#lol what happened to me??? what kind of bullshittery

[definitelynotwinter]

Truly wish I could post the submission but Tumblr won't let me?? Did I even have that picture posted on Tumblr I'm sure I did years ago🤔🤔🤔

[emerynn]

MAX 🥺🥺🥺

(double exposure spoilers under the cut)

I knew episode 5 was gonna be a nightmare sequence but i still ate that shit up what can i say it's fanservice and im the fan lol

genuinely did get a bit emotional at the end like okay im HAPPY FOR HER

post credits scene was wild?? Not sure how I feel about them just handing out super powers like halloween candy but...okay? and MAX CAULFIELD WILL RETURN HELLO ???? part of me is sceptical and part of me is like yay more max hehe (fanserive, fan, etc.) - either way, guess im gonna be insufferable for a while then whoops

'will you ever go back to arcadia bay' 'one day' 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺girl i'll cry

lowkey the journal entries were nerfed. i mean i dont really care but still.

amanda max flirting scenes gave me major flashbacks to my own lesbian situationship so 10/10 points for accuracy on that one

i really enjoyed all the characters ngl!! and safi was so good and so intriguing i love that they let her be morally dubious oooo

'our lady of the storm' iconic. shes my fucking GIRL.

okay but is safi creating the lis avengers. like what is her plan. im concerned

how many endings were there because i strongly suspect there might have just been one and if that's the case that's hilarious but also like, come on

they kinda baited me with the "two maxes" bit at that one point i was like YES time travel bullshittery and max being a bitch to her alternate self EXACTLY WHAT I ASKED FOR and then i figured out the twist like 10 seconds before it was revealed and i was like well thats cool but.....i just wanna see max bully herself is that too much to ask for.....

'text from: chloe' like okay my heart did skip a beat lbr

okay so did max actually kill safi or what because that was never clear. like i think the polaroids were from the original timeline and then max shoots safi in that timeline leading to timeline 2 which is OUR original timeline i.e. the dead timeline and then...the living one happens asw? or was it like a pre-emptive timeline split did max ever actually shoot safi? i mean someone had to right? maybe this will make sense in the morning. or on the wiki. who can say

knew there was gonna be darkroom shit in the nightmare sequence fuck yeah (lowkey wanted more but hey im just being greedy now)

another tiny criticism but the krampus party did not feel like a college party lol like the vortex club end of the world party felt intense it felt dramatic it had stakes - krampus i was like oh this is giving me dead freshers week vibes guys just animate in some more extras please i know you can do it

music was amazing ofc

man i had this whole theory going on where max died in the "living" timeline at the same point that safi died in the "dead" timeline and that was why there was no alternate version of herself and it was some safis trying to save max while max is trying to save safi thing - obviously very wrong but i still vibe with it

i just really like max okay <3

To form something of a coherent conclusion: Really solid game, with some great scenes (the end of chapter 2 and start of 3 were def the standouts to me) and (in my opinion at least) really really good development for max - she was so clearly the same max as the original game but also she's grown up and she's grown into herself and ahhh it made me so happy to see!

I found some of the twists more effective than others and I think there could have been more build up to the storm (like in the original lis you KNOW it's coming for so long and there's this feeling of dread throughout whereas it kind of felt like we rushed to get to it here), but overall i had a good time, i really enjoyed getting to know the characters, and most of all, i really enjoyed getting stupidly attached to Max Caulfield again <3

7/10 looking forward to going down the rabbit hole with this one and i guess we'll see where we go next...??

[doctor-badadvice]

We interrupt this blog's regularly scheduled bullshittery to bring you a rant/review. It goes without saying, this will be a long post.

I'm not usually the type to brush off older media, even when said shows, games and whatnot haven't received any attention by the copyright holders in decades, or even when said attention finally comes and it's horrible to say the least or just not my taste. A huge exception to this rule was GI Joe and the reason is very simple: pretty much everyone agrees that it's not very good.

The cartoons are not so subtle toys commercials and there are a lot of characters on both sides sometimes showing up for maybe a handful of episodes at best. Something has to be very good for me to commit to learning that many names. And Quick Kick making me forget how laughing feels like had the potential to scare me off.

But it turns out that for this many goodie goodie guys, there's an array of villains that are actually fun, most of the time. So here I am, many hours later, ready to rank all (animated) GI Joe iterations. For this I will consider the Joes and Cobra as groups, as well as the show as a whole. This is of course subjective.

Sigma 6: This is the first show I watched because it was shorter than the Sunbow show. It feels like an early 2000s commercial and this weird anime twist they gave it doesn't work well mosts of the time. Some of the designs are really cool, the pacing is ok but they are a little confused as to what they're going for. Sigma is big, loud and cool. Every guy, gun and battleship is huge. The stakes are high and there are big explosions, but they go from making it a big deal when they blow up one Cobra ship in one episode to it being a background thing achieved with any guns later on. The show could have worked better as a Transformers show. They already have a mandatory useless kid and CC is a bad Megatron anyway. Tunnel Rat is a terrible Larry Butz wannabe and I wish he didn't exist in this show. Whenever there's ninjas on the screen, you can't look away, but Zartan and the Dreadnoks are the only part I'd salvage from this show. The rest is truly eh.

Sunbow show & Serpentor: You can never beat the classics, they say. You definitely can't beat the convoluted process you have to go through to watch this show. There are two mini series of 5 episodes each which are very good. They establish the characters well on both sides and can easily be rewatched back to back whenever. The syndicated show has its ups and downs but overall is enjoyable if you have a way to keep busy during the fighting scenes with all the cool military equipment available at your local toy store. The nice thing about these old shows is that you can watch at your own pace. It's a monster of the week, or Cobra scheme of the week kind of deal, there is no pressure in how much time you dedicate to it. Some of the plots are wacky but I personally find them charming and the banter between Cobra members is usually the best part.

Season 2 on the other hand hits different, especially to a Ghostbusters fan. It isn't Q5 levels, but it screams corporate interference and these screams of course come from Serpentor. Season 2 starts from the assumption that it’s a good idea to justify plot twists by saying "it happened off screen lol". You can do this if what you're introducing is really good and Serpentor is not. He's loud, incredibly dumb and doesn't even do what he's supposed to other than be a placeholder to sell a rejected He-Man vehicle. A fool dressed in a snake suit is also terribly out of place in a show about military vs terrorists. One could argue that Mindbender also has no business parading his tits around, but that's the one good thing he does.

