#i’m very partial to their bonus eps though

[foundationsofdecay]

The tentacled moon in the album art for TMBTE and the tentacled extra-dimensional tesseract in the album art of Errai should be lovers

[sir-bertrandbell]

I’m rewatching the first ep of Campaign 3 in pieces just to see what I missed, since watching live I was a) tired and b) smiling too much to pay attention I was so happy

so anyway, have all of my thoughts and notes on Laudna because I lov her (and maybe there will be another post about Imogen to come, because I lov Imogen too and I think she and Ashton should get to commiserate about chronic migraines). some of it’s under a cut because it got Long.

her name sounds like Laudanum, which is an opium mixture

young-ish, though not as young as Imogen

likes kids, considers herself fun-scary

“surprised” she hasn’t been run out of town yet, implying this is an experience that’s happened to her before

her hair is in a partial updo with a rock chisel stuck through it, and her belt (in addition to the dead rat with a bird skull on it, which she made herself) is also full of tools - I for one am looking forward to seeing what she’ll tinker up with, with Marisha’s creativity

actually. Laudna fixing FCG. I need to see more of this dynamic Immediately.

although, she didn’t specify what tools! maybe she’s not a tinkerer, maybe she’s a sculptor. an artist. maybe she’s a miner. who knows? not me! can’t wait to find out !!!

seemingly delighted by the odd combat - “Imogen!! The objects have gone postal!!!” with a bright creepy kinda grin

also she kicked off combat with “Form of Dread,” which is what warlocks with undead patrons get at first level. if Laudna takes six levels in warlock at any point she will no longer need to eat, drink, or breathe.

not a note on Laudna but mid-fight Marisha quoted the “what do you have?” “a knife” “NO” vine very quietly to herself and I’m still laughing abt it. Taliesin also referenced John Mulaney (Travis: I have a bonus to initiative. Liam: that’s a first. Tal, like the horse in a hospital bit: I didn’t know it could do that!)

nothing else in combat seemed to indicate what Laudna’s sorcerous origin is, and she wouldn’t have any decided subclass because she’s multiclassed at lv3; also nothing else to indicate if she has two levels in warlock and one in sorcerer, or two in sorcerer and one in warlock. she used Form of Dread and cast eldritch blast (english), with no leveled spells.

I also completely missed the bit mid-combat where Marisha says “fuck the knife!” and the entire cast derails to take that statement literally and explain why that’s a bad idea. she follows this five minutes later with “I’m gonna fuck the rug.” this is the content I subscribe for.

kills the rug by saying “yes! I wanted you to know it was me...” and then, quite smiley, “hello !!! pleasure to meet you !! this is fun :)” to Dorian

has heard of Vasselheim

considers corpses “great resources” and says that people are “all made out of parts,” which ties into me maybe thinking she’s some kind of tinkerer or creator?? she’s got tools !! I want to see how she uses them !!! even if (especially if?) it’s in a way that’s kinda fucked up !!

laughs when FCG groups her in with people who have souls

“all over, really, I was quite the traveler. originally from Whitestone, but that was a long time ago...” “what sorta place is that?” (harsh, suddenly) “a shitty one” -- this implies to me maybe she’s older than she looks, and that her introductory statement of being “young-ish” was deliberately vague

“interesting to see a bunch of people trying to do the same things that we do” says Imogen, about the rest of the group, plz give me the Laudna and Imogen lore I want all of their adventures

“if this goes horribly wrong, we can just leave” says Laudna, making me wonder if she’s speaking from experience

helps with the dishes !!

am I going to be surprised somewhere down the road by backstory twists and character beats?? absolutely !! Laudna seems to me like a fairly upfront character, as in, I don’t think her kindness is an act and I don’t think her creepiness is an act. she’s probably got secrets and stuff she doesn’t want to talk about. we have no idea about who her patron is yet, or where she got her sorcery powers (fingers crossed for shadow sorcerer, tho).

I think she has a strong level of self-interest -- see her comment to Imogen about cutting ties and running -- and I’m excited to see what could come out of that, when her interests conflict with others. if (or when) her interests conflict with Imogen’s.

I think she has a strong sense of connection -- she likes kids, she likes Imogen, she likes the elderly woman they’re staying with and offers to help with the dishes and chores. probably it’s difficult to find people who like you, when you’re dripping black ichor and your eyes are a little weird and all of your comments (intentionally or otherwise) land just this side of creepy af. I think if the party takes her in, she’ll be ride or die for them.

also I love Marisha’s mannerisms and body language for her. I know a lot of people talk about Liam’s physicality at the table, and I think he does the most of it, but the rest of the cast does to a lesser extent - case in point, Travis as Bertrand. but this isn’t about them, this is about my love of Marisha’s hand gestures, and her smile, and the way that she was holding herself-as-Laudna for the whole ep. I love it.

tldr Laudna is fantastic. there’s no point to all of this rambling. I’m just very happy to see a bunch of idiots become a bunch of idiots in a found family and maybe accidentally save the world along the way.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

2 things. following the leah ep do you read anything different into the daryl and carol acorn convo? you don't have to be alone....what does it matter? etc. also rewatching 15 min ek ballet video notice the base of the balance bar has a big X and the window has diamond patterns :))

About the Acorn Convo:

Not really reading it much differently than I originally did. When this scene aired, the Carylers were trying to make it into a Daryl/Carol romance thing, and nothing about my opinion on that has changed.

MMB confirmed that Carol did say, “her dog,” meaning Leah. So in a literal sense, she probably was referring to Leah. But for me, there are still questions about how she said this. 

1) She said “years pass.” Now, at this point, it’s probably been a year or two since Leah, but “years pass” sounds like much longer than that to me. So, I think Carol is referencing Daryl’s entire experience here. We still think Leah is probably a hallucination, but if Daryl doesn’t realize that, Carol definitely doesn’t. From her perspective, he lost Beth back in the day and then had a relationship with this other woman he told her about, and that didn’t work out, either. So while I do think she’s referencing what she knows of Leah here, I also think is more all-encompassing than that. 

2) Symbolically, Leah = Beth, so it all really amounts to the same thing anyway. 

I couldn’t have possibly come to this conclusion before the Leah episode, but I’m wondering if the “double capper” represents Leah and Beth. They actually represent the same person (Beth) but in Daryl’s mind/hallucination, she has partially schismed into two different women. Maybe the fact that they’re attached at the head, as it were, shows that they’re the same person. Just a thought, though. @wdway @frangipanilove @galadrieljones 

3) As I said HERE in my original thoughts about this, we saw very prominent acorns around Aaron in 5x11. That was right after he showed up with “good news” and the music box resurrected. So for me, the acorn is a Beth symbol either way. 

The acorn is also known as a small, inconsequential nut that grows into a mighty oak tree. I think that’s fitting for Beth’s arc, and may also foreshadow what will happen with her return, which may be why we saw them after Aaron arrived in S5.

So I guess you could say we can definitely throw Leah into the mix when it comes to interpreting this conversation, but that doesn’t completely change what I originally thought, either. It just adds to it.  

And btw, this is a tad off topic, but when MMB confirmed the “her dog” line, that’s yet more evidence that they planned this far in advance and tend to lie about that sort of thing. 

She said when she read the line “her dog” she asked what it meant. She said they didn’t tell her everything but did give her a minor explanation that at some point we’d find out about this relationship for Daryl that Carol knew something about. 

So, this isn’t just some random storyline they came up with for a CoVid bonus episode. If not for the pandemic, I believe this would have just been one of the early episodes in S11. But this is something they’ve planned for a long time. 

My fellow theorists and I have been researching the “dream” and “hallucination” themes in the show, not just around the Leah/Daryl episode but how they’ve used them in other characters and story lines. It’s revealing some really interesting patterns we’d simply never homed in on before. I’m sure one of us will post about it eventually. Stay tuned.  😉

Great observations about the EK Ballet video as well. Of course since that’s outside the world of the show, we can’t say for sure that it’s purposeful (maybe all ballet studios have similar things?) but we can hope, right? I tend to side-eye things like that, too. 

