#i haven't even watched the episode in its entirety

[meiloorunsmoothie]

just dying over here cause jeremy is such a good comic book villain

[geolato]

The fact that all us greeks collectively start posting about a 2005 tv show every day at the same time while it plays live on television shows that it should be considered cultural heritage and protected under law.

[obliviouskara]

top 5 supergirl episodes?

full disclosure i haven't seen the entirety of supergirl (ive literally only seen like 7 eps & its all season 1) so this list will probably change over time (bc im starting to painstakingly watch the show - imagine slowburn but watching a series) however ive watched like a ridiculous amount of supercorp edits so im going to base my choices on the parts where supercorp exist ha!

5. Season 1 - Red Faced

this would probably be the only none supercorp related yet still somehow my personal fave for a few reasons. i love this scene in particular bc it shows that cat grant cares for kara and what cat says here is very relatable. no matter how harsh cat can be at times, cat was a girl's girl here. she gave an advice which was helpful to both supergirl and kara. she had every right to rip kara viciously apart but instead she took a completely different route. i like the line she says here.

"You really need to figure out what's really bothering you." "You really need to find that anger behind the anger. And you really need to figure out what's really making you mad."

i think this was also the ep where kara acknowledged where some of the anger was coming from. even with zero dialogue and with mel's incredible acting skills she was able to convey so much emotions during that scene where she releases all her anger towards the red tornato. From losing her parents, losing her planet —her home, for losing everything and maybe even angry with her parents for the choices they made for her. it was such an incredible and very emotional scene.

im putting the rest in read more bc of how unnecessarily long this post has become

4. Season 2 - "The Adventures of Supergirl"

this should be easy. this was the first time kara met lena and changed the trajectory of every queer person watching this show and lena first delivered the first of many many questionably fruity (gay) lines fjlkajdla

"You couldn't have fooled me."

also bc of this scene thank you very much

3. Season 2 - "Luthors"

if there is one particular scene that convinced me to even give supergirl the time of day its obvs this one and lena "suspiciously straight" luthor delivered one of the most iconic lines on television in my opinion and now forever engraved in my mind. let's not forget lcorp CEO lena luthor took the time of day to fill catco employee kara danver's office with flowers like it's a regular tuesday but oh well

"now you'll have someone to stand up for you. always" "supergirl might have saved me but kara danvers, you are my hero."

screaming, crying, throwing up

2. Season 2 - "Exodus"

tada! i mean, look at it! how heroic! i also find it funny how grateful and confused lena was that kara danvers was having coffee with supergirl late at night but still

Season 2 - Ace Reporter

so this isnt at all groundbreaking bc honestly, 5 isn't enough and anything that has supercorp will be my favorite even though again i havent seen the rest of supergirl yet but we're ignoring canon so we're ignoring that fact too. i think this was the ep where kara was comforting lean about jack's death. i personally have a love and hate relationship towards this scene for many reasons but im a sucker for supercorp and there was a clip where kara hesitated and looked like she was about to plant a kiss on lena's head but then hugged her instead and i think its beautiful and im a sucker for kara leaning in towards lena

BONUS:

im too lazy to figure out where these clips are from which episode but this. i love every scene and its more like these below are my reasons for watching supergirl and has nothing to do with being my top 5 bwahaha

oh did i mention i also happen to have a weird obsession with superrojas i will not rest until i reach the ep where andrea rojas exist

[theweirdhybrid]

Edit: This post is directed at people who also use Twitter/X or any other social media platform that Lego has a presence on, if you are not one of those people feel free to ignore this post (and leave me alone, please)

I haven't been in the LMK fandom for a hot minute, but holy SHIT you guys NEED to calm down about the animation team changing. It's literally fine. The animation quality is fine. It Is Fine. It changed SLIGHTLY. When I first heard about the animation being shitty, I thought "Oh man, it must've been really bad for people to be so upset over this." And then I actually watched the trailer. What the fuck, guys.

As far as I could tell, the animation quality was largely the same, just with a few minor differences in style that in the grand scheme of things, aren't that noticeable. It's just Different.

There is no reason to be throwing a hissy fit over Flying Bark having to hand LMK over to a different team because they couldn't keep up with the deadlines. None. Literally not a single one. Do y'all have any idea how lucky it is that all that happened was the animation style changed a little bit? If things behind the scenes had gone even a little differently, the show would've been cancelled in its entirety. (Not to mention we could be seeing the UNFINISHED PRODUCT. CALM. DOWN. And even if we aren't y'all STILL need to CALM. THE HELL. DOWN.)

And as far as I can tell, the story and writing itself seems perfectly fine as well, the ANIMATION TEAM changing has NO EFFECT on the WRITER'S TEAM.

Would you prefer the animation to have changed a little bit with the same quality of writing, or would you prefer the animation stay the same and the writing to go down the drain? Because I've seen that happen before. I lived through VLD. It's a lot fucking worse.

Seriously, I'm not joking. At All. If you make a big enough stink about LMK's style changing just a TINY BIT, sure, they COULD change it, but for a show that is relatively unpopular, barely has a foothold on any LEGAL streaming services and is hanging on to life by the SKIN of its TEETH, has only ELEVEN MINUTES PER EPISODE INCLUDING CREDITS, something a LOT worse is more likely to happen.

With the rate shows get cancelled these days, if people jump ship or complain too much over A TINY DIFFERENCE IN ANIMATION, the show could be cancelled.

