#it's so interesting! but it also just makes me want to rewatch the entirety of gx 🙈

[enwie]

*me, starting yugioh 5ds, as in five dragons, from the beginning again*: I don't know, I just feel like dragons have always been a little overrated in yugioh...

[madkiska]

watching the entirety of jrwi: riptide again. here's some important things from the first few episodes that I feel we forgot (<110 mentions too though)

Jay

Had night terrors similar to those of Kubakinta's curse in episode 5, and they eventually start returning even after Loffinlot's curse is lifted ○ All of them were about her family and/or the navy ○ I simply think people leave her out of the nightmare stuff and she deserves it. Hurt her more, please (he said, lovingly)

was actually very upset at having to use her medal to get a Loffinlot rebellion to shut up ○ This could be because she didn't want them to guess she was a spy, but I choose to believe it's because she felt guilty

"If you're gonna be sailing with someone, you should have a good relationship with them. [nervous chuckle]." She says, while asking him for information about the Black Rose Pirates (ep. 10)

Said "thank god they didn't find me" after a nightmare about the navy attacking. Even when she was supposedly a spy, who one day would have to return to the navy ○ Very unclear if she was scared of her dad, or if it's because she was a secret spy so the navy would've just killed her

Rewatching, she was suspiciously into the plundering and gold and stuff. Like that was real sus. It doesn't fit her current character much

The only one among them who's gambled before

Chip

The entire thing literally starts off with Bizly holding a lit match

Called Gillion "Gill" and Jay "Sureshot" from an early stage

Was SO much more of a bastard. Lied to Gill constantly, didn't care about anything but the money, etc.

Had aggressive hand tremors alongside Jay's night terrors ○ Gill cures it with lay on hands

When he gets drunk married, they talk extensively about how he'd be released when he's dead. Welp.

They did actually break up and it was fine and they were still friends. They parted on good terms

Is really fucking good at chess ○ Beat Earl twice and Jay once. Jay had a point of exhaustion after a nightmare but Earl had no excuse ○ Lost to Gillion though, but only cause of prophetic screwup ○ This kid is smarter than he lets on, y'all

Was the first one to have a backstory dump while Jay is asking him about the Black Rose Pirates, yet still we know jack shit about his life before them other than "orphan"

Gill

Charlie has referred to Gillion with 'they' many times. I can pull receipts.

When describing Gill, Charlie said: "He's more.. elven, if you had to make a comparison. 'Cause I don't wanna be a fish guy". Oh, honey.

Smote a bald person by using his hair as a whip (ep. 4)

Was given anxiety and self-doubt alongside jay's night terrors and chip's tremors ○ "What do you want?" "I want the feeling of satisfaction I've been chasing my whole life." ○ This was episode FIVE.

First mention of the prophecy and how Gillion wasn't their ideal student is ep. 7, after he divine smites + prophetic screwups and deals like 60 damage to some beetles ○ Chip spends the next 30 seconds in gay awe

He refers to the crescent moon Niklaus tattoo as "my zodiac" (probably a bit) ○ It's not a lil basic white girl moon this thing is the entire size of his forearm

Gill had never heard about the Black Sea - it's unclear if the Undersea just don't know, or if that's just how sheltered he was (ep. 10)

Biz: "What would Gillion do. If he just had no goal - was just sitting there." "Gillion always has a goal." "Would his goal ever be to just.. Sit there?" "Absolutely not." ○ Later, Chip expresses that he doesn't know what Gillion likes. What he would want out of winning a bet. Gillion doesn't have an answer

Other

Apple, in a couple of early battles, acted like Gill's familiar (see: ep. 7)

They also pecked at his Niklaus tramp stamp and looked all confused at the idea of eating seeds

The specific crescent of the moon in the Niklaus tattoo is known as a symbol of "corruption" (ep. 9) and its antonym is the sun, for "life", similar to the yin and yang ○ Interesting to consider after what the tree said in 110 <_<

Pretzel has a masters degree in couple's therapy (ep. 10)

The Albatross/Millennium Chipper was described as the colour of rosewood or mahogany

Captain Lizzie's first introduction was a wanted poster, and Chip wanted to turn her in for the prize, then decided to try learn from her instead

Chip/Bizly called Old Man Earl "Erol" for a loooong time ○ Maybe it's an accent thing but I have an uncle called Erol and so this stands out to me

[moongothic]

So I rewatched the entirety of the Baroque Works saga for the first time in quite a few years, and before that I did also finaly watch MelonTeee's video essay about the East Blue Saga. And naturally I am now plagued with some Thoughts™

So in her essay (which you should go and watch if you haven't already, let's be real) MelonTeee discussed how one of East Blue's key themes was people's treasures, be it items, dreams and most importantly other people, and the way people are willing to sacrifice their lives or their own dreams to protect those who are dear to them. Rewatching Baroque Works Saga, the key, long running themes I picked up on were that of

Trust and betrayal (Laboon at the time being under the impression that his friends had betrayed him and left him to rot at Reverse Mountain; Whiskey Peak is all about backstabbing people; Little Garden was about Dorry and Broggy's friendship being too strong for either party to believe the other had betrayed them; Croc's trust issues in Alabasta being his ultimate downfall)

Friendship and unbreakable bonds (Laboon's new bonds with Luffy and co; Dorry and Broggy again; the comparison between Chopper trying to say goodbye to Luffy and co only to be denied vs Vivi's farewell)

What makes a country, a good ruler and if/when is overthrowing a ruler justified (Drum and Alabasta explore these together)

And perhaps most importantly, protecting that what is important to you. And that one in particular I feel like is the Alabasta arc's main theme on its own, as it comes up over and over again.

The Rebel Army wants to protect their country from their "corrupt king" by overthrowing him; the King wants to protect his people from needless bloodshed and tries to avoid combat; Vivi wants to protect her people but also her friends and can't find the strenght to beg them for help lest they get hurt on her behalf; Luffy wants to protect his friends and Vivi so they don't get killed by the likes of Crocodile. Protecting those you love is an important theme in this arc, it is the arc's very heart as the conflict is was born out of that love. And that's why it's so interesting to me how Crocodile's motif seems to be being a protector, a guardian. And I'm not just talking about the "Croc is based on Sobek the Egyptian crocodile headed protector god" and "Guardian of Alabasta"- if that was all then I'm not sure I'd even go as far as to call it a "motif" for him, but it comes back to haunt us again in Marineford with the ever legendary

And that is just... curious. Because Crocodile as we know him is just Some Asshole with no weaknesses and nothing he cares about except for his own ambition. So being a protector being his motif, of all fucking people, is really interesting. Like, One Piece doesn't really do shallow villians, there's always a reason to why a character has become the way they have and why they're doing what they're doing.

Kaidou was raised in an environment where one justified the reason for their existence through strenght and combat alone.

Doflamingo hates the world and wants it to just fucking burn because he never let go of the entitlement of being a World Noble.

Lucci was brainwashed into becoming a warrior for absolute justice since he was a small child.

Arlong watched his people suffer from the oppression of humans first hand and that hatred consumed his heart.

Wapol was a spoiled nepobaby manchild who thought he should be allowed to do whatever the fuck he wanted because he's King.

Why the fuck is Crocodile the way he is. Why does he want to create a utopia, a military nation powerful enough to rival the WG itself. What has driven him to to strive for that goal. Why is being a protector his motif.

East Blue explored the things you are willing to do and the lenghts you're willing to go for your "treasure", the ones you love and care about. And Alabasta is about protecting them; even if not called that explicitly, Alabasta is about protecting your treasure. On one hand, having the man with no treasure, nothing and no one he wants to protect, as the primary antagonist of the arc that about protecting your loved ones is a great juxtaposition. Like there is an argument to be made that the reason Crocodile lost is because he had nothing to lose, while everyone else in the arc had everything to lose in this conflict and thus couldn't afford it, as they'd be left with nothing. And, looking at Alabasta on its own, as a standalone arc, that does work. But when you look at One Piece as a whole, when you look at everything that came before and after, I can't help but to feel that can't be the case, can it? Surely Crocodile has something he did want to protect after all?

[canonicallyobserving911]

Buck and BT Bones

Be clear: I'm happy it's finally over because the last 7 months of the relationship has been pure hell within this fandom.

Now, I will do an in depth post when I get my thoughts together but I just watched the episode in its entirety and while I'm ecstatic that BT is finally Bones, I didn’t like the way it happened for several reasons.

First, Buck got broken up with AGAIN! The reason it bothers me is because it's been 8 years and he's still diving into relationships head first without thinking. Him asking Tommy to move in with him was very WHIPLASHY to the 1,000th power especially since in 8x5, they weren't being romantic at all (I'm not complaining about it, it's just an observation). There were huge pieces of the puzzle missing with them going from barely touching to celebrating an anniversary which lead to them discussing Abby. Buck jumped head first without even being able to answer Josh's question about if he was in love. Also, IIRC, Tommy has a house (Eddie said it in 7x4) so why would he move into Buck’s apartment with him? It doesn’t make any sense.

Someone in the writers room (Tim) didn't do their homework again to make sure the continuity was included 🙄.

Second, when is Buck going to end a relationship for the right reasons? If he’s unhappy, he’s never allowed to say it. One conversation with Josh and he was ready to make the same mistakes he made with Taylor. IMO, Buck’s storylines are still being mishandled and they're just thrown together. The whole switch from calling him "Evan" to "Buck" was just interesting and I'm sure there's some symbolism around it but thinking about it from a GA perspective (reminder the majority of them don't read post mortem interviews so how will they obtain the information if it's not included in the episode?), it didn't connect and it was missing a lot of explanations. So overall, this was sloppily handled and the breakup should have shown Buck growing instead of him doing the same things he’s done in the past.