Thanks so much, Nonny. Xoxo! 💝

[usertoxicyaoi]

I can however argue that 2gether would not have been successful if it wasn't for the fact that Bright and Win are gorgeous + the other side actors are very invested and active. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the show and very excited to get some more content for it. Though, the production was sloppy and the show had its flaws, it felt rushed and unfinished but it pulled through thanks to the characters and the fact that they managed to get some dynamic and pretty faces.

hiii anon!!! mmmmm yes. i mean, yes brightwin are v good looking, but also lets not forget here how win was practically forced to lose 10kg in 2 months to fit tine's character description. so yes, looks did play a part. but in terms of this toxic ""aestheticism"" culture we have (for the lack of a better word), in all shows now, looks of characters Do play a part in the whole appeal and selling of a show and a character, whether we like to admit it or not. bc we associate looks of characters very heavily with the character themselves. whether thats their hair colour, tattoo use, outfits, accessories and jewelry, makeup and styling, facial hair, weight and height etc, amongst so many other things.

but i think the timing of 2gether coming out was its biggest bonus/asset, along with how it skyrocketed on social media, again, bc of the time it got released, which meant international access to it was made v v v open and easy and simple. it could be marketed v v v easily to a global audience by social media bc there was no other way to market the show humanly due to lockdown. so it gained attraction at a much larger scale. thats ultimately why 2gether got popular on a global scale, if you're talking about solely viewership, international outreach and numbers.

talking about it from a storyline pov, as a drama, the story was just ... refreshing, in that, yeah, it was nothing new. it was simple. and it was light hearted and fun and a proper rom com. i think for me personally, it also just really neatly dispelled many toxic lgbt+ tropes too. it showed lgbt+ love in a completely normal, chilled out way, just how rom coms do. and the characters have their individualistic appeal to them. other things helped, like the music and the cinematography and the colours too - it was a warm colour palette show. it didnt take itself too seriously but still managed to show depth. yeah, every show has a couple of bad episodes, which show doesn't? but pining the whole show down on to just those 2 episodes and a goddamn cursed high-5 alone, and overlooking the rest of the entire show seems unjust tbh. like i keep saying, when the show was airing live, nobody was complaining then!

so yeah, whilst the success does partially lie with having a good looking, social media active cast, you sorta have to see why social media played such a HUGE role in 2gether's success, especially in the circumstances and time period that the show was airing. its the backbone of it. but i wouldnt say having a good looking cast = instantly successful show. the show had appeal to the masses bc of the things the show had in it, which weren't perfect 100% of the time, but being critical means looking at both the good and the bad, not just the bad only, before making a judgement on something. and most people i know take 2gether's bad with the good, and say they enjoyed the show! so its no surprise that still2gether is monopolising on the back of 2gether's success. people want more of these characters bc they love them and their storylines, the actors who play them show sincerity, love and respect to their characters and (lgbt+) audiences, p'aof as an lgbt+ writer, director and producer can authentically write stories for lgbt+ characters and audiences, and so ... why would an entertainment/production company not use that to their monetary advantage as well?

bc now, gmmtv's budget has skyrocketed, they'll invest even more money into still2gether, which is why people are saying that still2gether's budget has increased bc just by the trailer alone, ppl could immediately tell there's been a budget raise. so ya know, who knows, still2gether's (production) quality could be much much better and less sloppy than 2gether's was (which imho, wasnt even that bad tbh, aside from certain plot points during ep 12 and 13). so then, i wouldnt be surprised how much more still2gether will appeal to the audience, not just bc of the good looking actors, but bc of the whole show itself increasing in quality. and so of course countries like japan and taiwan and the philippines, and broadcasters like netflix, wetv etc have signed deals with gmmtv to broadcast 2gether as well as other gmmtv shows, i'm sure in the future too, in their countries/platforms, and big magazines like vogue and gq as well as domestic thai brands are jumping on brightwin's current success.

bc i can hand on heart say, that nobody, and i mean nobody, expected 2gether to ... well, reach the popularity it has. win was practically nobody before this. bright was literally on scraps getting side role after side role. i'd say apart from like frank, drake, gunsmile, guy, toptap and gun, maybe even mike too, the rest of the cast had unseasoned/not that well known actors (inc. khaotung, jj and pluem). and then, 2gether happened. so. yeah. a lot of factors come into play.

[zoe-oneesama]

I'm sorry if this seems rude, but your treatment of Alya makes me very uncomfortable. This isn't something you're entirely to blame for, as a good chunk of the fandom treats her very poorly (with either ignoring her or reducing her role to "ships the lovesquare"), but the amount of comics and posts you've made about punishing Alya feels a little extreme to me at this point. I understand the salt after chameleon, but everyone was ooc in that ep. Also it's been over a month. (1/2)

I will start by saying thank you for coming to me with your complaints in honestly the nicest way you possibly could, I really appreciate you taking a very calm and critical tone in approaching me with a genuine concern.

I will also point out I can’t think of any comics I’ve made attacking Alya or punishing her, so I’m not sure what you mean by that, but maybe I’ve re blogged someone else’s comic and it’s not coming to mind right now. But I also try hard to tag stuff so people can block the rants they don’t want to see. I guess the probelm is I use the #alya salt tag instead of #anti alya.

And I can agree that Alya’s characterization has gotten out of hand in the fanon vs canon, particularly when we had that long hiatus so fanon Alya bled into the consciousness and confused what actually is canon Alya.

However I won’t apologize for being critical of Alya. I will try to explain my own reasoning for you though so maybe you can understand where I’m coming from. 

My two main criticisms of Alya are 1) She’s not a good journalist and 2) She disregards Marinette’s feelings even though she’s her best friend.

The Good Journalist is something that I personally think is a fanon idea. Her being an ethical, searches only for the truth reporter who has integrity about the facts came from the hiatus, and my position on this is supported in canon.

When Marinette’s identity, the secret she holds most dear, is in jeopardy, because it’s Alya who is making the claim, she is unconcerned. If Alya was a threat to her identity (i.e. someone who often had evidence to support their claims) she would be worried, but instead she brushes it off. Like it’s not the first time Alya’s pitched a theory from left field at her. Even Nino laughs right in her face.

Volpina backs this up with her posting an unverified video of Lila claiming to be best friends with Ladybug without getting any sources or evidence that it could be true. In doing this, not only is she reducing her blog to a gossip column, but she is directly endangering this girl by blasting her relationship with a Superhero where anyone could see it. Because her scoop is more important that truth.

There’s also her crusade to find out Ladybug’s secret identity, something that, having established she’s a huge superhero comic fan, she should know the repercussions of. Endangerment of self, friends, and family in the face of a very dangerous super villain. It continues to prove where Alya’s priorities are.

But I actually want to make something clear: Being a bad journalist is not something I hate Alya for. She’s a young, immature girl. She’s wrapped in the excitement of magic and superheroes and is riding the hype to it’s conclusion. It’s partially Ladybug’s fault for indulging in Alya and being biased towards her friend that Alya has the platform she has and the belief in her abilities. And Alya does put a lot of hard work into her journalism, she just needs to do more growing and get a better understanding of what ethical journalism is.

I’m just critical of it because of the fanon warping her into this amazing journalist when she’s just a kid with no self preservation and tenacity. 

The Bad Friend thing is what imagine you mostly came here for. And I want to make it clear here as well: I don’t think Alya is a terrible friend. Most of the time I don’t think she’s even a bad friend. But what happened in Volpina, Heroes Day, and Chameleon hit me in a bad way.

In Volpina, we see Marinette express concern about Lila hanging over Adrien and Alya dismisses her to gush over her blog.

I didn’t have a problem with this when it first came out. Marinette knows Lila is a liar only because she is Ladybug and so she knows Lila is lying in her interview. Marinette has a problem with liars AND a jealousy problem that has gone unchecked by Volpina. But from Alya’s perspective, Marinette is being unreasonably possessive and is prone to over reacting. She has no obligation to interfere with Adrien and Lila just because Marinette is feeling territorial.

This only becomes an issue in addition to the other two episodes. 

In Heroes Day we get this gem of a line, which is really irritating, esPECIALLY because as a series finale it had to come after Frozer, which proved that Marinette has made great strides in overcoming her jealousy. As her best friend, Alya should be giving Marinette the benefit of the doubt, not Lila. But instead, she doesn’t ask what Marinette’s problem is with Lila she just assumes it without opening discussion about what could be bothering her usually kind and accommodating best friend. Compound it with her dismissal of Marinette in Volpina, and I’m beginning to get weary. 

But then Chameleon. Ooooooh Chameleon. Let me count the ways Alya specifically failed as a friend:

1) Kicked Marinette out if her seat without asking

2) Replaced Marinette as her seatmate with her boyfriend without asking

3) Pushing Marinette to the back row seat alone without asking

4) When Marinette claims Lila is lying, Alya asks for Marinette to prove Lila isn’t telling the truth instead of investigating if Lila is telling the truth.

5) Pulls that not apology apology that puts the blame on Marinette for getting upset about the situation. 

(gif by @oui-ladybug)

That last on is subject to interpretation, but look at it closely, There’s no “I’m sorry for putting you in that situation without your consent.” No “I’m sorry for not taking your feelings into account.” 

This throw away line is like someone saying “I’m sorry YOU got upset.” Like you overreacted. Like it’s your fault you got hurt.

You may say I’m reaching, and I’ll admit my interpretation is probably not a universal one. I’ve made no secret of it in past posts. I have a personal issue with how Alya acts in regard to Marinette’s feelings. 

I had a best friend from the age of 5 to 20. Looking back I can find a lot of flaws in our friendship but at the time I thought it was great, mutually supportive and filled with love. Until she started dating. She had a boyfriend her last two years of high school and up to around the time we stopped being friends. She was attached at the hip to him, spending all her free time with him instead of me and bringing him to outings with us without asking me first. I tried to hide my discomfort because I had already almost lost her friendship by throwing up a fuss over her dating him - because he was my ex (first!) boyfriend. But I put my feelings aside because she was really into him and I valued our friendship more than this dumb guy. But apparently I was the only one.

Things went downhill fast when we graduated high school. She and her boyfriend stayed at home and went to a local college (no shame there) and I went to a university 3 hours away. We weren’t going to see each other near as often obviously, but we had always been very good at texting and calling each other so I wasn’t worried. But she didn’t text me anymore. She never called. All contact I had to initiate first. She never made the drive up to see me unless she needed something (she stayed at my place when she wanted to go to the Renaissance Fair nearby my college). 

