#just rewatched it and can confirm that its definitely not there

[housemdork]

house md rewatch: 2x15, "clueless"

"love will make you do wrong" oh i'm sure.

this is one of those recaps where i'm definitely just reiterating what the writers were putting down, but it's so insane that it bears in-depth repeating imo.

please believe me when i say this rewatch project's goal is a wholistic view of the entire series. yet, with that in mind, you can imagine the stress i feel when what seems like an episode devoted entirely to unpacking intimate interpersonal relationships has hilson as the fulcrum. and not just hilson - equal character development for both house and wilson as the domesticity shenanigans unfold.

that's not to downplay the patient story - it's crazy, and i'm kind of obsessed with it. the zebra factor is probably way off the charts, but i love the extra sherlockian vibe and the confirmation that house md can, in fact, do shock value without throwing entire identities under the bus (@ 2x13). all that plus the horror movie opening? golden (lmfao).

from the top, then. look at his triangle ass stance here:

we can safely say, i'd argue, that 2000s audiences were supposed to laugh at how much wilson cares about his appearance; i'm laughing, too, but in a 2020s Woke Queer Way. and house lasts just one night with wilson crashing on his couch before he says that this won't work; his domestic sphere has been invaded by someone he doesn't know how to account for, at least not in this capacity. one of the things we know about house thus far is that routine is immeasurably valuable to him.

it also kills me how devastated wilson is to hear that house wants him out, along with his sassy retort about house's hair, or "what's left of it." gagged.

this entire episode is based on the (heterosexual) domicile. it also devotes a lot of time qualifying the patient and his partner, bob and maria, as Sexually Freaky (tm). they upend traditional notions of marriage, partnership, and sex through their kinks/bdsm, including consensual noncon sex. the team leaps to the initial conclusion that bob's sudden suffocation comes from repeated history of rough sex, which is quickly disproven.

maria and bob's sex life absolutely boggles everyone's minds...except for cameron's lol. the growing fluidity with which she treats relationships as some of her convictions adapt (not dissolve! just shift!) is really interesting to me, like it interests chase, too lol.

2x15 persistently deconstructs maria and bob's personal lives until its full ugliness is on display (while unforch being a little kink-shamey, but we can look past this). despite their insistence that they're happy, maria is secretly poisoning her husband. despite their pristine home, what takes place in there is only thinly disguised intermarital violence. cameron's bet on their happiness falls flat on its face, and house md argues that a frontward functional relationship will always be plagued with deeper issues.

those issues are not represented visually, however! let's contrast the 2 major sites of domesticity in this episode:

foreman's remarks that maria and bob keep an impeccably clean place contrasts with wilson's general opinion of house's apartment. over the seasons, we see house's place in various states of disarray, though it's chock full of his personality and history, whereas maria and bob's place is just cold, 2000s chic. this reinforces the subliminal distance between maria and bob and captures the degree to which wilson is invited into house's personal life.

next i want to tackle the emphasis on food, poisoning, and choking in 2x15. i thought it was a silly bullet point in my notes until i actually sat down to right this (like literally in this moment!). after repeatedly arguing that bob was poisoned with heavy metals, house eventually lands on the theory that maria is behind it. it's not until the end does 2x15 reveal that she's been dosing his food with gold (don't ask me the full name lmfao), scarring his lungs over time.

meanwhile, in stuffed pepper, pancake, salad, and sandwich land:

house pretends to find the bell peppers stinky but takes a liking to the rest of wilson's cooking immediately. no poison to be had here. in an outwardly dysfunctional domestic situation, food sharing (however reluctant) is a net positive. wilson's final note warning house off his lunch is closer to a joke than a formal warning:

if it's not clear, i'm casting house as maria and wilson as bob in this off-kilter domesticity parallel, and a subtle but brilliant example of this comes at the very end. while maria is taken away in handcuffs, house rushes back home on his motorcycle. while foreman and chase inform bob that maria was trying to kill him, wilson sleeps soundly on house's couch. viewers are also treated to al green's "love and happiness" in the background, with the very poignant lyric: "love will make you do wrong."

everything about house/wilson and maria/bob is reversed, along with their respective "wrongs." 2x15 is funny and crazy enough to suggest that house deleting the message about wilson's apartment is symbolically akin to maria killing bob slowly over time. look how they both gaze upon their domestic partners - one with faux guilt on their face, and the other with faux annoyance:

i've spent all this time building to the following argument: in pretending that he hates having wilson around, 2x15 subverts the assumed happiness brought on by a heteronormative domestic space. as much as maria pretends to love bob, house pretends to hate living with wilson. maria tries to remove bob from her domestic (and from this earth lol) while house tries to keep wilson around. we spend an entire episode unearthing how sinister a sexually charged heterosexual marriage can be, only to arrive at the house and wilson dynamic of it all.

i'm not even strictly hilson posting here, just highlighting how bizarre it is in that 2000s network tv decided to deconstruct heteronormativity, however intentionally/unintentionally. it's not my fault that wilson has to make everything about sex. and that every moment of this episode is about sex except for the moments spent between house and wilson.

lastly, one of the concluding scenes between house and the fellows is a nice example of audience/house solidarity, something the entire show does subtly throughout to get us squarely in his headspace. the four of them are ruminating over what could possibly motivate someone to kill their partner, which cameron seems especially appalled by.

in response, house makes a slew of interesting deductions: "maybe she just got tired of being married. didn't want to admit to family and friends that the marriage everyone thought was perfect wasn't."

i call this house solidarity because we know for a fact that he's talking about wilson's situation...but who within his marriage? we never meet julie (which, apart from the unfortunate fridging, i think is a good narrative choice), so we don't get her side of the story or understand if/how she's been open about her and wilson's separation. all we know, and all that house cares to know, is that wilson's marriage isn't perfect.

this next bit is informed by my hilson brain, but there's been a subtle thrill in house in the face of wilson's separation. i get the sense that he hopes he's talking about wilson here, that he hopes wilson got tired of being married because things (in the aforementioned heteronormative relationship!) are imperfect. and, as if to secure this hope, he deletes the message about the apartment while looking especially smug.

this line of dialogue also does some work in acknowledging wilson's vulnerability. like the patient in 2x14 suggested, we can't be afraid to look stupid. by nature of showing up at house's door, he's admitted that things aren't perfect. that's their give-and-take; wilson lets house in emotionally while house lets wilson in physically. given house's reliance on routine and privacy, this is an equal exchange.

here's my actual final note: why can't wilson realize that he has a real love language? FOOD! and acts of service! you don't just have to sleep with everyone you love! there are other ways to express these things! you literally had a spoon at the ready for house! and you seem so secretly pleased when he doesn't hate the taste!

[sgiandubh]

I love your style, intelligent, down to earth, very practical, not in the 5-10 children in 7 years part of the fandom. Guess that’s why I’m very intrigued by your take on recent events. I feel a massive shift in their public behavior, very different from the last 6-7 years where they tried very hard to separate themselves from their characters and each other. Why do you think that is?

Dear @i-ship,

Thank you very much for the kind words. I try to keep things in check and base my opinions on solid facts. Not 'FACTS', mind you, but as much as possible publicly available documents and data. The not so public things (meaning you have to pay for those, which indicates a different confidentiality level) I keep for myself, because I am not an idiot: in no way, however, do they contradict the rest, in which case I would immediately recalibrate my analysis. I also know very well that confirmation bias has often been mentioned as a sad excuse across the street, when things didn't look good for them. That is wishful bullshit, because no legal professional would prostitute their skill in order to shoehorn reality into a given scenario. Papers speak by themselves - there is no need to stretch the information they contain, but yes, you can (and you should) interpret them. Therefore, all I did was to translate in everyday English what is often not accessible to everyone and wrap it in a bit of context. This is, apparently, a mortal sin and I know it is the main reason I am being hated with a passion, by many.