Also, I get you're upset and sad to see Flying Bark go, and maybe that's where your anger is coming from, but please keep those thoughts to yourself or in private spaces. If you get too loud about disliking the show in ANY capacity, the entire thing gets nuked.

And if you're still planning on complaining publicly about it...

GET OVER YOURSELF.

IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS, IT'S A CARTOON. CHECK YOUR GODDAMN PRIVILEGE, IT IS THE TINIEST OF ANIMATION CHANGES, KINDLY SHUT UP AND DIRECT THAT ANGER AT SOMETHING USEFUL.

[robotsandramblings]

i did this at the end of Season 2, so let's do another for Season 3 !

[pikatrainer99]

Branch from Trolls has PTSD, paranoia, depression, and anxiety and you can't change my mind! (Part 1: Trolls) (SPOILERS FOR A MOVIE THAT CAME OUT 8 YEARS AGO BUT JUST IN CASE 😅)

(This entire three-part analysis was SUPPOSED to be completed in its entirety by the end of May since it's for mental health awareness month, buuuut...I couldn't finish it in time (had to take a break and take care of myself because my PTSD has relapsed lately...AGAIN... I've been getting triggered really easily by just about anything and I hate it so much 😑), but at least the FIRST part is ready in time...so here we go!

Branch is my favorite character in DreamWorks' Trolls franchise, and for many reasons. One of them being that he is very relatable. As someone with PTSD, paranoia, depression, and anxiety myself, I find it easy to put myself in Branch's tiny Troll feet and feel how he feels. (I also headcanon him as autistic, which I also am, but that's a post for another day). With this series of posts I will be analyzing his character journey and how his mental struggles affect him and his life. I will only be going over the three theatrical films in the franchise in these analysis posts, because, while his mental struggles are ABSOLUTELY present in the TV shows, I haven't seen every episode of the TV shows and I have a lot to discuss with just the three movies because I love Branch and relate to him so much.

So, to start this analysis, let's take a look at the first Trolls film. When Branch is first introduced, he is a grumpy, depressed, pessimistic gray Troll, and the only Troll in the village who doesn't sing, dance, hug, or party.

He instead chooses to spend all his time working on gathering supplies and rations for his, as he says "highly camouflaged, heavily fortified, Bergen-proof survival bunker." He lives in the bunker and has enough provisions to last him ten years…eleven if he's willing to store and drink his own sweat…which he is (gross).

Branch always feels the need to be crazy over-prepared for everything (so do I), no matter how crazy it drives the others (same here). The other Trolls all say that he ruins everything by interrupting their fun and panicking that "The Bergens are coming!" when in reality there's no Bergen in sight and there hasn't been for 20 years by that point and he's just paranoid. To them, he's basically like the boy who cried wolf…or in this case, the Troll who cried Bergen.

When Poppy invites Branch to her party, Branch immediately declines, saying that he "wouldn't be caught dead at her party" before adding that all the others "will be caught and dead" because of how big, loud, and crazy it's going to be. Branch frustratedly declares that Poppy's party is just gonna lead the Bergens right to the Trolls, and they all just brush his warning off because they haven't had to worry about Bergens in 20 years. That night, during the party, Branch is out collecting more provisions and he looks at the party from afar, scoffing at the others and their carefree attitudes before retreating back to his bunker. Before he knows it though, Poppy is banging on his door because a Bergen attacked the party and took all her friends. Branch, in his paranoia and anxiety, drags Poppy inside the bunker with him and sets up all his traps as they sit and wait in silence before Poppy tells him the Bergen is gone.

Branch, still paranoid, doesn't believe her and says that it could still be out there "watching…waiting…listening…" He clearly feels like he can never let his guard down, always on hyper-alert, checking for any danger. This is a common symptom of PTSD - hyper-vigilance (I have this symptom myself), and it can contribute to paranoia, making it even worse (it definitely does for me, and it looks like it's the same for Branch).

When Poppy asks him to go to Bergen Town with her to save everyone, Branch, with no hesitation, says no, that they're not his friends, they're Poppy's friends, and that he's staying in his bunker because his bunker is safe. He takes her down to the lower levels of the bunker, and this is where we see some obvious evidence of his mental state. There is frantic fear writing ALL OVER THE WALLS, and it says things like, "Run", "Danger", "Bergens eat us", "Teeth in the night", among many other things that are hastily scribbled and illegible (though Branch has bad writing in general, so it's already hard to read, but my point stands). He's even got multiple papers with horrifying drawings of the Bergens hung up on that wall as well. I have never really seen anyone else in this fandom talk about the writing all over Branch's walls, so I'm gonna talk about it myself. It makes it look like the poor guy spiraled, lost control, and had a manic episode…or eleven.

(Seriously, just LOOK at all this!!! This man is NOT okay!!!)

He's clearly TERRIFIED of Bergens, and wants to do everything in his power to avoid ever encountering one (which, fair, they do wanna EAT the Trolls, so that's a valid fear). Branch's fear of Bergens though, is not a normal fear, it seems to be a phobia, which would explain the paranoia. Obviously there's something going on inside his head involving Bergens that will definitely be revealed later. (foreshadowing)

Poppy completely disrespects Branch's needs, wishes, and privacy by letting all the other Trolls into the bunker while she goes to save her friends that got taken. This kinda made me upset because Branch clearly didn't give her permission to invade his personal space like that and make his own home suddenly feel unsafe with everyone there going through his stuff all at once. He freaks out when it's "Hug Time" because he doesn't want to be touched, especially not by all these Trolls he doesn't trust, so he packs a backpack and goes after Poppy, saving her from some spiders.

