#i love how gay the new seasons of dr who are

[turtleeeee22]

Some drawings of the 10th doctor and one of Rose. Most of these are pretty old. As you might be able to tell I am a nerd. :)

[starstruckbyacomet]

Brilliant Minds vs. 9-1-1

A True Lover vs. an Abusive Lover

A post from @bugboybuck about how Brilliant Minds is telling a queer love story (Wolf x Nichols) compared to 9-1-1 (Buck x Tommy) intrigued me. If anyone interested, here's a playlist of Wolf x Nichols' story on YouTube:

A. SIMILARITIES & DIFFERENCES

There are things in the Wolf x Nichols's love story which are similar with Buck x Tommy's of 9-1-1:

Dr. Josh Nichols (a.k.a. Nichols) is a gay man in his 40s.

Nichols is a military veteran, who survived the DADT era.

There's a period when Nichols didn't appear on screen.

Nichols broke up with Dr. Oliver Wolf (a.k.a. Wolf) when their relationship was still new.

Sound familiar?

And here's how Brilliant Minds is telling its queer love story better differently:

1)) Interactions between Wolf and Nichols are front and center. They're collaborating a lot in handling high risk medical cases. It helps that both Zachary Quinto (who plays Wolf) and Teddy Sears (who plays Nichols) are main casts, like Ronen Rubinstein and Rafael Silva in Lone Star. Thus, Wolf x Nichols' relationship is treated more like Tarlos' relationship than Tevan's.

2)) Wolf fought for their relationship. Brilliant Minds depicts Oliver Wolf as a genius and relentless doctor. Wolf does anything and everything for his patients. He broke a bunch of hospital rules, challenged the head of neurosurgeon (Nichols), took a patient out of hospital right before a scheduled surgery to grant the patient's last wish. Even when a patient gave up and wanted to die, Wolf didn't give up. Thus, when Nichols broke up with him, Wolf also didn't give up. He fought for another chance with Nichols.

Wolf's attitude is very much in contrast with Buck's. On episode 4x05, Athena has said that being Buck meant never give up. However, Buck's attitude after Tommy broke up with him is pretty much giving up their relationship.

3)) Nichols' presence could be felt even when he was not on screen. When Nichols had to attend a medical conference out of the city, his name was mentioned in conversations. Wolf had been sending him voice messages (Wolf didn't have a mobile phone), until finally Nichols sent Wolf a mobile phone as a gift. Wolf was also seen receiving a call from Nichols using his brand new mobile phone. Each of those scenes only last a few seconds, and Nichols was not physically present in them, not even his voice was. However, the audience could feel his presence, and feel that their love story is continuing.

How is this contrast with the way 9-1-1 treated Tevan? Oh, where should I begin? @do-androids-dream-ao3acc has posted signs that the show has undermined Tevan's relationship once Season 8 started, even before the break up:

Nobody ever mentioning Tommy, not even Buck.

Not one kiss in all of those episodes, except the fleeting cheek kiss in the break-up episode.

Six months and still no obvious inclusion of Tommy (back) into the 118 group, except when he was accompanying Buck who was waiting for Denny's surgery in the hospital.

After the break up, the signs are even more clear:

Buck was flustered when talking with a woman during his anniversary date with Tommy. Despite making Buck seemed rude and tactless, what is the actual purpose of this scene? It seems to remind the audience that Buck is still attracted to women, hence laying the ground for Buck's rebound relationships which most likely will involve women.

Buck didn't seem to mourn the break up. He was channeling his supposed brokenheart into baking, but he didn't seem to be grieving. He seemed anxious/upset when talking about Tommy, but not mourning or depressed. His demeanor even back to normal on the scenes when he didn't talk about Tommy, like on emergency scenes, or while watching Hotshots together with his team. Heck, Tevan fans have been grieving the relationship more than Buck has.

They made light the break up by having Buck baking. The show might want to emphasize the 'comedic' side of this supposed 'romcom'. However, it came off as tone-deaf since the audience was grieving more than Buck was.

People close to Buck seemed to want him to move on instead of to be back together with Tommy. In Season 7, Bobby said Tommy was good for Buck, and Henren asked Tommy about his intention with Buck. However, after the break up, no one seemed to talk to either Buck or Tommy about it. They even took Buck's phone away in one ocassion, prevented Buck from contacting Tommy and having a discussion with him like adults.

B. THE MIXED SIGNALS

Despite the above negative signals, the show has also been giving baits positive signs about the possibility of Tevan's reunion:

Buck is still in a baking frenzy because he is supposed to be still thinking about Tommy.

#TommybubblesBuck in episode 8x07 "Hotshots".

In a Screen Rant article, Tim Minear blatantly mentioned about the possibility of characters' return, including Brad and Tommy without promising anything concrete.

So far, we have been receiving mixed signals about Tevan's reunion:

If they haven't planned for Tevan's reunion, why did they show #TommybubblesBuck? It would be easier if they showed that Tommy went cold turkey on Buck.

If they've planned for Tevan's reunion, why didn't they made the 118 family showed more concern/support on the relationship? It would more make sense if Bobby/Hen/Maddie encouraged Buck to talk to Tommy.

If they have planned for Tevan's reunion, WHY DID THEY SEND MIXED SIGNALS AT ALL???

It is clear that Tevan's relationship is popular. Their kissing scenes went viral...twice, and the unusual amount of complaints about the break up indicates that even some parts the General Audience want them to be together. The queer love story has also attracted new viewers to the show, some of them are among us in this fandom. If they've planned for Tevan's reunion, there is no use in giving negative signals. It could even make people misunderstand and stop watching the show, thinking that Tevan has broken up for good.

Sending mixed signals becomes made sense when we realize that THEY ACTUALLY DIDN'T PLAN TO MAKE TEVAN REUNITED.

There's already one established queer couple on the show: Henren. Having another queer couple incures a risk of upsetting the majority of the audience. However, due to its popularity, making the break up permanent also incures a risk of losing a part of audience, who has been watching the show mainly for Tevan.

The safest way to keep most of the audience is by giving the majority what they want, while implying other things to the 'non-majority, but-quite-significant-in-number' audience. It is possible that they plan to do tommybaiting until near the end of this season, before finally showing Tommy up to bait the audience to watch the next season. After all, they've been baiting Buddie stans for 6 years and counting. They made Buck admired/envied Eddie's physique. They made Maddie teased Buck about his boycrush on Eddie. They made a stranger in Santa Clause costume thought that Christopher was Buck & Eddie's son. They made Buck Christopher's legal guardian, although insisted in an interview that it was a platonic gesture. They made Eddie showed up in front of Buck, right after TK implied that Buck was queer. They made Eddie talked about beard, right after he mentioned that he was straight. They made Buck sat next to Eddie in his underwear on 8x06. They've been giving mixed signals to Buddie stans all these years, to keep them watching & supporting the show, without ever making Buddie canon. They could apply the same strategy to a slightly different group of audience.

C. THE ABUSIVE LOVER

@hunter470 has pointed out how bad the show has treated Tommy and Tevan's love story overall. It is even more obvious when being compared to the way the show treated Brad Torrence, the fake captain of Hotshots. I hadn't fully comprehended how bad it was, until I watched Wolf x Nichols' love story in Brilliant Minds, then compared it to Tevan's. It is similar like being in an abusive relationship. You didn't know how bad you've been treated by 9-1-1, until you experience what a healthy relationship with Brilliant Minds can give you.

At this point, I'm convinced that only a risk of losing audience could move the show to make Tevan reunited. The rating of 8x08 "Wannabe" is better than 8x07 "Hotshots", so I don't know whether us boycotting the show would be effective or not. Probably not. However, I plan to keep boycotting, for the slight chance of it'll help making Tevan reunited sooner, and to retaliate their deceitful way of baiting more viewers by promising a properly handled queer love story.

[postaldouche]

s2, ep10 i think it's really cute that monarch lets his henchies sit at the council table with him and important peoples since gf isn't there but also to be honest i think he lowkey just doesn't gaf and 21 + 24 are his most trusted day one duo but whatever - look at how heated these two are. like parents being introduced to the bad influence in their kid's life

i also really like how monarch gives his henchies room to bitch at others sometimes. most other villains/bosses would keep them mute. this isn't the only time a henchie has had a comment and spoken without permission to someone monarch is dealing with (given, it's usually not them scowling at a person)

or maybe 21 and 24 just get the priveledge bc they're the favorites who knows anyways, boyfriend 4 life

"HE'S RIGHT!!!!!" backing up his BOYFRIEND

"YEAH WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE????" they are very passionate about this lol

AND HERE COMES THAT STRANGELY GAY BIT I WAS TALKING AB IN THE OTHER POST EARLIER "WITH HIS BABY BEARING HIPS" WHY WOULD HE SAY THIS??? WHY WAS HE PAYING ATTENTION TO THAT??? MY GOD.

anyways, this is when we get our second gayest moment of the episode (there is more to come) honestly with me EVERY moment is a gay moment because have you SEEN the show??? lmaooo

we also get a pretty good monarch face. he's usually not this insulted when someone makes a comment on a person he's kicking it with (at least to my memory)

he's REALLY trying to fill in that dr gf void bad

"NOBODY TALKS TO MY HOT NEW NUMBER TWO LIKE THAT!"

there was no reason to call henry hot. he's VERY all over henry so far into this ep which is strange bc usually he's like.. a bit more bitchy to whoever he's hanging out with? like henry showed up out of nowhere, monarch didn't question it, and immediately took him in. he wanted that man so bad it made him stupid.

(｡•́︿•̀｡) gulp..

!!!!! (O∆O) !!!!! really cute henchman faces in this episode, ik i already mentioned it, but whats the harm in saying it again? this is genuinely one of the better episodes in season 2. i love it.

also, there is implied.. questionable.. "torture" from the monarch. which i like. a lot.

" i'm gonna let you do number 993, because you.. seem to have bigger thumbs than me -" WHAT DID HE MEAN BY THIS???? THIS HAS TO BE BUTTHOLE STUFF I AM NOT CRAZY!!!!!!!!!

and a pretty cute monarch face lol (also peep the neck fats on killinger i think thats cutesy) "i'm not doing butthole stuff to the henchmen with you malcom let me just talk to the guy.. sheesh.."

also this one so i can point out the size difference between OUR henchmen and KILLINGER'S henchmen.. woahg.. they could crush this little guy (positive) like i know split roast potential when i see it

[gingersnapwolves]

Kouri’s year in review, a thing I’ve always done and definitely didn’t make up out of nowhere in an attempt to do an autopsy of how I watched so much fucking TV this year and didn’t end up with a new hyperfixation despite my best efforts.