All of the above just to stress the fact that I am not easily swayed by sensational pics, tidbits and gifs. I may sound like a damned party pooper to you, but I prefer to patiently follow what I think is interesting, rather than childishly bounce on my chair every single time people see what they really saw a thousand times before, in eleven years of saga. Nor do I need to have confirmation four times a day of something that simply exists, irrespective of the fact I know about it or not.

I will say only this: C definitely looks as she DGAF about the whole circus anymore. It started with the piggyback pics, on March 25, continued with the Taylor Swift concert (the only time I allowed myself to oooh and awww at 4 AM) and is now seemingly confirmed by these new promo pics and interviews. Yes, they screeched 'it's fan service', but as far as I know nobody forced C to behave the way she clearly intends to show everyone. It's Season 7B, for Christ's sake, the script is hogwash and the acting is not so good (yes, I will need a rewatch to write something decently balanced about it), the audience numbers are dwindling and OL is on its way out. Hard truths, no matter how you turn it: why would she open again the door to 'speculation' (ah, but what's in a word?), especially considering this cesspool of a fandom's obsessive-compulsive collective behavior?

Unless...

Unless, @i-ship. Let's not write the script, but you got me. I hope this answers your question - at any rate, it was a pleasure trying to.

[twonightshadesforus]

oh.

Ok.

Hi guys.

My friend and I were on call, and we were rewatching Alien Stage together.

Normal stuff, right?

But then she points out something. Something that I did NOT notice before. Like, at all.

Tw for mentions of SA and abuse

ok. There’s one scene— the scene in Cure, where Till finds out Mizi is missing. If you don’t pay attention, you’ll miss it.

In this part, Till’s already being treated horribly— which, isn’t it normal in a fucked up world where Aliens only see humans as pets, and make them compete for their lives in a singing competition?

In the part after this, His head literally gets shoved down— that’s already a lot of abuse. And, like I mentioned earlier, the aliens only see humans as pets, so isn’t this “normal”?

There’s a frame for maybe two seconds, but you could easily miss it if you blink.

It disgusts me— yeah, the reason this is happening is because he fought back, but the way they’re manhandling him? It’s horrible. And something tells me this isn’t even the first time, depending on how his whole trait is being rebellious? Yeah, he’s definitely gone through this before. and that’s horrible.

This part kinda makes me cry. The alien— for one, has partially no clothes on, besides its jacket. Till looks famished, he looks so tired, it’s so upsetting. Using these two things, we can assume they’ve done something to Till. And based on the hallucination of Mizi, it’s not impossible that he might’ve been drugged. (Less likely, but still.)

This part is me speaking from experience—

The way the Alien pets Till’s hair, as if to “comfort” him, is something a lot of Sexual assaulters do to their victims.

Here’s a reminder; a sexual assaulter can be ANYONE. Friend, family, “trusted” adult, anyone. And they will make the victim feel like it’s their fault. After they’ve done those terrible things to their victims, they won’t always leave them alone. They might treat the victim like a partner would after sexual intercourse— kindly, comfortingly, doing actions that would soothe their partner. They’ll make the victim think that it’s okay, and it wasn’t a big deal.

This is what’s happening to Till. There’s a possibility that he thinks it’s fine, despite being so tired and hurt, because it’s higher ups, it’s his master, or something else. This isn’t quite confirmed but, in my own experience, SA victims can become hostile, and will run or fight if someone tries to touch them. And till? Well, he’s hostile, and he runs away a lot. Right?

And god knows if the others have gone through this too. My goodness.

When Ivan goes to free Till, he’s passed out. They left him there.

That’s what happens with sa victims sometimes.

The assaulter treats the victim so nicely, and then leaves. Because they always leave, eventually. They leave the victim alone, feeling disgusted by themself

I love the way vivinos handled this. Not straight out saying, “oh Till got SA’d”, or something. They showed it, but in a way that not only is it not being sexualized, but it’s also painting a picture of the fact that sexual assault is anything, and it can happen to anyone. It’s a common shit idea misconception for a group of people that “females are the only ones who can get assaulted!” When that’s obviously not the case. Is Till a female? No. Did he go through that? Yes.

Tl;dr — Vivinos is awesome when it comes to handling topics that are big and relevant. And Till deserves a better life

Also, I didn’t give a good explanation, so please go and read other ones that are better.

And if you’re an SA victim, just know; you are not alone.

[gz-missfit]

God the more I rewatch Etoiles fight the more it hurts. Hell the more I watch any parent fight their egg it hurts, from Max bawling over Trump to Quackity being basically insta killed by Tilin and Roiers anger as fake Bobby didn't attack them while Jaiden was filled with conflicting delusional happiness.

But especially this Etoiles fight yesterday puts the whole dinner into a much bigger perspective and I'd like to think that that's the reason why they put Phil in the fight with Etoiles.

They wanted him to hesitate.

They wanted Phil to be the burden during that fight because those things carry the names of his children, the children he'd burn the world down for. But they underestimated how strict Phil is with his trust and decision making to the point that even in egg form he treated them like they were monsters instead of his children.

Phil's special because while yes during Etoiles fight the code got better at adapting to an egg its still the same concept. He still had definite proof that that wasn't her but he still hesitated.

And I wanna go into the why of that, Phil's a hard-core player through and through and you will not get that out of his playstyle, you can see it on every multi-player server he's been on in the past because thats just how he plays the game. And as a hard-core player he probably has the most interesting relationship to mortality and is someone who can understand the eggs on a whole different level. But this means he's also INCREDIBLY aware of how much weight decision making carries and how even a single decision could decide over him staying alive or dying, he's used to that, it doesn't bother him anymore. That's why Phil is also someone who's very confident in his decisions, when he says he won't do or go to something because he knows the outcome then he means that and not even curiosity will get the better of him if he sees any form of danger or risk. If he tells Tallulah or Chayanne an instruction he expects them to follow it to a T because he gives those for good reasons each time (and both of his kids know that his instructions are teachings more than they are just him telling them to do something). And this confidence in his own decisions is why he fought those codes so relentlessly at the dinner, I'm convinced even if he hadn't gone back to get a picture of his kids he still would've fought these codes the same way. He trusts his experience and he trusts that he'll be able to deal with the consequences of his own decisions no matter if the outcome is good or bad. There's a reason why other players usually come to him for advice or when he spends time with someone he naturally falls into a teaching role, it's because he knows so much because he's had to know it all to survive in a world where death is inevitable.

