#i have beef with how good the episode is because it’s also really really bad. in a terrible way

[dandelionjack]

the girl in the fireplace is a visually beautiful episode and emotionally impactful and a well written romantic tragedy and scifi mystery. it is also entirely ooc for ten based on how he treats rose throughout and i wish it had never been created and i despise it so much and want to watch it burn. hope that helps

[whateverisbeautiful]

♥️Reveling in Richonne - TOWL

#44: The Family Gifts (1.05)

I love that they have this scene take place in a souvenir shop. 😊 Rick already turns the whole world into a gift shop when it comes to finding things to gift to Michonne so it’s only fitting that he’d find the perfect thing to get her in this place.

But what's extra special is now Rick's history of getting Michonne gifts has expanded to thinking about gifts for the son she gave him too - with RJ being the ultimate gift for them both. And seeing these two converse as parents in this scene was super heartwarming 🥰...

The scene starts with Rick knocking on the shop's door and then they open it and have the cutest little look exchange before entering the shop. It’s so subtle but I love it. 😊 They’re in such a good, peaceful, lighthearted mood and I always love those moments where it’s so clear that on top of being husband and wife, Rick and Michonne really are best friends. And yes I got all that just from a quick playful look. 😋

They enter and when Michonne walks pass those touristy license plates she taps them with her stick and keeps walking. I love that when she hits the rack Rick immediately looks over at her wondering what that’s about. He looks like if the license plates did something to her then he's gonna have beef with them too lol.

gif cred: @nat111love

Michonne says, “Never did like those” and I love that Rick immediately knows why as he says, “No 'Michonnes,' huh?” Michonne says, “Not even once” and I like that in TOWL we’re even just getting these tiny insights into the characters from the world before.

I know so many with unique names could relate to this license plate moment. And 'Michonne' really is such a unique and pretty name and uncommon as Okafor noted. 'Michonne' is also Rick’s favorite word. I’m convinced. 😌 And ever since this scene, my headcanon is that Rick, RJ, and Judith definitely work together to create some type of 'Michonne' license plate and gift it to her. 

gif cred: @nerd4music

As Rick continues to look at the license plates he stops and sees one that says 'Junior.' And y’all, the second I saw the junior license plate my heart was already bursting knowing exactly where this was going.

I love that they make it a point to show that there are Rick and even Richard license plates available too but the one that catches his eye is 'Junior.' It just shows how Rick is already so proud that his son is his Junior. 🥲

And then my heart just does flips and leaps hearing Rick say RJ’s name for the first time as he so sweetly asks Michonne, “Is this a terrible gift to bring to RJ?” Y'all, I'm smiling and crying at the same time. 🫠 Like how precious is this. 😭

You just know on this road trip home Rick and Michonne have been talking a lot about their kids and I love that Rick is thinking about his son and wants to bring him a gift. Especially because, as I mentioned in an episode 4 breakdown, they have a book they're bringing to Judith so I'm sure Rick wants to make sure they have a gift for RJ too.

I knew after episode 4 we were going to be seeing Healthy & Alive Rick all through episode 5 and that was so clear in this scene. Cuz this is the real Rick right here. Being a whole father. Being his affectionate gift-giving self. I love to see it. 😌

gif cred: @kris-lulu

There’s also something so sweet about him wondering if it would be a 'bad' gift. It’s bittersweet because it’s a reminder that Rick hasn’t had a chance to know his son or what he'd like but it’s great knowing he soon will have the chance to learn it all. 

Michonne smiles and then informs Rick that “No one has ever once called him Junior.” I love that when so many of us heard that we immediately decided that this means Rick will be the only one to call RJ 'Junior' and it’ll be their father/son thing. 👌🏽

gif cred: @krislulu

Rick says, “Ah okay” and puts the license plate back, and then Michonne smiles at him clearly finding him so cute in this moment and knowing the father of her child is the best man on earth.

And then she has the warmest kindest tone as she tells Rick, “You’re bringing yourself back. That’s more than enough.” I love this so much. 😭

gif cred: @kris-lulu

It's so touching that Michonne wants Rick to know he’s the gift. The gift that’s more than enough too. 🥹 Like truly their family is going to be so much more whole with his return.

The wording of 'bringing yourself back' also always makes me think of how he’s literally coming back but also he’s been acting like himself again, so it’s like Rick is bringing his true self back rather than burying it. And that’s also more than enough.

I love that Michonne is always reminding Rick of how cherished he is. And it’s also this reminder that him being with them is the best thing he can do. Just like when she said I only feel safe with you, Rick is again getting this confirmation that his presence is as needed and valued as his protection. 👌🏽

Rick says, “The Brave Man, huh?” and I like how this shows that Rick has been thinking a lot about who he is to his kids.

This got me thinking about how when Rick decided to die he had to surrender the idea of ever seeing his wife and daughter again. He accepted that all he’d ever have is the fading memories and just the honor of having got to love and protect them at all, even if for far briefer a time than he’d hoped. So now, it has to be pretty surreal for him to know he really will be back with them and with the son he wanted but didn't know he had.

gif cred: @nat111love

And if he’s at all worried if he’ll live up to his kids' expectations of him being The Brave Man, Michonne so wonderfully quells those doubts when she again so sweetly and sincerely says, “You are. More than ever.” 🥹🥹🥹

I know I’ve said it 1000 times but I adore the way Michonne believes in and uplifts Rick and this line right here might be my favorite example of that.

gif cred: @nat111love

I love how Michonne can always sense Rick's subtext and underlying feelings and then address them in the perfect way. Because she can sense that Rick is nervous about meeting his son for the first time and maybe worried about how it’ll go just showing up in his life after all these years. But Michonne saying this is reminding Rick that by choosing to come home, especially when he had been so convinced prior that he couldn’t and shouldn’t, is a brave thing and very commendable and he really is the great man his kids think he is.

It’s so precious too that Rick gets to see that it’s not just his kids but his wife who truly views him as The Brave Man. Like even tho Rick said last ep that he’s not the brave man, Michonne wants him to know their babies got it right with that title. 💯

And by pushing through all the fear that was keeping him chained to the CRM, Michonne thinks he’s the bravest he’s ever been for doing that. 🥹 I appreciate how Michonne and Rick find so many ways to say 'I love you' even without saying the three words directly. And this was 100% that. They really breathe life into each other with every encouraging word and gesture.

gif cred: @nat111love

As Michonne turns around we get even more adorableness as Rick spots a name bracelet and thinks what he thinks when he sees most any item, “this could be turned into a gift for Michonne.”

gif cred: @coolpartytimefan

So being cute and sneaky trying to not get caught with the jewelry since he wants to surprise her with it later, he grabs the 'Michelle' bracelet and breaks it so that it becomes an M bracelet.

gif cred: @nat111love

Can my extra self break down all the reasons I adore this real quick? 😋

One; I absolutely love that because Rick notes every detail of Michonne he knows she’s missing her signature M necklace and so, as he’s always been so good at doing, he finds a way to essentially replace the one she lost.

Two; I love that Rick said if this place doesn’t have ‘michonne’ gifts he’ll find a way to make one.

Three; Something about him making the M bracelet on his prosthetic felt symbolic to me. He literally lost that hand because he’d choose being with Michonne over his own limbs. And now after doing everything he could to be with her, he has her and is still finding ways to give her every good thing he can.

Four; if I'm not mistaken, I believe it was said by Danai that the initial M necklace was from Michonne's mom and so I love that Michonne’s two M pieces of jewelry came from two of the people that love her most. 🥲

Five; After all those years of Michonne wearing that wedding ring with her necklace, I love that her husband is now with her and getting her new jewelry…and he’ll also be giving her some even more meaningful jewelry by the end of the ep. Amen. 😏

Six; It’s just so romantic and thoughtful. It’s so Rick to do this. And I love all these heartfelt gestures that add to Richonne’s epic love story. 

gif cred: @coolpartytimefan

Rick pockets the bracelet, waiting for the right moment to gift his wife. Michonne then says, “He might be ready for this” as Rick turns around and sees Michonne holding a hatchet, similar to one of Rick's signature weapons in TWD. I adore that she saw that weapon and was like this would be a good fitting gift for Rick’s mini-me. 😋

And then something I always appreciate so much is hearing Rick ask, “Is that who he is?” I think it’s so sweet and such a sign of what a good dad Rick is. Of course, he’d be flattered if his son followed in his footsteps but the question shows that he also wants to know who RJ is regardless of him. You just know he’s prepared to love RJ whether he’s like him or not and I just love that he wants to know all about what RJ is like. 

