#idk is that like… meta? fourth wall break?

[femme-enby]

Tryin to find a specific undertale fic-

SO!!!

From what I remember- it was a oneshot self-insert where Sans became… aware? I can’t remember if the “insert” made him aware or if he had already had a bit of an… idea?

But basically Sans realizes that when saying “y/n” he… doesn’t actually know what he’s saying. It’s YOUR NAME, but… when written he just keeps writing “y/n” or sum.

Basically I think he has like a whole breakdown? Realizing he doesn’t ACTUALLY know “y/n” “e/c” “f/c” or whatever other abbreviations there are. He knows that whatever he’s saying IS your name/eyecolor/hair color/etc… but that… he can’t write them down. He doesn’t actually know. You… don’t actually exist??

I really wanna find it again, or any fics that covered that if there were multiple, but I fr cannot find any.

Ain’t no damn way I’m the only one who read that, and I sure af could not have possibly dreamed it in such detail as I recall.

[mouseratz]

like idk Harley Quinn SHOULD be silly, I'm not asking her to become grittier, but even the ways in which she is silly have felt shallower as of late- it leans less into slapstick and actual jokes and more into meta and fourth wall breaking and multiverse references. (Joker himself actually also suffers from this problem, although I would say he's generally treated as just dark and gritty atp). She DOES have an edge and I'm not asking for a focus on that but merely an acknowledgement; most of her appearances recently have felt very One Or The Other, entirely silly and heartfelt or all gloom and doom, instead of that interesting in-between place that her original appearance strikes.

[mr-double-downer]

Saw Deadpool and Wolverine last night btw. It was decent but honestly like the Joker movie it was overhyped, tho they have the opposite problems. Joker doesn’t feel like a comic book movie at all to the point it might as well be batman adjacent in name only, while Deadpool 3 is just, a little too much on the nose with the fourth wall humor to the point it was generally jarring that Deadpool would say something about Fox or Disney directly and nobody else seemed to notice or care. Like I get he’s supposed to be in universe wacky n insane and everyone understands that but not once does someone go “what the fuck are you talking about”and it irks me. Apparently it was suggested that more characters including Wolverine were meant to be also 4th wall breaking but Reynolds shot it down on the grounds it would make Deadpool less unique or something.

Idk, maybe I’m just too old for meta humor

[iiusia]

This is me asking you about poetry. Please tell me about poetry.

YAYYYYY I WOULD LOVE TO!!! now ngl this is very general..... so yk what i will simply give u my Top poems (for the moment!!) and why i like them heehee

OKAY!!!!

on our backs looking up by jan-henry gray

now something about me is that i LOVE run on poetry and this one has been my favourite of the kind for a while now... i dont know i just really love how it starts with the cockroach, ostensibly something so mundane and then links it and links it and links it and links it. like. does it make sense? not really. but at the same time it just Fits Together until it gets to the end with a link right back to the beginning, a neat little knot. I DONT KNOW MAN. i think that with run-on poetry you always have to keep in mind what your Goal is and where you want to bring it in the end because its SO easy to get caught up in just going and going and going and then getting lost in it esp since there's not really strict formatting. i think this is a really really good example!! (like just choosing a favourite part was hard because everything just fits together its SO hard to choose where to cut it off)

favourite line: in hotel beds, two windows facing south, ghosts of last night's feast, the smell of rot from the soil, on your floor, there is protocol and survival, torn foil, an entire body slackening, exhaling,

2. january 2 by zakaria mohammed

okay. okay!! i really like this one because of how meta (i guess?) it is? like it breaks the fourth wall. it KNOWS that its a poem it doesnt try to obscure the fact. it knows that everything that's inside it is for the Sake of the Poem.... if you know what i mean (Here, a gazelle is a poetic necessity, nothing more.) i just LOVE the idea of undercutting the Expectation of what a poem is (metaphor and simile and imagery) and Bringing attention to it i just think it gives SUCH a good dimension to the poem. its also VERY hard to do convincingly and not just sound ironic.... like yeah it's aware that it's a poem but in no way is it scornful of that fact... you know....

favourite line: There, you’ll find my will, and you’ll grab the gazelle by its horns.

