. Sure, he needs to give them a snippet of info, but not too much. But please, please, couldn't writers have found a way for this that didn't make them look like the stupidest of idiots in the entire frikkin world?! Wtf. WTF. I can't believe it.

Uuuuuuh how did she know how to turn those things if all she had to work with was Don't use brute force?? Do I have to understand that?

“You brought coffee, after all.”

Look she's so ashamed she even turned away from the screen haha. Also it's so refreshing to see grown ass people approach a relationship like idiotic teens. (Yeah, that was sarcastic.)

“And right now I wanna do you.” Hahahaha sorry, too good to pass up, you can bet your ass imma turn this into a dumb comic XD

“I love you, Clary. And I'll love you until I die. And if there's a life after this I'll love you then, too.”

Okay, I wanted to roll my eyes at their love confession, but what Jace said was actually really sweet <3

Alec: All our people were accounted for at the time of the murder. Izzy: We think it was a Clave hit.

Oh couldn't have been one of the millions of Shadowhunters from another Institute? No, I'm sure Alec checked that on their neat little Shadowhunter Intranet, that all other Shadowhunters all over the workd were accounted for as well. Honestly.

Also, Maryse says “By the angel,” but in the German Dubbing she says “What the angel” which makes it seem as if Shadowhunters curse by replacing dirty words with “angel” and just... what the angel XD

Why the hell are they all so obsessed with Latin? Ugh. Exhausting hobby.

Btw lol, please rewatch that scene, the background music is weirdly reminiscent of the Stranger Things Theme hahahaha. (Also omg I'm peeking into the German dubbing and it doesn't even make SENSE hahaha what the shit.)

LOL that's like the soulmate trope but in painful XD basically the creepy incest edition XD But honestly can we appreciate what a nice hand Jonathan has with a knife and with his left hand?? Prodigy.

This is it, the final proof that they actually all live at the Jade Wolf hahahha.

...................................? Why the f is she happy to see Jordan? Last time they saw each other she clearly stated she hated him?? Do I need to understand?? Oh right. In the books Maia and Jordan get back together. Right. Stupid, why am I even surprised by this??

Wtf isn't he the clan leader? Why the hell is he acting so submissively to Heidi all of a sudden? Literally half a day ago he threw her out of his clan, knowing his place. And now he's like a puppet on her strings. Wtf. But I guess that happens when you treat characters as plot devices. They get inconsistent even if they only have two scenes. *sigh*

Awwww would you look at that, werewolves and vampires fighting with fists like mundanes. (Okay some of them had like, daggers, but where are the fangs and the claws? Honestly.)

Okay I did her injustice in my trailer reaction since this is a vamp and a legitimate fight situation.

Wow that actually surprised me. But Jordan also dies in the books so, oops. Just didn't think they'd skip the getting together.

WOW that really surprised me. I thought Maia would challenge him and they'd have an epic fight to the death or something. (Also wtf Griffin guy, what's with that creeper face.)

To be honest I find it hard to believe that Maia acts like this. Scared out of her mind, yeah sure. But she acts helpless, and she's never been that. When she got that pipe thing I thought she'd use it as a stake. Using it to block the door is smart, too, but why didn't she get another to have a stake? Her whole posture, uselessly hangig over Jordan screams damsel in distress and I don't like it at all.

Edit: I had certain fears how this plotline would be developed in 3x14 which thankfully didn't come true, but my conflicted opinion on this ending scene remains.

Anyway let’s take a moment and appreciate Maia’s Killer Boots.

BTW watched the 3x14 trailer and just.... what. Why the f would Magnus ask Lorenzo of all people for help? He can't be trusted. As if he wouldn't use that opportunity to break Magnus even further! WTF! Where's Catarina? Oh, let me guess, another Drunk Doctor Conference *epic eyeroll*

#shadowhunters #3x13 #clary fray #magnus bane #alec lightwood #jace wayland #isabelle lightwood #simon lewis #maia roberts #luke garroway #maryse lightwood #kyle #heidi #reaction

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joeys-piano · 6 years ago

Note

For the character ask thingie: Chuuya 👀

TL;DR - I fanboy about Chuuya for a long time so just click ‘J’ to skip this post if you want xD

Send me a character for me to talk about

What are my thoughts on this character?From an aesthetic-perspective, I respect whatever fashion Chuuya has going on for himself. He exudes this sense of class and confidence, he seems very comfortable in his skin, and he’s a force to reckoned with – on or off the battlefield. He has a nice taste in hats, boots, gloves, overall attire. I’m a little bit of formal suit freak, so I really enjoy the attention to detail on his overall attirical design. His clothes portray sort of the duality of his character – how on one side of the coin, he’s a classy man who’s cultured in the arts and there’s this air of respect and formality. At the same time, on the other side of the coin, you get his rebel-nature that’s more free-flowing. If I was to sum his appearance to that of an an animal, he reminds me of a crow. Sleek, elegant, regal, bit of a troublemaker, ready for a throwdown, and he’ll never forget those that double cross him.

Even though you don’t see very much of him in the anime, Chuuya has the presence of a main character. He’s like a wrecking ball. You see him coming and he leaves behind this impact of emotion that you’re still reeling from, episodes later. From a writing standpoint, Chuuya feels like a solid character to me. He doesn’t feel like a caricature. He knows when to step down, he knows when to put his selfish pride or even his grudges behind him, for a moment, for the sake of finishing what he needs to do. His loyalty might be his downfall, but it’s that loyalty and trust he has in with others that gives him strength. To me, Chuuya is the kind of character that truly shines when he’s with others. He can play a solo-act, but his most memorable moments are when he’s in an ensemble or a duet with someone else.

Are they important to the general plot?I’ve only watched the anime for BSD, so I’m not sure what exactly Chuuya does in the rest of the story. In the general sense, I think Chuuya is important during pivotal moments in the story during action sequences and whatnot. But if I’m looking at the story of BSD and how it seems to revolve around the cast of the ADA and how the “camera” follows Atsushi on his adventures, for the most part in the anime adaption, I’d say that Chuuya isn’t important to the story. He’s more like a link or like an old flame to Dazai’s past. The focus isn’t entirely or sharply there, but you get these moments where it’s focused on and you get bits and pieces for sure. From what I see and know from the anime adaptation, Chuuya could’ve been written out and the story would flow more or less the same. With the addition of season 3 coming and more manga updates in the future, I’ll see what happens. Don’t get me wrong. Chuuya is a cool character, but his story isn’t the backbone of the general plot for BSD.

Do you relate to this character at all? Do they grip you emotionally?We’re both short and hate it when people comment about it, so that’s something. From a personal headcanon, I would think that Chuuya sometimes struggles with his thoughts on what it means to be human, considering his backstory. In some ways, I can relate to him on that because I’m not exactly human either. Probably what grips me emotionally about Chuuya is how he feels about betrayal, especially from someone he had some much trust on. It’s rare for me to hold grudges, but I’ll never forget anyone that double-crosses me. I share that characteristic with Chuuya and those are the rare moments where you realize how scary I can be.

Do you ship this character with others? Are you intrigued by their relationships with others? (platonic or romantic)I mean, I’m participating in a week-long event that involves a ship that has Chuuya in it. So yes. I like Chuuya and Dazai’s relationship, both romantically and platonically. They bring out the utter worst and the best out of each other, so I can seem them as frenemies or exes or something. But deep down, whether they genuinely care for each other or not, there’s some interpretations that they do to some regard. It’s ambiguous, so I’ll take what I can get. For Chuuya, I’m intrigued with his relationship with Ango. Something happened in the Dead Apple movie where someone owed the other a favor or something, and I’m curious how that came around.