And then it’s great that Michonne gets to tell him just how much she meant it when she said their kids are some Richonne kids when she says, “Judith has a sword. They’re us.” Hearing her say their kids are her and Rick never fails to elate me. 🥰 It’s such a true statement.

I love imagining that now that they’ve reunited Rick has got to see firsthand that Judith doesn’t only have a sword, she’s a whole pro with the sword just like her mom. 😌

I love how proud Michonne is of her kids. She raised them to be survivors while still giving them a childhood. And seeing Rick and Michonne talk as RJ and Judith’s parents in this scene was everything. The best mom and dad. 💛

But they’re also the best husband and wife and I love how that got to take center stage in TOWL.

So after this lovely parents moment, Rick is back to reminding us why he’s Husband of the Year ever year when he spots the absolute perfect minty fresh gift to give his wife.

And y’all, I gotta do a part two because this next part has Rick saying one of my favorite things of all time and it needs its own post. 😇

But as for this moment, Rick and Michonne are such a gift to each other. And their kids are such a gift to them. And this scene is such a gift to me. 🥰 And honey, because we’re spoiled rotten with this miniseries, this gift of a scene just keeps on giving with what comes next. 👌🏽😌

[superstarz9]

So y’all fw some MORE Mr. Puzzles headcanons?

Cause I got some :]

Even though he streams his content, Mr. Puzzles hates streaming over normal television and believes it ruins the momentum. The only thing he appreciates about streaming is the lack of ads. No matter how bad the ratings are, Puzzlevision is an ad-free service!

To add, product placement is a no-go. Any products he might advertise on a show are all Puzzlevision branded, not that he’d advertise much. He’s a smart business man, which I’ll go in-depth with another time.

He’s all about authenticity with his actors an really hates big-time celebrities. Celebrities are snobbish and aren’t easy for Puzzles to handle. He also doesn’t want people to engage with his shows solely because of famous names. The day he hires a celebrity is the day he becomes a sellout, and the idea of selling out terrifies him.

Mr. Puzzles does an extensive background check of every single cast member he recruits. Not just because he’s trying to find the perfect actors, but because he’s trying to find people that wont be missed if they mysteriously disappear for long periods of time. After a cast’s likability begin to dwindle, Puzzles brings them back as if nothing happened. Previous cast members won’t remember their time at Puzzlevision and have a hazy memory for a bit before they adjust to normal. If they watch a show that they’ve been in, they’re so disconnected from the show that they won’t recognize themselves. However, Puzzles is careful to avoid reruns after switching casts.

He absolutely hates reality tv for multiple reasons. It’s the farthest thing from reality, everything is so fake, and the writing is HORRIBLE! If the audience demands it, he’ll make a reality tv show, but it would be one of the few things he wouldn’t mind not hitting 5 stars. The less creative impact he has on the show, the less he cares for it.

He prefers live-action over animation, but highly respects animated shows.

He likes movies but heavily prefers tv since television has always been frowned upon within Hollywood and the entertainment industry (It’s actually interesting to know the beef between movie studios and tv, I recommend checking it out. To put in into perspective, picture the Disney theatre movies vs the straight to video movies: there’s a huge difference and it’s somewhat obvious of the cash-grab tv movies/shows are. The purpose of tv has always been a quick cash grab, actually. Kinda like the first content farm, to an extent). Puzzles wants to prove that television is a respectable media outlet and shouldn’t be frowned upon within the industry.

He is familiar with almost any televised language. The only major issue is that, yes, he needs subtitles to completely understand. However, he can hold a relatively decent conversation in most languages, he’d just need a few refreshers.

Already talked about it last post but he likes to cook and really enjoys cooking/baking shows. Y’know that thing where you’re good at one but not as good at the other cause they’re so different (you cook to your liking vs following a strict recipe for the best dessert outcome)? I feel like Puzzles would be perfect at baking alone but any baking show he does goes to absolute shit. However, he’s not as great at cooking alone (since he can’t taste) but it much better with a sous-chef guiding him.

This was someone else’s hc (I don’t remember who’s, I’m srry), but they brought up that the order of shows Mr. Puzzles makes with the SMG4 crew reflect the shows he watched growing up (the kids-y shows, family disney-type movies, teen stuff like Scooby-doo, and gameshows). I’d like to add that he enjoys making gameshows the most because he can be the main character in every episode, and everyone’s reactions are the most genuine. The only thing I can see Puzzles not liking is the lack of creativity (similar to reality tv). However, it would be pretty fitting for a production company called Puzzlevision to make game shows.

This one’s gonna be a little bit more depressing. No matter how hard he tries or how good he thinks his writing is, Mr. Puzzles cannot write anything original. It’s the curse of seeing every piece of televised media to ever be produced. He tries his best to be original but as the puzzlevision arc continues, he gradually stops trying to be original, which is what ultimately causes him to lose. While Puzzles keeps trying to copy other successful media and failing, it’s the originality the SMG4 crew produce that gets them to 5 stars (and extremely quickly, too). Puzzles fails to realize that the shows he loves and tries to replicate were original, too, and that’s what got them to succeed in the first place. I feel like this success from SMG4’s originality is what sparked Mr. Puzzles’ envy in the first place.

To add to this, Puzzles has been canonically spying and interfering with the SMG4 crew for a while (selling them the showgrounds, the cursed keyboard in the ITS GOTTA BE PERFECT arc, the Western Spaghetti arc), and is almost a direct parallel to SMG4. They both was to succeed and produce original content, striving for perfection. The only major difference is that Mr. Puzzles has been alone for the majority of his life whereas SMG4 has his crew. Despite this, however, SMG4 still snaps and isolates himself similarly to how Puzzles takes complete creative control.

Not having a proper friend/support group is also what causes Puzzles to fail, isolating himself from the rest of the world. Even though we don’t see much of the studio, it’s still pretty run down and barren, implying that Puzzles doesn’t spend much time there, if at all. Puzzles spends most of his time in the shows, directing/acting/ect, and avoiding the real world where he doesn’t have control. When he’s in the real world and bored, he dissociates a lot, planning out his next big projects.

To add, he’s not a big fan of modern technology as a whole, and sticks to older tech (like the older computer model in the teaser between the scooby episode and the gameshow episode and his head being an older computer). Same goes for the studio. I can totally see him walking into the decrepit building with the real estate agent being like “this building hasn’t seen the light of day since 200 b.c,” and Mr. Puzzles ecstatically goes “I’ll TAKE IT!” He’d also do his own renovations and film it for an abandoned house-flipping series, scrapping it later because he sucks at renovating.

He can’t take constructive criticism if his life depended on it. He tries, but all he thinks is “well these people just don’t understand TRUE art in this world!”

He can play shows/movies in the back of his mind whenever, and often does if he’s not on set. Y’know that reddit/tumblr post about the kid who memorized Shrek so much that he could just watch it from memory and his dad would catch him at the 37:14 mark and be like “stop watching shrek and go to bed,”? Yeah, Puzzles is like that. Only difference is that he can’t pause it, only tune it out.

He’ll watch them, but found-family sit-coms depress him. Shows like Friends, It’s Always Sunny in Philly, etc remind him of what his life could’ve been if he could’ve made friends properly.

