#like. idk what they put in this guy that makes him so forgettable to me but its like

[hecksupremechips]

Replaying p3 is such a frightening experience because it forces me to remember Ikutski is a real character that exists

[fraudulent-cheese]

So i watched episodes 3 to 8 of Pahkitew Island

Again, watched these with my buddy @rockin-it-rusty! And, holy shit these episodes have got me genuinly wondering why Pahkitew's so hated.

I'll go over the negatives first; the challenges are kinda eh. The Truth or Scare one is great, and the cave one is interesting due to it's hints at the Fake Island reveal (as heavy handed as they were), but most of these were just pretty out there to me? They mostly felt like an excuse to put the characters in situations mostly. Just have Topher make a narration joke, give Max and Scarlett an interaction, have Sky and Dave dance around eachother all due to a thing the challenge made them do. I don't mind the first two much, but the last one gets super repetitive man. Glad they mixed it up a bit by making Shawn try to wingman Dave though, i like their friendship! im a bigger dashawn shipper now oops

ANYWAYS IMA TALK ABOUT THE CHARACTERS NOW BECAUSE LET'S BE HONEST, THE CHARACTERS CARRY THE SHOW!

Amy... Ok im very mixed on her. On one hand, she serves her role as the mean twin relatively well. But on the other, that's all she really is! Her one trait is being mean and hating her sister, and that's all she really does! Granted she has a thing? Where she gets sayings (?) wrong, or just gets words wrong (she says parfait is german. it's french. i would know) which! could hint at something! (maybe less smart than her sister?) but they don't do shit with her outside of her swimming back to the island in episode 5. god i wanna rewrite this season so badly now to give her a bigger role. idk shoutouts to Twinning with a Twist for redeeming her while still giving her some edge ig.

Rodney. i uh

I haven't thought about him since his elimination honestly. I just doooooon't care about him it's crazy. Most forgettable guy in the entire series.

Sammy! Ok back to the siblings rambles! I wish the show leaned into her scheming more. Girl in five episodes pulled identity theft and did nothing else. Why. Her relationship with Jasmine is adorable, and i wish she got Jasmine to call her by her actual name, and a personality too! It's really a shame man :(

Sidenote, but like her team fucking hated her for some reason??? Like what. I know it's because of that one scene, but really?

Ella!! My sweet girl Ella!!! She didn't do anything wrong man she just likes singing leave her alone!!! Chris really fucking hates her and it's pretty entertaining at least, but i'd say his beef with Topher's funnier. She has a nice singing voice, and i love how passionate she is about fairytales and stuff. You could do so much with the Prince thing and the show... didn't. Like what even was that. Conflict that wasn't one that lasts an episode. what

Gotta say though, her elimination was fucking ass, Max 100% should've been kicked instead of her.

Topher. Ah the opher. He's a special case, even in the context of Pahkitew Island itself! Because the dude's not here for the game. He's here to meet his idol, Chris Mclean (he really knows how to pick em, huh). I like the progression he's got, from wanting his approval to straight up wanting to host the game instead of him. I'll admit, my opinion's a little skewed since i am mutuals with the Topher guy on Tumblr, but i like him regardless!

His relationship with Chris is easily one of the more interesting parts of the season, mostly because a 30-something year old dude having beef with a teenage fan is hilarious, and you could definitely spin it in a sad way from Topher's perspective.

It also helps that he's genuinely funny! His few interactions with the other campers are also pretty fun, he dgaf about them it's great.

Im kind of mixed on Dave, i'll be real. On one hand, im glad they ditched the whole "he doesn't like anyone on this Island" trait three episodes in because that would've gotten. SO ANNOYING. SO FAST. (hell i'd argue it was already annoying), and him being a hopeless romantic could be a fun trait, if done right. It also helps that he's really pathetic and i find that funny. His friendship with Shawn's fun too!

But on the other hand... Yeah, even before the finale the Skave plotline's really boringgg. They just dance around eachother for half the season for like! No reason! Please just have a conversation, even if it takes other people to sit them down to have it! I know why they didn't because the finale needed them to not actually talk about it but at least have Sky tell him she'll explain later or have him not be a coward and ask her about it himself!!! ack!!

Also the thing with him and Ella went literally nowhere. I have 0 feelings about it because it's just there for some reason. Idk they just really wanted to shoehorn in romance for every girl this season huh.

Scarlett's a really underutilized character pre-Island reveal. The bulk of her interactions with the other campers are with Max, who has a ton of screentime for some reason (which i don't personally really mind but i'll explain later) which honestly sucks because she's a fun character! I want to compare her to Twilight Sparkle at the very start of MLP. She's smart, she knows it, she can communicate with her teammates just fine and just chooses not to usually. I like her alot! Im just... really disapointed that she's so in the background usually; if anyone's a wasted character in tdpi, outside of the Twins i'd say it's her.

Her legit wanting to kill Max is great though. That's how i'd react to him irl. Don't get the Max saying she had a crush on him three episodes in, or the quip Chris made during the team switching tho.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, MAX! I swear, i was convinced i'd find this guy annoying pre-watch but uh... I like this guy! No really, i do! He's like Mal, only the narrative doesn't take him seriously in the slightest and it's hilarious to watch! Im like Sugar in that one clip, i am laughing at this buffoon's intelligence, and his stupid catchphrase, and his "evil" plans, and his general delivery! Max is funny!

Even when the Scarlett "minion" thing kicked in i still found him funny! Don't get me wrong, i wish he'd gotten out earlier (ESPECIALLY when he was supposed to get kicked in the episode Ella got eliminated into) or just gotten less screentime in general, but in the season proper, yeah he's a funny guy! Big gimmick, but i like him! Please don't add nuance to him, i don't care

Jasmine... certaintly exists! I'd call her the Season's rock, the one character that's emotionally intelligent on the show. She's fun in general, and also the only one noticing things going wrong with the robotic island. As said before, her relationship with Sammy is great to see, and i wished we'd see more of her and Sky's friendship and uh. For there to be more between her and Shawn? Because the only things i've retained is that they blushed at eachother once and then trust issues party because he hit her once during a challenge and that completely broke her trust in him - which, could be an interesting aspect of her character to explore since if that's all it took for her to pull a 180 on Shawn, the girl must have a complicated relationship with trust. That's an interesting flaw! It also shows up with her rapport in Sky in the later episodes of this batch, and. GOD. I wish it was developped man!

The issue? Yeah it's dragged on so longggg man! It's frustating to watch frankly because i really wish they'd resolve this conflict quicker since it's like. The same thing every episode :( to my knowledge it's solved in episode 9, but it did NOT need to be dragged out for 4 episodes.

Unrelated to her charater, but her height difference with the other campers is kind of ridiculous. In some shots the characters look so small compared to her it's crazyyy

Ok, now. Sugar. I'll be honest? She's great! She's just a menace and doing her own thing and it's fun to watch! She's also interesting in terms of backstory since she's canonically a pageant queen; her relationship with Ella is greatly impacted by this, since she heavily suspects her of lying to her face when it's just. Ella being Ella. Similar thing to her opinion on Topher; she doesn't like him for his sucking up to Chris, the host (something that Rusty probably agrees with). I fucking wish she was more popular because then people would look into her more, but alas. She's a female, plus sized character in Pahkitew Island, so considering the Fandom's biases, it was never going to happen. U_U

OK TIME FOR ZOMBIE BOY. So, Shawn. He's definitely more present in these episodes than he was before, and, again, i think he's fun! He's a weird little guy. He's got interesting skills (his camouflage, legit parkour, general athleticism) and his personality's interesting as well compared to the other guys. The zombie thing is fine, actually, because they do different things with it over the course of these episodes. Not much to say about him, he's a solid character to me and i wish he had more interactions with the cast outside of Dave and his pining for Jasmine. Who he's talked to like, five times at this point? Again, they probably should've talked stuff out faster than this for me to actually enjoy it. Oh well.

And finally, Sky. She's an interesting case for me? She's fine, mostly. She's the Normal Person™️ of the cast to me, and that means she really struggles to grab me. It's made worse by her main plot being a basic romance plot where the gimmick is that she's a reasonable human being and Dave isn't. And neither are able to have a normal fucking conversation about it either. The mixed signals thing could've been interesting, but this is Fresh TV writters, so of course it didn't end up that way. I assume the episodes without Dave are the ones where her personality shines more? Because so far she's just been really reserved and calm. And said she'd "focus on the competition only" And then. Doesn't. Really. God i wish this season treated it's female characters better :(

OK SO OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Im mixed on alot of the character decisions

god i wished these people talked more

the screentime is not well split among the cast

the romance plots and pacing of the Island plot are the weakest parts of this season

the challenges are fine

Why does Chef have 5 lines total.

Pahkitew Island does NOT deserve the overly negative rep it gets in this Fandom, at least based on the first 8 episodes.

[vilevampire]

idk who those people are would u like to educate me...

GLADLY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

just to preface this I'll explain what the fuck is going on in mairuma in general first just to provide context bc idk how much you've absorbed by osmosis (also I rmr I told u abt mairuma once on discord but . I don't rmr a single thing that was said in that convo, only that it happened)

buckle up bc this ended up getting pretty fucking long

"mairimashita! iruma-kun" is an ongoing manga and anime series that revolves around iruma, a human boy who got sold by his parents to a powerful demon and started living his life in the netherworld.

this is he. baby boy. his new demon found family enrolls him in demon school, and so while hiding the fact that he is human, iruma starts attending babyls demon school. his new grandpa (who happens to be the chairman of said demon school) puts him in a class for problem children, saying "that way your classmates will catch more attention than you, and you won't be found out (as human)!!!!"

makes sense ? no, of course not, but this is a comedy-focused series, so that's just how it is

iruma and his classmates. they're called the misfits class. I love all of them (except for … one …) dearly and could ramble abt each individual character for hours but for now I am only focusing on jazz and allocer. starting with jazzy my boy jazzy

baby son boy he is just a little guy just a little man he's just a son. jazzy is a character who is seen as cool, clever, unapproachable and mature to most other characters but is actually a huge softie inside.

he's also a kleptomaniac but he doesn't usually steal shit on purpose, it's just habit. if you ask me he's done nothing wrong in his life ever

(irrelevant tangent: jazzy actually has a specific animal theme. can you guess which animal it is ??????? I'm just fucking with you it's impossible to guess, but he's supposed to be snake-themed. the only thing that even suggests that in his design is his forked tongue, but it's. not visible most of the time so it didn't even occur to me that he was supposed to be snake themed until. embarrassingly recently. anyway)

jazz has a terrible older brother (named rock. their names r jazz and rock. like the moosic) who steals from him and belittles him constantly, but he can't fight back because his family values skill above all else, so they consider it his own fault for being vulnerable to stealing. basically "git gud lol"

because of this, jazz longs to be a better older brother than his own, despite not actually having any younger siblings. he becomes attached to cute, defenseless-looking things easily and is weak to people who look up to him and ask him for help. he likes beeing relied on and being there for others. he starts seeing most of his classmates as his younger siblings too

basically he is just a little guy and bc so much abt jazzy reminds me of myself (including his black and red color scheme) I am incredibly attached to him and he's my #2 fave character in the whole series (the first one is … well, you can probably guess)

now about allocer … where do I begin. probably by saying we know little to nothing about him, and not because the author particularly intended him to be mysterious, but just because he doesn't get much attention in the series as a whole. despite being one of the main side characters, he gets sidelined incredibly often. he's forgettable, rarely relevant and overall one of the characters we have least information on

look at him and his goofy lion face. there's no reason for him to be so ignored, it's furryphobia plain and simple.