But what hurt most is when I would drive down to see her. I’d drive the three hours, having made plans weeks in advance to make sure it worked around our schedules, only for her to cancel last minute on me. Because she wanted to hang out with her boyfriend instead. The same boyfriend she saw LITERALLY everyday. And it happened multiple times.

She didn’t care what I did for her. She didn’t respect my time or effort or feelings. She assumed I’d be fine with it. She assumed I wouldn’t mind or if I did I’d “get over it” like I always do (get over it as in grin and bear it). She made decisions for me and without regard to what I thought. She just wanted a cardboard cutout to call Best Friend without actually putting in any of the work.

There are plenty of other things that started to bother me about our friendship, but because this is what ultimately ended it it’s what bothers me the most. So I take personal offense with Alya making assumptions about Marinette’s feelings and justifications without asking. I have issues with Alya making decisions for Marinette without asking. And I especially have issues with Alya choosing her boyfriend over her best friend because that hits me personally.

I know Chameleon was OOc for the characters…for MOST of the characters. But Alya? This has been building up. It’s not the first time. It’s just the most egregious time.

And a bonus it’s really annoying that Alya assumes Marinette is crazy jealous when a few of Marinette’s craziest moments are a result of Alya’s insistence or pushing OR Alya tries to steer her away from making mature decisions.

Marinette stealing Adrien’s phone?

Marinette making an elaborate scheme to separate Adrien from his bodyguard to go on a date with him?

Marinette tries to be realistic and help Adrien on his date while simultaneously letting him go?

Alya was one of those cases where one event made me think back really hard about her role as Marinette’s best friend and just what kind of hand she’s had in shaping Marinette’s behavior, and honestly? She’s not the amazing friend I remembered her as in Season 1. Which sucks! Because I lOVEd Alya. A sassy mom friend who takes no shit and gets shit done? A gorgeous POC that pushed her friend to make things happen for herself?! Yes please!

So I still hate on Chameleon, not just for the episode, but for the wakeup call I DIDN’t ask for!!

p.s. the reason I’m still salting on it is because the episode totally failed to resolve Alya’s issues in this episode. i.e. being a hypocrite.

[drunklander]

Drunj!Der Yells About Outlander

Thoughts on Ep. 312

Ok so I *really* like half of this episode, and then I really don’t give a single fuck about the other half. But! It manages to jump around enough that the parts I don’t give a fuck about never reach the point where I’m annoyed that I’m still watching them. Which like, is the best case scenario for an episode dealing with a storyline I’m not partial to?

The squad is finally actively trying to find Young Ian, you know, the actual main goal of the back half of the season! But it also feels a bit like they threw all of the plot confetti they needed to into it in order to set up the finale after spending so long on side-quests. There are some great scenes but there is also some batshit insanity. This was the first time in a while that I didn’t check to see how much time was left in the episode. So that’s a bonus.

I personally give zero fucks about the prophecy stuff, but since that’s a massive part of the end of the book, and the show has always stuck maybe a little too closely to the source material, it’s not like I was surprised that a lot of the episode was dedicated to that. And since this episode yet again feels like something completely different from the previous ones, most of my feelings and reactions to it are yet again based on it as a standalone thing and not as part of the season as a whole. (I’m finding more and more as the season goes on that while I have really enjoyed some individual episodes or scenes, if I look at the season as a whole, I’m left feeling sad about missed potential and what might have been if they had made different choices along the way.) So yeah, personally I was like 50/50 really enjoying the episode vs. rolling my eyes at its complete ridiculousness. Which, compared to how I’ve felt about other eps, is pretty solid.

I love that Young Ian keeps fighting on the Bruja and doesn’t give in to the fear he must be feeling. Like if he’s going down, he’s going down swinging and I really do like that wee goober.

Of course Geillis takes literal blood baths. Fucking of course she does.

This whole part is absurd. But like I guess that’s the point? Geillis is fucking nuts. (It does make me roll my eyes a bit that they keep being like “we don’t do gratuitous nudity” while literally having a lady walk around naked and then doing long shots of her showering. Not complaining, just observing.)

DON’T EAT THE CAKE, YOUNG IAN! THIS LADY LITERALLY JUST TOOK A BATH IN ACTUAL BLOOD! SHE’S CLEARLY FUCKING INSANE! DON’T EAT THE THINGS!

NOOO, NOT THE TEA! LOOK AT YOUR REACTION TO THE TEA! THERE IS CLEARLY SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE TEA! STOP DRINKING THE TEA!

Ok, let’s just remember Young Ian’s reaction to being drugged without his knowledge and sharing things he doesn’t want to share. He’s clearly not ok with it. Just keep that in mind for a second...

Geillis is so fucking creepy. Like Lotte Verbeek is so fucking good at pretending to be the creepiest motherfucker ever.

Aaand then the show decided that it was a good idea to have yet another child get raped. This is, what, the third time? Mary, Fergus and now Young Ian? There is no plot-relevant reason to keep this in the show. But they did. Because of course they did. If a girl gets roofied and sleeps with a guy, we call it rape. Because you can’t consent when you’ve been drugged. They’re *literally* called date rape drugs. So here we have a kid getting basically roofied and then it’s implied Geillis sleeps with him. It doesn’t matter if he seems into it. Saying what happens to Young Ian isn’t rape, in my opinion, is the same as saying a girl who gets roofied and taken advantage of wasn’t raped. This, to me, is a rape and I’m *rull* pissed and disappointed, but not at all surprised, that the show decided to include it. (Yes, I know it’s in the book. It was one of the things that I was hoping they’d cut. But given this show’s track record, that was clearly a naive hope to have.)

< / rant >

Ok Claire has that whole trunk of clothes on the ship. Why is she still wearing the same outfit? Seriously, I get that the production is like weirdly attached to that blue dress, but at some point the woman should be allowed to change her clothes. Especially since last week she was like bleeding all over her sleeve and she’s basically been wearing the same outfit for months. Like no fresh dress to go ashore in? Really? I mean, who cares. It’s not anything to like actually get worked up about, it’s just silly to me.

Although, good riddance to the bumroll. I like the outfit much better without it, tbh.

Claire immediately closing the parasol when it’s pointed out that it makes her seem respectable makes me smile. Especially after drunkenly asserting that she *was indeed* respectable last week.

The episode does a decent job of setting up Geillis, though. With the Rose Hall “RH” brand on the enslaved woman Claire sees and the mention of Mrs. Abernathy from a rando in the crowd.

The whole slave market sequence makes me angry and uncomfortable and that’s exactly how I’m supposed to be feeling. It’s clear that’s how Claire feels too. Plus an added dose of helplessness because there’s literally nothing she can do.

And I’m not at all surprised it’s seeing a man being sexually assaulted that makes her snap. With all of the times Claire herself has been assaulted and knowing what Jamie went through at Wentworth, it makes perfect sense for her to manage to hold it together despite her strong feelings, but then to lose it when she sees a man being dehumanized even further in that particular way.

Um, why the fuck did Jamie use Claire’s name instead of his own on the paperwork for Temeraire? She clearly had such a visceral reaction to the situation and he was like well you wanted me to fix it, so I bought a human...in *your* name. It’s really not a big deal. I think it just bugs me a little due to residual Jamie-annoyance from the episodes where I wanted to punch him in the face.

I *am* here for Jamie being immediately on board from the start with needing to get Temeraire somewhere he can live safely. As someone who has been a prisoner in one form or another for so much of his life, it would be out of character for Jamie to respond in any other way.

I like that Jamie and Claire make it clear to Temeraire that his freedom doesn’t hinge on his cooperation in helping them find Young Ian. They tell him he’ll be free as soon as possible regardless, and I’m very glad they make that explicit. Because again, it’d be out of character for them to do anything else. This is, however, kind of becoming a generic white guilt/white savior story. Like they can’t solve slavery but look at how they’re helping this one guy. But honestly, considering there’s like no time in the episode to devote to this particular storyline, this is about as unproblematic as it could get.

Aaand on to the prophecy stuff. It’s all well acted and stuff, I just have no interest whatsoever in this part of the plot.

Although Geillis’ sassy “bitch please” fan flick when Archibald says something is pretty great.

The whole time at the party I was like scared Claire’s hair was going to fall over to the side. Like you can do it, hair, defy the laws of physics! Don’t fall down! I believe in you!

Marsali calling Jamie a dandy is my everything. I really like Marsali, you guys.

Yi Tien Cho’s shade at Frenchmen is also my everything. Yi Tien Cho in general in this episode (and this season) is my everything.

Seriously, his face at Jamie telling him he’s there to be a distraction. Like aw *hell* no. I feel you, dude. It’s fucked up.

Ok the “Ye look as ‘twas yesterday.” line about Claire looking like she did at Versailles is a bit of on-the-nose meta commentary about how they don’t look like they’ve aged that works because it’s a super sweet thing to say regardless of how she actually looks. But Mr. Campbell’s line about “What chance that we end up on the same island, eh?” is up there with The Replacements’ lines last week about Claire randomly showing up in the weirdest places. Like we get it, there are a fuckton of convenient coincidences in the show. No need to point them all out.