3. ALZ ghazal by rebecca foust

okay this one is INSANE to me. a ghazal is basically a form of poetry where (in its most basic form) the last word/phrase of each couplet is the same (in this case, it's "repeating". and LISTEN i tried to write one and its INSANELY hard !!! (i gave up lol) DO YOU SEE HOW LONG THIS ONE IS??? thats CRAZY talent. other than me admiring the fact that she was able to go on for so long without it feeling over the top, i LOVE how this poem progresses. like it starts super mundane (It’s the same house, same rugs, same wallpaper, and bedroom repeating) and then devolves like you can FEEL it getting more frantic as you read on. its like. the familiarity of everything being the same -> the horror of Everything Being The Same and yet forgetting. I DONT KNOW I JUST THINK ITS KIND OF INCREDIBLE!!

favourite line: O trochee, lilting your 10-beat line. O river, O iamb repeating the tide. Bishop called loss an “art.”

4. to my mother by mahmoud darwish (honorary mention)

im including this as an honorary mention because im not AS insane about the poem itself (even if it is VERY good) but more about this video of mahmoud darwish reading out the beginning. it has just lived in my head rent free since i heard it like 4 months ago. i don't know theres something that i love a lot about hearing in the original language (fully realize it might not have the same effect on someone that doesnt understand arabic LMAO) like idk i feel like theres a Touch to it that is lost when i just Read it in english..... but translation is a WHOLE other topic i will NAWT get into right now or this will become a full essay.

ANYWAYS!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH i will keep my promise i now love you forever..... MWAH

[ghostboyhood]

TELL ME YOUR COMMUNITY THOUGHTS

oh lord okay.. im gonna give my thoughts on the last season ish because i just finished it so its what i mainly remember and its 1 am..

the anniejeff made me SO uncomfortable i dont understand why they kept pushing that when they also pushed the dad-daughter relationship throughout the show.... and the second to last episode being centered around incest was odd, not a huge fan of that..

now okay my MAIN thoughts are about abed, so here i go

i feel like in the last two seasons (maybe 4 too? i dont remember atm) abeds autistic" traits were completely stripped from him. yes they included all his "fourth wall breaking meta tv show lines" but it wasnt right.

and i understand people will eventually change/grown up but also.. you cant "fix" autistic traits so it just felt like they were trying to make his autism seem more "normal" also by making him more emotionless i realized? abed cant express himself well, which he mainly copes with by dissociating. but he just.. in the last seasons it seemed more like he DIDNT have emotions (i believe he says something like this to buzz when talking about his duck comics, along the lines of the emotions he cant feel or wtv) but this isnt right, abed is emotional, hes actually really emotional we just dont see it directly like we do with people like annie or troy..

speaking of emotions im glad they really explained that jeff was scared of change and everyone leaving at the end though, its always been known that he is, but i liked that they really Showed it

annies ending was nice i guess? she was basically just a prop for jeff though in the weird fucking fantasy he wants though??? again idk why theyre pushing that it felt so out of place and weird and ew. jeff was also uncomfortably violent in season 6, like i dont think he would ever choke abed out that made me feel so gross...

alright back to abed because hes the main one i noticed in the last seasons.

in the end where abed was talking to jeff in the bar and said like.. "ik ur comforted by this meta lens but this is reality!!" just felt wrong.. yeah abed was still meta w the whole tv show thing but that was it.. and then him saying that to jeff? its like they tried to make him this big mentor guy to jeff (idk if thats necessarily it but its all i can think of to describe it at the moment) but not in a friend way but an uncomfortable "im grown up now and ur not" way if that makes sense,, which again goes with stripping him of his autistic traits by making it seem like its completely necessary to Grow up in order to move forward in life which isnt.. its true in some ways but not in the way they portrayed it at all.. they make it seem like abed had to grow up completely in order for him to "be okay"..