(side note: over the course of the series his character design becomes increasingly yassified and he lets his hair grow + dyes it so don't mind that he looks slightly different in almost every picture he's in)

regardless I'll do my best to tell what we know FOR SURE 100% CANON CONFIRMED about him and then I'll dwelve into theories and hc territory (all supported by canon info, but still pretty speculatory bc of how little info we have on him in general…)

first of all he is smart. second of all. he reads books. third of all. he scored #1 in all exams. fourth of all … he is smart. that's it. wish I was kidding, but that's what his character revolves around most of the time. he gets outshined by other characters all the fucking time and usually just shows up to spout a proverb or say something related to knowledge and wisdom.

aside from that, his characterization tends to be pretty inconsistent (because the author doesn't give a FUCK about him) but I'll report on his most consistent traits and ignore the . multiple . inconsistencies.

allocer is a reserved character who doesn't talk much about himself (this is intentional at least to some extent, evidenced by the picture above). he seems to be kind of awkward, the way he phrases things tends to be unnatural, too. compare these phrases:

(I'll get to what the fuck is going on in this scene in a second I just need to ramble about allocer first)

jazzy speaks in a much more natural, conversational way, saying "what are you saying…?", while allocer simply says "incomprehensible". when he's not speaking in proverbs and book quotes, he often drops weirdly-worded sentences like that.

there's a few different scenes that help us infer that he's not good at dealing with people and emotions. for example, his fanbook profile lists "women's feelings" as his weak subject. when he gets confessed to he also states it's "abstruse", aka confusing and hard to understand

basically what I'm saying is that he's arospec and autistic-coded and nobody can change my fucking mind ok if anybody wants to argue w/ me on this I hope you've spent at least half the time I have studying every major scene allocer is in like I have. I have lost my entire fucking mind trying to infer ANYTHING conclusive about his characterization out of the NEAR NONEXISTENT CRUMBS canon has given us.

with that out of the way I can finally start talking about jazz and allocer's dynamic ^_^

jazz and allocer first become close when they're assigned to train under the same mentor, general furfur — love this guy btw — before performing in the "harvest festival", a kind of practical exam every first year at babyls has to do.

yet, for some reason, instead of actually training the two, furfur takes them to a bar. jazz and allocer question this, but furfur shrugs it off saying that connecting with adults is part of their training.

spoiler alert: furfur is a little shit and he brought jazz and allocer here to sell them into child labor to pay for his debts with the bar (remember the pictures from a while ago that I used to compare their speech patterns? that was them realizing they were being sold. lol)

and so the two of them r stuck in hell together for the next 3 weeks

(side note #2: I love their matching outfits. they look so cute)

in this hostile environment, a weird partnership forms between them. they learn more about each other. jazz tells allocer about his evil fucked up brother and how frustrated he is that he couldn't see through furfur's bullshit, to which allocer replies he is actually just as upset.

allocer's face isn't very expressive and his voice is often monotone (again, autism…) so jazz is very surprised by this.

AOAOOGUGGGHG LOOKK AT HIS BLUSHY FACE … HE'S SO CUTEEE AGG89R9. I'M normal . I'm ok.

the two of them start working towards a common goal: HUMILIATING FURFUR AND SEEING HIM CRY.

anw long story short they come up with a plan using every dirty trick they learned from the adults at the bar, their plan doesn't fucking work, they get made fun of by furfur, and they're still stuck working for free. lol

but that's how their relationship forms. what I find so fascinating about them is that they have no reason to trust each other given the circumstances, but they still do. they form an unbreakable bond. they complement each other too, one being streets smart, while the other is books smart. the partners in crime ever.

also mairuma has these little after-credits side stories called sukimas and . I will let the video speak for itself bc watching this is what made me start shipping them in the first place. just watch

they have more interactions I could talk about in-depth, but their partnership during the harvest festival arc is the most major. still I'll briefly go over some other jazzllocer moments that make me insane

at some point during the harvest festival, jazz gets disqualified (long story). and though jazz and allocer were working together during it, they were never an official team, so allocer wasn't disqualified with him. still, near the end, allocer states that "there's no point in winning if it's not together (with jazz)" (thinking abt this makes me want to detonate myself like a bomb)

when they're second years, they're put in another exam and in this one each of the misfits is supposed to protect two first year students from the teachers hunting them. jazz's strategy? he entrusted his incredibly important protegees to allocer and confronted the teachers upfront as a diversion. in the end allocer couldn't protect his own first years, but he did protect jazzy's, which earned his buddy a rank up (once again I feel like exploding at this very moment)

3. mairuma has fanbooks and that includes character profiles with some trivia on them, including a "people they are currently paying attention to" section. in jazz's profile, allocer is the first one listed there (meaning he's the one he's paying the most attention to), followed by general furfur and his brother. in allocer's profile, jazz is the first one listed, followed by furfur again and then a teacher he bonded with in a diff arc (if you can't read japanese you'll just have to believe me on this one)

btw despite ALL OF THIS canon interaction, these two r a very rare rarepair. they don't have a romantic ao3 tag bc nobody has ever published a fic w/ this ship. the ONLY fic under their platonic tag isn't even about them, they're just side characters in it. every day this fact alone spirals me into further despair and insanity. I am so fucking unwell literally rotting I am deteriorating flesh and bones losing every ounce of my fucking mind I hope at least ONE person reads this deranged ass ramble and starts to at least consider this ship bc I can't take it anymore they ahve NOOOOO CONTENTTT AAAAOGIGGHHGGO SOMEBODY GET ME OUTTTTT G924488948 gets put down like a rabid animal

[angryonabus]

re: wips idk what half of those fandoms are and am like "dragon age: attolia???" idk but SEX FARCE SEX FARCE

lolololol ilu. dragon age: absolution is a silly animated show in the greater dragon age universe! 'sex farce' was me noodling about the inherent challenges of being a dwarf and trying to fuck human-sized people.

sex farce:

Generally speaking, Lacklon doesn’t take up with humans.

“What,” Qwydion says, “like, as a matter of principle?”

Lacklon rolls his eyes.  “No, s’just—”  He wrinkles his nose.  “Not really worth it, is it?”

“If you say so, I believe you,”  Qwydion says, even as her voice makes it clear that she doesn’t.

“I mean, I don’t have anything against them,” Lacklon clarifies.  “Just, they’re too tall.”

Qwydion blinks—opens her mouth—shuts it—blinks some more.  She looks like she might need a moment, so Lacklon turns his attention back to his ale.  Orlesian beer is usually pretty shit, but this is halfway decent: light and crisp, not too sweet.  He glances over at the bar, trying to see if he can spot a brewer’s mark on the keg, wondering idly if Fairbanks will let them stop here again on the way back.

“Sorry, I just—”  Qwydion wrinkles her nose.  “Are you seriously saying that you won’t get into a relationship with a human because they’re too tall?”

“Gives me a crick in my neck.”  

“Gives you a—so get a fucking stepstool!”

Lacklon shrugs.  “Too much hassle.”

“Too much hassle?”

“Are you just going to repeat everything I say?  And anyway, it’s not just that,” Lacklon says, cutting off whatever response Qwydion was about to make.  “It’s just—” 

It’s everything, really.  It’s needing to get a running start to jump up into a bed that’s unreasonably high off the ground; it’s never being able to reach anything in the blessed kitchen; it’s tittering laughter at the edge of his hearing and poorly-muffled whispering when he’s across the room.

“It’s not worth it, is all,” he says.

“Okay, but—” Qwydion points a wobbling, accusatory finger at Lacklon.  “Back in, wherever, that place with the fountain—”

“Val Chevin?”

“Fucking Val Chevin, right!”  Qwydion slaps her hand down on the table.  “You definitely fucked that guy with the moustache.”

“Corentin?”  Lacklon shrugs.  “Yeah, sure.”  He’d been long and lanky, a huntsman for some estate out in the hills, come into town to hire an assistant for a Grand Hunt his lady was putting together.  He’d had a mild, forgettable smile, but when Lacklon had fucked him, his whole face had been transformed, twisting in desperate, agonized pleasure.  “So what?”

“So,” Qwydion says, widening her eyes dramatically, “so, how do you explain that, Mr. I Don’t Fuck Humans?”

Lacklon snorts out a laugh.  “I never said I didn’t fuck humans.”

“See!  You can’t even—wait, what?”  Qwydion wrinkles her nose.  “But—yes, you did, you said—”

“I said I didn’t take up with them,” Lacklon reminds her.  “For the long term.”  He shrugs.  “Fucking’s different.”  He can put up with their ridiculousness for a night, or for a lazy afternoon; it’s trying to make things work out over time that gets difficult.

“Andraste’s bountiful bosom.”  Qwydion looks down at her tankard of ale, staring into the depths like she’s panning for gold, and shakes her head.  “I will never understand people.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Lacklon says, and does.

[420technoblazeit]

anyway. masterpost for my thoughts on my spn 8x12 rewatch bc i forgot to liveblog it. this is the one where their grandfather time travels to the future by accident. it's also the introduction of the men of letters and abaddon

funny that sam and dean are still confused about time travel given that theyve BOTH time traveled on more than one occasion at this point. dean's literally traveled into the future and the past. why the fuck are u so confused about this

i ENTIRELY forgot that a cupid ensured that john and mary would get together i love that there's continuity on this

DEAN'S DADDY ISSUES ARE BACK BABEY!!!! AND THIS TIME HE'S PROJECTING THEM ONTO HIS GRANDFATHER LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

the men of letters always going UGH hunters. theyre always shoot first ask questions later what violent morons is so funny bc like. to be fair. the average hunter IS really trigger happy and aggressive. we saw a really good example of that literally like 3 episodes ago. that's a completely fair assessment tbh. sam and dean are supposed to be good hunters and their first instinct was to push henry up against the wall and start yelling at him, hunters suck ass dude

it's such a shame that abaddon ended up being a kind of forgettable big bad bc i remember thinking that her original 50s aesthetic and memory stealing powers were really cool. idk they dropped the ball with her she couldve been really cool

abaddon's introduction here as a knight of hell is TECHNICALLY an expansion of the worldbuilding in terms of hell's hierarchy but i feel like it works here. theyre just below the princes but imbued with some kind of power by lucifer ig? it is a little questionable that they cant be killed by usual demon killing means though. azazel got killed by a fuckass gun and he outranked abaddon but ok i guess

random goth girl at the comic book store u will be missed. sorry ur 'the devil made me do it' shirt was so sick that abaddon killed u for it

i like that they didnt want to put cas in this episode so they were like yeah uhhhhhhhhhhhhh there's just one of his angel feathers in the impala somewhere henry steals it. can you imagine if this guy met cas his brain would fucking explode. can you imagine if they told him they met all the archangels??????? god that's so funny to think about

abaddon looks exactly like how i imagined war good omens when i originally read the book and i stand by that tbh

FIRST USE OF THE DEVIL'S TRAP BULLET LET'S GOOOO. this trick makes no fucking sense with the laws of physics but ykw i dont care it's so fun to me. shoot a demon with a really fucking tiny devil's trap and theyre just like. stuck to the floor. it's hilarious

rip henry u were like. actually wait he was still kind of a shitty dad tbh he was like yeah i was forced into being a men of letters by my father and i felt really burdened by the duty of hunting monsters im really excited to do the same to my son though :} like alright. ok i guess man

[knowlessman]

doo doo DOO dooo, doo doo dootdoot doo, doo doo DOO doo, doo doo DOOTDOOTDOO dootdoo (bnha s2e21-25)(it's the FI-NAL EX-AM…)

(excuses re quirks and skimpy costumes, midnight and mt lady catfight) why

okay this OP might slap actually, the higher voice gives some idfk contrast or whatnot, makes it interesting. that and the generally more… introspective (?) tone of voice of the main singer? idfk I like this one

I hear tell we start getting less mineta at some point, when's that? ( :

bakugo studies?

