#is cowboy time in space still relevant????

[im-tempted]

I had to put these somewhere before I exploded

@utahlive s wilbur continues to bounce around my head and I will keep drawing him forever

[konungarike]

obsessed with the lore complications that comes with a horse neighing in Boothill’s ult

does this mean there are space horses. horses where he comes from. and the space cowboys coincidentally are also associated with space horses

what do the space horses look like. who are they. what relevancy do they still possess in a world where space travel has been standards for thousands(?) of years

are there legends of the old times where space horses were the primary mode of transportation on Boothill’s space cowboy planet.

or do they still have them. do they still use space horses planetside when off-planet interstellar FTL travel is standard

so many questions

[animenostalgia]

The Anime Nostalgia Podcast - Ep 127: ReView: Crusher Joe The Movie

This episode is sponsored in part by Tokyo Treat! To get $5 your first box of delicious snacks & treats delivered from Japan straight to your door, AND to help support my little podcast, use code "NOSTALGIA" at my link here!

Happy New Year, everyone! This month’s episode is another short ReView! What is a “ReView” episode, you might ask? Well, it’s my highly-clever (ok not really) name for episodes where I go back and revisit an older title I haven’t seen in a long time, and see if what I remember (and what my opinions on it) are still the same now that some time’s gone by. This month, while I dream of the upcoming Dirty Pair bluray set, let's revisit some other space adventuring troublemakers from the same universe! That's right, it's 1983's Crusher Joe: The Movie! But will this movie crush it, or will it crush my heart? Ok, ok...lets drop the puns and check it out in this month's rewatch.

Stream the episode above or [Direct Download] Subscribe on apple podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify

Relevant links:

Buy Crusher Joe The Movie at Crunchyroll Store or Amazon

Uncovering the Guest Designers of Crusher Joe

Other anime mentioned in this episode: Dirty Pair, Space Adventure Cobra, Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop, Venus Wars

My theme song music was done by Kerobit! You can find more about them on their website!

Support the work I do on this podcast by leaving me a tip on Ko-fi! Want to have your name read in the special thanks segment on the next episode? All you need to do is buy me 2 or more “coffees” on Ko-fi!

As always, feel free to leave me your thoughts on this episode or ideas for future episodes here—or email me directly at AnimeNostalgiaPodcast@gmail.com.

Thanks for listening!

[popbloganddropit]

7 days until THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT makes its debut and I wanted to make a little predictions post. I’m so excited to hear the devastation Miss Swift seems to have in store for us and I can’t wait to hear what it sounds like. There’s often a song on the previous album that is an early edition of the subsequent album’s sound. I have 4 guesses that may be a peek at what’s in store next Friday. Since it seems like it may be relevant, these songs are also thematically on trend, however we should always remain alert to Taylor loving a bait and switch.

1) Dear Reader/You’re Losing Me: I think these songs might be a thematic trend for what’s in store. A look at her own faults and things she may have kept hidden to put on a brave face. A breakdown of why a break up happened. However, I suspect that she will have sonically moved on from these two. I do not think she would put out Midnights 2.0.

2) The Great War: an advancement of Folklore, Evermore, and Midnights’ sounds while still being on theme.

3) Hits Different: I’m not 100% sure what to call this genre. Sort of a late 90’s/early 00’s adult contemporary-alt-pop-singer-songwriter Alanis/Natalie Imbruglia/Michelle Branch/vanessa Carleton vibes. Maggie Rogers has really started exploring this space and Olivia Rodrigo’s dipped her toes in a bit as well (anyone else an immediate Girl I’ve Always Been stan?). However, is there enough variety in sounds here for 20 new Swift songs to explore? Maybe not, but a biased me hopes she might dabble a bit more as it’s a really great genre for her to fire off a bunch of killer lines with a bit of sass or sense of humor. There’s also the artifacts/evidence lines in Hits Different and those words have made their way into some of the small amount of information we’ve gotten prior to the albums release.

4) The Alcott: while not from Midnights, this is still in the right time period so it fits in my opinion! Midnights maybe started off with a few songs written with Aaron Dessner before a pivot to full Antonoff based on an interview Aaron gave where he talked about when they worked on Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve. Maybe there were some more things she kept in the drafts for later. A heavier emphasis on the piano (perfect for acoustic surprise songs!), heavy and melancholy vibes, and vague lyrics that might still be protecting some identities seems like an easy pivot for her.

5) Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve: a surprise 5th option I thought of writing number 4! Raw, angry, a bit more rock-influenced, many people were expecting this direction based on the aesthetic of the Midnights photoshoot. Taylor’s in tune with her audience and is certainly aware this is a sound nobody would be sad to see from her. It fits with the emotional space she might have been in, and is another genre pivot she could dominate. She is strategic though, and an Album of the Year nom is pretty unlikely back to back with her record-setting win in a very stacked year. Knowing how successful these full pivots have been for her, she might hold off until a more advantageous time. Although I think post-pandemic cancelled Lover-fest (with possibly Cruel Summer as a single attached?) and the adoration for some of the vault songs has made her not want to hesitate to put out good music. You never know what’s around the corner and it’s easier to stay on top than claw your way back up.

Which vibes are your favorite and what are you hoping for from TTPD? Cowboy Carter review is imminent and I hope to fire off Maggie Rogers’ before next Friday too!

[urban-hart]

well, I've figured out what happened to Agnes by modern day!

good news: she didn't die :))

more, rather mixed news: she's remarried by the time she and Cas find each other again

so, the song 'I Lied' by Lord Huron (accompanied beautifully by Allison Ponthier) served as the basis of Grant and Penny's relationship in space cowboy. HOWBER it stopped vibing the more I develop that story with writer sister, so I've officially scrapped the concept of their relationship. Thematically there's no room for a doomed romance.

THEN i realized that it actually fits Agnes perfectly. She eventually would have to assume Cas deAD after him not returning for a while. with her 'soldier on' mindset with grief/loss, she'd inevitably move on. She'd meet someone new, and go for it. Another benefit of having her still not-dedded is that bringing up past stuff will be so much easier/natural feeling. having too many aspects of the main guys' past lives long gone already was giving me A LOT Of trouble trying to keep it relevant by the present day.

AND it actually gives me a chance to lean more into the themes present throughout LH's music with liminal, which has been a story very heavily steeped in their sound since its early development. in my head, anyway.

[zoe-wrote]

Last night in boston

I know logically that I am leaving for Dublin tomorrow, but emotionally I do not feel how I would expect to under 16 hours before my flight takes off. I grew up in a suburb of boston and live in the city now-- I chose a college about 10 miles from the home I was literally born in.

I would expect to feel... more, essentially?

I keep on deleting descriptions I write because they feel wrong, which is kind of funny. I'm really not that nervous and I feel like I should be.

Tomorrow I am going to rearrange my suitcases a bit bc I have a couple of items I need to cram in, buy new eyeliner, should probably run some analysis (I have abandoned lab tasks oops), and then like leave.

I'll land around 5am friday irish time. The only concrete goal I've set for myself is to talk to lots of people and have at least one slightly in-depth conversation with a stranger daily. I'm going to try to befriend a group of folks staying at the hostel so I can grab dinner with them or something. Then I have errands.

This is a boring fucking post wow. In the past two hours I've had the tab open I have been scrolling through the UCD orientation packet and clicked through the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy pages on nihilism, meta-ethics error theory and camu. I was choosing music to listen to and decided I wanted to play "Everything means nothing to me" by elliot smith. I find acknowledging lack of meaning incredibly comforting actually, it allows me a kind of positivity tied to leading my life in any way I choose to because I don't desire or need divine meaning to do so. Space Cowboy by flipturn also talks meaning, and I wanted to share the lyrics because the stanza about being a bird feels really relevant right now:

I never know what I'm looking for Just something more Sometimes I wonder If I were bird Would I be so serious If my feet could leave the dirt Cuz down here I fear I've become far too concerned With everything I'm given And nothing that I've earned In the art of war Is there something more Or am I alone?

