#i'm only on ep 5 so idk how this all develops

[emotinalsupportturtle]

Something about Greg House not wanting to get a new team because he got attached to his first team and they left him and refusing to settle on 3 doctors but instead he gets a team of 7 who he nevertheless gets attached to/connects to (albeit in a House way).

Like he has a grudging respect and admiration for Amber (cutthroat bitch), he actually gets along with Henry 'Bosley' and respects his intelligence which is a fucking miracle and a world wonder, he has a like recognizes like situation with 13 who he sort of takes under his wing, he's amused by Kunter, he loves to bully Taub and he admires his out-of-the-box problem solving and willingness to break rules, he takes delight in riling and insulting Jeffrey (this is House so it's like a love language for him). Everyone except the other dude, like I forgot his name and I forget he's there most of the time, idk what he's doing there..

[bloominglegumes]

judging earthspark s3

contains spoilers!!!

(my own opinion + not that serious :))

not in order bc i sketch-wrote these down while watching first but guys im so im so .head in hands

-15 pts for the character development, relationships, ideas, etc set up in s1 that were thrown out in s2 and s3. war trauma, immigrant experience, ghost aftermath, individuality, healing process, autobot guilt, byebye. so much character assassination still happening

+1 for following through i guess

+1 shockwave 'all are dead' comic cover reference and having him react to it

+5 every appearance of frenzy and laserbeak. theyre professional hecklers i love them

-1 bc of how the art direction was already established having 2d handdrawn effects but obv their animation has been toned down, there are quite a few instances of 3d smoke made to look like 2d shading which is not necessarily bad on its own but doesnt feel like it fits here

+1 rage virus had nice potential for bringing simmering resentments to surface,, wish the show delved deeper into the characters thoughts + fallout

-1 megatron's va sounds like he was given direction to hold back somehow on his delivery ?? idk it just feels like forced gentleness compared to earlier performance like his lines don't fit him

-2 animation lacking feeling of weight, movements are stiff, unnatural esp for huge guys made of metal. how in the world did twitch push megatron over

-2 fight choreo is more generic and plain,, characters tend to fight in similar ways when they wouldnt, considering different sizes, abilities, personalities etc,, everyone is just tossing each other around

-2 teasing us with breakbee and then actually setting it on fire and then killing bumblebee's personality too and while we're here thrash and mo as well

+1 escape room ep overall was kinda fun. i like the idea of leaning into twitchs big sister role but like u dont have to water down the others when highlighting one character?? the maltos are kids, but theyre not like.stupid

+1 optimus pushing megatron down to protect him and megs glancing down where optimus' hand is on him. someone in story room is pushing megop

+1 prowl being a skilled Hater on entrance

+1 "organics" (derogatory)

-1 optimus tells prowl that the war is over in defence of megatron but literally theyre fighting decepticons again two seconds later so make up your mind earthspark

-5 what are the autobots and decepticons even fighting for at this point? let's shoot them into space so we don't have to worry about that conflict anymore except megatron but he's our friend so don't think about that trust us this is earthspark our show was formed on the basis of being the aftermath of the war hasbro im going to kill you

+1 constructicon mention

+3 prowl being huggable and pickuppable (+1 optimus, +1 elita, +1 arcee)

+1 "terran thrash" "terran nightshade" "stygi-terran" "clan malto" can't tell me thats not objectively cute

+5 blaster feature

+2 megop being deeply embarrassing about robby's weird girlfriend

+5 dramatic megop fight. intense music, personal arguments, falling through the ice sinking to the bottom of the lake together, if i'm going down you're coming with me etc i love it

-1 grimmy not having a single speaking line?? am i tripping

+1 thrash throwing the hat perfectly onto prowls antler tip

-2 duller lighting and colours overall </3 my guy was seriously looking grey in ep 6..,.

+1 "romantic entanglements have hobbled many a soldier. ask optimus." thank u es writers

+1 "there are no implications. there are only facts." banger

+1 multiple pronouns used for the shapeshifting quintesson i just thought it was fun

-1 thrash's character being largely reduced to That One Kid

-1 might just be me but the whole plot with the fake girlfriend was just weird as hell ?? what purpose does it have in robby's character development,,,

-1 dot and alex being less compelling as caring responsible parents. like they're still nice,, but the way they've been written just feels less careful

-1 that movie and confession scene sorry i know it was on purpose but i could not handle the secondhand embarrassment

+1 mole-bots tbh i thought they were going to pull scraplets but they were fun

-4 starscream neglect. where is the justice. nothing but a silhouette all season and then finally all he does is go crazy and get pulled back to jail??wtf

+1 quintesson ship entrance

-1 generic character body language/performance

+1 weird al yankovic going so hard

+1 saving civilians

-2 quintus powers being suddenly able to save the day when they need it because plot

-2 how the chaos terrans are not written

-1 environments are sometimes not that fitting for the action taking place there?? like for the final fight i know theyd need a lot of space for the titan but seriously just a green grassy field and blue sky come on?? give us some artistry,..,.

-1 slightly weird voice effects for quintesson characters but that might just be me

+1 sharkticon pit plucked right out of g1 movie i love it

+1 mo being so polite "mr optimus" "ms elita" "mr prowl sir" sweetheart

+5 what the fuck do you mean "i appreciate you, megatron"

+1 hard confirmation prowl is a hugger

+1 epic titan fusion

+1 prowl being nice. dialogue with bee in that scene felt kind of in your face but it was cute

-1 arresting starscream. girlie was probably starving in there

+1 "little bird"

+1 i'm just happy to have an animated prowl having so much relevance to the main story again.tfa prowl i miss u every day

-2 tarantulas never being seen nor heard from ever again. he had an awesome design, fantastic voice acting, super well written just for hasbro to be cowards

-1 again for just dropping pretty big story points from season 1 for unclear reasons. like i said,, current state of earthspark works fine as a kid's show alone but after how mature and well-handled season 1 was it feels like watching the tv spinoff series to the actual thing. sorry but like zero integrity to the shows basis and values and what the original writing had set up for the world and the characters

[racfoam]

OH MY GOD EVERYBODY MOVE, oh my god. Oda, I fckn -

(inhales)

I love you, Oda.

Okay, okay, so Doflamingo is all bird-themed, we all know that.

And this little detail escaped me (I feel so ashamed) in Ep 727.

FLEDGLING.

He called Luffy a fledgling. (Idk if he said it in Japanese but I'm pretty sure the sub team wouldn't put fledgling out of nowhere)

This is absolutely awesome.

Now, in my defense, English isn't my first language but I still like know this means baby bird.

BUT. BUT.

NOT JUST ANY BABY BIRD.

A FLEDGLING.

It's such a little detail in dialogue but so awesome and cute that he calls Luffy a fledgling.

Omg it's adorable. 🥹

Okay, an explanation.

fledgling (noun) - a young bird that has just fledged

Now let's see what fledged means and this is where the details are awesome and made me go "awwww" and "I love Oda."

fledged - (of a young bird) having wing feathers that are large enough for flight; able to fly

fledge - (of a young bird) develop wing feathers that are large enough for flight.

Fledglings do not have full wings yet. They have only developed wing feathers. Yes, they can fly, but they still stay with their parents in their nest.

Anyway, a fitting word Doflamingo uses for Luffy. He is sorta underestimating him here even though he sees Luffy can fly bcs Luffy is still not as good at flying as Doflamingo. Luffy can fly, just not very well in Doflamingo's mind.

Therefore he calls Luffy a FLEDGLING.

ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE.