…idk what I think about momo tbh. mid, I guess. kind of a Captain Carrot almost, except not OP; she doesn't even get to, like, win. the competence and likability are there, but Carrot's acknowledged overpoweredness and impossibly-perfect benevolence give him a compelling weirdness that momo doesn't have. momo doesn't stand out any more than kyoka does, but kyoka has a "cool teenager" personality and a rad costume.

don't try to make me relate to laserguts (he apparently got the 18th-highest score out of 20, also tho who in the entire fuck grades midterms by ranking the students what the shit is that)

…this blonde guy from B is the most forgettable little shit who ever lived, is he the guy with the Ditto ability from the horseplay event, that I wanted to not have to hate? : / -- k, Ninja Misty's name is Kendo and also she does have a name, she could turn out cool even if she doesn't seem to get a lot of screentime outside of hitting whatshisname

yaoyorozu. yaoyorozu. is it just because they're less common letters? is that why that one's harder to remember than uraraka? idfk

"I'm gonna do better than you, deku, whether you like it or not! you too, guy who only lost to me because he couldn't decide whether to tie one arm behind his back and was eminently unbothered about the result anyway!" vegeta gonna vegeet

"this time, you'll be fighting against the teachers!" … fun? this show has too many fun bits wtf it's almost just jojo but with a plot, no, more than one plot at a time, that actually have enjoyable writing in them -- curious if we'll see what Tonka Tough and… I can't even think of a joke for this one, but like, new surprises, this show is a neverending fucking birthday it's unreal

"deku and vegeta are a te my fucking gawd this is gonna be hell on a stick icanteven -- "oh and they're fighting jesus" vince mcmahon with laser eyes

obviously they would put the pervert against the other pervert smh

…wanna figure out whether they meant "if one escapes you win" or "if BOTH escape you win" but trying to understand what the rules are in this show has not proven fruitful so far so wever

so sato is basically choji from naruto then. meh -- 'XD almost surprised they could get the rights for the oraora but then I forgot Japan is a bit less Scrooge McDuck about copyright

(froppy and tokoyami) ah k so mr grin does clones… of some kind -- …I was not expecting Team Ice Climbers to be a thing, but I'm not NOT here for it -- (froppy doing...?) uh. -- 0_0 oh! oh, she can just regurgitate stuff, phew 'XD I misremembered what she said her other power was and thought the bird was gonna throw her stomach across the finish line

(iida and ojiro) "FUSION!" facepalm -- "you're going to have to toss me" counter is at 2. not complaining, I just think it's funny that that might end up being a common tactic here -- facepalm while looking back over the notes again iida is yoshi

(yaoyorozu and todoroki) "unless you've got a rudder and a lot of sails hidden in that bodice…" at least they paired her with another professional -- if we could just stop putting the 15-yo's chest in center screen that'd be great -- more to the point tho she Got To Do Things and had them work so good on that. and even when she wasn't sure of her own plan, she made the matryoshkas as flashbangs to begin with. you love to see it

(uraraka and laserguts) "do you like deku?" "WAAAA :O" lets go and flies backward then turns into a flying kick on sheer instinct mission failed successfully 'XD

(mina and kaminari) "I wonder how the principal will fight" this is gonna be REAL stupid, can't wait -- eh. 's good. no notes.

fuck yeah, been wondering what Korg's quirk is. also jiro's here too, happy bout that too -- oh, animals -- aye, mic's a hard counter to both. hm -- "these puny little ants outnumber him a hundred to" I mean yeah you get it -- 'XD koda doesn't like them either tho. Gonta Gokuhara, he is not

(hagukure and shoji) hagukure continues to mostly only be there for perv jokes -_-

(worst character and the tape guy) yeah this one's gonna be annoying. maybe they'll just skip it and do a cutaway thing saying they lost because mineta's worthless -- goddammit this fucker gets half a whole episode -- whoop de doo. she isn't attached to her whip tho… -- why'd that work? she fucking let him go for no reason. she wasn't even stuck to the ground herself, I don't think.

…I don't think I have anything going on tomorrow and my sleep pattern's already fucked, hell with it, might as well finish out the season here

"god explosion murder: origins" we know his origins, he has an inferiority complex because he was the king bully in a small town and thought he was the only kid who was gonna get into a big-name school, and he's just now being confronted with the fact that bluster and ego stop getting you anywhere past a point (when you aren't born a zillionaire) -- gonna be hard to talk vegeta out of flunking himself; best-case for deku is all might knocks him out and deku somehow pulls a win out of nowhere. I just really don't see bakugo getting nearly enough character development in nearly enough time to pass this, he's solidified too dense -- "you've been saying the greatest hero always wins since we were kids." yeah and he just stopped forming memories after that -- toss counter at 3 'XD -- JEEZUS, all might pulling the pro Smash player moves with that recoil tackle

-- well, I was sort of right about bakugo being knocked out. tbh tho I'm amazed that he let deku even touch one of his gauntlets, let alone fire one. he makes it hard not to underestimate and think the worst of him, but he keeps being scarily capable of cramming tactics into his head along with the piles and piles and piles of violence and hatred and self-hype

does it count as bakugo learning something from deku if what he learned was how to break himself in a bloodyminded grasp, not even for the moon, just to pass an exam, so that somebody has to fix him?

"some moved toward a new goal…" (shows uraraka) some got through on pure and unadulterated luck you mean

oh yeah, Handface and The Darkness are things. forgot about them. -- THE DANCING BOY HE'S HERE -- and, uh, Stab-Girl

I guess this one sets up the next season? we'll see

okay so I was understanding right that handface still doesn't like anything about stain and his "ideals," at least we're right side up on that. -- The Darkness is a good manager. spookily good.

uh. so. mr everything-i-touch-i-break has an arm around deku. did he just, like, win? -- …tea. frankly I dint know he wanted anyth - I'm sorry?

-- i -- …um. moving on? I think?

stain masks. freedom of merch, I guess : / getting weird with it this episode, I guess

"he yammered on about why he was doing what he was doing and got all over the news. I attacked a school for no explicit reason at all and everybody forgot about me. what's his secret, why are his ratings so much better than mine?"

uraraka could have wandered in from, it feels like, 60% of all the anime in existence. however, she does sometimes - well… the one time she really had her own plan was against bakugo and it didn't work, I dunno whether I can confidently say that she Gets To Do Things significantly more often than Sakura so far. : /

huh. not even an outro, then. but, uh, yeah, plot and things. quarter to five.

[justlikejohn]

i really desperately want to make a little comic series about adachis perspective of the murders in inaba because i think what the writers left out (and implied) is just. SO interesting

long text post and extra EXTRA spoilery so be warned

1) its been brought up before (i think to this clip of a twitch streamer) but adachi is introduced when he runs across the screen to vomit at the sight of a corpse (fair) but like. thats the woman he assaulted a few days ago. its fair for adachi to think “i didnt kill her. but oh fuck, if the police knew that i threw her in a tv, they might suspect me, i might be FRAMED-” and to panic to that end instead. like. “if shes killed herself, or someones kidnapped her, they might think its me.” what is going through his head at that point? i dont think hed associate his actions with the outcome - i dont think hed immediately connect the tv with her death, i think hes too childish for that line of thinking. i bet hes thinking, like, “god, shes gone and gotten herself killed, this is gonna ruin my life..!” i think itd take much more time for adachi to figure out what happened than most people are giving him the credit for. and i COMPLETELY disagree that vomiting in that instance was an act to cover his ass - i dont even think he believes hes in real danger of being suspected at that point. idk i think it was just. brilliant writing. it can be interpreted in SO many ways and its such a small, forgettable part that shows SO much character

2) i think itd be fun to include a few physical bits of evidence against him, too. like, what if when he pushed yamano in, there was a struggle and he got scratched on his neck pretty badly? or, she was resisting so hard, she had dug her fingernails so far into his arm it bled and left scars? i imagine an interaction with dojima that goes along the lines of, like,

dojima: “so. had a girl over last night, adachi?”

and adachi is just shitting himself. like oh fuck oh shit he KNOWS what the fuck do i do so he awkwardly laughs and says “haha.. what do you.. whaddya mean, dojima..?” 

and dojima gestures to adachis collar. cause its done all the way up. and adachi never wears his shirt that formally, so in dojimas eyes, hes thinking “this guy has a love bite, i bet. he thinks hes slick, haha.”

and adachi is still sweating bullets cause beneath his collar are claw marks from his struggle with yamano. clear fingernail marks down the side of his neck where she tried to grab at him. and he hasnt had the time to figure out how make up works yet, but that night he goes to the drug store and gets ANYTHING that will cover up the marks. hes washing foundation off his shirts for weeks. 

and like, as the viewer, youre thinking “he doesnt need to do that; just say it was a cat or something” but thats the POINT! could you imagine to sheer PARANOIA upon murdering somebody?? youre suddenly policing EVERYTHING you do. not to say adachi wasnt aware of his presentation and how people perceived him beforehand, (i bet he did!) but it turns from “how do i play people” to “how do i get away with this” in an instant. and soon, it would turn back into “how do i play people,” but like exploring the mental strain that it would put someone under lol

3) also. this man has a persona. idk if this gets explained in the true ending (forgive me if it does; i missed it by ONE text prompt and my last save file is like 5 hours away from the option lmao) but doesnt that imply that hes accepted his shadow self..? like. THATS why hes like that. so, pessimistic and nihilistic. what was his shadow self like? what was adachi trying to repress? was it bitterness and resentment? perhaps thats why he turned out so angry - he embraced the anger he felt towards to world early on in the game. did his shadow stem from feelings of hopelessness, feelings that he has no meaning and no worth? was it an angry shadow, like yosukes? a bitter shadow, like chies? 

or - to break the pattern - was his shadow guilt-ridden, scared, paranoid? if adachi was trying to display feelings that he was functioning and well, would his shadow instead be all the fear he had tried to repress? what did adachi not want to see in himself? 

either way, he accepted his shadow, and still turned out the way he did. he was committed to his own entertainment to the end. i think thats so interesting - sometimes, you shut down parts of yourself for a reason. thats the whole fuckin POINT of persona 4!