i related a LOT to abed in the early seasons for Many reasons, i think they handled the abed centered episodes especially about his mental health EXTREMELY Well. (ie, abeds uncontrollable christmas) its one of the first times ive seen experiences like that in media that i can almost directly relate to yk? but after geothermal escapism its all gone, never mentioned again besides in call backs where they try to laugh it off/dismiss it..

oh my god and abeds 'girlfriend' was just sooo out of place she was mentioned like twice and then that was it.. they didnt need to do that it felt really forced

also in like season one abed sits in that fucking room for hoursss without so much as making a peep but then he looses his cool and yells at buzz in season five?? again troy just left which makes a big impact but its still smt i noticed

everyone just felt very bland in the last seasons after troy left at least… half the cast was gone, then replaced

idk im not like, ruined the show pissed at the end, but im also not a fan of s5/6 (besides like.. sum scenes, and like i mentioned earlier maybe s4 as well)

i have to binge tv shows so i dont always immediately retain all the information and i have to rewatch episodes a lot, but thats my thoughts immediately after finishing the show at 12 am, sleep deprived, and in a really bad mental health episode so theyre not well put together n shit and i wish i could remember more to go over but alas

theres my immediate thoughts,, im gonna probably sleep or restart community.. i was planning on starting interview with the vampire now but im thinking of starting black mirror so we'll see...

[senseandaccountability]

what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

choose violence ask game here Oooh, I’ve had so many of these over the years and fandoms. I do think, however, that I’ve levelled up in my arrogance and now I don’t let fandom hold me back from liking a character they’re wrong about - since I know I’m right. Ahaha. Also, if I like a story, I tend to like the characters overall even if I don't care as much about them all.

But in Dragon Age, which is my longest-running fandom, both Alistair (to a lesser extent) and Cullen (to a greater extent) had some really terrible fans back when DAO came out and some of those carried over to DAI fandom. I mean, I loved the Alistair romance, it was my first DA romance and it ended in actual tears on my part but then part of his fandom was… weird and self-righteous and idk, a lot of people were complete idiots during the LJ days, let me tell you.* As for the Cullenites, I think their pathological obsession with breaking the fourth wall and being creeps about everything speaks for itself.

Also, the Amell/Surana origin was untouchable for me for several years because I was so sick of it being the complete and true canon story where Cullen loved their super cute and super tiny and super unique little mages right from the start, actually and they were just the most speshulest of all the Wardens.

*) There were adult parts of the HP fandom there that constituted the least intelligent crowd I’ve ever seen. Grown-ass women claiming to have several Uni degrees unable to make a single coherent analysis of a children’s book and making such an embarrassing fuss about the Half-Blood Prince, as long as I live I will never fucking forget their endless essays on how they interpreted everything at face value (SNAPE KILLED DUMBLEDORE HERE’S MY META ON HOW SNAPE KILLED DUMBLEDORE CUZ OF EVIL) because that’s how far their analytical skills took them. Ah, Livejournal.

[cosmicoryx]

There's something very sad to me about how the 'win' conditions for the 'good endings' of marble nest both involve utterly surrendering Daniil in one way or another. Like first you've got the standard acceptance of death ending which plays out in character.

He's exhausted, forced to examine the futility of his philosophies about death, and ultimately come to the conclusion that the only way to know the truth about death is to experience it. And this is presented as a win! Like yes you as an individual will be annihilated in every conceivable way but maybe there will be some formless residue still capable of feeling something afterwards ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I guess there is something to be said for the fact that the concept of death as a change in state here seems to imply the potential truth of a lot of those odd Thanatica theories about human consciousness but its not like there's anything left of him to get any satisfaction out of that!!!

And then you've got the much more meta heart ending. I forgot that in this ending there is actually a blatant fourth-wall break instead of the usual vague puppet metaphors.

This is thematically similar to the framing of patho classic in that it makes you evaluate why you care about something that's just a game. There's an extra layer here though because you have to be the one to break the illusion. There's no room for denial or to say 'It mattered to me' because the player must be the one to state that none of it matters. That there will be no death, that Daniil can't die because he isn't real. The game gives you a little pat on the back for this but then just leaves you with the dread-inducing reminder that someday you will have to confront the reality of your own death for realsies without the comfort of knowing that its just a video game which didn't exactly leave me feeling like I had won!

