#like specifically in this last episode. they look kinda good like. more than usual ?

[redgearsmovin]

comelnya scott 😭

[thoughtsonkm]

Jeju pt.1 in a nutshell

(more than that, I just love this pretty aesthetic shot)

The vibe was definitely different because logically two people (especially jm&jk) are gonna behave differently than a three person group. Just a matter of numbers, synergies and the need to deliver a specific product to the audience. Nonetheless it was so entertaining to me. I realize I kinda missed these three together sharing 2 braincells (1 for jimin and 1 for tae&jk). The first two episodes were so chill and they felt like they almost had a lowkey underground vibe as if they were in their own bubble away from everyone just living life in their little part of the world accompanied by a moody scene and dim lights while this episode was like a action packed manic episode, so bright so cheerful with childlike wonder. I'm glad they can still have fun together and always enjoy the moment.

Plus let's be honest jikook are gonna jikook no matter the place, time and people around.

Some of the funniest parts of the ep to me were: The contrast of Jimin yapping about Aewol and Tae&Jk eating like there's no tomorrow. The drive through ordeal. The perfect comedic scenario of Jimin chasing Tae to make him eat like it was the last thing he would do.

Favourite reaction meme/face of the day. The betrayal, the suspense, the drama.

LOOK at this little bean stopping and collecting Jimin's 1930 shoes and going after his shenanigans like the dependable banryeo he is 😭 (remember back in 2019 when jimin called jk that and everyone went crazy and rolled with it for MONTHS? Good times)

~

On another note it's actually very interesting how you can feel and see how in every second Jimin tries to be in control of the situation and always on top of everything, every angle and every concern. He also always looks so deep in thoughts during these episodes, it's like he's given himself the task to be the artist, entertainer, manager,producer and everything all at once in this show. I'm sure it also has to do with his own personality and being someone who looks at every minor detail, a perfectionist who tries to curate everyone and everything.

~

The way Jk's life flashed before his eyes when he saw blood on Jimin's lips ~ so fuckin cute

And after Jimin's lip incident happened, Jungkook could not stop licking his own lips for the rest of the episode and probably day, I see you

THAT scene was so thought inducing, so ao3 ff coded it was insane. Just Jk silently staring at a dazzling and sleeping jimin in the ground. 37292 scenarios could've been played and then.. just walked away to take a shower (⁠ ͡⁠°⁠ ͜��ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)

Not okay seriously! The concern, the adoration, the yearning.

Blaming Jk for his actions was never an option. LOOK AT HIM

I LOVE the constant little comedic improvs Jikook do together, they're so fun!! You can tell that it's part of their usual daily thing (it's actually smth i also do with my friends and it always gets hysterical)

~

The idea that they went on a private trip to Jeju in August and then went again for the show in September, fills me with joy. Love that they had the opportunity. Seems like they keep on going to the same locations twice, just so they can get that full experience with each other.

~

I kid you not, this is one of my top3 fav things they do together. JIMINSSIII - JUNGKOOKSSIII

The editing being almost backwards and all over the place really is a little off-putting sometimes, jarring even. Not keeping events in a chronological order is sus on it's own, like they're scraping for footage at this point..

And yes it is also kinda bothering me that it's been years and years of content creation and they still can't do a good job at translating and coordinating what everyone says, is it really that hard? is it??

Imma put her on blast just out of pettiness 😆

[imjustwritingg]

Other than wanting to wrap Hailey in cotton wool and give her the biggest hug, how are you feeling/what are your thoughts after last nights episode?

This turned into an unofficial review of sorts and it got rather long, so I’ll post it all below the cut for those that want to read my thoughts.

I might be in the minority here, but I really enjoyed the episode. I kinda loved it actually, and it might be one of my favorite episodes. I enjoyed everything about it…the writing, the directing, the acting.

Gwen Sigan wrote the episode, but I gotta give her credit where it’s due because it was pretty damn good in my book. It reminded me a lot of her writing days prior to her becoming show-runner and I miss those days so very much.

I think the tidbits of Hailey’s past are coming way too late, but I still really enjoyed getting to peek into her life a bit more. Just wish we could have gotten more of it along the way and not three episodes before the character is gone.

I loved Kevin’s blatant callout to Hailey in the first minute of the episode of how she’s dealing and if running is helping her. He asks this question of “how are you doing…really doing?” with no words and just one look, and then we’re given the answer by Hailey deflecting and avoiding yet again under the guise of wanting a sugar fix. I think that was brilliant. It conveyed everything you needed to know about Hailey’s mental state in one short moment.

No Voight in the episode was such a gift.

Hailey being in charge and leading this particular case was the right move and she handled it so well. I’m bummed we probably won’t see her leading her own unit someday.

Also back to the no Voight thing just for a moment to say that it’s interesting to see how the dynamic shifted with the team versus him not being around and Hailey being in charge. The team felt lighter to me, like in the sense that they weren’t on edge, walking on eggshells in a way. Everything just felt calmer. There was still an intensity and an urgency to solve the case, but rules were followed, there was no off the book cowboy bullshit, and it felt like everyone followed Hailey and trusted her, whereas with Voight they were obeying orders that were barked out to them. I don’t know. It just felt really different and so very satisfying to me.

I love Kevin and Kim’s ability to communicate with one another with just one look between them. Makes me think of the early days of them being partners and being on patrol. They still work so wonderfully together.

This case was sick. A mother doing that to her own child is demented. Where these writers, and Gwen specifically, come up with these ideas is beyond me, but someone should probably do a wellness check on her. Like girly needs some serious therapy and R&R.

Josephine Petrovic. I had some hesitation with her at first as you usually do with a new character as you try and suss them out, but I’ve gotta say, I like her. I like her and I hate that I like her and I hate that she only just came onto the show because I would love to see what happens with her if she were to stick around, but I can’t watch this show without Tracy or Jesse — mostly Tracy — but neither of them? I just can’t do it. I have some other thoughts on Jo, but I will save them for another ask I received.

I obviously saved the elephant in the room for last…Jay. I really don’t think the mentions and nods to him in this episode were “bad” in any way because it’s stuff that has already been said about the character…Gwen’s version of him at least, but I do think there is a reason why he is being brought up and why there are so many nods to the marriage. Hailey insisted she wasn’t angry with him in the premiere. She signed the divorce papers, sent them off, and that was that and she washed her hands of him. Except she didn’t. Because she is angry, she hasn’t moved on in the year and a half he’s been gone now, signing the papers didn’t give her any closure…hell, even him signing the papers didn’t give her any closure, (I will die on the hill that he only signed them because it’s what he thought she wanted). I personally do not think she will get any closure whatsoever if she doesn’t have a conversation with him, if she doesn’t confront him and all of it head on…the anger and resentment and confusion and the love that is still there. You can’t turn that shit off. You can’t just push it away and be like, “okay, I’m done with you now, goodbye.” Life doesn’t work that way. Emotions don’t work that way. Grief sure as shit doesn’t work that way, and I feel like that is the stage Hailey is stuck in right now. Grieving the loss of Jay and her marriage and stuck in a limbo that she doesn’t know how to navigate on her own while dealing with childhood trauma that she actually isn’t really dealing with at all. And she is without a doubt on her own. That is the one thing that has been made clear this season. She has no family, not any friends other than co-workers, and right now, she doesn’t have Jay. I respect the “independent woman, gonna stand on my own, I don’t need anyone” mindset, but I don’t agree with how we got here and I also don’t fully agree with the notion that she doesn’t need anyone because everyone needs someone. You can’t do life alone. You need someone in your corner, someone by your side, someone who gets you in ways you don’t even know yourself, and for Hailey, that person is and will always be Jay Halstead. I think she will realize she needs to get out of Chicago like her brothers, like Jay, like Will, and I hope that wherever she ends up, Jay is there waiting for her and the two of them can just start over without Chicago and their past looming over them like a dark cloud. And for the love of God, let them both go to therapy…together and separately.

Brenna Malloy directed and it was just…perfect. True cinema if you will. The close-ups of the actors’ faces during certain scenes and how the camera would pan to them at just the exact right moment for a reaction, the no background noise and intentional pauses during scenes that allowed moments to feel heavier and more real, the ending shot of Hailey and her teary eyes…I feel like it was a story that was so delicately handled and crafted by Brenna, and I’m just really impressed.

Tracy Spiridakos. I mean, what more even needs to be said? The woman is a powerhouse. It always amazes me knowing how much of a goof she is on set and then you watch an episode like this and it’s just like…WOW. Her range of emotion and the way she makes you feel every single one of those emotions is truly something that needs to be studied. You cry with her, you smile with her, you laugh with her, but the biggest thing is you feel for her character, and I think that is something that not all actors are capable of doing with an audience. Tracy knocks it out of the park, across the highway, into the next town every time, and her execution is consistent every time as well. No one is doing it like her, and I love and respect the hell out of that woman and her talent.

I think the same also needs to be said for Bojana Novakovic. I have been surprisingly impressed by her and kind of adore her. I’ve really been enjoying the character of Josephine Petrovic and I hate that she’s only coming into the show now right when Tracy is walking out the door because Bojana alone is incredible, but her and Tracy together? It’s like magic to me. Their chemistry as scene partners and the way they bounce off each other is absolutely insane, and then their ability to pull you in and keep you locked in…ooof. I think it’s something special and I’ve really enjoyed seeing them together on-screen.

As for how I feel…

I feel good? Okay? The episode didn’t do much for me in the grand scheme of “what is Hailey gonna do” or “what’s gonna happen” because we already anticipated her leaving Chicago. That wasn’t ever in question. But the actual reason for Hailey leaving is still muddled to me, even more so because she hasn’t resolved anything in her life. She still has these demons, a past filled with trauma she hasn’t found peace with, she has no closure with Jay, she has questions and zero answers, and she is already and literally running from her problems.