Now why does that differ him from Etoiles? Well Him and Etoiles are good fighter's in their own ways. There's no doubt about that. But Etoiles is more upfront, he's smart during pvp and incredibly knowledgeable about statistics and strategy but ironically enough he still struggles to trust in his own words and decisions. He's someone who's quickly plagued by regret or doubts, it's why he praises Bad and Phil so much. Because both of them are incredibly headstrong and confident in their decisions just due to sheer experience. Etoiles just isn't even if his experience is just as good. And you can see this hesitancy even during the dinner fight, he didn't want to fight the codes until they hit him first. And it was Phil screaming to kill those things that made him set on actually attacking. Even when he got singled out later on and had a fake Tallulah follow him, he didn't attack until Phil confirmed Tallulah was safe with him. Etoiles trusts Bads and Phil's words a lot and holds them both in high regards when it comes to their opinions and decisions because he knows how much sheer experience those 2 carry. But during that fight yesterday he was alone, each of his actions couldn't be reassured because he was fighting alone and the actual Pomme wasn't there. He was terrified of making a wrong decision, even with Pierre reassuring him that it wasn't Pomme Etoiles couldn't bring himself to trust his own decision, even with their secret code not working Etoiles couldn't trust himself, even with seeing it carry the codes swords he couldn't trust himself. Even after the fight was over, after he saw Pommes bed with her sleeping tightly in it. He couldn't trust himself. He didn't feel like a winner to himself because his mind went into a spiral about of his decision was right or not, his mind screamed at him because he was sure he had fucked up royally and that's what makes it so interesting. Because Etoiles is a good fighter! And I'm pretty sure with equal gear he'd beat the 2 he holds in high regards to fighting skill a good amount. But he doesn't hold his own decision making very high, he's happy to be as help as a weapon that when he has to make a call he hesitates. And it didn't help that he had his daughters face stare at him while he had to make that important decision because while Phil loves his children just as much as Etoiles does, Phil never had to earn to be trusted with them. Phil's always been someone people trusted with the eggs while Etoiles had to earn his time with Pomme in promising he'll never let her die on his watch and will be careful beyond believe while he's with her.

It shows in the confidence of their decisions, and it's fascinating how much more it shows during these high tension moments. Etoiles is someone who struggles so much with the knowledge of failure and its what made his fight hurt so much more, because he was convinced he'd fucked up bad even after he saw her bed.

Just some food for thought about our codebreakers

[chamerionwrites]

About Andor s2 I’ve got two questions. How’d you like the bit from Lonnie’s meeting to Kleia’s extraction bit, how’d it measure up to your le Carre fan standards? It felt like it did but to my shame I’ve never read him so uh. Can’t comment

And secondly I just rewatched Rogue One and yeah I got to say. Andor’s better, little things like the extra’s dialogue and bigger things. It all links up very nicely but I’m definitely showing people in release order if I get the chance. I ADORE your analysis of Draven as a man whose doom is his own haste, I feel like the comm the team send en route to Eadu. Direct quote is “weapon confirmed. Jedha destroyed. Mission target located on Eadu, please advise.” There was intel here that there was hm. A bit of target fixation.

I feel like continuing to pursue the Galen assassination plan (morally questionable but militarily sensible plan earlier down the pipeline) is something that should’ve been reevaluated in the light of “Jedha destroyed” when you’re worrying about a planet-killing weapon. Is that already operational? Is killing Galen Erso the best way to stall it still? I get what you mean about he goes too fast and can’t call off the squadron but he could’ve called off Andor after that communication. I also see that I’m nitpicking a stupidly minor word choice in a stupidly stupid movie. And I’m reiterating what you said.

I have no trouble saying that at its best Andor is polished in a way that Rogue One (and frankly the majority of the franchise) never attains. It has a very strong script (especially in S1), consistently high production values (the costumes and sound design are highlights for me), and a keen eye for worldbuilding detail that adds a lot of texture and truth to the storytelling and that happens to be kind of a personal dream come true in terms of what I want in my Star Wars. I do also think Andor has some very real and at times glaring flaws that are worth discussing as such, and that it holds together a lot better in a vacuum than it does as a prequel (which one could argue is a pretty fundamental flaw in, yknow, a prequel).

I'd also never argue that Rogue One is a movie without flaws. I even think it's entirely possible that some of what's good about it is a bit of a happy accident! The script gets both kinda mushy and kinda rushed in Act II (specifically some of the Eadu stuff, including some of what you've mentioned here); I think Jyn's character arc in particular really needs at least one more scene after her argument with Cassian but before the council meeting on Yavin. The CG on Tarkin and Leia is unquestionably not quite there. The performances are not only very good but very good across the board imo - which is lucky because I think they're carrying the lion's share of the story by comparison to the script. However I do also think that the film has a very satisfying thematic cohesiveness (high on the list of things I look for in a good story), that the character sketches are quick but strong, that it's gorgeously shot and that it deserves credit for introducing some really fresh and interesting ideas into Star Wars that Andor then had further space to expand upon (and sometimes beautifully but only sporadically did so, which is one of my Andor critiques).

So - yeah it's better is a case you can make, and depending on what elements you're focused on I might even agree with you. But ultimately I don't find that kind of absolute (and to a certain extent subjective) statement nearly as interesting or useful as discussions about exactly how and where one thing is better than another (or isn't). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway. Re whether Arc 4 is le Carré-esque: I think the vibes are absolutely there (and tasty as hell to me personally), but Andor really doesn't have room at that point to properly Do The Thing. Specifically, imo we actually pick up pretty near the end of the le Carré version of this story, which is FAR more focused on the exact cat-and-mouse process by which (1) Lonni stole Dedra's code cert and followed the paper trail to the Death Star and (2) Dedra followed Luthen's trail back to the antique shop. Likewise, a le Carré story would spend at least as much time on the nerve-wracking details of how exactly Cassian & Co manage to land their ship on Coruscant without flagging any suspicion as it would on a firefight in a hallway. And no self-respecting le Carré story would be even a tenth as fuzzy on the precise political/ideological fault lines between Luthen and the Alliance - or between the various members of the Alliance - and how those frictions play into the Kleya extraction situation. Those aren't necessarily complaints - just a compare and contrast! In its focus on process and logistics and bureaucracy, in the way it spends most of its time setting up dominoes before exploding into action, and in its preoccupation with trust & betrayal, I think Mon's extraction from the Senate actually follows the trademark le Carré beats more closely.

Finally, re Draven and the Eadu clusterfuck: you have to keep in mind that the man is working with extremely limited information. He makes a bad call - and I think it's pretty clear Cassian knows it's a bad call, and that this factors into his moral anguish about the assassination and ultimately his decision not to go through with it - but Draven is working off whispers and imaginings and blips on a radio, in a universe where communication technology is vastly more limited than in ours. (Honestly all the clicky clunky tactile radio porn and focus on how the comms work - and don't! - was one of the things I absolutely lived for in Andor. And even so, at times I think they're really pushing at the edges of what's previously been implied about the setting; Cass & Wilmon's earpieces on Ghorman for example are awfully clean and modern and small.)

All that said, post-Jedha-destroyed-message is absolutely the point at which Draven - THE INTEL GUY - should've said okay I'm flying blind and I need more intel. That he doesn't is pretty clearly a fuckup, and portrayed as such. But I don't find it unrealistic for human beings under pressure to fuck up that way, or even necessarily surprising to the point that it requires an explanation for the plot beat to work. It would definitely be stronger if we got a bit more character insight on Draven, or a bit more plot structure to really drive home the time crunch, or even a bit more clarifying dialogue - but the simplest explanation is just that Draven has no particular reason to trust Galen as an ally. Going by the information he's working with, the guy is (1) an Imperial weapons developer (2) who's already built something very dangerous, (3) may build more weapons, and (4) maybe if the Force is smiling on them plays an important role in maintaining that first weapon's functionality??? And also Draven appears to be highkey stressed and a little trigger happy. And also he didn't send an extraction team, he sent an assassin. Smuggling one guy out of a top secret military facility alive on the chance he'll willingly share info with you is a WHOLE different level of manpower and precision planning than putting a laser bolt through his brain. Draven knows that Galen is on Eadu now, but not that he'll stay there; he doesn't have an extraction team on the ground or the prior planning & recon required to pull off that extraction without getting a bunch of his people killed; he DOES have a reliable agent on the ground who's reliably good with a sniper rifle. So between the pretty-sure-thing murder right now and the very-hypothetical extraction sometime in the future...Draven picks the sure thing.

