#it got canceled before any of the plot was actually resolved

[agothinhiding]

streaming services should be required to put a warning or disclaimer on shows that got canceled prematurely. I shouldn't have to Google every show I want to watch to see if it got canceled, and I'm tired of investing in a show just to realize after watching that it's never going to continue. it's fucking ridiculous that we have to research shows before getting invested in them. I'm so serious when I say that I'm going to stop watching new shows altogether soon because it's just not worth it anymore. it provides none of the value that tv shows should provide (character and PLOT development, satisfying endings, twists and turns, literally anything that takes longer than 1 season to accomplish). I only have so much time in my week to watch TV and I'm tired of squandering what little free time I have on fucking bullshit that leaves me unsatisfied and pissed off.

maybe if these companies see the popularity of the new original series dropping itll make them scared enough to actually give their viewers what they fucking signed up for

[aching-tummies]

Circumnavigating on an Empty Stomach

Had an interesting experience that I think people here will appreciate.

Transit in my city took a major blow a day or two ago. My city is large enough to have train lines running through it as well as bus routes. Likening it to anatomy, the train lines are basically like major veins or arteries while the bus routes are little capillary vessels or whatever, often intersecting with the train lines to ferry people all over the city.

A couple of days back I had to be on-campus for a few of the classes I am taking. I usually have to take 2 buses to get from my place to the right train line to get to my campus (there are multiple train lines running through my city and getting on the wrong one could take you to a random quadrant of the city). I ate breakfast around 8AM, found out through checking my emails that a couple of my classes were cancelled, resulting in me getting undressed and tidying up my house for about three hours until I decided to get ready to attend the remaining classes for the day. I headed out for the buses at noon, expecting to get to my campus by around 1:30PM or so and giving me roughly 90 minutes to heat up a packed lunch and eat it before attending a 3PM class.

Buses got me to the station--no problems there. I live diagonally across the city from campus, so it's usually 15 minutes on each bus and just shy of an hour on the train. About two stops since I got on the train, our train came to a screeching halt. Standing passengers got air as they clung to the hand-rails and poles along the train. Backpacks not secured literally soared 6 or more feet over. Loose thermos containers and water bottles went rolling. It took 25 minutes to get an explanation, and part of the explanation was that we would be stalled where we were for at least another 15 minutes. So…45 minutes of my 90 minute buffer disappeared only 2 minutes into a 55 minute train ride.

By the time I got to campus, there was no time to heat up my packed lunch. I just booked it across campus to my class and committed to paying attention as best I could and trying not to think about how it had been seven hours since I'd eaten anything. Breakfast was a distant memory.

Classes ended a little early for me that day and I got word that the train line issues had been resolved, so I headed to the train platform around 5:30PM. I managed to avoid the temptation of buying food on or around campus because I didn't want to justify buying a meal for a day where I went all the way to campus just to attend a class and a half. I was miserable, hungry, and feeling like I had been cheated out of my entire day because classes canceled or ended early without much notice. I spent more time trying to get to campus than I did actually on campus. In my mind, campus had taken my time and my rage--I refused to give it my money too for what I felt had been a day not-so-well-wasted.

Thirty minutes on the train platform with no trains before we got an answer. The incident that had stalled my train earlier had been resolved, but a new one had just occurred on the other side of the line, essentially grinding all train service to a halt. The platform was packed with 5 train cycles full of passengers. Even if a train had showed up, less than a fifth of the people on the platform would have been able to squeeze on. With trains expected to arrive once every half an hour, if at all, we'd be looking at three hours standing on the platform before any hope of catching a train.

I took a detour. I was miserable, frustrated, angry, and hungry. I had zero interest in standing on a crowded platform for three hours.

I wound up walking to a bus zone about twenty minutes (on foot) away from the train platform to board a bus. Unfortunately, from that part of the city my route home would require 5 different buses to get back to my quadrant of the city. Imagine that Campus is about as far to the West as you can possibly plot it on this quadrants thing. My home is just a bit north of the farthest Eastern point of the city. In order to get back home without relying on the failed trains, my trip home was twenty minutes on foot to the farthest Western point (campus is around it, but not directly on it). Bus 1 would take me deep into the SW quadrant of the city. From the heart of the SW, Bus 2 would get me to the city centre. From the city Centre, bus 3 would get me into the SE quadrant. From there, Bus 4 would take me to the eastern point and from there I'd have a choice of Bus 5 or a 20 minute walk up a steep hill to get back home. My alternate route essentially took me on a round-trip through my entire city. (I have altered the quadrants in this telling--what order they appear in to avoid potentially doxing myself, but circumnavigating my entire city on multiple buses on a 3.5 hour, untested route home was 100% real).

I stumbled into my home just after 9PM. Unfortunately, I was so anxious over the experimental alternate route home and making sure that I did not miss any stops that I was pretty tense throughout my journey home. No growls or grumbles 'cuz I guess I was too tightly wound for anything of the sort to happen. There was just this annoying hollow sensation sitting like a ball of led in my gut starting around 3:30 and not budging until I got home and basically face-planted into the patch of floor just within my front door.

[tokiro07]

I was admittedly worried recently that Cipher Academy was going to get canceled because we’re about to have four new series added to Jump, but I realized my worries are likely unfounded on the basis that I completely forgot that two manga ended without being replaced recently

PPPPPP and High School Family’s cancellations brought Jump’s roster down from 20 to 18 (not counting HxH or Ruri Dragon since both are on hiatus), and Tokyo Demon Bride’s this week brought it down to 17

I’ve seen Jump have as many as 22 series at one time before (albeit not for very long as I recall), so even if we assume nothing else gets cancelled, we’ll still only be at 21, which is only slightly above average

I’m decently sure that Ichigoki is Under Control is about to end considering that it keeps doing long timeskips and its resolving the plot points that were established as long-term goals in chapter 1, so we’re bound to be at 20, making other cancellations significantly less likely

That said, I also don’t have high hopes for Ginka and Gluna right now with how how it’s telling the story right now; both getting Ginka’s backstory and Gluna having sacrificed her memories of Ginka feel like end of series events, so I’d honestly be more surprised if it does continue until the next round of cancellations. This would put us at 19 series, and I just don’t see them letting it dip any further for the moment

It also helps that none of the other series right now feel like they’re rushing through their plots or anything; Cipher Academy and Fabricant 100 are the ones that seem to be having the most trouble right now, both occasionally dipping into the bottom 3 in the table of contents (the only slots in the ToC that actually seem to mean anything), but both only seem to be ramping up rather than winding down (Fabricant 100 only just officially introduced its power system and Cipher Academy had a breather chapter that was nice and appreciated but it definitely could have skipped if it had a deadline to rush towards)

Ichinose Family’s Deadly Sins feels like it’s trying to reach a conclusion, with a sudden shift from slow and careful character analysis into rapid exposition with back-to-back plot twists that don’t feel like they have the opportunity to sink in, but not only is it consistently pretty early in the ToC, it also just got a color page, which I doubt would happen if it were about to get canceled. It’s definitely possible that this is just a prologue arc and everything past this point is going to be completely different once it concludes

Whether or not Cipher Academy will make it through the next round obviously remains to be seen, but I’m confident it will at least make it to the next round without issue. Also Mashle is clearly entering its final battle, so it could easily end in the next 12-20 issues and that would be one fewer series that would be up for cancellation in the next round

Honestly, I’m expecting Cipher Academy to be a lot like Medaka Box - not popular enough to ever get the cover more than once in a blue moon, but just popular enough to narrowly avoid cancellation until it reaches a natural if somewhat rushed conclusion

[robotnik-mun]

I think the reason I like Final Victory so much and am pretty indifferent to Endgame is the fact that Final Victory feels like a complete culmbination to everything. A ton of different plotlines all being built up until they reach their boiling point to form one big finale. While a good chunk of Endgame's plot threads are introduced either right before or during the arc (not to mention final victory doesn't throw out vital characters in what should be their moment to shine)

(On a small secondary note- I don't hate Sally or any of the FFs being taken out of the story for the sake of rising the stakes a little, its just how it was done that seems kinda lame)

In fairness to Endgame, the circumstances behind it were pretty last minute- SatAM had been cancelled and everyone was certain the book was going to end, so, things did go in a bit rushed.

That being said though, you are indeed quite correct. Final Victory is a far more appropriate climax to what had come before in the Fleetway book, and while Endgame's circumstances excuses a little? It doesn't excuse everything- such as the fact a good chunk of the plot was lifted directly from The Fugitive, or the fact that Sonic had been framed several times in the past by that point, or the fact that Sonic is barely a factor in resolving what is meant to be his 'Greatest Challenge'. I could probably write a doctoral thesis on its failings.

The Sally thing gets even worse when you remember that despite it being the thing that sets this all in motion and supposedly forms the emotional crux of the arc, it barely factors into things from that emotional standpoint. It happens, there's a page of people being sad, and then boom- Sonic the Fugitive!

Endgame does have a few cool moments to it- the final fight between Sonic and Robotnik is probably my favorite Sonic thing ever- but its not enough to redeem the story or make it into the kind of story it thought it was, versus what we actually got.

[faunastanza]

Quixate and Ellaroux Solve Art Block pt. 1

(part 2)

Quixate and Ellaroux Solve Art Block, by Quixate, Ellaroux, the Principal, Andrealphus, Phoebe, the Conductor, and others

[nursing scotch] Floraverse, huh... that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...

The Egg Dream Exchange was back in December of last year so it took six months for the next update! It's another long VN summarizing a bunch of RP events no one outside the discord could hope to comprehend or follow. Does it involve new characters we've never seen before? Of course! Does it resolve any of the previous unresolved plot threads? Nope! It does actually reference some older canon details which I did not expect, so that was a refreshing change.

We open on another one of those tiresome DOS prompt-like windows, filled with impenetrable jargon.

 sysadmin just sighing at going through all this garbage

From what I've gathered, and I can't remember how much of this was actually in the comic itself or just from my general digging around in my fruitless quest for understanding, but Undertown is an area in Arcus where all the angels get shunted off to. I'm not sure if it's a city or a ghetto or what. Anyway, someone, I believe, is trying to find Stolas through a link with Deca and Andrealphus. Deca has Angelbox in his... filename...? which is the name of that zine that Glip did a while back with all the angel stories from their discord, and a lot of ranting about being canceled and their beef with Pengo. I guess it's a canon thing now? Maybe it's just a general classification for angels in whatever naming schema this is using.

Anyway, there's a mention of a "collapse of VOID" through an inversion on VOID propagation. TALwire mentioned Void Propagation back in TALwire's Game but it's still not really clear what it is. I think what it's saying that there's a risk that accessing Stolas through Phesund might have some kind of knock-on effects on the Principal (the most dangerous angel ever ever if you remember). There's another "active engagement" that interprets Keys that get read as "Hang on, what action is he overriding?" so maybe Keys are what are used to access whatever reality terminal this is? They're asking about Phesund I think, so they try to track down what it is he's doing that'll affect the Principal. They trace it to another angel called Quixate (Conductor), or maybe it refers to Quixate and the Conductor? They're two separate people so I'm not sure why they're sharing the same filename. God only knows. They try to reconfigure the Principal's VOID structures and are asked if they want to observe (the rest of the VN, I assume). It then follows up with "Connect to NODISK for details" so I'm not sure if the request to observe went through or not. Whatever. It's a framing device, albeit a completely incomprehensible one. We cut to the Principal, a kind of snake looking thing we first saw in Stolas's First Speech, and some new guy who looks like a mosquito train conductor. They approach a dark spiky pyramid (the Art Pyramid?). Principal addresses the mosquito guy as Quixate, who replies with little hearts in his text, calling the Principal his Prince (Prince-ipal). He asks Quixate to talk to the angel guarding (the Pyramid I assume), which Quixate is happy to do.  

my legs got caught in a taffy machine

Principal thanks him, calling him his love. Never seen this guy before but sure, alright. Quixate flitters and says he loves him back. We suddenly get a big chunk of text, I guess because Glip didn't feel like drawing it. It talks about a Bearring (maybe the guy who responded to Mesund in that deranged way back in the World Egg? I'd say Cozmo but lol he's vanished into the ether) looking at the Principal and being overcome with joy. All his pain and suffering disappears in an instant to be replaced with a tearful happiness. It says that nothing else mattered, all that mattered was that he arrived "here" with the Principal together, finally. Principal looks at the Bearring and smiles (gently/sadly) and also gets teary. It mentions that the Bearring and the Principal went through some kind of unwilling "separation" and that now it's not needed anymore.

note: art tba

He hugs the Principal and weeps and laughs for a while and wipes his tears on the Prince's robe. They have a good cry about it, and the Principal says he didn't want it to go like this and he didn't realize, and the Bearring says he knew, and they look over a cliff at some water that's the same one from the dream they first shared. If this IS the Bearring from before, I have no idea how he relates to any of this or what he was doing aside from getting yelled at by Mesund. I guess he's been busy. We cut to a guy wrapped up in scarves talking to Pryce, that bat thing that told that spooky story ages ago when Beleth and co were still around. She refers to scarf guy as the Conductor, so he's not the same as Quixate... but why was he in the filename... He thanks her for coming and says the letter he wrote had some real painful and personal topics (the letter that the random fox was supposed to deliver with that whole banana cookie thing back in World Egg...?). Pryce says she'll treat it with respect. The conductor asks if she thinks they can reach a good end to the war. Pryce says she does believe it, and that she tried to tell Andre and Baphomet about it but they ignored her. She asks how he knows that happened, and he says he had a chat with Andre. We get a shot of classic Andre in his painting form where he's dismissive of Pryce and says she's naive, and dismisses the idea that angels can be understood at all. If they were, they wouldn't be in this situation!  

andre always looks annoyed in his recent appearances, probably due to being taken over by glip

Conductor asks Andre why Pryce thinks they can stop the war, and Andre says she has a theory about emotional resonance and that it's possible to coexist with them (we heard about emotional resonance in that plotline with Pride and GalarianAmdusias that got completely dropped). Conductor says that Baphomet says they're working on some new resonance tech that should be a game-changer. Andre asks if that's the Vault project, and he doesn't get how it's supposed to help but Baphomet seems confident. This might be the same vault mentioned in that Mimkey Moose VN (god, just typing that name is grating) which also got completely dropped. I don't know. All this comic gives you is straws, and I'm grasping for them with all my might. We cut to Stolas talking to some kind of flowercat I think with Jupet hiding behind them. The flowercat SORT of looks like Jasmaby (who was in the title card for Hell is War Hellside Topside whatever) but did not actually appear anywhere in it. He hasn't shown up since that title card, actually. Maybe it's not him. I don't know, a lot of the character designs look the same after a while.

 pryce wondering why everyone's in her Disney's Haunted Mansion™

Maybe he did something with his hair. Whoever they are they're certainly Jasmaby adjacent.

Jupet moves forward and asks Stolas if he put the angels in jail (Undertown?). Stolas says yes, sometimes. Jupet looks disappointed. They ask if Stolas made them do "dying or worse" while the flowercat looks upset. Stolas kneels down and says yes, sometimes. Jupet says they think that's a mean thing to do and starts crying. Stolas looks upset at this, and says that he had to do it to protect Hellside. Papaya shows up to go "Here!" and I don't know if it's another scene or maybe she's meta-commenting that this is the right place in the timeline...? It doesn't matter because we just as rapidly cut to Andre and Baphomet talking. Baphomet asks if this is important since she's in the middle of a test, which Andre does not care about, and he wants to know about the Vault. Baphomet says the test involves the Vault. He says that he's been talking to the Conductor and thinks there's a way to end the war, but in the process of learning it he got mad at Baphomet.

everyone is always disappointed with everyone else

Andre says that Baphomet does all these things with his abilities and then doesn't tell him about them, which he's offended by. Baphomet says she has to do it that way to protect Hellside. Papaya cuts in again to say "Here! It's here! Remember!" while a little Quixate bweehorse looks on. Andre throws a tantrum, screaming "No!" over and over and saying she makes him feel crazy, with his mask revealing his internal face. He says that this is his art, and Baphomet tells him to stop being a baby and it's embarrassing. Finally someone said it. She says that others will be scared if people see him acting like that, which makes me think this is another veiled comment from Glip since they use Andre as a stand-in sometimes, and people often say they're scared of Glip for pretty valid reasons. We cut to Stolas in his dragon form echoing "Enough! This needs to stop!" to Quixate and Razca, who is in a state of shock, I think. Quixate tells Stolas to stop that, he's scaring her, although he says it in a weirdly bored way.  

meh. eh. whatever. i don't care.

