#like the s1 characters were up to some wacky stuff but these guys are on another level

[berternies]

so obsessed with the fact that every single person at this wedding was up to something absolutely unhinged. like we started off with aniq planning to propose at someone else’s wedding and i was like well that doesn’t seem like a good idea. and then it turns out that was actually easily the least insane plan that anyone had.

[aehno]

Duckman Episode Reviews/Analysis: S1 Episode 1: "I, Duckman"

Yeah you thought what I said about reviewing every episode was a joke, huh? Think again. Hahahahaha. For the uninitiated: I'm rewatching all of Duckman right now as a cynical idiot 2 years after my first watch through, and writing an analysis/review/my thoughts.

This is seriously the only thing I feel even remotely motivated to do with my life right now.

Okay let's get started.

Plot summary:

So this episode is pretty straightforward, but complex in it's own way plot-wise. Duckman feels like he's pretty much completely worthless and ignored by everyone. Like he'll never amount to anything in the end.

Pretty valid, me, too.

He then gets a bomb package from someone, and it's like "oh wow someone does care about me!" and he visits the first suspect he can think of in prison, this cannibal he got locked up via wacky shennanigans. The cannibal turns out to be doing well in prison, and actually has a celebrity status because of his crimes. Then he gets a package, and it's another bomb, from the killer, aaaa, eek noo!!

So he's not the one threatening Duckman right now. Duckman tries to say goodbye to his family before he might get killed so they all ignore him. He looks through old home movies (each of which is represented by a reference to a different old cartoon) and ends up seeing one involving his now deceased wife, who thought he would be completely incompetent on his own and stated she would need to give custody of the family to her twin sister, Bernice, in the event that she died. And he says that he missed her and feels like he was better when she was around.

They get another bomb, chase down the killer, killer realizes he had the wrong guy and says he was doing this due to losing his own wife (something which the person he thought Duckman was was involved with) and felt utterly worthless without her. He's too depressed to turn the guy in and asks him to turn himself in, and the killer runs off. The episode ends with Duckman seeing his kids again and actually not being completely ignored by them and is in fact told that they thought he was doing a good job as a parent for them.

Thoughts:

The jokes actually land in this one. Didn't make me laugh, but I appreciate it. It's smart humor, the sort of stuff I'd laugh more at if I wasn't watching it solo on a computer. It goes at a much faster pace than the Simpsons, some truly brilliant "blink and you'll miss it" type gags that beautifully carry along the plot. It's of an enviable quality, frankly!

The dialogue in the series is often a bit verbose from all of the characters, and while it can be grating, it works just fine in this episode, and it actually feels as high brow as it thinks it is this time around. I'm not smart perse, but I would say I have above average encyclopedic knowledge (which really isn't saying much), and some jokes in this episode still went over my head despite that.

Plot is solid, especially by this show's standards, and pretty relatable, too. It's a good pilot as it sets up all the characters and their relationships- and in terms of critique I only really have small nitpicks or issues of personal tastes. This is an episode I would be fine with being walked in on while I was watching, due to its sharp writing and solid narrative. It's not nearly as annoying as some of the later episodes were (as far as I remember). I can 100% see how Jason Alexander mistook this episode for a one off short film rather than a TV episode pilot, as it sets everything up really well, and really could function as its own self-contained work.

Analysis (the annoying part where I start yapping):

I feel like the plot summary speaks for itself. It tells you all you really need to know. Not a super open-ended episode, really the only thing I consider open-ended is the introduction of a major aspect of the show that I have a fairly cynical perspective on: Duckman and Beatrice (his dead wife)'s relationship. It's natural for grief to fuck someone up, and everyone processes it differently. He's been without her for a year, and she was clearly one of the most important people in his life, to the point that he literally feels like nothing without her.

As we'll learn later, Duckman's upbringing wasn't the best, and as we saw in this episode, he was never truly a pleasant person to begin with, not even as a child. Thusly, having someone like Beatrice in his life does two things: makes his life feel less terrible (companionship, affection, satisfaction of sexual urges) and two, makes him feel worthwhile despite not necessarily being the best or most likeable person. She is not a bad person, clearly, given that she's willing to show so much affection to a person like this whom she genuinely loves so deeply despite everything. And it's good that she wasn't trying to "fix" him, as she loved him out of love and not pity or anything else. The dynamic is, as we see in the episode, truly quite comparable to Marge and Homer in that sense.