So, is she supposed to leave Chicago and start over somewhere and her problems are just gonna go poof? Magically disappear? Because that’s not how that works, and I think that would be yet another injustice to the character and more lazy writing. I do think the episode (finally!) laid the groundwork for Tracy’s exit, but it should have started in episode 1, not 10. Tracy gave them an entire season to wrap up Hailey’s story, and I feel like they wasted so much time and it’s gonna be another rushed exit once the curtain falls. It’s not that I’m surprised in that regard, but I am disappointed (again!) especially considering how much of a fuss Gwen made about “it’s so generous of Tracy to give us a whole season.”

If Gwen’s plan was to make Hailey’s exit about her family and her childhood trauma then the seed should have been planted long before now, and Jay shouldn’t still be a sore subject for her. I think we’re in for a really emotional ending to the season, not just for Hailey, but for the first time since season eight I’m actually looking forward to a finale again.

In conclusion and a very long story short…I loved the episode, but Gwen Sigan is still on my shit list.

[yellowhollyhock]

so. Roman writes a script for an episode that he knows is good. He's very excited. He feels like he finally did something right.

Shows it to Logan. Gets it back all marked up.

accidentally got long

It starts a big fight. Easy for us to imagine how this goes because they have this or adjacent fights all the time.

Janus is on Roman's side which would make Roman more angry. Virgil is on Logan's side which hurts especially (idk if there's new content but last I know Roman and Virgil were pretty much the only consistently getting along, maybe Janus and Remus idk). Remus is there for a good time (see Roman's ideas are not good you should use mine). Patton manages to hurt everyone's feelings by taking Roman's side but sounding unsure about it (poor little guy is trying so hard to take care of everyone).

Roman has some good points: why is Logan criticizing his work when it's going to be reviewed by the writing team anyway? Isn't the most important thing at this stage for Thomas to be excited about his own ideas?

Virgil probably gets a little defensive here, like okay wow I'm sorry that Thomas can't always feel great and excited about his creations all the time. Did you even think about how much worse it would be if it was the writing team making all these corrections instead of Thomas doing it within his own head?

And then something clicks for Logan. All these corrections? What do you mean?

And now Virgil's defending Roman as best he can and still be honest with himself. You did kinda rip into it, Teach. I know you're holding is to a high standard but geez, look at all this red ink

Logan: Huh. It sounds as if the two of you think that because I marked it excessively, I disapproved of the script.

Thomas, glancing between them: Well yeah that's usually what red ink means (?)

Logan: No--I mean, yes, but this isn't high school. We're working at a higher level here.

Roman: And now you're calling me a high schooler?

Logan *adjusts glasses*: I specifically said this isn't high school. It is true that, especially for beginning writers, revision marks are usually an indication of

m i s t a k e s

Logan: Wow. As I was saying, Roman is not a beginning writer. I marked the text so excessively because I was engaging with the text. Seeing as it is, in fact, a draft, and will be submitted to peers for review, it is important that Thomas i prepared to discuss the material.

And they're all huh wha? but he wrote it tho?

Logan: Yes, but it's my job to take it from a daydream to a plan. If you read my notes, you would find--

Patton: Red ink!

Logan, thrown off: Yes, that's--we've established that I've made marks--

Virgil, recognizing an Epiphany from the Heart when he sees one: What are you getting at, Patton?

Patton: I mean, this isn't high school anymore!

Logan: Okay, you're just reiterating what I've said.

Patton: Sorry, what I mean is--when Thomas was in school, revision wasn't really treated as part of the creative process--it was a judgment from an authority figure, like a teacher! Or a parent

Logan, now interested: What are you getting at, Patton?

Patton: Thomas has a negative emotional reaction to the color red in that context.

Roman: But that's ridiculous!

Janus: Red has more positive connotations than negative. That's basic color theory :3

Virgil: Don't.

Remus: BLOODY BODY DRAGGED ACROSS THE FLOOR OF THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL

Patton is horrified

Logan, annoyed: Patton, you were saying?

Patton: Oh! Glitter pens!

Thomas: Glitter pens?

Roman: Glitter pens?! Now is not the moment for a consolation prize!

Logan: Oh, that's actually quite brilliant, Patton.

Virgil: What??

Logan: As I was saying, way back at (time stamp) before I was I N T E R R U P T E D, if you were to look at the notes I've made, you would find things circled that were phrased particularly well that I believe should go untouched to the final draft.

Roman: ... we would?

Logan: You would also find extensive notes on how the things you've implied in this script fit into the larger lore, which you have done particularly well this time.

Roman: Oh, I, uh--

Logan: I've noted places where we could have an opportunity to research a topic you've touched on and elaborate further, if the run time permits. If not we could possibly link relevant articles.

Roman: ... Oh.

Logan: Of course, minor grammar mistakes or small inconsistencies are also marked, but you do make a valid point there were not many of them this time.

Patton: So if we started color coding the different things Logan does when he revises, we could get Thomas to start thinking about the revision process differently!

Roman: Logan, I'm so sorry, I've been approaching this all wrong. I felt like you weren't even looking at my contributions or giving them a fair chance, and the truth is that's exactly what I was doing to you.

Logan: I appreciate you acknowledging that, Roman.

anyways the whole reason I put this on tumblr and not ao3 is because it has been sitting about here for uh. years now. So yeah they color code things and it helps Logan feel like he has a place in the creative process and also helps Roman not to take feedback so personally

[midnight1nk]

So, this week's remaster...

[Spoilers below cut]

Aha! I've expected as much, they usually release a regular episode or a Remaster. It's been a while since they've done one of these, I honestly thought we were going to get one during the Puzzle Park arc, which of course didn't happen.

Let's see, the OG "Return to Freddy's Spaghettria" episode was...

9 YEARS AGO?!?!?

...time isn't real, guys. I feel old old. Makes sense though, the OG has 44 million views, being one of the most popular videos on the channel. It's a no-brainer. also it was spooky month *does the dance* a few days ago.

Anyway, since it's a remaster, this post is going to be a lot shorter than usual.

(the following is my reaction:)

ah, of course, the updated graphics

and Mario going from his polygonal 64 model to his current one

but also peach's castle.... ahem, let's keep going

"no more saying cuss words guys" oh right, susan is watching over us

[*sigh*] i miss my wife, tails. i miss her a lot, I'll be back

gotta make the reference I'm sorry

go off Mario, show those dance moves

also can I just say, I love how expressive Mario is now. It's one of the things I love about the show

WIZARD ROCK IS BACK!!!! it's been so long

man, i'm old

omg the barney song (listen, I was a PBS Kid and I've indeed watched barney when I was a child soooo I still find it wild to hear that song again.)

"do you like popsicles?" oh hey a spongebob... oh...

....i'm overthinking this i'm overthinking this i'm overthinking this

uh, moving on!

and mario using mr. yeast to barricade the door... [*IGBP flashbacks*]

Welcome, everyone, to "Let's Remind Ink of the Show's Past Arcs and Current Mysteries" :)

"remember the locket :)" "YEAH I KNOW I KNOW"

that camera work tho

cocomelon... WHY AM I GETTING FLASHBACKS

pizza :D

[*claps in terror*]

well, that's new from the OG.... okay, look, I know this purple thing is from something else and not related to anything at all i get that BUT I just got reminded of meme rehab

happy halloween to me specifically ig, thanks Team

DAMN his coin count lowered from 24 coins in the OG to just 14 coins in the remaster

WII SPORTS, I love all the references to it in this episode

"who wants a muffin?" "no" "but I wanna die :D" /ref

the mickey mouse audio.... LEAVE ME ALONE *flachback* AAAH *flashback* AAAAAAHHHHH

SMG4 HIIII :D good to see blue Mario every now and then

and some voice acting wow

RAVE PARTY

hold up, i gonna pull out the crafting table for this one

mario can and will teleport behind you when he wants to

pizza :D

also congrats to ArrowDustt for your art being featured in the credits 🎉

.・-: ✧ :--: ✧ :-・.

Another pleasant episode. It's really fun to see how much the Team has improved over the years while still being the show. It is a remaster so it's pretty much the same storyline, but the animation and editing and voice acting and so much more. Go show some appreciation for the Team!!

As much as I'm here for the loreeeeeeeee, I wouldn't mind if the rest of the year is just filled with silly episodes. it's the silly meme show after all... but Team, was it really necessary to remind me that these characters had trauma from previous episodes? well, guess what? it's day of the dead for me so your plan failed aha!!! /silly

Yeah, I do look too much into stuff sprinkled in the background or the episode in general, it's kinda my thing. Don't mind me overanalyzing the bingo numbers from the last episode. Anyway, it was nice of Ben (the thumbnail artist) to show some of the behind-the-scenes.

Stretchy boi :) Love when the Team does these kinds of things. By the way, if anyone was curious, the WOTFI website is still up. Interesting....

Well, my dear fellows, that's all for now. Curious to know what the next remaster will be, and as always, looking forward to what shenanigans the SMG4 Crew will be up to next week. Hmm, maybe I'll post another episode concept (angst or fluff, no in-between >:] hehehe). Take care, and I'll see you all next time!!! pizza :D

...

BUT ALSO GOOP!FOUR— *green screen explosion*

[faetaiity]

Can I leave a request? If your not doing requests that fine, you can do this later. Or not at all.

~

Rottmnt, Reader, (specifically, male pls) who has problems with being happy, or being content with himself. Where sometimes reader doesn't leave his house because of it, and the turtles check on him once in a while.