All ratings are based solely on my personal opinion of these shows, I'm not a licensed critic and I don't even play one on TV. Shows listed in no particular order. Shows with an asterisk have a canon LGBT character, two asterisks indicate an onscreen, confirmed, reciprocal LGBT relationship. These are not shows that necessarily came out in 2024, only shows I watched (or tried to watch) in 2024.

tl;dr favorite show I watched this year: The Double, favorite BL pairing this year: Ruan Lanzhu/Ling Jiushu from The Spirealm, favorite character of the year: Ai Di from Kiseki: Dear to Me, shows I felt an urge to create fanfic for: somehow zero. Send help.

Reset - C-drama - a show I watched on a whim after seeing it referenced, like, once, somewhere on tumblr. Time loop bus explosion! Actually quite good. I’m not normally a huge fan of time loops but this one was very well done and more of a murder mystery that they were solving as the murders took place. Interesting characters (the cat apostle owns my whole heart even if I don’t remember his name) and fairly well paced. The leads were cute together. 8/10.

*Ready Set Love - Thai Drama - dystopian fic where there are hardly any men in the world and women compete to marry them on a live dating show. Really interesting concept but fell a little flat when it came to exploring the implications of said concept. Likable characters and fun to watch. 7/10.

**Love Sea - Thai Drama - two guys meet on an island and fuck about it. //sigh// I’m sorry but this show was just. Bad. FortPeat’s chemistry carried this whole thing and made it watchable but that doesn’t make up for the fact that it was poorly written, poorly paced, had inconsistent characterization, and the villain honestly made no sense. Is he a diabolical sociopath or is he just a fucking loser? He cannot be both. 4/10 and at least two of those points are awarded to Fort and Peat for just being so much fun to watch.

The Double - c-drama - this was hands down the best show I watched this year. Imperial era political intrigue thriller plus romance. Interesting characters and amazing chemistry from the two leads. Great villains. Probably my only complaint about this show (beyond the last 10 minutes pulling a weird ending out of nowhere) was how obsessed it was with facial close-ups. I mean, I get it, they were trying to do something there, but it felt so weird to me haha. Anyway 8.5/10.

*Dead Boy Detectives - American - exactly what it says on the label; dead boys are detectives. This was a fun little show. Great characters and interesting mysteries. I’m really sad it won’t get a season two even though I completely understand and support why. What the fuck was up with that guy in the whale? Was he God? 7.5/10.

Oh No! Here Comes Trouble - Taiwanese drama - teenager with survivor’s guilt gets supernatural powers and wishes they would leave him alone. A fun romp. I really liked the fact that he wasn’t dealing with ‘ghosts’ but with supernatural manifestations of people’s obsessive emotions. It put an interesting spin on the genre. Would love a season two of this one. 8/10.

The Spirealm - c-drama - Video game that kills people who play it! Very gay even though it’s not allowed to be explicitly gay. Loved the first half. Each world was interesting, the characters were super fun. It started to lose me when main characters started dying off and then really unraveled at the end. I still literally have no idea what happened in the last episode LOL. First 26 episodes get 8.5/10, remainder gets 5/10. Make of that what you will.

**Kiseki: Dear to Me - Taiwanese drama - You know what, I’m not sure how to summarize this show because it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a rom-com or a drama/thriller and so in the end, did not do a great job being either. Good characters but what even was happening? And by ‘good characters’ I mainly mean ‘Ai Di, a terrible little feral gremlin, is hilariously awesome, and everyone else was just kind of there’. 6/10 plus a point just for Ai Di comes out to 7/10.

**Only Friends - Thai drama - a group of college friends are messy bitches for 12 episodes. If you enjoy characters being messy bitches, you will like this show! I have to be honest, I watched it for FirstKhao and disliked both the other major pairings (and honestly, only Khao could have made Ray a tolerable character, in a lesser actor’s hands I would have hated him too). The abridged version which is basically just their characters gets about a 7/10 from me. Everything else is 3/10.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook - c-drama - unhinged trio wanders the jianghu solving crimes. Oh man, I really wanted to love this show. I wanted it to be my new hyperfixation. And I did enjoy it very much, particularly Fang Duobing, who’s my blorbo. But I couldn’t make heads or tails out of a lot of the mysteries, and most of them were ‘solved’ just by Li Lianhua explaining a bunch of stuff the audience couldn’t have known. It was a well-put-together show but for some reason it just didn’t grab me. 8/10.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians - American - I forgot that I had watched this so uhhhhh make of that what you will. To be fair, I’m probably not the target audience. It was cute but I don’t have much else to say about it. 6/10 but again, not the target audience.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead - Anime - man with terrible job wakes up in the zombie apocalypse and decides to live life to the fullest until he gets zombified. Cute and surprisingly emotional at points despite being kind of silly on the face of it. Will definitely watch season 2. 8/10

SHOWS I DID NOT FINISH

The Good Detective - K-drama - I was enjoying it but realized it was going to piss me off if [spoiler] happened so I spoiled myself and stopped watching. Sorry but I don’t vibe with shows that revolve around preventing a certain unjust event but then have that unjust event happen. Major bummer.

**Meet You at the Blossom - Thai/Chinese drama - couldn’t get past episode 4. The two main characters were just really obnoxious in my personal opinion. I love a himbo but found JXB to be less ‘himbo’ and more ‘purposefully oblivious because that let him get what he wanted’ which typically made life difficult for everyone around him. The other character whose name I don’t remember was like, what if tsundere managed to be uninteresting.

**PitBabe - Thai drama - Affectionately, what the fuck was this show. I can handle weirdness, but this show was just . . . kind of fucking stupid lmao. Could not finish and from what I’ve seen about the show since, I’m glad I quit when I did.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading update: november 2023

hiiiii, sorry I'm late! I know we're a week past November now, but I've been busy! and struggling to pull my mental health out of an absolute crevasse! I think I've mostly made it at this point, but unfortunately my month of seasonal affective woe did leave me with a pretty paltry reading list for the month of November :/

not that I have a quota to hit, but I'm getting back into reading with a PASSION now and I'm hoping to get a few more really great novels in before the year ends!

what have I been reading?

Exquisite Corpse (published as Poppy Z. Brite, currently known as William Martin, 1996) - man, you guys know how I love a fucked up little story about some nasty freaks? this is a FUCKED UP story about the NASTIEST freaks. gay serial killer Andrew escapes a life sentence in England by faking his own death and flees to America, where he lands in New Orleans and promptly meets a man named Jay, who is - holy shit, what are the odds? ALSO a gay serial killer! they get along like a house on fire, setting their sights immediately on a beautiful young runaway drug deal name Tran who has his sights set on Jay. but Trans' ex-boyfriend, Luke, a bitter writer turned pirate DJ dying of AIDS, is also up in the mix, complicating things for everyone. the tone is unrelentingly gruesome but beautifully written and frequently funnier than should be possible. certainly not a book for everyone, with about every possible trigger warning on the table, but god. WHAT a ride. I savored every second.

Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity (Devon Price, 2022) - any hype you've heard about this book is absolutely worth it. Price is really exemplifying the excellence that comes from in-group writing, the magic that happens when people with firsthand experience living a life outside The Norm infiltrates academia and get the credentials to be recognized as the experts they are. I can't speak to the experience of reading this book as an autistic person, but as someone who's often the token allistic among my friends it clarified things that I had never even thought to wonder about with straightforward, accessible style and firsthand understanding. also, hey, it's so cool to see a book just straight-up advocating for autistic people to get more autistic and worry less about appeasing the allistic people around them. Dr. Price writes great advice, and I strongly recommend checking out this book and more of his work here. reading this also made me absolutely feral to check out Price's first book, Laziness Does Not Exist, so expect notes on that soon!

Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture (Sara Petersen, 2023) - listen, we can be honest here: that title is too long. but the read is worth it, even if I do have some mixed feelings about Petersen's messaging. she's not a momfluencer, but she is a mom who has been and still is very invested in momfluencers, letting that fascination fuel this book's creation. I found Petersen a bit too quick to come to the defense of influencing as a profession, which could grate. yes, women influencers are often the targets of a particular hostility that certainly stems from misogyny. yes, it certainly is true that being a full-time Instagram poster on top of raising living human children requires a lot of time and effort, which I guess does make it a "real job". but there are lots of "real jobs" that I disrespect on principle, and influencers are certainly on the list. Petersen has analysis on the stark hegemony of momfluencers, particularly the insidious white supremacy that controls which mothers are seen as aspirational, and she's certainly not lacking in self-reflection about the role momfluencers have played in her own parenting decisions, but it would have been nice to see more pushback on the concept of influencers existing at all, not just creating space for more diverse moms to take up the title. having said that: the chapter in which Petersen reflects on her own mother's lifelong dissatisfaction and grapples with learning to see her mother as a person, rather than just a perfectly happy crafty homemaker, was one of the most riveting things I've ever read and attacked me right in my own maternal baggage. she's a chatty writer who sometimes pulls back the conversational curtain to say the most haunting shit you've ever read in your life, particularly if you're like me and regard motherhood as a sort of horror movie scenario.

Unfortunately Yours (Tessa Bailey, 2023) - god, more like UNFORTUNATELY THIS BOOK, am I right? Unfortunately Yours was November's romance novel, which I finally got around to reading after it was gifted to me this summer by my housemate who clearly hates me. I already bitched about it at length in this month's hater roundup over on my Patreon, but god. jesus christ. I've had a lot of fun reading romance novels that are pretty charmingly crappy, but Bailey just fucking sucks. this book has it all: incessant references to the size difference between our hulking he-man protag and his itty bitty love interest, WEIRD gender dynamics, the most half-assed alleged "enemies-to-lovers" I've ever seen (they just kind of don't get along, it's nothing), convoluted fake marriage, "witty" "banter" that really reads like Bailey has never heard two clever or funny people talk to each other before and has to guess, and some viscerally upsetting sex scenes including one that takes place IN THE MIDDLE OF A FLASH FLOOD. also, the male protag is a war criminal. nobody ever shuts up about how he's an ex-Navy SEAL, but they never seem to want to talk about what SEALs actually do. might be kind of a boner killer.

what am I reading now?

