#its a great episode arc where in the beginning he orders little to get the whiskey from fitzjames. and by the end of this ep he decides to

[beaulesbian]

THE TERROR (2018) S01E05 "First Shot a Winner, Lads"

And who is going to stop you? You use the wind to carry you here. You use the forest to hide inside. You use all this and don't even want to be here. You don't want to live. Look at you. Even if I could help, you don't want it. Why do you want to die?

[stestir]

Amethio is emotionally neglected.

An analysis from a neglected person standpoint.

Wo hoo another post about the little shit, yaay.

Anywho, this time its not me being super angry and ranting, instead I will psychoanalyse the boy and give out him diagnosis.

Analysis post under the line

So, I believe that Amethio is heavily emotionally neglected by Gibeon. I'll explain in a bit how he shows it.

So I'll begin with his beef with Friede. Yes, I will talk about it again like I didn't already do that several times, Shh.

Here I want to start from, well, start of their conflicts. Episode 2, first conversation. Amethio says that Friede is... Wait, lemme see... khe khe, "Oh, Friede? I heard of you being a great trainer." That means he sees Friede as someone who has experience and who's respectable. That will be important later.

So, first battle, the air ship, all that. Friede sends out a Pikachu, and Amethio is immediately annoyed. I think the main reason is that he wants to have a true validation of his skills, hence why he reacted that way. Seeing Friede, someone he thinks is a professional, send out a Pikachu, a pokemon often seen weak, looks like a mokery to him.

It also goes further and weaves itself into all their incounters - the want to be acknowledged and taken seriously. With each episode, it escalates and escalates, showing out Amethios' bad traits along the line - impatience, easy irration, and often distraction from the main mission.

The tension finally snaps at episode 25, where in their 6th encounter, they finally finish the battle, and Friede takes the win. And where Friede says, "I have to take you seriously." This hurts Amethio so much that in the next arc, he starts to train to become more powerful. He even appears in an opening, training himself to an exhaustion.

All of this highlights really heavily that Amethio always tried to find a validation of his battle skills [ and by excention, him in general ] in these fights, hence why he always was irrated by Friede not paying full attention - "Look at me!", "Don't be distracted!". All of this points to me that he doesn't receive it oftenthsys why he jumps into the opportunity to have this attention.

And this is the first sign of emotional neglect! The attention seeking behavior.

It's clear that Gibeon does not give him enough attention, as he's trying his best to give everything to him and only disobeys the orders to catch Rayquaza / Terapagos for Gibeon. All of Amethios' actions are for him, which indicates to me that he's trying to get at least a lick of affection from him [ aka a validation that he did a good job ].

And it's also seen in Hambers' actions towards the boy! Unlike Diana, who's parallel he is, he's cold towards Amethio and practically emotionless, only doing what he needs to do. He also doesn't even use his name, only honorifics "Master."

All of this translates to his behavior, too, and shows another sign:

The masking of emotions & anger issues.

These two go hand in hand in Amethio, as he tries his very best to hide any case of emotion. But this mask is also really weak and fragile, as it shatters under any pressure, as it showcased in his fights with Friede.

Even in episode 2, the beginning, he already showed how his mask is easily slipping with irritation [ his eye twitching when Friede sends out Pikachu ]. He always tries to be cold, just like Hamber and Gibeon, but because he also desperately needs aknowledgement, it does not work. He becomes impulsive and starts to go more by emotions than reason, as it is evidenced by him always prioritizing a fight rather than going by the misson, episode 6 being an exception ( And even then he still doing this cause Friede didnt pay him enough attention 💀).

He tries to mimick his parential figures by being emotionless but ultimately heavily fails at it because he does not have an outlet for his emotion, nor affection to actually release all the tension in his mind, hence why the mask is so fragile and he is easily irrated.

From that its goes into another problem:

Closing off from any support from other adults.

And in this part comes in his relationship with Zir and Conia, and how he doesn't let himself be weak in front of them.

Throughout the whole anime, it can be seen how much both of them are worried for the boy. Hell, its even got into one of the promotional material, where they even when cut by a comic barrier, still look at Amethio, concerned. But Amethio does not let them know about his mental state, as evidenced by Zirs "Its so hard to talk to him lately."

It seems that Amethio never let his guard down, resulting in him being tense all the time. Even when Zir and Conia genuinely care for him, he rejects all of this affection, still trying to chase the one from Gibeon. It makes me believe that Amethio idolizes Gibeon and thinks of him as the only trustful source of care.

Which of course makes everything worse for him in turn, as Gibeon does not give him anything and just makes him work, which makes him become more and more tense.

It even starts to project into his battle style, as he gone from calculated actions to a desperate attempts to do something [ which is also a sign of being neglected, yahoo ]

Anywho, ending this, I'll say - Amethio is a brilliantly written character, I love love love the writing team behind the Horizons. The way he's obviously abused is so clearly seen that it almost pains me as someone who has also been neglected in childhood.

And also, dont take this post way too seriously - it's written without any serious research whatsoever, and mostly is me speaking from experience and observations.

I hope you had a nice read!

...

[Me: Amethio is a 3-dimensional character with a lot of thought behind him. Also me: He-he, he's literally this meme:]

[beesmygod]

JJBA PART 5, VENTO AUREO IS THE UNDERBAKED MESS I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT FIXING...PART 2

FIX 2: WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A PROBLEM LIKE GIORNO?

thats the homo photo of my dad

answer: i dont know.

the unfortunate and honest to god truth of the matter is that the protagonist of JJBA part 5, giorno giovanna, fucking sucks.

what if that little shithead from the twilight zone episode "it's a good life" was gay and watched "goodfellas". you might think "wow that sounds great" but, well, somehow it's not.

it is months later and i have been struggling with writing this for a bazillion reasons: i got sick, real life events occurred, i had to work on comic, i died, etc. but the most strenuous reason of all in the end was facing the impenetrable, tangled, and deeply complicated gordian knot that is the little ladybug loving bitch named giorno and not knowing where the fuck to even begin.

i had to think long and hard about how to approach the problem of "giorno giovanna". he is like a diamond of sucking ass: multi-faceted and beautiful in his perfection but is, ultimately, just a stupid fucking rock from the dirt. he completely lacks the innate charisma and personality inherent in previous jojo protagonists AND antagonists; despite having both the joestar AND brando gene pools to pull from, he manages to snag a net total of 0 personality traits. this problem is multiplied 100 fold once he starts actually doing things to move the plot along and the universe repeatedly bends itself like a pretzel in order to gift him undeserved and unrewarding (to us, the audience) win after win after win.

his theme goes hard as hell tho

if you were to ask me what is wrong with giorno, i would have no problem making a long and detailed list of why i want to slap the little cinnamon rolls of his head. i have no idea how to organize that list into a more coherent form of criticism that points at the overarching structural weakness of part 5. part 5 really, really wants you to like and root for giorno. it hinges on it. his victories are explicitly supposed to be emotionally and morally gratifying. they are instead trite and annoying.

for years, YEARS, my only experience with the entirety of part 5 outside of infamous panels and the most basic information about the story, was this incredible, evergreen and laser targeted tweet:

i thought this was a funny shit post. all i knew giorno had some kind of "life creation" power. what i didnt know was:

giorno says this exact line and then turns cars into frogs so that they (the bad guys) cant catch them (they do catch them)

giorno's power IS fucking stupid

i fucking hate him

he should stop using it

abbacchio was right. he was right about everything

how DO you talk about giorno? giorno's blandness permeates any situation he has the misfortune of attending and the parts of the narrative where he's missing for one reason or another are significantly improved by his absence. in comparison with the deuteragonists (bruno bucciarati) and tritagonists (the members of bruno's squad in the mafia family passione), he has all the flavor of a communion wafer. his character arc is non-existent. emotionally, he might as well have just gone to the store and back by the end of the story.

and, look, araki likes to play fast and loose with how powerful a stand is or what its abilities are. im not here to measure power levels or fucking whatever stupid shit people get up to. the more wild and insane he gets with his incredibly "unique" ""understanding"" of science and geometry, i'm 99% on board for. but giorno's stand, gold experience, is whatever the narrative needs it to be at any given time with no consistency. it's OP as hell long before he gets the 11th hour power boost; his stand has the extra trans-dimensional ability to remove any tension from a fight scene. through this, gold requiem can destroy the psyche of the audience, truly making it the most powerful stand of all time.

people used to love to bitch about not understanding how the villain's stand works in this part, but if anyone tells you they understand what the fuck THIS means they're lying to you.

anyway, there is only one solution i can think of when it comes to how to approach this: assess the major story beats in order. i think jumping around in the progression of events to highlight individual flaws in the character will not adequately impart the suffering one feels as an audience member while the narrative yo-yos between being rollicking good fun and being at the mercy of the little 15 year old twink with god mode on.

and so, having made it past koichi's tiny ass role (and his tiny ass) in the story and addressing how we can proceed, we can cover bruno (a genuinely wonderful character), polpo, and the wasted character building opportunity of the piss drinking scene, which vexes and infuriates me to this day. [thinking about the piss scene and getting mad again] ooooh!!!!

[ncisfranchise-source]

“We’re geeks about NCIS,” Michael Weatherly��says while he and Cote de Pablo discuss their upcoming new series, a spinoff about their characters, Tony and Ziva, and their new rewatch podcast. And that’s evident in their tones and answers. These two people love this franchise, love their characters, and love working together.

On the Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch video podcast for Spotify, the two are going through Season 3 episodes—they’ve done 25 and have a multi-year contract—and, through their work with Paramount+ (the home of their new show, NCIS: Tony & Ziva), CBS, and Spotify, it’s an “organic way of looking back and then looking forward for the new show,” Weatherly tells TV Insider.

“More than anything, it’s just Michael and I, two friends, talking about a really fantastic experience, one that came with its own set of challenges, but really at the end of the day, it’s a celebration of a very successful franchise where Michael and I became great friends and now we get the great big pleasure of actually going out to Budapest, working together again on Tony & Ziva,” shares de Pablo. “We thought it would be a great thing to be able to do this as a way to sort of engage the fandom before we started working on our show. Little did we know that everything would align in such a perfect way that this happened and then the show happened simultaneously.”

The two are now gearing up to begin work on the spinoff—filming begins in July, as they’ve said on the podcast—and Weatherly notes that other than his appearance in NCIS‘ tribute episode to the late David McCallum and Ducky (Tony joined Brian Dietzen‘s Dr. Jimmy Palmer in autopsy for the final scene), he hasn’t worked in over two years. (Weatherly starred in Bull after his Season 13 departure from NCIS.) De Pablo last played Ziva in a Season 17 arc after the end of the Season 16 finale revealed she’s alive.

“Michael and I talked about my return in 2019, and I remember calling because we already had the idea of Tony and Ziva and [playing these characters again],” de Pablo shares. “And I said, ‘Do you think this would get in the way?’ And he said, ‘No, this would not get in the way.’ And so in a way, I got a green light from him.”

Their plans to reprise their roles together also came into play with the tribute episode for McCallum, which Weatherly says he “was very honored to do and proud to do as somebody who was there with David when we were doing the JAG spinoff episodes.”

Sonja Flemming / CBS

“He said, ‘I really want to go back.’ And I said, ‘Well, if you go back, I’m not going to go back because we can’t both be back because then it gets in the way of the spinoff,'” de Pablo recalls. “So I said, ‘I know that you had a very special relationship with McCallum, and I think if you really want to do it, you should go, which means I have to sit this one out.’ So we’ve worked from the get-go for many years as a partnership, which means at times we have to confide in each other and sort of ask permission to do things in order to allow the other one to sit down or for things not to get in the way of the final objective, which is really to make this show and to give the audience the element of surprise on that show.” (Showcasing their partnership? Weatherly’s response: “I agree with everything she said.”)

Now that they’ll be playing Tony and Ziva again, de Pablo says she and Weatherly have talked a lot about the question of, “‘How do you think it’s going to be?’ I think we have to allow it to be what it’s going to be, and we don’t know what that is.” That’s the surprise for both of them. “We know that we have a past. We know that we have worked together. We know that we are friends, we know that we have gone through really good times, really challenging times in the show, as friends, in life, and now we’re going to be working together and hopefully we’re going to be drawing from all of that,” she continues. “And we have to understand these characters, much like Michael and Cote, have evolved.”