To add to this, y’know how he projects himself in his shows? What if he did that with shows like Friends, where he’s a part of the cast and laughing along. He’d do it in his sleep and not even realize it’s a dream until the episode ends and he wakes up alone. :,]

On a lighter note, older tvs release a light frequency that gets louder the older it gets. Mr. Puzzles probably hums a frequency without realizing it that people can only hear if they’re close and he isn’t babbling away. Older tvs also kinds adjust(?) where they slightly creek a lil. Mr. Puzzles probably does, to, and it’s the equivalent of him cracking his neck.

He’s also more prone to shock people slightly, depending on how manic he is. If he rubs his gloves together he’s practically a battery.

He has a daily care routine that involves him carefully wiping his screen with windex.

These ones are more show/content based. If these continue to do well I’ll post some more general and maybe relationship hcs :]. If you guys have any suggestions/questions/critiques please let me know!

[blade-liger-4ever]

Why I'm not big into TFP Arcee

Now don't get me wrong, TFP Arcee is the only version of the character I'll ever give almost 100% respect. However, I'm really tired of all the gushing and praise she gets, and that's not counting how much I ended up hating her in S2. Now, admittedly, most of my beef with her is in her treatment of Smokescreen, but in light of @chaoticcreatorgardendean's points about her characterization in S1, I'll lightly tackle her problems there.

No worries, this - shouldn't, I hope - be as bad as my dressing down of Jack.

So, when Arcee is introduced, we're told in pretty rapid fashion that she's 1 an aft-kicker in her own right, 2 has a traumatic backstory that left her with a procupine-like exterior to everyone, and 3 that she's very much not all that caring. Yes, I clearly recall her protective streak with Jack; however, that came after she ditched housesitting duty in favor of blowing off steam on patrol. Right here, we see a couple of vices to Arcee's character: she's arrogant in how her skills are used (further emphasized with her arguing against being Jack's guardian), and that she is irresponsible. Face it, she knows better than anyone in the audience that Bulkhead's got a spine made out of chocolate when it comes to kids or pressure of any kind that's not from a Decepticon. To leave him in charge with Miko, the single most strong-willed being in this continuity after Optimus and Megatron, is so reckless and immature that it borders on stupidity. No, she didn't realize that Miko would join the battlefield, but it's pretty dang clear that Miko is a force of nature unto herself. Butter spines + Bombs of willpower = the Butter spines losing. That's just a fact, and it tells us that Arcee, while pretty and bad-butt, has many flaws.

Then comes her saga of arcs with Jack. Not only is she shown to be immature and hypocritical when the race episode comes up, but she also chafes/bites back at authority, even from Optimus. Don't forget, anytime Airachnid or Starscream/revenge was on the table, she flew off the handle and went straight for the kill, practically giving the finger to Optimus numerous times while doing so. Heck, I don't think Optimus even grounded her at base for her insubordination, and while that's kinda respectable insofar as Optimus not being harsh to his pseudo family, it's a tactical risk when letting Arcee's wrath and hatred go unchecked or even unpunished. No joke, Arcee continually almost got herself and others killed when she was greedy for revenge or offended by a bratty kid; the fact that she's not really punished (I'm not counting the race episode because she still disobeyed orders to make Jack look good for the stupid chick) at all is a writing and military failure on everyone involved. Letting her get away with this and not learning from her mistakes, when even Miko (who was also filled to the brim with rage and grief) knew after killing Hardshell that it didn't change what she felt/what happened, is - I don't even know how to categorize it.

Yeah, it's relatable that Arcee is like this, but it's stupid that she doesn't learn, not to mention dangerous for those who try acting like her. In real life, there would have been severe consequences for her actions but, since this is fantasy land where strong females can do whatever and walk away scot-free, a blind eye is turned to Arcee.

Now we come to my biggest problem.

Her treatment of Smokescreen.

I understand that his attitude/personality at first is gonna grate on her nerves, but even slow Bulkhead gave him a better wakeup call by saying what amounted to, "Look at me, kid. You really think war is easy and that you can just go in guns blazing and jump us closer to victory?"

Pits of Kaon, that was literally more thoughtful and thought provoking than Arcee's demeaning points. All she ever did was make him the butt of her own sarcastic commentary, pick on him with various condescending nicknames, and then lash out whenever he was already kicking himself for messing something up. Smokescreen held himself to high standards, an issue that Bulkhead knew and empathized with due to his own insecurities, and tried to comfort him and lift the burden from his shoulders. Smokescreen wouldn't take it because he knew he'd been the one to fail, and felt like a failure and dead weight whenever his presence didn't bring something good to the table. He never wanted it to be all about glory, or fame, or really anything superficial. He just wanted to prove his worth, carry his weight, and do his part.

But Arcee never or wouldn't see that. Instead, she just saw a kid with a supposedly inflated ego and chose to read him the riot act when he was already doing that to himself fourteen different ways from Sunday. She didn't care enough about Smokescreen to actually listen and think "Okay, that's what's going on in his head"; she just wanted someone who would "take things seriously" and was gonna verbally abuse him until he "got the message".

Sweetheart, if you want him to mature, you help him by guiding his steps, nurturing his virtues, and helping him up when he's fallen. You don't do it by telling him how much he stinks for not grasping the state of things in the time it takes to blink, or by kicking him when he's down. All that tells him is that he's a waste of time for the people he's dedicated his whole life to helping, which in turn will make him self-destruct. Now luckily, Smokescreen was of a stronger constitution, and therefore shook off the doubt and fear of ineptitude when faced with bigger problems, but if he were anyone else, who's to say he wouldn't have eaten a bullet out of despair? Arcee would've then had the blood of an innocent life on her conscience, and nothing could have made up for that.

I do, objectively, like TFP Arcee, especially compared to her alternate counterparts.

I just can't stand how she got off so easily so many times.

Well, hope y'all enjoyed this, even though I'm pretty sure I did worse to her than I anticipated.

Til next time -

"Roll out!"

[respectthepetty]

Who is Jo?

It's only the fifth episode of The Trainee but I feel confident about who is the Blue Boy since I learned more about him this episode.

Ryan is a chill Green Guy who helps everyone including Pie in the very beginning of the episode by changing the copy paper and helping her. This hasn't changed.

Pie is still being her red passionate self now that she is assistant director for the music video.

Pah is still the yellow and orange odd one out.

Judy is still a sophisticated Black Brooder, and Mee is an evolving Pink Person.

(who gives her crushes pink donuts, so can Judy get one already?)

But the focus of this episode and post is about Jane!

We got to know more about him, and my original theory about him seems to be correct because I believed Jane was the Blue Boy since he seems cold and distant but everyone overlooks how dependable and loyal he is.

And once Ryan steps into Jane's apartment, it becomes even more clear that nobody really knows (Blue Boy) Jane.

(Sidenote, to be honest, I'd be Purple Person Ja, and not just because of the hair. I have beef with authority figures for no good ass reason. I need no reasons to dislike management, supervisors, admin, or anyone with power, so I ain't mad at her for talking shit about Jane every chance she gets)

Not only are Jane's curtains that shut out the rest of the world in the apartment that he intentionally selected since it's so close to his job blue.

But Ryan learns that Jane doesn't eat spicy food after Jane makes Ryan dinner in his blue pot.

And much like Pie's red bag, Mee's pink purse, and Ryan's green tote, Jane's bag has blue on it.

But what makes me really believe Jane is a Blue Boy is his behavior.

It seems like Jane has a box of shooting schedules (or storyboards) right at his front door that Ryan has to push a bit to get through, which much like the location of his apartment reinforces that his job is his life. (unless those are bills, then those bills look odd, and boy is about to be evicted)

Jane's movies are in alphabetical order (however, he alphabetizes "The" which should not be done because article adjectives a, an, and the should be omitted in alphabetizing, but . . . it's his personal collection, so do you, boo boo)

His album collection seems to be displayed by color connection (black, white, red) since I spotted Kodaline's 2022 album Our Roots Run Deep, Coldplay's 2002 album A Rush of Blood to the Head, and the 1980s Japanese rock band, Southern All Stars' Tiny Bubbles.

And the real kicker is Jane's favorite movie seems to be Mary is Happy, Mary is Happy, which is a Thai film about a creative girl who has to go up against her power-driven headmaster to get the yearbook produced as she encounters all the chaos that comes along with being a teenager.