But as someone with a truly biting and cynical view on romance I also have to state that true love will never complete you, no matter how magical or amazing it feels. It's a good thing to have for sure, but it cannot be something you depend on. I'd consider a relationship where one partner tells the other they cannot trust them on their own "codependent." It should be noted that Duckman displays numerous signs of codependency:

Low self-esteem.

Trouble identifying your own emotions. <-major plot point in this episode, as well as a few others

Trouble making decisions.

Desire to care for others. <-failing at it but is shown to care

Desire to feel important to someone.

An excessive sense of responsibility for the way others act. <-maybe not this one so much, but definitely a little bit in a more inactive sense. Sort of like worrying about it neurotically but never acting on it.

A tendency to fall in love with people you can "rescue" <-we see this in other episodes

Difficulty dealing with change. <-the death of Beatrice in this case would be the change

A strong need for approval or recognition, and feeling hurt when you don't receive it

 A strong need to control other people

Poor communication skills

(List taken from: WebMD. (n.d.). Codependency: Signs and symptoms. WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/signs-codependency)

Many of these signs/symptoms are displayed in the episode which, oh right, is about Duckman wanting to feel important after the death of a loved one he relied on heavily for support. And judging by what little we see of her, she does seem to want to feel needed by him, which again, lines up with the codependency theory. While she isn't trying to change who he is, because she loves him, she recognizes that he is hopeless and needs her there to help him.

Does that sound like a healthy relationship?

All I'm saying is, Duckman and Beatrice's relationship could be yet another way he found short term happiness in his miserable life, and he never realized it as being unhealthy. It's like cigarettes, alcohol, porn, all those vices he's known for having, except this time he doesn't know it's bad for him, and he isn't being chastised for it. I mean, the dude's married, good for him. Nobody looks at that marriage and says it's bad, because it looks so wonderful.

The marriage lasted for about 15 years, and Duckman and Beatrice had two point five children together, suggesting that it still seemed fine even after what most couples consider their breaking point, but we can also argue that Duckman tends to idealize his love with Beatrice. Perhaps some negative memories are blotted out...?

That's it for now on the speculative/analytical side of things.

Whenever I have time, I will be writing about S1Ep2: "Tv Or Not To Be"!

[lockesmissingkidney]

who are ur favourite characters so far? who do you not like so far?

when you write fanfic, who will it be about? who will read about? who will you not read about? is there anyone you really hate? is there anything you really want to see happen to certain characters?

essays, please

omg anon thank you I WANTED TO INFODUMP SO BAD!!!!!

okay okay I might finish s1 today, but since I'm on ep 21 of it, lets go with that:

I looove charlie, hurley and locke. I also like sawyer, but I'll talk about him in depth later. charlie and hurley remind me of bill & ted, and I love how hurley is just both close to being the most insane person in the island (after the numbers reveal) next to locke, but he's also the sanest one!! he's giving us VARIETY!! I like charlie because I've struggled with addiction myself and I do understand most of his erratic behavior (especially after he went through the worst part of abstinence), and he's just trying his best, truly

locke is....a guy? for sure? I don't know whats going on with him he's like that meme that goes "source? the voices told me" he also needs to stop adopting random people in the island I mean BOONE??? rip thot it up in heaven. also the kidney shit was FOUL locke you should have commited murder for that

an special mention to sayid and rousseau, they're great

I do not like... sawyer. it's complicated. I love him I absolutely love him he's my babygirl and my wife, but he needs to be struck by lighting QUICK so he can realize the shit going on in the island. locke should definitely give him his own 'third eye opening' moment just like charlie and boone had one, I would love for that to happen

I also don't like shannon— she's cunty and all that, but I haven't managed to connect with her character outside of sometimes saying "yeah, slay, shes on her brat summer". I hope her character development brings her somewhere where I can connect, but so far I couldn't care less about her (and the incest subplot with boone made me like her much less, I also dislike boone for it... I just think that not being blood related doesn't excuse anything. a family is not always determined by blood.)