Is there anything about this character that you would change?I like him the way he is – flaws and all. And….I can’t think of anything to change.

If you were in the fandom with this character or knew them in real life, how would you see yourself interacting with them?I would probably meet him at a bar. I’d be the evening pianist and I’m playing some smooth jazz over the keyboard. Sometimes when I do improv, I get inspired by what I see. I imagine myself seeing him in a corner, alone with a glass of wine delicately balanced in his hand, and I improv a little number inspired by him. It’s probably a sweet yet sad, close yet distant piano composition. Just before he leaves the bar, he gives me a handsome tip and that’s probably the only interaction I’ll actually have with him.

I wouldn’t want to have a close relationship with Chuuya. That would just be weird for me. Having a distant one has its advantages. I don’t need to know everything about him, and I don’t need to see him every day. But if those few moments that we meet and I’m able to play a little tune that softens his thoughts or lets his mind wander a bit, I’ve done my job. They say that wine tastes a little richer, a little fuller when you have a good music to accompany it. That’s what I would do for him. And in turn, he’ll be my muse and will inspire a lot of jazz improvs into the future.

Does this character make the cut as your favorite or least favorite character?He comes very close. I like Chuuya a lot as a character. He has everything going for him, and he has a lot of characteristics that I like to see or resonate with. Just a minor thing on my part – he’d probably take the throne as my favorite character of all time, if and only if in canon, he wore glasses. I know there’s an official art where he wears glasses and he looks adorable in them. However, the description on his BSD wiki page does not cite glasses as part of his appearance and he has yet to wear one in the story from what I know so far. So because of that, Chuuya is not my all-time favorite character but he’s very much beloved by me.

Would you hype this character or warn about this character to someone new in the fandom?Words are just words. People will come up with their assumptions after seeing him, so I rather not influence anything and let a newcomer figure out what their opinion or stance or whatever views they have of him come naturally. After they’ve established their thing for Chuuya, that’s when we can talk more about things. I like it when people make judgments on their own without the influence of the majority or from someone else. That creates a special bond between them and the character. Also, I don’t want to interfere with anything because sometimes when things like this happen, other characters are often overlooked. For a newcomer, I want them to have a sampled taste of everybody instead of focusing on only one character. You know what I mean?

Is this character popular with the fanbase?*stares at the majority of posts that reference/mention/has him in it*Yeah, I think so

#ask #i might have to write an essay one of these days about this man #but that'll be weird #and i don't want to weird y'all anymore than i have to

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led123123 · 4 years ago

Text

my tooth hurt for a while.. today.. I mean.. it hurt today.. but I brushed it.. and.. it’s better.. and.. like.. ye.. like.. why the f*ck only humans brush their teeth.. and animals don’t

wtf

nice games.

I mean.. just one tooth.. the top tooth.. I brushed it.. wish I had a mirror to see how it looks like..

https://youtu.be/6ujx19HXvBs?t=29

xDDDD

worse help. xD

therapists

lol.. all long range shots are headshots.. what the... fuck

the hell is wrong with this game

this is the only tooth that hurts so much..

why does this gun only shoots headshots at long range..

https://youtu.be/XqYCYRkCJks?t=590

today were insane games.. I haven’t.. like.. why wingman is always headshots..

https://youtu.be/ovY9-exYeao?t=829

I hate this armchair.. I wish I had armchair.. with adjustable back

I hate this armchair a lot

https://www.youtube.com/post/UgzS7nFuXaRxDbvf_Qx4AaABCQ

lol no f*cking way.. 6900 xt is better than 3080ti??

https://youtu.be/igM_g2qceOE

https://youtu.be/igM_g2qceOE?t=277

I didn’t expect that they would be as good as 3090

https://youtu.be/igM_g2qceOE?t=300

damn. amd surprised again

https://youtu.be/igM_g2qceOE?t=417

I really need to sell my card now.. damn.. jesus.. I mean.. these cards.. are super high power consumption though

but.. maybe they can be downclocked.. I mean..

https://youtu.be/igM_g2qceOE?t=447

no way amd card is better

I only need a back part on the armchair.. to lean back.. what else would I need it for.. and lying.. it’s just useless

it would be cool to have regulated armchair with regulated back

https://youtu.be/igM_g2qceOE?t=926

amd sells from china.. so.. there won’t be any taxes..

or any shipping fees

https://youtu.be/igM_g2qceOE?t=951

omg.. 1440p.. damn... but this resolution.. will take a lot of space.. when recording..

damn.. I can’t pick myself together.. to sell my card.. damn..

but.. I don’t lose that much money.. I mean.. I mean.. well.. now would be a good time to sell it.. but.. it’s not a lot of money.. if I sell it later.. I only make like.. not that much..

if it was worth more then..

https://youtu.be/igM_g2qceOE?t=1221

lol.. omg..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_4

games were really easy today. very lucky

omg. longbow in replicator..

genius teammates

wow. noob teammates but still +10. a miracle

headshot again.. of course..

why it always shoots headshots

omg team.. damn.. damn.. this one dude..

damn these people have inhuman reactions

https://youtu.be/a3AdF_q8gvA?t=84

why the f*ck is there season 1 in this video..

https://youtu.be/a3AdF_q8gvA?t=285

maybe I increase mouse speed more..

I don’t have any problems with aiming..

now I know why people use.. volt.. because.. like.. helmet lvl 3.. has 50% headshot damage reduction.. not 30%.. so.. like.. it’s not worth sacrificing.. movement speed.. for headshot damage

like.. headshots are cool. but with lvl 3 helmet.. it’s not a lot more damage..

maybe I should also use mastif..

he’s always using mastif..

what the f*ck is wrong with my tooth..

https://youtu.be/J-DQYjWSnkY

reaction to reaction.. professional reactor..

chain reaction...

https://youtu.be/siAvBCPPZQ4?t=48

https://youtu.be/siAvBCPPZQ4?t=157

https://youtu.be/siAvBCPPZQ4?t=176

omg. the classic.. lvl 6 bait..

https://youtu.be/siAvBCPPZQ4?t=287

https://youtu.be/siAvBCPPZQ4?t=452

the hell is he doing.. he cannot kill him.. ever.. he should be farming jungle or ganking other lanes.

https://youtu.be/siAvBCPPZQ4?t=1434

https://youtu.be/QjXUbPbJbYQ

https://youtu.be/QjXUbPbJbYQ?t=176

https://youtu.be/QjXUbPbJbYQ?t=273

but like.. mastiff wingman.. like.. mastiff volt is better..

one person has to have wingman.. one person.. mastiff and.. volt..

https://youtu.be/QjXUbPbJbYQ?t=465

controller..

https://youtu.be/ni0mwspF6QI?t=12

magichin.

https://youtu.be/ni0mwspF6QI?t=18

https://youtu.be/ni0mwspF6QI?t=121

commerchials

https://youtu.be/ni0mwspF6QI?t=147

pachin

https://youtu.be/ni0mwspF6QI?t=224

https://youtu.be/ni0mwspF6QI?t=318

https://youtu.be/ni0mwspF6QI?t=332

https://youtu.be/ni0mwspF6QI?t=350

https://youtu.be/1V4AscLidWg

https://youtu.be/vMCbJB4yNXo

0 notes

loislanesmiles · 8 years ago

Text

As a former member of the Smallville fandom, some of the J*nsa fandom behavior is achingly familiar and it tells me how cyclic fandom really is when it comes to some ships fans wish were canon and some (always white) female characters who are the fandom bicycle.

