#if u really love this show u may not love this liveblog

[pixiecaps]

You're the liveblogging GOAT, for the record. And while that's spurred by your posts about the QSMP admin situation, that also applies to every liveblog chain I've seen you make. It's always a joy to see, and the pure speed that you get those types of things out is insane to me in the best way possible. But in general, you've got a really good head on your shoulders, and there has not been a single thing you've posted or reblogged that I find myself remotely annoyed at. Every time I see a reblog from you show up on my dash, I know it's going to be something great.

No particular reason for this ask, you're just a cool person.

after discourse posting i avoided looking at my askbox so to open it to sucha nice ask was a surprise. thank you. everything you said was very sweet and means more than u may ever realize

i love liveblogging so much the fucking passion for it fuels me. if the qsmp picks up again and more members log on i’ll be back in the game and liveblogging as much as i possibly can.

this is such a fucking nice ask. everything at the end is making me emotional. thank you again🫶

[orcelito]

I've been working on Finally finishing Naruto Shippuden (after being a Naruto fan for nearly 15 years), & I just finished episode 420. And I have some THOUGHTS about the "Naruto is the reincarnation of Ashura" thing. This started as just me rambling for my normal liveblog posting, but I had a LOT of thoughts about this actually, so I am presenting them to u all Now.

So. Naruto meeting the Sage of Six Paths! Cool!!! I'm finally learning about Naruto being the reincarnation of Ashura, which... honestly is not a choice that I like very much. Narratively speaking, I mean. The Point of Naruto's journey was that he was the underdog, the bottom of his class, the orphan that everyone hated and made fun of. Through hard work and perseverance, he managed to drag himself from being a complete social outcast to someone generally really loved and respected. That's compelling!!! It means a lot!!!

But then the show is like. "Oh...actually, he's the son of the fourth hokage. And Also, he's the reincarnation of the son of the literal creator of ninshuu aka the precursor of modern ninjutsu." I mind him being Minato's son less as a narrative choice (for reasons I will get into shortly), but making him Ashura's reincarnation?? I've got Several things that bug me about that.

So First, for him being Minato's son. It's not like that's ever Actually given him any sort of status (since most people don't know), & Minato was also kind of just a random guy?? Just incredibly skilled, enough so to become the 4th hokage. And then there's also Kushina, descended from a very successful and very Feared clan that ended up almost entirely killed bc of that fear. Naruto being an Uzumaki means great power, huge chakra reserves (not even including the extra chakra he gets from Kurama), & some innate skills (that Naruto mostly didn't inherit, but one can play pretend sometimes). BUT ALSO, they were almost entirely killed off. He's a survivor of his clan's genocide that happened well before he was even born, and he doesn't even REALIZE it yet. So even though being Minato's son means he's the son of a very influential person, it doesn't give him the same leverage as being a Senju or Uchiha would. And the clan he Does belong to bc of Kushina does not give him status either, bc they're almost all fuckin Dead. And we know that Minato is a Namikaze, but as for what that actually *means*.... it's basically nonexistent. There is no mention of a Namikaze clan. Minato was just a prodigy in his own right.

SO.... All that is to say that while appending Naruto's orphan story with a "well, Actually, his parents were very powerful and well respected" does discount it a little bit, it's still not Especially unique in terms of what other people in their world may experience (there are other descendants of current and/or former kage + Many other powerful clans running around) OR in the benefits that it gives him (essentially nothing, outside of his physical strength and the inheritance of Kurama himself)(which inheriting Kurama did grant him access to IMMENSE power, but it also was the source of So Much of his suffering growing up, so I think it balances out).

The "reincarnation of Ashura, son of the Sage of Six Paths" thing tho... that one really kinda does. At that point, Naruto is no longer just the orphaned son of two respected shinobi & the current jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi (something special, but not entirely original, given that there are Other jinchuuriki who are descendants of powerful shinobi). He is now something that NO ONE ELSE ALIVE can be. It is saying that He, above Everyone Else, is special in this way. Outside of Sasuke lol, but I'll touch on that in a moment.

It just feels kinda cheap. It's cool I guess, but at this point it feels like we've completely lost the Plucky Orphan who works hard to overcome his circumstances plot. It's saying that he was Always one of a kind, he was Always destined to become Someone Special (or that he was, in fact, special the whole time). It removes the importance of his hard work in the equation. It makes it so that this is no longer something he earned for himself, but rather something that was a Given, since he is, of course, Ashura's reincarnation.

Cheap. It's cheap. And I don't like it.

Then we get into Sasuke being the reincarnation of Indra. Which I haven't gotten to that yet in the show, but I know from seeing it around. I do enjoy the sun and moon aesthetic between Naruto and Sasuke (so SO much, in fact), but. Making Sasuke the reincarnation of the Other son of the Sage of Six Paths is... frustrating? In several ways. There is of course the fact that Naruto and Sasuke have such extremely gay vibes (and Always Have), so making them the reincarnations of brothers so late in the story feels like an insult to anyone who reads their relationship in that way. Which to be fair, we do see Naruto mention at a few points that he thinks of Sasuke like a brother, but it's only a few points + feels like a kind of narrative cop-out. Sasuke himself said he doesn't think of Naruto in that way (though that could also be his self-denial speaking & it could change. Haven't gotten that far yet.), & I think there are much better choices for Naruto's "brother" figure (primarily Iruka, but people like Killer Bee and any of the other konoha 12 would be fitting too). Personally, it feels like Naruto was trying to put a name to his very strong feelings for Sasuke, & since he doesn't realize being gay is an option (since Kishimoto is clearly homophobic & made this ninja society to reflect that), he settled on Brother. But Sasuke is like "what the fuck? No, my only brother is Itachi." Instead, Sasuke has called Naruto his best friend. Which also doesn't fully encompass their relationship, but it's still closer than Brother.

So here we are, Kishimoto saying around 555 episodes into the plot (only 80 more to go) that they're actually the reincarnations of brothers. And not just any brothers. THE sons of the Sage of Six Paths. Incredibly influential, incredibly powerful, two sides of the same coin and very historically significant figures. Sasuke always had the "descended from an elite, yet disgraced clan" thing going for him, so in my opinion it doesn't hold the same kind of insult to his story that it does for Naruto. But it still feels like an insult to THEIR story.

Naruto and Sasuke were just two orphan boys. Their moms were best friends, but they didn't know that. They died when they were too young. But Naruto and Sasuke still gravitated towards one another. Understood each other like no one else. And got on each other's nerves like no one else. But that irritation stemmed from their genuine admiration of each other. They wanted to be able to beat each other. They became Rivals. And it was on their own terms. No one else pushed them together. Outside of them ending up on the same team, their entire relationship was fueled by their recognition of one another, Jealousy of one another, and the simple enjoyment of being around one another. They were the ones to decide the importance of their relationship. Sasuke recognizing Naruto as his closest friend & thus thinking he was the one he had to cut off to achieve power, and Naruto recognizing Sasuke as his first peer that acknowledged him, a precious bond he finally made, and thus someone he had to cling to FIERCELY. That was all them.

But here we are. They're a reincarnated set. The sun and the moon, but Officially. One could say soulmates in a way, in a non-romantic kind of context (considering the first iteration was a pair of brothers). While this is cool from a story standpoint, it really takes some significance away from their relationship to me. It makes it less of something they chose for themselves and more of a given. Pretty much just like Naruto being Ashura's reincarnation cheapens his own story, it cheapens their relationship too.

I dont want a story about two boys who were destined to be important to each other!!!! I want a story about two orphans who just happened to become important to one another thru a series of coincidences and personal choices. In that way, their relationship gains greater gravity bc it's born from their own hearts Alone. It's Naruto moving mountains for the sake of this boy he loves, and it's Sasuke finally coming back around bc of the force of Naruto's dedication. It means so much more than the implication that they were always meant to be a pair. So I really don't like this narrative choice.

[love-killed-the-superstar]

The Last Ronin 2: Re-Evolution Issue #1 LIVEBLOG

SPOILERS ABOUND. I'M NOT GOING TO BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS IT'LL PROBABLY GET SUPER LONG

Okay so Casey Marie's muscles are something I'm never going to get over. SHE LOOKS GOOD!!!!! Her getup is feeling a little too reminiscent of a cape-wielding superhero for my tastes to be honest - I really loved the more practical outfits she wore in TLR Lost Years, especially in issue 4 when she was running the training mission for the kids. But ah well, I'm sure this will grow on me. It may not be practical (edna's law of no capes is coming to mind, also PLEASE TIE YOUR HAIR UP WHEN YOU'RE FIGHTING GIRL!!!) but it's very cunty anyway which I appreciate

Straight up thought she killed this guy - what was that sound effect if he's still able to walk??? I fr thought she snapped his neck

IDK if we needed a whole 8 pages of punching and kicking to exposition dump what we kinda already knew from what's been shown in the lost years (esp the lost day special) but IT'S FINE IG... NOW ONTO THE BABIES

SORRY, SORRY. TEENAGERS NOW.

GIGGLING KICKING MY FEET. We're ALREADY getting the leo-v-raph adjacent dynamic with these two and I'm living for it. if one of them drops a stone cold 'fearless leader' jab i will lose my shit

HI? HELLO, EXCUSE ME, MIND-TALKING? PICTURES IN HEAD? ARE WE A FAMILY THAT LUCID DREAMS OR SOMETHING?!?? I DON'T REMEMBER THIS BEING SOMETHING THEY COULD DO?? every new speech bubble here is like a punch to the gut, wdym telepathy wdym secret lair wdym honouring everything master splinter taught you???? (although i'm proud that when this panel dropped on news sites i was immediately like THAT ISN'T THE KITCHEN FROM LOST YEARS. turns out it was a Secret Lair TM)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Seance -- TURTLES COUNT IT OFF!!

not gonna screenshot the whole backstory but they're basically doing a telepathic puppet show explaining the backstory and it's pretty much the mirage origins with a bit of extra tlr flair. as always it HURTS ME seeing the turtles dying so thanks for that tlr2 :'')) icb these kids watch a mind movie of their uncles dying every fucking night. yall are messy

SOBBING AND CRYING,, I WISH YOU'D ALL HAD THE CHANCE TO KNOW HIM TOO!!!!!! I WISH YOU'D GOTTEN TO KNOW ALL OF THEM!!!!! (tlr splinter doesnt count tho because hes a dick)

there was a cool sequence of them rooftop hopping n stuff but i wont cover it bc we already saw it in a bunch of news articles weeks ago

i just did the SHARPEST INHALE. casey marie you and your beautiful muscular arms have aged like the finest wine

YI NO!!!!!

lmaooo moja is JUDGING your taste in women u two

lots of text... blah blah blah jobs, crimerates, blah blah... jiro in pig uniform jumpscare.. casey marie i thought u were going to fix him :(((

YESSSSS KIDS ARE GOING ON A MISSION WITH THEIR MOM, LETS FUCKING GOOOOO

MY BABIES ARE KICKING ASS!!!!!

....,.HUH

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MY BABY BOY ODIE!!!!!!!!!!! WHO DID THIS TO HIM!!!!!!???? WHAT??!???? HUH/1?!!? EXCUSE ME????

I'M . LIKE WHAT DO I EVEN SAY TO THIS. IT CAME OUT OF NOWHERE??? WHAT IS GOING ON!!!

FINAL THOUGHTS:

dude that first issue was wordy but the kids were ON POINT. they were so fun!! their dialogue is fun and they kick ass.

i loved yi announcing the punishment for casey while the others were like NOO SHE DIDNT MEAN THAT DONT LISTEN TO HER. we're getting more of their personalities and it's great!! it was a nice throwback to issue 2 of lost years when they were cleaning - yi refused to help because of how strictly she was following instructions. im picking up that she might be neurodivergent but i did get that from the lost years too - only doing things within strict instructions, getting frustrated at teaching odyn chess, not because of him playing horseys with the knights but that it was Against The Rules Of Chess - and now not picking up on some social cues. It's nice to see!! I love her very much, but it feels like besides rehashing the origin story she took a bit of a backseat to the other three.

i want to know more about why uno said being a rebel was moja's 'thing', since she didn't seem to be any more rebellious than the other three in this issue. we didn't get any unique interactions between her and casey marie which is what i felt was lacking from lost years but i wonder if this is hinting towards a more turbulent mother-daughter dynamic with them... I REALLY HOPE SO!! her and uno butting heads in a leo-raph way is very fun - i don't mind one or two prior group dynamics leaking into the new turtle siblings because they're all so different from the original 4.

uno seems to be taking on slightly more of a leader role than moja so i think he won the title of fearless leader. which is fine, i think it'll be fun to see and he's definitely less of an asshole now than when he was growing up in lost years. still picking on odyn a bit but seems to snipe at moja just as much. even when he was commenting on yi's storytelling he didn't make fun of her, though - i think she may have inherited the 2k3 don ability of being Completely Unbullyable.

i was really pleased that odyn felt more involved!! i feel like he took the backseat a few times in lost years - it was fun seeing more of his personality shine through! he and yi seem to get on the best, and i giggled at them rolling their eyes at moja and uno's raph-leo schtick. i didn't expect him to TURN TO FUCKING STONE THOUGH, so i'm nervous about that. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? WHO DID THIS TO MY BOY? IS HE GOING TO TURN BACK NEXT CHAPTER OR IS HE OUT OF COMMISSION UNTIL THE END OF THE RUN??? (if it's the latter i'll be a bit annoyed - don't take odyn away from the equation please!!)

I do wonder if by introducing casually that they can PSYCHICALLY CONNECT, the turtles will use that as a technique to reach odyn's mind to make sure he's still in there and piece together what's happened to him. i mean, their casual telepathy has gotta be some sort of chekhov's gun right?

and shit.... april was so fucking mad casey took the babies out so she's going to EXPLODE when she finds out what happened to her baby boy, her beloved favourite, her baby odyn :''(( im giggling rubbing my hands together waiting for the fallout but also if she cries i might cry too. speaking of april, she seems to be working on a new project and i saw nano particles mentioned - are we going to have a roninverse version of nano in this run???? I NEED MY ROBOT SON

as always, casey marie... u have aged like fine wine. u are stunning. disappointed that ur still believing that jiro can do good as a cop when their entire police force and government is corrupt as fuck. just feels very naive of her. i'm excited to see her break down at the concept of losing odyn - in fact i need everyone to mourn this beautiful kid. they tell us so much that shes a super clingy helicopter mom and i am picking up on the strict part, but it would be nice to see more of her just... hugging her kids. holding them. i get why she didnt in this issue but id love more mama casey squishing their cheeks and kissing their foreheads.

i have zero fucking clue what's going on with odyn. im wondering if it's somehow related to nano, or to whatever project April is working on - she says it's to do with clearing the tunnels, but I''m not convinced. who knows, there might be some ulterior motive happening.

Anyway, that's the end of my liveblog!! thanks for reading all the way to the end... go read it wherever you read ur comics!!!

[earthly-apples]

93 (Quatre vingt treize, QVT) liveblogging or whatever it’s called

I hate Victor Hugo for all the damage he has done to my brain SO MANY SPOILERS (including Les Mis) BECAUSE HAHA I WENT IN KNOWING MY HEART IS GOING TO BE SHREDDED INTO PIECES The first part covers the first 1/3 of the book

The loose cannon! It’s a beautifully written part, I love how the theme of the book is being introduced. How does a creature battle the inorganic? How do men fight the unknown? Not just the peculiar individuals but also our irrational urges and the tides of time. The foreshadowing is also there: the gunner is rewarded for his heroics, and executed for his faults. We shall see how this theme is presented again and rediscussed in the latter parts of the book.

I really love the loose cannon concept so much, can you tell? It’s something so deeply grounded in human nature, an universal struggle that traverses time. In this theater called life, we may become simultaneously the cannon, the gunner, and the judge. What are the limits of the organic and the inorganic? What are the limits within our actions? A balance is needed, but difficult is it to reach.

The confrontation between Lantenac and Halmalo is a good demonstration of the norms of the late 18C! It is so important to remember that the whole idea of a Republic, the abolishment of monarchy, was radical in the late 18C. Halmalo also builds up the village massacre that is about to happen a few chapters later.

THE BEGGAR GUY. He too, is a loose cannon. As soon as he saves Lantenac, Hugo explains that this man cares little of the politics of the world, which while is similar to Michelle, is even more akin to Mabeuf. Both the Beggar and Mabeuf focuses on the natural world, and display a negligence towards the infighting of men. Both are then mercilessly affected by the politics they have chosen to withdraw from. It is clear that Hugo believes that politics is an inevitable matter as long as one belongs to the human race. The Beggar, who is even more isolated from the earthly desires than Mabeuf, cannot escape the fate that by saving Lantenac he has doomed hundreds of people. His choice of saving Lantenac was the loosening of the cannon, and upon his arrival of the village he becomes the gunner confronting the wrecked ship. (Also the parallel between the Beggar and Lantenac: both believe they are doing the Right thing that leaves corpses in their wake.)