The story is open enough that you can headcanon all kinds of motives/emotions/plot obstacles into the empty spaces there, but I think ultimately it still all comes down to those urgency blinders you referenced.

[ludmilachaibemachado]

Tippi Hedren and Alfred Hitchcock at the 16th Cannes Film Festival, May 1963 - a great duo at the prestigious out-of-competition screening of The Birds, which opened the Festival with flair💐💐💐

For Hedren, The Birds was more than a debut - it was a full-blown cinematic baptism. Previously a highly successful model (you can tell - just scroll to the last photo), she went from commercial breaks to silver screen legend almost overnight. Hitchcock spotted her in a TV ad in 1961, and the story goes that he was instantly spellbound. She soon became his new leading lady - and then some🌹

She would star in Marnie next, opposite Sean Connery, but by then, the cracks in the façade had begun to show. What was once framed as a classic director-muse relationship later took on a darker hue. In interviews decades later, Hedren revealed that Hitchcock's obsession with her crossed professional boundaries - repeatedly. Cast members recalled his behavior as intense, controlling, at times disturbingly possessive. Her daughter, Melanie Griffith, would later confirm the accounts. Hollywood has always loved its myths — but this one doesn't age so well🪴

Still, there's no denying the impact. The Birds remains unforgettable. Hedren's icy glamour, her controlled panic, her impeccable wardrobe — it's all still iconic. She carries the film with a poise that's almost surreal, especially considering what she endured behind the scenes🌸

Definitely worth a rewatch - if only to admire her unshakable cool in a film where everything else is in chaos🌵

📸First two shots by François Gragnon, the others by Jean-Claude Pierdet

Via @kingsqueensofcool on Instagram🥀

[nalyra-dreaming]

https://www.tumblr.com/nalyra-dreaming/764035488039550976/omg-i-just-realized-the-duality-of-loustat-over. It wasn’t unjustified tho. Lestat did abuse Louis, even though he loved him. It’s undeniable. That’s the thing about Lestat, he was born and raised in violence and abuse, and when he gets mad that’s all he knows. He literally dropped Louis from the sky. Even though he kept them in the dark to protect them, Claudia and Louis still felt trapped. The show isn’t the book. In the book, Claudia kills him because she wants to leave and she chooses Louis because he’s easier to manipulate. In the show, Claudia’s desire to kill him is to be “freed” from him, and to free Louis too, because she doesn’t feel safe anymore. From her pov, his intentions and reasons don’t matter.

As I’ve read on X too, Lestat realizes that his attempt at protecting his family was awful because, if Claudia and Louis managed to kill him while he couldn’t bring himself to kill his own father, then he must’ve really fucked up.

And Claudia from the series definitely doesn’t have the same reasons to hate Lestat as book Claudia does.

I don’t get why we must coddle Lestat to this point. He’s great, but when he’s abusive, it must be admitted.🤷🏼‍♀️ like when people say “wait until season two he gets better!” and it’s literally just Lestat being a ghost and showing up for the trial, just to be revealed to not be there to kill them at the end. Those who know his story understand the implications, but to those who don’t know, doesn’t this invalidate actual victims?

No-one coddles Lestat by pointing out that the book quote used to say he “deserved it“ is taken out of context.

The show is not the book - that‘s the whole point.

The show did something stupid, to be frank: they added domestic abuse. For shock value. Hannah and Rolin both commented on that. AND they don’t see the big problem with it either!! And as the start of the toxic masculinity misconception. And… Amel.

Which was confirmed by Sam. Sam, who also tried to warn us re episode 5, wanted trigger warnings on it. Because he realized what this would do.

Claudia‘s motivations might not be done with either - Murder Night, set to be revisited, has not been yet. You have heard an (proven!) edited tale… you don’t know the (whole) truth yet.

We will see.

But if I‘m right - and just to be clear, >I< do NOT “want“ this, but I can add 2+2 together, I understand why they do it, but I don’t LIKE it(!) - and when the Akasha arc will fail because “surprised Pikachu face“ Lestat isn‘t the epitome of male toxicity after all… and then, when the show will point out Amel‘s awakening for certain events… then it will get really ugly.

And then that will leave a really ugly aftertaste.

Also, as a little comment: I have read so much shit and simply false information on Twitter… the show, its actors and the writers always return to the books - why the heck do you think we shouldn‘t? No, the show is not the books - and yet they are doing the books. And s3 will give a lot more context.

You will have to follow the narrative. Because s1 & 2 were not the whole truth. That was what all those programmed responses and the reveal at the end was all about.

Maybe you should rewatch.

[skydigiblogs]

Hmmm okay so we decided we're gonna watch Frontier now instead of putting it off even longer. I was thinking about maybe rewatching Savers or continuing Xros Wars but I'm on a podcast timer now (I don't want to listen to the Frontier eps before I watch the sub, so).

Watching the first ep really makes me sad because I feel like the concept has a lot more promise than what I remember it delivering. I don't remember if we've said it before but I find Frontier's worldbuilding absolutely fascinating.

I also completely forgot that Ophanimon actually interacts with the kids on their way to the Digital World. I feel like the Frontiers kids and Appmon kids would be able to relate to each other re: weird digital entities giving you life changing choices to make.

Anyways, I think that it would have been interesting if we saw more kids with Digivices in Frontiers. While we know the Spirits have some way of choosing who they let use them (as implied, I think, by the scene in the first ep where Cerberumon gets roasted while Takuya is shown a vision of them stepping into one another), how would Ophanimon know which kids are chosen or not?

So why do we only see D-Scanners with the kids that get spirits? Wouldn't you hedge your bets with them? We see so many kids sent to the Digital World (and iirc later they confirm that they definitely all went to the Digital World!) so...?

Also, how does Worm know that the Spirits can help them get home? For that matter, how did Ophanimon organize some dozen or so Trailmons to pick up kids in the human world? Did she literally send messages to them like "hi I'm trapped and we need to fix this shit, do me a solid and go pick up some aliens from another dimension." And they just all??? Agreed??? This is a question I don't think needs answering but a silly thought that hit me when Worm told Tomiki "get the spirits if you wanna go home lol" and fucked off.

There are a lot of problems I know I have with this series, especially when it comes to its treatment of the ensemble. But watching the first ep really makes my disappointment in the show as a whole hurt a lot more. I don't think I'll soften to it as I watch it, but I want to give the show a fair chance, especially since I've only watched the dub.

I really have been spoiled by the fans of Frontier writing a better show than the official writers lmfao

[4me2knowandyou2wonder]

Teeth Headcanons for Modern Warfare characters

As the winner of our first pole, we will be starting with everyone's not so, maybe sometimes favorite baby man...

Graves!

Yep. Graves was the braces kid. He just was.

At 13 his American ass was told by the dentist to go to the orthodontist. His mother dragged him there despite his protests and he was put in big metal brackets. (He had some normal crowding and a healthy underbite) Graves was awful at wearing his rubber bands, just awful and had braces for 3 years. Almost all his teen pictures have that metal smile on display.