Incidentally, I'm pretty sure Razca and Quixate are played by the same person, who I think Glip is currently dating. Just for some background context. Stolas echoes again, this time saying "you are upsetting me". Quixate tells him to cool off and that Razca doesn't need this explosive energy. Stolas says "You are increasingly more upsetting me" and I'm not sure if it's him saying this or someone else. It's still in quotation marks. Quixate looks down at Razca with sympathy, saying "Oh sweetheart...", reassuring her that he'll take care of this CRAZY guy for her. We cut to Papaya again in a different scene, asking if Quixate is okay. He says no and starts crying. Papaya sits down to listen as Quixate wonders if maybe he's poisoned, and that he thinks he's carrying something bad inside. His insides feel all twisted. "I almost- We almost died" he says. Papaya looks sympathetic, saying that he didn't die though, and that Quixate is still here. Quixate asks her to listen, saying he thinks he's CRAZY in the same big font as before, although he's not supposed to say that. Papaya asks why, and Quixate says it's because everything is all wrong, and asks if Papaya knows what he is. We cut to a different scene in a church. Principal is talking to Quixate, saying that "Key-36. Delusion" can be used by Arcus. Quixate asks what he has to do. Principal says that Quixate needs to be careful, and that they can't risk them tricking them again, or "using you", again. Principal says he has a plan, and that they'll play a game. Quixate says he loves playing games with him, and Principal says that this one will be very difficult. He says that when he's not expecting it, he wants Quixate to "take" from him, by force if he resists.

just threw a towel over my shoulders and called it a day

Quixate asks what he means. Principal says to succsuck from him, even if he doesn't seem to want it, and to take from his body. Quixate says he doesn't really want to do that. Principal asks him again, and when Quixate asks why, he says he can't explain or the "integrity of the path" will dissolve. After some hesitation, Quixate asks if it will be forever, and that they won't have to do it forever, right? Principal says no, only until they solve for the locks, and then they will escape (from Undertown I guess). Quixate restates the situation, where they're playing a game where the Principal wants things he doesn't want, and that it will help him. Principal says that it will help them both, and all of Undertown. Quixate agrees, but says that it hurts, and asks if it hurts the Principal too. At one point, Glip did a porn comic that stirred up a lot of controversy over whether it was non-con or not. Glip insisted it wasn't, because the victim agreed to being put into a situation against their will (they actually didn't and it's stated clearly that he didn't) because they wanted to experience tough emotions. This felt like a retcon because Glip didn't want to accept that they wrote a non-con story without meaning to (so they claim). This whole scene reminds me a lot of that. I don't know if it's specifically about that, but the themes are similar (the argument about it not being non-con, not the porn comic). The Principal starts crying as well, saying that he does not prefer the situation. Quixate asks for reassurances that it won't be forever and will just be for now.  

non-con me baby

Principal promises that if they find a better idea, they'll switch over to that. Quixate continues to weep, saying he's scared that he'll get confused, or lose himself, or take it too far, or that Principal will get too hurt. This is what safe words are for! Principal says that whatever happens they'll make it work, and that he'll always love them. Quixate cries some more, which blurs into a shot of the Conductor. He says that he gets these daydream-like things, where it feels like "the place me 'n the other monarchs saw the first lonely door, but inside". Way back in the lore, seven people went through the lonely door and got their memories wiped. When we actually saw the door in Who's left and what's right, we saw Unmasked Sun haranguing them with cryptic nonsense and then it detoured into stuff with Amdusias and Mr. 5 that also never really got resolved. A guy that looked like the Conductor WAS there though. He says that in the daydreams, he's this big ol bug that's always with the Principal, and he doesn't know how to describe it besides "torture", and he keeps getting the word "Undertown" over and over. He says it feels like being locked up and trapped, and then it hits him that it's Baphomet's Vault, and that "we can't kill these ones, so we're doin' this 'steada that". he says it gets so bad, like he's rotting inside. He says he got one daydream where he got this idea to be alone with an angel, even though you're not supposed to do that, and that he thinks the bug guy would like it if he got him a candle. We cut to a scene with Quixate looking at the candle on the floor near the Conductor, delighted.  

it's so cold in the train

The Conductor says he got the feeling Quixate was behind him, but wasn't sure if he'd be there when he looked. Quixate says he thought orange candle and red roses to the Conductor, who says he got the idea cause he was thinking about a book he was reading, but he cuts himself off saying he doesn't want to bore him. Quixate urges him to continue, saying he wants to know why he picked red, since it's "dripping with love". The Conductor says in the book he was reading, there's a bearring who lights a red candle every night looking for his lost love. Quixate looks upset, asking if he finds him, and the Conductor says he hasn't gotten that far yet. This is unrelated, but there have been a lot more male characters in Floraverse lately. Glip used to pride themselves on how few male characters there were in Floraverse, even threatening to kill off Cozmo, the only male character at the time. Nowadays though it feels like most of them are male. Just making a note of it. Some green and lavender skunk looking thing holds out a candle, saying it's a gift for Quixate for his collab for Gaap and that they put so much love into it.  

i even have a heart in my mouth

Quixate asks for more details, although his text looks weirdly normal instead of annoyingly heart filled. Teary, the skunk says that the whole temple helped by sharing a memory of a time they found something or someone they loved, and some provided herbs and incense and such. They're all rooting for Quixate and they know he can do it, they all support him and believe in him and know he'll find his prince. Is Quixate actually a Bearring...? I'm pretty sure they're a mosquito but this all sounds like that Bearring from before. I don't know. Quixate thanks them, calling them Prytaneia. More new characters. We abruptly cut to some kind of intense looking baboon, upset that Quixate tried to defile a ritual for the Holy Mother. They ask what he could possibly say to allow for any kind of positive outcome.  

baboon jumpscare

Quixate is confused by "defile", and asks why. The baboon says they did not consent to their energy for the Holy Mother and HIgh Priestess being used by Quixate, and that it wasn't for him. They say they contributed as much as any of the ten of thousands of Altharites, and since he didn't consent, the energy is defiled, even if only one person didn't consent. Quixate says he didn't really think about that, and then there's a shot of him walking with two other silhouettes I don't recognize, they're vague. He says there were a bunch of things he didn't know, and that Vi'toria said they didn't consent, and Quixate was like wow, I didn't think of it that way! Some spiky bored dragon goes "Yeah, apparently not". I'm not sure if this is the same scene or not, but we get a shot of Quixate with some angel looking thing with a quadrangle for a head holding a flowercat in its tentacles. Quixate says he's pleasantly surprised that there are dreamers that understand how important all this is, and it gives him hope for the big speech. He's glad that Phoebe is so enthusiastic about helping. I went and looked through all the posts for any details on Phoebe, and they showed up in Stolas First Speech to do that dumb word game with Stolas, which told me nothing about them. I guess she's here now.

the angels win the pennant! the angels win the pennant!

Phoebe asks what the speech is, and the pointy angel says she wants to discuss the future of Althar. Quixate expands on that, saying they're going to change everything around to make everything perfect. He asks what Phoebe wants to know, calling her "sweet thing" which is a little weird. The angel sets her down, although it looks like it poked her with one of its devil tails and she's bleeding. Phoebe stammers a bit, and Quixate assures her that she doesn't need to be shy, he won't be offended and that he's a really tolerant guy, calling her "little thing" now. Quixate does look a lot bigger than her. He says that he knows she was thinking it, and that maybe there's an autograph at the end of this for her. Phoebe, afraid, asks what his plans are for Althar. Quixate says that's a great question, and says that he's welcoming the Principal to Althar, and that they'll organize for peace, unity, and love. Phoebe looks aghast, then angry, and Quixate says that's the wrong face, sweetheart! All these odd endearments. Quixate says it should look more like this as he dokidokis at the camera.  

uguu

Phoebe responds in a really odd way, saying "I'm... I think you might  be a few too many steps ahead of me for that face to be on me, sorry." Quixate says he can fix that, reaching out to her. Phoebe says that she doesn't want it to be fixed, it's her feeling, she's okay with it, she might change it later if she wants to and it's okay to. This kind of unnatural, therapy-speak-esque dialogue is typical of Glip's discord, and it's always jarring when it shows up. Quixate says that that feeling is wrong. Phobe says that feelings can't be wrong, misinformed and misplaced yes, but not wrong. Quixate then says that he didn't want to say this while Phoebe was still here, but he asks the pointy angel if they got her antlers. It says "unknown" and that she wouldn't say where they were. Phoebe says she's sick of people treating her antlers like they're theirs. We cut to what looks like some weird looking hypno rabbit, asking if it pains her, and if she wants relief from this. Phoebe says she wants it to stop happening, so if that's a form of relief then yes, otherwise no, she gains nothing from not knowing or noticing.

 will the extras get off the set please

Quixate says he'll think about that, and asks her where they are. Phoebe says she still doesn't want to say, and she doesn't want them used or taken. She doesn't want them worked with at all without care for the experiences they hold, and that she doesn't feel that care is present. Again, straight out of Glip's discord, they all talk like this. Quixate goes "and?" and Phoebe goes on that she doesn't want to say because Quixate said he wanted to take them, or that his "warrior" wants to take them. This is like explaining to a four year old not to take your stuff. We get a big shot of Quixate saying that Phoebe doesn't know the situation she's in, since she doesn't need to be alive at all. We cut to some kind of garden, where someone asks if someone else saw a broadcast yesterday. They reply no, and the first person (Razca) says she saw it on a compact she hadn't used in months that just went off suddenly. She says it displayed the "mosquito angel" Quixate, and he said he's going to summon an angel called the Principal to Althar. She says he's looking for two "sacrifices" to do this, and there was a list of entities. He's looking for three sacrifices in total, and he already has one (Phoebe?). In the broadcast, Quixate was talking with two other angels, Balkri with a knife for a face (the guy above, I assume) and another one called the Wellspring, described as "like a fountain". They would all comment on people on the list, splitting it into Wanted Entities and Notable Entities. Wanted Entities would be sacrifices. Razca says she was on the Notable Entities list, and she is very shaken by this. She says that Quixate said that she is his favorite and his "damsel in distress", and he expressed good will from his friends to whoever brought her to him and that she and him would be "close". Afraid, she says that he talked about how lovely it'd be when they linked their Minds in a Hive. Beecat thinks that she would sooner kill him.  

bees vs mosquitos, fight

I'm pretty sure Beecat is Glip's character, while Razca and Quixate are the other person's character, Kuri I think. I wonder how many people are actually in these RPs or if it's mostly Glip and a handful of friends. Beecat says out-loud "I see". We then cut to a fully painted shot of Hellside with the eye moon. It's been an extremely long time since there's been one of these, and it's very reminiscent of the early days of the comic when all of the panels had this much care put into them. One of the trees really looks like it has testicles for leaves, incidentally.  

the eye of sauron beholds these nutsacks

Quixate and the Principal are walking along, and Quixate says he wants to spend time in the Principal's mind. He says that's a lovely idea, but they're being tracked by demons currently. Quixate then reveals that he talked to a very nice demon lately, which surprises the Principal pleasantly as he asks how. Quixate says that he summoned him to his train, where they talked about a book he was reading and how to end the war. Principal asks if he has any authority, and Quixate says that he's a monarch and he works alongside their leader and the painting guy, Andy. At this, the Principal is hesitant, saying that Andre has contributed to the magic that's killed their friends, isn't that true? He then says that he doesn't want to trample on Quixate's hopes, but he's just concerned that he'll also be in danger, and he doesn't want to lose him. Quixate says that he mentioned it, and the Conductor said Andre didn't like any of the death at all, and that everyone was really upset when he ate Big Star's rim. OH MY GOD, LORE!!! Principal is confused, asking if he means the cookie, and aren't cookies meant for eating?  

it was me, the big worm with the rags that ruined the world

Quixate says he said the same thing, but the Conductor said it was part of a star that was someone, and it made her very sad. The Principal looks devastated, saying he doesn't see a star, only a cookie, and wails that he wouldn't have done that if he knew it was a star that was also a person. Quixate says that he knows and he told the Conductor that, who understood and says that sometimes he sees things others don't as well. We cut to a different scene, I think, with the Principal saying he's dying. We're back in the church with the Principal in some kind of fountain, asking how it would fit into your current "void map of understanding" if a student has experienced fear that you would touch and violate her body. Didn't a dreamAndre say that Phesund had a crush on a student...? This full shot of the Principal also has those stupid manhole hands. They immediately kill the scene. Why are those there. Why would you do that. Maybe they're mirrors? They look ridiculous.  

consent sure comes up a lot in these

It turns out the Principal is talking to that weird angel book that showed up in the World Egg. It opens and closes and says that it doesn't fit and there are no results. The Principal asks for the book's opinion on the resonant imp Decateranomy, which is the first we heard that Deca is an imp. It's a meaningless detail, but there it is. The book says Deca is ignorant in ways that generate work for it, and it doesn't remember why this is but only that it knows it's true. The Principal says that maybe the book should educate him. The book asks what led to the Principal's word choice in that remark. He says that he's pondering the options available to him regarding the decision he must make. The book asks if it's a "transformative anchor point", and Principal asks why the book asked them that. The book lets loose with some technobabble, saying that it's referenced student choices in relation to transformative anchor points "within or without time", but they're choices available to everyone, not just those defined as students in Undertown. Decisions are choices and the word "must" has different meanings than "want", so it wants to know more. The Principal makes a dumb face with its dumb mirror hands and says the incredibly non-threatening and robotic, "your methods of teaching generate work for me that I reject at present". The book asks if the Principal is firing it, and the Principal asks it to explain. The book says not knowing is making it tense and it doesn't like it. Principal says that the tension is what he's harnessing. He then stands up straight and looks even sillier.  

by timmy, age 8

The book asks what that means, and the Principal asks if it's experiencing grief. It says it's experiencing wanting to die. We fade out to a shot of the Principal eating the moon's rim, I think, and then a shot of Beecat thrashing. Dog on the Floor is now Dog in the Bed Next to Her and asks if she's okay, and says she was kicking and punching. Beecat apologizes and says that in her dream, the Principal was making this awful noise that sounded like the end of the world. She wanted to stop it, and she wonders where she's allowing in violence, saying this is not good. We cut back to Papaya, saying she has a dream she wants to share. She asks Quixate to pick from three of them. He picks 3. She says that in that one she was a little fairy angel (Pin, from the World Egg) and she left her body really fast and shot through many walls and worlds. She says there was a painting for the "Buchbrennerin" (bookburner, I think) which just looks some lines and an angel is watching, which is a splotch with an eye.  

Razca's player is German, have I mentioned that

She says weird abstract objects fly at her from that corner, with the first feeling both real and imaginary (and dangerous) when she tries to catch it with her left hand. The second time it appears from the same corner, it feels more incorporeal. Pin comes to what looks like a pink mirror and calls out to someone called Niah, who seems to be another pixie thing. We suddenly get a shot of Lexy, Eevee (Glip's wife)'s self-insert, saying "Reality is breaking!?". Lexy is wearing a moon mask though similar to Papaya's, although it does remind me a little of those masks that got brought up in the Masked Sun and Masked Star and all that. Whatever. Papaya says she thinks it's because of her, then runs with Lexy to look at a view of the pink sky with a bunch of planets. Lexy says it looks like the world is ending, while Papaya says it looks like it's being born.  

first real appearance of lexy i think

Lexy wonders which one they're in, and Papaya says both. She runs towards one of the planets, then transforms into Pin along the way, then into some kind of bird creature that's some new stupid looking version of Phesund that howls at the moon.

 there are so many versions of phesund and they all suck, they're all the same

The new version of Phesund breaks down into tears, which leads to a shot of Phesund hugging some other person I've never seen while weeping. They look kind of similar to the above design though, so I'm assuming Phesund fused with whoever this is cause sure, why not. Who cares at this point. We cut to what looks like the trans food pyramid as some stupid looking thing spouts more jargon. It looks kind of like the dumb heart shaped thing from the Egg Dream Exchange one.  

maslow's hierarchy of gender

It basically says that if everything is connected to everything ever then anything is possible. It says that one way to experience this anything-is-possible-ness is to merge consciousnesses, two forms of which are "suiconvergence" and "suilege", which sounds a lot like sewage. Knowing Glip has a melting/merging fetish adds another level to this. Suiconvergence is when two consciousnesses work in total sync with one another. On denser more physical planes, it says that it can be easy to feel lonely if you forget suiconvergence is a thing. When you feel trapped in aloneness, possibilities shrink, etc. Related to the talk of joining minds in a hive above? Probably. We cut abruptly to the Principal and Quixate talking again. Quixate asks what a wretch is, and Principal says it's someone contemptible/despicable. Quixate asks what's a parasite, and he says it's something that extracts from another at the other's expense. Quixate then tells the Principal to give him what makes him a wretch, and he'll take it away from him. Principal asks why, and Quixate says he's a parasite, he sucks and takes, it's what he does. It won't change much about him, he says, but he wonders what it'll change about the Principal. Principal says not to become a wretch like him, and Quixate asks why. He reaches out to hold him, which puzzles the Principal, and he says it's so he can take it from him. Principal asks if Quixate would kill him, much to his confusion. He asks why he'd ask, and the Principal says he wants to die. You can see his stupid mirror hands here which again completely ruin the scene.  

i moonlight as a traffic light

Quixate asks what it means to die together, and gets "that means the world is rejected by two" in response. He says isn't that what they've been doing? He asks how they can die, and says they've tried many times. He holds out a box of chocolates, saying with a laugh that "that" didn't work on them, they know that. Principal suggests poison, which Quixate was also thinking of. He asks where you go when you die. The Principal says where there's a place for you. Quixate says there's always been a place for them and starts crying into the chocolates. The Principal says he doesn't feel like there's a place for him, to which Quixate says that there's no place in the world for him without a place for him too. He asks what happened to making your place, and the Principal says that everything he makes is contaminated. This next stretch is basically the same thing we've seen many times before - one character goes into a depression spiral, and the other one tries to pull them out of it. It's tedious since it's always the same, regardless of the characters, and you can feel Glip projecting all over it. This time it seems related to being canceled again, with the Principal talking about everything being poisoned by being associated with him (Glip's reputation was ruined, what with their husband coercing minors into having sex with dogs for money and them covering it up for him for years).  

i can't open doors

It goes on for a while, with Quixate saying everything will fall without him, while the Principal says everyone will be better off. Typical self-pitying. Quixate asks if he loves him, and Principal says yes, and Quixate says he loves him too and that he doesn't know how to help him, and it hurts. "I don't want a world without you. Is our love not enough?" Quixate weeps.

Principal pulls out the classic "loving me hurts you", flashing back to how he realized Big Star was not a cookie and that all his friends died because he ate Big Star's rim and is delusional/poison. He screams that he ruined everything and he's the one who should have died. Quixate shouts that no one should have died.