Overall, the show remains good (compared to some of what came after) and it has the best version of Cobra. They get up to some wacky stuff but they're funny and iconic.

Renegades: This show isn't ranked this high because of its plot. If you're going to do A-Team, at least make it lighthearted. It tends to be a bit repetitive in its tragedy. All the Joes are introduced as sad and hurt by Cobra, a faceless corporation looking to acquire direct political power through an army of robots and mutants that would fit nicely in a cyberpunk novel. I'm not a fan of "We remade this show with 30% more sad", but this time I actually can't take it seriously because Cobra shares PR departments with Amazon. This show is also the only one to remember that the Crimson Twins exist, so it gets extra points.

That being said, and putting aside that Flint has been turned into a bloody moron here, it probably has the most compelling version of the Joes. It doesn't have Quick Kick, it accomplishes the amazing task of making Tunnel Rat somewhat likable and Scarlett isn't just "girl with gun". What they did to Shipwreck is unforgivable, but the rest is great and I wish it didn't get cancelled before they could develop what they were setting up.

DiC: No. Just no. It's cheap. The designs are horrible. Destro has literally rusted offscreen. CC's outfit makes him look like a discount Starscream. The new characters are awful. There is no point in watching this. It's boring and it makes Filmation's animation look like they had a budget.

Spy Troops: Early 2000s CGI isn't great, but it doesn’t stop people from enjoying shows of the likes of Beast Wars or even this movie. No, the graphics aren't the problem with this movie, there is just very little to it. The Joes are boring, Shipwreck's hat got nerfed and the only notable Cobra effort comes from CC being a bitch boss to everyone. And if that wasn't enough, the movie also doesn't understand that if you're spending resources in animating a ninja fight, at least you should point the camera in a way that lets the audience see what the hell is going on. For this reason, Spy Troops ranks even lower than Sigma 6. There’s nothing to see here.

Valor vs Venom: This movie is good. It isn't perfect, but it works. Mindbender has been nerfed and forced to wear a lab coat, achieving full sim form while CC is constantly yelling at him. But the pacing is ok and the camera isn't drunk and in some spots it almost feels like a Sunbow episode. Destro's design is also very funny which is a plus in my book. I enjoyed it. That’s it.

Resolute: This movie represents everything I despise the most about some reboots. They take a franchise, put many resources in the animation, then make it dark and gritty expecting it to be enjoyable. There's a lot of blood and violence which of course stands out because it's animated blood. But that's for the first five minutes of watch time, then it’s just dull senseless violence. Once again, I can only appreciate CC. His outfit is very similar to Sunbow but he gets to be more than an amiable buffoon in charge of a terrorist organization. He's charismatic and scary. They did a good job but that's about it. There isn't a lot to say about Resolute. It exists.

GI Joe: The Movie (Sunbow): This one is probably raising some questions. I don't like this movie. It relies heavily on off screen action, as well as the audience forgetting what motivations even are. Cobra La is populated by a bunch of idiots who think that a giant maggot is better than an attack helicopter and who honestly believe that "We'll turn everyone into snakes!" is in fact a smart idea. The mind control bs is in fact a bullshit excuse to contextualize a movie that has no real ties with anything happened in the show outside of the Serpentor introduction and CC is written off in such a lazy way it's infuriating.

Why is it then also ranked as perfect? Well, that's because the first five minutes of this movie are actually awesome. They are what the movie should have been; the usual GI Joe but with a bigger budget to pull off actually cool fighting scenes with lots of characters doing their unique thing and a banger of a song on top of it all. Had the movie been all like this, we would be remembering it as the animated movie that succeeded where Transformers couldn't.

I won't be sitting through any of the live action stuff so the tier list ends here. Although, I must add one last entry.

Cold Slither is where GI Joe really peaked. It's a Sunbow episode with all the better characters from both sides and the objectively funniest of the Cobra schemes. Like, honestly. Faced with bankruptcy and the end of Cobra, CC gets a loan in order to put his boyfriend favorite mercenary and his dorky goons in funny outfits to weaponize punk rock and make a whole lot of money to get the organization back on its feet. It's brilliant in its own convoluted way and we know it worked because this happens towards the end of season 1 and we got a whole new season later despite the Joes crashing the concert. The mind control part didn't work out but CC won anyway by turning Zartan into an influencer.

The Cobra La fools could have never thought of such a brilliant plan.

[paladin-lynx]

Go Godot, Yeah!

Author’s Notes: This was inspired by Certified Weirdo’s Ace Attorney mod for Friday Night Funkin’ and a comment about it from a friend of mine that was something akin to, “The thing about the mod is that I can totally imagine Godot going into back alleys and rap battling against other lawyers because he’s just Like That.” And I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, so here we are. Go show Friday Night Funkin’ and Certified Weirdo some love, too! I banged this out when I had some free time during work, lol. I can continue this or other FNF-inspired pieces if people show interest. But for now, enjoy!

Ships Involved: Phoenix Wright x Miles Edgeworth (WrightWorth/NaruMitsu) if you squint

Setting: Non-specific, but I had it in my head that it’s during Trials and Tribulations (AA3) with Miles coming back to America early.

Trigger/Content Warnings: None

CONTAINS VARIOUS SPOILERS FOR ORIGINAL ACE ATTORNEY TRILOGY!

“It’s good to have you back, Miles.”

Miles blinked before hurriedly averting his gaze, clearing his throat. “Yes, well...I suppose it is nice to be back, in some ways.”

Phoenix smiled, able to spot the tinge of pink in Miles’s cheeks. Miles could take praise about his prosecuting skills just fine – he’d even gloat when someone commented on how talented he was – but when it came to something softer and more sentimental like this, he without a doubt found himself lost for words. Phoenix couldn’t help finding it kind of adorable, which of course led to him taking any opportunity he could to get Miles to blush.

It had been a while since they’d gotten to simply spend time together, but they both felt too antsy to just sit around and talk. And so they’d agreed to take a walk together and catch up. It had been a while since Miles had mulled around the L.A. streets, but not much had changed. And while their city wasn’t the prettiest or the safest by any means, it was still home. Phoenix knew that Miles felt more at ease overseas with his new responsibilities and with not having to deal with the bullshittery that came with being a lawyer in America, but Phoenix also knew that this would always be home for them. Miles would always have a place – and people – to come back to.