Chloe Sullivan was Clark Kent’s best friend. Until Lois Lane showed up, a lot of her fans held out hope that Chloe would be revealed to be Lois. The theories didn’t end when Lois showed up. The Chloe=Lois people said Lois would die, Chloe would take her identity, be a journalist, and Clark would fall in love with her. The closer Lois got to Clark and being the iconic Lois Lane, the worse the hate got. The reaches were spectacular. ‘Chloe sat at a desk with Lois’s nameplate. This clearly means she’s the real Lois.’ They could not accept Chloe for who she was and projected onto her and that also included getting with the main hero. Chloe fans desperately wanted her to get what they believed she deserved which usually meant other people’s stories. Chloe was the fandom bicycle of the show and if she even looked at someone, there would be shippers. Once they got disillusioned with Clark, they said Chloe was the real hero of Smallville and she deserved accolades, not Clark. Clark was bad (for loving Lois or Lana) and selfish and he wasn’t a hero.

The things I’ve heard from a section of the GoT fandom is sounding very similar to the above.

The bit I saw about the game of thrones wiki edits reminded me of this because the Chloe/Clark fans did the same thing to the Smallville wiki. Every time I hear Dany is going to die, go mad, and a certain redhead will have to step in as Jon’s love interest, I am reminded of the Smallville fandom and how toxic and frankly delusional it was. I thought I left this behavior behind in 2011 and yet here we are.

#jonerys #fandom behavior

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rogerdvies · 8 years ago

Note

lEO give me movie recs. and song recs. and book recs. plEASE.

@nviles. i came inside from the nice hot sunlight to do this so you better appreciate it. i don’t watch a whole lot of movies i mostly watch tv series with friends when sick so i’m not sure but i tried. also don’t know what genres you like so i chose my favorite stuff from everything.

movies.

orange (movie): a japanese romance movie that made me cry three times on a plane it’s amazing you should definitely watch it i put a link to its wiki page so you know which one i’m taking about

the worst witch (netflix series): v v cute redo of an older series that was originally based off of a book series

hush (movie): if you like suspense/a little bit of horror, this was actually an amazing movie 10/10 would recommend

inception / source code (movies): both really psychological films and if you haven’t seen them please do (also i ship arthur/eames so hard in inception whoops)

1st coffee shop prince (series): this is a k-drama romance/comedy you can kind online with subtitles easily and for free and i love it so much

scrubs (series): a medical fictional tv series that is hilarious and everyone should watch because EAAAGGGGLLLLLLEEEE and also doctor cox is super hot and sarcastic 10/10 on my gaydar for an older man

grimm (series): 10/10 nick is hot watch it for him

mash (series): old military comedy tv series that i grew up watching because both my parents were military and they really liked this show

ghost whisperer (series): honestly idk i just love it my favorite episode is the lost boys one in one of the first seasons.

books.

night angel trilogy by brent weeks. it is about assassins. it’s so cool. this series messed me up so much don’t love any of the characters they will all break your heart.

mistborn trilogy by brandon sanderson. people with really cool powers that revolve around emotions and metal and its my all-time favorite series tbh but don’t fall in love with kelsier i did and it was a fucking trap.

newsflesh trilogy by mira grant. zombies. and journalists. and snark. lots of snark.

all the percy jackson books but you’ve read those already.

all of the maze runner books but you’ve read those already.

the testing series by joelle charbonneau. omfg i love this series no regrets think kind of like hunger games but better.

the riyria revelations + chronicles by michael j. sullivan. i’m in love with hadrian he’s the best. assassins and knights and gwen is also really badass.

brave new world by aldous huxley. it’s more psychological and it will fuck you up. i hate every single character but i learned a lot from it.

songs.

my entire spotify??

kick-ass/sassy songs:

no scrubs - unlike pluto, joanna jones

it’s you - molly kate kestner

fuck you - lily allen

ugly heart - G.R.L.

hold my heart - lindsey stirling

call me - le malls, lilianna wilde

like that - bea miller

dickhead - kate nash

anything ed sheeran

that’s not my name - the ting tings

NO - meghan trainor

sorry not sorry - demi lovato (ava gave me this one)

that’s my girl - fifth harmony

sit still, look pretty - daya

indie/chill songs:

devil’s in the backseat -lostboycrow

after rain - dermot kennedy (LISTEN TO THIS GDI IT’S MY FAVORITE SONG)

anything by east forest

anything by sohn (especially their tremors album i adore it)

holloway road - tat carosielli

still life - aqualung

the moss - cosmo sheldrake

ghost - jacob lee

planets and stars - pavvla

don’t come easy - isaiah

simple as that - tanya ryan (also one of my old yoga instructors isnt that cool)

moon & stars - jae jin

#leo answers #I DID THIS OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD I HOPE THERE IS ENOUGH #nviles

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nextgennews-blog1 · 8 years ago

Text

Why you should be watching Babylon 5

With all the streaming services that are out and about today, it can sometimes be hard to find which ones are slinging the best ‘tent around (that’s content to you plebs). There’s the big players in the game: Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, but lets not forget the mini-bosses in this game of views. Services like: Vue, Sling, Crackle, Twitch, Vevo, Shimmy, Wrangle and Flurp. There are so many out there that I bet you didn’t even realize the last three I mentioned aren’t even real services.

I mean, Yahoo! Screen? Who you trying to kid with that fake news?

Recently while clicking ‘round the wonderful world of Reddit, I noticed I kept seeing an ad at the top of my screen saying that I could stream all of Babylon 5 for free. I shrugged it off as nonsense, some click bait-y type website that would make me read and click through 35 images smothered with ads talking about “What do the People of B5 look like Now?!”

#4 will shock you!

But then, thanks to Big Brother and his tasty cookies, I started seeing the ad more and more on different pages I went to: Reddit, Yahoo! (sorry Screen), Latino-Review, PornHub, xHamster, FistMeisters and Club Penguin. So I decided to take a peek at what this was. Thus I was introduced to a new player in the game: go90.com

I love you.

Sure enough, for free, I could sign up for an account and watch the entirety of Babylon 5 (five seasons) and only have to deal with one 15 second ad before every episode. I couldn’t believe it. ‘Why is this important?’ you ask. Well I will tell you make believe reader.

Babylon 5 is the fucking best sci-fi show of all time.

Come at me Farscape! (but for realzies Farscape is awesome too...)

‘What is Babylon 5?’ you ask again voice in my head. Here’s the Wiki: “Set between the years 2257 and 2262, it depicts a future where Earth has sovereign states, and a unifying Earth government. Colonies within the solar system, and beyond, make up the Earth Alliance, and contact has been made with other spacefaring species. The ensemble cast portray alien ambassadorial staff and humans assigned to the 5-mile-long Babylon 5 space station, a center for trade and diplomacy.”

Sounds complicated and convoluted? You bet your sweet ass it is. J Michael Straczynski (further to be known as JMS because I do NOT feel like typing his last name out 300 times), created this show because he wanted to take an adult approach to science fiction story telling. He has been quoted as saying that he wanted “to take an adult approach to SF, and attempt to do for television SF what Hill Street Blues did for cop shows."

If you think that sentence doesn’t sounds old, then I have a Blockbuster franchise I wanna sell you.