The sadness and sympathy on Claire’s face as she sees all of the enslaved men around the room is perfect, as is Jamie’s picking up on it and asking when it will end. But his being in tune with just how much seeing enslaved people affects her again makes me wonder why he put her name on the certificate of sale. (Whatevs, it’s really fine. I don’t like hate Jamie for it.)

Ok so Jamie only calls Yi Tien Cho by his name when he’s making YTC play the part of the Exotic Other. Claire calls him by his name all the time because it’s his name. I do judge Jamie a little for this. When Jamie decided to rename Claudel to Fergus, it was a tad presumptuous, but Fergus embraced it and was on board. Mr. Willoughby was never a name that Yi Tien Cho embraced so calling him that seems a tad disrespectful, regardless whatever Scottish word his actual name sounds like.

Also, Claire’s face when the girl calls him Mr. Cho made me wonder if it was ever made clear what YTC’s family name vs. personal name is. Isn’t it custom for family names to be said first? So he’d actually be Mr. Yi? Is that what Claire’s face is in reaction to, or just the girl being absurd and racist about meeting YTC? Serious question, I can’t recall if this was ever addressed in the book...

Regardless, Yi Tien Cho has more patience and tolerance for bullshit than my privileged white ass could ever hope to have.

Giving him a storyline with Margaret is also infinitely better than the foot fetish bullshit from the book. But again, no brownie points for fixing the obvious problems, show.

Oh man, the look between Jamie and Claire. All the love and lust, and sadness and regret about losing so much time, and thinking of what might have been and what is still to come now that they’re together again. Just all the fucking feels. Their faces are good at emoting, guys.

Still a bit salty that Claire never got to really make Jamie see what the separation was like for her and that Jamie was so easily let off the hook for his behavior and that we had to headcanon most of their reconciliation but I’m tired of being salty, sooo whatever. *pours one out for what could have been*

Lord John’s happy puppy face when he sees Jamie is adorable.

I need Lord John and Chris Traeger to be best friends and like go on happy, optimistic adventures together.

“I thought she’d died too, but she returned to me.” “My god. But how”? “It’s a long story. I’ll send you the BluRay in a couple months. It’ll catch you right up.”

I know the party wigs are intentionally bad because they’re supposed to be wigs of the time period as opposed to the dead animal that’s been living on Jamie’s head all season, but Geillis’ wig is a special kind of ridiculous. (Also why is she randomly blonde now? Like whatever, who cares, but it’s a random change to make. Unless it was literally because the actress didn’t feel like dying her hair or something, haha.) (ETA -- It’s probs how they chose to show she’d aged. I’m an idiot.)

The scene with Jamie, Claire and LJG in the side room is perfect and awkward and I want to give them all a hug. Like look at all of their faces. LJG is like omg I heart you. I am full of feels about how I heart you. And Jamie is like omg thanks for raising my kid. I am full of feels about my kid. *writes and deletes a broken record rant about how it would have been nice to see him show this much emotion even fucking once about his other kid* And Claire’s like pulling double duty on the feels like oh man it’s so sad that Jamie doesn’t get to raise his son but it’s great he has someone to talk to about him and maybe just a bit of jealousy over Jamie getting to be part of Willie’s life for a bit but not Bree’s, and then also like yooo this dude is in love with my husband. I am so full of feels about how this dude is like pining over my husband. You’d better stay in your lane, dude.

TL;DR: Their faces. They’re good at emoting.

This episode does kind of cross over into the gay-guy-in-love-with-his-straight-best-friend trope area a bit. Part of why I liked show!LJG so much in episodes 303 and 304 was because while it was clear he liked Jamie, that wasn’t his primary feature. In this episode, it is. And while I’m here for Claire to notice that he cares for Jamie in a way that’s more than just buddies, it’s a tad too heavy handed with the heart eyes for me. Especially when he keeps telling a romanticized version of the sapphire story.

Like, it sucks to the max that Lord John can’t live honestly, but it seems that a guy who has been given shitty posts because of the rumors about him would be more subtle? The gay-guy-pining trope isn’t that interesting to me and part of why I don’t like book!LJG as much as most people. I know I’m probs in the minority here... I *am* still enjoying show!LJG much more than book!LJG though, and (to me) the genuine friendship between him and Jamie plays better here than in the book too. Like when they’re sitting at the table just catching up. I’m so here for their bromance, just not the pining.

I do love that Jamie calls Young Ian “our nephew” in the scene though, instead of “his nephew.”

If Yi Tien Cho and Margaret don’t run away together in the finale, I’m going to be sad. They win the prize for most surprising ship of the season. But I am On. Board. They each just want to be seen for who they are. Not just as an Other.

Love the convo between Claire and Lord John. And that it seems like he knows (or at least assumes) she knows about him and what he feels for Jamie because he knows Jamie tells her pretty much everything.

I also love Claire’s emphatic “I have.” to Lord John when he notes how she has returned. She’s Jamie’s wife and she is the only person who he loves in the way John wishes Jamie would love him. Like, she finally has Jamie back and she’ll get territorial with anyone who might presume to have a claim on him in a romantic sense. I honestly think that Claire being like this isn’t due to Lord John being a dude so much as just that he’s a human who has feelings for Jamie and at this point, regardless of the person’s gender, she’d start peeing circles around Jamie if *anyone* tried to make a move on her dude. Especially after 20 years with a guy she didn’t love. She did the opposite of pee circles around Frank. She let him do whoever whatever he wanted. He wasn’t worth fighting for. Jamie is. So I am *here* for Claire being a bit possessive. It’s the first time in a long time she’s had someone in her life worth staking a claim on.

I liked the convo with Claire and Geillis until like halfway through when I was like oh shit, wait, CLAIRE, GIRL, REMEMBER THAT SHE’S FUCKING CRAZY AND HAS STRAIGHT UP MURDERED THREE OF HER HUSBANDS AND RAPES BOYS AND KILLS THEM FOR HER BATHS AND HAS YOUNG IAN! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!

“Why are men such fools?” You’re batshit crazy, Geillis, but you raise a good question.

Of course Geillis went to her own execution. I’d be disappointed in her if she hadn’t.

Ok but Geillis knows how Dougal really died, right? And she’s going to like bring it up with Jamie and Claire next week as something she’s butthurt about, right? It’s come up twice in the episode and I can’t tell if that’s because it’s going to be a thing or if she’s just talking...

Aaand now we get to the pure ridiculousness that I kind of just don’t pay attention to because I can’t even with this storyline.

Also, you’re really just going to grab at the governor’s crotch, Geillis? This lady has more red flags than a Chinese airport.

I get it’s a story that involves time travel, but apparently I draw the line at prophecies.

“A 200 year old baby? Do ye think I’m an idiot.” Geillis, who do you know that could maybe have traveled 200 years between getting knocked up and having a baby? Think about it for a hot second. The riddle is obvious af for us, the audience, but like even for Geillis it shouldn’t take that much to get to the answer. Sure she doesn’t know at the moment that Claire was pregnant and DeLorean’ed her way Back to the Future, had a baby, and then came back again, but she knows Claire’s a time traveler. They literally *just* talked about it. Whatevs. I’m guessing she’ll find the pictures of Bree next week like in the book and put it together so Claire has to murder her to stop her from going to kill Bree with the bloody machete from the promo clips and then she’ll be the skeleton in Joe’s office who was beheaded with a dull blade, which I still don’t think was important enough to include but whatevs, some folks love it and that’s fine too.

How convenient that the escaped slaves live near Rose Hall. But I am so here for Temeraire being like nope, not later, I’m going to be free now, here, goodbye.

For as problematic as the pictures have been for me this season, I do love that Jamie’s first thought when about to be arrested is protecting the pictures of Bree and Willie.

I do not love that we end on another cliffhanger.

*starts singing One Week More to self to the tune of Les Mis*

[auideas]

Ask the Admins: 11.0

Anon asked: any of you get pranked on 4/1?

Chamomile: I didn’t get pranked, but I work in retail and we all pranked my manager by writing up a whole bunch of fake ‘angry customer’ reports and leaving them in the break room where she could read them. She didn’t know they were fake until she got to the complaint from a nun who was disgruntled because we didn’t carry her favorite vegan chapstick anymore.

M: Nope, and I’m very happy about that - Loot Crate almost fooled me via email, but I was in good shape other than that

Syren: I am disappointed to say that I was not, but to be fair, I spent most of the day at my little half-sister’s 2nd birthday party (yes, my sis was born on April fools, and no, no one believed me when I told them my sister was born. They all thought I was pranking them. Safe to say, her future birthdays will be full of pranks from yours truly).

Jynn: No, but I did prank someone. I work at a school affiliated wellness center as a lifeguard for their pool. Normally on Saturday mornings there's a water aerobics class taught by a peppy lady who stands on the pool deck and does all the exercises while the old ladies do them in the pool. Well she's been gone the past couple weeks, so the gym's floor manager Tim has been teaching it. Now Tim is just the most precious thing. He's the most adorable personal trainer ever. He'll get up there in front of all the elderly people and they'll hoot and whistle and tell him to take his shirt off till he's a blushing mess. So anyways he going through the exercises and get into it and have his workout music playing. It starts to get pretty intense, he's working up a sweat, he's pumped, the old people are pumped, they're feeling the burn… and I go back to the guard room and switch their workout music to Mozart.