In the greyscale time, Principal moans about sucking some more, and Quixate tries to talk him out of it. Principal laments that Hellside/Owel won't welcome him, and Quixate insists they will, with Andre/the Conductor changing and wanting to help them. He says that dreamers are worshipping him, and since they care about him, they'll care about the Principal as well.  

most powerful angel ever ever being a whiny baby

Quixate says that Andre wanted to make Owel a place where the Principal would be welcome, and that his coming has been announced. Principal asks why he trusts the person who imprisoned them here. We get a shot of drippy-nose Andre talking with Quixate, who says that he's changed and when Quixate explained the situation to him, he wanted to help, and he wants to bridge between Quixate and the dreamers - the land of Althar. Quixate told Andre about his sadsack boyfriend and Andre sympathized, saying he struggled with someone similarly, although I'm not sure who he means by this. He said Andre trusted Quixate to help him remember, and that he was vulnerable with him and thus is probably legit. We get a mirror shot of Quixate/Principal and Conductor/Andre both saying they believe that change is possible. Quixate says that Andre didn't like war, with the Andre on the other side agreeing, saying he was tired of it. Quixate says that Andre wanted the world to be a safe place to bring children into, which war does not help with. On the other side, Andre says that Baphomet told him that necropossum children would be good at fighting angels, which gave him a weird feeling as he realized that Owel is populated by all his children/paintings that he created.  

three different scenes going on concurrently

Andre can't believe her when she says she cares about the necropossum children when she doesn't listen when he talks about how she treats his creations, as if he has nothing to do with it once he's done with it. Even more frustrated, he says that he can't even express any emotions about it ("Masked Sun forbid") or Baphomet warns him that if he doesn't control himself, everyone will know. Andre says "What's so bad about being an angel anyway?" which I guess is a reveal? This had no real impact on me and god knows I spent enough time on this. It's not really a huge surprise. All the Troupe are angels and they made the world, which we basically knew already, so whatever. Andre mentions Paige, Sample, Chisel and Double, which is like... Writing, Music, Props, and then GUY WHO MAKES COPIES OF PEOPLE FOR NO REASON JUST TO BE CONFUSING, WHY IS DOUBLE THERE, ARRGHH I feel like part of this is veiled commentary on people making fanwork that Glip doesn't approve of, but I'm speculating. Andre says he refuses to hide anymore.

[firelxdykatara]

Reader anon here with a thought!

Do you like love triangles? I personally don't, there is something about them that is incredibly frustrating lol. Same thing for harems, though there are some that do it tastefully 😌 so I can't be too upset by them.

It honestly depends on the love triangle and the way the author writes all three relationships (and, for any genuine love triangle, there should be three relationships--they don't all need to be romantic, but there needs to be an existing and strong relationship between all three points on the triangle, otherwise I'm almost certain not to be at all invested), how they are presented, and what the narrative purpose of the love triangle is.

Ironically, one of the best examples of a love triangle done well (at least... to a certain point in the story, which I'll explain in a bit) happened in a television show that is fairly notorious for turning to utter shit in the latter four seasons and alienating pretty much the entire fanbase, to the point where most of us dipped well before the end and everyone celebrated news of the show's cancellation.

I'm talking about The Vampire Diaries.

(under a cut because i went on a LOOOONG ramble about tvd and why that love triangle worked initially and then why it failed, and then i talked a bit about another love triangle that was pretty weak and failed almost from the outset in OUAT but was ultimately axed in favor of the stronger relationship and character being given focus, and what all of this means for how i feel about love triangles in general)

While this is still very much a case where I only shipped one side of the triangle, hated the other, and couldn't wait for it to be resolved so that I wouldn't have to deal with the side I disliked any longer (the writing was on the wall as far back as season 1, no matter how in denial a certain portion of the fandom remained right up until the series finale) the development of the triangle itself and how it affected all three characters and their relationships with one another was done very well for most of the first four seasons. Damon and Stefan were brothers, with a bloody and complicated history and relationship, and they both fell in love with this human girl--Stefan almost instantly, because she looked just like Katherine and he found himself... (and here I'm going to be as fair as I possibly can to him, but if you want my full anti stelena rant I have many of them prepped and ready to go) following her, at first to make sure she wasn't Katherine, and then inserting himself into her life to protect her. Damon, on the other hand, took much longer, because he was still in love with (and trying to rescue) Katherine, and so when he did fall in love with Elena, it was because of who she was, not because of some idealized 'Not Katherine' pedestal he placed her on the instant he met her.

(I swear, I swear I'm trying to be fair to Stefan, it's just very hard.)

The thing is, Elena was in love with Stefan almost from the jump. (And one of the reasons I never really shipped stelena is because that kind of insta-love with very little conflict that isn't manufactured by the plot just isn't compelling for me, and I fully jumped ship about halfway through s1 when Damon and Elena took a road trip together. It's a long story, but that remains one of my favorite episodes in the entire show and it marks the beginning of their actual journey together.) Stefan showed up at a time when she desperately needed someone, and to his credit he did help her through her early depressive spiral--in large part because Elena's recent trauma (survivor's guilt due to her parents dying in a car crash from which she was the only survivor) meant that finding out Stefan was immortal and could not die and would not leave her resulted in her getting fiercely attached.

He was safe, he was stable, she could rely on him. But she could not grow with him, because for him, she was essentially a morality pet/the anchor to his humanity, and that meant that he could not accept when she began to grow out of her need for him. The fact that this coincided with her becoming a vampire only made things worse--because she settled into being a vampire much more easily with far less strife than he'd ever managed, and an Elena who enjoyed being a vampire in ways Stefan simply couldn't could no longer function as the idealized reminder of humanity he was desperate to cling to.

Damon, on the other hand, was the one who fell in love with Elena--not Not Katherine. He never put her on a pedestal, he never asked more of her than she could give him--when he realized how deep his feelings for her ran, he made her forget his confession because he knew he did not deserve her and he didn't want her burdened with his feelings when she was still in love with his brother and was always going to be. Elena's growing feelings for Damon coincided with her growth from a depressed and suicidal teenage girl into a young woman who began to realize that it was ok to want things for herself--to be a little selfish, to take what she wanted, to admit what she wanted. And, again, the fact that this coincided with her transformation into a vampire (although her growth within her relationship with Damon began well before that), meant that Damon's reaction to Elena-as-a-vampire was thrown into sharp relief against Stefan's--because he accepted her where his brother couldn't.

Ultimately, this led to Elena fully outgrowing her feelings for Stefan, and accepting, nurturing, and reveling in her feelings for Damon. The triangle was resolved, all three characters had growth separately and in their different relationships, and they could then move on from there along their different paths. Stefan could have had some truly excellent character growth involving moving on and finally living for himself rather than trying so hard to be this perfect brooding tortured vampire because he was the Good Brother, since there was no longer any need for that Good Brother/Bad Brother dichotomy. They'd both grown past it, as characters individually and as brothers together.

Unfortunately, where TVD ultimately failed (and this coincided with the way the show utterly lost the plot in terms of storylines, character arcs and cohesiveness and became an unsalvageable mess) is in refusing to let the love triangle die.

What should have happened is that once the love triangle was resolved--Elena growing as a character and moving on from her immature first love and fully embracing her feelings, as an adult, for her much more adult relationship with Damon--they abandoned the love triangle premise and let all three characters continue to grow outside of it. Damon and Elena should have been allowed to grow together and explore their relationship, Stefan to figure out where he still fit in their lives--as Damon’s brother, and one of Elena’s closest friends who she still loved dearly even though she was no longer in love with him--and then explore relationships of his own outside their family unit as he finally began to fully move on and grow out of his own overly idealized feelings for Elena.

Instead, what wound up happening is that the stelena side of the love triangle kept being teased--probably to keep the avid stelena shipping contingent invested in the story, hoping for ‘another brother swap’ as was lampshaded in one of Nina’s final episodes before she left the show (and, indeed, many of them remained utterly convinced that stelena would be endgame, right up until the series finale)--and rather than growing together, delena fans were constantly hit over the head with how ‘toxic’ Damon and Elena were for each other (even though this ran contrary to everything we’d seen in the show to that point, including having Damon regress repeatedly for, presumably, no reason other than to never let fans forget he was the Bad Brother and always would be, and Elena just couldn’t help but love him anyway), and all three characters and their relationships wound up suffering horribly for it.

That is an example of a love triangle that had a very promising foundation and development, right up through what should have been a resolution, and the reason it is generally looked on so unfavorably in fandom circles is because the show refused to move on from the triangle organically when the story needed it to, because it had already served its purpose.

For an example of a love triangle that, in my mind, simply didn’t work from the very beginning, I’d say my go-to example is from Once Upon a Time--the short-lived love triangle between Emma, Killian, and Neal. I think the first stumbling block there was that there weren’t really three relationships that mattered. Technically, Killian did have a connection to Neal--because they’d met in Neverland, prior to Neal remaining in the Land Without magic--but it functioned more as a backdrop to explain why Killian knew him when they got to Neverland again in the story, and why Neal didn’t trust him. It wasn’t actually developed as anything outside of that brief flashback, and they didn’t have any connection in the present outside of one episode where they essentially fought over Emma and she (rightly) got angry at them for it. There was no real exploration of who they were to each other outside of the fact that both of them had feelings for Emma, so it really was just one woman torn between her feelings for two different men, and with no real stakes attached to her choice.

The other problem with this particular triangle is that one side of it was... conspicuously weak. While Emma’d had a full season and a half worth of interactions and development with Killian--where they went from enemies, to grudging allies, to Killian openly acknowledging that he hadn’t ever believed he would be able to love again until he met Emma--she had... very little to support her potential relationship with Neal outside of their history. History which consisted of then-young-adult Neal knocking up underage Emma (she was 17 at the oldest because she was still in Juvie when Henry was born, and he was already ten years old the day she turned 28; so she was either 16 or very newly 17 when she got pregnant) and ensuring that she got sent to prison for his own crime, at which point he didn’t see her again until she was nearly 30. When he did see her again, he treated her incredibly poorly, up to and including getting angry at her about the fact that she didn’t tell him that Henry was his son--even though he had no right to that information, because Emma was in prison because of him at the time she found out, and she had no clue that he was in any way connected to the Fairy Tale world until she was helping Mr. Gold track down his son and it turned out to be Neal.

A big point is made, throughout the early seasons especially, about Emma’s walls and how much difficulty she has trusting people--and a great deal of that stemmed from Neal’s betrayal. This could have been the foundation for a story of healing and growth and two people coming back together--however, with the way Neal treats Emma in the present and how little closure she actually gets for what he did to her in the past, it comes across more as ‘well, she never did get over her feelings for him, so maybe he still has a shot even though she has no real reason to want to be with him now’.

Killian, on the other hand, never doubted Emma’s abilities and always had the utmost trust in and respect for her (after they became allies), and it was obvious that this is something Emma experienced very little of in her life. It’s notable that the first episode where they really interacted is the one in which Emma’s history with Neal is revealed, and it very deliberately paralleled and contrasted with her interactions with Killian. This already presented him with a leg up on the love triangle once Neal did show up, because Neal was the reason for a lot of the walls Emma had built around her heart, and it wasn’t until meeting Killian that she finally began to let some of them down.

I think that the show recognized this, and it pulled something that is actually a very frustrating pet peeve of mine--rather than write out the story that makes sense and have the main point of the love triangle make a choice and stick to it, the third point of the triad was simply written out. In this case, Neal essentially killed himself via his own stupidity, allowing Emma to angst about losing him without actually having to tell him she wasn’t in love with him and wasn’t going to choose him. (Veronica Mars pulled something very similar with the Logan/Veronica/Duncian triangle in season 2--rather than admit within the narrative that her relationship with Duncan was built on flimsy feelings of infatuation bc of their history, and a ‘stability’ that didn’t really work for who Veronica was at her core, he simply got written out of the story, running away for Plot Reasons and never forcing Veronica to confront the fact that she wasn’t actually in love with him and hadn’t been for quite some time.)

I think that in OUaT, the love triangle could have worked if a relationship between Killian and Neal was not only established in the past but developed in the present--Killian was in love with Neal’s mother centuries earlier, and something I’m actually really upset we never got is the two of them talking about Milah and maybe Neal getting some closure for his mother’s abandonment and someone apologizing to him for what they put Baelfire through as a child--giving stakes to Emma’s choice beyond ‘one of them will be all uwu sad that he wasn’t picked’. It also would have worked much better if we were given any reason for Emma to still have feelings for Neal in the present beyond the history they shared, which caused Emma nothing but pain for the last decade and change. If Neal had treated her more fairly--if he’d treated her like someone he actually cared about and even still loved, rather than blaming her for things that were his own fault and undermining her belief in her own abilities, among other things--then their relationship might have been strong enough to stand on its own opposite Emma’s relationship with Killian. I don’t think it ever would’ve been a relationship that appealed to me, personally, but then I could have at least enjoyed watching the three of them grow together and seeing all of their relationships grow and change.

So, ultimately, TL;DR: I do like love triangles, conceptually, but there are a few requirements they must meet for me to feel anything other than irritated at the inclusion. One: there must be at least three equally important relationships between the three characters. If it’s just one character torn between her (or his, but it’s usually a woman) feelings for two unrelated people, that can be compelling for a short time but ultimately I’m going to be left feeling frustrated by her refusal to just make a damn choice and put me out of my misery. Two: there should be some sort of development in each relationship which makes the presence of the triangle narratively significant. Why is it important for one character to have conflicting romantic feelings for these two other people at the same time? What purpose does it serve either their character arcs or the story as a whole? While I am both a Bangel and a Spuffy shipper, I’ve never considered Angel/Buffy/Spike to be a love triangle--they are very different relationships that she had at very different points in her life, and while her feelings for Angel never really went away (and do cause some angst for Spike near the end of btvs) they are never really competing for her affections in any meaningful sense. If that competition does exist, there needs to be a compelling reason why. And, as a further addendum to this point, I need to at least understand why the main point of the triangle is invested in each relationship, even if I don’t ship it and actively dislike or even outright hate one side of the triangle. (I loathe stelena, but I’ve always understood why Elena was in love with him in the beginning of the show, for example. And before s5/s6, I was really pleased with how the show handled her feelings for him and finally allowed her to grow and move on from them.)

And finally, three: the triangle needs to be resolved at some point--and, when it is, it needs to stay that way. Where TVD ultimately lost me (aside from the ridiculous plot contrivances and rampant character assassination) was the refusal to let the love triangle die a natural death when it is what the story called for, and all three of their characters, their relationships, and the show as a whole suffered massively for it. So, when the primary point of the triangle makes a choice--particularly if she had made one choice in the beginning of the story, but it was clear that she was ultimately moving towards choosing the other side as she grew and her feelings and relationships grew and changed with her--let that be the end of it. Move on to exploring what that choice means for the main pair and the party not chosen, sure--maybe explore their feelings about not being chosen and how that affects their relationships with both of the others afterwards--but don’t constantly tease the possibility of the ‘losing side’ getting back together just to keep shippers invested. It’s only going to hurt your show and make everyone look callous and stupid.

Alternately, a final possibility: make it an ot3 instead. But again, if the other three conditions aren’t met (particularly number two, and its addendum; if I don’t understand why the main point of the triangle is in love with both other points, an ot3 is unlikely to resolve that issue and I’m only going to wind up resenting it), then this won’t work, because it’s just going to wind up a lopsided and stilted mess of a relationship that leaves me wishing the offending point of the triangle had been killed off just so I wouldn’t have to keep hearing about them.

[sparklingdisneyprincess]

Having Amber know for weeks affected fans view of her and why it was not done well.

In the tags on a reblog of one of my posts, someone mentioned that the scene where Amber tells Mark she knew he was a hero was bad writing and I low-key agree. I plan on doing an analysis on that specific scene later, but today I wanted to get into why the way the writes handled that situation just wasn’t great.

Keeping in mind the context of who the writers are can somewhat explain the  thought process behind the decision. The creators of the comic book said themselves that's the comic book very often pokes fun at superhero stereotypes and tropes. One of the main stereotypes in superhero comic books is the main non-super female love interest being upset with the male superhero love interest for constantly flaking on her/being unavailable trope. In this trope the conflict is typically resolved when the female love interest is told or discovers in the moment usually by so accident that the male love interest was the superhero the whole time and the revelation is suddenly supposed to negate all the negative emotions that the female love interest was put through and everything just ends up fine. 

In today's time it wouldn't matter if he was a superhero or not. He still made her feel terrible, he still lied. I do think women today wouldn’t allow that to excuse all the hero’s behavior especially when it was evident that said behavior was hurting them. 

We know the writers like to poke fun at stereotypical superhero comic book tropes and plot points, and a good way to do that it to utilize trope subversion.

Trope subversion definition:

A subversion has two mandatory segments. First, the expectation is set up that something we have seen plenty of times before is coming, then that set-up is paid off with something else entirely. The set-up is a trope; the "something else" is the subversion.

Pure trope subversion vs Partial trope subversion:

Executing a “Pure trope subversion” means to follow the blueprint for “Trope subversion” to a tee. The writer sets up the story with essentially no hints that the outcome will be anything but traditional, and then proceeds to suddenly turn the outcome on it’s head in a way that was unanticipated. In the case of the “Partial trope subversion” it’s the opposite. The writer will drop subtle hints and clues teasing that the outcome will not be traditional for the trope. The hints must be subtle because the writers goal is still to trick the reader into believing that the traditional outcome will occur.

The main problem with them writing it as a pure trope subversion is that Amber ends up looking really bad and that people already didn’t like her as they wanted Eve to end up with Mark.

The set-up of the secret identity relationship trope leads us to believe that the female was mostly if not completely unaware that their male love interest is a hero. They often times are suspicious, but the dots don’t usually get the chance to connect before it’s all revealed. Going with that type of trope set-up leads the audience to believe that it’ll end like it always does. The girl will feel sorry for her actions and completely forgive the hero (even though I don’t find think that’s realistic), so instead of it going in that direction they subvert it. They have the female love interest (Amber) figure it out herself and silently not be in the dark for a period of time till it’s revealed that she knew. This is fine unless it’s written as a pure trope subversion because the traditional trope buildup includes anger over canceled plans, late arrivals, and feelings of neglect. That anger makes the female love interest look completely irrational in the case that she knew! (Though perhaps she was not truly angry over those things after she discovered the truth, but she was angry with him lying and couldn’t tell him that without saying she knew, so she expressed her anger through those situations instead of the main reason??? Hmm, I just thought of that and that’s an interesting theory for another time.) Anyways...