The show mainly focuses around five dominant races/species/civilizations: the Humans, the Minbari, the Narn, the Centuri and the Vorlons). Through the wonders of makeup, costuming and practical effects, these races look, act and feel VASTLY different from each other, despite the fact they are all bi-pedal humanoid type creatures. During the series Babylon 5 goes through many plot lines, all interweaving and intersecting at critical and crucial points that make you slap your head and wonder how the hell they pulled it off. Well the answer is simple, and point number one on my multiple bullet breakdown on why this show rocks.

Who’s ready for bullets and notes, you nerds?!

1) JMS, the creator, wrote 92 of the 110 episodes of the series

Think about that for a second. Almost 84% of the entirety of the series was written by one man, which includes the entirety of the 3rd and 4th seasons (the 3rd being arguably one of the best seasons). A feat, JMS would tout, that had never before accomplished in American Television. Why is this a big deal? Well when you have one singular vision you can expect the unexpected and plan for contingencies you never saw coming. What do you mean by that? Well…

2) Every Character was written with a “trap-door”

Pulled directly from Wiki (because I’m hungover and being a lazy writer for the moment): “Though conceived as a whole, it was necessary to adjust the plot line to accommodate external influences. Each of the characters in the series was written with a ‘trap door’ into their background so that, in the event of an actor's unexpected departure from the series, the character could be written out with minimal impact on the storyline.”

In the words of Straczynski, “As a writer, doing a long-term story, it'd be dangerous and short-sighted for me to construct the story without trap doors for every single character. ... That was one of the big risks going into a long-term storyline which I considered long in advance…” I can’t think of another series that has done this. Contract disputes? Check. Actors dying? Check. Budgetary constraints. Check. All bases covered by this one simple act of having the entire story thought out, conceived, shepherded and written by one man.

Getting rid of unwanted minions? Check.

Why is this “trap-door” thing important? Take the case of Michael O’Hare who played Commander Jeffery Sinclair in the first Season of B5. During the first season O’Hare started having paranoid delusions and hallucinations. As the show continued they worsened, causing him to be difficult to work with O’Hare lashing out at fellow colleagues. JMS offered to suspend the show for several months while he helped him seek treatment, but O’Hare declined because he didn’t want to jeopardize the series or other people’s jobs. He agreed to finish the first season and be written off the show so he could seek treatment. The treatments were only partially successful, but it allowed Sinclair to make a few cameo appearances in Seasons 2 and 3 to finish out his arc properly. After all was said and done, JMS swore to keep O’Hare’s secret to the grave, to which O’Hare replied "keep the secret to my grave", pointing out that fans deserved to eventually learn the real reason for his departure, and that his experience could raise awareness and understanding for people suffering from mental illness. O’Hare suffered a heart attack in NYC in September of 2012, and true to his word, eight months later at Phoenix ComicCon JMS told the story of his late friend and colleague.

My good…dear friend JMS

3) Visual Pioneer

Most Sci fi shows (and movies for that matter) at the time relied HEAVILY on practical effects. B5 did not when it came to space-time-fun. In order to make the budget stretch, JMS and other producers developed their own in house effects company. This show came out in 1993, the same time Jurassic Park did.

I mean, look at how realistic Goldbulm looks.

Now, while the graphics haven’t aged as gracefully as Jurassic Park did, they also had $100,000 workstations and several years to work on those dino-fects (which total about 6 minutes of the movie) where B5 had $5,000 stations to work on each week, with space scenes taking up a good 33% of the episodes. On top of that, B5 was not filmed in 4:3 aspect ratio like a majority of TV was. It was shot in 16:9 and cropped to fit, which is why today some of the effects haven’t aged really well, but I forgive them.

ZOMG LAZERS PEW PEW

B5 and the effects house Foundation Imaging, also heavily influenced sci-fi TV shows to come after. Star Trek, most notably, were reluctant to use CGI in their TV shows, until B5 showed them that it could be done, and done well. This change happened when the series premiered on television in January 1993, conclusively proving that computer animation, most notably CGI, could be employed in creating spectacular believable VFX on a tight budget. And despite themselves, this was not entirely lost at the time on the Star Trek producers.

David Livingston commented on the use of early CGI in creating the Bajoran lightship for Deep Space Nine: "We were reluctant to do computer graphics, but Peter Lauritson finally came around. He recognized how valuable it is. You can do more stuff with the ship, but you have to do it right.”

Speaking of Deep Space 9, there is a little bit of controversy there. You see, Paramount Television was aware of JMS’ show B5 as early as 1989. JMS attempted to sell the show to Paramount and provided them the series bible, pilot script, artwork, character backgrounds and histories and plot synopsis for the first season or 22 episodes. Paramount declined to produce B5, but then announced Deep Space 9 would be in development two months after Warner Bros. announced that they were produced B5. For those of you not in the know, Star Trek: Deep Space 9 was a notable Star Trek show for one very important reason: it doesn’t take place on a starship…but on a space station. Controlled by the United Federation of Planets (or as B5 had it…the League of Non-Aligned Worlds). There are more “coincidental similarities” but I’ll let JMS say it better than I can in his response to a DS9 fan who took JMS and Warner Bros’ lack of legal action as proof they had no case:

"If there is any (to use your term) winking and nudging going on, it's on the level of 'Okay, YOU (Paramount) know what happened, and *I* know what happened, but let's try to be grownup about it for now,' though I must say that the shapechanging thing nearly tipped me back over the edge again. If there are no more major similarities that crop up in the next few weeks or months, with luck we can continue that way."

Suck it you Ferengei Bastard

4) The Characters

The characters have SO MUCH depth. Without giving up any spoilys, the two biggest arcs in the show belong to G’Kar of the Narn and Londo Mollari of the Centauri. Played with ferocity and earnest by Andreas Katsulas (the one armed man from President Ford’s version of The Fugitive) and Peter Juraik respectively, these two characters go through some of the biggest, hardest and thickest most emotional arcs in the whole show. The Narn and the Centuri have been at war for over 100 years, and they well…hate each other. But every time you think things can come to a peaceful resolution, something happens to reset things back to zero. Both characters (thanks to the wonderful acting by their um…actors) make you feel their despair, pain, struggle, anger and anguish with every line spoken. Every character had a deep backstory and makes you feel for them. Ivanova and her hatred for Psi-Corp. Girabaldi and his alcoholism. Dr. Franklin’s addiction to stims. So on, and so forth.

Something about bad hair and awful decisions...

5) Awards

The show was nominated for eight Emmy Awards, and winning two, including Outstanding Cinematography, Makeup and Hairstyling for a series. It also won two Hugo Awards (basically the Emmys/Oscars of science fiction and fantasy); two Space Frontier Foundation Awards; an E Pluribus Unum Award presented by the American Cinema Association and a Saturn award for Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series. That’s a lot of ceremonies to attend.

So that’s my pitch. I have owned all 5 seasons of Babylon 5 on DVD for quite some time, but it’s always been a hassle to have to break out the Blu-Ray player, find the right HDMI input, etc., when you can just stream almost anything anywhere. So now that I have this option, I have been binging it, much to my delight. So much so that I have been missing out on current seasons of shows I’ve watched for years like House of Cards & Orange is the New Black, and also not even bothering to start shows like The Expanse or The OA.

There is so much to love with this series. There are even multiple movie spinoffs that, while not necessary to view when watching the show, just add even more depth and stories to the universe.