Adds Weatherly, “And what kind of an actor are you? What is Cote de Pablo going to feel like when she puts on the clothes and starts doing a scene with her daughter?” He knows that everyone behind the scenes will be supporting them, “but I have no idea what Tony DiNozzo is like until I get on set and I’m in that costume and I look across at my scene partner and they say action. I’m looking forward to that, the real energy and exhilaration of acting with one of the best actors I’ve ever worked with, Cote de Pablo.”

He notes that while the two of them are different, what they have in common is “we want the scene to be great and we will make sacrifices, at some cost, sometimes,” and de Pablo interjects with, “by the way, we do not agree about the final outcome of what that should be and that ends up in the scene.”

Cliff Lipson/CBS

Weatherly picks right up with, “that becomes the conflict of the scene. I think Tony and Ziva have a similar new fact pattern that has emerged in the show. Tony and Ziva should really be called Tony & Ziva & Tali because their priority now, both of them, is Tali, not themselves or each other—of course, couples get into their petty business, but I think the dynamic that emerges is going to be a really brand new one. And I have no idea what that’s going to feel like. I can’t wait.”

De Pablo is also enjoying that she and Weatherly are executive producers on Tony & Ziva. “We are a part of making decisions. It doesn’t mean that we make the decisions or the final decision, but we are a part of this collaborative effort that goes into making a show. And that’s been a real surprise and kind of fun to be a part of,” she explains. “It’s also made me respect actors and all the people that are making this thing happen. We’re getting, for example, a taste of castings and these actors, are very good and it’s very hard to choose and sometimes there are things that have nothing to do with the performance.”

They can’t share much yet about the new show, but de Pablo does reveal that Tali, Tony and Ziva’s daughter, will be played by a European actress. And Weatherly thinks that for anyone who comes int other new show without having watched NCIS first, “you’re going to think, ‘Wow, this is like Mission Impossible with a couple.'”

And it’s expanding the NCIS franchise, both to Paramount+ from CBS and globally, which was important to the pair. “This show, for many years, was a very sort of American show. That’s how people viewed it. When we started traveling, we realized that this show was not just an American show. It appealed to a massive international market. So what we’re doing now and what we always planned to doing was putting the show outside of the US to tap into that international world and give it that thing that we always wanted, the je ne sais quoi,” says de Pablo.

For them, it’s about answering questions the fans have, like “What happened to these characters and where are they now and who are they now and where are they living and all that,” she continues, promising, “We’re going to answer a lot of those questions.” This show is also allowing the two do something they love (travel), though both are, as Weatherly puts it, “a couple of homebodies at heart.”

While we wait for Tony & Ziva to premiere, there is still the aforementioned podcast—and just like the audience is learning new facts about NCIS, the hosts are learning more about each other. The podcast has given Weatherly “a deepening of the love and respect that I have always had for Cote,” while de Pablo admits, with a laugh, that she finds herself “a little offended” if she hears a story she didn’t know before.

Something that both of them know and listeners will have to wait to discover? The last special guest, which they want to leave as a surprise. But in addition to the already announced Sean Murray, Dietzen, Eric Christian Olsen, Daniela Ruah, and Jon Cryer (Sasha Alexander and Rudolf Martin have appeared in episodes already released), also stopping by are Robert Wagner, Joe Spano, and Rocky Carroll.

Also coming up: more fun with the segments of the podcast, which include a context section about the world the day episodes aired, fan Qs, and Gibbs’ rule of the day. “Cote and I were happy if you just put a microphone in front of us and we talked about the show for 25 hours, we could do it, but getting at that structure allows a little bit of give and take,” says Weatherly. “It brings the audience in with the fan questions and it sort of challenges us again, to not just sit in a puddle of our memories.”

De Pablo shares that they do continue to have fun with Gibbs’ rules. “For example, we’ll be like, ‘Trust no one, what do you think about that?’ And then we get into a whole sort of existential analysis of what trusting means and have you ever lost trust in someone? And so everything’s just sort of like a gateway to a bigger question,” she says. “That’s what Michael and I really always wanted from the get-go. We, of course, love the show and it’s a celebration of the show, but we also wanted to reserve the right to be able to go from one branch to another very organically and explore different subjects that are really interesting to us in a very sort of fluid friendship way, like, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?'”

[gnomescarfcomics]

Rings of Power: Episode 5 - Partings

Rewatch mini review. Chaotic and out of order.

Harfoots/Harfeet: They continue to be incredibly charming. Poppy's song and the accompanying traveling montage is one of my favorite things from the series. Nori and Definitely-Not-Gandalf's relationship is great. I love the juxtaposition of a hobbit teaching and encouraging a wizard, while he struggles with his own fear and darkness slowly consuming him. Whether intentional or not, their arc feels like an echo of one of the best scenes of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy (and a quote that is often misattributed to Tolkien himself):

"Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I've found it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? Because perhaps it is because I'm afraid, and he gives me courage."

The harshness of the Harfoot laws still holds things back a bit though and could have been handled better. I can see why it sucks some of the warmth out of the storyline for so many people.

Southlands: Arondir and Theo's bonding scene is especially great. Even with all the darkness around them, Arondir is trying so hard to keep everyone's spirits up and see their worth as people. And I really appreciate Theo showing them the evil sword-key rather than just keeping it secret for forced prolonged drama. That's something this series is actually pretty good at avoiding most of the time.

Waldreg is still one of my favorites (I really hope he shows up in season 2). The evil of his character is done in a very believable way. So many of the bad choices the characters make throughout the series are done out of misguided senses of righteousness, being trapped in a cycle of tradition, or simply not having all the information they need. But the darkest decisions are always done out of complete despair and desperation.

Numenor: Some of the momentum is lost after the end of the previous episode, not that what they're doing doesn't make sense. They need to prepare. Drama needs to happen first. But I think the ship sabotage, while a nice visual, was ultimately unnecessary. The time could have been better spent elsewhere. Galadriel's insistence on Halbrand being a king could have been expanded on a little bit more. I get that she basically just has a "feeling" about him (almost similar and contrasting Gandalf's about Bilbo), and this season is about the danger of assumptions. But it still felt a little underdeveloped.

Even with his limited screen time, I think Pharazon really comes into his own in this episode. His true intentions and what drives him comes into focus, and he's shown as misguided rather than outright evil. Earien and Kemen's relationship could have been given a little more time. But it's a rather insignificant aspect of the story, so if anything can survive being stripped down to the bare minimum, it's them.

But that brings me back to my main issue with Numenor. There's just too much going on. This series really should have had ten episode seasons, which apparently was the original intention. Hopefully season 2's structure ends up being more accommodating to the episode count.

Galadriel and Sauron's little heart to heart is fantastic. The ambiguity of just how sorry he is makes everything extra interesting. Bringing the Lord of the Rings himself to the forefront of things could have gone very poorly, but I think that, despite some bumps along the way, it's one of the strongest parts of the series. He's a tragic and charismatic character rather than a mustache twirling villain. There's plenty of time to focus on just how evil he is later on, but I appreciate they went for a more unexpected and complex telling of his story from the beginning. And it's all very rooted in Tolkien's descriptions of him.

Lindon: This is where the big problem makes its appearance. That darn mithril. It's hard to judge it completely until we know for sure what's going on. How much of the story is a lie? How does the mithril actually work? Was a Silmaril actually involved? Whatever the truth ends up being, they took a big swing with this lore invention, and I think it's mostly a miss. I appreciate the idea of a legend within the story that not even the characters know to be true or not. That feels very Tolkien and just a good use of myth and storytelling in general. But doing that with such a vital aspect of the overall story's core may have taken things too far.

And then there's Elrond's oath. I think it was poorly handled. The "rules" of his oath feel very vague. Based on his conversation with Celebrimbor, who he tells and what exactly he reveals don't seem to have concrete lines that can or cannot be crossed.

I assume Celebrimbor already knew there was at least some mithril around. Otherwise why would they specifically be looking for it with the dwarves? So are we to assume Elrond just didn't tell him how much the dwarves actually found? When did Celebrimbor test it? Did he mean he tested a piece they already found, which sparked their mission to find more? Did he test the little piece Elrond had after dinner. All of this could have been (and should have been) cleared up rather easily. I have to wonder how much of this is a result of the Celebrimbor recast, but that excuse can only go so far.

Elrond and Durin's friendship continues to be one of highlights of the series. Their chemistry and honesty with each other is refreshing. No matter how many political expectations or awkward racial differences attempt to keep them at odds with each other, it never takes long for them to just get to the raw meat of things.

Overall, some of the best individual scenes in the series only held back a bit by some truncated writing and a loss of momentum from the previous episode.

[lunion]

I love how Bill Cypher culminates every single aspect of Gravity Falls.

Recently, I was listening to "it's gonna get weird" and it got me thinking about how the final arc actually gives a resolution to something Gravity Falls explores on its own: Normal vs Weirdness

Gravity falls is a show that centers itself around Dipper and Mabel's adventures on the titular city, as they live their summer facing the weirdest and most uncanny things known to man, all the while also being regular kids (as far as the Pines family can be regular, at least).

Where this gets really interesting is on the final arc. Gravity Falls really prepares everything for a grand send off, both for the characters and for the audience. As Dipper and Mabel are both approaching the disappointing but inevitable reality that summer is nearing its end, the Pines twins both start their arc with a flaw: refusing to move on and indulging more and more.

Gravity falls was not only bold, but it was scaling as time goes on, as any story tends to.

I mean, you guys remember the Northwest mansion episode, right?

We went from gnomes kidnapping mabel to marry her to this.

Fast forwarding to the final arc, we have Dipper and Mabel with no intention of ever deescalating.

Mabel refuses to let go on a temporal level: Feeling the inevitable march of time as summer TIME is ending, losing access to her friends and the idea of getting older and no longer experiencing the fun moments of childhood, Mabel wishes for everything to stay where they are in gravity falls, as kids, remaining engaging on the same things forever.

Mabel doesn't want to MOVE ON from gravity falls (just like we didn't)

Dipper on the other hand is actually on A VERY DANGEROUS PATH as well: He is called by Ford to stay in Gravity Falls and study these anomalies.

You know, the same anomalies that almost killed people over and over? And they keep escalating? NEED I REMIND YOU THAT HE WAS TECHNICALLY DEAD WHEN HE GOT TURNED INTO WOOD?

Weirdness in gravity falls always felt to me akin to what "Horror" was in most folk tales, urban legends and so forth. It's mystical. It draws us further in, but it's also dangerous, deadly and too much of it can lead to our demise.

Dipper was considering not only STAYING in gravity falls, but DIVE HEADFIRST INTO MORE DANGER, LIKE FORD. THE SAME GRAND UNCLE WHO MADE THE DEAL WITH BILL CYPHER TO BEGIN WITH, WHO GOT TRAPPED IN A FOREIGN DIMENSION FOR MANY YEARS (by accident, but that's his line of work).

And then comes BILL CYPHER

This triangle's sole motivation is to cause MORE and MORE weirdness.

AND HE HAS ABSOLUTELY NO BREAKS.

Bill Cypher, designwise and plotwise answer the question: "What happens if we indulge with occult/weird/bizarre stuff endlessly?"

To Bill, Gravity Falls was BORING. it wasn't WEIRD ENOUGH. His goal was to unleash as much weirdness as possible. The fact that he's also based on the All Seeing Eye, a symbol very involved in conspiracy theories and the like only enhance that.

The obsession with weirdness, the bizarre and the exceptional makes one unappreciative of the world around them and Bill embodies that to the limit. No weirdness at all is boring. A little bit spices up life, but too much and it's stressful or harmful. Pacifica's father can attest to that.

Bill Cypher forces all the character to face the weirdmagedon in order to survive and what do they do? They decide enough is enough and after they defeat Bill they say "No more weird stuff". There's a limit and that's that. It was fun, but it already got to be too much. They want new things, new experiences and they move on.

Summer was great, it was weird, it was fun.

But Dipper and Mable have to go. They got more things to do in life.

Not only new experiences, but different ones as well. If they latched on to the weirdness forever, they would be one dimentional adults who can only talk about weird stuff when they grew up. Instead, they had the adventure of a lifetime and will live many other stories as they grow

[ran-orimoto]

Do you ghave favourite Frontier episodes? If yes would you put them in an order from best to least favourite in the favourites?

Hi, Anon💕. Thank you for the ask! I feel like this will be a bit hard because some weeks ago I tried putting some episodes I like in an order of preference and I failed.

A little premise: what is the Frontier I adore like? Except when it comes to episodes where Junpei and Izumi get spotlight, -obviously I ADORE them-, the “Good Frontier” I really love is the one where everyone interacts with everyone, the chemistries are balanced and well-defined, the kids collaborate and learn how to work in a team.