I dislike jin but because I'm extremely confused about him. he's a big interrogation sign to me and EVERYONE, like no matter how many damn flashbacks I see of his life... why the hell where you telling your wife to cover up and shit?? you guys are in the middle of nowhere. Let your woman LIVE. the flashbacks are trying to tell me that he's acting like this 'for a reason', and sure, I understood if you were an asshole to anyone else, but to your wife? the woman you're doing this for? being all aggressive is gonna drive things nowhere. idk.

when it comes to fanfic... I'd probably love to dabble in writing jack x sawyer because I hate how the show says 'love triangle' and it's not a triangle... yeah both guys are interested in kate, but if you don't make jack and sawyer interested in eachother too, it's just a love arrow. so that's the first thing: jack x sawyer to develop that part of the triangle

second thing, probably More charlie x hurley. brotp or otp I like both ideas since they remind me of bill & ted in a way (which were gay but also totally best friends) and some wacky brotp adventures between hurley and sawyer?

third thing would be just fics of sayid being an insane super smart guy, probably working together with locke to build something. I would love for that to happen in canon? but I think right now sayid just wants locke dead, and that's sad because their joint slay would be #insane.

I've read like two fics so far, I think one was jack x sawyer and the other one was sawyer x sayid x charlie (super rare combination but I fucked with it?) I think I would read claire x charlie too, but since it's canon and stuff (to me, so far) I feel like I don't have a need to read anything to fill any void, the show gives me it all. anywayyyy, I think everyone on the island has a bit of chemistry with eachother and I'm aegoace + aegoromantic, so I'm attracted to men which means I would probably eat up any mxm pairing (poly or not) I've thought about sawyer x sayid but I feel like they would hatefuck and then forget about it. idk if that would make them worse or better

also I need locke to just share his divine madness with More People in the island I think. I need him to tell sayid about the hatch, I need him to tell jack about the statues of the virgin mary, I need jack to be struck by lighting to properly realize this island is FUCKING WEEEIRD. I need hurley to have another big badass moment with the numbers thing, I need More of hurley being the only person sawyer won't argue with (or argue too much with). I need sun and michael to become closer, for sun to maybe play with walt one day or play the babysitter role once more but speaking english with him now!! I need also more sawyer and walt interactions— hear me out, the one interaction they've had so far was hilarious. just a sassy little kid putting that asshole in his place. Please walt should be allowed to throw rocks at sawyer

Kate needs to kiss women also I need her to be a lil sapphic okay like I dont care how or with who just be a little gay please THE LESBIANS NEED YOU KATE AUSTEN!!!!

I also hope jin and shannon die too......yeah strong statements but I've said it before.... idgaf about them (so far)

also unrelated to any of the questions, but charlie n hurley have big transmasc vibes 🙂‍↕️🙏 they look like every trans guy I've ever met it's INSANE to me. jack is also a little trans coded... just a little. like he's got a smidge of transgenderism inside him. he did his own DIY top surgery idgaf. also unrelated x2 but walt would love skibidi toilet :/ I'm so sad he wasn't here in 2024 for it 💔 and locke would be an amazing cult leader he would eat that cult leading shit UP !!! I would join his cult 100%

tytyty anon for this ask!!!!!

[spaceygoobert]

Penny for some thoughts about the clusterfuck that is Solar Opposites s2 (Contains spoilers)

Now that I am no longer drunk out of my mind and watched s2 four more times just to be sure I didn’t miss anything while I was crossfaded. it’s time to talk about it

Ep1 was great. It had more lore for shlorpians with a different perspective and i find it interesting that Korvo didn’t even know there were rich shlorpians. They also lived on floating platforms in the sky, like rich people lived in the clouds and working shlorpians lived on the ground, literally separating the two types of classes

The rich shlorpians said they wanted the pupa so they could get back to being rich, which means they don’t know that they will die, either way, they been jebaited

Did not expect shlorpians to be religious... kinda. but i’m not complaining.

The jokes hit hard and everything was kinda fast. The funniest thing about the season was a wacky plots 

I like how different Terry and Korvo are when dealing with negative emotions 

Terry becomes passive aggressive when dealing with negative emotions. specifically with anger. 

When Korvo basically changes everything about Terry in the Lake House episode, the only thing he doesn’t change is how Terry deals with negative emotions. Imagine not being understood and then becoming a goth because no one understands you, not even your partner, who is essentially the same person as you now. And it’s great.

I love violent goth Terry.

kinda shows how repressed he is to the point of “breaking”

Korvo becomes petty when dealing with negatives emotions too, but instead of anger, it’s sadness or when he’s hurt emotionally

S2ep2 reminds me of s1ep3, they both have something to do with parties and Korvo not being included and because he’s petty af he makes a complicated plan. the plot for the episode was just as mind-fucking as s1.