They walked rather aimlessly, having no specific destination in mind, although they’d have to get back to their respective homes eventually. But they soon found themselves at the train station and Phoenix smiled a bit to himself. He had barely left L.A. before becoming a lawyer, but this station was awfully familiar to him now with how often he had to travel to Kurain Village. He remembered when Maya had first left and he’d raced here to catch her before she was gone, making her promise that they’d see each other again. Of course, their reunion after that wasn’t the most ideal with Maya once again ending up behind bars, but now years later Phoenix couldn’t bring himself to be too upset with how things had gone. It just seemed par for the course at this point, and he wasn’t sure which was more concerning: the fact that events like that were so commonplace or the fact that he’d become numb to such things.

“Feeling nostalgic, Wright?”

Phoenix was snapped out of his reverie by Miles’s voice and he blinked at the other man. Miles was giving him a knowing half-smile, quirking an eyebrow, and now it was Phoenix’s turn to blush and look away, out at the tracks. “Maybe a bit. I’ve been coming here a lot lately. If you told me a few years ago that I’d be making regular pilgrimages to a village of spirit mediums, I’d call you crazy.”

Miles huffed out a chuckle, pushing his hands into his pants pockets. “I think if anyone told us even the smallest detail of what we’ve been up to since first entering the courtroom, we’d call them crazy. You see why I felt such the urgent need to flee the country.”

Phoenix broke into a little grin, nudging Miles with his elbow. “Including having to fake your own death?”

“You’re never going to let that go, are you?”

“Nope. I mourned you, Miles! You’ve gotta see it from my perspective. You didn’t even give an explanation. You didn’t even say goodbye!”

“Perhaps you should try seeing it from my perspective. I was going through quite a lot. I...wasn’t thinking clearly. I know now that the way I departed hurt people, but it wasn’t exactly on my mind then.”

“I know, I know,” Phoenix replied softly. Despite still being sore at Miles’s rather callous method of running away, Phoenix didn’t want to actually upset him or bring back bad memories. He knew that had been a rough time for Miles.

And so they stood there, on the platform, just watching the tracks in comfortable silence. Phoenix knew there’d be a train zooming by soon enough, but for now it was peacefully quiet.

“Trite!”

Phoenix barely even noticed how his shoulders seemed to instantly stiffen at that familiar voice and infuriating nickname. Furrowing his brow, he slowly turned and sure enough, by one of the shelters on the platform, was Godot with his usual grin, his visor glowing bright red in the low light of the station. Phoenix wouldn’t have questioned running into him in the city considering Godot most likely lived here, too, but he definitely had questions when he noticed the large speakers behind Godot and the microphone in the prosecutor’s hand. And of course, as always, his other hand was occupied by a cup of coffee. It was a miracle this man wasn’t dead yet with the obscene amount of caffeine he consumed.

“Who is that?” Miles asked, squinting slightly at Godot. “He seems familiar somehow...”

“Prosecutor Godot,” Phoenix greeted carefully, also to answer Miles’s question. “What, uh...What are you doing here?”

Godot just continued to grin at them. “I was waiting for you to show up, in fact. A little kitten told me you were heading out this way.”

“I don’t believe that’s how the phrase goes,” Miles commented whilst Phoenix just pulled a face at the choice of words.

“Don’t bother, Edgeworth. He’s just like this.” Phoenix took in a breath and looked to Godot again. Did that mean Godot had just been waiting here for him like some kind of creep? Who could have told Godot where he and Miles were going? Actually, there was one person. “...Maya?”

Godot chuckled, pausing to take a sip of his coffee. “I see you’re just as slow on the uptake outside the courtroom as you are inside it, Trite. Like a toddler seeing a magic trick for the first time.”

“He’s not wrong,” Miles muttered, causing Phoenix to give him a rather harsh nudge with his elbow.

“Whose side are you on?!”

“Well, you did mention he’s a prosecutor, so technically—”

“Oh, can it, Miles,” Phoenix huffed, ignoring the little amused smirk on Miles’s face, even if it made his heart skip a beat or two. He looked back at Godot with a scowl. “Alright, so I’m here. What of it?”

“Think fast,” Godot snickered, tossing something to Phoenix. The defense attorney definitely wasn’t prepared and fumbled for a moment before managing to clamp his hands around the object, frowning down at it.

Miles peeked at it over his shoulder. “A...microphone?” He looked over at Godot – who was still holding his own microphone – seemingly trying to figure out what was happening. Meanwhile, Phoenix was also trying to figure out what the absolute fuck was going on.

“What’s this for?” he asked cautiously, narrowing his eyes over at Godot.

The other man’s grin never wavered and he brandished his microphone. “What do you say to a little competition? A genuine battle between men to see who’s best.”

“Don’t we do that enough during trials?”

“There are countless angles to every person, Trite. Just like how you can spend every day of your life experimenting with brews in your attempts to find perfection. You may be a half-decent lawman, but that’s just one side of you.” Godot tilted his head in amusement. “I’m curious if you can hold your own on a different kind of battlefield. One that requires a bit more coordination than how you have a lucky streak of stumbling into conclusions in the courtroom.”

Phoenix was still lost, mouth opening and closing like a gaping fish. He finally just turned to Miles helplessly. Miles thought for a long moment – Phoenix could practically see the gears turning in his head – before he looked to Phoenix. “I believe...he’s asking you to have a singing contest.”

“Oh no no no,” Godot cut in before Phoenix could even fathom what his companion had said. “Close but no cigar, kid. Not singing. Any poor excuse of a soul can cobble together a tune and kindergarten-level lyrics.” He pointed his microphone at Phoenix. “I want you to rap battle me.”

Phoenix just stared, blinking several times, before looking at Miles again. “Am I dreaming? Or high?”

“No, you’re very much awake and the amount of sane you usually are,” Miles replied, crossing his arms. Phoenix hated how intrigued his friend looked.