Donatello, checks on him and reader is crying on the floor, donnie isn't good with emotions and he stands there shocked and scared. Reader notice and apologies for acting like a child.

Donnie stays a little longer then usually and talks with reader about it.

Do your own twist with it if you'd like.

Have a good day !

I relate to this a lot as someone with Major Depressive Disorder (aka Clinical Depression) Holy fUCK- This is gonna be very much a self-indulgent post. This might not follow the ask 100% and I'm sorry /gen Can be taken as Romantic or Platonic.

Rise! Donatello x Male! Depressed! Reader

Post Format: 90% Story and 10% HCs

CW/TW: Crying, Mentions of a lack of self-care/hygiene, Depression-related issues, Implications(?) of Self-hatred/Low Self-esteem

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Turtles in general are very caring friends, often checking up on you, Casey, April and Cassandra.

However, you are checked up on more, due to your sudden and out of the blue behavior at times.

Usually, all four check up on you, but sometimes it's just one or two

You can't really tell who you see the most, if someone comes alone to visit you, chances are you'll see the others separate or together in a few hours.

~~~~♡♡♡♡~~~~

It's been a day or two since you've last met with the turtles, you miss them a lot but can't handle the idea of talking to them, at some point Mikey or Raph will ask you what was wrong, and you stress over the idea of being honest with them about it.

You've managed to skate by on telling them not to worry about it, but you have a feeling it won't work this time, so you (stupidly) prolong the inevitable and dreadful conversation about your emotions and issues.

Sighing, you make your way to your bathroom with a bundle of clothes in your hands, hoping the hygienic care would uplift your mood, it's worked a few times before, why not try it again now? and even if it doesn't, at least you've showered once since this depressive episode hit.

(Time-skip bc I actually kinda spaced out while writing and forgot that I would have to talk/have details abt reader showering, which is rlly weird, sorry abt that lmao)

You make your way to your bed, hair dripping wet, but you couldn't care less. You just want to cry, the shower didn't help as much as you hoped and now, you're just cold, tired, and sad.

Flopping onto your bed, you feel tears roll down your face, a rare moment as it's difficult for you to actually cry, but you try to let it happen, to not internalize your emotional turmoil like your therapist said, the feeling of tears rolling down your face was unfamiliar and odd, but not unwelcome.

Hearing the knock on your bedroom window about a minute or two after you began crying was deeply unsettling, you'd rather die than have Raph or gods forbid Dr. Feelings, enter and see you sobbing.

The knocking ceased after a few minutes, you've continued crying but not at the loud and fast pace you were at before the knocks began. You wait a couple seconds, sniffling and panting quietly as you try to hear if they've walked away or not, flinching when you hear the lock fiddle and unlatch, giving you the hint that the Turtle entering is Donnie, as you've only seen him lockpick doors and windows.

You hear the window open and see him slowly enter your bedroom, he looks around before spotting you on the bed, he stares at you for a while, seemingly unnerved by the tears streaming down your face, after several seconds or so of staring, he slowly and cautiously makes his way over to you, he stops by your legs and sits on the floor, his battle shell up against your bed.

You stare at him tiredly; you've stopped crying by this point, as you have always felt self-conscious about crying around other people, seeing yourself as an ugly crier.

He doesn't say anything for a few minutes, he looks at the floor, his facial expression giving away his confusion, he's raking through his mind trying to figure out a way to comfort someone he deeply cares about before-

"I'm sorry" you croak out, throat sore from crying, he stares at you incredulously.

"For what?"

"Crying, I know that makes you uncomfortable, I won't blame you if you leave, just don't tell Mikey or Raph, okay? If you feel like you have to send someone, send Leo... please." you mumble, feeling awkward and ashamed about this whole situation.

He looks at you sadly, getting up from his seated position on the floor, you assume he's about to leave, but he slowly gets on the bed, his knees near your stomach as he awkwardly attempts to hug you, you freeze for a moment, knowing how touch adverse he can be at times, before timidly hugging him back, making sure not to touch certain areas that make him uncomfortable.

"You don't have to hug me, I know it makes you-" "It's fine, I wouldn't hug you if I didn't want to." he interrupted, you don't protest after he said that, you two stay like this for a bit before he lets go, he sits up and sighs, hoping that his words comfort you.

"I really care about you, Y/N, I'm sorry I don't visit as much as my brothers, and I'm sorry I came off as cold when I first came over, I just.... Don't know how to approach these things, I'm not the best at words but if you want to talk about it, I'll gladly listen."

You look at him for a few seconds, unsure of if you could even talk about it, but ultimately, you nod.

~~~~♡♡♡♡~~~~

After that incident, he's visited you more often, even when you're doing just fine.

He never spoke about your issues to his brothers, and so far, he plans to never speak about it with them until you're comfortable.

It's difficult for both of you, especially if you're also autistic and/or have alexithymia, but with effort from both of you, you made it work.

He's trying his best and you appreciate/love him for it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Augh, sorry that the end is more open to interpretation, I wanted people to be able to put their own issues and problems there

Sorry I've been gone for a hot minute; shit's been happening and I'm just.... tired, emotionally and physically

Hopefully I can finish another ask within the next week or so, I already have the idea lined out for one.

[philologique]

perpetually fascinated by how the thai series i've watched tend to translate vulgar intensifiers,¹ and specifically thinking about โคตร,² which i'm just gonna write as "kho:t" for the rest of this post (pronounced with an aspirated k or the 'ch' in 'loch' and an unreleased t at the end; the colon just makes the o long)

heads up that i don't actually speak thai and i'm not any kind of translator! just an english speaker with a pretty good ear who spends approximately two-thirds of all waking hours thinking about language. footnotes and stream of consciousness thoughts on ongoing phonological change(!!) in footnotes under the cut.

anyway! kho:t literally means ancestry, clan, descent, or lineage,⁷ but is used an intensifier that wiktionary describes as "slang, sometimes considered vulgar." ⁸

i think about thai intensifiers—and specifically kho:t—all the time in the context of episode 5 of bad buddy. pat's "it was so depressingly lonely for me" is the last pin you can hear drop before the dam breaks, but what he says is แม่งโคตรเหงาเลยเว่ย, (maeng kho:t ngao loey woey). which is a bit rawer? cruder? three of those five words (แม่ง,โคตร,เว่ย) are sometimes are translated as "damn," including just a few sentences earlier when pat says "while you were away, my life was so damn happy."

when i first watched bad buddy i didn't know a single sentence in thai, and i have no idea how any other choice might have hit me in that moment. but at least twice a week i wonder whether and how that translation choice might have affected the english-language bad buddy fandom. damn, it was so lonely. so damn lonely. so freaking lonely. so desperately lonely. so depressingly lonely.

of course, it was all of those things.

¹ Shout out to Methawee Yuttapongtada for their article, "Intensifier as Changed from the Impolite Word in Thai," without which it would have taken last-year-me months longer to tell what pat was saying. i was playing the audio of this scene on a loop in my brain and assumed that the velar fricative was a /kʰ/, but there are so many spelling options for word initial /kʰ/ and word final /t/ that i gave up experimenting with spellings and looked for english-language linguistic literature on thai intensifiers.

² Theoretically pronounced /kʰôːt/ but often (usually?) realized by young speakers in contemporary thai as [xôːt] or [χôːt], which is a whole other thing (that is vastly more interesting to me personally).³ ⁴ i feel like (at least gen z) speakers use a velar or uvular fricative in more or less free variation with an aspirated k, but i haven't come across any literature on it other than in descriptive studies of northern thai.⁴ ⁵ Either way kʰôːt rhymes with the "tô:t" in the thai word for sorry, which you'll probably recognize if you've watched anything in thai!

³ I know this is rough IPA lol. the unreleased diacritic looked weird on tumblr and struck me as unnecessary for phonemic transcription given that all word-final stops are unreleased. also i'm fine with just using the most commonly used latin-script tone diacritics for standard central thai. to me IPA's value is in precision and facilitating common understanding; i don't feel like any of that's lost by not using IPA tones here.

⁴ PHONETICS THOUGHTS re /kʰ/

I kinda think [kʰ], [x], and [χ] are in more or less free variation phonologically among most speakers today in all environments except before close/high front vowels—คิด is pretty much always [kʰit], and from watching a bunch of cooking shows 'salty' (เค็ม) seems to be not-quite-invariably pronounced with a [kʰ].