Regrettably, -block me-, I feel like the group in Frontier worked well when it was made of five people. PERSONALLY, PERSONALLY ,I REPEAT, I don’t feel like Kouichi fits among them. What is his role? What kind of interactions has he built with the others, excluding with Kouji? Sometimes I also used to feel like the team that works so well in Frontier is the one made up by the first four kids. Kouji often felt out of place, especially whenever I watched episodes where Tomoki, Izumi and Junpei supported Takuya. Yet, I grew to like Kouji’s development a bit, just a bit. AGAIN, JUST AN OPINION OF MINE: he’s just not my favourite among the kids.

So first episode I’m really attached to:

1. The Tsunomon episode: Everyone hates it, I’m the only one probably loving it so much. It has got so many flaws, especially in how it deals with Izumi’s backstory, but I can’t help it: I love it with all my heart. The main theme is loneliness and isolation. Even if I would have loved seeing them acknowledging how lonely Junpei is too, just like Izumi, I adore they picked them to build trust on each other in a similar episode. It’s especially so nice to notice the development in their relationship while comparing this episode with the Floramon one: now that Junpei has found his spirit, he can be the goofball he’s supposed to be. Their partnership is just too enjoyable for me to resist, okay?

(• Still in the first place because I’m sorry but——- : The Revival of the Ancient Digimon. Even if it’s not an episode, I need to place this here since I rewatched it the day before yesterday and I was so enthusiastic about it. Frontier’s movie is always a nice place to return to, owning what the anime ride should have always had, without losing its direction. In the movie everyone has got a role, the interactions are vividly represented from Kouji’s and Takuya’s silly rivalry to Izumi being a big sister to them; from Junpei, Tomoki and Takuya being the biggest dorks out there (I LOVE THEM), to Junpei, Izumi and Tomoki confirming themselves to be a team with great dynamics; from Takuya and Junpei SURPRISINGLY agreeing on something for once to Junpei and Izumi carrying the finale of the movie together. Flawless movie. The Frontier of my dreams.)

•2. The Village of the Beginnings: The only episode from the last disastrous arc I hold dear to my heart. The plot was endearing, the main theme can also slightly move me: the concept of hope being put in such innocent beings and eggs that still have to hatch is pretty emotional. Izumi also gets to be useful for once in her life, which is so appreciated🤣💕. The only flaw of the episode is obviously the Kouji/Takuya centrism, but in this case it’s less annoying. There’s actually that nice scene with the 10 spirits collaborating with the accompaniment of “An endless Tale” in the background. Pure poetry.

•3. Izumi’s Beast spirit episode: Yajima got to animate my favourite episodes, like you can notice. Somehow their episodes are exceptionally hilarious and everyone just looks adorable🤣. After an embarassing episode about fanservice I wish it had never been produced, here are we with some justice for Izumi. Ignoring the fact her beast evolution can’t be really considered as such, this episode is a gem in her badly-written arc. The team gets to support her and she realizes how precious everyone around her is💕!

•4. The Black Blitzmon episode: Maybe one of the cruelest episodes in the whole series, in my opinion. Despite having so many flaws in its writing and portraying such ashaming scenes of sexualization for Izumi, I like the way they have built up Junpei’s issues during the whole series up to this episode. It makes me feel so sad to see Junpei pretending to have a nice life, whereas he’s a wreck inside. It’s also…A bit relatable when it comes to my life, but I’m not going to go deeper ahaha.

•5. Bolgmon episode: It would have been much higher if it had featured Izumi doing something. I don’t know, SOMETHING. The philosophy of the hopeless woman being protected by the man does not drive me crazy, especially when the writers of this girl fill their mouth with dialogues about women power. Nevertheless, it’s the apotheosis of Junzumi, it’s the moment my son gets to show his worth and his growth. And of course…The ending scene always gets me near to tears because the vibes were so similar to the Takajuri/ Jurato ones.

•6. Junpei’s and Tomoki’s Grand Adventure: Listen, I love these two. I love Digimon’s personal Mario and Toad having such a heartwarming relationship starting their journey from being the most ambiguous characters of the series. Junpei has got such nice quotes here and I remember I had already fallen so hard for him here. He already shows to be so warped and very grey in his personality. The oldest member convincing the youngest one escaping, because he would feel like an embarassing coward leaving that world all alone. Junpei! Junpei himself who had seen an opportunity to play the main hero for once in his life by pressing YES on his phone. It’s a very interesting episode, surprisingly deeper than what it may look on the surface.

• 7. Izumi defeats Ranamon episode: I realize it has got a very warped picture of what a woman has to be like, but I also realize that’s the kind of culture and view Japan had at that time (and probably nowadays too). However, I’ve grown to like this episode after having watched it twice. It’s a lovely filler that culminates the path of Izumi’s struggles with others. I also acknowledge it probably should be lower, much lower, but the atmosphere makes me feel very affectionate to it, and there are some cute scenes featuring Junpei and Tomoki supporting her. I love those.

• 8. Takuya VS Mercurymon episode: Like you have understood, I’m such a big fan for the main quartet. Maybe I would have appreciated the series more if they had had more time to shine together. I like seeing Izumi, Junpei and Tomoki trying their best to rescue Takuya. Still, this episode also marks the end of the Frontier I enjoy, so it might be very emotional but at the same time it leaves me with a bittersweet taste in my mouth.

• 9. Blitzmon’s introduction: There’s a first part that is so boring I would tear my hair, but when the second half comes this episode takes off. There’s a very entertaining fight between Junpei and Takuya leading Junpei to having to face his sadness. It has got such a weird writing someday I would like to discuss about, also sharing some thoughts of a dear tw friend’s here, but I strongly believe it was an excellent way to conclude Junpei’s first character arc. I appreciate them dealing with his lack of self-esteem and eventually giving him the best spirit entrance of them all. Have you seen him falling off the crane, -another ⚡️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ main character of this episode-, being rescued by the Kokuwamons and landing on the ground like some king🤣? Speaking of the Kokuwamon, Junpei and the bby bonding melt my heart.

• 10: Grottomon appears for the first time episode: This is the first time Kouji collaborates with the gang and starts opening up a bit. The animation is commendable with that incredible ride to the mountain, the vertiginous frames, but I also have to say the world building is one of the best here. The setting is breathtaking, very Miyazakish, but the plot doesn’t really stand out that much when it comes to me comparing it with the other episodes I’ve mentioned. I don’t know why. I just can’t fit this higher despite the fun it made me experience ahaha.

I know, it’s a very long post, Anon, and I’m so sorry but I hope you are satisfied by my reply! I know my tastes are weird, don’t worry🤣💕💕. There are also three other ones I like, though: the Tomoki nightmare one and the two episodes about the trio of losers (The Trailmon episode and, before that, the hamburger one).

The last episode, still animated from Yajima, has got its flaws but I love it with my whole heart. It’s kinda useless to mention it because I believe it’s in every Frontier fan’s heart.

[roguelemon]

I feel very similar about this scene, to me it really was one of the most crucial points in the episode and across what we have so far, a pretty important point for Angels character on the whole, as well as a point that started to have me raise my suspicions about Charlie more.

This, alongside another scene that I can’t quite quote from memory but where Charlie says something along the lines of Pentious being the first ‘real’ resident of the Hotel in my eyes was a great way to say that while her heart may be in the right place, her head isn’t and despite her seemingly selfless nature, she doesn’t actually think that hard on if her actions will have consequences for others, leading in nicely to where she goes to see Valentino without thinking of if Angel will suffer because of it.

She’s a princess, literally had everything served to her on a silver platter and while I’m sure she’s struggled emotionally i struggle to believe that she’s ever been in a situation where she was ever really in danger. Especially having 99.9% of demons in Pride be so far below her. She doesn’t have to worry about keeping souls to keep her power and can basically do whatever she wants without any ties to anyone that could have her do something against her will. Perhaps her parents, but I struggle to believe that they’d be worse than Valentino.

Most of her attempts at redemption, like in this scene are surface level, and indicative of somebody that doesn’t fully understand that people don’t do bad things just because they can or they think its funny, they do them because they have other problems under the surface, including physically not having a choice in the matter. (Real life parallel to rich people in power where?? Oh yeah, right there)

It’s also increasingly obvious that Angels ‘free rent’ excuse is just that, and that in reality he just wants a place to be away from Valentino. The fact that Charlie doesn’t seem to notice this or even begin to question why Angel couldn’t just stay for free at the studio shows just how little attention she pays to other people.

At first i thought she was just naive, but now i see that in actuality, she’s so focused on her own goal that she isn’t helping at all, and it comes across like she doesn’t care what they do as long as they get into heaven and make her look good. Granted she isn’t malicious, but the lack of care is definitely something i want to see fixed in her character arc in order for me to actually like her.

After this scene Angel walking away does not seem out of anger or being pissed off at Charlie trying to redeem him, he actually seems sincerely upset, possibly because he feels like Pentious is removing the little care Charlie had for him, possibly because his view of the hotel is being tainted. At least the people in the studio and the street have the balls to call him a whore to his face rather than hiding it in subtext, since this hasn’t actually been resolved yet i think this is where Charlie could lead him, back to the studio (then you can all go crazy with your “Husk gambles for his soul”, “Charlie gives Valentino a beating”, “Alastor gets sufficiently pissed off enough at Vox to kill his boy toy”).

There is also something to be said for Charlie not understanding how traumatic death can be since she’s hellborn. Angel literally died from a drug overdose and who knows, a shady guy like what she’s trying to get Angel to play could have been the type of person he’d go and visit too escape from a shit life. There’s just a total lack of consideration all around.

She also displays this behaviour with Vaggie, ignoring her advice and throwing her into leading a task without asking her first. If Vaggie were not so loyal (perhaps due to Charlie helping her through something difficult) I feel as though she would have left Charlie by now, and maybe she should for a while, because i truly do not think Charlie will learn if Vaggie continues to enable her.

As a final note, you point out that she’s also calling him out for actually enjoying sex. This in my eyes tends nicely to a plot point where in actuality, due to different interpretations of the Bible, outdated views on all sorts of things and the violent nature of some bible stories, that Charlie actually does not know a ‘criteria’ for redemption and so is using shame, throwing stuff at the wall till it sticks, and hoping for the best.

In a sentence, she’s trying to play chess when she has no idea how or why the pieces move, the board is both on fire and spitting fire back at her and her opponent is an ‘alpha’ male that thinks he’s funny.

Ty for tagging me, this was really quite interesting to dive into and put into words, and I’m glad to hear other people not just taking this scene at face value.

This scene:

Shows just how unintentionally ignorant Charlie really is

Charlie wrote the script, gave Angel and Sir Pentous their roles of crackhead and innocent child and had them act it out

And soon after this clip Sir Pentous' character goes on to say that doing drugs isn't cool and then ends the skit saying "I'm off to not have sexual intercourse before marriage!"

Now I'd like to point out Angel is a known drug user and by having him play the crackhead, Charlie ends up calling him out for his addictions and then goes further with Sir Pentious' part of the script to call him out for his job as a sex worker and the fact that Angel actually does enjoy sex

This obviously upsets Angel, along with a few other moments where something is said about his efforts at getting better

The worst part is that Charlie doesn't even realize she's doing it

She wrote that script, which called out Angels flaws and labeled them as bad. She kept mentioning Angels lack of effort but never actually tried to find a way to get through to him nor did she try to figure out why he isn't trying.

I understand that she didn't know about Val yet, but at the same time she didn't seem to think about how there could have been more Angel than previously thought

And I know the scene with Sir Pentious could be played off as him saying it on his own accord because he didn't have a script, but that doesn't seem to be the case

I thought it was a good episode and added layers to the story but I felt it needed to be said how much development was going to made by the characters in order to make everything work out for them

@roguelemon, I saw a somewhat similar post of yours and would love your opinion on the scene

[wayward-pendragon]

Anime Recommendations!

Hi everyone, I hope y’all are safe and happy! With quarantine still in place (at least in my country), I’m gonna keep the random rec lists coming! I’ve been watching a lotttt of animes and rewatching favourites, so I thought I’d share some of my favourites of all time! A lot of them are pretty mainstream, but for my friends who aren’t really into anime, these will get you hooked! In no particular order, let’s get started!

1. Snow White with the Red Hair, 24 episodes 

This is hands down my favourite anime of all time. This shoujo anime make me feel so happy and it’s so wholesome, honestly such a feel good anime. Without spoiling too much, it’s about a herbalist named Shirayuki who ends up having to flee her home country and ends up meeting Prince Zen and goes to live in his country. The cast of characters in the anime is so good, there’s not a character to dislike. The genuine build up of friendship and eventual romance is just so sweet please watch. 