And even his coworker (boss?) stated that Jane has the director's eye but he had a bad experience as an intern. Jane is talented yet guarded, which is very Blue Boy of him! Also, this book is free in the Archive and amazing!

So even though Tae has a blue phone and his blue headphones with a blue emoji heart to match Mee's pink heart as a he thinks of her with a pink background,

My money is on Jane being the Blue Boy since taking care of a Green Guy comes natural to him.

But the real point of this post is to ask "Who is Jo?" Is he the boss? A helpful office worker? Both? Because he is the only one who interacts with all the staff and actually notices all of them. He knew Pah was Pah when he was pretending to be Tae. He realizes Judy is amazing. He knows where the number for the copier tech is. He takes care of the fish.

Is he the original Ryan?!

[bloodreddemons]

Hazbin Hotel Episode 1-4 Hot Takes! ~

They finally dropped. They are finally here, and I have A LOT to say. (Good & the bad, my opinions of course.)

Episode 1 was kinda boring and it just seemed overall weird and off. It didn't really pick back up that well, or align with the pilot too much, and the pilot slapped.

I feel like for those who haven't seen the pilot would be so confused with what is going on or who the characters even are. It feels like you also have to do a bit of digging to actually figure out other details.

I wasn't expecting to like Adam he was funny asf and I loved his singing. Love Alex Brightman he's great.

I can see what people are saying now when they were talking about the premise changing or being different, it definitely seems that way. It just feels like it's all over the place and there's multiple things happening at once. A bit confusing.

Charlie just looks weird to me I don't know why, I kinda like how she used to look.

Sir Pentious new voice is better. Again, love Alex Brightman. Lol.

Loser, Baby, Hell is forever, Poison, & Respectless are the best songs so far. Stayed Gone is ok too tho.

I'm interested in finding out why Lilith & Alastor were gone for like 7 years. I wonder where they went and it just makes me wonder if the war against heaven was possibly planned?? 🤔

I love Brandon Roger's but I didn't really like him as Katie Killjoy I think I liked the other VA. I just don't hear Katie, I hear Bryce Tankthrust.

I wish Vivzie designed Sir Pentious with more of a steampunk look since that's what era he's from so he's not wearing almost the same exact suit every other Overlord has.

Nifty is literally fucking iconic. I enjoyed her every time she was on screen even if it was for a short time. She's so funny.

I was expecting Vox & Valentino to have deeper voices but they still sounded great.

Velvette fucking ATE I was pleasantly surprised by her. I love her so much. She's my favorite of the VVV's and her singing is so good.

Charlie & Vaggie's fight wasn't that impactful, it kinda just came out of nowhere and seemed like something that should have happened way later. It didn't even seem like such a big deal either to be an argument.

I don't really like Vox as a person for letting Valentino treat Angel Dust the way he does. Just trash. He has to know about it.

Vox is just too obsessed with Alastor. He wants his cock soooo bad it's kinda crazy. It's the most fakest beef ever. Bad meat.

I like the new VA's they're amazing, but I do really miss the old ones. Most of them.

I think Vaggie's singing is better than Charlie's and that's fucked up because singing is like her whole thing.

Camilla killing the Angel wasn't that impactful because we don't really know who she is.

I don't really care to know how they will be trying to redeem people...idk I always thought that those parts would be boring.

So far I don't think the show was worth a 4 year wait....

Huskerdust WILL be canon at this rate. They might just be the best couple.

Charlie should have lit Valentino's ass up for treating Angel Dust the way he was. She shouldn't have listened to Angel and just fucked him up. Stop crying omfg!

I get that Husk & Angel are like in the same boat & all but....is being Alastor's minion really as bad as being constantly knocked around by Valentino?

[starrieisdelusional]

Why i didn’t make merlin as king / court sorcerer / court advisor

So i had a conversation w my moot (if you’re reading this hello) and they didnt like that i made merlin as consort (they changed their mind thoe!) in the final timeline so im gonna explain why here:

no guys its not misogyny or making merlin an uwu helpless submissive femboy, i just genuinely think merlin cant lead 😭

like take example his servant position: he’s SO TERRIBLE AT HIS JOB he should get fired actually when compared to George. He went so far off his job desc, even already beefing with arthur in episode 1.

and merlin is an infp (im also infp EEEE). His decisions are based on feelings rather than logic. This is how we all got that devastating ending + bad writing.

It’s also shown in canon how merlin is meant to work in the background, leading, diplomacy, anything related with the public, that’s all arthur’s work. They meant to complete eachother

Now imagine this boy leading a kingdom i dont think it will last 💀 he probably either be too nice to other kingdoms / entities that they stab him in the back or let it burn for arthur lol

But! I think merlin should be known with a title something like “the king’s shadow” (Kinda like how sasuke is shadow hokage) cuz merlin eliminates every threat of camelot and appears when least expected. (He also have very good intel because he talks to nature!)

Why not court sorcerer? I think things like magic diplomacy should be handled by morgana because she is royalty at birth and she is more qualified to deal w people than merlin does 💀

and why not court advisor? i think that gwen is more suited to be advisor and head house because her judgement is better than merlin and arthur. with the background that she used to be a peasant who live quite a while in camelot, she knows the people better than anyone.

Main post:

To find my other ramblings about this AU, filter with the hashtag #must we really rely on fate?

[lo-shouldve-been-an-email]

Why hello there.

Listen,I don’t have much to say about the newest LO episode so here’s an ares ranking to go along with the other ones.

Spoilers.

Percy Jackson:

6/10

Look,Ares is a really weird figure when it comes to how the media presents him.

Almost always they present him as this sexist frat boy when in mythology he is:

A reported protector of mistreated woman.

The patron god of the amazons and was worshipped to the point that their leader had 2 babies with him.

Scored the GODDESS PF LOVE AND BEAUTY and there is no way you cannot convince me she doesn’t have some pretty high standards(even though apparently you can convince most of the writers on this list)

And as much as I love Percy Jackson,it is not devoid of crimes.

In the first book,he helps Luke/Kronos steal Zeus’ master bolt and Hades’ helm of invisibility as to start a civil war within the gods.id say this is a pretty good portrayal overall.

…until we get to the second book.

This myth will be very important so long story short:a daughter of ares got r*** by a son of Poseidon so Ares,like any reasonable and bloodthirsty god of war,fucking killed him.

After this,he got put on trial for murder as if he wasn’t the literal god of bloody war,and all the ladies vouched for him so he got set free.

Let’s just say,Rick Riordan didn’t know of this myth.

In the second book,there’s a scene where Clarisse La Rue,a DAUGHTER of ares talks to him through a magic mirror.

There,he threatens her and says he should have sent one of his sons on the quest.and keep in mind she is his FAVORITE DAUGHTER.

So yeah.

I don’t really like this portrayal but he gets points for bringing Clarisse and (technically)Frank into this world since I like them both.also the fact that Percy could tell he had beef with him even without having any other memory.

Lore Olympus:

1/10

FUCK THIS GUY

Remember when I said that modern Ares was more often than not a sexist frat boy?we’ll add “predator” and “Reddit nice guy” to that list because RS can’t write.

If in Percy Jackson Aphrodite had terrible standards here said standards are so much worse.

He spends MONTHS trying to seduce a 19-YEAR-OLD and then tries to marry her without her consent.

Also,sir,YOU HAVE THE GODDESS OF LOVE AND BEAUTY FULLY AT YOUR DISPOSAL AND YOURE PICKING A GURL WHO DOESNT EVEN KNOW HIW TO USE A COMPUTER????

Great.this guy is a predator,Reddit nice guy,AND stupid.

I remember saying that the only character who could get a lowers rating than LO Persephone being LO hades and then I remembered this fuck existed.

Fuck him.

Hades:

10/10

Your know when you see something and then immediately want to wash your eyes with soap?this is my soap.

He is my third favorite Olympian in the game,coming third to Hermes and Artemis.