(This is honestly really upsetting to watch, she totally disrespects and ignores his boundaries here and it hurts to see him freak out over Hug Time because I also hate being touched, which means I also dislike hugs as a result of that...I only willingly hug my grandparents, that's it, no one else, not even my own parents.)

The whole way to Bergen Town, Branch is gloomy, brooding, and irritable. He tells Poppy that the world isn't all "cupcakes and rainbows" when she asks what happened to him to make him the way he is.

Poppy and her constant singing get on his nerves, the worst instance of this being when she starts singing at night when he's trying to sleep, making him angry enough to throw her ukulele into the campfire, burning it.

(This scene always gets a laugh out of me, the way it's animated is just perfect comedy XD)

Singing is clearly triggering for him, which we find out why later on when he adamantly refuses to sing with the others when they're trying to help Bridget get a date with King Gristle by giving her a makeover. Poppy asks him why he won't sing and he responds with (probably) the most iconic line in the entire film (and not one that people seem to be able to take seriously…but I take it as seriously as can be): "BECAUSE SINGING KILLED MY GRANDMA, OKAY?!"

(His facial expressions here as he tells the story of what happened to his grandma are just...DreamWorks nailed it, and also the knee hugging pose...he's just like me for real 🥺)

We then see a flashback of a young Branch, happy and colorful, singing his heart out, but the Chef Bergen comes for him and he's so lost in song he doesn't notice, or hear his grandma warning him.

This causes his grandma to push him out of the way, and get taken instead.

Branch is so distraught by his grandma's sacrifice, that he loses all his happiness and becomes depressed, turning gray in the process, and vowing to never sing again.

(This poor child had to witness his grandma meet her untimely demise...and he blames himself for it...that's really depressing in my opinion, I seriously don't understand why people find this scene funny, it triggered my own PTSD really BAD the first time I watched it...I'm used to it now so I don't have my PTSD triggered by it anymore but it still hurts to watch.)

Now the bigger picture is clear. He's got PTSD and paranoia involving the Bergens because of what happened with his grandma as a child. His grandma's sacrifice also started his severe depressive state, as evidenced by him turning gray immediately after she got taken. When the flashback ends, Branch is staring silently and sadly out the window, looking like he's trying not to cry, his depression getting a hold of him once again.

(Again, DreamWorks really nailed the facial expressions here...he looks so broken 🥺)

I understand how he's feeling in that scene, my grandma is my LIFELINE, the person I feel the safest with…seriously I confide in her and tell her more things than I tell my own mom because I trust my grandma more…I even stayed at her house for a while a few years back during my worst mental crisis ever just so I could have the feeling of constant safety and less nightmares…so if something ever happened to her I wouldn't be able to live with myself. Singing is a trigger for him, and so are Bergens in general…which makes me upset at the others, AGAIN, when they sing the song that Branch was singing during that time…my thoughts were like, "Come ON guys, that song is probably the most triggering song for him…" As you can probably tell, I get upset with the others quite a few times whenever I watch this film, because of how they treat Branch. Eventually the entirety of Troll Village is thrown in a pot, ready to be served for Trollstice, and it's here where Branch's character development really becomes apparent. Poppy turns gray, quickly followed by all the other Trolls, and Branch looks around at everyone turning gray, like him, and, desperate to do something about it and help the girl he's now grown to love, he finally breaks his 20-year-long "no singing" vow as he begins to sing "True Colors" in what is probably the most beautiful scene in the entire film (I know it's my personal favorite scene).

(There they all go...turning gray...and Branch is just looking around at everyone, clearly upset by this.)

(His expressions here...you can tell he's thinking, "I've gotta do something!" And he does, and it's beautiful 🥺)

Thanks to Branch, Poppy and the other Trolls are able to regain their colors, and thanks to Poppy, Branch FINALLY regains his colors after 20 years!

(He's getting his colors back! I always feel so happy when I watch the True Colors scene, it's just so beautiful and satisfying 😌👍)

(They're so cute, look at them dance together 🥺! Broppy is best Trolls ship and no one can convince me otherwise, these two are PERFECT for each other 😌)

He thanks Poppy for showing him how to be happy, stating that "happiness is inside of all of us, sometimes you just need someone to help you find it", quoting one of Poppy's lines from earlier in the film. Branch now feels comfortable singing and dancing with Poppy and the other Trolls as they teach the Bergens that same lesson by singing "Can't Stop The Feeling", which helps the Trolls finally make peace with the Bergens after many many years of fearing being eaten by them.

Poppy is crowned queen, Branch finally asks for (and gets) a hug from her even though it's not Hug Time, and the movie ends.

(They are so adorable I can't take it!)