The Bandit Queens (Parini Shroff, 2023) - I started this novel a couple days ago and I'm absolutely devouring it; I've got about 100 pages left and cannot wait to see how the story resolves. it's tremendous fun but also hits on emotional depths that I didn't expect going into a black comedy about rural Indian women killing their husbands! I'm very excited to finish it up and talk about it in my next recap; I think it's one of my favorite novels of the year for sure.

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror (edited by Jordan Peele, 2023) - I meant to read this for October but oops, there were too many holds at the library! regardless, the stories have been nothing but bangers so far.

Small Game (Blair Braverman, 2022) - I haven't started this novel yet, but it's been on my list for a while and after listening to several of Braverman's guest episodes on You're Wrong About in a row, I had to check it out. her episode on the Flight 571 crash in the Andes almost had me in tears; cannot recommend it enough.

[chartmyfixations]

cris watches dr. who: s03e01 - "Smith and Jones"

"What's that thing?" "Sonic screwdriver." "Well if you're not going to answer me properly..."

Wait, wasn't Martha's actress already in this? The lady who got Cyberman'd last finale?

Ha! She was! Apparently, that character was Martha's identical cousin, which is hilarious because I don't think that's how cousins work

Look, I get it, being zapped to the moon: jarring. But that's a lot of panic in the hospital given that everyone is still breathing

In contrast, Martha is already keeping her head cool. (The problem with having seen the Doctor Who-Magic-set is that most of the companions won't be a surprise for me)

Hee. I love that Martha immediately takes offence at the Doctor stealing the same title she is rightfully working for

Old alien lady with the straw - that's funny

Judoon look like land sharks in armour; rhinos without. Alien zoology mania that is

Hey! New colour all stars for the Doc. From faded white to blood red. This signifies his loss of innocence after losing Rose, in this essay I will

Dr, you're not a cruising gay guy, stop leering at Martha

So -- will this whole Martha vs Rose-thing last the whole season?

Getting a kiss in the first episode you're in usually doesn't bode well for love interests unless you're a tertiary character

6 out of 8 Tardes. Solid episode, no notes.

[popculturebuffet]

X-Month: Mutancy on the Bouncy (darkwing Duck) (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy muties and welcome back to X-Month, last year known as mutant month!

A brief recap: Last year being an x-men fan with a rather.. chill attitude toward the strangest heroes of all

I did a theme month covering them: I covered their first animated apperance as the defenders of peace as hawkeye joind the x-men to fight namor and dr doom because the fantastic four's rights were busy that day, reviewed the all time franchise defining classic God Loves, Man Kills as the x-men fougth releigion and Xavier was crucified in a hallucination by demonic x-men on the top of the world trade center

I looked at Rogue's poorly drawn first apperance where Carol Danvers gave a hearty fuck you to her former friends for leaving her with a space rapist, and capped it all off iwth the first hellfire gala.

SO what do we have for round 2? Well how about mutant rubber chickens, the gloriously gay origin of Nightcrawler we at long last finally got, the debut of one of the greatest x-men spinoffs ever, one of the best x-men joining the x-men... and almost causing every last one of them to quit, one of the best x-men adaptations ever that debuted just this year and capping off with the comic that started the krakoan age with 6 words "While you slept, the world changed". The schedule's as follows.

9/8:

X-Men Origins Blue X-Men 97 Uncanny X-Men #171: Rogue

9/15: Transformers Cyberverse: Megatron IS MY hero Marvel Graphic Novel #4: The New Mutants

9/22: Transformers One Sam and Max: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak House of X/Powers of X

So to kick us off, and for what alll you duck fans have been waiting for, we're looking at an episode of Darkwing Duck, Mutancy on the Bouncy.

Mutancy on the Bouncy comes from the shows third and final season, called season 2 on Disney+ if your curious to check the episode out as Darkwing Duck's episode order is a nightmare I cannot escape. It came out one month after x-men the animated series, but is more a parody of the concept of mutants and how many there are than the actual x-men. It's only real satire is "There sure are a lot of mutants". And I love them all. except you Havok. You go sit in your corner.

So instead of a direct parody we get a bunch of mutants all themed after practical jokes (gluing someone to something, banana (For banana peel), a literal rubber chicken and a woman who can make you sneeze for sneezing powder), fighting a stone pig crime boss while Darkwing is a racist, narcist moron repeatedly assaulting an innocent person. Yes really.. see what I mean under the cut!

We open with a three way brawl between Darkwing Duck and two newcomers; Rubber Chicken , exactly what he sounds like and Cementhead... whose not a giant head made of cement but a pig made of cement. GOsalyn is on the scene reporting having become an ace reporter and narrates the episode> It's a fun device and gosalyn as an ace reporter fits; She's nozy, she's already butting into darkwings business and she's entertaning.

She dosen't have much integrity, traumtizing herb and binky muddlefoot, the next door neighbors to get sensatonalist photos but she wants a big story.. and to keep getting out of gym.

Around this time Darkwing is dealing with a new mutant criminal, Cementhead. And yup they use mutants. Granted the mutants here aren't due to an x gene but due to being downwind of some sort of plant having parents etc. Which itself.. is clever. Early X-men applied it was atomic radiation what caused it or caused the x-gene to devleop and it's still implied by some like charles xavier his parents working in radiation is why it manifested. So while i'm not sure it's intentional it fits. It also reminds me of a great joke Christopher Preist would do a few years after this episode during his black panther run, having Everett Ross, when encountering the heroes for higher lazily narrate they just fell into a radioactive vat of cream of wheat.

Darkwing finds clues that point to another mutant rubber chicken.. and I wasn't kidding: Darkwing takes 5 seconds to assume he's worknig for cementhead because "Those mutants always hang out together"

Yeah Darkwing is not likeable.. at all in this episode. He looks at the obvious frameup and despite Rubber Chicken (Who in a great gag is over at the snack bar) constantly TELLING him "I was framed", doing nothing ot harm him and generally trying to runa way at best.. Darkwing continues to persue him, tries to take him in despite you know, as a mutant probably not getting great treatment, and tries to beat him up. The last one highlights why, as frustrating as it is to see Darkwing be mildly racist and completely an ass this works: darkwing.. isn't remotely in the right. His shenanigans this episode have him at his most egotistical and judgemental and in the chunk of episodes i've seen the guy has a bad tendency to both be black and white in his morality and quick to judge. It's not really suprising Darkwing won't listen to obvious logic and maybe talk to the guy.. he can't even get over himself long enough to stop attacking and realize he's just hurting himself as Rubber Chicken's body means most of Darkwings tactics just get him hurt. I love RC' sline of "I' dbetter leave: If you keep giving me what' scoming ot me you'll end up in the hopstial"

Gos wants in but Darkwing, as usual, refuses which is hilaroiusly petty at this point as we're on episode 89, and for once somewhere firmly in the time stream instead of whatever got finished first. How many times does he need to learn this. It's a downside of being a status quo show: some conflicts get repeated, again. and again and agani. Like Homer and Marge' smarrige being in crisis you just get tired of it. I do love the gag of goslayn going "Launchpad beliveis me" before darkwing mentions something he belivies in, the easter bunny then the tooth fair an dhas to backpedal to not hurt the big guy.

So Gosalyn nintendoes what darkwing don't:.. actualyl asks questoins. While sh'es just as confrontational she.. actually listens to him and he gives his origin story: He was born from parents who lived downwind of a rubber plant, and thus grew up with fantastic elastic powers. Sadly as many a young mutant has experinced instead of his powers making him popular he was hated and.. well not feared luckily, more mocked so he hid his powers. Until he found out his boss swinheart was in cahoots with cementhead, and thus became Rubber Chicken to foil him. So Cementhead simply framed him. Gosalyn belivies him and supports him.

Darkwing.. is a dick about it

He refuses to belive her for.. no real reason. He assumes sh'es making it up and while Gosalyn isn't exactly TRUSTWORTHY this isn't the first time or even the 50th she's found out stuff.

Part of it is that Swineheart is actually trusted and loved by the city, a philanthropist. Which... fits a little and is part of what makes Cementhead such an intresting villian. Yes their one and the same, and that's the key: Cementhead is powerful on his own, a giant brick of cement that can bulldoze.. but as Swineheart he hides in plain sight. He's essentially Darkwing Duck's versoin of kingpin with a bit of tombstone mixed in, having the formers position as legit buisness man the public dosen't know is evil at first and the latter's stone skin.

He also easily dispatches darkwing by.. playing to his ego. He's not the first villian to do this, i'm sure, but most of darkwings foes go for the upfront approach: beat him up and hope it works this time. Part of what makes negaduck his arch enemy is attacking him at his vunerablities, trying to romance morgana in the show and tracking launchpad in the comics. Granted Negaduck shoudl've also been born as drake mallard but let's just say he had a diffrent name or thought Darkwing would use a fake name for civilian life and move on.

So rather than simply unmask and beat him senseless, he uses darkwing as a pawn offering him his own film, tv series, toyline and even a cartoon (Though the last one's going to be a lot).. if he catches Rubber Chicken. We also meet another mutant, a man who can turn into a banana. This non sequinter will be important later.

Goslalyn calls him out for being bribed so easily and transparently and goes to get proof. Because letting a little girl go into a dangerous situation isn't okay when she's trying to do a school project but it's totally fine when you don't give enough of a shit to go after her apparently.

So we get a great scene of darkwing going after poor rubber chicken who just.. stands still while Darkwing breaks things. Even for him this is a pretty sizeable new low. I love the shopekeep just.. adding up how much he owes. She's also a mutant and can stick things to people and when darkwing doubts, she literally sticks him with the bill. I did not realize the pun till now and applaud the show for doing it so subtly.

While this is going on gos goes for swineheart. She manages to get a photo

But gets caught immedietly

Cleverly she uses swineheart's own tactic against him.. asking him about himself an dfiguring she's about to die and not really getting to give his secret origin that often, he endulges.

It's also a fascinating origin espeically in an episode that's already dense with a guest character, a running gag about mutants setting stuff up for later, and gosalyn's whole reporter schtick. IT's remakeable HOW much this episdoe packs in without feeling overstuffed or too short to do it all.

So Cementhead was the sone of a famous crimelord, but his dad disowned hima nd threw him out for bein ga mutant. And honestly.. i'm shcoked HOW well this episdoe nails mutants: sure i'ts mostly an excuse to do some wacky gags and a fun running gag about there being some hiden mutant EVERYWHERE, but it stilll nails the core of x-men: That mutants are hated and feared just for existing. But where as Rubber Chicken at least had a family, Cementhead had nothing and gladly turned to crime. He became swineheart as he was tired of hiding, and this became a way to still do crime while also being a publci figure.