I'm still not feeling emotional about leaving yet, maybe it will hit me in waves or maybe like... never. But I am excited to fly, for my feet to leave the ground and look at how small everyone is.

[cool-kid-syke]

Woe.begone podcast of all time. Anyways. Spoilers for the whole show.

Hi here's how I think Cole will win and Michael will enter the world's worst prisoner's dilemma where No One Is Happy, Actually.

If I'm not mistaken, Cole is not someone who was present in Michael's go around at life - he's a new base member first, and now a compound member. Michael does not seem to recall his presence. This is relevant. Anyways. I'm sure that Michael tried everything he could to get Edgar back and yadayadayada they failed! Sad. And Ty says that if they didn't figure it out with their technology in the future, it's because it can't be done.

Originally my argument was that Cole was going to be able to solve the Edgar issue - he wants to be in medical, it's his whole thing, and he's been cut off from the world, so I thought that he'd spend his days secluded with base's tech and find a way to fix it not with saving Edgar in mind but with the advancement of technology as a whole. This relied on the idea that as Cole is a new factor, Michael would not have had the resource that Cole becomes and therefore not included him in the "everything" idea. Now that Cole's a compound person, though, that changes things; he's probably still not considered by Michael during save-edgar-era, but he is considered by a Ty talking about a hypothetical future compound where, theoretically, they do have Cole. So I'm stuck on that one.

Anyways! My whole thing basically ignores that bit about Ty saying they don't have the tech and considering Cole as the new independent variable that incidentally grants them the technology to save Edgar not 8 years from now but now. The important distinction here is that Mikey's cool and new timeline has components not present in Mike and Michael's, namely two older versions of himself aiding him and the presence of Sly, our newest base member. Do you see where I'm going with this.

If Cole in our Mikey-present manages to saved Mike's Edgar (who's coming up on the 8 year deadline), what does that mean for Michael and his original Edgar... and Sly?

Like he'd go back (relative to himself) to save Edgar, right? But then what would that mean for when it loops back around to Mikey time, where Sly is? Would they separate? Michael still considers his Edgar his (deceased) husband, not an ex-husband, as we saw in chess boxing. So would the concept of the pre-existing relationship carry on over and overwrite the new one? How Edgar (same guy who said Mikey's jealousy in the name of Edgar over Sly was "needless") react? Would a newly saved-Edgar and a then-Mike-now-Michael live their days out in space while our cowboy stays with his??? I can't stop thinking about it.

Woe.begone I love u sm

[thetangential]

Audiobook review: Maya Phillips on her life as a proud “Nerd”

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “nerd” is a “mildly derogatory” term that emerged in 1950s America to describe someone who’s “socially inept.” Today, the dictionary allows, it can also describe someone who embraces “a highly technical interest.”

While listening to the confident sweep of Maya Phillips’s Nerd: Adventures in Fandom from This Universe to the Multiverse, I kept returning to the title. Does the mildly derogatory “nerd” still have any meaning, I wondered, in a world where fantasy franchises have consumed the box office and where the fandoms Phillips embraces are avidly explored across the media spectrum? It seems like nerds have become, well, pretty cool.

Then, last night, I had a moment where I realized I was wearing an Ewok onesie, reading The Two Towers, and texting my friends about Star Trek wall calendars while my wife lay beside me reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Nerds.

Not until the very end of Nerd does Phillips explicitly engage with the idea that anyone might question the use of her time to dive deep on anime, comics, and novels about invented worlds. The bulk of Nerd is a series of chapters exploring weighty topics — among them religion, mental health, and race — through the lens of the author’s life. In each, Phillips explains how various imagined universes intersected with her own, providing inspiration and food for thought.

Chapter five, for example, is titled “The Slytherin Firebender of Sunagakure: Self-identification with fandom, racial and national identities in space westerns, and the persistent fantasy of manifest destiny.” It opens during “Christian existence” class in Phillips’s Catholic high school; develops into an examination of the fantasy-universe personality typology trope (Hogwarts houses, Avatar: The Last Airbender nations, Sex and the City characters); considers that phenomenon in the context of real-world signifiers like race and class; rolls back into an evocation of family road trips; and from there launches into a broader consideration of frontiers and identities in vintage westerns, Star Trek, Cowboy Bebop, Star Wars, and Firefly.

The book is so wide-ranging that it could be approached as a geography of contemporary imaginative universes, seen through the author’s individual lens. Unless you’re as well-versed as Phillips is regarding everything from Buffy to Akira, you’re bound to learn something about the fandoms you’re less familiar with. Phillips is generous in providing footholds for people with varying levels of knowledge about her subjects, but Nerd isn’t a 101: readers are expected to know offhand what a mecha is, and what “ship” means as a verb not involving transportation.

Growing up as a gen-X nerd, I scoured my local library shelves for nonfiction books about fantastic universes and found mostly hagiographies of pop filmmakers, dusty histories of Golden Age science fiction, and the occasional behind-the-scenes book. For serious pop culture analysis, I had The Parables of Peanuts and that was about it. From this perspective, it was gratifying to find that Phillips makes the occasional historical reference but isn’t bound by the past. Her emphasis is on the texts she’s encountered, and how they’ve been relevant to her life in real time.

Phillips also takes a dynamic approach to the creator-fan relationship, reflecting the potentially fraught realities of an era when J.K. Rowling can tweet retcons at whim even as her readers share their own takes on the Harry Potter canon. (Phillips and her friends, she writes, won’t entertain the Fantastic Beasts prequels as canon, nor do they credit “the Epilogue That Will Not Be Named.”) Phillips also addresses Rowling’s transphobia, about which Harry Potter’s creator is so resolutely unapologetic that any reference to her formerly ubiquitous fantasy universe is now potentially fraught.

The Nerd author narrates the audiobook herself with a confident, deliberate cadence. It’s gratifying to hear the text in her own voice, but the linear experience of an audiobook can present challenges for listeners who dip in and out. Nerd is a great listen if you have long, uninterrupted stretches of time to spend with it, but in shorter bursts, without the ability to readily flip pages, it can be challenging to hold all the threads of Phillips’s carefully crafted arguments.

Nerd constitutes a testament to the real-world power of imagined universes, and for the importance of remaining critically engaged even while meeting these stories on their own terms. “These worlds only belong to children, we’ve been told for so long, with the understanding that imagination, hope, and dreams may only survive in the innocence of childhood,” Phillips writes, “and yet, if the multiverse can teach us anything, it’s that reality is what we make it. The possibilities are endless.”

It’s a stirring sentiment, and I don’t just say that because I’m wearing a Baby Yoda onesie.

– Jay Gabler

[destielshippingnews]

Edvard's Supernatural Guide: 2x05 Simon Said

Spoilers up to SPN 5x05 Fallen Idols

Supernatural’s 27th episode is the first episode by Ben Edlund, a favourite among fans of the show for his unusual, quirky concepts, his peculiar yet usually-fantastic execution, and for being one of the biggest pushers of bi!Dean and DeanCas,

Edlund was a producer on both Firefly and for the last year and a half of Angel, making him one of several connections between Supernatural and Joss Whedon’s work. Another connection is the actor Ridge Canipe who played poco!Dean in 1x18 Something Wicked and 3x08 A Very Supernatural Christmas. He also played Doomed Teaser Child in Angel 5x14 Smile Time which was written by Ben Edlund.

Speaking of Firefly, Jensen was cast as one of the leads for the 2003 show Still Life of which only an unaired pilot was made. Starring with him was Morena Baccarin as his dead brother’s ex-girlfriend and his apparent love interest. Morena Baccarin, as I am sure you know, played Inara in Firefly and Serenity.

Quite a few fan-favourite episodes were written by Edlund, including 2x18 Hollywood Babylon, 3x03 Bad Day at Black Rock, 3x13 Ghostfacers, 4x05 Monster Movie, 4x08 Wishful Thinking, 4x16 On the Head of a Pin, 5x04 The End, and 6x20 The Man Who Would be King. However, in spite of Edlund’s reputation among the fans, his first episode of Supernatural is far from being a stand-out. It hurries the plot along, lets us conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Sam’s visions have something to do with Azazel (Yellow-Eyed Demon), and foreshadow the possible end to Dean and Sam’s story, but it does not do any of it in a way which personally entertains or interests me. Edlund’s next offering, 2x11 Nightshifter, leaves me similarly cool.