I found that the trope subversion making Amber look so bad to be a glaring issue that should have been weeded out in the writing room. They had to have known how it would be perceived. There’s no way they wouldn’t. The only logical reason they’d do this is if they plan to go through with what I suspected was happening at the beginning of the show, which would be that the writers are telling us that Amber is not Mark’s endgame and that she’s just taking up space until Mark and Eve eventually get together. The only problem with that theory is that they had Mark and Amber get back together at the end of the season which is another trope subversion. In the usual love triangle bait-and-switch trope the first female love interest the male superhero chooses gets booted out to make room for the second girl in the love triangle who he was apparently supposed to be with the whole time, however the writers didn’t got through with that trope. They instead subverted it (whether purposely or not) by having the original couple get back together and setting it up in a way that shows the couple potentially growing stronger, rather than him staying single and eventually ending up with female love interest number 2. The writers even took the subversion a step further by setting the outcome up in a way that showed potential for female love interests 1 and 2 to actually start a beautiful friendship instead of a rivalry. 

I’m honestly confused by what the writers wanted us to perceive. If they wanted us to root for Amber and Mark why set them up like that? To prove that they can move past it? But who will support the relationship after everybody now hates Amber? It is contradictory, so I’m very confused. I did write another post speculating that though Amber knew Mark was a hero, she did not know he was Invincible. The theory does shed more light on the situation and it resolves a lot of issues, but it still doesn’t negate the fact that the use of a pure trope subversion in this instance made Amber look really bad. Especially when people would sooner find ways to cancel her, rather than attempt to understand why she did it. To understand someone does not mean to agree with or support them, but it reminds you to humanize the other person, a value we are all owed. 

If the writers had not done a pure trope subversion and instead decided upon a partial trope subversion the fallout would not have been nearly as bad. If they had done a partial trope subversion they could’ve allowed Amber to be more patient in some of the later scenes, while showing that even though she’s patient, she’s also very upset. It would show more understanding on her part, however I think Amber was actually already understanding of his situation. What she did not understand was the lying and how it seemed that he didn’t even care enough to lie well. She was hurt that he didn’t trust her and during their relationship she was constantly questioning whether or not he was serious and if he actually cared about her and honestly we questioned it too as an audience! Imagine how frustrated she must’ve been those 5 months out of 6 when she didn’t know why he was lying to her. 

Amber and Mark didn’t have any relationship issues that I noticed aside from his secret identity. Their dynamic was interesting to watch in my opinion because Mark wasn’t phased by Ambers weird sense of humor and her having essentially no filter, in fact he embraced it and was also snarky in return. He liked that she has strong core beliefs and clearly enjoyed spending time with her. Even though Amber is sarcastic and pokes fun at Mark she finds his enthusiasm to be endearing and often laughs with and smiles at him. Heck, she even approached him first! They’re just two teenagers dating and it’s nothing too exciting like it’s usually portrayed in media. They text, go on dates, make out, enjoy the others presence without really needing to talk, it’s just nice normal dating stuff and it’s realistic and lowkey, and I really liked seeing it. Upon my first watch of the show I liked Amber and Mark together, but I didn’t see the chemistry. I think it’s because everything about their relationship needed to happen in the span of 8 episodes, but also that the reasons why their attracted to each other are very subtle. They don’t shove it in our faces, they just place it there and if you caught then you caught it, if you didn’t then you didn’t. It took me re-watching the episodes a second time to realize why Mark and Amber enjoy being with each other. The body language speaks volumes when you also pay attention to the little things that go on between them. I’ll probably make a whole other post about it because I think it’s something to talk about, but yeah.

In conclusion either the writers truly didn’t realize the outcome of their choice, the writers knew the outcome and did it on purpose to set the audience up to root for Eve and Mark, the writers knew and set it up in order to later on grow/redeem Amber and strengthen her and Mark’s relationship by having them over come it, or they didn’t think it’d be a big deal due to assuming that the trope subversion would take everyone by surprise and that we’d like it.

(If you made it to the end, I’m impressed cause this was long. Also, shoutout to the person who first brought up this topic in the tags. I didn’t realize I felt some kind of way until I started typing and couldn’t stop. It was honestly kind of cathartic😄 I didn’t tag you cause I didn’t know if you’d like that but, thanks for unintentionally giving me the motivation to write this!) 

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Season 6 Retrospective

After the euphoria of everything that happened with B99 being cancelled and then revived, B99 returning for a season 6 felt like a gift. Basically a bonus in a way. It was a quasi relaunch of the show in NBC and I have to say that NBC promoted it a lot more than I remember Fox promoting it. Having finished season 6, it is a mixed bag. The season has a lot of really great episodes, a few mediocre ones, and one that I despise with every fiber of my being. And because of those handful of episodes that don't live up to the mark, season 6 ranks as my least favorite season. However, B99 even at its worst is considerably better than almost everything else on tv so its not a very heavy criticism of the season as a whole.

The previous season left the question of Holt becoming Commissioner unanswered. And while it would have been interesting to see B99 tackle Holt becoming Commissioner, it would have fundamentally been impossible to continue it as a singular workplace comedy if Holt and maybe Gina were working elsewhere permanently. So it was obvious he was not going to become Commissioner. The premiere is a delight. Its a honeymoon episode for Jake and Amy with a depressed Holt right in the middle of it. This episode is has plenty of great moments for Holt's variety of novelty t-shirts, to Jake and Amy's Die Hard roleplay, to Amy standing up for Jake and going off on Holt, to the hilarious 'this B needs a C in her A' moment which was clearly the writers having a lot of fun with having lesser language restrictions. The B and C stories are ok, but the A story is a delight. The next episode is a Hitchcock and Scully episode which is nice because we get to see them as studs in the 80's. There is a problem that it does not match up to flashbacks they have done in the past but I kind of ignore that. The next two episodes are dealing with Chelsea Peretti's departure from the show. Tbh, when Chelsea was on maternity leave for the first half of season 5, I didn't really feel her absence. Plus, it did start to feel at times that the writers weren't sure how to include her organically. The Tattler is a cute episode. I love the 90's look of the episode. Melissa Fumero looked adorable. Its probably one of the best Jake and Gina episodes, a dynamic which was strangely underserevd over the course of the show given Andy and Chelsea are childhood friends. But this episode and also their stuff in 'Four Movements' bring up the best in their dynamic. 'Four Movements' is a sweet goodbye although i wish Terry and Boyle had gotten a personal goodbye like Holt, Jake, Amy, and Rosa got.

The season's main storyline is Holt's fight with John Kelly, the new Commissioner. I thought Phil Reeves was pretty damn great as John Kelly. He was just slimy enough to know why he got on Holt's nerves and still charming enough so you could see why other people might like him if they didn't know him. The show continues to do some strong experiments. I love 'The Crime Scene', which is very much centered on Jake and Rosa. The episode doesn't have any B plots and just lets Any and Stephanie carry the episode with a fun appearance from Michael Mosley. It also effectively resolved the pending story from season 5 regarding the issues between Rosa and her mom since she came out as Bi. In terms of platonic friendships between a guy and girl, I feel Jake and Rosa is one of the most well created friendships I have seen on tv. There is also a real time episode in 'Ticking Clocks' guest starring Sean Astin, who was one of the celebrities who championed B99 when it was cancelled. I enjoyed that episode quite a bit because it got the whole ensemble involved. My only issue with it is that it made me dislike Jocelyn. I didn't like the way she broke up with Rosa on her way to the airport and put Rosa under the pump when she saw that they were in a high pressure situation. Holt was pretty right to be mad at the end of the episode. the show also tackled sexual assault with 'He Said, She Said' which is a home run in terms of acting performance for Melissa Fumero. Definitely some of her best dramatic work on the show. She's very ably backed up by Andy Samberg and Stephanie Beatriz who also directed the episode. The episode isn't a complete home run because there is a tonal inconsistency. Its a tough subject to be funny about. There is B plot that is completely unrelated connected to Holt's pursuit of the Yo Yo strangler and its a hoot. But it clashes in tone with the A plot which is pretty serious for the most part. Whereas an episode like Moo Moo managed to connect both the A and B stories with the single topic with Jake and Amy having to explain to Terry's kids about Racism. But honestly, this was about as well an episode on this topic that I can imagine.

The middle of the season is when the show hit a bit of rough patch, starting with Gintars. I like what the episode says about adoption and it was refreshing to see Charles be more assertive to Jake, but the whole deportation angle left a bit of a sour taste in the mouth. The B plot also has Holt and Amy being uncharacteristically mean spirited and while they apologize to Rosa at the end, the episode didn't make it feel they actually learned their lesson. The Therapist is kind of meh. Its another Jake going behind Charles' back episode. While the episode comes around at the end by giving a reason why Jake doesn't like therapy and Jake admitting that he needs to got to therapy, the rest of the episode involves a lot of jokes at patients and therapists which just isn't all that funny. Casecation is my least favorite episode on the show. Its an episode that is so tone deaf and inconsistent in characterization that it just irritates me. The rewatch is only the 2nd time I have watched the episode. I tend to skip it during the rewatches. Its bizarre how badly OOC almost every character is. I think Terry and Charles are the only ones who aren't OOC. While Jake's fears about parenthood are grounded in realistic concerns, we have had several moments where Jake has talked about having kids in the future. So the fact that he comes off as not wanting kids is inconsistent with what we know of him. I was not surprised with Amy being pro family, coming from a big family herself, but the fact that an organized person like her didn't outright have this conversation with Jake before marriage is not believable at all. The episode is also really mean spirited. The structured debate part has Amy, Holt, Kevin etc... all making fun of Jake's fears, Amy being emotionally manipulative and issuing ultimatums, Rosa offering to bully Jake into agreeing with Amy. In general, this maybe the only episode where I disliked Amy, whom I otherwise adore. I understand her perspective, but the way she handles it is unkind. I could honestly go on a long diatribe about why the episode is terrible. In the end, the mean spirited nature of the episode is what turns me off because the thing I love about B99 as a whole is the optimistic and idealistic nature of the show. Gina's return in 'Return of the King' is also not a favorite. Again, the episode just makes Gina look like a bad friend for blowing off Jake and Terry without explanation for so long.

However, thankfully, these 4 episodes are just a blip on the radar. The rest of the episodes are filled with a lot of hilarity. The Bimbo is one of my favorite Holt episodes. Jake and Holt is a dynamic that can never go wrong. Add Kevin to the mix and you have solid gold. Holt as "the bimbo" is a damn funny idea and its executed brilliantly. Cinco de Mayo is the first heist episode not on Halloween and its my third favorite. Mainly because I always root for terry since he always gets underestimated or made fun of during the heists. The Golden Child brings Lin-Manuel Miranda, another B99 celebrity fan, in as Amy's brother and its a lot of fun to watch Jake play the straight man whereas we see Amy being the crazy competitive one with Lin being up to the challenge as well. Craig Robinson makes a welcome return as Doug Judy, and The Honeypot is another hilarious Jake and Holt episode. The season ends really strong with Sicko and The Suicide Squad, bringing back Caleb the cannibal, Wuntch, The Vulture, and CJ. CJ is still a bit much but the others are all a hoot. It was nice to see Wuntch on the right side of things for once and we yet again see why Jake is considered the best and brightest of the 99 with his plan to take down John Kelly. The season doesn't have a cliffhanger, more a rejigging of the 99 dynamic with Holt being demoted to patrol officer temporarily.

Overall, it still a fun season. But the four episodes that didn't work bring the grade down a bit. Its a 7.5/10 overall. Now, onto season 7 with just days left before season 8 begins.

[astromechs]

What are your expectations for Ewing's GotG? And have you read any of his other work? Also where would you like Rich's character development to go and what writer would you like to see write him after Ewing? And when will Peter kiss him?

i’ve read part of ewing’s immortal hulk! it’s slow going, because this is the time of year that work tends to get really busy for me, but i’m really enjoying it so far — and i’ve honestly never cared about a hulk comic before this in my life. i like how creative and character-centric it is, and these represent ewing’s strengths as a writer; he’s willing to try new and interesting things, but he doesn’t lose commitment to character as his first priority.

and i think, where a lot of people are criticizing the more episodic, character-driven nature of his gotg run, i actually really like that. the #6 issue is one of my favorite comic issues of all time at this point, honestly — and not just because i love rich and i’m biased in that way; i saw criticisms of that issue calling it “filler”, but it was the opposite of filler. it was a very character-centric piece, exploring his thoughts and emotions with actual depth, and ending with a really positive step for his mental health. with how plot-driven superhero comics typically are, you don’t see this a lot, and as a reader/writer who appreciates character stuff above all, i really dug it.

i know we’ve got the king in black tie-in coming up that sort of interrupts some of the flow of this, but i have actual hope for ewing to make it more relevant than other obligatory event tie-ins; it seems he has actual plans for his cosmic stuff, and there’s been some interesting worldbuilding going on, in addition to the character work. it’s my hope that this good character work will continue (i’m excited for #9, and #11 looks like all my hopes and dreams come to life) while weaving this new tapestry of cosmic elements, making this comic feel like its own distinctive thing again like it was in the DnA era.

as far as rich and his character development goes — i think it’s made some really positive strides of healing and growth that i’d like to see continue. i was frustrated by the premature cancellation of the 2017 nova series, because loveness and perez had actually set rich up on a path to start healing from his trauma... only for that rug to get ripped out from under our collective feet as marvel just decided to pile more trauma on him (you know, as superhero comics usually tend to go). but ewing’s really picked up that thread again, and i’m beyond pleased.

what we’re seeing now is a rich who’s willing to work on himself, and to actually accept help to do so. that is fantastic. i’m really optimistic for him to get to a place to where he can actually start to accept, not just in a maybe, that he’s worthy and deserving of love. so, with this thread, i’d love to see his relationships with others being brought back into focus again, especially because a lot of the writing with him often tends to isolate him and play toward his tendencies to do that to himself and insist he has to take on everything alone. so i’m actually really pleased he’s in a team book right now, because that’s an ideal place to address this.

it’s actually an ideal place to explicitly further develop a romantic arc with peter — really, for both characters. i don’t want to get my hopes up too much, because this is marvel, after all, but if a kiss happened in #9 or #11, not only would i be over the moon, but i also think there’s been quite a bit of narrative buildup even just in ewing’s run alone, and it would legitimately be a really fitting character beat — for rich, who’s learning to accept that he deserves love, and for peter, who’s figuring out his place in the cosmos (pending what we’re going to see, of course). not to be that it’s always sunny “carol” meme, but if they are, in fact, the lovers....

honestly, i’d love to see ewing tackle a nova solo book, because there are also so many plot threads that need to be picked up, and this arc would also be a perfect time to do so (having rich reconnect with sam, finally resolving the talonar plot and bringing his baby brother back into the picture... i actually have a whole pitch for a solo book in mind surrounding the theme of brothers and it needs to be done, yo!!; man when will rich actually reunite with the new warriors, it’s been too long!!). barring that, or getting loveness and perez back? i know it’d never happen, but me speaking as someone who generally likes waid’s writing a lot, i think waid would write a good rich — so that’s kind of, like, my pipe dream wishlist.

[rachelkaser]

Stay Golden Sunday: Big Daddy

Blanche’s Southern gentleman father visits with unusual news. Sophia curses a neighbor.

Picture It...

Sophia and Dorothy meet in the kitchen the morning after a big storm. Sophia is cranky because Rose woke her up, afraid and wanting comfort. All four Girls meet in the living room, where Blanche excitedly explains that her father, who she calls Big Daddy (who everyone calls Big Daddy, in fact), is coming for a visit. She excitedly reminisces about how beloved he was by her community growing up, getting caught in her remembrances of her saccharine Southern upbringing (which Dorothy finds ridiculous). Blanche hurries out to go get gifts for him.

Rose goes out to the lanai, and calls out for Sophia and Dorothy. They find that the storm has knocked a tree down on to their lanai furniture. Their next-door neighbor, Mr. Barton enters and notices the tree. When Rose says it’s fortunate his tree didn’t fall on his house instead, he takes exception to it being “his.” He refuses to move the tree despite Mrs. Barton’s attempts to smooth over the situation. When he makes a derisive remark about “you Italians” to Dorothy and Sophia, the latter gives him the Evil Eye. He’s now cursed until he moves the tree. Mr. Barton scoffs and leaves with his wife.

DOROTHY: Oh Ma, why’d you do that? You just made matters worse with that ridiculous curse. SOPHIA: Ridiculous? The curse works. Believe me. I’ve used it before. DOROTHY: Oh, when? SOPHIA: Baltimore Colts, New York Jets, 1969. Draw your own conclusions.

The next day, Dorothy says she’s confirmed via their property map that the tree definitely belongs to Mr. Barton and he has to haul it away, though Sophia still things the curse will do the trick. Blanche emerges in a mint-colored Southern Belle gown, but when she answers the door, it’s Mr. Barton. He’s convinced Sophia slashed his tires, and refuses to move the tree. Dorothy opens the door in a fury after Mr. Barton storms out, only to see Big Daddy Hollingsworth, in a Colonel Sanders suit with a ten-gallon hat on.

Blanche excitedly introduces everyone to her father. Big Daddy pays great compliments to Rose, who he compares to Dinah Shore (which... yeah, I can see it); and to Sophia, who he praises for her stunning, classical “Eye-talian” beauty. (Sophia: “You need boots to listen to this guy.”) He tells Blanche he has a surprise for her: He’ll be singing at a club the next night. Blanche is stunned, and asks why he’d do that, and he says singing is his “calling.” After he leaves, Blanche worries at his apparently out-of-character behavior, and Dorothy encourages her to talk to him instead of jumping to conclusions.

BLANCHE: I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation for why my daddy’s lost the stuffing out of his comforter.

Big Daddy returns that night, and Blanche is waiting up to talk to him. He effuses about how much he loves singing, and plays her one of his own compositions. It’s a genuinely terrible song that leaves Blanche cringing. When he finishes, she tells him this sudden career change concerns her, and tells him to go home and rest. He reveals that he sold their family home to fund his singing career, and Blanche explodes, forbidding him from continuing with his schemes. Big Daddy takes exception, and yells back until the other Girls come in. He apologizes to them and leaves the house.