Idk it just sits weirdly for me that marble nest pushes this narrative about accepting death to conquer it, but I don't think any of these endings actually represent a triumph over death. It's smoke and mirrors. Death isn't defeated, it's just redefined into something that can be defied.

[vamprisms]

idk how to articulate it but there is something very unattractive when a narrative seems to be hyperaware of shallow things it thinks the audience wants in a way that detracts from like. Enjoyable storytelling. ongoing works acquiescing to popular ships. misplaced meta jokes and fourth wall breaks in stories that aren't served by that sort of thing; didn't you know fleabag narration is so on trend right now? 'diverse' characters for whom nuance or depth are strictly prohibited; dialogue that sounds like the minutes from last friday's meeting on how inclusivity can drive streaming figures. stories that refuse to be earnest because apparently that's cringe these days. that sort of thing. makes my skin crawl

[riggedbones]

What drew you to Wreck-It Ralph (& Turbo)? What are your favorite things about them? :)

omg hi!!! my favorite part about wreck it ralph is that its like. its soo much a movie about video games and it does a really good job at that. there are a ton of games that are about games but i dont think you could pull off the sort of story wir tells with a video game because the difference in medium really helps ground it i guess? like if a video game had a premise of video game characters being able to visit other games on off times you'd be like. okay but like its fake bc its not like anyones leaving THIS game. yknow? this is super basic but like idk i feel like it exposes a sort of weakness that can come with super meta fourth wall breaking video games. and those types of games are things i like to analyze, so.

and my favorite part about turbo is mostly just his design and concept HAHA i think he works really really really well as a creepy looking character that wasn't like, originally designed in universe to look creepy. and i love a pixel art >:)

[ashlynniis-bracketeers]

Funny vampire damage. Bottom Text.

A spin on the "Do you see that ____?" "Yes, sir." "I don't want to." "Yes, sir." joke that I've had in mind for a bit but never bothered to draw until now. I'm still not really apt at drawing "chibis" lmao.

Wanted to do another joke about Slayer's damage and something featuring best girl Sharon. Funny punch vampire who really only wants to fight people and nothing else. Any excuse to draw Slayer looking/acting more like some kind of goofy creature is a good one in my book.

Featuring Chipp, because funnee squishy healthbar vs. Slayer's explosive damage. Also featuring Chipp's Xrd design because Slayer isn't in Strive yet (though I based the healthbar off of Strive's anyway) lmao.

Sharon/Slayer seem like the type to do "meta"/fourth-wall-breaking jokes to me, I don't know why. Maybe it's a thing with being a "glitch"? idk.

The text, for those that have trouble reading my bad handwriting/my bad attempts at cursive:

Panel 1:

Sharon: Do you see that health bar?

Slayer: Of course, dear.

Panel 2:

Sharon: I don't want to~

Slayer: OF COURSE, DEAR!

(Slayer's text in "Lucille" would be... nevermind, I'll put it under a cut for clarity's sake)

I hope you like it!

Panel 1 Slayer:

Of course, dear.

Panel 2 Slayer:

OF COURSE, DEAR!

[nyxknocks]

alright so i'm workin with exhaustion levels u've never seen b4 but i think i get this movie.

Firstly, the humor is pretty good throughout most of this film. I'm obsessed with the meta fourth wall breaking opening because that stuff is always done well. The goofy over-dramatized western movie aspects are hilarious and great, because they're so easy to mimic. Even the slapstick-esque (or like Chaplin style idk I'm TIRED OK) scene when they go visit Sensei and that one guy takes the kid into the kitchen to make omurice was pretty good even though I typically hate that style. This movie is so quirky weird and I vibe with that. Especially the little sound effects when they eat the noodles. The lil 'fwip' noises. It adds whimsy and who doesn't love whimsy.