Muttering a few choice words under his breath, Phoenix turned back to Godot. “So you came here, set up a speaker and mics, and have just been waiting for me to randomly come here just so you can ask me to rap against you? What’ll that prove? And how the hell is rapping more complicated than singing? It’s just talking to a beat. Anyone can do that.”

“Ha!” Godot shook his head. “So simple-minded, Trite. It’s like you’re still a boy instead of a man, seeing the world through your little keyhole. Rapping requires you to think on your feet. The pace is more urgent. Singing is going through your evidence piece by piece and praying to whatever god you follow that something sticks out to you. Rapping is like having the ultimate penalty hanging over your head the entire time, the guillotine blade waiting to slam down on your sorry neck. So I’ve been curious, Trite...” Godot grinned again. “You think you can keep up with me?”

Something about the way Godot said it, how he still had his microphone pointed at Phoenix like a sword, and that goddamn smug expression on his face lit a fire in Phoenix that he’d never felt before. He had never been the most musically inclined, but someone had to put Godot in his place. And here they were.

So he gritted his teeth and stepped forward, tightening the grip on his microphone. “It’ll be you who’s struggling to keep up with me, stoplight.”

“Ha! That’s the spirit,” Godot cackled, slamming his hand onto a button on the speakers so that they crackled to life.

Miles hummed thoughtfully from where he stood watching. “Ridiculous...But I can’t say this won’t be interesting.”

[dewitty1]

Saturday Six (Stuff)

Well, work decided it was going to pick up, and get busy in a hurry! I'm torn between being happy (hello money, and actually having something outside the house to do), and bummed (ughhhh I have to deal with my family, and I have to go outside of my house, lol). Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑)

I planted my little wheelbarrow garden, and some of the seeds we started this week! You can see Reggie checking it out here. (❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*

Even though it happens on a regular basis, I do not actually enjoy getting in arguments. I do enjoy being correct, and having the correct information. My uncle on the other hand just wants to dominate and win any discussion. Well, I finally got fed up with him and told him off big time. And, I kind of "forgot" to use nice language. The kicker was when he called me "little girl." OH haeel naw, mister man. You weren't even an adult when I was born, so shut the hell up! Ugh. Feckin boomers. I am FIFTY GODDAMNED TWO YEARS OLD. You better belive I told him off. Ugh. I told him to just leave me the fuck alone because I was sick and tired of his bullshittery. ٩(๑`ȏ´๑)۶

I think I'm going to go on hiatus for a while, my friends. Some things have been getting me down lately and I have to figure out how to rework my brain. I'm not sure if I can fix it or just learn to live with the way it is. ( p��︵‵。)

What the fuck, USA? Too much fuckery going on, for fucks sake. (๑•॒̀ ູ॒•́๑)

In nicer news, thank you to each and every one of you! I'm now at 1.1k followers! It was a long journey to get here, and I am so grateful to you all for following me! Thank you so much! All my love to all of you! ꒰♡ˊ͈ ु꒳ ूˋ͈꒱.⑅*♡ 💜 💙 💚 💛 ❤️ 💕 💖

[hopevalley]

Season 8, Episode 5: What the Heart Wants

I was going to try to follow my scene-by-scene format for the entire season, but I’ve been getting a lot of migraines recently, presumably from staring at the computer too long, so I don’t want to spend all morning working on typing up the play-by-play for this episode.

Also, for what it’s worth I think this episode lends itself to plot discussion better than some of the previous episodes...at least in some sense.

And as another head’s up, it’s back to being critical for me. ;P

Storylines:

School Ends/Graduation/Parent-Teacher Conferences

The Dress Shop/Rachel

Postal Service, Ned

Bill’s Uniform, Nathan’s Vacation

Carson and Faith

Henry

Elizabeth and Lucas

Clara’s Dilemma

--

School Ends/Graduation/Parent-Teacher Conferences

This plot felt a little scattered, but for once it wasn’t the kind of storyline they foisted too much drama upon. After years of every single function possible being besieged by bullshittery, it’s a relief to see one go off without a real hitch.

The beginning scene with Robert hugging Elizabeth was sweet. I enjoyed the Canfields immensely and am intrigued by Angela’s role in the story long-term (PLEASE let her befriend Allie!). Nathan...eh, I have thoughts—but I’ll talk about that a bit soon. The actual ceremony was cute and kind of fun with the kids singing. 

Neat Thing I Noticed:

Continuity? Cat Montgomery is still listed as Emily’s mother. ♥♥♥ I don’t know why but this made me really happy???

-

Complaint Corner:

Parent-teacher conferences should have been in this show from a much earlier point, and so should graduation have been. If there was a point to this celebration (the first year in a while anyone was old enough to graduate) that would have been a nice touch, too. It just managed to feel sliiiightly out of place.

I’ll forgive the “everyone in town goes to the graduation” thing because this is 1918...something like this would be a whole-town affair IMO. Invite everyone and have a nice get-together/party, probably on a Sunday afternoon after church but Hope Valley does whatever it wants, so...eh.

The threat of merging Hope Valley with other schools doesn’t fit in this scenario and it feels like they ripped it directly out of Tales from Avonlea which was almost rage-inducing to me.

Look, school mergers happened a lot in the early 1900s, especially around the WWI mark, but it wouldn’t be hitting a rural western town just yet. They don’t have any way of getting these kids to other towns for schooling. Where would the next closest school be? It would have to be pretty large and modern to merge multiple schools together.

*Adjusts nerd glasses* This felt forced and completely unnecessary. If anything this guy could be telling Elizabeth that they’re working on building a modern school somewhat close by, and could even have her involved in some decision-making regarding layout. Then they could bring in a “merger” storyline next season without it feeling out of place.

It mostly just felt dramatic for the hell of it, and it was boring, as was this man’s threat that Elizabeth had no right to teach a blind student. As if they’d accept Angela at a better school? As if her parents could afford top tier education for her? PLEASE.

Now it’s time for Nathan. The man chose to go fishing instead of to the parent-teacher conference? It makes him look like a tool. This isn’t about him or about Elizabeth; it’s about Allie. I understand why he didn’t want to go, but he should have done it anyway. It would have taken five minutes of his time. 

His flippant attitude annoyed me because it went completely against his character as we know it, but Elizabeth’s lecturing was irritating, too. For a moment I thought we had Lorigail back on the show...