Blanche is still upset and tells the Girls her father’s really gone off the deep end, selling the property he spent his lifetime building. As the Girls drift into the kitchen, Blanche is having trouble reconciling that her father is no longer the pillar he once was and has reached an age where they need to start thinking about his mental health. Dorothy and Rose comfort her, with Rose reminiscing about a time her father pulled a tuna-shaped parade float up a hill singlehandedly while dressed as a jar of mayonnaise. Blanche says her dad’s always been there to take care of her, and now she’ll have do the same for him.

BIG DADDY: You know, if there was some rain coming down, and a soft train whistle in the distance, this moment would have the makings of a first-rate country song.

The next night, Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy are off to see Big Daddy’s show at the Sagebrush Club -- Sophia declines when invited. Mr. and Mrs. Barton arrive, and Mr. Barton is a mess, asking to see “the witch.” He begs Sophia on his knees to remove the Curse, as he’s suffered several other inexplicable misfortunes. Sophia agrees when he promises to remove the tree, and he quickly hurries out. Mrs. Barton stays behind to apologize to the Girls and reveals that she did all the “curse” work to get her husband to act right.

The Girls arrive at the rather seedy Sagebrush Club, where Blanche pretends not to know every man present or that there’s a mechanical bull in the backroom. She asks a waiter about their reservations, and he reveals management canceled Big Daddy’s second show after the first show. Blanche goes backstage to comfort her father. A very stereotypical cowboy named Rusty attempts to put the moves on Dorothy and Rose, but Dorothy quickly puts the smackdown on him.

Blanche enters Big Daddy’s dressing room and tells him how sorry he is that his show was canceled. Big Daddy says he’s just going to have to try again. Blanche asks him why he’s going to continue when he’s no good. He tells her he knows he’s no good, and opens up to her about the real reason he wants to try this: He’d always wanted to have a big adventure, but settled down with Blanche’s mother. Now he wants to try something new, something adventurous. Blanche apologizes for not hearing him out, and sings the chorus of his song with him.

“Excuse me, Rose, but have I given you any indication at all that I care?”

Both the A- and B-plots this week are excellent, and the characters all have some great zingers. Big Daddy, Blanche’s very Southern father, makes his first appearance on the show, and after being talked up by Blanche both in this episode and in previous episodes, he doesn’t disappoint. He honestly wouldn’t look out of place as a one-off character on Dallas.

I find it interesting that both Rose and Blanche have already had episodes where they have to learn how to interact with their parents as adults. Dorothy and Sophia are already on that level, so I suppose it makes sense that those two need to learn how to do the same thing. Outside of Sophia, parents don’t play as big a role in this show as children do, which makes sense considering the Girls are grandparents themselves -- Big Daddy is the only one who will play any kind of recurring role.

BLANCHE: Now listen girls, my father is an old-time Southern aristocrat, who is used to fine manners and gentility. So please, please, please be on your best behavior. *they all look at Sophia* SOPHIA: Why’s everyone looking at me?!

The A-plot’s a bit melodramatic, but it’s mitigated by the scene where Big Daddy tries to sing. It’s such an hilariously terrible performance, but I think the funniest part actually comes from the audience. After he strums the final note on his guitar, there’s a beat for the audience reaction, and you can hear one or two members hesitantly start to clap, as if they’re not sure if that’s the expected reaction, but other than that it’s silence until Blanche says her line.

This is one of the final roles of character actor Murray Hamilton. It’s not often I get to say an actor appeared on both of my favorite older TV shows: Golden Girls and Perry Mason. If only he’d also appeared on I Love Lucy, then I’d get the hat trick -- I’m still looking for the actor who was on all three. Hamilton died just four months after the episode aired, which is presumably why the character was recast when he appears in a later episode. He’s very convincing as Blanche’s gentlemanly father, even though he was only 10 years older than Rue McClanahan. Though it is a bit disconcerting that Blanche’s father looks younger than some of the men she’s dated.

No one says how old Big Daddy is, but presumably since Blanche is in her 50s (she wouldn’t admit that on pain of death, but come on, she has a 16-year-old grandson), he’s got to be in his late 70s, early 80s. While it might be a bit late to launch a career as a country-western singer (who does Beatle medleys for some reason), the message that you’re never too old to try new things and your mental health should not be called into question for it is still a good one.

That said, the part that worries me is when he tells Blanche, almost as an afterthought, that he’s sold his family estate to fund his new venture. Since that’s a property that presumably his four children would have grown up on and that they’re now not going to inherit, it’s actually kind of concerning that he just sold it without making any of them aware of it. I know I got on Kirsten back in the episode about Rose’s will for acting entitled to her mother’s money and getting mad that Rose would have spent it, and I still stand by that.

SOPHIA: Play it safe. Stick with the curse. DOROTHY: Ma, I’ve stayed with you all these years. *Sophia raises her hand to administer the Evil Eye again*

But the difference here being Blanche is more upset that he would do something so impulsive after having spent so much of his life building up that estate -- and I’m with her on that, not because it points to a potential health problem, but because it’s reckless and foolish. And it doesn’t really get resolved. Blanche just agrees to support her father and doesn’t seem to address the fact that he’s now effectively homeless.

One of the funniest parts of the episode is at the beginning, when Blanche is reminiscing about her Southern upbringing and makes it sound like she grew up 100 years in the past -- what with all the sipping mint juleps under an old magnolia and exchanging prize-winning pecan pie recipes. That’s funny enough, but what makes it funnier is that Dorothy and Sophia have about as much patience as you’d expect two Brooklyn women to have for such gauzy nonsense:

DOROTHY: Tell me Blanche, during any of this, would the farmhands suddenly break into a chorus of “Dem Old Cotton Fields Back Home?” ... BLANCHE: I want him to feel right at home. SOPHIA: Then get the Millers across the street to tar and feather their lawn jockey.

The B-plot is what really makes this episode great. While Blanche and her father working out their issues is engaging enough, but Sophia steals the show when she goes to war with Mr. Barton. The Evil Eye she directs his way is nothing short of epic. I also enjoy that Dorothy is just as invested in it as her mother is, getting equally offended at being referred to as “You Italians,” she tries to get Mr. Barton to back down through the power of civic justice and a property map, and when all else fails, echoes her mother calling him “Mouth,” albeit accidentally to Big Daddy.

Also, bravo to this show for fleshing out Mrs. Barton. She appears in two scenes and at first appears to do nothing but try ineffectively to correct her jerk husband. Then comes the revelation that she was actually responsible for all the misfortunes that befell him -- I admire her ingenuity, because that’s the only way a stubborn bastard like her husband would ever apologize to his neighbors, despite clearly being in the wrong.

DOROTHY: Blanche, who do we see about our table? BLANCHE: Oh I don’t know. This is the first time I’ve ever been here. RUSTY: Well howdy Blanche! COWBOY: Howdy Blanche. Ladies. BLANCHE: No, I’m wrong. I think the museum did have its Christmas party here.

By the way, is it just me, or is there a lot of interest in Sophia’s Italian-ness this episode? Not only is her subplot about the Sicilian evil eye (when I was a kid, I thought that was made up -- I’m obviously not even remotely Italian), but Mr. Barton uses it as an insult, and then Big Daddy compliments her “Eye-talian” beauty. Sophia’s Sicilian flavor is one of my favorite things about her, and this episode has some of her best moments.

Out of all the characters, Rose is the one who ends up getting short shrift this week. I’m noticing something from this first season: Whenever there’s an episode where one Girl is left out of the bulk of the story, the writers compensate by giving her a big monologue in roughly the middle of the episode, usually in the kitchen over cheesecake. Once you notice the pattern, it’s impossible to un-notice it -- several episodes in this first season alone have followed this pattern.

ROSE: What on earth do you do with a mechanical bull? DOROTHY: Introduce him to a mechanical cow, Rose.

Still, if Betty White only gets a handful of lines and one monologue this week, she makes full use of them, and it’s especially cute that, unlike Dorothy and Sophia, she seems to enjoy the very Southern-ness that Blanche and her father exude, saying “It’s like being in Gone with the Wind!”

Episode rating: 🍰🍰🍰🍰 (four cheesecake slices out of five)

Favorite part of the episode:

The entire curse B-plot, especially the lines: “I can’t sleep! I can’t eat!” “You can’t sit.”

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 79

This was another chapter that was soooo fun to write.  Don’t worry, I’m not getting off the plot, swear.  So, thank you @charlylimph-blog for helping me flesh these pranks out. Also, thanks to @satan-parisienne and @baelpenrose for beta-reading.

Disclaimer: Food mentions below the cut.  I also want to clarify that I do not hate brussels sprouts.  I did, for several decades, though, and added that to one character in this chapter.

Given my track record with handling ship-wide issues in a personal capacity, I made a point to set up an actual appointment with both Grey and Xiomara to discuss our concerns.  Unfortunately, that meant it would be a few days before we all had time in our schedule.  All I could do in the meantime was try to do my actual job and pay more attention to odd behaviors of people around me.

I would like to submit for the record that I wasn’t succeeding with focusing on work terribly well.  And I wasn’t the only one.

“Seventeen,” Alistair greeted me as he arrived.  For what could only be dramatic emphasis, he removed a scarf and flung it over the back of the chair across from me.

“Ark’s temperature controlled,” I pointed out, staring at the scarf.  It actually looked soft.

“Seventeen different individuals,” he continued, ignoring my comment. “In a sum total of six groups, between three and eight people per group. Several were in more than one group.”

Wow. Go, Detective Worthington.  “This was just on your way from your quarters to my office?”

“From the cantina on deck fourteen, actually.” He stalked over to the food console, returning with a plate of food and two beverages.

“So, one, that’s an even shorter walk than the one from your quarters.”

He nodded around a forkful of pasta before swallowing. “Which makes it even more concerning.”

“True.” Taking the tea he offered me, I gestured at his penne.  Part of me was pleased to see it was one of my recipes from Before that I added to my profile once I learned how. “I thought you just ate?”

“I attempted to, certainly.  However, there have been several issues with the consoles in the cantinas.  I was given to believe they were resolved, but somehow I still ended up with brussels sprouts instead of capers.” He glared at me archly. “You are well aware of how I feel about those atrocities.”

“Even if you did like them, I can’t imagine substituting capers for brussels sprouts and still coming even remotely close to whatever you asked for.”

Already, he was standing to dispose of his empty dish. “I was sure that your console would be safe, but I selected a dish without capers, either way.”

“That’s fair.” Although I was mildly confused why he thought the console in my office would be ‘safe’ from the malfunction he just mentioned, but I also had no idea about the consoles in the cafeterias acting up, so he may have a point.

I was about to ask for details regarding the people he had seen.  I really was. However, I was preempted by the actual trumpet from the Book of Revelation started screaming from the speaker in the ceiling of my office.  

“BAYYYYY-BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE shark, do do do do do do!”

I screamed and jumped hard enough to fall out of my chair, while Alistair had flattened himself against the wall in an effort to escape the cacophony. Covering my ears, I begged Miys to disable the speaker.  I was reasonably certain I was yelling it, but either way the noise cut off abruptly and I was able to get up off the floor.

“What the bloody hell - bloody hell!” Alistair jumped abruptly at the figure that was now standing in my office. I wasn’t surprised, either, when I looked.

Standing right by my now-closed door was a shorter-statured figure, wobbling on its feet.  I couldn’t even really see the face, because my eyes would not look away from the top of their head. Specifically the earmuffs perched on there.

Five. Pairs. Of. Them. One pair was standard noise cancelling, but two were fuzzy - one neon green, another sparkly purple - and the other two, while not fuzzy, did have patterns in similarly bright colors: one set pink and green plaid, one fluorescent yellow and blue stripes.  Yet another pair was dangling around the figure’s neck, along with what appeared to be two pairs of earplugs.  I was getting the idea that the blaring music was something they were familiar with, against their will.

While puzzling at the noise-blocking hardware, I finally noticed the words across the figure’s hoodie.  It very clearly said ‘Fuck this shit’, framed by delicate vines and flowers. “Charly?” I asked, completely confused, before realizing she likely couldn’t hear me.  I gestured for her to remove the headphones, and once she did, I tried again. “Charly.  What is going on?”

“I have not had a hot bath in two weeks. Every time I walk through a door, the room plays that awful song until I leave the room, and cold spaghetti squash should be illegal! Very, VERY illegal!” As she spoke, her voice choked up more and more, and by the time she finished she was crying in my office.  Again. “I can barely eat, I can only sleep if I’m exhausted and practically pass out…” She trailed off.

I got her seated and rubbed her arms.  Turning to Alistair, I spoke softly.  “Can you please bring some of the stew from screen six in my file?  And probably water for now.”  To Charly, I reassured her. “It’s your beef stew recipe, the one you gave me.  For whatever reason, my console here and the one at home never glitched out when the ones in the cafeterias did.”

She sniffed and nodded.  My assistant quickly returned, gently setting down the stew and warm bread, along with some butter.  He narrowed his eyes at me, sharply. “I took the liberty of also getting some butter for the bread, because clearly some of us are heathens who serve warm bread without butter.”

“Some of us like to spread cheese sometimes,” I defended myself. “Okay, hon.  First, I need you to drink at least half of that water so you don’t dehydrate from crying.”  A very tiny white lie.  The real reason was an old trick I learned back Before - humans aren’t wired to be able to cry and swallow at the same time, so we stop crying if we are drinking something.  

Once that kicked in, I let her dig into the stew.  Keeping a careful eye to make sure she didn’t accidentally inhale anything in the literal sense while demonstrating the figurative sense, I tried to figure things out. “First and foremost, has anything else happened, anything that could have caused you injury?”

“Juss annoyig,” she told me around a bite of bread. Swallowing, she clarified. “Anytime I try to bathe, I only get cold showers.  No hot water, even the sonic function gives me cold water.  I’ve had to resort to letting a bucket of water sit out long enough to be room temp.  Anytime I try to get any sort of food or drink other than water, all I get is cold, icky spaghetti squash.  You saw what happens when I walk into a room.” She gestured at the speaker on the ceiling. “I’m not even sure how you stopped that.”

“I had Noah disable the speaker entirely,” I admitted. “So, all mid-range psychological torture? All irritants, nothing actually dangerous in and of itself?”

“Except the fact that I’m so jumpy I can’t sleep, I guess.  This is the first thing I’ve eaten in two weeks that wasn’t something Coffey had to go get from a canteen, bring it back, and give it to me.  And even that only works if it isn’t something I actually like.”

“But there are over a dozen full-time food vendors?” I was so confused.

She rolled her eyes. “You know I don’t trust other people’s cooking.  Yours, yes. Tyche’s, yes. Mine, of course.  But that’s it.”

“Miss Harper,” Alistair interrupted, gentle but horrified. “You said it’s been two weeks….”

She waved the concern away. “Two weeks of eating food I don’t like but don’t gag on is way better than cold, yucky spaghetti squash or food that may have… crawly things in it. You do know that some people cook with…. those things, right?” She eyed him suspiciously.

“Objection withdrawn,” he sighed. “However, I do believe that part of what you are experiencing may be part of the wider issues we’ve been having with the food consoles.  All of the public ones have been malfunctioning recently, and every time they are reset, it happens again.  I nearly ate brussels sprouts today, for heaven’s sake!”

“Okay, seriously Alistair? They aren’t that bad. Stop being dramatic,” I scolded. When I turned back to Charly, she was staring at her lap, very focused on the hem of her sweatshirt.  Fear spiked through me like ice. “Charly? What is it? Did something else happen?”

“The consoles might be acting up because of what’s happening with me,” she admitted quietly.  “Not the other way around.”

Huh? “What do you mean?  You think the same person who is doing this to you is going to target everyone?” I could feel my panic levels rising.  Suspicious people, maybe a cult, were increasing in numbers throughout the ship.  Maybe they were sending a message? It was pretty well known that Charly was close with Tyche and myself - 

“IthinkthisishappeningbecauseofaprankIpulledandsomeonegotmad.” Once she finished blurting out her statement, she screwed her eyes closed and seemed to be waiting for something bad to happen.  When nothing happened - I don’t think Alistair even understood what she said, and I know I didn’t - she cracked one eye to peek at our faces.

“In English?” I asked, shaking my head.

“I think...I may have...broken? The food consoles? I might have played a prank? And someone didn’t like it?”

I fought the urge to go entirely limp as all the panic and dread I had been building up rapidly plummeted.  “So, all of this… you broke the ship… it’s all a prank war?”  She nodded, face scrunched up in embarrassed apology. I pinched my nose before running a hand down my face. “And you started it, you believe?”

“It wasn’t on purpose!” she cried.  “It was a harmless prank, I freaking swear. I programmed the food consoles to give boba tea as every one hundredth beverage dispensed. That’s it. I even made sure to program it to be sugar free! Just matcha tea, lactose-free milk, sugar substitute, and the little boba pearls.  At most, someone would get it, go ‘hey this isn’t what I asked for?’, try again, and get the right thing.”

“Except that’s not the worst thing that happened,” I prompted.

“No, it isn’t! After about…five days? Suddenly all thiiiiiiis,” she flailed expansively, “started happening!  There is no way you can tell me that I deserve all this for erroneous boba tea here and there.” Charly stared at me, pointedly.

To be honest, it really did seem like overkill. 

“Well,” I sighed. “The good news is, only a select few people have that level of access to the ship to do something so far reaching.” My fingers drummed on the table as I tried to think of ways to narrow our list of culprits further. “Obviously, they don’t mean you any actual harm, just a significant level of annoyance and inconvenience.  And it would have to be someone who would take boba tea to be a grievous insult apparently…” Fuck.  

My head snapped up as I leapt to my feet and bolted for the console. Once I had a boba tea, exactly the way Charly described, I took a huge pull from the straw. Chilled, clean flavor, no notable texture, not terribly sweet, no aftertaste…

And chewy boba pearls. Like little candies. Most importantly? They were squishy. 

“Mother fuck….”  Charly and Alistair both gave me questioning looks.  “I will one-hundred percent admit that your prank had very innocent intentions.  But before I tell you who did this, I want to be clear: absolutely no retribution, and no more dinking around in public resources. Deal?”  She nodded so hard I thought her neck may break.  “Someone with an enormous food aversion to anything ‘squishy’ ended up with one of your drinks.” I jiggled mine for emphasis. “And I am willing to bet they got a mouthful of tapioca before they realized it.  They absolutely knew there was no error - they only drink water, and they are extremely sensitive to caffeine.  Once they realized it was a deliberate error? There was no saving you, girl.”