When Korvo’s sad/hurt, instead of talking about it, he makes a whole ass bill to ban Terry from having to hang out with his human friends because he spends too much time with them and not enough time with him. It isn’t until the shit hits the fan that he finally fesses up, which I find to be perfect. AND it ends with a uwu kiss. 

I find it odd and genius that Terry isn’t how you expect him to be. He looks like he wears his heart on his sleeves, yet he’s the one who shows less emotion than Korvo. Plus he doesn’t know how to express bad emotions and does the whole pretending that everything is fine thing

Could be due to being a laid-back person. By being laid-back, it means not worrying or at least showing it (which btw, if you express emotions, it means you care) 

Maybe someone hurt him enough for him to be passive aggressive OR it could be Shlorp, who the fuck knows

it begs the question, if he represses the bad feelings, what else does he repress?

Korvo LOOKS like he wouldn’t be the type to express emotions, yet he’s the one who is able to show sadness and anger— or a better way to explain, he doesn’t hold back on his emotions. He’s more open of the two adult aliens

AND THEY COME FROM THE SAME PLACE.

When Korvo insults Terry, he gets angry

When Terry insults Korvo, he gets sad and cries.

Korvo and Terry do things to cancel each other out. It’s cute.

Like when Korvo bans dinner parties and Terry still goes to them using sci-fi stuff to do it.

or when korvo goes to live with the other aliens and Terry trashes the house to get rid of his presence. Then mentions that Korvo’s dead

They bond over making fun of humans.

I’d expect this from Korvo, but Terry also makes fun of them too, despite wanting to be liked by them. Dunno, maybe Korvo rubbed off on him.

Korvo and Terry strive to get people to like them.

Korvo with the new aliens

Terry with humans

The way they do it is different. Terry acts like himself with humans, Korvo tries to act like himself but he lies to fit in

The wall, my god, the wall was amazing. The episode that focuses on the wall doesn’t take place inside the wall.

I never thought i’d feel for The Duke, though i expected he and Cherie would have some kind of relationship going on

The music, my god so good

Also the trope with the hero who unknowingly saves the villain.

Forest City, (Wood City?) I don’t remember what they called it

The plot for that was so ridiculous; they lose their car in the forest so they use a device to build a city so they could rent a car to find their car, but they end up getting lost in the city.

The fact that Terry took somewhat studied “pathfinding to prepare for life on dangerous aliens world”

I died when Korvo said he wanted to be a gangster, then he never actually becomes one and keeps getting chased by wolves. In the end, he was just a guy in a business suit

Jesse becomes a bad bitch like I knew she would

I can’t believe all four of the characters lost sight of their goal within a few days probably.

Also yumyulack jr

and the ref to wolf of wall street. Wait, is that why wolves were chasing Korvo because he was attempting to be a gangster? WHAT IS THE RELATION, besides being in a fucking forest?

Prostitute Terry and his tiddies

Korvo and Terry actually like being in each other's company

Red Goobler

My eyes were burned out of my skull, you know what i’m talkin about, the “sleeping through the alarm” scene, which got me second guessing myself that maybe it might be an alarm but it turns out they’re fucking. and there’s a wet condom on the ceiling.

the possibility of Korvo being pregnant? For s3? Impossible but still, it would be funny, then it turns out he’s not pregnant, it’s another red goobler, but he can’t tell if it’s from stress or the fucking

Terry is trying his best

I hope they don’t make terry into an idiot. Like in s1, he was dumb but not an idiot.

also terry admitting he’s too insecure to form his own opinions and Korvo liking the fact that he doesn’t have a firm belief

I am happy for that basic rat chick

Also if Korvo’s a bottom, and assuming Terry is one too, they don’t fuck because they’re both busy being bottoms?

After one night of implied sex, Korvo wanted to marry the red goobler. was the implied sex that good?

The apple pencil pro was just weird

Now that the solar opposites are dead, but not really, what now?

Can we talk about how they all went to fulfill each other’s goals more than their own. It’s sweet.

Lets not talk about Terry wanting to eat out Ms. Frankie, but Korvo does it instead, and he keeps going at it

Korvo likes eating out confirmed?