So here’s a few reasons why I like him:

Doom anything with impending doom and the increasing doom damage boon does absurd amounts of damage.

Curse of nausea is one of the best duos in the game.

He respects woman.(oh look they finally Aphrodite standards)

His quest is stupidly easy and he was the first Olympian who’s bond I maxed out.

I know this joke has been made so many times but.he really is a Chthonic simp.

He doesn’t get too pissed if you don’t pick him is trial of gods.hes just here for the bloodshed.

It may be just the fact that almost every other interpretation of ares is bad,but I really like him.

Also Aphrodite wearing his face paint in hades 2-

OSP:

7/10

He’s cool.

I really don’t have much else to add except the helmet stays on during sex.

Gods school:

5/10

Welp Back to the incels-

Him straight up telling Aphrodite that he can do whatever he wants because she won’t leave is just.why.

I don’t get why people go to this myth,turn it around,and act as if they’ve done a service by making Ares miserable when in the myths it was already a good ending.

What is with the obsession with making ares a toxic ex boyfriend when in the myths him and ‘dite were literally love and war.

Another issue I have with gods school is the fact they made Aphrodite a Karen Smith when in the myths shes a Regina George but that’s a problem for the Aphrodite ranking.

Also I just realized the Aphrodite Hephaestus ares myth is the og “I fell in love with a bad boy story”-

Epic:the musical:

8/10

I don’t have a physical picture of him but I already like him.

The only time he he appears is during a bit of an unfinished song but he does bring up some pretty good points,like the Scylla thing.

Also the fact Athena didn’t directly refute any of his points but instead persuaded him with the fact that the moment Ody gets home the suitors are going to be fucked is surprisingly great.

Also can I just say how absolutely hyped I am for god games?Aphrodite’s part fucking rocks and I’m excited for Apollo and Hephaestus.

Also here’s my ranking for epic Hermes since I wasn’t part of the fandom back then:

10/10

*insert dolphin laugh here*

[petrssecrethideout]

"Bro, do you wanna hear about something crazy?"

"I mean sure, go ahead,"

"Alright, so I was just relaxing, scrolling TikTok,"

"Already a bad idea."

"I know, I got beef with that fuckin' algorithm let me tell you. I follow a couple of bodybuilders, post a couple of gym vids and suddenly my For you page is filled with the biggest assholes alive. Anyway, I'm scrolling, and I see this guy, he's doing that whole 'alpha top dog' thing even though he's not that big."

"Okay wait pause, how big is not that big?"

"I don't know, I have more muscle in my arms than he has in his whole body, real gym influencer type."

"Alright, for anyone listening to the pod at home, I should probably just say that this guy could be anywhere from 150-300 pounds from Dale's description of him, okay? He's not good at judging what normal guys look like anymore."

"Yeah, okay, you got me. Anyway, this guy keeps going on about his great advice, so I stick around to hear it. You wanna know what he said? 'Stop Cumming, its killing your natural testosterone' What kind of bullshit is that!?"

"I mean that is a big part of the current fitness world, these guys will say anything to get more followers, and a lot of their followers are so desperate for progress that they'll take whatever advice they're given."

"It's a shame, because he's also wrong! I tried that whole 'No Nut Whatever' and its been the only time in these last 5 years that I've plateaued."

"... Really?"

"Yeah! If I'm not cranking a load out every day I can kiss any potential gains goodbye."

"Wait,"

"Like after my workouts, when I got a huge pump going, I just have to crank one out, like what good workout would it be if I didn't"

"Dale c'mon,"

"And its not like I can just hit up a guy on Grindr and go to town every time I need to, there aren't enough guys on Grindr for that."

"Uggggh dude, we are never getting a sponsor with you talking like this."

"What, so all the straight alpha dudebros can talk about semen retnetion and get a ton of followers, but I get censored for talking about jacking off and getting tons of ass?"

"Yeah, we will."

"Well then, listeners, go subscribe to the patreon so that I can talk about my actual tips for growing, and so that you can help Mark get bigger. I'm telling you, I'm gonna make this boy huge with your help. Audio listeners make sure to check the videos so you can see this boy get huge. Now bro, help me out here. You don't want those Tiktok gymfluencers to win do you? How often are you jerkin off?"

"Oh god I can't believe I'm answering this... A couple of times a week maybe?"

"A week? That's fucking crazy. My average is like 4-5 times a day. More if I'm really feeling horny. If I'm being honest I jerked off a few weeks ago on the pod, like I forgot to before I came here. One of the comments mentioned something about my grunting that episode."

"Jesus christ dude, how do you even manage that?"

"Well, you gotta work up to it. I couldn't do that starting out, but once I started growing I was so horny I had to do something about it. I think that's what these guys don't get. You gotta get those balls working, give them a reason to keep making that sweet testosterone. How are you supposed to do that if you aren't jacking it? Honestly dude, I feel like I gotta prove these guys wrong now."

"What, you're gonna be a cum warrior?"

"Hell yeah man, I'm gonna be fighting the war on jerking it, on the side of jerking it!"

[joyce-stick]

The Beef Stroganoff Song! (arbitrary subtitle discourse edition)

So, you may have noticed here that the subtitles in this clip (from Symphogear GX episode 3) are fairly different from what you're used to seeing when people post this video, and the phrasing in the subtitles is fairly different from what the associated memes often say

For those who don't know, Symphogear got itself released on blu-ray by Discotek, and with that came with a new translation authored by Noelle (@ulsairi on twitter ) who is notable for being the only trans lesbian anime translator I know of off the top of my head.

Her translation appears, in my opinion, really rather polished and very good, and I strongly appreciate the way it's written and how much character it adds to the dialogue by giving everyone distinct voices and adapting things into more natural English. It's also a fair bit gayer. I haven't encountered many people who've seen these subs, but I think most fans of the series would consider these a net positive change. There are some people who are mad about these subtitles, and they can die mad.

Anyway, let's talk about the different phrasing of the beef stroganoff song. I'm mostly going to compare to Crunchyroll's subtitles for reference since that seems to be what most others go off of. Here's a link to that version.

So right off the bat we can see here that while CR's translation appears to be a lot more, for lack of a better word, functional, Noelle's translation tries to apply more dialectal force "it's beef stroganoff/Yes! It's THAT beef stroganoff!" And generally communicate through the tone how excited the girls are to get started. Additionally you'll see throughout that the latter is a fair bit more lyrical, there's a lot more punctuation and verbal tics and filler phrases written into the dialogue to express that they are singing, which makes sense since Japanese tends to omit a lot of the sorts of prepositions that Noelle threw in here,

Like, Yumi (yes I went and looked up her name on the wiki) just says "beef stroganoffu" because it's obvious from context that it is beef stroganoff, she doesn't need to spell it out, at least, not in Japanese

(We know like maybe ten hiragana and 1 kanji do not trust us on Japanese this is all just basic shit we learned from online guides)

So this probably leads to a rushed translator from Crunchyroll (they are notoriously crunched for time) who's just trying to Get It Done probably not really bothering to throw in extra additional connecting letters to express the tone of the character, only doing so when it's required to make basic grammatical sense in the target language. So they likely didn't think to make the subtitles have flourishes like this that aren't explicitly in the original Japanese. Noelle meanwhile had the time to consider things like this and take such liberties in order to attempt to convey the same tone that was arguably implied by the Japanese, even if not explicitly put forth

And that's about all the things I should not repeat I guess, TL;DR, these subtitles are more fun to read because the translator had more time to think about the best way to make them more fun while still being accurate to the spirit of the original dialogue, who'd have thought!

(In case you're wondering, the Commie subtitles say kind of the same thing here, and y'know, it doesn't seem like a wrong translation, but also I really dislike this subtitle styling, orange on pink with that font and that drop shadow is just kinda bad. I appreciate the effort but like. Come on. Please fansubbers, please think about if the font and colors you chose actually work with the image you're putting them on)

Moving on!

horizontal and middle rhyme with each other so you can almost actually sing this, actually let me take a moment to try it right now- never mind, I can't sing. Hahaha. I don't actually think it lines up that well with the melody But I thought it did! Didn't I? That's significant, that this actually reads like plausible lyrics to a silly song someone made up instead of a literal translation of a Japanese song

Anyway, here comes the first major difference!