Oh, and Luffy not having awakened his DF, but that's not important rn. If we then go following this... This is how Doflamingo might have (absolutely 100000%) called the younger kids of the Donquixote Family:

HATCHLING: babies & toddlers (Baby Dellinger 🥺)

NESTLING: kids aged like 10-13 year-old Law & Baby 5. He probably starts calling them nestlings after 5 years old.

FLEDGLING: teenagers + straw-hat wearing kid who thinks he can fly but can't fly as well as an adult bird and doesn't know about DF Awakenings pfff what an idiot

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. I hope to see this utilized in Donquixote Pirates fics now.

[helaenalyst]

ep 7 fresh reactions

idk what to say. why were they all standing on the rock next to vermithor. why not one at a time. literally what is the logic here. rhaenyra knew what happened the last time? this is on the level of the "one guard for the entire royal family" situation. no one behaves this stupidly. i'm not going to just accept that she lured all those people in to put them in the way of dragonfire so that when the first guy fails everyone dies?? also why start with the huge dragon and not with the other smaller and potentially more manageable dragon? "i have nothing more to tell you" did she even tell them the high valryrian command words. idk what the hell was all that 😭😭😭

other than that i enjoyed the episode, the jace drama was actually really good, he's definitely one of my fave characters at this point. "and even that you take from me" reminded me of alicent's "and to even that you feel entitled" and criston's "it's all that i have to my fucking name" (i will make an edit with this). ill admit i havent been paying that much attention to jace so sorry to his fans if im fangirling over plot developments that are a character assesination i am opening to listening and learning 🙏🙏🙏

alicent's scenes???? i just can't get past the fact that some random guard is living criston cole's dream. the day he leaves there's a riot and alicent needs rescuing and now shortly after she's asking this guard to go live with her in the woods ????????? like somewhere near rosby criston cole is shaking right now and gwayne is asking him what's wrong from a safe distance because the guy might as well be about to implode. he's taking milk of the poppy for it

oscar tully i was not familiar with your game. i enjoyed the harrenhal storyline sooo much my fave part was when oscar loudly proclaimed he didn't like daemon and daemon actually looked hurt. and the kid had to walk up to him like idiot this is all part of the plan. and the looks between daemon and simon strong were so funny. i'm not sure this season long arc revealed new information about daemon's character (we already knew he didn't want the crown right?) but the torture and everything else has been sooooo funny i just love watching him rotate like he's on a microwave

idk how it goes in the books but how is team green supposed to keep up against team black now? alright they have tessarion but counting sheepstealer the blacks have four new dragons? in addition to caraxes when daemon rejoins them, and vermax? i dont know if someone will switch sides but the greens literally only have vhagar and tessarion right now. is helaena going to let criston cole borrow dreamfyre otherwise it's so aegover and even then it would still be

i cant wait for daemons reaction to learning about the dragonseeds... the one thing he cares about is the family won't he be like incredibly pissed??? coming back from self exhile for 5 minutes then going on self exhile again

[bish-plz-haha]

I haven't seen any posts about this so I wanna make it; bare with me as I'm not sure my thoughts will be entirely coherent and understandable (this Pennsylvania summer heat got my brain melting, no joke).

So I rewatched the Lightning strike ep and the coma ep, and I found something quite interesting on my watch-through (as well as watching some edits of buddie on tiktok). So I've been thinking: why was everyone else in Buck's coma dream but Eddie. Eddie is one of the closest people to Buck. So why wasn't he there?

I'm not sure if this will make any sense, but the coma ep is basically Buck living out a dream where everything was fine and he grew up with his brother and parents and sister.

Now almost everyone except Eddie and Athena were in his dream. All completely different people: Bobby was an alcoholic and drug addict (at least that seemed my take from the ep), Maddie was still playing happy wife to dickbag, Chim and Hen were friends and firefighters but they had NO CLUE who he was, his parents were actually kinda nice and supportive of him (kill me now. That's nice and all but I hate them so much). And even Chris was there at the end of the ep, though he didn't particularly recognise Buck. He sounded lost, and like he was asking a stranger for help, not his best friend.

Now when 'Daniel' tells Buck when he wakes up, "Next time you go up a ladder, have someone there to spot you." And, as we know, Buck replied with, "I did," we get kinda a quick flashback to the ep previously to kinda remind the audience what happened. We kinda see a quick flash of Eddie hooking him up and hear his voice saying "go get em cowboy" (the implication of that is another thing in and of itself if we're being honest).

Now, why would Eddie not be in Buck's coma dream?

Honestly, with Buck being able to 'remember' he went up the ladder with a spot (AKA Eddie), I don't think he really had a reason to hold on to him. He already remembered him as he was- in uniform, doing his job, and having Buck's back ("You can have my back any day").

He has all these people in his dream because he's trying to hold on to them. To remember who they are, not necessarily how they are, just who. His central nervous system had a jolt and he was clinically dead for 3 minutes (and 17 seconds, courtesy of Eddie counting the time it took for them to get him down and start compressions: you cannot convince me that that man didn't mentally count each passing second from the moment he realised Buck had been struck and was dangling from his safety line to the time he got Buck down and placed onto the stretcher). That's a lot for someone's system to take. His brain lost a lot of oxygen in that time: and, speaking generally, when the heart stops for a good amount of time (being about 2 and a half minutes or more since the brain can take only about 5 minutes without oxygen before permanent brain damage without CPR), the chemical makeup starts to change because your brain is basically sending signals to the body that it may be dying and it might be time to shut down the body too. To go into a permanent slumber (hence the "superpowers," which is a real thing. Though a lot of people, including myself (it's my fun fact about myself: surprise! I've died), develop a "sixth sense" if you will).

So back to my main point; why Eddie wasn't in the coma dream.

Buck's subconscious already remembered Eddie. He may not have remembered his face or anything, but he most definitely remembers him. He remembers key things about him. There's no need for Buck's brain to conjure up a version of Eddie because he's already significant enough. He is the only one we hear and see that Buck actually remembers being there for him. The shot they replayed as his memory was solely of Eddie and himself. Yes, Chim was in the background but he wasn't the focus of the shot. He was barely visible. And, again, we only hear Eddie's voice.

Idk maybe I'm crazy thinking about this but I'm at work, I'm bored. And it's been on my mind for a few days now.

[bird-inacage]

Hi! I hope you’re having a wonderful day!

I was reading one of your posts on Sand/Ray (Ray/Sand? Idk their ship name) and it had me thinking: did Sand not think about the consequences of releasing the recording outside of how it would affect Top?

At the end of ep 7, we see Ray and Mew dancing or whatever the hell is going on there together, and Sand watching them. As many people have pointed out, he looks more disappointed than surprised. I’m guessing the fear of something like this happening has been in the back of his mind since Boston told half truths about Ray’s history with Mew.

I don’t remember exactly when the getting high session with Sand, Ray, Boston, and Nick happened and if it was before or after Sand got the tape, but that would also be a pretty good reason to release the tape as it could also hurt Boston. Though, Sand strikes me as a kind of “don’t kill the messenger” guy and it would also hurt Nick so I’m guessing his sole motivation was Top being a dick at the juice bar.

But back to my main question: why didn’t Sand see Mew and Ray getting together as a possibility or did he and just accepted it? Because if he had thought it through he would’ve realized that okay 1) tape makes it’s way to Mew, 2) Top is exposed, 3) Mew ends things with Top, 4) Top is heartbroken (yay!!! [from Sand’s perspective]), 5) Mew looks for support and finds it in 6) Ray. Did he not think past Top getting hurt to the part where Mew would fall into Ray’s arms or was he willing to take the risk/was pretending not to care?