He plans to cement gosalyn's fate only for her to slip out and escape. Darkwing.. dosen't belivie her because.. she doctored photos earlier. This should work.. but said photos were.. herb muddlefoot with a plant on his head and binkie muddlefoot looking dazed and holding a knife. If this episode emphasiesed how much gosalyn lied, it would've worked better, making Darkwing's skepticism less douchey. But he never brings it up till now: It comes off like he dosen't trust gosalyn.. because he dosen't WANT TO and is using an easy excuse which still works in character but makes him a bigger dick than usual

So Gos goes with plan b: To me my x-men. And since they dont' have a psychic bald man with severe issues and manipulative tendencies they go to the media to call for all mutants.. after the reporter on deck reports darkwing is once again on the hook for property damage, a casual gag I just love. Naturally it dosen't go super great at first as Rubber Chicken is a nervous fellow. He's endeearing, simply wanting to do the right thing but utterly terrifeid of darkwing and of a small child, neither of which are a good look. But when pressed he does the right thing anyway. He coudl've given up hunting cementhead after the frame job and just.. disappeared.. but he dosen't. Because he wants to catch him because even if everyone fears him or wnats to lock him up.. it's the right thing. And that's what being an x-man is all about.. you may not be loved.. but you are needed to push for a better tommorow. And that's what matters

The Reporter sympathizes.. and reveals she's also a mutant and urges others to help.

So as Darkwing finds out Swinheart and Cementhead are the same person just in time to learn what the five fingers said to the face, a new team which i'm dubbing THE X-DUCKS. They are Rubber Chicken the fearful fowl with limbs of rubber! Banana BOy! Whose actually a grown ass man whose banana form has a cape for some reason! Glue Gal, the girl with the power to stick to you like glue and make it hard to find a catchphrase not lind with innuendo for her and Sneezemaster, who will give you the sniffles.

Together they.. easily get beaten. Yeah hilariously the lack of experince, team cordination or any time in the field apart from Rubber Chicken just.. causes them all to be irrelvant and crash into each other leaving only rubber chicken. It works way better than it has any right to: all this buildup.. and the payoff to all the mutants running around is them running into each other. IT's brilliant. And it's a hard joke to pull off: Deadpool 2 tried a similar thing with x-force but it didn't work as not only did they all die horribly.. but it felt so damn mean spirited. HEre nothings stopping these mutants from sticking around as a team or learning to be better, they simply weren't ready for this fight.

So it's up to darkwing who finally learns rubber chickens powers have a backlash.. and lures cementhead to attack so rubber chicken can slingshot him. With that Darkwing admits maybe mutants arne't so bad and Rubber Chicken.. hilariously lays into him, shouting about him being an egotist and a bully. He takes offence to the..f rist one.

It's a great ending to a great episode. Mutancy on the Bouncy is a lot of fun, taking the x-men concept and doing the goofies verison of it imaginable> THe team reminds me of the legion of substitue heroes from DC: heroes with pretty niche powers who fight anyway because it's the right thing. The episode nails being a mutant: the isolation, the hiding to avoid being hated and feared, how some revel in thier power and how grouping together can help you surivive. Rubber Chicken ends the episode with more confidence, friends and not hated and feared. I wish the series lived long enough to get a sequel and hope these guys pop up in the dynamite comics as it dosen't seem like they did in boom.. and if i'm wrong please tell me. This episode is stacked with great one offs and is one of my faviorites i've seen. I may be of coursed a little teeny bit biased towards something parodying x-men, but theyt ake the basic concept and make it their own wonderfully. Thanks for reading

[brilliantfantasticgeronimo]

wild blue yonder

the tardis can regenerate itself...... !!! I mean, wait we knew that already kjhkjh but I just connected the dots now that... that means The Time Lords mined and mauled the child just to make their cars better, as well. Damn...

in classic who u used to have to use ur imagination to pretend everything wasn’t a wobbly set... now u have to use ur imagination to pretend everything isn’t a greenscreen :/

"is that who i am now?" the shocking thing isn’t that he is gay (that’s what donna interprets) the shock to himself is voicing how horny he is lol

Someone is gonna say gravity and that's gonna be fucking weird

"it would take trillion years to get that far” chills!

"no one is ever been this far. till us. and this ship" colonialism fiction dna shining thru

“you little streak” <3

"she'll move on" "not shaun, he'll go to that alleyway every year..." \ten at the alleyway to see rose parallel....

Ghost aroma!!!

blue and orange motif....…………… 13 aesthetic moments.... [13 and Swarm coded? / aka entropy/life coded?/donna and the doc...]

“maybe there's a tribe and they worship it… (…) time passes and the city falls... and there's the tardis" beautiful!! I'm could do somth w/ re: w/ the doctor and their companions. (eyes emoji)

"it got complicated" UNDERSTATEMENT OF A CENTURY #2

"The notion of shape is strange." "it limits" literally current architecture theory

This is so nofna solar system-core

love a classic “anti matter hates matter” story

[the no-bodies…?....cousins to the the could have been king ... with his army of never wheres…?]

This feels very [doctor trying to figure out their body in each regeneration] [intentionally?] this is so end of evangelion poster-core

"it’s strange enough my face coming back, but not this big" / [metaphor for reboots?]

This episode is like the clamoring for us to get a castrovalva 2 escher-like world again next season

"that's not gonna work either" i love these idiots

"why does it have to be one last trip?" rtd ringing moffat / gatiss / gardner / etc and being like like -

ok but follow this reasoning: if the doctor is the same person bc they keep their memories (as the show makes a point of.... constantly) ... and if the memories make the person ... then indeed an entity that copies the memories is the same person, is it not? Where do we draw the line between who’s “real” and who isn’t, in this scenario?

A CREATION I DEVASTATED / literally watched WoM two seconds before this w/ ten all "everything i do just makes it happen" sdjsdkf this is what i mean when i say the doctor has never Processed anythingggg since that Bottom Pit moment

"it wasn't your fault" "i know! (but it stil sucks!!!)" me at therapy like

"WHY DOES HE NEED YOU?" me, Pavlovian tone: because he is lonely...

“when something is gone, it keeps existing” → highlight this!!!! this is gonna be the new thesis statement about Grief!!! this is gonna be The Point for the next 4 years lol

It's very fun to watch this after marath6ning all of ten's era bc it's like... that boy never processed any of that shit. did 11 process shit? did 12? 12 maybe a little but really i think they just got even more trauma (bill ): ) dkdksks and don't get me started on 13. basically what im saying is the doctor Never did get a break on between waters of mars up until now... [and i guess to go further never did get a break after since like....... freaking ghost light skskskskkjkj seven is still There. we don't think about that enough.]

Donna being a clone fucker is not a headcanon ever thought i had but im glad its been confirmed now "donma doesn't think she"s stupid" im sure rtd has launched this exact same rant on so some unwilling family members while browsing ao3 "stop copying and make up your own minds" social commentary / commentary on reboots again / core "individualism > society" dr. who 101 messaging

The not things are kinda.... cute? skdksk if they weren't murderous they look like ppl to hang out w/ and play videogames......

"what do you want?" "you tell us" fundamental doctor-companion dialogue....

"love letters don't travel very far" put a pin on that...

ok.... ARGHGHGHH LET ME THINK THINK THINK skskks me failing at CBT be like

What if the doctor is from our universe. what then the doctor being like we have to mill ourselves immediately feels very 13

this is like "what if turn left and midnight but they go through it together this time <3" fic "where the walls are thin and anything is possible" eyes emoji

"that copy was 99% donna" so maybe re:earlier... what the show is saying between copy vs real is that it's all about the x factor, the 1%....

CONCLUSIONS! lived up to the hype! i think it's a bit 13-era vibe in that it's clearly influenced by all the prestige space-base-isolation scifi we see in the ~cinema now every year. the aesthetic is hitting that vibe (and going to the root, there's also a very clear Alien influence). kinda wish we had more one offs just like this one :( bc i feel the other 2 specials have too much Work to do, so there's not enough time to do.Fun like lore and character stuff. Execution wise is very successful. the switcheroos work. the callbacks work. there's a lot of character stuff happening ("I just realized I'm still working through that!") but it doesn't interfere w/ the adventure itself. My one grip is there's a couple shots that do feel too green-screen-y, but overall the ep is visually amazing. def only a story you could do now. also I love that the NMDs were like "rtd is gonna retcon the timeless child!!! everyone hated it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and he was like "cool. now watch this" lollll king moments. rare moments where it feels like we live in the best timeline.

[stra-tek]

I would like to ask your opinion on the NuTrek set designs! I haven't watched strange new worlds or discovery (those are the nu prequel ones right?) mostly because I'm afraid they won't be good? Like they won't hold the same silly charm as TOS or TNG, and part of that worry is the ship design. I love that TOS bridge LOOKS like it's from the 60s, LOOKS like the ship is kinda held together with spit, sillystring, and human stubbornness, because that's how our real life space program was back then. From the pictures I've seen, I don't like all the fancy lights everywhere on a ship that looks completely different in TOS. I know they probably had to update it for marketing so like I get it but! What do you think and are the new sets distracting? And are the shows good? Thanks!

The sets are definitely very different to the old ones, more in line with the recent movie version of things where there are big windows in front with amazing space vistas and very hi-tech touchscreen panels everywhere. Personally I love them, they kept a few little callbacks to the originals like the Enterprise having some of the old jelly bean buttons on the consoles next to the modern flatscreen panels. I never found the brightness distracting but I've heard others complain about it. I only complained about Picard's third season where for 9 episodes they basically leave the lights off and you can barely see anyone😆 While Discovery has it's own look, the Enterprise has a kind of modern retro vibe where some things are now HUGE and SHINY but you'll spot stuff almost unchanged from the old show, like the Jeffries Tube Scotty was always tinkering in.

As for the shows themselves, they're a mixed bag (as were the originals)

Discovery had tons and tons of BTS drama, the people running the end of the first season weren't the same who started it so storytelling is somewhat uneven. And it's different from classic Treks in that it's one main plotline per season and there is one definite main character rather than an ensemble. Then they had two big shifts in direction: The first season is dark and mysterious, involving war with Klingons (who speak subtitled Klingon and like the sets have been reimagined to look far more alien) and mirror universes. The second tries to be much lighter in tone and more like the recent movies and has a plot that makes less and less sense the closer you examine it (but I still loved it), then they jump to the distant future where they're a relic in a universe that's changed a lot. It's also the queerest Trek ever with gay, nb and trans characters. There's some violence and swearing and a story about a former POW who was sexually abused in the first season but it's not all quite as it seems.