So in the Crunchyroll subtitles, Yumi says "it doesn't have to be beef" which in English (in my estimation) sounds a tad scatterbrained, like, "oh yeah sure beef but whatever really it doesn't actually matter," while Noelle's subtitles rather say "Got no beef? Don't you worry!" Which implies something different.

"It is recommended to use beef, but you may substitute something else if you are sorely lacking in beef" as opposed to "Oh the beef doesn't actually matter, zoinks lol!" CR's translation is kind of a bit funnier in how it sorta comes from nowhere without this qualification, which probably lead to this phrase's memeticness, but Noelle's translation seems more reasonable to me so yeah again, tada, yay for sensicalness.

Now here's another interesting change:

Again, the flat manner in which the CR subtitles say "finish with salt" with rendezvous only being included because that's literally what they said, is sort of absent any stronger emotional implication,

Noelle's translation meanwhile going with "don't forget them, they need it" imparts personhood upon the salt and pepper. The implication being that the girls are saying, "the salt and pepper are in love, please reunite them, they must be in gay love together." Or maybe you think the salt and pepper cannot be forgotten and must be reunited because they are Only Friends.

Whether you choose to believe that this is the salt and pepper getting married, or merely subtext, or an interpretation, or salt and pepper shipping bait, this is a deeply important tonal indicator because it reminds you that these girls are ultimately playing with their food!

"And there, now you're in for a treat!" I don't think I need to explain this one.

Now, here's an interesting one!

In the Crunchyroll subtitles, it just says the memetic "boys don't know this." With no context, no elaboration, no clarity, no qualifiers. Boys don't know. Did the boys magically get their brains wiped? Are the boys biologically incapable? Who knows. Nothing is said but that.

Noelle's subtitles, on the other hand, qualify this statement by saying "Boys aren't taught to cook, so they may not know" (And note again how, it says "kno-ow" to emphasize, once more, that they're singing, and also this lines up with the long "ooooo" sound they make at the end of this lyric, so cool)

There is now context! Boys aren't taught to cook! Anime and Japan's culture in general still pigeonholes people into gender roles! And an anime translator just wrote you a hidden translation note about it! You might be a boy, you might know how to cook, but certain boys in another part of the world aren't traditionally taught cooking, so they may not know

They may not, but they could!

Trust a trans person to express gender facts with subtle nuances like this in anime translations.

And with that lovely bit of good translation and good writing and good localization of a thing to make it make sense to people

Mew!

[yuri-is-online]

Ace!Yutu when he sees his father being an idiot and claiming he doesn’t like the prefect that way:

I swear I love the angst potential of Yutu, and more because it depends on the version.

Imagine Riddle!Yutu waking up screaming from a bad nightmare and watching his previously dead parent right next to him.

Tumblr and I have beef, it deleted this ask and then magically re-found it AFTER I typed it out somewhere else. Anyway, I have a second ask about aceyuu Yutu mentioning him judging his dad because you know that Marcille face is what he is making 24/7. But since he is also Ace's son you know he has a little fun with it:

"I see I see." Yutu folds his hands together, index fingers standing tall in front of his lips as he nods in exaggerated agreement before shifting ever so slightly to look at Deuce. "So he really lives like this?" "Yeah he does." Cackles Deuce, Ace's eye twitches as he tries to decide who is more annoying, the new kid or Deuce. "I'll let you in on a secret, he thinks he's being subtle." "I think I'm being normal." Ace huffs, but new kid ignores him and nods sagely at Deuce. "Ah yes I see, like a brick." "Hey listen!" Ace hates how much more of a defense this new kid is making him run, why's he decided it is his business if he likes Yuu or not? "Unlike you two losers I actually have a relationship history-" "What, with a mirror?" Yutu's unimpressed look is so similar to Yuu's Ace swears his heart leaps right up into his throat. "Look I'm just saying it sounds like there was a break up in there somewhere." Never mind fuck this, who raised this kid?!?!

I try to have each Yutu be a bit different to help reflect how each character's reaction to him would be a bit different. That and I think different boys kids would be different even if they have similarities, Riddle! Yutu is withdrawn and angry while Ace! Yutu is more laid back and sarcastic, but they are still both Yutu.

And speaking of Riddle! Yutu:

He can taste the ink in his lungs through his struggle to breathe, the branch around his neck tightens at his audacity to try. He panics on instinct, screaming as the Phantom's scepter is pushed into his chest as it screams out a command "OFF WITH YOUR-"

You open the door with a bit more force than you intended, something about hearing Yutu scream out for one of his parents makes you feel awful, even more so when you finally see him. The poor boy has tied his sheets into knots with his thrashing, you silently thank the seven that you thought to set down the milk you had heated up before you shake him.

Calling out to them he tackles you with a surprising amount of force, holding onto you so tightly you can't help but hug him back. Fat tears roll down his cheeks as he shakes like a leaf and you do your best to keep him in his bed, but let him cling to you.

"It's just me." You pat his back and he freezes, but doesn't loosen his grip and you laugh slightly. He's got to be so embarrassed, better let him re-set before he has to look at your face. "Breathe in, now hold one, two-" You softly guide him through his breaths and relax alongside him as he calms. "That sounded like a bad one, are you sure you don't want me to loan you Grim? He's a real good snuggle buddy, promise."

"I think I'll pass." Yutu pulls back, but he still can't look at you, eyes instead going to the milk on his nightstand and rolling his eyes. "Really? I'm not a baby." But still he takes it and you let the insult go.

"Do you want to talk about it?" You hope he will, this is the third time this week he's had an episode and you really want to help. You think Yutu wants to, he looks at you now with a deeply strained look in his eyes that almost makes you think he is looking at a ghost.

"It's... not nothing." He had tried saying it was the first time you found him in the throws of one. "But I can't- I can't tell you." It's progress enough that he's willing to acknowledge it's a problem, you can't heal unless you accept that something is broken.

"I'll be here if you change your mind." You mean it to be kind, but it makes the ghost look worsen. Still, Yutu sort of smiles at you.

"I know and... thank you." He closes his eyes briefly to reset himself and remember. You're alive, that's enough for now.

"You want to play go fish?" More than enough.

[peachyfnaf]

The only people who showed concern for Sun were Solar and Earth, and that makes me sad :( How Moon, Monty and Lunar acted made me upset with them

I'm boutta blow up the whole site with this take- I have beef with Earth too. Not as much as the other three, I will fight the other three, but I think the ONLY ONE actually giving Sun what he needs rn (Basic fucking comfort and affection bc he WAS LITERALLY JUST FORCED TO MURDER HIS LITTLE BROTHER HELLO???) is SOLAR. Solar you're doing great sweetie pie pookie bear honey bun gumdrop tiddly winkle baby cakes, thank you for checking up on Sun so much even though I don't doubt that Nexus' death hurts you, too.

BUT back on my Earth thing- I think Dana said it really well.

Forgive me if this is entirely incomprehensible, not only do I get all my knowledge second-hand it's ALSO like midnight here so I'm writing this out of autistic fury alone bUt, the way Earth handled the "Telling Lunar the TRUTH" ep or whatever it was called did make me go >:/

While it's obvious to us all by now that Lunar did not particularly give af about Nexus, the fact that Earth basically told him that Nexus died, we got her going ":("/her two cents about it, and then she moved onto the topic of Rez/lying to Lunar so fast. It. I. That fr made me go "???"

Chat. Am I insane for have expected a whole ep dedicated to the fam talking about Nexus' death /genq. Because I KNOWWW that they disconnected from him a lot but HOLY SHIT HE WAS STILL NEW MOON ONCE??? IS IT SO MUCH TO ASK FOR FOR ONE EPISODE WHERE HIS LOSS IS THE SOUL FOCUS? HELLAUR???