Anon asked: What do the admins and assistant admins think about soulmates?

Chamomile: I’m a bit iffy on them? I like the concept, but I like the idea of multiple soulmates and outcomes because the idea of a preset destiny freaks me out.

M: I'd like to think they exist - there's someone for everyone - but I think that probably less than an eighth of a percent of the population actually meet them, if that. They're fun to write about, though.

Syren: In the world of fic, it is my jam. I'm writing a soulmate AU rn, actually. Irl? Nooo thank you. I don't believe in it, and I wouldn't want one anyway. Cause that's creepy.

Jynn: Eh it's a cool thought but? It seems a little bland to juat have like one preset partner you're meant to be with former and ever. I think there can been lots of kinds of soulmates.

@askrileyw asked: How do you feel about fantasy AUs? (bonus: what is your favourite fantasy sub-genre and why?)

Chamomile: I love them! I’m really big into combining bizarre fiction and traditional fantasy settings.

M: They can be loads of fun when done properly! I actually like it when fantasy elements are combined with the modern world - it's totally my aesthetic. Give me CyberKnights fighting mechanical dragons, goddamnit!

Syren: Oooooh boy, fantasy au’s are my jelly. I love dystopian fantasy stuff, with outlawed magic and mages on the run. I love fantastical creatures like elves (especially elves- thank you LotR). I love adventure in fantasy (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is my favorite game in the world. I'm planning on writing a Zelda AU soon as well). I freaking love fantasy.

Jynn: I can appreciate fantasy, but I don't seek it out a ton. As for fave genres of fantasy, I'm always a sucker for coming-of-age adventures!

Anon asked: If you could only use one which would you choose? Magic, guns, or blades.

Chamomile: Magic! I can enchant my blades!

M: Magic. C’mon.

Syren: Magic, cause I'm a pacifist and could use it for more non-violent purposes. And it's awesome.

Jynn: Magic.

@genosha-meiuqer asked: If life was like a videogame where you level up by gaining experience points, what level do you think you'd currently be at? Everyone would start off as a noob-born.

Chamomile: 20, going on 21 (why are yall ranking so low omg)

M: Maybe 5. And that's being incredibly generous.

Syren: Like 4 maybe? Assuming it's out of at least 30 possible levels lol

Jynn: 3

Anon asked: Hello, lovelies! I'm making a bet with my partner (gimmemygurryback); prize is home-cooked breakfast in bed. Anyway, this ask involves genosha-meiuqer, but she's not betting! I'm assuming you read the added parts on your posts' reblogs. You know last month's AtA where Gurry and Geno were talking about Geno's stories? Out of all those 57 titles, are there any you found interesting or want to know about? Geno said that you probably couldn't care less, but she doesn't know your personal opinions???

Chamomile: I read all of the post reblogs! Especially ones from genosha and gurry. For the titles, I was immediately partial to all of the ones with auideas’ titles, but the other ones that I really liked were “Pieces of Time”, “Clear and Forever Young When I Close My Eyes”, and “Miss Murder & Mister Brightside”.

M: There were so many to choose from, but I finally settled on “ Docosahexaenoic Acid”, “ Mark His Way to Canaan”, and “Dreams May Not Come True”.

Syren: “Miss Murder and Mister Brightside” “Farmer in Dank Armor” and “Travel In a Pack, Street Rats” sound like stories I would treasure forever tbh

Jynn: Shall We Do The “One, Two”?, Shall We Sing The “Un, Deux”?, and I Will Make Your House Fly Away If You Rick Roll Me Again all sound really interesting!

(side note: here’s the link to all 57 titles, and chamomile told all the admins to pick their top 3 titles because they were all so good)

Anon asked: Do any of the new admins watch anime or read manga?

Chamomile: I used to be really into anime/manga when I was younger, but when I got into junior year (the year I came out and when I joined auideas) I just didn’t have time to keep up with any of it. Now that I’m in my second year of college, I’m super desperate for any cutesy lighthearted form of stress relief, so I’m slowly getting back into anime.

M: I tend to just rewatch the same three animes over and over. It's a bad habit��.

Syren: Veeery little. I've watched InuYasha, Fullmetal Alchemist (both series), Ouran High School Host Club, and random eps of random others. And I have maybe a quarter of the FMA manga, but that's about it.

Jynn: Yep! I like my classic shonen anime, but I keep up with a couple of the newer ones. I also own every volume of Yu Yu Hakusho...

@gimmemygurryback asked: Do admins (and now assistants) actually read any of the "followers' works" other than the one about M driving like a war boy?

Chamomile: Y’all have no idea. I read every single fic that came in during our 2016 Auideas Advent Calendar event, and whenever somebody tags us in something they’ve written then I immediately bookmark it to read later. I live off of seeing people get inspired by our aus.

M: YUP!! We have read every single fix submitted during AAC (where do you think the rating system came from??). We love reading everyone’s work and would love to have more.

Syren: I've read a few, but not as many as I wish :(  Time and motivation are fickle lil buggers

Jynn: Yes!!!

Anon asked: Hi! So I recently got into this thing on resistantradio.com, and basically it reminded me of your AU "Rebel Yell"! It's sort of a podcast/radio broadcast that's part of this series, um, The Man In The High Tower, I think, where the year is 1962 and nazi germany/imperial japan have won wwii and split America into two parts, but there's this neutral territory where an American resistance has sprung up, and so these three members are broadcasting in order to get others to rebel!

Chamomile: I’m familiar with Man in the High Tower, and after giving this podcast a listen, I have to say that it’s pretty good! I’m digging it! Currently I’m binging The Adventure Zone and The Hidden Almanac so I’ll bookmark Resistant Radio for later.

M: COOL!!!

Syren: That sounds rad as all get out; maybe I should start listening to podcasts! I never have before.

Jynn: I'm not huge into podcasts atm but that sounds cool!

[mudkipthemusical-blog]

Music of the Month: February 2017

February may be the shortest month of the year, but it still gave plenty of time to make some great discoveries this month (plus the Grammys made up for the 2 or 3 lost days as far as exposure to material goes). Looking back on my picks this time around, they’re kind of all over the place as far as styles go, and the moods go to extremes, but I’m a firm believer in “variety is the spice of life.” I’m also surprised by how I found all of these from different sources, be it the Grammys, Apple Music recommendations, live performances, or even here on Tumblr! For a month with only 28 days, I’m alarmed by how much great music I’ve been able to find, and that makes me all the more excited to recap it:

Album of the Month: A Sailor’s Guide to Earth by Sturgill Simpson

A Sailor’s Guide to Earth was definitely the wild card up for Album of the Year at the Grammys. Even though I knew it was going to come down between Beyoncé and Adele, I mainly wanted Sturgill to win for the sake of pulling off what to me would have been the ultimate upset. However, after actually checking it out, I found it truly fantastic and well-deserving of its nomination! First and foremost, the overall sound is phenomenal. I've seen Sturgill's style described as "alt-country," which is quite accurate if you ask me; Sturgill definitely has a rich tone and twang to his voice and there's a distinctively southern flavor to pretty much every aspect, but there were moments where the songs drifted into more funky or orchestral territory. If you're not a country fan, like me, you'll probably still appreciate it, and that's probably why it stood out to me the way it did. I found it to be a lot more sentimental and original than the archetypal sound you find in most popular country music nowadays. My personal standout tracks were coincidentally the first three: "Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)," "Breakers Roar," and "Keep It Between the Lines." Considering the overall concept of the album is a series of messages to Sturgill's son and wife, I found these to have the most lyrical impact; just hearing the first line "Hello my son / Welcome to Earth," hit me hard. That being said, it's still a solid album to the end, packing in plenty of different flavors and moods. Couple that with the gorgeous engineering, and it's clear that I stand by this as an award-quality record.

5 Great Songs from this Month:

"I Am" by The Lique

I reblogged the “Tiny Desk Concert” video to this song earlier this month, and it’s certainly stuck with me since. Everything about it just works and makes you feel good: the uplifting lyrics, the ease the rapper has performing them, the melodica break, etc. This is also one of those songs that I love re-listening to pick out the neat lyrical bits that pass by, but the refrain still sticks out to me every time. It works like a motivational mantra: "I am love/I am peace/I am joy/that can never be destroyed." Tell me that doesn’t make you smile!

"715 - CRΣΣKS" by Bon Iver

Bon Iver songs are notorious for being emotionally raw, and this is no exception. 22, A Million is certainly an unusual album for the average listener, but I found this to have just the perfect balance of Bon Iver’s classic essence with his new electronically-fueled style. It’s just him singing a capella through a vocoder, which is impactful in itself, but also reminds me of "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap: one of my favorite songs of all time. Both are pretty dark and show a lot of vulnerability, involve some deep and sophisticated lyrics, and have rich, rich harmonies that give everything else an extra punch. Expect to tear up, but expect brilliance.