One thing which series two does better than series one is plot: more happens in series two which is relevant than in series one. The set-up for this began already in episode 2x01 In My Time of Dying, with John telling Dean he might have to kill Sam (though this is not revealed to the viewer straightaway), but the main plot of series two is the psychic children and Sam’s psychic abilities. Funnily enough, though the plot of series three is trying to free Dean from his contractual obligations with the crossroads demon, the story is actually about Sam. Even in a plotline about himself, Dean gets shunted aside in favour of Kripke’s self-insert. Anyway, not much significant has happened in relation to Sam’s psychic powers since 1x14 Nightmare, but 2x05 lights a metaphorical fire under its proverbial derrière. The episode’s story of one brother becoming a monster and the other being forced to kill him is clearly foreshadowing Dean and Sam’s story.

On the subject thereof, the show has made numerous references to Stephen King’s works, namely IT in 2x02 Everybody Loves a Clown, Pet Sematary in 2x04 Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things, and the upcoming 2x09 Croatoan and 2x11 Playthings make reference to The Shining. I am far from an expert on Stephen King, having read only about 20-25 of his books, but even after reading only that I can see parallels with the story of the psychic children. Allow me to explain:

Stephen King’s novels take place in a multiverse very much like Supernatural, and many themes, references, and places link the novels together. The axis mundi of the Kingverse is The Dark Tower series of novels, a story inspired in large part by The Lord of the Rings but which is drastically different and does its own thing completely (Dean would love it: cowboy iconography everywhere! In fact, I can see Dean having quite the soft spot for Roland…).

The dark tower in question is the axis mundi of the multiverse, the pin keeping everything in place. Beams of power are emitted from the tower, each one named after an animal such as the bear or the turtle (whom readers of IT might recognise). These twelve beams transverse time, space, and different universes, holding everything in place. However, the Crimson King wants to destroy the multiverse completely, just because he likes destroying things, and his plan to topple the dark tower might sound familiar to Supernatural viewers.

Psychic children play a significant role in Stephen King’s novels, such as Carrie, The Shining, Doctor Sleep, Firestarter, and The Institute. Part of the Crimson King’s plan is to gather as many of these children together as possible into an institution and harness their psychic power to attack each beam until they fail and the worlds begin to die. By the time the story begins, many of the beams have already been destroyed, and it is a race against time for Roland and his ka-tet to get to the dark tower and save the multiverse.

It is no secret that Eric Kripke is a big fan of Neil Gaiman, especially American Gods and The Sandman, but he also appears to be quite the Stephen King fan, and this is apparent in the psychic kids storyline. Sam’s story is not a copy of King’s psychic children, but it is similar enough to warrant comparison and for there to likely have been inspiration taken from King.

Returning to the episode, the story begins with a middle-aged doctor taking a phone call, then shooting a man in a hardware shop somewhere in small-town Oklahoma before turning the rifle on himself. It turns out that this is a vision Sam is having, and Sam uses the name of the bus line he saw in his premonition to locate the town. This leads them to a case involving not one but two psychics and a lot of incestuous subtext.

And no, Winc*sties, I am not referring to Dean and Sam, but Weber and Andy, or specifically, Weber. From the beginning of the episode, there is something off about him, something strongly reminiscent of Warren, Jonathan, and Andrew in Buffy, or even Ed and Harry. They are utterly incompetent at social interaction and try their hardest to cover it up with something which is clearly an act adopted from television shows and rap/hip hop music. Far be it from me to judge somebody for trying to fill in a missing part of their personality, but the result is that Weber comes across as trying too hard.

As hinted at, this suggests either a ‘sheltered’ childhood which denied him the opportunity to learn how to socialise, a neurodivergence such as autism , or quite probably a mix of both. Some people might be tempted to use the demon blood to explain his mental instability, but Weber’s desperation to fill a gaping void with his brother (not a pun), his resentment and murder of those responsible for his adoption, and the fact he appears to be a serial rapist and killer of women strongly implies abuse at the hands of his mother.

A slight sidetrack to Jensen’s new show, Big Sky. The first series and a half revolved around a human trafficking ring, and one of the main antagonists was Ronald. In the scene he was introduced, his mother was shaming him for not being as successful as her friends’ children and treating him like an eight year old. This very scene set alarm bells ringing in my head, and I was right. It turns out Ronald kidnapped women and trafficked them into prostitution in Canada. The ultimate cause of this was his mother’s mistreatment of him as both a child and an adult, involving perverted intrusions into his sex life (reminiscent of Francis Dolarhyde in Manhunter (see 1x06 Skin), and ‘allowing’ or encouraging him to sleep in her bed with her. This last could possibly have been as a ‘replacement’ for the husband whom she killed when Ronald was a boy. That puts me in mind of the role poco!Dean had to take on as almost an ersatz wife and life partner for John as discussed in 2x01 In My Time of Dying.

She was clearly a Jocasta of the highest order, and while Ronald was responsible for ruining the lives of countless women and girls, his mother was responsible for making him the kind of person who would do that.

Returning to Weber, he serves another purpose in this episode as being an insight into Sam’s possible future. Whatever happened to him at his adoptive home, it seems the awakening of his psychic abilities was a catalyst to a change in behaviour for Weber, allowing the monster loose. Sam is scared that this will happen to him as his powers develop.

However, Weber is relatively insignificant in the overall story of the show, serving to showcase a possibility and reveal Sam’s fears. Whilst I can have sympathy for whatever must have happened to him, and whilst the demon blood might have been responsible for the monster he became, he was indeed a monster and got what was coming to him. At least the manner of Weber’s death would have pleased him had he been alive long enough to appreciate it: getting blasted from behind by his brother.

Sam is terrified in this episode because he is seeing one of his possible futures. Dean tries to reassure him, but to anybody with ears, Dean’s protestations that Sam ‘doesn’t have it in him to be a monster’ sound like desperate denial: he knows what Sam might become, but does not want to accept it.

Dean is trying to be supportive of Sam, and even gets hostile with Ellen at the end of the episode as an attempt to keep Sam's psychic abilities secret from other hunters. But there is something about Sam’s behaviour in this episode as well as the way he generally talks about himself from 1x14 Nightmare onwards which suggests fatalism and even self-destructive tendencies. In 5x05 False Idols, Sam will go on to blame Dean’s ‘controlling nature’ for driving him to Ruby, but this is an attempt to absolve himself of responsibility and ignore a deeper issue. Dean tries his hardest to support Sam as a brother and friend, but Sam does not let him get through. That is Sam’s problem and Sam’s responsibility.

Further to the subject of Sam (usually I discuss Dean at length like this, but this is mostly a Sam episode), I mentioned a few analyses ago (1x19, perhaps?) that he has many traits of bipolar disorder, or manic depression. He certainly views himself as scum of the Earth sometimes, but he also has what could be the ‘manic’ aspect on display in this episode. That is his refusal to even entertain the notion he could be wrong about Andy because Sam just knows so much better, and he certainly knows better than Dean (like with the patch of dead grass in a graveyard in 2x04 Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things).

Of course, there are other factors at play, such as Sam’s dislike of Dean and his apparent need for sureties such as Andy being the killer and even the surety that he will become a monster. Sam’s touchiness at being referred to as a ‘freak’, for example, indicates he is already struggling with this view of himself and feels Dean’s use of the word is ‘confirmation’ of his insecurities.

Another part of him on display in this episode is his hope that saving people will stop him going bad. Sam has seen people die before, but he was especially broken up after the doctor he thought he had saved from shooting himself with the rifle got the Regina George treatment.