...but then i think boom used a fricative (possibly [ç]) when saying คิดอะไร at one point in last weekend's hidden agenda?? and 'okay' (โอเค) seems to have a fricative at least half the time i hear it. i would hazard a guess that if you did several hours of (ideally) informal linguistic interviews with central thai speakers of different ages: (1) everyone would have some velar or uvular fricatives, (2) the fricative /kʰ/ would be more common among younger speakers (vs older speakers) in all (syllable-initial) phonetic environments, (3) individual speakers would be most likely to pronounce /kʰ/ as a fricative before more open/low and back vowels and in true consonant clusters, (4) individual speakers would be least likely to pronounce /kʰ/ as a fricative before closer/higher front vowels, particularly /i/, and (5) speakers would be more likely to pronounce /kʰ/ as [kʰ] when they're paying attention to their speech, e.g. reading off a list of words in isolation—which takes us to:

SOCIOLINGUISTICS-ish THOUGHTS re /kʰ/:

I know i just talked about the phonological constraints and possible ongoing sound change for the phoneme /kʰ/ but i think it's super NOT free variation in practice, even before a vowel like /a/. this is just based on observation from contemporary dramas/cooking shows/interviews/songs (which is another thing i have Thoughts about), but i feel like at the moment it's largely a register thing that maps imperfectly onto levels of formality (and also friendliness? one hyper-specific almost-baseless hypothesis i'd like to test is that you'll hear more fricative /kʰ/ in constructions with the particle 'na' (นะ)). i would also guess that if there are any attitudinal studies on the pronunciation, they would reveal that most speakers view an aspirated stop as the "proper" way to pronounce syllable-initial /kʰ/.

i would love to look at whether /kʰ/ is realized as a fricative more or less often in constructions with certain particles, as an easy proxy for certain kinds of register. (i would also want to look at this with different first- and second-person pronouns, although so many of them are roughly gendered or would correspond to the relative age of the speaker and listener that it would almost certainly skew the results and might just tell us more about the demographics that are leading this phonological change! which is also useful!) ANYWAY if i win the lottery maybe i'll go back to linguistics for real bc i miss it desperately and want an excuse to study this 😭

re attitudinal research, I would really want to poll and have linguistic interviews with thai speakers of central thai as well as bilingual speakers of central thai and northern thai, isan/lao, and other tai and non-tai minority languages in thailand. i'm interested in questions about possible interference from those languages vs the extent to which speakers might emphasize differences between their respective minority languages and central thai (even where they may not exist) for the sake of maintaining regional/cultural identity through language (or something?? this is really poorly articulated but as an example i'm thinking about how my dialect of swiss german uses the same construction as standard german for the verb "to hurt" (Weh tun/Weh tue), but swiss german speakers think of "Weh tue" as a uniquely alemannic construction and instead use the word "schmerzen" when speaking/writing swiss standard german, effectively inventing a "german" construction that the local language can be in opposition to. see also fn 5 and 6 on northern thai below.)

⁵ Those studies note (if i recall correctly, this is off the top of my head lmao) that kʰr- consonant clusters in northern thai effectively drop the r and realize the k as a fricative.⁶ which. i'm not convinced this is uniquely part of northern thai so much as a productive phenomenon across central and northern thai that's just highly register-dependent in the standard language. (i would argue that at least the dropping of 'r's and 'l's from consonant clusters absolutely is just part of central thai phonology at this point. if being able to pronounce a consonant cluster—or a rolled r, for that matter—is a sign of ~good education or ~elocution rather than something that any subset of speakers learns as part of the spoken language when acquiring the language as children (which is possible, i just have not observed it), then—apart from the extent to which it conveys social meaning—i don't really think of it as a fundamental part of the language itself. this is maybe kind of a hot take lmao)

⁶ There was also a clip i watched—i think it was from the 1000 stars bts of khaotung trying to speak northern thai—where someone basically articulated that same rule to him, like "for ครบ just say /xop/"

⁷ From sanskrit, hence the silent r in the thai script.

⁸ I don't know nearly enough abt thai language or culture to meaningfully analyze the implications of that etymology or how โคตร might best be translated with minimal context. i'm guessing "damn" might be at about the right level of intensity/vulgarity as an intensifier, but it carries such explicit religious implications that i'm hesitant to use it?? i'm happy to let the translators and subtitlers make the difficult decisions while i just ponder stuff about sound change

[stormyoceans]

oh please please please please talk more about the puentalay kisses bc i am, also, severely insane about them

(the feeling! the physicality! the comfort!! god those are all such great kisses. also hoping for sea to grab onto jimmy too oh yes tho am not sure if the hesitancy before was just him or him portraying talay, we'll see??)

that could be!!!! as a viewer it’s pretty hard to establish if the physicality in a kiss is fully determined by the actor’s performance or if it’s partly due to directing choices, so it’s definitely possible for that hesitancy to be more about talay rather than sea himself, especially since talay isn’t as comfortable with physical touch as puen is, at least at the beginning, while sea himself seems like a very affectionate guy, at least now. i personally feel like both factors may be at play here, which is why im really curious to see how their kisses in last twilight are going to be, since in the mock trailer day is the one to initiate it  

AND SINCE IM INSUFFERABLE HERE IS MY PERSONAL ANALYSIS OF THE PUENTALAY KISSES BASED ON AN ASSIGNEMENT I DID FOR MY HISTORY OF FILM CLASS BACK IN UNIVERSITY 10 YEARS AGO

okay so, obviously im far from being an expert, but what i learned while doing my research is that there are 5 elements that directors and acting coaches usually take into account when it comes to kisses. those elements are:

prelude: it’s everything that leads up to the kiss itself, from the story up until that moment, to the emotions of the characters, to the tone of the scene;

look: eye contact is essential when it comes to acting, and even more so when there’s a kissing scene. we love consent, but the truth is that a lot of times the invitation for a kiss is made through the eyes and the emotions you can express through them (needless to say, jimmy is INSANE at this);

breath: it's whether the characters just dive in or if there's some lingering before or after the kiss;

rhythm: it's about the length, the pace, and the technique of the kiss;

surrender: this is what i usually call the physicality of a kiss, because it’s basically the way the bodies respond to each other.

a good director can play with all these elements to give a specific feeling and match the scene itself. that being said, let's start with the kiss where all these elements can't be applied sfjksgfj

the drunk kiss in episode 2. drunk kisses are hard to judge because you are actually supposed to mess up all the things that make a good kiss. if a character is wasted they're hardly gonna be able to communicate emotions through their eyes or have a nice rhythm. in this case there's also not much of a prelude since they've just met, but that's kinda the point: the purpose is to surprise both puen and the audience. i still find it an interesting kiss because of what it tells us about the characters (talay is more open and affectionate when drunk, puen is perplexed but doesn't get angry or push talay away) and i think the fact that it stayed with them for YEARS says a lot about the instant connection they felt between them. i also really appreciate that we get a quick peck first and then a second slightly more purposeful kiss, lips puckered and fully touching.

(hiding the rest under the cut to preserve some kind of dignity)

the greenhouse kiss in episode 4. HERE'S WHERE IM GONNA START LEAVING ANY SEMBLANCE OF SANITY AND COHERENCY BEHIND. im usually not the biggest fan of one-sided/sudden kisses, but this one.... THIS ONE!!!!!! the entire episode is a perfect build up to this moment, engaging the viewers since the very beginning ("so, they will fall in love?" "i guess they will") and raising the (emotional) stakes with each step leading towards it ("why don't we fall in love with each other?", "i talked about the one im hitting on", "feelings aren't something you can toy with"): the second talay steps into the greenhouse and puen comes into view, you can actually FEEL it in the air, that something's gonna happen. then puen grabs talay's arm to stop him from leaving AND THE LOOKS HE THROWS AT TALAY!!!!!! THE WAY HIS EYES SOFTEN WHEN TALAY ASKS HIM "ARE YOU MESSING WITH ME AGAIN?" AND HE ANSWERS "NO"!!!!!!! his intentions are written all over them, so when puen grabs talay's neck and kisses him you're expecting it and yet it still manages to take your breath away. sudden kisses are pretty much the only type where it's kinda acceptable to have a frozen physicality (so arms down the side, body standing still) because it makes sense for the surprise to be freezing the character in place, and while that it's also what happens here, i really like how they were able to somehow still make it feel 'physical': jimmy goes in so strong sea stumbles/has to readjust his position a little, the hold jimmy has on sea's neck is gentle but firm and establishes connection, their lips are fully pressed together, jimmy's nose is almost squished against sea's cheek, and for a sudden kiss their bodies are standing surprisingly close to each other.

the greyllery kiss in episode 8. when i tell you i start FROTHING AT THE MOUTH every time i see just how perfectly they constructed and directed this kiss to parallel the one in the greenhouse…. from puen's adoring look to the way he pulls talay in by grabbing the back of his neck to the camera angles, every detail is built to make the viewers recall the end of episode 4 and give us a visual representation of how much their relationship has grown since then. obviously the mutuality of it is the biggest difference in itself, but there’s also a subtle shift in the physicality to match that: puen gets to wrap both of his arms around talay now, and talay finally reaches back too. this is one of the cases where i do wish sea could have been a bit more confident in grabbing jimmy back, but at the same time i think the hesitancy makes sense for talay as a character, so it's not a detail that pulls you out of the moment and everything else is just PERFECT. the prelude to the kiss in particular is incredible, not only because of the confession itself, which would deserve its own analysis even just for how it happens when the lights are out, highlighting the fact that they love each other for who they are, no matter which body they're inhabiting, but also because the tension gets progressively built up beat by beat until you find yourself on the edge of your sit holding your breath just waiting for it to happen: i said i like you, beat, i like you even though i don't know what you look like, beat, even though i don't know who you are, beat, i like you too, beat, i like everything about you, beat, puen dropping his bag, beat, and when puen takes an audible breath in before stepping forward, that's when you can finally release your own. this is also the first kiss where we can judge the rhythm, and i personally think that jimmy and sea have a very good sense of it in all of their kisses. it's kinda hard to explain why, but it's in the way they can pace the kiss, and mirror each other's intensity, and switch the side their head turns while doing it. last thing im gonna say (because this is already getting way too long ;;;;) is that letting the sounds of the kiss be heard under the background music sure was. A CHOICE.

the bucket hat kiss in episode 9. [RATTLES THE BARS OF HER CAGE] DOCTOR JIMMY THE THINGS YOU DO WITH YOUR EYES!!!!!!!!! in this case the kiss itself is pretty short so it can't be judged on more technical aspects, however it does not leave the viewers wanting for more, because the emotions behind it already say everything we need to know. the adoration the longing the want the reverence the wonder the love.... it's all written in the way puen looks at talay. the camera focuses way more on puen here because the revelation of who talay is is, quite literally, life changing for him, but the lingering on talay's eyes after they part and the two of them remaining close to each other as if they can't bring themselves to move on tell us how this kiss functions as a seal for the many promises made between them: of going back together, of finding each other again, of their mutual feelings. also i can't really figure out if this is a jimmy thing or a conscious directing choice, but when it comes to physicality i LOVE how puen always has his hand or his arm around talay's neck. it's such a protective and possessive gesture which is meant to send a clear message, not to other people, but to the universe: this is the man i love, it says, and im not gonna let you take him away from me.