The similarities Cimourdain and Enjolras shares. Both are priests of the Revolution, “Enjolras was a charming young man capable of being terrible” and “he must be either infamous or sublime”. LM displays how Hugo sees the revolution and human progress: it is sublime. 93 shows how the idea that ‘restriction must exist within revolution’ is reinforced is his mind after the Paris Commune. Enjolras claims himself a doomed man after the execution of Le Cabuc (boy is that scene erotic), and Cimourdain would doom himself as he condemns Gauvain. 

I have mental damage from the introduction of Gauvain’s relationship to Cimourdain. The chapter title, ‘a corner not dipped into the Styx’, is yet another foreshadowing of what is to become of Gauvain. Victor is so good at this, giving subtle hints that will beat the living shit out of reader’s heart as we march towards the end. Are u ok V Hughes? Who has hurt you so deeply?

[fagdykevash]

ok ranking the d20 seasons i have watched YAYY

1. neverafter. god i love this show. it made me cry it made me Feel Things and Feel Loss and GODDD the characters have gotta be peak. the arcs. the comedy. baba yaga. stunning allround

2. a court of fey and flowers. this one made me ugly cry. if u go thru my liveblog tag i am posting abt acofaf the majority of the time bc the shit it made me feel was too big for my brain. the romance. the set. the autism. i feel seen

3. starstruck odyssey. really really good!!!! i love all the characters so much but it can be a bit hard to follow, but tbf that's what i signed up for. these characters were built for bits but they are forced to kill. amazing

4. fantasy high. I AM SO SORRY to put fh last, maybe it's bc i watched it first but idk it did not get in my brain as much as the others. i love the characters and setting but the story, while stereotypical, was def intriguing. i may rewatch it soon...... who know......

[unmotivated-student]

Now, liveblogging something that I do like :) [I decided to throw everything in a single post just because:)]

"you are here to play a game on which your lives depend" getting serious and we're just getting started ʘ⁠‿⁠ʘ

"what did you do to us?!" "nothing in particular" "then what is this pain?!" "I was very clear... in this game your lives are on the line" i kinda love Decim (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)

"Sorry! My hand slipped!" [👁️👁️liar]

I had forgotten how dramatic this episode was [i kinda love it tbh]

.....

"of all the emotions that humans exhibit, which is the most primal?" "i don't know" "fear"

"pain is a part of this game"

"everyone makes mistakes. but people's feelings can manifest through the most subtle of expresions. you're an arbiter, don't brush them off"

....

i remember about this episode :D

🧍

"and so it starts.." "how so? what does that mean?" "nothing" (...) "as such, the two of them may not be facing a favorable outcome." "no way..." "however, whatever the outcome may be, we must accept what happens"

Decim my beloved showing his sense of humor🫂

"Life really is a mysterious thing... Each and every life spins its own totally separate tale, yet they become intricately entwined in each other and no one knows how they will end up" "that´s true, you´ll never know until you die... you may not even know after you die... but you know what? that´s what makes it interesting, right?"

I honestly don't know how to feel about this one, because if we ignore some details it could be considered cute, at least the ending imo but idk

....

Lady... what kind of tv shows are u watching? [I know she's confused and in denial but still]

"How is that fair?!" "Life is never fair. I´m sure you´re aware of that" Decim triggering trauma ◉⁠‿⁠◉

i didn´t remebered this episode at all and now i'm like o.o

this is the saddest one so far to me. am i weak? maybe

"You did everything you could... both of you... did everything you could." okay, now i'm crying...

why did i forget about this one?

edgy ed

...

i'm starting to realize that from ep 4 onwards my memories about this show are a blur (i´ll take that as a good thing)

yep, definitely a good thing that i didn´t remembered all of that, it made me go "wtf's going on here?" all over again c:

dude, do you really want to do that?

see? u got ur ass kicked and for what?

that makes sense i guess

oh we´re on Jimmy again

.....

wait, i do have memories about this one (not many but)

Ginti looks so done and the game hasn´t even started

mmm... if only you knew..

show off

no. what part of freezing to death is romantic to u? at least in titanic there was a love story before the freezing to death part

show off

u piece of trash

so this guy has feelings after all

such different ways to go

Claviz looks so excited about this xd

Oh wow, I was i hater during most of this xd

...

She remembered!!

Maybe he's not there much, buut i kinda like Claviz, he's just a little guy 🫂

"third: arbiters cannot feel emotions, for they are merely puppets" neat...

edgy ed makes more sense now

how are u still here?

...

"not that different" huh?

oh, it's over and i didn't write anything about this one... uhm... well... it was good...

...

"I bring out as much of the darkness in their souls as possible and take it in, then i pass judgment... that is what it is to be an arbiter" damn

oh now they're serious

PLOT TWIST

sir, u are disgusting

fuck, this guy is insane!

i hate this guy

nufofnhdiewwwwww *dies*

SHUT UP ALREADY

wowuwhihweeirundu *dies again*

this one was heavy...

...

i-.. i don´t have much to say

...

he's just messing with her, isn´t he? [I genuinely don't remember]

this scene is making my skin crawl afsydrs

i'm trembling idk how i survived this the first time

definitely one of my favorites

...

Decim... no... that... no...

cryiiiiiing agian

Deciiiiiim

THE MANNEQUIN, THE SMILE ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ

it's 3 am btw i should be sleeping rn but instead i'm here sobbing

.....................

I love this anime so much ♡

I definitely recommend it!!! [If you are comfortable with the mention of themes like death of course:D, i mean it's called "Death Parade" xd]

[castle-dominion]

castle 6x12 deep cover

the castle's dad episode liveblog

Hm, leaves the phone off the hook but lmao how slow he called 911

It rained on my mom & dad's wedding. They didn't care about the superstition that you can't see the bride in her wedding dress before the wedding so they took all the pictures they needed & when it rained & her dress may have gotten muddy it didn't matter.

but yeah lol this is what it's like planning to have your kid's bday.

Martha <3

MARTHA

(clears her throat) A little unsolicited advice –

CASTLE

Do you give another kind?

BECKETT gives him a look, but MARTHA ignores him.

MARTHA

In life, there is no such thing as a perfect time for anything.

She turns away. They’re confused.

CASTLE

I’m sorry, that’s advice how?

MARTHA

(scoffs) Don’t wait. Hell, just go down to city hall right now. You love each other. Stop talking about it. Just do it.

She turns back to her coffee. CASTLE and BECKETT look at each other, considering her idea.

I thought this was where they had the "we got married!" "seriously!?!?" part I saw in gifs.

Yes, I have a feeling esposito DOES know Beckett can lift her... whatever you were going to say

Hello? Nothing.

Yeah I noticed too, his place is beautiful

Oh yeah no grease won't come out.

RC: Sounds like a case of Weekend At Bernie’s gone wrong. (they look at him) No. No, wait. That would mean there’s such a thing as Weekend At Bernie’s gone right.

Maybe he ties one left handed & ties one right handed.

My dad's house-- no my great aunt's house had a loose floorboard but there was no space under it. You couldn't fit anything under there. It just gave you splinters. You know, the house at the farm kind of sucked.

lmao the animation is hilarious

JE: One you can’t crack? (he leans over her shoulder) C’mon genius bar, I thought you were the best. *flirtatiously*

& they didn't see the criminal record? otr wait ig he was a minor so it was sealed.

He’d call it ‘pulling a Robin Hood’.

love it

RYAN u know, pat leave could have been a good excuse to send the actor away for a collaboration with one of abc's other shows for a week so he doesn't have to be in this ep.

rc: Now, Ted’s laptop is like Fort Knox on steroids, but Tori found some unscrambled artifacts in the registry to a service set identifier. (off BECKETT’S impressed look) I don’t know what that means either, but she got really excited about it.

( A sec later) RC: Now, according to the website, Universal Banking Solutions handles strategic and tactical procurements for international clients.

KB: And what does that mean?

RC: I – I don’t know. I’m just reading the screen there.

I would have given the phone to becks immediately

Dad?

Not a word!

Man's obv lying

I thought becks recognized him bc he looked like castle.

Castle just staring into space lol

KB: mentions international espionage

RC: we have no information to speculate

LP: approximately 15 minutes before his death Ted at clams and funnel cake. Can you believe that? Ugh.

KB: Lanie, you slice open dead people for a living and you’re grossed out by that?

It's different!

Is clams is carnival food...???

LP: Okay, you two creep me out when you do that shared brain thing.

Love the c being burnt out

love how they are eating funnel cake XD

& ryan eats esposito's funnel cake while wearing his crime scene gloves dkjlsdjkfs

GIANT BUBBLES

*checks his watch* about 40 years

That doesn't seem likely. He'd hire soeone else.

He said to text lol

"leave a message >:("

JE: Castle.

RC startles. RC: Geez!

JE: Man, bro. Why are you so jumpy?

RC: Dude, I’m not. I’m just –

JE: Well, you will be once you hear what we found. C’mon.

"you will be" that's such a thing to say

FORMER?

HITMAN?

castle your version of emergency might not be the same as anderson cross's

KB: U ok?

RC: .. Yeah

Me: you can say "meh this case is putting me on edge"

Ryan ADHD moments just chewing on a paperclip

I was a little busy getting shot

Cross: Did you bring the booze?

RC: Did you bring the booze?

Cross: No. I want you to steady your nerves. Take a swig.

RC: Good idea.

*martha drinks too*

Reminds me of my autosurgery

I love the sound of someone's hand in a tub of mayonnaise. & the music is good too

"at elast this time I got a needle" WHAT

she's right, he made that choice a long time ago

Wow the cia just hired a kid who was arrested for identity theft & got him killed? Sounds about right.

it IS a good story

Lol gun battle

Cross: I was in spycraft a car chase!

Becks: lol no

the news: There was a car chase!

Becks: that doesn't prove it

Esposito: Ted was a spy. also the car chase.

So that's cool

also wow nice colourful computers. & wow nice Ryan being the techy one of the four

(Ooh & the csu techs have their own background & lives & motions & stuff)

KR: idk someone stole the hard drive

Anderson Cross: *holds up hard drive* :D :D

"that's incredeibly illegal"

"yep"

Beckett wants lto go? she wants to... Ok then.

Ok but copy-paste the password in

MR: You can find a spy on your phone?

RC: Mother, there’s an app for everything now.

You can't promise that. You cannot contrl gemini or the buyer.

But I know what he means by that promise

she DOES have juice

Call ur mom then

oh my gosh please just control c control v the password

3 minutes for that much content? rly?

speed dial

I have those glasses... or work does

castle if ur mom is calling u better answer bc she is relevant to this

lol the gun

Oh no a router!

*pulls a gun on him*

say "I have to go" or smth

left the phone book & laptop. becks can see "hang up or i'll kill you"

*appears out of nowhere*

HE JUST KILLED HIM

i mean ig that was the mission...

*remembering that time castle "randomly" hugs esposito in a future season*

"the way you never let anything happen to ted?"

true

Beckett & castle are not telling them that he's dead? I mean they can't bc then they'd have t o tell abt anderson cross. but also wait. how would they be able to tell it was tony blaine in the first place w/o revealing that it was castle's dad?

Work you for information or beckett is right, he wanted to spend time with you...

FAMILY FSKLDFJSDLJK

She's so happy

Martha...

oh wow that's beautiful

Great ending scene too

[prongsmydeer]

Ayesha Liveblogs Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But to Kiss

“[This introduction was all lies.]” Honestly, I was ready to abandon this show immediately based on the intro scene so I like that it’s a fake-out

“To prevent my bad luck from spreading, I don’t get close to anyone.” Fascinating that Kota’s method of choice for keeping people at bay is being unnaturally perky and kind

“Don’t tell me, Miki. You want a guy at that level?” “It’s fine, I have this [romantic charm bracelet] with me.” I feel like things are not going to go well for Miki  

How does no one notice Kota glaring so intently at intervals LMAO??

I’m not sure what’s funnier, the fact that Kota was winding up a scream as the janitor approached him, or that the janitor would beeline for him despite the fact that’s not where he needs to go with the bucket

“Anyone would fall for him after hearing such words from that face. [...] This is dangerous.” I’m a little confused as why Kota is concerned, I thought he was Team Naoya’s Hot Face

“I was hoping we could stay together always.” What a bold thing to say to someone after hanging out with them one (1) time

Also. I made the mistake of thinking here Kota would be honest about why he wants to hang out with Naoya. Kota has already proven himself very emotionally dishonest

And that Naoya’s reaction to this request after their one (1) day of hanging out was “Yes, absolutely.” LMAO all in I guess

I appreciate that this show went, “You know how some other shows will play a will-they-won’t-they attitude to kissing for the entire series? Not us!! They’re going to kiss in the FIRST EPISODE.”

“But it’s either this or going back to my miserable days.” I DON’T GET U KOTA? Why are you acting like it’s such a burden to date this man that keep saying is hot and charming and who you also keep saying you could fall for? What’s the danger for u, it’s Naoya that doesn’t understand your motives for seeking out his company?

I like that Naoya’s friends are so fashionable. You rarely see side characters with such pronounced style. It’s fun

 “I’ve decided. I have to stay with him no matter what. Even that means I have to break his trust.” 1) You’re already doing that. 2) Oh good, a conscience!

“I’m worried. I can’t let my boyfriend get sick.” Naoya is very sweet

What a funny paradox of Kota’s default personality being kind of grumpy and unhinged but Naoya’s good luck making him actually the giddy person he pretends to be 

“Whoa, it’s like I made a friend,” said Kota, about the man he was literally dating

[Kota to himself] “Don’t forget. You’re only with him to escape your bad luck. Don’t let him pull you in!” This is such a weird angle to take

Why does Kota need emotional distance when he is the one instigating the deceit? It’s like a 90s romcom when someone dates a person because of a bet/dare and then they’re like “Oh man, I actually fell for them!” It’s not about you! You’re the one hurting someone LMAO WHAT THE HELL

Awww poor Naoya, he waited for an over an hour!!

The real question is if Kota’s luck is so severe, how does he get ANYWHERE like how does he get to school???

The vengeful deity watching over Kota, probably: I want this guy to suffer, but I draw the line at interfering with his education 

Get you a boyfriend like Naoya who both takes initiative to plan things he thinks you might like AND leaves room for you to decide the other activities of the day

“Damn it. I’ve been taken in by his charm.” I must ask again, Kota, what’s your problem????????????? WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM FOR YOU?

Lol is this lottery result meant to depict that if Naoya and Kota are together they even out to a normal amount of luck

“I’ll take responsibility.” I understand this is a common phrase, but feels funny in the immediate aftermath of implying you want someone to come over to your place to hook up

“I’ll kiss your lips when you agree.” Naoya is literally like the perfect boyfriend so all of Kota’s comments abt distance and personal gain feel so mean-spirited kjhgkjhg

WAIT KOYA GOOGLING ‘DON’T MIND KISSING A MAN’ IS THE CENTRAL CONCEIT OF KOYA’S INTERNAL CONFLICT THAT HE DOESN’T WANT TO DO GAY STUFF? LMAO THAT’S SO STUPID. THAT’S SOOOO STUPID. YOU’VE BEEN TALKING FOR LIKE 40 MINUTES STRAIGHT ABOUT HOW HOT AND LOVABLE THIS GUY IS. OF COURSE YOU LIKE MEN. MY GOD.

Imagine if the next time I went on a date with a woman, if, for some reason, the topic of whether I was into women came up, I went, “Oh hell no.” I can’t emphasize enough how stupid this is jlkdjlkjdljdlj

“Basically, this rule states you want to return feelings of love.” [Internally] “Could it be the same with me? Is he trying to trap me with the reciprocity of attraction?” NO. YOU JUST LIKE MEN, DUDE. THAT’S IT

It’s a wonder no one ever notices the constant trainwreck of expressions on Kota’s face

“I’m the one who caused this misunderstanding.” No shit sherlock

You know. It speaks of some psychological implications that Naoya could not stand to have just normal luck at a lottery. Aren’t matching keychains their own (understated) gesture of affection?