"Little Fox Adventure (feat. Jenny)" by Tenkitsune

I’ve been following Tenkitsune on SoundCloud for months now, and I was delighted to see that he recently released a formal EP. I love Tenkitsune or making the happiest and cutest electronic music I’ve ever heard, and this is the cutest and happiest track he's put out to date in my mind. This song is like a ball of pure energy! While so much of that is rooted in the production, the vocal captures the essence perfectly, especially the line "Forget your worries / You'll float up to the sky." Whenever I hear that, though it sounds cheesy, I do exactly that. It's a perfect pick-me-up kind of tune.

"Dancing on My Own" by Callum Scott

Going back to the melancholy, this song is such a passionate, timeless piano ballad. It reminds me a lot of Sam Smith's work, especially with Callum Scott having the unique voice that he does. The lyrics are heartbreaking, but they tell quite an interesting story, and the way Callum delivers them with so much power takes you on a journey right along with him. I'm also a fan of the image of "I keep dancing on my own," referring to loneliness. It's a little easier to listen to than "715 - CRΣΣKS," but in that way, it's just as beautiful.

"If Your Dad Doesn't Have a Beard, You've Got Two Mums" by The Beards

This one, and frankly every song The Beards play, is just pure silliness. I discovered The Beards, a novelty band whose songs are all about beards, via a WheezyWaiter video on YouTube (WheezyWaiter being an avid beard-wearer and appreciator), and what followed that night was glorious. In a sense, this song could be seen as perpetuating toxic gender roles, but it’s too fun and ridiculous to be taken seriously. I can’t help but smile when I hear the vocalists harmonize over “two beardless moms,” and I highly reccomend you watch the video; if you’re like me, it will send you on a fantastically funny YouTube binge that may somehow change your life. 

BONUS: “Haitian Fight Song” as performed by the Mirari Brass Quintet

This didn’t quite make my top 5, but I do have to give it special attention because I got to hear this live at my university, and in the moment, it blew me away. The Mirari Brass Quintet are a very versatile group, if you couldn’t tell from how it’s a chamber ensemble playing a Charles Mingus tune. What hooked me from the start was the "bass" solo coming from the euphonium, and I have never heard a euphonium play anything like that, ever. The layers fill in after that with the trombone playing insanely fast triplets (my trombone-player brain practically exploded at that moment), and everything turns into this fantastic chaos. I'm partial to this song additionally because I got to play it in my high school jazz band my senior year, and it brings back such great memories. As my blog title says, I am one heck of a band geek, and this was a direct appeal to my pathos that I couldn't help but share.

On that note, it’s been a great month, and March is shaping up to be as great if not better. Lorde just dropped a new single today, and Ed Sheeran’s new album is mere hours away. For now, I'm getting hyped for that and will probably refresh Apple Music rapidly once midnight rolls around, but I can't wait to see what else is ahead and talk about it once April rolls around! 

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[thisaintascenereviews]

Album Review by Bradley Christensen Issues – Headspace / Self-titled Record Label: Rise Release Date: May 20 2016 / February 14 2014

After being heavily into a lot of metalcore / post-hardcore from my youth, basically from 2007 – 2010, I wanted to revisit a few bands from the current crop of metalcore that I’m really into. The reason I stopped listening to metalcore in the first place is that I found a lot of it to be boring, uninteresting, and clichéd. Not many bands were making waves, and I felt like I found everything, so I wanted to expand my tastes. A few years later, and there are some bands making some waves, one of the earliest ones that I found was Issues. I knew who Issues were, thanks to knowing vocalist Tyler Carter from his days in Woe, Is Me, a band that I liked a lot. Well, their debut album, anyway. The rest of their stuff was garbage, because Carter got kicked out afterwards, but I was kind of curious when Carter announced a new band. Issues released an EP in 2012, entitled Black Diamonds, and it was okay. It was still awfully generic metalcore, but with a nu-metal twist, and some pop and R&B elements that I thought were a nice touch. It was interesting to hear that kind of stuff in metalcore. When the band’s self-titled debut LP dropped in 2014, I wasn’t impressed… At first. It took me awhile to warm up to the album, and in retrospect, I really like it, and that’s partially because they definitely improved a lot over the couple of years that they took to release 2016’s Headspace. That was one of my favorite albums of 2016, too, because they expanded on the pop / R&B elements of their sound. Issues’ debut LP, however, didn’t. That’s why I wasn’t too crazy about it. I felt like they didn’t want to go all in, even though that’s what they did with Headspace. The debut took awhile for me to get into, because it was more of a metalcore album. I’ve come to really enjoy it, because it’s got more a nu-metalcore sound to it, so I like the guitar tones a lot of the time, and the hooks and poppier moments are very well-done, so I really like it.

It’s an album that’s a bit rough around the edges, but I enjoy it a lot. I learned to look at the album for what it was, not what I wanted it to be. Funny story about how I decided to revisit – I picked it up at Walmart. My mom and I went to a Walmart in another town, and I found a copy, so I was like, “Why not?” It’s not every day that you find copies of albums like that at Walmart, so I was curious enough to revisit the album, because it was months later. They actually reissued the album, at least at Target, with a bonus acoustic disc, entitled Diamond Dreams. It featured acoustic versions of songs from their first couple of records, and it was really, really good. I only own that copy of the album now, because why have two? I wasn’t extremely keen on the band leaning towards on their metalcore sound, but the glimpses of pop and R&B in their sound was really interesting, so I wanted to see where they would go. When I got into the album more, I realized it was a solid record, despite being a bit rough around the edges. It’s nothing that unique, or at least as innovative as Headspace turned out to be, but I like it. Hearing Tyler Carter’s voice being utilized a bit more, than he was on Woe, Is Me’s debut album, is a good change of pace, but yeah, let’s talk about Headspace. I heard the first couple singles from this record, and I was excited, because this LP is awesome. I mentioned that briefly already, but I love it. It’s a great record that furthers metalcore, because they take their brand of nu-metalcore and add blatantly obvious influences of pop, R&B, hip-hop, and even country here and there. One of the coolest things about Headspace is that it actually features a country singer. It’s so weird, but it works very well. Carter’s a big fan of R&B, pop, and soul music, and it’s no secret, considering that he has an R&B solo project, but it’s cool that they would expand on that more. That’s what I was hoping for.

Headspace really lays on the catchy, slick, and energetic hooks that Carter is known for, but they still have that heavy grit that they’re known for, too. They balance both sounds very well, and Issues is a good example of a band that takes metalcore into a new and more exciting direction than other bands out there. They started off as a band that didn’t know if they really wanted to go all in with that sound, and these ideas, but they really do. It took them a couple of projects, but Headspace is great. It’s only gotten better, too, I think. It’s one of those albums that just keeps getting better when you listen to it. Issues is a band that’s continued to make waves in the metalcore scene, and I think that’s great, because it’s been eight years since we first heard Carter’s voice in metalcore. That blows my mind, honestly, because I remember hearing him back then. Hearing him now, well, he’s gotten a lot better, and Issues have been able to expand on the sound they established six years ago. What’s even more interesting is that harsh vocalist Michael Bohn, who was also in Woe, Is Me, was just kicked out of Issues, so the next album might just feature Carter on vocals. Truth be told, I’d like to hear that, because I feel like they could go in the same direction as Emarosa, I The Mighty, Too Close To Touch, and Hands Like Houses, mainly because they’re bands that only have clean vocalists, but they have a post-hardcore sound. I’d like to hear that, honestly, because Carter is a great vocalist, so hearing an album with just his vocals would be totally fine. Hearing another solo EP or album would be cool, too, since it’s been a few years since his debut solo EP came out, but regardless, I can’t wait for another Issues album. I wanted to revisit their two albums, just because I wanted to see how they held up. They’re one of my favorite metalcore bands, because they take the genre into a new and exciting direction, especially adding other genres that I really enjoy.

[meowsaidmayaanime]

What I'm Watching June 2016

Here I will post the anime's that I am currently watching or re-watching, of course this does not include simulcasts as they are in a separate category all together. No, this is a list of the (some partially completed) anime that I binge watch. This post is constantly updated, as I tend to go through a single anime in its entirety within a couple of days, so keep your eye out!

6/25 Blood Blockade Battlefront

Let me get this down now. This anime is visually beautiful, sooooooo much time went into the art and details. Its movie quality beautiful, which is very unusual in a series. So onto the series itself it's about a boy who began living in a post apocalyptic New York after the gates between the human world and the 'monster' world opened. The characters are great, the premise was great, the episodes were great, everything was going wonderfully. Until the anime took an arrow to the knee... Metaphorically of course. So much was left unresolved, and in the last few episodes an obstacle was haphazardly thrown at us. I didn't check the episode count before watching the anime so I was shocked when I found out that there were only 13 (well 12 really) episodes. I get the impression that the studio was initially expecting to do a full 24 ep season considering the pacing of the anime up until episode 10. Evidently this is where the anime diverges quite a bit from the manga itself (my guess is that its unfinished. SOOOOO many anime are left in disappointment because the anime company decides to start a series before the manga has a chance to complete itself leaving the anime with a weird and out of place ending. sigh)

It really is a huge shame that Blood Blockade Battlefront ended the way it did. And its a shame that this recent trend of only creating 'half seasons' has once again resulted in a poor ending. I really liked this anime too, like I said earlier it was amazing. Seriously here's a quote from Toshi Nakamura who wrote a review of the anime itself.