Strange New Worlds spins off from the second season of Discovery (but you don't need to have seen it first), and tells TOS/TNG/VOY style standalone stories which range from saving worlds to battling alien monsters to utter fluff but unlike the originals, what happens has lasting effects on the characters. It's got a mix of young versions of known characters, some have been changed a lot (Nurse Chapel is a total badass in this version, Spock is married to T'Pring and she's a huge part of his life) and others who didn't do enough in TOS to really be called changed, like Dr. M'Benga. They also have Kirk's brother on the crew and he's derpy as hell and we love him. It's the one most like classic Trek, but it's definitely more of a modern reboot of the concept even though officially it's a prequel in the same continuity (even going so far in Discovery as a "previously on" with clips from "The Cage" and then next season there's an episode called "Unification III", follwing on from the TNG two-parter and featuring the characters watching a clip from it). So don't get too hung up on all that stuff and just enjoy!

Hope that helps!🖖

[nerdyenby]

DR pt2 reactions (spoilers)

Episode 11

Opening scene hypeeeeeee!!!!! Love seeing them all work together, there’s definitely been a soft timeskip with Arin and Sora’s costume upgrades and how well they fit together

Lloyd’s handling Wyldfyre pretty well, respecting her boundaries while making sure she feels welcome anytime

Ray and Maya!!! Are they alive lol? Will we ever find out??

“The monastery works best when everything is in its proper place” *cue explosion*

Not listening to Zane is the cause of 85% of problems in this show

Kai and Wyldfyre’s rivalry is everything, actually

I will never stop gawking at the new animation, it’s so beautiful ;-;

Yayyyyyyy propaganda /s

Aye, Sora’s parents!!!! Seems like they’re having doubts mayhaps

Keep questioning authority kids, you’re getting there

Kids get it done!!!

I am begging all the water, fire/heat, and ice elementals to practice some critical thinking and remember that ghosts cannot touch water

The delivery on Nya’s “Whaaaaaat?!??” was so good lmao

“Eh, it never came up” LMAOOOOOOO he was so deadpan I’m dying

“How hard can it be?” Arin I stg why would you say that

Frohicky!!!!!!!

Lloyd is so awkward I love him

Arin and Sora having a handshake <333

Episode 12

We love a villain whose pride is 90% of the reason they fail

If they start deadnaming Sora I’m gonna throw hands

I was so ready for them to confirm Kai’s age, should’ve known better tbh

Lloyd is such a good mentor, I could cry

They’re playing catch :((

Lloyd’s little “that was the last of our dinner plates” lmao

Has the Bounty actually operated as a ship before? In the course of the show?? Kinda love that they’re treating her like an actual boat now

Merlopians!!!!!

GAY PEOPLE!!!!!!!

Revolution counter: 1

That was so funny and for what

If they make it through this episode without mentioning Bentho I will be so sad

WAIT is the crab controlling the merlopians instead of the other way around????

CALLED IT

So glad the merlopians aren’t the bad guys here

Episode 13

Kai isn’t handling not being the most unpredictable person in the group very well

Kai’s girlbossing his way through life, as he should

Zane being down to drink motor oil but not fly juice is so valid tbh

Frohickey and Zane’s dynamic is so silly I love them

Zane you literally have a human disguise lol, kinda love him being comfortable enough with who he is that he prefers to stay as a nindroid even in disguise tho

Is that his detective costume from prime empire???? Now I’m thinking about what the ninja’s closets look like

Wyldfyre causing problems on purpose my beloved, she’s such a menace, I love her

I’m really enjoying seeing all the seemingly forgotten species come back, have we seen these skeleton people since season 1??

“Ninjasplaining” IM DEAD

The lavatides have such fun character designs

How did the other realms know about the ninja before the merge? Like it makes sense, but how about the practicality of it??

“Ok this is just getting silly” this show makes me so happy you guys

Zane has a holiday, as he deserves!!

So ready to watch Zane lose a Zane lookalike contest, surely nothing could go awry

GULCH :D

Challenging Kai with a character even more headstrong and proud then him is such a good move, it provides so many opportunities to showcase how much he’s grown

Poor Zane, this man does not need another ship of Theseus crisis

Damn, I’m kinda emo over this message

LIGHTNING??!???!?

Episode 14

I miss Pixal so bad, man

Frohickey’s trying so hard, I would die for him

Sora honey, I love you but please check that cognitive dissonance, the things going wrong are not your fault, none of it is your fault.

This show’s comedic timing is everything, I never get tired of it

Fat rip to Clutch’s book, no brobrogoogoo today :(

“Long before the Merge, Djinnjago was destroyed” Nya, are you not gonna mention that you were the one to destroy it???????

“Bad news first: our mission was a failure, also we have no good news” Sora is so fucking funny you guys

Frohickey is having such a rough time, poor guy

Nya having a lightning dragon can be so personal

Sora the dragon’s name is Zanth!!!!! Best resolution to the “other Sora” thread imo

I love this guys attitude so much lol

Confirmation that Riyu’s a special lil guy <3

The depressed icon we never knew we needed

Arrakore my beloved

Zane and Frohickey’s friendship is so precious

Episode 15

I like how Kai and Wyldfyre didn’t have a specific moment of “oh hey you don’t suck” its just “we’re too similar and it’s kinda annoying but you’re cool sometimes”

Why didn’t we get to see Arrakore’s song :((

Nya’s being so chill with Arrakore being djinn, obviously he has nothing to do with Nadakhan but it’s still nice, he also seems massively less racist so that’s good

Nya’s dragon finally has a name, Jiro my beloved :))

Arin infodumping and Lloyd just “mhm-ing” my beloved

Asking nicely always works, apparently

I entirely forgot about Rapton lmao

Is it Cole time??? I want it to be Cole time

*motivational music* “all life is important” “… but that’s Rapton 🤨” I love Arin

HEATWAVE TO THE RESCUE!!!! Though where has he been up til now??

Lloyd being like “yeah sure, how impossible can it be?” and being entirely justified is the most him thing ever

COLE TIMEEEEEE HELL YEAHH!!!!!!!!

Episode 16

Cole and Nya hug <3333

Someone other than Zane mentioned Pix, a day for the history books

Glad to see Cole’s as OP as ever lmao

Oh they’re so gay

I didn’t even think about that, it’s so fascinating that the earth is unsettled by everything that’s happened

That’s so sad what the hell, so in character for Cole to just adopt a buncha orphans tho

WHAT THE FUUUUUUCK IM SO ABNORMAL ABOUT THIS

Sora I love you but that is the worst possible way to phrase that

Kai talking about the importance of other ways of helping and how combat isn’t everything and showing Wyldfyre a healing technique :(( I’ve been rewatching s1 and he’s come so far

Geo :(( things are better now, but change didn’t come soon enough for him and now he’s Lost

Borg mention!!!!!!

Also I love having a reference point for Sora and Nya’s skillsets, it’s also just so heartwarming to see adults who are wholly supportive and unafraid of younger people being better than them

Cole is so out of the loop lmao

Zanth :0

Oh you bitch

Cole and Geo are so in love :(

Episode 17

I entirely forgot about this plot point lol

Oh this is so dystopian

Kai in a mentor role means everything to me

They’re actually addressing Kai’s grief??? Hell yeah, fucking finally /lh

Alright, betting time: Jay or Pixal?

Lloyd and Arin are so silly, I love them

Zane???!?!!?!

Zane really just sat in that office, huh (/ref but it’s so vague I’d be shocked if anyone got it)

It’s a part of the realm of madness oh my goodness that’s hilarious

“Are they safe for people?” “No” *proceeds to shove them both in there*

Zane had way too much fun with that superhero landing lol

JAYYYYYYYYYY HOLY SHIT ITS JAY NINJAGO!!!!!!!

Zane is having so much fun this episode, he’s just getting shit done and looking great doing it

So we’re not getting Jay back yet? Rip

Zane is so polite what the heck

Episode 18

So Wyldness confirmed to be the same realm as Imperium???

Is Beatrix gonna have the same origin story as Kalmaar??

Nya and Cole’s friendship is so tender and caring, they’re besties your honor

LaRow trash talking Rapton to his face lmao

Rapton redemption arc!??!????!

It’s so interesting seeing the backstory of Ras and Beatriz’s alliance after it’s already fallen apart

Wyldfyre did not need to be told twice lmao

THAT ACTION SEQUENCE HELLOOOO?!????? THEY WERE THROWING AROUND THOSE GUARDS LIKE A FUCKING VOLLEYBALL

From a psychological perspective, Beatrix is fascinating

Revolution counter: 2!!!!!!!

Episode 19

Lloyd letting Kai take point on wrangling Wyldfyre only for Kai to immediately match her energy my beloved

“You have no idea how foolish some of us can be!!” Pffff “-no offense Lloyd” PFFFFFFF

Interesting to go the “non bender revolution” route considering how few elemental masters there are compared to avatar where benders are a vast majority, but it’s a villain whose power hungry so makes sense and I’m entirely down

The quips this episode are impeccable

They built an hq??? Hasn’t it only been a week or two??

So much is interconnected in this season I’m kinda not following some of it, but I love it

Percival monologue going off!!!!!!

Sora main character fr fr

Kai and Wyldfyre are everything

Kinda iconic that Nya just hasn’t mentioned that she found Cole lol

That scene with the guard was so good!!!! The suspense and the realization of just how deep the resistance runs…. It’s such a good moment

Love that as soon as Kai has Wyldfyre even slightly reined in he’s down to let loose and make messes with her, as long as it’s for a good cause lol

That extra delivered with that cry holyyy

Heck yeah Rapton redemption :D

Rapton out here with the guardians of the galaxy motivation and I’m loving it

The fight choreography in this show never ceases to amaze me, holy crap

Sora’s speech goes so hard, I’m tearing up

Finally got confirmation the og ninja are in their twenties, thank god

One thing about Nya is that she will never pass up an opportunity to call her brother stupid

Episode 20

Rapton calling Dorama a “washed up clown” is everything I never knew I needed lmao

The stakes are staking

The glitch effect??? Hello spiderverse!!!

The platonic love on display this season is killing me, they all care about each other sm :((

That Rapton Nya interaction was so good and for what

Sora’s parents >:(

Deadnaming their kid and guilt tripping her saying she “abandoned you,” damn Sora’s response is so fucking cathartic as a trans person with unaccepting parents

I’m just here for the ride and having a great time

Frohickey!!!!!!!!!