“He cares so much about me, yet I’m only using him to escape my bad luck. I’m such an awful person. I’m the worst.” THIS IS WHAT I THOUGHT THE INTERNAL CONFLICT WOULD BE

You know, despite Kota’s constant internal complaining about being around Naoya for NO DISCERNIBLE REASON it is cute that he brought the penguin stuffed toy with him to stay at Naoya’s place. He didn’t want it to get waterlogged <3 

This Sudden-Need-for-Cohabitation Situation really drives home the point that Kota needs to attend the Adachi School of Dealing with Your Magically-Complicated Romance

“Sensual? You have a scent for that?” Scensual pun was right there, it’s a shame it doesn’t translate 

No show has ever made me feel insane in this specific way before. It’s like I’m being gaslit about Kota being attracted to this guy. Every thirty seconds Kota internally monologues about how perfect Naoya is, and then pretends like he’s being forced by the universe to think gay thoughts 

I assume the motivation Naoya has for ignoring Kota so much is that he’s worried about moving too fast and scaring him 

Update from like 10 minutes later: “Or rather, I can’t hold myself back.” I KNEW it would be this comment exactly, Naoya is in every way, Discount Kurosawa. Also, this seems like a very common JDrama response 

“Laugh for me again.” “I can’t do it on command!” Okay, that’s cute, one (1) point to the writers

This scene has been quite A Lot and I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or say yikes but Naoya immediately waking up after being knocked unconscious and Kota screaming at Naoya’s nipples has really tipped the scales in favour of laughter 

“Are my muscles too much?” Oh yeah, Naoya, it’s your muscles that are the problem here 

“I bet he’s mad, for sure.” Nah Kota, I’m sure he gets punched and then nipple-screamed all the time

Yashiro is actually incredibly refreshing; it’s about time Kota has a friend, and maybe if Kota talks out his feelings about bad luck and boyfriends he’ll stop being so exhausting to listen to 

“I’ll hang with you whenever you want to skip class.” Get u a friend like Yashiro 

Awwww poor Naoya, I see these two Blond Ticket Scalper Friends are immediately proving Yashiro’s ‘it’s about what you do with your luck’ statement to be true

It’s also interesting to me how sometimes being blond in shows is shorthand for “Existing Outside of Japanese Society’s Norms.” What would these shows do if someone had dyed their hair blue? They’d be losing their minds

“Looking at you two makes me pissed off. It’s like looking at myself in a mirror.” Kota beating these guys up for talking about doing the very thing he is already doing (only spending time around Naoya to benefi from his luck). Truly the behaviour you can expect from someone who is both Gay and Homophobic

“I’m the same as these guys. I only paid attention to Naoya’s good luck and nothing else. I used him. I took advantage of such a kind, honest, guy.” This epiphany would have a lot more impact if he hadn’t had this exact same epiphany two episodes ago!!!! It doesn’t matter if you notice a behaviour is shitty if you continue to do it. The writing goes in circles. I feel like whoever submitted this script was high as hell:

“He is generous enough to share his luck with others. That’s why people love him. It’s not something anyone can do.” I love this about Naoya also 

Well, finally their classmates witnessed Kota acting like his regular unhinged self. The Bad Personality’s out of the bag. I’m glad! Plot progression, at least

Honestly, they haven’t even DEMONSTRATED any bad luck for the last two episodes. It makes the whole scheme seem even more unnecessary 

“I was lying and taking advantage of you, too.” FINALLLLLLLLLLLLLY KOTA

Wow, he really took accountability for all of the lying and scheming in one fell swoop. That was a pretty good apology. Also the fact it took so much circular writing to get here convinces me this should’ve been a movie instead of a 8-ep series. Take a note from S. Korea, boys, they throw together a series of 10 minute webisodes and compile it into a movie. Wish You did very well in that format

Somehow, also, the acting in this one scene has been better than any of the acting so far

ALSO: How are there three episodes left? How long can u drag this out

You know, I’m thinking, because Naoya is so fucking nice, he’ll be like ‘Actually Fukuhara, you can chill with me anyway if you’re worried about bad luck. We don’t have to be boyfriends and I don’t care that you lied.’ 

“How could I realize [that I have feelings for Naoya] now? I’m so stupid.” Not gonna fight you on that one, Kota

“I can’t believe you used your friends [to find me].” “Come on, I said I’m sorry.” HAHA, NAOYA THE SCHEME-EE HAS BECOME THE SCHEMER

“After all, that guy tried to use me.” “I was using you too, though.” “Not for anything bad, right?” “But...” “No one has ever stuck up for me like that.” Naoya said: You can rent me for luck-balancing services at the low, low cost of showing me human decency

“Your tricking me, what you said, and your true self. I’ve thought all that through. If you’re okay with it, I’d like to get to know you better.” Naoya, you poor sweet man. There are other, less bananas fish in the sea. Get on a dating app. Download Tinder! 

HAHAHA, NAOYA, KING OF COMMUNICATION LMAO 

Naoya: If we’re starting over, do you want to date or be friends?

Kota: I... I don’t know what to say.

Naoya: This is important. We have to talk it out!

HAHAHAHAH the even funnier follow-up. We love a man who knows himself:

Kota [internally]: Am I asking too much [if I say dating]?

Kota: F...Friends.

Naoya, slamming his hands on the table: I want to date you!

“It’s okay, you’ll fall in love with me.” Bold, confident, I like it Naoya

Also Kota choosing not to admit in this exchange he’s already in love LOL

“I like you, Naoya.” “Kota, you...” [Kota runs away] Been there, Kota

This show has gotten like, 10x cuter since Kota started being honest with Naoya. Why couldn’t he have been like this the whole time? What was the point of him making him unbearably mean-spirited and up to his ears in internalized homophobia for four and a half episodes? What purpose did that serve? COULD’VE BEEN A MOVIE

“I’m glad it went well.” “What?” “It’s written all over your face.” Naoya’s friends are one of my favourite parts of this show

I assume now that the Kota finally is in an emotionally good place and ready to date Naoya, his bad luck will return and he’s gonna get hit by a bus or something

“Thank you.” “What for?” “You came over despite your bad luck.” Awwww I’m glad they can laugh about it now

“Mugi is in his own world and Saku lives by his own rules. I feel comfortable whenever I’m with them, because they don’t rely on others.” I love them laying the foundations of this friend group. Also putting Naoya in a suit really makes him seem more like an office worker than a student, he really has a face of indeterminate age

“Yes, [his] smile was exactly like Pome-chan, the Pomeranian I used to have.” I’m glad Naoya’s narration is furthering the point that he is also romantically insane, by comparing the people he’s attracted to to his dead dog. Equality: 

“He captured my heart by the sudden change in his attitude.” So you’re telling me Naoya KNEW Kota was faking his bubbly personality the whole time and he still didn’t care???? NAOYA WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU HAHAHA

Kota is trying very hard not to impose now that his apartment’s fixed, but Naoya is clearly hoping to build a ‘Would you like to stay for dinner?’ to ‘Would you like to stay forever?’ Pipeline 

Naoya is sooooooo earnest it kills me. I’m with Kota on this one:

“Hold on, what exactly are we doing tonight? I’m sure nothing will happen. A part of me is wishing for something... Wait, what?” How is Kota still surprised by his own gay thoughts

If I haven’t said so, Minato and Itsuki are very fun little background characters, they’re Kota’s friends too but Kota hasn’t quite learned how to be honest with his feelings around them 

Incredible how every one of these psychology lectures is mysteriously related to exactly whatever is going on Kota’s life

“Is there anyone you want to meet no matter how tired you are?” Kota looking at Naoya, and Naoya noticing and laughing is very cute

“I have one [person I want to meet].” “Who?” “Anna.” 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 ARE ANNA AND MIKI GONNA BE IN LESBIANS TOGETHER? I HOPE SO. I’M SORRY I SPOKE ILL OF U EARLIER MIKI. KISS UR FRIEND, IT WOULD BE NICE <3

“’Smooch’ in this day and age?” [Anna staring at Miki, distracted] “Totally.” I don’t know if Miki is thinking gay thoughts, but Anna certainly is:

Kota raises a fair point, why DID Naoya kiss him when they first met?

“People I’ve dated loved it when I did that, so I thought you’d like it too.” LOL Naoya has just been sweeping all his partners into a big first kiss when they get together, and it’s always gone well!

Naoya is genuinely the only character in a JDrama I’ve ever seen explicitly talk about consent. Like sometimes they do play around with that issue but never has anyone stated it so clearly as he has, “I will kiss your lips when you consent.” I appreciate it 

“Shut up and give me your mouth!” I change my mind. They’ve immediately made it weird with Kota’s actions. Good lord 

Naoya’s response to Kota being weird about kissing him saying ‘no worries, I can wait,’ and then strength-training him so he’ll be less clumsy. Get you a boyfriend like Naoya

Also their couple’s at-home exercise montage was very fun 

This show was getting too normal and cute so they had to have someone hold Kota at gunpoint in his own home. Of course. 

“Come on, isn’t this too crazy?” Yeah, Kota, it really is

“I wanted to live longer, together with Naoya.” I appreciate the love in this sentiment and in all of Kota’s happy memories. However, this situation is still too much 

I would ask how Naoya slipped past so many cops and reporters, but he ain’t Good Luck Boy for nothing

“Take me as your hostage instead.” Does that really seem like a solution to you, Naoya?

Apparently, it was the solution. Colour me stupid:

This water gun-hostage situation is the exact reason most water guns on the market look so cartoonish. It’s just safer for everyone! 

“But ever since I met you, I realized I can enjoy my life for the first time.” Awww, Kota said regardless of his luck, that he likes his life because Naoya is in it

Naoya’s new strategy for keeping Kota safe is by asking him to live with him. Boy said I will be your Good Luck Shield 

“I’m really happy you’re caring for me. But I’m not with you to get rid of my bad luck.” You know what that is? Growth

“It’s thanks to my bad luck that I got to meet you. I’m truly grateful for that.” Kota is all about verbalizing his feelings now. I think it’s good for Naoya to hear this!

Naoya would like to clear the air about his own long-term interest in Kota and awareness of his personality, even if it’s not a bad sort of secret

“After seeing you, I realized that I avoided deep relationships with people, too. You and I are the same,” said Naoya, not realizing that was less of a reason for a relationship and more of a reason they should both be in therapy 

[Aggressively] “I’m with you because I really like you. So just stay with me and be my boyfriend like you wanted [softer] Oh... I, um,” [Naoya bursts into laughter] This is perhaps my favourite conversation they’ve had

Ahhhh I think it’s sweet that Naoya doesn’t care about his luck anymore. Maybe being with Kota is actually freeing in a way

“But I want to move in only when we really want to live together one day.” Good for Kota!!!!! He’s been so clear and direct about how much he cares for Naoya ever since his confession

(One last: It could’ve been a movie!!! For the road)

What an adorable ending to a tonally bizarre show. 6/10 stars:

I feel like this show needs a pro and con list, so here it is:

Pros

I like a quirky little supernatural premise, and I enjoyed how they subverted expectations by making Kota a rude little man 

Likeable side characters, I especially enjoy Mugi the fashion student who, I have found out after watching, is apparently played by someone who is trans and ace!! I don’t think I have ever seen an openly trans actor in Japanese media, so that makes my heart happy

Also I enjoyed how people showed how were able to get through their walls (Mugi and Saku to Naoya because they do not rely on other people, and Yashiro to Kota because he notices when something bothers him and doesn’t believe in luck, but what you do with it)

The last few episodes are SO good about communication. Even things that aren’t necessarily pressing issues in their relationship (like Naoya having noticed Kota before) they take the time to address so they can both be on the same page

Their apologies are so wholehearted, and they make sure you understand that even if Naoya knew about Kota’s façade or didn’t care about his motives, Kota cared about how Naoya was treated, by himself and others

They include a conversation about consent!! A clear, reiterated sentiment that consent is mandatory, without coded language

I really enjoyed the conversation about “someone you want to see no matter how tired you are” because it did feel like it was touching on a deeper form of intimacy. Favourite scene!

It becomes clear that they are actually both a compatible kind of bananas, so the lunacy feels balanced

I like how much they laugh together, especially how it leads to Kota being able to laugh at himself

I loved what they had to say about luck, and how you treat other people, regardless of your luck. It seems like they were able to pull out some good themes there

Cons

The beginning of the show feels so mean-spirited. Why does Kota constantly monologue about hard he has it emotionally is and how he only needs Naoya for personal gain, and eventually it just seems like his main regret is the fact he is having gay thoughts?

The writing feels so circular. Kota has an crisis of conscience and then it isn’t relevant again for two more episodes. He’ll say a bunch of stuff implying his strong attraction to Naoya, and then immediately we’ll regress two seconds later. It doesn’t make sense and it seems they didn’t have enough material for the length of the show so they just keep repeating things

I get that maybe this was to show Kota is struggling with his emotions, but it didn’t read like that! It read as a lack of consistency, because there wasn’t any emotional impact behind his revelations

Also like. Because there wasn’t any emotional impact to most of what happened in the first five episodes, the acting suffered for it. The actor chemistry is SO much better later on when their feelings MATTER and have an impact on the progression of the story 

Kota’s luck thing isn’t even that consistent, they straight up abandon it whenever it doesn’t serve them  

The consent thing is also used as a gag for Kota running away

I wish Yashiro had been a bigger part of the show! Given how he both allows Kota emotional honesty and helps him gain a new perspective on luck, I feel like having him in two scenes was underutilizing him. He could’ve been a part of the show from the beginning and it would’ve been stronger for it

No resolution for the Miki + Anna subplot - why bother to introduce it at all if it wasn’t going anywhere 

I saw post that was like ‘this show isn’t nearly good enough to lesbian bait me’ and I resonate with that (Found it!!)

While I think you can write a very good romance without any kissing, Kota’s fear of intimacy more reads as ‘we can be gay but not TOO gay’ rather than anything that serves the story. It is, for the most part, played for laughs in a way that also feels mean-spirited. Like in Cherry Magic, or Kieta Hatsukoi, we also never see them kiss, but they are allowed to feel attraction towards each other, you know? Aoki and Adachi explicitly desire physical intimacy with their partners, and the things that hold them back are unpacking internalized biphobia/first love nerves and Magical Power Problems, respectively, and that works!! If you had to go this very common route, you could’ve done better with it and the kiss in the beginning doesn’t make up for the clunky handling. If anything, the earlier kiss seems like it’s a gimmick or for shock value. Do better!!!

However, the cheek kiss at the end is cute, I’ll give you that! 

OH MY GOD. For a while I sincerely forgot that “kiss” is in the title. Of course it’s a gimmick. Geez. It’s THE gimmick. Which is worse, I think! 

All in all, it’s an adequate show that became a lot better as it went, but I think u could build a better show with a lot of the same ingredients. I want to make this show into soup

[actualbird]

Extremely sorry to those who aren't interested in Pokespe but also I'm not that sorry because this is absolute heaven for me xfjxjg

Pokespe's my second favourite piece of Pokemon media because the Mystery Dungeon series has captured my heart and my reasons for loving it keep evolving as the years pass but yeah!!! Its story is just the best and it barely lets up in quality. Why the manga goes so hard I will never know but I am forever thankful.

Definitely understand stopping at sinnoh dgsj it was great but not as good as hoenn. Nothing has topped hoenn yet imo but also I stopped reading halfway through X and Y so maybe the later arcs proved me wrong. When I find them...

I do think sinnoh had the best trio of all the cast though, they felt really close knit and their friendship progressed really well. Nothing can top Ruby and Sapphire's closeness but I think the addition of Emerald stopped them from getting best trio. Still love both casts a whole lot!

I forgot how much I loved Yellow's kindness fhdkh the manga barely even made fun of them for it!! Every character who pushed them to fight always got proven wrong when their nonviolence got the job done well! Also it made the moments when they actually needed to fight hit really, really hard. The sense of gravity when they actually fought was so much easier to feel when it was Yellow, the one who's defined by disliking battling, who was fighting instead of almost everyone else who get into fights regularly. Same thing applies here for Ruby but on a smaller scale.

In almost all the Pokemon media Gold and Silver always seem to act like boyfriends it's great. Those two could rival Red and Blue honestly.

Pokespe and its casts are so good. It's not even just the human characters, the Pokemon get great characterisation as well! Pika struggling to care for Yellow's Caterpie had a whole chapter devoted to it and it didn't even advance the plot, it was there for fluff and I loved it. A Pokemon is also the reason I insist that my friends who know nothing about Pokemon read the hoenn arc. That Pokemon happens to be Feefee/Mimi depending on translation. Not gonna spoil why to anyone who may be interested but I love her so much and I know it hits so much harder when you don't know anything about Pokemon.

Adding on to traditionally weak traits are seen as strong, the X and Y arc deconstructs the opposite. It shows why the common trope of the child prodigy battler isn't necessarily a completely good thing and I loved it so much.

Yeah Norman was. hm. It also says a lot about how few people read the manga when Norman being an absentee father is a meme from the games because if those people read the manga the memes would get even worse and yet they haven't somehow.

Ruby and Sapphire's backstory and how it affected them in the present is masterful. They're such amazing foils and the way both their povs were presented made their wildly different personalities make so much sense!! The same event resulted in such different outcomes, it's just amazing. Speaking of the incident, I'm convinced the manga is psychic because the remakes of hoenn gave it extra fuel to expand on the incident in such a natural way you'd think it was made with the manga in mind. Of course the oras arc took full advantage of that, so if you haven't you could check it out alongside your rereading! The remake arcs always tend to be pretty good anyway.

I would absolutely love to see the liveblog dtidti there's so much to think about when reading it!