4) im just spitballing here (this was supposed to be a paragraph and ive been writing for 40 minutes) but like. what if adachi was so insane BECAUSE he killed people, not the other way around? sort of kind of accidentally murdering someone in a fit of bitter nice guy rage, then ABSOLUTELY murdering a HIGHSCHOOL GIRL on PURPOSE, then MANIPULATING a mentally ill guy into KIDNAPPING and TRYING TO KILL CHILDREN, HOSPITALISING your besites MOTHERLESS CHILD, etc. like, of course adachi did this all on purpose, but i think its so much fun to explore his mindset! at what point did he decide to commit? how long after yamanos corspe was discovered? how long after he killed saki? because by the time the investigation team is on his ass he is FULLY dedicated to the role. not a shred of doubt. hes rationalised everything by that point. how much of his time did he spend thinking about what hed done vs how much to explain why all of it was justified..?

i think the guilt of all that would really truly fuck someone up. point of no return stuff. adachis not some master puppeteer, hes a snowballing maniac on the hunt for entertainment! i know thats like. the whole point of his character lol. but my point was, i think his actions fed his outlook before his outlook influenced his actions. i think that getting away with serial murders for MONTHS would take a real toll on someones psyche; this is especially applicable to those of us who are unstable enough to try shoving a celebrity in a television in the first place

well this was much longer than expected and turned into me rambling about adachi. hey, at least i stuck to a theme! 😅 maybe one day ill turn all these ideas into a comic of some sort. i love thinking about this guy. he is my blorbo :3c

[kitcat-italica]

My JCS Opinions No One Asked For

At this point in my obsession with this show, I’ve tracked down and watched lots of different versions through various legally dubious means.  Here are my thoughts on the ones I’ve seen so far!  (In a list of each show chronologically because why not)

1973 movie: This one is both great and ehhhh for me.  It’s great because it’s the original.  I love Carl Anderson’s Judas.  Ted Neely’s Gethsemane high note always tingles my spine.  Yvonne Elliman’s Mary Magdalene is just soothing and lovely.  The ensemble’s choreography always makes me chuckle, esp the cartwheeling before Simon’s song.  The setting is fun!  Hippies in the desert = basically what Jesus and Co were in 33AD. 

Its ehhhh points are that it just doesn’t *grip* me?  It doesn’t shake me upside down to make my brain fall out like other versions do.  Besides Gethsemane, Jesus in this version is leaning into the stoic-divine-savior depiction of him?  Which imo is not the point of JCS.  The Pharisees are…making costume choices.  Pilate is lame and forgettable.  Herod is supposed to be a WTF moment in every production, but this version just makes me vaguely uncomfortable and idk why.  And the slow tempo/boring choreography/weirdly-mixed sound during Superstar always puts me to sleep. Bonus points for Carl Anderson's heavenly leather fringe costume tho.

7/10

2000 movie: Here’s where things get interesting.  I briefly posted about my thoughts on this one in particular a while back.  This movie is such a trainwreck and I can’t stop watching it.  I’ll put on clips of it when I’m feeling down and need a laugh.  It’s…something.

The costume choices are just silly.  The overacting is comical.  The singing is either so weak (Jesus) or so overexaggerated (everyone else).  My throat gets sympathy pains every time Jerome Pradon’s Judas opens his mouth; he’s not a high tenor like the part requires.  But damn if he doesn’t sell the trash-man-surviving-on-Redbull-and-poor-life-choices version of this character in every single voice-cracking wail into the middle distance.  The devastation in his acting kills meeeee.  I also think Renee Castle might be my favorite Mary Magdalene?  I love her voice and her sweetness :) I also like the Pharisees in this!  They’re dressed like dollar store Matrix action figures and it absolutely works.  I also laugh at Simon’s frosted tips every time he’s onscreen.  The guy can sing tho! And it should be noted: between the costuming and the campiness and Judas’s every interaction with Jesus, this is one of the gayest versions out there.  I’m not sure if it was on purpose or not, but I’m grateful for it either way.

Lastly, special mention must go to Leather Daddy Pontius Pilate.  He absolutely fucks.

2/10 for actual quality, 9/10 for rewatch value

2012 Broadway revival: I like this one!  A lot!  It doesn’t *move* me, but it is extremely competent and everyone knows what they’re doing.  Jesus is kinda dull in this, but I’m ok with him not being the main character lol.  Josh Young’s Judas is aalskdjflsjdf yessss.  Belt those notes in your blue flowy robe my dude!!!  And the highlight is definitely the relationship between Jesus, Judas, and Mary.  They are 100% in a polycule and honestly good for them.  This is probably the only version where I will intentionally seek out the song Could We Start Again Please, just to see the three of them sing their verse together while holding hands.  It’s beautiful and deserves all the accolades.

I think the biggest downside for me in this is that since it’s a bootleg recording from faraway I can’t connect with their facial expressions as well as I would actually seeing this live.  That would probably make it one of my absolute favorites.

8/10

2012 UK Arena Tour: Oh, 2012 Arena Tour, my beloved.  I am such trash for you.  When I say that this show needs to latch onto my beating heart and refuse to let go, this is exactly what I’m talking about.  I will watch a clip from this, only to end up watching the entire show again because I cannot put it down.  It’s just.  So.  Good.

Lots of people have done write-ups in much more detail and eloquence about why they love this version, so I will be brief.  The casting in this show is just.  So top-notch.  There is not a weak link among them.  Often there will be parts I’ll skip in a JCS production because this or that character’s portrayal is kinda meh.  BUT NOT THIS VERSION.  I love everyone’s interpretations of their characters.  Jesus.  Judas.  Mary Magdalene.  Simon.  Caiaphas.  Annas.  Pilate.  Herod.  WHY ARE THEY ALL SO GOOD?????

This one also strikes the perfect balance in tone.  The ridiculous campy bits (like Herod’s song, Superstar, etc.) are played up as exactly that, but the serious bits are played deathly serious.  Everyone’s making choices according to their character’s internal logic, and it sucks me right in.  Ugh.  I love it.

Jesus and Judas are, of course, always the highlights.  And Ben Forster and Tim Minchin are just putting their whole hearts into this.  The chemistry?  The belting?  The facial expressions?  Every single choice they’re making, even when they’re not the focus of the scene?  The pained looks?  The eyerolls?  The moments of anguished violence, followed by immediate regret?  Ben’s Gethsemane (and making me care about his character’s emotional journey outside of Gethsemane)???  Tim’s death scene???  Superstar?????

Some people don’t like the modern aesthetic of this one.  Their tastes and mine are very different, because I adore it.  Some people say the autotune in the official recording ruins it for them.  It doesn’t ruin it for me; the vocals are still powerful and shake me to my core.  I can only imagine what it was like to see this live.  Probably the closest thing to a religious experience I will ever have.

10/10.  10/10.

2014 Swedish Arena Tour: Oooooh baby.  What a wild ride this is.  We got metal biker rockstar Messiah in the house!  Complete with leather pants and long flowing wigs :)  I love it.

Peter Johansson’s Judas is def one of my favorites.  He’s such a sarcastic slutty king.  I adore him.  

Speaking of slutty kings, did someone say Ola Salo’s Jesus????  This man is definitely hearing a voice in his head telling him he’s special, and thinking it’s God.  He is 100% down to call himself one part of a Holy Trinity.  His delivery of certain lines just gives me the happy wiggles.  It’s both ethereal, detached, and bitchy all at once.  My favorite is probably The Last Supper, when he’s taunting Judas with the lines “why don’t you go do it?” and “hurry, they are waiting”.  I don’t know how to describe it, but those two lines in particular just get me to my core the way he says them.

Then there’s the famous kiss.  Such a gay moment.  So good.

My complaint about this version is that everything else besides Jesus and Judas is bland at best, deeply uncomfortable at worst.  Yes, I am mostly talking about the Pharisees.  There is a whole other post I could make about how, since this show is based on the Gospels in the New Testament, a case can be made that it rests on a foundation that flirts with anti-Semitism, so it must tread very carefully not to lean into that.  (That also makes me question whether Christianity in itself is inherently anti-Semitic?  Maybe, maybe not, but again, that’s a whole nother conversation.)  And this version of JCS…misses the mark.  Hard.  And it prevents me from watching too much of this show beyond the big Jesus and Judas scenes.

9/10 for Jesus and Judas, 4/10 for everything else.

2018 Live In Concert: This one was a nope for me.  I liked Judas okay in this one, and his glittery, belt-y Superstar is probably one of my favorite versions of the song.  But John Legend was clearly cast as Jesus because he’s a big name music star who wanted that sweet sweet EGOT (and once he won an Emmy for being a producer on this show, he got it).  But he is a baritone trying to sing a tenor part.  I’m fine with him not going for the G5 in Gethsemane, but when he tries to climb up there for the “see how I die” part, *I* started getting lightheaded just watching him.  It’s painful.

Everything else is just boring and forgettable.  Not much else to say about it.

3/10.

Aaaand those are all the versions I’ve seen!  If y’all know of any others, lemme know and I’ll check them out :)

[greensaplinggrace]

honestly THANK YOU for saying all that abt baghra bc i thought i was going crazy from not liking her??? bc i haven't read the books and only summaries of them on wiki and like. i dunno why ppl like her actually even in the show bc this guy, her son, is like "i wanna make the world better for us grisha" and she's just like "no." even tho he sees that she's MAKING HERSELF SICK from suppressing her powers! she's literally like in bed coughing in the flashback yet seem much healthier at the little palace. also like after everything, after her disapproval, after the fold, after centuries of waiting for the sun summoner.. he never abandons her. he makes sure she's cares for. he doesn't harm her. and i have to wonder if baghra has ever thanks him for that, for just not leaving her alone. like i dunno how im suppose ro believe aleks is a heartless villain when he still cares for his abusive mom like this. like has baghra even told her she loved him (honestly she reminds me of a classic emotionally unavailable asian parent but maybe that's just me). also im wondering if baghra ever told aleks that he had an aunt.. bc like.. now that u bring up her isolating him it's like hmmmm...

not at me being like alina... why do u trust the bitter old woman who literally beats u with a stick and verbally abuses u every chance she gets.. just bc she showed a bad painting... like.. pls use two braincells to see that who u figured out as his mother... is also using his protection..

like baghra could've upped and left with alina. but no. she stayed bc she knew she was safe under aleks's protection.

alsoim just impressed that after his first friend tried to drown him and harvest his bones... he didn't go into hiding???? he still wanted to make a safe heaven for grisha!!! HE STILL WANTED TO PROTECT GRISHA EVEN AFTER HIS GRISHA FRIEND TRIED TO KILL HIM FOR HIS FUCKEN BONES. like... this is the guy im suppose to believe is the villain???

honestly i feel like part of the reason why LB's plotlines seem so bad and disconnected (and sometimes outright racist but that's another rant) and why darkles is disproportionately more violent and villainous in the later books is bc she didn't expect the darkling to be so popular and wanted to stick with her guns of making him the villain. but also wanted the money from aleks's popularity. but like you can't have ur cake and eat it too.

Well thank you for sending this ask! It's very sweet and very passionate. I'm glad you liked my post! I didn't put as much thought into it as some of my others lol. I kind of just talked. But it was nice to be able to finally talk about some of the problems I have with both her character and the fandom/author's perception of her.