Graves also was the type to not know what color brackets look good and constantly switched them around so half his photos not only have a metal smile but also have a candy-colored metal smile - Blue, green, yellow, and red all clashing on his teeth. (You know he did red white and blue at least twice)

His wisdom teeth were removed at 18 because his mouth is too small for them. His mother made a video of him on the anesthetic drugs as he says all sorts of things. He definitely cried a few times. Graves swears the video has never seen the light of day - he’s wrong and his shadows can prove it. Mercenaries can always find a way.

After getting his braces off, Graves never truly wore his retainer. He lost it within the first year he was prescribed it and never let his family replace it.

Today, It shows in his teeth. Their crookedness and original setup has all but fully returned. Graves has genetically yellow teeth (fig 1) and they're going to be that color even though he brushes them 13/14 times he’s supposed to. (this success is mainly because his shadows will comment if his breath stinks.) lastly, Graves does not floss and refuses to with the conviction of a man with toxic masculinity. 

NOT LASTLY I just rewatched some graves scenes on confirm his underbite and not only is it *really there* its there because he is shoving his jaw up and out like he’s chewing tobacco (fig 2 & 3). Which made me realize… this bitch probably chews tobacco! So put dozens of cavities, worn away enamel, and early tooth loss on your Graves bingo cards!  Figures under the cut

Please excuse the quality I took this with my phone camera off my computer screen while binging the cod games. It was snapped in moments of excitement over teeth and not meticulously clipped from the videos for posting purposes o7

(Fig 1)

(Fig 2) these next two were screen shots from a not 1080p video and you can tell. But they do their job. Also, hi ghost!

You can’t tell me this man hasn’t chewed tobacco before … look at the way he hold his face !

(Fig 3)

[lucianalight]

Loki S2 Review

I rewatched S2 and I liked it even more on the second watch. I'm giving it a 6 out of 10 in average(8 for the finale). Since I didn't post a review week by week like for S1, I'm just going to talk about the main things I liked/disliked

The Improvements & Things I liked:

The pace and the narrative's tone and framing have changed. While the pace drops sometimes, these moments aren't as boring as S1. Meaning you don't want to constantly check when it's going to end(like you know, S1 and especially 1x06). The narrative is neutral and doesn't villain code Loki and hero code others. It doesn't turn Loki into a clown, a punching bag or someone who deserves humiliation(I guess they've done enough of that in S1). On the contrary the characters are shown as flawed people, with Loki being the most moral, considerate, logical and heroic amongst them.

They stated bluntly in episode 1, that what TVA used to do, were atrocities. That they were killing numerous innocent people who had a right to live their lives as they chose.

The characters were three dimensional, likable or tolerable despite their actions in S1. They showed remorse for the things they had done. Although the way the narrative chose to go about it in S1 still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It shouldn't happen to you for you to realize sth is wrong. But at least it was shown that the characters weren't slaughtering people mindlessly and some of them deep down knew it was wrong. Although the fact that they still did it, because of the "greater good", and "woe is me! It's not a comfort it's a burden" attitude about it is repulsive.

OB, Casey and Timely being funny, cute nerds and fanboys :D

Loki using amazing magical stuff and DID YOU SEE THE GREEN MAGICAL GLOW IN HIS EYES?*incoherent screaming*

No Romance. It was unnecessary and rushed in S1. This time they focused more on Loki needing friends and that was definitely a better choice imo and what they should have gone for in S1 too.

Sylvie's actions and personality framed as what they were. She wasn't put on a pedestal as this amazing different FeMaLe version of Loki. She was framed as a flawed character with wrong and right actions and beliefs.

Loki and Sylvie's talk in the pie land, about change, hope, fixing what's broken and being gods. That sigh before Loki saying "We are gods" with all the weight of the world on his shoulders. Wonderful acting.

The ending and its epic soundtrack.

Topics & Things That Could Have Been Handled Better:

The Topic of New York Invasion

"Sometimes a rage builds up and you just gotta let it out. Do you remember that time I was so angry with my father and my brother, I went down to Earth and I held the whole of New York city hostage with an alien army? Tried to use the mind stone on Tony Stark? It didn't work so I threw him off the building. It wasn't tactical. I lost it"

On the surface it looks like Loki's saying that's why he attacked New York and probably most people accept this without a second thought.

But the context of the scene matters. We see during the interrogation Mobius loses his temper. He was worried about Loki getting angry, but he was the one who loses his temper and hits Brad. Loki tries to calm him down by sympathizing with him to try and see what caused his behavior. It's the same thing he did for Thor in the first movie, before coronation and after it, while Thor was nervous and angry. What he says about New York while isn't the whole truth, it also isn't untrue. He was angry with Thor and Odin but as we know his anger and thoughts were influenced by the scepter. We also know Loki doesn't like to talk about his time with Thanos or being tortured. Instead he uses a half-truth, sth that is in character for Loki.

So the scene can be rationalized by this analysis but it's still annoying that this analysis is even needed. They should have been clear about the scepter's influence especially when mcu confirmed it.

Loki thinking about Thor's change as being a weakness. While both Thor and Loki were groomed and taught to consider being soft as a weakness, that wasn't Loki's true feelings. At least I don't think someone who prefers words and magic-that are considered a weakness in Asgard-over brawn thinks like that. His goal in the first movie was to goad Thor into fighting him. So the line should have been sth like this: "Asgard taught us being soft is a weakness, so I used that against Thor to goad him into a fight. I said he's gone soft…"

Plotholes and things that weren't explained.

Why Loki and Sylvie weren't sent to their original timelines like others? And why neither of them showed any interest in seeking their family? You're telling me Loki wants to see these people he knows for 10 seconds more than Frigga or Thor? OOC.

Sylvie's sudden mastery of magic since 1x06 isn't explained. She didn't know much, but then suddenly could do everything Loki did. I mean I can headcanon that her and Loki linking their power taught her some things but these sudden developments without any explanations are annoying.

Loki's genderfluidity. No mention of it at all. Although I believe that no representation is better than bad representation. And you should leave a topic alone if you don't understand it, otherwise you're gonna mess it up. Because bad rep can be more harmful. And so maybe it was a good thing mcu let that one go. But they could still fix it with some shapeshifiting, explaining its difference with illusions and Loki confirming that he is comfortable in her female form.

Loki's clothes. It's probably not that important in comparison with other issues but I really hate that beige suit. Why Sylvie who doesn't even want to be Loki and wasn't in Asgard since childhood changes into an Asgardian outfit for a fight and not Loki? Yeah I get it. It was because of the last reveal and transformation and finding his identity blah blah blah but at least they could have gave him his old Asgardian clothes or he could change the suit's color ugh

Criticism & Things I didn't like:

The ooc moments for Loki in some comedic scenes. Especially in episode 5. While the character has a comedic potential, it's not based on clownery or clumsiness. The best humorous moments for Loki are the ones where he outwits others, use sarcastic language or he is being outwitted despite his careful plans.

Certain emotional stakes aren't clear from the start. The audience know that saving TVA is the right thing because it protects all the freed timelines but they don't know why they should care? Or more accurately why Loki is so emotionally invested in this goal. That gets answered in episode 5 and while Loki's talk with Sylvie is a good emotional scene, the fact that it's stated so late in the story, makes the first few episodes boring when it comes to saving TVA.

The main reason the emotional stakes aren't clear(at least for me), I believe is because most of the people Loki call them his "friends",  haven't done anything to either deserve his friendship or aren't close enough to be considered a friend. Let alone someone Loki tries to move heaven and hell to be with them, instead of for example trying to find his brother and family. It is an issue which again is rooted in S1 and carried to S2. What happened in S1 wasn't therapy or a healthy friendship.