🌌

HI AGAIN, MILKYWAY!!!!

listen, for ppl not interested in this, jus scroll as fast as u can. surely, if u follow this blog, u have become adept at scrolling thru my KILOMETRIC LENGTH RAMBLING so u guys will be fine

OHHHHH i am taking note of mystery dungeon then. the only pokemon games i played were the "main" ones (that i played on a frigging game boy color, pokemon yellow and pokemon silver. everything else i played on an emulator, i feel....aged) so hearing about this that u say is Good, my interest has been Piqued!!!

yeA YEAH!!! like while i didnt finish sinnoh, i loved the trio there so much cuz they were together for basically all of the story. also, the whole identity misunderstanding thing was SO RIDICULOUS and SO CONVOLUTED and it was amazing to watch ksjdbfsjd

kjfbasjfbkajsfak same like.....when i talk about hoenn i just dont talk about emerald. i dont hate him or anything but. i just didnt like him all that much, and i dont even have a reason for it, HAHA. maybe it was cuz i was reeling from how incredible ruby and sapphire were together and how their lives intertwined and then emerald just like. Happened. i'll have to reread it to figure out why i didnt take a liking to him tho

YEAH HRGRHGRHHR UR RIGHT!!! yellow who avoids battling bc of values and so when it does, it HITS. also suddenly just realized wow, sunshine character who is mostly always sunshiney except in the moments when they arent and it Hits Hard.....thats another trope that i love up to this day that i now realize can be traced back to pokespe omg

gold and silver are gay. facts. red and blue are also gay and theyve got like, OG Cast Superiority, but i dunno, there was something about gold and silver. there was a different FLAVOR

GOD YEAH UR RIGHT. the pokemon themselves are such fleshed out characters and YEAH. MIMI THE FEEBAS. when i was rambling to my gf yesterday i went on a whole tirade about mimi and how important she is both in herself and in how ruby grows. that Moment where ruby Snaps......it's engraved in my brain. it hurts me. but it was frigging fantastic holy shit.

oooOOOHH, okay maybe i may look into X and Y!!! i love some good subversion of tropesssss

YEAH. NORMAN WAS HM. THATS ALL I'LL SAY ABOUT THAT!!! mostly cuz i only wanna say further thoughts after ive reread hoenn kjbdkjfkdfs

MY GOD ruby and sapphire are so powerful, the story became prophetic.

im a bit no braincells cuz booster shot just shot my braincells out the window so i'll end with a meme

[seaswalllow]

liveblogging observations, all condensed into one post since it’s so late: 

- oh shit. the suit. the suit. AND THE COAT?? eret has raised the fucking BAR

- stomping boots to stomp the fuck outta the egg lmaooo

- o h? an overthrow arc, you say? “we need to do something abt this for the greater good of the server” eret my beloved. 

- eret please one of the pro-omelettes is going through her own identity crisis and everybody else is either dealing with the prison

- the most casual declaration of war: “i’ve decided that i don’t like all of this red shit around, want to help me destroy it?” iconic. 

- “i’ve not had any detrimental effects” hmm. hmmmmm. 

- “i’d break the egg but i’m afraid it’d unleash whatever’s inside the egg on the entire server... i’ve fucked up enough times, i’d rather not fuck up again” [tucks this into my eret observations]

- there’s so many egg outposts klkgjhsgjhds i, for one, think it would’ve been hilarious if they all built their rooms around the egg’s nest and just barely avoided running into each other down there

- LMFAOOOO two of the best builders on the server and they’re hunkered down in a little tiny room in an abandoned, flooded base. that’s... a badass, and lowkey sad aesthetic

- “badboyhalo seems to be the main mouthpiece. one thing that we should keep in mind is- i don’t think that’s really their fault. we can’t hold this against them. i don’t want to hurt them.” foolish my BELOVED thank you

- “i don’t know if we destroy the egg, do we destroy their minds?” if nobody’s got me, i know foolish’s got me!!

- eret’s 20.5 days played vs foolish’s 26.6 days played on the server, this is so fucking funny, foolish’s been here for barely a third of the time eret has

- “definitely not eret and foolish’ secret base” i love these fools, this is a comedy

- very interesting how c!eret’s definition of power has changed, i think? from claiming kingship was power to recognizing that fear is no more powerful than respect and knowledge?

- “there’s too much sad in this smp” “if everybody got mental health help, so many problems would be solved” you both are so right

- “one diamond or blow up a piece of history” when you put it like that,,, KDSKJLH 

- chat: sees michael art

- chat: goes feral

- eret theory: vines are related to the mortal plane, somehow. c!eret believes that in fucking with the natural order of things, the egg accelerated, and that the vines started accelerating after wilbur’s failed revival. now these theories may not necessarily be correct but again: it’s fascinating how much more connected to this side of matters c!eret tends to be/ pass themself off as? 

- “it wasn’t wilbur that came back, but something else?” mentions of ghostbur seeing two, then one figure. 

- anyways egg-breaking time

- “it wasn’t always peaceful for me. since i’ve arrived, i’ve kept the peace, though.” foolish lore foolish lore, callbacks to being a former totem of death?

- “not many people live in this area anymore” foolish please you don’t have to call that out because i will Cry. partially the bloodvines forcing them to abandon it, partially everybody drifting. 

- “after l’manberg, everybody split off” yeah. :tears:

- ah eret lore discussion with foolish,,,, “after my betrayal, i’d hoped that things would go back to how they were” correct me if i’m wrong, but the VODs from way back then also showed quite a bit of thirst for power, right? there’s a character analysis waiting here

- “seperated them infinitely more, and now i’m just holding on to what little i have left, i guess” gamers i WILL cry don’t test me!! 

- “when i think of the egg, the first thing i think of is i don’t know” oh man, yeah, that’s probably not something that a fuckin ancient totem god is used to, huh

- i will say tho, my guy, “nobody’s fighting the egg anymore” bro they’re either underground, absent, or fighting a different concern,,, u should talk to tommy pspspsps talk to tommy or fundy or niki- ah. eret-syndicate conflict potential,,, hmhmhm

- punz is canonically a valorant pro player and i agree with this

- after the egg: ant’s power: can speak enchanting table, ponk’s power: can speak for the egg, punz’s power: gets a new fit, and bbh’s power: he can swear. he’s been unleashed, oh fuck oh shit-

- ah, so the end of the stream is where foolish drops the fuckin lore bomb, okay. [1:24:54 is where it starts!]

- “cleaning up the mess of the wither cult” “what?” “what do you mean?” “are you thinking of a different person, or-?”

- “nope, you, eret, one with the glasses, one with the netherite armor” 

- “u h”

- “it was a while ago, i suppose.”

- foolish and eret both are confused as fuck and y’know what, fair enough. 

- worldbuilding! cults outside of the smp, trolls, mountains! i love it here, foolish, eret thank you for feeding us

- “i’ve been here for months-” “well, i do agree, you’ve been here for months, but you’ve been elsewhere, eret!”

- “have i shown you my eyes before?” “trust me, i know what your eyes look like” followed by “the sunglasses are a new look for you”

- HELLO???

- “you’re not scared?” i’m gonna make a post on this in one fuckin second

- “we’ll catch up, old pal” WELL OKAY

- to the person saying “let’s go old man hd dementia” in chat: i’m already wheezing please

[drunkardsprayer]

i just caught up with mr robot. tell me how i'm supposed to continue on with my life until october 11

[vaguely-concerned]

X-men Evolution; the great 2021 rewatch liveblog

exactly what it says on the tin, about halfway through the show I had TOO MANY FEELINGS and had to start writing some of them out haha (gets quite gambit & rogue/gambit heavy in the latter half, Because of Who I Am as a Person)

- this is my childhood’s x-men, my formative experience with them, and I’m happy to report that still seems like a good thing. the little eleven year old within me gets to geek out and have a good time with the characters and the surprisingly good animation and writing, adult me gets to CACKLE at regular intervals at the fashion/technology/absolute bonkers hot garbage comic book nonsense they use to justify a storyline every now and then, it’s been a good time 

- I was like ‘ah well it is super dated it probably won’t be quite the same now’ and then rogue’s HAIR did the THING in the opening and ‘it’s all coming back to me now’ started playing in the background... the little baby queer in me swooning across time and space

- such a good beast, both his design and the writing, my heart aches for him all the time. he’s just so passionate! about being a teacher! helping young humans learn the stuff they’ll need in life! the most wonderful nerd man, just let good things happen for him

- I’m going to go ahead and assume that rogue’s ‘crush’ on scott is more of a deeply complex psychological process about desiring normalcy and intimacy and trying to figure out if she’s queer and dealing with her emerging sexuality and latching on to the first and best safely unavailable and nonthreatening older boy to project these issues onto rather than actually being a real thing, because I respect her so much as a person and I cannot bring myself to imagine she’s honestly attracted to a man who has POSTERS OF CARS on his bedroom wall. (I’ll give jean a break just because she seems to have a longer deeper history with him that might counteract some of that libido-kill, and also she’s a jock so lol)

like I am very sorry but can u imagine being a teenage girl with any interest in a boy with model cars in his bedroom when gambit’s swanning around being a much, much, much worse choice on almost every possible level but in a teen girl kryptonite kind of way? inconceivable  

(I drag scott quite a few times in this and it’s not because I don’t love him, it’s just his tragedy to be the most draggable man in the world)

to be fair by the time gambit shows up that whole Situation has mostly played itself out I suppose but still  

- toad’s design is so ineffably brilliant, I can’t quite tell you why but that ugly cute charm has really stuck with me, he’s one of the characters I remembered the best to this day just visually

- poor evan... he truly never had a chance, did he, they just saddled him with the most 90s teen bullshit they could come up with like he’s some kind of ‘what adult writers think teens like’ frankenstein’s monster ;______; it’s not your fault honey

- poor poor POOR storm, she gets one focus episode and they were like ‘we’re going to make an episode so racist -- ‘

I’m still STUNNED at how bad it was, but undeniably I laughed hysterically to the point that my neighbours were probably worried when that dude was earnestly like ‘He [stunningly breathlessly racist caricature of a ‘witch doctor’ guy] has stolen her powers, and he’s going to use them to take over Africa!!!’ fhajsdlfhsakjldfh oh really? tell me more, like how the fUCK this could be on television within my life time fasdlfhsdkjfhsad f  just... fahjksdfh

- it’s a testament to gambit’s appeal as a character that his charm can survive what they’ve done with his hair and beard choices in this one fajskfhs regrettable but true I still fuckn LOVE him and in my highly biased yet Correct opinion he should have been around much more. get you a man who manages to stay hot through sheer Vibes even with a bowl cut

- aw scott/jean is kind of sweet in this show even if it’s taking them forEVER to get there, I like it 

- it’s very nice of rogue to not mention magneto’s romantic daydreams and nostalgic memories about charles xavier after touching his face that one time... or maybe her brain did her a service and repressed it, there’s some stuff you shouldn’t have to know about your father figure   

- the danger room is the very definition of ‘why do we even have that lever’ and I wonder what the fuck prof x does to have enough money to replace everything that gets busted all the time

- I’d say that a lot of the writing holds up surprisingly well! (but some of it is also incredibly inexcusably racist in ways that beggar belief, so... not full marks here) the characters have distinct voices and their arcs are set up and delivered on solidly for the most part, and there’s a lot of love showing through in small moments that are just there to have a funny/interesting thing to say about the characters and how their powers work separately and in combination. listen, sometimes I get so thirsty for like. basic goddamn competency in storytelling, let me have this

- ugggggh why is there captain america in my x-men have I not suffered enough... very very funny when prof x goes ‘sounds like you knew rogers personally’ and logan is like ‘I did ;)’ *all the students ganging up on steve rogers* “did you fuck our teacher, captain america?!”

- fskadfhas WHY are you showing me hot young-ified magneto’s ass fksjahfskj charles is not even here to see it, what a tragic waste erik 

- ...I was sort of kidding before but uh I think logan genuinely did fuck captain america (or at least wishes very much that he did lol)

- wanda can have a little watching the world burn. as a treat for the way every single adult in her life has fucking failed her (’aren’t they treating you well here’ professor x she’s in a straightjacket)  

- poor rogue tho can you imagine finding out after your biggest crush on a girl yet that she’s your fucking MOM in disguise... I would break out in cold sweat every time I thought about a boob forever after

- well seems like they really just had all that homoerotic rivalry stuff between quicksilver and spyke in their first ep only to never do anything with that again ever?? I mean even without the gay undertone that seems like a dynamic you spent most of an episode setting up writers what the hell haha

- dslhfkasjlh GAMBIT THERE HE IS MY BOY IS ON THE SCENE THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! I don’t even care about his awful hair situation or the fact that his eyes are wrong here (coloured contact lenses, maybe, for a watsonian explanation? though he’d probably have to get them made special, considering he needs the sclera and the iris covered up in different ways, I’ve seen some comic panels indicating he has been known to?)

(cute little detail: when he shuffles the cards the first time we see him he ends with removing the top card to show the ace of hearts beneath <3 foreshadowing baBEY he’s a... good-ish boy deep down. hey he tries okay shit gets complicated sometimes lol) 

- cracking UP at gambit perched cheerily on the edge of a crate dispensing cards in the middle of the battle... he’s like ‘eh it’s a livin’ sfsajkhf remy stop working for supervillains just because you had nothing to do on a thursday afternoon and they said they’d pay you

- I’m guessing magneto must have imposed a strict order of silence on these guys or something because I cannot imagine any other reason for him to shut up, especially once he notices rogue is a QTE (or, far more likely, they hadn’t settled on any voice actors for the new characters until next season haha. it is kind of odd that they’re all keeping up near monastic silence, though, even sabertooth lol) 

- WHAT an epic first meeting for us rogue/gambit fans here... first his shadow like there’s fireworks going off behind him lighting him up and then he gives her the fuckn king of hearts and she’s so enchanted by his dumb handsome face she doesn’t even notice it’s about to blow up in her hands and it all happens in heavily meaningful silence afjsdfjashjk no wonder this ship ingrained itself in my hindbrain  

yeah look smug while you can remy she’s gonna have you on your knees one day and you’ll be happy about it lol

- god storm is so COOL, everything just fading out of focus when she really gets going... give her more screen time, show!!

- mystique is every person... this person... that person... that bird... that cat... that wolf... I’m not even sure she’s not also me... are you sure she’s not you? 

- holy fuck I respect the hell out of the decision to just... blow up the entire status quo in a season ender, I only vaguely remembered that (actually in general I appreciate how good the continuity is -- buildings and places that get damaged in battles need to be repaired or rebuilt, it makes the consequences feel more real even when no one gets seriously hurt. where they get the money to restore scott’s car and logan’s motorbikes every time they go cablooie is still an open question tho lol is it credit card fraud, professor? is it telepathically acquired blackmail???) 