I can’t wait to finish this series for the umpteenth time so I can just start it over again.

—written by Tony Patryn | @patrynize on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook | www.patrynize.com

#babylon 5 #narn #minbari #centauri #vorlon #babylon5 #tv #scifi #sci-fi & fantasy #review #gifs #tv reviews #my good dear friend girabaldi

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ireview-icarly · 7 years ago

Text

iPilot

How adorable are these lil fuckers?

There’s your warning to know that even if I’m talking about a kids show, I will not have kids friendly language.

So this review is going to be a little different from the others. For one, it’s my first one. Unless I’m perfect, a word never used to describe anything I do, I’m probably gonna change things up a little bit as I go with this. So I’m saying I don’t expect my last review to be like this one. For another, before I get started on the actual review, I’m going to be explaining some things. So let’s get started on that, shall we?

First of all, I’m watching the episodes on my tv. Therefore, it isn’t often that I will be taking screenshots. That also means I will be using images from the wiki and whatever I find on google. I figure, since they’re put online without a warning or a watermark, they’re free to use. So probably all of the images (and gifs, as I’ll be using a lot of those) I use for these reviews aren’t mine. It also means the consistency of the screenshots and images will be a little different, but I’ll try to edit them if they need to be edited. For this one, I broke down and found the episode on some illegal streaming app on my laptop and took screenshots for the parts I couldn’t find them, but I’m going to be trying to avoid doing that in the future.

Second of all, shipping. I’ve seen the wars, I know how crazy it can get. I’m hoping, as the series has been over for quite a few years now, it will have calmed down enough that we can be civilized about this? I’m not going to get deep into this until the review for iDream of Dance, that specific episode for a reason.

Third of all, my rating. Now, my system is pretty easy. At the end of each review, I’m going to rate it by giving it however many stars out of ten I think it should have. It’s going to be on plot, humor, character, conflict, and my own personal overall enjoyment of the episode. My rating for most of those will be done objectively but the last category is simply opinion. I’ll break it down even clearer in the end.

Now let me warn you, I’m in an intensive Creative Writing program and before that English was my best subject in high school and middle school. What does this mean? It means I’m long winded and I over analyze the shit out of things. Just be prepared for that.

I think that’s everything! Bout time we get started, no?

So we open up the show, not with one of the main characters, but of a man in his office laughing at something funny. This man, as we all know, is Ted Franklin, the principal of this here institution. He’s played by Tim Russ and he’s awesome.

The gif button on tumblr is honestly great, I’m so glad for it. I just type in iPilot and boom, we have Principal Ted Franklin laughing.

I love Principal Franklin, he reminds me of my old principal. Mean spirited teachers with sticks up their asses do exist (in fact, we’re about to meet one in the iCarly universe!), but some teachers don’t get into the profession of teaching if they hate kids (though I will admit some do it just to have a job to pay them bills). This is the first meeting we get of our guy Ted here, and it lets us know right away chill and appreciates humor. But we’re not here for him.

No we’re not here for her either.

So this woman, who we know to be Ms. Briggs, though she hasn’t been introduced yet, is played my Mindy Sterling. Briggs is obviously upset about something, but we don’t know what yet. “She is right outside,” Briggs says, and then we meet our action girl.

This girl is named to be Carly, so if you’ve never heard of or seen the show (and you don’t know that this show was made for Miranda Cosgrove), you know right away that this is the main character. After all, it is iCarly right?

Okay, let’s get right into over analyzing the scene. That’s what you’re here for, right? Now I’m going to be watching the show in a few different ways. I’m going to be watching it now, in 2017, at 20 years old, with the knowledge of what happens in the show as well as how successful the show ended up being. I’m also going to be watching it as if it’s 2007 and I’m watching for the first time. (Can we talk about the fact that the show has now been on for over ten years? Insane, right?)

So now, let us go back to 2007 when this aired. For the past few years, we have seen this girl as Megan, Drake’s evil little sister that likes to torment him and they’re step brother, Josh. Going back to the mind of myself in 2007, when Miranda Cosgrove steps through that door, all I see is Megan.

Now, Meagan- I mean Carly has been sent to the principal’s office. So, since she’s been sent to the principal’s office, we get this sense that Carly’s a trouble maker, kind of like Meagan, right? I mean, look at this smirk?

We can now see that Principal Ted was laughing at a picture of Ms. Briggs’ head photo docked (photo shopped) onto a very large animal, which is debated between a rhinoceros and a hippopotamus. And really, it’s obviously a rhino, come on Principal Ted.

So yes, it seems that Carly is quite the troublemaker. Very similar to her twin, Meagan. Only... there’s something here we don’t know. In the beginning, Carly seemed hesitant to admit to doing this, and she’s fidgeting in her chair, and looking downright uncomfortable. If she was really a trouble maker, wouldn’t trips to the principal’s office be just a Tuesday for her?

Briggs brings up her father, and we find out through some dialogue exposition that her father is out of the picture, at least for now, because he is in the military and is stationed in Europe. She is being looked after by her older brother, Spencer. Who is an “artist”.

Interestingly we see here Carly loses her composure when Briggs mocks Spencer’s chosen profession. So we see that she is protective of her brother. And interesting difference between Carly and Meagan, who her brothers usually needed protection from.

Sigh. I like Carly but sometimes I miss Megan.

So Principal Franklin lets Briggs decide on Carly’s punishment, and she assigns Carly to tape the school auditions on Saturday. Carly, who has a Cuddlefish concert she was looking forward to attending, does not like this. As she basically pees herself running from the office after correcting Briggs on the animal she was turned into, we get the sense that maybe Carly isn’t like Megan.

The screen goes black and the theme song starts. Let’s talk about the theme song, as there won’t be many other times where we’ll do this. Dan Schnider, the creator of this show, also created All That, Kenan and Kel, The Amanda Show, Zoey 101, Drake and Josh, and more. All of those shows had great theme songs. Everyone knows the All That theme song, as well as the Drake and Josh one. iCarly continues this trend with Miranda Cosgrove singing Leave It All To Me with the help of her older tv brother, Drake Bell. You know it’s coming when you hear a character (that has not yet been introduced) say “In 5... 4... 3... 2...” and you can’t help but sing along.

As for the visuals, we see someone typing in the iCarly web address into a browser, and then... what’s this? Interestingly, for the first time, I notice that it doesn’t actually go to the iCarly website, but some sort of video player.

I mean, that’s just not iCarly.com.

But I did use the this picture as a reference when I was decorating my blog, tell me how you guys like it.

We see the player zoom to different videos, and little mouse clicks the Actor’s names up. It’s cute, it matches the show, I feel ten again.

I’ve only done one scene so far. It’s very possible I’ll be the only one to read this, but if not, tell me if you think I should shorten these reviews! I do think this one is going to be much longer than the others, as everything is introduced and I’m talking about things I won’t always be talking about (like the theme song, the settings, the transition from D&J and more). It’s my first review, so just tell me what you all think.

So the next scene is in a school hallway where we see a blonde girl pushing a boy up against some lockers.

She seems nice.

Apparently our boy in the yellow called who we know to be Sam aggressive, and she did not like that. How interesting, I always thought Sam prided herself on being aggressive. She wants to be called “Pretty” and “Sweet”, and while pretty is fine, sweet doesn’t seem to be the type of descriptor I would think she’d want. I’ll keep this in mind for later, though, as I could be wrong.