This is not the end of Branch's journey though, there's still two more movies to cover! I'll be covering the second movie hopefully soon, so I hope you look forward to that, and I hope you enjoyed this character analysis on Branch in the first movie! If I missed anything please feel free to let me know in the comments! I sometimes miss things especially with relatable characters because sometimes there are aspects that trigger me so I try to forget about those aspects, and sometimes the character as a whole just hits too close to home and writing analyses on them is too overwhelming because of that (Branch is one of those characters, so it took me ages to write this and gather all the GIFs and images...and also this entire analysis was written ENTIRELY from my memory of the events in the first movie, so there's that part too). Also please excuse the potato quality images and GIFs...I tried my best to find good ones but most of them I found are just REALLY bad quality so...sorry about that 😅

Okay, that's about it for this post! I'll see you guys next time for another Branch analysis, this time for Trolls World Tour! Catch ya later! 👋

[satirates]

Rise of the TMNT fans, I need your advice. I'm a huge TMNT fan from the early 2000. I've watched and loved every single movies, shows and comics in the franchise (yeah, even the strange one like the 90s TV show and the Bay movies. I just really love the turtle bros)

The only one I haven't watched in its entirety so far is ROTTMNT. I started watching it when it came out in 2018 and I thought it was so good! It is different from other iteration, as expected with every new TMNT shows. This is what I love with this franchise, and Rise follow up right in its predecessor's path. But three things kept me from going past the first 10 episodes:

1. This show is overwhelmingly fast to me. The brothers are trowing jokes and quips so fast and it never really stopped to breath for 10 seconds. The lack of clear storyline didn't help this feeling, since it didn't give me an anchor to focus on while the other stuff is being thrown on screen as fast as Sonic throw himself at a chilly dog. 2. I know it's more of a ''me problem'', but Leo is SO different, it's literally difficult for me to think of him as the same characters as his other iterations. I love when the writers change things with the turtle's personality since it keeps the franchise fresh, but it was never to THIS extend. Watching rottmnt felt like entering a room where everything has been shifted a little bit to the left, as expected, and then you realize that someone has replaced the couch by a huge ping sofa. I'm still not sure how to deal with the pink sofa. I've never had one before. Also the sofa has the same voice and personality as Dewey from my favourite 2010s show, which is probably 50% of the reasons why it's hard for me to love him now that I think of it.

3. Terrible interactions with people in the fandom that were quite mean (I've felt Now, here's my question to rottmnt fans: should I give this show another go? Will it get less overwhelming and more focused with time? Will Leo grow into the character he's supposed to be, while keeping the traits that make this version of him so unique? Is the fandom welcoming, or treat me like garbage because I like, praise and critique most of TMNT medias, including some that are really different from Rise?

I really want to like this show. I don't want it to be the only one I don't like. Maybe I need to watch it in French so I don't get thrown off by Ben Schwartz too much

[shinneth]

My souring sentiments on Sailor Moon's manga

It'll be a surprise to no one who knows me even remotely that Sailor Moon was my everything back in my childhood. From the age of 9, I was utterly obsessed with it.

That was just a couple of years shy of 30 years ago.

Since then, I've often revisited the series. I watched the entirety of the Viz dub of the classic anime; all 200 episodes.

And I loved it all the same, if not more so than before. Because now I have context for why exactly the anime was the way it was, including its gradual diversion from the manga source material. And I respect the hell out of the staff who poured their life into this work, while concurrently running with the manga and doing whatever it could to not completely outpace it in the narrative.

Are there a lot of fillers in the OG anime? Yes. Too many? Well, not so from a functional standpoint (this show had to run weekly for 5 years), but there are definitely some fillers you could skip and miss nothing in doing so.

But a story like Sailor Moon honestly needed some breathing room in order to properly flesh out the cast.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, the live-action reimagining of the show, was phenomenal back then (despite looking low-budget even by 2003 standards), and having re-watched the whole series recently, I can safely say PGSM more than holds up and deserves way more love and respect than it gets. It's THE perfect example of reimagining the story of Sailor Moon while still respecting its roots and maintaining the soul of the franchise.

Which is exactly why I couldn't stand Sailor Moon Crystal. We knew from the off that it was supposed to be completely faithful to the manga, but one look through @crystalvsmanga will show you Crystal took shitloads of "creative liberties", and the amount of changes I could dare to call "good"? I could count them on one hand.

The animation is low-hanging fruit, because everyone and their dog knows how godawful it was for the first two story arcs. But more than that, I actually loathed the general art design. Yukie Sakou's style DID NOT closely resemble Naoko Takeuchi's. People kept saying it, but I couldn't really see it. The eyes especially are a far cry from Takeuchi's style. And Sakou's style did NOT facilitate the OTT cartoony expressions that were definitely present in Takeuchi's manga; everyone looked so goddamn soulless, like overly-expensive porcelain dolls.

My biggest gripe with Crystal was the story, of course. While a great deal came from just being from the manga (which I'll get to in a bit), the changes they made went a long way to actively make the manga's story worse. My main takeaway from Crystal S1-2 is that it took itself waaaaay too seriously.

That being said, I did like Crystal's third season a lot better BECAUSE Chiaki Kon had way more competence and held a lot more respect for Sailor Moon. Like, my god, for once it felt like there was a soul in this show! It can actually take the piss every now and then!

Some silly things kinda broke my immersion (such as the Senshi just being able to fuckin' fly and Chibi-Moon in particular was literally sky-stepping), but most of that can be blamed on the source material it was adapting. While I was fine with Crystal3, I definitely didn't feel it was anywhere near as good as Sailor Moon S. Outside of Hotaru/Sailor Saturn having more of a presence, there wasn't really much in Crystal's take on Infinity that I liked better than S.

But most of that comes down to the fact that I liked S more than manga's Infinity arc to begin with.

Which is a good segue to talk about the manga proper.

I have not yet watched Eternal or Cosmos. the movies that adapted the last two manga arcs, but it'd be redundant since I know ahead of time what they're going to be about, and so far I haven't heard about any of them deviating from the source material, so it'd be moot to talk about them even if I had watched.

