#just looked it up and it’s bc i haven’t been seeing enough Senshi

[carelesscuriosity]

Love watching a mutual get obsessed with a new thing until it’s too many of my mutals and then i can’t escape it

[xserpx]

Battle Ground Thoughts

Major spoilers below.

The Good

I really enjoyed the last part of the fight with Ethniu. Hendrick's sacrifice was well done, and the Marcone reveal was fantastic. The action was really great, although it did get too much at times, especially the beginning of the fight with Ethniu where it’s more like reading a shonen manga, lots of huge ‘final’ attacks and mist clearing as they wait for the blood spray before someone pulls a trap card. Still pretty likeable.

Marcone as a Knight of the Blackened Denarius is intriguing. My one caveat is that I think it diminishes his post-Small Favor achievements quite a bit, knowing he had access to all that power. It makes sense, especially considering just how much Marcone was able to get done, but yeah, I liked this little twist. Marcone is probably the main reason I would keep reading the books, as things stand.

I like the fact Harry's finally been kicked off the White Council, as he should be. I'm not sure why this is controversial, though. He’s clearly broken several laws, and tbh I was kind of surprised they kept him on after becoming the Winter Knight, like... conflicted interests, much?

Drakul and the Blampires were cool. Wouldn't mind seeing them again.

The Bad

Justine's reveal, while interesting bc omg Outsiders infesting the characters we love, it also absolutely terrifies me in terms of what it actually means for Thomas/Justine both in the future and in the past. A future that might not even happen, now. And considering how long it's been since she was infected, it's entirely possible a lot of Justine's feelings have been manufactured as well. One of the things at the top of my Do Not Want list was Justine or the baby getting hurt, and now we’re here.

I'm severely disinterested in Harry/Lara. I have no idea where it's going, but it's boring at best. Maybe Jim Butcher has an idea for it that doesn’t result in me rolling my eyes, but I’m not feeling charitable today.

Ivy and Harry never got a proper conversation. Also why tf was Ivy dressed in a school uniform for that fight? Unless she's a sailor senshi or something, it just doesn't make sense. Plus she should be in her mid-late teens by now, ffs, not her early teens.

We're still drawing out the Starborn mystery? Ugh, ok.

Michael's cursing out the White Council for kicking Harry off the team... Completely OOC, sorry, I hated it. Michael is a great character because he doesn't swear as a matter of principle. If he had to start swearing, that was a bad hill to choose.

The way the morality of the White Council flip flops depending on Dresden's mood is getting annoying. At the meeting at the end, he says the Council is the biggest defender of humanity, and that he's clearly sitting at the monsters' table, but they're also supposed to be the enemy for treating him as such? Ebenezar and some of the Seniors are douchebags, for sure - especially Eb as it's personal - but Carlos and the rest are solid good guys trying to do their best. After everything that's happened, Harry shouldn't be so freaking bitter. He’s a monster now. Either own it, or make different choices. Also Carlos should’ve told him what Molly did to him. I hate that this hasn’t been addressed and that Carlos just looks like a suspicious bastard when he’s actually sustained life-changing injuries and trauma. Communication generally between Harry and the White Council needs to start happening like yesterday.

Butters needs to just go away, please. Give me a break from this shithead. He's had a few months of training and can keep up with literally everyone. He gets all these Crowning Moments of Awesome, but he never suffers for it, and at this point I'm genuinely wondering whether he'll ever suffer any consequences whatsoever. Also he constantly outshines Sanya, who is ostensibly better qualified, and the Sword of Hope should have been the stronger of the two in that last fight. I’m sick of hearing how great Butters is, and being expected to laugh at all his dumb, nerdy references.

Harry barely thinks about Thomas when he considers his recent losses. Sure Thomas is still alive, but barely, with no guarantees he'll survive or that he'll come back the same person. Harry should be grieving for him as much as he's grieving for Karrin at this point. I also wanted there to be more reason behind Thomas's actions, some sort of conspiracy within the White Court, but there wasn't. It's bad enough being anxious for Thomas, but being anxious for his whole goddamn family is just way too much, ffs.