Buck deserves better than a repeat of his relationships with women and he moved on from Buck 1.0 but now it seems like he might revert to it again. Can Buck take some time to figure out what he wants?

I'll elaborate more in another post after I rewatch the episode.

[quinnydoll]

You should watch Eureka Seven

So there's this neat little show I watched before I turned 10 when I couldn't understand a goddamn thing, and it caused me to think about the cool aesthetics of giant robots flying around stylishly on boards as naturalistic trails flow behind them.

I rewatched the show recently with my lovely nesting partner, because I wanted to revisit its world, and I was offered so much more than I remembered. Yes, the show is absolutely what I just described in the previous paragraph/run-on sentence(fuck you this isn't a school assignment) but it's also SO MUCH MORE.

I'm not going to beat around the bush, there's a singular gif I can show people that usually convinces them to watch it with the added info that this isn't just a super highlighted moment, it's just what the show looks like:

(side note: if you haven't seen this show in its entirety, do not, I repeat DO NOT search for gifs of it on this site, never have I ever seen such a dense wall of spoilers)

Still with me? I'd hope so after that display! Also, for non-mecha fans, PLEASE I am begging you to still give the show a chance, it's so worth it!

So we need to start off with this show's worldbuilding. The giant robots can wait, because first we have to address the most glaring thing: everyone seems to have access to these boards that seemingly allow them to levitate and travel in midair on these almost fluid-like trails. These are explained as Trappar Waves, and not much is explained about them early on. I'm going to keep my explanation brief, because it's way more satisfying to watch the mystery unravel through the course of the show.

Basically, the planet this takes place on is full of these waves, and that's one of the main things that everything relies on, and why we can see effectively airships that are just perpetually suspended in the air without need to refuel constantly. This is what allows them to stay up. Also the reason why we see characters with their nifty little boards. Oh yeah, the giant robots have those boards too.

That's the main thing I wanna address about the world of this show, because explaining the rest would genuinely spoil so much of the show, and the experience would be extremely reduced by me explaining. Just trust me, it's really good.

Now, the format of the show is actually masterfully done. The first arc involves the immaturity of the main character, and the format of the show reflects it heavily in the very slice of life format as our main character is enchanted with the conditions he's been put into. At this stage of the series, it's not very serious, and its stakes are pretty low.

As it progresses though, it eases you into a far more coherent overarching narrative in a way that feels really natural and well done. You'll never really "notice" the point at which "shit gets real" or anything, you'll just find yourself way more interested in the bigger picture of what's going on, because the show puts a larger focus on it.

There's a romance story in it too, and it's actually really well done, which is something I haven't really seen effectively done in a lot of action anime, but I think in this case it's because they don't really treat it like a "subplot." They do a really good job of tying it into the main story, and they make it feel pretty real as a romance, and by the end, the payoff is the most satisfying one I've seen of really any romance plot that isn't necessarily the actual main focus of a story. I genuinely feel like they could've conveyed the story they did without the romance plot, but something truly impactful would've been lost had they gone that route.

I think it's not unfair to compare this show to Neon Genesis Evangelion, but at the time, it would be doing both stories a serious disservice. Evangelion is a really effective exploration into nihilism and mental illness, but Eureka Seven feels like a direct response in the way it delivers its story. It feels like it did a Better Rebuild™ before the Rebuild movies even came out.(let it not be said that I don't like the Rebuild series, it's legitimately in my top ten.) Early on, they communicate a lot of the same themes, but then Eureka Seven diverges hard with how it explores the intricacies of interpersonal relations and how people will strive to do better and how people can genuinely be better to each other. I feel like the way it delivers that is genuinely way more effective than even the extremely cathartic conclusion to Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0.

Seriously though, if you're not interested in watching this show, I don't know how to convince you. It's truly a fantastic show, and it's honestly taken the spot of "favorite anime" in my book. I am no longer a Gundam fan, but an Eureka Seven fan who also likes Gundam. You're going to love this show, even if you're not into mecha anime.

[wilcze-kudly]

I really want to see your post about how Katara is forcefully matured by the fandom, please!

Ok, while I wasn't ready to make that post in earnest, and frankly never might be, here's some of my cursory thoughts on the topic. I'd gladly talk about it in detail more but also ✨️fear✨️

So, let's get the obvious out of the way. Katara is a 14 year old. A child, barely a teen. In fact, the entirety of the gaang is made up of children.

Now, I haven't been fully active in the atla fandom in quite some time, mostly lurking on the peripheries, because the fandom is a shitshow. One of the reasons being the fact that most fans cannot, for the life of them handle the Gaang's inherent childishness.

This isn't just a Katara problem. Other than her, Aang suffers the most for the egregious crime of being a 12 year old survivor of a genocide. Suki is, of course, mainly ignored. The interpretations of Toph can vary wildly, from her being horrifically matured to being dissmissed as a chaotic, rude child. Zuko and Sokka's immature moments are looked at more permissively, being an angsty boi™️ and a goofy goober respectively.

I do find it odd that Aang doesn't get the "boys will be boys" pass, but ok, we'll blame it on him being... bald? a nice boy? not concerned with his own masculinity?

As for Katara, her maturity is treated like... a given. She's the mom of the group, the proverbial love interest, the feminist icon, the badass fighter, the trailblazer filled with feminine rage. The trophy wife to Aang, the (Lore Olympus style) Persephone to Zuko's Hades.

And true, she is, or at least can be, a lot of these things.

However she is, first and foremost, a child. This fact is presented to us on a silver platter in the first episode, when her and Aang are penguin sledding.

Katara : I haven't done this since I was a kid!

Aang: You still are a kid!

Katara is a child forced to mature. Her circumstances forced her to try to fill her mother's place and to fight for those who couldn't do so themselves. The fandom brands her as a mom friend. Sees her purely as an icon of empowerment. Or worse, degrades her character to being a love interest.

(im talking about both sides of the kataang/zutara debate. I have my biases, but I'm sure there are kataangers who treat her like this as well. I simply have encountered very few of them.)

Her story, while yes, has many themes of female empowerment is in huge part, a tragedy. The tragedy of a young girl forced to grow up much too soon.

Sadly, this is rarely spoken about. It's not spoken about directly and therefore a lot of the fandom doesn't see this. (Or simply doesn't want to see it)

This is not to say that Katara's more mature aspects should be dismissed or buried. She displays a lot of maturity for her age, to the point of being able to go toe to toe both intellectually and physically with the (admittedly usually incompetent) adults of the show. Additionally, she evolves as a character through the durtation of the show.

But a huge chunk of her maturity being forced and therefore unhealthy is a key aspect of her character.

I think what upsets me the most is that while the critiquing the idea of Katara being treated as the mom of the group in fanon is becoming more and more common, the treatment of her as something akin to a YA protagonist is on the rise.

Both these interpretations are so insulting to the character of Katara, what is wrong with you people?

I'm currently rewatching atla with a focus on Katara as a character (while also trying to give zutara a chance I am doing my best guys) and her childishness is an integral part of her. It's sad to see her treated as an adult by the fandom. And honestly unsettling, especially with how much of like a child she acts.

I wanna finish my rewatch before I give my full ramble on the topic. I also wanna look more into the many different opinions people in the atla fandom have on Katara's treatment by the show. Though even trying to skim the surfce was like injecting lemon juice directly into my tear ducts. Also I really, really don't wanna get sent death threats again.

I want to give the topic of Katara my full attention. However I don't think I'll ever make this post, actually. The atla fandom is a rabid horrid pack of creatures and I'm not sure if I wanna engage with all that.The post would probably bash a lot of things considered key arguments for Zutara, since, looking at Zutara through a child's doesn't exactly scream 'romance' and do I really want that on my blog?

Katara's role as a child isn't valued as much as her role as a woman and I just don't want to deal with people calling me mean names for talking about a little girl being traumatised.

I'd be glad to have a discussion but I made this blog mainly to have fun and enjoy a piece of media I like. I met some truly amazing people whom I can have really great discussions with, even if we don't agree. I don't want to jeopardise that by being a pretentious dick on a soapbox.

Call this and the last few posts I made on Katara me testing the waters.

[yonderghostshistories]

HAPPY 13TH ANNIVERSARY TO “HOLY FLYING CIRCUS” (2011) 🥳🎉🎊🎂🎈

(Aka the best Monty Python biopic imho)

It’s been 13 BLOODY years since HFC aired on this day (19th October) at 9:00pm on BBC 4 in the year of our lord 2011, but it’s only been a few months since I (and many other of my mutuals) watched and rewatched it this year, and I will always treasure the times that I have seen this wonderful movie!

I remember when I was a newly fresh faced MP fan in 2023 and was slowly and gradually getting into them, and that I was wondering if there was ever a biopic made about Monty Python? I mean, it would be kinda weird that there wasn’t a biopic made about Monty Python, ya’know considering that they were very much influential in the world of comedy and beyond, that it would obviously be a missed opportunity to NOT make a biopic about them.

I then went and logged on into one of the school computers at my secondary school to look up if there was a Monty Python Biopic, in which I googled smth along the lines of “Monty Python Biopic”, and LO and behold, HFC was (iirc) the first result that came up!

I was IMMEDIATELY intrigued to see what HFC was all about, and so I looked at and read the plot synopsis for HFC on IMDb. At the time, it was honestly really cool and interesting fr! Then I looked at the cast and…well. I wasn’t immediately put off by the fact that the cast for the HFC Pythons weren’t exactly 100% identical to the irl Pythons, like they were similar to them but JUST different enough to have a sorta distinct, uncanny feeling to them. But ngl, at the time when I saw photos of the cast, I did have a feeling that was like “ughh….this is soooo obviously cheap, why couldn’t they have gotten a bigger budget for this?”, and now looking back, I do recognise that HFC was, well, made on a BBC 4 budget (aka a low budget, at least for BBC 4) and that the cast and crew had to work with what they had (both in terms costumes and hair) and tbh I was kinda a bit mean on them at that time and that do I regret it. I mean, I still don’t forgive some of the HFC Pythons’ hair cuz OMG Steve Punt/Eric and Phil Nichol/Terry G’s hair is still kinda not good lol 😂 but I do understand why it is what it is.