When I first got my hands on the manga, which was when I was around 12-13 and thus got the crappy MiXxZine translations, I was fine enough with it. Thought it was too fast-paced and didn't care for 99% of the villains being one-and-done jobbers, but I was also reading it with my impressions of the 90's anime characters still intact. I was reading the manga like an extension of the anime, rather than the other way around.

It wasn't until many years later when I grew older, when the manga was properly translated, when I acquired the wisdom my teenaged-ass self lacked, and learned to look at the manga as a completely separate entity that I started to see the cracks in the manga's narrative.

Further rereads have left me in something of a mindfuck, as I experienced the manga the proper way. And I realized:

The more I read the manga, the more I disliked it.

The manga is lauded for having an infinitely better depiction of Mamoru, as well as his ~Miracle Romance~ with Usagi.

Objectively, the manga definitely spends lots more time giving UsaMamo attention as a couple than any other aspect of the story...

I'd say they're also more developed as individuals in the manga too, but usually the beats, uh...

... let's say they usually ring hollow, when these two (and sometimes their daughter) are the only ones who consistently get shit done across the series. Hell, on the rare occasion that the Inner Senshi weren't rendered into street pizza, Neo Queen Serenity basically told them to fuck off and let her daughter, past self, and past hubby take on motherfucking DEATH PHANTOM/NEMESIS BY THEMSELVES.

It's likely because my first exposure to Sailor Moon was via the 90s anime, which had more of a focus on friendship and comradery between Usagi and her friends than it did her romance with Mamoru. I mean, romance was DEFINITELY a prominent thing even in that iteration of the story, but that wasn't where my interest lied. I was, am currently, and always will be more interested in Usagi's galpals than I'll ever be interested in her love life.

And, well, I'm sure this qualifies as a hot take, but...

This one moment with Usagi and Mamoru in the elevator (hell, their interaction across this entire episode was great) resonated with me far more than any ultra-romantic declarations of eternal devotion that Usagi and Mamoru kept regurgitating at each other in the manga.

Granted, the manga had a FEW moments early on where their dynamic was more playful, but they were pretty much confined to the early chapters and this element of their chemistry pretty much died not long after this.

Some say 90s anime Mamoru was far too mean-spirited in his teasing of Usagi. And I mean, sure, he was kind of a douche at times, but he usually got some karmic blowback from it (I remember one time he made Usagi cry without even really meaning to, and she cried so loud in public that randos nearby were giving Mamoru the evil-eye or a scolding). But honestly, after R, Mamoru kinda became a bland, generic love interest, just as he almost always was in the manga. The only difference was that anime Mamoru was never granted powers that were literally equal to Usagi's. The manga gave him a GOLDEN FUCKING CRYSTAL.

There was that infamous break-up arc in R that, yes, was shitty in concept and execution. But if I had anything positive to say about it, it at least shook up the status quo. It didn't make him immediately fall into the bland, generic love interest he would soon become. And it gave us some of the most emotionally-charged Usagi moments in the entire anime.

Conversely, in the manga, we had THIS shit for our UsaMamo "drama":

(the former incident with Usagi literally accusing her boyfriend of falling in love with a kid, by the way, happened while MOST OF HER FRIENDS WERE KIDNAPPED BY THE ENEMY AND COULD'VE BEEN DEAD FOR ALL SHE KNEW AND YET SHE FUCKING HAD TIME FOR THIS STUPID SHIT)

Everything seemed to revolve around Usagi and Mamoru (sometimes Chibiusa too). It lowkey came off that way at times even in the 90s anime, but in the manga or Crystal? You'd be hard-pressed to find the girls engaging in their stated hobbies at most points in time, because they're usually all together and talking about their prince and princess.

Hell, even Haruka - Sailor Uranus herself - seemed much more interested in Usagi than she ever did in Michiru, her actual girlfriend.

So... am I just missing something? I've seen people say that as they grow older, they prefer the manga/Crystal to the 90s anime. But I've never seen anyone other than myself express the opposite sentiment.

But it's true - unless I completely leave my brain at the door, I have a hard time enjoying the manga for what it is. The characters I'm most interested in or attached to quickly get swept aside for the characters I have the least interest in. No more does that ring true than the Stars arc of the manga, where Naoko Takeuchi basically speedruns killing off literally the entire cast until Sailor Moon's the only one left standing. Most characters don't even get to go out in a blaze of glory or anything - it's got nothing on the finale of the 90s anime's first season in that regard. If you're lucky, you'll get a single panel where your entire existence is ripped to shreds - but sometimes you'll be killed literally off-screen!!

There's a number of questionable manga-exclusive aspects that rubbed me the wrong way as well, such as poor Sailor Pluto being assigned as a child to guard the Door of Time in complete and total solitude. While I appreciate more Silver Millennium lore that the manga provided (the anime hardly mentioned it past the first arc), it was more than a little uncomfortable knowing the OG Queen Serenity conscripted the Inner Senshi as small children to become Princess Serenity's guardians. Really casts Queen Serenity and her Moon Kingdom in a much darker light - like maybe Queen Beryl and Queen Nehelenia had a point in trying to take them down (though the manga I believe retcons all past villains as incarnations of Chaos, so that arguably removes all prior villains' agency?). Lots of little things that I didn't think twice about, but now that I look at them again, I'm wondering WTF Naoko Takeuchi was thinking.