- I first watched this when I was nine or so, so it’s a real experience to go from my starry eyed intrigued ‘oh my god... they’re teenagers’ to my horrified adult perspective of ‘oh my god... they’re TEENAGERS D:’

that goes double for the brotherhood boys honestly, I’m here with tears in my eyes like ‘I’m sorry the system has failed you so badly you’re all just a bunch of dumb kids whose caretakers clearly fucked up spectacularly’  

like lance is always waiting for mystique to come back because she’s the closest thing he has to a safe parental figure, may we speak about how crushingly depressing that is 

- rogue is so ready to throw hands at literally any moment and for that I love and treasure her immensely (I think getting to see her be so surly and unreasonable and sometimes difficult and jealous, like any teenager, meant a lot to me as a kid who was not really allowed to be any of these things, this version of the character has stayed with me so deeply. she holds on so fiercely to her right to feel what she feels and be what she is even when it’s ‘ugly’ or unreasonable, which I think plays in really interestingly with how her powers involve getting invaded by other people’s thoughts and memories to the point of overwhelming her own sense of self and the fact that she clearly has a lot of self-loathing and self-consciousness and confusion about her identity as well. I love her so much)  

- oooof this is the ‘the gang experience a microaggression’ episode huh (well more like macroagressions really)

hits a bit different with adult eyes and perspective huh

- hearing jean sound almost like a child when she says ‘that’s so unfair!’ somehow has me like ;______; -- she has to be so adult and responsible all the time, and having her be reduced to the kid she still is and should get to be in front of this awful awful man she could squash like a bug with the flick of a thought... ugh I’m Big Sad (it is funny that jean seemingly plays Every Sport tho djfhaskj)

- MY BOY IS BACK!!! this time with the duster coat and his eyes the right colour, im so happy (too bad about the subdued colour scheme tho; I adore his dumb bright pink getup with my whole heart)

it’s kind of adorable that he takes the time to take the bullies aside and go ‘I know these guys can’t wreck you without getting expelled, but I think you’ll find no law set down by god or man would stop me from doing so whenever I wanted to. so piss off and leave them alone’ lol he’s looking out for them, in his own way

- in this episode: remy lebeau wrangles some kids while looking bored yet mildly amused the whole time. what the fuck does magneto have on you for you to agree to this level of babysitting duty buddy

- fun detail I noticed b/c when I get a fave I hyperfixate: he gave rogue the king of hearts before, but he ‘introduces’ himself to the brotherhood here (lol) with the jack of hearts, probably to symbolize he’s here as someone who works for magneto in this setting and not as his own man? it’s a demotion he’s given himself there, anyway, might be he’s not very pleased about his current position huh 

- I like it when rogue and kitty team up, they’re not very effective together but their squabbling is so cute and non-aggressive 

- pietro is what draco malfoy would be if I ever found malfoy interesting to watch for even one moment, every time quicksilver talks I’m like ‘what wonderfully insufferable thing is going to come out of your mouth this time you little shit :’)’

- a) why are scott and logan shirtless for this scene? I am not complaining on the logan side of things at least but why and b) I laughed so hard I almost fell off my couch when scott asked logan if he’d ever been in love and he was like ‘once. she was the most beautiful bike I ever saw’ falsdfhaskjfhsakjlfhasklhjfd THE BEST VERSION OF WOLVERINE EVER, ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES 

- mystique’s sheer dedication to being a petty bitch is kind of inspirational tbh, almost makes me want to go on a completely bonkers and extra crusade of personal revenge myself  

- oooh they’re doing some genuinely cool things with vision/lack of vision in this one (it’s the scott left on his own in the desert without glasses one btw) even visually, dang! I’m so sad this show didn’t get more seasons than it did, honestly, it deserved it

- hell yeah jean wreck her, go get your man with the suspiciously specific clothing damage normally done to female characters 

awww :’) okay yeah they’re super sweet, I love the tiny loving animation details like how he leans his head against her and her stroking his hair away from his eyes

- nooo don’t bully evan leave my t0tally r4dical sk8er boy alone :(

- I love the running joke of people fleeing in blind panic only to reveal that what they’re running from is kitty’s cheerful well meaning little face fskfaskh 

- scott and jean are already peak married after officially being together for one episode and it’s adorable, and they just stone cold threw logan under the bus, rip wolverine we hardly knew ya

fjasdlfasldfhslajdkfhsadkjlfhsdkjalfhsdakfh h jean establishing herself as the alphabitch of this relationship by throwing her man to the wolves right after dsjfhaskjfhaskjhfsakjdhfaskjhfaskdhfskjahfskdajhf get smarter or get volunteered scott 

- ...eyepatch lady is so hot ngl

oh evan went to the place hank used to go to calm down ;________; (honestly he’s kind of won a place in my heart just by being a pretty normal teenage boy haha)

- jesus fucking CHRIST can you imagine being storm having to look her sister in the eye as she tells her ‘I lost your only child, he’s *vague gesture* somewhere in the sewers we think’ this poor woman

- amanda the self admitted monster fucker you are so VALID (I love her and her family’s design so much tho!)

- it’s so cool that even in his human ‘disguise’ kurt’s fingers follow the shape of his actual hand beneath it rather than moving like a five fingered hand, it’s such a lovingly consistent little detail 

- magneto and mystique in a breathless race to see who can be the shittiest parent... tune in next week for yet another parental nadir (also some low-poly gambit appearances in this one, for those at home keeping score (me), he’s in the background looking like someone drew him with their eyes closed fakjldfhasd look how they massacred my boy)

- someone please teach the brotherhood boys about consent huh

- jean ‘soccer mom before her time’ grey and her SUV dfhakjlhds :’)

- im sobbing rogue baby girl i’m so sorryyyyyy, this voice actress is so good, my parental instincts suddenly kicked into overdrive hearing the crack in her voice :( (bb me was right tho rogue centric episodes ARE the best episodes. that tension between ‘do I identify witn this character or am I crushing on her?? both???’ now has the fun new addition of ‘oh god oh no you are a baby I want to shield you with my body from everything trying to hurt you’)

- mystique is like ‘so you see despite you telling me you never wanted to see me again I completely disrespected that and posed as a friend your age, manipulated you by offering you the mirage of direly needed emotional intimacy and belonging and added some sprinkles of homoerotic tension to it just to massively worsen your already existing grievous psychosexual trauma and identity issues... out of love’

god go jump in a black hole you fucking monster 

- there’s some very interesting and quite subtle subtext about the people she’s morphing into and what that says about her mental state/how it shows off some of her emotional baggage with the rest of the team. it’s like she’s switching between people/powers that fit the purpose as if she’s going through cycles of fight/flight (and then bursts of freeze where she’s herself, which is... so sad)

- this whole episode is hurting my heart but rogue at full power is undeniably epic  

 - ‘professor x get your goddamn act together and get this poor girl some fucking tHERAPY’ challenge

- SAFE PAPA LOGAN ;_____;

- EYYYYYY opening straight on My Lad, I cannot stop winning!!!!! 

fasdfhsad disintegrating the window with a smiley face... remy I do love you more than my heart can bear honestly, hello may we speak about the fact that his urge to be a little shit is so deep and strong it survives mind control (that little breathed out ‘hiah!’ as he vaults the fence too dsakfjsd)

hahaha and he does up the coat fhsalfdsaj 

- magneto dismissing other telepaths like ‘puh-lease, your Meaningful Looks have got nothing on my ex-husband’s’ 

- :’) rogue and kurt sibling timeees

- say what you want but this pyro guy’s got job satisfaction in being a creepy arsonist with a weird recurring horse theme (well at least twice but still weird)

- I love how beast is the kindest man to ever walk the earth but also straight up savage, this man drags people so hard their ancestors wince in their graves

- gambit taking the time to complete the guard’s game of solitaire -- this episode is giving me everything I want. u little disgrace mr lebeau

and THEN he takes the spider out in the most hilariously bonkers way my heart is so FULL

(I love that when magneto moves by he looks startled and has to quickly move his head out of the way to avoid getting kicked in the temple too that’s a fun detail)

I’m so INTO how this sequence shows off that his greatest strength isn’t even his powers (which are pretty straightforward, really, he makes go boom, longer time and bigger thing bigger boom) but that he’s clever and creative and always extremely ready to be the most harebrained-bananapants-extra-in-a-deceptively-laidback-sort-of-way person in the room (I actually have some genuinely Deep Thoughts about how his whole character does a really interesting thing with having the straightforwardly destructive nature of his powers yield to what his nature as a person is, and how using the playing cards play (heh) into it, maybe I’ll write it out some day. just the fact that he could use anything, but he deliberately chose something that adds style and playfulness and corny charm to it and that also limits the damage of the explosions compared to if he habitually used something with more mass... I find it fascinating how much he’s made a story around himself with it and how deeply it shows he does have a good heart, at the end of the day, in almost a metatextual way. he doesn’t want to destroy things or people, he’s at worst (and best lol) a thief.)

- I honestly have literally no memory of white nick fury (which seems so weird now isn’t it funny) in this series from when I was a kid, he clearly did not make an impression on me lol

- mr wolverine ‘assigned canadian at birth’ x-men 

- oh man I dig the androgynity of x-23′s outfit (even tho they had to compensate with the long hair, which... kind of doesn’t make sense in-universe but does on a design level because it’s a crucial thing that she’s a female clone of logan so yeah okay fine whatever have your arbitrary gender markers if you must haha)

ooooooh that’s actually really clever, they make her gender gradually more obvious as she unravels through the episode and her outfit changes -- first the mask coming off, and then her jacket opening to show her silhouette more clearly, that’s cool!  

- my god what really sets this show apart is how much it invests in little character and relationship moments, it’s just so fucking GOOD! it gives laura looking in on those moments such depth and weight because it’s new to her but established to us as an audience, this is how you make found family devastating people (storm growing bonsai trees is so charming too haha) 

- ooof this is honestly quite harrowing 

SHE’S SO SMALL COMPARED TO HIM I’M CRYING (at least that part of his genes translated over faslkfsjdh short king, I say this with all the love and support of a fellow short monarch)  

- tabitha seems to just be running around doing precisely whatever the fuck she wants and you know what I support her even if she is an asshole her father left her a bunch of trauma and no fucks left to give 

- still thrilled about professor x explaining the spider key fuckup to magneto after the fact like ‘magnus you dumb bitch this is why we split up’ 

- awww kitty has anime and movie posters on her wall and sleeps with a stuffed toy :’)

-          remy                           rogue

                              🤝

doing completely unnecessary parkour around the brotherhood living room seemingly just for the hell of it... I’m not saying soulmates but fucking soulmates 

- fhsadkjlfhsakjldfhsadjkfhsdajkfh just as gambit’s soul-level need to be a little shit survived his bout of mind control, rogue’s deep and urgent desire to kiss gambit full on the mouth survived hers I can’t breathe

she looks so pleased with herself too GOOD FOR YOU GIRL at least get something out of this other than more trauma 

also not only the fact that he’s smart enough to figure out what’s going on (though he’s only partially right about who’s behind it. I do so enjoy gambit/mystique deep and sincere antipathy as a constant across all universes tho lmao pure wlw/mlm hostility) but also that he keeps fending her off like he’s not trying to hurt her even though she’s in nigh on unstoppable and invulnerable terminator mode... awww 

- gambit having absolutely no patience for wolverine and sabertooth’s bullshit macho-off and consistently being this little biker trio’s one brain cell is adding years to my life with every passing moment

his voice is a little different in these scenes too, a bit softer and less like he’s trying to impress someone, it’s nice

- hank: well I barely recognize any of these (completely made up) ‘ancient egyptian hieroglyphs’ but from what I can make out -- *proceeds to infodump a perfect coherent narrative* fjdhfak  

listen this whole thing is such nonsense on so many levels, I’m just turning my brain off so I won’t have to think about it okay, the compulsion to put ancient aliens in egypt haunts us as a culture 

- I am CACKLING about gambit in the snow after having to listen to these two chucklefucks ooze testosterone at each other for hours

he started out taking it in good cheer and is now reduced to ‘dieu would both of you just jump off this fUCKING mountain please’

- ah. a little oops-a-daisy there, we seem to have unleashed the apocalypse. please stand by (they really don’t pull their punches with the season cliffhangers in this show haha)

- opening the season on gambit’s merrily grinning face is the easiest way to gain my favour. yes good this season may commence 

baby u r my

 ANGELLLLLLLL

(he’s so cute here tho haha I think it shows the design isn’t unsalvagable, just get him better hair and stubble more like logan has and you’ve basically got it) 

love his exasperated eyeroll when the dude gets spooked (by his eyes? or just the general weirdness?) too

he’s just trying to keep this crazy family of evil mutants together and unmurdered by one another until they’ve managed to avert the end of the world, bless him  

- oh NO rogue’s LIP wobbles my hhhhhheart ;____; such a good animation detail to put in

- like... I know kurt is just a sad scared teenager with a lot of shit going on and all the adults are too busy averting the end of the world to help him... but buddy maybe don’t ask your sister to wake her abuser (who forced her to kickstart the end of the world!!!!!) when she feels utterly unsafe even with her statue version around huh

- ...wanda is good and I want only good things for her. and for her dad to be disemboweled for what he did to her both the first time around and when he forced her to forget I mean what 

- magneto throwing an epic satelite-slinging tantrum b/c ‘no I am the biggest sexiest strongest mutant of the pack :(’... erik fucking get over yourself 

- yes boys absolutely go along with a plan suggested by a dude who looks at you like this 

nothing bad can come of this surely asdfkhsa

- lance’s quarter of a braincell always trying to go ‘hey wait, maybe... not do this???’ and it never helps lol

- in this episode: Logan Has A Bad Day 

...some very specific bondage positions he’s held in here, I am sure this episode awakened something in someone once upon a time lol 

- logan shielding x-23 with his body... im fine it’s okay I’m not crying don’t look at me

- afsdhlsdfjasdlk those sure are some ‘scottish’ accents flsadkjhkdsjahfsd

- scott relieved to finally be able to cede the position of ‘charles xavier’s least favourite son’ to someone else fjsaklfhsajd (poor scott it’s not your fault honey)

supremely cowardly to suggest there is an ex-wife involved rather than charles slutting his way around the british isles back in the day but okay

- kurt with a cold is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. it’s okay kid it’ll get better soon

- ...is there an implication here that professor x is naturally blond. because I am losing my entire little mind about it (i mean he at least has to carry the gene, as does this lady?)

ETA: upon doing some research into this I can indeed confirm that charles xavier does seem to be naturally blond, and after this knowledge I will never be the same 

- “listen, dracula” fskdafghasd oh scott you sweet baby angel I love you

- I know jean’s abilities are a bit ‘as strong or as weak as the plot needs right now’ at this point (so you can have the setup for what’s going to happen with them eventually and she’s basically invincible ;____;), and normally I’m cool with it but god I want her to just squash lucas like a little bug

- ewwwww please don’t ever say ‘daddy’ like that again

- ...what the fuck is even going on this episode’s a mess 

like okay the split personality thing could be something but the way it’s done... what just happened lol

- MY BOY EVAN IS BACK! with a real glowup too (...though kind of weird how he suddenly looks like a grown man)

- augh scott’s eyes are so pretty oh my god ;__________________________;

- that episode in the first season where evan makes the ‘this is my new family!!’ video is so sad now (also, again, his poor poor parents) 

- time for: life affirming road trip with gambit (involuntary) faskljdfhaskjd

stunt therapist remy lebeau 

- I mean the way he goes about it is batshit insane and it’s very much secondary to what he’s actually up to but this is the first time rogue’s sounded genuinely hopeful and confident and like herself in like a season <3 

- he is disconcertingly pleased about her nearly throwing him off the train, and may I just say I agree it’s so nice to see rogue with her old fire back 

- the first time I watched this it was of course dubbed into norwegian, so I had no idea either of these characters were southern lol (though to be fair I probably wouldn’t have had much context for what it meant exactly either, I was like ten at the time and not too interested in america) I seem to dimly remember the norwegian voice actor did a little more of a ‘french’-tinged accent for gambit all over tho haha  

- you know what respect where it’s due, pyro dude knows to live his life for the lols and one has to admire his sociopathic dedication to it

interesting that he, too, seems to have fucking hated magneto -- I wonder if the implication here is that he kept all the acolytes in line with blackmail or by keeping something/one hostage? (except sabertooth maybe he’d just have to say ‘you get to fuck shit up and fight wolverine’ and that’d be enough)

- fsdakfhsd he’s so focused on her he doesn’t notice that guy about to hit him fkafhsa 

- fuck everything else except whatever the hell these two’ve got going on

- it’s weirdly cathartic to have rogue have a conversation with someone who was not happily adopted as well, I don’t think kurt like. gets it because his parents loved him unconditionally and still do 

birds of a feather motherfucker  

- fun detail: when the x-men team are on the shore and logan is sniffing around scott is stepping in something and trying to wipe it off his boots in the background

- when he wakes up after passing out from the touch he’s smiling even though she’s standing over him looking like the rage of god outlined by the moon fsajfsa well the last time he passed out like that it was from a kiss, maybe he still has some hopes and dreams in that direction lol (also he recovers from the tumble down the hill first and is checking on her before accidentally brushing her cheek with his hand, which I thought was sweet) 

and it was in that moment he knew he fucked up *passes out*

- ‘I can explain’ can u remy. can u  

- did it ever even occur to you to just. ask her. to help you. I mean I know it didn’t but like rogue’s always one second away from throwing hands with some bully and is stupidly ride or die, if you’d given her the puppydog eyes she would have crumbled immediately (fair enough I guess this entire episode is telling us he’s not from a background where he has much experience with people just helping him without a price haha) 

- his eyes glowing when he’s angry or upset or using a lot of his power is undeniably cool as all hell. I’m just saying it would be Big Sexy if they sort of flickered with light in moments of genuine vulnerability okay  

- his coat... his coat is what makes the Silhouette tm and I could not be happier about it 

- another parent of the year contestant enters the running lol “hey remy have you ever considered that you’re more of a walking bomb factory than a person? that’s certainly how I think of you hahaha c’mon kid let’s go” 

- the running joke of jean luc getting dollar signs in his eyes seeing the other mutant powers and gambit being like ‘nO!!!!’ and pulling him along is amazing haha

- from the way he looks when he touches rogue accidentally and the way he talks to his dad I’m sort of getting the feeling this gambit might actually be a bit younger than he looks?

here too -- idk why but it’s making the ‘wait is he baby???’ alarms go off in my head haha. very early twenties at most. 