I’m curious as to what you think because Sand seems like a pretty smart guy (I’d go so far as to say he 100% knew what he was doing giving the tape to Ray which was manipulative and out of character for him (not as in how he was written, but as in that’s not who he is as a person and breaks his moral code) but felt bad about it later which is why he apologized) and idk if his feelings for Ray clouded his judgement or if he accepted as Mew and Ray as a possibility/inevitable.

- MA

Hello MA!

Thank you, hope today's been good to you too 👌

I do touch on this briefly in my post (here). Like you, I'm certain Sand would have known that in doing so, he'd be opening the door to Ray/Mew. That isn't to say this would be a guaranteed outcome, but as long as Mew isn't taken, then Ray still sees a chance there, even if it's only a matter of technicality.

Now, Sand utilises this very fact to ensure the outcome he wants, which confirms he must be aware of it. He gets his revenge, but he risks compromising further developments with Ray in the process.

As to why he chooses to do this, I remain stumped.

I think a big piece of the puzzle is still missing, and that's the exact circumstances which led to his grudge with Top in the first place. Sand prioritised revenge here above all else, even if it meant sacrificing Ray (also hurting Nick, smashing his phone - for someone broke, this is not a thing to do lightly). That indicates to me either Sand's ex meant a great deal to him, maybe the fallout with his ex was particularly devastating, or what Top did was truly unforgivable.

It's even more intriguing when you consider how Sand has been with Ray. He's very patient, accommodating, and willing to forgive. A stark contrast to this burning desire to get payback on Top at all costs.

On another note, I also believe Sand was still harbouring the smallest of hopes that maybe - just maybe, Ray might care about him back. So when he sees Ray dancing with Mew, it reminds him all over again of how foolish he was to entertain that, even briefly. Which is why Sand looks weary and unsurprised. Of course. He gets passed up. He gets left behind. It's what his ex did. Why wouldn't Ray do it too?

---birdie

[hikennosabo]

#tristampparty day 9, episode 9: millions knives

i've been forgetting to tag @tristampparty in my recent posts whoopsies

so. episode 9. going to just... climb into the microwave ahead of time. get nice and cozy in there. let's. go.

okay let's hit the start button on that microwave now mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm beep beep beep beep

uagh his fucking expressions in this scene... and him playing "his" side of the piano, then reaching to "vash's" side of the piano to play the dramatic part. it's a cry of loneliness!!! from his heart!!!! AUAHAHGHGH

i remember seeing a post a while ago pointing out that knives cutting off vash's arm means they can never play the piano together anymore and that fucking HURTS, man.

i think we need to take the time to pay extra attention to knives's expressions... the character acting in tristamp is really good all-around

overworking them "cuts them off"... i guess it makes them unable to maintain the connection...?

knives touching the glass... reminds me of just before he absorbs the first plant in the manga.

the contrast of the city lighting up beautifully with the horror of the last run... man.

wait... city...?? this... this isn't july, right? the platform/corridor they're standing on looks the same as the one meryl and roberto end up on in the second half of the episode, but the plant containers on the wall are different so i don't think this is the same place... but we started the episode in knives's piano room, which IS in (not-yet-)july, so this must be close by because the alarm went off, which i'm assuming is connected to the plants somehow...??

also wait, we don't see this level of development from the outside. like in the faraway shot when vash spots this place. am i misunderstanding. it's only been 5 years since the crash, so idk if this much development would be possible in that time BUT the guys who show up said they overloaded the plants to speed up "reconstruction," so... uhhhhh... am i missing something?! am i dumb?! 😭

me every time knives makes an expression that hurts me deep in my heart: look!!!! look!!!!

screencaps absolutely do not do it justice, the way his expression changes... horror, shock, grief...

the timing of vash arriving... the cruelty of the humans, the way they talk about the plants... knives's sadness, his grief and rage--wait one of the randos gets his arm cut off

lost arm count: 6

as always i feel like there's a lot more to say but the only thing i'm feeling is my heart hurting so bad :(

vash might be speaking for himself here, too.

hmmm, he says this, but knives dismisses it as if he doesn't believe it. i wonder... i don't think rem would lie about this... but i wonder if conrad would. lie to knives, i mean. like is knives dismissing this just because he's clinging to his own beliefs or did conrad - who i'd think would be more knowledgeable about plants than rem given his position - tell knives something else?

AGAIN, "SINNERS" WITH THE CAPITAL S!!!

i forget, do we see how vash got his gun in the manga? knives gave him his gun in 98, too. interesting that knives is the one who gives vash his weapon in at least 2 out of 3 canons...

hmmm. in the manga, this scene was when knives learned about the black hair thing and drastically changed his plan, deciding he needed to absorb plants. here, though, it seems knives was already planning the higher dimension connection stuff, although he hadn't put it into motion yet. because the plants here are just... being used normally (""normally""), not stored for future higher dimension connection purposes or absorption purposes. knives does still "change his plan," though, i think, when he realizes vash won't cooperate with him. i wonder if/when we'll get the black hair reveal in tristamp. i wanna see knives with his black streak.

conrad and luida know each other... luida DID mention conrad by name last ep, but considering his position it wouldn't be that weird for her to know of his existence without actually knowing him, but no, they actually know each other...

ugh, when knives tells vash to kill luida, he's asking vash to choose between humans and plants, and it just hurts because. knives and luida are both his family. he loves them both.

wait knives with the lace up knee high boots... the drip...

this is the face he makes right before he gives way to anger. man.

he sees rem in luida and lashes out... vash saw rem in her too... ugh. my heart.

going frame by frame again and knives has a bandage on his arm... why? it doesn't seem to be part of his outfit, he doesn't have one on the other arm. there's on on his right leg too, under the boot?? why...

also i like how knives rides the pull of gravity to get close enough to cut vash's arm off. that's a fun detail

lost arm count: 7

the difference in context of knives cutting off vash's arm in tristamp vs trimax... it's a canyon... a canyon of difference...

once again screencaps don't do the character acting justice, the microexpressions he makes... the disbelief, the shaky laugh... he's about to cry. vash couldn't point the gun at luida. but he points it at knives. and then he stands up and turns away, and the way his voice shakes?? dude. he's crying.

but also why does he say it'll take a century to build a world of plants? where is he getting that number from? later in the episode, zazie says that a century is nothing to plants, but knives is like. six. a century would probably still feel like it'd be a long time to him. is that his own personal estimate of how long it'll take to execute his plan? is it conrad's?

wolfwood doesn't react at all when brad says this. funny, but also why.

i hope they can. i hope they can make up. (<- crying screaming and throwing up)

reminds me of vash saying he'll save knives in 98. im gonna throw up

IM GONNA THROW UP!!!!!

it's so weird that ZAZIE is the one explaining earth. like they know a LOT about it, huh? what it looks like, what the life on it looks like (looked? should i be using past tense?)... who told them all this? knives? conrad? this isn't common knowledge either, even honors student meryl doesn't know anything about earth. but why? a lot of knowledge was lost when the ships crashed, and time has passed, but... why would the state of earth and the reasons for the colony ships not even be taught in school? the survivors from when the ships crashed were FROM earth. (well, i guess some of them might have been born in space, but...?) did they not teach their descendants about what happened? were they ashamed? or is this another thing that conrad/EoM/whoever is suppressing information about - and if THAT'S the case, why?

uuaaaghhh i'm writing this post late again and it's 3am and i can't think. sorry this was mostly incomprehensible screaming

[gyarucoded]

reviewing loki s2 ep4 (major spoilers!)

i was bit hesitant thowards this ep cuz i started noticing how this season parallels the previous one, which went very downhill after ep3 however, i think it seem to get better this time? 🤔🤭 this is so far my fav episode and hopefull they'll keep this energy for the last 2 eps. ok let's get into it:

i don't think this was timed like this on purpose but love how we're 3 days away from halloween and this episode fits with it so well. i could be biased as a horror fan but i loved the eeriness (is that even a term?)

brad you stupidass why are you listening to ravonna when she clearly doesn't care about any of your lives on the time line 😭

ooouu the box scene 😧 not miss minutes' psycho ass smiling like she's getting creepier each ep- also as someone who watches gory movies i expected to see what was left of all the prisoners but then i remembered disney tries to keep shit as "family friendly" as possible altough i am not complaining cuz it's a lot more cinematic to just hear the blood droplets & it leaves space for our imagination!

why does it feel like b-15 is lowkey the true leader of the tva now? i can definitely vibe with that.