U can tell I'm sleep deprived cause I've already lost the plot- bUT YES YES EARTH YES. She has 100% become more selfish in the past few months. Which isn't inherently bad bc before she was selfless to a fault, but now it's starting to feel like she went from one extreme to the other..? Everything she does, she does because she wants to get that sweet sweet crumb of Self Validation. Which like. Girl me too, but THAT'S NOT HEALTHY NOR GOOD AND ESPECIALLY NOT A GOOD TRAIT FOR SOMEONE WHO PART TIMES AS A "THERAPIST" TO HAVE???

Her behavior is slooowly becoming much more self-preservative, and while it's happening slowly the signs are definitely There- which FINALLY BRINGS ME BACK AROUND TO THE ORIGINAL TOPIC-

Earth highkey brushed off Sun's feelings too ngl. She 100% did BETTER than O.M, Monty, Lunar yuh, but her check up on Sun was still very brief before she moved onto Other Things and Other People. V.S. Solar who was practically hovering over Sun the entire time- and liyk for good reason!!! Bro was NOT there mentally and only Solar really noticed!!!

Rn this behavior of hers is not a huge problem, just something rather annoying that I've noticed a pattern of, but I'm keeping an Eye on it bc it very much has the potential to become something veeery bad if Earth gets too lost in the "Me, me, me!" Sauce yk?

Okay it's 12:30 here I'm going to bed chat don't crucify me for a Spicy opinion honk shoo honk shoo mimimimi

[dazzling-raven]

Thoughts and rambles on episode eight! Spoilers below the cut ^^

Alright. Now that I've had a moment to process how everything went down, I have some thoughts. I'm going to try not to write a 5 paragraph essay on the thing, but the one major thing I'd like to say is that the episode is visually phenomenal. Absolutely stunning. Blew my mind. However, it did feel a tad bit rushed.

Now obviously this is the episode where everything hits the fan and nobody really got to sit down and have a ten minute therapy session, but I'm kinda disappointed in how the character arcs were wrapped up. It kinda feels like this episode was a giant boss fight and then nothing else really. Happened. You know? Like the big bad is defeated and we're all happy now. Wich they absolutely deserve after going through that hellstorm, but a little elaboration would have been nice.

That aside though, there were lots of moments in the episode that I loved. Like the bit where N and Uzi were arguing in the spaceship and N said something along the lines of 'I'm so mad at you right now' but then they immediately hug each other and put the argument away for a moment when they weren't being chaced by giant space tentacles. I think this in itself is massive character growth for him, and communicating is key for a good relationship. Wich speaking of.

Nuzi is cannon! We got a confession. Loved that moment. I guess better late than never, right? And their dorky litte handshake mid boss fight? They both have a total of four braincells and they take the other two from their partner whenever one of them is in danger. I love it. Need more of that dynamic.

And V. I feel for V so much in this episode. The scene in the tunnel broke my heart. You cannot tell me that she dosen't at least feel a fondness for their time at the mannor because she was so sad but so relieved when she found out that he was ok. I want more of them so bad. Also I near shrieked with joy when she came in riding the sentinel like a total pro, that's probably one of my favorite little side bits.

Also I really feel for all of you Jessa shippers. I hoped on the Jessa train not too long ago myself, and I was really disappointed with the way they handled J. But at the same time, I think it's hilarious that she canonically died 3 times. Like. How did you even manage that. Even so, her character had a purpose, and I guess she served that purpose.

Also kind of disappointed that Thad, kahn and Lizzy were kind of just. There. But I did love the fact rhat lizzy and V's sentinel had beef from minute one. Girl cannot catch a break.

In all, I thought this episode was amazing. It definitely has it's flaws, but it's a strong episode and one of my favorites. It made me laugh, it tugged on my heartstrings, and it was a phenomenal end to a phenomenal show. So Liam, thank you for telling your story and bringing people together in only the way you knew how.

[ecargmura]

Pokemon Horizons Episode 65 Review - Heart To Heart With The Enemy

*Gasp* Liko and Amethio actually escaped the cave on-screen. The writers are actually not shoving everything into off-screen land this time around! Other than that, this episode was filled with surprise twists and intriguing lore that you can’t help but to wonder what’s going to happen next! 

The Liko and Amethio portions are nice because, like Liko, we finally get to know more about Amethio. It’s crazy how he appeared since the beginning and we only learn of his motives and goals 65 episodes in. He wants to get Rayquaza and Terapagos because he wants to be helpful to his grandfather Gibeon and wants him to be proud of him. It feels like an honor thing. Amethio, despite being a villain, does have kindness dwelling within him. If he wasn’t a kind person, Ceruledge wouldn’t have tried to warm its trainer with one of its blade after seeing Floragato try to get some grass for Liko. If Amethio wasn’t kind, he wouldn’t have cooperated with Liko in order to escape the cave, but he did. It’s nice that Liko knows that Amethio isn’t as bad as he appears to be. I really liked their heart-to-heart conversation. The fact that Amethio motivated Liko to not be so down over her failing her Implementation test is something; Liko didn’t even ask Grusha for a possible rematch as she knew there could be other ways she can master Terastal. Sometimes, the most unexpected person and words can be your biggest motivation.

Poor Amethio, the moment he becomes nice to Liko is when Spinel frames him for cooperation against the enemy and that’s when he gets kicked out of the Explorers. I’m assuming a simple act of kindness or cooperation with the enemy is something Gibeon despises? I wonder if something happened to him in the past for him to abandon his own grandson over something miniscule. I’m assuming that’s what happened to Amethio’s father too? Gibeon seems like a cruel person for believing in a fabricated video and not asking Amethio for a concrete answer. People are speculating that Amethio might be going through an anti-hero route akin to Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airibender. While I can see an anti-hero route, I don’t think it’s fair to compare it to Zuko as the circumstances of their turn is different. Zuko is a blueprint for antihero stories, but he doesn’t need to be the pathway.

For the Roy and Dot portions, I’m glad that the kids are sharp enough to realize that Sidian and Coral are deliberately stalling them because they’re targeting Liko. However, what they didn’t expect was that they’re super good at stalling that whatever plan they come up with, the Explorers counter it. People might get angry over the battle, but it’s because the kids aren’t battling seriously. They’re being hasty because Liko is their priority and not the battle. Fortunately, the battle gets called off once Grusha enters the scene as he got a call from Friede about the situation; Friede called him because he knew he wouldn’t get there in time and would need some extra help. I wonder why Grusha mellowed out in this episode compared to how stern he was two episodes ago. Also, I wonder what his Altaria’s beak is made of because it pecked the heck out of that boulder and Flying moves aren’t effective against Rocks.

I do like that Amethio’s words about not giving up has impacted her in a way that she even asked Roy and Dot to go to the Highest Peak with her. Usually, Liko is so passive and the other two seemed okay with not going now that they found Liko and she’s safe, but she still wanted to go. It’s nice that Liko is being a bit more assertive now. I hope to see this more in future episodes.

Also, Terapagos’s anger towards Amethios seems to be more that he reminded him of Gibeon and possibly mistook him for his grandfather, before realizing that they’re different. The way Amethio mentioned his grandfather Gibeon is when Terapagos got another upset reaction. The turtle definitely has beef with Gibeon and it could be a factor to why Gibeon was unusually cruel to Amethio in this episode.

With the announcement of the fourth arc starting in October 11, this means that this arc has three more episodes until then. I honestly can’t wait to see what this new arc has in store as the DLC characters are shown in the key visual. Though, I am a little upset that Arven didn’t show up at all in this arc and it seems that Kieran is going to get that same treatment seeing how he’s not in the poster while his sister Carmine is. What are you thoughts on this episode? By the way, I support Spinel’s rights, wrongs and future beatings.

[cocoacatnip]

Is Callum a “Bad Brother” in Arc 2 of TDP?