The Ugly

I mean, I've told people: if I'd tried to imagine a worst case scenario for Karrin Murphy's death, it would have been better than the ending we got. It's worse than James Norrington dying at the hands of Bootstrap Bill. It's worse than Superman's dad dying while trying to save the dog. She shouldn't have died at all, period, but if she absolutely had to go, there is no fucking way in HELL that that was the best way for it to happen. Whether she comes back or not, there is no way to justify that scene. Gard saying she saved everyone by defending Dresden might be a satisfying Watsonian explanation for some, but of all the times, of all the places, of all the ways, and of all the people... JB picked the absolute worst possible combination. Absolute. Garbage. It's not that he can't write decent sacrifices. Hendrick's death was superb! So why the FUCK couldn't Murph get the same treatment? Why the FUCK was she killed off so FUCKING pointlessly? This isn't a real life story. This isn't some hyperrealistic, anyone can die, Game of Thrones type bullshit, where you can just kill off the second main character as shock value and have it be valuable to a bigger theme. This is the Dresden Files, a fucking series where all the women are Playboy models, and there's a middle-aged dweeby guy in sports goggles riding a skateboard and wielding a lightsaber and facing off with a Titan after just a few months of training, and having threesomes with bisexual women half his age, one of whom wears a fucking Avengers t-shirt to bed. It's a fanservice show. So it is not too much to ask for the main female character to be given the kind of death she actually deserves, let alone that she be allowed to live long enough to enjoy a relationship that's been so fantastically built up over 15+ books. (Query: was any of her family at her funeral? Audiobooks make searching hard, and I can’t find out if that was mentioned.) It's not unfair to hate the FUCK out of JB for pulling such a horrible, awful, LAZY move. I didn’t cry when it happened. I actually laughed quite a bit, maniacally, because it was that much of a train wreck. I'm not crying now, either. I'm just so, so tired. RIP Murph.

Granted, I haven't had to wait for a Dresden Files book like this before. Skin Game had a very neat ending, whereas this asks way, way, way more questions than it answers, which is probably more par for the course in this series? But now my two favourite characters are out of the field and may never come back, and I'm just so fucking tired and disappointed, and tired of being disappointed. I don't know whether it's worth staying invested in the vague hope Jim Butcher will start giving a shit about anyone other than Butters, but I can't see the next book being much good when Thomas and Karrin won't be there. When Karrin may never be there again. When I don't even know if the next book will show up, or if there'll be another hiatus resulting in a mediocre story.

I'm predicting that there'll be a Murph-centric short story in the near future that'll probably be a "gotcha!" to all the fans like me who fucking hate how BG turned out. Either it'll finish her off entirely or hint at a resurrection, which may or may not come. Either way, it won't justify her death. It won't make this better.

If I wasn’t as invested in Karrin, I’d like this book more. I can understand if people like it, and there are definitely some good things about it, but it’s hard to appreciate those bits when there’s such a massive pile of stinking shit sitting smack bang in the middle.

[docholligay]

BITS FROM THE SURVEYS

For the optional question on the surveys, where I get a ton of enjoyment reading, I asked for all of them “Tell me why you picked what you picked” I loved reading all of them so thank you to those who filled it out, but I’m going to share a few favorites: 

Miscellaneous:

Real talk - I'd love more Bob Ross, but those supplies ain't cheap, either. I may not vote for it in further rounds, because I do not want you to be in financial hurting by trying to provide this for us. (And second real talk - I desperately want to hear you talk about history and formal manners. You make topics come alive in wonderful ways.)

It’s true it is NOT CHEAP, but I do have more of the stuff now so it won’t be QUITE AS MUCH OF A BOMB as last year where we totally lost money on the whole deal ahaha. And thank you! I love history and manners and all of that good goofy stuff. 

JUST FINISH THE WALKING DEAD GAME FOR THE LOVE OF JEW GOD IT'S BEEN YEARS

LIKE THREE I THINK BUT NO ONE VOTED FOR IT

Can’t get enough of your writing

There is no way I COULDN'T choose fix/writing day because your writing is phenomenal and I will never pass up an opportunity for more.

I basically kept these because they made me feel good and I wanted an easy place to get to them, I am bought cheaply.

Utena:

I used a random number generator to pick these! (Because every episode of Utena is wonderful when you're talking about it.)