I think Elizabeth was well within her rights to warn Nathan about the effect his work has on his ward, but that inquiry took like a week AT MOST. Heck, let’s be generous and say TWO WEEKS. Allie’s concentration suffered for two weeks. There was no need to say more than, “Hey she worries about you and her work suffered for a bit during that time frame, just so you’re aware.” 

I think what annoyed me about the math program thing is that...Elizabeth being a teacher would probably be VERY WELL AWARE that MOST of the parents to her students aren’t good enough at schooling to assist their kids with their homework. I dunno, it just feels out of place for her to tell Nathan that she wants to put Allie in an accelerated “program” and that Allie might need his help with her homework. It’s even more out of place when he admits he used to bribe his sister to do his work for him. Like. It’s very possible he’s not that good at math and isn’t capable of helping. (But maybe that will be a plot down the road...?)

“Or a tutor...” BITCH WHERE IS HE GONNA FIND A TUTOR IN THIS TOWN?! It’s super annoying to see dialogue like this that feels completely out of touch with the reality these people would be living in...lol. But also if she needs a tutor to stay caught up in an advanced program, she probably...shouldn’t be in the advanced program.

I don’t know how to feel about this whole thing here: “Nathan, you are Allie’s world. You’re the only father she’s ever known, and as she grows up you will always be the measure of the quality she’ll look for in a man as she chooses who to marry.” 

On one hand, it does fit the situation (he seems to think everything is behind him but Elizabeth’s words are kind of a caution that 1) his actions still have an effect on Allie, and 2) every day he’s teaching her by example). On the other hand, it seems almost wildly inappropriate to bring up? At the same time, it’s probably not wrong that Allie will measure other men (friends, acquaintances, potential future romantic interests) against Nathan’s example.

I dunno. The conversation felt disjointed. 

I think what they were going for was Nathan just feeling too awkward and weird about being with Elizabeth to want to be there for the conference, but...he interacted with her quite normally after the inquiry and stuff (even after she’d broken things off with him), so...it feels out of place. Like maybe this should have taken place right after the breakup and not weeks later?

Anyone else have thoughts on this and why it doesn’t feel quite right?

--

The Dress Shop/Rachel

This plot wasn’t what I would call a waste of time (rather, it’s worth having it mentioned now), but part of it was completely pointless and stupid. The whole Rachel getting lost thing was tacked into the promos to stir up drama, but nothing happened and there was nothing worrisome even going on. YAWN.

Rosemary’s desire to do something meaningful and different with her life is super interesting. I’m very curious to see what they decide to do with her if Dottie does sell the dress shop.

Also, Rosemary finding the book under Rachel’s bed was pretty funny.

But yeah, I didn’t really find much in this plotline to care deeply about. I guess I am pretty interested in knowing who might be purchasing the dress shop and/or if this decision is to bring someone else onto the show (a female love interest for the man who doesn’t win Elizabeth’s heart in the end, or even to bring back an old character*) or to take the dress shop out of the equation entirely... It’s also just as possible that Rosemary/Lee or Clara/Jesse end up buying it themselves down the line... Thoughts?

*I can’t begin to imagine who would be the best fit for this in this case, though. Who would have the money to buy her out?

--

Postal Service, Ned

Ned is just honestly so cute and fun. I love him. He’s really been doing well this season and seeing him wander around town delivering mail door to door was kind of nice.

Also, he’s one SMOOTH operator! Look at him, talking about putting a bell on the door so that he and Florence won’t be caught off-guard if they’re in the middle of...something. 

Oh my, Ned. What might customers be...interrupting? :3

Continuity? Not only was the ulcer from last season brought up, but the horrid cabbage juice was, too. :’) It was a nice touch. And these two had just enough screentime to be kind of fun/interesting without also taking up too much time.

--

Bill’s Uniform, Nathan’s Vacation

Nathan got his vacation and Bill is in charge...again. This happens an awful lot. I wonder if it’ll actually impact the next few episodes or if it’s just here for the hell of it.

I love Bill a lot and I want to brag up his character in this episode a bit. I’ve complained many times in the past about him being written like a Grumpy Old Man Yelling at Clouds but this episode was super respectful. He got his scene with his uniform. Nobody interrupted it. There weren’t even any words. I quite liked it.

But it also felt kind of...pointless? I don’t want to judge it too harshly yet. Like the dress shop plotline, this could actually be going somewhere in the next couple of episodes. 

Plus, unrelated to the uniform, it was nice to see Bill acting fatherly toward Clara. While it sort of came out of nowhere for the wedding, I appreciate the attempt at continuity there. Plus, so far this season, I’ve felt like Bill’s almost been a father-figure to Clara, Fiona, and even Nathan, so I’m enjoying that a lot.

--

Carson and Faith

CONTINUITY? The show finally remembered that not only is Carson actually a surgeon, but that was his original passion. It’s not that they completely forgot (S5 had him performing surgery on his sister-in-law, after all), but giving Carson a PASSION makes him a way more interesting character to me. 

And also, finally, this feels like a REAL high-stakes plotline for him and for Faith.

I really liked Faith’s take on things. I know, I know, I’ve been rooting at them to break up, but the reason is mostly because they’re just so BORING together. I’d rather watch Henry twirl around in a chair for an hour than suffer through date scenes with these two.

It’s not that I’m against a doctor wife/husband team. I’m not. I just think Faith was a much more interesting and cool character on the show before Carson showed up and usurped her place (and completely overshadowed her for literal seasons). This plotline for Carson might actually be interesting. Like, a fellowship? For modern surgery? IN BALTIMORE?!

I hope this is Faith’s way of saying she wants a break and/or a break would be good for them. I can’t picture her leaving Hope Valley without any trained medical staff, let alone long enough for a fellowship... 

But if this goes through, what will they do with it? Would they really write Carson off the show? To be perfectly honest with y’all, I’d be fine with that. At least it’s the type of write-off that makes a lot of good sense (unlike some of the other ones we got). I guess this is just another “wait and see” plotline which is uhh...the theme of this episode, huh? Anyone have thoughts on this?

--

Henry

Henry barely had any screentime, but I do want to say he is #relateable. The man is back at work for ten seconds and already exhausted. SAME.

Also, I appreciate that he’s ready to be back in the oil business. At what cost? I know people were worried they were gonna kill him off, and I really doubted it, but now I’m starting to wonder where they’re going with this exactly. Yet another wait and see moment LOL!