However, Loki being loyal to anyone who show him an ounce of affection or him being moral enough to try to save people are in character for him and that's sth good about it.

The torture scene.

The trick Mobius and Loki pulled was predictable as hell. I didn't even doubted Loki in TDW, let alone here. And even though I didn't believe for one second that Loki's actually going to hurt the guy, and he wasn't shown enjoying it, I still hated that he went along with the torture idea Mobius had come up with. Especially considering the fact that he was a victim of torture himself and never shown any sign in canon that he would torture someone. So yeah I hated that scene.

And why that scene was even necessary? Loki could get into X-5's mind when they weren't in TVA. We know he is capable of it. He did it both through mind stone in Avengers and in TR. how else they were going to delve into Mobius' problem though smh

But alright let's say they needed a scene like that. Still the whole Brad believing Mobius is against torture, and Loki's the one who would be in favor of it, is so fucking ridiculous. Any way you look at it, it has always been TVA and Mobius who did any torture we've seen during the two seasons. The tortures that Loki endured might I add. Even in the previous scene, it was Loki who didn't hit Brad and only tried to intimidate him non-physically by acting as a villain. It was Mobius who hit him, who was shown more affected by Brad's insults. So logically the scene they had planned to fool Brad, should have been played completely the opposite way. By having Mobius do the torture. At least it was recognized that the torture idea was from Mobius and both he and Loki gave the credits for it to Mobius.

Verity Willis. Hunter B15 unlike the Verity in comics, doesn't have a close friendship with Loki or truth detector powers. Not having a good friend like comics Verity for Loki, was such a wasted opportunity in the series.

Mobius saying to Loki "You're a man of action...". That was such a stupid, unnecessary line. As if the main difference between Loki and Thor wasn't Thor acting before thinking, and Loki thinking and planning before acting. While Loki is also a man of action, he is first and foremost a man of strategy. The only plausible explanation imo is that Mobius said it to not feel useless in comparison with Loki and his skills.

"Thor's not that tall". Yeah, no. I don't think Loki's reaction to seeing Thor and Odin's statues would be that. Knowing his brother and family were murdered by the very same people he's working with now. Remind me again why he's considering them "FrIeNdS"? Someone really needs to explain the concept of friendship to Loki. Or rather the writers of this show.

And while we are at it. Let's talk about how Loki's past and identity issues were completely swapped under the rug as if they were all magically fixed and didn't matter anymore. As if those weren't the most important part of his journey. Another issue rooted in S1.

Final Thoughts(for now :D)

Season 2 was definitely better than season 1. Not perfect, and not for those who care about OG Loki's issues. They set him on a completely different path in S1 and they messed up any chance to actually delve into his problems. So in S2 we're having a character that we're supposed to accept has moved on from certain issues, and now tries to find what he wants and where he belongs. Still, I think that they listened to the criticism for once as they tried to fix some of the problems of S1. After many years it didn't feel like that the creators hate the character, or using him as a prop, or a plot device. It was a story about Loki. A bittersweet story for the god of stories.

[blipblepbloop]

ok i’m dying to know what ur realism gripe is about the body that you mentioned in the tags of your reblog of my post about it

BAHAHA ty for noticing my commentary hidden in the tags so i can make this rant post about it lmao

first off, im aware its a tv show and some things need to be dramatized or exaggerated for the purpose of achieving a certain effect in the show. especially in an episode like the body, a lot of choices went into very intentionally setting a tone for the episode. however, that being said-

towards the very beginning of the episode, buffy calls 911 and a couple of paramedics show up. they tell her that her MOM is DEAD, get another call, and UP AND LEAVE. and in real life they would absolutely NEVER FUCKING DO THAT and it drives me INSANE every time i rewatch it.

take this with a grain of salt because the extent of my medical knowledge is first aid and lifeguard training, but according to everything ive ever been taught about BASIC FIRST AID they absolutely should not have left her alone, because they weren't done treating every patient on that scene. buffy is quite VISIBLY in shock, which requires treatment just as much as a physical injury. yet all they do is tell her to sit down, ask her if there's anyone else coming, and then leave. like they don't even at least make sure she's sitting down or confirm in some way that somebody's coming before just leaving. maybe protocols and training with that sort of thing was different at the time that the ep came out, but i kind of doubt it. she could have fainted, she DOES throw up, and just...who actually thinks its a good idea to just leave someone whose mother just died and is clearly in shock completely alone?? certainly not trained medical professionals.

again, i could potentially be wrong about this, and im also fully aware it was for that dramatic intense effect the audience gets from her being left completely alone to deal with the fact her mom just died, but today at least that definitely is not how that would go down. at least one of the paramedics would have stayed behind and talked with her and made sure she was okay at least until giles got there. and it mostly just makes me upset for buffy because she should not have been treated like that lol.

[lunyxdragon]

Dragons Rising Rant

I WAS NOT READY for season 2 part 1

(I'm spoiling pretty much everything below the cut)

This was everything I wanted and more (not to say it doesn't have its issues, but still)

I know some people were grumbling about Lloyd taking Zane's role of being the vision haver but I honestly like how they handled it. Because it feels an awful lot like a PTSD allegory. Like, Arin is literally like "you've been through a lot, maybe it's catching up to you" or smthn like that, the visions showing up at random and inconvenient times during the day, being unavoidable but they can be lived with, panic attacks, so am I the only one seeing this??? This does some interesting things to my Lloyd PTSD headcanons... another thing is the two people that have had visions are the two most likely people to have PTSD imo, so... there's that...

Lloyd verbally acknowledges having panic attacks which caught me so off guard for a show to sell toys to eight year old boys. It wasn't like puss and boots level of panic attacks, definitely not given that much focus, but it was there. Lloyd canonically has panic attacks!!

I know it's a kid's show, but I feel like they could have handled the sleep deprivation a bit better than "Lloyd is falling asleep all the time," like there's so many other ways you could convey that, at least vary it a bit. They hammer this point into the ground and I feel like kids aren't that dense, and would understand it even with half of the random falling asleep replaced with irritability, zoning out, or other stuff like that idk.

I WAS NOT READY for Kai to get sacrificed. When they were talking about human sacrifices I was like "nah ninjago would never go that far, that pretty much confirms that either the sacrifices aren't actually necessary or the forbidden five don't get brought back," then Kai literally gets sent to the backrooms with no way out.

And Bonzle. BONZLE. Need I say more? Wish she had gotten more focus though. The sorceress felt like a d&d oc shoved in last minute though, and her design was so chaotic it was distracting from the show for me. Probably just me though, I like order. She's fun, I just wish they'd either given her an arc or given that focus to Bonzle.

Internally screaming when Nya says "Jay would never forget me" and when Jay showed up. I really hope they give him enough time to shine.

Ras literally runs and catches up to a moving car and knocks out a dragon in a single hit. Bros insane. I guess the blood moon just makes him physically stronger? They didn't really elaborate what the blood moon does to Ras and why. But he's an actually competent villain, which Ninjago is in short supply of.

Cole literally said "Come at me (bro)" to the Administration.

Speaking of Cole, Geo misses him!! I'm way overhyped for this couple, but this is the closest thing we'll get to a canon gay couple in ninjago. Lego doesn't have the balls to actually show them kissing or being a couple, not with their show that gets aired all over the world to sell legos. I'm gonna go rewatch the land of lost things episode from s1 later.

The timeline is even more messed up now though. If Cole only just returned, when were the Mech Pilot shorts supposed to happen? We'll see what the creators say on Twitter lol.