There was a lot of sexual stuff in this show. I dig it.

Also Terry being the first to die in the last episode, I dunno if I could see him killing his family. I mean I know he would but everyone else had some kind of contraption, except Korvo, who used magic instead, which is funny because he’s the most scientific one there, unless he uses science in it then it would make sense.

Mini Korvos look cute but I know they’re all little shits

i kinda wanna know more about Yumyulack’s past as a bounty hunter, like what did they do as a curriculum, was there even a course on bounty hunting? did Yumyulack only say that to sound cool? who knows! I hope s3 has Korvo and Jesse plots because I see them to be the most alike.

Dunno why, but all the solar’s head exploding was aesthetically pleasing and when they all get rebirthed again with their heads popping out of the tree, reminds me of the tree from pocahontas

This season had a bunch of sci-fi stuff and I love it. I hope there’s more sci-fi stuff in the future.

Also Korvo and Terry are both fucking idiots and I live for it.

[erazonpo3]

Intro to my infodump on Alphecca but also I’m getting more and more shameless about it so I’ll probably dump a lot of other shit too later but back to the point: I never tend to stop mutating characters in my head but for all intents and purposes Alphecca is at a point where I’m satisfied with how fleshed out she is in my mind, so I figured I’d write it down. 

SO basically a rundown:

Alphecca’s main purpose is to be the “Season 1” villain, in which her part in the story can be expanded but mostly wraps up in a self-contained plotline, and has relatively low stakes so that there’s room for the narrative to escalate. That doesn’t mean that she doesn’t pose a threat as an antagonist- because she absolutely does- but simply that her behaviour of terrorising people and raising bodies is already the status quo, and she has no grand design or plan of action. Cassandra steps in to change that status quo for the better, but her failing to do so won’t leave anyone any worse off than they already are. Yet with that being said, Alphecca is also built to be Cassandra’s antagonist specifically, so of course there has to be a resolution there.

Alphecca as Cassandra’s antagonist

Alphecca exists to be a foil to Cassandra, so that when you put them together their differences shine brighter. Where Ilione is a foil to Cass in that she’s largely her polar opposite: extraverted, very emotionally sensitive, inexperienced etc, Alphecca is a foil to Cass by being very similar to her but for a few glaring differences. It’s worth noting that while their personalities are pretty different, they share a same jaded perspective on life and struggles with mental health that stem from an ugly ZT origin story. 

Both women were approached by Zhan Tiri during a time they felt powerless, and sided with her over loved ones in an attempt to regain control over their life. They were encouraged to embrace malice and sadism, had their faith in their loved ones undermined and had those insecurities stoked, and all this instability created the perfect storm for them to be easily manipulated and betrayed. Zhan Tiri operates as a cult leader does, seeking out vulnerable people and cutting them off from their remaining support networks until they have nowhere left to run, even if they want to. 

It’s not to say Cassandra wasn’t making her own choices, but this kind of gaslighting shouldn’t be dismissed either. Some people will forever lack sympathy for her, but that’s exactly the point of Zhan Tiri’s manipulation- if nobody’s willing to help you out of the hole you’ve dug for yourself you’re going to be stuck there to rot, so you may as well keep digging in the hope that you might hit gold eventually. 

Alphecca and Cassandra are both victims to Zhan Tiri’s super fun form of control, but the major difference between them was that Rapunzel remained willing to help Cassandra out of that hole. Alphecca didn’t have a Rapunzel, or a Varian, or a Eugene, and instead over time she became twisted and warped into a menace who doesn’t need Zhan Tiri’s encouragement to do terrible things anymore. And that’s what makes these two foils to each other; Alphecca is the monster Cassandra never was but could have easily become if she was never shown compassion. 

Thus the only person who can stop Alphecca is someone who can empathise with her, at least to some degree. In fighting terms, Alphecca has a bottomless bag of tricks up her sleeve and the nature of her undeath makes her essentially immortal. She cannot be conquered, only slowed down, and the more pissed off she gets with you the more volatile and dangerous she becomes. 

Cassandra initially sees Alphecca as a chance to prove herself, both as a force for good and as someone who can rid the world of Zhan Tiri’s legacy. However,  it quickly becomes apparent that Alphecca cannot be defeated through conventional means, because otherwise warriors like Adira (who has encountered Alphecca before) would have been able to deal with the problem. Considering that Alphecca herself has sought out her phylactery to destroy it- with an extra thousand years of hunting up her sleeve- but failed to do so, makes it apparent that she can only be stopped by being reasoned with. But for a lich who hardly remembers the human experience, that’s pretty difficult. 