Lloyd doing ye ole Chosen One things, as he should

Kai and Wyldfyre hug <3333

Dragon heritage mention???? Mayhaps???????

That was cryptic, cool though

Lloyd sees so much of himself in these kids 😭😭😭

Jordana boutta get the Harumi treatment fr

[lovestuckyhatemarvel]

Okay so, here we are with season 4 episode 1 of Stranger Things. But before I get into the episode, I need to explain something: I’ve never actually watched this season before. I have, however, watched Steddie compilations on YouTube. Regardless, I’m labeling this as a ‘rewatch’ because it’ll keep the series consistent. And parts of it technically are a rewatch. Anyway, these are also going to be way longer than usual because a lot more is just Brand New™️ to me. Although some I haven’t seen but do know because of fanfiction.

1.) I literally can’t remember what made the Texas shooting something that would be necessary to be mentioned at the beginning when America has shootings all the time.

Edit: I have been reminded of the actual case it’s referencing. But I think Texas shooting is going to become less and less of an obvious connection as time goes on, especially for people who aren’t in America. I am in America, and there’s just…too many shootings to keep track of, tbh.

2.) I don’t know why I’m watching this recap. I literally watched season 3 last week or whatever but they really cut out the Russian interrogation/secret base locating stuff entirely from their recap.

3.) season 4 really starts out by being like, “Remember Brenner? Remember that douchebag? Well, guess what. He’s actually super boring in everyday life.”

4.) 010 come on down to get your psychic powers tested and your ability to interpret Brenner’s bad drawings tested. Oh nvm at least now they’re trying to locate people only to witness both Six and Dr. Ellis’ death.

5.) Wait why did Brenner survive this? How did Brenner survive this? Ten is dead. Also, since when does Brenner care about the kids? It’s not like he’s treated them well.

6.) El looking really crazy covered in blood and basically hyperventilating.

7.) El’s got her own room. Also, we’ve gone 185 days since season 3 and now El is painting little figures. And is giving a recap via letter. Joyce is a telemarketer, Will is gay pining, Jonathan has a broken car and is a stoner. Argyle has a pizza van and takes them to school. The bullies in school are cliches.

8.) Nancy drives Mike to school and Karen Wheeler looks great. Also they want Mike home by 9 pm because of his 6:30 flight.

9.) Suzie is editing a D- to an A for Dustin.

10.) I love this conversation about crushes between Robin and Steve. Boobies. Although I don’t like Robin’s hair as much this season.

11.) Max rides the bus and missed a Thursday meeting so needs to go after lunch.

12.) oh there’s Chrissy. And here’s the marching band with Robin playing the TRUMPET. Looks like Vickie’s a clarinet player. Jason and Lucas on the basketball team while Dustin and Mike argue about girlfriends in the crowd.

13.) I know it’s way too early since Jason hasn’t done anything yet, but I already hate him. He just has a punchable face. “Think about all these dead people DID THEY DIE FOR US TO LOSE AT BASKETBALL?” I would have keyed his car in high school. Like oh my god.

14.) Mike and Dustin are nerds and freaks and proud of it. To be fair, Lucas always has been cooler than them. But also Lucas should have gone to Eddie himself.

15.) PACKAGE. FROM. RUSSIA. Man, do not ever send anything delicate to Joyce, she fucking demolishes packages. Oh, that’s an ugly doll. I’ve read about the doll but didn’t know it was that ugly.

16.) El/Jane has to go after a blonde girl talking about Helen Keller for her presentation about Hopper? That’s rough, buddy. Angela is a bitch and I hate her Ariana Grande looking ass. Will is trying and I love that him and El are siblings but yeah, no, that presentation went badly.

17.) Max is doing her loner thing but does get to see Chrissy being upset in the hall as she heads away from the counselor.

18.) C in English and C- in Spanish. It’s not normal for Max but babe, C’s get degrees. You’ll be okay. Max’s mom is drinking, working two jobs, and stepdad is gone. Max is still my favorite even if she is a liar. Lucas’ advice about finding something she cares about is technically good but poor wording and timing. Max isn’t really open for help.

19.) Stranger Things really loves shots of people in bathrooms holding the sides of the sink. Also we get to hear Chrissy vomiting.

20.) Chrissy’s hallucinating. She has issues with her mom being awful about her weight and honestly, mood.

21.) Oh hi, Eddie. You’re a goofy guy. And now Eddie walks across the table. Also honestly, so far the bullying in Hawkins is like, minimal. All that happened in that scene is Eddie got called a freak. Dustin and Mike do try to get the game postponed. I still think Lucas should have asked. Eddie’s got to pass Mrs. O’Donnell’s class and that’s it to pass the class. Eddie really does yank both those dweebs out of their seats with barely any effort.

22.) Murray has karate from 1-3 on Fridays? Good for him. Oh and the doll from Russia has nipples. Teeny tiny nipples. And now needs to be smashed.

23.) Everyone thinks it’s weird that Nancy and Jonathan aren’t spending spring break together. I still think Nancy’s a comphet case. I love that Mike asks Nancy and Dustin asks Steve. Max is sarcastic to Dustin’s request which is very funny. Literally everyone shoots them down. Dustin comes up with an idea nad sprints off faster than I knew was possible.

24.) Oh it’s the picnic table behind the school scene. And we hear and see a clock chiming as she waits for Eddie. I’ve never actually seen the build up to the meeting with Eddie. Did not know the clock breaks and spills spiders.

25.) Eddie is tempted to leave ‘cause Chrissy is acting crazy. Eddie is very dramatic and they were in a talent show together. Eddie used to have buzzed hair and now plays at the Hideout on Tuesdays. I would have loved for Chrissy to live and for these two to be another Steve and Robin. Chrissy asks for something stronger.

26.) El failed a math test, I think? And if that’s the test she failed, it’s extra sad because that’s what she called herself good at in the opening letter. And then Angela tripped her? And her stupid friends stomp on her project. I wanna kick Angela’s ass. El forgets that she doesn’t have powers and it’s so embarrassing. El doesn’t snitch but a teacher takes Angela away anyway.

27.) Will feels so bad and is trying so hard to help.

28.) I feel like it wouldn’t require a paint can from a tree to break a porcelain doll. Oh, Murray thinks it might have an explosive. AND IT’S FILLED WITH A NOTE SAYING HOP IS ALIVE AND IT’S WRITTEN IN CUT OUT LETTERS LIKE IT’S FROM A SERIAL KILLER. WHY DID THEY DO THAT??? LMAO

29.) And now it’s the championship. I feel like fanfics stretch episode 1 into like, 3 chapters. Steve came with his date to see Lucas. And here’s Tammy Thompson. And she’s…bad. this bad performance is worth it for Steve’s sassy expressions.

30.) Oh, hey Erica Sinclair. LMAO WAIT, IS SHE WEARING AN AMERICAN FLAG? GOD, YOU DWEEB. I will say that the rest of hellfire that just kind of chortles in response to everything is so far just background noise that I do not care about. I do love that Erica is way better at insults than Eddie and he kind of adores her.

31.) I still hate Jason.

32.) Technically if we’re going with the lore of we thought Vecna was killed by Kas then technically El/Jane is this show’s Kas.

33.) Okay going back and forth is too hard when they’re going back this fast between basketball and Hellfire so I’ll just summarize at the end. Lucas going in and the gameplay mirror each other very obviously. It’s an old trope but a good one. Eddie’s unhinged.

34.) “There is no shame in running. Don’t be heroes.”

35.) Dustin misses and so does Jason. But Lucas and Erica both win. This slow mo is kind of excessive. Eddie’s fucking thrilled that Erica did a critical success. Although did they actually need a natural 20 to win? That doesn’t really make sense if the guy only has 15 HP left. Presumably they haven’t been critting to attack this fucking thing this entire session. So really it’s a matter of going above his AC. And technically you don’t need a nat 20 to do that, especially if you have enough bonuses. Although they are playing a different version of D&D than I’ve ever played so maybe I’m taking out of my ass.

36.) Aw, Max listened to the game’s result on the radio. I thought she went. Her mom is passed out on the couch. Max takes food to a dog. Eddie lives like, directly across from her. For some reason, from fanfics, I thought they were like, directly next to each other. Still, Max saw Chrissy go into his trailer.

37.) Wayne works nights. Eddie does not know where his ketamine is. Should keep track of that. That is a very cool guitar he has though. Chrissy’s hallucinations are very bad now and she’s no longer responsive. And now the lights are flickering. Vecna’s ugly as hell. There are so many spiders in this vision. Eddie really is trying to wake her up but I’m not sure how he thought I DON’T LIKE THIS, CHRISSY, WAKE UP would help.

38.) did not know we see Vecna in episode 1. “It’s time for your suffering to end.” Don’t be weird, dude. And now Chrissy is floating. Her death is like, both weirdly graphic and also sanitized. Like it looks cartoonish. I didn’t realize how cartoonish it looks. Bones don’t break through the skin. There’s barely any blood. Her skin moves like putty.