Anyway, I digress!

It was because of this (plus looking at some rather quite negative reviews of HFC) that I STILL wanted to check out HFC and see what it’s about, but I had INCREDIBLY low expectations for it. At best thinking that HFC would be at least kinda decent, but at worst thinking that it would be kinda mediocre and not the worst but definitely not the best. So, for Christmas 2023, I asked my Dad (iirc) to buy me the DVD for HFC (as well as some other DVDs, those being “A Liar’s Autobiography” the book, the animated film adaptation “A Liar’s Autobiography” (2012), “Remember Me” (2014) starring Michael Palin, “A Field in England” (2013) and “In the Earth” (2021), the latter 2 cuz I was really into the League of Gentlemen/Inside No. 9/Reece Shearsmith at the time and also cuz I love me a bit of horror!). Then came January/February 2024, and I got my DVDs by that time!

(Here’s a crappy looking (affectionate) picture I took of them back in February when I still used my Android phone to take pictures of stuff)

Then I…..didn’t watch them (and in this case HFC) for a couple months after I got them (mostly due to school and exams and shit which made me kinda exhausted and so I didn’t watch much stuff during that time cuz of it), BUT! BUT BUT BUT!!

It was on a somewhat regular day on the 20th of May 2024, when I finally, FINALLY AFTER ALL THIS TIME OF LAYING IT OFF AGAIN AND AGAIN (again due to the exams and studying for said exams and shit) that I decided to finally get the courage to watch HFC in its entirety!! Also cuz I needed to give myself a bit of stress relief and also a lil reward for studying too much lol.

I got the HFC DVD from my living room shelf, I took the HFC DVD out from the plastic cover, I then got my DVD player and carefully inserted the HFC DVD into the DVD player so as to NOT potentially break it, and then…..I finally watched it.

It was…..quite the experience (and I mean this in the most positive way ever!)

Watching the film for the first time genuinely, like GENUINELY, floored my previously low expectations of it. Like, fr IT WAS CRAZY. AND AMAZING. AND WONDERFUL. AND SURREAL. AND FUNNY. Like, it was honestly the best thing I ever watched at that time!!

The HFC Python cast, who I thought was not gonna be the best, was actually fr incredible! Not only did they all get their respective irl Pythons’ mannerisms and expressions on point, but their unique take on each Python was genuinely charming and interesting fr! Especially Charles Edwards/Michael and Darren Boyd/John and their relationship between each other in the film was indeed very captivating to watch (and a lil gay and fan service-y, to which I also love it for that <33).

Speaking of which, Charles Edwards as Michael Palin was unironically the best thing about this film, not only for his voice and mannerisms but his character as well!! Like fr CHARLIE EDWARDS FR LOOKS LIKE ACTUAL MICHAEL PALIN LIKE WHAT?!!?!!

Darren Boyd as John Cleese was also quite great too, like, even if he portrayed him as the “Basil Fawlty Persona” version of John, I felt like it was still pretty much like John’s character, and Darren Boyd/John does show little moments of genuine vulnerability, which make it really more profound imo!

Rufus Jones as Terry Jones, Phil Nichol as Terry Gilliam, Steve Punt as Eric Idle and Tom Fisher as Graham Chapman were also pretty great in this as well! But ESPECIALLY Tom Fisher/Gray as HE ABSOLUTELY STOLE THE SHOW IN THIS MOVIE FR, AND THAT HE ABSOLUTELY SLAYED AS GRAY AND I LOVE HIS JACKETS, HIS SEXINESS, HIS QUOTES, HIS GAYNESS, HIS WISENESS, HIS EVERYTHING AGHHHHH (also he’s really beautiful imo). Like with Charles Edwards/Michael and Darren Boyd/John, their performances as their each respective Python was really amazing, such as Phil Nichol exhibiting Terry G’s childlike craziness and goblin-like energy, to Rufus Jones/Jonesy also acting/double role-ing as Michael’s Wife (in a loving homage to Jonesy playing most of the female characters in MPFC and the films with absolute PERFECTION) to Steve Punt/Eric being very much onto the business side of Python (in which he’s referred to as a “money grabbing bastard”, which I almost quote all the time haha).

Also shoutout to the supporting cast of HFC, they also carried the movie too! My personal favourites being Jason Thorpe as the rude and annoying and obnoxious boss (and very funny) Alan Dick and the LoB obsessed but with good intentions Christian with a stutter Desmond Lovely, Simon Greenall as the Pythons’ Manager/Film Distributor Barry, Paul Chahidi as the meek and trying to make things go well Harry Balls, and Stephen Fry as God (cuz Stephen Fry is an absolute ⚡️✨ ICON ✨⚡️fr)!

Oh yeah, also, I LOVE THE ANIMATIONS AHHHH THEYRE SO AMAZEBALLS FRRR!!!! AND I ABSOLUTELY LOVE LOVE LOVE THE MUSIC TOOO!!!! SHOUTOUT TO THE ANIMATION TEAM AND MUSIC COMPOSER FOR HFC, THEY DESERVE IT FR AND DESERVE ALOT OF APPRECIATION!!!

Also, this movie is fr so funny frfr, have I mentioned that it’s really funny? Cuz it’s really funny! It’s also (like Holy Grail) very quotable indeed, and there’s a lot like ALOT of quotes from HFC that live in my head rent free! My personal favourites among them are:

-“It’s Half Logical, Half Silly!”

-“Eric is a Money Grabbing Bastard!”

-“Glass of Cordial? S P O T O F S O U P ?”

-“Are you Willy waving at Jesus?”

-“Well, I am Gay, I like Neeews, it’s very good for film reviieeewwws 😌😏”

The ways this movie have changed my life for the better (and for the sillier) is that I’ve gone through the rabbit hole and have discovered many, MANY amazing shows and films starring each of the HFC Python actors, for example; “Treacle Jr” (2010) and “The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz” (2000) (both films starring Tom Fisher) are genuinely pretty great and I do recommend you watch them if you can! Plus I bought them and other projects starring each HFC Python on DVD cuz it shows how much I’m THAT dedicated to this movie (HFC) fr, and that I’m fr grateful for discovering this little BBC 4 Pythonesque comedy drama from 2011, cuz if i hadn’t, I’d have missed out on some real great stuff!

I will always love “Holy Flying Circus” (2011) for the rest of my life, and I will always appreciate and treasure it with my entire heart 🫶❤️, and I will continue watching and rewatching it and continue fanning about it into the future! I’m very lucky that HFC came into my life and that I watched it, and that I don’t think I’d be quite the same if I hadn’t the courage to watch the film on the 20th May 2024.

It’ll soon be almost 1 hour to the time (that being 9:00pm) when HFC aired on the 19th of October in 2011 by the time I’m writing this, so I’d like to quickly wrap up by saying:

Thank you “Holy Flying Circus” (2011). Just, thank you ☺️🫶❤️…..

And remember:

“Eric is a Money Grabbing Bastard”.

[devastatinglygreen]

I really like hearing your opinion on the things the fandom is hung up on and I haven't seen you say anything yet so I wanted to know what you thought of Colin's entrapment comment?

ohhhh interesting (and thank you tho i am sure you will regret it). i am here to provide 24/7 personalized hot takes so don't worry i will bother everyone with my opinion.

why do i, personally, think he said it? aside from being hurt? i sort of have a very nebulous idea of it that i noticed on a rewatch (yes i will rewatch this season consistently, it's now my among my favorite comfort tv shows along with 2005's p&p (which is a movie i know), that one season of friends, that flea market show i hate (don't ask), and the entirety of bob's burgers) but colin has no idea penelope loves him until episode 6 so it's connected to that.

i am very sorry you were brave enough to ask me a question and now have to read all the nonsense below. god speed.

like, he's flying blind and after the carriage (insert pitbull music...and fingers here) he's pretty insecure that's he's moving a lot faster than she is. it's unsettling to be head over ass in love and feel like you're not worthy of it and then not even be sure where the other person is. that penelope doesn't reciprocate when he first says it to her is noticeable but he moves on so quickly you can sort of assume he doesn't want to give her a chance to, like he's scared of the answer if he asks.

colin waxes poetic about love, about penelope, etc all through eps 5 and 6. he's consumed by it and to be fair, they were on different wavelengths in part 1. she was trying to let him go and move past him and he was stumbling and staring and wanting to die with wanting her while she was like, "hey this guy you hate for no reason likes me, isn't that cool?" and it's pretty fresh for him so i would think something like that lingers.

when she tells him she loves him in ep 6, he's happy. and relieved. i also think he's been expecting bad news (which, you know. it, uh, will be later) so it's a relief to hear that they're on the same page but, and this stuck out to me the first time i heard it, she says she loved him while pretending to be his friend. she corrects herself because of course she was actually his friend but she loved him underneath of it all as well but penelope isn't always the best with words when on the spot and it takes her a moment to calm down and gather her thoughts. the relief (and guilt of him not knowing/reciprocating) is very obvious in the moment and i think he was thrilled to hear that she loved him back.

which leads us to the LW fight. which makes him question if he ever knew her at all. he does, of course he does, but she's been this secret second person who has written about him, his family, her best friend, and her own family for years. penelope's intentions are never malicious when it comes to protecting the people she loves but the execution can leave a fair bit to be desired. she doesn't lie but she isn't always kind, either.