2. Demon slayer (26 episodes) 

One of the best anime I’ve watched this past year. This anime has amazing plot, awesome animation and a great cast of characters. This anime follows Tanjiro as he becomes a demon slayer after a demon killed his family. Tanjiro and his sister, Nezuko were the only survivors but Nezuko was turned in a demon and now Tanjiro is on a journey to change he back into a human. If you are into anime with amazing fight scenes, I highly recommend. 

3. Hunter x Hunter (148 episodes) 

I am currently watching this anime and it honestly made it onto my lists of favourite anime super quickly. The series starts with Gon and his quest to become a pro hunter and find his dad and goes on from there. With so many episodes and arcs, you can’t stop watching. The characters immediately hooked me on this show, Killua and Gon’s friendship is one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen in anime, I literally want to adopt both of them. This anime is so heartwarming but also kinda dark and action packed. 

4. Haikyuu!! (73 episodes, on-going)

My favourite sports anime my god. Haikyuu follows a high school volleyball team as they try to make it to nationals. This series made me so much more emotional than I thought it would, but you get so involved with the team and characters and want them to succeed. All of the characters from all of the teams are also fantastic and hilarious. If you need a fun but exciting anime, please please please watch Haikyuu!!

5. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (64 episodes)

Where to even begin. I would say this is one of the most popular anime and for good freaking reason. Without giving too much away, this anime follows brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric as they go on a quest to get their bodies back. Honestly this is one of my fav animes, if you like awesome fight scenes and really intriguing plot, you will love this anime. 

6. Yona of the Dawn (24 episodes) 

Another amazing anime but sadly, unfinished. I think this anime is best to watch w/o knowing very much. Just know that there is really good characters and character development and a very attractive love interest :))))

7. Soul eater (51 episodes) 

One of the first animes I ever watched and as I remember it’s hella awesome, if you like halloween then the whole atmosphere of this anime will intrigue you. The fight scenes in this are really fun and so are the characters. If you need a fun medium length anime, I would recommend this one!

8. Inuyasha (193 episodes)

This anime is worth all the hype in my opinion. The plot was great, the characters are fantastic and romance is so freaking cute I can’t. I’m also a sucker for asshole characters who are secretly really sweet. 

9. Fruits Basket (2019) (25 episodes (S1), S2 on-going)

This is the cutest anime. The whole cast characters is amazing and you get so attached so fast. The protagonist is so sweet and optimistic and I really just wanna protect her. I went into this knowing next nothing and I think that’s the best way to do it. The 2001 version is good too but 2019 has better animation and is closer to managa (and has more episodes!). 

10. My Hero Academia (88 episodes, on-going)

I love this anime with my whole heart. There is an adorable cast of characters and amazing fight scenes, I love this sm. It’s set in a world where like 95% of the population has ‘quirks’ which are basically super powers but not all of them are super powerful. Super heroes protect cities and the anime follows a high school where the students are training to become heroes. The main character is born without a quirk but through some crazy circumstances he ends up acquiring one. In my opinion this anime is worth the hype. 

11. Ouran Highschool Host Club (26 episodes)

This one is wild. Ouran Highschool Host club is so iconic and it’s hilarious, I laughed out loud watching this one so much. Honestly I went into this knowing nothing and I think its funnier that way. 

12. Yuri!!! On Ice (13 episodes)

THIS ANIME. The first sports anime w/ canon LGBTQ+ romance and its beautiful. I love the style, the skating, the music, the characters, just everything about it. This follows Yuri Katsuki, a professional figure skater from Japan and his skating career. After messing up a major championship, Yuri is lost and doesn’t know what to do w/ his career. After seeing a video of Yuri skate, his idol Victor, a skating legend, shows up to be his coach. Please watch this anime. 

13. Attack on Titan (62 episodes, on-going)

If you are looking for a badass action anime this is the one for you. Humanity has fallen to the mercy of giant man-eating titans, and the people that survived live within a walled city to keep the titans out. This anime is a little disturbing and violent but it is so badass. Also Levi, the most badass character ever, makes this entire anime worth watching. 

14. Ao Haru Ride (12 episodes)

Hands down my favourite romance anime. This anime is so freaking cute and it gave me so many fuzzy feelings. The animation is also super nice so that is always a plus. It follows Futaba and Kou who liked each other in middle school but were separated. They meet again in high school but they have both changed so much. If you want a romance anime I really recommend this one. 

15. Naruto (720 episodes)

This is a freaking classic and really long. Almost everyone and their mother has heard of this anime or watched some of it before. Basically it’s about ninjas and follows mainly Naruto Uzumaki who want to eventually be the leader of his village but his ninja skills need a lot of work. I honestly didn’t think I would love this anime as much as I did but its just so good. It is a very big commitment to finish though so be prepared. 

16. Your Lie in April (22 episodes)

Well this anime is literally beautiful. It is centered around 2 teens w/ major musical talent. It gets deep very fast but its also light hearted and wholesome. This anime made me cry like a baby so get your tissues ready. 

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

THE FLYING (gets shot

*stands up, throws table over, steps on top of the wreckage*

You know what? I don't normally like to be so definite but

"The Flying Kipper" is the best episode, okay?????

I mean the writing and cinematography of all of Seasons 1-4 has always fascinated me, long before I fell into The Lore; each episode just an incredible little piece of artistry. They're all mesmerizing in those respects...

... but "Kipper" is just on a whole 'nother level. In a tier of its own.

The emotional wind-up of "Coal" making it so easy to get invested?

The opening shot that pans in from a distance?

Henry and his driver's cosy little confidance at the beginning?

"Hurrah! That will be lovely"?

The sheer coolness, as a kid, at glimpsing all this work and activity in the middle of the night?

The harsh lighting?

THE HARBOR SET OMG????

Ringo's narration of the whole "quay" bit, leading up to "... the guard showed his green lamp, the Flying Kipper was ready to go!"

The close-up on the wheelslip?

The tinkling theme music to begin the journey?

Henry wearing the express goods headcode?

The snow-covered sets the train passes through?

Just... ALL THE ATMOSPHERE? Yes, the nighttime lighting is a huge factor, but it's not the only factor—"Wrong Road" and "Ghost Train" went to town with the glowy things in the night theme too, and they're lovely to look at, but once again, just the whole different level of artistry in the Kipper journey?

How cosy the brakevan cocoa break looks? How appropriately the fireman looks a friggin himbo?

The mood whiplash?

The crash is so much more dramatic in the TV adaptation than in the book? And it's great?? The drama really works here at this point in the arc, Awdry totally missed a trick??? (Probably because he really didn't care enough about Henry to notice????)

The fade-to-black? In Thomas the Tank Engine?? Seriously, the show peaked here!! The drama!!!

How awkward and painful the angle Henry is stranded in looks? The crane draped over his face? Holy crap, this stuff hits hard for TTTE, I just feel there was never a wreck ever again that was portrayed so seriously, without the comedic angle?

"The signal was down, sir"???? 😭😭😭😭

The wreckage and clean-up in the background of that scene, just always fascinating to peer at. I've been doing so for decades now, and only recently, thanks to FutureRust's WIP, did I look carefully and realize that James and Edward are both there on mop-up duty. You guys, I just... I just need more of the engines in the aftermath of this wreck.

The timeskip is done so beautifully; it would feel jarring, except for how uniquely spring the set looks here:

The "but everything was all right" shift forward feels so appropriate with this seasonal setting, the shift from winter to spring. I can't really remember a time the classic series ever looked so spring-y. Seems like usually it looks like dead of winter or beaming full-sun summer.

And then we just throw in Henry's beautiful new shape afterwards?? Just toss it in at the end??? In a lesser episode, it would be the highlight. Here it's just the cherry on top!

Final note, something very personal and important to me but content warning for religion and specifically Christianity here:

Henry's whole arc hit me like a brick a few years back when I viewed Season 1 in order and was struck by how I was seeing the experience of invisible disability represented (whether the author(s) intended that or not!)

And it also reminded me of a metaphor C.S. Lewis used once, and the "Kipper" arc still hits me exactly the same way.

Regarding the doctrine that it's for God and not humans to judge other humans, he pointed out that our bodies shape a good deal of our psychology and how impossible it is for other people to understand how someone else inhabits the world. His examples were "weak constitutions" or "jangled nerves" (oh, the 1940s-ness of it!) But in an afterlife where we lose our old bodies those effects would become more apparent. People who seemed strong of will or "nice" might be shown to have simply coasted on good health. People who seemed like snappish basketcases might prove to have been incredibly diligent and brave in their efforts to treat others as well as they could, even when it didn't always look like it. As he put it, "There will be surprises."

So he imagined that this life is very much like everyone is issued a car to drive. And some people get clankers, that are nearly impossible to keep under control. Someone who gets a sounder car would look at so-and-so's slipping, sliding, and spin-outs and assume the driver is incompetent... but if in fact their car is defective then they might be showing great skill in getting anywhere at all. Of heaven, he said, we'll see each other's moral self as it really is, stepping out from behind the wheel as it were.

Anyway I think of that every time I see Henry after Welsh coal or post-rebuild. We don't know what other people are dealing with. When the playing field is leveled... there will be surprises.

[yackers]

hiiiii, joy and mara for the character thing

thank you!

JOY:

Why I like them: she's so well developed and funny and she just feels so real?? like I love female characters with actual flaws that they learn from its so much nicer than her just being perfect from the get go.

Why I don’t: I mean the nina article?? its kinda obvious tho. also maybe her involvement in jerome and mara's relationship at the very beginning of s3 like i get it and she was just being a good friend but I feel like if mara made more of those decisions herself then maybe the heartbreak would've hurt her less?? idk its pretty minor. also the fabian kiss(es) because.....

Favorite episode (scene if movie): the scene where she takes over the class and her scene with jerome where she tells them to be the bigger person

Favorite season/movie: three!!!

Favorite line: “aw eddie, someone already invented spaghetti bolognese”

Favorite outfit: her s3 uniform

OTP: jeroy

Brotp: joytricia, mara and joy, joy and alfie, idk most people

Head Canon: she has a cat named bella after bella from twilight lol

Unpopular opinion: I understand where people are coming from when they say the joy and nina plotline was unnecessary and some parts definitely were but idk I liked joy's arc in s2 I think it was a realistic teenage girl reaction to coming back to your home and finding that someone else has kinda taken your place. I like complex female relationships and I think in the end it was worth doing. also, I like that the fabian thing did follow into s3. like yeah maybe it could feel a little repetitive but with nina gone I think she needed real closure, not just stepping aside for the sake of someone else but to actually get a real answer and move on to have her arc where she found herself was far more real than just having her show up at the beginning of the season with a new look and attitude with no real growth idk I love her

A wish: idk a scene at the end of s3 or tor where she and patricia jus got to be friends and talk a little about everything idk

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: a reboot lol idk unless its done exclusively done by the people who did the sbtb reboot I don't ever wanna see a yassified 2022 version of her character development

5 words to best describe them: idkkkkk I don't like this part

My nickname for them: ?

MARA:

Why I like them: she so real and flawed and manages to be smart without slotting into the nerd archetype where she like hates fun and she's unapologetic about who she is and she’s die hard for her friends and I really appreciate that

Why I don’t: people in the show wince at some of the problematic shit she does (if they even know about it) but like the show doesn’t hold her accountable for much?? she keeps making the same kind of mistakes for the entire run of the show without really learning from them because no one ever makes her?? she has a massive problem with boundaries and knowing when to step back and mind her business.

Favorite episode (scene if movie): s3 revenge arc and tor

Favorite season/movie: same as above

Favorite line:  “We better hurry because it’s 93 million miles away! Science joke I’ll explain on the way”

Favorite outfit: i don't knowww lol her graduation gown

OTP: mickara

Brotp: joy and mara, patricia and mara, alfie and mara, eddie and mara

Head Canon: she was only put in boarding school in secondary school because of her parents’ travelling and busy schedules due to their careers as famous sports people and previous to that she was home schooled. she has a great relationship with her parents

Unpopular opinion: she was wayyy too in jerome’s business in s2 like to get that involved in his family and almost manipulate jerome’s feelings for her in order to get poppy what she wanted was too much like he was obsessed with her and still you could tell he was on the verge of snapping. and to write that article about eddie and jerome’s relationships with their fathers based purely on what they’d told her in confidence and then publish it without their permission?? in a place eddie’s dad could literally read it whilst barely concealing their identities?? that was kinda fucked. and people say her comment about jerome’s dad in s3 was out of left field but like she was saying shit like “do you want to end up like your dad” in s2 she’s always had this sense of moral superiority about the situation and being mad was all it took for that to properly come out. like she's such an interesting character but she’s definitely among the more sheltered of the house.