Another part of him on display in this episode is his hope that saving people will stop him going bad. Sam has seen people die before, but he was especially broken up after the doctor he thought he had saved from shooting himself with the rifle got the Regina George treatment. Other than the fact that watching somebody get run over right in front of you is the opposite of fun, his inability to save the doctor perhaps confirmed to Sam that he cannot save people, and if he cannot save them, he cannot save himself.

Returning to the very beginning of the episode, the music over the recap reminded me that the show once had a real vibe about it, something lost somewhere around series four. It reminded me a lot of The X-Files in that there was something very early 1990s genre show about it, as well as the fact I am sure there is an episode of The X-Files filmed in the same location.

A bit of a culture shock is how easy it is to acquire firearms in America. In Britain, it is possible to go into certain shops to acquire hunting knives, Swiss Army Knives, and similar things, but as far as I am aware guns are not available to the general public. Things are different here in Finland, where primary school children are allowed access to sharp hunting knives (under teacher supervision) whilst preparing food outdoors, gunshots can be heard frequently during hunting season, and where pistols are available to buy in some outdoor and sports shops as well as a specialist weapon shop or two (although licenses and permits are required).

We meet Jo, Ellen, and Ash again in this episode. Jo is, as always, being Bad Ass, by which I mean adults act stupid around her to make her look good. Of course, some middle aged men would act silly around a pretty young woman like Jo, but given how easily and she ‘beat’ Dean (who conveniently did not fight back because men shouldn’t hit women) in 2x02 Everybody Loves a Clown, she comes across as an attempt to write a Bad Ass Chick. If I can call out the fact that almost all the baddies on Big Sky are men and almost all the victims are women and girls, I can call out Jo as a bit of a Mary Sue, surely.

A female sometimes being better than a male at ‘man things’ is not the issue, nor is a tiny female being able to best a large male at physical combat an issue. It makes complete sense, for example, that Mary in The Winchesters is able to go hand-to-hand with the demon in 1x01 Pilot because she had been groomed her whole life to do just that, in the same way Dean had. My younger sister plays more video games than I do, but whereas I am quite content with Pokémon, Dragon Quest, Monster Hunter, and Spyro the Dragon, she likes more ‘serious’ games such as Fallout, Halo, and Assassin’s Creed and is much better at them than I am. My third sister was in army cadets for about five or six years and could have joined the actual army as a lieutenant (I think) whilst I had the hand-eye coördination of a thing which has no hands or eyes and barely passed my tae kwon do and kickboxing gradings.

Dean also seems to have the same general opinion of Jo as I do: that she is a little girl trying too hard to act like a woman. She clearly wants to enjoy physical intimacy with Dean, but he is not into it at all. This is something acknowledged later in the show, and in Jo’s defence she does grow up a bit later in the show, though I do not understand people who think Dean should have ‘ended up with her’.

Dean and Ash’s ‘relationship’ could have benefited from further exploration. In fact, something which would have vastly improved series two would have been for Ash to take on a more prominent role and to coördinate Dean and Sam’s hunts whilst searching for more psychic children. The Roadhouse could even have functioned as a safehouse for psychic children, but the Harvelles were only introduced because the executives wanted Dean and Sam to have a base of operations and Kripke used them as little as possible.

That said, there are people who saw more between Dean and Ash than a working relationship, and it did not come out of nowhere. Other than the fact that Ash completely ignores Sam when Sam knocks on the door at the beginning of the episode, but opens the door immediately naked when Dean calls for him...

Dean recognises Ash’s burnt remains by his watch in 2x21 All Hell Breaks Loose Part I. Unless I am mistaken, Ash’s watch was new then, meaning Dean had seen him off-screen enough times to get familiar with the timepiece.

Further to the discussion of Dean, his disgust as Jo puts REO Speedwagon on the jukebox is gold.

However, nobody likes music snobbery. John enforced conformity on Dean through control and shame, but Dean is unfortunately passing some of that on without realising. He does the same with Sam’s hair: Sam’s hair does eventually get utterly ridiculous, especially with the mutton chops in series seven, but men are allowed to do whatever they want with their hair.

I have not had my hair cut for about thirteen years and one thing I learnt pretty fast is that people – men AND women – are very fond of telling men what we can and cannot do with our hair. One of the reasons I refused to cave to people’s comments, jokes, and attempts at shame was because I wanted to flip them the metaphorical bird. While I agree with Dean that Sam’s hair is ridiculous, it is not because Sam is a man with long hair; it is because it is a bad hairstyle. A ponytail or braid would have been great, but that has the downside of it being a handhold for opponents in combat. A topknot would have been cool, though.

This behaviour from Dean should have been something the show seriously addressed as it is second-hand abuse. When Dean mocks Sam for something, it is John speaking through Dean. Dean is far from stupid, but Sam has more education and should be able to call this kind of thing out for what it is. Imagine the scene:

Dean: You gonna get rid of your female hair anytime? It’s staring at me.

Sam: [frowns] You gonna stop passing off Dad’s abuse of you onto me anytime soon, Deano?

Dean: [stares speechless for five seconds] ...I believe I’ve made a mistake.

Sam: Thank Dad’s paramilitaristic parenting for that. And besides, female hair? Two words: Classic. Rock.

There could have been growth, healing, recovery, becoming better brothers, friends, and a better team instead of spending the next fourteen years with Sam as narcissistic abuser and Dean occasionally taking potshots. Alas, some writers and loads of fans seemed to like their narcissistic-co-dependent Chinese finger trap and refused to free them from it.

Anyway, Dean’s ‘disgust’ is perhaps not quite as genuine as one might think, given that he sings the same song in the car afterwards.

...And Sam, once again, refuses to let Dean have his fun. He also neglected to explain to Ellen that Dean's hostility and rudeness to her was on Sam's account. Yes, Dean 'chose' to behave like that, but he did it for Sam who, once again, let Dean take it. Not very 'heroic protagonist' behaviour.

Thus concludeth my analysis of this episode.

[equestrianempire]

EN’s Ultimate Guide to the 2024 Conceal Grand-Prix Eventing Festival at Bruce’s Field

Kendal Lehari and Audacious. Photo by Shelby Allen.

While the season has been well underway for several weeks, it feels very much like the annual Grand-Prix Eventing Festival at Bruce’s Field is an unofficial opening to the eventing year. Title sponsored by Conceal and presented by Taylor Harris Insurance Services with a $100,000 pot of prize money on the line, this year’s festival promises to be top quality and full of some of the best riders in the world.

The action gets underway in earnest tomorrow, with dressage and show jumping kicking us off on Friday and concluding with cross country on Saturday. The “condensed” showcase format means the cross country will be much shorter than you’d typically see — the optimum time is generally under 5 or 6 minutes, and oftentimes jumps are jumped in both directions to maximize the use of space — which also means the event is incredibly spectator-friendly.

If you’re wanting to take in the sights this weekend in Aiken, you can still grab a general admission ticket by clicking here. The event is also seeking a few more volunteers, particularly for cross country crossing on Saturday. Click here to sign up — you will also receive free admission to the entire event.

The event will be live streamed on Horse & Country, and you can either use your H&C+ membership or buy a one-time event pass to follow along. Click here to view your options and access the live stream.

The schedule is below:

As you can see, there is plenty on the docket to take in, including demonstrations, course walks, and the return of the “Cowboy Up!” challenge.

Below you’ll find links to all relevant information, including entries, order of go, and more. Be sure to follow along on Instagram with @goeventing and @grandprix_eventing for much more from on the ground. Shelby Allen, Taleen Hanna, and I will be your eyes on the ground all weekend, and we’ll have more for you coming soon.

NEED TO KNOW INFO

We’re pleased to introduce Deirdre Stoker Vaillancourt, with her robust expertise and portfolio of property options in the Aiken area, as the sponsor of our coverage of the Conceal Grand-Prix Eventing Festival at Bruce’s Field. Seasonal or year-round, southern charm and the sporting lifestyle await you in Aiken!

[bearpillowmonster]

The Last of Us HBO

This show is sort of in a bad situation because it's an adaptation of a beloved property that's going to be criticized if you're too close to the source material and too far, not to mention it's a video game property which has a track record of being subpar to just plain bad. And then that game is one of the most well known games of all time so there's that.