Analysis wise, I think this movie's point is to show all the aspects of food and food culture? You have those that use it for greed, those that use it for pleasure (literally with the weird as hell sex scenes but like you go girl, ig) and so on. It's a very funny movie in many aspects but I don't think that takes away from the whole point that this movie celebrates food--specifically ramen. I like, too, that even the spaghetti scene we get where the etiquette teacher is trying to teach them all to eat like westerners/soundlessly, they go back to slurping the noodles and enjoying it how they would their food normally. It makes a point to show several times various people adding food restrictions to others (the elderly man and kid basically back to back) while immediately showing people sort of tempting them past those restrictions because food should be enjoyed however and whenever you want. (We're ignoring that the old man ate too fast and started choking).

Food is an art and that is shown in many, many different ways throughout. It should be explored, celebrated, and enjoyed in whatever way is personal to you. Good food unites people and allows for growth and connection. Food can also divide people because we all have our own tastes. It's oddly optimistic and sweet.

Could've done without the egg yolk orgasm and the turtle murder, though.

We don't kink shame, we kink why.

[syn4k]

can i just say that as a dude who has So Many Thoughts about like, fandom in general in a meta way and the culture and the relationships between the media itself and the fanworks/interperetations around it that i am SO glad there are so many content creators out there who are transparent with their storytelling and even give small behind-the-scenes looks as to what's going on. i LOVE it. (thank you docm77 and pixlriffs specifically for breaking the fourth wall occasionally and letting us viewers know What the Fuck is Going On. martyn is also doing a great job of this here on tumblr)

idk. no coherent thoughts on this subject but i tbought it was cool

[athena14044]

Since the new Sensational She-Hulk run is coming, what were your thoughts on the last run, (or any of the comics before that, e.g, the Soule run, Tamaki hulk, Aaron Avengers, Immortal She-Hulk)?

I enjoyed Rowell's She-Hulk run for the most part. I actually liked the Jen/Jack of Hearts relationship bc I thought it was interesting how it built off their interactions in Avengers. I need to reread Tamaki's run bc I feel like that might give some context (intentionally or not) to Rowell's She-Hulk and how she feels comfortable enough to be in a relationship with Jack after he caused her to lose control.

I will say I was not a fan of the end of the series with the Scoundrel love triangle thing, it felt like a little diversion where instead of solving her relationship issues with Jack she flirted with Scoundrel. and not in like a "she's using this to avoid her problems instead of address them, this is in character" sort of way (which it could have been!) but in like "the story has been put on hold bc Rowell thought her bad boy character was hot" sort of way. Also not a fan of the way Jen constantly told him she wasn't into him and he'd keep hitting on her and purposefully setting things up so he could meet her. not just bc he's being a dick but also from a story perspective like, the story has changed from being About Jen to being About Jen's "Flirtation" with Scoundrel. There's really only so much of villains creeping on Jen that I can take and just bc the villain is hotter than say, Mole Man, doesn't mean it's alright. There wasn't even meta commentary about how he's derailing her story to insert himself into it. 😐 Bring back Jen complaining extensively directly to the writer! Bring back fourth wall breaking! I really hope that the change to the Sensational title means the return of extreme fourth wall breaking.

I'm a bit torn on how it depicted Titania bc on the one hand. Funny. Also it remembered Marsha. But on the other hand, like that is her nemesis, Titania is never going to get along with Jen. It's not even really about Jen, Titania has her own issues that just can't be fixed offscreen. I really liked how Jen and Mallory's friendship was depicted though. They're competitive and they're rivals and they don't really get along but also they respect each other and they're begrudgingly friends I want to see more of it! I hate the way Slott wrote them it was so one dimensional he's my nemesis for real. Speaking of Slott's bad choices, I approve of Mallory and Awesome Andy being in a relationship but come on you can not just drop that in there with the way Slott left them, I really hope it's expanded on in the new Sensational run. My only other request for the new Sensational is Wyatt. Please bring back Wyatt. I miss Wyatt.