"which way, wizard?"

B-15 is strong af for not throwing up at *that* scene but ig she has seen more gruesome sights before.

i just know ppl gonna ship o.b, casey & victor as a poly-couple and i'm a 100% there for it lmaoo

even sylvie calling it "bromance" like miss ma'am's gay radar was going havoc, and her smile when HWR death was mentioned plss🤚 😭

i know sylvie meant well when she snapped at mobius for yk, "not reading the room" but i still felt kinda bad for mobius cuz i can deffo see him as the stress eater-type.

loki mentioning thor !!!!

the parallels between thor & jane and loki & mobius hmmm.....hmmmm...

what sylvie said about anhiliation & starting from scratch reminded me of thanos in endgame, sry baby 💀

well despite of that, still think sylvie is in the middle of her positive character arc/development

we're also witnessing loki's growth !! (notice how in 1x04 mobius told him to grow up?) he's possibly even more mature then he was in the sacred time line but that was due his sctripted fate of being a "loser" that sabotaged him from more rational choices but now he's free to think & do what he wants n i love that for him.

goodbye miss minutes i assure you that nobody's gonna miss yew. 💁‍♀️

now why did x-5 had to ruin that wholesome moment this badly ><=$^[_=

despite of sylvie & loki not fully agreeing on moral issues and stuff, i enjoyed them working together, it was finally sylvie's turn to show off her magic 😋

loki was so soft & reassuring with victor timely only for him to be spaghettified ?? i knew they'd probs kill him off but i didn't expect it to be such a weird & immidate death 😭 kinda sad cuz i don't think they'll bring that version of him back.

idk how to feel about ravonna getting pruned. not sure she'll get redeemed cuz it's too late for that now but pruning doesn't kill an invidual so it's likely that her story doesn't just end here.

love the soundtrack in this series generally but in the latest episode it's outstanding ! natalie holt truly added her whole 🐱 into this ost 🙏

the cliffhanger is absolutely killing me, i'll have to absorb all the theories until next friday like i fr cannot wait ngfddjfsvbm

[snorlaxlovesme]

thoughts and feelings about the Netflix's Live Action Avatar, now that I've finished:

overall, net positive! as i said in my previous post about the first 3 episodes [x], i'm someone who goes into adaptations with minimal expectations, treating it more like fanfiction, so I can spend more time enjoying myself than being a butthurt baby, so with that in mind i can say that I enjoyed myself a lot! there are episodes that i'm actually really excited to rewatch (5 and 6 are bangers and i won't be told otherwise)

i'm not going to lie and claim that any of the actors will be winning Daytime Emmys, but there were a few standout performances for me at least:

-Zuko was incredible. i love the way this version leaned into Zuko's desperation to capture the Avatar, because now he finally had a real chance of being able to come home after all these years. his acting pre- and post-Agni Kai in the flashbacks felt so sincere. his optimism was adorable before the war meeting and his shattered expression after Ozai banished him was fucking heartbreaking.

-i really loved the boy who played Aang. he was so charming and cute! and i think as the episodes went along he gradually got better at displaying more subtle emotion. for such a young child actor i thought he was doing amazing

-Sokka's actor was putting in work in the back half! i was impressed! the first half of the show I was pretty neutral about Sokka's acting but the more development he got the more I appreciated what his actor was bringing to the table. i think he just needed to be paired with the right acting partners in a scene to bring out the best of his abilities. Katara didn't give him much to work off of, but his scenes with Sai and Yue really hit

-Zhao was great too! they really re-worked his character to be a lot more important from the jump and i loved seeing how underhanded he was being during all of Zuko's quest. normally seeing Zhao on-screen just annoys me but i loved this version and how patronizing he was to Zuko

-idk man every time Gyatso was on screen I was crying. that's just how it is. every time i saw his face it felt like a warm hug

i think the weird part of this adaptation is that the parts that were adapted were pretty mid (or sometimes just bad) in a lot of cases, but whenever they added in their own original ideas it really shined! i feel like that's not the case with a lot of adaptation, people want to see what they know, but honestly if they added in more of their own original writing in s2 I would not be mad because i loved what these writers were bringing to the table (for the most part)

-i've already said that the way they structured ep 1 to include the start of the war was awesome. that was a cool change to show the audience from the jump that they weren't planning on boring everyone with a one-to-one(but worse) adaptation. it also set the tone really well bc my GOD do firebenders be setting people on fire in this show

-big fan of the early inclusion of Kyoshi and the idea that Aang can only convene with past Avatars at their temples. that was not a Hard Rule in the original and it always felt weird to me that sometimes he needed to be at a certain place on a certain day to communicate with his past lives but then in the finale he just had to meditate wherever he was. but yeah, they used Kyoshi lore from the novels and did indeed lose my mind about it

-Zuko and the 41st division. that was SUCH a cool storyline that was woven in starting at episode ONE and i was genuinely impressed with how hard it hit. i didn't see that coming and it had me CRYINGGGG. so yeah, BIG thumbs up for that original storyline. and also they inclusion of the post-Agni Kai Zuko recovering in the hospital and getting banished for claiming that maybe the weak just need the opportunity to get strong. heartbreaking, devastating on its own (Zuko's actor truly was killing me, i loved him so much) but once we see Zuko and Azula start going toe-to-toe next season that line will hurt me even more

-the bonding moment about calligraphy between Aang and Zuko was a really good bait and switch. in the original Blue Spirit episode Zuko didn't talk to Aang at all before firing at him. i like that i was expecting it to play out the same way as before but instead they had a moment of connection before Aang triggered Zuko and all potential for empathy was lost.