so you have this man beyond in love with a woman he doesn't think he can trust who just admitted she'd loved him for years. it's easy to live in that hurt and anger and assume the worst of someone when they've just betrayed your trust so deeply. it would probably be easy to feel manipulated. i don't think him questioning her motives is beyond the realm of possibility but i do think penelope is better than me because if i get accused of something i didn't do i would act up something fierce (see this is why my husband had to marry me, he had to keep me from terrorizing the rest of the population with my dramatics. a hero of our times, really).

anyways, what i mean is, i think it's easy to ignore the lead up to that betrayal as an audience since we know penelope's anguish and hurt over what she's done but colin has no idea and it's very fresh for him so it's easy to lash out and think everything had a motive. penelope as LW is very calculating and pointed. i think it's smart of her, actually, to continually tell him she loves him and not constantly poke at the argument. she's not giving him anything else to hold up and use against her after the fact. she's very frank and open even when they have their argument in the street.

this idea he has of LW is this hurtful, manipulative person playing with people's lives. like, LW would entrap him but penelope wouldn't so it's easy to hate one and love the other and i think his inability to bring them together as one person could play into that dynamic of feeling insecure of what her intentions were. you can sort of see each time he breaks because he knows penelope loves him but he steps back each time he's reminded of LW and how it comes between them.

something i also think plays out in his inability to communicate effectively and how deeply his self-loathing goes into his jealousy of her success and how he's incapable of being intimate with penelope until he's in a better headspace. he loves penelope. he wants to marry her and be with her and live a life with her but there's a 3rd person in his marriage in his mind and what does one do with all of that when you're so firmly penelope-sexual you're staring at the walls in a brothel when you're still single? idk man.

just remember if you're sorry for having read this, i am sorrier for having written it. except for the penelope-sexual part. that's still funny to me.

[crimsonbreeze]

I need to talk about Kate Moreau

Because I have never seen any character be given such importance only to end up being so under utilized. The lack of explanation to the mystery that was Kate just left me feeling cheated. I wanted to know this character. I needed to know this character. Even just a little bit. I got..well, next to nothing.

(Spoilers for the whole series ahead so new viewers read at your own risk.)

Kate is the driving force for all of Neal's actions for the entirety of the first two season and yet throughout all of this, she remains nothing more than a plot device. There isn't any one scene in the show where we ever get to see anything from Kate's perspective. We only ever see Kate from other people's POV or we hear other people talk about her, see how they feel about her and how she influenced some aspects of their lives but never see how other people influenced her or how she felt about them. Maybe this was just me but I just kept on waiting for a scene or an episode where her actions would be explained and we would get to see exactly why did everything she did. I kept feeling like it was coming but it just never happened. All we ever got was a quick minute of Adler confirming that Kate really had been on Neal's side all along but the plan went somewhat sideways and so he killed her. It just didn't have the impact that it should have and it was made so much worse by the fact that Neal seems to kind of just gets over it after he gets this answer and then is just entirely focused on the treasure in the next season. The lack of insight into Kate leaves the storyline feeling incomplete despite having spanned two entire seasons.

There's just so much wasted potential. I particularly would have loved to see the dynamic between Kate and Peter had she lived. Kate and Peter were sort of pulling Neal in two different directions and it would have been so interesting to see them interact some more. Peter clearly didn't trust her but it also heavily seemed like he just didn't like her. Same goes for everyone else too, honestly. So did they just dislike/distrust Kate as a person or was it just because they didn't like how much Neal loved her? Pretty much everyone was telling Neal that Kate was playing him by the end of the season to the point where he truly begins to doubt her. I needed the aftermath of that and I never got it. I wanted to see Neal be angry at himself for doubting her when all she wanted was to run away with him. I also really wanted some kind of confrontation between Neal and Peter where Neal's guilt kicks into overdrive and he lashed out at Peter and blamed him for making Neal question Kate and for Peter never giving her a chance (because seriously Peter vilifies her from the get go). Even as a plot device she's under utilized.

The scene in season 5 when Neal is running to Rebecca triggered something for me (cause that hug they had was the hug I had been waiting for between Neal and Kate that I never got) I couldn't stop thinking about it especially after learning that Rebecca had all that intel on Neal's old girlfriends. For some reason, I can't help thinking the person she she was emulating the most was Kate. I don't know why but the feeling wouldn't go away cause even though we knew pretty much nothing about her, it was what I had been imaging Kate to be like the whole time. So I wound up going back and rewatching all of the scenes that Kate is in or mentioned cause I needed to get to know this character and I thought rewatching the scenes and focusing on her would help. But no.

Kate has no personality. We never get to understand her motivations or emotions before she's just very suddenly killed. Which I could accept if we got even a little bit more insight into her character but even though they spent an entire season with Neal trying to figure out who killed her and why, her death still doesn't feel like it got the attention that it should have because we never get to see Neal grieve. I wanted to see him missing her, thinking about her, maybe wanting to talk about her but struggling with it. I wanted more flashbacks even if it was just him seeing her face for a split second or remembering her laugh. Literally anything that would have given us some sense of what she was like as a person.

At first, I kind of blamed it on bad acting by Alexandra Daddario but after watching the scenes a few more times, I think it has more to do with just bad writing and I think she actually did a pretty good job in the flashback episode. The bones of the story are so good but it's just not enough so it leaves the entire storyline feeling hollow. I feel like they just couldn't decide if they actually wanted Kate to be good or bad so they just told the actress to be mysterious which lead to her not really being able to show a lot of emotion. We see a lot more emotion at least in the flashback episode from Kate and get a small sense of what she might be like but again, it's ALL from Neal's pov. Same thing when she has that meeting with Peter. it's all from Peter's perspective and we see it as him retelling what happened in that meeting to Neal and Kate is skewed by his perception of her ( i looked into her eyes and I didn't see concern for you). The only time I remember see kate's feelings or reactions to something is for a few seconds in 1x06 when she's on the phone with Neal where she smiles when she says hi to him and then the five seconds of focus we get on her when Neal tells her he's not telling her where he hid all the things he stole.

Kate feels like a puzzle where we've been given a lot of the pieces but I can't get them to fit together. We never see her emotions or hear about her feelings but we get snippets of the kind of person she is. The easy and obvious stuff is that she's beautiful and into art. On a less obvious scale, it's implied that she's very smart. Based on the flashback, she spent somewhere between 1-2 years just avoiding Neal and hiding from him and Mozzie while working (most likely solo?) as a con artist and a fence. How was she managing that? She wasn't a conwoman before Adler took off with her life saving so obviously, she picked up on things quick for her to be able to pull off hiding from Neal for as long as she did. She knew immediately when Neal tried to con her and she called him out on it. Was she working a legit job and fencing on the side? How was she affording to be moving around from place to place every week? What was her living situation like? Did she have family other than her dead father (we never got to see what clue she had left there for Neal, only the flower from Alex instead)? How did she feel about the fact that she was the reason Neal eventually got caught the first time? Did she feel guilty? Did she blame herself for him being in jail? How did she feel when she found out he broke out with only 3 months left on his sentence just for her? How did she feel about him working with the FBI? How did she feel about Peter? He used her as bait to catch Neal and then years later basically threatened her to keep away from him. Did she think he was using Neal or did she believe him when he told her he was Neal's friend?

She seems to be scared for Neal's safety but she was bold enough to make a deal with Fowler and later go above him to make a deal with Adler to let them both go once he got the music box and to point a gun at Peter (even though they make it pretty obvious she didn't have it in her to actually pull the trigger, you can kinda see her hand shaking as she points the gun and Peter doesn't even flinch cause he knows she won't do it which is the only unbiased thing about kate we get from that scene). What was going through her head during all this? Was she scared? Was she angry? Desperate and just throwing a hail Mary? Why was she in contact with Adler when even Fowler wasn't? Did he contact her when he learned Fowler had roped her into his mission to get the music box? Was Adler upset about Kate getting involved? She seems to stay calm under pressure, she's funny and charming and friendly from what we get from the flash back episode that gives her a certain gentleness that contradicts what most characters kept saying about her to Neal in the first season. The later seasons paint her more and more as a victim and an all around good person. Her leaving the painting for Neal in season 3 when she could have taken it, Neal using the word innocence to describe her in season 5, Keller telling Neal that Kate was dead the moment Neal laid eyes on her making it seem once again that despite his love for her, Neal was the worst thing that ever happened to Kate...

Again, so much wasted potential. I feel like we could have had such a great, nuanced female character in Kate and we were robbed of that cause the writers decided they wanted to move on from the Kate storyline without ever actually giving us her side of the story. Don't get me wrong, I loved the mystery and the intrigue it created but the mystery needed to be at least somewhat unraveled at the end and what we got just wasn't enough.

Anyways... this disappointment has lead to me creating an entire personality and backstory for Kate in my head based off the very little we do see of her. I think she had the potential to be an amazing character and also, I just wanted to see more of the couple. My obsessive rewatching of those scenes led me to me fall in love with the Neal/Kate ship in all it's tragic glory. Causes the one thing the show did make very clear to me was that these two loved each other more than anyone and I think they were perfect for each other. I still would have loved to get to know Kate a little bit more but I also get the sense that maybe the writers couldn't figure out a backstory for ther that made her so special for Neal. Seriously what is it that could make Neal Caffrey fall that hard? I can make do with my head canons but it just sucks seeing the groundwork and realizing how great the character and the ship could have been.

[amonggtheestarss]

Hey Gang

This is gonna be a more unique post than what I usually do but uhm...

See this guy? Black from Rodamrix. I'm gonna talk about them, because they're such a decently portrayed character in my own personal opinion and I believe they deserve more attention than what the fandom gives them (which is like... none.)