Sam IS aggressive, we see it for ourselves. She also seems to be pretty intimidating. So how funny is it that Carly can bring her down in no time by pulling her by her hair? Could anyone get away with this? We know, because we’re from the future, nobody else can do this. It’s a good way of setting up their relationship.

What we find out next is that Carly DIDN’T put the teacher’s head on a fat animal, it was her blonde friend. Carly took the blame for her because Sam might have gotten expelled. That’s a harsh punishment for a little prank, but perhaps she was on disciplinary probation. ...Do high schools have disciplinary probation? I only heard of that in college. I also only ever got detentions in high school and a warning at college, so I don’t know much about this trouble making life.

Anyway, I liked the way they introduced Carly. They did it in a way that made it seem like she was more like Meagan, and then you see that she’s actually the opposite. We already know within the first five minutes of the show that she’s a good kid, as she could take the fall for Sam’s prank and not get into too much trouble. And we can also see that she’s loyal from the way she sticks up for Spencer and takes the fall for Sam. She’s a little skittish and high strung, but from the first scene we know it’s not so much that she can’t have a laugh. Cool girl, that Carly Shay.

Sam hasn’t been introduced as Sam yet, but she’s played by Jennette McCurdy. We already know a lot about her from her first scene too. As I said before, she is aggressive and intimidating, but not to Carly. By her fashion, she’s a bit of a tom boy. She is the troublemaker, and when she’s not slamming nerds against lockers, she’s a pretty chill bean.

The Brunnette and Blonde duo where one’s more girly (usually the brunette) and one has qualities that are more typical for boy characters (usually the blonde) has been beat into the ground, I mean we even had Miley and Lilly at this point. It’s not like this is new and refreshing. It’s almost standard for a female lead children’s show. I don’t mind, it’s just something I can’t help but notice or point out.

Carly wonders why Sam is her best friend, my guess is it’s because Sam’s the yin to Carly’s yang. Sam says it’s because she’s a lovable person (as she pushes the kid again).

Alright dude, now you’re just being dramatic.

So now school’s over and Carly seems to live in an apartment building. As she’s getting out her keys (since when do the Shays lock their door?!) she drops her water bottle. Out comes a little blue blur to pick it up and we meet this guy.

This, is Freddie, Carly’s neighbor. This tiny lil muffin is played by Nathan Kress, and he grows up hot. Huh? What? Who said that? Anyway, he’s speaking very quickly so you wonder if he’s overzealous or if he just has to pee. Apparently Freddie likes to look out his peep hole and watch Carly go home. That is creepy and I know he grows out of it eventually. I’ll be glad when he does. I won’t be using this blog to talk about these sort of topics, but can we stop normalizing creepy stalker behavior for boys? That would be great, thanks.

Anyway, it’s lighthearted, it’s funny, well it’s supposed to be anyway, so whatever. Carly is quick to set him straight but he says a quote that I see every so often on this website with 100s of thousands of notes.

At least he’s not saying “You will love me Carly Shay! I won’t take no for an answer!” so I’m cool with that. Also the way Nathan delivers the line so casually causes me to giggle every time. He also offers his camera to be used for recording the auditions. Carly totally glosses over the fact that it’s weird that he knows this. I like Freddie. I like Freddie a lot. But I don’t like Freddie in this episode, at least not so far. Freddie having a crush on Carly is a very well known part of his character, but he’s not quite as obsessive in the series as a whole as he is in this episode. I don’t know how long this will last but it’s not quite as funny as the laugh track will suggest.

Speaking of, let’s talk about the fake audience. I don’t quite remember it being so obvious when I was young, but it is for me now. I just spent the past couple of weeks re watching another show I’m a fan of, Boy Meets World, and they also have fake laughter in the background. But even that isn’t quite so obvious. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but I wish it weren’t there in the first place. I know Zoey 101 didn’t use a laugh track, and D&J may not have either (but I’m not sure). I wish iCarly didn’t use one as well.

iCarly is very good at introducing characters. The first time we meet Spencer, he’s hanging from the ceiling taking a picture of a robot made of empty soda and water bottles. It’s a pretty cool robot, and it’s iconic as it’s in, I believe, every episode of iCarly ever. This is the only time I can think of where it’s not in it’s usual spot.

I want the story of the Shay family. I don’t think we ever know what happens to the mother. Carly says she’s in eighth grade and Spencer is 26. This means Carly is probably around 13 or 14 years old, which means there is at least a 12 year gap between them. That’s a pretty big gap! Who was a surprise? Were both of them a surprise? We’ll never know for sure...

I’m pretty sure Spencer’s character is consistent throughout the show, which is cool. And he and Carly seem to have a pretty good relationship, which is even cooler. Carly can’t use Spencer’s camera because he turned it into a squirrel. Spencer is played by Jerry Trainer, who at this point we knew as Crazy Steve. We hear it in his yelps of pain. I’m so glad we got more of Jerry Trainer because he’s such a good comedic actor. The way he laughs before showing the squirrel makes me laugh every time.

So Carly shows up on Saturday for the talent show and is surprised to see Freddie there with way more technical equipment then strictly necessary for a school talent show audition.

What an adorable little peanut. He’s so small. So now we know Freddie is a bit of a tech nerd, and I mean that in the nicest way. We also get the first glimpse of a pear laptop, which I always found amusing. He’s still hyperactive in this way that makes it seem like he has to pee, and it’s cute, it’s just not funny (to me).

That being said, when Sam walks in, his whole persona changes. Before he reminded me of Colin Creevy from Harry Potter. Colin was cool, but he wasn’t a main character in any part of the books so we didn’t get so much of him that he became annoying (to us). Freddie is a main character, he has to have more to his personality then “overzealous kid with a crush on Carly” and in this scene we get to see more of it. He’s into technology so he’s probably smart, and the excited little kid seems to be who he is when he’s alone Carly but not all the time. Cool, I can deal with that, considering from here on out they’re not alone that often. And like I said, he grows out of this eventually.

He does scream a lot though.

This scene, however, sets up the next seasons of iCarly. Freddie is techy, Sam is mean, they bicker, Carly watches. I wonder why Carly doesn’t say anything to make it stop. She does look annoyed. By their interaction, we know Sam and Freddie know each other. Maybe at this point Carly knows it’s inevitable and just waits for it to die down.

Sam crosses a line and Freddie’s ready to pack up and go, but all Carly has to do is smile and bat her eyelashes and say “Please Stay,” and he does. It’s deliberate, you can see she’s putting on a face and voice and knows it will work. Not my favorite thing about Carly, it’s sort of manipulative. But I like that our girl isn’t perfect.

So some guy named Jeb who is like a cross between Sinjin and Robbie, both from Victorious, does a one man skit. It’s weird, there’s no context, it’s like 5 seconds long. Sam and Carly make fun of it, it’s pretty funny stuff.

The bad auditions continue until a girl starts to play the trumpet while hopping on a Pogo stick. Which is actually pretty cool, cause I can’t stay on a Pogo stick for longer than two seconds. The next kid tells a joke that is apparently not that funny, he looks a little bit like Miss Briggs so now it’s open season on the lady. They focus on her crazy pointy boobs, and I remembered that before so I was looking to see how crazy pointy her boobs were in her first scene. They don’t seem that bad to me. When I hear crazy pointy boobs I think of Madonna’s famous bra... or Kim Possible.

Freddie thinks they’re funny, he records them, but they stop pretty quickly to get to business and keep watching the auditions. One of them is the beat box kid. Beat boxing is actually really cool, unfortunately this guy sucks. Still made me laugh though.