-which seems like a good time to address Zuko's character. i want to be clear when i say that i liked something because it was different from the original, it doesn't mean that i like it BETTER than the original. i simply think the new version is fun fanfiction that was written better than i expected. so when i say i like how they dealt with Zuko's obsession with honor, i'm in no way implying it's superior to the original. simply a good different

-anyways. in the original, Zuko's obsession with honor is fully connected to his need to be wanted by his father again. OZAI is the only one who can restore it, and it can only be restored by completing an impossible task for him. in the Netflix version it almost seems like Zuko's honor is tied to the disillusion that the Fire Nation itself is honorable. the bit about Lieutenant...Yi? sorry i'm getting his name wrong, but Lieutenant Yi gossiping about a superior officer, Zuko's disbelief that the Fire Nation would ever use such underhanded tactics like planting spies in Omashu, it was clear to me that Zuko bought into a rigid sense of morality and honor when it came to the Fire Nation. i hope we see more of that in s2 so that we can see Zuko's world truly rocked when he and Iroh become refugees

-Katara being hailed as a master was very sweet! i wish she would have gotten SOME training from Paku (could still happen at the start of book 2) but I did enjoy that during the Siege of the North that she got her own little battalion to command bc she was seen as worth warrior

-OH and I love how they explored Sokka's character. again, them taking out Sokka's blatant sexism didn't bother me, so i was happy to see that in taking that out they DID work hard to make Sokka's character motivations rich and meaningful. having him have the same complex about being a lacking warrior as the original cartoon but with the added twist of overhearing his dad's harsh words about his abilities really added something to Sokka's insecurities. i loved the inclusion of Sai encouraging Sokka to become an engineer because it was clear how much that meant to him. considering in the cartoon he does become a pretty badass warrior (while still being mainly an Idea Guy) i wonder how this storyline will play out later. if he'll try harder to fit into the warrior box he thinks he belongs in or if he'll blatantly begin to reject that role for himself and identify more heavily with his engineer side

-the cave of two lovers had me worried for a second because Sokka and Katara were paired together for that and im like UMMM so i thought it was pretty funny how they reinterpreted "love is brightest in the dark" in that scene. not as good as the original, obviously, but a funny reinterpretation that i didn't hate

i probably have more to say on the additions but this is getting long so i think it's time to get to some criticisms. this show was not perfect by any means and i have several gripes with it so i might as well get that out now

-WAIT first i must say that a lot of the bending looked phenomenal. particularly Zuko and Aang's bending. both actors (and their stunt doubles) were great martial artists and the fire effects and air effects were done really well. i was really worried about how they'd adapt airbending (since air is invisible) and they did a great job adding in dust cloud effects and making sure the props in the scene moved they like would if they were blasted by air

-AND i must emphasize that i was not mad at them chopping up storylines and mixing them together. the Mechanist/Jet plotlines had similar themes of seemingly Good People doing unethical things for what they believed to be a good cause, so putting them in the same episode made sense to me. and having Sokka and Katara getting spirited away and caught up in that mist (a fun LOK reference that time, i loved the easter eggs) and then captured by Koh was a good way to separate them from Aang the Blue Spirit arc could take place. that also made sense to me. people who get mad about the re-shuffling of episodes frustrate me to no end.

okay, now onto critique:

-unfortunately, Iroh was a giant flop. i don't know how else to say it. i didn't really like any part of him, from his costuming to his writing to his acting. something about him felt like he was plucked out of a campy low-budget stage play and just thrown into this show while only know his campy stage play lines. both Zuko and Zhao give pretty grounded, emotional performances and Iroh is SO jarring by comparison when he's in the same room as them acting like a caricature of himself for no reason. his wig was terrible, i wish they had made it more flowy because it stayed the same shape and position the whole time, he used the WEIRDEST announcer voice the whole time (like why are you using a voice?? no one else is using a voice??), and his robes seemed out of place when everyone else was wearing leather armor. and they had a moment in episode 4 where an Earth Kingdom soldier really laid into him because back when Iroh was a general he was responsible for the death of Earth Kingdom soldier's brother. i was interested to see this bc we BARELY get to see Iroh's Bad Side in the cartoon and i was curious to see where the live action would go with it. but it ended with Earth Kingdom soldier slugging Iroh or slapping his face or something and Iroh made some snoody remark about how war changes people, and he WASN'T talking about himself. like bro this man just told you you COOKED his brother alive he has earned the right to slug you, what are you talking about! i was expecting remorse, or at the very least a solemn look of guilt over the person Iroh once was, but nothing. it was bad. obviously having the iconic Uncle Iroh be so terrible is a huge mark against the show. i simply cannot defend that

-circling back to Iroh's wig. well. the hair and make-up department went out of their way to make important characters look like their cartoon counterparts and that was not always beneficial. why did Yue look like she was from Whoville. who okayed that.

-many people have already pointed it out, but it was weird in ep 1 that Aang's decision to leave was because he needed to clear his head, not because he was running away from his responsibilities. i have no idea why they made this change, unless the reason was to have every single person (including past Avatars) dog on Aang for not being around during the past 100 years. but even that doesn't hit the same bc it truly wasn't his fault! he went for a drive and got caught in a storm! he intended to be back in a few hours! idk that change didn't make sense to me. i know Aang felt guilt regardless but the guilt was supposed to be from the intentionality of Aang running away

-the way Katara broke Aang out of the iceberg was weird?? she wasn't angry at Sokka for his sexism, but she could have been angry at him for SOMETHING that caused her bending to grow out of control. or at the very least when she was bending the canoe towards her she could have done a sharp pulling motion towards her that ended with her arms behind her, therefore forming the cracks in the ice (kind of a callback to how in the pilot Katara could really only waterbend backwards at first). instead her hands were fully facing forward and she was gently bending in front of her and that led to the ice sphere exploding behind her. its been bothering me. whyyy

-character-wise, Katara was pretty one-note. like the addition of her guilt for getting her mom killed with her subpar waterbending, while not bad, didn't make up for how much she DIDN'T have going on. it felt like they toned down a lot of Katara's character strengths AND flaws to give Sokka more room to arc, then shoved all of Katara's development into the last 2 episodes. they didn't show much of her resilient hope in the face of adversity or rage towards injustice or how petty she could be. part of this could be her actor, who i won't dog on because she is a child actor who will get better with time, but i don't think the flimsy writing of her did her any favors

-score wasn't nearly as good as Jeremy Zuckerman/The Track Team's. remixing some of the A:TLA's score doesn't make up for the fact that all the original scoring in this adaptation was flat by comparison

-Bumi's whole thing was....weird. i didn't mind at first that they speedran through his reveal because i don't think there's a point to try and surprise the three people who haven't seen the original. 99% of the audience knew the King was Bumi, so I didn't see any problem with that. but the set-up flashback of Bumi lasted like 10 seconds and basically just showed him snort. it didn't give you a reason to get attached to him as Aang's past friend. and his current actions didn't help at all. the acting was very Michael Meyer's Cat in the Hat-esque. so. uh. SCARY AND OFFPUTTING. was not a fan of that all. and having him do a few random goofy tests for Aang AFTER already knowing his identity felt...weird? like what's the point of these now? and then having the reveal that he's NOT kooky, he genuinely IS pissed at Aang for being gone, well. hmm. it's not a bad idea in theory. i liked the concept of having someone FROM THIS TIMELINE (looking at you, Kyoshi, Roku, and Kuruk, and your unjustified rage toward Aang) be upset at Aang for leaving the world in such a state of imbalance. having Bumi be like DO YOU KNOW ALL THE SHIT I'VE HAD TO DEAL WITH SINCE THE WORLD HAS HAD NO AVATAR, was an interesting line of thought i could have rocked with, butttt.....idk man. it's BUMI. he's supposed to be a living memory of Aang's past to give him comfort and wisdom! it hurt to see this version be so cruel to Aang and basically force him to try to kill him just to prove a point. i would have rather had them write out Bumi altogether and use that episode for something else than to smear his name like that