LOVE Soule's She-Hulk did you know he was an actual lawyer how cool is that I wish he'd gotten to write her longer, I read Tamaki's Hulk but I need to revisit it I do remember liking it though, I have NOT read Aaron's Avengers but I'm scared of what I've seen from it, I have also not read Immortal She-Hulk but idk really anything about it

I am trying to read all of her appearances you can look at my tag here with all of my thoughts I just realized I haven't actually posted the one on Soule's She-Hulk I pinky promise I will get caught up I was trying to get through 2015 Secret Wars before posting it but I got distracted by Hawkeye

[zmediaoutlet]

Hello and Happy Wincest Wednesday! In the post 5x19 glory days, did the boys footprint on the world change? Were there any obvious or subtle differences in how they interacted with people on cases or the world at large when they were no longer the stars and they were so solid in each other?

ooooooo what a tricksy question for such a happy wincest wednesday! hm hm, let's think about this --

Wouldn't it be so entirely hella interesting if, post-15.19, they lost 'main character' status? Not in the totally shitty Heroes' Journey way but like -- just because Chuck's now a powerless drifter and isn't superpowering their dumb successes like Sam's Super-Noticer power or Dean's Big Pretty Trust-Me Eyes. It might even be a gift from Jack. Non-interference, including in a 'not elevating you to the most important person in the room status'.

But... idk. While they live in a consciously meta and 'written' universe, they still do read to me as largely legible within their contexts. So I don't actually like the idea that Dean's Big Pretty Trust Me eyes don't work, or that Sam isn't supernaturally good at... everything. In a way that would be changing genre, which I don't really like bursting through the fourth wall to do.

It would be interesting though if like -- they know now that no more Big Stories are waiting for them, and that the hunts and jobs they go on really are just jobs, and they do get to decide their own destiny. As a result I can see a lot more of like -- say, Sam finds a job in Illinois and Dean's like, okay, want to go? And Sam goes, eh, isn't Randy out in Illinois? Let's see if he wants to handle it. And Dean thinks, yeah, we were going to watch the s2 Game of Thrones finale, weren't we? Okay, sure, call Randy. And it's not so... fraught, and it's not everything to either of them anymore, because they know that they can help but they also know that the literal fate of the world isn't hanging on every little choice, anymore.

I really, really value the way that *both* of them view hunting as a necessary and worthy job, by the end of the show. They both like the actual process and it is worth it to save people, and they won't choose to do something else because -- the laundry list of reasons why they won't. But: it is nice, in the *definitely real years-long break between end the end 15.19 and the finale*, to think about how it might not be so all-consuming. More like s1, or even more like how I imagine their later teenage years might have been. Making it less of a vocation and more of a literal job. Everything just so much less... world-ending. What a relief. It makes me feel v soft for them. <3

[theplotghost]

Sonic for the character meme? Hope you're doing well!

Aww thanks, I'm doing okay! Hope you're doing okay too!

favorite thing about them

His attitude about life. He does what he does without wondering who's right or wrong, because that doesn't matter to him. And everything is another adventure.

least favorite thing about them

This might just be my bias (I got reintroduced to the franchise during the 4Kids era of dubbing) but post-Colors iterations of him being...too dismissive and excessively cocky? Idk how to properly explain it bc it's not a consistent character flaw, and they definitely tone it down for Frontiers and TMOSTH.

favorite line

"It was never about chivalry for me... I just gotta do what I gotta do, that's all." - SatBK

RUNNER UP FAVE: " ... when negative thoughts hit you, let it pass, and keep living." - TMoSTH

brOTP

Sonic/Tails, obvs, goodness. Runner up tho? Sonic/Amy. Honestly, just put Sonic/all of his friends in this category.

OTP

Sonic x himself (he's aroace 👍)

nOTP

Even tho they've done away with specific ages in this franchise, I STILL will never be okay with Sonic x Tails. They're literally brothers, your honor

random headcanon

Sonic is self-aware. He breaks the fourth wall in idle animations of several games and scenes from shows, mostly bc he's aware that he's a video game character. But he's chill with it, obvs, and likes going on adventures with the player.