To be honest, I haven't played the games but I'd be living under a rock if I didn't know a lot of what already happens. And how do you do that? How do you subvert expectations when everyone already knows the spoiler?

I have the advantage to look at this from a different lens than that of a fan but I still can't help but draw comparisons and I think that's partially because it's so baked in. A good scene to represent this with is the truck getaway. In the game, you have a third person perspective of Sarah so you're in the backseat while these guys drive recklessly. It's not the same exact scene but it serves the exact same job using the exact same technique. If you watched a scene with very similar dialogue and the same end point, but just different means to get there, what did you see? Is it worth seeing again? In a game, you can feel the vibration of the controller as the car backs up and the intensity of your surroundings and how they're invading your little bubble. The scene in the show does a good job of replicating that but does that mean you're missing something?

If you've played the Last of Us and didn't like it then I don't think this show will do anything for you. There are differences but I think they fundamentally have the same problems but I think that doubles for if you liked the game, I think you'll at least enjoy it for what it's worth for a whole other Last of Us revisit after the initial game, the remaster, the remake and now this. Neil Druckmann is still involved and you can definitely tell his fingerprints are on it, unfortunately they still have unnecessary cursing. (like, you don't need it to make it gritty, how many times do I have to tell you that?) People who were jerks are still jerks. There are better things about it, there are worse things.

The other guy involved, the freaking director, Craig Mazin and his stupid comments about video games. I just don't understand but first I'll give him a hand for actually walking the walk after talking the talk but I still think some of his comments are wrong and that they don't even make sense in this context when he literally uses video game techniques to make it happen but oh well.

I mean literally, despite never playing the game, I knew what must have been there. "Ellie, I'll give you a boost, drop that ladder down to me." Little stuff like that, but it didn't really feel forced or out of place. I see now where a Last of Us MMO could come in, sort of like making it an RPG where you can choose to fight or join the Fireflies, I think that'd be quite fun but from what I see, it's a battle royale.

Acting. Pedro. That's all. I mean, I got my space cowboy but now I've got the southern accent to boot, all he needs is a little hat and we're good to go!

Honestly, it's probably better taken episode by episode because aside from actively trying to make you dislike the characters in a specific way in order to care about them, there are a few really good episodes and even the bad episodes have good parts but they are dominantly bad episodes and just straight bad characters or characters that have no relevance but get spotlight anyway. That isn't to say that it's only the new stuff that's bad either, there's a lot of good new stuff too, it's just a mystery as to what you're getting in any given episode, you can normally tell "Oh, this will be one of the predominantly good ones."

The end. Though I knew how it would end, it felt a little bit short lived and I don't mean that in length, more like they were trying to get it done, like the moments didn't hit as hard as they should've because of one reason or another. It all feels pretty summed up. Dialogue was disappointing since it was the last episode and they have a short moment before it all goes down where it feels like they trauma dump rather than a nice payoff to seeing them slowly trust each other enough to reveal one's insecurities which is ironic considering….well, season 2 will answer for that but all in all, a decent video game product.

[translationandbetrayals]

Cowboy Bebop and the importance of carrying our weight.

Cowboy Bebop is a classic, and deserve all the popularity that it has, because despite being from 1998 it is still unbeatable in terms of music, history, art and character design. This last point, I think is the most relevant about this show, because the group of protagonists have all the emotions, personality and charisma all in a crew of 5 intergalactic friends.

Starting from the obvious, Spike is the main character, and we can see a deep and complex bounty hunter that carry with a huge weigh from his past, and made him a serious, cold and indifferent person. He still being funny, and a skilled worker, but the profound layers of his character are very interesting. The importance of the past for Spike is crucial, and his regrets about it will have repercussions in his decisions, being very important for his present his past. Faye is the second most famous of the crew, and just like Spike, have an obscure past. In this case, she tries every time to hide it and forget about it, trying to move on a make her past disappear rewriting her story every day.

Jet, Edward and Ein are the rest of the crew, and the 3 of them are extremely important for the plot, even Ein who is a dog in the space. The consistency that they gave to the team is unique, and they have important task to do every chapter. All of the characters of the series have a deep and obscure past to solve, but they still having fun and carrying that weigh among the space.

“You will carry that weight” is a recurrent phrase in the show and is one of the most important message of the anime.

-Pablo Zúñiga

[itwoodbeprefect]

🌾🪡🪜 ^_^

🌾 A fic you really want to write but you haven’t (yet)?

oh! oh! i've been watching a lot of westerns recently, and i've been having a lot of thoughts about queer subtext in them, and also thoughts about hutch (from starsky & hutch fame) having thoughts about said queer subtext, particularly because an argument could be made that i started watching these movies for reasons related to hutch in the first place.

so. i really want to write a longer-ish fic in which (somehow, i still need to figure out in what way to make this work with the tech of the day) starsky does a kind of slightly hutch-guided first dive into cowboy movies (which mean a lot to hutch, and starsky has never really given too much thought to), and they talk about it but don't really talk about it (hutch knows his subtext but isn’t talking and starsky is trying to figure out things (and hutch, and the undertones/changing nuances in their relationship)), and there’s probably a vague background of a case fic here that kickstarts and complicates it all (maybe in a western themed bar?) and also, because it's me, louise the guinea pig is there. starsky probably smuggles her into a movie theater. maybe she hides out under a cowboy hat at one point. i have snippets of conversation written, which is maybe 2% of a fic as of yet, and this is all pretty ambitious so i'm not sure if this is ever really going to make it over the finish line or be feasible at all, but as a concept? this fic delights me. this ticks SO many of the boxes on my current interests. i'm doing a VERY good job at catering to my own whims here.

🪡 The scene you worked the hardest on in any fic?

i tend to read over every part of a fic a hundred times anyway, so that's weirdly hard to pinpoint! many of my fics are essentially a single scene by themselves, too. i do often start out with mostly dialogue (the easy part, usually) and then keep going over it to fill in all of the description around those words, which can feel like hard work when i can’t find specific and vaguely interesting/relevant physical details to anchor the characters to an actual space, and it keeps sounding like they’re just kind of ambiguously floating in a poorly defined probably-indoor location while saying words.

there are definitely fics where i can still feel the ghost of that problem hovering over my shoulder, even though i tried: Heaven help a fool who falls in love is one, Flowers for no reason but you missed me and Across the water, across the deep blue ocean (Under the open sky, oh my) two others. it’s probably not super obvious if you’re not looking for it, but i can see in those that i had to pull out some tricks and use a little force to make it a story instead of a transcript. the good thing about it is that it can feel like i got away with murder when someone says they love a fic like that!

🪜 Tell us a random fact about any fic!

for the longest time what eventually became I’d swallow the moon and the stars (To follow the beat of your heart) consisted of just the first two paragraphs with absolutely no idea what the rest of it was supposed to be. i really loved those two paragraphs, but they were essentially orphans, and then i wrote probably 80% of the other words of that fic in one sitting under a different heading without intending it to be a follow-up to those specific opening lines, and i got to have a moment of oh! hey! this really fits! this match doesn’t just kind of work, it adds something! which is just a gorgeous feeling.

[twenty-four-hour-sign]

Demon Days - Part 1. (The Music)

as I said earlier, my demon days review would be in 3 parts, laid out like this.

1. Talking about the music of the album, how it sounds, and what I personally think about the sound.

2. The meaning of the album as it pertains to the both the non-meta narrative and the gorillaz lore meta narrative.

3. The meaning of the album when applied to out real world.

2-3 get into more theory territory, which means you by all means can take my opinion with a grain of salt.

All that aside, let’s get into the sound of Demon Days.

The sound of Demon Days, while usually consistent from song to song, has a nice diversity that services the sound a lot. You get danceable tracks in the form of DARE and Dirty Harry, but you also get Demon Days and Don’t Get Lost In Heaven, there’s something for everyone.