the bathtub kiss in episode 10. i feel so normal about this kiss it's honestly insane how normal and hinged and sane and fine i feel about it. like not to be petty but i have no idea HOW can anyone watch this and then really say that jimmysea can't kiss, especially considering it hits EVERY SINGLE POINT of what a good kiss should be like. the simple intimacy of taking a bath together, the shared joy of their success, and the teasing of the reward are all perfect set ups for this kiss, and as always jimmy has the insane ability to broadcast puen's intentions through his eyes in a way few other actors can, however what makes this kiss really stand out compared to the rest are the breath and the physicality of it. when it comes to kissing talay, puen is always diving into it like a starving man, and this time is no different, but unlike all the other times there is a pause in the kiss and you can actually see how much it costs them to separate: they both look like they're getting out of a trance, breaths mingling together as puen keeps his eyes closed for a little longer to pull himself together and talay blindly chases his lips for more, confused by the sudden interruption. this temporary pause doesn't break the actual rhythm of the kiss, nor it pulls the viewers out of the moment, because it's clear that they're both still very much into it. i will never stop praising jimmy and sea for being able to portray just how overwhelmed the characters are here, both from the kiss and the feelings they have for each other, and it also shows in the way they almost sound choked up as they thank each other. the kiss picking up from where they left it is the only natural continuation to all these emotions bubbling to the surface, emotions that are way too big to put into words, so they rely on their bodies to try to convey them. and speaking of bodies, this kiss is the perfect example of why physicality is also called 'surrender', you just need to look at the openness and vulnerability of talay's neck in that position, but even when sea shifts a little into a more comfortable one you can see how their body fit together and melt into each other perfectly. honestly the only thing that could have possibly made this kiss better was to have jimmy hold sea's face for a bit longer instead of moving his arm on the side of the bathtub, but frankly im just nitpicking here (monica aren't you forgetting something, one may ask. and to that i say YEAH YEAH THE TONGUE SLIP WE'VE ALL SEEN IT. NO I REFUSE TO COMMENT ON IT BYE)

the riverbank kiss in episode 10. as much as i love this whole scene, this kiss in particular is sadly not my favorite one, mostly because i think the editing and the camera angles did a bit of a disservice to it. i really like how it starts: all puentalay kisses have very strong preludes because they always serve a purpose to the story, they're never gratuitous (in this case it's meant to be a confirmation of puen's words and an omen of what's to come), and jimmysea can both convey so much with their eyes that you can actually feel how they're pulling each other (and the viewers) in to the kiss by the looks they share. it's when the camera moves from their faces to go above and then behind them that i feel like it ends up taking you out of the moment they worked so hard to build, because it completely blocks the view of the kiss in a very jarring way, and when it gets in front of them again talay's arm is suddenly reaching up to puen, which it wasn't in the previous frame. it's such a pity because i LOVE that connection, it's the kind of physicality that can turn a good kiss to a great one, so i do wish we could have gotten more continuity and a more direct view.

the reunion kiss in episode 11. it may come as a surprise, but i actually don’t have a lot to say about this kiss, mainly because i believe any technical analysis becomes pointless in the face of the journey that led them to this moment. this is their first kiss after being reunited, and if this were any other show, i feel like it would have made a big deal out of this also being their first kiss in their real bodies, but the love between puen and talay has never been about physical appearance, and we're reminded of that once again. this kiss is the meeting of two souls who have missed each other and find comfort in being together again, and i don't think it's a coincidence that this is the one time they are fully facing each other, with puen mirroring talay's crosslegged position on the bed. “from this moment on, it’s me and you,” talay is gonna say in the next episode, “talay and puen,” and i think this kiss perfectly represent these words. i guess i do wish, once again, that sea were holding jimmy back in some way, even just by grabbing his arm, but like with the greyllery kiss i think it does work character-wise, because while this is a comforting moment for both of them, talay is the one who needs more reassurance, who needs to know that puen isn’t gonna leave him, and all the gestures puen does (the forehead kiss, the handholding, the protective hold he has on talay while they kiss) are his way to prove to talay, other than with words, that this isn’t a dream: it’s real, they’re both real, and now that they’re finally home and together, he’s never gonna let anything separate them again.

the boyfriends kiss in episode 12. what's better than a kiss in the same place the universe separated you as a way to seal the deal on your new-found and hard-fought boyfriend status? NOTHING THAT'S WHAT. i do think, however, that this kiss kinda leaves you wanting for more. it's not a short deep one like the bucket hat kiss, but it's also not a full make out session like many of the others, and since they don't have the time to build a nice rhythm it feels like the kiss ends before it even gets a chance to start. this is also one of the times where i wish sea were touching jimmy back in some way, or that his body were lining more towards him, because physicality wise it makes him seem a bit less engaged in the moment. despite these details im still pretty fond of this kiss, mostly because the utter adoration in both puen's and talay's eyes before it makes up for A LOT in my book. also it's not really related to the kiss itself but i love the dark/light contrast in their clothes.

the foggy glasses kiss in episode 12. GAME CHANGING LIFE ALTERING MIND BLOWING. A CULTURAL RESET. we've all read about kisses that leave a character breathless, lightheaded and weak at the knees, maybe even got to experience some ourselves in our life, and i honestly can't think about any other kiss in television history that was able to perfectly represent that feeling more than this one. from talay's dazed expression, to his foggy glasses, to his messy hair because of puen's fingers running through it, you can actually believe this kiss affected him to such an extent. and how could it not affect him when the rhythm and physicality of it are INSANE???? the way puen is holding talay's head with BOTH OF HIS HANDS to keep talay in place barely gives talay any time to take breath and they're so close and entangled in each other that you can barely tell where one starts and the other ends. i love the wider camera shots of this kiss because, as i mentioned before, you once again get to see why physicality is defined as surrender: it looks like their bodies are almost melting into each other. it's not even their longest kiss, but the tension and the intensity are off the charts in every part of it. the single-minded purpose with which puen approaches talay at the beginning, eyes firmly on talay's face, never wandering from it, already lets you know just how wild this kiss is about to be, and you can't expect anything less from it after getting to see talay confessing to puen for the third time in five episodes. i also find it very telling that both the show and the our skyy episodes end on such great kisses, they feel like the testament of their love and the proof of how far they've come.

the beach kiss in our skyy. ONE KISS TO RULE THEM ALL ONE KISS TO REMEMBER THEM ONE KISS TO HONOR THEM ALL AND IN FRONT OF THE OCEAN BIND THEM. so anyway bad jokes (and quotes) aside, this kiss does feel like a sum of all their previews ones, maybe because there are elements in it that tend to remind the viewers of a lot of them: the drunk kiss being used as a set up for it, the framing of puen's face at the beginning being the same as the greenhouse and the greyllery ones, puen's smile before pulling talay into it being a little nudge to the bathtub kiss, their position almost mirroring the boyfriends one...... not to mention that it's hard to look at the ocean and not be reminded of other important moments in their journey, like the two of them promising to find each other again in their universe on the secret island and talay having to wait for the tide to retreat to go back to puen. the ocean of is also the place where talay drowned and everything began, so it only makes sense for their story to end in front of it too. the cycle closes with a recollection of the past and a promise for the future, the kiss itself, the mouthed "i love you" and the forehead touch letting us know that no matter what's gonna happen, they will always love each other like the very first day. much like with the reunion one, i think any technical aspect of this kiss becomes of very little importance when you're faced with the whole entire everything of their history together being contained in it, but let me just say, what a difference sea's arm casually draped over jimmy's legs makes!!!!! compared to the boyfriends kiss, you can see how the extra physical connection makes both of them look fully invested in the kiss and makes the viewers feel more involved in it too. as always the rhythm of the kiss is really good, and this time sea is the one who really shines when it comes to the look, because he's just radiating adoration love and pure unadulterated joy everywhere. not that jimmy isn't giving insane levels of emotions too, but im gonna end this mess with something deeply controversial: i know the fandom likes their long hair, but jimmy's bangs end up covering his eyes way too much and that is A CRIME.

[ioannemos]

Would love to hear a little more about those who keep silent and silent like darkness!

those who keep silent: the title is from a quote (shocking, no doubt) by c. s. lewis

Those who speak about their misery usually hurt; those who keep silent hurt more.

the basic idea is that after gipsy danger goes down and his brother dies, raleigh stops talking - as in can't, not won't. he checks himself out of the hospital and drifts up the coast, picking up jobs here and there. yancy follows, always just behind him, heard but not seen. it's mostly disconnected snippets and emotional breakdowns so far. ya boy is Traumatized™️ and not even bothering to pretend otherwise

probably needs more specific yancy content bc i've mentioned him a lot but been kinda vague. i think raleigh's in alaska when pentecost finds him in the movie, so i'm trying to get him over the canadian border (tho, headcanon is the borders are a little less uh border-y now that they're trying to build walls to keep kaiju out. i know the jeagers are very "hoo rah our nation is the best" and that's fine but that's Big Government. Little Government is concerned with matters of the day more than patriotism)

i think this one started in second person tbh, as opposed to other stories where i started elsewhere and ended up there. i like the brand of distance it engenders which i talked about... at some point in the past lol. "first person is in their head, third person is overhead, and second person is riding their shoulder" is the gist of it. even raleigh doesn't wanna be in his head rn - it's not a good place to be! but he can't get out of it, so

the other epigraph is a quote from richard siken

what is a ghost? something dead

that seems to be alive. something

dead that doesn’t know it’s dead.