"All in all, Blood Blockade Battlefront was a beautiful jewelry box filled with glittering stones that are individually beautiful, but when you put them on a string to make a necklace, on a whole, they lose a lot of their shine. Plus it feels like some of the most precious gems were left in the box."

My thoughts exactly. Those loose gems left in the box being the other 12 episodes this anime deserved in order to make one complete 24 ep season. I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Its so hard trying to recommend an anime when the end is a let down. I want people to see it because the first 9 episodes are fabulous, but I don't want to subject an unsatisfactory anime to anyone. Its not like the ending was bad, for how last minute it was, it was pretty well done, and it did make sense. It just wasn't the ending this anime deserved. If your willing to take this on I highly recommend it to anyone who loves the paranormal genre. Maybe it would just be best to read the manga. Its definitely on my list to read.

6/21 Sankarea Undying Love re-watch

Last time I watched this anime it was in high school after a friend recommended it to me. So I figured why not watch it again? Its a short 12 episode zombie love story. Haha, yup a zombie slice of life love story. In the world of American media, its a really unusual combination of genres, but in anime its no real surprise. I suppose the only real surprise about the anime is the fact that its relatively good, and not at all a harem like High School of the Dead. Its very cute and I think well done. The main female characters father is a total creep and wack-job but that is one of the reasons why he is the main antagonist. For being a zombie anime, its very laid back and you'll find out why as you watch it. Sankarea is an anime that I would recommend to people if I was aware of what kind of anime they liked. If you like the zombie scene but want to watch something not totally gruesome and hyped up, or if you like unusual/ supernatural/ paranormal/ ect. romances I think this is worth a shot.

6/17 Barakamon

WOW, this was really good. I initially started watching this because Funimation's YouTube channel posts trailers and promo videos for its anime. I watched the promo trailer for the English dub, recognized a lot of the voice actors in it and decided to give it a try. I'm gonna say this now, it's probably the best slice of life anime I have seen. and I mean full on slice of life, no paranormal or fantasy or anything else, it's pure slice of life. Its well written, the episodes flow, and its got a great story and great characters. The premise is that a young 20-something artist calligrapher Seishu punches a man who criticized his work as being unimaginative. As a result Seishu's father sends him to live on a rural island to 'cool his head'. The anime then follows the life of Seishu as he makes unexpected friendships and discovers who he is as an artist.

I just loved this anime, If you like slice of life, yes DEFINITELY watch this. Same if you like watching characters grow and their struggle to discover themselves, or if you like comedy, or if you like realism, or if you want a well made anime to calm down with after watching an emotionally draining one. Even if your not into the genre I recommend you give the first episode a try at least. I was immensely impressed with it.

Oh, and the full series won't be released in English until August 9, 2016, but Funimation is releasing the first two episodes in English on June 28th. I know I will definitely be re-watching this when the full English dub release comes out!!

6/16 Charlotte (re-watch)

I LOVED this anime when it came out last year. I remember getting to the last few episodes and going to the public library to finish watching it because the power went out in my house. I just finished re-watching it with one of my friends who had never seen it before. Haha, she was mad at me cause she got so invested in it. It is a doozy. But anyway, it follows high school boy Yuu Otosaka who recently became aware of a supernatural ability of his to be able to control a persons body for 5 seconds at a time. After abusing this power to cheat his way into a good high school, a girl named Tomoe catches him and makes him transfer to a school for people with other abilities. It goes on from there showing their lives, introducing characters and fortifying relationships until the REAL plot reveals itself~

If you like supernatural anime this is a really one, full story in only 13 episodes. It also touches up on quite a few 'heavy' topics, which it actually handles really well. I do recommend this to anyone actually, it was my third favourite 2015 anime of the one I watched that year.

(Bonus: I don't know who wrote this or how far into the anime hey were in, but I agree.)

6/14 50% Off (re-watch)

Oh man, I love this show. I just watched their two A-kon panels from a few weeks ago, and it's great. Just watch this show, make sure you watch it. Here's a link to my post on my favourite parody/abridge series where I talk about this show more. You don't have to know the original anime to enjoy it (I didn't watch Free until recently), so get on YouTube type it in and get going!

6/13 Princess Jellyfish (re-watch)

Alright, So now you guys are up to speed on the anime I watched during my vacation, I just started re-watching Princess Jellyfish. Oh man, I completely forgot about this little gem. I first watched it my freshman year of college (two years ago), and LOVED it. It's basically about a household of otaku young women, and one in particular who is in love with jellyfish, who make friends with their arch enemy, a stylish person! Haha, it is hilarious and a great commentary on stereotypes/social norms in Japanese culture (and really many other first world cultures for that matter.) I am having so much fun re-watching this series, it is slice of life so there is not much of an overarching plot so much as it is just following the exploits of the group after becoming friends with said stylish person I mentioned earlier. Each episode flows naturally into the next creating a constant story with each episode having to do with the next. So despite it being a slice of life, there are no filler episodes that forgotten or have nothing to do with anything. it also consistently references pop-culture and media not just from Japan, but from America too. Really, I can't express how great it is. Watch it, you won't regret it.

6/9 & 6/12

HEY! Sorry for the inactivity, I was on vacation out of state. While I was not able to do anything on this site for the past week, I was able to watch a few anime! AND hey are new ones!

So during my summer vay-cay (haha, thats such a terrible word) I watched:

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia

and Amnesia

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia was good. It's about a high school boy who makes a friend out of a ghost, Yuuko, who doesn't remember anything from when she was alive. In terms of content, while they do try to figure out how she died and who she is, a good portion is about tellig the story of the two main characters. Doing high school activities, developing relationships, ect. While the anime does frequently talk about the mystery and paranormal throughout these episodes, its not until the end of the series that the mystery of Yuuko ACTUALLY begins being solved, and they find out REAL information of her past. In hindsight, her past and the climax of the series is thrust upon you towards the end. It would have been better in my opinion if the events and info were more evenly dispersed throughout each episode from the beginning. I still really liked this anime, though I'm not sure as to how good it is. If your into the sort of subdued paranormal scene, then you may want to give this a shot. Its short, its sweet, I really liked learning about Yuuko's past when it finally got around to it, and I personally really liked it. But again, if you like the paranormal, you may like this. If your not into paranormal stuff, then I wouldn't recommend it.

Now Amnesia was a whole different box of pillows. By that I mean body pillows, and by that I mean I am sure that there area tons available. Why? Because this short anime was adapted from a dating sim called Amnesia: Memories. I wish I had known that before I started watching it, but no matter. In terms of dating sim adaptations, it's pretty good. In terms of an anime, not so much. The premise for both the anime and the game is that you are a girl who just woke up and knows absolutely nothing about herself, where she is, or who anyone else is. She has, you guessed it, amnesia. Amnesia caused by a fairy 'bumping' into her? which doesn't make too much sense. (but hey at least it wasn't because she performed horrific acts of manslaughter, created a patchwork monster, and played a huge part in nearly destroying humanity all so Alexander could become godlike, am I right?) Anyway, she wakes up and begins jumping alternate worlds in which she is dating different guys, thus the dating sim part comes in. In therms of the anime itself, the plot is a little wobbly waiting until the last 2 or 3 episodes to actually explain her true past and give a substantial story line. Because in the game, the female character and her name/personality is you, the anime version of her is left 'blank' for self insertion. Making a poor main character being pushed to and fro. But I will tell you this the music was REALLY good, the opening, closing and background music were absolutely fantastic. SO, if you have played this game and enjoyed it then I would definitely recommend it. If you have not, and have absolutely no interest in self-insertion romance, then its not worth the watch for the plot. Although I did like it myself. It's a good addition to my, quote-unquote, "trash anime" (watch out for a post in the maybe near future). Basically a list of guilty pleasure anime which are terrible when it comes to plot and characters, but I just can't resist. Its like reading trashy romance novels, but better and worse at the same time.

6/5 Red Data Girl (re-watch)

Another re-watch, maybe June will be a month of oldies~ (at least for me). RDG is an adorable anime, its a short 12 ep, one season series based off the Japanese novels of the same title. 6 novels (no official translation, but this person on tumblr has been translating them in their spare time), 4 manga novel adaptations, and one anime as mentioned. I'm not familiar with the novels or manga, but I do know that the anime covers most but not all of the novels. One person said it covers the first 5 novels but that's it. Anyway, the anime is super cute, and I really like the premise. My only issue is that the end felt like the completion of a smaller story arch within a larger one. Leaving no REAL ending, you can't even argue that the end is open to interpretation because they didn't leave you wondering what happened, they leave you without ever continuing the main story arch. Without explaining the endless questions that rose with the intention of it being resolved later. Hopefully the manga will give me some solace but with 4 books, i'm not sure if it will... I really like it, and I really wish it would continue.

oh btw, as of right now it's available on netflix, the English voice acting is ok, its not bad, but its also not great. The voice actors are able to but the right voice out, but not give the voice the emotion that the words give. I greatly prefer the Japanese voice acting, but I'm able to live with the English if I'm multi-tasking. (random note: the ending theme is super pretty. Actually, a lot about this anime is pretty)

6/2 Blue Exorcist Movie TOP PICK FOR THIS MONTH (new)

The movie has nothing to do with the plot of the anime at all, and takes place after the events in the series. Atleast I'm fairly certain it does? There's an important (and spoiler-y) thing that happens at the end of the series, that is never addressed or acknowledged in the movie which I think is really weird..... Either way, the movie itself is simply a completely stand alone story from the series. And it was absolutely stunning! Sooooo much detail went into all of the backgrounds and items. On top of that its very well scripted, and the plot flowed incredibly well together without being convoluted, which is surprising since a number of movie sequels to tv series's tend to go overboard by stuffing too much information into an hour and a half.