It ultimately means the only person who can stop her is Cassandra, because the only person who can reason with her is someone who can empathise with her from a place of camaraderie rather than condescension, and recognises that the cycle of violence needs to be broken by compassion and not just violence but harder.  

The Storyline

Basic plotline goes like this:

Early on into her journey Cassandra learns about the bone witch that roams the wilderness and terrorises innocent villagers, desecrates the dead, is probably a cryptid because legends have existed about her for generations, et cetera and so on. When evidence appears that this witch is real Cassandra and decides to investigate, because this is a pretty straightforward “good guy stops the bad guy” situation for her to jump into. (By this point Ilione is also tagging along). 

Their first encounter with Alphecca is pretty tame. They intercept her at a mausoleum, she does a fancy music number/generally has a good time fucking around with them, but ultimately skulks back into the shadows at the end. It’s sort of all in good spirits and Alphecca isn’t ‘defeated’ by any means but still bows out as a show of good sportsmanship. 

Their future encounters are a lot less nice. 

The more Cassandra continues to pursue her, the more pissed off Alphecca gets, and when Alphecca gets pissed off she begins to embrace her sadism and her outbursts become more violent and cause more collateral damage. She lowers herself to underhanded tactics like throwing Cass into a nightmare reality a la Tromus and becomes increasingly sinister. The ‘tentpole’ of this plotline probably marks the shift from Alphecca as a trickster figure into a more dangerous one as Cass and Lio learn that she was also a disciple of Zhan Tiri. 

The situation ultimately comes to a head by the finale, by which point Alphecca is very much unhinged and out for blood. She becomes fixated on Cassandra and does her best to hit below the belt, sniffing out her insecurities about her past with the moonstone and bludgeoning them with a metaphorical sledgehammer, and basically tries to goad her into a complete spiral. 

This is the emotional climax, and the underpinning of Cassandra’s character development in becoming emotionally sound enough to shake it off. It’s at this point she understands what Alphecca is doing; Alphecca is caught in her own eternal maelstrom of emotional torture and latches onto anyone she can drag down with her for the small amount of pleasure it brings. She’s able to recognise those feelings because she can empathise with them and knows exactly what she needs to hear in that moment. 

There’s probably some extended backstory revealed by this point too, going into a little more detail about the way in which Alphecca was caught in Zhan Tiri’s web down to becoming a lich, but of course what’s more important is the resolution. 

With Cassandra getting through to her, Alphecca is able to pull herself together long enough to ease the situation back down again and have a more honest conversation about hope and humanity and compassion and all those good things. Cassandra admits that she can’t do much to ‘fix’ her, but starts by continuing Rapunzel’s legacy and showing forgiveness and compassion to someone who doesn’t think they deserve it. (Alphecca isn’t entirely regretful of all her actions, but does acknowledge that she ought not project her pain onto others anymore.) 

Alphecca Post-S1

Alphecca doesn’t really get a ‘redemption arc’ because honestly I don’t want her to be redeemed. It’s not really a moral stance so much as I believe she’s genuinely disinterested in being a better person, she just has the selfish desire to be able to live happily again. And that’s kind of all she needs. She doesn’t care much about other people, but she’s working on herself and that means squashing the sadism. 

I think it also continues to make a good parallel to Cass: Cassandra is trying to do better not only for herself but by others because she sees it as her own social responsibility, whereas Alphecca just wants to do better for herself and if other people benefit from that, that’s just a bonus. 

Alphecca doesn’t join Cassandra on her travels either, although she does make appearances as a reoccurring character. Cassandra is upfront about the fact that while she wants to help Alphecca, she needs to help herself first, and the damage Al inflicted on her is slow to heal. They’re both in danger of dragging each other down in their own spirals so it’s best that they give each other space, but it’s also very important that they’re able to share their experiences.  It’s a minor struggle between Cassandra and Ilione that Lio doesn’t really understand a lot of Cass’ struggles, although she does try to be sensitive about it. Alphecca provides that alternate perspective: Lio can provide support but little empathy, while Alphecca can provide empathy but little support. 