HERE is the post this is referring to, in case anyone's wondering.

👀👀 You've hit the nail on the head for so many things, here!

Baghra is extremely emotionally unavailable, basically to the point of neglect. She's also verbally and physically abusive, traits which I doubt were only reserved for her students and not her son. Baghra claims she would do anything to protect him, but I've known a lot of parents who have that mindset and yet still harm their children because they think it's "good for them".

Aleksander stays at Baghra's side for years, and even when they're opposing each other she's never too far away from him. Idk if you've read the books but he does eventually hurt her. And as much as I don't like Baghra, I think his actions were horrid. But I'm also honestly kind of surprised it took him so long lmao.

Yeah I mean, in terms of isolation, let's not forget that she never wanted to introduce him to his father, either. Baghra's sense of eternity clouds a lot of her judgments on relationships, which means she views most people as dust and therefore teaches her son to as well. The problem with that is that he's a growing child, and he needs those social and emotional attachments for healthy development.

I would bet quite a bit of money that Baghra has either never told him she loves him or she has told him so few times it's practically forgettable.

And everything becomes more complicated because so many of Baghra's actions are understandable because of her life and her history, but the impacts they have on the people around her, especially Aleksander, are permanently damaging. And the fact that that's never gone over in critical depth in the books or how it's glossed over in fandom is just very disconcerting. Like, acknowledging Baghra's failings doesn't mean we're excusing Aleksander's actions, it just means we're holding Baghra liable for her own. Which the fandom should be doing, considering she's the epitome of an abusive parental figure.

And Alina trusting Baghra over Aleksander is even more confusing! Especially in the show!! This is the woman who beat her and abused her and tortured her friends when they tiny little children (and who probably still does so now that they're adults). This is the woman who mocks you and harasses you and insults you on a regular basis. Why does Baghra revealing she's Aleksander's mother make Alina change her mind?! Like fuck, I'd just feel bad for Aleksander. No wonder he kept it a secret, I would too! And that painting is enough evidence?! Really?! A random painting shown to you by this abusive mentor that's been making your life hell. That's what you're going to betray your new lover over?

The friends trying to harvest his bones thing is a good point, too. I think Aleksander, especially show Aleksander, is incredibly idealistic. I think he cares too much for others - those he's deemed worth his care (a sentiment given to him by Baghra). Despite everything she's tried to teach him about hiding and abandoning others and never caring and never doing anything to help or reach out or connect with people, Aleksander still continues to do so. It's likely because he never got it from Baghra growing up, and so is desperate for those emotional needs to be fulfilled elsewhere.

His turning point, when Baghra tells him it was understandable that those kids tried to kill him because the world is such a hard place for them - that's crucial. And the reason it's possible as a motivating factor is because of that idealism and that desire to help and that desire to be everything his mother isn't. Baghra tells him this trauma he just experienced was because of the oppression of his people, and instead of following her lead and accepting that, going into hiding and abandoning everybody to their misery, he goes I can do something about that. I can make it so this never happens again. Which is usually how trauma like that combines with one's core personality traits at a young age, especially when there's none of the essential support systems in place to aid in recovery (ie, the role Baghra should have been filling but wasn't, because she decided to exacerbate the problem instead).

And yeah, one of my biggest problems with the ham-fisted "beating you over the head with a sledgehammer of evil deeds" look-how-bad-this-character-is! portrayal of the Darkling in the later books comes from the impression I get that Bardugo doesn't trust her readers. She's so desperate to have us hate this character and think him an irredeemable villain, not trusting any of her readers to engage critically with a morally gray character, that it feels quite a bit like condescending fucking bullshit. Which ew, I know how to engage with literature, thanks.

She really does seem to look down on a large part of her fandom, and imo, the infantilization of the female characters in her books seems to carry over to her impression of most of her female readers as well. Which is why the Darkling's character arc gets fucking destroyed. But he's still a good cash grab, of course, so she'll shake his dead corpse in front of the fandom for money every time she wants something from it.

Also! Another reason I think her plotlines feel disconnected (I'm sorry Bardugo I respect you as a person, but shit-) is because the writing in SaB is just bad. I mean, nevermind the absolutely nauseating implications of the way she portrays the Grisha as a persecuted group who's situation is never actually fully addressed as it should be, considering Grisha rights is what her main villain is fighting for (imo for a series called the Grishaverse, LB seems to be pretty anti Grisha), but her characters and story alone are just wrong for each other. They don't fit together.

And the ending is one of the main pieces of evidence in that regard! You can’t say the ending where Alina isn’t Grisha anymore is her “going back to where she started” when she’s always been Grisha. She just didn’t know she was Grisha because she denied that part of herself that she was born with.

Alina is reluctant to move forward or change, she struggles with adapting, and she’s very set on the things she’s grown attached to throughout her life. She also has some latent prejudices against the Grisha, and so denies the possibility of being Grisha for those reasons as well.

Alina’s lack of powers in the beginning of her life because she willfully doesn’t learn about them to avoid change versus her lack of powers at the end of the book when she’s accepted them and then they’re stripped away from her by outer forces are two entirely separate circumstances. You can’t make a parallel about lost powers and lack of Grisha status bringing her back to the start when she was always Grisha and she always had powers and she simply refused to come to terms with it because of personal reasons.

The first situation is an internal conflict that indicates a story about growth and a journey of self acceptance. Denying herself the opportunity to learn about her heritage and to find acceptance with a group of people like her because she’s tied to the past and because of the way she was raised is the setup for a narrative that tackles unlearning prejudice and learning how to connect with a part of her identity that was denied her and learning how to grow independent and self assured. It’s the setup for a different story entirely. The second situation is an external conflict that centers around the ‘corrupting influence of power’... for some reason.

In a world where Grisha do not have social, political, or economic power and they are hunted, centering your heroine’s journey of self acceptance and growth around an external conflict about... the corrupting influence of power (in a group of people that don’t actually have any power?!) just doesn’t work. It is literally impossible to connect the two stories Bardugo is trying to push in Shadow and Bone without seriously damaging the main character’s developmental arc.

The only way a narrative like this would work, claiming that she has gone back to where she started, is either a) if the Grisha weren’t actually a persecuted group and instead were apart of the upper class, or b) if the one bad connection between the two instances is acknowledged - that Alina denied a part of herself crucial to self acceptance and growing up, and that losing her powers at the end has also denied her. It is a tragedy, not a happy ending.

Alina suffered because she didn’t use her powers. She grew sick. It was bad for her. This was not a resistance to 'the corruption of power and the burden of greed', it was her suffering because she couldn’t fully accept herself.

Framing the ending as a return to the beginning can’t be done if you don’t address how bad the beginning was for your main character. You brought her back to a bad point in her life. You regressed her. This should be a low point in her arc. It should be a problem that’s solved so she can finish developing organically or it should be something that is acknowledged as a tragedy in it’s own right, for the future the world (the writing) denied her.

This is a ramble and it makes no sense and I’m really sorry, but my point is that Bardugo put the wrong characters in the wrong story. The character arc required for organic development doesn’t match the story and intended message at all. The narrative doesn’t fit the cast. She's got two clashing stories attempting to work in tandem and she ends up with both conflicting messages that fans still can’t comprehend in her writing and an ending that doesn’t suit her main character to such an impossible degree that it’s almost laughable.

So yeah, there's a few reasons why I think the story and the plot feels so bad and disconnected. I hope you don't mind me making this answer so long! 😅 I was not expecting to write this much.

[awsugar]

On the subject of Hesitant Alien, I think a lot of the songs other than Millions, Brother, and maybe Drugstore Perfume are like… fun? With certain parts that slap incredibly hard (the bridges maybe? Idk song structure) but the album makes it super clear that Gerard was never what made mychem truly special. Like he’s a great lyricist but I feel like without his band mates his work kind of lacked a certain spark.

Like listening to Gerard’s, Mikey’s, and Ray’s solo (or not solo in Mikey’s case) work makes me absolutely foam at the mouth bc it makes me realize that mychem is so special due to the grouping of those specific talented individuals and the conflict between their artistic styles. Like I genuinely feel that Electric Century and Ray’s work are both ultimately forgettable even though Ray in particular is a musical genius. I just feel that his strength, like Gerard’s, lies in collaboration and really elevated mcr.

Frank is the only one who I feel was able to consistently make music that’s special and that’s why it drives me so crazy when ppl minimize him. I really feel that he’s the only one who can make great music on his own.

Maybe that’s just personal taste though lol

ahhh omg. i dont want to put anyone else down and genuinely i dont feel like ive listened to any of the other solo stuff enough to like have a real opinion on it. but the REASON THat that is the case is bc it doesnt like stand out to me when i DO listen to it. its like just okay.

and i have said this before and you did too and a lot of people have said it, but the main thing that makes mcr so special is the like. the sum of its parts. the reason they cant be recreated is bc they all have such varying musical backgrounds that they bring to the table that most people wouldnt consider bringing together, like most bands are like. 5 guys who listen to pop punk decide to form a pop punk band. you know???? most ppl are not combining the power of metal, brit pop, emo, punk, hardcore, etc into one band. so therein lies what is so special about mcr.

and like it makes sense that since theyre all coming from different musical perspectives that none of their solo music would sound like mcr. that would be weird. they all have thier own musical identity which is awesome.

but its true that, to me, frank is the only one who makes music by himself that is something i want to consistently listen to. but i have to say that i think that may be a matter of fids (not diagnosing you) and like. just personal musical preference. bc i know a lot of people who love gerard solo stuff who havent listened to franks or dont really like it. which i can respect.

so yea i do think its a matter of preference, BUT i also completely feel that its true that their strength lies in that specific collaboration of minds. no matter how much i LOVE franks music it will never belogn in comparison to mcr to me.

[itsclydebitches]

Hi! I was just watching good omens and I came up with some questions, but I didn't know whom to ask, so I was digging around for go analysis blogs and found you. *takes a breath* So, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on why Heaven's camera angles are the way they are. I noticed that, in heaven, the camera tends to focus on the characters' heads specifically, so they fill most of the screen. Either it's a meta reason or a reference to something (like Newt with the Office) that I'm not getting. That's the main thing, but I've also wondered why exactly Aziraphale uses the verb "fraternize" in the 19th century. It seemed an odd pivot from caring about Crowley's safety to Heaven's rules. Thanks so much!

Hello! Omg yes, let's talk Good Omens cinematography.

First, the obligatory Analysis Disclaimer: I doubt there's a specific interpretation that you're just not getting, some singular, "correct" reading of the scene(s). Two years past release, I'm positive the fandom as a whole has come up with plenty of ideas (I mostly hang on the periphery. I'm far from up to date with GO meta), but any and all of it will, by nature, be subjective. Thus, all I can offer is my own, personal interpretation.

So for me? It's about intimacy.

Not intimacy in the sense of friendship, but rather the broad idea of closeness. Confidentiality. Emotion. Knowledge. Understanding by means of literally getting into the thick of these conversations. I love the camerawork in Heaven (and elsewhere) because the camera itself acts like a person — an additional party to these interactions. And, since we're the ones watching this show via the camera, it makes it feel as if we're peeking into scenes that are otherwise private. Obviously all cinematography does this to a certain extent, the camera is always watching someone or something without acknowledging that we're doing the watching (outside of documentary-esque filmmaking), but GO uses angles and closeups to mimic another person observing these scenes, someone other than the characters involved.