- and we’ve officially seen him with all the face cards in the heart suit folks! (yes this is the sort of thing my brain notices no I don’t know either)

- poor logan running his ass off this whole episode in a panic and then she’s like ‘nah he’s fine (in several meanings of the word ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ) please put him down’ hfaskfsda

- rogue without makeup!!! her eyes look so naked like this haha <3

- oooh here’s a really interesting thing that tickles my brain a bit in this specific part of the scene where gambit frees his dad -- the part where he’s leaning against the door frame waiting for jean luc, who’s about to suggest using the opportunity to ruin the rival gang from the inside rather than slipping away while they still can

from his expression here he knows what’s about to happen, what jean luc is about to say, and it’s clearly a ‘man who thought he’d lost all hope loses last additional bit of hope he didn’t even know he still had’ sort of situation. he KNOWS what jean luc is like, and it still hurts that he really, honestly can’t give him even this, can’t appreciate that remy’s already done all this shit for him when he extremely didn’t have to, without immediately (no really, it took him less than ten seconds to go there? jesus) demanding more.  

remy tells him “I’m just here for you” and jean luc does not understand it. remy seems to be sincere in this motivation -- rogue certainly thinks so, having experienced it second hand and found enough at least emotional merit in it to decide he was worth saving even after all his bullshit (lol a bit of a running theme maybe. I think it’s very telling that after she absorbed mystique she was like ‘what the FUCK you’re a fucking monster’, and after she absorbed gambit she went ‘you did the wrong thing for the right reasons’ after she got over the first wave of outrage) 

there’s also what he says as he stands there: “You don’t need me for that”, with the distinct implication that jean luc would only keep him around because he has a use for him and for no other reason -- and then jean luc shamelessly doubles down on that by specifying that it’s not even him he’s got a use for as such, just his powers. that’s some kicking puppies level of deliberately missing the point, it’s almost impressive in how cheerfully mean it is haha

this idea of using people is really important in this episode because remy’s doing basically exactly the same thing to rogue to begin with; it doesn’t really matter to his plan that it’s her that’s with him through this, just what her powers are. (I think it’s  p r e t t y  solidly implied that he does actually like her a lot outside of that too and maybe there is some comfort in having her around for this, but mostly he’s behind a smokescreen of lies through the whole thing sooo I doubt he’s even aware of it, honestly)     

but then it does matter that it’s her when she comes back for him, even after what he did. and unlike jean luc he understands what that means, that she did that for him, and that she didn’t have to. and instead of asking her for more, in return he gives her the thing it’s been established is what he considers the most valuable thing he has; his ‘last card’, the thing he’s credited with keeping him alive many a time, basically. it’s gone from using to mutuality, a tentative place of friendship, and at the end of the day he is a different man than his adoptive father, with a capacity for selflessness and love he lacks. which is of course some of the same stuff going on with rogue and mystique too, except rogue acted from a more fragile and unstable place and did something she regrets, or at least has a LOT of doubts about now, and she found some catharsis in helping someone make a different choice in a similar situation. man there’s some Stuff going on under the surface here haha

(by the way it’s a weirdly... meaningless yet intensely meaningful thing, the gifting of a symbol? of an idea? but he’s putting something very crucial of himself into her hands, is the subtext, and he expects her to understand, which she also does seem to do. at the beginning of the episode he’s proving that he’s seen something true about her -- “You’re such an unhappy girl”, knowing where she comes from, the way she’s mourning her lost confidence and autonomy with her abilities -- and here she’s proving she’s seen something true about him. :’) I wish this show had gone on long enough for this dynamic to progress, it’s really interesting and touching)   

- gambit dragging himself up onto dry land seeing someone approaching (to help?!): :D

gambit seeing that it’s logan and the look on his face: D: 

- rogue using her powers so confidently and fearlessly in this episode tho!!!! 

- *me crying* and then her FAMBILY comes to take her home and he says he’s looking out for her too and kurt still loves her even though they’re having a conflict thing between them and she’s finally able to use her powers without so much fear again and --

- ...did I just watch some baby lesbian love at first sight shit right now???  

- okay last two episodes let’s go

- HELL YEAH STORM (I love that she’s like ‘don’t give me a dumb order like that and I won’t have to disobey it’ too sdfjsaj) her voice has such command I’m usually very much not the ‘step on me’ type butttt

- y’know I feel like apocalypse’s main fault across all versions I’ve seen of him is that he’s like an immortal superpowered god king and he’s not even sexy. like at least make him hot if he’s going to be insufferable in every other way 

- also callout post for apocalypse: one time he made gambit into the Horseman of Death... and didn’t even make him sexy!!! you were handed remy lebeau, supreme bi disaster slut of the x men universe, and you couldn’t even make his brainwashed superpowered evil side hot?? a beautiful stubbled twunk with glowing red eyes and extremely charming :> face practically delivers himself into your hands and you do that to him???? I mean I’m sure apocalypse did some other bad stuff too but that was the worst one

(comics are so dumb y’all) 

- having to watch jean cry is emotional terrorism!! ;___; she has such older sister/mom energy, whenever she gets sad and helpless it hurts 

- oh, OH so PROFESSOR X you’ll make into a hunk and ~*strategically*~ rip his clothes to show off a nipple and a flawless pec in a way that makes me extremely uncomfortable because he’s like The Dad??? apocalypse you are rotten to the core this is unforgivable 

- so wait wanda never actually gets her real memories back. what the FuCk I hope that was a dropped storyline because they ended the show tragically prematurely rather than like. the plan

- why is spyke calling storm ‘storm’ show that’s his auntie o!! >:(

- as a society we need to acknowledge that apocalypse looks like a fucking clown

- ooooh yeah I have been thinking that this show’s greatest visual weakness so far has been not having a visual way to show telepathy/battles of the minds, but this is a pretty cool way to do it! better late than never

- I’m so happy rogue gets to end this herself, since she was forced into starting it against her will, it’s just nice and neat storytelling

- YEAH FUCKING TELL HER KURT AND ROGUE I AM SO PROUD OF YOU and she has the temerity to look pissed off oh my god

the only valid thing mystique has done in her entire life is be in love with destiny. literally everything else she gets up to is a travesty. like I know objectively she’s hot but my loathing for her stops me from even appreciating it. I do enjoy loathing her tho so please don’t change her haha

(a bit odd to have kurt’s attitude to her swing so much but I’m just going to assume he and rogue had a good long conversation after ‘cajun spice’ and that he understands what’s going on better now)

- this last part is such a cruel tease faskdfhsdaj ‘here are all the cool-ass things we had planned. sucks you never get to see it huh’ im devastated 

- magneto without his helmet and playing charmingly with children like charles is going ‘well at least I saved my marriage finally’ fsadkhfjsd (honestly tho I would be super interested in seeing how they’d redeem this magneto because he’s been a real bitch the whole time lol) 

there’s an interesting thing here where magneto looks down at wanda as the last thing he does on screen before this epilogue part (yeah I hope it fucking haunts you forever what you did to her erik you absolute piece of hot garbage) and the last thing charles does is look at jean b/c he knows what’s going to happen to her and it breaks his heart... Dramatic Parallells  

- just the hint of jean as the phoenix has me in full D:D:D: mode tho maybe I wouldn’t have survived it

- gambit in the last groupshot with his arm around rogue ;^) I mean I’m sure they’re headed for some turns and roundabouts along the way but what’s that thing she says as her wedding vow, that she’ll always find her way back? anyway that got me in my heart

- man I really wish this show had been given more seasons, we were barely even getting warmed up here :’(

[discotreque]

LwD 1.10, “No Small Parts”

Well, that was the most fun I've had watching Star Trek in literally a quarter of a century.

I had high hopes for this series. I love TAS, largely because of its wacky outsized concepts that could only have worked in animation—not that they all did work, but the potential was so apparent to me, even as a kid reading the Alan Dean Foster novelizations—and as an adult, there's something about the imagination of Lower Decks's FX setpieces that transcends even the glorious CGI bonanzas of Discovery.

Pause for a confession. I've long pushed back against criticism of serialization in new Trek. That's just how TV is now, okay? Might as well complain about it being in widescreen. But I'm backing down a little, because I've realized there is something about Star Trek that's inextricable from at least a partially-episodic format. And while Picard was telling a different kind of story, I can't deny that my favourite episodes of Disco have been the ones with a mostly self-contained A-plot. After 10 delightfully episodic instalments of LwD, its focus on long-term development of characters instead of a season-spanning puzzle-plot (okay, mostly just Mariner, but we only have 10 × 22 minutes and she is the star) has been downright refreshing.

So here we are, at the end of the most consistent and well-executed Season 1 of a Star Trek series since, arguably, Those Old Scientists. And sure, if they'd had to produce another... yikes, 42 episodes? Then sure, they probably would have dropped a clunker or two—but they didn't, and winning on a technicality is still winning. I'm practically vibrating with excitement for Disco to come back next week, but damn, I'm going to miss this little show while it's on hiatus.

Spoilers below:

Something I've been keeping track of finally paid off this week! (Which never happens to me, lol.) The destruction of the USS Solvang marked the first present-day death(s) of any Starfleet officer on Lower Decks, the only other on-screen killing at all being a flashback in "Cupid's Errant Arrow". Which makes sense, being (a) a comedy, and (b) about typically "expendable" characters: it hasn't been afraid to flirt with a little darkness here and there, but killing people off at Star Trek's usual pace wouldn't just be wrong for the tone, it would be downright bizarre.

But... people die on Star Trek. That's one of the core themes of the show, really: space is full of knowledge and beauty, but also danger and terror, and believing that the former is worth the risk of the latter is (according to Trek) one of humanity's most noble traits. I'm the least bloodthirsty TV watcher I know, but the longer we went with a body count of nil—ships completely evacuated before they were destroyed, main characters hilariously maimed without permanent consequences, etc.—well, I didn't mind per se, but the absence of truly deadly stakes was definitely getting conspicuous.

Turns out they were saving it up for maximum impact. And holy fuck, I've never felt such a pit in my stomach watching a ship get destroyed that wasn't named Enterprise. It felt grim and brutal and somehow both much too quick and dreadfully inevitable—and yeah, it looked extremely fucking cool—and I'd like every other Star Trek property for the rest of time to take notes under a large bold heading labeled RESTRAINT.

Comedy doesn't need to do this, but my favourite comedy does, and in a way that few other art forms can even approach: lower my emotional defences by making me laugh, endear character(s) to me with goofy-but-relatable antics—then BAM, sucker-punch me in the motherfucking feels. M*A*S*H is probably the classic example on TV, Futurama was notorious for it, and even Archer has pulled it off a few times; it's also a staple of some of my favourite standup. I wasn't sure if Lower Decks was going to go there in Season 1—and wasn't sure if they'd earn it—but I knew if they did, that they'd nail it, and damn. Feels good to be right.

Last batch of notes for the season!!! I rambled enough already, so let's do it liveblog-style:

I fucking KNEW they were going to use "archive" visuals from TAS at some point, I KNEW IT :D

"THOSE OLD SCIENTISTS" ahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I like chill and confident Boimler a lot? You can really see—

oh bRADWARD NOOOOO

That opening shot of the Solvang tracking down to the red giant was extremely Discovery-esque... minus the motion sickness, that is

A lady captain AND a lady first officer? That's—oh hey, it's Captain Dayton's brand-new ship. Hahaha, that means they're totally fucked, right?.

Yep! They sure a—umm, wh—shit, okay, but—oh no—no, you can't—wait DON'T

...fuck

FUCK.

Narrator: "And then Amy needed a five-hour break."

[live-action Star Trek showrunner voice] "Gee, Mike! Why does CBS let you have two cold opens?"

Okay, yes, the bit with Rutherford cycling through all the different attitudes in his implant was transparently an excuse for Eugene Cardero to vamp while waiting for something to do in the story, but as far as I'm concerned they can contrive a reason for him to do a bunch of different silly Rutherfords in a row any time they damn well want, because that was classic!!!

EXOCOMP EXOCOMP EXOCOMP EXOCOMP

AND THE EXOCOMP IS PAINTED LIKE THE EXOCOMP IS WEARING A LITTLE EXOCOMP-SIZED STARFLEET UNIFORM

EXOCOMP!!!!!

The slow burn and now the payoff of the Mariner-is-Freeman's-secret-daughter plot has been executed so well. I'm beyond impressed with this writer's room, y'all—they are threading a hell of a needle here

"Wolf 359 was an inside job" would have been a spit-take if I'd had anything in my mouth

...how many memos do you think Starfleet Command has had to issue asking people to stop calling the USS Sacramento "the Sac"?

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW THEY'VE DECORATED THE SHUTTLECRAFT SEQUOIA THOUGH

Is, uh, is it weird if I'm starting to ship Tendi and Peanut Hamper a little? It is weird, isn't it. I knew it was weird...

Coital barbs??? I take back everything I said about wanting to know more about Shaxs/T'Ana.

The "good officer" version of Mariner is... kind of hot, tbh! But Tawny Newsome has done such a great job of building this character all season that her voice getting uncharacteristically clipped and martial and "sir! yes, sir!" is also deeply, deeply weird

Ah, so this is literally exactly like when TNG (and DS9) would bring in, and then blow up, a never-before-seen Galaxy-class ship, just to underscore that we're facing a real threat this week, baby. And hey, it fucking worked—my heart was in my throat, omg, for the reveal of the—

PAKLEDS?????????

The fucking PAKLEDS have been gluing weapons to their ships for the last 15 years. GREAT.

(We interrupt the SHIP BEING SLICED INTO SCRAP for an interesting bit of world-building: on Earth, the traditional First Contact Day meal is salmon!)

"I need a dangerous, half-baked solution that breaks Starfleet codes and totally pisses me off! That's an order." I'm starting to think Captain Freeman might actually be overqualified for the Cerritos, y'all—she's REALLY awesome

OH SHIT IT'S BADGEY, this is a TERRIBLE IDEA

"How much contraband have you hidden on my ship?" "I don't know! A lot!"

Awwww, Boims!!!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA, FUCK THIS, PEANUT HAMPER OUT

BADGEY NOOOOO

AUGHHHHH WHAT THE CHRIST DID HE JUST—BUT—RUTHERFORD'S IMPLANT????

RUTHERFORD!!!!!!!!!!

SHAXS!!!!!!

F U C K ! ! ! ! !

ahaIOPugdfhagntpgjrq90e5mgu90qe5;oigoqgw4ouegrw5SP;IAEHURVa IT’S THE TITAN???????????

IT'S CAPTAIN WILLIAM T. RIKER ON THE MOTHERFUCKING TITAN??????????

i'm screaming I'M SCREAMINGGGGGG​TGGGTGQER;​LBHAOIBVNV;​OAPBIJNVagr;h;​oagruipuwtnaetbaetgq35ghqet

I'M SO GLAD THIS WASN'T SPOILED FOR ME WTF

I AM WEEPING LIKE A CHILD

...

(Just a brief 20-minute pause this time)

And oh wow, seeing Will and Deanna hits different after Picard too, in a few different ways, which I may even get into later now that my heartrate is back to normal, lmao

Oh, I am always here for some jokes at the expense of the Sovereign class. The Enterprise-E sucked. They should have built a new bigger model of the D and new Galaxy-class interiors for the TNG movies, and I will die on that hill

OKAY, FINE, YOU GOT ME, RUTHERFORD × TENDI WOULD BE ADORABLE AND THIS IS ACTUALLY A PRETTY GOOD SETUP FOR IT

Awwww, Shaxs though :( Congrats on the single most badass death in Star Trek history, dude. The Prophets would—well, the actual Prophets would probably be slightly confused about most of it, but Kira Nerys would be proud of you and I feel like that probably counts for more. RIP, Papa Bear

I am here all damn DAY for the Mariner–Riker parallels, ahahahahaha

Pausing it to record my prediction that Boimler's commitment to not caring about rank anymore is going to last 3... 2...

Yep.

Bradward, how DARE YOU.

"Those guys had a long road, getting from there to here." OH FOR THE LOVE OF—

What a brilliant way to resolve and renew the various character arcs and relationships moving into Season 2! The writers could easily have brought everything back to status quo—chaotic Mariner fighting with her mom and being a bad influence on Boimler, etc.—and done another 10 just like these, but I suspect that wouldn't have been ambitious enough for these writers. What a blast. I cannot wait for more.

Thanks for following along, friends! Stay tuned for my (similarly patchy and amateur) coverage of Discovery, starting next week!

[keepyourpantsongohan]

Ayesha Liveblogs Death Note

I’m watching this show specifically because of that text post that said, “Watch how quickly this one guy decides to be the worst person ever” and he has killed two people in the first ten minutes

Though 2 be fair he’s killing people to save people so it’s a trolley problem kind of thing for now

“In fact I’ve been waiting for you... Ryuk” ok weird flex Light but u do u

“You’re the first one to use to this extent in five days” WAIT DID HE MURDER ALL THOSE PEOPLE IN FIVE DAYS I THOUGHT HE WAS JUST LOOKING AT A LIST OH MY GOD??