With the power of having autism and unnecessarily psycho-analyzing the jellybeans, I see Black as a pretty well assertive character. They're VERY expressive, loud, and is often strongly opinionated on things. If they have something to say, they'll say it. If they want something, they'll do what they can to get it. A decent majority of scenes of Black is them with the >0 expression and I love that aboutthem.

And as I rewatched Rodamrix for like the 2000th time, I noticed one thing.

Remember when I said they were very strongly opinionated on things? This is the one and ONLY time (as of now) Black has ever hesitated to make a decision, which is between voting Yellow or Green out. And when I watched this scene a dozen times, it always confused me because this was so incredibly out of character for Black. Black has been siding with Green this whole time, but suddenly hesitates when forced to decide between Green or Yellow. But why?

Not sure if anyone truly took much notice to this scene, because I for sure didn't. I stupidly saw it as just a "Glitch.Y is trying his best but his best isn't good enough for the crewmates," and I had assumed Black would of shrugged it off as "Man this kid is insane as hell whatever" BUT I DID NOT NOTICE they actually turned around to see the box Glitch.Y was pointing at.

Glitch.Y saved Black's life and they acknowledged it. Their ass got saved by a literal child he saw as a freak. And this is the first time we see them with a face of Genuine Worry.

YOU NEVER SEE THEM WITH THIS SORT OF GENUINE EXPRESSION AGAIN. UNLESS I'M JUST REALLY BLIND. BUT THIS IS THE FIRST TIME BLACK EXPRESSES GENUINE WORRY AND IT'S FOR GLITCH.Y. They've sided with Green this whole time but then has realised that just this once, Green was wrong about something, which was Glitch.Y trying to kill them all. And Black Worried. For once they hesitated, and couldn't bring themself to make such a decision.

And that's just one thing about Black. Small detail, really. They had a moment of hesitation for the first time. Oh well. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL.

Green, who is the Skeld Leader goes missing, right? That was their LEADER. They are now without a leader. And who is the first to take initiative and act as next leader?

BLACK DOES.

Yellow tries to take the initiative first, but is torn when Dr White assumes Glitch.Y and Green already dead, so Black immediately takes the lead instead. Black becomes the new, temporary leader for the team when they go to look for Glitch.Y and Green.

They even stand at the front of the team, willing to go forth before them all which would put themself at the most risk. And this isn't arrogance either, they do it GENUINELY. They even waited for Yellow's word before they start walking. They even gave each other the nod to proceed.

And they do a pretty decent job at leading too. They take after Green pretty well, in my opinion.

Altogether, I just feel like Black is a well fleshed out character, especially for someone who's sidelined for the entirety of the series. Everyone talks about Tan, a lot talk about Lime, which both deserve the attention they get of course, but I feel like Black is the most fleshed out side-character in the entire series.

I appreciate how much effort Rodamrix puts into Black's personality. I do hope Cyan gets a bit of a character arc too though. I like to see Black as Cyan to be really close, especially since they share similar personality traits. I just hope the fandom comes to appreciate Black more for his character in the series.

Also, bonus Black Alternate content

(They were actually the last to die out of the Skeld team which I found interesting. Gives into the idea they could've potentially made it out alive had it not been a 2v1. The only reason they got stopped and killed was because Purple came in as they barely escaped Pink.)

(Fun fact, Black's role in the Skeld is actually guarding*, so it'd make sense they watched outside while the others worked to fix the dropship)

(I like how Green looks directly to Black here honestly, might be a part of why Black tends to take after them. Green gives them the their attention first KYEHEHE)

(bro looks like they're trying to intimidate Purple over actually trying to stop them BEHEHEHE)

(And here, they're the first one to say something upon seeing the France Squad (and Mini Yellow))

*From Rodamrix's Instagram, a reference of Black's role here

I hope you guys understand why I like Black as a character a lot now.

Black appreciation post done. Thanks for reading.

[dongslinger--420]

Thoughts on the chicken for days episode?

I used to skip it on all my rewatched of bojack after maybe my third rewatch because I think I got it in my brain that it was an unimportant dumb episode. But then on my last rewatch I made the effort and realised that it's actually better than I remembered. Still dumb lol. But not "bad dumb." It's like the Todd episode before the Actual Todd episode.

And I'll big admit that the joke in this episode where people keep asking Becca the chicken questions and taking her varied buck sounds as legit responses got me xD

Hi! Before I get onto anything else, I'd like to ask you to please not use the word "dumb" on my blog. I really don't like that word and I've mentioned it a couple of times before, but I understand that you probably didn't know, so I'd just ask you to not do it again.

Moving on to my actual answer, I have two things that I'd like to talk about in regards to Chickens:

1. Social commentary

I'm vegan, and so is Raphael Bob-Waksberg, although I'm unaware as to whether the writer of the episode, Peter Knight, is. As a result, this episode functions as a commentary in favour of veganism, and when I first watched the episode, this really struck me, because it was the first time I had seen this in any show.

Yes, this is a world where humans and anthropomorphic animals coexist, and as a result they couldn't make a one-on-one comparison (on that note, I would love to watch an episode that shows how they reached this conclusion in the first place). However, the comparisons that they do make are generally handled very well. Many people do think that eating animals is justified simply because they are of lesser intelligence to humans. Yes, the livestock in this episode are bred to be of lesser intelligence, but the justification is still there. Many organisations (including the RSPCA) refuse to acknowledge the hypocrisy of eating animals while claiming to care for them, using the fact that it is legal as justification. And lastly, it tears into the whole concept of "humane slaughter", by taking the stance that as long as anyone doesn't want to die, no slaughter is humane (in addition, it also talks about how people who work in slaughterhouses are traumatised, which is another reason not to fund them).

All in all, it achieves its purpose just as well as any other social justice issue this show covers, and it's INCREDIBLE to me how Bob-Waksberg and Knight were gutsy enough to cover a social justice topic that is far from the dominant ideology. It frustrates me to no end whenever people say that "this episode was fucked up" because the real life equivalent is just as fucked up! Please unlearn your cognitive dissonance!

2. Character work

It's interesting that you mention Todd in this ask because I consider the episode as being more focused on two other main characters: BoJack and Diane.

BoJack's overall arc this season is heavily connected to Kelsey, because Kelsey reminds him of two people: Herb and Beatrice. The Herb comparisons tend to come later on in episodes like Fish Out Of Water, so I'm going to be focusing on Bea here. Bea's personality is established to us in Brand New Couch, where we see how her abuse and undermining of BoJack has affected him. Chickens functions as a development of this, with BoJack's shitty upbringing meaning that he is naturally drawn to older people who are cold to him. As a result of this, BoJack spends the entirety of this episode trying desperately to impress Kelsey, while she continues to give him the cold shoulder. And here's the kicker: Kelsey genuinely believes he's incredible. Everyone, including us, already knows this, because why else would she have hired him? He never needed to impress her. And as a result, the fact that he spends so much time trying to impress her is deeply tragic and ironic. He doesn't even learn how she feels about him until four episodes later. No opinions change at the end of this episode, because it's the second of three acts in this overall story arc.

Diane's utilitarianism is given much more focus this season than in the previous one. It was briefly touched on in Yesterdayland, but in this episode she is directly forced to face the sad truth that she is a failure in her own eyes. First, she meets Irving, who reminds her deeply of herself when she was younger, and she realises how little she has achieved since she was Irving's age. Next, she gets branded as "the maid" when running away with Todd, thereby causing Irving's opinion of her to lessen as she realises how much she is actually useful for. Finally, the episode ends with the bittersweet notion that actually, Diane didn't do anything. Against her best efforts, Diane was completely powerless to save Becca, and Chicken4Days continues to go even stronger. Nothing is resolved in this arc, with the brief exception that she forms a genuine connection with Todd, as well as earning Irving's approval on her own terms. The issue doesn't go away, and two episodes later she tries again, even harder this time, only to be faced against the entire world, and eventually be forced to give in.

Chickens is a silly buddy storyline that hides a DEEPLY tragic core, in which seeds are spread for two major character arcs for us to uncover.

[exhuastedpigeon]

I just saw your post about Eddie and Maddie right after watching 5x04 and now I can't stop thinking about them! Eddie saying to Buck that he doesn't know her like Chim does and that maybe this time "she's the one who needs to be taken care of", when we know Eddie is maybe also at a point where he needs to be taken care of even though nobody really noticed yet. Also I know everyone always talks about Eddie/Maddie and the guilt of leaving their child, but what I need them to talk about is the Maddie/Shannon parallels! Maddie leaving because she's afraid to hurt her daughter, Shannon's letter saying "I want your life to be happy and I'm not sure that's possible with me in it". How everyone just says Shannon is a horrible mother but understands that Maddie was depressed/burned out. The difference being that Maddie had Chim while Shannon had 23-year old traumatized Eddie coming back from war... Do you think Eddie thought about what would have happened if he went after Shannon like Chim went looking for Maddie ?

What I find so interesting about season 5 especially in the parallels between Eddie and Maddie. I haven't hit season 5 in my rewatch yet so it's been like a year since I watched it in it's entirety so the timeline/details are going to be a little off, but bear with me.

Season 5 has Maddie leaving because she's worried she's a danger to Jee and to herself and Chim following and Eddie reminding Buck that maybe Maddie needs to be taken care of this time. Chim following Maddie was so important because it showed Maddie that she wasn't alone, that he and Jee were always going to love her no matter what, but that wasn't what Buck it showed Buck - it showed Buck that sometimes loving someone is listening to them and giving them space but sometimes it's following them and making sure they know they aren't alone.