The easiest example I can give here is when Michael makes their call to Ligur. Here, the camera is positioned up on the next landing of the staircase, as if we're sneaking a look down at this otherwise secret call. There's even a moment when the camera pans to the right to look at them through the gap in the railing, briefly obscuring Michael from our view.

Here, a standard expectation of any scene — keep your character in focus — is done away with to instead mimic the movements of someone actually hiding in the stairwell, listening in on the conversation. It creates that feeling of intimacy, as if we're really there with Michael, not just watching Michael through a screen. The camerawork acts like a person overhearing an illicit conversation prior to falling back on mid/closeup shots. We're spying on them.

To give a non-Heaven example, the camera helps us connect with Aziraphale during Gabriel's jogging scene. It's hard to show through screenshots, but if you re-watch you'll see that the camera initially keeps them both in the frame with full body shots, allowing us to compare things like Gabriel's unadorned gray workout clothes with Aziraphale's more stylish outfit; one's good jogging form and the other's awkward shuffle. However, this distance also creates the sense that we're jogging with them, we're keeping pace.

That is, until Aziraphale begins to lag. Then the camera lags too, giving them both the chance to catch up, so to speak.

Until, finally, Aziraphale has to stop completely and the camera, of course, stops with him. We're emotionally attuned to Aziraphale, not Gabriel, and the camerawork reflects that. Even more-so when we cut to a low shot of Gabriel's annoyed huff at having to stop at all, making him appear larger and more imposing. Because to Aziraphale, he is.

This work carries over into Heaven's other scenes. The closeups are pretty much a given since, whether it's Gabriel realizing Aziraphale has been "fraternizing" with Crowley (more on that below!), or Aziraphale choosing to go back to Earth, the scenes in Heaven are incredibly important to the narrative. Closeups allow the viewer to get a good read on each character's emotional state — focusing on minute facial changes as opposed to overall body language — and that fly-on-the-wall feeling is increased as we literally get an up close and personal look at these pivotal moments.

Compare a shot like this one of Gabriel to the line of angels ready for battle. We don't get closeups on any of their faces because their emotions aren't important. Yes, that's in part because they're background characters, not main characters, but a lack of emotion — their willingness to enter this war without question — is also the point of their presence in this scene. So they remain a semi-identical, nearly faceless mass that runs off into infinity down that hallway, not any individual whose inner life we get a peek at via a closeup.

I particularly like Aziraphale's conversation with the angel... general? Idk what to call this guy. He's just gonna be Mustache Angel. But, getting back on track, his scene has a lot of over the shoulder shots which, admittedly, are pretty common. From a practical perspective they're used to help the audience situate both characters in the scene — you're here, you're there, this is how you're spaced during this conversation — but it can also help emphasize that closeness between them. Keeping both characters in the shot connects them and though Aziraphale and Mustache Angel definitely aren't on the same page here, those shots help cue us in to the unwanted intimacy of this moment. They're both angels... even though Aziraphale no longer aligns himself with them. They're both soldiers in a war... but Aziraphale will not fight. This angel has a list of Aziraphale's secrets, including that he once had a flaming sword and lost it... but Aziraphale doesn't want to admit those circumstances to him. This angel wouldn't understand, even if he did. Intimacy here, connection and closeness, is something discomforting because Aziraphale can no longer embrace those similarities. They put him (and us) out of sorts, so when we get them both in frame, that connection creates tension, not relief.

And many of those over the shoulder shots are given sharp angels, or the camera is placed too close to the "off screen" party. Compare a shot like Luke and Rey to Aziraphale and Mustache Angel. Here, Luke is a clean, solid line on the left side of the screen, just enough there to cue us in to where he is in relationship to Ray, In contrast, Mustache Angel's mustache is Too Close and proves rather distracting. Rey and Luke are connecting here over being Jedi with responsibilities to uphold (or at least, Luke will acknowledge that connection later lol); Mustache Angel is forcing a connection with Aziraphale that makes everyone uncomfortable.

We are too close to him here. He feels too close to Aziraphale too. This whole conversation is upsetting and discomforting, pushing Aziraphale to finally choose which side he's on (his own with Crowley). The shots aren't meant to subtly keep the audience from getting lost and then otherwise be unobtrusive, we're supposed to be Very Aware of this angel's body and how close he's getting to the character we've come to identify with — both literally (he's leaning in) and in terms of forcing Aziraphale to finally make his choice.

When Mustache Angel marches forward and gets all up in Aziraphale's face, the camera positions itself behind Aziraphale in a way that makes it feel like we're hiding behind him, with Aziraphale taking up far more of the screen than Luke does. Like the scene with Michael or running with Gabriel, the camera often likes to mimic a "realistic" response to these events. This angry, shouty angel is getting closer, best take a step back and stay out of sight behind Aziraphale, holding his ground.

These closeups also serve as a nice contrast to the wide and longshots we get of Heaven. It's an imposing place with skyscrapers in the distance, lots of steel, immaculate floors, and endless white. It's overwhelming and it's cold. But then we cut to those mid-shots of Gabriel and Michael, telling us that they're in control of it all.

Aziraphale? Aziraphale is not in control. Not now, anyway. When he appears in Heaven we get a longshot to show off this endless void and he's just another, tiny speck in it. If he weren't flailing around — an acting move that likewise helps sell how out of his depth he is — it's unlikely you'd even notice him. Aziraphale's clothing and hair blends in perfectly with the background. He's forgettable. Easily overlooked. Someone to underestimate. And when he moves, he has to come to the camera. We don't cut to Aziraphale to establish control like we do with Gabriel. He's left to awkwardly shuffle up to Mustache Angel until he's finally come into view.

Yet when Aziraphale makes his decision, he aligns himself with the brightest, most colorful, most interesting thing in the room: Earth. Earth, with all its messy individuality, is the antithesis to Heaven's controlled uniformity and a bright blue orb hanging in the midst of all this white helps remind us of that. Aziraphale rejects becoming one of the identical soldiers and instead literally reaches out for the one thing in Heaven that doesn't fit in.

When he leaves, we get an extreme closeup for the first time. Mustache Angel is pissed and as such we not only get a good look at his face in the aftermath of Aziraphale's choice, but that extreme closeup on his mouth as he's shouting too. It's like he's shouting directly at us, the viewer who is currently cheering on Aziraphale's decision. There's a war, dammit... but we don't care. Not in the way he cares, anyway.

So there's a lot! And I could probably go on, but apparently I'm only allowed to add 10 images per post now (tumblr what the actual fuck if anyone knows a way around this please share!) and I've already had to merge a bunch of images like an animal. So let's awkwardly finish up with the duck pond scene.

...without a GIF because they apparently count as images too 🙃

Simply put, I don't think Aziraphale bringing up fraternizing is a pivot from one to the other — from caring about Crowley to caring about Heaven's rules. I mean yes, Aziraphale is lagging behind Crowley in terms of rebellion and a part of him is, at this point, absolutely concerned with how he'll come across to the higherups, but that worry doesn't stem solely from a (now very shaky) desire to obey for the sake of obeying. The thing is, Aziraphale's disobedience is, by default, also Crowley's disobedience. If they're friends and they're ever found out, they'll both get in trouble. Which, we know from the end of Season One, basically means being wiped from existence. That's horrifying! And it's a horror that threatens them both. I don't think Aziraphale cares about rules for the sake of rules; after all, he started off by giving away his sword, lying to God, is currently meeting with Crowley anyway... this angel has always ignored/bent the rules — established and implied — that don't suit him. Rather, he cares about the rules if he thinks they have a chance of being enforced. If there will be consequences for breaking and bending them. This is still about caring for Crowley (as well as saving his own, angelic skin). If they're found out, Crowley dies. And, as we the viewer learn, Heaven was indeed observing them that whole time. There was always legitimate risk attached to this relationship. Aziraphale's fear, hesitance, and at times forceful pleas to stop this stem as much from Aziraphale worrying about Crowley's safety as they do a learned instinct to obey the rules without question. He pushes to end the relationship because the relationship threatens the only thing Aziraphale cares about more than that: Crowley himself.

As for the term "fraternizing," that's a loaded one! I won't go into a whole history lesson here, but suffice to say it has military roots: to sympathize as brothers with an opponent. That is literally what Crowley and Aziraphale are doing. They are an angel and a demon, supposedly innate enemies, supposedly poised for an inevitable war... yet they've formed an incredibly strong kinship. They've both learned to love their enemy, the thing every army fears because, well, then your army won't fight (just as Aziraphale won't). However, beyond the enemy implications, "to fraternize" eventually took on a sexual meaning: to not merely love as a brother, but to lay with the enemy too, usually women from enemy countries (because, you know, heteronormativity). Nowadays, "to fraternize" often implies a sexual component. I've been rewatching The Good Wife lately and in one subplot, the State's Attorney cracks down on fraternization in his office. He doesn't mean his employees are forming bonds with assumed enemies, he means his employees are having sex on his office couch. So Aziraphale's phrasing here carries a LOT of weight. He's both reminding Crowley of their stations in the world — you are a demon, I am an angel, us meeting like this can have formal, irrevocable consequences for us both — as well as, given the fact that this is a love story, drawing attention to the depth of this relationship. They love one another, as more than just friends. Though whether Crowley's scathing "Fraternizing?" is a response to Aziraphale falling back on the technicalities of their positions, or acknowledging a love he's yet to overtly admit and commit to — or both! — is definitely up for debate.

[watanabes-cum-dump]

Rating Genshin character designs pt.1

I am by no means a professional character designer, hell I’m not even a professional artist (I’m self taught) but I just really wanna do this become Genshin Impact is home to some of my favourite character designs and some that I fucking hate. So let’s get into them 

Jean

I fucking hate it

Don’t get me wrong, I love Jean, she carries my fucking team and I’ve maxed out my friendship with her. She’s a great character and has a great presence in the story, I can see why a lot of characters respect her, and I really hope to see more of her. 

But what the fuck is this design???

Basic blonde bitch face, I don’t even fucking know what’s going on with her outfit. I just really really really REALLY hate her tights. I don’t know why, but I have a vendetta against tights. Maybe it’s because I grew up in BC where girls consider tights to be fashionable, but I fucking hate tights. White tights especially since more often than not they’re transparent. 

I don’t know what it is, but I just don’t vibe with the colour scheme, ya feel me? There’s a rule with character design that I learned, which is have one main colour, and then have a secondary colour, and then have other colours that support those two colours. Jean is like... I can’t tell is her main colour is white or blue. The colour placement is sort of all over the place. 

Jean is just basic and it just doesn’t stand out when you compare her to the other characters. I just feel like she should look better than this, she’s the acting grandmaster of the knights for crying out loud, and yet she looks like a generic background character. 

She looks like Saber from the Fate series, I feel like she’s just so plain and there wasn’t really anything put into her design. Her in game model looks a bit better but it’s still kinda ‘meh.’