A wish: I just want her to be happy, see a therapist, figure some things out.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: people who say she’d never talk to anyone from anubis again you're so wrong that’s her family!!

5 words to best describe them: -

My nickname for them: I honestly ??

[sunandmoongobrrr]

Korra and her Brutalization: A Legend of Korra Meta

In honor of International Womens’ Day, I want to talk a little bit about Legend of Korra and the treatment of Korra (and to a small extent other women) throughout the show. Content warning: there's some disturbing scenes that I show here, but if you've watched all of LoK, you should be fine.

Korra starts off confident; she is a young avatar who is eager to learn and feels suffocated from the isolation she is kept in from a very young age. But that doesn’t stop her, and like the headstrong girl she is, she moves to Republic City to make a difference and step into her role as the avatar.

Korra immediately starts to doubt herself; she becomes unsure of her abilities and frustrated with herself, and through that she learns to become emotionally vulnerable with Tenzin. To me, this was really great. It showed that you can be confident and vulnerable, and that the two aren’t necessarily independent of each other.

(I’m going to be honest, the 2nd season I didn’t really remember much of, so I’m just going to skip over that. Because what I really want to talk about is season 3.)

In season three, Korra faces the Red Lotus, an “anarchist” group that essentially wants to kill her. And they get pretty close. First, I want to talk about how Tenzin is beaten by the Red Lotus. This has been brought up in Lily Orchard’s (in?)famous LOK video, and while I disagree with her on many many topics of the show, I really think she has a point here. When Tenzin is being brutalized by the Red Lotus, the camera pans away. It is SO painful to see him like this, and the directors know it. It’s TOO painful to see it, so they don’t show you it, and the episode ends before we can see him be defeated.

Contrast that with Korra. They show you every detail of this. And I mean every detail.

It’s disgusting, and they refuse to treat her with any sort of decency or respect like they do Tenzin. It’s almost like they want us to enjoy her torturing. It’s genuinely gross.

People will often refute this by saying “LoK is just a darker show! Look at what they did to the Earth Queen!” And while yes, it is marketed towards an older audience, there’s still no point in brutalizing Korra this way. The main difference between Korra and the Earth Queen is that… well, Korra’s the protagonist. We’re supposed to be rooting for her, and while the Earth Queen being suffocated was definitely dark, it wasn’t unprecedented. The audience was never supposed to like the Earth Queen—she exploited and kidnapped her own people, so of course we wouldn’t care THAT much if she died. But we’ve been with Korra since the beginning. We’re supposed to want her to be happy, and why on earth would we want her to be tortured brutally in such a disgusting way that gives her absolutely no dignity? If we want her to succeed?

(here Zaheer uses the same technique used on the Earth Queen to suffocate here on Korra. for some reason)

In Season 4, the main focus is on Korra and her healing from the brutal things the Red Lotus did to her. She is clearly still struggling, and it could have been another great way to show how being physically strong and confident doesn’t mean you can’t be vulnerable. But they make a lot of bad choices in this season.

One of my main gripes is that in order to heal, she has to return to her abuser, Zaheer, and HE has to teach her how to feel better.

I don’t want to compare LoK to ATLA, although it’s very important to mention that a show that’s a direct sequel, uses its old characters, and banks off of references, should be able to be compared to its predecessor. But I think it’s important to compare Korra’s arc here to Zuko. This doesn’t come out of nowhere; Korra has a lot of similarities to Zuko. The chopping of her hair is a significant turning point in her arc, and there’s an episode called “Korra Alone” (which is clearly a direct callback; shown below).

The difference between Zuko and Katara is that, a. Zuko never had to accept his abuser, and b. Zuko started off as a villain.

One of Zuko’s major points is when he confronts his father—his abuser. He does not bow to him and give in, saying that maybe he had a few good points or his heart was in the right place, but he directly says that Ozai was wrong for what he did. This isn’t the case with Korra. For some reason, Korra has to learn to trust her abuser. The person who did this to her:

And she has to hear him out.

This leads me to my second point, and what’s basically the complaint I have; despite being a protagonist, the show treats Korra like a villain. It frames her torture scenes as if we’re supposed to be excited that she’s being brutalized, as if we’re supposed to think she deserves it. And it’s not even handled properly as one of the villains we know so well—Zuko, who was able to overcome his abuse and become a protagonist who we root for. Again, Zuko and Korra aren’t directly the same characters, but there are parallels between the two and the show encourages their comparison. When it comes to Korra, however, we’re supposed to believe that she deserves everything that comes to her; the brutal scenes and the lack of dignity, even if she is a protagonist.

And in the end, that’s what we’re meant to believe; that Korra deserved what happened to her. In the finale, Korra says, “I finally understand why I had to go through all that. I needed to understand what true suffering was, so I could become more compassionate to others.”

This is, to put it short, ridiculous. I hate this so much I can’t even begin to say how much I hate it. No, Korra did not have to go through the torture she went through. She did not have to go through the mercury poisoning. She did not have to go through every hardship she did. This “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is so harmful because Korra’s healing revolved around accepting her abuser and thanking him for the awful things he did to her. Korra wasn’t even that cocky by the end of the first season, so what it’s essentially indirectly teaching girls is that if you’re confident, you’ll pay. It’s disgusting.

Zuko got a banishment to the Earth Kingdom, got to have his ideas and practices challenged, but he never got physically tortured. I truly, truly believe that one of the main reasons why Korra is quite literally villainized by the show is because she was a confident, brown teenage girl. None of the male characters are treated with such disrespect and we never get told that they need to be “humbled” by abuse.

This is not completely resolved to LoK; there are some aspects in ATLA that I think could’ve been fixed had there been more women in the room. I tag her a lot (bc her metas are awesome), but I really recommend you read @araeph 's Katara: Consumed by Destiny series. I also have a meta here about how Katara is treated in ATLA, specifically in “The Fortuneteller.” (I want to emphasize that while I am anti-Kataang, I don’t believe that Katara’s treatment had to do with the ship itself or that kataang is inherently anti-Katara. It’s just a note about how her character is treated in this episode and beyond.)

I’ve heard a lot of people say that they’re ‘glad’ that LoK didn’t feature Suki or Mai or Ty Lee, because they can’t imagine how poorly they’d be represented. And honestly, I can’t blame them.

This isn’t to say that we need to stop watching LOK or even ATLA. I think the internet has this weird problem where we’ve been told that the way to get rid of problematic media is to just stop consuming anything even remotely problematic altogether. But certain aspects of media will always be relatively problematic, since as content creators we sometimes input our biases into the things we create. The solution, then, is not to banish anyone who puts any harmful stereotypes into their content from society, but to actively and healthily criticize it. Bryke are not God, but they’re also not demons put on the earth to suppress woc. They’re white guys that have implicit biases that have worked their way into the content they produce. I think the lesson learned here, is to have women, especially BIWOC, in writing rooms, to prevent atrocious acts from happening to future Korra's.

Happy International Women’s Day, y’all.

[cyndavilachase]

I’m Looking Forward Now 💖Thank you and good bye

So, it’s been a little over a week since Steven Universe Future ended… 

I’ve been hesitant to write this, honestly, but I’m tired of holding myself back from properly expressing myself in fear of appearing overly invested in the media I consume, even in private. Writing helps me organize my thoughts and feelings, and I feel like these thoughts in particular may resonate with many, so I want to share them. I want to talk about what Steven Universe has done for me personally, both as an artist, and as a person.

I’ve been around since the day the first episode of the original series aired. I actually remember when Steven Universe was just a logo on Wikipedia’s “List of Upcoming Cartoon Network Shows” list, back when I was a freshman in high school. It piqued my interest, but when commercials finally dropped for it, I thought it was going to be bad because of the way marketing handled introducing Steven as a likeable character. There was still something about it that made me want to give it a chance though, so I went online and watched the pilot before the first episode's release. I was hooked immediately. I knew I was going to love it, and I did. I fell so absolutely in love with Steven as a character, and the world that he and the gems lived in. I became obsessed. I was always so excited for new episodes to come out. Little did I know what else it would do for me as I went through my adolescence alongside it.

As the show progressed, it was evident that what I wanted out of a western animated childrens’ cartoon was finally coming into fruition: this show was becoming serialized. There was continuity, there was plot, there was character development-- it was getting deep. It was pushing the groundwork that Adventure Time laid out even further (thank you, Adventure Time).  

I will give credit where credit is due: earlier western childrens’ cartoons I grew up with like Hey Arnold, and Rugrats, among others, also touched on heavy topics, but Steven Universe was able to take similar ideas (and even more complex ones, concerning mental health and relationships) and expand on them outside of contained episodes and/or short arcs. These themes, which were a part of the show’s overarching story, spanned across its entirety. Continuity was rampant. 

What did this mean? It meant kids cartoons didn’t have to be silly and fun all the time and characters weren’t just actors playing a part in 11-minute skits. Steven and the gems would remember things that happened to them, and it affected them and how they would function and play a part in their story. This was a huge deal to me as a teenager. I always wanted the cartoons I grew up with featuring kid characters to feel more. In my own work, I often felt discouraged when combining a fun, cutesy western art style with themes as dark or layered as anime would cover. I always thought it had to be one or the other because an audience wouldn’t take a combination of the two seriously enough, based on discussions I had with classmates, friends, and online analysis I read at the time. Steven Universe proved to me otherwise. This show was opening the door for future cartoons exploring in-depth, adult concepts. I felt so seen as a kid, and was inspired to stick with what I love doing.

I was actually very worried about the show’s survival. It was in fact immensely underrated and the fandom was miniscule. Then in 2014, JailBreak dropped, and it’s popularity exploded. Part of it was because of the complex plot and the themes it was covering like I mentioned, but also because of its representation. 

I remember when fandom theorized that Garnet was a fusion due to grand, tragic reasons. Turns out, she’s simply a metaphor for a very loving w|w relationship. This was huge. I cannot stress how important it is that we continue to normalize healthy canon queer relationships in childens’ media, and Steven Universe finally was the first to do that proper. Introducing these themes offers the chance for a kid to sit there and ask themselves, “Why is this demonized by so many people?” I asked myself exactly that. Ruby and Sapphire were my cartoon LGBT rep. They were the first LGBT couple I ever ecstatically drew fanart of. I was dealing with a lot of internalized homophobia at the time, and they showed me that I was allowed to love women and feel normal about it. The process of overcoming this was a long one, but they played a part in my very first steps into becoming comfortable with my sexuality. I could go on and on about it’s representation in general-- how it breaks the mold when it comes to showcasing a diverse set of characters in design, in casting, and in breaking gender roles. It’s focus on love and empathy. Steven himself is a big boy, but he's the protagonist, and the show never once makes fun of his weight, or any other bigger characters for that matter. It wasn’t hard to see why the fandom had grown so large.

Fandom was always a joy for me. It was a hobby I picked up when I was in middle school, like many of us here did. I would always cater my experience to fun, and fun only. I only started getting more deeply involved in SU’s fandom when I had just turned into an adult. During the summer of 2016, between my first and second year of college, I drew for the show almost every day non-stop when the Summer of Steven event was going on and posted them online. This was a form of practice for me in order to become not just more comfortable with experimenting with my art, but also to meet new artists, make new friends, and learn to interact with strangers without fear. I dealt with a ton of anxiety when I was in high school. When I was a senior applying to art school for animation, I decided I was going to overcome that anxiety. I made plans to take baby steps to improve myself over the course of my 4 years of college. Joining the fandom, while unforeseen, was definitely a part of that process. I started feeling more confident in sharing my ideas, even if they were fan-made. I fell in love with storyboarding after that summer, when I took my first storyboarding class, and genuinely felt like I was actually getting somewhere with all of this. I remember finally coming to a point in my classes where I could pitch and not feel hopelessly insecure about it. I was opening up more to my friends and peers. 

But this process, unfortunately, came to a screeching halt. 

My life completely, utterly crumbled under me in the Fall of 2017 due to a series of blows in my personal life that happened in the span of just a couple weeks. My mental health and sense of identity were completely destroyed. All of that confidence I had worked for-- completely ruined. I was alone. I nearly died. My stay at college was extended to 4 and half years, instead of the 4 I had intended. I lost my love for animation-- making it, and watching it. I could no longer watch Steven Universe with the same love I had for it beforehand. It’s a terrible thing, trying to give your attention to something you don’t love anymore, and wanting so desperately to love again. I dropped so many things I loved in my life, including the fandom.