Season 5 also has Eddie leaving the 118 because he's worried about Chris and because he's struggling but it's easier to say it's for Chris that to look inward. And Buck doesn't follow him, not in the same way that Chim followed Maddie, but he doesn't Eddie leave his life - even when Eddie tells him to move on Buck doesn't. Buck is the one who supports Eddie through his breakdown and through his recovery. Buck acts as a partner in every way through it.

Buck and Chim parallel each other in so many ways and so do Eddie and Maddie.

I love the thought about Maddie and Shannon paralleling each other too! I think if Eddie had followed Shannon they probably would have gotten divorced sooner, to be honest. Eddie wasn't ready to leave El Paso because that was his support network, even if the support they offered wasn't the kind we (as the viewer) knows he needed. Him going with Shannon probably wouldn't have had a happy ending for either of them, but she might not have felt so alone and that's important.

[somepsychopomp]

binge watched all of scavengers reign in one sitting! I have many thoughts, though they all feel jumbled up right now. I think the show starts off VERY strong but faces some pretty significant writing challenges as it progresses. Basically my opinion is:

episodes 1-6: an absolute triumph of imagination and environmental storytelling. They have genuinely some of the best ideas for alien life I've ever seen. The human characters are also all interesting, too. Azi and Levi were my favorite plot line but I really relished in how our first glimpse of Kamen is this sad, lonely malnourished man slowly starving to death in a tree... only to be revealed as a violent selfish asshole who genuinely gets what he deserves as the story progresses.

side note- I'm also a huge fan of the weird plant(?) that basically clones living beings and makes The Thing(s). Also Levi is probably the most compelling character in the entire show.

episodes 7-10: I enjoyed episodes 7-10 and maybe 11 so little that i considered giving up on the show in its entirety. To me, this segment dropped the show from like a 8.5/10 to a 4/10 or even lower. They were such an unenjoyable slog to get through imo (no hard feelings on anyone who liked them tho) because of the small crew of new characters we meet. No surprise you're not supposed to like or trust them, but the show just seemed unwilling to commit to them being actually evil or arguably sympathetic characters just trying to survive their own hostile situation, and kinda waffles between the two possibilities.

I guess that's the attempt at a gray area/morally gray characterization but I just fucking hated all of them and they meant nothing to me. Also it really, genuinely feels like the show speed ran Kamen's arc and completely ran out of ideas on where to take his character from here on out. Which is a bummer considering he's the type of character you absolutely love to hate.

And I'm so, so sorry, but I felt nothing when Sam died. TO MY DEFENSE, I can articulate why! Basically, out of all the characters on the show aside from arguably Kamen, Sam gets beaten up the most. He gets his blood sucked during the early storm, then gets wounded by the freaky cloning plant and almost dies from that, and then almost dies from getting buried alive, AND THEN gets implanted with the parasite from that mysterious lady. The best way I can put it is that his character just made me feel fatigued. His situation wasn't the kind where a protagonist suffers injury after injury but gets up anyways via sheer will/desire to complete their goal/what have you (Mizu from Blue Eye Samurai is a good recent example from adult animation who embodies this trope well, for example).

In contrast, Sam just spends too long on the brink of death for the stakes to feel high anymore. He also does nothing to improve his own condition, relying entirely on Ursula, which I think robs him of his agency and depth. In fact, I spent so long prepared to mourn him, kinda expecting him to not survive the planet, that when the time finally came, I already expressed all my emotions and detached myself from his character. I will say that at the very least, I did like his actual death scene and felt it was nicely done and paced.

episodes 11-12: Perfectly fine finale, I had no major problems with it but these episodes just didn't quite hit the highs of the first half of the series. Will say tho, Levi turbo blasting the Hollow was perfect. Love that for them.

Overall, I think I'll have to rewatch the show again when it's not late at night and I have all my wits about me. Maybe I'll change my opinion on it, because I really, REALLY want to like it in its entirety and will absolutely watch a second season if/when it comes out because, despite all its flaws, Scavengers Reign is something genuinely special.

The first half of the series feels like lightning in a bottle and MUST be seen by all sci fi and fantasy fans!! Even though everything is intensely organic and raw, the planet also has this strange biomechanical feel to it, from the shrapnel wind storm to the big triangle-head birds with electric/static feathers to all the animals that look like statues or toys but still live and breathe. It's such a unique take on an alien world and it was beautiful to see.

[homoeroticgrappling]

What are your top 5 favorite hey! Ew interviews? Who would you like to see her interviewed?

As someone who has rewatched the entirety of hey!EW twice in the past week or so, I feel qualified to answer this and will happily go into what is probably more detail than you wanted

Did Danhausen Ruin It All Before It Even Gets Started?

Bryan Danielson Defends His Life Choices

The Dark Order Reveals Their Darkest Secrets

Best Friends Show Some Leg

Abadon Speaks?!

1. Love That Danhausen of course (the ongoing bit of Danhausen ruining Christmas is also great) but it being the first episode really set the tone for the "herding cats" vibe of RJ attempting to keep everything under control to ask questions with varying degrees of success that has become the trademark of Hey!EW

2. Listening to an internationally revered wrestler talk about flaccid penises and quoting Bloodhound Gang is my idea of a good time, and the delivery of RJ asking "have you ever fucked a vegetable" cracks me up

3. The balance between bringing up interesting questions and throwing in fun shenanigans is so perfect in the Dark Order episode, the "guys, am I... Egotistical?" "you're kind of a douchebag" "I'm a dₒᵤcₕₑbₐg?!" exchange has Always Sunny energy in the best way

4. Genuinely a great little crash course if you don't know much about Best Friends while also being funny as hell, once again a wonderful balance of genuine questions/prompts and comedic ones that shows you what Best Friends are all about

5. This episode is the spiritual successor to OC answering a question on global sea levels during the debate promo with Jericho and I love it so much. Where Hey!EW truly excels is the willingness to take an unconventional and tailored approach to an interview in ways that emphasize what makes each guest unique and allows them to shine, knowing when to stick firmly in the realm of kayfabe and when to blur that line. Using a comedic approach to handle explaining more about Abadon's identity while being totally respectful is such a cool way to educate a wider audience in a clear way with examples to help people understand, all while highlighting an underappreciated wrestler

In terms of who I'd like to see interviewed I'd love to see Iron Savages just cause I want to see the RJ City/Titty City collision, Samoa Joe would be cool as hell, getting Rey Fenix and Pac ones to go with the Penta one and complete Death Triangle would be great (ditto with the rest of the House of Black) and I am genuinely shocked the only pillar not to get an episode yet is Darby HOWEVER

#1 on my "please it'd be SO good" list is Christian Cage and The Patriarchy, there's only one person brave enough to call it like it is re: Luchasaurus being a scaly, Christian deciding he's the ultimate daddy etc and that is RJ City. I trust and believe he'd risk his life for us to ask Christian about if he and mama Wayne would accept Nigel McGuiness as their third 🙏

I love Hey!EW. Regardless of what I think going into it, every time I watch an episode I end up liking the guest more than I did before I started it because RJ has an incredible talent for bringing the best out in people and making them look good, it's my favourite way to learn more about wrestlers and I truly hope eventually the whole roster gets covered, at which point I'll happily watch follow up interviews (people change gimmicks after all, I need my Timeless Toni episode)

[goldenpinof]

For the editing comparison, one example for me is the Incoherent video (edited by Kris) vs. pre-hiatus Santa Banter video.

Both are turn-based card games where they read stuff and think for the answer, but in the incoherent video, there’s a lot more jump cuts, zooms, edits etc. while they’re thinking whereas in santa banter, it was mostly just one extended clip from pre-reading card banter to post-answering banter. The incoherent video also cuts out a lot more of the parts where they’re pulling a card or switching an answered card for a new one. While those bits might not add much comedic value, I feel like they go a long way to make the video seem more chill and coherent in its entirety.

Also (this might just be my personal opinion) both dnp seem to talk in a more excited/exaggerated tone and cadence now? Especially in the shorter videos. They also tend to use more upbeat and prominent background music now for those, so with that and the editing combined a lot of the post hiatus videos end up feeling too quick-paced yet scattered to me :/

Cal @calvinahobbes this might be interesting to you :)

yeah, anon, i get what you mean. and thank you so much for giving an example and explaining it. content-wise Incohearent is the S tier video, editing-wise? not so much. that's what i meant when i said in tags "idc what they do now, old editing will always be there for me". post-hiatus ideas and content can be excellent, but if i feel like i have to chase the video because of the editing? bye. i'm not gonna return to it unless i need to (to take notes or gif). i have no desire to rewatch the majority of the new videos for the sake of rewatching. and i want to rewatch old videos quite frequently. maybe nostalgia plays into it as well, but also the knowledge that i won't see 100500 unnecessary jump cuts and will see the process of playing the games. even if it's slow sometimes, idc, i like the process.

and yeah, i also agree that they exaggerate more (tone and reactions). mostly Dan. i don't think i noticed Phil doing it (maybe because he does the same on the ap channel, and i just stopped pointing it out to myself). idk if Dan genuinely thinks that loud = funny, but unfortunately it doesn't usually work like that. and if he's trying to show sarcasm by exaggerating his reaction, it also doesn't always land. sometimes this loudness is on point, so i'm not saying "shut the fuck up". i'm just saying that i noticed the shift as well. he is acting on camera a little bit more, giving the people what they want. but sweetie, i don't want that. i want boring shit, i want him to yap about politics and injustice and his interests, watch the games load and pull cards.

genuinely praying for more streaming content, because that is unedited yapping and fuckups <3

[blindtaleteller]

MCU Asgard Canon Observation Research [Part 1]

Firstly and before I even start in on the subject, keep in mind that this is what it says: a collection of research into actual Canon Lore from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: not the comics, or the Nordic lore twice removed from it.