I’ve also got more Alphecca stuff living in my brain regarding her origins, her own foray with Death and her association with lesser and greater deities, her relationships to other ZT cultists, et cetera et cetera but I’ll probably stop here to keep it succinct. 

But basically over the course of this plotline Alphecca goes from wacky evil villain to really tragic but still evil villain to not really evil villain but still kind of a jerk neighbour that shows up at your house asking for your wifi password acquaintance. 

[obstinaterixatrix]

finished s1 of arden podcasts, here’s some thoughts

What I enjoyed:

Characters: I loved Bea & Brenda's dynamic, it really draws on clashing opposites. Chaotic vs lawful type interactions are my weakness. Also I enjoyed how distinct everyone's voices were - I never had problems telling Bea and Brenda apart. 

Plot: true crime-type investigations... buzzfeed unsolved type stuff... a little elevated from armchair investigations, but there to provide an overview of all the theories and all the angles... it's fun stuff

Music: super good for atmosphere, they chose a good guy for it. Also I love the segment of the song Julie sings. 

Humor: the bit at the farmer's market.......................... good stuff.............................. also I adore all the episode titles

Personal taste: it’s content that 1) features women, 2) who love women. I'm personally a fan of disaster gals getting on each other's nerves but having working together, then gaining a bit of understanding and respect for each other. Comedy with women can be hit or miss but this hits some good beats. I don’t want to get people’s hopes up tho so #spoilers this isn’t a getting together story for anyone

What could use a little work:

Fidelity to premise: this is kind of a fake true crime podcast, but we get a lot of conversations a podcast shouldn't be able to get (especially in the season finale). Of course it doesn't have to be 100% realistic, but it's sort of difficult to discern the rules of the world we're listening to when it only partially runs on comedy/drama rules as opposed to real life rules.

Audio quality: there were moments where people in the same scene (and supposedly in the same room) had a bit of difference, not that bad but just enough to be noticeable 

Separating segments: sometimes it's hard to tell when characters are playing recorded interviews or are having in-person interviews, and sometimes it's difficult to get a sense of time skips. Giving interviews a bit of a different audio quality would be really helpful even if people aren't necessarily using tape recorders in-universe.

Timing/pacing: sometimes it's just a little off. What really stuck out to me is in the Audcon segment where there's fast/wacky shenanigans music for the panel questions, the kind of music that's good for frantic stuff or quick cuts, but it's a long segment at pretty reasonable talking speeds. I think that can be contrasted with Time Bomb, when fast/wacky shenanigans music initiates extremely quick back and forth banter. I feel like paying a little more attention to tempo in general could go a long way.

Message: on one hand, I think there's important commentary on recognizing that true crime media features real life victims who have suffered and/or are currently suffering from the events covered. On the other hand, it's a little awkward to have that message in a fake true crime podcast that was made for entertainment. Occasionally it feels like a tongue in cheek 'this is real life!' meta joke as opposed to the more somber 'this happens to people in real life' reminder, which is a little incongruous. In contrast, the segments that touched on sexual assault were very solid, cohesive and well-handled in my opinion. So basically, a little more cohesion could help.

[canonstitute]

ʟɪᴠᴇʙʟᴏɢ» SDWAY!∙S2E1

Scooby Doo, Where Are You! S2 Ep1 – Nowhere to Hyde

Rambles/reactions/meta under the cut! Because I literally write thousands of words of this garbage once you get me started [NOTE: text taken & edited from a live chat with a friend]

aka, ‘I Watched Eps. 1-17 and Thought Show Was Way More Nuanced Than Everyone Remembered, Then Season 2 Changed the Writing Staff’

I WANTED to start on s2 since the s1 episodes have like, barely half the "scooby doo" cliches that this entire show is known for

i want a hallway chase scene BRING ON THE SECOND WRITING STAFF FOR MEMES

aka im afraid

[someone mentions magic show at "the high school"] wait do they go tO THIS HIGH SCHOOL????

are they home????