My personal ranking of the songs goes as follows:

1: Demon Days

2: Dirty Harry

3: Every Planet We Reach Is Dead

4: Kids With Guns

5: O Green World

6: November Has Come

7: Don’t Get Lost In Heaven

8: DARE

9: All Alone

10: White Light

11: Fire Coming Out Of the Monkey’s Head

12: Feel Good Inc.

13: Last Living Souls

14: El Mañana

While Dirty Harry might one of my overall favorite songs, I believe that Demon Days IS the better song.

(also, I don’t dislike ANY of these songs, it’s just an ordering of what I like more)

Im just gonna do reviews of my top 5 and if anyone wants to see a song I didn’t review, by all means go ahead

Demon Days: A masterpiece in its own rite. The waxing and waning of the violin throughout the song, the initial melancholy turned optimism. The choir vocals are truly something special on an album like this, and it’s something worthy of being the title of an album like this one. The message of “Even though we f’ed up big time, we still gotta not give up.” Is not only a perfect capstone to the albums subject matter, but is even relevant over a decade after the fact.

Dirty Harry: There’s SOMETHING about this song man. Using children for the vocals was such an interesting move. The beginning harmony build-up between 2D and the children is a really nice sound, and the violin-sounds before and during the rap segment is a nice touch. The combination of synth and orchestra creates a clash that compliments itself well.

Every Planet We Reach Is Dead: this is the first real melancholy-rock we get on the album, and it’s such a good song. The usage of the synth keyboard combined with the guitar create this almost melancholy space-cowboy feel, which suits the title of the track. The excellent drum work on this track is also of note, but as a drummer myself I might be biased.

Kids With Guns: the buildup on this track is SO rewarding. The end with the booming sound of every instrument that was played throughout the track compounding, and the repeated vocals throughout the buildup. The simplicity of the baseline and how that’s utilized so well makes this song almost rewarding to listen to.

O Green World: the last of my 5, and overall a really good track. There’s so many elements to the song, the beginning and middle “rewind”bits that add a certain flavor to the song, and the raw sound of the guitar with the structure of the bass and the grainy quality of the vocals. One of my favorite songs overall.

that’s my top 5 reviewed! I might not do my next part for a while bc this took a good bit of time and this is halloween, so I’d hate to waste it.

Next part I’ll dive into the lyrics a bit more, and if you want a song talked abt, just ask.

happy halloween!

- E

[withthingsunreal]

hey guys

did y’all know there’s a limit to how many links you can have in a post

adventure time masterpost part one

♥=my favourites Ω=significant plot (though sometimes this is not immediately obvious) ♪=a song happens ♫=a personal fave song happens ¿=just don’t try to think about it too hard okay

SEASON SIX

Ω 6x01/6x02 - Wake Up/Escape from the Citadel [WATCH] - Finn and Jake need to get to the Citadel, and Prismo agrees to help. But the Lich beats them to it, and it seems he's got some plans of his own.

♥ 6x03- James II [WATCH] - An excess of James.

6x04- The Tower [WATCH] [alt]- Finn's missing his arm, so he decides to build a tower into space so he can punch his dad and steal HIS arm instead. Solid plan, right?

¿ 6x05 - Sad Face [WATCH] - A circus, and a clown.

♪ 6x06 - Breezy [WATCH] - Finn's flower isn't doing so well, and Finn himself isn't feeling anything, but his new bee friend Breezy wants to help. Stay tuned for spook (me, that's me) starting a petition to retitle this show 'what the hell did I just watch.'

¿ 6x07 - Food Chain [WATCH] - Finn and Jake learn about the food chain by, um, living it.

6x08- Furniture & Meat [WATCH] - Mo' treasure, mo' problems.

6x09 - The Prince Who Wanted Everything [WATCH] - LSPrincess has a story to share with the Ice King, and LSPrince has a lesson to learn from Fionna the Human.

6x10 - Something Big [WATCH] - Something something Maja something Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant something something feelings?? Listen I don't know what I'm watching anymore ok

♪ 6x11 - Little Brother [WATCH] - Shelby has an accident, ends up with a little brother, and turns to Jake for brotherly advice. Well, giving Finn a sword worked out pretty well...

6x12 - Ocarina [WATCH] - Kim Kil Whan buys the treehouse and tries to teach Jake a lesson about responsibility. It goes suuuper well.

6x13 - Thanks for the Crabapples, Giuseppe [WATCH] - Ice King and his fellow offbeats go on a wizard road trip to form their own secret society.

6x14- Princess Day [WATCH] - Breakfast Princess gets rude with LSP. Mistake! Time for her and Marceline to mess up the Breakfast Kingdom way bad.

6x15 - Nemesis [WATCH] - There's a great evil in the Candy Kingdom which must be stopped.

6x16 - Joshua and Margaret Investigations [WATCH] - Finn and Jake's parents fought monsters, too! Even when their mom was way super about-to-pop pregnant, apparently.

6x17 - Ghost Fly [WATCH] - Jake kills a fly, because flies are disgusting. But ghost flies seem to be worse. Oops?

6x18 - Everything's Jake [WATCH] - Bender searches inside himself and finds that Fry has been with him all along Jake goes on an inner journey, but like, literally. not really spiritually so much.

♥ 6x19 - Is That You? [WATCH] - Jake and Finn mourn Prismo, and then things get super bananas up in their dreamspace.

6x20 - Jake the Brick [WATCH] - Jake observes nature as he spends some time as just another brick in the wall.

6x21 - Dentist [WATCH] - Finn's tooth is in real bad shape, and he has to face facts: it is time for him to Go Dentist.

6x22 - The Cooler [WATCH] - There's a crisis in the Flame Kingdom, and FP makes the (objectively terrible??) decision to turn to PB for help.

6x23 - Pajama Wars [WATCH] - Sleepover in the Candy Kingdom! Nothing terrible is happening.

Ω 6x24 - Evergreen [WATCH] - Master Evergreen and his lizardy minion Gunther attempt to save the world.

¿Ω 6x25 - Astral Plane [WATCH] - Finn goes on an astral adventure, and sees some junk that may be relevant soon.

6x26 - Gold Stars [WATCH] - Sweet P starts school, and makes some new (terrible) friends.

6x27 - The Visitor [WATCH] - Finn follows his dream from Astral Plane and finds his least favourite massive disappointment at the end of the trail.

6x28 - The Mountain [WATCH] - It’s a Lemongrab episode. I don’t know anymore.

6x29 - Dark Purple [WATCH] - Susan Strong and some brave hyoomans on a rescue mission.

6x30 - The Diary [WATCH] - Fandom can be a consuming thing. TV finds an old diary and gets a little too into it.

6x31 - Walnuts & Rain [WATCH] - Finn and Jake get separated and go on different (weird) journeys.

6x32 - Friends Forever [WATCH] - Ice King tries to make himself some new friends. It goes terribly.

6x33 - Jermaine [WATCH] - After Jake has a shared dream with Jermaine, the boys go to visit their brother, who’s still living in their childhood home.

6x34 - Chips and Ice Cream [WATCH] - Chips, chips chips chips. Ice cream ice cream. (A travelling performer passes his curse on to Jake. It doesn’t go well.)

6x35 - Graybles 1000+ [WATCH] - Graybles, again, some more. Apparently the Candy Kingdom is still around however much further in the future, and someone’s still putting up string lights at Marceline’s. So there’s that.

6x36 - Hoots [WATCH] - The Cosmic Owl gets distracted by a mystery lady’s pretty set of tailfeathers.

6x37 - Water Park Prank [WATCH] - Finn and Jake (and the Ice King) spend the day at the water park.

6x38 - You Forgot Your Floaties [WATCH] - Magic Man, up to his usual biz, but this time he’s getting a helping hand from Betty. No way this will go horribly wrong??

6x39 - Be Sweet [WATCH] - For some inexplicable reason, Tree Trunks thinks LSP is a good choice for a babysitter. Yikes.

6x40 - Orgalorg [WATCH] - Gunther and the Gunts throw a houseparty.

6x41 - On the Lam [WATCH] - Martin finds another group of adorable creatures to try to exploit. yay.