It was amazing. Its possible that someone could watch the movie without watching the single season anime, just because of how it was written. However you would not know the relationships or the back story of the main character, which helps to explain a lot of the terminology and setting. Especially the part about demons ect ect.

Either way, I LOVED this movie. I didn't even know that there was a movie at all until just now. I'm going to re-watch it with a friend when she gets back into town and I am soooooo excited because I KNOW she will love it too. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. I RECOMMEND THIS SO HARD.

6/1 Blue Exorcist (re-watch)

Well I can't sleep, so what better opportunity than this to re-watch Ao no Exorcist in the English dub~ Ah, I love this anime. Its funny, has great main characters, a good story and writing, and I seem to have a week spot for exorcist anime's, haha. Man, I remember watching this when it first came out in high school, I have a distinct memory of watching one of the later episodes before going to one of my friends concerts. There was a movie made about a year later, AAAAAND a series of specials. Oh, man the movie was so amazing. It has nothing to do with the plot of the anime at all, in fact the anime wrapped up everything rather nicely. The Movie itself is simply another story in cinematic format. It was absolutely beautiful, well made, well scripted, and the plot flowed incredibly well together without being convoluted. Would 100% recommend.

Oh, right! The dub isn't that bad, I mean I wish they had a different voice actor for Rin, I just don't feel like this one really lives up to the character. The other voice actors are great though, really fit the characters. The dub is well done, but I think I preferred the Japanese voice actors (they have a better pick than we do.) I just think that someone with a slightly lower, more thug-ish voice would have been better. The English actors voice is a little too high for me, it's even higher than Yukio's voice ._.

6/1 Black Butler (re-watch)

I decided to re-watch the show (minus the second season) after writing up my post from yesterday about anime whose second season could just go and disappear from existence. I love Sebastian, he is a saint, well a saint among devils. Not only is he one hell of a butler, but one hell of a contractor too, he REALLY get into his jobs, and it is amazing. Even I would enter into a contract if I could have him as a butler~ It's a goon anime, not sure if its recommendation worthy though. I mean yes it's good but it's not something that you HAVE to see, or something you would be missing out on. It's surprisingly fun and while it can and does get intense in certain areas, its not so intense that its going to mess you up.  As long as you never touch the second season, NEVER.

Bonus image, cause why not:

[zebracore]

Circus worlD - The Burning Well E.P.

Before I was in Postcode, I was in a band called Circus worlD, for many years.  In fact, the demise of Circus worlD in 2007 was one of the catalysts for the formation of Postcode as a full band.  Though the band featured a number of other musicians over the years the two constants had been myself and Mark Sayle, the main songwriter in the band.  Over the past few years the two of us had occasionally got together and written some new material, but it had never really gone anywhere past the initial writing and demoing stages.  More-or-less this time last year Mark approached me again about recording a new song that he’d written, so we once again reconvened and once he’d showed me the song I went about recording it.  I have to admit that at the time I wasn’t really expecting much more to come of it, but a couple of days later recorded Mark’s vocals and, for the first time in more than a decade we had a finished new Circus worlD song recorded.

The following week Mark had another song for us to work on, soon followed by another.  Not long after that we had a further two songs on the go and then another and another.  The weeks turned into months and we continued writing and recording, with me handling all of the musical duties, though Mark had written the majority of the basic chord sequences and in some instances (such as the choruses of ‘Black Swan’ and the verses of ‘Nibiru Rising’ on this EP), melodic picked parts for them too.  I had free reign to do whatever I felt like essentially and, thankfully, in almost every case Mark totally approved of what I had done with the songs.  

In contrast to the intense negativity that had made the ill-fated full-band Circus worlD reunion of 2012 a largely joyous affair, the sessions for this new material were enjoyable, with a feeling of excitement and creativity throughout the process. To me it felt a lot like the early days of the band again, though the way of working was quite different.  By the time we had finished, in late August, we had twenty finished songs, including the four that we had begun in the preceding years.  When we had begun in February of last year there had been no real goal.  When we had recorded a few songs I thought perhaps we might make an EP, which evolved into the notion that we would be doing a full album.  As the material mounted up I was keen on the idea of issuing a single first, with three or four B-sides.  It turned out that we had so many songs that the best option was actually to release two EPs, each being led by a single from the album.  When I realised that I was really taken with the idea; to me it harks back to a time when music was more valued and singles and EPs were viewed as important.  In today’s music world it may be considered anachronistic, and perhaps it is, but it was something that I felt we should do.

And so to the EP itself, the first release of new original material from Circus worlD in twelve years.  ‘The Burning Well E.P.’ contains five tracks, led by the first single from the forthcoming album.  The songs on it lean towards our more straight-up rock side, from the catchier, poppier ‘Black Swan’, to the darker and grungier ‘Demons’ and ‘Nibiru Rising’ and culminating in the epic ‘The End.’, perhaps the closest to metal that we have ever got.  The EP can be downloaded on a name-your-price basis, but there is also a CD version available which comes with five bonus tracks from our past, recorded in somewhat more lo-fi fashion (hey, we’re named after a Guide By Voices track, our early stuff should sound pretty rough around the edges, right?).

Black Swan - The lead track, and what we consider to be the first single from the album that will be released later in the year.  To my recollection (which may not be entirely accurate) this was recorded in late June and to me it stood out straight away as ‘single’ material, even before Mark had added his vocals to it.  With some of the new songs I didn’t really know where they were going to end up, what they were going to become, until I had worked on them for a while; as I added drums, bass, extra guitars, etc they would slowly reveal themselves to me, almost like watching a Polaroid picture develop.  Other songs, like this one, seemed fully-formed from the outset - I knew instantly pretty much what the finished track would sound like, certainly from a musical perspective.  From the instant that Mark played it to me, from the chordal riffs to the picked melody over the choruses I knew it was going to be a great song.  Of course when Mark did add his vocals I was even more convinced.  I originally played a slightly flashier solo on it, but I knew it wasn’t quite right for the song.  For some reason it occurred to me that maybe I could try using my 12-string on it and, after going for a quick cigarette, I played the take that made it to the record.  It wasn’t wildly different from the original solo, just slightly subtler and more in-keeping with what I felt the song needed.

Demons - This stems from the early days of the sessions, perhaps early March, and was probably about the fourth song to be written.  It is also one of my favourites and think that we were both slightly surprised when we realised that we hadn’t selected it for inclusion on the album.  When we first started working on new songs ‘dark and heavy’ was the description we used for what we were doing.  This evolved as the sessions moved on and we began exploring different directions as we always have, but this song, as well as others, epitomises the vibe of what we were doing to begin with.  This is another song that grabbed me as soon as Mark played to me and again I instantly knew what I wanted to do with it. I haven’t played a huge amount of guitar solos over the past several years (especially in Nanaki where it would be wholly inappropriate), but this features several and I’m really happy with them.

Nibiru Rising - We began work on this the same night as ‘Demons’, though I didn’t get to work on it until a bit later; we were writing and demoing at such a rate at one point that I had no way of keeping up when it came to properly recording all of the songs.  Like ‘Demons’ I feel like this song has something of a grungey vibe, particularly in the main riff section. This is one that I didn’t immediately love, but the more I have heard it the more I’ve come to really like it, to the point that I was again almost disappointed that it didn’t make it to the album.  Another great vocal from Mark here and some noise guitar from me, which is something that I’m always partial to.

Fire Flowers - An anti-war song, if that wasn’t obvious enough.  I never really know what to expect when Mark adds his vocals, but from time to time he comes out with something I really wasn’t expecting, as on this track.  Musically I heard it as a kind of punky Dinosaur Jr. type of song hearing Mark’s almost Cult-like delivery was definitely a surprise, but I think unpredictability is generally a good thing in music.  Most of the music for this was recorded on the final Sunday of May having been up since Saturday morning recording another new song.  Features two fairly over-the-top solos from me too, using a wah pedal, which is something I very, very rarely use.  

The End. - Another somewhat surprising track from us, veering as it does way closer to metal territory than anything else in our catalogue.  In the intro and outro however, I think it has some of the most beautiful sounds that we recorded of the entire sessions.  The only song on the EP in standard tuning, as the rest of the songs (and the majority of those recorded last year) are in Drop D.  Of course, a song entitled ‘The End.’ had to be the final song on the record, but musically I think it is a fitting closer.

You can see the video for ‘Black Swan’ here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGWpMJBqOqQ

Hear, and obtain, the EP here - https://circusworld.bandcamp.com/album/the-burning-well-e-p