[re: shaggy mentions watching tv at home] YOU LIVE IN A VAN WHAT DOES HOME MEAN WHAT IS THIS

also i lied about casual watching i'm going to hyperfocus on this b/c skipping to season 2 it's already blowing my mind

that

that [coordinated screaming from gang] is not what they say when they seE A MONSTER

was the end of S1 like this or did the first 10 episodes just exist in a bizarre alternative universe where their personalities were more or less balanced so no one was too much anything

SHAGGY IS NOT SUPPOSED TO PRETEND HE'S BRAVE like okay yeah wow completely changing the writing staff is absolutely something that made this show into. uh, its own image

this actually feels like an episode of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo?? almost exactly tbh

minus the child-participation gags and Red Herring

[H-B ‘animation’] DAPHNE'S TINY LEGS

freddy when on earth--FREDDY YOU ARE NOT AGGRESSIVE YOU ARE JUST LIKE OBLIVOUS TO FEELINGS AND ALWAYS ABOUT THE MYSTERY

i didn't realize how attached i was to the gang in the first 10 episodes until they started morphing into the way the critics parodied them for 30 years after

the first ten episodes weren't like, even that good, they just had bits that I could read into that made the silliness worth it and no this characterization gets woooorse

also like I'm barely noticing the plot sorry, the episode guy is secretly a ghost from potion

uh, necklace. dried mud

THIS MOMENT IS GOOD. "RAGGY!" / "COMING, SCOOB!" friendship is my fave dynamic in this show

at least velma's still with the lovebirds [daphne and fred] [when gang splits up].

also my intuition is screaming 'duh it's the helga' [as culprit] but the fact they keep beating it in makes me wonder if they'll switch the formula just to fuck with me

because the big thing is it's always that guy with like, two lines, and she's shown up…………………thrice in three scenes

amgbghgmmmmm uncomfortable native american portrayaaaallllls

tho………like I swear there's this nagging feeling i have that i remembered shaggy being like, partially native american by ancestry and i have no idea why i would think so because nothing i remember in an episode i know of supports it

like, feels like something about a character you read in a wiki or fansite one time but then it's gone off the grid? that kind of thing itching thought you can't validate

and it's not the first time I've had that thought [that I'd possibly seen someone Shaggy was part Native-American] randomly during an episode this year that i'm watching but I never cared much about scooby doo before now so why would I have been reading character trivia

WHAT THE FUCK ARE "KNOCKOUT DROPS"

WHAT

okay hologram movie projectors are worse but KNOCKOUT DROPS

they couldn't even say chloroform--which like better they didn't say chloroform because that shit is kind of a murder weapon not a sleepy pill but it just sounds like they were too lazy to even look it up

oh i love that [recycled animation] fred face

ohhhhhh boy here it is

there's the musical chase scene

that's where it started, unless i'm forgetting a lot of music from the first ten episodes instead of wacky soundtrack stuff

OH FUCK THERE IT IS

THE HALLWAY

THEY DID DOORS

START OF DARKNESS

Larz Bourne

Tom Dagenais

Bill Lutz

^i literally searched up the episode and these three men are both responsible for COMPLETELY RUINING SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU and making it into a goddamn forty year monolith that is immortalized because of the direction change and the tropes so notorious that every kid remembers them and i'm so conflicted

………mild curious fred [scene] soothes me

i fully expect velma to deliver the denoument

does fred do it??? lmao that'd be a change from both the stock trope fred AND the original fred

okay here are some major costume plugs here

I CAN'T BELIEVE SHAGGY AND SCOOB DIDN'T FUCK [the trap] UP what do you fucking know

[incorrect guess on villain] and way to go gang you finally fucked one up

actually no they never really……had the guy pinned really when they caught him in early eps??

they just caught him and unmasked him and then used hindsight to figure out what the clues meant

in fact these guys suck at solving mysteries

THEY SHOULD BE 'CRIMINAL REVEALERS INC'

they're great at that part

okay rant delivered i'm just gonna listen to the music

SKINNY SCOOB LEGS IN THAT CREDITS SCENE

[skamortuus]

#me when i secretly put adderall in my husband’s drink. me when i try to stop a wedding for either gay reasons or conspiracy theory reasons. #me when i orchestrate a full heist to get a baseball card. me when i try to collect my niece’s dna to see if she’s actually my daughter. #like the s1 characters were up to some wacky stuff but these guys are on another level #no wonder some of them are cagey about being interviewed 😭 #they were literally all doing something they shouldn’t have been doing even if it wasn’t murder

so obsessed with the fact that every single person at this wedding was up to something absolutely unhinged. like we started off with aniq planning to propose at someone else’s wedding and i was like well that doesn’t seem like a good idea. and then it turns out that was actually easily the least insane plan that anyone had.