6x42/6x43 - Hot Diggity Doom/The Comet [WATCH] - An election in the Candy Kingdom, and an impending catastrophe.

SEASON SEVEN

7x01 - Bonnie & Neddy [WATCH] - The King of Ooo continues his efforts to be the worst. PB has to help someone important to her get back to where he belongs.

7x02 - Varmints [WATCH] - Bubblegum tries to protect her pumpkin patch; Marceline lends a hand.

7x03 - Cherry Cream Soda [WATCH] - A candy citizen comes back from the dead, causing some complications for those he’d left behind.

7x04 - Mama Said [WATCH] - While out on a mission for the King of Ooo, Finn and Jake run into Billy’s ex-gf Canyon and decide to help her out instead.

7x05 - Football [WATCH] - BMO tries to do something nice for a friend. It does not go well.

7x06/7x07 - Stakes: Marceline the Vampire Queen/Everything Stays [WATCH] - Marceline has a favour to ask of PB, which results in her reflecting on the last thousand years of her life.

7x08 - Stakes: Vamps About [WATCH] - Marceline’s old nemeses are back, and she’s absolutely down to take ‘em all on again.

7x09 - Stakes: The Empress Eyes [WATCH] - Targeting the Ice King? Possibly not the greatest plan a vampire could have.

7x10 - Stakes: May I Come In [WATCH] - Jake finds his courage.

7x11 - Stakes: Take Her Back [WATCH] - Marceline’s out of commission, so it’s up to Finn and Jake to take on The Moon.

7x12 - Stakes: Checkmate [WATCH] - Four down, one to go.

♫ 7x13 - Stakes: The Dark Cloud [WATCH] - Marceline has to decide what she’s fighting for.

7x14/7x15 - The More You Moe/The Moe You Know [WATCH (watermarked)] - It's BMO's birthday, and a special guest is coming with a special mission for our lil robot buddy. yay?

7x16 - Summer Showers [WATCH] - Viola helps LSP put on a play, and Jake is super proud.

7x17 - Angel Eyes [WATCH] - BMO bribes Finn and Jake into playing cowboys and bandits.

7x18 - President Porpoise Is Missing! [WATCH] - An undersea authority figure appears to have vanished.

7x19 - Blank-Eyed Girl [WATCH] - Urban legends may or may not be baloney, and may or may not be out to get you.

7x20 - Bad Jubies [WATCH] - One heck of a storm brewing up some real nasty vibes.

7x21 - King's Ransom [WATCH] - Ice King isn't going to let anything stop him from rescuing his best bud, and Finn and Jake have got his back.

7x22 - Scamps [WATCH] - Finn rehabilitates some bad seeds.

7x23 - Crossover [WATCH] - Prismo needs Finn and Jake’s help with a junked-up timeline.

7x24 - The Hall of Egress [WATCH] - A dungeon keeps hitting the reset button every time Finn tries to exit.

7x25 - Flute Spell [WATCH] - Does Finn have a new girl in his life, or is he working on a different sort of magic?

7x26 - The Thin Yellow Line [WATCH] - It Is Okay To Be You, ft. The Banana Guards

7x27 - Broke His Crown [WATCH] - Bonnie and Marcie try to have a dinner date with the IK, but his crown is up to some weird biz.

7x28 - Don’t Look [WATCH] - Finn fails to follow the literal only instruction given.

7x29 - Beyond the Grotto [WATCH] - Sea lard rescue 911

7x30 - Lady Rainicorn of the Crystal Dimension [WATCH] - TV finds a weird box.

7x31 - I Am A Sword [WATCH] - FinnSword gets straight up hijacked.

7x32 - Bun Bun [WATCH] - Remember how Cinnamon Bun used to be... just, like, generally bad? at doing things? okay that but smaller.

7x33 - Normal Man [WATCH] - Normal Man needs some hero help to return Glob to Mars.

7x34 - Elemental [WATCH] - An... ice... princess? kinda??

7x35 - Five Short Tables [WATCH] - Fionna and Cake try to make some artsy-ass flapjacks.

7x36 - The Music Hole [WATCH] - Music happens, some of it on a stage.

7x37 - Daddy-Daughter Card Wars [WATCH] - Charlie helps her Papa work through some card-related stuff.

Ω 7x38/7x39 - Preboot/Reboot [WATCH] - Finn, Jake, and Susan visit a very scientific establishment.

SEASON EIGHT

8x01 - Two Swords [WATCH] - So when a FinnSword and a Grass Sword meet... sometimes some stuff can go the hell down.

8x02 - Do No Harm [WATCH] - Finn and Grass Finn try stuff out.

8x03 - Wheels [WATCH] - Jake tries to connect with his granddaughter by proving he’s cool.

8x04 - High Strangeness [WATCH] - Tree Trunks loves... revolution (｡•`_´•｡)

8x05 - Horse and Ball [WATCH] - James Baxter rides again.

8x06 - Jelly Beans Have Power [WATCH] - PB tries to get a handle on the elemental powers thing.

Ω 8x07 - Islands: The Invitation [WATCH] - Susan sent out a distress signal, and a response has arrived.

8x08 - Islands: Whipple the Happy Dragon [WATCH] - Hazardous seas, or Here There Be Dragons.

Ω 8x09 - Islands: Mysterious Island [WATCH] - Finn gets separated from his friends, but makes a new one.

Ω 8x10 - Islands: Imaginary Resources [WATCH] - BMO helps Finn and Jake get acquainted with the triumphs and defeats, the epic highs and lows of virtual reality gaming.

Ω♪ 8x11 - Islands: Hide and Seek [WATCH] - Memories of island life.

Ω 8x12 - Islands: Min & Marty [WATCH] - Minerva Campbell and Martin Mertens get to know each other.

Ω 8x13 - Islands: Helpers [WATCH] - Finn meets his mom.

Ω 8x14 - Islands: The Light Cloud [WATCH] - The conflicting desires to protect your child while also allowing them to grow and thrive.

SEASON NINE

9x01 - Orb [WATCH] - Some very normal dreamscapes on the return journey to Ooo.

9x02 - Elements: Skyhooks [WATCH] - The boys make it home but things are looking... different.

9x03 - Elements: Bespoken For [WATCH] - The Ice King has a story to tell about a hot date he had, and also tangentially the current state of things.

9x04 - Elements: Winter Light [WATCH] - A visit to the Ice Kingdom.

9x05 - Elements: Cloudy [WATCH] - Finn needs to calm down, and Jake needs to potty.

9x06 - Elements: Slime Central [WATCH] - It's Slime Time baybee

9x07 - Elements: Happy Warrior [WATCH] - A normal one in the Flame Kingdom.

9x08 - Elements: Hero Heart [WATCH] - LSP tries to help Finn listen to his hero heart, while PB just wants everyone to be a little bit sweeter.

9x09 - Elements: Skyhooks II [WATCH] - Let's Get Lumpy.

9x10 - Abstract [WATCH] - Jake is wary of some changes in Jermaine.

9x11 - Ketchup [WATCH] - Marceline and BMO catch up on recent events.

9x12 - Fionna and Cake and Fionna [WATCH] - Ice King gets to hang with the REAL Fionna.

9x13 - Whispers [WATCH] - Finn and Fern help Sweet Pea with some nightmares.

9x14 - Three Buckets [WATCH] - Finn and Fern spend some uhhh quality time together

SEASON TEN

10x01 - The Wild Hunt [WATCH] - Huntress Wizard needs some assistance, and Finn has some junk to work through.

10x02 - Always BMO Closing [WATCH] - BMO and Ice King team up to become a door-to-door salesman.

10x03 - Son of Rap Bear [WATCH] - FP needs to work on her rap game.

10x04 - Bonnibel Bubblegum [WATCH] - Family junk is complicated.

10x05 - Seventeen [WATCH] - It’s Finn’s birthday! Let’s get Arthurian up in here.

10x06 - Ring of Fire [WATCH] - The marvelous misadventures of Tree Trunks.