--

Elizabeth and Lucas

Some damn fine scenes for Lucas and Elizabeth in this episode. Mostly the scenic ones. :P

I enjoyed the agreement to a date. The horseback riding stuff was pretty cute. 

Complaint corner? I don’t know. I have petty complaints. Even though the celebration for the kids was a town-wide event, and therefore Lucas was invited, it still felt out of place to see it brought up. Maybe it should have been mentioned as a town celebration from the start?

Then Lucas’s comment about not wanting to make things awkward for Nathan (who is actually a parent and there) makes a liiiittle more sense. I do think it was good of him to not go, even though he wanted to spend more time with Elizabeth, but it gave off a weird vibe, like, “Look at how good and wholesome Lucas is!” Is that intentional? I’m not...sure...?

For what it’s worth I already felt like Lucas was an honorable person in this regard. He loaned Nathan money, after all. Maybe he should have told Elizabeth he views Nathan as a friend and doesn’t want to hurt his feelings unnecessarily and/or if he was there he’d want to hog her all to himself or something cheesy. Hm.

My other complaints are:

Elizabeth running to the saloon would be WAY faster than all this getting set up at her house...?? Who thought this made sense?

Elizabeth’s dress looked like a nightie she bought at Kohls.

Too many damn candles.

Characters Do What Plot Dictates Even Though Plot Makes No Sense. More at 11:00!!

I have no further comments on the dress. It needed sleeves or something so it looked more like a dress and not like a nightgown/piece of lingerie.

I think the candles might have been on purpose to parallel Jack...but I hated it lol. Fire hazard? HAVEN’T ENOUGH THINGS IN TOWN BURNED DOWN/EXPLODED?!

I didn’t hate the date scene! But I never feel like Elizabeth has any meaningful conversations with Lucas and it’s starting to drive me batty. 

Could we get uhhh something of substance please? It has to be surface-level nonsense on purpose. Right? RIGHT?

(And no, discussing a book for ten seconds on-screen is not “intelligent conversation” okay...?)

It’s really a shame because I’m starting to actually warm up to Lucas a little bit in this season but it feels like the conversations are just...kind of stilted and she’s not really into dating him—just agreeing to it because he’s the only option. 

And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but...he deserves better than that. 

Don’t get me wrong, by the way. If it’s part of the story and it’s revealed as such down the road, I’ll be fine with it...but I always worry they’ll just skip important relationship milestones and/or important conversations and expect us all to just accept it.

Kiiiiiind of looking forward to the rainy date scene in the next episode, though. I’m Team Nathan mostly but I’m keeping an open mind and I think I might actually enjoy it. Hopefully they’ll get some good scenes together that don’t feel like this one did.

--

Clara's Dilemma

Clara’s fears about running the salon without Fiona...are legit. LOL.

Also, this little bit was funny (between Mike and Jesse and Bill):

Anyway, if Clara was that worried about it, she should have just...told Fiona no? I hope it comes up down the road. Poor Molly??

I genuinely don’t know how I feel about Clara and Jesse’s involvement in this episode. I guess it was okay. I liked Clara’s scenes with Bill. I thought the idea of Clara and Jesse buying into the cafe was a nice one. Jesse having “invested” their money and lost it all, though... They did a similar plot with other people in what...Season 5 was it? Or was that the start of S6? He didn’t even say what he invested it in? But he admits the money is all gone? 

I think that’s what was missing from that scene. “I invested it in X, hoping to make us more money, but it didn’t work out and we lost everything.”

I’m not going to criticize Jesse’s characterization, only because sometimes character "growth” doesn’t happen for the better of anyone involved. My biggest worry here is that it’ll be solved by the end of next episode....but I hope that’s not it.

Like, I think they did better with Frank and Abigail if we’re going to talk about a man who didn’t know how to live like he was in a committed relationship. It made more sense with Frank, too, being older and single most of his life. His bouts of selfishness felt realistic.

Jesse feels like he’s somehow getting worse and worse as a person as the show goes on. I’m kind of at a point where I hope he and Clara divorce, because he’s so damn selfish it’s embarrassing. He’s off having a beer while his wife works multiple jobs? And then he has the audacity to act like they should save money when he just blew all their savings? 

I’m sure it’ll work out fine but I hope Clara puts herself in charge of the finances at the very least.

As to investing failures, I liked how they did that with Henry and Abigail. That was the kind of tension and worry that felt natural to me—like she trusted him with her money after he’d proven himself untrustworthy ten million times throughout the years, and he failed and had to uhh admit that. 

Jesse straight up betrayed Clara. Which, if it’s dealt with in a satisfying way...I think can be a good plotline. I just worry about it actually being dealt with properly. That’s a huge stumbling block in a relationship. And why is he continually getting worse as a person? There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. 

Gasp... it’s almost like it’s just plot because they feel like they have to give someone something every damn episode.

--

Which brings me to THE FINAL

COMPLAINT CORNER (The Big Boy™ Complaints)

The show has really struggled with finding its footing. I wish they’d take notes from better shows with ensemble casts (cough cough Road to Avonlea cough) without also ripping off their storylines (cough school merges cough).

My #1 complaint at this point in Season 8 is the SHEER AMOUNT OF THINGS GOING ON EVERY EPISODE.

I want continuity, so I want to see things happen naturally over a season, but my God do we not need to have mindless pointless crap in the episode. Rachel getting “lost” for ten seconds wasted literal MINUTES of screen time that would have been MUCH better allocated to basically anyone else in this episode.

And I don’t think it would bother me so much if it wasn’t also shoved into the promo like it was supposed to matter. It didn’t matter. Nobody cares. Why was it allowed to stay in the episode alongside stuff like Clara and Bill’s conversation?

Or Lucas and Carson’s?

I think they want to appease all the fans in every episode by giving them scenes of their favorites, but what did Henry sitting in his chair accomplish in this episode? Rachel getting lost? Jack not sleeping well/missing his mom? The school superintendent?

Did Bill trying on his uniform have to be in this episode? Did Jesse and Clara’s problems have to come fully to light right now?

When every episode is formatted like this, with 10 plotlines all interconnected slightly and going on at the same time, I feel like...nobody gets the spotlight they deserve when they deserve it.