-i'm tentatively alright with Azula's plotline right now. the Zuko line "Azula was born lucky, I was lucky to be born" is really essential to how their rivalry worked in the cartoon. Azula was a cold-hearted prodigy while Zuko was compassionate boy but average bender. i liked the idea of showing how Ozai intentionally pitted his children against each other. i liked seeing Azula's moment of defiance where she claims she's DONE being tested because she know how good her abilities are. i liked seeing the origin of her lighting bending. all of those were cool fanfiction. the thing that worries me is that we, the audience, have already seen Azula's doubt in herself, something we weren't privy to until the very end of the series. plus showing how hard Azula trains kind of undercuts the fact that Zuko is supposed to think he can't measure up to her because of her natural abilities that he DOESN'T have. they DID plant the seed to Zuko that Azula was the one backing Zhao the whole time, so we do have some of their rivalry primed to go. but the rivalry in the original is extremely one-sided. it will be odd to see Azula fighting just as hard to earn Ozai's affection, because intrinsically she should think that game was won a long time ago. so yeah. i'm not mad about it YET, just interested to see how it plays out

and then there are little nitpicks that could be resolved in season 2, should it get picked up again

-Aang not learning any waterbending or burning Katara with firebending can be woven into the early eps of season 2 before Toph's introduction

-the gaang's chemistry will only grow stronger with time. as the cast becomes better friends, as the kids become better actors with age, and considering they don't separate much in s2, i have faith that will iron itself out naturally

-tbh im sure there are more but this is so long i'm fizzling out. i'm fading. i must stop.

but yeah! good and bad! there's lots to unpack but in general i think it was fun. i'm excited for more.

[magmythedevil]

Do you have worries about either Envy or Nuzi being rushed and forced in the end to the audience to please certain fans? Would you be saddened if N and Uzi didn't get together in the end, despite all the development and growth the two have gotten over the season so far, especially with their friendship? I've honestly noticed lately that some Envy fans have said Nuzi is being shoved in our faces, but the same could be said for EP 5 "Envy" when they showed the past versions of N and V, and even EP 2 as well..it seems like kinda hypocritical, to me. Heck someone even went out and made an Nuzi hate account over on Twitter and it's laughable and dumb. But anyways, I wanted to ask are you worried about either ship being rushed and not given the amount of development?? I honestly feel bad that I can't like Envy as other fans do..I honestly DO wanna like it and I do kinda ship it, but I only ship and like their past versions, but it's just hard for me to really like N and V as a couple (especially present) In general when the show hasn't really given it the amount of development it deserves and the show also hasn't given me a reason to really root and make them seem believable, at least to me..maybe I'm missing something, idk. 🤷‍♀️🤔 It's sometimes scary and hard to be a Nuzi fan at times though when Envy fans and especially other fans in this fandom (at least when it comes to Tik Tok and Twitter, and even Reddit and Amino too) keep on calling Nuzi problematic and uncomfortable because of so much misinformation being spread and people thinking it's p*oship, EVEN THOUGH IT'S NOT!! PLEASE STOP SAYING THIS, BTW!

But some fans are theorizing and assuming that maybe Liam is just playing around with the audience and saying that N and V might end up being the endgame couple which I cannot say, none of us knows until Liam confirms and says anything! I honestly do think there needs to be proper closure with N and V no matter if they get together or not, especially with V's treatment of N. I honestly think that V's sacrifice will affect the characters, especially N..since he and V were close and had a bond with one another!

And one more thing I wanna add real quick is this, now I don't know if this is 100% true or not and I'm just going by from what I've heard, but apparently I've heard that during a live event screening that happened back for EP 2 of the show, Liam Vickers was talking and discussing about how much he loved and enjoyed N and Uzi's dynamic (they are also his favorite characters) and he doesn't like one over the other and was also apparently asked on what his favorite ship was which he didn't say and said we'd eventually find out...I wouldn't be surprised if he's referring to both N and Uzi, since not only do they have the most developed and strongest bond and friendship out of any of the other characters, but the show has hinted at them being a item so many times, it seems sooo obvious. (I know this trope is cliche of main characters being a thing and I'm not the biggest fan of this myself at times, but N and Uzi are an exception for me! ^-^) now I MIGHT be wrong and things may change and go differently we'll just have to wait and see afterall, but even if N and Uzi don't get together..I'll still ship them because they just have more chemistry to me. 💛💜✨ But in the end, shipping isn't everything to me and I'm just here for the story, world-building + angst and the characters as well, but I'm curious to see what Liam ends up doing with the relationships and dynamics, especially since with this show..since anything can happen, especially with how crazy and insane it can be, especially with all it's twists and turns, haha!

Yep, nuzi may be semi-canon right now but everything is possible. We cant be sure what will happen to them exactly. But if nuzi really ins't end-game i hope liam gives a satisfied conclusion to them and their relantioship at least, no matter If Its happy, Sad or bitter-sweet.

Now about envy, i agre with you, i cant really ship their present selfs because of their development and their fans (they are so weird about nuzi and uzi herself ughhh) .

And if envy is going to be the end game in the full series Liam has to like- FOCUS a lot on them since they have a some things to pack up before coming back to each other. But, he has to put Uzi a litte aside for that....and i think thats something quite controversial to do since shes such a beloved protagonist and her relantioship with N is extremely special for the show (and fans)

But now that V has got some development and doesn't really hate uzi that much, envy may still have a chance of end-game.

But If they arent going to be end-game, Liam surely will give a nice conclusion for their relantioship, most probally a bitter-sweet one. (I also still have some Hope for vizzy-)

Also V's death is OBVIOUSLY going to be a part of N's breakdown Togheter with Uzi Almost losing her control and having to save the whole universe thing, Thats the entire point. No matter If he has focused on Uzi more, and getting feelings for her. V still was someone special for him (even If she treated him poorly) not even in a romantic way, if a friend of my died i would go crazy too.

And i agree with you with the whole rest 👍 lets see what will happen

[kaylor]

as always you are so right on your opinions lmao.. cr will always have a special place in my hearth but since watching other (better) live plays and playing myself I cant sit through a single ep.. matt is great but he is almost too descriptive we dont need all of that matt please edit it down a little king, and the cast man i loved them but they are not decisive people like i feel like poking them with a stick (except travis thats my #1 rp on that table).. the most recent cr thing I watched was calamity and thats kinda cause brennan is great and the cast was stellar abria, lou travis! sam when he is actually playing of others <3 but idk it feels sad like I have outgrown them.. :/

anyway love your mind as always and what is your fave d20 season if you dont mind sharing? I have only watched A Court of Fey & Flowers and I loved it.. but I have no idea what to watch next hehe

calamity was SOOOOOO GOOD you're so right. brennan really rocked up at critrole HQ, showed everyone how it's done, killed 5/6 PCs and ruined the rest of CR forever because nothing will ever be that good ever again. the sexiest table we've ever seen. "this is going to be a to whom it may concern - i cast fireball" BITCH!!!!!!

i think campaign 3 would have really benefited from a more elaborate or expansive session zero because the vision matt has for the campaign does NOT align with the characters at all. it doesn't seem like they're on the same page at all. the mighty nein worked because they were all random people, they all had something unresolved or mysterious in their past, they all had secrets, and matt gave them a huge playground for them to develop those characters with plenty of scattered points of interest for them to choose. and even though it was just as chaotic as C3, it worked because they weren't on the clock.

i don't want to use the R word but bells hells are being railroaded into this predathos plot and NONE of them had ANY relationship with the gods, so it feels really unnatural for any of them to really pursue this beyond feeling like they should. orym and imogen have stronger motivations but orym is extremely passive and imogen just sits and whimpers about it making absolutely no decisions. it's very frustrating as a viewer and if i were DMing this i would be so frustrated with such indecisive players. but i think it's also on matt for inundating them with lore and plot so early on. all in all it's just not executed very well and it's disappointing.

oooh my fav d20 season i think is a court of fey and flowers or a crown of candy (not super keen on the ending, but i would have to rewatch and have a good think about what i would have done instead..). acofaf was just incredible, hats off to aabria for making me so invested in a fae bridgerton. WAIT ALSO MENTOPOLIS. i have never laughed so hard in my life. mike trapp and hank green were a DELIGHT. just absolutely incredible character choices all around. really enjoying fantasy high junior year so far, which is nice because sophomore year was a bit of a slog i'm ngl, probably because it was live and therefore unedited but i struggled sometimes to keep focused. junior year is fucking crisp though, everyone is on top form ❤️

[actualbird]

hi zak!

the main story cn pv reminded me of a question I had! sorry if it's boring / has been discussed on here before, but how do you think the timeline of the game works? do you read the main story as an au different from the universe in which Rosa is with one of the guys (which means there'd be at least 4 "universes", one per guy but with the main story as part of that development), or do you see it as entirely seperate?