10x07 - Marcy + Hunson [WATCH] - Marceline’s dad is in town and totally embarrassing her again.

10x08 - The First Investigation [WATCH] - Finn and Jake look into some haunted happenings at Joshua and Margaret Investigations

10x09 - Blenanas [WATCH] - Finn wants the highest possible authority to weigh in on whether or not he is funny.

10x10 - Jake the Starchild [WATCH] - Jake’s gotta save the world. No, a different one.

10x11 - Temple of Mars [WATCH] - Jermaine and Finn gotta rescue Jake, and in the process maybe help Betty work through some things.

10x12 - Gumbaldia [WATCH] - Peace talks.

♥Ω♫ 10x13 - Come Along With Me [WATCH] - Everything stays, but it still changes.

[vaguely-concerned]

The Mandalorian season 2 ep 1 AGAIN! it’s the rewatch folks

- The entire last season reminder/intro scene is kind of clunky and we’re-hitting-you-over-the-head-with-this, but I think it’s important to note that it’s probably meant for the vast majority of people who watched this stuff once a wholeass year ago, and not for me, the crazy person who watched each episode at least five times lol

- 

I like the way mando & bb walk from darkness into brief light and back into darkness here... the directors keep finding such cool ways of using the armour cinematically, there must be some lighting considerations to be made when your main character is essentially a walking disco ball. I enjoy the mood of this planet too -- the distant lights, the way the sky isn’t quite dark like there’s a city providing some light pollution nearby (it’s a bit clearer as he walks further into the... town? that it’s not just sunset, the sky is lit up weirdly) 

also when din moves towards the camera and out of sight in this first appearance, the signet is the very last thing that leaves the frame! I just thought that was sweet, a clan of two :’)

- shotout to these two lads and their boldly absolutely inexplicable hat choices (I love gratuitous star wars crowd scenes you guys)

those tacky gold sequins on her sleeves... immaculate, beautiful, someone sat through like full body makeup application to be on screen a literal split second, that good good sw nonsense

- oh I didn’t notice before but I think those gladiator dudes are using vibroaxes! I guess they have the technology to portray it in live action now after the vibroblades in the first season

- the way bb glances up at din like ‘hey dad. dad what the fuck???’ as one gomorrean nearly chops the arm off the other fjaslfds

- when you look for it it’s comically obvious that those guys are working for the dude mando’s meeting, they’ve all got more or less the same dark uniform and don’t look much at the fight haha. they might as well have ‘hired thugs’ stamped upon their foreheads

- I like how pared down and spare the music is in this fight scene, it’s just the faint whine of the electric guitars under the thuds of meat hitting metal 

also still love how din fights, the fact that he doesn’t even try to not get hit a lot of the time, he’s just tanking through it waiting for someone to fling themselves at him in a way he can exploit to take them out

the bouncer seems to be holding something like sci-fi handcuffs when he grabs din and lifts him off his feet, so he probably meant to restrain him quickly. bonus: I didn’t notice it the first time around, but din really went straaaaaiiight for this dude’s gentleman area once he dropped him back on his feet lol (you can even see him taking a split second to orient himself and take aim first fhsdkfhas). good job space cowboy dad, sometimes fighting smart means fighting dirty

- leaving this awful dude hanging upside down to get eaten after employing some very deliberate phrasing so he’s not even breaking his word is the ruthless HEIGHT of mando’s hilarious petty streak and it makes me cackle, gives me life, waters my crops    

- oh, the palpable loneliness and longing in din’s voice when he says ‘if I can track down another of my kind’ ;_______; I’m sorry buddy

- may we speak for a moment about the fact that din carries his son around in what seems very much to be a saddle bag sdafjkhsa

- the way din checks in with peli (to see if she’s fucking with him? he’s very confused anyway haha) over the map before saying “I don’t see anything” is so precious. he already seems much more socially tuned in and responsive compared to the beginning of season 1, you love to see it, coming out of that freeze response baBEY

- I can’t get over how much the baby loves speed, this is coming back to bite you so hard if you’re ever going to have to teach this kid how to drive one day mando

- awwww the little patented mando finger curl as he enters the bar <3<3<3 that’s sort of his tell for being preoccupied/anxious; I think finding other mandos, someone to trust and to get help from, means A Lot to him  

once he sees the marshall in the armour his shoulders drop down and he stands up straighter :’) hope is a powerful thing (I guess all of this might add even more to how angry he is too)

the DEAD STOP when cobb takes the helmet off sdkfhkajsldhfsdk

- yodito putting his lil mouth on the lip of this jar thing is such a well observed little quirk of baby behaviour, I’m crying

(there is liquid of some sort in this thing; I’ve seen some people theorize it’s a spittoon but for my own peace of mind I’m going to forcefully declare that it is not thank you)

- so much stuff packed into that “He’s seen worse”!! dismissal, self-deprecation, sorrow, resignation, warning. 

- the contrast in this standoff of vanth’s eastwood eye twitch and the complete deadpan impassiveness of din’s helmet and general demeanor... wonderful  

- upon rewatching I’m actually wondering if some of these scenes with the baby on his own were filmed independently of the actors and that it might add to that slight distracting feeling of disconnect/distance you get through the episode. (it’s sort of odd to me that mando doesn’t even glance down at him as the whole place starts to shake, for example) there must be a lot of stuff that comes down to technical considerations with the baby; I suspect it takes a lot of time and resources to have him walking around too much, which is why The Waddle is kind of a rare treat   

what I’m saying is that they may be saving up dad & baby interaction resources for episodes where it’s more relevant or important

- so is this a one bantha town or is it just for convenient film language reasons it was all alone in frame like that lol

also cobb’s ‘mondays amirite’ look fdsakjfhsjk 

- since I think it every time I get to this part: this is a very neat hairstyle this person is rocking, suits them! 

- ah the stern pointer finger of emphasis. din TALKS, no, COMMUNICATES so much in this episode you guys!!!!! 

- rip this tusken, the bravest person who ever lived

- the delivery of “...they might be open to some fresh ideas” is the funniest moment of this entire episode don’t @ me

- oh the kotor-ness of it all lol

- jill (the girl who hands cobb the detonator) is so cute with her hat and everything ;____; 

- I suppose these tuskens are really the bravest people to ever live considering they saw what happened to the last guy (or gal I suppose I don’t know how sand people gender works)

- baby needs some goggles to protect his giant eyes from wind and sand Y___Y

- they’ve nailed how to make the jetpacks work in live action, it looks really cool and I suspect it easily could have uh. not 

- this poor sacrificial bantha... it even tried to get away

- ooooh the heart eyes -- cobb 100% has a crush on this man jfsdflhsad. (with it being sort of unrequited/’oh man I’m behind about 150 layers of dissociation too many to even really consider that one way or the other bud’ from mando’s side #personal headcanon disclaimer)    

- my take on why din doesn’t get dissolved in acid in there is that that stuff is released from a specific gland or something that the dragon can unleash at will and that the spit itself doesn’t have that quality on its own (or at least it’s a lot less potent) 

- seems pretty well confirmed by now that yodito is a carnivore huh hahaha

- I find it obscurely satisfying that cobb seems to be wearing exactly his old outfit under the armour -- he did just strap it on on top of what he already was. (there’s something there -- he’s a whole thing still without the armour, and at this time at least din would not be I don’t think) just some good narrative foil stuff going on here under the surface

also once again props to the costume design; without the armour he looks so vulnerable again, they have dressed him to emphasise his height and slenderness (especially compared to mando, who actually seems to have bulked up a bit? fatherhood suits him I guess)    

plus, the way the baby looks questioningly up at din while he watches cobb walk away? yeah, din is lonely, let this poor man have a friend who stays around soon T______________T

- heeey boba, nice threads! my guess is that he’s not going to be there for the armour if he does track din down, since he hasn’t seemed to be in any haste to get it back before (which is interesting!). he might also have been unable to go looking for it before because he was still recovering from being half digested, of course, they could play it a lot of different ways

I wonder if we’ll get more of him in the next ep or if they’ll let the tension ramp up through the season