----

silence like darkness: already talked about the basic idea here. have a little more!

this title is also from a quote, this time from hanif kureishi

And silence, like darkness, can be kind; it, too, is a language.

the first chapter or section or whatever is from rodney's perspective and probably the only one from his perspective bc it's before his brain totally overloads and i don't think i could convey what his worldview looks like after. it probably wouldn't be fun to read, bc it would just be fragments and splinters of thought and feeling. lots of confusing run-on sentences. i like writing that kind of thing, don't get me wrong, just not when the character going through it is a math (amongst other things) genius and i flunked algebra lol

anyway. i mention this bc rodney's the one stuttering "keep" and by the end of the section we finally get the whole of what he's been trying to say

The world is shattering like a window, like a window in a high-rise in an earthquake, and he’s sliding toward it, toward the hundred-story freefall, and he has to get the words out.

“Keep- Hey. Keep John out. John. Keep John out.”

he's saying it bc he realized that the machine was a trap for ancients and the only reason he's alive is bc he's not a real ancient (like the fear nanobot/virus/whatever episode where he got all the symptoms except death). it's probably the last time he's anything like coherent before they get his projection room set up! and john isn't there to hear it 🙂 teyla's the only member of ar-1 present and she doesn't hear it either bc she's at the back herding scientists 🙂🙂 i'm mean 🙂🙂🙂

[blysse-and-blunder]

In lieu of a making a comeback

11:45pm Sunday, June 18, 2023

Went through my drafts folder today, scrolling quickly past all the posts I’ve saved for when I’ve finally finished succession and found that the last time I drafted a commonplace book post was back in early May? I may post that one later—it’s a bit of a time capsule now, and isn’t even fully finished (hence why I saved it rather than posting). but rather than wait for perfection—my lesson of the year it seems—I’ll dash off a short one here. for my own entertainment, which of course is the point.

[no read more on mobile; scroll or press J to skip]

Reading just started victoria goddard’s bee sting cake, the second book in the greenwing & dart series. jemis’ narrative voice sounds a little too much like fitzroy’s — exacerbating my prejudice against first-person narration where the pov character just kinda sounds like the author’s mouthpiece—but seeing more of ragnor bella, this area of the twelve kingdoms, these references to the Interim and the Last Emperor, remains delightful. Also about 80% of the way through ursula k. le guin’s a wizard of earthsea for the very first time, which has been a slow because I’m absolutely savoring it. one of those books that feels like it’s in conversation with Tolkien but goes about ‘let’s make magic literary’ in a totally different way.

watching the aforementioned succession. @hematiterings and I were doing a rewatch (for me; her first time) and we have now gotten up to season 4 episode 3, You Know the One, which means that there’s only one more episode before I’m in new territory. it’s been a really rewarding rewatch, even as I’ve been doing laptop work the whole time—I’m understanding characters’ relationships and the stakes of different decisions and events so much better than I did the first time.

listening for some reason this week and last I have not been able to get enough of Hildegard von Blingen’s bardcore covers. Specifically the cover of taylor swift’s willow, which is not a song I knew, cared about, or really even noticed before now? But it the bardcore cover elevates it so well? hildegard’s voice is so lovely? one of those sopranos I usually don’t quite believe are real—just a pleasure to listen to. bad romance and holding out for a hero have been on repeat as well, and pumped up kicks (buskin boots!) is so much more interesting than the original, but willow has been the one I actively searched by name.

playing d+d campaign one tonight for the first time since FEBRUARY. it was good! we laughed! R tried to seduce a jaguar! we might be starting a schism in a fantasy meso-american religion or possibly playing the ball game to avoid that! we won’t be able to play again until late July, early august! The real boss fight is—has always been—scheduling.

making look at this dining room chair I glued back together.

No after pictures yet but it was clamped for a few days and has now been back in use with no ill effects since…gosh, last weekend? so we’ll count that as a win.

working on between finishing my most recent slog of grading (32 review assignments, which I spent waaaaaay too long on out of an anxiety of needin to help them revise for their final portfolios) and the next round of grading (final exams for 385 are due…thursday, possibly? and portfolios Friday, though I expect I get many either late or with extension requests, my fault entirely), I think I have to write at least one job app for June 30 and. maybe try to slap some new stuff into ch 2. or conference paper? hm.

[bronanlynch]

experimenting with different ways of organizing this post. shout out to bullet point lists. anyway once again I watched more television than doing anything else

listening (podcast):

new Palisade: very fun as usual! I love the Blue Channel crew so much and I am constantly so worried for them

Great Gundam Project: still very fun to hear how little they know about what is to come. also they got to the episode where Char comes back with a bunch of cool underwater robots and 1) god I miss Char I wish I too were watching an arc of Gundam that has Char in it and 2) shout out to the Gogg & Z'Gok, two of my fave suits in all of Gundam

Media Club Plus: once again they have good thoughts about Hunter x Hunter, truly cannot wait to hear Jack's reaction to the Illumi reveal

listening (music): Dance Apocalyptic by Janelle Monae because I'm stealing songs from my old Beam Saber campaign playlist to make a Partizan/Palisade playlist and that's on both

reading:

Imperial Uncle: got to a twist about halfway through that I was fully not expecting but it was very fun, and the story in now drastically different than I thought it would be when I started but I am still enjoying it a lot

The Death I Gave Him: one of the most interesting questions to me in any Hamlet adaptation/retelling is what to do with Gertrude, what her role in the murder was, etc, and I'm enjoying the way this novel handles that. shout out to unethical science milfs

watching:

TGCF: regarding last week's episode, since we watched it after last week's wednedsaypost: on one hand, beef of beefleaf fame! my beloved! they looked extremely good! ("op they were chained up & disheveled" yeah exactly) on the other, the racism and also the transmisogyny. not that any of this was surprising because it's in the novel too, but it sure sucks to have racist caricatures and also to repeatedly treat the gender shifting & crossdressing as a joke and/or with disgust. regarding this week's episode: rip to Hua Cheng :/ sorry your crush burned your house down :/ I don't remember this arc super well because it was kinda overshadowed (for me) by having Ghost City and then the start of book 2 on either side of it, and as primarily a beefleaf & Mu Qing main I have priorities

Bakeoff: so the technical was a shitshow in a way that is 100% on the judges for not giving them enough time like. sorry that's what it means when every single person underbakes it. however. I literally laughed so hard I was in physical pain when everyone was presenting their horrible liquid puddings so who could say if it was bad or not

Hunter x Hunter: I do love where Killua's arc goes but I also really enjoy this early bit where he's just incredibly competent & terrifying and kicks everyone's ass without breaking a sweat. good for him, sorry about what led you to this point tho

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: other things happened in the episodes that I watched but I will be honest, most of it is wiped away by the preview for next episode showing me an incredibly major character death. um. aside from that. I do like the battle sequences, I love when a show is a couple of guys in a room going "I think this is the enemy's plan, here's what we're going to do about it" and then you see some different guys in a different room going "this is our plan, I hope this is how they react to it" and so on. also I like the narrator as kind of like. a historical accounting of the events, both because I like stories about the narrative construction of history and also because it means everything happens on very specific dates and I love having clear ideas of timelines

ZZ Gundam: finished ZZ! in general I enjoyed it (though I still prefer Zeta) and there are some really fun moments, especially with the Gundam Team, and I like Haman a lot as an antagonist. I didn't realize how close we were to the end until we had like 4 episodes left because the pacing is. kind of interesting. lot more "going to a place and fucking around for a while" than I expected, and sometimes it works better than other times. most of my ~critiques are things I already said last week (the misogyny, the ways in which the critiques of western military intervention in Africa & southwest Asia fall flat due to the white saviorism & none of it really getting a chance to be developed properly, etc) so I'm not gonna go into all that again, but I am going to just mention one of the wildest things which is that they refer to Dublin as "a city in what used to be Britain" which is. a loaded thing to say in 2023 let alone in the 1980s. lmao

I'm in Love with the Villainess: a fun yuri isekai about someone with a shitty job who gets transported into the world of her favorite otome game except instead of giving a shit about any of the male love interests she just wants to spend all her time with the female antagonist. it's very light and silly, and we're watching it as a short break before diving into more Gundam. I do love it when there are lesbians and little hints of class conflict simmering just under the surface

playing:

Ace Attorney 5: some mixed feelings about what I've gotten through this week. I love to see Edgeworth and I'm so compelled by Aura & Simon (individually and also as siblings), but I don't like how Trucy continues to be incredibly sidelined, and whenever they talk about the "dark age of the law" I kind of feel like. ok. look. it is just factually incorrect that it's only now that people cheat in court and only care about winning, and also the idea that overturning one (1) false conviction will fix the problems of the legal system is laughable. especially considering 1) everything about Von Karma 2) Edgeworth's entire backstory and 3) the fact that Phoenix spent the 7 year gap inventing a new legal system that everyone forgot about I guess. anyway. I do love Aura a lot though

Blades in the Dark: finally was able to run another session in my Blades campaign, in which the party. checks notes. performed a reverse bank heist. and also a normal bank heist. sometimes you have to break into a bank to leave something in a specific vault and you steal some other stuff along the way

making: finished building Miorine, so she is no longer a disembodied head and can now stand on the shelf with her wife. I'm not a huge fan of some the proportions/posing of the model, she has. like. woman in a comic book proportions that she doesn't have in the actual show (Imo the worst of it is her arched spine which you can't see here but I was surprised because Suletta has just. a normal spine)

drinking: Down East's cider donut-flavored cider because, once again, I love a seasonal fun little drink. this one's not as dry as the equivalent Citizens Cider I posted about a couple of weeks ago but Down East's stuff does tend to be a little sweeter in general. extremely good though, to be clear

writing: I added a section to my wip doc for my Nirvana in Fire exchange fic and copied over my giftee's prompts but I have not started on it and other than that I've done no writing. oops.