[bloopdydooooo]

what's your doctor who wtnv crossover like? 👀

i am so glad you asked! (category 7 adhd event to follow)

so our doctor is cecil (no assigned number since i didnt want to cram the wtnv characters into a doctor who plot line when it would be so easy to make a new one special for them (though cecil does come from a welsh surname meaning sixth (among other things) so he could replace the 6th doctor? it doesn’t matter either way)) and while his name is, as always, just ‘the Doctor’, he lets carlos call him cecil as a treat cause they’re in looooooove <33 (he used cecil palmer like john smith when they met and carlos really like the name (it’s so i don’t have to completely erase either ‘the doctor’ or ‘cecil’ and i think i’m awfully clever) anyways he’s like doctor-weird plus cecil-weird, because they’re all so fucking bizarre (affectionate) he kicks off the fic adjusting to the new body and i felt the need to acknowledge the fact that cecil is usamerican while the doctors generally are Not (is a good fic if you don’t slander your own accent a little bit?)

i considered making carlos the doctor, because he’s. you know. a scientist and not a silly goofy gay who works in community radio, but since so much of cecil’s story revolves around him not being quite as person as the rest of the people around him, about him losing track of his age and everything he’s been through, of him canonically dying multiple times, about his relationships with family and parenthood (etc) i just felt like it would be such a waste to not make him the doctor, yk? (i also considered changing up what it meant to be the doctor to include cecil’s title of ‘the voice’ but that felt like too much so we have doctor!cecil now)

so that means carlos is the companion, he’s introduced while studying the phantom ocean which was actually just like. a big weird alien fish. then they go to the dog park and the desert otherworld and have a bunch of doctor who-ified wtnv adventures together (like lee marvin‘a birthdays, the whispering forest, the auction, etc… but make it dr who sci-fi)

i know most of the actual episodes are the doctor saves his companion and Others, but i’m such a sucker for ‘the doctor needs help’ that i wrote in four chapters of carlos saving doctor!cecil (technically could be six, depends how you count it)

and we finish off with a daleks confrontation which takes place during the blood space wars, because you have to have the daleks at least once, and it’s a good cap on a fic

i’ve made it 13 chapters long, cause all the new who seasons are well. 13 episodes long. and i’m considering doing a (not-)christmas (because even though doctor!cecil wouldn’t be jewish it would be incredibly ethically fucked up if i just. chucked a canon jewish character into a christmas landscape w/out acknowledging it) special afterwards as is customary, to follow the bbc’s standards

i am literally so invested in this fic i’ve written the first three chapters so far and they’re all like double my usual length and i’m considering making them longer because i think there’s still more i could add.

anyways thank you so much for asking i am in love with the world i have created. (would you like the link to the doc? (im so proud of this i want everyone to read it and i only want to post it when i know that i have enough of a buffer for regular updates, given how long the chapters are) (obviously it’s fine if you don’t want to read it no pressure))

here’s a drawing of doctor!cecil i made (though i changed the cape to a tailcoat because it felt Better)

[ID: a black and whit pencil drawing of cecil as the doctor. he’s got dark skin and graying black hair. he’s wearing a puffy-sleeved shirt under a vest and a loosely-done tie. he’s wearing a bunch of jewelry, cat-ear headphones, and star-shaped glasses with beads on his glasses chain. he has multiple chains and beads handing from his belt and is wearing back pants with white pockets. he has a cape tied around his neck and in one hand he’s holding the sonic screwdriver, which he’s looking at and smiling. beside him it says ‘the Doctor (a.k.a. cecil)’ End ID]

i did draw carlos but he’s just like. some guy and i’m honestly not proud enough of that to post it here.

ok i think that’s all (it’s not but you get it)

[yessadirichards]

What to stream this week: 'Young Sheldon,' Amy Schumer, 'Oppenheimer' and lots and lots of JLo

Christopher Nolan's “Oppenheimer” arriving on Peacock and a documentary and album from Jennifer Lopez are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.

Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: “Young Sheldon” returning for its seventh and final season, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. exploring the power of gospel in a two-part PBS documentary and Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones pirate-themed video game.

— If you were holding out for “Oppenheimer” on streaming, now’s your chance to catch up before the Oscars (March 10), where it’s up for 13 awards including best picture, best director for Christopher Nolan and best actor for Cillian Murphy. The film arrives on Peacock on Friday, Feb. 16. Nolan and Emma Thomas, his producer and wife, are passionate advocates of the big screen experience, but they also know that most people will watch their films in the home — sometimes even as their first time. It’s how both discovered some of their favorites as well, they’ve said. In an interview with The Associated Press, Thomas added, “The nice thing about Chris’ films is because they are so very rich and reward multiple viewings, I think that they’re perfectly pitched for home viewings.”

— Jennifer Lopez has a new movie coming to Prime Video on Feb. 16. She co-wrote “This is Me…Now: A Love Story,” a movie musical about finding love which she called “the most personal thing I’ve ever done.” It is a star-studded endeavor, with appearances from her husband, Ben Affleck, Keke Palmer, Sofia Vergara, Post Malone and more, and ties in with her first studio album in a decade (see below). Also coming to Prime Video is Emma Seligman’s “gay high school fight club” comedy “Bottoms,” starring Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri as a few misfits who start a fight club to flirt with the hot cheerleaders (Kaia Gerber and Havana Rose Liu). In his review, AP Film Writer Jake Coyle wrote that, “The rites and rituals of the raunchy high-school comedy can be as prescribed as a class syllabus. But what makes Emma Seligman’s “Bottoms” such an anarchic thrill is how much it couldn’t care less.”

— And finally, Taika Waititi’s “Next Goal Wins” arrives on Hulu on Thursday. It’s based on the real story of the American Samoa men’s soccer team quest to qualify for the FIFA World Cup after an historic loss (31-nill) against Australia. Michael Fassbender plays the coach who tries to help. In his AP review, Mark Kennedy wrote that “’Next Goal Wins’ is most winning in the way it handles the team’s star player, Jaiyah Saelua, who became the first nonbinary player to compete in a men’s FIFA qualifier. Played with real tenderness and joy by nonbinary actor Kaimana, the way the team and coach relate to Saelua is genuine and touching."

— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

— Get ready for a second dose of J.Lo. On Friday, Feb. 16, she drops the Amazon original film “This is Me… Now: A Love Story” (see above) as well as her “This Is Me… Now” album. The 13-track set’s song titles include “To Be Yours,” “Mad in Love,” “Greatest Love Story Never Told” and “Dear Ben Pt. II,” a seeming sequel to a track on her 2002 album “This Is Me … Then.” The video for one new pop single, “Can’t Get Enough,” has as much JLo strutting as all of Paris Fashion Week. Lopez’s last album, “A.K.A.,” came out in 2014 and reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200.

— Blackberry Smoke — a Georgia-based band that has been together for 24 years and seven studio albums — makes a strong return with “Be Right Here,” blending blues, Southern rock and Americana. The album contains the arena country “Hammer and the Nail,” the rocking “Little Bit Crazy” and the driving, bluesy “Dig a Hole.” The band goes more acoustic with the wistful “Azalea,” about a loved one making a wrong decision, with the lyrics “Coming back don’t mean you're leaving here was wrong/Sorry ain’t the same as moving on.”

— AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy

— In a new docuseries for PBS, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. examines how sermon and song have long been a source of strength and wisdom in America, particularly among Black Americans. “Gospel,” a four-part series told over two nights has interviews with Dionne Warwick, U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock and more. “Gospel” airs Monday Tuesday on PBS.

— Ben Mendelsohn and Juliette Binoche play Christian Dior and Coco Chanel in a new historical drama “The New Look” for Apple TV+. The 10-episode series is set against the backdrop of Paris reemerging from Nazi occupation in WWII. Dior’s designs helped to lift an oppressed France and its culture with a stylish, modern glow up. As Dior rose to prominence, a rivalry developed between other established designers, including Chanel. “The New Look” also stars Maisie Williams, John Malkovich, Emily Mortimer and Glenn Close. The first three episodes of “The New Look” drop Wednesday on the streamer.

— Before Sheldon Cooper met Leonard, Penny or Amy he was a child prodigy growing up in east Texas. Iain Armitage plays the coming-of-age version of the character in the CBS comedy “Young Sheldon.” Emmy winner Jim Parsons who played Sheldon on “Big Bang” for 12 seasons, narrates. “Young Sheldon” returns for its seventh and final season on Thursday.

— Amy Schumer’s Hulu dramedy “Life & Beth” charmed viewers when it debuted in 2022 and the series returns for a second season on Friday, Feb. 16. Schumer writes, directs and stars as Beth opposite Michael Cera, who plays John, a farmer. The two fell in love in season one despite their differences and personal baggage. Now, the couple is planning to marry. Schumer has said the story is semi-autobiographical, inspired by her real-life marriage to chef Chris Fischer. All 10 episodes of season two will be available on the premiere date.

— Alicia Rancilio

— Batten down the hatches: Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones is finally ready to launch after more than a decade of development and delays. You are the captain of a pirate vessel in the Indian Ocean in the 18th century. You have a decent ship to start with, but if you want to make it really deadly you need to start collecting booty. That means pillaging merchant ships, battling rival scalawags, dodging the authorities and even surviving the occasional sea monster on your way to becoming the Pirate Kingpin. You can team up with friends or fight against them in epic naval warfare — something Ubisoft has shown a flair for in some of its Assassin’s Creed games. Set sail Friday, Feb. 16, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S or PC.

— Focus Entertainment’s Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden travels to the New World in the 17th century. The protagonists are a couple of paranormal investigators, Red and Antea, who are trying to clear the tormented wraiths out of a haunted settlement. They can help the lost souls ascend or banish them to eternal misery, and those choices have consequences down the line. It all gets more complicated when Antea gets killed — but fortunately she can use her supernatural powers to help Red finish the job. Banishers comes from the French studio Don’t Nod, best known for story-heavy cult favorites like Vampyr and Life Is Strange. You can take possession Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S or PC.

— Lou Kesten

[purpleplaid17]

Jess Watches // Tues 9 Jan // Day 109 Synopses & Favourite Scenes & Poll

The Resident (with mum) 2x21 Stuck as Foretold

When the hospital has a severe blood shortage, Conrad must try every avenue to save a patient's life. Nic receives devastating news and is left worrying about her sister's health. Elsewhere, Kit considers the future of her intertwining relationships and Bell has an encounter with a woman from his past.

The frat bros not being homophobic but just thinking their homie can do better. 🤜🏻🤛🏽 And Conrad casually asking him about his relationship was a nice bit of normalcy still lacking in gay-friendly media. It was also nice to learn more about AJ, and to see Mina laugh so loudly.

Frasier (with mum) 5x15 Room Service

An unexpected visit from Lilith stirs old passions in Frasier and new ones in Niles.

Dr. Lilith was breathtakingly beautiful this ep. The dress was more like lingerie but she made it work. And I like the usual up-do but her hair loose and wavy was a sight to behold. Is Bebe a dancer? Because the way she pointed her toes and moved around the hotel room was very graceful. She was right to say she wasn't wrong.

Eureka (rw) 2x07 Family Reunion

Fargo's grandfather is discovered in a cryo-stasis chamber, but no one can determine how he got in there. Elsewhere, Zoe pursues another mystery involving her dad and a dozen roses.

Jo broke way too easily. I think she wanted Carter to find the girly magazine so she can do the quizzes with him. Is his HS gf dying in a car crash relevant later? I can't remember and it seemed random information. Also, it was sweet that Fargo finally got to spend time with his Granddad

The Dragon Prince 5x09 Infantis Sanguine (Season Finale)

While Zubeia fights for her life and Viren arrives at a crossroads, the race toward Aarvos' prison leads those who seek him deep beneath the waves.