Ending this off on a positive note, the found family is gonna kill me. Arin literally seeing Lloyd and Nya as his parents was gold. Oh man Ras slammed the poor boy around a lot, physically and mentally. Just let both Arin and Sora realize they're not useless. Nahhh the angst is too good.

Is there more? Probably. But I need to do my calculus coursework...

[eikopilled]

Worth the Candle (2022, 2024 anime)

With the release of the Worth the Candle webtoon, and with it getting to its Good Parts, I decided that I wanted to rewatch the anime and see how it really holds up years later. 

The Worth the Candle anime came out in summer 2022 (with a second season premiering in 2024); it was one of Crunchyroll's western joint-produced anime ie Tower of God, High Guardian Spice where no one really expected very much from it—it was definitely one of those bargain bin shows made by a low-relevancy studio without really anything special that it could offer (besides the writing cues taken from the original fic).

Worth the Candle means a lot to me as a story. It sort of saved my life and I think it's the single most me-targeted thing I've ever read. Everything from the subtextual theme to the textual philosophy appeals to me immensely.

No wonder I was really fucking mad about the anime, then!

WtC's anime is bad. It isn't bad (forgettable), not like the other mediocre seasonals that came out every year, it's bad (memorable), it's the sort of bad that sits in your head and you think and you think and you think and the only thing that you are thinking is:

Why?

The first big immediately noticeable problem with the anime is that MOSTLY it looks like dogshit. It fluctuates between generically ugly and noticeably very ugly; every action scene is still images sliding across the monocolor backgrounds with speed lines to indicate that they're moving fast. The lineart is awful, the colors are uninspired, and the phoned-in, uninspired direction cannot save it—somehow this is work directed by Masaharu Watanabe, who did Re:Zero. The character designs suck too—how does the webtoon get them so right while the anime completely misses the point? (It's because Japan.)

This is particularly a problem across the second season, which is 24 episodes in length. Episodes are wildly inconsistent in quality, there's one long stretch in the middle for six whole episodes which is mostly just reused footage and recycled cuts and the most god-awful CGI you've ever seen.

The first season (14 episodes) is a lesser offender, though not by much. Save for one singular fight at the end (the Onion fight, which does look very good, to the studio's credit—it's some of the best off-model animation I've seen outside of large shonen or Cygames productions), it keeps up this trend of bad art, animation, and direction.

And you know what. It would have been fine like this, I wouldn't have pulled my hair out over it so much, if only for the fact that they decided to tell the story in the most bafflingly stupid way possible, as well.

It's framed as Joon (I guess in the Heavens?) skipping through the master copy of Worth the Candle to find someone called the 'Iconoclast' (which isn't elaborated on during the first two seasons at all and I assume season three if it ever comes out will hopefully resolve it?). 

The problems here include

It assumedly expects you to have read the webnovel to be able to comprehend it. The plot is completely unintelligible without context and the seemingly random changes and dilutions of the original scenes (Joon's monologues? Gone! The flashbacks? Gone!) don't add anything, they just confuse me more. It's totally unclear who's supposed to watch this. I'm like 90% sure anyone who hasn't read WtC would have no idea what's happening and no investment in any of the big moments (editor's note: can confirm. I showed it to my little brother and he was baffled)

The pacing is awful. It's … kind of a nonchronological 'highlights reel' of Worth the Candle. For instance the Onion fight (which made me stand up and go KINO) is in episode 13 of season one and Juniper learns bone magic in episode 23 of season two. The emotional ups and downs are all over the place (contrast Haruhi). It's really hard carried by the narrator telling you about scene context.

The writing is bafflingly bad. Why didn't they just adapt the book scene-by-scene, if they didn't care about… literally anything? It takes cues from the book for sure; I guess maybe an effect of the English to Japanese to English subbing pipeline destroyed the original spirit of the lines? (But the conversations don't play out how AW wrote them, so I really doubt this)

The second time I rewatched it, I think I liked it even less than the first. I don't know what Mappa was cooking with this one, but i—oh it's by DEEN that explains it.

[smilingperformer]

Taillow, Swablu, Electrike, Slaking, Cacnea/Cacturn, Breloom, Wurmple are all gen 3 Pokémon. It's not so much that half of these Pokémon aren't found in Kalos (which they aren't) so much as these are ALL HOENN Pokémon. Not even other region Pokémon that are known to be found in Hoenn. ONLY GEN 3 HOENN. Out of hundreds of Pokemon they could have chose they chose only Hoenn. Statistically it likely not a coincidence. The Pokémon anime can be vague about location sometimes or have the occasional out of place Pokemon, and don't always adhere to game lore, but to think they'd do "Only Hoenn Pokémon in Kalos" for no reason is a stretch. If it was supposed to be Kalos we definitely would have had Fletchinder and Scatterbug rather than Taillow and Wurmple. The direct reference to Laquium in Hoenn just confirms it. While only Roy and Uruto saw the Slaking during the fight, other people HAD seen it, that's how Roy found it in the first place. Roy had been searching for it because Dot had reports of it. It's technically possible its not Hoenn but its definitely implied and is something they wouldn't have a reason to mislead us on. I'm especially inclined to trust the biodiversity since they followed it up with 92 which was implied to be set in the mountains between Kanto/Johto, as its a mountainous region near Liko's school which itself is near Route 22: the route that heads into those mountains from Kanto. These mountains include Mt. Silver, one of 2 places Steelix can be found in HGSS), so it clearly seems the writers are actually paying attention to geography right now at least.

One: please separate your paragraphs, these are hard to read.

Two: This is more me wanting coherent info because I don't fully trust our info to be up to date. If the ep lead me to believe it to be Kalos but Pokémon wise it feels like it could be Hoenn, then it's a bit unclear info by episode dialogue alone. This do be something I miss from JN, as it always told which region we're visiting in the episode (then came the last 11 eps that left it up to one's intepret-whatever the word is, where my untrustyness comes from LOL). And previously in HZ it's been clear where the group had been headed as of that moment. Though, some episodes I think were still unclear? Maybe a pic of Kekking in news article or something could have helped me understand it more.

You do have very good points here with some stuff I missed out on the episodes, as I didn't really fully catch Dot getting info from somewhere (Do I really need to watch episodes 4+ times to catch all info 🫠). So thanks for those. But even with HZ092 I got the hint of it being at Kanto still. BUT, admittedly, I've only seen the ep once so I might have misunderstood Liko's dialogue. I was so certain she talked about the sights being so close in Kanto... Did I misunderstand the scene?

This is why I miss the old days of when I had energy to rewatch eps bazillion times, I'd understand episodes completely. I've become too old...

[yernemm]

FNAF Movie :^)

Just watched it and I wanna write down my thoughts.

First bit of this post is mostly spoiler-free, I'll put spoilers under the read more.

If you're a fan and you're planning on watching it anyway, DO NOT READ ANYTHING ABOUT IT. TL;DR: it's good, we've waited so long for this, you'll enjoy it, don't spoil it for yourself :^)

First of all, I really enjoyed it. It felt very genuine, like it was made for the fans. Despite having a couple scares, it wasn't really scary. People who just wanna watch a horror film but don't really care for FNAF might be a bit disappointed there. Though as a FNAF fan, it's exactly what I hoped it would be tone-wise. It has a horror theme to it but doesn't take itself too seriously. It's pretty funny too, and has a lot of references to various things from the games and community (I'll elaborate in the spoilery bit).

There's a lot of small details sprinkled in throughout the movie, and I definitely missed some of them. I'll probably be rewatching it asap whenever it's available online.