I cANNOT believe I’m saying this, but this plotline for Carson, especially if it will end with him leaving the show for a while or permanently should get the focus it deserves. But it won’t if we get tiny snips of it here and there and then BOOM decision made because Reasons.

And again, I know I’ve said before that I want more continuity throughout the season, but... the best way to do that is to tighten up the plots. Have fewer of them per season and give more screentime to the ones you choose to pursue. 

--

Anyway, I’m still enjoying the season, but I hope they keep some of this kind of stuff in mind for next season. They don’t need plotlines for everyone in every episode. They need the plotlines they choose to write to be worth their screentime.

Sorry this was sloppily written and all that. Hopefully it makes sense. Very curious to see y’alls thoughts. Feel free to make your own posts and @ me, or reblog this or comment!

[shaymiens]

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my answer to this is under the read more bc uhh,, there’s a lot!

i totally get that, anon. and that’s why at first when i first saw other creators (creators that i trust and who i believe are good people!) encouraging people to subscribe to pew/diepie i was like ????? really??? you want me to subscribe to him after everything that’s happened with him???

but from my very minimal knowledge of the whole pewd/iepie vs. t-series situation, i assume that for many creators and their concerned viewers… people say to subscribe to pew/diepie bc they don’t want some mega-corporation traditional-entertainment channel to be the face of youtube. in keeping pew/diepie, an independent content creator, the number one subscribed channel on youtube, it may protect other creators from getting too lost in youtube’s bullshittery of algorithms, investors, and tv-and-movie-personalities-turned-relatable.

is subscribing to pewdi/epie really ensuring any change in how youtube treats its content creators? eh. is the intention of supporting content creators lost when you attach it to a creator who’s had his fair share of controversy? sort of. does refusing to subscribe to pew/diepie make you a bad person/viewer/supporter of content creators? absolutely not. i’m not planning on subscribing anytime soon.

what’s important to know is that when it comes to people saying this or doing that, you can’t know their true intentions. you can’t blame someone for what you assumed they meant. like, okay, knock off the “woke points”, let that affect what you think of them. but please know that with any kind of activism, with any kind of push for change, there will always be grey areas. there will always be humans doing shitty stuff, then there will always be humans doing human stuff. so wrangling up a group of generally good people and deciding how “woke” they are based on every little thing they’ve said and done, including the mistakes, including the ambiguities, even though there’s nobody on the face of the earth who could possibly reach all those standards – that’s no way to travel through life, y’know?

anyway. i’m getting too into this. sorry if i sounded a bit accusatory. hope i explained myself well and that no one will hate me lol

[keyofjetwolf]

Jet Wolf Summarizes Act 44

The manga and I kind of hate each other. This is unfortunate, but still, I’m determined to come out of this with something. Rather than spend energy on a liveblog that’s increasingly negative, I’m reading each manga act (mostly) silently, and then writing up summaries at the end. I won’t pull my punches. There’s going to be criticism and snark about the manga, either wholesale or in details. If that isn’t a thing you feel like reading, please skip this post!

IT WAS ALMOST FUN FOR A SECOND THERE

We start with the Outers, who I think all got married off panel, and talk about what they’ve been up to for the past six months.

Yes, apparently it’s been six months between them fucking off and now. Don’t think about how that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever within the context of the end of the last arc and the beginning of this one which happen within about the space of a day. WE ARE REPEATEDLY ASSURED IT��S REALLY BEEN SIX MONTHS.

I can’t read a single one of these bloody issues without Takeuchi fucking gaslighting me.

Anyway, we had some fun with the Outers shit, by which I mostly mean we took something terrible and laughed at it, and you can refresh your memory about all that here.

Really, anytime The Babadook seamlessly takes Michiru’s place is a good time.

But then we leave the Outers and return to Minako, whose been dangling off of a twenty foot high platform this whole time, and the fun immediately gets sucked away. SPEAKING OF SUCK

OH YEAH

THAT HAPPENED

I’ll come back and scream, don’t worry. But this is a quick summary (I originally typed that as “squick summary” AND NEVER WERE MY FINGERS MORE ACCURATE), and I may as well get it out the way first.

Artemis becomes a human because god is dead, and he not only saves Minako but says he’s the reason she couldn’t transform. OKAY. He powers her up and I guess it’s supposed to be sweet, but for some strange reason, I’m just not feeling it.

I WONDER WHAT IT COULD POSSIBLY BE

IT’S A MYSTERY

Minako does great, but then not really, and the others are captured and brainwashed . TO BE CONTINUED GOSH I WONDER IF THE OUTERS WILL SHOW UP AND SAVE THEM AWESOME

Jesus fucking wept, okay, back to this bullshittery. So Artemis is human now, or ~humanoid~, the fuck ever, he’s a PERSON not a CAT. First and foremost, maybe don’t create animal characters if you’re not actually interested in them being animals, Takeuchi. Because if he can do it, I’m guessing so can Luna, and probably Diana. Which puts you at fucking six for six on the animal/human thing, which likely doesn’t concern you, but does me, a little.

Because let’s consider. Let’s just stop and fucking consider the ramifications of this for three seconds in that way I know you absolutely did not. And we’ll start JUST LAST ISSUE.

YOU DID THIS

YOU DID THIS KNOWING YOU WERE GOING TO REVEAL ARTEMIS TO BE A HUMAN MALE IN THE VERY NEXT ISSUE

DID YOU THINK THAT WOULD ENHANCE THIS SOMEHOW

RATHER THAN MAKE ME WANT TO THROW UP IN MY FUCKING MOUTH

The vast stormy umi of problems I had with this last time? That he’s human only makes them ten times worse. THIS IS A GROWN MAN PEEPING ON HIS YOUNG TEENAGE CHARGE HOW EXACTLY DID YOU FEEL THAT ENHANCED THE STORY AND CHARACTERS

And he’s a grown man who’s been LYING to Minako this entire time. That’s what I can’t get out of my head. He’s been fundamentally lying to Minako about who and what he is FOR YEARS. Which would be one thing if he lived in a little cat house outside or had his own place down the block or whatever. But no. He stays in her house, in her ROOM. He’s around her CONSTANTLY. Every day, nearly every minute. With her thinking he was a cat (a talking magical cat, yes, BUT A CAT), having no idea who she was hugging, teasing, crying to, joking about, fighting alongside, sleeping next to, LIVING with.