Felt more like a mid-season finale tbh, which I'm not mad about. It's nice they're not having to rush the ending knowing s6 is already a go. The underwater bit was so cool. I'd love to temprarily have gills. Probably wouldn't go much deeper than snorkelling lol but it'd be a magical experience. I will never feel sympathy for Viren. But Claudia is still worth saving. The contrast between siblings is fascinating. I hope they get some sort of reunion. Also, Miyana being organized and liked enough to raise an army, yet then giving it so readily to Karim. Please just go away.

[onepiece-polls]

Gayest character tournament: Round 2 results are in!

Dr. Kureha tried hard, and at a certain point she was kind of close, but she wasn't able to win from Nami. Nami 68.1% - Kureha 31.9%

Izou (who originally only had 1 nomination vote and only got in because of mod's love for him), was comfortably leading the first several hours of the competition. Until someone posted Koby propaganda. Within no time the tides were turned, and our young Marine beat our seasoned Whitebeard Pirate. Well, sometimes it's time to make room for a new generation of gays. Izou 34.6% - Koby 65.4%

Well, two former Warlords who have been caught flirting with each other... Or at least, one way. Doffy obviously flirted with Croc, but did Croc really like that? The voters say nay, Doffy is definitely gayer. Doflamingo 63.4% - Crocodile 36.6%

Even though both had struggled for a place in the second round, there was no doubt with the voters who the gayest of these two was. There's something really fruity about that clown. Marco 38.8% - Buggy 31.2%

I thought it would be funny to give these two their opponent's color, but you were apparently against that. Zoro is green, Kid is red, and that's how it's supposed to be. Zoro 74.1% - Kid 25.9%

Then... boy was I invested in this one 😂. It was reeaaally close for a while; a tie, Sanji leading, a tie, Law leading, a tie, Sanji leading... Eventually some propaganda made the voters see, Law is definitely a little gayer. (Sanji doesn't fool us though.) Sanji 47.7% - Law 52.3%

The next one was really close too! A hard choice, both are definitely very very VERY queer. But, being a Gender™ does not necessarily make you gay. People voted Bon Clay just a little gayer. Bon Clay 54.1% - Ivankov 45.9%

As said before, being queer doesn't necessarily mean you're gay. The last battle of this round made that very clear too. We love Yamato but... have you seen Ace? Yamato 30.3% - Ace 69.7%

The bracket will be updated later today, and round 3 will be up tomorrow!

[riddlerosehearts]

okay since i was obviously thinking a lot about the emperor's new groove earlier today, i'm just gonna say this even if nobody else cares: i really like malina. from the emperor's new school. and i like... her relationship with kuzco... sort of? and uh, this turned into a bit of an essay, so here's a tl;dr:

in my opinion the emperor's new school had potential to be a good sequel series, especially since it's actually pretty funny at times (mostly thanks to kronk and yzma), but instead it's an incredibly messy and inconsistent show which handles its main character poorly and constantly resets his development. malina on the other hand is a great character, and her dynamic with kuzco is also great sometimes and infuriatingly bad at other times. i like kuzco/malina in spite of all the Bad because their positive moments in the show are really endearing to me and i can see what the writers may have been going for with it. i have multiple headcanon universes where the way they met and the way their relationship started is completely different because the show made me so mad that it gave me an insatiable desire to fix it. i'm aware that this is stupid and silly but this is tumblr, where i can be as stupid and silly as i want. also, kuzco is bi. to me. <3

anyway. essay below the cut.

okay so here's the thing. i understand why people would think kuzco should've been gay and that he shouldn't have had a love interest in the emperor's new school. i have no problem with this at all and i do think it would've been very cool if the show didn't have any romance and malina was just a friend. however i like to headcanon him as bi and i did so even before i rewatched the show in 2021 (for pretty much the first time since it originally ended in 2008) and got invested in it. also, i have a million problems with the show, and malina and kuzco's relationship is at least 400,000 of them because i have such conflicted thoughts about it.

i should also say that just in case you're reading this and not aware, the emperor's new school (2006-2008) is a sequel series to the emperor's new groove which ran for two seasons on disney channel. the premise of it is that kuzco has to graduate from high school to become emperor, and if he fails then yzma, who also works at the school as "principal amzy" in a very thinly veiled disguise, will be next in line for the throne. kronk also masquerades as a high school student and works for yzma again, and in basically every episode they act out various schemes to try to stop him from graduating. kuzco lives with pacha's family instead of in his palace as he's been cut off from his royal funds, and malina is a classmate who serves as his friend and will-they won't-they love interest who finally gets together with him at the end of the show. i actually find the show pretty funny and enjoyable at times, particularly because of kronk and yzma, but i have a lot of issues with it outside of that.

malina herself is not a problem to me. she has a surprising amount of depth and focus in the series and is intelligent, hardworking, ambitious, assertive, and compassionate. she has her own dreams and goals that get to be fleshed out, she's an aspiring journalist/reporter and several episodes are dedicated to this. she's a great friend to kuzco, both because of how caring she is and because she takes absolutely no shit when he's not treating her right. she literally even calls him out for his internal monologue. she's a great character, and i honestly love her.

the problem is: the emperor's new school essentially reverts kuzco back to his personality from the beginning of the emperor's new groove despite being a sequel, and with malina it goes back and forth between him mistreating her and objectifying her and being called out for it, and their relationship showing positive development where kuzco treats her well and seems to have genuinely learned from past mistakes. we'll see him be honest with her about his worries, own up to his mistakes and admit when she's in the right, encourage her to let loose and have fun when she's being too serious for her own good, give her a thoughtful gift that shows that he listens to her and cares about her. in one episode she almost kisses him while under the effect of a love potion and he panics and stops her, saying it isn't right because she's not in control of her actions, and later when she asks him why he did that he says he wants her to like him for himself and not because of a potion. also to his credit is the fact that said love potion was unknowingly/unwillingly given to him by yzma and made any girl who looked at him fall in love with him, and while he did take advantage of this to go on a date with malina, in the end he knew exactly why letting her kiss him would've been wrong and didn't let it get that far.

but then, in between all of this and in little to no consistent or coherent order, we have kuzco constantly calling her a "hottie hot hottie" even though she clearly doesn't like it, trying to come up with a plan to get rid of yzma and one of the plans is just "put malina in a swimsuit", getting malina and kronk in trouble and not caring, not wanting to dance with her because he can't handle the fact that she has a single pimple, barely being able to accept no for an answer, and just being way too much of an asshole while also constantly flirting with her--and malina is always patient and understanding, but i don't recall a single moment in the show where she hurt kuzco's feelings and he was the one who had to be patient and show that he'd stick with her no matter what. and she did have flaws! she could be bossy and reckless and a bit hypocritical, and things could've been done with this to make their relationship more equal and show more growth on kuzco's part. also... a few episodes after the one where he explicitly laid out why he didn't want to use a love potion to make malina like him, there was another episode where he intentionally used a machine of yzma's to split every part of her personality into a separate person so he could date "smoochy malina", who was obsessively in love with him and who he ended up breaking up with because her obsession was too much and she wasn't herself anymore. this is one of many examples in the show of kuzco having to learn the same or a similar lesson multiple times.

it's all just... very frustrating because they have so many moments that are, to me at least, genuinely cute and show potential for a good dynamic, especially in season 2. i feel like malina's whole personality is, in theory, a great match for kuzco's in an "opposites attract" sort of way. and i believe she likes him because she can see the good in him and is able to relax and have fun with him, and that that is what the writers were going for. that's what we see on the occassion that their relationship is written decently. but because any and all development was constantly being reset, it made it too frequently seem like she just felt obligated to give him a chance because he constantly flirted with her. and also because at one point, when malina's friend yatta asks why she would have a crush on someone as selfish and smug as kuzco, she spends the rest of the episode trying to come up with a reason and what does she end up saying? "sometimes people don't understand their own feelings, they just feel them". ugh. there are several episodes where the plot boils down to "malina stresses out too much/is too uptight and kuzco helps her relax/lighten up" but instead of using that, she has to essentially say she doesn't know why she likes him, she just does?

all this to say, i guess, that i really really wish kuzco and malina's relationship had been written consistently well because when it was, it was good and had potential. unfortunately, more often than not, it was badly written largely because kuzco was badly written and never allowed to properly grow as a person all throughout the show.

and what i did with all of these conflicted feelings while i was revisiting the show back in september 2021 was, i took my frustration toward the majority of the emperor's new school and my enjoyment of certain elements of it, and i wrote down a ton of headcanons on how i would've fixed it. i already think the very premise of the show is nonsense (literally why would kuzco suddenly need to go back to high school?? why does he act like he learned nothing?? they even go back and forth on whether he's actually still the emperor or not), and there are several elements of it that undeniably break continuity with the movie. so i have an AU in my mind where literally none of that happens but kuzco and malina still meet a few months after the movie and, because malina doesn't believe that kuzco has actually changed, they keep encountering each other and having a petty rivalry for weeks before coming to an understanding and becoming friends.

i also have an AU where the entirety of the emperor's new school is, in fact, an in-universe show--which is somewhat supported by all the show's meta jokes and the fact that there's literally an episode where kuzco gets fanmail for the show. and in this AU, everyone is playing themselves in a heavily fictionalized version of kuzco's life. kuzco and malina are good friends who thought it would be hilarious if she played the role of his love interest who he had a ridiculously over the top obnoxious crush on, but then, oops, guess who developed an actual crush on her while filming!

and, even still, i have a bit of a fix-it AU where the show did happen because despite the premise being kind of nonsensical, i could've accepted it as long as it meaningfully expanded on kuzco's character development from the end of the emperor's new groove. if i were writing this show it would've been about how kuzco is trying his best to be kinder, to pass classes he never had to worry about before, to still keep up with royal duties, and be around people his own age and have something resembling a normal life for the first time, while also dealing with emotional distress and hidden insecurities and fears that stem from having had his entire worldview completely shattered by the events of the movie. his relationship with malina still could've had its ups and downs and when things went wrong because of his mistakes, he could've truly learned from that and made up for it. a tv series about kuzco going to high school really could've been so much better, been something that kids could've learned good lessons from and that might not have been mostly forgotten today.

obviously i know that none of my headcanons and AUs change the fact that the show is a mess and kuzco and malina's actual canon dynamic is a mess. and although i wish malina as a character wasn't so forgotten and the better aspects of the emperor's new school (which don't relate only to her--the series also contains a lot of sweet found family moments between pacha's family and kuzco!) also weren't so forgotten, i understand why they are. and maybe that's for the best. i feel like i lost so many brain cells watching this show and yet my remaining brain cells insist on spending way too much time thinking about it anyway.