Sam and Carly are at her house and Carly puts her foot on Same’s face to wake her up. They must be REALLY close because, personally, I wouldn’t let anyone put their foot on my face. I think I read somewhere that Dan Schneider has a foot fetish... feet do make a lot of appearances in this and Victorious...

Carly checks to see if Freddie put the audition videos up on... Splashface. Splashface sounds like it would be a knock off Myspace, which might have still been a thing when this came out, or Facebook, but the way it’s set up is like YouTube. So most likely it’s a combination of everything.

The casual way Sam says she hates Ms. Briggs, I love. It’s so real to me, just the way I would start a conversation about hating someone. Carly discovers Freddie did not put the audition videos up, but instead put up the video of Carly and Sam making fun of Ms. Briggs’ ta tas.

Carly is freaking out while Sam keeps a cool head and points out only 27 people have watched. Apparently Sam doesn’t know that 27k actually means 27 THOUSAND as Carly informs her in the loudest way possible. I always love when Carly screams so loud that Sam falls out of her chair, it’s hilarious.

How did it get so many views? 27,000 is a lot for a short little video of the girls making fun of a teacher. My theory? It was known that the auditions would be up that night so the participants went online to see their auditions and found Carly and Sam being funny instead. Ms. Briggs is probably a teacher that most students dislike, so it wouldn’t be surprising if some friends started to send the video to their friends like “Hey this is so true!”. Alums would see it too so getting a couple thousand isn’t that surprising. From there I guess it takes off. It probably helps that the picture is so clear, with Freddie’s HD camera, and the girls are pretty.

So now Sam’s freaking out along with Carly who says she can’t remove it without Freddie’s password. Sam learns Freddie lives across the hall, which is interesting so I have to analyze it for a second. Sam and Carly are best friends, Freddie and Carly are neighbors, Sam and Freddie know and don’t like each other. That’s the extent of the relationships within this trio right now. I have no idea when Freddie came into the picture but it would have to have been sort of recently, right? Unless Carly and Spencer just moved into the apartment, wouldn’t Sam be over enough to know that Freddie lives across the hall? Maybe Freddie was new to town and that’s why Sam didn’t know? I’m just figuring out the origin story here.

Wait, before we move on, Carly is doing a lot of typing on that computer. What on God’s green earth could she be typing? Someone tell me.

Anyway, Sam runs across the hall even though Freddie would be asleep because, according to Carly, it’s after midnight. Sam breaks in anyway and pulls Freddie by his feet while he’s screaming. Where? Is? His? Mom? We know she wouldn’t just sleep through Freddie screaming like that, maybe she’s working late? Anyway, this is, to me, the funniest part of the episode. TOO MUCH FRICTIONNN!

And then,

WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU??

I can’t breathe, and ten year old me is rolling! I’ve seen the pilot a lot, probably more than any other episode they have. I’ve been mouthing some of their lines with them, but this is one I have to say with him every time. I love that line, it’s never not funny.

Also he is adorable, so small with his matching pajamas and everything, I love it. A little cabbage patch kid. (How many different things can I call Freddie before he grows and his voice gets deep in season 2 hmm?)

Freddie swears he edited them out before he uploaded and goes to the computer to check (doing a lot of typing and I don’t understand what he could be typing because isn’t it already up) and discovers his mistake. It’s a plausible mistake. I do a little video editing and he likely made two files with very similar names and put the wrong thing up.

Freddie works to get it removed, which it will be, tomorrow morning. Why... does it have to wait until morning? And does it mean it will be removed later on that same day, as it’s technically morning if it’s past midnight, or the next day?

Freddie reads them the nice comments people left on the video. I wonder what the mean ones say... ‘cause we all know there are mean ones. Appealing to the girls’ egos certainly helps them calm down. It makes sense as the girls are attention seekers. I don’t mean that to be a bad thing, but you have to like attention to upload yourself online every week for views, so it fits with what we know of their characters as long time viewers of iCarly, and it introduces an important aspect of their characters for first time viewers.

At school on, I’m guessing, Monday, the girls give Ms. Briggs the auditions on a DVD. Remember when those were a thing? Anyway, she hints that she saw the video but not much more comes of that. When they tell her about the interesting performances, she shuts them down without a moments hesitation.

(Also Beat Box Boy comes back, and he still had a microphone! Why? I have no idea.)

Carly and Sam get back to Carly’s apartment and Carly is ranting about Ms. Briggs not giving some talents a chance. So we learn that something that really gets to Carly is how controlling adults can be. Interesting aspect of her character that I’m sure is going to play a big part in the show. Look at who she has as a guardian? Spencer is pretty chill and probably lets her do a lot of things she wants to do.

We also introduce Sam’s love for food and ham that stays with us until the end. Freddie comes over too, and it’s a more casual hang out. No one addresses this but I have to because is this something Freddie would have done a week ago? Are they already starting to be closer? I can see the forming of the trio already.

Carly then gets the idea to put on a show for themselves, which is awesome. I love that Ms. Briggs says no so Carly gives people another opportunity to express themselves and they can still show it to their friends and family. It goes in line with what we just learned about Carly, she likes for her and others around her to have the freedom to express themselves. Sam’s down, so long as she doesn’t have to do much work which conveniently puts Carly as the lead (but in the actual webshow Carly and Sam pretty much share the lead).

Freddie wants to have a part as the technical producer, and, in my opinion, Freddie plays a HUGE role in why their web show becomes as successful as it does. Some advice to up and coming Youtubers? Editing has a large part in your success. If it was just Carly and Sam standing in front of a camera with no editing or effects or camera work, iCarly wouldn’t be as big as it gets in this universe, I promise you. Freddie’s importance gets brought up later on in the show, and I’m glad. In this scene it sounds like they’re doing Freddie a favor, when they should feel lucky Freddie wants to have a part. I also think it’s says something that he’s the one that names iCarly.

So I’m watching both the extended version and the cut version, and for the most part the shorter one is usually a couple of lines cut from a scene. This one, however, is different. In the shorter one, when Sam insults him, Freddie flips his shit and starts screaming again, but it’s funny because he calls Sam “Lady”. I’m amused (I’m easily amused). In the long one he says the same line, “You got a big mouth, lady!” but he doesn’t yell it, and Sam and Freddie continue to bicker until they start just making nonsense sounds at each other. Carly soon joins in. This is the first time I like the shorter one better. The long one is weird, the way the trio make weird sounds isn’t that funny, and I like Freddie’s delivery of his line in the short one better.

Spencer runs in with a weird mannequin thing and Carly asks if she can use the third floor as a studio, which he... sorta agrees to. He looks like he’s struggling with the “Parent” part of all this, which makes sense because he’s not a parent. He’s her brother.

So, let’s talk about the Shay apartment.

This is another iconic part of the iCarly universe (and just so you all know, when I say iconic, I mean iconic for those who watched iCarly). If you see this set, you know it’s iCarly! It’s so cool and fun and energetic and colorful, and there are dozens of little knickknacks, it was probably really fun to decorate!

It’s also big as hell. I’ve seen some big apartments, I’ve LIVED in some big apartments, but none of my apartments had THREE floors and an elevator! Well okay, one of the apartments I lived in had two floors, but there were only two rooms on the second floor. And we didn’t have an elevator!