How may times before now might Minako have been saved from some trouble, minor or major, if Artemis had popped into human form? How much physical pain might he have saved her from enduring as she fought alone, because he was “just a cat”? How much has she done in front of him without even thinking about? I guarantee you I’d lose my fucking shit if one day my dog was like “oh btw, I’m human, lol.” BITCH I LET YOU SLEEP UNDER THE COVERS WITH YOUR HEAD ON MY ASS WHAT THE FUCK.

It was weird and complicated enough when Artemis was perving on Minako as a cat. I feel like I need a thousand showers now he’s been human the whole time. If I’m Minako, key to transforming or no, I’m kicking Artemis the fuck out of my life and shooting a Crescent Beam between his eyes on sight from this day forward.

But I know that won’t happen. If we get even a panel COMMENTING on this, it’d be a bloody miracle. The actual depth of Artemis’s deception though, the degree to which he lied and KEPT lying to Minako, I know we’ll never go there. I know it’s not crossing Takeuchi’s mind that this is a problem at all. let alone how HUGE a problem.

So this is just where I am now. Disgusted and furious with Artemis, his relationship with Minako in tatters for me, and absolutely no benefits to any of this whatsoever.

Remember when, in Episode 100, Artemis gave Minako flowers and asked her to spend the evening with him and it was adorable and precious and wonderful and perfect? REMEMBER WHEN I COULD THINK OF THAT AND KNEW JOY RATHER THAN NAUSEA

Oh, speaking of nausea, Usagi’s sick now too or something, whatever.

[blackwoolncrown]

I literally have to keep myself from hating people so much when shit like that goes down, I don’t mind that they disagree, I mind that I explicitly state precisely what kind of person I’m talking about in my posts and a bunch of asshats always make pointless reaches to project whatever their prefab argument is on my post so they can be a dick. I am not talking about people who just ‘disagree’ with SJ posts. I’m talking about people whose blogs are devoid of actual analysis, experience or intellectual merit who literally just go around reblogging SJ posts that have been passed down through their shitty little friends so they can just go ‘OP is an idiot/lol SJWs are so lame/wow this post gave me cancer’

There are so many people who do just that and only that. They might specifically be anti-feminism, anti-...people-caring-about-racism, or whatever, or just anti-SJ in general, but the thing is they have NO actual investment in the improvement of relationships between humans. They have NO actual investment in actually bettering understanding between two parties. All they want to do is laugh at people they don’t agree with, and that’s easiest to do by belittling their point and positioning themselves as if every SJ argument is ~soooo ridiculous~. Meanwhile, their entire blog is 90% reblogs with very little original content, because without a fall boy, they have nothing funny to say. Without anyone to kick, they don’t have an argument to stand on. Interestingly enough, since the once-a-year-flood-of-douchebags has flown in to my mentions, I’ve been playing with what they sound like these days and sadly they’re exactly the same. Any argument that touches on a fact of intersectional bigotry that they, personally, have never experienced, gets immediately thrown out as ludicrous. Words fail me when I attempt to describe just how podunk and uneducated it looks for a person to go WELL THAT SURE IS DUMB when it’s simply clear that it’s *new* to them. These are adults whose first reaction to something they don’t understand is THIS IS STUPID instead of just “I don’t get it”. Also, not surprised at the amount of men still using the 4chanian logical fallacy where they go ‘oh you’re mad now haha I win’. Someone yesterday used that one and like, for those who haven’t dealt with it, it’s basically them taking the position that a discussion online is a Battle Of No Feelings and the first person to show emotion is the loser.

So, not only is that not what arguments or debates are about, but that’s also always 100% a front on their part. For instance, a guy yesterday landed on my dash after his lengthy back and forth with a mutual of mine about how, according to him, protesters in the streets deserved to get hit by his car because they were blocking traffic.

For the record, he admitted that he had never been stuck in traffic due to a protest. For the record, as far as I can remember on her behalf, both myself and my mutual have either been in traffic that simply detoured from a protest (Wow! You mean you don’t HAVE to run people over?), and I have been in protests where traffic was being directed around.

So first of all the entire situation his angry argument was based on was purely hypothetical. Second of all his understanding of how traffic and protests interact is uneducated because he’s either never actually been in one,driven up to one, or seen how traffic moves around them, and instead of ASKING what happens, this guy clearly just sat up in his head concocting a fantasy of driving up to one and being late for work, one that filled him with so much anger that he decided to write and DEFEND why he figured protesters deserved to get hurt and or die. But his tactic, once I dealt with him, was ‘haha ur mad’. And he’s not? Being so frustrated by imaginary traffic that you advocate vehicular homicide is not a neutral position. But this comes down to men being awful. They really honestly feel that their misanthropy is neutral. Hate is, I regret to inform you all, a feeling. And it’s hate and confusion that motivates people to constantly leech on to arguments aimed at bettering the world and constantly derailing them with pedantry, apathy, and just plain chuckefuck bullshittery. I don’t reblog even most of where my posts end up, but it’s been exhausting seeing how many people specifically dance around my point in order to build a nice strawman, when they could have just as easily not said anything if they didn’t agree. There’s nothing wrong with just letting someone be ‘wrong’ in your opinion if it’s not literally something that endangers people. People like this think they are doing something very noble by vigilantly attacking every slightly-different-and-more-empathetic-than-theirs stance on tumblr dot com, but the true reality is that it is an addiction. 

Arguing with people on the internet feels very good- so good that people enjoy watching it. Any time I do bother getting into discourse, someone ALWAYS sends me a congratulatory ask specifically talking about how GOOD they feel seeing it. It’s vicarious righteous anger. And it’s the same way those asshats feel, loading their blogs up with snarky one-line disses at the end of a feminist post they don’t like, or an anti-conservative post they don’t like, or a post about toxic masculinity they don’t like. They didn’t have anything to say, but it feels good to be able to shoot another arrow into your enemy, doesn’t it? And people are chasing that feeling. That’s why I don’t like when I get compliments on discourse, and that’s why people will specifically twist my VERY simple fucking points in order to get a jab in. It’s sad, it’s really, really sad.