“So there isn’t a price to using Death Note?” said Light, as if killing people is just a normal thing that we all do

Fhkjfhfkjb Ryuk really went ‘u used the book so we’re friends now’ 

I was wondering why the book was in English, and I guess that makes sense British and American imperialism really Did That

“I can write down the names of criminals, and slowly reduce the number of evil people” uhhhh doesn’t u being a Book Murderer also make you a criminal Light

“Human lives shouldn’t be taken so lightly” bah dum tss

Also I guess that revelation lasted about thirty seconds for you huh

Update from 15 seconds later: Even less than that

“I would create a world of earnest, kind humans” really because I don’t think places that allow the death penalty are generally nicer societies 

It’s interesting that they use English in the classes and the notebook but the conversation at Interpol takes place in Japanese (despite the implied internationality and Ryuk’s aforementioned claim about English being most common) 

Huh I won’t lie I do think it’s confusing that the main characters are L and Light, which also starts with L

“I am justice” I mean if anything this show just proves that no one should be allowed to use the death penalty on apprehended suspects in criminal justice cases ever 

OH SHIT PLOT TWIST HIS DAD’S A COP (IT WAS IN THE TEXT POST I THINK BUT I FORGOT)

Wow this show is full of mind games already I guess I can see why like, crime show fans would dig it

“But I’m going to say this as your roommate” OH MY GOD THEY WERE ROOMMATES KJHRGKJHKJHG

Interesting that someone is following Light specifically already

I mean not to poke too many holes in your plan Light but wouldn’t it clash with your plan to become God if you die at like 35 or smth 

“You’re already much more of a shinigami than they are” Ryuk said my friends are BORING I want to hang out with this MURDER TEEN

“I may not look it, but I’m pretty popular” Light is exactly the kind of guy who ends up in a true crime special where a bunch of people say he seemed like a nice, charismatic young man

Man this poor girl that Light brought on this date is going to be straight traumatized after this

I mean isn’t it MORE suspicious if someone dies around someone with direct ties to the police even if it’s not a heart attack

“You were indeed a brilliant FBI agent once, but now you’re my fiancée” kjhfkjhg WHAT FBI AGENTS CAN’T BE MARRIED 

“Once we have a family, you’ll be so busy that you’ll forget that you were an agent” I’m not a fan of Raye Penber 

What’s the point in killing Raye at all???? He told you he was part of a special investigation so clearly he’s not that suspicious of you

Light sure is bold to announce his Killing People Experiments in the middle of a busy sidewalk 

Incredible that consistently no one notices Light’s increasingly threatening declarations????

Fjkfkfhk these five cops finding out their Hail Mary is this strange little goblin man,,,, wow

This woman has really pushed Light to the brink just by giving a fake name, I admire her tenacity

Cops wearing fake IDs really did not age well oh boy

SERIOUSLY HOW DOES NO ONE EVER HEAR LIGHT SAYING SUSPICIOUS THINGS IN PUBLIC THOROUGHFARES HE LITERALLY JUST SAID “I AM KIRA” AS A DETECTIVE WALKED BY, WHILE HE WAS TALKING TO SOMEONE HE KILLED IMMEDIATELY AFTER

Wow it really took only eight episodes for L to track Light as close as one of two families

“You have a wife and daughter, right?” “I know!” I mean..... not 2 be that guy but... cops

 “To me, apples are like... Well, like cigarettes and liquor to humans” Vcvhcjhj every once in a while Ryuk says something that really tickles me

I know the word sociopath is kind of outdated but man does Light have actual interests outside of school or does he just do stuff to fill the void of his lack of interests (outside of murder)

JKHGKJHGKJHKJHG I cannot believe that this has turned into a fake classmate situation first of all 1) are you going to become friends and 2) How old are you Ryuzaki/L?

“Where is that rich kid from? And he’s even at the top of his class? What a jerk” honestly a mood

I DESPERATELY want Light’s mother or sister to overhear his evil cackling will someone finally eavesdrop on this god complex

“If I sit normally, my reasoning skills drop by 40%” weird flex but same 

Sidenote: I can’t believe how many episodes of this show I already have watched

Ngl I was VERY shook that Mr. Yagami had a heart attack. Also does Light care if his family lives or dies or is he kind of neutral on the subject? 

“If Kira is an ordinary person who gained this power, then he is a very unlucky person” Dad and L said ‘if u ARE Kira could you please stop murdering thank you <3′ 

Light really underestimated how much cops hate anyone who has killed a cop oops

OH SO IT’S NOT LIGHT I WAS WONDERING WHY HE HAD NOT MADE AN APPEARANCE THIS WHOLE EPISODE U MEAN THERE ARE TWO GUYS WITH THIS EXACT SAME IDEOLOGY AND PLAN? INCREDIBLE

Update from ten seconds later: Two people, I guess

Well this explains the girl in the short dress which serves as the Netflix thumbnail of this show I was wondering when she would show up 

Also she sounds like she’s very young? Clearly Shinigami don’t have a minimum age of informed consent when it comes to their Murder Eyes Contract 

Hahah I bet Light didn’t imagine that his petty and fucked up apple joke would bite him so quickly in the ass

Dhkjdhdkjhd Misa is so bold dropping her Death God deets in a video for anyone to see 

“The way to kill a Shinigami, is to make them fall in love with a human” does this mean that Ryuk is going to fall in love with Light or Misa? Both would make me uncomfortable

Oh wild guess Misa became a Death Note Wielder through the Power of Unreciprocated Voyeuristic Love

“Yeah, I have a girlfriend now,” said Light, after a girl contacted him through a series of anonymous video tapes implicitly vowing to be his disciple 

“No one could tell who he’s attached to if I’m with this many people” [20 seconds pass] “Found him!” HAHAHA the funniest part of this show is consistently watch Light going “got ‘em” before it immediately is revealed that he doesn’t got ‘em 

Why is Light so incredibly searchable??? I think the only way people people could find my height online is if I happened to answer it for one of those Facebook note memes in 2007 lmaoooo

“There are many places that will go and sell your personal records” ah, data breaches; a problem that has not gotten any better in the last 15 years since this anime came out

HKJHFHKJFHF Light immediately jumping into fake-dating his weird disciple in front of his mom... what is this show

“Please make me your girlfriend” OH MY GOOOOOD

This is one of the weirdest romantic dynamics I’ve seen in recent memory but you know what? Whatever, at least it’s not Anxiety and Murder

“Does that mean I’ll have to deal with her until she dies?” Light is truly exuding some Ladybird Book of Dating Energy rn: 

The fact that to kill L all Light had to do was get an obsessive girlfriend... astounding

Beautiful that it took Misa less than a week of knowing Light to ruin his whole 15 episode game plan and also life

“I think I may be Kira” Well this show keeps taking one escalation after another this is exhausting why can’t Light just be a normal person who found it, tried it out of interest in the occult, discovered he’d committed a horrible atrocity and then went to therapy for the rest of his life only to confess to Magical Murder on his deathbed while his family goes, ‘Wow, Grandpa’s crazy’

Does L not think that keeping three different people imprisoned for days on end will lead to some psychological repercussions for him

FOR WEEKS ON END????? OH MY GOD???? The fuck L, I know two of these people are murderers but there are some minimum conditions of correctional facilities and this seems a little Stanford PE

THE DRAMA OF THIS EPISODE I KNEW IT WAS GONNA BE A BLANK BUT HOW FUCKED UP TO PUT EVERYONE THROUGH THIS L I THINK YOU NEED THERAPY!!!!!!! I MEAN LIGHT AND MISA ARE MURDERERS BUT FORCING A MAN TO HOLD HIS SON AT GUNPOINT AFTER IMPRISONING THEM FOR OVER A MONTH IS REALLY A REFLECTION OF A COMPLETE LACK OF EMPATHY (especially when you think that this version of Misa and Light don’t know anything!!! Oh my god!! The fuck)

“I will make arrangements so you and I are together 24 hours a day” call me crazy but I would not want to spend 24/7 with the man who imprisoned me for over a month while playing cruel psychological games all the while

“I’m one of those people who’ll accept Kira, I’d think of ways I could help him” Misa said Bimbo Rights

“I could never toy with a woman’s emotions like that” Light’s dating life and personality has gotten a LOT funnier since he forgot he was a murderer I kind of wish THIS could be the whole show 

Also: Nice to know Light USED to have standards of how to treat women

Honestly fair play to both L and Light they both deserved to be punched and it’s funny to see eighteen episodes of mind games culminate in punching and kicking each other in the face

“Matsuda’s being an idiot again” “Well, Matsuda is a natural at that” wghkjhgkj what has Matsuda done to any of you

"He’s punishing criminals as a front, and killing people for the benefit of this company” is Light unknowingly going to solve the murder chain he himself started... inspiring

“I was testing you” this is why Light is your only friend, L, Aizawa has kids and it’s a dick move to ask him to put his convictions before them

Poor Matsuda realizing he’s got the least to offer to their team... me in high school science labs 

I understand Aizawa’s moral crisis but why do NONE of these cops care about their wives or daughters they’re just kind of like, ‘I will provide for you but I have no interest in or fulfillment from being part of your life’ (ACAB)

Matsuda is truly about to die for being dumb and eager to help 😔 Rest in Pieces

“We must not allow Yotsuba to figure out that we are investigating them,” said L, just after it cut from Matsuda being obvious about investigating them. Oh Matsuda 😔 you’re so bad at your job 😔

MATSUDAAAAAAAA oh thank goodness; Bimbo Rights save the day

“I can’t go along with your idea, it’s wrong!” said Light, despite the fact it took him 15 seconds to get over murder the first couple of times he did it 

Staaaaaaaaay Good Light, I don’t want ur Deathnotesona I want this young man with moral convictions!!

The level of hubris it takes to answer a phone call during your secret Murder Meeting while people continue to talk about their Murder Plans is just out of this world

“If I die, you could probably become the successor to the ‘L‘ name,” said L, to the person he has been trying to catch for twenty episodes 

“I won’t say anything under any kind of torture” “Yes that’s true” Which he knows because he tortured her for six weeks!! You see that that’s fucked up, L, right? RIGHT??? RIIIIIIIIGHT? (LIIIIIIIGHT???)

Seriously not to beat a dead Shinigami but Light is so much better like this. He doesn’t want to throw people’s lives away for the investigation! He wants to protect Misa! He thinks Kira is wrong! Why does he have to be a murderer!!! Why can’t this show be about a nice young man!!!!

“Hey Ryuzaki, that’s messed up!” THANK YOU LIGHT AGAIN I KNOW YOU BOTH HAVE KILLED PEOPLE BUT YOU DON’T KNOW THAT RIGHT NOW SO FOR ALL MISA KNOWS HE’S JUST A GUY WHO TORTURES HER AND TELLS HER CRUSH WILL DIE IF SHE DOESN’T HELP

Wow Rem is so ride or die for Misa protecting Misa from creepy Higuchi, giving her info and telling her to trust Light, that’s love bitch

Props to Misa for getting a confession out of Higuchi after one (1) car ride 

Why do I feel like L is going to be responsible for reawakening Bad Light is it because he psychologically tortured him for six weeks? Had his dad hold him at gunpoint? Forced Misa to investigate on his behalf? Constantly and unerringly presses him on what Kira would be thinking as he’s handcuffed to him 24 hours a day? Maybe!! This is like Build-a-Bear but he’s customizing his Teen Murder Friend 

“Only Mr. Matsuda can do [the mission to lure out Higuchi!Kira]” Death Note really said the Himbos, Herbos and Thembos shall inherit the Earth 

They keep saying they don’t know how he kills but it seems pretty obvious that he writes down their names to kill, they literally saw him do it

I really don’t want any of the investigation team to die but things are not looking hot :(

“Ryuzaki, I never knew you could fly a helicopter” “It’s just intuition” what does that MEAN

“Those aren’t allowed in Japan,” said Light, about a gun, as if he had not killed probably thousands of people without one 

In spite of this fact I really do want Good Light to stay 😔 Why! Can’t! This! Show! Be! About! A! Nice! Young! Man!

Also they really are playing into this father-and-son duo I will be very sad when the dad inevitably dies as I’m sure he will 

Family side note: I’ve been wondering this since the prison ep but where do Light’s mom and sister think he IS now that he’s dropped out of first year uni to be a teen criminal investigator handcuffed to a maladjusted homebody private eye

AIZAWAAA and also the other two guys I guess there was a plot relevant reason for him to rejoin the police huh

Well what a clean ending to this Kira arc. No one died and the killer was caught! Yikes that the next ep is called ‘Revival’ tho 😔 Rest in pieces Good Light

Also a new and very threatening intro???? What happened to the Twilight Apple Hands 

BOOOO I knew Light would get his memory back but I was hoping it would at least fuck him up for a while he sorted out his two personas but I guess all roads eventually lead to Bad Light 

Full disclosure I stopped watching for a few days just after Light got his memory back and let me tell u coming back later hasn’t made it any more tolerable I am truly not built for this EUGH

“Do you really want to halve your life a second time” “Well, that can’t be helped” REALLY???? CAN’T IT BE HELPED MISA??? WHY ARE YOU AND LIGHT SO CRAZY

Oh I guess we’re back to Light saying incredibly suspicious things right near the investigators lmao what if those cameras secretly had audio or you know, L simply knew how to read lips 

“Misa, let’s make a new world together” Remember a bunch of episodes ago when Good Light was all ‘I could never toy with a woman’s emotions’?? What was the reason!!!

“Have you ever told the truth at any point in your entire life” L cutting straight to the core lmao (also the answer is obviously ‘no’)

This show has taken a jarring tonal shift why are they having a post-rain-confrontation massage and towelling each other off this is a level of intimacy I was not prepared for I NEED PEOPLE TOOK LOOK AT THIS:

OKAY OKAY OKAY I KNOW THAT IT WAS PROBABLY NOT THEIR INTENTION BUT THE ONLY WAY I CAN READ THIS SCENE IS AS “Don’t kill me Light~ 🥰 I’ll fuck you~ 🥰” 

I guess L knew he was forcing Rem’s hand to kill him if he disproved the rules written in the book?? But to what end omg how does this help anyone 

“In April 2012, Light Yagami, age 23, joins the National Police Agency” should’ve known we’d land here eventually (ACAB)

Ah, I see another person who doesn’t know how to sit, clearly they will inherit the L title next lmao

Update from the first few mins of the next ep: “Near should succeed L” told you

“There’s no way I’m letting Sayu marry a detective” ahjfkhkjf he’s a little old for her I think but it wouldn’t be the worst thing this show has done romantically lmao; maybe Sayu would get to investigate her brother

“I might’ve considered going out with you, if you were a little younger” HA GOOD FOR HER

“[...] the Japanese police are unreliable. In order to solve this case, we want you to hand over the notebook to our country.” Of all the Japanese-speaking Americans in this show, this is the most accurate jkhfkhf the US government really is Like That 

Ah, so that’s where Mello’s gone, oh how the turn tables 

Also way to sell your subordinates out immediately, NPA Director, will you give them the Kira task force’s home addresses too

The real question is if Light actually cares about his sister enough to prioritize her over the notebook

“Call me... N” Oh my good L... M(ello)... N(ear)... Oooooooooooooooo

It’s my saving grace that I only need to get through 9 more eps but as always I must wonder where this is going will Light just die and end up in Shinigami purgatory while the people who knew him after the fact go, ‘hey, that guy was fucked up’

“If things get bad, I’ll have to kill Sayu” well I guess that answers that question, my expectations of Light are so low and yet he continues to find new ways to be awful

Good for Mr. Yagami and Sayu for getting out of that alive I guess but hoo boy I think this is going to have some psychological repercussions for both of them 

Uh oh this episode is called ‘Father’ I’ve been dreading this one bc I think that means Mr. Yagami is about to die 😭😭😭

“It was an institution for brilliant children, to raise them to become L‘s successor” okay calm down Professor Xatari that’s not what children are for lmao 

Well I guess it’s a lot easier to track down info about these two guys than it was to figure out L lmao

HAHAHA Sidoh haunting Ryuk to ask for his stuff is a fun addition to this madness  

“He’s scary for a human” jkhhfjh how unhinged does Mello have to be to threaten a literal Shinigami 

I truly don’t understand the logistics of how they revealed Ryuk to the police force isn’t the second Kira notebook supposed to belong to Actual Kira, in the police force’s eyes????? I do not understand how Light can just turn up with another notebook and everyone’s like ‘sure cool’ did I miss something 

Mr. Yagami killed for being unable to take human life ugh this is the worst 

“You’re not Kira. I’m really glad.” WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THIS IS SO SAD MR. YAGAMI NOOOOOOOOOO THAT’S WHY HE RENOUNCED OWNERSHIP OF THE NOTEBOOK 

Neither Mello nor Near seem overly concerned with the lives of people around them does being a Super Genius Investigator also mean you have to be a dick (is this Benadryl Coddleswab Sherlock syndrome)

Lmaooo genuinely love how it’s constantly apparent that Light is the least smart of all of the smart people Light spent five years working on his reputation and it took Near one (1) phone call to destroy it 

Ghjkhgkhgkgjh Light outsmarted by Near yet again never think people will prioritize principles over money

Lol yeah Aizawa needn’t have given a name after he said the “Deputy Director Yagami would kill Kira and then himself” thing, you don’t do that just for anyone who was he fooling 

How does Light keep track of all the renunciations and notebooks bc I certainly can’t 

Ffhkfjhfj Mikami truly looks like the son of L and Light it’s like Light missed him and was like, “Miss u boo :( (even tho I kinda killed u) I’ll adopt An Evil 27-year-old in ur honour :)”

Is Mikami’s story really, ‘I got bullied in high school and have mommy issues so now I think people I don’t like should die’ ok Shonen Snape 

“I just want you to meet with me and hear me out” Light really proving to Aizawa that he can lie AND manipulate people’s feelings 

“The truth is, she’s not smart enough to be my partner” first of all Light I think this show has proven you’re not that smart, and Misa’s Herbo Energy is effervescent and will outlast you, and third of all go to jail

“He’ll look suspicious if he doesn’t say something soon” “Ide, have you ever been in love” Matsuda continues to be the only good part of this show

“You’re the only man I’ve ever respected and admired in my life” GET SOME THERAPY KIYOMI

“You’re going to be the goddess of the new world” so it’s not enough for Light to be a murderer he must also be a cheater

Lmao Near’s powers of perception do seem a little B/BC S/herlock because L tried for literally months to work out the possibilities and Near is just like ‘I KNOW IT NOW’

“The only thing I can deduce from this is that Light Yagami is popular with the ladies” HEAVEN KNOWS WHY (PUN NOT INTENDED)

Every moment Aizawa gets closer to proving Light is Kira is another step closer to death 😔

“This is definitely Mikami’s handwriting” Not to be a know-it-all, Near, but handwriting analysis has been proven faulty many times in multiple courts of law

This truly is a game of Cat and Cat. All these hidden plans give me a headache fkjhkfjh call me Misa-Misa and spin me sideways I don’t have the braincells to spare

Well this is definitely some kind of s*xual assault absolutely fucking hate it wow this show truly just drains the life out of you 

“Matt, I never thought you would be killed” why wouldn’t you think that at this point anyone who comes close to this investigation eventually dies (also wjkhkjhgk why is Matt special didn’t you kill all those thugs you had before -- Mello said ‘the lives of my allies are only important if they are drawn in handsome protag style’) 

As of yet I haven’t really talked about Near’s wild toymaking but hoo boy is that L finger puppet something to observe

“Everyone who knows about the existence of the notebook will die” I’m still pulling for their survival, particularly Matsuda (himbo rights!!!)