[maschotch]

Few different thoughts on 701 and 702.

The unsub in 702 is so creepy and f'd up. It was pretty good writing.

I don't really understand the fued between JJ and Reid because at the end of 701 everyone is in the meeting room and looks fine. If they had written that Reid wasn't there then it would've made more sense in 702.

Also I didn't like the writing when Reid yells at JJ, it just didn't flow well.

I don't understand the whole "what if I had started taking Dilaudid again would you have let me part?"

Specifically the "would you have let me" part.

It should have ended at "What if I started taking Dilaudid again?"

And going to JJ's house crying. That's not really Reid's character...he doesn't really ask for help, people usually ask him if he's okay and eventually he may say something...like with the drug problem or the headaches...

What do you think?

701 was one of their worst episodes honestly. the whole doyle arc was done so well, which makes it so much worse when the finale falls flat. i think bringing declan’s mom as a foil for lauren was cool (and low empathy emily interacting w no empathy doyle is fucking hilarious), but other than that, it was just so… disappointing. all that build up for nothing. even the reunion felt insincere (other than shemar who acted his fuckijg ass off w that kicked puppy look). no one really reacted. idk they just made that whole ep so… uninteresting. like it wasnt entertaining at all and made absolutely no sense for anyone. truly a waste. the doyle arc couldve been so good if they just managed to stick the landing

702 was definitely the most blatant ableism in a while.. that being said, it’s a fun episode bc they make him so vile. and tbh i kinda like the little reid jj drama.. it does admittedly feel like it comes outta nowhere, and it’s not even bc the last episode didnt build up to it—we just haven’t seen jj/reid interact in an emotionally vulnerable way? like of all people, jj feels like the last person reid would go to if he needed to cry. she’s shown him nothing but disdain or indifference when he’s ever emotional around her. but i do think it’s fun that they played w the betrayal. jj’s annoyance that reid hadn’t forgiven her yet was so in character and it was interesting to see that confrontation

i dont mind their fight honestly. yeah it’s a little choppy and all over the place w reid jumping from one point to another, but i think it works bc 1) when anger reaches a certain point it becomes difficult to think linearly and 2) reid in particular isn’t exactly known for being in touch with his feelings, so he’s dealing with it while arguing. all his emotions are bubbling up at once, all the different reasons he has to be (rightfully btw) upset. reid is already a little scatterbrained and has a hard time focusing—he has so much going on in his mind at any given time that it’s hard for him to control when he’s this frustrated. all things considered i think he got his points across pretty well

i think it’s interesting that he brings up his addiction now when it’s gone unmentioned for like three seasons. i think it shows that (yeah the writers probably just forgot/didnt care) he’s pretty private about it. it’s something that was embarrassing for him, and we know he doesnt have the healthiest standards for deserving self respect. it’s partly bc he wants to be private about it and partly bc his attempts to reach out went ignored in the early stages of his addiction. so he’s been quietly struggling in the background all this time—recovery isn’t linear either. it’s definitely realistic for him to want to turn to a familiar sense of release. i think that’s what he was trying to convey: how deeply this hurt him. he was in genuine pain, and he resents jj for letting him suffer when she knew emily was still alive. to be fair i dont think he’s processed that she didnt really have a choice, or thought at all about the repercussions of jj telling the truth. bringing up dilaudid was his way of saying “what if it got that bad? how miserable do i have to be to earn mercy, to earn the truth? do i have to risk ruining my life for you to be honest?”

idk. jj was doing what she could (what she had been ordered to do) to protect emily, so i dont blame her for keeping quiet. but reid is also entitled to his anger—it’s very fair of him to be upset at the perceived betrayal from a (supposedly) close friend. the problem is that jj is rejecting reid’s emotions for a second time, this time without reason. she expects him to be perfectly understanding and everything to go back to normal as if nothing has changed. but that’s her own fucked up little coping mechanism lol. im actually a big fan of this moment (even if they didnt provide any fucking context)

[foiblepnoteworthy]

uhh psa about the last of us

Well I'm replaying The Last of Us and it comes out on Sunday so imma write a little trigger warning list for anyone who might need it bc it is a kinda dark game and the show looks like it's gonna be faithful. Might not all be accurate to the show, but here's how the game goes down. 

I tried to limit the spoilers but i did not do a good job, as there were times I thought it best to be very specific. If you read this you will basically know who dies in the game and how (ie i say ‘x’ happens to the gay man, well, there’s not many main character gay men).

I’d still advise checking out the first paragraph or so if you’re the sort to read trigger warnings

feel free to send me an ask if you want more details on anything, and apologies if i forgot anything

also here’s a link to the ‘does the dog die’ page for tlou game, in which people have asked about and discussed triggers in the game. might work better for you.

Preface: 

The biggest triggers are gun violence and suicide. They appear a lot throughout the game. There is also an attempted grooming of a child. 

If gun violence or suicide are triggers you probably shouldn’t watch it. The grooming will likely be confined to one episode, which you may be able to simply skip. If you don’t think any of these will bother you at all, maybe best leave this list so you can avoid spoilers, as I’m going to go into a bit more detail for anyone on the fence.

The game is pretty diverse, for a video game at least, which means that there are gay characters, women, and characters of colour being hurt. This is more because this is a story where people get hurt than because of biases of the writers I would say, but it's open to debate. If you’re sick of seeing characters who are like you dying horribly, you might wanna leave it. A lot of people die horribly in this story, including children.

(Notes: 

There’s a good chance I’ve missed something. I may have forgotten something that happened, or a common trigger. There may be things in the show that didn’t appear in the game. 

I’ve included headers to help navigate and skip spoilers if you wanna look more closely at just one of those topics.

There is an ‘other’ section at the bottom if you’ve got something else you’re concerned about, or you can check out the ‘does the dog die’ page. There shouldn’t be too many spoilers there.

I will specify race, age, gender, and/or sexuality of characters when relevant here. I.e. I think it’s relevant to say when a child specifically is harmed, or a black character specifically is threatened with a gun. I hope this is the correct and respectful way to do this, I’m open to critique.

I am being blunt in my descriptions. 

I am not trigger starring any of my words. 

When I say a character is ‘named’, I mean that they’ve been on screen for a bit and the audience probably cares about them.)

Guns and violence:

There are lots of guns, naturally. Not only are zombies shot at but people too, lots of people, by the protag and his allies, and there is an organised militia killing people. 

There is a scene where the character discuss the military deliberately killing masses of unarmed civilians seeking refuge (bodies onscreen).

In the opening scene a soldier shoots and kills a named child. There is a later scene where a named black boy is shot and killed by another named character. 

Joel is notably proficient with killing, and has killed innocents in the past. He frequently kills zombies and gangs trying to hurt him. He may fire first or attack people unaware - this is usually out of self-defence, after being given reason to assume they will hurt him if given the chance. 

There is a scene where Joel threatens to shoot a named defenceless black man. There is a scene where he does shoot and kills an unarmed named black woman. 

A named character once pointed a gun at Joel while visibly very mentally unstable (shock, not mental illness).

There is a scene wherein Joel tortures two unnamed men.

Characters see bodies quite often and find notes from them the player can read. They’re set dressing, they’re just there in the street, a lot of them go unburied, and they also feel like real people due to the notes. 

There is a grave of a very small child. 

Grooming:

A character attempts to groom Ellie while she’s separated from Joel. 

He seems genuinely trustworthy at the start - I liked him when I first played it, and I saw his first untrustworthy moment, wherein he had pretended he didn’t have a gun when he secretly did, as kinda funny/charming. It made sense in context okay

He is genuinely unsettling. Exactly what he wants from Ellie is unspecified. The groomer is also a cult leader and a cannibal, and after she refuses him and breaks his finger he decides to eat her. They have a very violent confrontation.

Suicide:

The named characters committing suicide include a woman (death mostly offscreen, technically was a self-sacrifice but also not really, discussion of her intent onscreen); a gay man (death offscreen, method, body and note onscreen); and a black man (death onscreen).

The first kill of the game, should the player choose to accept it, is a mercy kill of someone who has been infected. 

There is a scene wherein an unnamed man leaves a recorder with his note and also some valuable intel and Joel skips past his note, clearly annoyed at the man, to get to the intel. The man’s body has decomposed to a skeleton and there is a clear hole in his skull.

There was a scene where Joel and Ellie saw the bodies of people who had killed themselves and discussed why people might do it in a post-apocalyptic society - fear of a horrible death, essentially, from zombies, infection, starvation, or gangs. Depression was not mentioned but could be considered implied as a reason - it could be taken as an implication that Joel had considered it before.

Joel finds a note from someone who was hiding children from infected. With no way out, they killed the children, covered the bodies with blankets, and killed themself. The bodies are onscreen.

A named character killed himself as a knee-jerk reaction to the death of a loved one. 

A(n implied) gay man killed himself because he was infected, which I don't think was intended as a parallel to aids but it can be read that way.

Other:

There are moments where the zombies are somewhat humanized - the Fireflies wear dog tags, meaning that after killing a zombie you can sometimes find out their name and figure out who they were. Maybe you even read a letter belonging to them earlier. Idk this is just kinda fucked up, creeped me out.

Death of a horse (onscreen, named, violent)

Animal hunting (for food) 

The zombies are genuinely quite creepy

idk the university holdout kinda upset me, these kids were waiting for people to come for them and no one bothered and now they’ve been dead for years. 