Spoilers below (I have a lot to say about the lore) \/

FINAL SPOILER WARNING, IF YOU MISCLICKED, LOOK AWAY NOW. I WILL BE SPOILING THE FNAF MOVIE !!!!

I'm very interested about the canon of this movie. Although it seems like an adaptation of the first game, the plot and some major characters are very different. Game canon has always been pretty unclear but this movie contradicts a lot of what we thought we knew. It could be a retcon, or it be its own movie canon (that the potential movie sequels will follow). I'm very curious about the theories that people will have about it.

Here's some major points:

Mike Schmidt is Mike Schmidt, not a pseudonym for Michael Afton. Does Michael Afton even exist?? Who knows. Either way, William Afton immediately recognises his surname and immediately offers him the Freddy's job upon reading it. This could be because he knew Mike's brother, though I would've assumed that William was just killing random kids during MCI. Specifically picking Mike for the job due to this connection was very interesting. Also, what happened to Garrett? Like, yeah, William killed him, but he's not one of the ghost kids.

Abby / Vanessa -- who even is Elizabeth Afton?? The general theory before the movie came out was that Abby was the movie version of Elizabeth. Name is an anagram of Baby, she's Mike's sister, etc. But we now know that Mike and Abby are not William's children. Instead, Vanessa is William's daughter. It sort of makes sense, Elizabeth has been portrayed with blonde hair before and there is a loose connection between Security Breach Vanessa and Elizabeth. (Her actress is also Elizabeth Lail...) The timeline also lines up, Vanessa/Elizabeth was a child in the 80s, since the FNAF movie is set in 2000. One small problem though... Vanessa is alive. Is Elizabeth actually Vanessa's sister that died in the 80s, similar to what happened to Mike's brother? Why does William blame the missing children incident on Vanessa during the final confrontation? I have no idea. I'm really curious to see how this all connects.

There's a weird previously unseen springlock suit in the storage room??? It almost looks like an early version of Baby, based on the face... And Abby almost gets placed into it. Interesting.

I gotta refresh myself on the game lore, I do wonder how much of the game lore still makes sense if you assume the movie is also canon. Maybe the Schmidt family (Mike, Abby, Garrett) can work as the Afton children (Michael, Elizabeth, Crying Child) with William Afton actually having a different family to what we assumed (Vanessa). Though, assuming movie Vanessa is the same as game Vanessa, with Security Breach taking place likely 25-35 years after the events of the movie (which was confirmed to be in 2000), she would be in her 40s / 50s in SB. Maybe she just looks young for her age ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I suppose it's possible that in the 2030s, an unrelated woman who looks strikingly similar to Afton's daughter just decided to work for Freddy's. Maybe Afton controlled SB Vanessa because she reminds him of his daughter. Who knows.

Moving on from the lore, here's some other things I wanted to mention:

Chica's magic rainbow in the mall

The diner that MatPat works at is named Sparky's (reference to the Sparky dog hoax from early fnaf days)

Also... MATPAT IS IN THE MOVIE. And he says something like "Lunch is more important than breakfast, but that's just a theory." (or the other way round)

Dream theory being a book and major plot point

After the credits, there's a robotic voice reading out letters (similar to that one fnaf minigame). At first I thought it read something like HOME (I didn't quite hear the rest). But it could just have been SAVE THEM or HELP THEM like in the minigames. EDIT: After rewatching this part, it definitely says "COME FIND ME".

They actually played TLT's FNAF song in the credits.

There's some loose parallels to things that happen in the books, like foxy for Abby around arcade machines, similar to what happened to Charlie in The Silver Eyes.

Balloon Boy toy jumpscares were hilarious.

The animatronics teaming up to build a fort for Abbie was hilarious.

I just love how goofy this movie was in some parts...

The ending does establish some plot points for the sequel with Willy getting springlocked and Mike telling Abbie "you never know what may happen" when she asks to return to Freddy's.

What happened to the aunt's body?? Like, the people who broke in got stuffed so they are accounted for. Presumably golden freddy didn't take the aunt's body when he and Abby went back to Freddy's. So did Mike and Abby come back home to their dead aunt lying on the floor????

They used the profanity budget for the movie's age rating to let the pharmacist call Mike an asshole. Love it.

WILLIAM ALWAYS COMES BACK

But Cupcake was the real villain all along.

That's all I remember for now. I might edit this later if I remember more. Very cool movie :^) 👍👍

[dabuerre]

sooo uuhhh... yesterday i finished Maelstrom and i kinda cant believe this shit. if this is how she goes im gonna be really fucking sad. but right now i still hope. like there is so much setup this season for her and they would just do this?? why?? is her destiny to die in a fucking storm? i doubt it, i mean, we are talking about kara fucking thrace lol

ive also seen episodes The Eye of Jupiter, Rapture, Taking a Break from You All, The Woman King, A Day in the Life and Dirty Hands. lemme just quickly scribble down some thoughts

The Eye of Jupiter/Rapture

oh yeah, gaius, hi. no responsiblity guy, im the victim here!! yes you are my little dude. never change. change is for pussies gaius is definitely not the chosen one. its prolly kara i find it funny that Caprica Six already killed two Cylons. she really hates herself huh the nova is fucking sickkk. although i have no idea how a fucking explosion is gonna help you locate something honestly if i was kara i would also hate the destiny bullshit.

Taking a Break from You All

i wonder what the fuck gaius told Gaeta. what is he hiding? do we have another Kat situation on our hands? i loved how Laura gives him the glasses, just how he did to her. the whole "What has happened will happen again". man like, gaius, bro.. i know.. i guess i know that its not in your soul or something bud buddy just say that you fucked up. its not that difficult. like even if you get shoved out the airlock some people might find the truth you speak finally respectful and alteast think of you in your final moments. guess thats not enough. that drug scene is insaneeee Sam please go home. i think its prolly obvious but i really dont like the guy. i mean this guy talks a guy into suicide and then talks the leader of the fucking resistance into killing his own wife. now i know he doesnt say it fully but honestly, doesnt matter to me i hope lee didnt stay with dee because guilt and regret. "i cant do this to her" but you can buddy. staying in this relationship.. idk maaan.

The Woman King

very simple though. Helo fucking rocks.

A Day in the Life

i really hope Adama isnt a Cylon. like maybe the insane mind scenes atleast different. but they play out almost the same as Gaius's. its confusing. the chief saving scene is fucking insane loool i honestly think, even though i would love to see it, there wont be any confirmation about LauraXAdama. very unfortunate. she likes him so muuuch

Dirty Hands

oh yeah this episode is absolutely fucking insane. if i was the chief i would tell the president "i dare you, go visit the fucking ship" cuz the conditions? and knowing that its very possible that for the rest of your life you will be doing only this? sounds like hell to meee gaius please just... go to sleeep or something. you are a coward. an opportunist. i still have hope for you but that hope is being diminished every episode. when i started watching it was at like a 100% for redemption and now its like 15%. cuz i guess its easier for him to think that he didnt do anything wrong than admitting the fact that yeah bro you keep making mistakes and intentionally sabotaging everything you do for fake pussy also, seems like chief took a page from rom. a true union man. Adama is insane though. threatening him with the life of his wife lol

allright now im gonna do The Son Also Rises, gonna write thoughts immediately cuz i hate going back to these episodes and basically rewatching them and remembering what i thought about them. sometimes i just wanna binge and go episode after episode but then these post suck and im not happy with them soo. gonna try something different.