Healing was a long and complicated road. I continued to watch the show all the way up until Change Your Mind aired in the beginning of 2019, and while I still felt empty, that was definitely a turning point for me with it’s encapsulation of self-love. I was hoping James Baxter would get to work on Steven Universe since he guest-animated on Adventure Time, and it was incredible seeing that wish actually come true. The movie came out and while I enjoyed it and thought highly of it, I was still having issues letting myself genuinely love things again, old and new. It was especially difficult because cartoons were my solace as a kid, when things got rough at home. I remember feeling sad because the show ended, and not getting the chance to love it again like I used to while it was still going.

By the time Steven Universe Future was announced, I was finally coming around. I was genuinely starting to feel excitement for art and animation again. I wasn’t expecting there to be a whole new epilogue series, but happily ever after, there we were! Prickly Pear aired, and the implications it left in terms of where the story was going did it. I was finally ready to let myself take the dive back into fandom in January of this year. My art blew up, something I wasn’t expecting considering my 2-year hiatus. Following this, I was invited into a discord server containing some of the biggest writers, artists, editors, and analysts in the fandom. I had no idea there were so many talented people in the fandom, some already with degrees, some getting their degrees-- creating stuff for it on the side just for fun. The amount of passion and productivity level here is insane, and so is the amount of discussion that has come out of it.

I didn’t realize it at first, but it was actually helping me gain back the courage to share ideas. I lost my confidence in pitching while I was taking the time to heal, and graduating meant there would no longer be a classroom setting I could practice in. This group helped immensely. 

I have made so many friends through this wonderful series, and I have so many fond memories talking to like-minded creatives, getting feedback and a myriad of sources for inspiration, as well as all of the memes and jokes and weekly theorizations that came about as we all waited on the edges of our seats for episodes to air. I needed this so badly, I needed to get back in touch with my roots, when I would go absolutely hog-wild over a cartoon I loved with people who loved it as much I did. Future has been a blessing for me in this way. I graduated feeling like I was back at square-one, but now I feel like I’m on my way again.

It’s 2020 and while I’m doing great right now, I am honestly still recovering from the total exhaustion that followed after graduating a few months ago, and finally leaving the campus where my life fell apart behind. Needless to say, watching Future was like looking into a mirror. Watching one of my favorite characters of all time-- one that grew up with me-- go through so many of the same things I went through not too long ago was absolutely insane to watch unfold. It’s such an important thing too, to show a character go through the process of breaking down over trauma and all the nasty things that come with it, and to have them go on the road to healing. Steven got that therapy. He wasn’t blamed. The gems were called out. The finale was everything I could have ever hoped for. The catharsis I experienced watching it was out of this world.

As I continue my own healing journey, I will always look up to the storyboard artists, revisionists, and designers that I have been following over these past 7 years, as well as the new ones introduced in Future. It's been such a joy watching these artists release their promo art for episodes, talk about their experiences working on the show, and post the work they've done for it alongside episodes airing.

Thank you Rebecca Sugar, the Crewniverse, and the fans, for making this such a truly wonderful and unique experience. Thank you for reminding me that I am, and always will be, an artist, a cartoonist, and a fan. Thank you, my followers, for the overwhelmingly positive response to my artwork. I have had so much fun interacting and discussing the show with you all again over these past few months. Steven Universe and it’s fandom will always have a special place in my heart, and it will always be a classic that I will return to for comfort and inspiration for decades to come. I am sad that the cartoon renaissance is over, but so many doors have been opened thanks to this show. I am so, so excited to see what this show will inspire in the future, and I hope one day I get the opportunity to be a part of that. 

Goodbye Steven, thank you for everything. I wish you healing, and I wish Rebecca and the team a well-deserved rest. ♥️

-Cynthia D.

[deans-haunted-baby]

Okay I see there are those who are confused as to why most of us are pissed about 15x19 I will gladly explain in depth:

Let’s start off with our boys Adam Milligan & Michael. These characters have not been seen for 10 fucking years. During that time there were Adam stans like myself campaigning like mad to have him and the infamous archangel return for some much needed closure. We had to content ourselves with headcanons, fanfictions and metas based on what we briefly knew of Adam and Michael as people while they unfairly sat in Hell. You might have seen the “Adam’s Still in Hell” memes that circulated. WE WAITED OVER A DECADE FOR THIS. And finally SPN answers our prayers and returns these boys back into the story for the final season. None of us anticipated what their arc and dynamic would look like. Before we could only imagine who these two characters were/are after having been trapped in a cage so long; what their personalities would be like and if they’d be antagonistic to TFW. 15x08 was a surprise because not only were Adam and Michael likable right out of the gate but the writing for them and their dynamic was damn near flawless! And Jake fucking stole the show he killed it as these two. It’s a crime they were not featured in more episodes because the chemistry between these characters is amazing and they’re played by the same dude.

We were given so much background into both Adam and Michael’s psyches in just a short period of time. Their motivations, interests and how they viewed those that wronged them (like the Winchesters); how Hell affected/changed them both and how they viewed their families. We got to see them banter, cooperate with one another and most importantly their different personalities. With Jake Abel appearing in only a handful of SPN episodes, he still fleshed out Michael and Adam beautifully; giving them layers and complexities that most side-characters (who’ve appeared more times than they have) didn’t. The way Jake played Adam’s anger and resentment towards his brothers was brilliant because it’s more under the surface compared to his angsty teenage self in 5x18. He’d become somewhat restrained, laid-back, gentler and wiser which works because Adam displays traits similar to Sam and Dean. He’s kinder and has a sense of humor but none of that distracts from rational thought as he’s quick to analyze and dissect situations. Man, he would’ve made a great hunter/Men of Letters recruit. We know right off the bat Adam’s pissed at his brothers for abandoning him in a thousand-year-prison-sentence and didn’t lift a finger BUT that ironically doesn’t compromise his willingness to help them unlike his past self in 5x18. Jake gets the point across with this character without saying much and that’s what made him so compelling to watch in this episode.

Now Michael was even more of a mystery onion since he wasn’t onscreen as much as Adam had been in past episodes so Jake got to really build on top of this character. Going from the uptight, cold-blooded merciless celestial warrior/dutiful son of God we saw in 5x22 to someone whom despite his arrogance and regal princely demeanor was very human, intelligent, fair, mindful and compassionate. He trusted Adam and respected his opinions even if he didn’t agree 100%. Whereas most angels take over the vessel completely from their original occupant; Michael chooses to share his vessel with Adam as a mutual agreement which says a lot about who he is. He’s fascinated with humanity and wanted to explore it instead of returning to his throne in the clouds. We know that Michael was created specifically to be Humanity’s protector and guardian of Heaven and Earth so these quirks he’d demonstrated in 15x08 aren’t too far off. He holds a lot of pain inside from his abandonment issues with his father whom he loves to a fault and grief over the death of his brothers. On the surface there’s very much an abused child syndrome thing going on with him though he masks it with a domineering presence. And above all this we saw that he was capable of forgiveness. Whether or not Michael always had these traits inside to begin with, its very evident that his friendship with Adam influenced the person he became post-Hell. And that was someone who, like Castiel, chose to rebel for the sake of free will by aligning himself with the Winchesters after witnessing the evil his father had committed. He actually cared about saving the world. This is what we call character development.

What does 15x19 do? It shits all over that. We don’t get to see Adam and Michael’s dynamic at all; and this was perhaps one of (if not the first) most healthy portrayal of a relationship between an angel and its original vessel occupant in the history of Supernatural. Adam is just killed off-screen Thanos style without so much as one last word and Michael barely reacts like he gives a crap. It was just established to us in 15x08 that he’d developed an emotional bond with Adam through years of inhabiting the same body. He protected Adam while they were trapped together in Hell. They were each other’s only friend and source of comfort. They’d developed a certain co-dependency on each other while respecting one another’s space. They’d both made peace with their joint situation. All they had was each other and the writing in 15x19 basically tells us their relationship meant absolutely NOTHING to Michael based on his OOC actions in this episode. He shows up much darker and shadier now that Adam is gone and its like all those years of friendship, things like that independence, newfound strength and humility he’d gained from living with a human for so long are erased. Michael just reverts back to Chuck’s 5x22 bitchboy persona in the most ridiculous 180 shift I’ve ever seen in my whole damn life. And all because his little brother called him mean names. Pitiful. Just when he lectures Lucifer about standing up for what’s right; he betrays his own words, his allies and the rest of humanity in T-minus 2 minutes. That is total character assassination. Nothing about this motivation makes any sense.

There’s no build up to it, no foreshadowing in 15x08 or throughout 15x19 until they get to the lake. He’s completely deconstructed as a character in this episode and rendered weak. It’s like 15x08 never happened. Stripped of all his development for lousy shock value. Instead utilizing all of what he’d learned through Adam and sticking it to Lucifer by proving he could be more than what Chuck tried to mold him into; Michael becomes just another NPC in the story forfeiting the hero he was. And his reasons for siding with Chuck are never specified. Was it about about saving Adam? Was it about proving something to Lucifer (whom he’d already killed in anti-climatic fashion)? Was it all an act that he was in on with the Winchesters; cause there’s absolutely NO FUCKING WAY they could’ve predicted he’d flip on them like that for their magical plan to work. Not after everything Chuck’s done, killing Adam and Jack and leaving Michael to rot in Hell for eternity. And why would he suddenly go along with destroying the Earth when defeating Chuck would probably get Adam back (if that was his goal) which IT DID not to mention its his sworn duty to freaking protect humanity, hello? So his betrayal meant jack shit in the end as it got him killed by his fucking dad!! He’s brought back into the show only to be ruined forever and killed off in the stupidest fashion.

Moving on.

Jack Kline & Castiel. This iron-clad relationship has been in development for 4 in 1/2 years since before Jack was even born. And next to Adam & Michael its the other most healthy relationship on the show. Castiel, a million year old celestial being, spent the first 9 years of his arc on Supernatural following around the Winchesters, being torn between his loyalty to them and to Heaven. He rebelled when he was supposed to be a straight-by-the-book warrior of God. And he defied every rule in the process even when the odds were stacked against him. There was an endless rinse and repeat cycle of love, loss, betrayal and redemption when it came to his relationship with Sam and Dean. It made his character complex, interesting and layered but it still didn’t give him an arc that was his own. Castiel started out moreso being written as just the Winchester’s angel BFF/side-kick. Until Lucifer got Kelly Kline pregnant in 12x08 then things really took off. Before this, Castiel was a lost soul. His faith was broken, he was depressed, lonely, battered and rundown from years of being conflicted over the other angels and Sam & Dean. He felt he’d lost a sense of self and meaning in his life. And didn’t have a mission. Once he turned on Heaven’s orders, Castiel was a rebel angel without a cause so to speak. But like I said this changes the moment he meets Kelly.

Originally Castiel was suppose to kill Kelly in 12x19 because she was carrying the child of the devil and Nephilim are considered forbidden abominations. Told that if Lucifer’s kid was born he could unleash even more evil into the world. But instead of doing what he thought he should, Castiel decides to runaway with her. Choosing to protect her from all threats (Lucifer, demons, other angels, princes of Hell); this especially included the Winchesters. During this short time-frame the angel develops a strong, emotional bond with Kelly and her unborn son that stretches all the way to the S12 finale; to the point where it actually gave him a power-boost. From the womb, Jack appoints Castiel to be his father and protector and he’s given a glimpse into the child’s destiny that he’ll bring paradise to the world. A prophecy that the writers establish head on. This is an unusual circumstance because right here is where Castiel’s solo arc apart from the Sam & Dean takes shape. The journey of becoming a first time parent and guardian. Its a new kind of independence that for the first time has nothing to do with his friends or his family members/colleagues in the sky. Its his own personal mission that he willingly accepts, the second he connects with Jack from inside Kelly. Castiel immediately falls in love with him, before they even see each other; and adopts the boy devoting himself to keeping him safe. Making a promise to Kelly that would later become a vital plot-point in the seasons to come.  