Her eyes widened to the size of saucers, and I could see everything falling into place.  “Oh no. Nonononononono.  I didn’t think Derek used the public consoles!  I never would have done it if I knew that!  Or exempted him, or something… Oh gosh, I have to go apologize. I feel awful!”  With that, she bolted from the room, throwing a “thanks for the stew!” over her shoulder on the way out.

Alistair just shook his head. “She really pulled a prank on the one person we can’t keep out of anything on the ship, who we have to rely on his good intentions?”

“Obviously, not on purpose,” I pointed out.

“It still doesn’t explain the small cabbages that contaminated my lunch.”

Taking a long pull from my tea, I tilted my head side to side. “It really kind of does.  Charly hates capers with a passion, based solely on what they look like.”

“Madam Councillor. Brussles. Sprouts. Surely there was a better option.”

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[michaelgambons]

This is my first ever Drabble/imagine/ fanfic (whatever you want to call it!) so please bare with! It’s set in the UK, so if you encounter any unfamiliar language, places or references, please shoot me a message!

This chapter is intended to set the scene and introduce the characters, but it will get more exciting soon!

Baseline Romantic

Chapter 1

It was pouring with rain as the train pulled into the station. Grimacing slightly against the cold wind that was coming in from the gap in the train door, Y/N turned the collar of her coat up and picked up her bag, ready to hop off the train and made a dash for the nearest cover.

Once off the train and under shelter, Y/N paused slightly before heading for the exit. She bowed her head slightly against the rain, but it still managed to trickle down her neck and a shiver ran through her. It wasn’t just the cold and the wet that was making her shiver, though. As much as she was excited to see her friends, the idea of spending a long weekend socialising was enough to make her take a deep breath to steady herself.

For the last 10 years, without fail, Y/N and her friends had gathered in Charlie’s mum’s house on the outskirts of Peterborough for the August bank holiday. The tradition had been borne out of the boredom of the university summer holidays, during which, when stuck at home, too broke to travel, too lazy to work and keen to return to the freedom of university, they had spent the remainder of their student finance on train fares to spend the long weekend together. Charlie’s mum’s house was perfect for the piss up that ensued; it was in the middle of nowhere so they could play music as loud as they wanted, as late as they wanted, and, crucially, Charlie’s mum spent most of the year living at her boyfriend’s in Surrey. The weekends had become the stuff of legend.

As she stepped out of the station and glanced around for a lift, a horn sounded. Looking around for its source, she spotted a battered Land Rover parked a few meters away, whose driver and passenger were waving furiously at her, grins splashed across their faces. Y/N’s face broke into a wide smile as she ran across the car park to join them.

———

Half an hour later, nestled in front of a roaring fire, gin and tonic grasped in her hand, Y/N had finally started to warm up. She sighed deeply to herself, closing her eyes and allowing herself to relax into the deep sofa, but a sudden roar of laughter brought her back to the room.

‘I’m so glad you managed to come, Y/N’ Catherine said. ‘I can’t believe you were going to put your *job* ahead of spending time with your friends’ she continued with a laugh.

Y/N smiles vaguely. ‘Mate me too’ she replied. ‘Honestly though, it was touch and go right until yesterday! If the shite weather hadn’t meant that the trip had to be cancelled, you wouldn’t have been graced with my company at all’

‘What trip was this?’ Dominic asked, putting down his beer.

‘Urghhh, don’t get me started’ Y/N said. ‘It was the most stereotypical thing ever. I was taking some MP’s on a ruddy fishing trip to talk to them about protecting freshwater rivers’.

She looked round and saw everyone staring at her, unsure whether to take her seriously or not.

‘I’m not joking!’ She said, laughing. ‘It’s as ridiculous as it sounds- I would have had to have worn fucking fishing trousers. Believe me, I’m much happier, and warmer, to be here.’

‘No Dan?’ Misha asked.

Y/N grimaced internally. She was hoping she could have had at least one G&T before she had to answer that question. She didn’t need reminding of the massive argument they had had just before she’d left. Her boyfriend Dan hated these gatherings; hated the fact that they pushed him out of his comfort zone by having to spend the weekend with people who weren’t constantly plotting the next Bolshevik revolution, like he was.

‘I just don’t understand why you like these people, Y/N. They’re all so painfully middle class and you just spend the weekend drinking overpriced wine and eating twattish Waitrose food’ he had shouted as she had packed.

‘You’re being ridiculous Dan’ she had yelled back. ‘These people are as left wing and educated as they come. Just because they don’t sing Red Flag to themselves every morning doesn’t mean that they’re as vapid as you seem to think they are.’

They hadn’t managed to resolve the argument before she’d had to leave for her train. There was, ultimately, no resolution to it. Dan had taken a dislike to her friends ever since he’d met them, two bank holidays ago. He’d spent the evening on the same sofa as she was now sat on, preaching about the Marxist benefits of agriculture. Happy to entertain this for the initial hour, Y/N and her friends had happily joined in. When, 2 hours later, he showed no sign of wanting to change the subject, they had all gradually excused themselves to bed.

‘Ignorant Tories’ Dan had muttered to Y/N as they got ready for bed.

Back in the present, Y/N took a gulp of her drink before she replied.

‘He had some protest I think? He says hello though!’ she said, trying to sound bubbly and casual as she lied through her teeth.

No one seemed to question this though, and the conversation gradually drifted back to what they were going to have for dinner. Catherine, however, caught her eye from across the room, and motioned her outside.

When Y/N joined Catherine outside, she’s shivering under her coat, cigarette in hand, glancing up at the sky and grimacing at the black cloud that is looming over them.

‘So’ Catherine says. ‘Why is Dan really not here? I didn’t believe a minute of that protest bullshit’.

Y/N might have realised that, if anyone was going to see past her feeble excuse, it would be Catherine. Catherine who had lived with her on and off for the last 10 years. The only one of her friends Dan liked and simultaneously the friend of hers who liked Dan the least.

She’d just finished telling Catherine the story, when the backdoor opened again and Ben came into the garden. He stopped as soon as he saw their serious expressions though and gestured back to the door.

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt- just wanted a cig. I’ll come back...’

He turned to leave, but Y/N shouted after him.

‘Don’t be ridiculous Ben, it’s not a state secret. Just Dan being a shit’ Y/N said.

Ben smiles sympathetically as he comes over to the two of them. He lights a cigarette and runs his hand through his shocking blonde hair.

‘Actually Ben, you could be useful. Y/N tell Ben the same thing you told me.’ Catherine said.

Five minutes later, Ben had been fully debriefed. Both girls turned to him to see his reaction; he took a drag of his cigarette, brow furrowed.

‘He’s being a complete fucking idiot’. He says, bluntly. ‘Totally disrespectful. You don’t always have to like your partners friends, but you should always make an effort. That’s what being in a relationship is for fucks sake’

Both girls snigger and smile into their cigarettes, opinions confirmed.

‘Catherine?’ Charlie shouts from the kitchen. ‘What am I doing with these courgettes?’

Catherine sighs and stubbs our her cigarette, before walking back into the kitchen, leaving Y/N with Ben.

Ben was the only member of the group who wasn’t part of the original university crew. He had first come to their August break 5 years ago; Dom’s out of work actor flatmate from London who was going through a bad breakup and was in dire need of wine, company and good food. No one else had joined the group before or since, but Ben had slotted in perfectly, and remained a permanent fixture. He was undoubtedly one of Y/N favourite members of the group; down to earth, thoughtful, but with a cruel sense of humour which complemented Y/N’s well. The two could spend hours snorting with laughter at jokes their friends failed to understand.

‘Mate we need to have a SERIOUS chat about your last year’ Y/N said, turning to Ben. ‘We haven’t caught up properly since before Christmas, and you’ve been to the Oscars since then for god’s sake! What was it like?’

Ben snorts into his wine. ‘I’m sorry to disappoint but it was actually very underwhelming. Fucking long and you can’t go out for food or a cigarette’.

‘That is so disappointing. I’ve been rehearing my Oscar acceptance speech since I was at least 10 with a shampoo bottle- don’t tell me it’s not all what it’s cracked up to be’ Y/N pouted.

Ben laughed. ‘What on earth are you winning this Oscar for? Have you switched careers while I was in LA?’

‘Best Documentary’. Y/A answers firmly and quickly. ‘An expose of a corrupt politician where I go undercover as his campaign manager whilst hooked up to a wire. Critics would praise my bravery and unique take on the issue’. She grinned at Ben, who is laughing at her.

‘Dan really doesn’t know what he’s missing’ Ben laughed.

The smile fades off Y/N’s face. Ben immediately realises his mistake and tries to change the subject, but it’s too late.

‘I’m sorry Y/N I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s none of my business. I just... he’s... you deserve better’ he finishes faintly.

‘Dinner!’ Comes a shout from the kitchen, before Y/N is able to reply.

————

Two hours and several glasses of wine later, Y/N finally had finally forgotten about Dan for the moment. She was warm, well fed, tipsy and in good company.

‘And that’ Misha shouts, voice confident with the gin he’s been drinking since lunchtime, ‘is how I ended up as Robert Mugabe’s private pilot’

Everyone around the table roars with laughter. Y/N catches the eye of Ben who is sitting across her on the table. Y/N looks away quickly. She doesn’t want Ben to think she’s staring at him- but it’s hard not to when you’re sat opposite someone as ridiculously pretty as him. Instead she reaches for the wine bottle to refill her glass. When she next looks up, however, she swears she catches Ben quickly looking away from her. She shakes her head slightly to clear it of the wine fog that’s descended on her.

Y/N catches sight of her reflection in the back of her wine glass. Of course Ben wasn’t staring at her. Her curly hair was all over the place after the day’s travel, and her make up had faded and smudged under eyes. Whilst far from unattractive, she’s no where near as polished as the skin thin models he was undoubtedly fucking over in LA. And anyway, she had Dan to think of.

Brushing the thought from her mind, Y/N turned to Cleo who was sat next to her and joined in the conversation she and Charlie were engaged in. Out of the corner of her eye though, she kept Ben in her peripheral vision.

—————

‘Y/N I’ve got a banger lined up for you in a second’ said Dominic with a cheeky grin. He was controlling the music they are listening to in the living room, which they’ve retreated to now dinner had been cleared away.

‘Oh no, what have you got lined up? Cleo moaned.

‘It’s either Baseline Junkie or Rocky Racoon if it’s for Y/N’ Charlie said laughing.

Hearing this, Y/N sat up in her chair, which she had previously been slumped in, letting the conversation wash over her, content but tired by the days events.

~ Hey turn the base off, turn the base off

Big dirty stinking base, dirty stinking base ~

Y/N leaps out of her chair. The group collectively moans and laughs as they watch Y/N sing and dance along to the song- completely out of rhythm but with a huge smile over her face.

She turns to each member of the group in turn, signing a line of the song to them. As she reaches Ben, she realises he is recording her sing, grinning into his camera. Slightly taken aback for a moment at the fact that this would undoubtedly be posted to his million + followers on instragram, instead of stopping, Y/N redoubles her efforts at performing the song into his camera.

As the song comes to an end, she bows into his camera as a round of applause rings out.

She suspects she’ll regret that in the morning

Chapter 2 now out!

————-

[linkspooky]

Your analysis on shigaraki's worldview is 😍😍😍. Who's your fav bnha character btw, and what kind of manga are you into? (i mean as in genre, but my phrasing is terrible at times so idk how to put it all in the last sentence)

My favorite manga in the whole world are the manga that run in Weekly Shonen Jump. I read almost everything that runs in the magazine from week to week. I know that’s not technically a genre, but let’s not arguen semantics. 

And now because no one asked for it, my opinion on all of the manga currently running through Jump that I read. 

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba usually manga in shonen jump slowly get worse over time as they try to stretch their stories out, but Kimetsu no Yaiba is a story that continues to develop on itself and improve the longer it runs. 

The art is phenomenal and has a good balance of when to be silly and when to be drop dead gorgeous. It’s more of an ensemble piece tied together by a big brother trying to save his little sister, and because of that almost every character Tanjirou interacts with is fun and really immediately attention grabbing. 

It’s also a pretty heavy story that deals with death, grief and loss and trying to find life beyond a world that has suffering like that. I’m actually planning to make some meta of it soon, especially with the interactions between Domi and Shinobu. My only real complaint is that it’s deep but not too deep. Usually the demons are always bad and the demon slayers are always good in the end, even if sympathy is expressed for some of the demons. Once again though it does so well in the technical aspects of telling the story it wants to tell. 

My Hero Academia it’s pretty obvious that I like it. The biggest draws for me are the art style and the characters, specifically the villains. Also the idea of a reverse X men world where what are basically the mutants now outnumber normal people and dominate society is a fantastic idea for world building with a lot of options. 

I’ve actually followed Horikoshi’s work for a long time. His two previous works, Oumagodoki Zoo and Barrage both ran in Shonen Jump for a short time before they were cancelled which I find really unfortanate because they both had a lot of potential as well. 

I love both the hero kids and the villains, though sometimes I feel like the villains are more connected to the central conflict of the story than the heroes. It would be nice to see Deku evolve a more radical philosophy then just wanting to save people right in front of him, or protecting the status quo. The heroes should ideally act in response to the villains to create a better world and resolve a problem the villains brought up, but if say the League of Villains were wiped out now another League would be created later because the central problem of the story has not been dealt with. 

Dr. Stone this is a series that almost got cancelled, but was saved by a main character switch. Senku is really likable and unique as a character, kind of a mad scientist archetype who turns out to be the good guy and the hero of the story.

He reminds me a lot of Yoichi from the writers previous work, Eyeshield 21. In that they’re both laughing mad eccentrics who seem like they have little scruples for how they use and treat other people, and yet are surrounded by friends and act as the leaders of their team. They also both have a tendency for strategy over brute strength and like to outwit their opponents. 

The only thing I can say about Dr. Stone is that while the characters are a fun little group of oddballs, they rarely get any deeper than that. The most interesting thing is still figuring out the central mystery of the world and what happened to turn everybody to stone, which is why having Senku as a main character was a really smart move on the series part. 

Yozakura Family This is a new series that I actually really like and hope beats canellation at the two week mark. It’s kind of your basic romantic comedy characters get married in the first chapter promise, but also there’s some really strong character writing with the older brother. He’s one of the few examples of the obsessive and overprotective brother type that was portrayed as actually abusive and damaging for seeing his younger sister that way. 

The premise also reminds me a lot of Katekyo Hitman Reborn, just suddenly getting sucked into the underworld of spies and crimminals when you’re an unlucky loser with no social skills. If the character writing is as strong as it is for the brother I can definitely see a lot of improvement and staying power. 

The Promised Neverland the smartest written series in Shonen Jump write now with the best ideas. The Promised Neverland is all about theme, theme, theme, theme, which is why someone like me who devours stories for their nutritious value and content loves it. 

While there are only about three major characters with arcs that matter to the plot, Norman, Ray, and Emma they are some of the deepest characters in shonen jump currently and the complexity of their relationship and the way they all foil each other is superb.

It’s a story about children trying to escape a neverland where they can never grow up, and live in a world that never wanted them alive. Not only is it just about them though, it’s also about adults who are still inside the system and gave up at one point or another and decided to just live in the evil world rather than change it. It’s a deep story but it’s also undeniably shonen jump, the central theme is about not giving up even in a world that is determined to deny your existence. 

Act Age If you’ve read Chihayafuru this manga has a lot in common with that, because both of them are about very singleminded girls with complex emotions that they themselves don’t understand, finding themselves completely enveloped in a niche hobby to the point of obsession. 

Act-Age is a story that’s primarily about storytelling and the nature of stories themselves, with each arc focusing on an adaptation of either a movie made up for the sake of the story or a pre-written play ie, Journey to the West, Night on the Galactic Railroad. However, it’s also bout the nature of stories, as understood by the perspectie of an actor. 

There are only a few major characters but they all get intensely developed in their arcs. My absolute favorite relationship is that of the main character, quiet on the surface but with deep emotions that she uses for her acting talent with her rival an actress that’s much more like a pop star or idol. Rather than having deep talent she instead uses her ability to read people to appeal to them. She is cheerful and lively on the surface, but empty inside. The way they envy each other and learn to grow from each other because each of them has what the other one desires. 

Jujutsu Kaisen reminds me of really early bleach that was just Ichigo and his teenage friends fighting Hollows. This is one of the manga I definitely reccomend, because it’s one of the lesser known manga in jump currently. The art style has this scratchy look about it which really adds well to the horror aspect of the series. It’s a demon fighting anime with some of the best demon designs, more attention is put on making them look grotesque and scary then in series like KNY where the demons for the most part are pretty good looking still. 

The main trio is very solid, a reckless idiot who swallowed a cursed finger in the first chapter and is continually dealing with the consequences of that, the shadowy, quiet type cool headed one who almost never talks about his past or his true feelings on the matter, and between them the cheerful girl whose a tad on the merciless side. 

Not only are the characters good, but it’s one of the few series where the fights and lore are super interesting. Rather than dealing with demons directly Kimetsu no Yaiba style we deal with curses, which are generated from the human subconscious. 

For exmaple one of the villains Mahito is the embodiment of the fear humans have for other humans, that is the anxieties of life, and the fear and suppressed feelings that go hand in hand with humanity. Because that he’s much like a child curse quickly learning and progressing with a human intelligence. 

The fights, the powers of characters, they’re all used to further develop a really interesting world of curses and the people who live dealing with them that it feels like we’re only scratching the surface of right now and desperately makes you want to figure out the system they have in place for this entire world. 

Yui Kamio Lets Loose - I find it to be a really sweet romantic comedy about a stuck up boy obsessed with appearances and what other people think of him falling in love with two sides of a girl, the uncontrollable Yui that beat him up and constantly gets into fights and trouble, and the perfect demure girl who can only ever be helpless and kind and needs to be protected. It has a feel of a lot of classic 80s high school romantic comedies. The only real problem is that it needs to acquire a plot fast, because it’s at risk for cancellation which makes it hard for me to get invested in a series that might end soon. 