Though I don't want to be too hard on her. Poor girl was working under stress far longer than she'd planned to (she'd intended on ending the story either by the Dark Kingdom or Black Moon arc), so it's no surprise there's a lot of clunk and clutter in the narrative.

I often wondered if Naoko Takeuchi really wanted to make Sailor Moon with a Super Sentai-esque setup in the first place. After all, her first big hit was Sailor V, which was exclusively Minako and Artemis fighting evil with Minako having her own masked love interest she ended up being at odds with and he eventually died. With a scant few secondary characters here and there.

It led to me thinking about what Sailor Moon would be like if Naoko kept the cast to a more Sailor V-like size. That, perhaps, the Sailor Moon she really wanted to make would be quite a different beast from how we know it to be today.

So this lengthy diatribe about my personal conflicts with my waning fondness for the manga versus my strengthened love for the OG anime and live-action show was actually a preamble to a bizarre AU I wrote an outline for over a year ago but never posted in public. I had considered posting it to Sailor Moon's Reddit back then, but I (probably wisely) held off, as my musing went way off the rails.

But I figured now's a good time as any to share it here, at least. Though it'll need to be its own post since I wrote so goddamn much in this post alone, wow.

On that note, I'll end with this: The only iteration of UsaMamo that I unironically enjoyed and rooted for is...

[lol-jackles]

Have you rewatched Supernatural since the show ended. I have watched the odd episode here and there but just haven't gotten around to starting the show again.

I don't rewatch any shows in its entirety, my memories do that work for me.  There are some shows that I'll rewatch if I come across them while channel surfing, with some caveats.  For example, If it's a Star Trek: Next Gen episode, I check to see if Riker has a beard or not.  No beard = keep channel surfing.  A beard present means the episode has a greater chance of being good.  If Sam Winchester has a prince Valiant hairstyle without bangs, then it's season 10  and that's a "no".

Now there are shows that stay with me for years, decades even, that I think about, especially as I get older and suddenly the context of arcs or lines hits differently.  Will Supernatural be one of them?  Well actually due to its longevity, it already has.  I didn't like how it was  implied in season 5 that Chuck was God and I kept trying to push a round Chuck through a square shaped Judeo-Christian hole until it hit me that Chuck is actually a Demiurg who merely shaped the material reality.  In Gnosticism, the Demiurge acts antagonistic to the will of the One True God or to all things spiritually pure.  Similarly the angels in Neil Garman's books are also Demiurges that created the universe and Earth. 

I sometimes think about Sam’s hero journey-ing through the dark hearts of the American gothic roads with his brother who is his greatest ally, best friend, and sometimes his enemy.  Like how soulless Sam Winchester was unintentionally Dean’s ideal brother on paper, but Dean didn’t want him because soulless Sam wasn’t Dean’s.  Like how new mothers want their baby even though there are probably better options in the hospital nursery ward.  Newborn babies are all the same at that stage, what differences does it make to pick one over the other?  For the new mothers, the answer is obvious.  

A hero's journey is often about death and rebirth. The death of an aspect of a character and the birth of some new ways of life. Sam cycle through this a few times, with Dean being both death of an aspect of Sam's character and then his actual deaths gave Sam new ways of life, both bad and good, and finally good. Or I'm just thinking about it too much at random and unexpected times.

[thingsthatbleedfic]

how much of alex rider would you recommend someone read/watch to get the full experience of the fic? i know you've said you're making it understandable to people who haven't read/watched it, but i personally like knowing some backstory before reading fanfics! (apologies if this has been asked before!)

Hi! Thanks so much for this ask and sorry for the delay in answering! We are using a blended canon of the books and show (mostly bc the show is only in its second season so far) But we're also playing just as fast and loose with AR canon as we are the DP canon. That being said, our recommendation is to watch the AR show! (It's free to watch with ads). Even if you only watch a few episodes, it's really great to establish the tone that this fic is set in. (I would personally encourage you watch the entirety of the show becuase it's really just so well done and the three of us agree that it's... honestly better than the books. merely because of its more serious and darker tone. The books were written in the 00s-10s for kids and the show is adapting it in a way that reflects that they understand that their audience are all adults now.) Books wise, if you want to know more about Yassen, (one of the main characters of the fic) we ARE keeping Yassen's canon backstory; Russian Roulette, the Yassen origin solo novel, is a really great read and will give you TONS of context. Yassen is unfortunatly not a HUGE part of the AR book canon. He only shows up like 3-4 times in two of the books and then haunts the narrative for the remianing majority.

[animentality]

you know, farscape, more than any other older sci fi that I've seen, has been really good at just not having a whole lot of stinkers.

like I say this as a Star Trek fan... there are plenty of bad and boring Star Trek episodes. there are plenty of really bad Babylon Five episodes.

the entirety of the final season of Battlestar Galactica is a train wreck.

but farscape I can only think of two episodes I genuinely haven't liked, as opposed to a handful that were silly but at least fun character wise.

and that's the episode where Crichton is in a simulation because it tells you right away it's nonsense by killing off rygel, and then it painfully drags itself out and makes you wait 40 minutes to reveal something you already know, which is that it's fake. Plus it's dumb to have Aeryn and him hook up only to reveal it's fake. I already hate will they won't they. a fake simulation that teases it but I know it's bullshit right from the beginning...bad.

really boring and a huge waste of time.

the other one I hate is the one with neanderthal Crichton. god I hate neanderthal episodes.

but I'm deep into season 2, and I think only having two episodes I genuinely did not enjoy is pretty good.

it's stellar actually.

also one of the worst things about older sci fi is that for a lot of them you have to really wait for it to get going and for the characters to get into their groove.

farscape really did it faster than any other sci fi I've watched. I think I warmed up to the universe and its characters by like... episode 3? which is very fast.

even my favorite show, ds9, doesn't get going that fast.

so I'm really enjoying farscape, still.