Castiel literally risks everything (Heaven and Earth) to ensure Jack’s birth and ends up dead by 12x23′s startling conclusion. Leaving the newborn infant Nephilim alone in the care of the Winchesters going into season 13; scared, confused and aged into a seemingly 18 year old boy for his own protection. And Alexander Calvert who is a fantastic addition to the cast really brings something wonderful to this role; he’s like a breath of fresh air and a bright light in the middle of a dark room. Jack’s naïve, innocent and curious about his surroundings but also as Castiel once put it “remarkably intuitive”. Right when he’s introduced his arc is intentionally paralleled with Castiel’s. Their alien-fish-out-of-water beginning is practically identical as is their adorable stoic facial expressions. Like father like son. And this helps because while the angel is currently dead in the beginning of season 13, there’s an empty void he’s left behind. So Jack is kind of his temporary stand-in. Odd enough this type of switcharoo would’ve been considered very controversial but it’s handled quite well. Alex is so likable and charming I almost wish Supernatural had introduced him sooner. I mean I really thought I was looking at Castiel’s actual mini-me and not the son of Satan. But I digress Jack’s story in the first half of this season is pretty much about discovery and reuniting with Castiel. He’s a baby so everything is new to him but he’s also one of the most powerful beings in the universe destined for greatness which makes the Winchesters very nervous.

Jack remembers choosing Castiel as his dad which is why he already feels strongly connected to him. Its a bond so powerful that it actually resurrects Castiel out of the Empty the first time. Something Chuck himself was unable to do (that was until the mess that is 15x19). When they’re finally reunited the payoff comes so naturally. Misha and Alex have such a phenomenal onscreen chemistry starting with that first hug; they really play off one another so well that it doesn’t feel like two angels interacting but a genuine father and son duo. So much of what makes Jack and Castiel’s relationship so relatable, deep and endearing is because of what the actors bring to it. But they’re not just a fascinating relationship, they’re compelling on their own too. Both trying to find their way in the world and within the Winchesters’ lives. Death is no stranger to either of them (tragic being that Jack is only a toddler). They’ve each experienced their own personal pain, traumas, life lessons, mistakes and decisions. The biggest for Castiel would be his deal with the Empty to save Jack in 14x08. While for Jack it was the consequences of said deal that would lose his soul causing him to accidently kill Sam and Dean’s mom in 14x18 as a result (something that Jack struggles with immensely to the brink of depression from so much guilt and regret that he’d rather die). Repercussions that would follow into the shows final season. What’s interesting about this deal though is that Castiel made it on parental instinct alone not as a promise to Kelly. He chose to sacrifice himself for the sake of his son as a selfless act of love and kept it a secret from Sam & Dean until his death in 15x18. That’s the extent how much this child meant to him. The other great thing about their family dynamic is that it parallels nicely with the Winchesters. Castiel and Jack share this unconditional love that can never be broken. its even greater than their ties to the Winchesters themselves just as Sam & Dean’s love for each other is greater than any of their other relationships. They would do anything for each other. Castiel would go to the ends of the earth for the little nougat baby because that’s his son.  

Each time these characters were faced with danger or died, Castiel and Jack were overcome with extreme devastation and distress. That said its not just pain that binds these two its happiness. Jack is the best thing that ever happened to Castiel. Literally becoming a father to that child saved him. It brought him back to life, restored his faith and gave him a sense of self-worth and hope he’d long since abandoned. And for Jack, Castiel is the best dad he’ll ever have! He gave this baby comfort, wisdom, nurturing, strength. Was always there when he needed him whether it was to talk or to have his back. No other person in Jack’s life has ever made such an important impact nor made him feel more safe and loved than Castiel. Even when Jack had done such a horrible thing to Mary alienating himself from his family; it was Castiel’s unyielding devotion to Jack that ended up being his salvation. This was huge because once again he’d chosen over the Winchesters proving that no matter what (whether it be the world ending) his son comes first. So when Castiel’s pact with the Empty finally comes due in 15x18 you’d think it’d have an earth-shattering affect on Jack in 15x19. I mean for the first bit it does...until he becomes God. Then its like to hell with that relationship. Castiel is a complete afterthought to Jack and the rest of TFW in this episode. JACK DOESN’T EVEN GET TO GRIEVE HIM PROPERLY. And he just lost his dad because of a deal he’d made a year ago for him. A DEAL JACK HAS BEEN FUCKING DREADING WHILE HE WAS SOULLESS MIND YOU. And when he finally has the power to bring him back, he doesn’t? Jack just walks around with a conceited smirk on his face, bids Sam and Dean adieu and fucks off. I mean who gives a shit right, its only your dad that you love more than anything. This was extremely OOC given that time in 14x14 Jack nearly lost his shit when Castiel got infected with gorgon poison; the anti-venom wasn’t working so Jack resorts to using his powers putting his soul at risk.

I mean if he was so limited to helping Castiel in the Empty AT LEAST FREAKING CLARIFIY THIS TO THE AUDIENCE. This is not about shipping a certain pairing btw. Jack becoming God is not the issue its his characterization after the fact. His first instinct would’ve been to save his dad above getting in touch with the Earth. Yes we knew this transformation was coming it was foreshowed way back in Season 12. Does that justify bad writing or character assassination?? HELL NO.

This is what I’m talking about, episode 15x19 deliberately butchers these characters and their relationships. It shat all over them. No one is behaving like themselves. The pacing is wonky and inconstant. The script feels like it underwent several rewrites and I swear there were scenes cut out. The acting is off too and maybe the pandemic could be blamed for these things but it ultimately falls on the writer. Buckleming screwed up by showing us they don’t know who the hell these characters are, their motivations nor do they give a rat’s ass. And its noticeable on screen. I’ve known better fanfiction writers for SPN than these guys. It’s like they all came back to work but just didn’t care to put the effort into it. That’s why people like me are upset and we have every freaking right to be. Some of us have been with this series for the entire 15 year run. I at least expect these characters to be handled better and for things to make sense. 15x19 doesn’t and its not satisfying its just a cruel joke. The writers and Dabb should be embarrassed to have put this out there thinking we’d just swallow it and shut up. But far as I’m concerned the only thing this episode serves is to disrespect and ruin everybody while angering long-time fans.

MICHAEL. ADAM MILLIGAN. JACK KLINE AND CASTIEL DESERVED BETTER. And that’s the tea.

[firelxdykatara]

Katara x Aang :3c

are you trying to get me in trouble

-cough-

no but in all honesty, my genuine feelings about kataang boil down to three major points: 1. it's boring, and does not jive thematically with either of their character arcs, to the point of, 2. actively hampering character development on both sides, and 3. katara deserved better.

points expanded under the cut. (please, if you're a kataang shipper and you see this, just keep scrolling. i've tagged it appropriately and put the bulk under a cut and at this point that's literally all i can do lmfao.)

send me a ship and get my (brutally) honest opinion!

1. It's Boring: This is the most subjective point on the list (I mean, in fairness, it's all subjective, but I have evidence from the show and post-canonical materials to support my other points; this one is just preference), but there's just... nothing to kataang. It's cute (when it's not actively aggravating), and... that's about it. It's not even that I dislike friends-to-lovers as a shipping trope (though it's not my overall preference), because there are a lot of friends-to-lovers couples that I do ship (kanej comes to mind, also will/elizabeth from potc, karolsen from supergirl, romione and hinny from hp, among others), but one thing that I think all of those couples have that kataang doesn't is that both sides of the pairing are teens or adults when they get together, with teen/adult dynamics and issues and stories to deal with, rather than one half being a teenager and the other being literally prepubescent.

And don't get me wrong, I have no problem with age gap ships in general. And as far as atla goes, Katara, at 14, has the same age difference from Zuko (16) as Aang has from her, and it's never stopped me--because both Katara and Zuko are well into puberty when they meet and I have no problem picturing them being into one another and growing together as they enter adulthood. Aang, on the other hand, is a child. And he acts like it. Which wouldn't be a problem, if the show weren't expecting me to believe he is a) ready for a romantic relationship, and b) ready for one specifically with Katara, who is not only older and far more mature but is specifically cast as his caretaker in a very maternal role for the entire show's run.

This show asks me to believe that a teenage girl well into adolescence is going to be attracted to and develop romantic feelings for a pre-adolescent child--and it asks me to believe this while showing us otherwise that Katara's type is actually older boys with fabulous hair and angsty pasts in all of her other potential romantic dalliances--and then enter into a relationship with him, all while ignoring the elephant in the room that is the fact that she was basically acting like his mother for the entire series to that point. (Something that is heavily lampshaded earlier in the very same season.) That just stretches the bounds of credulity way too far for me, especially when there's no evidence that Katara herself would get anything out of their romantic relationship.

There's nothing there for me to sink my teeth into. No delicious development, no parallels where they help each other grow, no internal conflicts that they have to work through together, nothing. Certainly no reason for me to actually believe Katara feels (or would grow to feel) anything for him other than the platonic affection of a caretaker. I can easily believe she loves him dearly, as a friend and quasi-little-brother, but I just can't see that developing naturally into romantic love--not the way it's presented in the show.

And even if they did manage to at least make the development of Katara's feelings believable, unless they changed something fundamental about the nature of their relationship, it'd still be boring, so.

2. It Actively Hampers Their Character Development--On Both Sides: I've written before (extensively lol im so sorry) about how kataang is actively detrimental to Katara and to Aang. In short (because ye gods this post is already getting long enough), Katara is narratively harmed by being shoved into a relationship that completely ignores her stated feelings--a relationship that had been presented as a one-sided puppylove crush for the vast majority of the series--and it inhibits her growth as a character in ways that become far more obvious in the comics and lok, where the very same creative forces that lead to her beginning a relationship with Aang in the first place reduce her to 'the Avatar's girl' and very little else, all the way through to the end of LoK (where she is a Healer and the Avatar's wife and, again, very little else).

As for Aang:

As to how this relationship is detrimental to Aang (other than the comics and LoK nonsense)? Just take a look at book 2, when he’s trying to learn Earthbending from Toph. Katara constantly coddles him. Much of the time, she’s afraid to be anything other than gentle and understanding with Aang--partly because of her fear that if she pushes him too far, he’ll run away. (Which he does, several times.) But sometimes, what Aang needs to grow is a sharp kick in the slats, which Toph was more than willing to provide--and which worked. Katara was great for teaching Aang to waterbend, but he needed more than that to grow as a person. And he can’t get that while he’s in a relationship with someone who will apologize for getting upset when he was very explicitly neglecting her.

In addition, it is pointed out by Guru Pathik at the end of Book 2 that one of Aang's chakras is blocked by his attachment to Katara. Aang takes this to mean (incorrectly) that he has to stop loving her in order to become fully realized as an Avatar, but this is actually part of the problem--because the issue isn't that he is in love with Katara, it's that he's possessively attached to her. He believes himself entitled to her love in return, rather than selflessly loving someone regardless of whether or not they return that affection. (This is obvious come the EIP episode, where Aang demands to know why he and Katara aren't in a relationship already--because he kissed her without asking [or even checking to see if she'd be ok with kissing him], which he phrases as mutual even though it very much was not, and he gets angry and violates her boundaries when she says that she is confused and doesn't want to think about it right then.)

It is his attachment to Katara--the need for her to return his love, the belief that she will and it is only a matter of time before he gets what he wants--that he was supposed to let go of, not his feelings for her in general. Unfortunately, while he pays lipservice to doing this (far too late for it to be useful--if he'd stayed with the Guru for five more minutes and unlocked his chakra there, that battle would've gone very differently), he almost immediately backtracks on that development come book 3, and there isn't another single whisper of Aang maybe growing up and moving past his one-sided and possessive crush and realizing that even if Katara doesn't feel the same way, it doesn't mean she loves him less or that their friendship is less important.

What really needed to happen, for Aang to grow as a person and become fully realized as an Avatar, was for him to grow up. To realize that his feelings were not of paramount importance, and that even if he was in love with Katara, he was not entitled to her love in return. He should have been able to move past his need for her to love him back, in order to get past that stumbling block, unlock his chakras, and regain the Avatar State in time to face the Firelord. But he didn't. As a result, they had to find some other way to just give him the Avatar State (a well-placed rock) and the means to defeat Ozai without killing him (the deus ex lionturtle) and his entire character arc just fell apart in the third act rather than reaching a satisfying conclusion.

3. Katara Deserved Better: This really ties into how her romantic relationship with Aang hampered her own development, but I'm still bitter enough about it that it gets its own bullet-point. And the biggest single reason I could never ship kataang--the thing that would've turned me off even if there were substance and a halfway decent storyline for them--is the fact that Aang kisses her without her consent (for the second time) in Ember Island Players, Katara gets angry at him and storms off, and then..... she walks out onto the balcony to make out with him.

With nothing to bridge that gap.