Secondly and alongside that, also keep in mind that even back at the start of the MCU as a long term project, while the MCU is based on the Marvel comics universe: the creators made a point of making it a completely different universe: for many varying reasons, including the spaces lacking continuity in the comics over the years that the MCU as a project wanted to pursue from it's first conception.

This is a large part of why there are phases and why they were numbered from it's creation. (And yes also why my tags recently mentioning counting phases are what they are elsewhere, but that's a whole other post.. or set of them.)

These are important to remember because, I would like to avoid previous iterations of people wasting their time trying to insert comics-universe lore and more excessively into or onto this requested post purely for the sake of, well; being argumentative or just trolling:as much as possible. I do try to take some time to respond to comments and reblogs as much as possible, but I can and will ignore or yes, at times point out people unable to manage these things.. and respond as necessary.

I normally wouldn't bother to mention this except yes, that has happened before so: consider this your disclaimer.. I ain't dealin' with you if you're gonna be a trolly shit disrespectful enough of the time effort and willingness to share what research and observations I have, by shitting on it or me in your pursuit of whatever flimsy excuses might be given for any inhuman reactions posted passive aggressive or worse.

More frankly: be respectful on my posts or get lost. I don't tolerate harassment on my blog whether it's aimed at me or others. Passive aggressive or otherwise. I'll discuss stuff, am happy to have any valid references I might miss added to and pointed out. Just don't be an asshat about it, and you'll get the same from me. That's how basic-bitch Karma, and I; both work: you'll get what you give along those lines, while in my space.

The necessary now out of the way... Next!

More as a side note with that mentioned; while I may mention some meta/theory in the form of the most probable (as that's how my meta in particular is formed) it is again: based on the facts of the canon lore and contexts confirmed presented in it; visually, in dialogue, and out of the mouths of the very people who made all that themselves, at the time that lore was given to us on screen: and will be mentioned as the theory and supposition that is 'meta' rather than 'canon'. I have gone out of my way as a fan of world, universe, and character building as a part of the creative process in particular: to watch, rewatch, rewatch again and again, and hunt down all this stuff (often lol purely out of my own curiosity.) All in all Meta is theory, Canon is story/film-established fact; and I do try to keep a clear line between the two of them. The early world and character building in the MCU has always been interesting enough to me alone, to do all that with my free time.

And that's especially true with Asgard in particular, as a main story driving force in one form or another as far back as 2010 when both Thor and CA: tFA's scripts were being filmed and their sets/settings picked out and created.

Final few bits before we get into it..? As Asgard lore (and even a lack of it's presence at times) is directly and appropriately attached and or in relation to the lore of several races, species, and massive events in the entirety of the MCU's first three phases.. I will be touching some of those cultures and places too, where important. Probably not in this particular part, but yeah. It's gonna happen.

As with the research post into Loki and his year of absence prior to Avengers 2012: (yes that's a link to an ask that contains a good chunk of info and years of interviews on that particular subject) this might not be an entirely complete compilation: for the same reasons. As I said, i didn't just watch, I rewatched repeatedly from differing personal mental angles: not just three or four times, but and as I wrote my own fanfiction.. I would also re-watch once or twice just prior to fleshing out an outlined story of my own to refresh my memory, seek out interviews official and otherwise from the creators and actors who made that lore and put it on screen for us to enjoy as part of the stories we enjoyed (or not, depending lol) and well.. the resulting organization of the whole outside of this post is less than comprehensive for anyone else. You can see the explanation for how that happens in the foreword of that thread if you're curious.

As a result, I may or may not exclude the actual interviews if this gets too long. Much of the visual in this first part especially are pretty self explanatory, as I did find some of my dissection pics too.

All said (I think? Gods I hope so that was a lot wasn't it? XD) and as suggested/requested recently in discord?

This one is gonna be expansive.. and hellaciously so: so grab your drinks and your snacks and still be prepared for this series of posts to be going for while (not kidding, may be compiling this properly between jobs for weeks) so yeah..

Here we go again!

The major forgotten fact of Asgard's depiction in the MCU is this:

We the audience are only shown a very tiny fragment of Asgard as another separate planet in space, and: they do show us we're missing as much, from the very first film.

That gif directly from the movie I used at the top? I'm using it again, because...

..look at that.

With topography, perspective and size in mind.

That tiny golden triangle in the middle is the Palace at the center. The little golden bar along that tiny portion to either side? Is the city attached to it proper, with the Bifrost, and as far as we've seen the 'Heroes Road' (as soem are calling it) and city walls cupping the Bifrost Bay directly facing the camera.

This is a space shot (of course,) and that tiny itty bitty moving spec that is still shrinking as it gets further from our perspective and closer to Asgard at the bottom, is the Bifrost in use.

And, they do give us a few views of that as early as five to six minutes into the first movie in 2011, as seen in the first clip below. I've set it to share at the first view of Asgard itself.

Hopefully that works. If not, the timestamp you're looking for is 2:04.

I recommend shutting off the audio, as it's a bit distracting. Trust me, we will get back to the very interesting audio from a world builder's perspective, when we get to the History and Relations section of Asgard's break down.. there are several tons, of that and in that opener alone, to examine later.

IMPORTANT!! When looking at any of these images or videos, keep in mind and look at the scale. Not just in the scene on screen at that moment, but also in reference to previous shots. Distance is a thing. The size of trees and people are a thing. This place in the MCU is much more massive than where it's very cloistered story parts take place.

This is not a city-planet like and for comparison: Coruscant, from Star Wars... though I am very aware that some people will throw out Asgard's concept art to try and 'debunk' that (yes its' been done and proven pointless in other threads).. that does also bring us to another couple of facts that slip by in their context.

In fact, you know what? I'll throw it in here right now myself:

This concept art: does still apply, if slightly adjusted with the topography and likely under ground portions taken into account.. because Asgard is the name of both the planet AND the city as separate entities of the same locale.

In other words, the concept art is VERY valid as a map of the city itself: but not the outlying locations outside of Asgard as a Capital City Proper, of Asgard as a disk planet.

And again.. they do show us this, and not just in the first film: although that first shot going into the city says as much too, being that..

A. Asgard is established as a society greatly more advanced than Earth and most others, and;

B. there are whole swaths of land (and especially mountain they like to build into) without structure between the edge panned through and the City itself. (see still image below: not the best quality but it's also in the video.)

Which.. we'll touch again a little more in a bit (and probably the biggest lol) part of this breakdown set; digging at History, Culture, and Relations.. as the fact they do prefer to build INTO their environment much more than on top of it is also shown in the shot of the canyons and canals on which not only that city is built, but even what buildings are shown outside of it on that panning-in shot.

We can see in the one above though: that while they did redirect some of the water through canals in the lower shot; they also kept and built into the natural(?*) lay of the river canyons below.

This theme is kept even before we get into the city though with the first part of the shot above the water.

Want a more visual view of the breakdowns as I do them?

Here you go, here's one example from out of my crazy folders and docs, that I made in paint back in 2013 (LOL yes I know. XD) while once again re-watching that same scene.

I would highly suggest clicking on it, as tumblr does downsize images making text on them hard to read otherwise. Crappy in-motion quality screen cap but, it was made more for breaking down the visual elements on screen for what it told us about the land, and more; on it.

----[?*] As a set of side/foot notes to that last bit and the image..

A. the top left corner yes: does reference some of where I use certain observations of canon in my own fics; and how they would have grown or evolved depending on that story. In this case, and at the time: the pink text is making note to utilize those observations in outlining Hvedrungr (Loki from Uni 0) and Flykra's (Loki from Vesti1 Uni 14) universes in particular: both of which return to Asgard at VERY different times and in different situations: while the history and culture I've been able to glean and expand on in some cases is still part of their and the location's background. As I don't have the patience to remove the text from an old paint shop cut.. I thought I would at least explain it's presence left there. These things are, ultimately connected by the culture that originated on and created them on that planet after all.. and why there's an entire section dedicated to the varied aspects of Asgard's presented Cultural, Relations, and History lore. B. The '?' at the 'natural' mention in parenthesis above, also takes into account that Asgard is much older than Earth's culture and has to be: if only because as only three generations have come and gone over the passage of what to us is five thousand years! (see the next installment Thor the Dark World: Bor and Darkalfheim, or just watch the movie with info gathering in mind.) In other words, between Bor's War, and Odin's Asgardian Great Wars: we cannot be certain whether or not 1. those canyons are actually natural or the now aged result of one of many previous interplanetary wars, or 2. whether Asgard at this stage of it's showing timed at 2011 more than a millennia later, has even always been this size, given their advancement in technology and study of magic as presented OR left in question, either. For my part, as there's no conclusive dialogue from that era to state otherwise in the MCU or it's interviews that I know of, and knowing the context of Malekith and Darkalfheim's familiarity with Asgard itself during their raid to reclaim the infinity stone: I tend to veer towards a mixture of the two. While it's very likely at least some of the canyons are indeed natural; the great age of the culture and planet both, along with the nature of Bor and Odin's rules alone as we've seen them: leaves a HUGE and LONG period of time and opportunities for some of those nasty fights to come directly to them... or even their predecessors. Which would also explain why they had that shield for the palace too. You don't build and more importantly upkeep something like that without a very good set of reasons or examples experienced, to do so after all. Much of that is meta though, however based on canon fact it may be: and as many of the creators were not asked publicly during that era, and have been dismissed or moved on to other projects since.. it's hard to know if we'll ever see a *genuine* answer from the people who actually made it all starting sixteen years ago.