Imagine if they just shot Light Yagami on sight how ironic would that conclusion to all these mind games be 

“I’m waiting, for the one who will solve everything, to arrive” Lmao if it turns out L is alive I’ll pee laughing this show is so fucking stupid 

Take a shot every time there is a Humpty-Dumpty-in-Puss-in-Boots style explanation about how everything actually happened

“I’ve won, Near” I bet/hope what gets Light caught is his inability to hold in his hubris for one (1) minute

Although the last episode is called New World, in which case maybe he wins in a very weird ending to a very weird show

Sjkfhkjhfkhfkjhf well I guess what gets Light caught is that the person he invited to be his murderous disciple keeps calling him God

“A second ago, you said ‘I win.’ That’s as good a confession as any” HA hubris strikes again also bold of Aizawa to clap Light on the shoulder knowing he is a mass murderer

Ohhh Matsuda he’s so nice and believed the best of Light :((((((((((((

Watching Light become increasingly desperate and crazed is very uncomfortable give it up dude u’ve been beat (though I suppose there is time for everyone here to be murdered still lmao)

LMAO LIGHT SAID “IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, CONVERT ‘EM”

Yeah I figured if one of them was gonna shoot it would be Matsuda :( :( Good for him for not killing Light tho!!

Huh I guess that’s the end of the show I thought Light would die but I did think we’d at least get to see him in Shinigami Purgatory or smth... what a wild ride. This certainly was a show.

[keenie]

Taz Graduation Episode 16 Liveblog! Spoilers Ahead!

Gary: Ey it’s me Gaarrryyyy Me, practically vibrating with excitement: HELLO GARY

Oh a ward... I thought it was literally a stamp fjhgjkkjfkfk

Oh no he’s still cursed and he’s only got six hours?

“Im gonna kill him so bad” YES 

God I forgot how much I’ve missed Argo

“I’m a good listener” You’re doing amazing sweetie

“That’s wild magic” Well Fitzroy’s a wild boy, Althea

Oh no here they come LET THE FIRBOLG AND RHODES GO

ALL MY HOMIES HATE CALHAIN 

Dam Malwyn, that’s one intense speech

Argo and Fitzroy @ the Firbolg after he flipped the tent: You’re doing amazing sweetie

YES FIRBOLG RATIONALIZE YOUR WAY OUT OF THIS

OH NO THE WAR THERES GONNA BE A WAR 

Very quietly humming the Thunderman LLC theme song jfdhhkgkhkf

Spooky music with Thunderwave oh no

Get the weird rune glove!

Clonking him on the noggin is a good second though, to be fair

A bloodhawk? Jfjkgdfjkkjgk 

The D&D gods really apologized to Clint for dragging his characters through the dirt the last two campaigns by blessing Argo with great rolls 

1. Find worms 2. Catch cool updrafts

YES GET HIM

Yes, get the glove! 

Argo, harness your inner Magnus and cut this guy’s hand off (its not an arm, but it’ll do)

Thank you for your storytelling, Clint, I appreciate you

Rhodes... :blush:

Oh boy oh no FITZROY GOING HAM

“Really try to show him all the chaos I can muster” CAPITAL C CHAOS MAYHAPS FITZROY YOU SAID YOU WOULDN’T DO THIS

HEY FITZROY HARNESS YOUR INNER MAGNUS AND RIP THIS GUY’S HAND OF

“You just got pranked, you dumb asshole” 

Dam, this is a cool image

OH NO FEAR OF POWER CHAOS WAS RIGHT

YES STRIKE A POSE

“The problems of the terrestrial world” fjgdjkfdjk

“Please don’t hurt me anymore”  Me, at my hyper empathy: STOP FEELING BAD FOR THIS GUY 

Oh no Althea sounds afraid too, that’s an issue indeed

HEY IS THIS CHAOS’ THEME IN THE BACKGROUND

“He is broken.” idngjkfk GOOD but also DAM

Fitzroy ripped a man’s hand off and turned around and said, “Marriage counseling, anyone?” 

Atturias and Malwyn being tragic lovers... Themmmm 

Wait why did Fitzroy even tell them about the two apples, he got that from Calhain’s mind he could’ve just not done that WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING dONT EAT IT 

YES FITZROY CALL THEM O U T “LIKE ADULTS”

Awwwww this is sweet 

Honestly Fitzroy what did you expect, you ripped a man’s hand off in front of a blazing tent, Chaos loves that shit

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this” jkdfhgjklhlfgklck 

He heard what he said Aaaaaaaaa (Maplekeene rights and also some secrets will be revealed soon I am Excite)

I think this is the first episode in which Fitzroy has the shared Thunderman braincell this plan was great actually

“Extra credit” jfkdhklgkfgk I love the Firbolg

“Would you like to speak with Calhain one last time” How about KILL Calhain one last time Eyoooo!

Argo trying to act:  The Firbolg: No.

“You what.” Mmmm Fake definitely wants to use Fitzroy for something, I don’t this one bit

Oh wait WHAT HEY WHAT THE HECK WHAT THE HECK FAKE CALHAIN IS DEAD NOW?!

“I will see you three back a school soon” FEAR.JPG

“I fear we may have detention” fdjghgkfklhkgfk 

[willmelon]

i don’t usually do this but i feel Compelled to do a liveblog/review of Mouth Dreams so here goes

Please don’t read this if you haven’t heard the album yet as it’ll spoil Everything

(i’ll admit the idea came to me After i listened to Just a Baby so these first ones are gonna be relistened reviews)

first we got Yahoo. what can i say about this song? neil starts off Strong with incredibly sustained notes and just one phrase, in typical neil style. and he makes it work in so many different ways! honestly didn’t expect myself to get so attached so fast but that’s just the way his magic works ig. when the hoooooooos harmonise it almost brings tears to the eyes. i would love to see a group of choristers singing this with another guy on an electric keyboard. what a cold open. 9/10

of course then we go on to the titular track, the dimension of sound, the dimension of imagination, the dimension of doors. rod serling narrates the intro in his traditional monotone as the warbling twilight zone theme plays in the background. i tell ya i was actually Screaming when the track finished and he dropped the title! it may not be a song per se, sort of like Blockbuster from Mouth Moods, a ‘filler track’ if you will, but the effort in those fifty seconds cannot be ignored. it just goes to show once again how Good he is at what he does. 6.5/10

oh lawd, my favourite so far, Spongerock. reading the title i had absolutely No idea what to expect. the goofy goober song from the movie? winner takes all from band geeks? i was pleasantly surprised to find myself tapping out queen’s distinctive boom boom CLAP as the song progressed, and i was in complete Hysterics the whole way through, chanting along with the kids as the pirate encouraged me to sing louder. it’s such a beautiful fit the way they mesh together, and it’s one of those mashups that you listen to and think ‘why has nobody done this before?’ but neil is on a higher plane of existence than us and Knows where it’s at. you’re never the same after you’ve listened to Spongerock. 7.5/10

Just a Baby, where i stopped to begin this thing, is a melancholy song, which i’m not usually a fan of. i admit i don’t know the original song so i kept quiet until the last chorus or two. it’s the yang to the yin of Wow Wow from Moods, another sentence-mixer that was like a full Bop and barely gave you time to catch your breath. in Just a Baby you begin to empathise with the singer as he regales confusing times of his constant youth, including the time his mother (a train) shot a man in cold blood. it’s a powerful ballad, and it’s got a tasteful amount of justin bieber adding backing vocals to the chorus. i may have to deduct a few points cos the lyrics are gonna be hard af to remember. 7/10

ok next up we got Superkiller. this one’s totally blind! i’m. ehhhhh okay not diggin this one very much. ok that say something once line being repeated was comedy gold but talking heads are just like. kinda tuneless tbh. i’m glad he’s trying to lassoo it together with u can’t touch this but it’s kinda falling short tbh. i wouldn’t skip it but it’s not as memorable as the previous ones. 5/10

starting Get Happy. i’m not gonna lie i think i Know what this is, there are only so many options after all. i predict it’s a mix of “get dancin’” by disco-tex and the sex-o-lettes and “happy” by bahrrel williams, and i really hope that ain’t the case cos i Love the first one but despise the latter. oh well let’s see if he can pull it off. sounds like village green by the kinks so far lol uhhhh i have no idea what to make of this. okay i feel like i’m gonna like this after all. hey it’s got memorable lyrics at least! is it gonna get faster? or just more bassy? yknow maybe i was too critical at the start, but i had no idea what to expect. this is a feel-good pop song and it’s definitely making me feel happier than i was when i was listening to Superkiller. 7/10

Ribs? wtf do i expect from a song called Ribs lmao another song i’ve never heard of IH IT’S EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE TH WORLD OH YEEEEEEEEES omg i Love this song i sing it to myself when i’m walkin my dog cos his little paws click-clack on the pavement to the exact rhythm of the song omg i’m in Love! another one with odd lyrics but i think after a Lot of repeat listening i’ll be able to properly croon along to this one omg! it reminds me of Best from Mouth Silence in that they’re both about products, only instead of folgers in your cup it’s about chili’s baby back ribs omg neil you’re Perfect! how come more advertisers haven’t contacted you for a product placement deal?? 7.5/10

next we got My Mouth. welcome to? who knows let’s hit play. ooooh minor key. is this a real song? it sounds like oney singing a cover of something. oh That’s the gimmick? 2:30 long i hope there’s something else tbh cos otherwise it’s gonna get pretty thin pretty fast. mm not a fan. the weakest so far imo especially after Ribs blew me away. definitely a bad dream. 3.5/10

Aerolong don’t fail me now! okay see This is how you do a mashup. I DON’T MISS YOU BABAY AND I DO WANNA MISS A THING THAT’S GOLD!! this is just a song about saying bye to your ex lmao i love it. wish it was longer though. 6/10

Sleepin’ here we go! ok in the youtube version the first half of this song is just silence so that wasn’t fun. gee this one’s only moderately better than My Mouth i’m feeling very shortchanged. 4/10

what to expect from Aamoorree? hopefully this one’s another jam but...okay i’m likin this one. it’s Fun and isn’t trying too hard! it’s just a drunk dean martin singing about pizza pie on karaoke night, what more could you ask for lol. 6/10

Where Is My Mom? by the p-p-p-pooo-oo-ooo-oooool of course. i don’t recognise the other song but it’s decent. i’ve listened to slowed-down songs before (the sludgefest chipmunks albums lately) and this one’s kinda ok. not a fan of the ending but points for effort ig. 5.5/10

Fredhammer ay? might there be some peter gabriel in there? undoubtedly. yup there it is lol ok now bring in the flintstones? oh ig that’s fred durst? mm not totally feeling it so far but censoring he** was funny lmao HEY THERE’S SEINFELD i’m wheezin that was a good way to end a song, well done neil. 6.5/10

here goes Limp Wicket. i’m on the edge of my seat. and Again i’m disappointed. is this a bunch of ewoks singing some kind of star wars song? or is it jarjar? either way this is Not a good song. it probably wasn’t before he mashed it up but this wasn’t an improvement. bringing in Fredhammer didn’t help this song much at all, in fact i think it brought both songs down actually. last one was a 7/10 but i Have to dock it points now that it’s a two-parter. as for this one? i’m being generous cos the limp bizkit song was good. 1/10

Cannibals runs for 4 minutes. PLEASE don’t let this be a repeat of the last one. i get that miners can’t dig up gold every time but don’t just show up with a bunch of rocks and iron pyrites yknow i’m just gonna start. i don’t want to be angry at this album. i recognise that sound in the bg! from a cyriak vid i think. thx comin in. loooooooong drone. ugh UGH there are Too many lucid dreams on this album. starting to regret liveblogging this cos i Loved the other three mouth albums. this one’s just falling flat again and again. 3/10

here comes The Outsiders. there is NOTHING to say about this. 1.5/10

come on Johnny. okay that got a laugh out of me, not many songs start with a booing crowd like that, is that meta? wouldn’t put it past him tbh. ah i’ll give it a 5/10, for a kinda filler song it wasn’t too bad.

Closerflies, this has gotta be gold. PLEASE. intro’s goin on for a little too long...mm having never heard the original version of closer i gotta admit i thought it’d be faster, like the one used in Rollercloser in Silence. this version seems very sloppy and sluggish, especially the bassline. 3/10

Nightmovin’ i’m not expecting much OH good intro oh YES now here we go. this is a good one, it’s got clear lyrics and a catchy tune, i’m liking this one more and more by the second. cuts off weird but it’s going into the next one. so i’m gonna leave the rating out of this one and see how it is after the next one.

Whitehouse i’m holding my breath. mm it’s Good but not great tbh. criminal that the last one was half as long as this one. think i’m gonna give both of these songs a 5/10 i doubt they’ll be anyone’s favourites. the title is a nice little joke too i respect that.

Wah! what’s neil’s obsession with using wannabe as a source lmao! it’s another decent one but nothing memorable again. 5/10

Pee Wee Inc i’m expecting big things. good intro I’M IN LOVE okay this is Much better than i imagined it’d be. did he use the radio edit of feel good inc? this is a heck of a way to bring it back to the gold stuff and i wouldn’t be surprised if this is what neil’s head sounds like all the time. 7/10

on to 10,000 Spoons. not sure what to expect from the title. okay this is a Nice one i think. throwback to the likes of Just a Baby with the two songs and the sentence mixing and it’s Good. and really 10,000 spoons is So ironic anyway, don’t you think? 7/10

oh another song called Mouth Dreams? an extro? that was Weird lol ok the intro i wasn’t too keen on, def not as much as the intro, but i got to appreciate it as it went on. like Rlly appreciate it i was beginning to reflect on what a journey i’d been through tonight, especially writing it all down. felt very poetic. and then WHAM, out of nowhere, after being gone for 23 songs, all-star came Back and How! gotta give this one a 7.5/10

keep the train rolling Brithoven! i can hear faint bits of instruments in britney’s song in the back of her audio which sound like a mistake but knowing neil.......yah lmao. this song’s kinda like Promenade (Satellite Pictures at an Exhibition) from Mouth Sounds, i liked what i heard. very nice. 6.5/10

the final song. we’re gonna be hit one more time for Ain’t! and i have NO idea what i’m in for! in the hall of the mountain king eh? is this like a way of looping around to the first song of the first album with classical music? ok the snoring’s a nod to Bustin i’m sure lmao funny anyway. i thought i heard a hey now in there but i must be going nuts. wouldn’t call it a grand finale but it is what it is. 5/10

now the question that must be asked - was Mouth Dreams trying to make a point? was there a reasons so many songs were of lower-quality than previous albums? perhaps it’s just a matter of taste, or perhaps it’s as rod said back on track two, that this album is a doorway into another dimension, and the further you progress, the more mind-rattling, brain-melting concepts you come across. the album gets an average of 5.5 which is kinda disappointing. don’t think i’ll be listening to the whole thing again. thanks for reading!