So I was on twitter the other day and saw some “hot take” that “Soren is a better brother to Ezran than Callum”, and well…obviously I disagree. Instead of going back and forth arguing though, I’d rather make a post about why I disagree.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen opinions like this after season 4. I mean part of the “broyals beef” theory stems from the idea that Callum hasn’t been there enough for Ezran, and Ezran will eventually blow up at him over it. How exactly hasn’t Callum been there for Ezran you may ask? A lot of what I’ve seen is stuff like, him being late to greet Zubeia, something Ezran didn’t even seem angry about. Oh and then there’s the fact that he doesn’t accompany Ezran to the storm spire in season 5, even though he’s a mage and was using his time in Katolis to research. He wasn’t exactly sitting around and doing nothing. We’ve also seen Callum be very protective of Ezran throughout the course of arc 2, but apparently that’s not good enough?

“Well when has he been there for Ezran emotionally?”

It’s true, we haven’t really had a good heart to heart moment with these two in a while. We got Ezran trying to be there for Callum in season 4, but we haven’t had anything else since then. Does this mean they don’t care for each other, or haven’t had moments off screen? Of course not! I think people fail to take into account that each season of TDP is only 9 episodes, not every little moment will be shown. Also as far as Ezran goes, he and his emotions weren’t as big a focus in season 4 and 5. Season 6 is where we really see the weight of being the king start to weigh on him, but Callum is on a journey at this moment to deal with Aaravos. Soren of course has been a wonderful big brother figure to Ezran, and the entire Dragang honestly. He’s amazing! But claiming he’s better than Ezrans actual real life sibling just because the story hasn’t focused on them getting a moment in a while just seems wrong.

Honestly if we’re going by the logic that because we haven’t seen Callum be there for Ezran emotionally on screen, then I guess Ezran doesn’t care about Callum either. We never saw Ezran comfort Callum in s5 ep 8 after he’s tortured. Or see him apologize because it was his actions that got them captured to begin with. We didn’t see it, so obviously it didn’t happen right? By this logic I guess they’re both shitty brothers!

Sometimes the storytelling just doesn’t have time to focus on certain things, and I think in season 7 we will get more of Callum supporting Ezran. This is a big season for him after all! In conclusion, just because you don’t see the moment on screen doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Callum and Ezran adore each other and are there for each other, even if their relationship and moments of emotional support don’t get screen time. Also Soren is wonderful and is such a wonderful brother to everyone in the Dragang. He’s not better just because he’s the one whose moments get screen time though.

[respectthepetty]

I think Mark is like… a vampire or something, does he ever sleep?

He is on every GMMTV SHOW!! I just keep thinking of that clip of him in school president when am he says “ I’m playing the vicar, the father and every other character” (or something like that! I forget!

so……. Would you like to Rate the shows Mark has been in? 👀

Anon, I cannot rate the shows Mark has been in because if Mark is in them, they have to be good, but I will rank them based on how much I loved Mark in them because I think he is beautiful AND talented (which is why this badminton world champion is on my list of GMMTV's best actors).

Ranked - Mark Pakin's Series

Honorable Mention - Cooking Crush - Dynamite

I think Aungpao is doing a great job as Dynamite in Cooking Crush, but I can't help but think what it would have been to see Mark in that role as originally intended. It sucks that Mark is overbooked, which I'm assuming was the reason he couldn't commit to Cooking Crush since he was filming Last Twilight, but it's a good problem to have for such a talented man, so I hope he continues to stay booked and blessing me with his face on my screen each and every year.

#8 - High School Frenemy - Chatjen

This show was barely announced, so it's possible it might not even make it to air, but that's not why it's last. The show is a remake of a Korean series, and word on the street is the original was not gay, like at all, which is wild since the entire pilot trailer for the Thai version seemed very homosexual to me! There was a rooftop and everything! But it also looks like our boy is about to be bullied, and I'm not here for it. Therefore, LAST!

#7 - Bad Buddy - Chang

Mark played in Bad Buddy? Notice that is a question and not a statement because, although I don't remember a lot of Bad Buddy because we have beef, I truly only remember Drake and Jimmy as friends since I wanted them to be a couple (Korn x Wai ghost ship!). I wasn't aware of either Marc or Mark playing Pat and Pran's friends. Mark was there when Pat got shot. Mark was there when they told Pran that Pat got shot. He is in the photo outside of the hospital room because Pat got shot, and I still am like, "Was Mark really in the show?"! I even had to look up what his character's name was on MDL. I still don't believe he was in it. I don't care what Our Skyy said. This is the Mandela Effect.

#6 - I Promised You the Moon - Mek

I do remember Mark in I Promised You the Moon, so this ranking is purely because I'm petty and got beef with this series, specifically Teh, which means Mark has to suffer too. Mark played Mek who was Teh's roommate. After Teh FUCKED UP, Mek was nice to him when he really didn't have to be because Teh was being an ASSHOLE to him, but that's why I loved Mek. He could've thrown hands with Teh in that room, but instead gave Teh some tough love by telling him his crying was annoying, and he needed to get it together. Then, he invited Teh to go eat with him. He still could've smacked Teh though and cemented this as Mark's number one role.

#5 - Last Twilight - Night

The only reason this is ranked this low is because I haven't had enough of him in the show. He is not the lead. He is a supporting character (AS USUAL, GMMTV!), so I can't expect him on my screen every single second, but I need far more of him in the last quarter of this series. Also, the show is setting up Night to be the cause of Day's accident, but it's too late for me to feel bad about any of this. I needed to know that information by episode three. Now we are over halfway done, Mork and Day are fulfilling the gay agenda, Phojai is about to get a rich husband, and Night is going to inherit a beautiful family, so let bygones be bygones, and GIVE MARK A LEADING ROLE ALREADY!

#4 - Only Friends - Nick

If I was really petty, this wouldn't have even been on the list because Nick should have been so much worse. He recorded Boston and Top having sex. He told Mew about Boston's non-consensual sex tape. He lied to Boston. And yet . . . I wanted him to do more! Nick could have blackmailed Top. Nick could've ruined Mew's life. Nick could've hurt Ray via Sand! Nick could've been a baddie, but instead he was a saddie. Mark finally got to kiss a homie, but at what cost? I feel Mark could've done so much more in this role. Honestly, all the actors could have, but they were held back, so here Nick sits in the middle. Not good. Not bad. Just average.

#3 - My School President - Thiu

This 'fit alone deserves our recognition because Mark was playing a high schooler yet looking too fine in this top. He needed to put that hotness away around those children. But in regards to his character, as you mentioned in the ask, he was EVERYTHING! He was trying to keep the student council solid since Tinn was too busy crushing on Gun. He was playing matchmaker. He was dating Por all season, and this is not up for debate. He was a director for the band's music video and was basically their manager. Homie was doing it all and still had time to look fine. What a guy!

#2 - Moonlight Chicken - Saleng

I wrote an ode to Saleng being my Thai primo. He lived for the chisme and was the biggest shit starter in the family, yet Li Meng called him first after the accident, and he was right there when their community mother passed away. Aof, who is behind Moonlight Chicken and Last Twilight, really let all the characters shine in this series, but Mark did amazing with the little amount of screen time he had, which gives me hope that his Last Twilight character will rise in the rankings as that series comes to a close. This role was so good that I was torn between this and the one I ultimately selected as number one, but honestly, both roles could be number one depending on my mood. Do I want family-oriented fun times Saleng or do I want . . .

#1 - The Warp Effect - Jedi

The entire cast of The Warp Effect was elite status. Every character was great. Every storyline was good. Every discussion about sex was outstanding. But Mark as Jedi lives rent free in my head, specifically the scene where after working out, he fucks his girlfriend from behind over the kitchen counter! Then, he experiences pain because he has a STI! This leads to an entire education about open relationships, sexual health, communication, and trans healthcare since his girlfriend is trans. Jojo was the screenwriter and director for both Only Friends and The Warp Effect, so I like that both of Mark's sexier roles are due to Jojo's vision, and I hope Mark gets to work again with either Aof or Jojo because Mark is at his best when he is allowed to play an adult man who knows what he wants and how to get it.

And believe me, he could get it.