Double Taisei - One of those shonen manga that had a really interesting beginning chapter, but then failed to do anything with it. I think it would work well as a character piece between two personalities who act like brothers in the same body, but the characters aren’t strong enough quite yet to work that way. I do like the character design… 

Tokyo Shinobi Squad - It looked like a ripoff at first but the main character is actually fairly different from Naruto, and the manga itself is uniquely its own thing. I just hope it learns to utilize it’s cyberpunk setting better, because ninjas fighting in a cyberpunk dystopia is a very tropey premise and the story needs to utilize those tropes in order to work. I do like the fact that the main character starts out pretty powerful so it’s not a typical shonen formula about a main character slowly learning to gain power, instead it’s him taking in and being responsible for a kid. 

Manga I don’t read - One piece, Yuuna of the Haunted Hotsprings, Chainsawman, Samurai 8 the tale of Hachimaru, Beast Children, Miitama Security Busters. 

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised thoughts on Trails of Cold Steel I:

So I did like it overall, but I have a lot more criticisms of it than I did of the previous games 

Which also means I have way more to say!

Tl;dr - Rean Schwarzer, Estelle Bright you are not

Also, spoiler warning for both this game and the previous ones

So... the pacing in this was weird. Like I loved all the field study segments, they were SO fun, but there’s also the Trista segments between which very boring and felt like filler

I think it’s meant to make the ending feel more important, since you’re defending the school, but it kind of backfired because being forced to run around Thors (which is not a very interestingly designed location, by the way) over and over and over again actually made me kind of resent it. To a point where I low key wanted the ILF to destroy the school. Oops

Like I cared about Liberl and Crossbell because they were interesting, and big, so I never really got tired of them. I got tired of Trista very quickly

Also having everyone in school uniform made their designs less interesting :/

The other places were all super interesting, though! I think if I had to pick a favourite I’d say Bareahard, but they’re all contenders really 

Oh also the other issue with the structure was that everyone had to be mad at someone at all times, and it was almost comical how systematic it was - Rean and Alisa don’t get on, that’s resolved, now let’s focus on how Machias and Jusis don’t get on, that’s resolved, IMMEDIATELY we’ll replace that with Fie and Laura, then the moment that’s resolved it’s Jusis and Milliam...

Like, be a little less formulaic in your character conflict

Anyway, characters!

I do not like the thing where the character’s name appears in front of them before they say it. It was irritating

Elliot: The one I would have been in love with when I was eleven. Elliot is good and sweet and did nothing wrong ever. Holy Song is the most useful craft in the whole goddamn game. He also has easily the best S-Craft in a game where most of the S-Crafts are *decidedly* lackluster, aesthetically speaking. I like Elliot. His friendship with Gaius is also very nice

Jusis: The one I would have been in love with when I was fourteen. So, the moment I saw Jusis, my immediate first thought was ‘oh, this guy is one half of a gay ship’. I had no clue who the other guy was going to be, but I knew there was absolutely no way that Anime Draco Malfoy wasn’t getting shipped with a man. 

And then Machias opened his mouth, and... every franchise, no matter what, has its gay OTP (its homoTP, if you will) - that one, usually M/M, but sometimes F/F, ship that’s practically got a whole side-fandom just for itself. Up until now, I assumed Trails’ was going to be Olivier/Mueller - but while I haven’t checked, because I don’t want spoilers, I will be shocked if these guys aren’t actually it. They have every making - opposites attract, enemies to lovers, they sing together, other characters make jokes about it...

Like, this was deliberate, surely? Surely?

yes i ship it but like, against my will and resentfully and semi-ironically, because I hate myself for instinctively taking the bait >:(

Something something ‘Turbo-Gehenna’ joke

Anyway, I like Jusis. I think he’s a fun character, easily the most interesting of the boys, and I really enjoyed his development. He has a cute smile

I also thought he had the best voice acting in Class VII, so I looked it up and Ben Diskin! I love Ben Diskin! I couldn’t even tell, I had no idea his range was that great, wow!

I did think it was extremely weird that if you invite him to the Stella Garten, he says he wants to date a woman who is ‘like his mother’. Okay, Jusis.

Machias: The one I would have been in love with when I was seventeen. You ever meet someone who’s like... always right, really, but in such an obnoxious way that you wish they weren’t. Machias. He would have been way more interesting if he was just a really politically minded teen who needed to learn tact, rather than yet another member of the Trails Dead Family Member Club (the fact that it was revealed right after Elliot’s Dead Family Member Club story did not help). Still, he really did grow on me in the end. He’s a little dork

Gaius: The one I would be in love with now, if not for the fact that he’s only seventeen and thus a little baby in my eyes. I do love his design the most. Can he say even one line that’s not about the wind, though? I also like that he’s one of very few characters in this franchise to not have a tragic backstory, was very refreshing. 

I can only assume, therefore, that Nord will undergo ethnic cleansing in Cold Steel II

Crow: oh boy Crow hahahahahaha. I don’t know how I feel now. Uhhhh... what did ‘the things I do for love mean’? I am curious

Alisa: I don’t like tsunderes much, and I found her ‘being mad at Rean for something that was absolutely not his fault’ thing very, very stupid and it did not endear me to her at all (also, like, if you had to have that - a better way would have been for him to accidentally injure her, rather than... ugh, look, I am a woman with large breasts - accidents really do happen irl. There’s no point in getting that mad about it. There just isn’t. I have no patience for this kind of plot). It also bothered me how possessive of Rean she got, I swear I picked Towa over her half out of spite. I don’t hate her, though, to be clear - I loved her plot with her mother and that scene in Nord. And her relationship with Ferris! She’s great when she’s not talking about Rean, basically

I don’t buy her as Rean’s love interest, honestly. Rean consistently shows more attraction to Emma, and has more (mandatory/canon) moments with Towa. It only felt one-sided to me 

Laura: I like Laura a lot. I don’t really have anything to say about her, just that she was consistently good, and I appreciated her maturity and self awareness, I love her and Rean being sword bros, she’s just great

Fie: I think Fie was designed to appeal to exactly me personally. Tiny snarky badass girl with a great design? That’s everything I love and aspire to be! Best girl in the game (didn’t date her though because she’s fifteen and I refuse to date anyone who is younger than the protagonist when I play games set in high schools. Feels weird enough dating teens the same age as my character. Also she had 0 romantic chemistry with Rean)

Millium: She’s fine, good voice acting, want to know more about Lammy, no strong feelings

Towa: I wasn’t going to date anyone, but changed my mind because I really liked Towa... and then I looked at her, and saw a tiny girl with long, light brown hair and soft voice, and realised I just want to date myself

I checked, and according to Playstation Trophies, at least, she’s the least picked girl? The only characters picked less than her are the non-Crow boys (Machias is the least popular, which... I feel a little mean for finding hilarious lol)

Emma: I like Emma herself just fine. Don’t get me wrong. But she’s infuriating as a mystery character, because she’s the worst kind of mystery - the kind that relies on the other characters to NEVER AT ANY POINT ASK THE QUESTIONS THAT A NORMAL HUMAN WOULD ASK

Estelle would have asked

Rean has multiple opportunities to ask her to explain herself, and he doesn’t! One time, she straight up ASKS HIM TO ASK, and he doesn’t! That’s not mysterious anymore! That’s just incredibly annoying!

Lloyd would have asked

And no one else asks either! Some of them, fine - I can understand say, Elliot or Gaius or Millium - but Jusis!? Jusis, who has been there for pretty much all of her mysterious vague magic, and has repeatedly shown himself to be willing to be kind of rude, and may not be that interested in other people but certainly isn’t stupid - while they’re in the Schoolhouse Depths, Jusis isn’t going to grab Emma by the shoulders and demand she explain what she knows? He’s just going to go with it as she refuses to elaborate on things? 

Really?

Kevin would have - actually, no, Kevin would have already known because Kevin Knows All, but he would have told everyone else, so same outcome 

Rean: And that brings me to Rean. Rean... is a JRPG Protagonist. He is good, and noble, and he gives Inspiring Speeches, and he can date all the girls (which means we don’t really get any interesting opposite-gender friendships, because oh no, a threat to the harem!), and he is so, so boring. My god

Hey remember how I praised Sky for how great it was to have Estelle be an actual person with flaws and personality? No you don’t, no one’s reading all of these, but yeah - Estelle is just as colourful and full of life as the rest of Sky, while Rean is the least interesting character in Cold Steel no contest

Oh he has a super powered dark side, oh, well, that’s a game changer, never seen that before except in every 2000s shounen anime. Also we never actually learn the Super Rean rules, so that dramatic moment where he’s thinking about transforming to fight Scarlet isn’t actually that dramatic because I had never realised it could kill him until he said so in that moment

Oh except he’s also an awakener and can summon a Persona giant mecha suit! Because he’s the most special boy to be very special? I have never seen that in a JRPG before except in all of them

In Sky, Estelle wasn’t special. Except she was, but it wasn’t because she had super awesome secret awesome powers and all the boys liked her best. It was because she was flawed, but always trying, and because she was incredibly brave and optimistic no matter what, and because she was the kind of person who told a god summoning evil mastermind ‘lol no’ and then beat him with a stick, and because she really, believably loved her friends. She loved them. And they loved her. Not the player she was the avatar of. Estelle herself

Estelle Bright has ruined me for all other JRPG protagonists, is what I’m saying

Oh also Rean has that whole speech about how they can’t cancel the festival to protect people from an unknown threat, that’s not fair to meeeeee, and as someone who has lived through the year 2020 -  go to Gehenna, Rean 

Olivier is back!!! And yeah I’m going to keep calling him that, that’s who I know him as, and also Olivert is a silly name

Even more importantly, Mueller is back!!! And he and Olivier still have the best comedy dynamic in the series, joyous day! THAT is love and peace, baby!

Sara really, really grew on me :) I want to see her interact with Schera so bad

I didn’t really like Sharon up until I worked out OH SHE’S OUROBOROS, because yessssss more of them! Also, yessss, guessed it!

Angie... predatory lesbian stereotype aside, Angie’s super interesting and I want to see more of her yes please

George is like, the most inoffensive character I’ve ever seen, but apparently he has haters? What!?

What is with these games and naming characters/things French words, and then PRONOUNCING THEM WRONG

I do not care that the official pronunciation is ‘Blue Blanc’. I will continue to pronounce it ‘Bleu Blanc’. Because that’s what you guys actually wrote, Christ alive

I have a French GCSE and I will use it for something, goddamnit

I took Jusis on the bike trip and he looked so adorably goofy in the little sidecar. Best moment of the whole damn game for me

I’m trying to imagine what it would be like to have played this game first, as I know a lot of people did. Specifically in regards to Olivier (or Olivert, I guess)

Like... imagine meeting this guy for the first time as a fairly serious leader of an important faction, participating in vital political machinations. Imagine meeting him here and not knowing about the Grand Chardonnay incident. Imagine not knowing about that time he stopped a riot by riding up in a boat and singing. Imagine not knowing he has a rivalry of aesthetics with a terrorist. Imagine not knowing what I was referring to when I said ‘that’s love and peace, baby’ just now

Incomprehensible

Side note, if you had told me, on one of those warm August days when I was first playing Sky FC, that the silly man in the white coat was actually one of the most important characters in the franchise, I would not have believed you for a second 

But on that subject, I was also trying to work out who a first time player would be siding with... like, I’ve played Sky and experienced Zero (currently working way through Azure as well), which means that my immediate reaction to all of Erebonia’s politics was ‘trust whatever Olivier and the bracers say, don’t trust anyone else’. But someone starting with Cold Steel has no reason to have loyalties to those factions, so I’m curious 

Side note, having played the previous games also massively impacted how I viewed the ILF - I’m very confident that I would have just taken them being evil for granted if I’d played this first, but considering they hate Osbourne... and Olivier does not like Osbourne... that kind of made me a lot more suspicious of who I was really meant to side with

I really liked most of the NPCs in this. I especially became weirdly fond of Beryl

However, I do now also have characters I actively dislike, a series first! Gwyn (creepy old man), Neithardt (sexist jerk, kick his arse Beatrix), and Dorothee (...could write a whole essay on the myriad reasons I do not like that particular archetype) get in the bin

Good god, every interaction between Rean, Emma and Dorothee made me want to smack the lot of them with my controller, Dorothee for being an absolute creep, and Rean and Emma for overcorrecting into low key homophobia (seriously Rean, you’re friends with a lesbian, the idea of the existence of gay men should not shock you this much)

Re: Elise... I heard the words ‘non-blood related younger sister’ and my eyes rolled so far back in my head I was afraid they wouldn’t come back down

Took me a while to figure out, but ideal team is Elliot, Jusis, Machias, with Laura and Fie as back-up

I would like to find whoever’s idea it was to make the S-Crafts unlock as the game progresses rather than just be there when you get the character, and shake them until they apologise. Have them evolve with the story, sure, but not having them at all wrecks the battle flow so much. Emma was unusable to me until chapter-goddamn-FIVE

I loved the Annabelle subplot, and the punchline that the person her family wanted to marry her off to was a Lakelord... I actually yelled

The concert was so hyped, and then there weren’t even any real songs (aside from the re-use of the end credit song from Sky, which made me very happy. And Olivier singing along made me laugh out loud)

TOVAL IS TOBY!?!?! 

Man I’m so mad at myself for not reading Carnelia in/after FC (read it in 3rd), but still - what a reveal!

AND WHAT AN ENDING

I mean. At first

They did such a good job building the tension, and then-

The Crow twist, my GOD, when I tell you I freaked the fuck out... I was totally convinced that it was Claire. Or possibly Campanella on stilts. I completely overlooked that there was another major character with a C name, and honestly I’m glad I did because I have not been this shocked by a reveal in a while

And then I stopped taking it seriously when I saw the robots with heelys 

It was all.. we had a very final boss-y final boss, right? Excellent final boss fight, very fun, very satisfying. And then the game just... kept going. I accidentally stayed up until 4 AM because I thought I was at the end and it just didn’t stop

And then it did. Very, very abruptly 

(no seriously I was making some snarky comment about how goofy the flying robot suits look and then the game just ENDED, what)

(also worst *actual* final boss I’ve ever seen. the fact that they managed to make a battle between two giant robots, one of which was controlled by a traitorous former friend, feel like an anticlimax... that was impressive, honestly)

So Cold Steel I is... easily my least favourite Trails game so far. Again, I did like it, but like I say... Rean isn’t Estelle Bright. And that’s pretty much my main problem, in the end

Sorry, Class VII

OH MY GOD they never explained why it’s Class VII and not Class VI! My theory is that it’s either something about the Sept-Terrions, or the Seventh Division, since Olivier’s specifically connected to them. Or maybe both

Well - I’m excited to find out!

[popwasabi]

“Westworld III” takes several steps forward...and several steps back (REVIEW)

Created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy

Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, Aaron Paul, Ed Harris, Vincent Cassel, Tessa Thompson, Thandie Newton

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

Season three of HBO’s “Westworld” cleans up many of the issues season two had but ultimately falls short of season one’s loftier thematic ideas.

It’s cinematically sharper, it’s about as well paced and fun as the show has ever been and that on it’s own makes it worth watching and certainly worth continuing the series going forward but for fans hoping it might have something new to say in the vein of its hyper meta-textual and thematic commentary of the first season it may leave you disappointed.

Season three may have raised the stakes of the series with its pending (and frankly, all too timely) apocalyptic vibes going on in the story but it lowers the bar on its cerebral nature opting more for fast paced thrills over anything more profound or hadn’t said already.

That said, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it anyways for better…and worse.

“Westworld” season three picks up not too long after the events of season two as Dolores has infiltrated human society and begun working on her master plan to bring it all down. She has spared Bernard, who now spends his life as butcher outside the major cities but he often wonders where she is and when this apocalypse will begin. Meanwhile a veteran named Caleb spends his life doing the same mundane tasks and mercenary work everyday to make ends meet pondering his existence as he deals with his PTSD. He decides to break the cycle however when one day he finds Dolores shot in an alleyway and joins her on her quest to start a revolution.

“Westworld” is one of the few series that hooked me immediately with its first episode.

Where some series take their time to gain momentum before going into overdrive in their season finale, season one’s “The Original” grabbed my attention from the start with a combination of mystery, action, stellar acting, and the kind of cerebral humanist story-telling I expect and want from the cyberpunk genre.

As someone with a father who talked extensively about myth, theme, and got me to listen to old Joseph Campbell essays on CD  growing up, a series that explored story-telling on a meta level with a high octane LARP concept setting was everything someone like me could ask for in a science fiction series.

(Seriously, there was some compelling analytical story-telling dialogue in this series.)

So invested I was in this tale of synthetics gaining agency and humans exploring their own personal myth-making and what it said about themselves made me a huge fan early on, proudly proclaiming it to be the best show on HBO several years ago.

I was so certain this series was creatively the best thing on television at the time that I strongly considered getting a maze tattoo like that in the show to proclaim my brand-new fandom.

But knowing there was still more seasons on the horizon, I held off thinking I should probably see this through before doing anything that brash.

Well, a few years later I feel pretty good about that decision…

(Imagine how fans who named their newborns Daenerys or Khalessi feel right now...)

I remember thinking at the end of season one “Where can they possibly go from here still? Other LARP destinations in this cyberpunk world? A robot vs human war? How can the world expand?”

The problem is these thoughts did not really ask the most important question following that first season; “What more does it actually have to say?”

The first season is, in my opinion, a perfect season of television. It’s a brilliant take on the stories we tell ourselves, the choices we make that define us in our personal myths, and the exploration of our nature and how that relates to choice all while playing out this synthetic mystery plot. The entire first season pulls all these arcs and ideas together through characters like Bernard/Arnold, William/The Man in Black, and of course Dolores. They all, more or less, complete their arcs in that first season and there’s not really much needed to be said beyond that when you really think about it. If the series ended on Dolores murdering Ford and the Delos guests in the season finale that honestly would have been a perfect ambiguous ending to send the story off on.