I love those alien freaks.

[thetreestumptherapist]

Red vs blue nostalgia

I consider it a tragedy I only started watching red vs blue after I found out Rooster Teeth was shutting down. I have been finding the episodes on youtube and have compiled a playlist of the entirety of red vs blue, complete with intros, even if some of the seasons have the intros built in. I can't find season 6's intro, and I haven't gotten the intros beyond that. I am currently at season 5 in watching them.

My gift to you all:

I was born in the golden age of gaming, the problem is, I wasn't old enough to experience it. I grew up playing halo, but none of the online stuff that people get nostalgic about. I would love to find a group of people to get online and go through the old maps with, but that will have to be a later event.

Red vs Blue is a master piece. I never watched it at it's peak, but somehow it's still nostalgic and screams "2000's". I first found out about it from seeing a meme of Sarge saying "we've been tricked. We've been backstabbed. And we've been quite possibly bamboozled." I recognized the armor as being from halo and frantically searched for the origin of that saying. I think I did find that it came from red vs blue, but I didn't watch it at that time. And then I saw it again later on prime (don't know how long it was there), but never got to asking my mom if I could watch it. She would never had said yes... The number of inappropriate jokes, references, and comments...

Them: "When you first saw halo red vs blue, were you blinded by it's majesty?" Me: "Blinded? I was in tears at its beauty."

The theme song is perfection. The voices were instantly iconic, and became even more iconic when I found out it was because the actors had to phone in their lines and they decided to keep that tinny/muffled effect instead of rerecording them. That's how you make something memorable. And it all started with a group of friends, an awesome videogame, and a simple yet deep question: "You ever wonder why we're here?"

[missjessefantastico]

How is the movie ableist? And if you know you’re photosensitive to flashing lights or differentiating colors why not just /skip/ the episode especially considering that it’s obvious you’ve watched this movie before??? Why bitch like seriously 🤦🏻‍♀️

here's the thing: there is a lot of people who can't watch this movie without health repercussions. best case scenario? they get dizzy, worst case scenario? they die, and it's not even an overreaction, i wish it was, but people can die from seizures because, (un)fun fact: seizures are a neurological issue

so, how is it ableist? besides abusing an effect that can kill people, an effect that has been banned in japan since 1997 because they are aware of what can happen from a bit of exposure to it, especialy when it comes to kids (google electric soldier porygon, a lot of kids ended up in the hospital), they still haven't issued any official warning, which is the bare minimum.

itsv came out in 2018, people ended up in the hospital, people asked a lot of times to have a warning about these effects and not only the first movie didn't get any warning, the second didn't either

"but you already know" no, i haven't always known. here's the thing: you assume that i have watched the movie, but no, i haven't not in its entirety, because i started to watch not knowing about the effects, i started to feel dizzy, and only then was informed that the entire movie is a hazard for my health

this happened with me knowing that i have photosensitivity, imagine if i hadn't known that and chalked the dizziness to hunger or whatever and kept watching?

why bitch? seizures aren't the only photosensitivity condition, but they are the ones i know, and let me tell you something about them: they are deeply traumatic. i assume you are also familiar with sanders sides, where we tag a character as a trigger warning because he reminds people of their abusers. i'm in favor of that, but then why is the fandom so upset when i ask for warnings for a thing that is not only traumatizing but that could send me to the hospital?

there was a warning in the video? yes, but it was barely legible and it was on top of another thing that can cause seizures

i did skip the episode, but that doesn't stop me from thinking that the approach is bullshit when i have sent endless messages to thomas, messages that he has replied to, but the issue remains

i'm not saying sony or thomas did it with malice, but how many times do we have to ask to be at the very least correctly warned? especially in a movie where the message is inclusivity and a youtuber who has always preached respect? why are photosensitive folks excluded from that inclusivity and respect?

[ladyluscinia]

honestly thanks for the closest thing the destiel shippers have to propaganda bc so far the "propaganda" has been "they're just voting against us? that's not a way to vote!" and "this is the supernatural website!" which is. not convincing, speaking as someone who is truly more neutral to both pairings and... people who are saying the latter has been in spnblr for probably the entirety of its airings but from my experience probably more ppl have grown out of supernatural -- see: how many people had supernatural urls from 2012, 2010, to now

Honestly a big part of it is probably a) we know full well that Destiel polls get flooded with meme votes so like. Joking about the Destiel website is a lot less energy to give for a bunch of people that are mostly joke voting anyway 🤷‍♀️ like the voters' opinions on Destiel are 99% already set so any propaganda effort is something you are doing just for you. Most of spnblr is passing around posts about the poll and our eternal losing state more than the poll itself.

And second... Destiel propaganda is like. Really hard. There's so much fucking context in a 12 year slowburn. The Colette parallels are possibly the most insane ship subtext I've ever seen but trying to put that in propaganda form is either a bunch of bloggers going "they didn't even cast Abel 💀💀💀" or a long post where I'm desperately hoping you haven't moved on / written me off as making shit up from nothing by paragraph 7 because I cannot emphasize enough how much that was actually an insane Destiel thing in the show but also I have to compare dialogue lines from 3 different episodes and the overarching Mark of Cain plot from seasons 9 and 10 to even begin to explain how.