It makes me wonder about the layout of this building. Are all of the apartments like that or certain ones? If her apartment is on the fourth floor but she has three floors, could she also get in on the fifth and sixth floor? Or did the Shays maybe get a deal where they could use the apartments above them on the fifth and sixth floor for more space? (That’s what my mom and I did, although, as I said, it was only two rooms). More questions I’ll never have an answer to.

It’s the night of the first show now and a lot of time has passed. We’re missing a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. Because, let’s see. They had to make the website, which was mostly Freddie but i’m sure Carly and Sam were there to put in their ideas of what they wanted it to look like. Not to mention, when did they decide to make it its own website in the first place instead of just uploading videos on Splashface? They had to confirm the date with all of the talents and they had to put together, if not a script, then a basic outline of how the show will go. Plus, they had to do promoting online, in their school, on the street, and in more areas to let people know they were doing this so there were probably flyers and such. They also had to set up the third floor and decorate it to how they wanted it to be. This is probably weeks, maybe months later and we missed all of that set up. I’m not really complaining, that would be hard to fit in, I’m just observing.

Carly and Sam talk over each other while explaining the plan, it’s cute, I remember thinking it was impressive on my first watch. When Carly and Sam run out of the elevator, Carly throws Freddie a bottle of juice. It’s a small thing and it’s easy to miss but I like that it was added in. It was smooth and it shows that they’ve all hung around each other long enough to be able to pull things like that off.

So the first webcast starts and it’s clear they have at least a little bit of a script going. I think it’s impressive that there’s a clear difference between when Miranda and Jennette are acting as Carly and Sam, and when they’re acting as Carly and Sam doing the webshow. Carly and Sam are still themselves, it’s just different enough that you can see when they’re putting on for the camera.

We also get our first glimpse of the website.

Freddie must be a prodigy because I couldn’t set up something half as cool now, let alone at thirteen. I’m no tech wiz, but I’m not too bad with technology. Either way, the website looks great. It’s bright and fun and energetic, which is good as it goes with the theme of their webcast. Spencer’s picture is up there with them, which is cool but surprising as he never really plays that big a role in the webshow and likely had no plans to join it as this was being set up. As Freddie is just the camera guy, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just Carly and Sam up there. It’s cute that they’re included, though, considering Spencer was probably the funds behind everything.

We can also see the little “LIVE” at the top of the screen, and their watermark at the bottom. You can see a little notice where people can send in their videos, so they opened it up to more than just the students at their school. It’s clear a lot of work went into this.

They did the random dancing button without the random dancing voice. My eye is twitching, this is blasphemy.

There’s a small interaction where Sam goes off script and Carly tells her to stop it and it’s, again, very real and like I said before, I appreciate that you can see the difference in when they’re putting on for the camera and when they’re not.

I’m not going to go into the details about the talents, they’re all cool and abnormal. Like the Figure It Out talents when that was on. It seems like a fun show, I think I would like it if it were real and I was younger. Because we can’t just look at the show, we have to look at the show inside of the show. Carly and Sam’s reactions are part of what makes the show (inside the show) fun and entertaining, so I can see how people would want to see more of them after the first episode.

Their sign off is a little long but I had a small smile on my face the whole time, I like it better than most of the ones I see on Youtube. Carly and Sam are cute and fun to watch. I can see why their show takes off. When the first episode ends, they’re all rightfully excited when the show ends and they jubilantly talk about how much fun they had (and pogo girl is included how cute).

The next scene has them look at the view count, which has 10k more than it did before. It’s a cute scene, we see the parallels between their reactions to having a lot of views the first time and their reactions to having a lot of views this time. Spencer just sort of watches as they jump around and scream.

But he joins in eventually, which I think is pretty much what his role in the webshow is as well.

I take back my earlier comment. the funniest moment in the show is when Sam suggests they have a party and the other two are all “Yeah that’s such a great idea! That would be so cool!” and Spencer’s just “Yes. Yes we should.” It’s the delivery. Watch the episode lol.

So they have a “Crazy Hat Party” which is cute (ten guesses what my favorite word is), we keep skipping time and I want to know how these things come about. I know it would be too hard but I’m still interested in knowing. That’s my own problem, not the show’s.

Sam has the best hat, she really took the theme seriously.

Sam and Carly are approached by two girls at their party who ask for their autographs, it’s the weirdest part of the episode to me. I’m not going to say it’s impossible that they get popular enough with one webshow to already be signing autographs, even if I think it’s a little weird. But don’t these girls know Sam and Carly? They were invited to their Crazy Hat party at least. It’s not like they’re random girls off the street. I don’t know, it’s weird. I get what they’re trying to do but... meh.

Carly and Sam are a little thrown by this too, but sign it anyway and talk about the possibility of becoming famous from this. Two boys approach them and they’re all giggly. The boys call their webshow “hot” and it’s weird again. What was hot about it, exactly? Was it the boy squirting milk out of his eye? It was the boy squirting milk out of his eye, wasn’t it? Also they’re wearing normal hats. It’s not a normal hat party, it’s a crazy hat party. Geez.

Spencer chases a kid around the apartment, it looks like it might be the Ms. Briggs looking kid. Carly’s dancing and tosses her hat, it’s a well known little clip.

So what are my overall thoughts on it?

I’m going to breakdown the way I rate the episodes even more now, I hope it makes sense. So I’m going to score the episode in different categories on a scale of one to ten. For each category if I rate it a 4/10 or higher it gets at least one star. If I rate it an 9/10 or 10/10 it gets two stars. Not overly complicated right? Who knows, I might change that.

Plot: solid. Sam does something bad that gets Carly and Sam spending their afternoon recording the school talent show auditions. One thing leads to another which leads to Carly and Sam, unimpressed with their teacher’s dismissal of other students’ talents, decide to make their own web show. I think it’s plausible, I’m going to score it a 10/10. I’m not going to always be so nice, but there’s really nothing wrong with the plot. ★ ★

Humor: WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU really does get me every time and Jerry Trainer is great. There were other moments in the show that made me laugh, but I couldn’t help noticing there was a lot of scream based humor. There’s nothing wrong with it, when done right I love it. (See the quote above and anything Spencer says in the future). But sometimes it was funny and sometimes it wasn’t. And Freddie’s crush still does nothing to my funny bone. I’m going to give it at 7/10. ★☆

Character: All of the main characters were great. They were well rounded, we didn’t get the sense that they were suddenly created, but more like they had lives before this episode. Aspects about their characters were introduced that stay true throughout the run of the show. I don’t mean to harp on the subject, but I can’t give it a perfect rating because of Freddie. 9/10. ★ ★

Conflict: It seems like in the middle of the episode the main conflict is going to be taking the video off the web, and what comes of Miss Briggs finding out about it. However, nothing really comes of that. I would say a conflict present in this episode is trying to find a place for the characters to express themselves. Still, everything was pretty much smooth sailing for the crew. They didn’t have to find the equipment, Freddie already had it. They didn’t have to find a studio thanks to the convenient third floor. They didn’t even have to think of a name or who would be the main girl. With all this in mind, I’m gonna give it a 3/10. ☆ ☆

Finally, Overall Enjoyment: I have watched the pilot episode more than any other episode of the show. I think I can safely say I enjoy it. It’s a favorite of mine, so I’m giving it a 10/10! ★ ★

So the overall rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ 7/10.

This may seem like a little bit of a complicated rating, but I’m doing it this way because I feel like if I only did five stars all of the ratings would be 3/5 or 4/5. For example, this episode would be a 4/5. This shows my opinion a little bit more. I’m still deciding on things so this rating system may change.

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