This absolutely delighted me

Deeper... Go deeper. (Seriously though I’d love to see your thoughts on the Nemuro flashbacks now that you’ve finished the show.)

There are so many things I want to revisit in Utena now that I’m finished but I don’t know that anyone would think it was cute for me just to start the anime again ahaha. 

Sailor Moon: 

 I picked pretty much all of the episodes featuring Michiru and Haruka because IM GAY

Idk any of the episodes, I just picked the ones that sounded the most gay

THESE ARE BOTH THE MOST VALID TAKES. 

CALL IT "MICHIRU BULLIES A TEENAGER AT A PUBLIC POOL" YOU COWARD

WE ALL KNOW THAT IS THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE

You don't normally do inners-only things (for obvious reasons), but I think there's a lot to dig into in EP 45 and it would be really interesting to hear your take!

I pretty much NEVER do anything before S, because if there aren’t my lesbians why is the show even around, but 45 got through! 

Clocks are stupid. 

L O L 

Livestream: 

I am legit shocked you have not seen The Last Unicorn, but it could be that I'm remembering you've read the book instead? I swear I read a post of yours that talked about it…

I swear I haven’t! I’ve seen like 15 minutes of it when Jetty livestreamed it and it was like right at the end so honestly the credits and Jet not being impressed are the only things I know! I have heard great things about the book, and considered picking it up, but never have! 

If I had fuck-you-money, I'd visit every time Ari Aster released a new movie and just goddamn scream about it PLEASE consider the director's cut if possible!!

I am low key obsessed with Ari Aster and approve of you gaining fuck you money. 

Doc talks about class romance YES PLEASE.

ALWAYS CLASS ROMANCIN’ IN MY SENSHI HEART

You made freaks sound very interesting!

IT WAS SO GOOD. It didn’t get through this round, I imagine because it’s not well known, but it was basically the sort of thing I always wanted Xmen to be, and also it was a very Jewish movie on a number of levels. 

Non-Animated:

Doctor Who is my favorite show ever, but the original run is just, well, ummmmm.... Great characters, great stories, wow bad effects. I think this would be more fun for you than the New Who eps starting in 200?

I have seen a handful of Doctor Who episodes: The angry baldish one and the inescapable David Tennant. I LOVED Torchwood though, watched it like wild once it was recommended to me, so we’ll see! 

I thought Twilight Zone was nominated! I thought I had nominated it! A great disservice upon us all! I really love reading your commentary on the Haunting of Hill House, even though I haven't watched it. It's just so fascinating, especially the mentions on camera work and the like.

I was a little surprised no one went for TZ either! But not in a bummed way, just a surprised way, everyone seemed to really really enjoy the TZ liveblog last year. Thank you! I LOVED hill house, and it’s such a treat to me to get to liveblog it. 

I need to see you intensely on your shit, and feel that will happen with most of what I picked.

JEWS ON THEIR SHIT, NEWS AT 11. 

Bc Leverage is the best show in the entire world and it’s so good everyone should watch it

I know almost NOTHING about Leverage except that people want me and Jet both to watch it (And I’m going to have her report back to me when she streams it for Patreon on the 26th, either way) but from what little I know it’s a heist procedural? So I’m sort of surprised people look at it for me, but maybe I have the wrong idea about the show PLEASE NO SPOILERS 

YOU DESERVE SUE PERKINS

WE ALL DO, REALLY. 

Animated:

To quote Regalli in your discord: "make someone liveblog A Place Further Than The Universe, I need well-articulated screaming about spite as a motivator and friendship and loss!"

I know nothing about this show but I have to say this was a magnificent pitch and my ears are officially perked. 

Psycho Pass because I really love your non-fiction pieces and the tidbits of morals and ethics that you dole out and I would love to see your take on the morals/ethics of the ending of the series. <--which is 500 years away until I win a liveblog, but that is my goal for next year, to pay patron and get one of those positions!

Thank you! I feel like I see so much shit just because I started running the patreon liveblog contest, which gives people a chance they might not have had. 

I want to see you talk about the murder cupcake forever? Is that a good reason?

I LOVE THE MURDER CUPCAKE.