Like what does this outfit tell you about the character? Nothing! She doesn’t look like a powerful figure, you can’t tell she’s gentle and graceful, it doesn’t tell you that she’s a leader or tells you about how she carries herself. All her design says is “Hi I’m disposable blonde with a sword no. 235″ 

With all of the negatives, I do have to say that her design does a good job of directing you to look at her face. The colar and the way her hair frames her face is great but then again, her face isn’t much to look at. 

Kaeya

Ok, we have so much to unpack here because I LOVE Kaeya’s design

I mean look at him! Right away you can tell what he’s like! He screams shady, flirty, and eccentric! 

One qualm I do have is that he looks more like a pirate than a knight, with the fur, buckles, and details, but I guess that’s fine. At least he doesn’t look basic or forgettable. And the design is a bit confusing but even then it still tells you a lot about him. 

The colour placement is smart and he looks very cohesive and put together, nothing looks out of place. Kaeya’s tanned skin contrasts the cooler values perfectly and I’m honestly sad that we don’t get to see him too much. 

It’s really a shame Kaeya isn’t more important and that Mihoyo doesn’t promote him the way they do the other characters (Noelle, Diluc, Zhongli, Xiangling and Fischl) He’s even overlooked by the community which is kind of sad. 

Real talk though he kind of reminds me of Sinbad from Magi. Maybe not the same level of himbo energy, but the whole shady, manipulative, womanizer that pretends to be good thing is there. 

But yeah, Kaeya’s design is great and I love him so much plz give him more screen time-

Albedo 

They really did my boy dirty. Seriously, he looks so fucking fine in all of his art, but then you have his in game model and he looks all greasy and weird. Someone said that Albedo with the adult male model would have worked better and honestly I agree. 

But anyways! Let’s talk design!

Albedo’s colour scheme is simple but works well together, he very much looks like someone who works in a lab with his long white coat, but other than that he looks like a swordsman. It works really well for him since he is a captain in the knights of favonious as well as an alchemist. 

That’s all well and good, it tells you his occupation but it doesn’t really tell you about his personality. Like if I were to show you this guy without any context, you’d assume he’s kind and gentle soul. Which is kind of true (depends on who he’s interacting with) but we know Albedo to be analytical and sort of brisk and cold. Not cruel by any means, but he’s not very nice and gentle either. 

Overall very nice, I like it a lot, I really wanna have a coat like that, 7/10 solid design. 

Diluc

It’s... it’s kinda meh. Is he hot? Absolutely he’s smoldering, but I just... I don’t know. You can tell that he’s rich and all of that since he’s sort of wearing a suit, but that’s it. I also really hate that they didn’t give him coattails, I think coattails would have carried this rich untouchable vibe better. The weird fur is just kind of tacky. 

I feel like giving his outfit more red would help him immensely, I’m not digging the white, it’s just there. For no reason. I guess it helps to break up all the black, but giving him a red vest would have easily done the same thing while staying true to him. He has red on his gloves, why not put a bit more on his body?

I guess my point is more red accents would do him good. Diluc is recognizable, but it’s mostly thanks to his hair. If I gave him a different outfit with the same colours it wouldn’t really change much. He lacks things like like Kaeya’s details or Albedo’s coat that make him really memorable. You could have a character who looks different, but I think to be truly memorable it’s gotta sell the character and suit them. 

Overall, his design is sort of overrated in my opinion.

Ningguang 

Ok ok queen alert I love her so much. Ningguang doesn’t just look hot her design sells her so well I love her. 

You can tell that she’s ruch, elegant, and powerful. The white, gold and black just go so well together and the way it’s placed is just aaaaahhhhh she’s so pretty what the hell. I strive to make a character that looks this good. 

I just have no idea what’s going on with her shorts. That’s like my only complaint. Just give her regular booty shorts? Like Beidou’s? You don’t need the diamonds, if you wanted them you could make it like a pattern. 

But other than that she really looks like she rules a country. She’s just so pretty omg. 

Design aside, Ningguang deserved to be a five star, she’s so strong like there’s a guy who’s Ningguang can so 29k per crystal with her ult. Ningguang has such a strong presence within the game compared to Kequing and Ganyu who are just sort of there. Ningguang is one of the few characters who get a 10/10 in performance, design, and character wise. I love her. 

Beidou

Another queen. I am so whipped for Beidou and Ningguang guys it’s not even funny-

Anyways I love Beidou so much, I love her dress her colour scheme, she’s just so cool. The black and red is consistent and well placed unlike SOME OTHER CHARACTER. 

You can tell that she’s a pirate, that she’s a strong warrior and idk why but she just screams laid back lesbian aunt. Those are the vibes I get from her. I love her. You can’t tell in this image, but she has anchors on the back of her gloves and it’s a really nice touch that adds to her as a pirate. 

The hairstyle, her outfit, the eye patch, Beidou is just iconic and so easy to recognize. I remember not knowing anything about Genshin impact but I saw some advertisements for it and Beidou’s design really stuck with me because I recognized her when I got her. 

Another one of the few who get a 10/10 in all aspects. Love her, and I can’t wait to set sail for Inazuma with her.

[praphit]

Spider-Man NWH: “Oops” (no spoilers)

I like Tom Holland a lot. I love him as Spider-Man! 

I mean, he looks like someone who'd be a good friend... or someone you'd like to beat up and shove into a locker... I'm conflicted; perhaps both... a delightful, complicated friendship is what he looks like. But, he seems charming. He's adorable as he keeps trying to be an action hero. 

And who isn't on team "Tomdaya"?? 

(ZenHolland?) idk. Like I said, I love his Spider-man, but that dude is always getting into trouble.

No Avenger has bleeped-up more than Peter Parker (well, except for maybe Iron-Man).

Though I will say, that normally he's bleeping up cuz he's trying to do the right thing. While other times he bleeps up simply because he's a kid. This time around, he botched a super-villain-ass-beating by allowing the villain to reveal his secret identity (in the last movie).

You wouldn't think it's that big of a deal, being that everyone knows who all the Avengers are... they're all kind of attention-whores.

 It's not just the sharing of the identity, but the poses, the press conferences, and when there isn’t a crisis around, they just create them. 

But, with Peter, it seems like he could have just denied that he's Spider-Man, right?. People with mountains of hard evidence against them deny it all of the time. I don't think they even have any pics/vids of Spider-Man. But, sure, let's all take the word of a dude with a fish bowl on his head.

And with his identity revealed, there are all kinds of issues that arise: the media demonized him, the media politicized him (root for him and you're a "snowflake", we need more guns on the streets to take these vigilantes down), the fans made things awkward for him (especially at school), plus there’s always TMZ, and there were probably nude leaks or something... cuz why not?? - and most importantly, his family and friends were put in danger. When most people get stressed they turn to binge-eating, or binge-drinking, or  binge-watching, or hit up their weed guy/gal. Peter on the other hand has a "magic guy" in Dr. Strange. 

And if you've seen the trailer, then you know that there's a spell cast to make everyone forget that Peter is Spider-Man, and that Peter screws it up. This isn't your typical "oops, I destroyed some property" or "oops, I missed with my webbing, and hit a kid in the eye, and now there's a lawsuit against me." this was "oops, I cracked open other dimensions, and now villains from those worlds are after me."

From this point forward, we're pretty much going down memory lane (past Spidey movies). They kinda used this as a way to correct mistakes.

Jamie Foxx's "Electro" is here , 

but this time his character isn't lame, and HE'S NOT BLUE!

The Lizard makes an appearance... meh. 

They can’t fix the bad cgi/design job of that movie he was in.

  They start to get into some mental health/illness issues with all of them, but especially Doctor Octopus and The Green Goblin. Though most of our mental health's would be poor if we turned ourselves into some sort of monster.

Speaking of The Green Goblin, Willem Dafoe is great! By great I mean creepy AF (as he should be). Age has not made him lose any creepiness at all.

Oh, and there was a Sand Guy, but he was forgettable. 

You might as well of had James Franco up in there. I would love James Franco to simply play himself. How to fix THAT guy, there's a real challenge.

And it's at this point when the movie becomes a video game. Spidey has to track villains down and try to set things right. I don't necessarily mean it's a video game in a bad way. It's exciting, but it feels like you're going through levels without much character development. If I had any complaints about this movie, this would be it. Also, there's a minor mental health bend to the story. Peter is trying as hard as he can to "cure" these villains. So, it's kinda one more movie where a mental illness equals being a villain or a burden. We just need to lock you up, until we can find a serum to make it all better. I wish! - though if there was a shot to be taken to cure bipolar, dementia, etc etc... people probably wouldn't take it. All that being said, this is just a movie; a comic book one at that, so I will not take any points away.

This movie is a exceptionally enjoyable:  the Spidey-Action that’s still creative after like 20 movies, the CGI is better than it’s ever been (except for Lizard :), Dr. Strange scenes making us salivate for "The Multiverse of Madness". If you've watched all of the Spider-Man films up to this point, I can't see how you wouldn't love this. It’s a shower of fan-appreciation and easter eggs. The problem is, if you haven't done your Spidey-homework... you might be a lil lost. They play all of the emotionally high hits of every Spidey movie ( and I mean that in the best way).

They also play the emotionally low hits of every Spidey movie, and it's very good, but sad... (I also mean this in the best way).

(I’m don’t remember which scene or movie this gif is from. He looks like he’s watching Zendaya cheat on him.)

Holland be acting his ass off towards the end of the film. You can really see how Peter has grown and how he will grow for future movies. I even had to fight back a half a tear or two, cuz I sure as hell ain't crying in no Spider-flick. But, the stakes are real.

Ok, so... I lied.

Slight spoiler...

VERY SLIGHT...

VERY VERY SLIGHT...

Seriously, you should know this by now, I sure did, going in...

The Spider-men from the other films DO appear, and with each appearance, the audience I was with went crazy! That's all I'll say.. other than I would LOVE a "Spider-bros movie! Their chemistry is adorable.

Grade: A

[yarrowleef]

Started thinking about this as I’m slowly rereading the first series, but I think more people who are doing rewrites of the first series should think about cutting out Redtail completely and just replacing him with Lionheart.

I know a lot of people cringe at the idea of cutting any character because warrior cats are like pokemon, doesn’t matter how forgettable or pointless they are individually, every one is still SOMEONE’S favorite for some obscure reason or another. And I know Redtail became a fan favorite for many because....idk actually, cause he’s pretty??? maybe just b/c he’s inherently nostalgic due to his death kicking off Tigerclaw’s murder-journey? it’s not like he’s got much canon personality. but imo if you don’t have some specific fixation on Redtail for personal reasons, the story would be better off just combining him into Lionheart

As I’m going through Fire and Ice, I can’t help but feel like this focus on Fireheart wanting to solve the deputies death would feel more personal and impactful if we actually...knew who he was. Redtail had no canon presence for years, we just have to HEAR over and over that he was a great and noble guy and his death was a tragedy and that second hand info alone is driving Fireheart. But Lionheart, Fireheart knew him, he was one of the first cats he met, he helped welcome him to the clan, he was his best friends mentor etc. His wrongful death has reason to actually stick in his mind and trouble him so much.