I personally tend to like the idea that the main story is a precursor to the relationships / happens within the first year before they start dating. I think it (as of what we have on global rn) has to come before that first anni mark, bc the boys are still stuck in some of the issues they had before they began to develop. also, some of the important developments from the main story must exist, such as meeting vyn in his home or defending Marius in ep 2 for their respective stories to even exist, which implies some sort of layover between the two. some characters, such as Harry grant, also appear in events tailored toward the others (if I recall, harry appears in the event for vyns first birthday), which implies the story has continued beyond the point "required" (only up to ep 2 is 100% necessary to begin vyns route) for each ml. in my opinion, this implies that the main story has unfolding effects on the story, but it feels like we see less of the latest chapters have impact into the specific solo ml events or stories.

the events do sow a little more chaos imo. the really big events imply a realistic passage of time; 3rd anni event seemed implied to have also come in the 3rd year since Rosa joined nxx. but this also feels like a wrinkle because it stands in the way of the idea of it existing in the same timeline as Rosas relationship with whatever man. if they were doing the blizzard red thread event as an nxx team, it implies the nxx duty has not been completed, right? but at that time in the mls story line, they were dating right?

I find it hard to believe Rosa is in a relationship w whichever guy at the time of the main story just due to their lacking growth. as a vyn stan, it's most apparent in him to me. in the main story he struggles w trust and still seems very standoffish, but these are things he has begun working on and continues working on as his feelings, and eventually relationship, develop. I'm not as bothered by some differences, like how Luke's illness is revealed in the main story vs how it was revealed to Rosa in his story, bc I can reason that to myself as making up for the fact that not everyone plays everyone's stories or in whatever universe, such as one where Rosa is with Artem, she would not find out as she did in Luke's story, but if she were with luke, maybe his main story would "take presidence" in the sense of what's canon? I guess in the sense of a weird if; then sort of thing?

idk if this made sense and I'm so sorry it's so dreadfully long and ranty. I have a lot of thoughts about how the storylines could connect but also struggle to line up, and I was curious as to what anyone else had to think or say about it, especially if there's any details I'm for getting. but also as this is so long pls don't feel the need to answer it, or even to answer it with something like super detailed. I just wanted to put my thoughts out there and ask what you personally tend to lean toward in ur own thinking :]

ohhhh this is a really interesting view you have!!

my personal view is kjsbflkdl completely different tho. i personally see the main story route and all the romance routes as like Completely Different Timelines/AUs, where main stories 1-5 happen before the romance route but then after that, diverge completely

i remember....i made a chart about this....once.....but i didnt save the image and i cant find it on my blog anymore kjBKSJFDF

but yeah i view them as different timelines. mostly because it's a headache to marry all the timelines into one, but also because luke (my brain's constant focus) is so different in his romance route and main story route. i view those two lukes as separate versions of luke, and thus these stories as stories that happen independent of each other

your view is really cool tho and i enjoyed reading this ask :D

[luckyqueenreign]

So I played ep 4 and 5 and I'm kinda put off Lewie my couple I love the rush I find him boring. So I choose that I'm only into boys and Bella doesn't try flirt with me like in the last seasons and I living this because probably she is going to be my villa bestie and I love our moments. Yeah Ozzy talking about his brothers... So one of them is coming? Ivy still giving me the ick.

So I don't know where to put Amelia because she seems geuine and like she really cares about MC but the Zeph thing wasn't even that big yet. Cause we only know he was into her and that's it. If this is the case only I can forgive her.

Ohh Roberto... My new partner until Marshall arrives. Hoping the date is gonne be streamy and good. Also meet my Mc who plays with hearts this season.

I love Bella and Grace and loved getting to know them better / hanging out with them more this volume butttt I wonder how this friendship is going to go when I eventually have to steal Ozzy from Grace 😩 I kind of wish we got a few more moments with Amelia this volume esp to talk about our date with Roberto. is it just me but fb seems a little lost rn in how theyre developing that relationship. on one hand it seems like theyre close but then on the other it doesnt. idk but rn I love Amelia and trust her. The Zeph thing we all knew was coming and honestly this is so much better than what we all assumed. Love your MC! 💖💖

[laststandx3]

This post contains spoilers for ep 6 of daryl dixon

so finally watched ep 6 (the last one of the series) and let me tell you: it's bad. AdNag was wonderful, his hair were perfect, his face so kissable. 100% the highlight of the episode.

Anyway quinn dies (we knew it. let's not pretend we didn't) he get bitten by a zombie during the arena fight and in his last conversation as human he asks daryl to tell isabel he helped them an all. jesus christ, you're dying can you be less of a simp?

so let's talk about this episode for a minute. first half is them escaping the zombies in the arena (which daryl dixon has barely any difficulty in doing. he even lift one with a pole. really.) then the militia guys (was enough to fire one shot at random and they run away) and then our heroes were back on the road just to have the most nonsensical 5 minutes in the history of plots: does anyone remember the militia guy that wanted to avenge his brother so bad that in looking for dixon he got at least 40 people killed? the same guy that was cheering for a zombie to eat off dixon's face 3 minutes ago? that guy that was shown as the right hand of the boss? well after 5 episodes of murder after finally having dixon at the end of his gun he decided he wasn't going to kill him. bc he didn't want to kill laurent apparently, but the 20+ dead nuns is fine? the other innocents from the club? the paris commune? they can die. it's fine if he doesn't want to kill the kid but daryl dixon was right there, why not kill him?

second half of the episode they reach the nest and it's maybe the nicest sequence in the show so far. not enough that i can forgive everyone being dressed like background characters from a 40's movie or a group of french people picking the token american aboard student as their leader or everyone still speaking english for daryl or these people needing daryl to teach them how to use a rifle. but okay at least the sequence was nice. i don't believe that nuns taught laurent about aristotele but okay. i still have some suspension of disbelief left. at this point the people from the nest found daryl a lift home (kinda) and there's a ship waiting for him on the coast of Normandy. You know what we just found out? that dd's granpa died on the coast of normandy during ww2 and daryl sniffs on his grave even tho he never met the man and had a bad relationship with his dad. it feels like the american writers of this show had a list of things americans and french had in common and ww2 was the only thing left. anyway laurent then shows up from a dune and waves at daryl and idk it's implied daryl will take him to america? this kid only has bad ideas.