(Kind of itss own meta commentary on the journey of a fan and an ever-increasingly cynical series...)

But because this is HBO, and “Game of Thrones” is no longer the driving force of premium TV, Westworld MUST continue because it’s the new cash cow for the channel. Whether or not writer/producers Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan really knew what they wanted to do following that first season is anybody’s guess but it’s hard not to see that they have struggled a bit since that point.

Season two is a mixed bag, where the characters literally feel like they’re going in circles. Plotlines get muddled, characters become hyper versions of themselves, and while certain ideas and episodes reached similar levels of brilliance that the first season had it still lacked the narrative sharpness of the first season and that has a lot to do with the characters having mostly no other driving force besides survival and simply getting to the next physical plot point.

It just didn’t have much more to say and frankly in a story about stories that’s pretty damn important.

(This episode from season 2 is still one of its best.)

To their credit, Joy and Nolan appear to rectify quite a few issues season two had with season three. Again, it’s faster, better paced, there’s a clearer destination at the end for its characters and not to mention a pretty compelling villain for this season’s plot in Serac played by the brilliant Vincent Cassell.

But it suffers ultimately the same problem; it has nothing truly new to say.

This is not to say the season is without any meaningful messages or metaphors. It’s quite critical of our hyper surveillance and information gathering state, might even be the best depiction to date on the broader implications and consequences of a world where we all have our personal information readily online to mined and plundered by big businesses and government. Caleb, played by the always great Aaron Paul, is a good avatar for the everyman who has grown jaded and disenfranchised by this system. Though he spends most of the season looking overly shocked and gape-jawed at just about everything, it’s hard not to feel empathy and a connection to this character as we are quite literally living in a bit of a cyberpunk hell as it is these days and treated just as much as expendable commodities right now.

(You fucking jackasses are arguing for the wrong things! You’re all being swindled and cheated for nothing! *photo “unrelated”*)

The season is generally best when the focus is on him, as the first episode delivers a strong start in the same way season one did.

Where the season begins to fall apart though is when quite literally the world “Westworld” inhabits begins to do so itself. Serac’s Rehobaum, which reminded me just a little too much of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s” Deep Thought, releasing all its data to the world and everyone discovering they’re basically all dangerous assholes is almost hilarious to me. 

Though the idea of hyper data controlling our every move is a good cyberpunk metaphor to jump off of, the way this bit is executed is a little over exaggerated and clumsy.

(Though it does deliver a pretty powerful scene regardless.)

This isn’t actually a tremendous problem with season three, but it doesn’t do much to add to what we already understand about the story; which is how narrative controls us and how important choices and free will is to that. All this is already told and expanded on in the first season through Dolores, all season three does it bring it to a macro level and put that onus on the humans instead of the hosts. The hosts were already a metaphor for humanity anyways so again the story in some ways hasn’t changed much since season one.

It's interesting to have the narrative of the hosts turned on the humans but thematically it feels redundant.

I’ll add that this isn’t the worst idea they could’ve gone with, it works in moving the physical aspect of the story forward for sure, and I wouldn’t even classify it as a bad one, but again the problem is the story has largely run out of new things to tell us.

We like stories because we want to learn some truth about ourselves, whether we want it to or not, and Anthony Hopkins’ Ford makes a great point of this in season one. This has been the purpose of myths and legends since the dawn of time and it’ll be no different even when the 37th Fast & Furious comes out in 40 years. You could argue that the message of Westworld deserves repeating or that it’s not important to the entertainment value it still provides, and you might be right. But for a series like this, that is so invested in what stories mean I don’t think it’s wrong to think there should be more to it than this.

(Maybe, I should’ve...)

Of course, there’s still plenty more to see out of “Westworld” for the foreseeable future as HBO won’t be canceling it anytime soon and certainly it’ll have its chance to still tackle more ideas and themes in the future but, at this point at least, it’s been less meaningful that its first season.

There are other problems too, namely Dolores constantly changing and unclear revolution plans and arcs resolved offscreen, certain side plots with other characters ultimately going nowhere, and a fairly predictable twist with Caleb, but this is the crux of the problem with the series as it stands now and the one worth mentioning the most.

(And Maeve, *sigh* oh Maeve...)

That said, season three really is a lot of fun despite my issues with the narrative. The pacing, as mentioned, is great from start to finish. I was never bored or disinterested during this season, despite its flaws, and the action bits are frankly better than they’ve ever been as the series goes full cyberpunk in parts with great robot on human and robot on robot action.

The cinematography is sharp and striking too as Jonathan Nolan shows he’s definitely Christopher’s brother with some beautiful, haunting shots of the future Los Angeles city Gotham-esque skyline set to Ramin Djawadi’s excellent cyberpunk score that gives the new season a more noire-ish feel that would make Vangelis and Hans Zimmer proud.

(In the future Los Angeles will be Singapore!)

The acting is still stellar of course. Though Jeffrey Wright’s Bernard is largely wasted in this season and his plot goes nowhere, his scene with Gina Torres in the finale is touching. Luke Hemsworth is dry as hell in a good way as Chief of Security turned personal buddy bodyguard to Bernard as Ashley Stubbs. Ed Harris is wicked and dastardly as always as William and of course Evan Rachel Wood is solid as the driving force of the series as Dolores.

(Out of context season 3 spoiler.)

The finale doesn’t leave much to say beyond a pending machine vs human war though which has been building up since the first season anyways. While I can see some possibilities for an interesting direction here, I can’t say I’m as intrigued as even the finale to season two left me.

In some ways, season one left me not too much unlike William going into season’s two and three; looking for additional meaning in something that wasn’t looking to tell me anything deeper, at least right now. Perhaps the maze just isn’t for me anymore but moving forward I’ll be lowering my expectations.

(Oh my God! Meta commentary on meta commentary! It’s meta-ception! I’m beginning to question the nature of my reality!!!)

“Westworld” remains a fun cyberpunk action series that can hold your attention span for an hour, and I think it’ll maintain that energy consistently going forward, but it might’ve been best left where it was when Dolores put a bullet in Ford’s brain.

I do hope it can regain some of its original spark at some point but until then…it doesn’t look like anything (deep) to me.

VERDICT:

3.5 out of 5

You said it, Marshawn...

[letterstothemidnightsociety]

Another day of quarantine, another attempt to decipher the secret to one show’s mind-boggling longevity - Are they casting spells on every airdate? Do they have some kind of talisman? Did they make an actual deal with a literal devil to stay on the air this long?? The fact that Jensen Ackles has barely aged a day sure suggests they might have. It’s Supernatural! 

I think one of my favorite things so far has been the trailer that plays at the end of “Crossroad Blues” to really make sure you tune into the next episode which...did not play for two weeks. Looking at air dates, “Crossroad Blues” plays on Nov 16, 2006, so that’s right around the Thanksgiving break. Then they come back for ONE episode on Dec 7 and that is their midseason finale. TV programming is wild. 

I was like, really into this Bobby Johnson, like...I was into that.

It’s very possible that at this point in the season, SPN is trying real hard to keep their audience. Looking at the numbers for all the episodes leading up to “Croatoan”, they’re only averaging between 3 and 4 million viewers, roughly 1 - 2 million less than where they were at this time in season 1, so it’s easy to see why SPN was on the hook for renewal in season 2. Looking over its ratings for the rest of the season, the audience numbers just keep going down. The show is the number 8 highest rated show on the CW in 2006/07, so technically in the top 10, but it’s tied with Reba and One Tree Hill and the CW only had (16) original programs that year, so it’s not boasting much. These numbers supposedly include Live + 7 day DVR watches, so those numbers really are not good, BUT: starting in January of 2007, the CW started releasing episodes online the day after they aired, so I’m willing to bet that large portions of their audience were still tuning in, just not tuning in in a way that could be tabulated by Neilsen at the time. 

It’s also interesting to note that for both season 1 and season 2, the real mythos/lore/arc episodes don’t really start until the midseason. In season 1, it’s not until episode 10, “Scarecrow,” where we’re introduced to Meg and the bigger stakes at hand for the Winchesters. Their search for their father starts ramping up and the show starts subtly shifting away from Finding Dad to Fighting The Boss Fight. 

Season 2 is pretty similar. Up until “Croatoan” (episode 9), the show has been about the fallout from John’s death. Finding the yellow-eyed-demon is certainly a driving factor, but it’s very much on the backburner. The show even makes a point to say, hey! Our guys don’t really have any leads, so it’s gonna take a while before we get back to this. 

I actually really appreciate that the show takes this much time to let the Winchester process their grief. Kripke and Co. have said numerous times that they realized the episodes that work best are the ones that really dig into the emotional journeys of the characters, so they just went ahead and made that the primary focus of the first half of the season. It gives weight to their loss at the beginning of the season - John’s death is not some throwaway plot point, it’s a real gut punch that our characters aren’t going to get over in a hurry. It also lends weight to the danger the brothers face in the future - John died immediately, who’s to say that won’t happen to Sam or Dean? 

I mean, sure buddy, but also...no one here is okay.

Not to mention, John’s deal with the yellow-eyed-demon (+ the events in “Crossroad Blues”) give us a subtle/not-so-subtle hint as to what’s waiting for us at the end of season 2. But we’re not there yet. 

Then we’re in “Croatoan” and reminded in full force what our guys are supposed to be fighting this season - not their crippling grief but rather a very present threat to their physical and spiritual well-being. That’s not to say we haven’t had a taste of the Sam-centric plotline that appears in “Croatoan”. BUT I’d argue that even though “Simon Said” deals with the Psychic Children, it’s still only a tease for what those children are capable of. “Croatoan” really drives home the threat from the yellow-eyed-demon, not just from his Psychic Children but also whatever nefarious plans that he’s been cooking for however-long. And it puts this threat front and center as a main quest for the back 13 of the season. 

Because of COURSE demon viruses come with their own dusting of sulfur.

Doing the math on this, it looks like SPN had a Front 9/Back 13 split? As in, they got picked up for the first 9 episodes of season 2 but weren’t sure they were going to get those final 13 episodes and that is...crazy? I have not seen any proof this is the case, but it is something to consider for a show that was on the edge of cancellation for this season and last season. It’s possible that the CW was treating all of its programming like they were pilot seasons since this was, essentially, CW’s pilot season, but again - I have no evidence other than this 9/13 split to prove it. 

Back to the show. Let me just say: I LOVE “Croatoan.” Any time anyone wants to make up a supernatural reason for an obscure historical mystery, I am ON. BOARD. And the Lost Colony of Roanoke is definitely one of my favorites. I STILL love this episode even though I can hear my friend whispering through the decades, ”The colonists just intermarried with the local native tribe, the Croatoans…” which is apparently actually the answer in real life. But demon viruses are fine, and particularly relevant in The Year of Our Troubles 2020. 

CROATOAAAAAAAAA!!!

What also works in “Croatoan” is the dynamics between the brothers that will play out for the rest of the season/series. The groundwork for their big fight at the end of this episode has already been laid in the beginning of the season. On the one hand, you have Dean, who’s lost so much at the hands of the yellow-eyed-demon he can’t stand to lose anymore, especially not his brother. On the other hand, Sam is becoming more like his father - ready and willing to sacrifice whatever needs to be sacrificed to defeat this thing, even if that means giving up his own life. Sam has the same motivation that Dean has but coming from a completely different direction. If his death will save his brother, then he’ll do it, no questions asked, just like John died to save Dean. Neither of the brothers are willing to lose the other and they will go on to make increasingly stupid, selfish decisions to make sure they won’t have to. Yes, I love this show, and I love Sam and Dean, but man they are DUMB BABIES. 

OOF.

So we get “Croatoan,” where we see the stakes at hand - the yellow-eyed-demon is out for World Destruction, not just Winchester Destruction. He may have plans for the Psychic Children, but his plans reach far beyond a bunch of 20YO with wacky powers. And when Sam gets infected with the demon virus (LOL, sulfur in the blood?????), he knows he’s a danger to others and is immediately ready to sacrifice his life to keep those around him safe. Dean goes on to prove that this is a line too far - he’ll keep others safe but if the choice is between killing his brother and anything else, he will literally choose anything else. Sam turns out to be fine in a mysterious kind of way, although the town clearly is not, and the boys ride off into the sunset. Then we get the cliffhanger - John told Dean something important that we will not find out until January. 

These dolly shots crack me right up.

If you’re watching this in real time, you wait a month for that cliff hanger to resolve itself in “Hunted”. If you are living in the era of streaming, you just skip the closing credits to find out what John said - “He said that I [Dean] had to save you...and that if I couldn't, I'd . . .That I'd have to kill you.” 

Are you ever just like, What the actual F*CK, John Winchester?

This is literally Dean’s worst nightmare - having to choose between duty and family. Sam understandably doesn’t take this well to start with, but like in “Croatoan”, he ultimately settles into the idea, which is...deeply upsetting??? 

“Hunted” does a lot of fun things - 

Number 1: We get more of the Psychic Children (because I REFUSE to call them the Special Children, sorrynotsorry). We see that there’s a range of Types, from Scott who definitely looks like a serial killer to Ava, who ultimately goes on to be the headmistress at a secret magic university (OMG, DO watch The Order cuz that shiz is GOLD.)

Seriously, if you liked Supernatural, you will like this show. 

Number 2: We get the return of Gordon, this time as a head-on antagonist. Do I like Gordon? No, I find him frustrating at best. But do I LOVE Gordon as an antagonist? Absolutely! He is smart, capable, and (at this point) wholly non-supernatural, Natural, if you will. He’s such a good foil to Sam and Dean and he’s the perfect villain for this moment. He sees the world in only black and white. To him, there’s no moral dilemma as to whether or not the Psychic Children are good or bad - they’re definitely bad and he’s here to stop/kill them. I think he’s an important catalyst for Dean too, since in both of Gordon’s episodes, Dean sees what he could be if it wasn’t for Sam’s influence. He doesn’t want to be like Gordon, so he needs to keep Sam around.

Number 3: Alright, this one isn’t so fun just cuz the final scene is a little sloppy, but Ava turns out to be a good catalyst for Sam. When Ava shows up on screen, she is clearly on Team Cool Kid. She’s totally normal, very Apple Pie, but she shows up to try and save Sam’s life simply because it’s a life that she can (hypothetically) save. She knows nothing about demons or curses or Chosen Ones, she just had a weird dream that gave her a weird feeling and then she acted on out of the goodness of her heart. It’s exactly what Sam does when his dreams kick it into high gear in season 1 (with mixed results). Sam hangs out with Ava, gets to know her, gives her the whole Truth is Out There speech and when she leaves, I actually really appreciate this character. She’s had a wild ride of a day and she is just taking this whole thing totally in stride. Good on you, Ava! 

Except, when we get to the end of the episode and Sam tries to check in on her, we find her fiancé with his throat cut, sulfur on the window sill, and Ava nowhere to be seen. Now I don’t remember what I thought the first time I saw this episode, but I don’t believe that Ava killedher fiancé. The show really seems to want me to believe that she killed her fiancé, though, indicating that no matter how cool she was at the beginning of the episode, it’s only a matter of time before all the Psychic Children “go darkside”, as Sam so strangely puts it. 

Anyone else this this was a weird line? I thought this was a weird line. 

And this is what pushes Sam’s arc through the rest of the season. Our next episode is “Playthings,” which feels like a monster-of-the-week episode where they squeeze in some unrelated emotional drama. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun episode, but SPN is usually better about tying their MotW eps into the emotional character arcs and this one is not as finessed. There’s a little more disconnect here. The important takeaway from “Playthings” is this: seeing Ava “kill” her fiancé convinces Sam that his father was right. Sam may need to be put down, and if that happens, he wants Dean to be the one to do it. Dean agrees, but we all know that he’s doing that just to appease Sam and that he’s still gonna do whatever it takes to save Sam, no matter the cost. Nothing gets resolved and this will definitely come back later. 

I mean, yeah that’s probably true.

Some things - 

First off: Sam seems to be perfectly OK with this and that...is not OK. 

Secondly, SAM?!? WHY would you put that on your brother?? 

Thirdly, DEAN! Don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep. 

FINALLY, and maybe most importantly, this is the best example I can think of to showcase a character’s greatest strength also being their greatest weakness. The Winchesters are about two things - fighting evil and taking care of family. Done in equal measure, these strengths make them heroic tropes. Taken to extreme situations? Well, now you have two humans wide open to failing at one of these things so bad that the apocalypse literally starts.

What these three episodes remind us, honestly what this whole season so far reminds us, is that Supernatural works because of relationships. The monsters and the mythology and the classic rock are there as a fun framework to get us interested in the show, but it’s the characters that keep us. That’s what viewers connect to. I really appreciate the arguments that Sam and Dean have with each other, starting at the end of season one and up until now in season 2. They feel very deeply rooted in character, not contrived for the sake of Drama. Neither of them is wrong, per se, but then neither of them is right, either. Their emotional backgrounds feel complex and grounded, foundations for real characters, not just the caricatures that you’d expect from a show about ghosts on a network aimed at the 18 - 24 demographic. 

See, THIS is the sort of fight you’d expect, not a fight where one brother is begging the other to literally kill him. 

And this is gonna be the hill that I’ll die on - characters and relationships are always the heart of any successful franchise. I mean, why else are there so many shipping wars out there? Why write fic if it isn’t to explore relationships and aspects of a character that the show doesn’t present? Sure it’s not the only reason to write fic, but I’d argue it’s a BIG reason. 

Because it’s not just the characters building relationships with each other, it's the audience building relationships with those characters (and to a lesser extent, with the world of the story). This is the core of any show that hopes to make it past season one and beyond, no matter the decade, the network, or the platform it airs on. We like stories about people with problems we can relate to. Dysfunctional family trouble? Check. Drama at work? Been there. Feeling like the world’s about to end any second? Oh yes. You can feel those problems deep down in your gut, even if the specifics are different. It doesn’t matter if those people are working in an office or a hospital or hunting down demons in the dead of night. If you can show us people, real people with something we can relate to on a gut level, that’s how you stay on the air for 15 seasons.