A lot of the architecture is ruined and dangerous, might bother people with a germ phobia (I doubt anyone’s had a tetanus shot in ages), or with claustrophobia or agoraphobia. 

I’ve probably missed something. 

[electricbluebutterflies]

bingeing an entire season of a trashy reality show in one sitting together + hellcheer

Modern AU is a good time // Chrissy isn't watching a specific show that exists in the real world here, but fashion competition shows are one of my guiltier pleasures sooo. PG-ish and also on ao3.

There are a few little things Chrissy Cunningham thinks the universe created at least in part because they make her happy.

Iced white chocolate peppermint mochas and yes she knows that’s a small furball of a coffee order but she’s polite and tips well so it evens out. Brightly colored eyeshadow. Small dogs out in public. Fashion competition shows.

It’s this last little cosmic treat that has her in a good mood on a particular weekend. One of her favorites has just dropped a new season, and she is more than ready to live vicariously through it all, and-

“Shit, that’s a lot of leopard print.”

If there is a complication against this perfect day of binge-watching, Chrissy thinks, it’s going to be her otherwise lovely boyfriend. Eddie is a sweetheart, absolutely no harm meant against anything about him, but his media tastes veer a lot more… high-fantasy, bless his little heart. Which is objectively fine, and someday soon she’s going to cave in and let him talk her into a cosplay project or three, but right now-

“If you’re going to snark, sit down and watch with me. If we’re lucky, it gets a lot worse.”

“How much worse?”

“Haven’t gotten that far but third episode of the season is lingerie and that’s never good.”

“I’ll take it as an excuse to cuddle with you. Deal?”

Chrissy moves over on the battered couch to make space for her boyfriend, then promptly puts most of her body on top of his once he looks comfortable. One advantage of being as tiny as she is, she thinks, is that she can do this whenever she wants and-

“This isn’t too distracting for you?”

“You don’t get to distract me until semifinals, understand?”

She can envision the eyeroll behind her well enough. “You’re that invested in this?”

“Just watch with me. When this show is bad, it’s bad.”

It has its moments, Chrissy thinks as the season progresses. All of the designers are talented – they always are, you don’t get on this kind of show if you’re not at least competent – but some of their perspectives and tastes are just wild, and the judges are appropriately vicious, and it’s just…

There’s less animal print disasters than usual, but a midseason episode about bridal wear has Chrissy thinking that either she’s never getting married or she’s making her own wedding dress and both of those options are just terrifying.

To her pleasant surprise, Eddie stays put on the couch with her. He’s less talkative than she expects – less talkative than normal, really – and she starts to think he might actually be enjoying this, and-

“How many other seasons of this are there?” he asks as the semifinalists are announced.

“This is season six, so…”

“Other ones any good?”

“Define good,” Chrissy laughs. “They’re… obviously different casts, but it’s a heavily format-oriented competition show so…”

“Watch those with me sometime?”

She turns and straddles his thighs like she’s been thinking about for a few hours now and takes a deep kiss. “You really are the perfect boyfriend.”

“Nah, just… you’re into this, and if it makes you happy it has to at least be kinda okay, right?”

She takes another kiss and flips her hair back. “You say this now. Wait until I get you into cooking-disaster competition shows.”

“Into what?”

“Just… trust me. They’re a thing. And the people on those are something else, so…”

“Sounds fun.”

“Love you too.”

[crystalelemental]

“books-are-my-life-stuff: I haven't even read Alola VA part 2! But it's hard to bring myself to read it. Hoenn VA gave Zinnia an important role and established her dynamic with Steven post Delta Episode, so that's at least good. Unova I think is still kinda cool too for focusing on Hugh and N's friendship. But I agree, I feel like Johto VA is the last objectively good VA story-wise. The rest of the VAs are either good to okay to "don't care", at least for me.

Unova was the last VA that I read immediately after release, starting from Kalos I just don't care. Maybe because of my general indifference towards the region, but even when I do read it, it doesn't do much to make me like it. I'll give Alola VA a credit for making Hau got his moments and approval from his grandpa, but other than that...yeah, I'm finding difficulties in bringing myself to read it.”

I think in my case, the issue is the later we go, the most the antagonists skew to lost potential rather than good or bad.  Like, Maxie and Archie I can look at and just go, these two are morons, do not take anything seriously.  Cyrus and Ghetsis I can look at and go these were really cool I hope they keep that up.  And they can, because they just continue to do what they’ve been doing, kinda.  Cyrus is toned down and Ghetsis basically defanged once everyone knows his deal, but they’re still something.  But as soon as you hit Lysandre, it’s suddenly man, I hope they do something different.  But they can’t.  They’re constrained by what the series is going to push.  And for Lusamine, that’s extremely devastating, because USUM Lusamine does not do it for me in her current iteration where they refuse to let her be interesting as a former antagonist.  So I can even say I know what I truly expected here, because what would’ve satisfied me was impossible, and it’s kinda the same for Rose, who I cannot image being adjusted to actually matter and have an interesting view.  So I’m kinda just over the VA and ready for the next thing, which hopefully will happen shortly after fourth anniversary.  Galar should be set for August just before. 

“I did say that Alola characters are great as a group, but not great individually, and this problem really shows, especially now that only some of them got alts and are separated from their group that they usually hang out with, they have to do something individually, and it...doesn't do much. I tried, but I can't. At least Hau is still great because he's one of the rivals, but the trial captains aren't.”

Yeah, I can’t even say they did anything as a group in the main games that hooked me, so seeing them here on their own hasn’t exactly been that exciting.  Like, at one point, I did kinda like Acerola as like the weird ghost girl.  And I find myself actively losing interest in her when she’s not like...playing off Nanu.  She’s a lot more bland without that dynamic.

“I doubt this will change even after I read part 2 of Alola VA, but my VA rankings so far: Johto > Kanto >> Unova > Hoenn >> Kalos > Sinnoh >> Alola.  I'm not holding out hope for Galar. Better keep my expectation on the ground or I'll be disappointed.”

I think for me, it’s probably Johto, Kanto, Kalos, Unova, Sinnoh, Hoenn, Alola.  Kalos ranks high because they let Lysandre ice those dudes.  Unova is fine but doesn’t really captivate me, and had what I consider the worst spread of new alts.  Sinnoh outranks Hoenn and Alola for me, because Hoenn and Alola were the most nothing events.  Borderline nothing was accomplished.  I’ll put Hoenn above Alola because it had some stuff with Zinnia and Steven’s dynamic, and because of how bad Alola was, but I think the real issue is I specifically should not be putting Kanto anywhere near the top.  But so long as Giovanni is the focus for the whole region, it gets to be good, because the story is focused.  It knows what it’s doing and it gets it done, because there’s nothing extraneous they’re trying to tie in, like other non-Kanto characters.  And that really sucks, because it’s just self-fulfilling prophecy at that point.  Oh, everyone likes Giovanni so much now?  Probably because he’s the only antagonist you let goddamned do anything.  If literally anyone else actually got spotlight to be the villain, he’d lose, because Giovanni is inherently boring an uninteresting, being just some mob boss guy interested in power and money compared to the absolute lunatics in the rest of the teams.

[sunshinemoonrx]

So I finished Dynaman!

I got into the last few and instead of wanting to stop and post about it I just wanted to watch the next one. So it goes.

The final arc really balances well the high-concept "we're doing this fun thing this week" older tokusatsu tend to do more of, and the fast-moving plot newer shows lean more towards; and it also brings out something I'd been noticing in general, where this show kinda sneakily characterises everyone way more than you realise, until they do something drastic and you go "huh, actually yeah, that is totally something they would do"

The biggest instance of that is I wasn't really expecting, but totally believed when it came across, just how much the villains care for each other when it comes down to the wire. There's a lot of the fun backstabbing that makes a classic sentai endgame, but tempered by a lot more mutual warmth than usual.

(I mean, I'd mourn General Kar too, he maintained a really imposing presence even while almost never leaving the base until the end. Really portrayed well as the one guy with a professional attitude in the room)

There's a couple things looking back I feel maybe got cut for time--what exactly Megido was doing in gay baby jail that produced such a change, and what the hell was up with the backstory implications in that Zenobia-in-disguise episode--that could have been really cool. But it's hard to tell because this show is also perfectly content to leave things to implication to keep up the explosive (ha) momentum.

But man, absolutely part of the golden zone of shows like this for me. My personal pantheon of favourite toku are basically all sentai and metal hero shows from the mid-80s; they just have all the right ingredients. Lead actors chosen for their stunt skills doing absurd leaps through the wilderness, a delightful mix of practical and hand-drawn laser effects, outlandish fantasy armour and multicoloured space-leotards, bombastic insert songs singing the praises of the little car the robot travels around in, and sometimes girls are Heated Battlefield Rivals. What more do you need?

Speaking of which, ultimate win for me when everyone lines up for the final battle, except for Rei, who instinctively veers off to have one last swordfight with Chimera, because I guess she'll explode if she doesn't do this at every opportunity.

What could be better than this. Gals being [really fixated on whipping/stabbing each other].

Tachibana Rei really coolest girls of all time A-lister. Early on she's just kinda there but you can kinda see them realising how good Hagiwara is in realtime. And thus begins Hirohisa Soda's career of writing shows 80% about the girl rangers. Everyone say thank you, Rei.

But yeah! Dynaman was made specifically for me, but the great thing is, so were like a dozen of these things. I think I've watched most or all of the ones that really hit the sweet spot for me, but I didn't think this one was part of that zone until I watched it either, so, who knows! Check back in a year or two and maybe I'll be yelling about how Fiveman is an underappreciated gem.