at the end of this season i can say this was the first draft for the show. not one single character has an arc. characters were underdeveloped, they had no solid background for their personalities. bad guys were bad until the plot needed them not to be. and those who were bad were bad just because. Genet she was a night guard at the museum and now she's leading a militia, i'm not saying it's impossible, i'm saying that without seeing even a glimpse of her character evolution she feels hollow. the guy wanting to avenge his brother does a 180 in a minute, killing 4 of his men. what is the journey there? he could've been a great character development, if he got developed in any way. Quinn, went form british living abroad (job still unknown) to nightclub owner that simped for Isabelle for 12 years but never ever in all this time looked for her once. and now that he died nobody cared, they made the big reveal that he was laurent's father and he was the ONLY person laurent showed no sympathy to?? Isabelle, laurent and the other nun, they saw everyone they lived with die and were okay, no faltering in faith, no grief. no lets go on with the plot. the other nun cared so little that she left them when they needed help the most and joined back when the risk was over. like?? girl what? I want to talk about laurent, he never questions he's god on earth, everyone told him he's special and in all his journey he never doubted for a second that he wasn't even if so far more people died than how many he helped. he saw murder, violence, hunger, pain, living dead and he didn't care at all. and now daryl dixon, i started the series knowing nothing about him and now the only thing i know is that he's the typical grunts not speak no friends type. zero connection with his character. he went throughout another tuesday of killing zombie and people and what bothered him the most was that everyone was speaking french.

this series gets a 4/10

[dojae-huh]

Coming back w the link to the last ep of MIK (@jamgiz on X). The ending is kind of sweet haha.

Ep 6 https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1qZB5p6QgQ7WkFOUgcp4aJKPGBDX2pAgX

Thank you for the review to the last 5 eps, I agree w you. Them feeling unwanted bcoz they don't get positive feedback reminds me of your comment on the last ep of Lastart. "You see, Riku realises he needs to fill in the shoes, that's why I like him, he is like Taeyong, he will improve relentlessly, some others don't feel the burden really...". The need to realize your role in the group & work on it, rather than focusing only on getting positive feedback as the goal.

Whether DA will last long: Aside from beating out the individualistic self, I also want to point out the motivation to join band like this. Idk much about the band culture in the West, I can only refer to what we know in Kpop; commonly being able to debut in ur group is the pride, the final dream (years being a trainee), long time commitment (TVXQ, Suju still active today), a name u want to protect (Haechan w NCT). Things might be different in non Kpop environment (contract as well)..

Hopefully they keep learning to be more as one group.

Link

Thank you for reminding me people actually read what I write, haha.

I've watched the last episode yesterday. And even watched an English morning show for kids DA guested at for promotion (where slime was thrown at Blaize). The show left an impression... not of a good kind, lol. So they truly follow the k-pop route, variety shows including. (I kind of enjoy how one hobby (stanning one group) kind of expands in different directions and conbines different experiences. The way I related to Doyoung saying salak from the jungles was tastier than from the shop. Still couldn't find fruits as sweet as the ones from Waigeo island. At least Malaysia had the right round kind. The ones in Thailand are not really edible fresh.)

I liked how Reese told Hee Jun Yoon "I'm a good boy, not a bad boy", when she hinted that they should do alright as a group unless they get into scandals. It was funny. Either the UK producer (that old man) or SM team made sure to take the character of trainees into account. Evidently the guys weren't picked at random only based on how they danced and sang during the initial screening of candiadates.

The boys won a golden ticket, were given private lessons, were treated with care, and still needed multiple lessons to show that they are too over their heads. They wouldn't last a month in a real Korean idol-survival show, heh. I suppose "lashing out" was out of self-protection. "I'm working all day and doing my best, it's not my fault!". Reese wasn't scolded much because he corrected what he was told to correct, not just "put in effort".

Looks like most of them are in the group to perform (two did musicals, one has been singing from childhood, one is a tiktoker), i.e. to be liked and to have fun. Some have musical education though, Maybe song-writing or producing will appear in the future.

DA can last if they develop real friendships. 10 years is highly unlikely, but even 5-7 years will be a good result. With Blaize it was evident he wanted a found family. He looks very different (open, not closed off) in the interviews now in comparison to the show. It's a joint production with SM, the company will continue to participate. SM needs success with them to replicate this formula.

Speaking of Riku. He is on a quest of shipping himself with Jaehee. Considering fans like Riku/Yushi, it is also a consious decision to work for the whole group (three pairs: Shion&Yushi, Riku&Jaehee, Ryo&Sakuya, and the least popular quiet member brought to the spotlight). Of course, Jaehee being a good sport and an enabling friend helps.

[sidsinning]

This is not going to be an extremely thorough essay about why my opinions of mlb are completely right from every angle you could ever think of its 10 am and I'm running on 0 hrs

This is just what I've been thinking about the show

I feel like every time the show defies a gender stereotype it doubles down on like 5 more at the same time

VERY unpopular opinion: sometimes the stalker trope can be funny but I feel like the creators don't do it well which is why everyone shits on Mari for it so hard + they overdo it

I really don't think Mari's shtick is actually making kids think diving into trashcans to spy on your crush is ok to do- everything she does is cringe on purpose so I don't see kids aspiring to be like her in this way

Felix's intricate arc felt so abruptly cut after he became Kagami's boyfriend; I feel like it's a shame Feligami were so rushed bc a slow development of their relationship could've strengthened his character arc even further. I feel like it merced both their characters by having it be so quickly put together. Bc why is Kagami saying she loves him enough to defy her mom already and why are they making out all the time. Like I didn't need that personally

Lots of missed opportunities in general regarding Felix

Kagami telling Felix Marinette is Ladybug after 1 ep he got with her like what the hell kind of insane betrayal??? They try to brush off???? Hello????

The way she found out was so stupid too

Man I will miss the -will they, won't they- Ladynoir; I feel like they were the most entertaining and well developed pair in terms of the LS, with the most addicting dynamic

I'm pretty sure most of us were drawn in by "cute flirty cat boy simping for our badass heroine who playfully rebuffs his advances" in the first place

Season 5 was batshit and filled with plotholes like holy

Idek what to think about Chloe now it's messy

The most corrupt adults getting abrupt redemption arcs (principal, mayor Andre, arguably Gabe)

Sabrina just decided to. Turn. Morality somehow appeared when the plot needed it to. Soccer

"I need to break up with Luka bc I am LB"

Tikki and Plagg: "Adrienette can't be together bc of the burden of LB and CN"

Then they get together just fine after becoming superheroes again where nothing about the stress of the job changed, so I guess Tikki and Plagg took away their miraculous for nothing

Luka in the guardian fit 💀

Idk man Kagami's resurfacing feelings for Adrien made me sigh ngl like did I really need this filling up screentime

Kagami being easily manipulated by Lila for plot bc their friendship was built off screen after their terrible interaction in Oni-chan

Lila in general

AI Adrigami taking over Paris' mind via fake AI video kidnapping on glorified apple watch starting the big finale 🧎‍♂️ like what even is this

Adrien being literally asleep for the finale- I get the message. Adrien shouldn't have to fight his dad. Adrien fighting his dad wouldn't be a moment of triumph for Adrien, only sadness. Adrien is a victim of abuse who wants to be rescued and that is ok. Mari rescuing him from his prison is beautiful.

But idk. Maybe have him help in a significant way before he gets neutralized for the whole finale besides providing Maribug with his ring? Idk I love love love Mari getting the spotlight in her show but. Hm. Cutting him off so clean like that is a lil weird considering how important he is, and how Ladynoir's relationship is so essential to the show? I'm still kinda torn on this

Bug Noir slayed at least

Other shit but yeah I'm just rambling

holding back on the surge of ml criticism my brain just produced