It's bad enough that a show aimed at children had a scene where the child protagonist kissed the object of his affections without her consent when she didn't want him to (made explicit by her angry reaction)--and this is absolutely an issue when the show is aimed at children and it may well be the first experience they've had with consent issues portrayed in media--but this moment is never addressed again. Katara just decides--completely off-screen--that she does love him Really and walks out to make out with him in the epilogue. There's no conversation, no apology for violating her boundaries, no discussion of why that was wrong or any indication that Aang understands what he did and why it upset her. They don't have a single one-on-one interaction between that kiss and the epilogue, and the only other time they are on screen together, Aang yells at her and storms off.

So, even leaving the comics and lok aside, Katara deserved much better from her own romantic plotline. In fact, she deserved to have one, rather than simply being the oblivious object of Aang's affections, given a couple moments where she blushes but otherwise remains completely ignorant of his feelings (she looks shocked and upset when he kisses her prior to the invasion, and then she completely forgets that even happened because she's confused as to what Aang is even talking about during EIP until he brings it up; that's not the behavior of a fourteen-year-old girl who was kissed by someone she was developing romantic feelings for), before the epilogue where it becomes clear that she figured all of that out off-screen and had feelings for him after all.

She's a main character, not a side-character written in solely to give one of the mains a love interest. She deserved a romantic plotline of her own. (She could have had one with someone else, with very few changes made to what was actually on-screen prior to the epilogue, but that's another conversation entirely.) She deserved to have her feelings considered at all important by the person she was going to be paired with in the end, rather than having him just assume she felt the same way and then get mad at her for never giving any indication of it when he'd never asked about her feelings to begin with. She deseserved agency in her own romantic narrative, and she just didn't get that with Aang.

So yeah, at the end of the day, my biggest issue with kataang is that it involved doing Katara dirty, and she's my favorite character and she deserved so much better damnit.

[curlsofsagesmoke]

TMNT (2012) DID DONNIE DIRTY WITH THE HALF-ASSED LEADERSHIP PLOTLINE AND HERE’S WHY

not to turn into a tmnt blog or anything but I've been watching the 2012 version and I have some Thoughts about the weird leadership conflict subplot between Leo and donnie that the writers started going for and then abandoned. admittedly I've only seen up until a few episodes of season 3 so I don’t know if they ever do go back to this, but from what I've seen this plot had amazing potential but it was handled in a truly awful way!

keep in mind also that I really love this show. I watched it as a kid, I think it holds up pretty well even now. it does have its flaws (many, many flaws) and the worst flaw is the writing imo, which can be lazy, ignorant, or just straight up bad at times. 

with that out of the way, buckle up and hold on to your butts cuz here the heck we go!

you cannot talk about leadership in tmnt without starting with the leader, Leo. the writers gave him a really interesting arc at the beginning of season one where he was really eager to become leader (splinter gave him the job because he asked for it, after all) but then he started to realize the burden that came with the title and started to crack a bit under the pressure. the most well-known character conflict in the entire tmnt multiverse is the tension between Raph and Leo, and this iteration of the show is no different. Raph is very obviously upset about Leo becoming leader and he (and donnie, but we’ll get to him in a bit) tries to argue that he should be leader instead. ultimately he fails and this does create tension throughout the rest of seasons one and two.

this tension comes to a head during an episode where Leo, tired of Raph always questioning his decisions and needling him, decides to fuck off for a little bit, leaving Raph in charge (”New Girl In Town”). from a writing standpoint, this episode is important for many reasons, but in terms of this subplot it is a moment of crisis for Leo which he inevitably overcomes by accepting the burden and responsibility of leadership; and for Raph it is a moment of realization where he finally accepts that he wouldn’t be a very good leader and he doesn’t want the burden that Leo carries all the time. after this episode, Raph and Leo do have their arguments, but overall Raph is much more accepting of Leo’s position as leader and only calls him out when Leo starts to go on little power trips.

which brings us to donnie. donnie also argued that he should be leader in the first episode, but it wasn’t treated as seriously as Raph’s argument, and after that there wasn’t much conflict between Leo and donnie (except for the technology vs. tradition thing surrounding metalhead, but I’ll get to that later). donnie and Mikey are presented as generally pretty laid back. when Raph becomes leader in “New Girl In Town”, they exchange a lot of “yikes” looks in the background but are willing to follow his lead and give him the opportunity to actually be leader. of course, this comes to a head when they confront the villain of the episode, snakeweed, in the sewers. they’re getting their asses kicked, Mikey is knocked out, Raph is having a panic attack, and donnie is left to fend for himself against snakeweed.

instead of having that little “I must meet this challenge and overcome it” moment that you’d expect, Raph gives in to the panic and it’s donnie who not only incapacitates snakeweed to give them time to escape, but also snaps Raph out of his panic attack and tells him what to do (namely, get Mikey out of there and retreat to safety). it’s not given any more attention after this so it’s kind of blink-and-you-miss-it, but this is the first instance we see donnie reveal a bit of his potential as leader.

this is in direct contrast to “Mousers Attack!” which came a few episodes before New Girl In Town. that was the episode that introduced the a-team/b-team dynamic, and in that episode we saw that donnie, while attempting to lead him and Mikey, was able to come up with a bunch of plans to infiltrate dogpound’s operations but wasn’t decisive enough to actually commit to anything. thus in New Girl In Town, we’ve already seen very obvious growth in donnie and the way he approaches leadership, but it’s very much pushed to the background, and for good reason. this is simply laying the foundation for the big showdown between Leo and donnie.

the next significant moment of leadership potential we see from donnie comes in the episode the Pulverizer. donnie gets stuck with Timothy in the lair but soon  becomes willing and even eager to teach him the basics of self defense, because, as he tells splinter, he knows Timothy is going to keep putting himself in dangerous situations and he’d rather Timothy be able to protect himself. splinter tells him that anything that happens to Timothy will be donnie’s responsibility, and donnie accepts this and begins training him. at the end of the episode they all make it out okay, Timothy goes on his way, and donnie seems to have become just a bit fond of him.

significantly, this is the first time donnie is given full responsibility over the fate of another person, and we see that even though he doesn’t really like Timothy, he takes this responsibility seriously. here he shows great leadership potential, as well, though again, it’s not really commented on narratively.

the next significant moment is, as you might’ve guessed, The Pulverizer Returns. in this episode we find out Timothy has joined the foot and is willing to pass information on to the turtles. Leo and Raph jump at the opportunity, Mikey is ambivalent as usual, and donnie is the only one who shows any concern. this is most likely because the last time he saw Timothy, splinter told him Timothy was his responsibility completely, and he obviously takes that seriously still. the entire episode, he tries to get Timothy to leave the foot and his brothers to take this seriously, but his worries are brushed off until they find out the shredder is about to mutate Timothy as an experiment.

so they race off to save him, and donnie ends up in a warehouse without his brothers to help, weaponless (because of some bullshit lesson splinter is trying to teach them, and as a side note, this was the first episode where I started to seriously dislike splinter as a character, because the way he was written here is just awful). the villains of this episode are dogpound and fishface. if you’ll remember, these are two serious villains, and up until this point they’d only ever been subdued, never defeated, and even then the turtles had to double team them in order to win. so it was of course surprising and incredible to see that donnie, armed with literally just a broom, was able to hold off a squad of foot ninjas, dogpound, AND fishface by himself for a good while, all while keeping Timothy away from the mutagen.

then Timothy IS mutated and a bomb is activated, and in just two minutes donnie comes up with a plan and executes it, getting them all out safely. when he starts barking orders at his brothers, they don’t even stop to question him. they listen immediately and that’s part of the reason why the plan succeeds. so what does this tell us? it tells us that donnie has a very strong sense of responsibility, protectiveness, and determination; that he is extremely capable when he’s focused and is good at thinking under pressure; and that his brothers trust him enough to follow his orders when he does give them. these are all incredible qualities for a leader to have!

notably the episode after this is Operation Break Out, where donnie goes off on his own to rescue April’s dad from The Kraang and they only make it out because his brothers followed him and intervened. clearly, then, donnie’s not really ready to be a leader and still lets his emotions cloud his judgement, which is a narratively sound writing decision. the big donnie-as-leader showdown doesn’t come until the end of season two, anyway.

and then season two. the tensions between Leo and donnie aren’t as obvious as the tensions between Leo and Raph, but they’re there, even if no one explicitly challenges Leo’s position as leader any more. here’s a quick rundown of the two significant episodes:

“Follow the Leader”--> Leo wants to stick to the old, traditional ways, but his brothers insist on unorthodox methods of fighting. Leo eventually comes to accept this to a certain degree when he admits it’s a good strategy to use against the footbots.

“Metalhead Rewired”--> donnie upgrades metalhead’s AI and Leo is suspicious of it. on the trail of The Kraang, Leo blames donnie for a few of metalhead’s mishaps, but apologizes when they realize that metalhead was leading them to a Kraang mutant prison. metalhead sacrifices itself to save them. Leo is sympathetic here because donnie is really upset, but it’s clear that these two are still fighting over the tech vs. tradition thing

and then we get to The Invasion, the season two finale. the synopsis makes it clear that this is where all of these moments that I've been discussing come to a head: “Leo and Donnie disagree about their plan to stop The Kraang invasion. When Leo makes a critical mistake, he is separated from the team and Donnie must step up as leader.” So we’re off to a good start as far as concluding this character arc goes. I was excited to finally see donnie live up to his leadership potential (and I thought this could be a good way to give Leo some closure regarding his issues with holding the world on his shoulders/blaming himself for every mistake/basing his self worth on his position as leader).

but I was sorely disappointed! in the episodes, donnie’s and Leo’s tech vs. tradition conflict comes to a head when Leo wants to flee the city (this seems very out of character for him) but donnie wants to stay and fight in his new combat robot, the turtle mech. this disagreement lasts until they are attacked in the tunnels and donnie is injured; Leo draws the Kraang robots away (I assumed this was his critical mistake: separating himself) to give the others time to escape. they go to April’s apartment to hide and regroup while Leo is hunted down and almost killed by the shredder. Raph and Casey rejoin the others, then shredder throws Leo through the window of the apartment, and they escape but barely. donnie then makes the decision to fight Kraang prime in the turtle mech (which is, I assume, his big leader moment, though of course it doesn’t even happen on screen). they fight Kraang prime and almost die, but Casey arrives in the van, saves them, and drives them out of the city. donnie apologizes to Leo’s unconscious body and says that Leo was right, and then the episode ends.

so. let me first say that this was quite possibly the worst way to end this really interesting and nuanced character arc that the writers had set donnie and Leo on. first of all, we barely got to see donnie act in any kind of leadership role. in Leo’s absence, they made most of their decisions as a team, where I had expected at least some sort of “I need to overcome my fears and anxieties and lead my family to safety” moment from donnie. secondly, Leo wasn’t entirely correct. yes, they ended up evacuating the city anyway like Leo wanted, but he was wrong about the turtle mech; it ended up destroying Kraang prime’s robot body thing. and donnie wasn’t entirely correct, either: the turtle mech was a great weapon that did some significant damage, but it wasn’t enough to stop the invasion. so we have these two characters who were both wrong in their own ways, both face the consequences, but no one ever discusses it.

so not only did we not see any significant character development from Leo; and not only did donnie not really get to act in any significant leadership role; but also worst of all, these two characters never got any closure! I'm a good handful of episodes into season three, and not one single character has even mentioned the tension between Leo and donnie during the invasion. everyone acts as if it never happened, so now as a viewer I'm stuck here waiting for the other shoe to drop or for one of these characters to finally snap, but I don’t think it’s going to happen, which sucks. in other iterations of tmnt (like the 2007 movie or the show from 2003) we get to see Donatello act almost like Leo’s second in command. I think that’s a really, really interesting direction the writers of the 2012 show could’ve gone in and I think it’s a waste of this subplot’s potential to just abandon it the way they did. I'm not sure what’s going to happen in season three, but I think a good conclusion of this arc would’ve been donnie and Leo confronting the argument they had, doing a little more maturing, and eventually donnie becomes Leo’s second in command. instead I'm really worried about how the writing of this show is going to devolve as I get further into the later seasons.

(as a side note: I'm currently working on a series of tmnt fics that addresses this issue, as well as the sometimes shitty ways the brothers treat each other and the stupid-as-fuck donnie/april/casey love triangle. so if that floats your boat, keep an eye out! I'll be reposting this with the link attached once I upload the first fic, so give my blog a follow or keep an eye on my ao3 account, heyassbuttimbatman)