Anyway, let's look at a few more shots of Asgard with that breakdown going. Some of these are all old, from as far back as about ten years ago when I first started writing outlines for the varied universes in my Lokiverse Project: but they do still hold up. theer are some from TDW in this bunch too. I heavily dissected these scenes knowing I was going to do whole chapters in multiple differing universes, and wanted to have the presented layout and feel laid out in my head, before I started adding in locations on the planet not yet shown on film. And given my first Book was already going to be DREAMS.. where Asgard has been blown to bits post Endgame? I really wanted to get it right so I could deconstruct it as many times as I and the muses wanted to. Laufeyson (Universe 10 Loki) was pretty insistent too with the opening chapters on his end focusing partially on that chase with Abell through Asgard's blown apart ruin

Sorry for the ramble of an explanation, but that's how it is and how it works over here...? XD

..uhmmmm. Yeah lol! When I said I watch and re-watch from differing mental perspectives..? That's what I mean. I don't usually share those at all... only the unedited pics. Genrally I will take caps or take existing raw caps and pick out piece that catch my eye. I've been told they do help put your brain in the right mode for those who have difficulty processing them in that way, like I do when in that mode. Also yes, trees and fish ...bruh. lol!

It's there, has been for years in some cases; and I'm not messing with it now.

That basic bit out of the way (doesn't sound so basic does it.) Let's backtrack a bit, specifically to Asgard's shape and the placement of it's location and the locations on it.

As I first write this, I don't have the talks I had with a few wild meteorologists and geologists back then directly on hand (as this is a part I still don't focus on too much; but:) shaped as it is, those I did talk to theorized that between the shape and placement of planets as well as the nebula they're partially inside, that Asgard may be shaped and in rotation as it is because of its' placement in it's system: or because of late interference by Asgard's inhabitants to keep it stable.

^ That one scene in particular from Thor 2011 really made my eyes pop. Not because of what's going on in it so much as trying to answer the whys and hows and what the actual fricks man: because..

Can you imagine, the conversation: trying to pitch that spinning death ball to the King there OR anywhere else on the planet before Bor or even his great grandfather?

Or, trying to talk the royalty down from the idea of putting it anywhere NEAR the palace, or other people's homes?

How about testing that house sized death-by-velocity-alone gilded mess? (Yes I still laugh thinking about that. Some poor scholar/engineer type trying to dissuade Bor's grand-daddy from building what would definitely become a giant pinball of death in the canyons and canals, if that thing ever came off it's anchors even once in the city. Good gods! lol!) Who knows; maybe that was when people started moving to Vanaheim... XD! Just (mostly) kidding.

Cray-cray thoughts of high velocity gilded pinball hell that was probably somewhere way back in the Bifrost's likely development and evolution as tech/normie science boosted by magic, and or vice versa, aside:

You probably notice I've mentioned the nebulae and the planets in their rotation more than once. And with good reason.

Backing up a bit; Asgard is interesting well before you hit her shores.

Not only is she a top-shaped disk-planet: but with the way the sky is shown: Asgard has a very interesting rotation if she has any left at all. There's very little we know, but what we do know is she is not alone in her systematic rotation either way.

(Asgard's sky from Thor's personal Hall in Thor: the Dark World)

In fact and as seen in the screen caps above: Asgard has an incredibly close relation to at least three planets in her nebulous solar system. At least one of which is absolutely massive: massive enough that it's close proximity is theorized as being pretty likely to be the only way Asgard experiences night cycles as seen in Thor: the Dark World... mainly through eclipsing the nebulous sun by passing between it and Asgard as a planet.

Which is both cool -and- scary when you take things like degrading orbits, space debris and projectiles like comets and other space science into account.. but also very, very interesting.

It also begs the question either way: why didn't Asgard at their earlier establishment of a greater technological level, colonize or move to those planets sooner? Of course.. the first obvious answer is.. they probably couldn't, at first. And even more probably were past trying by the time the Bifrost was built, prior to Bor's time (I say prior because we have seen Bor use it in Thor the Dark World: and on a massive scale moving whole armies, the same as his son Odin. See some of the scenes from Bor's seizure of the Aether below.)

But yeah, Asgard is a pretty unique place even before you get to the water fall's edge: or questioning what kind of condensed mass it has to retain gravity at it's very small size.

Or, whether that gravity and the shape is in fact generated in some form or another after millennia upon millennia of just the Wars we do know about in their history.

(At current we know about Darkalfheim and the series of Wars including Jotunheim and Muspelheim that they call the Great Wars. While they are definitely aware of the extensive millennia of intergalactic war between the Xandarian based Nova Corps and the Kree Empire put front and center in GotG.. there hasn't been any actual confirmation as to whether Asgardians fought in that war on either side: only that they are at that stage at least loosely allied with Asgard.. if not a more separated protectorate being considered among the nine realms in the MCU.)

Why do I keep pointing out trees, and perspective; or teh size of the city in that first little gif again?

Because.. that is our repeated visual evidence of just how much of Asgard as a planet; the story did not take place in.. huge parts of the place we haven't seen. And that makes sense.

Power plants or generators, smithys, and even schools can be easily placed in the city proper, at this stage.

But what about BEFORE, they got to this stage.. because that is a thing in the MCU in regards to Asgard: and a major plot point for three movies of script running, from 2010 all the way to 2015 when Taika Waititi was hired (unfortunately, for those of us who know the root of what happened there.)

What about food, for thousands of 5000 year lifespans and their kids. And their grandkids. And.. the food for the livestock, or the wild game

Or the bilgesnipes and dragons--well we can guess what happened to the dragons of Asgard in particular actually. If they were anything like Muspelheim's; and on a planet that size..? It doesn't take much to figure out Odin, Bor and their predecessors probably couldn't excuse not hunting a predator big enough to swallow people to extinction: not for much longer than they absolutely had to anyway.

What about fibers and leather for clothes.

How about waste management, for both the city and suburban areas? Sewers? Water filtration? Factories or slaughterhouses to process it all, and the means to support those things. Everything man made, is grown, processed or made somewhere.

We know they have these things, because we know they have and make their own alcohol (fermentation of grains, fruits, and more); as well as other things to eat: displayed in both T1 and TDW.

(The top image is from Thor's table flip scene in Thor 2011; while the one below it is from the tavern scene in the beginning of Thor: the Dark World.)

Meat, vegetables, fruit, grain, herbs, and seasonings are all represented on the tables above. While some might be imported (I really do wonder about the platters of golden apples myself:) it's not very likely all of them are. And it wouldn't make sense for them to have been imported from off world throughout their species development either. After all and again: they would have had to have survived and developed enough to GET TO, that stage in the first place.

You're also looking at Varnish in the shine of that table; smithing and metal working and ceramics in their table ware. Weaving either plant or animal fibers in their clothes, as well as the likely production of tannin (or it's equivalent) and leather working in every leather piece on screen. Candles can be made from varied sources, whether that's actual wax of some form, or condensed animal fat.

Oh, and if you find the enlarged version of those images: you'll also notice things like fine engraving and metal sculpture to the goblets and platters on the Thor 2011 table in particular.

Either way, the images above show us directly that unsurprisingly, they have come to understand whole other sub-levels of production: before you even get to the high-tech and magic ends of any of that to be able to reproduce it in that modern era.

As another side note related to that: the booze alone is pretty telling as to how far off the "Loki" series is on this mark, as well. Creators of current content 'conveniently forgot' that this is supposed to be a space faring, technologically advanced society (even if they're the social equivalent of medieval imperialist thugs .. lol sorry not sorry! That's literally how they're depicted... and honestly that really weird twist IS some of Asgard's most interesting and strange development) whose friends, allies and other examples of places visited DO and HAVE included Earth, Xandar, and six other 'realms' as their etymology names them: for literal millennia. Even taking the other, long established cultural influences and visitations aside? For a society who 5000 years ago was still porting whole armies to other planets to kick peoples asses? The idea they never discovered honey; or sugar especially even on the inside of a fermentation barrel for wine; OR how to process it into something like candy? Is more than just a -little- dumb in the stretch. Sugar often naturally starts to separate and crystallize during the fermentation process. Ask a vintner, or look it up if you don't believe me. Just sayin'.. just on Earth alone, we know sweets were discovered more than 8000 years ago. Eight thousand. And the only reason we haven't been able to confirm people older than that finding things like bee's hives?? Is because well.. that kind of thing rarely survives even that length of time at all, to be found in archeology in order to tell us more. I'll touch that and how it's pretty damned near impossible that 'Loki doesn't know wtf candy is' being 1k+ years himself, and a guy raised as an Asgardian prince & spymaster to boot later into the culture section I think, but mmm.. that whole bit still reeks of stupid, to me And more so after their own DB Cooper scene. Gonna say candy wasn't a snack in that era either? Cause if so; I got big shocking news, for those who think so... XD

In closing.. for this part?

As far as the world of Asgard goes, we have only been allowed to see a very small part of it: and even then? It is still undoubtedly massively larger than even what's implied: and definitely capable of supporting it's comparatively small base population of less than 10k people.

(Odin's subterranean vault reference: exterior)

The only reason we don't see even more of it; is the fact that films have a limited time to give you everything, and the story focuses on the royal family from the get go. And they live, in the heart of Asgard's capital city... so we largely don't see as much of that as weirdo world building fans like me would absolutely love to see in the process... and frankly; they gave plenty enough to start us off with.

The films would have suffered for having too much more of that, rather than the stories they were trying to tell.

The same.. I would love to know more: and I do wish the current teams paid the previous ones more respect by using what was already there and expanding on it: instead of making mismatched new things up, as they went.

The early creative teams really knew what they were doing back then.

(Asgard's defensive cannons defending against the Darkalfheim air raid in Thor the Dark World.)

And no, this isn't all they showed us, in the show and tell they did manage to give us over the course of years of work... far from it.

Hope you enjoyed part one! Maybe you learned or saw something you missed.. or have been inspired to watch the older films again..?

I know I often am.