And its so anticlimactic that through the murder-mystery part of the books, its driven in over and over how awful it is that Tigerclaw murdered the deputy so he could take his place! but then........the deputy he replaced isn’t even the one that he murdered?? honestly its so weird looking back on it that they just shoved an in-between deputy, kind of takes the grandiosity away from the act because lmao it didn’t even WORK. You’d think he’d only do a murder when he was sure no one would be chosen over him, but then he just. Wasn’t chosen. Didn’t do anythign to secure it apparently lol. 

But the story still repeats over and over that Tigerclaw killed the deputy and then took his place. It’s so bizarre that it lead to a whole lot of people misremembering Lionheart’s death and mistakenly think that Tigerclaw had something to do with it, that would make sense after all, but like. He didn’t. He had nothing to do with Lioneart’s death at all, he presumably just sat on his hands fuming that his murder plan didn’t work and then stumbled into the deputy position later on by pure dumb luck that ShadowClan happened to attack and get Lionheart out of the way for him (wow what a master strategist out main villain is). It was such a weird delay that its like. Why was Lionheart even made deputy just to force him to have a pointless completely unrelated death? why did that happen? And why is this deputy’s death, the guy we actually knew and started to form a bit of attachment to, overshadowed for the rest of the series by this Redtail guys death, someone we’ve never met?? 

As i’ve made fun of in the past with my one popular post, it’s SUPER WEIRD that Firepaw’s intro the the clan was interrupted by the death of Redtail, because the story CLEARLY doesn’t actually want to deal with the traumatic death of an important clan member right now, it doesn’t have time to. What needs to be happening right then is “Firepaw is accepted into the clan, shown around camp, introduced to clan life, and he is excited about it” and that’s it. Fighting Longtail is more then enough excitement for that section. Redtail’s death is glossed over and ignored and incredibly awkwardly put in, and  Firepaw doesn’t even have time to notice or care that it happened. A sudden bloody death is very at-odds to the emotions Firepaw is supposed to be feeling right then (how can you be excited after just seeing a dead body for the first time???? seriously, all you 1st series re-writers out there, however you do it PLEASE MOVE THAT SCENE AND HAVE IT HAPPEN AT A DIFFERENT TIME IT’S SO AWKWARD ASDHFBRJHGJRHD)

Anyway, Lionheart should have just been the deputy right off the bat, that 2nd battle with RiverClan should have happened a little after Firepaw joined, and it should have been Lionheart murdered by Tigerclaw so Tigerclaw’s evil plan could *actually succeed* and he can immediately take his place as deputy. Fireheart has more personal stakes in avenging the murder (and so does the reader), and his first exposure to death is more impactful for him because he knew who they were.

Also I just think Lionheart is cooler and I wish he got the attention Nobody-tail gets now instead of having a pointless overshadowed death in-between them. Redtail stans don’t come for me

Idk what the point to this long post was, I just felt like rambling about unimportant topics this morning b/c i’m procrastinating doing work.

[fandom-imagination-ss]

AMERICAN HORROR STORIES!!

A Review of all Seven episodes so Far..

YES I WILL BE shitt talking this series. If it's your Jam then please ignore this. You do you boo

1 and 2 of rubber (wo) man

Honestly I say this with kindness.. if you watched the first season of American horror story's." Muder house" you seen the first 2 epsiode of this new series. Same Plot different actors. With Gays dashed in.

For a house full of Dead people only 2 people from the orginal season was there.. for a total of 10 seconds

I disliked it 3/ 10

3) Drive in

Honestly... I forget it. A movie makes you go crazy and on a murder rampage.. I..... I can't say anything positive about it

?/10 it's so forgettable I can't even judge it

4) the naughty list

OKAY! hear me out! I actually enjoyed it. You can't tell me they weren't mocking Jake Paul/ Logan Paul! Because the influencer group screamed of Jake Paul Espically when he filmed someone Sucide ( or dead body.... maybe that was Logan.. Idk the brothers that well)) But also seeing Artie ( the guy who played Artie in Glee) was a treat so 9/10 I would watch it again!!

5) Ba'AL

10/ 10 this is what American horror story is!! It was suspenseful!, Gasping , and that twist. At the end! Perfection! ANYTHING WITH Billie Lourd is good! BUT THIS bad Ass gal dealt with having depression after having her baby and Survived her Dick of a husband and got herself perfect revenge! PERFECTION!

6) Feral

It gave me Roanoke feels. And as a person who is suppose too go camping next weekend got me spooked. That being said.. it was AGAIN so so. Cody was good.. he should of been the lead .... the kid being the "king" of the human eating ppl made no sense or how he became one or Anything.. i also don't understand how his jaw was like that.... 4/10

7) Game over

😑 this episode Annoyed me!!

It was great too see old characters even if it was in a game

But how dare they mention Tate 4 times without showing us him!!! Dick move

The girl still being in love with the dead girl from her teenage years is werid... and where were her dads? I missed them?

Having the Kid say "mom you don't know the vibe" The writers REALLY PUT THAT IN THE SHOW!! THEY DONT GET THE VIBES!!!! OF THE SHOW THEY ARE WRITING FOR

HAVING THEM BURN DOWN THE MURDER HOUSE.. BUT NOT REALLY BECAUSE IT WAS IN A GAME. WTF?

You know who should of made a appearance?? MORE PEOPLE FROM THE ORGINAL Season of MURDER HOUSE!!

Just.....why are you so focused on murder house??

Too that I say "birches WHERE ARE THE WITCHES!!!" I rather see more of old characters vs making us care for new characters

3/10

.

This show makes me Just so Blah.. I'm not enjoying it but I'm holding out for evan Peter. I have no idea If he is in it but who knows.

This series makes me want too re watch older seasons of American horror story.

The biggest problem with this series is simple. They are trying too make us care for characters we will only know for an hour.. and they are laying Heavy on the Gore too make up for it.

I just.... wanted more for this series. But it's hard to watch.

I'll update this as the show goes on but tell me what you think. Am I being too harsh? Too easy on them??

[edettethegreat]

review of King Lear at the New Spruce Theater

OK OK OK so on Wednesday I went and saw King Lear (I was supposed to go see it on Tuesday but it was canceled because of a storm- how ironic)- and now I shall tell you all about this production

Side Note- I waited a few days too long to write about this and chances are I forgot a bunch of stuff by now- sorry about that

Overall Opinion on the play as a whole:

-Every single actor was incredible and the stage (which was sort of non-existent) was set up/ designed really well. Acting and Stage design (I’d call it set design but there really wasn’t much of a set) gets a 10/10.

-as for the overall stage directions, they were neat most of the time but more noticeably, very unexpected. But that made it better (more on this in the more detailed section of the review). They get a 9/10

-as for what was cut/changed from the original text of the play? Yeah that gets a -3/10. Just. I’ll explain this in a sec but. Ugh. Not happy about the changes.

OK NOW FOR THE MORE DETAILED REVIEW:

(I’m gonna try to go in order of the play, but if I remember more stuff later I’ll add it in at the end)

-The actress playing Cordelia was so pretty I can’t she was gorgeous (all the lear sisters were pretty but specifically the one playing Cordelia

-ALSO Cordelia was 100% ready to punch something the whole time

-and the tone she said her lines in 100% conveyed “oh wow dad I can’t believe you’re actually doing something this stupid Wow you can’t be serious. Oh OH HECK YOU’RE SERIOUS”

-at the opposite end of the acting spectrum, the actor who played Gloucester was apparently so forgettable that I can’t picture any scenes he was in. I just don’t remember A single thing he did. I mean I know logically the story of King Lear but I just can’t picture this guy. I’m trying to remember what he looked like and I just can’t.

-in 1.2 when Edmund’s totally trying to hind the letter, he blatantly drops it in front of Gloucester, and then tries to pick it up and drops it again before putting it in his pocket

-OH WAIT before I forget let me mention the doublecasting! SO France and Edgar were played by the same guy, Albany and Oswald were played by the same guy, and Cordelia and Servant 2 were played by the same person. Then any random messengers or whatever were played by the same background actor. And The Gentleman was cut entirely. 

-Regan and Cornwall were 100% a great ship here- every time they were together it was clear they loved each other- they were normally holding hands or something. On the other hand Goneril and Albany never stood as close together as Regan and Cornwall did.

-Kent’s insult to Oswald was delivered entirely like this and that made it 10x funnier

-AND OSWALD. Let me just say. He was the #1 best actor there. His whole thing in this performance was that he’s absolutely terrified of everyone. In his fight with Kent he has a regular sword and Kent has a small knife, and Kent just calmly walks up to him and knocks the sword out of his hand. And Oswald backs away and covers his head/face in self defense as Kent continues approaching him, and Kent just calmly hands Oswald his sword back, which he eventually takes. AND STILL LOSES THE FIGHT. 

-just. Comedy. 

-and in Oswald VS Edgar, Edgar was unarmed and Oswald had his sword, and Edgar just kinda grabbed the sword from him and stabbed him.

-WAIT I STILL DIDN’T MENTION THE BEST FIGHT. Edmund vs Edgar round 1 (ie the fake fight Edmund has them do for Gloucester to overhear). Edmund’s all like “draw! seem to defend yourself!” And Edgar has no idea what’s going on so he kinda motions “wait what?”. Edmund doesn’t have the patients for that so he grabs a second sword and sword fights himself while Edgar’s just standing there. 

-and now let me mention The Fool

-who used his ukulele for comedic effects (idk how to phrase that, but what I mean is he’d do the ukulele equivalent of the drum’s ba dum tss whenever something funny happened)

-OH ALSO they would break the forth wall every five seconds

-best example of it was when Kent was like “I have seen better faces in my time”, he made a big show of examining the audience

-ALSO. at the end when Albany was accusing Edmund of treason and all that, Edmund went “oh yeah? You wanna see treason? I’ll show you treason!” And started making out with Goneril right in front of him. So. Good for him.

-when Cordelia was about to be lead away to prison she punched the guard in the stomach and tried to get away. So. VERY good for her.

- NOW ONTO THE STUFF I DON’T LIKE THAT THEY CHANGED

-they cut Curan

-they cut Edmund’s opening lines in act 5 (where he says something like “hey has Albany made up his mind yet about the battle plans? Because he keeps changing his mind and it’s annoying”). Yeah this is a pretty minor complaint, but I always felt like that line sort of establishes him as a person leading the war, and therefore makes the whole argument with Albany in 5.3 make more sense.

-also they changed Cornwall and Regan VS Servant 1, by having Cornwall stab servant 1, Servant 1 fake dead, Cornwall turns around to talk to Regan or something, Servant 1 gets up and grabs the knife and stabs Cornwall, they both die. Which takes away Regan’s only kill. 

-and earlier in that same scene Cornwall did the whole “I’m gonna kiss you so you shut up for a bit” thing, which was fine but combined with taking away Regan’s only kill it made Regan come across as meeker than I would have liked.

-AND ONTO THE ABSOLUTE WORST CHANGE THEY MADE- 

-in 5.3 when Edgar shows up to fight Edmund and before the fight they ask him “who are you”, he’s like “yeah I’m Edgar I’m here to fight Edmund, my brother.” And then they fight. And they cut all of Edmund and Edgar’s conversation afterward because it’s all irrelevant now that everyone including Edmund knew it was Edgar from the start. 

Ok yeah I think that’s it (unless I come back and edit this later)