The angel saves a man from hell and then turns on Heaven for him in a single season? Amazing. Now I need you to watch the next roughly 250 episodes so we can talk about Advanced Thanatology and that entire ending scene.

[yuurivoice]

Re: Have you been watching any shows lately? If so, what would you recommend?

A sexy Sith! Oh la la sign me up I would love to watch that.

I was just wondering about your recommendations. I’ve been catching up on one piece and I tell you there’s a lot of fucking episodes. I’m like on episode 510 right now and I started back in March right now. I’m just taking a couple of days off so I can kind of get my mind back together.

Love your videos by the way and I see you’re getting more and more fans that’s awesome dude. ♥️ keep up the good work! 👍

Thank you!

I realize I didn't really give any proper recommendations in my first answer, so let me have a think.

If I had to think of something to watch right now, my list would go something like..

The Bear - Excellent Dramedy, feels like a theater production in the way scenes are staged and performed. Heavy subject matter, so I'd check the content warnings, but I think those subjects are handled in some very great ways which has made it easy to digest even if it has hit a few of my own sore spots. Season 3 just dropped, episodes are 30ish minutes, very easy watch if you can handle some of the stress. I have to take breaks. LOL

Breaking Bad & Better Call Saul - Really can't say enough good things. Personally prefer BCS as a whole because Walter White might be the most insufferable fuck of a man ever, and while I love him for it, much like his family I just want him to get the fuck away from me after a while. Meanwhile, Jimmy/Saul is a fuck up, but not morally reprehensible to the point of being vile.

Xmen 97 - It's fucking good. Really fucking good. Really horny. Really messy. Really excellent. Beats the entirety of recent MCU projects a dozen times over and it's not even close. The themes it represents are still as relevant as ever, if not moreso.

Berserk (1997) - Another content warning check, but it's great. Will always be great. Not for the reasons the gym bros and wannabe Chads might make you think it's great. It's a classic for a reason. Alternatively you could watch the Golden Age movies for a condensed and modernized look at it. Don't watch the recent anime series, its...not great.

Assorted Anime Recs - Gurren Lagann, Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop, FMA Brotherhood, any Studio Ghibli movie, Steins;Gate

I'm very bad at remembering what I like so I'm never a great answer for recommendations and such. Also I haven't watched much new shit in years so...I'm also pretty outdated.

[queen-of-obsessing]

i'm extremely uncomfortable with the way judas is being portrayed this season. (lil vent post)

obviously spoilers for all of season 4. and also i haven't seen the season in its entirety yet, this is just based on what my friend has told me and the leaked scenes i've seen. also also this is only talking about show!Judas, as he's being portrayed by the writers, not the bible version, becauseee we know nothing about that one.

i just watched one of the leaked clips from season 4 (because the stupid chosen team hasn't put it on streaming yet), and i'm acc crying rn. like irl. real tears. i'm so choked up, i feel physically ill, and not for any good reasons. this isn't gonna be one of those "oh wow i'm literally sobbing this show is so good 😍" type posts.

i feel sick.

seeing judas just claw and scramble for any sort of positive attention from the disciples around him is sickening. every single time he brings up an idea for how he can positively help the ministry and use his skills (the only way he knows how to coming from a business background), the others just shoot him down. you can see how hard he's trying to win their validation and find some sort of footing within the group and nothing is working.

and zee just compares him to dirty laundry? like to be able to be part of the twelve he has to ditch every single aspect of his life?? THE LIFE THAT PROBABLY SAVED HIM FROM BEING A DESTITUTE ORPHAN. I wouldn't be surprised if Hadad was the one that took him in after his parents died and taught him business skills. It's how he sees the world!!! it's how he was taught to see the world!!

yet no one ever takes any time to see his perspective or give him any chance to meaningfully contribute. he's just this permanent outsider, trying to get in but never ever being fully in. everyone just keeps speaking in cryptic riddles, talking about prophecies and nothing Jesus says makes any sense either, and now even Jesus is rebuking him. judas is probably completely lost and confused by the time we get to episode 8 of season 4.

and it's really uncomfortable to watch.

as someone who grew up in the church, and also saw the world in a very different way from everyone else, I've also experienced what judas is experiencing. desperately clawing for some sort of place in the church AND NOTHING WORKING. I haven't been to church in nearly a year because everytime i tried, i just didn't fit. they didn't want me, i always felt perpetually on the outside of the circle.

on top of that, i'm 99% sure i'm autistic, so like judas, i see the world very logically. i like to have things told in a very straightforward way, and think in very material concepts (for him it's money). But the "Christianese" never made any sense to me. I never understood it. So I spent my days in the church perpetually alone, never fitting in and never fully understanding who I was even supposed to be believing in because nobody took the time to explain it to me in a way I could understand, but vaguely knowing that I wanted to believe in something.

I believe Judas wanted to believe in Jesus, and did believe in Him, but never fully understood why.

...and then he dies. I'm still wondering how the show is going to handle the lead up to his betrayal, but I'm going to assume continually being rejected by the other disciples had something to do with it.

and you know what else is really sick about all this? Jesus fully knowing that Judas was going to betray Him and kill himself. and he just...lets it happen. like he's some sort of sacrificial scapegoat. it makes me so mad??

i could rant about this for hours but yea. i'll just leave this here. Dallas you have so much fking explaining to do. i dread watching this season...