Is that too meta? Lol idk man I have a lot of headcanons.

unpopular opinion

Trying to put him in a canon relationship with anyone is, imo, detrimental to his character. I don't wanna elaborate too much on that bc I know putting him in relationships is fun, I do it too on occasion. I just think this recent attempt of making his canon relationships with his friends more "mature" therefore "romantic" (read: him and Amy in Frontiers and Boom) is not only upsetting to me as an aroace person (maturing doesn't automatically equate to falling in love) but also goes against his original conception from CD.

song I associate with them

I have a whole playlist.

favorite picture of them

[orifu]

good evening my beloved chatters. its time for another episode of orifu v doccy who. this time we're tackling those first two episodes of season 1

yes, i missed wild blue yonder, the giggle and the church on ruby road. maybe ill get back to them.

anyway. to address what i said last time about the new tardis interior, i was entirely wrong. the new interior only sucks when its in apple store mode. they put in the colour and it can look gorgeous, even if its a single colour. love seeing it change.

now, in a moment for the show that i will only call "unique" the first two episodes were dropped at midnight today. im not gonna point fingers at who did what here nor am i going to speculate about disney or whatever. this is about the content of the episodes, not the whatever else. personally im ok staying up til 2am for the stuff.

space babies. that sure was an episode. i think the plot was a very interesting concept, even if its execution felt a little lackluster. the babies themselves looked fine but sounded mostly... off... but that's not really a problem.

i recognise im a mega genius but it feels like the whole thing with the bogeyman was just trying to delay the reveal of it all being mucus. it was pretty obvious pretty early on. i do like the idea of the rogue machine trying to raise the babies through bringing stories to life.

overall i think the episode was really solid. not the best but what you'd expect from doctor who. the visuals were a whole other story though -- you can really tell where the budget is going. i think this episode to me is like a 7/10. its for sure the prelude to something greater.

the devil's chord. jinkx's character is so good. i just love the camp and the whole attitude and it just works so well idk. the way she plays maestro is incredible and i love their whole character. they really carry the episode.

i dont know anything about the beatles so i cant speak to that aspect of the episode. the plot is interesting, leaning more into the fantasy aspect that neo who seeks to explore. maestro being part of the toymaker's legions is a great explanation for their presence. and, of course, more rtd foreshadowing.

i know this is gonna be controversial but being meta with the music is a really cool idea i think. the doctor who theme being played in universe like 3 times or something, ruby playing her own theme (i think) and the doctor breaking the fourth wall (the incidental music!) were executed well imo.

it's a bit of a weird contradiction how maestro destroying earth before ruby was born not affecting her while the butterfly did (is that what that tardis setting thing did?) but whatev. the whole music video at the end of the episode was unexpected but honestly just really cool. i did appreciate maestro's singing too and i feel it worked better than the doctor singing in the church on ruby road.

honestly i love how wlw is like mentioned twice in the episode but just as a normal thing. somehow to me that makes maestro mentioning the sad lesbian music just funnier that itd otherwise be. i think rep that doesnt go "wow look at me" works best as it does here. and yes, as a girl in red head, i do love lesbian heartbreak music.

even if this episode's plot was really simple in concept it doesnt feel dragged out like space babies and is overall a lot more entertaining. and, of course, more building up of whatever russell's cooking up. i think this episode is like an 8/10 for me. excited for more!

conclusion? ig? next week is moffat's episode boom. ive heard this is doctor lite (but im not sure) and apparently the whole episode is about the doctor stepping on a mine and not being able to move. i would be entirely unexcited if it werent moffat writing this episode.

doctor who clearly has a lot of threads at play between mrs flood, the whole toymaker stuff, the 14th doctor, the one who waits, the master, etc, etc, etc. i hope we manage to get a satisfying ending instead of a classic rtd deus ex machina.

i presumably have a lot more thoughts i have already forgotten or havent thunk yet. if you want to know more of my opinions, watch harbo wholmes' eventual review. we tend to agree a lot. until next week, i guess that's it. how do i end one of these posts again